acrimsonking (acrimsonking) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2018-07-05 17:37:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | #november 2017, anthony, anthony x miriam, miriam |
Who: Miram and Anthony
When: Late evening after this, Wednesday, November 1st
Where: Their home in Overlook
Status: Complete
After he and Caius had parted ways in front of Reagan's home, Anthony drove back home, feeling both concerned and slightly exhilarated. What had happened was horrible, obviously. He couldn’t imagine what his son must be going through, missing such an obviously important part of his life. But Anthony could see the potential in it, even if Caius couldn’t. It would probably take his son a couple of days to find his footing again, but Caius was resilient and stubborn and Anthony had a feeling Caius would throw himself into work, and magic, to try and cope with what had happened. All Anthony could do right now was speculate. For now, however, he needed to talk to Miriam. Sera would need to know what happened as well, but that could wait until morning.
After he parked the car, Anthony walked inside to track down his wife. He had a feeling Veronica would be calling soon, but that could also wait. He had enough on his plate right now, and he had already dealt with Veronica’s daughter, so he was in no mood to deal with her as well.
It didn’t take long to find Miriam, and when he did, he approached her with a look of concern on his face. “We need to talk. Something happened with Caius and Reagan tonight.”
Miriam had spent the day assisting with the cleanup in town, Main Street an absolute mess after the chaos on Halloween. Though she’d not seen it for herself, she’d seen it on the morning news and it was all everyone was talking about--- people acting crazy, behaving like monsters, putting themselves in danger as well as others. There was even a murder just down the street from them, the details of which were still hazy, but had her checking all the doors and windows, just to make sure they were locked. She planned on setting the alarm as well, as soon as Anthony got home.
She was curled up with a book in the living room when he got home, already in casual attire for the evening, but not yet dressed for bed. She’d been waiting for an update on Caius and Reagan, but was hoping for positive news. A statement like that had her setting aside her book and sitting up in concern. “What’s happened? Are they okay?” she asked, heart immediately rising in alarm.
"They're all right," Anthony said, lifting a hand to try and quell her panic before it began. He moved to sit down beside her. "They attempted to break the curse. I think they might have even succeeded. Only it seems like the witch who cursed us had a back up plan, in case someone finally managed to break it. Caius lost his memory. Not of us, or his life, but of Reagan. Only Reagan." Anthony sighed and ran a hand through his dark hair. "He's... understandably upset. Confused and a little shell shocked, waking up in Reagan's house with no memory of how he got there. He's at home now, just down the street." It was distressing, sure, but Caius would have his family to help him cope with it.
Miriam relaxed once Anthony said they were alright, but then her eyes widened as he continued on. The rest of what he said took a moment to really sink in and left her shocked, not at all sure what to say or do. Her baby was alive and well, the curse possibly broken, but he couldn’t remember the love of his life? Granted, she wasn’t always positive they were a good match, considering how on and off they’d always been, but they’d just gotten married. “And Reagan? Does she remember Caius?” she asked, since that was important. “Is this just temporary? A form of amnesia? What can you do to help him?” She might not know a lot about magic, but she’d learned one thing over the years and that was that her husband could do just about anything if he really wanted it. Breaking the curse seemed to be the exception.
"She remembers," Anthony said. "It seems to have only affected Caius. It's as if every memory of Reagan has been blotted out. I'm not sure if this is temporary, Mir. If this was a tag-a-long spell Baron implemented in case the curse was ever broken, it could be permanent. Or at least permanent until a counter curse is found and cast." It wasn't surprising that Miriam would assume Anthony could do something. Reagan had turned to him immediately as well. But he knew his wife enough to know she might not support his decision to leave things be for awhile. "I've never dealt with memory modification spells before," Anthony lied smoothly, but made sure to sound apologetic. "I'm sure there's a spell out there to fix it, but it might take some time to find the right one. Until that happens... we'll just have to be there to support him in whatever he may need."
Miriam’s hand rose to her mouth as she thought, concern etched all over her face. While she was glad to hear her husband didn’t go around messing with people’s memories, it would have been handy for him to have that kind of spell available now. It was moments like this that she wished she was more helpful, that she could do research of her own and reach out to her connections, but this was a world she’d never been privy to. One thing did occur to her though, an option that maybe Anthony hadn’t considered. “Do you know anyone with psychic abilities? I don’t mean palm readers, but someone who can read thoughts? Maybe the memories are there and just have to be unlocked.” They couldn’t just disappear. The human brain wasn’t like a computer where you could just hit delete. “This is just horrible. For both of them. He’s got to be so confused and I imagine Reagan is devastated.”
Anthony knew a few of the former AIR subjects were in town, but as far as he knew, none were telepaths. And even if there had been one, he would have done his best to avoid them. Nobody needed to see inside his mind. "It's a fine suggestion, but most telepaths can only read surface thoughts. If Caius's memories are buried somewhere, it's going to take something much stronger to dig them back up. It might take some time, but I promised Reagan I would do what I could. Caius, I'm sure, will start researching spells once he's had some time to wrap his head around what's happened. We'll do what we can to help him." He sighed and ran his hand through his thick hair. "I wonder how much more two young people can take. It's been a non-stop rollercoaster for them, Mir. I wonder if they'll ever get a reprieve."
And most telekinetics could only move small objects, but Miriam knew better. The problem was finding a telepath with those kinds of abilities. They didn’t exactly advertise themselves. Most, like herself, kept her abilities to herself, so that was probably a dead end. “Is there anything I can do?” she asked, frustration already seeping into her voice. This was going to be another thing that required magic, another issue where she just had to sit on the sidelines and hope for the best. If he would just let her look at some of the spells, maybe she could find something. It wasn’t like she had to do them herself. But she knew from years of experience that that was off the table. “I don’t understand how this could go on for so long without someone breaking it, how this one witch has bested generations and for what? What could this possibly do for her hundreds of years after she died? You have to help them, love. They deserve better than this. They broke the curse, for god’s sake.”
Anthony didn't want to outright dismiss Miriam. Caius was her son, and despite their misgivings about his relationship with Reagan, he knew she would do whatever she could to ensure their son's happiness. And Reagan had always been the epitome of their happiness... when they weren't fighting and breaking up. He supposed he could give her something to do. Research, perhaps, even if she wasn’t entirely sure what she was looking for. "It creates pain and misery for those she felt wronged her," Anthony explained. "Even centuries after the fact. She was a powerful witch, and apparently she still has descendants in town. That's how Reagan and Caius figured out how to break the curse. Baron's blood. We believed the line had died off, or stopped practicing. But according to Reagan, they found the family here, if you can believe that." Standing, Anthony moved to the wet bar to pour himself a scotch. "I'm going to do what I can to help them, Miriam, but we need to plan for the possibility that I may not be able to. If I couldn't, would that really be the worst thing?"
“I’d be cursing your ancestors for whatever they did to her,” Miriam sighed. She couldn’t imagine having to much hatred that she wished to inflict it on people that weren’t even born yet. But then she’d never been wronged on that grand a scale either. It surprised her to hear that the witch’s descendant had been here in town all along, and that no one had found them till now. She thought she’d be relieved when they broke the curse, but this felt like two steps forwards and one step back. Anthony was right though. There were worse things. At least their lives were no longer in danger. “You can’t imagine what it’s like to have that kind of a hole in your memory,” she said, watching him pour himself a drink. “It makes you doubt your sanity. Things don’t make sense. If Reagan is gone, he’s got years missing, chunks of time that made him who he was. It creates doubt, love. I’m sure his heart will heal, but I’m concerned about his mind.”
While he knew Baron had been a jealous, perhaps spurned lover, Anthony also thought a lot of that dark magic had to do with Reverend Burroughs, and his intentions back then. He had done his own research, when he had been trying to break the curse himself. The surface explanation was the simplest, but sometimes dark magic had deeper, ulterior motives. He kept those thoughts to himself. Anthony sipped his scotch, staring at a family photo on the mantle for a moment before he shifted his attention back to his wife. "We'll be there for him, Miriam. Given he can't remember anything about Reagan, I'm not sure there's any pain in his heart that needs to heal. He'll be fine." Reagan, on the other hand... well, that was a mess for Veronica to deal with. "But I'm going to make sure his mind hasn't been damaged beyond the selective amnesia. I don't trust that kind of magic not to have deeper repercussions. But we shouldn’t push him, or try to force those memories onto him. I feel like it will only frustrate him and we don’t need to aggravate the problem.”
Miriam knew first hand how frustrating it was to be pushed to remember something that just wasn’t there. No amount of questioning filled the hole in her memories and these days she wondered if there wasn’t magic involved in some way. There was no way to know and it was long past, but Caius’ situation reminded her of her own. She would not put her son in the position that she’d been in. It was not his fault he couldn’t remember. “I know,” Miriam said. “He probably just needs time. Either the memories will come back or they won’t. A project would be good for him, something to occupy his time. He’ll have a lot more of it without Reagan in his life. And they probably need to decide what they want to tell people, considering they just got married. I supposed it’s a good thing they didn’t have a giant wedding…”
A project. Yes, that was a good suggestion. Something to keep Caius busy. For a brief moment, Anthony thought about finding something that would take Caius out of town for a bit, but it was probably safer to keep him close, in case the magic affecting him took a turn and his memory grew worse. Anthony's lips twitched, but he hid the growing smile behind his glass as he took another drink. Still, his dark eyes studied his wife. "I suppose it's up to Caius and Reagan what we tell people. I'm not sure what they'll decide, if anything. But we'll give it a few days to see if Caius gets any better, or worse. Reagan seemed pretty hell bent on finding a counter spell to fix what happened, and maybe she'll succeed. I'll give Caius some space and then ask him what he wishes us to say if any of our friends ask about them." Anthony shook his head and walked over to sit beside her again. "I feel some responsibility for this. If we had told Caius sooner about the curse, he wouldn't have taken Reagan to Anguilla... well, perhaps he would have, but they wouldn't have eloped. Is it wrong that I can't help but wonder if this change of events might be good for him?"
Of course Reagan would want to fix what happened, Miriam thought. If it was her, and Anthony lost his memory of her, she’d be knocking on the door of every witch in town until she found one that could help. Caius wouldn’t feel that drive because he wouldn’t remember Reagan. And while she’d like to think that she wouldn’t have to tell people something, she knew without a doubt that people would talk. People would ask. They were just married. She was already getting questions about when she would be a grandmother. She could put it off for a couple of weeks, but they would need a story ready if this turned out to be a long term issue. Miriam stared at her husband, her lips a hard line. “If the situation were reversed, if Reagan had lost her memory instead of Caius, what would you be suggesting? Or if I’d forgotten you. Forget the part where I’m not a witch and not in the equation. Do you really think it’d be that easy to walk away? They have always had a tumultuous relationship, but we don’t know how much of that was due to the curse. I find it difficult to suggest moving on just because it’s easiest for him, not when we haven’t even looked for an alternative. They were able to solve a puzzle that no one else had managed for generations, not even you. Give them a little credit, love. And a little time.”
"I never said it would be easy," Anthony said calmly, wanting to placate her and quell the argument before it really got going. "I didn't suggest moving on either. I simply said that I wondered if this might be good for him. Even temporarily. Who is Caius without Reagan, Miri? Who is she without Caius? They've been attached at the hip since they were teenagers, even when they were apart their lives were so intricately entwined." He did his very best not to bristle at the implication that Caius had been able to do magic Anthony hadn't. He fully believed that if he had truly, truly wanted to break this curse, he would have, eventually. But his ambitions and desires had taken him beyond Veronica, and he had been willing to make that sacrifice. Anthony set his glass down on the coffee table in front of him. "I promise you will I do my best to find a way to fix this and help him. But, as I've said, we need to prepare for the possibility that we might not be able to. Do you understand that?"
“Of course I understand that,” Miriam said, leaning back, her lips pulling in tight. She didn’t like the implication that she didn’t understand, hadn’t been listening, or might need it spelled out in simpler terms. What she’d learned from this was something she would never say-- that Caius and Reagan were either more combined than Anthony alone, able to break the curse in a matter of months when he’d never managed it in years, or that they just wanted it broken more than he did. She was inclined to think it was the later, which was hard for her to grasp, since it had been putting her son’s life at risk. And if that was the case then, it could easily be the case now. He was already harping on the good of the situation, emphasizing how they might not be able to fix things, the same way he had with the original curse. She was willing to bet there was a fix, but that it was just too much work. “I want whatever’s best for Caius,” she finally said. “I think right now he needs time and space, which is just as well. We need time to figure things out, and I’m sure Reagan does too. There’s no need to push him for answers or decisions on anything until he’s ready.”
"I want whatever is best for Caius as well," Anthony said, reaching over to brush his fingers along Miriam's cheek. Her skin was flawless, like the rest of her. He had the feeling what they both felt was best for Caius would differ, but that didn't bother Anthony. He had more influence over their son than Miriam did, and they both knew it. But it wouldn't help his cause to argue with her, or make his true intentions known. "And of course you're right. We'll do whatever we can to help, but we won't push him, or Reagan. This is an unfortunate situation and I'm sure it's not going to be easy on either of them. They'll need support. In the meantime, I'm sure I can find a project at work to help keep him busy."
Miriam took a deep breath and nodded, frustrated on Caius and Reagan’s behalf. She didn’t think they made the best couple, they’d argued and broken up for at least half the span that they were together, but they’d worked at it harder than anyone she knew and they deserved a chance at happiness without some kind of magic wreaking havoc on their lives. She knew Anthony would do what he could, but he also knew her husband-- what was best for Caius would likely be what was best for Anthony himself. She just didn’t know what that meant in this case. “Do we have any wine open?” she asked. “I could use a glass.”
Anthony knew a lot, but he had never been able to figure out if Caius and Reagan's relationship had been a product of the curse, or if it was organic and the curse had just intensified it. He knew now it was the latter, because while Caius's memory had been altered, Reagan's feelings for his son had been completely in tact, given her reaction to what had happened. If the curse had been the reason the two had fallen in love, they would have known as soon as it had been broken. Perhaps he was the only person eager to see if Caius was capable of reaching his true potential without Reagan as a distraction, but he was also the only one - as far as he knew - capable of returning things to how they were, so it didn't really matter what anyone else wanted. Anthony's lips twitched at her question and he patted her knee before moving to stand. "I'm positive that we do. Stay here and I'll get you a glass. Why don't we take our drinks out on the deck and enjoy a bit of the evening before the weather turns."
“Thank you, love. Let’s do that,” Miriam said, giving her husband a small smile. She wasn’t pleased by this turn of events, but she’d make herself crazy if she spent all evening trying to come up with solutions. What she needed to focus on was that Caius’ life was no longer in danger. Things were complicated, by they always had been, and there was no need for an immediate solution. Patience was something she’d learned to have in spades, no matter how much she hated it, and it would be needed now. At least Caius’ happiness no longer relied on Reagan, not if he couldn’t remember her. Should the situation be permanent, that would make things easier for him, and Miriam would do everything in her power to help him where he needed it.