hh_mirror | Raistlin Majere ((unpopcorning, canon update))

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Raistlin Majere ((unpopcorning, canon update))

((Bringing Raistlin back with a canon update to boot! And one of these days, his mun will learn how to format on the first damn try!))

A man in black robes staggered to his feet outside of the popcorn room, clearly disoriented. He snarled a word of magic, creating a thrumming wave of energy that surrounded him like a shield. Raistlin Majere, Master of the Tower of High Sorcery, had returned to Hogwarts. The mage looked down at his robes, jet black and normally of the softest fabric, trimmed in ornate silver runes now sodden with grease. He plucked at a sleeve with with an expression of disgust.

He was back. Raistlin tore his hood back and gave an inarticulate scream of rage. He had passed through Shoikan Grove unharmed and claimed the Tower of High Sorcery as his own, all of it’s secrets and magic were his. The spellbooks of Fistandantilius were his, he was learning the most powerful secrets of arcane magic. Yet the magic of this school had pulled him back against his will.

His spell components were ruined, but he could call on enough magic to burn the grease from his robes. Anyone passing by would see a cranky looking wizard standing in the hallway, smoking.

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Rose hears the scream.

"Do you smoke whenever you have a tantrum?" she wants to know. "Your house must get very mucky."

Raistlin whirled, his still smoldering robes flaring as he did so. The sharp retort died in his throat when he saw Rose. With an effort, he swallowed his anger. “No. The Hat not only brought me back, it saw fit to cover me in some oily substance. The smoke is from a spell that burned it away."

"Hunh." Rose appraises him. "I suppose that's good. Or every time you threw a wobbly you'd ruin the wallpaper."

"I didn't realize the Hat went so far as to steal children, I do not recall seeing you from before."

Have I been stolen, wonders Rose, and concludes that she has not. "I've not seen you before. You're cloaky. I drew someone like you."

"They are traditional robes for one of my order, not a cloak," he corrected absently. "Children tend to avoid me. You must be used to such," his lips twisted, "sights."

"No, not really. Mummy wears an artist's smock but it's mostly bright colours because of all the paint she uses, Sarah and Saffy share clothes anyway and Caddy likes bright colours too. Indigo," she concedes, now talking about the single brother in a band of sisters, adopted sisters and friends, "Might have a cloak but I haven't asked him."

Rose does not avoid anybody.

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The library. The bizzare narrations.

Memories were clicking back into place as he peered at Igor for a moment before giving him a thin smile. “Merely removing the grease. It seems that even with my new power I am not immune to the wiles of the Hat.”

((I should know better than to delete.))

"Oh, right." He still had the impulse to douse Raistlin in water. "Haven't seen you for a while, but then I've been busy."

((uncooperative LJ! :P))

Raistlin considered his surroundings, his eyes narrowing as he read the Popcorn plaque. Now he realized what happened. Not only had he been spirited away against his will, he had been popcorn?

"I don't know how much time has passed since I.." he waved at the glass case, not able to bring himself to say 'since I was popcorn'.

"Have you had much success with your work?"

"Not so much" Igor mumbled, looking glum. "I was close once, but the house-elves tidied it away."

"Away? You went travelling?"

He shrugged slender shoulders, "I must have. I returned home, time passed and I was again called here. I am stronger, my magic is more powerful but I am still unable to stop the Hat from treating me as some sort of pawn," he said with a scowl. "The grease is an.. unwelcome by product."

"I am sorry the elves did that. I wish I had learned something in my studies to help, but unless magic would help.." he offered.

Igor sniffed, smelling the oil. "The hat dunked you in...or..." he trailed off, realizing the question would be too rude.

"Magic- I don't know to be honest, I, I should be learning more of it." He leaned forward, confidentially. "From what I can tell, Hogwarts has a very limited security system. If we were attacked by laser-carrying atomatons I seriously doubt that even magic would stop them. Some kind of catapult or maybe a weapon for the squid- that's what I was working on." Realizing he was probably rambling, he cut himself short. "Maybe I should have a talk with the squid first," he finished, lamely.

Raistlin flicked a bit of ash from the sleeve of his robe, irritated. “I don’t know. I don’t know why I was covered in such grease or why it brought me back here against my will.”

His eyes gleamed at the thought of a good magical challenge. “A good fireball has been known to stop many things in their tracks. I have a dragon orb, used to speak to the minds of and summon dragons on Krynn. Perhaps we can make something similar to contact the squid if translation or telepathic charms fail?”

Igor's eyes widened. "Dragons? Those dinosaur-like things? Hey, that might work- cethalopods are supposed to be intelligent." He gave an earsplitting grin. "That's so...cool. And even if he won't talk to us, there must be some dragons around here."

Raistlin wouldn't know a cethalopod if it fell on him, but he nodded. "It is used for the dragons of Krynn, I'm not sure what effect it would have on the dragons here. I get the impression they are not.. the most sociable of creatures. But the magic may work for the squid, or a charm may alter the effects somehow."

"I don't see why not..." Igor was stoppe in his tracks, considering the squid. "How does it work?"

He gave Igor a somewhat odd look. "Magic. It was crafted by the wizards of the Order to control and speak directly to the minds of dragons."

Raistlin pulled a glass-looking marble from one of the many pouches at his waist. It began to grow in his hands, until it was the size of a large ball. The surface shimmered and outlines of dragons were just visible in the surface.

"It's magic" meant very little to Igor. He almost said yes, but how does it work? But one look at the swirling surface and the flying lizard creatures took his breath away. "They fly like that all the time? They just- stay up?" He looked up at Raistlin then back down at the orb, frowning. "I doubt the squid would be represented there, but maybe it would be easier to just have one of these monsters protect Hogwarts? There may be some around here, right?"

Raistlin closed his eyes for a moment, balancing the orb between his fingertips. "The orb senses dragons here. 2 are not far from the school. They are not like the dragons of Krynn, but perhaps we can enlist them. When dragons are properly motivated, they can be quite fearsome in battle."

Igor stared into the orb, scarcely daring to breathe lest he should upset Raistlin's concentration.
"How-how do you motivate them to guard a castle?" He asked at last. "Cattle prods?"

He shook his head, putting the orb back in its pouch. "It depends on the dragon. Some are good and would do it because it is "right". Most require different motivation. Should we go out and ask them?"

Still captivated by the swirling orb, Igor could only look up and nod his agreement. "How do we go out, then?"

Hearing the scream, he peered down the hall.
"Are you o....k? Raistlin, is that you? You're on fire?" Surely it was some sort of magical thing, otherwise the scowling wizard would be leaping around.

"I haven't seen you for a while", he hazarded.

New filtered fast through the Hogwarts Shoggies- it was rare for a Shoggy to notice anything of interest without every other Shoggy finding out within a matter of moments. And so, Raistlin's reappearance didn't go unnoticed, and it wasn't long after his unpopping that a small swarm of happy Shoggies appeared, piping their greetings enthusiastically.

"There you are Master Raistlin!" exclaimed Shoggy 7. "We haven't seen you in a while!" "It's sooo good to see you again Master Raistlin!" threw in Shoggy 22, while Shoggies 19, 16, and the recently created Shoggy 16 1/2 all voiced their welcomes as well.

"We've been collecting sooo many spell components for you Master Raistlin," said Shoggy 19. "Sooo many!" exclaimed the others in unison. "Thousands and thousands and sooo many thousands of them," explained Shoggy 16, who'd actually deliberately split into 16 and 16 1/2 in order to increase its component collecting efficiency. "We've been putting them into the McGraw tower."

The Shoggies were one thing that could always elicit a small smile from even cranky Raistlin. The news that he had thousands of spell components waiting for him could have also played a part in his smile.

He reached down to pet the nearest one, straightening it's hat, "I have missed you all as well. Have you been finding enough chickens and paper hats?"

The group of Shoggies was absolutely delighted to see the powerful 'cultist' they'd picked as their 'Master'- Shoggies needed direction. This is why, during the months of Raistlin's absence, the Shoggies had continued to go about their component-collecting work, even to the extent of filling up one of the rooms in McGraw tower with random collected bits of material. Perhaps only ten percent of the Shoggies' collected 'components' would be useful for Raistlin, but, that ten percent would indeed consist of thousands of them.

"We've gotten sooo many chickens, and made lots of paper hats!" Shoggy 19 piped happily as Raistlin straightened its hat. "And we had a party and our Great Master Cthulhoo even came to visit," contributed Shoggy 7. "We wish you'd been there. It was sooo cool! He ate the sacrifices, and we learned to summon fish to eat!" "But it's easier when we're outside," added Shoggy 16 1/2.

The Shoggies reminded the mage of the gully dwarves; underestimated due to their appearance but incredibly resourceful and a formidable force when they put their collective mind to something. So it came as little surprise that they had mastered the use of magic.

“I am indeed sorry that I missed it, little ones. I’m glad that you’ve been able to make the magic of this place work for you and bring you even more to eat.” He wasn’t quite sorry that he missed the Great Master Cthulhoo though. He had gleaned enough about Cthulhoo from the Shoggies to realize that missing the 'party' was probably a Very Good Thing.

Perhaps after he took on the Queen of Darkness.. then he might be powerful enough..

Raistlin spoke a few brief words of magic, summoning something ~~his mun~~ he thought the Shoggies would like. When his spell ended, a dozen small viking helmets popped into existence on the various Shoggy heads.

The Shoggies hadn't exactly mastered the use of magic, but rather the use of it to summon fish- some were also pretty good at enlarging objects. Still, they were resourceful, and, given a chance to collectively work out something they saw performed, generally managed to accomplish it. Luckily for Hogwarts, the collective Shoggy mind had not yet hit upon the notion of combining their two spells.

"There will be more Cthulhoo Days," Shoggy 7 told Raistlin. "And we can have more parties. You should have a day, Master Raistlin!" Shoggy 16 was admiring Raistlin's robes, being the first to note that there was anything different. "I like your new black robe, Master Raistlin!" The length of Raistlin's absence hadn't really registered with the Shoggies, so the little group was no less loyal than they'd been to their 'Master' previously- to creatures who'd experienced aeons, a few months wasn't much.

"Sooo cool!" the Shoggies exclaimed in unison as Raistlin summoned them their viking helmets. "These hats are the best hats! Shoggies gots them from their parents but we still had the paper ones. Now we can be metals too." "Thank you for the hats, Master Raistlin!" The other Hogwarts Shoggies had envied the viking helmets which Toki and Skwisgaar had gotten their Shoggies, so the helmets were a an excellent gift indeed. "We didn't get you a hat, we're sorry," added Shoggy 19. "But there's the sooo many spell components. We can show them to you whenever you want."

He smiled cryptically. “When I have taken on the Dark Queen and won, perhaps I will have my own day.”

“I am glad you like the helmets, little ones. I didn’t know you could convert yourselves into metal,” he ventured. Being “metals” was a mystery to Raistlin and he simply figured that among the various talents of the Shoggies, transfiguration was one of them.

“Take me to these components. I’d like to see what it is you collected.”

As the Shoggies led the way, Raistlin began thinking about a way he could use their skills to help him in his eventual bid to take on Takhisis herself.

"Do we know the Dark Queen? Is it Mastress Shubby?" asked Shoggy 7. "We could try and get you a day, but we might have to steal it from someone else," added Shoggy 16 1/2. "And days are soooo hard to steal. You can't pick them up like other stuff. I don't think we've done it before!"

"No, I don't think we can turn ourselves into made of metal either, Master Raistlin," admitted Shoggy 22. "Shoggies said that being metals means that you aren't dildos, and that it's bad to be dildos. So we're all trying not to be dildos, but we're not sure what it is that we're not being."

The Shoggies were happy to take Raistlin to the collection they'd been accumulating for him, and squelched out to the grounds following the shortest route. "We put stuff into the tower because it was near outside, where we were finding stuff, and because Shoggies can watch the components there," Shoggy 19 explained to Raistlin.

Although McGraw tower technically belonged to Andy Bernard, being that it was a secret santa present to him from the Shoggies, a large number of Shoggies had taken up residence in the mostly-manifested building. Due to its unholy transport from a time in the past, there was something definitely off about the building aside from the occasionally non-manifested wall. There was something non-euclidean about some of the angles, the disco ball mounted atop the tower sparkled with unnatural brightness. "We puts them inside of there," Shoggy 16 announced as the tower came into view. Several more Shoggies noticed the approach of Raistlin and his little group, and came squelching out of the tower, piping their enthusiastic little Shoggy-greetings.

Dildos? Metals?
Raistlin figured it to be a strange form of their language and didn't question the matter further. As the Shoggies squelched out of the tower, he smiled. He had seen many strange and bizzare things in the Tower of Wayreth, so the relative strangeness of McGraw tower was hardly off-putting.

"This is where you live? I see you found something more fitting than a gazebo."

"Some us live here, Master Raistlin," Shoggy 7 explained. "We brought it for Andy Bernard for the Secret Santa, and since it's here we've been staying at it." The Shoggies didn't claim possession of the tower at all- they'd brought it for someone else, and did recognize it as technically his. This didn't prevent them from using it, however, and at their arrival they were met by several more Shoggies. "We've brought Master Raistlin to see his spell components," Shoggy 16 told them, to which they all piped "Hello, Master Raistlin!" and squelched along as they entered the tower.

The insides of McGraw tower were just as odd as the outside, if not moreso. Although the building was still clearly the same building they'd transported through time, the transit had somehow adjusted some of the angles to something entirely inhuman. The Shoggies squelched through a few rooms until they got to one which was well over half-full with various piles of odds and ends, many of them organic. One heap consisted of nothing but dead spiders, while another was nothing but dead birds. The Shoggies seemed to have made an effort to sort the 'components', which meant there were more piles of organic matter, both animal and vegetable, as well as some piles of rocks, another of oddly shaped sticks, another of shards of glass, and so on, although there were a few piles of what appeared to be mixed garbage. On the whole, most of the Shoggies 'components' weren't very useful for anything, but, Raistlin was bound to find a decent amount of useful material amongst the rest. "See, it's sooo many components!" Shoggy 22 and the others looked to Raistlin in hopes of approval.

Lee leaned against the doorframe, drawn by the sound. She gave him a once over, her half-smile visible under her hood. "Let me guess: in addition to butter-diving, you've taken up smoking clove cigarettes and listening to The Smiths in your spare time."

Raistlin snorted, "The butter was hardly my idea, and clove smoke is only used in temples to the gods." He pulled his hood back, looking far healthier than he did the first time the Hat brought him to Hogwarts.

"It's good to see you again."

"You too, Red." She smirked and took a drag off of her ever-present cigarette. "Hm. Gonna have to think of something else to call you."

She took stock of his appearance--still off, not as 'three coughs from death' as he'd been before. "So either black really is your color, or you've found the happy pills that work."

Raistlin actually chuckled, "The combination of travel and magical power can have restorative qualities. I will never be as physically strong as some, but my magic quickly outstripped those of the Order back on Krynn."

"Well, look who just moved to the top of the class." She crossed one leg in front of the other and pulled her hood back enough so that her face was no longer in shadow. "Been gone long?"

“Time has taken on rather odd qualities,” he answered, his hands absently checking the various pouches of herbs and other odd bits that a wizard kept close for his spells. “I was home for .. months or longer. I crossed Shoikan Grove, the tower recognized me as its master, then I was pulled back,” he said bitterly. It wasn’t the interruption that angered him as much as his seeming inability to stop said interruption.

“I don’t know how long I have been gone from this place,” he finally admitted.

"Yeah, that means... pretty much jack shit to me." She tossed him a lopsided grin. "I dunno. Could be months, could be days. I've been in and out."

More in than out, recently. Bete Noir seemed to hardly notice her absences, and she took what she could get here. No Dolf at the bar, and that was a pity, but no burned-to-hell son trying as hard as he could to not notice her, either.

"But, like you said, time's kind of funny all around. Odds are you'll slide right back in. Or," she said, after a second and with a one-shouldered shrug, "you'll end up snack food again. I guess either's likely."

"It means nothing to the Hat as well," he noted wryly. "I will have to bide my time and learn what I can while I am here. The magical resources here are vast enough for me to continue my studies."

"In case you haven't noticed, I think that the only things that mean anything to the Hat are the Hat, other hats, and shiny things." She snorted a laugh. "Good luck with that. I'd say that actually getting anything done in this place is like herding cats, but I think it's more like..." She smoked thoughtfully as she searched for the right analogy, snapping her fingers finally. "Herding cats who run through once every few weeks while people are alternately shooting rocket launchers in your general direction and flashing you." She nodded to herself. "Yeah, that seems about right."

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Raistlin Majere ((unpopcorning, canon update))

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