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|ROLL| Elmo +rolls 1d20 for: 5
It's time to make important decisions, or at least drink beer and throw darts. Maybe both, as one leads naturally to the other. The Eight Ball is softly hazed with smoke, and Elmo's contributing, a cigarette hanging from his lip while he whips a dart at the board. It hits on the outside ring and he swears. "Fercockt thing. Anyway, so I know I said I was gonna bring over tools, but Jay knows a guy, I guess, who might invest in tools for us."
|ROLL| JP +rolls 1d20 for: 14
JP wasn't even hardly trying but kept bnking points away in pairs and deliberatly, almost consistantly, 2 points ahead of Elmo. He wasn't even going for a big win but a trolling crawl. The conversation got his pluck up, "Ah yeah? I'm diggin into a couple side jobs t'see about gettin some a' the things we still need. Should make a list so we don' overlap… Elmo, you game's garbage t'night. You gramma in the hospital or somethin?"
|ROLL| Elmo +rolls 1d20 for: 1
"Yeah, she heard about you and had a heart attack," Elmo mutters. His next dart misses the corkboard entirely and puts a hole through a poster. That gets an extra loud Yiddish swear, plus he gets yelled at by the guys sitting nearby. He retrieves the dart, snarking back at them, neither party as good natured as they could be.
JP broadened an ear to ear grin on that smug mug of his. Yas! Notoriety! But that dart went wide and Someone was immediately on their feet. JP factured a few things here: 1- These fuckers did not speak French. 2- they couldn't tell Cajuns apart to save their life, and 3- might not in a flash be able to tell him from Remy, or at least what creds JP was in here under. Ah HA! Let's see how this rolls thought he. Two steps carried him easy in front of Elmo looking to the other mutant in the bar calmly holding up two more darts and one in his throwing hand, "gamin, je viendrai apres toi." Whatever he said it was a promise for a scrap they might not want. Theeeere ya go, there's your out man. Sit down and drink your beer.
Elmo gets a glint in his eye when JP steps in front of him. Energy gathers around him in anticipation of scrapping. But the other guy grumbles and turns away back to his beer, bitching, "Don't play darts if you can't land 'em." His friend puts a hand on his shoulder, urging him to let it go, mumbling something about "that Cajun guy with the cards". Elmo gives JP an amused glance.
|ROLL| JP +rolls 1d20 for: 2
JP was, if anyhting, comfortable at being overconfident. It was sort of a natural state of being. He just held his hands up really honestly good either way. Don't wanna throw down guy? Really? He lined up the dart and- oh shit that shit went wide. The guy at teh table whipped his head around to look at them. JP, though, was committed to the marrow of his bluff and just looked the guy down as if this were all some delibrate way to goad him and quietly challenge them. No? Alright then. Few can sell a serious cock up with darts as a deliberate tactical ploy. "The man say play on. So, you gramma like me tha' much huh?"
Elmo laughs in appreciation at JP, not bothering to hide it. "You're the worst," he says, merrily. Only JP could pull that off. "Eh." His mood sours again somewhat. "Just, I was a real dick to Jay, and he called me out, and I deserved it." He stubs the cigarette out in one of the hundred-odd ashtrays scattered around.
Severin comes wandering into the eight ball from the street, hands in his pockets and taking a look around the room for a moment before he wanders in the direction of his brother and Elmo. He's not making any attempt to be steatly and approaches from off to one side, but not behind them. He doesn't want to risk electrocution for the time being. "Hey," he says to the pair of them as he glances toward the dart board. "Who's winning?"
JP kept an eye on the uppity offender which, if he was honest with himself? He'd admit every fight was a bit like getting in over his head potentially. It's what made life so good. Pulling up his beer he upnoded to his brother comin in and smiled a half-grin, "You I think. No one wanna step up t'kick you' ass t'day, frere. Grab a beer. Join us." Still he heard Elmo and it hiked his eyebrow up pretty far. Admittedly he offered, "Ya know…" here it comes, "mos' people don' take pissin someone off or hittin em with a car forplay. Chose you' battles man. For serious, what happen'?"
"Hey," Elmo says to Sev, with a quick flash of a smile. All is forgiven for the alligator thing. Besides, Elmo had fried him to a crisp. Electricity mends all ills. Picking up his own beer, he leans against the table and has a drink. "Got into a fight with his little brother. You know Jeb? Kid's a wild animal. He said something ugly about me and Lindon, just for the hell of it. Then later he had more to say, callin' me a cheater, and," he shrugs. "I miiiighta made a nasty joke about Jay, to piss him off. He hit me with his power. Which is lightning. And I got overloaded, and you know. Kinda exploded a bunch of street lights. And he decided to protect /me/ and got all cut up and burned, because he's got as many brains as a church has mezuzahs. So Jay wasn't happy about any of that." He's so full of self-mocking regrets, his eyebrows and mouth wry.
JP considered that with a half grin. "Heh yeah I know Jeb a bit. Remind' me of Pascal an' me when he get goin tho. Whooooo, temper on that kid. Still, Jay a peacekeeper from all I know, which ain' much. But, an' this is jes' me, ain't his place t' get involved. As family he gonna but let Jay sort em out and tell em t' put his kid brother on a damn leash."
"Kid needs one," Elmo mutters into his beer. "I thought you were bad, but he's meshuggener. I mean, to be fair, I probably shouldn'ta tried to piss him off. …Except I wasn't gonna let him get away with talking like that about me and Lindon." He sighs gustily and shrugs again at JP. "Result, I can't throw no darts."
JP was always one to press his luck and not shirk from conflict. He llined up his next dart and shrugged, "I dunno what he said but were he right? That's somethin f' you t' ask you. I can' sort that shit out for you. Tryin t'keep a lot of plates level ain' easy buuuuut my advice? Don't put strawberries in yo' lemonade." He didn't even get into what he meant by that.
|ROLL| Elmo +rolls 1d20 for: 16
|ROLL| JP +rolls 1d20 for: 15
Elmo snorts. "/No/, he wasn't /right/. …Yeah, okay, he was a little right. Accidentally, it's a long stupid story about me not gettin' along with one of Lindon's other guys. But I ain't a cheater. What is that supposed to mean, with the strawberries?" He sets the beer down in order to throw a dart. This one he gets quite close to the outer bullseye. "That's better," he says, satisfied.
JP lobbed the dart and got a triple 8. Not at all bad. 24 points was nothing to scoff at. Turning to Elmo he reasoned inde fingers orbitin one another, "Means you wan' lemonade don' add strawberries. You wan' a daqueri? Don' add lemons. You put both t'gether and expectin one or the other you got a mess. In short? Keep yo' shit separated cause e'rybody findin out e'rythin, and people got feelins about things. Is why aside o' Mozelle? I don' talk about my business, especially t'people that got like… emotional buy in, man."
|ROLL| Elmo +rolls 1d20 for: 13
Elmo considers this. "Strawberries in lemonade seems like it'd be pretty good, though." He grins his lopsided grin at JP. "It was kind of an accident he even found out. But why should I care? It ain't my fault he came at me all outta pocket. Anyway, enough about my stupid drama, huh?" His next dart picks up a few more points.
JP shrugged. "I dig it, but it ain' what the situation always call for. My point bein? be careful or be prepared man. That situation sucks. You talk t' Jay?" He lobbed another dart to chase Elmo's watching the score shift on the board a bit. At the offer to shift topics he snorted, "An' we didn' jsut get done with two weeks a' my bull? Meeeeerde, mon ami. Life stand still fer no man. It gonna happen. Might as well deal wit' it."
"That was serious," Elmo protests. "Really serious. It's different." He tips his hand. "Yeah, talked to Jay. He wasn't mad. Just disappointed." The worst of all fates: your boyfriend disappointed in you. "We're okay. But I kiiiinda hated myself for putting that look on his face."
JP shrugged and waggled his last dart at Elmo, "Okay havin an angel kick you' ass over a raw deal? Meybbe. However, gotta kick some doors sometime t'know why they there." He shrugged. Voice of impartial wisdom there. Who knew. A shoulder lifted, "You pissed at you for it you break somethin, go fix somethin else."
Elmo glances at the guy who yelled at him over the bad dart throw. So that's why he was so eager to fight. Not the most productive urge. "Yeah, somethin," he says. "Throw that dart, willya, so I can finish losing and give you your ten bucks?"
|ROLL| JP +rolls 1d20 for: 4
JP squint at Elmo just not… dealing. He was but he wasn't. He was dealing with other things but not with this, thought o be fair (if he was so moved to bother with fairness) there wasn't a lot Elmo could do right now. He debated throwing the dart back at the table of dude bros but thought better to keep his cover in tact and just shook his head letting the dart fwink back into the board. "You game's off man. I only takin five off ya." Cause he's a sport like that.
Elmo's amused, if in a subdued way. "Please, like I want your charity? I'll give you five and buy you lunch." He goes to pull the darts out of the cork. "So the point is, Jay knows a guy he wants us to meet, might buy tools for us."
JP smiled like a sated cat, "Almos' like havin a sugar dady. SOOoo this cat witheh cash? What he want for it? We gotta pull a job oooor …what? Cause it ain' free an' anyone tellin you that is sellin you somethin and you jes dunno waht you really buyin man." He gave Elmo that look and followed up with, "Cheese burger. E'rythin' on it."
Elmo makes a thoughtful sound, putting the darts away with his own brand of obsessive organization. He turns all the darts so their tailfins face the same way. "Dunno. Jay says the guy's got an interest in seeing mutant businesses start up. Said he helped with Atomic." Looking back, he sees the sated smile, and gets a little flustered, predictably.
|ROLL| JP +rolls 1d20 for: 13
JP chewed on the inside of his cheek and siad casually, "We got it. People get involved then they wan' us t'do things f'them, then they wan' know where things come from and they buy our privacy? Hmmmm" He shook his head and gave Elmo a squint look, "No' without no sit down."
"Figured you'd say that. Said we'd meet with him." Elmo nods towards the lunch counter, "C'mon. Think we oughta write up a proposal," he continues, "have something to show for talkin about how much we want. Having it on paper helps."
JP shook his head and widened a sharklike grin that came too easy. "Elmo, I need t' teach you teh art of the hustle if we gon' make anythin at all. ANd don' write it down ahead of time. We do that you can't adapt on the fly an' you stuck with that. Who he is anyways?" He squint to Elmo looking less happy about this proposal but he wasn't taking it out on his partner with the burger money.
"That's why it's a proposal," Elmo says, then gives up. "Okay, so teach me, huh, if yer so wise." He shoulders JP, friendly aggression. "Look, we don't /have/ to do this. I got a lot of stuff and what we don't have we can probably do without until we get it. Just… I'd have to bring over all the tools I use for my own stuff, you know? I picked 'em out of the dump myself." This man is attached to his tools. "If we had money for new ones, they'd be /new/, too."
JP knew Elmo wasn't big on contact in a classical sense. He didn't seem to much care about these personal preferences when making a point or…well… ever really. He grabbed Elmo's head and lightly slapped him on the cheek like he does and gave Elmo that look of have a lil faith, mon ami in taht way he does. "We' work it out without bein in anyone's back pocket. We ain' goin back to tha', chere. Now… burgers."
