2019-10-14 - Unfinished Business

She is not a stranger to making appointments, especially when another professional is involved. So once Isabella is well enough in the recovery phase of the super-flu that seems to have swept the city (and has managed to reclaim her literacy - it's a long story), one of the first things on her lengthy to-do list, which has languished throughout the two weeks or so that she has been ill, is to leave a message for Magnolia Jones at Sneakers Investigations and ask for a meeting; namely that Byron Thorne had called her to try and lend her assistance in finding the Lover's Jewel, presently having fallen in the depths of the lake under the Hanging Bridge, and that it took her this long to reach out because she has been sick.

She does not tell them about how she couldn't read on top of it, because there's only so much her pride could stand.

So in the designated hour, Isabella shows up at the building in which Magnolia's business is located, and enters through the door. The windows present a colorful tableau for those who take the time to look, a palette of vibrant reds and golds counterbalanced by lush green grass and muted browns of earth and dead leaves. Summer is when the city is at its most beautiful, but Autumn certainly holds its own charms, and certainly with less humidity and heat. There's a brisk bite to the air, promising a grueling Winter - less than a handful of months away.

The archaeologist is dressed in her typical go-to: fitted jeans, boots, a loose top tucked under a reddish-brown leather jacket, her only accessory a moonstone pendant that gleams an iridescent blue when light hits it at a right angle, and scatters motes of multicolored light across the front of her ensemble. Her dark hair is pulled up in a loose knot and as always, save for the dewy hint left behind by biodegradable sunscreen and clear lip gloss, there's no makeup on her either. She has her phone in her hand, firing off a last text before tucking it back in a pocket. Green-and-gold eyes sweep the office's proper.

"Hello? Miss Jones?" she calls out.

Kevin can do most of his work anywhere, even if he prefers to do the last bits in the Gazette's office, so he's staked himself out at the front 'desk' of Sneakers Investigations, which is just barely more than a TV table, but it can hold his laptop and a protein shake, and that's good enough for him. He's got a plain gray hoodie over his loose black t-shirt with a bloody-faced bunny on a pile of skulls, complete with 'RUN AWAY' in the Monty Python font, loose jeans, and simple gray board shoes. It's an unassuming outfit, save for the geeky shirt, and he's leaning back in his chair, balancing on two legs as he pokes idly at the trackpad on his laptop. He looks up as the door opens, "Hey, hi." Dropping his feet down from their careful balance, he calls out, "Lia! She's here." Standing up, he offers out a hand, "Kevin Walters. I'm pretty sure we've been introduced before, but like... either at a hospital or a big event? Somewhere with a lot of people. You're Isabella, right?"

"One second!" The call comes from the back office, and then there's a loud BANG followed by a lot of cussing. Then the short blonde is coming out from her office, rubbing at her head with a growl on her lips. "Who the hell put the desk where I can't get to the ethernet cable?" She put it there. She did. She's going to blame someone else though because she's in a mood. But then there's Isabella, and she sighs out a quick breath. "Hi." She doesn't even apologize for her unprofessional language. It's been a terrible few weeks. But she does attempt a smile, and steps forward to offer her hand out to Isabella. "Good to see you again, Miss Reede. Come on in, have a seat." She gestures her into her office, and even invites Kevin to do the same.

The first person she sees is Kevin, who she recognizes immediately - and without blue paint, this time. His correct identification earns him a faint smile and a lift of her fingers. "Hey, Mister Walters." His outstretched hand is taken with a secure grip. "I met one of your editors the other day at the hospital, Harvey? I didn't manage to get his last name. All I knew was that most of his reporters were sick, so he was covering the beat for them. Does that mean you fell into it, also?" She doesn't look well, though she is recovering - she has lost at least five pounds since they last came across one another.

"And yes, that's me. Isabella Reede. I'm a friend of Byron's - he said something about the Collector maybe adding you guys into his collection if the two of you didn't recover the Lover's Jewel?"

She releases his hand, turning green-and-gold eyes to the sound of cursing, before the familiar blonde investigator shows up with her ready hand. That, too, is taken, shaken warmly. "Miss Jones, you too. Byron called me about your situation at some point before most of the town fell ill, he thought I could help in some way." She eases into the proffered seat. "How did the two of you end up...?"

Clearly there is a story here that Byron hasn't managed to tell her.

"We caught whatever that flu was." The one that caused trippy Dreams and basically shut off her Glimmer -- she only was really upset about one of those. Despite being quite a balanced Physicalist and Mentalist, Magnolia hates to Glimmer. It only leads to pain, sorrow, and loss. "I blame Kevin. He breathed on me." Then Magnolia settles into an easier smile despite the fact that in the back of her mind, she's still envisioning setting her desk on fire. The question after her and Kevin has her glancing toward Kevin and then back to Isabella. "Oh, Kevin got up the nerve to ask me on a date." Or did Magnolia ask him? She honestly can't remember. "He comes around to help answer the phones like I need some kind of Chris Hemsworth from The Ghostbusters receptionist. He keeps his shirt on -- for the most part." Then she gestures Isabella into her office, and leaves the door open for Kevin to join them.

"But yes. We were given a quest by the Collector to fetch that fucking cursed purple rock, and I guess we actually need to do it instead of ignoring it like it's going to go away any time soon. My guess is if we don't get on this fast, then we're going to end up getting eaten by giant trunks again." Magnolia flops into her chair which squeaks in protest.

"Kevin, please. I'd say that Mr. Walters is my dad, but he's mostly Burt." Kevin too is lighter than usual, although it's difficult to tell with the loose clothes he wears. He nods to Magnolia at her mention of catching the flu, "Yeah, we both got it at the same time. And yeah, Harvey O'Donnell." He's compared to Chris Hemsworth, and he shakes his head, "I think you asked me out on not-a-date, and somewhere along the way it turned into a date. But I think Isabella was asking about the Collector and all that." He pauses a moment, then adds, "Wait, I'm the token dude? I guess I'm okay with that, but let's avoid any possession." He corrects Magnolia's 'trunks' quite unnecessarily to, "Mimics. D&D monsters that can look like treasure chests or anything else to trick adventurers into sticking their hands or heads into them. And let me tell you," this to Isabella, "They weren't very nice, even if they were in totally the wrong place to make any narrative sense." Aaaand he's off-track again, "So apparently the Jewel might be underwater, and we need to find it, but from what Byron... or maybe Lillith... said, we need to do it without anyone actually seeing it or seeing any image of it. And I was thinking maybe we could talk to someone to code up a program to recognize output on a screen, but then I realized that that's how you get a demon on the Internet, like on Buffy."

"Giant trunks...." There's a pause, and Isabella's confused expression clears up, snapping her fingers. "The uh...right!" Said to Kevin. "The mimics!" She doesn't play D&D, she is using Byron's term for it. "Is that what happened to the last people who held it? Byron mentioned something about past owners, or past borrowers..." Mention about the date earns a brief grin, glancing in between Kevin and Magnolia, and while she doesn't say anything, there's mischief prevalent in her expression.

Talk about demons from the Internet has her groaning out loud. "Well, this place is the way it is, so I wouldn't put that eventuality completely from the cards," she observes dryly. "Anyway, we can certainly try. I don't know if Byron mentioned it at all, but I originally came back here to consult on a research project that involves a potential shipwreck, so I have a submersible drone we can use as this thing can't be touched or even seen, so we would need to try and look for it blind." There's a pause. "I have a vague idea as to where it landed in the lake, but Lilith Winslow would probably have a better idea as to where than I do, it was her Dream that followed where it ended up. And then, with luck, we'll be able to fish it out."

Isabella snaps, and Kevin snap-finger-guns, nodding, "Yup. Oh, and no, I don't think so. Apparently the Borrowers, the people who borrowed the Jewel and then lost it... or maybe tainted it, I need to check my notes... they got Collected. One was like, a pile of ashes, one was like, broken bones." He nods enthusiastically at her reaction to the idea of Internet demon, "I know, right? I pretty much think that anything out of Buffy or Supernatural is on the table. And a drone would be great, although I'm still kind of worried unless it's like, an autonomous drone, because from what Byron was saying, even looking at a picture of the Jewel is enough to get you in trouble. I'm just hoping that currents and stuff haven't moved it around a ton. Or it'll take forever to dig out. Even if we can find it without looking at it in the first place." Look, when you get him started, he isn't easy to stop.

"How in the Hell does everyone know what a mimic is?" Magnolia is misreading Isabella's knowledge here, unknowing that Byron has been passing Isabella notes. "Did I miss that day of biology or something?" She makes some grand show of gesturing to a whiteboard that isn't there, and her voice slips into something nasally and stereotypical teacher, "And here class we have the mimic. Look at its lovely trunk anatomy. It's sharp, gnashing teeth are very impressive." She has really no idea what a mimic actually is; her experience is narrow and shallow. Then she focuses on the actual meat of this meeting, and she sighs out a breath.

"I know it's underwater," Magnolia clarifies. "I tele-flicked that piece of shit into the pond, and I don't even feel sorry. Lilith broke my leg in retribution." She's forgiven Lilith, really. But it was ow, okay? Then she frowns at Isabella's feedback, and she rubs slightly at her jaw. "Okay, so we... take the box it was kept in, because I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be in that lead-lined coffin, and we get it from wherever it is in the pond and into the box." Then she stretches her shoulders a bit, sighing. "As long as some stupid kid didn't pick it up because it's like Jumanji and probably tempts people to pull it out of whatever dark hole it's in."

"Honestly, I had no idea either until Byron explained it to me," Isabella offers to Magnolia, a look of absolute consternation there. "But it wasn't surprising to hear about it, I've seen a lot of weird things through the Doors." Her faux biology lesson about moving trunks with teeth, however, earns her a flash of a grin.

She had be able tbeen denied any involvement in the Hanging Bridge incident and even the accounts she has managed to receive about it are jumbled and confused at best, so when the blonde investigator mentions that her arm was broken, she is unable to hide a wince. Addressing both hers and Kevin's comments, she continues: "The drone's equipped with a metal detector, but I think we'd need a mover..." A physicalist. "...with prior experience with the artifact, someone who knows what it looks like, and with enough range to o pinpoint the object in the depths. I know what it looks like, but the range might be a problem. I've been gone from Gray Harbor for over a decade, without using, my old skills are atrophied. I can push it, if necessary, with Lilith's help - but she's been through a lot the last few weeks also and I'd rather not ask if I can help it."

She falls silent - but only for a moment, and when she speaks up, it's soft. "That and after we put William Gohl in the ground, something in this city has changed. I don't know how it affects people like us. Not yet."

Kevin starts to grin at Magnolia's protest, but he subsides when Isabella reassures her. "It's been around since first edition." Because that's clearly how you can tell if everyone knows something. He nods to Magnolia when she describes the situation and the plan, "And then back to the Collector, so that we never get the Jumanji reboot." He pauses, frowning, "Damn. But the reboot was so good. And I want to be The Rock." Because he clearly still thinks of himself as the skinny nerd that he was in high school. The mention of movers causes him to frown, considering, "Wait... we can find things? I mean, I've never seen it before," he glances over to Magnolia, "What do you think, Lia? I think it's a great idea if we can have someone pinpoint it like that." He pauses, then grimaces, "But I'm also kind of worried about what that would mean for them. Just looking at a picture of the thing screwed with people, right? Isn't going all mind-seeking on it going to make things even worse? But if it does work, it might mean that no one has to look at the monitor on the drone..." The mention of the change causes him to blink again, "Wait, it has?" Apparently, he doesn't do things at much range, when he does things at all. "I thought that was just getting over the last of the flu."

"Byron Thorne," the PI seethes good-naturedly. "Such a busybody." Then, Magnolia rolls her eyes at Kevin, and she taps that cheap bic pen on her desk as she stares at him with serious blue eyes. "I'm going to set all your first editions on fire." Ah, domestic disputes. Then she nods slightly at the actual serious comments made by Kevin -- no, not the ones about Jumanji. "I've seen it before." Her words are said with a grit of her teeth. "But it sounds like making it a ring is a new twist." Now Isabella drops the real big part of this whole plan, and the PI slumps back in her chair. She glances at Kevin once, and then back to Isabella and she raises her hand slightly. "Yeah, I can take care of that." For a moment, anyone with the ability to see it, would see Magnolia start to shine -- it's bright and lovely, like a star in the dark. And that's when her pencil cup goes scooting at Isabella with steady confidence, as if she had just pushed it by her hand instead of her Glimmer. Then she frowns when Isabella mentions a range issue, and she glances to Kevin. "I haven't really noticed," She admits.

The way Kevin and Magnolia banter around in her office makes Isabella smile, remembering the words uttered by Margaret Addington in the funeral before the pencil cup moves towards her as if pushed. There's surprise, there, reaching up to pluck the cup and look at it. "I didn't know you were a mover," she murmurs. "I only know of two or three others until today." Not including herself, though she hardly counts. Much of her usefulness is in information, in ideas.

"Movers are innately more spatially aware," she explains to Kevin, setting the cup down with a clack. "There was a time in my life where I could navigate an entire room blindfolded, and not touch anything, not trip over anything. I think it's that natural awareness that allows us to find Doors that lead into the Veil, and lost or missing objects provided that there's already a mental reference to it. Miss Jones is already familiar with the object, so she should be able to find it blind. The real problem, I think, is fishing it out of the water with the drone. The drone has a metal detector, so we can use that, too, with Miss Jones' guidance, but we would also have to pilot the drone blind, I think, to fish it out. Unless we want to risk lifting it out of the water directly, and float it into the box, which you can also do blind. It'd be the more direct route, that way we won't have to use the drone and risk other things going wrong, but....I recommend practicing, first."

Questions about the city's changes has tension cabling over her expression. "I think once people start trying to use their abilities, the changes might start to register. But I'd be the last person to ask. I absolutely don't use it unless it can't be helped." Or if it's done by instinct. The physical world will move to protect her, whenever she's threatened. That, she can't help also.

"Do that and I introduce Lark to Cocoa Puffs in chocolate milk." Two can play at that game. Kevin's smile fades as Magnolia volunteers, but, well, he was pretty much expecting that. He nods a little, watching the demonstration, and when Isabella picks up the cup, he points at it, and it starts to tug in her hand, ready to lift up and move back to the table (with a little wobble along the way) if she lets it go. "Yeah, I get the specially-aware thing." His grin flashes bright for a moment, then fades away, "I'm not as good as Lia, but I can move stuff too. I think practice is a really good idea though. Toss some costume jewelry in the shallows somewhere, try to pilot the thing in there blind while Lia gives directions? Because if we can get the drone to pick it up and put it in the box underwater, that would kind of be ideal, right?" He pauses, "I... I don't know what kind of waldoes or arms or whatever the drone has. I'm totally picturing some super-deep-sea thing, and that's probably all wrong." He nods at the care about Glimmering, "Yeah. Um. I don't use it much either." Recent examples be damned, "I mean, neither of us does. I heard it can be dangerous. You know, kind of like everything else in town." He shrugs a little helplessly at that. "So yeah, if you can pilot the drone blind, and Lia can find the thing and guide you to it, and I can... I don't know... carry the drone to the water and look pretty... that might work."

"Ass," is all Magnolia quips back to Kevin at threatening to give Lark a Cocoa Puff sugar high. Then as Isabella describes what it is like to be a Mover -- a Physicalist -- the PI looks even more uncomfortable. "Everything came naturally to me. It really freaked out my dad, who knew about all this stuff that happens around Grey Harbor." Again, speaking about Magnolia's dad is strange -- a topic she never ventures into. Kevin hasn't even heard all that much about him. "The Dark Men got him. Or something from the Veil did. He always taught me not to Glimmer because it puts you in danger." But she's been Glimmering a lot lately. A lot.

"Practice." Magnolia grumbles that word. "So, community pool and pebbles, huh?" Then she rubs slightly at the point of her jaw just in front of her ear. It's the first sign of a possible headache -- a little nudge of discomfort at all this. She should have kept her head down, shouldn't have chased after Alexander, and Byron, and Lilith. She would at least have not stumbled into all this quite so readily. But then -- she glances to Kevin and her breath relaxes her a bit more. "If we can get the box underwater, I could maybe float it into the box and close the lid."

Mention of 'Lark' and 'cocoa puffs' is indicative of a young child - and Isabella vaguely remembers hearing something about it from Lilith, mentioned in her first meeting with Magnolia. With the cup in her grasp, Kevin demonstrates what he can do, also, and she lets it go, to let the small receptacle sail away to be returned to the private investigator's desk. She leans back in her seat after that, long legs crossing by the knee, fingers tapping lightly against her arm.

There's a lot of what Magnolia says that resonates - the fact that everything came naturally to her. Mention of the Dolorphages taking her father. A degree of discomfiture flits past her face at that, green eyes fixing somewhere past the blonde's shoulder, rendered silent for a few moments.

"My mother said the same thing when we were growing up," is all she offers, her voice quiet and absent, and with a certain tone there, lingering in the fringes. It sounds like a but...

With the other woman's alternative idea, there's a hint of a smile. "That would work, also. It isn't as if it's going to be buried deeply, it fell off the Bridge, after all. It should be on the surface." After a few minutes of contemplative silence, she continues. "Lilith is a talented tinkerer and a powerful mender...or healer, if you prefer the term, and she mentioned that she had the ring in her hand. Maybe she could construct something that could simulate the weight and shape of the object, and I believe that she also keeps the original box. If you had both items, with the right amount of practice, I think that can be done."

Kevin shrugs a little helplessly at Magnolia's quip, not looking particularly upset. About that, at least. The information about her early training and knowledge causes a frown to start gathering between his brows, behind the bridge of his glasses. He crosses the little room after the floating cup, leaning against the side of Magnolia's desk to provide some silent support. "I think maybe some costume jewelry? Something that's metal, at least." He nods over to Isabella, "Lilith and Byron have the box. And yeah, I'm thinking that would be something, although I'd really rather get a serious lead-lined thing. The sort of box you'd put Kryptonite in. I mean, if you were Superman. I'm hoping that the real test will be between Lia and you to practice blind-grabbing." He licks his lips, glancing over to Magnolia, "I'd kind of like to limit the amount that Lia's Glimmering at the creepy-ass thing if we can help it. The more the drone's playing with it and the less she is, the happier I'll be."

Magnolia squints at that floating up as it lands on her desk, and then she glances up at Kevin like he's put something offensive there. She really does dislike Glimmer, but it is like disliking a part of yourself that is just who you are. There's no way to surgically remove someone's Glimmer. So, she takes a breath and moves on despite the cup there. Isabella's solidarity with her own upbringing has her nodding slowly. "Yeah. I think it might be, I don't know... a side effect of familial Glimmers. Dad was always worried about us kids being able to Glimmer."

Then she takes in a breath as she settles into herself once more, trying to lock that all away. "Yeah. I mean, the Pond is manmade. It's underwater surface isn't deep mud and muck. It probably wouldn't be hard to find it with your device and my..." She waves her hand dismissively. "Okay, so we can see if Lilith can give us some dimensions and we can give it a try." She tightens her lips. "Maybe we should put it in a new box, though. Something we can seal so it can't be easily opened. Then we give it to the Collector and he can fucking deal with it." Kevin's worry on her behalf have her quirking a tiny smile up at him, and she gives his back a little shove of her knuckles. She's fine. Really.

Magnolia's derision of the Talent is not one that Isabella misses, and she smiles faintly in commiseration. "I tried to forget that I even had it when I left," she admits simply and with no small measure of sympathy. "Eleven years gone, eleven years good. But the longer I stay here, the more I remember. If I had a choice, though..."

She shakes her head, and nods to Kevin. "We'll have no choice but to use. Hopefully technology will help mitigate that. Miss Jones can try and 'ping' the ring and I can handle the drone and try to follow her with it without looking at the screen. The metal detector should help, also, but it doesn't change the fact that I would still have to pilot the drone blind, and I'd have to keep track of it, somehow." With her own gifts, and she grimaces at the thought of it, faintly. She was going to need Lilith's help, there.

With that, she rises. "I'll start setting up, did the two of you want to talk to Lilith, see what she could provide for this? Or do you want me to talk to her?"

"Maybe so. I didn't know anything about it until really recently. I just didn't use it because... you know... showing off like that is going to totally freak people out." Kevin shrugs helplessly again, then rocks forward at the little shove from Magnolia, grinning over his shoulder to her and then nodding, "Yeah. If we can get a new box made by the time we're ready to go, that'd be great. But I don't even know how much a lead-lined box would cost. But yeah. I'm all for getting the thing out of Gray Harbor." He looks back to Isabella, "And yeah. I know we've got to use powers, but I just want to use it as little as possible. Last resort except for finding the thing. I think splitting the risk is good though. You at the controls, Lia spotting." The question of talking to Lilith causes him to shrug a little, "We can talk to her. I'll store it at my place, so it's not around Lark," as if even the box could be dangerous, "right, Lia?"

Magnolia rests both elbows into her desk, and she rolls her head forward between her forearms, hands cupping the back of her head with a crisscross of short, but slender fingers. She stares down at her desk for a long moment, letting the questions coast over her. When she finally straightens up, she passes one hand across her mouth and then nods. "Yeah. We should talk to Lilith." Her brows tighten together. "I'll talk to her. We haven't really had much time to just... you know... talk since the bridge anyway." And that was months ago. When Kevin mentions storing the ring at his place has her shoulders shifting uncomfortably, but she nods. "Until we can get it to the Collector. I don't want it hanging out here. At all."

Then she looks to Isabella, and nods slowly, "Thanks, Izzy. The sooner we get this out of Gray Harbor, the better..."

"Agreed on all counts," Isabella says quietly.

Shouldering her satchel again, she smiles at both Kevin and Magnolia. "Keep me posted? Once you guys talk to Lilith, we can do some practice runs on it. Just a little, see if the method will actually work before we go on our little fishing expedition. I know we'd have to do it blind, but we don't have to go into it completely unaware of our limitations." There's a thoughtful frown, her eyes turning to the window in quiet contemplation - and worry. The city's changed, she doesn't know how yet or what that means for everyone else, or how dangerous things have become.

No use worrying about it now, though. "You're welcome, Mags, and thank you, too. I'm always up for learning something new." She reaches within her satchel, produces a wallet and fishes out a white card bearing the University of Oxford logo. She sets it on the woman's desk - every conceivable way to reach her is printed on the surface. "Stay safe, both of you. I'll keep in touch, let me know how things go with Lil, okay?"

With that, she waves and pivots to head out the door.