InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "E is for Electric Chair"

Caleb William Danvers (first_to_ascend) wrote in ipswich_rpg,
@ 2010-02-06 20:42:00

Entry tags:

!complete, 2010 02, caleb danvers, trish wellington

RP: Taking a break
Who: Caleb, Trish
Where: Nicky's
When: after dark, February 6, 2010
Rating/Warning: None?
Summary: Caleb tries to escape for a few hours
Status: Complete

So yesterday morning they'd cracked hell back open. Just one of the rifts that they'd sealed the week prior had been parted, and they'd gone in. They had voluntarily stepped into hell. Himself, Mal and Jaime and a few others who'd wanted to aid. They'd followed Jaime's points, doing their best to avoid confrontations but dealing when they came up ... and eventually they'd found everyone.

Including people who hadn't yet seen Ipswich. Or been aware of it. He, Jaime, and Mal had led the army back out, carrying the wounded, helping the ones that could walk with support. There'd been a lot of screaming, and Caleb had had nightmares when he'd finally managed to get to sleep after three that morning.

But they'd resealed the cracks, hopefully trapping everything that belonged there down there, and hopefully with everyone else back on the surface. He felt like he'd aged a couple of years, and it wouldn't have surprised him to know that he had.

Needing a break, something that wasn't magic and catering to people dropping in, Caleb had retreated to Nicky's to lose himself in the noise, in the crowd, and the second glass of beer in front of him.

(Post a new comment)

sabotage
2010-02-07 06:46 am UTC (link)

She didn’t notice him right off the bat with all the noises and distractions going on around her but Trish did find herself eying Caleb Danvers from across the room. She had come to Nicky’s for the same reasons that he did and that was to just get away from everything. She couldn’t help the rumors she heard about ‘Hell’ being open and some people getting trapped inside of it. It was a scary thing to imagine and it just added to the stress of being there.

Trish wasn’t sure if she could bring herself to actually talk to him, not even knowing what she could say or even bring up to hold his attention. She figured that she could ask how he was doing but even that seemed a bit boring. She contemplated it a bit more, grabbing her glass and leaving the table she had been occupying all by herself to join him. “No offense, but you don’t look as hot as you sound,” she teased, talking mostly about how tired he looked. “Then again, you look like you’ve been having a hard time.”

(Reply to this) (Thread)

first_to_ascend
2010-02-07 06:55 am UTC (link)

It actually took a few seconds for it to register that someone was talking to him. He squinched his eyes shut for a moment as he processed the words, a faint grin on his lips before he opened his eyes to regard her. "I sound hot?" he replied.

Shaking his head, he gestured for her to join him at the bar, nodding at the empty stool beside him. "Having a hard time ... about sums it up," he admitted.

Studying her, he wondered if he'd met her. Or chatted with her through the journals. There were so many names and faces blurred together in his mind, and the adventure yesterday hadn't exactly done anything toward helping that. "Caleb Danvers," he said as he extended his hand over to her.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

sabotage
2010-02-07 07:02 am UTC (link)

She took that empty seat next to him when it was offered, settling into it and getting comfortable in her spot next to him. She knew she had never really seen him in person but it wasn’t hard to figure out who he was when there was so much chatter going on about him and everyone else involved in working to keep everyone safe and in order.

She took his hand to shake, not saying who she was until after she got her hand back. “The girl who wanted you to drop everything to protect her but then came to learn that she was being bit ignorant and kind of blaming you for what happened.” Trish looked at him, offering a grin in regards to her introduction which was a bit more than one should have been. She just wanted to refresh his memory a bit.

“Trish Wellington,” she said, speaking her name to finish it up.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

first_to_ascend
2010-02-07 07:07 am UTC (link)

A wry smile pulled at his lips. "Strangely, that description could fit about half the people here," he confessed. Even if he took into account the fact Reid likely exaggerated some of the ones he'd picked up ... the general sentiment was the same around - everyone wanted to go home, and some of them lashed out about it.

"Glad to hear you learned your lesson," he continued, keeping the easy smile in place, even if he was too mentally exhausted for it to really reach his eyes. "Can I get you anything? Eat, drink?" He arched his brows as he awaited a response to that. He was fine either way; in his world, a drink didn't spell obligation, it just spelled drink.

He knew that wasn't how everyone saw it, so he wouldn't be surprised or offended if she declined.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

sabotage
2010-02-07 07:16 am UTC (link)

“I’m fine with this,” she declared, lifting her half empty drink. “But, if you’re offering I’m not about to decline. You have to milk it sometimes and who am I to tell you no?” Trish raised both brows, shrugging as she ordered another dry martini to go with the one she would finish up in due time.

“All it means is that next time I get to get you something. That’s if we ever run into each other again.” Trish didn’t doubt it, figuring that if she came around the place enough she would run into him again, or possibly anywhere around the town. It helped that she had a better understanding of what he looked like and vice versa.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

first_to_ascend
2010-02-07 07:22 am UTC (link)

He chuckled softly, nodding to the bartender to stick it on his tab. "I'm sure we'll bump into each other again," he decided. "Ipswich isn't that big and as far as I know, you guys can't go very far." Which he hadn't meant to bring up to remind her of how she was stuck here, and he winced slightly.

"Sorry. I think I left some of my tact at home."

Running his fingers through his hair, he exhaled. "So ... how's everything else going? I mean, as well as things can be expected for being stuck with a bunch of strangers, years and miles and realities away from home?"

Well hell. He'd already stuck his foot in it; he may as well just stay along the topic, right?

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

sabotage
2010-02-07 07:32 am UTC (link)

“That was subtle,” she joked, realizing that it probably wasn’t something Caleb should have said right away in regards to being unable to hitchhike it out of there. She came to realize that it didn’t bother her, having already come to terms with what was going on. She knew she wasn’t the only one riding the wagon and that meant she couldn’t exactly feel upset about it all the time.

“It’s getting better,” she said, answering him after trying to come up with words to describe her current situation. “Staying out of trouble the best I can. Keeping tabs on who I talk to and the places I go. I don’t want to run into any familiar faces.”

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

first_to_ascend
2010-02-07 07:51 am UTC (link)

He took 'staying out of trouble' to mean 'attempting to stay safe' and he nodded slightly. "Good," he agreed with a soft smile to her. "The offer still stands if you need anything," he added. He was pretty sure he'd offered. It had become a semi-standard part of his vocabulary, though fortunately most of the people here seemed fairly self-sufficient.

Taking another sip of his drink, he fished around for something else to talk about. He really wasn't good at small talk on a good day ... and this was a far cry from his best day.

"So you didn't have ..." he hesitated, then gestured with his free hand. "You didn't have friends or anything in ... that were rescued?"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

sabotage
2010-02-07 08:00 am UTC (link)

“If I need anything,” she repeated, knowing how that sounded to her but didn’t say anything in attempt that she would just embarrass herself. There was no need to shatter things with unnecessary innuendoes. “Didn’t have what?” She asked, falling silent when she heard him finish about having friends. She would have laughed at him if she didn’t want to come off as a loser. The whole friend thing seemed off base when she hardly knew anyone.

“I really don’t know,” she answered, taking a sip from her freshly brought martini as she thought about it. “I don’t keep tabs on anyone. The people I talk to are the ones I really don’t meet outside of the safety of my four walls. So, it’s really hard to tell if any of them are safe. I mean, I hope they are, of course, but it’s not like I give any of them daily calls. It just doesn’t seem to work like it does back home.”

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

first_to_ascend
2010-02-07 08:16 am UTC (link)

Dark brows briefly elevated before he nodded once. She didn't know if she had friends or not? Or didn't know if any of her friends were missing? He supposed the latter was fair enough. If you didn't see someone every day - or more than once or twice a month - you might not notice they were gone for a week. Or more. Caleb honestly had no idea how long some of them had been down there.

Or how they'd all survived. Ashley had seemed to be the worst off, though a few of the others had been wearing a fair amount of blood. Fortunately, for most of them, it hadn't been their own.

Shaking out of his thoughts, he drained his drink and gestured for another. Once again, he was finding it hard to push the conversation. Once he found some place to click, a common thread to follow, he knew he'd be fine. In the meantime though ...

"I'm sure you told me, but it's probably slipped my mind. Where were you from before you were pulled here?"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

sabotage
2010-02-07 08:26 am UTC (link)

It wasn’t that she didn’t know if she had friends or not since it was obvious she thought about the people she talked to. She just didn’t know if she considered them actual friends outside of talking to them online. It wasn’t like she went out of her way to visit them or went out to have some coffee. She found it was too dangerous to consider being in anyone’s company with monsters running around and people being sucked into Hell. Even if she was good pals with everyone in Ipswich she still needed to think about her own safety. All of that made it hard to interact with anyone.

“Seattle,” she answered quickly, eager to start on a new conversation. If they went on a different track and started to talk about something easier then it was possible for the two of them to have a good time. She couldn’t keep up with what they were discussing beforehand since she honestly didn’t know how everyone was doing.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

first_to_ascend
2010-02-07 08:35 am UTC (link)

"Seattle," he echoed. "Isn't that where Starbucks was born?" he teased a little, though maybe he was thinking about something else. It occurred to him then maybe he wasn't the only one who failed at small talk.

Or maybe she just didn't like talking in a bar. He thought if he'd had more energy, he would have suggested going out somewhere else. Even just sitting in the car and talking ...

...but she'd approached him. Maybe just to check in on him. A smile flit across his lips; the thought amused him in a way he couldn't precisely define. Possibly it had to do with Jaime screaming bloody murder in hell and turning around to ask him if he was okay as soon as they were back up on the surface.

Or maybe he was just drained to the point where everything was funny. Scratching lightly at his cheek, he nodded. "We've been here ... forever," he said, laughing faintly. "Three hundred and some odd years. My family was among the first to settle in the area, after they left England. It's why we even have the colony house, out by the barn. Ancestral home," he reminisced.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

sabotage
2010-02-07 08:47 am UTC (link)

Trish stared at him, taking to mind what he said about Starbucks and she couldn’t help but laugh at it. It wasn’t really that funny or even remotely ticklish but she just couldn’t help but giggle over the fact that she was from Seattle – the place where Starbucks was born. Now she was trying to remember the last time she had Starbucks which was irrelevant to the conversation.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s where Starbucks came from.” Trish nodded proudly; as if she was taking some kind of pride in being from the place that had enjoyable coffee. Granted the Starbuck chain was dwindling around the globe because of the poor economy, she really didn’t plan on mentioning that to him at the moment.

She took the time to listen to him while she drank some more of her martini, her mind feeling the buzz from the alcohol which made it a little hard to focus on him alongside the constant bickering from everyone else around them. She tried to hush it out, her eyes focused on him while he explained just how long his ‘family’ had been in Ipswich. “That’s quite a number of years,” she remarked, not exactly sounding impress since it seemed a bit tragic.Talk about never wanting to leave and settle anywhere else.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

first_to_ascend
2010-02-07 05:40 pm UTC (link)

He grinned as she laughed. It was nice to hear laughing instead of screaming and moaning in pain and growling and everything else he'd listened to in hell.

Nodding to her observation, he picked up his new drink and took a sip of it. "It is," he agreed. He wondered if any of his ancestors had given any consideration to moving. Ever. Anywhere. "All the families have lived here for ... for that long. I suppose even Chase' family lived here once." Which he supposed would require more of an explanation. A faint smirk edged his lips before he rolled his shoulders in a shrug. "I suppose we'll always live here, too," he continued ... though the idea of having kids and settling down with a family seemed so distant. He didn't even have a steady girlfriend. Honestly though, it was going to take a special, strong sort of woman to settle in to something like this.

"What about you? Did you live in Seattle all your life? Plans to move? College?" He grinned. "I don't know anything about you."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

sabotage
2010-02-07 11:36 pm UTC (link)

“For a while,” she admitted, knowing that she always had plans to leave Washington so that she could live elsewhere. “I went to college and after that I started building my career to be art appraiser. It’s not the best job in the world but it can be interesting since I usually get to travel a lot.” It was what brought Trish to Ipswich in the first place. She had been on a plane heading to another city and before she could even blink she landed in Caleb’s home.

“What about you? I heard some things but I don’t even know the real Caleb. I can’t go on much with just a hero title. Tell me about your life.” Trish took quite the drink from her martini after speaking; figuring she would need to be buzzed to hear what Caleb had to say. She needed some sort of standing ground if Caleb was going to explain things she wasn’t going to understand right off the bat.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

first_to_ascend
2010-02-07 11:43 pm UTC (link)

He nodded slightly. "Sounds interesting though. How does that work? I mean, what are the criteria for ... art appraisals? Isn't art one of those subjective things?" he grinned lightly. It was one of those things in life he'd never had cause to give much thought to.

"I don't think anyone knows the real Caleb," he said with a soft laugh. Sometimes he wondered if he did. If he had a real self, or a self that was still living out obligations his mother had set before him. "Well, I was at college before this. Undeclared major," he admitted with a slight roll of his eyes. "I ... hadn't really settled on what I wanted. I was sort of looking at med school ... it's kind of in my nature to help people. But then I started looking at teaching and counseling. I'm still not sure what I want to do."

Of course, he sort of had a 'break' to 'think about it' while he was stuck back in Ipswich.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

sabotage
2010-02-07 11:55 pm UTC (link)

“Don’t mock the power of art appraiser, mister,” she joked, wiggling her finger at him before she smiled, figuring that Caleb did have a point. “It’s really subjective, I guess. I’m not running around telling everyone that their art is good or bad. I’m just there to go over the legal properties of their art and making them sign loads of paperwork to make it so that it’s their art and that they actually did it on so and so day that they claimed. I’m also the person who gets to decide whether your art is good enough to sell.” Trish smirked, figuring that was probably the best part about her job. “Not that I get a kick out of telling someone their art won’t see squat.”

The noise level felt as if it was getting a little louder as she sat there, her eyes drifting off to look at the crowd, wondering if she needed to drag Caleb somewhere else to talk. “Do you want to get out of here?” She asked, raising her voice to make it easier to hear. “You can tell me more about how awesome you are.”

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

first_to_ascend
2010-02-08 12:07 am UTC (link)

"It sounds interesting," he agreed. Complicated, maybe. "I can show you some of my stick figures so you can keep in practice," he teased her lightly.

Because really, that was the extent of his artistic gift.

And then it was times like this he wished girls came with translators. Was that a proposition or was it really just an invitation to relocate? Was it something he should beg off? If he accepted was he secretly agreeing to something else?

Entirely too tired to devote any further thought to it, he shrugged. "Sure," he agreed. "Did you have somewhere in mind?"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

sabotage
2010-02-08 12:26 am UTC (link)

One too many martinis made it so that Trish really wasn’t thinking about it when she asked if he wanted to ‘go’ somewhere else, usually when she asked a guy that she was offering them the ticket to the all you could eat buffet. Perhaps if she had been in her right set of mind she would have made the passes to make her words make more sense.

“I don’t know. If we walk around we’d probably freeze to death. It’s either we find another place that’s more quiet or one of us offers the hospitality of our homes.” Trish shrugged, not really seeing the problem in inviting Caleb to her place or him inviting her to his. They were just going to go there to talk, right?

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

first_to_ascend
2010-02-08 12:31 am UTC (link)

He grinned slightly. "It's not too bad, if you keep moving," he promised her. "But we could ..." he shrugged. "Head up to my place, I guess." It wasn't as though his place lacked extra rooms if she was too drunk to drive back to her place.

He was pretty sure he was good to drive, if he did so carefully. It wasn't like his place was all that far from Nicky's, and the roads were mostly straight.

Setting enough money on the bar to cover their drinks, Caleb pushed back from the bar and slid to his feet. "Ready?"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

sabotage
2010-02-08 12:41 am UTC (link)

She finished off her drink before getting up from her stool, not wanting to be rude and just leave it there unfinished since Caleb had bought it for her. “Ready,” she told him, not really having brought much asides from her purse and the key to her place. It wasn’t like she had a car or anything to drive around. A person needed some serious amount of cash to afford that. “You know, sooner or later I’m going to need to make myself useful around this place. No, I don’t mean going around telling people their art sucks.”

She figured that it wouldn’t be that bad if she tried to find a normal job in Ipswich. She knew there would be some hesitance since finding a job kind of felt like settling down. If she started to make a life then what would happen if it was time to go home? What would she say or do then?

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

first_to_ascend
2010-02-08 01:07 am UTC (link)

"A lot of the people are getting ... jobs. Things so they have something to live off of once the cards run out. At least you don't have to pay rent though, right?" He assumed, anyway; unless she was living in a hotel still.

Stepping out of the bar, Caleb held the door for her before heading over to his car. "Bet you could try to at least find something with art. Maybe not so much in the winter, but we have a slight rise during the summer. Tourists passing through on their way to other places. I think there's a gallery nearish the school. The high school," he elaborated.

Which ... sort of implied it would be a summer thing, which sort of implied he thought they might be here that long.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

sabotage
2010-02-08 01:16 am UTC (link)

“Teach people about art?” She asked, figuring that was what Caleb was trying to imply. She didn’t attempt to throw the idea away so quickly, knowing that she learned about art by visiting the museum that was on Harper’s Island. “I guess I could look into that. I mean, I do have some experience when it comes to explaining the art found in galleries. I spent summer jobs doing that when I was a teenager. I don’t see why I can’t do that here.”

Trish smiled, not at all feeling discouraged by Caleb mentioning that she would be stuck in Ipswich for a little while longer in order to take this job. She was too interested in the idea to worry about that. “It would be nice to do something for other people. It doesn’t sound like much but I actually would like to do something with my time here.”

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

first_to_ascend
2010-02-08 01:32 am UTC (link)

That hadn't quite been where he was going with that, but it was definitely an idea. He'd simply meant to work in the gallery by the school, but ... sure. Teaching too. If she was qualified, why not?

"It's something to think about. Probably better than delivering pizzas or ... cleaning hotel rooms or whatever else." It probably paid better. He assumed. What did he know, really?

Clicking the button on his keychain to unlock the doors to the car, he gestured toward his before swinging in behind the wheel. He turned on the heater, even if they'd be back to his place before the car was warm enough to make it worthwhile.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

sabotage
2010-02-08 01:46 am UTC (link)

“Because delivering pizzas is something I would try for even if I didn’t have the art experience.” Trish wrinkled her nose as she got in, unable to really picture herself doing something like that. “It would be like I was trying out for porn or something. Pizza girl here to take your extra sausage. People would get the wrong idea.” Trish laughed, knowing she shouldn’t have said that since it really didn’t have much to do with the conversation.

“I can see you cleaning rooms,” she teased, buckling up as she sat there with her amused expression. “Fluffing pillows and all that.”

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

(no subject) -

first_to_ascend, 2010-02-08 02:14 am UTC

(no subject) -

sabotage, 2010-02-08 02:37 am UTC

(no subject) -

first_to_ascend, 2010-02-08 02:47 am UTC

(no subject) -

sabotage, 2010-02-08 02:57 am UTC

(no subject) -

first_to_ascend, 2010-02-08 03:14 am UTC

(no subject) -