Burned All My Notebooks, They Won't Help Me Survive [Closed]

[dead_black_eyes]

Who: Lazarus Lawliet, Ray Zimmerman, and Belle Goldman
When: Tuesday evening, March 25
Where: Lazarus and Belle's apartment
What: Weird lights in the sky or not, life must go on. L and Ray discuss rebuilding Espresso Yourself, and Belle continues to wonder what the hell she got herself into when she let Lazarus move in with her.
Warnings: People in this log have a few issues? Will update if any of them get intense.



The last few days had been a whirlwind of possibility, opportunity, and the upheaval that the entire city had shared in. The large, pure gold ingot Belle had echoed back had sold to some of L's "friends" for an incredible amount of money, all of which was currently in a duffle bag in his room, stuffed in the closet along with the camera, magnetic encoder, teslin paper, pouch laminator, and everything else he'd gathered to make fake IDs. For someone who had wanted to go into law enforcement once upon a time, L was admittedly dipping his warped fingers into some questionable pies.

The day before, he'd put on his nicest clothes, tugged a comb through his hair, and gone to a car dealership recommended to him by Mack. He'd found a Honda Civic almost identical to Belle's old one, purchased it on the spot and had it delivered to the house this morning. To make sure Belle didn't miss that the car was hers, he tied the keys to her shampoo bottle, along with a note.

Can you make dinner for me and my friend tonight? Breaking one Kosher rule is OK as long as it's not pork.

-L


Hoping that she'd said yes, and noting with satisfaction that the keys and note were both gone when he woke up, L prepared for Ray's arrival.

Comments

[dead_black_eyes]

"There's a kid who's turning into a bird, and another who's turning into a corpse," L said, unruffled; he had a lot of weird conversations, in all fairness. "I rule nothing out, and that's all I mean.

"...do you want me to take care of those parking tickets? I bet I could."

[synonymouswithdookie]

"Right, the zombie guy. Oh God, just thinking about it creeps me out. Poor bastard."

Ray looks positively baffled by the offer. For some reason. He's easily baffled.

"Wh-no, no way. I couldn't ask you to do that. Fuck no. I need to pay those myself. Part of that whole getting my life in order thing."

[dead_black_eyes]

"Anthony's one of the more unfortunate people, yes. I guess the point I'm trying to make is that any of us might be on our way to becoming something out of a horror movie, which is... kind of an obstacle toward any of us getting our lives in order. As for the tickets... I can respect that, of course."

[synonymouswithdookie]

"This whole thing is just a.... Mess. It's a fucking mess. I've been tempted to get the hell out of town a few times, but I'm a stubborn asshole so that's not likely to happen."

[dead_black_eyes]

"I wouldn't even consider going into business with someone who wasn't a stubborn asshole," L said, shrugging lightly. "And if it's a mess now, you can be assured that it's only going to get worse. Fortunately, I've recently echoed back the ability to clean up some kinds of messes, which is a sight more useful than speaking Russian, Japanese suicide notes and tennis racquets."

[synonymouswithdookie]

"Your echos are scary." Ray hadn't meant to just blurt that out, but fuck it. It was out. "Scary and weird. Just throwing that out there. But you know what, I'm glad my habit of being a stubborn asshole can be useful in some capacity."

[dead_black_eyes]

L blinked, startled at the blunt assessment.

"Yes, they're scary," he agreed quietly. "And I'm scared. But if I don't act, and use what I've been given... I'm just a coward, and too much of my life has gone that way already. I like you because you weren't the type to run away, even before any of this started."

[synonymouswithdookie]

Ray's a blunt asshole it happens.

"Scary or not, at least you got something useful back. But you know what, I'll take the compliments. An ego boost is pretty cool right now."

[dead_black_eyes]

"Do you want to see the money?" L asked, starting toward his room at a quick shuffle. "I haven't been to the bank yet, for obvious reasons... I had to sort out the social security stuff first, but I'll take care of it as soon as possible so it's not just... here, waiting to be stolen. Or found by my roommate, which would be equally difficult."

[synonymouswithdookie]

"...How the hell does your roommate not know about something like that? That's crazy."

Ray wasn't sure if L wanted him to follow or what, so he just stood up and kind of hung around awkwardly for a moment.

[dead_black_eyes]

"She doesn't come in my room. She knows it's not appropriate to invade my privacy. She probably knows about the car I bought her, since it was gone this morning and I can only assume she drove it, but I'm thinking she'll be satisfied with that and not ask about what else they gave me. Other than... well, you know."

He paused.

"You can follow, I don't keep a live tiger."

[synonymouswithdookie]

"I don't know about her, but if someone bought me a car out of nowhere I think I'd be pretty curious. but then, I'm a nosy asshole, so."

Oh goody. Ray hobbled after L. He missed sitting already, but a giant bag full of money was totally worth getting off his ass and seeing.

"You should get one. You could totally afford it."

[dead_black_eyes]

"I've never kept a pet. I'm actually not excellent at taking care of myself, so I'd hate to inflict my wanton negligence on an innocent animal. Besides... tigers aren't meant to live in apartments, and then my roommate would kick me out."

He opened the door to his room; it was fairly simple, a corkboard with the Japanese suicide note L had mentioned pinned to it. A hook on the wall held both a simple bamboo staff and a pro-quality tennis racquet, and his laptop rested on a desk that was relatively clean and clear. Several notebooks were on a shelf.

Opening the closet was a different story; it was crammed with equipment ranging from magnetic encoders to cameras to laminators, and the duffle bag in question was there, positively overflowing with bricks of cash.

"I'll probably take at least some of it to the bank, soon," he said with a shrug. "It's not safe keeping this much around the house, and it kind of defeats the purpose of my roommate wanting me to get rid of her piece of gold."

[synonymouswithdookie]

"I was totally kidding about the tiger, y'know."

Ray just stared at the contents of L's closet for a moment. He honestly couldn't believe what he was seeing. This was like something out of a movie. One of those action movies with some big name actor like Bruce Willis and explosions.

"...Mother of God."

Yeah that was all Ray had to say about it for a second.

"So... So wait. She just gave you a chunk of gold and told you to get rid of it? Why the hell didn't she cash in on that?"

[dead_black_eyes]

"She was afraid, and probably for good reason. When there's a sizable gold find, the United States government frequently claims that gold was stolen around the same time. It's all very convenient," he said dryly, leaning against the closet door and nudging a cash brick with his bare foot.

"Luckly, I know people who can move this amount, even if they're kind of... not always the best friends. They came through for us, and life's about to start."

[synonymouswithdookie]

"No shit? Guess I just don't pay attention to that sorta thing."

Ray doesn't take his eyes off the giant bag of money. It's still just completely unreal to him.

"I'll be honest. I don't know how I feel about using money that came from people like that. I mean, obviously it's your money but... I dunno, man. Weird moral conundrum. Maybe I shouldn't think too much about it."

[dead_black_eyes]

"Mack... the guy who's 'in charge', for all intents and purposes... he's got two kids, and a dog. He doesn't coach Little League or anything, but he's just a man outside of his job. He's probably bought coffee from you a few times; in this case, he bought gold from me, and I see no difference. That puts it to rest for me. So... you mentioned a location change. Where were you thinking?"

[synonymouswithdookie]

Ray still doesn't like it, but he's really not in any position to complain. Moving on, though, he hadn't really even thought of where he'd like the new shop to be. There had been a lot on his mind lately.

"I... I don't know. Just somewhere else. Not where it was."

[dead_black_eyes]

"So, a fresh start. I can get behind that. And what about the name? I actually like 'Espresso Yourself'... but I also like puns, and I know that a lot of people hate them. Our target demographic is hipsters, though, so it might be better to go for cheesy."

[synonymouswithdookie]

"I'm not sure about the name. I don't have a problem with the old one, but I guess if we can come up with something better we can roll with that too."

[dead_black_eyes]

"If there's no problem with the old name, then we shouldn't change it," L reasoned, chewing on his thumbnail. "There were loyal customers who will continue to patronize us and we shouldn't underestimate the value of a built-in client base. Starting from scratch would be much harder."