InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Steady on, Frodo!"

Pete Wisdom (loyalson) wrote in indarkness_logs,
@ 2010-09-08 19:24:00

Entry tags:

!complete, 2032 09, lily evans, pete wisdom

RP: A Pretty Bird Told Me...
Characters: Pete and Lily(closed)
Time/Date: After their log, 3-ish PM/09-08
Location: The Lobby
Warnings/Rating:PG
Summary: Pete goes looking for some answers from a pretty bird, and gets some answers, but learns even more from watching his host.
Status: Complete.

No powers? No problem. No gun? Not an issue. He'd find a way to make things right, and come out smiling.

Pete had been playing the game for a long time, long before most people even knew he existed, long before most people even could recognize what he did. Put him in a place and time like this and every sense expanded, ever training sorted in his mind, and his whole body seemed hypersensitive, over clocked. The only thing that made him smile, as the pretty bird waiting for him. She was a hot one, right on, and she seemed to have her head pout together, which he approved of.

In a situation like this, it was absolutely necessary. Nothing of weakness could survive, not without costing. By the time he was on his way down to the lobby, he'd managed to file down two pencils into very sharp points backed by an inch of weight, and had plucked his shoe iron out, and snapped off one end at the handle, making a jagged edge.

Trotting down the stairs, he spotted a place where something odd had happened and leaned down to look, finding a sliver of wood, ever so small, and yet enough, if the person knew how to use it. And it, too, disappeared into his clothing. He wore a suit that was very closely tailored and showed muscles everywhere, but still would have concealed both his standard pistols.

In the lobby itself, he glanced around, wondering whatever would happen next...

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emerald_eyes
2010-09-09 02:39 am UTC (link)

She wasn't coping well. She didn't keep secrets well, she didn't lie well, and she didn't balance her emotions very well. She'd pushed off a lot of the necessary discussions under the pretense of allowing James to settle in ... but that was only going to last so long, and she knew it.

The announcement last night didn't help at all, either. So they'd know, in less than a week, if some of them were going home or not. No one she'd spoken with had really believed they'd be going home. If anyone went missing, they'd be presumed dead. The question was why. Why draw it out like this? To incite reactions, she supposed. She knew she was going to be a wreck the night they were supposedly releasing the 'mistakes' home. She wanted to go home, more than she could bear, and to have it dangled like that in front of her was maddening.

Either way, that was neither here nor there. She had to go play welcoming committee. She'd had a brief moment of trying to shove it off on Tyler, but ... well. She could handle welcoming someone to the insanity.

Making her way into the lobby, she offered the man a smile. "Hello," she called softly. "Pete?" she guessed.

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loyalson
2010-09-09 02:50 am UTC (link)

He smirked and bowed to her, but the look of her drew his eye. She was gorgeous. And young. Damn.

"Pete Wisdom, at your service, madame. And you'd be the lovely welcoming party for crazy new prisoners?"

He smiled a little gentler. She looked tired, to him, and less than happy, less than bright. Something more than just the imprisonment was happening. Something weighing on her. Who was in charge, that would lay whatever it was on her? Or was it more personal. All this ran through his mind as he bowed and spoke, and then he rose again and looked around.

"Looks like you've fixed the place up nice."

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emerald_eyes
2010-09-09 02:57 am UTC (link)

"Oh, we haven't ... done anything, really. We jut repaired after the attack." She offered him a slight smile before introducing herself -- even if they'd technically already covered that part.

"I'm part of the welcoming committee, yes. Jaime and Tyler are the others who sort of handle the newcomers, though of course everyone's welcomed to say hello to them." It had seemed awfully quiet to her though ... maybe that was just her perception of things. She hadn't exactly been out being social herself. She was taking a very turtle-tucking-her-head-in route in regard to ... James. And Balthazar.

"So ... I suppose it's best for you to start off with questions, but I can cover it in the basics. I'm not sure if they've redrafted the welcome note, so it likely mentions a line. Currently, we're all powerless and there is no line ... though when it's there, it is a danger."

She paused. "Not the line itself, rather, but the traps on the other side. Ah ... there's no monetary exchange system here. They restock the stores and the mall and the kitchens, so we ... just take what we need. There's a garden in the back that you're welcome to help yourself to. The mall will have extra clothing, should you need it. We have a small library there," she gestured toward it. "And televisions and disc players in the rec area." She gestured again.

"There's roughly sixty or so people here at last count. You can check the registry there," she added with a gesture. "To see if there are any familiar names, or ... to confirm if someone's gone missing." Lily tried to think of anything else she might have missed, and reasoned there was something glaringly obvious she'd overlooked ... but she'd let him ask his questions.

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loyalson
2010-09-09 03:03 am UTC (link)

"Attack? Hm." He listened and nodded as she spoke. She seemed to have it together well.

"It does mention a line, and it's good to know it's not a worry right now." He hmmed as he watched her more. She had a good patter down, but none of it masked how she felt, and she wondered if she knew she was showing it.

Was it that bad here?

"Seems like a simple enough thing. What kind of rules are there? Both from our imprisoners and from us, the imprisoned?"

He canted his head to her, questioning, an eyebrow raised. He wondered what would happen next, after being dropped int his crazy land. But he thought, for sure, that this would be no cakewalk.

"How are we organized?"

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emerald_eyes
2010-09-09 03:08 am UTC (link)

"No formal, official rules. No declarations or anything like that. We're here, we exist. I imagine some of the more stubborn ones are still seeking a way out. One of the captors was shot by one of us a month or so ago. Not fatally, but ... it was evidence enough that they are as prone to mistakes as the rest of us." She was still watching for opportunities, of course, but she wasn't actively seeking them out.

"There's no formal sense of organization, either. Jaime, Tyler, and I sort of handle ... delegations of duties when it comes to that. When we were being attacked, we sought out the ones with war and military experience and had them advise us. Mostly ... we just try to answer the newcomers questions and ... help each other out."

She hesitated. "Lately, before they took our power, some of us had tried crossing our magic to test for compatibility, and had successes there so ... we haven't completely rolled over and bared our bellies to them."

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	loyalson 2010-09-09 03:19 am UTC (link)
	He opened his mouth, then closed it, and nodded. No rules, okay. Weird, but okay. "Good to know. You seem like a smart woman. What did you do before coming here?" He looked around, walking a bit, then back to her. "And what do you do to keep from going mad?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

emerald_eyes
2010-09-09 03:23 am UTC (link)

"I was part of a vigilante group specializing in the defeat of dark wizards." Which sounded like more than what it was, she supposed, when she phrased it that way ... but it was what it was. She also saw little point anymore in hiding her magic -- not that she had it right now, of course.

"You say that as though I haven't gone mad," Lily quipped, a smile ghosting across her lips. "People find ways to entertain themselves, I suppose. I try to keep busy in the kitchen or keeping the lobby tidy. Some people read, watch movies, play about on the computer." Plot escapes. Whichever. "There's a pool and a gym up on the roof that people have made use of."

She shrugged her shoulders slightly. "The more social among us tend to seek out new friends. Or allies, as the case may be."

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loyalson
2010-09-09 03:30 am UTC (link)

His eyebrows rose and he looked at her with new respect. So the kitten had teeth and was a lioness in disguise. Amazing. He hmmed, and grinned at her. "Well, witches and wizards are always useful to have on your side. Always bloody troubling when the other side has more magic."

A situation he'd been in all too many times.

He quirked his lips at her. "If you can laugh about it, you haven't yet." He nodded, and listened, watching her, slowly realizing she was a lot stronger and smarter than he had first thought and beginning to wonder just when he'd started finding that appealing.

"Do you play poker? Or pool, or any such sports?" It was a random question, but a thoughtfully asked one.

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emerald_eyes
2010-09-09 03:38 am UTC (link)

"But it's not as helpful when they can block your powers on a whim," she pointed out. "We still haven't worked that one out yet."

She lifted her shoulders slightly before she moved to settle into one of the nearby chairs. "I don't ..." she murmured. "We don't have a billiards table, though we have plenty of boardgames," she admitted as she rested her hands in her lap. "Suppose that works out well enough. There are ... a few children here. Under eighteens at any rate." She wasn't sure she felt comfortable classifying Violet as a child. By wizarding standards, the girl was legal.

"And a talking dog," she added after a moment. "A small fox-man with his own dog. I believe I heard rumors of a talking cat as well." She tried to think of anything else unusual she should mention to him.

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loyalson
2010-09-09 03:44 am UTC (link)

"Sometimes, the knowledge of something is more important than the use of it. Especially if you can conceal that knowledge from the enemy until the right moment." He pointed at her. "Remember that the right idea, the right word, at the right moment, can change a war."

He nodded, listening. "Huhn. Intriguing cast we have. Now if only the music would start."

He eyed her and moved to walk around a bit, pacing around the chair she was in, in front and behind it.

"Ever play chess?"

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emerald_eyes
2010-09-09 03:51 am UTC (link)

"Often. The wizarding world has a version of it where the pieces move themselves," she said. "I was never very good at it, but it was fun to play to pass the time with friends."

She took his suggestion in stride, but she was fairly certain it was something they'd all considered, even if none of them had spoken it. They were going to have to have a bit of luck, and a trick or two up their sleeve to have a chance of getting out of this.

"Likely shouldn't mention music," she offered belatedly. "They'll probably dose you with it. Incessantly. And loudly."

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loyalson
2010-09-09 03:57 am UTC (link)

He smirked. "I'll dose em back. If they think I can be driven crazy, they're likely to find they've driven into a deeper well than they could possibly imagine."

For a moment, for her alone, the shadows drew away from Pete's eyes, and the core of him showed, the very dangerous, very determined, and very confident core, something almost primal. The eyes of a man who had waged war for a country across a thousand worlds, and into a thousand hells, and never accepted death or defeat.

Then, as simply and as quickly, the shutters were back and he smiled, almost smirked. "I'm surprised you have no trouble with pregnancies with people locked up together with nowhere to go."

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emerald_eyes
2010-09-09 04:09 am UTC (link)

Lily opted not to comment on their inability to drive him crazy. Perhaps not ... but he was new, and he didn't know what they were capable of yet. She did see the look in his eyes, though she couldn't precisely define it ... and before she had a chance to consider it, it was gone -- if it had ever been there at all.

"Well ... we haven't yet. They did us the courtesy of passing out condoms, so I suppose those who hadn't thought about it yet might figure out it's an amazing idea." She shrugged slightly. "I suppose we'll deal with it when it comes up."

Or their captors would. She wondered what would happen to a child born into this environment ... or if they'd stop it before it developed very far.

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	loyalson 2010-09-09 04:28 am UTC (link)
	"Ah. Seems as if you have everything handled then. I suppose I can go into the tea-making business. And the rotgut making. I've been told I make some of the best in England." He smiled at her, eyes twinkling. "Of course, i could use a partner." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

emerald_eyes
2010-09-09 04:37 am UTC (link)

She smiled softly. "Well, you're more than welcome to take over making tea. Or help out with meal preparations," she added with a smile. "I'm usually in charge of that, though Jaime and Tyler help out occasionally."

Lily shifted her weight slightly, wondering if that was all he had for questions. She reasoned he'd discover more as he got settled, but she wasn't going to rush or try to explain everything at once. He'd figure the place out, and it wasn't as though she was the only one who could answer his questions.

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	loyalson 2010-09-09 05:11 am UTC (link)
	He noticed and gave her a smile. "I might just do that." He slapped his hands together, and nodded. "I wont keep you, even if a man would definitely wish to spend more time around a lovely lass like yourself. Any tips you think I should know before I throw myself to the wilds?" He'd figure it out. He always did. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

emerald_eyes
2010-09-09 05:19 am UTC (link)

Lily chuckled softly. "I'll keep an eye out for you then," she murmured.

She did smile at the compliment, but opted not to comment on it. "Nothing ... that we haven't already covered, I don't think," she replied. She was fairly certain they'd hit the big ones, and everything else he could likely work out on his own.

"My suggestion is to just ... explore the place a bit, get a feel for it, and ... figure out if you've any questions after you've had a look."

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	loyalson 2010-09-09 05:30 am UTC (link)
	He winked at her and nodded, and wandered off. "I'll remember." and He went, singing a soft version of 'Lovely Lily' as he went. And grinned, wandering into the night. (Reply to this) (Parent)