Playing With Toys

Who: Dorian and Jocelyn
Where: Nevermore
When: 9:45 AM

It had been his first dreamless night in what felt like weeks, and when Dorian rose for work Monday morning, he realized it was the first good night's sleep he'd had since the dreams started. Now that they'd taken their leave, perhaps things could get back to normal, though he still had the toy chest to worry about. Rather than leave it at home, Dorian packed it in the back of his car and drove it to work, setting it on the table in the center of the store. Once he got the shop opened and everything set, he'd get to looking at it, but there were things to attend to before then. The shop had been closed all day Sunday, with both he and Harper down at the mine, and there was a tiny bit of catching up to do.

Jocelyn had woken early to take her walk, taking the quiet hours of the morning to clear her head after the evening she had. Every now and then she'd absently suck on her lower lip whenever she allowed her mind to wander back and remember the way Val had kissed her. And then the rational part of her brain reminded her she loathed the bastard and she should be repulsed by the entire encounter. Which she was, of course. It was just another game, another play for the upper hand. Which she'd gained, of course.

Toward the end of her walk, Jocelyn passed Nevermore and paused. It'd been awhile since she'd treated herself to a new book, mainly because she'd tried so hard to do somethign different with her free nights than to read. It hadn't really worked out all that well, given the only true constant in her life so far was Val, and that alone was beyond sad, in Jocelyn's opinion. Stepping forward to enter, Jocelyn found herself in a truly peculiar situation. She couldn't enter. And it wasn't like the door was locked. It was as if there was some kind of invisible wall in front of her that she couldn't get through.

"What the..." Jocelyn lifted her hand, her brows furrowed together as she stepped back and swept her gaze carefully all along the outside of the store. She felt the energy coming from it, recognized it as some supernatural barrier. A powerful one. Stepping forward again, Jocelyn knocked briskly on the window. She'd thought she'd seen someone moving around inside when she'd almost passed by it moments before, but she couldn't be sure. If someone was inside, she wanted to make sure they were all right.

Dorian looked up when someone knocked on the window, brow furrowing slightly. Leaving the front desk, he walked to the door, peering out to see one of the women that frequented the store... or at least, he'd seen her around from time to time. "Is there a problem?" he asked, the barrier not stopping him in the least. It seemed as if he were immune to it, which was why he didn't know it was there in the first place.

"Maybe. I'm not sure." She studied him for a moment. Maybe he didn't know there was a strong barrier blocking people from entering his store. He certainly didn't seem to have any problem opening the door from his side anyway. Or maybe he was aware of it, and had it there for a reason. She honestly didn't know, but she certainly wanted to know. "You are open, aren't you?"

"Yes," Dorian answered, perplexed. The sign said open; the door was unlocked. "Why do you ask?" It seemed like a reasonable enough question. She'd been in the store before, he was sure of it, so it wasn't like she didn't know where the door was... which would have been bizarre in itself if she hadn't. Dorian looked at the window to see if there was something she could see that he hadn't, but nothing looked amiss. It appeared normal as ever.

That confused expression of his definitely told her he had no clue what was going on around his store. Jocelyn took a step toward him until she could go no further. There was really no reason to dance around it. She figured he owned a shop on the supernatural, and given some of the inventory, she was pretty damn sure he believed in most of it too. Lifting her hand, Jocelyn placed her palm against where she could feel the wall to show him. "You've got some kind of barrier around your store. I can't go any farther than this. Which granted, makes for pretty damn good security, but kind of takes away from the part where you sell things and actually make a profit," she added with a smile.

"You're kidding," Dorian said, sticking his hand through the space that she said there was a barrier blocking. If there was one, he could move through it just fine, but he also wasn't willing to completely step out of the shop to test it. What if he couldn't get back in. "It wasn't here yesterday," he murmured, though the store had actually been closed the day before, due to them going down to the mine... Dorian looked back at the toy box on the table. "I think I brought something in here. Something that might be blocking you." He looked at her again, considering what to do, then looked at the box again, then her. "I could take it out of the store, but that wouldn't get me any closer to understanding it. But at least I could have customers..."

Jocelyn peered past him into the store, insanely curious now as to exactly what it was that he'd brought inside that was creating this kind of barrier. It seemed like he could move through the barrier just fine, but she was of the same mind that if he walked out, he might not be able to get back in either. Pausing, she placed a hand on her hip and considered the situation. "Generally these kind of spells have loop holes. Ways to get around them." If one knew what kind of spell they were working with anyway. Chewing on her bottom lip in concentration, she lifted her gaze to Dorian. She'd created barriers in her time. Small ones, usually to keep her siblings from snooping around in her room when she lived at home. But that'd always been magic rather than charming, or cursing, an item to project the magic itself. "There's a couple different options. Whatever it is you have inside of there may need to be passed physically from person to person to gain entrance. Or it could be permanent, and the only one allowed entrance is the owner of the building. Some magic based barriers will fall away for those you invite inside, similar to the way vampires in movies have to be invited into one's home? Or if it's extremely dark magic, than you may have to destroy it. I guess it just depends on what kind of magic was used," Jocelyn told him, nudging the barrier with the toe of her shoe.

"I'd prefer to go with the non-destructive methods, if possible," Dorian said with a hint of a smile. "I could pass you the items, but there's more than one of them and I don't know which could be effecting the store. I don't really wanna step out, just in case I get locked out as well... though I was able to get in this morning, and I don't seem to be having trouble at the moment. That could be because you can move out, but not in? I don't know. How about we test them, one by one, and you tell me when the barrier falls away," Dorian suggested. "Easiest one to test first is the vampire method, right? So... you're welcome to come in?" he said, not sure if that counted as an invitation. Even if it did, he wasn't expecting it to work at all. Dorian was already fearing they'd be getting to the destructive methods before long, which was a shame. If he had something in that toy box that allowed that sort of magic, he'd prefer to keep it rather than break it.

It seemed like the logical first try and Jocelyn pushed her hand forward again, tentatively. She seemed to move through the barrier and her eyebrows lifted in surprise before she stepped forward, stopping in front of him. "Hey, it worked," Jocelyn said with a casual smile before stepping around him into the store. "That's going to make for an interesting day for you, having to invite all of your customers inside. I wonder if you make a welcome sign, that would count since technically it's an invitation, right? Unless you have to actually speak it, then that's when it gets slightly irritating." Jocelyn turned on her heel to look at Dorian. "Why don't you show me what you've got and I'll see if I can help you figure out what kind of magic you're dealing with."

"Hopefully I can identify what it is that's causing it and remove it from the store," Dorian laughed. "Cause I'm not standing at the door all day, welcoming people in." As she entered, the store, he moved to the trunk on the table, opening it up. He knew it had to be something in there, or perhaps the trunk itself, but Dorian wasn't exactly sure where to start. He'd worked with magic, but he wasn't a witch. What few spells he'd tried had almost always failed. It just went to show that just because one believed in something didn't mean they could make it work. "You deal with magic?" Dorian asked, looking up at her. It was perhaps expected, since she was often in the store, but he couldn't make assumptions. "I'm Dorian," he said, offering his hand. If they were going to play with the toy box, he should at least tell her his name.

"That's a shame. Customers love that kind of person to person service," Jocelyn replied with a tiny smile, following him to the trunk on the table. She watched as he opened it up and tried not to let her curiosity get the best of her this time. Looking over at Dorian, she noted his offered hand and reached out with her own to shake it briefly. "Jocelyn. I guess you could say I deal with magic, yes. It sort of runs in the family." And she assumed he'd take that as her admission that she was a witch. Jocelyn pulled her purse from her shoulder and set it on the table next to the toy box. "Where did you find this?" she asked, leaning over it to peer inside.

Dorian knew witches. In fact, they were far easier to come by than anything else, due to the fact that they were human. Some were better than others, certainly, but they had nothing to hide from, not in what they were. "Would you believe in a mine?" Dorian asked, pulling the first item out of the toy chest. He knew there'd been two other items in the chest, a doll and a rocking horse, that two of the kids had taken. He'd need to notify them later, just in case there was something about the items that was dangerous. "It looks like we've got a marionette," Dorian said, holding up the doll. She was awfully creepy, complete with strings and eyes that moved. "What do you think?" he asked her.

A mine? Jocelyn glanced his way, an odd look on her face before her gaze shifted to the marionette in his hand. She reached out to touch it, pushing at one of the legs that then began to swing back and forth. "It's ugly," she told Dorian and then used her fingers to stop the swaying leg. She could feel the magic inside of it. But it didn't feel like the barrier had felt against her hand. "In terms of the barrier outside of your store, I don't think this is what's causing it. But it feels strange. Not dark, per se, but there's definitely something about it." She just didn't know what yet. "Can I ask what a child's toy box was doing inside of a mine? Or is that a question you haven't yet got an answer to?"

"Somehow I doubt it was picked for being a pretty little thing," Dorian laughed. In fact, there seemed to be something off about all the toys, in his opinion. It was probably that they were just old and he wasn't familiar with them. "You can just sense the magic inside?" Dorian asked her, surprised that she could draw so much off an object without even a spell or something. The fact that he could end that thought with 'or something' told him just how little he knew about actually performing magic. "I don't know what the toy box was doing there. Basically, there were a number of us that were drawn to the mine through dreams. It happened often enough that we all finally went down there and explored it. The cave I took let to the toy box," Dorian shrugged. "I don't think this was why we were pulled in, but I wasn't gonna go back to find it later."

"Anything that looked like that would have given me nightmares as a child," Jocelyn pointed out with an easy grin. It was hard to explain the benefits of being skilled in using black magic, given the use of it was generally looked down upon, and since she didn't know just how much Dorian knew about magic in general, she decided against it. "I can't necessarily pull what kind of spells are located on a particular item. That takes a lot more in depth work than just touching it. But...do you ever just get a vibe from someone when you meet them? Instinctively, that gut feeling is either favorable, or it's not? Sometimes that's what happens with me. There's sort of a pulse surrounding things that are immersed in magic. Especially dark magic. The more magic I do, the more I feel like I can recognize it." The idea of dreams luring a person to a destination intrigued her and that much showed on her face as she released the marionette's leg. "Dreams? That's interesting. I wonder what trait you all shared that those dreams would chose you." And what on earth did a mine and magical toybox have to do with them?

"I've wondered that myself, for days now in fact. I know something special of at least one in the group, maybe two, and to my knowledge we have nothing in common other than the dream," Dorian told her, setting the marionette on the table. Leija had stood out in the group, at least to him, and he'd yet to figure out why she was having the dreams as well. Or maybe she wasn't, and she'd just been there with a friend. Then there was Harper, and something had definitely been up with Herbert, though he wasn't a dreamer either. "I can't sense magical things, per say. Sometimes things stand out though, so... I know what you're getting at. As one who uses magic, I suspect you get more of a feeling for it than I do." Dorian reached into the box and drew out the next item, a small wooden box made from dark mahogany with a brass lock on it. There was no other decoration on the box, and it was old and scuffed on the top, the edges worn, as if it's been handled roughly in the past. Dorian turned the box over in his hands, then shook it lightly.

She picked up the marionette briefly to examine it once more. "Then you should try to expand your knowledge. You could have more in common than you think. Maybe if you try to find out more about the people actually having the dreams, you could piece together more information, you know? That is, if you're comfortable doing that. I would say sharing the same dream that led you all to the same place means something and would forgive any incredibly nosy questions you decided to ask," Jocelyn said, placing the marionette back on the table and, watching as he pulled out a mahogany box. It was locked. Which instantly piqued her interest. She quieted as he shook it and her brows furrowed together. She'd heard a similar sound before, when she was younger. "Sounds like puzzle pieces inside. Is there a key somewhere?" She peered into the toybox to look.

"The problem with that is that not everyone who was there was having the dream. It's hard to distinguish being them. Plus, if it's something special that's tying us together, no one wants to be the first one to speak up. It's one thing to announce to the group that you're a witch," Dorian said, knowing that he'd never share with the group he was a half-demon, no matter how that might bring them together in some way. He seriously doubted there was anyone at the mine who shared that with him, except his brother, and Mathias was there by his request, not because he was having the dreams. "...It sounds like sleigh bells," Dorian said with a frown, then looked back in the toy chest, but there was nothing there to unfasten the lock. "I don't see a key, but..." But the fact that she wasn't hearing bells was mighty perplexing.

Jocelyn knew she'd have been someone who would have spoken up, but he had a point. Not everyone was as willing to discuss their affinities with strangers as she was. "I see your point. Although not every witch finds it as easy as I do to tell people what they are, given all the preconceived notions that are still had about us." Confusion then settled over her features. "You hear sleigh bells?" She took the box from his hands and shook it again, closer to her ear. "I don't hear anything remotely close to sleigh bells." Wasn't that interesting? And no key generally wasn't a problem for Jocelyn. She held the box against her, placing her palm against the lock. Magic surged through her and into the lock. She'd done this a hundred times that she barely had to think about it. Only this time the lock didn't unlatch the way other locks had. She tried again to no avail. A soft, frustrated breath escaped her lips and she looked up at Dorian. "This one is going to be a pain in the ass, I think."

"I wouldn't expect every witch to speak up. I know there are some people who would still consider burning you at the stake. But say, for example, that an angel was there. The witch is more likely to announce herself any day before the angel would," Dorian shrugged. "Not that I think I was surrounded by angels. In fact, I highly doubt that. But it makes it harder to investigate what we've got in common when we all have secrets we want to keep." He knew he was implying that he had some kind of ability himself, but that really wasn't the focus at the moment. No, he was far more interested in the box that she couldn't open, even with magic. "Do we need to get it opened?" he asked, listening as she shook it again. "And yeah, I most definitely hear sleigh bells. But do you feel anything from it?" He didn't care what sound it made if it wasn't the thing blocking his customers out of the store.

Jocelyn experienced secrecy everyday, working in Babylon. She'd grown used to it, though it never stopped her from wondering about every single person who walked through the doors. Who they were. What they could do. Dorian quite obviously had something special about him, something that would make these dreams choose him. But he wasn't telling her, and Jocelyn had her own secrets that she fought tooth and nail to keep, so she resisted asking him about it. For the moment. "I can deal with the stake burning fanatics. I have a problem with the smart asses that think they're oh so funny when they ask me where Hogwarts is," she muttered. She really wanted to know what was inside of the damn box, but at the moment it wasn't helping Dorian make his store anymore accessible, so with a bit of regret, she set it down next to the toybox. "Secrets can be a bit of a double-edged sword, if you ask me. They can make things incredibly difficult, or incredibly interesting. And no, it's not the box," Jocelyn sighed before nudging him gently. "What else do we have?"

"And, see, that's an answer that I thought had been fairly well established," Dorian said with a good natured smile. He looked at the box, as if considering shaking it some more, but then turned back to the toy box to take the final item out. "You run the risk either way. Damned if you do, damned if you don't," Dorian said, lips turning up. He set the item on the table, an open-topped crate filled filled with children's colored building blocks. Like the other toys, they were obviously old, the paint not faded, though they looked as if they'd once been red, blue, green, and yellow. Dorian hadn't counted them, but he'd say that there were at least twenty blocks in total, maybe a little more. "So I guess it's these," Dorian said, picking up one, looking at it curiously, then handing one over to Jocelyn. "Seem magical to you?"

"It's always interesting, though, finding out what people will take the risk and what people will hide from it," Jocelyn replied, her eyes on the crate of blocks he pulled out of the box. She took the one he offered in her hand and held it before turning it over to examine all four sides. Chewing on her lip for a moment, she studied it closely before she smiled. Her gaze lifted to Dorian's face and she held the block up between her fingers. "It's pretty clever, actually. Placing magic that projects a strong barrier on a bunch of blocks. A barrier than no one can get through unless invited, and if you're a smart kid, you only invite the people you know and trust. I don't know what the marionette does, or what's in the locked box, but I think maybe these toys were used to protect whatever children owned them. You can't always shield them from the dark things in the world, so why not place extra protection around them you can't be there." She picked up another block from the crate, this one with chipped blue paint, and held it in her other hand. "Of course, I could be totally wrong. I'm just speculating, but it would make sense, wouldn't it?"

"It would make sense," Dorian agreed. "The only thing throwing me off is the fact that the toy box? Was in a mine shaft. And I really hope that doesn't mean that there were children in the mine shaft as well." Though, he'd brought children in himself. Not children young enough to play with these toys, but they were still just high school kids. Dorian had convinced himself that they weren't his responsibility, not all of them. He'd gotten his share back safe. Hopefully Mathias had been able to track down Leija, and he'd feel better about the whole thing entirely. "So it's the building blocks," Dorian said with a little laugh. "I'll need to take these out of the store for the rest of the day. That's pretty serious magic, I'd think. I wonder if we could enter the mine because we'd been invited..."

"If they were in a mine shaft, all the more need for protection. Maybe whoever had been down there had good reason to be. With something like the dreams luring you and several others, and this toy chest being found, perhaps whoever had been down there had their own secrets and had been hiding from something. I just don't know." She set the blocks back into the crate so he could get rid of them. At least for the day. Jocelyn thought about Dorian's observation briefly, her fingernails drumming on the table top. "The dreams could be taken as an invitation, but you said not everyone there had the dreams. Unless the invitation extended when they asked others to come with them, you know?" She had no clue what any of it meant, but she had to admit it was incredibly intriguing to her.

"That might be the case," Dorian agreed. He'd have to test it, perhaps at home. He could invite Mathias in and then see if Mathias could invite someone else in. If the invitation could be passed along, then he'd want to be much more careful about who he extended the invitation to. "Interesting as it might be, a store is not to place to have such a spell invoked," Dorian said with a small laugh. "Perhaps we can run some tests on them outside of business hours." Which reminded him, she was a customer. "Is there something I can help you with?" he asked with a grin. "I'm sure you didn't come in here to play with my toys."

Jocelyn lifted an eyebrow at that, a tiny smirk on her lips as she considered him. The urge to say something flirtatious to that was strong, but she resisted. She was terrible at those kind of things anyway, which was ironic, given her job. "I actually came in to browse," she admitted with a soft laugh. "But this was a much more interesting way to pass the time, I have to say. Would you let me help you? Figure the rest of these out, I mean," Jocelyn asked, wondering if that's what he had meant by 'we' or if he was talking about someone else. She felt somewhat invested, given she'd already sort of helped him. In a sense. And she was desperate to know what the other toys were capable of.

"Of course," Dorian said with an easy smile. "You're already somewhat familiar with the items, and I can pretty much guarantee that you're going to know more than me when it comes to actual application of magic. I can read all I want on the subject, but if I don't actually use it, it's not quite the same." Just like others must feel about telekinesis. There was no suitable substitute. "Would you be free later this week?" Dorian asked. "I don't know when I'll get to spend some time looking into them again, but I could give you a call, if you'd like." He had the feeling she'd say yes, even if it was just to have a few more attempts at opening the box that jingled differently for the both of them.

Dorian was right in his assumption that she'd want to know about the locked box. Her fingers were itching just to pick it up and shake it again. Or get some kind of power tool and force it open. "That would be great, actually. I should be available." At least saying 'should' made it seem like she had some semblance of a social life. In reality, she knew as long as she wasn't working, she'd be available. Jocelyn picked up her purse and dug through it for a second before she pulled it out a pen and her mini notepad. She scribbled her name and number down before tearing it off the pad and handing it to Dorian. "And feel free to call if you have any other questions. Or need anything. Magic-related, or otherwise," Jocelyn said with a smile, replacing the pen and notepad in her purse and sliding it over her shoulder.

"Will do," Dorian said, taking her number, folding the paper, then putting it in his wallet. That was the best place to put anything that he didn't want to lose. "Thanks for stopping by, and knocking on the window," he laughed. "I think most people would have been confused and left, mistaking it for something else." Most people, not believing in magic, made up excuses in their own head. Later they'd think the door was locked, or that the store was closed, even if in reality, it was the actual doorway that had been blocked, not the door itself. "I'll talk to you soon." As soon as he could find a breath of air, he would. For now, he needed to repack the toy chest and get those blocks out of his store.

"It's no problem. Every time you make a sale today, you can thank me," Jocelyn teased before turning to head back outside and home. "It was nice to meet you, Dorian. I'll talk to you later." Hopefully. Thoughts of browsing the store herself vanished as she had a focused goal in mind now to get back to her room and start looking through her own books and journals to see if there were any details on the magic she'd come into contact with. Maybe the next time they spoke, she would have actual answers for him.