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epicwiseass♔ Player Information;
Name: Arcadia
OOC Journal:arcadiasilver
Are you over 18?: Yes
Preferred Contact Method(s): Ploik @ Arcadiaspheres
♔ Character Information;
Name: Harry Dresden
Canon: The Dresden Files (books)
OU, AU, OC?: OU
Canon point: End of Ghost Story
Setting: The world of the Dresden Files is an identical copy of our world, full of modern, human wars, politics, technology, skyscrapers and cars. Yet, in the dark corners of the world, many of the legends of old still exist. Angels, vampires, werewolves, demons, skinwalkers, faeries, wrights, ghosts, gods of pantheons that were worshiped long ago, folkloric monsters and heroes. Chances are, if there's a legend written about them somewhere, they exist in some form or another in the Dresden Files.
Even though powerful and often predators of humans themselves, the supernatural nations long ago recognized that humanity was growing too large and too powerful to remain out in the open anymore. Even if you snack on humans, there's few predators that can withstand the retaliation of a prey species that outnumbers them thousands to one. Who also have guns. And missiles. And bombs. Humanity has armed themselves to the point that openly attempting to exist among them would be committing suicide and possibly drag the rest of the supernatural world down with them into extinction via angry mobs with nuclear pitchforks.
So it goes: humanity operates in ignorance of all the things that go bump in the night that still prey upon them from the margins. The human world and the spiritual realm of the Nevernever existing atop each other, bleeding into each other. Gods and vampires still attempt to meddle in human affairs for their own ends while remaining undetected. Almost all supernatural nations have signed on to the Unseelie Accords, a compact that sets out rules of behavior (such as reinforcing the masquerade and never using humanity as a weapon against other groups), but also sets out procedures such as addressing grievances between groups and the rights that each citizen of a signatory nation has.
History: Harry’s background, 13 books neatly summarized.
In addition to his canon material, Harry has some previous CR from his other games he will be carrying over.
- Lior (invigorates): When she first came to Promenade, Lior was young (for her race), naive, and still learning her magic. Considering Harry’s experience with Grasshoppers, he took her under his wing and helped her practice and refine her skills, while picking up some interesting lessons from her at the same time. Eventually, Harry sort of became a father/uncle figure to the elf, even after her 500 year canon update.
-Kurosaki Ichigo (savior_n_black): Like any healthy relationship, Harry met Ichigo in the middle of the teenager melting down like Chernobyl on the beach during one of Promenade’s many memorable week long terror fests. Not knowing how hollows and all that flashy spirit stuff worked, Harry though Ichigo was being possessed and summarily...ripped his hollow out in the middle of his hollow taking over. Oops.
- Rinzler (notglitching): A program that Harry crossed swords with during an attempted ganking of Soundwave. Harry ended up Hexus-ing him to the ground.
Personality: Harry's been called a lot of things: chauvinistic pig, idiot, thug, meddlesome wizard, busybody, boor, jerk, asshole, pain in the ass, trouble magnet, etc. But don't listen to those people, those are the people who want him dead. ...and some of his friends, too.
One of Harry's most distinguishing quirks (and the one that has nearly gotten him killed over and over and over) is his near pathological inability to not help a woman in distress. It doesn't matter if its the hostess of one of the Fallen - yes, those Fallen - Valkyries in bullet proof vests, a villain that just had a gun pointed at his head, or a girl that is clearly trying to run a scam on him, Harry. Just. Can't. Say. No. Even as Harry readily admits its stupid and foolish, and in aiding these women, he's made himself critically vulnerable many times, there's something inside him that can't stand the idea of turning his back on someone who needs him. And its not just women, its children or any innocent. He wants to use his gifts as a wizard to help people to push back the darkness and chaos that normal human beings can't defend themselves against. The trolls, vampires, and dark wizards of the world had best steer clear of Chicago or Harry Dresden's gonna come knocking on your door. Oh, the irony of a wizard with a White Knight complex.
But don't mistake him for some gung-ho destroyer of evil and proliferator of all that's good and pure. That's Michael's job. Harry is more than aware that he's not a perfect person and a far, far cry from "good". Harry has a darkness inside him that he knows quite well and has nearly fallen prey to. He's done things that have horrified him after the fact, but were ultimately very necessary in the long run. He's been incredibly cruel to enemies who have begged mercy, he's killed, he's struck out at others in anger, he's taken pleasure in striking back at those who've hurt his friends. He's all too aware that, as a wizard - and a powerful one at that - he's got more than enough power to control the world around him. He can bend those around him to his will if he wished. It's one of the great burdens of his magic that he deals with every day. A very, very dark voice that revels in his power and capacity for destruction. And some of the times that he's fallen to this darkness and anger has caused Harry to go sinking into a pit of self-recrimination and disgust. The supreme irony is that, in knowing and acknowledging his own flaws and capacity for evil, Harry ends up being an even better person than those who believe themselves stainless and righteous.
But for as much as Harry has his darkness inside him, the human being Harry, not the wizard, has prevailed over some of the worst enemies he's ever faced. He's turned down the power to save his own life - a hexed belt that turns its wearer into a powerful werewolf - because he'd rather die as a human being than live under the incredibly addicting power of black magic and be a monster. His refusal of great power from the likes of Mab the Winter Queen of Faerie, the knowledge of a necromantic ritual that could literally turn him into a godling, the shade of a Fallen that lived inside his mind for many years is a testament to his will power and his moral standards.
However, if you ask anyone who knows Harry - enemy and ally alike - to name the one thing that distinguishes Chicago's only wizard in the phone book, it would be his mouth. Harry deals with all manner of stress, be it fear, anger, worry, or even just boredom, with snark. Be it gods, spirits, crime lords, vampire royalty, or the biggest and baddest beasts from the Nevernever, Harry firmly believes that the great powers of the world deserve to get their high horses shaken once in a while and he does so with glee and gusto. Mostly to his detriment, mind you. This all goes hand in hand with the fact that big, bad wizard Harry Dresden is a big, fat nerd. He will relay tidbits of wizardly advice in Yoda's voice, have deep and involved debates in the middle of gearing up for an invasion of a vampire lair on who in the party is what character from the Fellowship. He plays his world's version of Dungeons and Dragons for godsake!
Abilities: Harry Dresden uses several objects as magical foci, most prominently his staff, blasting rod, shield bracelet, and energy-storing rings. He also uses his silver pentacle pendant inherited from his mother. For his personal spells, he uses pseudo-Latin; for this he also draws on various other foreign languages, including Spanish and Italian.
Harry describes himself as being bad at delicate magic, being better with undelicate magic, though as of Changes, he has advanced his skill in veils due to having to keep up with his apprentice, Molly. What he lacks in the precise application of magic, he can sometimes make up for by using a lot more power for his spells than would be necessary if he were more skilled, going for quantity instead of quality.He is especially good with things requiring the redirection of energies and thaumaturgy. But although he might not be very good at them, he states that he is able to learn and use finer magic with a lot of practice and concentration.
Its indicated that Wizards, while human, may have slight genetic differences that grant them their magic, long lifespan, and their ability to eventually completely heal any non-fatal injury due to perfect replication of cells. Along with this, Harry has a pseudo-magical skill for Hearing that allows him to hear things clearly over longer distances than most other humans.
Items (Note: These items are here just for completion's sake)
Staff - A long staff used for channeling magic. Also works well as a bludgeoning weapon.
Blasting rod - A rod used for channeling fire spells.
Shield bracelet - A bracelet with tiny medieval shield charms on it. Used for creating force fields. The bracelet began as a simple silver construction, but has evolved to feature a chain of multiple metals woven together and shields of different metals.
Energy-storing rings - Rings which are enchanted to store a small fraction of kinetic energy into them at all times. Harry first owned only one copper ring, and and later had rings made of silver for each of his fingers. They are described as simple bands with a number of runes inscribed on the interior. As of Small Favor, he had upgraded these rings from single bands to three bands stacked on top of each other, with each band capable of holding the same amount of energy as one of the previous rings.
Silver pentacle pendant - A pendant Harry inherited from his mother. Used for various spells, including a focus for calling up wizardly light. Also as of the events in Changes Harry has gained a red jewel that has joined to the center of the pentacle. This jewel contains the entire knowledge of Harry’s mother pertaining to her vast knowledge of The Ways.
A cane sword - able to channel earth-based magic
For mundane weapon backup, Harry started off with a Smith and Wesson .38 Chief's Special revolver, upgraded to a unknown .357 revolver, and his most recent firearm is a Smith and Wesson Model 29 .44 Magnum revolver.
Spells
Forzare: force - From the same Latin root as the English word 'Force'.
Solvos: Break spell.
wind-based:
Ventas servitas: wind - From the Italian 'Wind, serve me!'
Ventas reductas: small scale wind (much like a snow blower)
Ventouse giostrus: generates a miniature cyclone
fire-based:
Flickum bicus: small fires (lighting candles, and other small scale fires) - References the "Flick your Bic" lighter commercials
Fuego: destructive fire attack - From Spanish for 'Fire'.
Pyrofuego: larger destructive fire attack
electricity-based
Galvinius: used with copper chain focus as a kind of taser
Fulminos/Fulminas: generates or redirects a bolt of lightning
earth-based:
Geodas: earth. Creates sink hole
Gravitus: concentrates gravity
Dispertius: creates a crack/hole in the ground
Resarcius: seals holes in the ground
Ventas Ferro: used to manipulate metal magnetically
Aquilevatus: water. creates a curtain of water
Interessari, interressarium: tracking spell, with blood and a compass
Hexus: Shuts down electrical equipment.
Noctus ex illuminus: illusions
Dormio, dorme: used to put someone into a dreamless sleep
Aparturum: opens a way to the Nevernever
Arctis: freezing/ice
Lumen, camerus, factum: creates a holomantic illusion of anybody; illusions are mostly opaque
Infriga: sucks fire/heat away from a given area creating ice, apparently a part of his power as Winter Knight.
Voce, voco, vocius: allows long distance communication when used with a special obsidian stone and a circle
Other:
Harry’s training as a private eye and the various tutors (both malevolent and neutral) through his life have help Harry develop a keenly analytical mind. He’s fairly adept in discerning motives and reading normal people, and his life spent pitted against the big bads of the world has helped develop a flexibility of thought and a skill for pre-planning. While nowhere near a genius level, hard-won experience makes him an adaptable foe that is quick to capitalize on a weakness should he spot one.
Upon taking up the mantle of the Winter Knight, Harry earned exceptional power over ice, being able to draw the heat out of even fire itself. In addition, he has gained preternatural speed and strength, being able to keep pace with a half-vampire and crack the ribcage of a fully fledged vampire with a heavy kick. Training with Karrin Murphy has made him a decent close quarters combatant and he’s a fair shot, but nothing that is really going to shine against experienced opponents, especially in comparison to his magic
Network sample: "I'm Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden, Chicago's only wizard in the yellow pages.
I'm also dead. Or at least fatally shot.
It's almost disappointing, of all the big, bad and ugly things that I've pissed off in my life, the thing that takes me out is a sniper from a distance. I'm a wizard, isn't there some rule that I die taking down a dragon or some big, fiery demon as my hobbit friends look on in fear at my heroic sacrifice? And just before my date with Murphy, too." Harry turns, pacing before the camera. He's built up a good head of steam and really getting into the spirit of loud complaining. "But what really is getting my newly deceased goat is the fact that, in the middle of the goold ol' light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel, I wake up in the middle of a room that's not mine with a mask on my face and a...blank mirror in my room. Really, its just this murky, dark mirror that looks like Bloody Mary is going to come out of any second.
No pearly gates or fiery pit? I'm a little insulted. I take out demons and fallen angels and all I get is the afterlife version of a bed and breakfast?"
Log sample: Maybe its shock, because he barely felt the cold waters of Lake Michigan claim his body as he fell over the side of the Water Beetle. He didn't even feel the high caliber shot go straight through his heart. He was numb and confused the whole way through his death. Cassius' voice screaming DIE ALONE ringing through the last, struggling synapses as the blood loss and asphyxiation shut them down just before the soft whisper of a familiar woman's voice: Hush, now.
He didn't have time to really register who that voice belonged to, because he was currently falling out of a bed and onto a hard, wooden floor. If that weren't enough to confuse him, a slobbery, large tongue swiping at his face and a whine that sounded more in place for a Yorkie rather than his Dogasaurus Rex of a pet was just sending his brain scattering even further for any inkling of sense.
Pulling himself into a sitting position, Harry Dresden reached out and mindlessly petted Mouse's head as he wiped drool from his cheek. Blinking eyes against the stream of morning light drifting in from a window, the wizard wobbled to his feet (leaning on Mouse a little bit) and took a look around himself. Looking down, her looped a finger through the hole in his shirt where the bullet hole that ended his life stood away from the untouched flesh underneath. The cotton was stiff with dried red blood, as was his fleece-lined jacket.
"Stars and stones, I don't think I'm in Chicago anymore."
Name: Arcadia
OOC Journal:
arcadiasilverAre you over 18?: Yes
Preferred Contact Method(s): Ploik @ Arcadiaspheres
♔ Character Information;
Name: Harry Dresden
Canon: The Dresden Files (books)
OU, AU, OC?: OU
Canon point: End of Ghost Story
Setting: The world of the Dresden Files is an identical copy of our world, full of modern, human wars, politics, technology, skyscrapers and cars. Yet, in the dark corners of the world, many of the legends of old still exist. Angels, vampires, werewolves, demons, skinwalkers, faeries, wrights, ghosts, gods of pantheons that were worshiped long ago, folkloric monsters and heroes. Chances are, if there's a legend written about them somewhere, they exist in some form or another in the Dresden Files.
Even though powerful and often predators of humans themselves, the supernatural nations long ago recognized that humanity was growing too large and too powerful to remain out in the open anymore. Even if you snack on humans, there's few predators that can withstand the retaliation of a prey species that outnumbers them thousands to one. Who also have guns. And missiles. And bombs. Humanity has armed themselves to the point that openly attempting to exist among them would be committing suicide and possibly drag the rest of the supernatural world down with them into extinction via angry mobs with nuclear pitchforks.
So it goes: humanity operates in ignorance of all the things that go bump in the night that still prey upon them from the margins. The human world and the spiritual realm of the Nevernever existing atop each other, bleeding into each other. Gods and vampires still attempt to meddle in human affairs for their own ends while remaining undetected. Almost all supernatural nations have signed on to the Unseelie Accords, a compact that sets out rules of behavior (such as reinforcing the masquerade and never using humanity as a weapon against other groups), but also sets out procedures such as addressing grievances between groups and the rights that each citizen of a signatory nation has.
History: Harry’s background, 13 books neatly summarized.
In addition to his canon material, Harry has some previous CR from his other games he will be carrying over.
- Lior (invigorates): When she first came to Promenade, Lior was young (for her race), naive, and still learning her magic. Considering Harry’s experience with Grasshoppers, he took her under his wing and helped her practice and refine her skills, while picking up some interesting lessons from her at the same time. Eventually, Harry sort of became a father/uncle figure to the elf, even after her 500 year canon update.
-Kurosaki Ichigo (savior_n_black): Like any healthy relationship, Harry met Ichigo in the middle of the teenager melting down like Chernobyl on the beach during one of Promenade’s many memorable week long terror fests. Not knowing how hollows and all that flashy spirit stuff worked, Harry though Ichigo was being possessed and summarily...ripped his hollow out in the middle of his hollow taking over. Oops.
- Rinzler (notglitching): A program that Harry crossed swords with during an attempted ganking of Soundwave. Harry ended up Hexus-ing him to the ground.
Personality: Harry's been called a lot of things: chauvinistic pig, idiot, thug, meddlesome wizard, busybody, boor, jerk, asshole, pain in the ass, trouble magnet, etc. But don't listen to those people, those are the people who want him dead. ...and some of his friends, too.
One of Harry's most distinguishing quirks (and the one that has nearly gotten him killed over and over and over) is his near pathological inability to not help a woman in distress. It doesn't matter if its the hostess of one of the Fallen - yes, those Fallen - Valkyries in bullet proof vests, a villain that just had a gun pointed at his head, or a girl that is clearly trying to run a scam on him, Harry. Just. Can't. Say. No. Even as Harry readily admits its stupid and foolish, and in aiding these women, he's made himself critically vulnerable many times, there's something inside him that can't stand the idea of turning his back on someone who needs him. And its not just women, its children or any innocent. He wants to use his gifts as a wizard to help people to push back the darkness and chaos that normal human beings can't defend themselves against. The trolls, vampires, and dark wizards of the world had best steer clear of Chicago or Harry Dresden's gonna come knocking on your door. Oh, the irony of a wizard with a White Knight complex.
But don't mistake him for some gung-ho destroyer of evil and proliferator of all that's good and pure. That's Michael's job. Harry is more than aware that he's not a perfect person and a far, far cry from "good". Harry has a darkness inside him that he knows quite well and has nearly fallen prey to. He's done things that have horrified him after the fact, but were ultimately very necessary in the long run. He's been incredibly cruel to enemies who have begged mercy, he's killed, he's struck out at others in anger, he's taken pleasure in striking back at those who've hurt his friends. He's all too aware that, as a wizard - and a powerful one at that - he's got more than enough power to control the world around him. He can bend those around him to his will if he wished. It's one of the great burdens of his magic that he deals with every day. A very, very dark voice that revels in his power and capacity for destruction. And some of the times that he's fallen to this darkness and anger has caused Harry to go sinking into a pit of self-recrimination and disgust. The supreme irony is that, in knowing and acknowledging his own flaws and capacity for evil, Harry ends up being an even better person than those who believe themselves stainless and righteous.
But for as much as Harry has his darkness inside him, the human being Harry, not the wizard, has prevailed over some of the worst enemies he's ever faced. He's turned down the power to save his own life - a hexed belt that turns its wearer into a powerful werewolf - because he'd rather die as a human being than live under the incredibly addicting power of black magic and be a monster. His refusal of great power from the likes of Mab the Winter Queen of Faerie, the knowledge of a necromantic ritual that could literally turn him into a godling, the shade of a Fallen that lived inside his mind for many years is a testament to his will power and his moral standards.
However, if you ask anyone who knows Harry - enemy and ally alike - to name the one thing that distinguishes Chicago's only wizard in the phone book, it would be his mouth. Harry deals with all manner of stress, be it fear, anger, worry, or even just boredom, with snark. Be it gods, spirits, crime lords, vampire royalty, or the biggest and baddest beasts from the Nevernever, Harry firmly believes that the great powers of the world deserve to get their high horses shaken once in a while and he does so with glee and gusto. Mostly to his detriment, mind you. This all goes hand in hand with the fact that big, bad wizard Harry Dresden is a big, fat nerd. He will relay tidbits of wizardly advice in Yoda's voice, have deep and involved debates in the middle of gearing up for an invasion of a vampire lair on who in the party is what character from the Fellowship. He plays his world's version of Dungeons and Dragons for godsake!
Abilities: Harry Dresden uses several objects as magical foci, most prominently his staff, blasting rod, shield bracelet, and energy-storing rings. He also uses his silver pentacle pendant inherited from his mother. For his personal spells, he uses pseudo-Latin; for this he also draws on various other foreign languages, including Spanish and Italian.
Harry describes himself as being bad at delicate magic, being better with undelicate magic, though as of Changes, he has advanced his skill in veils due to having to keep up with his apprentice, Molly. What he lacks in the precise application of magic, he can sometimes make up for by using a lot more power for his spells than would be necessary if he were more skilled, going for quantity instead of quality.He is especially good with things requiring the redirection of energies and thaumaturgy. But although he might not be very good at them, he states that he is able to learn and use finer magic with a lot of practice and concentration.
Its indicated that Wizards, while human, may have slight genetic differences that grant them their magic, long lifespan, and their ability to eventually completely heal any non-fatal injury due to perfect replication of cells. Along with this, Harry has a pseudo-magical skill for Hearing that allows him to hear things clearly over longer distances than most other humans.
Items (Note: These items are here just for completion's sake)
Staff - A long staff used for channeling magic. Also works well as a bludgeoning weapon.
Blasting rod - A rod used for channeling fire spells.
Shield bracelet - A bracelet with tiny medieval shield charms on it. Used for creating force fields. The bracelet began as a simple silver construction, but has evolved to feature a chain of multiple metals woven together and shields of different metals.
Energy-storing rings - Rings which are enchanted to store a small fraction of kinetic energy into them at all times. Harry first owned only one copper ring, and and later had rings made of silver for each of his fingers. They are described as simple bands with a number of runes inscribed on the interior. As of Small Favor, he had upgraded these rings from single bands to three bands stacked on top of each other, with each band capable of holding the same amount of energy as one of the previous rings.
Silver pentacle pendant - A pendant Harry inherited from his mother. Used for various spells, including a focus for calling up wizardly light. Also as of the events in Changes Harry has gained a red jewel that has joined to the center of the pentacle. This jewel contains the entire knowledge of Harry’s mother pertaining to her vast knowledge of The Ways.
A cane sword - able to channel earth-based magic
For mundane weapon backup, Harry started off with a Smith and Wesson .38 Chief's Special revolver, upgraded to a unknown .357 revolver, and his most recent firearm is a Smith and Wesson Model 29 .44 Magnum revolver.
Spells
Forzare: force - From the same Latin root as the English word 'Force'.
Solvos: Break spell.
wind-based:
Ventas servitas: wind - From the Italian 'Wind, serve me!'
Ventas reductas: small scale wind (much like a snow blower)
Ventouse giostrus: generates a miniature cyclone
fire-based:
Flickum bicus: small fires (lighting candles, and other small scale fires) - References the "Flick your Bic" lighter commercials
Fuego: destructive fire attack - From Spanish for 'Fire'.
Pyrofuego: larger destructive fire attack
electricity-based
Galvinius: used with copper chain focus as a kind of taser
Fulminos/Fulminas: generates or redirects a bolt of lightning
earth-based:
Geodas: earth. Creates sink hole
Gravitus: concentrates gravity
Dispertius: creates a crack/hole in the ground
Resarcius: seals holes in the ground
Ventas Ferro: used to manipulate metal magnetically
Aquilevatus: water. creates a curtain of water
Interessari, interressarium: tracking spell, with blood and a compass
Hexus: Shuts down electrical equipment.
Noctus ex illuminus: illusions
Dormio, dorme: used to put someone into a dreamless sleep
Aparturum: opens a way to the Nevernever
Arctis: freezing/ice
Lumen, camerus, factum: creates a holomantic illusion of anybody; illusions are mostly opaque
Infriga: sucks fire/heat away from a given area creating ice, apparently a part of his power as Winter Knight.
Voce, voco, vocius: allows long distance communication when used with a special obsidian stone and a circle
Other:
Harry’s training as a private eye and the various tutors (both malevolent and neutral) through his life have help Harry develop a keenly analytical mind. He’s fairly adept in discerning motives and reading normal people, and his life spent pitted against the big bads of the world has helped develop a flexibility of thought and a skill for pre-planning. While nowhere near a genius level, hard-won experience makes him an adaptable foe that is quick to capitalize on a weakness should he spot one.
Upon taking up the mantle of the Winter Knight, Harry earned exceptional power over ice, being able to draw the heat out of even fire itself. In addition, he has gained preternatural speed and strength, being able to keep pace with a half-vampire and crack the ribcage of a fully fledged vampire with a heavy kick. Training with Karrin Murphy has made him a decent close quarters combatant and he’s a fair shot, but nothing that is really going to shine against experienced opponents, especially in comparison to his magic
Network sample: "I'm Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden, Chicago's only wizard in the yellow pages.
I'm also dead. Or at least fatally shot.
It's almost disappointing, of all the big, bad and ugly things that I've pissed off in my life, the thing that takes me out is a sniper from a distance. I'm a wizard, isn't there some rule that I die taking down a dragon or some big, fiery demon as my hobbit friends look on in fear at my heroic sacrifice? And just before my date with Murphy, too." Harry turns, pacing before the camera. He's built up a good head of steam and really getting into the spirit of loud complaining. "But what really is getting my newly deceased goat is the fact that, in the middle of the goold ol' light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel, I wake up in the middle of a room that's not mine with a mask on my face and a...blank mirror in my room. Really, its just this murky, dark mirror that looks like Bloody Mary is going to come out of any second.
No pearly gates or fiery pit? I'm a little insulted. I take out demons and fallen angels and all I get is the afterlife version of a bed and breakfast?"
Log sample: Maybe its shock, because he barely felt the cold waters of Lake Michigan claim his body as he fell over the side of the Water Beetle. He didn't even feel the high caliber shot go straight through his heart. He was numb and confused the whole way through his death. Cassius' voice screaming DIE ALONE ringing through the last, struggling synapses as the blood loss and asphyxiation shut them down just before the soft whisper of a familiar woman's voice: Hush, now.
He didn't have time to really register who that voice belonged to, because he was currently falling out of a bed and onto a hard, wooden floor. If that weren't enough to confuse him, a slobbery, large tongue swiping at his face and a whine that sounded more in place for a Yorkie rather than his Dogasaurus Rex of a pet was just sending his brain scattering even further for any inkling of sense.
Pulling himself into a sitting position, Harry Dresden reached out and mindlessly petted Mouse's head as he wiped drool from his cheek. Blinking eyes against the stream of morning light drifting in from a window, the wizard wobbled to his feet (leaning on Mouse a little bit) and took a look around himself. Looking down, her looped a finger through the hole in his shirt where the bullet hole that ended his life stood away from the untouched flesh underneath. The cotton was stiff with dried red blood, as was his fleece-lined jacket.
"Stars and stones, I don't think I'm in Chicago anymore."
