wrfmlogsarchive | Let's review Murphy's Laws, shall we?

Who: Chase, Calum, Lilith (this is my HAPPY face)
What: Guess who's back, back again. Calum's back, tell a friend.
Where: Chase's apartment in Radiant Garden
When: Saturday Sept 12, nighttime

Weddings.

Dear god in heaven, Chase loved/hated weddings. Or maybe it was the fact that she loved weddings but hated receptions - in her time, she had tripped over one too many five-year-olds using the dance floor as a stomping ground for the ever-so-popular game of tag. And the parents - oh, the parents could never be found. To make matters worse, it was always during the one song she actually liked - she made a face at the thought of doing the Cupid Shuffle at Brandon and Ryune's wedding.

When she realized her wardrobe was severely lacking in something appropriate for a wedding, she had gone out shopping. Helping Cid down at the garage had boosted her income (thank goodness), and she had found a nice yellow-and-black dress with a flared skirt that looked like something straight out of the 1950s. Or whatever Radiant Garden had that was similar to it. With a black bomber jacket and chunky boots, Chase had declared herself ready for a Refugee wedding-

-and then promptly went to her apartment and collapsed on the couch. She never could get the hang of shopping for hours straight (unless it was hanging out in the local bookstore with a giant cup of coffee).

She didn't know what woke her up, but when she glanced blearily at the clock, she grimaced when she realized three hours had past. No short cat naps for her. Had someone rung the doorbell? She hadn't been dreaming, that was for sure...she rolled off the couch, and grumpily went over to the door, pulling the hood of her sweatshirt up to hide her messy hair. Maybe it was the mailman or a lost visitor.

Chase would have been wrong on both accounts. A familiar-looking man was standing in the doorway, wearing a motorcycle jacket and jeans, a faint polite smile on his face. Standing behind him was a woman who looked as if she should be freezing, considering what she was wearing.

The man leaned forward slightly and murmured in that southern Wales accent, "a plesant evening to you, Miss Chase." He made a quick gesture with his hand, and slammed the door open the rest of the way into the apartment, but somehow, the sound of a slam didn't follow. In the same movement that slammed the door open, a gust of wind hit Chase and would send her flying backwards.

Chase didn't have time to scream - it all happened too soon. One moment she was staring in slow panic at the man who wore a friend's face and that damn hussy that followed him everywhere, and in the next, she was flying backwards through her apartment - oh no oh no, this is just like that one movie - and prepared herself for impact. Or impalement.

No, he would have none of that. His smile vanished as he entered into the apartment and closed the door behind him and Lilith. The spell that had hit Chase suddenly froze her in place so that she was now floating two feet off the ground. He walked up to her, just out of reach of any desperate kicks or punches, and frowned. "Miss Chase, I would appreciate a moment of your time."

"Like. I. Have. A. Choice," Chase seethed, squirming. It was like being underwater - she could move, but her reactions were slow and didn't seem to be doing much. She couldn't gain any traction either - and that stupid jerk was standing just out of her reach to punch him in the face. Why hadn't he just paralyzed her, like he had done with Ren? Was this yet another one of his silly "oh look how much more powerful I am than you" stunts? Because even though she heard about those exploits of his secondhand, she was still irritated with it.

It hit her then that she had never once encountered Calum. Ren, Ray, Song, Brandon, Ari, Amy - yes. But not her. When had been the last time any of them had actually really talked to Josiah? That post...that post hadn't been Calum pretending to be Jo again had it?

A cold feeling of dread welled up her stomach, and she swallowed hard as she met Calum's blue eyes. "What do you want with me?" she asked quietly, so that she wouldn't have to worry about her voice shaking or cracking too noticeably.

Calum gave her that smile that wasn't a smile. "I've run out of time. The world that I want is not coming quickly enough because you children keep tampering with things you don't understand." He began to circle her, watching her with predator's gaze. Lilith sat down on the couch, resting her chin in her palm almost as if this were a normal conversation. "I consider myself a patient man - I've waited for decades, centuries for an answer."

"What answer?" Chase asked, wishing she could twist around to look at him. She didn't like being stared at like that, not at all. It made her feel uncomfortable - it made her feel scared. "Or, what question? 'Cause you need a question in order to have an answer. Unless it's one of those "is the answer to this question 'no'?" then you're just screwed, I guess."

She was rambling. Yippie.

"It's not an answer you could give me," Calum murmured, glancing back at Lilith for a brief second. "And you couldn't even begin to comprehend the question, if you all blissfully remain in ignorance about this world."

"What's wrong with Radiant Garden?" Chase asked, wondering if Aerith still couldn't hear Radiant Garden. Well, obviously there was plenty of thing wrong with the world if Aerith couldn't hear the planet's voice, but it wasn't like they were ignorant over it. They knew something was wrong - what the something was on the other hand...

There was silence from behind her, and then Calum finished his pace around Chase, walking back to face her again, his arms crossed and his face completely blank. "You still do not understand, do you? None of you. And yet every single one of you goes about life as if it were-" He stopped, eyes flashing with some unrecognizable emotion. He turned his back to her and continued, "What good is power if you don't use it? Especially power that renders you godlike."

Godlike. Oh yay - he was one of those villains. "Hey, dead pirate guy. No one is godlike. Get that through your head right now." A small voice in the back of her mind told her to shut the hell up before she got herself killed but Chase kept right on talking, incensed by these past few months of being utterly helpless to help her friend, knowing that he was slowly slipping away from them. "Get off that high horse of yours and realize that you're just an ordinary guy who's just bitter about the cards life dealt 'im."

He turned back to blankly stare at her during her rant... and then he began to laugh. There was no amusement in the sound, and the humor didn't even begin to reach his eyes. But he was laughing as if Chase had just said the funniest thing in the world. "Bitter, Miss Chase? You think I'm bitter?"

He waved his hand, and the spell holding her in the air vanished, but she wouldn't have even been sprawled on the ground for a second before he was kneeling next to her, pinning her shoulders to the floor. A dark look crossed his face as the temperature in the room plummeted enough so that their breath could be seen. "You really have no idea what I want. You have no idea what I've done and what I will do to keep your chaos-ruled peace from keeping me from my goals." He narrowed his eyes. "We are from two different worlds, Miss Chase. I'm from a place you would never and could never begin to understand so I would appreciate it if you would not make attempts to try and do so."

Chase let out a surprised "oomph" when she hit the floor behind the couch, too startled to regain her balance and went falling onto her back. But all of a sudden, Calum was right there, pressing down on her shoulders, and it hurt. She tried to squirm free, but every movement sent a bolt of pain down her back and after a few seconds she stopped moving. It was cold enough now where the floor felt like a palatte of ice beneath her.

Damn it all. She looked back at him, and noticed the talisman swinging from around his neck. Didn't Ray say that all they needed to do was get the talisman and then maybe Josiah would be...she began to shift again, hoping maybe to grab the necklace before he could stop her.

Calum watched her struggle for a few more seconds, a distant look on his face. His eyes narrowed though when he saw her glance at the talisman, easily reading her thoughts on her face. "Now, now, Miss Chase. Whatever you're planning, I'll tell you now that it won't work." The talisman spun from its leather cord, the jade crest and copper septegram shimmering in the cold.

He rocked back onto his feet and nodded at Lilith. "We should leave, love." The demon said nothing, her gaze falling on Chase.

Chase scowled, staring up at the ceiling with an irritated expression on her face. What the hell had he come for? Just to scare her? Well, great effing job.

"But one more thing." He glanced down at Chase, a cool, calculated look appearing in his eyes. "I hear that two of you children are exchanging marital vows in a few days." Before Chase could answer, he chuckled quietly. "That could be useful... she could be useful." He tossed a look back at Chase, and tilted his head to the side, murmuring something in equal parts Welsh and Latin before saying, "I would like to borrow your invitation to that... Vanessa."

And he let loose the spell.

Chase was just beginning to breathe a sigh of relief - he was leaving, she could post to the network and let everyone know that the bastard was back in town - when Calum spoke her real name. She suddenly felt very tired for no apparent reason, the adrenaline and fight fading away from her body as quickly as water through a sieve. What did he do to me...? She blinked once, twice, and before nodding off into a deep, dreamless slumber wondered, he didn't say anything. Didn't do anything. Is he still...?

The pirate stared down at the sleeping Refugee, crossing his arms and trying to shake the unease that had some with casting that spell. Not from any moral dilemma even if it was her but from the effort it had taken to cast the spell. The after effects of that ridiculous curse from Ingary still lingered, stronger than they should have been. Offensive spells were difficult to cast, even from drawing the most powerful spells of black magic he could think of. Defensive or neutral spells were far easier.

It had taken more energy than he was willing to admit to send Chase into a sleep that would last for a few days, but... that did leave him with a window of opportunity. A neutral spell, as it were. The shield of magic that still seemed to surround him somewhat provided ample protection against offensive spells sent his way, and he knew, considering what he planned to do, that would be an invaluable asset.

He was a pirate before he was a mage, after all. He looked over at Lilith who was glancing at him with a completely expressionless look on her face. "Lilith..." There was a warning tone in his voice, but if she felt threatened by it, she said and did nothing. Instead, she got up from the couch and crossed over to him, linking her arm through his without a word.

Then, with a small spell to block access to the room, they left into the night.