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MAY'S HOUSE - LATE EVENING
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Narrator: It was getting into the evening time, past when a reasonable person would be working, and..hopefully, this meant that May would be home. Annika was dressed in a light coat, with the hood up to keep the wind, and other assorted griminess of the town out of her hair, and once she knocked, she waited for an answer, rocking on her heels gently.
Maybelline yawns as she walks to the door of her quarters. She in fact had been working late, a bit too late to go bother Louma, probably (though Louma would probably disagree), but regardless, still in her work jumpsuit, she answers the door. "Hello.. -oh! Annika! Come on in."
Annika: "He..hey" She smiles, and slips inside "Sorry to bother you so late, but I had a small bit of a problem, and I wanted to get your advice, before I talked to anyone else" She looks a little abashed, almost embarrassed that she's bothering May with something, but that wasn't particularly out of character "Uh..well see..first..there's this" She turns over her right paw, and in the back of her paw was a lightly glowing orange gem. Magical, clearly.
Maybelline shrugs, "I was still up working, I ran into a problem aligning the focus with the existing ley -err, not important right now. Point is, you're my friend, so no bother!" She tilt her head to get a good look at the orange gem. "Err... a magical stone? What is it?"
Annika: "Um...well...I was cleaning up a bunch of stuff at the Big House, and I touched this..and it sorta..just..got stuck there?" She pokes it "I mean..it doesn't hurt, and I wouldn't have bothered you..but..uh..this evening, about Sundown..uh..." She pulls away her cloak, showing that where there was once one bushy fox tail, there was now two. She wiggles both "....That happened..." She looks to May, a littttle bit wigged out.
Maybelline blinks, then reaches up to rub her eyes to make sure she's not just overly tired. "Oh. Oooookay. Two tails. And the gem won't come off? Like, at all? I guess we don't know it did that but... logical deduction and all. I... sorry, Annika. I'm just trying to think it through. Are you okay otherwise? New tail aside, how do you feel?"
Annika: "Well, I feel fine.." She pokes the gem "It seems pretty stuck in there, and I didn't really want to go at it with a knife..maybe it'd come out? But..well..then there'd be a hole in my paw..actually..." She rubs the back of her head "Honestly, I feel a bit better than normal, if anything. More energy, feel quicker on my feet, just a bit worried. Growing tails isn't something you can really go to the doctor about"
Maybelline frowns, "Well, not exactly to the doctor, no. I mean, Plume knows their stuff, but this is definitely not a common medical ailment. You're better off going to a Wizard, but that's something Respite doesn't really have. No one official anyways." She pauses. "I... got a few tools I can try. No cutting it off or anything like that. Mostly, I can take measurements. I almost want to try pulling it off myself, but I feel like me touching it would probably be fruitless, potentially harmful. Magic stuff is never something to fool around with if you don't know what you're doing, and I... sadly do not."
Annika: "Yeah...you do what you think is best.." She pats both tails "They both feel the same, and..well, even though one of them is 'extra', I don't know which one is new, if that makes any sense" She sits down on a stool, like she was about to get a medical exam, paws clamped in front of her "I wasn't sure if you could help directly...but I just wanted someone to be able to tell at all"
Maybelline smiles, "Can't say I can help much else, but I can definitely be here and listen." She reaches out to pat Annika's shoulder before giving her a gentle hug. "Magic stuff is... well, it's scary. The only one in town that I know who uses magic is Elizabeth, that older lady skunk. I... think she's working for Mr. Shaw? She was anyways."
Annika: "Y..yeah..but, I don't really want to go to her..since, um..well...if it was this that did it" She pokes the crystal in her hand "Then she might get in trouble, since I shouldn't be around stuff that's cursed, and I don't want to upset her to find out something might have gone wrong" She frowns a bit "I mean..right now..it's nothing bad, right? I shouldn't be so worried..there's lots of stories with foxes with more than one tail.."
Maybelline reaches into one of her jumpsuits many pockets, removing a small sliding ruler with a caliper on the end and several small gems on the back. "Cursed? Wait, then Shaw has a lot of stuff that's cursed..." She pauses shaking her head, "No. Sorry. Not my business. Not why you're here either. Alright. Hold your hand out and I'll take a few measurements. This is for measuring energy output on the generator, but uh, same principles apply?"
Annika: "Oh! No!" She shakes her head "It's not like that! He just buys in lots of magical stuff, then has it all tested, to make sure that it's all okay, and y'know..sometimes its not!" She's alllways very quick to defend 'Mr Shaw'. "Okay then. Do what you gotta do" She holds her paw out, ready to get her temperature taken..err..chakras read..err...Magical Aura measured?
Maybelline nods, still a bit suspicious of Mr. Shaw but, as she said, that's not the important thing here. "Well, that's what he hired Elizabeth to do right, make sure all that stuff was 'okay'. So I can see why this gem thing would be a problem." She taps the gem with the end of the caliper carefully, glancing at Annika to make sure it's not hurting her at all before she starts to carefully adjust it around the edge of the gem.
Annika: "It kinda tingles?" She says, almost not sure what she's feeling. The gem is..aggressively non-magical. Once she started attempting to get a reading, the glow faded, and it was just a regular ol' gem. Nothing strange about it whatsoever. Zero magic here. Carry on Ms. Stoat, nothing to see about this gem, magically speaking. "So.." Annika tilts her head curiously to May "How is it?"
Maybelline blinks, adjusting the tool a little, then removing it. "Well... by all readings... it's not the gem? I literally just saw it glowing when you walked in here but now... nothing? Nothing my tools can read at least." She sighs, "I hate magic..."
Annika: "It's not?" She's confused herself, though, just as May was removing the gem, she got a little spike of a reading from one corner of it. There was magic in there, but it was actively evading detection, and once the callipers was removed fully, the glow returned, with a little bit of extra brightness for a moment, before settling back to normal. May would get the same vibe of someone letting out a breath after holding it for a while "Wait..I..thought you did magic..as like..a job? Um..I'm sorry if this is a problem"
Maybelline frowns, seeing the gem light back up. "Why you little... I can see the glow! You're not even hiding that well!" She stops staring at the gem , " Well, yes and no. I do magitech, but... primarily the tech. I can build stuff, and most of that stuff is powered by magic... but I've only taken a few basic classes about magic itself. I can't do it myself. My job is sorta taking magic and putting it in a box, and making that box do stuff without looking in the box. It's... hardly a perfect system."
Annika: "Oh..so.." She looks at the gem "That's odd, isn't it? It looks kinda happy, don't you think?" May wouldn't be seeing it "Like..you know..when you've thought of something clever, that sorta happy" She shrugs "If its not doing any harm, then I don't think it's that much of a worry if you're not able to figure it out..I can't really put my paw in a box, now can I?"
Maybelline still scratches her head looking down at the gem. "Yeahhh not exactly. I just don't like not knowing. It makes me worry. And I don't like worrying about my friend. I guess, and this might be a long shot... but the only other person I know who is a natural magic user is this yak named Yengrisk. They're around town somewhere, but I don't really know where at. Only met them once or twice? I still think it's worth learning more about... especially if more stuff happens to you like the tail."
Annika: "I..think I've seen him around?" She remarks thoughtfully "I can ask at least! Thanks for being there, and don't worry too much. It's probably fine, and it'll work its way out after a little bit or something" She shrugs "And having an extra tail isn't really a bad thing...even if its a bit weird. They don't even feel like they way extra" She gives May a hug, squeezing her gently "But enough about me! How are you and Louma doing?"
Maybelline hugs back, then slips the calipers away and takes a seat, "We've been doing really well, I think! I'm so, so scared of things going wrong, but at the same time I just kinda don't care? Like, if something goes wrong, I feel like we can figure it out, so I worry about it, but I also... don't worry about it? I just love her so much, and... uh, sorry. I'm not one to gush, really." She's blushing. She seems exactly the kind to gush about anything she's excited over.
Annika: "Don't worry. You'll do great with each other I'm sure. If only I wasn't so..ah..picky" Cutting off a full gender did narrow the pool somewhat! She giggles "Don't worry, I'll be fine. You know, for a fox, an extra bushy tail is considered quite enticing, I wonder if two is even better" She muses aloud "I am glad you're doing good though"
Maybelline grins, eyeing Annika's tails. "Well, I'm picky too, just in the other direction. And if it helps, your lesbian friend thinks they're both certainly cute." She giggles, "How about you and Oliver? You both still doing well?"
Annika: "Yup! I've left him with downstairs to look after while I'm here with you. He's in school and doing..fine?" She shrugs a little "He's not the top of his class, but he's happy enough, and that's what matters really. He's gotten interested in the downstairs shop, uh..'helping'" She makes the airquotes with a chuckle "Mostly just handing tools over, but nobody seems to mind too much."
Maybelline: "Well, that's good. Maybe an... apprenticeship? Someday? Finding something he's interested in is important though. I was like that as a kid too, always taking stuff apart to see how it worked. Causing a mess but... my Dad just encouraged me to try and put it all back together too." She chuckles at the memory.
Annika: "It's a bit early for that, but if he stays interested, then maybe something like that? It's a good trade, and if he couldn't do something here, I'm sure there's lots of places that would need a tinkerer" She drums her fingers thoughtfully "Better than a housemaid anyway. My family were very traditional, it was always just sorta assumed that I'd get married, and that would be that, but..life's funny sometimes"
Maybelline nods, "It... it is yeah. My parents were pretty traditional too I guess, but they never put much pressure on me, always supportive. Coming out to them was hard, but they took it in stride. After that... telling them I wanted to get a career in engineering was easy." She shakes her head, "And nothing wrong with being a housemaid if you enjoy it. If nothing else... it puts food on the table for you and Oliver."
Annika: "It's not that I don't enjoy it, it's more that..well, it's not really what I'd pick to do, but..yeah, it keeps my going, keeps the lights on" She scratches at the gem idly "If a better chance comes along, I'll take it. Until them, I'm..happy enough. No real reason to complain. Doing better than lots of other people in the world"
Maybelline smiles. "Yeah... that's fair. If an opportunity ever does come up and you need help, you know I'll be here for you."
Annika: "I really do appreciate that!" She replies brightly "And if there's anything I can help with in return, just ask, and I'll be right there!"
Maybelline gives Annika a thumbs up and a grin. "You've already helped me out so much, just in... being a better person. But you'll be one of the first I come to, Annika."
Annika would stay and chat about general life, and living all those other nice things for the next while, until eventually leaving to get Oliver to bed.