hadriel | video

[Magnus starts the video with a friendly wave, grin wide, in the living room of his shared Spire Four apartment. He's apparently in a very good mood.]

Hey! Magnus here. If you haven't met me yet, what's up? You're in for a treat. I'm a delight. Anyway, I've got someone way better than me to introduce to you all! She's kind of shy, but she's a very good girl.

[He turns away from the screen to call whoever she is over.]

Peanut! Hey, Peanut!

[He waits for a couple seconds, then turns back sheepishly.]

She's still learning her name. Hang on. Peanut!

[Suddenly what looks like a black and grey dog covered in way more scales than fur and incredibly large red eyes jumps Magnus and he yelps and laughs, cut off when "Peanut" grabs the phone in her mouth and somehow turns it off.

After a short cut to black, Magnus reappears again, covered in awful scratches. He doesn't seem to mind, though.]

Hey, I got her to calm down! She's super playful. Don't worry, I got her under control now. Look!

[He turns to point the camera at the varren, who is now sitting on the couch looking much calmer than before. The couch, though, happens to have a slash through one of its cushions, and Peanut happens to only be calm because she is currently in the process of chewing through a half-eaten throw pillow.]

Her name's Peanut and she's kind of a handful, but I think it's just 'cause she's young. She's super sweet, though. Man, my roommates are going to love her! Say hi, Peanut!

[Peanut doesn't say hi. Magnus reenters the frame then to take one of her paws and wave it at the camera. She snaps at him and bites his wrist painfully, and he yelps and kicks the phone trying to pull away. Everyone is treated to a final view of the ceiling, the backdrop a series of snarls and shrieks that descend into laughter.]

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[ He can't decide whether to laugh or cry. Finally, he laughs. ] Yikes! You've adopted a varren???

[ He's gotten his ass chewed by her kind, and he's killed a lot of them, but he has to admit the young animal is energetic and admirably determined to be herself. ]

Edited 2017-08-15 02:17 (UTC)

I guess! I didn't know what they were called! What matters is that her name is Peanut. She might even learn it someday.

[Just. A dreamy sigh. He's got his family here, and all he needed was a dog. He's still working on making it domestic bliss, but he's sure he'll get there.]

Peanut, right. Well, varren are smart. So maybe she'll get it that that's her name.

[ Domestic bliss! Lord have mercy! But Curufin understands chaos. ]

Where did you find her? And how did you persuade her to come to your house to live?

She was in the caves. On her own, too, which I thought was weird, since, uh, varren are usually in packs? I know that from being stuck there once for like. A week or two. I never did pin down exactly how long I was gone.

Anyway, she got separated somehow, and was on her own even though she's young, so... I swooped in and now I'm a father.

[Honestly, he probably killed the rest of her pack at some point while he was in the caves, he wouldn't be able to tell. There was a lot of killing things, and some varren may or may not have gotten caught up in that, let's just put it that way.]

Right, they are pack animals. So if she was alone, then her pack must be dead. [ It's possible Curufin might have helped with that himself! He hunts any varren pack that turns up near the forest when he and his son have their workshops. ] Either that or she wandered off and got lost.

You were once lost in the caves yourself? You must be a good fighter to have survived.

Anyway, so now you're a father. I guess it's a good thing to have someone or something to care for. And it looks as though you have a lot of people who care about you, judging form the comments! [ Checking the archive of this post. ]

Edited 2017-08-23 22:09 (UTC)

Or both.

[He grins, though, at the compliment. He's used to getting shown up by his teammates' magic, so any contribution to his ego is well appreciated.]

I guess you could say that. I didn't survive all these scars from being a bad fighter, that's for sure.

[He subconsciously rubs at the scar over his eye in particular.]

Yeah, uh, I guess I worried some people a little with Peanut. But she'll calm down before you know it!

[ Curufin has respect for anyone with such courage and vigor! ]

I thought as much. [ Grin. Elves don't scar easily, but Curufin has a few himself. He knows they tell a story, and the story Magnus's visible scars tell is one of incredible strength and vigor. ]

Poor little Peanut. She has no more idea why she is here in Hadriel than the rest of us residents do. Her kind are relentless predators, but then, so were many domestic animals, once. Perhaps she will respond to your care by settling down. I will bet on that.

What do you do here, Magnus? Besides adopt varren pups! [ Smile. ] What are your interests?

Yeah, I guess I never thought of the varren and all the monsters as just being as confused and lost when they show up here as the rest of us. Huh. Kinda makes me feel bad for all those crabs I killed.

[But hey, they did attack first, so the guilt passes as soon as it arrives.]

Oh! I do woodworking, I guess? I mean, I don't guess, I am a master carpenter. I've won awards and everything. So I mostly just waste time sitting around and making shit for the house. There's no shortage of scrap wood around, even if it's not the most high quality stuff.

They probably are. It's just that they show up hungry, and we apparently remind them of their natural prey.

[ Curufin doesn't feel too guilty about it, either. He likes to live. ]

[ Admiringly. ] carpenter, eh? That means you could build a house, or other kinds of structures?

Well, that's another thing to blame the gods about.

[He shrugs.]

I mean, I could. I've helped out with buildings before, but I mainly do furniture. Or small stuff like... kitchen junk, wooden spoons or little wood trinkets.

True.

[ He grins. ]

It's very exacting work, to make furniture or those little wooden things we all find so necessary in our lives. Especially when you're stuck with scavenging for materials, like you said. I wouldn't mind seeing some samples of your work sometime!

I was wondering, though? -- would you be interested in helping the firefighting team construct a permanent building to house the fire engines? We weren't going to make it fancy, just solid.

Yeah, I can show you a good good wooden duck!

[But then he makes his request, and Magnus considers it. He didn't even know there was a firefighting team. It's a good thing they're around, but this is news to him.]

Huh. I mean, sure. You have fire engines???

[How did he honestly not notice this at all?]

I'm down to help out, anyway.

I'd love to see the duck! [ He grins. ]

[ Not everybody knows. Curufin put up a recruiting post on July 12, and he has been talking it up, but it takes a while for news to get around, here in Hadriel. ]

Oh, good! [ The more people on construction right now, the better! Especially experts! ]

We are building the first fire truck now; we've been working on it for a month. It's just about finished. We'll take it out for a spin as soon as the tires are on, and see how it performs. And them we'll build another.

You like fire engines? Do you drive?