Part 6
In the end, the Detective actually found me before I found her. I wasn't sure if that was because I hadn't been in the right headspace to ask for directions, or because, well… she was a Detective.
And lucky me, she had Lily with her. Less lucky, she had even more bad news for me.
"You lost Lily's body," I said, almost unable to believe it.
"It's not lost, at least it hasn't been 'lost' yet, but it's out of our hands for now," the goth officer explained.
"Appparently there are legal precidents," Lily said from her spot on the desk. The doll shaped woman looked… Lost. Despite her quiet voice and less than expressive features, it was easy to tell she was angry, frustrated, and scared. Not that I could blame her, when I felt the same way and was in a considerably less vulnerable position.
"...Shit," I cursed, as I processed that. I wanted to say I was surprised, and honestly was a little bit… but not that much. The law was full of stupid rulings on all kinds of things.
"There's another complication. The demon killed the taxi driver," Detective Drake explained. "It's not confirmed yet, but it's a sure bet in court. And even if it wasn't Lily Lane who committed the act, it was Lily Lane's body that did it. And there's a bunch of real stupid rulings made in the sixties that make that a problem."
"They also mean I'm not legally a person." Lily said like she was trying to be outraged but was just… too tired to manage it properly.
"Not legally Lily Lane," the Detective argued. "The Crane vs Slattery precedent does argue you're still a person, just not…"
"Me," Lily said. "It… it sounds so stupid, how can it work like that!?"
I couldn't help but wince. "I think I get it. This is one of those 'convenience' rulings right? They need an identity to prosecute, so they use the bodies. It's what matches the evidence right? Probably some wording involving the word 'body' involved as well."
"I'm not a lawyer, but that sounds about right," the Detective agreed. "It's one of those murky zones. Brainswaps happen, but they're rare. A lot of the law on them is due to one off events, or specific individuals."
Lily folded her arms over herself again and again, looking miserable, which was just a kick straight to the heart.
"It's not all bad news though," the GCPD Officer quickly interjected. "That also means the precedent is weak. It's not impossible to challenge a ruling like this if you're willing to fight it."
"With a public defender?" I asked, dubious of the likelihood of success there.
"It's possible," she argued. "There's plenty of hotshot lawyers looking for a chance to get their names in the books, and overturning a precedent like this would do that. Even if you can't, it's not the end of the world. With your old identity legally dead, your assets would default to your next of kin. That's your family right? Unless you've got a will wording against that?"
"Is her body dead though?" I asked. "You said it was missing- Or 'out of your hands' whatever that means," I said, having a bad feeling about this. "I'm guessing someone from higher up claimed it? Why? Church raise a stink? Some politician trying to raise a panic about it being an infection risk? Some General or Fed get an stupid idea to start up a really ill advised demonic super soldier project?" I pressed.
"I don't know yet," the detective said, cool as a cucumber. "But we intend to find out. I know it's hard, but I need to ask you to trust us."
I glanced over at Lily and thought back to the other Dolls, and what happened last time I'd trusted someone's nebulous support network…
The doll woman seemed even more lost. "Do I even have another choice?"
"I'm sorry," The Detective said. "We are doing everything we can. Jim's not going to let this go, and neither am I."
"Maybe we can get in touch with your family until then?" I suggested. "If that's not an option, you can crash with me… Though my living situation's not exactly ideal." Having no fixed address and all that.
I wasn't about to suggest the church as a refuge, regardless of the whole demonic threat thing.
Though thinking of that… another location came to mind. "I… might know about someone who could help better than me anyway. At least if we can make it to Tuesday intact."
That caught Lisa's attention. "You didn't mention this before," she said, giving me a suspicious look.
"Not to the case, or at least not as a cause," I said. "He's actually the guy who taught me the nail trick. Or rather about demons's weakness to iron. Which I'd admittedly heard about before, but only from mythology-"
"I get the idea," The Detective said, dismissively waving her hand to motion me to get on with it.
"You think he could help me?" Lily asked.
"Maybe," I said. "I don't know everything he can do. He knows a lot more about magic than I do, at bare minimum."
"This wizard got a name?" Drake pressed further.
"I'm… not sure I'm allowed to share it?" I asked, somewhat concerned.
Yeah, she did not like that. Unsurprising really. "And why is that?" she asked in a tone that made it clear a nonanswer was going to make this a lot less friendly.
"He's… retired, I think," I said. "Or something near it. And a very private person, he doesn't want a lot of attention. Which is common for wizards. I only met with him thanks to a reference. I don't think most people even can find him. Physically that is. He's basically your standard magical hermit. You only find him if he lets himself be found."
Lily looked up at me at that, and I noticed despite her expression being literally stitched onto her face she still managed to scrunch it up in concern.
"And you don't want him thinking GCPD snooping around might be because we talked to you," the detective deduced.
"Is that a problem?" I asked her. Not wanting to bring up that I also wasn't sure how this applied to his potential league work, since referring to that was… Probably a very big no no.
"I wouldn't suggest meeting anyone without telling someone where you were going and who you were meeting," she advised.
"Fair enough," I agreed. "I can tell some people to drop a line in if I vanish, for all the good that is."
"You do realize how bad that sounds, right?" The detective asked.
"He's got a good reputation," I argued. "A long one. I think he's just… Sick of dealing with people, little problems. I don't think he's going to be any more dangerous than an old vet."
"Some old vets can be a lot more dangerous than you'd think," Lisa reminded me.
Lily spoke up. "If it's dangerous…"
"I was already going to see him for personal issues," I said to the small doll reassuringly. "Magic stuff, not life threatening or anything, just… Roadblocks I've been dealing with. Like I said, he knows a lot more than me, and has a good reputation. I'm kind of hoping he's got advice for me. Tips, tricks, his opinion on stuff. Anything he's willing to show me."
"And he's your best option for helping?" Detective Drake asked.
"Has anyone gotten a hold of Zatara?" I asked her.
"Not yet," She admitted.
"We probably are going to need Lily's body if we're going to manage this," I said. "Though even if we do get her back in it… What's the Law's precedents on someone's body killing someone when they're not in it?"
The detective was quick to answer, "Temporary possession and mind control are a lot more established in the law. There'd be some back and forth to prove it, but she shouldn't be held accountable for anything."
Lily nearly slumped with relief. "Thank you."
"We are trying," Lisa said to her sympathetically. "You leave getting the body to me and Jim. For you two… Well, let's hope your wizard works out."
I could tell she wanted to ask more…. But something was holding her back, and not in the 'for now' sorts either. She genuinely seemed to accept me being quiet about this for some reason. Probably part of the whole local cape dynamic?
This world was weird.
"I can give you two a ride if you need a lift somewhere," Detective Drake offered.
I turned my attention to Lily. "Well?"
She seemed to consider it for a long moment… Then gave us an address.
Unfortunately, things actually somehow got worse when we finally arrived.Last edited: Dec 26, 2025 Like ReplyReport Reactions:dnd-addict, Relyt118, 84900137 and 262 othersMizuki_StoneDec 26, 2025NewAdd bookmarkView discussionThreadmarks Chapter 5 Part 7 New View contentMizuki_StoneExperienced.Dec 30, 2025NewAdd bookmark#560Part 7
"That thing is not my daughter!" roared out a rather severe looking man, heavily built, thick with both fat and muscle like a powerlifter gone halfway slack, he had stark gray eyes, currently bloodshot, and short brown hair shot with silver.
"Mr Lane, please," Detective Drake tried.
This was… arguably a better reaction than Lily's Mothers had been. She had tried to help.
"Get out!" The man screamed.
"No, Jacob! Stop, listen to me!" Lily's mother said, grasping at her husband. Her eyes were brown and wide with panic. She had wavy auburn hair and while not nearly as big as her husband, was also on the fitter end of things, helping actually restrain his movement.
"No Helen! I won't have these… Unnatural conmen selling us more false hope!" The large man belted out.
"It is me. I'm alive. I'm here," Lily said, while all but curling in on herself.
I don't think they heard her though.
"But what if they're right!?" Her mother Helen demanded. "This could be our only chance to help her move on!"
"Sir. Mam, please calm down," Detective Drake tried again. "We're not con artists, I'm a police Officer," she said, pulling out her badge to prove that. "Your daughter has… gone through a dramatic change but-"
"Our daughter is dead," Jacob snapped. "And if you're not a con artist, you're a damned fool."
"For fuck's sake… We're not con artists!" I finally snapped. "Just fucking talk to your daughter! You have to have stories only you two would-"
He swung at me.
At that point things… kinda devolved. As in 'Lisa ended up putting Lily's dad in cuffs' devolved. Though I didn't break anything this time.
Well, outside of Lily's heart, obviously. Though I'd kinda like to hope my end of that had been more positive than negative, regardless of how bad things turned out.
"We'll let him cool off in lockup," Detective Drake said after escaping Lily's mother, who had not taken well to her having stuffed Lily's father in the back of her car. "Hopefully he'll be a bit more reasonable after he has some time to think."
"I hope so," I said, although on a personal level, I felt… Less than hopeful about that.
Lily didn't say anything, she just gripped my arm as tight as she could as I held her in the crook of my good arm.
The officer moved on. "In the short term… Do you have anywhere else to stay?" she asked bluntly.
"I've got a couple options. Not great ones, but options," I said. Though I wasn't really sure which was the better pick at this point. The new 'clinic' we were setting up was easily the nicer building, sure, but it was also more exposed. I also wasn't sure about what legal complications could come from staying there and being caught 'tresspassing'. Also it probably wasn't residentially zoned.
Not that the abandoned movie theater I'd been staying at otherwise was, but it was also a lot more private. And it wasn't like either had electricity at the moment…
"...what about me?" Lily said, in a detached tone. I feared this might have been the straw… Well, in this case, it was more the log that broke the camel's back. "Maybe I should just…"
"Well, like I said, they're not great options, but that was an invitation to stay with me," I said to her.
"...It was? I mean… I… Y-you… Thank you, thank you" Lily asked, squeezing my arm tighter.
"I'm sorry I can't offer more right now," I said, honestly still feeling pretty crummy about the entire situation.
"No, please… You've been the one person I can count on, in all of this." she replied.
I winced, eyes flicking up to Detective Drake.
Who… didn't look offended, if anything she looked like she was feeling as crummy as I was. "We're going to need a way to reach you."
"I don't have a phone yet, but I'm doing some work for Doc Thompkins lately," I offered. "You know who that is?"
The Detective seemed momentarily surprised, then if anything a little bit impressed "Out in Crime alley? Brave."
"Low on options," I corrected. "Doc Thompkins has been really good to me though, and everything I've seen and heard tells me that her clinic does good work."
"Cuts down on my paperwork at least," The detective replied. "You check in there regularly?"
"At least once a day," I confirmed. "That work for keeping in contact?"
"It'll have to do," The officer agreed. "I'd offer a ride to wherever you're going but…"
I looked over at Lily's dad, still stuck in the back of her car. "...Yeah, I get it."
"Thank you for your help officer," Lily, ever polite, said to Detective Drake.
"We're probably going to need that body if my contact can help with the soul swap thing," I added in reminder.
"We'll keep you up to date on things," The still human-bodied woman reassured.
And then headed back off to the station, while the pair of us left to travel back into the city on our own two legs.
Well, my two legs. I wasn't about to let Lily walk across Gotham until we got her some little doll scale boots that were made of actual rubber, and not just soft leather vaguely shaped to look like them.
It was, needless to say, kind of a long trip on foot. Not that bad of one. I had Goodberries to fuel me, and ease my aches, and popped a quick Vigor when I started to get tied, but it still took almost an hour to walk back to the nearest bus stop, and took another one to actually make it to my little hideaway out of public view.
"This is where you stay?" Lily asked after I helped her through a hole in the boarded up windows. Blinking through a few seconds afterwards.
"Yep," I said, firing up the old magical Color Ray flashlight. "It's not much, but it's home… For now at least. The Doc's helping me set up a holistic medical thing in another building, but it's not available yet."
It was a nice reminder that I still had a few things to be optimistic about.
"You don't have anywhere else?" the currently doll shaped woman asked. "What about your family?"
"They're… Not here," I blinked, not really hesitating as much as stumbling over my words. "Sorry, I guess I never really explained my situation in all this." For obvious reasons, hers was considerably more dire at the moment.
"Did… something happen to them? Lily asked, sounding like she was worried that she'd just stepped onto a social landmine.
"No, not really," I corrected. "It's just that I came to Gotham as part of my magic training," I explained. "Didn't really have a chance to bring much with me either. Just the clothes on my back. No valuables I could trade for local currency," outside of maybe my phone, and I was not trading that. Hell, I wasn't even letting that outside of my Pocket until I had a reliable way to charge it.
"So you came here from somewhere else," the small woman said as we came to my normal resting spot. Which helpfully, contained some of the small amounts of furniture the building had.
I helped her sit down, which led to the next and admitted obvious question, "Why Gotham?"
"Not sure," I admitted. "There's a few magic reasons possible, but it could also have been a philosophical thing. Part of the duty I've been entrusted with."
"Your duty as a wizard?" Lily asked to confirm.
"Kinda," I said. "Its a bit of a long story, but to summarize things… I, along with a few other disciples, were picked to learn my mentor's style of magic. We were given, through a ritual process, a sort of… Think of it as a mental spellbook, and the spark of a hundred spells. Or rather Cantrips that we could learn, refine, and, through mastery, pass onto others. Our disciples."
Lily followed along, clearly interested in my words, but not interrupting.
"And… That's basically our duty," I said with a shrug. "To protect, and pass on the legacy of our mentor. Which is also why it's just me here. The others all went to other places. I'm supposed to either start a new branch of our magic here, or determine that this place isn't good for it, and move on… Which might also be why I'm supposed to stick around for a year. Make sure I give the place a full shake before deciding on that."
After a moment's pause, I added, "It's not the only reason though if it is. I asked already."
"So… you're sort of like a missionary, but for magic?" she asked. "Could your mentor help out? Is he who we're meeting on Tuesday?"
"No, that's someone else," I said. "We're meeting someone named Jason Blood. He's… Old. Really old. Older than modern English old," I explained. "As for my mentor? I can't reach him."
Lily seemed surprised by that, "You can't?".
"He's kind of in another reality," I explained. "I don't know the magic to travel like that yet. Or send messages."
"Oh…" she seemed to feel a bit awkward about that.
"It was a reasonable question," I argued. "As for being a magic missionary," I snorted at the idea. I mean I kinda was, but… "Nah. I'm not here to speak the good word of Merlin or anything. I'm just the supernatural equivalent of someone studying to start up a McDojo. My branch of magic is generally on the low on the whole 'philosophical and organisational' commitment, end of things.. As obvious by me being out here on my lonesome."
I leaned back a bit. "Really… My magic? It's more suited for dabblers. People who want to learn one or two arcane tricks, without dedicating their life to it. Proper wizards specializing in it are rare." Which is what made my duty so important I suppose. Someone had to master it well enough to actually teach all those half-assers.
Lily seemed to accept that answer well enough. Choosing to move onto a new subject, "And this Jason Blood is different? Do you really think he can help me?"
"I hope so," I said, not really able to offer her more than that. "I really hope so."
A quiet moment passed between us.
"So… what now?" she asked.
"For now?" I asked. "Well, I guess I go back to practicing magic. I think I'm almost good enough with Goodberry to fix my arm. Then I'm going to take a shot at that shapeshifting magic I mentioned to you way back at the house. I can't practice it much, due to the issues I mentioned earlier, but maybe Mr. Blood will have a fix for that too."
That seemed to perk her up a little. "Can I watch?"
"You can, but it'll probably be boring," I admitted. "I've got a book or two around that you can read as well…" I recast Color Ray to look around, before realizing, "Er… I guess I can also practice Glow a bit. That's a sort of magic lightbulb spell…" I began to explain. Starting to teach Lily the basics of living in the abandoned building. Hoping for her sake that it wouldn't exactly be something she'd have to get used to.
Little did I know, most of those lessons were soon to be made irrelevant.
On the brightside. It was nice to learn not all of Lily's family were dicks.Last edited: Dec 30, 2025 Like ReplyReport Reactions:dnd-addict, Relyt118, 84900137 and 272 othersMizuki_StoneDec 30, 2025NewAdd bookmarkView discussionThreadmarks Chapter 6: Wizards and Blood. Part 1 New View contentMizuki_StoneExperienced.Jan 5, 2026NewAdd bookmark#580Chapter 6: Wizards and Blood
Part 1
When I took Lily to meet Doc Thompkins the next day, we ran into a surprise. Detective Corrigan was waiting for us at the clinic, along with another person.
"Tommy?"
Someone Lily recognized.
"Holy crap Lily, is that actually you?" The young man asked.
Key words there being young, I was half surprised the guy's voice didn't crack. Shaggy auburn hair, gray eyes, tall like a beanpole to the point I actually had to look up to meet his eyes. He had the start of a rather sad attempt at a beard, and was dressed in a flannel jacket over white shirt with jeans.
"As far as we can tell, that doll is hosting the spirit of Lily Lane," Detective Corrigan said to the young man.
"Jesus Christ," the man cussed. "How the hell did this happen to you? I mean, it is you, right?" he asked again.
"It's me," Lily confirmed. "Remember when we went camping as kids, and I told mom and dad you hit me with a stick while 'playing swords', but lied?"
"Holy crap it is you," he uttered, looking… Very mixed about that confirmation. He then blinked and glanced up at me, "Uh… hi. Sorry to be rude. Just…." he gestured down at Lily.
"No problem," I said. I think I got the idea of how big a deal this was for him, given his resemblance to Jacob and Helen.
"Reed, this is my brother, Tommy," Lily helpfully confirmed.
"Nice to meet you," I said in greeting.
"Ah, yeah, thanks, same?" he said experimentally, offering one hand, before pulling back quickly because, you know, my reciprocating arm was in a sling, then trying the other, only to pause because that arm was holding Lily. Looking momentarily helplessly befuddled on what to do.
Lily tugged on my shirt, and I helped her scramble onto my shoulder, solving the issue.
"Hah… you're as tall as me now," Tommy said to his sister, though the joke was rather flat. I could see a number of emotions warring across his face, disbelief, despair, an attempt at a strong but clearly fake smile.
"Don't you dare tickle attack me," Lily said in response.
"Whaaat? Never!" Tommy said in a faux honest tone that implied he absolutely would… Though I wagered it was a double bluff given Lily's current condition. "Would that even work?" he asked, trying to keep things lighthearted, but unable to keep all the awkwardness out.
"I'm… not sur-hahahaha! Stop, please! It works! It works!" Lily started only to break out laughing as I reached up to check. Tickling the bottom of her little boot shaped feet.
"Hey HAY! You could have asked, man!" Tommy interjected, looming at me.
Only, you know, it didn't really work because, even if he had a couple inches on me, he was a beanpole, and maybe two thirds to three quarters my actual size. And while I'd wager he actually was probably stronger than me regardless due to my lack of supernatural heritage, the monkey in me didn't register that, making it easy to hold my ground.
"It's fine Tommy! We probably should have checked earlier…" Lily spoke up in my defense. Which was great, because I wasn't entirely sure how to explain. I did that mostly to try and break the tension without making things even more awkward. Because while you'd think bringing everything out into the open would make things better, it actually tended to muddy things up even worse.
"No he's right, I should have asked first," I said, hoping that actually would help.
Tommy did ease back, but kept his eyes on me. Which was probably good, since it meant he wasn't focusing on all the things he couldn't do about Lily's situation anymore. Mission accomplished, if not without cost.
"So… how, exactly did you end up a doll?" Tommy asked. After a moment.
"It's… a bit of a long story." Lily warned.
"I got nothing better to do today," Her brother was quick to assure.
"Okay… Reed? Can you cover the bits I miss?" Lily asked me.
"As long as I was there for it, sure," I agreed. Only realizing a moment after that, she might have meant she wanted me to cover the parts she didn't really want to go back over.
Which, you know, was more than reasonable for her to do so. Most people probably wouldn't want to relive any of that mess, even as a general overview.
And yet, she did, launching into her telling of events, from walking up to the apparent Yard sale, and picking up a cursed doll, to Father Callahan, Jimmy and I showing up, to being carried to the church, my magical experiments, the station, tracking down her possessed body and the mess that came after it..
Which, naturally, Tommy had plenty to comment about.
"You lost her body!?[/i]" He demanded of Corrigan.
"Not lost, internal investigations, had it moved while looking over our case logs," The officer argued.
"Oh like that's better. Why were they looking into your files!?" You on the take?" Tommy accused.
"No, and watch the tone kid. We're trying to help. This is just bad timing and standard procedural red tape," Corrigan deflected. "The Commissioner's already ordered the body's return as both an item of interest and evidence in an ongoing priority case. Rook's not about to sink his entire career denying his duty to accommodate what's effectively necessary medical equipment."
I snorted a little at the legalese on that.
Tommy rubbed at his temples, "Okay, I'm not done with that… But what happened next."
"After that I went home and…" she trailed off.
I stepped in as asked. I'd done so a few times, honestly more often to provide detail than anything, particularly when we'd gone over my attempts to treat Lily and the other dolls magically. "They didn't react well. Not sure who, but someone tipped them off and seemed to give them the wrong idea. Your dad thought we were con-men, while your mom…"
"She thinks I'm dead. That I'm just… haunting this…" Lily said, spreading her arms out in a sort of 'all of me' gesture to her doll body.
"Which isn't the case, mystically or legally," Corrigan cut in. "Even biologically. I had a friend look over her body while we had it, and while there's zero signs of neurological activity, her heart's still beating, blood's still flowing, and she was even healing from the fight. That's probably the demon keeping its 'vessel' useful admittedly, but it does mean we should still have a chance to get her back where she should be."
'Unless some idiot pulled the nail out,' I very intentionally didn't say.
Still, that was some interesting stuff to know. Possibly relevant when we got to Blood. Assuming he was willing to help.
"That's… Good I guess?" Tommy said. "As long as you can get Lily's body back at least. You've got some idea on how to do that, right?" he asked me.
"We're meeting someone who might," I said with a hapless shrug. "It's not my area of expertise. Actually, to put things bluntly, my kind of magic is rotten at soul stuff," there were only a handful of Cantrips that manipulated the spirit, and they tended to come in two flavors. Magic that purified the soul/spirit, or ones that attacked on that level.
"But he said he could teach me a spell that could change me back into a human," Lily said.
That got a raised eyebrow from the Detective.
"Wait, really?" Tommy asked, incredulous at the idea.
I nodded though, "I've got a few shapeshifting techniques. They don't work on other people, and I'm not good enough at them to teach, yet, but that's kinda why I came to Gotham in the first place. It's part of my training. If all else fails, I'll make learning that sort of spell a priority, since Lily's willing to learn." I was supposed to pick up some students anyway.
"Neat trick to have," Detective Corrigan commented. "Anyway, if you don't need me for anything else?"
Tommy looked at him, "I've still got some questions on the whole lost my sister's body thing-"
"Tommy. Tom! Tommy!" Lily interjected, flailing her arms at him to draw attention. Gesturing widely since, well… She couldn't exactly express herself easily otherwise.
I mean even outside of the whole 'face is a static, stitched expression with barely any flex' thing, her voice, while clear, was small. We had to be careful not to talk over her since she could probably be drowned out by a loud enough air conditioner. Wide gestures were her only real way to draw attention.
Luckily, her brother seemed to catch what she was doing, or at least was paying enough attention to pause when he saw her waving, giving her a chance to talk.
"Tom, please don't? I think Detective Corrigan and his partner are trying to help." she said earnestly.
Tommy paused at that, momentarily taken aback, probably more by the realization of what he'd been doing than what she'd actually asked. He looked at her, then back to Corrigan, then to me for a moment, then back to her, sighing. "....Right, Sorry. If you say so.. I'm going to ask around about lawyers though," he said in a warning tone shooting a look back at the Detective.
Corrigan, however, seemed more impressed then offended. "That makes you a better big brother than some I've seen," the red/white haired detective said, walking off to his car with a wave.
Which left the three of us standing outside Doc Thompkin's clinic.
"We should probably head inside," I said with a tilt of my head.
"Right, sure. Lots left to catch up on… So… you're a magic man?" he asked me as he opened the door, stepping in.
"Working on becoming one," I replied as I followed him into the entrance, removing my outside shoes and putting them on the appropriate mat. "Right now, I'm more of a magic hobo with some parlor tricks."
"He's trying really hard to help though," Lily said in my defense.
"Effort does not necessarily equate effectiveness." I shot back.
"Okay, but hobo?" he asked.
"I'm ah… between fixed addresses," I admitted with a shrug. "Speaking of, you up to hosting your sister until Tuesday? I'm kinda squatting at the moment. It's a nice place, but we don't have power."
"Oh, uh… maybe?" he said. "I'm in a dorm at the college…How bad is the place you're squatting at" he said awkwardly.
That wasn't the most promising of questions to hear asked.
"It's not that bad. No bullet holes or garbage outside of the fruit room. Though it's dark in most of it," Lily appraised.
"Also dusty, though I'm working on that," I said. "Got rid of most of the cobwebs."
"I could get you some portable lights at least?" he offered, then paused. "Wait, fruit room?"
"I'll explain in a bit," I said as we entered the clinic proper and greeted Doc Thompkins. Since I had just a few little things to update her about.Last edited: Tuesday at 2:43 AM Like ReplyReport Reactions:dnd-addict, Relyt118, 84900137 and 245 othersMizuki_StoneJan 5, 2026NewAdd bookmarkView discussionThreadmarks Chapter 6 Part 2 New View contentMizuki_StoneExperienced.Friday at 8:36 AMNewAdd bookmark#592Part 2
Tommy stayed for a decent chunk of the morning as I walked Doc Thompkins through my end of what had happened over the last couple days.
And I say my end, because Jimmy had already stopped by to blab most of the details. Which was fortunate, since it caught me up a bit on what was going on from his point of view. Or at least part of it. I was going to have to track the man down soonish to get the full story.
I was also going to have to visit the church, and probably get back in contact with Father Callahan. I wasn't so sure I wanted to meet his 'new friends' though. As a possessed doll had reminded me, some people interpreted the whole, 'Suffer Not the Witch to live' a lot more negatively than I'd like, and these guys seemed to have itchy trigger fingers.
Needless to say, I did not like my prospect against whoever the hell the Church sent to deal with a demon infusion. I had some combat magic, sure, and had held my own decently against the possessed, but that was mostly due to me striking from surprise or having backup. In a straight fight? I'd been sent running by an old woman and a frying pan before.
I'd have to be very careful in any approach I made here. Which, in the short term, meant I should probably just keep my head down, wait, and try to become a little less pathetic.
On the figurative and literal bright side, Lily's brother had offered a bit of help in that. Tommy wasn't exactly flush for cash but he freely offered anything he could, which included an old battery powered lamp he'd taken with Lily and their dad out fishing. We'd be burning through D-cells near daily using it all the time, but properly rationed and supplemented with the odd casting of Glow or Color Ray it could go for weeks. He grabbed a couple of smaller flashlights for Lily to use as well.
It also got me a second blanket, which was great. And some sewing supplies, which could possibly be used as a sort of first aid kit for Lily if she popped a stitch.
I'd also probably be useful for more mundane sewing, but that kinda went without saying.
Though, speaking of medical stuff… Doc Thompkins gave Lily a look over and well… She was a doll. Though we did learn a few interesting things.
For one thing, Lily could, but seemingly did not have to, 'breathe'. Though none of the air she took in or expelled seemed to undergo any chemical change.
Lily's strength was roughly proportional to a human's, which given her size, was actually rather weak. On the upside? She didn't suffer from any sort of muscle strain, though extended activity did still leave her feeling generally 'tired'
Her flexibility was also 'weird'. External force could bend and move her in all the ways a doll normally could, twist her arms outright into knots and the like, while causing no physical pain (though some movements generated physiological discomfort), but she could only intentionally move in the normal human range… Though this, interestingly, included the ability to force herself into a normal human like alignment if a limb was bent out of place.
She had no blood, just fabric and stuffing. A needle could be poked right through her with minimal discomfort, but any strain to the weave of her 'skin' was painful.
The only hard 'tissue' she had was her button eyes. Which seemed to see clearly both normally, and with the odd spiritual vision she'd seemingly picked up.
Touch was present, but muted, and included the entirety of her fabric body, including most of the bits that looked like clothing, but not the trailing bit of 'skirt' or her 'hair', interestingly. Hearing was present but slightly muffled. Smell, despite Lily originally reporting it being non-existent, did seem to exist, but was muted and only when she 'inhaled'. With Doc Thompkins wagering her own fabric body being the cause, 'filtering' both sounds and smells like a cloth over the mouth and ears would.
Which did raise some interesting ideas on how to correct the issue. Not the least of which being some 'surgical' work to remove the possible 'blockages'. But that was kind of a drastic measure to take before we even got as much as a second opinion. Namely, getting Blood's look at things. If he was willing to anyway.
I was really hoping he was. What little I remembered about the man had him being generally… Grumpy, if overall a positive force.
In the meantime, there wasn't much left but to wait and practice.
Which was, at least, starting to pay off. Not the least of which being the breakthrough I'd been striving towards since Ms. Sally had first hit me with that frying pan of hers. Finally managing the level of healing magic that could fix broken bones after spending the next few hours refilling the Doc's fruit dish, conjuring Goodberry after Goodberry, focusing on increasing the size, until…
"That… is a very big fruit," The doctor said looking at my greatest feat of conjuring to date. "It reminds me of some of Ivy's creations, though she normally doesn't make giant berries."
I had conjured an apple the size of a watermelon on this breakthrough, which was a neat feature. It gave me an odd urge to make some giant Raspberries, just because I was kinda curious what the little 'balls' making up its form would look like blown up like this.
"You think that will fix your arm?" Lily asked.
"Hopefully," I said. I'd have been really wasting my time if it didn't.
Though, thinking of Lily… A Raspberry of that size would probably also be pretty easy to juice wouldn't it? It might be worth making just to see if that helped her like the lower grade Goodberry had.
But first, I really needed to fix my busted wing. Looking at the giant fruit for a moment, wondering how the hell I was supposed to bite into something that big, before just leaning in to just do it.
"One moment," Doc Thompkins interjected. "I want to get a baseline first," she asked me.
"Sure," I said, trying to keep the grouch out of my voice. I wanted to complain, because damn it my arm fucking hurt. More importantly, it was really annoying not being able to use it freely.
But I owed Doc Thompkins at least this much compliance. Besides, who knew what she might be able to potentially learn from this? At minimum it might help her trust my magic a little bit more.
My examination was a lot less interesting than Lily's had been, also quicker, since we were just retreading old ground.
The doctor frowned as she prodded me, "Well, you're not worse, but you're also not healing as well as I'd hoped you would."
'It's only been a few days, and I did tackle a demon recently," I reminded her.
"Which makes your rate of recovery unsurprising, but still not where I'd hoped," she chided lightly. "You're actually doing well. Those fruits of yours seem to be keeping a lot of the normal secondary issues from cropping up, but given that I'd have expected the pain to have lessened by now."
I gave a half shrug. I wasn't the doctor here. Well outside of maybe in the 'hedge witch with magic potions' sense.
Which actually did bring something to mind. "Mind if I borrow a glass and some water while you're poking around? I had an idea a while ago to maybe boost my magic's healing potency a little."
"Just wait another minute and I'll let you try your hocus pocus," The doctor replied, long used to antsy patients. "I need to make sure you don't cause any unwanted side effects fusing a fracture faster than nature intended."
"No, not eating the Goodberry right away, I got an idea on how to boost its potency a bit further," I explained.
Lily perked up a bit at that.
"Let's try your original treatment idea first," The doctor suggested.
"Right, fine, that's probably the smarter answer," I sighed in agreement.
"We'll be done soon," The Doctor replied, with the same tone she likely used to tell children something would be 'just a little pinch'.
Despite that, in a surprisingly short time she actually let me make a go at it.
Which… left the surprisingly difficult task of eating a full fourth of a watermelon sized apple. That took a bit.
And then my arm was fixed. Seriously, just like that. You'd expect some kind of lightshow, or even for the sensation of it to be noticeable. Maybe a sharp pain as the bone fused, or an odd euphoria. Instead the pain just gradually faded as I chewed through until it wasn't noticeable at all about a third of the way through. Though I finished the correct 'portion' with a little extra on top, just in case.
That was it. No pyrotechnics. No sound effects. No grand epiphany into magic or life. Just… The arm was fixed now.
Also a bunch of other small background pain. Older, previously healed breaks didn't straighten themselves out or anything though. I think it might have done a little dental work. I hadn't been able to keep as on top of my oral hygiene as I'd wanted given my circumstance. But overall, that was it!
And then the second round of testing with Doc Thompkins began… naturally.
She did lend me the glass of water though! Which was great, because I really wanted to see what kind of Witch's Brew I could make with freshly squeezed Goodberry Juice, and maybe see what it could do for Lily.Last edited: Friday at 12:13 PM Like ReplyReport Reactions:FluffyTailLover, dnd-addict, PurpleTwilight and 249 othersMizuki_StoneFriday at 8:36 AMNewAdd bookmarkView discussionThreadmarks Chapter 6 Part 3 New View contentMizuki_StoneExperienced.Yesterday at 10:36 AMNewAdd bookmark#602Part 3
So, yeah, that was the rest of my day there. The good news was, Large grade Goodberry Juice did seem to help Lily some, clearing up her hearing and sense of smell a little, and giving her a bit more physical strength. The bad news was that it wasn't much, and running it through Witch's Brew didn't seem to noticeably help with it, outside of apparently dramaticly improving the taste for her.
Which, admittedly, was expected. I hadn't put much effort into Witch's Brew yet, so it was only doing the base minimum. Which boiled down to 'make taste better and relax and the mind and body as much as a ten minute nap', rather than anything significant. Yet.
That said, since it was now one of the only two types of 'foodstuff' that Lily could currently taste. I bumped up its priority as a cantrip to train. Not above more immediate 'need these or might die' cantrips like Blessing, Eldritch Blast, Fist or even Mage Armor. But once I got those up to the bare minimum? Witch's Brew might not be able to do a lot now, but it was one of the best 'anti-curse' Cantrips in my arsenal, also one of the few perfectly stable ones. So even without Lily, it'd have been a good choice to work on soon.
But that was soon. Not now. To have the time to work on 'fun' magic, I needed to survive long enough to study it. Hence, combat magic.
Fist was going to be the first bit of attack magic I focused on. It couldn't do spiritual damage like Eldritch Blast, but mastering Eldritch Blast to that level was going to take weeks, if not months. Fist was quick, both to cast and to train, at least at the basic levels. It'd take me less than half as long to get it two steps from outright mastery in all aspects of it, than I'd need to hone Eldritch Blast far enough in one aspect to do what I wanted it to do.
IE. Punch a demon directly in the soul, rather than just damage whatever proxy body or manifestation it was currently using.
And Fist was also just a generally good Cantrip to learn. Decent offense, notable defensive options, surprising versatility, and amazingly good synergy with other Cantrips. Plus, it'd let me punch someone across a room if I needed to, and that was something I think everyone had desired the capacity to do at some point or another.
And while I worked on that, Lily went ahead and dug through my limited stockpile of reading material. Which unfortunately, was currently pretty much just those weird lizard-people conspiracy books Jimmy got me way back before this whole mess had really hit. We'd travel the next day to the local Library (after a quick stop at Doc Thompkins for a shower, and the Laundromat to fix up my clothing), to try and expand that list a little.
No dice. I didn't have a Library card, and couldn't currently qualify for one, since, you know, no fixed address or phone number. Lily not being any better. We could read inside though, which was a wonderful break from all the current insanity.
Tommy also stopped by Doc Thompkins again, and dropped off a radio for Lily. Again, battery powered, but he'd also dropped off an entire box of those. Leaving Lily worried he was digging into his food budget to supply all of this. I dropped off some Goodberries with the Doc asking she pass one onto him if she saw him next, along with one for Jimmy along with a message that I wanted to set up a meeting to get his side of things. Though by the sounds of his last meeting with her, he'd probably gone to ground as well. Likely a lot more effectively than I had.
Which just made my training all the more important. Fist in the morning. Blessing in the Evening, Vigor used to reduce my need for sleep as much as I could, as I pushed through as hard as I could. Even making a half day long Pact with Lily, that I'd train as hard as I could as long as she tried to keep her spirits up. Another spell that might hold a temporary reprieve for her, given enough time, but was currently both too unstable, and frankly, unrefined to provide immediate use.
…I'll admit it was frustrating to have all these spells that I knew could help. Magic that could potentially have solved every one of the problems I'd run into since arriving in Gotham, if I'd only been good enough to actually use them that way. To not know which of them might be the trick to solving my current issues, or if I'd even ever get them working at their most basic levels properly.
I knew I should be grateful, and I was. But even outside of Lily's plight, the awareness of what a Cantrip potentially could do in comparison to what I was capable of with them.. I felt like a ten million piece model set, trying to pull myself together. All while some clock ticked down outside of my view, but close enough to hear.
I tried to channel those feelings into my efforts. Keep things productive, but I also knew throwing myself into another training death march to the point that I fell over from vertigo wasn't going to help anyone.
So I paced myself… relatively. I trained, napped, trained some more. Explored the building a little with Lily while on break. Then trained my cantrips even more, until the sun peeked out between the window boards.
Lily, it turns out, can in fact sleep, and will if she stays up too long, even if she doesn't get physically tired. We went over to Doc Thompkins to get the news and some water I could add some berry juice to, for her to enjoy.
No news from the cops, but Tommy showed up a third time, this time with books. Hers in fact, he managed to get them from her house. Guy was seriously climbing the ladder in terms of 'best older siblings' I'd met.
I tried to read a bit, but I couldn't. Both because of the near constant headache I was experiencing by that point, and because well… I just had to look at Lily to recall how much further I needed to go.
Not that I was going to tell her that to her face. Though she seemed to pick up I was burning the candle at both ends anyway.
I trained until I hit the point of near constant vertigo, but eased off before my balance was too impacted to stand. Vigor helped, but even supplemented by me napping regularly, I was pushing myself right up to my limit. Which wasn't healthy.
It was, however, starting to get results. And by day three I'd already managed a quick breakthrough in Fist. Nothing big. Just enough to let me use it to make my punches stun and disorient people rather than coating my hand in immaterial brass knuckles. Which was a good trick but not near enough for me to feel safe. Blessing was also making progress, though nothing decisive yet.
Day four brought word from Detective Drake. The team investigating her department was, itself, now under active investigation, and Sargent Rook was probably going to be going to a federal prison in the near future. There had been an incident, because of course there was. Someone had pulled out the nail, because of course they did. But they did manage to re-incarcerate Lily's body. Which was… good? Kinda? There were now apparently legal issues with sticking another nail into it though which was… Problematic. And of course more than a dozen people had died during the short lived rampage, which was just plain old horrible.
Also why Rook was going to jail. He had apparently failed to notify the mortuary staff of my repeated warnings. Gods.
Father Callahan had signaled the all clear from his 'friends'. Which meant we could probably come out of hiding. I was going to give it twenty four hours before doing so, just in case. He'd also apparently met Jason Blood at some point while out there, so he was appraised of the general situation around Lily, though Callahan hadn't spoken of her directly to the man. He hadn't wanted to tip off the exorcist team she was still around.
Which was… telling.
With the pressure eased a bit, I mixed up my training a little. I kept working on Fist in the morning, but I took the evening off to work instead on a new Cantrip Fog. Which normally was used to make a sort of well… foggy mist, that was useful to hide in, but could, with only an afternoons' effort, be refined to make a tiny personal rain cloud. Which outside of being hilarious, was also very useful for someone without running water.
It also meant I could start 'showering' at 'home' now. Sure only with cold water, but hey, that's what Firebolt was for… Even if it felt grossly insufficient most of the time.
Something to refine later. When I had a little less on my already overloaded plate… but definitely before Winter set in properly.
Assuming we didn't have a better place to stay by then anyway.
Finally… The big day came, and after calling Father Callahan to confirm the address. Lily and I set off to go see the wizard.