#universe is so cruel why must my favorite guy have so many little metal pieces

[mrfroag]

Alphonse elric. Save me Alphonse elric. Alphonse elric save me

[mor-beck-more-problems]

O, the Iron-y || Morgan & Cece

Timing: Last Night

Parties: @thebickedwitchoftherest & @mor-beck-more-problems

Summary: Witchy roommates unite when Morgan needs help identifying what, exactly, happened to the body she found with Kaden. 

Contains: discussions of violence

“You know, someday when people aren’t getting murdered right and left, or at least when I’m not coping with so much trauma, we really need to get back to our trashy TV nights,” Morgan sighed from her spot on the floor. It had been a long time since she’d played corpse on the floor with herself, but the sight of that body had really done a number on her. Sure, she’d killed, but not like this. Not for pleasure or power or trophies or...whatever the hell was behind this. Morgan couldn’t imagine anything awful enough to just push someone into becoming so cruel. To treat supernaturals like bloody litter on the side of the street. “You could come to my place, if you wanted. The TV is so huge, you could practically see every pore on the bachelorette’s face.” She sighed again. Her enthusiasm wasn’t quite there even if she meant every word. She craned her head back to see the little witch at work. “I hope it’s a given, but thank you again, for doing this for me. How’s it going with those samples I gave you?”

Cece was leaning against the counter, staring down at Morgan and glancing every so often at her computer. From what Cece knew about the body, this didn’t seem like anything normal. Testing for normal drugs in the system could prove to be a complete waste of time. But even magic was rooted in some science. Sometimes over the counter drugs were used to create some of the most powerful spells. It all depended on the imagination, and the stamina. Finding out what she could about the body from a logical, scientific perspective could influence her findings. “That sounds amazing. The only thing that could make that show funnier is by focusing on every imperfection they have. Plus, I’ll feel like a Kardashian watching it from a rich person tv.” She tossed a glance back to the screen. Still loading in the results. “I should be thanking you. You gave me something to do on an otherwise boring night.” She also ended up back at work, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. “I’m running some normal tests first. Trying to see if anything sticks out. It can help me try to determine the clearly supernatural shit that went down. What can you tell me about the body?”

“Figuring age is hard with fae, I think, but she was an undergrad at the university. Maybe nineteen or twenty. Um, you’ve actually got...pretty much all that’s left of her. I found her with a friend just...abandoned. I’m assuming some warden is taking trophies, or...fuck, I don’t know. Having fun. Taking out some human supremacist bullshit on…” Morgan grimaced and forced herself to breathe slowly. Three months dead, almost, and it was still the first thing she wanted to do. Just breathe. Just bring the world back into the right rhythm, the right meter. “I mean, of all the ways you could possibly hurt a fae--” She shook her head, shuddering. “It was like an acid attack, only it must have been iron, right? Those are the weird, stiff pieces on the body, right? I mean, those burns, they’re everywhere. How much time did they spend planning this?” But there’s gotta be...I don’t know, some kind of underground Hunters R’ Us out there, right? Some signature that can be traced back to something specific, right? Or at least, I don’t know, if we know how, maybe someone can be like, oh yeah, my buddy goes around flinging iron at kids with wings. Great guy, why’re you mad?” She breathed again, realizing she was getting worked up again. She wasn’t going to help anyone like that, least of all whoever the body had been.

“ All that’s left of them.” It hadn’t been a question so much as a disappointed statement. Cece was concerned by what had been left of the victim. Cece had limited knowledge of Fae, but she knew enough to know that cold iron wasn’t their friend. For this girl, it looked like whoever did this really hadn’t like her. But Cece knew enough about the world to know that may not necessarily be true. Some people hunted them from some sense of duty, or for sport. People didn’t need a motive to be sick fucks. At least have the decency to make it quick. “Yeah, looks like iron burns,” Cece nodded, “They could have drugged her first. Made her easier to capture. I should know in a couple minutes.” Morgan was getting worked up over the murder. As far as Cece knew, this had just been a body Morgan stumbled across. But that seemed to be how Morgan operated. She cared a lot for everyone. “It’s hard to tell, honestly. A lot of the hunters I’ve known follow a code, but there are just as many that do it for fun. But I know there are hunters in town. From the looks of it, they were responsible for this. But I can’t promise I’ll be able to narrow it down based on some tox screen results.” She didn’t have any better answers or anything to offer Morgan at the moment besides her smile and the knowledge that she would help Morgan with whatever her next steps were. Cases like these were hard to explain and even harder to solve. Normally, justice may go unsolved. Cece didn’t have much to say in the way of justice, but she did know she could help a friend out. “And what do we do? If we found out who did it?”

Morgan grimaced and held her stomach tighter. “I’ll never understand that. I’ve done some shitty and questionable things, but this...it was slow and awful. They wanted her to suffer.” At least when she killed it hadn’t been torture. That counted for something; that was different. “We...I don’t know. Find out why. Make them answer to...someone, for what they did. Maybe she had family, or maybe...I don’t know. But I am so tired of supernaturals getting hurt and killed and forgotten. It’s bullshit. We’re people just as much as anyone else, but we’re the ones collared and thrown into cages or hunted like pests or living like who we are is something to be ashamed of or tortured and thrown where-the-hell-ever. How are we supposed to live like this, with humans, hunters, getting to hurt us for free whenever they want? Someone has to pay and I’m just...I’m tired of it. Don’t you ever get tired of hiding, Cece? I’d give up my body regrowing to have enough magic to make whoever did this pay.”

For what it was worth, Cece agreed with Morgan. As far as magic went, Cece had lived a pretty open life. The coven kept itself secret for sure, but she still was able to learn and grow with other magic users by her side. Things turned dark and for the worst, sure but at least she wasn’t hunted for it. This girl, this body was fucked. She had been targeted, hunted and tortured before they let her die. “Before we fall down that rabbit hole, you should figure out exactly what you want them to answer to. For people like them, justice isn’t clear cut. There’s no proving something like this in court. So, make sure we know exactly what we’re getting into before we decide what should be done with them.” How else did Cece lay this out to her? If Morgan wanted them eradicated from the planet, Cece was there. She had seen too many bodies like this. Leftovers from the coven, hell even herself. “It’s exhausting. Lucky for us, I’ve still got the magic for both of us.” Something flashed across her screen and she turned to look at it. “I can’t find any logical explanation as to what caused the metal to melt into her skin like that. But I’m pretty damn sure I have a theory.” Cece sighed, wishing that it had been something simple. “Can you go into my bag? Front pocket. There’s a container with a power that looks like soot. Grab that for me and sprinkle it onto the pieces of metal. I want to test something.”

Morgan knew what she wanted, if she could only admit  it out loud. She wanted the hunter who did this to suffer as much as their prey had. She wanted them to fear for their lives, for their humanity, to feel the panic and indignity that she’d felt that day in the woods. She wanted them to die. A life for a life, that was the math of alchemy. And maybe she didn’t have the magic in her anymore, but she could still work her will on the world if she tried hard enough. Morgan reached for her snack pyrex and took out a chunk of muscle (deer thigh, if she remembered correctly) and started to chew slowly as she did as Cece asked. It wasn’t so bad this time now that she knew what to expect, or now that she had packed enough for a whole other meal with her. She unscrewed the lid and ran her fingers through the substance. It was so fine, it barely felt like anything, but there was a familiar sheen to it, some familiar flecks she remembered being quizzed on by her mother. It was used to detect and identify magic in a number of spells. Morgan’s brow furrowed. “You sure about this?” She asked. But Cece seemed sure enough, so, bracing herself, she sprinkled the powder over Coraline Adams’ body. The dust settled and, as her mother had trained her to memorize, a dark indigo smoke began to rise from the body.

“No,” Morgan said, backing away. “No, that’s...shit…” dust spilled from the tin and down her leg. She set it down clumsily before she spilled any more. “A witch did this?”

It hadn’t been Cece’s favorite theory. She had been keeping hope out for some type of explanation. Evidence of extreme heat, iron pills being found in the girl’s system. Something that still felt human, despite how monstrous the crime was. But the thought had been there in the back of her mind. The unexplainable could usually be explained through magic. Had her theory that a witch had been involved been at the back of Cece’s mind this whole time? Sure. She had still had her fingers crossed for the hunter theory. It was better than this alternative. More than the fact itself, Morgan’s reaction to it was what had made Cece so unhappy. She had needed to believe it was a hunter it seemed. It was hard to accept that what was once your own kind could be capable of this evil. Cece had seen it before, taken part in it. That didn’t mean she liked seeing it affect Morgan. “And worse than that, an alchemist.” Cece specified, creeping down to get a better look at the wounds. No doubt about it, the very field that Cece and Morgan had specialized in had caused this. The metal had been almost fused with the skin itself, probably while the girl had been alive. From what Cece knew about Fae and iron, the pain that would have caused would be immeasurable. It was cruel, inhumane. “At the very least, a witch was involved. Whether it was still because of hunter’s or not I can’t be sure. But we’re definitely looking for an alchemist in town. And someone with enough experience with human anatomy to know how to do this.”

“Alchemy,” Morgan repeated slowly. “They used…alchemy.” The iron hadn’t come from a stick. They hadn’t been beaten or pressed against something. The alchemist had turned the fae’s body into iron. The burns on Coraline’s face had come from a touch. “The components of the human body aren’t that complicated,” she murmured. “If you’re just trying to hurt, you don’t even need to do it well. You could just ramp up the hydrogen and nitrogen and start a combustion, or you could simulate the state of hypothermia in a few seconds, you could fill the bloodstream with sand or wear down the elasticity so it falls off, and it’s messy but if you’re just trying to kill someone or hurt them long enough to get away, it’s comparably minimal energy, but to do this...to force a body to do something like this takes practice. I mean, do you know how to do this?” She looked at Cece, completely abashed. “It’s a fucking alchemist,” she whispered again, covering her eyes and walking away from the body before she gave into the pull. “I hate this. I hate this so much. I--fuck. Thank you, Cece. I wouldn’t have guessed this, I don’t know what I would’ve done. I...I don’t know. You don’t talk to any witches in town, right?”

Morgan knew the specifics. Knew how dark their own line of magic could be. How fucked up their abilities were given a bit of anger and a rush of power. Cece studied Morgan’s anger, wondering why she herself couldn’t feel that same outrage. Had the coven desensitized her to things this much? That the closest Cece could feel for contempt was because Morgan was angry? Not for the actual body of the murdered woman that sat near them? Regardless, Morgan was angry enough for the both of them and Cece wanted to do something about that. “I could. If I wanted to.” Cece admitted. Because Morgan wasn’t wrong. This would be easy enough to do with some focus, and easy to fuck up if someone was angry enough. Passion was always a wild factor in magic. It altered it, spread lines thin and made spells harder to control. But this… “These marks are controlled. You can tell that whoever was doing this was being careful. Taking their time. It’s real fucked. And not in a good way.” Morgan questioned whether or not Cece knew any other witches. She did, but not like this. “Not any that could do this.” She didn’t know any that specialized in alchemy, and she didn’t know any that would murder someone this horrifically.

Morgan hadn’t really expected Cece to have the answer fresh out of the ether, but it would have been wonderfully easy. They could just march up to whoever’s door right then and there, demand an explanation, demand something. Sure, all witches didn’t get along, that was obvious. Some were awful. But knowing it was an alchemist shook her in a different way. Of all the things this alchemist could make, everything they could do with their magic, and they chose to destroy a fae like this. A kid. What reason could be good enough for this? What cause, what fucking spell could justify something like this. “If you, um...if you can wrap her up for me, I can take her back to my friend’s place. Figure out if there’s anyone in town who can, I don’t know, bury her or something, I guess. I...thank you, Cece, really. If you get in trouble for this I...I don’t know. I do wanna make this up to you, okay? Soon as I figure this out…”

It wasn’t hard to tell that Morgan was shaken by all of this. She had been acting strangely since she reached out to Cece, and things only got worse and worse the more they found out about it. Whatever this was, whoever did this. They needed to be stopped. That was Cece’s role now, right? Through a thick coating of irony that wasn’t long on her, she was now helping the police catch murderers and stop crimes. So this, although outside of the system and breaking so many policies that Regan’s head would pop clean off if she had been working here, was the right thing to do, right? “I got this. Seriously. Don’t worry about me. This isn’t my first rodeo.” Cece finger-gunned at Morgan, throwing in a dramatic “Yeehaw” for the dramatic effect. Someday the two could talk more about Cece’s time in the coven. Right now, considering the situation, that time didn’t seem right. “I can’t say that I know much about Fae, but I know a lot of them have their own traditions. I’d recommend reaching out to anyone you know that may be able to help out. Give her the burial she deserves and what not.” Morgan sounded like her brain was running a mile a minute, thinking too far beyond their current conversation. “Don’t worry, I’m sure I’ll think of something you can do to make it up to me, got it? Now off you go, you’ve got an alchemist to find.”