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Sometimes Arlo goes out with Felix instead of staying in. Staying in is fun, but so is hanging out at the bar and pounding down a few brewskis. He's there now with Felix, sitting on one of the couches in a nook, dressed in a plain t-shirt and jeans. No makeup, that's an indoor activity. "So I was thinking later we'd go to my place," he tells the cop.
Elmo strolls in, hands in pockets. Preoccupied, not paying strict attention to anything except what's humming away behind his eyes. He asks the bartenderthe one JP likesfor a beer, gets it, and meanders over to one of the pool tables.
The cop's dressed casually, too. Workshirt over t-shirt, the better to hide the fact that he's got a literal pistol at his back pocket (and no he is not happy to see you). "Sounds good," he says, voice lazy, but that distinctly eager gleam in his eyes. Presumably they won't just be playing a few rounds of canasta.
Arlo watches th door as people come and go, and he perks up when he spies his dinobot-jacking buddy. "Elmo!" he calls, waving a hand. "Come here!" He asides to Felix, "This is my friend." As though he only has the one. "I've told him abuot you."
Elmo looks up sharply, then grins when he spots Arlo. "Hey, pal." He abandons the pool table (for now) and comes on over with his beer.
The cop gets up to offer a hand to shake. He's thin, but not too much so, with the careful air of a man trying to take in everything at once. His grin is bright, though. "Glad to meetcha."
Arlo grins up at Felix. He doesn't bother getting up, though. Instead, he tells Elmo, "This is Felix, the guy I told you about." Sure, Felix is a bit older than them, but Arlo looks pleased as punch to be hanging out with him. "Pull up a bit of couch," he says. "We're just getting drunk."
Elmo looks with interest at Felix. In contrast, he's taking in everything he can about the other man. "Hey, it's great to meet you, Felix. Arlo's told me a lot about you." Oh. It's the dreaded handshake. Well, it's for his teammate. He grips Felix's hand, but it's fast before he lets go. Never let it be said Elmo Rosencrantz never did anything for Arlo. "You guys wanna play some pool?" He hikes his eyebrows invitingly. "I'm bad at it. You'll win."
"I'm honestly crap at it," Fel admits, without any hesitation at all. "And only the good stuff, I hope." He settles down comfortably, near Arlo, but not too near. Out in public, after all.
Arlo gets to his feet finally and says, "There's only good stuff to tell." He casts a fleeting glance at Felix that's affectionate. Just briefly. They can't get caught. "Yeah, I'll whup both your asses at pool." Which he can't play, but points for confidence?
Elmo tips his head and a hand, with a lopsided smile. There's something about the way his eyes flicker between Arlo and Felix that says he knows what it's like. He can't exactly tell Felix that Arlo's crazy for him. Not here. Not even in the heart of the M.T. "He says you've been a great pal when he needed it." He brightens up when Arlo says he'll whup them both. "That's the spirit!"
"Sure you will," Fel's all good nature at the moment. Here's hoping he isn't an angry drunk.
Arlo has a bounce in his step. The only two people he has a modicum of trust for in the same room! He picks a pool table and takes a cue stick off the wall. "So do we want to make this interesting?" he asks. "Five bucks?" Which isn't nothing these days.
"We payin' you that good?" Elmo says, sassing Arlo cheerfully. "Five bucks it is. You in on this, Felix?" He starts racking up the balls.
Felix lifts his hands. "Nah, not for me, thanks. I know I'll lose, that's no bet," he says, easily. "I'll buy the first round, if you like."
Arlo flashes Elmo a smile. "Yeah, I'm rollin' in it." He takes a wad of bills from his pocket and counts out five ones, setting them on the side of the table. "That'd be great," he tells Felix. "We'll see who plays better when he's loaded."
|ROLL| Elmo +rolls 1d20 for: 19
Elmo helpfully takes a long swig of his beer, in the interest of playing while he's loaded. He's a little…maybe a lot…fussy over the racking, making sure the balls are all tucked up nice and tight. Then he takes the first shot. Sinks a ball immediately, and several others wind up in good positions. "…JP would tell me I'm supposed to save that for when there's more money on the table."
|ROLL| Felix +rolls 1d20 for: 3
It won't be Felix, that's clear. He gets himself a beer, but when it's first his turn….nothing. "Tolja," he says, but he doesn't sound upset about it.
|ROLL| Arlo +rolls 1d20 for: 9
"JP likes to amp things up," Arlo says. He's still good-natured despite seeing Elmo sink a ball. His own shot isn't quite so elegant, but he doesn't muff it up. He just doesn't sink a ball. Once it's taken, he settles back to take a swig of beer. "Besides, you don't pay me that much."
Elmo laughs, shaking his head. "He sure does, don't he?" He sinks another one, and looks at his pool cue in mock astonishment. "I think I got the mutant one." He drinks again. "What's goin' on with you guys?"
Arlo lines up his shot. This time he sinks a ball in, and it's even the one he's supposed to try for. His second attempt yields nothing, though. "With me and JP?" he asks, then he shrugs. "Nothing. I've only talked to the guy a few times. He seems to think I'm simple, but whatever."
"Nah. You an' Felix." Elmo jerks his head in the direction Felix has gone. "Everythin' okay?" This much, he'll risk.
Arlo nods quickly and says, "Oh yeah, things are great." He has a goofy sile on his face. "He's straight-laced, but once you get him behind closed doors, he cuts loose like you wouldn't believe."
Elmo laughs in surprise this time. "That so?" He shoots, but doesn't get the ball. "He's a good lookin' guy." Said casually. It's not that gay! "Bet the girls love him." 'The girls'.
Back comes the guy in question, having visited the little policeman's room, and gotten them all the next round of drinks. All innocence, that expression.
"I can think of at least one," Arlo tells Elmo with a flit of batted eyelashes. He's losing the game, but he doesn't seem to mind. Then Felix is coming back, and he says, "Hey." Then he grabs one of the beers. "I'm losing," he adds.
"Thanks," Elmo says to Felix, accepting one of the beers. "Cheers, huh?" He doesn't give the Yiddish toast, because, well, Arlo's told him Felix is a cop after all. Some things, he's been carefully instructed to hide. It's not like it's not desperately obvious that he's a Lower East Side Jew. "Yeah, he's losing."
"Too bad, so sad," Fel says, magnificently sympathetic. HE hands off the drinks, and agrees, mildly, "Cheers."
Arlo gives Felix a look, then cracks a smile and shakes his head. "I don't mind. At least I can see over the bar." He pats Elmo on the shoulder, then steps back to watch him take his shot. "Hey, Felix, are you off tomorrow? I was thinking we could hang around."
"Short jokes get ya shocked," Elmo says, narrowing his eyes at Arlo. "Not that that stops anyone," he adds with a put-upon sigh. Two more balls go clacking into their pockets. "Jeez, I'm gonna feel bad about takin' your money, Arlo. After slaughterin' you and all." He looks at Felix, debating how much he can ask him. He starts safe. "Arlo tells me ya work homicide?"
"It'll be a mercy killing," Fel opines, after a pull on his beer. "I am off, and sure, we can do something," he says, mild as milk. A lazy nod for Elmo. "I do," he allows.
Arlo eyes Felix sidelong. "Whose side are you on?" he asks. But then he just grins at Elmo. He's not even sorry. "It's all right if you take my money, I don't mind. I've got a sugar daddy." He takes another drink, a big one. It's time to get plastered.
"How's that relate to mutants?" Elmo asks Felix. Curious, but kind of probing, like he might be going somewhere with it. "You ever see anyone who was hard to tell if he was a mutant or not?" He doesn't take the last shot yet, interested in the answer and watching Felix.
"Plenty," Fel says, utterly deadpan. "A lot of mutations aren't obvious in the least." He seems to mean it, as he leans lazily against the table.
"If you still want me to poke around at crime scenes, let me know," Arlo says. To Elmo he explains, "There are details maybe I could pick up that normal senses wouldn't. Imagine me being one of the good guys for once." He misses another shot, but shrugs it off and goes back to his beer.
"I didn't ask right," Elmo says, half to himself. "I gotta think about it." Lining up behind the 8 ball, he …doesn't sink it, and swears, good naturedly. He looks back at Arlo. "No kiddin'? Yeah, I bet you'd be good at that. He'd be good at that," he says to Felix, supporting this idea.
"I couldn 't get you in and out without you being seen before it got cleaned up," Fel says, softly. "And if you got seen, it'd out you. It's a thought, but no."
"Aw," Arlo says. "My ticket out of being a petty crook, torn in half before my eyes. I could pass for really smart, though." He points at Elmo and says, "Not a word from you. I am smart. Smart people notice things."
Elmo smirks, raising his hands like, I wasn't gonna say it. "Did he tell you about the scrap we got into?" he asks Felix. "He could tell when these guys were gonna try to punch us, and with which arm. Pretty impressive."
Felix nods, smiling fondly at Arlo. "Not about being smart, though. YOu are, I know. It's about being part of the force, and you aren't. We nearly never bring in civilian consultants." Scrap? He frowns at that. "Wait, what?"
Arlo says innocently, "I told you about that. Remember when I had those bruises? Elmo and I got in a fight with some jackasses, coming into our neighborhood thinking they call the shots." He grins at Elmo. "Elmo put the zap on them, and we got into a scuffle, but they won't come around here anymore."
Elmo shrugs, looking pleased. Maybe even smug. "Yeah. Just some mutie haters, comin' into the M.T. like it's a good idea. Ran into the wrong guys. Arlo's good in a scrap."
He should scold them. He can't work up the wherewithal. "Tsk, tsk," Fel says, mock-chidingly. "Now I remember."
Arlo beams at Elmo's praise. "I know, I know," he tells Felix, "but they were going to attack us anyway. We just got the upper hand. You can tell. People position their bodies in a certain way before they go on the offensive."
"See, I can only tell that they wanna come after me, and when they decide to do it," Elmo says, leaning a hip against the pool table. He's chatting with Arlo and Felix while they shoot some pool. "Arlo here, he could see exactly what they were up to. Real handy, that. And, yeah. They wanted to rough up some muties. Better us than some lady or a kid."
|ROLL| JP +rolls 1d20 for: 7
"Useful," FEl says, thoughtfully. He's not so much playing as he is watching the other two, and drinking beer. Kind of taking it all in.
"I've had to fight before," Arlo says. "You learn stuff when it's literally being beaten into you." He's losing this game of pool. Like, by a lot. There's five dollars in ones on the side of the table. He gives up and hands them over to Elmo. "Fair and square," he says.
JP came strolling in like someone ordered the lobster rolls with a handsome side of trouble with an engine grease drizzle and smug marinade. Step one: piss everyone off and run a hand over the Jukebox on the way in though it continues playing what it will. Warm brown eyes scanned the gathered for familiar face, mark, opportunity, clues… Spotting at least two people he knew he upnodded to Elmo and Arlo with pause at Felix. Didn't know em. From there he continued to the bar to lean on it to chat up the bartender and order a beer.
The bartender's the one JP likes, so he's got that going for him. Elmo waves away Arlo's cash. "Nah, c'mon, you need it. Not gonna take money from a guy whose car only starts sometimes." He glances up, and upnods back to JP, clearly imitating him, amused. "I try not to let 'em get that close, me," he adds.
Felix says, musingly, "If you're gonna do that, maybe we should get you both some more formal training," Because kung fu mutants, why not?
Arlo takes a huge swig of his beer, finishing it off. Then he tells Felix, "Sure, I wouldn't mind learning how to kick ass better than I already can. Especially when I don't always have a weapon on me." He glances at Elmo. "What do you think?" The glance carries his attention to JP and he upnods.
JP was…delighted. And damn if he wasn't good at using that bullshit bayou charm to talk to the bartender like they were life long friends. JP's fingers folded together biding his time. There was more conversation for a moment longer getting one of those 'oh really?' expressions from him and then took his beer giving the room a REALLY good look. He wandered back to their tale and dragged a stool withthe toe of his boot and perched on it. "Bonsoir, mes amis." He took a drink, swished it around and chewed on the inside of his cheek thoughtfully trying to figure out why the dart board looked curious to him.
Elmo raises his eyebrows at Felix. "Arlo's tellin' me that, too. I dunno how good at it I'd be." JP comes over and he says "Hey," please to see him. "Felix, this's JP, my partner. JP, this is Felix, Arlo's…friend." He hesitates in that telling way. "What trouble are you makin' now?"
"A pleasure," Fel says, amiably. His own expression is utterly bland. "Might help," he says to the ones he was speaking to.
Arlo shrugs and thrusts the bills back into his pocket. Sure, he'll keep money. "Felix is telling us we should get formal training if we're going to go around kicking ass." To Elmo, he says, "Learning won't hurt anything. You get into scraps, man. Fact." He hangs out at Felix's side, just incidentally.
JP lifted his beer and stayed quiet, though a faint grin curled up one corner of his mouth. He looked to Arlo, to Felix, to Alro. He squint considering somehting. Felix got a slow nod and he asked point blank, "You the cop?" Yup, direct.
Elmo hitches his shoulders. There's no lie, he gets into scraps. "Usually I keep 'em offa me." He turns a palm up and electricity sparkles to life at his fingertips. "Kinda hurts if they get past it, though."
That has Fel looking up, one brow arched. Body language still deliberate, lazy. "I am," he says, simply. Waiting on JP's reaction.
Arlo grins at JP. "Subtle as ever. Felix, this is JP. He's the guy who hired me." He then tells Elmo, "If you learn with me, we could spar with each other. Don't you ever think about kicking the crap out of me? I mean it'll never happen, but even trying might be fun."
JP sloooowly drank his beer. His eyes didn't leave Felix's curious and hungry for that answer. And there it was. The fellon nodded slowly, "Je vois." Calm. Sure. Looking to Elmo he answered finally, "Le zero." NOOOOOOOPE no hyjinks here.
Elmo closes his hand, extinguishing the sparks. He bumps JP with his shoulder, glancing up at him in understanding. Then smirks at Arlo. "Only when you start up with the short jokes."
And by the way his brow arches, Fel doesn't buy it. But he's not disposed to fuss, either. "JP. A pleasure."
Arlo's eyes widen and he spreads his hands. "You assumed I was talking about you?" He lays a hand to his chest and says, "I'm wounded, Elmo. Hurt. You're my friend, man. I just meant, you know, conceptually." He shoots a glance between JP and Felix. They're not at each others' throats yet. This is a good sign.
|ROLL| JP +rolls 1d20 for: 13
JP stayed very quiet because if you run then people know what's up. He seemed to take the rest of the conversation in stride picking up context over …eventually. At the shoulder bumphis head tilt and gave Elmo a wink. All was groovy. Still something was UP with that dart board. HIS… by proxy dartboard. Hmmmm.
Elmo gives Arlo a narrow look, and—*pop!* Some metal bit, a belt buckle or metal button, discharges on Arlo. "This is what I get for not fleecin' ya." He's watching Felix and JP out of the corner of his eye, but everything seems copacetic. For now.
Felix doesn't seems disposed to start anything. He's not that kind of cop. He'd hardly be with Arlo if he was. "What was that?" he asks Elmo, amused.
Arlo tells JP, "Felix here works homicide." Then a bolt pops off his jeans, and he looks at Elmo. "Don't be undressing me in front of my guy."
JP drank his beer quietly and nodded to Arlo far less than the boisterous soul he generally is at work. "Hell of a thing t'do for a livin. Lil messed up." The Juke box shift to somehting pop modern. Nnnnnope. JP had the machine today. Holding up two finders he considered the library and made a swiping gesture and it changed to something folky. Better. He really didn't care much who went downtown, but it wasn't happening on his juke box. He finally asked, "Arlo how long you been sittin here t'night?
"Someone's gotta catch 'em," Fel observes, tone lazy. "And I like being the one to do it."
"I think some people just have the disposition," Arlo says. He leans against the pool table, though he keeps close to Felix. In another time and place, he would take hold of the cop's hand, but here and now, he just stays close. "Felix and I got here not to long before Elmo did, and he just whupped my ass at pool, so I don't know. Forty-five minutes?"
JP shrugged and seemed to be weighing out this Felix factor. Still he was onto something> To Arlo he clairified, "So yous no' playin darts… so… can you tell me why one of em' missin? here a guy come in here walk off with one or something that you saw?" This was bugging him!
"We weren't playing darts, no," Fel notes. "Why d'yuou ask?" HE glances at the board, looks back to Arlo, as if Arlo might explain.
Arlo looks to the dartboard, and he hones in on it. At the same time, he filters noise so that he hears voices with more clarity. Scratch on the dartboard, tiny but perceptible. Server with a pinprick red spot on a fingertip. There, at the bar, is the culprit, a broken dart tossed aside to be dealt with later. He points it out and says, "There."
JP chewed on the inside of his cheek shaking his head, "Yeha but that one has green fletchin's. One of the red ones is missin. I know this cause you remember when my arm was all blue? Stained the shit out of that dark makin like fifty bucks off Horatio." He snickered with a grin admittin with a shake of his head, "Never shark a shark. huh… Someone levin' me a message. Just… gotta find it."
Arlo points at the ceiling. "You mean that one? I saw it when I came in." So he assumed everyone saw it. Still a bad habit he needs to get over. He smiles crookedly. "I should've known you had something to do with it." He says his good-byes to Felix and tells him, "Call me later." Yeah, he's got it bad.
SPEAKING of bad and having… JP sat there, arms folded on teh table, bottom of the beer tapping on the wood finish. He paused and looked up… then where Arlo's finger was pointing. He stared at it. He siiiiighed, closing his eyes ruefully, "Merde…bien sur, vous l'avez fait, mon petit renard." He sucked in a breath through his teeth and a hand rubbed his face. Consequently it was about this time 'Fox on the Run' queued up even though the record was mid-song. It was JP's juke box.
"I don't know what that means," Arlo admits. "My parents made me learn Hebrew growing up." He glances to the jukebox and smiles. Hey, he likes the folkier music sometimes. "I can't even imagine half the stuff you get up to, man. I lived a quieter life before all this."
JP had no idea how he was gloing to get that down but… it'd be fun. At the share of his upbringing JP finally smild; an easy effortless thingthat could charm the panties off a nun when applied poperly. "Heh no kiddin? They finally make us learn English when I was like…hmm… eleven? Maybe I think?It means, the person who left me that note want me to know exactly who be leavin it cause that thig is hard to put there… and will be three times the pain in teh add t'get back down. Menas I'm meant to work for that one
Arlo glances up at the dart again. "Maybe there's a mutie around here who can stretch," he says. "You never know til you ask around." He goes about sinking the balls left on the table with his hand. He lost the game fair and square, and doesn't seem the least bit bent about it.
JP drummed his fingers on the table seeming a bit bemused by having a message left ofr him jabbed in the ceiling. "Heh, yeah maybe. Ain' a bad idea." Looking to Arlo he chuckled, "This is what I get for not havin no phone, non?"
|ROLL| JP +rolls 1d10 for: 10
"It would be an easier way to get hold of you," Arlo points out. "I always wondered what you'd do if a customer needed to call you if there's no service." He shrugs. Not his problem. He was just there to keep the place clean, and there were mornings one could have eaten off those mopped floors.
JP slooooowly widened a grin and tilted his head, "Arlo… how much legit business you think I am worried about? Short story, drop in traffic is fine but…I mean callin's lazy. THis… this mean they wanna talk." He had strange romantic notions about random vague informational memos jabbed into ceilings.
Arlo tilts his head as he looks at JP. "Yeah, I guess," he says. "Elmo seems keen on fixing things, so at least you got one guy willing to do some respectable work. I just keep the place looking good." He smiles, as if that would sell the lie. Of course he's up to no good whenever he can get away with it.
JP chuckled and waggled the neck of hte bottle to Arlo, "Is good point. Hey, noted. Jes… keep my business, not you' boy's biz, hmm? That still stand. Good eye though. So… How I wanna get that down cause I know… that shit gon' get judged and he'll find out."
"There's no way in hell I'm letting him get mixed up with your shenanigans," Arlo tells JP. "He's a good boy. He does good things." 'Boy' — as if Felix isn't half again as hold as Arlo. He considers the dart. "Could push a barstool under it and use a pool cue to knock it down."
JP went wide eyed and looked to Arlo like he just discovered the the secret to being obscenely wealthy overnight. The beer was set down and JP shook Arlo by hte shoulders, stood and hugged his head giving him a slap on the shoulder before finding a pool cue and- AH. a cue ball?! "Management's about to hate me…"
Arlo grins like a kid getting praise from a big brother, though he puts up a front of saying, "Yeah, yeah." He gives JP a companionable pat on the shoulder. "I just bet they are," he says. "Try not to hit anyone in the head."
|ROLL| JP +rolls 1d20 for: 3
JP was so certain of himself too. He set up the cueue ball and went to pop it to bounce high off the wall. "Get read t'catch it." With a CRACK!the cueball sailed high, but instead of ricocheting off the wall it lodged into the faulty drywall. From behind hte bar there was the bellowing irritation, "BONAVENTURE!" His eye twitched. A hand went up. "Yeha yeah I owe you." The scrappy X-Ternals' cruise directo of chaos(tm) sighed eyeing up what went wrong. "He makes it look so easy… I swear everyone's got a better mutant skill than me. This is ridiculous." But that didn't slow him down as he got a stool and scuttled half way up the wall to pull the cueball from it.
Arlo follows after JP. "You were really close," he says. He offers the bartender a small, apologetic smile. It was JP's doing, but Arlo did sort of kind of suggest it, a little bit. "Okay, the dart's going to come down point first, so don't stand directly under it."
JP paused and wrinkled his nose. "Ya know, you have a point… like the damn dart, Arlo. WIt'out Vitale here maybe we should wait for the bar t'clear out. In the meantime, wanna grab a game?" Still considering the ceiling, the note, and the bizzareness of it all he was back in a good mood. "You now how hard it is t'put a message t'gether with only a time? I knew there had' be more out there."
"What kind of message do you think the cue ball is delivering?" Arlo asks. He's amicable to JP's suggestions. Catch the dart, wait for Vitale. He's down for whatever. JP gets another grin from him. When he smiles, he looks like such a sweet boy. A happy boy. "Let me buy you a beer," he says. "Then we can play a game, sure."
JP says, "Cueball? Nothin. Pain, sufferin, five bucks? There's a note attach t'my dart on the ceilin' though and that… goes withthe one I fin'in at Atomic last night." He paused and nodded gathering everything to rack up. "Long story shourt? Oui oui, mon ami. You may absolutely buy me a beer.""