aterat | Imagine a fancy title here, you will

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Imagine a fancy title here, you will

Who; Harry Dresden (

harrythelizard) and you!
What; September log (various places) (prompts in comments)
Where; Around town
When; Throughout the month of September
Warnings; None at the moment, but I’ll update as necessary

Locations are various, prompts in comments

If you’d like a personalized prompt or have something you'd like to do with Harry, contact me on plurk (

vikael) or Discord (vikael#0221)

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"Not bad, that's close, and some of them." He nodded. "The minor fae, dewdrop faeries, are like that. I'm friends with several of them." Which was an easy way of saying he'd bartered with them for pizza enough times that they just call him the Za Lord. That wasn't a necessary bit of information. "Dewdrop faeries are pretty simple creatures who have a hard time thinking about more than one thing at once and really bad memory for 'mortal stuff'. The major players are more intense, and a lot more like what you described."

“So the little ones are just… minor?” They sounded kind of nice, and he guessed that’s why they were in the stories he’d heard. “I didn’t even know there was more than one kind. That’s…” Well, not neat. Kind of scary to think about… But also interesting. “So they could be a ‘fae’ too? But not demons… So are they not bad like demons, or are they sometimes bad?” The Man in the Hat was definitely intense... Slower, more methodical than the others he’d come up against. Just so very tall, and radiating something that Mono couldn’t quite describe. Where everyone else had been feral or almost animalistic in nature, the man had been the one to scare him most.

"Faeries are hard to define. They aren't like mortals, and they like toying with them for their amusement. They like tricking us into deals, and they have a lot of power to convince us to do it with. It's a little more complicated than 'good' or 'bad', though."

Explaining the Fae was more difficult than Harry anticipated. "And those are the ones who are beholden to one of the Fae kingdoms. Then there are the Wyldfae, or get to do whatever they want. Do you know Santa Claus?"

More complicated… He really didn’t want things to be more complicated. Every time he asked though, it always seemed like that would be the case with people… But at least people here answered (could answer), and he knew they probably didn’t mean to make it more complicated for him.

“Umm…” He mumbled uncertainly, the question about Santa Claus. He might have seen pictures of the man on old Christmas decorations left from before the corruption… But he didn’t know the story or the name, he wasn’t even sure what Christmas was. He shook his head. “I dunno, doesn’t sound familiar?”

That said, a strange old man in a bright red suit breaking into your house once a year might’ve seemed very alarming to the child based on what he probably would imagine.

It didn't occur to Harry until that very moment that a boy who dressed like Mono might not have been from a world with a Santa Claus, or even worse, had never had the chance to believe in the innocent magic of a Christmas miracle. He was struck by the profound sadness of it. Even Harry, an orphan, had Christmas memories that were among some of his favorites.

He didn't know what the tall man was to the kid, but he did know one thing: this boy deserved Christmas.

"...you know what? It's okay. Why are you so interested in faeries, anyway?"

No, Mono certainly had not experienced such a thing. Innocence was not something kids kept for long in his world.

The question gets an uncertain little shrug. “I dunno… I just didn’t know there were more kinds with different kinds of powers. There’s a lot of weird powers in my world, and I thought maybe there’d be things similar enough that I could figure out how it all works. The man in the hat has powers like… someone else… and I sometimes think if I can figure him out, I can figure it all out.” He rambled a little, waving his hands a bit as he tried to say things in a way that didn’t sound entirely obvious. Mono didn’t know Harry well enough for that, not like he knew Illyana… But the guy clearly knew stuff, and that might be important.

“There’s a lot of things I don’t understand about, and I dunno how long I’m gonna be here for… So I kinda try to ask when I don’t know something, while I got the chance?”

Harry had spent a good amount of his adult life investigating things and his best friend was a cop, he could pick up on subtlety, and a lot of things people weren't saying. He frowned at the little guy, but nodded. It was scary, having powers you didn't understand, and more than that, it could be dangerous, not just for others, but for the individual as well.

"Let me tell you a secret. I know how scary it can be, finding out you can do things others can't, and I've kind of made it my profession to help people figure it out, if you're interested."

The kid perked up a bit at the mention of a secret; it seemed a strange thing to offer someone you’d just met… But Mono could appreciate keeping a secret, and… It was an extension of trust, one that he wasn’t entirely sure why it was being granted to him.

“Yeah? So it’s like… your job to figure stuff like that out? What it turns out to be something bad?” He asked, looking a bit apprehensive again. Quickly, the child followed up with, “You know, in case I um… Know someone who might want help but doesn’t know what could happen.”

"Well, there are very few things that are inherently evil. It's about using things responsibly, and not to hurt people with it. I help people understand their abilities, and help them get a grip on them. It's up to you, sorry them, whether or not they do good or bad with them, but they do need to understand all choices have consequences."

Mono listened very carefully to all of what the man said, trying to get an idea of if it was… A safe thing, asking the guy for help. But as Harry ‘slipped up’, he narrowed his eyes a bit. Drat. Figured out… “You’re smart…” He mumbled, shoulders sagging a bit, fussing with a button again as he tried to think of what to say… He did want help. He wanted to understand a lot of things, because it felt like he was just on the edge of answers most of the time, but never quite enough. Like he was missing some important detail… “People keep saying the same thing, but I dunno if people get choices where I’m from.”

And his powers were unstable. They did break things if he wasn’t careful. Not that it was a problem here, there were no TVs… But then there were other things, part of him wondering if he could do the other things the man in the hat could do. “Do you really think you could understand how it works? Some people said I should practice, but I don’t think I can do that.”

"I think I can try. Practicing on your own can be dangerous if you don't know what your powers are capable of." He smiled what he hoped was a comforting sort of smile and not a creepy one. "There are techniques you can learn to help you focus your abilities, too, and to limit their range. That happens to be something I'm good at."

And Mono was a kid, alone, so, "I won't charge. I know how scary it is to face the world alone. I had to too, when I was a little older than you."

Mono hummed a little, he was still a little skeptical on how much help Harry might be. It wasn't as though he knew how to explain a lot of it... But then again, the worst thing that could happen from trying was figuring out nothing... Right?

At the mention of not charging for the help, Mono shrugged. "Really? I got a job, I work for Tommy at his messenger service if you wanted me to pay." Paying for stuff seemed very important in this world, not that he'd say no to free if Harry insisted.

And it was scary, even if he wasn't really up for admitting that. A lot of things were scary, and it all had begun to bleed together after a while. "But if you figured it out... Maybe I can too, if you're sure you wanna help. There's a lot of stuff that doesn't make sense, and a lot of people make me realize how not normal it is."

Harry chuckled, smiling and shaking his head. "Okay. If you insist on paying me, we'll work out a fee, but only if I can turn up anything useful. Deal?"

He offered the boy a hand to shake. "And hey, 'not normal' is my normal. We'll figure it out."

Mono supposed that seemed fair, even if he wasn’t too keen on wasting the man’s time. Considering the hand offered with a little squint, he finally nodded and took it to shake. “Yeah, I guess that’s a good deal.”

It was always hard to say what people meant by normal or not, though. “I guess maybe some not normal’s could be other people’s normal like mine, just haven’t met many people yet where it was.”

"And sometimes you're the weird guy in a room full of weirdos." Harry nodded, knowing that feeling more keenly than he wished. "Just don't be too hard on yourself. We'll figure it out."

He stood, then, smiling down at the kid. "Why don't you come by my office tomorrow morning and we'll get to work? I'm sure you know where it is." Or at least could figure it out. It wasn't a hard place to find and this kid seemed to have a knack for getting places.

Mono wasn’t entirely sure if it was being hard on himself or if it was just being realistic… But he nodded just the same. The man at least seemed to have experience with being the ‘weird guy.’

Listening to the suggestion, the kid tried to remember if he had anything to do the next days. Not that he had a full schedule or anything. Following specific people around, perhaps… Working part time for the messenger service… Yeah, he was pretty sure he could squeeze Harry in. Especially if there was a slim chance that he might be able to figure some things out. “Yeah, I can visit tomorrow morning. I don’t think I got anything to do.” He tugged his hat down a little, “And I know where the office is.” He confirmed, because he knew where almost everything was by this point. New businesses opening stood out to the kid, so he’d definitely noticed it.

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