Stars Align

"Hey, time to wake up over there."

Rivkah looked up from the hand mirror at the man standing across the room from her at an easel. The man nodded at her, pushing up his glasses with paint-covered hands, leaving a drop of red on the bridge of his glasses. "How you feeling?"

Rivkah dropped the mirror on the bed next to her, leaning forward and resting her elbows on her knees. "...Tired," she said, for lack of a better word. A better word might be... distant? Like the feeling you got after a long time spent daydreaming. "What time is it?"

"Nine," Dylan said, his light brown curls falling down between his glasses and his eyes as he turned back to his painting. He blew up at the hair, trying to get it out without using his hands. "See anything?"

Rivkah shook her head. "Jack shit," she said, blinking hard. "Maybe something, but I don't remember it."

"Don't let it discourage you. Probably we haven't found the right medium for you yet," he said, studying his painting. "It's easy to get lost looking, too."

"I know," she muttered, standing up and stumbling as her legs nearly gave way. She felt way too weak after that.

"I was gonna order pizza soon if you want any," Dylan said, putting down his palette on a table near the easel. "You probably shouldn't go out yet like that,"

"Pizza is awesome," Rivkah said, wandering over towards the window and pulling open the blinds. She stared down from Dylan's window on the fifth floor of his apartment complex to the city below. Clubs were starting to light up already, filling up with college kids drinking and dancing away the weekend. Dylan lived in the heart of the 'college' district of the city, near the university campus - the guys who lived there called it Dinkytown.

She heard the sound of running water as Dylan turned the sink on. "You gonna go out and join them?" he asked.

Rivkah shrugged. "Maybe. Why the hell not."

Rivkah handed the guy at the door her ID, hoping he wasn't going to look too closely at it. Her 21st was in two months, and it couldn't come quick enough.

Finally he nodded, handing it back to her and letting it in. Music blasted out the door of Tourniquet and into the street, one of the few punk rock clubs in the city. Everywhere else played the same boring popular shit, and Rivkah stuck out like a sore thumb. Sure, she loved to crash the party at other places, but only with other people - and Dylan wasn't exactly the type. Good guy - grad student in studio art, powerful witch with a specialty in divination - but too nice for what she liked to do.

Rivkah adjusted her skirt as she walked in, running into a wall of people almost immediately as she walked in. Club was packed tonight, and she reflexively reached for the choker around her neck. She'd imbued it with a charm that turned off anyone with ill intention - possible assailants and rapists would feel sick the closer they came to her. It was probably the 'goodest' spell she knew.

Okay, so she didn't really know it, and maybe it had been mostly Dylan doing the charming, but it was nice. Especially when she was out here to have a good time and not get caught up in some magic bullshit. It wasn't like she could sneak her books and hex materials in when they where searching everyones purse for bombs at the door.

Rivkah pushed through the crowd to the bar to get a drink, waiting for that before she dove in to the dance floor.

Rivkah almost didn't notice when the window broke near the entrance to the club - she heard something shatter, certainly, but she was a bit busy chugging her beer to really care. Probably someone dropped a glass.

"Pulvinar aeris!"

Rivkah slammed her glass down, glaring down at the floor. God his pronunciation sucks. Rivkah turned, leaving her glass on the counter to see the suited witch picking himself off the floor. He dusted himself off, glancing around him at all the people he shoved out of the mosh pit.

Rivkah raised her hands to applaud and started cheering, and the drunk dancers around her were quick to join, unwilling to think too much about what just happened. The crowd around the man started to rush back to the dance floor - perhaps convincing themselves this was a stunt put on by some band that'd be playing live later in the week. The bouncers, on the other hand, would know better. There was no fooling them.

Rivkah pushed through the crowd as it formed again, riding it towards the suited asshole in the middle of the floor. "Nice going, jackass," she hissed. "Get out of here." She made sure to get a little too close, watching his face to see if her choker's charm was going to work on him.

Rivkah looked at him oddly. Weirdo. She stepped back as he left himself, not bothering to follow him. She was here to have a good time, damn it, and no wandering witch was going to stop her. She momentarily considered texting Dylan about this to see if this guy was Coven, but quickly dismissed that. If he was, she still didn't give a damn, and if he wasn't, she wasn't about to rat on a rogue witch. Dylan was cool, and sure, it was on Coven orders he was teaching her and all, but the Coven loved getting in other people's business way too much.

She quickly increased the distance between her and the weirdo so the bouncers wouldn't think they were together, and was swallowed up soon in the mosh pit and the music. Fuck it, I'm doing what I came here for.

She knew she was dancing, and that the music, whatever it was, was phenomenal - but it wasn't til she was halfway through the song that she recognized the man opposite her. And that the lead of the song was her

Her face contorted into a scowl as she recognized the enchantment, but she kept on singing and her body kept on moving in time with the witch across from her. This asshole...

She managed to get a good look at the rest of the club as they kept dancing - every last one of them seemed caught up in the spell. If she was lucky, they wouldn't remember her up here dancing and singing some - what even was this? Broadway bullshit? She struggled to regain control of herself to some degree, focusing on her fingers.

He turned and ran as the song neared the end, and Rivkah's singing turned sour as her anger mounted. Good sign that, at least. Indeed, as soon as the song ended, Rivkah stumbled, the beat of the music letting her go.

She looked down at her hands and scanned the floor quickly. His hair was long enough that just maybe...

She crouched down and fumbled around the floor as the crowd launched into another song. She pulled a thin strand of hair from the floor, studying. Dark, little bit of grey, she'd bet on that being his. She could test it later to be sure she didn't hex some poor other kid here having a good time. Jackass is gonna pay for that somehow.

She held the strand of hair delicately between her fingers, curling her hand into a ball as she stormed for the doors. The spell might pull her in again if she stuck around. And she wasn't in the mood for anymore dancing, anyway.

Rivkah set her grocery bag on the ground, sitting down on the ground at the edge of the water. The city lay across a river, and this late at night no one was walking around the river. There were paths along the river, and between them and the river there were trees and ledges - the ledge she sat on now she'd gotten to through a barely trodden down path from the main walking path.

Cigarette butts littered the ground she sat on, as well as broken glass, and she imagined this was a place many teenage boys came to drink illegally. She'd have to hope they weren't coming here tonight.

Rivkah reached into the grocery bag and pulled out a tiny plastic bag with the man's hair in it. The rest of the grocery bag was full of fruit and oreos, and she pulled out a pack of double stuffed as she turned to her messenger bag.

She had to sneak into the apartment to get some stuff for spelling, but she didn't want to stick around. It was a one bedroom she shared with Dylan, and she slept out on the couch - no way could she cast spells without him knowing. There was no privacy in that place. And this, she wanted to deal with this without Coven involvement.

Rivkah pulled out a pair of scissors from her messenger bag and carefully, oh so carefully, pulled out the strand of hair she'd taken off the man. She snipped off a bit of the hair and held it in the palm of her hand, storing the rest back in the plastic baggie. She'd have to be conservative with this. Rivkah dropped the scissors and pulled out a lighter. She cradled the tiny strand of hair in the palm of her hand and held the lighter to it.

"Respice!" she muttered, lighting the strand of hair.

"...you charlatan!"

Rivkah blinked and found herself looking through someone else's eyes at a man walking away from her.

Her mouth opened and a much deeper voice came out. "So you won't be giving me a recommendation then...?"

That certainly sounds like him, she thought as she - he kept on speaking. Come on, give me something, a mirror, name plate, anything!

He finally turned around, walking into what looked like an antique store, full of junk and old crap and mirrors! He walked by one, and Rivkah just managed to see the outline of the man she'd encountered earlier in the mirror.

She blinked as the vision started to fade, and blinked down at her palm. Slightly scorched, it looked, but she hadn't felt a thing. Rivkah grinned and cracked her knuckles. Time to go to town...

Rivkah awoke the next day with a smile on her face. The curse she'd placed on that bastard was a fickle one - it gave the receiver a 'punishment' based on perceived crimes done to the caster, so it had the potential to get pretty damn creative. She'd saved some of the hair from him still in the plastic baggie and was tempted to use it to see what the curse was, but that was too valuable. Leverage if she ran into him again.

Anyway, she had work today, and classwork to get to as well, so she took the bus into the city to the mall. She arrived just barely in time, at noon, at the shoe store she worked at, Journeys. Place sold a lot of canvas shoes, converse, vans, the like, and they'd seemed chill enough about having her work the store front if she toned down her punk a little bit. At the time they'd hired her, she'd been more than willing if only to get some damn money in her bank account.

Rivkah kept her charmed choker on and her messenger bag in the back with his strand of hair - just in case.

"Can... I help you sir?" she asked, realizing something was wrong in the middle of her sentence. Definitely outside their demographic.

One of her coworkers was helping out another customer, and when she looked at him he shrugged. Rivkah approached the man. "Is something wrong?"

Rivkah frowned as he hid behind a shoe rack, and looked over to see several suited men passing by. Son of a bitch. If he was going to bring trouble into this shop...

She sighed, and moved between him and the entrance to block any view of him. "Well, I'd recommend the galaxies," she said, picking up a shoe with a galaxy design printed on it. "We're running out of stock of these fast." She wasn't allowed to kick a 'customer' out, and there wouldn't be trouble if whatever was following him didn't find him in the first place.

She blinked as the man threw her a hundred and walked out, visibly sick. Immediately she put the bill up to the light - it seemed legit enough. Can't assume he's sick from my charm. It was certainly a very real possibility, but it could be his nerves as well making him obviously sick.

Either way he was gone, so whatever ill intent he was carrying, if any, was directed elsewhere. She put the hundred in the register at the bottom of the twenties and rested her forearms on the counter with a sigh.

She frowned, thinking. Something about the man walking away from the counter seemed familiar to her...

Rivkah pulled her messenger bag over her shoulder, glancing behind her. She felt... uneasy. Like someone was watching her. She wished she knew some spell to seek out ill intent, but that was more Dylan's fare than hers.

She stepped out of the shop, waving to her coworkers as she left and stopped in her tracks. In the center of the mall looked to be some sort of commotion, and Rivkah walked closer to see- oh. So that was the curse.

That asshole from yesterday was running through the middle of the mall, dragging in others on the musical the curse had manifested itself as. Of course it's area of effect, couldn't the damn thing have just stuck to him and not drug others into it? "And way to be subtle," she muttered, jackass, he was going to draw the attention of any witch worth their salt. He had to be Coven. If this was how he normally conducted himself no way had he escaped their notice.

Rivkah grimaced and turned to walk into the girl's bathroom. She checked the stalls, ensuring she was alone before she slammed and locked the door on the last stall. Rivkah rummaged through her bag, searching for the strand of hair and pulled it out. She held it between her fingers, glaring at it as she fumbled to pull out her lighter.

With a flick of her lighter the hair went up, and she muttered in some older language under her breath. That should dismiss the damn curse. If it just affected him... but of course he'd drag normal people into it.

"Let's do the time warp agaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaain!"

He felt great. As far as curses went, best one ever. Then he felt a snap and knew before people began clearing out that the curse had been lifted. "Aw, man!" he grumbled. "No fair! I was totally going to go with The Hills Are Alive next!" He snapped his fingers. The day had just gotten boring.


As Rivkah exited the bathroom, big men in suits were waiting for her, the bathrooms being nicely blocked from view of passerby. They didn't look very friendly.

"Hand it over, girlie," one of them said, "and maybe we'll let you get back to see your mommy."

Rivkah stopped, looking up at them blankly. "Hand over what," she said flatly.

They looked among each other. "Girl," the man said, flashing her a toothy smile, "I'm asking real polite here. Can the games or you might make it home to mommy in plastic bags."

Rivkah raised her hands in a shrug. "The bag? You should know college kids are broke, I ain't got shit in there." She watched their eyes, not backing down. You fellas should be in range of my charm...

She really didn't want to cast anything here. She had just gotten pissed at that one witch for his lack of subtlety.

Rivkah grimaced as one of them puked all over her shoes. Her usual boots were plenty waterproof, but they made her wear the store's wares, and that shit bled straight through canvas shoes.

"I guess I'll be going then," she said, skirting around them and walking quickly away. She hopped on one foot to pull off one of her shoes, then the other, and dumped them in the first trash bin she could find, taking off barefoot. God her feet felt gross, she didn't know if anything made it onto her feet but she was going to wash them in fucking acid tonight.

Were those the same suited guys following that one man...? Rivkah snapped her fingers as she jogged, thinking. Had he planted something on her to get them off his trail? Should have been more careful. But where had she seen that other man before...?

"Fuck," she muttered. That was the guy her suited witch had been talking to when she took a trip around inside his head. He was clinging to her like a curse. It was too bad she was out of his hair, because she was getting more and more irritated with him...