infomodder | IC contact [Mask or Menace]

Well! I happen to be looking for mortals to serve me in my own quest, as it were.

...so what you're saying is that while he may be used to abilities, he's not used to unconventional abilities... or rather, the unconventional minds using them. In other words, people who don't play by the rules he's used to.

[Wait, is he still talking about powers here?]

[However distracted Will might seem, rearranging everything in his bag and closing it, Freddie's voice is the only thing he's intensely focused on. He reviews the file leak from November, adds it in, but adds it into his personal file. That one won't be seeing the light of day, not from Will Graham, not without good reason. This road trip, despite not finding Abigail Hobbs, has proved far more beneficial than he ever thought. Not because he finally got that third power, but because bonding time with Freddie Lounds is actually not bad. Not bad at all.]

Yours sounds better. [For good reason, no arguing just to make Freddie feel like she got the better deal, politely. Will honestly believes what he says with that one.] Getting to dump it and start fresh isn't easy to come by. You really lucked out with that one.

[Humility and envy, wrapped up into one shaggy-haired unshaven guy, pulling the bag's straps over his shoulder as he looks around and grabs up Freddie's room key to join his in that plaid front pocket.]

I'll turn these in and meet you by the car.

[Terrible lodgings they might be, it never pays to be rude.]

[their life.

April spends another long moment cooing over the hamsters. Living with strange new people was weird. Not bad or whatever. But weird. And the idea of replacing them all with ugly, stupid dogs...]

We're gonna need a bigger house. For the five dogs and ten more raccoons and five million tiny rodents.

Fr— [Shit, no, what was it she had said he called her?] —the Oracle of Tattlecrime and I have [er] delayed our quest. We will be there soon and we want to help you in whatever way you need.

[Or whatever way they think Chilton needs to be helped, more accurately.]

[Why is Jaydn kid being so hesitant about this, Will's patience is wearing thin.]

I'm sure. [If anyone gets shot or shanked for this, it'll be Will. And he's already dealt with being shot and nearly disemboweled/gutted, he'll be fine. Baltimore's world has a mutation of human known as Homo recovers from fucking everything, my God. Grumble grumble, finishes off that granola bar, makes a ball out of the wrapper, and tosses it into the trash.] Wouldn't've offered if I wasn't.

[You can trust me.]

[The most charmed and happiest life ever.

He's quiet, too quiet, thinking it over as his eyes seem to take in nothing, even as he scratches a tiny rodent's chin. A smile hits, the spread slow and steady and neither inhuman in its evil nor human in its joy. Someone is plotting along that gray "it could be fantastic but it could also be hideous shit which is it" line.]

We could move out. [Not a bad design, and one that involves other aspects of the designing industry. They could do it, and not just move out to the bait shop.] Look around at apartments, houses or...whatever you'd prefer.

[Does Will seem like he'd care about living in a fancy trailer, because he totally wouldn't. Whatever April wants, he'll do his best to find a way to get it and he'd be more than happy to stay along for the ride.]

To Transylvania?

[ Leaving Rick...was something to think about. But he was a big boy. He could just as easy move in with Mitch and finally achieve his life goal of being a 24/7 nanny. But somewhere no jerks could bother them and Grey could roam shirtless and the packs of dogs wander free with raccoons on their backs....

Well that was a distraction from Andy, alright. ]

[Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. Welcome to conversations with Will Graham, young Edgeworth. It's possible to have 45,670 conversations at one time if lines are read between. Fantastic!]

That's part of it. [He keys in on the last one more than anything else, good summary.] He's used to a certain world and that world's rules and—here has already changed that. He was good at what he did, where he came from. But we've got those who are good at what they do, where they come from. With different rules and standards, [or no rules and standards] a new mindset behind them. Adapting to unusual powers is one thing, this is. More than that. Especially when some of us have no experience. We had these gifts dropped in our laps simply by showing up.

[How many of them are undeserving of what they've been given when viewed through the eyes of someone going by Lunatic?]

[Up goes an eyebrow; he'll play along. He has very few ties to this house, but he knows April's been here long enough that she has some connection to someone, to the set up, something, regardless of how apathetic she might want to be perceived as.]

No. [That's a very definite, firm no. Too serious.] That's just asking for trouble. We're already in the unending Cold War, why risk the other royal vampires coming after you?

[Don't put the human in that war, Queen of the Night, he can't be of any help. He is absolutely distressed at the idea of April going off to war with the court of vampire kings and queens, princes and princesses, burying his face in her neck with his mouth in prime biting position. Surely a lowly human graced with the presence of a great and fierce vampire ruler would never dare. Surely.]

[ She has to bite down her smile at his new mouth position. Good boy. ]

Mm. Maybe when we're old and don't care any more.

[ Death means less after a few more decades of life, right? For now just leaning against him, hamsters in hand, is good enough. ]

But Virginia is so out.

[Good boy or not, why does he always find people who hate the things he loves? Why must Virginia be such a desolate, sad land that even those who didn't live there for extended lengths of time can look at it and know it is worthy of disdain? Why, God, why is this burden hefted onto his shoulders?

At least, the groan he lets out, muffled against her neck, sounds like someone who is truly and deeply fraught, weighed down to his very core and here she is, just adding onto it. No back pats for good boys, slap them with a metal chair forcefully enough to break the shoulders. Life is so hard.]

It snows in Virginia. [Rushing to the defense. The whiny, broken defense.] You could make blanket forts all the time, just because it's cold. Not like here.

[The defense is decidedly not very determined to see through to the end of the trial.

Unless trials end by one party going quiet because they have bitten the other party, that is. It's more of a nip than anything vampiric, and Will's certainly seen trials ended in worse ways, but the inferior mortal human boyfriend has dared to cross that line. Damn rebel that he is, no one talks shit about his beloved Virginia and gets away with it!]

Blanket forts for practical reasons are just blankets.

[ God, Will. But the bite is met with her melting slightly more into his arms. Damn vampire mind-control or something like that. She has no defense against it. ]

And Indiana doesn't have crazy roommates.

[She can melt as much as she wants, Will's got a good grip, won't be letting anyone drop if he can help it. Indiana, though, he remembers something April said, something April probably doesn't remember. A rebuttal to the idea of it being worth the move, but he's not going to go with anything too personal. The less this conversation deals with feelings, the better.]

Indiana? It's got a complicated ancient curse. [He doesn't seem put off by that as much as he does what comes next. Though, arguably, since he's still got his mouth on her neck has moved onto fonder affection than nipping, he's not actually...put off by anything.] And Mormons.

[God, fine. He wins an official laugh with that. Maybe it would be messed up, either way. Indiana or Virginia or Baltimore or New York. Anywhere with memories. Just a weird mimic of what was before. Who the hell had time for that. Especially with a boyfriend attached to the neck. ]

Mm. Okay. I'll give you wine. Then you throw a dart at a map. And...you know. We'll live there.

I'm not complaining, [ she said, with a small shrug, zipping up her rolling suitcase and starting to pull it out. And really, this whole trip was...weird. Bonding time with Will Graham as they searched for missing Abigail Hobbs? Weird. Nice, but weird. ]

I'll pull the car up to the front then.

[ they're being nice to each other, this is such a new experience for Freddie ]

[Jayden is unsure if he can trust Will Graham. He's been unsure of this for awhile now. But he grabs the bag and conceals it inside his hoodie. Part of him just wants to say goodbye and leave because Will looks busy, but... he did disappear and come back injured not long ago. So he stalls by the door, shifting his weight from foot to foot, looking down.]

So, um, did you ever figure out why Yuri gave you that book?

[The irony of Will Graham and Freddie Lounds possibly having Chilton committed to a mental health facility.]

A wise decision, coming to your god when he beckons. [Just in case anyone forgot that Chilton could be obnoxious, even with fabricated memories.] But as you can see, my godhood is in... Repose. I was forced into this mortal body, and I want back what's mine. That is the divine obligation I speak of.

Hmph. I'd be more worried about the ones who do have experience...

[Thinking back to young Giorno, and their first conversation, the one where he spoke of powers native to his home. He wonders for a moment if they're the same as the ones he has now, but doesn't think too deeply on it]

But I understand your point. I do have another question, though. About... everyone else. Those who don't side with him, but aren't guilty of any unforgivable sins. What does he think of us? Is-

[Pauses, taking a deep breath]

Is he testing us?

[Desperate times!!!

Suddenly realizing just why Freddie had her foot to the gas so hard when they took off, this is...something else. But, hey, if Will Graham can work profiling serial killers who "honor" their victims by eating them and sharing that honor with the family, surely he can handle any level of crazy talk there is. Everything happens so much.]

I'm. Not sure how to do that. [The last time he helped anyone becoming what they thought they were, uh, didn't go so well. He doubts that's what even a god-tier out of it Frederick Chilton is considering. Too much pain to his person involved, even if it's a pathetic mortal husk.] Do you know? How we can help restore you to what you should be?

Sorry cc ok

[ that's it for a second, literally the first thing she texts to anyone, in the middle of being debriefed, not even looking at the phone as the person talks and ushers her out of the building. it is, technically, her first debriefing since the other one was in the hospital post coma.

it's followed quickly by: ]

Porter

[Well now, there is one question Will wasn't expecting. His focus turns to Jayden and Jayden only, lips twisted. Words have meaning, agenda. It's never a bad idea to taste an answer before he spits it out.]

I think it had to do with it being by a Russian author and easily accessible in English. It's not a book I'd find boring or unable to read due to the way it was written. [For other reasons, sure. Will Graham may pretend to be a lowly fisherman who is not much outside of it, but Yuri knows him to be smart. Capable of enjoying books written in certain styles others might find boring or bothersome.] I gave him a copy of To Kill A Mockingbird in return.

[This for that: misery that was warranted versus misery that was not warranted. Sharing their respective homes, stories from them. He shifts in his seat, crossing his legs in a way that's less Will Graham and more...respectable. What one might expect from a doctor about to hear their life story.]

Thanks for humoring me when I asked about it, though.

[Definitely attached to the neck over here. A suckerfish hanging on, a tiny male anglerfish who has found the source of all light and life in the universe and is ready to become one with her as she swims the black depths. He's just happy to be here, more so when he gets a laugh. Another point for Graham, he's doing so well today.]

Why not somewhere in Heropa? [Why does he have to talk, why can't he just kiss her neck forever, why anything. Grumble grumble, kiss, hair up the nose, ignored.] Set up a guest room with a window that never locks, Grey can come and go as he pleases. Doesn't even have to knock, just climbs right in.

[He's totally not just suggesting Heropa because of Grey, but better to steer it in the direction of mutual friends than "but my surrogate daughter, April, I must stay nearby for her precious sake."]

[This would be so much easier if he'd seen one of Lunatic's charred corpses, he's tempted to say. As far as he knows, no one from Baltimore has dropped that as being bullshit, but. This conversation is going fine, unlike the one with Clark. No need to upset it.]

Testing us—to see who is willing to step in? [Why would anyone do that, that literally sounds like fiery, miserable suicide. Nobody go being a hero now.] I...don't think so. I don't think this is some test. He's simply doing what he does, and those among the population who haven't committed unforgivable sins are...par for the course.

[The four course meal.

No please Mister Lunatic don't throw a BBQ.]

[BABY CAME BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]

Where are you? Do you need someone to pick you up?

IC contact [Mask or Menace]

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