numenviscera (numenviscera) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2020-01-07 14:38:00 |
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Entry tags: | #group scene, #january 2018, anthony, lem, vex |
Who: Anthony, Vex and Lem
When: Evening, Monday, January 8th
Where: Ludlow Lane
Status: Complete
Despite everything going on with Caius and his wife, Anthony hadn’t forgotten about Miriam’s encounter with Arthur Knowles. Vex, as he was known now. Anthony did a little bit of his own research on the guy. It hadn’t been difficult to do, given he had been a detective in Baltimore, but his history was a fascinating one. One that included AIR, although that particular part of the man’s life hadn’t come up in his “background check”.
Anthony drove to Ludlow Lane late Monday evening, though he was momentarily distracted by the Zinneman House. It didn’t look as decrepit and rundown as it had in the past, and there were obvious signs that someone lived there now. Anthony knew who, though thinking about the man tended to make his chest feel cold. He got out of his car and walked to the front door of the home that once belonged to Sarah Knowles. He knocked twice and slid his hands into the pockets of his slacks, waiting for someone to answer.
It was Lem who answered, since she was in the living room. She’d been lounging upside down on the couch, draped and sprawled while she looked at stupid stuff on her phone and tried not to die of boredom. It was just a restless kind of evening, but she didn’t feel like going next door or seeking out Vex, she just wanted to ... something. Lem didn’t know. The knock startled her, because they weren’t expecting food or anything and she knew Nic wasn’t coming over. Frowning vaguely, Lem got up, straightened her giant sweater-coat, and padded to the door.
She couldn’t see through the peephole even when she was on her toes, but she didn’t hesitate to unlock the door and open it. There could be a horrific monster on the other side, of course, but Lem wasn’t scared. It turned out to not be a monster -- at least not an obvious one -- but a handsome man in a nice-looking suit. In her experience, those could be worse than monsters. She stared hard at him, her brows drawn together. “If you’re selling Jesus, we don’t want any,” Lem told him flatly.
Anthony had expected a tall man to answer, but his gaze had to drop to the tiny thing scowling up at him. Her greeting drew a slightly amused smile to his face. "I'm not sure even Jesus would bother taking a step into this town, so you don't have to worry about that. I'm actually here to see Vex, if he's around." Was this his sister? Lover? He hadn't come across any siblings in his check on the man, but that didn't matter. She didn't matter. Not yet, anyway.
The man was probably right about that, and Lem didn’t even believe in Jesus anymore. This town definitely wasn’t holy, that was for sure. Lem eyed him for another couple of heartbeats, assessing whether she should let him in or not. It was cold out and it was rude to leave someone on the front step, but she didn’t know him and therefore didn’t trust him. Vex would know better than she would, and that was who he was apparently here to see, so ... “Hang on,” Lem said, halfway closing the door. She walked a few steps away from it and lifted her face to yell her partner’s name into the house. “Vex! Door!”
Vex was in the kitchen staring at the coffee maker dripping when the knock came. He left it to Lem to answer mostly because she was usually quicker to do so but he went very still and listened. He couldn't hear whoever was outside but then Lem was yelling and that was always loud, especially when he was already focused on listening.
Anthony was not the only one who'd done his research. To be fair, Vex's research had in big part been conducted at the height of a paranoid fit where he seriously thought he might have to murder Miriam D'Onofrio, a premise he'd luckily realized was false before he started any real planning. The internet was useful for many things and he'd found her information quite easily. A person couldn't be a prominent member of high society without people talking and taking photos, even when it was in a podunk town like Point Pleasant. In any case, he recognized the man as soon as he stalked to the door and saw him standing there. Anthony D'Onofrio, no doubt here to bitch at him for harassing his wife or something. He stepped up to Lem and rested his hand on her back as he gave Anthony a pleasant enough smile anyway - a slightly wolfish one on him - watching him intently. "Can I help you?" he muttered, not inviting him in just yet, even if it was cold and windy out there.
"I'm not sure yet," Anthony replied with an equally pleasant smile. Thanks to his element, the cold didn't bother him much, and he was generally a patient man. "I'm not here to cause any trouble. But I have a few questions for you Mr. Knowles, so I suppose your helpfulness depends on whether or not you would be willing to answer them for me." If he wasn't, c'est la vie, but Anthony would work out another way to get what he wanted out of the man. And that would be decidedly less pleasant than having an amiable chit chat with one another this evening.
Vex had been reckless in confronting people and he knew that, it was just hard to keep a clear head when he was excited - and, to be fair, insane. Had this been anyone else he would have been eager to chat, but Anthony D'Onofrio was a man with power, he practically oozed it and Vex knew the type. He could get away with murder. There were wards on the house and hopefully this would yield more answers than questions and so he gestured somewhat dramatically for Anthony to enter. "If we're gonna be chatting, you call me Vex," he said, lightly touching Lem's shoulder in case she needed soothing. Neither of them trusted a man in a suit and it was now entirely up to her if she wanted to stay and closely observe or seek refuge next door with Nic.
Lem had stayed close by, warily watching the first exchange between Vex and this man. She didn’t know him, but she was pretty sure he was the big-shot husband of the lady Vex had seen in the fancy restaurant. Lem wasn’t good with keeping up with all of these names. She’d suggested more than once that they get a white board to make charts on, but they hadn’t done it yet. She just hoped Mr. Big Shot meant it when he said he wasn’t there to make trouble. She moved out of the way as the man came inside, then followed them toward the living room for all the sitting down and talking. She claimed a chair, sitting on the arm of it with her feet on the cushion, not about to leave Vex alone with a guy like this.
Anthony stepped inside, having no desire to look around at their living situation. He already knew it would be unsatisfactory to him, and frankly, the state of their home didn't affect him in any shape or form. Unless he decided to own it himself, of course. He still had plans to buy out the entire block of Ludlow to make room for newer homes, but that project was on the backburner for the time being. He sensed the magic around the place... protection. Probably from the Castells next door, but he supposed it could have been the O'Reillys. They seemed like the kind of people who would be drawn to these two misfits. Anthony didn't bother sitting, but kept his distance, his attention solely on Vex. "My wife informed me she broke your phone, for which I apologize. If you'll let me, I would like to replace it."
"Oh I already bought a new one, don't worry about it," Vex replied easily. He'd been more than ready to make Miriam pay for the phone but it felt more prudent to just drop it - which he already had. "Did she tell you how she broke it?" he asked with a twinkle of amusement in his eyes as he wondered just how much Miriam's husband knew about her situation. Given his status in society, Vex had to wonder if he had connections with the people they were dealing with. It was easy for people in power to compartmentalize when they needed to so the fact Anthony's wife had likely been kidnapped by AIR didn't really mean he couldn't be involved with it somehow. Hell, for all Vex knew, Miriam was involved with them too. He still didn't know what Carson's dream had meant but it gave him a creepy feeling, thinking of that woman with red eyes, like some demon creature.
Anthony cocked a brow, but his lips twitched into a knowing smirk. "No, but I imagine it had to do with her telekinesis. Something I was unaware of until just recently. Or perhaps she just threw it. She has a lot of strength behind her aim when she's looking to cause injury." Miriam hadn't told Anthony what it was Vex could do, only that he knew about AIR, and about her. That was likely part of the reason Anthony was there. He wanted to get a look at this man for himself, to see what Vex might tell him, if anything. And while Anthony knew of a few other past subjects of AIR living in town, he was curious to know if there were others. And he had a feeling this man would know, if there were.
Rich people were weird, and Lem was looking at Anthony with some fascination mixed in with her distrust. How could you be married to someone and not know they were telekinetic? It seemed like a thing that would be obvious to her. But maybe the two of them hardly ever saw each other or something else like Rich People. Lem pictured one of those dining room tables that was a mile long with two people on either end of it, not talking. Lem didn’t interrupt, just glanced between Vex and Anthony -- two people who couldn’t look more different, honestly -- as they spoke and nibbled on her bottom lip.
Vex had to wonder if Anthony was bluffing or if he really was clueless about his wife's abilities and the reason she had them. He was keenly aware of Lem glaring at Anthony behind him, like an angry kitten or a tiny guardian gargoyle. She might be small, but her presence was large and it didn't fail to make Vex feel more at ease. For a moment it felt like time stood still as he started calculating his move here, whether to trust Anthony even a little or keep him at a safe distance. A powerful man couldn't be trusted on principle but he could be useful if Vex played his cards right and that's... when the floor started bubbling behind Anthony. It was soundless, familiar blackness pooling there as shadows started rising. "Oh," Vex muttered, staring beyond Anthony at the vision behind him, dark sludge like creatures crawling out of the melting floorboards, curiously craning over their guest, studying him as they grew taller, looming. "They think you knew," he said in a quiet drawl, certain Lem could see the demons too. "They think you knew all along."
It didn't bother Anthony any if Vex thought he knew, or didn't know, about Miriam's abilities. He was much more interested in AIR, and how Vex fit into it. He cocked a brow at the man, hands still resting casually in his pockets. The urge to look behind him was strong, but he had learned a long time ago never to let his guard down around strangers, especially mentally unstable strangers. "They do, do they?" Anthony's lips twitched. He didn't know who they were, but it was fascinating, nonetheless. "Do they think it's important, whether I knew about my wife's past or not? Do they think that has any bearing on why I'm here, talking to you now?”
Lem’s eyes widened a touch and some of the fierceness left her round face as she saw what Vex saw behind Anthony. The shadow-demons or whatever they were certainly seemed interested in the man. She wondered if he could sense what was behind him even a little, or if he was as numb and dense as most other people in the world. He still looked smug, so she was willing to bet it was the latter. Lem slid off of the chair and moved to stand just behind and beside Vex in solidarity, her big gaze solemn on Anthony now. “Why are you here?” she asked. “Not to apologize.”
Words could not convey how much Vex loved Lem, especially in that moment. It was like having that perfect partner he'd never had as a cop, so in tune and not requiring any secrets. His own sharp expression softened as he looked down at her, a small smile flickering on his lips. "That's a damn good question," he murmured before looking at Anthony. "You need something - or at the very least want something." Nothing good, he thought, not with those demons skulking around. "Either you're here to make sure we leave your wife alone or you're after something more, something else. Scoping us out maybe. For them?" There was a war coming, it would be prudent to send in a spy, figure out who all was on which side and wasn't that what Lem and Vex had been doing? Spying on AIR, trying to figure out who was working there, who was involved.
"Well, I told her I would ask you to leave her alone, but I would be lying if I said that was the only reason I was here." Anthony was sure they were simply viewing him as a wealthy, entitled man there to threaten or blackmail. He could do both, of course, but he didn't feel like it would come to that. For a brief moment, Anthony considered using the Obscurities, or his magic, to show them who he was, and what he could do, but again, that might feel more like a threat than anything else. "But no, I'm not here to scope you out for them. They don't need to send me, or anyone else, here to talk to you. They know plenty already." Anthony glanced around the small house. "I suppose my own curiosity brought me here. I know you're not the only one in town who has had the misfortune of encountering the Institute. I'm here to ask you what you want, exactly. What do you hope to accomplish? Depending on what it might be, it's possible I can help you."
This man Knew Things, that was obvious from the way he spoke. Unless he wanted them to think he knew things and knew how to speak to make it seem like he did. Either way, Vex was not going to tell him how what he really wanted was to burn the place down again, to find the people responsible for kidnapping and torturing little kids and giving them a taste of their own medicine. Or how he wanted to find everyone he'd had visions of, gather a little army of Special People, storm the castle, find purpose in the magnificent canopy of this world and the Other. Even as he thought about it the demons behind Anthony seemed to get excited or agitated, swirling around, snarling silently as they began crawling the walls. Vex watched them for a moment before turning his attention back to Anthony. "I want nothing," he said. "I receive visions and I follow them, obey to my best ability. What do you want, Mr. D'Onofrio?"
"And what, your vision led you to my wife?" The man was lying when he said he wanted nothing. Everybody wanted something. Everybody. Whoever said differently was a liar. "Are you able to understand exactly what your visions are for? What they mean?" Anthony could only imagine what role Miriam might have to play in whatever scenario Vex and his gremlin had concocted. Miriam, the librarian, and whoever else these two might have discovered. Nobody in this town was safe from harm, be it AIR or the town's natural dark energy. Anthony wanted to know what these visions might be, but he was prepared for the likelihood that he would leave that house today not knowing.
"I saw her get hurt," Vex replied easily. "It sparked my curiosity but I can no more tell you what my visions mean than I can tell you what the rain means, or the wind, or the snow. I could interpret them but would that be truth? We're just primitive apes, trying to read the language of gods." That was only partial truth because Vex felt the calling of his god and he was completely convinced now that Anthony and Miriam were not on his side of things. The demons were crawling into the walls now and Vex was relieved to be rid of them. He just wished they'd take Anthony with them. "Do you have theories, Mr. D'Onofrio?"
Oh boy. Anthony might have sighed, but he bit back on the urge. Instead, he smiled. "I have plenty of theories. But as you said, what would be the truth? Speculation can be dangerous. I prefer answers, and it generally doesn't take me very long to find them. All I can do at the moment is suggest you be careful in who you approach, and who you speak to. Point Pleasant is a small town, and there are eyes and ears everywhere." His smile faded and he cocked one brow. "I would also request that you keep your distance from my wife. I assure you that's not a threat, at least not coming from me. What she may end up doing if you don't... well, I can't say."
Lem’s eyes flitted here and there as she watched the shadow demons leave ... or at least take refuge in the walls. They would still be watching, she was sure, because they always were. She listened to the exchange between Vex and D’Onofrio with a growing frustration. They were talking in cryptic, secretive circles, and while sometimes that could lead to insight, other times it was just annoying. “Don’t you wanna know?” she burst out before Vex could respond, her eyes hot on Anthony. “If you’re so good at answers, don’t you want to get some? About what they did to your wife? What they did to all those kids? We don’t give a rat fuck about your wife, we just want answers too.”
Vex wasn't really surprised when Lem lost her patience, she was the least patient person he knew and he couldn't really blame her for disliking the vague way they were speaking. "You'll only find theories here, Mr. D'Onofrio," he said. "We're adrift in a sea of questions in a leaky boat with no oars. I won't go near your wife again, you can tell her she has nothing to fear from me." As soon as he said it he wondered if that was really true. With what little he knew right now it was, but maybe answers would start raining down from the skies and he'd find out he'd been right when he wasn't in his right mind - that he really had to murder Miriam D'Onofrio because she was an obstacle. He hoped not and right now it was a hypothesis not worth entertaining.
Anthony's gaze ticked to the little gremlin and a slow smile spread across his face. Answers. She didn't know he had answers. Plenty of them, actually. Probably ones they wanted. He knew damn well what AIR had done to Miriam. And to Arthur Knowles, and the other subjects still hiding in town. He knew what AIR would continue to do. But those were not answers for two unstable people. They had no idea just how close they were to hurting themselves. He didn't respond to Lem, but returned his attention to Vex. "I understand that theories are all you have at the moment. I hope that one day you get the answers you're looking for. But thank you for leaving my wife out of it." He nodded at him, polite as always. “I should be going. Good luck to both of you."
Lem did not like that smile, or how suddenly the man was ready to leave. He obviously hadn’t come to be helpful or to discuss things, he’d just come to make vague threats at them about leaving his wife alone. A waste of time. She narrowed her eyes at Anthony, her chin jutting forward with a sudden rise of stubborn anger. There was nothing else to say, this man was useless to them, so she crossed her arms over her small chest and looked at Vex.
Vex kept his gaze firmly fixed on Anthony even as he felt Lem look at him. He didn't want to let the man out of his sight and Anthony's name was now firmly in the 'possible enemies' list in his brain. He was smiling too, a fake little smirk as he watched Anthony's every little move with elevated interest. "I hope you find your own answers, Mr. D'Onofrio, must be strange, knowing what happened to your wife." He knew more than he was letting on, every fiber of Vex's being was tingling with the Knowledge there was more to this man than met the eye. He needed to research him, find out everything he could about him and their friendly neighbors were definitely a better place to start than the internet.
"Perhaps if I lived anywhere else, it would be strange, yes." Anthony merely found it interesting, an unexpected coincidence, but one he could adapt to quite quickly. "I hope you find the answers you're seeking as well." Warning these two off of trying to investigate AIR would be pointless, and frankly, Anthony was curious to see how far they got before they were stopped. If they hadn't been on AIR's radar before, they were now. All it took was a confrontation with Anthony's wife. "Best of luck to you both," he added before heading for the front door.
Vex just glanced at Lem before following Anthony. It wasn't that he was being polite, he just didn't want the man stalking through their house without supervision. He offered him one more absolutely fake and stiff smile before shutting the door behind him, wrinkling his nose and huffing once he had that barrier between them. He did not like this one bit and approaching Miriam the way he had had been a mistake. He should have seen it - felt it, gotten some warnings, something something. He just didn't know how else to amass their little army if he couldn't confront people head on. "I think he's evil," he said bluntly once he'd stalked back into the living room. "We need to be prepared for the worst here."
Lem was not going to see that man to the door, so she just waited where she stood until they disappeared around the foyer wall, then slid her hands into her hair to tug at the strands in frustration. She let them drop to her hips when Vex came back, her round face set into grim lines. “Do we even know what the worst could be?” she asked. It seemed like an impossible thing to know -- shit had been going wrong in this town that defied imagination. They could be invaded by vampires, or physics and gravity could lose all meaning, or everyone’s skin could turn inside-out and Lem still wouldn’t know if she could safely label it ‘worst.’ “Totally on board with the evil thing though, no fuckin’ question,” she added.
"Which worst?" Vex replied to her question with a question because honestly there were so many horrible situations he could think of and each one seemed just as likely as the next. "We die, we get experimented on, we turn into the monsters we hunt. Take a pick, there's more." He flopped down on the couch, imagining smoke filling his lungs in that old soothing way he so dearly missed. And he didn't even have a fucking lollipop. "If you have to kill him, use your crossbow. They can probably trace it back to me but that's okay, I'll take the fall." Unless I'm dead. No, fuck that. "If we have to kill him, I'll do it. We'll need to be quiet and quick about it. I get the feeling he's more than he seems."
Maybe it should’ve been shocking that Vex jumped right to the possibility of killing anyone, but it wasn’t to Lem. Their lives were dangerous -- hell, life itself was dangerous -- and they would do what they had to do to protect themselves and one another. Lem flopped down on the floor next to the couch to lean her head on Vex, giving him a pouty little look. “You don’t think I can be quiet and quick?” Not that she was an eager beaver to assassinate someone, but she could do some sneaky damage when she put her mind to it. There were several maimed dudes back in her hometown who could testify to that. “Let’s hope we don’t have to dispose of him. He’s an arrogant prick, and those guys underestimate us all the time.”
"You can be quiet and quick," Vex replied with some amusement. "But you like a big bang too. With a guy like that..." He shook his head. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that. We could get hurt badly if he decides we're a threat." Vex had no reason to think Anthony was dangerous but he gave off the same vibe as some guys he'd dealt with as a cop, untouchable, connected, powerful. The kind of guy who always slipped away no matter how good the evidence against them was. Vex hated guys like that and the bad thing was, getting rid of them didn't really fix shit, there were always more behind the curtains, ready to take over. "Lem," he sighed. "I don't know how to approach people now. Do I keep being reckless? Yeah... They already know I'm here. The splash is done." It wasn't a question so much as musing out loud and he already had his answer, nodding slowly to himself.
Lem was used to Vex answering his own questions for himself so that didn’t bother her. She nodded a bit and sighed herself in a subconscious mirror of him. “Well if they try to come take you now, they’ll be in for a fight,” she said, her face hardening up into a fierce look for a moment. “You’re not a little kid anymore.” And they had powerful witch friends next door, who had put wards on their house and everything. Not to mention all the guns they had now. Lem wasn’t afraid. She leaned over to kiss Vex’s arm, then rolled up onto her knees and put her chin against it. “You just tell me what you want me to do, and I’m behind you.”
Vex reached over with his free hand and petted her head gently. "I don't have to tell you to do a thing," he muttered. "I know you got my back." He tugged lightly on her very short hair, then ruffled it. Her hair grew so fast and so thick, she'd be the envy of people if she let it grow out but he felt like she wouldn't be His Lem if she did. "I think we need to trim your hair again," he said. "I can almost get a grip on it." That was no good. She was small and had to take every advantage she could get in a fight.
The tugging felt kind of good, in a not-exactly-sexual way, and Lem chuckled softly at his observation. It was cold as fuck outside, so maybe that had contributed to her neglecting to buzz her hair as often. She reached up to scratch in it at the back, giving a rueful little smile. “Yeah,” she agreed. “You wanna do it for me?” Lem moved her hand up to ruffle Vex’s hair in return. “Beauty day? You could use a trim too. And a shower.” He wasn’t as bad as he’d been sometimes in the past, not by far, but now that they were living in a stable place with a reasonably clean bathroom, so she was trying to remind him about it more often.
He still needed reminding because he didn't have the time to think of showers when his thoughts were all a whirlwind of conspiracy theories, speculations, connections and visions. The reminder was good because now that she said it, he realized his scalp was a little itchy. "Yeah," he murmured, even if the thought of getting naked and vulnerable wasn't super appealing so soon after an obvious enemy had been in their house. "I'll trim your hair, then shower. You wanna put some more bleach in my hair?" He reached up from her hair to scratch at his head. "It's growing out."
“Sure,” Lem said with a smile. She kind of liked how he looked with the dark roots, but if he wanted to re-bleach, she was always game to help him out. With anything, at any time. They were still a team, even if their social circle had expanded a bit and she’d found some love and good feelings from someone else too. She got to her feet and held her hand out to Vex to ‘help’ him off the couch. She doubted that Anthony D’Onofrio posed an immediate threat to them, so they could just lock up and go about their business. Maybe some domestic chores would make them feel more settled again, at least for a while. It never lasted long, but Lem was grateful for the periods of peace.