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[retroductions]

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[ INMATE REGISTRY ]

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day 56

[velluminous]

[ ping! a message from "Plagiarist": ] First lesson?

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["Consulting Detective" replies almost immediately!]

Yes, Ms Vaux! If you've the time and inclination, please teach me all of your sorcerous secrets!

[velluminous]

[ why does everyone else get such pleasant (even complimentary) designations? ]

We are skipping ahead of most of study, you know. It is very likely you accomplish very little.

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[It's all right. This is a no-judgment zone.]

So you say! However, you fail to take a very critical piece of information into consideration.

[velluminous]

Yes?

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That I am a genius, of course!

[velluminous]

It took ME years of study. . .

What are you saying?

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[Sorry he’s this way.]

Oh, nothing that you should take offense to, of course. It is simply a fact of life that a genius learns faster than the average studious soul.

That said, it will not be a terrible disappointment if nothing happens. The explanation itself will be worth the effort.

[velluminous]

[ she tries not to prickle, not to be annoyed. she knows this man and knows that he wouldn't say something to purposefully upset her—not unless she was already harping on him, well past the point of banter ]

Expect nothing, and you may be pleasantly surprised. We meet at library.

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Let us hope for many pleasant surprises!

I will be there soon.

[OFF TO THE LIBRARY HE GOES]

[velluminous]

[ when he enters, he'll have to wander for a bit before he finds her—mostly because in her preparation for him, she has amassed approximately a metric fuckton of tomes, grimoires, and books all around her that shield her from view at nearly every angle.

she has her head down, is scribbling in her arcanabula ]

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[He navigates through the fog without too much issue, having memorized the route by now. Sprezzatura is hopefully not too easily startled, because Sholmes approaches where he sees an impressive stack of books, deducing that if she is here, this is the one likely spot to find her.

He presses his palms flat on the desk when he's neared, leaning over the top of the books, peeking past the wall.]

Ms Vaux!

[hi]

[velluminous]

[ SHE JUMPS IN HER SEAT, CLUTCHING HER CHEST ]

Mammon—!

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No, only the great detective, Herlock Sholmes!

[He exclaims with boisterous laughter, disappearing behind the stack of books again only because he doubles over in it. But his recovery is swift, and once more, Sprezzatura will be able to see the top of his blond head.]

Did I give you a start? My apologies, my dear. But it seems you have doomed yourself to it, hiding away behind so many books.

[velluminous]

[ he disappears behind the books, laughing, and Sprezzatura sinks back in her seat in exasperation and massages at her thumping heart. ]

I thought I would hear you coming, but I... [ got absorbed in her writing. ] Mmn. No matter. Sit.

[ she kicks the chair next to her out with a booted toe ]

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[Sholmes moves around the table and sits in the indicated chair; always curious, he reaches out and plucks one of the books from the pile, opening it up -- as though he would understand what lay within.]

Distracted by your studies, like any true academic. I understand completely.

[Flips through a page or two.]

Is this all for the preparation of our first lesson?

[velluminous]

[ The Arcane Purism Fallacy: An Examination of Mystra's Body and How We Weave. the text is incredibly dense, and written in such a jargon-heavy, Faerunian-specific way that it's practically indigestible to anyone other than Sprezzatura. ]

Of course. I need to impart some idea of what you are intending to do before you do it, no?

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[Sholmes' eyes skitter over the pages that he cannot hope to understand, looking at the words as though they were another language altogether. For all intents and purposes, they may as well be.

He closes the tome with a snap.]

And what did you have in mind, exactly? What is on Ms Vaux's magical itinerary?

[velluminous]

[ funnily enough, since these are books from Faerun, they may well actually be in another language! ]

You have to learn how to touch what magic is already in air all around us.

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[He nods.]

I see!

[And belatedly:]

Is there magic in the air all around us? A resource that even I can draw from? Would that not be something!

[velluminous]

There is, yes. That is why I can do such things as...

[ well. there's truth in that she does like to show off. plucking the strings of Reverie's "Weave", murmuring—Altering Herself.

within moments, Herlock Sholmes is sitting in the library next to... Herlock Sholmes! ]



This!

[ right down to the voice ]

1/2

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[!!!

The surprises him enough that he leans back quite suddenly, just short of falling out of her chair.]

That is-!

[He hardly knows what to say for a moment, gawking at his own face.]

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-outstanding!

[Looks at her with quite serious enthusiasm!!]

Tell me you can teach me the same! Imagine the applications as this might apply to my many disguises!

[velluminous]

[ PREENING, and content to pose for Sholmes' perusal. he will find it to be almost a perfect match—barring anything she hasn't gotten close enough to note. now, they've been pretty damn close. but we have established that she's also not exceptionally perceptive, so certain things may be ever-so-slightly off. notably, she has mimicked the tobacco stains on his hand, indicating that she truly took that conversation to heart ]

That is what we will see, Herlock.

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[It is nearly a perfect match, minus maybe only a slight difference in micromannerisms that it would be unfair to point out. After all, not everyone can be a great detective and notices even the minutiae, nor can everyone be him; for what's worth, Sprezzatura is doing quite a good job of mimicking. He wonders if that is the work, fully, of the spell itself.]

Then what are we waiting for, good fellow- Er, madam! [He reaches out to clasp a hand on other-him's shoulder. Partly out of curiosity, partly out of enthusiasm.] Let us begin! I shall be changing my face in no time flat.

[Probably not.]