|
   |
.~{:--------------:}~.
Elmo shows up to meet Morbius at the appointed time. Precisely on time. Not one minute later or sooner. One might think he was being a wiseass, or one might think he's appealing to Morbius' stringent nature. Maybe the truth is both. He's wearing his favorite suit, a three-piece that is the same deep vivid blue as a Stellar's jay, with a matching tie, and a sunny yellow shirt. Nobody can accuse him of conventional taste.
Jebediah is just here because Jay said they had really good food, he had a really good paycheck and also, because he got his /own/ apartment, ain't no one gonna tell him that he can't stay out late, or spend his money on food when there's some at home. So he decides to treat himself, which is not something he's ever thought of doing before now. Jebediah didn't treat himself at home, had too many siblings to watch over, Jebediah didn't treat himself while he lived with Jay because he needed to save up, this is a celebration. He's on his own now.
What Jebediah /isn't/ is dressed nicely, not even in the loosest sense. His jeans are ripped at the knee on one side. His shirt is loose, and may have belonged to both of the brothers before him. It definitely wasn't stolen from Sam now. It's faded, but long sleeved. There's nothing new on Jebediah, but he still waltzes into the restaurant like he owns the place, incredibly chipper for once.
Precisely on time is interesting and an agreeable thing. Morbius is one of those annoying 'fifteen minutes early is on time' individuals, which ensures him a good seat of his own liking in the courtyard. Already with a drink and a plate full of dolmas and hummus, the vampire seems to be having a good time of it, reading a book while he waits. Out in the open. His hat down on the table across from him, which leaves his austere, pale appearance out in the open. The red eyes, pale skin, sharp features, pointed ears, carefully plucking at grape leaves with clawed fingers and taking very minimal bites; he's either a vampire or a fucked up elf.
Monsterous on the edge of Mutant Town isn't too unusual. And it also doesn't mean he doesn't know how to dress himself. Morbius is not lurking or skulking today, so he's dressed in a long coat only just starting to fray along the sweeping edge, a muted sweatervest over a white shirt, crimson tie and black slacks. His shoes need a shine, though. Elmo's attire is loud enough that Morbius doesn't need to look up when he enters. He's an in between. "Mister Rosencrantz," his voice reaches out, delicate but expectant while he turns his page.
Elmo, on the way through the restaurant to the courtyard, greets Jeb. "Hey, pal, how ya doin'?" He doesn't linger, though, because Morbius will probably find /something/ to be angry about.
He's gotten good at examining interesting features on somebody without being a total dick about it. This he does, as he sits across from Morbius. "Yeah. Hi." Morb has a lot more vampiric features than maybe he'd realized. As far as he's been concerned, Morbius is primarily a pair of red eyes glowing at him in a threatening fashion and a vicious vocabulary. Sort of like a guidance counselor.
Jebediah doesn't remember faces in the club, because Jebediah is a bus boy, he's usually focusing on the mess at his feet or on the table. When someone greets him as pal, that's interesting, though the man doesn't linger to hear the answer and now that piques Jeb's interest more as he follows him inside, hesitantly looking to who he was going to meet. Jeb was very nosy after all and when he sees the man that Elmo is going to meet, that is only intensified tenfold.
What in tarnation was that man?
So he doesn't bother to be polite, like his mama taught him. Her belt swingin' hand was probably tingling as Jeb comes right over to the table where two men are trying to conduct some sort of business and interrupts without even welcoming himself into the conversation with "Yer incredible! What are ya?" With all the awe of a child meeting santa for the first time.
"Would you like something to eat before we get started? Lambert knows. His. Fare," the slow, stilted words aren't for Elmo's benefit but for Jeb's when the young man comes rushing up to the table, starting with the questions right away. Black pupils swim in a sea of red, disorienting without an iris, they flash searchingly over the young mutant with the southern accent, Morbius hardly moves otherwise with his fingers poised above the dolmas and the other stretching his book open. "Is that how you normally approach people in public, young man?" His accent not from this country, delicate and clicking gently against the back of his teeth with a slightly nasal inclination. Delicate, educated, articulate, though his lips move very minimally when he speaks. Protruded out slightly, as if his mouth were just slightly overstuffed.
"Jeb!" Elmo says, exasperated. "/How/ long you been in Mutant Town, you gotta act like that?" Maybe Jeb doesn't recognize him, but he recognizes Jeb. Jay's cute little brother. Well, all the Guthries are cute, really. "C'mon, this out here'n the courtyard's safe for us. No staring." Now he has to make introductions and there's nothing he'd rather do less. "This is Morbius. Settle down, huh?"
Jebediah's eyes light up even more than they already do when Morbius speaks and he has an /accent/. A /cool/ one. Even if he's being chastised, two ways, it doesn't seem to affect him much or even embarass him, too damn excited about Morbius' very existence. "Well, sir, it depends on whether or not they look as cool as you do. So occasionally, if you must know, Ah do approach them just like this." He added a sir as if that was supposed to make up for him being rude.
Lucinda Guthrie's Jebediah senses are likely not the only ones that are tingling. Jay probably just lost a few feathers. Sam's ears are burning. Paige just got a headache, as Jebediah turns to the man who knew his name and he sort of recognizes him from the club. "Why are you fussin' at me? Act like what? Ah said he was /cool/!" Settle down was not in Jebediah's vocabulary as he loudly drags a chair from another table over and sits down beside them. "Morbius," He repeats back in his southern accent. "Ah'm Jebediah. Now what are you? What's your mutation?" Damn it, Jebediah.
Well, at least he seemed to put together more than a half blurted sentence, so that's something else. And a blurt of excitement is better than shrieking and running he gets sometimes. Many times. Most times. There's a bit of tension around his eyes, making them squint at Jebediah, then flick over to Elmo when he tries to wave him down from that high of excitement. Watching with a still peculiarity as Jeb drags another chair over across the cobbles of the lovely courtyard, there's another glance in the tropical-flower-like Elmo. "You know him. That seems about right." They're both terribly uncouth in their own ways. At least Jeb's is complimentary. Morbius ignores the introductions right away and sighs through his nose, marking his book and closing it.
"My name is Michael Morbius. I am a vampire." Sort of. Misinformation is more useful sometimes. "Are you a mutant then? Like Mister Rosencrantz, here."
Elmo doesn't have a little brother. He is the little brother. And right now every time he was a jerk to his older sisters is coming back for loud, Southern vengeance. "Act like a flippin' normie, that's what. I gotta talk to Morb about important stuff. You can stay but you can't pester him." Elmo's the only one who gets to pester Morbius. "Yeah," he says to Morbius. "He's my boyfriend's brother. My other boyfriend. Jay. He's got great big red wings, you can't miss him. They work at Atomic—you probably don't know what Atomic is," he interrupts himself. "It's a mutant club. It don't matter."
Jebediah is listening to Morbius with rapt attention as he repeats the word "vampire" in that kind of hushed amazed way that a child does when you show them a unicorn or a vampire, full of awe. He's still looking at Morbius like he's a pile of gold until Elmo chastises him again but then.. wait, that didn't sound right. "You're dating Jay? And someone else. Ah…" Jay's love life was something he should be done meddling in. He'd already done plenty with Doug but how could Jay have more than one boyfriend and then that boyfriend has another boyfriend. Was this a sex ring thing? Is this what Sam was so afraid of???? Deep breaths, Jebediah, this is a lot of information to take in and also, there's a vampire. "Ah reckon Jay knows about the other boyfriend part of that sentence, right?" He says measuredly, protective instincts kicking in a little.
Morbius leans back in his chair, watching the two mutants interact as if they were in a pitri dish. The news of 'other boyfriend' doesn't seem to raise any flags nor does the express amount of information Elmo goes on with after the fact. Morbius props his elbow up in hand and then curls his free fingers around his chin and across pale lips, a spindled index finger stretched along the side of his face toward his temple. Huh. "Wings. Like Michael?" Clearly not /himself/. There's a secondary glance at Jeb, as if trying to discern something.
"You're not an angel, are you? Jebediah /is/ a biblical name. Though I don't believe 'Jay' is. That's a peculiar choice."
Things just got interesting for /him/ now. "Also, we should probably consider that perhaps he didn't know his brother was of the homosexual sort, Mister Rosencrantz." Oh, or maybe he did? Jeb's aggression seemed…messy and confusing. Which part was he mad about?
"Whaddaya think?" Elmo asks Jeb, firing back some little-brother annoying tones. "Of course he knows. I ain't that kinda guy." As /if/. Morbius' question catches him off guard. Way off guard. "That's…well…I mean, you know, right? Practically everybody's queer at that club." He's seen things.
"No, but my brother is, inside and out and better no one be cheatin' on him." Jebediah answers Morbius but he's still glaring at Elmo, dangerously, daring him to say that Jay doesn't know about this other boyfriend business. His shoulders settle a little when Elmo fires back at him. "Yer real small to be barking at me. Ah knew about his preferences. Didn't know about /you/." Jay keeping things from him now. Jebediah is going to go off and get himself two boyfriends and a boyfriend for his boyfriend and not tell Jay either. Winged Jerk.
He turns back to Morbius. "His real name's Joshua but he ain't like it when he moved out here so Ah guess he wants to be called Jay. Ah don't got wings. Cain't fly or nothin'. Ah can just…" He casts a look over to Elmo then. "Fire electrical plasma from my eyes."
Well, at least they're not going around outing people now in front of family members, that's good. And really the only thing that seemed to vaguely concern Morbius while the two electric-type mutants square off and glare at one another. A corner of his mouth twitches when Jeb tells Elmo he's too small to be barking. Oh tonight was proving to be more entertaining than he thought!
"Ah, Joshua. Makes sense. But not an angel, just a mutant with a wing mutation." And a brother with an electrical mutation. Morbius quietly opens a notebook from his inside breast pocket and makes a note. "Let's not short out Lambert's restaurant, gentlemen."
Elmo rolls his eyes and twirls a couple fingers in a classic New York gesture, when Jeb insults his height: whoopty-fuckin'-doo. "I cheat on him, every Guthrie can punch me. Fair? Ain't gonna happen. I just fixed Bert's fridge, we're not shortin' out anything. He does a great job of that on his own. Says somethin' about wild magic. Anyway." Leaning forward, he focuses on Morbius. "Can you tell me about the seizure stuff, now?"
Elmo rolls his eyes, twirls his finger at Jeb taking a jab at his height and despite himself, despite the 'I'll rip your throat out through your backside' scowl he'd just been giving Elmo, a grin forms on his face. He's full of fire, Jeb approves of this one. The lines even smooth out in his face and he gives Elmo an approving nod. "Yer alright, pipsqueak."
Now, Elmo and Morbius here are trying to have a conversation about something that is clearly very serious and Jeb tries to behave, for the record, he really does, since he's already interrupted onc-.. tw… a lot of times now but Morbius is a vampire. Jebediah is practically vibrating in his chair with questions.
Well that ended swiftly. Morbius watches the two young, electric-types posture back and forth over the honor of some third fairy-type mutant, it all defuses pretty quickly with the agreement of violence.
People are weird.
Morbius tucks his small notebook back into his inside breast pocket and nods slowly, swiping wicked looking fingers to tuck black hair behind one pointed ear. "Yes, I can. Seizures are exceptionally alarming situations, but they are more frightening than they are complicated. You see, Jebediah," Why the hell is Morbius addressing him? Plucking at another dolma, Morbius explains simply. "Elmo's other lover suffers from seizures, among other things. He is just now realizing that he's been stupid running around bedding a man but not knowing how to take care of him properly. Better late than never, I suppose." Just grind it in there, Morbius. Clearly there aren't enough tensions here. He bites the grape leaf in half and nudges the plate with his fingers to offer it out to Elmo.
Elmo shoots Jeb a look. "Yer lucky Jay's cute," he mutters. As vicious as Morbius' little speech about him is, he chooses to be a wiseass about it. "Hey! Morb, you called me Elmo. Good job, I knew you could do it." But even as he's sassing Morbius, he's pulling his own notepad and pen out of his inner jacket pocket. Morbius is right. Elmo's admitted he's right, paying with his not-inconsiderable pride for the privilege of learning from him. And he's going to get what he paid for and it's going to be written the hell down.
Jeb turns his head slowly back towards Elmo when he mutters that open ended threat. "Or what, dwarf? You'd hit me? Can you even reach my face?" Jeb shoots back because Elmo had started again. It was really all his fault, truly. And if Elmo throws the first punch then Jebediah doesn't have to feel bad about hitting his brother's boyfriend that he didn't know about that has another boyfriend that has seizures. Dear God, Jeb has a headache. Jay needs to go to church, that's what all of this means.
"Well that just sounds like you ain't really care about him until now. You know that carin' about someone has to do with more than your dick?" Morbius had to have known he was stoking something. Maybe the vampire just wants entertainment. It doesn't matter. Jeb's been rarin' for a fight for awhile.
Morbius grunts to the point that he used Elmo's first name rather than the man's last. Crimson eyes lid halfway as he shoots an unimpressed look back to Elmo, holding it for too long in challenge, forcing Elmo to look away first. "Oh. Goodie. Mark this day down in your calendar and I will take you out for ice cream on our one month anniversary," sarcasm lightly tipping his words like the sharp curve of each one of his talon-like fingernails.
Maybe he does just want entertainment. It's hard to say, really. But Jeb certainly takes the bait and Morbius smiles smally across the table at Elmo. "Jebediah, you now see my agony over this entire farcial situation. I need to open a schoolhouse apparently to teach the basic lessons of care and feeding. Exhausting. But if you don't mind for a moment? It is important." Sanguinous eyes give Jebediah a /look/, landing full and focused on the other feisty young mutant when he rather nicely tells him to shut up and dares him to make one of those silly threats to him.
Turning back to Elmo. "If someone begins to seize, if they're not already sitting down, they will drop. The most you can do is attempt to soften their fall, but /let them get prone/. Do not be some idiot trying to cradle or hold on to them." Morbius levels a steady look on Elmo and pauses for a weighty moment. "A seizure's greatest danger is doing damage to themselves by falling and flailing, so get them to the ground, /quickly/ and put a pillow or something soft under their head. Your jacket, a balled up towel, something. Move any objects away from them and /step back/. Do you understand me? Do not touch him. Do not shove anything in his mouth like a spoon or a wallet or dear lord do not even think of putting your fingers in there. Do you understand?"
Elmo ignores Jeb. Yes, he does. He did time among a whole lot of guys who thought they were funny and that they could pick on him, too. There's a reason he only gave them love-shocks when they went after him, and didn't light them up until their bones glowed: he had bigger plans. Plans about getting /out/. And now he has bigger fish than this one to fry. Jeb's posturing, until yesterday, would have got significantly more of a rise out of him than this. But now Lindon's well being is on the line. Morbius has accused himand now Jeb, tooof not caring that much about Lindon, of thinking with his dick. All that practice restraining himself from wrecking some guy's brain's electrical processes, and ruining his own life, now comes in handy. He's writing down what Morbius says. "God, no," he mutters, "why would anybody do that?" Not really asking, about the issue of things in the seizer's mouth, just, what, really? People do that?
Jebediah isn't afraid of Morbius exactly when he nicely tells him to be quiet and slides a look his way but something tells him he'd better just do as he's told for once in his damn life so he doesn't interrupt again when Morbius is speaking at least, just nods his agreement at Morbius' woes, even if he hasn't the slightest idea what they are.
Elmo on the other hand, he's more than happy to learn a thing to and interrupt. "Used to be what they taught you to do so they keep from swallowin' their tongues." He says, straightening himself up a little taller because Jebediah knows a thing. Eat it, Elmo, if that's even your real name.
"Because," Morbius sighs, exasperated and in a bluster as he pops the second part of that dolma in his mouth neatly and continues to explain, flicking his fingers in Jeb's direction. As harrowing as those digits may look even when they grant the man some approval, it's still there. "There is a wealth of misinformation out there that a person who is seizing will choke and die on their own tongue, so you must flatten it for them." The exhausted disdain in his voice is absolutely something Elmo is familiar with hearing. "It is not physically possible for a human to swallow their own tongue. A mutant with an elongated tongue, or a vampire, /maybe/. But the only risk to a human is that they bite their own tongue. Mouth wounds are among the quickest to heal, however. Your fingers less so."
Elmo grumbles, "Yeah, well, against stupidity, even God Himself is helpless." He writes with a draftsman's hand, fast, neat, and highly readable. "Didn't even think of doing that. I loosened his collar." He taps his own in demonstration. "You're saying I shouldn't even do that." Morbius has an elongated tongue? His eyes drift up from the paper to Morbius' mouth, then drop back down.
Jebediah preens under the small amount of approval. He doesn't get it often and he also doesn't know very much about anything more than anyone else. He's got a little bit of Kentucky school learnin' he's retained and well, the other day Doug taught him what binary and avant-garde meant. Those are like, business people words. Hey, does Doug know about Jay having another boyfriend? He should really pay Jay a visit after this. He thinks to chime in again but Elmo looks tense, and it sounds like he really does have concern for this 'other' boyfriend that he has so Jebediah gives him a break. "Can a vampire even have seizures? Wouldn't you lose all of whatever ailments and junk you got when you became one? They're like… physically superior 'cept for all the like, can't go out in the sun and gotta drink blood stuff, right?"
"The irony of you saying that cannot be lost on you," Morbius comments mildly to Elmo as he presses the rest of his plate forward and leans away from it, pulling his cup of tea closer. "Loosening restrictive clothing is good, yes. I was getting to that point, but I normally need to emphasize fifteen times not to touch them before someone listens. Ties, collars, so on. You can try to turn his head to one side as well but if the seizure is violent enough he may toss it around anyway." Minor point, it seems in comparison. "After that, you check your watch. If the seizure is under five minutes long, you let it run its course. Do not call an ambulance or let anyone else—there isn't anything to be done anyway. If it lasts longer than that mark, /then/ it's time to get medical help."
Morbius turns his attention over to Jeb and his quickfire questions. At least he's not asking about the elongated tongue bit. "Vampires seize when they're being destroyed, generally. Otherwise, yes. Some are more allergic to the sun than others. Some are mystically ensorcelled to sleep when the sun is up and cannot rise when it is, while others can be awake."
"Hey, I been told by reliable sources that I have a lot of potential," Elmo replies to Morbius, dry as good champagne. He goes over his notes. "Okay. Other than that, I didn't touch him. It didn't last so long. Maybe thirty seconds. Thirty of the longest seconds of my life." Lines appear around his mouth as he thinks about it.
Ensorcelled is a big damn word but from the context clues, Jebediah can figure out it means something like forced. "And you? Does that apply to you? Because you said you were sorta a vampire." He nearly raised his hand. "Sorry, Ah don't mean to keep interrupting, sir. Ah'm just real interested in you."
When Elmo speaks about how it was the longest thirty seconds of his life, Jebediah turns back to him and finds himself frowning. He feels for this other, really short guy. To be that worried about someone else, Jebediah doesn't know what it feels like when it's a lover, but he knows what it feels like when it's his family. He claps a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, man, if he has seizures, he's probably had 'em for awhile right? He'll be alright, and this will get normal..ish, after awhile if you plan on stickin' around. You'll get better at supportin' him too."
"That's the glorious part of seizures," Morbius hums blithely into his cup before taking a drink of it, letting his eyes slip shut while he indulges in his cup of leaf water. "Your main job is to stand by and watch. The worst is when they scream while it's happening." Ah, memories. "When he stops convulsing, /still/ do not touch him. You may talk to him. Say his name, but until he comes out of it and can consciously acknowledge you, do not touch him, do not let anyone else touch him. His entire body will be in pain and his brain will be trying to catch up to what is happening around him. Until he sorts it out he could become violent or alarmed." Those inhuman eyes slide back open, addressing the man across the table. "And then comes the embarrassing part of cleaning up. Excessive salivating sometimes, but it means figuring out how to clean up after accidentally urinating and defecating." Figure out those context clues, Jeb.
Speaking of Jeb, his attention swishes back to the other mutant firing questions at him as Jeb offers…moral support? A crimson light emanates from his eyes, not bright enough to swallow the sight of his pupils entirely, but visible before snapping back down to his cup. "No. I said I was a vampire." His words carry a spine of iron wrapped in that silken sheet of accent. "I can stay awake during the day."
Elmo jumps when Jeb touches him, startled. And Jeb was being nice, after saying that Elmo didn't care about Lindon? Who /is/ this guy? "Y-yeah, he's had 'em for a while. That's a pretty good point, though. I feel pretty useless so far, but, yeah, you're right. Thanks." He keeps it together until Morbius starts talking about the pain and distress Lindon would be in. Was in. And will be in again. At that point he puts his hand over his eyes in the manner of someone struggling not to tear up. "Lindele," he whispers.
Jebediah is only on the surface real angry and fighty, calloused on the outside from years of abuse from school bullies, from people who hated his family. He's only mean when it comes to his family too, beneath all of that, he's pretty squishy and doesn't want anyone to feel badly. "It can't be all that bad, it'll only last a little while after, all that distress and stuff. And if he's hurting, gives you an excuse to spend extra time with him, taking care of him. He'll appreciate it, all the work yer putting into it, y'know?" Jeb tries to help again, giving Elmo's shoulder a squeeze before he releases it.
He gives Morbius his attention again. "So yer not ensc..ensnor.. ensolor… en.. that word, that you said before, you ain't gotta take a day nap. Can you go outside? Are you allergic to garlic and stuff? And how comes ya live here with that real fancy accenta yers?" He says, and really, it all sounds like one long question, no breaks in between.
"Good God, man," Morbius grunts and snaps his fingers sharply. "Restrain yourself." And Jebediah squishes on in there next with a helpful, consoling suggestion to Elmo. Vampiric levels of possessiveness rise up and prickle all through him, culminating in a tense, dangerous silence from his end of the table while morbius wills himself to slowly drink his tea. His gestures measured. Deliberate. Jeb's next series of questions given a sharp look and terse silence. /Really/?
Elmo rubs his eyes. The look he then gives to Morbius is a little overbright, his eyelashes spiky, but the expression in his eyes is as hard as flint. "Thanks," he says, voice a little quavery, but there's nothing soft about his tone. Nothing soft, but maybe understanding, in a way. "Is that all? Cuz it'd be great to stop ruining each other's night."
Jebediah thinks it's the questions in general that get him that look and he just slowly leans back from the table and straightens up in his chair because, well, Morbius is a vampire. Maybe wouldn't be wise to upset him anymore with any more annoying questions. Though, the level of disdain that comes from Morbius when Elmo gets distressed about the idea of this 'lindele' or whoever the hell, having a seizure and being in pain… there was something more to that. The tension here was thick. He looks over at Morbius now instead. "Hey.. Are /you/ alright?" He asks.
"Of course not, but allow me to salvage your night," Morbius plucks his hat off the table top, taking the care to tuck the tips of his ears into it as it's fitted on his head. "I have work to do, anyway, trying to save /our/ lover, after all. Feel free to stay until you're centered, I won't interrupt you." Standing and shrugging his jacket onto his shoulders, making quick work of buttons and the scarf with a loose loop around his pale throat. He does not glance in Jeb's direction as the ends of his scarf are tucked into his coat. "Not at all, but someone must be, hm? Jebediah, a pleasure to meet you. I'm sorry for my terseness. Do try the lamb if you haven't, it's very good." Summoning up what dignity he has left, Morbius' gaze doesn't touch down on either one of them again before the vampire simply seems to no longer exist in that place. Vanishing.
Elmo goes home.