Empathy and Ink (a DC OC Quest)

You could tell Malaya later. When you had more information and could keep her from talking you into something (or trying to for entirely too long). You needed an expert. You could still go to a church later, just the holy water in and on itself was a good idea and you made a note on your phone to do that, and would be at the Museum tomorrow. Finding somebody who knew what they were talking about while it was a weekday and a day off had priority. You could try Saturdays or Sundays later, you had no idea what sort of hours the kind of person you needed liked to keep. Or even how to look for one, really.

People didn't exactly have phone books anymore (at least you didn't), but there had to be an online version, right?

Well, you could just go to the library if that didn't exist.

For now, you flipped open your laptop and asked Google, and promptly got way too many results, most of which didn't look even remotely credible.

Maybe this would take a little longer than you thought... but you weren't about to give up just yet.

Even if you did end up taking more than an hour just checking things and trying to make sure you would do this right. Some people were easy to rule out, but others were difficult to find information on and magicians, at least the real ones, didn't usually advertise themselves in the same way new age shops did. Then again, those ideas about shamanism and spirit animals might even have something to do with your problem.

Still...

There was one Jason Blood noted as a demonologist and mystical practitioner. You could find relatively little other information on him, but what you could find - a few posts on social media and the general lack of, well, much of anything meant it might be worth trying. Through the phone anyway. The man was more than suspicious enough that just going in person may or may not be safe.

Unfortunately, the first person you had tried calling didn't respond and the second had been completely useless. The day was wearing on and you had spent more than enough time weighing the positives and negatives by now. You made a mental note to get yourself some burner phones for this sort of thing. If phone booths were still a thing, you would have used that. Actually...

You could afford to take another half hour. You didn't have a lot of money, but you had enough for at least one disposable phone so you wouldn't have to sacrifice your smartphone.

In the end, you found yourself standing at a street corner, walking into a park and dialing the number of one Jason Blood from a scrap of paper in your hand. Ignoring the nervousness creeping up on you and the ingrained feeling of vague danger at this endeavor.

You could move quickly, he or anyone else from your list wouldn't be able to track you home and you had a phone to use for anything weird you might be getting up to now. Just in case.

A part of you wished he wouldn't pick up, but after the fourth dial tone, you heard a male voice instead.

"Hello?"

No, you wouldn't allow yourself to be so obviously nervous. You took one deep breath and replied. "Hello. I'm looking for one Jason Blood, Demonologist and Mystical Practitioner."

You had to wait a moment before you got your reply. "That is correct." He sounded more suspicious and tired than friendly or helpful, but the voice seemed calm. "And you need a Demonologist." Definitely apprehensive, if not actually annoyed at you. But things could be worse and you did, in fact, need help.

Calm. Don't breathe too loudly. You might have inserted a slightly longer pause than was customary, but when you spoke your voice sounded fine and you didn't want to come across as hysterical. "I think I do. I recently had a magical accident and I'm certain it's influencing my mind. Would you be able to find out if it's anything demonic or anything else I should be concerned about?"

That apparently garnered a pause on his end. And you paused to wonder why he didn't ask any more questions and just believed what you told him.

When he did respond, he sounded intensely focused. "Have you tried to enter a church? What sort of influence on your mind is it?" It was simultaneously unsettling because you had to be missing something and reassuring because you didn't have to deal with some weird religious ideas.

"I'm heading towards one. It makes it difficult not to think of it as normal and harmless and any changes as completely natural." You still had a hard time believing it was a problem, but you had also just almost gotten stuck as a snake and anything influencing your mind was automatically suspect, no matter how harmless t might seem. As long as you focused on your fear of that influence, not the thing itself, you could hold onto it.

Jason Blood had paused again.

"See if you can to enter the church and touch any holy objects. Does it push you towards doing anything?"

You started walking again. There was a church only a block away and that should do, even if you had never been inside, you didn't think it was some kind of cult church and that would have to do. Maybe you should look into that topic too. The list was growing. "It's not pushing me towards anything at the moment, as far as I can tell." Your voice was calm and steady, despite the fear coursing through you.

His focus seemed to have shifted to a bit more annoyance, but he hadn't hung up. "As far as you can tell isn't always good enough. I will have to meet you in person before I can see if I can tell for certain and I hope you're not wasting my time." Definitely not happy or friendly, but you didn't come for that anyway. "I can't tell you very much without knowing what happened."

Which he wasn't too happy about, but you were suspecting this might be a general problem. You had to approach this very carefully. But telling him what happened didn't mean giving location details necessarily and you still needed help. Even if it went against some of your instincts, he was making perfect sense and your paranoia wouldn't help you very much here. You breathed. "I was handling a piece of some old artwork. I don't know what it was, the writing was making my eyes hurt, but I had a cut on my hand. I believe it touched it just before I passed out. I woke up with a new tattoo and I'm apparently able to turn myself into a snake. I'm having a hard time thinking of it as harmful and the transformation feels natural to the point that I'm having difficulty getting concerned about it directly. It might be pushing me towards using it and finding out more or it could be natural, but I almost failed to transform back."

That caused a longer pause.

You had almost reached the church by the time Jason Blood replied. "The blood will have made the connection." which you might as well have known already. "You could have entered yourself into a contract. Do you still have the piece?"

That was much more useful. And much more unsettling. Especially since there was no telling what the contract said if it was one and what breaking the thing into pieces had done to it.

Besides that revelation - which you probably could have gotten on your own, but had potentially ignored either for magical reasons or for your own sanity's sake - you had apparently entered the church with nary a sound and no tangible effect to show for it. You were standing in the entrance, looking towards the altar and you were fine.

Even hesitatingly dipping your hands into the spout of holy water still meant you were fine... the only problem was all you had was your own usual water bottle you brought with you to classes. No extras, even if that one was full. And you had no idea where the priest might be. But first: "I'm in a church, but I don't have the piece. It's not mine, but I can get a look at it again."

"Then you don't need a demonologist, but even if it is not demonic, that doesn't make it harmless. We would have to meet in person to tell you anything useful." Why did it always have to come back to that?




[X] Meet Jason Blood in person, as soon as you told Malaya where you were going and made sure she would call for help if you didn't call back in.

[ ] Meet Jason Blood at the Museum, with supervision and the stone shard. You have no idea how he would react to this or how your coworkers would react, but this probably has the best chance of working.

[ ] Don't meet with Jason Blood yet. Study up on animal symbolism and anything else you can find on magic first.

[ ] write in.


(An attempt to obtain some holy water will be made in all cases)

Parietal eye unlock 2/?
Heat vision unlocked:

Heat vision -
Allows her snake form to sense heat. Less accurate (blurrier) than her normal vision but fully functional
Cost: 5GP

The Serpent GP+1
The Serpent total GP: 5

[ ] Buy heat vision
[X] save GP