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Post by Red Charge on Dec 16, 2013 19:22:28 GMT -5
"Go ask Whitefire if she needs anything." Watermark called back, going into the basement to prepare a potion or another. He was obviously in a sour mood and disturbing him probably wasn't the best idea. After the duo left his house they found Whitefire at the militia headquarters, when they asked her if she needed anything done she snidely remarked that the militia has been too busy training to clean the headquarters and that the two of them should do it instead. When she saw the two not complying she made it clear that it was an order, rather than a request. By the time the two finished it was already late afternoon and Whitefire sent them back to Watermark to see if he had anything for them to do, rather than allow them to use the facilities to train.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2013 19:29:40 GMT -5
Phalanx groaned sorely, stretching her wings as the two started to make their way back to Watermark's. "Well, that was bound to happen," she grumbled.
Hoplite seemed a bit bummed out, "What do you mean by that?" he asked glumly.
"Isn't it obvious? I made a mess of things yesterday for myself, and you didn't exactly put Watermark in a good mood that night. This is just their way of getting back at us to see if we can bounce back or if we complain at all," Phalanx chuckled.
"Yeah, sure," Hoplite responded simply.
"Oh, get your head out of the dirt, Hoppy. It just means we've gotta keep doing what you used to do: smile, take things in stride, and just avoid doing what I do all the time," Phalanx added as she opened the door to Watermark's house and stepped inside.
And much to their surprise, Watermark wasn't there. At least not in that part of the building anyway. "Huh...d'you figure he's upstairs sleeping?" Phalanx asked Hoplite.
"Doubt it. Maybe he's still downstairs," Hoplite replied and made his way towards the basement door.
"Hang on, slow up. You sure we should disturb him while he's doing...whatever down there? Especially since he's probably still in his terrible mood?" Phalanx asked with a hint of concern.
Hoplite shrugged, "Orders are orders, and bad timing would just be bad timing. White Fire wanted us to see if he had anything for us to do, so we're doing just that." He knocked a few times on the basement door.
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Post by Red Charge on Dec 16, 2013 19:39:01 GMT -5
"It's open." Watermark called from inside, as the two entered they could see him bottling potions from several cauldrons and categorizing them on a shelf by type. Though the two had next to no knowledge about Alchemy, the clarity and potency of the potions Watermark was making was astounding. Each potion looked far better than they have ever seen a magical potion look before. Watermark moved to the back of the room, where there was a large bowl full of vividly colored poultice (as opposed to the pale poultice they had in the militia) which he quickly scooped into containers. "After the last attack I figured I needed to refurbish the stock of potions and poultices you had, the ones in your store room were very low quality. Probably mass produced by some cheap alchemist for the militia." He explained, "I'll probably need to make another batch just in case, better have twice as much than half as much right? But I'll need some ingredients." He mused, "So did Whitefire have anything for you to do or did you spend the day training?" He asked absent mindedly, going to a small fireplace to check on a pot with mercury-like substance within it.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2013 19:43:51 GMT -5
Phalanx looked about the basement absently. The rainbow of colours around her and the numerous potions, and their meaning, were lost on her. Hoplite seemed a bit more appreciative of the potions, probably only because he had absolutely no idea how this stuff worked. Sure, she didn't either, but that was exactly why she didn't care about it much.
"She just had us cleaning up the headquarters. Once we finished she sent us back your way to see if you had anything for us to do," Phalanx responded simply, her gaze occasionally moving to the alchemical rainbow around her. She didn't have anything more to add, and Hoplite seemed rather distracted, so she merely awaited Watermark's response.
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Post by Red Charge on Dec 16, 2013 19:49:49 GMT -5
"That's not what I had in mind, I'll talk to her about it." Watermark answered with a frown, "Although if you two are here, I would like you to sample this potion." He said, pointing a hoof at the mercury-like substance he was making in the fire, "I used the Terragon blood you brought me to brew it up. Usually these kinds of potions take a long time to brew, but fortunately I was able to experiment with it and recieve an end result rather quickly. But unfortunately it's a very limited amount." Watermark said, scooping up the potion into three flasks and handing one to Phalanx and Hoplite, the third was for himself.
"This potion is meant to permanently increase your toughness, or something to that effect. Won't make you into superheroes, but it should make you tougher than you already are, possibly even give you a bit of magic resistance, can't tell for sure from the recipe." He lifted his glass to them, "To the Princess."
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2013 19:53:18 GMT -5
Phalanx took the potion lightly, looking to it with confusion and a bit of disgust. The thing looked far from appealing or appetizing, and were she in any other circumstance she probably would've refused. But Watermark seemed perfectly intent on this, and she wasn't much in the mood to give him any more reason to be in a sour mood.
Hoplite seemed to have the same idea, as even though he was looking to it like he would be swallowing liquid metal, he still hadn't refused it yet. When Watermark made his toast, she and Hoplite both raised theirs and added in unison, "To the Princesses," before taking a swig of the mixture.
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Post by Red Charge on Dec 16, 2013 19:59:07 GMT -5
Watermark took the potion to his lips and downed it in one gulp. Though the three didn't feel any noticeable change, the potion was hot down their throats, it was obvious that it WAS doing osmething to them, it was just a feeling that was hard to describe. They somehow felt slightly... more dense? Nothing changed about their appearance, or the way they felt or touched things, but still somehow they felt more... thick? It was a strange sensation to say the least, but it felt good. With it came a pleasant shiver that ran through their whole body for several minutes.
"Hmm, the mutagen seems to be successful!" Watermark concluded, writing down notes in a large journal on a lectern nearby. "You two wouldn't mind if I ran some scanning magics on you right?" He asked, "I want to see and document the effects on all three races and what do you know, we're one of each."
He began scanning himself with his magic while waiting for their answers, his horn projecting all sorts of complex information and the quill on the lectern quickly copying it down including a complete anatomic breakdown of Watermark. It was interesting to watch as he processed his own data and documented it quickly at the same time. A pile of notes flew his way of an earlier scan he's made of himself and ... apparently both Phalanx and Hoplite, though when and where they had no idea. He compared the data on the notes and the journal and copied the differences down, attaching the prior scan to the current scan for reference. It seemed that in this as well, he was surprisingly organized.
"Ready for the scan?" He asked.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2013 20:04:40 GMT -5
Phalanx and Hoplite looked to each other after downing their potions, trying to gauge if it was doing anything to the other sibling. After many moments and a few questioning looks - as well as gauging their own responses - they figured that the actual sensual response wasn't much at all. Whatever this 'toughness' was, they probably wouldn't be able to tell just yet.
And now Watermark was getting back to his old self, doing things without telling them all the details and preparing to 'conduct scans' on them. Well, they had already downed the drink and they still needed to get in good favour with Watermark, so Phalanx simply shrugged. "Yeah, sure, why not? Literally no point in *not* taking the scan," she replied, Hoplite simply nodding in agreement.
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Post by Red Charge on Dec 16, 2013 20:14:54 GMT -5
Watermark repeated the same procedure with both of them broadcasting the information out and recording it as he did once more. Commenting every now and again about information he's garnered to himself in an unclear mumbling. Eventually after passing both of them, he finished documenting and comparing all results and attached all of the notes he turned back to the duo.
"Well it works. Seems like bone and muscle density increased in both of you, but in a different way than you'd expect it to. See when your training and building muscles is one thing, but it seams that every individual strand of muscle got slightly denser, meaning that you actually did become 'tougher'. As for magical resistance, if it's there it's negligible at best, on Hoplite there was a tiny percentage, noticeable though, I'd have to attribute that to his natural resistance as an earth pony rather than the potion. But it's good to know this is a success, bet you two are pretty happy I let you drink it." He said, grinning, "I can't make any more of it, not without more fresh Terragon blood and some other rare ingredients I happened to have in stock, but hey at least we all got something for our troubles right? How are you two feeling?"
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2013 20:19:28 GMT -5
Phalanx looked herself over as Watermark asked his question, "Well...not feeling any different, really. Felt something a few moments after drinking it, sorta, it was hard to tell. It's kinda neat that we're apparently 'tougher' and Hoplite is marginally more...magic resistant, I guess. Odd that after all we did, you'd still have us drink that. Thanks, bud," Phalanx added with a smirk.
"Yes, thanks aplenty there Watermark. Couldn't have been an easy investment, especially considering last night," Hoplite added simply.
"Well, besides drinking the blood of a Terragon, is there anything else on the schedule for today?" Phalanx asked.
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Post by Red Charge on Dec 16, 2013 20:22:51 GMT -5
"Nah, I guess after Whitefire made you clean the headquarters you can have the rest of the day off to do what you want. Things still seem calm on the Diamond Dog front for now, it seems. Although, if you're going to be going out, these potions and poultices need to be delivered to the militia headquarters, but only if you're already going in the direction, otherwise I'll have my water golems do it."
At that the zebracorn studied his notes and journal again, musing to himself and writing even more notes, probably about how to improve the next batch of potion he makes, if ever.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2013 20:28:02 GMT -5
Phalanx shrugged, "Well, if we haven't got much better to do, we might as well spend the rest of the day training at the headquarters, so sure we can carry the potions over there." The two of them grabbed the ones Watermark had set aside, being careful not to have them fall over or break the glass holding them, and started to make their way out of the room.
"Thanks again, Watermark, we'll see you tonight," Hoplite piped up as they left the basement.
* * *
The two were halfway back to Watermark's, the sun having set a while ago, and the two were delightfully sore. Not as sore as they expected they'd be, but sore enough to know they had actually made something of that training session. "So...got any idea why Watermark had that sudden change of heart?" Phalanx asked, making idle conversation.
"Not a clue, really. I'm still trying to figure out why the militia didn't so much as blink when we were kicked out of it," Hoplite replied.
Phalanx shrugged, "Eh, who needs 'em then? If they don't bat an eyelash at our passing, then that's even more ponies that can look up at us awestruck and ashamed as we rise to the top."
"Huh...here I thought you were going to tell them that we wouldn't bat an eyelash if they get the short end of the stick," Hoplite commented.
Phalanx rolled her eyes, "Nah, that was a while back, back when I cared about what they thought of me. Now, though? Not in the slightest."
The two made the journey back in silence from there, quickly stepping into the building and preparing to wind down for the night.
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