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[gadaboutdetective]

Mmhm... So I just need to record a message? Right, then!

You have reached the inbox of Detective Llewellyn Watts
I’m unable to respond right now but if you leave me a message I will uh— get back to you as soon as possible.

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Open Plotting Post

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backdated to early july » action

[wheezed]

( Unsurprisingly, Eddie doesn't know how to approach. Again. He's thought about seeking Llewellyn out at the dorm, but there's all sorts of reasons not to do that. He's thought about going out to his office, but that makes things feel far too real.

In the end, Eddie sort of....ambushes Llewellyn outside of the dorms, before the man has a chance to return. It's clearly the only logical solution. )

Hi.

( Eddie is twitchy again, half-scowling like it's somehow the world's fault that he's so twisted up about this. He at least has the decency not to glare at Llewellyn, considering he hasn't done anything wrong save for the mistake of being someone Eddie kind of wants to talk to. )

Do you want to go for a walk? Exercise is really good for you. Keeps your blood pressure down.

Omg Eddie!

[gadaboutdetective]

Good evening, Eddie.

[Llewellyn had honestly been waiting rather patiently for this, he was a bit distracted sometimes but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t notice the shift in the mood around the dorm. The odd silence, the changes in some peoples habits.

Something was wrong. Something specific, if that scowl on Eddie’s face were anything to go by.

He could say that yes, he knows exercise is good for you Despite his eating habits, he did jog every morning (in the most ridiculous looking running clothes) and walk his new puppy regularly.

Instead, he offers an awkward smile (awkward from clumsy concern) and nodded.]

Yeah, both Pretzel and I could uh— definitely do with a walk.

[wheezed]

( Pretzel's presence would normally be at least a point of contention – far be it for Eddie to go a moment without reminding someone about his very serious deadly allergies – but today he just sticks a hand out absently for the dog to sniff.

Which...is interesting, but one crisis at a time perhaps. )

Good. Dogs need lots of exercise too. I think they can get heart disease, y'know. My old neighbour had a sausage dog that was so fat he would walk funny. Kinda sad, really.

( It's almost like clockwork at this point, that Eddie will open and shut his mouth a few times like he wants to say more, that he'll fidget on the spot, that he'll finally give up on whatever sentence he'd been chewing over and instead point in the first direction that comes to mind. )

Great! Okay, come on then. Let's go. This way's good, right? Great!

[gadaboutdetective]

[Llewellyn has a few questions, more than a few at this point really, but he makes a mental note to ask most of them at a later date. He knew well what it was like to be bogged down by emotions, troubling topics and the toll that could take on the mind. Overwhelming the kid would be a bad idea, especially considering how long it took Eddie to even approach him.]

Yes, and he’s still learning so it’s a good way to get him used to being around different people. I’m uh— going to teach him to track at some point?

[He watched his friend try to say something, clearly trying to either work up the nerve or figure out how to phrase it.

What he says is clearly not what he wanted to say. Still, Llewellyn follows him anyway.]

Sure, that seems like as good a direction as any.

[He let a minute or two pass, before he carefully prompts the start of a conversation. Just to give him a reason to start talking, that helped last time.]

How are you, Eddie? Pick up any of those hobbies you were thinking about?

[wheezed]

That'd be cool. He could be like a detective dog too, you could make him a little badge.

( Normally this sort of topic would be very entertaining, more than enough to get him engaged and on a tangent. Honestly he'll probably come back to it when he's not caught up in everything else that's going on, it's a great idea, but he's...busy right now.

He wavers between habitually moving away from the puppy and distractedly reaching down to pat his head. Even in someone as high strung as Eddie, there's something to be said for pet therapy it seems. )

Huh? Yeah, actually I found a camera. It's pretty cool, but I'm not as good at taking photos as– um, as Richie.

( He forces a tight little smile onto his face and tries his best not to look incredibly guilty when he looks over at Llewellyn. )

Is uh, the detectiving going okay? Caught any bad guys here yet?

[gadaboutdetective]

It would make it very official, could clip it on his collar.

[Pet therapy definitely seemed to assist in soothing rattled nerve, or at least Llewellyn had noticed how much the little dog had helped every time he brought him around when someone was having a bad day. That wasn’t even counting what having a constant little companion did for him.

He hummed a little, listening to the response to his question with interest. Yup. Definitely something going on between him and Richie, if it hadn’t already been obvious, it was now.]

Well uh— they do say practice makes perfect, Eddie. Maybe Richie can give you some help with that?

[He phrases it lightly, just to test the waters a bit there.

Oh Eddie, put that smile back. No one is buying it, least of all Llewellyn. He shrugs his shoulders slightly,]

Well, I’m only a private investigator. It’s more my job to figure out who did what and let someone else take over from there, but um— I’m working on it. Enis is actually helping me now and again.

[wheezed]

( Despite his best efforts, Eddie still winces at Richie's name. He casts a quick glance sideways, but it's not immediately obvious whether or not Watts has noticed. Or at least, Eddie certainly can't tell. )

Maybe. I think we're...both pretty busy at the moment.

( Even as he says it, Eddie knows the lie is weak. Llewellyn lives in this place too, he knows exactly how busy – or not – life is for a lot of the dome residents. God knows he must have noticed Eddie's (and Richie's) tendency to forgo any kind of schedule in favour of doing whatever the hell they want.

But a weak lie is better than the truth, so Eddie moves on quickly. He doesn't want to talk about Richie. )

( ...That's a bit of a weak lie too. )

You're doing all the hard work and someone else gets the credit? That sucks. They should let you be a cop, you're better than all the ones I've met. At least you've got help though, you guys could be like...a crime fighting duo.

[gadaboutdetective]

Ah, you’ve both been busy then. Unfortunate, but that sometimes happens....

[He’s keeping an eye on Eddie out of the corner of his eye, gauging his reactions and expression carefully.]

What has you so busy of late, is there uh— anything I can do to help with that?

[Like let whatever was trapped, rolling around in that head of his out?]

I don’t need any credit, Eddie. It’s mm... more about knowing that I did something to make things better for someone who was in trouble.

[And honestly, he’d been lucky Max finally came around to the idea of letting him do this much.]

I am very lucky though, Enis has been very helpful. She knows a lot of um— futuristic methods that I don’t understand.

... And we all can use a little assistance sometimes, regardless of how good we are at our job.

[wheezed]

( Of course he hasn't thought this through. What could he possibly be busy with? Eddie isn't a bad liar, exactly, but he certainly doesn't do his best work in the moment. He needs time to chew through an idea, come up with something believable, sell the story.

On the fly, Eddie just kind of gapes blankly in silence. Really selling the story, clearly. )

Busy, uh– ( He's honestly racking his mind for anything and coming up completely empty. ) um, with...things.

( Things. Really.

His face heats up, but he keeps stubbornly looking forward anyway. Keeps talking like he isn't red with embarrassment, like they're just having a normal chat about normal things. He wants to talk to Llewellyn about what's been going done, of course he does, but the words are just...not there yet. )

Oh! Are you learning how to be a cool future cop? You should watch this movie, it's about a guy solving his friend's murder and there's all sorts of police-y things in it. I'm gonna see if I can find it, we're gonna watch it.

[gadaboutdetective]

[Ah, yes. The dreaded ‘things.’ It’s so vague and yet so telling... It’s the excuse of someone who doesn’t really know what else to say, but needs something to suggest there was a good reason why they weren’t being themselves without actually putting it into proper words.

Well... Llewellyn had time, and Eddie would work up to it eventually. It was almost like a tea-kettle that you were waiting on. It was a slow build up, and then suddenly the sound would start till all the built up steam escaped.

Would it be better if the kid just came out with it, rather than let the pressure and anxiety build up until he spilled the beans in a panic attack? Yes.

Could Llewellyn tell him that without being something of a hypocrite? ... nope.

He focused instead on keeping the conversation going in its strange, winding little path as they walked.]

I am trying to learn some of the new methods and the like. There are uh— things about modern police work that do confuse me a bit... But perhaps I’ll work it all out eventually. Who knows, maybe your movies will help?

[wheezed]

I heard that if the cops catch your fingerprints on the crime scene that's basically as good as catching you red-handed, but I don't know. These cops are always up to no good, what if they just stick 'em up on the wall and then call you a crook? I don't know about all that...

( Eddie, whose entire knowledge of police work comes from a handful of genre films and run-ins with the local force, nods very confidently as he imparts his wisdom.

The good news is a good old conspiracy theory is enough to keep him focused for half a second, and the whirlwind of nervous energy quiets as he chats away. But it doesn't last, of course, and as he eyes Llewelyn the fidgeting hands start to return. )

You uh, you ever kissed someone before?

( He looks a little shocked, like that wasn't at all what Eddie was planning on saying, but he's interested enough in the answer that he just snaps his mouth shut and looks. Probably a little too intensely, almost creepy really, but the answer is...important. )

Omg Eddie you precious disaster

[gadaboutdetective]

Finger prints are becoming a little more common as evidence in my world, though I would caution officers from using it as damning evidence without anything else that was substantial to back it up?

One of the last cases I worked before coming here, a man was murdered and my inspector almost charged a man for committing it because his finger prints were found on the murder weapon. He didn’t do it, he’d only visited the place many times. Someone else did, and it took longer to consider them a suspect and check their prints and motives because of how sure the inspector was.

[He could see the kids attention was beginning to shift again the longer he was distracted by the conversation. Llewellyn couldn’t help but wonder what sort of blurted out concern would come this time, though he expected it would be on a similar topic to last time considering the drastic change in moods between Eddie and Richie recently.

Then Eddie spoke, it was out and Llewellyn found himself staring back at Eddie a little shocked himself. That... was not a question he had expected.

Clearing his throat a little, he blinked and tried to respond in a timely manner before the kid bolted for some secret fire-escape exit the sphere had.]

Yes...? Uh— I have. Why do you ask, Eddie?

he rly be going through it!!!!!

[wheezed]

See? See. You can't trust cops. ( uh ) ...Except y'know, you. You're pretty cool. Bet you're a good investigator too, that's why you're always writing all them notes and stuff.

( Not that Eddie's nosed his way through any of the stray notebooks and papers left around, he'd never do anything like that.

Llewellyn's shock is very nearly enough to get him to skitter away as fast as he appeared. It's not that he thinks he's going to be judged by the man exactly, not really, but he's so high strung about the topic that anything might send him into another tail spin.

But he answers, and Eddie takes a slow breath in, and another longer one out, and he doesn't run. Instead he just wrings his hands together, folds them over his chest, unfolds them and pushes them into his pockets, and finally kicks a little at the floor. )

Um. It's just– you ever kissed someone and maybe afterwards realised that he probably didn't want you to do that at all and you shouldn't have done it and now you feel like garbage about it?

( That...sure is a specific hypothetical. )

[gadaboutdetective]

[It isn’t as though he hasn’t watched Richie dig around under his bed at the dorms. Nothing would surprise him, and he wouldn’t complain if he saw Eddie doing the same.

He might ask questions, but that was about it.

Llewellyn listened to the very specific hypothetical situation with as neutral an expression as he could manage on the subject. After all, he’s only kissed a man once thus far in his life. It was here in this world.

That all aside, it doesn’t take him long to fill in the blanks. Eddie and Richie had been avoiding each other, Eddie was panicking over kissing someone. 1+1=2. Eddie kissed Richie and wasn’t sure he should have.

Oof.]

Is there any evidence to suggest that the other party in this hypothetical story didn’t want to be kissed?

[wheezed]

( Eddie tried to talk to Stan about this, and he was his typical enigmatic self about it all. "Talk to Richie", he'd said, like that was in any way practical advice for Eddie to follow. Ridiculous. And Eddie would normally talk to Richie, except right now there's a very obvious reason why he can't. They're barely talking, a pale imitation of their former friendship, and every time Eddie sees his stupid face he wants to scream until his lungs explode.

So. He can't talk to Richie.

Unsurprisingly, he's fit to burst. )

Obviously!

( He never means to burst when he does, but this is something of a pattern for Eddie now. He doesn't even ignore problems, he straight up blocks them out entirely until it's so much that he's vibrating with the efforts of his own repression. And then, inevitably, he unleashes on whatever poor soul is unfortunate enough to be caught in the blast radius.

Eddie takes another deep breath, shaky and a little wetter than he'd like, and then doesn't stop talking for a very long time. )

I didn't mean to, I just– he hurt himself and I was so worried because he's so stupid all the time! All the time, I'm serious! And he had blood all over his arm and I was so mad because he's always getting into dumb situations and– and he was just being him and I didn't mean to, but I just...fucking kissed him and who even does that? He was hurt?! And he looked so shocked and I just– I didn't... I didn't mean it, and now I'm pretty sure he secretly hates me and everything sucks. So–

( The rant only cuts off because Eddie's chest is whistling and he can't ignore it any longer. He has to stop long enough to suck on the end of his rattling inhaler, and by the time he's got a few good puffs in he's run out of steam.

Eddie just shrugs his shoulders instead, fumbling the inhaler away and staring at the floor. )

[gadaboutdetective]

[Llewellyn raised a brow at the ‘Obviously!’ as though to patiently suggest that at this point, it was definitely not obvious. He could open his mouth and say that, but he knows Eddie is just about ready to explode into another rambling explanation again.

The kid needed to let it out, as hard as it was to follow sometimes. Holding all that in was going to give the kid heart problems before he was twenty.

So he waited a moment or two, and then listened as another wave of words were thrown his way. All the expected anxiety and panic obvious from the rate and tone of Eddie’s voice. Wow... There was so much to unpack there, the detective needed a minute to run it over in his head a few times. At least he had time, as Eddie took a couple good puffs from his inhaler.]

So... Um... In a state of panic, you acted on impulse and kissed him. Believe it or not, I’ve uh— seen that happen. That seems like a fairly normal emotional response when someone you have feelings for is past the worst of some sort of danger. He might have been shocked because he didn’t expect it, but uh— I believe you should probably try to talk to him to confirm his feelings before you decide he hates you.

[Basically, Llewellyn is saying Stan is right without saying Stan is right.]

To be honest, having observed both of you since — I expect around the time this happened — you’re both rather anxious and miserable over awkwardly avoiding each other. At least if you approach him and find out how he felt, you could make a logical decision on how to progress from there, rather than continue without certainty.