Mike makes a surprise visit

As you finished your pastry, you reached into your backpack, taking out the hoodie you'd purchased for warmth before all the SeaPark stuff began, deciding now was a good time to get comfortable for a walk back to the hotel. You stood with your coffee, but when you turned to leave, you found yourself face to face with a face you and Tori never expected to see again.

"Tori," Mike said, a smug smile on his bearded face, "seems like I was right that you would have something to do with what was going on around here. I saw the news and drove to town as soon as I could. Lo and behold, not even a mile away from the scene of the crime, here you are. Where are your glasses?"

You frowned, squinting as you collapsed back into your seat. While Tori had been fine taking the backseat for a while, this time she'd joined you side-by-side in controlling the channeled body. "I lost them in the water," Tori lied. "Mike, what are you even doing here? You made it clear a month ago that you couldn't do this. You kicked me out! Frankly, I can't do this either, I'm already moving on."

Inside the body, you could feel the mix of emotions coming from Tori. Love doesn't just vanish for someone, but you knew from her memories that while she'd been head-over-heels for Mike at the start, her feelings had tapered off as his behavior and attitude toward her channeling had grown progressively worse, to the point that by the time she'd tried to channel Mike, all he seemed to pick up on was her frayed affection for him. Despite that, if her feelings were DNA, they were a double-helix of romantic attraction and disgust, bound together in a spiral that somehow couldn't unravel one part from the other. Fortunately, you had plenty of your own disgust in Mike to add to the pile, helping give Tori the strength she needed to resist whatever Mike had come to say.

That wouldn't be easy though, you could tell, since you could sense the attraction this body had to the man. Mike was handsome, tall and blonde with his impeccably trimmed hair and beard, he looked good in a suit, and he was a businessman by trade so he was very good at twisting and manipulating words. He claimed to be an animal lover--the two met while Tori was earning her veterinarian degree at the same university--but he didn't have any patience at all for the channeling work Tori did. He actively despised the idea that his ex-girlfriend could be so easily manipulated by other beings and people--apparently, that was supposed to be his job.

"Babe, hear me out," Mike said, sitting across from you. You felt incredibly uneasy by seeing Mike's intrusive relationship behaviors in the first person, but he didn't seem to realize that you were channeled into Tori. You tried to speak, but he held his hand out. "Let me talk, let me talk. You know I absolutely adore you when you're you, but I barely ever saw that anymore after all the channeler nonsense. But you know how I pulled a lot of strings to find an answer to get rid of all the magic?"

"I recall, but I don't really want the magic to go," Tori said, crossing your shared arms. "I want to control it. The involuntary curse part can go, but the rest of it lets me do a lot of good for a ton of living things."

"No, you'd always wanted it all to end. You said it all the time, how the magic is a burden and you want a normal life." Mike ignited the gaslight as he shook his head, so confident in his words you almost believed him. But Tori's memories told a different story, where she did want to remove the curse, but remain a voluntary channeler. Even then, she'd found a way to live with the magic and often use it to her advantage, despite whatever other actual burdens might arise, and with you by her side she felt fully confident she could embrace her channeling life even with the involuntary moments, when you were sympathetic to her needs in every form she took.

Still, the words seemed to stun Tori. She had become used to the way Mike spoke to her that she almost seemed ready to admit defeat, to say he was right, and just accept whatever consequences arose, because for a while she thought that was what loving Mike meant she needed to do. Fortunately for Tori, you held no such emotion for the man. "No, that's not going to work. I said what I said, it's the truth, so stop making things up! You don't support who I am if you don't support the magic."

Your words emboldened Tori's mind when she realized you were standing up for her when she couldn't, and she took your momentum and rode with it as she took control of her words. "I have someone who supports me, in every way. Peter. He's always been my friend and he has already been a far better support in my channeling than you ever have. He's a million times better for me than you could ever be."

Mike chuckled, as he reached out to put his hand on yours--you instinctively pulled it away, but that didn't seem to bother Mike. "Peter? Your grade-school friend who you haven't seen in person in years until a couple days ago? I think I know you, the real and present-day you, far better than he ever could. And if I recall, the SeaPark cameras show him running away like a coward during that little rescue stunt, leaving you all alone for coffee here while he's probably being picked up by the cops! You need a man, Tori, not a weasel like Pete. But you need something more, too, and I just happen to have that for you."

You glared at him, standing up again, deciding to take Tori away from this jerk when every word from him seemed to render her unable to easily respond, as she so often preferred to avoid confrontation. That's likely why Mike liked her so much, he rarely met any resistance. "We're done here. Goodbye, Mike."

You picked up your coffee and turned away from Mike. But before you could start to walk, you felt something clamp down on your wrist.