Chivalry is stupid (chivalrysstupid) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2017-04-27 07:58:00 |
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Entry tags: | !closed, !completed gdoc, !log, [plot] barbarian!methos, ~2017 april, ~25 points, ~~methos (chivalrysstupid), ~~~~ sara lance (thecanary) |
Who: Death (Methos) and Sara Lance
What: Making friends and influencing people
When: Morning
Where: The alley behind Verdant
Warnings: Violence
Status: Complete Gdoc
Methos had left the area of where he’d awakened quickly to put distance between himself and the other immortal. Everything where he was seemed to be fueled by magic and confused him but at the same time his brain wouldn’t shut off from observing things so he noticed he was the only one wearing an obvious weapon as he walked down the streets. That was remedied by snatching a long shirt that someone had been using against the morning chill at a coffee shop while they weren’t looking. The end of the scabbard still showed out the bottom but no one seemed to care about that. And they couldn’t see the long knife stuck through his belt anymore.
Things were too noisy, too hard to avoid, so Methos cut down an alley to the quieter space between the buildings. This seemed more familiar. Cramped and smelly like any attempt at a city in his time. More comfortable now he moved through the alley on silent feet trying to plan for how he was going to survive and thrive in this strange place.
He had just decided he was going to need a captive to help him figure all of this out when one of the metal doors of the alley swung wide and someone came out.
***
Sara wasn’t normally at the club this early, but last night was busier than usual and she hadn’t felt like cleaning up before she left. After a few hours of sleep, she was awake again and figured that she may as well get things done before it got any later, so she headed in and loaded up the dishwasher. While that was running, she started hauling trash out to the dumpsters behind the club.
It startled her to see someone standing in the alley when she stepped through the door. “Oh, hey, what’s up?” she asked, recognizing Methos and wondering if something was wrong.
***
Methos would really like to understand the language. It would make thing immensely easier to deal with. She seemed friendly though, welcoming, it seemed to be a trait in this place since no one had challenged him on the street yet. But he had no idea what she said other than it being an inquiry from the tone.
So Methos smiled. He could be charming as hell when he wasn’t trying to gut you and he was going to need to rely on that now. ”I don’t understand you. And I doubt you understand me.” He shrugged after speaking as if to say he couldn’t do anything about being understood.
***
In her travels with the League, Sara had been exposed to a number of languages, but she definitely didn’t recognize the one that was being spoken right now. Maybe this wasn’t Methos and she was dealing with a new arrival. It was going to make things a lot more difficult with the language barrier, but she still smiled.
“You must be new here,” she said, pointing at him and then gesturing around to indicate the town in general. There was no way this guy was going to understand smart phones, but maybe there was an app that would let her identify what language he was speaking.
She pulled her phone out and fiddled with it for a moment. “Sara,” she said, touching her chest. “You?” she asked, pointing at him.
***
The phone was curious. He’d seen so many people walking around staring at the little boxes it had been amazing how easy of a target they would all be. Soft handed and never using a weapon they weren’t even watching where they walked!
The pantomime was easy enough to figure out. She wanted to know his name. So Methos touched his own chest lightly with a smile. “Methos.” After all the immortal already knew that name so he might as well own it. And look, they were being friendly so he walked closer to her. ”This would be easier if you could understand me. But I’ll play along.” The language was Akkadian, also mixed with Sumerian and it wasn’t a living language.
***
Okay, so he was Methos, but obviously didn’t understand English. She held up her phone when he came closer, hoping that the translation app she opened would be able to help bridge the communication gap. Unfortunately, the app seemed just as clueless about what language he was speaking as Sara was. A few of the words sounded almost familiar, but she couldn’t pinpoint where she might have heard them.
“You want to come inside?” she asked, gesturing to the back door of the club. Maybe she could put out a call on the network for someone who would be able to identify the language or communicate better with him.
***
It would be easier to subdue her out here. Inside was possibly more out of sight but she would know the layout and the things you could use to defend yourself. But it was possible she would turn her back on him if she thought he would follow her into the doorway.
So he smiled again and copied her gesture at the door but hung back to let her enter first. If she turned her back he would make his move.
***
Life in Madison Valley rarely called for the kind of situational awareness that Sara was well trained for and she didn’t sense any reason not to trust Methos, so she put the bag of trash in the dumpster and then turned her back to him to open the door so they could go back inside the club and maybe figure out how to communicate better.
***
This place really did make it all too easy. As soon as she turned her back Methos stepped up to grab her by the neck and knock her head against the doorframe to incapacitate her and caught her before she fell to the ground. He would need to restrain her and find a place to go to ground until he could figure out what he planned to do next.
He thought for a moment about taking that strange thing she’d been using but ended up kicking it under a dumpster instead. Using a weapon you didn’t understand could get you killed. He would follow those rules for everything here.
Sara was hefted in his arms to continue down the alley so he could find an empty space to use temporarily while he was looking for one that was more secure.