Getting nice things
With contacting Nikki and everyone else, Sunday was the day they all had free. As for where they ended up meeting, Jon had wanted to meet in the Archives since it was his domain and he felt most powerful there. But Daisy won the ‘we host it at my house, and I swear Jon if you say my domain isn’t as safe as yours I will kidnap your kitten’ battle in the end. Daisy wanted to show off the cat tree she built for her children.
Which, as Jon sat on their couch, he had to admit, there was a fine amount of jealousy for how much Marshal was enjoying it. Jon had been meaning to get something more exciting for her, but he couldn’t decide if he wanted to get it for the archives or his home, or for Martin’s place.
“I would build you some if you want.” Daisy grinned as Jon’s stare seemed to give him away. Wasn’t till she spoke up did he realize a few of this eyes had opened to examine it while Jon was lost in thoughts.
“Mm-o -Oh! It is- Marshal seems to enjoy it so I was thinking-” He closed them as he coughed a little, fooling no one that he had been paying attention to the room.
“Uh-huh, I think we can all tell.” She grinned as Martin and Georgie laughed. They were waiting on Sasha and Nikki, while Tim and Basira were in the kitchen. “What's been holding you back from it?”
“I’m not sure where I would want to put it. Thinking the archives might be the best place to start. Since we spend the most time there.” Daisy rolled her eyes at Jon as he looked like he was considering it.
“I would say it’s not healthy to basically live at your work, but this is you.” Georgie leaned into Jon teasingly. “Feel like you all should overthrow Elias and just take over the institute. Sasha or Martin could take the place as boss boss, and Jon can just renovate the basement to fit all his spooky needs.”
“Ooo! I like the way you think Georgie!” Tim came out of the kitchen carrying a tray of snacks. Basira wasn’t far behind.
“Right? Jon is such a spoilsport for not letting us.” Martin chimed in.
“I want to just as much as the rest of you. There are just some complications to that plan. Mainly legal ones to be honest, but we don’t have the connections to the police that Elias has…”
“Hey. what do you call me?” Daisy threw a pillow at Jon.
“You hardly have authority needed to murder and replace the head of the institute smoothly. I do have some working theories at the moment since I doubt keeping Elias’ eyes in a jar would be enough to stop him long. I’m not even sure how he even transferred them from body to body. I’ve got other things on my mind for more immediate plans, but I’ll wait till Sasha and Nikki get here.”
Martin reached out and pulled Jon into a cuddle. “Then this talk can wait till then. Sasha just text me to let me know she and Nikki are minutes away.”
Jon adjusted himself to fit better.
Basira was on the ground waving around a cat toy for one of her cats, before the other two that were present went on the attack. “I doubt pulling him into a cuddle will stop him from fixating on ending Elias.”
“It might…” Jon snuggled into Martin. “Though I’m always low key thinking about it. At least how to annoy him.”
Everyone was still getting used to this display of affection from Jon, save for Georgie. She knew Jon was clingy, tho in college he hid it better. Seeing Jon like this though, Georgie was so proud of him.
Everyone else, they knew Jon as his more prickly and ‘emotional are optional’ state. Even if he was better, to see this level of affection, definitely changed the mood of the room.
“We Have Arrived!” Nikki barged in through the front door, announcing herself like a true performer she was.
“Sorry about being late. Nikki had a crisis.” Sasha followed in, sounding slightly tired.
“That Is A Rude Way To Put It. I Couldn’t Let You Leave Your Home Without Proper Care.” Nikki took a spot on the floor near a chair that she offered to Sasha. “Can You Believe Sasha Was Going To-”
“Nikki, No.” Sasha sat down. “If you say anything else, I won't let you crash at my place anymore.”
Nikki responded with a smile.
“Glad you both made it. So, we are all here. Jon?” Basira took initiative cause she wanted to get serious talk over so they could eat.
“Yes. Well, as I said in the texts the other day. Elias took out Prentiss. He called a favor with Peter so she won’t be a problem. What is the problem is all of Elias’ connections. He’s practically got a filled out bingo sheet of fear aligned friends. I’m planning on trying tracking down a handful of them, if the Beholding plays nice. That will be next week cause I’ve got my attention divided at the moment. Which gave me an idea.”
Jon leaned forward a bit to grab his phone from the coffee table. “We need Allies. Preferably full Avatars, or those aligned closely enough. While I have much more favor from the Eye than Elias now, he has more connections. Which is very not good for us.”
“I Could Contact Some Of My Friends, Long As Our Deal Remains In Tact, My Friends Are Your Friends! Just Like In Uni.” Nikki was eager in her suggestion. Everyone knew there was some weird deal thing, but the details were never shared.
“Thank Nikki. You be willing to give a list of some of them for me so I know who all we could rely on?”
Nikki gave a salut in response.
“Could probably count a great deal of the Sectioned people too. Feel like they would be more likely to side on your side long as you don’t go waving eyes all over the place. Some probably have grudges on him since he put quite a few people in there.” Daisy added that time.
Jon nodded. “Cool. so that counts a decent group to start with. I’ve no idea what all he is going to try to pull to get things moving.”
“It’s So Confusing Why He Would Want To Kill You So Badly. You Should Both Want The Same Things.” They had left out the detail of ‘Jon needed to be marked by each entity’ when filling Nikki in. It would be bad if that became common knowledge, so far as she knew, Elias wants to kill Jon, but since he can’t die by normal means, Elias wants to find an entity that will kill Jon. Nikki was also not informed of the whole future knowledge bit either, as Jon was pretty sure that would break their deal.
“It’s because of the power struggle. He wants an Archivist that he can control, and I’m not that. I got too powerful too quickly for him to manage.”
“He Is So Confusing. If He Wants Control So Much, He Should’ve Joined With The Web.”
“That’s the other thing I wanted to bring up. I want to try and figure out a way to get in touch with someone of the Web. Any ideas?”
And they all talked about options. Nikki couldn’t help with Web contacts but she would text Jon any progress, Sasha and Tim volunteered to look through statements with Sasha planning to take to the internet for weird stories and Tim asking around in Research. Martin volunteered to do some Avatar scouting, since he was used to Jon’s quarks by now, and the unspoken he might have some old friends he never met yet in mind. Basira and Daisy would handle things from the police side of things, while Basira mentioned she was thinking about leaving, but she wasn’t sure what next after that. Georgie was taking notes on her phone.
Ultimately they all agreed that while trying to make friends in spooky places, Jon was okay to passively keep an Eye on them, long as he was polite about it. And not actually look unless something is suddenly wrong. Well, save for Nikki. She wouldn’t have Jon near her group for good reasons. It would be more like keeping an ominous eye key chain that had a panic button, rather than watching. It wouldn’t affect him anymore than Knowing things does.
Once that was all settled, Martin moved Jon off him to help Basira prep lunch, while the others followed.
Everyone got their plates filled except for Nikki who waited in the living room. Martin placed down a plate in front of her, full of a mixture of hyper-realistic plastic food, and some of those kid’s toys with the stickers on them. Nikki screamed.
Nikki’s joy could be described in the same way that a blue candle smelling like cinnamon would be. Still a pleasant, nothing foul about the experience, but so off-putting. She joined them in ‘eating’.
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That night, Jon slept at Martin’s flat. Rebecca held two books, unopening either, but just stared at them as he stared at her.