shatterverse | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

In Metropolis....

Eden McCain has a table to herself at a coffee shop - notebook papers are spread over it with titles like 'Main Character' and 'Subplot 1'. The great post-apocalyptic novel isn't going to get written any other way! She felt like dressing like a cliche artist - and is wearing a navy blue beret.

Tom Therin is whistling cheerfully to himself as he walks down the street, idly looking for pockets to pick.

On the Cooper farm....

Bridgette Dubois has a stuffed pony, a lion, and a unicorn in a semi-circle on the lawn to the Cooper house. "Whoever wants me to sing Lion King at the talent show, say aye!"

The stuffed animals are silent, but Bridgette - after checking on Marie, who claps her hands in agreement an area to her left - nods as if they actually spoke. "All right - how about Sound of Music?"

Oliver Wycliffe, dressed in white and looking thoughtful, is riding his stallion Beauregard down the road to the farm.

Dana, an extremely tired-looking young woman in ratty jeans and a T-shirt, is waiting nervously in front of the hospital, gnawing on her lip.

[ooc: Tag one, tag all, but please let me know which one you're tagging!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Don't!" Mel snaps at him. "Don't you dare. You made this place unsafe. It's supposed to be a sanctuary!"

"Aye, for the people he allows."

Jack's voice doesn't rise, but his chin does, his eyes narrowing. "He would have killed someone was here before you or I. Drove out whoever he didn't like."

Oliver isn't about to deny it. "I would have attacked what I thought was a threat, yes. A very specific threat in a very specific circumstance."

He takes a slow breath in. "Should the rat-skin return, I will deal with him as discussed at the meeting."

Which will be, actually, not to kill him at all - but Oliver's pride is already stinging with this admission. He intends to say little else in front of Jack.

He can update Mel on the presence of skinshifters later.

"And for that, you have nothing to fear from me," Jack says dryly. "I'll let my friend know he no longer has to fear for his life from here."

Yes, his reasons for saying that is precisely because Oliver doesn't want him to know. He looks around quickly, checking the wards laid down.

"Just like the other such shifters."

Oliver's skin goes cold, his expression closed off. Jack is a better lie-catcher than any he ever dealt with at the abbey. It's not fair...but it never is.

When Mel doesn't say anything, Oliver takes another breath in, holds it for a moment, then lets it out. "Tell your friend, then," he says mildly, though the feelings within are anything but. "There's even another one here - some sort of dinosaur-skin. He lives here well enough."

"OK," Mel says. She can deal with a dinosaur shape-shifter, although she'd much rather have Angua.

She bows her head, thinking. She still has to deal with what happened.

"This is not to happen again. No personal fights on the ground. We keep it safe."

"A cell could be made easily enough," Oliver interjects, not with a tone of disagreement - simply to see how Mel takes the idea.

Mel takes it like this: he head snaps back and her face goes pale - literally blanching at the idea.

"A cell?"

The last person she saw celled, she also saw executed.

Jack's hand snaps to his sword hilt.

"Aye, and you can try me," he says, all good humour gone. "You'd more like see me dead."

While unexpected, it is an answer. Oliver's expression gentles as he opens his mouth to reply to Mel--

-- but Jack sufficiently distracts him. His face grows cold and his body tenses...but that's about all he can do. Justice really doesn't work when the criminals are better armed than the cops.

"Perhaps not in this circumstance," Oliver says. "I'm one man with my own biases."

He doesn't add that something must be done nevertheless. He's waiting for Jack to take his hand off that sword.

Mel in turn scowls at Jack. "Don't think I won't, you go for any more hands. Both of you."

This is why she never wanted to be in charge: decisions like this. Not like she can fine him; there's no money. She's reluctant to banish him while keeping Oliver here. She can't...

"Work," she says firmly. "You're going to stay here for a while, and see me everyday and I'm going to make you work in the fields. Tonnes of jobs for you there."

And Jack did save her daughters' lives.

That's rather soft for a missing hand. Oliver frowns.

But given her obvious resistance to a cell, which is something that would better be discussed with the entire community anyway....

"I can keep an eye on him and make sure he reports," he offers.

That Oliver thinks it's not enough is some comfort to Jack.

Not being able to leave... he scowls, but says nothing, which in a way is concession.

Mel's about to say she has it, but she nods to Oliver. "Yes, thanks."

Continuing, though, as she wasn't done, she puts out her hand to Jack. "Weapons. You'll have them back when you can leave."

Oliver doesn't know the 'I'm watching you' gesture. But the sense of it is very much present in the glance he sends Jack.

Jack smirks almost involuntarily at the threatening glance, but scowls even deeper when Mel says that.

She's telling the truth. Out of everyone on this farm, Mel's one of the few who don't lie as a matter of course. It doesn't make him like her, but it does mean he knows he's not going to lose his possesions...

When he unslings his sash, folds it around three guns, two swords, and a powder case, and hands them over.

Oliver just stands silent and looming and alert.

Also mildly envious at the sight of such familiar weaponry, not that this last one shows.

Mel pulls them to herself, barely giving them a glance. Instead, she glances at Oliver quickly, before turning back to Jack.

"I'll put these away. And will see you after getting something to eat. By the gate to the fields."

Jack nods heavily in lieu of a bow.

"I'll take the time to tell my girl I'm staying."

Oliver won't speak until Jack leaves.

"Thank you for helping this issue get resolved," he says to Mel, relaxing enough to give a short, weary sigh.

And today had been going so well, too.

Mel swallows, still thinking too hard, eyes at Jack's retreating back.

"If it is resolved," she says.

A grunt of agreement follows.

Oliver takes another moment to collect his thoughts. "We are fortunate that he was so cooperative."

Others might not be.

"Yeah," Mel agrees. "Well, he was just protecting a friend."

"He was," he agrees blandly.

"Any society must have a system of justice," he subject-changes.

"My experience is that it's never actually justice," Mel remarks bluntly.

(no subject)

sworntoalostgod.livejournal.com - 2008-06-28 15:36 (UTC) - Expand

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only