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Tweak says, "Sardine heads....zzzzz...."

Colin Hammond (cloudedwaters) wrote in darkdividerpg,
@ 2014-08-30 14:46:00

Entry tags:

character: eli lasko, character: max lasko, date: 08.14.14, type: group scene

Look at Little Sister
Who: Colin, Eli, and Emma, later Max
What: Visiting family
When: August 14th, Thursday Evening
Where: The Stumble Inn
Warning: Language

Emma had been ridiculously busy for her lack of commitments. Which had Colin even more interested in what was going on his youngest sister's life. While he was the most understanding in the family of Emma's need to make her own way in the world, she could get carried away. Often.

He'd given up on trying to get a call back to schedule time to meet with her and just decided to choose a slower weeknight evening to show up at her place of work. Dressed casually in jeans and a button down shirt, he headed straight for the bar when he spotted his sister's black dyed head. Sitting down at an empty stool, he waited until she came over. "You are a hard woman to pin down, Emma," he teased her. "Did I make inadvertantly make you mad enough not to return my calls or were you just trying to make me play hide and seek?" His littlest sister loved to play games. She swore she hated politics, but there was a set of politics that had to be played with her to keep her from shutting him out the way she had the rest of the family.

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cloudedwaters
2014-08-31 01:28 am UTC (link)

Colin chuckled. "Well now I'm truly tempted," he said. The fact his sister who had never expressed interest in ever having children was talking about how much cooler her children would be definitely had his attention more then.

He gave Emma a look. "Yes, because he looks like so much trouble," he said with a roll of his eyes. "Please, Emma. He's the least scandalous looking guy you've ever dated." Colin took a drink of his burbon. "Stop worrying, sweetheart. Just bring him over and introduce me. You wouldn't be trying to protect him like a mother bear if you didn't care about him." By now he thought both of his sisters knew how to handle the press. But then, they both were so idealistic in their own ways, perhaps that was the problem.

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followthevision
2014-08-31 01:37 am UTC (link)

Eli had been helping out with things at the bar and had come out from the office to ask Max a question and maybe steal a kiss from Emma on the way back, but then he'd caught sight of the man talking with her. He was good looking, which was the first thing that made him internally bristle. He didn't know the man from Adam so he wondered immediately if he was just a bar patron or something more. She was actually having a conversation with the man, which said more, but he wasn't sure what level of more it was. An ex, perhaps? He couldn't tell much about the man from his position, however. Just that his clothes were expensive. Not so much in a way that drew attention to them, but they were.

The man had saluted him and Emma had glared at him and he wasn't sure how to respond to it. He just tried to pretend like he wasn't watching them, but it was hard not to. He wanted to know who he was, but he felt silly for it.

He tried to busy himself with something or other, but after a few minutes, Emma stopped glaring at him and eventually nodded at him, indicating that he should come over. So he headed to the bar and looked at Emma, slightly confused and uncertain. Then he looked to the man. He offered a hand out in greeting. "Hello," he said. "Eli Lasko." Then he realized that from this distance, those same blue eyes that he'd spent the last few days drowning in were staring back at him.

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middlem
2014-08-31 01:48 am UTC (link)

"Do it, think of the reaction you'd get. No one would be better at it than me." Actually, everyone would probably be better than her, but no one would try harder, or be more empathetic than Emma. Emma couldn't help her nurturing side, it came out without invitation. It was a part of her make up that few saw. It was generally reserved for her four legged friends.

"He's not scandalous, but he looks a lot like my boss, and they like when I screw up, or even might have screwed up. I'm a great source of propaganda for dad's opponents." That's really all she was, a tool for the other side to make her dad and his campaign look bad. "While the rest of you are paragons, I'm the weak link in the perfection chain. I'm an easy target."

She didn't want to talk about it anymore, so she nodded her head towards Eli to bring him over. At least at the bar things would be more relaxed than it would at some upscale restaurant or anywhere else her brother frequented. She blew out a heavy sigh, letting Colin know how much she didn't want this, she completed the introductions. "Eli, this is Colin, y brother. He thinks you're my beau. I told you my family was weird with its words.I told him about how you just got out of prison, were a member of the Hells Angel's, and that we're expecting a little bundle of joy as a souvenir from our honeymoon." She wasn't going to make this easy.

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cloudedwaters
2014-08-31 02:07 am UTC (link)

Colin chuckled. "Well, now you're definitely in the running," he said. Elise would never stand for it, but he could at least enjoy her reaction to the suggestion.

He rolled his eyes. "Please, Emma," he scoffed. "You being scandalous isn't even news anymore. Now you not being scandalous? That might actually raise a few eyebrows." Paragons? On the surface. Mia perhaps. Colin was the least virtuous member of the family who the best at hiding it. Even from them. The irony would have been amusing if Emma wasn't castigating herself over it.

Of course, that's when her gentleman caller decided to investigate. Colin brightened as he introduced himself. He immediately took the offered hand. "Colin Hammond," he agreed in greeting. "Nice to meet you, Eli." Emma had shut down, but he didn't need to play hardball with his sister anymore. Not when he could get it from the horse's mouth. "Join me for a drink? I'm sure we could grab a table and chat while Emma works. I don't want to get her in trouble." He offered them both his most charming smile.

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followthevision
2014-08-31 02:15 am UTC (link)

Her brother. Immediately, Eli's cheeks started to redden. He felt silly for being almost jealous of a man that had grown up with Emma. It all made a little more sense now. Of course he was wearing expensive clothes; he was rich. He shook the man's hand and willed his cheeks to return to their normal color, but then Colin was inviting him to a drink and he wasn't even sure how to respond. He glanced at Emma, almost asking if he should, but then turned his attention to Colin. He might as well make the best of it and get to know the man. He didn't seem so bad.

"Nice to meet you too," he said. "And sure, that'd be nice."

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middlem
2014-08-31 02:27 am UTC (link)

"I better be in the running, I'm insulted I wasn't from the beginning." Not really, but she'd use it. "And tell that to the guy who shows up outside of my apartment every other month and acts as if I can't see him."

Then it started. She couldn't hide her grin at the sight of Eli's bright red cheeks. Someone was jealous. He was so cute she could squish him. She wouldn't, of course, because Colin was here, and he did not need to see how smitten she was with Eli. She hid her grin, though she'd make sure he saw it later.

When Colin wanted to move their conversation away from the bar, Emma slammed her hand down on the bar top. "No way, absolutely not you vulture, you're not taking Eli where I can't keep an eye on you. You're sneaky and I don't trust you not to unhinge your jaw so you can swallow him whole."

It was a quick, harsh reaction, which made it obvious that she didn't approve of this idea at all. Oh she wanted to throttle Colin right now. She was minutes away from jamming her knife into the bar top in frustration.

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cloudedwaters
2014-08-31 02:35 am UTC (link)

Colin laughed. That was the only way to react to her overreaction. Yes, Emma had it bad for Eli. Almost as bad as he could tell he had it for her. It was charming. It seemed both of his sisters had been bitten by the lovebug.

"Em, you're the limit," he said breezily. "Come on, I know you know what Eli likes to drink. I promise I will not devour him. I just want to talk to him without wading through the bullshit you're going to throw in my way. You want the conversation to stay here, you have to drop the crap" Colin gave her a pointed look, then picked up his glass.

He was giving her a choice. She could be there while he talked to him if she didn't try to divert the conversation or she could sit on the sidelines and wonder.

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followthevision
2014-08-31 02:40 am UTC (link)

Eli was slightly surprised at Emma's reaction. Then again, he wasn't surprised at all. He knew it was coming from a good place and that she was trying to protect him from whatever badness she thought her family had about them. He looked at Emma with slightly raised brows.

"I think you should give me more credit, Emma," he told her. "Do you really think that I'm just going to let your brother swallow me whole without any sort of a fight?" He was capable of handling a conversation with her brother. Sure, he was probably more wealthy than god, but that didn't matter. He was still a man, underneath it all. A man that wanted to make sure his sister wasn't mixed up with someone she shouldn't be mixed up with. Eli couldn't blame him. If anything, he respected him for being so friendly about the whole thing.

Of course, that was probably an act. Max would be able to tell, he figured. Eli needed to brush up on picking up on bullshit anyway.

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middlem
2014-08-31 02:45 am UTC (link)

She was literally growling at both of them. They were being buttheads, both of them. She pulled her knife out and stabbed the bar top before walking off to get Eli his beer. She was tempted to get a glass of water to dump on Colin for being an idiot. Come to think of it, she wanted to dump one on Eli, too. They were being such men it was almost overwhelming.

"Don't move a muscle," she huffed at Colin, sliding a beer to Eli with a very obvious disapproving look on her face. Someone was going to be getting a very thorough talking to when the night was over, and it wasn't going to be Colin. He'd get his through text message the next day. If she tried it in person, he'd just infuriate her more and make her screech. There was no way in hell she was letting the two of them wander off where she couldn't hear what they were saying.

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cloudedwaters
2014-08-31 02:57 am UTC (link)

Trying to dump a glass of water over a water elemental was a bit of an exercise in futility. But then, so was trying to reason with Emma when she was in this kind of mood. Why she was in this kind of mood he had no idea, but she certainly wasn't going to tell him now.

Considering how infantile she was being about the whole thing, Colin was done with her. "Shall we?" he said to Eli as he inclined his head towards an empty table across the room. Then started that direction. There was no way he'd get the man to actually talk to him honestly with her acting like a three year old two feet away. He indulged Emma only so far. And he was a bit hurt she was acting like he was some kind of horrible threat to her boyfriend. He had no reason to be. Her lack of trust undeserved, considering he was the only member of the family who didn't criticize her need for independence.

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followthevision
2014-08-31 03:03 am UTC (link)

Eli was faced with a choice that would likely get him into a lot of trouble lately. He took his beer and sighed. "Yeah," he said. What was the worst that Colin could do to him, really? If Emma was so afraid of them being alone together, Eli kind of wanted to find out why. He doubted she'd be happy with it, but he let Colin lead him to the empty table across the room and sat down across from him. Emma was just going to have to get angry about it. The more she tried to keep them apart, the more he wanted to know why, so really her reaction only pushed him more towards Colin and the unknown.

He sat down at the table and took a sip of his beer. "I don't know if she's afraid you'll say something I don't like or the other way around," he sighed.

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middlem
2014-08-31 03:10 am UTC (link)

Emma was furious, and she excused herself from the bar for a few minutes so she could try and calm down. This was not what she wanted. This was not how she wanted this to go. It hadn't even been a week yet, Emma wasn't ready for other people to be brought into her relationship yet. It was still weird for her to recognize the fact that she was in a relationship at all.

She wasn't ready for her family to know about it yet. It had nothing to do with Eli or Colin, and everything to do with her personality. Emma was very strict on controlling what she did and did not share. It was important to her. That control meant everything to her, because it was the one thing she had and that she could control. Colin had taken that away from her without batting an eye, and what's worse is that Eli went with him. Eli took her control with him, too.

Emma went outside into the alley behind the building to get a bit of fresh air. She needed to push the anger and the anxiety down into the put of her stomach. When she'd been ready, Colin would have been the first, and probably only, member of their family she told. Right now, though? All she wanted to do was clobber both of them over the head.

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