Eliot the Spectacular, High King of Fillory (the_spectacular) wrote in helladjacent, @ 2017-11-06 13:37:00 |
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Entry tags: | !jumps: all hallows hotel, character: eliot waugh, character: gretel |
Who: Eliot and Gretel
What: Eliot bequeaths all of his illicit drugs to her.
When: Day One, before the main plot insanity.
Where: Outside Gretel's room
Warnings: Some language
Status: Complete
After all, Quentin was from his future and apparently Eliot had a future. It was just the details weren’t anything he’d wanted to know. His tears were quiet and brief, they wouldn’t help anything, Eliot couldn’t do anything. Jesus hadn't been in to see him yet and there were things the magician wanted to do before that happened.
After all, they had an agreement. They didn't talk about their lives outside of the hotel. There was no way Jesus wanted to hear about his daughter.
Eliot got up and plucked out the shopping bags from his trip to Disney World a few weeks back. He didn't even bother looking outside to see what was happening, his focus singular. Eliot had picked up quite the pharmacy in his time at the hotel, and decided it all had to go; the illicitly gained prescription pills, the mushrooms, the opium, the weed, the cocaine-- all of it.
When he walked down the halls, the differences would have had him on edge. As it was, there was not confidence but resignation. The experience from his memories had taught him much. Whatever the hotel threw at them would be over in a week, anyway.
It was fortunate Gretel was still in the same room as before when everyone else had changed. He had two shopping bags worth of goods when he knocked on the door, not even bothering to change out of his Fillory finest, with the exception of removing the crown from his head.
For her part, Gretel had pulled herself out of bed relatively early- as usual. She was up before dawn, while a storm raged outside with lightning that flashed the new insides of the hotel as she explored, falling into a routine she’d had for years. There were times when the various changes looked vaguely familiar (or at least, the context was recognizable); the strange aesthetic reminded her of that ‘Haunted Mansion’ (that wasn’t actually haunted) she and Hansel explored in the modern theme park several weeks back. Before her brother disappeared again.
With that in mind, her mood was calm but cautious as she climbed the stairs back up toward her room, then down the hallway, past the moving eyes of a portrait of some decorated General with an oversized nose. In the dim lighting, she noticed Eliot at the end of the hall as she rounded the corner, mid-knock on her door. Even from at least fifteen paces away, she could tell he looked particularly troubled.
“Eliot?” she greeted quietly, adjusting the crossbow on her shoulder, dressed in the leathers she almost always woke up wearing after the clock chimed.
“Gretel,” Eliot said. He forced a smile that didn’t quite meet his tired eyes and swallowed, causing his adam’s apple to bobble on his throat. “I… can’t have these anymore. I thought, that, maybe you would be able to put some of this stuff to good use.”
Eliot opened up one of the bags so that Gretel could look and see what they contained.
Gretel rarely hid what she was feeling from her eyes, though her expressions were often naturally tempered anyway- her concern was clear, as was her confusion. Her eyes flicked from his face to inside the bag, not seeing anything particularly recognizable at first glance, but she’d concern herself with that later.
“If that’s what you need…” She still accepted the bags, figuring she’d deal with the contents later. “What happened?”
“Just another seizure, it’s fine,” Eliot said quietly. “So, I should probably explain what some of this stuff is and what it’s supposed to be used for; pain, sedation, stimulants. I’m not sure if the mushrooms actually have a legitimate medical use but worst case, you can give them to Negan. We’ll always have Disney.”
Eliot’s wry smile was almost convincing, but not quite there. “Um, whatever is going on this week, just message me if you need me. I’m sure it’ll be fine.”
It didn’t look fine. Eliot was just beyond getting riled up about it.
Gretel didn’t exactly believe the smile was intended to reassure her, but the reference about Disney was still mostly lost on her. She didn’t push it.
“You know- in five years, I’ve seen a lot of people have those… fits,” she told him, hooking the bags on her forearm. Her eyebrows were briefly lifted to make the point, but her expression was still soft. “It’s never happened to me, so I don’t know how it feels… but whatever it brought- you’ll adjust.”
The speech was meant to be reassuring, at least on some level, but she wasn’t pressing the nerve. That never helped.
“As for all this-” she added, waving a hand in the general direction of everything in the hallway. She sighed with her words. “I don’t really know what to think of it. It’s everywhere, though.”
“Well, we have a lot of badasses in the hotel. If it gets bad, we’ll stick it out in a group and handle it. If not, we’ll just wake up next week anyway.” Eliot was just barely smart enough to say How bad could it get? Instead, he shrugged.
“So, back to the drugs,” Eliot said, pursing his lips. “I kinda gave them to you because you don’t strike me as the recreational user or the kind of person to charge for helping others. I hate to ask, but do you mind promising me that the drugs will get to anyone who needs them, no strings attached?”
His expression was apologetic, mostly because he didn’t want to insult her. Also because he knew if he gave the drugs to some of the other residents they would be all about the strings attached.
The only hesitation in Gretel’s face was due to her uncertainty regarding every substance she’d just been made caretaker of, but it didn’t go deep. She had a knack for figuring out things like this, the way Hansel had a knack for building and tinkering. The nod she gave him was nothing but honest.
“As always,” she promised. “Take care of yourself, too- alright? We have enough to deal with without making it worse on ourselves.” That, Gretel delivered from a place of personal experience, and it was one Eliot had been around to witness.
Eliot placed his hands on Gretel’s shoulders and placed an almost brotherly kiss to the top of her head before backing up half a step. “I promise that I will be around to help when shit gets weird, to the best of my ability.”
Which was definitely not promising not to make things harder for himself. The memories were a little too fresh and he wasn’t sure how he was supposed to adjust when he felt so helpless to act upon any of the knowledge he’d been given. If anything, it might have been easier if he’d actually died.
“Just think, next week, the place will probably be dusted again,” he deflected wryly.
Though she saw through the deflection, at least through it enough to realize it wasn’t entirely sincere, she appreciated where the effort came from- maybe she hadn’t had one of the fits herself, but she understood the helplessness behind his eyes far too well.
She accepted the affection with a gentle squeeze to his forearm, and made a point to make a bit extra of the soul-healing potion she’d been giving Negan every Monday for weeks. She’d bring it by later.
“One can hope,” she replied with the same dry tone, but her voice was usually softer.
“I’m going to try and fail to surprise the boyfriend with breakfast in bed and see if he pretends that he hasn’t eaten already.” Eliot smirked. “Keep me posted with the PDA.”
Eliot still didn’t know if boyfriend was really the appropriate word, but he wasn’t really planning on pursuing anyone else unless Jesus dumped him so… the word seemed appropriate. It was such a small thing, anyway, when it came to everything else going on around them.
Eliot took off for the kitchen and gave Gretel a wave as he left. Walking away without his hard earned stash of drugs, he felt surprisingly lighter.