Private Barracks/Imperial Condos Occult Division Two wizards under one roof

[Rosmakh W. Dowganosyv]

Dear Nevali,

Please allow me to introduce myself, and accept my appologies if my name and work is already familiar to you. I am Professor Rosmakh W. Dowganosyv, a fellow researcher in the occult, mystical and esoteric, ancestrally from the icy land of Fiador, Corporially from the Northlands, but be assured my spirit isn't bound to either of those. I have moved to Bully harbor very recently, and haven't gotten a chance to make a name for myself yet or meet other beasts of my trade here. However I have over 30 years of experience communicating with spirits, learning of the unknown ones, and harnessing forces of the worlds beyond. I have become very infamous in the Northlands for my demonstrations and lectures, that have been attended by very influential people including members of the imperial government. Of course, those demonstrations and lectures revealed only a small fraction of my true knowledge and power. I made many breakthroughs in alchemy and chemistry, have discovered what I believe to have been previously undiscovered unknown ones, and have made true predictions about the future of the Northlands and the imperium. As I'm sure you are aware, the Vulpine imperium is in a great position to take advantage of the changes that are to come. It wouldn't be at all within the realm of imagination to see it become a great empire not just in this material world, but also a force to be reckoned with in the different planes of the unknown ones, and really only then can we call it a great empire. Nevali, I can't tell you how fortunate we are to be citizens of the imperium whose ministers clearly understand the importants of the secret and the occult. They look to our guidance and expertise when making their decisions, they appease the spirits and the unknown ones through their public demonstrations, and they are greatly rewarded for it through the wealth and stability of the land they govern. It would be a grave missed opportunity if mystic researchers didn't communicate with each other more knowing the important place we hold in the imperium, and hense I invite you to my lodgings at 19 Vladimir ullyanov street, apartment lucky 7. You decide the time and day Madame Waybird, I'm always eager to talk with someone as bright and skillful as you. Until that meeting, I wish you luck on your journey of discovery.

Yours, as truly as any beast could be,

Professor Rosmakh W. Dowganosyv
Philosophiae Doctor of the secret, occult and the dark arts
​

-- -- -- -- -- --

"Levin! What happens when you get two wizards under one roof?"

Professor Dowganosyv struggled to contain his excitement ever since his student returned to the apartment, and Levin felt it too, it was the kind he didn't feel in a long time. Some beasts think that spending time constantly with a character as enigmatic and as exciting as Professor Dowganosyv would dull the senses to it all, and certainly watching magic tricks and learning about the dark arts loses its novelty after a few months, but life, or whatever forces shape it, find a new direction to take things in every time they stay the same too long, as if determined to not bore any being to death.

"What?"!, Levin grinned wide, as if he had just heard the start of a joke. But Professor Dowganosyv never told jokes, although it was hard to imagine there was any principal behind it.

"Great things, Levin! Two times the wizards four times the magic!", Dowganosyv sounded as if he had all the energy of youth within him. He couldn't help but move things around his apartment a little to prepare for the arrival, as if his weasel colleague was going to arrive within a matter of minutes. Levin himself was eagerly looking at the door, excited for his own reasons to meet the pudgy weasel yet again. She was a much different kind of wizard than his professor, a kind of wizard he preferred more. The interaction he had was brief, formal and stiff, but she was more fun, less serious. He hoped that he would learn from her as well, just for a change from the usual lessons with Dowganosyv.

(Private thread between @Rosmakh W. Dowganosyv and @Nevali, dm or contact on discord if you have comments)

 

[Nevali]

Maps. Maps seemed to be the biggest scam. Or perhaps it was city planning. Assuming anything in Bully Harbour had ever been planned that wasn't a crime. But then, the layout of the town was a crime, wasn't it? Hence the need for maps. It was crime all the way down, and several storeys up.

No, give her a good old field, some proper woods, a muddy path, some bushes... A sky full of stars and some moss on a rock... That's how beasts ought to be living. Maybe with a single building nearby. Possibly two buildings, one for wagons to sleep in, one for beasts to sleep in. That's all you needed.

Her usual method of casting bones into the street to point the way only got her so far before the natural confoundings of the city disrupted it and caused her to be late and lost and nearly mugged several times. Too many beasts, that was another thing. Too much power all scrunched up in such a small space. In a sea of consciousness, the town was a chaotic whirlpool of thought and emotion. The natural waves, the ebb and flow in the web of idea and dream, was disrupted here. Hence the need for the Occult Division's base of operations, she had decided.

Still, she found the place eventually. Maybe the map hadn't lied. Or maybe she'd been drawn to the Professor through some connective tissue. A beast like him would have energies of his own emanating from his being, dropping leylines of power in his wake. Leave it to the unconscious wandering mind to grasp them and tug, nudging the footpaws in the right direction.

Maybe if it wasn't so blasted cold out, and she didn't need to wear footwraps, she would know where she was. The disconnect between her frozen pink beans and the ground was always so unsettling. Might as well have been walking on a cloud.

No, a cloud would be softer.

19 Vladimir Ullyanov street. It wasn't a particularly fancy building, not like those in the Trenches. It was a place for life to quietly wait for something better to come along. Apartment seven...

At least there was a hallway, with enough straw tossed down to soak up the chill and snow-melt that happened when so many warm paws stomped through the place. Dirty, smelly straw, just how it was supposed to be.

She paused on the threshold to adjust her hat and robe into place, and wipe a smudge off her bicolored glasses. She reached into her pocket, taking out a piece of cheese, which she tossed up against the wall above the door. On the third attempt, it finally stuck. She had drawn a glyph of warding into it, two parallel dots and a curving line that bent towards each dot. It would dry quickly in winter, and when spring came, it would wick moisture and sprout flowering mold, which would ground the edifice in the cycle of life and death, keeping it moored in the current time stream.

Or it would feed whoever was game enough to reach up and pluck it free, which was also fine.

She raised a paw and rapped sharply on the door, then picked up the basket at her feet, which held a single large watermelon.

 

[Rosmakh W. Dowganosyv]

Dowganosyv was right that the visitor was quickly approaching. Whether it was a wild guess that got proven right, or if he could scence her with either his nose or some sense only he possessed, he was likely going to keep that to himself. Both wolverine and Ermine stood up at the knock, Levin stepping into the hallway while Rosmakh waited at the entrance to the living room. Levin opened the door and greeted Nevali with a smile.

"Good evening! Please, make yourself at home, my paws are here to help"

Both Levin and Dowganosyv were excited and in good spirits, but they showed it in very different ways. Levin wanted to move, take things, put them somewhere else, hand them back, to be of use to the visitor and make sure he, along with his master whom he represented, left a good first impression. Well, the second one really, since Nevali got to read the letter and meet him at the frost fair beforehand.

"I'm very glad to meet you. One can never know too many people, especially fellow wizards. I hope that you were lucky enough to meet more than I did",
Dowganosyv remained still, as if he didn't want anybody or anything getting in through the door before Nevali. His voice was deep, rough with age but it held a distinctive youthful quality to it. It wasn't in his words, or in the way he said them. It was that mismatch between the image of an old graying wolverine, leaning on a staff with one paw and holding the doorframe with the other, and the loud confident voice of a beast in the prime of his life.

"I introduced myself a little in my letter. I am Professor Dowganosyv, but you are free to address me as Rosmakh or some other way. But be careful, you might bring attention of more beings than you might think when you say a name."

"What do you like to drink? Elderberry syrup, tea of forest fruits, Northlander bittersap?", Levin would offer as he and Nevali entered the living room. It was illuminated in the warm glows of over a dozen candles placed around the room, revealing a busy but orderly space, with relatively narrow sofas on each side of a table, where a few books rested one next to another. They were turned back page up, leaving their exact nature unknown.

 

[Nevali]

Nevali froze up, allowing Levin to take the basket containing the watermelon gift from her paws.

Wolverine.

She'd heard that one of the Ministers was one. She'd seen countless travellers come and go at the Wayweird Inn, but... no, no wolverines. A badger, once, which felt rather close. A lanky fellow, for a badger, not very wide or tall at all, none of the bloodwrath she'd been warned of, although he had grumbled some about the noise of the newly wedded couple taking residence in the main suite, which... understandable. Not a lot of sleeping had happened that night for anybeast, between the feasting, partying, and then the culmination of a bonding, which had lasted well into the sunrise. Not a great day for passing travellers who wanted shut-eye.

So, wolverine. She didn't quite know what to do with her paws, or her hat, or her feet, so she simply stepped further into the apartment, led down the hall by the ermine boy, and said, "Aye, all three of those sound great! One of each." Which was a little presumptuous, but no one had specified she could only choose one.

She decided that "making herself at home" wasn't truly what was expected, and so for propriety's sake, didn't throw aside her robes and toss herself over the sofa stark-naked and start tearing into a raw Harbor pigeon like a starving feral ghoul of a beast. Instead, she lifted her robes as she shuffled around the table and took a seat at the table, and stared curiously at the open books, and around the room in general.

"It's gonna be a pleasure yer meetcha," she said, tugging the brim of her hat as best she could with her short arms. "As much as it is a surprise. I'm a li'l flustered, I confess, yer letter rather painted me as learned and well-researched as yourself, and I'm afraid that I ain't. I'm still jes' learnin' things slowly as I go along, doin' my best as I do. Muckin' up more often than not, feels like..."

She gave a polite cough and a wry grin.

"Also! I brought ya a watermelon. A whole one, not the slices I usually keep on me ter pass around."

 

[Rosmakh W. Dowganosyv]

Dowganosyv let out 4 evenly spaced "ha" sounds, his mouth slightly open in a grin. "You know plenty about making choices, nevali Wayward. Levin, do as she said, one of each".

Levin grinned wide, and once Nevali was comfortably situated in the sofa he began a strange ritual. The ermine climbed onto a spinning circular chair so he was facing nevali, then spun it around using his feet so he faced the wall. He tapped his paws against the wall in a strange rhythm, alternating between harder and lighter taps, with noteably more lighter taps than harder ones. After about 14 taps he stopped, waited for a second, and nothing at all happened.

This must have been exactly what levin expected, since the kit spun around, stopped for a split second to look at Dowganosyv who nodded at him in appreciation, and then spun a little further to face Nevali. "Your drinks will be ready in a minute, miss".

Levin stepped off the chair and went back into the hallway as Dowganosyv continued the conversation with Nevali.

"We never stop learning. And there are so many different paths to take, so many branches of the tree of knowledge to explore, I'm certain that I have a lot to learn from you. As it comes, I already learned something from you"

The wolverine pointed at the watermelon basket sitting on the table, looking out of place with the books, tools and writing implements it shared the surface with.

"I have never seen a watermelon before, and I will certainly try a piece of it later tonight. I don't fancy fruits that much, but I won't refuse gifts from you. And of course, Levin would adore to have more sweets, even if I try my hardest to not indulge him with physical pleasures."

Rosmakh grinned to himself, before shaking his upper body, including his head and ears. He must have been throwing off the current topic of conversation out of his head and ears, since it seemed very unlikely he would want to shake anything physical off in this pristine apartment.

"I am new to Bouillabaissse harbor, a year is nothing to an old beast like me. The newspapers here were of little help, nobody hear dares right about the demonstrations of magic, or ministry matters, or important lectures. I only heard about truly interesting subjects from other beasts with loose tongues, so good that this street has a few of them"