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[metemmods.insanejournal.com]

Characters: Legion and Corruption
Date/Time: Noon, June 14th
Location: Outside In Tune Records, Columbus.
Rating: TBD, possibly R
Warnings: Language.
Summary: Max, on his way home, makes a new acquaintance.



The chaos inside Max called to him, as loudly as a dance club in the middle of the night. He gave a grin of anticipation as he approached the record store-- this was going to be fun.

His timing was perfect. He literally bumped into Max as he walked out of the record shop's door; Max's own backpack and the stranger's own bag went spilling to the sidewalk as they hit.
"Whoa! Hey! You okay, man?" the stranger asked Max, looking at him with concern. He was unremarkable-- hipster shaggy haircut, t-shirt from a 20-year-old children's show, ripped jeans; he looked like any one of the other record store customers.

He reached out a hand to hold Max's wrist, to steady him before he fell.

Comments

[multitudes.insanejournal.com]

"Jesus-" was the first thing to start spilling out of his mouth, "Fucking-" he steadied himself, torn between wanting whoever it was to quit touching him, and wanting to find his balance as well as his things.

Max was still in his work clothes, which didn't mean much. He could get away with wearing band shirts if they weren't too graphic, but his manager had insisted on a name-tag at all times. Idiotic thing. Still, he turned, shook his hand free from the stranger's, and bent to start picking up his things.

"Fine." The word 'we' danced on his tongue, but he managed to catch it just before it could tiptoe out of his mouth. "W- I'm fine."

[metemmods.insanejournal.com]

The stranger peered closer at Max. "Are you sure? Because you sure don't sound very fine to me." His own sketchbook and book of artistic prints lay on the sidewalk mixed with Max's things; he paid no attention to them.
"In fact, you don't look good at all. Here, let's sit down somewhere."

[multitudes.insanejournal.com]

"I think I'm alright." With an unceremonious shove, he managed to get the majority of his things back into his backpack.

"Trust me. This is fine. If I were not fine, it'd be a lot more obvious." he managed eye contact for a second, then turned his attention to the sketch book, and gestured to it.

"Want us to get that for you?"

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"If you like," the stranger said. "I mean, as long as all of you can agree on it." His voice sounded amused. "I wonder, do you take a vote? Majority rules?"

[multitudes.insanejournal.com]

"Pretty much, that's just about-" Max came to a dead stop, leaving the sentence hanging to cock his head slightly, and begin a new one.

"I don't know you. Not sure how you know me. Or us, for that matter." he cracked a bit of a smile, though it wasn't quite a jovial one.

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He waved a negligent hand. "Oh, that's hardly important. And relax, I'm not here to drag you off to be 'cured'-- ick, what a ghastly notion." The stranger gave a comically dramatic shudder to follow up this sally. "No, unlike the other people you may have met, I think you're perfectly all right just the way you are." He gave a friendly and reassuring smile that came nowhere near his eyes. "But I was serious about sitting down. I think there are some things the two of us ought to discuss."

[multitudes.insanejournal.com]

"Okay." there was a little bit of a lilt in his voice. He wasn't one to trust people, not fully, and not this quickly, but if things did turn sour, he didn't doubt his ability to simply maul this...overly friendly stranger and be done with it. "We'll sit"

"But you understand if I can't promise it'll be just the two of us?" he smirked, "It's a little more crowded than that in here."

[metemmods.insanejournal.com]

"Oh, believe me, I quite understand. And I want to make sure that everyone gets to listen," the stranger said with a smirk of his own. "Because what I have to say concerns you-- excuse me, all of you. And not only that, it concerns your friends you met on the computer a few months back."

[multitudes.insanejournal.com]

"Sure, sure, whatever." Legion waved him along as if to say 'get on with it'. But he faltered at the word 'friends'. It almost made him laugh. Friends. Legion having friends. Max having friends.

He'd never been quite so lucky. "Friends, hm? I take it you haven't been paying attention, but go on."

[metemmods.insanejournal.com]

The stranger grinned unnervingly. "Oh, I've been paying better attention than you know." He put a gentle but deliberate hand on Legion's back, between his shoulderblades, guiding him around the corner into a quiet alleyway. "This should be good enough to talk without us being overheard-- I'm sure you wouldn't want others to hear it, anyhow."

[multitudes.insanejournal.com]

"Alright. Fuck. Stop-" he twitched a bit at the touch and quickly slinked out of it as soon as he could. He didn't like being touched. Being touched was confusing.

"So, what do you want? I'd love to stick around and chat, but really-" he made a quick movement as if to indicate that he should just spit it out.

[metemmods.insanejournal.com]

"Eager to leave, are you?" the stranger said, sounding amused. "Well, I'm sure you have important things to do. Places to go. People to see," he said, putting a slightly sinister spin on that last. "But wouldn't it be nice if you could be yourself, who you really are, without anyone caring? Without hovering over you with all that concern?" He leaned in closer, but this time didn't touch. "What if you could be with people who understood you, really understood you?"

[multitudes.insanejournal.com]

Legion's hand inched up to his mouth, and he bit down on his thumb, thinking a bit. They all had something to say, after all, and a proposition like that...well, it took quite a bit of thought. From all of them. He shook his head, paused for a moment, and nodded.

"I guess it would be- nice?" there was still a bit of a questioning in his voice. He couldn't commit to that statement, but nonetheless, it did sort of sound nice.

"But really, what could we do about that?" he shrugged.

[metemmods.insanejournal.com]

"You do have people who'll look out for you," the stranger said. "People who'll protect you. But you'll need to go to them," he continued.
The stranger smiled. "In a way, you've met them already. Remember that mysterious email? Right now, the minds behind the words on the screen-- they're the people most like you."
He looked around, as if to make sure they were truly alone, before leaning back toward Legion. "There's trouble coming, and you... well, none of you are going to want to be caught in the open when it breaks. What's coming, you can't handle it by yourselves." The stranger paused slightly, before adding "And they can't handle it without you, either."

[multitudes.insanejournal.com]

Max thought for a moment, shaking his head as his strings were pulled. How were they supposed to come to a consensus on anything this...big and incoherent? He turned, and murmured quietly to himself, the edge of his thumbnail still caught between his teeth, a wary eye cast towards the man next to him, assuming he was staring.

When he finally got himself situated, he cleared his throat, and straightened his shirt. "Why should we care about them? Furthermore, what exactly is it you're trying to get us to do? Talk to someone?" he questioned.

[metemmods.insanejournal.com]

"Among other things," he said. "And you should care because very, very soon, they'll be the only ones who won't be howling for your blood and soul."
The stranger took a lazy half-step back. "You don't even need to travel anywhere just yet. Go back to the computer. Get to know the people you talk to there. Because all of them are going to have to work together with all of you to get through what's coming next."