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This is the first day Halgrim has ventured outside of his lean-to in Monster Metropolis since…well, whatever his alter-ego got up to that resulted in a good several inches of his hair burned off, and something like a horrible sunburn over every inch of his body. Thank goodness the alligator sisters have a line on large quantitied of aloe, because he's gone through more than his fair share in the last few days. The blisters have all resolved into peeling skin, so now he just looks like a foolish Scandanavian who fell asleep in a sunny spot of Central Park in the middle of the day, rather than a five alarm fire survivor. He's wearing a light, airy, linen shirt and the loosest fitting, linen pants he could get his hands on, because his usual clothes would chafe too much for his current condition. At least school's not in session, and he can casually call in 'working from the library for this week' without raising eyebrows.
He's seated at a table in the shade of the olive tree, and has covered one side of it with photocopied papers he's reading through. A half-empty bottle of wine (something bright red and Mediterranean, a Xinomavro mayhbe?) and a hummus plate which he's forgotten about occupy the other side of the table. He mutters under his breath in Swedish as he scribbles notes in the margin of a page, takes a sip of wine.
Jebediah comes into the restaurant, a bounce in his step like always, he's wearing a pair of jeans without holes in them for once and a t-shirt that looks like it may have belonged to a brother before him, as it's a little oversized. He carries a tiny calico kitten in one arm and a bag on the other arm, a gift bag specifically, blue in color. He's come looking for the monsters in order to give them all something so when he spies Halgrim, he comes over to the table and nearly drops the bag and the kitten at the sight of what looks like sunburn. "You know you supposed to wear lotion when you go tannin' right, Mister Halgrim?" He asks, somewhat teasingly but there's an underlying bit of concern in his tone.
Adam walks in from the street, enormous and cloaked as always. When he sees Halgrim looking toasted, he puts back his hood, exposing that enormous horrible face of his, made more horrible with his frown. "I presume someone set you on fire." He knows all about that. "Are you in pain?" He looks at Jeb, and almost smiles at him. Almost. Halgrim's appearance eclipses it somewhat.
Halgrim glances up from his papers and smiles at Jeb and his kitten, and then Adam as he joins them. To Jeb, he says, "I'm used to being outdoors in the sun. I normally don't burn much—my parents figure our family must have some Mediterranean influence in its history. The Vikings did wander a bit. But this ah…was something else entirely, I'm afraid." His smile turns wry, and he nods at Adam in agreement. "I think that must be it. Possibly my, better half, tangled with something that knew how to take care of itself. I woke up in Central Park feeling like I was *still* on fire. The ordeal even cost me a bit of my hair." He gestures at the loose bun he has it in now, which is considerably less full than it was the previous week. He sighs, indicates the open chairs at the table. "Please, have a seat. There's some hummus, and wine, if you care for it. It's quite dry, though. We could order more food, if either of you are hungrier than this will manage."
Jebediah frowns in concern as Halgrim starts to explain what's happened to his skin. "You don't remember anything that happens when you're in that form?" He asks and then bites his lip as he sits down, looking apologetic for having asked anything about that form. "Ah'm sorry, you ain't gotta answer that if you don't wanna, Ah just was curious but it's okay." He sets the bag down and looks up at Adam with a bright smile, like he couldn't be any more happy to see him. "Hello, Mister Adam. How are you tonight? Ah brought you both something."
Adam, concerned, hovers over Halgrim, examining him. "Do you not heal yourself?" he asks. He sits on the ground, folding himself up, cloak pooling around him. Now he's the perfect height to use the table. Finally he smiles back at Jeb, ugly weathered face breaking into a thousand tiny lines. "Jebediah Guthrie. You have brought us something?"
Carefully, Halgrim tells Jeb, "It's alright to ask," feeling out his own response. "I've never remembered, anything during it." He looks out over the courtyard, reluctant to actually try to, and absently adds, "Fortunately, I think." He regards Adam and Jeb again, and shakes his head in response to Adam's question. "No, or if it is possible, I don't know how to do it. Honestly I've no idea what all of this renders myself, or, him, capable of. For all I know, this *is* healed, and the injuries were worse, but attenuated by the change back."
He refills his glass of wine, and raises his eyebrows at Jeb. "Have you then? And what would that be?"
Jebediah listens and follows along with a small frown of concern. "Ah don't know that it's fortunate that you can't remember, Ah feel like you might want to know what happened to make you all burned. You should have a stern talking to with him about rolling around in fire." Jeb insists and then nods at the both of them, reaching into his bag to bring out two individually wrapped boxes, one a lot smaller than the other, that one he hands to Halgrim. He blushes a little. "Okay, well maybe this will sound real silly but it was father's day a couple days back right? Well, my daddy has been dead a real long time but Mister Halgrim, you're kinda like a dad to me and so is Mister Morbius and Mister Adam. You help teach me stuff and you're nice to me and you help me figure out how to navigate something because Ah'm real dumb and young. So Ah made you both something for father's day and Mister Morbius too, Ah'll have to track him down."
Inside of Halgrim's box is a small wooden pendant on a long chain, the pendant has been shaved smooth and rounded. A wave design is burnt into it.
Adam's taken aback. He looks at Jeb, surprised. So little can surprise him anymore, but here he is. "WeIare like fathers to you?" His expression is complicated; pleased and grieved. "Perhaps it is not wise. I never had a father of my own. …I should be honored," he says gravely.
Halgrim very nearly fumbles his wine glass, and it's not entirely clear at first if it's because of Jeb's comment about remembering being better, or the father bit. Or maybe he really is just that cheap of a date, but surely that can't be true; those Viking genes have to have come through at least in part. He takes a second to situate himself and clears his throat. "Jebediah, that's…possibly the nicest thing anyone's said to me. I—as Adam said, it's an honor. You're far and away one of the kindest people I've ever known, and certainly not dumb." He accepts the box, murmuring, "Tack," and opens it with care. "Oh, very lovely." He holds up the pendant, studying it in the light that falls between the tree's leaves. "Did you use your eyes to make this? Or is it a sort of carving technique?"
"Ah don't know that Ah make a whole lot of great chocies, honestly, sirs but Ah do think Ah made a great choice in choosing you guys to spend my time with. You help me all the time, you teach me things, next to my brothers and Doug, you guys are the next closest thing to family Ah got and Ah think, really, that we is a little family, ain't we? And well, Ah ain't got no daddy to give stuff too so Ah chose you guys instead."
"Ah picked the waves because Ah wanted you to know that nothin' can sink you." He explains and then pushes the larger box over to Adam. On the inside is a wooden burned portrait of a butterfly, he'd cut holes in the wings and fastened different colored pieces of glass there instead.
Adam opens the box, and—tears up. Actual tears welling in his weird, white-on-black eyes. He draws in a deep breath, but for once, for this once, words fail him. Instead he reaches out a long, long arm and scoops Jeb in, wrapping him up in a very large hug.
"You're far too generous, Jebediah," Halgrim says as Adam moves to hug the young man. "Be careful what you wish for—I'm afraid we'll have to be *more* fatherly to you now." Smiling a full, real smile, he settles the new necklace in place, saying, "Perhaps with this charm, nothing can, indeed, sink me." He nudges the wooden pendant next to the dark red, metal-infused gemstone, and pokes the later. "Don't be an ill neighbor," he mutters, as if scolding a fractious child.
Saganaki. A tiny blip of a Greek sanctuary in the middle of New York City.
As if it wasn't enough to offer a sanctuary for monstrous types this close to mutant town, it's quite honestly the food that Morbius knows for a fact is authentic and the pleasure of good Greek company which draws him in this direction more often than anything else. There's something about familiar food that will fill one's soul beyond the stomach.
Dragging himself into the courtyard, the suit-wearing vampire plucks his hat off the top of his head as he ducks inside, weariness hanging on his limbs. He pauses, realizing the trio occupying the space. "Well. This seems. Cozy." Tilting his head toward Adam and Jebediah in particular.
Jeb is shocked when Adam hugs him, but he doesn't push away or flinch, he just smiles and returns it as best he can with his much smaller arms around Adam's much broader body. He laughs a little at Halgrim's warning. "Oh no, not /more/ fatherly, that's the worst. Ah'm gonna have to eat my brocolli!" He teases, glee in his voice. "What's that charm do? Is it magic?"
He hears Morbius' voice before he sees the vampire. "Mister Morbius! Mister Morbius!" He says excitedly, like a child having seen his favorite parent for the first time in weeks. He doesn't release Adam though, not until Adam is ready, content to stay there as long as the man desires, even snuggling a little.
Adam lets Jeb go, unwinding from him, and has to take a minute, weeping silently with tears tracking down his face. "Thank you," he says, voice rough. This present Jeb gave him must have some deeper meaning to him, to affect him so. He tips his head at Morbius, and packs the wooden art back in its box like the treasure it is.
Some monsters are born, via magic or quirks in genetics. Some are created in labs, stitched together and assembled by scientists out of parts of other bodies. It's one of the latter that comes quietly in to the courtyard.
Not that his differences are immediately visible - Buck's careful to keep the arm covered in public. He's in a white dress shirt and dark gray suit pants, though there's no suit jacket or tie. The collar of the shirt is unbuttoned. He's got his hair tied back in a low ponytail; still refusing to cut his hair, though it's past his shoulders, now. The Soldier looks a hair taken aback when he sees the gathering, expression going still and masklike.
Halgrim is seated at the table beneath the olive tree, a collection of copied academic papers scattered in front of him, most of them marked up with notes. There's a just-under-half-empty bottle of a bright red wine (and a full glass of the same) in arm's reach of him, as well as a nibbled-on plate of hummus and pita. He looks and is dressed as though he just came from Greece, sporting one hell of what looks like a mostly-healed sun burn that had to have been a winner when it was fresh, and wearing a loose linen shirt and pants.
He begins to explain the other pendant Jeb has asked about, saying, "Ah—no, this is an unfortunate acquisition of mine." He's reluctant to go on, and then Morbius arrives, providing the perfect opportunity for Halgrim to *not* discuss the bane of his existence. He smiles at Morbius and takes up his wine glass, raising it to him. "Welcome, Doctor. There's wine and humus, if you're so inclined." He says nothing when Bucky enters, waiting to see if one of the others recognizes him.
Amber book in hand, and humming quietly to herself, enters the courtyard and pauses for a moment to take in her surroundings.
Wow, full house tonight., she says to herself, tipping her hat courteously to all and sundry. Credit to her, life in the mutant lane's made her much harder to startle, though, Adam does give her pause for a moment. Halgrim gets a wave and a nod, though she doesn't wish to impose upon he and his friends.
In search of a place to sit, she finds one by the man in the dress shirt and gray suit pants.
"Evenin', sir. This seat taken?, she asks him, tipping her hat once again.
Morbius' face says it all when he notices that Adam is weeping. Openly. In public-ish. The soles of his shoes tap lightly on Lambert's cobblestones while he heads in the direction of his comrades. "Good lord, man," His delicate accent taps lightly on the backs of his teeth, speaking in an undertone to the grotesquely sewn together man while he drops his hat onto the top of the table beside Halgrim's plate of hummus and touches the cuffs of his shirt, tugging them out from beneath his jacket. "Is everything quite all right? You're…" He hesitates, gesturing with a wave of spindled fingers over his own face in gesture by proxy to Adam's. "Well."
Trailing off in the wake of Jebediah's abundant excitement, Morbius' brows arch upward in surprise. "Oh, hello Jebediah. Are you—is everything quite well?" Flicking those sanguine-soaked eyes back and forth among the three men immediately there. "Thank you, Professor," a nod of gratitude toward Halgrim and the drop in the bucket of normalcy in what seems a very emotionally charged scene he's stepping in on.
The two people walking in after him warrant a glance. Moving slower as he plucks the steel outside chair up and moving it back to settle down into. Watchfulness comes easily to the macabre figure. Careful.
Adam presses the bridge of his nose. "I am well," he says, in a voice like a double bass cello that might have a cold. "It is good to see you, Doctor." He lifts his enormous head, looking at Amber and Bucky, who are unknown to him. "Pray do not be alarmed," he tells them. "I shall not harm you." It sounds like he says that a lot. He really is terrifyingly ugly, even among monsters and mutants.
"Ah'm great, Mister Morbius." Jeb offers, with a broad smile, a hand still rubbing lightly at Adam's arm, so overcome by his gift. He moves the kitten to the table and pulls out the bag beneath it. It would contain that giant silhouetted portrait of a Greek beachside with the star map of the night that Morbius was born above it. "Ah've got something for you too, Ah've been working on it for awhile, Ah'm real glad to see you."
He peers over at Amber, recognizing her from the library. "Hey Miss Amber, Ah remember you! How are you?"
Buck hasn't yet claimed a seat, though he's standing by a little table, one he often picks when he visits. Rather bemused, it seems. That pale gaze darts to each in turn, blinking. "Uh, 's fine by me, ma'am." But the smile and the assurance have an air of distraction.
Worsened by Adam's assurances. Buck frankly peers at him, and his grin goes crooked, a little sickly. It's been a long, long time since he wasn't by default the deadliest thing in the room. "Good," he says, gently. "I'm not here for trouble." Winter, in the back of his brain, disagrees vehemently, and is suppressed.
"Thank you.", Amber nods, taking the seat and removing her hat. Because hats at the dinner table? Just not done. No way.
"Apologies if I gave offense, sir.", Amber calls to Adam with another tip of her hat. "Still findin' m' bearin's is all.", she smiles with a slight shrug.
Jebediah's greeting is returned with a wave. "Been good, thanks, yourself?", she asks politely."Jus' stoppin' by f' a bite t' eat. Got a g…appointment in a couple hours.", she replies.
When her waiter arrives, she orders a plate of nibbly appetizers and a glass of ice water. Gotta be sober for those…appointments.
The exchange between Bucky and Adam puts Halgrim at ease, because if none of them know who Bucky is, at least they know he's not freaking out about Adam, and that's the litmus test around here. He raises his wine glass to Amber in a greeting as well. As Adam regains his composure, Halgrim explains to Morbius, "Jebediah has declared we're fathers of his, and been very generous with his gift-giving in the process." He tugs out the wooden pendant he received, which also makes the other pendant he has on, a rough red gemstone pendant, easily visible.
Michael allows Adam the benefit of saying the standard 'ask them not to scream' script as he comes up to Halgrim's table. "You didn't offend him, Miss," the factual insert of his opinion on Adam's behalf, the corpse articulates in a cultured tone while giving a curious look at the boxes being divied out. He continues in a distracted air. "I don't know what it would take to actually offend one of us, if I think about it." Turning to Halgrim for the explanation. "Oh, that makes sense." Does it though? "He's a generous and talented young man. Jebediah, did you finish your piece for Lambert to display?" Leaning in over the table, he holds his tie to his chest with one elongated hand while he peers at Halgrim's wooden talisman. "Fantastic. That is thoughtful, isn't it? Some men are able to pull off jewlery better than others—he clearly knows you, Professor." The corners of Morbius' mouth tighten slightly, suppressing an impish smile.
Adam is sitting on the ground, and he's still easily as tall as a standing man. He bows from the waist to Amber, his long, shining black hair slipping over his shoulders. "As Doctor Morbius says, I have taken no offense. I merely wish to exist in peace." His ice-pale eyes glance at Bucky, reaffirming that neither of them want trouble. "My appearance has, on occasion, made such aspirations difficult to achieve. My name is Adam." When he straights up again, he smiles, which is not any less awful than not smiling. "Jebediah, you know the lady?"
"Ah did indeed. And Ah finished something for you too," He says pushing the bag towards Morbius, flushed at all the talk about how he had declared them all fathers. He looks over at the man that he doesn't know, who looks most out of place in a room full of what could be defined as monsters. "Hey, sir? You don't gotta be no stranger. Ah'm Jebediah, this is Misters Halgrim, Adam and Morbius and this charmin' young lady is Miss Amber. You the only one that ain't got a name yet. How 'bout Charlie?" Jebediah tries to engage with a charming Guthrie smile.
"Yes, Ah met her at the library with you and the green lady. She come from the south too, that's where she get her cool accent." He answers, hand still patting Adam's arm.
Bucky ventures an uncertain little smile. A lot of these folk read as dangerous enough to upset Winter, such as he is. "I was just coming by to say hi to Kai and Lambert. I guess they're off tonight." Even Lamb the indefatigable has his nights where he's not in the kitchen. He still hasn't sat down, and there's a distinctly wary poise to him. None of them remember him, it seems, from the Wanted posters up a year ago.
"Got one now.", she chuckles to Jebediah. "It's 'Ember'.", she adds with a chuckle. "Figure I ain't like to forget it n' times a' crisis.", she laughs.
Giving Morbius a polite wave as he makes his exit, she turns to Bucky. "Amber Mueller.", she says, motioning to the open seat across from her. "Sit n' stay a while. We ain't gonna bite.", she winks playfully. "Hey, I recognize ya!.", she grins. "You were there th' day th' llamas ran riot.". she says.
Halgrim's brows go up. "Ah yes, the green lady from the library. Hard to forget her." He asides to Adam, "She was nearly as tall as you," as a reminder of that afternoon. If he recognizes Bucky in any way, it's entirely absent from his features, and he doesn't give the impression of a man who can lie easily or convincingly. Probably not at all.
Halgrim settles back in his chair and indicates the wine bottle and spare empty glasses. "Please, you should help yourselves, or I'll drink it all, and that won't go well for me tomorrow morning."
Adam might in fact recognize Bucky, from the way he's telegraphing 'let's not fight' at him. Body language tucked in. Head a little lowered. He's trying to make himself nonthreatening—laughable as the idea is. "Ah, I recall now," he says, nodding to Amber. "A student. I was somewhat distracted." With trying to keep Halgrim from sprouting fur and feathers. At Halgrim's invitation, he plucks up one of the wineglasses with extreme delicacy, and pours. He offers this to Jeb, first.
"No, Miss Amber, I meant this strapping guy, he ain't given himself a name yet. Ah'm gonna call you Charlie if you don't wanna give us one. You can come over here, none of us bite… well, no, maybe some of us do bite but no one gonna bite you right now." Jebediah encourages to Bucky, no recognition here, because the young man definitely did not live in the city last year. He takes the cup offered to him from Adam. "Ah don't think Ah ever had wine 'cept at church and that wasn't very good." He accepts with the hand he hasn't been using to idly pet Adam, as if this was something he usually did. "Is this better than blood of Christ wine?"
That makes Buck laugh softly. "Some other time," he says, apologetic. And then he's withdrawing…sweat on his brow, though the courtyard's relatively cool. Sometimes instincts are hard to rein in.
"No, but thankee anyhow.", Amber nods to Halgrim. "Got that appointment, need my wits about me.", she nods.
"Hey, now, sir, ain't no call joshin' the shy guy.", she says thinking he's talking about Bucky. "Feller wants t' keep his peace, he's entitled."
"Yeah, yeah, you were there, sir, weren't ya?", she says, snapping her fingers. "An'…that…big lady…green skin…", she nods. "Well, met, sir.", she smiles."
"Now, lookit what ya, done, now…", she remonstrates Jebediah, "Scared th' poor feller away.", she sighs.
"Understandable," Halgrim says to Amber. "If regrettable." He mmms at Adam, bobs his eyebrows in a silent apology, and smothers a laugh at Jeb's question about 'Church wine'. Shaking his head, he says, "I've not had the…pleasure, myself, not being Christian, but as I can't imagine the Church is willing to spend its money on good wine, and I *am*, I'm sure this will be much better. Dry, though—I'm not as fond of sweet wine." He takes a sip and sighs. "And of course Lambert keeps good wines. I think it would be sacrilege for him not to." He watches Bucky go, unable to hide his curiosity at his apparent nervous, or concern…or whatever it might be. He can, of course, relate to that quite intimately.
Adam lifts an eyebrow at Jeb. "Americans have odd notions about drinking, I forgot." He sips the wine himself, nods, then offers it again. "Go on, taste it. I believe it will be better than the blood of Christ." Church wine is universally bad, Europe or the New World. He nods at Amber, seriously. "I regret I was not able to speak to her further. She was…interesting."
"Ah didn't meanta make him leave." Jeb says and has the decency to look guilty because he truly hadn't meant to drive anyone away. He was trying to be friendly. He's still frowning when Adam offers him the cup again after taking a sip himself. Jeb reaches for the cup with a much smaller hand, he sniffs the wine judgmentally and then takes a small drink of it. It isn't fruity but it isn't awful and sour as the wine they made them drink at church for communion. "This is much better and Ah didn't even have to eat a weird flavorless cracker they said was the body of Christ. You know, that whole part of church was real weird. Why am Ah drinkin' Jesus' blood and eatin' his body, why Jesus want me to do that? Jesus into some real weird stuff."
Amber says, "I believe it's a metaphor, sir." Amber replies to jeb. "Ain't meant t' be taken literal. 'Least that's what my ol' pastor told me.", she shrugs. "He was kind of an idjut.", she sighs.
"Yeah, sir, she was kinda diff'rent.", Amber nods to Adam.
"I mean no offense, sir.", she says to Halgrim, then pauses to look around. "I got a poker game comin' up. Last thing I need is wine, but thankee ag'in for the offerin'.""
Halgrim arches an eyebrow at Adam and Amber both. "Metaphor or not, it is a bit," he tips his head at Jeb, "gruesome. Not that my own peoeple's religion is less extreme in its ways, but we also didn't force it on anyone." He stops himself from going on in the way that someone from a country where no Chruch except the Christian Church is legal, and where Christianity supplanted a once rich and ancient religious culture, might be inclined to do. He has wine instead, because this wine could very well *be* the blood of a god, it's that goiod. "Reasonable, to keep yourself sober for a game of cards. Particularly if you want to leave with as muchor moremoney as you arrived with."
Adam says mildly, "Men invented it, Jeb. Christ, if he was a historical figure at all, did not. I agree, however. It is troubling when regarded in a light outside of faith." He's only talking smack about Christians a little bit. "The lady is correct, most consider it a metaphor. Some Catholics regard it as literal." Because everybody is interested in this discourse. He pours another glass for himself, and with immense care, taps it against Jeb's, and Halgrim's. "Skal."
Jeb can tell that Halgrim is holding back on something, especially when he ends his sentence that way. "Ah know we got a real bad rap sheet, huh?" Jeb might surprise the two men by not defending his religion when it's put under fire, not responding angrily as he usually would to any accusation against his deity. Though when Adam very bluntly says that Jesus was invented, Jeb frowns a little. "Well, Ah guess that's probably true too, the bible was kinda just the word of some dude sayin' it was really from God, wasn't it? God didn't actually write it. They could have invented Jesus if that's what they needed to do to get people to follow them." So this isn't something Jeb is completely opposed to but it does sting a little to hear it from people he cares a lot for. "Ah know it was a metaphor, but isn't still kinda weird?" He looks over to Amber for her opinion on hte matter.
"What's Skal mean, Mister Adam?" He asks when Adam taps his cup against Jeb's, happy for an excuse to change the subject so he doesn't get upset and upset anyone else.
"You believe it or ya don't, sir.", Amber says to Jebediah after a moment. "Don't matter what anyone else says, y' got faith, y' got faith, and good on ya, sir.",she nods. "Cleave to it, if'n it comforts or inspires.", she adds. "Myself, I'm someplace in th' middle.", she shrugs. "An' that's as deep int' those waters as I care to sail.", she smirks.
Presently, Amber's order of nibbly appetizer things and water appears. Thanking the waitress and resolving to leave her a big tip, she adds. "I beg yer pardon, gentl'men, but I need a bit of supper 'fore my game.", she says pleasntly.
Halgrim makes a low sound and raises his glass at each in turn, nods. "Skal." He takes a sip, and nods at them all again, maintaining eye contact for a moment once more. It winds up being a farewell to Amber, and he waves at her and she goes, wishing her good luck.
"Now now, Adam, next you'll tell him Osterhase isn't real, and I'm sure you've seen that hare with your own eyes. There could easily have been a person — or people — who gave rise to the unified story which is the Christ. After all, do many not maintain that the one who see here in this city and names himself Thor is the same Thor my oldest ancestors spoke of around fires in their longhouses? And perhaps he is—or he came later, and was woven into that tale. Another thread in a very old and tangled tapestry." He shrugs, and falls silent, letting Adam answer Jeb's question with a twinkle in his eye.
Adam …might actually feel a little bad, now. Jeb is so cute and trusting. "I was created by a man, too," he offers. "I am not a fiction." He dips his head and smiles. "It is a toast, from the Professor's language. Wishing you good health." He looks at Halgrim in amused interest. "That is a conversation, should you ever have it with Thor, I would enjoy listening in on."
"Is Osterhase yer version of the Easter Bunny. Now Ah know him and Santa aren't real, Halgrim. Ah'm eighteen." He stresses with a little roll of his eyes. "Ah mean, you right and so is Miss Amber, people believe in stuff for a variety of reasons, sometimes you need somethin' to lean on in times of trouble, religion can be good for that." He says and smiles when Adam dips his head to catch his eye. "You isn't a fiction. You is very real and Ah'm real glad that you is. You and Mister Halgrim and Mister Morbius, Ah'm real glad you're all real." He reaches over to pat the top of Adam's hand and then Halgrim's. "Skal," He repeats back to them both.
Halgrim scratches his beard and huffs a laugh at Adam. "Well, I am given to understand this 'Thor' is quite a powerful being, so I would be inclined to take care with my words." He pours himself…a half a glass. He can manage a walk back to the Metropolis on just that much more. "And anyways, I would rather ask him of what he saw then — details he could remember. Stories he heard, rituals he witnessed. We have so little from the sites and runestones. Just broad strokes. A greater knowledge of their every day life would be invaluable." Raising his hands at Jeb's declaration of his age, Halgrim says, "Eighteen, plenty old enough to believe for the reasons you wish, rather than blindly. Skal." He looks Jeb and Adam directly in the eyes — just for a moment, a passing glance, met and pulled away, because when an apex predator locks eyes it's never good—and drains his wine glass.