11892/There's a Name and it's Escaping Me

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There's a Name and it's Escaping Me
Date of Scene: 05 July 2022
Location: 105 W 29th - Jon and Cael's Apartment
Synopsis: Robbie comes to talk to Jon about Rien's mirror problem. He leaves a shard of said mirror--and the realization he might have friends!
Cast of Characters: Jonathan Sims, Cael Becker, Robbie Reyes




Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon has informed Cael that company's coming, because Robbie texted him and asked where they could meet and the consensus was Jon's place, since nobody would walk in on them there except Cael and maybe a cat or a dog. Jon's daughter is off doing science camp for the week, leaving the apartment quieter than usual. There's a whole business with doormen and lobbies and being buzzed up--the place has pretty good security, which is part of why Jon's lived in the building for years.

    It's been a lazy afternoon, with Jon sitting around in jeans and a green t-shirt, mostly spending his time finding actual flights to England at short notice and grumbling about prices. He has a cat on his lap, a lovely black-and-red Maine Coon, which is going to mean Cael will probably have to answer the door when Robbie arrives. Lady has already been banished to a bedroom--whether or not Bear was as well is up to Cael, but Jon's in no mood to have his dog growling at poor Robbie. It's not /his/ fault she doesn't like anything remotely dangerous and supernatural.

Cael Becker has posed:
    Poor Lady is locked up alone - why punish Bear for Lady's bad manners? That leaves Bear lying in a patch of sun from the extensive windows in the apartment, an oversized chew-toy he's been working at just by his head. Cael's been to work out, and has filed some reports with the FBI on the Avengers' recent activities or lack there up - earning her paycheck for the day. At the moment, she's leaning over the back of Jon's chair, staring at the prices herself. "Couldn't we cheat? You can open doorways from the VR, yeah?" she asks curiously.

Robbie Reyes has posed:
Dangerous and supernatural is only the tip of the iceberg, where Robbie's concerned. It's the demon part that tends to result in a trail of angry wildlife in his wake; a tendency that's endlessly aggravating to him, as a former animal lover.

He is however looked over by the doorman with appropriate suspicion, and buzzed up once the guy confirms with Jon and Cael that they're expecting some punk kid in a leather jacket and tattoos and piercings. The elder lady whom he holds the elevator door for looks a little scandalised, but his dimpled smile seems to set her somewhat more at ease.

Then a couple of knocks on the door, and a futile attempt to look through the peephole. Which pretty much just means that if either of them check it, they'll be treated to Reyes's face jammed up against it and weirdly distorted.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "I mean, I'm still technically a subject of Her Majesty Queen Lizzie the Everlasting, so I don't know if they would /care/ if I just came back home without bothering to go through customs, but I don't know about /you/. Though Agnes never technically left..." Jon pauses. Frowns. "Yeah, we'll use the Velvet Room and I can pop open a portal from there."

    He's just pulling up hotel information instead when there's knocks on the door and--he freezes for a moment. Takes a long, deep breath. Lets it out. "Can you grab that, love?" He takes a moment, while Cael's up getting the door, to pet the cat and calm down from whatever random hyperventilation someone /knocking on the door/ caused.

    Nobody around here is okay, really. It's the way of things.

    But then he gently ushers Nimue off his lap and gets up to head to the kitchen. "Hello, welcome! Can I get you anything?" Need to be a good host and all.

Cael Becker has posed:
    Cael smirks in amsement, and gives Jon a little kiss on the temple before adding, "I can go the long way 'round if you prefer, but it'll be fine as long as don't go doing any crime. You planning on crime?" she asks teasingly.
    At Jon's discomfort, she places a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it reassuringly before she does indeed move towards the door, checking the video footage just as she's opening it. After all, wasn't too long ago she'd been afraid to go outside for fear of getting shot.
    "Hey Robbie," she greets the man, gesturing him, as she steps clear of the doorway to allow him entrance. "Jon, you putting a pot on?" she asks. Of coffee, not tea. Somehow, it doesn't occur to her that there could be any confusion. "We have all sorts of weird British stuff if you've ever wanted to try it. Scones, and curd, and clotted cream, and spotted dick, but I think we're fresh out of jellied eels - honestly, they make it much too easy to mock their cuisine."

Robbie Reyes has posed:
Robbie, himself, looks a little bit wary as he's let into the apartment. Hands jammed into his jacket pockets, broad shoulders hiked, he slinks inside with a mumble of thanks to Cael. And a flicker of his gaze over her, down and up again, like he's assessing threat level. "How you doing?" he asks with a little upnod that doesn't take his eyes off hers.

To Jon, while still watching their girlfriend, "Uh, beer. If you got it." He makes a strange face at Cael's food suggestions, particularly when she gets to spotted dick. "I'll pass."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "Martin's the one that liked jellied eel. I've never entirely been a fan. Alya used to eat the stuff /constantly/ though, drove me /nuts/." Jon shakes his head as he goes to, yes, put on a pot of coffee for Cael and then pull out a couple of beers. He manages to hold back the usual rant he'd give to Cael about Americans and food, to be polite, and instead hands over a stout from some local microbrewery, which might be surprisingly strong given the provenance.

    He looks between Robbie and Cael for a moment, then seems to decide to let whatever's going on between them go on. "I, ahh... do you mind if Cael's here for... I was going to tell her my own concerns about the... subject anyway." A shrug. "But if she needs to scoot off she could."

Cael Becker has posed:
    Cael raises her eyebrows at the once-over from Robbie - though his opinion of the foods she'd rattled off earns a broad, amused grin followed by a 'see, Jon?' look towards her boyfriend. It's not just her.
    "I know when to fuck right off," Cael agrees easily. "Could always take Bear for a walk and go pick up some take out. Did we want to try that new Ethiopian place?" she asks. "...I don't think they have any noodles, but I think I'll survive for once."

Robbie Reyes has posed:
He doesn't appear, anyway, to have any aggressive intentions. For the time being, at least. Maybe he's just eyeing Cael for any signs of lycanthropy, given her predilections.

"Nah, we're cool," he decides after a few moments, while looking for a spot to sit. "But if you want to fuck off, I ain't gonna stop you." He flashes her a wink, and accepts the stout with a similarly discerning look. Then, without bothering with any kind of preamble, he pops the cap off the bottle and jumps right in, "I'm really worried about Rien. She's been havin' nightmares.. I mean, I think they're nightmares. But she said something's been.. eating pieces out of her?"

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon heaves a sigh and goes to sit back down on the couch where his laptop's still sitting on the coffee table, only to have the cat promptly claim his lap again. He runs a hand along her back as he glances to Cael. "This is why I wanted to tell you... well. Yes. There is a... problem with Rien."

    He hesitates a moment, preparing himself for what, in his mind, is akin to giving someone the news their loved one is sick. It's a thing he's actually had training in, but there's a reason doctors aren't supposed to treat their friends. Another sigh, and then he says, "I took a look at Rien's aura the other day, and it's... there are pieces... missing. Just chunks that are... gone. And it's... it's not natural. It's not like she's... depressed, or anything. Something is /doing this/ to her."

    He looks to Robbie. "She said you... found her, after the nightmare or vision she had. What... what happened?"

Cael Becker has posed:
    "Something is attacking Rien?" Cael asks in surprise, going to take a seat on the arm of the couch. Bear lifts his head to look at the trio - then flops back down to enjoy the sunlight. Damned dog thinks she's a cat all of the sudden. "What can do something like that and how do we stab it?" She asks bluntly. After all - there has to be a solution. ...right?
    "Friends don't let friends get eaten by dream monsters." It's only after she says it that she realizes two things. God, she sounds insane. How does she just... continue to take this shit at face value these days.
    And- friend? Damnit.

Robbie Reyes has posed:
Robbie wisely keeps his distance from Jon-- and more specifically, the cat on his lap. The poor creature's probably already giving him some side eye. "Yeah, I came home and she was in the bathroom. Crying, glass everywhere, the mirror was broken and she was on the floor.. crying." He already said that. But it's clear that the scene's still fresh in his mind, and causing him some distress.

"I got it cleaned up the day after and put a new one in, but she told me to take it back out." He glances down at his beer bottle dangled between two fingers, with furrowed brows, then back up to Jon. "So I did." Then a frown for Cael. "I ain't *letting* her get eaten by anything. I've barely left the house the last week, tryin' to keep her safe. Only came here because it was fuckin' urgent."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "Mirrors are... problematic, magically. They're incredibly powerful scrying tools, but... well..." Jon shrugs. "They're incredibly powerful scrying tools /both ways/. This apartment's warded against scrying, and we've also got some scrambling tech installed to stop more mundane methods of eavesdropping. If it didn't interfere with wifi signal I'd get wire mesh installed in the walls, it blocks signals beautifully." He says this entirely deadpan, like he's not admitted to practically wearing a tinfoil hat in his own home.

    He glances at Cael and says, "I don't know, exactly. Rien thinks it might be a demon or demons, which... is possible, given her history. Something coming after her, preying on her insecurities. She..." He swallows. "She's having some... trouble, with identity and..." He shakes his head, brow furrowing.

    "Did you save any pieces of the mirror? Even a tiny shard? I had suggested to Rien we might come look at the house, too. Not that I think it's the house, and not her, but the way I put it was--if someone had taken a shot at her, we'd come over and check for bullet casings and figure out where the shooter was situated, try to find clues." By his tone, he's assuming it might actually be them, and not the police. "This is the same sort of thing. Something attacked her, and we need to look at the scene of the crime, as it were."

Cael Becker has posed:
    "I'm not saying that, Robbie. I'm not saying that you would. I mean - you don't know what to do, so you've come to Jon for more help. I'm saying... We - me and Jon - //we// aren't going to let this just happen. We'll figure it out somehow, yeah?" She pauses a moment then adds wryly, "Well. Jon is. I- wouldn't know what to do."
    Looking to Jon she adds, "Do you think some of the same wards we've got around here might help? If-" there's a barely perceptable pause, "Lydia went over to cast some wards..."

Robbie Reyes has posed:
Even Robbie's giving them a skeptical look when they start talking about scrambling tech and wire mesh. He can be a pretty paranoid kid at times, but this shit is next level. "Uh huh," he mumbles, and takes a swig from his beer.

Moving right along, "Don't think it's a demon. I'd be able to smell it, if it came anywhere near us. She's had more of these.. bad dreams since that night, and I never felt a thing."

He draws a steadying breath, then sets his beer aside and rifles around in his jacket pocket. What's withdrawn appears to be an irregularly shaped object about the size of an average palm, wrapped carefully in a dishcloth. "Right," he answers Cael, going to hand the thing over to Jon. "I'm sorry." He meets her eyes for a moment, and seems to mean that.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "This is, quite literally, what we do," Jon says in agreement with Cael. "And... I think you should have eyes on the situation, Cael. Especially if it /isn't/ something that's pinging the Rider's senses. That implies either this is a mortal using magic, or something..." A pause. "Something /way/ beyond a mortal." He swallows. "Either way, there might be some mundane detail people like me might overlook."

    He reaches out to take the piece of mirror, gingerly. With his right hand, which at the moment looks entirely normal. For a moment, he freezes, hand shaking as he takes the shard of glass, and his eyes widen. "/Fuck/," he breathes out.

    Then he very firmly reaches out to grab the piece of glass with his /other/ hand, visibly swallowing.

    "I'll have to take this to the Velvet Room to examine it," he says, voice shaky. "I... I've been having trouble doing magic in the real world," he admits. "And I don't want to risk... I'd like to see it safely warded as quickly as possible. Where did the rest go? Into the garbage?" There's a sharp, tense tone to his voice all of a sudden.

Cael Becker has posed:
    "We're good, Robbie," Cael reassures the man with a brief smile. "Someone you love is in trouble - you're on edge." It doesn't seem to bother her in the least.
    There's a cheerful little song from the coffee pot in the kitchen, prompting a //look// from Cael, that Jon's used to. That particular coffee pot was no her pick, and she can't quite get over the idea of a 'singing' appliance.
    "I'll look," she promises Jon. "Can't promises I'll see anything, but I'll look."
    It doesn't take her long to pour herself a cup of coffee in her 'no FOX to give' mug, and add a shot of whiskey. As she returns, she studies Jon's features with a faint frown. "What? What are you picking up?"

Robbie Reyes has posed:
"Yeah," Robbie agrees, and some of the tension in his tall, lanky frame returns as the mirror shard is handed over. "Yeah, I know. And thanks." He sends a long look Cael's way, and her words cause his lower lip to start trembling ever so slightly. He digs his teeth in, hard, to stop it.

"Nah, I sent it to Hell," he replies in regards to the remains of the mirror. Real casual-like, as if creating portals to nether realms and using them to take out the trash ain't nothing at all. He pauses as he's about to take another sip of his beer. "Why, you want it back?" He's also curious what Jon might be feeling from the shard that he didn't, and waits to see if they answer Cael's question.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon lets out a long, slow breath of relief. "No," he says, "I do /not/ want it back. I wanted to be certain it wasn't going to hurt anyone else. It might cause trouble for Hell, but they can handle themselves." Either he's confident in Hell's ability to handle things or he just genuinely doesn't care what happens to the denizens of Hell.

    He sighs, and flexes his right hand. "My prosthetic... it was made by something... connected to Nullspace somehow? And it... when I touched the shard of the mirror with that hand, it felt..." A pause, as he hesitates, looking for the right words.

    "It felt like the mirror wanted to be /opened/. Like a /door/. I'm pretty sure something used it for that purpose within the past 10 days or so." He sighs, and looks to Robbie. "I think you're right. This isn't a demon at all."

    After another moment he pushes up to go pace toward his room. "I'm sure I have /something/ I can use to shield this until... Cael, d'you remember where I put those Dominion feathers?"

Cael Becker has posed:
    "In the box on the second shelf from the left of the door," Cael says immediately. She doesn't particularly like that their are //angel feathers// in the bedroom but- she's used to putting up with some things from Jon.
    "Drink the beer," she murmurs to Robbie, as her gaze follows Jon. She takes another drink from her coffee as she waits for their return.
    Bear is sitting up now, with all the tension in the room - his dark eyed gaze going from one of the occupants to the next. In the end, he walks towards Cael, inserting his head under her hand with an insistant nudge. "I'm fine, I'm fine," she assures the pup.
    "You don't remember where you put angel feathers?" she asks - only once Jon is returning.

Robbie Reyes has posed:
The young mechanic's austere features melt into a brief smirk when Jon confirms what he suspected: that the creepy ass mirror is best left banished. It doesn't make him feel any less uneasy about the piece he kept. In a drawer at work, to be on the safe side. The piece he hasn't mentioned to Rien. Keeping secrets from his girlfriend isn't something that fills him with warm fuzzies.

"So some kind of portal?" he ventures, glancing to the shard of glass.. that looks like any other shard of glass, really, to his eyes. He does, however, drink his beer when Cael chides him for it.

He adds, somewhat hesitantly, "If you want feathers from a fuckin' Throne, I.. could probably get some for you." By totally legitimate means not involving accosting said angel in a dark alleyway and yanking a few loose, of course.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon grabs the box, considers for a moment, then merely opens it and dumps the piece of mirror inside. Then he stalks back out to the kitchen to grab some salt and several herbs off of a spice rack set apart from the rest of the kitchen, the jars labeled by hand. "I wouldn't say no, but I've still got all these feathers from a Dominion that died in St. John the Divine during the siege. I'd use some of the bits of Archangel feathers I've got, but last time I touched anything to do with an archangel to Nullspace we accidentally ended the universe for about 30 seconds. I'm not looking to repeat the experience." A smirk.

    "My /hope/ is that if this /is/ a portal or a door or something, I can make it hard enough to come through that whatever's on the other side just won't bloody bother until we've had a good look at both the mirror and your house and we've laid a /bunch/ of wards on the thing. Or throw it into Hell, maybe that'll work."

    He ties together some basil, rosemary, and rue and sets the little bundle aside. Then, after a moment of hesitation, he opens a bottle and fishes out a single petal from a yellow rose, pricks his finger, and smears a drop of blood on the rose petal. He puts that on top of the piece of mirror, then dumps enough salt over both to cover the mirror. That done, he starts arranging the feathers atop the whole thing within the box.

    "I've been... trying to access my memory's gotten harder since whatever Jonah did to me. It didn't seem worth the potential headache to find something if you knew where it was." Jon shrugs, and goes about fishing out his lighter to light the herbs.

Cael Becker has posed:
    "Fair enough," Cael replies. She's watched everything Jon does to the mirror with a sort of baffled curiosity. Why does any of this stuff work? Salt is a purifying agent, sure. Angel feathers have power. But the blood? The rose petal? The herbs?
    "So our next step is to go over to Rien and Robbie's place?" she asks. "Do we bring Lydia? She's been a bit-..." But Jon hasn't quite been himself, either.
    When it rains, it pours.
    "We're going to figure it out," Cael reassures Robbie. "Jon's right. This is what the JLD //does.//"

Robbie Reyes has posed:
Robbie's watching all of this, of course, with rapt fascination. He may not be well-versed in sorcery or.. whatever the hell this is. But sharing his body with a demon has removed any shred of doubt in his mind that supernatural things very much exist-- and that no amount of skepticism is going to change that. Besides, he's seen weirder things than burning herb bundles for the purposes of divination.

"Here, let me," he offers, pushing out of his lean and approaching where Jon set the bundle down. Flames spill from his right, tattooed hand, licking over his fingers. He doesn't yet light the thing on fire, though.

To Cael, "We *have* to figure it out. I-- I ain't losing her." There's a brittle, savage rage simmering just under the surface, like turbulence beneath still waters.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon blinks at Robbie, then nods and reaches over to let the fire--the Hellfire?--light the herbs. "That might actually help," he murmurs, quietly. With the herbs smoldering, he reaches into the box and shuts it partway, letting it capture as much of the smoke as he can manage.

    "That's the idea, yes," they say as they do this. "Going over to Rien and Robbie's--if you're okay with that, Robbie--and trying to see what we can find out. We bring..." They sigh. "Whoever can look into this properly. Lydia perhaps? I need to talk to her about... whatever's going on with her. Whoever we can find, that might be able to help, though not too many. Don't want to overwhelm."

    He looks up at Robbie and says, in a firm, serious tone, "I already offered myself to be tortured in Rien's stead. Not just her, but--besides Lydia, she's the only one of that group that hasn't turned away from me. She's my /friend/. The last friend I had that was in trouble... I faced down the creator of our universe to get him back. Whatever's going on with Rien, we are /going/ to figure it out, and we are /going/ to fix it."

    He sighs, and shakes himself, and glances aside to Cael. "Can you grab me some duct tape, please? And my gold Sharpie."

Cael Becker has posed:
    "And I just don't want Jon to lose anymore friends," Cael adds - though there a little humor in her expression as she says it. Look, it may be a serious, dire circumstance - but if she can make some stupid joke about how //she's// not friends with Rien...
    "On it," Cael agrees - heading towards a utility drawer where such eventualities are kept. She digs the requested items out in short order, bringing them back to Jon to offer them over wordlessly.

Robbie Reyes has posed:
The bundle lit, Robbie wills the flames to recede again, jaw hard as he wrestles control back with some effort. The burns are minor, and heal over within seconds. He didn't *have* to offer, but it should go without saying that this has become personal as hell for him.

Which is why he looks up sharply when Jon mentions offering himself. To be tortured. "You *what*?" he snarls, shoving himself upright, mismatched gaze locking onto the other's. He's so taken aback by it, that he doesn't even register that Cael's just implied they aren't her friends.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon doesn't shy away from Robbie's gaze. "Rien helped bind Saint Michael, back in December," he replies, voice firm but quiet. "When we exorcised him from Chas, he got free, and was threatening to take all of us involved in binding him, immediately. Myself, Rien, Lydia, Zatanna Zatara, Meggan Puceanu--Meggan Constantine, now. I presume he would've tracked down John Constantine as well. Rien had drawn the circle Lydia came up with, channeled Nullspace energy into it, and helped bind the archangel. She sat in the Laughing Magician day in and day out to keep an eye on him while we prepared the exorcism."

    A long sigh. "Nothing we could do was hurting him. /Nothing/. Lady Death--you might not remember her, she's a Hell Lord, she's the one who killed Michael in the end--even she couldn't touch him. I... I probably should have held my shield, told everyone to run, but--" But he didn't think Cael would've run. He couldn't risk her. "--but I wasn't sure everyone would listen. So I surrendered to him, offered myself in the place of all the rest. He was most angry at me. I helped Lydia come up with the circle, thwarted his plans, I burned his wing with balewater I got from Lucifer. And I didn't know it at the time, but I had already been chosen as Gaea's Champion. I figured... angels respond to that kind of thing. Noble, selfless self-sacrifice."

    A shrug. "It worked. He never touched the others. After the siege of Manhattan, I gave myself over to him and he lashed me, took my arm, tortured me emotionally and then dumped me in a desert." They swallow. "It was... bullshit. A child lashing out because he'd been hurt. And it's not like he did five times what he normally would've done to me alone. But he never touched any of the others. It's not like I think Rien owes me or anything--what I mean is that in that moment I considered her a friend, and I still do. And I'll do whatever it takes, to help her, still."

Cael Becker has posed:
    Cael's silent a moment before she remarks quietly, "When she bound Michael, she saved me. That's when- I mean, I told you about that. When Michael was in my head, making me... kill myself. She, and Jon, and Lydia, and Sara, and the others - they saved me."
    And then Jon got tortured as a result - and she had to deliver him over into Michael's hands. Her fist clenches at her side, nails digging into her palms as Bear lets out a worried whine, and nuzzles his way against Cael, bumping her hand with his nose to prompt her to pet him.
    She obliges.
    "Anyways. It's all besides the point other than to say we-... We all owe each other a lot. In a lot of ways, so..."

Robbie Reyes has posed:
The demon in him wants an excuse to lash out. Not unlike Michael, in that moment in the desert. To his Rider, Robbie's merely a vessel for violence; and a fairly capable one, at that. Willing to kill and kill and kill--

"Okay." The explanation is enough to have him standing down, and retreating back to his lean against the table with its altar to various deities. He finishes off his beer, and lets the bottle dangle, empty, between his fingers. "Don't think I remember her, but if she's what you said she is--" A Hell Lord. "--then Eli might know her. He don't tell me everything. Sometimes I gotta bribe him." His upper lip twitches slightly, like a feral animal's.

Cael gets a nod; he does remember her explaining this. He seems to be thinking on something, though. And then he asks it, meeting Jon's eyes directly again. "Can you die?" Because this is totally a valid and normal question to ask, when you're in the JLD.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon turns away as Robbie does, to take the duct tape and start sealing up the box, smoldering herbs still inside. The Dominion feathers don't burn, becuase of course they don't. He's in the middle of this when Robbie turns back, and he looks up to meet the man's eyes for a moment.

    "That's a good question." he says softly. "I'm... honestly not certain. I did die, back in February. My body was entirely destroyed. This new one... I don't know. In truth, though? I doubt it'd stick, if I did. I'd probably get sent back, the way the other avatars of the Egyptian gods do. Or just ignore what should be mortal wounds entirely. I've watched Moon Knight take a beating that could've killed most supers, maybe even some of the toughest, and live."

    A blink, and he turns away, back to the box, to take up the gold Sharpie and start drawing the Eye of Horus on the outside. "Why do you ask?"

Cael Becker has posed:
    "We're not testing the theory, though," Cael says in a tense voice. Bear continues to press in against her, but she ignores him for not, so she can stride towards Jon, and wrap one of her arms around their middle. She wouldn't lose them again - she wouldn't go through that again. Jon was //hers.//
    Her attention goes back to Robbie as she adds, "It's been a shitty year."
    She blinks - then adds in a wry voice. "Hey Jon? ... //now// it's 6 months."

Robbie Reyes has posed:
That odd look on Robbie's face remains as Jon mulls over his reply. Sloe-lidded eyes fixed on the older Archivist, head tilted ever so slightly, almost birdlike.

Then Cael moves in to assert her jurisdiction over him, and maybe it's her assertion that they won't be going there, or maybe it's the fact that Jon breaks his gaze in order to fetch the sharpie. But he dimples a grin suddenly and goes to set his empty bottle aside. "Just wondering."

He prowls for the door, digging his hands into his jacket pockets. "I should-- I should get going. Don't wanna leave Rien alone too long." A glance over his shoulder. "Let me know when you want to stop by, yeah?"

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon sighs as Cael moves in to put an arm around his waist. "No planning to, no," he murmurs. But he touches his chest, briefly. It's been close, of late.

    He looks at Robbie, and smiles. "Of course. And, hey, when things are more settled we should all go out together somewhere, the four of us. Get drinks or food or something. Since Cael has admitted Rien's her /friend/ and all." Ohhh, he didn't miss that one. "And I'm sure she'll admit to it with you soon enough." He's half-teasing Cael, but the smile is genuine. He wants to be Robbie's friend, too, if he can.

    A glance back at Cael. "It... it is, isn't it? Well, happy 6-month anniversary." A grin. "Let's see our guest out and then we can see about getting proper food for the occassion. I've never had Ethiopian--it's worth a try!"

Cael Becker has posed:
    "God damnit Jon," Cael remarks - as she's called out on her earlier slip of the tongue. She rolls her eyes broadly, and gives Jon a brief squeeze, before turning her attention back to Robbie. "We're gonna figure it out - alright? It'll be a priority. You just take care of her while Jon hits the proverbial books on the subject."
    She then flashes Jon another brief smile, adding a quiet, "Happy half anniversary." Back to Robbie she adds, "They're a helpless romantic. I don't know why I put up with it."

Robbie Reyes has posed:
Robbie's not been much for friends. Between the whole demon thing, and much of his spare time going into either his job at the shop, or taking care of his brother. Besides, the Ghost Riders tend to be a solitary lot. Must come with the mantle.

It doesn't stop him from blushing slightly under all those freckles when it's suggested Cael might actually like him. He reaches for the door handle, and nods to Jon. "You mean like.. a double date? I know Rien would love that." He smiles slightly, and nods to Cael. "Gonna do my best. I love her."

Letting that hang awkwardly between the three of them a moment, he clears his throat and shoulders his way out with a rustle of leather and metal fastenings.