(2018-02-03) But You Can Never Leave
But You Can Never Leave
Summary: Bea and Eddie picks up Audgrim who tried to leave Port Angeles as a test.
Date: IC Date (2018-02-03)
Related: Hats and Crowns
Player Characters: Audgrim, Bea, Eddie

It's early evening when Eddie's phone rings. Assuming he answers, on the other end is a guy who has this to say:

"So, I got this phone number from this guy I just picked up from the road, says his name is Audgrim? Some Norwegian dude? Anyway, he's soaking wet for one thing, his English is fucking weird, but he's kind of funny. And he has no phone, who doesn't have a phone? Is this a Norwegian thing? Anyway, he's wondering if you can come pick him up in Kingston. This crazy guy claims he swam across from Edmonds." (Kingston is across from Seattle, Edmonds being a part of Seattle).

In the background, Audgrim can be heard shouting: "Hi Eddie!"

Eddie was with Bea, already planning a road trip, actually. Who to bring, what to eat. Arguing a little over what to put on the radio, when the call came. He holds up one finger to pause the conversation, listens. Part of the way through he turns up the volume and gestures frantically for Bea to come and listen, get-a-load-of-this. At the end he clears his throat. "Uh, yeah. A very common cultural practice, in Norway. We'll come pick him up. He's an exchange student."

Bea leans in close to listen to the call, whispering too-loudly to Eddie, "Is that Augdrim? Is he okay? We need to get him a gym membership or something, so he can swim without getting into that kind of trouble." She looks curious though, as the phone is hung up, wondering more loudly, "Why do you think he went so far away? Do you think he's sick like the trap sickness? We should probably hurry, just in case."

The voice on the other end sounds faintly dubious. "Really? Well, you best get here soon, lucky the cops didn't pick him up - he was walking down the high way. Anyway, we're at this gas station called Old Joe's, and I'm heading south - I'll tell him to stay put until you guys show up. Bye then, and get some plastic for your seats, cause he sure is soaking." Click, the phone goes dead.

They can't see it, but a mostly content Audgrim takes a seat outside on a bench and falls asleep while he waits to get picked up.

They hurry up, displacing enough old takeout containers to make room for a couple of extra people and making pretty good time to Old Joe's. There's a tarp in the back seat, that Eddie had in his trunk for some reason. The driver's side window is open in defiance of the winter weather, to let the smoke out. The radio is playing a Best of ABBA casette tape that was found improbably in his glove box, since his radio is busted and only gets AM. He seems a little embarrassed, as they pull up. "It must have been in the car when I bought it."

Bea doesn't mind the music at all, shimmying and shaking, singing along- off key and without any actual knowledge of the lyrics- the whole way. Between bouts of musical torture she keeps up a steady stream of chatter and a nearly constant flow of snacks out of her bag. As they approach, she sticks her head out the window, looking out for Audgrim. When Bea spots Audgrim sleeping on the bench, she yells out, "Audgrim! We've come to rescue you! Eddie! I see him! We found him! Hurry up, he looks like he's /dead/!"

HONNNNNK! Eddie lays on the horn before Bea even finishes talking.

Audgrim is no longer dripping water, but his clothes are indeed soaked. His violin isn't with him, but he has a wet backpack, and his trench coat is hung on the back of the bench to dry up, all wrinkled (he probably had it in his pack cause it'd be hard to swim in it). He's leaning back with arms across his chest, snoring and napping quite contently, and startles in alarm at the shouts and honking, shooting to his feet. "What!" He raises his fist, as if ready to fight whomever is making the ruckus. He squints over at the two, then realises who they are, relaxing. "Hi." He doesn't look that dead at all. Just wet and maybe a bit miserable, but he does manage a mostly rakish grin.

"Come on, get in," Eddie leans back, stretches to unlock the back door on the passenger side. "On the tarp. I've got all the mildew just how I like it." He waits for his passenger to load up, drops what's left of his cigarette into a cold cup of coffee in the cupholder, and pulls the car around to the actual gas pumps. He puts it in park and cuts the engine. "I need to fill up. Roll you window down. I don't want to miss any of this." He gets out, to do like he said, listening from outside and watching his money tick away.

Bea sighs deeply with relief when Audgrim pops up, "Oh good! He's not dead, Eddie. Isn't that good? I was so worried, just becasue of the trap sickness." She waves to Audgrim and hops out to give him a hug, wet or not, when he approaches. A thermos of hot tea is pressed into his hand, as well as a couple wrapped candies. "Here you go, and just something to help you feel a little better." She hops back into the car, asking Audgrim, "What were you doing anyway? Not trying to swim back to the Duke, I hope? And you didn't get sick, did you? Are you okay? I hope you didn't lose your violin? How far did you get in the water, like far away from Port Angeles, I mean?"

Audgrim gets his things and hurries over to the car, moving surprisingly hasty for behing him; he tends to just lazily saunter. Being hugged is a new thing, he makes a surprised noise and then hugs back tightly. He folds himself into the back of the car, taking the thermos and pouring himself a mug right away. Remembering to pull the window down for Eddie, he explains: "Violin at Tyla's," he assures, slurping the hot brew. "I go this morning from Tyla's. I walk, I go by car - nice people pick me up. But then, I get to Seattle - I feel sick. Don't want to go more. I was near water, I go in water, needed to go back, so I swim." He adds mostly for Bea's sake: "You know I swim good. I am River King. Not dangerous, but it was long swim, and then this man named Billy find me on road, pick me up." He makes a grimace. "So. New from Other place or not, you get sick. I not get really sick, I turn back soon as I feel it. Thanks you two for coming."

Eddie always seems a little pleased when Bea worries. Like he's proud of his good influence. Still, he pats her arm by way of consolation on his way out of the car. He leans up against the car and listens while he pumps gas. Listens a little too intently. "Shit," he mutters, noticing the number. He fumbles with the pump and gets some gasoline on his coat and cusses again. "Glad you're okay," he says, distracted, "too bad about the rest. Was sort of hoping we could load you and Grayson on a Greyhound and send you to El Paso if things went south."

Bea gives Eddie a curious look as he curses, reaching into a pocket and pulling out a tenner, which she hands over to him wordlessly, "I forgot to give you your retainer, for the Mills kids." She laughs a little at the talk of sending them off, but assures Audgrim, "We wouldn't send you away, unless you wanted to. But it's weird you can't go away, since just you weren't here before, when we made the trap. I wonder what you did to get stuck? Maybe just showing up here is the problem, and for you it really /is/ a trap."

"Greyhound is… car?" Audgrim hopes, cause the alternative is just too weird. He sits back and sighs, being a bit annoyed with not being able to just leave if he wants to, the tip of his tail flicking near the floor of the car. Finishing the tea, he proceeds to take his wet shirt off, and spreads it out on the tarp in the hopes it will dry up during the drive. His upper body is riddled with scars, some large and some small. "I stay, all good," he figures, waving a hand dismissively. "But maybe being here is not about old things. Maybe being here is new thing. Maybe not about what happen seven years ago. I was not here seven years ago… Maybe it is about Port Angeles itself. You say other people come here too? That has not been in Other place for a long time, but still want to come here."

Eddie pulls out his wallet, as overstuffed as an ortolan at some French baron's dinnertable. He starts digging through it, examining various cards and coupons, throwing some on the ground as he goes. Goodbye, Blockbuster card. When he notices Bea's offer, he hesitates. "I never wrote you an invoice. I'll make sure to subtract this," He takes the bill, and folds his wallet shut again. It only takes about a minute, and there's hardly any grunting. "Greyhound is a bus. Greyhound is a dog, too. One of my best personal friends was a greyhound." A little cold wind blows in through the car windows, but it's winter time. "More new faces than old ones, it seems like, sometimes. You're on to something about the town, though. I'm gonna go pay." He's gone, for a minute.

Bea points to Eddie, "What he said, about the hounds. And Sabine was really nice, and maybe is just asleep and will come back, but I haven't heard anything yet about that. Anyway, maybe you are right about that, with the new and the old. Still, I think it is a trap either way, just for people who are a certain way, maybe."

"Ah, bus." Audgrim combs his hair into a semblance of order with his claws. "It is a big trap. It is like… when I play violin for people in Other place. They hear it and they come to me. Now there is a Song and people come here - and then they can not go, because Port Angeles wants them to stay. Port Angeles is like… the Duke. It is like a bad, bad person," he notes darkly, waiting for Eddie to come back. "Like bees to flower. Or flies to honey." He grins in a creepy fashion at that, referencing the two Lost that picked him up. "Like river for an otter…"

Eddie comes back out again without even shoplifting any beef jerky or caffeine pills. It helps that Bea brings snacks, and he's still got half a bottle in the glovebox. "This town's been attracting weirdos since before any of us was around. I don't think it was ever so aggressive about it, before, though." He cranks up the engine and tries to think of some good gag about flies and honey and how the fly ends up dead, but nothing comes. He settles for making a face at Bea and switching the radio from Dancing Queen to some guy talking about baseball as he pulls back out onto the road.

Bea nods and considers that, looking toward the station register to make sure Eddie actually has enough to pay and isn't having any trouble as she replies, "Ithink you are probably right. That is part of the trap." She looks relieved when Eddie does, in fact, return, and agrees, "Sure, and we are all weird, and there's always been weird people, but there is something different now, it seems like, with the trap sickness and everything. But still, maybe Windy Wendy knows something about that, you know?"

Audgrim sits in the middle of the back seat and leans closer, resting arms on the back of the front seats, staring down the busy road. "So many cars," he murmurs, still amazed about the modern world. "You find out more about crowns or trap and things?" he asks, having exhausted his part of it, having done as he promised - testing the limits of the pull/sickness. "Who is Windy Wendy?"

"Wendy's a girl, or something worse. We met her last night." Eddie is less impressed with the traffic, grumbling as he checks his mirrors. The whole car is starting to smell like gasoline, even with the windows down. He reaches over and turns up the heater to full capacity, surprisingly loud for as little heat as it puts off. At least it kind of drowns out the baseball. "She said she had a crown, but she said a lot of things. We were talking about paying her a visit when you called."

Bea looks at the cars, then back to Audgrim wtih a smile. "Oh sure, there are a lot of them, andit's kind afun, I think. Just be careful, 'causethey are dangerous." Words ofwisdom from Bea! She looks to Eddie and,sounding extremely chuffed with herself, says, "But Eddie, she did say she plays the Night queen, and she's in the wind all the time, like high up…/And/ Lucas' tea leaves said that weneed to be under the night sky with the smoking mirror, which I asked Scorse to find if he could, and I think just like she is the queen of the Night Sky, which we need to be in with the 5 crowns." Yes, she figured that out, and she's damn proud of herself…Though there is a little lack of surety, looking to Eddie and then Audgrim for confirmation that she is at least headed down the right track. "Don't you think?"

For a dark character, Grim has a way of turning the mood around to one of hope, and he does now: "Maybe we have to be here to save something. Maybe it is not bad call. Maybe someone needs help and we will save everything." His voice has become confident, speechlike, inspiring. "Yes, maybe Windy Wendy is the answer now, maybe she shows where we need to be." He points up. "High up there, closer to stars. You go to see her alone?"

The car hits a big moth, big enough to make a noise. It leaves a big spot of goo on the window, to dry on the way home. "It looks that way," Eddie says, after an uncomfortable silence. "It looks a little too much that way, as far as I'm concerned. Maybe it's just all this talk about traps, but I'd like to know a little more before we go out there." He looks at that spot of goo. It's an understanding kind of look.

Bea looks back at Audgrim, giving him a wide, friendlysmile and reaching back to give his arm a squeeze. "You are right, I bet, and probably I have been spending too much time with Eddie and Tyla, and almost forgot, and maybe we will make a Spring of you yet, Audgrim. But it's probably true, and we are just waiting to save something. But wewon't go to see that Wendy alone, and maybe you can come? That would be good, since you look like you could be good in a fight, just in case. But like you say, probably it will be fun and she'll be the answer to everything." Eddie gets a sympathetic look and a pat on the arm, "Don't worry too much, Eddie. Just this time we at least know to look out for the swatter, so that puts us ahead of the saving game, and just I found out some stuff, you know, about that place, and thought a lot about it too. And like, did you know that Paddo is like the chosen one of the pretty queen? And then some friends of mine said that there's real magic there, but no one really lives up there, and it's like a soft spot between the some worlds, but they didn't say just only the Hedge, so maybe something different and weirder, maybe. But just no one knows. And there's a lot of pot growers up there, so when we /do/ go, it'll be like, we should be safe about hiking out in the woods. And also, I was thinking about it, and when Windy Wnedy was visiting, did you notice she /was/ windy? Like, she had a whole breeze, and even stronger than my Spring one, and just like, always it was from the same direction of Paddo Adams, so maybe she's like getting some glamour or something only from there, or like a leash, maybe, that let her get that far."

Audgrim hasn't ruled out any court yet, so he gives Bea a broad grin and nods. Who knows? "I can come." He flexes his fingers, displaying his claws. "I can fight." Much of that barrage of words is lost on him, but he listens intently and tries to memorize all the details she offers. "Sometimes you can go into trap, knowing it is trap, and be ready," he says. "You can make trap for the one making trap." He probably won't be a winter courtier, though he's not exactly the type to rush into things either. "But yes, least good to know who sets trap in first place." He yawns, despite having slept for an hour or so already, and slumps back in his seat. "I sleep now." And he curls up to do just that.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License