diatu | [Closed] Everything comes at a price.

[Closed] Everything comes at a price.

Who: Louie, Spyro, Cliff, and Huey
Where: Throughout the school.
When: First Saturday in September (09/07)
What: Louie gets his khopesh back for a moment, and becomes determined to get it back for keeps. Three "top-levels" in the comments, one for each khopesh curse recipient.
Warnings: Quite likely blood loss!

Louie awoke late that day. Usually, he enjoyed few things more than sleeping in, but when he opened his eyes, he immediately wished he'd done so earlier - because he was looking at his golden khopesh. He gasped and hugged the weapon to his chest as he sat up... And was suddenly hit with the overwhelming urge to give his beloved treasure away.

"Okay, stupid magic school, you're not getting me this time," he muttered, and focused on getting ready to head down for... Wow, it would be lunch by now. But as he left his dorm and started to head through the currently-empty halls, the desire - the need - to give the khopesh away just grew and grew.

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He was going to go insane if he didn't give this thing to someone. It was all he could think about, as much as he was trying not to, to the point that when he spotted Spyro, he called out to his classmate.

"Spyro!" He rushed over, paused to catch his breath, then held out the khopesh. Boy, did he not want to do this, but... "Take this!"

Spyro is understandably caught off guard, peering back at the duck for a moment and exchanging a glance with Sparx. ~~Not the oddest sort of side quests in his experience.~~

"Uh... sure I guess." Though instead of taking it himself, it's his dragonfly friend who hovers over to take it from Louie, grasping it with likely surprising ease. After all, grabbing things is one of the bug's typical duties.

... Though such objects usually aren't cursed. Sparx freezes in place with alarm and looks down at the khopesh. "Vrrm...?"

It's strange enough behavior to snatch Spyro's attention. "What's wrong buddy?"

"Thanks," Louie sighs, though he doesn't sound very thankful.

The knowledge of the curse hits Louie at the same time it does Sparx, and he glances up at the dragonfly with concern. How much can a bug bleed out without dying, anyway? This doesn't seem good, and he shifts his gaze down to Spyro. "Uh. We might have a problem."

"Yeah, I'll say...!" the dragon snips back. And once Sparx presumably says something in their unintelligible insect tongue, he has all the more reason to look not-so-friendly at the moment.

"What's the big idea, running around with something cursed?"

And that's exactly the moment where Louie realized how his desperation to unload the khopesh must have come across in light of this new information. Shoot. He's definitely panicking a little.

"No! Spyro, trust me, I didn't even know it was cursed! I mean, I knew it was weird that I wanted to get rid of it so badly, but I didn't know about- Ugh!"

Spyro maintains his glare at Louie, then once Sparx buzzes something else at him, lets up after a few moments with a smoky huff.

"... Tell me exactly what the curse is now that you know and maybe I'll give you the benefit of the doubt."

Sure he could ask Sparx, but all the better to see if his housemate is being truthful. ~~Or else the dragon might consider having flame-grilled duck for dinner?~~

Even as the glare eases up, Louie flinches back. "Okay, just remember I didn't know this would happen. The curse works like this: If - when - your buddy there passes the khopesh on to someone else, it means he'll, uh. Well, he's going to lose a lot of blood, I guess, at a bad moment. But he won't die! He definitely will be okay! Please don't kill me!"

Sparx nods to Spyro in confirmation, that the duck is indeed telling the truth.

Which still doesn't sound pleasant despite the assurance. But it satisfies him just enough that he won't be seen assaulting a fellow student on this day and dipping dragonkind's reputation deeper than rock-bottom.

"I wouldn't go that far," he replies. "But you'll have to give me at least one good reason why Sparx shouldn't be keeping it as a souvenir now."

"I almost died to get that khopesh!" Louie pointed out honestly. "Back home, you know? It- It's important, okay?"

"So it really, really means a lot to you?"

Surprisingly enough, the answer actually seems to work like a compelling argument for Spyro considering certain escapades back in his own chain of worlds for magical trinkets with far less sentimental value.

Once Spyro had been convinced to pass the khopesh on to Cliff, Louie took a moment to stare at his friend warily. He and Spyro had magically known about the curse the moment Spyro had taken the weapon, but would it work the same way this time? Spells were pretty weird, after all.

"So, uh... Cliff? How are you feeling, buddy?"

Magic was weird. Even back home, magic was weird. But this...was very weird. He'd accepted the khopesh from the dragon (and even now, he was sort of inwardly geeking out about that), but the moment he'd accepted it...

Knowledge came flooding into his mind. His brows furrowed, and Cliff frowned a little, even as he glanced at the blade. Personally, he didn't want to keep it--even in light of the curse that he now knew he was going to have to endure.

Probably in front of someone he didn't want it to happen in front of, but such was his life, and he'd resigned himself to it long ago.

"Right now? I feel okay. Maybe a little irritated, but in light of the situation, I think it's warranted, don't you?" But then, Cliff shrugged.

"So, now what?" Because clearly, there was more to this than just what had already happened. Rounder, who had been watching this entire exchange, just looked confused--if a smooth marble sphere could do such a thing, but by now, Cliff could read him pretty well.

Irritated. That was fair, Louie couldn't deny it, but he deflated a little with uncertainty upon hearing it. "Yeah, I uh... I guess it is," he mumbled, rubbing at the back of his head. "But, uh, next we go to Huey. Have you met Huey yet?"

"No, I don't think I have...but there are a lot of people here, and even ducks, so I might have met him?" Mostly because things kept happening around here, really, and Cliff had a lot on his mind, a lot of the time.

A bit more, now. Just what he needed, to spout a nosebleed in front of someone he knew. Or worse, someone he liked...but he was going to try to put that out of his mind.

"You're not going to warn him, either? So I should keep my mouth shut? Or is this a part of the curse?" Either way, Cliff probably would keep his mouth shut. Just in case. Even though this had leaned sharply towards 'dirty trick', he really didn't want anything bad to happen to Louie. Even if it might be a bit before he forgave him entirely.

"Uh... I don't know?" Louie said, half-honestly. "I mean, if it's part of the curse, but... Come on, Cliff, he's my brother. We do stuff like this for each other. You know what it's like, you have a twin!"

He was definitely trying to convince himself more than Cliff, at this point.

"I know, I know!" And at least there, Louie was right. Kat would back him, even if she wasn't sure it was a good idea. It was one way they'd gotten into trouble (or adventures!) back at the Elemental College, when they were still students there.

Cliff sighed, shoulders slumping a little. Rounder just patted his leg, reassuringly. "Yeah, thanks, buddy. All right. Let's do this crazy thing. The sooner it's done, the sooner it can really be over with. For all of us."

Though if Huey didn't care a bit for him after this, Cliff would neither be surprised, nor would he blame the other duck.

"Look, it's fine! Everyone's going to be fine, we all know that. No one really gets hurt!" Louie insisted, although his face didn't match the reassuring tone he was trying (and failing) to achieve.

After a moment, he sighed. "I just... I really want it back. And Huey will understand that."

Edited 2019-09-23 00:00 (UTC)

"Well, I mean it's not that big to me. I can heal...a little bit." Really he's mostly being closed-mouthed about his powers coming back. They're not back to where they were when he was at home, either, and that alone makes Cliff nervous. How was this going to work, now? He didn't mind the idea of having to work to regain his strength, but what if he didn't?

"It's got some sort of significance to you then? I mean, that I can understand. I'd probably feel like that if my dad's greatsword showed up here somehow--even if I can't use it at all."

Cliff might think about trying, though, if that happened... "But okay, yeah, let's find Huey, then."

"I almost died to get it, yeah. Me and Webby were in this pyramid tomb and... It was a whole mess," Louie muttered, kicking at the ground as they started off. "You can heal? Like, other people, or just yourself? Either way that's... Pretty cool."

"Other people, and me. So yeah, I guess it is pretty cool. Comes in handy too, right?" Cliff nodded at that. He didn't want to brag, but it sure could be useful.

Especially if he had his particular goose problem, again.

"That's not cool though. You guys usually get into dangerous situations? I'm not sure I'd want a souvenir like that, but..." He shrugged. Everyone's different. Maybe it was a symbol to Louie. Something Cliff couldn't figure out. But he wasn't sure it mattered, in the end.

Okay, so there was a pattern to this. Which... Meant Huey probably knew, after Cliff had given him the khopesh, what was going on.

A new pang of guilt settled in Louie's stomach, as did a level of fear. Huey had a temper, after all, and he probably wouldn't like this once he put it all together.

"He-ey, Huey, so... You wanna give me that?" Louie asked, holding out his hands hopefully.

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[Closed] Everything comes at a price.

SPYRO

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CLIFF

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HUEY