zenderael_mmo | [Irena/Nova] - Irena is the sneakiest [Finished]

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[Irena/Nova] - Irena is the sneakiest [Finished]

Who: Irena and Nova [Closed]
When: Wednesday evening, March 30th
Where: Nova's house :D
Before/After: After Nova and Artemis discuss potion guns.
Warnings: Breaking into houses, possibly cursing? (will update)

Even though Nova had refused her offer to help organize his lab, Irena really wanted to be helpful. If it was as disorganized as he'd said, it would certainly help prevent mixing up the herbs! At least for a little while. Maybe she could make return visit just to sneakily organize the herbs so he could at least have working healing potions...

But since he'd refused, she had to do it sneakily. She crept up to the house all sneaky-like and glanced around, Bunny perched up on her head. Everything was locked, which was kind of expected - most people locked everything. To keep thieves out. But she wasn't going to steal anything so it was alright!

Peering through a lower window didn't prove very useful, so she swirled her finger to get the latch to unclasp, and slid the window open. Climbing in through it was a bit tricky - Irena wasn't the most graceful person in the world, and she was sneaking into the basement, but her levitation at least ensured she didn't sprain anything getting down, and she let her feet touch the floor once inside. (Bunny had to hop down off her head and wound up on the floor beside her, though.)

That done, Irena closed and latched the window again. She could unlatch it when she needed to leave (or take the door, since she'd probably forget about sneaking out). She turned to look around, getting a feel for the place.

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The window might have been difficult to peek through, but once Irena landed inside, there was quite a lot to see.

The laboratory was a kind of controlled chaos -- most everything was tidily put in its place, but there were so many places for things to be put, and all of them out in the open. Tiered cases held bottle after bottle of finished potions on one table, while a similar system organized jars of raw ingredients on another. There were vials of various powders and shredded herbs hanging from a wooden frame above a workbench, and even a sort of netting suspended from the ceiling with various hooks and hangers attached to the mesh, so that larger loose ingredients -- such as feathers, horns, and claws -- were hanging handily within arm's reach.

At the center of the room, there were various instruments for manipulating fluids, including both enchanted and constructed devices for heating, cooling, and high-speed mixing.

It certainly didn't look very much like the laboratory of an alchemist who couldn't concoct so much as a simple healing potion.

The one thing that wasn't tucked away in some odd but seemingly proper place was the reading material. Books lay open everywhere, most of them discussing experimental topics, rather than providing simple recipes. Had Irena been well-versed in alchemical esoterica, she probably could have pieced together the subject of his research then and there.

As it was, the only thing that looked particularly coherent to someone outside the discipline was an illustrated recipe for a "Swamp Snake" potion.

...Books!

Books were a bad thing to leave out where Irena would find them. Nova may not have expected her to pay a visit uninvited, but, the books were there, and understand them or not, Irena wanted to read them.

She managed not to snap one up and start reading, however, instead gazing over the whole setup. So many ingredients... Why would Nova claim to be so inept when he had everything so well organized and so many books and oooh what does a Swamp Snake potion do - okay so the book caught her attention after all.

She paused long enough to get her staff in with her before turning, the staff hovering beside her, the big crystal at the top glowing to provide decent light where required. Then she picked up the book and started sifting through it, just trying to satisfy her curiosity, even if she didn't know much of anything about alchemy.

...She'd forgotten why she'd come here.

Nova opened the door to his lab and froze midway down the steps.

There was Irena, standing in the middle of all his equipment, reading one his books.

No one had ever broken into his lab before. Did he have to kill her?

No, wait, that was ridiculous, there was no way she'd find out his "big" secret just by looking around his lab. His smaller, "for-fun" secrets were probably in trouble, though. Yes. Hmm. This was definitely a time for fast improvisation, not murder!

Glad he cleared that up.

"And just how did you get in here?" he asked, gliding down the steps and attempting to pluck the book from her hands, mostly to get a look at which one it was.

There was no reason to admit he'd been caught in a lie unless she showed some sign of having noticed it herself.

Irena instantly perked up when Nova spoke. She was a little disappointed he stole her book away (thief!), but, well, people were better than books!

After pointing towards the window (still open as it was), she threw her arms up to hug him, oblivious to the fact that she'd just been caught sneaking around in someone else's place.

And now she was hugging him like finding him in his own lab was some kind of delightful surprise. What a strange girl you've become, Irena.

He held up the book to read over her shoulder, still trying to figure out which one it was. Ah, the one he'd been telling Artemis about, with solid objects in flasks. He supposed that one was okay for public consumption.

He patted her on the shoulder and pulled away, giving her an incredulous look.

"Do you usually let yourself in other people's laboratory windows?" he said.

All right, so maybe he barged into Artemis's lab not an hour ago, but there was no equivalency there whatsoever. Surely Artemis didn't see him as some sort of incorrigible childlike being who probably wouldn't see reason if told to stop...

Buh. Maybe he did. The thought was tragic.

"N-no," she answered sheepishly, glancing back towards the window, then around the lab. That's right she was supposed to be sneaking. Well, shoot.

The little pout she expressed at being discovered and ruining her plans turned into confusion as she looked over all those ingredients, though. There didn't really seem to be much organizing needed, and there were so many things, and even if she had some idea of what many of those things were useful for (though mostly whatever enchanting uses they had and not so much alchemical), it striked her as odd that a guy who could barely make a simple healing potion could have a use for all of this, never mind that the books seemed beyond basic.

She didn't want to accuse him of lying...

Her gaze fell back on Nova, as if expecting him to read her mind and explain.

Judging by her expression, it was definitely possible she'd noticed the mismatch between his story about himself and the reality of things.

He skimmed the pages of the book, guiltless.

"It's really amazing in here, isn't it? My brother accidentally burned his lab down and has been sharing mine for months. He's kind of taken the place over, but I guess that's fair since he actually knows what he's doing."

Nova scanned the space for a bit of disarray that might pass for the mess he'd described earlier, but couldn't find anything, so he hid his annoyance with a sigh.

"He tries to help me by cleaning things, but then I can't find them again."

Oh, a brother. Well that explained everything.

Wait.

"Nova- you have a brother?" She looked him over. "Does he look like you?"

"A bit," he allowed. Was he going to have to come up with a brother, somewhere? That could be tricky.

"I'm the better looking one." This detail was probably not necessary, yet strangely reflexive.

Irena didn't really notice the 'better looking' comment, still stuck on the whole 'having a brother' thing. "Irena has no brothers. Or sisters." She'd been an only child, but at least she'd been loved! Even if they didn't talk to her anymore...

Family was cruel.

"Is... your brother nice?"

Nova had never had any brothers or sisters either, but that didn't mean he couldn't make one up. In his experience, siblings tended to be opposites -- and he also probably needed a person who wouldn't be so easy to present for Irena's inspection.

"Well... once you get to know him. He's lousy with people but very good with potions."

Not good with people, but great with potions. While Nova was good with people, and lousy with potions! They were opposites! (She knew nothing about siblings.)

She smiled. He seemed to like his brother, at least. And then she glanced around the lab again, feeling even more sheepish. "Umm. I- I was... going to clean for you." Guess his brother beat her to it. "Oh!"

Suddenly excited again, Irena started searching her pouches and pockets until she managed to catch what she'd been looking for, her hands coming out and one extending. In the palm sat a little silver ring, and she beamed proudly. "Enchanted!"

...It wasn't the best enchantment, only a minor boost to perception, and hadn't been what she'd been aiming for, but it was a start!

"Oh, you won already? I didn't even have a chance to sabotage you."

He peered at it. It sure did look like a ring! "What does it do?"

Won? Oh, right, there was a game contest thing!

"I get bubblecake?" she chimed, suddenly brightening.

At the question, she blinked, and looked down at the ring again. "Umm. Lets you see a little better..." It wasn't that good an enchantment for a mage... "Was trying to make my spells better."

"That was the prize," Nova confirmed. "Congratulations on your victory. I'll buy you one soon."

It was a good sign if Irena was now able to enchant things, wasn't it? He decided to give himself a bit of credit for that, even if none was deserved.

"Nothing wrong with seeing better," he said. "Are you happy with it?"

She shrugged a little. She'd have been happier if it had been what she'd meant to enchant it with, but... She still managed to enchant something! That was amazing!

After convincing herself, she smiled happily and nodded. "Yes!" She slipped the ring on her finger, because why not?

Looking back to him, she asked, "Need help with potions?" The cleaning had already been done, but... Maybe she could help some other way...?

Always with the helping. He sighed.

"Maybe you could help me put away some loose ingredients?" he said. Ah, but as soon as that was done, she'd want to know what else she could help with, and frankly having her standing around so close to the scattered evidence of his soul manipulation research unnerved him.

He even had a fresh batch of binding potions sitting out in the open near his mixing equipment. Unlabeled, since they were something he never sold or shared. They were almost the color of defense-boosting potions, but then again not quite.

She perked up. "Irena can do that!" A pause. "I... I mean, I can do that." Well, at least she was improving, but the failure had her pouting a little before she smiled again.

She turned and started poking through all the loose ingredients, picking one up and looking for where it should go, her eyes lingering on one of the open books. She paused, and moved to lift the book enough to try and read it's title.

While Irena was trying to get a look at the book title, Nova swept over and snatched it away -- much more hastily than was necessary -- offering an awkward smile that might have passed for apologetic if you didn't give it much scrutiny. If you did, there was a touch of menace in it.

Ugh. This was getting silly. He needed to get her out of his lab before he lost his mind over nothing.

"You know, I don't feel like trying to do any alchemy tonight after all," he said.

She blinked at him, both at his stealing of another book (the fiend!) and at the look, her own look turning a little wary.

She was observant, sometimes.

"O-kay." Had she done something wrong? That made her sad. "Sorry," she said, and then moved towards the window to leave (because that's how she'd come in ok).

Was she really going to go back up through the window like that?

Yes, yes, it appeared she was. He thought about telling her it was all right and trying to entertain her upstairs for a while (or at least inviting her to use a proper door), but he didn't like that she had broken in and started nosing around at everything, so he wasn't inclined to try to make her feel better.

"You don't have to wait for an invitation to visit, but I'd prefer it if you didn't unlatch my locks," he said.

She looked back at him, turned back to the window to look at the latch, then back to Nova, and gave a nod of understanding. "I'm sorry."

And yes, she was going to take the window out. But Bunny got her attention before she started, leaping up at her so he wouldn't be left behind come on Irena sob. She lifted the bunny up to the window before climbing up behind him (with liberal use of her levitation).

She peered back inside, offering a half-smile and a wave, and then reached toward her staff, which floated up to let her pull it out.

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[Irena/Nova] - Irena is the sneakiest [Finished]

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