2021-01-25 - Cannot Believe This is a 9-1-1 Call...

(TXT to Seth) Joey : What're you doing right now? Don't be dead.

(TXT to Seth Alexander) Joey : Fuck that's a mistext. Clayton or whoever I got an emergency ask. Also you don't be dead Clayton. Gotham needs you.

(TXT to Seth Alexander) Joey : By Gotham I mean me. Apparently on all the damn Vicodin I called myself Batman like 3 times.

(TXT to Joey Seth) Alexander : I'm not dead, Kelly. What do you need?

(TXT to Alexander Joey) Seth : Not dead. You should switch to Percocet. Does wonders. What's up?

(TXT to Seth Alexander) Joey : Bro Percoset does 0 for me. I'm going to have to upgrade to pure spite

(TXT to Joey Seth) Alexander : I don't think spite has any actual painkilling properties.

(TXT to Seth Alexander) Joey : Being down an arm sucks. I can't get my ribs apart.

(TXT to Alexander Joey) Seth : You would be surprised what pure rage can do, Clayton

(TXT to Seth Alexander) Joey : Oh he knows

(TXT to Joey Seth) Alexander : I really wouldn't, Seth. But Joey might find out if he's putting out an emergency call so someone can cut his ribs apart for him.

(TXT to Alexander Joey) Seth : You need me to walk over and cut up your food for you? Sure, I'll be over in two shakes little Joey.

(TXT to Joey Seth) Alexander : ...okay. I just snorted my pop. GDI.

(TXT to Seth Alexander) Joey : Seth, I swear to god I'm a shoot you in the leg when I'm done

(TXT to Alexander Joey) Seth : Worth it. Be over in a sec, just let me throw a shirt on.

(TXT to Seth Alexander) Joey : And yes. Nicole's at work and I can eat a fucking horse. I asked them to come apart and all I got was a dead desk lamp out of it

(TXT to Joey Seth) Alexander : Well, if you're going to tell me that you're going to commit a crime, then I suppose I should be there to watch. On my way.

(TXT to Seth Alexander) Joey : Seth no dinner and a show? Now I'm injured and sad. Door's unlocked. I'm at the damn house.

(TXT to Alexander Joey) Seth : Vic might get jealous, and you know what they say...

(TXT to Seth Alexander) Joey : This is me not giving two shits. I want my food dude

(TXT to Joey Seth) Alexander : I'll bring some ceramic glue. For the lamp.

Sure enough it doesn't take long for Seth to make his way over to Joey's place, he just lives a few doors down after all. Having tossed an old tee that is more rag than a shirt for the amount of fabric it still has, Seth lets himself in, knocking on the doorjamb as he opens the door to announce his presence. "You know," he calls out as he heads for the kitchen assuming that is where Joey is having his culinary crisis, "I might not be much better at cutting ribs than you. I got holes as well, man, but I will give it a shot."

And Alexander wanders in almost on Seth's heels, a small paper bag in one hand. He's dressed like he's almost always dressed, in a ratty, oversized sweater with that old green coat thrown over it, and faded jeans. He also knocks on the doorjamb, but doesn't actually enter until invited. Instead, he leans on the frame and says, voice dry, "I suppose it's good that no one considers me important enough to try and kill, then. I do not have holes."

The house is like one expects to find though the '69 GTO is pulled around to the back of the house rather than on the street where ti's an easier target to the stupid and those wantonly making bad life choices. Joey's sitting at the table trying a bit not to look a bit like death and thankfully has some colour back in him from when Alexander last saw him.

Seth's words bring a wry grin to his face, "Bro your vest stopped most of that shit. not that i'm ungrateful but when you got an exit wound instead of a dent come talk to me and we'll get one of the gals at Platinum to come and take care of you." Looking to Alexander he admits, "I might have threatened every last motherfucker to leave you the fuck alone once or twice. Don't take it as an insult, man. How's it goin guys? You healin up alright?"

"Hey, it was a through and through!" Seth corrects with a chuckle, because that is what you do when compare gunshot wounds. You laugh about it. Totally normal. "Just didn't hit anything major is all. Tagged right above the vest, close to the shoulder....so fuck you. Still hurt. Vic cleaned it out and patched it up, so I should be good. I woo-wooed her leg wound closed and patched up the other one the old fashioned way, she will be fine as well." Seth grins as he makes his way over to Joey, and true to his word just starts to cut the meat off Joey's ribs like he would for a kid not being trusted with a knife of his own yet.

Yeah, Seth might pay for it later, but for now he finds it damn funny.

At Joey's voice, Alexander does wander full inside, closing the door behind him after checking the street for any unusual interest in visitors or the house. He hesitates again at the boundaries of the kitchen, looking the place over with that same rude curiosity that has to be expected by now. But at Joey's words, his eyes snap back to the underboss. Several emotions flicker past: surprise, first and perhaps strongest of all, then actual anger, then guilt, and finally some sort of bitter amusement. "You'll probably regret that, one day, Kelly," is all he says about it, but it has the feeling of a promise rather than a joke. Somehow, although that feels sincere, the concern that takes over his gaze is equally sincere, and his voice softens as he asks, "How are you feeling? Any inflammation or unusual swelling in the wound?" Since Seth's handling the meat, Alexander looks around for the broken lamp, and starts hauling the pieces to the table so that he can start gluing them together.

Joey snickers and dips his head in a nod, "Don't worry, someone already did. You- FUCK DUDE where the fuck have you been you can woo woo shit?!" Boggling eh does a double-take that he instantly regrets. "You mean to tell me this whole time we been sitting on no medic you can do shit?" His attention turns to Alexander coming in greeting him with, "This guy..." Looking back to Seth he leans back where the ribs have not had a good day and the ugly sidelamp that's been there since 82 that was on the end table in the living room is now in a few pieces. it's unplugged at least. Yes he tried to Phys apart his ribs and that didnt' go well for the lamp, the Joey, nor the table.

Where he had, on entry greeted Seth with the customary over-complicated handshake Alexander gets a salute of two fingers from his temple. the no touchie rule observed thusly. "It started getting fuckin pissy with me when I tried to sleep flat so I came home to sleep in teh chair figuring if someone caps me here where there's a damn plate window they might be doing me a fuckin favour. Took a nap though. It's holding."

"Hey, I only learned I could do this...what..a few weeks ago was it, Alexander? When I patched up Ravn's arm? That was the first time I ever did anything of the sort. Other than that time, I've only done it two other times. Both on Vic, now that I think about it. I can try to help you out if you want man." Seth shrugs his good shoulder and stabs some of the rib meat with a fork, holding it out for Joey to eat. "We never really talked about the woo-woo shit, Joey. Fuck, I never talked about the woo-woo shit until a few months ago. Last time I tried, Cous looked at me like I was stoned and I swear he was going to kick my ass for wasting his time."

"Some people, maybe even most people, have their first experience with their abilities, and then prefer to never touch them again. They're not usually good experiences," Alexander says from the seat at the table. He's making neat, precise little motions to glue the pieces of the ugly lamp back together again. Fastidious and precise, and clearly taking some satisfaction in bringing order back to (ugly, 80s era) chaos. "It should be safe to let him try, though. He doesn't seem to break things by accident." His fingers go still when Seth mentions Cous, but all he says is a, "Thank God," not quite under his breath.

Joey looks to Alexander's endorsement and back to Seth listening to the story of telling Felix about this. "Well it's a waste of time to talk about the hows. Results are all that matters. He's a busy guy." There's a pause taking the fork setting his jaw and thinking hard on this before admitting, ""I tried tellin him when I was like 18 or somethin and he shut me down too told me don't over complicate the details. It's bad management." Felix doesn't use a lot of words overall really. some of that sting Joey can relate to and his hand lifts, "People like to get all pandemic about it but-" he pauses and looks around and there it is. By Alexander but he's gluing shit. Fingers walk on the surface of the table in a c'mere fashion as if he was pulling a tablecloth to slide the book over. There isn't one but why bother letting that hiccup get in the way of shit that needs done.

The battered small dictionary slides, now a bit dog-eared. He rifles through the middle, "Where the fuuuuuuck...pedantic. It means to be like... a fuckwit know-it-all and shit. That. Tryin not to be that and trying to over-classify 'shit be gettin done, son'. That's it really. But yeah, you're one of the few I fuckin trust. Go for it." Looking to Alexander with a grin, "I die you get to throw my stuff at him. wait... Nicole might get mad. Don't make Nicole mad or I'm hauntin people." Oh yeah, bossman is stoned. Today's going to be a fun day.

Seth puts the knife and fork down for a moment and takes a deep breath to focus on Joey, reaching his hand out like one might see Magneto do in one of those X-Men movies. It only takes a moment, but Seth focuses the energy that he manipulates and sends it towards Joey, envisioning it like a swarm of ants or nanites that flow into Joey's wound and start to knit and repair it from the inside.

Feeling it take root, Seth opens his eyes and gets back to the task at hand, feeding Joey like he is a 5-year-old. "There, that should help. "

Alexander's jaw twitches, and one of the delicate little shards he's holding shatters under the pressure of his fingers. He hisses, and licks his finger, where a sudden little well of blood has appeared. "If some complete idiot ever manages to convince Felix Monaghan to acknowledge abilities or the Veil, I'll kill him," he says, bluntly. "The idiot and Monaghan. The only thing that makes him vaguely tolerable is that he doesn't stand out, and he doesn't know shit about the truth of the town." He takes a deep breath, and doesn't go into a full rant, but it's clear from his expressive features - and the way his fingers keep clenching, then relaxing, that he's on the edge of his uncertain temper. Clearly, since he's saying that to Felix's second-in-command AND his cousin.

Joey narrows his eyes to Seth and sighs rather than bitching at him. "My other arm still works, bro." That's Joey for 'thanks.' though he does take the rib now that they're torn apart. "Well... he knows. He just like...doesn't give a shit I guess?" Says Joey? "I mean it's kidna all filtered down to take care of shit but... yeah he doesn't make use of short cuts or anything he can't control I noticed. Is a good point." Looking to Alexander he watches silently until, "he ain't. "We all live in this town. None of us wanna shit where we eat. So... maybe after this we start trying something a lil new. The good news? Felix don't care how shit gets done, only that it gets fucking done. I care how shit gets done and I appreciate input."

Seth's eyes slide very, very slowly over towards Alexander, his jaw a little slackened by the shock that the PI's words cause as they fall onto his ears.

"Dude." Seth manages to stammer out, his brow rising in a mixture of shock and confusion. "Um, you do know where you are right now, right? You are aware who I am, yes?" The enforcer casts a glance to Joey, looking for any indication that action needs to be taken here, or if they are just going to ignore what just transpired here. When Joey just brushes it off, Seth lets out a slow breath and relaxes slightly, the corded muscle in his shoulders starting to uncoil from preparedness to lash out.

"You may not like him, Alexander." Seth says quietly, "But the man is still my family. If we are friends, and I would like to think we are, at least respect me enough to respect that."

RIbs having been cut up, and Joey commenting about the fact he can feed himself, Seth nods and drops the knife and fork, turning to make his exit through the back door and avoid having to walk by Alexander...just in case his temple flares and he does something he might regret.

"I know who you are, Seth," Alexander says back, voice clipped and hard. Although in the next moment, his expression changes from hard anger to deep chagrin. He winces, and looks away as the other man gets up, rising to his feet. "No. Don't leave. I'm sorry. I wasn't..." he takes a deep breath, lets it out. "That was an asshole move. If anyone needs to leave, it's me." He gathers up the shards of the lamp, putting the smaller ones in the back he brought with him. "Sorry, Kelly. I'll fix this and bring it back."

Joey closes his eyes and in the first entirely sober thing he says all afternoon is, "Siddown." There's a pause and hi voice quiets, "Both of you. Alexander, he is family, flaws and shit aside, he's the reason Seth or I have any family and he is...that and gets respect for that and the shit he does so this community can stay sustainable." Sloooowly he looks to Seth and says with a murmur, "I would appreciate it if you accept his apology. He's... not great at communicating shit sometimes and he's also, weirdly, responsible for a lot of us still being alive...almost dead once but ya know if you can't draw arms on family and make up do ya really care?"

Slowly the rib gets set down and right now that door to the outside is not opening. Wiping his fingers on his napkin he patiently looks between the two and says calmly, "You're both like brothers to me. I know your'e friends; neighbors. Let's just agree that we want the same things out of today and work on this...can we do this?"

"No, no..it's fine. Stay. My job here is done anyway." Seth retorts to Alexander as he walks towards the door. "You can stay and fix Joey's lamp."

Then the miniboss is telling him to sit, and Seth's first instinct is to just ignore him and keep walking out the door, one can tell because he is still moving forward and his hand is turning the knob even a few seconds after the command was spoken. But just as Seth is about to open the door and walk out, a long exasperated sigh flows from his lips and he turns around, returning to the table to sit as his arms fold over his chest like a pouty child might do who has been admonished. The only thing missing is the pouty lip.

Seth listens to Joey's monologue, eyes shifting over to Alexander at the end and letting out a curt but sincere, "Yeah, sure."

Alexander also looks like he wants to bolt...but to be honest, he tends to follow orders when they're given unless those orders go against one of his weird and sometimes inconsistently drawn lines. So he sits when Joey tells him to sit, watching the underboss with dark, reptilian eyes. He winces at not great at communicating but he doesn't argue against it. Or almost dead once. He adds, with a sidelong look towards Seth is, "What he means is that I'm a tactless asshole. Which isn't an excuse for being one. Just an explanation." A longer, even more awkward silence before he says, "I realize that...Monaghan represents something different to you than he does to me. I find that frustrating. It makes me angry. And you're both injured, and I didn't do a goddamned thing to help keep you from getting that way. But," he takes a deep breath, "that's my problem. It isn't yours, at the moment. And I shouldn't be putting it on you. I do...like you both. And respect you both. I don't want to hurt either of you, in any way. I'm sorry for being an asshole at you."

It's offered to both of them, but he watches Seth for longer, his brow furrowed.

"We're all fucking tactless assholes." The boxer's head shakes as if that's a simple fact. "And we're all pretty fucking hot headed and I do't think have any fucing ground to stand on without being hypocrites." He watches the exchange to really give everyone a fucking moment. He's calm, but damn if he's going to have a shit storm start up in his own fucking house. This is a different kind of family here. Quietly, because that's how these things go, he says, "We're scared right now. Reyes has our jar of bees really shook up. let's take a moment to remember we're still a team. Friends say and do shit sometimes. You're both doin the best ya can, be fuckin proud of that. We just want to see shit get better and it's not going to before it gets a lil worse and possibly a lil ugly. Now ain't eh time to do shit we'll regret later." Lookign to Alexander he says "Thank you for apologizing. IT is accepted. Seth?" His head looks to the other Irishman in the room, "Thanks for looking after your family. I don't give a shit he ain't here, I appreciate it. Also? Christ there's enough meat in that box to rebuild a whole cow-" He looks to Alexander and his glue, "Do not....rebuild a whole cow. Yous are all welcome to it though."

People want to lay all the cards out on the table, so be it. "Alexander, Felix is my cousin. No matter what he has done, or will do, he is my family. Even if I wasn't a part of his organization he would still be that. Hearing you talk about killing him just because he may or may not know something would be like how you might feel if I talked about wanting to kill Isabella because she found a lost artifact, or whatever. Think about it from my point of view."

Seth continues, combing his fingers through his hair, "We are all asshole in our own way." mimicking what Joey was saying, "What I have done, or will do has no bearing on the fact that his blood is mine. Sure, I am only here because he asked me to be, because I am family, and he wanted someone he could trust. I know that. I could be off doing something like cooking, or fixing cars, or whatever but he called so I came. Yeah, it was a choice I made. I could have made a different one, but I didn't, and I have done some assholish things."

A quiet moment passes, and Seth nods. "Yeah, accepted." The seriousness of the moment somewhat lost as Seth snickers while Joey mentions not to rebuild the cow...because he has to mention specifically to not actually try and rebuild the cow.

"I know," Alexander says, quietly. "There are people I would hurt, or kill, to defend, and not all of them are good people." A long pause. "Just understand it from my perspective, too." A hesitation, then he says, "I could point out that I've relived a fair number of the murders and 'disappearances' here in town over the last three decades...but that's my choice. I recognize that. But I don't think either of you could look into my eyes and tell me that the idea of what Felix would do if he understood what you," a nod to Joey, "or you," a nod to Seth, "or me could actually do if we had the right," he grimaces, "incentive doesn't scare the fuck out of you. One of the reasons I'm willing to back you over Reyes instead of just staying the fuck out of this is because the only reason I can imagine someone like Reyes fighting so fucking hard for somewhere like Gray Harbor? Is because he does stand out. And if that's true, then if he doesn't realize what he's capable of, here, in this place? He will. And that can't be allowed. No one can be allowed to put something like that together. Not just because the Shadows will have a fucking feast, but because regular people just can't fight back against it. They can't even remember it. And I can't let that happen again."

He clears his throat, and reaches for a rib, and a plate, his fingers moving delicately. "Anyway. That's my feeling on it. No excuse for being an asshole about it, though."

Joey murmurs to Seth not interrupting til the end with a sigh, "Don't be off doing cocaine. You should not be putting shit up your nose. You need your brain, man." Look he's doing a good job on the rest, but there's a margin of error he's operating on. It's a lot to unpack and Joey considers a lot of this. Right now now cows are being rebuilt and no one is lying. That shit gets people strung up by their balls or is actually enough to make Joey break his #2 rule: Don't lay hands on cops. Never hand them the win.

"There's a lot... I guess this city dows i"m told that's not jsut usual in other cities." The fuck does he know? He ain't ever fucking left. "Reyes gets his hand son the Harbor a lot of people are gonna get hurt. Illegal business is always going to be there. I want to see shit get handled like a fucking business, not like a fucking parasite or a hostile takeover. ALSO that shit grabs federal attention fast which people don't need. Or creepy people in plastic jumpsuits with the space welding masks on tier head...with the...lamp." evo and hazmat suits? Maybe? Something??! "Shit creeps me out." Deep breath later he says, "I want to make sure business stays on business side and normal people cna do normal people shit cause they didn't invite the bullshit into their homes so bullshit free they should stay..." Joey looks to Seth and says for the record, "Civilians might not matter to Fi much, but they matter to me and I know you give a shit. I think Alexander's expressing" all the big phrases today, "they matter to him too. It's on us to migitate this." Still working on that one. "And I need you for that, and I think we're doing alright, but it's not an off-base concern to be had."

Seth blinks and looks over at Joey. "Cocaine? Why said anything about cocaine? I don't do cocaine. Hell, I rarely even smoke!" The enforcer just looks confused at the underboss then looks over at Alexander to see if he understands what Joey is talking about. He runs the last few minutes of conversation through his head and the lightbulb comes on. "OooH. Cooking Joey. Cook. Ing. The practice or skill of preparing food by combining, mixing, and heating ingredients. Not coke." Seth explains with a chuckle.

The rest, Seth just nods. "Fi is all business. I would like to think that we.." he says, as he motions between Joey and himself, and then kinda includes Alexander in the mix, "at least care. Sure, we might do some questionable things, but we are at the very least going to try to eliminate any collateral damage. Fi is a bulldozer. We are tomcats. The same basic function, but with more dexterity and maneuverability."

"How much Vicodin have you taken, Kelly? Seth isn't a cokehead," Alexander stares at Joey. "And we're not going to get...quarantined. Or the feds. Just." He sighs. "Yes. I care. I believe you both care." Then he laughs, softly, as Seth explains the source of the confusion. "I mean, that could explain cooking food. Or cooking meth. Works either way, really." He chuckles again.

It's clear that all his concerns haven't been soothed; it takes actual effort not to flinch or grimace whenever Felix is mentioned, even by implication. But he bobs his head. "You two are alright. And Miss Grey." A longer bit of thought. "And Cruz."

Joey boggles at Alexander as he takes in all the information from Seth. His arm gestures that-a-way to down the hall indicating no one in particular. "LOOK....bruh...they look like everyone else only really productive. I'm going off what I heard." It wasn't right, but he went off it. "but..." where was this thought going? Ah yeah. With a frown he looks to Seth, "Good. That's... good keep...not...doing that." Right. Okay he world isn't upside down. Baller. There's a pause and he answers Alexander honestly, "Wasn't counting. But yeah, the neighborhood watch is a little dinged up but alright."