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tavihargrave:

It might be a long shot, honestly—if his guess is even right, that the noise is bothering whatever ghost lives in that room, an idea which on its own sends a shiver up his spine, he can’t imagine using a room knowing that a ghost lives here, well, even with a working fan a computer’s still a pretty noisy thing. How many times, before they moved into their new, much larger place, had his girlfriend gotten annoyed with him for using the computer in the middle of the night because the sound kept waking her up? Maybe she and this ghost thing had something in common, there, and maybe the fan wouldn’t be enough.

But it’s one step better than a stab in the dark, and Ignatius is right, if this doesn’t work they can call in Crow or something and get a real answer that maybe two magic uses can solve in a way he wouldn’t be able to. So he nods, tells Ignatius he can go out and get the part he needs, gets directions from Alissia to the nearest computer store which is, thankfully, a Radio Shack not very far from where they are, so he won’t nee to worry about needing Ignatius to apparate him there.

He gets the part he needs, keeps the receipt because, okay, yeah, he doesn’t know if MACUSA will reimburse him for this, but they should because he’s got no other choice here but to spend some of his own money to fix some girl’s computer so a ghost won’t be pissed off at her anymore, but it doesn’t matter right now, what matters is hoping this works and that it’s actually an answer to this problem, and then makes his way back to the house, fan in hand.

“It’ll take me a few minutes,” he says, powering off the computer so he can take the tower apart and get the new fan installed. As soon as the computer turns off and goes silent, so too does the grinding noise from the corner, and that’s a good sign, he thinks. He pulls out his keys, the small screwdriver keychain he keeps attached to them, pulls the tower out and starts to unscrew the backing plate. “If you guys want to chill out while I handle this, we don’t all have to stand around watching…”

It seems like as good a solution as any they might be able to try, in the absence of any troublesome, but helpful abilities to speak with spirits, or feel their vibes, or whatever, and all the better to give it a try, before giving up and calling in reinforcements. He’s not too proud to call for help when he’s out of his depth, especially now, after Scotland, after learning to rely on people for much, much more dire situations than an annoyed ghost, but he would still rather they manage to take care of this case themselves, since it had seemed so simple on paper. Also, he doesn’t want Tavi to think he’s incompetent, which he’s well aware has to do with some deep and lingering inadequacy issues, but that’s something for another time.

Tavi heads out and Ignatius kind of awkwardly just stands in the middle of the room, between the noise and the two kids, who still seem just as terrified. Not much changes as they wait; the noise is consistent enough to the point that it feels less horrifying to him after a few minutes, and more just very, very annoying, and the dripping of the blood like substance is on and off again. He does eventually go over to check that out, in the absence of anything else to do, not being able to sustain his fear as long as Alissia and Michael apparently, and sure enough upon inspection it seems to be nothing, an illusion, lingering magic, probably, the sort of thing a ghost maybe could be powerful enough to present despite the inability to show itself.

“Definitely a ghost,” he nods to himself, unhelpfully, before getting back up and looking to Alissia. “Have you noticed anything in here before? Signs of a spirit trying to show itself?”

“No, it only seemed to start with the email. Nothing’s ever been strange about this room... and nothing else has happened, either, that might’ve made a ghost latch onto it,” Alissia answers, and he nods. It makes sense, a spirit content to be in a peaceful spot, maybe, until it’s suddenly disturbed. He doesn’t know much about ghosts, but if it’s able to be seen, he’s got to guess that means it’s not super powerful.

Luckily, it doesn’t take very long for Tavi to reappear, computer part in his hands, and he immediately jumps back in, getting to work, which he appreciates, not having to linger on the unknowns just now. And he watches over Tavi’s shoulder curiously as he turns the computer off, and starts to work at it. Sure enough, the noise in the corner stops as soon as the computer does as well, and he lets out a small hum, interested.

At his prompting, though, Ignatius snaps out of it, realizing he should probably at least act useful. “Yeah why don’t you two go wait in the other room, get some water, relax a little, we’ll let you know what we find, yeah?” he suggests. Alissia seems happy to have permission to leave the room, dragging Michael out with her. “Noise stopped, that’s a good sign. And that blood wasn’t blood, just an illusion. Dunno how ghost magic works, but whatever is in here isn’t powerful enough to physically interact with anything, so honestly it’ll be fine to just leave it, if this does the trick... sorry, that’s probably distracting.”

#( tavi. )#( haunted emails in houston. )

hfalconerquinn:

He can tell – in that way that he always can, that Ignatius is just a little bit nervous about this. Not overwhelmingly so, not in any way that would actually make Hades think less of him. No. He seems to be vaguely nervous in exactly the way that he should be. Because he should want this to go well. He should want HQ to like him, to approve of whatever was going on between him and Athena. It’s good that he’s anxious to be in Hades’ good graces, but HQ is equally glad that he isn’t actually fretting about it too much. They’ve got time to smooth out any rough areas, time to talk it through and time to put an end to this frankly embarrassing case. Hades has his own quiet doubts about it all, about what happened on Valentines day, about Ignatius being a man who had made Athena cry. But he doesn’t hold grudges, usually, and if they can make this work and be happy, Hades would like to support them in that.

He lets out a bright laugh at Ignatius’ soft teasing, because he’ll never be the kind of man who can actually pull of a scary serious brother act, and so he had never even tried it. He likes that Ignatius is lighthearted about it all, in honesty. It’s nice to know that Athena is dating someone who can make him laugh, who can get in on the joke ahead of anyone else, diffuse the situation with a little comment that will easily make people smile. He allows the smile that spreads across his face.

“Just so,” he says, a light and lilting thing. “But I promise that my intentions are purely honorable, with our dear Cypress.” He means it, so its easy to say. Cypress has been a bright spot in his life, ever since they started speaking to one another. A crush that hit hard, a love that bloomed too quickly, and Athena had taken it all in stride, had accepted him in like it was something easy to do. Every time he saw the two of them talking, even causal little things, he felt bright and hopeful for the life that they might all share someday. He imagines that Athena will feel the same, when Hades gets his hooks into Ignatius and forces the poor sap into friendship with him. “I’m in it for the long game, so if anyone stands to get their heart broken, it’s probably me.” He arches an eyebrow, then, a slightly pointed thing. “Us Falconer-Quinns are like that, you know? We tend to go all-in at a moments notice, if you can catch our attention. And our hearts break very easily.”

He takes a sip of his coffee, perfect and slightly chocolaty, something decadent. He’s glad that Ignatius knew what he wanted, charmed that he must have asked someone to find it all out. He wonders again if it was Athena or Marleigh that he got his information from. “You know,” he says, slow and sounding terribly fond despite himself. “I did promise Athena that I wasn’t going to give you the shovel talk. And I don’t really mean to. But I think it should be said, just this once, that If you ever pull any bullshit that makes her cry again, I’ll make you pay for it.”

Ignatius has been realizing lately that despite having been on the squad for years, he doesn’t actually know many people on the squad beyond the things you inevitably pick up about people from working alongside them for a while, sometimes being on cases together. He knows Tide well, and they know him, but even Jack he’s realized has been more of a surface level sort of friendship, even if it’s been deeper than just about any other he’s found here. This realization has hit because suddenly there are a lot of people he is close with, suddenly he’s got something like a circle of friends, which is a wild turn of events, especially after everything that happened with Scotland, but then again maybe that just made him realize how much he needs to let himself rely on other people. And he’s glad for it, but it also means he doesn’t really know how anyone is gonna react to his, well, everything. So even though he’s been around Hades for years, there’s no telling how joking’s gonna go over, when he probably knows all the bad details about Ignatius and his carelessness, from the disaster Valentine’s date, and not much else.

Luckily, though, his instinct here is right, and he laughs, which makes Ignatius grin wider back at him. It’s going well, despite the worries. It’s only the first step, of course, and this is all without even considering they do have a case to be solving eventually, but it’s a good start, he thinks. And it’s a sweet sort of insight, to hear him talking about Crow, and that whole thing they’ve got. He doesn’t actually know Cypress well, either, but it seems like a good thing, what they’ve got going, and it also sounds like he’s going to know him well soon enough, because of the whole package deal thing. “Good, good. Long game’s really the only way to do it, nowadays,” he nods, teasingly serious.

When he keeps going, though, Ignatius does let himself get serious, though, because this is important. He gets the feeling that that’s true for Athena, too, although not something that she’s experienced many times before, and Hades saying it outright just makes Ignatius want to be even better, work even harder to make sure he doesn’t let her get close to heartbroken again with his thoughtlessness. And he nods seriously as he get to the meat of it, the thing that he knows is the elephant in the room.

“I would expect and hope for nothing less. She deserves to be fought for. I would not at all try to stop you from kicking my arse if I hurt her again––I’m very small, I’m sure you could take me down easily,” he nods seriously. He’s kind of eternally unable to sound serious, but he does hope he realizes that he means everything he says.“There’s no excuse for how I made her feel; I was careless, and I wasn’t thinking. But I’ve been doing a lot better at thinking, lately, especially since Scotland. She makes me want to do better at, well, everything honestly. For what it’s worth, I promise I’m gonna do everything I can to make her happy. And I am well aware a not insignificant part of that is making you happy, too.” That’s kind of a joke, but he can’t help himself from teasing a little.

#( hades. )#( mrs. wilcox versus missouri aurors. )

tavihargrave:

A spirit, Ignatius says. Like a ghost, a real one, not a fake email hoax like some Bloody Mary shit but a real spirit, in this room, making noises at them, scaring the shit out of Alissia and her boyfriend both.

And damn, this is the point at which it becomes abundantly clear that he’s not the guy they need on this case—the guy who can talk to ghosts, Crow, he’d be a way more helpful auror to have here right now, could probably actually hear the answer to the question Ignatius asks, if this really is a ghost, while all Tavi had done was look at an email he could probably have looked at from the office, and mention that the noise coming from the computer was an overworked fan.

But… but he’s the one who’s here, not Crow, he’s the one who is supposed to have Ignatius’ back here, so he squares his shoulders and looks in the direction of the noise for. a minute, waiting to see if it somehow responds.

Ignatius talks, and the noise gets louder again, the sound half-deafening now, and yeah, he can definitely get why Alissia’s been having such a bad fucking time with this thing happening in her computer room. And then, as the noise gets louder, he notices that the ceiling appears to be dripping something, something dark and oily and red, and he feels his stomach leap into his throat as he suppresses the urge to puke as blood starts dripping onto the carpet below.

Is that a yes? Is that a no? God, he’s so far out of his depth on this one, but they have to do something…

“What if, uh—” he says, not sure if he’s talking to an invisible presence in the corner of the room or if he’s talking to Ignatius, as he makes the stab in the dark suggestion that’s the first thing that comes to mind. “What if I fix the fan, so it stops making that noise? If the computer is…. bothering it, I mean, I can get it to run quieter. It’s just a busted fan, they’re dirt cheap and really easy to replace.”

He glances back at Ignatius, finally, even though every instinct he has is telling him not to take his eyes off the spot in the corner where the ghost probably is, and looks at him, waiting to see if he thinks it’s a good idea or if it sounds like a load of shit.

The question’s answer comes in the form of the noise growing louder again, and he can’t really tell what it’s supposed to mean, but all he can really do is take that as a yes, considering the noise the computer is making is the only thing they really have to go off of right now to tie the two things together. And it’s bad, that’s for sure, no wonder Alissia looks like she’s been awake for days if this is what they’ve been dealing with in this computer room. The issue here is that he doesn’t really know how to placate a spirit, hasn’t really had much experience on this front, oddly enough, more likely to be put on beast cases that required hunting things down or that sort of thing when it came to problems of a nonhuman variety, because of his background. But then, no one had actually thought this was going to be a malevolent spirit case, it was supposed to be a cursed email.

As the noise gets louder, he notices another one of the occurrences Alissia had described to them, the blood like substance dripping from the ceiling, and okay, yeah, this is not good, even if it is harmless enough at the moment, more just a slightly frightening annoyance.

But he feels a little out of his depth in a way he usually doesn’t, partially because he knows Tavi also has to be feeling out of his depth, even more than him.

For a second, Ignatius considers pulling out his telekit, sending off a message to Crow to see if he could pop by and make this whole thing a lot easier. He can take care of placating the ghost, probably, if he just knew what it actually wanted, besides the vague thought that maybe it doesn’t like the computer, which, fair of it, he thinks, it’s loud and it’s ugly and it takes up a lot of room. Hell, if this was his room to be haunting, he would’ve been pissed too if the room suddenly transformed into a computer room, instead of a nice peaceful office or something.

Luckily, though, Tavi has a suggestion, and it’s as good as they’re gonna get, he thinks. At least they can try something, see if it makes a difference, and if not, then they can message Crow, maybe. “That’s fantastic, Tavi, yes. Seems like that’s the only thing we can really try, at this point. If that doesn’t work, we can call in someone a little better at speaking with spirits,” he nods, offering him a small smile, before giving Alissia and Michael, still terrified behind him, a thumbs up. “Do you need me to, uh, go get anything for that? Or is it something you could run and get fast, so I can stay here with these two, in case things do take a turn in the meantime?”

#( tavi. )#( haunted emails in houston. )

aurormonday:

He had little doubt that Emerson wouldn’t immediately love Athena, but he’s glad to hear just how well the interaction did go. Knowing from his own experience with introducing children to romantic interests, he’s sure Iggy must have been a complete wreck beforehand. Whatever worries he no doubt held over the first meeting, seemed to have washed away though as Jack looks over towards the other auror, smiling as he recalls his own attempt at making a sugar flower.

“If you’re throwing a barbecue I call doing the grilling,” he teases, “the last thing we need to do is scare Athena away with how poorly you Brits know how to cook a proper hamburger or braut.” The barbecue is a great idea though, he thinks to himself while he finishes getting his paint tray loaded up. The lot of them needed a good break from Scotland and everything that followed afterwards. He knows the whole trip to Morgana’s was supposed to serve as such, but even Morgana’s still felt somewhat tainted by everything.

“Dad, do you see any lime green?” April asks suddenly from across from him, her thoughts now clearly focused on the task at hand. Looking down at the small t-rex in front of her, then back to the array of paint bottles of around him, his brows furrow.

“No, they must be out,” he says, only managing to spot the standard green bottle of paint Emerson had used moments before. “You could just mix it with white- won’t be ‘lime’ green but it’ll be lighter?”

When he looks back up to April, he can see she’s clearly disappointed, likely having already mapped out her color palette in her head for it now to be thrown off. Chewing her lip, she looks across the various bottles, until an idea seems to hit her. Reaching back down to her pocket, she taps the handle of her wand for the second time that afternoon, shooting him yet another questioning look as she does so.

“Okay, but don’t do the whole bottle,” he warns, “just pour out what you think you’ll use and charm that.” He’s still not sure if Emerson was fully ready to get exposed to April’s own magic yet, but figured this may be as good of an opportunity as they were going to get.

With her dad’s approval, April smiles as she grabs the green paint bottle, and pours out a small helping of it onto her own paint tray. Grabbing her wand, she looks back up to Jack one last time, seemingly to make sure she was still good to continue, before taking a deep breath and casting a small transfiguration spell on the blob of paint. Within seconds, the dark green hue of the paint undergoes a mini transformation, turning into a brilliantly bright lime green, complete with glitter inside it.

“A lime green t-rex with glitter, it definitely screams Max,” he chuckles as he looks down towards her side of the paint tray.

It’s not a bad idea, he thinks, having a barbecue at some point when the weather is a little nicer out. Even if things are slowly moving towards normal again, it feels like he hasn’t actually had much chance to really just relax with everyone that he wants to relax with. He missed the party, not quite ready for that sort of thing again yet, and still not wanting to leave Emerson on her own yet, after having to be away from her for a week, even weeks ago at this point. But something a little more relaxed, something Emerson could be at too, would be nice. Probably a good thing for all of them, really.

“Alright, alright, mate, I would try to argue, but I’ll be honest, I’ve never barbecued anything in my whole life. Don’t even think I knew what a barbecue was until I was well into my twenties. You can be the grillmaster, that’s alright with me,” he shakes his head with a laugh. It’s not something he’s ever done, grilled, yeah, but also he’s never had a group of people over to his place for anything. But the back garden is nice, and he has a lot of people he might like to have around, actually. It’s a nice change.

He listens vaguely as April asks about the lime green, glances around and sees none, but mostly he focuses on Emerson focusing, painting the teacup so carefully with the deep green paint. It’s endearing, really, the same way she gets when she’s making bracelets or drawing at home, so wholly focused, concentrating on making her vision come to life. Much more creative than him, definitely takes after Sawyer in that regard.

His focus shifts, though, as the silent question of magic is posed again, and he’s glad that Jack gives April the go ahead, it feels like now is as good a time as any to show Emerson. “Em, look, watch what April’s going to do,” he says, getting her attention. And she does watch, looking wide eyed, utterly amazed as April casts the spell over the paint, and turns the dark green into bright, glittery lime green before their eyes. While Emerson is watching the spell, Ignatius is watching her, and her reaction is, well, it’s just normal, she doesn’t seem surprised, or caught off guard, or upset.

“Ohh, that’s pretty! Can you do other spells?” she asks, wiggling a little in her seat.

“April’s learning how to do magic at school right now, just like how you’re learning a bunch of other things,” he explains, thinking that framing it like that might be good.

“Like art class!” she insists, and that makes Ignatius smile, because of course she would find a way to put it into easier terms better than he ever could in his worry.

“Yeah, Em, it’s like a different type of class. April takes magic classes, like you take art and music.”

#( jack. )#( jack | emmy & april. )

tavihargrave:

This time, the noise startles him, too, makes him almost jump out of the chair at the computer desk—it sounds almost like the fan had, but it’s coming from the wrong place, coming from somewhere behind him, somewhere he can’t place even as he turns around and sees that Ignatius has turned around, too, wand pointed at nothing. And it sounds wrong, too, a guttural sound, like something out of a horror movie, something that makes every hair on his arms stand up, sends a shiver down his spine and oh, no wonder Alissia looks so fucked up if this is what she’s been experiencing for that past week or whatever, it’s creepy as hell.

“See!” she practically shouts, turning back to Ignatius as she does. It’s like the sound has activated some kind of fight or flight instinct in her and she’s picked fight, because now she’s the one nearly yelling at them instead of her boyfriend, who just seems shocked and terrified into perfect stillness by the noise. “That’s it! That’s what I’m talking about—the curse, or whatever it is. That keeps happening. Every time I’m in here, it does that, and it sounds like it’s getting closer. That ghost bitch from the email”

It takes a second of bolstering himself to move any closer to the noise, every instinct in his body telling him not to get any closer to it, to run far, far away, but he manages, getting up from the chair and moving to stand side by side with Ignatius, grateful the wix has his wand drawn and ready, even if there doesn’t seem to be anything there to cast a spell on or whatever.

“Alright, man,” he says, his voice low enough that only Ignatius can hear it over the continuous growling noise in front of them. “This is where my tech-pertise stops being useful so… please tell me you’ve got something.”

It is a jarring turn of events, that’s for sure, to have proof that there is some sort of curse, or otherwise magical problem going on here, but he still doesn’t think that it’s anything to do with the email itself. The noise isn’t like anything he can recall hearing before, and honestly, now that he thinks about it, he doesn’t know if he’s ever experienced a curse that came with strange noises.

Alissia reacts fairly, suddenly the one shouting very clearly ready to fight whatever invisible thing it is making the noise, and he gets it, he really does, because if this is what she’s been experiencing for days, he would probably be freaking out, too, if he was in her place. But the thing is she says something else that catches his attention, even as the noise continues, low and terrifying.

Even as the wheels in his mind start turning, as he looks around wand held out, he’s pretty impressed that Tavi actually gets up to come stand beside him, a show of very good solidarity despite his inability to fight whatever it is that might need fighting, if it comes down to it.

“It’s fine, we’re all fine, I’ll figure it out,” Ignatius says hurriedly, as much to himself as to Tavi. He tries to shake off the chill that the noise brought, tries to focus on organizing his thoughts. “Okay so this sound, weird for sure, it sounds kind of like the computer, but it’s not coming from the computer. But it started when the computer also started making that strange noise. So maybe not the email, but maybe something to do with the broken fan?”

He looks back at Tavi, a skeptical look on his face, but it’s the best he can think of. There was no magic around the computer, though. Only one way to test the theory, he reaches forward again, waves his wand over the computer, casting the same revealing spell, then steps back, and the fan whirls louder again, working overtime against the magic it seems. When it does, the guttural groaning seems to get louder, too, though, right in front of them, in front of the computer. Alissia blames the ghost bitch from the email, but maybe it’s a different sort of ghost bitch.

“I think you may have a very annoyed, but ultimately harmless spirit, hanging around your computer room,” Ignatius reasons, with a half shrug, knowing how ridiculous that sounds. He kind of wishes one of the psychics was here right now, but in the absence of a ghost whisperer, he’s got to try himself. “Hi, spirit. I’m here to help you and Alissia get along better... is the computer bothering you?”

#( tavi. )#( haunted emails in houston. )

athenafq:

The excitement and awe on Emerson’s face as she watches, the eagerness with which she goes back to eating her pizza so that she can have some of the candy flower—these are the kinds of things that always made Athena want to make magic, to create new spells that did amazing things. Of course, the puzzle of it was what had drawn her to it, the intricacies of complex spell theory and the fitting together of how it all worked, of what made magic possible, made certain spells work the way they did and stopped other spells from working they way they were supposed to. But it was the awe of realizing what magic could do that had kept her there, watching people be amazed to see a new spell. The way Hades had looked, the first time she made a spell just for him; the way Abel had looked when they realized just what the cuff she’d been working on could do for them; the way Emerson looked now.

She’d never been great at connecting to people with words, never been great at talking to people. But magic—it was the grand connecting force of her life, the thing that let her reach out and help people, reach out and see them and have them see her, too.

“Of course,” she replies, smiling at Ignatius, though she’s still half watching Emerson, letting herself enjoy the spark of a warm, hopeful feeling in her chest, even stronger than the peaceful contentedness she’d been feeling ever since her nerves started to soothe and disappear. “It’s a pretty easy one. But the only thing Hades likes more than pretty things is sweet things.”

She’s still amazed, at every moment, how easy it is to just ease into this, how entirely her nerves have slipped away and been replaced with the same kind of easy warmth she is coming to enjoy so much about spending time with Ignatius. She isn’t one to imagine she knows what the future holds, is a person with too much going on in her head to think about how things might chance, more focused on the present moment than anything else, but it feels like it would be easier than anything to keep doing this, to follow her heart and let herself settle into this.

Seeing Emerson positively enamored with what Athena’s shown her is something pretty special. It does make him consider how many other moments like this there might’ve been already if he had been more open with magic around her before now, but it also makes him glad, in a way, that it’s all happening now at once, that the decision to try to be more honest with Emerson has coincided with this new thing that he’s been lucky enough to find with Athena. It feels right, somehow. It wouldn’t be the same, if Athena wasn’t here, if she wasn’t showing Emerson a spell she had created herself, showing Emmy not only that magic can be fun, not just for a practical purpose, but making a connection through it, a bridge between two worlds, but also with each other.

And it’s pretty bloody adorable, too, seeing the way Athena smiles at Emerson, how easy it all feels, despite the nerves that he had had when she had first arrived. It’s the sort of thing he thinks he could get used to watching, the two of them together.

“Sounds like he and Emmy have that in common,” he says with a laugh, unable to keep the fond smile from his lips as he looked back at Athena. And that’s a nice thought, too, that this expanded just beyond everyone sat at the table with Athena; that once they were both ready, Emerson might also have someone else to look up to. He hadn’t really considered that he and Emerson would ever be more than their little bubble, with only a few people who could step in, but he likes the thought of that bubble growing, it makes the world feel a little kinder, for the first time in a long time.

He reaches over across the table, lets his hand find Athena’s for a second, giving her hand a little squeeze, silently trying to convey all of the feelings that he can’t put into words just now in the gesture. How easy this all feels, and how nice, how normal, when nothing’s been normal for a long time. Ignatius is grateful that this is where they all are, and he’s hopeful about where it all might go from here, if this is any indication. Athena, and Emmy, and Kisky sitting at the table with him; for now, that’s enough.

#( athena. )#( athena | first date. )#the end!!

hfalconerquinn:

Hades has been meaning to sit Ignatius down, to have a little conversatoon with him about everything that’s been going on lately. About him and Athena, the grand expanse of them from Valentines day to now, this newfound relationship they’re beginning. He’s always liked Igantius, more or less –– Ignatius was nicer and more trustworthy than some people allowed themselves to believe. He was a good man, with a kid he loved, and he did his job well enough even if sometimes he lacked enthusiasm. And most importantly of all, Athena liked him. If she was sure about someone, Hades would always do his very best to love them as well.

He just hoped that Ignatius was prepared for what was going to happen here. That was the real risk, the real thing to be scared about. Because Athena and HQ were a packaged deal, and that wasn’t going to change. If Ignatius couldn’t handle Hades being a big part of his life, couldn’t put up with his big personality and his big opinions, he wouldn’t survive for long. And HQ would like him to survive, would like him to hold on and stay a part of their lives. But he wouldn’t get Athena without HQ clinging on as well, even if he decided that HQ was annoying or too much. It would really all be nicer if they could love each other, become some kind of meshed group, a family. He hopes that Ignatius takes it as well as Cypress has, so far.

HQ has been meaning to corner him, and have that nice conversation, but Langer seems to be willing to do the cornering for them. A case. An easy case, it seems. Something that’s almost emabrrassing to be asked to deal with, as a Squad Auror of their combined ranks. He doubts someone like Cassandra would have ever been sent out on a case like this, but HQ is happy that they have been, because its a chance to spend the day with Ignatius where the other man can’t escape him. He’s excited about this. He thinks it’s going to go well.

He arrives at the cafe that Ignatius had directed him toward, and grins when he sees him settled there already. HQ makes his way over, noting the drinks and treats already laid out alongside Ignatius’ copy of the case file. “I happen to be taking this case very seriously. The fruity ones are always the most interesting.” He says, though he’s smiling wide, as he slips in to the chair and gives a happy little wiggle about the danish waiting for him. That little bird will have been Athena, he imagines. Unless Ignatius has decided to get all his HQ advice from Marleigh, which would probably work just about as well. He fixes Ignatius with a look –– a very specific look. A big brother kind of look, and arches an eyebrow at him. He thinks this is going to be delightfully fun, and it probably comes across in the expression. “So. I believe we have some very important things to talk about, don’t we Ignatius?”

There’s not really much of anything to do about the nerves, he’s well aware. Even if he knows logically there’s probably no reason to worry––all of the interactions they’ve had before now have been good, which is saying something since a lot of people on the squad, at least before, were not particularly happy about having him around––it’s impossible not to worry just a little. There’s the normal concern about wanting the most important person in Athena’s life to like him, and to want him to be in Athena’s life too, yes, but there’s an added thing here of the foreign concept that is dating a twin. It’s a different beast entirely, and one that he hopes he can handle well enough, but then, in a way, Athena’s in a similar situation, Ignatius coming as a package deal with Emerson.

So there’s some comfort there, knowing that it’s a two way street, in a way, even if he’s not quite as confident in his ability not to fuck things up with a grown adult, over his ability to make sure a six year old likes his new girlfriend.

But the good news here is that Hades is smiling as he sits down, he does a little wiggle as he looks at the treats waiting for him, and maybe buttering up an adult really isn’t all that different than buttering up a six year old, after all. At least at a starting point. Quickly enough, he gives him that look, a look that he can very easily take a brother sizing up the man who nearly broke his sister’s heart, and is now dating her. That’s the real concern, here, the before part, because he knows that Athena probably talked all about that with him, probably got his advice on it, too. So the task ahead of him is assuring him he will never make Athena feel like that again, and assuring him that he’ll be very, very good, to boot.

Ignatius nods slowly, puts his hands around his cup of tea, out of habit, something to do with his hands to keep him from fiddling with things. Because this isn’t going to be a brotherly interrogation the likes of which he experienced with Travers, and there’s comfort there, in the way Hades looks like he’s already amused by the whole situation. That makes him breathe a little easier. “A thing or two to discuss, yeah, I think so,” he says, cocking his head to the side, mock thoughtfully. He figures a little teasing wouldn’t hurt. “I want to be absolute certain that you’re not going to break Crow’s heart. That’s what we’re here to talk about, right?”

#( hades. )#( mrs. wilcox versus missouri aurors. )

aurormonday:

He takes no offense at all when Iggy mentions that another double date was far into the future for the two of them. After the last one, he’s pretty sure he’d sworn off the things entirely, even though it felt like every night at Marleigh’s place seemed like a weird double date between the two of them and Nomi and Bishop- a pairing that still didn’t make sense to him.

“Hades is more than welcome to it,” he chuckles as he settles into his seat, placing the flamingo just in front of him. “I’m sure he and Cypress will make far better of a pair than Snow or I ever did.” Merlin, he still hadn’t even spoken to Snow since that night, preferring to keep his distance for both of their sakes. Given the fact they were nearing the two month mark now since the date from hell, he figures he probably should make some type of attempt at reconciliation there, even though he really didn’t want to.

When the talk shifts back to Athena, he smiles warmly, watching Emerson get so excited about the witch. It seems that while he may have been getting Marleigh and his own kids accustomed to one another, Iggy was doing the same. The fact that Emerson seemed to attach herself so quickly to Athena wasn’t a surprise in the slightest, he’s not sure he’d met anyone Emerson didn’t immediately want to become friends with, being as young and personable as she was. April being almost the exact opposite of the chatty six year old, was still getting used to Marleigh in her own way, and making far better progress in it all than he’d even expected from her.

Picking up a couple paint bottles, he begins squirting them into the paint tray he and April looked to be sharing, as Emerson continued on about her visit with the older witch.

“Wow that’s pretty cool, Emmy,” he smiles as he looks over to her, “I’ll have to have her make me one the next time I get a sweet tooth.”

“Athena is HQ’s sister, right?” April asks as she looks up to him, “the auror you and Marleigh told me about?”

“Yeah, sweetie, she is,” he replies, giving her a small smile. Even when he’d talked to her about HQ and his abilities that were somewhat close to her own, she still wasn’t on board with it, but he was hoping that eventually she might warm up to the idea.

“Yeah, I think so, too, no offense to you, or Snow,” Ignatius lets out a laugh, shaking his head at the memory of that double date from hell. There’s nothing funny about it to him still, even now, and he still feels awful for even letting the situation get that far without just being honest with Athena, but now that they’ve all moved past it, it feels easier to bring up without the heaviness that has been attached to it since it happened. It feels like a lifetime ago, anyway, feels like he was a different person then, and honestly he probably was. Everything that happened in Scotland had changed him. Coming back, he had worried that it changed him for the worst, the violence of it, the rage that was so hard to control, but he thinks it’s actually taught him something. It makes the double date from hell feel much smaller in perspective, like what Athena had said, the thought of leaving things like that, going to Scotland, not knowing if they would all come back.

So it makes him more inclined, in a way, to move past things and move on, makes him more ready to genuinely enjoy things, too, not in a way that’s a deflection of pain, like it has been since he came to America, either. No, just something good. Like this, this is good.

He’s glad Emerson is so enthusiastic about Athena, and sharing that, and he’s just as glad that she’s seemed to be doing well so far with the little pieces of magic they’ve all be introducing to her. It makes him feel like today will go just as well, when the broach the subject of April’s magic.

“She tried to teach me how to do it, but my flower came out looking more like a pile of raked leaves,” Ignatius laughs, as he hands Emmy a paint brush, and scoots the green paint her way, so she can reach it better.

“It still tasted good,” Emerson insists, and it feels for a second like he’s the six year old, as she’s assuring him his shite candy flower was good. It makes him laugh fondly, as he reaches over and gives her hair a ruffle she shrugs off with a laugh.

Ignaitus can infer the context of Hades coming up with April before, and he thinks he can sense how it was probably taken, too, knowing April, and seeing the small smile Jack offers her, at bringing it up herself.

“HQ is great. Much cooler than me or your dad. Maybe one day once it gets a little warmer, we can have a barbecue, you can meet him and Athena, too,” he offers, giving her a smile. “There’s plenty of time. But first, painting.”

#( jack. )#( jack | emmy & april. )

midmorning, a nice little cafe, kirkwood, missouri / @hfalconerquinn

The case itself is absolutely hilarious in his mind, the sort of thing that probably shouldn’t have made it up to them in the first place, but that he’s actually a little relieved to hop on just now, when the past few months have been hell. But he’s still nervous, because of the other name on the case file. If Ben wasn’t long gone, he would’ve been inclined to believe this was another instance of the lovable arsehole finagling cases for personal reasons, but it’s just a funny coincidence, he supposes.

Still, though, he can guess that there is going to be a lot of non-case related talk happening on this one, especially considering it seems the sort of thing they can solve in a few hours, if they can get the old lady to just lay off the Missouri aurors, and find her bloody garden gnome. So he’s nervous, because it’s been a long time since he’s done the whole having a talk with your girlfriend’s family shite. And while he knows that talking about Athena to Hades, someone he’s worked with for years and who is just a generally pleasant person, will be nothing like talking to the Travers siblings, it’s still nerve wracking. Because he really, really likes Athena, and he doesn’t want to screw anything up by accidentally saying the wrong thing to Hades, and he’s got a history of saying exactly the wrong thing at the wrong time.

So he’s strategic about it. Doesn’t bother going into detail over the case file, in all honesty, but more treats spending a day alone with Athena’s twin brother like a case itself. He scopes out a nice little cafe in Kirkwood, Missouri for them to meet at before going to question anyone, to strategize, and maybe also butter him up a little with a nice pastry. Ignatius gets there early orders himself a double shot of espresso and a cinnamon bun, and a mocha with extra chocolate and a raspberry danish for Hades, and sets up at a corner table, case file out, but certainly untouched. When the door opens, and he comes in, Ignatius is ready, gives him an easy smile as he finds the table.

“A little birdie told me you like a mocha and something a little fruity. Feels like an appropriate start to an absolutely fruity case.”

#( hades. )#( mrs. wilcox versus missouri aurors. )#alert alert shenanigans incoming

tavihargrave:

He’s not sure what Ignatius is going to be able to find by waving his wand over the computer, but it seems like as good a next step as any: it really does seem more likely that the computer or something else in this room is coincidentally causing whatever’s happening to Alissia and she’s just latched onto the thread of the email as something concrete to blame it on in the absence of other evidence.

And then Ignatius starts back a little as the computer starts to make a familiar whirring, grinding noise, looking at him for guidance, and this probably doesn’t have anything to do with what they’re here for, but he’s at least glad to have a little more expertise to set Ignatius at ease, and maybe to provide some advise to this girl who is clearly not any more well-versed in computer care than the average computer user.

“Sounds like the fan’s busted. How old is this computer?”

“I don’t know?” she says, looking at him, her expression a little confused. “It’s a hand me down. My cousin didn’t want it anymore so she gave it to me, I don’t know how long she had it for.”

“I’ll bet it makes that noise any time the computer’s been on for more than… twenty, thirty minutes?” he says, because it seems like the fan’s just getting overworked trying to vent heat and getting messed up back there. An easy enough fix, just replace the fan with a new one, a cheap part that’s pretty easy to get your hands on.

“Yeah, it does,” she confirms, though he can tell from the tone of her voice that she’s less than thrilled to be answer questions about her computer’s busted fan, and he can hardly blame her, seeing as it doesn’t seem like a busted computer fan could cause blood to seep from the floor of her room or anything like that. “It’s been doing that for a few weeks. Is that a problem?”

“Give it enough time, your computer might start overheating, but it’s easy enough to replace the fan, and it’s probably not an emergency or anything.” And then, he adds, half to her and half to Ignatius, “but I doubt it has anything to do with your curse, it’s just normal wear-and-tear.”

He frowns as he looks at Tavi, but at the very least it sounds like that part of things is just, well, not normal for a computer, but not a curse problem, at the very least, just something of a computer problem. And the thing is nothing comes up in terms of lingering hints of magic on the computer, so maybe whatever it is isn’t something to do with the computer, but the room. It seems like a leap to narrow it down to that with only a few tests, but with Tavi seemingly finding nothing weird about the email, and the revealing spells showing no sign of any run of the mill curses around the computer, he really doesn’t know what other avenue they’ve got here.

Which is unfortunate, because if it’s not a computer problem, he’s not sure how much Tavi is going to be able to do in the solving of the case. And maybe it’s a weird thought, but Ignatius doesn’t want him to feel like he doesn’t have a hand in solving one of his first cases, like he’s not here for a reason, or can’t help wrap things, unless it has something to do with a cursed computer.

At the very least, though, in the meantime, it sounds like Tavi can at least help Alissia with a computer problem, which is nice, even if it’s not exactly why they’re here.

“That’s good, computer maintenance...” Ignatius nods, trying to sound hopeful. “Tavi’s probably right, though, there’s no sign of any curses on the computer. It just sounds bad. But we’re gonna get to the bottom of this, don’t worry.”

“Don’t worry? We’ve got two days, man, how can we not worry?!” Michael pipes up, and it takes all of his strength not to roll his eyes at the outburst. Alissia gives her boyfriend a look, though, and that stops him before he can go on.

“Okay, that’s fair, but what I’m saying is that I don’t think this curse is actually tied to that email, so I’m not actually sure that timeline matters. But,” he goes on holding up a finger as Michael opens his mouth to protest, “We’re not gonna let two days pass. I’m going to––”

He’s cut off, though, by a deep, guttural groaning coming from behind him, near the computer, that sends a chill through him. Ignatius whips around, wand held out, but there’s nothing there. The noise, though, continues, the sound nearly the same pitch as the whirling of the computer’s apparent hardworking fan.

“Can everyone also hear that, or is it just me?” he asks first, because either he’s suddenly been cursed, too, or there’s suddenly proof that whatever is happening is the room not just individuals.

#( tavi. )#( haunted emails in houston. )

aurormonday:

He was expecting for Iggy to forgive him, his mind refusing to acknowledge any other alternative, but that didn’t make the relief that hits him after Iggy voices the sentiment any less impacting. Things had been disjointed between the two of them for a while now, their friendship had began as an easy and casual thing, and largely remained as such over the years. Which is probably why it seemed to get thrown for such a loop when things finally did begin getting serious around them. He was not the kind of person most leaned on during hard times, which was largely by design, so he certainly didn’t blame Iggy for not doing so with him. Especially when a good deal of the hard times Iggy had faced in the last month or so Jack had a hand in creating in some shape or form.

But that such guilt is swept to the side when Iggy speaks again, and shockingly Athena’s name escapes his lips- not in a way that reflected any kind of remorse like it had before, but quite the opposite entirely. He’d been avoiding the topic of the date from hell with both Iggy and Athena for weeks now, figuring what damage he’d done could not be erased. Even after his talk with Athena he saw little hope in the pair reestablishing what’d been budding between them before Jack had royally fucked things up again, but he’s glad they somehow managed to despite it all.

“You’re fu-freaking pulling my leg, really?” He asks, censoring himself as he looks over to see the two young set of ears still in fairly close proximity to them. Letting out a breathless laugh, he shakes his head before slapping Iggy across the back, “Well congrats, man, really, you deserve it, that’s for sure.”

Taking one last look at Iggy to reaffirm that no, he wasn’t joking, Jack shakes his head as he leads the two of them back to the table with the girls. Taking up a seat across from April, who was sitting next to Emerson.

April looks up to him, as he joins them, her gaze searching his for a moment, seemingly checking to see if everything was okay now. “Thank you,” he says by a way of answering her unvoiced question. He’s not sure how much longer it would have taken him to tell Iggy without her unintentional help, but he’s glad it happened regardless. Whatever concern she appeared to be holding on to seems to vanish with his words, as she flashes him with a soft smile of her own.

Ignatius can’t help the grin that splits over his face at Jack’s reaction to the news that things were going well with Athena. It’s a fair reaction, after all, he had thought that there was just as little hope as Jack seems to have thought after everything. He’s still pretty in awe, to be honest, that things hadn’t been beyond repair, but he’s grateful that he stuck to giving her space and time to consider things, grateful that she accepted his apologies, and made the choice to try again, both completely open and honest. And it is nice to tell Jack, too, especially since he’s been holding off on telling too many people, for both of their sake’s, not wanting there to be too much pressure from too many people watching. But he’s glad that they’re both being honest now, too, like maybe things’ll all be easier again now that life seems to be shifting into a new normal for both of them.

“Cheers, mate,” he says, giving him a rough pat on the back, as they start towards the table the kids have taken up residence at. “Don’t hold your breath on any double dates in the foreseeable future, though, we’re gonna have to cleanse our palates with some more gentle double dates first, after that last one. Hades gets first dibs, anyway.”

He lets out a small breath of laughter at the looks exchanged between April and Jack. But he’s glad that she spilled the proverbial beans on this one, it makes it feel like the universe is breathing a sigh of relief around him, to have that particular worry off of his shoulders now. Now he could think about why they were here in the first place. Ignatius sits down at the table next to Jack, putting his teapot out in front of him.

“Now that the grown up talk is done, are we––” he starts, but Emerson cuts him off before he can even try to get on on task.

“You were talking about Athena! I heard you, your voice is loud, daddy,” she says wiggling a little in her seat, thrilled to hear mention of her new favorite person, just narrowly edging out Kisky, and Abel.

“You’re loud, too, Emmy, it runs in the family. Yes, I was talking about Athena, and also Jack’s special friend,” he teases, giving April a joking look. He starts opening some of the paints, getting things organized for her as he tries to redirect focus. “You wanna tell April and Jack about the spell Athena showed you the other night?”

And that works, at least, as she looks at them excitedly. “She made a candy flower out of sugar! It was pink, and purple, and green, and it tasted like cotton candy!”

#( jack. )#( jack | emmy & april. )

tavihargrave:

It’s easy enough to split his attention between listening to her talk about what she’s been experiencing and looking at the email for himself—mostly because there really isn’t anything to look at, when it comes to the email: it’s just like he’d expected, a totally average chain email, and he cannot fathom a single way something like this could actually be cursed. He does a quick search, too, in Yahoo, for the email address, finds a forum full of people talking about the chain email, and literally no conversation about anyone actually being cursed or having any shit like this happen because of it. It really seems like Alissia just took a bad hoax email too seriously.

Except that what she’s experiencing sounds real. But… maybe the email isn’t the cause. Maybe it’s something about her computer, or even about this room. If it had only been her, he’d feel more confident about it, but the fact that her boyfriend’s been reporting stuff happening too doesn’t fit that theory.

“Nothing, man,” he says, looking back at Ignatius. “Unless this is totally out of my depth, I can find any sign that this could actually be cursed at all.”

“What about you?” he asks, turning to face the boyfriend. Michael. “You said you think you’re cursed, too—have you been experiencing weird stuff happening in other places, or just here?”

“I mean, yeah, of course I have,” he says, his voice guarded and a little defensive. “I told the other aurors the first time I talked to them, I’ve been feeling like someone is watching me while I sleep. I keep waking up and seeing weird shadows. And there’s been other stuff. Like, bad luck stuff. Curse stuff.”

“But nothing concrete, like the noises or the blood on the floor or anything like that?”

“What are you implying?” he asks, and Tavi figures he can probably take that as a no on that front. It doesn’t sound like Alissia is just paranoid and making things up, but it sure does sound like her boyfriend might be.

Ignatius lets out a small sigh, not exactly surprised to hear that Tavi didn’t find anything in the email, but still unfortunate that this doesn’t seem to be so simple. Because he’s pretty sure that if this was something with the email, he would be able to notice something even if he might not completely understand the curse if he saw something leading to it. He feels a little lost, except for the idea that he’s latched onto that maybe it’s not the email itself, but something about the computer, something the computer maybe did to the room.

And Tavi very clearly gets that implication, too, as he keeps questioning the boyfriend. Michaels reaction to the question is a classic case of defensiveness because whatever it is he’s been spouting is utter shite. A drama queen, if he’s ever seen one, someone who wants to feel special, too, maybe, take some of the attention. Alissia clearly isn’t just making things up, but Michael is another story entirely.

Because it doesn’t sound the same as her. It sounds like he heard what she had been feeling, and decided to say he’s feeling the same, too. It’s possible, of course, that he believes it, even in some over-exaggerated way, but he doesn’t really get that feeling, from his defensiveness.

“All he means is that it seems like the root of the problem might be this room,” Ignatius says, stopping the kid’s argument before it can start. “It doesn’t seem like it’s the email itself, but maybe something with the computer that’s spreading out into this room. If that’s the case, it certainly could be a curse that’s latched onto both of you, because you spend time in here, but hard to say, of course.”

He steps over to the computer, and pulls out his wand. “We’ll just see if there’s something around it, yeah?” he suggests, trying to sound more certain that this could even work with muggle technology than he feels.

Ignatius waves this wand over the computer, casting the typical series of revealing spells he would on any other potential cursed object, on the off chance that the curse is something simple. The only thing that happens, though, is that the computer makes a loud, angry noise unexpectedly that actually makes him start slightly, considering how foreign it is. He glances at Alissia and Michael, then looks back at Tavi. Nothing about it seems to be cursed, but the noise is loud and jarring, and he’s not sure it means something or not.

“Is it normal for a computer to make that noise?” he says quietly, although he’s well aware the room is too small to keep the question from being overheard. But he doesn’t want to seem as clueless about muggle technology as he actually is.

#( tavi. )#( haunted emails in houston. )

athenafq:

She waits for Ignatius’ confirmation before pulling out her wand, smiles back at him as he goes on about how smart Emerson is, the pride so obvious and visible in his voice and on his face. Pride, what a thing, the way it’s unrestrained and unconditional coming from him, the way his pride in Emerson’s reading skills isn’t dependent on her meeting all kinds of other ridiculous expectations. Her own parents had rarely been proud of her, no matter how good her magic had been; they’d been too busy being disappointed by her other faults and flaws to ever talk about her with that kind of sincerity, only ever complimenting her when it could be a boast to impress their friends.

And Merlin, it makes her feel so warm, to see it on Ignatius’ face, to realize how much different Emerson’s life is than what she had experienced, what she’s sure Ignatius also experienced with his own endless expectations and disappointments. It fills her with a fondness for him even stronger than what she’d felt on their case when she’d realized that he was intentionally trying to alter the way he was talking so he wouldn’t overwhelm her, or the way she’d felt recently every time he came and sat on Jack’s desk and joked around with the two of them.

“Okay, this one’s very special,” she says, reaching out towards the center of the table and picking up a sugar bowl that’s sitting here, looking at Emerson as she does it. “I made this one up a long time ago, for my brother. To cheer him up when he was sad.”

She carefully takes a pinch of sugar, sets it down on the empty portion of her plate in a small pile, and then waves her wand over it, and from the pile of sugar, as it it was soil, a small crystalline flower sprouts, begins to grow, and then blooms, a rock candy rose with spun sugar petals and leaves, pink and purple and green. Once it’s fully bloomed, she glances back at Emerson, who is watching the flower with wide eyes, speechless for the first time since Athena walked in the door.

“It’s so pretty,” she says, after a long moment, and Athena lets out a little laugh, picking the flower and taking a petal off of it, popping it into her own mouth and letting the sugar dissolve on her tongue, sweet and flavorless, like cotton candy.

“Maybe if you eat all your pizza, your dad will let you have some for dessert.”

Oddly enough, after making it to America with a newborn Emerson, and starting to figure out the way that life here would go for them, Ignatius hadn’t actually considered wholly what the future would look like, or what he wanted the future to look like, and he’s only just now realizing that. He’s thought about Emerson’s future, is constantly preoccupied with it, trying to figure out how to give her the best future she can have, something that’s happy, and bright, and without any pain. Just like his focus is always on giving her the best present that he can, something wholly unlike his own childhood. It’s always been easier to focus on her, after all, to worry about how things are for her, put all of his energy into that. And maybe part of it is because he’s always subconsciously been afraid to hope for things, after finding something so unexpected, and having it taken from him.

Looking across the table, Athena smiling back at him as she pulls out her wand, gets ready to show Emerson a little spell, though, it feels safe to consider the future, though. Or maybe not safe, but worth the risk, in a way nothing’s really made him feel since they had arrived here. All at once, there seems to be possibility, and he never would have guessed he would find that in Athena, but he’s glad that it’s her sitting here at the table with them, eating pizza together, showing Emerson magic she’s never seen before. He’s glad that it’s possible his future could include her.

He’s well aware how sentimental he’s been since getting back from Scotland, too many different emotions warring with each other, making it hard to process them all, fluctuating wildly between anger, and hopeful optimism back and forth, but tonight feels a little like a turning point. It especially feels like one as he watches Athena explain why she made the spell to Emmy, as she takes the pile of sugar, and waves her wand, a beautiful, rock candy rose growing from it.

The awe on Emerson’s face makes him wish he had started being more open earlier, but he’s glad that he gets to see it now, gets to see Athena cause it. Emerson’s focused so wholly on the flower, and Athena, and it’s adorable to witness.

“Can I, daddy, please?” she asks, finally glancing back at him with those big eyes.

“Of course, Emmy, finish up your pizza, then you can try Athena’s flower candy. Pretty cool, right?” Ignatius asks, and Emerson nods still very clearly in awe, as she keeps looking at the flower, even as she goes back to her pizza. He looks back at Athena, giving her a smile. “That was a good one. You’re gonna have to teach me, she’ll be begging to see it again.”

#( athena. )#( athena | first date. )

aurormonday:

His face twists into a small cringe, that mirrored the one that marked April’s features only moments before when Iggy seems to realize what exactly was going on. He knows he should have told him earlier, and he honestly wishes he had instead of Iggy finding out through April of all people. He’d been telling himself before that it was better for the right moment, but after Scotland, “right moments” clearly didn’t exist any more, especially when it came to something like this.

As April flashes him one last look of apology she leads Emerson away to a nearby table. Part of Jack is grateful for the drop of audience, although the other half of him wonders if he just lost whatever shield he just had to the full extent of Iggy’s annoyance in all of this.

“Since the Valentine’s Ball,” he replies, the cringe on his features only growing, “which is why I couldn’t tell you at first, what with everything that happened with Athena. And then after Scotland, it just seemed mean to.” He does feel bad that Iggy had somehow caught on to the fact that something was up with Jack, especially when he hears the other man’s thoughts had jumped to such drastic of conclusions.

“I was going to tell you eventually?” He tries to offer as some way to make up for the slight, which he quickly realizes wasn’t all that better. “Look, I am sorry, really. You’re still one of my best friends. I’m just fuckin’ shit at talking about this kind of stuff, and wasn’t sure how to tell you is all.”

Letting out a small sigh, he lightly hits at Iggy’s arm, “We do got something special, you tell me to break up with them for you, I’ll do it in an instant you know that.” Reaching back over to the shelf, he picks up the flamingo figurine April had pointed to, before giving Iggy another apologetic look. “You think you can forgive me?”

Of all the things he had thought, in his anxiety, could’ve been the reason for Jack acting so bizarrely around him, this wasn’t even on the bloody list. Things in both of their lives have been royally fucked up for the past few months, and with so much going on, Ignatius had assumed that maybe too much had changed for both of them for Jack to want to stick around, which he would have understood, even if it hurt, considering how close they were. And sure, maybe there had been some of that, some of those big changes bleeding over, making it hard to know how to interact when their friendship by and large had been a light thing, not many serious matters discussed. But knowing it was actually because Jack’s on the rebound with Marleigh is a wild development.

And since the Valentine’s Ball. So while he was sulking, and then getting hit with something that not only changed him, but apparently the government at large, Jack had been off snogging Marleigh. It does sting a little, to know that was why he had been left on his own, but there’s no use in being bitter about it now, when it’s long gone.

“Yeah, yeah, you are shite at talking about this sort of stuff apparently,” Ignatius rolls his eyes, but with a certain amount of fondness.

It’s bizarre and it seems out of the blue, to him, but then this isn’t the sort of thing they talk about usually, so maybe there had been something beyond just shagging for a while, and he hadn’t known. Either way, at least he knows what’s been up now, at least his anxiety doesn’t have to latch onto Jack maybe hating his guts anymore.

“You’re lucky I’ve got a big heart, mate. I’ve got room for forgiveness, but you own me like a whole night of drinks,” he says, raising an eyebrow. He watches Jack take the flamingo, and looks vaguely over the little figurines himself, eyes landing on a set of owls. “Guess it’s only fair I tell you that the Valentine’s mess didn’t ruin everything. It was an absolute shite night, but well, Athena and I are good now. Very good.”

#( jack. )#( jack | emmy & april. )

tavihargrave:

Alissia seems worried—of course—and angry—of course—but she also seems to understand that if they’re there to help her, she’s going to need to work with them in order to get anything fixed or solved; her boyfriend, sitting at the computer she leads them to, is another matter entirely. If she seems on edge, he sees fully freaked out, panicky in a defensive kind of way. Ignatius is quick to reply, but the reply only seems to frustrate the guy further, to the point where Tavi’s almost convinced that he’s not gonna get up and let Tavi check the computer out, until Alissia puts a hand on the guy’s shoulder and gives him a serious, withering look.

“Leave it, Michael, they’re just trying to help, okay?”

He looks like he might fight back for half a second, but then he heaves out a heavy sigh, rolls his eyes and pushes himself up out of the chair, practically storming the few steps he needs to clear the space, going over to the door instead and leaning against it, arms crossed over his chest.

“Fine, whatever,” he says. “Then check out the email and do something about it.”

Tavi exchanges a glance with Ignatius, briefly—the guy’s got a serious attitude problem but that’s not really what they’re here for—and then moves to take his seat at the computer. She’s logged into her email already, that much is clear, unless this guy’s email address happens to be [email protected] which, okay, he usually wouldn’t make that assumption, but based on the guy’s attitude he feels like it’s a safe bet. And the email is still in her inbox, and not hard to find, given the subject line is YOU HAVE BEEN CURSED. Very subtle.

Actually—it strikes him that if he were actually trying to curse someone in a way that required they open an email, he’d be a little more subtle about his intentions. He clicks into the email and it’s just like Zander had said: no link, no attachment, just plaintext, nothing remarkable. It really does just look like an ordinary email… Maybe there’s something else he’s missing, but he really doesn’t think there is.

“Uhh, while I look at this, you mind telling my partner here what kind of weird stuff’s been happening the past few days? Just to give us a clearer idea, now that we’re in the space and everything.”

He understands that it’s probably a little terrifying to think that you might die in two days time because of an email you received, but he thinks that he’d be a little more grateful that people were there to help if he was in Michael’s shoes. No need to make a big deal of it, though, not when it could potentially be a genuine worry here. But he’s seen enough shite in the past month himself that a cursed email feels like no problem, in comparison, and at the very least he stands up from the chair at Alissia’s prompting, giving Tavi room to get to work.

Ignatius looks at Tavi, exchanging a glance at the clear issue this kid has, but as long as he lets them do their job, the fact that he woke up on the wrong side of the bed won’t have to matter. He steps forward, too, for a second, looking over Tavi’s shoulder, because it feels like he should at least seem like he might understand things, or notice something, but it’s all completely incomprehensible to him.

It’s unclear if Tavi’s found anything or not as he goes on, asking them to give Ignatius what they’ve experienced in the meantime. Smart, though, focus on their strengths.

“It’s been awful. The first thing I noticed was that distinct feeling that someone was watching me, like the way your hair kind of stands up on end when you can feel it. But I haven’t seen anything. Then the noises started, these horrible groaning sounds in the dark. And no matter what, I haven’t been able to see anything. Neither has Michael, but he’s felt the same things,” she explains.

“Have you seen anything, besides the spots of blood on the floor? Any shadows, or strange disturbances in the air?” he asks, because he may not be an expert in all curses, but he thinks that if this came from an email, and was cursing individual people, it wouldn’t be causing things like that, things outside of each individual.

“I haven’t noticed a source. But that makes sense with a curse, right? That it would follow the people who are cursed, not be coming from like a dark shadow or something?” she asks, clearly worried, looking for some reassurance that that’s what it is.

“Yeah, that would make sense with some curses, other’s though, could be different. It’s hard to say without knowing what kind of curse it is,” he reasons. But he thinks that it might not be the sort of curse it seems like, just hearing what she has to say. “Are you only experiencing these feelings in this room?”

She frowns, looks at Michael and then back at Ignatius, as if only now realizing it. “Things have been feeling weird everywhere in the house, but it seems worst here, yeah. That’s weird, I hadn’t noticed it. But this is where the blood was, and this is where I heard the noises,” Alissia says, shaking her head, clearly as confused by that as he is.

Maybe the email hasn’t cursed her specifically, he considers, maybe it’s cursed the room, or the computer itself. He does believe her, does believe that something’s wrong here and it’s not just paranoia making nothing into something, but he doesn’t feel much closer to figuring out what, and being able to stop it.

“You see anything weird in there, Tavi?” he asks, looking back at him, hoping he’s found something that might give a better hint at what this all is.

#( tavi. )#( haunted emails in houston. )

athenafq:

Emerson’s energy is almost infectious, and she imagines it isn’t always that way, that sometimes the six year old’s bubbling enthusiasm can be just as tiring as it is buoying right now, especially the longer it goes on, but she right now she isn’t letting herself thing about that: instead, she lets Emerson’s boundless excitement bring a little enthusiasm into her own energy, smiles along as Emerson bounces up and down as she goes on about how much she loves Abel. And who can blame her: Abel is easy, and kind, and soft of effortlessly generous, seems like the type who would be good around kids.

She finds herself blushing, again, a little bit, as Ignatius goes on and on about her to Emerson. That’s been happening an awful lot lately, the blushing thing, not something she was used to doing, but she feels warm and happy with it, with the compliment, and with the way he makes something a six year old would probably have no interest in sound so simple and so easy for her.

“I think it’s really fun,” she adds, to Emerson. “Making things that help people, like spells and special bracelets. Just like you like making bracelets, I like making spells for things that don’t have spells.”

Emerson’s eyes go a little wide with excitement and amazement, when she mentions making spells, an interest in the idea that is… honestly kind of remarkable, when most people’s eyes glaze over the second she brings this up in conversation, says anything about the principles of spell theory or anything like that.

“Can I see one of your spells?” she asks, and Athena pauses for a moment, looking over at Ignatius, looking for some kind of permission, waiting for him to shake his head no or nod it yes so she knows whether or not this is okay. She isn’t sure, entirely, how he wants to handle exposing Emerson to more magic, given everything he was worried about, and her conversation with Abel. She’s really not sure at all how much exposure to magic Emerson has, aside from her dad, and there are plenty of harmless, fun little spells she could show her, but she doesn’t want to cross and lines, push any boundaries, unless it’s okay with Ignatius for her to do it.

Seeing Athena interact with Emerson feels more right than he could’ve imagined. He’s trying not to put too much weight on this first meeting––Emerson’s not always in such a good mood, there are hard days, hard nights, for both of them, and there are so many bridges they’ve yet to cross––but it still means a lot. Athena seems to know intuitively how to talk to her, what she’ll be interested in, and she seems to be enjoying it, too.

He watches Emerson closely as Athena explains things, too, curious to see how she’s going to react to that idea. Everything here is new territory, after all. Emerson has always known that he has magic, and she’s known that other adults do, too, although maybe not the extent of it. It wasn’t necessarily a conscious choice that he had made to keep her exposure to a minimum, at least not because he had assumed she might not have it herself. No, at first it had been for their safety, to keep both of them better hidden and protected, preferring to live in a muggle neighborhood, do most of their shopping in muggle stores, preferring not to be out in the open in Port Steward with her, in case the wrong person noticed them. But in the past year, it had become more of a choice, worried about her future, what her world would be like.

It had been his fear, though, not one that she even knew she should have, which was evidenced by how well she had taken all of their talks, and her talk with Abel, too. The worry hasn’t left, and it probably never will, because she’s his daughter, but he’s realized that he can’t let his own fears hold her back from the world. He’s grateful, though, that this realization happened now, when she’s still so young, so hopeful and full of awe, in a situation where seeing someone else’s magic can feel, well, magical, instead of something that leaves her out.

And he appreciates Athena’s silent question. He thinks it could do her good, to see some casual, but different than what she sees him do around the house, start to understand that magic isn’t just a useful thing.

“Yeah, of course. Maybe one day when you’re older, Em, you can come up with some ideas, and Athena can help you make them,” Ignatius nods, and Emerson looks positively thrilled at the idea. He looks back at Athena, shrugging slightly, a smile on his lips, a little proud as he goes on. “She’s already reading at a third grade level, watch out, she might be doing your research for you one day.”

#( athena. )#( athena | first date. )

aurormonday:

Jack looks on fondly as April guides Emerson into the store, continuing to hold her hand as she navigates the two of them towards the wall of unpainted pottery just ahead. At one point she bends down to whisper something into the younger child’s ear, and gets a very serious nod in response from Emerson. He’s not quite sure what it was that she whispered until moments later, after Emerson had fallen absolutely in love with the tea cup that was clearly out of her reach. Instead of trying to reach for a teacup though, April points to one before giving Emerson a questioning look.

“This one?” She asks, and when she gets the confirmation she needs from the six year old she reaches up and grabs it delicately before handing it to Emerson.

“You still going with two mugs and a t-rex?” He asks her as he steps ahead, looking over the shelves himself to see what on earth he was going to paint.

“You mean one mug and a t-rex?” She corrects him, shooting him another little smirk before she spots the t-rex in question, on a shelf that was even too high up for her gangling arms to reach. Looking back at him, she points to her wand in her pocket, the same one they’d gotten from Shikoba Wolfe’s last summer with the barn owl carved into the handle. She’s asking him silently if she can use it to retrieve the figurine is what she’s doing. Looking over to Emerson, then Iggy, he shakes his head before grabbing it for her. The point of this little trip was to introduce Emerson to April’s magic, but using it now in such a way might make Emerson feel left out.

“Do you know what you’re going to paint?” She asks after he hands her the t-rex.

“Nope, no clue,” he shakes his head, casting another glance in Iggy’s and Emerson’s direction to see what the other auror was going to do.

“You should pick that one,” April cuts in and points up to a figurine of a flamingo sipping a cocktail as it rests against a palm tree, “I bet Marleigh would like that one.”

Jack eyes grow wide at the mention of the other wix, he hadn’t told Iggy yet about him and Marleigh, which yes he knows he really should have by now, but the time never felt right. April quickly realizes her mistake though as her face twists into a small cringe. “Sorry,” she mouths, as he waits to see Iggy’s reaction.

He gives Emerson’s hair a little ruffle as April hands her the cup, and she looks at it in awe already, clearly imagining her vision for the perfect paint job. With Emerson satisfied quickly enough he looks around for what he should paint. Maybe something that Emmy can put in her room, he thinks that could be sweet. A cow, while cows still hold lingering relevance to her, maybe, he considers as April and Jack look around as well.

Full of the tact of someone years beyond her age, April pauses before pulling her wand out, checking to see if it was the right time, and he’s silently glad that Jack silently tells her to hold off for now, wanting to make sure himself that Emerson was settled in things, before jumping into the big topic at hand here.

“You can paint a teapot, daddy! Then we can have a teapot for our tea!” Emerson suggests enthusiastically, and it is a cute idea.

“Good idea, Em, we can finally have a complete set,” he grins, reaching up to claim one of the unpainted teapots. Before he can get any further, though, April points to a little flamingo figurine, and mentions Marleigh. And it takes a second, takes Jack’s wide-eyed look for it to really hit, what it means that April is suggesting Jack paint a fucking flamingo for Marleigh.

“Marleigh... oh. Oh,” he mutters, looking between April and Jack, speechless for a split second, for once in his life. As it starts hitting, he looks at April. “Thank you, April, I appreciate your honesty, it’s an admirable trait.”

And then he looks at Jack, shaking his head, utterly surprised by this development, not a word to have suggested that was happening before this moment. It makes him wonder how much else he missed in the week he was gone. But also if this is the reason that Jack’s been acting weird, apologizing a lot, well it makes him roll his eyes, to realize he had been not telling him they’re, what, dating or some shite, and not like hating his guts quietly.

“Are you kidding? That’s what you’ve been keeping from me, you old slag. Don’t repeat that word, girls. I thought you were gonna drop me, or something, because I’ve been off since Scotland. I cannot believe it, I cannot believe that. There are a lot of words I wanna say, but there are young ears present. How long? How long have you two been a real thing, and conveniently omitting information around me? April knew, and I didn’t? And here I was, thinking we had something special.”

#( jack. )#( jack | emmy & april. )

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