~Switcheroo~(1x1)~(Turningly Filled)~

[WitchAlchemist]

Darren found himself missing Sheila already, it wasn't that Jaime's car was bad, he simply preferred his. Eventually though, he got the car more or less to listen so to speak, and he raced to Jaime's house. This would be his first time back in over a year, since the last time when Jaime's mother had forcibly made him leave. But before that, it had been a constant area of fun for Darren and James to play with.

He turned onto James's street and seeing the other driving into his driveway, Darren laughed. By the time he'd pulled up, the other had beaten him by fifteen seconds maybe. He pulled into the driveway beside Jaime and stepped out of his car with a grin, waving a hand. "Drat! Foiled by the short stuff," he said playfully as he stepped up beside Jaime and held out his hand for a high five. "But then again, I did teach you everything you know." he teased. Darren wasn't feeling as bad as he probably should have, all things considered while he was stuck in another body..but for the first time in ages, they were just sort of..having fun together.  

[The Lacey Bear]

As Darren allowed himself to loosen up and drift back into his old persona, Jaime did as well. Despite the situation, he found himself suprisingly lighthearted. Stepping out of the car, Jaime laughed in response. "Yes, I suppose you did," he admitted. "But today, the student became the teacher," he added with a laugh. Without hesitating, Jaime connected with Darren's hand for the high five, curling his fingers around his and clasping it for an extra moment before releasing.
Leaning against Sheila, Jaime smiled over at Darren. "Hasn't changed much, has it?" he said with a light smirk. "Oh, but we did refurbish that old barn that we were using for storage. We have a nice garage in there now, though I suppose I shouldn't say we...more like Tyler." He looked around with a bit of a sigh, thinking of days past. "You hungry?" he asked, looking back at Darren. "I can fix us something to eat while we try to find that website."  

[WitchAlchemist]

Darren heard the laugh as the other responded, causing him to mock-grimace. "Uh oh, Jaime with a teaching license..fear for the future generations!" He glanced to his hand after the other curled his fingers around it before releasing. Darren found himself almost wishing he hadn't. At them ention of the old barn, he glanced around before looking back to Jaime as he said with usual Darren simplicity and a smile as he made a fist and punched it into his hand, "Don't worry, I'll have a little talk with Mr. Rosenburg, I think I can make him see reason." Tyler was not a nice fellow for being a jerk to Jaime.

He oftened threatened anyone who upset, hurt, or picked on Jaime. More often than not, it was not something that merited his actually going out to deal with a problem..but he'd gotten into his fair share of fights on Jaime's behalf, doubt it not. The offer of food made him pause before shaking his head, "The whole switcheroo thing kinda killed my appetite, thanks though." And he wanted to find the website quickly, so that he could get his form back. Darren adored Jaime, but that didn't mean he wanted his friend's body, and eating in Jaime's body would feel..odd. Darren smoothed over his slightly glum comment with a question as they walked up to Jaime's door, with Darren pulling out the keys and unlocking it as they went inside. "If you'd believed the necklaces worked, would you have used them purposefully?" He seemed simply to be curious.  

[The Lacey Bear]

Jaime gave a weak smile when Darren spoke of "reasoning" with Tyler. "The way I figure it, as soon as I graduate, I'm out of here," he said. "I've put enough money away to find a decent place and get started with college." He followed Darren to the door, a little lost in thought. He hadn't actually said that out loud to anyone before...no one knew of his plans. He also started to sadly wonder if Darren would be going to State like Jaime and most everyone else, or if he'd be striking out on his own path.
Approaching the door, James was taken aback slightly by the question. He didn't really have an answer. "I'm not sure," he admitted. "I don't think so, and definitely not without the other person's knowledge. But...I don't know...I would think that you could learn a lot about a person having to live their life for a few days. Don't you think?"  

[WitchAlchemist]

Darren smiled at that, "Way to go, Jaime." He sounded genuinely glad for the other. At the answer, he looked up at Jaime and listened. When the question came, he couldn't tell if it was pointed or not. "Yeah, you could learn a lot." he echoed with a slight frown forming on his lips as several thoughts came to mind.


"What is he doing here?" a musical, female voice demanded. And before Darren could react, Sorcia had come up seemingly from nowhere and slapped Jaime on the left cheek. Hard. "How dare you show your face here, after what you did to James, you arrogant, pompass, son of a-"

"Sorcia!" Darren said hastily, pulling her back a bit to Sorcia's frowning surprise. He looked at her from an angle he was not used to..she was almost Jaime's height, an inch of so taller. Something he knew had never exactly pleased Jaime, but Sorcia never rubbed it in so it was hard to begrudge her that height. Darren didn't know if Jaime wanted Sorcia to know or not, so he looked to Jaime with a questioning look when Sorcia had glanced back at Jaime.

She jerked from Darren's grasp and walked to 'Darren', frowning up at him, having no idea that for the first time since they were children, her older brother was looking down at her. "You shouldn't be here, Darren." she said as she looked up at Jaime with her frown firmly in place, protective of her brother as usual.

(Sorcia)  

[The Lacey Bear]

Jaime wasn't sure whether or not to tell Sorcia. First, she might not believe them, and think that Darren was up to something or that they were crazy. Second, if she did believe them, she could sometimes have a bit of a loose tongue. Sighing, he looked down at Sorcia...a nice change. He was just hoping Darren wouldn't take offense to what Jaime was about to say.

"Look, Sorcia," 'Darren' began, rubbing the back of his neck absentmindedly. "Jaime and I had a long talk after school...we sorted stuff out. I apologized for being a rude, self-righteous jerk, he apologized for being stubborn and not willing to listen." Immediately, Jaime dropped his hand from his neck. It was a bit of a nervous habit for Jaime, not to mention it was one of his tells if he was being dishonest. He only hoped that his sister wouldn't be able to see through it.  

[WitchAlchemist]

Darren arched a brow at those words, but didn't comment. Sorcia meanwhile had made a similar gesture for an entirely different reason. "Is that so?" Her tone was slightly sarcastic, and then her brow furrowed slightly as he rubbed at his neck. "Why-" Sorcia's eyes dropped lower and she stiffened slightly, eyes focused on the silver half-necklace as her mouth, though not uttering a sound, clearly muttered the word 'switcheroo'. She glanced back at 'Jaime' then 'Darren', "Is that really what happened, James?" Sorcia's tone was pointed and she used the first name somewhat chidingly, and when she asked the question, she was looking right at Darren's body, not Jaime's.

Darren's eyes went slightly wide from behind her, did that mean..she knew? Somehow?  

[The Lacey Bear]

Jaime saw Sorcia mouth switcheroo. He opened his mouth to speak, but words wouldn't come out. Finally, words found him. "First of all, you can't tell Mom," Jaime said, pleadingly. "Second, you have to tell us what you know about this. And don't try to say that you don't know anything. I'm your brother...I know you too well."  

[WitchAlchemist]

Sorcia seemed relieved when Jaime didn't deny who he was. But at the words, she frowned slightly. "Mom's gonna find out eventually, she'll know her own son." Or then again, with Tyler around, maybe not. And at the second part, she bit her lip lightly as she did when she was thinking. Finally she said, "You used switcheroo, what more is there to know? I don't know how to undo it, anyway." Somehow she seemed to be lying and telling the truth at the same time.

She knew more, but it seemed irrelevant and would lead to questions she didn't want to answer. Sorcia took a step back from her brother before turning to walk away, "Let's just head into the kitchen..I'll make us all something to eat and we can..figure something out." Sorcia was obviously trying to distract them.

Darren had been listening, and apparently Sorcia recognized them. Before she'd mentioned the kitchen, he'd said, "Sorcia..what are you not telling us?" But Sorcia had ignored him and gone into the kitchen bit as she started walking away.  

[The Lacey Bear]

Jaime shook his head at Sorcia's comment about their mom knowing. She was too wrapped up in Tyler to even notice. As he listened on, he responded, "Sorcia, I don't believe you. You're hiding something." He followed her into the kitchen but phyically cut her off before she reached the fridge. "C'mon Sorcia...please," he said with pleading eyes.  

[WitchAlchemist]

Sorcia blinked in surprise as she was physically cut off and she started to turn, only to find Darren standing behind her, effectively trapping her between the two males. She bit her lip again before sighing as she ran a hand through her hair, "I don't know..everything, just the supposed creation story of the Switcheroo..apparently there was this wizard..about two hundred years ago, he was dabbling in the magicks and wanted to create something that could stop death by bringing consciousness back so to speak..he combined his magicks into the two necklaces..sort of a go-between, and it was supposed to be that when a living and dead thing wore the necklaces, they'd share energy and thus the dead thing would live again..but that wasn't what happened."

"The necklaces..didn't bring things back to life, but he discovered that rather than restoring consciousness, they switched them. Obviously, aside from being a failure, he knew they were dangerous and intended to get rid of them..but his cousin, Gurand, learned of them since the wizard unfortunately trusted his cousin. Gurand came and forced one of the necklaces onto his cousin, and the other onto his cousin's dog..and their consciousnesses were switched. The dog in the wizard's body, and the wizard's in the dog's..he then stole the necklaces and tossed the switched wizard out. The necklaces have been passed around, so the stories say, stolen in a raid that ended Gurand's life and that somewhere, the wizard's body still roams with the dog trapped inside of it. Meanwhile, the wizard is still alive in the dog since magickal beings live for centuries..that's the story."

Derrick Kenton opened the door as quietly as he could, trying not to be noticed by his father if at all possible. But as he shut the door, he heard a familiar, disgustingly nasal drunkard's voice, his father's. "You home, whelp? Damn, when I was your age..I was makin' somethin' of my life. Had a new girl every weekend, what do'you got? Nothing. S'what you got." His father stepped out, an overweight, red-eyed grizzly of a man. He hiccuped, drunk as usual. Money was paid monthly from an accident he'd been in, that kept them in their little hovel of a house on the end of a cultasack that looked older and danker than it was.

Derrick tried to ignore his father, but the man blocked his path, "Whatss that hurry? Got a date or something? You seein' that dog of yours? Got your own b**** huh?" The man chortled at his own poor joke, and Derrick's expression flickered. And then he glanced down at a sudden thought and nearly hissed in irritation as he saw Rowdy, his Alaskan husky, coming forward in the doorway.

The man noticed too and started towards Rowdy, "There's the mutt..quiet little s***, never heard a dog that didn't barked almost never."

Derrick stepped quickly in front of his father, nudging the dog aside with his shoe, careful not to hurt the husky as he glared at him and hissed, "Go to our room, Rowdy. Go." But his dog rarely listened, and now seemed to be another of those times.

His father, Lyle, frowned down at the dog before glaring at Derrick as he raised a fist, "Don't get in m'way, whelp."

Derrick sidestepped the blow as the fist came down, quickly picking up Rowdy and heading past his father upstairs. His father cursed and hollered, but he wouldn't come up the stairs. It was too much effort these days. He headed to his room and shut and locked the door anyway, setting his back pack down and slipping off his shoes. He then partially tossed Rowdy onto his bed, glaring down at him, "Stupid. Why do you always have to do the opposite of what I say? You're my dog, damnit, you should listen to your master."

His mood was foul after that event, and at the look he seemed to be getting from Rowdy, real or not, he hissed in irritation and brought his hand down as if he'd hit Rowdy..but then he paused just before the fist connected..guilt, pain, anger, remorse flashed across his expression before he climbed onto the bed and laid down on his side, laying on his right side and bringing his left arm around his dog, holding Rowdy to his chest with one arm while his fingers stroked Rowdy's head. "Sorry, buddy." he said softly, "I'm not mad at you, I was just worried..I don't know what I'd do without you, Rowdy." Rowdy gave him something in the house to care for, to live for..kind of pathetic that his meaningful partner was none other than his dog. "I shouldn't have snapped at you..you're not just my dog, you're my bestest friend." 'Bestest' being the word he'd used as a child.

Derrick smiled a little, though it didn't reach his eyes as he leaned closer and pressed a kiss to Rowdy's cold, wet nose as he asked, "Do you forgive me?" As if his dog understood, but Rowdy was smart..he seemed to understand Derrick's moodswings..though Derrick always felt guilty about them and Rowdy usually had comforting licks, cuddles, and other such doggyish actions for him in return..his own little ball of fluff. Derrick smiled a little more at the thought, keeping Rowdy close as he waited for any response.

(Derrick <3) (Doggy Wizard)  

[The Lacey Bear]

Jaime looked at his sister quizzically as he listened to her story. He knew she was into fantacies and such, but had no idea her mind was such a library. "How...exactly do you know all this?" he asked. "And do you have any idea on how those necklaces got on my desk?"

Rowdy--better known as Dimitri in his days as a human-- had grown to become rather protective of Derrick. The boy was the first to have ever truly cared about him and Rowdy cared about him as much...if not more. It was all he could do to keep from ripping Derrick's father apart when he became abusive. A few times, Rowdy did get in the way, and at least it stopped Lyle from hitting Derrick. Even if it did mean receiving a severe beating himself.
After the argument, Rowdy followed Derrick to his room. Cowering when Derrick raised a hand to him, Rowdy whimpered lightly. Letting himself relax a bit in Derrick's arms, he nuzzled him lightly. After receiving the kiss to the nose, Rowdy began to wag his tail and licked Derrick's cheek.
Rowdy knew Derrick never meant it when he was cross with him. And he always forgave him. He loved Derrick and would do anything for him. He cuddled into Derrick's arms, laying his head on the other's chest, looking up at him with wide, blue eyes.  

[WitchAlchemist]

Sorcia's expression became somewhat guilty at the first question. At the second, she shook her head as she ignored the first question, "No..they're supposed to be lost. Why they would turn up in my brother's room, I have no idea. Why would all powerful magicks be given to you?" She frowned at her own question, running a hand through her hair, and then she glanced between Darren and Jaime, "So how did this happen anyway? Did you put it on him Jaime?"

Darren's expression flashed a bit of guilt and shame before becoming neutral, "I..no, I put it on as a joke." A rather unkind joke. "I guess you could call it karma." He locked gazes with Jaime for a moment, before looking away, "Do you know anything about how to get rid of them?"

Sorcia shook her head, "Well..other than the obvious..death undoes most magick.."

Darren paled slightly, "We have to die to get our bodies back?"

Sorcia waved a hand, "Well, that would do it, but it can't be the only way.."

Derrick recalled Rowdy's whimper in his mind..he should never have raised his hand like that, anger was a poor excuse for possibly hurting Rowdy. But as usual, Rowdy forgave him and Derrick's smile reached his eyes as his cheek was licked and he chuckled. Rowdy's head was on his chest and the familiar wide, blue eyes were looking at him. Derrick ran his fingers over Rowdy's fur, "Someday, buddy, we'll get out of this place. We'll take off and never look back. Just me and you." He nuzzled his nose against Rowdy's before glancing to his watch. "I'd say it's about dinner time for you, Row."

Derrick looked back at Rowdy, "What do you think? Food time?" he continued smiling at he tapped Rowdy's nose with his left pointer finger. Derrick always spoke to Rowdy as if he were a person, although he had to admit, sometimes he couldn't help the puppy speak. 'Ahh, what a good widdle puppy' things like that, but otherwise, he did consider Rowdy his confidante, the only person he would confide in, and the only person he would ever let see him cry..the person who was a dog.  

[The Lacey Bear]

Jaime shot Sorcia a look at her question and was about to retort before Darren spoke up. He looked over and saw Darren's look of guilt and looked at him with guilt in his eyes. Him pushing Darren away had as much to do with their distance as Darren's actions.
Jaime listened to the conversation between Darren and Sorcia, going wide-eyed at her mention of death undoing magick. Swallowing hard, he said, "There has to be another way because...well, that's not an option."

Rowdy's tail wagged as Derrick spoke of leaving. It would be nice to not have to worry so much about Derrick. At the talk of food, Rowdy gave a soundless bark in agreement. He wasn't a fan of the taste of dog food, but over the years, he had grown used to it. In fact, he had started to embrace being a dog. It wasn't all that bad...except for the fleas. But Derrick kept such good care of him that he never had to worry about them. In fact, Rowdy rather enjoyed baths. Derrick didn't just wash and go-- he massaged the shampoo through Rowdy's fur, taking such care.
Rowdy hopped up and licked Derrick's face several times before hopping down to the floor. He sat by the door, wagging his tail, sweeping the fur across the hardwood floors of Derrick's room.  

[WitchAlchemist]

Sorcia considered that a moment before nodding. "Of course there does..we'll find it." She didn't sound entirely sure. And then she came forward, wrapping her arms around Jaime's waist and embracing him tightly, the top of her head just below Darren's body's chin. Normally, she embraced Jaime with her arms around his neck or upper shoulders, since with their heights it was easier, so it was always more of her holding him. Now she'd have to reach up to do that, so she hugged Jaime around the waist, which was what Jaime had always done with her. "I'll help you fix this, bro."

Darren watched with a faint smile curving his lips, she and Jaime were close and it reminded him of Maddix and himself.

Derrick chuckled as Rowdy's tail wagged and he gave his soundless bark, "I'll take that as a yes." He chuckled again as he was licked, watching Rowdy hop down and wait. Derrick rose and went to the closet, pulling out two bowls, a large bag of dog food, and water. He kept the food supplies in his room to avoid his father as much as possible. Derrick knelt beside Rowdy, setting down both bowls as he filled one with food and one with water. He ruffled Rowdy's furry head, "There you go, Row. Bon appetit." Derrick rose and set the water and food away before plopping down beside Rowdy, watching his dog as Rowdy ate and drank.