#exanxmo

@exanxmo​ sent:  “ So why did I have to find out from Chas that you apparently also know music? ”

“Oh, ‘cause Chas should learn to mind his own bloody business!” John replied, raising his voice enough to make sure that his best friend could hear him from where he was doing only God knows what in the kitchen. Probably cleaning up. Or making a shopping list, because apparently he didn’t approve that the magician had decided to try and survive on alcohol and curses.

Rolling his eyes, he slumped back against the couch and shrugged, bring his bottle of beer to his lips and taking a quick swing. His tie was abandoned on the coffee table and his shirt was in the laundry basket. Not that he needed something to wear to be decent, considering the bandages that covered most of his tattooed skin of his torso. The case they had closed the day before had turned out to be a thorny one. Metaphorically and literally.

“But aye, I know some shite ‘bout music, kid,” he went on with a small shrug. “I used to have a punk band, back before...” He waved a hand. Before Newcastle. Before Astra. Before he had damned his soul to Hell. All honest ways to put it, but what he said was: “Before life got even more fuckin’ complicated. Pass us the cigs, will you?”

He stretched his hand out, waiting for Ruby to grab the package for him. “Mucous Membrane. That’s how me n’ my mate Gaz had called it. We were shite, but no worse than most people back then. Chas was our driver. I sang, wrote half of the songs. N’ did a few things on the guitar too, from time to time. Mostly off stage.”

----

     “What do you mean, you ‘dropped out of school’?” 

For the first time in this spindly, nerdy academic’s entire career as a therapist, he raises his voice to a patient.

@exanxmo

It was late, the sun was starting to set and most people where either headed home or to a bar. But not Rosemary, she was more wandering the streets.

She wandered in an attempt to shake off an uneasy feeling. A feeling similar to being watched. She could only guess what it meant. Was someone following her? No... that didn't seem likely.

She turned onto another, slightly more empty street, there was only a small handful of people there. No one that Rosemary knew. The sinking feeling didn't leave her as she walked, and as she passed an alleyway a sound caught her attention.

The sound was low, something akin to a growl or hiss, it echoed slightly from the alley. Either that was one grumpy cat, or it was a demon. 

She turned around and walked in front of the alley. Trying to see what made the sound, hoping it was just a cat. This attempt was meet by her being picked up and tossed across the street by a large, hulking beast.

A demon. 

A big demon.

There were multiple issues that came with running a business from your home.

One: Unexpected visitors.

Two: Unexpected phone calls.

Three: Property damage.

Four: Interrupted day-drinking.

The list was endless.

Whoever needed a private investigator at ten am on a Sunday was out of their right mind. Jessica certainly hadn’t been expecting company. Most people had the decency to call ahead. Unless it was Malcolm. And Malcolm never bothered knocking. Small mercies she didn’t have company over.

“Yeah, hold on.” She barked towards the door, slinking to a terribly upright condition that set her body about a series of complaints. In a daze, Jessica fumbled about putting some proper clothes on before opening the front door roughly. The neatly printed sign- Alias Investigations- was ripped away from the face of the visitor who had come knocking. The visitor was met by a tall, sleep-deprived, almost-sober and distinctly unwelcoming woman.

The visitor was a kid.

There was a kid knocking at her door.

The hardness about Jessica’s features waned into something more patient, even if it did not ooze warmth.

Was this one of his tricks?

An attempt to get her guard down?

It wasn’t the first time he’d used a child to relay a message.

For a moment Jessica simply stared down at the teen, the way one might answer a cold call and wait for the empty message. The teen didn’t appear quite as…blank…as the others (not that this was enough to lower Jessica’s guard entirely). Trouble had a way of showing up to her home. The broken lock and newly replaced window was proof enough of that. Trouble wore many faces.

The kid stood opposite her looked as though trouble had found her too.

It felt a little abrupt to be asking where her parents were. She was old enough to go about by herself by the looks of things. But a private eye was hardly the place for a teen to go sniffing around.

“’You okay?” Stony eyes flicked up from the teen to the lift at the end of the hallway, checking for any sound that someone might be following- someone who wanted to see if she was home. Someone who wanted the door to be open. Slowly, one of Jessica’s hands balled into a fist. Her thumb curved a repetitive path over her index finger by means of distracting herself.

It’s just a kid.

Nobody else is here.

“The natural hormone that helps with sleep and you really look like you need some no matter what you say.”

Ruby would like to do a lot more than slap the thing. He felt disgusting. His energy was dark and stiffling, like a wet blanket hovering over the two of them. Like the overbearing humidity of an afternoon spent in a swamp. She wrinkled her nose, looking completely disgusted with him.

“Someone who’s not interested in your bullshit,” she replied flatly.

Her magic sprung into her grasp. The blade simmered and quickly became material, sharp, deadly, not the gesture of someone who was amused with his attitude.

She gave the shadowy being a withering stare. If this was the target she’d sensed, then she wasn’t playing games with it.

“Would you like to keep that hand?”

     Her DISGUSTED expression amuses him further. Oh, she knows what he is that is not a question. Well, does she know EXACTLY what he is? That is what makes Marik quite interested.      “Now now~” Marik tsks at her aggression. It’s nothing to him, used to such actions at him. Everyone assumes he has such ILL intents for them--not wrong, but besides the point, “It’s RUDE to go around and threaten to take somebody’s hand off~” A dark laugh, rising into a cackle.

((PLEASE I'M SCREAMING I'D BE SO SOFT FOR THAT! Her just seeing him making progress like he watched her make progress.))