The Last Voyages: IC Contact

[fifthofthecovenant]

"Hey, you've reached Chase Collins! You know what to do." BEEP.

Comments

[shadowsran]

Only in Massachusetts? Huh.

Are they in charge of things, or just happened to be a handful that were close enough together to group up?

[fifthofthecovenant]

Well, that's where the ones I got told about are. I don't know about in charge, I'm not sure there's, I don't know, a grand high witch or something. There's four families in Ipswich that all have a thing, where they work together and hide from normal people and raise their magic kids together.

[Some of the bitterness is leaking out, there. It always does when he thinks about Caleb's description of them being "like brothers". A thing he's never had, and never will have.

He gets a lid on it, has a breath, and says,]

That's all I know about. There's probably more out there somewhere, but I don't know where they are, and they probably hide as much as that bunch does.

[shadowsran]

[ She is, herself, riding out a bitter flash of envy. Gone as soon as it comes; practiced. Easy when she isn't intimately familiar. ]

Interesting. And sad - lonely.

I'm so sorry, I can't imagine having to work through something like that so young. You must be stressed, huh?

[fifthofthecovenant]

[ ... huh. Sympathy is not really what he'd been expecting, not for working out his magic. For a moment he's speechless, swallowing a lump of emotion. When he manages to speak, it's with a tone that's probably a shade too flippant, but he thinks that might work in his favor, too.]

It's not so bad. It's fun, kind of. A puzzle to work out. And then you really feel like it's yours, in the end, when you get the right result.

[ ... but yeah, he was stressed. Really stressed. And sad and lonely. Jesus Christ, that's not fair, that she pegged all of that so easy.]

[shadowsran]

Hm. You must be talented then, I'm glad you could put such a positive spin on it.

[ Sincerely. ]

Were there other versions of those people, in that world? Out of curiosity. At school, or whatever.

[fifthofthecovenant]

Other versions?

[He's not connecting this part of the conversation to the breach just yet. It hasn't occurred to him just how much breach lives might connect to his own-- his dead breach mother wasn't really a whole lot like his real mom.]

[shadowsran]

Equivalents. People with awful parents will have basically the same ones in some breaches, even though they're not on the Barge. Stuff like that. Important figures crop up.

[fifthofthecovenant]

Oh. No shit, really?

[He takes a moment to think.]

Well. The mom who died wasn't really a lot like. My mom. Way more brutal at business stuff.

[Still loved Chase, though. Which sticks uncomfortably under his ribs when he thinks it. He hurries on.]

And I guess-- damn, I guess actually one of my friends at school was a lot like Caleb. Ugh. Gross.