paradoxlol | .003

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.003 | Video.

[This is Arthur. This is Arthur leaning against a closet door, his suit slightly rumpled (in fact, there's a tear in one of his sleeves), his hair out of place. Still, he carries himself like this is PERFECTLY NORMAL. Oh yeah, and he's holding a pool cue. Before he speaks, Arthur smooths his hair back.]

To the library staff: sorry. I left a few books out of place. I'll come by as soon as possible to put them back.

[From the closet, there's suddenly an outburst of loud banging and intermittent swears. Very creative swears. Arthur rolls his head back against the door and then throws an irritated look over his shoulder, as though the closet's occupant can see, before turning back to the camera.]

Blonde. Female. [BANG BANG. There's probably a "cocksucker" there, too.] About five foot... one? [He holds the cue out horizontally, five feet from the ground, to illustrate.] I'd say... twelve years old?

Does she belong to anybody? Or do we often receive unsupervised children?

[OOC: After THIS THREAD. Arthur was trying to find somewhere secure to put Mindy until she regained consciousness, but she woke up in his arms and started attacking him again, SO HE SHOVED HER IN THE CLOSEST ROOM: A RANDOM CLOSET.]

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[FINALLY, SOME TINY PROGRESS-- oh wait she's banging against the door again.]

I don't know any "D'Amico". Who is he?

Bullshit. [She throws herself against the door again hard enough to bruise and then stops to actually take in the closet and see if there's anything useful inside. FOCUS. FOCUS, MINDY.] Like anyone doesn't know who he is.

[DRYLY:] Humor me. People here come from different places.

[Pause. Wait.]

You do know where 'here' is, right?

Edited 2010-09-13 05:55 (UTC)

All I know is you perverts built me a bedroom. [She inspects several useless-looking bits and abandoned bobs before finding a plunger in one dark corner of the closet. Mostly useless itself, but at least it's thicker all the way through than the pool cue.] How long have you been watching us?

Everybody here has a bedroom. And are you referring to your father? [Pause] Nobody's been watching you here.

[He should probably explain where 'here' is...] Do the words 'Barge' or 'Admiral' mean anything to you? Aside from the dictionary definitions.

After a moment of sheer 'what the shitting hell', Paddy turns up to try and find out exactly how a 12 year old gets here, and what sort of 12 year old has to be put in a cupboard and liberally uses 'cocksucker'.

...Actually, sounds like one of his kids.

He turns up behind Arthur and looks at the cupboard skeptically. He's not sure he needs to say anything just yet.

[No more information for you, Arthur. She steps on the rubber part of the plunger, holding it down while she attempts to twist the staff free.]

What, I'm supposed to know all your codewords now?

It's not a code word; it's where you are right now. [He looks back at Paddy and nods to him.]

Look, there's a woman here who can explain everything to you, if you just put down whatever it is you're planning to attack me with and come with us. She's just down the hall. [He knows this is so not going to work.] I promise, we have nothing to do with this D'Amico person, but we can try to help you find your dad.

[Mindy stays silent to a count of three--that's long enough for uncertainty, she's pretty sure.]

...Fine. [She braces, holding the newly-freed plunger rod like a pole vaulter readying for a leap.

As soon as that door opens she's going to try and crush Arthur's foot with it.

Sorry bro.]

[Paddy nods, and takes a couple of steps to the side so she's got nowhere to go once the door opens. Arthur's got her to agree, so he's not going to jump in just yet, he'll be there in case she tries to make a run for it, or changes her mind in the process.

Or, tries to attack one of them.]

[Arthur doesn't really trust the kid, since her last innocent act landed him with a hit to the balls. So he waits for Paddy to be in position, then he moves to the other side of the door, back pressed against the wall. No way was he going to stand in the immediate line of fire. He reached out and jerked the doorknob with his hand, opening the door just slightly, before swapping to use the pool cue to push it the rest of the way open. Bonus? He could use it to keep some distance between the kid and himself.]

[For Christ's sake, when did henchmen grow brains? She sees the cue poking the door open and immediately switches tactics, ducking low to try and get under it to slam the blunt point of her new weapon up under his ribs. Crack a couple, knock the wind out of him, hopefully. If she can just get the advantage back somehow. The competency of the people around here is fucking weird.]

[When the handle jabs upward, Arthur slams the pool cue down at an angle to knock it off course and away from his ribs. He swings it again, lower this time, in an attempt to knock her off balance. Problem is, Arthur doesn't have that much experience with... polearms, so he's not expecting a great deal of success here. He's hoping that if he and Paddy can get her to Angelica, she'll calm the hell down.]

Edited 2010-09-14 00:30 (UTC)

[Paddy spends a moment watching what was going off and makes a move to get behind her (as much as the corridor and cupboard allowed) and grab onto her arm or something from out of the range of her new weapon.]

Hey. Nobody's gonna fucking well hurt you if you give us five fucking minutes. Drop it already.

[This was surreal.]

[The cue is too long for her to avoid it completely--between his deflection and the sweep, she almost goes down.

And then Paddy grabs her arm, giving her a moment of stability. She switches her grip on the staff, instead trying to slam it down on Paddy's foot and break free.]

[DAMN IT, KID. Arthur's tempted to hit her with the pool cue, but it wouldn't do much to convince her they don't mean harm. Plus, he's pretty sure having the "You're on the Barge" talk while concussed is a bad idea. He tosses the cue aside and makes a grab for the makeshift staff, positioning his hands above and below hers. Quickly, he twists and pulls, trying to make her lose her grip on it.]

[Paddy tries to pull his foot back and doesn't get too far, so she hits his toe and he swears and yelps, but is determined to hold on to her arm and tries to pull back as Arthur pulls the stick away. He doesn't want to hurt her, but equally... violence. This better work, as limping and fighting didn't go too well.

[AND LO, Arthur gets the staff away. So Paddy has one arm, she has no weapon, and this is very bad. She wrenches, trying once again to get away as she brings her heel down, aiming for the same toe.]

[HEY SO ARTHUR GRABS THE OTHER ARM and says very very firmly-- AND OH HEY, IRRITABLY TOO:]

We just want to talk.

[At least now they're finally in a better position to drag her to the common room. Please please please, Angelica, calm her down.]

[Paddy, having kids of his own, was going to try his best to help calm her down too,] Just come, have a chat with us, we're gonna help you out, alright, we're not here to hurt you or fuck with you or screw you over. Give us a chance before you beat us to shit, yeah?

And leave my foot alone. [See, now that was starting to hurt.]

[She's just going to stand here, glaaaring at the two of you and quietly seething. SHE'LL GO IF YOU WALK HER, BUT SHE AIN'T TALKING.]

[DOOP DE DOO AND THEN THEY DRAGGED HER OVER TO THE COMMON ROOM.]

[Angelica is waiting for them there, surprised to see that it had taken two grown men to fetch the girl.

Lord, what was she supposed to say?]

Edited 2010-09-14 04:27 (UTC)

[Mindy eyed the newest addition to this little party, not trusting her any more than she did the two thugs who had her arms.] So what. You get the assholes to grab me and you're going to tuck me in and tell me to be a good little girl?

Heaven Above, no. I am not here to tell you what to do. [And she doubted she'd listen anyway.] Do you have any idea where you are presently? Have you by chance seen some of the ship?

.003 | Video.

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PSEUDOSPAM - LOL MY NET IS GARBAGE, GOOD NIGHT

PSEUDOSPAM - LOLLLZ SLEEP WELL.

Re: PSEUDOSPAM - LOLLLZ SLEEP WELL.

Re: PSEUDOSPAM - CAN I TAG ON THE END HERE?

PSEUDOSPAM - I'M GOOD WITH THAT

Re: PSEUDOSPAM - DITTO

PSEUDOSPAM - SNEAKING A QUICK TAG IN

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Re: PSEUDOSPAM - SORRY GUYS.

PSEUDOSPAM - NO WORRIES.

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PSEUDOSPAM - sorry I'm late! Assume the talk, or continue to play it out?

PSEUDOSPAM - I'M ALL FOR PLAYING IT OUT. You're not late I'm just overeager. :c

PSEUDOSPAM - ahaha. Oh good, I was worried! Then I'll just reply.... :D

PSEUDOSPAM - YOU GUYS HAVE PERMISSION TO SKIP ARTHUR FOREVER

Re: PSEUDOSPAM - PADDY WANTS IN.

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