And it's my whole heart, deemed and delivered a crime. [Open]

[chasingtwisters]

The closer she gets to her due date, the more obviously uncomfortable Marina becomes. Currently, she's roughly the size of a yoga ball around her stomach; she waddles like a duck whenever she has to walk anywhere, and staying upright on her own two feet feels like a task out of Greek mythology. The summer heat doesn't help, of course; it bears down on her like God's own judgement, making her skin crawl with unease and sweat both. The fear increases, too. She doesn't know how to be anyone's mother; she doesn't even know if her life is what she's thought it to be this whole time.

She doesn't like admitting that the people in this town who apparently recognize her have caused doubt to creep inside her mind. But gathered like insects, all sorts of doubts crowd in her thoughts, adding to the chaos of her overly pregnant body. She couldn't even stay in the Quill, with all of the buzzing in her head.

So she's hear on the beach, near the water. The water calls to her, like a long lost relative. She feels an unspoken pull towards it, as though she were part of the tide itself. She doesn't question it; she meanders across the shore, letting her bare feet savor the cool, salt water licking against it. Even in spite of her pregnancy and worries, she feels calmer. Less prone to bucking away from Siren Cove like a skittish colt.

She smiles, lifting her arms up to the sky in a moment of relief when she feels a sudden splash of coldness across herself. She blinks, and looks down to find that she's gotten water on herself. But how?

That's when she catches sight of her hands, and the cerulean sparks flying from them.

"What the actual fuck?" She gapes, nearly stumbling over her own to feet as she tries to make sense of what she's seeing.

[OOC: Find Moira at the edge of the water, freaking the hell out over her own magic, which she's just beginning to discover again. Her memory still isn't back yet, but she's beginning to realize that her memory is not what it ought to be. Not a bad time to meet her, actually. Open to all!]

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[chasingtwisters]

Marina doesn't notice, the nudging of her own spinning of the water. She's trying to figure out what having magic means; she's caught in the crossroads of who she is, who she was, and who she may yet be, and dealing with magic on top of all of that is enough to make her head spin.

But then the wind picks up, and the hair raises on the front of her arms. Marina raises an eyebrow before spinning, finding Aoife, the woman claiming to be her sister, standing on the beach.

"You just going to stand there or do you feel like joining me? The water's nice," she says, speaking the words that seem to come from a deep part within her. Something in her recognizes the other girl. That same something feels the need to antagonize her in her own way.

[aoife_coombs]

There were two sides to the relationship of Aoife and Moira. Always anger, and always the possibility to defuse Aoife and make her feel worth anyone's time. It's the second side now, but Aoife doesn't want it. No-one is giving her a chance to be angry at all the things going on in her life right now.

"Of course the water is nice, like I don't know that." The wind folds itself over her shoulders, playing with her long skirt. "Careful you don't tip over. Careful you don't blow anything up, or did you think you have firework attached to your fingers?"

[chasingtwisters]

The more Aoife speaks, the more Marina gets the sense that a storm brews within the younger woman. She holds herself like one of the statues she'd seen back in Rome, proud and carrying a burden beyond her young age. Oddly, something in Marina stirs, as though she might be responsible for that burden. She tries to shake the feeling off, the way she tries to shake everything off these days.

"I'm pretty aware these aren't fireworks," she says, keeping her hands pointed towards the ground regardless. "Your loss, though. The water's especially nice today."

Again, the feeling that she has no reason to press the other woman and yet she does it anyway.

[aoife_coombs]

"No shi-" It's not easy to snap at someone that doesn't have the history to return the favor. It would be like snapping at Thor, three hours after he did something bad. It would only confuse him. "I come here every day, especially since I got a dog. I can do without touching the water for one day."

"Does that mean someone told you about magic? About witches?"

[chasingtwisters]

"You have a dog?" Marina asks, both delighted and confused by that fact. She would have thought Aoife a cat person, if anything. There's something wonderful and youthful about imagining this woman with a canine companion. "And a beach dog, at that? Nice."

"I kind of figured, with all of the talk of magic about town," she answers with a shrug.

[aoife_coombs]

"A pup, still. A white shepherd, my great grandmother's sister gave him to me. Through a local ghost whisperer." Aoife never had to keep the magic side of life out of any conversation with her sister, so why would she with this person fully existing because of it? Be ause this had to be a spell, she refused to believe otherwise. "His name is Thor, probably linking to my talents. All very corny."

"He loves the water, almost as much as I do. Likes to chase the waves, like I do. We make games out of it, you kn-"

[chasingtwisters]

"He sounds beautiful," Marina says, honestly. And to receive a gift like that from a relative seems especially special, she thinks. Even though she blinks at the last part of that sentence, caught off guard by it. "I'm sorry, did you say ghost whisperer? Like that Jennifer Love Hewitt show?"

"Thor," she repeats with a smile. "Nice name."

[aoife_coombs]

"The what show? She is a witch that can be found by ghosts. Probably the only creatures that like to be in her presence." Aoife's anger is fading and she doesn't like it.

"Why are you still here if you can't remember anything or anyone and don't know about your own abilities? Is th- Siren Cove is not the easiest place to live, always."

[chasingtwisters]

"Ghost Whisperer. About a woman who talks to ghosts," she explains. "Something I found randomly on a channel in Europe."

Her last question is one that Marina has been asking herself the longer she remains in Siren Cove. As much as she tries to deny how much sway the town has over her, she finds that she cannot bring herself to leave. The more she stays, the more Siren Cove feels like home. And that, above all else, freaks her out more than anything.

"I don't know," she says, turning to glance back out at the water. "I just can't seem to leave here."

[aoife_coombs]

"I don't watch a lot of television. I'm the bore that never managed to find the right fake story to be enchanted by. You kn- you knew that."

It's just - for such a long time Aoife has been telling herself that she didn't need Moira, could face the world with Amelie by her side and a big whatever to who else wanted to get involved with her. It wasn't like Moira wanted that anyone, Aoife was too much their mother's daughter. But now she wasn't there at all, and Aoife wanted all the things she couldn't have."

"Have you talked to others of our fam- of the Coombs family? Friends? Where are you even staying? If - If I can ask, of course."

[chasingtwisters]

"Ah," Marina says, like she understands. Even though she doesn't. She feels like she should, though. Especially when she gets the inkling that she really isn't much of a television person herself. She tries to shrug it off. "Well, that's fair. There's an overwhelming number of fake stories, these days." One of them her own, the traitorous part of her mind points out.

"I've met Amelie," she says. "And you. That's it for the Coombs, I think. I'm staying at the local motel. Not far from here, actually."

[aoife_coombs]

"The motel? You can't stay at the motel, you're a Co- the family house is quite large and much more comfortable than the motel, I am sure. And it is closer to the hospital. For your .." Aoife is going to be an aunt. It's a good thing that Amelie is around to be a proper role model. If Moira stays around, of course. If the child will be a Coombs.

"Alodia is a niece. Thomas is my little brother. There aren't.. That's it, these days. It isn't very important right now. We should you get back to yourself first." She looks away. "Sorry, that was intrusive."

[chasingtwisters]

"Family house?" Marina's eyebrows arch at that. So apparently the Coombs come from money. That's interesting. And convenient. Too convenient, really, but she's curious, so she listens to what Aoife has to say. "I mean, I don't know. I'm not really sure that..." Who I am, she thinks, but doesn't say.

"Back to myself? Through magic?" She ventures, at last. Ultimately, she has to admit that she does need answers. No matter how painful they may be.

[aoife_coombs]

"Our mans- home. It's not that big, it fitted all of us snugly. And you didn't live there. Anymore, for a long while. I mean, you left. You and mother.." How much could you tell a woman that didn't know anything? Why should she even have to know before discovering it by herself?

"You used to trust magic more than you'd-" This were familiar grounds, cutting off every other sentence when talking to her older sister. "It has to be magic that brought you in this state. Magic will undo what is done. That's how it works."

[chasingtwisters]

"It sounds like it's pretty big," she says, wondering, exactly, what kind of family she is meant to have come from. "So your mother. She ran away?" She tries not to say 'our.' She tries even harder not to think it.

"Okay, so we need some kind of, what memory-reversing spell?" She asks. "Could you perform one on me?"

[aoife_coombs]

"How do you know? Do you remember? And I don't know if you can really ..what Violet Coombs did and created is - she is not in town at the present, that is all you need to know right now. I wouldn't want to give you any more confusion."

Aoife laughs, surprised. "No, no way. That's not my magic. I could fuel someone else's spell to make it done but that's not what I do. I think Amelie's abilities lie much closer to that, but you will have to make her believe that she's a real witch first. She's still so ..well, you don't know."

[chasingtwisters]

"I'm not sure," she admits. "I just got the impression from what you've described. Maybe a memory? Or like, a memory of a memory? I don't know." There's so much she doesn't know. So much that she wants to know, in spite of herself the slowly dissipating idea that she isn't who Siren Cove says she is.

"Amelie is a witch who doesn't believe she's a witch?" She asks, further confused.

[aoife_coombs]

Good God, with every step forward it was three steps back. Aoife didn't have the patience for this. Should she call Amelie? Thomas? Poor Thomas, all his sisters bringing disaster to the family.

"Amelie thinks she's no good. Which is a lie, but when you tell someone a lie long enough she'll view it as the truth. I'm sure you -" Aoife sighs. "Can I invite you to come see the house? Maybe it will help you."

[chasingtwisters]

It does feel a lot like tug of war; an inch lost for every one gained. Marina can see the other girl's patience wearing thin. Her own is, too, but she would much rather avoid any kind of scene. So just nods at the suggestion.

"Sure. I'd like to see the house," she says.

[aoife_coombs]

"Right now? Before you disap- I an sorry. Marina is it now, isn't itt? I'm sorry, this is not in you. You appearing, looking like the sister we need right now, it is just the cherry on top of a terrible cake right now. I don't know who of why, but I would like to set lightning in the person that cursed you to this."

She thinks of Thor to reel herself back in. "Or I will just come find you at the motel you are staying at."

[chasingtwisters]

"Well, I'm sorry to be a bad cherry," she says. "And yes, it's Marina, although, apparently I'm supposed to be Moira. But thank you for the sentiment. I'd like to set whoever apparently stole my memories on fire myself."

"Whichever works better for you," she tells her. "I'm fairly open with my scheduling, as it were."

[aoife_coombs]

"You know that's not what - whatever." She barely stops herself from rolling her eyes. "Do you prefer Marina now? I tell people that my second name is my first name from time to time, so it's really not ..it's only weird for me, not for you."

"Okay. Let's go now, then. Do you have shoes with you?"

[chasingtwisters]

She pinches the bridge of her nose, too tired to protest. "You know what, if calling me Moira helps, by all means. Call me Moira. Hopefully, I'll figure this out sooner rather than later."

"I do have shoes," she says, reaching into the book bag she brought with her and pulling out a pair of old, comfortable sneakers, slipping them on. "I'll follow you."

[aoife_coombs]

"Not something you usually do, things to help me." There's just too much bile inside Aoife, too much ugly things bottled up. "Moira does, I'm sorry. Not the best relationship, Moira and I. I will try to not take it out on you."

Because what if it would drive her sister away from her again. Permanently. "Those are ..they look like they're very comfortable."

[chasingtwisters]

"Well, there's that to look forward to then, I suppose. Once I, or, Moira, rather, remembers," she says, shaking her head sadly. From what she understands, apparently, this Moira, who she's supposed to be, seems to have a talent for ruining lives.


"They're comfy, yeah," she nods. "I need comfy, considering how swollen my feet are."