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?

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Badou's a little apprehensive about what kind of distraction she's going to pull, but it'll be worth it right? It's for the safety of a KID. For taking down the badguys. Just the kind of stuff he never wanted to be involved in.

He's been focused on crouching his lanky bod as much as possible, making himself as small as possible. Which isn't very small, consequently.

"Yeah. Just don't get yourself killed, kay?"

He shifts his weight to the balls of his feet, muscles spring-loaded.

"You're not going to give me the slip that easily," Elizabeth smirks at him before sobering her expression and giving him a little nod. She sways on her feet and reaches out for the vase as though she's trying to steady herself, and pulls it down to the ground as she falls. It breaks, and damn is it loud as it cracks into dozens of pieces on the floor next to her.

Sure enough, some pencil-pusher pokes his head out of his office, exclaims in shock, and rushes out. The commotion spreads to the rest of the hall, and soon all of the hall is pouring out to crowd around Elizabeth and help. Her eyes roll back as she's pushed up and fanned and all manner of ridiculous gestures to soothe a fainted woman.

She really hopes Badou has run in during the commotion, because this is goddamn humiliating.

How the hell did that tiny vase cause everything? Badou has no time to wonder about this, he's booking it. Sure enough he slips in, the coast is clear, any noise he could have made, like with squeaky shoes or knocking into another vase is covered by Elizabeth.

It's a good thing he'd swiped a keycard too because as soon as he finds that door he slips inside to start looking around. Paper trail's the first best thing, rather than getting right to searching.

A little noise here, a little distraction there, and preying on the generally-helpful nature of people-- Elizabeth has Badou's cover in the bag. It's not hard to spot the swathe of red hair dart into the offices, and she's glad he hasn't stopped to make sure she'll be alright in the middle of a bunch of fussing office workers.

Most of them are offering to call a doctor, asking her if she's hurt, how many fingers she sees. Weakly, she croaks out that she needs to lay down, reassures them that she can stand on her own-- and then buckles her knee under herself the moment she tries to stand. More rush to help her, one's putting her arm around her shoulders, another has her other arm, someone even grabs her around the waist. This really is overkill-- maybe they were just bored out of their minds working at their desks.

They carry her to the lobby, to one of the comfy couches and stretch her out. Water is passed around, offers to call someone-- Elizabeth blinks and squints though her 'haze'.

"Where's my boyfriend?"

He's rummaging around in somebody's office, probably. Elizabeth hopes he's quick to come back, before they start a full-blown search party.

Her distraction sure was damn good-- it's so loud he can hear it all the way from inside the closed office door. He's hurrying through files, fingers searching every nook and cranny for any hidden false drawers and other cliche shit these dumbfucks can't stand not to use.

Its a good thing they're cliche, though, because Badou eventually finds what he needs, he suspects. And in good time, too. So, he stuffs the papers in the back of his pants and hurries out to join Elizabeth.

"Yo, what happened out here?"

The office boys want to sound big and important, so initially they tell Badou he has to stand back and give her air-- but Elizabeth couldn't be more thrilled that she can knock off the nonsense.

"Benedict...!" Elizabeth struggles to sit up, reaching for him. "I... I had another spell."

"Why the fuck Benedic-- I mean-- oh, babe-- come here."

Having to quiet down the little puff of indignation at the really shitty fake name, he hovers at her side until the office pencil pushers can't see past the curtain of his hair, and he winks to indicate yep, got it.

"Did these guys get you some water? You look parched, Sigourney."

Look, she had to come up with this plan on the fly, and while there's probably a dozen Elizabeths around Thisavrou, how many Badous are there? Probably just the one. So Benedict it is. First name that came to mind.

Sigourney though. The corner of her mouth twitches a little bit in horror, but she keeps it together. "Yes, but I forgot my pills, we need to go home... if that's alright?"

ITS AWFUL!! He's going to have to show her a bunch of movies, get her some good ideas. Even Brad isn't that bad.

He gently weaves his arms around her shoulders to lift her up to her feet. "Of course, baby doll, of course-- let's get you home, gonna have you rest."

Once she stands, Badou turns to their audience, smile sheepish. "Thanks for watchin' out for her, guys. I'd be doomed if something happened to her."

She needs education in many things-- movies in particular. Her fake names come from 1912 for crying out loud. But it's worked this time at least, the office workers seem to buy that the two of them are an item (the reactions range from disappointed she's taken to thrilled that this adorable story is playing out in front of them).

"Don't I know it..." she says with a little chuckle, leaning on Badou and letting him take the lead. Once they're out of earshot--

"Sigourney? Really?"

"I could say the same! I ain't eggs Benedict, thank you very much," he's Almost disappointed in her for that, but the thrill of victory chimes too loudly in his blood to really pay more attention than that initial bitching.

"Got our boy's location, if you're not too busy being a B-roll movie star and boss to these low level shits."

"It was the first thing that came to mind, alright? Cut me some slack, I got you in didn't I? And out." She's enjoying the victory too, though. That was a clean execution, cleaner than anything she's ever done. And she can't help but think that the reason is she's not doing this by herself. She had backup to carry them through. "...Nice job picking up the threads. Especially since I didn't actually tell you what the plan was."

Hazard of always working by herself. But that can wait.

"Where? Where is he?" Forget the low level shits.

He puffs up his chest, clearly enjoying the praise despite giving her shit. That was reasonably due, according to him.

"I'm hard boiled-- I always take my cue. Ah, about that-- our princess is in another castle. Not a busy office this time, but a warehouse with all its spoopy goings-on and annoyed guards."

Badou isn't exactly thrilled, seeing as he'd rather face office workers any day, but its something.

"A warehouse, hm?" Why is she not surprised? Shady hotel, shady warehouse, where else would you keep an abducted child? Her expression darkens as she imagines what kind of conditions Frank and potentially other children are being held in.

"They can't get annoyed if they don't know what hit them," she says simply. "What's the address? Let's get a transport."

Its better it isn't a hotel, maybe. Or maybe this is worse-- people can be cattle in a number of places. Less than human, less than goods. He doesn't want to think about it, not until they get there, at least.

"No, they're probably gonna get fucked up," he knows this much, and admits the address readily. "Won't take a bit to get there once we got one."

And its a good thing their papers are in working order or whatever. He starts to lead her towards the prize.

"In a hurry." Elizabeth has no sympathies for the security, even if they aren't directly involved in what was going on. Anybody who let children be exploited because it meant they got a paycheck was the lowest of the low, and had forfeited their right to be treated like a human being. She could put one right between their eyes at close range and she wouldn't lose sleep.

Elizabeth is quiet on the transport, her mind really starting to paint a vivid and stomach-turning picture of what they could be faced with. Truth be told, it's probably an exaggeration, and she knows her mind is telling her stories based on how emotional she is right now, but she's letting it happen. She's getting angry, quiet angry, as she sits next to Badou and sways gently with the motion of the transport.

He, too, tries to concentrate on what's ahead. Tries to get ready, anticipate the worst case scenarios. Being used for fish bait...that'd be pretty bad. Being maimed again, mmm, sounds nice.

(the worst of the worst: it was all for nothing)

It takes him a moment, but after awhile he can practically feel the cloud of despair and rage looming over her. He nudges her with his shoulder, slightly concerned.

"You gonna be alright? Your face'll stay that way, y'know."

Elizabeth sways under the nudge, but blinks out of her running mental commentary. Or doom-and-gloom session-- the latter is probably more accurate. She flashes a fairly forced and brief smile at Badou. "Just thinking."

Does she have to elaborate on what? The two of them could only be thinking about one thing right now, right?

"...I'm not here entirely for him, is the problem," she says after a beat. "And I'm too spent to feel guilty about it."

He hums, swaying slightly.

"I'll tell ya a secret-- same here. And I might be too raw to think otherwise."

Honestly, the entire incident of obtaining this information helped to deaden the thoughts of the past. But now that they have time to think, it twirls and spins in Badou's mind, endlessly.

That's a surprise, honestly. True enough, the whole time they've been running around chasing Frankie, there have been moments where Elizabeth suspected this meant more than just a job to Badou but she hadn't expected that the two of them were experiencing something so similar. She hadn't expected anyone to feel like she did.

"Too raw?" she asks, turning and looking up at Badou.

Suddenly finding himself in the spotlight, he fiddles with anything at hand, which happens to be a thread hanging from his jacket.

"Happened to be on a case like this once upon a time. Didn't turn out too good for me back then...so I can't stop thinking about it. Gotta remember this ain't that one."

Easier said than done.

Elizabeth gives Badou a long look, trying to read between the lines and see why it didn't turn out well. She can't figure it out, the context doesn't provide much for her to go off of and when she tries to look...

It feels wrong. She stops looking and faces forward.

"This won't be that one," she confirms, folding her hands in her lap and straightening her spine resolutely. "I'll make sure of that. We're going to make a happy ending out of this one."

There's no question. They both need it, so that's how it has to turn out.

He needs it so badly. Needs to badly for this world not to be tainted by what happened long ago, too. The past always nips at your heels, but maybe space-time-whatever travel gives you a bit of a break. Maybe it doesn't repeat itself.

"Yeah...yeah, it won't be. Got a trump card this time."

Badou manages a half-assed smile, just a slight tilt of the mouth.

Elizabeth needs some kind of purpose, some reason to be alive aside from the day-to-day grind and the endless hours of normal life. There was a time when she'd wanted nothing but normal, but lately, all of it is too... pointless. She's too lonely, too lost, and if she could just do one thing to make someone's life better, everything would surely be fixed. Surely.

She smirks up at Badou. "You've got me."

Part of him feels better that he's not alone in this feeling, in whatever hard experiences that have tainted their pasts, their futures.

Still he's uneasy.

(even worse, someone like her went through something just as bad...damn reality, but damn travesty)

"That's right. And me, I'm the wild card."

Being stuck in this hum-drum life is great, its normal..it slips through his fingers.

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