Here's looking at you, kid [for Lara, Riley, Val]

[bachjones]

                                                                                                                                                                                                                         


As Lara had promised Bach, she had asked Riley and Valeria for their opinion on whatever had happened to him. After putting some thought into finding some time in their busy schedules (except for Bach, of course), they all managed to meet up at Lara's place today, just after lunch. 

Comments

[bachjones]

"I'm more a coffee guy. Okay."

He sits back. "You're all so very polite here. Well, except for miss Quinn but I can't say that because we're in her house and she's trying to turn me scaly again, I guess. You have my permission to touch my temples."

[bewitchinghaze]

"It's how our parents raised us. Threaten Riley in any way and the politeness will fly out the window though," she warns. She sits across from him and reaches up to press her fingers to either side of his head.

"Just keep breathing normally. This may feel a little weird. Some people say tingly, some just say it's a pressure." Breathing in and out a few times, she lets a vine of magic flow through her and into his head, deciding a mental block is the best place to start to look.

[bachjones]

"Hey, why should I threaten Riley? What did she tell you? I thought we had fun together." He continues in a huff. "Although all this is kinda her fault if you think about it. Hey that was weird."

[bewitchinghaze]

"As her sister, I take it upon myself to threaten all of her friends, just in case they hurt her, emotionally or physically," she mumbles, eyebrows twitching in concentration. "So how, exactly, is this kind of her fault?"

[bachjones]

"Younger sister, right?"

Bach may squirm a little because damn, this feels weird. "Miss Quinn told me to be calm and comfortable or I couldn't drop the scales. I tried like a lot of things and then suddenly the afternoon with Riley came up. She fixed me of my hiccups." His smile is more honest, innocent this time. "It was just so silly and fun and ..easy and I open my eyes and everything's gone.

Like ten minutes later Cinderella doesn't want to come near me and I can't tell stori- sing anymore."

[bewitchinghaze]

"I'm the younger one, yeah."

She kicks him lightly in the shin. "Stop moving so much. And stop not telling us everything. If you went to a regular doctor and hid something, you could be misdiagnosed. Same thing applies here."

Val bites down on her lower lip as she comes up against a barrier. She reduces her vine to a hairbreadth, trying to find a way through it. "This is... strange. I think I've found the problem but it doesn't seem to be anything you did yourself..."

[bachjones]

"It feels weird! Did you just kick me? What kind of doctor does that?"

He looks at her. "I just told you what happened? Why do the women hear always think I'm not telling everything? And of course I didn't do it myself, I don't do magic. So what is it? Can you fix it?"

[bewitchinghaze]

She kicks him again, outright frowning now. "Don't sass at me."

"Because you keep cutting yourself off when you speak. That's a really good sign someone isn't being entirely truthful," she snips. "It was possible it was just a mental block you placed yourself. You were so desperate to control your transformation that you pushed it all down behind a mental barrier. That's not the case here though. This is outright foreign magic."

Val pushes at the barrier, trying to crack it to let her in further, but only succeeds in bringing beads of sweat to her forehead. "It's not budging... We may need to find who placed it before we can remove it."

[bachjones]

"What the - would you stop?!" He grabs her hands. "I already have one moody woman hurting me, thank you please. And she makes sure to tell me what I think and feel as well, so I don't need you for that either."

[bewitchinghaze]

"I am not moody," she huffs, tugging her hands away. "And if that hurts, you're a bigger baby than I thought. You're going to just have to live with this block until we can find who put it there. Or, at the very least, why and how."

[bachjones]

"What the..? I'm not a big baby!" He grabs another sandwich and starts munching it loudly. "Why are you even here if you only want to offend me. And not even help me. I have a block?"

[bewitchinghaze]

"You are so very a big baby! You can't even sit still for five minutes of magical examination!" she snaps, irritable and tired. "Did I not just tell you what, exactly, is wrong with you? I'd consider that helping. Yes, you have a block. Someone put it there. It's like there's a wall between your siren-ness and the rest of you."

[bachjones]

"It's not like you're removing it or something!" He meets her eyes. "I used to sing and make music before growing scales. So why's that gone now? And why do I have a block?"

[bewitchinghaze]

She throws her hands up, rolling her eyes. "I just said I can't remove it. It's very thorough. It can likely only be removed by the person who put it in place, or someone who knows the exact spell they used."

"Your musical ability is likely connected to your siren heritage. You'd likely still be fairly musical if you were just a plain human, but with sirens, your music will always be connected to your... magic, for lack of a better word," she explains, digging in her bag for a satchel of energy tea. "Maybe you annoyed someone so much they put it there, hm?"

[bachjones]

"Okay, okay! I don't know what I did to make you so angry but whatever. And I never piss off people. People like me. Used to like me. As long as I sing."

He deflates a little. "But if it's just that, why doesn't my cat like me and why can't I sleep any more?"

[bewitchinghaze]

"You're irritating me," she grumbles. "I'm trying to help you and you're fidgeting like a child and getting snippy when I try to help. And it's possible you sang to someone then, after you left, they realized what happened and were unhappy. People generally don't like being influenced like that."

Val scratches her nose as she thinks. "Cats are very... sensitive to supernatural changes. Hence why they're normally associated with witches. They've got one paw in the supernatural themselves. She's probably disconcerted by your change. As for your sleeping... I'd guess it's just a side effect of not being connected to that side of you," she offers, digging into her bag. "I can give you some herbal tea that should knock you right out, if you want. Riley can testify to how well it works."

[bachjones]

"One paw in the supernatural."

He drops his face in his hands. "Yes. Sure. Please, I'd like the tea. And before this place I never met any magic people or siren or however I need to call them. It happened here, because I wanted the scales gone. Not ..this isn't some long distance shit. I think."

[bewitchinghaze]

"Don't mock my phrasing," she warns, digging into her bag and pulling out a weeks worth of sleep inducing tea satchels.

"This should knock you out hard within half an hour, so take them right before you go to bed. Don't plan on reading a book or anything unless you want to fall asleep with it on your face," she advises him. "Do you have any inkling who would do this then? It would help to have an idea where to look."

[bachjones]

"I don't have books. Except for an atlas. I don't read atlases in bed."

He looks up and takes the little bags. "One of these every night? I don't know, the only people here I've made angry are Lara Quinn and you. My mother said my father was an smooth talking angry bastard, but I haven't even met him yet. Never dated a witch, as far as I know. So no, I don't know. Sorry."

[bewitchinghaze]

"You get my point. Take it and then go straight to bed. Yes, one every night, or whenever you want to sleep. It'll knock you out for a good eight hours though so... Don't take it if you just want a quick nap."

She drums her fingers on her knee, thinking. "If I get Riley's help we may be able to track the source, but it's not an exact science. This is going to take more than one meeting, either way."

[bachjones]

"I don't take naps. Well right now I do because I'm just too bored to do anything else but okay, I get it. Only when you have some serious sleep."

He winks at her. "I'm so happy about that. I mean, miss Quinn is already going soft on me, I will have to have some angry woman around me. And Riley's too sweet. As long as she doesn't gives me hiccups."

[bewitchinghaze]

"Tch. Don't go trying to charm me. It's not going to work," she warns. "I'll talk to Lara and find out what times are good for us all to meet up here again, unless you have a preferred place to do this?"

[bachjones]

"I wouldn't dare to even try, miss Jung. I don't have my scaly side to help me out any more, why even bother?"

He chuckles. "There's food here. If miss Quinn's okay with it, I'm okay with it. The dog isn't that bad."

[bewitchinghaze]

Val rolls her eyes, not the kind of person who handles mopey people well. She just doesn't have the patience. "We're working to get it back, for goodness sake. I'll talk to Lara about the time and we'll all come back and get to work on figuring this all out, okay? Okay."

[bachjones]

"Why? Got nothing better to do with your time? Real people to save?" He puts his hands up in defeat. "Whatever you want, Val."