Phone She's got sorcery

[Billy Broder]

Billy grinned at his phone and then hit the number. June had given him the number of a ritual practitioner that she knew. Best part, it turned out that Billy knew her too. Emily, the cop that he had met his first day of being in Easthaven. It had been a bit since then, what a week or two now? Well Billy was settled enough to get some of his ducks in a row or whatever the phrase was.

He was sitting in his apartment, on a large cardboard box filled with not that soft items that had a blanket tossed over it (Here on referred to as the couch), and hit the green button on his cracked phone screen signaling it to call Emily.

"Bzzzzzt Bzzzzzt Bzzzzzzt"

Billy was practically buzzing with excitement for the cop to pick up the phone. Probably the only time he'd been excited to be talking to a cop he mused.

[Emily Reyes]

Emily had been meaning to call Billy, but she was overthinking it as was her wont. She was waiting for the perfect moment that wasn't strangely soon or so far in the future that it was out of the blue. Of course, that moment didn't exist, but how did one even broach the topic of 'Hi, Billy, it's Emily, the cop you met a few days ago. Yeah, I wanted to ask you about the strange substances I saw in your bag...'

Fortunately, it was taken out of her hands. Juniper hadn't had the decency to warn Emily about giving out her number, so she assumed the man was calling because he wanted to add his statement to that police report, which was better than nothing when she hadn't expected to hear from him at all. Unless he was planning that lunch, to which Emily wondered why he didn't call Max when Max had done the lion's share of the talking and was the friendlier of them.

All of these thoughts passed in the first few rings, the woman sitting on her couch (an actual couch, built of hardier materials than cardboard), chin propped on her knuckles as she considered the screen and the number. Then, on the third ring, she answered.

"Hello... Billy?"

Her voice was soft, words precise, likely better suited for a kindergarten teacher than a cop. Emily had a Professional voice when it came to work, but this wasn't that as far as she knew.

[Billy Broder]

"Hey, Yeah its Billy. From the other day. With the car.

So, I've been meaning to call about the whole accident thing and um... this isn't about that. My new roommate Juniper told me you were Magic and I'm magic too- OW!

What the hell- Its jus- No no, its Emily.

Yes I know we talked about- You said she was already in the know so it- OW!

Alright alright! I'll buy us some ice cream later so stop trying to break my kneecaps!

Sorry, anyway. Yeah. Magic, circles, runes, the whole shabang. That's me."

[Emily Reyes]

Emily's mouth dropped open. Well, there was only one Juniper who had her number, and this was pure serendipity. Still, she made a mental note to talk to the young tiger later about giving out her number to strange wizards.

"Ah... Yes, I..."

Leaning forward to lean her elbows on her knees, she sat tensely as she listened to the altercation on the other end of the line. New roommate? Did that mean she was out of that hostel, or was Billy sharing a room with her?

In any case, the man was cutting right to the chase, and Emily was still shocked into silence. This was deeply exciting for the woman. After a year of working in isolation, she was desperate to meet other witches and wizards, feeling as though she was reaching the upper limits of her self-teaching. After a beat, she managed to spin up her brain. She thought about telling Billy to threaten Junie with Max, but held her tongue. Max liked to keep his werewolfism to himself and Emily wasn't going to be the one to out him.

"Wow. I... Yes, I meant to call you sooner, but I wasn't sure how to approach it. I noticed the broken bottles in your bag- Those were spell components, right?"

[Billy Broder]

Billy rubbed his shin ruefully as he was sure a bruise would be coming soon enough. June was strong for her height, size, and weight (Which he guessed to be on the lighter side of 90.lbs soaking wet and holding a bag of cement). Once Emily started to talk again though his boyish smile worked its way back onto his face. This was, after all, about his favorite topic. Magic!

""Ah yeah. They were before they broke and spilled everywhere. Most of them weren't anything special but one was the wonder of a crowd watching a pretty solid Vegas show, a magician with some real skill- I mean seriously, wonder at MAGIC what better component could there be?- and another one was joy from those big water fountains that shoot straight up. Took me forever to catch that one because the fountain kept spraying me right when I'd try to seal it in a bottle. End of that whole thing I was soaking wet and ended up catching a cold.""

Billy was rambling a bit, which was a clear sign that he was excited to talk about magic. Especially with another practitioner. he hadn't really had someone to talk shop with proper since he last saw his dad.

[Emily Reyes]

Emily leaned forward a little more, absorbing everything spilling across the line. The wonder of a crowd? The joy at fountain sprays? Billy's excitement was palpable, and Emily felt her head spinning, chest welling with all the things she wanted to share about what she'd discovered.

But she waited her turn, standing and moving to her breakfast nook where her little collection was laid out. She'd been in the middle of labeling the bottles. She picked up one bottle that was the boredom from a conference room. It felt ruddy.

As Billy concluded with having caught a cold, Emily chimed a laugh, charmed.

"Caught a cold as in you got sick, or caught a cold in a bottle?"

[Billy Broder]

Billy finished up and then Emily asked if he had gotten sick or found something good.

"No no, I just got sick. I'd have to.... Hang on a second.

Hey Junebug, hand me that napkin!"

There was a long pause as Billy opened the freezer to the fridge that was already in the apartment when they moved in and held his hands with the napkin between them up into the freezer. He focused on the feeling and energies there and then started to turn the napkin over once, twice, three times, then folded it up. The thing felt frosty and cold even after he took it out of the freezer and sat it down looking at it with an odd face.

"Okay so I just got some cold, in a napkin since I didn't have a bottle by me. Its... so so. Might work better if its cold from winter and not from an outdated freezer barely keeping pizza chilled."

Billy said.

Billy Collection roll - 8d6: 4 passes = complete success (Average component)

[Emily Reyes]

Emily listened to another side-long conversation and then raised her eyebrows in surprise when she realized that Billy had gone to grab some cold from the freezer. She laughed again, energized with excitement.

She felt like the existence of a freezer on hand answered the question about the hostel. So, Junie had her own place! That was exciting, and Max would be happy to hear that if he didn't already know.

Although she'd meant the actual sickness, she still went on to note,

"I have a little of that. Mountain top cold, from a frozen lake- If you need it."

The last part was added a touch shyly. Billy hadn't said he needed it, but it was relevant to the conversation, and she was eager to share.

[Billy Broder]

Billy's grin went full sunshine smile when Emily offered to let him use some mountain top cold. That was basically offering fuji water to someone that just told you they'd gotten a glass of tap and were proud it didn't have bugs in it.

"Thanks. If I can think of a good use for it I'll let you know, same my way if you need anything."

He said. After another small beat, might not have been but Billy was excited so it was a pause for him.

"Actually I was curious if you wanted to co-op some spells sometime. I've got a few rituals I'd love to try out but could use a hand moving some power around and maybe testing out a few new runes. Plus warding is always more solid when you got more hands involved."

Billy was clearly thrilled to have another arcanist to talk too, not that he didn't love talking to June.

[Emily Reyes]

Oh, this was moving very quickly. Emily wasn't opposed, but she took a beat to answer. She'd only ever done rituals alone or with Max around. And Billy was talking about warding, and she felt her cheeks heat, abruptly feeling out of her depth. Not in a bad way, not when she was hungry for the information but was she missing something without wards?

"Ah... Yes! Absolutely, yes. I have a few things I've been trying to figure out as well. I just... Well, I should warn you: I'm actually very new to it and... self-taught."

She laughed nervously as she admitted,

"I'm not sure I've ever done anything with wards."

[Billy Broder]

Billy nodded reassuringly, something June had probably seen a few times by now, even though Emily couldn't see him.

"No worries, I'm mostly self taught too. Lots of notes and stuff my dad left me. We can figure it out together."

Billy had a almost terminally optimistic tone to his voice that seemed to always infect his tone when he spoke of magic.

"There are different kinds of wards, but the ones I'm talking about are pretty simple. Have you ever had a ritual fail or a circle break? A good ward well help absorb some of that fallout."

Billy explained.

[Emily Reyes]

Oh God, she did need to learn about these wards. She’d taken the brunt of so many failed rituals that she tended to over-check her runes.

"Yes, my first and, Jesus- so many after that. They weren’t big spells, but they still took out the lights in my apartment."

It was also a relief to hear she wasn’t the only self-taught magician out there, and very encouraging to know that they would work it out together. He sounded very happy over the phone, and it was miles better to hear genuine enthusiasm instead of the dazed avoidance he’d displayed on their first meeting.

Emily went on, latching onto Billy’s note about his father.

"But, sorry, I don’t mean to interrupt. What did you learn from your dad?"

[Billy Broder]

Billy laughed over the line when she talked about failed rituals.

"One time I tried to see if I could set off multiple rituals at once, all drawing from the same source so if one failed it'd drain the power for the others. But the source was a light socket. Ling story short I killed power on my block for like an hour."

He was laughing but his mom had been absolutely livid with him. She'd never been big on magic and only understood enough to know Billy was messing with stuff he didn't need to be.

Then Emily asked about his dad.

"Ah yeah. My dad taught me just a bit when I was younger. From there I've been teaching myself from a combo of the internet, libraries, and a bunch of old notes he left."

Billy still sounded as cheery at ever, but the speed of his speech had slowed ever since talking about his father.

[Emily Reyes]

Chaining rituals together was a fascinating proposition, and she made an interested noise, unable to help her laugh as she thought about the poor maintenance crew at UMass after they found the power blown in East Garage.

However, Emily didn’t need a psych degree to understand the change in Billy’s tone, and her eyebrows drew together in quiet concern. The way his voice slowed implied a kind of heaviness in thought. If she was profiling him, she would mark it in the mental map of Billy as a Point of Interest, but she wasn’t. Emily simply noted it would need careful navigation, unwilling to dig into a sore spot even in the pursuit of magical knowledge.

Fortunately, they didn’t need to talk about his father to talk about magic. There was a smile in her voice as she said gently,

"Hey, that’s great. I’m really interested to learn what you’ve found."

There was a lot more she wanted to share, but she decided to cut to the chase as well.

"So, when would you like to meet up? And where?"

[Billy Broder]

Billy looked contemplative as he thought about what he would need to have on hand to try out some spells he really wanted to knock out of the park. After a couple seconds he grinned again.

"Okay okay. I need a few days to collect some stuff and we need somewhere away from people just in case we break a circle. What do you say this weekend, we can meet up and go up to the woods or something and draw witch scrawls in the dirt and feel special."

Billy didn't have a good place in mind really past hey let's go wander out into the woods. If Emily had a better idea then she was welcome to pitch an exact location, but Billy figured he would need some elements of nature for at least one of the spells he wanted to give a go.

"Oh and if you have a spare car battery you should go ahead and bring it. Plus some jumper cables, we can use them as a Power source for a few spells I bet."

Billy said brightly. He'd used a car battery before when it was still in a car and it worked out, though he didn't know if they'd be able to use another battery to jump the first one off or not after. Worth trying out.

[Emily Reyes]

'Draw witch scrawls in the wood and feel special.' Emily smiled at the thought. She enjoyed how easygoing and excited Billy was about the whole endeavor. As the kind of person who tended to overthink and take things far too seriously, having someone who could lighten the mood was refreshing. Magic was dangerous, but it didn't need to be handled like a live grenade at all times. Emily recognized that that kind of thinking had led her to be overly cautious.

Going into the woods was not appealing, but he was right that they should go somewhere far from people.

"I have the morning shift on Saturday, so I can meet you near Northrop in the afternoon. I don't have a car, though."

She sounded apologetic.

"I can see if any friends have a spare battery?"

[Billy Broder]

Billy grinned seeing plans come together.

"Sounds like a plan. Northrop, Saturday afternoon. I'll bring a battery too, saved a bit for it figuring the thing would come in handy. I don't have a car either so I guess we're in the same boat."

Billy sounded upbeat even mentioning that he didn't have a proper ride and had saved up for a car battery of all things.

"If you can't find one don't worry too much about it, I just want to avoid supplying all the energy ourselves. Really tires you out. This is gonna be fun though! I'll text you more details later on, if you think up anything you want to try just write it down."

Billy was jazzed. Beyond jazzed. This was positively... wizard.

He chuckled at his own internal pun before making a mental note to google where the hell Northrop was.

[Emily Reyes]

Emily drew in a breath and then made a 'hm' noise of realization. A lack of an explicit energy source could tire you out, huh? Of course, she'd never noticed because her magic always drew from the power grid, but this was good to know.

The knowledge made the fact that Billy had a battery but no car all the funnier if she was being honest. This guy was serious about his craft, and no matter how goofy a person could get, Emily could respect someone who took their work seriously. Would it be fun, though? She supposed it would be!

Holding the phone in both hands now, she bit her lip and smiled, sounding enthused as well.

"Sounds like a plan. I'll see you on Saturday!"

Wow, look at that. She had a wizard date.