Oh boy. She knew that girl.

Maya's eyes narrowed for a brief moment as she looked at the girl behind the counter. She knew that face. And that voice. She was the lets-leave-the-adorable-kitten-out-in-the-rain girl. The spy-on-her-with-a-female-Calley girl. The weird-mutant-kids-tea-party girl. She looked... shorter. From a human perspecitve. But none the less annoying.
Maya smiled a broad friendly smile.

>> “Yeah, we were hoping—you know—to get a reading? For my friend. She wants to know what her mom’s up to.”

"She does not talk to me much" Maya added with a small smile "So I was hoping to find out... you know... where our relationship is going. That would make things sooo much easier..."

She held on to Maxine. Friends, and all that.

They picked a mid-price reading, because neither of them was made of cash. The girl briefly disappeared behind the shop curtain. When she came back, it was with the Oracle.

He was thin. He had artistically mussed up blonde hair atop his head, and a rather nice pair of shades perched on his nose above a pair of quietly cocky lips. Really, this all would have been well and good in Maxine’s books, if he hadn’t also been about thirteen.

Boo.

Oh well. It wasn’t like she’d come here to pick up boys.

The boy looked at them—looked at her—and then turned to the girl. “Eros should take the 12:45 train to Franklin Square,” he said pointedly.

The phone rang. As the girl went to pick it up, the blonde boy took a seat behind his defunct crystal ball. He motioned for them to take the seats across from him. And, without any particular ceremony, said, “Now. What’s your question?”

“...The 12:45. To Franklin Square,” the girl behind the counter said, into the phone.

Maya arched an eyebrow when the kid appeared. Was that really the Oracle? The older-than-I-look thing just really felt like a cliché. Really, kid? Really?
Maya suddenly felt old. At least it could have been some old man with a white beard or something.

>>“Now. What’s your question?”

Maya sat down, and glanced at Maxine, thinking about the question for a moment. The not-knowing things seemed like a good idea at the time, but it was annoying none the less.

"I haven't really been in touch with my mother in the past few years" she admitted finally "And I kind of lost track of her. I was hoping you could maybe tell me where she is and what she is doing?..."

Did that sound innocent enough? One could never tell, with the sunglasses and the smirk...

Behind the counter, Letitia held her breath. Don’t ruin the sale don’t ruin the sale—

At the table, Alistair pushed the dusty glass ball to one side. “I can only see your future,” he said. “If she’s in there, I can find her, and I can show you what you need to do to meet her. If she isn’t...” He spread his hands slightly. This seemed to remind him of something: he rummaged in his pocket, and brought out a gray rock. This got set where the crystal ball had been... and a little to the left.

“If she isn’t,” he finished, “then she’s going to stay lost.”

Rex was snaking out an arm from Mirror’s wrist, slowly, sneakily, towards the boy. With a click click click, its tentacle suddenly veered off track, and stuck to the rock. Magnetite.

“Either way,” the Oracle said, pushing his sunglasses up his nose, “no refunds. Do you still want a reading?”

>>“I can only see your future. If she’s in there, I can find her, and I can show you what you need to do to meet her. If she isn’t... If she isn’t, then she’s going to stay lost.”

Maya nodded. Strangely, it kind of made sense. Actually it made more sense than if he had said he could see anyone anywhere. Powers with limits sounded like the real thing. Why would a fake fortuneteller make up limits for his fake powers?

Rex was acting up, and ended up stuck to the magnet. Maya peeled him off as casually as she could, and hid her Rex-decorated hand under the table.

>>“Either way, no refunds. Do you still want a reading?”

"Yes" Maya nodded once again, not even glancing at Maxine "Sounds good enough for me."

((ooc: For reference: description of Alister’s way of reading the future, here.))

From where Maxine was sitting, there was nothing flashy or earth-shattering. The blonde boy nodded, and reached up to lower his sunglasses: then he looked into Mirror’s eyes. She stood behind them both, watching for something in their faces, and eying the magnet. Did the boy usually carry that?

Under the table, Rex reached out a tentacle, and worked to diligently tie Maya’s hands together, should she happen to be distracted enough to let him.

Rex was succeeding. Maya did not even notice.

The eyes were not that of a child. That was the only thing she noticed a split second before she was pulled in by his powers.
Oh yep. He was definitely not faking it.

Colors and sounds and emotions flashed past her. Them. Was he seeing this? Gosh it was embarrassing. Gawain, Maya, all kinds of scenes from the present and the past, she recognized them all, except, they all flew by...

Mom.

She knew the place. She knew the buildings, and the streets. And the outline against the morning sky.

Seattle.

Was this her past?
It did not look like her past.

Maxine. Maxine was there. Vicente too. For a moment, things were clear. Then, blurred. Not dreamlike-blurred. Adrenaline-blurred. People, dressed in dark uniforms, faces concealed... a man. Who was that man?

Mom.

She's in Seattle.

She was too far away to see. Did she see her? Damn.

Things flashed past. Faces. Yells. Gunshots. Alleys.
It all looked like a crappy urban remake of the Blair Witch Project.

Mirrors. Mirrors breaking.
Seattle. New York.

Blink.

Maya gasped for air, and reached up to rub her eyes, just to get a handful of Rex right in the face, with her hands tangled together.

"Damn."

“ ‘Damn’?” Maxine parroted, hovering by Maya’s shoulder. “What’s ‘damn’?”

Besides the octoclip tying up her hands. That was fairly worthy of the word, in most circumstances... but not noticing that Rex was doing that? Probably even more worthy.

The boy pushed his sunglasses back up his nose, and took a moment to settle them properly in place. “Well,” he said. “There you are.”

Rex, meanwhile, was trying its luck at tying hands to face.

>>“ ‘Damn’? What’s ‘damn’?”

Maya did not answer right away. For one, she needed most of her attention to untangle her hands from the octoclip's tentacles, stuffing Rex into the pocket of her hoodie, peeling fingers away one by one.

Yeah, it was annoying, but at least it gave her time to catch her breath.

Standing, she ran her Rex-free fingers through her hair.

>> “Well, There you are.”

"Yeah..." she muttered, looking at him, seeing the kid with the sunglasses in a whole different light now. "Here I am. Thanks, I guess. That really... helped."

It really did. Surprise, surprise.

One payment later she practically dragged Maxine out of the shop.

"Mom's in Seattle."

“Seattle?” Maxine repeated. “Are you sure?” She waited a moment, with eyebrows raised.

Then she reached into her pocket, and pulled out a folded sheet of paper. She held it up between two fingers, with a smirk. “I’ve got the address.”

An address, at least. An address where Gloria Kingston of Wolf News’ Seattle office put Ms. Morris at within the last week. She hadn’t exactly been alone, though.

“What else did he show you?” Maxine asked, somewhat less enthusiastically.

All her sources pegged Gillian as hanging out with quite the dangerous crowd.

>>“Seattle? Are you sure?... I’ve got the address.”

Yes, she was sure, and... Maxine had the address. Maya's eyes lit up, and for a moment she wanted to hug the redhead. She certainly deserved it. But this was a Maya-day, and she had a suspicion Maxine would appreciate a Maya-hug a lot less than one from Gawain. Oh well.
She had the address.

>>“What else did he show you?”

The grin was gone, and Maya sighed, tucking her hands into the pockets of her hoodie.

"You were right, there's gonna be a fight. Or could be, however his powers work... I saw a lot of stuff. And all these people, in... uniforms of some kind..."

It did not sound safe. It looked even less so.

"... and I saw you." she added with a smirk "So don't pretend ya're not gonna come."

Uniforms and dangerous people and fights. Yes, that sounded about right. Between that and the Seattle tidbit, the boy was officially the real deal. Maxine made a mental note: if she survived all this, she should take the liberty of a personal visit.

The redhead grinned. “You saw me? Good. So don’t pretend I can’t come.”

Rex was squiggling a tentacle out of Maya’s hoodie pocket; Maxine reached over, and casually plucked the whole octoclip out. She plopped it on her shoulder, where it promptly expanded into a draped mass of wiggling clip arms.

“Why don’t you round up your lion boy. I’ll take care of plane tickets. How does tonight sound?”

It would be fun getting Rex through airport security.

>> “You saw me? Good. So don’t pretend I can’t come.”

"Wouldn't even dream of it" Maya smirked. Maxine was strong. She was not a trained warrior or anything, but she was smart enough to know what danger was (and ignore it none the less). She would be a big help in Seattle. Especially if she had such good connections.

Of course, Maya would still worry about her; Vicente was a whole different story, but she would have hated to have a friend get hurt on her quest. If anyone was allowed to get hurt, it was Mirror.

>>“Why don’t you round up your lion boy. I’ll take care of plane tickets. How does tonight sound?”

"Sounds great" she nodded with a grin.

Here goes nothing.

((Continued in Lost and Found))