Xaviers!

Posted: **Wed Dec 13, 2017 7:34 pm**

A tall woman with long, unkempt dark hair sniffs the air for a moment as she walks down the hallway, looking at the names on the doors. She has a package in her hands and she stops at Nailah and Wanda's room, blinking for a moment.

Then she slaps her forehead.

Of course. It all made sense.

Posted: **Wed Dec 13, 2017 7:45 pm**

There's some commotion from inside that almost sounds like somebody shimmying open the window and climbing through.

Posted: **Wed Dec 13, 2017 7:49 pm**

"...if you're a vampire, you're the most graceless one I've ever heard," she speaks up, a hint of a growl in her voice.

Posted: **Wed Dec 13, 2017 8:12 pm**

"What?" comes Nailah's voice from inside and a moment later the door opens. "Who's a vampire?"

Posted: **Wed Dec 13, 2017 8:39 pm**

"...your roommate's been having a rough time," she hedges.

"Happy Christmas?" She holds up the gift defensively.

Posted: **Wed Dec 13, 2017 8:46 pm**

"Uh... thanks? Do I know you?" she asks, taking the gift while looking at Isolde dubiously.

Posted: **Wed Dec 13, 2017 8:47 pm**

"I don't believe so, but a friend wanted you to have this," she says, holding the package out to Nailah.

"I'm Isolde. Much more than that is a bit of a long story."

Posted: **Wed Dec 13, 2017 8:53 pm**

"A friend? What friend?" she asks, growing even more suspicious and glancing down at the gift as if it might bite her.

Posted: **Wed Dec 13, 2017 8:56 pm**

The gift itself is as rectangular package with a decent bit of heft to it. The wrapping is neat and crisp and particularly festive, though only Nailah's name is on package.

Posted: **Wed Dec 13, 2017 9:00 pm**

"She owns a club in Chelmsford. Apparently she's been looking to the skies lately."

"I'll gladly strangle her if it turns out to be something awful."

Posted: **Wed Dec 13, 2017 9:03 pm**

"Hrmm..." is all she says as she carefully opens the package. This doesn't sound like it's Hazard, but Isolde does sound like it could still be something bad.

Posted: **Wed Dec 13, 2017 9:09 pm**

Inside are a set of familiar books, all old and well-used. On top is a note:

Code: Select all: You may find these useful.

One of the books has a more modern piece of paper stuck in it like a bookmark with "Teach your roommate this one" written on it in purple ink.

Posted: **Wed Dec 13, 2017 9:36 pm**

"These are the books she stole from Youssef..." she says, surprised to see them again.

Posted: **Wed Dec 13, 2017 9:39 pm**

"Ah, that would be the part she told me was awkward, then."

"She seems to be regretting most of that dealing."

Posted: **Wed Dec 13, 2017 11:26 pm**

"Doesn't exactly bring him back to life... Why does she even want me to have them? I can't read whatever weird language these are in." she says, flipping open the one with the bookmark.

Posted: **Wed Dec 13, 2017 11:28 pm**

"She seems to think you're good at more things than getting kicked in the head by alleyway muggers."

Posted: **Wed Dec 13, 2017 11:54 pm**

The written language certainly looks to Isolde like some form of Arabic. The specific page in question showed a circle and runes drawn onto the palm of a hand. Isolde had seen the circle before, brandished once in her direction by some mage who had chased her across southern Spain.

Posted: **Thu Dec 14, 2017 12:31 am**

"Hey, usually I'm the one doing the kicking." she objects, but she's lacking her usual bravado and conviction.

Posted: **Thu Dec 14, 2017 12:44 am**

"Ah, that's a nasty one," she says looking down at the page Nailah's on.

"Burns quite a bit."

Posted: **Thu Dec 14, 2017 2:55 am**

"Wait, you can read tell what this is?"

Posted: **Thu Dec 14, 2017 4:09 am**

"I can't read Arabic, but I've had an excitable Moor waving that at me as he hounded me through Andalusia."

Posted: **Thu Dec 14, 2017 4:17 am**

"I'm pretty sure that word's racist." she focuses on the wrong thing entirely. "Wait, you mean this book? Or the page? Or something on it?"

Posted: **Thu Dec 14, 2017 4:26 am**

"The bit where it shows to inscribe that onto the palm of your hand."

Posted: **Thu Dec 14, 2017 5:24 am**

"So this is what... instructions for magic spells?"

Posted: **Thu Dec 14, 2017 5:31 am**

"If you want to be cute about it. You'll not be pulling rabbits out of hats or anything."

Posted: **Thu Dec 14, 2017 6:15 am**

"But why me? I'm not a wizard. Or witch. Or... whatever you call it. Magician?"

Posted: **Thu Dec 14, 2017 6:23 am**

"You're special. Or she thinks you are, at least."

"Or is flying and punching people all you do?"

Posted: **Thu Dec 14, 2017 6:29 am**

"It's all I do well. And even then, it's not magic, just... mutant stuff." she says, although it's clear from her voice she doesn't really know.

Posted: **Thu Dec 14, 2017 6:30 am**

"I suppose you thought that random mutation just happened to line up everything just right to produce a sphinx?"

Posted: **Thu Dec 14, 2017 6:46 am**

"I dunno... It makes all kinds of stuff. Some of it's bound to be like another thing."

Posted: **Thu Dec 14, 2017 6:48 am**

"But you've thought of yourself as a sphinx before," she surmises.

Posted: **Thu Dec 14, 2017 5:07 pm**

"Duh. Obviously. It's my code-name."

Posted: **Thu Dec 14, 2017 5:18 pm**

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be."

Posted: **Thu Dec 14, 2017 5:26 pm**

"Great. Very helpful. Can I pretend to be someone who knows what she's doing somehow?"

Posted: **Thu Dec 14, 2017 5:28 pm**

"...haven't you?" She quirks a brow and lets that one hang.

Posted: **Thu Dec 14, 2017 5:34 pm**

"I... but..." she trails off for a moment.

"Kind of." she finally admits. "But I don't know if it's really working."

Posted: **Thu Dec 14, 2017 5:42 pm**

"Then you have a choice. You can put yourself at the mercy of that uncertainty, or you can actually know what you're doing."

Posted: **Thu Dec 14, 2017 6:25 pm**

"By learning Arabic and reading these?" she asks, still a bit dubiously, but at least it's something to latch on to. And Youseff clearly considered them important.

Posted: **Thu Dec 14, 2017 7:07 pm**

"Well, they're not all in Arabic, but it might help with some of the things you can't punch."

Posted: **Thu Dec 14, 2017 7:40 pm**

"You think?"

Xaviers!

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