Lets Talk About Family

Frederick was tired, and he no doubt looked it. Despite putting the usual amount of care into his appearance as he always did, there were bags under his eyes and a general air of exhaustion around him. He was very, very tired.

He'd picked a booth in the corner of the restaurant, asked for waters for both of them, and then settled into wait. He'd arranged the whole thing with Phoenix, and he felt at least a grain of hope that talking with someone from the island--someone with an outside perspective--might be able to give him the kick he needed.

How long before he ended up dead, anyway?

Truth be told, Frederick had mostly written her off by the time Phoenix actually arrived. He was used to a certain level of punctuality, and twenty five minutes late was not it. But it wasn't as if he had anywhere better to be. He had no classes that day, his classwork was done, and he had no job to speak of. The citizens of Halcyon City were being scattered, spreading out and settling in, and that meant there was less for him to do as far as volunteer work went.

He was starting to run on empty.

So he stuck around, ordering some food, and was pleasantly surprised to spot Phoenix gliding in, sliding into the booth before he could even offer his hand.

"Oh, it's good to see you. I was wondering if you were delayed," he said. "My sleep's been fine, but I'm afraid I got some unfortunate news which complicates matters... quite a bit."

To say the least. It complicated matters and then some.

"Someone made the comment that I must have an equivalent on this world, and someone else mentioned he used to live here. Since he was a resident, I looked him up and found he'd moved to London. Obviously I couldn't contact him, but I never got the chance anyway. As it turns out, he was murdered a few months ago."

Frederick hadn't even mentioned the real crux of the issue, but it was obvious she was uncomfortable just the same.

"No," he said with a shake of his head. "Unfortunately, I can't believe it was a coincidence. The timing of the murderer, combined with other factors that they reported on in the reports I read make it very unlikely that the murder was an accident."

He couldn't believe that. It was like someone tripping an accidentally spelling out I'm going to kill you with the splash. It just didn't happen.

"I'm surprised to hear you say something like 'people can be pretty evil'," Frederick confessed. "I expected you to be more of the optimistic type."

That was surprising, but it let the conversation be, at the very least, slightly less grim.

"It's important to focus on the positives as much as possible," he agreed, "but also to recognize that people are capable of truly awful things. I saw a lot of that, in my job, and it was always important to focus on the positives. It's too easy to get caught up in the negatives."

But even as he said it, his expression was still dark, and after a moment, he shook his head.

"At the very least I don't think there would be blowback on someone I was socializing with. Otherwise I'd have cancelled the meeting entirely."

His son's point of view... a part of Frederick doubted it was even possible. How could it be? His son...

Without even meaning it, he'd started frowning, and he shook his head briefly.

"I thought I understood his points, once upon a time. I disagreed, but I thought I understood. He said he wanted no part in the family business. No part in any of the hero or villain stuff. But then he left, and..."

He let out a sigh.

"And then he ran off and became a villain. Worked for some of the worst of the worst."