Log:Detective and Porter (chewed)

The Madness of David Flyte 2020/02/18 Porter Night Marshal|Carpenter 28

A bit more than 24 hours after Porter's abrupt arrival, Carpenter receives a message from the attending that he is regaining consciousness and may be able to answer questions. An hour or two after that is a followup announcing that James Porter is expected to be discharged later in the day.

Carpenter shows up at Porter's door, after having gone through the rigmarole of dealing with the desk and being shown where to head. He pokes his head in and knocks. "Mr. Porter?"

Porter is here, sitting on the bed and looking ... well? antsy? He's in his own clothes; no more machines or gowns. His feet are dangling and absently kicking making. Para is seated in a guest chair, currently dozing (since Porter's the one who got all the bed rest lately.

Porter looks over at the door and gives a friendly smile. "That's me. Well, just Porter. Hi."

Carpenter nods and steps inside. He closes the door nearly all the way before he steps over closer. "I know we've met before, but...well, this is an official visit. I was asked to investigate the attack that caused you to end up here. I know some details...but I wanted to get your account of what happened."

Porter's smile wavers some as he nods. "Oh, right. Sorry. It was an accident. Those happen a lot."

Carpenter smiles slightly. There's a melancholy look on his face too. "I already spoke to Gabrielle. I want to help her. Please...just give me some details about what you personally saw."

"It wasn't her fault!" That much Porter's sure of, or at least adamant about. A sigh follows. "She's been having nightmares, bad ones. Not sleeping. I was trying to help with that. I think she woke up with one, maybe still going on."

Carpenter nods slowly. "Alright...so to calm things down, let's get the formality out of the way: I'm guessing you're not intending to press charges, then?"

Porter blinks and shakes his head. "For an accident? Of course not. It was probably my fault, anyhow." It's a safe presumption, in his experience. Now that the formality's out of the way, he asks with concern, "Is she Ok? This probably has her freaked out even more..." Another sigh. "So much for helping..."

Carpenter takes a deep breath. "She's feeling...guilty. And worried about you. She only was willing to meet with me after I made the meeting unofficial." He shrugs, "I left the badge and gun at home." His weight shifts as he thinks about the conversation he had with her. "She mentioned something about...a spell you had tried, that caused her to see you as an...evil version of you? Or like...a waking nightmare? And that...she saw you as that again when this...incident happened. She attacked you...and then when she realized it was you, she got you here. Saved your life. Well...the doctors here also deserve that credit, but you know what I mean."

Carpenter tilts his head, "Were you working any kind of magic when this happened? Any at all?"

"Me? Not that I know of." Porter shakes his head. "We just woke up. I just said good morning to her, and... I guess she wasn't seeing me?" A shrug. "Well, not 'me me.' I can see how that'd be scary to wake up to..."

Carpenter nods. "I asked her about the flareups of her power and the correlation of you being around her. It seems to match pretty well. If you have any control over your abilities...any at all, I suggest dampening them around her until her current situation is resolved with her...whatever it is. Power leakage? Something. She didn't go into great detail about it with me. But it's clear that her powers are dangerous...and in flux. Exercise caution around her." He rubs his chin, "What kind of spell were you trying to cast when the first event occurred?"

"Um..." Porter rubs the back of his head. "The, er, power-fixing kind, I guess? I thought it'd help with her stuff, but I tripped and messed up the words, so... Yeah, I haven't tried again. She didn't want me to. Can't blame her."

Carpenter chuckles and quirks a smile. "That...doesn't sound terribly precise. I was under the impression that magic was a dangerous tool, like a gun. 'Power-fixing' in what way? What was it supposed to do?"

Porter gives a sheepish shrug. "Sorry, I'm not the best at all the fancy magically words. Oh! Well, her shimmery ... aura... thing is all cracked. And there's this, like, universe-destroying monster ... god... tentacley... thing trying to crawl through. I think that's what's giving her the nightmares. Make her too tired to fight it or something. The magic idea I had was to try and help close the cracks..." He pauses to try and think of an appropriately mystical term. "Soul spackle?"

Carpenter blinks and takes that in. "Hmm. Alright. Well...I'm clearly not the right person to help with anything related to magic. I'm just trying to figure out if there's a pattern of some kind." He rubs his chin again, "Maybe you made it worse with the initial casting? And then your proximity acted like...well an aggravation of whatever wound was caused?"

Porter shrugs. "It could have just been because I was there, too. Like I said, stuff happens around me. A lot. Sometimes good, sometimes not. But I can't just abandon my friend."

Carpenter nods. "Alright...fair enough. That gives me enough to write up a report. I'll give Gabrielle a call to let her know the score and that you're okay. She'll be relieved to hear it.

"Ok," Porter nods. "Sorry for all the trouble. And I can let Gabrielle know. I should check up on her, anyhow. Just won't stay around too long. You know, just in case."

Carpenter smiles again, "Porter, this isn't 'trouble', honestly. It's my job. 'Trouble' is when I have to deal with Daemon while on a case. This is just...a potential conflict of interest." He shakes his head, "Having friends implicated in a potential crime I'm investigating does put me between a rock and a hard place. But I'm glad I don't need to take this any further. It sounds like it'll be completely resolved. It'll be up the D.A. in the end, but I suspect the whole matter will be dropped entirely."

Porter nods and gets his own smile back. "Good. Like I said, it isn't a crime. So if it's up to me, it isn't. And I didn't mean to put you in that rock and hard place, but I'm glad your her friend. She's going to need that, I think. A lot."

Carpenter smiles and nods. "Thanks." He takes another long, deep breath, "Alright. Well...I'll be in touch if I need anything. If you can think of anything I can do that might help with her situation, please let me know." He pulls out a card and hands it to Porter.

Carpenter smiles. "And that is my cue, I think. I should get going. Reports to file, and all that."

Carpenter waves and makes his way back out. He's already pulling out his PDA to send a message by the time he's in the hallway, likely messaging Grimm about Porter's status.

Next: Log:Abandoned and Not