vivi e lascia vivere

Everest

Everest had a sliding scale by which he judged how concerned he ought to be about Mateo's sporadic absences. It was something he'd developed when they were both children, but which had grown more and more nuanced as they aged and as the botanist's inclinations grew more and more diverse. Previously, the aviator would panic if Mateo was even a minute late for lunch, and despite his friend reassuring him that he could be late for things without the world falling apart, Ever had taken it upon himself to develop principled ways of deciding when he was allowed to act on his rising panic.

Currently, the scale was set to a 5, which was colour coded as purple stripes with horizontal orange zigzags. This would mean nothing to anyone except for Everest, who, after having cross-checked several appendices, decided that yes, he was now allowed to panic.

Deciding to first look in the more dangerous parts of the city was in accord with his notes regarding Mateo's last seen locations. Had the botanist last visited one of the market stalls to get more eyeshadow and lubricant, Ever might have checked Molly's first. However, seeing as his friend's previous outings hadn't been of the sort to suggest that Ever ought to check beds and brothels first, he opted for areas of danger so that even if missing still, he'd know the botanist was somewhere safe.

All of that is to say that Ever was currently searching the underside of the Grotto.

If I told you that you'd do nothing with it
I'd still be that cigarette that you couldn't finish