Elliot's Apartment | Afternoon

[knife_bender]

Luther felt like his whole world was being turned upside down. The one time he doesn't want to do what Dad says, the rest of his siblings go "sure, let's go out to eat with him".

His life was unfair.

"Diego, this is a set up."

Diego	Diego shrugged. "Maybe, but we should go anyway." Surely the six of them together could handle their father.
Luther	"Says the guy who has already been stabbed once this week," Luther said, looking over to Annie for help. Surely she would be the sane one here.
Annie	"Can I come?" Annie asked, probably not providing the voice of reason Luther wanted there even as her eyes flicked to where Diego's stab wound-turned-burn was hopefully healing under his shirt. "As backup, if nothing else, in case it's a set up." Backup that probably would have an easier time with seeing Reginald than the rest of these people, aside from Vanya. (You'd think.)
Diego	"Of course you're coming. You're family," Diego said. "And I'm not gonna just punch Dad in the face. Me and him are gonna have words." And then maybe punch him in the face.
Luther	Luther looked over at Vanya, since Annie did the opposite of helping. "Would you tell them they're nuts?"
Vanya	Vanya shrugged. "I think we should go."
Annie	Annie, who had basically just turned into an actual real life heart-eyes face at hearing she was family (because it hadn't been a matter of course last time they'd gotten into sticky things with the rest of the Hargreeves, and -- oh, shit, they had found his family now, hadn't they? They could make it official! After this shitty dinner!), smiled over at Vanya before offering a shrug to Luther. "I think we'll all just wonder forever if we don't go," she added. "He's one guy. What's he going to do to us?" Just a little verbal evisceration, Annie.
Luther	"He can do enough," Luther said. "Vanya, you of all people should hate him the most."
Vanya	Vanya couldn't help but smile at the dramatics. "Come on, can he really be that bad?"
Luther	Yes, yes he could. "Okay, well, let's see," Luther said, starting to count off on his fingers. His ape fingers, which were Dad's fault. "He isolated you from the rest of the family."
Diego	"Kept you hopped up on pills," Diego added.
Luther	"And he brainwashed you into thinking you didn't have any powers." Which was the worst offense, in Luther's opinion.
Vanya	Okay, well, that was quite the list. "Jesus, this guy...I have to meet him."
Annie	"I mean, that's super fair," Annie agreed, because of all people, Vanya did deserve to meet Reginald. The guys weren't wrong. She'd absolutely gotten it the worst, and it wasn't like the others had gotten off easy. "But keep all of this in the back of your mind when you meet him, okay?" Somehow, the Reginald of 1963 seemed to be in possession of some kind of...charm? Grace seemed to like him, anyway. But then all the best monsters had a nice smile for the public, in Annie's experience.
Luther	"You already know how this is gonna go," Luther said, looking over at Diego. "Dad is gonna play all of his little mind games on us, get into our heads, and he's gonna turn us all against each other. You watch."
Diego	"Luther, we're not twelve anymore." Nobody mention how his father totally intimidated him last summer. "We're grown-ass men. And women. We can handle him." "Wanna know what's different this time?" Oh man, Annie, get the camera read--oh yeah, no cellphones in 1963.
Luther	Luther rolled his eyes, fully expecting some JFK nonsense. "What?"
Diego	"You got me," Diego said. "We go in there as a united front. No more "Number One" "Number Two" bullshit. From now on it's Team Zero."
Luther	"Team Zero?" Sounded like a name of a bunch of losers. Which...wasn't inaccurate.
Diego	Uh, it was an awesome name. "Team Zero, all the way," Diego said, putting out both fists to his siblings for a bump. ... ...any day now, Luther and Vanya.
Annie	Annie, who was watching this whole exchange looking like she was trying not to actually cry from how proud she was of Diego, finally took mercy on him and leaned over to bump her fist against one of his. "Team Zero," she agreed, beaming at him, and then at Luther and Vanya. They could workshop that name later, maybe.

Five	Well, now it was time to see if he could avoid getting entangled in more Commission politics in order to get people back home and safe. Safe-ish. Better than another apocalypse, really. So, he took a deep breath upon entering the elevator to the family dinner.
Diego	And there was Diego, followed by Annie. Then the rest of the siblings trickled in, even Luther, who still kind of looked like he was going to throw up. Clearly he was the only one here who had a decent hold on what was about to happen.
Klaus	Oh, definitely, yes. "Hey, everyone," Klaus said, either having no clue what was about to happen here or planning to just get drunk for it. Maybe both!
Five	"Good, we're all here." Five needed this to go well, otherwise he'd have to go and get back on the murder train, folks.
Luther	Ohgodohgodohgod they were going see Dad. Luther was going to have a panic attack. He might die in this elevator. Or he'd just stink up the joint and make everyone else wish they were dead. He'd go with that one.
Five	Five made such a face, not at all missing this stress response, Luther. Not at all. It was only once they got to the correct floor that escape was possible to get away from the smell. Which was distracting enough to make the whole tiki bar thing almost seem normal. But first things first. "Alright, when Dad gets here, I'll do the talking, okay?" The last thing they needed was another fart bomb or accusation of planning to murder the president.
Diego	There was a little bit of a crush happening as the rest of them tried to get off the elevator at the same time to escape the smell. Diego managed to shoulder his way out early on, so he didn't pass out from it or anything. But it was close. "I have a few questions for Dad myself." So, you know, get ready for this to be a shitshow.
Five	Don't make him tranq you again, Diego! "We don't wanna scare him off," Five replied, gritting his teeth as he tried to explain it like his siblings were all actual children. Which was basically what they reverted to around Reginald anyway. "He might be able to help stop doomsday, get us home."
Diego	"No, we need to figure out why he is trying to kill the president." Who cares about getting home when someone's life was on the line! Someone who they never met! And seemed fated to die anyway!
Five	Okay, so maybe leaving Diego in that psych ward was coming back to bite Five in the ass. "This is a matter of life and death, you imbecile," he snapped.
Vanya	"Okay, yeah, maybe we should take turns talking?" Vanya, the most middle child of them all, suggested. She wandered over to a table and picked up a tacky shell decoration. "Whoever has this conch shell gets to talk."
Five	"Vanya, we do not have time for a debate, okay?" Also it was very clear she didn't have her memories for thinking that would ever work in this family.
Allison	Well, now Allison had to go and big sister this shit to spite him. "Maybe I should lead. We all know I'm a better public speaker than the rest," she said, taking the shell from Vanya.
Diego	Diego rolled his eyes. "Okay, Daddy's girl." This was going so well.
Allison	"Oh, jealous, Number Two?" So well.
Diego	"Hey, no more numbers." There were fist bumps over it and everything. "No more bullshit. We're Team Zero. We're all Team Zero." He was not letting go of this Team Zero thing, guys.
Luther	"Uh, Diego?" Luther said. "You don't have the conch." Luther liked the conch idea! This meeting needed more structure!
Diego	Of course Luther would like the conch idea. Diego held up a finger with a wink, before snatching the conch out of Allison's hands. Then he smashed it against a nearby wall. There. Now nobody could have the conch. Happy now? Look what you made him do.
Allison	"Classic." Just like when they were kids!
Reginald	Of course that was the perfect time for Sir Reginald to show up. He briskly walked in and took a seat at the table, looking very out of place among all the niche Tiki decorations in the restaurant. He didn't even wait for everyone to be seated before speaking. Your fault if you weren't ready. "Not only have you burglarized my lab, set my chimp loose, conned your way into the Mexican consulate, repeatedly stalked and attacked me. But you have, on numerous occasions, have called me--"
Klaus	Most of his siblings had sort of slunk into their seats once Dad had begun to lecture them, but not Klaus. Oh no. He was bringing a nice, strong drink back from the bar. "Hey, Pops, how's it hangin'?" he asked, finding his own seat with the safety of an island drink.
Reginald	"...dad," Reginald finished, glancing over at Klaus. He sounded so uncomfortable even saying the word. "My reconnaissance tells me you're not CIA, not KGB, certainly not MI-5, so who are you?"
Five	"We're your children," Five said, taking the lead here. "We're from the future." Just go with it, Reginald. "In 1989 you adopted us and trained us all to fight against the end of the world. Called us the Umbrella Academy."
Reginald	That was the dumbest thing he had ever heard. "Why on earth would I adopt seven children?" he asked, looking around at all of them. None of you looked very adoptable. Look at your long hair, hippies.
Allison	Allison frowned at him getting the number right without Ben being there and realized that he was counting Annie in the number instead. Because Dad wasn't omniscient. Hopefully. "One of us isn't actually here," she corrected a bit haltingly.
Annie	"I'm not a Hargreeves," Annie offered with an insincere smile, lifting a hand to flutter her fingers politely at him. "Just a friend. These six are your living kids." Didn't seem right to make the correction without acknowledging that their number should actually be eight, with Annie included.
Diego	"Yeah, one of us is dead," Diego said with the tone of someone who was so ready to fight. Sorry, Five.
Ben	"Dead, yes, but I'm here!" Ben said to, well, just Klaus. Being dead sucked so bad when the one sibling who could see you was being a jerk. "Klaus!"
Klaus	"Yeah, blah blah blah," Klaus muttered into his drink.
Ben	"Tell them I'm here," Ben demanded.
Klaus	"Enough of that now," Klaus said, looking away from Ben's totally unreasonable hissy fit to gesture at the family meeting to keep going.
Reginald	Thank you, Klaus, for proving his point exactly. "Regardless, what would possess me to adopt seven ill-mannered malcontents?"
Five	He was good at doing that, wasn't he? "We all have special abilities." If he hadn't noticed that in his fight with Diego.
Reginald	All he saw was a guy who kept missing him with knives and had the flipping ability of a ballet dancer or patriotic superhero. "Special? In what sense?"
Luther	"In the superpower sense." Oh look who finally decided to speak!
Reginald	Oh you were getting such a look, Luther. Don't think he forgot about you being a stone cold weirdo a year ago. "Call me old-fashioned, but I'm a stickler for a pesky thing called evidence," Reginald said, sounding unimpressed. "Show me."
Allison	"Everyone wants to see powers all of a sudden," Allison sighed.
Luther	"We're not circus animals, okay?" He just...kind of looked like one from the neck down. "We're not gonna bounce balls on our noses and clap our hands like seals for your amusement."
Diego	Fuuuuuuuck that. Diego would totally show off. He pulled a knife and threw it at his father, making it swerve to miss him right before it stabbed him in his stupid face.
Reginald	Reginald still looked unimpressed. But he did pull out a notebook and start writing. Probably a familiar move to the entire room sans Annie.
Diego	Oh no, the notebook writing. Diego hadn't missed that. "What are you writing?"
Reginald	"You are zero for two, young man." Sick dad burn.
Diego	Yeah, he was going to kick this old man's ass. Without knives. Diego got up from his chair and started stalking towards his father.
Five	Five was already teleporting in front of Diego, placing a hand on his chest. "Stop." They had to stay focused. Not let the not quite so old man rattle them.
Reginald	See? That was cool. That was a cool thing for a person to do. "Now this is interesting..." More notebook writing, deal with it.
Five	Once Diego was settled as much as he could be, Five took a breath and went through the list with a little gesture at each sibling as he went, "All right, quick rundown. Luther: Super strength. Klaus can communicate with the dead. Allison can rumor anyone to do anything." Which was possibly one of the coolest powers, really. Even he had to admit that.
Diego	"Except she never uses it," Diego mumbled as he sat back down in his chair.
Allison	Oh, it was gonna be like that, huh? "I heard a rumor you punched yourself in the face."
Diego	And then Diego punched himself in the face, hard. There was absolutely no way this was the first time this had happened. Diego's hands went to cover his nose, wincing. "Damn it..."
Reginald	Reginald seriously had no idea why he adopted that guy. He looked over at Vanya, skipping over Annie since he (wrongly) figured she couldn't do anything fun since he hadn't adopted her. "And you?"
Vanya	Luther raised a finger. "Uh, maybe don't take Vanya for a test run."
Klaus	"Oh yeah, that's probably not a good idea," Klaus even had to add. Klaus, guys. You knew it was a bad idea in that case.
Vanya	"It's fine," Vanya insisted. "I can handle it." She had no proof of this. She could not name a single time where she had handled it.
Allison	"Handle it? Last time you handled it, you definitely blew up the moon," Allison replied, not even bringing up the whole nearly killing her thing. Mistakes were made all around, but the moon thing? Big deal.
Vanya	Oh now she was so gonna show off. Vanya picked up a fork, going to tink it against her glass softly.
Five	"No, Vanya, don't!" Five said like he could stop her before the building exploded or something equally terrible.
Vanya	The building didn't explode. God, Five. However, when the fork hit her glass and a light dinging noise came out, she did make just about everything at the table explode, including the huge tacky fruit plate in the center of the table.
Klaus	Fruit goo? Everywhere. "This was my favorite shirt," Klaus said mournfully now that they'd all survived it. "Wow."
Annie	Annie, who had painstakingly picked out this dress after having ruined a different gorgeous floaty yellow dress via being shoved through a second story window, sighed and shook a little fruit out of her hair. "I don't think any of it's staining," she commented lightly, looking around for the likes of pomegranate or blueberry as she reached over to pick some fruit off Diego's shirt. Because priorities. That shirt needed to make it back to 2022 at all costs.
Luther	"That was impressive," Luther admitted, peeling a piece of pineapple off his shirt and popping it in his mouth. What? He wasn't gonna waste fruit.
Diego	Now that he had been humiliated twice over and now covered in fruit, it was time to get down to the important stuff. "Look, we know you're involved in a plot to assassinate the president." Everyone, brace yourselves.
Reginald	"You were recently hospitalized, isn't that correct?" He had done his research on...most of them. Annie and Five were weirdly off the grid. "You still appear to be suffering from delusions of grandeur, and acute paranoia."
Diego	"Am I?" Yes, but not for the reasons most people though. He pulled the photo of the Frankel footage out of his pocket. "Explain this. That's you. That's two days from now on the grassy knoll at the exact spot the president's going to get shot."
Reginald	"Well, I suppose you've solved it," Reginald said, appearing not to be affected by the photo at all. "You've single-handedly unearthed my nefarious plot. Is that what you want to hear?" He got some satisfaction from the way Diego's expression began to change from cocky to worried. "You fancy yourself a do-gooder? The last good man who will save us from our descent into corruption and conspiracy?" he asked. "This is a fantastic delusion. The sad reality is that you are a desperate man, tragically unaware of his own insignificance, desperately clinging to his own ineffectual reasoning." He picked up his drink, which somehow escaped Vanya's explosion. "More succinctly, a man in over his head."
Diego	The first humiliation, he could handle. He could even handle punching himself in the face. But this...this took him straight back to being nine-years-old again. As his father kept talking, Diego kept shrinking back more and more, any anger he had replaced with shame. He knew he had to say something, but the only thing that came out was. "You're wr-wrong." He slumped back in his chair, looking down at the table and trying to hold back tears.
Annie	The one and only time Annie had heard Diego talk like that, he'd been telling her about his mother's death, and it hadn't clicked then. There had been too much else going on, too many reasons for him to have trouble getting words out. But now she got it. Now she saw, and between the stutter and those tears, she wasn't sure whether she was more pained or furious on his behalf. And the way the other Hargreeves were just sitting there, quiet and expectant and tense, was almost as infuriating as Reginald's words. Why weren't any of them doing any -- It hit her like a ton of bricks, once she understood. They were reacting to Reginald, just like Diego was. And all of a sudden, every single time Annie had wished someone had been around to stand up for those kids came into focus. So, yeah. Furious was gonna win. "You," she ground out, pushing herself away from the table, "are fucking pathetic." Her eyes lit up bright gold, and every lamp in the bar buzzed in concert as she thrust a rosy hand out towards Reginald to blast that fucking unmarred drink out of his hand. For starters.
Reginald	Really? You had to go for the drink? It wasn't bad enough his suit was covered in fruit? However that was the most interesting use of power he had seen so far. Why didn't he adopt her? There was a lifted eyebrow in reaction to that, but not much else.
Annie	"What, you don't want to write about me in your little book?" Annie asked, standing up and getting ready to actually vault right over the table at him. "Gonna be hard to do blind, asshole." There was a reason she and Diego got along. Going around the table? Not even an idea that occurred to her.
Five	"Oh, for fuck's sake," Five snapped, already teleporting behind her and then teleporting again to dump them both outside of the building. So, enjoy that nausea, Annie. "Stay here," he ordered before teleporting away again. Because everyone just lived to test his self control when it came to the urge to just stab someone. Also, no one got to get the last word with him. Ever. The little shit.
Annie	"Goddamn it, Five!" It didn't even matter that he was gone already. Annie had barely even seen him, but she was getting so used to this that she'd known instantly what had happened. She was also getting used enough to this to make sure to spare her shoes when she tipped over to vomit up some tropical liqueur in the bushes. This was, honestly, probably for the best. Paradoxes, paradoxes, and it wouldn't have helped anything. But she was now full of residual adrenaline and anger and without an outlet for it. She didn't exactly think she was going to run into a punching bag or anything. ...though. That car over there. That was something. Hmm.
Five	Honestly, that could have been his actual full name at this point. 'Goddamn it, Five Hargreeves' He reappeared in the tiki bar, looking murderous for a moment before he straightened his jacket and tried again to get this shit show back on track. "Look, forget about the president. We have a catastrophic war coming in five days. We need to figure out how to stop it." So, be their Dad and help, damn it.
Reginald	He was not their dad and you couldn't make him. So there. "Men will always be at war with each other." And he wasn't a man, so not his problem.
Five	Don't you think he couldn't force this on you with the sheer force of his rage. "No, this isn't just some war. I'm talking about a doomsday. The end of the world." Which he'd seen. Multiple times. It was turning into a whole thing for him.
Reginald	"Well...you're the special ones, aren't you?" Reginald asked. "Why don't you band together and do something about it?" Even an AU version of Reginald had to make it about working together. Ugh.
Klaus/Ben	"All right, screw it," Ben said, just yeeting himself at Klaus to get control of his body to help his siblings here. Which mostly just made it look like Klaus was having a seizure as they fought over control.
Allison	Which was, you know, alarming to see. "Is he having a seizure?" Allison asked, pushing herself up onto her feet.
Diego	"Overdosing, probably," Diego said, though his heart wasn't really in the insult. He was still hurting from Reginald's comments.
Reginald	"...should we do something?" Reginald wasn't about to get up unless everybody else was going to.
Five	"Klaus! Now is not the time," Five snapped, also being just utterly useless in this situation. It had to be a Hargreeves trait, right? "What are you doing?
Klaus/Ben	"I'm---Ben!" He managed to get out before Klaus collapsed and nothing more came of that. Which should have been the cherry on top of this dumpster fire of a family gathering, right?
Reginald	Yeah...that was weird. "Well. Thank you for coming," Reginald said, still polite even after all this nonsense. "I've seen about enough."
Luther	"No! I--" Dad couldn't leave before Luther had his chance to embarrass Five! Luther stood up from the table and ripped his shirt open, exposing his weird ape chest. "Look at what you did to me! Look at it!"
Five	WHY WERE HIS SIBLINGS LIKE THIS? WHY? "Oh shit, why?" Five asked out loud rather than just in narrative.
Reginald	Who the hell raised these animals? Reginald totally ignored that nonsense, instead pointing at Five. "You, in the culottes. A word, please? In private?"
Allison	Yeeeeah. Allison was just going to finish her drink, let Five do whatever he was doing, and get out of here before this somehow got worse. "Check, please?"

Annie	Annie was still glaring up at what she assumed was the tiki bar's window when she took notice of the car idling nearby, and glanced into the backseat to spot its passenger. Well, now. That seemed like a fine way to vent a bit. And how could this mess up the timeline at all, anyway? This woman didn't know those people upstairs, aside from Reginald. And, like. Girl code. She would have done this even if she wasn't angry. Annie wound her way over to the car and gently tapped on the window next to Grace's face, hoping not to startle her too much.
Grace	There was a little jump, but Grace gathered herself quickly. She rolled down the window--the old fashioned way since it was 1963--and looked up at Annie. "You're the girl from the consulate." With the weird guy who called her mom.
Annie	"You're here with Reginald again, aren't you?" Annie asked, not bothering to wait for a response. "Grace, listen to me -- he isn't a nice man. He hurts people. Makes them hurt each other. And he and his friends are going to kill the president the day after tomorrow." As much as Reginald's eventual failings as an adoptive father were Annie's focus, the Kennedy thing was much more pressing, and much easier to prove quickly.
Grace	Was this more or less weird than a stranger calling her 'mom'? Grace couldn't decide. "I don't understand," she said, like a sane person.
Annie	Just be glad Annie hadn't decided to lead with, 'That man is going to make a robot in your image to raise his children and very possibly do weird things with.' "He's going to assassinate President Kennedy," Annie said, deciding that maybe there had been too much information the first time. "Reginald is."
Grace	"That's ridiculous," Grace said. "He would never hurt anyone." He was too polite and British!
Annie	"You're wrong about that, and you need to leave him before he shows you that he's very capable of hurting someone, Grace," Annie said softly, meeting Grace's eye very seriously. "What do you think that whole meeting at the consulate was about? It's a conspiracy. We have to stop him."
Grace	"You're mistaken." And insane. Clearly insane.
Annie	"Don't take my word for it," Annie advised her, shrugging a shoulder. "You should ask him yourself." And she should probably buy a gun or something, but Annie had come off as crazy enough for one day. She gave the car a little pat before taking a step back and wandering a bit back towards the building to wait.
Diego	Diego made his way out of the building, not bothering to see where his siblings went off to. He needed some space away from them, at least as long as it took to walk back to Elliot's. "You okay?" Diego asked when he spotted Annie.
Annie	"Hey!" Annie hurried over as soon as she heard him, uncrossing her arms from around herself and visibly relaxing. "I'm a little pukey, but fine. I'm so sorry, I shouldn't -- that was embarrassing." And more than anything, she wished she'd been able to keep a cooler head so she could have supported him through the rest of whatever had happened after she'd been booted out.
Diego	"Don't worry, Klaus and Luther managed to erase any memory of what you did," Diego said, coming in close so he could put his arm around her shoulders. "Anyway, I didn't think what you did was embarrassing in the first place."
Annie	Annie leaned into him, sighing out a little more of the tension. (Don't worry; she'd get it all back soon enough.) "Are you okay?" she asked quietly, rolling her eyes up to look at him. "That was...a lot." She didn't think she needed to say how it had made her feel. She'd shown it pretty well, and this wasn't about her or her temper, now.
Diego	"I'm nowhere near okay," he said, shaking his head. "It's been a long time since someone talked to me like that."
Annie	"He's a monster," Annie said softly, her voice wobbling with anger just a little bit before she valiantly pushed it aside and reached up to rub a thumb lightly along Diego's jaw. "And nothing he said was true. Not a word of it." And if Five hadn't interfered, he'd probably have a lot more regret about having talked to Diego like that. Regret, and maybe some third-degree burns.
Diego	"I know," he said, leaning into her touch. "I'm sorry you had to see all that."
Annie	"I'm here for all of it," Annie promised, worrying her lower lip a little and shaking her head. "I just -- I didn't know, Diego. I didn't expect that." Thinking about it made her want to blow something up again.
Diego	He shrugged a shoulder. "Not something I really like to talk about." "It was pretty cool when you shot his cup out of his hand." See, deflection. That's how much he didn't like to talk about it.
Annie	He could keep not talking about it. At least now she knew what wasn't being talked about, and could be sensitive of it. "It was a warning shot. He made me very angry," she said evenly, which was probably clear from the powers use and the F bomb and the almost climbing over a table to beat the shit out of him. "What did Luther and Klaus do?" This actually sounded like she'd missed something good.
Diego	"Well, Klaus was being Klaus." Just being a total freak, nothing stranger than usual. "And Luther ripped his shirt off and demanded Dad look at his gorilla chest."
Annie	You know, she sort of wanted elaboration on Klaus, but then Luther had to go and be all in everyone's faces with his pain. "...you're right," Annie decided with a nod after processing that. "That is more embarrassing than what I did." She cleared her throat, glancing over at where the car had been. "I, uh. Ran into your mom. Or, like. Grace. You know what I mean."
Diego	"Ew, he must be meeting up with her," Diego said, wrinkling up his nose. "Gross." Of course that is what he would focus on.
Annie	And here Annie had been so good about avoiding that part. She made a little face all the same, though. Like. Diego. Your dad had definitely hooked up with your mom, and it was gross on so many levels. "I told her about Kennedy," she shared, because that was the important thing. Grace was, in theory, a new ally. And more importantly to Annie at the moment -- here, Diego. Have some unabashed, full-hearted support in the form of facilitating your plan that everyone else doubted, and a bonus of trashing your dad to his girlfriend. "I don't think she believed me, but I planted the seed."
Diego	Well Diego just had to stop and kiss Annie then. Because that was the kind of insane support he needed right now.
Annie	Annie was just basically pure, unadulterated insane support tonight. Hopefully he didn't mind kissing someone who'd puked up a tropical drink a few minutes ago. "I love you," she murmured, and like, she always meant it, of course, but tonight it was really important to her that he understood that she meant it. She loved him even if he was determined to save the president, and even if that back there had been a shitshow, and even if he had a stutter that seemed to make an appearance when he was really upset.
Diego	He'd deal with the puke kisses! That's how in love he was! "I love you too," he said. "And I'm totally marrying you after we get out of this."
Annie	Annie's smile widened, and she ignored the way her chest started fluttering at that, 'cause -- yeah. She'd thought about that plenty since they'd found his siblings. "If I didn't want, like, my mom and Summer there, I'd say we could have a cool sixties wedding," she teased lightly, reaching up to gently check on his nose a little as they walked. "Throw everyone for a loop forever by having a November 1963 wedding date."
Diego	"Don't tempt me." Because that was kind of the coolest idea in the world? "Elliot might have another suit I can borrow."
Annie	"I wouldn't make you wear a tie for our wedding, though," Annie promised, already kind of thinking about whether she could track down a white dress. She hadn't seen one at the stores she'd visited so far, but that didn't mean anything. "Klaus is probably, like, ordained." She didn't even really know all that much about his cult. He just seemed like the kind of guy who would be ordained.
Diego	Uh, Klaus was absolutely going to be the one to marry them, no matter what decade they were in. He probably called it months ago after he found the underwear in the car. "I've really been meaning to ask him more about his cult," Diego said, reaching to open the door for Annie as they approached Elliot's apartment. "I'm just afraid he's going to immediately go into the sex stuff I don't want to hear about."
Annie	"Oh, it's definitely a sex cult," Annie said confidently, giving him a smile for that chivalrous deference. "Just makes me feel even worse for Ben if he's sti...." She trailed off, eyes on Elliot's floor, and reached to grab Diego's arm and silently point at the small pool of blood on the tile.
Diego	Well. That wasn't great. Diego pulled out a knife and side stepped the blood to allow himself into the apartment. He nodded over to Annie, indicating that--so far--everything seemed clear.
Annie	Annie nodded in turn, illuminating her eyes before inclining her head to the side and starting off towards a closed door. They should split up, obviously. There was a whole lot of room here to investigate. (Which was part of why it was such a good, interesting home base for them to use.) She kind of wanted to call out for Elliot, but if he was here -- and bleeding -- then giving away their position probably wasn't the best idea.
Diego	Diego went the other way, heading off towards where the electronics were actually sold. After a minute or two, Diego was pretty sure that they were alone in here. His paranoid self hadn't heard any movement or anything. So where was Elliot? The answer, unfortunately, came in the form of Diego approaching a very, very still person in a dentistry chair. "Holy shit."
Annie	Well, that sounded -- not promising exactly, but like Diego had found something. "What?" Annie came bustling around the corner, her eyes fading as she took in the still form in the chair. "Oh, no. No, no, no...." It was stupid, but Annie reached out to put her fingers against Elliot's neck to check for a pulse, anyway. Considering all of the pointy things sticking out of his face, though, she was very much not expecting to find one.
Diego	Diego felt a little sick looking at Elliot. He had seen plenty of dead people, but...dude was straight up tortured. In an attempt to look anywhere else, Diego peeked over the balcony, in case anybody was hanging around down there. That's when he saw the...message? "Annie--look."
Annie	Annie was trying to call on her own first aid and trauma training as she searched for a pulse she'd never find, and was breathing through her mouth so the smell of blood didn't actually make her throw up again. There was -- there was just so much of it. And really, she didn't know the half of it, considering that's what the message looked like it was written in. "Oga for Oga?" she read carefully once she'd given up and stepped away from Elliot, swallowing thickly. There were some of those Ikea dots over the Os, but she didn't know if you said those differently? (And they could also just be...drops. Oh, God, this was awful.)
Diego	"What the fuck does that mean?" And without Google they were going to have to try to figure it out on their own. This might take awhile.

[NFI, NFB, OOC is OK. Warning for NPC death. Taken from TUA 2x06 A Light Supper and preplayed with apocalypsehow and defenderofdesmoines]