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 Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2016 11:11 am
In the aftermath of meeting Sunny - in not being able to bring her in because she had just bloody disappeared - Jeremiah was at a loss. It was a lot to process, a lot to think about ... A lot that reshaped how he was looking at things. How he clearly had no grasp whatsoever on the situation. That the detective was clearly into something that he had no goddamn clue about. If he was spooked, however, it did not show. Not even as he went back to his car from the beach (and oddly enough having taken one of the calla lilies but he could not say why he did). The only other thought in his mind was the fact that Sunny had mentioned Algie. That she had returned the book and - - his cell rang. It was Algie. "'lo?"
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Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2016 12:06 pm
"Jer'miah?" It sounded like there was something in his mouth, "I'm not bothering you am I?" Algie had sat in his apartment staring at the book, flipping through the book, and eventually reading the book in an attempt to wrap his mind around what had happened between himself and Sunny. Besides the fact she'd <******** disappeared in front of his eyes. With his emergency cigarettes gone he was smoking his pipe and after not being able to make heads or tails of anything, called Jeremiah. "Would you mind coming by? As in.. now?"
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Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2016 12:21 pm
Jeremiah's lips twitched at the way his name sounded but Algie clearly had something in his mouth. Probably his pipe. The phone was held between his shoulder and his ear while he was starting up his car. It was not a usual call. Algie didn't just say come over now. "Yeah, I'll be right there." The car started, he found himself leaning forward a bit to see if there were rain clouds. Jeremiah was going to become obsessed. "I'll see you in a few minutes, Alg." He hung up with a click and put the car into drive. Sunny had mentioned dropping off the book which meant that Algie probably saw her ... ********, he hoped the man didn't make some kind of promise with her as well. They both did not need to be wrapped up in some kind of <********> this was. Algie was just as likely to chase someone for answers as he was. Minutes later, as he said, he was parking his car in one of the unused employee parking spots along the backside of the building. He still could not make heads or tails of his thoughts, instead heading to the side door to Bibliophile. The door was pulled open, knowing Algie likely left it open for him. "I'm here, Algie," he called out but instead of heading up the stairs to the man's apartment, he was heading to the store itself. Specifically to the counter. Jeremiah was so going to raid that damn stash of cigarettes because he needed one. He never smoked unless he was rattled or stressed out. Right now he was both.
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Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2016 1:03 pm
"Upstairs." Alg's voice echoed down the hall. His emergency cigarettes were gone, the whole pack, vanished without a trace. The stairs up to the apartment had the sweet smell of pipe tobacco that grew in concentration all the way up to and through the small kitchen with its meager remains of carrot cake in wrapping on the table and the kettle and tea set empty~ which meant he hadn't even made any in his distress (he also probably hadn't eaten dinner). Adjacent to the kitchen was sitting room, where golden light of a small lamp pooled in the doorway and the thick smoke seemed to originate. Algie was slumped back in a chair with his pipe clenched in his teeth and the book open in front of him. He hadn't even really changed since work, just discarding his blazer and unbuttoned his collar. His fingers smoothed over his forehead and temples while he leaned into the arm of his chair while he waited. Algie continued to search for answers in the book though further reading at least gave him some ideas about how to proceed.
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Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2016 5:31 pm
Jeremiah searched an extra minute, coming up empty. His fingers twitched, then his left eye, and he purposely pulled in a breath in through his nose and out his mouth. The stash being gone was not good.
He turned on his foot, retracing his steps and heading up the stairs to Algie's apartment. At the first hint of pipe smoke his shoulders tensed. When he saw the tea set and the empty kettle his right eye twitched. Filling up the kettle with water, he put it on so that they could have tea. A moment later he was fishing in the cabinets for that special bottle of scotch that he knew the other man had tucked away (separate from the other alcohol in the house because it was harder to come by in the U.S. and higher alcohol content).
It was set down on the tray while the water was heating up and he finally, finally stepped into the sitting room. He took a deep breath, trying to partake of second hand smoke and see if that helped (it did not). Jeremiah himself was still in his work attire, fingers going to his tie and loosening it.
"You didn't happen to move your stash of cigarettes somewhere else, did you?" he asked, pulling and sliding his tie off and putting it on the back of the other chair in the sitting room. Algie was probably going to be mad he even knew about it but then again Jeremiah asking about it meant he wanted one and that was never a good sign. His eyes focused on the other man while he was unbuttoning and rolling up the sleeves of his shirt. The book. Algie had the book. Just like Sunny had said.
And he was missing a pack of cigarettes.
The witch on the beach'll tell your fortune for a pack of smokes and a favor. Sunny's words echoed in his head and he really just hoped that she had just dropped off the damn book.
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Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2016 6:15 pm
Algie eyed the booze, not quite expecting that Jeremiah would look even more frazzled than himself, "No.. they're gone," his response was slow, before he huffed with fake offense around his pipe, "but, you know, ******** you those were a secret stash." He took the pipe from his mouth and set it down, eyes narrowing and mouth quirking curiously, "Are you alright?"
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Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2016 6:26 pm
Jeremiah managed a two-fingered salute once his sleeves were rolled up and he was hunting down shot glasses from the nearby cabinet. "You've been smoking off and on since you were fourteen. There's nothing secret about it, Alg." Not to Jeremiah anyway.
He huffed when he found a pair of snowflake etched shot glasses in the cabinet, pulling them out and pouring himself a shot. The detective did not quite know how to answer the question and swallowed the shot of scotch down before he even thought about answering. His eyes, more a dark blue at the moment than green, flicked from Algie's pipe to the book in his lap and then finally up to the other man's face.
"Is that the book I think it is, Alg?" he asked instead. It was not a blatant avoidance, not from Jeremiah, and he would get to Algie's answer eventually.
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Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2016 6:51 pm
"The book that Heliodora bought in my shop." He said definitely, "Returned by a strange woman named Sunny." He stood up from his chair and moved to a shelf, having to go up on tiptoes since he was in his socks, reaching to the back to fish out another pack of cigarettes. They were tossed to Jeremiah with a amirk and two finger salute of his own before he sat heavily back into his chair. Algie remembered how she'd said it. He'd found it so very odd, " Short for Ascencion." The heavier man leaned forward onto his elbows and watched shots being poured. He apparently wasn't arguing the sentiment to drink. "She was very odd and then--" he waved a hand to indicate her disappearance into the ether.
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Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2016 7:30 pm
Watching Algie raise up on his toes and reach for the book had Jeremiah refilling his shot glass and swallowing it quick enough his eyes burned. He just barely managed to catch the pack when it was thrown at him.
He snorted instead of responding. The pack was set down and another shot poured, this one was for Algie. Ascencion was her full name. It was fitting.
The shot glass was held out with a hand, his fingers just below the rim of the glass. An exchange for a lighter. "You made a deal with her." It was not a question because if Algie's downstairs stash was missing, then ... His voice had the barest edges of being tired on it. More like he was resolved suddenly that the other man was possibly involved.
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Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2016 7:43 pm
"So you met her." He wouldn't have asked about a deal if he hadn't. <******** bizarre. Jeremiah certainly hadn't been wrong about this town being some kind of inspiration. It was certainly rife with weird s**t. He pushed a box of wooden matches over. Lighter? HA! "She said the kids were in other ashdown whatever that means." Algie lifted the book and pulled out another from underneath. This was his personal notebook, one of many. He'd kept one since his first year of college and was mostly filled with novel ideas. It was open to a page where he'd written down everything he could remember from his conversation with Sunny. As far as he was concerned she spoke in riddles, but it was all they had at this point. The writer pushed the book to Jeremiah to look over and it was written out much like a script. He then took a shot.
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Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2016 8:01 pm
Jeremiah rolled his eyes at the matches but took them all the same with a short nod of his head. Yes, he had meet her. He went back for the pack, tapping it against his palm a moment before he was opening it up and pulling one out. It was brought to his lips and lit, the silver-haired man taking a long drag and letting his eyes slide shut.
The smoke was blown out. He had to shake his head to clear the memory of dried blood, of the arid smell of what Sunny smoked smelled like.
With the notebook in hand, he was reading over what Algie had written down and pacing. By the time he was nearly finished, the cigarette was nearly gone and he was holding the book back out to be taken. Jeremiah was using the cigarette to light another; it was a chain smoking evening.
"Other Ashd -" The kettle he had turned on whistled finally and Jeremiah frowned. Not jumping as usual and simply scowling as he went to turn it off. A tray of tea was brought back out of habit and set down because Jeremiah was comfortable with actions and doing things and it was comforting like the guilty pleasure of smoking a cigarette.
"Alg ..." he started again, free hand raking through his hair and then rubbing along his jaw. "Did you see anything? When she was here. Out of place things." A question with partial sentences. Very unlike Jeremiah but he was still trying to work out how to explain what he had seen. "Besides her just disappearing."
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Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2016 7:15 am
Algie hadn't seen Jeremiah smoke in years and even then they'd had cigars too bit for their young heads and were several pints in before they even lit up. He was strangely fascinated by it, watching the man pace as he read the notebook. "Ah-" He went about fixing his tea up, not nearly so worked up as his friend, "Out of place? Besides.. her entirety? Besides shaking with her like I was making a deal with the devil??" A head shake, "No. Why?"
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Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2016 8:30 am
Jeremiah would likely have tea but it would take a bit. He had to unwind his mind, to settle, to not have seen the tide as if it was pooled blood. "You may have." He paused, took a drag and let out another breath of smoke. " I may have. I didn't even let go of her hand, I wanted to bring her in, but she just disappeared into the darkness." Jeremiah was watching Algie fixing his tea. The same way he had since their youth. Another small comfort, another normal thing. It helped that the other man had only seen Sunny, not some other thing like he had. "She ..." Jeremiah was pacing again, only pausing to swipe up the pack of cigarettes so that he could have another. "She showed me, I think, other Ashdown."
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Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2016 9:39 am
"What?" Algie smeared a hand across his face before leaning on his elbow and propping his head up, "I don't know what that means.. what is other ashdown?" She'd said it was a cage (but Jeremiah would have read all that), she'd seemed very guilty about all of it, upset even, but what did it mean? "What did you agree to?" Algie frowned, concerned.
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Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2016 10:12 am
Jeremiah let out a half-laugh, lips twitching upwards into an ornery show of a smile. The promise was an easier answer. "I promised her that no matter what I saw, what I found out, what she said ... I would bring them home." He paused, raking a hand through his hair and messing it up. Strands of silver-white fell into his face and the heavy breath of smoke he let out did not move them off of his forehead. "As for other Ashdown ..." Another breath. "It's here." Other Ashdown had to be here. It was the only thing that made sense in his mind. "You've heard the rumors haven't you, Alg? 'If you walk the town enough you'll step into another place, a place where it's always raining.'" Another drag of the cigarette, another few steps before he was stopping in front of Algie's chair. "I should write down what I remember her saying," he said suddenly, "what I saw before it gets away from me. I didn't make notes as I usually do."
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