[Supply Run] Don't Bring a Gun to a Wandfight [closed to Sherlock, John, Patsy, and Sirius]

[on_your_nerves]

When Stacy had stopped at a planet to allow for a short run for supplies, Sherlock had jumped at the opportunity to get off the ship. It wasn't so much that he hated the ship--he was still utterly fascinated with it, in fact, and exploring everything he could about it--but it was an opportunity to see an entirely different world. Getting a feel for all the kinds of possibilities that could be out there would help him adjust to the surprises he might find on actual missions.

He wasn't the only one that had wanted to stretch his legs. John had tagged along, of course, and so had Sirius, who Sherlock sincerely hoped would keep the flirting to a minimum this time. There also was a stranger, a woman that had introduced herself as Patsy, who apparently had a habit of wearing a cat mask. Sherlock had thought it absolutely ridiculous--until they got down to the planet, where it turned out that garish clothing was rather commonplace, meaning that she fit in with the locals. (Even then, it was still a little ridiculous.)

It was, incredibly, unbelievably, a world with actual magic. Not horribly different than he and John's own, but with everything powered by magic and an untold number of magical species, like trolls, goblins, dwarves, elves, and fairies. Skyscrapers existed but were sprawling structures that seemed to defy the laws of physics, cars drove through the streets--but they hovered off the ground and left behind sparkly exhaust, and right now, it seemed very fashionable for them to be in the stylized shapes of pumpkins.

At the moment, they were all walking through a magical marketplace, where individuals in colorful clothes of a variety of species were hawking rather incredible wares like magic mirrors and foods that apparently prepared themselves for dinner. Behind them, they were carting along a hovering cart for the supplies they were getting--apparently the ship's supplies of magical ingredients and implements needed to be replenished so that there were some for those who were magically-inclined to have them on hand if they were needed.

"This is..." He wasn't going to say it was incredible. He had a whole unimpressed facade to maintain. "Improbable."

And yes, very interesting.

A drunken pixie flew over their heads in wobbly circles and threw up fairy dust all over a very grim-faced troll, who immediately started shaking a fist at her and cursing.

"Oh, the whimsy," he added sarcastically, although he did look amused.

Comments

[grimbiker]

Sirius laughed. This world was very different from his own, even the magic, but after spending so long on Stacy, he felt more at ease than he had in a long time. Now if only Remus were here... or Cedric...

Would want you to enjoy it. So would James, for that matter

He tried to distract himself by looking at the cars flying by. He'd have to ask how they were powered later.

"Only to you." He said to Sherlock. "This feels half like home to me."

[nerves_of_steel]

John almost wished he had a few more sets of eyes so he could take in all the sights -- "almost" because he wasn't sure if the magical background radiation of the place (was there any such thing as magical background radiation?) could actually make that happen. So he restrained himself to goggling around with his one set of eyes and trying not to lose track of Sherlock or the other two or their cart in the crowd.

"Right," he said, glancing down at their shopping list. "The next thing we need is...newt eyeballs?" he looked over incredulously at Sirius. "That's a real thing for spells? Newt eyeballs?"

[grimbiker]

"Yep."

[cheeseandcrackers]

"..." Patsy shuddered. Newt eyeballs. That just sounded...wrong. Dr. Strange would probably know if that's a real thing, she mused as she watched the drunk pixie vomit pixie dust over what seemed to be a magic lamp. Angry red smoke puffed out of the lamp's spout. Patsy turned away, not really keen on seeing an angry genie.

And then she turned back to see if there was an angry genie. Because that would actually be all kinds of cool.

"And you serve that spell with - cheese and crackers!" The genie was out of the lamp, attacking the pixie with glitter-smoke bombs of his own.

[on_your_nerves]

Sherlock's eyes widened and he ducked a stray spell just in time. It hit a street lamp behind him, which immediately sprouted some very angry tentacles. Then he had to duck those because one reached out and tried to grab him. Mercifully, he had fast reflexes.

"It's a wonder they even function as a society when everyone is walking around with the magical equivalent of a loaded gun."

He paused and reflected on that.

"Then again, at least that probably means the crimes here are rarely boring."

And frequent.

[grimbiker]

Sirius had also evaded the tentacles grip but he saw that the street lamp was sprouting new ones, growing at an alarming rate. It was time to see how well his own magic worked in this world. He took out his wand and cast a spell on the street lamp to revert it to its true form. It worked.

But when the pixie fought back against the genie her purse split and tiny gold stars spilled onto the ground. The moment it touched the sidewalk, grass and flowers sprung up and the vegetation spread.

The pixie shrieked at the genie, mentioned something about how that was for her god daughter, and tried to put the genie in a headlock.

"Rarely boring indeed." Sirius watched, his mouth parted slightly. "My bet is on the genie."

[nerves_of_steel]

"Should we be trying to break this up before someone gets hurt?" John asked, having also just barely skipped out of reach of the tentacles. He was eyeballing the spreading vegetation with trepidation as well.

"By the way, Sherlock," he said, not looking away from the fight and magical plants, "none of this stuff we're getting goes to our room. None of it. Not even the newt eyeballs."

[cheeseandcrackers]

Patsy, for her part, was fighting off the tentacles with what limited resources of telekinesis she possessed. It was enough to help, thankfully.

"I don't know. Maybe it would help some of that sludge we get in the mess hall taste more interesting," she said. She jumped back as the vegetation came dangerously close to her boots.

[on_your_nerves]

Sherlock just shot John a sour look over not being able to bring eyeballs into the room.

"Understood. Nothing on the list goes to our room," Sherlock said briskly, eying a hand of glory in a shop window, planning on following what he said to the letter. (Which meant he planned on getting dead things that weren't on the list and bringing them to their room.)

"As for them," Sherlock cast the pixie and the genie one last cautious look and started moving on, though he kept glancing back to make sure no stray spells were coming their way, "we wouldn't break up every street fight between drunks back home, so why in the world should we do it here? Especially when a stray spell can turn us into produce? We should try not to get caught up in local affairs while we're here, especially if it involves fighting. It's probably murder getting fairy dust out of clothing in the wash."

[grimbiker]

"Not to mention we won't find out who wins."

The genie was sober, had more physical strength and focused magic but the pixie had more tricks up its sleeve- er, purse- and projectile fairy dust vomit.

Sirius was enthralled.

[cheeseandcrackers]

"My bet's on the genie," Patsy replied. "The pixie maybe, if she wasn't so drunk but..." She blinked. "Then again, chaos does have it's unpredictable benefits?" She looked at the guys. "You know. We have time. Loser buys everyone a drink?"

[nerves_of_steel]

John briefly covered his face with his hand.

"If you're going to watch, you're going to watch from further away," he said to Patsy and Sirius. "'Patient turned into a stack of crockery' wasn't covered in my medical training."

[on_your_nerves]

"You're both acting entirely juvenile," Sherlock said to Sirius and Hellcat.

There was a pause.

"Besides, it's obvious the fairy's going to win."

He gestured with his hand as he spoke, "Even drunk, she outstrips in him speed and has greater agility, better reflexes, and aerial mobility and they seem similarly matched in terms of magic. There are knife scars on her face and her arms; the angles and severity suggest that she regularly gets into knife-fights and street brawls. The genie's just a primary school teacher; there are smudges of finger paint on his clothes and chalk dust on his sleeves at the elbows where his arms brush against the chalk board. He doesn't stand a chance."

[grimbiker]

Sirius shot Sherlock a short glare, huffed, and turned away. "Thanks for ruining the suspense."

There was a loud bang and a puff of smoke that temporarily obscured the brawl. Sirius started and looked back, hand going to his wand but he relaxed.

"Are you coming or not?"

[cheeseandcrackers]

"We should probably get going," Patsy replied, also glaring at Sherlock from beneath the mask he'd had seemingly so thorough enjoyed mocking. "Killjoy."

[nerves_of_steel]

"Right," John said, looking back at the list to hide his smile. No such thing as idle speculation with Sherlock around.

"So where do you suppose they sell newt eyes around here?"

[on_your_nerves]

Sherlock frowned in response to Sirius and Patsy. As far as he'd been concerned, he'd just been putting his own wager in and explaining the logic behind it. The smoke cleared, showing the genie on the ground, slumped against the side of a building, and the pixie was flying off and laughing vindictively as she did it. (The laughter was interrupted by her throwing up fairy dust again.)

Sherlock's expression darkened as he darted forward in front of the group, coat flaring, his long stride propelling him along. Then that expression smoothed out again to one of aloofness. He looked like someone trying to look like they weren't purposefully ignoring other people for the purposes of looking like they were ignoring them.

His eyes scanning the marketplace and taking in every detail, he actually darted over to one of the streetlamps and climbed up it to get a better look at he market over the crowd.

[cheeseandcrackers]

"I don't suppose that there's a Newts-R-Us around here, is there?" Patsy asked. She was looking around now, trying to find a place that might sell what they were looking for. There was an old, hag-like woman wearing far too much translucent clothing selling what seemed to be love potions. She beckoned to Patsy, but Patsy pointedly ignored her.

She already had love in her life, thank you very much.

Then she stopped and tilted her head, staring at a sign to her left. "Uh. You don't suppose that an optometrist's office here is different from ones back at any of our respective homes, do you?"

[grimbiker]

"We're not looking for an optometrist. We want an apothecary." Sirius supplied. "Preferably one that isn't stupid enough to name themselves Newts Are Us." Imagine how much business they would lose if they limited themselves to only newts.

He stopped and looked over his shoulder at his companion. "Sherlock, you're making a scene and that's only polite if we can join you."

Show some consideration!

[nerves_of_steel]

"Can you see an apothecary from up there?" John called up, apparently unconcerned by Sherlock's decision to travel in a more vertical direction. And mostly it was true -- living with Sherlock had inured John to far stranger things that lamp-post climbing.

But he'd definitely be happier when Sherlock's feet were firmly on the ground again.

[on_your_nerves]

Sherlock ignored Sirius completely as he looked around.

"I think I see--"

The consulting detective froze, then quickly clambered down the lamp post, simply dropping the last few feet and started to bolt through the crowd. He was moving quickly but not so quickly the others couldn't follow.

Apparently, something very important had caught his attention.

[cheeseandcrackers]

"He found them!" Patsy squeed. "I think he found the eyes of newt!" She took off after Sherlock, of course, deftly weaving in and out of the crowd. All of that training with Beast had really paid off - she wasn't half bad at this.

[grimbiker]

"Does he do this often?" Sirius asked John just before he sprinted after Sherlock.

He could probably change into Padfoot and make better time. It would be easier to dart between people. But it had been too long since Sirius had stretched his own legs and run.

Unfortunately he was too distracted to notice the goblin just ahead of him though that was understandable. The goblin was a small fellow. Sirius had to stop abruptly to keep from him over and the goblin rattled off several creative curses that had Sirius mentally tipping his hat though it came out as a "sorry."

[nerves_of_steel]

John swore and leaned on the hover cart to try and maneuver it after Sherlock. Hover thought it did, it was somewhat unwieldy to push through the crowd with, and whatever Sherlock had seen was probably more urgent than just newt eyeballs.

"Yes, don't lose him!" he answered Sirius as he took off in pursuit the best he could. Under normal circumstances, he could have closed some of the distance between himself and Sherlock, in spite of the latter's much longer legs. But these were not normal circumstances (see: hover cart in crowd, the maneuvering of), so he was the last of the four to arrive at the new location, huffing and calling apologies to those startled by the dodging and weaving of himself and the cart.

[on_your_nerves]

It was much much more urgent than newt eyeballs. At the moment, it was the most important thing in the world that he stop at this specific place. In fact, it was the difference between him being at peace and murdering everyone around him.

It was a cigarette stall.

Sherlock pulled out most of the gold spending money in his pocket and held it out.

"How many cartons will this get me?"