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Leon and Edict
Mentions: Linqian Han, Britney Williams | Location: St. Portwell, Oregon: The Temple of Charming and Graceful Individuals (Pre-Meetup) > Reclaimed Church Meeting
He pulled up to the front door, pulling the emergency break and putting the thing in park. He left it idling in the assumption that things here wouldn't be long, but as he got out and was approached by one of the rogue youths, he was pleasently surprised.
"I'll park it for you, Sir."
Sir? Edict instantly grinned, his emotion seeking tendrils instantly blossoming the pink lotus as he hoped to catch a bite of mundane prey. Instantly he remembered why he didn't come here: The young man's shimmering Emotional Field was tight and smooth, like a fresh wrap on a car fender. Nary a flaw nor weak entryway could be found, but the smile and the stare hung a little too long, and Edict cleared his throat before nodding.
"Well, that's just great isn't it? Church with a valet?"
Edict waved his hand forward, ushering the teen into his car before shaking his head out of sight and heading up toward the chapel steps. A middle aged man, dressed in all black like everyone around seemed to be, was waiting in the path by the time he looked up.
"Devola, I presume?" his voice struck Edict with a sense of de ja vu that he had to think about for an instant. He... He sounded like his Father. The accent.
"Yeah, here for Leon Richoux. Problem?" Edict replied, trying his best to mimic the accent subtly, without it sounding unnatural. Like he had grown up there his whole life even though he'd only rarely visited New York.
"Yeah, maybe. You gonna keep your hands to yourself? We know you around here; your name is in our Book... And you're rippling. Capiche?"
Rippling? The fuck does that mean? Edict half cocked a smile and nodded his head.
"Hey, listen... I'm just here to talk with Leon, we're supposed to be doing this thing y'know, maybe you ain't hear about people dyin' and shit?"
The man's face went from disinterested to confrontational in an instant.
"Oh, we know the Death around here Bambi. I ain't on about that, balls-in-hand. I just told you I felt you using your powers here on Temple ground. You're like a fucking loudspeaker, you and that pink saccharin shit. Stow it."
Edict bit up on his bottom lip slightly, letting air pass through in a small squeak as he made it a point to give the man a staredown. He was in their house, and if he'd learned anything in his years of business, it was that you acquiesce while in the territory of foreign powers. He was the stranger here, even if he was a "family friend".
"Alright, you have my word, and my apologies."
The man guarding the Temple steps took a deep breath, nodded, and finally stepped aside to let Edict into the building. It' have to be more subtle in the future; he just hadn't expected some detector to be sniffing the front of the building. Fucking rat. But Edict continued on into the chapel with a smile regardless. He was hopefully going to see that faint memory of a woman while he was here, and even if he didn't it was nice to catch up with Leon. He genuinely liked the guy despite how ecclectic he was: They had matching tastes for life. The desire to be, and to fulfill expectations of one's surrounding characters, connected their motivations in a way that a lot of other things couldn't. Or maybe Edict was just starstruck... He'd idolized boxers as a kid, and he loved seeing Leon's father Gravity at his own gym. He wasn't allowed in at that age, so he would just sit and watch from the windows outside. A real nostalgic thought for Edict to chew on as he looked around the room.
There was a lady there with blonde hair and black robes. She was presiding over some younger teens; it looked like a sunday school lecture that broke off into the middle of the week, but he assumed it was quite literally a school session. Amazing what you're allowed to homeschool these days. He heard her bubbly voice and listened in for a moment, immediately being transported to easier days. Before the awakening and the snake, the Coven that pushed him away, before he knew what a gangster was or that his father was a complicated man.
A massive man broke his concentration, and Edict's head spun toward Leon's towering stature.
"Woah, tall dark and beefy! There he is, the man of orange and gold himself... How's shit Leon?"
Leon, who had been sleeping here at the Temple since the whole Father Wolf business started, was fresh from the shower with a full meal to go in his hand. Breakfast was a cholesterol bomb, heavy in animal fat and carbohydrates to ensure that he had plenty of energy to burn. A pound of rice, six porterhouse steaks sliced into strips, four avocados, a bag of plums and a massive water bottle full of Lord knows what rested in Leon's massive hands.
"It's bulking season, so... Just eating my days away."
"Don't give me that. You need it to fight now, what's the problem?"
Leon laughed and shook his head, thinking about the current situation and what would have to be done next to insure that people stayed honest and fair. They were in a delicate world now, and he'd given up surefire strength in the interest of the greater good. Now he was an unreliable bombshell who had to compensate like this, and it was clear to others who observed him. No doubt about it, he couldn't even eat around the others. Everything they'd had was dead, and he was ready for them to go back to wherever the fuck they came from before things in St. Portwell got worse.
"Y'know a few people died last night, right?"
Edict feigned surprise, his head tilting and mouth opening in sad shock.
"What!? What happened, Leon?"
Leon couldn't prove it, but he knew that this guy never didn't know what was up. Even in cities that he had nothing to do with, he always seemed to have some sort of gossip or advice that a local would have: Three years prior, Leon had been in Romania to fight some Baltic boxers in a charity thing, and who was there but Edict Devola, world traveler and supposed clean businessman.
"Don't bullshit me and I won't bullshit you, Devola, we're not kids."
Edict waved a hand, finally standing and patting Leon on the bicep.
"I have no clue what you mean, Leon. Whose dead, what happened?"
Leon gritted his teeth behind closed lips, a deep breath of air pulling through his enormous lungs. Finally he shook his head and looked across the chapel toward the blonde woman teaching her heart out.
"Clarissa?"
She stopped instantly, looking up.
"Yes Leon?"
"It's time to go."
Leon's hands were tied, but he very clearly indicated the door with his eyes and head. The woman responded quickly, wrapping things up to the chagrin of her pupils before she made her way past them and out the door. Edict looked confused.
"I'm in a two seater, so..."
"You thought you were driving? I can barely fit in sports cars, you think I'm gonna bring my breakfast into a cab I can barely sit in? We gotta bring Linqian a new vehicle anyway, so we'll just go over in that."
"Oh you, me and your wet nurse?"
Leon laughed in Edict's face.
"That wet nurse would invert you in an instant."
"I'd let her invert something of mine, that's for sure."
Edict smiled, satisfied with his crude joke until he looked up at Leon with that same grin and saw a mountain ogre staring back at him with intent. His face said it was a joke, but he didn't verbalize for fear of pushing Leon over the hill. The same expression ushered Edict out of the building and back down the steps. The same middle aged guy from before was waiting, and handed Edict his keys once they were close enough. A new Toyota sedan pulled up front, allowing the four people to pile into it before they started to drive off back into St. Portwell.
While Leon and Edict were being driven toward the meetup location, the fill-in conversation took place. Edict was actually shocked at the amount of nothing Leon managed to experience in his time trying to save that chick, but it was at least interesting to hear the tale now from two different perspectives. Leon had a bit more information about the state of things at least: That St. Portwell had once again become something of a nexus of Adepts and magical beings from beyond the Third Eye. Leon himself, between massive bites of rice and steak, admitted that his Mother had been keeping a very close eye on the burgeoning covens of St. Portwell as they developed, and had been working on resource managing for some plants to be inserted among them. He always said things without thinking around Edict, despite knowing full well that it was dangerous to do so... But the way Leon saw it was that Edict would know sooner or later, and if they could symbiotically assist one another he wanted that arrangement available as long as possible.
Leon managed to eat the entire tower of tupperware bowls. He and the man in the front seat, who Edict came to know as a man called Furio, joked around a bit about something that Edict had no clue about. Some sort of Apparition, he gathered, but they kept referring to it in the same way he'd heard "friends" be referred to before they were whacked. For a moment he was beyond uncomfortable, feeling the end of a Mobster's life playing out before him. They pulled into the park's lot and saw the myriad of cars from different Coven members up and down the block, and Leon recognized Britney's car from the night before. As they exited the vehicle, another car pulled up alongside them with one more Temple member in it, whom Edict assumed was the ride home for the other two and, possibly, them when everything was over. Edict was still dressed like a hipster, and had managed the beanie hat at some point between meeting Linqian and arriving at the Temple. Leon was wearing generic clothing, assuming that the niceties were over and that war could be around any corner in the city.
"You uh... Strapped?" Leon looked down at Edict, the thought of defending themselves crossing his mind.
Edict heard the question, but wasn't sure about where it was coming from.
"Huh? Strapped?"
Edict's sunglasses flipped down onto the bridge of his nose, blocking out the pale Autumn sunlight. He flashed a sly grin at Leon. "Why you gotta know if I have a gun or not?"
"We should be ready to protect ourselves, Edict."
Oh, it was business... Edict knew the difference in tone and intent in the usage of a different name. He recognized and reciprocated.
"Yes, Timberwolf. I am strapped as you say. Why, are we expecting things to go south again?"
"I don't know, Man, it could! I have no fucking clue after last night's shitshow, but I don't want us getting caught off guard like that ever again."
Edict put his hands in the air just enough to ward him off. The two men crossed the street, Edict checking his phone for any updates as Leon turned his head and spoke into his sleeve.
"Test, test, test."
"Clear."
Edict heard, and didn't react. It was a backup team... Leon wasn't playing around. He stowed his phone, and the two of them made for the path through the park toward the pagoda they were supposed to meet at. When they got there, only signs of what had been remained. Leon ground his teeth; he'd made them late. Without hesitation, he began the slow process of opening his seals before Edict patted his chest and interrupted him.
"Hey, here. Shoeprints in the grass heading off toward Aleo. A group that big can't move without some kind of trace."
Leon nodded, smiling slightly at the man's aptitude. He sauntered behind the bloodhound like man as Edict stared at the ground. So many footprints, and the hum of auras compiling into a big warm beacon for a moth to clamber toward. Those paying attention could probably feel Edict's tendrils trying to search them out before they could even come close to seeing him, the slithering pink oozing its way between alleys and fences. He took a deep breath, smiling as his feet locked him into a path headed for the fun. It was another few minutes before they got to the metal gate, but by then Leon knew where they were going as well.
"What in the Hell..."
"What?" Edict was genuinely curious about a reaction like that.
"Not sure what we're doing over here. It's supposed to be like, an abandoned Church. Recently abandoned too... Fuck, Auri! We're adults, we don't need to be hanging out on bank owned property without permission!"
Edict kept his mouth shut, shaking his head. That girl was all hot air and no lift. The two of them continued together down the road until the Church's front doors were visible. From the distance, Leon could see familiar white hair shuffling about at the door. His jaw dropped when he saw the violet portal opening up and she stepped into it.
"Furio, VL on the move. Probable Purple influence."
Leon didn't even bother covering for the radio call. Nor did he care if Edict knew he was bugged at this point.
"Shit, Leon are you a fucking Fed?"
Edict stopped in his tracks, his hand lashing out and grabbing Leon's forearm. His free hand instinctively reached for his gun, but Leon pulled away.
"Fed? Federal Agent? No, you fucking Goombah, it's for the Temple! You think they're not going to help us get out of this mess?"
Edict was incredulous, but let go of the man's arm at the fear that a few rounds of 10mm may not actually put the giant down before he could rearrange Edict's face.
"So, what?"
"Come on, lets just go. We need to see what's going on, I need to-"
Leon pushed ahead, breaking off into a jog that Edict had to run to keep up with. Fucking giraffe legs.
Of course the wolfman hit the door first, swinging it open to find the gathering spread out among the pews of the church. Oddly familiar setting compared to where he had come from. Edict was hot on his heels, following in behind in a huff as Leon pushed into the room.
"Who the Hell is teleporting around here!?" he barked, pretty much interrupting everything he could.
