|: 015. Video : No Man Sees My Face and Lives :|

[andyougoleft]

     [ Public ]

     [Not much fazes Slevin when he gets a chance to prepare; the Barge has been home to a great number of the things in this category, of course, but he's also made of pretty solid stuff and, given the variety of things to knock him on his heels, he thinks he's done fairly well.  He's certainly managed to dodge two of these, but now he knows what he's in for.  He knows exactly what he's in for.

     When the feed clicks on he's carding his fingers through his hair, which is still sticking up in strange directions regardless, which is the only nervous fidget he allows himself.  Other than that he looks cocksure as always, and he's smiling.]

     To give me to someone I don't belong to is cowardly, but to take me is noble.  I can be a game, but there are no winners.  What am I?


    [OOC: This is Slevin's Fourth Wall Post.  All comers welcome!]

Comments

[tallknock]

[The reason, of course, that she'll accept a phone as barter. She has everything she wants, already.]

Blame. [Nothing about this situation seems to strike her as unusual. She looks much the same as always, too.]

Or ugly heirloom china.

[andyougoleft]

[Sometimes, something can shake Slevin enough to ruffle his calm, sometimes he's afraid, or hurt, and a lot of the times he's angry.

Nothing here makes him soften like he does when she picks up the other end, though, and he's still nervous but he's also smiling.

God, he's missed her. He barely even knows her, but he's missed her so much.]

Definitely the china. Although I feel like there's at least one game you could play with that where someone wins.

[tallknock]

The only game you play with ugly china where someone wins is when it gets destroyed at the end, and that's kind of cheating, don't you think?

[The truth of the matter is she sees so much of Henry and so little of Slevin that his softness doesn't surprise her. This is the man she knows. She's missed him too. It's been about five minutes, but that's long enough.]

Unless it's target practice. Then you'd have an advantage over me.

I think you might have an advantage over me now.

[andyougoleft]

That's exactly the game I was thinking. I have to take what I can get.

[He always feels so dumb around her, and that's not a common feeling for him at all. Normally it's not a comfortable one either, but it's hard to feel anything negative about listening to her snap comebacks to him almost faster than he can catch them.

It's hard to remember to keep giving her things to reply to instead of just listening. The corner of his mouth tugs a bit further.]

It's okay. I promise to give it back when I'm done.

[tallknock]

You promise?

[Her tone implies she isn't sure if she believes him. Maybe she does, maybe she doesn't. But she knows he wants her to believe him. And maybe, maybe she's a little annoyed. People are giving her the runaround.]

[She hates not having answers.]

You should finish up quick, then. Who knows what kind of weirdos hang around here.

~~~> Private ]

[andyougoleft]

[He knows he's caught out the moment he hears that tone, and it would be surprising for him if he'd never met her, if he hadn't already seen her talking to Chris. If it were anyone else he would lean harder on his story, he would be charming, or aggressive, or talk too fast for anyone else to get a word in or process his points.

But it's her, so after a moment not of hesitation but of consideration - it's so crazy, it sounds so crazy, but it's not the first time he's asked her to believe something insane, is it? - he switches the feed to private and lets his expression settle to something calmer, warmer, something much less guarded than anyone else sees from him, ever.]

It's hard to believe. I'd understand if you weren't there when I got back.

[andtheyfallright]

Easy, blame.

[ Goodkat is not impressed, okay. He's amused.]

Come on, you can do better then that.

[andyougoleft]

[Cold shoots through him, and it takes every single ounce of self control he has to not let it show. There's a lot of that, of course, but he also wasn't expecting this at all.

It's been a long time since he's seen Goodkat, too, and the only thing that comes natural is not looking guilty. He aims instead for that comfortable place, that slightly antagonistic but ultimately obedient back and forth.]

Yeah, I can, but can you?

[andtheyfallright]

Of course.

[ Cool and calm as always he just thinks on it a second. Sure he's game. He can see somethings going on but he was not the afternoon speical kind of talker. So, best to see how it plays out.]

He who has it doesn't tell it. He who takes it doesn't know it. He who knows it doesn't want it. What is it?

[ He's watching Henry, curious but not too curious.]

[andyougoleft]

[The riddle isn't the problem; Slevin has a dozen answers for it before the final question is complete, and of those what the likely answer is. He uses the time to stall, though, to try and find his footing.

Counts to five, lets out a breath, and smirks.]

Not that I'd know anything about it, good upstanding citizen like myself, but counterfeit currency. You should change your game up at least once every century.

[andtheyfallright]

[ And while Henry's thinking, Goodkat is observing. Kid's hiding something, He'd be sweating bullets if he wasn't so good. Then again, of course he was good. He had trained the kid after all.

He was curious, but no reason to say anything. There is always time. The light amused look did fade.]

What can I say, I have a theme. [ He didn't need to say much. Just enough to get a reaction.]

[andyougoleft]

[Reactions are, of course, his specialty. Goodkat plays the straight man, cuts through their targets like machine gun fire if it were absolutely silent and accurate, while Henry does the song and dance, keeps the attention, gets them in when flash will do it better than steel.

The problem is, history is working against him here. His particular brand of flash never worked on Goodkat, not for long, not often, not with any kind of pattern Henry could ever figure. He leans on it harder, raising both eyebrows, ignoring the way his mouth has gone dry.

He needs a plan and he needs it fast. Needs hints out of a man that buries people for taking his picture, that no one knows the name of, not even him. Henry is so screwed.]

So did Jaws, but that didn't work out so well for him. I mean for most of the movie, sure, but by the end they got it figured out, didn't they?

I [Hail Mary, full of grace] thought we were meeting up later?

[manshutthehellup]

I think I know the answer to that one. It's blame, right?

You in the mood for riddles?

[andyougoleft]

It's blame.

That depends on what kind of riddles.

[manshutthehellup]

I'm not always so good at them myself, but I can be pretty decent at word games, sometimes. But, sometimes a guy can just use a nice harmless puzzle to work on.

Let's see, here's a short one. What asks, but never answers?

[andyougoleft]

[Slevin raises both eyebrows at that, because that actually sounded like an honest answer. He doesn't get many of those without working for them, or willingly.]

An owl.

Do you know what's going on here?

[manshutthehellup]

[That's Sam. Offering up unprompted honesty without making a guy work for it.]

You all are on a prison ship in space stuck between dimensions, and some bug in the system or something has allowed these sudden calls out. Yeah. I got the memo by now. Took me awhile, but luckily folks were willing to explain.

[andyougoleft]

And you're just okay with all of that? No big deal, just start throwing around some riddles?

[This isn't particularly excitable, on Slevin's part; skeptical, but mildly so.]

(Hope you don't mind)

[crawfordstone]

[ All you get is text, Slevin. ]

    Keep Chris out of trouble.
                      -C

Not at all!

[andyougoleft]

[A text which gives Slevin pause, going still and narrow-eyed. He keeps smirking, though, and then shakes his head.]

Well, C, I'm not sure what I've said to make you think I'm a miracle worker. There's a big difference between mostly an idiot and all of an idiot, and he's definitely all idiot.

Eeee!

[crawfordstone]

     He is, and he will always be. This holds true across the worlds. Just watch his back, and never give him a gun.
                                        - C

[andyougoleft]

Yeah, I've never been suicidal. I was a Jehovah's Witness once, but I didn't have the hiking boots to cut it and had to admit maybe I needed glasses instead of religion.

[crawfordstone]

[ The words actually make him forget his attempts at anonymity. But he was never great at to sticking to tactics that weren't loud and violent. And with his means of communication being tied up with focus and will power, it all just flips over to video the moment he gets frustrated. So, Slevin, you get a cranky, scruffy, chain-smoking redhead. ]

What the hell's religion got do with this?!

[ He's also not that great at picking up on the subtler things in a conversation. ]

[chaoticreckless]

The clap.

[andyougoleft]

Two out of three, anyway.