Log:Test Your Metal, Scene 2

Test Your Metal 2015/08/30 Malcolm Grimm 2

Malcolm may have indulged Grimm in a bit of a longer joyride on the hovercycle than he had intended. Dinner was homemade from scratch in some sort of backwoods Cracker Barrel about an hour and a half northwest of Colonial Bay's western most suburbs. Grimm probably had enough biscuits and cornbread to snack upon during the ride back to Colonial Bay.

The crankity-creakity rumble of the garage's automatic doors carries on somewhere in the shadows overhead as Malcolm parks the hovercycle just beside the stairwell leading up to his apartment proper. Grimm may - not for the first time - suspect that this stairwell, not the abandoned auto shop, is the actual selling point that keeps Malcolm in West Colonial Heights instead of somewhere a bit more in his paygrade.

Climbing off of the bike, Malcolm peels his helmet off and hangs it off of the hovercycle's handlebars as he turns to face Grimm. Smiling cheerily, Malcolm offers a hand to Gabrielle as he inquires, "How was that for a last-days-of-summer date?"

Grimm grins with the helm still on before she realizes he can't see it. So she promptly pulls off the helmet and shakes her head, her long hair tumbling free over her shoulders. At last, she can grin up at him properly and takes his hand.

"Stellar, Handsome. That was some good food, and a fun ride," she says happily as she climbs off the bike with his assistance. She muses a little over the stairwell, wondering why Malcolm may favor it so much. But then other things to ponder come to mind. Like the strange meeting with Dr. Essiam. She hooks her helmet on the other handle of the bike, unzips her black leather motorcycle jacket for some improved movement, then steps up on her tiptoes to kiss him on the chin sweetly. "I really enjoyed our date."

Malcolm wraps his arms around Grimm's waist, supporting her whilst she's up on tiptoes, and returns the kiss with one of his own to her forehead. Smiling broadly, Malcolm is slow to release Grimm from the hug despite the fact that doing so allows him to lead the way up the stairs to the apartment door.

"I'm glad you enjoyed it, Gabrielle. Making you happy is the highlight of my day," comments Malcolm somewhere along the way. Gently he tugs her into the apartment proper, gesturing broadly as he comments, "As ever, welcome to Chateau Gibbs."

"And being with you is the highlight of mine," Gabrielle smiles as he tugs her along to his apartment. "Tres chic," she says as she enters the familiar apartment, still holding his hand.

Gabrielle looks content and happy. But she starts looking pensive as she thinks about the strangeness that proceeded the date and what she got herself into. And how does she even begin to ask Mal about this? And she's being really quiet, isn't she?

Fortunately for Gabrielle, Malcolm is busy closing the door whilst she contemplates all that is resting heavily upon her mind. She gets a small reprieve in which to come up with a plan of attack. Malcolm turns around, still all smiles, and starts shrugging out of his leather jacket as he regards Grimm.

One eyebrow quirks slightly as he considers the expression on Grimm's face. Grimm can read that 'catching on' expression spreading slowly across Malcolm's features. He's quickly coming to realize something is troubling her, so what will she do?

Of course he's on to her worry. He knows her. Well, he also knows people and is good at reading suspects. But he knows Grimm especially well.

Gabrielle suddenly realizes she doesn't really have to worry. She may be weird and have strange circumstances happen to her, but she knows in her heart it won't freak Malcolm out so badly that he'd abandon her. And this could concern Malcolm's safety, so she's keen to tell him the truth.

As she peels off her motorcycle jacket, Gabrielle says, "So, Handsome...I kind of wanted to put it off during our date so we could just enjoy the evening. And maybe I should put this off for later, but I guess my worry is getting the better of me. It's about that doctor I met with earlier today. The weird one I asked if you knew? Dr. Essiam?" Wow, look at Gabrielle, being all open and trusting suddenly. That's progress! GAME: Save complete.

Malcolm's expression goes somewhere Grimm may be unfamiliar with seeing on Malcolm's face. He looks equal parts surprised, proud, and perplexed. Grimm can probably figure out exactly where each of those emotions is coming from, if she really dares to consider how Malcolm feels/thinks about her.

"O... kay? I still don't know any Dr. Essiam. Maybe she was one of those people that was too close for comfort during the train derailment?"

Yeah, rationalize away, Malcolm. That's really going to help.

Grimm smiles coyly at Malcolm, something she doesn't really do around anyone else. Perhaps because she does know how Mal thinks about her after his declarations while she was recovering in the hospital. And because he's worth opening up and taking a risk on.

"She seemed to know you. Well, of you. And I get the impression she knew more about you and your powers than I do. Or you, for that matter. But...it was really weird. I was trying to go for all these internships in Starguard, the police department, campus...and I got picked up by the science department and this doctor," she begins casually.

And then she feels a strange tingle in her brain as she tries to retrace her wayward stepst through the labs. "But getting to her office...it was all...-wrong-." It's the only way to explain it in summary, her brow furrowed as she tries to think of how to explain it. "Directions didn't make sense...my special senses were all warped and distorted. And then when I got to her office, it was like...it was like you." Yeah, her trying to explain the weirding ways and the feel of what she experienced is just coming out strangely. In the vague way that mystics tend to explain the unexplainable.

Malcolm hangs up his jacket on the rack by the door, it may have once been a set of handlebars. He collects Grimm's jacket and hangs it up alongside his own. All the while, Malcolm listens with a quiet patience. Curiously, Malcolm's lips purse and his brow furrows just so when Grimm tries to explain navigating the Science Building. It's like he knows something.

"It was like me? I thought you said Doc Essiam was a woman?"

Just to be sure, Malcolm looks down his body and then back up at Grimm. He tries to break some of the tension by giving his pecs a quick hand check, just in case all is not as it appears to his cool grey eyes. Quirking an eyebrow a little bit, Malcolm can't quite erase that expression of recognition from his features as he waits for Grimm to elaborate on how Dr. Essiam - or her office - was like him.

As her shpeel starts getting hard to explain, Gabrielle begins to pace without realizing it, gaze fixed on her feet. And without looking, she handed her jacket off to Malcolm, but didn't stop her pacing stride. "No. Yes. I mean...yes and no."

She waves her right hand in a round about gesture as she tries to coax the words out. "The whole thing was very deja vu. You know, they say the sensation of deja vu is like your brain misfiring or something. It stores something you just saw in long term memory and you feel like you've seen it before. Deja vu. Anyway," she gets side tracked, because her mind almost doesn't want to focus on the what she experienced, just like her senses wanted to turn in on itself as she traveled through the halls.

"Yes, she was a woman. And her eyes...they were green, but looking into them, they looked like -your- eyes. I can't really explain that." Her pacing slows and her head quirks up to spy Malcolm squeezing his pecs. And then she bursts out giggling. Tension broken.

Malcolm stands his ground in front of the door, watching Grimm as she paces around the main room of the apartment. Despite the fact that it's built over an old auto shop, the apartment is fairly typically sized for Colonial Bay - bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, main room, combination guest room and closet - and it has the sort of air of age that Malcolm seems to enjoy. Something about the way history feels, if Grimm remembers her conversation with Malcolm about it earlier in the summer.

If anything, Malcolm's expression of recognition has deepened over the course of Grimm's attempts at explaining herself. He purses his lips a little bit and inquires, whilst Grimm's still laughing, "You want something to drink, beautiful?" Malcolm even tries to juke around Grimm for the kitchen while he's asking about her liquid intake needs.

"Did they look like my eyes or did they feel like my eyes?" inquires Malcolm as he continues trying to escape to the kitchen.

"Yes, coffee, please. Oh god, she made the best coffee ever." Gabrielle watches Malcolm for a moment and starts to catch on to something. "Wait, are you remembering something? And...it's hard to place. They were a different color, but...I can't explain it. It just reminded me if your eyes specifically. Earlier in the conversation, she had mentioned her research involved how focused energy streams interacted with heavy metals and semi-organic metal alloys. The semi-organic part made me think of you and I mentioned you."

With a suffering sigh, Gabrielle stops pacing. Her voice becomes soft and filled with regret. "I wish I hadn't. Because the more I talked to her, the more I could sense she was lying about things. And I felt a twinge of just...evil from her occasionally."

Gabrielle begins ringing her hands slowly in worry. "Did...did I put you in danger my mentioning you? That's what keeps going on in my head. The longer I was with her, the more I got this evil scientist vibe off of her."

Malcolm busies himself in the kitchen in a fashion Grimm does not commonly see. He makes coffee slowly, hands momentarily bubbling with liquid metal before he seems to give up on whatever he was planning. Instead, Malcolm fills a mixing bowl with coffee beans and forms a weirdly shaped baton in his other hand. Aggressively, Malcolm grinds up the beans by hand whilst he listens to Grimm's tale.

"I don't know," quietly replies Malcolm, "Maybe?"

Setting down the mixing bowl and reabsorbing the baton, Malcolm sets about filling and running the coffee maker. It'll be a few minutes - markedly quieter and less terrifying than Dr. Essiam's coffee making process - before the coffee is actually ready. He fusses about in the kitchen some more, cleaning up everything he's soiled in the process before he looks back at Grimm.

A guilty expression spreads across Malcolm's face as he picks up on Gabrielle's feelings and misgivings about Dr. Essiam. He frown/smiles at Grimm and moves across the apartment to wrap her up in a gentle, forgiving hug. Planting a smooch on Grimm's forehead, Malcolm quietly murmurs, "You did what you needed to do. Whatever's up with the doc, I'll be fine. I'll be here for you. No worries."

Grimm buries her face against his chest and just curls up into the hug. "I was going to say I was going to be here for -you-," she says, though it may be murmured while she hugs him tight and clings to him protectively.

As she presses her cheek against his chest in the hug, she feels herself surrounded by that magical aura of his. And there it is again. Deja vu.

"That's...that's it. That's what I felt when I was trying to find that path to the Doctor's office. When it felt like all the hallways were twisting about." She twists enough to turn her head up to gaze up at him, not daring to let go of him. "It felt like the elemental energy that surrounds you." GAME: Save complete.

Malcolm's expression goes cockeyed at Grimm's statement. He makes a face - best described as \:/ - and scrutinizes Grimm's features carefully. Without the slightest hint of sarcasm or knowledge, Malcolm inquires, "What elemental energy that surrounds me?"

Grimm blinks up at Malcolm, eyes wide as she wonders if she never mentioned it before. "Did...did I not tell you? I thought you knew. You have this magical aura about you. It's...beautiful, really."

Gabrielle's eyes drift down from gazing into his eyes. They rove over his body, settling at his chest. "Colorful bands of elemental magic," she says as she traces her fingers over his chest, drifting them through the aura only she can currently see.

"It's something I've only felt with you. So it was really weird feeling it somewhere else," she tries to explain.

"I guess Dr. Essiam was right when she said you knew so little about yourself. It's funny, though...because when she was talking about it, something just felt like a half-life with her," Gabrielle murmurs. You have voted for Malcolm.

"Well, yeah. People've told me I have some wacky magic aura," replies Malcolm. He sounds apologetic, but also confused as Grimm continues on, eyes watching as her fingers drift over the bands of magic arcing out of and around his body. Malcolm cants his head to one side, curiously watching Grimm as she speaks and traces the bands of power radiating from him.

"Half-lie?" inquires Malcolm, quiet and introspective. He shifts his weight slightly, grey eyes scanning for contact with Grimm's own eyes.