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The weather was getting colder and the heat in the garage was… honestly not great. To call it 'lacking' was being a bit gentle but what could one expect from a space never meant to be residential with brick walls in the shittiest part of New York City? Not heat. Great gumbo, but not heat.
JP was trundled up enduring autumn in sweatpants and a sweatshirt that had a smiley face with three eyes on it. It'll go great with his 'Mutant What of It' t-shirt. The radio was on playing Johnny Cash and JP, while no Frank Sinatra, hummed along well enough while workin away at his workbench in the upstairs loft of the Garage.
Elmo jogs upstairs, dewy from the wet mist hanging around outside, a greasy paper bag in hand. His hair is all frizz. Slithering out of his long, brilliant blue coat and stowing the bag in the kitchen, he then goes to JP, sliding an arm around his shoulders. His shirt is chilly. "Hi there. Brought rugelach."
JP arched an eyebrow and looooked slowly, arm around him, now very very intreagued by the food. "you brought me a veggitable?" He looked confused, "Why it smell more like a soup?" Not arugula, it's… oh nevermind JP. Brown eyes looked Elmo down to up curious, "You in one piece. Doug finally leavin you alone?"
"It's pastry," Elmo says, amused as always by JP's interesting takes on words. "Yeah," he sighs, about Doug. "We even talked, kinda." He leaves to fetch the bag, brings it over and offers JP one. Dense little pastries, full of chocolate and nuts. "Mostly about how he wants to take over the world, but, yannow."
JP picked up a paper towel to clean his hands off with turning and holding another paper towel out. Hey his fingers were grimey and though he'ddo many questionable things in a foundry he didn't want silt in his food. He listened to the take on what Doug was up to, brow furrowed and pastry bitten into. MmmMMmm Eyebrows went up and he declared, "'oo 'poil uff, E'mo." He wasn't going to try to say 'Sparkplug' with a mouth full of pastry. He liked his workbench tidy, thanks. "Sooo this takin over the world thing demand a Mutant sacrifice or you off the hook with em now?"
Elmo perches on the arm of the couch, one boot dangling. Biting into his own rugelach, he grunts. "This buddy a his sorta invited me to join in with 'em. I said I'd think about it." Where 'think about it' clearly means 'not on your life'. "Likes the way I scrap, he said."
JP snickered, "Hell Ilike the way you scrap. Wait he got a gang now? Who said this? Jeb? Some crazy smart people cult? Underground fight club where they use books as weapons and stab people with big words or somethin?" He grinned a faint bit not forgetting the damage Doug tried to bring int their lock. He followed uprepeating the question so it wasn't lost, "Are you ok?"
Elmo smirks back at JP, more than a little proud of that compliment. "Gang of two. Nah, this kid named Kev. Poor bastard was kept in some kind of mutant high-security prison. Don't blame him for taking Doug serious, to be honest." He shifts, picking at the pastry, and shrugs. "Yeah," he says, diffidently. "I'm okay. I ain't scared a Doug." Lying. Doug terrifies him. But he is not about to admit it.
|ROLL| JP +rolls 1d20 for: 9
JP arched his eyebrow blinking twice, "Mon dieu! Yaaaa know? We may wanna tell Ms. Lorna that? Maybe… Maybe she got some idea on… that…" He had many a thought that chewed on that one. His face chewed on teh pastry in teh meantime. "Uhhh Elmo? Seriously? Can we maybe just work on not… dyin an goin back to any prison things?" Please?
Elmo finishes the pastry and nods, kicking his heel lightly against the couch. "Yeah. Thought about that. It's her kinda thing. We'll hafta get them together." He swipes back some of his damp, frizzing hair and smiles wryly at JP. "I ain't going anywhere. Not prison, not Mt. Zion," the famous Jewish cemetary. "I'm stayin' right here. How's your head?"
JP squint a look enjoying the food, "Get him on the right path at least. Doug…eeeh cat's a lil intense." Ya know cause while JP was all anarchy rah rah? Well he wanted a neighbourhood left to enjoy. "The idea is t'make the neighbourhood better, not flatter, ya know?" He took another bite and shrugged non-committally. "I dunno. Is okay. Still wakin up though." The flashes he couldn't control haunting him when he slept. As Elmo bore witness that it's even a thing? Well no sense hiding that. "I didn't smack it on nothin. How's yours after that asshole grounded you out?" Yuuuup. Still bent out of shape at that one.
"'Intense', sure." Elmo's mouth tugs to one side. In hindsight, he probably should have figured that JP and Ambrose would get on like matches and gasoline. "Didn't even give me a hangover." He pulls something out of a pocket to fidget with, a smooth bit of metal, flipping it over and over in his fingers. This he focuses on. "So what'd the doctor say?"
|ROLL| JP +rolls 1d20 for: 15
JP blinked confused, "Doctor?" He sshrugged "Eh Vitale say we got room possibly t'move some old crap we don' got no buyer for t'him. Opens options." He paused and wobbled his head back and forthtaking a deep breath, "Eh, said can maybe help. Be harder t'tell if somethin goin on but, ya know, given my like… family history an' stuff? Likely find somethin so, ya know, he' take a look." There was a pause and JP looked curious, not even upset, "How you hear about that?"
Elmo glances up to gauge JP's mood, eyebrows tilted. "When Amelie called. Was because she wanted to see if you were okay. Mozelle wants to know, too. They're worried, Jeanushka." He's worried, too, but he doesn't say it. For one, he's always worried. For another, his expression tells all.
JP took a deep breath and tilted his head back. Aaaaaah. "Riiiight. My headaches? Eeeh not great. They jes there. The doctor?" the Cajun shook his head looking for the words. Why would JP need a doctor if they had Vitale?! "Ain' for me." Oh yeah that'd be why. Fingers pushed through that thick, dark hair and he ventured, "Back home? They start t'get a lil crazy with like… usin doctors t'try to fix us. There this guy up here though thinks he can help. Had t'trade for the info but-" He paused and shhook his hand to stave Elmo from shorting out right then and there, "No t' fix anyone, t'help us out. Mozelle worried somethin start t'happen t'Amelie that ti gonna get ugly quick an my family do somethin…cause we would an' we will, and her family cause… like… wouldn' be the first time the south tried t'lynch anythin differen." Sure he'd speak that ugly truth because it needed to be said without cover up. "We worried abotu her bein a'ight sooo I've been workin on this idea las' four five weeks. been tryin t'put some things into place."
Elmo turns that over while he turns the smooth metal over, rubbing it in calloused fingers. "Oy vey," he mutters, halfway through JP's explanation. "Buncha mishegoss." He tucks his hair behind his ear. "You can ask us for help," he ventures, not sure how that's going to be received. "You can ask me. She's my family too."
JP bit his lower lip thoughtfully with a slow nod, "yeah… she is." He relented that. His partner, his team… crazy uncles all of them. His hand came up to rub the back of his neck. Clint was right, he had a wondrous way of complicating a situation sometimes. He wasn't willing to risk messing things up for his kid again though. Not for anyhting and not for nothing. he glanced up with the faintedt hint of… it wasn't guilt. He knew as little of guilt as any other feral creature. Maybe a pinch of regret? he kept only a couple of those.
"This doctor guy run a private school f'mutants. I dunno if… she is one but he seem t'think the odds were good anya know with my family? didn' want to risk no things. So the idea was maybe we see about her goin t'school up here. her grandfather think it some fancy school and maybe i get to see her a bit. Jes be real hard on mozelle ya know. I mean…" His jaw tightened and his head wobbled It was a punch to the feels but he admitted, "Jes cause we ain' ever get back t'gether an I love my daughter don' mean I wanna hurt Mozelle an take her kid from her ya know? it's… complicated but she …she seems alright with this cause it'd keep Amelie safe." He took a sharp, deep breath wiping one eye with a shrug. "I'm scared f'her. Las mutant in Brooklyn, Sparkplug…" he gave that look to Elmo like 'ain't forgotten that either,. He didn't want it to be his kid or any kid. He had the fear of all parents on him. This was his circus.
Elmo's eyebrows go up. "So that's the fancy school she was talkin' about!" He's so relieved. "Oh, man, that's great news." But he sees JP's upset, and winces in sympathy. Sliding off the couch to stand up, he leans towards him, studying his handsome face. "Hey, hey. You ain't doing it to take her away from Mozelle. You never would. I know that. Bet Mozelle knows it too. It's the best for Amelie. Get her away from your families feudin'," there's a Southern word he learned from Jay, "make sure she's got help when she manifests. Eh, I know we don't know if she's mutant for sure, but I feel it in my gut. This's the right thing to do for her."
His expression hardens, reminded of that brutal future. "We're not gonna let that happen. We're not gonna let it happen to no normie little girls, neither." Because that's on his mind, since his talk with Doug and Kev. "We're not, okay? We're NOT."
JP arched one eyebrow listening and slowly just accepting hte answer. he wanted to be hands off and matter-of-fact about it but he cared. Entirely. Completely. His friend and first love called him afraid for their child and he had no insulation for this other than o dig low and prepare to fight… things he couldn't win against head on. losing and backing down weren't options so there was this and it might… work. "Yeah, no we ain't. Sizes. They can talk, right?' Looking up to Elmo he looked over to teh phone he stole from the heist to give them the line upstairs and back, "She can call her. We got some money now. Get her visitation. First we talk t'that doctor guy." Professor. Whatever. He was helping and that's what mattered. "Wish I could be there. He's goin down and comin back an' then I meet withteh guy an like… he lemme know." he considered, "Should send em t'mama's place. pascal prlly tr t'rob em though. yeaaah that'd go bad." That made him grin all teh same though. His little brother was such a fancy little hoodlum.