John knows exactly what will cheer James up.
"Come now, James. I know just the place to go in this kind of situation."James does not resist, and nobody sees fit to stop the two from going anywhere, so they move out from the hospital into the now-lively streets and head over to Chow's Chow, where John gets him a big bowl of chow, although James refuses to speak and doesn't order a drink. Or look at the chow, for that matter. He seems a bit more down than expected, even with the amazing chow right in front of him.
Hm. James' emotions may be a tad more complex than his, the still slightly drunk John thinks.
* * * * *
Dave, after a moment's consideration of where he needs to go next, begins to think of how to not completely flop his next introduction. He blames the clown, personally. Nobody wants to greet a clown with anything but pure suspicion under the best of times, least of all when they are inexplicably intertwined with the body of an otherwise normal human being. So he focuses on reversing this change.
Well, sort of. He doesn't actually focus, but rather decides to prepare to focus. He guesses it's similar to a portal spewing thylacines out of his buttocks in both basic pathology and general unsightliness, so he supposes he just need to collect his thoughts and command his body to return to the way it should be, right?
* * * * *
A multitude of
Larries are almost on the verge of partaking of more of this holy water of the Oldthinker, but then think better of it. Instead, a sizable number of them produce their respective binders, and proceed to smash their faces into it, thinking happy thoughts of angels!
[Larry's mind roll: 1-->1+1+8]
Nothing happens, though, so the Larries think nothing of it and close their binders, and silently wonder why they cannot be the singular Larry who is currently getting some rather than the many that instead are trying to research magic at a time like this. Then again, their perceptions are entirely or at least partially shared, so they console themselves with the thought that they're indirectly experiencing all that the other, cooler Larries are. In a way, anyway.
* * * * *
As
Eta and Officer Rieux speak, they make their way inside the hospital, which seems to be quite busy with the current emergency efforts. So busy, in fact, that handing Lois off to the emergency room is almost an automatically handled thing - nobody really asks any questions aside from her name, which Officer Rieux provides, and they just get down to business after that, delivering her to the appropriate location. After this, the officer turns to Eta.
"So, when are we going to meet this Joan? I can manage things in one and a half hour if I rush, but later can work as well if you want. I would prefer if we set a specific time, at any rate."She looks at her watch.
"It's a quarter to three now, so how about we meet in four-thirty over on Jew Street? There's no landmarks to meet at there, so we'll probably have to use our best guesses where to meet or pick a nearby, more recognizable place. What do you think?"* * * * *
As
Halesey rises from his private time of potatoes and enchantment, he quickly looks around his apartment for money, quite stereotypically finding only a few dollars in the couch. Perhaps he needs to do something more profitable than mere heaven-trashing and chronic potato abuse with his time. Indeed, this may be the case. But as reasonable as this piece of advice may be, Halesey shall not follow it today, for he has people to convert! And so he takes to the streets, realizing that there's a perfectly wonderful cafe that's been on the first floor of his apartment building for very long now. It seems to just be called Cafe, or at least that's what the sign says, so he heads right in. Surely there shall be people worth speaking to in this place.
The interior of the cafe, Halesey notices, is quite cozy, though also rather humble. A nice, proper cafe this undoubtedly is. It also seems to be empty, a rather bored and dirty young man standing by the counter, staring at the nearby coffee machine, then switching to staring at donuts, then deciding to look over at the price listing, which is conspicuously bare.