whenshewasnice | The Mainland, Wednesday After Classes

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The Mainland, Wednesday After Classes

Natalie didn't really think she needed protection. Or company. Still, when she'd told Sam she was considering a trip to the mainland to check out an occult shop or two in search of wards against seeing ghosts, she'd said she might ask Jace to come with her to lend his supernatural expertise. And so she had. Might as well call it checking in on the fake little sibling, or something.

She'd been about as sparse with specifics as to what she was dealing with as she had been before – ghosts were attracted to something near her and she couldn't get rid of said thing – but she had told him that from her brief research, the place they were going to seemed to be the most likely candidate to offer some actual help, instead of what she would really like to have called hippie nonsense, but hadn't.

They were about a block or two away from where the shop was supposed to be located, and Natalie stuck her hands into her pockets as she walked. "Thanks for tagging along, I guess."

[ooc: NFB, and for the Shadowhunter!]

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"I'd claim you'd think differently if you knew the whole story," Natalie replied, glancing down the street and spotting the sign for the shop they were looking for. "But experience says you probably wouldn't."

He'd laughed in her face for moving in with her boyfriend. She had a hunch.

"Probably not," he agreed. "Don't eat anything anybody offers you in the shop, by the way."

There was the chance the place could have been legit and owned by a faerie or something. Also the advice was just wise in general.

"Do I look five years old?" Natalie drawled, though maybe she was a bit amused. "I don't make a habit of eating things in potentially magic environments, don't worry."

"Your people are the ones that think vampires are sexy and romantic," Jace replied. "I can't help but be worried."

"'Your people'," she repeated, rolling her eyes. "I don't think it's my people, exactly."

It might have been due to her aversion to blood, but she'd never found vampires particularly romantic.

"Hey, if I have to put up with the completely untrue stereotype that Shadowhunters are all vain and egotistical then you have to put up with the ones that refer to humans romanticizing everything," he said. "It's the way the world works."

"... Are you trying to say you're not vain and egotistical?" Natalie wondered. "Or just that you object to everyone else getting lumped into that category with you?"

"Some Shadowhunters are downright ugly," he said. "So they wouldn't be very vain, would they?"

"I don't think that stops anyone." Self-perception was a weird like that. "But that does answer the question."

"I can back up any egotism I may have," he said. "Most can't say that."

"Mm." Natalie wasn't terribly impressed with that line of thinking. (Oh how she'd learn.) But, didn't matter. They'd reached the shop now, and she stopped, nodding at the door. "We're here."

From the outside, it at least didn't look like a place you could get mixed up with a masquerade store or anything. It was hard to see inside, though, what with a painting of the sun on the window.

"Oh joy." It was hard to believe they weren't really related with that kind of sarcasm going on. "Maybe they worship the sun god Ra."

Natalie shook her head, reaching for the door. "Just try and behave, Jace."

"I'm always well behaved, big sister," Jace said. He took in a deep breath to prepare himself for that special occult shop smell.

Incense, it seemed, as Natalie opened the door and stepped in. Incense mixed with... who knew what? Herbs, maybe. The chimes on the door betrayed they were coming in, and there was a "Just a minute!" from the direction of what had to be the back room.

"This from someone who says he likes bar fights or something," Natalie muttered to Jace, casting a critical look around the shop. It was a small one, cramped full of random, vaguely mystical looking paraphernalia. So far, she wasn't getting her hopes up.

Aside from a quiet noise of disgust, Jace made no comment on what he thought of the place. He resisted the urge to immediately go around picking up items, even going as far as stuffing his hands in his pockets to keep from doing so.

Natalie couldn't really claim to disapprove of that decision. She herself didn't really have an urge to touch anything, though she did give some things a midlly curious look.

At least until who was presumably the owner decided to appear in shop proper. It was... a middle-aged woman in a long flowy skirt, her curly hair tied back with a scarf, and an abundance of bracelets around her wrists. Natalie wasn't sure what to think of how well she could've predicted most of those qualities beforehand.

The woman gave them a warm, friendly smile as she came over. "Hello, I'm Margaret." And she won points for that, didn't she? Normal name. "Welcome to my store, I haven't seen you here before."

"Hi," Natalie replied after a pause. "No, we're new."

"To the store," Jace clarified. "Not to the whole occult thing in general."

Well he wasn't, anyway.

"Well, it's all relative," Natalie said, glancing at Jace, briefly. Guess living with a necromancer counted as some experience, even if it wasn't Shadowhunter level.

The woman kept smiling. "Well, new or not, I hope I'll be able to help with whatever you need. Is there anything particular you're looking for?" She gave them a sly look, gesturing at them both. "Maybe a love charm...? I think I'm sensing a connection here."

Natalie went for one of what seemed to be her favourite expressions: the slightly unimpressed look.

"She's my sister," Jace said, even if that wasn't technically true. Anything to prove someone wrong. "I doubt our parents would approve."

Margaret's hand came up to cover her mouth. "Oh, I'm sorry!" she said, with an embarrassed little laugh. "I don't usually get things mixed up like that. But sometimes very deep bonds can feel alike."

She was pretty smooth in correcting herself, Natalie had to give her that. But she was also fairly sure being school assigned siblings didn't really give them a particularly strong bond or anything. Her hope was dwindling. "We're actually looking for something against ghosts," she said, anyway.

The woman raised her eyebrows. "Wards against malevolent spirits somewhere or...?"

Natalie twisted her lips and shrugged a shoulder. "More like wards against seeing them." A pause, and she decided to add, in her usual deadpan. "They can really mess with my ability to sleep."

Margaret's eyebrows bounced even further up, and her so far everpresent smile got a little more unsure. "You see ghosts?"

Natalie just nodded. "On occasion."

"Who doesn't every now and again?" Jace said cheerfully once he saw dear Margaret's reaction. "Though I admit it must get annoying when they're trying to read you a bedtime story."

He was not helpful at all, no.

Yeah, not really. Natalie gave him a dry look. The woman, meanwhile, was looking from Jace to Natalie and back, as if she was trying to decide whether they were playing her.

Natalie was making it hard to come to that conclusion, though. "Please excuse my brother, he's a jackass like that," she said. "So do you have anything for that? Ghosts, not jackassnes."

Margaret hesitated. "I... Let me see." She turned. "I don't keep everything out here. Excuse me for a moment." She vanished into the back room again.

"Think she's going to try to escape out the back?" he asked.

"More like she's going to pretend to look for something and then act really sorry she couldn't find it before shuffling us on our way," Natalie replied, with a quiet little sigh. "We're not that scary."

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