InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "I cant eat your ghost chups"

parker succeeds by stealing the success of others (inafivepoundbag) wrote in colligo_threads,
@ 2009-06-03 23:14:00

Entry tags:

claude rains, noah bennet, parker

WHO: Parker, Claude Rains, and Noah Bennet
WHAT: Exploring Colligo ~~and accidentally robbing somebody~~.
WHEN: Early evening
WHERE: One of the many shopping districts.
RATING: TBD
STATUS: In Progress

Although Parker had no proof to go on, she was pretty sure that she was one of the few who had actually managed to out-last the knight-shaped guards. Fifteen times being locked up in that cell below the library and they had finally given up. She'd been released, with the PDA, and was although they hadn't spoken she was pretty sure they most definitely didn't want her darkening their doorstep again. Which, to be fair, Parker had zero intention of doing... unless they made her.

So far, they hadn't. She'd gotten her hundred dollars, gotten her room, and had spent most of her time simply observing the comings and goings around her. She hadn't spoken to too many people - which was just fine with her, really - and had come to the quick conclusion that she was the only one out of her team that had made it here so far. That saddened her more than she was really willing to admit so she hadn't thought about it too much. Instead she'd gone about figuring out if there was any way to leave the city that had no escape.

A week or so later, and she had her answer. A resounding (and extremely annoying) no.

Being stuck in a place at all just went against Parker's natural order of things. She was the best thief in the world. She escaped from everything. Yet she was stuck in this place with all of the other captives and, as best she could tell, there was simply no way out.

It was after this realization that Parker had taken to exploring. She'd already gotten a fairly decent layout of the area around the housing complex. Now she was exploring further - to the dreaded shopping district. Not that Parker minded shopping. She enjoyed it well enough. Especially the five-fingered discount kind. But that also meant running a risk of bumping into people who weren't from Colligo. Which meant they had a brain. Which meant they'd want to have a conversation.

And that was something Parker did not enjoy at all.

Still, she wasn't going to let that deter her. There had to be somebody, or something, that offered a few more answers and she was determined to find it. And after the first set of shops hadn't offered much beyond things she didn't want and brain-dead employees, she'd moved on to the next. And the next.

She was well on her third night of exploring the shops, and making her way between a book store and some sort of boutique that she was sure Sophie would just love but ranked up there with torture for her, when she made her first contact with someone who wasn't a townie. Shoulders brushed, enough that she bristled from the touch, and before she knew it Parker was stepping away from the encounter with a PDA that wasn't her own and a small stack of bills that also didn't belong to her.

It was nearly a half of a block before she realized she'd even pocketed the things. By then, all she could do was go still, glance slowly over her shoulder, and begin to frantically search the crowd for whoever she had picked the items from. Normally she wouldn't have done that much. She was a thief. She wasn't supposed to give the things she stole back. But she hadn't meant to steal them and she certainly didn't want to make any enemies this early on in the game. So she continued to search for whoever her accidental victim had been.

Finally spotting someone she was pretty sure didn't fit into the whole 'completely braindead and from here' category, she drew in a breath and approached them with a simple tap on the shoulder from behind.

"Excuse me. I, um, think you dropped these."

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thecompanyman
2009-06-03 11:38 pm UTC (link)

Noah enjoyed the conversations with Claude. Perhaps more than he should have. It was far too easy to fall back into their roles as partners and it hit him somewhere in the vicinity of an organ in the left side of his chest that they could have had this over the past seven years. The truth was he'd missed having Claude as a friend and now, more than ever, he was seeing how that mistake had started him down a path of so very many mistakes. Claire hated him, Peter didn't trust him or Angela, Elle was furious, and Gabriel was so broken that even he regretted what they had done.

It was a testament to his distraction, that he didn't even notice the girl take his money until Claude pointed it out. He looked around, confused, and was more baffled when she came and gave it back. Saying he'd dropped it.

He took the money and the PDA and smirked, because he could feel the weight of his own in his pocket. Turning to where Claude was, because he had an uncanny sense for that, he raised an eyebrow and held out the PDA. "Not mine," he said. "Looks like she got you too." And while he was invisible. The girl was good. He incline his head toward her and smiled. "You're good. I'll give you that. I didn't even notice. And I'm guessing you didn't either, or you wouldn't have brought them back."

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inafivepoundbag
2009-06-03 11:46 pm UTC (link)

See this? This right here was why Parker didn't intentionally speak to people. Everyone said she was insane yet the one personal she accidentally stole from, and whom she'd opted to actually do the right thing and return said stolen items from, was busy speaking to thin air. Yeah. Because that was a ride aboard the normal train.

Glancing past him to where the unseen (and in Parker's case, unknown) Claude still stood, she arched a brow and looked back to the one man who was visible. He had no proof she'd taken anything. He could've dropped it on the ground and she was just being a good Samaritan. They did still have those. Nate was living proof of that.

Yet something about the way he said it, the calmness in his voice, made her realize that she'd pretty much been made. And considering she was actually innocent in this regard, she saw no reason to do something she was downright terrible at and try to lie anymore than she already had.

So with a slight shrug of her shoulders and a small quirk of her lips, she admitted grudgingly, "Never said where you dropped them. I figured my hands could count." As she spoke, said hands slid into the pockets of her jacket in lieu of risking accidentally stealing anything else as she met his gaze unflinchingly.

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disappearingact
2009-06-03 11:55 pm UTC (link)

Well, hell. He and Bennet had been walking pretty close together, but he hadn't even felt so much as a brush past in his case. He was usually very careful with those types of things. Smirking every so slightly as he reached out, plucking the PDA from Bennet's hands and causing it to vanish as solidly as he was, he turned it over, examining carefully before the invisibility flickered out from around him and he came back into view.

"Well, I'll be damned. This is mine," Claude said, something akin to amazement in his voice, a fellow artist appreciating another's work, as he looked up at the blond and grinned that particularly unusual grin of his before leaning over and nudging Bennet's shoulder. "And she didn't even know I was here. And here I thought I was good," He said, pocketing the PDA again before his attention perked back up to her.

He always liked seeing how people reacted to his sudden presence.

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thecompanyman
2009-06-04 12:02 am UTC (link)

Noah knew the girl thought he was crazy, so he smiled politely as Claude took the PDA and then flickered into existence. He'd always enjoyed the way his partner startled people, the way he looked so very comfortable in his own skin just coming out invisibility in a way he never did otherwise.

He laughed at Claude's awe and nodded at the girl. "Coming from him," he said, "it's a compliment that he didn't notice. He always notices." And really, he usually always noticed. But he had extenuating circumstances on his side. "We never said we were mad at you. You gave it back, anyway. I'm guessing you're pretty used to it, the way you took them without even realizing you did. Without even seeing Claude. It's an impressive talent."

He looked over at Claude. "As for you," he said, "you're slipping, friend." He shook his head. "And so am I. There was a time when we would have realized before she even reached us." He held a hand out to the girl. "Noah Bennet."

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inafivepoundbag
2009-06-04 12:10 am UTC (link)

Others might have screamed at Claude's sudden appearance. Or at least flinched. Quite possibly run away as fast as they could while screaming and flinching. Parker simply stared with a somewhat awestruck expression before finally uttering the first thing that came to mind.

"Cool..."

Blinking as the other man introduced himself, she snapped herself up straight again and eyed his hand for a second before hesitantly - and quite rapidly - placing hers in his and giving a quick shake before just as quickly pulling it away again. "Parker," she said simply. Her gaze slid to Claude, then back to Noah. She looked slightly uncomfortable for a second before shrugging the emotion away and offering another glance between the two.

"Nobody's slipping," she blurted out after another second. "It's just what I do. Sometimes on accident. Obviously." Then her gaze fell back on Claude.

"You were invisible. Then you weren't," she said plainly before grinning in an almost childlike manner. "That's awesome."

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disappearingact
2009-06-04 12:40 am UTC (link)

That wasn't the reaction that Claude had expected. Sure, he'd gotten it before, but usually for the children that had been part of the Company early on that he'd entertained with slight of hand that was less than slight. But he certainly wasn't complaining. Returning the grin, Claude didn't bother to reach out a hand considering that way that she had reacted with Noah. Instead, he fished a coin out of his pocket, turning it over in his hand before applying his invisibility to it was it slipped between two of his fingers, turning his palm face up again with seemingly nothing in it until the coin appeared again.

"Just call me Claude Rains," He said, a playful lilt in his voice before his attention shifted to Bennet. "We're just getting old, mate. Old and out of practice," He said, clapping his friend on the shoulder before turning his attention back to Parker.

"And it's what I do. Only thing I do with any frequency."

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thecompanyman
2009-06-04 01:22 am UTC (link)

Bennet rolled his eyes at Claude. "I still can't believe that's the name you gave the Company back in the day," he commented, because it was just too obvious. He nodded at the remark about getting old, giving a slightly tired sigh. "That we are," he said. "Too damn old if you ask me. At least we haven't really needed to use it so much here, as of yet."

He looked to Parker. "We are out of practice," he said. "He saw you pick my pocket, but not his own. And I missed it all together. We're normally better than that." A lot better. He was called Eagle Eye back in the day for a reason. "Like my partner said, we're out of practice." Seven years out of practice.

"Careful," he told Parker. "You're going to give Claude an ego at this rate." But really, he'd always thought any 'ego' Claude had about his powers was well deserved. The man was good. Better than most anyone Noah had met.

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inafivepoundbag
2009-06-04 07:38 am UTC (link)

Parker's grin remained almost childlike at the coin trick, looking as though she was half a step away from clapping her hands in pure delight. In fact, the expression didn't change until Bennet spoke again, and even then it was merely the grin being replaced with something a bit more amused and adult in appearance. "You left off the William," she stated idly as her gaze flickered to Claude. "And the whole died in the sixties... thing."

No, Parker wasn't sure exactly where she'd heard about the real Claude Rains, just that it was one of those bits of information she'd picked up along the way somewhere and had stuck around inside her less-than-normally-wired brain. Once she was done regurgitating the information she simply brushed it off with a shake of her head.

"Still didn't mean to take anything," she pointed out. "I haven't meant to do anything besides get back inside the library." Her nose wrinkled a bit in faint amusement. "The knights didn't like it too much." With her hands stuffed once more inside the pockets of her jacket, Parker gaze suddenly cut hard to the right across the street as a truck began backing its way up to the front window of a building.

"Deliveries," she announced, in a somewhat flattened tone. Almost as though she were reading a boring news report she could care less about. "Seven at night, ten after twice a week." Her gaze slid back to the two veritable strangers as she confided in a softer tone and with another grin, "No shipping labels. No return address. It gets to the edge of town and..." Her gaze landed on Claude.

"Then it pulls a you."

Finished with her impromptu casing of the shop, her attention next landed solely on the other man. "So what about you. What do you do?"

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