It's Brittany, Bitch | Ερις (eristic) wrote in paxletalelogs, @ 2017-10-28 15:15:00 |
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Entry tags: | ares, eris |
and as the two of us rebel
Who: BB & Daniel.
What: The daring duo return to CASKET for one last attempt.
Where: CASKET.
When: Oct. 20, evening.
BB's mouth curled into a moue of distaste as they walked up the parking lot toward CASKET's entrance. Loud music poured forth each time the door was opened, and a long line of patrons strung along the outside of the parking lot's edge. They'd picked a poor night to come attempt to grill the bar's owner, and BB was seriously beginning to reconsider what she'd demanded she and Daniel do.
The two were dressed to the nines for clubbing, BB figuring they would go all out (mostly it was an attempt to cheer herself up; even if the night went south in terms of finding out more about Pax, maybe she could find other distractions to take her mind off of current events) but now it seemed like they'd be waiting in line for most of the night to even get in.
"This was a bad idea," she muttered, although loudly enough for Daniel to easily catch hold of her words (and she most assuredly wanted him to).
"What's this?" Daniel arched a brow and peered down at his friend. "You lost your balls all of a sudden?" He swatted lightly at her arm; BB pouted, moving out of his reach and easily back into it. "This is a good idea. Well, maybe not. But it's probably a necessary one. Not sure if you've noticed, but the weird shit seems to be ramping up lately. You wanna just wait around and see what it's building up to? 'Cause I don't."
He stepped in front of her. After another long look over her—at least his third of the night—he reached up and plucked a stray bit of lint from her shoulder. "There. You're perfect. Let's go get 'em, tiger."
A quick poke of her tongue in his direction had her feeling minimally better; her steps quickened, taking them both toward the entrance of the club. A pulsating sound grew louder the closer they drew, and BB skirted the line entirely, focused on the bouncer with a clipboard near the front.
"Name?" He asked, glancing up from his stool with bored, tired eyes. BB rolled her shoulders.
"Brittany Bernard and Daniel Ciin," she offered, wondering if it might actually work. Most times, she was used to being banned from a place, not given special access. Much to her surprise, the bouncer only flipped past two pages before he nodded and rose from his seat to pull the door open wide. She and Daniel were already disappearing inside, the sound of waiting patrons complaining utterly erased by the bombastic music.
BB dragged Daniel off to a corner in the crowded place, tugging on an arm to whisper in his ear. "The fuck do you think that was about?!"
He only shrugged. "Don't know, don't care," he said. "Could be anything. You're a reporter and any press is good press for a nightclub, right? Maybe? And we're both fine as fuck, so even if it's not about your job, we're good people to just have millin' around in here." He grinned, and gave her arm a little squeeze. "Either way, we're in and now all we've gotta do is find that dude. Right? The biggest obstacle is behind us now."
BB wished she felt like she agreed, but she nodded and rolled her shoulders all the same. Together they plunged into the glittering, pulsing throng within the nightclub; all other times BB had been there, it had been closed for a Pax-only event, making it seem far larger and a little more offputting than it likely should have. Now, BB could see the club in all its glory; a live band ensconced on the state near the far corner, several bartenders working to sling drinks to a seemingly bottomless crowd, and people—just, people everywhere. It was quite clear that CASKET was a popular location, even given its distant location from the hubbub of the Los Angeles center.
Slipping through bodies and elbowing a few out of the way, BB approached the bar. She waved, trying to get someone's attention. When that didn't work, she raised her voice, albeit uselessly over the throng. BB glanced at Daniel, weighing her options, but then decided to do what she did best—make a nuisance of herself. Shoving one person back, she stepped up on an empty barstool that at this crowded juncture was more for show than for an actual person, grabbed someone else's shoulder, and walked up on the bar.
"Ex-cuse me," she bellowed, as much as her smaller figure was able to. Two bartenders stopped dead in their tracks as she mounted the bar, almost coming over it. "I would like to order a drink. And I'm looking for someone."
Daniel wriggled his hips and slid into a sliver of space between BB and the next patron at the bar. The man glanced up, lips parted to speak, but whatever he saw in Daniel's face made him turn away instead. Daniel propped his elbows up on the bar and watched the harried bartender as he made his way to them.
"The owner in?" he asked, leaning over the bar and still half-shouting. "Julian. We need to talk to him."
"Yeah? You and everybody else," the bartender snapped. He looked from Daniel to BB, plainly more interested in the latter. His tone softened considerably. "What kind of drink? And what do you need Julian for, babygirl? He's a busy man, you know. Maybe you could just tell me and I'll see what I can do."
BB shook her head, perhaps doing so a little more than necessary; her gestures were perfectly visible, even if her voice was not.
"His ears only, it's important," she tried to convey through both word and movement, but it looked like it would do little to ease the bar's employees into granting her request. She squatted down a little on the bar. "Can you just, like, tell me where he is?" BB half-pleaded. "And I want a mojito."
"Make it two," Daniel said. The bartender pointedly did not look at Daniel, though he fetched two glasses all the same, and began to mix their drinks.
"I told you, sweetheart, everybody wants to see Julian. Just enjoy your drink and the music and if you see Julian around, say hi. If not… maybe don't bother everybody in the fuckin' club about him. Especially those of us trying to work. OK?" BB pouted, the expression cartoonish on her face.
Daniel rolled his eyes and took the drink when it was handed to him. He shoved a twenty at the bartender and looked to BB, tipping his head back toward the dance floor. She carefully took her drink and stepped down from the countertop to the stool, then to the floor. Together, they elbowed and sidled their way toward the dance floor and the gyrating throng therein; BB sipped her drink, the alcohol within making her feel looser.
She backed up against and grinded with another girl, her arm carefully holding her drink aloft as she left her heist partner to his own devices for the moment; even with the distraction, BB was carefully scanning the club, looking for a solution to their problem. After a minute, and no small amount of rotation to attempt to see the entirety of the space through the numerous people around them, BB spotted an 'employee's only' entrance that offered a tantalizing opportunity.
Sliding away from the girl, BB moved over to Daniel and poked at him, pulling him down enough to her level. She nodded in the direction of the employee's only door, and then took off, expecting him to follow. And he did, the moment he managed to untangle himself from a particularly handsy blonde; he drained his mojito as he followed in BB's wake, and left it sitting on an empty table as they passed.
Daniel cast a wary eye about for security cameras. He saw none, but it seemed safe to assume most would point at the bar and entrances themselves. He offered up a prayer to whatever god watched over such things, that in the press of the Friday night crowd, the security team would be too busy to worry about two well-dressed snoops.
He paused at the door, one dark brow arched as he looked to BB. "So what's your plan?" he asked. "We just… barge right in, or…?" Even as he asked the question his hand was on the doorknob. He tried it, testing the lock.
"Are you seriously asking me that right now?" Daniel shrugged, both brows raised in incredulity. BB sipped the rest of her drink down, putting the ice-filled glass down on the floor to instead focus on the problem presented by the door. A light was on behind it; the lock did not give. A shadow beyond the door moved, but did not get up.
BB reached into the mass of curls that was her hair and withdrew a bobby pin. "Stand in front of me," she hissed, grabbing at Daniel's pants and attempting to force him into the position she wanted while she half-assed an attempt to open the door.
"Stop groping me," he complained, even as he moved precisely where she had demanded. He blocked her from view as best he could. Thankfully no-one in the club had any reason to look down, each of them being far too focused on their own night's hunting. Between thumping bass notes Daniel could hear her scratching at the lock, the bobby pin scraping uselessly off the tumblers.
"I hate to ask this," Daniel said, increasingly impatient, "but are you sure this is really the best idea…"
"Shut up, I know what I'm doing," BB hissed in reply, even when it was markedly clear that she did not. Her tongue poked out of one side of her mouth as she fiddled with the lock, but, unsurprisingly, it continued to not give. What was a surprise, in the end, was the door suddenly swinging open, BB kneeling and gaping up the long line of a figure she could not immediately identify.
"What the hell—" it started, the man's voice familiar. BB made a split second decision; she sprang from her position, tackling around the man's middle and pushing him back into the space from whence he'd come.
A curse started out of Daniel's mouth, but it was cut off as quickly as it had begun. He hurried after them and slammed the door shut behind them, wheeling around to lock it in short order. His heart was pounding in his chest.
"Well," he said, turning back to face BB and their captive. "I've been arrested before, so at least I know what to expect. Let's get this over with…" He slid his hands into the pockets of his black trousers, rocking back on his heels. He did a fair job at feigning nonchalance, all things considered. "Hi again, Julian. Sorry to, uh, bust in like this, but your bartenders were really unhelpful."
Julian was quickly scrambling up from the floor, BB pulling away from him. The club owner put a hand to his desk to pull himself up.
"What even—" he started, leaning back against the desk as his gaze swung from BB climbing to her feet to Daniel in front of the door. Once he recognized them, he rolled his eyes.
"I hope you two realize that this is basically breaking and entering, not to mention a potential hostage situation." Both hands came back to rest on the lip of the desk; despite his words, nothing about him implied that he was at all worried about his situation.
BB crossed her arms over her chest, ticking off things as she spoke. "Uh, one, you opened the door, and two, we just have some questions which I really don't think should be all that hard for you to answer."
Julian scowled. "I told you before, I've got nothing else to say—"
BB's hand sliced through the air, both arms thrust down by her sides. "And I say that's a fat load of bullshit. For one, you basically invited us in here by putting us on the list, and for...actually, no, we're up to four now, you don't get to drop weird little secrets and then go prancing off like nothing's nothing." During her small speech, she took two threatening steps toward the club owner; as threatening as a five-foot person could be, even with her index finger almost jabbing his Adam's apple. Julian's gaze flicked from her to Daniel at the door.
"She coerce you into this, too?"
Daniel shrugged, putting on his best quasi-innocent smile. "Not really. Shit's escalating at Pax, and we're tired of doin' this little dance with you." He motioned to BB. "I'm pretty much exactly on the same page as BB this time. In the last month we've seen shit and been chased by shit that would turn your hair white. So sorry, bro, but this time you dancin' around everything and being all fuckin' cryptic really isn't gonna work."
Julian's gaze swung back to BB's, to which he frowned as the short image of her with her arms crossed over her chest met him. He sighed.
"All right, all right," he muttered, moving around his desk. He motioned to two seats in front of said furniture, implying they should take a seat.
"What, exactly, is it that you want to know?"
BB eyed him as Julian situated himself comfortably, arms crossed on the desktop, as though she were waiting for him to hit some secret button that might open a trapdoor. When none such appeared, she eased into a seat, crossing her legs as she settled her arms on the armrests. Daniel followed her, though he remained visibly tense, perched at the very edge of the seat.
"What exactly did you mean by we need to get out of the building?" She cast a sidelong glance at Daniel, before sweeping back to Julian. "I mean, besides the obvious. You clearly know that there's something about the building, more than you're saying."
Julian pursed his lips, nodding, his gaze flicking between his two impromptu guests. Slowly, he leaned back in his chair, hands coming to rest in his lap. He seemed to be weighing a question; either the content itself, or perhaps how to best phrase it.
"How much do the two of you know about gods?"
"More now than I fuckin' wanted to, I can tell you that much," Daniel said. "We've been dreamin' about 'em, and shit's been goin' on that obviously involves them. But that can't be right, because gods aren't real. Or I would really, really like to believe that, anyway." He folded his arms across his chest, shooting a quick look over to BB. His gaze returned just as quickly to Julian.
"But they are," Daniel added. "Aren't they."
Julian met his eyes for a long moment, and nodded.
"I take it the owner of the building has kept to himself?" He glanced over at BB, who nodded effusively.
"Yeah, and that phone number he's got just goes straight to Stephan, who doesn't actually answer any questions—dude's weird, and I don't mean his dresses," she replied, looking to Daniel for affirmation; he nodded, one dark brow raised. She looked just as quickly back at Julian.
"But what the hell's that got to do with anything?"
Julian's shoulders rose and fell. "If you could get immortality, would you? Powers beyond belief, beyond measure?" BB only stared, looking a little aghast. Julian's gaze dropped to his desk's top. "What if you were sick, and there was no cure? Wouldn't you do anything you could to save yourself?"
Daniel's face fell. His brow furrowed, his eyes narrowing as he stared at Julian. Pieces were beginning to come together, and Daniel did not like the picture they were forming. "No," he answered, flatly. "Not anything. And honestly I've seen enough vampire movies to know immortality can kinda suck. Is that what the owner is tryin' to do? Like that old dude from The Strain?"
"Perhaps," Julian replied, shrugging. He grinned, passively and lopsidedly as his eyes rose to meet Daniel's. "Haven't seen the show, but sure. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what my brother is doing. We aren't exactly on speaking terms, these days."
"Your brother?!" BB nearly hurled herself out of the seat, having at least shot forward to the edge. "So, like, hold up, you knew what he was doing and you still played fucking dumb the last time we were here."
"No one forced you to move in. No one is making you stay." Julian's gaze bored into BB's, actually making her back down a little. "And I haven't said what Antoine is doing, because I don't know. But it's clear that you found out enough that should have had you worried, shouldn't it?"
"That's not the same—"
Julian shrugged, his hands turning up empty in a mirrored gesture. "And now you know. Everything about that building is by his design. Everything he's trying to do... It started out for a good cause. At least, it seemed like it did."
"There's no fuckin' way," Daniel snapped. "People have gotten hurt, man. There was a cannibal. I—" He stopped, putting a hand to his temple as though warding off a headache brought on by this whole nuisance. "OK. Listen. We can't just leave. Too much shit has happened. One dude supposedly moved out and yet all his shit was still in his apartment. You know what that looks like, right?" Julian shrugged, again, unsure of what reassurance Daniel was seeking from him.
Daniel put his hands flat on his thighs. His nails curved into his trousers, working mindlessly at the fabric. "I'm not leavin' until we figure out at least some of what's goin' on. Other people will just move in, and they'll be caught up in all the same shit we are now. He's your brother. Can you talk some fuckin' sense into him?"
Julian's head tilted back as he laughed. He shook his head. "No, oh no, there's...there's very little I can say that would persuade Antoine at all these days. We haven't seen eye to eye for some time."
"Look, even I get pissed off at my brothers, but that doesn't mean we can't, like, discuss shit like diplomats, or whatever," BB interjected, seeing Daniel's line of thought as the main way forward. Julian shook his head again, a hand rising to his neck. It peeled back his collar and undid a few buttons from the top of his shirt, removing cloth until only a very nasty scar remained just below his clavicle.
"The last time I got in Antoine's way, he made himself very clear," he replied, letting the sight sink in for a moment before wrapping the old injury back up. His arms fell back to his armrests. "Now, seeing as I don't think there's much else I can do for you—how about drinks on the house? Enjoy yourselves. As much as you can, anyway."
Daniel shook his head. "I don't want your fuckin' drinks," he muttered. Unthinking, he reached up and scratched at his chest, in precisely the same place as Julian's scar. Anger and hopelessness warred on his face; it was an unfamiliar combination of emotions, and Daniel found he did not care for it in the least. He looked to BB, desperation making him prickly.
"If he did that to his own brother, he's gonna do worse to us. You understand that, right? I can't leave, I've got—I've got friends there. How do I keep 'em safe? How do we keep him from doin' to us whatever he did to Brent?"
"Fuck, I don't know," BB shot back, offended that he assumed she'd skip out on Alice and Gus. She shot up from her chair, cast a glare in Julian's direction, and then stormed out of his office and back out into the throng that was partying it up, unknowing and uncaring about what was going on to a group of strangers just a few short miles away.
Daniel rose and followed after her, pausing only to point an accusing finger back at Julian. "Whatever happens to us," he said, "it's on you as much as fuckin' Antoine." Then he was gone, slamming the office door closed behind them.
He spotted BB wending her way through the crowd and followed without hesitation. He threw elbows where necessary, shoved one young partygoer to the floor, and the look on his face was enough to keep anyone from bowing up in answer. He caught up with her just as she reached the front doors, and he barged outside just in her wake.
"So what now?" he asked, throwing his arms up in earnest confusion. "That fuckin' pussy's no help at all. And he says the whole building is his brother's… what, design? That's some H.H. Holmes shit, BB, and I dunno about you, but I don't wanna die in there."
BB threw up her hands in a mocking mimicry. "Fuck, I don't.... I don't wanna die in there either, and I don't fucking know what I'm gonna tell Alice or my brother or if they'll even listen and..." She cut herself short, the flow of words choked off midway. Her hands came back down to her sides, resting on her waist, before crossing over her chest as she was unable to find a suitable position for thinking. She half turned away, but was just as quickly looking back to Daniel as a thought moved through her mind.
"What about..." she started, then paused, as if hesitant. "What about the Tower? Thing's not on the market anymore, but it was in the previous, I dunno, version of Pax. Maybe he's in there?!"
"Oh, no. No, no, no. You are not..."
But even as he said the words, Daniel knew very well that she would. All that remained was to decide if he would let her go alone. Antoine had always been a menace, but he was increasingly becoming more so; if they intended to keep their friends and family safe, something would have to be done. Daniel sighed and raked a hand through his hair.
"You are, aren't you. You're gonna go in there, right up into his fuckin' living room, and just… what? Confront him?"
BB threw her arms wide, her posture entirely come at me, bro. "Do you have a better idea? What, you wanna wait around and see what else he cooks up next? Just be the fucking little patsies that that fucker in there," she pointed toward CASKET, still throbbing with music and people, "just called us? Won't leave the fucking building, but won't do something about it?!"
"I didn't say that," Daniel said. "Just don't be fuckin' stupid about it." The hard line of his shoulders eased; he drew a deep breath, exhaling on a lengthy sigh. "Just listen to me. You've seen what this guy can do, overnight, to an entire building. What do you think he can or will do if he catches your skinny ass creepin' around his house?" He waved a hand, dismissing at once any response she might have had, and forged ahead. "So you're not goin' alone. I'll go with you. And that's not a request."
BB's mouth was already open to retort, but Daniel's addition to his little speech had her audibly clicking her jaw closed. After a beat, she nodded.
"Good! That's what I'd rather hear. Cause shit isn't as fun when you're doing it alone." She seemed ready to jump out of her skin as she took a pace back, then forward; without invitation, she pulled out her phone and tapped the Uber app. "OK, cool, so we'll just go back, and we'll ride the elevator to the top, I don't think you can get to the Tower unit through that, not unless there's, like, some secret button or something—"
Daniel nodded. A smile played on his lips, something earnest and almost enthusiastic. A quiet voice in the back of his mind urged caution. It was easy enough to ignore. "Works for me," he said. "We can go up there and poke around, see if there's some candlesticks we can move or bookcases to look behind. Get into some real Scooby Doo shit. And who knows? Maybe there's just a door out in the fuckin' open and none of us even thought to walk right in."
The noise of the milling crowd made the gesture mostly unnecessary, but Daniel lowered his voice all the same, and sidled closer to her. "We need to head straight there. I don't trust Julian enough to think he didn't already send his psycho brother a heads up about us."
"No shit," BB agreed, tapping the call button. She was rewarded with an eta of two minutes, which already had her impatiently tapping her foot. She looked back to Daniel, frowning. "I dunno, though. He seemed pretty freaked; you really think that was just a show?"
"No. I think it's probably true that his brother fucked him up and they don't, I dunno, get along or whatever. But that doesn't mean he's not scared enough of him to still tell him things, or keep an eye out for him or whatever. Fear can be as strong a motivator as anything positive." Daniel shook his head. "I just don't trust him, that's all I'm sayin'."
A car pulled up to the curb, an Uber logo stuck at an off-kilter angle on the windshield. Daniel opened the door for BB, then slid into the back seat alongside her. As they pulled away he sent a text to Chris.
Headed home. If you don't hear from me in like 3 hrs, get Kal & come find me
He regretted it the moment he sent it. It was too needy, too pessimistic, too stupid by half. But it was also too late to unsend it, so he simply slid the phone back into his pocket and tried to forget about it.
The car ride was thankfully brief; BB countered Daniel's theory that Julian would send his brother some kind of message, forewarning him. Why would he tell them anything at all, then? It wasn't like they were threatening him, despite her tackling him in his own office. And clearly Antoine had them at a disadvantage.
"I'm not saying your wrong, but, yeah," she finished, jumping out of the car almost before it came to a stop in front of the Pax building. She led them both inside, not pausing to hold the entryway door open for Daniel; thankfully, the lobby was bereft of Stephan and any distraction he might have provided. BB skidded to a stop outside the elevator bank, hitting the button repeatedly.
"It only goes as far as the Deluxe floor. How often you been up there?" BB asked, looking back at Daniel without stopping her assault on the call button.
"Not very," he admitted. "I've wandered around up there a couple times to see when the floors went all weird. But does that even count?" He scratched idly at his nape. "I guess I've only been up there maybe once when it was normal. Or whatever passes for normal in this fuckin' place."
He stepped onto the elevator the moment the doors opened, and quickly thumbed the button for the Deluxe floor. "What are we gonna say if somebody catches us up there? It's not like we've got a legitimate reason to be there."
BB made a raspberry with her lips, and moved to point at a veve chalk drawing that was half over the lip of the elevator doorway.
"Um, we don't need no reason when the building pretty much provides." She could barely sit still, instead pacing the small space between the elevator car walls. "So, like, we're just looking for a door, can't be that hard to find, right? But then, like, why has no one found it yet? And, like, besides—" She stopped short, turning to scrutinize the floor buttons. There was a large silver panel at the top, overly large for such placement. Pointing at it, she shot a look at Daniel.
"You think there was something there?!"
"I mean…" He stepped forward, picking at the silver panel with one bitten nail; BB hovered close, almost in his way. "It kind of looks like there was. But I don't see a way to pull this off, no screws or anything… and even if we did, they've probably disabled that button somehow." He shook his head. "Our best bet is probably still goin' up there and just pokin' around, as much as I hate that. The chalk drawings or whatever are as good an excuse as any if one of the one percent up here minds us plebs bein' on their floor."
The car eased to a stop and the doors opened, revealing the wildly transformed Deluxe floor hall. Daniel stepped out ahead of BB, glancing up and down the corridor. He put his hand against one wall as he walked, fingertips splayed to feel for anything strange on the wall—stranger, of course, than the paintings, curtains, and candles that adorned them. He felt no secret latches or telltale catches, but he wondered how much of that was due to the numerous decorations in his way. Frustrated, he looked back to BB.
"Anything?"
She had followed in his steps, taking up the opposite side of the hall, her hands creeping over the red paint that didn't entirely feel like paint. A few flakes patterned her palms when she pulled them away from the walls. Frowning, she shook her head at Daniel, one hand reaching out to pluck back a curtain that hid a purple-themed altar strewn with items that were only one step away from looking like someone's refuse pile pushed into the hallway.
"This is bullshit," she muttered, eyes moving upward. "You can see that there's another two floors up there, there has to be a way up!" She motioned to Daniel. "C'mere, lift me up to the ceiling."
Daniel blinked, though he was less confused than his boyish expression might have led her to believe. He looked up at the ceiling, searching for loose tiles, cracks, or any seams at all. "OK, but where? I'm not hauling you all up and down this floor til you find somethin' that looks promising. Pick a spot and we'll start there."
He sidled up next to her, looking up above the altar as she had. Still he saw nothing. After the briefest moment of consideration, Daniel clambered up atop the altar, kicking over offerings as he found his footing. He stretched up toward the ceiling, his fingertips skimming where the ceiling met the wall. "OK, look at this." He motioned her to come up beside him. "Does this feel like something to you?"
She followed without further encouragement, rising up as much as she was able on tiptoe on top of the altar. BB wasn't even close to where Daniel was reaching, but she could see the outline of what he was getting at.
"It's a vent," she breathed, as though this were the greatest revelation in the world. "It's a vent!" Her words grew more excited. "Do you know what this means?!"
"I mean I can guess," he said. He turned to face her, folding his arms across his chest. "Don't take this the wrong way, BB. You're small, but are you that small? I already told you you're not goin' in there alone, and I cannot follow you up there. Like I physically cannot. So what's the plan now?"
BB started to puff up at the assumption she wouldn't fit into the vent, and then deflated before she could make an assertion that he was calling her fat. It was true—Daniel wasn't going to fit in there, no matter how much butter or lube they greased him with. Shaking her head, BB jumped down off the altar.
"I guess we're back to square one, then," she muttered darkly, more than irritated at their failed plan. She felt only a little dizzy following the one drink she'd had at the club, but it seemed like there was little more they could do in that moment. She felt half tempted to grab and smash something off of the altar, but she well remembered the events of the floor change and how eating some of the rice off of Alice's floor had changed her arm a million times over; she didn't want to have that happen all over again.
"I guess we should call it a night, maybe... regroup in the morning. Talk to Kal, whoever else will listen." BB pouted, drawing her arms tight over her chest at their defeat.
Immediately Daniel nodded. "Yeah, that's a plan. I think Kal would come with us. Maybe Chris, too, and um… I dunno. What about Max? Or Mercy, I bet she'd be down. We ended up in this fuckin' maze, with a storm…" He nodded again, more certain now. "Yeah, I bet she'd come, too. If there's enough of us there's not much anybody could do about it even if they do get pissy about us pokin' around."
BB was half tempted to ask about this Mercy and the maze, but her deflation over their inability to find out more than she'd hoped at the beginning of the evening had her mostly not caring. She nodded, turning her steps toward the elevator with stubborn sluggishness. Her eyes never stopped darting around the space, as though she might spot some clue at the eleventh hour.
"Sure, fine, I mean, like, whatever, the more the merrier, right?" She shrugged. "Worst comes to worst, some cannon fodder wouldn't be a bad idea. Few of us might survive to sue the bastard, right?" BB turned a malicious smile in Daniel's direction, only half joking. It left him a little unsettled, but he felt foolish for that. For once he held his silence, and forced himself to dismiss his nebulous fears.