Re: The Good Kind of Drawback ((Open))

[NotSuperman]

"I take exception to that..."Clark said rather distractedly. Archer had given him an open bar so to speak, and Clark was a growing boy with lots of muscle. So where Cocina took a small stick, and archer took two, Clark was holding a small bouquet in one hand, gratefully taking his tumbler, full to the rim of the 'most expensive liquor you have." the man even got a wink and a grin at that. After swallowing a bite he went on. " ... I have literally never dissatisfied anyone who I've strapped to a table. Slainte..." the summer fae said with a raise of his cup to archer, drinking down a substantial amount of the expensive drink.

A self satisfied grin, Clark tossed an empty stick into a nearby trash bin and began to attack a second one. "Both, as well as six months shadowing the CSU. They don't play when it comes to making sure detectives don't fuck things up...If you'll pardon the language." That last bit said to Cocina after a small wince, he had been trying to be charming afterall, and with that since he seemed to notice that he was holding several meat sticks. and he downgraded a couple onto a passing boy, walking with his sweetheart, making sure to brush skin as he handed them off. Cocina would feel his ability work.

It was like watching a painter offer layers of paint to a canvas, a base of ease, then thin layers of contentment,trust, and then joy. lastly almost with a flourish he gave the lady's bottom a swat as they continued on. an obviously sensual air tagging along with that. It was a work of art, and the pair of people seemed much better off for it. now walking hand in hand, leaning against each other as they ate their meat sticks.

He admired his work for a moment before he snapped back." Hm? oh, yeah... wait..." he gave Cocina a crooked grin catching the accent on her words. "Do you speak the summer tongue?" he asked in the language of the summer court of the sidhe. It may have sounded similar to her language, perhaps a different dialect of the same mother tongue. Like Spanish is to French or Italian.

[Archer Caughey]

Archer snorted at Clark’s comment...or maybe he was just grunting as he ate? He tried to pass it off that way, anyway, he was eating his way through one of the skewers while the other two were being served. Clark wasn’t the only man with a lot of muscle to maintain, it was just that Archer was down here, and down here he hid all that thanks to a certain potion. “I’m pretty sure I have ‘disappointing women’ listed under special skills on my resume…” An offhand comment as Archer dug into his pocket for his wallet. That said, things were so far so good with Claudia. Clearly the woman didn’t mind investing in a fixer-upper. Whenever he screwed up, she insisted he serenade her to atone for it. Not a bad deal.  

“Hey mate - mate!” Archer was trying to snap the poor vendor back to reality after that befuddling exchange he had with Cocina. An empathetic smile given to him once he got the man’s attention. “Her one meatstick, a nice glass of elven wine, and top me and this pain in the ass off. Thanks.” Archer gestured to his glass, which was empty, and Clark’s glass in his hand. Trying to get cheeky with his order, was he, Archer’d smother him in proper Irish charm. Because the genius was no stranger to racking up large bar tabs. Come to think of it, that’s probably where most of his money went, besides the supplies he regularly purchased in the name of science. A wad of money was passed to the vendor, which included a nice tip for his patience.

Wallet slid back into his pocket, Archer picked up his glass with one hand and the glass of wine in the other, offering it out to Cocina. “And that’s for you, bonny lass.” He figured it might slow her tongue down a bit. Or turn down the dial on her nervous edge. Or both. She was already talking about getting strapped to tables when she was stone cold sober, so why the hell not, right?

“For the record I do have a containment cell with plenty of ways to tie someone down and keep them there, but I don’t see how that relates to bottling emotions.” Maybe it was because he’d never attempted to bottle emotions before. Or maybe it was because he had that containment unit for a very specific time of his life that he was very glad was over and that had everything to do with his duty back in Ireland and nothing to do with science. Took Archer a minute to realize how someone might get uneasy hearing that he pretty much had a dungeon on site, and he added hastily, “I was possessed with an entity a few years back. Didn’t go so great for a while. But it’s long gone.” Because that explanation was supposed to inspire confidence…

Looking for a new topic of conversation, Archer looked over at Clark just in time to see the trouble the sidhe was stirring. “What if she was about to dump him, doesn’t that possibility bug you?” See, Archer the fixer-upper. He was often logical and pragmatic to a fault. “You’re welcome in my lab, so long as you give me your word that you don’t try any of that on me there without my permission - in any room of my house.” He got more specific to cover the bases. “If they didn’t play when it came to your training I’m sure you learned that when chemicals are involved you’re usually a few drops away from an explosion.” Which meant Archer needed to keep in his right mind, was what he left implied.

And yet, there he was gulping down his drink like it was water while the two of them talked about the inn. What an enigma.

[Cocina]

There were two main things she gathered from the recent turn of conversation: One, that Clark knew how to satisfy those he strapped to a table, and two, Bragi did not. Cocina nibbled on her food as she looked between the two men. They both gave her lots of things to consider and they both were giving her information on things she had not heard before.  It was a lot for her to process and doing so with all the excitement from the market about them was, well a lot!  Therefore she was quiet - for about a minute.

“There are a few things you can pull off a table,” she began. “The emotions of fear, anxiety, apprehension, satisfaction of a successful strapping to name a few….” Before she could get much further her attention was distracted by Clark and what he did to the couple. This guy was good for teaching lessons.. He didn’t seem full of rules like her teacher did who always told her to be careful.  Clark did what he wanted and he seemed all the happy for it.  Right?

Cocina went back to nibbling on the food and side-eyed the wine in her other hand. Hmm.

“I speak with an elvish tongue, though whether or not that tongue was formed in the summer or not I’m not sure for I don’t know the day of my begetting, but I do know that I should not drink of the wine for one time, at the church, I got into the communal wine and caused the Fathers and Sisters to engage in carnal sins because I was so overjoyed, but afterwards I was told that was a bad thing, though i don’t know why they blamed me . . . it’s on his tab” the quick detour was due to her turning from her companions and smiling at the nearest person while placing the drink in their hands. Cocina turned back to the men without skipping much of a beat. “. . .when it could have been anyone even though it was shortly after that when I met my teacher. Was that good, Clark? He should have fun, the man, I’m having fun, spread the fun around! ”

Her food was nearly gone and she placed the stick in her mouth to keep her from talking. “And I’m excited.” Stick was placed back in her mouth and she would have grabbed both men by the hands to pull them along but that wouldn’t have been a good idea.

[NotSuperman]

Clark watched as the subjects of his work walked off,  He was munching on one of his remaining meat sticks rather lost for a moment when Archer spoke. "Hm? No." He said almost incredulously, people who weren't Fae just didn't get it sometimes. "Why would it? If she was going to dump him before, then she's going to dump him anyway. I didn't make any problems go away for them, I only changed the way they feel about them for a while. "He took a nice long drink from his drink, setting the empty cup down. "Now that I think about it,  It's really doing them a favor... for all any of us know, that's the thing that pulls them back from the brink so they decide to have puppies or whatever people are having these days. " He smiled at Cocina and spoke again in the summer tounge once again since she seemed to understand. "It is, he was, and I'm definitely working on it" he gave her a broad grin once more turning his attention back to the scientist. reaching up to give a passer by a pat on the back, liberating him the cup Cocina had given him and offering it back to the woman. " come on now, that sounds like to reason to drink some tine. The way I see it, you only helped those people do what they really wanted to do anyway. Besides, its one of the best ways to spread the cheer..." said as he waved the cup back and forth enticingly.

"You know what? now that you mention it, they always talked about that sort of thing, but I never once saw an explosion... " The Sidhe man looked thoughtful for a moment, as they walked,motioning emphatically with his last meat stick. "Which really goes to show that it most certainly does take more then a few drops either way to make an explosion... But, I can promise to lean on my training and stay out of the way while the science is happening." The Sidhe gave  Cocina a grin at that. "Maybe I can get Cocina to sit on my hands so they don't get into trouble while I'm not looking."

[Archer Caughey]

Finishing off the rest of his meat, Archer tossed the sticks in a nearby waste bin.  Thoughtful frown on his face, furrowed brow, the gears in the genius’ head were quietly turning. While he freely admitted that he’d never read about or tried to bottle an emotion before, when it came to seeding emotions, that was a horse of a different color. Not the kind of stuff he was in the habit of brewing, but he knew of ways. No table necessary.

For now, he kept that to himself. Mostly because that’s not what his gears were turning about. He was mulling over Clark’s response to his question. Imagining that his theory was right, and there was a break up for that couple on the horizon. If Archer’s past relationships were any indication, Clark’s influence wouldn’t have to look far to find some fond feelings to stir up into a steamy night. But what about the next morning when the fog lifted? It gave Archer a headache just thinking theoretically about it.

At the same time, Archer had to be fair. Acknowledge that the probability that his theory was right wasn’t high. Still...one hand sliding into his pocket, the other still busy with a half empty glass of liquor, he kept quiet to see where this interaction between Clark and Cocina was going to go. Archer wasn’t usually a stick-in-the-mud, but when it came to Clark...in scientific terms, when he looked at the sidhe he saw a unstable reaction.

So when Cocina was talking about her effect on the church folk, Archer was flashing back to the night he’d met Clark at the club. Clark had spread plenty of cheer then. Similar kind of cheer, actually, though the people at the club were probably a lot more open to it than some nuns and priests. Biting his tongue, Archer busied himself with chugging down the rest of the liquor in his cup. Giving Cocina plenty of time to make her own choice.

To the sidhe, he said only one thing. “That where you’re wrong, Clark. In fact, sometimes it only takes one.”

Drop.

To make an explosion.

[Cocina]

For a moment Cocina juggled the question of whether Clark was being literal or hypothetical about her sitting on his hands. She thought about this while she finished off the food on her stick and then tapped said empty object against her chin. One could almost see the internal debate she was having with herself as her eyes followed the movement of Clark’s hands.

“How big are your hands and where will they be for me to be sitting on? They can’t be as big as a chair, we would have noticed that, though I haven’t really spent a lot of time looking at your hands but I am now as the possibility of using them as a chair has now come up, a rather hard chair I think with soft spots unless you have nails and in that case it would be rather prickly and I’m quite sure I bleed easily and we’re looking to pull emotions and not blood though if you want blood on your hands I’m sure there’s a way to ….oh!”

Cocina was suddenly quiet. Very quiet, in fact, and still as her thoughts finally settled on the last thing the men had spoke about. Explosions. It was the fact that she didn’t fully hear what they were saying before as to why her thoughts on explosions was being taken out of context. “Oh. Oh I hadn’t thought about that.  Not about that at all.” Cocina began to twirl the empty stick between the fingers on her right hand. A sense of wariness and nervousness started to creep up on her and she took a step away from Clark and moved towards Bargi. Then, realizing she moved to him she took a step away from them both.

“No-no explosives,” she said with a shake of her head. “I don’t want to kill anyone. Or you two. I told you what could possibly happen Bragi, empaths destroying the world. Or small cities. Or labs.”  For a change she was speaking at a slow rate, taking pauses and breathing as she spoke instead of speaking continuously. Cocina was also knotting her brows. “What if I were to touch Clark for longer than a moment and I do something horrifying like cutting his wonderful hair?” Yes, because the hair was a very important factor here. “Or crush your lab? I never touched another who can influence feelings.”

Cocina waved a hand back and forth between the two men. “Perhaps you, Clark, could infect Bragi with feelings that he’ll bottle up and we’ll skip the hand sitting.”

[NotSuperman]

Clark laughed, it was a rich, and full sound. It was the sort of laugh that encouraged others to smile. He gave Archer a companionable pat on the arm and pushed forth absolutely nothing. Clark was no dummy, being a detective had trained him to be observant of people and their reactions. Archer controlled his well. Besides, Clark would get enough joy watching the man flinch.

"Really, they're quite normal sized, now that they were empty he held them up to show Cocina that they really were normal, strong hands. "I can promise they wouldn't be hard, I moisturize every day, soft and supple, yet strong." He offered with that heart melting grin that often worked so well for him. he lowered his hands and then rolled shoulders back in a shrug.

" It's difficult to get at me that way. As someone who is capable of influencing the emotions of others, I'm very quick to notice when other people are doing it to me. While I can't stop you from doing it, I can usually catch it before it changes anything I might want to do..."

He eyes Archer then and then shook his head. " No, I won't do that to Bragi, it makes him uncomfortable. Besides..." leaning over to Cocina conspiratorially"... It's less fun with people like him, science folk overthink everything to an insane degree. minds like that break before they bend, and I have no intention of breaking this one... He's friends with this vampire chick who's pretty terrifying." and beautiful, It was an odd combination of attraction and fear that Clark himself was having a hard time coming to grips with.

[Archer Caughey]

Archer looked over in Clark’s direction enough to give the man some quality side-eye in answer to that laugh. Patting the scientist’s upper arm was vibrationally like striking the center of a timpani - it sent out resonating ripples of old, old, old energy. If Clark had ever had a time when he’d heard or read words that were so profound it struck a deep chord inside his mind, heart or spirit, the vibration would remind him of that. The potion Archer had taken hid a lot of things, but it couldn’t hide that. Maybe that’s why the genius was smirking. Or maybe he was smirking because Clark hadn’t put any of his tricks in that touch of his, which meant that he was having his own effect on the sidhe. Nice guys like Archer had that kind of superpower.

As for Cocina’s new plan, he had words of objection locked and loaded but Clark was already taking care of that for him. See? Nice guy superpower effect. By the time the sidhe was done talking, though, Archer let out a healthy guffaw. There was a lot in those words to laugh about. His mind breaking, for one. But what the man had just said about Arcadia...there was plenty of laughable morsels in there, boy. “Only family’s allowed to sling arrows like that at family, Clark.” He and Arcadia were more than friends, but they didn’t call each other siblings much anymore these days. Words like family, relation, those were safer as they stared down the gigantic pile of history between them. “No question she’d eat you if you did anything stupid, though. You’re right about that.” A brief, goofy grin punctuated that sentiment.

“I wouldn’t worry about crushing my lab, Cocina. I have two others.” Which was supposed to be comforting, even if it didn’t work. Speaking of the lab, he stopped in front of one of a strip of several ranch-style houses, most of them like his serving the double purpose of business/abode. Up the three stairs of his stoop, to the left of his door there was a sign, ‘Archer Caughey - Alchemist, Scientist, and All-around Genius. In need of help? Ring the bell.’ “Here we are.” But Archer didn’t pull out any keys. Instead he went straight for the doorknob, pressing a button on the underside which in turn released a mechanism that picked his palm to verify his identity. They’d hear a click, after which Archer opened the door. “Come on in.” Nifty bit of security, wasn't it?

He went inside first, just to turn the lanterns on in the hallway.  If they followed after him, to the left they’d see a sitting room, to the right a coat closet, and in front of them a hallway which turned left after a few doorways. The footprint of the place was “L” shaped. As for the state of it, overall it was neatly kept but kind of overrun with stuff. You know. Books. Papers. Gadgets. Beakers. A couple casks. "The science rooms are around the corner." Said before either of them commented that this place didn't look science-y enough.

[Cocina]

Needless to say Cocina thought about the ‘sitting on Clarks hand’ issue for the rest of the way to the lab. Not in a creepy way, but in a wondering how it would feel without having an example, type of way. Because she was thinking heavily on this the two of them were treated to silence- from her anyway.

“In need of help? Ring the bell.’” she read aloud to herself before glancing at Bragi. “Though I’m her so excited to have met an Archer, I still prefer to call you Bragi.” Cocina said as she followed inside. “I suppose you have more than one lab so that any visiting geniuses have a place to stay and do their work because having three different labs and running three different experiments at the same time would be a bit confusing wouldn’t it especially if one needs special care and you forget about it and it ends up in an exploding disaster that burns down everything else . . .  this is interesting.”

Cocina had been walking while talking and looking around this lab. Poking fingers at some of the beakers and strange objects. She tapped her finger over some of the books’ spines.  She stopped at a couple of tubes. She was looking for any labels.  In fact, during her survey of the room she had been on the look out for anything that may reference emotion and feelings. And one other important thing.

“Where’s your bow?” Her expression was questioning and even a bit sad. Cocina glanced at Clark as though he may have the answer and then back to Bragi. “Archers are famed and some may be on the run so perhaps that is why you don’t have anything out to state such where just anyone can see it.” That was more to convince herself than anything else.

Then suddenly she smiled to help herself move past that momentary feeling. “Well now, I suppose we can leave our clothes in here and head to one of the science rooms to start extracting emotions my teacher always said that the best way to fully experience a new emotion is with the absence of material things weighing you down.”  Clearly, this made a lot of sense to her.

[Sponsored content]