Six

[justdumbluck]

[Action]

[Firo's leaving 1246 Williams Road late in the morning when he spots his regain. Outwardly, the car's nothing too remarkable. Except that the sides are badly scratched and the windshield is mostly broken. The thing's definitely been through the wringer.]

What the-? This thing..?

[It's not even his, unless... The sudden presence of the car has Firo a little unnerved. He knows he's seen this before, and he's pretty sure it's Szilard's. That brings up a question: why did he regain it?]

The hell is goin' on here..?

[He growls and marches to the vehicle. Though this is worrying him- he's been trying to just forget about Szilard- he's going to do his best not to show it.

After a few moments of slowly circling the car, he attempts to push it into the street. It stays stubbornly in place. Passers-by might see Firo glaring resentfully at the car before kicking it in the tire. He'll be alternating between attempting to move it and anxiously examining it.

He's not Szilard, Mayfield's must just be trying to mess with him.]

[Phone]

[A little later in the day, Firo picks up the phone. Trying to sound casual, he asks:]

Hey, have any of you ever gotten somethin' from Mayfield that's... not exactly yours?

Comments

[justdumbluck]

It's a car. Belonged to some bastard back home.

[answerer_sword]

Have you ever owned the car at any point?

[justdumbluck]

No. Well-

[He sighs.]

It's sorta complicated. But me, personally? It's not mine.

[answerer_sword]

What about your parents? Perhaps they left the car to you or something?

[She is just making wild guesses at the moment.]

[justdumbluck]

[He almost has to laugh at that guess.]

No way. I'm pretty sure I know who's it is, that's why I'm confused about why I have it.

[answerer_sword]

Whose would it be then? And are you sure you have never had it, or do you just not remember it? As an immortal, you should have lived a long time. Have you at any point during that time had an extended period of memory loss?

[justdumbluck]

[His brain can't work fast enough to keep up with all those questions.]

Hey, hang on a second, I only had the elixir about a month before I got here; I'm not that old. No memory loss as far as I remember.

And it's from this bastard back home. Well, my friends sorta stole it from him and that's how it got so beat up...

[answerer_sword]

Were you with them when they stole it?

[justdumbluck]

I was in the area, but not right there with 'em. Didn't get to see it when they hit him with his own car, either.

[He sounds a little disappointed about that.]

[answerer_sword]

He...must have been a nasty person.

[Why else would Firo be disappointed at not seeing him being run over?]

Did you have any other contact with him after that?

[justdumbluck]

He was an evil old bastard.

[So his next response shouldn't be too surprising...

Well, I killed him.

[answerer_sword]

...Then how did you get his car?

[justdumbluck]

That's what I'm tryin' to figure out!

[answerer_sword]

Perhaps he willed it to you?

[justdumbluck]

...Considerin' the only time he spoke to me he called me "cannon fodder," I doubt it. He didn't really know me, and the friend of mine he did know he hated. It's kinda complicated.

[answerer_sword]

Then we have progressed no further with solving this riddle. Firo, can you tell me a summary of your history with this man so I can try to figure out how Mayfield decided the car was yours?

[justdumbluck]

Um, okay...

[Geez, he wasn't expecting this sort of Spanish Inquisition...]

Uh, well, he was after my friend, so he came to New York a little while before I got taken here. He barged into our speakeasy, my friend sent me to get help and I ran into his- the homunculus he created. And then... well, I took him down and that was that.

[He's afraid to get into the fact that he has Szilard's memories; he doesn't want Bazett to conclude that that's the reason why.]

[answerer_sword]

How did you take him down?

[Perhaps the car was sentient and had acknowledged Firo as its new owner?]

[justdumbluck]

[He hesitates before deciding he can explain it to her. She doesn't seem likely to spill it to anyone else.]

The only way you can kill an immortal: I ate him.

With my hand. It's kinda weird.

[answerer_sword]

[It takes her a while to process that.]

You ate him...with your hand...

[His hand had seemed perfectly normal when they last met.]

Did eating him incorporate his DNA into you or something? Perhaps his items recognized you as him based on that...?

[justdumbluck]

Yeah. He just sorta got sucked up into it. Nobody has any idea where the bodies go when that happens, but at least it makes clean up pretty easy.

What's DNA?

[answerer_sword]

This sucking in thing...Firo, can you do it to only other immortals, or can you do it to mortals as well?

[She has to think a bit before answering his question about DNA.]

I am not too clear on that either, but from what I have heard, it is the basic unit of inheritance. It is what allows children to look like their parents and causes people to reject transplanted organs.

[justdumbluck]

Only to other immortals.

[He only understood about half of that explanation, but he's pretty sure he wouldn't be able to answer the question either way.]

...I have no idea. I don't think so.

[answerer_sword]

This regain probably had something to do with how you absorbed that man...either you received his DNA or a part of his soul. I am not too sure about this, though.

[justdumbluck]

Don't know about DNA, but I'm pretty sure that jerk had no soul.