It's Brittany, Bitch | Ερις (eristic) wrote in paxletalelogs, @ 2017-04-05 20:14:00 |
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Entry tags: | ares, eris, uke mochi |
only in dreams
Who: Alice, BB, & Daniel (thank god Alice is in there bc we know what the other two will get up to)
What: Discussing weird events going on in Pax. PLOT PROGRESSION!
Where: Daniel's apartment.
When: Following this weird dream and this middle of the night wake up call, plus this weird event.
"No, skittles, it was rude," BB contended as they came out of the stairwell; they were headed toward the far end of the second floor, BB leading the pair toward Daniel's apartment. "Just because I asked for a second bottle of sriracha sauce doesn't mean he needed to give me that look."
The two were just coming back from lunch, following Alice's impromptu wake up call of BB. That, combined with the weird objects at the beginning of the month, were giving them more than enough to discuss, though BB cautioned Alice to do so only in more private quarters. They were in Hollywood, though, so it wasn't as if people wouldn't believe they were talking about some new movie or show or game, but BB was hesitant to discuss the strange goings-on inside Pax outside of the same building.
"The one we had at our table was empty; squeezing out two drops does not count as sauce." She strode by her apartment and banged on Daniel's door, then turned back to Alice as though there were nothing strange about what she'd done.
“Britt, you just didn’t have to be so rude to him. The poor guy has a shitty enough job as it is,” Alice said with a sigh. She shifted the strap of her bag on her shoulder, gently, as if worried that bumping her bag around would cause damage of the interior. The thing about that, she was worried about damaging something--the strand of wheat she kept inside it. The only proof she really had about the dreams. “You should have at least given him a better tip.”
She frowned at the door they stood before and shifted on her converse-clad feet. “You told your friend we’re stopping in, right?”
The door opened to reveal a man who clearly had not been expecting company. He was still dressed for work, his grey button-up and black tie neat as a pin. Far behind him, on the coffee table, a laptop cast its blue glow into the otherwise dim living room. His only concession to being at home appeared to be his bare feet and the thumping bass pouring from some hidden surround sound system. He blinked at the women standing on his doorstep, but the appearance of one of them seemed explanation enough.
"BB," he said, smirking. He tipped his chin upward, nodding to Alice. "BB's friend. What's up?"
"Alice, this is the douche bag pounding some guy after St. Patrick's Day when we were trying to sleep. Douche bag pounding some guy after St. Patrick's Day when we were trying to sleep, this is Alice. You were the one screaming, right?" The response held only the slightest tinge of jealousy that she couldn't have made the event into a contest with the redheaded girl standing next to her, but she barrelled on regardless, and in spite of his attempts to interrupt. "We need to talk. About the stuff. You know. The things," BB continued, her attempts at being covert essentially making her confusing. She dropped her voice to a whisper, though it was still loud enough to overcome the music and thus making it a near shout inside the space of the hallway.
"We've got something to show you. About the things we found? In the lobby?"
“We can come back at another time,” Alice said quickly, looking at the man, her eyes large and sorrowful. Her cheeks had grown a touch pink, partially at the brashness of her friend, and partially because she remembered--despite her horrible drunken state--the screaming from the other apartment that night. “But Brittany said that you had, um, some weird dreams… like us…”
Daniel sighed, rolling his eyes as he pulled the door wide. "Well since y'all asked so nicely," he said, "I guess come on in." He left the door standing open, retreating into the living room. A click of a controller silenced the rumbling music. He flipped a light on as he strode back to the little foyer, passing the girls on his way into the kitchen.
"This sounds like a beer conversation," he said. Bottles clinked merrily with the opening of the refrigerator door. "Or should I just skip to the hard stuff?"
"Hard stuff," BB agreed, moving comfortably within the familiar space of his apartment. She scraped a kitchen chair back, taking a seat and motioning for Alice to join them.
"So. Presents. At the beginning of this week. Show of hands for people who don't believe that they're not connected to that fucking room in the lobby?"
“The room where you found the dog collar?” Alice asked quietly, clutching her bag to her lap as she took a seat beside BB. “I mean, it’s an odd gift but all I got was a silly cookbook. It was probably a weird joke. I don’t think that is necessarily weird. The other stuff though…”
He returned in short order, three highball glasses in his hand, two fingers of bourbon in each. He set two down in front of his guests. He took a seat across from them, swirling the liquor in his glass. "What's silly about a cookbook?" he asked. "I'd be happy to get that instead of the bullshit I ended up with." He glanced to BB, narrowing his eyes with mock suspicion. He could guess the answer before he even asked the question. "You really didn't send this shit? Any of it?"
"OK, most of me knew that was coming, but a) I don't make fucking enough to shower everyone in the building with presents, and b) I have better fucking things to do with my time, and c) I'm only slightly disappointed that you think so little of me, Daniel fucking Ciin," BB replied, wrapping a hand around one of the proffered glasses. "I got a DVD, Shark Night? It's got some ketchup or something on it, smells fucking awful."
"Weird," Daniel allowed.
Alice gave a small shrug. “My cookbook was geared toward lesbians, which I’m not, so that was the only odd thing about my gift.” She looked at Daniel as she reached for her drink and held the glass gently in her hands. Looking at him thoughtfully, she dared to ask. “But what did you get?
Daniel cleared his throat after a lengthy, bracing sip of bourbon. Rather than answer, he rose from his seat, returning to the kitchen. The sound of a drawer opening and closing preceded his return; then he tossed a silver shield onto the table. The banner atop it read SWAT; beneath the embossed skyline, LOS ANGELES POLICE. Below that, where the badge number should have been, there was only a thick black band.
Brittany's hand came out to stop the object's slide before she'd fully realized what she was touching. Her stomach twisted at the sight of the badge wrapped in black; a thing she'd seen in passing when her father's fellow officers fell in the line of duty, a thing that had gratefully happened few and far between when she was younger. She didn't shy away from the badge; she could feel its heft, its weight, knew that it was real.
"Shit," she offered, putting the badge down in the center of the table and taking a quick sip of the bourbon. The burn down her throat offered a semi-pleasant distraction. "That's way more fucked up than a DVD or a cook book." She leaned back in her chair, putting distance between herself and the badge, looking to both Alice and Daniel. "So there's no apparent rhyme or reason to what we got. I mean, Shark Night, erotic lesbian food, and...that," she continued, waving a hand vaguely at the badge in the middle of the table. "Did you guys see if anyone else in the building got anything?"
Putting her glass on the table, Alice reached for the badge and lifted it gently. She held it gently with her right hand, her left index finger moving over the badge number. She frowned and placed the badge back on the table. “I wonder what happened to the badge owner…”
Shifting in the seat, she hugged herself and sighed. “Well, I live alone on my floor so there weren’t any other gifts there but mine.”
"I think everybody got somethin'," he said. "My buddy Faisal is one floor up, and he got a book. A journal, I guess. He says he's not gonna write in it cos it might be the Chamber of Secrets thing." He chuckled against the rim of his glass, grateful for something to take the focus off what lay on the table between them. "Not sure about anybody else, though. If they did stuff they're not talkin' about in on the forum, at least not where I can see."
Daniel shook his head, his gaze returning to BB. "I bet you're right, though. This shit's too random to come from just anywhere, or anybody. It fits the weird shit we saw in that room. Maybe it's time to talk to Stephan. Not that I think he'll give anything up, but I don't know any other option. Do you?"
BB mimicked Daniel's shake, then followed it with a shrug. "Nope. I mean, I've still got the keys," she offered, then quickly backtracked. "But talking to Stephan sounds like a good plan of attack, initially. I'll see if there's anything else I could dig up about the building, but I mean, a murder and weird shit going on before sounds like more than enough to go off of. If we could somehow work the weird room in the lobby in there without him knowing we've been in it, that'd be a big help too."
“But what about the dreams?” Alice blurted out, a hand settling on her purse. She looked at Brit, then settled her gaze on Daniel. “Brittany said you both shared a dream, she told me about the closet, too. Now Brittany and I shared a dream. All during this week, right after we got the gifts, too. But my dream…” Her voice drifted off and she frowned, glancing at Brittany to see if her friend felt it was alright to talk about the wheat. To even show it.
Daniel's brow furrowed, his gaze darting between the two women and the purse, Alice's hand still wrapped on it. He latched quickly onto the new subject, hoping to divert them further from the admission concerning the keys. "What about it?" he asked. "I mean… that they're shared dreams is weird enough, and I've had 'em here, too. More than one, and all of 'em very…" He cleared his throat, a turn of his wrist swirling bourbon in his glass. "Vivid. So what happened with yours? Or do I even wanna ask."
BB's eyes narrowed, knowing what Daniel was implying. She decided this was not the arena to throw down and attempt to squeeze more details out of him.
"I was that chick again. Eris? And man, if you thought our dream was weird, this one was... I mean, I don't even fucking know what I was. Kept changing all these shapes and moving and ... being weird. We were at a party," she added, glancing at Alice. "Well, maybe more like after the party. The room was completely trashed. I think I said, or the thing that was me said it was a wedding?" Her brows drew together as her mind attempted to regurgitate details.
“But we weren’t invited to it,” Alice added, nodding at Brittany and then turning to Daniel. “We both weren’t invited to the party. Except I wasn’t supposed to be there. Or at least, the person I was. Uke Mochi, whoever that is. I was confused and I didn’t understand how I got there. But I wasn’t like Brit, I wasn’t changing shapes or anything.”
She paused and frowned, shifting uncomfortably in her chair. “Well, not exactly. I changed too. But different from Britt. I was a wheat woman and I could fall apart and come together and when I woke up…” She bit down on her lip, struggling to be out with it as her hands fidgeted with her purse zipper and her fingers found their way inside. “Britt said this didn’t happen to her, but when I woke up I had this growing out of my head.”
She placed the strand of wheat gently onto the table between the three of them. Daniel sat back in his chair, openly staring at the stalk.
"Growing," he repeated. "Growing, out of your head. I mean. Okay." His hands curled around his glass. He leaned forward again, elbows resting atop the table. "Yeah, this definitely hasn't happened to me, but what I dream about doesn't involve produce, either." He couldn't help a small, wry laugh. "This is gonna sound dumb, but frankly all of this does, so whatever. Did it hurt when you pulled it out? Like… was it actually growing from your scalp or could somebody have been playing a prank? Like they taped or glued it or something?"
Alice shook her head, her cheeks pink and her eyes cast down. “It hurt when I pulled it out. It wasn’t taped or glued or anything, plus I was locked up inside my apartment, the chain was even on the door. I moved my hair and found it, pulled on it, and it felt like pulling a bunch of hair from my head. Look at the end, it even seems like it has a root, just like hair would.” She nodded toward the strand of wheat but obviously had no interest in picking it up and offering it to Daniel. She’d keep the thing safe until they knew what it meant, but it otherwise was similar to a haunted item. At the very least, it seemed to be haunting her.
BB plucked up the wheat, unafraid, and examined the end. It did look like it had a follicle, which made it even weirder. She shivered demonstrably, and put the thing back down in front of Alice.
"OK, so, kids, what've we learned? Some sick fuck is still spreading these things out -- who knows, maybe our gifts came from that storage locker they've got in the lobby?" She looked to Alice. "And they did something to you to make you think that stuff was growing out of your head. I mean... I know we're in Hollywood but Jesus. This is some grade A abduction and mind manipulation stuff, right?" She glanced at Daniel. "So when and how are we doing this? Grilling Stephan? Believe me, I wanna go back in that vault thing they've got, but I think talking to him first is something we have to at least try."
"Yeah, I agree," Daniel said. "Call it a show of good faith. Now if he doesn't answer us or we feel like he's bullshitting, I'm all for goin' back in that room. Like immediately. This has gotten way outta hand." He drummed his fingers atop the kitchen table, finishing off the rest of his bourbon in a single go. His tongue flicked out, tracing his lips. "Okay. I say me an' Alice go talk to him. BB, you can hang out close enough to hear us. Record it if you wanna. Might be helpful. Then if he's full of shit or just walks off, we get back in that room. Okay?"
BB nodded. "Yeah, that sounds good." She glanced at Alice. "You cool with that, skittles?"
Alice was lost to her own thoughts at first. She didn’t believe that anyone had done anything to make her think the wheat grew from her head. She knew what she had seen, she knew what she had felt, but hearing Britt’s nickname for her drew her back to the conversation, all of it processing in her mind, and her red eyebrows rose. “Wait a minute,” She looked between her friend and Daniel. “Back in the vault? And where did you get these keys you keep talking about?”
She looked at Daniel, as if silently blaming him for getting Brittany involved, although both knew Brittany was never exactly innocent. “Although…” she frowned, “I do think it’s worth asking Stephan what he knows…”
"Good." Daniel set his glass down with an unnecessary flourish, eager to get off the uncomfortable subject of the stolen keys. "So when do y'all wanna do this? I've got a couple more things I need to finish up here, but if you're adamant we do this now… you've got me curious enough. I'd just need to change first." He glanced down his shirt front, fussing with his tie once more. "Unless you think this would help with the distraction…"
BB nodded gravely, looking over Daniel's appearance, though a smirk tugged at the edge of her mouth. "Oh c'mon, Danny, don't be coy. You know Stephan's a sucker for a guy in a suit. I just hope your boyfriend doesn't come around the corner and get mad at you for flirting with the help." She blinked. "Wow, I can't believe that seriously just came out of my mouth." Knocking back what remained of her bourbon, she rose from her chair. "Lemme go next door and get my tape recorder. We'll see what we can get out of him."
Daniel smirked, but made no further comment as he rose from the table. Small sounds followed him, marking his location throughout the apartment. He returned with socks and shoes, his hair freshly, rakishly tousled, and loosened his tie with one hooked index finger.
"All right," he said. "Let's do this."
He led them out of the apartment, locking it behind him with a pointed look at BB, the keeper of illicit keys, as she returned from her own apartment. While BB took the stairs Daniel and Alice moved to the elevator, riding down together in relative silence as they each formed their plan. Daniel took the lead when the elevator doors opened, striding over to the concierge desk with a swagger and a small, flirtatious smile; BB ducked out of sight into the mailroom, turning on her recording device and keeping her breathing shallow as she hoped it'd be enough to catch every stray sliver of unknown interrogation.
"Mr. Waters," he said. "Got a minute?"
Alice quickly moved to keep up with the taller man, trying her best to appear calm and totally together. This wasn’t the first time she suddenly was involved in some active plan that Brittany had a part in. She knew her strengths--being polite--and she knew her weaknesses--don’t say anything outside of being polite because your nervous energy will give the plan away.
So she smiled sweetly to Stephan and kept close to Daniel. “We’re sorry if we’re bothering you.”
The concierge was dressed impeccably in a white button up shirt, a red plaid sweater tied around his neck; large, gold hoop earrings dangled from each lobe, his eye makeup set to match every other part of his outfit. One perfectly penciled brow arched at the Pax residents' appearance, though his thin lips worked their way easily into a smile that looked only a touch judgemental.
Laying down the HGtv magazine he'd been perusing, he shook his head to dismiss Alice's voiced concerns. "It's my job to be bothered, Ms. Kennedy, so think nothing of it. How can I be of service?"
Daniel's brow quirked in a suggestive arch, but he bit back the least subtle portions of his flirtation. He rested his elbows atop the counter and leaned over, nearly -- but not quite -- into Stephan's space. "We wanted to know who to thank for the gifts we got the other day," he said. "Well, Alice did. Her cookbook has some delicious recipes in it. Good pictures, too, didn't you say?" He flashed his friend an impish grin, glancing quickly back to Stephan. "So was that like a you thing, or a management thing, or…?"
Alice’s eyes widened, her back becoming very straight. “It… it was just… suggestive of, uh… my sexual preference and it… uh… got it wrong…?” She looked at Daniel, not at all sure what their actual plan was anymore, but latched onto the incorrect gift she had and decided to roll with it. “And Daniel, he got a gift that I’m not even sure if it’s legal.”
"Oh?" Stephan crossed his arms, leaning on the desk even further as though drawn merely by his own curiosity. "What did you get, Mr. Ciin, if it's not impolite to ask? I'm afraid I had little hand in the whole affair, to answer your earlier question. Management will do what management will do, you know. Mine is but to do and die, though hopefully nothing quite as dramatic." He chuckled, clearly not at all uneasy with their questions nor with Alice's apparent anxiety.
Alice’s smile faded and her brow knit together. Taking in a deep breath, she didn’t say anything, but looked to Daniel. With the toe of her shoe, she nudged at his foot, willing him to reveal the object.
"Dramatic is a good word to use," he said. "I got a dead officer's badge. LAPD. Kinda in poor taste, you know? But I'd like to get it back to its owner's family, is why I ask. I'm sure they'll want it back." He drifted forward, matching Stephan's motion; the two were close enough Daniel might have touched him. He lowered his voice. "I'd rather not get anybody in trouble for havin' this. Including me. So can you just tell me if it belongs -- belonged -- to anybody here?"
Stephan's shoulders rose and fell in a languid motion, and he rose to put either palm on the desk's lip, as though distancing himself from potentially offensive content. "You know I'm not allowed to give out personal information, Mr. Ciin, no matter how attractive the person asking might be." Daniel arched a brow, full lips pursed in a pout. "I do think there used to be a police officer on the tenant list prior to the building's re-opening, but I really couldn't say if there's one here now."
“But what about a person who no longer lives here?” Alice jumped in. She stepped closer to the table, looking at Stephan with big eyes. “If this was a badge owned by someone who lived here before the building’s re-opening, then they weren’t any of your tenants, right? And if he’s gone, the officer, there really isn’t anything to keep hidden. I think the officer’s family deserves to have the badge back. It’s wrong to keep it.”
Stephan looked affronted. "I don't disagree with you, Ms. Kennedy, but, as you yourself so rightly stated, this person, he or she, is not one of my tenants. And regardless, I know nothing of this badge, or your...lesbian? Cookbook. Are you sure you simply didn't misread Lebanese?"
"She didn't," Daniel said. "And she's right. If the tenant wasn't yours, surely you can give us a little information. You gotta admit this is really weird and really unsettling. After all the fucked up shit that's gone on here, don't you think we deserve one answer?"
The concierge sighed, clearly unhappy to be caught between his own words. Long-nailed fingers tapped on the countertop, his head falling and then rising with some semblance of pride.
"There was a man who lived here previously, Samuel Wolfe. He was a police officer, or is, or..." He shrugged again. "Truth be told, I've no idea what became of him or anyone else who used to live here. Or how it might be a connection to your gifts, though I am... deeply sorry for any discomfort those may have caused. I'm certain that management only had the best at heart, and perhaps there was a mix up somewhere along the line?"
Daniel scoffed. "I really, really doubt that," he said. "But I'll let you have that one since you've been so helpful otherwise. I gotta ask, though. Is this a… I dunno, normal kinda thing for management to do?"
"Seeing as the building's only been open for less than three months, and my length of employment matches that time frame, I really couldn't say," Stephan said, bringing his arms up to cross over his chest, the sleeves of his sweater tucked in between the space. "Is that all, or do you have more questions that I really can't answer? I'm about to go on my lunch break..."
Alice touched Daniel’s shoulder gently. “We should let Stephan get his lunch, Daniel,” she said calmly, trying to defuse the situation. It wasn’t overly dramatic, but she didn’t want to see what heights it could achieve. “We got the man’s name who used to live here, we can go do research about him on our own and see what we can find. And we can always come back with more questions.” The final sentence was meant for both Daniel and Stephan, but Alice found herself making a pointed look at Stephan specifically. Those perfectly penciled brows rose, clearly ready for the challenge she was proposing.
Daniel rapped his knuckles against the countertop. He drew a long, deep breath, exhaling slowly. He was far from satisfied, but it was clear that was all Stephan was willing to give either of them. In truth, the name alone was more than Daniel had expected to get. So he quirked a smile, small but sincere, and nodded his thanks to the concierge.
"All right, then," he said. "We won't keep you. Not like we don't know where to find you if we need anything, right?" He gave Stephan a playful wink, then turned to go.
“Bye, Stephan,” Alice said softly and even a little shyly. She raised a hand before turning as well, walking quickly to keep up with Daniel’s long legs.
The two headed over to the mailbox area, where BB was quickly hiding her recorder. She edged out into the frame that led into the lobby proper, and then, in an overly loud voice, made a show as though she had just run into Daniel and Alice there without any other motive.
"Hey guys, funny seeing you here! You guys wanna get something to eat? Some lunch? I was totally just checking my mail but I'm on my way out, if you guys are, too..."
Stephan had pulled his magazine back toward him, and was idly flipping through it when BB's little attempted excuse rolled out; he stabbed an arched brow in their direction, one hand set to prop up his face, but otherwise made no comment.
Daniel's eyes went subtly wide; his lips pursed, faintly turned down at the corners. He could feel Stephan's judgment radiating from behind them. With no real recourse, Daniel tried to play along while coaxing her out and away from the overly observant concierge.
"Headed upstairs," Daniel said. "Just had a quick errand and now I'm back to work. I mean I'll go for lunch if you're buyin'..."
“Yeah… lunch would be nice,” Alice replied and then frowned, realizing her voice was barely above a whisper. She wasn’t helping much anymore. “Let’s all go. It’s too nice to be cooped up indoors.”
"Awesome," BB said, a touch too loudly. The tape recorder tucked into her back pocket, she ushered her two co-conspirators out the front door, doing her minimal best to not glance back over her shoulder at Stephan's increasingly suspicious gaze more than twice. Then they were gone, outside, taking with them their questions and whatever few answers they had found.