nysm / tvd } { if you will, please move in closer

[onebehind]

In another lifetime, Dylan Rhodes never existed. In another lifetime, he didn't need to, because Lionel Shrike never drown in the Hudson River, Dylan Rhodes stayed Jacob Shrike, and his life went in a very different direction.

At age fifteen, his father started teaching him the tricks of the trade: sleight of hand, how to build a rig, how to do a little bit of actual magic, despite the fact that probably wasn't something he should be sharing, just yet. Shortly after that, Jacob met a young Alma Dray, tagging along with her grandfather, a friend of his father's, stopping by to check up on him. They grew up together, life continued on, and Jacob eventually went to college for Theatre Design and Stagecraft. At twenty-two, just after graduation, Jacob was chosen to join the Eye, his test to help the LVPD clear the name of another magician, despite all the evidence in the world making him seem guilty as sin. There, Jacob met Michael Fuller, his partner a lifetime away, and the two became friends as they managed, despite all odds, to pull off what had been asked of Jacob by the Eye. He continued on into a career as a stage magician in the Eye, eventually married Alma, and continued to occasionally work with Fuller as a consultant, when time allowed.

Over the course of the next few decades, Jacob and Alma tried to have children and failed, and eventually adopted one Jack Wilder, age 10. Using Eye resources, he helped Merritt McKinney get a good lawyer and clear his name after his brother screwed him over. He followed the rising stars that were J. Daniel Atlas and Henley Reeves, and when they decided to call it quits, pulled the both of them back together, forcing Daniel to give Henley a more active role in the show. And eventually, yes, he called the four of them together, not for revenge but something similar, to get them into the Eye. And somewhere along the way, Jacob and Alma tried for children again, and this time managed, giving Jack a brother, Lio, Lionel, named after his grandfather.

Basically, this is the best possible timeline.

And now, it's just after dinner, Jacob off to his nightly rehearsal at 5Pointz, that his space, now, like his father before him. He takes a detour tonight, though, to grab a cup of coffee, beforehand, a little bit of magic pulled around him, to make himself not completely invisible, but at least a little less noticeable. Normally, he doesn't mind showing off or signing autographs, when a fan approaches, and fans do often approach, his notoriety somewhere up there with Penn and Teller, Seigfried and Roy, but -- not tonight. He's not feeling it tonight, a little tired for whatever reason, hence the coffee, so magic it is. And now he's sitting at a table, idly people-watching as he leans into his cup. Have at him, if you can still see him (or, maybe, in certain party's cases, sense him) despite his best efforts.

Comments

[polydeukes]

Josie's hand moves to Marcel's shoulder, drawing a small bit of magic before throwing up a barrier spell against the back door. Escaping isn't going to be that easy. As she moves towards the door to cut him off at the pass, Marcel charges after the monster, looking to hold it down and shove it back into place if it tries to escape the house.

[onebehind]

"Shit," Damien hisses, loud enough to be heard throughout the house. "You're going to get us all fucking killed!"

"Then call off the monster!" Dylan calls back.

"Fuck you!"

For all that Damien seems worried that they're going to get all of them killed, himself included, he still doesn't seem willing to play ball. Whether that's because he thinks he can still escape this or because this is the hill he's chosen to die on is anyone's guess, however.

[polydeukes]

Josie skids around so that she can meet his eyes. "Look. Whatever the Eye did to screw you over is not worth the lives of everyone in this city. It's not worth your life. Because trust me, every time this creature has been summoned, it bites the hand that fed it."

She stares him down and holds out her hand.

"You can make a choice. You can give me what I need to dispel the Croatoan and I'll let you go. Or you can stay here and the three of us will probably die, but Marcel will find a way to end the monster. Either way, I don't think you have a win here."

[abeautifulgame]

"I'm not sure your little vampire friend can handle me and the Croatoan," he shoots back. He may realize who Marcel is, he may not, but either way, it's hard not to notice that he's a vampire. "If I let it kill you first, I might still have an out!"

That would be a win.

Still, he's not stupid enough to not at least be considering her offer, despite the posturing. He just needs to posture. Being screwed over is absolutely worth its weight in lives.

[polydeukes]

"I think that'll depend on who has the juicer secrets. And the moment, the most I've got is I'm probably going to die at twenty-two."

And even that's not really a secret. Though Dylan didn't know, so ... sorry Dylan. She'll explain later when they're not under threat of death. But she keeps her focus on Damien. And gives a small shrug.

"And now that that's not a secret anymore, I'm will to bet yours are yummier."

[onebehind]

No, Dylan didn't know that, and so he whips his head in her direction, staring at her. He should probably be offering up something of his own, to make Damien the better target, but -- Jesus, what? He might even say that last bit out loud. He's really not sure, at this point.

Damien, meanwhile, looks between the both of them, frowning, before finally slipping a hand into his pocket. Pulling out what appears to be a wooden coin, meticulously cut and covered in sigils, he holds it up so she can see it, then tosses it to her. "Fine. Here."

And fuck you, too, lady.

[polydeukes]

She catches the coin easily, before looking back up at him with a smirk. "Pleasure doing business with you."

She places a hand against the barrier she created, drawing the magic back into herself, giving Damian room to leave. Then, she closes her eyes and focuses on the reversal spell, and slowly, the creature begins to turn to slop in front of Marcel and Dylan's eyes, sinking back into the ground from whence it came.

[onebehind]

Damien flashes her a brittle smile, the expression carrying that same fuck you sentiment, and hobbles away. Dylan glances between him, the melting Croatoan, and -- well, it would be back again, back to Damien, but he's already lost track of him, impossibly. He can only assume he used some magic, some spell to speed his getaway. Either way, he swears.

"Shit."

He would have liked to found a way of keeping Damien from getting away and becoming a thorn in their side again, sometime later.

[polydeukes]

Josie sighs as she relaxes, before turning and holding out the coin to him to take. As much as she did agree to let Damien go, that doesn't mean she's okay with him getting off without any kind of consequence.

"That's probably good for a locator spell."

[onebehind]

If he can't find him, someone in the Eye absolutely will be able to, using the coin, and so he reaches to take it from her. He even manages to summon up a small smile, at least a little more comfortable with Damien having gotten away.

"Thanks," he tells her as he tucks it away in his pocket. A pause follows, a glance over his shoulder, and then, as he returns his attentions to her, he starts, "Anyway, uh."

What now?

He feels like they won, like they're done here, but he wants to make sure they won.

[polydeukes]

"I think we're good here." Josie nods in agreement. She glances back over to Marcel and offers him a small smile. "Thanks for coming. You were a big help."

"Happy to," he nods with a smile. "Let Hope know mission accomplished. And you should give her an actual call, not just text her in an emergency."

"I will call. I promise."

"Good." He turns and holds out his hand to Dylan. "Nice to meet you, circumstances aside."

[onebehind]

"You, too," Dylan answers, reaching to take Marcel's hand for the shake. Despite the circumstances, that was much less -- something than he was expecting. He'll take it, though. "Maybe next time, we can try this over beers or something."

Maybe the next time they meet will be under better circumstances.

[polydeukes]

"That sounds infinitely more preferable."

And with that, Marcel is gone. Josie stands there awkwardly for a moment, before glancing over at him.

"I probably owe you an explanation. About my secret?"

[onebehind]

"You definitely owe me an explanation," he agrees, turning to face her, a frown coming to his lips. He won't give her too much shit about that being a hell of a way for her to spring that on him even if it was a hall of a way to spring it on him, but he definitely wants to know what's going on.

[polydeukes]

She grimaces, before rubbing the back of her neck, then looking at the damage to the house. Josie's not sure she's going to like the explanation, but that doesn't mean he doesn't deserve to hear it. She's just worried about one of the neighbors calling the cops.

"We probably shouldn't do this here. Want to go get some coffee?"

[onebehind]

Dylan's not sure he likes the idea of giving her any breathing room to figure out how to make that bombshell seem less bad, but they probably shouldn't do this in the middle of the street. He blows out a breath, that in mind, and then gestures back the way they came.

"Let's go get some coffee."

[polydeukes]

Fortunately for you, Dylan, she knows there's no way to make this bombshell less bad. Also fortunately for you, it's possibly something that the Eye might be able to help with. She doesn't know how extensive their records are, but it's possible that they may have a record of the curse that put her in this position.

She was going to ask, she just ... wasn't really sure how.

But once they're settled at the coffee shop, and have placed their orders, she takes a deep breath.

"So have you ever heard of the Gemini coven?"

[onebehind]

"You mentioned it once, when we first met," he reminds her. "And I know you guys have a high rate of twin births or whatever." Or so was the impression he's always gotten. If nothing else, at least, he knows that she's a twin.

If nothing else, after a pause, he adds, "I also know that you have a high mortality rate for twins. One of them disappears or ends up dead or something." And he's starting to get the impression that that's a feature, not a bug, if she already knows she's going to die young.

[polydeukes]

He's not wrong. Josie nods as she curls her fingers around her cup.

"There's not many of us left. It's pretty much me and Lizzie, but the fact that there are two Gemini twins in existence is enough."

For the curse, anyway. Which she will get to.

"See, a long time ago, a curse was put on the Gemini Coven. Essentially the deal is that any twins born into the family line are put through a ritual called the Merge on their twenty-second birthdays. It's ... like a battle of wills. The twin that wins essentially ... absorbs the essence of the other. And the twin who loses, dies."

She doesn't bother to sugarcoat it because there's not much to sugarcoat.

"Even if I do win and absorb Lizzie, I won't be the same after. She'll be a part of me and I'll change as a result, so as far as I'm concerned the person that I am now won't make it past twenty-two."

[onebehind]

"I'm guessing just staying the hell away from each other isn't an option?"

If it's a curse, it can't be that easy -- even if it is an option, there must be repercussions for running away, and Dylan doubts it's anything good. Still, he can't help but ask. It's a kneejerk reaction, asking something inane in the face of horrifying news. He'll catch up in a minute. His brain will catch up.

[polydeukes]

"That's the current plan of attack." Hence Josie being here and Lizzie not. "But she's my sister. My best friend. I don't want to stay away from her forever. And even if one of us decided to become a vampire, if the other decided to have kids, and we had twins, the curse would go to them."

And she doesn't want that for her kids, to have them be faced with the same choice she and Lizzie were.

"The buck stops here. We just ... have to figure out how to stop it."

[onebehind]

Dylan's eyebrows raise and lower at the mention of one of them potentially becoming a vampire, not sure he would have even considered that if this were his problem, and not because he wouldn't have thought about it, period. Living forever isn't really something he's interested in, whatever the reason. He can understand, though, why that might be a choice, even if it wouldn't be his, which is why he doesn't comment.

Instead, he rakes his tongue over his teeth, before, "You know, the Eye's got an archive."

The magical equivalent of the Library of Alexandria. Hell, some of it was probably salvaged from, all things considered.

[polydeukes]

Josie doesn't particularly want to live forever either. Not unless she has a reason to, like falling in love with a vampire and knowing for a fact that they were her soulmate. But she won't rule out the option either.

"I was hoping they did." She straightens a bit. "Whatever hoops I need to jump through, I'll do it."

[onebehind]

"Gimme a couple of days, then," Dylan says with a nod. "I need to ask around, see who I need to talk to, and then actually talk to them, but." But he imagines it won't be a problem. Even if he can't take her to the Archive, maybe he can have the Archive come to them -- or at least have any relevant books pulled.

[polydeukes]

Josie's face relaxes in relief. An ask like this isn't really an easy one, especially with all the information she just dropped on him. She lets her shoulders slump and she nods.

"Take however long you need. I'm not going anywhere."