Who: Vex, Lem, Zan When: Sunday, Oct 22nd, afternoon Where: The Festival of Six Status: Complete
It wasn’t really hot or that bright out, but Lem had wanted to wear a black tank top and her big 50s starlet sunglasses, so she had. She’d combined it with a purple-plaid skirt, torn up black tights, and her worn leather boots and black lipstick. It was a witch festival, after all, she might as well somewhat dress the part. There were a bunch of other people around who were wearing stupider things than she was. It was making for incredible people-watching. A lot of them seemed like they were out of towners, but that didn’t bother her much. Hometowns were a bullshit concept anyway. Home was wherever you made it.
She’d made Vex stop with her at a jewelry booth, but Lem didn’t see anything that really caught her eye, and the person working it kept looking at her too closely for her to pocket anything. With a heavy sigh, Lem turned to walk some more, bumping into Vex on purpose as she did and slipping her free hand into his. Her other one was holding an oversized slushie that she was slowly nursing. “It’s like, early Halloween, but I think that’s it,” she told Vex, sounding kind of disappointed. Nobody here seemed like a real witch to Lem.
Vex sure as shit wasn't seeing anything. Everyone was just a little bit out of focus which meant they belonged to the meat space and he was honestly a little bored. He'd dressed up nice for Lem, since it was almost like going out clubbing, or so he'd thought when they left the house. Turned out it was more of a marketplace with people acting silly. Dressing nice had its own little perks though, he liked the smell of his leather jacket and the jangle of the chains attached to it so there was that. "Halloween is more fun," he muttered. "People go a little crazy on Halloween, so does everything else."
“Yeah,” Lem agreed, sounding a little pouty about it. Maybe if they had lived in the town for forever, there would have been more nostalgic appreciation tied to it, but from where Lem was standing, it just looked like a cheesy themed carnival without the rides, mixed with a craft fair. Which was what it was, but she’d kind of wanted to see some fucked up magic shows or some freaks or something. She should have known better, since this town was pretty quaint and pure on the surface. Lem swung their joined hands a bit, gazing around them as they walked. She spotted some hair that looked familiar, and lit up in a smile, tugging Vex in a slightly different direction. “Hey it’s her,” she said to him. Then, as soon as they were close enough, “Hey, Zan!”
The third day of the festival was always the slowest and Zania was ready to be done. She’d sold half her lollipops, much to her amusement, and picked up a few new witchy customers, but she didn’t imagine that anything else exciting was going to happen. Still, she’d dressed up for the part, donning an embroidered black and gold bodice top that ended just below her breast, exposing her stomach before a long flowing black skirt. It was a bit much, as all her official “witch” costumes were, and she would’ve stood out if everyone else didn’t look ridiculous. The table was still set up as it had been all weekend, with lollipops and pot brownies, tea and spices, and an assortment of bottles with labels charmed so only witches could read them. A box still sat on the corner with a ‘Do Not Touch’ sign, the contents various items that she’d collected over time. She perked up when Lem called out to her, flashing the other girl a brilliant smile. “Lem! It’s good to see you again!” Her eyes turned to the man next to her, someone she’d only seen in passing, from looking out her window a bit too much. “And you must be Vex.”
Lem made it easy for Vex to pay attention to who they were meeting, considerate enough to yell the woman's name out for him. This was the neighbor, the one with the greenhouse and the flaming red dreadlocks. He nodded at her sagely and looked at her booth with some curiosity. The unlabeled bottles caught his attention though he couldn't see very well if anything was written on them at all. "So you're a witch," he muttered, a logical conclusion to come to considering she was at the witches' festival. He ducked his head sideways and added to Lem, "And her brother's a prophet." Wasn't that right? Maybe not. Lem had met him now, a lover of storms in the middle of the night. "What happens if you touch?" It was a reasonable question, he thought. The sign only said not to do it, not why or what would happen if they did.
Lem barely paid attention to everything that was laid out on the table; she wouldn’t steal from a neighbor, so it didn’t really matter what Zan was selling. Lem was just jazzed that she was there and had a booth and that apparently made her some kind of witch and that was just cool. Nic had said they were Different, after all, so why not? She nodded knowingly at Vex’s aside, and added, “But she doesn’t keep him in the basement.” That had been a vague concern at some point, she sort of remembered, but it didn’t matter. They both seemed cool and free. Lem sucked some more frozen sugar ice up through her straw as she looked at the box that wasn’t touchable, also curious.
“Of course,” Zania grinned, though this was literally the only time she’d admit to being a witch so freely. Almost every vendor there claimed to be a witch, so there was no reason to take her seriously unless they wanted to. The comment about Nic caused her to raise a brow, not entirely sure where that came from. “Mmm, I’m not sure I’d call him a prophet. I mean, sometimes he gets it right, but shouldn’t a good prophet be right all the time?” She raised a brow, curious about the basement comment. “He’s got his own room, on the second floor even, and comes and goes as he pleases.” They kept tabs on each other, but that was natural. Zania looked at the ‘Do Not Touch’ box and moved it closer. “It depends on the object. Some bind on touch, others need you to use them first. They’re all cursed in some way.”
She might be full of shit or she might be telling the truth. There really was no telling in the world they lived in and Vex hummed as he watched the box closely, as if it might snap at Zan's fingers if she wasn't careful. "Don't touch," he told Lem, low and throaty before looking to Zania again. "Prophets aren't always right, it's hard to decipher the things you see, hard to tell what's real and what isn't. You need a conduit." He glanced at Lem and gave her a faint, crooked grin. "Not that I think your brother's a prophet, is he a witch too?" He glanced at Lem again. "Did he seem more like a witch or a prophet?"
Lem shook her head resolutely at the additional warning not to touch. She could do that. Or not do that, as it were. She wasn’t always a good listener, but Vex and the witch knew best when it came to stuff like that. She puffed up a little as Vex gave her the credit for being a conduit, because her role was damn important. Lem didn’t give any thoughts to how they were probably confusing Zan by mentioning stuff they’d only talked about between themselves. She pursed her lips and thought back to Nic, trying to pin him down in her mind. “I don’t know,” she finally settled on, shrugging a shoulder. “I haven’t known any witches that I’ve known about, I dunno what they seem like. He was Something, though.”
“What do you mean by conduit?” Zania asked curiously. Vex seemed to know what he was talking about, but she’d never known a real prophet herself. The future was finicky, ever changing based on so many different decisions, that she had trouble trusting predictions, even the ones she pulled from her own cards. Over time she’d learned to read them right, but there were other methods for people with a real gift. “Nic’s like me,” she confirmed. “He just has a different focus.” Zania decided she liked this conversation, the way they seemed completely nonplussed about her and Nic maybe being witches. “We should show you sometime. Not here though. Too many non believers and we wouldn’t want to cause a scene.”
"Conduit," Vex muttered. "She guides and contains that which otherwise might be wasted." That was just matter of fact though he didn't go into details of what that meant for them exactly. He looked around and nodded. "Meat space is full of people who can't see, it doesn't make them expendable but it makes them less helpful. I sometimes see them, facing things they aren't prepared for. It never ends pretty. We all just see fragments of the truth though, some more than others." He was looking at Zania as he spoke but glanced at Lem again with a little grin. "You want to see a show sometime? We should visit."
While Vex talked, Lem kept her eyes on Zan, wondering vaguely if she was understanding any of this. They didn’t talk to a lot of people outside of themselves, except for the day to day maintenance of their meat suits ... but that wasn’t really talking. Not that Lem thought Vex was going to spill out all of their secrets onto Zan’s table. He had a roundabout way of speaking that was hard for others to pick up anyway. But Zan was Different -- a witch! -- and that made a difference. She reached out to idly finger one of the jars with the blank labels, just to touch something, then beamed brightly at the idea of a magic show. A witch show? “I want to see!” she declared. “It’s not like ... bunnies out of hats, right?”
Zania wasn’t getting everything Vex was saying, but she thought she understood the gist of it on some level. He was something, maybe a prophet, maybe something else, and Lem was his conduit. She helped him focus. At least, she thought that was the case, based on Lem’s reaction when he’d spoken about their role. And the people around them, the non-believers, they couldn’t see. This was old news to Zania, but she thought maybe Vex meant on a different level than she was used to thinking. ‘Meat space’ definitely threw her off a touch. Still, she’d seen what could happen when the locals got involved with the supernaturals and they weren’t prepared. Vex was right. It wasn’t pretty. “Some want to be prepared. Some want to stick their head in the ground and hide. Some blame the messengers, like my ancestor,” she said to Vex, then grinned widely at Lem. For a brief second her eyes flashed a brilliant red, glowing like the fire inside her, then it was gone like a glitch in the matrix. “No bunnies or hats. If it’s just for fun, mostly fire and water.” The showy, fun things that didn’t take a lot of work or sacrifice.
Vex wasn't entirely sure if what he saw in her eyes was really happening or not. He'd seen something similar happen to his own face in the mirror before so it was hard to tell what it meant. Zania's face wasn't too out of focus as she was standing fairly close but that flash in her was neither sharper nor blurrier than the rest of her face. Real or not, he was well past the point of being startled by anything so he just nodded in approval then looked at Lem to see if she had seen it too.
Lem had definitely seen it, and her eyes had widened with surprise that quickly turned into glee. She gave a delighted laugh and bounced a little, one hand clutching at Vex’s arm. She knew it was real because it had felt real. Sometimes things didn’t, but most of the time they did. And Zania wasn’t acting like they were reacting strangely, so Lem knew she’d done it on purpose. “Because you’re the fire soul and he’s the water soul,” she declared, remembering that conclusion from her late-night talk with Nic. She wanted to see what they both could do. Opposites but balanced. Lem liked the idea of balance, even if it felt like something she would never personally achieve. With real power living next door, she felt pretty safe about their house now.
“Exactly,” Zania smiled back at Lem. It was rare that she gave such an outward indication of what she was, but Lem and Vex felt safe in a way she couldn’t explain. They weren’t witches, that much she knew for sure. Maybe they were a prophet and his conduit. Maybe they were something else. But they believed and they weren’t a threat to her, and that made them fun and interesting. Rost had been right. They might really be the excitement she craved. “There are others here, but we’ve learned to hide, when necessary. People don’t always like those that are different from themselves.”
Vex nodded along because Zania was dropping some truth bombs right there. He wasn't really used to it from anyone but Lem, not when it came to the Truth so things were looking up. These were their neighbors, they Knew. He leaned in closer, feeling his height somewhat around these two small women so he had to lean down some to fully get close enough to speak in secrets. "Do you know about the monster?" he asked in a near whisper, Lem's tight grip on his arm spurring him on.
Zania looked up at Vex, the intensity of his question, spoken like a secret, causing her demeanor to shift to one more serious as well. “Which one?” she asked softly. “There are a lot in Point Pleasant. More than normal.” She wished she knew why it was such a hub for the supernatural, but she didn’t. All her research and knowledge didn’t explain the unexplainable. All she could ever think of was that killing six witches at once had done a number on the place, triggered some kind of gateway that couldn’t be closed. But that was just a guess.
A chill ran down Lem’s spine at Zan’s first question-answer, and her hand tightened further on Vex’s arm. “I knew it,” she breathed, her eyes a little wider. They’d of course known about the monster who attacked Aunt Sarah, since Vex had Seen it. But Lem had had the feeling -- and the stories from her partner -- that there was much more to this town. Dark things. Monsters in the woods, like she and Nic had talked about. Lem leaned in closer too, like they could all just put their heads together over the table and whisper Truth to one another. “The one that killed Aunt Sarah,” Lem clarified. “She got torn up and eaten.”
Vex wasn't surprised either. A lot of monsters, monsters that took children from their homes, wiped their memories, experimented on them. Monsters that attacked little old ladies in their own homes and tore their throats open. "It looked like a werewolf," he muttered. "Tore her throat out right next door to you." He glanced sideways at Lem briefly. "Or what you'd imagined a werewolf looks like. Maybe you know more, hm?" That could come in handy. They'd found a lot of information on the web but who knew how much of it was Truth.
Zania thought that might be the monster they were referring to, but she hadn’t wanted to go that route without being sure. Finding out your loved one had been killed by a werewolf was a pretty harsh reality if you weren’t already prepared. She gave a slow nod. “I kind of figured that’s what it was. I didn’t know there was one in the area until after she died. They… they blend in well. But most know what they are and try to find a way to lock themselves up.” If they didn’t and just allowed themselves to go on a killing spree, they deserved to be hunted down. “You hunting the wolf?”
Vex had seen even more mind-bending shit than that, and Lem had in turn seen it through him. Knowing that a werewolf had killed Aunt Sarah was gruesome, but more grounded in their known reality than a lot of other things they’d seen. She listened solemnly to what Zan said, the other woman’s lack of surprise just making Lem even more sure that they were right about everything, and in town for a good reason. Lem nodded a bit, but let Vex do the real answering for that. She was just along for the ride on his vengeance trip.
Vex's intrigue with Zania was only growing. She spoke Truthfully and she seemed to Know things. "We were planning on killing it," he said in reply to her question. "Either it's evil or it doesn't understand what is happening to it. There is a lot of conflicting information out there. Do you know how to kill a monster like that? Or weaken it enough for capture?" They'd done good coming to the festival but then they tended to be where they needed to be, whether they were following the pegasus or not.
It was a difficult question to answer, because Vex was right-- there was a lot of conflicting information out there and Zania didn’t have any first hand experience with a werewolf. A part of her would’ve loved the opportunity to study the curse and its effects, but if they were running around killing innocent people then stopping it was the priority. “I don’t know as much as I’d like, but some things stick close to their lore. I’ve heard wolfbane is toxic to them and they do have a vulnerability to silver, whatever that means. I doubt you have to kill them with a silver bullet, but it could be an allergy? Or it could burn them? I can put out some feelers, though. Try to find out more.” She had her connections, other witches that might know more than she did. It didn’t hurt to ask.
With a creature like a werewolf, which had centuries of history to it, it was hard to sort out what was Truth and what wasn’t. The things Zania was saying lined up with what Lem had read online, but considering that werewolves had a place now in the pop culture, that wasn’t too surprising. She gave Zan a small, warm smile as the witchy woman offered to help them. They hadn’t known her for very long at all, but Lem already trusted that she wouldn’t feed them false information. Lem nudged her partner and grinned a little. “I told you she was cool,” she murmured to Vex.
"Yeah, you did," Vex said and gave her arm a little squeeze, his gaze level on Zania. "The Truth is muddy so we'd appreciate the help. I don't wanna risk the little one." He tilted his head to indicate Lem. "She's important." He firmly believed Lem could live without him but he wasn't so sure he'd call whatever it was he'd do without her living. "Knowledge is more important than bullets."
Zania lit up at the complement, shooting Lem a smile. She didn’t always make good first impressions. In fact, it was rare. But she’d gotten along with Lem well enough, something that was even more rare. A friend that was a girl! Though she was trying not to show it, she was a little bit excited about this all as well. It was rare that she met someone so accepting of what she was, yet these two were their own kind of special. It felt like kismet. “I prefer blades anyways,” she grinned back at Vex. “But I can do information. Research. I love this kinda thing. I’ll find out what I can to keep her safe. You both safe.”
Lem’s smile glowed even brighter as Vex called her important. She knew she was, but it was so much better to hear it, especially when he was telling someone else. That was how she knew it was for real. She gave another happy little bounce, beaming back at Zan, pretty stoked that they knew someone else now who knew how to do that kind of research. It fell to her to navigate the internet so often, reading all the things, trying to sort it all out ... having backup doing that would be amazing. “All of us safe,” she added with a nod, glancing between the two of them. “It was right next door to you.”
Vex nodded because yes, they all needed to be safe and they needed to protect the oblivious as well. It was only one item on his long list of things to do but it felt pretty important to deal with this matter swiftly. The other things he'd seen, those were things that made little sense to him and had been going on for decades. "It's bound to the full moon, isn't it?" he asked, as if Zania was the expert even if she'd just told them she wasn't. "Gives us a little time to prepare if so."
“All of us,” Zania agreed with a solemn nod, thinking of she and Nic and Lem and Vex. Though she was careful to take precautions on the full moon, they’d never been tested against an actual werewolf. While she had faith in her magic, the safer route was always to eliminate the threat. “That’s my understanding, yes,” she nodded. “There are other cursed creatures that shift with the moon, but the wolf is the most well known. We have a few weeks before it hunts again.” And in that time, maybe she could put up some wards on their house as well.
Vex might not have been aware yet, but Lem was including Nic in that too. He was Zan’s brother, and lived just as close as she did, and Lem had taken a liking to him, so he was in their umbrella of protection now, for as much as that was worth. Maybe they weren’t as powerful as a pair of twin witches, but joining forces against the darkness only made sense. And if the Castells ended up not being legit? She and Vex could deal with it. “We definitely saw a wolf,” Lem said with a nod, even though she hadn’t been the one who’d actually seen it. Vex had, that was close enough. “We’ll have a plan ready.”
Vex was zoning out, his attention elsewhere as a familiar face wandered by him. It wasn't the first time since they arrived in town but it wasn't anyone he'd grown up with instead it was someone from one of his visions and he openly gawked at them with a little frown before settling back into the little whisper circle with Lem and Zania. "We're right where we're supposed to be," he muttered as if that was something he was just now realizing. "You'll need to tell us about the other monsters."
“Yes, a plan is essential,” Zania agreed. She liked to think she could handle just about anything, but only a fool would go into a fight purposefully blind. Especially one with a werewolf. “The other monsters could take all day. I wouldn’t even know where to start, and it’s a lot for out here. But we’ll talk. One thing at a time, right?” They were new to town. They needed to know some of what they were dealing with, some of which Zania couldn’t even explain herself. But that was a conversation that needed her full attention, not one to have in the middle of a crowd.
Lem picked up on Vex’s distraction, also glancing around in the direction he was looking. She couldn’t quite pick out who he was staring at, but she knew it was someone for some real reason. Her attention came back to Zan and Lem nodded. One thing at a time. Probably not here and now. They’d found out what they needed to find out, the rest could be done in private. Lem took Vex’s hand and gave him a little tug. “Let’s go, we’re scaring away customers,” she said lightly. Not something she really cared about, but it was an excuse to move on. “Ears are everywhere.”
At this point Vex just expected everything he saw to have grounds in reality, no matter how strange it was. He'd spent too many years believing he was just sick, now it was time to again believe he wasn't sick at all. He was a prophet, he saw things that were currently happening elsewhere and he'd been seeing proof of that everywhere after he arrived in Point Pleasant with Lem. "Ignorant ears," he growled quietly, untangling his arm from Lem's grip to wrap it around her shoulders and pulling her close. "We'll come over for... tea. We'll talk where they ain't listening."
They weren’t scaring anyone away, but this was definitely a conversation for another time, when they could get into the details without people overhearing. They were right on that account, that ears were everywhere and they were ignorant. “We have an abundance of tea at the house,” she laughed. “Among other things. Come over whenever. We’re home most evenings. We can talk.” She’d be sure to update Nic as soon as she saw him and let him know the neighbors knew what they were. She didn’t want him to be caught off guard.