the occasionally manipulated, never duplicated - Matt Jamison - Milliways

[mm_merky]

After things go pear-shaped with Tiwa ...

They go arguably even more pear-shaped. (Warning for sexual content of dubious consent in both links. Also: demons.)If you thought you'd seen Matt at the most miserable and exhausted he could get, you haven't seen him tonight. He's in the middle of the bar at a (relatively) brightly lit table, methodically

Comments

[porcupineliz]

"A demon?"

Liz looks distinctly alarmed, and very intent, as she comes to a halt by his table.

[tantric_slacker]

He frowns at her, anxious.

"You're ... Liz. Aren't you?"

[porcupineliz]

"Yeah. And you're Matt? We met in the library."

[tantric_slacker]

This is tricky.

His spells usually had to do with people, and the fragments he remembered that were related to them. He doesn't remember Liz all that well-- frankly, he's not sure his memory has improved; he's just reconstructed parts of it.

So, slowly, he says, "I didn't, um. Try to hurt you. Did I?"

He adds hurriedly, "I might have ... said I was tired, or said sorry, or made up an excuse."

[porcupineliz]

Her eyes widen a little.

"You did say you were tired," she says slowly, steadily. "But you didn't try to hurt me."

[tantric_slacker]

"Okay," he sighs, nodding.

He rubs at his eyes.

"Um, ideally I'd like to borrow something of yours for a minute for a memory spell-- just to check. The past couple of weeks for me are pretty shot."

Pause.

"For the record, in case it wasn't already clear, I put up the sign because it was possessing me. When we met."

[porcupineliz]

"I thought that might be it. Jesus fuck."

She gives him a rather sharp look. "Something of mine that I had with me when we last met, or anything about my person right now?"

[tantric_slacker]

He pauses briefly. "Shouldn't matter. Just something of yours. More personal is better."

[porcupineliz]

Beat.

She tugs off a silver bangle bracelet and slaps it down on his table, without a word.

[tantric_slacker]

"Thanks," Matt murmurs.

He pulls a few items-- he'd like to have that bowl, but he knows a variant that seems to work all right, and the object itself should supply the necessary oomph. He shuts his eyes and starts to pray, fingertips resting lightly on the bracelet.

After a moment, his breath begins to come faster.

Then his free hand shoots out to grip at the table, and his eyes shoot open.

"I--"

Well he's glad he's sitting down.

"I don't think so," he says, shaking his head. He's a moment about catching his breath. "No. We're okay. Thank you."

[porcupineliz]

Her brows tug together slightly; he's using a form of spellwork that's decidedly unfamiliar.

"Good," she says, and reaches to take her bracelet back. "Are you going to need help getting rid of it?"

[tantric_slacker]

"I would love all the help I can get," Matt says.

"May I ask what your background is? Oh and go ahead and sit down, you can move this stuff."

None of it is particularly volatile.

[porcupineliz]

She drops into the seat across from him, but doesn't make any move to shift his stuff.

"I've trained in the craft since I was a kid," she says. "My family's been in it as far back as we have records. I'm ninth generation that we know of."

[tantric_slacker]

"... Wow," Matt says.

He wonders wistfully what it'd be like to have records. This shit is genetic, he knows he must've had ancestors with power. Maybe that's part of how the family made their money.

"Uh, which craft specifically? I mean, in terms of traditions."

[porcupineliz]

"Witchcraft." Dryly amused. "Specifically."

(There is no one here who would recognize it, but: she sounds a great deal like her mother just now.)

"New England, if that tells you anything?"

[tantric_slacker]

Matt, once it's brought to his attention, looks highly sheepish about the accidental pun.

"Uh-- my associations may or may not be offensive. Does the name Clara Ward mean anything to you, by any chance?"