wrfmlogsarchive | Said I'll always be your friend

Who: Josiah, Chase, and some other people ~~of course~~
What: Dreams, lies, and blueberry muffins
Where: The loft
When: Late Monday night / Ridiculously early Tuesday morning
Status: Complete

Chase was a master at balancing things. She attributed it to her years of waitressing before she began her little misadventure a year and a half ago, and then there was trying to balance a bunch of tools when working in Cid's garage. It was a useful trait, and one she used to the best of her ability. At the moment, she had her laptop bag strapped over one shoulder, a travel mug of coffee in one hand, a book tucked under one of her arms, and a set of keys in the other hand that was also holding a small box of blueberry muffins. She wished she could get a hold of some Chinese food, but Radiant Garden was sadly lacking Chinese restaurants.

She arrived at the loft and spent a minute or two trying to rebalance things in her arms in a way that wouldn't dump her coffee on the ground. After a few muttered curses and nearly dropping the box of muffins, she managed to twist the key and then shove the door open with her hip.

"I can't believe they let you keep this place," she grumbled, shutting the door behind her with a backwards kick.

Both Josiah and Lilith glanced up at Chase's arrival, although Lilith quickly dismissed her and went back to the book she was reading. Josiah on the other hand got up from his chair to help Chase out with the five million items she was caring. "Having fun with that?"

Chase rolled her eyes, handing over the muffins before removing her coat and placing her bag and book down on the table nearest to the door. That being settled, she wrapped both hands around the mug of coffee, and gave him an even look. "Okie-dokie, Jo. What's up? And don't tell me the ceiling or I will punch you in the face."

Josiah grinned, leaning against the back of the couch and crossing his arms. "I'd like to see you try." But the smile slowly faded away, and he ran a hand through his hair nervously. "Uh, I need your help for something."

Chase looked mildly surprised - strange that he would be asking her. "Not Song?"

He shook his head, but didn't give his reason why he hadn't asked her. Instead, he just tilted his head to the side. "Will you help me?" At that question, Lilith looked up from the book she was reading, intense blue eyes landing on Chase as if she too wanted to know the answer to that question.

Chase couldn't help but be curious as to why Josiah hadn't gone to Song to help him with...whatever. Unless the problem was actually related to the woman...but she digressed. She felt Lilith's sudden attention on her, and calmly ignored her, standing up just a little bit straighter as she nodded. "Sure. What do you need?"

He grinned again and then gestured for Chase to follow him around the couch. "I need you to ground a spell for me."

Oookay. "You need me to do what? I don't know magic." She waved a hand at him. "Remember - useless Refugee over here."

"The fact that you don't have magic is what's going to help me out here," he admitted. "Besides, I trust you. You're one of my best friends and are probably more willing to put up with my reckless stupidity more than others." He closed his eyes and quietly murmured something in equal parts French and Latin. A tingling sense of energy, not too unlike static electricity, filled the air before a symbol perhaps three feet wide began to glow with bright greenish-white light on the floor. It was a familiar symbol - a seven-pointed star.

Chase frowned at the symbol, but didn't dare move any closer to it. Reckless stupidity indeed. "Isn't that the symbol that was on the talisman?"

Josiah nodded, meeting Lilith's eyes for a brief instant before glancing back down at the rune on the floor. "It is." He sat down on the couch, still holding the spell with some obvious effort. "I need to check something." Without waiting for her to respond to that, he gestured to the symbol and it slowly faded so that glow wasn't as bright. Still, that sense of magic in the air was as strong as it had been before.

Lilith glanced from the symbol to Josiah and then back again, her face impassive. Silently, she put her book down and walked over to the two of them. If she was at all concerned or confused by the goings-on of the magic, she didn't show it.

Chase sighed, flopping down on the couch next to one of her best friends. "Okay, Houdini. What do I do?"

"Just don't think magical thoughts," he teased, closing his eyes.

She shrugged, and sat back in the couch. Of course, the moment Josiah said not to think magical thoughts, every single fantasy book she ever read came flooding to mind, and she gritted her teeth to keep from laughing. That's all they needed - for fairies and mermaids and wizards and unicorns to come charging out of the symbol.

She watched him out of the corner of her eye, though. She was concerned - she knew that he was keeping secrets from her. It usually didn't bother her - she was never one to go prying into other people's lives (and probably why, in her circle of friends back home, she was always the last one to find out information). Before this had all started, Josiah had probably been one of the easiest people to figure out, but now...she chewed her bottom lip thoughtfully.

While Chase was busy with her thoughts, Josiah was focusing on the spell in front of him. Technically, it wasn't a smart thing to do, but he figured once the others found out, they'd right it off as yet another reason why he deserved to be in a bubble (he still figured those who insisted on that had some very strange kinks). It was a difficult spell, like many of the ones he had "mastered" since Calum's defeat over three months ago.

It was something he hadn't quite told Song or Chase for that matter - he knew every single spell in the grimoire, had memories of mastering it, and knew how to execute them. But that didn't mean he was physically prepared for the strain of casting dark-tainted magic. Calum had learned spells from the book for well over a decade and while not old, he still had been about ten years older than Josiah. Age may have just been a number, but experience helped with casting some of those spells.

What he had wasn't enough for what he was going to do when he left.

Simply put, he needed help.

He wove the spell, eyes half-opened and unfocused, using Chase as the anchor he needed. He hadn't been entirely kidding when he told her not to think magical thoughts - he needed to visit a place entirely of magic and the only thing that was going to keep him from getting lost was an anchor in a place that was very much real.

Chase took another small sip of her coffee, watching both Josiah and Lilith and trying to ignore that really uncomfortable feeling of static electricity that seemed to press right against her temples. She wondered how long this was going to take.

He paged through his memories and Calum's memories, looking for something specific. He needed some sort of bridge, something that would help him so that he could keep helping the other Refugees.

Aha - there.

He clenched his jaw, pouring more energy into the spell to "lasso" the memory and to build that bridge. He felt the memories surrounding that one go blindingly bright with detail, enough to cause a headache to flair up.

"...what you can and cannot do..."

...the deck rocking back and forth furiously, at sharp, water-slicked angles, the storm howling loudly overhead...

...a man, someone he knew and didn't know, weathered by years at sea, his beard soaked with rain and his one remaining eye fierce as he took control of his ship...

...and someone, laying a cool hand on his wrist, whispering words of encouragement...

"...it all follows your belief in magic..."

And then thunder roared not only in his memory but in the loft itself, rattling furniture and windows and the sudden whiplash of a loosed magical memory blasted everything back a good two or three feet.

Chase dropped her travel mug and it fell to the floor with a dull thud. She didn't know what that had been, but even though she didn't have any magic at all in her, she had felt as if someone had turned up that static into a full-fledged electrical shock. She leaned forward, putting her hand on Josiah's back and shaking him just slightly. "Hey, you okay?"

Lilith moved a bit faster than Chase, and, although taken aback by abrupt force of magical energy, she was there just a few seconds before her. She ignored the other woman. "What did you do?"

"Obviously," Josiah muttered, rubbing the bridge of his nose, "I have some sort of masochistic love for giving myself migraines." He felt the aura of magic still permeating the loft, thick enough to choke on. He cautiously checked to see if his spell worked, his nerves slightly shaken from the effort it took. His memories seemed slightly muddled though, as if the spell hadn't built a bridge but tossed them all into a blender.

He shook his head, too tired to push any further. "I'm fine. Just... tired."

Chase sighed and half-hugged him. "Dude, you really need to stop making with the magic sometimes. Merlin you are not."

Josiah looked up at Lilith, giving her a look that obviously said they'd talk later. The demon paused for just a few seconds before nodding, placing her hand briefly on his shoulder. The moment passed quickly and then she was gone, the door quietly closing behind her.

He then sat back in his chair with an exhausted exhale, closing his eyes. "Why do I keep doing these things?"

"You like to live life on the edge?" Chase suggested, sitting back as well and frowning not just at Lilith's departure but Josiah's actions in general. "What exactly were you trying to do?"

He made a noncommittal sound at the back of his throat, but even after a few moments, didn't say anything else.

She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "Fine. Go ahead and cloak yourself in mystery. I wonder what Song would have to say about this."

He opened one eye. "Don't. Gotta figure it out first."

"Figure out what you did? You just did a spell that you had no idea what it would do?"

He smiled slightly, settling into the couch. "Maybe. Probably not. Just have a headache. I'll tell you later." How much later would have to be figured out later - a few moments after saying that, he had fallen asleep.

Chase smiled at her friend fondly when she realized he had fallen asleep. The things he did some time may have exasperated the others, but that was the Josiah she had known for years. She doubted that even with the memories of a pirate in his head, he'd be changing anytime soon.

And she didn't think she would ever want him to.