Celebrity

[touchedinthehead]

Aldaras lets the university have hold of the necklace again so they can finish learning everything about it. He'll start molding it when the Dean's learned all of its quirks - trying it now could accidentally make some aspect of it worse. Besides, it takes time, it's not like he can manage any progress in the time that it'll take for the Dean to identify anyway. Best to know where he's going when he starts going there.

News spreads pretty quickly about the knife's new location at the bottom of the ocean. Aldaras and Sintre become celebrities, along with being rich. Sintre is nigh-impossible to find in his hermithood. Aldaras - is not. The necklace is his. The mission to go encase the knife in concrete was organized by him. He's now deemed to be an important person, and as bewildering as that is, he works to roll with it.

He ends up invited to a party. It's the type of party with lots of important, famous people attending. He can bring one guest with him.

Right, he knows who he wants to bring, but first he has to ask her. Time to go find Annie.

Comments

[touchedinthehead]

"Yeah. That'd be - something, at least."

[keep_busy]

"Yeah. I'll - keep staying home, I guess. Best of luck."

[touchedinthehead]

"Thanks. I'll keep looking for it. Vai's helping, and I think there are some other trackers that want to touch the necklace so they can sneak up on any mindreaders."

[keep_busy]

"Right."

Yep, Annie is quite useless here, what fun.

[touchedinthehead]

"I - wish I had a better answer to give you," he sighs.

[keep_busy]

"Me too. Well - it's what it is."

[touchedinthehead]

"It is. Let me know if there's anything I can do? For you, specifically, I mean."

[keep_busy]

"If I think of anything I'll tell you."

[touchedinthehead]

"Thanks." Pause. "I love you," he adds, because for some reason it seems the appropriate thing to say.

[keep_busy]

"I know. Thanks."

[touchedinthehead]

"Mhm. I'll go see about retrieving the necklace and hunting down whoever has the thimble."

[keep_busy]

"Thanks. Talk to you later."

And she hangs up and goes back to hermiting.

[touchedinthehead]

Aldaras calls the administration of the college. He's going to ask them, very nicely, how they're planning to get his necklace out of the vase. He'll pitch Annie's solvent idea, if they don't have something better.

[alicornucopia]

They say they'll try it. They call back after; his necklace has been extracted and he can retrieve it at his leisure if he wants it right now.

[touchedinthehead]

Oh, good. He would like it right now, actually, because the university obviously isn't safe. He goes and picks it up, and then does the obvious thing and calls Annie. Obsessed? Him? Never.

(Okay, maybe a lot, but he's working really hard to be nice about it!)

[keep_busy]

Annie picks up, again. "Salutations."

[touchedinthehead]

"Salutations. Again. Sorry, I know I'm calling a lot. The necklace was extracted just fine from the vase, your idea worked quite nicely."

[keep_busy]

"Oh, good, I helped."

[touchedinthehead]

"Yes! Actually that was part of why I was calling. I don't just want to throw the necklace at - literally anyone that wants it, because of the whole 'in love irrevocably' part. I realize that some people can do some excessively nasty things in the name of what they think's love, and - I want to be careful. You're smart, and you have a different perspective than me and know the problem. Want to help?"

[keep_busy]

"Uh - maybe. Have you already checked the people who were already necklaced because they've been cut and ruled them out as helpers?"

[touchedinthehead]

"Haven't, yet, I figured I should ask you first."

[keep_busy]

"Well, there's those, but if you need more people - if any of the necklaced people have already found the objects of their affections you could necklace them without it spiraling out of control, if they agreed - and if you need to involve completely new people I'd say find single ones and find out why they're single. And avoid respondents whose answer is of the form, like - 'people just don't like me' or whatever. 'Focusing on my career' is probably fine, breakup stories that don't vilify the ex are likely fine, I mean as a first pass - but not - you know what I mean?"

[touchedinthehead]

"Dangerous mental processes," he agrees. "We're on the same page, there."

[keep_busy]

"And you could get them to guess what they'd do with necklace-targets - and keepers, where applicable - just in case that turns up any red flags."

[touchedinthehead]

"Right. I think when dealing with trackers, I'd also like to talk to their keepers and figure out how they're already being treated and try to prevent any sort of - jealousy problems."