Zania Castell (brokendoll) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2018-10-13 15:53:00 |
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Entry tags: | #november 2017, reagan, reagan x zania, zania |
Who: Reagan and Zania
Where: Reagan’s home
When: Saturday evening, November 18th
Status: Complete
Reagan nearly had everything ready that she needed for the magic she was casting that evening. Her work room was scrubbed clean and organized, the large wood table in the center ready for use. She was wearing comfortable clothes, a pair of jeans and a flannel button down, her hair tied up with a scarf to keep out of her face. Ideally Caius would have been home and the two of them would have been spending a Saturday night together, but instead she was waiting for Zania so the two of them could study a love spell Reagan had been paid handsomely for. She wondered what Caius would have thought if he knew the two women were willingly spending time together. He might not have cared much, if he couldn’t remember the reasons behind the discord.
In any case, they had spent a bit of time together the night before at the tree lighting ceremony after Caius had sent her a text, inviting her to attend. There had been quite a large crowd, families and couples gathering in the area, enjoying the festivities. Reagan had arrived shortly before the tree lighting itself and though he had been busy for most of the evening, the two of them shared a coffee by the pier until Caius was summoned by one of his employees. Knowing he would be busy for most of the evening, Reagan didn’t invite him to stay the night. Instinctively, she felt it was best to let Caius reach out to her if he wanted her again… which he would. It was just a matter of how long he denied himself before he couldn’t take it anymore.
But tonight she had to focus on something other than Caius and his memory issue. She had a bottle of wine already opened and was on her second glass when she heard a car pull up into her driveway. This would be the first time Zania was ever in Reagan’s home and it was… a weird feeling. She downed the rest of her wine quickly with a tip of her glass and then poured another before walking towards the foyer to unlock and let Zania inside. Gods, all she wanted was for them to get through this without clawing each others eyes out. Reagan had no desire to clean blood out of her carpets.
At some point Saturday afternoon Zania began to wonder what the fuck she was doing going to Reagan’s house that night. It wasn’t like Caius had reached out to her again, and the more she thought about it, the more she doubted he ever would. She’d told him things he didn’t want to hear, turned him down, and had been of no help whatsoever. It was for his benefit that she’d gone to Reagan, though thus far she’d been able to find nothing of value, and if she’d never seen Reagan again she might have decided it was none of her business.
But then Reagan had shown up at her shop, and she continued to be curious. About the spell on Caius, about the love spell Reagan was going to cast, but most of all about why Reagan had even offered. It was so far out of her comfort zone that Zania had brought her own bottle of wine, just in case she needed to contribute, because she might need an entire bottle for herself. Walking up to Reagan’s house, she couldn’t help but notice how different it was from her own, how cookie-cutter perfect. Squeaky clean. It made her aware of the dirt on her boots from the cemetery, though at least her jeans were clean, even if they were ripped. But she didn’t own a pair that weren’t. As she stood on the porch and rang the bell, she tugged her leather jacket closer around her and shivered. Hopefully this wasn’t a horrible idea.
Reagan reached the door just as Zania rang the bell and she took a moment on the other side of it to take a breath and calm whatever nerves lingered. When she opened the door, she offered Zania a smile and stepped back so the other woman could come inside. She took in the side of Zania's red hair, her clothes and ripped jeans. Not for the first time, Reagan wondered what it was about Zania that attracted Caius. Obviously the woman was gorgeous, Reagan could admit that. But it always made Reagan feel a little inadequate, like maybe Zania had something Caius wanted that Reagan couldn't give him, and that's why he indulged whenever the two of them had broken up. These were questions she would probably never have the answers to, and it would be better for all of them if Reagan could just let it all go. She would try.
"I wasn't sure if you would actually show up," Reagan admitted, moving to shut the door after Zania had stepped inside. "I've got wine glasses." She motioned to the bottle in Zania's hand and lead the other woman down the hall towards the kitchen. "I'm glad you did though. Show up."
“It was either this or cage building,” Zania said with a small upturn of her lips. “And as much as I love welding, the company was better.” She was half teasing, but at the same time she also couldn’t count on Nic and Lem not to disappear on her. Not that she blamed them, and honestly she was thankful that they bothered to leave. While this still felt like a horrible idea, that had never stopped her any other time, so why not? “I’m curious,” she said with a little shrug, and really that said it all. It wasn’t just the spell, it was Reagan. She’d never actually known her, not as anything more than the popular bitch she seemed to be in high school and life. But Caius had gone and married her, so there had to be something more. Zania unzipped her coat, revealing a soft gray sweater beneath it. “I know you said you’d have wine, but I thought I might contribute.”
Reagan couldn't help but raise a brow and chuckle at the mental image of Zania building a cage. That was certainly one interesting way to spend a Saturday night. Leading Zania into her kitchen, Reagan went immediately for the cabinet with the wine glasses. "The more wine, the better," she admitted, grabbing the stem of one and turning to slide it across the island toward the other woman. She had already had a couple glasses and she was bound to drink more now that Zania was actually there, in her house. "How have things been going for you this week?" she asked her, reaching for her the open bottle to pour another into her own glass. "How's Nic doing?"
Zania looked around as she followed Reagan, unable to help herself. They were such totally different people that the differences stood out, Reagan’s decor choices much like her style, sophisticated and classy. Her mother would have loved it. “It’s been a good week,” she said as she accepted the wine glass, her lips turning up as she thought of Gabriel. “Busy, but good. I’ve got a couple odd projects going.” Her finger tapped for a moment when Reagan mentioned Nic and she hesitated. “Did he tell you what was going on with him?” she asked. She’d told Caius, back at the Halloween gala, but she doubted that Caius shared their conversation topics with Reagan, even before he lost his memory. Reagan might not have cared, since it was about Nic, except that it was coming from her.
"Odd projects are usually the best kind of projects," Reagan said. Anything to break up with monotony of day to day life was welcome in her book. Although at this point, she was sort of wishing for that monotony again, if only to have Caius back in his right mind. She wondered what he was up to tonight. Reagan sipped her wine and shook her head slowly at Zania. "No, he didn't. Is everything all right?" There was always something going on in Point Pleasant, and Reagan had certainly been a little more than preoccupied with her own problems. But she liked Nic, so if it was something she could help with, she would.
Zania had to agree with Reagan— odd projects were her favorite. And it was even better when they came to her. But the ones she was working on had also become personal, which meant there was a thread of worry and urgency in them. They were problems that had to be solved, not sat on, and yet some of them were beyond her. Specifically, Nic’s problem. “Nic and a few other people are being… stalked, in their dreams. Like, they’re all having the same dream at the same time and there’s this thing…” She gave a little shake of her head, her focus on her glass of wine. “I’ve never heard of anything like it. They found a dream walker, but she can’t fix it. Though she was just able to see the creature.”
Reagan's dark brows lifted, her wine glass paused halfway to her lips before she finally took a sip, thinking over Nic's dilemma. "That's... fascinating. Frightening, I'm sure, but fascinating. Was the dream walker able to tell what kind of creature it is?" She had never met a dream walker before. As far as she knew, they were rare, but there was one in Point Pleasant? Reagan rarely did anything with dreams herself, but if Nic was being affected and couldn't fix the issue, then it had to be something stronger than magic.
“Fascinating, yeah, but it pisses Nic off,” Zania said. She knew that he’d tried just about everything, as had she, to stop the dreams, but nothing seemed to work. It wasn’t just magic. It was something darker, a creature, not a spell. “I know she saw it, but I couldn’t tell what it was from the description. Long finger-like claws, red eyes, sharp teeth. It sounds like something from a monster movie.” And she suspected that it was terrifying in person. Nic hadn’t seen it though. Just the dream walker. “It’s been going on a while now, randomly. At first there was this things with mirrors? Like, his reflection not reflecting him, doing different things. Then it switched to the dreams and it’s just… it’s kind of beyond us, you know? It’s frustrating.”
Reagan's gaze ticked to the side briefly as she sipped her wine and tried to imagine the creature in her mind. There were plenty of things in Point Pleasant that could have come out of a monster movie. Was it the creature in the Blackwater Woods, or something else? "In some cultures mirrors are a conduit to the supernatural," she mused, feeling much more talkative now that she had a couple glasses of wine in her, and the topic was something she was comfortable with. "If his reflection was doing something different... maybe it was trying to warn him about what was coming? Or it could have opened up his mind to whatever is stalking him there now. I can only imagine how frustrating it must be. It's hard to fight something in your subconscious, where you have no control." Reagan reached for the wine to top off her glass again, though her glass was barely half empty. "Does this creature do anything to them? Has he been hurt at all?"
“He sleep walked into the street and was almost hit by a car,” Zania said with a frown. That bothered her more than anything else. You were so vulnerable when you were sleeping and she’d had no idea it was even happening. They’d put better locks on the doors after that, but she was still worried that he could unlock them in his sleep since he could work them when he was awake. “And he had a nosebleed. But otherwise, I don’t think it’s done much to them. He did say it attacked the dream walker though, which means it could hurt him. We just don’t know what it wants. It has to want something.” And if it wanted to kill them, it could have easily done so by now. “But, I mean, other than that, he’s good,” she said, finishing off her wine and reaching for the bottle. “He’s got a new girl, which is something.”
A creature that could attack them in their sleep was definitely alarming, especially if it could control them. She wondered if Caius might have any idea what it could be and she made a mental note to ask him the next time they spoke. "Other than that," Reagan said, amused, as if being stalked by a dream creature was no big deal. "I'm glad to hear about the new girl, though. What is she like? Would I know her?" She and Nic were friends, but Reagan rarely kept up with the status of his love life. But Nic and Zan were close, so Reagan figured if Zania didn't like the woman, then it wasn't likely to last very long.
“Uhhh, no, you wouldn’t know her,” Zania laughed. “She’s very different. I’d say like me, but she’s not even like me. She’s this eccentric little pixie that lives next door. She’s the one that kept him from being hit by a car.” And so much more, but it was really hard to explain Lem now that she thought about it. Zania knew she was weird, but then all of her favorite people were. Whatever Nic and Lem had, she was fine with it, so long as Lem didn’t fuck him over. Not that Zania usually had to worry. Nic was usually the one keeping people at arm’s length.
Anyone who chose to live on Ludlow Lane was odd, in Reagan's book. The street, in her opinion, held so much negative energy. But to each their own. "I never thought about Nic's type, but I could see it being an eccentric little pixie." She would have to tease him the next time she saw him. "But that's great, good for him. Hopefully he's enjoying himself. Especially with everything he seems to be going through, I'm sure the extra support system helps." She had to assume anyway. Reagan had learned very quickly in the past couple weeks how important a support system could be.
Zania wasn’t sure he could name Nic’s type and she thought she knew him better than anyone. He’d never done well with relationships and maybe that’s why this one was working, because she wasn’t even sure that that’s what it was. She wouldn’t go so far as to say Lem was Nic’s girlfriend, just that he was seeing her and was happy, and if he was happy, then so was Zania. “It’s good,” Zania nodded. “She gets it and I think she helps. She’s not a dream walker herself, but he said she could do something in his dreams, whatever that means.” She knew Lem had abilities, but she’d thought they only related to Vex and his prophecies. Now she wasn’t so sure. They somehow worked well together, but they were their own separate thing when apart, which she found fascinating in itself.
"Oh?" That was interesting, but really nothing Reagan needed to involve herself too deeply. She had enough going on right now than to try and figure out Nic's problem, but that didn't mean she couldn't do something. "I hope someone is able to help him. Let me know if you need anything... I can ask Caius if any of this sounds like something he might have read or picked up elsewhere." She hadn't really been planning on mentioning Caius at all tonight, but apparently she'd had more to drink than she thought and it didn't seem like such a sore spot tonight, now that they were both standing in Reagan's kitchen having a civil conversation. Granted, it was about Nic, but that was better than nothing.
Zania thought it would be best not to mention Caius, since she’d never been good at walking on eggshells, but if Reagan was going to mention him then it might be safe enough. Especially since it wasn’t exactly in the context of their relationship with him— either of them. “I talked to him about it at Halloween, a while back,” she said casually. “But we didn’t know as much at the time. If he has any ideas, let me know. Otherwise, we’re kind of in a holding pattern until something else happens.” And they all hated that. Zania wanted to be proactive when it came to stuff like that. Sitting back and letting it happen to her had never gone over well and this was no better. There was no one she would protect as fiercely as Nic.
Given the circumstances of the past week or so, and everything that had happened, Reagan was feeling less hesitant to discuss Caius with Zania. Again, it might have been the wine, because she was definitely feeling a bit buzzy. "I'll talk to him," she said. "Obviously he's had other things on his mind, but Caius has always liked figuring out a solution to these kind of things, so you never know." Reagan motioned towards Zan's wine glass. "Fill up and I'll show you my work space. I know you came here to see how I cast this brand of magic, and you probably don't want to spend all night in my kitchen."
“Yeah, I didn’t expect it to be high on his list,” Zania smiled with a shrug. Even at Halloween, she had known that Caius had something he was dealing with, even if she didn’t know what. Now she couldn’t imagine that he even gave a shit, but maybe it was something to do in his spare time that wasn’t stressing about his memory. Much like coming to Reagan’s to see a love spell was. “Yeah, I figured you wouldn’t do it in here. Waaaaaay too clean,” she teased, likely a result of the wine at this point. Zania refilled her glass, then grabbed the bottle to follow Reagan wherever her shop was set up. “Plus, I’m constantly reminded that you shouldn’t do magic in the kitchen.”
Reagan smiled and glanced around her kitchen. It was clean, but so was nearly every room in her house. She couldn't help it, she liked everything to have a place, and she was not fond of dirt or dust.Leading Zania out of the kitchen, her own wine glass in hand, Reagan led her across the living room to the short hall that led to the door to her work room. She unlocked the door and flipped on the light. Her work room was organized, but definitely more rustic and cluttered than the rest of her house. She had everything she needed already laid out on the wooden table in the middle of the room. It was always strange inviting another witch into her space, but at least it wasn't Anthony D'Onofrio. She still felt some of the negative energy lingering from when he had been there. "I'll try and walk you through the spell but if I go too fast, let me know. You seem like you would be able to follow along pretty easily though."
“This is more like it,” Zania said as she stepped into Reagan’s work room. It was way more organized than hers, but it had a good vibe to it, which she totally expected from Reagan. Any lingering spells had been thoroughly cleansed, which was always a good palette to start with. She gave Reagan a look of amusement at the comment, raising an eyebrow. “I might not do love spells very often, but I still do this for a living.” And she wasn’t above speaking up if she got lost. Zania just didn’t think that was likely to happen. Even if the spell was complicated, it took a lot to lose her when it came to magic, and usually that was in types that didn’t come naturally to her. Like what Gabriel did. His magic fascinated her.
Reagan couldn't help but smirk a tiny bit as she moved to set her wine down on the table. "Then you can help me," she told her. "The oil has been burning for awhile, so it's ready to go. The lavender needs to be crushed and added to the oil, if you want to do that, and I'll get the other stuff ready." She felt a bit warm, buzzed from the amount of wine she drank, and continued to drink. Reagan lit a few candles with the wave of her fingers, need to use the wax from the red candle for the spell. She knew how complicated this spell could be, and rationally, she ought to do this spell on her own to concentrate, but Zania wanted to see it and Reagan offered, so the least she could do was include her in things. "This might take awhile, so make sure you've got enough wine."
Zania hadn’t expected the opportunity to assist, but she certainly wasn’t going to say no, especially when the instructions were so very simple. It wasn’t like Reagan was doing some kind of blood magic, though that would be awesome. Zania made sure to top her glass of wine, then moved to crush the lavender, something she always enjoyed doing. It was one of those herbs that just smelled incredible. “I’ve always loved seeing how other witches work,” she said, her tongue loosened by all the wine, making her chatty. “I know we’re all so private by nature, but we’ve all got different ways of doing things, and you never really know that there might be another way, a different way, until you see it or experience it. We get stuck in our traditions, our own grimoires, when the way to really expand our knowledge would be to share. But I get it too. You put in the work. I can talk about sharing, but there are some things that are mine.”
Reagan hummed in acknowledgment as she picked up the red candle to drip some of the melted wax into the stone bowl. "I don't mind sharing my knowledge, or how I do things... to an extent, anyway." She glanced at Zania and reached for the wine for another sip. "I'm sure there's plenty of magic you do that would interest me. I don't know many Earth witches in town, for example. None that I'm on real speaking terms with anyway. Maybe one day you can return the favor and teach me something new." If she had been completely sober Reagan might have bristled at the thought of any witch teaching her something, but the wine had eased up some of the tension in her body, not to mention it opened her mind a bit more to what Zania might he able to do that she couldn't. "Just pour the oil and the lavender in the bowl there, on top of the wax," she instructed, setting down the wine glass again and moving over to gather the sage so she could tie it with string.
“I just met this guy, an Earth witch, who’s got a connection with animals and it’s just incredible. I knew it was possible, but I’d never actually met someone who could do it,” Zania said, since Reagan had mentioned Earth witches. In any other circumstances she couldn’t have imagined bringing him up to Reagan, but it totally seemed to fit at the moment. It wasn’t like she was going to share the rest of what they’d done together, though thinking of Gabriel did make her smile. Once she was done crushing the lavender, she added it to the oil, then did as Reagan instructed and poured it over the wax. The two liquids began to swirl together and Zania stepped back to wait for further instructions or let Reagan take over.
Reagan looked impressed. "That's pretty advanced," she said, thinking about Caius and his mental persuasion. That was downright dark magic, and not something she could reveal to Zania, even with her tongue a bit looser now than usual, thanks to the wine. She wondered who the Earth witch was and if he was new to town, or someone who just slipped through the cracks. "And also pretty useful," she mused, stepping in toward the bowl to continue adding the ingredients. "Has he lived here very long?" Surely someone would have heard of that kind of ability by now. Even Caius. But maybe not. Apparently some witches were a bit more adept than hiding than others, if that was indeed the case.
“No, he’s new to town,” Zania said, taking a step back and watching Reach work. “I’m hoping he’ll stick around though.” At this point she would be disappointed if Gabriel decided to move on, though she imagined that compared to New Orleans their little town had to seem very quaint. Just wait, she thought, since Point Pleasant never seemed to stay that way for long. It still amazed her how people didn’t see what was going on just beneath the surface. “So if this is supposed to be a slow burn romance, how soon do you expect your client to start seeing results?”
A new witch in town. Interesting. She had no doubt that would spread quite quickly among their own kind, if it hadn't already. Especially if he could communicate with animals. She got to work with the sage, though it took her a moment to refocus through the distraction of the conversation and wine. Everything seemed to be coming together though, so Reagan had to assume the spell would be successful. It's not like this was the first time she'd ever done it. It was just the first time she'd done it with an audience. "I really couldn't say," she explained. "Magic affects everyone differently. The attraction will certainly be there, but the length of the road ahead of them is up to them." Reagan offered the burning sage to Zania. "Circle this counterclockwise over the bowl. I just need to crush the verbena and coltsfoot together and then liquefy it. Once that's done, I cover one of the rose quartz in the mixture and cast. So we're nearly done." She was pretty sure. Reagan's mind was racing but she was confident she did everything properly. None of the mixture was turning black or smoking, which was always a good sign.
It made Zania wonder how long the woman would have to wait to know if the spell even worked. If it were her, she’d want some kind of a sign at least. Zania took the sage from Reagan, circling it counter-clockwise as instructed. Parts of the spell were familiar to her, while others were new, and her mind wandered a bit, trying to piece together the reasoning for each step. Sometimes she could figure it out, but other times she couldn’t. “Do you ever get backlash from these kinds of spells?” She asked curiously. They seemed rather harmless, but she knew that wasn’t always the case. You were still forcing nature and sometimes it reacted in unpredictable ways.
"Usually," Reagan said, using the pestle to grind the coltsfoot and verbena in her mortar. "But it's generally nothing I can't handle. I don't do these as often as you might think." Her muscles ached from the force of which she was grinding the plant and flower together, and once she finished, she added it to the bowl with the other mixture. Reagan got to work getting a flame beneath it to warm it quickly. "Sometimes the potential consequences are enough to scare people away, but..." Reagan shrugged. "The heart wants what it wants, I suppose. Sometimes love makes fools of us. Some more so than others, you know?"
“What’s the most frequent request?” Zania asked curiously. It was good to know it wasn’t love spells, which felt like a very personal kind of manipulation, almost worse than the things she liked messing around with. Was it weird that she’d rather be cursed than have her mind messed with? Or worse, her heart? “Everyone’s a fool when they’re in love.” Even herself. She’d be reluctant to say that she ever loved Caius, even to herself, but she knew it was her feelings for him that kept her coming back when she knew he didn’t love her. It was something she was glad to put behind her. She could only imagine how Reagan was feeling, losing Caius when she finally had him for good.
"Protection," Reagan said simply. "Which makes sense, living in this town. People want protective wards on their homes, or hex bags. I do get people who want more in depth spells, but it's not frequent." She agreed with Zania that people in love were fools. Some more so than others, but love really did manipulate the senses. All one had to do was look at her long history with Caius to see just how far love could push a person. "I think it's ready," Reagan murmured, wiping her hands on the back of her jeans. "Keep up with the sage and don't stop. No talking while I'm casting. Any minor hiccup could fuck everything up." Like drinking too much wine, but Reagan felt like she had it under control. Still she closed her eyes to stop some of the room spinning so she could concentrate.
Protection. Of course. It was the first thing most witches learned, outside of basic control. Zania didn’t know how it was for people outside Point Pleasant, but she imagined that almost everyone living there probably needed protection of some sort, even those that didn’t know better. But it didn’t come for free and there was no way to put a giant protective bubble over the whole town. “Got it,” Zania said, continuing with the sage and then keeping silent so Reagan could complete the spell. Her head swam a little and it made her glad that she’d only been given basic tasks. She could handle herself, but wouldn’t have wanted something complicated after too many drinks.
Somewhere in the middle of speaking the proper incantation Reagan was so clearly and acutely aware of Zania being in her house. Standing there with sage, helping her with magic. She very nearly started laughing but managed to get through the spell without incident and she felt the magic flood her body before projecting into the universe. Lana Caldwell would be pleased. Probably. As she finished, Reagan opened her eyes and looked over at Zania. A smile twitched at her lips. "This has been a bizarre night," she said, though she didn't sound upset about it. "You can put out the sage."
Zania had thought it weird when Reagan asked her, but actually being there, assisting with a spell and drinking wine like they were old friends, that was a trip. She wouldn’t have believed it last week and still wasn’t sure she believed it now. But there she was and they hadn’t killed each other yet. “Most definitely,” Zania laughed lightly as she wrapped her hand around the burning sage, smothering the flame. It didn’t burn, it never burned, but it did send a warm little jolt through her that she rather enjoyed. “Thanks for having me over. This was…an experience.”
"It was definitely that," Reagan said. She brought the side of her hand up to her mouth to try and stifle the giggle that nearly erupted. At least the amusement hadn't kicked in hardcore until after the spell had been cast. She had a lot of cleaning up to do, though. And the alcohol had definitely made this easier. She felt less tense, less resentful. Zania was actually a little fun, which made her wonder if they might have been friends once upon a time if not for Caius. Exhaling to try and quell some of the alcohol-induced laughter that kept threatening, Reagan brushed a strand of dark hair behind her ear. "And if you ever want help with something..." She shrugged. "I'm hoping we can just... create a blank slate here."
Though Zania hadn’t had quite as much to drink as Reagan, she still found herself smiling in response. She was reluctant to admit it, but she’d enjoyed being there, something she hadn’t even thought possible. She’d expected tolerance at best and was surprised to find that they could actually get along when they wanted to—when there wasn’t a man standing between them. There weren’t a lot of situations where Zania would turn to another witch for help, and usually when she did it was her brother, but she nodded anyways. “I’d like that,” she said with a small smile. There was an opportunity here to mend bridges she hadn’t even known she might want mended. Who knew what doors may open for them if they could be on better terms, but it would be worth it to give it a try and find out.