[Closed] Judged By the Company He Keeps

[effiomsfavorite]

Who: Huvrye effiomsfavorite and those close to him
What: Guess who's finally getting shot!
When: April 14-15
Where: Jason's safehouse, Huvrye's apartment
Content Warnings: Violence, gore, probably some PTSD, further CWs marked in threads as needed

Birds of a Feather (Narrative)

For all that Huvrye has been warning people against associating with the Red Hood, citing just how dangerous the gang leader can be, the consequences of his actions sure do blindside him.

Because he's been associating with the Red Hood - three times over a span of months, but two of them very visible and the third well known in crime circles - and people have noticed. Specifically the D'Amico family, who are only on Huvrye's radar under 'organized crime; do not interact.'

Which is why he's not prepared to find half a dozen of them waiting for him as he lands in an alley just outside of neutral territory, demanding he come with them and brandishing guns when he refuses.

Great. Wonderful.

The fight, such as it is, is mercifully short. There are no metas among the people the D'Amicos sent - they'd probably thought he couldn't do much more than fly, and weren't prepared to face down everything a Lasardhin homunculus is capable of bringing to combat. Two of them are down from broken spines or broken skulls, brick walls cracked and broken from where they'd died on impact. Three are torn apart, missing limbs or chunks of chest or half a head as a result of Huvrye bringing his alchemy to bear. The last has been shot with his own gun.

Huvrye stands, leaning heavily against a wall, covered in blood both his and not, with a pair of gunshot wounds in his gut for his trouble. Great. This is exactly what he needs tonight. With that much gunfire, someone's going to investigate sooner or later, which means he needs to get out of here soon. Neutral territory is close, and with it the Descendant. He can hole up in the safehouse overnight and heal for a bit. He shrugs his jacket off, wraps it tightly around his waist, around the wounds, and ties it off as best he can, and activates the magical disguise hidden under his sleeve. Wings hidden, hair and eyes and ears different, and a full foot shorter in appearance, he heads out of the alley looking like a normal human, walking quickly, pushing through the pain until he makes it to the safehouse (carefully, carefully, making sure he hadn't been followed) and slips inside.

1. Jumpscare (Closed to Dylan)

Thankfully, there'd been no one in the safehouse when Huvrye had arrived, and he'd set about taking care of himself - laying out towels in the corner, cleaning out his wounds as best he can, and applying pressure. He'll heal - it'll take a bit, but he's got enough energy that it'll happen sooner rather than later - but he's not going anywhere else tonight. After a couple of hours, the bleeding stops, and he passes out on top of the towels, fully intending to sleep the wounds off.

He's still very much asleep in the morning...lying on the floor, on bloodied towels, in bloodied clothes. Not the best impression to give anyone heading into the safehouse without context.

2. Just a Flesh Wound (Closed to Huvrye's friends)

He spends the morning recovering in the safehouse (charging his phone, apologizing yet again to Dylan, doing his best to make sure the D'Amicos don't know where he's gone to ground) before he heads home in the early afternoon. He leaves in disguise, drops it to fly back to his neighborhood, and activates another disguise to get in the front door of his apartment building. He sighs heavily when he walks in the door. He needs to clean up. He needs to get something to eat. He needs to rest - the bleeding may have stopped, but it'll still be a bit before his wounds are fully healed. And he needs to talk to quite a few people - he hadn't realized so many people had noticed he'd gone missing.

(It'd only been a day. They cared that much?)

He closes the door behind him and heads towards his room.

[I'm open to Huvrye's friends having heard from other friends about his situation/injury - if we haven't already talked about it and you think yours would know/care, let me know and we'll do a thing!]

Comments

[purplexing]

It's that phrasing that Donnie homes in on. His eyebrows are doing alternating sets again- they've gotten quite the workout since he's gotten here.

"That sounds terribly depressing," he says as he puts his coffee down to rest an arm against the counter. "There weren't any other options? What did you like doing when you were like, the age Leo and I are?"

[effiomsfavorite]

Well. So much for it not coming up. He's got a choice: he can either try to build a lie of an early life based on what he knows about civ living, or he can stonewall, act like it's too painful to talk about, and hope Donnie will have some respect for his space. Neither one is perfect, but one of them is certainly easier.

"There weren't for me," he says flatly, his tone a closed door. "Like I said: here is better."

[purplexing]

Too soon? No, it's not that. Well, maybe not just that. Donnie can't help but frown, a flicker of...something flitting across his face as he wonders if he's overstepped his limits.

He looks back at the array and the coffee it currently warms.

Fine. He was trying to knock but that door's been shut. Time to find a back entrance to the mystery that is Huvrye.

"...So is having a glowy core part of the whole fairy thing?" he asks, not caring that it's a jump from the line of conversation they'd headed down. It's still related, he thinks, he's just backtracked a lot. Makes sense on his mental crazy board anyway.

[effiomsfavorite]

He sees that consideration cross Donnie's face and figures he's bought himself a little time. The closed door method is working, at least for now. Good.

He picks up his mug, takes a sip of coffee, and nearly snorts it up his nose when Donnie asks his followup question. He swallows hard and looks at Donnie, wide-eyed. "What?"

(The last person to see his aural center had been connected to him on a very deep alchemical level and he is absolutely certain that's not the case with Donnie, so what is this.)

[purplexing]

Not the reaction he'd been expecting, but it's clear Huvrye wasn't expecting this line of questioning either. Donnie's brow arches sharply before easing into a neutral look.

Very deliberately, he reaches up to lower his goggles. At least this time he's prepared to see...whatever it is he's meaning to see. It's just as abstract as he remembers it for what brief glimpse he'd had.

"There's a lot going on there, but...then there's like...a blue fireball, nestled in the middle of more of these array things," he says, pointing towards the coffee heater. "Different layout and symbols."

[effiomsfavorite]

It's the goggles. Of course it's the goggles. That explains the reaction Donnie had had they day he'd arrived - he'd been inspecting the warming array, but he must've gotten a look at Huvrye as well.

(It doesn't explain why goggles that supposedly see magic energy are picking up on decidedly non-magical alchemy, but he'll worry about that later.)

"Oh," he says, like he hasn't heard this one before. "That's my aural center. Every fairy has one - that's how we generate aura." He pauses for a moment - might as well see if he can get Donnie off track. "Not sure how you're seeing it with goggles that are supposed to pick up magic, though, since magic doesn't exist where I'm from." Worrying about it later isn't as useful as making it a distraction now.

[purplexing]

Donnie holds up a finger. "I did pick this crystal up from an alchemist's vault. But please, do tell me how alchemy and magic differ." Hold on, he's not done yet.

"And what aura is, actually, now that you mention it, because that's a term I haven't heard you use before. I am going to assume it's related to alchemy though."

[effiomsfavorite]

Well, it's a distraction, at least. He gives Donnie a flat look. "I can't, because I'm not an alchemist and like I just told you, magic doesn't exist in my world."

Aura is easier, at least, and his expression relaxes into something more neutral. "Aura is energy generated in a fairy's aural center and also by the planet. We can use it to power alchemy, and it's also what gives fairies their wings. I'm a red aura, so mine are red." They're a plain, boring white, but the red glow outlining them is what's important here.

[purplexing]

"Guess that explains all the red then," he murmurs, although he doesn't sound completely satisfied with the answer. Donnie nudges his goggles back up, frowning at Huvrye.

"Back up a sec, you're not an alchemist? But you're using alchemy." There go those brows again. 'splain, please. "You just made it sound like you were familiar with magic enough to know it's not alchemy so I thought..." he trails off, shaking his head as he shrugs. "Iiinteresting though, and yet another contrast to popular belief."

[effiomsfavorite]

"Most fairies can do alchemy with some practice, but I'm not dedicated to it. Like I said, I'm a soldier - all my alchemy is practical." Alchemist as a position, in the same way Donnie might use scientist. "And we have magic in stories - it's not real."

[purplexing]

"Faaair..." Although it sounds like he's reluctant to concede that point. "So did an alchemist teach you? Or is it inherent like our mystic thing?"

Donnie eyes his coffee before he pointedly looks at Huvrye while he gestures vaguely to the counterspace between them. It begins as glowing lines of magenta, tracing out into a compact microwave. He reaches over to open the door and set his mug inside before shutting it, the interior lighting up.

"Magic's not supposed to be real, or at least that is something I would like to claim except that I have unfortunately come across one too many instances that prove otherwise that I can't possibly ignore it. The most annoying thing really was that trying to understand how it worked was something that eluded me."

This is not something he would have readily admitted before, but you tend to look at things differently when you figure out you've also had the same mystical aptitude as your brothers.

[effiomsfavorite]

"It's not inherent - we have to learn the arrays," is about as far as Huvrye gets before Donnie starts doing...something. The fact that the energy forming on the counter is purple is enough of a surprise; the fact that it forms a see-through yet completely functional microwave absolutely floors him, and all he can do is stare, slightly openmouthed, as the aura microwave lights up and hums like a real one does.

"...yeah, alchemy can't do that," he finally manages.

[purplexing]

The response is oddly satisfying, enough so that Donnie can't help but look a little smug. Maybe making an entire microwave is a bit ostentatious but just coming up with a simple mug warmer wouldn't have had the same impact. At least in his mind.

He does like to show off.

"I guess you can still draw similarities. It all depends on the application, right? Tech's just how I apply my mystic abilities."

The mug stops spinning in the glowing purple microwave as the thing beeps, and Donnie reaches over to carefully remove it. The mystic'd device seems to pixilate as it dissipates back into nothingness, the coffee undoubtedly warmed again for the curling wisp of steam.

[effiomsfavorite]

"That's not just an application difference." He gestures at the microwave. "You just made an actual machine out of pure energy. Alchemy can't do that." It can be used to refine aura as a power source for existing machines, but building something wholesale? The closest alchemy gets is a shield array - nothing anywhere near that complicated.

The fact that the mystic microwave disappears once Donnie is done with it doesn't diminish his point.

[purplexing]

"I made an actual machine by using my mystic ability. That's the only way it makes sense to me. Otherwise I wouldn't know where to start with magic anything. My brothers picked it up easily and did amazing things- that was before any of us knew it was something we could do even without special weapons."

Donnie traces the edge of his mug with a finger, making a slight face. He imagines it's always been something of a difference of perspective. "I think it's more of a gut-reflex or something. Can't think about it too hard, you know? That's...not how I do things."

But it's how they all ultimately connected with their ninpō. You don't give a second thought when your brother or your family needs you, not when you're that tightly knit.

"Compared to that, alchemy looks like it could make a whole lot more sense. So what does alchemy do? I've only seen you warm coffee and then I guess on an extreme level, it was used to help us take a dive into someone's past memories."