"Mushrooms." Finley shakes her head. "You're using your magical talents... to cultivate mushrooms."
"Fungiculture is an exact science," Junpei says tiredly. "It'd take a lot of effort, and a basement, for me to grow them without magic."
"Whatever makes you happy."
Finley leaves her brother in peace, wandering away to practice some of her own spells in solitude. She'd like to help him get rid of these mysterious night terrors, or whatever they are, but how? He doesn't want her to try projecting herself into his dreams, or anything ambitious like that. He says she'd break something. He swears he'll get over this on his own. But until then, it's making her very, very nervous.
Due to their psychic sensitivity towards each other, Junpei's distress is Finley's distress. And since she's promised not to try anything 'ambitious', Finley is left to take out her irritation in other ways.
She's amassing quite an arsenal of tricks to play on the physical world.
"You alright?" Riko asks.
The little girl, Chet, didn't resist when he picked her up off the tile floor. One moment they were in a secret research laboratory, and the next they were out under the open sky, near a lake, and some giant boulders, huckleberry bushes, and a flourishing of yellow daisies. Riko sets her down gingerly, and she feels the grass under her bare feet.
"I'm alright." Her voice is quiet, but steady. She wonders where they are, and how far behind the Men In Black are. Also, Riko. What are his intentions? Is he going to hurt her? Is he going to leave her on her own, now that she's freed him from his cell and he's repaid the favor by helping her out of the laboratory? Then it hits her, and she glares at him. "You can teleport?"
"Most of the time."
So he could have grabbed her and left the facility without killing anyone? What kind of person would choose violence? This guy must be totally unhinged! Chet decides she'd better not comment, lest he turn that murderous unhinged streak on her.
Besides, their captors seemed like straight-up bad guys, so she's not shedding any tears for them...
"Where are we, anyway?" she asks.
"We're, uh... here." Riko stands up and pulls idly on the tips of his ears, as if they're some new and curious thing. "We're safe for now."
"For now?" Chet whines.
"Doubt we've seen the last of those guys forever. They don't know how to trace my teleportation, but they're working so very hard on it." The room with the intricate 'glass' was the only successful attempt at blocking Riko's teleportation antics. They called it a psionic ability, something triggered through the mind alone, since it involves no spell, and leaves no residue or clues in its wake. It was a particularly frustrating puzzle for agents who have other teleportation-type magic, and would have thought themselves able to counter Riko, until meeting him.
The day will come, though, when they can track him. He's certain of that.
"Okay." Chet turns again to stare at the great big rock shaped like a troll-gnome-thing. "Seriously, where ARE we?"
"And what would you do with that information if you had it, Chet?"
"How do you know my name?"
"I know everything that ever happened in my cell."
Chet shivers. "I'm cold. I want pants."
Riko glances around. The amusement wears off, and he frowns. "They took my clothes too. A wise precaution, I had so many hexes sewn into them, but now I have to go through the trouble of finding more, and the watch was a gift from my sister. Irreplaceable. They are going to PAY for that and I don't mean with money."
"Hey!" Chet spins around to face him. "You wanna stop being awful for a second?! At least wash that blood off your face!" She trembles, unreasonably angry. "It... it smells... the... the smell. Driving me crazy!"
"It's my blood!" He protests. "It can be on my face if it wants to."
"NO. That's GROSS."
Riko's about to say something else, something equally unreasonable, then thinks better of it. "Alright, alright. You win."
"Aaaand he teleported away," Chet facepalms. Hard. There's a lake within visible range; she meant for him to clean his face there, not abandon her.
Though maybe this is for the best.
Chet focuses on using her psychic abilities to find evidence of civilization.
"I'm making an educated guess on what you're doing," Riko said, when he showed up again, face cleaned. "And it won't do you any good. The nearby town is protected by powerful magic wards. You can't look in from the outside."
He was dressed in pants and a coat, but neglected to locate a paper bag to cover his scary face. He was carrying another set of clothes and shoes, child sized. He tossed them to her. She caught them. "Where did you get these?"
He did not answer. Chet shrugged and changed clothes behind some bushes.
As she scampers after Riko, struggling to keep with his pace, Chet finds herself wishing she were a grown-up vampire, with the ability to move super-fast. "Is this part of the town?"
"This is an abandoned saw mill," he answers.
Chet shouts, suddenly: "We can't go in there!"
Riko stops. "You're free to stay outside."
"No!" Chet grabs his arm and pulls. "We gotta go! We gotta run away!"
Riko doesn't budge.
Chet bares her fangs. "You don't understand! I have... I have a really bad feeling about this!"
"Oh? Now I'm very curious as to what's in there..." Riko chuckles at her.
"I'm not playing!" Chet cries.
"I thought your clearest visions occurred while you were trying to sleep?"
Her grip on his arm tightens. "How'd you know?" No one should know that, except the scientists who were experimenting on her.
"We shared a cell. We were separated by vast amounts of time, but time is no barrier for me. I saw... everything. Everything they did to you, and everything they said about you."
"I don't understand..."
"Few do."
She shakes her head and resumes trying to drag him away. "Please..."
"Hey!" a bluish guy interrupts them. "We don't use that door anymore. Entrance is around in back."
The new person leads them around to the entrance. "Have I seen you somewhere before, Spock-ears? I guess not. I'd remember somebody with flashlights for eyes."
"It's me. Riko."
"Ri-ko?" Blue takes Chet's hand, helping her over a pile of debris when she struggles. This place is falling apart. They navigate through a hallway with many doorways leading to dark, empty rooms. Up close, Chet notices there are shards of ice clinging in Blue's styled hair, and his skin is cold. "Riko... uh. Riko. Hmmmm. Uh?"
"It'll come to you," Riko says.
"Wait. Wait. Riko Chelar? Nooo. You look... awful! And aren't you past your expiration date?"
"You could say that." Riko walks faster than his confused acquaintances. He knows where he's going. He steps through a door on the left, causing it to shimmer as he passes through its protective spells. "As I was approaching natural death, I stopped running and handed myself over to the S.C., thought I'd have some fun."
"Handed... your..?" Blue gapes. "Why would you do something like that?"
Chet is ushered through the doorway as well and winces at the shimmery whatever, then is surprised to see they're in a different place entirely. "What's S.C.?"
"Supernatural Control," Blue says, over his shoulder. "Riko, what were you thinking?!"
"Think of it as donating my body to science. Only, they forgot to kill me first..."
"I can think of a few good reasons not to let them have their day!" Blue growls venomously. "Everything they do in those laboratories is in service of our extinction!"
"C'mon, Zoke. We all make mistakes."
Riko glances at Chet. "Small child, meet Zoke. Zoke, meet small child..."
"Hi," Chet says sullenly.
Zoke looks between the pair. "So you have a child now."
"She's not mine."
"Rrright..."
"She looks nothing like me."
"But she's one of you?"
"Why do say that like a question?"
"Because it's odd. Her vampire telepathy feels odd too. There's a curious weight to it."
"The SC noticed that straight away too," Riko says. "Her telepathy is a sledgehammer. Not a fine tool. She's not a typical little vampire. Hence their interest."
"Well where did she come from, if she isn't yours?"
"Riverview. Can't you please just take her off my hands?"
"Man," Zoke whines. "What did they do to your eyes?" Genuine concern creeps into his voice. "Do you want me to call in one of the healer witches to have a look at that?"
"No." Riko rubs his forehead, wincing. The dark substance all over him has settled into place, sunk into his skin and bone. He's marked by corrupted magic. It still fights to consume him. "I want you to send this girl into the town, where she can be with her own kind."
"You know letting people into the town is a bureaucratic thing. I can't just send her in without knowing where she comes from. Especially not after you admit you've been hanging around the S.C.! Where are her parents?"
"Dead," Chet mumbles.
"She's so tiny," Riko says, toneless. "Have some compassion or something. And better you than me. We've already established I'm terminally irresponsible."
"Compassion!" Zoke scoffs. "That's a luxury and you know it."
Riko shrugs. "Well then. Since we're too cowardly to look after our own, I'd say you've already lost your fight against extinction. Might as well lay down and accept your fate."
"Don't be like that," Zoke complains.
From the excuses and complaining back and forth that comes after this statement, Chet gathers that Zoke is the guardian of an entrance into a settlement of supernatural creatures. It's a role he fills with no enthusiasm, but one someone must do this. There's likely some reason it's Zoke, but that's not important to Chet right now.
In the end the arguing was pointless, and Zoke agrees to ask someone to have a look at Chet. If she's clean of any tracking hexes or malicious intent, they'll let her in. And thus begins Zoke's conversation, in code, with a mirror. His reflection doesn't match his movements. Weird.
Chet isn't looking forward to any examination. "What is he?"
"Elemental magic creature. Hydrocryokinesis. That means ice. They have a hard time blending in, with the blue hair and skin and spots and all."
Chet squints. "Spots?"
"They look like freckles, but they're not."
"Is he why it's so cold in here?"
"Yes. They overheat easily."
"Then you'd think he wouldn't be wearing black."
"Would you hush up back there?!" Zoke snaps.
"So this is gonna be goodbye," Chet mumbles. She casts nervous glances around the room, but nothing horrible has happened yet. Maybe her premonition was false.
Whatever Riko knows or doesn't know about the kid in front of him, he's only been in her presence for a short amount of time. Her attachment to him only exists because it is natural for children in life threatening situations to try to form attachments with adults who might be able to protect them. "There will be plenty of other magical children in Moonlight Falls for you to play with."
"My family wasn't very magical," Chet says sadly. "We lived outside town and kept to ourselves and grew plasma fruit. My m-mother said the vampires in town were cliquey." But when the coven came to their door, asking every able person to help defend the town, their territory, where they'd always lived in relative peace, Chet's parents agreed to do what they could. Adults do not always make sense, Chet was forced to conclude.
Riko has stopped listening. He's examining the discoloration on his fingers. Experimentally, he begins gnawing at them with his comparatively blunt non-vampire teeth.
"What are you?" Chet asks. She readies herself to skim the surface of Riko's mind. Unlike many vampires, she doesn't need to stare directly into his eyes, or put him under any sort of mesmerization, or psychically overpower him, or do anything special to open his mind to her. She only must concentrate to look inside. But though this is miles ahead of what she's supposed to be, Riko's thoughts are a mess, too complicated for her to untangle. He doesn't even know how to answer her.
Their captors genetically altered him, isolating and enhancing bits of his elvish DNA until they'd created something no longer even passably human.
"Riko is just a really, really, really annoying mage," Zoke inserts himself into their conversation, folding his arms over the table. "Now, do you mind telling me exactly how you ended up here?"
Mab worries about her son, who collapses on the sofa in the middle of the day and curls up with his shoes on the cushions... only to wake with a violent start.
Finley confirms her mother's suspicion. These aren't normal dreams.
"If there's some kind of vampire mind-control on him, I can't detect it," she says. "I think a lot of it is... well... I don't want to say it's his fault, but he's been trying to focus these nightmares and sequence them and make sense of them, instead of just excising them."
Mab nods. "I would be curious, too, in Junpei's place, to see what this woman had been trying to tell me."
"Well I don't like it. I feel like he's playing right into some scheme, and he's not fighting it."
Zoke had asked someone to come see Chet before she'd be allowed through the gate to never-never-land, or whatever, but the government suits showed up first.
The first agent, the black-haired one, was familiar enough with the magic in this place to keep the shimmery portal from collapsing and slicing him to pieces—that's what it's supposed to do, when someone tries to enter without Zoke's permission; Junpei isn't sure how he knows this, but he knows.
The first agent stood there, one foot in the saw mill and one foot in elsewhere, just long enough for a second figure to zip through.
The blond one, a vampire, had the child in his grasp before anyone had the chance to react.
"Well now," the first one addresses Riko, hand lifted in a way these magical folk would recognize as threatening. "Here's where things get interesting. Who is this tiny accomplice of yours?"
Riko looks sharply at Zoke. "If you called them here—"
"This is NOT my doing!" Zoke shrieks.
Confused by the lack of immediate attention to the hostage situation, blond vampire glances up at his partner. "Really? This guy has been giving us the slip for decades?"
"Really, really." Agent 1 cracks his knuckles, bored expression betraying none of his anxiety. If Riko isn't going to take the bait, this gamble has already failed. There's no way to capture someone who can poof away at any second. "Let's get this over with."
With that, Agent 1 leaps into action.
Like Zoke, cryokinetic powers are within his natural ability set; the floor under Riko's feet literally explodes when he freezes it solid. Instead of being likewise afflicted, Riko has already vanished and reappeared behind his attacker. Having expected this, after years enough of being assigned to the team hunting this man, Agent 1—
"STOP!" Junpei screams.
They do. Time stops. Agent 1 is mid-spinning around, using the movement of his body to channel magic. Zoke seems ready to jump between the two men fighting. Chet just sank her fangs into the older vampire's arm, but Agent 2 is not even close to caring about it, and is reaching into his coat pocket for something.
"Whose memory even is this?" Junpei clicks his fingernails together, feeling like he's about to burst into a thousand pieces. "It's like I'm in everyone's head at once," he complains.
Zoke begins chuckling.
"What!" Junpei demands.
"Sorry." The elemental approaches, regarding Junpei skeptically. "It's just, frozen this way, they look like they're dancing."
Junpei backsteps. "Why can you talk to me?" He remembers Acheron. "Are you a ghost too? Are you dead?"
"Oh, no, the real me is still alive. Do you want a drink? I keep scotch behind the counter."
"Do Chet and Riko get recaptured?"
"More of tequila person?" Zoke tilts his head. "No, you don't drink? I don't know what to do with that."
"It just doesn't make any sense, where all this information is coming from?"
"It's not that complicated. You know what adult Chet knows. She's a powerful telepath, and she's seen inside the minds and memories of many of the... eh... characters, of this narrative she's given you."
"So why don't I know what happens next?"
"You do! From this moment, to the end, you do know. You just have an aversion to seeing it. I don't blame you though. It's a rough burden to carry. Chet and I are very close, and she told me, every time she directs her sight into the future, every plan fails unless you and your sister are there. For some reason—some reason she has never been able to figure out—it has to be you two."
"What plan? Is there a plan to take on the suit and tie guys?" Junpei nods his head at the blue agent.
Zoke glances back at Agent 1 and frowns sadly. They're brothers, Junpei knows suddenly.
"Chet must have thought this incident would give you some insight, when you end up following her idea of what your destiny is and killing her... uh... her Riko."
Junpei recoils, as if physically struck. "I'm not killing anyone!"
Morning could not come fast enough.
Hidden Gardens Park. This park continues the trend of many things in the town containing the words 'Hidden' or 'Springs'.
This park has some historical significance, Finley explains.
Today it's more of a hiker's picnic area, accessible only by dirt road, but long ago this area was surrounded by impressive manors and literal castles. Tragically, only one of those structures survives today, and no one is interested in restoring Masterson's condemned property.
This park was a community garden set aside to feed the impoverished laborers in harsh winters. It returned to that use after the wars' fallout and the climate crisis, but again fell into disuse after the introduction of weather control grid.
The Daily Springs sent Finley here to take pictures and write a story praising the park's recent renovations. The bridge was repaired, new lights were installed, and someone has to hike out here to keep the flowers looking tidy. None of that is free, and the article will be blatantly asking for donations to the Springs Appreciation and Beautification Fund.
This place is pretty, but there's not much to say about it. She'll have to cram her article full of fluff like "whimsically winding pathways!" and "gently babbling brooks!". She ends up rambling on more about the weather control grid, how it's kind of a misnomer. If all it did was keep the skies perfect, the plants here would all die. There would be no water. The grid actually extends deep into the Earth, sustaining it completely in some sectors, creating an approximation of the ecosystem it replaced.
"Our river is natural, though," she says. "Most of our terrain is, too. We're in one of the zones where the land has recovered somewhat. On the other side of the mountains, it rains, and that's where most of our water comes from."
Timmothy smiles at her enthusiasm, though he has little interest in this outdoorsy stuff.
"You didn't have to come here with me," Finley says, fretting. "I told you it'd just be boring..."
She's grown to enjoy Timmothy's company, and hates to think she might be boring him to sleep or pushing him away. She already hates the lie of omission that hangs between her and being open and honest with anyone in this town; even Reisa would react negatively if Finley up and said 'by the way, I've become a witch.'
"I like hanging out with you," Tim says. "And I don't get many days off anymore, so I like to spend them with people I like."
Finley turns to embrace him, to touch him. "I've been wondering if you'd ask me to be your girlfriend one of these days. When I'm with you, I forget all the dramas at work and at home. But when I'm not with you, I think... we may not have much in common, and you just think I'm a sheltered, naive, innocent girl, and that's why you aren't asking."
"Finley," he chides. "I do not think you're some sheltered naive girl. I think you're a brilliant, beautiful, sheltered naive woman."
She studies his face. "Am I supposed to swoon over that?"
"I was kind of hoping." Boldly, he places his hands on her hips. "Hey. Let me be serious for a second. I don't think you're sheltered just because we have different interests. How dumb would that be? Diversity makes the world colorful! If I wanted to hang out with a copy of myself, there's a mirror at home. And... and I would so love for you to be my girlfriend."
He kisses her, not giving her the chance to make another awkward comment. If she's looking for an eloquent confession of love, he can do that better with physical contact than with verbal sparring.
Still, he must ask, "Will you wait for me? If they send me to Bridgeport?"
Finley wraps her arms around him tightly. "Yes." She tries to hide her worry, "But only so you don't go professing your love to vampire women while you're there."
"Trying to save my life, huh?"
She blushes. "We don't have to wait for everything..."
Finley brings Timmothy to her bedroom.
Her words to him revealed embarrassing insecurities. Finley has always thought of herself as mature, and daring, so it must be past time she gets this particular curiosity out of the way. She's tired of feeling like a clueless kid about it.
The two undress and explore each other. Timmothy lets Finley set the pace.
He tries to mind the fact that it's her first time, and hopes for the best. Agonized, Finley grits her teeth, and her fingers twitch and clench. She feels like she's going to die. If she were another animal, she'd be poised to attack him. But since she's human, mostly, she asks him not to stop.
There are exactly two walls between Junpei and what's going on in his sister's room. He wonders if any amount of distance would be enough for him to not feel her pain, as if it's happening to him. Junpei cowers in the corner and presses his legs together, instinct to avoid pain overriding rationality.
He takes some comfort in knowing Finley has no idea he's unwittingly sharing in this torture. It's so intense on her end, she can't feel her twin's anxiety and, well, revulsion, underneath it.
"I wish you could stay longer," Finley sighs. Timmothy is required to report to base in only a few hours.
"Are you alright?" he asks, for what must be the tenth time.
"Stop asking." Finley snuggles closer to him.
The family gathers for breakfast pre-dawn. Junpei pretends nothing traumatic has happened.
"So, I'm dating Timmothy O'Dourke," Finley admits.
Junpei has no comment. Mab blinks. "Reisa's ex?"
"No-oo! Not Leslie! His brother... Timmothy." Finley makes a face.
Finley manages to catch Junpei alone before she leaves for work.
"Bad dreams again last night?"
"No," Junpei mumbles. "Nothing new to report."
Finley looks away, pensive. "Alright." She thought she sensed him freaking out at one point. She was too distracted to pay much attention. But she knows he hates it when she fusses about him. "See you later then."
Finley spends some time with Reisa and Dennis Chesterfield, the town's newest married couple. They stole the title from Diana and Tommy Abbot, wedded the day before.
Though Finley is her closest girlfriend, Reisa hasn't flaunted Dennis around her, because Dennis has no sense of humor, bores most sims unconscious, and talks Finley's ear off about work, even though they work in different departments.
Reisa's little brother, Lewis, took a job at the science center, and she's very proud of him.
Reisa's father left town the day after seeing his daughter married.
"I'd barely wiped the makeup off my face before he was gone," Reisa complains.
"Do you know where he went?" Finley asks.
Reisa stares at the gazebo's ceiling for a moment. Charles went to find his wife and stay with her, no matter what strange conditions this might land him in. "You know very well. And you know I don't want to talk about it."
Finley's plan to be a war correspondent in Bridgeport is met with shock.
Junpei tries to dissuade her.
Mab picks up her plate and wanders towards the dishwasher. "You'll go with her, won't you Junpei?"
"We can do some things separately!" Finley protests.
Before they leave, Junpei tends to the garden.
"I think we can trust Momma to water the plants for a little while..." Finley is anxious to get on the road.
The watering can spills its last drips of water. Junpei holds it up to eye-level and stares, as if there's something interesting stuck in the holes in the rose. "Are we doing this for your career? Or are you just looking to find and strangle Chet?"
"I'm not the one on a first name basis with her."
"I don't know what her last name is yet."
"I am second-hand tired of what she's done to you, and if I see her, yes, I might be tempted to strangle her."
______________________________________________
Etc.: Rose - 7. a perforated cap fitted to the spout of a watering can or the end of a hose; can be placed to break up the stream of water into droplets to avoid excessive water pressure on the soil or on delicate plants.
I had to look up what those holes were called. (They are called holes.)