Who: Adam Vasic and Sydney Sage What: Matchup Where: Bookstore When: Tuesday afternoon Warnings: nope Status: complete gdoc
Adam knew that Paige was having a hard time lately with the whole trying to get pregnant thing. He wished that there was something he could do to help with that. Not in a hands on way or anything, but he wanted his best friend to be happy and if having a baby with Lucas made her happy, then he would try to find a way to make sure it happened. He wished again that he had access to his father’s library here. If anyone could find an answer to how to help a witch and sorcerer conceive, it was Robert Vasic.
Then again, maybe Kristof had some answers. After all, he’d gotten Eve pregnant back home and Piper pregnant here. Of course, Eve had demon blood so that might have had something to do with it and Piper wasn’t from their world. It was all way too confusing for a guy who really wasn’t into science at all.
He was into research though and he figured that maybe he could find a book that would help. It was a crapshoot since there were so many different types of magic represented in the town and, until the dome appeared, there hadn’t been magic here at all, but Adam wouldn’t forgive himself if he didn’t at least try.
The metaphysical section at the local bookstore offered a pretty meager selection, but he was thoroughly looking over the options for anything that might have a clue.
***
Sydney, too, was looking for a clue, except she wasn’t sure where to start. Several people now had told her she would one day wield magic - including Rose, while she’d been influenced by that…spell. The thought of doing magic freaked Sydney out, but the thought of being affected by the truth magic freaked her out any more. Was this why she’d started back home? To protect herself from other magic?
She didn’t know, but she was reluctantly curious enough to try to find out. She didn’t want to talk to anyone about it - she wasn’t ready for that yet - but that left her trying to find out information on her own, unsure of even where to start.
She did, however, know where she wasn’t going to start. “This is rubbish,” she said, frowning as she flipped through a book that read like a New Age brochure. “Do people actually believe this?”
***
“People believe a lot of things,” Adam said mildly, glancing over at the young woman who was browsing nearby. “And if I’ve learned anything in my time here, it’s that everything is probably real somewhere.”
Meeting gods and aliens and superheroes were pretty good ways to open your mind to the existence of things that you previously thought only existed in stories, myths, and legends. Then again, finding out he was a half-demon before he hit double digits meant that Adam was already pretty open-minded.
It seemed that this girl wasn’t quite as willing to consider the possibilities as he was though. “Is there something specific you’re looking for information about?” he asked. “I might be able to help.”
***
That was an unfortunate statement Sydney couldn't dispute. For a girl who had been taught that all magic and the the supernatural were evil, there was a lot of it in the town she'd been pulled into.
“I'm looking for…” She winced to even say it. “Magic. Real magic.”
***
The discomfort in her expression when she answered his question was obvious and Adam wondered why she was looking for information about something she was clearly so uncomfortable with. It was really none of his business though. “I’m not sure you’ll find much here,” he admitted. “But there are plenty of people in town that you could ask for help.”
Like his best friend. And Piper. And he supposed Kristof and Lucas. There were a lot of other magic users around too.
***
That the bookstore didn’t have any reputable books on magic was unsurprising; Sydney had suspected that within two minutes of scanning the titles. She supposed she’d been expecting too much, wanting the local bookstore of a town that had never seen the supernatural until a few years ago to carry spellbooks and the like. It would’ve been dangerous and reckless for them to have done so, and she was glad they hadn’t. But that did leave her in a pickle: how did she learn about magic without consorting with magic users? She really couldn’t think of a way.
“Is there a...consortium?” she asked reluctantly. “Or a school?”
***
“Not that I’m aware of,” Adam said. “But my best friend, Paige Winterbourne, has some experience teaching new witches. And her husband, Lucas Cortez, has talked about setting up something like the Supernatural Council that we have at home so we can provide each other with more support here.”
He didn’t realize that his wording essentially outed him as a supernatural, but he didn’t really make a great effort to hide his abilities. He was cautious about using the ‘D’ word because of the popular connotations, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t talk about it.
***
“Oh,” Sydney said, and she took a small step away from him. In hindsight, she should’ve suspected he was supernatural, but there was a chance he could’ve been a human who was just interested in magic - the very sort of people she protected from vampires.
“I’m not a witch,” she felt compelled to state. “I just have people telling me I am.”
***
Adam raised an eyebrow when she stepped away. That was the first time he’d gotten that reaction around here without dropping the demon bomb. He definitely wouldn’t be sharing that piece of information with this girl.
“Are they people who know you?” he asked, curious about why people would tell her that she was a witch if she was adamant that she wasn’t. It was also a little weird to him that she wouldn’t know at her age since witches in his world came into their powers pretty young.
***
Sydney started to shake her head, then paused and frowned. “Some of them.”
One had been a total stranger; another, as close to a friend as she could get with a Dhampir. And then there was Draco, who defied categorization.
All in all, there was a wide enough range that Sydney couldn’t deny what they were saying. There was no reason why they should lie to her about being a witch. She just wished they were.
“Thing is,” she said, “I’ve never done magic.” Not real magic, the sort that got you tossed into re-education. The kind of work the Alchemists did was the result of centuries of scientific study.
***
“So you’ve got people telling you that you can do this thing which can be pretty scary and you’ve never done it,” Adam said. He could understand why she was hesitant to embrace something like that, especially at her age. In his world, people learned about that kind of thing much younger, before their opinions and worldview were well developed.
He wished that he could offer some kind of sage wisdom or advice, but he really had no concept of what would make her feel better. “You should reach out to my best friend, Paige. She can probably help you figure some things out.”
***
In one sentence, he’d nailed her reticence. It was scary, especially since she’d been taught to fear magic practically since birth. It was difficult enough to even consider the thought of being a magic user herself, let alone reach out to one for help.
But Sydney wasn’t one to hide her head in the sand - at least not for long. If she had this ability, and if it could help protect her against further magic in the future, maybe it was worth looking into.
“Do you have her contact information?” she asked reluctantly.
***
Adam was a lot more observant and intuitive than people might give him credit for when they first met him. He put on the persona of the devil may care party boy a lot, but underneath that, he was a genuinely caring guy who loved research and knowledge. “Of course,” he said, pulling out his phone so he could provide Paige’s phone number.
“I’m Adam Vasic, by the way,” he added, figuring he ought to introduce himself. “And I’ve been studying the metaphysical for a long time, so if there’s anything I can do to help, you’re welcome to contact me too.”
***
“Sydney Sage,” she replied, and she took down Paige’s information. It might take her a while to steel herself to contact the woman, but at least she would have the information when she was ready to use it.
“Thanks for the tip.”
***
“I hope it helps,” Adam said sincerely. And maybe it would also help his friend to have something to focus on other than her personal struggles. “I’ll leave you to your browsing now.”