chasingtwisters | Relaxing at home. {For Alodia}

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Relaxing at home. {For Alodia}

Moira's a decent cook; not a chef sous by any stretch of the imagination, but she can cook well enough when she feels like it. Tonight, she has several trays loaded with various cookies, cupcakes, and scones laid out on the table in her living room, a kettle of rosemary tea simmering at the perfect temperature over the fire, and a couple of mugs next to the food. Alodia should be along shortly, and Moira wants to have everything ready for an evening of catching up and gorging on junk food.

She knows her cousin must have questions; she's seen the look in her eyes every time they've met, she just hasn't felt comfortable confiding in her surrounded by so many people. But tonight, it is just the two of them, and Moira is happy to have her cousin over after so long away from Siren Cove.

She casts some light charms, bounding about the room in the shapes of horses, while she waits.

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((Missed this last night somehow, sorry!))

Punctuality, in Alodia's professional opinion, is a trait reserved for lesser life forms. For Moira, however - well, Moira and the promise of answers, anyway - she's willing to temporarily lower herself enough to show up on time. She comes strolling up to her cousin's door just as the clock chimes the hour, a bottle of wine tucked under one arm, and stops on the doorstep. There was a time when she would have walked right in without knocking, but it's been two years; for all she knows, Moira's opinion on people barging into her home has changed. She raps briskly on the door instead.

Moira rolls her eyes at the knocking on the door, but bounces up to answer it anyway.

"Next time, just kick it open," she tells Alodia. "I don't mind."

"Come in," she walks her over to the living room, gesturing towards the trays of baked goods on display on the various tables around the room. "I find that sugar makes everything better."

"Noted," Alodia grins, grabbing a scone. "Well, sugar and alcohol, anyway, so between the two of us, I think we're set."

She sets the bottle of wine on one of the tables and flops back onto Moira's couch, before looking up at her cousin with a more serious expression. "Sorry to bring down the mood so fast, but before we get distracted,I thought you should know that Levi Astor came to see me at the arts festival. He - and the police, apparently - are looking for a way to neutralize magic."

"And I have tea as well, in case of emergencies," Moira informs her, grabbing the wine bottle and pouring them both drinks from glasses she magics out of thin air. That accomplished, she grabs a cupcake and begins gnawing on it as she flops on the couch next to her cousin.

She's just taken a bite when Alodia mentions the news about Levi and needing an item to neutralize magic.

"What the hell?"

"My sentiments exactly," Alodia says. "I'm not sure what he was playing at, coming to me - he had to know I'd warn the rest of the family. He did say it was just in case they needed to arrest a witch, which, as much as I hate to admit it, is a fair point, but I don't know if I entirely believe him. There's something more going on here, and that's a dangerous path for him to go down."

It's nice to be able to talk freely like this, she thinks. She'd missed getting to talk things out with Moira, voicing her worries aloud and trying to work things through. She takes a sip of wine, then continues. "I did say I'd help him, though. If this is going to get made, I want to know exactly how it works - and maybe leave a back door or twelve, just in case."

"God, with all of the weird shit going down as it is," she shakes her head, taking a long sip of wine. She really tries to avoid the rivalry and the curse as much as she can, but if Moira is honest with herself, the anti-magic element to it all has always unnerved her. "I agree. I mean, I speak from experience, being arrested myself, but I really hate to think what someone with blatant disregard for anyone but humans could do with a device like that."

Moira continues eating her cupcake as she watches her cousin drink her wine. "Well, that's good. If you're keeping an eye on the situation, it should be fine."

"I hope so," Alodia says. "If nothing else, I'll be able to dismantle it if I have to. And I'll warn most of the family, though I'm not sure about your mom. She might make a fuss and make things worse."

"Anyway," she sets her wine aside, face gone very serious. "Moira, what's going on? You vanished, someone was killed by magic, something big obviously went rampaging through the town, something's happened to Fabrice but he wouldn't tell me what... I don't like being in the dark."

Moira winces when Alodia mentions Violet. She doesn't want to even consider her mother's reaction to something like the police trying to neutralize witches. "Fuck, I don't want to think about Violet with that knowledge. It would be a travesty, to say the least." Her mouth sets in a grim line as she considers the potential next victim for the aftermath of keeping her mother informed of the police's plans.

"Oh, God," Moira says, taking a huge swig of wine. "It's...there's a lot to take in, so I hope you're prepared to stay awhile."

"We should probably start with the Thornton girl who was murdered," Moira says, taking a bite of pastry. "Paige Thornton's body was found on the beach; a week later, Fabrice was attacked. He was in a coma for a few days."

She takes another gulp of wine to keep her hands from shaking.

"Oh god," Alodia says, face going white. She's sorry to hear about the Thornton girl, of course - she doesn't particularly like the Thorntons but she doesn't want them dead - but her cousin is her top priority. "What happened? Do they know who did it?"

Moira doesn't know how to answer that question; she knows who did it, and though Fabrice's memory is still uneven from that night, she knows he's going to realize it sooner rather than later. Still, it's not something she can easily admit to, especially when she has little evidence to back up her claims.

"They say he was stabbed but I've seen his...scars," she winces, knowing 'scars' barely covered their cousin's wounds. "It was no knife that marked him up like that. The police still don't know who did it."

Alodia claps her hand over her mouth, obscurely grateful that she's set her food aside - she doesn't think she'd be able to taste it at all. "What was it? Does he remember anything?"

"He gets visions, flashes, really," she says, running a hand through her hair. "He says he can only see bits of purple and silver. He thinks..." She pauses again, knowing how damning this next piece of information is. "He is almost certain he was at Coombs Manor before he was attacked."

"At the Manor? But how-" Alodia cuts herself off. She knows how - or rather, she knows what Moira must think. "You think it was your mother, don't you." It isn't a question.

"Yes," Moira answers back without any hesitation. "I checked to see who it was that found Fabrice and well. It was Jenkins, Violet's lawyer."

"Could be a coincidence," Alodia says, frowning. She knows Moira doesn't trust her mother, has accused her of overreacting more than once, and she can't quite picture her aunt attacking her own nephew. "I mean, yes, Aunt Violet's weird and overbearing and probably crazy, but why would she want to hurt Fabrice? He's family."

Edited 2014-06-10 19:11 (UTC)

"Family didn't stop her from killing Fabrice's father or mine," Moira says softly, knowing that Alodia usually provides reasonable doubts to her claims. "And I think Fabrice was finally catching on to what Violet is capable of."

"You still don't have any proof of that," Alodia says, voice just as low. "And if you're right about what she's capable of - which I'm not convinced includes murder - even if Fabrice was catching on to that, why attack him? If you're right about her, you've known what she's capable of for years, and she hasn't touched you..." Except Moira had disappeared with the Thornton boy for days, and it probably wasn't willingly. "Has she?"

"Not solid proof, no," she says, thinking of the rune letter she'd turned over to James the other night. "But I refuse to believe that Uncle Reginald and my father dying at sea is a coincidence. I mean, come on," she points out, though she also knows that the points Alodia raises are valid ones. "I think she attacked Fabrice to keep the blame off herself and the Coombs name - I mean, what with the town curse and rivalry and all, a Thornton girl ending up dead? People would talk and fingers would point. Violet's an expert at this game."

She sighs, taking another long swig of wine.

"She attacked Fabrice both for his suspicions and to feed the frenzy around the whole town curse bullshit," Moira says. "I still haven't figured out why she hasn't killed me yet, though, sending James and myself to a labyrinth with motherfucking Medusa is an attempt, I'll give her that."

"Oooooor maybe one of the Thorntons attacked Fabrice for revenge?" Alodia raises her eyebrows and fixes Moira with a skeptical look. "Or maybe whoever killed the Thornton girl went after Fabrice, or maybe it's totally unrelated and this town is just crazy dangerous sometimes, or maybe it's literally any other explanation that doesn't sound like some convoluted conspiracy theory. Because no offense, Moira, but 'she murdered her husband and brother years ago and covered it up, and now she's killed one of the Thorntons and attacked her own nephew to keep blame off her family' kind of sounds like a conspiracy theory."

At Moira's next words, her eyebrows go even higher and she shudders theatrically. "You were in a labyrinth? With Medusa? And James Thornton? Ye gods, I'm honestly not sure which one is worse."

"Yeah, well, apparently my life is now the X-Files or whatever, so, color me a conspiracy theory nut, I guess?" She sighs, knowing Alodia is right to question her on her lack of evidence and the way she makes things sound, even if it does frustrate her.

"Yeah, actual Medusa, snake hair and all. It was...trying, to say the least," Moira says. She takes another long gulp of wine at the mention of James. "Honestly, he's not that bad, Alodia."

She drops it. They've had this conversation before, and Alodia knows Moira isn't going to change her mind about Violet. Besides, there are more interesting things to discuss.

"I didn't even think Medusa was real. That sounds awful - how'd you get out?" She blinks, then stares. "Sorry, did I hear you correctly? James Thornton - of the "oooooh all magic is bad and evil burn the witches" Thorntons - is not that bad? Are you sure the labyrinth didn't fuck with your brain?"

Moira finishes her glass of wine at Alodia's next question, recalling with horror the way the mist that brought them back seemed to do so at the expense of another man's life.

"The same mist that took us, and also killed that poor baker, Tristan," she says, barely suppressing a shudder. The memory of that moment has yet to cease haunting her in her sleep. "He saved my life, and he could have easily left me to die and fend for himself," Moira shrugs, thinking that kind of thoughtfulness is well worth pointing out. And besides, she secretly enjoys her banter with James, the more she thinks about it.

"I heard about that," Alodia nods. She hadn't heard about the mist part, but that must have been what Spencer meant when he'd said Tristan had died of natural causes.

"Oh, well, good for him for not being a completely horrific human being," she mutters. She's grateful the Thornton boy didn't abandon her cousin, of course she is, but there's a world of difference between 'not letting someone die' and 'being a good and trustworthy person'.

"Yeah, it was pretty terrible," Moira says, running a hand through her hair and letting out a long sigh at the memory of it.

"You weren't there, you won't understand," Moira almost snaps at Alodia, which she wouldn't have done before the labyrinth.

"No, I wasn't," Alodia shoots back, annoyed. "All I have to go on is my previous experience, which, in case you'd forgotten, consists mainly of years of anti-supernatural sentiment from his charming family, so you'll have to forgive me for not declaring him my new best friend just because he did what anyone with an ounce of common sense and decency would have done."

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Relaxing at home. {For Alodia}

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