paradoxlol | .048 | SPAM FOR ALICE MORGAN // backdated to start of flood // Perry and others welcome, too!

Entry tags:

.048 | SPAM FOR ALICE MORGAN // backdated to start of flood // Perry and others welcome, too!

[Talk about shitty timing for a flood. With things as rocky as they were with Perry, now was so not the time for the Admiral to throw another inmate at him. Arthur looked at his item, checking it for the, what, hundredth time, as he followed his instinct (or flood-mandated yearning for closeness) all the way to Alice Morgan. He'd seen her around before, knew Capa spent some time with her, knew her alternate reality self erred on the side of complete passivity, but that was about it. There wasn't much on the network to go on, unfortunately. Arthur pocketed his item-- a smartphone-- once he found his... new and probably temporary inmate.]

Alice Morgan?

[OOC: NOOOTTTTT quite sure if he knows about her and Capa being pals, so that bit may be deleted once I find out.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Nice to know that there's an equivalent here to shaking one's fist at the heavens, for those that need it. [She gave him a sidelong glance.] I hear you're a friend of Robert's.

[And possibly more than that, given Capa's publicly stated ability to differentiate between Arthur and his counterpart's naked bodies.]

[He chuckled.] Exactly. [Arthur looked ahead at the deck and nodded.] I hear the same about you. [Minus the "more than that." Although if Capa were interested in women, Arthur figured she'd be a shoe-in for Capa's dream girl, from the little bit he heard.] He needs a friend he can talk shop with.

He's a very intelligent man. I admire him. [She leaned back a little, lacing her fingers together in her lap.] So. What did you do before you packed it in for something more thankless and metaphysical?

[Arthur nodded in agreement. Though he wasn't one to tell Capa most of the time, he admired the other man's intelligence and dedication, too. Sometimes, he honestly thought Capa was wasted as a warden.]

I was a research librarian. For the New York Public Library. I sort of helped people find what they were looking for with databases, that kind of thing. [He shrugged a little.] Not exactly glamorous, but it was interesting.

[He glanced at Alice.] And you were a... researcher, right? [Not that he didn't read the brief public exchange with Kay in her journal.]

Yes, at UCL. [She gave his outfit a sidelong glance.] I know it's in bad taste to ask, but how much do they pay research librarians, where you're from?

Which department? I mean-- [He pointed to the book.] I could guess, but for the sake of conversation.

[He picked up on the look at his outfit.] It's not a bad living, actually. It takes a graduate degree, a lot of training... The pay's commesurate to that. [Of course, Arthur had no graduate degree, but if it weren't for the dream sharing business, he'd have probably gone into the library field for real.]

Astrophysics, within Physics and Astronomy. [It's difficult not to nudge at the matter of his job - she knows roughly how much research librarians get paid, and it's not enough to cover what appears to be bespoke tailoring unless you're cutting back on other expenses like electricity or food. But she resists.]

Specifically, I was researching cosmic lensing before things became...complicated.

Physics. I was never any good at the sciences, but I helped with a few projects in my time. [Specifically, dream physics, in the 'field', as it were.]

How so? I mean here, complicated can mean anything from a stubbed toe to an alien invasion.

[She chuckled.] I would be very impressed if anyone was here on the basis of a stubbed toe.

Well. [Arthur laughed a little.] Depends on their reaction.

Mm.

[But back to the question - she didn't know if he had her file. She had to assume he did. As far as she'd gathered, long-term attempts by Inmates to pretend to be something they weren't tended to backfire or simply weren't profitable.]

...I killed a man. A corrupt detective.

[And, you know, some other people, but she hadn't gone to prison for any of them.]

[Arthur looked at her, slightly surprised although his expression didn't show it. To be honest, he'd been expecting some kind of... mad science thing.]

How'd a researcher cross paths with a corrupt cop? [Pause.] If you don't mind answering. I won't push you for details.

[Alice made a vague 'it's fine' gesture.] A friend of mine, another detective, was framed for the murder of the woman he loved. The whole of the force had been quite effectively poisoned against him, so he looked to me for help. I'm certain he would have gone elsewhere if he had had that option, but...well. Needs must. [A half-smile and a little shrug.] The situation spiralled from there - as I say, complicated.

You certainly weren't kidding when you said it was complicated. Did your friend make it out alright? [A neutral response. Arthur didn't want to make any judgments about her story without more information, and without her file, he only had Alice's word. Not that she seemed untrustworthy, but Arthur wasn't quick to take a lot of people's words at face value. Even the trustworthy had their own embellishments, biases, omissions.]

Your warden's... Claire, right? How's she working out? [Arthur was more than a little dubious about the girl, since she seemed so easily swayed-- well, as teenagers were. So this was one-part small talk and one-part info gathering.]

Oh, I think so. He's the type to land on his feet.

[Not that John had been to visit after her arrest. Talk about ingratitude. Still, given his reaction to Ian's murder it had hardly been a surprise. At the question about Claire, her expression falls into something very, very neutral.]

Too early to tell. She seems like a perfectly nice girl, if not especially...bright.

[He picks up on that shift, taking note of it.] The Admiral likes to pair opposites sometimes. [Okay, so he may be inadvertently insulting Claire there, by calling her the opposite of a genius. He's also thinking of Capa and Hayley when he says it.] I guess he figures a very logical person and an emotional person could learn from each other.

'Learn from each other'. [Alice smiled wryly.] Have you learnt very much from your Inmate?

I've heard rumors of some wardens learning. [Pause, then he rubbed the back of his neck and shrugged.] No, I've actually learned a thing or two from Perry. [Not that he would say what, specifically. What Arthur learned was to question his own line of work, the validity of it.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

.048 | SPAM FOR ALICE MORGAN // backdated to start of flood // Perry and others welcome, too!

Re: SPAM

SPAM

SPAM

SPAM

SPAM

SPAM

SPAM

SPAM

SPAM

SPAM

Re: SPAM

SPAM

SPAM

SPAM

SPAM

SPAM

Re: SPAM

Re: SPAM