[plot: I Put A Spell On You]

[porcupineliz]

(index!)

A reading of the sweater she got from Matt doesn't give her much, but there are definitely traces of a magic around it. Something artificially imposed, and ... she's pretty sure something outwardly imposed. It doesn't have Matt's feel to it at all.

Scrying is somewhat more useful: she gets a very brief blurred image of someone who's probably the caster -- older woman, graying hair, smiling earnestly -- and a much more definite sense of the caster's magic signature. And enough sense of the spell to make her skin crawl, even though as far as she can tell it was done with the most benevolent of intentions.



When she gets back to Milliways, she finds the note. There's no good way to say this, but I'm actually under a --

Oh.

Oh, shit.

Comments

[porcupineliz]

"Well ... I've got a few spells that are meant to release magical bindings, and that's what I'm inclined to try first. Have you got anything similar?"

[semicharmed]

"Magical bindings," he repeats with a frown.

"Um. Yeah. I know some like that. I don't know how much use I'm gonna be in all this, though."

[porcupineliz]

"I don't know if we can properly call this a binding, but it's worth a shot."

She glances at him sidelong.

"Any particular reason?"

[semicharmed]

Matt pauses.

Briefly.

"I said in my note I couldn't work any magic, right?"

[porcupineliz]

"Yes, but you haven't lost your knowledge base."

A pause, and slight alarm: "You haven't, right?"

[semicharmed]

"Oh-- no," he says quickly.

"I haven't, I mean, it's sort of tough to concentrate, but it's a little better when Jordie's not right here ..."

Being all distracting.

And sexy.

[porcupineliz]

"Tough to concentrate like ... something's actively interfering, or just like you've got more interesting things to think about?"

No laughter this time.

[semicharmed]

Oh my. Is that Matt turning super red?




Yyyyeah.


"I think-- I thought it was more the latter," he says.

But he looks as if he may have slight misgivings on that point.

[porcupineliz]

This time Liz manages not to laugh, or even to look (much) like she's trying not to.

(But blushing Matt is seriously kind of adorable.)

"If it's actually easier to concentrate when he's not around," she says, "it probably is the latter. If you feel like that's starting to change, though, let me know? And in the meantime ... maybe let's go over what we both know about this kind of spell."

[semicharmed]

He nods.

Matt has some half-formed thoughts about Jordie and orgasms and the mystical significance thereof, but he decides to try and skip it and focus on the task at hand.

"Well," he says. "I think of love spells as kind of antagonistic. I mean, I've read about configurations meant to attract love to you, but a lot of the setups I've seen read like ... curses in reverse."

[porcupineliz]

She nods. "Not even in reverse, necessarily. But it's true -- you don't really hear about people casting a love spell on themselves, to make them love someone else."

[semicharmed]

Matt makes a face.

"Um-- the mechanics seem clear enough, anyway. I'm assuming it's not one of the ones that requires personal objects, because I have no idea how she'd have gotten anything of Jordie's."

[porcupineliz]

She shakes her head. "Unless it was enough for her to get one of yours, and the spell was supposed to ... transmit somehow."

A pause. "Was he the first person you spoke to after the caster? Or touched?"

[semicharmed]

"Oh my God," Matt says.

"Not spoke to, but-- touched--"

His expression is somewhere between realization, fond reminiscence, and horror.

"Yeah."

[porcupineliz]

"That could be how."

A pause, and her face changes.

"Matt, stop that. If that's how it happened, it does not make this your fault."

[semicharmed]

"I thought maybe I did it," he admits, faint.

"But not exactly that way."

She's right, of course. Theoretically, he can see how that kind of person-nonspecific spell might be easier to work.

[porcupineliz]

She looks at him steadily, and doesn't say anything for a moment.

Let him process. She'll repeat the Not Your Fault message if it doesn't seem to have gotten through.

[semicharmed]

Matt hesitates.

"I just thought ...

I've been really out of control. And I really wanted him to like me."

[porcupineliz]

"... So you're worried maybe you did do it. Unknowingly."

[semicharmed]

"It's very, very far from anything I'd do intentionally."

He glances down to his hands.

"But my magic hasn't exactly been doing what I want it to, so. I thought maybe I shouldn't rule it out. But the touch thing makes sense too."

Possibly more sense. A lot more sense? He's not even sure anymore.

[porcupineliz]

"If it'll help ease your mind," she says, "I can cast the same scry on Jordie that I did on you, and get a picture of the caster's magic signature. See if it matches your caster's, or your own."

[semicharmed]

Matt's lips quirk.

"I'd like to, um-- just for the sake of thoroughness?"

More information's always good, right?

[porcupineliz]

"If he's good with me doing it, then I will."

A pause. "If your magic hasn't been doing anything at all, I don't think it's too likely that it's been sneaking out to do stuff without you noticing. From everything I've heard, usually that tends to come along with, uh ... sort of an overkill effect, with anything you try to do on purpose."

[semicharmed]

He frowns.

"Well, it's already showing me things I wasn't trying to see."

[porcupineliz]

"... there is that." She frowns in turn. "Well. We can find out, either way."