Science projects are people too
Sep. 6th, 2021 02:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mitochondriaayaWho: Aya, the boys, an ex
When: A few months into dating the boys.
What: An ex plays dirty, the boys get to see just how oddly Aya reacts to magic.
She was nervous. She shouldn't be, but when she did 'high end events' in the past it had always been with the precinct to watch her back. This was her attending as Braig and Dilan's girlfriend tonight and she was kind of terrified she was going to embarrass them. Sure, it was a silly fear, but such was her lot in life sometimes.
She was meeting the boys there, work had run long and she'd gotten to dress at the precinct and endure the teasing catcalls from the boys as she dashed for a taxi, rushing was the only excuse she had for not noticing the woman closing in on her just past the event door. She was beautiful, in an understated way, subtle makeup, tall and willowy with eyes someone like Pierce would adore staring into. Needless to say she was someone Aya didn't know, though..."Aya?"
Apparently the woman knew her somehow? She blinked, pausing, "yes ma'am?"
"Aren't you adorable, ma'am, my, that's rare here," she chuckled warmly. "Hello Ms. Brea, I'm Imalia. Imalia Jergen."
The hand the woman offered was well manicured, reminding Aya sharply that she may have forgotten to scrub under her own. A brief check then she was lifting her own hand to shake. "I"m afraid I don't recall you." At all? Had she been at the Policemen's Ball maybe? Jergen was a big name in New York, and with an event like this, well, likely it was an actual Jergen, not an unrelated one?
"Oh the boys didn't mention me?" she smiled.
Had they?
Uh.
She knew they dated others but Aya hadn't really been introduced to any of them yet? Oh crap was this suddenly a lot more awkward because she didn't have a dossier on the others?! WAS SHE SUPPOSE TO?! "I'm afraid not, that I recall? To be fair it's been a lot of late night dinners after cases more than casual, normal hour dates so I may have missed something..." At least she was honest?
The woman smiled again, shifting to lean in a touch, "between you and me they can forget to mention the important things," she chuckled. "They get very caught up in the moment my boys."
Ah. Yeah. Awkward. Obviously older girlfriend, dating scale wise? Was it a 'making her own stake known' deal or what was even the etiquette for this? "I don't find them distractable, barring moments of 'this conversation led me to a science thought hold on a moment' times?" So far anyway? Maybe the shiny would wear off of her company though? That was kind of a sobering thought. One to think of alongside all the other nasty little thoughts a person got when sleep deprived or sad. She was trying not to second guess dating the boys though, trying not to because it was so damn...nice. She hadn't known, honestly, dating COULD be so...relaxed.
Warm?
Soothing.
Her dating luck sucked, yes. Hopefully the boys' trumped hers, even if she had never considered dating multiple people prior. It just made sense when she got to know them. Sadly, here was the shiny, delicate face of a complication in that. She didn't know if she was up to playing the queen of the harem game honestly, her schedule was a bit full. Hopefully it wasn't a common occurrence? "Oh, you're still in first blush stage," Imalia laughed again.
Blushing? Was she? She lifted a hand numbly to her cheek to check. No, just...smiling. Smiling and relaxing, "well, it's been a nice thing to look forward to I admit. Are you here with them?" Was she suppose to meet Imalia tonight the and the woman jumped the gun? It was starting to feel even more awkward with them standing there by the door. She passed her shawl to one of the coat check people as an excuse as to why they were lingering?
"No no, these kind of thing we come separate," Imalia sighed. "For the greater fundraising good as it were. I just heard they were bring you tonight and wanted to say hello."
You mean size me up, but maybe that was an uncharitable thought? "Well I should find them..." she decided, glancing toward the floor beyond...
...only to feel the warm brush of fingers along her arm. It would have been fine from the boys, but not from a stranger honestly, she turned affronted eyes on the woman only to get a gentle look, "I just wanted you to know if anything's confusing I can help, don't hesitate, alright?"
Sure. 'Dating the boys' support group? No. She got her periodic psyche evals already per precinct norms AND bonus 'you get loaned to vice' normatives. She didn't foresee...
...foresee...
...the swaying spike of heat through her skin was not fun to say the least. No.
Fun fact about their world, magic existed but complicated police work. Almost all living creatures registered on the Toska scale to one degree or another, and there were more good spells available than bad...but some people managed to study things they shouldn't. There'd been some terrible things taught in the world wars, and studying monsters led to non-allowable spells being born, but they weren't always easy to catch. Like many crimes, some spells could be subtle, intended to weaken and destroy over time...
...provided you weren't Aya anyway. That brush of fingers and spike of fever made her jerk in pain and hiss, catching the woman's wrist in a harsh grip, "that's assault." Sometimes her hindbrain put together the pieces before her forebrain did. X + Y = Z, touch, plus sudden ill feeling and that creeping, allergic prickle she got when ANYONE cast on her, much less something weird that was swiftly escalating to flushed skin and screaming joints? Yeah. Lovely little Imalia, no matter the woman was whatever she was....doctor maybe? Jergen trended toward doctors and lawyers a small, analytical part of her mind noted.
Casting without Consent was actually a hell of a crime these days, and while her arm was blistering, the woman was blinking in shock and trying to pull free. "What the hell? Assault? For offering the dating guidebook Are you on DRUGS?!"
"Hardly," she gritted, kicking the woman's legs out from under her on reflex through the rising pain and turning her head, "SECURITY!" She was damn well seeing this woman arrested before she was too sick to see straight.
Damn but it wasn't something she'd been hit with before, judging by the grey edging her vision and the sweat rolling down her skin, well, it was something nasty. And she hadn't even made it past the damn punchbowl. Well. Hopefully someone told the boys what was going on because standing back up wasn't going to work well.
Nope.
"I'll allow a scan to identify whatever was cast, but NO other magic," she gritted as she swayed, the screaming woman's arm still locked in her grip. If EMTs arrived before someone arrested the woman, well, they'd get a really weird reading: a war casting called Black Shock, designed to shred a person's immune response and resistances, weaken the body to the precarious verge of breaking so the next illness or hard blow shattered them beyond repair. Tenacious, creeping, almost impossible to cure entirely...but her body was slamming into an extreme immunoresponse instead, biology treating the casting exactly like it was an infection it was capable of fighting off conventionally.
Biology shouldn't be capable of getting any kind of grip on metamagic, it wasn't a comparable energy field...except in Aya, somehow, it was. Just ignore the extreme fever and the touched spot on her arm cracking and bleeding black ooze okay? It was probably normal.
Damn, she should have figured out how to tuck handcuffs in the dress...
When: A few months into dating the boys.
What: An ex plays dirty, the boys get to see just how oddly Aya reacts to magic.
She was nervous. She shouldn't be, but when she did 'high end events' in the past it had always been with the precinct to watch her back. This was her attending as Braig and Dilan's girlfriend tonight and she was kind of terrified she was going to embarrass them. Sure, it was a silly fear, but such was her lot in life sometimes.
She was meeting the boys there, work had run long and she'd gotten to dress at the precinct and endure the teasing catcalls from the boys as she dashed for a taxi, rushing was the only excuse she had for not noticing the woman closing in on her just past the event door. She was beautiful, in an understated way, subtle makeup, tall and willowy with eyes someone like Pierce would adore staring into. Needless to say she was someone Aya didn't know, though..."Aya?"
Apparently the woman knew her somehow? She blinked, pausing, "yes ma'am?"
"Aren't you adorable, ma'am, my, that's rare here," she chuckled warmly. "Hello Ms. Brea, I'm Imalia. Imalia Jergen."
The hand the woman offered was well manicured, reminding Aya sharply that she may have forgotten to scrub under her own. A brief check then she was lifting her own hand to shake. "I"m afraid I don't recall you." At all? Had she been at the Policemen's Ball maybe? Jergen was a big name in New York, and with an event like this, well, likely it was an actual Jergen, not an unrelated one?
"Oh the boys didn't mention me?" she smiled.
Had they?
Uh.
She knew they dated others but Aya hadn't really been introduced to any of them yet? Oh crap was this suddenly a lot more awkward because she didn't have a dossier on the others?! WAS SHE SUPPOSE TO?! "I'm afraid not, that I recall? To be fair it's been a lot of late night dinners after cases more than casual, normal hour dates so I may have missed something..." At least she was honest?
The woman smiled again, shifting to lean in a touch, "between you and me they can forget to mention the important things," she chuckled. "They get very caught up in the moment my boys."
Ah. Yeah. Awkward. Obviously older girlfriend, dating scale wise? Was it a 'making her own stake known' deal or what was even the etiquette for this? "I don't find them distractable, barring moments of 'this conversation led me to a science thought hold on a moment' times?" So far anyway? Maybe the shiny would wear off of her company though? That was kind of a sobering thought. One to think of alongside all the other nasty little thoughts a person got when sleep deprived or sad. She was trying not to second guess dating the boys though, trying not to because it was so damn...nice. She hadn't known, honestly, dating COULD be so...relaxed.
Warm?
Soothing.
Her dating luck sucked, yes. Hopefully the boys' trumped hers, even if she had never considered dating multiple people prior. It just made sense when she got to know them. Sadly, here was the shiny, delicate face of a complication in that. She didn't know if she was up to playing the queen of the harem game honestly, her schedule was a bit full. Hopefully it wasn't a common occurrence? "Oh, you're still in first blush stage," Imalia laughed again.
Blushing? Was she? She lifted a hand numbly to her cheek to check. No, just...smiling. Smiling and relaxing, "well, it's been a nice thing to look forward to I admit. Are you here with them?" Was she suppose to meet Imalia tonight the and the woman jumped the gun? It was starting to feel even more awkward with them standing there by the door. She passed her shawl to one of the coat check people as an excuse as to why they were lingering?
"No no, these kind of thing we come separate," Imalia sighed. "For the greater fundraising good as it were. I just heard they were bring you tonight and wanted to say hello."
You mean size me up, but maybe that was an uncharitable thought? "Well I should find them..." she decided, glancing toward the floor beyond...
...only to feel the warm brush of fingers along her arm. It would have been fine from the boys, but not from a stranger honestly, she turned affronted eyes on the woman only to get a gentle look, "I just wanted you to know if anything's confusing I can help, don't hesitate, alright?"
Sure. 'Dating the boys' support group? No. She got her periodic psyche evals already per precinct norms AND bonus 'you get loaned to vice' normatives. She didn't foresee...
...foresee...
...the swaying spike of heat through her skin was not fun to say the least. No.
Fun fact about their world, magic existed but complicated police work. Almost all living creatures registered on the Toska scale to one degree or another, and there were more good spells available than bad...but some people managed to study things they shouldn't. There'd been some terrible things taught in the world wars, and studying monsters led to non-allowable spells being born, but they weren't always easy to catch. Like many crimes, some spells could be subtle, intended to weaken and destroy over time...
...provided you weren't Aya anyway. That brush of fingers and spike of fever made her jerk in pain and hiss, catching the woman's wrist in a harsh grip, "that's assault." Sometimes her hindbrain put together the pieces before her forebrain did. X + Y = Z, touch, plus sudden ill feeling and that creeping, allergic prickle she got when ANYONE cast on her, much less something weird that was swiftly escalating to flushed skin and screaming joints? Yeah. Lovely little Imalia, no matter the woman was whatever she was....doctor maybe? Jergen trended toward doctors and lawyers a small, analytical part of her mind noted.
Casting without Consent was actually a hell of a crime these days, and while her arm was blistering, the woman was blinking in shock and trying to pull free. "What the hell? Assault? For offering the dating guidebook Are you on DRUGS?!"
"Hardly," she gritted, kicking the woman's legs out from under her on reflex through the rising pain and turning her head, "SECURITY!" She was damn well seeing this woman arrested before she was too sick to see straight.
Damn but it wasn't something she'd been hit with before, judging by the grey edging her vision and the sweat rolling down her skin, well, it was something nasty. And she hadn't even made it past the damn punchbowl. Well. Hopefully someone told the boys what was going on because standing back up wasn't going to work well.
Nope.
"I'll allow a scan to identify whatever was cast, but NO other magic," she gritted as she swayed, the screaming woman's arm still locked in her grip. If EMTs arrived before someone arrested the woman, well, they'd get a really weird reading: a war casting called Black Shock, designed to shred a person's immune response and resistances, weaken the body to the precarious verge of breaking so the next illness or hard blow shattered them beyond repair. Tenacious, creeping, almost impossible to cure entirely...but her body was slamming into an extreme immunoresponse instead, biology treating the casting exactly like it was an infection it was capable of fighting off conventionally.
Biology shouldn't be capable of getting any kind of grip on metamagic, it wasn't a comparable energy field...except in Aya, somehow, it was. Just ignore the extreme fever and the touched spot on her arm cracking and bleeding black ooze okay? It was probably normal.
Damn, she should have figured out how to tuck handcuffs in the dress...
