Owner	Pose
Daimon Hellstrom	After escorting Nico from the party and doing some handy-dandy teleportation, Daimon sheds his suit jacket and throws it over one of the chairs in his drawing room. "By the way, Minoru," he says, "Don't think that your new job at SHIELD buys you any leeway as far as your training goes. I'm still gonna work you the same. You'll toughen up enough to handle it." "Speaking of. I've got an exercise we're going to do. Well. You're going to do." Daimon walks over to a bookshelf and removes a small, thin hardbound book.
Daimon Hellstrom	After escorting Nico from the party and doing some handy-dandy teleportation, Daimon sheds his suit jacket and throws it over one of the chairs in his drawing room. "By the way, Minoru," he says, "Don't think that your new job at SHIELD buys you any leeway as far as your training goes. I'm still gonna work you the same. You'll toughen up enough to handle it." "Speaking of. I've got an exercise we're going to do. Well. You're going to do." Daimon walks over to a bookshelf and removes a small, thin hardbound book.
Nico Minoru	"I wouldn't have it any other way." Nico replies at the mention of being worked hard. "They needed someone in-house instead of relying on consultants like Strange or some woman named The Morrigan." There's a bit of a pfft at that. "I can't believe someone is that pretentious." Then she takes in a long and deep sigh as she peers at the book and tilts her head. "What is it?"
Daimon Hellstrom	Daimon holds up the book and waggles it. "It's a book," he says. "C'mon. On the couch. And if you're allergic to people putting on airs and puffing themselves up, well, maybe working at a SHIELD black site is the job for you more than wizards and warlocks." Daimon lifts one corner of his mouth. He's just teasing her, in his own way. Daimon sits on the couch as well, and sets the book down on the coffee table in front of them. It looks old. Very old. "Okay. What we're going to do tonight is this. I'm going to read this to you, since I'm pretty sure you don't have a great handle on Ancient Stygian yet. YOU, my apprentice, are going to turn the pages for me while I read." Daimon opens the book, revealing a blank front page. "Turn the page," he says, and leans back to watch. When Nico goes to turn the page... it's as if the sheet of paper weighs as much as a grizzly bear, and is ready to fight her just as savagely as one. The page just will. not. budge.
Nico Minoru	"No one so far is pretentious enough to name themselves after a goddess of the underworld." Nico replies, snickering softly as she hrmms at the book and sits down on the couch. "As long as the book isn't a Necronomicon, then I should be good." Glancing over the book, her lips purse as she squints. "I saw something like this once on TV. Whoever saw the pages went insane. I hope this isn't one of those tomes." And there's a look of unease, before she tries to turn a page. As it doesn't budge, she blinks, really confused. Thinking about it for a little, she pulls out her switchblade and pricks her pointer finger before letting a drop of blood make contact with the page. Maybe it needs to be fed or something.
Daimon Hellstrom	Daimon lets Nico prick herself, and while the page feels slightly less heavy, it's like the difference between lifting up an entire horse and lifting up just a pony. "Don't stain my book," Daimon says, blandly.     "This is a book of verse by Iosephus, Abbot of the Monastery of Bal-Yalgan. He was an adept of dark magic some... oh, six hundred years ago. This copy of his writing is newer than that. But his disciples, as they transcribed his work, used the same enchantment as he did to protect it."     Daimon reaches over and pats Nico on the shoulder. "Don't look for the shortcut. Focus. Concentrate completely on the task of turning the page. Summon your willpower and /believe/ that there is no outcome but the one that /you/ choose."     Daimon then reclines again. The more Nico focuses, the more she steels her will, the more the page will budge -- until finally, after a concentrated effort, it turns, probably leaving poor Nico feeling like she just pushed a car for a mile.
Nico Minoru	The blood didn't really work, though it did something. Nico nods slowly, taking in the advice as she just stares at the page, trying to will it open, or at least while pulling at the corner of the page to open it. Her nose scrunches, giving that intense concentrating/constipated look, until the page finally budges. She flumps back and falls onto her ass, huffing and puffing. It took quite a bit to get the page to turn. "That... was... hard."
Daimon Hellstrom	Daimon leans forward again, to look at the first page, now that it's been opened. It's been written in lavish ancient script of some language from the Hyborean Age that's pretty much only kept alive by practitioners of the occult. "For Nature's Heat, within each Form it dwells, "A vital Flame, the Body it compels." Daimon leans back. Apparently that's all the first page said. He pats Nico on the shoulder again. "When you're ready." "This is probably gonna take all night, by the way. The enchantment gets stronger the closer to the end of the poem. The Bal-Yagites were big into letting no outsider gaze upon their works, blah blah blah -- they were also big into ceremonially removing their own eyes." Daimon shrugs. "But we'll have a nice little breakfast date when we finish."
Nico Minoru	OH dears. It's going to take all night. "I've read books all night, but never had to struggle turning a page." Thank you, Harry Potter. Nico continues to struggle, steeling her resolve as she contemplates the meaning of the poem. Hopefully she doesn't go insane and pluck out her eyeballs or anything like that.
Daimon Hellstrom	The second page turns, after just as much effort as the first. Daimon leans in again and reads: "No more than Spirits, fiery Life's embrace, "In Creatures' Essence, finds its dwelling place." If nothing else, Daimon is a good reader. He knows how to scan iambic pentameter. "This is going to the gym for you, Minoru. It's hard as hell now. But your muscles, so to speak, they'll build up, they'll learn, they'll develop magical muscle memory or whatever you want to call it."