#rip elly

Eloise hurried back straight from work, shooting the occasional glance over her shoulder and half-convinced she could smell smoke on herself without any apparent source. Brett being vague was almost never good news, but at the very least, it looked like the house was still standing. Not vanished in a puff of green nature magic, or overrun by carnivorous plants, Jumanji-style. She made a mental note to herself to watch Jumanji with him one of these days and opened the door with her key, slipping through after another look over her shoulder to make sure nobody was following her. "Brett?" she called loudly into the hallway, kicking off her boots before leaning down to set them against the wall properly. She shrugged out of her jacket, focusing on keeping calm enough that she wouldn't set anything on fire - an hourly struggle for her lately.

Brett had spread out books all over the table, trying to link everything together with the ingredients they had been told that the Liberation members had bought and with the spell Rebecca had given to him. It seemed so... random. What point did they have to a spell like this? What sort of game were they playing? He grumbled to himself, pulling another book off the shelf and flicking through it. There must be something he could find. Some reason. Something to easily reverse this. He heard the door and raised his head from his book to properly acknowledge his housemate. "In the dining room! Come in! I'll make us up some soup."

Eloise edged in apprehensively, her eyebrows rising as she took in the room, stopping in the doorway. "Books in the dining room again, huh?" she asked, inching forward but stopping herself - distance seemed a safe way to keep things from catching on fire around herself, even if they ​had​ already put a fire extinguisher in every room. She looked up at Brett - he seemed focus, but otherwise fine. "What is this about?"

Brett leaned back in his chair, nodding his head. "I need more space to spread out. Need more room to write notes and things. I would go to Scribe HQ, but I feel like I get more done here..." That and one of his... was he a friend? He hoped Declan was at least friendly with him.... Declan was in hospital so it didn't feel so... normal there right now. "I'm working on the spell that the Liberation used. I could do with a second pair of eyes."

Eloise stopped. Well, this was new. "Back up for a moment there," she asked, sweeping forward to look more closely at the books, curiosity making her forget her previous apprehension. "The ​Liberation​ is behind this? That bunch of supernatural bunch activists? How do you know? Why would they do something like this?"

Brett hesitated a little when she got closer to his books. He really didn't want them to go up in flames at any point. But he stilled his inner turmoil after a moment, showing the list on the desk. "Here is the list of ingredients that had been bought by members of the Liberation."

"How did you get this?" Eloise muttered, glancing over the list. Bunch of magical and alchemical mumbo-jumbo, it didn't really say anything to her. "And how do you know who's a member of the Liberation, for that matter? I still don't see why it would benefit them to make people end up with random powers, especially considering non-humans have been affected, too. Seems like the opposite of what their game should be."

Brett paused. Opposite of their game... He grabbed his notebook, scribbling notes down hurriedly. "Yes! What if the spell went wrong? What if it had backfired and that's why it was entirely random? What if they only meant to do it for certain people? Making an impact." He smiled brightly at Eloise. "Brilliant!"

Eloise blinked heavily. She opened her mouth, but decided not to question it. Brett's mind was going at a mile a minute right now, and she was just going to have to trust that he had good reasons to think the Liberation was behind this. She slowly slid into a chair next to him, peering over his shoulder. "Right. So they could have been... what, targeting hunters and wardens and the like so they'd lose their powers? Or giving supernatural powers to normal people, so they'd know what it's like? Seems like that sort of thing would take a lot of juice, even for them. Do you know how they did it?"

Brett nodded his head, moving a hand to place the spell besides the list of ingredients. "I was given this spell by Rebecca. It matches what we know about the ingredients," he told her, writing some more notes down. "I just can't figure out why they would target either of them? They are against hunters and wardens. Their whole manifesto is against them. But..." He paused, chewing on his pencil. Why would they do this unless they wanted to give... He took the pencil out of his mouth. "Taste of their own medicine."

Eloise glanced at the pencil in his mouth in amusement - it wasn't every day she got to see Brett so intensely at work. It was a little endearing. "Targeting hunters and wardens is a no-brainer. If they don't have their powers, they're a lot less dangerous," she said to him, trying to figure out on the side why someone like Rebecca would have access to this sort of spell. "As for the other group.... it could be what you said. But more importantly, do you know how to reverse it yet?"

Brett shook his head. "Not yet. I'm trying to figure out a way to reverse it but you'd need a lot of magic. I don't know how they cast the spell. They either have a lot of magic on their side or they used something else. And some of these ingredients... they aren't easy to come by, that's for sure." He ran a hand through his hair, tugging at the strands. "We could use someone on the inside..."

Eloise chewed on her lip, reading through the list. Did that say what she thought it said? She was pretty sure more than a few of the words were referring to body parts. Supernatural body parts, at that. "Lycan heart? 'Voice' of a banshee? What is that, like, vocal chords? 'Blood of the plant man'? You're saying someone had to have all that to cast the spell? Are you saying we're going to need all that if we want to reverse it, too?" she asked, horror rising in her voice.

Brett picked up the notebook, scanning his notes. "This is dark magic. Really dark magic. We're talking on the verge of demonic, if not already into it," he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. "I don't know for sure if we're going to need all of this to reverse it, but without know how it was definitely cast, I would say yes, and I'm not happy about that at all..."

Eloise slowly sank back in the chair. She glanced at the list again - 'blood of azure'? Oh no, she was definitely going to stop reading now. Instead she simply stared back at him. She was silent for half a minute, while his pencil scribbled. "...I could look into it," she said tentatively, her hands clasped on the table.

Brett blinked, eyes moving to hers in surprise. "You would? You do realise how incredibly dangerous this could be if you get caught out as a spy? It could get you really hurt and..." He stopped then, realising he had done this speech way too many times. "You know what? That could actually be super handy but please don't get hurt. If you can help it."

"Not as a spy!" Eloise protested. It was almost a little sad, how quickly he'd remembered that that kind of conversation was fruitless, or that he was convinced it was. Was she really that bad at taking care of herself? Damn it, what she'd suggested would be so much easier if she still had her powers, but.. that was the point, wasn't it? She shifted closer to him, taking hold of his hand and squeezing it. "It's not like I'm going to break into someone's secret laboratory or anything. But if you're right... there can't be that many people who can do something like that. Maybe the spell already has an expiration date and we won't need to do anything. Maybe they'll just tell me, and I won't even have to pry."

"It is sort of like a spy. Unless you're planning on being on their side. If you're not, then you're a spy I'm afraid," Brett pointed out, looking at her hand as she squeezed. His first thought was something along the lines of 'don't set me on fire please', something he presumed was the leshy part of him. His second thought was that her hands were a lot smaller than his and he hadn't noticed that before. He squeezed her hand lightly in response. "I hope it does run out..."

Eloise nodded, gingerly pulling back again. She glanced around the dining room a little guiltily. At least there weren't that many books here at the moment - not that he'd thank her, if she had another little 'outburst'. Her expression clouded over thoughtfully then. "I don't.... know... if I'm on their side," she confessed, the words more honest than she would have liked. She lowered her eyes. "...What they're after, it sounds too good to be true. And I'm getting the feeling that it is."

"They killed a bunch of hunters. Burned them alive. I understand why they did it. Making a point but... How does killing justify killing?" Brett asked, running his fingers over the pages in front of him. "I just don't want you to get hurt, Elly. I care about you. A lot." He could understand her wanting to join a group for people that were supernatural. He was human so there were already plenty of groups for him. He couldn't imagine keeping a part of you a secret for your whole life.

"​If​ they did it," Eloise pointed out. It was a weak protest, she knew. "It could have been an accident - some magical mishap," she said, and immediately felt uneasy. "Like.... like with someone who couldn't control their powers." She shook her head slowly. "It could have been someone else, trying to make them look bad, or- or I don't know. Movements get dismissed because of what a few people on the fringes do all the time. It doesn't mean the status quo, and rejecting the movement as a whole, is any better." Her voice gained in confidence as she spoke, as she thought back to- No, she couldn't think about the Warden, not while she was near someone she very much did ​not​ want to burn. She scooted closer to him, leaning forward to rest her head against his upper back, her voice turning low as she kept speaking. "I ran into the new hunter in town a few days back. He was threatening some homeless guy, a shifter. Threatening to kill him, for no reason whatsoever. He ​could​ have killed him, and not a soul in the world would have known. I'm sure it must happen every day, with nobody ever finding out. Declan said something about what it means for him to be a Scribe. It means accountability. I... don't know if that is what the Liberation is after... but I can't just not give it a chance, because of ​rumours​ that they might have killed people."

"If they did it, yes. I'm not saying that I blame the entire Liberation, but you can understand my concern, can't you? Who's to say they won't come after the Scribes next? Yes, some of us may not be the greatest people in the world, just like the hunters, but does that mean all of us who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time should die? No, it doesn't. I understand, I do, but that doesn't mean I approve of it all. Yes, supernatural beings should have a say in what happens, but that doesn't mean it should cost lives, human or non-human." He rubbed his eyes for a moment, listening to Eloise voice reverberating through his body as she spoke from her head against his upper back. "I knew that hunter was unsavoury. I knew it." He scowled a little. "But... I understand you wanting to give it a chance. I do. Just... remember who the good guys are, like you always do. That's what is important in the world these days."

Her eyes flickered open against his back as alarm shot through her. He was right. They ​could​ come after the Scribes. If they thought so little of humans, having humans have all that knowledge about their weaknesses had to grate on them. He was right - and she had to take a slow, deep breath at that, until her hands stopped feeling hot, like they were going to spark into flames at any moment. If they'd hit the hunters first, who was to say the Scribes wouldn't be next? Going after the keepers of secrets and information, against the educators, was a ​classic​ strategy in warfare. Eloise swallowed. "Don't worry," she told him, in a voice that promised a lot of cause for worry, and shifted her arms to hug him tightly from behind, arms going around his neck and locking lightly just under his chin. "I'll try. And I'm going to find out the truth." Now, or when she had her powers back... she ​needed​ to know what they were really like. She couldn't put her trust in them without it.

Of course, Eloise saying 'don't worry' normally meant that she was going to do something incredibly dangerous and probably end up in her getting hurt, but he was starting to get used to that. As long as she came back in one piece, he couldn't stop her doing it. He'd give her all the information he could to keep her safe, but she wasn't just your run-of-the-mill person anyway. With or without powers, Eloise was a strong woman and he would definitely choose her over himself in a fight. "Stay safe, okay?" He moved his hands up and squeezed her arms around his neck.