Mike wrote in his grimoire with a black gel-pen. When given the choice, he would prefer to work with more modern technologies, though he didn’t quite trust the computer to keep his magical information.
He would think of a spell, and it would come to mind, and then he’d write it down immediately. He’d already filled two books this way since Hades had given him access to dead mages’ spells, and was working on some agricultural spells, when he heard someone banging on the metal door upstairs.
He used a spell to project his voice outside, “Be with you in a sec,” and he stopped. The spell that he was writing was unfinished. He concentrated, and got that spell back again, and finished writing it up.
Mike put the book on the shelf. It looked like other books with nondescript bindings, old books that didn’t put the titles on their spines. He got up from the chair, stretching, and walked out of the library, up the stairs to the door.
He opened the door, and a man in a low hat and trench coat stood there. He carried a staff that he hadn’t had before, one that reeked of magic. “Mister Dresden,” Mike said. “Come in, come in.”
“Good morning.” He shook the rain off his coat before coming in. “I didn’t know if this was too early to call on you…”
“Not at all. My boyfriend leaves for work at around seven, so I have nothing else to do, and I hate television. Come downstairs.”
The man followed, the staff clicking on the stairway as he walked. “I see you brought a heavy-hitter.”
“You have Skulls and Lost outside.”
“They don’t come in here, which is the important part.”
He chuckled, “I suppose.”
“Can I interest you in some tea?”
“Sure, why not.”
Mike lead him to the apartment. He took down the items from the cabinets. “Won’t your tenants be mad that we’re here?”
“Does it look like I care? This is my place, I own it.”
“Right, right, I guess.” Dresden sat on the low stool opposite Mike.
“So you’re the only wizard in Chicago. I might go set up shop there.” Mike turned around and grinned.
“There’s plenty of other cities.”
“Oh, sure there are. I was thinking, actually, St. Louis. Busy enough to keep me alive, but it’s Missouri, for crying out loud.”
“And they have the Cardinals.”
“Huh? Aren’t Cardinals everywhere?”
He chuckled again. “Baseball team.”
“Oh!”
“You’re really not up on popular culture, are you?”
Mike drew a rune on the kettle to make the tea boil without putting it on the stove. “My boyfriend’s trying to drag me kicking and screaming into the 21st century. I mean, I like the technology–” He pulled out his iPhone. He looked at it curiously. “It’s acting weird.”
“It’s me,” Dresden said. “I don’t work well around technology.”
“Your magic?”
He nodded.
“I can see it with your staff.” He motioned to the wood staff that was close to Dresden’s hand. “I don’t even have to Look at it.”
Dresden offered a half-smile. “You live in a nasty neighborhood.”
Mike laughed, and poured the tea. It was old-fashioned loose-leafed black tea. Dresden put sugar in his, but Mike drank his straight-up. Mike put away the unused cream. “I picked the neighborhood for the ley line here.”
“I kind of figured.”
“We’re all a bunch of oversensitve men, we mages.”
Dresden laughed.
“Did you come here for a reason?”
“I was thinking of taking a look at your books again.”
“Looking for anything in particular?”
“No,” he said. “Just browsing.”
…
(To be continued?)
Grim meeting Dresden had been RP’ed out already.