The Magic Box, Monday

[existencemisspent]

It was still cold. Eliot was still grumpy about it.

But at least January was very nearly over. And February was short.

He took a long drag on his cigarette as he looked over his delightfully foul-mouthed weather app on his phone.

"Sixty degrees next week, and then snow. This is what happens when nobody reasonable is is charge of the weather," he said to . . . no one. He looked around the shop and sighed.

"Save it for when Jon arrives, darling," he advised himself. "Before you start making the vaguely inappropriate frog incense burner your new work buddy."

[open!]

Comments

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

And look - here was Jon, as expected! With coffee for Eliot and...well, coffee for himself, too. Much as he preferred tea, he was starting to feel rough, and hoped the extra caffeine might help a bit.

"Morning." He handed Eliot his coffee.

Was it morning? That would mean looking at his watch.

[existencemisspent]

"Oh hell, you're starving again, aren't you," Eliot said with a long sigh, giving Jon a once over as he accepted the coffee. "There must be more 'real life' accounts online for you to snack on. You've tried Reddit, right?"

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Where do you think...never mind." Jon shook his head and took another sip of coffee. "Yes, I get...quite a bit from it."

He grimaced. "I...I'll manage."

He probably wouldn't, but he refused to come to Eliot like he was some sort of drug dealer instead of a friend who had done him a huge favour once.

[existencemisspent]

A huge favor Eliot was not in any rush to do again, what with how close he'd come to niffining out. And how long it had taken Margo to start talking to him again.

"What about those ghost hunting shows on YouTube? Surely they're not all full of shit."

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"I haven't found one yet that isn't," Jon scoffed. "One or two have genuine fear at least, though." And none of them were Melanie, so there was that. He rubbed his face. "There are some websites that are occasionally useful, but..." He sighed. "The problem is that they tend to...to copy each other? Or...or maybe they just all use the same sources. So new things are, um, limited."

He shook his head. "Hunting down people who deserve it is looking tempting, if I didn't know I was such a poor judge of that. I could...could get myself a portal, drop into the middle of Nazi Germany or something, but with my luck I'd just end up with more scars."

He wasn't exactly a fighter.

[existencemisspent]

". . . Yes, I'm going to recommend against that myself," Eliot said. He let out a long sigh. "There has to be a better solution. Maybe we can find you a questing beast. Those must exist somewhere other than just Fillory. . . ."

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"A...um. I have no idea what that is, beyond some Arthurian references," Jon carefully didn't ask.

[existencemisspent]

"Magical creature, more or less humanoid. Must grant you a wish if you catch it. I've heard of . . . two being caught. Of course, those wishes mostly just resulted in interdimensional transport."

And of course there was the Great Cock giving Eliot a quest, but he hadn't actually quite caught him. More just . . . stumbled on him in the preserve during Parents Weekend.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"And that we've got." Jon grimaced. "Except, of course, to the place where they are."

After all, helping Eliot find a way to Fillory was the entire reason he came here every week.

Ostensibly.

[existencemisspent]

They had rather wandered away from that idea, hadn't they.

"There is the rub," Eliot agreed. "Last time I saw one, he found me." He let out a long sigh. "I suppose this is just how it goes with curses, isn't it. There's no real way around them but through. And then you and your best friends end up in a death match over syringes, in the hopes of being revived in time to avoid permanent organ damage. . . ."

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"I...wait, wh- um. UM." Jon set his coffee down and started hastily backing away, swallowing. "Eliot, don't...you probably shouldn't..."

[existencemisspent]

"Hmm?" Eliot asked distractedly, somewhat lost in the memory of Margo pinning him to the floor and jamming poison into his chest. He wondered if Margo ever thought about that. If anyone but her had tried something like that on him, she'd kill them -- He sat up abruptly.

Right. Margo killing them.

"Yes. Right." He jammed his coffee cup into his mouth and tried to gulp down far too much at once, drowning out the burgeoning urge to tell everything. At least the ensuing choking fit made saying more rather difficult?

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon tried taking deep breaths, not backpedaling anymore, but ready to flee if he had to.

Because Eliot was his friend, and also yes, Margo would kill them both.

"Are you all right?" His eyes went wide. "Fuck! Sorry!"

He didn't curse often, but he felt this warranted it.

[existencemisspent]

Eliot flapped a hand at him when that got him trying to answer while still choking.

Jon, did you ever learn when to actually shut your mouth?

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

He really didn't, no.

"Right. Is there...No, never mind." Pretend like Margo was here. What would Margo do, apart from muting him and glaring at them both?

Jon tentatively stepped up to Eliot and started thumping him on the back.

[existencemisspent]

Eliot twitched out of the way.

"Thank you," he coughed. "But . . . perhaps you'd best go."

That had been as close as they'd come accidentally in awhile, and he was a bit spooked.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Right." Jon nodded jerkily. A part of him wanted to protest that he hadn't even done anything, but just being here was enough, in the end.

"Yes. I'll, um. I'll just go." He backed up, then walked as fast as he could to the door. He turned back around to say something, then changed his mind, nodded again, and left.

[existencemisspent]

"Well," Eliot told the frog incense holder. "That was . . . messy." He grimaced and dabbed at his coffee-damp shirt with his sleeve. "In more ways than one."

He'd feel worse about basically kicking Jon out, but -- well. It was nowhere near how either of them would be feeling if Eliot had been so stupid as to actually give the man another statement.