#baronyofthesilverwolf

"Bronn came to me, and both my troll upbringing and my House's focus on Hospitality have me kind of invested," Gwen admits, "I can't just boot him out the door with a cup of hot coco. Right now he at the embassy house ... but you know what i mean."

The embassy House is Gwen's term for where Sylvi and other emmisaries used to stay.

"It would be dumb for any to assume you to be dumb." Art contends. "You are wise, and intelligent, with insight that enhances, rather than detracting from, your innate strength not only of body but of character. Has any been calling you dumb? I will be quick to correct them."

Stirring to her defense!

A fond smile to Art, "No Art. No one here calls me dumb. I'm just saying I consider the two of you to have lead in the brains department. but thank you for the kind words." She remembers some insults back at school but right now that feels like forever ago.

"Well, good." He says, his proverbial feathers unruffling a bit. Clearly, he feels somewhat proprietary about his friend. No one dare call HIS friend dumb!

A look to Thistle. "Once more, unto the breach?"

"Sympathetic magic. Like, it's a thing? I've been studying it..."

"Okay, okay. So. First step is probably containing the little buggers."

Gwen nods, "Okay. Good first step. How?"

Art tilts his head, considering. “Ah, like affinity? Sympathetic magic… using feeling or attention to make a subtle link, so one thing might respond to another? Could that really work that way?”

He ponders Gwen's words, "Didn't you have some sort of trap you set up in the past?" Checking his mental Archive even as he asks Thistle.

"I-D-K. In a jar like fireflies, probably."

"Or a drainfly trap - stick something appealing in the bottom, and make it hard for them to get back out."

"I think you had some drawing board ideas when the nevers kept trying to get into the Baron's Study." He ponders. "Check your notes?"

"Well, if we do sympathy magic, maybe a small replica of Bronn infused with a drop of his glamour could be used as bait? Or... is that a bit too voodoo?"

"Yeah, the Never Wonderland plays on their need for novelty - but it doesn't really hold them. They can leave it - they just usually get too caught up to hurry out."

He says a little sadly, "I wish I'd thought of asking you for ideas to trap things when the lice were about. Though, I would NOT mind if it were less sympathetic in that case. For this, I imagine we don't want to hurt the creatures, at least not until we know their nature."

Gladiola mmphs on that "I'm .. actually okay with wiping them out if it means saving Bronn but I know others might find that blood thirsty. Maybe I hang around Briar too much."

"Briar would just eat them, and potentially get sick herself. Who knows if that might make her a carrier!" Art looks aghast as the idea.

"I dunno if we need to kill them."

"Maybe the Dust Fluster?" Art is digging through some of Thistle's folders. Perhaps only he might get away with that. Maybe not even him! But he's doing it none-the-less.

"Remember when the dust bunnies settled in and Marigold wanted them exterminated? You had that vacuum prototype with the holding compartment... before Bluebell managed to convince them to go."

"The Dust FLuster is gentle, yeah. Mostly. Unless is has a kickback, but that's, like, one time outta twenty..."

"Ow!" He sucks a fingertip. Evidently one of the folders had a sharp gear blade taped within.

"Maybe you could work one of these Covid chimera masks into the filter?"

Gwen holds up a hand "I definitely do not want you guys taking part in something that violates your ethics. It's why I don't paint with griege where Thistle can see me, and I don't use the Mercetar maps near Art."

"Right, so they don't just slip right out. They sound smaller than Nevers or Bunnies."

Art’s eye twitches “Inaccurate, all of it! Mercater projections twist distances, misplace landmarks, and—oh.” He chuckles sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. “Right, right… not for general use. Sorry, force of habit.”

"Mercator does make Greenland look awesome, though."

"DEFINITELY smaller. "

"If they are germs... or related, they could have a miasma that spreads even completely unseen. " He muses, "But considering they ARE visible, let's operate under the assumption, to begin, that they are what we can see, else we may run down so many rabbit holes in worrying. Apologies to Bluebell."

"I won't tell," Gwen assures Art,, "Besides, you're right."

"Mercator..." He mutters, then brushes his hands on his slacks, as though to brush away the thought. "Okay, Thistle - how can we help?"

"Containment first, since we've got one big blue down for the count."

She nods.

"Do you think the vacuum is a good starting point? We can help you get supplies to knock it together, er, pun not intended."

"Yeah. I could modify the prototype pretty easily."

"Let me know if you need me to fetch you things from the top shelf," Gwen says helpfully.

"Yeah - see those big mason jars?"

Gwen nods "Sure do."

"Art, can you get the cheesecloth and the charcoal?"

Gwen gets a Mason Jar "how many?" She reaches for a second if needed.

Art digs through shelves and finds them - though he is startled as a small green never bursts out of a drawer - clearly the thing was sleeping in there and got locked in, based on the complaints she is chiming at him. "Sorry! Hey, I didn't do it!"

"Just the one. OH. I need some hay!"

She sets the jar down in nocker reach (So low, so sadly low) then says "I'll go bother Rochallor for some, fresh I'm guessing."

Gwen's back almost creaks at the effort to put it way down low.

"There were a couple bales in the garage as well, from the fall decorations they brought in. Unless Wudlig moved them out to make room for that tractor-looking thing he was working on."

Art tilts his head distracted at the jars for a moment. “I wonder if there is any connection to the Freemasons, or just coincidence?” He murmurs the thought more to himself than anyone else, tapping the side of his notebook absentmindedly.

"I am sure in some part of the dreaming, everything is connected to the Free Masons and their secret Leader Kevin Bacon," Gwen says with a faux serious look.

Somewhere, Briar perks up at the mention of Bacon.

"This is the opposite of free masonry..."