Pointing out the very obvious boomslang skin was not helpful at all. "You're making fun of me. That's what you're doing," he seethed, holding a hand up as if he was about to hit the other man, but managed to take a breath and drop it. He needed a little patience. He needed his wand. "My ingredient is called witch’s ganglion. It's not easy to find, not like boomslang skin." He took another deep breath and glanced under the cabinet. It would be a tight fit to get his arm under there, assuming his arm was even long enough, but he wasn't about to get down there and look for it with Greengrass right behind him.

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Ford's eyes popped a little wider and he shook his head at the accusation. He might not have been entirely sure what he was doing, but he knew for sure it wasn't making fun of Darrow. That wasn't likely to help him get out of here, nor was it going to make Darrow feel any better — both of which were sort of goals, at this point. At least, both were on the horizon, orbiting each other vaguely, and he was aiming for one of them. He still wasn't sure exactly which was more important, or if one was a means to the other. In any case, he certainly hadn't planned to make fun of Darrow.

"You're not going to find it," he ventured nervously. "You didn't even see the boomslang skin." Ford was watching Darrow, and he thought Darrow was eying the cabinet, which made his heart rate pick up slightly. He didn't want Darrow to get his wand back, at least not yet. Not until he'd figured out how to prevent Darrow from force-feeding him a potion.

He took a breath, steeling himself and hoping this worked. "Untie me and tell me what to look for," he said, trying to sound confident, as though he knew what he were doing and this was a good plan for both of them. "That's your only chance. You're never going to find it by yourself."

  

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Set by Lady!

Billy stopped, for what felt like a brief moment but must have been a solid thirty seconds. He couldn't just release Greengrass, not when his wand was stuck and - oh, he still had Greengrass' wand somewhere, didn't he? His hand reached around to his backside, where his fingertips brushed against it, and suddenly he felt much more confident than he had a moment earlier.

"On one condition," he said, snapping back to reality. He stepped forward and put his hands on the rope, holding it as if he was about to untie it, but paused at the last moment. He stared at Greengrass with narrowed eyes. "If we ever meet in public, you won't act strange about it—about this." About the hostage situation, about Billy's mental break, about the spell he'd put on him, about the ingredient he needed. The spell he'd cast had done enough to prevent Greengrass from outright ratting him out, but it didn't protect against Greengrass from making social situations weird.

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Well, that was a promise Ford absolutely couldn't keep. He wasn't even capable of getting through an interaction with Dorian Fisk without making everyone in the break room look at him like he'd grown an extra head, and Dorian Fisk had never attacked him, chased him around an observatory, stolen his wand, or performed unknown spells on him. It wasn't even like Ford would have to try and make things awkward if they ever did run into each other in person. He would just be utterly incapable of not acting weird about it.

It was probably a harmless promise, though — he could just avoid running into Darrow. It wasn't like they worked together, so they didn't have much opportunity for their paths to cross, normally. And since Ford was still generally anticipating that this little interlude would end in Darrow being arrested (after someone swooped in to rescue Ford, or after he managed to get his wand back and break out, or after whatever happened next), the chances that they'd be eating lunch in the same room anytime soon were slim to none.

"Alright," he said, with a nod. "Alright. Deal."

  

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Set by Lady!

Swallowing a heavy lump in his throat, Billy's eyes dropped to the rope. It was a knot tied by magic, and would require magic to be undone. With a brief glance back at Greengrass he pulled the other man's wand from his back pocket and quietly cast the spell required to free him. Then, before the ropes even fell to the floor, he slid the wand back into his pocket and patted in there.

"Don't try anything," he said, taking a step back for safety. "You'll be looking for a plant with a pulsating red bulb. It looks like a beating heart, but has leaves—those leaves are what I need," he explained.

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It made Ford's stomach flip nervously to see his wand being used by someone else, but as the ropes fell away he considered that this was something of a victory. He was still not in great shape, since Darrow had his wand and was presumably planning on forcing him to drink some unknown potion in the near future, but having his hands free was remarkably better than he had been a few minutes ago. And Darrow didn't seem inclined to pull his hair any more, which was good.

He took a moment to massage his wrists while he listened to Darrow describe his ingredient — witches ganglion, which was a name Ford was going to remember and ask Noble about. A plant with a pulsating red bulb didn't really sound safe, at least for someone with only the bare minimum knowledge of herbology, but he'd just told Darrow that he was going to find it and he couldn't back out of their arrangement so soon. Once he'd found a few ingredients for him and Darrow had let his guard down, then he could make his move — and that would give him some time to figure out what his next move was, too, because he definitely didn't have a plan from here.

"Alright," he said with a nod. "You just wait here. I'm on it."

  

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Set by Lady!