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Set immediately after Fancy Meeting You Here
Jack Martingale:
They have to either deal with SEPTA or take an Uber to the northeast part of the city where Jack lives. It's...not a great neighborhood, and the shop that Jack lives above is boarded up. There's a security panel just inside the door to the stairwell, though. which Jack disables and then re-alarms after shutting and locking the door. The door at the top of the dimly lit staircase is also locked, even though he's clearly got the only apartment here.
The aforementioned apartment, once the lights are on, is a little messy, a little dusty. The kind of place that someone who works a lot and lives alone keeps, with not a lot on the walls and a sink full of dishes. There's a few pieces of clothing strewn around the living room floor, and a neon pink sweatshirt draped over the couch.
"It's a little bit of a mess, sorry..." Jack winces as he looks around the place, and kicks his boots off next to the door before making an effort to at least put the clothes into a pile in the corner.
Aurelio Menegi:
"No worries." Pale eyes scanned the room, with no visible sign of judgment on the Torrent's face. The neon pink sweatshirt did earn a curious look, though, what with it contrasting the picture he had of the man. "You weren't expecting company, after all."
Jack Martingale:
"Ah - yeah." He follows Aurelio's gaze to the sweatshirt, and that scribbly blush is back. "That's - my partner's. Who is currently spending the night at a possible new boyfriend's house." Which hopefully explains things in the least awkward way possible. "D'you want coffee? Or - I've got beer, a little rum...?"
Aurelio Menegi:
"Ah...was going to say, didn't quite fit." He nodded, smiling a touch. "Coffee will be good, thank you."
Jack Martingale:
"I've been known to wear color, occasionally..." he looks down at his dark jeans and black t-shirt with a grin. "But not that bright, no." And he goes to the kitchen to start making coffee. The miniscule kitchen being all of a few feet away, separated from the living area by a half wall that makes sort of a breakfast bar.
"So? Met someone you knew Over There, and had to actively dig to find the memory of it? Or d'you wanna not talk more about that now?"
Aurelio Menegi:
Aurelio glanced down at his own outfit for the evening, much of a similar bent, then looked back to Jack with a smirk. "Know how that goes."
He nodded at the question, pausing to take his own boots off and leave them by the door before finding a convenient piece of wall to hold up. "Si. We both recognized each other, but figuring out the how took some doing."
Jack Martingale:
There's plenty of empty wall to hold up - a bookcase and the open door to Jack's bedroom take up most of one wall, but the others are pretty free, discounting the smallish TV. The couch is kind of in the center of the room, making a walkway between the bedroom and the kitchen.
Once the coffee pot is going, Jack wanders back into the living space to perch on an arm of the couch, regarding Aurelio thoughtfully. "And your Clarity's gone a little to shit as a result." He nods, confirming what they'd talked about earlier now that he doesn't have to tiptoe around the words.
"You said you can't just go visit your Touchstone on a whim...?"
Aurelio Menegi:
"Enough to notice, yes." He gave another nod, pausing at the question that followed. When the moment passed he pushed off the wall, pulling his phone from his pocket. After a bit of fiddling he showed the screen and the photo of a young girl, maybe twelve at the high end. "She comes by the workshop now and then to watch her father work, and it would be odd to ask."
Jack Martingale:
"Who's her father?" Jack cants his head. "And who is she to you?"
Aurelio Menegi:
"The owner of the workshop. And she," he nodded to the phone, "is the most current of my descendants."
Jack Martingale:
"Ah." Jack nods, looking sympathetic. "Is that why you came to Philly? To find your descendants?" It's a soft question, and Jack gets up to check on the coffee after he asks.
Aurelio Menegi:
"It is." He dismissed the photo from the phone and pocketed it once again, claiming a seat on the couch as Jack stepped into the kitchen. "My youngest son came here before the Great War and continued the work. Thought it better to be close to that than to stay in Venice."
Jack Martingale:
"Do they know you're related? A distant cousin, or anything?"
Aurelio Menegi:
"No. They know where I'm from, but not that."
Jack Martingale:
"Is...being a part of that family, even if it looks different than it did, something you want?" Jack pours coffee into two mugs and comes back into the living room to offer Aurelio one. He perches on the arm of the couch again, keeping at least some semblance of respectful distance while they talk about the heavy shit.
Aurelio Menegi:
He took the cup when offered, nodding quietly before taking a sip. "Not sure where to start, though."
Jack Martingale:
"I'm...not sure if I'm the best person to give advice about this. I was only gone six weeks, Ironside time. I slotted back into my life...a little too easily. But...might be worth, even just logistically, figuring out where you might belong in the family tree, now. See how many steps removed, how distant, still feels like family without the worry of someone looking too deep into it."
Aurelio Menegi:
"Perhaps. Still have some of the work others did to find them before."
Jack Martingale:
"And...I mean I know you can't tell them most anything, but sometimes telling people that there's stuff you have not say, secrets you have to keep about yourself, goes further than just not saying anything at all."
Aurelio Menegi:
"Right." He gave a small nod. "Best one can do in that case, no?
Jack Martingale:
"Yeah. Otherwise shit'll go bad real fast. You gotta give 'em something to fill in the blanks, and at least in my opinion, outright lies are too messy. But you might get a different answer if you asked a Winter." He grins and sips from his mug.
Aurelio Menegi:
"True enough." He smirked a touch at that, taking a sip of his coffee in kind. "Different perspectives are never a bad thing, though."
Jack Martingale:
He nods. "I know there's others of us who are just as out of time as you, they might have better advice'n I do." He shrugs. "But getting closer to your family seems like a solid goal. Even aside from it being useful to get better access to your Touchstone, you know?"
Aurelio Menegi:
"Spoken with a few, Annie for one. Haven't asked on that front yet, though." He nodded. "Indeed."
Jack Martingale:
"Annie's who I was thinking of, yeah," Jack says with a smile. "I'm sure there are others, though. Kinda tends to be a subject people don't wanna bring up, and I'm not one to push about stuff like that, it makes a lotta sense."
Aurelio Menegi:
"Agreed. There's a look of...pity, almost, in some eyes when I say how long I was gone. It starts to grate after a while."
Jack Martingale:
"I would think." Jack grimaces. "I try not to do the pity thing, too much. It...I've never found it to be helpful, for me or the person who I'm talking to."
Aurelio Menegi:
"It isn't. We all have our hardships, but I focus on rising above them instead of letting them hold me back."
Jack Martingale:
Jack raises his mug in a toast to that. "Well I hope she comes by the studio soon."
Aurelio Menegi:
"As do I." Aurelio lifted his mug in kind, smiling a touch as he lowered it once again. "Not what I expected I would be doing this evening, but it has helped. Thank you."
Jack Martingale:
"Oh? What did you have in mind?" Jack raises his eyebrows as he sips his coffee. "Glad it's helped though."
Aurelio Menegi:
"Mostly to get a drink and see if Annie or anyone else was at Vertigo. Was told it's a common meeting place outside the Thorns."
Jack Martingale:
"Yeah, it's an easy meeting place, if you drink. The dancing's pretty good too, they've got theme nights. And karaoke. All sorts'a shit."
Aurelio Menegi:
An eyebrow arched at the last bit Jack said, a note of curiosity in his features. "Not familiar with that last word..."
Jack Martingale:
"Karaoke? It's..." he frowns thoughtfully. "there's a thing set up that just plays the background music of popular songs, and shows the lyrics, and people will choose a song and go up on stage and sing it. Often badly. I kinda hate it."
Aurelio Menegi:
"Ah...I see." He nodded quietly. "That...does not sound good, though, if those singing do not do it well."
Jack Martingale:
"People get drunk and sing their favorite songs, and they're just...almost never very good. It can be fun to cheer on your friends and shit, but...I'd rather dance, if I'm going out."
Aurelio Menegi:
"True. If they enjoy what they do, then that is good for them...even if not so good for the audience." He smirked a touch. "Not much for that myself, or at least how it's done now."
Jack Martingale:
"No?" Jack finishes off his coffee and sets it on the coffee table. "Why not?"
Aurelio Menegi:
"Never been comfortable moving in that way." He offered a small shrug. "That and the...closeness. Brings up certain temptations I try to avoid."
Jack Martingale:
Jack raises his eyebrows. "You...wanna elaborate on those temptations?"
Aurelio Menegi:
"The cold of where I was dug deep, and in turn I was forced to reclaim that lost warmth from others. It is not needed now, but the thought lingers."
Jack Martingale:
"Ah. I mean, just 'cause you think about doing something, doesn't mean you gotta do it." Jack shrugs. "Thoughts are just thoughts."
Aurelio Menegi:
"True, and normally it is no issue. At times, though, is best not to tempt fate."
Jack Martingale:
"Sounds like you don't trust your own control?"
Aurelio Menegi:
He shook his head. "I made the choice to protect rather than harm when I came back, and I keep to that. There are some who look poorly on those shaped like this, however, and while actions speak loudly some pay them no mind and assume what will be done."
Jack Martingale:
"If people are gonna assume you're gonna be a creep just 'cause you wanna get close to someone, that's on them, not on you." Jack frowns. "Like, seriously. None of us can help what They tried to make us."
Aurelio Menegi:
"Agreed, but some see it differently. Setting a good example is the best that can be done, at times."
Jack Martingale:
"I mean personally I'd say fuck whoever it is who makes you think you gotta set a good example, if it sucks for you. It's not like it's your fault if someone sees you getting close to someone and assumes you're gonna be shitty and creepy."
Aurelio Menegi:
He gave a small nod, taking a moment to polish off his coffee before continuing. "None have here yet, thankfully, although one did show wariness until I clarified that I did not use such things on those I have sworn an oath to protect."
Jack Martingale:
"'S good. Sure there's gonna be creeps - but we've all got shit we could use for not-so-savory ends, if we wanted. I dunno. I feel like you shouldn't deny yourself shit just 'cause of what other people might think."
Aurelio Menegi:
"That we do. It is what we do with what we have been given which is most telling, after all." He sat back in his seat on the couch, nodding quietly. "True. Echoes of a more...conservative past, perhaps."
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