evillurks | Informal visit (For Metody)

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Current Location: Rettigue Apt., Manhattan, NY

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Informal visit (For Metody)

The Shadow is hard at work coordinating things from the Rettigue apartment, today. The break from hunting out Khan's activities in his alternate's world is merely an opportunity to chase criminals in his own. Unavailable to gather forces for multiple raids and without the time to head up those operations himself, he's stuck compiling information and passing it to legal authorities through very careful channels. It's a lot of paperwork, and very tedious, but it gives him a physical rest he needs from his other activities.

When Metody arrives, he's in the most worn spot in the whole place; the center of the black plush sofa, bent over the coffee table. He regards his visitor over the rims of his reading glasses. "You've looked better. Coffee or tea?" The paperwork is shuffled neatly into a folder, out of sight.

The apartment is spacious and spartan, with sleek dark furniture. There's a grouping of the sofa and a few black armchairs around a black metal coffee table, all arranged on a vast Oriental rug. A bookshelf built into the wall opposite the sofa holds a television set that is archaic by Metody's standards, fewer books than one might expect, a sleek stereo system, and in spots of honour a card bearing Chinese calligraphy by Myra and the wrappings and knife Metody sent for Christmas. A floor to ceiling window dominates another wall, but the drapes are only open a crack. Apart from the kitchen doorway and a hall, there's little else to be seen in this room. It has quite a bit of open, empty space and the feel of somewhere that is only sporadically lived in.

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With the spill averted, The Shadow's expression remains thoughtful, and his face hovers low over his coffee mug. "That sounds like an oversimplification. Even after seeing the Nexus, meeting other interpretations of these things, other gods, you have complete faith that what you've been taught in your own world about that is true?" There is no judgment, merely curiosity from a man who half converted to other beliefs when he was around Metody's age.

"In regards to the mechanics of the soul and sin, it is an exceedingly simple religion. We don't have eternal damnation or any kind of redemption. It gets trickier when you start involving the actual gods, though. But - " he frowns at the coffee and the mug.

" - we live really close to our gods. Really close. The main one I worship, Indian Summer, she walks along the great forests, and we can track where she moves. It's important to know, because if a person looks on her and her retinue, you don't ever come back. But if religious doubt paralyzes you, and the signs that answer prayers aren't enough, you can go see."

"And - I did."

Oversimplification tends to leave the Old Tiger feeling dissatisfied, but for the moment he'll accept the explanation.

"It's hard to imagine that kind of... proof. I'm not sure I'd be comfortable with it. I take it that fact that you're still here speaking to me is indicative that you were an exception to that rule..." The entire conversation makes him uneasy, and his words seem to come with slow care.

He spreads his hands a little, gentle this time so that the coffee doesn't tilt out of the mug. "Proof that the gods I doubted did exist, and proof that I wasn't human. She only takes humans. There's old stories about dogs and horses coming home from the hunt, all the saddles empty..." He smiles a little. "Souled things, dancing after her, lonely and far from home, and joyous in their god. It was impossible and beautiful."

His face lights up, impish again. " - and it answered the question that had always bothered me: if every person who ever saw her was taken, then how did anyone know what she looked like? I guess I wasn't the first like me to spy on her."

"I suppose it's a good thing our world isn't like that. At your age, I would have been just as inclined to go see for myself. I'm fairly well convinced of my own humanity though, and all the drawbacks that come with it." He settles back and gives a wheezing sigh, forcing his posture into something more relaxed.

"None of this has any bearing on your work for me."

"We lose a fair number of young people to it, yes."

He laughs.

"No, I suppose not. You were asking if my mind has cleared. It has. It helps to talk to someone, I think. Rituals and wards and physical labor are all very good, but they're kind of rote, too."

The Shadow was once very much the sort of reckless young man people expected to go early in some spectacular fashion. In a sense, he did, when he killed off his identity.

"The break is... a welcome one." He's tired, and under more strain than he likes to admit. Having Metody here is taking away precious time from pressing work, but he had also reached a point of desperately needing to shift his mind temporarily to something unrelated. This meeting over coffee is as much for his own sake as for his pseudo-agent's. "Your reports have been useful, even if the recent ones worried me."

He studies The for a moment, thoughtful. Possibly, Metody is the only person to ever seriously think about taking the man on a field trip. It must be terribly stifling to never leave the world you're trying to save.

"I'm very sorry about that - but it was hard to tell what was a problem in myself, and what was an actual weird manifestation of the Nexus. Sometimes it can be very strange. And sometimes," he admits, "I doubt the things I sense. So - I put it all in."

The Shadow visits several worlds outside the Nexus, but all are parallels of his own, and he's working hard to save each and every one of them. A state of exhaustion is inevitable.

"Hm. I suppose I'd rather have it all than have anything left out by accident. I'll understand if it's a few days more before you're feeling yourself, though." The vast amount of interrupted paperwork is a subtle indication that he still lacks the free time to check up on the Nexus in person.

He nods, smiling faintly.

"I will try to have something for you tomorrow, if only a little - but I will be careful and not overtax myself. I promise."

It would certainly be hypocritical of The Shadow to criticize Metody for overwork. "That should be fine, Khan's been laying low, so I've had time to make a visit or two to the Nexus."

He brightens a little. "Oh, has he? Does that mean you're pushing him back?"

Possibly, Metody's views of criminal masterminds are a bit oversimplified.

The Shadow gives a humourless grunt. "It means he's plotting something that's likely to blow up in our faces if we can't unearth it or confront him in time."

His own view is a far more experienced one, unfortunately.

"...oh. If there's any way I can help..."

He fidgets with his mug, suddenly feeling uncertain. It still seemed like such a strange thing to offer.

"It's not in my world. I'm not at liberty to bring in outside help. But thank you for the offer." He sips his coffee, distant and thoughtful.

He nods a little bit, looking down at the mug again. He was getting awful familiar with it.

"Do you like hunting? Or fishing?"

The Shadow does not intentionally drive a spike into the conversation, but he has little skill in the art of keeping it alive.

One eyebrow rises. "I've been hunting, but no, not really." After a moment he seems to realize he has just put a blunt end to whatever line of questioning Metody has in mind. "I... like flying."

Edited 2010-01-22 23:00 (UTC)

Oh. Maybe he could take him....mushrooming. Or something. There's plenty of food in the wild if you've the eye to find it.

And plenty that will kill you dead if you don't. Perhaps he will cautiously take him mushrooming.

"Flying is - that can be hazardous at home, actually. Our skies are fuller than yours. But - " he grins suddenly. " - there's a nice big cliff I know that we could go up and see things."

The Shadow has more experience at surviving in the wild than Metody may realize, although he tends to call the city home.

"You may not even have the same type of aircraft, and I'm sure my license wouldn't be valid in your world." He shrugs. "Is that an invitation? I haven't been hiking in a while. Not since... mmm. Since last spring." His gaze goes briefly distant as he recalls that day, a break that was wonderful at the time but likely contributed to the collapse of his lung shortly thereafter.

"It probably wouldn't be. We have sky creatures you guys don't even have an- an- analogy is not the same. Equivalent? Equal? Thingie like it. Congruent."

He trails off a moment, lips silently working as he pondered over the word he wanted, and then he gave up.

"It is. It would be nice to have a guest."

The eyebrows rise again, elegantly quirked. "That... sounds very interesting, although I wouldn't want to challenge them for a place in the sky. We only have birds. And bats."

His gaze drops to his coffee, but this is the only outward concession he will make to his awkwardness. "Thank you. When the Khan matter is over and dealt with..." He'll certainly need a vacation by then, although he may have to catch up on his sleep first.

"These are more like jellyfish. You get whales, too, but mostly near the open ocean and sometimes out in the Midwest. They prefer to be near flat places."

He nods a little bit, briefly wondering if the Shadow knows who Khan is - but he must. He saw his face, Metody assumes.

"Or - you know. If you can ever spare a few hours." He smiles a little. "Be like a trip to the zoo."

"...Flying whales?" He looks intrigued, but less surprised than he might have a year ago. The Nexus makes anything seem likely.

Khan's face was just a face, but he was forced into seeing the other man's mind, and that it was his own alternate still haunts him. If it has occurred to him that Metody might have recognized Khan for who he was by the bones, he is not inclined to bring it up.

"That's... well, things are quiet now, but I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop." Speaking of time in terms of hours, of which he has few to spare, reminds him to glance at his watch. He's taken time out of paperwork for the social visit.

He nodded, grinning a little. He's slowly coming to see his world as something wonderful and unique and worth showing off, like a particularly dangerous man-eating lion.

"We have sea-whales, too."

When The Shadow glances down at his watch, he guiltily stirs. Oh, ye gods, he was sucking up the man's time. What, exactly, did you say to let someone know that you were enjoying the visit and while you didn't want to cut it short, you also didn't want to take up too much time, and really, it was up to them on whether or not it was time you go?

If his world is like a man-eating lion, then the Old Tiger may make for a very interesting visitor.

"I'm not all that familiar with ocean-going whales, when it comes down to it. I've spent more time in the air than it the water." He's spent more time on dry land than either of the alternatives, but tends to assume that goes without saying.

The Shadow drops his watch arm again without comment, although he makes a brief glance at the waiting paperwork. It looms, demanding, but he is also enjoying the much needed break. Semi-retirement doesn't look so bad, now that he's working in two worlds at once and wearing himself down at it. "I can't say when the current matter will be resolved, but I'd be glad for a vacation day afterward, assuming I survive." It's an offhand tone, but he's never quite recovered from the last big battle.

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