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| Julie & Jace's house | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jul 2 2014, 02:23 AM (236 Views) | |
| Jason Varey | Sep 22 2016, 04:31 AM Post #41 |
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"A little bit of a headache, but the memories are slowing down now. That should help. But I'm fine otherwise." Jace had made the mistake of believing that the original onslaught of the potion Julie had been given by Silverhawk and his potion master would be the worst of it. He was able to focus on his own vendetta, his personal problems. This entrance into Julie's life was an added nuisance, but she was okay. And then things weren't quite okay. Jace would watch his wife's eyes go distant, locked inside a memory that could last a few seconds or could last several minutes. He watched tinges of bittersweet sadness pool in her eyes and then the wretchedness of loss in her tears. He'd done what he could to be a steady rock during the turbulence of her emotions, grateful every night that she still knew who he was, still felt and woke up every morning the same. It was hard, but it was doable. And every tear his wife shed just fed the hurricane gathering inside his body. But then, of course, it got worse. The little bit of a headache turned into full migraines. The children played quietly while he held her hair and made sure all the lights were off; all the scents were tucked away. The migraines went from once in a while to several days straight, and his worry left him so tightly wound that the silence was making him itchy. Jace was collecting a cool cloth for the back of her neck when she called for him, relieved she was admitting something was wrong - because that meant they could find help, right? - but also fearful knowing that if his wife was admitting she was wrong, things were really bad. He came back into the room to sit next to her, carefully threading his fingers into her hair as he lifted her head just enough to put the cloth on her neck. His voice stayed carefully pitched low, feeling no satisfaction from knowing he had been right. "The potion should be out of your system by now." Was it stupid he'd hoped that would mean its' effects would be finished? "You had...years of lost minutes. I'm not surprised there's an overwhelming amount of detail to remember. We need to find someone who can counteract what this thing opened. At least to make it controllable." |
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| Julie Varey | Sep 26 2016, 07:27 PM Post #42 |
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Julie settled back gratefully against the cool cloth. Little things like that at least eased the symptoms, even though she was almost positive it wasn't going to go away entirely without magical interference. "I think the potion is out of my system," she agreed. Somewhere, she was talking to Eve about breakfast -- Australia. They were in their apartment in Australia, and Eve had come home after a night out to find the charred results of what were supposed to be pancakes. And she and Zander were covered in flour and laughing at their own incompetence. She was back in the living room, wrenching her thoughts into the present. What were we talking about? Right. She nodded and sat up, opening her eyes as she reached back to hold the cloth against her neck. "You're right. Too much detail. There's just ... too many memories, but I don't know if they can be slowed down without stopping them altogether. Maybe ... maybe we should go back and talk to that Obliviator." He'd been Zander's pick, though, and she didn't exactly trust that (why didn't she trust Zander, again?), but she didn't want to add even more people into the mix. Too many cooks in the kitchen, and all. "That's right, and you two are just going to get in my way. What would you even do without me?" Eve asked, shaking her head and stepping into the room to clean up their mess. Like she always did. "I'm sorry," she said, half to the memory of her best friend and half to her husband. "I know this has been rough. And full of more questions than answers so far. But ... I'm glad I'm remembering." |
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| Jason Varey | Sep 26 2016, 08:57 PM Post #43 |
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There were moments...moments when Jace couldn't help but think back to that time he had locked up so tightly within himself. A time when sacrifices were brought into the modern world and unforgivables were created in liquid form. Moments where he could tell Julie wasn't there, in the room wth him. But she always came back. She always refocused. She juggled the two realities, and so he swallowed back that panic and that rising need to hurt someone. Any and all who were involved. At least this time he knew who to break into little pieces for every wince, every furrowed brow, every tear his beautiful wife shed. The reactions kept him firmly planted in the now. Jace's lips thinned in a severe line as Julie suggested they go back to the obliviator, his initial reaction swallowed down. They'd already been to the obliviator. That was what got them into this mess in the first place - and why would he know how to fix it? He clearly had no experience with it, no idea how it would work. He just made it. And every time Jace saw Julie in pain, he fantasized detaching his pretty little head from his shoulders. "Don't apologize to me." Jace told her, "I'm here. For better or for worse. I swore. This is what you needed, so this is what we're doing. But I wish it wouldn't hurt you so much. I wish there was a timeline so we knew how long you were going to be walking between memory and reality. A way to push it to the side for work; for time with our children, and select when you explore. And I don't think that kid is going to be able to be able to do anything that would actually help." |
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| Julie Varey | Sep 26 2016, 10:51 PM Post #44 |
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Julie knew Jace wasn't going to like her suggestion, and his expression clearly proved her right. But she also knew he was very much tempering himself, which she appreciated. "I know you are," she replied, offering him a smile and resting her hand over his. "And I don't even think I know how to tell you how much I love you for it. But it's a frustrating process, and I don't really know how much more of this either one of us can take if it doesn't let up. I miss you, Jace. I miss our kids. And spending time with all of you without having to take breaks every ten minutes because my head hurts or because I just remembered what I ate for breakfast ten years ago." Well, at least she was getting through entire sentences without getting distracted by a new memory. It was progress, she supposed, though not nearly enough or fast enough. She had years of memories to sift through, and if they continued at this pace ... She was too tired to even think about it. "I know you don't think that he could help, and I'm not entirely convinced of it myself. But short of finding the guy who did this to me, an Obliviator is probably the closest we're going to get to finding an expert in dealing with memory spells." She paused, thinking it over. Maybe she'd gotten herself into enough of a mess by doing things without thinking them through first. "What do you think we should do?" |
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| Jason Varey | Sep 28 2016, 07:34 PM Post #45 |
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Jace knew Julie was frustrated. He knew she was struggling with the constant onslaught of memories, knew this was overwhelming. There was no gratification in knowing that he had been right - and he hadn't been, not completely. His worst fears had not come to play. But this potion, it didn't give her the spark notes of the memories she'd lost. She didn't just get the important moments: she got every little detail, even those completely useless. Like, as she just used as an example, what she had for breakfast. Jace was frustrated too. Not because she was an emotional rollercoaster, or because they weren't capable of spending time together as a family. Because he couldn't fix this. He couldn't stop her from waking up in the middle of the night, or this pain that seemed to linger longer and longer every time she experienced it. He couldn't ease it from her. And what if the next time he held her in his arms, it wasn't him she was seeing in her mind? Him, she was remembering? But Jace did perk up at the idea of finding whoever did this to her. Could they find him? Were there leads? Jace once had a very specific set of skills, after all. He found people and...helped them disappear. He could certainly do that with this person after he fixed Julie. "And how exactly would we go about finding the person that did this to you? Do you know who it was? The last place he was seen? Any magical signatures?" Okay, maybe asking his wife who was on her third day of a migraine and at her wits ends so many questions in such quick succession was not the best of ideas, but it was something. It was something Jace could do to fix this. He grasped onto that as hard as he could. "We'll contact the Obliviator. But we only need him involved. If he can't do anything, he has no further use to us." It was cold, but Jace had been baking in the warm goodness that Julie drew out of him for too long. It felt nice to wiggle back into his no-nonsense, get-shit-taken-care-of skin. He had too much aggression building up inside of him to settle. |
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| Julie Varey | Sep 28 2016, 08:19 PM Post #46 |
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It already made her feel better, knowing there was something they could do. Some steps they could take instead of just sitting here in limbo waiting for a new symptom to appear or disappear. Both of them generally did better when there was a plan in place and they didn't have to be passive. Julie liked that; even if it didn't end up panning out, at least they would be trying. "I do know who did this," she confirmed. "His name's Matthew Berenson. He was an Auror who switched sides. Only I came to find out later he hadn't actually switched but was undercover with Anonymous. That's why he just wiped my memory and sent me away instead of killing me: so he could maintain his cover and keep as many people as he could alive. His name's been cleared with the English Ministry, but no one's really seen or heard from him since." If there was a slight note of bitterness in her tone, it was unintentional. She really had tried to get over that, knowing it was the same sort of call she would have made if she were in a similar situation. But the fact that he hadn't paid for it at all still bothered her. "I've looked up his file before. It contains a lot about experimental magic and something called monotones which is a different method of spellcasting that I've never even heard of. Just ... clearly he did something that wasn't a normal memory wipe. Or there would be no reason for why, even after my memory came back, I have all these gaps. And why this potion isn't working the way it should." For a minute, Julie weighed the pros and cons of what she was about to say next. It could get her into a lot of trouble with the Auror department which really only bothered her if she thought she was going to get caught. "I'll get a copy of the file and bring it home. Maybe there's something in it that'll tell us where to find him." She nodded, glad Jace didn't want to completely dismiss the idea of going back to the Obliviator. "Good. I don't want to miss anything because I didn't ask." |
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| Jason Varey | Oct 12 2016, 05:56 PM Post #47 |
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Julie did know who did this to her. For the first time in years Jace felt that responding hunger; the rearing head of a beast that had long been in hibernation. Before Julie, and even in their beginning, Jace had been good at one thing, and one thing only. Finding people. Whether or not they stayed found after he did so was another question, but that was not the question for now. No one had ever been able to hide from him for long; he always, at some point, linked together their mistakes. He traveled across countries, a drifting shadow hanging over their head until he loomed there in person. So if there was a man who had damaged Julie's mind like this, and he was still alive? Jace had something to do. He listened intently to the details Julie provided to him: the name, his background, his affiliations, and the fact that he had disappeared. It was unlikely he was dead; such high profile names would always have a note in the papers discussing their demise. What was interesting was the part from his file...these 'monotones'. Experimental magic. Of course. Because everyone liked to feel special. "I could just go retrieve it myself." Jace offered offhandedly, not doing a great job at hiding the eagerness of the hunt in his darkened, intent eyes. Once, he had resented this requirement of him. Now? Now he realized he kind of...missed it. It was far better when he chose the targets himself. "How about you take care of the Obliviator, and I'll look for this Matthew Berenson?" Jace really didn't know how great his control would be if he looked at the young, fragile face of Silverhawk's pet Obliviator. The one who caused his wife all this pain. |
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| Julie Varey | Oct 18 2016, 03:28 AM Post #48 |
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Jace was clearly happier now that they had a direction to go in: steps that they could both take to fix this. Julie could understand that. She felt better about the whole thing, too. Neither of them were exactly great at sitting and waiting for things. Besides, this was the kind of thing that Jace excelled at. "I think that's a good plan," she agreed. She'd rather deal with the Obliviator anyways (if only because there was a much better chance that everyone would actually live through that conversation). "Just ... when you do find him, make sure you bring him back in a condition to talk. It's my only requirement." She could already see the eagerness in his expression -- the desire to track someone down get what he needed. She normally didn't see that side of him; he reserved it for work. "I'm glad we at least have a plan," she admitted. Even her headaches felt less frustrating to deal with. Now to just get through the rest of the day with her family. |
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