James McCarthy (justbreezy) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2020-01-16 20:39:00 |
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Entry tags: | #january 2018, james, james x ophelia, ophelia |
Who: James & Phee
Where: Overlook
When: Wednesday Afternoon 01/10
Status: Complete
Point Pleasant was a town full of magic and wonder - and horrors, but that was a price they all paid for the magic. The snow was also a price and today it felt like a steeper price than the horrors James thought flippantly as he drove home from the office. It had stopped snowing so that was something but he'd still had a boring time getting to the office this morning and everything was just so wet and cold. He was thankful for his quality car today, that was for sure, and he was very thankful that he lived in a good neighborhood where the streets got cleared and his driveway was heated. Mostly he just looked forward to getting home. Things had been settling down a little, Sebastian was back in school and Brianna hadn't attempted to bite his head off at all since their Monday argument. Work had been... work. He finally had some paperwork for Dr. Ford, one of his smaller clients but still an important one. They'd need to get a psychologist and a social worker from out of town so that had to wait a bit longer - everyone else worked too closely to the man given his status at the hospital and James did not want to risk the legal complications that could precipitate. There was always work to be done for D'Onofrio and even without leaving town James had plenty to do. He still missed Portland, mostly he missed the free time he had there.
The family needed him for now he reminded himself as he drove his car into the garage, noting that Brianna's car was not there. Oh well. The kids should be home now, if Phee wasn't hanging with her boyfriend. He wanted to add an adjective there but Greg Wheeler had been doing a good job of not being a complete fuck-up so nothing really came to mind that fit. James supposed that was a good thing but there was still a part of him that kind of wished Phee would move on, figure out she was too good for any boy out there and focus on school and hobbies instead.
James stopped by his office first to drop some files on the desk then headed for the kitchen as he loosened his tie. It was too early for dinner and too late for a snack but he hadn't really eaten since noon so he was peckish for some fruit.
Talking to Liam that day about magic and everything that had happened over the weekend had just renewed Phee’s sense that she needed to know more, and needed to know it faster. She and Sebastian were behind amongst their peers, and the dangers of the world obviously weren’t going to wait for them to catch up. She was still angry and resentful toward her parents for stunting them like this, but hopefully now they saw that their kids being well-versed in magic was a necessity.
She’d had Greg take her home after school, though they’d gotten some good kissing in in the driveway since nobody else was home yet. Phee wanted to catch her dad when he got home -- if he even came home, but he’d been there every day so far that week, so the odds were good -- and talk to him. He’d always been easier to talk to than her mother, for those complex mother-daughter reasons that Phee didn’t fully understand. Plus she knew that she was James’s little princess, and hopefully that would help her achieve the goals she had.
From the living room where she’d been sitting with her spellbook, Phee heard him come in and head for the kitchen. She got up, hugging the soft leatherbound book to her side, and hurried in that direction to meet him. Bash had another rehearsal for the play, so it was just the two of them in the house, and maybe that was best. “Hi Daddy,” she greeted as she spotted him, going to lean against the breakfast bar counter. “How was your day?”
"Hey, princess," James said easily when she greeted him. He closed the distance between them and snuck a kiss in her red hair, squeezing her shoulder gently. More and more he was beginning to see her as The Heir, so to speak, the one most likely to follow in his footsteps and not disappoint him. Her brothers weren't doing a bang up job but Phee had managed not to let him down so far. Her choice in boyfriends was questionable but not terrible and her grades had stayed up even after she'd started dating. She was definitely his little princess for plenty of reasons. "It was okay. Did you have a good day at school?" he asked, not wanting to ask her right away about Sebastian, mindful of how one sibling could eat up all the attention and leave the others feeling neglected if the parents weren't careful.
The show of affection made her smile as it always did, and Phee patted his arm in return. She felt guilty for enjoying it sometimes, because she knew their father didn’t love on Sebastian like he did her, and her brother needed that ... but Phee couldn’t help it. She’d always loved getting James’s approval. Especially since she got so little of it from her mother. “Yeah it was okay,” she answered. It was a standard teenage response, but she couldn’t think of many other adjectives for it. It was school, she liked it well enough, but nothing groundbreaking had happened that day. But the question did give her a pretty good lead-in to what she really wanted to talk to him about. “I had lunch with Liam Wolfe,” Phee started, eyes on her dad’s face. “And we talked about ... everything, you know?”
"With discretion, I hope," James murmured with a little smile after taking a second to remember who Liam Wolfe was. The boy had been present for the ritual, James would do well to remember who was a witch in this town, even if they were just a seventeen year old boy. "It must be hard knowing how far ahead of you he is but that doesn't mean you can't catch up and surpass him." He grabbed an apple from their fruit basket and a knife from the knife rack to start peeling it. "In fact, I have every confidence you are already a stronger witch, despite your lack of practice."
Phee almost rolled her eyes at the first part, because why would she need discretion with Liam? He’d been there, for gods’ sake. But she was trying to make this a positive conversation, and teenage sass would start it off on the wrong foot. The compliments helped even if she wasn’t sure they were true. Liam had been training in magic from a young age, but they’d never shown each other what they could do, so she didn’t know how they measured up. “That’s ... well, I wanted to talk to you about that, actually,” she said, glancing between his hands and his face. “Catching up. After like, everything that happened with Sebastian ... are we gonna step up the lessons, kind of ... get into more powerful stuff?”
James sighed and leaned back against the counter, the apple peel slowly curling in a long strip away from his fingers. He almost gave her the routine answer, that they would when he thought they were ready, but he had the feeling that that answer wasn't going to work anymore. If his kids thought they were ready for - or even thought they needed - more dangerous magic, they'd go elsewhere to get it if he kept denying them. He'd somewhat hoped that this whole fiasco had shown them magic was not a thing to be trifled with, but maybe they needed that lesson from him. "Okay," he muttered. "Sure. Let's take a little road trip next weekend and I'll show you some more 'powerful stuff'."
He didn’t look or sound very happy about it, but that was still a win in Phee’s book. “Really?” she asked, a bright grin spreading over her face. She put her little grimoire down -- feeling that same small sense of reluctance to let go of it that she always did -- and trotted around the counter. Mindful of the knife in his hand, Phee hugged James from the side. “Thank you, Daddy! We won’t disappoint you, I swear. I’ve been taking really good notes at Zania’s and studying and practicing and stuff! And Sebastian really wants to learn more and get more experience and stuff,” she chirped, hoping the enthusiasm would make him less likely to change his mind. Because they would go elsewhere to learn defensive magic if they had to, and now they had a whole list of people to try if James wouldn’t teach them.
Her enthusiasm was endearing and the more James thought about it, the more he thought maybe this would be good for both her and Sebastian. He just hoped the weather wouldn't be absolutely shitty on Sunday but he'd work around that if it was. He just really didn't want to start flexing their shaky, inexperienced magic muscles in or near the house. Sure, there were small things he could teach them there but not the things he had in mind for this. He hugged her back with a little grin, and snuck a kiss in her hair. "We'll have our regular boring non powerful lessons until then so keep studying."
“They’re not boring,” Phee insisted, pulling back to smile at him. She’d noted the bit about the field trip, but she felt like questioning him a bunch would wreck things, so she didn’t ask where they were going or why. Maybe he wanted to get them away from Brianna or something too, who knew. Phee trusted her father to make those decisions. “They’re just ... not as useful in the face of like, ancient witch possession and fog monsters and stuff.” She wrinkled her nose up, then smiled again. “Do you wanna see my notes from what I’ve learned at Zan’s? It’s mostly plant stuff, but some of it is really cool.” As possessive of her book as she was, she found she really wanted to show it to James and get his approval for the things she’d already been learning.
James didn't tell her that not a lot of things were useful in the face of the kind of crazy they'd faced. That was a reminder he'd failed to pick up on it, mistaken it for a possible curse and been unable to fix a damn thing. His ego couldn't really take the strain of thinking about that too much so he was happy to ignore it. "Show me," he said instead, moving aside to toss the apple peel before grabbing a board to start cutting it up. Showing interest was not only a good parental thing to do, he was genuinely curious about what Phee was learning from Zania, it was so much more interesting than whatever they were teaching at school these days. Of course Zania had promised not to teach Phee anything dangerous and James sincerely doubted she was divulging family secrets to a teenager but even just a glimpse could prove to be useful.
Feeling like a kid proud to show off her science project, Phee bounced back to where she’d left her new favorite book and picked it up to bring back to her dad. It felt so good in her hands, like it belonged there, and while she didn’t want to show it to most people, it felt good to open it up in front of James. She was keeping a little glossary of terms she hadn’t known right off the top of her head in the front, but Phee flipped past that to the pages about all the plants Zania had. The notes were carefully written and neat, transcribed from the messier original scribbles she’d taken down, and she’d even taken to drawing the flowers and leaves and herbs next to the info about them, like some naturalist from the 1700s. That was how she felt sometimes, re-discovering things. “So I’m writing down like, their muggle properties, and then what they can be used for in magic,” she said, turning the book so James could see.
James chuckled at the muggle reference as he admired his daughter's handiwork. It was good, especially considering her age. "You could have a promising career in science," he pointed out. "A science witch." He finished chopping up the apple and offered her a piece. "Is Ms. Castell growing all of these in her greenhouse?" He hadn't really paid the crazy Castell siblings much attention but recent events had definitely put them on his radar more so than their parents, now that they'd all joined together in a ritual and Phee was actually working for them. It could come in handy, knowing this was Zania's strength, or one of them.
It was so weird to hear someone call her ‘Ms. Castell,’ even though Phee was sure her parents would want her to do the same for manners’ sake. Zania didn’t exactly seem like a peer to Phee, but she was definitely starting to feel like a super-cool older sister. Someone to emulate, but not like an Adult-adult. “Yeah,” she answered her dad’s question, practically glowing with pride. “She’s got a ton more I haven’t gotten to yet, too. It’s so cool in there, I love it.” Phee bounced a tiny bit on her toes as she lovingly turned the grimoire pages to show him more. “I kinda feel like magic is science in a way? But the kind you can feel. Does that make sense? I dunno, but I’m learning a lot, and they’re really nice. She wants me to experiment with growing some special herbs for tea soon. For the shop.” The idea of people buying her plants, even dried out and chopped fine, made Phee feel gleeful in a way she couldn’t describe.
Allowing Phee to work for Zania had obviously been the right call. James hadn't really considered saying no and he was glad for that now. Seeing one of his kids happy was like fresh air in the house, especially since it was about something as meaningful as this. Becoming a father, he had braced himself for having to deal with his kids being excited about something inane and dumb like pop bands and computer games. This? Was much better. "Have you had to deal with her brother at all?" he asked before plopping a piece of apple in his mouth. That was the one thing he didn't like about Phee's job, Nic Castell had a bad history.
Phee had her own frivolous interests, of course, but she was aware enough to know that James didn’t care about those. She could enjoy her TV shows or fantasy book series or the games she played on her phone without babbling about them. This was magic though, the thing that bound them together the most, aside from them being family. So Phee was stoked to show him what she’d learned and get his approval, which seemed wonderfully genuine. She looked up from where her fingers were caressing the edges of the pages with a little ‘hm?’ before his words really registered. “Oh, uh ... not really. I mean he’s around sometimes, but we don’t really talk or anything,” she said. Phee didn’t have a problem with Nic, he just wasn’t involved in what she was doing over there.
James didn't have a 'problem' with Nic either but he didn't want him near his daughter because not only was he a few years older than her, he was an ex-con. He liked Phee's answer, both the words and the tone of her voice. Reading between the lines told him Nic had neither been threatening to her nor spent much time with her, she sounded disinterested without trying to fake it and that was exactly what he wanted so he could easily dismiss his concern for now. "What kind of herb are you going to be working with?" he asked, willing to let that go for now and to focus again on the positive of what she was doing. She looked happy, that was all that mattered right now when they all needed a little more happiness in their lives.
Oblivious to that fatherly concern, Phee started rattling off the herbs that Zania had mentioned specifically. “Oh let’s see ... chamomile, lemon verbena, rose hips, rosemary ... there’s a lot of them,” she said cheerily. She hadn’t gotten to really tell anybody any of this, there was always too much else going on, bad stuff that made the simple joys like this seem dumb and frivolous. She’d given Greg an overview of what she was doing for a ‘job,’ but he didn’t understand the magical aspects of any of it, so it was nice to talk to her dad about it all. “I’ll bring you some to try once I have a blend together! The goal eventually is to like, enchant them with specific uses, you know? Like healing and calmness and stuff, beyond their natural properties.”
James knew and he nodded to show as much. He'd never gotten into all that herb stuff at her age because honestly it had bored him but he liked that she was so enthused by it. He wondered if it was her element talking or if it was simply the fact that she was finally getting exposed to magic so every little bit was a thrill. "You should give some to your mother when it's ready," he said. "I'm sure she'd love a relaxing tea after the last few weeks." And what mother didn't love gifts from her kids? Especially if they were actually good and not just sloppy paintings.
It was probably some combination of both. Phee had always been drawn to plants and nature because of her element, but finally learning something useful had really jazzed her up about it even more. She was finding paths to hone her natural skill, and it was exciting. She felt like she was finally blooming, like all of the flowers she loved so much. In all areas of her life -- Greg was a part of that too. And the friends she was making. Everything was going good with her personally. Phee beamed at the idea of gifting something to her mother. Maybe she would finally get some approval from that area too. “She probably needs it,” she said with a soft chuckle. “And like, a dozen massages.” Phee paused then, the concept of parents needing support making her realize that her dad might need that too, and looked at him curiously. “How are you doing, then? After everything.” He probably wouldn’t be honest with her, but she could at least ask.
She was right that he wouldn't be honest with her. James was firmly of the opinion that parents' struggles should be kept private and away from their kids. It was his job to keep them safe and shield them from the worst of things and lately he had failed at that. His ego was bruised, he was constantly worried and he'd found another gray hair that morning so he wasn't doing great at all. Still, he smiled at Phee and offered her another piece of his apple. "I'm good, princess. A little worried about your brother so you help us take care of him, okay?"
Phee took the apple and popped it into her mouth, savoring the sweet crunch of it. She wasn’t sure if she believed him completely or not, but it wasn’t her place to push him to share. James was a reserved guy all around, and he probably didn’t want to worry her. And if he was sincere? Then great, that was a good sign. She smiled and nodded a bit as she chewed, then said, “I’m doing my best, Daddy.” Phee thought for a second about saying that Sebastian needed him to do his best too, but that could lead down a road she didn’t have the energy for. She just hoped he would rise to the occasion anyway. “We’ll all get through it. At least he’s safe now.” As safe as any of the rest of them, at least.
Sebastian was safe for now, James thought. As long as he didn't do something else stupid like give his blood to other witches. He didn't say that though, it was a dark thought to have and his princess didn't need to hear that kind of shit from him. "I think that ritual was a good lesson for both of you," he said instead. "Now you've seen and felt how powerful magic can be, how destructive and yet so alluring. It's a tricky balance to maintain, like trying to maintain a legal speed in a Lamborghini. It's tempting to accelerate until you can't go any faster but just like driving, you have to be safe."
The most teenage part of Phee groaned internally and rolled its eyes. Of course she would be safe about it, he didn’t need to give her a lecture. But she knew impatience wouldn’t get her anywhere, and what her dad was saying was true. She’d definitely felt the pull of the magic in that room, with nearly everybody involved and doing it together. It had felt dangerous, just like he was saying. “I know,” she said solemnly, glancing from her book to his face and back again. “And I’ll be safe, I promise.” That was why they needed the guidance so bad -- they didn’t have time to learn completely in baby steps, so they needed someone to teach them how to actually accomplish things while they were being safe. Phee just hoped James would be the one to get them there. “We’ll make you proud, Daddy,” she added with a smile.
"I know you will, princess," James said with a fresh smile, leaning in to kiss the top of her head. He knew all about impatience and how easily she could have gotten frustrated by his words but she was his good girl and he knew he could count on her not to be as petulant as her brothers. "You already do though, you know that, right? Make me proud. Magic is very important to me but I still want to see you go to college and succeed outside of it. Have you thought at all about what you want to do when you graduate?" It probably felt like such a far away thing for her but to James it was looming right there on the horizon.
Making her parents proud was always a profound thrill -- granted, it was much more difficult to accomplish with Brianna, but that never took away from the sense of accomplishment that came when she pleased James. Phee was practically glowing. At least until he asked about post-high-school plans, which seemed like a scary swamp that she didn’t want to set foot in. The future was too vague and far away, and now she had Greg to consider ... “I mean ... I’ve thought about it, like ... here and there,” she said, shrugging a little. “I don’t have any real plans yet though. I mean, college, of course, but ... in state, out of state ... what major ... I dunno, really. Something with botany would be ideal.”
James could practically see her deflate and that wasn't a great sign. He wanted all his kids to have clear paths ahead of them, to do well and be independent. "Whatever you end up doing, I know you'll excel at it," he said, effectively letting her off the hook for now. Even if she ended up doing something like the Castells it wasn't the end of the world, those twins seemed to be doing alright, Nic Castell's past notwithstanding. James just hoped Phee would have something other than magic to fall back on, like he did.
Phee hadn’t made plans yet, as such, but she wanted to work with plants. However that ended up being put into practice, she felt like they were a part of her and eve if she was just doing mundane work with them, so be it. She wanted to follow her passion. But she also wanted to be a mom and work on her magic and all that stuff, so who knew. She felt like she had forever to figure it out. Grateful for the out, Phee smiled at her dad again and picked up her book to hug it to her chest. “Thanks Daddy,” she said. “I’ll see you at dinner? I’ve got some reading stuff to do.” Now that she’d talked to him and gotten what she wanted -- more intensive magic training -- she was ready to quit while she was ahead.
James had no idea what was for dinner or if he was taking care of it or Brianna. Probably him unless his wife came home anytime soon. He'd text her and figure something out but for now he was content with his apple. "See you at dinner," he murmured and managed to sound like he knew exactly when and what that was going to be - as long as she didn't ask for details. He thought he should check on Sebastian too since his son wasn't as likely to come down to talk to him and James couldn't really blame him after everything that had gone on lately. A part of him very much did not want to deal with it but it was his son and James tried not to be a shitty dad. "I'll call you when it's ready."
Phee had given zero thought to what or when dinner would be, but that was the blissful privilege of being a teenager. She just showed up when she was called and ate whatever she got. “Okay,” she said, the word chipper and upbeat. Phee moved over to rise up on her toes and give James a kiss on the cheek, then turned to head out of the kitchen with a little bounce in her step. That conversation had gone better than she’d expected, and she just hoped the more intensive magical training would really come to fruition. They were going to learn regardless, like she’d told Liam, so it would be best if her parents came along for the journey. Stubbornness was a family trait, after all.