2019-11-16 - What Not To Read
August chats with Alexander and Lilith about bad mail and risky ventures.
IC Date: 2019-11-16
OOC Date: 2019-08-06
Location: Gray Harbor/Branch & Bole and Out on a Limb
Related Scenes: 2019-11-14 - Creepers Be Creepin' 2019-11-14 - The Fat and the Curious up in this.
Plot: None
Scene Number: 2774
(TXT to August) Alexander: August.
(TXT to Alexander) August: hey. how's things.
(TXT to August) Alexander: Things are okay. Just sitting here wondering why a short conversation with my parents is harder than sneaking past armed guards. How are you?
(TXT to Alexander) August: ...armed guards? did you graduate to knocking over banks?
(TXT to Alexander) August: but that's not a huge surprise, those kinds of conversations can be nervewracking, depending on the content.
(TXT to August) Alexander: Not. Exactly.
(TXT to August) Alexander: But now I have a murder weapon. So yay.
(TXT to Alexander) August: that sounds like an attempt to split hairs around the difference between 'bank' and 'armored car full of money' but okay. 🤔
(TXT to Alexander) August: OH. why did a murder weapon have armed guards??
(TXT to August) Alexander: I wasn't robbing a bank, August. That's actually very hard to get away with. But casinos? Less difficult.
(TXT to Alexander) August: ho boy. so that murder weapon. ...I assume you read it, and that's how you know?
(TXT to August) Alexander: Ever experienced shooting someone in the head and being shot in the head at the same time? That's fun.
(TXT to Alexander) August: christ alexander. 😤 you and I both know you shouldn't do that to yourself. Them not-withstanding. 😟
(TXT to Alexander) August: is there a way for the police to use it, though? since it was stolen it might not hold up in court.
(TXT to August) Lilith: Yes. Mail. I read it. It happened. Itzhak left his intact for you, though?
(TXT to August) Alexander: I actually didn't. It did it to me. As soon as I got near. Although I would have read it anyway. But yes. Ballistics will match. There may be prints. It may be registered to someone they can follow up on. Then that person can explain how their gun got lost. It's not a 'smoking gun' in the way one might hope, but it's a piece.
(TXT to Lilith) August: sounds like, yeah. not totally sure I want to use the gift to read it. kind of afraid of what will happen.
(TXT to August) Alexander: No one will say 'someone stole it out of our locked security room' because then people ask 'how did a murder weapon get into your locked security room'.
(TXT to Lilith) August: I'm sure I don't need to tell you how ugly these things can get, so.
(TXT to Alexander) August: ...wait, you didn't need to read it, it told you? 😟 that sounds bad in a lot of ways. this isn't a curse or something, is it?
(TXT to August) Alexander: Don't know. Guess I'll find out.
(TXT to August) Lilith: I imagine it's highly unpleasant to even try and mindbang things from regular people, honestly, let alone... whatever sent THAT. So I am perfectly fine, personally, with you maybe NOT doing that.
(TXT to Alexander) August: 😤 I'm not going to threaten to tell Isabella if you haven't but you should know that I'm giving it real serious thought.
(TXT to Lilith) August: yeah. well, I can't stop ruiz or alexander from doing it if they get one, but if Byron gets one separate from yours, maybe just trash it. or open it and let it burn.
(TXT to August) Alexander: I told her before I did it, August. I wouldn't just disappear on her.
(TXT to August) Alexander: Not if I can help it, anyway.
(TXT to Alexander) August: but did you tell her about the gun being cursed or w/e? I mean I'd hope you'd tell her you're doing something insane and dangerous.
(TXT to August) Alexander: it wasn't insane
(TXT to Alexander) August: this is the part where other people would argue about that except I am the one who made a moonlight pact with dryads and was high out of my gd mind for a day so...I'll let it go.
(TXT to August) Lilith: Tempting, but his mail is either employee delivered or in the building lockbox. Maybe in the basket where he dropped it after walking in if he's overdue checking on things too, but that's a long shot I don't remember seeing before I came to the shop. Fuck.
(TXT to Lilith) August: okay well I guess you can just tell him and ask him to look for it but NOT open it and DO NOT try to read it with the Gift. hopefully he doesn't take that as some sort of challenge to accept.
(TXT to August) Alexander: It wasn't insane. It was risky, but the risk was acceptable. I had numerous exit possibilities at every point.
(TXT to August) Lilith: Yeah. I have to tell him about the tracker on my car. And what I found in the pantry after our snotventure, I'm not sure he saw that either since he's been working and playing catchup. And I have to yell at him about something else, but I might hold that part a while because this is already sounding like an unpleasant conversation.
(TXT to Alexander) August: I see you trying to get me to argue about it but it's not going to work. ...I assume you didn't get shot up or hurt?
(TXT to August) Alexander: No. I'm not. I just. Don't like to be called insane. I thought about it.
(TXT to August) Alexander: I'm fine.
(TXT to Alexander) August: ...shit, I'm sorry. I didn't mean you were, just--well. whatever. apologies. you aren't insane. let's call it...prone to taking risks with your health and well being which are way outside my comfort zone as your friend. there. how's that.
(TXT to August) Alexander: That's acceptable. Probably accurate.
(TXT to Alexander) August: which isn't your problem, necessarily. but let's say I am going to save up a lecture for you about recklessness and getting healed if I find you're riddled with bullets from one of these excursions.
(TXT to August) Alexander: I wouldn't ask you to heal me if I get injured doing something stupid. I rarely ever ask anyone to heal me.
(TXT to Alexander) August: good. and thank you. I'd rather not mug you to do it, that feels wrong. (but if you're doing something illegal it beats the hell out of the super awkward conversation you'd get to have with you know who so there's that.)
(TXT to August) Lilith: Also, why is Itzhak blushing like a tomato so damn satisfying?
(TXT to August) Alexander: It would certainly be inefficient. The mugging to heal. I didn't want to worry you. I'm sorry.
(TXT to Alexander) August: no, it's okay. you're right, if you tell me I'm just going to sit around being upset about it, which is highly productive as you can imagine. anyways I'm glad you got some traction on that.
(TXT to Lilith) August: yeah, that sounds like it's going to be a lot to cover anyways. just, keep an eye out, if they're coming for us one at a time we can't help one another.
(TXT to Lilith) August: making any of the blushers glow is always nice. they look so good like that.
(TXT to August) Alexander: I am, too. It's not going to break anything open. By itself. But it's progress. And Javier is talking about trying to get the Chief to bring me on as an official consultant. Paid.
(TXT to Alexander) August: hm, would that make it harder to do stuff like this? or easier?
(TXT to August) Alexander: I don't make a policy of doing stuff like this, August.
(TXT to August) Alexander: I do need to learn to pick locks, though.
(TXT to Alexander) August: well that's good. yeah that'd be a good idea. also how to jimmy open older model cars.
(TXT to August) Alexander: Hm. Yes. That would be useful.
(TXT to August) Lilith: I really hope one at a time is not the case, given we're seeing the mail in multiple for certain, now. But who knows.
(TXT to Alexander) August: I was going to suggest learning the matter Gift but that's kind of a frivolous use. if conveniently untraceable. but speaking of which. did you get a weird letter that burned up after reading it?
(TXT to August) Alexander: I don't think I can learn that, August. And yes. I wasn't sure if it was real.
(TXT to August) Lilith: You looked tired, are you having trouble outside of this? I missed... the festival and understand things happened here and there to some, but didn't get specifics too much as yet.
(TXT to Alexander) August: shit. lilith got one too. so did I.
(TXT to August) Alexander: So not just healers.
(TXT to August) Alexander: I have been using my abilities more than usual, with all the Halloween things.
(TXT to Lilith) August: I overextended a little during the festival. okay a lot. all that damage to st. mary's? that was me. and when They get interested in my the nightmares get a bit worse, makes it hard to sleep. but if we get through this it should clear up some. usually does, until the next time.
(TXT to Alexander) August: no--I asked Itzhak to check for one, he's bad about looking at his mail. not sure of anyone else at this point.
(TXT to Alexander) August: I'd be tempted to read it with the Gift except I suspect that's an actual insane idea.
(TXT to August) Lilith: Oh. The boards when I drove by... good job fellow shitwrecker. Out of context in the context of shitwrecking only, of course.
(TXT to August) Alexander: Unsettling. And no, I wouldn't do that.
(TXT to August) Alexander: Keep in mind that I am saying I wouldn't do that, and I regularly read murder scenes.
(TXT to August) Lilith: I was lost in a Dream alone during the whole festival and probably shouldn't have been able to get out after so long. They (and I) thought maybe that was it, I was one of the Lost. It wasn't pleasant. So that's why I missed all Byron's... bleh.
(TXT to August) Lilith: In regards to overextending, though, I start seeing more shadows than usual in the mirrors when it happens. I tend to always see them in some sense, always have, really. But...
(TXT to Lilith) August: Christ. sorry Lil, that's aweful. I'd heard you were 'stuck' somewhere but not the rest of it. I'm glad you got out.
(TXT to Lilith) August: yeah, it's a bit like that. the things I have to already deal with become more. which, on the one hand, at least I know what my coping mechanisms are. but on the other it's still rough.
(TXT to Alexander) August: yeah I've read some unwise things in my time. before I got the Gifts under control. I asked Itzhak not to open his, though, in case any of us wanted to examine it some other way.
(TXT to August) Alexander: Isabella got it, too.
(TXT to August) Lilith: Remember when I warned you and Erin about things seeming vengeance hurt or pissed about all the extreme healing I'd done for people over and over and over when things were hitting the fan? I didn't detail what happened so much as warn, I think. This letter kind of reminds me of that.
(TXT to August) Alexander: And she made the soup.
(TXT to Alexander) August: ho boy. I mean I want to try it but I kind of think it's a not fantastic idea. is she okay? I assume so since you're not freaking out at me.
(TXT to August) Alexander: She says it healed the burn she got from the giant germ. No other side effects, yet.
(TXT to Lilith) August: yeah, that's about what this sounds like.
(TXT to August) Lilith: They were horrible, shambling things, coming at me in a herd wanting me to fix them, but they weren't natural enough for me to even begin to know how to DO that even if I had wanted to.
(TXT to August) Lilith: So I set one on fire and blazed them all up and they exploded into soot and stained my ceiling. I exploded the ceiling after, but that's not really important, I was mad about the things I felt good and proud about anxiously overcoming being significantly shit on after spending my life as a destroyer.
(TXT to Alexander) August: I knew I should have healed her before we got kicked out, didn't have enough time.
(TXT to August) Lilith: Shit, they got them too? Ugh.
(TXT to August) Alexander: August.
(TXT to August) Alexander: It didn't need to be magicked. Mine is healing fine.
(TXT to Alexander) August: well maybe she wouldn't have drank that soup though. I got one person, at least, but she was hurt pretty bad.
(TXT to August) Alexander: Don't logic me, Roen.
(TXT to Lilith) August: okay look. you learning to heal people? that's not the only thing that brought Them knocking. use in general does. They just decided to hit you where it counted. They did the same to me. took eleanor and I to a burned out wreck of gray harbor, made me have to choose between saving people and reaching her.
(TXT to Lilith) August: so this just means you're doing the right thing. pissing Them off. undoing Their hard work of hurting people.
(TXT to Alexander) August: I have a science PhD big guy logic is kind of second nature
(TXT to Alexander) August: especially causal logic. but...well. let me know if she takes a bad turn.
(TXT to August) Alexander: I will. 😀 How have you been, though? Giant germs, burning letters, and friends making poor life choices aside?
(TXT to Alexander) August: pretty good. allotment gardens should be ready for folks to sign up in a few days, just in time for pre-freeze planting. planning for that 1920s thing. you?
(TXT to August) Alexander: Invited Isabella to family Thanksgiving. Parents are torn between wanting to plan a wedding and thinking I've made her up.
(TXT to August) Alexander: Byron got a letter, too.
(TXT to Alexander) August: there's a big gulf between 'fake' and 'marry here' are your parents not aware of this??? god and I thought introducing ellie to my family was a thing
(TXT to Alexander) August: great. well. sounds like it'll be a party.
(TXT to August) Alexander: I believe the thinking goes 'if she is real, and willing to put up with him, have to nail her feet to the floor before she comes to her senses'.
(TXT to Alexander) August: well...when you put it that way. I can kind of relate, one my sisters is in an open thing with a guy and broaching that topic to mom and dad when she got pregnant was kind of a deal. sympathies
(TXT to August) Alexander: My parents are nothing if not logical. 😖 I can't imagine that was a fun convo.
(TXT to Alexander) August: it was a little fraught but it got better over time. they just needed to relax a bit. it helps that xavier's a good guy, and a good dad.
(TXT to Alexander) August: fingers crossed for your introductions, then. hopefully no super awkward dinner convos ensue
(TXT to August) Alexander: Good. And it will probably be awkward. But Isabella is brilliant and my parents are good. Just worried. Really. For Gray Harbor? I hit the jackpot in the parental lottery.
(TXT to Alexander) August: it's natural to worry, I think. if your parents are good people it'll be okay, isabella's a smart and good woman so there's not much to get into a mess about.
(TXT to Alexander) August: do they have the abilities? I guess that's one possible issue, if they do.
(TXT to August) Alexander: No, my parents don't stand out. At all.
(TXT to Alexander) August: so should be fine then. mine don't either. thankfully. there's a thin place in portland, so it could've easily been a thing for the whole family, but turned out to be just me.
(TXT to August) Lilith: That's a better way of seeing it than the idea I can't do good with my powers without pain for trade and turning into the Dark Phoenix to collapse my own office in a tantrum, admittedly. Sigh. Why don't we move? Actually, I know why I don't. But why don't you?
(TXT to August) Alexander: That's very lonely.
(TXT to Lilith) August: this place. it keeps us here. I used to live closer to Hoh Rain Forest, when I was stationed there. and I drove through here one day, and the idea of not living here made me anxious. it was like I had to stay. starting to get an idea of why.
(TXT to Lilith) August: the healing part's been a problem for me for a long time, so I can relate to that. but it's definitely not you, or your fault. They're just assholes. it's a thing you can work on in spite of Them. just have to be more judicious, I guess.
(TXT to August) Lilith: That's... screwy. Not that my reason for coming back and staying isn't fucked up, but now I wonder what else it would be if this issue were a non-issue. Okay, new question, then-- how are we not drunk every day of our life here?
(TXT to August) Lilith: Because I think we deserve a medal for that.
(TXT to Alexander) August: it wasn't, not really. my powers were a lot weaker before bosnia. so it was more like being a kid with an overactive imagination. and there were other kids and people like me. might have been nice, I guess, if mom or dad had, so I'd have had a guide. then maybe bosnia wouldn't have been such a clusterfuck. but what can you do.
(TXT to Lilith) August: well, I have a LOT of coping mechanisms I use for that part. 😄 but it's different, for those of us who've gone through hard things. we don't see a place like this as so bad because we've had worse. it's not a good thing we feel that way, per se. but it gives us a resilience to it.
(TXT to August) Alexander: That makes sense. Thorne was pointing out the other day that it would have been easier for a lot of us if there were older people who had stepped in, tried to help us control it. He's not wrong.
(TXT to Alexander) August: if this is where he says he wants to found hogwarts I'm out.
(TXT to Alexander) August: but the paranormal society is maybe a way to go about that.
(TXT to August) Alexander: I do not see Byron Thorne as a school teacher. Maybe the mysterious funder, though.
(TXT to August) Lilith: Yeah. Life outside was uncomfortable and unpleasant after I left here for other reasons and I didn't exactly thrive after running, so makes sense, I guess. This place is too in my bones, maybe, and others too, like you say. It's odd, though, to feel more in place here than anywhere else, though.
(TXT to August) Lilith: Identity security, I guess. Get to be who we are, because things are fucked.
(TXT to Alexander) August: yeah he'd be a founding member shrouded in secrecy. has access to everything but no one knows who he is. gdit we're not doing this though. my life is not becoming a kid's book.
(TXT to August) Alexander: Dryads and unicorns, August.
(TXT to Lilith) August: right. it's unfortunate, but there's a freedom in it. maybe we don't choose to stay., but it allows us to be this, and not pretend or forget this part of ourselves. like using the power bringing them--it's all a trade off.
(TXT to Alexander) August: look. let me sail down this river of denial a little further. we can found hogwarts once meet a pegasus and you ride a gryphon.
(TXT to August) Alexander: So...probably by March, at the rate we're going?
(TXT to August) Lilith: Yeah. There's things that make me happier than I ever was outside, so. Goodness, look at me, being positive. What are you, Mister Rogers?
(TXT to Alexander) August: March? that's generous I'd figure before valentine's day at this rate. 😛
(TXT to August) Alexander: I was trying not to stress you out too much. 😃
(TXT to Lilith) August: no I'm not nearly as nice as him. 😇
(TXT to Alexander) August: don't worry I can cover that on my own. okay time to get back to work. take care of yourself.
(TXT to Lilith) August: okay, I have to go climb a tree. take care, be careful.
(TXT to August) Lilith: Don't hump it while you're scaling it, treehugger. Talk soon.
(TXT to Lilith) August: 🌲🤗 no promises
(TXT to August) Alexander: Don't die.
(TXT to Alexander) August: an effort will be made. 🌲
Tags: august alexander lilith text