thespherelogs | Closed Logs

Llewellyn hadn’t taken long to get in touch with Alex after things started to happen. Sometime between when he spoke to Bev about the abandoned domes disappearing and the first inhabited dome going missing, he got in contact. He did some preliminary looking around on his own, of course, but ultimately hadn’t wanted to waste too much time without a second mind to bounce thoughts off of. You could only get so much out of repeating thoughts to your dog before you really needed someone who could respond back. Alex been here a lot longer than he had, and the detective knew she would probably be as keen to look into this growing mess as much as he was.

As it stood, he knew he was out of his depth with this one; more used to murders, corruption plots and thefts than magical dome disappearances at the bottom of the blasted sea. Still, he wanted to do what he could to figure things out. Llewellyn needed to feel like he had some form of control over his life, and in this case it was by doing what he did best. Being nosy.

Notebook and pen in his pocket, with Pretzel on his leash (he was not taking a chance with leaving the little dog unattended right now), Llewellyn waited for Alex outside her dome.

As soon as things had started to go down, Alex had launched into looking into things. This was, even for the three years back home and almost two years here, and the fact that she'd already died twice (three times) a whole hell of a lot for her. But the time with the Moss had made Alex a little more wary (despite what Richard might say or think) and she's trying to avoid the same sort of circumstance if she possibly can. And god does she hope that they can.

Coming out of her dome, Alex has Apophenia on his leash as well, her bang full of things over her shoulder. Just in case. They're doing a hell of a lot of things just in case and she kind of hates that she needs to. But the idea of being without some things (her recorder, food for Apho and Simon's cat, food in general, a bottle of scotch) has made it so that Alex's normal over the shoulder bag is filled to bulging, and she's got her recorder in her coat pocket other than where she'd normally have it within the leather.

Giving Llewellyn a quick grin that is nonetheless colored and darkened by her very really concern and fear, she just says quickly: "hey. You ready to go and try poking a beehive?" Alex knows this is probably dumb but whenever has she let her stop that before?

Llewellyn gave Apophenia a small hello, patting the dog’s head in greeting before he focused on the question. Honestly, the answer was probably (definitely) no. Not because he wasn’t prepared to investigate so much as the fact that he wasn’t even sure how to go about poking this particular beehive. Not that it would stop him, of course! The detective tended to poke around blindly until an answer fell out from somewhere... or something bad happened.

It was a toss up on what the results would be here.

“As ready as either of us will be, I expect.” He responded with a small nod, starting to walk with a side glance at Alex. “Mm... I admit, this isn’t the sort of nest I’m accustomed to poking. Less mundane and more—” He doesn’t finish the sentence, hand waving vaguely instead to perhaps suggest ‘weird future magic shit’ in more polite terms.

“Other than domes disappearing, have you noticed anything out of the ordinary?” Alex was observant, most journalists were, it was a valuable trait in a situation like this.

Alex gets the hand gesture. After all, the last three years for her at home had been her investigating weird magic shit from the foundational skill set of a journalist, and it was one of those things that had both helped and hinder her in that instance. But it had at least given her a starting point, and it's given her one now, even as the walls seem to go tighter and tighter around her as people try to move their entire lives into fewer and fewer domes.

Alex doesn't like it. At all. And the reason that she doesn't like it is for a simple reason:

"You mean other than the boiling anger and sense of resentment from the older population?" The words are followed with a sigh, and Alex just presses her fingers against her dog like some sort of touch stone. "It'd happened pretty seriously with the stuff around the Moss and the older residents kind of acting like we weren't supposed to be here. I mean, I got taken early so I missed a lot of it."

Which actually stops Alex short with a frown, and she reaches out and puts a hand on Llewellyn's arm. "Before we poke too hard, you should know that the last time we poked at these sort of things, everyone who was investigating it was... Well, we died and then instead of coming back to life in our domes where we were supposed to, the Moss controlling the Sphere was able to stop us from resurrecting where they were supposed to. It was me and Aaron and Rhys," the sadness that her friends are gone lingers there. "And they took the council. Well, Max and Laurie, it seemed like Annie but we didn't know that she was a..." How to put this both more and less delicate.

"She was a robot, a really life like and human looking one who a resident who left had made in Max's daughter's image. She'd thought that she was doing him a favor. She wasn't. Instead Annie just reminded Max of a daughter who he'd never see grow up to look like that." Which makes Alex sad all over again.

Llewellyn’s face shifted to something of an awkward grimace at the reminder of the unrest starting to spread already. He hadn’t been here for any of the prior events, but he had certainly seen what a city full of people who didn’t like the presence of specific people could do. It was frightening, ugly, and dangerous. “Well... one could argue that we aren’t supposed to be here, but that’s hardly our fault. Not that the older population will be thinking particularly rationally about that if this all gets worse. Oh— and I did mean other than that, I suppose.”

And it was a bit frustrating, because a small part of him actually liked some aspects of living here. Not the nightmares or the memory shares of course... but the freedom to just be as he was, and the people he’d befriended. It somehow was as much a home as the one he had back in Toronto. In some ways it was almost more...

Llewellyn slows his steps, pulling to a stop when Alex lightly put a hand on his arm, a curious expression crossing his face at that. “Hm? Ah...” He mumbled a little, taking a moment to consider his response to that little detail. It’s only a moment though, before he’s shaking his head a little. He looks serious, and a touch concerned. More for her than himself, “It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been in danger of dying because I poked around a case. Nor would it even be the second.” He added with a small sad smile, “But... I could also investigate on my own, you needn’t get mixed up in all this after what happened last time. It might be better to have someone who knows more available should something happen, to tell the others what’s happening if I did stumble on something.”

He knows Alex though, knows she’s just as stubborn as he is when it comes to figuring out the truth. It still needed to be suggested though, she needed to know he wouldn’t think less of her if she wanted to sit this out. Llewellyn was used to working on his own, as much as he preferred to have a partner.

The detective tilted his head, alarm rather apparent as he listened to a further recount of the events surrounding the moss. “The council as well— um... I wonder if we shouldn’t make sure someone keeps an eye on them, if only to make sure they remain safe. The people need those who can organize and keep things running as smoothly as possible if things happen.” It’s not even just knowing that Rhy sat on the council now, he respected both Laurie and Max in a way. Even if he wasn’t sure what they thought of him in general, though news that they might request his assistance did help some.

And the people would need them...

“And that can’t have been easy for them to handle last time, I... knew about Max’s daughter being gone, but I didn’t know that the third council member had been meant to look like her?” Even if it had been well-intentioned, it would almost seem cruel in its own way.

Llewellyn had considered trying to get in touch with Enis over the coms, but he had been checking in on her to see how she was doing intermittently since Rhys disappeared anyway. It had been a little while though, the domes starting to disappear had thrown his routine into a weird spiral of intermittent panic and worry on rotation. The detective brain turned on properly, and he’d gotten lost in it for a while.

Then Rhy had contacted him on the behalf of the council, and they’d discussed how to proceed. Ideas, concerns, possible plans... Llewellyn didn’t have many that he could suggest that hadn’t been suggested already. After all, several of people he knew had gone home recently. Enis and the neat gadgets she’d been showing him over the last month were first to come to mind, though he was a little worried about bothering her right now what with everything she was dealing with emotionally... But desperate times.

So he showed up in the afternoon following the conversation with Rhy, and hoped to at least talk. To get a feel for how she was doing personally, how she was coping... and maybe ask for some advice if she was up for it. Perhaps having something to do would help, or maybe it wouldn’t, either way Llewellyn intended to try.

Knocking on the door, as always (despite her assessment that his insistence on that was weird, but you couldn’t get him to stop doing something the Inspector had drilled into him over two years), and waited. “Enis? Are you around?”

"Fuck!" Her voice echoed from the back room. "Just come inside for god's sake. It's a store Llewellyn!" She didn't have to see him to know it was him.

He was the only person who knocked when the store was technically open.

Not that Enis often took customers. There was now a form to be filled out and she used the text system to confirm the cost of repairs. It was easier than actually coming into contact with customers who were bound to ask where Rhys was.

Enis didn't come out to meet him but as he walked into the room he'd smell burnt metal and seared flesh. There was frantic rustling in the back room but when Llewellyn stepped further into the store he'd simply see a mess, Enis and blood tears staining her cheeks.

Llewellyn winced a little at the expletive followed by a rather frustrated sounding invitation in. It would help if he had known the shop was properly open. He knew she’d been trying to take a break from working there for a while, and had been taking clients by text mostly... So knocking had, again, seemed appropriate.

Ah well, he’d get it right one of these days... Hopefully.

He wandered in, moving around with an absentminded distraction at the mess and the smell of something recently burnt. Making his way back towards the back room where he was reasonably sure he’d find her, he stepped around this and that. It was terribly strange, usually he was the one that left his work-space in disarray.

Entering the back room, he spoke up. “Enis I—” And then promptly stopped talking. His eyes darted from the mess, and back to Enis, and then to the blood running down her face like tears. Llewellyn’s expression does something rather strange, and complicated. Shifting from surprise to outright concern as he moved further into the room. “Enis what happened, are you— uh...” He was going to ask if she was okay, but she clearly wasn’t. Instead, he quickly looked her over with a worried, searching look to see if he could spot any obvious injuries.

"I'm fine." She repeated stubbornly, dropping into the one available seat in the room. "Stay back. I'll explain in a second." Enis began to wrap her arm in a thin black cloth, tugging it tightly to hold the skin closed. It hurt but she felt the mental alarm slowly begin to recede as her body found its balance once more.

"Ugh." Enis slid down in the chair, letting her head fall back.

"Please. I beg you. Stop fucking knocking and just come in. I'll give you a key if it makes you feel better." If he looked around the room it'd be easy to tell what had happened. Enis had been working on something and had been startled. Her arm had been sliced by a hand saw that now lay on the floor. One of the piles of materials had fallen over and a sheet had been hastily thrown over one table.

When her heart beat slowed, she wiped away the blood beneath her eyes though a dark maroon stain remained on her pale skin. Her features were more gaunt then they had been before and she looked exhausted despite once claiming that she never needed sleep.

Llewellyn’s brow furrowed at the statement, though he at least maintained his distance as requested (at least for now). He wasn’t buying the line though, and she’d have to forgive him for ignoring the bit about the knocking. He did hear her, and he’d try to remember this time, but there were more important matters than that. “People are fine don’t generally bleed from their eyes, Enis.” He started, panic still apparent in his voice.

This month was not going to be a good one for his blood pressure, or his stress induced memory lapses (rip to the memory of her telling him not to knock),

“And you’ve cut your arm, does it need stitches? I can patch you up, I have experience uh—” It was easier to patch up someone else than yourself as it was, plus he’d had to take care of injuries before. Often in his youth with his brothers. He falls silent finally, awkwardly fidgeting a bit where he was standing with his arms folded to keep from gesturing wildly. Llewellyn definitely needed an explanation, Enis.

"I'm not really a person Llewellyn." She snapped but then calmed down. "Sorry." Her palm rested over her eyes as she tried to reign in her anger and frustration. "It's something my father did to me. He replaced and installed a lot of systems in my head. I told you some about it. This is what happens when it's trying to take control of me. When I fight it, I cry blood."

She hadn't losing control of her own body. "It's a safety protocol that he installed so I wouldn't try and kill myself again."

She pushed herself up and looked down at her cradled arm. "Nah. It'll heal quickly. At least enough for the bleeding to stop. It'll take a few weeks to heal fully. Something else my father did to me." It was easy to kill her but she didn't stay injured for long.

Llewellyn hated that, the very idea that what had happened to her or what was different made her any less of a person. Yes, he understood what the world would say was a normal human differed from what she was, what with the things that had been done to her. That had changed her... But personhood was different to him, it was thoughts and feelings. The way you treated another person regardless of who they were or what you had going on. Enis was a friend, and so she counted as a person to him.

He shook his head though, “Don’t be sorry, just... Please remember that I don’t think of you that way.” Llewellyn didn’t want to argue about it, but she would know him well enough to guess that he would if prompted to.

The detective mulled over the explanation, feeling terribly unprepared and lost. This wasn’t something he could really understand well, and for the thousandth time since he arrived in this place, he wished some of the more science-minded members of his social circle were here. People he could ask for advice, or for them to help his friend.

“Is there... Is there anything that I can do to help?” The fact that it was because she was fighting against something in her head trying to control her was alarming. Worrying... Especially if it was something put in place to keep her from... Ending herself. He was concerned before, now he was downright worried.

Enis exhaled a slow steadying breath and shook her head. "I know but I think of myself that way. I don't know how else to think of myself." Rhys had taught her that she could be human without actually being human but it was a difficult implement the change of thought.

She was trying. That was all she could do.

"No. Maybe the magic here can help but I haven't found a way of taking it out without changing who I am. It all started when I was a child. My body has literally grown around these... installations." Enis frowned at the last word and shook her head. "I can fight it but this happens. It isn't really a problem but it's gross and alarms people."

Alex and Llewellyn investigating WTF is happening - Backdated to early August

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Checking in on Enis, Watts has one whole concern - August 12th ish?

Checking in on Enis, Assuming the mech shop :D

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Llewellyn checks in on Rhy and explains why sleep is good - Late month, probably around the 20th

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Watts is concerned that it’s a little too quiet - Late August, After rationing begins as requested

hell yea

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