Log: Patches and Jubilee.

[x-jubilee.livejournal.com]

Who: Jubilation Lee, Patches
When: Friday July 23rd 4:47pm
What happens?: Jubilee meets Patches to give him payment for the information she asked for. She finds out more then she was expecting.



Jubilee rolled to a stop outside Salem Centre Mall and quickly exchanged her rollerblades for the shoes in the backpack she was wearing. She'd gotten the e-mail from Patches at her private non-school account that she's set up when she'd realised that her school account could be fairly easily traced. It wasn't that she was doing anything wrong, just that she'd wanted to be sure of whether there was any information before she told the teachers about it. Since the big flare up over things she'd said to Amanda on the journal system, and what Patches had said, she wasn't sure the teachers would believe her if she did tell them anything. Best she find out what she could, and then figure out what she could do about it alone. Walking quickly through the mall she reached the shoe repair place Patches had told her about and tapped on the small bell sitting on the counter.

The man who answered the bell's summons was unremarkable - in his thirties, kind of mousy... the most unusual thing about him was the intricate tattoo on his left wrist, runes of some sort. Jubilee caught sight of it when his sleeve slipped up as he leaned his hands on the counter's glass top. "Good afternoon, miss, can I help you?" he asked, and his voice held no trace of the accent of the man she'd already spoken to on the phone. Not Patches, then.

Jubilee took note of the tattoo, filing it away for some later time when she could draw it and scan it into her computer. She'd always had a photographic memory when it came to images, long practice she'd supposed when she thought about the talent at all. "Dude, I'm like pickin' somethin' up for Patches."

The man gave her a skeptical look, and then nodded. "Follow me," he said, gesturing for her to move around the counter. As she did, he led the way past shelves of shoes and shoe cleaning products, and through a plain door. "She's here, Patches," he said, the way he was standing in front of her blocking Jubilee's view of the man in question.

"Thanks very much, Carl." The voice was Irish-accented, much clearer than on the phone. "Well, darlin', you didn't let me down, did you? An' aren't you just lovely? Real heartbreaker, I can tell." Patches moved into Jubilee's line of sight as 'Carl' turned and left, closing the door behind him. They were in a small storeroom of some type, with a workbench covered with shoes and tools, and a couple of battered chairs. The scene suited Patches, a tatty little man in a threadbare coat (despite it being summer) and tweed trilby hat. The hat he raised briefly, in a parody of manners. "Pleased t' be meeting you this fine fair day, sweetheart. They call me Patches. And you would be?"

She eyed him, taking in his coat and hat and the way he stood, remembering what Logan had told her about getting the measure of someone you might have to fight later on. Not that she'd be fighting this guy but it never hurt to follow the instructions of someone who knew more about fighting then you did. 'Sad little king' she thought, her mind suddenly supplying the 'Firefly' quote.

"Hey, dude. Name's Jubilee. Nice set up ya got here, wouldn't have thought this place was a front for anythin' at all by the looks of it."

"First rule of magic, darlin': illusions. Not everyone's so free and easy accepting there's a whole other side to the world, no matter how many mutants there are these days. 'S all smoke and mirrors." Patches took in the nickname, and grinned, knowingly; the little girl thought she knew what she was doing. "I've got your information, darlin'. You ready to give me what I asked for?"

Jubilee shrugged, not particularly liking the way he grinned at her. It was knowing and not a little condescending. Like he knew something she didn't and was amused by it. "Sure but first, how bout you show me the colour of ya money, as they say? You give me a little info, and I'll give ya the blood, then ya give me the rest and we're all free and even."


"Fair enough, darlin'." Patches pulled out a roll of paper from the inside of his coat - Jubilee recognised them as printouts of her scanned sketches. "You remember me tellin' you there were two ways this could go? Either a binding spell, or a way of augmenting a person's power?"

"Sure, I remember." she replied.

"This spell, these runes here... they're augmentation sigils. Meant to increase a person's power to better than what nature gave 'em. Of course, it depends on how strong the person was in the first place, but if someone with a certain amount of clout used this kind of spell... Well, there's no telling what kind of power levels they might have. An' it'd do a bit of a number on their heads, too."

She nodded, thinking back at all the things Amanda had been involved in over the last year. It made sense, what he was saying. It certainly explained what she'd been able to do in the hell dimension. "If it messes with your head, why would someone do it? I mean, what's the benefit, ya know?"

"Power, that's what, girlie. Some folks'll sell their own grandmother for power. Or get some nasty bugger to carve up their skin. Type of person who'd do that... well, I wouldn't trust 'em with me shopping list, let alone anything actually important." There was a nasty gleam in Patches' eyes.

"Say you didn't have a choice, say this person had worked their way into your life and everyone you knew couldn't see what type of person they really were. What would you do?" Jubilee asked.

"Watch 'em. Wait for 'em to slip up. Do me best to tell people what kind of person they really were. And maybe, if you knew some people in the business, there might be a counterspell, something to solve the problem."

She eyed him, weighing her options and whether she should really trust what he was telling her. She wasn't completely stupid, she knew that with most people what they'd tell you was always what put them in the best position and if it actually helped you, well that was secondary. Patches was getting something out of this, something other then her blood. Still, if Amanda really was what he was saying she was, then Jubilee had to make sure she had some way of neutralising her. "If there was a counterspell, what would be the price to find it?"

"Funny you should say that, darlin'..." Although Patches made no indication, some kind of signal was obviously made, as a thin man in a white coat came in, carrying a black case that obviously contained medical equipment. "Main component of the spell is what I was asking for in the first place."

"Fine, just tell me where I need to sit." Jubilee said.

"Right here," the doctor said, indicating the stool vacated by Patches. As Jubilee sat, her sleeve rolled up to expose her elbow, Patches watched the proceeding with almost predatory interest. She stared him right in the eye as the doctor pushed the needle into her skin, while the whole magic underground thing was new to her, Patches reminded her of some of the men she'd avoided during her time in the mall. There was something not quite right about the way he looked at her, and it was beginning to creep her out in a major way.

Silently the doctor completed his task, handing Patches two vials filled with Jubilee's blood. "That's the ticket," the black magic dealer said, making the vials disappear into the depths of his coat. He handed Jubilee the sketches, which had various notes written on the back. "An' here's what you paid for, darlin'. Now, remember, keep an eye out on this person of yours, an' any time you want anything else of me, you know where to find me. For a price, of course."

"Of course, since I'm not at all into the whole hocus pocus stuff though, can't think we'll be seein' each other any time soon though. You get that counterspell though, contact me. I gotta go, 'fore someone starts askin' me questions about where I've been."

"Of course, darlin'. A pleasure to make your acquaintance." Patches held the door open for her, leering at her slightly as she passed him.

She shuddered and walked quickly away, pausing at the front of the mall to change back into her rollerblades. While she could use that counterspell, the thought of never having to deal with Patches again was appealing. 'Freaky magic woo woo shit, no wonder they're all nuts.' she thought.