[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

[nita_callahan]

"Hey." She gives Liz a quick smile. "What's up?"

[porcupineliz]

"... Question of the year," she says, wry. "Have you heard from Matt lately?"

[nita_callahan]

Nita raises her eyebrows.

"Uh, not in . . . a couple weeks, probably?"

[porcupineliz]

"Ah."

Awk-waaaard.

"He's having a slight magic problem, and he asked for my help with it. I'm hoping I can."

[nita_callahan]

Her stomach drops.

"Is he okay?"

[porcupineliz]

"He was when I saw him," she says, hastily reassuring. "I don't think it's dangerous, the thing. Only inconvenient and annoying."

[nita_callahan]

"Okay," she says -- but she doesn't sound or look convinced.

"I -- do you--?"

Wait, no, does she want to offer to consult? Should she get involved? Probably not, but--

Does Dear Abby have any insights on this?

[porcupineliz]

"Do I ...?"

Help her out here, Nita!

[nita_callahan]

. . . Okay, when in doubt, go with the Oath.

"Is there any way I can help?"

She shrugs, helplessly. "I mean, it's -- we're not together anymore, but I don't want to see him in trouble. Again."

[porcupineliz]

"... Maybe. Although, fair warning, it's probably not gonna be comfortable."

Beat.

"Depending on how your breakup was, on a scale of amicable to excruciating."

[nita_callahan]

"Well, uh."



No, she really has no idea how to move forward on this.

"Well, it wasn't exactly smooth."

[porcupineliz]

"... sliiiightly closer to excruciating?" A sympathetic wince.

[nita_callahan]

"Slightly. It's, uh, I'm better about it than I was."

[porcupineliz]

"... well." She meets Nita's eyes. "I'll be honest: I think it's likely to be embarrassing to him, and it could get uncomfortable for you both. And I don't feel like I should go into any more detail without checking it with him first."

A pause. "Do you want to be emergency backup? In case anything goes wrong enough that we don't care about anyone being embarrassed anymore?"

[nita_callahan]

"That's reasonable."

And probably way smarter than any decision she would make on her own. She blows out a breath.

"Yes. Keep me on speed-dial."

[porcupineliz]

"Will do."

A beat. "... I would ask for your actual number, but I don't think my phone gets reception here anyway." Wry.

[nita_callahan]

She half-smiles. "I can probably set up your phone to call mine, if you want."

[porcupineliz]

"... you can?" She starts to grin, and fishes out her phone. "This I would love to see."

[nita_callahan]

"Unless there ends up being some kind of interference with your world's magic." She holds out her hand for the phone. "But it worked fine with Matt's phone."

Ironically? Appropriately?

[porcupineliz]

Liz hands it over, readily.

Worst that can happen, she figures, is that it'll screw up her phone beyond repair and she'll have to get a new one. A risk easily worth seeing how this works.

[nita_callahan]

Nita takes the phone, pulls out her own, and spends several minutes talking to both of them. Electronics aren't her specialty, but she's done a similar spell before, so it's pretty smooth going.

[porcupineliz]

And Liz watches, in wide-eyed -- and eventually openmouthed -- wonder.

"That's amazing," she says after she's sure Nita's finished.

[nita_callahan]

Nita grins, a little tired, and passes Liz's phone back.

"I know, right?"

No matter what, wizardry is pretty cool.

[porcupineliz]

"How do you -- I mean, I could tell there was a binding and release of energy, but that's all I could tell, and I can't for the life of me see how you did it."

She's examining her own phone, looking delighted.

[nita_callahan]

"I introduced them, basically. I mean, on a more complicated level it's routing the calls through here, because it's an interdimensional hub both phones can find."