2019-08-19 - Before the Mimics

This bland, overcast day plays well with Magnolia's mood. She's been spinning in her chair most of the afternoon, staring up at the ceiling, letting the shadows rotate. She's been lost in her thoughts for several hours before she casually picks up her phone and drops a text to Tobin:

Tobin shows up not too much later, with a messenger bag over one shoulder, and a beige colored puppy cradled in his other arm. The puppy looks pretty sleepy, and seems to be dozing against Tobin's chest when he comes inside. "Heya," he grins. "How's it going?"

This is not what Magnolia expected when Tobin said he was bringing a friend. She stops her spinning to blink over at the dog, and her brows arch slightly. "This-- is not what I expected." She pulls herself out of her seat, and pads toward the pair. She peeks at the doggo with a speculative squint. "Do you know you have a dog?"

"Yep," Tobin says with a laugh when she asks if he knows he has a dog. "I suspected I might when he arrived at my house yesterday." His grin broadens a bit as she approaches. The little pup lifts his head and yawns expansively, making a little whiny noise before letting his head droop again. "Minerva found several abandoned pups and I decided to adopt one."

"Just checking. I mean, it's pretty common for you to not know you have a dog." Magnolia checks out that yawn seriously before she gathers up the dog's jaw and gives it a happy ruffling. "I see what you mean about him being totally chill with talking about strange shit, because... Tobin... Kevin and I ran across mimics a couple nights ago." Beat. "You know, apparently the D&D monster?"

The pup seems not to care at all that Kevin and Magnolia ran into mimics. He does seem quite content for scritches, however, his eyes closed but his head lifting for the ruffling. Tobin grins and says, "Correct. Prior to yesterday, I definitely would not have known that I had a dog." He smiles crookedly and then raises a brow. "Actual mimics.. in a Dream?" He's familiar with what they are.

"No." Magnolia sighs, and a little frown settles into place. "No. It wasn't a Dream. It was... Tobin, I think we crossed into the Veil." She gestures Tobin further in and to one of her client seats, and she plops down into her desk chair with a squeak. She rubs slightly at her forehead. "We walked through my office door and then ended up in... I don't know. It wasn't a Dream. It was too inconsistent, too patched together. We ended up at this building being guarded by two mimics, and then we almost got eaten alive by them before we were brought inside by this mustached mimic. It was weird, Tobin."

Tobin settles into one of the client seats with the pup in his lap and idly scritches between his ears while he listens to Magnolia, his brow furrowing slightly. "So you went through the door and you ended up /in/ the Veil. And you almost got eaten, but were saved by a third mimic.. with a moustache?" He's just making sure that he heard all of that correctly. "I mean.. I ended up on an island where this giant Gilligan's Island monstrosity was literally lobbing Ginger at us and her dress exploded.. so.. weird is kind of de rigeur around here. Why not mimics?"

"Not saved exactly, but he just... called off his goons." Magnolia explains this with the tone of someone who can't believe what she's saying. "This just didn't feel like a Dream, Tobin. I've been in Dreams. I know what they feel like. This felt... different." She rubs slightly at the line of her jaw, and then she takes in a breath as she sinks further back into her chair. "He took us into the building, and the contents of the building were odd... part of this Collection."

Tobin's brow furrows a little bit and he asks, "How did it feel different from a Dream?" This piques his curiosity. "What about it felt off, or other?" His scritching of the puppy pauses for a moment, and then resumes as he considers her. Then he nods and then asks, "What sort of a collection?" prompting her to go on.

"It felt real," Magnolia says, but she knows that isn't good enough. "It felt like I had just... walked through my door into somewhere else. Like I was still... with me." That doesn't make sense, but she gestures slightly. "I don't know, Tobin. It was real. That's all I can tell you." Then she breathes out a sharper exhale, folding her arms in front of her on the desk. "The mustache mimic was showing us these first few cases of the collection... ashes, a femur... but there was an empty case. It held a jewel, apparently -- a purple jewel. A cursed jewel... of lovers." She takes in a breath. "Tobin, I think it was that stupid ring that had Lilith and Byron all caught-up."

"I don't doubt you," Tobin explains. "I'm trying to understand so that maybe if something similar happens to me, I can figure out what it feels like -- recognize it if it does. Because that's what I want to learn how to do -- cross over there willingly, go look for my mom." He takes a deep breath and then lets it out slowly. His brows rise slowly though as she goes on to explain the collection and the missing jewel. "Sure sounds like it.. but didn't it get destroyed?"

When Tobin mentions that he wants to go after his mom, Magnolia looks up with a frown. "I don't know, Tobin. I'd have to... maybe experience it again to really think about it. It was more jarring than any Dream I've been in-- more like I just turned a corner and was on an unfamiliar street." Then she takes a breath as she thinks about this haunting jewel, and Tobin's words that he thought it was destroyed has her looking a bit guilty. "No. I just... flicked it into the pond... it's... um... still down there."

Tobin's brow furrows when Magnolia says it's in the pond and he says, "Oh." That's all that he says, though, as it's clear that his mind is turning that over. "So uh did you tell the guy where to find his bauble? Maybe it should be over in the Veil stored away in its case rather than you know, out in our world where people might find it again?" He glances over to her then, curiously. He doesn't seem to be judging her for where it went, just curious as to what she thinks.

"I hadn't put it all together right away-- it kind of hit me when we got back to... here." Magnolia's eyes close, and she leans her head back with a light thunk. "But, he said that we should... go on a quest to retrieve it and if we do, we will have the Collector's thanks. Whatever that means." She rubs slightly at the back of her neck. "I just... don't know how in the hell I'm supposed to do that."

Tobin settles back in his chair a bit, the puppy passed out on his lap. He gives the pup a little bit of a scritch as they talk and he considers, "Okay, so I mean.. I guess, go find it in the pond? And then fish it out and give it back to the Collector guy? I just.. wouldn't touch it considering what it did to Byron and Lilith." He winces just a little bit, still a little nauseated from the pictures Lilith showed off of her hand post-ring-removal.

"You make it sound so easy, Tobin." Magnolia slumps, resting her elbow into her knee with her hand catching up her jaw and cheek; she rubs at that joint as she sighs. "Yeah, but... that's the hard part, right? I think that the dude who had it before kept it in that lead-lined box for reason. I'm pretty sure no amount of super-thick gloves and good intentions are going to keep me from getting zapped by the curse that basically makes me go insane around whoever I love." Her lips tighten. "And the one person I love the most is Lark. I can't risk that." She rubs at the back of her neck.

"Well, I'm not saying that it would be easy in practice, just that in theory... that is what needs to happen, right?" Tobin chuckles just a little bit at her slumping. "Okay so, was there anyone who touched it who didn't get zapped by the curse? I mean, the guy did get it into the box somehow? Do we have a lead lined box to stuff it back into if someone can do it? I mean, I'm not volunteering. I'm pretty sure I'm falling for Raf, and I am not risking going insane around the first actual boyfriend I've ever had. And you definitely aren't going insane around Lark."

"You mean my quest achievement conditions?" Magnolia has been hanging around Kevin way, way, way too much. "Yes, those are my win conditions. I don't even know what my quest rewards are beyond being left alone and maybe putting all this to rest." She sighs out a hard breath, and tightens her hand on the back of her neck. "No. Hell, even I got ringfluenza just by being near it. Who knows what would have happened if I actually touched it. Izzy apparently got rage-touched by taking photos of it. So, my theory is... no touching, no looking, no hearing, no eating, nothing. Maybe one of those super crazy old-timey scuba suits." At his reassurances that she won't go crazy around Lark, she offers him a tight and slightly wearied smile.

"Well, because we're not going to let you go after it personally," Tobin says when she gives him that little tight smile. "That's the only way to be sure." He frowns when he hears that Lilith was rage touched just by taking pictures of it. "Alright well, I mean, what's the fail condition? If you just drop the quest, then what happens then? It just sits at the bottom of the lake, and you never get whatever reward the Collector would have given you? Or does something terrible happen?" Because this is also an important piece of the puzzle, apparently.

"I don't know," Magnolia's words are soft, honest in the face of Tobin's more serious question. "I don't know what happens if we don't pursue the quest. I don't know if someone else gets yanked in who maybe has no idea what it is they're getting yanked into." Then she rubs slightly at the edge of her cheek. "I don't even think there's a real reward. I'm pretty sure in fact that there is no reward beyond being left the hell alone, which has a lot of appeal." Then she breathes out a short exhale. "So, I guess... in the end.... I have no idea. Which is the worst feeling in the world."

"Okay," Tobin says as he mulls all of this over. "So, aside from the guilt that you might feel about someone else getting yanked in who has no idea what they're doing and might go bananas on someone /they/ love, there's not a lot of personal risk in just.. not doing it. But it is definitely a risk to your conscience not to put it to rest." He takes in a breath and lets it out slowly. "So.. how fast does this thing work? Does it make you crazy the second you look at it or does it ramp up the crazy fest?"

"Yeah, so aside from all that." There's a little chuff of laughter in her words, but no real mirth to it. She instead rubs slightly along the side of her neck and then starts to nod. "I don't actually know... but not very long, I'm guessing. What's the point of having a cursed object if it doesn't really get you good and crazy in a short amount of time?" She pinches her fingers close together to demonstrate just how short that duration might be. But then she shakes her head. "I think that it's just a couple days at best... so, what? We expose me so I can get it, then you guys wrestle it away from me and get it back to the Collector?"

"I don't know," Tobin admits with a little bit of a laugh. "I'm just looking for any kind of a loophole that I can slip through at the moment to try and figure out how it can be done. I mean.. metal detector to locate it with a lead box on a ten foot pole with a robotic scoop and closing mechanism?" He grins a little bit helplessly and shrugs his shoulders. "No, we don't expose you. You're too high a risk. We need someone who loves someone who is sturdy enough to protect themselves or who can get out of their reach for a while so that we don't put them at risk. I mean, I could do it. You'd just have to keep me away from Raf for a couple of days, right?"

Tobin's laughter is met with a tired, sheepish smile. "I know you are. I appreciate it, Tobin. Really." Then she takes a breath as she settles her elbows on both knees, rubbing her chin and jaw with her fingers and palm. Then she smiles up at him with an almost rueful quality. "I see we've entered the Inspector Gadget part of this planning process." Her arms fold together, and she leans into them. Then Tobin's offering himself up to the Cursed Jewel evil gods, and she immediately starts shaking her head. "No, no. I don't want to expose you either, Tobin. I don't even know how long it lasts. All I know is how long it took Byron and Lilith to recover." She presses her lips together. "But maybe you can be a back-up if something goes sideways... and then we can lock you up in Kevin's dad's basement."