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It was in the middle of trying to figure out how to drink his coffee that Grim heard the door, tilting his head to watch Joel approach. Guess that ruled out just turning his back and lifting the mask. Can’t win every battle though - he was just relieved that the other man agreed to let him investigate the hospital. After seeing Wraith’s work, Grim couldn’t shake the feeling it would be like a bull in a china shop.

The arrival of an old woman at this time of night had Grim’s eyebrows furrowing together beneath the mask, but he didn’t say anything. Old people were, quite often, just Like ThatTM. For all he knew, the lady was staying up late to make sure Joel got home safe. Which he nearly didn’t.

Grim’s stomach rolled and he quickly shoved that to the back of his mind.

It was almost too easy to fall back into boisterous, grand gestures. Almost comforting to fortify behind a blockade of a big, hammy personality. For as Joel introduced Mrs. Ruiz, the shadowmancer swept into a deep bow, complete with one hand across the chest and the other behind.

“Wonderful to meet you, Mrs. Ruiz! I promise I’m not [i]hounding[/i] Joel.” He chuckled to himself as he straightened up, though under the mask a small smirk curled Zoey’s lips at the woman’s quip about Joel bringing home a woman. If only she knew.

It was quite impolite to pretend you didn’t know a language, but to be honest Zoey was too paranoid her accent would be noticeable between her two personalities. Besides, her Spanish was rusty.

On being told to wait a moment, Grim tilted his head to watch after Joel, eyes narrowed, but ultimately turned back to Mrs. Ruiz while politely ignoring the thump of a door shutting too hard.

“So… I’ll finish making that coffee for you.”

He had just finished setting the cup of coffee down in front of the old woman, along with presenting her the sugar and milk (admittedly after checking to make sure it hadn’t hit expiration yet) when Joel made his reappearance. Grim couldn’t so much as get a greeting out before Joel was trying to hustle him off, the urgency making metaphorical hackles raise.

What had changed?

He had left, then come back with the insistence they had to go, and then - why shoving? Why did he have to shove him?!

What the [i]fuck[/i] was going on?

One thing was for sure, Grim could hear a threat clear as day. Even from an old lady. Shadows suddenly surged up from Mrs. Ruiz’s feet to wrap around her, another lunging for the front door of the apartment and ripping it open. In a swift motion the shadows wrapped around the woman threw her outside - only mildly gentler than normal, she [i]was[/i] old as sin - before the door slammed and the musty couch was thrown in front of it.

“Seriously, what kind of shit have you got yourself into? [i]I[/i] don’t even have this many twists in one night! And I’m a [i]clown![/i]” Grim grabbed onto the folder to shove into Joel’s arms, then the pot of coffee with one hand and Joel’s shirt with the other to yank him over to the grimy windows. He released the shirt to reach out with a hand and open the window, cursing on finding bars. Quickly concentrating on a larger creation, the shadowmancer raised a hand with almost dramatic slowness. From the darkness of the alley a large hand rose, mimicking the motion of as Grim mimed reaching up. It grasped onto the bars on the outside of the building, the metal groaning before one side was yanked out - enough for them to get out.

“Come on. I’m going to have to find you a place to den at this point.” The large pure black hand twisted and distorted so that when Grim stepped onto it they had already formed into stairs, the hero bolting downwards. “We’ll head to one of my hideouts.” It was just a small apartment above a little convenience store, but it had roof access and AC so what more was needed really? Oh, and it was closer to the reedy part of town than any of her other properties, so there was that too.

A thought suddenly struck Grim.

“... Have you ever been through a metal detector before? An X-Ray lately? Hell, have you been in contact with an EMP at any point?”

At this point it would be no surprise if Joel was swarmed with trackers, to be honest.