The Witching Hour: Two's a Couple... (Arc/Lani; language)

"I see." Jay said before he turned towards a stranger, who seemed to be carrying some fishing gear, nearby. He gave Phoebe a tug if only for the act to be more believable. "Hello," He began talking as he approached the fisherman. "We'd like to ask you a few questions, if you could spare a minute."

Phoebe grinned widely, straightening up just the slightest bit to scurry over to where Jay had gone. There was an unearthly, unsettling twinkle in her eyes as she held her writing pad in one hand, the other shaking to the point that it was a wonder that her pen stayed in place. The man seemed pleasant enough when Jay had spoken, but was visibly uncomfortable at Phoebe's reaction.

"What.... do you want to know?" He asked, looking between the two as though one of them might bite. The fisherman seemed to be clearly placing mental bets that it would be Phoebe.

"Would you happen to know anything about a creature in that there lake? We heard a bit and thought it might be a lead you know? We tried Loch Ness before, but it was a bust... Very disappointing." Jay spoke quickly as if even he was a little bit excited about the prospect of the monster, though of course that was an act. He wouldn't show excitement like that, usually.

Phoebe grinned happily, tapping her pen against the corner of the pad as though she were just itching to write on it. The man swallowed hard, looking between the two again but speaking to Jay, "You're here about the... about that old story?" He wasn't sure if he should laugh or try to scare them off, though neither option seemed like particularly good ones. The witch nodded vigorously but he just shook his head. "Those are just stories. Ain't they, Tom?" He asked, waving at one of his buddies. The guy came over, curious.

"Ain't what?" He asked, looking from him to the pair before smiling and introducing himself as the Tom in question.

"The monster, just stories, right?"

Tom looked at him like he had cursed his entire line of ancestry, "Are you kidding?" He looked at the newcomers before moving closer, peaking at the lake as though something would jump out of it to get him. "I told you I seen that... that thing back in '09." The first fisherman seemed to have forgotten this, or else had never heard him say it. He groaned in response but it didn't discourage Tom any. Phoebe was already writing.

"That is very good news!" Jay spoke with mostly feigned but thoroughly believable excitement, the same being reflected on his expression. "Tell, us, please, what did it look like? Where did you find it? Were you doing anything special when you saw it? Please, anything. What was it like?" He gave the man a barrage of question, but nothing overwhelming. Just a pair of weird people hunting for a monster in a lake, it just couldn't hurt to tell.

"Like some kinda..." Tom shook his head. He was very shaken up over the thought of the creature, "some kinda... snake er eel or somethin'...." He glanced out at the lake again before speaking, "Me an' a couple of folks --- they've all moved away, don't mind them. They won't tell ya squat. We were out on a boat fishing on the lake when the thing came around. Jimmy got him hooked on the line and nearly got dragged in. We ha' to tie him down to the boat like he was doing some deep sea fishing. Nearly dragged the whole boat under 'fore the line snapped."

"I see, that is very interesting." Jay said, nodding along. "Tell me, anything you remember, anything you were doing before he got a bite? Where you were?" He continued prodding at anything that might help them find the thing. The lake was huge, and there was only so much time, even for a pair of magic-users. He could tell the man was genuinely frightened, and doubted he was just lying to get the tourists to drop some cash or something. That, or Tom was as good an actor as they were.

The man gestured somewhat widely at the lake, sputtering a few times before eventually giving them a general area. It still wasn't entirely understandable, and was certainly a sizeable bit of location to search through, but it was better than sifting through the whole lake. As it were, they'd really only been fishing on the boat. There had been nothing to preface the sighting, save an initial bite, a shadow heading towards the line shortly afterwards, and a harder bite --- Phoebe assumed the creature had tried to eat the hooked fish.

"Th- thank you~!" She blurted, gitty and a bit twitchy, a sort of tick consuming half of her face, following the exclamation.

After also thanking the man, Jay went on to acting out getting the crazy-but-not-in-his-eyes-somehow-making-him-look-crazy woman that Phoebe was acting out away so that she wouldn't be too much of a bother to the poor scared local. Once out of earshot, he began to talk normally, though quietly. "So best bet is we find a boat and some fishing gear, then. Heavy duty stuff, even, if we can get it?"

"We should see if it's even here, first." She said, looking around. "I... might need to shift to look." Phoebe admitted, quieter as she looked out towards the lake. Seeing as he happened to have mentioned one of the more popular fishing spots, they had the fortune of there being a boat rental place at the shore not far from his sighting. That had been years ago, but she needed to get somewhere that she could try to scan the water before anyone tried to hunt the creature down. Even then, hunting it would have to wait until nightfall.

"I'm an eagle. If you need recon, I'm your man." Jay said with a grin, obvious pride at his animal form showing in his demeanor, just a little, even when he was trying to keep it under wraps. "My eyesight is second to none and nobody will bat an eyelash seeing an eagle flying around these parts."

She should have asked him his animal form in advance, but finding it out now certainly didn't do her any harm, as opposed to having found out sooner. Phoebe, herself, was just going to switch to her Chameleon form to access her Super Soul Perception ability. However, being able to avoid that --- and the change of horns that came with it --- was a welcome convenience. She nodded, glancing up towards the skies for a moment. "I won't say no." Phoebe said in reply, a slip of amusement dancing across her words.

"I'll go somewhere out of sight." Jay said as he went off to the side somewhat. He didn't care if someone saw, but he was rather enjoying the stealth operation. Once he was out of view from anyone that could see him, he dropped his Soul Protect and transformed, promptly shooting up into the sky with some helping winds. He then circled above the lake, looking mostly at the area pointed out by Tom.

For what it was worth, Phoebe kept her act up fairly well, even without talking to anyone else, as she made her way towards the boat station. She didn't bother to look up, trusting him to let her know if he saw anything. Besides, the worst that could happen would be that he would just leave. She didn't know him well enough to particularly care if he ditched her.

Mostly, Jay didn't see much but fish nearer the surface. Not if that was only as far as you looked. There were fewer fish around the place that Tom had specified than there were around it. Now, unless that place was just so heavily fished that they learned, he figured there might be something else to it. Jay swooped down towards where he saw Phoebe, being in his very golden state. After a quick ring around Phoebe's general area, he perched on a nearby roof, waiting to tell her what he saw once she was out of the way of the general public again.

She sensed the magic of him more than she saw him, and quickly found herself looking for where he landed. Spying him, she wandered off so that she was near him, but out of sight of anyone else. The witch waited in silence for him to speak.

"The spot they did the fishing," Jay began, his voice fairly quiet as to only be audible to the witch. "It's like fish are avoiding it. Almost giving that place a wide birth, not that it's completely devoid of them. It's a sizeable area, too." He finished off what he was saying by flapping his wings a few times as if he was about to fly, though didn't take off just then. He was going to go find a place to transform discretely again.

Phoebe offered him a curt, though not particularly rude, nod in response, accepting his words for what they were as well as what he meant. It seemed like they were in the right spot. So, they could now go out to the water and see if they could lure the beast, though that had all kinds of implications, being in the public eye in whatnot. The other option would be to wait, but really, it depended on what she wanted to do with it. Ideally, she'd keep it for herself, but that came down to whether or not it would be useful, and where in Death's name she would put the thing.

Seeing her nod, Jay took off and flew to where he had first transformed and transformed once again, quickly making his way towards the boathouse to rejoin with Phoebe as a human rather than bird.

Waiting for him didn't take up a lot of time, so she did. Seeing him approach, she lifted her head up, careful not to move to quickly, lest she force the hood off and reveal her horns. Really, they didn't need the panic that came with people assuming she was a demon, even if she had managed to pull of the crazy stint enough to make people believe it was a costume. It was just too much of a hassle to deal with, all around, and she was rather content to play at this sort of "little red riding hood" stint that she had going. "So, is it too deep for you to be able to see, then?" She asked, still keeping her voice low.

"I can't see where there is little light, and the water is murky. That goes double for the sky. I think I confirmed it's general location and existence, but little else." Jay said just as quietly as Phoebe had, leaning up against a nearby wall."But, I think I also confirmed that there isn't anyone that can sense a soul around here, or they'd be looking for me. I think we might be safe without Soul Perception. You said something about shifting to see?"

Phoebe began grumbling a bit, grabbing his arm and tugging him, rather forcefully, into the treeline. Once there and she was absolutely positive that there was no one around that could see them, she pulled the hood down. Mumbling under her breath, she kept her eyes closed as the horns that were normally present on her head began to shift. Slowly, they disappeared, fading as if devolving into her head. As they disappeared, two new ones appeared, pertruding from her face. They were long, one following the flow of her nose, the other running parallel to it from between her eyebrows. There was a clear disdain in her eyes when she opened them, her hatred for this particular set of horns evident. However, they were gone quicker than they came, as was the rest of her form. Soon, there was little left of her besides attire. She blinked, looking down at herself with disgust. Shaking her head, she rapidly stripped down, fast enough that it prevent him from the embarrassment of seeing everything she wore, unless he was really, really trying to. She didn't care, herself, whether he saw her not; she merely assumed that he'd rather not. This done, she quickly folded everything and tossed her clothes and shoes into her bag, holding it out to him. "I can.. switch between different horned creatures. Each of them has different spells and abilities. This one has invisibility and Super Soul Perception." She made no comment on her now obvious nudity.

When Phoebe started to disappear, Jay was rather impressed, until the disappearing got to her clothing, at which point he became much less impressed than he had been, although you couldn't say he wasn't still impressed. "You aren't going to..." Jay managed to get out before the witch did exactly what he guessed, but wasn't really expecting, He though maybe some followup spell was due, but no; it was exactly that. The fact that he couldn't see anything helped, but it still proved awkward, even to a man of composure such as Jay. He took the bag and then realised he really had no idea where she was after that. "I would make a joke or two, but I feel it to be unwise. This isn't a joke, though: try not to get too mad at me if I accidentally bump into you."

"You won't." She told him plainly. Really, he'd only need to use his Perception to be able to tell where she was at, but she was also good enough at staying out of the way that it'd be a bit of a challenge for him to step on her. Besides, she could just leave it as normally obvious where her footfalls were landing as one normally would. When they got shoreside, it'd be even more obvious when her footfalls made it to watery soil. "I need to be almost, if not right in, the water to be able to see it, still, since it's probably pretty deep, but this should help." A moment passed where an awkward silence lingered before she spoke again, "Before you ask, I'm not turning visible again until I have to, and you did not see the chameleon horns. Got me?" Contrary to her normally neutral tones, the last two words seemed almost threatening, which would have probably been even more comical if he could actually see her face... horns aside.

"Gotcha." Jay said, knowing that disagreeing with something like this when witches were involved... Bad idea, very bad. He wasn't about bad ideas. Still, he was curious now to see how placing a completely invisible object in water looked. For no other reason than it not being something you get to see often, even as a sorcerer.