[ psl / closed ]

[privatematter]

Surprisingly, it was not one of the boring days up at the FBI building for Neal Caffrey. There were things going on, a case to be solved, and just enough work that Neal could keep his mind off other, less legal activities. As much as he ever stopped thinking along that train of thought, anyway. But for right now, Peter was up with a witness that Neal's presence kept agitating (how was he supposed to know George Langely's old poker connections would end up flipping on this guy?) and Neal was left dithering around at his desk. Waiting for a new lead to present itself. Currently, their witness was the only chance they had at catching up with their real suspect, but until they could get him to say something or otherwise frighten him into going underground to be followed...

Well, it left a lot of entertainment to be desired.

With not much else to do, Neal made his way to the coffee machine and eyed the rest of the room in speculation. Everyone had something going on today, but there were a few agents who were easy to distract in the office today. They were hard workers, capable of catching up on any work he'd make them lose, and Peter rarely ever called him on it since the fear of getting in trouble for stopping to chat tended to make them work more efficiently anyway. He was just about to make his way over, extra mug of coffee in hand, when he spotted the stairwell door opening. Black hair popped out on top of an attractive face, glanced around in abject confusion, and then shut itself back in.

"One of these things is not like the other," Neal muttered to himself, making a quick drop of the mugs at a random agent's desk as he made for the office doors. He waved behind himself when Jones spoke up ("Grabbing some real coffee today!"), and hurried his way into the elevator to let himself off at another floor and slip into the stairwell behind the stranger.

Comments

[aspectional]

By the time Peter got to his desk and sat down, he didn't even have the chance to start chewing Neal out, instead listening to what he had to say. When he was done, Peter looked over at Eli, who was standing there awkwardly as if he wasn't sure if it was the right thing to tell Peter or not. Just by looks, he could almost see how they could thought to be like each other, but when it came to Neal and anything that had to do with him, he lived by the phrase 'trust, but verify'. If this was some sort of trick, Peter would try to catch it before anybody got truly hurt. "Is that true?" His voice was not nearly as firm nor upset as it was previously and his expression had softened slightly. Part of him hopes this is true for Neal's sake. "You know what's going on with Neal and you're going through the same thing."

Eli glanced back out of the glass wall to see if anybody was coming and if Thomas had shown up. Not yet. "Kind of? It's complicated. Like the sort that might make you think I'm crazy?" The look Peter gave Eli is one wondering what his point is and Eli sighed, pulling himself out of his awkwardness and deciding to just go through with explain. "Neal and I, along with eight other people, are called Aspects. To put it simply, we're reincarnations of dragon gods who once ruled over the universe." He paused at Peter's expression of disbelief and sighed, running his left hand through his hair.

"Look, I told you it sounded crazy, but listen to me. Neal's flashbacks, they're like memories of a different person doing things Neal could have never done, right? His body temperature can flare up to incredibly dangerous levels, he has accidentally set fire to things, correct? That's because he's the Aspect of fire and he's not only starting to access the memories of his past life, but is also tapping into the abilities that he had. Watch, I can prove it to you with my own abilities."

He looked back over his shoulder to see if anybody outside the office is really paying attention to them and once satisfied that nobody is, Eli started to concentrate. There's some crackles of electricity bouncing along bare skin and the area around Eli started to visually warp. And then in a split second, he was gone.