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Tweak says, "Pardon my French."

CHAMBERS, samara b. (tracelines) wrote in pandorarpg,
@ 2011-12-26 13:44:00

Entry tags:

!status: complete, ^date: november 09 2003, character: elijah chambers, character: samara capper

Characters: Elijah Chambers & Samara Chambers
Setting: Chambers home, 9 November 2003, 10:21am
Rating: General Public
Summary: Discussing how to deal with the nightmare-memories and revealing long-kept secrets.

Regardless of how frightened she may have been the day before when she had the run-in with Zarkin Frood, the fact remained that he had given her valuable information about these 'nightmares' that she could use to get her and her family somewhere further along in solving the entire mystery. She and Eli might not be on the best terms at the moment, but that didn't rightly matter because he would put it aside if it meant working on something intellectual—she knew him well enough for that. And maybe none of that really mattered anymore because right now this was what was most important: compiling what they already knew and finding out what else they needed to figure out to solve this matter once and for all.

Eli's part was essential though, because of his access at the Ministry, so she would need his help. She needed to find out what he had already researched on this matter anyhow and amass it with her own knowledge so that they could converge on the same road and stop with all this 'need to know' shite because she had a family to protect and she didn't have time to wait around on her husband and his ideals of when he thought he was ready to let her in on his secrets. This was one that she wasn't going to wait on, whether he was okay with it or not, he would just have to deal with that.

Samara walked into his study, where he always was, with Argus close at hand, and dropped the few books and newspapers she had pulled onto the other end of his desk by the open seat. "Pandora Zurlo," she said simply as she sat herself down in the seat and greeted the golden retriever who walked over to her as she had entered the room.

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skittish
2011-12-27 02:22 am UTC (link)

It was funny how that when there was something to figure out, any prior dispute between them didn't matter. Eli was invigorated by this new energy between them, although not at all willing to admit that it was possible they could have been here two days ago. He might have been a genius, but he was far from perfect or even all the compassionate and empathetic.

He paused when she asked the question about the box and immediately looked at her like she was stupid. "There's any number of things under investigation down there, even working in the department, you don't often know about something until it comes across your lab." Although if it had something to do with memory, he was surprised it hadn't been brought to his attention - that was what he had been in the realm of his research.

"What if the magic was similar to how a horcrux was constructed - not that would account for the dispersal pattern, but it an interesting aside to consider?" Especially if Pandora Zurlo was the one behind all of this. What she was trying to gain was clear, the more interesting part was how she was going about it.

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tracelines
2011-12-27 02:49 am UTC (link)

Samara rolled her eyes at him. "I don't know what you work with, don't patronise me," but she wasn't really all that affected by it. She was more interested in getting results than arguing with him.

She considered his statement. "That would actually make more sense as to how they are behaving. I've never heard of anyone manipulating memories in such a way but that doesn't mean it can't be done. So say the box had horcrux-like magic so that when it was opened, the memories left it and sought out vessels because those pieces of soul have to be attached to objects. In this case the memories had to be attached to objects, but since memories come from humans first and foremost they sought out human vessels rather than inanimate ones because they felt most familiar."

Samara chewed on her lip for a moment. "My next question was whether she was murdering these people because she wanted to or because she had to in order to retrieve the memories from them, but if we consider it as horcrux, she would have to, wouldn't she? We can't pull the memories by any conventional means, but...do you think they might remove themselves if we tried to create a horcrux ourselves?"

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skittish
2011-12-27 03:17 am UTC (link)

"Creating a horcrux isn't something just anyone can do. Dozens of wizards have tried and only ended up getting themselves killed." Even for someone with questionably morals and a desire to push the limits of possibility, Eli had never considered that he would be able to successfully create a horcrux. It was a nasty bit of magic that opened up a world of complications. "It would be more likely that this is some sort of variation on a horcrux." And therefore, more toward where his own personal interests lay. Eli hadn't lied when he told Samara that he had no intention of dying other night. It was just a matter of finding a way to keep living pasted the physical limitations of a body.

It was exactly what made the conversation they were engaged in dangerous. This was one of things he didn't tell other people, not even Samara because it was uncertain and also because it was supposed to be a forbidden thing. People got all sorts of uneasy when you started looking into life after death and that quest for immortality. It was also a dangerous game to be caught up in given the likely qualities of others with similar interests.

"If the recent murders are related to the memories, I wonder if there was an order she was going in, like if certain memories unlock different means for her to return or somehow regain what she once was." It was a slight redirection of topic, but subtle enough. "And perhaps the memories are defining moments for her, and it would be interesting if we knew if she was recreating the memory she wanted back."

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tracelines
2011-12-27 03:54 am UTC (link)

"I know that, Eli. I certainly wasn't suggesting that we go try and make a horcrux just for fun." Not that she wouldn't consider it if it meant keeping her and Eli alive. Samara's morals were nothing if not questionable and her family was more important to her than anything else so the limits to what she'd do to protect them were rather infinite. "But still, if there are similarities then there must be methods of casting the memories out without actually having to kill the vessel it's carried in." She had no idea where they would even start to figure that sort of thing out seeing as this was magic they'd never tampered with before and didn't rightly understand, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to go there.

Samara leaned back in the chair again, considering what he said. "One way to know is to get a hold of Lavender Brown's collection of the dreams. She hasn't posted them in the journals that I know of but there might be a way of getting her to submit some of them to us. I sent her my dream anonymously so if I reveal who I actually was maybe she'd share some of the dreams with me if I asked her the right questions." She considered some of those questions she could ask. "And why would the two of us have similar memories? Does that mean other people who are connected in some manner ended up with similar memories? I wonder if that would have something to do with our own memories of each other or our love for one another..."

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skittish
2011-12-27 05:07 am UTC (link)

"Lavender Brown?" He repeated, unsure that he heard her correctly. That wasn't a name he knew and he didn't understand why Samara would so willingly tell things to a stranger, even anonymously. Really, he would have liked to think she knew better because with the right sort of motivation, Eli knew there was no such thing as anonymous. "And she has a database? All those dreams just sitting around ripe for the plucking - I wouldn't be surprised if someone stole it from her." Especially if this was random, then whatever vehicle Pandora was currently using could certainly need some sort of map to make things easier.

"Is it smart to announce who you are to this girl? You might as well just make a giant sign." Sometimes keeping secrets saved lives. They kept people safe because the fewer people who knew about something, the fewer people who could use that against you. Eli did not like the idea of Samara outing herself to some girl who cared about dreams at the onset.

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tracelines
2011-12-27 05:45 am UTC (link)

"She was in Harry Potter's year, a Gryffindor." Samara had done a bit of research on the woman before she decided to submit her dream to the database. Submitting anonymously had not been an issue to her and she had decided that telling her might make some sort of difference. And the whole idea had been to use the resource in the future if ever she needed it. But apparently her husband thought this wasn't a good idea in the least.

Samara raised an eyebrow at him. "I didn't say I was going to do it quite yet, I only said that we have the option if we were to want the information. I have other sources as it is - she's certainly not going to be the first person I go to. But you're right, it could always be stolen from her." She shrugged. She didn't find this nearly as worrisome as he seemed to find it, maybe because she knew she had no plans to do any of this without express need. Everything she was saying was mostly theory but he tended to be totally literal with it all.

"I don't think she's really all that important, besides the fact that she's the one who has the database. Her knowing who I am isn't really such a worry to me, but I'm not going to go see her without talking to you first."

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skittish
2011-12-27 06:34 am UTC (link)

Harry Potter. He had been the first to die, well, second he supposed, but the first that anyone had taken note of. Then it was a game to work out who died after that in connection with this thing and if that mattered. Surely, you didn't just kill Harry Potter for the fun of it. Well, maybe some people did, but there was bound to be a purpose because it was a high profile death. The kind that was going to start people on a trail.

Unless that was the point.

There were too many variables now, dozens of possibilities of how this could play out depending who was at the helm. His mind was racing to keep up until he caught that one little throw away sentence fragment. It wasn't the most important part, but it was jarring enough to make him notice.

"You have other sources?" He might have done better than to sound so surprised at the face, but he couldn't help it. Apparently, Samara had been busy looking into the nightmares and hadn't shared with him. Eli wondered briefly if that made her or him the bigger hypocrite at the moment.

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tracelines
2011-12-27 07:08 am UTC (link)

Samara sighed, leaning back into the chair. She didn't know how much of this was going to be an issue, but she wasn't going to let him try to turn any of the other night's conversation back on her just because she had one day of not telling him something when she was there - now - telling him all of it. There might be one secret she had, but she didn't have as many as she figured he did. "Really Eli?"

She shook her head before taking a deep breath. "Yes, I have one. I ran into Theodore Nott yesterday in Diagon, after almost being accosted by a slightly crazy but nonetheless informative man by the name of Frood. He not only told me that I was going to be killed by Pandora, he also told Jase that Pandora would make me kill him too, so your son knows about some of it as well. Theodore happened upon us before the man ran off and offered to talk to me and I took him up on the offer. It only happened yesterday, so no, I'm not keeping it a secret."

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skittish
2011-12-28 02:52 am UTC (link)

Theodore Nott. This was seemingly becoming a game where his wife named a number of people he didn't know because they weren't important enough for him to take notice or didn't bother to learn the name. Although there was a pattern here, her telling things to other people. One that it wouldn't surprise him to learn he was somehow the cause of.

"Then perhaps we should talk to him about it." Their son had always been smart, taking after him in that regard. Lying or pretending that everything was fine would likely only make the child worry more. "I mean if I were his age and my parents were going through something like this or not, I would have been aware of it and would want to know if there was something I could do."

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tracelines
2011-12-28 04:04 am UTC (link)

Samara hated the idea, but she knew that they had to tell him something, now that he had skewed ideas of what was going on. And it wasn't like he didn't know that Samara had been jumpy for the past week anyway, so it was about time they explained something to him, but she still wanted to protect him from it all.

"Eli, you've got to be careful how you explain this to him. He may be intelligent enough to understand it, but he still doesn't need to know all the details. He's just a child and deserves the chance to act like one while he's got the time. Which means there is nothing he can do besides let us do what we are are already doing." Samara gave him that 'mother knows best' look she'd perfected over the past five years after spending all her time at home with their son. She knew that Eli was a good father, but that didn't change the fact that he saw himself in Jason and could sometimes consider the boy to be far older than he really was.

Samara pulled out her wand and cast the spell that projected her voice into whatever room her son was in, rather than yell across the house. "Jase, will you come to your father's study for a moment please? We'd like to talk to you." When Jason made his way into the study he walked straight toward Samara who picked him up automatically and set him in her lap. He looked at both his parents expectantly.

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