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Jaime Elizabeth Davies ([info]finder) wrote in [info]indarkness_logs,
@ 2010-08-14 21:48:00

Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Entry tags:!complete, 2032 08, jaime davies, malcolm reynolds

RP: Jaime has Questions
Characters: Jaime, Mal
Time/Date: After the lottery post, August 14
Location: Mal's room
Warnings/Rating: Maybe Jaime's mouth
Summary: Jaime has questions and assume Mal has answers
Status: Complete



Jaime had been about a quarter into her puzzle when the voice came across the speakers. She'd honestly looked to the door first, expecting to see Mal there. She'd heard his voice, after all ... but the voice had continued and Mal hadn't been there. Then there were two different voices, and Jaime did not like what she'd heard. Not at all.

When she combined what she was hearing with the puzzles they'd put together, she liked the situation even less. Things had taken a downward twist since Lily had seen the video, and Jaime was not thrilled.

But since it had been Mal's voice on the recording, she assumed he'd know everything that hadn't been stated on the recording or shown in the puzzles. Jaime didn't for a moment think it was a pleasant topic, but she hoped very sincerely that Mal would be willing to talk to her about it. If not ... well, she'd make Tyler go in to talk to him about it, but someone had to know.

Jaime didn't think at all that it was random. It was - had to be - a warning of some sort.

When she reached Mal's room, she rapped on the door and shifted her weight uneasily on the other side as she waited for him to answer and hoped he was in.


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[info]accordingtoplan
2010-08-15 05:54 am UTC (link)
It'd been a good day. A few weeks back, Mal had taken on the task of trying to fix up one of the buildings near the hotel. He was pretty sure it had been some kind of house once, all the fixin's were there at least, but it had been a while since it had been in use. He was pretty sure that he wasn't going to be able to do much with it besides make it a sturdy structure that would hold up better than it was currently doing, but he had Kaylee - and sometimes River -'s help on some days to work on the 'lectric side of it, and she seemed content enough to tinker away while he knocked down walls and stuck 'em back up proper. He thought if they had enough time, they might be able to make it almost livable.

It wasn't Serenity, but it was something to keep his hands occupied during the day. He wasn't even sure if they'd use the house when they were finished with it - they were content enough in the hotel - but maybe there'd be someone else who'd want a bit more privacy.

Anyway, it was dusty work and when they'd about wrapped up for the day, Mal had been in sore need of a shower. He'd just finished, and had thrown on a pair of... 'slacks' he thought he'd heard them called somewhere and a towel over the back of his neck to catch any stray drips. He was headed to the kitchen to grab a snack when he'd heard a knock on the door.

Now, a knock was a knock, but Mal could have sworn this one sounded almost urgent. Or, well, as urgent as a knock can sound given that it's just knuckles on wood. This was why he didn't stop to check the room or himself to see if either were presentable for company before walking over quickly to see who it was. He glanced through the peephole briefly and when he recognized the person on the other side, he didn't hesitate to open it.

"Jaime," he greeted her, his expression puzzled. He stood in the doorway for a moment before he stepped aside to let her in if she wanted to enter. "Everythin' alright darlin'?" he asked.

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[info]finder
2010-08-15 06:05 am UTC (link)
Her lips parted, and she was all set to launch into the entire reason she'd come down here, but there was a little bit of staring to get out of the way first, apparently. "Uhm," she began, completely coherently as she fought to keep her gaze on his face and not his very manly bare chest.

"I ..." There. A little bit of coherence, and a little bit of color to her cheeks. Because this was not at all giving away the itty bitty and incredibly stupid crush she'd been nursing the past couple of weeks. Right. Because she had more important ... things to discuss.

"I need to talk to you," she blurted out. There. "Um. We ... heard your voice ..." She trailed off because she'd have to rewind a fair bit before that started to make sense to someone who hadn't been there. "It's kind of important," she concluded with a gesture toward the room to indicate she'd like to come in.

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[info]accordingtoplan
2010-08-15 06:16 am UTC (link)
He was being an idiot. Of course she'd be here, and of course she'd be knocking at the door, and he was being completely thick in not remembering why she'd be acting this way. "The lottery," he groaned, running his hands down his face. "How'd it..." he stepped aside more obviously, pulling the door open more so that she could come in, and moving to make the room a bit more presentable by... well. Moving clothes and guns to more appropriate places than directly on chairs that could otherwise be used for sitting on, "...go?" he finished, as he was doing that.

He'd missed the part about 'his voice' and 'important' in his determination to prove that he'd been listening early. He'd heard them, but he hadn't quite processed them yet, mostly because he didn't have context for it, but also because any context he could come up with didn't make any sense to him. His voice at the lottery event? Why?

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[info]finder
2010-08-15 06:22 am UTC (link)
"I don't know," Jaime said quietly in response to his question. "I mean, they didn't chop off my head, or anything, but ... um. It ..." she hesitated as she tried to decide where to start. A play-by-play wasn't necessary by any means, and she sat down on the edge of the bed more out of habit than anything else. When she, Tyler, and Lily pow-wow'd, it was usually on the bed.

Jaime gazed down at her knees for a moment. "So, once we got inside," she began. "It ... there were puzzle pieces on tables. Nothing else. I mean, really, seriously kind of nothing else. Each puzzle had our names on them, on a card, so ..." she swallowed. "So we ... we were working on the puzzles, and there was classical music, and then."

She glanced over to him. "Then it was your voice. And you said ... you said, 'reavers. looks to be reavers' and something about if you ran, they'd chase because that was their way. Then, there was a girl talking to a guy about ... how reavers weren't stories, they were real, and they ... they'd rape us to death and eat our flesh and make our skin into clothes and ... maybe not do it in that order."

Slipping out her Blackberry, Jaime opened the picture folder and held the device out to Mal. "The top four pictures. Those were the puzzles. We ... someone's got to put them up on the network and ... see if anyone else knows anything, but since ... it was your voice ... I ... figured you'd know, something about them."

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[info]accordingtoplan
2010-08-15 06:50 am UTC (link)
It took him a moment to realize she was responding to his question. He was working on this being properly social thing, he was, really - he just wasn't very good yet. But he did stop trying to make the room more presentable - if for no other reason than Jaime didn't seem to mind the slight disarray that it was in - and leaned against the table to watch her expressions and listen to her words.

The puzzle thing didn't make much sense to him, but then none of this really made any sense. And he'd really rather that it had been puzzles and questionnaires and whatever than having to fight some sort of deadly creature. His mind had slipped to reavers before she mentioned it, and at first he thought he'd been listening wrong when she mentioned that his voice had said it. He opened his mouth to ask for clarification, but she kept talking before he could get a word out, and then he lost the ability to speak.

His face visibly paled, and his knees shook so hard that his balance was affected, and he had to grab the side of the table that he was leaning against for support and it didn't really do anything to help so he found himself half off the table, still gripping it. He didn't really process the words that Jaime was saying, just the feel of them, and the sudden - perhaps irrational - panic that reavers were going to attack the hotel.

He turned his face away somewhat violently from the pictures that she showed him on the Blackberry - he didn't need to see them to know what she was talking about - and he shook again. There was no adequate protection here. And with them fully locked in around that fucking line it'd be a right banquet for the beasts.

Was the experiment over? Had they failed, and needed to be wiped out before the next group came in? Was that what this was about?

He struggled to get himself under control before he lost it completely, but the soldier part of him had been long ago trained to prepare for the worst possible situation, and to think ahead to how to strategically make the battle go in your favour. He was looking at it from all angles, but he didn't see a way out of this situation without severe losses on their side. And while there were some folk around here he could stand to lose - and there was no sense feeling badly about thinking that at this point - there were way too many that he counted as unacceptable loss, and there just weren't enough people fit to protect them.

He knew that he had to be worrying Jaime, but there wasn't a lot he could do to get himself under control right now. He was desperate for Zoe so that they could talk it through together - she had a knack for calming him down from this sort of irrational panic - but he knew that wishing never got him anywhere. He needed to try and deal with this on his own. Taking a few deep breaths to try and get himself better under control, he glanced up to where Jaime was sitting.

"Trust me, darlin'," he managed to croak out. "Y'don't want t'know nothin' else 'bout them. They's..." he couldn't look at her any longer, but a few more deep breaths kept the worst of the shakes away. "If them doc's are suggestin' they're unloading reavers on us..." he let that trail off. He couldn't think about it. He wouldn't think about it.

"They ain't," he said firmly, though he didn't believe it for a second. "Just spooky tales t'get us all jittery. Ain't nothin' to worry about."

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[info]finder
2010-08-15 07:01 am UTC (link)
Jaime watched him relax, and it did absolutely nothing to bolster her confidence in this issue. Her lips parted a few times as she tried to figure out what to say, exactly. Because maybe she didn't want to know, but she had to know, right?

The fact he tried to save it with a 'they're just fucking with us' wasn't going to fly with her, either. "I don't ... I don't think so. Not anymore. I think things kind of started shifting to hardcore after ... after they started in with the videos. I think ... I think this is it. This is their clue that ... that we should get ready, so I ... we need to know, as much about them as you can tell us. Or if you don't want to ... I mean. River? Kaylee? Jayne? They're all from your world, right? I'll ... I'll go talk to Jayne about this, and ... he'll probably tell me, right? Graphically?" She doubted she'd understand if River tried to explain, and she sort of liked Kaylee and didn't want to make her talk about this if someone else would.

Pale blue eyes drifted over his face, and yes, over his chest a little, before she pulled them back up to watch him. She tucked her Blackberry away and rolled her shoulders slightly. "If ... if it's as bad as your reaction makes it out to be ... they have a right to know, and we ... we'll have to come up with some sort of ... plan. Defense and attack and ... stuff."

Which she knew was sort of like fishing in the dark. They didn't know for sure. They didn't know when. They didn't know how many. They didn't know anything, but they could guess, assume, theorize. They could take what their captors had started to show them, and apply it to future scenarios.

They'd shown puzzles of weapons and ... hideous burned men. They'd had a recording about reavers. Jaime didn't for a moment put it past them to unleash reavers on them. Not at all.

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[info]accordingtoplan
2010-08-15 07:21 am UTC (link)
God, River. River would know, and if his reaction was this bad, he couldn't even begin to imagine what she was going through. He stared at the door, and willed that beyond it there was someone finding River and helping her before she did something crazy.

Like become one. He shuddered at the memory. River had done well thus far to keep her wits about her, but if she had to deal with him losing his mind over the idea of fighting what was sure to be a losing battle...

"Don't ask River," he said quietly. "Kaylee might be able t'tell ya, and Jayne too, but I can't even say that for sure. Reavers are... the damn closest thing t'hell on earth that you'll find anywhere, I reckon. Men on the edge of space, driven mad by a government who don't give a gorram how many lives they ruin in their pursuit of experimentation." He ran his fingers through his hair before he finally said, "Don't rightly know what t'say, darlin'. You got the spiel. Chasing, raping, turning skin into clothing, all them stories are true. There ain't any stopping them. They keep coming, and coming til there ain't nothing left to face 'em."

He slid into a chair, putting his head in his hands defeatedly. "Truth is, reckon we don't have the numbers or manpower t'defend against them should they be dropped in here. Bullets don't always work 'gainst them. They's fast, and rely on instinct. I..." he looked up, rubbing the back of his head. "I dunno, darlin'. Ain't many ships or planets can say they survived reavers. Only way we have's by gettin' lucky more'n once."

He exhaled sharply. "We pray, and mayhaps that luck'll hold out for us here." He knew, though, that there would be casualties. He just hoped that they'd be ones that he could live with.

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[info]finder
2010-08-15 07:29 am UTC (link)
Jaime didn't - couldn't - comprehend the full reality of it. But she'd heard his voice on the recording, and she saw him now, and she knew it was darker, worse than she had it in her to imagine. "Okay, but ..." Jaime's brows furrowed slightly. They didn't have the numbers.

Even if they had the numbers, they didn't have ... much by way of ammunition. Everyone who had a gun just had what bullets they were carrying in it, as far as she knew.

"We have the numbers if they only toss in a couple of them," she offered half-heartedly. Would they? Jaime tried to come at this logically rather than emotionally, and she exhaled. "They can't ... want to kill all of us. They wouldn't give us more than ... they thought we could handle. I mean, they let the stupid wolves loose here, and nothing happened to anyone."

Granted, no one had gone outside - that she was aware of - so it probably wasn't near the same thing. Wolves couldn't open doors and weren't generally inclined to break windows.

"What ... what do you think we should do? I mean, I don't want to cause a panic, but I don't want people sitting around with their thumbs up their asses if ... if we're about to get hit by cannibalistic rapists." And what if they meant to release them right now? Today? What if they were already massing up along the edge of the line or something? Jaime glanced to the window before she swung her eyes back to Mal, unable to be completely calm in the face of his not-calm.

"We ... should tell them, right?"

She supposed she'd have to run this by Tyler and Lily first, and see what they thought about it, too, but she wanted to hear from Mal, first.

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[info]accordingtoplan
2010-08-15 07:46 am UTC (link)
Why couldn't they want to kill all of them? It was pretty much what Mal thought. The experiment was over, and rather than expend the energy and resources to send everyone home, the scientists were just going to clean up their mess by sending in someone else's mess to expunge the area. No one gave a gorram about reavers. Maybe they were being paid off by the Alliance to take the beasts off their hands, and keeping them contained in this environment until they all killed each other was probably a good way to go about doing that.

He knew he was thinking himself in circles, and it wasn't constructive, but he really couldn't get off this train of thought. He glanced up when Jaime asked if they should tell people, and nodded his head slowly. That wasn't even really a question.

"Folks got a right t'know what they're up against," he said quietly. "Look death in the eye and be proud of it. Find somewhere t'hide if they've got it. Chime in with a mention of secret reaver-killing powers they've been holdin' out on us with."

River could take on a small army on her own - he'd seen it. He and Jayne could handle a small handful. But the scientists had to know that. If they were planning on wiping them out, they'd send hundreds. And if they weren't? They'd be planning something else. Something big. Something he wouldn't be able to defend against, surely. He had to plan for the worst.

But first... he thought that he'd have to be the one to tell folks. And if that was the case, he wasn't sure how comfortable broadcasting it over the network he was. He did his empowering speeches better to a crowd of folk, rather than struggling to type on archaic devices. But how he'd manage that, he didn't know.

Maybe he and Jayne'd sit down with Tyler and talk it out, and Tyler could post it up on them boards for the rest of the folk. River and Kaylee'd probably sit in on that one too, even though he'd try to keep them out of it. They'd get all the ideas out on the table and see where to go from there. Or something.

It didn't have to look like a death sentence, even if it was one. They could put up a reasonable fight before they went down. Maybe the scientists would change their mind about exterminating their subjects.

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[info]finder
2010-08-15 07:53 am UTC (link)
"All right," Jaime said quietly. "I'll talk to Lily, see how she wants to phrase it. She's better with words than I am," Jaime added - even though she knew Mal was well aware of that fact. She assumed they'd handle it as business as usual 'hey, they're fucking with us again, this is what we know' and go from there.

It didn't occur to her to think someone else might want to play leader and post announcements.

Then they'd have to figure out what they had as far as weapons, warriors, and special powers went. It occurred to her kind of suddenly then just how very powerless she was. She couldn't even use a gun (and it wasn't like anyone was going to let her practice with limited ammunition they had), and she'd be more likely to scream and run the other way if she was confronted.

If they were outside, it was one thing. If they got inside ... and it was as bad as Mal said ... they were just so much meat in a grinder.

"Maybe people will volunteer their powers in the face of this," she mused. She knew she hadn't exactly flashed around what she could do. Mal knew. Lily and Tyler knew. A few other people might've picked up on it, but she hadn't ever said. Neither had Tyler. Lily did though. She knew that Reid and Chase could do the same thing Tyler could do, but she wondered if Chase would want to help. If it came to saving his own ass, probably, but outside of that? She wasn't sure.

"Do you think ..." She hesitated. "Do you think like, Lily's magic would work? I mean, I'm not sure what sort of spells she has ... for offense or anything, but ... would they be immune because it doesn't exist in your world?"

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[info]accordingtoplan
2010-08-15 08:06 am UTC (link)
He'd step aside and let someone else play leader easily enough, it was just because he knew reavers, he knew fighting reavers, that he thought he'd be expected to take on a leadership role in this case, in the way that he'd listened intently and played soldier when it was demons from someone else's world. It was instinct for him to want to take charge in situations when he knew what was best for the group, and here what was best was... well, putting the strongest fighters in the front and the weakest ones indoors, guarding the civilians, and hope and pray that the first line can hold back whatever came their way.

Unless them sadistic scientists were going to have the reavers wake up in their own rooms, in which case he thought it might be best to vacate the hotel entirely. Maybe set up a temporary shelter in the mall. It was a bit more open, and if they gathered everyone together - or at least, everyone who wanted to work together on this - they could maybe survive it. He wondered how much time they had, if any announcement would be made. 4 puzzles, 4 days? He didn't think he wanted to count on that logic. It could just as easily be 4 hours. Or maybe he was going the wrong way with thinking 4 had anything to do with it.

He nodded to Jaime's statements about people volunteering - he was thinking (or more, hoping) along the same lines. People manning up and realizing that there was real danger attacking them on a regular basis, and to stop hiding behind their stupid worries about being accepted or feared or whatever bullshit kept them from admitting to it and just help out. But he wasn't holding out much hope for that either.

"I dunno darlin'," he admitted to Jaime's question about Lily's powers working on the reavers. "Reckon if it works on regular folks it'll work on reavers all the same - they is people, under all that chaos - but can't say I ever had the opportunity to try myself." He swallowed a bit thickly. "She could test somethin' small out on Jayne, see if it works for people from our world at all," he suggested helpfully.

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[info]finder
2010-08-15 08:22 am UTC (link)
She didn't mean to laugh, because it wasn't funny at all. But the idea of Lily pointing her wand at Jayne, and Jayne just standing there and taking it was just ... funny. She pressed her hand to her mouth and shook her head slightly before waving one hand. "I ... sure," she said. "I'll go corral him later with the promise of some in-bunk fun and ... tell him Lily's going to use her magic on him."

Jaime ran her fingers through her hair and sighed softly. So, all right. This just plain sucked all around. They had to plan for something they didn't know for sure would even happen, and possibly get people all worked up into a panic ... over what might be nothing.

Their captors didn't exactly seem very sane to her. "I hate this," she admitted as she wrapped her arms around herself. "The not knowing. The guessing. The trying to figure things out. We're going to get all worked up and ... wait and wait and wait, and nothing's going to happen." Even if that was the case though, she'd rather everyone be warned and armed and waiting than completely unprepared and torn all to hell. Not like she didn't imagine some people wouldn't be, anyway ... if it was that bad. As bad as Mal said.

Jaime knew she should get moving, tell Lily and Tyler and ... see what they wanted to tell people. But she didn't move from where she was sitting. She wanted to ask him if it was really that bad, but ... it was. The way he reacted, and he wouldn't joke about something like this. "Guess ... I should get started then," she said. "I'll ... if you want to stop by later, or ... something, before the message goes up. You know where my room is."

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[info]accordingtoplan
2010-08-15 08:33 am UTC (link)
He did manage to crack a smile when she laughed - truthfully, he'd meant it half as a joke anyway, and was pleased that it had gone over so well. He couldn't bring himself to laugh much, though - not after what they'd just been talking about.

"Hate it too, darlin'," he said quietly. "But we gotta tough it out a bit longer. We'll get the best of 'em in the end. We got a lot of good people on our side, reckon they'll do good to get us through anything these gao yang jong duh goo yang want to throw at us." He offered her a weak smile. "'sides, if nothin' happens, don't 'magine there'll be anyone happier than me."

His eyebrows went up a bit at the mention of the message going up so soon, "You don' want..." he started to say before he bit back his tongue, swallowed, and nodded his head. "Right," he said. "An' you folks got any questions, you hit me up on this..." he fumbled in his pockets for his own Blackberry, pulling it out and waving it around a bit to indicate what he meant, and nodded his head seriously. "I'd say tell other folks they can hit any of us up too, but they answers ain't pretty an' there ain't a whole lot of 'em. Mayhaps be best they don't know too much anyway."

He swallowed, wondering what he was going to do now. He wanted to do something helpful, but the Trio seemed to have the announcement thing under control. He thought that he might search through the hotel, locate River, see if she was all right and not going catatonic or something similar. Maybe get her over to Kaylee or something. He supposed he should probably get dressed first, though...

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[info]finder
2010-08-15 08:39 am UTC (link)
"Don't want what?" she prompted. Just because she and Lily and Tyler were in charge didn't mean she wanted to be. Or that she wasn't willing to hand the reins over to someone else for a few minutes. She did stand up though, and stretch, and she wished someone else around here knew how to give massages; she'd really like one after the day she'd had. She'd settle for getting laid at this point, and at that thought, her eyes flicked over Mal's bared upper body before she made herself look away.

"But ... yeah. We'll drop your name, and Jayne's, so people can ... get nitty gritty details or whatever." Jaime found herself oddly curious who the other two voices on the recording had been, but maybe they weren't even related to Mal and his ship. Or maybe they were crew. Or maybe ... any number of things that weren't relevant just then.

She didn't want to go, didn't want to start this. She just wanted to pretend it was all some sort of bad dream, and she bit her lip before she glanced out Mal's window.

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[info]accordingtoplan
2010-08-15 09:41 am UTC (link)
"Nothin'," he said cause he could fall into place like the best of them. At least for now. And there was no sense mucking up a structure if... a structure existed. Self-appointed or team appointed people'd be looking to them for the answers to what was going down and he didn't want to get into the middle of that. Not just now, at least. Maybe he'd accidentally ease his way into it later, but...

There was something about her expression that made him think she could use the company to go meet up with the others, and he didn't really have anywhere else to go, so he found himself saying, "You give me a sec t'put somethin' on, I'll tag along with y'until you find 'em. Probably gonna go try'n find River, see if she's doin' okay with this m'self, but I don' got anywhere in particular to start that search," he grinned a bit, and gestured to himself. "An' can't really go 'round like this, c'n I?"

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[info]finder
2010-08-15 10:25 am UTC (link)
Maybe if she'd been paying attention, and if her brain to mouth filter had been functioning properly, she might not have outed herself. "I don't mind," she said in response to Mal's comment about his state of dress. Jaime blinked when she realized what she'd said, and she smiled faintly before she shrugged and willed herself not to blush. Which ... worked about as well as one might expect it to.

"I'll ... go wait in the hall," Jaime mumbled before she scooted on out of his room. Because that didn't have potential to be absolutely mortifying, or anything. And she thought she'd done such a good job of hiding her bizarre older-man crush. She was just ... going to blame stress, that was all. Stress and not his chest, or the way his pants had sat on his hips or ... his chest.

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[info]accordingtoplan
2010-08-16 04:38 am UTC (link)
He gave a sort of half smirk, but from the time they'd been spending together, he knew that was just Jaime's way, and didn't read much into her comment that she wouldn't mind him going around shirtless. The followup reaction to her realizing her statement was a bit confusing for him though. It had just been a joke, right? Why did she look... almost embarrassed about it? He may be an old man but he could take a joke as well as the rest of them.

Nodding to her statement that she'd wait in the hall, he set about finding a clean shirt to throw on and changed his pants as well - what he was wearing was comfortable enough if he was going to lounge about inside, but he'd rather be a bit more presentable, and the mall had had clothes that - while not exactly the same as the clothes he'd been used to wearing back home - were close enough. It didn't take him too long to get into an outfit and grab a weapon of choice and head out.

"Right," he said, nodding when he got out and sliding the door closed, belatedly patting his pockets to be sure he had his key - he'd had to have the girls pick it more than once already. "Where we headed?"

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[info]finder
2010-08-16 04:51 am UTC (link)
"Probably ... um. I guess, we ... we could go talk to Lily first, and if we happen to find Tyler on the way, then .... we'll snag him, too." She glanced over to him, both disappointed and relieved he was clothed. Because ... really she shouldn't be distracted by his very touchable-looking bare chest while they were dealing with this.

However, she had some sudden compulsion to inform him that she and Tyler weren't together, no matter how much time they spent together. That she managed to shake off and repress that particular desire, because it wasn't as though he'd care that she wasn't seeing Tyler.

He was much older than her, and she probably wasn't even on his radar, and that ... was not even the point right now. "I mean, she'll probably ... lead the organizing part. I'll do the finding of things part, and ... I don't know what Tyler's going to do. I guess we can just see what she thinks about ... this."

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[info]accordingtoplan
2010-08-16 05:41 am UTC (link)
He nodded, gesturing for her to lead the way. He could barely find his own room around here, let alone remember where anyone else lived, and Jaime seemed to know where she was going. He'd follow her for now, and keep an eye out for any of his crewmates while he was at it. Jayne and Kaylee deserved a heads up before the message was broadcast to the entire community, and River... Mal quirked a half smirk at his own thoughts. She'd taken out a near shipful of reavers and he still thought of her as this little girl that needed someone to watch out for her. Maybe the Doc was rubbing off on him more'n he'd thought.

"M'thinkin' we should try t'find a safe place that ain't the hotel," he said. "Not that there's much out there to find, but could maybe spruce up one of 'em buildings quick enough that it'll do in a pinch. Reckon it'd at least be safer t'hide out in, than these rooms, 'specially if the Docs disable them locks. Tyler wanted to help me with that, I'd be grateful," he suggested with a roll of his shoulders. It might be for nothing and they might not find anything, but he figured it was worth a shot. It was just the ideas of reavers running loose through the hotel was giving him the shudders again - he liked it better when he could imagine controlling the situation a bit better.

"D'you think..." he trailed off, turning his gun over in his hands. "What I got ain't gonna hold out f'r very long, there is a reaver attack. Could you... ah..." he wasn't sure how to ask this question, or if he was stepping over some unspoken of line by asking this, but... "See about ammo around here? Reckon there might be some in the mall, somewhere, but I ain't stumbled on it yet, an' it'd sure be useful, f'there was."

If the idiots in charge really meant for them to survive this, they'd have stashed ammo somewhere, and he wanted it in his hands as soon as possible.

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[info]finder
2010-08-16 06:06 am UTC (link)
"I don't think ..." She frowned. What was out there that was safe? "I don't know. Everything out there just seems really rickety to me. It'd be safer to ... get a couple of rooms and barricade them up and put people who shouldn't be fighting in them. Because they'd have to get in the hotel first, then find the room, and ... by then, someone could be chasing and shooting them. Right?" They weren't supermen, were they?

"I tried," she admitted when he asked his question. "Right after we put together the puzzles. I ... tried to find bullets and came up blank. I also tried to find grenades and guns I didn't know about. Same thing. Maybe they're going to and haven't yet, or ... or maybe they screwed my power so I can't find that. It didn't come with the headache though like when I tried to find ways out, so ..."

Jaime licked her lips. "I'll keep trying and as soon as I find something, I'll bring it to you," she assured him. She'd bring ammo to anyone else she could find it for as well; if things really were going to be descending on them, she wanted to be protected and .. you know. Not die.

When they reached Lily's room, she rapped once in warning before letting herself in. Lily had keyed the door with some spell or something so it wouldn't be locked to Tyler and Jaime, so the auto-locks weren't an issue for them. Or the deliberate locks, but that's what the warning knock was for.

"Guess it's time for a pow-wow," Jaime muttered as she pulled out her Blackberry to text Tyler to meet them down here. She had a feeling it was going to be a fun, fun time.

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[info]accordingtoplan
2010-08-17 02:52 am UTC (link)
He was having nasty, awful visions of putting people in 'safe' places for protection, and either having the reavers manage to burst in, or have them be... transported or something directly into the rooms. He didn't know whether the scientists could actually do that, but he didn't want to put it past them. He knew that Jaime was probably right and it was their best option at the moment, but he thought that he'd feel more comfortable in something that he'd built on his own, or that he at least knew more about than this gorram hotel.

But he'd have to deal with what he had.

"No ammo, huh?" he murmured quietly. It simply went on to prove his growing theory that this was a suicide mission, not that he was eager to voice those theories outloud. "Mayhaps I'll chat with Jayne, see'f we can't think of nothin' else t'use 'nstead." Wood, or rocks or something, carved out in the right shape. Assuming he could carve it out in the right shape. It wasn't like he hadn't tried something similar in the war, when they'd been pressed for supplies. Not that it had worked all that great, but the theory was still sound.

He stood for a moment, sort of awkwardly outside of Lily's room, scratching at the back of his head not really sure what to do. He'd just said that he'd walk her down to Lily's room before heading off, and wasn't sure if this was the sort of meeting that they'd want him sitting in on, or really if he even wanted to sit in on it. He shuffled his feet, and managed a stuttered out, "Well, I'll be around, f'you need anything."

He thought he should head off and leave her to her pow-wow, but he didn't move just yet.

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[info]finder
2010-08-17 03:19 am UTC (link)
Jaime glanced back to him. "Oh no. There'll be questions I can't answer. Just ... like, ten minutes, to give them the basics, and they can ask you things I probably didn't, couldn't think of." She'd been distressed, after all.

She supposed she still was, since at least part of her desire to make Mal stay was a desire to not let him out of her sight. She still wasn't convinced that he was safe. His voice, talking about reavers, while she was doing a puzzle ... that featured reavers. She didn't like it, and she was scared.

"Please?" she added softly. She knew that sounded a little pathetic and kind of vulnerable, but she really wasn't ready to lose sight of him just yet.

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[info]accordingtoplan
2010-08-17 04:57 am UTC (link)
He really didn't need too much convincing, when she looked like that and talked like that, and when he sort of wanted to stay in the first place but didn't know if he'd be intruding. He was nodding before she even finished asking him to stay. "Sure, darlin', if y'think it'll help at all, be glad t'do my part."

He didn't really question why he was so ready to do what she asked of him. She was a friend of his, and needed his help with something, and he was all too willing to provide what assistance he could in these matters.

Besides, he... thought he might have a bit of a soft spot, where Jaime was concerned.

So he'd stick around for a bit, see what questions he could answer, maybe talk strategy with the group. And then he'd head off and find his crew and talk strategy with them.

Yep. Shaping up to be a good night. Just once he'd like things to go according to plan.

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