Elijah, holding himself hostage

Elijah
And so, he had asked how to make something bloodproof.

It was a pretty common request, or so he thought, because he was starting to figure out how literally messy his life was going to be. Kalen had not warned him of this. Kalen had given him wonderful analogies and taught in a very hands-on fashion but when it came to trouble, Elijah needed to be hands off. Very hands off. Let the big kids deal with it and just not add to the trouble that was already brewing.

There was a problem with this; he was one of the big kids now. He is one of the people that has to set forth and make certain that the city is safe and things are right and mysteries are solved because there was knowledge to be had and the world couldn't become a better, more enlightened place if everyone was too busy being turned into giant flesh-eating hybrid beings. Nope, that was not going to happen. Grace had done well, never came off as patronizing. Didn't write him off as not knowing what he was talking about, and he actually found that he had skills other people didn'thave (for the first time in a manner that did not regard the spirits- which was hit and miss and disregarded by his previous mentor but embraced by his current one)

So, he asked how to make something bloodproof.

Asked Samir in a rambly text message and set up a location they could hang out- warehouse. The warehouse was clean, a place that both of them knew and, more importantly, a place that Jenn wasn't likely to try to come along because he really, really, really didn't know how to bring Jenn back to life without literally selling his soul and he would do it, too, without a question asked even though he knows not to. Everyone has a price; Elijah's come to terms with his. Doesn't put himself in situations where he can be bought.

So they meet at the warehouse. Elijah's a shot of tequila into the evening, more for ritual. You're going out, you take a shot. You steady yourself for whatever comes next. Dress the part and try not to look like a goddamned prat even though he's shaved what little stubble he has recently and looks like an easy goddamn mark. Ditched the vest because, even if he needed a place to put his pocketwatch, you dress for the occasion.

That big angry guy Jenn painted up probably didn't go places where people wear vests and carry pocketwatches.

Samir
Not that Time mages are the greatest sticklers for schedules and punctuality but it's worth mentioning that Samir shows up nearly thirty minutes late.

Why he shows up nearly thirty minutes late isn't anything Elijah needs to know about. He has witnessed a couple of facets of the older kid's illness but it occurred under the fog of Quiet. That he's a hacker and a drug dealer are perfectly reasonable explanations for any other quirks or tics the budding Hermetic might witness.

He isn't exactly packing the weight he'd lost over the course of his Quiet back on but he's pumped the brakes. Looks a bit hollowed out but not like he's starving. Grace kept him from it.

Unlike the nights when he has shown up to hand off an order to Elijah the Mercurial Elite is carrying a backpack slung over one shoulder. He's dressed as he usually is in shit-kicker Doc Marten's and a beat-to-hell biker jacket overtop his grunge-bohemian sense of fashion. His long hair is tied back in its usual knot. The last time Elijah saw him his hair was loose and wild.

He's chewing a thumbnail as he lets himself into the warehouse and finds Elijah. He's an Initiate of Correspondence. It doesn't take him that long. They sure as shit are not going to a place where people wear vests and carry pocket watches.

"Hey," he says. Stops chewing his thumbnail. Where the hell is his hand sanitizer. In the pocket with his cigarettes. Brilliant. "You ready?"

Elijah
That's something that they both have in common- they're both skinny and probably a little nonthreatening. Elijah could not intimidate an overpacked grocery bag, even though he's broken many a bag under the weight of his desire and determination to shove everything into one fucking paper sack because I am not taking two goddamn trips I live upstairs this is bullshit. (Seething, my dears, is the word we look for here.)

But he's there, not thinking of grocery bags, but he is thinking about the last thing he ate. Poptarts. If he dies within the next eight hours for some reason, his last meal will have been tequila and poptarts. Somehow, he suspects that the founders of the Hermetic Order would not be terribly pleased.

Samir comes in, and his first response is to compliment his hair. Or tell him that he looks fantastic, but what he does do is give him a once over and concludes that, yes, Sam is good at this. Is he ready?

"Yeah," he says, jacket's a little worn from riding a motorcycle and wiping out once upon a time (not too fast, didn't break a bone but he did scrape the ever loving shit out of his helmet.) "Wanna go on an adventure?"

which sounds like we're going on an adventure.

Which sounds like we're going to go do something stupid.

Samir
Sam had been wearing an expression somewhere between trepidation and anxiety when he first came into view. Of course he had been. This is the place where Grace kept him alive with carob cookies and unconditional acceptance based on camaraderie and friendship. He half expects her to come rappelling out of a ventilation shaft at the mere utterance of the word 'adventure.'

At the mere utterance of the word 'adventure' his face falls.

Oh fuck, his eyes say.

"... should we Scotch Guard your shirt first, or...?"

Elijah
"You know, there's a shitty joke about a pirate captain and a red shirt and brown pants. I'd tell it to you but it really, really sucks. So just kinda groan and pretend like I went there," he said, beaming some bright oblivious smile that seemed all too perfectly aware of what he was going to do. Crimes are committed with actus rea and mens rea- a guilty mind and a guilty act. Elijah could never commit a crime because how often did he ever seem guilty about anything?

"But yes please? If we achieve nothing tonight we can at least say we scotchguarded my shirt-" which was a v-neck teeshirt paired with a beatup pair of jeans and some shoes that bore no mention. "- for which I totally owe you."

Samir
Longest of long-suffering sighs.

"You don't owe me," he says at a volume barely above a mumble as he removes his new not-charred-to-shit handheld computer from an inner jacket pocket and starts to type in a command. "Jesus Christ why didn't I just email you the instructions..."

[forces/matter 2: THE CLEANEST SHIRT IN THE WORLD. coincidental? -1 practiced rote, -1 unique focus. i am a fucking twink. gonna extend next round.]

Dice: 2 d10 TN3 (5, 10) ( success x 2 )

Elijah
"Because, secretly, you know your email would get sandwiched between an email from Fetlife and Career Builder and I'd miss it."

Samir
Still barely above a mumble:

"... I don't even want to know why you're getting emails from Fetlife..."

[extending! +1 diff.]

Dice: 2 d10 TN4 (1, 3) ( botch x 1 )

Samir
[backlash damage]

Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (2, 6, 7, 7) ( success x 3 )

Samir
[soak it you little shit]

Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (1, 5, 9, 9) ( success x 2 )

Elijah
"Dude. You and reality need a safeword, boundaries bro," he said. Blinks, disappears for a moment before returning with a roll of papertowels.

Grace
Grace does not appear, repelling out of a ventillation shaft. Instead, she just appears in the doorway like a normal human.

She's not a normal human, but anyway.

She appears just as Samir flubs it -- great day, huh? Totally not embarrassing at all..

"Hey. Samir. Elijah."

It's about all the greeting they're going to get.

Samir
So reality bitch slaps Samir for trying to help Elijah not end the evening with his shirt drenched in blood.

At the rate they're going it's going to be Sam's blood. Again. He weathers the blow like he's getting used to taking such bitch slaps. Still hurts and still draws blood. It patters onto the floor between his boots for several seconds before he sighs heavy again and pinches his nostrils together.

"Fuck," he says after Elijah's quip. He's holding out a hand for the paper towels when Grace walks in. That's all the greeting they get. His voice is muffled by the plugged nose effect. "Hi, Grace."

Despite the fact that he has his nose plugged Sam can smell the last thing everyone in the room ate. Thanks a lot Paradox. Thanks a lot Pop Tarts.

Elijah
"Hey Grace, Sam and I are investigating," like this was a wonderful thing to say. He holds out the paper towels like this was normal. No judgment, "and he was going to help me scotchguard my shirt because I'm kin sick of getting disgusting."

Elijah
(*kinda sick)

Grace
For the record, the last thing Grace ate was a block of freeze-dried ice cream.

"Investigating what? The thing with 4 arms again?"

She sounds... Perhaps a bit nonplussed.

"And how? I thought we did all the investigation we could?"

Samir
A second ago they were going on an adventure. Now they're investigating.

Sam looks back over at Elijah. With the paper towel stopping up his nose he doesn't sound any more dignified than he did a moment ago.

"... what?"

Investigating what? The thing with four arms again?

His blood is on the floor. He realizes this when he glances down. Gives him something to clean up while he's debating whether he wants to just sneak out and hope Elijah forgets texting him in the first place.

Elijah
[Manip+sub: don't act like the prospect of danger doesn't utterly delight you]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 3, 7, 7, 8, 9) ( success x 4 ) [Doubling Tens]

Elijah
"The ability to look back in time has a limited range, but I was able to see all the way to the football stadium. stands to reason that there would be an area of effect that you could check. WE've got the time frame, know what we're looking for- an exit of sorts. Our suspects are going to go back to the same location which would be some kind of base of operations or something at some point because this isn't something you can do out in the open, right?"

Oh god, and he makes it sound like it's so laborious, like this is one of the few ways he was thinking of but that he so genuinely hoped that this would be helpful. They haven't run out of all options, "so we look for overlapping circles. Focus on looking for the dude- and I mean dude as a gender neutral term- that is decidedly less terrifying. we're just looking for people, not engaging and if it's a bust it's no big deal. Samir's totally good with distances and stuff so we don't even have to do anything if we can find out a common hangout or something. Just sit back and watchfrom a distance and, you know, not die horribly in the comfort of our own homes."

Grace
Grace listens. Elijah goes on about distances and not having any ability with them. He has to be present at the place where bad things happened.

That means he has to be present at the places where bad things could happen again.

Grace frowns.

There's blood on the floor, so she frowns at that.

"Looks like you're off to a great start."

Samir
There was blood on the floor. Sam has just finished mopping it up with another paper towel. He hasn't grown bold enough to remove the one from his face yet. This ain't his first backlash-induced epistaxis rodeo.

"I'm never leaving the house again," he says as he rises from his floor-cleaning crouch. To Elijah: "So... I read what you posted on Ginger. Stage One Dumb is done already. You're talking like..." He takes the paper towel away from his face. Aside from the blood staining his nostrils and upper lip it doesn't start oozing again. "'We don't HAVE to do anything?' Really? You mean to tell me if we spy on this dude and his buddy, and we catch them making more My First Body Horror Barbie Play Do monster things, you're just gonna be like 'Okay cool now that that's sorted let's go get a taco' and that'll be the end of it?"

Elijah
"Phase two dumb usually involves rounding up a posse full of people with torches and pitchforks after we've figured out who and what we're dealing with and carrying on some kind of initiative to take care of it. the natural reaction when you're seeing, like, irrevocably messed up shit is oh my god, kill it with fire but sometimes you really can't kill it with fire right now.

"Besides, if someone's making crazy assed what-the-fuckery, we don't actually have the capability to fix it ourselves so that's some heavy shit."

A beat.

"Basically if that happens we'll figure out if I'm a posse of one or not if it comes down to that. My general inclination is dear god no because if you die without getting your information out, you failed."

Grace
"No. No posses of one," Grace says, and sighs. Like, if Elijah is going to be that stupid, he isn't doing it alone.

"If you find out where this shit is, I'll help you deal with it. And we don't have to go to it with pitchforks. I'd prefer not to."

Then again, things with that kind of power sometimes have the ability to screw with you from a distance right back.

Samir
Sam tongues the back of an incisor like to stopper up any further judgmental protestation of Elijah's plan of action. Now that they know about it ignoring it isn't the ethical thing to do. This is a guy who spends most of his time on the Internet breaking into other people's secured data and getting child pornography and human trafficking sites shut down. It isn't like he just sits at home beating off all day.

In the end he sighs and removes his handheld computer again. That's two people who won't let Elijah go off to do stupid shit by himself.

"I'd prefer not to pitchfork off into the night with someone who eats Pop Tarts for dinner, either," he mumbles.

[TRYING THIS SCOTCH GUARDING SHIT AGAIN IF HE BOTCHES THE EXTENSION HE'S GOING HOME. same modifiers as last time.]

Dice: 2 d10 TN3 (6, 9) ( success x 2 )

Elijah
"Fantastic," chipper, because Elijah has found out something very important: he can hold himself hostage for any number of things and get by okay. This is a win. This is an incredible win, and he slips his hands into his hands only to look down incredulously to see if there were any remnants of poptart on his shirt.Nope.

Wait...

How... did...

Huh.

Samir
[getting the extension out of the way now so we can scene transition]

Dice: 2 d10 TN4 (7, 9) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

Samir
[retconned perc + empathy roll: did he know elijah was full of shit? IDK if his specialty applies.]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (4, 6, 6, 7, 7, 7, 9) ( success x 7 ) [WP]

Grace
Elijah is happy, Grace just rolls her eyes at him.

"You are entirely too happy to have your monster hunting posse aren't you?"

Grace isn't nearly so happy about this whole thing.

"I'll go with. You'll want a ward up to make sure nobody's watching you as you get closer," she says. She's still of the opinion that this might be the work of some evil mage.

Elijah
"No." Yes

... are you sure Flambeau wouldn't want him? Elijah seems very intent on dying young and horribly in a blaze of holy fire and sunlight.

Samir
You are entirely too happy to have your monster hunting posse aren't you?

No.

"Yes he is," Sam says in a deadpan.

I'll go with.

They're all of the mind this is the work of an evil mage. Maybe one of the Fallen. They're not thrilled about it but here they are.

With that the younger Mercurial Elite executes the program with a final keystroke and tucks the small computer back into his inner pocket. For the rest of the night Elijah's shirt will repel whatever stains and smells come at him.

"I'm gonna go throw up real quick. I'll meet you out there."

Best posse ever.