sorserer | ( office hours & overflow )

[x]

[Grande caramel latte in hand, Andy does make it into the Down to meet up for their semi-shady medical slash magical appointment. It's not like he's trying to hide it from Andy Sr and Ben, but when people do literally everything they can for you, you hate to keep burdening them with your own dumb shit. If he can get a handle on the whole sleepwalking thing without dragging them into it, all the better and a load off everybody's shoulders. He's not sure that Dr. Strange'll be able to do anything but he's got his fingers crossed. And an extra white macadamia cookie for good luck.

Down's not his favorite place to traverse but with his hood up and backpack on, he looks every part the slightly too skinny and awkward teen when he makes it to the pin and knocks on the corresponding door. He's unaware of the two resounding auras of magic on him; charms on his keys for good luck and safety and a hell of a messy spell on him, made by an equally teenage witch months ago to glamor over the look of death that comes with - well, having died and been reanimated. Baked under the surface of that is something else, elusive and dark, hidden deep under the magic, the axe body spray and the cheerful disposition.]

Um, what's up Doc?

[ stephen, upon opening the door, gives him a flatly unimpressed look. ]

I’ll pretend you didn’t say that. [ but he does open the door to admit him. ] Andy, right?

[ there’s a slight pause when stephen closes the door behind him. the good luck charms aren’t really anything to write home about, as good as a skillfully made purchase from that shop those kids run down the way, but that glamor application could use a touch-up, like a car that needs going to the shop. he resists the temptation to peek what’s beneath for now. some people like their privacy.

stephen’s apartment is standard-issue, but he’s made himself somewhat at home: there are protective rune carvings in the doors and windowsills, mismatched candles on the counter, books with little annotation tabs sticking out. he gestures to the small breakfast table with its two chairs. ]

Please, have a seat.

Yeah.

[He confirms with a soft duck of his head over the Doc situation, half smiling as he scoots along and in to the apartment. Truth be told he hasn't seen much of the Down since he spent his time in the dorms, having been swept up and away to the Up with his contract and never really found many excuses to come back to it. That said, he's kind of enthralled by the place - and looks around accordingly, admiring (but not touching!) rune carvings and the witchy ambiance of candles and books. He makes it to the table, before setting down what he's holding on it and taking the offered seat after drawing back the chair. It's much more interesting than any bland, default apartment, in his opinion.

Even seated, he's still kind of looking around in a semi-distracted way, eyes circling back to Stephen in due time before he seems to remember the point of coming over here. Right, focus. Focus.]

Your place is really cool.

Thank you.

[ it’s a compliment earnestly meant and therefore earnestly received: stephen, for all that he’s not a people person, grudgingly likes nice kids; he runs into them in abundance back home, usually in costume or nosing around his business more effusively. ]

Would you like anything to drink yourself before we get down to business? [ he’s an effective host. ]

Nah, I'm good thanks.

[He tries not to slouch in his seat but ends up hunching forward instead, tapping his fingers against his knee to quell the build up of anxiety that always seems to precede these moments of help. Kyle was good with it all, talking to him kind and slow, not alarming him when he was probably alarmed himself. City-run check up kinda sucked ass though, so he's not sure where between the two extremes this meeting's going to go but it's Dr. Fucking Strange - he's gotta be cool, right?]

... So um. Yeah. Hi.

[ without any evident hand movement, there is just a nice glass of iced water on andy’s side of the table, as if it had always been there. stephen winks, unsmiling. ]

Restaurant service. Just in case.

[ and he’s taking the latte, investigating it briefly and then approvingly, pulling off the lid. ]

Have you already had a regular medical consultation? Like at the hospital down here. Dr. Valenti’s team does good work, so it’s useful to hear what they might have ruled out.

[Andy raises his brows when he notices the glass, murmuring an appreciative and slightly awed 'oh cool' under his breath. He glances back to Stephen, momentarily watching his inspection and subsequent approval of his drink before relaxing (why did he tense up in the first place?) and then carries that energy into his reply:]

Yeah, sort of? There was the weird city ones recently but before that um, I had met with Ky- uh, Doctor... Dr. Valenti. He was gonna run some extra tests and he said something about maybe having a heart murmur, or needing to monitor it? Which I gotta do but the whole city's creepy exams happened and... well.

[Gotta get back to it. He rubs at his chest, thinking about it all over again.]

I wanted to try stuff from all angles, y'know?

Fair enough. I’m happy to take a look with the tools I have at my disposal.

[ stephen doesn’t really seem like the type who’s happy to do most things, but his affect is nevertheless polite, downright cordial. ]

One last thing before we get started. How long has this been going on?

That I know of? Since I got here, mostly. So that's... uh, four months already.

[Takes him a moment to process that, because time seems to fly when you're not having fun. He scratches at the side of his neck and puts aside the softly anxious thought of how many caramel lattes he'll owe Stephen by the end of this to try and better answer the question, like he did before for Kyle.]

Eating thing was at least since August, which... was only a month before that for me. So five months? It was after I came home from working at summer camp, leading into senior year. The sleepwalking is um, new though. So far as I know, anyway.

[He should know, though- right?]

[ the circular logic of how andy describes his experience with time is familiar to stephen, who’s done an unfortunate amount of fussing around in timestreams both in and out of duplicity. he nods at length, taking it in, and then--

it’s in a slowly descending line of sparking light that his comfortable pajamas trade themselves for his robes. no cloak, just dress blues, and by way of explanation he offers: ]

Work uniform.

[ he takes a long sip of the latte, then sets it aside. ]

I’m going to have a look inside your head. Think of it as a magical MRI. Unobtrusive, painless. Feeling things out, so to speak. If I don’t find anything neurological or magical in origin centered in that area, I’ll have to do a little more digging. You can stay seated; in fact it’s better if you relax. Sound good? [ a pause, and then with his head inclined in self-aware bemusement: ] I will say it’s easier if I touch your face. Sorry in advance.

[It's one thing to know people in Duplicity are enhanced, supernatural or just plain magic and another for them to show it to you in person so of course Andy goes 'oh cool' in response, brows shot up as he looks Stephen over after the quick switch of clothing. He tries not to shift too obviously in his seat to get a better look and takes a moment to distract himself with a sip of that water he said he was too good to need but ends up trying anyway.]

... that must come in handy a lot.

[The work uniform switcheroo. But, right, right:]

And yeah, that's okay. If you find something wrong at all- you'll tell me first, before trying to fix it though? Just so I know. An' we're on the same page or, um. Whatever.

It certainly disqualifies me from employment at the strip clubs.

[ a perfectly even-keeled response. ]

And yes, of course. If I see anything unusual, I’ll let you know, and let you know what I think your options are, and aid you in pursuing them as best I can. Alright?

Yeah, cool.

[What else do you say in agreeance? He's saying cool too much which is inherently uncool but he's blaming the whole white-coat syndrome of anxiety or whatever for the whole debacle. He's got that little anxious twist in his chest already, and focuses on deep inhales and slow exhales to try and center himself because the last thing he wants is Dr. Strange in his head with a front row seat to Andy's built up anxiety.

He slips a little bit further on the edge of his seat, waiting for the start of - this - knowing like Stephen warned him that there'll be face touching for best results. Also knowing, of course, that he'll probably blush because of it so he's preemptively looking downward rather than up at Stephen. Just get it over with, Doc.]

[ when stephen reflects on this moment later, he won’t remember having been briefly amused, charmed even, by andy’s easy compliance; there’ll be other things to worry about. but he quirks another half-smile at the kid, not really trying for reassuring, and leans forward himself.

he doesn’t cup andy’s face or anything--in fact his scarred thumb descends, gently shaking, just above the space between andy’s eyebrows. there’s a spillover of light from his hand, then, a little flash of rune emblematic of something inherent to the kid blossoming out from the touch, and stephen, without any external movement, is sinking into that light, searching. ]

[Andy doesn't know what to do in this moment, aside from stare over at Stephen or stare unfocused at his hand as it settles right before the bridge of his nose; rather than either of those he just closes his eyes, breathing in slow to try and mimic some sense of Stephen's calmer demeanor while the magical shitshow that is looking inside his head is about to begin.

There are three layers to him where there should only be one core piece of Andy to begin with. That's still there, but it's wrapped in the gossamer glow of someone else's magic which wraps around and infiltrates it. It's strong magic but it's at the same time amateur - untapped talent poured into a mold by untrained hands, holding steady but ready to burst at the seams. It's a glamor, something to keep people from seeing the physical tragedy beneath it but it is also its own layer of walls keeping fractured memories back. Keeping Andy from remembering what happened to him but also from ever daring to ask if anything happened in the first place.

The third part, however, is deeper under that. It's reclusive, pulling back like a tortoise into its shell, trying to hide away from the light. Like inky black bugs crawling to get back under the recently overturned rock, the insidious nature of it wants to evade Stephen, his light and investigation all together. But it's also not afraid to fight, waiting precariously on a metaphorical fence to see if it can get away with hiding first.]

[ it’s more than stephen expected, and it’s only long and arduous training that keeps him from recoiling at what he finds beneath the glamor first--not out of disgust but ordinary alarm: the inherent wrongness of having all that harm collapsed on a kid sitting across from him at his breakfast table, and to have it walking as if on strings, smelling like teen boy body spray--and is it just harm? it’s worse, it reminds him of the kids he’d see sometimes too still and too in pain in christine’s operating room, people who got hit by a car--

he stays steady, though, like he’s on triage. digs in deeper. and then, when he finds resistance, he pushes past it too easily, like carding fingers through wet tissue paper. that’s just skill at work.

but he doesn’t like what he finds there either, and how it tries to flee. andy’s eyes are closed, so he can’t see the way stephen’s expression tightens; and even if his eyes were open he wouldn’t be able to see the way stephen’s magic pursues when whatever it is under there flees. his pursuit is dogged, singular. something’s wrong, past what stephen would’ve expected from a sleepwalking kid, and there’s no hesitation in his desire to find out what it could possibly be. ]

[The lovely little entity doesn't like attention pinned to it and it has two courses of action as a means of remedying it - it could fight back and reveal itself or it can try to hide a little bit deeper, with a distraction to cover its tracks. It's not until it starts to feel backed into a corner by Stephen's probing that it pulls the trigger on the latter, right when the metaphorical headlights shine into its eyes like a deer on the road, gleaming yellow for a split second. And then:]

Uh...

[Andy's voice pipes up with a soft clearing of his throat, a wave of discomfort running through him. It's like there's a rubber band around his chest, around his heart, and he raises a hand to touch to his sternum before he's blinking open his eyes. Furrowing his brows, he shapes a few silent words before just:]

I don't feel so hot, is it - um, how's it going?

["Can we take a break" without saying can we take a break.]

[ it’s a different and distinct interruption in stephen’s spellcasting that alerts him to andy’s discomfort--more that than andy’s voice, which stephen, in the throes of intense focus, might have seen fit to ignore. he withdraws quickly, though not abruptly; the tendrils of searching light emitting from his fingers all pull in on themselves, like a receding tide.

another moment passes before stephen’s attention aligns itself appropriately. his mind is still whirring. something’s wrong, he wants to say, but without the benefit of further details he’s not sure he wants to freak the kid out. moreover, what does that--whatever it was--have to do with the glamor? he’d thought initially the glamor was just something to do with the body, but there’s more there, the wall between the material reality of him and the magical reality having to do also with the kid’s mind--and deep in the recesses of that magic, whatever it was that skittered away under light--

his thumb brushes the side of andy’s temple, as if feeling out a fever. and then he pulls his hand back. ]

Drink. [ the water, he means. ] I have followup questions. But they can wait until you’re feeling better.

[Andy feels - strange, like he's suddenly fatigued and doesn't know what's causing it so he looks to Stephen with uncertainty and confusion - is this just part of the whole mind thing? Should he feel fine right now or is it okay to feel a bit like a scrambled egg, heart hitching in his chest like he's afraid of something without anything to be afraid of. Man, he's only really felt this way when coming out of his sleep walking. Weird.

He hesitates but ultimately reaches for the glass of water - Stephen's got the whole authoritarian vibe going as well as being someone he assumes knows what he's doing, so. Andy takes a sip, then another, and looks back up with a slightly doe eyed look. Already feeling a bit better, coincidentally now that Stephen's out of his head.]

Sorry. Just kinda felt weird. What, what um - are your questions?

[ i’m sure you did, part of stephen wants to retort--but even his bedside manner is better than that. he eases back in the seat and resists the urge to open his third eye, which he knows would dig further but perhaps not constructively.

so far stephen has several hypotheses. the most unpleasant ones name the boy for what he is--a variation on a lich, some sweet kind soul soon to be subsumed by something darker. the nicer ones, the ones he has to put effort into working through before he inevitably casts them aside, knows andy is a victim--though of what he doesn’t know. ]

I wasn’t under the impression you’d seen other magic users about your condition. But if you have, it’d be good to know. In order to compare notes.

[ a gentle and leading statement, not quite a question. ]

Um, no - I've seen Dr. Valenti and that's about it.

[And it won't be until after Insincerity that that gets checked in on again, by merit of things being pushed and nothing seeming too bad, at least not yet. He takes one more sip of water before just holding the glass between his hands, looking over to Stephen to watch his response. Should he be seeing other magic users? Man, weird to even think they exist nevermind they're gonna have any way to help him with his stupid sleepwalking.]

... Should I look into more opinions?

... no. I might. And then I’ll get back to you.

[ stephen curves his hand around his latte again. ]

I don’t think it’s anything neurological, so that’s good. Could be an outlying city effect; I’m sure by now you know how unusual those tend to be. I need some time to look into it and then I’ll follow up. For now, so long as your parents are keeping you safe and making sure you don’t fall into any indoor pools, just hang in there. Alright?

Uh, yeah. Okay.

[He nods once, taking that all into account. It's kinda relieving that someone's giving him logical explanations for a cause - he didn't really even begin to think that the city's influence could have a hand in it, but hey. Maybe? He takes one last sip of water before politely setting the glass a little farther away as if to say 'done, thanks' and. Well.]

If uh, it gets worse or something... I'll reach out?

[Man, he wants to - ask more, or talk more (because it's Dr. Freaking Strange,) but he's just... really tired and the fatigue just makes him wanna head home and go straight to bed. Weird, considering he felt fine a second ago. Clearly could not possibly be a manipulative force inside him piloting his actions around.]

Thanks for uh, the consult.

Please do.

[ there’s a business card on the table where there wasn’t one before: a single address and his call sign on the communicator in cursive that also manages to be a prescription pad scrawl. he slides it over with two fingertips. ]

Take this, and ...

[ he drains the rest of his latte with visible gratitude for the sudden influx of sweetness, then rises from his seat. he has a heavy brass ring on two fingers suddenly, which seem to play some obvious part in how he describes a circle in the air with his other hand: one portal, which leads to the checkpoint, and then another behind it, which leads to andy’s residence. ]

Get some rest. Alright?

[Andy gets up to his feet to take the card, eyes a little bit wide when Stephen does the whole magical circle thing - murmurs a soft 'whoa' because that's kinda really impressive and he's never been through freaking portals like this before. He gives a nod because of course he's gonna agree to get some rest at the Doctor's recommendation, but he's also about to get up a whole lot of shit in the next few weeks so it's a matter of time before he ends up having to use this card.

He steps over to the portal, almost a little nervous of it, but looks back to Stephen before stepping through to disappear home. (How'd he know?)]

Have a good day, Doc.

( office hours & overflow )

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