#darkgatefortress

"Shhhh, shhhhh. If you stay quiet, I can try to take that muzzle off of you."

While not an animal as most beasts, there is annimal nature in the poor chimera, and it.. holds still

"Good, gooood, shhhh...." She continues making soothing sounds as she carefully reaches to undo the muzzle, trusting Colton to keep watch.

The lock is elaborate, tricky

Sylvi bites her lip. Nocker design?

Yup

"How do we get it off him?" Colton ponders "Iwe could dictum it open or maybe portal passage"

She frowns. "Do you have either of those? Because I don't." Then she take her keys out of her pocket, takes one key and taps it three times against the lock, and whispers "Hellloooooo..." in a sing-song, bunking to Whisper the lock.

That works, and the lock, lilke locks every where, speaks in a closed off way "Whatever it is, I don't want any. We're closed"

"Tell me, if you please..." she says in her most appealing whisper "...how might one open you safely if one did not have the key?"

"Only the maker's key is known to open me, but if you change what I'm locked onto, then it's none of my business. A lock that only fits on doors won't work the same onn a lunchbox. Now, shoo. I don't want to read your religious pamphlets"

Sylvi blinks, then asks the chimera, "Can you change your form?"

It shakes its head

Sylvi pauses for a moment, then whispers to the lock, "And what, exactly, are you currently intended to lock?"

"This cat's mouth... oh you're not bright" the lock says. yup, nocker made

Sylvi murmurs to herself, "He was a brilliant talker ... The others said of Squealer that he could turn black into white" with another little gathering of glamour for a fuddle on the lock. Then she whispers to it, "Cat? If you are meant to be on a cat's mouth, then why are you locked around this dog's mouth?" An apologetic look to the cat for the necessary insult.

The cat does look offended.

But the lock immediately drops free "Defilemennt!" It whispers "Dog germs! get the hot water.. get the disenfe.." And the whisper fades as the cantrip does

The cat looks up and in a very posh voice "It was all about a contest!"

Sylvi exhales in relief and smiles. "You okay?" She whispers to the cat. Then, "What contest?"

"Science.... Bobby is so good at Science, the fair was up... but she wanted HER son to win.." the cat admits "I wanted to warn them... but she caught me. "

Sylvi exhales. "Okay. She is the nocker I saw next door, I'm guessing. Tell me...has she been ravaging?"

"Bobby doesn't dream much anymoe... he's lost his interest sincne she had a 'chat' with him"

Colton's eyes narrow

She points to the house that has the bike in the garage. "That's Bobby's house?"

"It is"

"Thank you. Do you wish to come with us to speak with Bobby, or remain here?"

"I don't know if Bobby can see me anymore..." A sad look

"He'll be able to" Coltonn looks at her, "Can you veil us again ? I want to help"

"Yeah, let me just..." She takes a deep breath, and then makes a sinuous motion with her hands and arms, a wavering meant to imitate the motion of silk, drawing the Veil around them once more.

And they move on "If I can get to Bobby fast enough.. if the ravagging hasn't fully sunk in to his soul, I can remove some of the banlaity it caused"

"And Spring can probably do a lot of good once the banality is removed." She nods. "But we're going to have to be ready for his neighbor to intervene."

"if she does, I may haul her ass beforre the Chieftain"

"Yeah...but, y'know, nocker. We gotta be ready for wacky gadgets." They're approaching the house. "If the veil falls, let's say that we're tutors? If he's a science kid?"

"You're the charmer" He smiles

She gives him a wink. "Okay, let's do this."

Fortunately, the canntrip holds as they slip in. They can hear a voice from the living room, the father? "I'm really worried about him. I love video games too but he's not doing anything else...it's not like him"

Chances are that they're not having that conversation within hearing range of Bobby, so Sylvi aims for a different part of the house to seek out, perhaps, Bobby's bedroom? Or a den?

The bedroom is where he finds he boy. Glazed, bored, andn boring. The boy is mortal, but he seems in a haze of emptiness

Sylvi grabs Colton's hand at the sight of him. The greyness that clouds around him is nauseating.

He whispers, "Sylvi, hang back okay. "

"Okay," she whispers, and steps back a pace.

He moves forward, leaving the veil and grabs the other controller "PRetty basic game... oh, hi ... your mom let me inn to ask if I could buy your bike. She said you weren't using it?"

The boy blinks startled ,annd wipes out in his game then says "My bike?"

"Yeah, best damn bike I ever seen. Did you make that yourself?"

Sylvi listens, checking to make sure nobody's coming.

"I.. yeah, I did" Bobby says surprised "I.. I used to do that"

"Hey your controllerr low on battery?" Colton 'checks' and touches the boy's hand. The Banality seems to slow break, like ice flakes shaken loose

"NNah I..." the boy says "But I worked HARD onn that bike"

"Yeah, but I hear you've stopped building...darn shame" Colton nods "You seem really good at science"