Ellenore Blackwall paced her room, wireless headset comfortably perched atop her head. After missing curfew last week in an attempt to do better as a magical girl powered by mirrors her mother had grounded her. Her cell phone was dropped into a lock box in the kitchen and she was only allowed to retrieve it on her way to school or any school-sanctioned extra-curricular activities. She had read a book on picking locks once. She could get her phone back if she wanted to, but that wasn't the point.

The point was that she did not need her phone as long as she had her headset and her laptop along with the ability to connect to voice chat.

"Okay, but seriously, Bea. Graduation is only a few months away now. That means we should be planning some sort of spooky road trip or something. We could go visit all kinds of graveyards and haunted houses and... Bea, you're still there, aren't you? Ugh sometimes I can't tell if this thing is working..." She tapped on the mic, nose scrunching as she stalked back towards her laptop to check the internet connection. The router had been spotty enough lately that she had strongly considered trying to figure out whether or not she could boost its range with quartz -- probably not -- but it would've been easier to ask Seb over to take a look at things.

Maybe she would if she couldn't get her mom to give her the password to the account so she could call and complain to their service providers on her own...

"SO. If you were going to go on a road trip, an epic road trip.... What songs would you put on your playlist?"

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Bare feet thumped against the wall as Beatrice Kellye stared at the upside down laptop screen. Or, rather, the laptop screen was right side up while she was upside down, twin pigtails dangling down and brushing against the carpet.

“I wanna go to the Winchester house,” she announced, confident in her answer. Now...where in the hell the Winchester house was, she had no idea but she had seen on the Travel channel (or was it the Discover channel?) that the Winchester place was arguably the most haunted house in the entire country.

Idly, she wondered if that was where the Supernatural show got the last name for the brothers. Huh.

“Another One Bites the Dust,” she prattled on, trying to think up songs while the blood rushed to her head. “Bad Moon Rising. Uhhhh….Dont Fear the Reaper?”

Oldies but goodies, in her opinion.

“You?”

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“Witchy Woman -- that’s another oldie but goodie. Did you know that there’s a band named Ghost?” She hadn’t gone looking for many of their songs yet, but she had heard of them and thought, briefly, that they might be a band worth digging further into.

“Oh, hey, there’s also Say You’ll Haunt Me -- which, I mean, we don’t really want anyone to haunt us, but it’s a good song. Then there’s Ghost the song, which is not Ghost the band.” It would be so much easier to scroll through songs on youtube if she wasn’t using her phone to talk through.

“Didn’t the Winchesters go to the Winchester House in Supernatural?” She thought that she remembered something about a gun with special bullets, but that had to have been a million seasons ago by now.

“I bet there are a lot of really neat tombstones and mausoleums in some of the older cities up north. Think we could find a mirror to walk through that could help us cut travel costs?” She flopped back onto her bed, laptop rocking against the pillows beside her as the springs bounced beneath her. She could maybe lay here for a bit, staring up at the stars glued to her ceiling, fighting off boredom while chatting.

-----

“Can we use the magic for that sort of personal use?”

Then again, who would stop them from using mirror transportation for personal affairs? Bea hadn't really given it much thought (outside of popping into work once or twice to avoid being late due to oversleeping her naps) but the idea was appealing.

“I didn't make it that far into the series,” she admitted, one hand grabbing for Marcus the half rabbit, half frog and tossing him up in the air. Catching him, she began to toss him up and down, up and down as she prattled on. “I did finally finish Sabrina though.”

A road trip did sound like a lot of fun. Expensive, but fun.

“I hear New Orleans has some pretty wicked ghost tours. Wonder how expensive a room down there would be?”

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“Ever heard of St Augustine? It’s supposed to be the oldest city in the United States and there are all sorts of ghost tours there too.” She could only imagine the sort of things they could get up to, hopping state to state from tour to tour. They could see so many things. They could take so many pictures. Heck, if they got the right crew together they might be able to catch actual, real, honest to goodness proof of the paranormal.

Bea had a good point, though, about the whole magic thing. Were there any restrictions on it?

“So… I don’t think we’ve got to worry about personal use or personal gain for the whole mirror thing. From everything I can tell being a magical girl isn’t quite the same as being Charmed. We’re not the Chosen Ones and it’s not really personal gain. We’d just be…. Broadening our horizons, right? Expanding our channels. Maybe…. Taking the whole energy gathering thing global.”

It honestly sounded like way too much effort-- Effort that she had zero interest in putting into things, which was obvious in the fact that she was still just a basic magical girl and not anything fancy. Her skirt didn’t have nearly as many tiers as Bea’s did when they were powered up. Ugh. She was going to have to get on that…

With a sign, Seance rolled over onto her stomach, burying her head in her pillow for a moment to muffle a series of frustrated noises before she rolled onto her back again. “Being grounded sucks. Mum wouldn’t even tell me when she was coming home so I couldn’t sneak out if I wanted to -- OH. Just thought of another song. What about Werewolves of London?”

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“Bet we could find some Halloween party mixes on sale for cheap, if we look in the right spots.”

Granted, the “right spots” probably also meant the internet because most party stores were heathens that didn't go balls to the wall with their spooky decor until it was closer to August and September. It wasn't that she didn't like shopping online...she just liked instant gratification, not waiting for something to be delivered days after she placed her order and spent her mother's money.

She offered the girl a silent, sympathetic smile as she heard the groan through the call. It was one of the perks of having a mom who worked practically around the clock - she could get away with murder and her mother would never know it. Sea's mom, on the other hand, clearly kept a better watch of her precious daughter, thus her current predicament and punishment.

“How long are you in jail for this time, again?”

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“Assuming I get out on good behavior?” Meaning her mother didn’t find out that she was using her laptop to voice-chat friends instead of just touching base with study buddies and doing research and she came straight home from school and did all of her chores?

“Sunday. I was hoping she’d spring me Saturday morning so we could do something fun Saturday night -- I might still try for it if she’s in a…. Oh…. Hold on. Wait. I hear her car outside! Gotta go, Bea! See you in school tomorrow!” Seance scrambled to tuck her headset into her nightstand drawer, disconnecting the chat and sending through a quick digital message to her friend.

[ R.I.P. :ghost icon: ]

And then she logged off, powering down her computer so that she could do her very best impersonation of someone who had Totally Been Asleep This Whole Time. Totally.

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She was about to ask if her bestie had plans for Sunday when the sudden cut off in words had Bea sitting up straight in bed. Feet came crashing down onto the mattress and the stuffed toy was cast aside, the white haired girl frowning as the other girl hurried off the call before she had time to say goodbye.

Hmph.

Well… worst come to worst, she could always poke her head into her buddy's mirror if she really needed to talk to her before the next day.

[Fin]