paradisalost | 033. Royal Orleans

Entry tags:

brock samson

033. Royal Orleans

[People can build bonfires and burn effigies all they want -- some guys (lowercase G) have work to do!

One of whom is Brock. He has work to do.

That work is, of course, patching up the huge fuckoff hole in the side of his dumb cabin. He is out in the woods right now, though he's more staring at the huge fuckoff hole than doing any sort of repair. How does one even fix a hole in a log cabin. Does he need to knock down the whole wall ...

Making a frustrated noise, he flips his journal open.]

I lost my lumberjack. Does anyone cut down trees for fun, or do I have to go find an axe?

-- and Crowley. I hope you got a steering lock for your goddamn car.

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[Wood. Steering lock. Oh, she makes a connection. Or, at least, she thinks she does.

... Not that we're ever going to get into that. She's only going to be completely casual.]

Lumberjack?

[Keep it quiet for now, Julia. You don't want to make a bad first impression.]

There was a guy here who cut down trees for me before. Somebody drove a car into my cabin so I need to fix it.

[Well, this is awkward. Her suspicions have definitely been confirmed. But why...?

Silence on her end for just a moment.]

You don't know who did it?

[He pauses too. Maybe he's suspicious or maybe he's just really inspecting this wall really super hard for a moment. Or maybe he's trying to decide how much information he should divulge.]

Not really. Why, do you?

[She has that horrible feeling that she's already divulged too much just by responding to this. Maybe giving into curiosity hadn't been the best thing. But, aside from herself, there were only two witnesses to that accident....

... And apparently neither of them has told.]

No.

[Which, in a way, actually isn't a lie. Whoever that woman she was while on that loss? She doesn't know her.]

[Neither of them had told specifically, no. But Brock knew it was a woman, at least.

And so, she had a right to have that horrible feeling.]

I guess whoever it was got away scot-free. Lucky them.

[She didn't ask anyone to cover for her. Really, she didn't. And maybe the right thing to do would be to go ahead and admit to it.

Or maybe some things are better left... un-admitted. At least for now.]

I guess so.

[Well, Brock knew all about covering for a woman for Reasons. So it was a situation he was very familiar with.]

If you hear anything, let me know. Name's Brock.

Julia.

[Then after another one of those brief pauses--]

And I'll be sure to.

[Well, now he has a name. He'll be sure to bring it up to Spike. Eventually. Just to make sure.]

Appreciate it.

[Hey, maybe letting him have the name is some subtle way of hers of owning up to it. Who knows.

She wants to close the journal at that point, because, really, this is still an issue she'd like to avoid discussing if she can, but maybe she feels like she should say something else before she does. So, um. Change the subject?]

Any luck on the lumberjack front so far?

[Brock had been expecting the conversation to end, actually, so he's a little surprised she keeps talking! Maybe this is not the woman he is looking for, after all.]

Well, I have a friend who's like a vampire with super-strength. She might cut down trees for me, but I kind of feel like she'll make fun of me the whole time. So ...

[Good man, Brock. Follow the unintentional ~~Jedi mind trick~~ save.]

Better than nothing, isn't it?

[If Julia keeps talking to Brock on a regular basis, she will discover something: he is really pretty gullible for a spy.]

Right. I can't really afford to be picky.

[Sounds like a good kind of person to keep talking to. Especially when suspicion could potentially be surrounding you.]

They don't seem to be in high supply.

[He's convenient like that.]

Lumberjacks or vampires?

[No wonder he and Spike are friends.]

Both, I suppose. Unless vampires are more common than I thought.

[Which, given this place, probably wouldn't surprise her.]

There's a few hanging around. I don't really talk to them though, except for the one I mentioned. They're, uh ... kind of whiny.

How long have you been here, anyway?

[Well. You learn something new everyday.]

Just over two months. [It took her a second or two to think about it, because, really, with everything that's happened, it seems so much longer than that.]

[He recognizes that pause, of course!] Yeah. Time goes by pretty fast in this place, huh?

[There's a sigh over on the other end. Maybe it's audible, maybe it isn't. But it's a logical step from that pause.]

You could say that.

I've been here for like, a year. It kind of gets easier; you get used to all the stupid shit that happens. I don't know if that's comforting or not, but, uh ...

[That had been her life, hadn't it? Acclimation. Adaptation. This place is no different.

What's said next is as neutral as anything.]

You'll get used to anything eventually.

[Oh, same. It seems a lot of people have that in common here.]

Yeah. You really do.

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033. Royal Orleans

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