2785/Ice Palace: Tristan's Story

Ice Palace: Tristan's Story
Date of Scene:	04 August 2020
Location:	Ice Palace
Synopsis:	Nessa talks to the boy she'd rescued at the ice Palace.
Cast of Characters:	Loki, Nessa Donovan

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Loki has posed:
In the aftermath of the events of skeletons, undead visions of mentors, and other dangers, the boy Tristan has been quiet and disconnected, as if he weren't entirely present. He hasn't eaten his pizza, he's just sort of poked it around on his plate an rearranged the toppings. He seems to have eaten a few of those off the top, but otherwise has been distant.

There's magic going on with him, though: shields, or something else. Hard to tell exactly, due to his shielding. But defensiveness would be a good guess.

Nessa Donovan has posed:
"He'll be alright," Nessa offers. Across the table from him, her own pizza has been touched, a little, but she's mostly been keeping an eye on Tristan. "Is the Sorcerer all you have?" Her words are gentle: it's not intended to pry too much if it's a topic he's not so comfortable with. At the same time, her senses are open. They aren't prying either, but she's looking to make sure if something changes, she's aware of it. She takes another bite of her pizza as a distraction to keep her busy, but she's mostly listening if he'll talk.

Loki has posed:
"Why did something evil come to the castle?" Tristan answers with, related, perhaps, to that his mentor will or will not be all right. "It must have him in it's clutches." Slightly overdramatic, but perhaps childlike, with the way he curves his fingers to show 'clutches'. He drops it, though, quickly.

"For magic? Yeah, he's training me. I got a sister too, but she doesn't do any magic or anything. She's stupid anyway, she won't care about this. She's back in Wisconsin." The sort of 'stupid' suggests that there's a rift there.

Nessa Donovan has posed:
While Nessa's instinct is to reassure him that the castle will be handled, the distraction of talking about his sister steers him away from that worry so she jumps on it. "I imagine it's hard, what with her not having magic. Sometimes people just don't understand what it's like. But she's still your sister, Tristan, and while she might not care about /this/, I'm pretty sure she'll care about you." She offers him a smile. "Besides, even if she did do magic, that doesn't mean she'd understand everything you're going through. My family's /full/ of magic users, but they don't do what I do. Magic's a little different with everyone, I think." He's offered a smile. "So did you run away? How did you find Vega... or did he find you and bring you here?"

Loki has posed:
"No," Tristan says sullenly, "She doesn't. She parties and stays out and I took care of myself just fine." He's defensive, and sits up a little more in his seat. He's somewhere in the ten or eleven year old range, definitely not a teenager yet.

"The Sorceror found me, and we travel all over the place, not just here..." Tristan perked at that, but then the loss comes back in. He picks at the pizza, dark eyes down for a moment. "But we're staying here, yeah. I stay with the sorceror, and the others."

Nessa Donovan has posed:
Nessa smiles, but it's kind of a sad one. "She probably was pretty stupid," she agrees. "Just because someone's family doesn't mean they're great at seeing the people around them for what they're worth. She might not be great, but she might have realized now that she shouldn't have been doing that. I'm not saying go back... but I bet, regardless of how stupid she's being, giving her a call and telling her you're okay might not hurt."

She examines the toppings on her pizza for a moment as if they held some kind of interest before she turns her gaze back towards him. "He found me too. That's where the castle came from. He was te--" She stops, mid-sentence, leaning forward.

"... what others?"

Loki has posed:
"She can call /me/," says Tristan with childlike rebelliousness, but his expression reads that it's probably coming from a place of hurt. Stubbornness, yes, but hurt too. "But she's probably drunk or in jail." Great sister.

"Yeah, he um, teaches a bunch of us. Sometimes there are others around, or whatever. Most of them are older than me, like you are. I'm the youngest." He seems briefly embarrassed by that, but shrugs. "Sometimes I do homework with one of the others. Just depends. Making ice blocks or whatever."

Nessa Donovan has posed:
Nessa can't argue with that. "If she has your number and she hasn't called... I suppose that's honestly on her." His words on the 'others' have her curious. "A bunch of mages?" Her brow furrows a bit. "And everyone's got ice powers, I assume? Kind of interesting, a Sorcerer traveling around collecting up students like that." She pauses. "Did any of them go missing? Anyone unaccounted for?"

Loki has posed:
"Not everyone is just ice, no. I'm not all ice anyways," Tristan explains. "But mostly he teaches ice stuff, yes. Healing too. I can heal a little bit," Tristan boasts. "Is it unusual? I don't know. And I don't really have a list or something. Maybe they are missing. I've been here with you," Tristan replies.

"I can go see if they're in ... one of the places. But the sorcerer knows this stuff, I just... learn to make squirrels."

Nessa Donovan has posed:
"Oh? So he's just gathering mages?" Part of Nessa is curious as to the whole situation. "I mean, I just can't say I've seen a traveling mage that gathers up other mages and teaches them. And I guess he teaches what he knows, so that makes sense." She nods after a moment. "Healing? That's good to know. I'm... well, almost all ice. It's just what I'm good at. Maybe one day I'll try something else, but ice has been my thing since I was your age." She bites into the pizza, chewing thoughtfully.

"So I think we should check in and see if your mage friends are safe and sound, maybe see if they're interested in helping get the Sorcerer back? If you're comfortable staying with them, I can get you back there, but if you'd rather stay with me until we can return you safely to Sorcerer Vega, that's fine."

Loki has posed:
"I asked him what he did, and he just... teaches apprentices, yeah. He likes doing it, and together we're stronger if we have to fight, or help out. It's not like there are magic schools or something. I didn't get my Hogwarts letter," grins the boy. "But I've got my teacher. I get to learn magic."

"I'm not sure if I'm supposed to let you see the other places or anything. I'm not supposed to bring anybody back to the ice places," Tristan says. "But if he was going to teach you?... I don't know."

Nessa Donovan has posed:
"When I met him, I was standing where the palace was," Nessa says. "And I asked him if he was doing it to just show off, and he told me it was to capture my attention." She grins back at him. "You don't make something that big in front of someone to 'capture their attention' if you aren't serious about teaching them." She looks back over at him. "It's fine if you aren't comfortable taking me there... but could you call one of them and find out if everyone's okay? I'm worried if someone's missing that it might not just be Sorcerer Vega in trouble back there. Are you certain there was no one else around besides you and the Sorcerer when things got... corrupted there?"

Loki has posed:
"I don't know why he made that one all public-like, and let people see it. I think maybe evil things also saw it and decided to move in. So I'm not sure the other ones should be public, if they get eaten by zombie skeletons too. Then where will I stay?" Worries Tristan.

"I can go look for the other students, yeah," Tristan decides, a little unsure. This isn't his area to manage, so he's uncomfortable with being in trouble. "I'm not sure, no... he noticed it right away and I hid, when we got there. I don't know what the lesson was going to be, we never started it."

Nessa Donovan has posed:
"You're doing really great, Tristan," Nessa assures him as encouragement. "All I want to do here is get everything back to normal, okay?" She taps her chin for a moment. "So here's our plan. You've got an important role to play in all of this, but I think you're up to the task. What we need to do is that..." She pauses for a moment. "How many of these places are there?" It's an important question. "What I am thinking is that we need to check on your fellow students, make sure everyone's safe... and we need to check that all those places aren't also corrupted in the same way."

She gives him a look. "Don't even worry about where you'll stay. I promise, until we get you settled elsewhere, my place is safe for you. What we're going to focus on is saving Vega and the whole city. Pretty good for a mage of almost eleven, I think."

Loki has posed:
"Really close to eleven," Tristan agrees. "...years old. Not places. I know of three places. And then the big palace thing. I mean. He must have been using it to get new students. I knew there was like maybe two new people. I don't know if one is you or not." He struggles a little here: he just doesn't have the information!

"I'm worried though. I don't want something to happen to him. I know he like, serves somebody else. Maybe somebody else knows more. I just..." Tristan lifts his shoulders. He makes squirrels.

"I wanna help though. Maybe we can all get together with all your magic friends and fix it."

Nessa Donovan has posed:
Nessa tilts her head to the side, leaning her elbows on the table. Screw the people who say it's rude to. "You can help, Tristan. I'm not going to put you in danger, though, so we'll have to make sure you're able to safely help. You know more information about the Sorcerer than you might think you know." Maybe someone knows more, but he's doing a great job of accidently leaving her details that help unravel the mystery. "... you said he serves someone else, though? Do you know anything about this person?"

Loki has posed:
"Yeah, I think it's like a big magical dragon or a unicorn or something," Tristan says. Less helpful after all, maybe. "It's NOT a demon for sure though, because we never do demonic rituals or anything. He's very against dark magic like necromancy. So I know he didn't do that to the castle at all. .... I'd really like to see a frost dragon but the sorcerer has not let me. Maybe when I can make like, ice horses or something I'll be ready. I mean. If he's still alive." Tristan eats a pepperoni off his pizza.

Nessa Donovan has posed:
Nessa doesn't mention the ice dragon. It seems almost mean. "Right, well, I guess the game plan is we need to check in with your fellow students, check in on those locations to make sure they aren't corrupted, and... maybe even find whomever Sorcerer Vega serves, as that could sort of give us an idea if there's maybe some kind of entity that is its natural enemy. I don't know." She seems thoughtful for a moment, but then it draws her into a /deep/ moment of thought. "... I have more ideas, but it's the kind of ideas that involve making dangerous experiments, so we'll have to try that later." She pauses. "... I'll teach you how to do magic missiles, by the way, as a reward for helping in all of this. Safe ones, though. You'll always win a snowball fight after this."

Loki has posed:
Tristan might not be listening, he's gone very pale. His eyes open increasingly wide. "Um. I just realized something. Uh. This might be bad. I just didn't think about it, until you asked about the other ice places," rambles the boy.

"But uh. One of them is like... right next to Woodlawn," Tristan says, drawing his hands in towards his body. "I don't ... want to go there. I mean." He's afraid but doesn't want to say he's afraid.

"I'll check one of the others though, for the students. Um. Okay."

Nessa Donovan has posed:
A frown crosses Nessa's features. "Okay," she pauses to make sure she's got a pen and paper to jot down her cell phone number and slide it to him. Regardless of if he's already got it, there's a paper copy for his pocket in case he loses his phone or needs someone else to call. "You don't have to go anywhere you don't wanna go. If you can give me directions, I'll check out the Woodlawn location. You can check somewhere you feel safe. Let me know when you have any information, even if that's that you checked and just don't know anything." There's the twinge of worry in her stomach, but she remembers herself at eleven.

"You call me if there's trouble, you call me if you're uncomfortable, and if you have to stop for a break for any reason, you find somewhere safe."

Loki has posed:
"Okay. I'm gonna take this with me," Tristan says of the pizza box, closing it with a brief cheeky smile. "I'll find out of the others are around at all or left any magic messages. If it's not safe I won't go near it though, I'm not gonna do anything stupid."

Tristan's brave ... in some ways, but Woodlawn? NO.

"'Bye, Nessa."