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Milla was waiting for them.
Manny and Sasha were supposed to meet up with her in one of the brainstorming lounges ten minutes ago, but Manny had been running late. Or, more accurately, had been dragging his feet.
You see, Milla wasn't waiting all by herself - according to Sasha she'd found someone she thought would make an excellent partner for Manny here with the Psychonauts, and she wanted to introduce them to each other as soon as possible. Sasha seemed to agree with her evaluation, but Manny wasn't exactly holding out hope.
"I still don't think this is a good idea."
Manny tried not to let his mood show in the slump of his shoulders. If they were going to drag him off to a meeting he wasn't particularly thrilled to be a part of, at the very least no one was going to be able to say he'd sulked the whole way there.
"Are you saying you don't want a partner?"
"No, I'm saying I've tried working with at least a dozen other agents by now, and every single one of them got hung up on my situation."
His longest partnership had only lasted a month, and ended with a polite apology that really only amounted to the guy saying he just wasn't ready to be partners with a full-time halloween decoration. All the others had ended on a similar note.
Sasha took a drag off of his cigarette. "We're confident that won't be a problem this time."
"Oh really?" Manny said, raising a skeptic eyebrow, "You found another dead guy for me to hang out with?"
"No."
Sasha didn't elaborate any further, effectively ending the discussion with the stony silence that followed. Clearly, Manny was just going to have to wait and see who they'd roped into dealing with him this time.
At this point he'd kind of given up on finding anyone willing to put up with him in the long run. Despite his attempts to make things work no one had ever stuck around for very long, and he was starting to see a pattern. Enough so, that he'd gone ahead and started terminating the partnerships himself at the first sign of discomfort. If he never had to say, it's because I'm a skeleton, right? again, it would be too soon.
The only reason he was still trying was because he couldn't do his own field work without a partner to watch his back. Sasha assured him that it was just the Psychonauts policy for new agents like him, but every time he got rejected and ended up back at his desk with nothing but a mountain of paperwork to occupy his time, he couldn't help but wonder if an exception wouldn't have been made for an agent with a pulse.
As they approached the entrance to the lounge, Manny couldn't help but overhear one of the conversations happening just inside. The man speaking had a voice that carried; he sounded young. There were no doors between the hallway and the lounge, so Manny heard every syllable loud and clear.
"-I just, I don't know Milla... are you sure about this? What if he gets hurt?"
His new potential partner, then. Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence.
Milla's much softer voice was harder to pick out of the background noise, but not impossible. "Relax darling, nothing has to be decided today. Sasha and I just wanted to see if this might be something the two of you would be interested in, that's all."
There was a long silence before the guy finally responded. "Okay. This'll be... it'll be fine."
So his new 'partner' already had cold feet. Great. Well, might as well get this over with so he could go back to doing nothing in his office in peace.
They rounded the corner to see Milla leaning across a couch to lay a comforting hand on the shoulder of a guy the size of an ox. There really wasn't any way to describe him other than big. He had broad shoulders, thick biceps, and, if he were standing, he'd probably be at least six and a half feet tall. Even his hair was big - his shaggy sideburns complemented the square of his jaw, while the rest of his dark hair ran halfway down his back. His black jeans, leather vest, and Motörhead t-shirt really completed the look - if high school dropout with a bad attitude was what he was going for - and overall it just seemed odd that someone like him would need to be reassured about anything. After all, what did he have to worry about?
Fitting in the doorway, maybe.
Manny couldn't help but huff a small laugh at the thought. He knew he was being mean, but he just couldn't help it. He deserved at least a little bit of satisfaction now if he had to deal with the incoming conversation about his death. It never failed to come up during the initial meeting, why should this time be any different?
As soon as Milla caught sight of Manny and Sasha walking into the lounge, her face brightened. After giving her trainee's shoulder a final reassuring squeeze, she stood to greet both of them with a hug. The new guy didn't seem to know what to do with himself, since he froze the second he noticed the dead guy about to make his acquaintance.
After a pause just long enough to be awkward the kid started to stand, probably to offer Manny a handshake or something, but Manny waved him off with a shake of his head and sat down in one of the armchairs opposite the couch. There was a low coffee table between them with a quaint little vase of flowers, and sunlight was streaming in through the wall of windows to Manny's left.
Sasha took the other armchair in the little circle of furniture while Milla retook her seat on the couch, and once everyone got settled Milla started things off with some simple introductions.
"Eddie, this is my partner Sasha, and his recruit, Manny Calavera."
Eddie nodded politely. "Nice to meet you."
When Manny made no move to continue the introductions, this time Sasha picked up the slack. "Manny, this is agent-in-training Eddie Riggs. Milla and I believe the two of you have skills that could prove beneficial to each other, should you choose to be partners."
"A pleasure," Manny grunted. Agent-in-training? What, they couldn't find an actual agent willing to put up with him, so now he was being given babysitting duty? Things were just getting better and better.
Neither of them made any move to keep the conversation going. Manny was perfectly fine just sitting here enjoying the view outside while he pretended to listen to the other three talk, but Eddie was staring at him with a bewildered expression on his face.
Clearing her throat, Milla tried again. "Eddie? Why don't you tell us a little about where you're from?"
"Oh, uh, sure!" he said, finally tearing his gaze off of the skeleton sitting across from him, "Well, I guess you could say I'm from California, but my dad and I moved around a lot when I was a kid so I don't really have a specific city to tell you about. I guess we stayed in L.A. the longest? L.A. was cool..."
Eddie went on to tell them a little bit more about his teen years in the city of Angels, but Manny wasn't really listening. He caught the parts about how he was homeschooled and learned to play guitar from his dad, and how he'd always wanted to follow his old man into the rock and roll business as a roadie, but Manny checked out around the time he started talking about the record store that gave him his first gig. Without any eyeballs it was hard to tell where exactly he was looking, so instead of focusing on Eddie's face Manny was watching a bird pecking at the ground outside.
Every so often he glanced back at the other three agents to see how things were progressing, but for the most part it was birdwatching time.
What little time he spent looking at Eddie was dedicated to analyzing his behavior; Manny could tell more about a person by their body language than the words they strung together, and so far he wasn't liking what he was seeing. To Sasha and Milla this guy was probably just a nervous kid talking about his life, but Manny knew a facade when he saw one. He sat just a little too rigidly on the couch, and he kept glancing at Manny even if he was looking at one of the senior agents, like he was worried Manny might attack him or something.
Whatever Sasha and Milla thought they'd seen in the two of them, Manny was pretty certain it wasn't going to work out. Eddie was just like all the others.
After another few minutes spent staring out the window - the bird was now starting to build a nest in one of the nearby trees - silence fell on their little group. Tuning back in, he realized everyone was looking at him.
Belatedly he coughed, clearing his throat and asking, "Sorry, could you repeat the question?"
"Eddie asked where you were from, darling," Milla replied. She was still smiling, but it was a little strained. Manny felt a little twinge of guilt that his rudeness might be reflecting badly on her.
Not enough to not do it, though.
"Oh! Gotcha - sorry, I just got distracted thinking about my own experiences with California; I used to live pretty close, just across the border. Have you ever been to Tijuana?"
He continued on to tell some sob story about how he used to be a lowly bartender working late nights at some seedy club on the wrong side of town. For all Manny knew, it was the truth - it was one of the few things that correlated to his almost instinctive knowledge on how to serve drinks, and his preference for cheap cigarettes - and it wasn't like this guy was ever going to need to know anything substantial about him.
Neither Sasha or Milla corrected him.
After a few more minutes of waxing poetic about the scenic views and good times to be had in his fictitious hometown, he decided it was time to go in for the kill.
"So, you're probably wondering how I ended up like this, huh?"
Bingo. Surprise flashed across the kid's face, with no small amount of guilt in his eyes.
"I- I mean, yeah, but I didn't want to be rude..."
Eddie trailed off, waiting for Manny to continue. Well, tough. Manny let the silence hang until, at last, Eddie sheepishly worked up the courage to finally say the words, "So, how did you end up as... as a skeleton?"
Manny smirked. "Well, to tell you the truth, I don't know. That's why I'm here with the Psychonauts - to find out."
"Oh."
Was he disappointed by the anticlimax? It was hard to tell.
Sasha was frowning at him now, which meant it was time to start playing a little nicer. Manny really couldn't care less what Eddie thought of him, but Sasha was one of the few people he could call a friend and making him mad was not part of the plan.
"Still, it's not all bad. Without this," he gestured vaguely to his face, "I wouldn't have met Sasha and Milla."
Eddie grinned, probably believing they'd finally found some common ground.
"Oh man, me neither! I don't know what I would've done without Milla, she's incredible!" Winking at her, he added, "A real lifesaver!"
Milla rolled her eyes and shook her head, smiling fondly at Eddie, but before she could say anything Manny kept going.
"Did she ever tell you about the time she and Sasha uncovered a smuggling ring in the middle of a toy manufacturing company?"
Just as Manny had hoped, Eddie looked back towards their mentors, intrigued. Hopeful. "No, she didn't. Sounds like a hell of a story, though."
"Oh, it is," addressing Sasha, Manny asked, "How did that all start again? Functioning hypno-discs in the x-ray glasses?"
Sasha pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose before correcting him. "Technically we were alerted to the situation by the reports of children attempting to attack their siblings because the toys convinced them to."
"Sasha, you're forgetting the hallucinogenic slime one of the lab boys bought for his son. We would have been called in just for that."
Manny stifled a grin. Eddie was looking at the two senior agents like he couldn't believe what he was hearing, which meant he wasn't looking at Manny and the conversation had been diverted elsewhere for a while.
"What happened?" Eddie asked, awestruck.
"Well, to put it simply," there wasn't a simple way to tell this story, Sasha, "executives at the toy company believed that they could get away with hiding banned materials in certain shipments of their toys. Unfortunately, the contraband items were almost identical to the legitimate products, and several cartons were delivered to the wrong recipients."
"That leaves out the deliberate sabotage by the union workers, darling."
With the discussion successfully derailed, Manny took a moment to check his watch. So far he'd been sitting here for about half an hour; with any luck he'd be able to keep them talking on their own until it was time to go. He really had to hand it to Eddie - he wouldn't have been able to pull this off without his unsuspecting eagerness to hear the end of the story.
Manny almost felt bad about leading him on like this, he seemed like a nice enough guy. He was thoroughly, almost childishly engrossed in the story Sasha and Milla were telling. All in all he was an excellent audience member, asking questions and responding in all the right places. Manny hardly had to lift a finger to keep the senior agents talking, Eddie was doing it all on his own.
Unfortunately that didn't mean Manny could check out entirely. Despite not being the center of attention, Milla and Sasha kept trying to keep him invested in the story by asking him questions about what he remembered even though he hadn't been a part of that investigation.
His clipped, nearly one-word answers didn't seem to be clueing anyone in to his obvious unwillingness to participate. Sasha and Milla were both clearly disregarding his tactlessness, but Manny couldn't decide if Eddie was choosing to ignore it or if he really just hadn't noticed. Either way, it was looking more and more like Manny was going to have to do something drastic to get rid of him.
It was time to bring out the big guns - nothing killed a friendly conversation between Psychonauts quite like discussing how they got started as agents. Once the story was over and as soon as there was a long enough pause, Manny changed the subject before Eddie could ask about any other case stories.
"So how did you end up with the Psychonauts?"
For several heartbeats, there was nothing but silence. Eddie was looking at him like a deer in the headlights, while Sasha and Milla seemed astonished by Manny's shameless attempt at interrogation.
"Uh..."
Milla immediately stepped in to save Eddie from whatever story he was about to stumble over, saying, "Manny, don't you think that can wait for later?"
After they were officially partners, she meant.
Nope.
Manny didn't have to press Eddie again though, because the kid went ahead and volunteered the information himself.
"No, it's okay. I'd say it's a reasonable enough question to ask. And the answer is-" Eddie paused, glancing around at his audience to gauge their interest in the story, waiting just long enough to build suspense, "that I don't know."
For a moment, Manny was stunned - another amnesiac?? - but then Milla began to laugh. Eddie cracked a grin and even Sasha had to chuckle a bit, and Manny got the distinct feeling he was missing out on the joke. And, more importantly, that he was being mocked.
Once Milla quieted down Eddie picked up the story again.
"Okay, so I might have fibbed a bit - I do know how I got hired, but Milla's gonna have to help me out with some parts of the story 'cus I kinda wasn't all that awake for most of it."
With the tension broken by his little attempt to lighten the mood, Eddie seemed more confident in telling the story. He also kept his focus more on Manny through the narration, though that made sense as it seemed Sasha had already heard it.
Apparently, Eddie had been doing his job as crew head for some metal band called Kabbage Boy when an accident with the rigging had caused half the stage to collapse. Eddie had been standing in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the falling equipment had all but crushed him.
At that point Milla took over the story, detailing how she'd been in the crowd with some of the children from Whispering Rock on a field trip while the band was in town. After the accident had interrupted the show, a giant glowing beast of flame and molten metal had torn it's way out of the wreckage and started going after the musicians and anyone else standing too close to the debris. She'd recognized the beast as a mental totem - a psychic spirit animal of sorts - and so she'd left one of the kids in charge of watching the others while she stepped in to help.
If she hadn't found Eddie bleeding out flat on his back on the drummer's platform, and dealt with what Eddie called Ormagöden before anyone got badly injured, he probably wouldn't be sitting here today.
"Yeah, it wasn't exactly my finest moment as a roadie," he admitted, "But! I did get this badass lookin' scar out of it!"
Without waiting for a reaction, Eddie lifted up the hem of his t-shirt to show off the injury like a mark of pride. If Manny didn't know better, he'd have said that the scar came from a botched appendectomy. The puckered line of pink flesh curled over the curve of his belly and onto his side in a jagged highlight against Eddie's otherwise lightly tanned skin. Whatever had left a mark like that, it was big and it hadn't been messing around.
Manny was honestly surprised. He hadn't been expecting Eddie to take telling this story so thoroughly in his stride or to show off something so personal like it was nothing.
So surprised in fact, that without even intending to be rude this time, he still ended up just sitting there staring at Eddie in total silence.
Some of the enthusiasm on his face was replaced with just a hint of uncertainty near his brows, and he laughed awkwardly as he put his shirt back down.
"At the end of the day, I guess I'm just glad that nobody got hurt." When Milla glanced sharply at him, he elaborated, "I mean, like, irreparably hurt - some of the guys got burned, but they're all okay, and I'm okay, and the broken equipment can just be replaced, so in the grand scheme of things everything's fine."
Manny nodded in understanding despite himself. He certainly wouldn't feel too great about causing an accident that killed someone, even if he hadn't meant to. As long as everyone lived to tell the tale there was no harm, no foul.
As Eddie met his gaze with a faint smile, guilt was starting to creep up on Manny again. Eddie really was genuinely nicer than he'd been expecting, and now he seemed to think they'd made a connection or something. Time to bail. Now.
Manny cleared his throat and looked away. "Well, this has been fun-"
Abruptly, Sasha's pager went off. Taking a quick glance at it, he calmly leaned forward and turned to Milla.
"We're needed down in administration."
"Already?" she asked, raising her eyebrows in surprise, "But that wasn't supposed to be for another hour!"
"Plans have changed unexpectedly," Sasha said, as he started to stand, "so we'll just have to make do. Please - Manny, Eddie, don't let our absence put an end to the meeting. This shouldn't take long, we'll be back soon."
As Milla stood up to leave, the face she gave Manny said she wasn't quite disappointed in him, but she'd definitely expected better of his behavior up 'til now.
He was definitely getting a lecture later.
Unfortunately, now that Sasha had all but told him to stay here and keep talking to this guy, there was no way he could get out of keeping this thing going. Eddie seemed just as displeased with the situation, as he'd fixed Milla's retreating back with a panicked stare.
Any remorse Manny had felt about his actions melted away in the face of Eddie's unease. He didn't exactly want to be here either, but at least he hadn't insulted Eddie directly to his face yet. He could at least pretend to be fine with Manny's presence until he found a way to leave instead of telegraphing it for everyone to see.
Once their mentors were gone Manny fixed Eddie with his best dead-eyed stare and let his head tilt slightly to the side, like he was sizing him up instead of merely looking at him. For an extra intimidation factor he even stopped going through the motions of breathing with his ribcage; it was less effective to have to focus on pulling oxygen out of the air that already filled the space in his chest cavity, but Sasha assured him it was incredibly unnerving whenever he forewent the usual hallmarks of being one of the living.
Eddie fiddled with his hands in the silence, entirely unsure of what to say now that they'd covered the most basic of get-to-know-you questions and both of their supports had left them twisting in the wind. For the most part he had his eyes locked on the coffee table, but every now and then he glanced up at Manny and then away again like he was too scared to talk to him now that Milla was gone. Once or twice he opened his mouth as if to say something, then decided against it and went back to his routine.
At last, Manny had had enough. "What is your problem??"
Eddie jumped at the harsh tone, snapping his head up in surprise. "What?! No- there's no problem- it's just that- I uh, you- that you, you're a skeleton!"
Here we go...
"And that's awesome!"
... what?
Manny had to take a moment to make sure he hadn't misheard him. No matter how he tried, he couldn't find any sort of negative spin to the statement, which led him to the disorienting conclusion that there wasn't one. He… he wasn't put off by the fact that Manny was dead?
When Manny didn't say anything, Eddie figured he'd said something wrong. Holding his hands up defensively, he continued, "I-I mean, it sucks that this happened to you, I'm sorry you got hurt, but like, I just- I think it would be totally cool to be your partner but you- you..."
At last, almost an hour after Manny had started trying to get rid of him, realization slowly dawned across his face. "You don't want a partner, do you?"
It wasn't a question, not really.
"Eddie, I…" What was he supposed to say?
It didn't matter. Eddie's mouth hardened into a grim line as he started to rise from the couch.
"No, don't worry about it." Reaching for his guitar, he slung the strap over his shoulder as he started to make for the door. "I'm sorry to have taken up so much of your time. See ya round."
"Wait."
Now Manny was standing, having scrambled to get out of his chair and stand between Eddie and the exit. Eddie loomed over him, all 250 pounds of muscle, and as he glared down at Manny the skeleton felt he understood just a little of what it was like to stand in the way of an oncoming train. If Eddie truly wanted to leave, there was very little that Manny could do to stop him.
"I'm sorry." Just do it quick, like a bandaid. "Please, don't go yet."
The glare on Eddie's face softened some, but he clearly wasn't appeased just yet.
"Come again?"
Manny swallowed nervously. "I said, I'm sorry. I judged you too quickly, and I didn't give you a fair shake. So please - let's try this again," Manny offered his hand, "my name is Manny Calavera. It's a pleasure to meet you."
For a long moment Eddie simply stared at the hand being held out to him. He made no move to either accept or reject the olive branch Manny was trying to offer, until at last he reached out and gave his hand a brief but firm shake. Without waiting for any further invitations he turned around and set his guitar gently against the armrest of the couch, then sat heavily back down next to it. Resting his arm along the length of the armrest and leaning his shoulder into it, the thunderous expression still on his face made him look more like a general surveying a battlefield than a guy meeting an acquaintance for a friendly chat.
Before Manny could say anything to try to paper over the absolute canyon that had opened up between them, Eddie beat him to it.
"Was anything you told me about yourself the truth?"
Shamefully, Manny had to admit, "Not, uh, not that I'm aware. I really don't remember how I died, and I don't remember anything from before I died either."
"Great. Thanks for lying to me, I really appreciate it."
The rays of sunlight didn't seem quite so bright anymore now that a heavy atmosphere of lies and wounded pride had settled between them, and this time it was Manny's turn to nervously search for a topic. He'd messed up, big time.
He fought off the knee-jerk impulse to write off Eddie's well-earned anger as an overreaction; it was a base instinct to want to believe that he'd done nothing wrong, that it wasn't his fault that he hadn't realized that Eddie actually really wanted to be friends with him, but he knew deep down that no matter how he tried to justify his behavior to himself, he'd gone and treated Eddie like he feared everyone would treat him.
Like less than a person. Like ignoring and lying to him didn't matter.
He'd messed up, and now he needed to fix it. He just wasn't sure how.
Well, they always said that honesty was the best policy. Leaning forward he rested his elbows on his knees and heaved a sigh. If he were a braver man he would've been able to look Eddie in the eyes while he spoke, but as it was he fixed his gaze at a point on the wall just over his left shoulder.
"Look. What happened earlier- what I did, wasn't your fault. I really would like a partner, it's just that so far, no one has been able to get over the fact that I'm missing most of my organs enough to really work with me." He risked a quick look at his face; still mad, but with a begrudging understanding beginning to dilute the anger. "I was so sure that you wouldn't be any different that I didn't bother actually trying to get to know you."
The silence hung in the air while Eddie digested his words, until abruptly he asked, "Most?"
"What?"
"You said you're missing most of your organs. Not all. Implying that you've still got a couple rattling around somewhere."
Oh. "I've still got my brain. You uh, you still need that to be a psychic."
Eddie hummed in agreement. "So you're not a haunted skeleton."
Manny laughed at the idea - though really, was the truth any less absurd? "Not haunted, no. Just a freak of nature that refused to die."
Eddie nodded sagely. "Metal."
The air felt clearer now. Eddie probably still wasn't ready to forgive him, but he deserved that. If he wanted to be friends he'd have to earn it from the ground up.
Relaxing back into his chair, Manny decided that the best way to do that would be to get Eddie talking again - and this time, he was listening. "So, did you put that guitar together all by yourself, or did it come like that?"
Eddie seemed almost surprised that Manny remembered enough about him to even ask. So he had noticed Manny ignoring him… just one more thing to add to the pile of insults to make up for.
Pulling the guitar into his arms, he held it out so Manny could get a better look at it.
"This? This is Clementine. Technically I bought her pre-built, but at this point nothing on her is original." He pulled the guitar back towards himself and gave her a few gentle strums. "She was my first full-sized guitar. My old man gave her to me for my birthday right before we went on a professional tour together for the first time, and she's been my favorite ever since."
Clementine seemed to have quite a history of her own, as Eddie told him about some of the circumstances surrounding various minor dings and scratches. Most had been buffed and polished to the point that Manny could hardly see them, but Eddie knew the exact location of every single one of them and what had been the cause. Several were the result of careless, drunken shenanigans that Eddie had unsuccessfully vowed never to repeat, a lot of them were just wear and tear from being on the road, but two of the guitar's injuries were far more significant.
The first was a deep crack that ran through the back of the body. As an electric guitar, the crack didn't really impact Clementine's sound, but Eddie treated it like someone had tried to poison his firstborn child.
Apparently, a mixup between some of the drivers had resulted in some of his most recent band's equipment to end up in the wrong city, and so to keep the show running he'd allowed the band's guitarist to borrow Clementine for the night. According to Eddie the kid was a punk who didn't deserve to lay a finger on such a finely crafted instrument of Rock, but there hadn't been any other options. Exactly as he'd feared, the guy didn't treat his precious guitar with the respect it deserved, and he'd used it as a bat to knock a t-shirt into the audience. Not prepared for Clementine's heavy metal heft, the swing spun him around with more force than he'd expected and he'd ended up dropping the guitar six feet off the stage into no man's land. The hard fall onto solid concrete had done her no favors, so despite still being playable Eddie had spent a long time repairing the damage.
The other noteworthy repair happened as a result of his disastrous last show with Kabbage Boy.
He'd vowed never to let anyone else play Clementine after the guitar player had let her take a header off the stage, but once again sacrifices had had to be made in the name of Rock and Roll. This time Eddie had threatened the guy within an inch of his life if he so much as took her strap off of his shoulder - very unprofessional for a roadie, but this wasn't just a guitar. This was Clementine.
Sadly the accident that happened next was only mostly the guitarist's fault, so Eddie couldn't quite claim she'd been injured during the initial collapse of the stage. Whatever had happened, she'd ended up with a small gouge taken out of her head stock. Eddie had filled it in the best that he could, but at the end of the day he regarded the small nick that remained as a battle scar.
Manny was impressed; he never would have guessed that just one Flying V could have so many stories to tell. Eddie probably had entire volumes of tales about his life on the road.
Listening to him talk, Manny was struck with an uncanny feeling of deja vu. He was almost certain that the two of them had never met before today, but nevertheless there was still something familiar about Eddie. Something in the way he spoke, something in his enthusiasm was itching at the back of Manny's mind, trying to remind him of someone or something from his old life. Something friendly and comfortable.
Something that Manny was really starting to miss, the more he thought about it.
At last, Eddie seemed to decide he'd chronicled enough of Clementine's backstory for the moment and put the ball back in Manny's court.
"So, since I can't ask you anything meaningful about your past, how about the present? Any fun case stories you can share with me about what you're working on?"
Manny just sighed tiredly. "Only if you think dry descriptions of internal peer reviews and informational requests count as fun. I haven't done anything but paperwork for almost as long as I've been with the agency."
Eddie grimaced in sympathy. "Dude, that sucks. Do you just not have the clearance to get out there or something?"
"No, it's nothing like that - once I finished basic braining and got cleared for active duty I was able to go with Sasha on a few of his simpler investigations; I'm just not allowed to go out on my own. Field work requires a partner, so until I find someone willing to put up with me I'm stuck at my desk pushing pencils."
Eddie nodded in begrudging understanding of the policy before his eyes widened in realization. Manny was confused for a moment before he remembered the whole purpose behind this meeting - Eddie was supposed to be his new partner, and if there was one thing the roadie seemed to like doing, it was helping people solve problems.
Manny hadn't meant to try and guilt trip him into the position by complaining, but it was too late to take it back. Eddie's face twitched a bit as he seemed to have a small argument with himself.
If Manny had to guess, he'd say that the desire to be partners with him was currently in a wrestling match with the hurt feelings from earlier. He probably still wanted to be mad, to not give in and forgive Manny so easily, but the idea of being partners with one of the coolest agents Milla could find for him was very tempting.
At last, finally noticing that no one had said anything for at least 30 seconds, Eddie put the debate on hold in favor of getting some more information. "So, if you can't investigate anything on your own, how are you supposed to solve your murder?"
He flushed slightly when he realized how bluntly he'd put it, but he didn't try to amend his statement.
"I guess the short answer is, I'm not. There just aren't that many leads I can follow up on in the first place, and everyone else is too busy to put any extra manpower on the case."
"Wha- too busy?? For a murder investigation??" Eddie couldn't seem to believe what he was hearing. "What could be more important than that?"
Manny was honestly a little touched by Eddie's indignation. It was refreshing, in a way.
"Kid, I'm not the only dead guy the Psychonauts need to investigate. I'm just the one that lived to tell the tale."
"Still. Expecting you to solve your own murder when there's a decent chance it could happen again is crazy. You shouldn't be doing this on your own!"
"Which is why I'm not," Manny reminded him. "No partner, no investigation."
Was it too early to make the offer? Manny still wasn't sure where they stood. He was more than willing to give it a shot, but it was a strong possibility that Eddie still wasn't sure.
It wasn't like Manny was going to find a better segue into the discussion, though.
Ah, what the hell. The worst Eddie could do at this point was say no, might as well try.
"Would… would being my partner be something you'd be interested in?"
There. Not even asking for a commitment, just gauging how he felt.
Eddie was quiet for what felt like forever, but Manny wasn't going to push him. At last, he said, "I really didn't appreciate how you were ignoring me earlier, but I think being dead entitles you to a little rudeness now and then. Hell, I can be a bit of a bastard myself if you catch me in the wrong mood, so I think we can let bygones be bygones."
Manny grinned - that was way more than he'd been hoping for.
"Just don't do it again."
Manny raised his right hand in a three-fingered salute, the way he'd seen Guybrush do whenever he was promising something he thought was super important. Tracing an X over the left breast of his jacket with the other hand, he said, "Cross my heart and hope to die."
"Again." Eddie teased with a wink, picking up on Manny's little joke.
"Yeah, again," Manny chuckled. "So, how much longer do you have on your induction?"
Eddie put a hand to his mouth as he tried to remember everything he still had to do.
"Let's see… Pretty sure HR still needs some paperwork from me, and I'm supposed to run some kind of obstacle course later this week. Oh! And I still have a couple of extra classes with Agent Oleander. After that though, I'm pretty sure that's it."
"Well, that shouldn't be too hard. What are those extra classes about?"
At once, Eddie seemed embarrassed. Rubbing the back of his neck, he sheepishly admitted, "I uh, I finished the basic course a while ago, but I didn't really do too hot. Ol' Oly was nice enough to offer a couple of remedial sessions to try and help me get the hang of stuff."
The words nice and Agent Oleander went together like oil and water - it was far more likely that Milla had arranged it behind the scenes. Either that, or he really had demanded the extra training on the grounds that no student of his would join the force with such abysmal skills. Either way, Eddie was making the situation sound much more agreeable than it probably was.
Eddie was still going, with a reassuring smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "I've almost got it though! Once I get through those I'm sure everything'll be fine."
He didn't exactly sound too sure, but every agent had confidence issues when they first joined up. Even Manny still had days when he doubted whether or not what he was doing was real - sometimes it was just so hard to believe in psychic abilities in general, much less that he had the power to demonstrate them himself. In any case, he wasn't going to try to discourage a positive attitude, especially not in someone he'd be relying on out in the field.
"It will," Manny agreed, "especially since we won't be starting on anything too serious right out of the gate. In fact, we'll just end up shadowing another pair of agents for a while - it'll be nothing to worry about."
Eddie's face lit up with a broad grin. "Oh man, this is gonna be awesome!" Like a kid on Christmas, he was practically jumping out of seat with enthusiasm.
"Do you think we'd get to shadow Sasha and Milla? Do they tend to handle murder cases? If not, maybe we should ask for somebody working on one of those - just to make sure we're handling yours right. Oh or, or- what if, get this, we tried coming at it from a different angle?"
Whatever they did, Manny was already glad he had Eddie on his team. As he continued to rapidly fire off ideas for what they ought to do once the partnership was finalized, Manny pulled out a small spiral notepad and started jotting some of them down. Eddie showed no signs of slowing down as he continued to increase in both energy and volume, to the point that Manny was starting to wonder if he'd forgotten that none of this would be happening for at least a couple weeks.
"OH and we can't forget to-"
Whatever he'd been about to say was immediately overlooked when the vase of flowers on the coffee table burst into flames and all but exploded. The flowers themselves were incinerated almost instantly, leaving behind nothing but ash and a few charred husks, while the vase shattered under the shock of the sudden increase in temperature.
Water and glass shards dripped discouragingly onto the floor.
Manny had startled badly at the sudden blast and was left staring at the wreckage in the silence that followed. Try as he might, he just couldn't understand what had happened to cause the incident, until he finally looked up to see if his partner was okay.
The excitement on Eddie's face had shattered in the wake of the explosion, leaving behind nothing but hot shame burning in the blush that spread over his cheeks. He buried his face in his hands, either unwilling or unable to face Manny after such a spectacular failure to control himself.
So much for everything being fine.
They sat there in silence for a long time while Eddie found his composure. Manny chose not to comment for fear of making things worse, but immediately after the incident the room temperature had started to rise. It had continued to get warmer until Eddie had begun what seemed to be some kind of breathing exercise, but things still hadn't cooled off for a while.
At last, he dropped one of his hands and left the other still covering the lower half of his face.
Manny took it as an opportunity to gently ask, "Are you okay?"
Despite nodding an affirmative Eddie seemed to fold in on himself, dropping his remaining hand and collapsing back into the couch with his arms folded as if he could prevent any more outbursts just by withdrawing from the world. Clearly, he didn't just have issues with his confidence - they stemmed from an issue with his control.
Eyes on the floor, he said in a small voice, "Sorry about that. Stuff like that happens kind of a lot around me, but I'm working on it." Scrunching up his face for a moment, he added, "One of these days they're probably just gonna give up and put me in one of those tinfoil hats, and I'll end up wearing it for the rest of my life."
"Well, a little extra metal in your outfit wouldn't exactly be out of place," Manny tried, after a moment.
Eddie smiled slightly at the attempt at levity, but it was quickly replaced by despondence once again.
"Still… right now I'm a forest fire waiting to happen. I don't know how long it'll take to get it under control, so you… you should probably look into finding a better partner until I can get the hang of all this." He gestured ethereally around his head, before dropping his hands back into his lap and slumping his shoulders dejectedly.
Those shoulders went right back up again in surprise as Manny burst out laughing like Eddie had just told the funniest joke he'd ever heard.
"Are you kidding me? After all that?" Manny asked, still grinning, "Eddie, I'd rather do paperwork for the rest of my afterlife than sit through yet another partnership interview. No matter how long it takes you to get cleared for duty, I'm willing to wait."
Eddie blinked, like Manny had stopped making sense. "What? B-but- that could take a while, if ever- you, you shouldn't-"
Manny cut him off before he could question his decision any further. "Sorry kid, you're stuck with me."
Eddie wasn't ready to drop the issue. Scooting forward on the cushion, he leaned forward and set his elbows on his knees so he could be certain he had Manny's complete attention.
"Manny." Pointing to the wreckage probably causing water stains on the coffee table, he said, "what if that had been you? I- I wasn't trying to set the flowers on fire, it was an accident. What if it happens again? What if I set you on fire?"
Without even hesitating, Manny stated point blank, "Then I go put on a different suit. Bones don't burn."
Eddie didn't seem to have considered that, nor did he have an answer. What else was there to say? If he really wanted to hurt Manny, he'd have to try a little harder than simply burning him.
"Honestly, I'm more worried about what happens if you set yourself on fire."
That really was the biggest concern for Pyrokinetics of any skill level. Despite having an instinctive mental affinity for fire, agents who specialized in controlling it definitely weren't immune to being set alight themselves. Those that started to go insane didn't last very long.
If Eddie was having that much trouble controlling what was and was not on fire in his general area, it was only a matter of time before he ended up a little too close to the blaze.
"That hasn't happened yet, and it won't if my extra classes have anything to say about it."
Manny nodded. "Then it's settled. Neither of us will end up getting burned, so there's nothing stopping us from being partners."
Defeated, Eddie sat back into the couch. "No, I guess there isn't. Are… are you really sure this is what you want?"
Hijole, how many times did he have to say it?? "Yes, Eddie, I am. A few sparks here and there is nothing I can't handle."
For a moment it looked like he wanted to insist that Manny would be facing more than sparks, but ultimately he let it drop and simply said, "Thanks."
"Anytime. Once you're cleared for field work we'll get the paperwork in, and then it'll really be official. But for now," Manny held out a hand, bridging the gap between his chair and the couch, "Partners?"
Eddie smiled, then accepted the offered hand much more warmly than he had earlier and shook on it. "Partners."
"Excellent." Standing, Manny stretched out some of his joints before asking, "Now, are you hungry? Rumor is, the cafeteria is doing chinese today."
"Ooooooo really? Yeah, I could eat."
Scooping up Clementine, Eddie joined Manny as he started to move toward the hallway. Falling into step, they made short work of leaving the lounge, but out in the hall Manny paused for just a moment. He could have sworn he'd felt eyes on the back of his neck, like someone was out there watching him.
Looking around though, he couldn't see anything out of place. Dismissing it, he proceeded to get back on track.
Had he looked further than what the eye could see however, he would have noticed Sasha and Milla hiding behind a veil of invisibility. Once Eddie and Manny had entered the hall Milla had had to bury her bright grin in Sasha's shoulder, otherwise her pure delight would have given them away for sure.
Sasha had been right. They'd needed to work things out for themselves; no amount of polite conversation would have brought them to an understanding while their mentors were still in the room.
Turning to actually head to their administrative meeting, she couldn't help but hover a little as the thought of watching their friends move forward with a friendship of their own lifted her off the floor.