Log:Chemical Happiness

The Madness of David Flyte 2020/02/08 Radical|Connor Cartesian|Randal Grimm 20

After having dropped off food with Frankie and at Mal's place to leave in the fridge while he's on shirt, Grimm makes her way to Green Acres with the last of the food. With her bag of takeout in hand, she reaches up and knocks on the door.

Randal comes to the door. He's looks much more composed than the last time you saw him. "Gabrielle. It's good to see you again. Please, come in." He opens the door wide to let her inside.

Grimm smiles happily at seeing Randal looking better. "Hello, Randal. You're looking like you're doing better. I'm so glad to see you're okay," she says cheerfully. She steps inside as he invites her. "I brought extra food in case you needed dinner."

Randal smiles. "You didn't need to do that, but I'm not about to turn down food." He closes the door. "Connor's here as well. He's tinkering with something in the library." He calls out, "Connor! Gabrielle's here!" Connor pokes his head out of the library and waves, "Hey there. I'll be out in a minute."

"Well, you took care of breakfast for me, and I can't cook, so this is the best I can do unless you're a fan of Bottom Ramen or Mac n' cheese," Gabrielle says cheerfully. She's more gabby than usual. "Oh, hi, Connor!" she gives a wave and a warm smile.

Randal grins, "I like both of those. But I'm not allowed to eat either. Too much salt. I used to have mac and cheese with hot dogs cut up in it."

"Awwww, that's awful. And yeah, that combo was the best. Maybe I was weird, but as a kid, I liked it with ketchup. Sometimes barbecue sauce. Ohhh, that sounds good right now," Grimm says.

Randal scrunches up his nose. "Nah. I wouldn't add anything else." He chuckles and takes a seat in the front room. Connor comes back out to the front room as well. "I have the harness for you to be able to sleep again. I hung it up in the bedroom."

"Thanks," beams Grimm. She holds up the bag of takeout. "Um, did either of you want some indian takeout? I figured I'd get something so you guys could focus on your research. I just found out Randal can't have too much salt, though, and I bet it's loaded with salt. I...I could get something else!" she offers cheerfully, speaking a little faster than usual in her excitement.

Randal chuckles. "No, Indian's good. Thank you. Don't worry about it. It's not like the boxed mac and cheese."

"Oh, good! I was starting to worry," Gabrielle smiles. She hasn't realized the drugs have already affected her. "I could set it up in the kitchen if you'd like, and you guys can dish up whatever you like."

Connor smiles. "Sure, that sounds good." He furrows his brow, "You seem...more cheerful. Everything okay?"

"Yeah. Everything's great. Fine. My boyfriend thought I wasn't in love with him anymore when I tried to explain what was going on and failed to know where to begin, y'know, since he's been too busy for me for -months-, but it's fine," Gabrielle says as she stands up and makes her way to the kitchen. She certainly glossed over the boyfriend part pretty quickly.

Connor's expression hasn't changed. He follows her into the kitchen. "You...also more talkative." He thinks about it. "Did you...try my suggestion?"

Grimm sets down the food and nods. "Yeah, I managed to get some molly at a rock show the other night, and gave it a try. I don't think I'm feeling anything, though. Maybe it's a dud?" She begins unpacking the food, and halfway through, starts to slow a bit.

Connor pats her shoulder, "No...it's having an effect." He turns on his magic sight to first see about the fissures.

"Whoa, my...my heart's racing...." Gabrielle realizes as it finally starts to hit her. She takes a few breaths. Right now, it looks like something cracked Gabrielle's aura more. The cracks are considerably wide, but they are slowly shrinking at the moment.

Connor smiles, "You're with friends. You're safe. Relax." Randal appears in the doorway to the kitchen, coming in to get some food.

"Right...right." Grimm pauses for a moment. She goes slower when she tries to resume unpacking, and then stops. "I...I don't think I can handle this right now." She sounds a little overwhelmed by something as simple as unpacking.

Connor pulls out a chair for Grimm to sit down in the kitchen. "I'll take care of it." Randal looks to Connor, with a look of confusion on his face. Connor says, "I suggested that perhaps some....chemicals might help Grimm's mood."

Randal blinks. "Oh...right, you mentioned that." He looks to Grimm, "What did you take?"

Grimm takes another breath and walks over to the chair to sit down. Her face is starting to flush a bit. All of her skin tingles faintly as her perceptions begin to alter under chemical influence. "They said it was molly. I asked for something that'd make me feel warm and happy, and they said it'd do the trick."

Connor nods. "I'm going to grab my goggles. I'll be right back." Randal places a hand on Grimm's, adding some warm contact. "We'll keep an eye on you. You're safe here."

Grimm inhales suddenly at the contact. "Oh...wow. Everything feels a bit...sharper?" She looks up at Randal for help. "Thanks. I'm really feeling it now..." she murmurs. "It feels...it feels like an anxiety attack?"

Randal smiles slightly, "Deep breaths...relax. Try to just focus on me. Being here and now. There's nothing else." Connor makes another appearance with the goggles from his costume, to see what Grimm's status is with both of his special visual capabilities.

Grimm follows Randal's instructions as she comes up, taking slow, deep breathes and trying to stay calm. Randal's presence does help calm her. As Connor returns and looks, the cracks are still slowly closing. N'zrathol's tendrils are still entwined with Grimm and the cracks. But there's some shifting among them.

Connor smiles and places a hand on Grimm's other hand. "I'm here too. Keep going. Relax. Like you're meditating."

Grimm nods softly, looking a little nervous. "Okay." She closes her eyes and takes slow, deep breathes again, trying to keep calm and block out external stimulation. It feels like agonizing minutes for Gabrielle as she feels on the verge of panic from the new sensations and feelings. Her heart feels like it's racing and pounding, but she's just become more aware of it. All of her skin feels flushed and warm to her. She keeps her hands on the table, trying to adjust.

Connor keeps monitoring her status for the moment. "I'll go get the harness in a bit. Taht should help to. But I'm going to stay here until you're more relaxed."

Grimm takes another breath and opens her eyes finally as either she gets used to the new sensations, or maybe they're just settling down. "I...I'm okay. Really," she smiles as her mood improves even more. "That was...new. And a bit intense..."

Randal smiles. "Let's get some food into you." He nods to Connor who gets up to go get the harness. Randal serves up some food for Grimm and himself by t the time Connor returns with it.

"Yeah, sure. I'm not all that hungry, though, so you guys can have most of it." Funny, since she was when she bought the stuff. She went a bit overboard on selections due to indecision. Gabrielle seems to finally be relaxing, though she takes off her jacket due to feeling overly warm. When Connor comes back, she looks to both of them. "Thank you both again. For all the help." She looks to Connor and says with an outpouring of gratitude, "For putting up with me when I was the worst. You two are really great." The cracks begin to seal more and N'zrathol's tendrils twitch.

Connor smiles. "Gabrielle, you're welcome." He then offers to put the harness on her now. "I think this will help things as well right now." Randal also says, "You're welcome. You're welcome in my home any time. It's nice to get some youth in this house."

Grimm chuckles at Randal's comment as she gets up. "Thanks, Randal. I really appreciate it. It's nice to...I dunno. Be around familial people. And it's not like Connor's that old. I'm pretty sure my boyfriend's older than him," she says more openly than she usually would. She tries putting on the harness, but finds it...complicated. She struggles trying to figure out what goes where. At least she gets an arm through.

Connor helps her put it on. It takes a little longer than normal, but ends up secure after some work. He then turns it on to start the distortion field up. "There. Remember...dont' mess with the controls. Just...relax." He smiles and takes a seat again to grab some food.

"Sorry," Gabrielle giggles. "I don't know why that was so difficult." She sits down carefully, keeping her arms out out of paranoia of hitting something. The last thing she needs is to accidentally shunt to some other dimension while rolling hard.

Randal looks surprised at Grimm's admission about her boyfriend being older, "Older than Connor? Really? I'm surprised. When I Was in my 20s I didn't date anyone more than like...a couple years away from my age."

Grimm chuckles. "Well, I didn't realize how much older he was when we started dating. He looks younger than he is. I mean, I definitely knew he was older and wasn't bothered. The age thing doesn't really bother me. I think he's, like....35 or 36 now?" She picks up a fork and starts chopping up one of her potato samosas.

Connor smiles. "Yeah, that's older than me. I'm only 30." Randal chuckles. "You're an old soul, Connor. Older than you are physically. You need to learn to relax, too."

"What? No way," Grimm stares at Connor in disbelief. "You act waaaaay older than my boyfriend."

Grimm points to Randal while looking at Connor. "He's totally right. You need to relax and chill. I'd totally recommend some of the stuff I took."

Connor chuckles. "I'll keep that in mind. When I have some time to relax a bit more." He looks again at Grimm's status now that the field is starting to protect her in addition.

Randal smiles, "He just needs to run into Miss Moriarty again. That'll help." He says with a stage whisper, "He thinks that Elizabeth is likely his future wife. He tried to look into the future to see for sure. And got blocked by someone."

One of the tendrils loops away from Grimm. The seeping influence on her mind stops as the harness manages to block the rift from affecting this plane.

Gabrielle smiles broadly at Randal's stage whisper. "He did mention that, but he hasn't really talked much about her." She looks to Connor with a wider grin. "So why don't you tell us mroe about Miss Moriarty and what leads you have on her being your future wife?"

Connor smiles. "Well...I ran into her in the past. I met her grandfather. THE Moriarty. You know, the one who was matched against Sherlock Holmes. She was there to try to help her grandfather not become the villain that he was perhaps destined to be. I helped her with that, making sure that he ended up living a more normal life." He smiles slightly, "Ther'es a mention of a 'Professor Duran' in one of his math papers. That's actually me. I was initially really concerned about potentially changing the past, but...it was at an acution. We came across a couple of items from the future there. A ray gun. Plasma, I think? And some radioactive material. So, we took it upon ourselves to try to make sure nothing else got messed up by those things being htere." He pauses, realizing he went on a tangent, "Anyway, Miss Moriarty and I hit it off. Especially when she found out we were both time travelers. We ran into each other another time after that, and about the point I was going to ask her out...that's when Moonshadow kind of threw herself at me, messing up the possibility. My only contact after that has been notes...that were passed through time."

Connor shrugs, "She sent me a warning that my grandmother was in danger. In my research after that, it seemed that I WAS in the past to help save her, so I had to make sure I went back to save her. A robot of some kind was traveling back in time to kill Ramona, my grandmother...to indirectly kill my grandson. Or son. One of my descendants. That made me wonder who my wife ended up being...and who my descendants were."

Connor shrugs, "So that's when I relearned the spell to look through time. I Wanted to know."

Connor chuckles. "Sorry. That was a lot to throw at you at once."

Grimm listens with a happy smile on her face, looking happy for Connor. Then she winces at the date-blocking. "No, it was great," she smiles warmly. "But ouch on that block. Wait, was this with the travelers? Was Amelia there? Because that now makes her suggest that I sit in your lap so much worse. Man, I wish I had just gone and done it just to stick it to her," she chuckles.

Connor chuckles. "It was with the Travelers, yes. And Amelia was there for at least some of that. Not all of it."

"Worst. Wingwoman. Ever. We....weeee...we need to get you out there to find your future wife!" Grimm has a bit of trouble focusing, but she thinks this is somehow a great idea.

Connor smiles. "Well, the nice thing about time travel means...there's time." He looks at her, seeing the creature on the other side retreating a bit. "I may try to close the rift while you're relaxed. I just wanted to give you a head's up on that."

Randal nods, "Might be a good time, if you think you see an opportunity, Connor."

Grimm nods with half-lidded eyes. "Yeah, I mean the best time is now, right? Seize the day." She might still be on the Elizabeth track of thinking.

Randal keeps a hand on hers, keeping contact. Closeness. "You have a good point, Gabrielle."

Connor keeps his eyes on the rift...and when he senses a chance...he starts to channel his magic, attempting to heal the rift. As before, there are no words or gestures to go with it. It's just a function of his will...and her pattern being restored.

"Well, time travel is...complicated. Unless you're immortal, you don't have all the time in the world. There's this guy with a 4D wife who's always missing her by just THIS much," Grimm just blathers openly, definitely thinking of time travel and happy thoughts rather than realizing the opportunity talk is about the rift. "Then again...I heard Sasha's former true love found out Sasha had a future kid with someone, which meant they didn't end up together, and was partially responsible for them never getting back together again." She sniffs once. "It's so sad..."

Even though her thoughts turn sad, Gabrielle's still feeling safe with Randal's supportive contact. As Connor focuses, the rift starts to seal. The furthermost cracks seal first. Those spiderweb cracks that N'zrathol had retreated from. Then larger cracks. More and more. It starts to work...until all eyes of the Elder God are on Connor again. It's noticed. Before the final cracks can be sealed, it jams its tendrils in to hold the last open. Connor's managed to at least reduce the number of rifts in Gabrielle, giving the Elder Thing less purchase on her and this realm.

Connor looks right at N'zrathol...and flips it off. But he makes sure that Grimm doesn't see the gesture. He goes back to supporting Grimm. Perhaps the Elder God will relax and drift away again briefly.

Randal looks to Connor expectantly, and the younger Duran nods, "I made some progress. It's not completely healed, but partway there."

Grimm doesn't notice the gesture because she's smiling a bit drunkenly at Randal. The closing of most of the cracks in her aura is allowing the drugs to be more helpful. "You're so nice to me, Randal. If anything or anyone ever tried to cause you trouble, I'll...I'll kick their butts. Order, Chaos, elder things...they'd be sorry."

The Elder God doesn't react to the bird it just received. It's every many eyes just stay locked on Connor for now.

Randal turns his attention back to Grimm and he smiles warmly, "Thank you. I know you would. You're fierce, Gabrielle. Don't let anyone tell you you're not. You're strong."

Grimm smiles and blushes. "Thanks. Yeah...you're right. I've resisted this long. If I could see this Naza...N'zre...N'zrathol thing, at least I could fight it." She looks over to Connor. "By the way, same goes for you. You've been patient and nice and trying to help even after I treated you terribly. If anything tries to mess with you, I'll kick their butts, too!"

Man, that Molly is good stuff.

Connor smiles broadly, "Thank you. That means a lot, Gabrielle. I feel the same way, you know. Whatever you need...I'll be there."

Grimm blushes and waves him off. "You've already done more than enough. More than I could ever ask." She sets her hand down again. "Still...thanks for putting up with me," she smiles apologetically. It feels so easy to get things off her chest while under the influence.

Randal nods. "You're a friend. Friends help each other out." Connor smiles and adds, "And they put up with each other, too."

Grimm laughs warmly. "Okay. You both have good points." She smiles happily at them. "Thank you both."

Next: Log:To Take Back Sleep