technicallyhellbound | for @convincingsmile - Nobody's dying today (probably)

for @convincingsmile - Nobody's dying today (probably)

Edwin knew as soon as he fell through the mirror that something was wrong, and not just a little bit wrong, but the kind of wrong that made the whole world tilt on its axis a little.

It wasn't a misdirected portal, not like the case that had ultimately led them to Crystal, not like many other failures of concentration when traversing mirror portals before, it was something else, and he couldn't place what it was. All he knew was that he'd simply passed through the mirror in question and had landed, hard on the floor on the other side of the room, hard enough that he actually skidded a couple of feet and that couldn't be right because that actually hurt, and hurt in the way he hadn't felt in... well, decades.

It was enough to tumble him against the far wall just from his own momentum, impacting hard enough to knock the breath out of his lungs, and that was definitely wrong, because he shouldn't have had breath or lungs. He could see, even through pain-hazed vision that the poltergeist he'd been baiting had, indeed, gotten caught in the trap he himself had leapt over when aiming for the mirror.

That was, however, the last thing he saw before the half-rotted-through loft floor gave way beneath his sudden and unexpected weight, sending him falling, flailing, scraped to ribbons on the broken slats, to the ground below, and he was reasonably sure he'd actually heard something snap on impact, ribs, if the sudden radiating pain was anything to go by, though his shoulder wasn't in good shape either, and that was an entirely different kind of pain, just layering on top of the feeling of the ragged scratches from the wood, and it occurred to him, dimly, that he'd forgotten how much he hated the feeling of blood on his skin.

It had been different in Hell, the pain, the sensations in general, all of it, it had been horrible, yes, but it was so much more visceral now, and even as his vision began to go hazy again, head swimming, his last thoughts were trying to remember how he'd somehow gotten separated from Charles, who had been barely a step behind him when he'd rounded the corner into the loft pursued by the poltergeist now trapped securely above him.

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It was still the watery grey light of pre-dawn gloom, and while Charles' movement hadn't fully roused Edwin from his own -thankfully dreamless- sleep, it had still been enough to draw him to a sort of drowsy wakefulness, just disentangling a hand from the quilt, turning over on his side so that he could grip Charles' shoulder gently before dropping back off to sleep himself with a murmur that was probably some fashion of 'it's alright' as he did, though it definitely wasn't all the right syllables.

He would be easy enough to wake if Charles didn't slip back off himself, but would likely be out for another hour otherwise, healing took energy, and even if he hadn't been out and about the way Charles had been the day before, he had still been at his limit for energy by the end of the day.

Charles jumped when he felt the touch on his shoulder, but quickly realized it was Edwin. He listened for the murmured words, and the breathing after it, then gave a relieved sigh. He didn't want to wake Edwin, especially not with something trivial as a nightmare. Though he couldn't go back to sleep. He stayed there a little, contemplating but in the end, he decided to get up. He gave a feather-light kiss to Edwin's hand that attempted to soothe him and placed it back on the couch before he got his coat to take a walk. He wanted to fetch a sweet breakfast for Edwin either way. While the cafe close by was still closed, Charles found a grocery store open 0-24 fairly nearby for some bites. And an energy drink. While Crystal flat out forbade him to drink one she wasn't there to talk sense into him.

It took him a bit but he arrived back, quietly in case Edwin was still asleep, or still needed time to rest. But now they had pastries again.

Edwin was only just waking when Charles returned, which was probably for the best as he would most certainly have jumped to the wrong conclusion if he woke to find Charles gone.

As it was, however, he just smiled at Charles' return, stretching, wincing briefly as it tweaked his shoulder, settling again almost immediately, kneading at it even as he greeted: "Already off and about with errands at this hour?"

Not that it was all that early any more, but the statement wasn't a jab at all, if anything it was warmly amused, as was the follow-up: "You've really taken to this like a fish to water, as the saying goes."

Charles grinned when he saw Edwin wake up walking in. He quickly put everything down on the desk before approaching his friend, leaning in to kiss his forehead.

"Better get your sugar early so you can work, eh?" he said, though it was truly just an excuse to air his head. He just chuckled at the remark. There was no denying it, he loved being alive. He loved feeling tired, he loved to take a walk and feel the air on his skin. He loved it all. Even the dreams and the nightmares... And he also loved to feel Edwin in a more alive way. "Did you sleep well?" he asked a little apologetic. He would have felt horrible if Edwin would wake from a nightmare and he was out trying to get rid of his own demons.

"Yes, quite, thank you." He wasn't sure how he'd avoided nightmares for two nights running unless it was simply the exhaustion, though he would suspect that would actually make it worse as he'd be too tired to fight the dreams if they came. But he also wasn't going to argue it, for now.

Edwin had to remember once again to use his good arm to lever himself upright, stretching again far more carefully than before, "I do appreciate your playing gofer for everything." For one thing, Edwin himself would only have the barest idea where to look for things. Oh he knew how shops worked, of course, it was just that they weren't as localized or specialized as they had been in his day, it seemed most places had a little of everything, which seemed both convenient and confusing at once.

"But that's what I always do, innit?" Charles chuckled, sitting on the edge of the couch as Edwin sat up. He watched him stretch, wincing a little as he saw the movement. Edwin was still in pain, huh. So Charles reached to pat his leg. "You don't have to get up just yet, you know. You can have breakfast in bed, if you want."

"Yes, I suppose it is one of your usual tasks, yes." He agreed with a half-sheepish little smile, and the barest pause before adding, "And that may be for the best, actually. Meant to be conserving energy for this evening's outing after all."

He was doing his best not to hate the fact that he was still in pain, that low-level, constant ache that hadn't yet begun to ease, trying not to hate the fact that it was slowing him down, and that he was absolutely going to have to factor in more time for the walk to the theatre than he originally had, since he'd initially calculated the walk at his usual speed, and he definitely wasn't at that at the moment.

Charles was half-ready to push Edwin back on the couch if he insisted on getting up. So he was pleasantly surprised that he chose to stay.

"On it," he grinned all too widely, reaching to pat Edwin's shoulder in a lingering touch before getting up to fetch the food.

Charles got a small box to serve as an improvised table for them, and got one of the chairs from the desk to sit. He put all the pastries out for Edwin.

"'S good we won't stay like this long, otherwise we ought to transform the whole place, yeah? Or get a new one," Charles joked.

His mouth twisted just slightly at the joke, because the truth of it was, even with what he'd worked out so far, he was still working on incomplete information, and wasn't sure he'd actually be able to reverse it. There was a good chance that he'd have to make some of it up and hope for the best, and he wasn't sure that was even worth the risk.

But he nodded all the same, managing a small smile, "Well if it were permanent we'd no longer be a detective agency, so there would be no reason to keep the office set up as it is in that case. Could change it as we like, turn ourselves into a consulting firm or something to that effect."

Charles caught the momentary grimace on Edwin. He tensed his mouth for a moment as he was thinking how the research was going slower than he thought, apparently. Or not as expected. And Charles felt a little guilty for being glad about it. Then he fell silent when Edwin was talking about a future of them being alive, and maybe doing something other than being detectives. Once again, Charles wasn't sure how he felt about it all.

"A consulting firm, huh?" he smiled a little sadly, looking around. "I'd miss it though, this place. I miss our previous one too," he shrugged, trying to soften it. "But it's gonna be fine, Edwin, you're gonna figure it out, yeah? We can come back here in a couple of days as ghost," he chuckled.

"I don't know about you, but I'm not about to let thirty years of experience go to waste." That one almost made it to being a joke, but still fell short, and he did stop himself from picking one of the pastries to bits instead of eating it, only barely managing to keep from pressing his knuckles together instead, "I'm sure I'll get it, it's just... it's taking longer than I expected, that's all."

Partly because he actually needed to sleep, now, and couldn't work sixteen hours straight through like he usually did, "And having to work with a secondhand translation isn't making things any faster."

Edwin, always practical, Charles thought fondly as he watched him. He reached to cover Edwin's hand assaulting the pastry with his, squeezing lightly.

"Yeah, 's gonna be fine," he repeated to drill into Edwin's thick head. "Is there anything I can do? Like, going back, checking some things again? Maybe there could be clues in the house. It was mostly empty, though," he frowned as he remembered. "Aside from that portrait of a dead woman."

He shook his head automatically at that question, "No." It was firm, almost sharp, and he bit his tongue a moment later, taking a deep breath, catching at Charles' hand still covering his own, "It's not safe, I wouldn't go so far as to say it's dangerously unstable, not yet even after he'd fallen through the floor, "But I wouldn't feel comfortable having you there without backup."

More than that he wouldn't forgive himself if Charles got hurt without him there.

"It's just that the rune-work isn't like anything I'm used to, and seems to have been done by two different people." He gestured towards the desk with one hand, "I can lay it out for you later, once we've eaten, maybe another pair of eyes will help. But it's complex on top of just being a mess." Certainly nothing like the clear, tidy circles Charles worked in.

Charles smiled, nodding to himself. Right, he wouldn't let Edwin go alone either. But he had to offer. Edwin was in pain, injured, stressing and working his wits off.

"Right, not going then," Charles agreed quietly, raising Edwin's hand to kiss his knuckles to calm him. He didn't want to make him more nervous.

Though he doubted he could help anything about the runes. He wasn't good in their own alphabet, let alone complex runes, but he would humor Edwin, sure.

"So first, you gotta eat. All you did was try to make a feast for the mice living with us, mate," Charles said, picking a piece of pastry and holding it up for Edwin.

He snorted softly at that, just going about pushing the crumbs together to mash them more or less back into shape, just popping the piece into his mouth, "Thank you. I do appreciate your going to pick up the food." A flicker of a smile, "I'm quite sure I'd forget to eat, otherwise, and then I'd be confused later as to why I felt terrible."

His brow creased just a little, "I'm afraid we'll have to leave for the movie earlier than I'd first estimated. Even taking it easy today I'll still be moving more slowly than usual. I'm sure I'll be fine once we're there." Once he could relax in a seat and just watch.

"I noticed, even before we were alive," Charles said, reaching to brush his knuckles at Edwin's cheek fondly. "I mean, you tend to work without stopping, yeah? How many times did I have to tell you to stop? And remember when it got so bad I put you in a jar?" he chuckled. Of course, only Edwin's orb form fits in a jar. But the fact that he exhausted himself that much was... slightly scary. And bodies were higher maintenance than spectral bodies, so Charles swore to pay attention. Especially knowing that Edwin was injured.

"You mean we can take a nice, long walk together? But that's brills!" Charles grinned. "But if you want, I still can piggyback you there," he added.

Edwin couldn't help but smile at Charles' optimistic spin on it, and at the renewed offer to carry him, "I doubt that will be necessary, but I appreciate the offer." There was amusement in the tone, if barely, mostly because it wasn't that it wouldn't be necessary, but that his pride wouldn't be able to take it, especially as they could be seen by others.

The smile twitched just a little higher at the memory of the jar, "Yes, and the jar was only because I'd sorted out how to move the display cloche and keep trying to work." It hadn't been easy, glass was heavy, but he'd still managed it, even in the low-energy form. The smile faltered just a little when he remembered how worried Charles had been about it later, mostly because Edwin had the energy -barely- to lift the glass cloche, but had almost sputtered out completely afterward.

And now, well, now was similar, in its way. He could push himself past his energy, but it would result in much the same outcome, sputtering to a halt and needing hours, even days, to recover. He'd barely even realized that he'd drifted off into that train of thought instead of continuing eating.

Charles expected to be refused on the piggyback ride but he had to try. And he was still in awe about the fact that Edwin's workaholism made him able to move a cloche when all he had were faint spectral energies! It put Charles as the brawn to shame, fairly.

"Right, so I know how intense you can get," Charles nodded in a soft chuckle. He fell silent at the same time Edwin did. But he was watching him, lost in his thoughts. But he was alive. Charles wondered if people can fall in love over and over again with the same person, even if they were together for decades. It was possible, he thought, as he watched Edwin just for a few moments. Then Charles sighed fondly and took a piece of his own pastry again, pressing it to Edwin's lips. "Eat, yeah? Then do work if you must and then we get ready for our movie," he said. "And you better dress up nice because we're gonna take a photo," he grinned, cocking his head toward Crystal's polaroid camera safely tucked in a corner.

His nose wrinkled a little, but it was amusement as much as anything else, accepting that offered bite but shaking his head even as he chewed, speaking carefully so as to avoid crumbs, "I've a perfectly good one of my own." Not counting the half that had been picked apart, of course, "And I'm perfectly capable of feeding myself, thank you." He didn't, however, push Charles away in the process, amused as ever that Charles had determined he was working too hard and made moves to correct that.

A nod followed, "I've every intention of dressing up." A pause, "Though, I may need help, which will ruin the surprise, but I doubt it's much of one, considering that I'm sure you're the one who made the selections yesterday rather than Crystal." It was just what pieces Edwin put together that would be the surprise, "I would like to at least get some work done, first, let you have a look at it, see if anything in the circle is glaringly out of place from what you know."

"Then why aren't you eating it, mate?" Charles teased, almost offering another bite from his own food just to test Edwin's patience, and pride maybe. If he didn't want to be fed like a baby, then he should eat!

"Right, I haven't seen the clothes on you yet, so I think it's still gonna be good when you're ready, even with my help," Charles grinned, all too excited to see Edwin in the clothes he and Crystal picked. "Crystal helped but yeah, tried not to get too flashy ones, so I'm happy you found some you like," he said, amused. Though he stopped for a moment, looking over the pile of prepared clothes. "Just wish you could've been there, yeah? It was fun," he shrugged, smiling to himself. Then he spared a glance at Edwin's work, almost as if he were afraid of it. Maybe he was, though. "I could look, yeah, but I don't think I'd be able to help much," he murmured. "You're better at this stuff."

"I think you're more familiar with the work than you believe yourself to be." Charles did most of their rune-work when necessary after all, at least laying it all down, and while Edwin didn't think anything was out of place, there was also a key missing, and he wasn't sure if it was in the translation itself or not, though he was reasonably sure that it had been done in some kind of personal shorthand by the original caster, and without knowing what they'd been using as a reference point Edwin would only be able to figure out what they had probably been trying to do.

"Honestly it's just the dual circles that are throwing me off." He shook his head, "Because I can't be sure if they were laid down by two different people or not." It certainly seemed like they had been, and that meant they might not have been meant to do the same thing, and if that were the case, the second caster had been sloppy in not cleaning up the prior work first, and that could have caused complications.

This time it was Charles who fell silent. Edwin could always make him feel better about himself, especially when he put himself down. Right, Edwin could read runes and circles but Charles had made and created all of them when they needed them. He may not see them the same as Edwin but... yeah, a new pair of eyes. Charles swallowed as he let that little light warm his chest, that Edwin thought he was good enough. The only person who mattered.

"As far as I could see, neither of the circles was sloppy, yeah?" Charles shrugged when he found his voice. "So, maybe it's on purpose that there are two, like, I don't know, strengthening the magic, or putting two points together," he mused. They've seen these circles being used for demons, but for calibrating the happenings of magic, or harvesting something too. Rune circles were volatile, and that's why they were such a pain to study, and even to paint.

He nodded, "They both seemed..." His mouth twisted again as it did when he was searching for a word, though he did, at the very least, take another bite of his pastry, chewing slowly as he considered, finally settling on, "Deliberate. They weren't messy, perhaps done in a hurry, but still most definitely on purpose."

A little shake of his head then, "I'll be able to show you what I mean when I have things laid out." And a small smile, "But breakfast first." He settled his shoulder gently against Charles' for a moment, making sure to take his time with the rest of the treat, not letting himself rush through it just to get to work.

Once he'd finished, however, he did push himself to his feet, moving carefully but not quite as gingerly as he had been, having settled into that underlying ache again, laying his notes out on the desk, "So this is the photos, obviously." He'd cello-taped the edges together to construct the circle, "And my sketch of the same, and then the translation, though that's incomplete, and I may have to start over. I thought translating the inner circle would assist in translating the outer circle, but it may be the other way around."

Charles's smile bloomed into a wide grin as Edwin himself chose to finish breakfast, even if musing about work. It was just good to see that Edwin is taking care of himself. It made Charles's heart beat just a little faster too. He helped to tidy up after breakfast and anything Edwin needed to start working again, though already thinking about lunch...

As Edwin showed him the photos and the sketch of the circle, Charles could see what was the problem. They almost seemed like they should fit together, but they didn't. It was impossible to tell if they were accidentally kind of aligning or if there was a pattern to it. No pattern was to be seen. Charles sighed a little disappointed, he may not be of any help at all. Then he checked Edwin's notes about the translation.

"Wait... what?" Charles frowned. "It doesn't make..." he muttered, looking at the sketch again. The translation was spot on but it didn't make much sense. "Are you sure they are to be looked at separately? They, kinda look like they could, like, put together... see, here this rune in the outer circle yeah? Usually followed by this one, in the inner circle... And there, those runes."

"See, that's what I thought." He replied, tracing a line between two others, "But if those two pairs connect, it means these two don't." He shook his head, brow furrowing, "Honestly I just need to sort out what it was they were trying to do, because that's the only way I'll be able to replicate or reverse it."

He stopped then, brow furrowing more deeply, "No, wait, hang on a tick. These two connect outer circle to inner circle, and working anti-clockwise as you should but I was translating clockwise, the next pair is matched inner circle to outer circle." He rotated the sheet he'd sketched the thing on, fingers tracing from one to the next, "They were trying to just... stitch the two together. Except, at the end, here, it should be outer to inner again but they're swapped."

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