Welcome to Gaia! ::

Adam had been doing his best to keep Emmy in the loop of things he had been noticing.

She had been the one who brought him into this not actually a multilevel marketing campaign, their now equal rankings–and perhaps now unequal–or not. In some interesting way, they were friends. It came as a surprise that Emmy had not only been pregnant but opted to keep the child, but that didn't mean he should just ignore her, especially not as the current team lead in Faustite's absence.

Her parasite could not yet be doused in chaos. Fine. For now, he would make sure she still kept in the loop.

Asking for a meeting, a more business one, was not denied. He gave her a time to meet him at his house, and made sure that he slipped away from his office job in the appropriate time frame. On his phone he had gathered a list of updates from the team itself, figuring that she was interested in seeing some of them.

The other angle might've been how to maintain her subtle encouragement toward the Negaverse in her streaming. Was she still doing that, or was she shifting more fully into mother communities?

The knock caught his attention easily, and through his camera he called a, “Come in!” as he quickly unlocked the door through an app. For his part, he was casually sitting in the living room, a tea set out for both of them.

---

Emmy slipped inside, finding Adam on the couch and greeting him with a small nod. He might have been equal in rank to her now, and was technically taking on more responsibilities within the team. She would respect that, treat him as a peer even if it made her grind her back teeth together that she had not been asked to step up to anything in Faustite’s absence.

She would also remember that everything Adam had now as Borax, he owed to her.

“Have you seen these?” she asked as she sat down next to him on the couch, as usual deciding to skip the small talk when it came to Adam. That was one of the things she’d always respected about him. She could be direct.

She pulled out her phone and showed him a few clips she’d seen under the Destiny City hashtag, clips of burning dumpsters. Which, normally wouldn’t have been a problem, except it was becoming a pattern.

If something was becoming a pattern online, Emmy wanted to know what was causing it.

“I’m worried it’s someone in the Negaverse doing it,” she said, lips pursing a bit. “See, if you squint it looks like this is a picture of a dead green deer spray painted next to the dumpster?”

And while she had her own feelings about a certain green and antlered princess, she also had something that was known as class.

---

Adam didn't mind skipping the small talk. It was bullshit he had to deal with at his corporate job in this particular skin to keep everyone around him happy–and perhaps get a different CEO position again. It was a relief to be able to ignore the nonsense and be able to move on with the meat of the conversation.

In this case, that meat was a dumpster of whatever was burning within it. Emmy wanted to know what was happening there, and Adam couldn't help a stifled snort. It was understandable she didn't immediately make that connection. Waru was supposed to be showing more maturity with that parasite on the way, right?

… He probably shouldn't express it that way.

“Yeah, I know what those are from. You know that Faustite is MIA at the moment, right? The dumpster fires are an attempt to see if anyone who has seen him,” Adam snorted, “by describing him as a dumpster fire, I guess.”

It would've been an insult if it wasn't coming from one of his husbands. Maybe it still was. Adam didn't know the intricacies of their particular intimacies. Not his circus, not his monkeys, he chased his euphoria in other ways.

He leaned further back in his seat, partially sinking into the couch.

“Know you've seen Waru recently, what with,” he openly gestured at her belly. “Have you asked what he's been getting up to?”

The deer, in his opinion, would have given a bit more away if he wasn't already aware. Albite had a strange back and forth obsession with Cybele in particular. Borax was willing to ignore it in its entirety. “He's not getting out his stresses in the right way, at least.”

---

“Obviously I know that Faustite is missing,” she said, and while she didn’t quite hiss the words, her tongue was just behind her teeth when she said them. “I’m not to do fieldwork right now. It doesn’t mean I’ve suddenly gone stupid.”

She saw the way he glanced at her stomach, which wasn’t even showing yet.

She didn’t touch or acknowledge it herself. She knew there was a stigma against mothers in the workplace and against pregnancy in particular. There was a time when she would have wanted to avoid this kind of situation for that reason. Now she was just determined to rise above the stereotypes, to prove that she could do this in a way that other people might not have been able to.

Never mind that she’d thrown up twice this morning and she didn’t know where the pictures were from, and that judging from Borax’s face, maybe he did.

“Waru?” she asked. “I’m making him get a job.”

She looked at Adam’s smirk again. She looked back at her phone, at the terrible quality of the graffitied deer.

“Please tell me-“ she threw her head back onto the backrest of Adam’s couch, sighing and wishing more than anything for a bottle of wine.

“No.”

---

“Yes.”

There was something in Adam getting an amount of schadenfreude satisfaction with the concept of Emmy looking so annoyed immediately. He didn't know what conversations she and Waru had in the aftermath of her finding out she was pregnant, but he did know she wouldn't necessarily approve of the chaos that he was already causing. Considering that she came to him about his potential knowledge, he could tell already.

There was something beautiful about that.

Adam’s self-satisfied smile was undeniable. “Like I said, he isn't getting his stress out in the right way. And look, I offered!” He swirled the tea in his cup. “I offered his normal methodologies. He denied it and went off to set some more garbage bins on fire.”

He shrugged, gaze slipping back to what was in front of them. He had seen some of the pictures, some of the reports. Adam’s eyes had rolled, but what could he do? The situation was providing some amusement and relieved frustration to a populace that was apparently used to much worse. Keep them sated, for now.

“Didn't think you've gone stupid for what it's worth,” Adam's gaze slipped back to Emmy. “I just thought the reveal deserved a bit of an explanation behind it. Tea has lavender in it, meant to be calming. Sorry it's not wine.”

---

“Of course it is.”

Of course it was. Emmy exhaled once more, then sat up a bit straighter and sipped at the tea. She did not particularly want to be calm, but the sharp herbal flavor of the lavender at least helped her reset.

“It’s fine,” she added, gesturing to the cups. “The pregnancy announcement was my biggest video of the year.”

It didn’t mean she didn’t miss her collection of vintage reds, but it was worth it. She would work with this. She would make this work for her.

Now she just had to deal with Waru.

“I have no doubt that your methodologies could keep him contained for quite some time under normal circumstances,” she told Adam. “I can confirm. You are very distracting.” She let her gaze linger on his face, a hint of a smile playing at her lips.

And Waru was quite a bit easier to distract than she was.

“But he just told me that he was going to be responsible. With those puppy eyes. Of course I should have followed up with him personally but-” It would have been nice if there was a person out there who she could actually trust.

“It’s not the worst, at least.” A fire and some graffiti was nothing compared to the body counts in this city. “But this is going to be extra work for me, specifically.”

---

Perhaps it was a given in some ways that it was Waru. Who else could it actually be, truly? This city had all sorts of characters with a population as high as it had, but there were too many faulty pieces that added up to just the right exact person.

A person that he was usually much better at distracting. When Emmy eyed him and smiled in that faint way of hers, he winked in her direction. Adam could be flirty, when he wanted to be. When it benefited.

To be fair, this would assuredly benefit. It benefited it the same way that the tea provided a reset and gave the conversation a path forward outside of her understandable frustration.

“Glad the baby,” he reminded himself to not stumble over the word baby, a concept he wasn't used to associating with anyone who regularly visited, “is already helping your numbers. Would help if the father was fully supportive in the right ways though, wouldn't it.”

Waru was certainly supportive, Adam believed that. What he didn't necessarily believe was that he was supportive enough to chill the chaos that seemed to follow him. Perhaps with some other outlets, maybe.

… Other outlets that didn't involve setting garbage on fire.

“His tipline is definitely getting attention, for what it's worth. Could be useful to scrape through some of the messages for anything actually useful.” … and not just people understandably trolling the whole situation. Adam pinched the bridge of his nose at the concept.

---

“He and I will just have to have an additional conversation,” said Emmy. She let the momentary frustration wash over her and returned to a point of control.

She’d come here for information and she’d succeeded in getting it. She could sip at her tea and focus on that. “Thank you for letting me know,” she said. “While this comes with interpersonal complications, at least this means I don’t have to go track down some nobody lieutenants.”

She’d have done it, but given current limitations, it would have been frustrating.

She glanced back to Adam, leaving her feelings about Waru for later.

“How’s the search going, anyway?” She asked. “Any leads?”

---

“True.”

To some degree, a full-on eternal that should have known better was worse. That was especially made worse when that full-on eternal was the father of Emmy's… child, specifically, but she was right. This one came with interpersonal complications. That wasn't necessarily complications that impacted Albite’s ability to function as an agent.

In the end, it wasn't Adam's problem. He tried to offer the usual methods! He even tried to offer unusual methods! Waru was on a mission, though.

An understandable one, considering, “Limited. There's a number that keeps texting Waru’s tip line that I think is pissing him off at this point.” It was possible that person knew the answer, considering the questions, or was trolling him, considering the dumpster fire art exhibit. It wasn't possible to say either one, necessarily, not without further digging.

There were a few pieces Adam was cautious of, but he wasn't certain if it was pointing him in the direction of anything other than … maybe more agents to fill their roster. He knew there was someone Eles reminded him of, but everything appearance-wise was off. Even with their missing team lead, as it were, Adam was unafraid to recruit.

He sipped his tea.

“Faustite somehow slipped away. Headache doesn't quite seem to know where he is either. Just not there.”

---

“So the dumpster fires have accomplished nothing. Noted.” She wouldn’t dwell on that subject here as much as she would later, with Waru, but she couldn’t help one additional snide comment and hint of a smirk.

Adam might have noticed that, while she was certainly angry, there was also a hint of bemusement there somewhere.

“But anyway.” She would, as always, keep to the facts. “He was injured in the battle with the Calamatious hollow,” she said, sipping at her tea again. “At least, it seemingly had something to do with that. Vanished for some time. Eventually reappeared in the infirmary, and then got out again somehow of his own free will.”

She paused for a moment, repeating the timeline to herself. “What do you think the odds are that he purified? After all, he was toying with the idea once before, wasn’t he?”

It was a common outcome among officers, anyway, although the Negaverse’s new financial incentives seemed to have helped.

---

“Likely not,” noted Adam, wryly. “Unless the person who is pissing him off knows something.”

He thought this was at least a possibility, all things considered. What Waru had showed him at least showed some pattern that could have seemed familiar with Faustite in the right context. Was it just coincidence? Had this person known him before? Or were these questions relevant somehow?

To some degree, not his circus, not his monkeys. He had other leads to chase up and also a team to lead. It kept him busy enough in the Negaverse.

Wait. Faustite? Purify? Adam blinked before stifling a laugh that wasn't at her but at the concept. “Suppose he did, but he also launched a whole ambush,” that was a mess, “at the people who tried to purify him, which hints he never wanted to. Suppose things might've changed. Not necessarily uncommon.”

It definitely didn't feel right, though.

“Would be surprising at least that he looped back to toying with the want to purify again.” He clicked his tongue against his palate. “I think it's more likely that the whole Hollow s**t messed with him somehow. It made him stuck in the infirmary for a bit, after all.”