the occasionally manipulated, never duplicated - Matt Jamison - Milliways

[mm_merky]

After things go pear-shaped with Tiwa ...

They go arguably even more pear-shaped. (Warning for sexual content of dubious consent in both links. Also: demons.)If you thought you'd seen Matt at the most miserable and exhausted he could get, you haven't seen him tonight. He's in the middle of the bar at a (relatively) brightly lit table, methodically

Comments

[leftistbeanpole]

Two hands plonk palm-down on the edge of the table.

Bluntly:

"You look worse. Have you seen a physician yet? Do I have to drag you?"

Jordie is NOT MESSING AROUND, friends.

[mm_merky]

Matt looks at him with a tired version of panic.

He hasn't found anything that's implied he hurt Jordie, or even tried to.

"... Can you summarize our last interaction?"

[leftistbeanpole]

His mouth presses into a line.

"We were upstairs. You promised me you were going to see a medical professional about your sleep problems. You told me you made an appointment. I was vaguely ominous about the kinds of really bad things that could be wrong with you. And now it looks like we can add short-term memory loss to the list of symptoms."

(He hasn't seen the sign.)

[tantric_slacker]

Matt frowns.

Okay. Well. If he'd made a move or anything, surely Jordie would tell him about it, probably in a manner that included mockery.

(Unless Matt had made him forget.

That possibility is highly unpleasant.)

"Well," he sighs ruefully, and rubs at his eyes, "the good news is, I found a highly plausible candidate on the really-bad-things-wrong-with-me front. I may have to cancel that appointment."

[porcupineliz]

"A demon?"

Liz looks distinctly alarmed, and very intent, as she comes to a halt by his table.

[tantric_slacker]

He frowns at her, anxious.

"You're ... Liz. Aren't you?"

[porcupineliz]

"Yeah. And you're Matt? We met in the library."

[tantric_slacker]

This is tricky.

His spells usually had to do with people, and the fragments he remembered that were related to them. He doesn't remember Liz all that well-- frankly, he's not sure his memory has improved; he's just reconstructed parts of it.

So, slowly, he says, "I didn't, um. Try to hurt you. Did I?"

He adds hurriedly, "I might have ... said I was tired, or said sorry, or made up an excuse."

[mm_shati]

Something sidles up behind him, very quietly.

"Gaaaaastly," it moans.

[tantric_slacker]

Matt jumps. "Jesus--"

And whirls on the creature. For a moment, at that first glimpse of smoke, he thinks he legitimately may have a heart attack.

Then he just blinks.

"Um."

[mm_shati]

It wasn't expecting this reaction.

"...Gaaaaaaaas?"

It tries flaring its smoke halo experimentally.

Maybe it will have to try a Mean Look.

[tantric_slacker]

For a brief, confused moment, Matt wonders whether he has unleashed an entire plague of demons on the bar instead of just the one.

He decides that's unlikely.

Cautiously, he says, "Hello?"

[nita_callahan]

Nita had a bad night herself last night. Although, you know, bad is a relative term here.

When she comes into the bar, though, she's already looking a little tense.

She scans the bar for familiar faces -- one in particular. The sign on the board hasn't registered yet.

[tantric_slacker]

At this particular moment, Matt is measuring out bay leaves to place into a small sachet. It's sort of a build-your-own-protective-talisman thing.

He reaches over and drains the last of his most recent coffee. He's going to want another one soon.

[nita_callahan]

--Bingo.

She moves through the bar quickly, but hesitates when she gets close to Matt, suddenly unsure of how to approach this.

[tantric_slacker]

And as it happens, Matt looks up towards the Bar to see if the crowd is too dense for him to just go up and grab another coffee, and catches sight of her.

He looks stunned for a moment, almost stricken.

But he didn't hurt her. He looked and looked.

"Nita, I need your help."

[deadmanbusiness]

Theo looks at the message on the board and then purses his lips thoughtfully.

Glancing about he spots Matt and walks over to him. It's hard to tell what he's thinking, his sunglasses are over his eyes helping to mask things.

"I've never known any demon to be nice," he says idly. "They may act nice, but it's always an act."

[tantric_slacker]

"Then you know the wrong ones," Matt says wearily.

"Anyway, I didn't say be nice. I said play nice. This one has already-- attacked people here. It broke the rules."

[deadmanbusiness]

"Point still stands." He tilts glances upstairs. "Did someone summon it and not have the proper bindings? Do you know what sort it is?"

[tantric_slacker]

"... In at least one sense, yes," Matt concurs.

"Some idiot kid summoned it and didn't have the proper bindings. As for the specific variety ... jury's out. But I can probably describe."