Ji-Ho has spent an unreasonable amount of time wandering the outskirts of the campus before he gives up and texts Javi: _Hey, which one are the right hot dog carts?_ as he sends him pictures of like _every single hot dog cart_ within a _mile_ of the U of C campus, and you know what? He's trying too hard. The only redeeming factor is that it is a lovely day, sunny without being quite too warm, and as he lurks in the shelter of a shadowed bench, the flow of students has thinned somewhat in anticipation of the three day weekend.
It doesn't take too long for Javi to reply, and there's a little amusement in the short back-and-forth before he offers to come meet up to show Ji-Ho which one is the one he meant. Plus, then he can also eat a hot dog, which is always good. So, here he comes, looking pretty much like he usually looks -- that is, casual in a purposeful way, and also pretty happy -- and when he gets close to the place where he's meant to meet the other man he starts looking for him. Also purposefully, because he's not always very easy to find.
It takes a moment for Ji-Ho to spot Javi, which is almost certainly before Javi spots Ji-Ho, but he pops up and heads over and all of a sudden it's like Javi knew he was _right there_ the whole time, and he catches up to him swiftly. "Hey, Javi. Nacho." He doesn't know which side Nacho is standing on, so he settles for vaguely somewhere in the area of Javi's forehead. "You ready to go do a thing as I continue to be a bad influence on Javi? So which one are the right dogs?"
"Oh, hey man." It's weird, but mostly weird because it //isn't// weird. Ji-Ho is suddenly here! That makes sense. But it takes his brain a second to catch up. And he doesn't correct the other man on Nacho's location, so it must be close enough. "He says hi," he continues, his smile pulling even wider. "And yeah. He can find shit to do." Even if that shit is just following them around and being a ghost. He tips his head in a direction and starts that way, sticking a hand into his pocket. "How you doing?" he asks as they go. "Everything good?"
"_You're_ gonna help me get the dogs. _Nacho's_ gonna help me deliver the dogs." Ji-Ho rubs his hands together with an expression of glee. It is _clear_ that he thinks making Nacho help him deliver is gonna be the highlight. No offense, Javi. "Yeah, I'm good. Things have been -- you know, okay. Slowly beginning to believe that Darwin's not an agent of the Huntsman. One of his friends -- you know, the 'Alan' guy? Went off looking for him?" (For you, Ji-Ho. For you.) "He's been, uh, opening his eyes which has been kind of fascinating. What about you guys?"
Javi turns to eye Ji-Ho a //little// pointedly at that first comment, even if he also seems to be holding back a laugh. "So you guys are gonna be like conspiring and shit now, huh?" he remarks, glancing to the side where his brother must be. "That's great." Good luck, Solomon. And also the rest of the world, too.
He might have said more about it, but he's distracted from it by what Ji-Ho says next, and he squints. "The what?" His brows pull together thoughtfully, head tilting a little to the side like he's searching some mental index, but he doesn't find whatever it is he's looking for. "Oh, yeah, he said. Poor guy. It's pretty crazy the first time you start to figure shit out." A beat; then: "I mean, it was different for me but yeah. We're good, though." Him and Nacho, presumably. "You know, just going along, doing our thing." He lifts a hand to point as he adds, "It's that one. That's the best truck." A truck that looks very much like all the other trucks, but he sounds certain.
"Got it." Ji-Ho reorients on the right truck. "Conspiring is basically all I do. 100 conspire, 0 confront." He palms his pocket and pulls out a wallet, thumbing through it after cash. "Honestly, I feel a little bit of the same thing every day, just from the other side. Like it's _weird_ when you say something about peaches and ten people around you burst into song about cans, and mans, and factories downtown."
"Man, what? That song's fucking old, who's still singing that one?" Javi snorts, shaking his head as he pulls out his wallet, too -- because obviously he's not going to //not// eat a hot dog when they're at the best hot dog truck in the area. "I mean, not gonna lie, I know it, but it wouldn't be, like...my go-to thing." He shrugs, "I get it, though. It's definitely, like, parallel universes sometimes. It's fucking crazy to me how there's all this shit going on under the surface. Like, I thought I knew shit but I'm realizing I really really don't."
"Honestly, me either? Like I don't track _anything_ that's going on with the others, which -- given the showdown they about had last _townhall_, maybe I should be paying more attention." Ji-Ho's conversation stalls as it comes time to order, and he gives some vague, "I don't know," and "Everything, I guess?" answers that means that whatever Solomon gets it's gonna be a surprise!! Don't worry about it: Javi says this is the best hot dog truck.
Collecting his haul and stepping back, Ji-Ho shifts from foot to foot as he waits for Javi to buy his hot dog. Dogs? No judgment. Once he's done, he says, "Seriously, though, I don't know who was weirder, the dogs or the bats."
"Right?" Javi's eyes are a little wider as he looks to Ji-Ho again, "Thought someone was gonna get murdered and to be honest it'd probably be me first, huh." There's at least //some// amusement as he says it -- it's a joke! Really! "I only got like a third of that. Gonna just ask Sol about it later. He told me some already and he knows what's up."
He doesn't make any corrections or offer any changes to Ji-Ho's order; everything is good here, so it must be fine. "I'mma vote for the dude with the fucking skin cloak hanging off his damn throne," he says instead, with a little shiver. "What the fuck, man?"
"Yeah. Sol's better at it -- all of it -- than I am. Razi too," Ji-Ho admits. "The people, the tracking them, the tracking who likes who and who is gonna murder who, and I don't even get what this whole thing with the fire and the spirits is." He shakes his head back, tossing it somewhat impatiently and then looks sidelong at Javi with sudden curiosity. "Has it bumped up in against you and Nacho at all? Like, is there -- I don't know. Ghost. Gossip."
"Hm, yeah." Javi lets out another little huff, though his expression softens a bit at the other name offered. It's not //hugely// obvious, but with the sort of face that he has, it's definitely noticeable. "What's to track, man? Guess it's a hungry cow. Like, obviously." His arms spread out wide to his sides in an extremely broad shrug. "What the fuck."
He steps up to place //his// order -- which is also one with everything, so it must be pretty good -- but he's briefly distracted again by the question, and his eyebrows raise. "I mean," he eventually says, after some consideration, "//kind// of. Maybe." He pauses, before he admits, "Never really used it like that. I was kinda...focused on other stuff. So when they said shit about things like that I'd kinda just let it, you know." He lifts a hand to wave it past his shoulder like it's washing over him. "Guess I could start, like...asking more specifically. Maybe I should."
"Obviously!" Ji-Ho says, his laughter a bit sharp, ridiculous. E Z. It's just a hungry cow! "You could. You don't gotta. You could, though. Rebel against the idea that you have to be focused on anything except what you wanna do. C'mon, let's go get to Solomon's office. Nacho, you gotta scout ahead and see if he's in, got it?"
Ji-Ho's laughter, sharp though it is, makes Javi laugh, too. It's a lot brighter -- delighted amusement, really. He turns away once he's gotten his hot dog, taking an immediate bite and letting out an appreciative sound. It's delicious. However, not so much that he's not capable of responding, though at least he does it by nodding and giving a thumbs up instead of immediately speaking with his mouth full. It's only a little full when he actually talks. "Yeah," he replies, "maybe it's time they gave me something back, huh? Tryna talk to me all the time, they owe me." As he speaks, he turns his steps in a specific direction, apparently pretty familiar with where Solomon's office is. "Tryna kinda like...figure out what I got that's gonna be useful," he admits after a moment. "So, you know, yeah." Maybe he means supernaturally.
"I still kind of hate the idea of useful." Ji-Ho glances over at Javi with a tilt of his head, his smile slight as he shows the edge of his teeth. He lets Javi lead the way where he is likelier to stop to pause to check. Javi's familiarity is a happy bonus.
"I mean, I kinda do too," Javi concedes with another laugh, though this one is a bit lower, and a little self-conscious. "But, you know." He waves a hand a little vaguely in the air, as if that's going to explain his reasoning better. Whether it does or not is debatable.
However, at least they seem to have arrived //somewhere//, because Javi stops just inside a building, perhaps to let Nacho go ahead and check. It's not too long before he nods and cuts another glance at Ji-Ho. "It's empty." Then he starts them off again, stopping in front of the appropriate door and extending his hand with a flourish.
Ji-Ho laughs, in what almost sounds like a bit of a giggle, as he moves to follow after Javi (and Nacho!) and make his way to the door. "Okay, now watch this," he says, and then--
Nothing. There's nothing. Just the hotdogs on the floor, as though someone -- SOMEONE -- has set them down.
A cloud passes perhaps the sun, perhaps; a passing flicker of dark; a cold of deeper shadow.
It is quiet.
And then, moments later, the door unlocks _from the other side_ as Ji-Ho reaches out to grab the hot dogs. "I checked his schedule and he has office hours coming up so. We should be good. Probably. Or maybe he'll ditch and they'll be soggy. His loss! Wanna make a run for it?"
Javi's eyebrows raise -- he was confident about getting this far, but he might not have thought as far ahead as how they were going to get //in//. But he just nods, then steps back to see what's going to happen.
Maybe one day he'll stop being startled when Ji-Ho is suddenly just //not there//, but that day is not today. He takes another half-step back when the other man disappears, letting out a laugh that's a lot more surprised than amused, though there is some of the latter.
"Yo, that's fucking //wild//!" he exclaims when the door opens again. He's grinning, though, even as he looks this way and that just to make absolutely sure that they're not caught. "Yeah, yeah, let's get the fuck outta here." It's a good surprise, so he's not //too// nervous, but there's always going to be a little thrill when doing something one isn't supposed to do, even if that something is a good something. "Come on." And with that he turns, heading them in a direction to get //out// that is //not// the way they came in, but presumably meant to ensure they won't accidentally run into Solomon and RUIN THE SURPRISE.
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