[log] a stranger's just a friend you probably won't like

[errantknights]

[00:10] Martel: "I thought you'd say that." As he told Hasi.
[00:11] Jekyll: "Am I so predictable?" ....yes. Grow an ego.
[00:11] Bruce: "Ah, it's all right, I don't... remember the number..." this is a lie, but he doesn't really like people having his in-Gotham numbers. (If you're surprised he's paranoid you haven't been paying attention.)
[00:11] Martel: "No, I'm just an excellent judge of character." He's also watching Bruce, mildly curious.
[00:12] Jekyll blinks at that a little, but he's had the same number since like 1998, so. "I suppose I can't fault you for that."
[00:12] Jekyll: To ...Martel. ALthough it could also apply to Bruce.
[00:15] Bruce goes to look inthe side room he was in earlier.
[00:16] Martel: "I had excellent training." He pauses. "You are sort of predictable, though."

[23:10] Jekyll is heeeere, clad in his usual t-shirt and denim fare. Today's t-shirt is a caffeine molecule; very stylish. ALSO it's Friday night in Boston, time is pointless. AND FURTHERMORE ....Jekyll has a beer. Marvel.
[23:14] Martel rejects time. ...no, really, he doesn't age. However: he's been getting his hands dirty with work, after his time away, and lurking in Stigmata after Ewar has ferreted him out of all of his hiding places to overwork himself is a habit he will never break. He's dressed sort of plainly - shirt, trousers, boots to the knee - but it's nothing that could be mistaken for modern. "Good evening."
[23:16] Jekyll looks horrified - really actualfax horrified for a second, but then it becomes ...less so. "Is it evening?" He's ...been having some missing time. "I mean --it's probably just evening where you are, isn't it?"
[23:20] Martel: "...most likely, yes," Martel agrees, trying to look marginally less entertained by this reaction than he actually is. (Look, it's good-natured, what more do you want from him.) "I'm not actually sure, of course. I assume it's evening."
[23:22] Jekyll waves a hand, forcibly dismissive. LET US TALK OF OTHER THINGS. "It's general disorientation, what with time not existing here in any kind of linear sense. It's probably evening somewhere, I just hope it isn't in Boston." Or he's missing an /entire day/ and that is. Bad.
[23:25] Martel: "Well," Martel says, reflectively, "let's say it's evening /here/ and I'll open this bottle of wine without a hint of guilt." ...he would drink at 6AM if he felt like it.
[23:27] Jekyll ....eyes that, and his beer, which is mostly finished. "I understand guilt as a factor is mitigated if you're not drinking alone."
[23:30] Martel: "Excellent. Join me." It's - not a command, but it is a bit presumptuous, remnants of a nobleman's entitlement complex! Glorious. Martel and his wine have claimed this table.
[23:34] Jekyll kind of inserted himself there, although TECHNICALLY he could have just finished his beer -- it doesn't matter. They're drinking together and it is a great image. "Thank you." He sits! And looks tired. "It's been ingrained in my psyche that wine is a social drink."
[23:35] Martel: "It's a homesick drink," Martel admits, but regardless he'll pour Jekyll a glass as well, if he likes. (It's red wine, and good red wine, too.)
[23:37] Jekyll likes red best, although lately the color puts him off. "I'm sorry to hear that. You -- can't go home?" He has heard of people bein' trapped here, but he also remembers ..you know, discussion of sorcery. And the consequences there of.
[23:37] Jekyll: PS yes, he would like, his typist is just blind.
[23:39] Martel: "Exiled," he explains, casual and...very much not, simultaneously. Wine for them both! "I enjoy drinking red wine and complaining it's not as good as Arcian."
[23:41] Jekyll laughs, quiet. He is ordinarily the kind of person who smiles instead, and there IS a difference. "Like 'when in Rome' but in reverse?" The exile remark passes with a nod, becase he recognizes that tone and knows HE wouldn't be discussing it.
[23:42] Martel: "Mmm." Martel pauses, glass in hand, and then says innocently, "I don't actually know a damn thing about wine." ...soldiers and mercenaries do not really have the luxury of a fussy and refined palate. In general.
[23:44] Jekyll: "I know there's a white I like which is possibly Australian, and that ends my catalog of expertise." Dear Henry: your girlfriend actually knows this stuff, so ....you'll learn.
[23:45] Martel: "I don't recognize 'Australian'?" ...Martel's education about Earth has been primarily focused on the states (midwest and southern), and Europe. He may have heard of Australia, in passing. Possibly.
[23:47] Jekyll: "Ah--Australia, it's a country. In the southern hemisphere?" He stops to see if this is registering at all, and this is why he should never take a classroom position.
[23:48] Martel: "I'll take a look at an atlas," he says, wryly. "I'm sure I'll get the hang of it eventually." ...really, he's doing pretty well already.
[23:49] Jekyll: "Australis is actually the Latin word for southern, so that makes it easy to remember, if you like." Useless trivia: from the mind of an authentic genius.
[23:51] Martel: "Clever." Martel enjoys useless trivia, especially when he may or may not be able to use it later for basically the same purpose. "We probably have a map of the place, already; my swordmaster has a minor cartography obsession that the nexus enables freely."
[23:54] Jekyll: "A /cartography/ obsession." Jekyll appears to think that is like, kind of dumb, but he is the kind of person on whom this manifests as politely incredulous. "For any particular reason?" Dear sir: you don't have hobbies, you cannot mock other people's.
[23:57] Bruce, due to various peer pressure and timing, has forgotten his phone. So he's back.
[23:58] Martel: "We keep maps in the first place for tactical reasons - military," he clarifies. "Ewar's just rather more interested in them in general than I am. -hello." That last part was for Bruce.
[00:00] Bruce had honestly expected the same two kids. He's not startled, though his eyebrows do go up a bit. "Hi."
[00:00] Jekyll is ...pretty sure he has met Bruce, but he is not sure. (Hyde has definitely, so he may be having some mixup there.) "Ah, you'll lose me there immediately, I'm afraid. Academia being somewhat antithetical and all." He does that awesome male sup nod at Bruce.
[00:01] Bruce does not frysquint at Jekyll, because he doesn't /do that/ but he does give him a mild sort of half-familiar, half-curious look.
[00:02] Martel: "I wouldn't call it antithetical, but - cultural differences." Martel has learned to put a /lot/ down to those over this past year. ...he recognizes Bruce, sort of, but they've never actually /met/ or /spoken/, so.
[00:03] Jekyll: "It depends on your political stance, I suppose. We tend to - as Americans - end up on the opposite sides of the picket line, so to speak,"
[00:04] Bruce is ... lost, as far as conversation goes, but it's at least not human chihuahua hybrid monsters, so he may lurk a bit as he looks around for his phone.
[00:05] Jekyll: "I'm sorry, have we met?" to Bruce, because HE IS NOT SURE.
[00:05] Bruce: "Uh.." it's probably not under the bar, guy. "I'm not sure, either. Are you Hasibe's ... friend?"
[00:07] Jekyll: Oh my god look at his face, he's ridiculous. "I--yes? I'm Henry Jekyll." Maybe it's in a booth, Bruce. "...are you looking for something?"
[00:07] Bruce: "Picture guy." .. What? "Yeah, my phone."
[00:08] Martel: "I hadn't noticed you knew her," Martel comments absently, to Henry, "until I saw that picture she has." Yes. ...he'll get back to academia and war sooner or later, they're his favourite topics. (Not really. Sort of.) "You might check if it's mixed in with those pinpoints."
[00:08] Martel: ...Bruce's phone.
[00:10] Bruce raises his eyebrows and nods, and goes and looks.
[00:10] Jekyll sighs, long-suffering, and clearly still ridiculous. "That was taken under extreme duress." Lies. He loev Hasi :3. ANYWAY. "Would you like someone to call it?" That is the fastest way to find a phone, hands down.
[00:10] Martel: "I thought you'd say that." As he told Hasi.
[00:11] Jekyll: "Am I so predictable?" ....yes. Grow an ego.
[00:11] Bruce: "Ah, it's all right, I don't... remember the number..." this is a lie, but he doesn't really like people having his in-Gotham numbers. (If you're surprised he's paranoid you haven't been paying attention.)
[00:11] Martel: "No, I'm just an excellent judge of character." He's also watching Bruce, mildly curious.
[00:12] Jekyll blinks at that a little, but he's had the same number since like 1998, so. "I suppose I can't fault you for that."
[00:12] Jekyll: To ...Martel. ALthough it could also apply to Bruce.
[00:15] Bruce goes to look inthe side room he was in earlier.
[00:16] Martel: "I had excellent training." He pauses. "You are sort of predictable, though."
[00:18] Jekyll /laughs/, both geniunely and ...with some distress, although that's probably harder to hear. You should see his alter ego, Martel. "I work at it." WHAT NOW - I don't know.
[00:18] Jekyll: "It makes a routine much easier to establish." PRetend that was always up there.
[00:19] Bruce returns. WITH HIS PHONE. Victory.
[00:20] Martel: "I like unpredictability in myself, but not so much my students. That many young men running around with weapons would be so much more of a headache without sufficient routine." ...:] hey, what was that about war and academia.
[00:20] Bruce ... does not laugh. But for a moment it looks like he might.
[00:24] Jekyll is totally happy for Bruce. Or he would be if he ever actually experienced happiness instead of kind of being blandly contented by stuff. "Do you have hilarious marching chants for your students? That's an American military staple."
[00:25] Martel: "They have a few of their own," he concedes, chuckling. "I model most of my teaching after the way I was trained and tutored in the knighthood, but the focus isn't quite the same."
[00:28] Jekyll drinks his wine which he has been CONSISTENTLY DOING this typist remembers props. "Eventually we'll have a discussion where I'm not insantly reduced to ...'my god what a fascinating life,' but that day is not today."
[00:28] Jekyll: instantly, either
[00:29] Bruce: "What do you do?" to Henry. Apparently he is going to converse! He'll sit down, too, after finding a water bottle.
[00:30] Martel laaaughs into his glass.
[00:30] Bruce: "..Have I missed that half of the exchange?" >_>
[00:30] Martel: "No, no."
[00:31] Martel was merely entertained by his own fascinating...ness, apparently. Don't mind him.
[00:31] Bruce is not sure what to make of you, Martel. This is because he lives about fifty miles into /denial/.
[00:32] Martel has been there; it's nice, he has souvenirs.
[00:32] Jekyll winces, he can't help it. "I am--an independent researcher, which is a fancy way of saying that I'm both excessively educated and unemployed." So that's awkward.
[00:33] Bruce: "Oh? In what field?" His tone is gentle, somehow, but laced with genuine interest, and apparent understanding.
[00:35] Jekyll: "The treatment and prevention of mental illness." There's probably a less like, formal way to put that, but he really never does. "Did I get your name?" He didn't >_>
[00:35] Bruce thinks, well, at least he seems less bonkers than Crane. "It's Tom."
[00:36] Jekyll is not a psychiatrist. "It's nice to meet you, if not somewhat after the fact."
[00:36] Bruce nods.
[00:37] Martel: "Martel," he offers, helpfully, since introductions are occurring.
[00:38] Bruce nods at him too.
[00:39] Jekyll: "Martel is a wine enthusiast," offers Jekyll in a RARE BURST OF TROLLERY.
[00:39] Bruce: "Are you?" eyebrows.
[00:41] Martel chuckles. "I'm a soldier and a scholar; which is foremost largely depends on my mood. However, I do like Yellowtail."
[00:41] Martel and Jekyll are making friends, aw.
[00:41] Jekyll /snorts/, and then it occurrs to him that they probably HAVE SOME in this bar that stocks everything.
[00:42] Jekyll searches >:3
[00:42] Bruce has 'learn about expensive wine' on a to-do list for his daytime look, as it were, but hasn't gotten around to it yet. "I'm not much of a drinker."
[00:42] Jekyll: "I'm unemployed and I can afford Yellowtail, if that gives you any indication." IT's GOOD THOUGH.
[00:43] Bruce: "Isn't it all free, here?"
[00:43] Jekyll: "Although I think it's ...a family of wines somehow? --yes, but tragically in Boston commerce marches on."
[00:45] Martel: "I get most of my alcohol from the nexus," Martel admits, "though mostly because I can't get anything Elenic in Arum and it comes in /remarkably/ useful when I don't have to pay for vast amounts of it to ply other people with."
[00:46] Bruce probably had a wine cellar that'd make present company weep, prior to the fire. Alas.
[00:47] Martel has a fairly remarkable one (and should stop keeping liquor cabinets in places like, say, his library or office); he could probably stand to drink a little /less/.
[00:48] Jekyll: "That's a much more relaxed attitude," says Henry, who is aware that he is a ridiculous ball of stress. "If I ever develop the ability to do that," ...relax, apparently, "it will be quite a day."
[00:49] Bruce: "I imagine there's worse to be done in and out of the Nexus than booze."
[00:49] Jekyll drinks very very casually and socially, incidentally. SOmeday he will be here with Hasi and she will outdrink him within an hour. And it'll be great because he outweighs her by like 40 lbs.
[00:49] Martel: "I'm overworked by choice," he says, wryly, "if I give a damn about /everything/ I'll go mad. Again." ...nothing is sacred when Martel feels like making a joke.
[00:51] Jekyll perks at that, involuntarily. It is his woooooooooooork. Blah blah. "Selective giving a damn, then? You could forgo ...say, interior decorating."
[00:51] Martel: "Langler cleans up after Brody's been at the walls painting ponies," he drawls, bland.
[00:52] Bruce: "...That kid." He sounds so very awed. Like. He's not sure what Brody /is/.
[00:52] Martel: "I /know/." That is all he feels needs to be said.
[00:53] Bruce: "He was.. in here earlier, asking me if I'd pet him if he switched heads with a chihuahua...:
[00:53] Bruce: "
[00:53] Martel refills Bruce's drink.
[00:53] Martel: Did Bruce even have a drink? He does now.
[00:53] Bruce: It's water. But thanks.
[00:53] Martel: Shhh.
[00:54] Jekyll FINDS A BOTTLE Of delicious white Yellow tail. "That's ...interesting. Perhaps it depends on the state you get him in."
[00:54] Jekyll: Since one time Jekyll actually had a conversation where Brody gave really good advice. Which he ignored.
[00:54] Bruce: "I'm going to remember that and aim him at you at the soonest convenience."
[00:54] Martel: "He and some friends kidnapped me, once." ...this is a story.
[00:54] Martel: An amazing story.
[00:55] Bruce raises his eyebrows a bit.
[00:55] Martel: "They needed a felonious monk for their scavenger hunt."
[00:55] Bruce thinks this is where Henry says something about fascination again. "I see."
[00:56] Jekyll: "They--what. That's a /terrible/ pun."
[00:56] Jekyll is distracted by jazz here, he'll be fascinated in a second.
[00:57] Martel: "Church knights are members of the Chyrellos clergy," he says. "Imagine: once upon a time, I was qualified to take confession." ...there are better examples, but Martel thinks that one is the funniest.
[00:57] Jekyll: "Thelonious Monk? Was a -- jazz musician. Never mind."
[00:58] Bruce blinks.
[00:59] Martel: "That's an unfortunate name," Martel says, straightfaced.
[00:59] Jekyll: Fine, now he's fascinated again. He wonders also if this is where the sorcery came in, but does not ask, becuase he is an excess of polite.
[01:00] Jekyll: "Your other choices are Wynton or Duke or Dizzy, it's a bit thematic." Jazz musicians and their names.
[01:02] Bruce likes The Beatles?
[01:02] Jekyll doesn't really know anything about music, his dad liked jazz. >__>
[01:04] Martel: "I'm sort of intrigued, now," he says - honestly, because Martel enjoys music and is easily persuaded to be interested in things, where 'persuasion' is mostly just 'he feels like it'.
[01:05] Jekyll: "Most Jazz greats," Jekyll says mostly uselessly, "were the biggest bunch of hedonists to exist collectively ...possibly ever."
[01:07] Martel: "Hedonism is remarkably overrated." ...yes. Like he'd /know/. (Well.)
[01:08] Jekyll is a fucking CHAMP and manages not to look hideously distraught there at all. "I'd agree in general terms, but all that excess made for some phenomenal music." He's kind of right, the music and the scene and its general hideousness are sort of entwined. "Look for Miles Davis, he's pretty accessible."
[01:09] Jekyll: Equivocate more, typist.
[01:11] Bruce: "Artists are ... uniquely suited, to more extreme lifestyles, I think."
[01:12] Martel: "Brilliance and madness, as they say - it's the intensity of a person. Interesting. Strange to be close to." Martel will actually look up jazz, and he'll probably really enjoy it. So.
[01:12] Martel is /really intense/ himself, also.
[01:12] Jekyll: "More than half of all poets are diagnosed with manic depression," he contributes thoughtfully.
[01:13] Martel: "I wrote poetry when I was a novice," Martel says, perfectly straightfaced. A pause. "And then I stopped, because it was /dreadful/."
[01:14] Jekyll: "A good choice." So no one around here is having an expression then, good.
[01:14] Martel: "I sang much better." This is true.
[01:15] Bruce: "I'm an accountant." ...
[01:15] Jekyll: "You are /excessively/ well rounded." --Martel.
[01:16] Martel: "I'm brilliant," he says, modestly, and then gives Bruce a skeptical look.
[01:16] Jekyll eyes Tom there. "That must be a nightmare."
[01:16] Jekyll: With financial ruin all around and everything.
[01:16] Bruce could practically have a halo over his head. "Yeah."
[01:19] Jekyll .... "I'm sorry to hear that." What ...is the thing to say here.
[01:19] Bruce shrugs like yeah, he knows.
[01:20] Martel: "I'm not certain I actually have one suitable job description. I ought to invent one." ...:>
[01:21] Jekyll: "Include the poetry and singing as well," supplies Jekyl, like a person who is in a REALLY good mood. (He is, he's all ...high on Hasibe. THIS WILL NOT LAST.)
[01:21] Martel: "I'm sure I can crowbar it in there somewhere."
[01:23] Jekyll: "Job descriptions are only necessary to put on resumes, anyway." He pokes his lower lip, becuase he is the third most orally fixated person in all of time. "Which means I'm going to have to write them again."
[01:24] Martel: "I have a niche," he says, thoughtfully. "I told Candice - my wife - 'eccentric sorcerer in the mountains'."
[01:24] Martel made it up for himself. He does that.
[01:25] Jekyll: "I have been considering 'mad scientist,' or 'lunatic.'" Jekyll you're ...so bitter about your job.
[01:25] Bruce ... has .. no room to talk, even falsely. So he says nothing.
[01:26] Martel refills Jekyll's glass, seemingly absently. "There is a charming young woman in the nexus who decided to call me a scientist. I owe her some of my research, actually, you've reminded me."
[01:27] Martel: "So we might have something in common, there."
[01:28] Jekyll: "I'd consider you one," he says after some thought. "The --terminology differs, and perhaps the tangibility of device, but I think the parallels are more, rather than less."
[01:29] Jekyll: Also he is really interested in what kind of woman Martel is married to. Seriously.
[01:29] Jekyll: But ..he's also pretty sure no one ever looks at Hasibe and goes 'I bet she is with an enormous dork,' so.
[01:30] Martel: "Elenes who'd consider themselves scientists are centuries behind you, in terms of ...everything," he says, wryly, "but most of them annoyed me and I'm sure it'd annoy /them/ to hear the comparison. Particularly considering how archaic they are, there - I'll take it."
[01:30] Martel has the meanest reasons for enjoying this, sorry world.
[01:31] Bruce is ... becoming more and more /aware/ of Martel, and it's vaguely unsettling.
[01:31] Jekyll: "I'd still be interested in comparing notes at some point, if you'd be amenable. Even if our notes are somewhat incomprehensible to each other."
[01:31] Martel: "Absolutely. Some of the things you might be interested I'll have to translate, but I've been working on that regardless - I'd be very interested."
[01:32] Jekyll: Note: Jekyll will have to parlay his notes into something that does not go FUCK MY EVIL PERSONA HAS KILLED AGAIN
[01:32] Jekyll: ...not that this would bother martel. In all likelyhood.
[01:32] Martel: Perhaps a timely 'tsk tsk'.
[01:33] Jekyll 's typist thinks that would mostly be because Hyde is /messy/ with his death, and Martel is a fussy nobleman. ANYWAY.
[01:33] Jekyll: "Then we should arrange a time. Give me a week or two to organize?"
[01:34] Martel likes his death messy, tragically ... let's not take that any further before it gets scary. Scarier. "Certainly. I'll have to put some time aside, as well - it's getting easier, but the school's very, very new." And he prefers not to have too much time alone in his head.
[01:35] Martel is also sort of wondering about Bruce.
[01:36] Bruce is sort of forcing himself to seem boring, which probably raises red flags to certain types of people. ... Woops.
[01:37] Martel does have to repress his natural instinct to start poking him with a stick, yes. ('Poking him with a stick' is a euphemism for something much crueller.)
[01:37] Bruce would probably just ... leave again, which is terribly counter productive.
[01:38] Jekyll is really, really comfortable with boring. This is why he needs Hyde, by the way.
[01:39] Jekyll: Or, well, why Hyde exists at all. Repress less, Jekyll :(
[01:41] Martel: "I'll have to show you the library," he adds.
[01:41] Martel cuts through the explosion of meta.
[01:43] Jekyll PERKS and no one was surprised. "Library?"
[01:44] Martel: "It was the first thing in the castle I started rebuilding," Martel says - with no small amount of pride, the library is his /baby/. "Doul, if you recall him, I met when I hired him to take care of it temporarily."
[01:45] Jekyll: "He was the one with the, ah--fleshcrafting." Jekyll thought that sounded really cool, because his scientific ethics are questionable. "Well. I'd love to see it, as long as you're prepared for me to vanish for hours."
[01:46] Martel: "You may not have noticed," Martel says, seriously, "but I have a minor tendency to show-off." ...in other words, go nuts, he'll just be excessively proud of having awesome shit.
[01:47] Jekyll: "I hadn't, actually, but now I'll consider myself prepared." He might be lying.
[01:48] Jekyll: AND his typist is dying, so Jekyll's phone rings RIGHT NOW. He excuses himself to take it. >_>
[01:48] Martel salutes him, chuckling, with his glass. Annnd that leaves him and Bruce, alone. Hm.
[01:49] Bruce is abandoned once more. Though he's not sure if Martel is better or worse.
[01:50] Martel: "I don't think we met properly the last time I saw you," Martel notes.
[01:51] Bruce: "Probably not." ... He only /vaguely/ recalls.
[01:54] Martel is regarding Bruce sort of thoughtfully - it's not staring, it's not ... challenging, but probably not entirely comfortable. The sort of look that implies, regardless of whether or not it's true, that the person doing the looking sees /through/ a great deal. "We've passed by introductions, I think, and I've already talked an awful lot about myself."
[01:56] Bruce: "I'm Tom," he says, which ... he said ealier, and he's not going to change his answer, /Martel/. He doesn't seem to notice the weight of that gaze, which is odd in itself, because he doesn't seem oblivious at all.
[01:58] Martel isn't questioning his /name/ ... yet. But he's mildly curious, and he doesn't need to be anywhere yet. "Tom the accountant, yes. And a friend of Hasibe's?" :>?
[01:58] Bruce: "I think so." ...Yes, Bruce, why are you so weird about people. (Don't answer that.)
[02:00] Martel: "The nexus, in its infinite variation, is sometimes remarkably like living in a village." Where you're never far from everybody else, and most of them are in your business whether you want them there or not.
[02:01] Bruce: "I've begun to notice that." What with the Gotham alts.
[02:02] Martel: "I won't complain if no one ever mistakes me for their father again."
[02:03] Bruce ... pauses. Visibly. "Yeah."
[02:08] Martel notes that. "There are worse things to be taken for, of course."
[02:09] Bruce: "...Mm." How expressive, sir.
[02:13] Martel: "It gets worse before it gets better." ...true of most things.
[02:14] Bruce shrugs.
[02:16] Martel is content to lapse mostly into silence over his drink, at least for now.
[02:25] Bruce glances at his phone and stands. "It was nice meeting you properly."
[02:25] Martel: "And you. Goodnight, then?"
[02:25] Bruce shrugs. "Duty calls. Even on Sunday, in this economy." Because he is an accountant, you see. Later.