brobeforehos | 010 ⇨ lord give me a good family

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010 ⇨ lord give me a good family

text ⇨ nick ryves

Hi. Hi - hi is not really the word I'm looking for here, but there is no monosyllabic word to say 'I know it's been a while since I've tried a silly stint like this, and I know you won't reply to it because you're not here, but though I want to take pride in my ability to keep a cool head nowadays, I really could've used your steady logic this weekend to tell me something like "you're a Mae, so stop trembling"'...which is probably something you'd hear only halfway, so anyway - hi, Nick.

Where in the world are you, now?

[error in sending message: name not found.]

voice ⇨ public

These longer curses - how long do they actually last? If by midnight of the first day it's still going, I'm calling it a longer curse. Just - yeah, just a fact.

private text ⇨ alan ryves, jamie crawford

What |

...are you here?

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[ There's a ten minute delay from Jamie's end, before a response comes through. ]

hi. i'm here. me me, not evil magician me.

Good - so I can come home, then.

yeah. no danger. i promise.

[ He sends that first, almost immediately, since the guilt starts to seep in almost straight away. And then, after about thirty seconds, he sends: ] mae i'm - i'm really sorry.

Don't apologize - it wasn't [you? but then it must've been, a little of jamie, because hey - she's alive.] your fault.

[and probably when this message gets to jamie, the sound of mae unlocking the front door and slipping inside the apartment can be heard. if he's home.]

[ Yep, Jamie is indeed here. He'd wanted to make sure Mae was okay, that he hadn't done anything to her he didn't remember-- that nothing terrible had happened while he was... well. So when he hears the door unlocking, Jamie scrambles and goes to his sister, going straight for a hug as soon as she's within reaching distance. ]

[She jumps - not out of fear, no; not even when Jamie had looked at her as if she was expendable, easily forgettable, uselessly human and normal had she feared him, because blood ran deeper than that, and her love for her brother ran even deeper than blood - but she jumps straight into action, over a cushion on the floor, over the corner of the rug, slightly upturned, dodging furniture until she's practically running. Even if it's barely even three feet until she reaches him, she's got her breath in her throat, and her heart's there with it.

And then there's the tightest hug there ever was.]

[ Jamie clings to her in a way he hasn't clung to her in a while, because he remembers almost every moment, every thought, every feeling while he was cursed and it scares him more than he can say. Because without Mae -- without her, he just might've said yes to Gerald. Without her, when Annabel had walked out and left even if only for a few minutes, he might've gone with Gerald without a second thought. Or maybe he would've become a magician much earlier, sacrificing people to demons without a second thought--

He shivers. It's a horrifying, terrifying, frightening thought. But right now, he has his sister, and that's all he needs to pull him back to reality. He's not like that, he still has a chance. ] I never-- I never wanted it to be like that. I never wanted to use my magic for that. I never... I never...

[ But he might've, so easily, if things had been different. ]

I know, Jamie - I know, shh...[Her heart's breaking. It hasn't been breaking this way since she'd seen their mother die in front of her eyes, in a battle she'd orchestrated (she'd messed up). She'd pressed pause on it somehow, in the time spent here - had tried not to think, not to hate Celeste even more, and Gerald even more, not when she couldn't even do anything about it - but now someone's tugged on those strings again and her heart's breaking.

She pulls Jamie infinitely close, and kisses his hair even if he's grown a bit taller now, and remembers to be Mavis and Mae, leader and sister, so she doesn't cry. Even if she wants to.]

I know you wouldn't, you don't have to say...[She presses her mouth to his temple, and whispers there, like a secret chant.] You and me...

... against the world, right? [ He finishes it for her, the secret chant, promising himself that that will always be the case. And no Circle is going to come between that, no matter what happens. No curse will, either. ]

Thank you for not—I mean, if it were me... I would've been really scared. Of—of myself, that is. I was really very scary. But you didn't—thank you. If I'd actually hurt anybody...

Right. [She buries her face in the crook of his neck and hugs him tighter, the neverending hug, a reunion of sorts, and hides the fleeting guilt while he speaks. She had been scared, truth be told. For Jamie, more than of Jamie. Not even Alan, in all that possessed and familiar glory had scared her as much as knowing that at any moment, they could do something irreversible.]

I wouldn't have run, no matter how scary you were. [And that's the truth. Regardless of her aces, maybe even if she hadn't had Nick's gift to count on, she'd still been trying to save everything from the shadows.] But for the record, I like you like this infinitely more.

I like me like this infinitely more, too. [ He laughs at that, even though it sounds rather flat and hollow, but it's his best way of dealing with it. Make jokes, Jamie, you're good at those. At least good enough to distract yourself for a little while. ]

I personally think I'm—much nicer to talk to like this. I don't think evil me would have had many friends. [ Not that he would've wanted them... and it's not like he has that many, really. But still! That is beside the point. ] But I just... I'm glad it's over. Very, very glad.

[Well, he'd have had Mae - even as the thorn in his side that she felt she was, she'd have been there. She shakes those thoughts off, because Jamie's right, it's over. It's pointless to juggle the what-ifs, because those are just things that will never happen. Jamie won't be evil, just like Alan won't be a demon.

She'll make sure.] So am I. You've no idea - and it's not just because I really love my bed in this apartment.

There are very nice beds in this apartment, it's true. And... well, I'm sure the City at large is glad, too. No having to deal with the crazy evil magician burning things down, both on purpose and accidentally. [ And the crazy demon, too—but mostly Jamie blames himself, because Alan hadn't really been Alan, but he'd still been Jamie. Even while evil, still himself. ]

Not a lot of things. [She pulls back enough to search his face, pursing her lips with disapproval - shake the gloom and doom off, Jamie. It's Crawford family time - the hug, she doesn't break off yet.]

The City should be used to people often being cursed to not be themselves. If anyone, anyone behaves differently to you because of this weekend, they - you just tell me.

You okay, Kiddo?

Tired.

You need a place to crash?

No, I'm good - thanks for the offer. All's good.

You're welcome and sometimes the curses do last more than 12 hours. Not often though.

Just this weekend, apparently.

Usually even the long ones are only two or three days. But if you count weird weather, we had snow for like... months straight last year. It was awful.

You can deal with weird weather, though. Months of snow's not that unusual.

Tired - but glad to see you both back.

How are you?

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010 ⇨ lord give me a good family

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