technicallyhellbound | for @convincingsmile - Nobody's dying today (probably)

for @convincingsmile - Nobody's dying today (probably)

Edwin knew as soon as he fell through the mirror that something was wrong, and not just a little bit wrong, but the kind of wrong that made the whole world tilt on its axis a little.

It wasn't a misdirected portal, not like the case that had ultimately led them to Crystal, not like many other failures of concentration when traversing mirror portals before, it was something else, and he couldn't place what it was. All he knew was that he'd simply passed through the mirror in question and had landed, hard on the floor on the other side of the room, hard enough that he actually skidded a couple of feet and that couldn't be right because that actually hurt, and hurt in the way he hadn't felt in... well, decades.

It was enough to tumble him against the far wall just from his own momentum, impacting hard enough to knock the breath out of his lungs, and that was definitely wrong, because he shouldn't have had breath or lungs. He could see, even through pain-hazed vision that the poltergeist he'd been baiting had, indeed, gotten caught in the trap he himself had leapt over when aiming for the mirror.

That was, however, the last thing he saw before the half-rotted-through loft floor gave way beneath his sudden and unexpected weight, sending him falling, flailing, scraped to ribbons on the broken slats, to the ground below, and he was reasonably sure he'd actually heard something snap on impact, ribs, if the sudden radiating pain was anything to go by, though his shoulder wasn't in good shape either, and that was an entirely different kind of pain, just layering on top of the feeling of the ragged scratches from the wood, and it occurred to him, dimly, that he'd forgotten how much he hated the feeling of blood on his skin.

It had been different in Hell, the pain, the sensations in general, all of it, it had been horrible, yes, but it was so much more visceral now, and even as his vision began to go hazy again, head swimming, his last thoughts were trying to remember how he'd somehow gotten separated from Charles, who had been barely a step behind him when he'd rounded the corner into the loft pursued by the poltergeist now trapped securely above him.

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His mouth twisted just slightly at the joke, because the truth of it was, even with what he'd worked out so far, he was still working on incomplete information, and wasn't sure he'd actually be able to reverse it. There was a good chance that he'd have to make some of it up and hope for the best, and he wasn't sure that was even worth the risk.

But he nodded all the same, managing a small smile, "Well if it were permanent we'd no longer be a detective agency, so there would be no reason to keep the office set up as it is in that case. Could change it as we like, turn ourselves into a consulting firm or something to that effect."

Charles caught the momentary grimace on Edwin. He tensed his mouth for a moment as he was thinking how the research was going slower than he thought, apparently. Or not as expected. And Charles felt a little guilty for being glad about it. Then he fell silent when Edwin was talking about a future of them being alive, and maybe doing something other than being detectives. Once again, Charles wasn't sure how he felt about it all.

"A consulting firm, huh?" he smiled a little sadly, looking around. "I'd miss it though, this place. I miss our previous one too," he shrugged, trying to soften it. "But it's gonna be fine, Edwin, you're gonna figure it out, yeah? We can come back here in a couple of days as ghost," he chuckled.

"I don't know about you, but I'm not about to let thirty years of experience go to waste." That one almost made it to being a joke, but still fell short, and he did stop himself from picking one of the pastries to bits instead of eating it, only barely managing to keep from pressing his knuckles together instead, "I'm sure I'll get it, it's just... it's taking longer than I expected, that's all."

Partly because he actually needed to sleep, now, and couldn't work sixteen hours straight through like he usually did, "And having to work with a secondhand translation isn't making things any faster."

Edwin, always practical, Charles thought fondly as he watched him. He reached to cover Edwin's hand assaulting the pastry with his, squeezing lightly.

"Yeah, 's gonna be fine," he repeated to drill into Edwin's thick head. "Is there anything I can do? Like, going back, checking some things again? Maybe there could be clues in the house. It was mostly empty, though," he frowned as he remembered. "Aside from that portrait of a dead woman."

He shook his head automatically at that question, "No." It was firm, almost sharp, and he bit his tongue a moment later, taking a deep breath, catching at Charles' hand still covering his own, "It's not safe, I wouldn't go so far as to say it's dangerously unstable, not yet even after he'd fallen through the floor, "But I wouldn't feel comfortable having you there without backup."

More than that he wouldn't forgive himself if Charles got hurt without him there.

"It's just that the rune-work isn't like anything I'm used to, and seems to have been done by two different people." He gestured towards the desk with one hand, "I can lay it out for you later, once we've eaten, maybe another pair of eyes will help. But it's complex on top of just being a mess." Certainly nothing like the clear, tidy circles Charles worked in.

Charles smiled, nodding to himself. Right, he wouldn't let Edwin go alone either. But he had to offer. Edwin was in pain, injured, stressing and working his wits off.

"Right, not going then," Charles agreed quietly, raising Edwin's hand to kiss his knuckles to calm him. He didn't want to make him more nervous.

Though he doubted he could help anything about the runes. He wasn't good in their own alphabet, let alone complex runes, but he would humor Edwin, sure.

"So first, you gotta eat. All you did was try to make a feast for the mice living with us, mate," Charles said, picking a piece of pastry and holding it up for Edwin.

He snorted softly at that, just going about pushing the crumbs together to mash them more or less back into shape, just popping the piece into his mouth, "Thank you. I do appreciate your going to pick up the food." A flicker of a smile, "I'm quite sure I'd forget to eat, otherwise, and then I'd be confused later as to why I felt terrible."

His brow creased just a little, "I'm afraid we'll have to leave for the movie earlier than I'd first estimated. Even taking it easy today I'll still be moving more slowly than usual. I'm sure I'll be fine once we're there." Once he could relax in a seat and just watch.

"I noticed, even before we were alive," Charles said, reaching to brush his knuckles at Edwin's cheek fondly. "I mean, you tend to work without stopping, yeah? How many times did I have to tell you to stop? And remember when it got so bad I put you in a jar?" he chuckled. Of course, only Edwin's orb form fits in a jar. But the fact that he exhausted himself that much was... slightly scary. And bodies were higher maintenance than spectral bodies, so Charles swore to pay attention. Especially knowing that Edwin was injured.

"You mean we can take a nice, long walk together? But that's brills!" Charles grinned. "But if you want, I still can piggyback you there," he added.

Edwin couldn't help but smile at Charles' optimistic spin on it, and at the renewed offer to carry him, "I doubt that will be necessary, but I appreciate the offer." There was amusement in the tone, if barely, mostly because it wasn't that it wouldn't be necessary, but that his pride wouldn't be able to take it, especially as they could be seen by others.

The smile twitched just a little higher at the memory of the jar, "Yes, and the jar was only because I'd sorted out how to move the display cloche and keep trying to work." It hadn't been easy, glass was heavy, but he'd still managed it, even in the low-energy form. The smile faltered just a little when he remembered how worried Charles had been about it later, mostly because Edwin had the energy -barely- to lift the glass cloche, but had almost sputtered out completely afterward.

And now, well, now was similar, in its way. He could push himself past his energy, but it would result in much the same outcome, sputtering to a halt and needing hours, even days, to recover. He'd barely even realized that he'd drifted off into that train of thought instead of continuing eating.

Charles expected to be refused on the piggyback ride but he had to try. And he was still in awe about the fact that Edwin's workaholism made him able to move a cloche when all he had were faint spectral energies! It put Charles as the brawn to shame, fairly.

"Right, so I know how intense you can get," Charles nodded in a soft chuckle. He fell silent at the same time Edwin did. But he was watching him, lost in his thoughts. But he was alive. Charles wondered if people can fall in love over and over again with the same person, even if they were together for decades. It was possible, he thought, as he watched Edwin just for a few moments. Then Charles sighed fondly and took a piece of his own pastry again, pressing it to Edwin's lips. "Eat, yeah? Then do work if you must and then we get ready for our movie," he said. "And you better dress up nice because we're gonna take a photo," he grinned, cocking his head toward Crystal's polaroid camera safely tucked in a corner.

His nose wrinkled a little, but it was amusement as much as anything else, accepting that offered bite but shaking his head even as he chewed, speaking carefully so as to avoid crumbs, "I've a perfectly good one of my own." Not counting the half that had been picked apart, of course, "And I'm perfectly capable of feeding myself, thank you." He didn't, however, push Charles away in the process, amused as ever that Charles had determined he was working too hard and made moves to correct that.

A nod followed, "I've every intention of dressing up." A pause, "Though, I may need help, which will ruin the surprise, but I doubt it's much of one, considering that I'm sure you're the one who made the selections yesterday rather than Crystal." It was just what pieces Edwin put together that would be the surprise, "I would like to at least get some work done, first, let you have a look at it, see if anything in the circle is glaringly out of place from what you know."

"Then why aren't you eating it, mate?" Charles teased, almost offering another bite from his own food just to test Edwin's patience, and pride maybe. If he didn't want to be fed like a baby, then he should eat!

"Right, I haven't seen the clothes on you yet, so I think it's still gonna be good when you're ready, even with my help," Charles grinned, all too excited to see Edwin in the clothes he and Crystal picked. "Crystal helped but yeah, tried not to get too flashy ones, so I'm happy you found some you like," he said, amused. Though he stopped for a moment, looking over the pile of prepared clothes. "Just wish you could've been there, yeah? It was fun," he shrugged, smiling to himself. Then he spared a glance at Edwin's work, almost as if he were afraid of it. Maybe he was, though. "I could look, yeah, but I don't think I'd be able to help much," he murmured. "You're better at this stuff."

"I think you're more familiar with the work than you believe yourself to be." Charles did most of their rune-work when necessary after all, at least laying it all down, and while Edwin didn't think anything was out of place, there was also a key missing, and he wasn't sure if it was in the translation itself or not, though he was reasonably sure that it had been done in some kind of personal shorthand by the original caster, and without knowing what they'd been using as a reference point Edwin would only be able to figure out what they had probably been trying to do.

"Honestly it's just the dual circles that are throwing me off." He shook his head, "Because I can't be sure if they were laid down by two different people or not." It certainly seemed like they had been, and that meant they might not have been meant to do the same thing, and if that were the case, the second caster had been sloppy in not cleaning up the prior work first, and that could have caused complications.

This time it was Charles who fell silent. Edwin could always make him feel better about himself, especially when he put himself down. Right, Edwin could read runes and circles but Charles had made and created all of them when they needed them. He may not see them the same as Edwin but... yeah, a new pair of eyes. Charles swallowed as he let that little light warm his chest, that Edwin thought he was good enough. The only person who mattered.

"As far as I could see, neither of the circles was sloppy, yeah?" Charles shrugged when he found his voice. "So, maybe it's on purpose that there are two, like, I don't know, strengthening the magic, or putting two points together," he mused. They've seen these circles being used for demons, but for calibrating the happenings of magic, or harvesting something too. Rune circles were volatile, and that's why they were such a pain to study, and even to paint.

He nodded, "They both seemed..." His mouth twisted again as it did when he was searching for a word, though he did, at the very least, take another bite of his pastry, chewing slowly as he considered, finally settling on, "Deliberate. They weren't messy, perhaps done in a hurry, but still most definitely on purpose."

A little shake of his head then, "I'll be able to show you what I mean when I have things laid out." And a small smile, "But breakfast first." He settled his shoulder gently against Charles' for a moment, making sure to take his time with the rest of the treat, not letting himself rush through it just to get to work.

Once he'd finished, however, he did push himself to his feet, moving carefully but not quite as gingerly as he had been, having settled into that underlying ache again, laying his notes out on the desk, "So this is the photos, obviously." He'd cello-taped the edges together to construct the circle, "And my sketch of the same, and then the translation, though that's incomplete, and I may have to start over. I thought translating the inner circle would assist in translating the outer circle, but it may be the other way around."

Charles's smile bloomed into a wide grin as Edwin himself chose to finish breakfast, even if musing about work. It was just good to see that Edwin is taking care of himself. It made Charles's heart beat just a little faster too. He helped to tidy up after breakfast and anything Edwin needed to start working again, though already thinking about lunch...

As Edwin showed him the photos and the sketch of the circle, Charles could see what was the problem. They almost seemed like they should fit together, but they didn't. It was impossible to tell if they were accidentally kind of aligning or if there was a pattern to it. No pattern was to be seen. Charles sighed a little disappointed, he may not be of any help at all. Then he checked Edwin's notes about the translation.

"Wait... what?" Charles frowned. "It doesn't make..." he muttered, looking at the sketch again. The translation was spot on but it didn't make much sense. "Are you sure they are to be looked at separately? They, kinda look like they could, like, put together... see, here this rune in the outer circle yeah? Usually followed by this one, in the inner circle... And there, those runes."

"See, that's what I thought." He replied, tracing a line between two others, "But if those two pairs connect, it means these two don't." He shook his head, brow furrowing, "Honestly I just need to sort out what it was they were trying to do, because that's the only way I'll be able to replicate or reverse it."

He stopped then, brow furrowing more deeply, "No, wait, hang on a tick. These two connect outer circle to inner circle, and working anti-clockwise as you should but I was translating clockwise, the next pair is matched inner circle to outer circle." He rotated the sheet he'd sketched the thing on, fingers tracing from one to the next, "They were trying to just... stitch the two together. Except, at the end, here, it should be outer to inner again but they're swapped."

Charles frowned as he was trying to follow Edwin's explanation. Yes, right, it made more sense anti-clockwise, though he wasn't too fast on the translation.

"'S like they were trying to do something new," he said. "Create a new circle, yeah? It's dates, no? Or something with time," he muttered as he pulled the translation to him. It didn't make sense, now they knew, but the direction was usually more important when it came to something that had to do with dates. Or seasons. But these circles looked like they were trying to make up new seasons, or time that didn't exist.

He quickly corrected the placements of the two runes in his own sketch, brow creasing as he glanced back and forth between the translation and the sketch, "I wonder..."

Another head-shake, kneading at his temple, striking a line to one side of the circle, "The mirror was here, I'm starting to wonder if it was actually meant as part of the casting and not just there for decoration. But I can't fathom why, though it might explain the two runes being reversed, if the caster was in a hurry and forgot to work on the plane instead of the reflection, or the other way around depending on how they'd been drawing them."

Charles frowned at the line that indicated the mirror. So it may be part of the spell? But mirrors are only used by ghost and other supernatural creatures.

"Was the caster trying to summon something from behind the mirror?" Charles asked. "So the two circles would have to be correct both here and in the reflection for the thing to come out?"

It would make sense, summoning a ghost. But that could be done with one simple circle. Why this summoning needed two? And why a mirror? Now Charles could understand more of Edwin's frustration.

"Maybe it worked now because the mirror was used?" Charles mused out loud.

"And you were effected by it even without going through the mirror, which only complicates matters." He replied, both hands spread against the edge of the desk, bracing himself against them for the moment, "Unless it was my going through the mirror that activated it, for better or worse, and you were then caught because it was already lit, so to speak."

He shook his head, "But you're also not wrong about the dates, usually they're a season, or a span of time, which these are but not one that I've been able to figure out."

"A special time, then, innit?" Charles suggested. "Specific to the summoning?" He asked, looking at Edwin. "Maybe it was important for them in a way?" Though how would they know if it was for a specific date at all?

"We never got to talk to the poltergeist, huh? Would be great to ask them if they knew anything about it," he smiled a little sadly. It always made him sad when they had to send a poltergeist to the Lost and Found, because Charles was sure that he himself would have ended up like that too without Edwin.

"Precisely so." He agreed, "Though trying to figure out what those are is..." He sighed, kneading at his temple again, "Well, it's not impossible, but it's considerably more difficult than I really want to think about right now."

He shook his head, "But knowing that it was initially mis-cast, and suspecting that the mirror is part of it is still considerably more information than I had before. I can't say I'm any closer to being able to reverse it, but adding those revisions to my notes, adjusting the translations later, I should be able to work something out to counter it."

Another little head shake, "I just... don't know if that's entirely safe without knowing what the caster was trying to do in the first place."

Charles smiled, raising a hand to stroke Edwin's back reassuringly.

"Mate, that you discovered this much only from a broken circle is still brills. You're the smartest person I know," he added, leaning in to place a kiss on Edwin's temple. He realizes how many times he wanted to do that during their friendship when Edwin was leaning over the desk like this. So Charles grinned to himself and did it again for good measure. "And when did we ever know the exact intention of a circle, Edwin?"

He couldn't help the small smile at that initial kiss, angling his head in slightly at the second and huffing an actual laugh at the question that followed, "I'd say it's probably sixty-forty, against."

His brow creased a little then, giving a shake of his head, "But it was never this important before. If I muck this up it's..." Another head shake, "I don't even want to consider it. Best case would be simply that nothing happens." He was reasonably sure that Charles understood the dangers of going off half-cocked in something like this, and truthfully he was thankful that Charles had that kind of faith in him, but this was one thing he couldn't afford to get wrong.

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