Caius D'Onofrio (poweroftheeye) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2018-07-28 14:03:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | caius, caius x sera, sera |
Who: Caius and Sera
Where: around
When: after school, Monday November 6
Status: In Progress
Sera was hanging out in the front of Joyland, waiting for her brother. She’d been glad when he’d texted her earlier, because school had been weird. She’d seen a rumor on Facebook the day before that Ms. Gaines had been killed, although nobody was really saying how, and the halls at school had been buzzing with it. It was horrifying in an abstract kind of way, a hard to process one. Even when she wasn’t in one of Ms. Gaines’s classes, she’d been used to seeing her at cheerleading practice every day. Who would replace her? Sera hadn’t been especially close to her, but she’d seen little knots of girls crying in the halls all day.
She sipped from her latte, watching the rain fall. Her car was in the public lot not far from here, and she supposed that if her brother ended up taking her home, she could catch a ride to school with Cam and pick it up tomorrow. It was all good. It was more important to see Caius, since she knew he had a ton going on right now. Her mom had told her the basics, but she wanted to hear it from him. Mom had a way of leaving things out.
Caius had been too restless to stay at the office for long. He popped in to do a few things, then found some excuse to leave and had stayed gone. If his father didn’t like it, he could kiss Caius’s ass. His whole world had been turned upside down, he deserved some time to himself. He kept daydreaming about taking a trip, just leaving all of this behind for a solid week or two, not telling anybody where he was going. That would only invite new trouble though, he knew that. So he was just getting alone time in where he could.
He did want to see Sera though, so he’d texted her to make sure she would be free after school. Caius had heard about the cheerleading coach being killed on the full moon, and he wanted to check on her. The D’Onofrio house was warded against such intrusions, but Caius still worried, so he’d made her a hex bag with some wolfsbane in it for next month. Sera had told him to meet her at Joyland, so that was where he went. He spotted her outside, and pulled his car up to the curb, rolling down the passenger side window. “You wanna drive around? Or should I park?” he called, leaning down to peer at her. They hadn’t really talked about what to do, just something.
Sera had been hovering under the overhang, and she darted over to the car, pulling on the door handle so she could get in. Once she and her cup were settled, she fastened her seatbelt. “You could feed me,” she said in answer to his question. “It seems like it’s been forever since lunch.” Never mind the latte she had in her hand; she’d decided those didn’t count as far as food went. She exhaled a breath and patted her hair, noting the droplets on it but not minding that much. She didn’t have to look perfect to hang with her brother the way she felt she did with most other people.
Caius gave her a faint smile as she got in and got settled. Teenagers were always happy with food, he remembered that well. Even girls, as long as they didn’t have anybody around to impress. He checked traffic and pulled away from the curb. “Want anything specific?” he asked. Caius would just take them to The Boathouse if not. He didn’t feel like sitting around somewhere like Moxie’s or the Lobster Shack, though they were probably less likely to run into someone he knew there. He’d been trying to avoid as many people as possible in the past week. Shitty, but it felt necessary.
“Anything’s fine,” Sera said. “As long as it isn’t, like… snails. Or anchovies.” She wasn’t super picky about her food, but there were a few no-gos. She shifted around in her seat, positioning herself so she could have the best view of her brother’s profile. Usually she alternated between being envious of his magical ability and worried about it, and the last little while, she was leaning strongly to the worried side. He could die if something went wrong. Of course, living in Point Pleasant had taught her that anyone could die at any time-- look at Ms. Gaines-- but this was her brother, the family member she loved most. She couldn’t even bear to think of it.
After a brief silence, she said, “How’re you doing? Really.”
The Boathouse it was, then. They would give Caius his favorite table toward the back and hopefully no one would ask him about Reagan, and he and his sister could have a nice, normal meal together. As normal as possible, anyway. He glanced over at Sera at her question, not really sure how to answer it. He didn’t like to be vulnerable, and telling everyone who asked that he was losing his shit seemed ill-advised. Sera was different though, Sera deserved to know the truth. Caius’s hands tightened and twisted on the steering wheel a tiny bit, making the leather creak. “I’m ... not well,” he answered finally, glancing at her again. “Did mom and dad tell you anything about what happened?” He didn’t even know if she knew, weird as that was.
“Yeah,” Sera said with a slight nod. She would have been furious if they’d tried to keep anything this big from her, and she figured they knew that. “They said you and Reagan were trying to break the curse, and there was some kind of… backlash?” For all she knew there were a lot more details she hadn’t been told, but her brother would fill her in if need be. “They said you don’t remember her at all,” she added, her voice softer. It was so strange to her that something like that could happen; Caius and Reagan had been a thing practically forever, even when it was an on and off thing.
That was about the gist of it, Caius supposed. He didn’t even know all the details, because he didn’t remember, and he hadn’t been able to look over the notes he’d left at Reagan’s house. He was admittedly being a coward by not going back there yet, but Caius couldn’t beat himself up about it too much. These weren’t exactly easy circumstances. “It was more ... a rider spell, from what dad said,” he clarified. “Like something built into the curse to fuck with us further if it was ever broken. A failsafe. It wiped out every memory I had of Reagan. So I’m ... missing a lot. Questioning everything. Nothing’s in the places I expect it to be. It’s like I stepped into the life of some other version of me, and I don’t ... it’s hard to piece it all together.”
Sera frowned. “Because it wasn’t bad enough that you were under a curse in the first place, why not add something else shitty to it?” Clearly, magic wasn’t anything to fuck with. She’d always been told that growing up, but it took something like this to bring it home to her, non magic user that she was. There were other questions, like how do we fix it, and what if you can never remember her? Those didn’t seem like they needed to be asked, because her brother didn’t even know the answers, most likely. “I’m sorry,” she said, her tone very gentle. It didn’t seem like much, but it was all she had. “I wish there was something I could do to help.” She’d move mountains for Caius, if she could, and it was always frustrating to be unable to do anything to make things better for him.
If the curse had been intended to cause the most damage possible, adding a rider onto it in case of it being broken made sense to Caius. It was fucking diabolical, but part of him had to admire that about it. If the curse couldn’t destroy the two lovebirds by death, why not destroy them by other means? Baron’s hatred was still echoing, but Caius could only hope that it ended here, with him. Even if he never got his memories back, at least he’d saved future generations from being cursed. Including Sera’s kids, if she ever had any. He sighed and shot her an appreciative glance for the sympathy. “What I really need is ... keep an eye on me?” he suggested, squinting a bit as he tried to phrase it sensibly. “I dunno ... I feel like I have no idea who I am right now. So tell me if something seems really different about me?” He was still trying to get a handle on just how much this had affected the core of him, and his sister knew him pretty damn well, so she would be a good person to ask.
Sera had a slight frown on her face when her brother told her what she could do, but it quickly cleared. He wasn’t the sort to come up with something just to pacify her, not with as close as they’d always been, so it must be something that could actually help. “I can do that,” she said. “Spending more time with my big bro is never a bad thing.” She smiled, hoping she looked cheerful enough, or at least decent. It was shaping up to be a fantastically weird week, and she wasn’t looking forward to any of it. Also, she was wondering how Reagan was doing with all this. Not well would be her guess, but she didn’t want to ask Caius. Unless he happened to want to talk about Reagan; she’d see if he gave her any cues.
“Well, I seem to have a lot of free time on my hands, so prepare for me to bug you more frequently,” he said, giving Sera a faint smile back. It was another strange side effect of all this -- he couldn’t remember specifics on how he spent most of his time outside of work. Caius kept finding himself at loose ends, wandering around his house and drinking too much and feeling out of place. Spending time with Sera would be much more fulfilling. They had arrived at The Boathouse, and Caius pulled the car into the parking lot. He climbed out and headed for the front to hold the door for his sister, then followed her in. The hostess recognized them immediately and gave them his favorite table -- the place wasn’t busy, so it was no hardship. Caius found he had a bit more appetite once they were seated. “I feel like I’ve been dominating every conversation I have, so ... how are things with you?” he asked her.
“Sounds good,” Sera said. She was honestly still very worried about this whole situation but she didn’t want to show it, necessarily. It didn’t seem like that would help. Maybe having a normal conversation about normal things might? The Boathouse was one of her favorites, and she took an appreciative whiff as they walked in. Great food, and it was kind of nice to be recognized, she thought. Getting the table they liked without asking was so extra. She made a face to his comment, because what else would anyone talk about who knew what had happened? But yeah, not helpful to keep going over it. “Oh, you know. School. Cheerleading.” She fanned idly with her menu; no point in looking at it since she usually ordered the same thing every time. “Did you hear our coach got killed?”
Caius was caught between really wanting to talk about it and not wanting to worry anyone overmuch about him. He felt like he was losing his shit, but in such a ... detached sort of way, sometimes. Maybe some important part of him had faded out along with his memories of Reagan, he didn’t know. But no one else could fix it, especially not his muggle little sister, so why continue to dwell? He gave the menu a cursory glance himself, deciding quickly between the few favorites he had, then looked up to give Sera a small wince. “I did, yes,” he said, pushing the menu aside and folding his arms on the table. “I was sorry to hear it, terrible thing. How are you doing with it? Were you close to her?” Caius felt like he ought to know that, but he didn’t.
It was such a horrible thing that it was hard for Sera to imagine. The pretty blonde who used to be married to one of the town’s police officers, the woman who taught and coached the cheerleaders… dead, just like that. “It’s weird,” she said, tucking glossy strands of hair behind one ear. “I mean… I wasn’t close to her really. I liked her.” It was hard to find the words to describe how she felt, and she figured a lot of people had that problem too. “I hate that it happened.” A server approached, and she went ahead and ordered her drink and meal at the same time since she knew what she wanted. Caius probably did too since they ate here a lot.
Caius watched his sister’s face as she spoke, then turned his attention to the server to put his own order in. He requested a scotch as well, feeling like he needed a drink in his hand more and more often these days. Once that bit of business was done, he looked at Sera again. Considering where they lived and the magic in their bloodline, it was probably pretty amazing that their immediate family hadn’t been touched much by loss. People died all the time in Point Pleasant, but it rarely affected the D’Onofrios. Sera probably didn’t have any good tools to deal with grief, and Caius didn’t really have any to lend her. “I heard it was an animal,” he murmured. “Considering it was the full moon ... I doubt it was any mundane animal. Stay inside on those nights, okay?”
Sera had been thinking about her experience in September ever since she’d heard about Ms. Gaines. Had what had killed her coach been anything like the thing that had chased her into the convenience store that full moon night? She’d thought she’d be safe enough driving her car somewhere, but that wasn’t a mistake she ever planned to make again. She’d never opened her mouth about that incident, not even to Caius… because had all of it been real? Had her imagination conjured some of those details up? Mostly she tried to forget it, but she wouldn’t forget the lesson it had taught her. “I do,” she said with a wry smile. “You should too. Even if you could probably use magic to make a non-mundane animal blow up.”
Caius was thankful that he’d never had a direct run in with a were-creature. Which was possibly surprising, considering some of the rituals he and his father had done in the woods under the full moon. They always warded themselves and their workspaces though, and Anthony’s protective magic was strong. It was why Caius didn’t worry about his family being at home. The D’Onofrio house was like a magical Fort Knox. He chuckled a bit, smiling crookedly at his sister. “I appreciate your faith in me,” he said. “I’m not positive I could do much if I didn’t see it coming, but I would definitely try not to go quietly.” He didn’t know yet what sort of security system the Obscurities inside of him could provide -- he knew they would be capable of defending him, he just hadn’t practiced making them actually do it yet. Caius felt like he really needed to work on his own personal magic too, not just researching how to fix his brain problem. “Someone ought to hunt the damn thing down though, it’s obviously a menace.”
Had Sera ever seen a were before that night, she would have been more worried about anyone in her family encountering one. It was probably a good thing that she hadn't. She wanted to make it seem less fearsome in her own head, so she was pretending that maybe it had happened to someone else. "I think it'd be like an action movie," she said of her brother potentially magicing up a were. "Boom! Crash! Thud! Bad guy goes flying!" She was privately horrified at the thought, but she was playing it light. Maybe they both needed some amusing, diverting conversation. "I agree. Know any hunters?"
Caius had to laugh at the comic book character sounds, and he shook his head at her a little bit, though it was more amused than negative. She was just silly, and he loved it. “Well if I ever end up with recordings, I definitely want you to do the soundtrack,” he told Sera, still grinning a bit. “But no, I don’t. Unfortunately. I’m sure they’re out there and could be found, though.” It just didn’t seem like his responsibility to do that. Caius had enough on his plate. He was pretty sure his father could hunt down and handle a werewolf, but he doubted Anthony would lift a finger to do so either ... until and unless it directly affected his family. And it hadn’t yet, not really. He gave Sera a teasing once-over. “Maybe we oughta teach you some things. Get you all decked out in safari gear with an elephant gun or something.” More cartoonish imagery.
Sera smiled at him. “Riiiight, because I’ve done so many soundtracks. I’ll just add it to my list of things to learn.” She’d never lacked confidence, and she felt sure she could do it if she wanted to. If the whole situation hadn’t been hypothetical, that was. She shifted in her seat, crossing her legs, and mock-frowned at her brother. “No, no, no. Safari gear doesn’t equal devastatingly sexy. Nor does elephant gun.” She paused to thank their server for the soda that was placed in front of her. Hopefully the rest of their meal would follow.
Chuckling, he added his thanks to the waiter, then aimed a playful dismissive snort at his sister. “Depends on your taste,” Caius insisted. “Keep an open mind. I’m sure there are people out there who would get all hot and bothered by you in safari gear. A niche market, maybe, but it’s got to be out there. Besides, you can make anything look good, right?” Smirking and amused, he lifted his drink to his lips again. It was true though -- Sera was gorgeous. Not that he wanted her dressing up to other people’s weird kinks, of course, it was all just bullshitting. Which was something Caius felt like he sorely needed lately. A normal-ass conversation.
“As a matter of fact I can,” Sera said, mock-loftily. She tossed her hair, snickering a little at the thought of dressing up like Bindi Irwin or someone similar. This was perfect. No matter what kind of problems either of them were having-- even something as serious as a complete loss of memory of one’s significant other-- at least there was this. They could forget for a while. She knew that she and her brother could kill a couple of hours this way and both leave feeling lighter. The problems would still be there, but hey. It was what it was.