Summons: The Gypsy Rose with the Sharpest of Thorns

[BetaFlame]

((I am going to affix a picture to the post.. just remember.. Aleksei and draw, and I can't. Plus, I did this in mspaint. http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y219/BetaFlame00/Tube.jpg ))

He blinks a couple of times, watching Glenn wander out. Strange lad, that. He takes a moment, pulling out papers and charts and even a rolled and flattened piece of parchment from his book. Just as well Glenn wasn't there, given his feelings on magic.

"Well. Where to start? My design is less than complex. to make up for the ridiculously difficult method of implementation." Oh yes, full on Professor Aleksei tonight. He moves the table closer to give Dali a better look at the parchment. "This section here is a long, hollow tube. The two squares are built on the top and bottom, through which chains are run. The chains are fixed to four very strong anchors, and dropped in the lake. Pull all four chains in a steady manor, and the tube goes.. down. Air pressure keeps the water out of the tube, and other than mud on the bottom, we have a water free zone, straight down."

He leans back from the table. The other papers are calculations on material strength, air pressure, and various notes on what the lake does to organic matter when it is tossed into said lake. Usually it burns and dies, so to speak. His glasses are pushed back up the bridge of his nose, and he just looks over at her. Glenn had said she would see the problem quickly, he just stops, and lets her mull it over.

[BrokenDreamer]

Patiently the woman waits as the man unrolls the large sheets of paper and listens as the structure is explained. By the blank expression upon her features, she has not yet caught on just what Glenn expected her to do.

She stare at the plans again ... rolls the man's words over in her head again. Stares. Digests.

Blinks.

And then with a burst of hysterical laughter, the gypsy rolls out of her seat. It is a flurry of colorful skirts and kicking limbs, jingling bells and jangling bangles as she laughs. Oh, she laughs! Giggles. Giggles upon giggles upon giggles until breathless and watery eyed.

She can barely get the words out as she rolls on the floor -- so much for Glenn's great plans. "How ... big ... does he think ... I am?" Sure. When people think 'Dragon' they think something HUGE. GIANT! SCARY! "I ... I couldn't even pick ... pick it up!"

And the howling laughter begins again.

[Glenn]

Howling laughter.

He was expecting fury. Pain. Screams. Maybe blood. With a frown, he peeked his head back in to hear the end of that. "Well," It took ALL of his self control to make a comment about her posterior. "Stop, already. Damn it, Dali. What sort of dragon are you? No wonder you spend most of your time as a gypsy. We need to make this happens before Catch hurts anyone else. Do you have any ideas?" This to Zerdali, because, yes, he was desperate. He sat down in his chair, laying his head upon his desk and looking at the two of them sideways. "Oh, and Aleksei, I hope you like cucumber sandwiches, because they're on their way."

[BetaFlame]

Aleksei, for his part.. just confused. He blinks down at the woman and stares at her rolling, laughing form as if poleaxed. He looks back at the paperwork, trying to see if there is some obvious mistake. A whispered, "I didn't think it was that bad..."

Then he looks between the two. And his eyes widen, and he looks down at Dali, and reassesses her again. Dragon, huh? So. Two in the same area. Plus Catch. Plus a werewolf. Plus Zilliah, whatever the hell that thing was, besides moody.

"Um. I feel as if I am missing something."

[BrokenDreamer]

The laughter slowly dies down to a few strangled giggles -- tears wiped away from the woman's eyes, leaving streaks of the kohl that was used to rim their almond shape and brighten their turquoise color. The fact that her amusement manage to crawl under Glenn's skin? It made her all the happier.

Struggling to untangle herself of layers of brightly colored skirts, the woman manages to sit up ... and with fingers latching onto the edge of the man's desk, she pulls herself up just enough to peer over the top at Glenn.

"No, I am sure your plan is fine, Aleksei. Glenn just forgot one thing. He ha never witnessed my true self with his own eyes. Just a reflection. I am not large enough."

Eyes crinkle as she continues to stare at the sullen man slumped at his desk, making it clear that she is struggling to hold back more laughter. "So complicated ... when you could have simply asked if I could swim."

"The answer is: Yes."

It is too much. She can not hold it in. The copper dragon begins to laugh. Again.

[Glenn]

Emotion. Real, pure, deep emotion. For over a year... close to two, he had seen it all through a smoky lens, a dark lens, one that made him unyielding, able to meet every event with a smile. Even now, it was stifled, blocked off. The connection between soul and spirit was small, a thread's thickness, but sometimes, when emotion pulled up, it rushed out and hit him all at once. It was rare, but he had been momentarily overtaken by despair. For Glenn to have asked a dragon such a thing, for him to resort to magic and the outlandish instead of human ingenuity had been a huge step, one born out of desperation, yes, but still, it was a stretch. To be laughed at in the face of such an effort was quite disheartening. With his head laying there, he looked quite youthful, even his age.

Thankfully, Dali's enjoyment seemed to push him through to the other side of it all. He sat up, head moving first, leading the body in a rather unnatural motion. When he looked at her, it was a slight smile. "We have been working on other methods of course. Nothing lost in asking you. I'm sorry to bring you down here on such short notice, considering, Aleksei, but you can see why I thought this might be a more expedient towing and stabilizing solution? As for your suggestion, Dali, I have a feeling it won't be as simple as ducking your head down there and snatching something. Aleksei's plan gives us the means to do some medium term work at the bottom of the lake, if necessary. However, if you are willing to brave the waters and take a quick swim to the bottom, well.. if it IS that easy, there's no harm in you trying." And surely, a quick, lithe, TINY AND ANNOYING dragoness like herself could handle whatever magical tug was down there that he just happened to be failing to mention, right?

[BetaFlame]

He gestures to Dali, trying to calm her a little. Just because she can't lower his contraption into the water, doesn't mean Glenn's plan is a bad one. Instead he takes the moment to shove some food into his mouth.

Glenn's suggestion nearly makes him choke on said food. "Uhm. Glenn, that would be a terrible idea. While I don't find it wildly humorous as Dali does, and that can be sized up to a dragon's sense of humor, perhaps we should not dismiss the entire idea out of hand?"

He takes a moment to start some tea for everyone, before moving back to his drawings and figures. "Dali, I was unaware to the fact you are a dragon. Is there someway you can help?"

Aleksei was not going to give up on an idea just because the first incarnation of the idea failed. He was too smart for that. Also, there was no point in getting bent out of shape about the fact she was a dragon. Catch was stranger than that, at this point!

[BrokenDreamer]

The woman smiles and shrugs, "Sometimes the most simplest of solutions are the best ones."

At the very least, it would seem that she has finally been able to get her laughter and amusement over the situation under control. Dali has even managed to finally peel herself off the floor to set her lovely rump back into the chair. She still smiles broadly, however, with deep dimples -- Glenn's despair seems to be soothing a pride he had ruffled some months back.

"There might be more that I could do but any little secrets I seem to ever share with Glenn, he exploits. Telling you of what tricks I can or can not do may assist you but will be to my disadvantage later. Glenn has proven himself to be someone who can not be trusted."

[Glenn]

"We hardly need cancel everything, Aleksei. I had just hoped Dali's pr..." No, no, no mentioning proportions. "professional secrets might have been enough to hoist the weight in and of itself. I was looking for a shortcut due to the need."

The need. It was always about the need, and he'd look back to the gypsy with just a little frown. "I do what I have to for Myrken's sake, Dali. I don't lie to you. I don't cheat, except for when facing something far more powerful. I may not do what you like, but I didn't ask for this either. The people can trust me, and if that means a specific person, now and again, can't.. It's regrettable but necessary. I'm honest about it though. And you're terribly fond of me." His face upturned a little. "even if you're mad, and on this matter, we're working towards a common goal, especially after what happened the other night. We're trying to get to the bottom of this. We're trying to end it without bloodshed. You know my intentions and the reasons behind them. It seems you know Aleksei's earnestness in this matter. I have never before tried to exploit you or your talents in anyway, except for, perhaps, in deference to your gypsy skills. But if we don't act soon, more people WILL get hurt." Of course, in the face of Aleksei's HUMAN ingenuity, of Glenn's before that, it chafed to be asking a dragon for help, but there they were. Burnie's pride was the one taking the hit now.

[BetaFlame]

He sighs and takes the glasses off, putting them down on the table, and pinching the bridge of his nose. The man suddenly looks tired. Too tired for words. But it only lasts for a moment, before the glasses are picked back up and placed on his nose. The moments pass as he thinks, then his eyes lift and he looks dead-on at Dali. He weighs his options with her and glances at Glenn. Clearly, there was history here, and being the new comer, he was clueless as to what it is.

"Don't trust him then. I'm not doing this for Glenn, or even for Myrken. I'm doing this to help Catch. I hope that by helping him, I can protect Myrken, but that is not why I got involved in this.. convoluted fiasco in the first place."

He runs his fingers over the papers. "This plan.. will work. I am just missing a single piece. How do I get this tube down into the water. As much as it pains me to say this, for I like the man truly, if Glenn endangers Myrken with his actions by betraying you through whatever means you offer to help us with this, and makes me out to be a liar at the same time.." He doesn't finish the thought, mostly because he never wants to have to fulfill that promise.

He give Glenn and apologetic look afterwards, but he means it. And he knows to expect no less from the man if his own personal goals ever go against the betterment of Myrken, for that matter.

[BrokenDreamer]

"I am not one to enjoy admitting when I can not accomplish something but this?" She waves a hand theatrically over the plans, "This is something that I simply can not lift. I have my limitations. If this is how you wish to retrieve the item, I can not help."

And that was that.

Whether she trusted Glenn or not, this was not something she could assist them with.

[Glenn]

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Aleksei." He was almost glad that the dragon wasn't going to make things easy for the man's plans. Almost. not quite, though. He, himself, gave Calomel a speech something like that before, years ago. "Don't worry. Turn traitor against Myrken in some maddened megalomaniacal way (not me personally, but Myrken) and I'll have you drawn and quartered and fed to the werewolf." That was a joke, probably. At least he was smiling.

"Dali." Back to her, still smiling, if only a little. "Would you be willing to peek your head down there and give me your thoughts. The last man I sent down was not as traveled as you are. You might have different opinions of what you find if you swim down to the bottom and then come back up."

[BetaFlame]

Aleksei simply shrugs at the woman. "I have no illusions about what can and cannot carry this.. thing I have designed. But, my knowledge of dragons is only book learning. There was one dragon in my homeland some centuries ago, before my birth, but he was slain by the then Second Defender of the Realm." He frowns and starts shoving his papers back in the enchanted book before he loses some. "However you think you can get to the damned horn, I am will to provide support. I think all of us here can agree that it is better somewhere safe than sitting at the bottom of the lake for some madman to get a hold of it?" He looks between the two, eyebrow arched in a questioning fashion.

As for Glenn? He just gives the man a grin and shrug. Lets face it. Myrken is the sort of place that drove men crazy, moreso for those that are trying to keep order. In a strange sort of way, Glenn should feel comfort that Aleksei won't let him get away with total insanity. At the threat? Just an even bigger grin and a mock salute. "I am glad we have an understanding, Governer."

[BrokenDreamer]

The talk of the slain dragon had the woman ... not out right glaring ... but there was a bit of a look leveled upon Aleksei, mouth pressed thin in a wordless manner.

"How do you think that acquiring this horn will keep Catch from hurting any more citizens of Myrken? It could accomplish nothing. It could make the situation worse. What then?" Question after question will tumble out.

"And do you have a map of the lake to show me where I should be looking?"

As for the battering of the two men back and forth with their tiny threats, that is ignored neatly by the dragon cloaked in gypsy flesh.

[Glenn]

She may have been glaring. Glenn was not. For one thing, Aleksei had been terribly tight-lipped about his past. That was fine, so had Glenn, though not through any great need for secrecy. There was so much to choose from after all. It had been sort of a staring contest and the question had been which would be the first to blink. It took letting him work himself to the bone and the unveiling of a dragon but Aleksei had been the first.

Things to follow up upon later.

"I do not think you would be able to retrieve the horn, though you'd be able to give us more information of the state of things down there. Simply put Dali, he has acted like a child, an incomplete being, and as such he cannot be held fully responsible for what he does. No more than a child could. If I must act, for the good of Myrken, in these circumstances, I will, but I don't want to. It's not fair or right to anyone involved." But if it was necessary, that was that. Heavy was the head.. "It is my feeling that the horn, the missing part of him which drew him here, will make him complete once more, with full memories or at least self-awareness. At that point, I hope he would stop hurting people. If not, or if he becomes more dangerous, then we'll handle him as we have other such beings who wish to hurt people for their own selfish and monstrous reasons. But at LEAST, Dali, at least at that point we know we tried."

Did she believe him? He looked youthful now, just as youthful as when he laid his head upon the desk. He spoke with emotion. If he was lying, then he was lying to himself as well.