"Sorry, fixed that," she says cheerfully. "--No, wait. Not sorry." 

Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit shit shit shit shit. She clearly wants him for something but did she use her magic to get out from under his power? She must have. Why didn't she do it in the first place? How does she work? He's probably never going to know now. There's a small small sliver of hope that he can trick her. He hopes. If he can get her downstairs to show her the room everything will be fine. Or, maybe she'll just get what she needs from him and let him rebuild. That would be fine too. 

"Shit," he says out loud, scowling. "Fine. You got me. What do you want, then?" 

"I want to know exactly how your power works and how I can prevent you from hurting anyone else, ideally without killing you." 

"Alright, take me back downstairs to the basement and I'll show you." Unlikely to work but you never know. She probably wouldn't be foolish enough to go into the room but if he can get in the room, well. He can change himself to something useful. 

The "without killing" is both reassuring and slightly terrifying. She's considering killing him, but she would prefer not to. The fact that dying is suddenly on the table again is scary, but the fact that she doesn't want to... well, maybe he can get out of this ok. Shit. 

"Mmmmmmnope. Use your words, please." 

Yeah that worked about as well as could be expected. Shiiit. 

Well. She had no way to tell if he was telling the truth, which means he could make up any lie he chose, including some way to disable his magic which is what she seems to want. Unfortunately... he's been blabbing about so many details about things and he's not even sure what he's told her, because he thought she was his. How did he screw up so badly? James desperately searches his mind for a convincing lie. 

"I... make changing rooms," he tells her. Well, so much for lying. "It takes a little while but I can turn rooms into places where I can change people. And then I can change their minds however I want. And he has no need to mention bodies, he's pretty sure, and wait speaking of bodies what the heck is up with her skin? James startles when he realizes it, but bites his tongue. There's no reason to point it out. Or is there? Maybe that's an idea. "And bodies, too -- I can change you to pass more easily here, if you'll just let me go." 

"If I were going to let you change me at all I'd put you under a geas first so you couldn't make any unapproved changes." 

James has no idea what she means by that but he's just going to scowl and nod, agreeable but not happy about it. He hasn't mentioned changing himself, and depending on how whatever she's talking about works he could use the changing room to remove, just like how she removed his control from herself. Which how the hell did she manage that? He's not used to having to think this fast on his feet though and holy fucking hell is it annoying.

"Whatever you need to do make sure of it," he tells her. "I'll change you however you want if you just let me go, please!" Worst case if it didn't work he could still get free. Best case he could get this annoying tricky girl back, unsuspectingly, since she has no idea what he can do. 

"I don't," she explains patiently, "just care what you do to me." 

Does she know he can change himself? Has she figured out his ploy already? "I'm... not sure what you mean," he says slowly, making sure not to give away that she could very well mean changing himself also and thereby ridding himself of whatever magic she wanted to do to him. In case that's not what she meant, but he's not sure what else she could mean. 

"I mean I'm not going to just let you go back to doing what you did to that poor woman to other people." 

Oh of course! And what a perfect easy straightforward trick. "Other people" did not include himself. Still, he shouldn't give in that easily, right? Right. "And what's my alternative, if I say no?" James asks through gritted teeth. 

"Well, you see, I can't exactly just trust you. So I'll be taking measures to ensure your cooperation anyway. But the more cooperation you willingly volunteer, the more goodwill you'll garner, and trust me, you'll need it." 

Cooperation? Fine. As long as he can keep his powers and get himself back into a room and take off whatever changes she thinks she's going to be able to make to him, he can cooperate. He can still turn this around. Hopefully. And, if he plays his cards perfectly right, get this annoying girl in the bargain. Annoying girl who gives really good blowjobs, shit. 

"What kind of cooperation are you looking for, then?" He asks. "What do you need? I guess I don't have much choice. As long as you let me free, anyways." 

"I won't lie to you: I'm not gonna let you out of those bindings until tomorrow morning at the soonest. But what else happens is up in the air. First off, what did you do to that poor woman? She didn't even register as having an alignment." 

Well, that's probably not a question that he can answer that makes him look very good. Shit. Also she's not going to let him go until tomorrow which is really going to be a problem especially when the police show up soon after Maria gets them. Shit shit shit.

"I'm not sure we have until tomorrow," he tells her, trying to figure out what the hell to say in response and doing his best to buy time in addition to warning her about an actual problem here, "Maria probably went to go and get the police, and I'm not sure you want to be around when they show up either, especially looking like that."

"Oh, I lied about the spell's duration, it only lasted seventeen minutes." 

James bit his tongue angrily. That meant that the phone call was genuine and that meant that if the manipulating obnoxious annoying tricky bitch hadn't been distracting him and he'd answered it everything would be fine. He felt rage boil underneath his skin, but there was nothing he could do, and that didn't help the rage at all. He boiled and seethed as he lay there, wrapped in tape by the annoying witch.

The fact that he could do nothing did help stay his tongue though. Barely. "I see," he finally managed. Too full of rage to delay or think of anything sensible, he spat out the truth. "Well, I changed her. I tricked her into a changing room and changed her body and changed her mind. I could go into more specific details, I suppose, if you want to know, but that's the gist of it."

"That much was obvious. I want to know what you did to her mind such that she doesn't register an alignment." 

James bites his tongue some more, shouting at her is not going to help. Even if he'd very much like to. Shit, he's so fucked. "I have no idea what an alignment is," he tells her, all the while doing the best to remember in the back of her mind what exactly was done to her and how to frame it in the best possible light. Though the situation is looking rather dire. No police, at least, which means with any luck as long as he can get out of this he can pick up back where he left off. Still, he has no idea what this girl can do, and it has him worried. And annoyed.

"Good versus evil? Law versus chaos? I'm neutral good, myself, though I've tipped over into chaotic good a few times; you registered as neutral evil. She did not even register as true neutral, as though she had a lead plate between her and the wand."

The way she's talking about this meant that she clearly expected him to know all this already, which was infuriating, but also funny. She clearly isn't from around here. "Those are all... concepts," he says, slowly, "but I think they might have a more specific meaning to you than they do to me. We don't have any way to detect anything like that here, though people certainly call people good or evil all the time, true or not, and I've never heard of anyone being called "law" or "chaos" before."

"It's lawful or chaotic, in adjectival form; you should know that, this is your language." 

"How am I supposed to know, I was just using the words you said." James supposes he could have figured it out but he's far too annoyed at this scheming and sneaky girl who has him tied up like this. Shit, how the fuck is he going to get out of this. "Lawful and chaotic could be ways to describe people, I guess, though they're hardly used the same way good and evil are. Regardless, I have no idea what it means that she didn't have an alignment." He honestly isn't sure, though he could make some educated guesses. But he doesn't have any reason not to play for time here. Or something. Shit. 

"It means she didn't have enough brain left to be a moral agent."