When Evan had called Joseph, telling him the weirdest thing had happened, Joseph initially hadn't been fazed. He'd been in the middle of playing Madden, one of the only ways he could really play sports, and was half paying attention, "Yeah, Joe, she was just bizarre. The whole thing was weird." Joseph nodded his head, then realized Evan couldn't see him, glancing down at the phone on speaker, "Oh, weird." There was silence for a moment, Evan able to hear the sounds of the game in the background, "Dude, are you playing Madden while talking to me? Actually, are you playing Madden period?" Joseph groaned audibly, finally pausing the game and picking up the phone, walking into his kitchen, "Jesus, you're worse than my mother. Listen, just come over and have a beer with me or something. It's fine." Evan rubbed his face, thinking for a second and then sighing, "Yeah, sure. Can't stay late, I have to head in early and grab that chick's computer before the boss finds out I left without taking it."

The commute had been short with traffic having died, Evan finding himself holding one of the cheap beers Joseph had become accustomed to consuming. He forced himself to drink it, never having had an affinity for alcohol, sitting on the couch adjacent to Joseph who had put on Sports Center in the background. Evan looked at the blue bottle, "I found her on the floor, passed out. But I swear to god, man, she got electrocuted. She didn't ever say it out loud, but I know that's what happened." He took another long drink, Joseph turning from the television and eyeing the scores idly to looking directly at him.

For a moment, Joseph was reminded of the conversation Elijah had with his father and how skeptical his dad had been. He remembered being told to throw out the water, though shook it off, "Who cares if she got shocked, then? She's fine, right?" Joe tossed back the last of his beer, standing and walking to the kitchen to grab another from the aging fridge as Evan spoke, "Right, that's just it. If she got shocked, she should have had a burn mark and she should have fried. She would have stayed unconscious. I mean, Jesus, Joe, she shouldn't even be alive, the thing was connected to the power cord still!"

That was about the time Joseph sat back down, staring at Evan with a look of puzzlement and concern. At least, that's how Evan interpreted it. He glanced up at his friend and leaned back, putting the beer down, "Don't act like I'm an alien, OK? I just thought it was weird. I didn't know who else to tell." Joseph was leaning forward, his mouth agape as he tried not to stare at Evan, looking back towards the television. He could see the Eagles on TV, practicing, footage of how they were doing being played, but he wasn't actually watching it.

No. There was no way that could actually be the case, not two of them, right? Joseph tried to act more casual, "Well did you see any burns?" Evan, thinking his friend was finally believing him rather than staring with his mouth agape, responded, "No. I mean, she had this gnarly scar on her other hand, but that didn't look like it was from the computer. I guess she breaks a lot of stuff pretty often. The guys were talking about her as the 'Tech Killer' or some stupid shit. Probably just thought she could fix it herself."

What was it Elijah had said, exactly? That comics were a way of telling a story? What if there were more stories than just his father's? It sounded like she got hurt, and given she was unconscious, he was skeptical. He'd never seen anything like it or heard anything like it in his life, and his father had been the only one he knew. Joe took a drink of the beer and put it down, leaning back on the couch, "That's pretty weird. Maybe she just lucked out or something. Sounds like she isn't worried." But Joe was. Joseph Dunn was concerned, and not just because something was eating at Evan, but because he had seen what happened with his father. His entire world had changed and he had discovered who Elijah was, and it had eaten at him. He remembered years later, when he was about fifteen, his father had admitted one night how terrible he felt, seeing all sorts of things that had happened, that he couldn't fix, that he could never stop. It was a matter of finding out what you could control.

Evan stared at the beer, as if there was a message inside to decipher, "Yeah. Maybe. It's just… she told me she felt it. She said she felt the shock, but it didn't hurt." Evan had never been a believer in much, never gone to church or avoided black cats and broken mirrors, but this had shaken him. The worst part was that he had no idea why he was so upset about the situation, but that was why he had spoken to Joseph. He had decided that if Joseph could calm him down, the man convinced that everything was possible, he was probably just over-exaggerating it. And indeed, it seemed he was.

That was when Joe grinned, "She was cute, wasn't she?" Evan smirked over, taking a sip of the beer, "Yeah, definitely my type. Tall, curvy, gorgeous blonde hair." Joseph laughed as he put the beer on the table, "You're just harping on this 'cause she's hot. Ever thought of just asking her out rather than making up this fantasy about her?" Evan felt himself flush, leaning back with his hands behind his head, "I dunno, dude. I kinda like the idea of her just existing in my head. Can't say no if I don't ask, right?" Joe laughed, picking up his beverage and taking a long swig before putting it back down, wiping the condensation off his hands, "Just ask. Tell her you want to just see how she's doing. I don't know, make some shit up." Truthfully, Joseph was curious. He wanted more information but had no way of digging, besides the internet, and Evan seemed eager to get to know her. Joe felt bad for manipulating his friend, but maybe something would come of it.

By the end of the evening, Evan had reluctantly agreed to ask out the young woman by the end of the next day, given it was Thursday. He'd have a perfectly valid excuse for seeing her, which was that he had her computer, after all, though from what he understood there probably wasn't much he could learn about her if he went through it. Even going through her browser history would feel invasive, and the very thought of doing it made him sick. He wanted to get to know her on the basis of who she was, even if who she was, was weird and awkward. Something about what had happened made Evan drawn to her.

Evan had never really been one to make any kind of 'moves' in his time on the planet, mostly just relying on occasionally being introduced to a friend of a friend. It wasn't that he was unattractive, but mostly he'd found that when someone spent a majority of their life focused on computers, social interactions in reality were sometimes harder. He was happy to stay in and play on his Xbox or his PlayStation, or even tinker around with his PC. Instead, Joseph was doing his civic duty and pushing Evan outside his box. Joe had no idea whether or not it would end well, but he felt a desperate need to know more. Even as Evan left to go back to his apartment, Joseph found himself opening Google, having gotten her name out of Evan.

He glanced sideways, the clock displaying "11:26" in green, realizing he should get to bed if he was to get to work. He did more hands-on mechanical work and had been called in to start a new project at the car dealership he worked at, helping at headquarters. Regardless, he typed "Calliope McCullough" into the search bar, deciding her name was unique enough he couldn't really go wrong. However, the only things he found were a LinkedIn profile (that looked drastically outdated), and a few articles about her musical talents. She had apparently performed in an orchestra during her high school days, and even into college, but had never pursued it further. There were a few pictures of her, and immediately Joseph noticed the appeal. She wasn't stunning in the way one would imagine, but there was a picture he saw on an article a few years old, with the woman playing the violin, that gave him pause.

There was a sort of beauty to seeing a human doing something they loved, seeing the passion resonating within them that was rarely captured on film. Ignoring the thought, he continued, getting irritated with the fact that there wasn't really anything on her of substance. Hell, she didn't even have a Facebook page. She was truly not a presence online, no outstanding articles stating "one lone survivor" like his own father had. Instead, she was incredibly ordinary, or at least appeared that way. Being invulnerable seemed not to be a thing with her, as the scar on her hand expressed, though maybe there were other things. That was where Evan came in. He couldn't help but feel guilty for manipulating a friend, wondering if maybe all those years around his father had jaded him. It was certainly one of the reasons he drank so heavily, and certainly one of the reasons he had become so pained. The moment as a child when he had been beaten for helping a girl in his class had cemented a piece of himself as truth: he was not special. Joseph was not a unique snowflake, no matter how hard he tried. True, he was proud of his father and felt joy for the work he did, but he also resented it to some degree. He was never a part of it. Never involved.

Rubbing his eyes, he finished another beer, staring down at the bottle as he felt the grogginess brought on by the alcohol consumption. It was late, and he knew he needed to be awake. Evan would probably have more information in the morning, and he decided if not, he would let it go. The last thing Joe wanted in his life was to become another Elijah, desperately seeking someone on the spectrum, going to lengths that cost others their lives. He shrugged off the thought as he often did with anything painful, flicking off the monitor and making his way to the large bed nearby, collapsing onto it. He haphazardly set an alarm, flicking on the green numbers, sighing a bit as he allowed sleep to take him over.