(open)

[just_another]

It's been a strange, confusing, amazing and horrifying few days.

For someone who generally keeps to himself, Joel's not sure how so much has happened at once, but no matter how he looks at it, there's enough going on in his life right now to satisfy him for years to come. The ball had been both a disaster and one of the more gratifying nights of his life and while he hasn't yet spoken with Lou since sending her home in a cab, he knows he needs to find the courage to visit her at some point.

He needs to speak with Lara as well. The truth is, he's been avoiding her, still not entirely sure what he feels. He's angry, but more than that, he feels betrayed, and that's a feeling Joel has gone out of his way to avoid, it's why he's kept himself so closed off from most people in Siren Cove.

The threatening letters he's been receiving aren't helping matters and although he's handed them over to the police, he'd still spent most of the night in his work room, crafting witch bottles that he's hoping he can convince people to put in their homes or bury in their yards. Something is coming and he doesn't know yet if that something is coming for him or the people he cares about, but he's not taking any chances.

With the bottles in his bag, he locks the door to his store and heads into town. He needs to find a few specific people, he needs to run some errands and he wants to stop by the library to see Spencer, maybe bring him lunch. Even as he thinks about that, he finds himself smiling and he has to duck his head as he walks. The premonition he'd had the night of the ball had disrupted things a little, but even with that, he feels a lot more certain of where things may be headed.

[ooc: Joel can be just about anywhere in town. There are some specific people he needs to speak with, so find him wherever suits! He's also made witch bottles for people he cares about, so come collect your protective charms. And no matter what you read on google about making a witch bottle, he did NOT pee in them.]

Comments

[just_another]

Emily can't possibly know just how close to home such a comment hits, but Joel tries not to let it show. He's gotten feelings all his life and for the most part he's left them as such. He hasn't wanted them to turn into anything more. But in recent weeks he's been working hard at turning them into the real premonitions they want to be, though they still come at inopportune moments, like the night of the ball, and aren't any easier to read.

"I will," he says. "I listen to my gut." Then he smiles and nods. "I've got some things to drop off for some people, too, but... here." It's a risk, he knows that, but he can't leave her without. "It's a witch bottle. I just picked up a couple somewhere. I know it's probably just a silly superstition, but my mom always had one in our house somewhere. Take one."

[callmeemily]

She has no idea just how that resonates with him - she's talking just from her own experience, when she thought people were following her, and if she'd acted sooner, maybe... maybe she never would have ended up here. Maybe.

She's got no idea, but she is surprised when he hands her something. He says it's a witch bottle, but she just sort of... stares at it. 'Thank you? ... Just.. What's a witch bottle?" She doesn't really care about where he got it, or where he found it - but she doesn't know what it is, is the problem.

[just_another]

"Oh, it's... it's supposed to be a protective charm, I think," Joel says, as if he doesn't know exactly what it is, as if he hadn't been the one to make it in the dark back room of his shop, the one where no one goes, the one he keeps locked at all times. "You're supposed to keep them in an undisturbed corner of the place you live and it's supposed to ward off bad things."

He smiles and shrugs. "I don't know if they really work. It's just... leftover, I think. From my childhood." That's not the truth at all and he's usually not such a good liar, but if he can get Emily to take one and if it helps her at all, then he's more than happy to lie to make it happen.

[callmeemily]

She looks down at the bottle and actually smiles. "Okay. Okay - you have one, right? And Spencer? I mean, if anybody needs it right now, it's you guys." And she could kick herself even as she says the words, because there's a part of her that's saying Oh, god, what are you doing? You need this. You need this if they find you- but she's ignoring it because that's who she is. It's who she's always been.

"If he doesn't have them, or you don't, you should keep it." Even though everything in her is saying she needs whatever help she can find.

[just_another]

"I have one," Joel says, though that isn't true. The charms in place on his apartment and store are far more complicated than a witch bottle, but he can't do the same for others unless he takes his ingredients with him and he's not sure he can do that. He wants to, he wants make sure he can keep Spencer and Cosette as safe as he possibly can, but he has such a hard time doing magic outside that room.

"And I'll do everything I can to keep Spencer safe," he adds. "Really, you can take that."

[callmeemily]

"Okay. Okay, if you're sure." She chews on her lower lip, and she looks up at him. "Just.... be careful. And-" She pulls in a breath. "I mean, all I can do is keep an eye out, but I will. Okay?" She sort of wants to hug him, but she'd only known him for a few weeks, and she really doesn't want to be weird.

"It'll be okay." She doesn't know that, she doesn't know any of it, but she knows that at least saying it will - sometimes, she feels like it helps.