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Who: Amy and Josiah (And maybe Calum, yikes)
What: Does Amy listen to Song? Does she listen to herself? Nooo, she goes to see Josi-boy anyway.
Where: The loft
When: March 7
Status: Complete

Walking to the loft, Amy swung the paper bag of candy she held, cheerful despite her nervousness about the visit with Josiah. She'd practiced 'shutting things off' as she'd explained to Jalen, and as long as Calum didn't make an actual appearance, she figured she'd be fine. Josiah was her friend, wasn't he? And as her friend, he was entitled to addictive candy. She grinned, stepping up the pace a little. Nothing like a good coconut-covered chocolate fish to cheer someone up. Biting their little heads off was good for the soul. Choking back a laugh, she arrived at the loft and absently switched the bag from her left hand to her right before knocking.

"Hey, Josiah! Candygram! Sorta."

Her nervousness welled up in a sudden rush, and she thought about just leaving the candy right there on the doorstop and going home, apologizing to Josiah later. What if she hadn't shut things down as well as she thought she had? After all, it wasn't something she practiced much. In fact, the last time had been at Ryuu's party...Shaking her head in disgust, she shoved the feelings down and took a deep breath, grasping at her previous cheerfulness. It'd be fine.

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A tired laugh came from behind her. "Hey, Amy." Josiah was standing behind her, looking a little worse for the wear, as if he hadn't had a good night's rest for a couple of days. He was balancing a cardboard box and a cup of coffee in one arm, and fishing for his keys with his free hand. He smiled wearily at his visitor. "Sorry. Took a walk to clear my head."

"Ack!" She whirled around and gave him a mock-glare before sighing at his current state. Without bothering to ask, she reached out and took the coffee from him.

"S'okay. Walks are always good. I got you the candy, by the way." Amy lifted the bag slightly and grinned. "Guaranteed to at least cheer you up a little, if nothing else." She moved aside so he could get to the door.

He laughed quietly, moving past her to open the door. Swinging the door open, they were both immediately greeted by a blast of ice-cold air. Josiah gritted his teeth in annoyance. "Dammit, I thought it would have gone away by now. And sorry about the mess of papers ahead of time."

He held the door open for Amy, and offered her a small grin. "Candy's always good. I ran out of sour patch kids, so I need something sweet."

Amy nearly dropped the coffee in surprise as she was hit with the chill air. What the bloody-

"Why's it so cold in here? If it's Calum, shouldn't it not be like this if you're not here?" She stepped inside and carefully made her way to the couch, keeping a tight grip on the coffee cup.

"I've never had sour patch kids, but sour gummi worms aren't bad, actually." She dropped the bag on the floor and sat down slowly, cradling the cup.

"The chocolate fish should go well with your coffee though." She smiled faintly. "Though I can't say I speak from experience. Can't stand coffee." Almost as an afterthought, she nodded towards the mess.

"Looks like my room back on Earth. Papers everywhere, and most of them don't make any sense."

Josiah sighed, dropping the box onto the floor next to the door. "Wish I knew. I think it's just a leftover temperature drop from the magic he uses. I really don't know." He shrugged before not-quite collapsing in the couch next to Amy. "Though you should try coffee some time - it does wonders when you have to finish a novel-length research paper for your macroeconomics class at three in the morning."

He glanced at the stacks of papers, all written in that same scrawled cursive. "This is all Calum's. I really wish he had been a neat freak - it doesn't really get him any brownie points in my book for leaving a mess in the loft."

"Geeze. Must not be Happy Fun magic then." She handed the coffee to him, shaking her head.

"Had some in the eighth grade. Hated it. My French teacher thought it was good for us." She made a face before reaching down for the candy. "The only thing it was good for was ruining my clothes. The girl who sat in front of me had really long hair, and one morning she kinda flipped it -" She opened the bag and dug inside for a second before pulling out a handful of chocolate fish. " - And her stupid hair knocked my cup everywhere."

She held out her hand, eyebrows raised. "Can you imagine a neat pirate? I can't."

Edited 2009-03-08 05:20 (UTC)

Heh. Happy magic. What he would give for some nice safe Disney magic right about then - this black magic that Calum used... it was soul-draining, burning him out physically and mentally. And try as he might, he couldn't do a damn thing about it.

"I never even tried coffee until I got to college," he admitted, looking down at the drink in his hands. Shit, he must have been really exhausted - he was jittery and his hands were shaking slightly. Wonderful. "So by the time I got it, I knew I was going to be addicted."

He almost rolled his eyes at her last comment. "Too much wishful thinking?"

She followed his gaze to his hands and frowned. "Maybe you shouldn't drink it. No good bouncing off the walls on top of everything."

After a second, she dumped the candy back in the bag and set it carefully on the floor. She leaned back against the couch, arms crossed, scowling.

"Way too much. Y'know, if I could hurt him without hurting you, I swear to God I'd smack him."

That was probably a stupid thing to say, she knew, but when her friends got hurt, she got protective. And mad. She closed her eyes for a second and took a deep breath before letting it out slowly. No good getting pissed over something she couldn't fix. Absently, she realized she could feel Josiah, and she pushed the wall back into place. It hadn't been anything big, he still felt like himself, but she'd picked up on the smallest twinge of something not quite right. Better to try to shut it out now instead of waiting for it to get worse. She opened her eyes and glanced over at him.

"So you'll be coming to my wedding in April, right?" She grinned a bit. "Unless we just give up and elope instead. It's starting to look like the better option."

"I don't think that even with the coffee I'd have the energy to bounce off the walls," he admitted wryly. Still, she was probably right - he was only drinking it to keep from falling asleep and facing more of the magic-induced nightmares. "And if you could smack him with... Igor, was it?... well, you'd really have my permission."

He sank against the couch and winked at Amy. "Of course I'll be at your wedding." He chuckled at her mention of a possible elopement. "I have a mental image of you dragging Jalen to one of those all-night chapels in Vegas."

"I was thinking more along the lines of a brick. I try to save Igor for the people I like." She laughed softly before reaching over and poking him in the shoulder. A slight chill swept through her at the contact, but she pushed it away, focusing on the chapel comment.

"Oh, no way. My parents got married at one in Tahoe. I couldn't see the romance in it, so I swore to myself I'd never do it. I was thinking maybe going off to Twilight Town or something. Besides..." She smirked suddenly, twisting her ring on her finger. "Jalen's all for going simple, but I think simple with neon would kill him."

He laughed. "I can imagine. You should take him to New York one day - I'm sure he'll love that." He gave her a mischievous look. "And who's to say that Vegas isn't romantic? Nothing says classy like being married by Elvis."

He reached over to grab his coffee, but stopped halfway there as if surprised by something. He turned back to Amy, a curious look in his eyes. "Is that a natural talent of yours, that enhanced empathy?" His voice started out normal, but slowly slipped into a pronounced Welsh accent.

Amy squeaked, eyes wide. "Are you kidding? I can stand Elvis even less than cof-" She stopped abruptly, eyes widening even more as her breath caught in her throat. Oh. Oh shit.

"Um..." You need to go now, dummy. Song thought this would be a bad idea, and Josiah said to leave, go go go!

But she couldn't move. She seemed to be stuck to the couch, heart pounding. She swallowed and tried again to speak.

"Yeah."

Okay, one word, but it was an improvement.

"Interesting," Josiah - no, Calum - murmured, leaning forward to examine Amy with a cool intensity. "That's a very... useful talent you have there. I'm sure it comes in handy in certain situations."

He rose to his feet and crossed over to the front door, picking up the cardboard box that Josiah had placed there only a few minutes earlier. He lifted the top, and glanced in, counting quietly beneath his breath. "This will do..."

He then glanced back at Amy. "I'm surprised you didn't bring your fiance. I suspect he would have been of some assistance to you at the moment."

"Not really," She replied quickly. "It's mostly useless. Sorta useless. Or not really useless at all, sometimes. Sometimes it helps a lot."

You're babbling, you idiot. Amy took a deep breath and let it out, watching Calum. Okay, so he was by the door. That was fine, she could wait. Or she could say goodbye and walk right past him.

HA.

"I told him I'd be fine. He needs to learn to trust me. ...I don't think this is gonna help."

"Trust is a precious commodity," Calum said, returning to the couch, balancing the box on the arm of it and closing the lid. "It's very hard to gain back once it's been lost. Although..." he reached forward to brush a strand out of hair over her shoulder, "do you really think I'm dangerous? I don't think I've done anything to deserve that sort of prejudiced opinion so soon."

Roughly a second after he'd touched her hair, Amy was off the couch and on her feet, moving backwards toward the door.

"Yes, I do. My friends say that you are, I can feel it myself. I shouldn't have come, but I wanted to check on Josiah. You're really running him down, you know? Whatever you need him for, he's not going to be much good if he passes out from lack of sleep." She felt herself bump the door, and she grabbed for the knob. Her fingers closed around it as she regarded Calum.

"He's having nightmares, right? I figure something like this is probably not sitting too well in his head. Can't you...make them stop? Or something? Without," And she waved her free hand. "taking away any of his memories?"

Edited 2009-03-09 02:16 (UTC)

"So you already have a predisposed opinion of me - no matter what I say, it will be of no consequence to you," he observed quietly, watching as she moved towards the door. "You are probably going to need a key for that, Miss Amy."

He sat down on the couch, still regarding her coldly. "I do admit that it's unfortunate for the boy, but my goals are too important to regard something as inconsequential as that. His nightmares, his darkest fears and wishes, fuel the magic." He smiled politely. "But if you would like to help, I wouldn't disagree to it."

Swearing under her breath, Amy moved her hand and leaned back against the door, crossing her arms.

"It's an opinion formed mostly of feelings I trust, so no, I don't think I'll be changing my mind." She rubbed her elbows, cold. Good God, if she got out of this in one piece Jalen would never let her out of his sight again.

"I'd rather not help you unless it's going to help Josiah, but as you've already said, you don't care. I don't know how I could help you anyway. I'm nothing special."

He studied her for a moment longer before getting to his feet and walking towards her. The temperature in the room continued its dizzying spiral downward, and just around the edges of the room, shadows began to creep in.

"You say you have nothing to offer? Everyone has some sort of fear that resides in their soul, something that would tear them apart if they ever had to face it." He stopped a few feet from her, and gave her a small smile. "Likewise, every person wants something so much that they would do anything for it, regardless of morals or consequence. So, yes, Miss Amy. You could be very helpful."

"I-" She turned her head and watched the slight movement of the shadows, biting her lip. Oh, she'd been stupid. So very, very stupid. Uncrossing her arms, she cupped her hands in front of her, conjuring a small ball of flame. It wasn't much, but it was something. She glanced up at Calum, straightening.

"I'd like to keep my fears and dreams to myself, thanks. I'd also like to leave now. Would you mind opening the door, please?"

Something flickered in his eyes at the sight of the flame, and any sort of cordial politeness that had been on his face quickly vanished into a cold fury. "Then what use are you?" he murmured, almost thoughtfully, and the shadows that had been dancing just in the corners of the room slid over the floor, walls, and ceiling at an alarming pace.

"Forgive me for intruding, but if you won't tell me those things yourself..." He gestured and the black fog raced forward to encircle Amy.

"Goddamn it!" Closing her eyes, she concentrated on the flame, pouring herself into it. It expanded slowly, surrounding her and pushing back the fog. She could feel the resistance, and she bit her lip so hard it bled.

I just want to get out of here damn it Jalen why didn't you come anyway I don't know how to stop this-

She could feel the flame wavering, and she knew she couldn't do this much longer. She'd never seen the need to practice very often, and now look where it'd gotten her.

"I- I'll tell you! Just stop it! Please, just stop!"

At the sound of her panicked desperation, the shadows wavered slightly... and then completely disappeared. A dark look passed over Calum's face, and he scowled as the magic vanished as quickly as it had appeared. For a second, he seemed ready to call it back, but then the moment was gone, and the look that passed over his face was suddenly wide-eyed confusion. The look of someone else entirely.

"Oh god," Josiah murmured, backing away from Amy. The confusion quickly turned into guilt, even as the magical backlash caused him to start to shake. He fumbled for the key in his pocket and threw it at Amy. "Get the hell out of here... before he..."

What had he been thinking? He should have told Amy to stay out, that this was too dangerous. She could have been seriously hurt or worse. Fuck.

The flames vanished as she caught the key, and she simply stared at him for a second, trembling. That had been...way too close.

"Not your fault," She said, quickly thrusting the key in the lock. A turn, a pull, and the door was open with her halfway out of it. She managed a faint smile even as the shaking began to get worse.

"Don't worry. We'll fix it- somehow, we will." Then the door was tugged shut, and she was gone.

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