Ophelia McCarthy (breatheoutside) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2022-09-19 10:30:00 |
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Entry tags: | #july 2018, ophelia, ophelia x zania, zania |
Who: Zania and Phee
When: early afternoon, Thursday, July 5
Where: the Castells’ place
Status: complete
The Castells’ greenhouse was becoming even more of a sanctuary for Phee lately. After all the drama with her unfaithful mother, the weird things her magic kept doing here and there, and then poor Jen’s nightmare that bled into the waking world ... she definitely felt like she needed a sanctuary. She’d gone to the festivities at the marina to watch the fireworks the night before, so she’d slept in some Thursday morning, but when she woke up she was restless.
Her working ‘schedule’ wasn’t much of one, and she knew Zan was fine with keeping things loose and easy, and she was welcome anytime. So once Phee was dressed and ready for the day, she got on her bike and rode down to Ludlow to pay the greenhouse a visit ... and the witches who owned it, of course. Welcome anytime or not, she felt weird being on someone’s property without checking in, so Phee walked up to the front door first and knocked. She stepped back and tucked her thumbs into her backpack straps, looking out at the light drizzle that was coming down.
Zania was home that afternoon, having worked the morning at the shop. It was one of those days that she hoped to get some work done in the greenhouse, restocking some of their most in demand ingredients and checking to make sure everything was flourishing. It had become a significantly easier job since Phee started coming by, ensuring that everything in the greenhouse continued to thrive, even when conditions weren’t perfect. All her botanical knowledge was no match for what Phee could do with her fingers, just a touch of magic. She’d be jealous, except she knew she had the girl beat in magical ability. Beat in spades.
She had the feeling it was Phee knocking at the door even before she reached it. They didn’t have a lot of visitors and Lem was there often enough that she could just let herself in. Phee could have headed back to the greenhouse on her own, but Zania knew she liked to drop by and at least let her know she was there. It was part of the routine they’d established, at least when she was the one home. “Hey there,” Zania smiled, opening the front door. She glanced towards the sky. “Come on in before it gets worse.”
Nic and Gabriel were both nice to her every time Phee saw them, but she was far more comfortable talking to Zania, and Phee was relieved that she was the one who answered the door. She smiled as she stepped into the house with a soft “hey” in return. “Hope I’m not interrupting something,” she added. She may have had a latent talent for plants, but she knew she was still a babe in the woods in the magical world, and in her imagination Zania was almost always busy with Important Witch Things. “I was just going to check on all our babies, but I wanted to ... say hi first.” Really, she was torn between wanting to be alone in the greenhouse and wanting to blurt out all of her issues lately to Zania to get her advice.
“No, not interrupting anything. I just finished lunch,” Zania said, waving her in so she could follow her through the house. Zania would have loved it if she had Important Witchy Things to do all the time, but alas, daily life was pretty normal. And that could be a good thing. She hadn’t really enjoyed her last run-in with chaos magic—she preferred her own body to Reagan’s, thank you very much. “I was actually hoping to spend some time in the green house this afternoon, if you don’t mind the company,” she smiled. “How’s it going? Enjoying your summer?” Sometimes she missed the freedom of being a teenager, specifically the lack of responsibility. She enjoyed her job and all that came with it, but she missed the days where her biggest problem was managing with her parents when she missed curfew again.
Phee didn’t mind the company at all -- in fact she’d been hoping that Zania would hang around and talk to her for a bit while she was there. The question made her huff a little bit before she could help herself. “Um, I mean yeah, in some ways,” she answered with a wan smile. “I mean, being out of school is cool and all, but there’s just ... a lot has happened this summer already.” It hadn’t all been bad, but enough of it had been weird and scary that she couldn’t say she’d been having the best time all around. “But I’m like, doing okay,” Phee added, hoping to avoid any unnecessary concern. She wasn’t hurt or sick or even haunted personally by anything that she knew of, it was everybody around her she was worried about. “How, um, how are you?”
Zania was expecting a light, carefree answer, perhaps because that’s what she wished for Phee. It was how she liked to remember her high school summers, though if she thought about it, she’d remember all the drama, both normal and supernatural. It was impossible to go all summer without something going wrong, at least in Point Pleasant. “Everything okay? The carnival didn’t get you, did it?” she asked, stopping by the kitchen to grab a can of Diet Coke from the fridge. “Want something to drink?” she asked as she opened it. “Summer’s been good. Mostly quiet, except for an incident at the carnival. Gabriel took me to the beach for my birthday, so that was nice. It’s good to get away sometimes, change of scenery and all that.”
She made the appropriate sounds of approval and agreement about Zan’s trip, because going to an actual beach did sound pretty damn nice. Half of that appeal was the ‘getting away’ bit, and it made her wish she was older already so she and Greg could take trips like that. “Um yeah, one of those is fine, please,” Phee answered about the drink. Then she sighed and went on. “No, the carnival was okay for me, but like ... first I walked in on my mom having an affair -- not like, the sex part, gross, but I guess they’d just got done and he was leaving our house. Which was like ... brain explodey information. So there was that drama. And then my friend Jen spent the night a couple nights ago and she woke up screaming from this bad dream and she was all scratched up on her legs. Just like she’d gotten hurt in the dream. It was really scary and like, I think we need to re-do the wards on our house or something, but I don’t know how.”
“Oh shit,” Zania muttered as she opened her can, eyes wide and concerned as she blinked back at Phee. She could conceal her emotions when she really wanted to, but most of the time they were written all over her face. “That’s a lot. I’m sorry about your mom. Parents are… complicated. Especially moms.” That had been her experience and it didn’t surprise her that it might be Phee’s, but she’d never caught her mother cheating on her father. Which was probably a good thing. She didn’t really want to set her mother on fire, but there was no telling how she might react. “The dream thing’s concerning,” she frowned. “Usually the wards only come into account if the thing that attacked her was on your property. Unless it’s somehow attached to her? Then it might be able to get around them. Did she say what it was? Or what it looked like? The thing that hurt her, I mean.”
It was a small comfort to hear that Zania had a complicated relationship with her own mother -- she’d kind of figured as much, judging from some of the comments Zan had made, but maybe it was something they could actually talk about someday. For now the attack on Jen was more pressing. “She called it the Dark Man. She saw it once before, like, out in the real world,” Phee explained. “He’s this big-tall dude, real skinny, wears a bowler hat and has a lot of teeth ... not like, a real human, obviously. Have you ever heard of that before?” Gods, she hoped the thing wasn’t attached to Jen, where this would become some regular thing. Phee had to help her if that was the case.
Zania tended to think that magic could solve everything, but every once in a while a problem came along that left her stumped. The Dark Man was one of those problems and she frowned as Phee described him, already nodding before she got to her question. “Yeah, I think he’s like Point Pleasant’s personal Boogieman. Like Slenderman, except real.” Though now that she thought of it, Slenderman could be real and just exist elsewhere. He definitely wasn’t there, thank God. “I’ve never seen him, but I’ve heard people talk. Always tall, always with the bowler hat. Humanoid, but not human. I don’t know what he is, but… this is the first time I’ve heard about him going after someone in their dreams. Is your friend okay? Jen?”
None of that was very comforting. Phee realized that she’d been hoping Zania would be able to just spit out an answer off the top of her head, provide some magical help that would protect Jen. Instead it sounded like Zania already knew about the Dark Man and nothing could be done. It gave her such a sinking bad feeling in her stomach. “I mean physically, she didn’t get really hurt, but she got some pretty bad scratches on her legs. And she’s terrified,” Phee said, lifting her hands in a helpless sort of way. “I can’t really blame her. She woke up screaming, it took me a while to calm her down. And her dad’s seen him too, and the same thing happened to him that night. A nightmare, and the injuries he got were real. So like, what if it’s worse next time? What can we do? Is there some ... some ward for dreams?”
“I wish,” Zania said. “Nic was having shared dreams with a few other people last year. Creepy dreams. We couldn’t figure out how to stop them. They even got a dream walker involved. But dreams are weird. I could try to make a tonic that would prevent them, but I don’t know what would happen if something is actively seeking her out in them. And if the same thing happened to her dad on the same night? I don’t know. I might need to do a bit of research.” She knew she was rambling, but sometimes it helped to talk through problems out loud. Dreams were something she didn’t know a lot about and adding the Dark Man to them compounded the problem. “It’s not preventative, but I can at least give you a healing salve for the scratches on her legs.”
Shared dreams? Dream walkers? Phee had never even heard of those, and she felt out of her depth all over again. “Yeah, that would be nice,” she murmured about the healing salve. If she couldn’t do anything else for her friend, she could at least help Jen heal faster. Phee still looked fretful, a frown line between her ginger brows. “What’s a dream walker? I mean, it’s probably self explanatory, but like ... is it magic or some kind of psychic or what?” If there was no obvious magical way to protect someone in their dreams, maybe someone who could control dreams could help. Besides just trying to block all of them out for Jen and her dad and anyone else who’d had the same dream, Phee didn’t have any other ideas yet.
“I think a dream walker would be categorized as a psychic, but I’m not entirely sure,” Zania said. She wasn’t an expert on this topic by any means, but she found it interesting and that made it easy to talk about. “I just know it’s not magic. Even if there was a spell that allowed something similar, it would be complicated and would probably require all the dreamers to be in the same place, or have an object from each of them to link them together. As I understand it, this was nothing like that—she just found them in their dreams and was able to see what was happening, like an observer. I think she can manipulate them too, but I’ve never actually met her.” Which was actually a shame. All the connections were there, but she had no reason to meet with Jane short of being curious about her.
That was such a weird concept for Phee to wrap her head around, all she could do for a moment was stand there and stare into the middle distance as she pondered what that might be like. She had had some crazy dreams -- everybody did, didn’t they? -- and trying to imagine someone else there witnessing the weirdest parts of her brain was a little intimidating. If that had to happen to scare away something that was trying to hurt her through dreams, Phee would do it, though. Whether Jen would agree was a different story, but Phee really wanted to help her. “That sounds so crazy,” she murmured, then blinked rapidly and tried to shake off the weirdness. A lot of things were weird, she probably shouldn’t be surprised by anything anymore. “Is she still around? Can we contact her?” If Nic knew how to get a hold of her, then maybe she could do something, or at least give them some advice or something.
“Oh yeah, she’s a local. I’ll ask Nic to reach out to her,” Zania offered. She knew she probably shouldn’t just hand out Jane’s name, even if Phee was a witch and not likely to share the information with anyone else. She would have to tell Jen and Zania knew how things like that could spread. She’d leave it up to Jane—if it was her, she’d be interested just out of curiosity, but it was also potentially dangerous. If the Dark Man could hurt Jen, he could probably hurt Jane as well. “It’s really fascinating how many different types of people are out there, with different skills, and we never really know. I definitely didn’t tell anyone back in school. We can only pick out other witches because we can feel the magic in them. It makes me wonder who else I’ve met that was different and I had no idea.”
Phee wouldn’t have wanted to just cold-call an adult she didn’t know to ask for a favor like that anyway, so she was more than fine with enlisting the Castells’ help in reaching out. It was more than her parents probably could’ve done to assist, and Phee felt pretty justified in bringing this problem to Zan first. Zania and Nic were real witches who actually acted like it, and obviously had all kinds of connections that the McCarthys had isolated their family from. Phee nodded gratefully to the first part, then gave a wide-eyed expression of understanding about the rest. “I know, right? I mean, I just keep running into things and people who can do stuff that I never thought was possible. My parents didn’t even tell us about our magic until things were already, like, happening to us,” she said. Phee tried to be more understanding than bitter about all of that, but some of it leaked into her tone anyway. “I’m like ... continually blindsided, it feels like. I even know a girl who can open doorways to other dimensions, she did it with me accidentally, like what the hell is that about, you know?” She huffed a little.
“You know Jules,” Zania said with a grin. Maybe she shouldn’t have dropped her name, but it was hard for her to imagine that there was anyone else in town that could do such a thing. She also didn’t think it was that big a secret—at least half a dozen random people knew because she’d shut them in an alternate dimension. And it wouldn’t exactly shock her if those people talked. And the dreamers knew as well. At this point, Jules' ability to open portals was about as secret as her being a witch, at least in Zania’s opinion. “I’m assuming, because there can’t be two of them. This town’s too damn small. I’ve never met her,” she clarified. “She was one of the ones sharing dreams with Nic. I know he’s been worried about her, and that she was recently in an accident. Is she still doing that? Opening doors? What was it like?” All she had was Nic’s account and that was such a clusterfuck that she couldn’t imagine that that was what Jules’s ability should be like.
Phee’s eyes went a bit wide when Zania knew exactly who she was talking about, and for a minute she felt like she’d done a bad thing and betrayed a confidence or something. But then Zania went on to reveal how she knew, and Phee relaxed again. She had no clue about any accident, so that part made her frown, but it wasn’t like her and Jules were actually close or anything, especially not now. “I don’t know what she’s up to lately, I haven’t seen her in a while,” Phee said. “I only kinda knew her because my brother dated her a long time ago. I see her at like, parties and stuff sometimes, but I only get invited to those because of Greg, so ... not really the same social circles.” Phee shrugged. “But the portal thing happened before graduation -- me and Jules were in the school and she suddenly looked like she was in pain, like her hands. And then the world around us just changed. Everything was rotten and gross, and there was like, fungus and fog everywhere. It was so scary, we just ran, but the outside was even worse. And I think ... I think it was like a preview of where they all ended up. The people who disappeared but then came back. My mom included.”
Zania sometimes forgot that Phee’s mother was one of the many Nic and the others had trapped in the other place. It felt like something she should remember, but she hadn’t been the one to tell Phee what happened to her mother, nor did she think Nic had done the honors. Maybe it was Jules that had told her, or told her brother, or told Greg. She remembered school politics being complicated, but that all that fell aside when shit hit the fan. Even her and Reagan managed to get along when they really needed to. “That whole thing was weird from start to finish. The dreams, the fog, the way it connected everyone. It’s the kind of thing that seems like it’d have to be orchestrated, but as far as I can tell it all just happened. Almost everyone I know was touched by it in some way. I’m glad your mom came back. I think almost all of them did. Maybe it’s not surprising that she’s acting a little weird after that. I probably would be.”
She still didn’t know what to think about the whole mess. Phee still felt super confused about what exactly even happened. Her mother hadn’t been very forthcoming, and she’d been told some things by some people, but none of it made a lot of sense. It was all so huge and scary, and what Zania said didn’t make it sound any simpler. She just wanted her mom to be okay, but how did anyone even start getting there after something like that? “Yeah,” Phee sighed, sounding a little resigned about it all. It was just so daunting. “I’m sure that’s a lot of it. We talked about it later, the affair, and she said she just needed something that was hers. So ... I guess if she wants that to be fucking some dude who looks like a criminal, more power to her.” She rolled her eyes a little, but she sounded sincere enough. Phee understood, even if she thought it was gross and not fair to her dad. “She won’t really talk to me about what happened, I just know it was really bad. I don’t like, know how to help her.”
“Yeah, I probably would have suggested some kind of a hobby, but whatever,” Zania shrugged. She didn’t quite understand how an adult woman, with magic and money at her fingertips, couldn’t find something to call her own other than an affair, but to each their own. She’d normally say that if it wasn’t hurting anyone have at it, but there was a high chance someone could get hurt. And it sounded like Phee already had been. “The only person I’ve talked to about it is Vex and I can never tell if things were better or worse than what he describes,” she said. “It sounded like hell though. I don’t know what more you can do than be there and be supportive. Let her know how much you missed her, how glad you are that she’s back. I don’t think it’s up to you to fix her, if she even needs fixing.”
Phee had heard the name Vex mentioned at the Castells’ a few times, and she’d seen the man through the fence in the backyard, but she didn’t know much about him at all. Everything she’d heard sounded weird, though. She nibbled on her bottom lip, trying to remember if she’d really told Brianna how much she had missed her, or only complained about how much things had sucked while she was gone. Those weren’t quite the same thing, were they? But they’d had a somewhat strained relationship before the disappearance, and Phee wasn’t sure how that kind of talk would be received. She let out a big sigh and rubbed at one of her eyes. “I know it’s not, but ... I don’t know,” she murmured. Phee gave Zania a pained sort of look. “Are you close with your mom?”
“No, not really,” Zania said, shaking her head. “Sometimes I wish we were, but most of the time we exasperate each other. I’m…not what she wants in a daughter. I resent the fact that she wants me to change. She resents the fact that I won’t even try.” She knew she could fit herself into the mold her mother wanted, but it would make her miserable, so what was the point? She didn’t want to be a socialite and she tried not to care what people thought about her, but her mother’s opinion mattered even when she didn’t want it to. Because she was her mother. “It’s complicated. I think most mother-daughter relationships are.”
It was a bit of a relief to hear that complexity was somewhat normal at least. Phee related to what Zan said about her mother wanting her to change ... she’d often got the impression that Brianna had wanted a different sort of daughter, one who was cool and popular and slim, not the bookish band geek she’d gotten instead. “I don’t think I’m what my mom wants either,” she murmured. “She’s like ... skinny and gorgeous and perfect, you know? And I’m just me. Trip left home, and Bash is kinda rebellious sometimes and gay now, and it’s been like ... I dunno. I just kinda feel like she doesn’t wanna be our mom anymore. Or can’t.” Phee paused, then gave a self conscious sort of laugh. “Sorry, not to like, dump all this on you. I mostly came to ask about the dream stuff.”
“Hey,” Zania said, nudging the toe of her boot against Phee’s shoe. “You’re gorgeous. Don’t let someone else define perfect for you. It has nothing to do with weight. Or tits, since I have none,” she added cheekily, to add some levity. She’d always been slim, but found her rack lacking, and it was easy to envy those with more curves than she had. But she also liked her body because it was hers, and having been stuck in someone else’s for a day made her appreciate it even more. “I’m sorry about your mom though. It sounds like she’s the one going through a rebellious phase. Maybe she just needs to work through it. I hope it gets better though.” It would probably feel different if Phee were a couple years older, and not living at home, but she was still in high school. Zania could understand how she still needed her mom to be a mom.
Phee gave Zania a small, grateful smile. Her body image issues were still loud sometimes, even with Greg around to fawn over how hot she was. It was just hard to accept that he wasn’t just trying to make her feel better because he was a good enough person to see through all of her flaws. “Thanks,” she murmured, a little embarrassed to feel so vulnerable around a truly beautiful woman. Small chest or not, Zania was lovely. “I hope it does too and that she starts to like, feel better.” Maybe Brianna would come back around to being an involved mom, maybe she wouldn’t. Phee was starting to feel like she was mostly on her own, either way. Maybe it was good for her. “And I would give you some of mine, if I could,” she added, trying to sound lighter herself. “Boobs, I mean. Greg would probably cry, but he would get over it.”
“A good man,” Zania snickered, pausing to take a sip of her drink. “What’s he think about all this? Does he know… everything?” Zania had hidden her magic from most of her friends when she was a teenager and it was something she sometimes regretted. Those that didn’t know that side of her didn’t really know her, only a fabricated version of herself appearing to fit in with the rest of the world. She wondered how many of them actually believed that the people of Point Pleasant really bought enough tea for her to make a living, plus pay her brother and Phee. It was kind of ridiculous when she thought about it, but publicizing the witchy part of her business had never been an option. It was more acceptable to sell pot than potion ingredients.
The little compliment made Phee smile -- Greg was a good man, and he would probably be chuffed to be called a man in the first place. “Yeah, he knows everything,” she confirmed. “About me and magic, about what happened to my mom ... he was the one who found her, actually, walking down the side of the road. He was so good to me, the whole time.” It was a bittersweet appreciation, and it showed in her face. “He saw one of Jules’s portals up close and personal, too. I think it all kinda scares him, but that’s like ... a pretty sane reaction, you know? But he’s supportive of me and he thinks it’s hot that I can do magic.” She grinned faintly. Having Greg in her life made a lot of other things more bearable, and she loved him a lot, even though she knew they were still super young. She had another whole year of high school left.
Zania didn’t really know Greg, but she’d seen him around over the years. He was fun to tease because he seemed aware that she was different, and possibly dangerous, but she never meant any harm in it. Witches needed allies, especially those that were completely normal, to keep them from getting thought of as a threat. Greg was surrounded by witches, so it was a good thing he was on their side. “What Jules can do would scare anyone,” she agreed. “I think that’s pretty normal. I’m glad he’s supportive of you though, and is cool with you learning magic. I’ve always thought it’d be hard to make it work with someone who wasn’t.” It was probably why so many of her high school relationships had failed. Most of the guys had no idea what she was, and the one that did had always preferred another. “Does he plan to leave for college or is he sticking around?”
Phee nodded along, since she couldn’t imagine trying to have a real relationship with someone who didn’t know what she could do -- or worse, someone who knew but didn’t approve. She’d had enough magical suppression already in her life from her parents, thanks very much. Phee was going to learn and develop her power no matter what or who didn’t like it. So she was grateful to Greg for all of his understanding, even though so many things in their lives were brain-breakingly weird. It was a little reassuring to hear Zan agree that Jules’s power was a huge scary deal, that she wasn’t just overreacting because she was young or inexperienced or whatever. “Nah, he’s sticking around,” she answered with a little smile. “He doesn’t think college is really for him. He wanted to stay here and get the certifications and stuff to be a firefighter and do like, search and rescue stuff. Which I think is pretty awesome, you know?”
Zania had lived in Point Pleasant long enough to notice that most of the people who grew up there stuck around, whether they intended to or not. Some left for a bit, for college or other pursuits, but they almost always returned. It was kind of nice to hear Greg wasn’t running off just to end up disappointed when it didn’t work out. “Good for him,” she smiled. “We need people doing stuff like that around here—people that know what’s up. And you can patch him up after he takes care of the rest. I’ll teach you how to make the salve, if you want. The one I’m gonna make for Jen.” Maybe it wasn’t her place to teach such things, but she got the impression Phee wasn’t learning a lot at home and healing ointments were the kind of thing Zania thought every witch should know.
The thought of being Greg’s magical nurse made Phee feel suddenly all lit up on the inside, and she smiled brightly back. “Yeah definitely!” she agreed. Phee was always eager to learn from Zania, and making some healing salve would be so useful, not just for Greg. Nobody at home was teaching her jack shit, so she was just trying to absorb as much as she could around the Castell house, and take good notes in her grimoire. Helping plants grow came natural and easy for her, but most of the rest of magic wasn’t as intuitive. She raised a pale brow and asked, “Now?” Phee wasn’t trying to rush her, but watching and learning from a spell coming together was much more constructive than fretting and worrying. She had to wait for more news on the dreamwalker, but this was something she could do.
“Sure,” Zania smiled, pushing away from the counter and setting her drink aside. “Let’s start in the greenhouse. I’ll show you exactly what I’d pick, and then we can go to my workroom. Most things are dried before you use them, that’s how people would buy them in the shop, but you can also use them right off the plant. It just sometimes makes that ingredient a bit more potent. So I can walk you through that process and then show you how it all comes together.” One of the things she loved about creating at home was having so many of the raw ingredients at her fingertips. It allowed her to experiment, to improve and perfect, and that was part of the fun of it. Most witches were very protective of their spells and didn’t share outside their family line, but Zania felt a kinship with Phee that made it come easy. She wasn’t going to show her how to summon a demon or anything insane, but healing spells were the sort of thing that should be shared. Every witch should know one.