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

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[nita_callahan]

Nita had a bad night herself last night. Although, you know, bad is a relative term here.

When she comes into the bar, though, she's already looking a little tense.

She scans the bar for familiar faces -- one in particular. The sign on the board hasn't registered yet.

[tantric_slacker]

When is a door not a door, Matt mouths.

When it's a metaphor indeed.

"You don't think-- it didn't jump to you, did it?" How would she know? Then again, it's not like anybody had come out and asked Matt, hey buddy. do you think a demon might be pulling your strings.

[nita_callahan]

Her eyes widen.

"God, I didn't think of that. But I don't think so, I didn't notice anything like that."

But then, if she didn't notice, she wouldn't necessarily remember, would she?

[tantric_slacker]

"What did you do before you came here?"

[nita_callahan]

She makes a wry face.

"Ate breakfast?"

[tantric_slacker]

"I'm sorry," Matt says, embarrassed, "it's just that that dream sounds a lot like some of mine. You know, fool me twice, shame on me."

[nita_callahan]

"Don't apologize -- it's a good question."

She blows out a breath.

"Would you recognize it? We could figure out some kind of diagnostic, I'll bet."

[tantric_slacker]

Matt pauses.

"I'm pretty certain I would, actually."

[nita_callahan]

"Let me look in my manual," she says, reaching for her bag, "there's got to be something."

A beat.

"Unless you think you can just take a look."

[tantric_slacker]

"I'd be interested in what your world's magic has to say about this," Matt says.

"Otherwise I can rig something up. I have a lot of my preferred ingredients right here."

[nita_callahan]

"I'll take a look," she says, grabbing her bag and rummaging for her manual. "The closest equivalent is probably overshadowing . . ."

[tantric_slacker]

"Overshadowing?"

[nita_callahan]

She finds the appropriate page in her manual and passes the book across to him. "Here."

Because wizardry is a gift of the One via the Powers that Be, and because of Their opposition to the Lone Power's means and ends, only under the most bizarre and unusual circumstances can wizardry be used consciously by a wizard to do the Lone One's will. (Indeed, such occurrences are so extremely rare and unheard-of that some wizards are likely to say that it's impossible

[tantric_slacker]

Matt reads it all, remembering to breathe less often than he should.

He looks up at her.

"This doesn't really say much about detecting it."

[nita_callahan]

"I'm not sure there's a lot that can be done to detect overshadowing," she says quietly.

"A friend of mine was overshadowed. When we finally caught on, It just -- destroyed him. But the Lone Power doesn't work by the same rules most demons I've heard of do."

[tantric_slacker]

His mouth presses into a thin line.

"No one has been killed," he says.

That I know of.

"And for whatever fucking reason, it's let me go twice now when it didn't have to."