Quest: 1.8 (Week-1: Weekend pt. 3)

--- Jon ---

“In that case I’ll try to deal with the potion stuff.” He told Miss Edna. “I’ve picked up enough about the local plants while camping that I should be able to actually help you out there.”

“Alright in that case…” Miss Edna trailed off as she reached under the counter, before pulling out a violet colored book and handing it to him. “take this.”

He accepted the book, taking note of the black vines and flowers wrapping elaborately along the book’s cover. (‘Bewitching Blackwell: A mystical guide to Blackwell’s flora and fauna, by Edna B. Wilson.’)

“You wrote a book?”

“It’s self-published.” Miss Edna told him in way of an explanation.

“Okay…” (What’s that supposed to mean?)

“Now what I need you to do is go into the cupboard and find me everything on this list.” She explained jotting down several items on a piece of paper. “If you have trouble figuring out what any of these look like, you should be able to find them in that book there.”

“Uh-huh.” He nodded taking the list and giving it a once over. “Okay, yeah. I know what most of these are.”

“Wonderful! The cupboard is through those doors and on your left. Now while you get those things together, I’ll go ahead and get everything set-up out here.” Miss Edna told him as she turned back to the various pots and utensils, she’d left strewn about her store counter.

It took him a moment to find the cupboard Miss Edna had sent him to find, largely because of a mess of junk strewn haphazardly across the floor in piles.

(I think Miss Edna might be a hoarder…) He couldn’t help but think as he shoved one of the piles to the side, giving him access to the cupboard door.

Inside the walk-in cupboard were shelves from the floor to the ceiling, each lined in jars full of clipped flowers and preserved fruits. Jars that were organized in absolutely no manner whatsoever as the shelves were pushed to the absolute limit of what they could hold, causing some small part of him to cringe in agony at the sight.

(Messy, messy, messy…)

Pushing through his discomfort he gave the list another once over, before looking at the various jars.

(Okay, maybe this won’t be as easy as I thought…)

Despite taking him a fair bit longer than he was happy with, he eventually managed to find everything Miss Edna has sent him to find, not even needing to reference the book as he did so.

With his arms loaded down with nearly a dozen jars, he had to move slower than he’d like, especially with the (mess) all over the floor.

By the time he made it back to Miss Edna she had two pots of boiling water out and an elaborate ink circle with a wooden (hourglass(?)) in the middle of it.

“There you are, was starting to think you’d gotten lost or something.” Miss Edna commented as she shifted between her three different stations.

“No, just had to, uh, sort through the mess a bit.” He told her his teeth gritting a bit at the end there.

“Huh, usually doesn’t bother me, but eh,” Miss Edna shrugged, before gesturing to the store counter. “Just set those down over there.”

Nodding he lined the different jars up -taking an extra moment to align them in alphabetical order- before turning his attention back to what Miss Edna was doing as she grabbed one of the jars.

“Um, so how does this whole potion thing work?” He eventually asked as he watched the arcane woman smash several berries into a paste.

“I like to think of it as magic cooking.” Miss Edna answered as she calmly did three other things. “I mean at the end of the day it’s not that much different, at least not until you reach like C rank potions, that’s where actual magic starts to get involved.”

“And what kind of potion is this?” He wondered, vaguely remembering his mom once explaining the how the whole ranking system worked, (at least in regards to combat classes.)

“On its own? Lower C rank, but because I have to use an enchanted container, I can probably knock the price up to a B ranking if I haggle right.” Miss Edna told him as she poured the berry paste into one of the pots, before throwing a couple of roots into the other one.

“And what exactly is all of this supposed to do?” He asked, as Miss Edna began to alternate stirring between the two pots.

“Well once the potion and container are put together, it’s supposed to work as a sort of all-in-one greenhouse humidifier.” Miss Edna explained. “Keeps the plants watered, keeps out harmful pests, and accelerates growth. All without harming humans.”

“That’s… impressive.” He told her, because given what little he knew about gardening it really did sound impressive.

“Yeah, the trick though is that these things only last a couple of days for a full-sized greenhouse.” Miss Edna continued as she flicked the wooden hourglass. “I mostly sell them to overzealous gardeners who will do anything to win neighborhood competitions or some junk like that.”

He frowned. “That seems a little unfair.”

Miss Edna shrugged. “Maybe, but it’s perfectly legal, and I don’t honestly care about who grows the biggest pumpkin, so long as I get a piece of the pie it’s made into.”

It still sounded a little unsporting to him, but it wasn’t like Miss Edna was the one cheating, and what she was doing was harmless to people so… (I guess it doesn’t matter.)

“That’s all you can really help me with right now.” Miss Edna told him idly as she continued to stir. “At this point it’s mostly letting things sit and blend for a while, so you might as well go out and do something fun.”

“You sure you don’t need anything else?” He asked her, kind of wanting to see what the ‘magic potion’ would look like once finished. “I really don’t mind helping out.”

“No, you’ve been help enough.” Miss Edna assured him. “You just go have some fun before we have to head back to camp.”

“Mm, alright.” He eventually conceded, before remembering something important. “Oh, I almost forgot.” He went back to where the (already out of order) jars were and picked ‘Bewitching Blackwell’ up from where he’d set it a moment ago. “Here’s your book back.”

“Ah, go ahead and keep it.” Miss Edna told him pushing the book into his hands. “Think of it as thanks for helping me out today.”

“Are you sure?” He asked, not sure how he felt about taking the book. “I didn’t really do much.”

“Oh you did enough.” Miss Edna waved him off, before plastering a smile to her face, “Besides it’s not like any of my books actually sold.”

He wasn’t sure he was supposed to respond to that.

Scene Consequences:

-Gained Skill [Potions]

-Due to overlapping skill sets [Potions] gains XP equal to current [Herbology] level. (+5XP.)

-Gained ‘Bewitching Blackwell’*.

(*Can be used to train [Potions] [Herbology] [Zoology] and/or [Occult] up to Lv. 5 for any character.)

---

Knowing someone was in danger, something in him moved without any conscious thought on his part. By the time he realized what he was doing he’d already tackled the man in the suit to the ground.

He idly heard an, “Ouch,” from behind him followed by an unhinged laugh.

“The fuck are you?” The man in the suit growled shoving him off.

“I’m just trying to keep you from hurting someone.” He told the man calmer than he was feeling as he jumped to his feet once more.

“Really, do you know who I am?!” The man shouted before pulling a knife out, “I’m-”

As soon as he saw the knife, instinct kicked in and he rushed in with his fist raised, before punching the man, once in his face and a second time in his stomach.

“Bastard!” The man screamed before swinging his knife forward, (with really bad form.)

Rather than backing away, he stepped into the knife swing, pushing his attacker’s knife arm away with his forearm before swinging his elbow into the other man’s throat. From there he hopped back and reset his stance, ready for the man’s inevitable counter.

It took him a good minute to realize that not everyone’s mother had trained their son to know how to fight and cripple anyone that came at them with a knife.

It took him another minute to also realize he may’ve caused a little too much damage as he watched the downed man wheeze while clutching his throat.

“Oh, that was great!” A voice laughed from behind him.

Turning around he found a tall man in a grey duster with violet eyes and midnight black hair staring at him.

“You’re who he was attacking?” He asked for clarification, before getting his priorities straight. “Wait, are you okay? Do I need to call someone?”

“Nah.” The man in the duster waved him off as he walked by. “Don’t really have anyone to call at the moment.”

“Oh, that’s…” (sad…)

“Don’t be like that.” The man scolded him, before frowning. “Ugh, I’m getting tired of that.” The man smiled suddenly. “The name ‘s Jack. Remnant Jack, or Jack Remnant depending on who you ask.”

“I, um…” He wasn’t entirely sure about giving his name to this ‘Jack Remnant,’ he’d barely said a few sentences and the man was already giving him an uncomfortable feeling.

“Oh, no need to be nervous, lad. I’m not going to hurt you.” Jack assured him before crouching over his downed attacker and whistling. “Then again maybe I should be worried about you hurting me?”

“Uh, I didn’t mean to!” He shook his head vehemently.

“I’m sure you didn’t.” Jack nodded sympathetically, at least until he looked over his shoulder with a wide grin. “At least not yet anyway.”

“Not ever.” He denied.

“Don’t you believe it.” Jack warned him not unkindly.

He frowned at that accusation before noticing how Jack was patting his still wheezing attacker all over.

“What are you doing?”

“Restitution.” Jack answered as he stood with a wallet in his hand.

“Restitution?” He repeated.

“Yes, you see before you so kindly intervened this rapscallion spent a good five or ten, or maybe just one, minutes beating me. And as such I feel I am entitled to a certain amount of compensation for my undue pain and suffering at this man’s hands.” Jack explained while waving his hands elaborately through the air.

He could feel his frown growing more prominent as he tried to parse through that odd blur of words. “Isn’t that just stealing?”

“Is it stealing when one man sues another?” Jack asked curiously.

“Um, no?” (At least not legally…)

“Well then I am suing this man here for bodily harm to myself.” Jack told him with a flourish, before frowning. “Unfortunately, I am in too much of a financial red to hire myself a proper lawyer, so I shall take my lawsuit winnings without involving the judicial branch of our society.”

He pinched at the bridge of his nose, as Jack’s continued talking began to give him a headache. “I, I don’t think that’s how it works…”

“Sure, it is. And if not well then vigilante mask law!” Jack declared proudly.

His face scrunched up in confusion. “What law?”

“Ah, yes. You see, with the recent surge in Masks and Deviants, the government has come up with a brilliant incentive to assure that Masks take on something of a more heroic bend. That is to say that in the same way that our law enforcement officers are paid from the confiscated funds from their various raids, a vigilante may be funded through the same.” Jack explained, before pausing for a moment. “At least so long as the police get a ‘tax’ of the confiscated funds of course.”

“And what does that have to do with me?” He asked as bluntly as he could, his patience finally beginning to wear thin.

“What that has to do with you my vigilante friend is, that you confiscating these funds is perfectly legal.” Jack pulled all of the money out of the wallet and put it into Jon’s hand. “What’s more a heroic fellow such as yourself would feel the need to help the victims of any criminals he happens to apprehend, such as by giving them a majority of the funds said heroic fellow confiscated.”

Jack proceeded to take the majority of the money he’d given him, before bowing as the fast-talking man began to walk away. “I thank you for such kind generosity my vigilante friend.”

Once Jack had turned the corner and left, his eyes slowly drifted between the money in his hand, the man glaring at him from the ground, and the corner Jack had made his exit from. All with only one thought on his mind.

“What just happened?”

Scene Consequences

+1XP Unarmed Combat.

-New Skill: [Law: Masks]

+200 dollars.

-Low chance Blackwell police might remember who Jon is.