[open] monstas!

[amberhearted]

Who: Alexander, open!
When: March 29th through the first week of April.
Where: Various locations in Locke City.
What: Encounters with the no-longer-quite-so-mundane item monsters both on and off the clock.
Warnings: tba!

Various prompts in the comments!

A: Playing cards versus Starbucks
B: Answering a monster-related 911 call
C: Bring your own adventure

Prompts are in prose, but it doesn't matter which format you use. I'll match!

Comments

[detectivetroll]

He tilts his head in a slight nod - he'd assumed Alex would get it without further clarification. They're both likely worried about the same people, after all.

"Yeah." He pushes his hand through his hair. "Nothing like a little reminder that humans can be terrible up there with the best of them." But hey, at least that part of the job is almost normal. ...a really shitty part of normal, but still.

Nick's eyebrows raise at that. "Yeah? Give me the details, I might have to put off my own coffee runs."

[amberhearted]

"Walking card decks. Like..." He licks his lips, hand partially lifted. "Like Alice in Wonderland, you know? They came in suits, but not all of them-- so there's gotta be more of them out there or someone else tangoed with them, but anyway. You know how the royals hold something?"

He makes a forward sweeping gesture with his hand. "That's what they used to fight. The others were using shit like crowbars, pipes... I got a sweet pair of metal knuckles, though," he adds, grinning briefly.

[detectivetroll]

Nick huffs out a chuckle, half amused and half disbelief, though of course, he does believe it. With everything else, why not walking decks of cards. He shoves his hands into his pockets, fiddling with his keys.

"Literal card gangs invading coffee shops? Yeah, okay, Lyall and Karl are going to have to put up with teacher lounge coffee for a little while." He shakes his head. "Seriously, man, what the hell are our lives?"

[amberhearted]

"So you're their coffee gopher?" he asks, smile winding down to something more casual. "Dang, detective. Not making enough cha-ching?"

He lifts his hand and rubs his fingers together, the common signal for money. He's teasing, of course. And for it, he gets a bird flying overhead that times their shit bomb in such a way that it lands right on his gloved fingers.

His expression is priceless.

He looks up to the sky. "You're fucking kidding me!"

[detectivetroll]

Nick chuckles, and is about to make some kind of comment about how he'd have much better ways of earning extra money, thanks, when, well. Karma happens.

He lets out a startled laugh before he can stop himself.

"Man, I'm sorry. I'm pretty sure nothing I can say would be as good of a comeback as the bird who was apparently offended on my behalf, but I could try."

Or his thumb could brush over one of the keys in his pocket that are no longer exactly his, and he could blurt out, "I'm going on a trip with Lyall, and I'm pretty sure I want it to mean something different than he does."

...the look on his face is remarkably similar to the one Alex'd just had.

[amberhearted]

In the middle of tugging his sullied glove off, Alex turns his fading look of bewilderment from bird-transported karma onto Nick. What does a trip with Lyall have to do with... Oh, but they had just referenced him.

Okay, so maybe that statement hadn't been entirely out of left field.

"Yeah?" he prompts, expecting a follow-up. "Is it supposed to mean something?"

[detectivetroll]

It's definitely out of left field. It takes him a moment to reply to Alex's question, because he's trying to figure out what the hell had just happened.

Nick really isn't the type of guy to just say shit like that, except maybe when he's drunk, but he hasn't had anything stronger than coffee all day.

"No, I - shit, I have no idea where the hell that came from."

[amberhearted]

His brows sail even higher. "What do you mean, you have no idea where that came from?"

The question itself may come off as accusatory, but his tone is more confused with a touch of dubiousness. With all the (more than usual) bizarre shit happening recently, should he suspect foul play...?

Sullied glove off and held from one of the fingers in his other hand, Alex quickly shoves his bare hand into the warmth of his pocket. Immediately, he feels compelled to blurt, "I burned my bridge with Vin because I'm afraid of pulses that change who we are."

It doesn't take even a second for the color to figuratively drain from his face. He stares at Nick, breath temporarily caught. If his heart were still one to beat, it would have skipped one.

Hastily, he adds, "Something's not right. Something-- something's doing some-- I mean-- Fuck." He runs his fingers through his hair, clearly agitated. "Magic, monster, something."

[detectivetroll]

Nick just kind of frowns at that question. He doesn't even really know what he means, and he's trying to think of an answer that isn't 'I just said it and I don't know why.'

He's saved from having to come up with something by Alex's announcement, and then it's Nick's turn to stare back at him in confusion.

Part of him wants to ask what happened, or even to admit that he's afraid of that, too, but he's pretty sure that Alex wouldn't want him commenting on it anymore than Nick wants to talk about what he just said. Or even think about it.

Clearly the better option right now is avoiding the hell out of it.

"Truth serum? Shit, maybe they took a step up from the giggle water."