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Constantine got message to Halgrim in the way Wizards to: unwelcomly. It was have him meet at the marketplace outside the Bitten Truffle where one could get all manner of fungal soups…at your peril. The demon-blooded Magus really did make himself comfortable down here with teh denizins did't he? Then again the Constantine name carried far. Genuinly he might be said to prefer the company of 'the monsters you know' rather than the ones that hide behind the masque of civility.
Halgrim is still new to the Metroplis in many ways, but he's not too uncomfortable to ask for directions, even from fellow monsters. He's a familiar presence now, the man with two faces, so it's not long before someone points him in the right direction, and he's standing outside the Bitten Truffle in short order. His sojourn in the mountains with Adam seems to have done him some good; there's no longer a sense that his hold over the spirit is fragile and ready to break at any moment. He even seems to have gotten a reasonable amount of sleep lately.
Constantine looked like he was perpetually frech from falling out of the dishwasher. Still his time spent with the Vampire seems to have sobered him slightly or at least motivated him into working again. "Ah, Professor," There was that rakish grin, "Good of you t'join us, luv. Pull up a seat. Hazard some soup. We might have somehting for you."
"Hazard, is it," Halgrim says, and takes a seat. He glances around them, taking in the sight of the place and not ordering anything right away. Scanning the market, he says, "This place will never cease to amaze me," tone suggesting his mind has wandered elsewhere for a minute. He shakes his head. "What might you have for me, Mr. Constantine."
The Laughing Mage's face split into a grin, "Theeeeere ya go!" Oh someone was having a good day. He pulled up that looked to be a thick cotton sackcloth bag that he set on teh table waiting for Halgrim when he came back withte soup and nodded to it. "Finished that gift for your bird. Wondering something curious you might be able to shed some light on though. Why are they stealing ancient shipping recipts? Aside from being historically nifty they aren't a state of address or something held by someone of power indofar as we know. THe bird got a vendetta on her? This personal?"
Halgrim smiles, entirely relieved. "Ah, thank you—they were planning to put this one on display for the start of the semester, so you're not a moment too soon. They don't know it's missing yet, but it was only going to be a matter of time." Thinking back to that evening, he tilts his head. "I don't…think this is about Renata, specifically. She was probably just the easiest access to it, being the Head Librarian. I assumed he was taking it to sell on the black market." He shrugs. "That's almost always what these thefts are about, after all; historical artifacts are as good as trophies to some collectors, even," he indicates the bag, "shopping lists, and fetch quite a price. But when I accused him of that, he said…" Halgrim taps the table, trying to remember. It's only been a week, and yet with all that's come and gone it feels months away. "That he was returning what wasn't ours. That it didn't belong to us." He considers Constantine again. "I suppose he was repatriating it to…someone, or an organization? I suppose that's possible, even if I've never heard of anyone doing it via theft. I was part of the MFAA, myself."
Constantine offered with a tilt of his head, "Not if the replacement does it's job." He listened and nodded slowly, "Right collector, right interest? It metes out." He paused and a smile flitted to his face. The smile held but the age was seen in the corners of his eyes that were far older than the body suggested,. "I deployed with the SAS in '41. I believe we did some work with you boys. We were focused on interceding withplans of the Thule cults." Both eyebrow arched. "Brings back a hell of a memory that does."
"Mmmm, I seem to recall hearing about that," Halgrim says, scratching his beard. "Not very much, they had me in Munich, coordinating inventory and determining provenance, making phonecalls since I knew German, so I mostly just overheard the field teams when they came in to drop off their finds." He leans back in his chair. "Certainly does. For me, of a great deal of paperwork and drinking, and countless bar fights." He smiles despite the later, or maybe because of it.
Constantine hrugged and drew a stair int eh air, with a tiny trail of flame hehind it before eating his soup…cautiously. "Well, my division wasn't one to be known. Still, things found left over I remember something about 'No, John, we can't just keep it." He rolled his eyes as if he were to still ahve argument withthe ghosts of the ment hat siad as such. "Well for what it's worth we have this copy and if she's smart about it she wo't mention this to anyone until its unveiling sono one knows there is anything to steal. BUt that's jsut me. I'm a con artist, what do I know."
Halgrim laughs and nods, folding his arms. "Yes, there was quite a bit of that going on." He's not upset about it; who can be, since in John's case it was probably things only he would be suited to take anyways. Certainly Halgrim wouldn't have wanted artifacts of that nature crossing his desk.
Regarding the scroll, he says, "I was figuring to simply drop the scroll in place. The university won't know it's a copy, only you and I will, and until the display is set up for the start of the semester no one should be the wiser. They don't tend to take them out any more often than necessary." He takes a bite of his soup, nods and makes a 'not bad' face, has a little more. "At that point, we'll see if our thief is interested enough to grab the second one."
Constantine slouches back in his chair and fingally thinks, fuck it I'll eat he bloody soup. And down the hatch it went. "Christ I hope nothing was living in that." Sigh. THe joys of dining below. "Ya know they keep doing this I'm gonna have t'charge em. I only have so many antiques I don't need I can part with out of the goodness of worrying about this bird's job." Finally he had to ask, "Is your interest with her purely academic?"
"Well I'm hopeful he'll be satisfied with his prize and think nothing of a replica showing up in its place. I can't imagine why he'd care, he has the real thing already. Surely he's moved on to other items." Halgrim stirs at his soup, squints at something in it, decides it's best not to ask and has another sip. He nods again. "Really it's not that much different than king bolete."
He arches his brows at Constantine, amused. "Yes, Renata's a friend and a colleague. And that's all." Dryly, he adds, "It's not a good idea for me to get involved with anyone anyways, consaidering." He taps the amulet where it hands beneath his shirt. "Who knows what could happen. So. Even if I *was* interested in her, and she wasn't twenty years married, it wouldn't be aviseable."
Constantine followed up with the curious question, "Is my interest in her purely academic?" He hasn't changed at all. Not one iota, but he was asking at least. Still he accepted the answer squinting an eye, "Still, it's for the best as you say. Then they can't get hurt… or sacrice you to an eldrich daemon really mucking up yoru weekend plans. Smart of you. Considerate even."
Around a bite of soup, Halgrim says, "Well, you never know—she and her husband might not be opposed to such things," the picture of innocence. "She's about fifty, a smaller woman, Danish and Jewish, fled the war…" He raises his eyebrows at Constantine. "That sound like your sort? Bendt, that's her husband, he's reasonably handsome himself, an engineer of some sort. Red hair like a fox going white."
He leaves that for Constantine to consider, and steers back to the other topic. "Precisely, and if I'm being honest, the thief didn't erase Renata's memory of *me* here, just himself, so if the suspicion falls anywhere…" He spreads his hands. "Considering my past is already checkered I can't afford anything more—certainly, nothing at this scale." He snorts a laugh. "I'll be honest, I wouldn't even care except for how it could implicate myself or Renata. Babylon's not even my area of research."
Constantine arches an eyebrow and made that expression that could pass as Al Paccino impressed, "Well consider me professionally curious now. Still. regardless of their reasons you'd think this bloke would have some respect for academia. These kids don't know anything. How are they supposed to grow up less stupid than their parents if we're not teaching them anything?"
Halgrim mmms as he works on the last of his soup. "An argument can be made that we can teach people without stealing from another culture's heritage." He glances up between bites. "Certainly if someone showed up in Sweden and began loading the runestones and longboat remains into trucks to cart them off to another country the military would have something to say about it, to say nothing of myself." He finishes the last bits, careful not to examine them too closely. "That said, there's no call to ruin someone's career over it, or resort to mental coersion, or whatever he was doing, when simple theft will do just fine."