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JP came back with the telltale hum of his beloved car, Jeanne d'Arc with tiny Madeline doll buckled in. Go ahead, world, ask him about the damn doll and get a close up of your own teeth.
JP willed the door open and closed and called up the stairs with that too-casual, but definitely annoyed, "Sparkplug, the hell happen t'my fluorescents in the workshop?" Yeah, heeee might be a tad pissed but he was back-seating that one until the data was all in.
At least Elmo has swept up all the glass, but the sad hanging shattered remnants of the shop lights are pretty obvious. He yells back down the stairs, "Long story, c'mon up." He's in the kitchen, putting coffee on and wearing that aggravated, tense expression on his long face.
plod…plod…pod…
His heavy boots bore JP up the stairs and he sloooowly took his coat off to drop on the baco of one of the mismatched wood chairs in passing. The look was patient but there was no play in it pointedly being JP's I'm about to have a word face. He stayed quiet but there was tension in the air. As quick to a fight as JP was he liked to know he was willing to commit to it before engaging, because like a pit bull he bit to lock a they say. Yeah, Jean-Pierre wasn't happy but still invited, "I'm listenin."
Elmo isn't happy either, mouth pulled down. He faces JP, arms folded. "Jeb came over and socked me. Broke my damn nose." He looks fine—of course Vitale would have healed him up. "So I kinda lost it all over the garage. Sorry about that. He's payin'. He was real mad because we got this mutual friend, guy named Halgrim. Well, you remember that giant wolfman with feathers when we went to go bust up that cult?" Like JP could forget, probably. "Same one V got chewed up from healing. Same one scared the crap outta me in the park. That's Grim. He's a werewolf…kinda. Problem is, the wolfman's a different person from him. They live in the same body, but he can't control her. She does whatever she wants. She's some crazy spirit from old times. Grim told me that, offered to stay away from the M.T. I told him I'd hafta talk to you. So now I'm talkin'." He unfolds his arms to run his hands through his hair. "I guess Grim musta told Jeb that and Jeb decided it meant we were throwing Grim outta town. So he came over and broke my nose for me."
JP listened and JP's eyes narrowed. The words weren't Keep it outta my damn garage it was "Elmo, Werewolves don't have feathers." Lesve it to JP to hone in on weird shit. JP calmly said, "Firs' I don' care what his personal business is, he don't bring war t'my people on our turf. He got a burr up his ass he can write it down. Tha' merde don' fly. Two? Mutant Town real big. Bes we can really do is take care' our block, and Guthrie can cool his balls cause it ain' his yard t'run."
"Yeah, well, I didn't exactly get a chance to explain that." Elmo turns back to the counter to pour coffee. "Too busy losing my shit. Dammit. I thought Jeb and I were gettin' to be friends." His voice wavers a little; he's genuinely upset about that. Passing the mug to JP, he leans on the counter, unhappy with everything. "I thought we oughta talk about it, that's all. Grim's dangerous. On the other hand, hell, so'm I when I lose it. So is everyone on this team. S'your turf, though. So bringin' it to you."
JP corrected taking the cup, "Most people…well… I see you' point. continue." He pressed for more information. "I tell Jeb he can use our yard t'do me up a favour, but ya don' tell a man around in his own home. An you…need t'learn t'breathe, chere." He took a deep breatha nd tried to find a reasonable path for him to follow, "You let off, you gotta recharge. You let off at anythin you be tired alla time and get caught flat footed. Gotta stick withthe essentials. The res? Eeeeh fuck it."
Elmo snorts. Pours himself a cup of coffee, too. "He caught me real flat footed, too. I've been tutoring him, yannow? Helpin' him pass college entrance exam. So I thought he needed help, the way he was freaking out. Opened the door and he popped me." He rubs his nose, as if checking it's there in all its splendor still. "Stupid of me, I guess. I'm goin' out to get lights in a couple minutes. Don't worry about 'em, I'll repair 'em." Looking at JP, his eyebrows slowly tilt up. He ventures, "Ya mad at me?"
JP shrugged and sipped his coffee, "I ain' thrilled about the situation." He slammed his cup and set it on teh counter fishing his wallet out of his coat and rolling his cigs up in his sleeve. "C'mon I' go with you. We ca talk on the way. So, perspective really? Grimm ain' hurt Vitale. Vitale try t'do somethin and got hurt. That ain' an attack, it jes' unfortunate. I think he ate a cultist too… she… I can' keep track. Either way…"
Elmo interprets that as a yes, and winces. He doesn't say anything about it, just drains his own coffee and grabs both cups to rinse them out. "S'what I was kinda thinkin'. She didn't hurt V. Didn't hurt me. Ain't hurt anybody that didn't have it comin', so far as I can tell. I dunno if that thing's a girl or a boy, Vitko calls it a she, so I just got in the habit." He jerks his head at the stairs and heads down.
JP nodded slowly and asked Elmo, "You talk to this Halgrim guy 'bout this?" They walked down stairs and JP didn't look at the lights. THey were getting fixed by the people what broke it so no reason to stay on about it. His hand lited up to pat the garage door. There there, we fix you up the gesture seemed oto say. One might imaginethat with how bonded JP was to the little bits of the shop that it felt like another family member to him, or maybe aprt of himself some days. His… refuge. His refuge to share with others now needinglights again. "How this conversation come up t'begin with?"
"Not yet," Elmo sighs. "Gonna. Threw 'em both out before I wrecked something else, or before they did." From the way he's rubbing his face, he's had a long, long day. "Grim just came over and told me. Said he couldn't keep lying to me. He's a real nice guy." A real nice guy who has no control over the massive clawed monster he becomes, but who's counting. "He's older, yannow. Kinda been talking to him about stuff. So he felt responsible, I guess."
JP let Elmo drive Daisy. He opened the door and moved the toolbox over before pulling himself up into the cab letting Elmo do the talking. Yuuuup. JP wasn't a happy camper, but he didn't feel a need to press the point and patiently focused on the finer aspects of resolution. THe window rolled itself down because JP told it to in not so many words. "It seems the discussion of this Halgrim is causin more problems than Halgrim 'emself." He let that point settle home., maybe still thinking about it himself. "World small an' ain't nice. We gonna close up our borders t'everyone differen' an be divided when the hunters come or we gon' work together?"
Turning to Elmo Jp waved his hand cutting reprisal off at the path, "I don' think bringin up the War need be a thing, but you take a look at the last great enemy of the people an they kept e'ryone divided. Any people of any colour, you people, them Hungarian type people, all sorts of people. This ain'a judgement, it a tactic. We wanna akeep ourselves worryin about our block, that fine, but I dunnoo it should be at the cost of givin other people in the same boat as we no safe harbour if they sharin a similar struggle. Sides, there FAR more things below us we ain' even scratched yet. Soooo my official ruling? Eh fuck it. Let em be until he start creatin problems. cause Right now the only ones causin problems f' the block is livin on it sooo let's jsut sort this shit out. Ain' good for you blood pressure anyway."
Elmo doesn't even try to argue, in fact, he's nodding along. "Yeah. S'what I was thinkin'. He's a good guy. I like 'im. There ain't no point in drawin' artifical barriers." He realizes he's used words of more than two syllables and clarifies: "What you said. He ain't a mutant, so what? He's got a dangerous thing goin' on, so what? We need people like him." Elmo tips his free hand over, the other on the steering wheel. "Ain't him that caused problems, anyway. It was Jeb. Yellin' at me that he's sick of, uh, losin' to me." He sighs, trying not to be upset. "I don't even know what that means."
JP just held expression while ELmo talked all around that situation. JP could always take it on faith that his mama, the woman Elmo came out to and cried on teh kitchen table of, was not, nor would ever, be badmouthed by one Elmo Rosenkratz. Big words or not he let him talk it out finally nodding when it all became clear in language he was familiar with. An eyebro warched, "I dunno either. You bet darts again' em? Cuase that a fool's be t t'any X-Ternal."
Elmo waves it away, unhappy. He pulls round back of an office building, killing the headlights and coasting to the loading dock. "Shit's all too complicated. Almost makes me wanna go back to holin' up in my workshop and not lookin' anybody in the eye for weeks." He throws Daisy into park.
JP turned to Elmo and put his hand to Elmo's chest, not hard, but to pause him getting out of the car. He was fianlly cooling down and offered, "Sometime shit happen. What we do about that shit when it happen? That becomes who we are too. Also? Guys' brother jes' left again an Sammy has that effect on people. Leave like a hole behind. I got a lil squirly when Sev took off a while too. Fin' out what happen if ya wan, but target the cause, not everythin else. These the kinda people we got th'opportunity t'help. Maybe we gotta be that person we need them t'be. I don't… know it hard andI'm still figurin it out." He hand squeezed Elmo's shoulder. "It take practice but it'll look good on ya."
Elmo puts his hand over JP's. He's looking away while JP talks to him, which is totally normal for him; he finds eye contact hard to hold while being talked to. "Okay," he says, soft. "Gonna take a lot of practice." Then slides over on the bench to hug his partner. Yeah, he's had quite a day.
JP leaned over and hugged Elmo. Sure they were at the hardware story but pals hugged, and so did JP patting Elmo on teh back. "Eeeeh I dunno it'll ever stop takin practice, but we just get gooder at it. C'mon. lets go fix the plack eye on our garage."