Who: Shayna Mae and Aidan When: Late morning Where: The house Status: Complete
Shayna Mae woke feeling wonderfully sated and lazy, her body only a little sore, but in the best kind of way. She had Knox beside her, which felt right and had Shayna Mae hoping it would be like that every morning, although she meant it when she told him he was still free to do as he pleased.
Of course, the morning afterglow was dulled a bit when Knox murmured to her that there had been another presence in the house… with Aidan. Not a familiar one to him, and not one completely human. That had startled Shayna Mae, but he hadn’t felt the other's presence was malevolent. Even so, she climbed out of bed quickly and pulled on some clothes to cover up the dried, caking blood from the ritual the night before.
She had wanted to deal with the issue herself, so she asked Knox to stay in bed, although she knew he would probably be close by if she needed him. Shayna Mae brushed her wild mane of hair from her face and left the bedroom to find her brother.
He was still sleeping, which wasn’t surprising, but she still walked over to his quiet form to shake him a bit and wake him up. Maybe she should have knocked first, but this didn’t feel like the time for proprieties.
Aidan was still passed out, doing his very best to sleep off his hangover. Last night had been weird, then incredibly frustrating, and he wasn’t quite ready to face whatever might happen as a result. He’d have been fine lounging until far past noon and probably would have done so if someone hadn’t insisted on shaking him awake. “What?” He mumbled, rubbing a hand over his face, his headache blossoming as light hit his eyes. “Go ‘way. ‘s too early…”
"Aidan," Shayna Mae said, trying not to sound exasperated with her brother. A pillow was just within reach to grab and start hitting him in the face with, but Shayna Mae resisted. "Who was here last night?" He didn't look hurt or anything, and Knox hadn't been too concerned other than being aware of another presence. "You need to wake up and talk to me."
Aidan sighed heavily and pulled the blanket tighter around him. He didn’t want to talk about last night. He wanted to go back to sleep. “Aya. The bird girl,” he muttered, squinting up at his sister as he rubbed his eyes. “She fuckin’ left though. Or… I thought she did.” He hadn’t been in the best condition to go looking for her last night, but knew for a fact that she wasn’t between his bathroom and his bed. “How’d you even know about that?”
Bird girl. Shayna Mae's brows drew together in confusion. She had no idea what that meant, but she filed the name away. Aya. "Who is she? Or I guess, what is she? Knox sensed her in the house." She didn't know anyone named Aya, and it rubbed Shayna Mae the wrong way that her brother was bringing strange people into the house. Yes, she knew that was irrational of her, and unfair, because this was Aidan's house too, but it made her uncomfortable when it was a stranger.
“She said she’s my familiar,” Aidan answered and now he did pull the covers over his head because even with his head hammering away like it was he knew his sister wasn’t going to like that answer. “You know that little bronze bird I stole? She was in it. Or something. I dunno. I was pretty fuckin’ wasted when it happened.” The whole night was a bit fuzzy to him now, only the highlights standing out. The bird falling to the floor, Aya slowly taking human form, then stripping before climbing into his shower. At that point he’d stopped thinking with his wasted brain and let his cock take over.
Aidan's familiar? No. Knox was his familiar. Their familiar. Shayna Mae brought her hands up to the sides of her nose where she breathed in deep to keep from yelling. So rarely did she lose her temper, and she didn't want to do it now. "Aidan, if you stole some kind of trinket that she came from... that's not a familiar. It can't be." Could it? Shayna Mae dropped her hands. "That didn't belong to you in the first place. Where is she now? Where's the bird?"
“I’m just telling you what she said,” Aidan said, then sighed, pulling himself out of bed enough to crawl to the end, far enough that he could see what was left of the bird. “That’s what’s left,” he said, gesturing towards the bits and pieces that no longer made up the whole. “It kinda...turned into her. She was small and then big. It was really trippy, but I swear I wasn’t stoned. I don’t know where the fuck she went. Last I saw her she was in the shower...” The memory left him bitter and cold, his annoyance made even worse by his hangover. She could do what she wanted, sure, but it was still a bitch move to leave him hanging, a move made even worse when he’d found himself stuck in his own room.
Shayna Mae walked over and picked up the remaining pieces of the bird. She was feeling annoyed and concerned. What if that woman had done something to Aidan? Or any of them at some point during the night. "So you stole this, a woman emerged from it, called her your familiar, took a shower and then... just left?" She eyed Aidan curiously. "You weren't stoned, but did you have any of my herbs? Were you drinking?" Even if he had been drunk Shayna Mae was fairly certain Aidan would have remembered most of what happened. And she knew from Knox he wasn't making any of this up.
“It was around midnight on New Year’s Eve. Yes, I was drinking,” Aidan said, rolling his eyes as he crossed his legs under him. “But she… I left her in the shower and when I tried to go back, I couldn’t. I’d open my door and walk right back into my bedroom again. Like an endless loop.” At some point in the night he remembered peeing out the window and that pissed him off even more than being left to jerk himself off. It was fucking cold outside and he was lucky he didn’t freeze his nuts off in the process. “I’m assuming that if you can get in, I can now get out without jumping out the window.”
Shayna Mae studied the broken bird pieces in her hands, confused. "Are you sure she isn't a trickster?" she asked, because if the woman was able to alter reality that way... of course, it could have just been an illusion meant to confuse Aidan. "You said you don't know where she is now? She left?" Which was both good and bad. Good because the woman was no longer in their home to potentially wreak havoc. Bad because if she was meant to be contained in this bird, that could be consequential for the entire town. "Aidan, why didn't you come tell me about this last night?"
“Because I was drunk? Because she was hot? Sorry, but you were pretty much the last thing on my mind until I was stuck in my room and at that point I just wanted to pass out,” Aidan said with a shrug. Now was the first time that he was really able to process the possible ramifications of his actions and he realized he’d made some rather poor choices. This could so easily blow up in his face and there he was, just sleeping off his hangover. “I don’t know what she is, but she felt human enough to me. Not that that means anything. The last I saw her she was in my shower.” And he figured she wasn’t there now or Shayna Mae would’ve gone there first.
"She was stuck in a bird," Shayna Mae said, annoyance evident in her tone and expression now. "That should have been enough to tell you she wasn't human. I swear, you boys and your dicks." Huffing, Shayna Mae turned to leave, wanting to show Knox the broken pieces of the vessel this woman had arrived in. "You need to wake up and try to figure out where she is. We don't know what she is, or what she can do. If she's somewhere in the house, I want to know, okay?"
“I said I was sorry!” Aidan snapped, his own frustration bubbling up to match his sister’s. “I get it, I fucked up. If I’d known the thing was going to change like that, I wouldn’t have taken it. Next time I’ll come banging on your door as soon as it happens.” If he’d been thinking a little bit clearer, he’d have done that last night, but there was no point in saying that again. Aidan scowled as he rolled out of bed and began to hunt for warmer clothes. He had the feeling Aya wasn’t in the house. If she was, Knox and Shayna Mae would’ve found her already. That meant he was going out into the cold, the absolute last thing he wanted to do with a hangover on New Year’s Day.
"No, you didn't say you were sorry," Shayna Mae said, pausing in the doorway. "You said sorry that I was the last thing on your mind while you were dealing with this woman. You didn't say you were sorry for your stupid decisions." She started to leave again, at least grateful that he was up and getting dressed. "Tell me if you find her," she called over her shoulder. "We may need to try and get her back into... well, something." The bird was pretty much ruined, but at least she could figure out what kind of magic had been containing the woman.
“I can handle her,” Aidan muttered as he finished getting dressed, unwilling to go along with anything his sister wanted at that point. Aya was his problem and he’d deal with her without Shayna Mae’s help. The problem was going to be finding her, especially without knowing whatshe was capable of. He immediately regretted letting his sister take what was left of the bird, since it was all he could think of to help him track Aya down. “I’ll need those back after Knox takes a look at them,” he called after her, though he hoped she’d just leave and do as he asked. Any more guilt piled on and he just might say fuck it and get drunk instead. This wasn’t the way he’d hoped to start the new year.