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 Posted: Mon May 06, 2019 1:26 pm
 the best thing that's ever been mine
The gala had rapidly descended into strangeness. Tobias wasn’t sure what had happened, but he strongly suspected the Negaverse was at work; they almost always were, with anything involving monsters. The creature he’d seen was almost certainly some form of youma; that was the only thing that made any kind of sense.
That wasn’t what had stuck with him the most. Monsters were commonplace. He saw them every day in Negaspace, while putting in overtime hours that drew no pay except for his continued ability to keep living. It was that strange other life he’d dreamed of, as a circus performer. Most of all, it was the idea of being married.
Married to Eva, who was, truly, the light of his life. Someone who made him feel like there was a light at the end of this long, awful tunnel; like everything wasn’t shitty and meaningless. Like all the monsters he saw, both literal and metaphorical, weren’t going to win, and like even though the Negaverse made him feel as if he was doomed to a life of servitude and misery, there might be something else out there. It had felt like a simple truism of the universe that he had chosen to promise her forever. All things considered, his real life, the one where she was still just his girlfriend, not even his fiancee, was the one that felt more than a little bit wrong.
The thought of spending the rest of his life with her was perhaps the best thing he’d thought of in a long time.
It seemed almost obvious--how often had his coworkers teased him about putting a ring on the gorgeous woman who dropped by the office with treats and kisses to make sure he wasn’t pushing himself too hard? He’d laughed it off, said it wasn’t necessary, that they were happy the way they were, but truly….The more he thought about it, the better he liked the prospect.
Marriage. To the most beautiful woman he knew. The love of his life. A promise to be together forever, in sickness and health, for richer or for poorer, ‘till death did them part. It was so easy to get swept up in imagining (and how much was imagination and how much was actual memories from that other life? Tobias wasn’t sure; he wasn’t sure if he cared.) But getting swept up in imagining wasn’t going to get him any closer to making it a reality.
There was no question in his mind that he wanted this; he hoped Eva did too, but he supposed he would find out soon enough. There was plenty to do, in the interim. He’d have to decide on a ring, and on a venue for the proposal. Something private felt right; this was for the two of them, not for the whole world. Then again, Eva might like something showier...perhaps he’d float the idea to her, see what she thought, in the most general terms possible.
Either way, he had some shopping to do.
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Posted: Mon May 06, 2019 2:41 pm
forever [x2]
Tobias took a breath. Of all the parts of planning a proposal, this was perhaps the scariest--choosing a ring. It was the thing that most had to be perfect. If the proposal itself was a little fumbled, or silly, he was sure he and Eva would be able to laugh about it years on. If the venue wasn’t right, well, that wasn’t the end of the world. But if Eva didn’t like the ring...that would be a whole series of complications, ones Tobias wasn’t eager to deal with. It was the most obvious and permanent sign of their engagement.
It had to be right.
There was the family ring option, of course. His mother loved to brag about the beautiful ring his father had given her, and how much she loved it, and she’d even nudged it in Tobias’s direction a few times. That felt wrong, though, given how much he hated anything that reminded him of his parents. Anything that tied him to them more permanently felt like an ill way to start off his marriage, and quite frankly, if he had the option. Tobias didn’t intend to invite either of them at all. A final, formal act of defiance, so that he could be free of them and their cruelties forever.
So, no. His mother’s ring wouldn’t do. It had to be something that was for him and for Eva, that allowed them the benefit of making their own life and their own way.
That was what had him browsing jewelry shops. New rings first, because that seemed the most obvious. Most, though, didn’t feel right. Shiny and glittering, with diamonds and other gems, all so perfect and modern, and almost...cold. Sure, diamonds were a girl’s best friend, but none of these quite seemed right for his Eva.
He tried shop after shop, and came up empty. None seemed worth their extravagant price tags; money wasn’t an object, certainly, but that didn’t mean he was going to drop thousands of dollars on a ring that didn’t feel like his Eva.
After the third jeweler’s, Tobias considered taking a break and coming back to it tomorrow. These things didn’t happen like magic, after all.
And then his eyes fell on an antique store, across the street, and it clicked.
He and Eva had met over used, rare books. Eva loved antiques. Things with real love and history, things that had meant something to the people who owned them.
The solution was obvious. Tobias smiled, and ducked into the little antique shop, and began to browse their selection. The jewelry case wasn’t immediately apparent, but that wasn’t too surprising. It looked a bit tucked back, but that just meant he got a chance to look at everything else. Like most antique shops, this one tended more towards furniture and knicknacks, and he could see a few that Eva might like; perhaps he’d pick her up another gift, just to surprise her. There hardly needed to be a special occasion to get her something she would love, and the little surprises were always the best ones.
Well, perhaps not little; the antique framed painting he had his eyes on, of a mermaid on the rocks and a ship, was certainly fairly large. It would look excellent on their wall, he thought, and it would bring a smile to Eva’s face and disguise the reason for his shopping trip. Best to keep the most important surprise a surprise, after all.
He made his way over to the jewelry case, finally, and began to let his eyes wander over the selection. It wasn't terrible; there were even a few options that caught his eye. None quite sang to him, though.
“Looking for something special?”
He startled, briefly, and turned. The person who had spoken had to be the store’s owner; he looked to be a bit of an antique himself, older and gray, and he was smiling.
“Something special, for someone special,” Tobias replied lightly. To say the very least.
“Well!” The man sparkled, a little. “Let me know if you need help, son. It sounds like you’ve got a big decision on your hands.”
“Very much so,” Tobias agreed. “The woman it’s for is...something else,” he sighed, fondly. “The love of my life, to say the least. I want everything to be right.”
“Well,” the old storekeeper said, “I’m surprised to see you here,t hen, and not at one of those fancy jewelers’ shops across the street.”
“Oh, I tried those,” Tobias acknowledged. “But my Eva loves antiques, and she’d love a place like this. I thought something with a little history might be what was best.” He quirked his eyebrows. “And it’d be no trouble fit hat history was a bit macabre.”
“She sounds like a unique lady,” the shopkeep said. Tobias nodded.
“She is,” he said.
“Tell me a bit more about her,” the other man urged. “Maybe I can help point you at just the right ring.”
“She loves the sea,” Tobias said, “and everything that comes from it. Good and bad. Sometimes especially the bad.” He laughed a little “Lovecraft is a favorite. The Dunwich Horror, The Shadow over Innsmouth, The Call of Cthulhu. Things like that. But most any sea folklore will do. She loves mermaids, especially—i was thinking I’d get that lovely painting you have for her.”
“Oh, that’ll quite do—the artist, as I understand, was a woman who lost her husband at sea. She painted that in her grief, imagining some tempting creature leading his ship to the rocks, rather than the incompetence of his captain and the rest of the crew.” Tobias nodded. Yes, that story would suit Eva well. “But for a ring...oh, I think I’ve got just the thing.” He reached into the display case, and pulled out a set of rings. He removed the top one, and offered it to Tobias. “Look about your lady’s speed?” He quirked his eyebrows, and Tobias took it, turning it over. A smile slowly played its way across his face.
“Yes. Yes, I think it does.”
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Posted: Tue May 07, 2019 10:28 pm
no deal on the table
[CONTENT WARNING: contains references to intimate partner violence, child abuse]
Tobias was no longer the least senior person at the ADA’s office, but that hadn’t changed that he kept getting stuck with the obviously supernatural murders. Not that anyone was willing to admit to that, but piles and piles of bodies that had no apparent cause of death meant something a little different when you were a Negaverse officer. When you knew that it was possible to reach into a chest and pluck out a soul.
The problem, of course, was that identifying the perpetrators of these crimes was nigh impossible. Fingerprints—if there were any, so many of his fellows wore gloves—never popped in any databases. There was no weapon to compare to, no motive to chase, because the dead were almost always strangers to their killers. Or if there was a connection, it was in a secret magical life that the police couldn’t exactly trace.
All of that meant that when a perfectly ordinary murder with a viable suspect landed on his desk, it was almost a relief.
The crime was horrendous. Much nastier than a body with its soul plucked out. But it was an ordinary crime, one human being killing another, even if the circumstances were brutal. A man killing his ex-wife because he expected to lose his children in their custody dispute. The man was clearly a b*****d, with a long history of domestic violence calls. Tobias was even distantly familiar with the victim involved; he hadn’t met her himself, but she’d gone to a women’s shelter he was familiar with. There were records, and the volunteers at the shelter remembered her and her kids, and remembered her talking about how terrified she was of her husband, and how she and her children had all been battered and afraid. The murder weapon was found in his apartment. Clear cut, very little wiggle room, and Tobias was honestly surprised the defense attorney wasn’t blowing up his phone asking to deal.
“Thought you’d like something you can actually take to trial,” the bureau chief had said when he dropped it on Tobias’s desk, and frankly, that was the truth. Tobias was glad for it. Every time he had to handle another mystery death, another corpse with no soul dropped in an alley, he was reminded uncomfortably of the undeniable fact that one day, he would have to make one of those. So far, all he had done was drain energy and participate in a few combative kerfluffles. There was no blood on his hands, directly; no body count for him to carry on his soul.
He suspected that would not remain the case, especially as he moved up the ranks. He dreaded the day when the indulgence would end and he would be forced to kill. Anything that distracted him—or that, at the least, wasn’t a screaming reminder—was welcome, and this was so far afield from a magical war, its mundane tragedy was welcome.
Tobias settled into his chair and began flipping through the file. Time to start developing his trial strategy.
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