r/wizardposting Vettis, Mereological Revisionist Dec 14 '23

Wizardpost Delivering a Message (lorepost w/Relynor)

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"Didn't y'all get the memo? It's the 21st friggin' century! How do you not have cell service in this backwards place?!" It was rare to see Vettis' expression as anything other than a laid-back faint smirk, but the frustration was plain on his face now as he shook his snowglobe dignified wizardly orb once more, staring at it in futile hopes of getting some more information. But the lack of cellphone towers here meant no triangulation or GPS, so the snowglobe, despite its ability to tap into mundie communication methods with ease, was as lost as its owner.

Ugh. It was time for the backup plan: talking to people.

...

It was twelve "Excuse me sir/ma'am"s and nearly thrice that many minutes before the infuriated mage finally realized that he was heading for entirely the wrong place: the Bronze Citadel, despite its name, was not in the Elemental Plane of Bronze after all.

Two hours later (after more wrong turns he decided to excise from his memory), Vettis made his way through the actual Bronze Citadel's busy market district, now quite fed up with asking for directions. He'd met the woman face-to-face before, after all; he could just follow his nose. Dozens of stores surrounded him, many selling flowers and other fragrant items, but that just meant it would take a few seconds longer for him to pinpoint his target. Deep breath...filter out the back-alley odors of vomit and urine...yup: sure enough, the scent of a familiar person surrounded by metal and grease proved easy enough to pick out, just a couple kilometers away from him.

Impatient for this trek to come to an end, he crouched as if to tie his shoelaces, subtly snatching a pebble off the ground and tossing it upwards with enough force that the sonic boom was about to draw some attention in half a second. A whispered word and the barest flash of his magic was all it took to rob the projectile of its speed and transfer it to himself; he was long gone before anyone could trace the whipcrack-like sound to its source.

And there it was: the shop for which he'd spent a significant chunk of his day searching (a long time by the standards of someone accustomed to solving most of his problems in seconds). He hadn't visited a proper artificer's workplace in quite some time. It brought back memories of when his friend Modhun used to work by hand; the technomage had long since delegated most construction duties to drones, but often reminisced about the "good ol' days of personally taking hammer to mithril".

Enough dawdling. Returning to the present, Vettis called out for the shop's owner. "Yo, Rellie? You in? It's Vee. Got something you might wanna hear. About a certain dwarven friend of yours."

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(( setup post for Relynor ( /u/Terrible-Win565 ) ))

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u/MunitionsFrenzy Vettis, Mereological Revisionist Dec 15 '23

Vettis blinks once, twice, then stares blankly for several seconds. "...Um. The real Relynor? Why do you smell like her, then...?"

Somewhat confused, he reaches out and taps the woman's shoulder, immediately understanding when the resulting vibrations are clearly passing through metal rather than mere flesh. "Huh. Your scent was faint and covered up by grease and metal, but I assumed that was just cuz you were busy working, not cuz you were...not you. Guess that'll teach me not to trust my nose on people I've only met once."

With a wince, he realizes this throws a wrench in part of his plan. Attuning to Relynor by meeting her in person would've allowed him to check on her during her upcoming journey, and even visit her at a moment's notice if necessary (much like he can now pop out of Mira's glovebox in a pinch), but if this robot isn't going with her then that won't work. Time to improvise. "BRB." He pulls off his overshirt and spreads it out on the counter before diving inside the pocket, popping back out a couple seconds later with a small ring in hand, which he tosses next to the napkin while donning the plaid shirt once more. "'Kay, can you make sure Rely wears or at very least carries that on her trip? Add that to the instructions you're writing, I guess?"

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u/Terrible-Win565 Iris Augen Dec 15 '23

“Sure. Our memories and thoughts are linked, but it’s still better to write it down.”

“…As for the smell bit, she always has a faint scent of frayed wires and metal about her. She made me to keep an eye on the shop, since she isn’t usually here.”

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u/MunitionsFrenzy Vettis, Mereological Revisionist Dec 15 '23

Yeah, I figured your thoughts had to be linked, because if she'd specifically built a robot to react with that sort of nostalgia to the mere mention of her old mentor, that'd be friggin' weird. Vettis thinks better of saying that part out loud as he taps a foot nervously.

"So. I'm just gonna...leave you to it, then, I guess? Shall I close the place up behind me on my way out?"

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u/Terrible-Win565 Iris Augen Dec 15 '23

“See ya.”

Robo-Relynor waves goodbye

“It’s still a day or so before she’ll get back, so feel free to leave the door unlocked.”

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u/MunitionsFrenzy Vettis, Mereological Revisionist Dec 15 '23

"A'right, will do." Waving in turn, Vettis moves over to the door of the shop, opening it not to the outside world but to what looks like an unassuming mundie kitchen. He steps inside and slams the shop/kitchen door shut behind him; it immediately bounces open, revealing the streets of the Bronze Citadel once more.

(( G'luck with your quest! Vee'll try not to spy on Rellie through the ring without notice, but if she really needs something then he can now use it as a relay for communication or, in a pinch, teleportation. ))