Logs: Wrong Place, Wrong Time
NPCs: None
Summary: What was supposed to be a fun night turned into anything but. Rune tells Coda there might be trouble ahead.
Log
It's late when Rune gets back. Keys in the door, then in the bowl next to the door, jacket shrugged off and set in the chair. His hair is pulled back, flattened by the helmet that he was assuredly wearing as the very-not-quiet bike pulled into the garage. Except, rather than being in the chipper, cheery mood he usually comes home in after a night out, he seems exhausted, and more than a little frustrated, heading directly to the fridge to grab a beer.
Whatever went down tonight, it's a look that Coda would know well. Frustration, exhaustion. And no small amount of fear.
---
At first, Coda isn't paying close attention; he's got his reading glasses on. The ones that he doesn't admit to anyone else that he wears. He's got some paperwork spread out on the kitchen table: file folders that he's neatly labeled, public records that he's pulled, print-outs of photographs that he's taken. Some of his self-appointed investigations never go anywhere but everything gets a file, and sometimes years later he's able to pull that file and go aha, we saw this two and a half years ago and it turns out to be useful.
"Abuela sent home some tamales if you want them," he says, and this is born out by the fridge is packed with tupperware. 'Some tamales' is usually 'all sorts of food' every time Coda goes to see them and this is no exception.
But something about the way Rune has come in makes him actually look up, and he does so over the tops of those glasses, noting the signs. It's the fear that has him taking them off entirely, has him narrowing his focus. His tone turns from absently welcoming to something both gentle and worried. "Hey. What's wrong?"
---
And 'some tamales' aren't missed by the other mage. He takes out one of the tupperware containers, pulling back the lid and giving them a little touch to see if they're still warm. Judging them 'warm enough', he already starts to load some up onto a plate.
Though it's probably a bad sign that he jumps a little when he hears Coda's voice, like a man coming out of a trance. He doesn't answer right away, though, scooting the beer and the plate over to the counter, which he promptly takes a seat on. "Soooo..." he starts. Also not a good sign.
"You know how when bad stuff goes, there are always that handful of people who question whether I was there, and if I had anything to do with it?" Because, you know. That's his lot in life. "Well, uh. Bad stuff went down. And I was there. Aaaaaaand no, I didn't have anything to do with it." Beat. "Sort of."
---
Coda gives Rune this long look, but it's not a look of distrust or a look of skepticism. He chose to put his trust in Rune a long time ago and so he jumps to no conclusions. He rises and comes to the other side of the counter, claiming a beer for himself.
The moment of quiet he takes for himself is pretty standard too; a thing he does where he centers himself against whatever's going to come. He takes a sip of his beer, then speaks.
"Okay. I'm listening. Start at the beginning?"
Quiet and grave.
---
"So," he starts again. "You know there was a thing tonight at the Chantry?" A raised eyebrow here. "Atkinson and the other guy, duking it out, right? Lots of people showed, and you were gone, soooo. I decided to go watch." An unusual thing in and of itself. He usually avoids members of the other traditions when Coda is gone -- for his own safety and the safety of others, in case things ever turn violent.
Seems that he decided a room full of witnesses was safe enough.
"So, Khoi and I are there, watching the fight, right? And Atkinson is this buff trainer type, maybe twenty. Hermetic. And Stephenson? is this like, sixty year old academic with elbow patches. And these two are giving each other a walloping, man, tense as nails. You really should have seen it, it was glorious --"
Right. There is a point here. Clearing his throat, he continues. "Well. It was going well, right until the end. Could have gone either way, but there was a big flash, and a blinding light, and Samuels? is there, dead on the ground, a whole blown straight through him where his heart should be..."
---
Coda's eyes go wide. "Sutherland," he supplies, in a way that suggests he doesn't think this is the most important detail in there but he's unable to avoid reporting on a fact he knows. It's absently said, but put out there anyway. "Ronny Sutherland."
He shakes his head in a way that suggests he's trying to process that, his frown deepening. "Horrifying. Please, go on."
He had opened his mouth before that please, go on. He's got questions already, lots of them, but he schools himself. Rune may well answer a fair portion of them with the rest of what he has to say, after all.
---
"So, everything erupts into chaos, right? And everyone is calling for blood. Doesn't take magic to know that the room is about to turn *fucking ugly*. So, me and the fucking Space-Cadet," his nickname for Khoi, "... we get Atkinson and shuffle him out of the room before anyone can try to fuck him up too bad, right?"
Perhaps a noble intention. Also a shortsighted one, given Rune's history -- a thing that he likely thought of later, given his general demeanor right now. The accused-nephandus and the burnout who probably can't remember the last twenty minutes are likely not the people that you want shuffling your cheating murderer out the door.
"So, anyway, we get him off to a little side room, and he says he did it. He had to. He can't talk about it. And he wants us to call the Quaesitor." The Hermetic Judge, of a sort. Also not exactly the person you want involved with a person like Rune.
"Anyway, long story short -- that happened. And, you know. These people. They aren't gonna let that sit." He gives a self-conscious little grimace. It always goes the same way. A whisper here, a sharp word there, and the rumor mill starts to fly. It's not their first go-round with it.
"Oh," he adds, unwrapping a tamale. "I, uh. I also bet on Atkinson."
Because of course he did.
---
There's a sharp intake of breath at the we got him out of there. There's a sharp intake of breath at I bet on Atkinson. This is as good as a string of curses from any other man.
But then? Coda places his hand briefly over the lower half of his face and drags it down sharply. Drains the rest of his beer.
Then he stands up and gets a legal pad and a pen and sets it down on the counter. He sits back down. He writes down everything that Rune just told him.
"Okay. This is not unsalvageable. We'll have to do some damage control but it is not unsalvageable."
That is is as close as Coda will ever get to saying it will be okay. Coda doesn't believe that everything always turns out okay just because it should and he doesn't believe in making promises he can't deliver on.
"I have questions. Many questions. Are you ready for all of them?"
He sounds as composed as ever.
---
No," Rune says, shaking his head. "Not even a little bit. But ask anyway."
His own body language tells the story. The kid that knows they're about to get 'I'm not mad, just disappointed' lectures from a parent when they know they fucked up, somehow. Even if they were well-intentioned.
Rune stuffs one of the tamales in his mouth, though, and that? That seems to make up for it a little bit. Chicken and masa and olive, this one, the flavors blending together with the oaxaca cheese that Coda's grandmother sprinkles in with the masa, a touch of spice to the mix without being overpowering. It's enough to almost make him, very temporarily, forget the big pile of shit he managed to step in just for having the audacity to exist in the wrong place at the right time.
Still, there's work to be done. And probably a lecture to be had. "Hit me."
---
He almost misses the body language in his focus. Almost. But he's known Rune for a long time. And so he does spot it. He hesitates, and he says, "For the record, you have done nothing wrong. Wrong place, wrong time, big heart. What were you supposed to do, let them tear him the accused apart before anyone had even heard the facts of the case?"
He means it, but he also sounds like a man who is preparing a defense, and maybe he is.
"Who set the certamen circle? How many Certamen Marshalls were on hand, and who were they? What were the terms of the duel?"
---
Rune relaxes a bit as Coda tells him he did nothing wrong, some part of his guts uncoiling in a way he wasn't aware they were even coiled in, the tension draining out of his face as Coda does exactly what Rune should have expected, but manages to never expect anyway. It's just in his nature. Or his past. Something.
"At least two marshals. Maybe three, if the dude as big as a bulldozer was a marshal and not just -- uh -- being a badass. They're the ones that set the circle. Officiator was some kinda spirit, I think. Mantis-lookin' thing. Ordered that Atkinson be detained."
"As for what they were fighting about?" He offers a shrug. "Beats me, man. I just went there to see the fireworks."
---
Coda says, "We'll need to find out their names, and which one of them summoned the officiator. I cannot help but draw a parallel to the fact that there was a spirit officiator to a nephandus who is wandering around summoning spirits and forcing them into people so he can commit murder through them."
Coda writes furiously, frowning. "Next question: did the Quaesitar come and collect Atkinson? Has he at this time been detained? And by little side room you mean a room in the Chantry, meaning he never left the premises?""
---
Rune gives an appropriate answer to whatever the conclusion of the future scene would be, as it has not happened yet. Once that's done, he shoves another tamale into his mouth, chewing thoughtfully. "I'unno, ma'," he starts, pulling all the corn to the side as he tries to talk. "Dude didn't look possessed. And it kinda seems like he knew exactly what he was doing. Said he couldn't talk about it."
---
"Couldn't is an interesting word choice, but it could mean anything from making some sort of vow to being under a geas to having an emotional response," Coda agrees, tap tapping his pen against the legal pad. He frowns thoughtfully and says, "Alright. Who else was there that night? The other spectators. Everyone you can remember."
A pause.
"And everything you can remember that they said or did that led you to the conclusion that Mr. Atkinson's safety was imminently at risk and that you needed to remove him from the immediate source of the problem, and what led you to draw the conclusion it should be you and Khoi instead of the Certamen Marshalls."
A faint smile touches his lips again, weary and wan. "You have time to chew and swallow though. Just because I'm asking 30 questions at once doesn't mean you should have to choke on your food."
---
"A lot of people I didn't know," Rune admits. "Either out-of-towners there for some bloodsport..." A word that draws a wince as soon as he says it, the connotations of that becoming clear just after they should have ... "or the folks that don't show up for the regular meetings. Old lady behind us, was kind of a badass. In a Grandma Kitten sweater but you could feel the energy bristle off of her."
When asked what pushed him to think he and Khoi would be the best answer, he hesitates a little. "I mean -- nobody else was doing it? Even the marshals just kind of stood there. And -- I mean. If it wasn't for us, it was gonna end bad." A little shrug. "The marshals were trying to keep the crowd under control. I think." In truth, he didn't even *see* them until it was time to clear a path, but that's a fact he'll remember later.
---
"Good. That's a good reason."
Coda exhales and says, "I think your actions are above reproach here. You didn't help him escape, you got him away from a bloodthirsty crowd. I'm going to try to get a record of the bets but I suspect probably it was about 50/50 or 60/40. Your winnings are probably forfeit anyway...murder was not supposed to be on the menu. So. You did not stand to gain financially, either. You were sitting in a crowd with dozens of people and you haven't progressed far enough to be capable of pulling off the crime. The Certamen circle is supposed to keep anyone from interfering. That spirit asked that Atkinson be detained, not you. Hold that in your heart and mind, because you cannot afford to look like *you* think you are guilty."
He frowns and says, "But I think you should be wary of Khoi from here on out. Very wary."
---
"Wasn't a winning, really," he notes. "I bet a Boon. With the Space Cadet. Because I was pretty sure Atkinson was gonna wipe the floor with him. That or Space Cadet would forget we had a bet." Which, in fact, he did.
Though at the mention of being wary of Khoi, Rune gives a little nod. "Yeah," he agrees. "I think it'd be best to keep my distance. Neither of our reputations stand to gain if we keep running into random trouble when we're together." Not that they can entirely avoid that. "Though we did promise to go help him hunt down the Nephandus. And, you know. That -- could help both of us." Socially, anyway. Maybe not in any other way.
---
"And it's the right thing to do," Coda murmurs, of the Nephandus and their hunt for him.
But he doesn't veer there, staying right on Khoi. "I think he tried to set you up." Coda says bluntly. "I felt him working his Arts last night. He's skilled. Powerful. I'm having a hard time believing he's as aggressively stupid as he pretends to be. I think he knew how bad that move would look for you, and I think he knew that he could then turn around and defend you and make you look even worse by dint of his reputation...which is too high and too idiotic and too brain dead to be a reliable witness."
Coda narrows his eyes and says, "And the way he repeatedly snubs you, the way he and Corinna are joined at the hip, the little look he gave when I suggested you go with Mr. Santana for our investigations into those two locations...he is not your friend. He could have done it just because he thought he'd be doing a good thing, getting the dangerous nephandus Rune off the streets for good through some political angling. Or for some deeper purpose that I don't begin to understand."
---
Rune nods, giving a firm "Right," at the idea of the hunting of the Nephandus.
But then that resolve starts to melt a bit as Coda lays his theory out, shoulders slumping as the possibilities start to flow, shaping a reality that the man knew, somewhere, in the back of his mind to be possible -- probable, even -- but never quite solidified into reality. "Right," he repeats, this time with far less gusto than before.
Still, he manages a little smile. "Guess it's easier to stay out of trouble that way. And hey," he offers brightly, "gives me a reason to just wear basketball shorts all day. Less laundry. Silver lining?"
---
"What are you talking about? You can't hide either," Coda says softly. "That's been our mistake I think. All this time. We've kept to ourselves, minded our own business, and...we have no friends. No allies. No clout here. We have to change that. Just because I don't think you should be alone with Khoi doesn't mean I think you should lock yourself away in here."
He tosses down his pen and says, "I think? We should be thinking about how to clear your name for good. Maybe even get that mark off your back, if that's something you want."
---
Rune shakes his head. "We both know that they're never gonna allow that," he tells the other man. Probably in regards to removing the mark. "You don't put something like that on someone and then close off every avenue of removing the damn thing if you're ever planning on *undoing* it," he sighs. A helpless little shrug there. "But. We can try." The smile softens a bit here. "Worst case scenario we can make a few friends. Maybe ones that aren't so..."
Yeah. Whatever that descriptor should be, English doesn't have a great word for the full scope of it.
---
"Rigid? Judgemental? Stuck up their own asses?"
Apparently Coda has a few. Even if they are inadequate.
He rubs a hand over his face and says, "Lauren. She's willing to give you a fair shake. You're in a situation where you're alone with Mr. Santana. I suggested it because I didn't see better alternatives. I didn't trust Corinna and Khoi at your back and I still don't, but if anything happens to him..."
He shakes his head. "But Lauren at least seems to be reserving judgement, and said herself that it's all hands on deck for the Nephandus. If she goes with you two she gets a chance to know you better, see you in action, and anything positive that comes out of that, any heroism you display, when she describes it? More credence, coming from her. I think you should seek her out and ask her to come with. I think it should be you and not me. Our out-chantry ally has admitted to being a poor hand in a fight and we want to ensure his safety. I don't know how good she is in the field...she uses her wiles to ensnare her targets more often than not...but I would be shocked to meet any Chakravanti who is not a fair hand in a fight."
---
"Didn't Sun Tzu say something about the best way to win a fight being to never engage in one if you can avoid it?" A little half-smirk here. "Don't underestimate the efficacy of 'wiles'. They've gotten me out of more than one situation that could have gotten ugly." And if he fails to mention all the times that his 'wiles' have gotten him *into* hot water, well, none the wiser. Right?
Still, he frowns a bit. "So. Two unknowns. Also means that I could get my ass handed to me out there and they'd get a medal and I'd get a quiet grave somewhere nobody would bother me, because they'd never find me." He bounces his head a few times, weighing it out. "Could be worth it. Witnesses, either way."
