thisavrou_log | [CLOSED] LA's, Truth to Tell, Not Much Different--

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[CLOSED] LA's, Truth to Tell, Not Much Different--

Who: The Legs and The Eyepatch
When: May 11th
Where: Kauto
What: One of Elizabeth's storytime regulars has gone missing, she enlists one of the few people she still knows, Badou, to help track the kid down. As with most kidnapping incidents, things go south.
Warnings: Badou. And violence. Definitely some blood.

It'd been some time between Elizabeth's bar fight, but not much longer since Thane had left. Vaguely, she's been aware of things going on around Thisavrou, but has she had any desire to engage with any kind of activity or person on both planets? Not exactly.

She has to eat, so she goes through the motions of work. That's easy enough. Shelve this here, catalog this there, straighten up the inevitable disaster the children left in the kids' section. That-- she didn't mind so much. She smiled at one of the girls who was hugging one of the beanbag chairs and pouting, and crouched down.

"Viola it's time to go home, where's your brother?" The two of them usually walked home together, but now that she thought about it, she hadn't seen Frankie in a few days. Viola gripped the beanbag tighter and Elizabeth's smile flickered.

"Dad said he's coming back soon?" The little girl didn't sound convinced, so neither was Elizabeth. As she closed up the desk, Elizabeth casually abused her librarian privileges and found some full names. Sure enough, Frankie had been abducted a week ago, and his parents were getting desperate if all of their network activity could be trusted.

"...well, what the hell else am I doing?" she muttered, gathering up her coat and walking with purpose to the door. It's the first time she's actually decided to do something after work in a long, long time.

It's your favorite psych patient. What have you got on at the moment? Anything exciting?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

well in that case he could have told his friends something weird he saw. a kid that young aint just that
hes vulnerable.

i hate to take either but i can take the parents, you take the brats. you could probably get more out of them

Exactly.

Which is why Elizabeth is so eager to find whoever did this and make sure it never, ever happens again. No more exploitation of the ones who weren't able to fight back.

I'll set up the meeting with the parents, we can compare notes later tomorrow if you're available-- say around 3?

This is incredibly troublesome, not to mention pinging on memories he'd much rather forget.

that works out. try not to worry to hard and lose sleep, you wont help that way

Believe me, I think I'll sleep better tonight than I have in a while. See you tomorrow.

Oddly enough, she does. And in the morning she spends the day at the kid's school, and she realizes that she probably does have the advantage here when it comes to convincing teachers to let their students talk to her. She's a librarian after all, and a former officer of the Moira. Clearly there's nothing to worry about, right?

Later on, Elizabeth waits at a nicer looking cafe, deep in thought over her cooling coffee. She's trying to focus on what's happening right now, but she's also a million miles away and trying to separate this case of an abducted boy from an abducted and changed girl.

He'd never change the way he looks just for the hell of it, so professionally its a no-go too. Still, at least the parents seemed desperate enough to put their trust in him to find their kid. Badou also doesn't want to do that ever again, see the weeping parents, the frustration and pain on their faces. He'd rather deal with 5 thugs than do that.

At least this part might be easier. Still shaken to the core, the redhead doesn't give much more thought to how this is one of the nicer cafes he's ever been to. When he spots her, he sits down across from her.

"Yo."

Elizabeth blinks out of her own quietly shaken state when he sits down. He looks just like he feels, probably, same as she does. "Thanks for coming," she nods, thinking that this is one hell of a way to have a first in-person meeting. No time for lunch and a drink though, not when she's practically drowning and needs something to pull her up. She looks over her shoulder for a waiter.

"Can I get you something? Coffee?"

He doesn't even think he could eat anything right now, and they don't exactly have time. Too much time has been lost already, his heart kicks into overdrive as a new flash of anxiety washes over him.

"Coffee's fine. I take it things went about as well as they did with me, huh."

"...Probably better, honestly. They don't really know what's happening. I tried to keep it that way."

The waiter comes and Elizabeth orders another large coffee-- and he takes off to fetch it right after giving both of them a strange once-over. They are kind of an odd pair, but Elizabeth does feel something... comforting that they're both there for the same purpose.

"But I might have hit a dead end, honestly," Elizabeth sighs. "A lot of the kids remember seeing a man watching Frank from behind the playground fence, and they said they played 'wave and run' with him. They'd wave at him, he'd wave back, and they'd all run away. Not because he was scary, but because Frank's father didn't like him." She sighs and leans back. "That's to be expected though-- who would like a man who watched your child like that? I'm surprised he didn't call the police. Or the mitigators, or whatever they're called here."

She pauses. "...his parents didn't call the police on someone, did they?"

'Wave and run' huh. That's suspect as hell, and has his mind whirling around that idea for a moment or two.

"They haven't, not on that guy, but the dad was the first to bring him up. I haven't gotten a chance to look into him yet."

Badou doesn't want to decisively say yay or nay to the possibility-- it could all just be bias. However,

"I took the time to look into the parents while I was at it, though. Normal mortgage in space, that kinda thing, but there's something specific I noticed too."

Elizabeth nods, thoughtfully. "Makes sense that he would bring him up if they had Unfriendly Words, but you have to wonder why he didn't make a report. Or at least tell one of the teachers he was unwelcome."

But it sounded like he came around a lot and no one thought to say anything. Was he a trusted figure? A sympathetic one? Just plain unnoticed...?

"Specific how?"

He tilts his head. "I thought he could just be someone he wants to beat on all his own when the timing's right. But the specific thing is some money going to an unknown account every month."

One narrow shoulder rolls. "Big deal, could be some kinda bill, I thought. But it ain't a bill. Not a family member just receiving cash."

Elizabeth tilts her head and leans in. "Are we talking about a hefty amount of money, or an obscene amount of money?"

He, too, leans in.

"I'm talking too obscene to 'donate' to some hotel."

"A hotel?" Elizabeth narrows her eyes, far from confused but highly suspicious. "Do we know which hotel?"

"Oh we know it, though folks like us could never afford it." He slides a picture across the table, a very expensive and well known place on Kauto.

"Makes me wonder how dad could."

Elizabeth pulls the photo across and looks at it, her eyes nearly bugging out. This hotel is huge, and it looks like there's a small garden on every gold-plated balcony or something equally ridiculous.

"This is a hotel?" Boggling later, work now. "This is great. Let's go."

She starts picking up her things, putting on her scarf and so on. "What's the name of it?"

Badou's actually taken aback. So much so that there's a pause as he peers at her.

"You sure that's a good idea? I'm all for sneaking into expensive dinners and shit but it could get hairy."

Elizabeth pauses and looks at Badou like he's offered to change into a suit and tie for the occasion-- confused but trying to parse.

"...you didn't come armed?"

She knows full well that most people don't go to places with handguns, but Elizabeth is not most people. And they're working a kidnapping case with a potentially volatile suspect, why wouldn't Badou be prepared?

Did she come packing to a kindergarten? Maybe.

"I have another one you can borrow," she says, indicating her bag.

The redhead has to roll his eye.

"Of course I came armed-- I don't just walk around naked y'know." Because nowadays that's what it feels like without his guns-- naked as hell.

"I was just surprised you're ready to stake it out right away, that's all." He's a little hesitant to go in there guns blazing but...surely they can be subtle...

She snorts and lowers her bag with a small smirk. "Most people do. Walk around naked, that is." It might be nice to go back to the days where she wasn't always armed no matter where she went, but she's waiting for the other shoe to drop here, for some fight to break out that she has to be armed for.

"There's a child involved, Badou," she says, weight coming back to her voice. There's a story there, obviously. "He doesn't have a minute to wait, neither do I."

He sighs softly, climbs to his feet.

"Course he can't wait, who know's what's going on. But he should be rescued with a good plan not something half-assed on emotion. I don't plan on any of us dying here," weight fills his voice as well.

Badou makes a good point, Elizabeth can't see this objectively right now. She's ready to go in, guns blazing, and rescue Sally. Frankie. Frankie.

...this is exactly why she needs someone else with her on this. When children are involved, she can't put aside images of Comstock abducting her, of Sally in a heating pipe, no matter what she does.

But if she can fix another child's life, save them from someone older and stronger doing whatever they liked, it's another step.

"Right. You're right," she says, letting out a long, slow breath. "Now you know why I called you.

"So, what's the plan? Does this fancy place have a jewel-encrusted back door?"

His smile brightens slightly.

"Not just cause I'm hard boiledly handsome." Whatever that means. He slides another picture across the table.

"There happens to be something like that, and I've got a way in. I've greased some ears. Instead of hands, y'know."

"You've got one hell of a smile, I'll say that-- but if you knew the kind of messes I got myself into before I even saw the Moira, you'd beg me to find someone calm too."

She pulls the picture over and takes in as many details as she can. Doesn't seem like there's much security, but photos can be deceiving. "Ears?" she asks with a raised eyebrow. "You told them what the situation is?"

He scoffs, waves a hand. "Like I'd be that dumb. I told them of some goodies just waiting, unprotected, in a part of the city faaarrr from us that's too good to pass up."

He just hopes they'll fall for it-- he has very little to do with a plan b (yet) if they don't.

It's a good thing he's on the calm side right.

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