2019-06-30 - Everybody's Wild About Billy

Alas, poor Pew Pew Pie, we knew ye well. Okay, the building isn't destroyed, but it doesn't look good, and it is /definitely/ closed for business. There's yellow caution tape and debris marking out a perimeter, and the streets around the pizza place are closed down. Gray Harbor citizens mostly have a highly tuned 'avoid weird shit' sense, and are taking the long way around and trying hard not to look too close at the explosion's remains.

Most of them, anyway. One of the many things that makes Alexander the popular guy he is might be the lack of that 'don't look at it' reflex. He's standing at the edge of the caution tape, being eyed by a cop who's munching on some donuts. Alexander's eyes are fixed on the ruins, his expression intent and calculating. He's dressed a bit too warm for the weather - a long-sleeved sweatshirt that hangs down past his wrists unless he pushes the sleeves up, jeans, and workboots.

Considering how this incident has impacted Vivian's life it might come as a surprise to some that she has come to the scene of the crime, so to speak. But she wordlessly makes her way up next to Alexander. The donut eating cop gets eyed right back, despite him eyeing Alexander, like she might just have words for him if he gets so bold as to try and run them off.

No? Nothing? Good cop. So far. So she just watches the cop for a few seconds more, then shifts her attention towards the building itself. "A gasline explosion or something, they say."

The cop eyes Vivian in turn, giving her a slow once over, then glancing at Alexander, and back to her. He shrugs - if the lady wants to talk to the guy who's probably a Satanic baby killer, and is DEFINITELY a pain in the ass, that's her business. But now he's keeping an EYE on both of them.

For his part, Alexander twitches when she steps up to him - he must have heard her footsteps, because he twitches /before/ she speaks. He turns his body so he can keep the wreckage and the doctor in sight. "Dr. Glass." One eyebrow goes up. "Is that what they say?" He considers her. "It doesn't seem like many people were hurt. Are you well?"

"I'm well enough, Mister Clayton." Vivian replies, ignoring the cop as she lets her eyes trail over the building in question for a moment, then she turns to face Alexander, "It was quite a mess, when this happened."

A hand is pulled out of the pocket of her suit jacket, waved towards the building, then she drops that same hand back into the pocket before she tugs out two pieces of hard candy, the crinkly wrapper of one unwrapped before she puts the candy into her mouth, the other being offered to him. "What brings you out here?"

Alexander stares at the candy suspiciously. Defensively. "People keep offering me food. I do eat." But, if she doesn't withdraw after that mutter, he reaches out and carefully plucks the candy from her, careful not to let their fingers touch. His eyes narrow at her response, interest bringing light and life to his features. "You were here?"

Her question has him turning back to study the wreckage. "I have been feeling...bad. Anticipatory. I felt this, thought this might be it." He frowns at the explosion. "It's not. Or if it is, it's not over."

"I wasn't inside the building, no." Vivian replies, waiting until he's taken the candy out of her hand before she gestures towards where they'd had everyone blocked off on one of the corners, "We were over there when it happened, they'd evacuated all the nearby buildings because the gas line had gotten a leak or something. Constrution crew, I believe. They weren't exactly forthcoming about things beyond move, there's a gas leak. At the time."

The wrapper from her piece of candy is smoothed out between her fingers, then she carefully begins to fold the cellophane, "So we of course ran, when the mess from the explosion swept across the streeth. But in all the chaos and confusion a group of us got lost in the mess, and somehow ended up in another building."

Alexander unwraps the candy, and inspects it thoroughly, turning it around and around in his fingers as he listens. He lifts it to his mouth and bites off the tiniest bit, letting it melt on his tongue. His gaze transfers to her, staring with dark eyes. "Somehow," he echoes. "It's hard. When you get lost in Gray Harbor. Some times things aren't the way they usually are." He tilts his head to one side. "Us? And which building?"

"Us. Can't say that I got anyone's name, though. Except for Billy." Vivian glances down at the careful folding she's doing of the wrapper, "But we ended up in the library." As soon as she's finished folding the cellophane into a very shoddy pirate hat she holds it out to him on the tip of her finger, "But I do see what you mean about things not always being the way they usually are. Shocking when that happens, I imagine."

Alexander jerks in place. His eyes widen visibly before he reins himself in, but after a glance at the cop still eyeing them suspiciously, his voice is controlled, almost conversational. "Billy. Where did you hear that name, Dr. Glass? And in what context?"

And then there's a tiny pirate hat. It's unexpected enough to draw his attention even in Investigation Mode, and he peers at it with the most peculiar expression. He puts the rest of the candy in his mouth, so that he can reach out for it. There's a soft, but genuine laugh. "You make pirate hats." A look up at her. "You get used to it after a while. Then you get to be crazy, too." A spark of humor there. "Sure you don't want to see if New York will take you, doctor?"

"You know who Billy is, Mister Clayton?" Vivian turns away from the building, and the watching cop, gesturing towards a spot a little further away, a little more out of hearing distance of that too curious donut eating cop. "I happened to hear the name in relation to a message scrawled in blood on the side of a building in a world where the buildings had eyes, and mouths, and appeared to be made from...well, I'd say gelatin."

Which sounds so very much more crazy when spoken out loud, yet she says it as conversationally as though she were discussing her favorite flavor of pizza from the destroyed buisiness. "There was a box of bones there, and I lost track of who had it but last I knew they wanted to turn it over to the cops. I left." Which she's fairly certain that he can figure out why she left. "Also I keep trying my hand at origami. I'm not very good at it though. Better than macreme, though."

Alexander studies the spot she suggests, then jerks his head in a nod, in agreement. He heads in that direction, slouching his way with bowed shoulders and furtive looks. "I don't know who he is, no. Only that something terrible is looking for him. What was the message?" He takes in the details with interest, but without skepticism.

"A box of bones?" He frowns. "But...you can't. You can't turn anything you find in the lost places over to the cops. You can't bring anything unreal back to the real. I've /tried/." His voice rises planitively on the last, before he cuts it off. He shakes his head. "Origami is pretty." He looks down at the tiny pirate hat. Then, very solemnly, he raises to put it on his head, perching it on a bit of hair at what he hopes is an appropriately jaunty angle.

"Very nice." Vivian offers about the hat, her hand returning to her pocket as she glances down the street, considering the rest, "The box with the bones was brought back, thus real by that conclusion. One of the women that was also there said we couldn't bring anything back, it just wouldn't work." She shifts her weight faintly, considering, then adding, "But we did, so." She shakes her head, dismissing the memory before answering the other question, "The message read Billy Lives, which considering all we found was a box of bones is a rather creepy message. And the bones seemed to really, really want....Them. It was at that point I left, the firemen were breaking into the library, and I wasn't going to be discovered there with a box full of bones."

Self-preservation at it's best.

Alexander stares at her. "Fuck," he says, very conversationally. "That all sounds fucking terrible, Dr. Glass." He runs his hands through his hair in agitation - bye bye little pirate hat! He fixes her with a dark-eyed stare. "And you don't know where the bones are NOW?"

"I'm afraid I don't. But..." Vivian pulls her phone from her pocket, checking the time displayed on the screen, "I think I might know someone to ask about what might have happened to the box. If I can track him down, that is. I happened to run into an old friend in all that mess." She tucks her phone into her pocket, offering a faint smile, "Didn't exactly get the chance to say hi during it all, but he carried the box out of the strange place."

"Find them, Dr. Glass. If you can." It's curt. "And warn your friend; something is /looking/ for Billy, and is willing to kill to get what it wants. Ask Mister Thorne to explain it to you." His whole body jerks, as if he wants to move in several different directions simultaneously. "And be careful. You have my number," ah the joys of paperwork, "so give me a call when you find them. Or if something happens." He fixes her with a stare. "You will do that?" It's only barely a question rather than a demand.

"I'll do that." Vivian replies, her eyes narrowing a fraction in thought, "And ask Byron about it." She glances over her shoulder towards the pizza place, then back to him, "If you'll excuse me, I should be on my way. I was just dropping in to pick something up from my office...and now it seems like I've another few things to get done."

Alexander jerks his head in a nod. "Good. Thank you." He looks a little abashed when she starts to depart. Shoulders drooping, eye contact breaking off to the side. "I--of course. I'm sorry. Have a good day, Dr. Glass." He gives the wreckage another look, then begins to slink away.