2025-10-24 - Ruh Roh Ruby Roo!

Christopher had texted Elmo that he was heading over to Ruby's to poke around for a bit and see what was there. He'd heard that there was some haunted stuff and let's face it, curiosity had gotten the better of him. And so it is that he comes strolling in while tapping out a message on his phone to Elmo: It's more open than usual. There are holes in the ceiling.

"Hey, Rae," he says, recognizing her from his various wandering trips through the shop in the past. "What's going on?"

And they're still open? Text-text-text, Elmo thumbs out his message as he strolls down the street, snug in his jean jacket worn over a Ramones t-shirt. The Freak perches on one shoulder, as per usual, and squeaks as they near the shop. "I'll text when I want," he grumbles, though he does pocket his phone to look up and peer at the people on the roof before angling for the door.

"What's goin' ooon," he echoes, entering shortly after Chris. His is more of a greeting, though the state of the shop does give him pause. Glancing to the roof, he huffs and says, "Thought they'd be bigger." The holes, that is.

Rae looks up, she's got that punk rock, but also too tired to rebel today, vibe to her, but greets Christopher back in a welcome tone, "Heeey it is Chris the Pirate. How is that going for you?" He asks what's going on and her shoulders drop a bit hunting the vocabulary for the conundrum. He greets the others when they come in, "Hey Freak, and FreakFriend." She's seen Elmo tons of times coming through here, but is convinced the human is the familiar for the fun of it.

She looks up, "Glad they're not. They didn't smash too much but also nothing was found when I opened up this morning. Just holes like the world's largest, most inconvenient hail. And now thieves. It's just... it's a day and the coffee pot won't turn on now either so we are coping decaffeinated." She says behind her sharp-ish teeth, "I promise not to, like, bite either of you. We're cool." More heavy footsteps on the roof thump thumping.

"Seems to be working out okay," Christopher grins. He's in a pair of faded jeans and a dark red t-shirt with a smiling red panda on it that says "OHAI" in capital letters. Worn running shoes are on his feet. He has no jacket on despite the fact that a fall chill is beginning to settle in outside.

He squints up at the holes and then down below. "What was taken?" he asks, curiously. "And how'd they get whatever they took out? Did they go out the front door?" That doesn't look broken. "Or back through the holes?"

The Freak is definitely in charge here and appreciates when people recognize that. He waves a tiny paw in hello and chitters madly. In the meantime, Elmo strides over to Chris and leans in to whisper, “Ohai.”

Grinning, he turns to Rae and lifts his chin. “Could look at that coffee maker, if you want. Sucks to go around without any caffeine.”

Chris grins crookedly when Elmo leans in to whisper. He leans in to bump shoulders with him and gives The Freak a little scritch in greeting as well. "Ohai," he murmurs back in return. Then he straightens a little when Elmo offers to work on the coffee machine and begins to wander about, taking in the shop and what seems to be damaged and the size of the holes in the roof. "Weird," he decides, and continues to poke about to see what he can see.

Elmo leans in with a shoulder bump of his own while The Freak enjoys his scritches. "Good to see ya," he says, before giving Rae a thumbs up and heading for the green curtain. He pulls it aside and keeps it that way, giving the area a quick sweep to locate the coffee pot.

It doesn't take him long to find the problem; he just pops off a plastic piece underneath and roots around for a sec. "Uh, there are no wires in this thing," he calls out.

Rae continues to try to plug in the retro cathead radio and try to turn it on. click! nada. "Awww this is really cute tooo, dammit." Looking to Chris she says "yeah not a great day." Looking back to the breakroom where Elmo is audible she says "They want? Was there a breakin of reverse mole people that thiefed the wires from my coffee pot?" Looking to Christopher she deadpans, "I did not have this picked out to be the start of my Villain Arc."

"Weird that these things are like.. broken but not taken," Chris says as he surveys some of the equipment nearby. "This one looks like it's had some parts pulled out. This other one looks like it's been chewed on and a piece torn off of. But like, it's as though something were scavenging for parts for their... oh... hey.." He then says, "Wonder if this is like the deal with the carousel parts.."

Elmo puts the plastic piece back on the coffee pot and grunts. "I might be able to juice it on my own, but that won't fix the problem." And he doesn't have much time to be a human electrical cable. So, he grabs a donut and walks out to look between the two of them.

"You think brass babies did this?" Looking back up at the holes in the ceiling, he wonders if any version of them could be that size. "Or maybe gremlins. Those are the ones that take planes apart, right?"

"If we've got gremlins, sure," Christopher says with a slight shrug of his shoulders. "Could be anything really, but they're kind of small bowling ball sized sometimes and that'd match with the holes. Plus, we already know they like to steal parts out of things for their nests. Maybe they're getting cold." He pauses. "Do brass babies get cold? Maybe it's the imps. Though I'd expect the holes to be bigger, maybe. And they seem more interested in biting people."

He nods to Rae though when she mentions the one that fell on Lavender's hand. "They're brass. So like, they're heavy. Which.. if they slammed into the roof.." He gestures up at the ceiling above them.

Elmo fingersnaps and says, with a mouthful of donut, "Twilight Zone." He tongue snakes across his lip before he nods over to Chris. "We should watch that one."

He moves to inspect the room, bending at the trail of paperclips and washers. "Maybe the Cryptids would know. They keep tabs on things like brass babies, right?" Whether they get cold or not is not part of Elmo's expertise. "Hey, help me with this couch?" He licks the sweet remnants of donut from his fingers and moves to uncover the piece of furniture enough to move it some.

"Definitely," Christopher agrees when Elmo suggests they watch the Twilight Zone. He follows along as Elmo follows the trail of paperclips and washers, grinning a little crookedly. "Wonder if they're going to lead us to their stash."

"Maybe, the ones over at Magical Studies? Or the Cryptid Club? I guess either one of them might know," he muses as he follows along.

Then he moves to help Elmo with the couch, waiting for him to direct he and Rae as to where they're taking it.

Elmo shrugs. "Could ask when I get to work." There's someone on the team with cryptozoological experience, though he's lately been sticking his nose in the tech stuff too much to talk with anyone else.

As for the couch, he says, "Just moving it a bit to see what's underneath. All that crap on the floor leads here." Between the three of them, it should be easy to move it a few feet to see what's there, if anything. Chris earns earns a smirk, because it would be great it was the stash.

Christopher helps to lift and then move the couch once Rachel's moved the nightstands out of the way, walking it over with them and setting it down so that they can get a good look at what is beneath. Crouching nearby but not crowding the little things he says, "Aw, poor little dudes. You figure they kinda self repair as long as we feed them?" He looks to Elmo and then over toward Rachel. "I'll buy some stuff for them if we can just give it to them to eat."

Elmo shimmies the couch aside with Chris and sets it down gently. Peering at the couple of brass babies underneath, he pulls a pitiful-looking face. "Gnarly fall," he mutters, looking up and over at Chris with a nod. "That's how we repair." So, it makes sense. To Rae, he says, "Those wires might be long gone, but I'm with Chris here. Happy to pay for meeting these dudes. And maybe I can grab some wires from the department and get that machine going again."

Christopher shakes his head and says, "No, seriously. I got it covered. Tell Ruby we got it. She's already got enough to deal with with the roof. We can help with the merchandise, the babies, and the coffee." He offers a reassuring grin to Rae and says, "Elmo and I can run over to Tarjay and grab some stuff from there and whatever we can't find there maybe we can get from over at Magical Studies."

When she mentions the lake he frowns slightly and says, "I wonder if we have some kind of metal detector thing we could use on the water around the lake to see if any fell in there..." That's going to be a whole other project.

"Yeah, don't sweat it. We gotta look out for each other." Elmo will reflect on saying that so casually later, but for now it makes sense. They're a tight community around here, whether they like it or not.

"Dylan probably has one," he says quickly about the metal detector. If not him, then someone around here. "We'll do the run and head back with some coffees." Tarjay awaits!