902/Third Eye Blind

Third Eye Blind
Date of Scene:	11 June 2017
Location:	Sunnydale
Synopsis:	Sam meets Piper Halliwell. A shared vision of the future prompts him to go hunting.
Cast of Characters:	999, Sam Winchester

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Phoebe Halliwell (999) has posed:
What was it the Book of Shadows called for when banishing water demons again?

Who knows really? But it was one of the reasons why a certain Halliwell sister was in the Magic Box, glancing about. Dressed simply in a pair of skinny jeans and a light grey blouse, Phoebe wanders about the store, nosewrinkling as she looks over the various herbs and various witchy acctrement about, focused on finding some ingredients. "You can never find the verbena when you need it..." she grumbles.

Sam Winchester has posed:
A Dodge Charger pulls up just outside the building, and a tall man steps out. Sam Winchester takes a moment to examine the shop from the outside, then comes inside. He moves a little gingerly thanks to an injury that continues to heal, but which is healed enough to let him walk out and about. The man is dressed simply today: jeans, black t-shirt, olive-green overshirt. His long hair gets a bit wind-ruffled as he pushes his way inside.

He takes a moment to look over the merchandise, just sort of getting his bearings. He has the air of a man who is looking for something specific. "Excuse me, ma'am," he says politely, spotting Phoebe. "Do you work here?"

Phoebe Halliwell (999) has posed:
Hellloooo nurse! Phoebe slips out of her reverie when she looks at the newcomer with the windswept hair and roguish looks. Surely, there's some classical music playing in her head right now, and she snaps out of it.

Stamminering for a few moments, she shakes her head. "Uh, no, was just shopping. You looking for something in particular though? I'm here like every week, so I know this place pretty well."

Sam Winchester has posed:
"You might be able to help me then," Sam says. He gives her a boyish smile, his features open and expressive. Indeed, they turn slightly serious a moment later.

"Do you know if this shop happens to sell enchanted mirrors? Specifically, have you ever seen a pewter one in here? Old? It might have looked dingy and dinged, scratched. With some very delicate scrollwork upon it?"

This is, after all, the kind of place where he can ask such a question without being looked at funny. He gives a slightly sheepish grin, rubbing the back of his neck, adding, "I've been up and down the East Coast, looking. I probably should have snapped a photo on my phone." Not...that it was particularly an option, given he shot it to Hell and back instead.

Phoebe Halliwell (999) has posed:
Squintyface. Enchanted mirrors. That isn't something she hears often, and it catches her by surprise. There's a nervous chuckle as she runs her fingers through her hair.

"Like Snow White's mirror mirror on the wall?" she asks teasingly, nosewrinkling once more as she glances about, pursing her lips for a few moments. "There's been few interesting bits, but I don't recall seeing a mirror, but the stock changes on a weekly basis almost." she admits ruefully.

"A photo would help though, admittedly." There's a brief glance as she gives him a look. One of those examining looks. Really, she's just wondering if she should run away and kick him in the nuts and tell her sisters there's a warlock in town or if he's just some chump who read way too many new age magazines. For his part, it looks like she's checking him out...

Sam Winchester has posed:
Sam Winchester doesn't give a lot of clues. He's not wearing any overt occult symbols, to be sure. If she is very observant she might note the signs that he's packing heat; a concealed carry beneath his overshirt. If she's really good at picking out weapons? She might find the outline of a knife in his boot, too. He doesn't seem overly impressed by anything in here. He has a bit of an everywhere accent.

And he looks sheepish when he says, "Yeah, it was less of an option than you might think. Thank you though." He gestures toward the front of the store. "I'll go ask the owner too, you can't be expected to keep up with every bit of merchandise in here."

And for all that he flashed smiles before, he doesn't seem overly invested in any kind of flirtation. He's a man on a mission, and right now that mission is seeing if he is going to hit paydirt in this store, or if he's going to have to cross it off his very long and increasingly frustrating list.

Phoebe Halliwell (999) has posed:
While she's observant, she's not that observant. All those details would go unnoticed by Phoebe as she nosewrinkles and cants her head to the side, pursing her lips as she shrugs her shoulders.

"You know this is one of those mass goods type shops, right? If you're looking for something really special, you might want to go to an antiquities dealer or an auctioneer."

Deciding to take a risk, she throws her older sister under the bus. "My older sister Prue is one. She could probably help you."

Sam Winchester has posed:
Now he turns to look at her with interest. "Yeah?" he asks. "Could you introduce me? My name's Sam. Sam Winchester."

He finally turns to offer a hand, admitting, "I wasn't sure if this was one of those that kept all the good stuff in the back or something like that." Familiar enough with the shops to know they sometimes put the dumb stuff out front, not so familiar that he knows //which// shops to go after on his search for the seller of this mysterious mirror that he's after. "It's even possible it didn't get sold out of a shop like this. It //could// have just been passed on to its unfortunate new owner as a collectable, or an antique."

Phoebe Halliwell (999) has posed:
"Yeah, I mean, Prue shouldn't mind, especially if it gets her a deal." a beat. "Maybe I could even ask for a finder's fee." she says with a smarmy grin.

When she takes the proferred hand, everything suddenly changes. She lets out a gasp as her mind's eye is filled with something.

It's Sam going off in his continued search for the mirror. There's the Chevy Impala off to the side of the road. It's dark and something creeps up behind him, only for him to turn and...

Then she's back in the present. Gasping, her eyes widen as she looks at him. "I.. uh..."

Sam Winchester has posed:
As she has her vision, so too does he has his. His come with quite a bit of pain. He gasps, winces, cringes in on himself as a bolt of pain issues from his neck clear through to the right side of his skull. He presses his free hand to it, hissing.

Then the euphoria as the vision spins out in front of him. A flash of red eyes, a sign of a sophisticated demon, a gun raised in the darkness, flickering candlelight, a spell circle--

He breaks the contact quickly, his own hazel eyes widening a little bit. Then? Grim resolve. He got the face of the demon. He's just going to have to hunt him down before he can hurt this young woman.

"Sorry," he says, through his own fading pain. "I get headaches sometimes. Sorry." He thinks the widened eyes are because he just grabbed his head in the middle of a handshake.

Phoebe Halliwell (999) has posed:
There's a nervous chuckle as she has clearly no idea what happened to him. She nosewrinkles and didn't even really catch the sudden pain, though surely other patrons must have noticed something happening between the two. Maybe it's fate or something darker, who knows?

"I, uh... just be careful tonight. Um... yeah, don't go traveling too soon. I'll try to get my sister to see if she can meet you tonight, maybe?" she offers, letting out a nervous chuckle once more.

Sam Winchester has posed:
"I'll get a hotel for the night," Sam promises, though now he's looking at her rather curiously. Don't go traveling too soon? Oh. Well. Of course. To meet her sister. In this, they are both equally in the dark. But being told to be careful produces another smile.

"Yeah. Yeah, you too," he says. As it is, he realizes, there's more investigation to be done here. Why would a red-eyed demon be after her in the first place? Who is this young woman? He tries to think of an 'in' that might hint at something that hasn't happened yet, and finds himself coming up short...the conversation he's already given her has no doubt been strange enough, and if he feels someone in one of these places could tolerate such things...

There's such a thing as pushing his luck. Besides. She could be one of those people who mucks about with the occult and gets burned.

"I should probably let you get back to your shopping," he says with a smile. "Unless you need me to get something down from a high shelf. I get that request a lot." Tall as he is, he no doubt does...but it's also his way of trying to figure out what she was in here purchasing, the only hint he can think to grasp at.

Phoebe Halliwell (999) has posed:
Pointing up at one of the shelves, she finally spots it. "The verbena!" she beams brightly, motioning on the top shelf a glass jar full.

From what else she has, particularly a new mortar and pestle, a few empty flasks, and other assorted mystic accoutrement, he might recognize the ingredients fo a vanishing potion for undines, the general class of water demons. Asking for the lemon verbena in particular would confirm it.

She smiles, flashing her pearly whites once more, waiting for the last item on her shopping list.

Sam Winchester has posed:
He gets the verbena for her, scanning the contents of her shopping cart. And then relaxes a little.

"You've got an undine problem?" he asks, handing it over. That's not the demon he saw in his precognitive vision, of course, but...to his mind, he's looking at some class of Hunter, and that makes a trifle more sense. If there's one thing his encyclopedic brain tracks it is the long long list of banishing spells for various things. He recognizes it all immediately. He offers an apologetic smile, sure that 'hey, you got undines?' is probably not a question she gets every day.

Phoebe Halliwell (999) has posed:
Phoebe could probably be classified as Hunter, with a capital H. She's definitely not one with the lowercase h. Guns. Eww.

She blinks for a few moments as her cheeks flush a bright tinge of red. For a few moments, it looks like she's going to start filling him with her classic bullshit, but considering he recognized the ingredients, she nosewrinkles and nods her head slowly. "Mischevious one in our pipes. Turning the toilet into involuntary bidets."

Sam Winchester has posed:
Hazel eyes dance with both sympathy and amusement. "Can't have that," he says. At least it's not killing anyone yet. "Well. Then I feel like I can tell you a little more about this mirror."

He clears his throat and says, "It was clearly cursed. It seemed to subject the person holding it to some sort of spontaneous combustion. It was glowing green, and it unleashed a magic that made mostrous versions of whatever it touched. When I got there it was mostly getting animals. I'm looking into what I can find of the person who had the mirror, and just trying to track it down, make sure there aren't more of them out there, trying to figure out if it was just an accident or if it's part of someone's nasty endgame."

He gives a sheepish smile. "I don't have a picture because I shot it until it broke. The fragments are currently being stored for safekeeping while I poke around at this problem."

Phoebe Halliwell (999) has posed:
Of course, she shouldn't be too surprised she's running into someone else in the know. She purses her lips as she takes in the information as she gets all excited, her eyes widening, "The book of sh..."

That's when she stops herself. "I could look it up in my family's library." she says, catching herself in the end, her cheeks reddening as she gives him a sheepish smile of her own. "If you have any of those fragments, I could look at them and see what we could find out?" Maybe her powers will activate upon touching as well. Or she gets flambe'ed. Who knows?

Sam Winchester has posed:
"I need to touch base with my contact, but I'll find out," Sam says thoughtfully. "In the meantime, I'll talk to your sister and move on from there. It was up in New York City, so coming down this way was kind of a long shot, but it was also at a rest area, so I thought it might have travelled a bit. Came this way out of a sense of due diligence. It's part of a long list I'm checking. I appreciate your willingness to help though."

And he does; that much is genuine.

He hesitates and says, "You...might have bigger problems than undines." He's slow, careful, adding, "I've...got reason to believe there's a dangerous demon in town." He isn't too keen on revealing the fact that he has visions. He hasn't told anyone about that yet, not even his own brother. So he leaves it vague.

Phoebe Halliwell (999) has posed:
There's always dangerous demons in town.

At least, that's what she wants to say. Such is the life of a Charmed One afterall. Still, it causes her brow to raise as she cants her head and peers at him curiously before nodding. "Yeah, definitely something dark moving about. Likes to be around the woods on the highway." That much she knows from her vision, with respect to him, of course.

Sam Winchester has posed:
She gives him a place to start.

(And all but guarantees he'll go out there and have a look).

He takes out a notepad and scrawls the number for one of his burners on it. He holds it out to her. "I should probably see about that hotel," he says, though what he really means is 'I should probably go look around the woods near the highway.' "If your sister is available will you please pass that number on to her? I'm happy to work with her schedule. Or if you tell her about what I'm trying to do and she has some insights that you can call me with, that works as well."

Phoebe Halliwell (999) has posed:
"I'll pass it to Prue, and have her give you a call." Or something like that.

She takes the proffered piece of paper and forces a smile on her lips. "Just be careful and don't do anything dumb like being alone in the woods, okay?" she says, looking at him curiously now, almost as if she knows what he's going to do before he does it. Creepy, no?

Sam Winchester has posed:
He tilts his head to one side. And then says, "I'll bring my brother."

The actual driver of the Impala. They're in separate cars now. It's funny how sometimes attempts to prevent a vision bring it about even faster. But he of course doesn't say anything like that. Instead he says, "Don't worry, Phoebe. This is what I do. This demon won't trouble your town anymore, I promise." She can probably handle herself, but... he's kind of the type of guy who puts everything on his own shoulders. And while he's content to leave her to her own undines, he's not just going to leave while a demon is in the area. There are few things he hates more than those things, after all.

Phoebe Halliwell (999) has posed:
In any other situation, her mind would go to terrible places upon finding out said cute guy has a brother, and probably a cute one as well. But considering the topic of conversation so far, she leaves things in purely business mode.

"I... well, it's appreciated." she offers, almost sighing considering her own lack of active powers that are pretty much useless unless it's in a "Danger, Will Robinson!" kind of way.

"Just be careful and all." she says once more, before pulling out one of her business cards to give to him. It states Phoebe Halliwell, Columnist of "Ask Phoebe" for the D.B.C. Of course, her email and phone number are listed. "Call me if you find out anything."

Sam Winchester has posed:
"I will," Sam agrees. It's a sure bet that he'll be reading that column to see what sorts of things she writes about. He tucks the card into a holder that seems to hold quite a few people's cards, then tucks that away inside of his shirt.

"You be careful too," he adds, but there's no resignation in him. Convinced that the demon on the highway and the demon in his vision are one and the same, he is off to try to take the fight to the creature before it gets anywhere near her, completely unaware of the fact that he is 100% //wrong//.

But then. That's the nature of seeing the future, isn't it?

He turns to go with another smile, pushing out of the shop and leaving her to finish up.