((This scene is the continuation of this post. Thanks so much to Alain DeMuer's player!))
It's not normal that Alain goes to Mass at the Perp Miz, as the locals like to call it, or at this hour... but his normal Sunday morning's been wrecked, and a "person of interest" was in attendance.? It is this reason, with Fate likely playing a minor role, that one of Lelah Rivka's chief investors exits the cathedral in time to see her deer-in-headlights look, and the shady figure retreating but not that far away yet. Enough to know the point of origin?? What Alain has or hasn't seen isn't immediately clear.? "Lelah," he says with a faint smile, approaching her once he parts ways with his company.? As always he is at least decently dressed when he goes to Mass, today in a tieless wool suit.
The time it takes Alain to cross the street and arrive at her side is all the time she needs to compose her face into the bland, neutral mask of pleasantry she most frequently uses with reporters who ask uncomfortable questions.? "Alain," she says and tries not to notice the trembling of her hands as she stuffs them into the back pockets of her jeans.? Her dark eyes tick from the church to Alain's face then back again with all the regularity of a metronome.? "You've just come from Mass?"
"That's right," he says with a flicker of a grin; "it's not far from my brewery, ironic as that is.? What about you?? I don't think I've seen you in this part of town before..." It becomes more obvious as more time passes, but he's assessing her, picking up little details in the people around him but, more so than anything else right now, in her.? He spent two years as a private investigator, and a longer time still as a mercenary, and certain of those skills remain as sharp as ever, if not more refined by experience now.
A bubble of panic bursts in her breast.? Had he seen her buying gear?? No, he couldn't have.? The doors of the church had been closed and the street had been empty when her new dealer had put that bag of pearls into her hand.? But Alain could have seen the tag end of the deal, the dealer walking away and Lelah walking in the opposite direction. "I've been exploring the city," she answered after only a minute's pause.? "I saw the bell tower from the bridge.? It's the only one I've seen and I was curious."? It was plausible, right?? Surely he'd believe it.? Except that she was alone and she'd been in Rhy'Din long enough to know that pretty girls did not venture into WestEnd alone...not if they wanted to leave again.
"WestEnd's beautiful in its own way, I've long believed that... but it's an easy place to get lost."? The widening of the grin does not reach his eyes.? "They're not kidding when they say the streets change here."? He offers his arm to her and asks, "Were you headed back across the river?" Perhaps if she had not been unwell in the Inn before, so strangely feverish, and perhaps also if Alain had not tried and failed to rescue an addict in the past, or if he had not run his own background investigation in every major investment he made, would he add all the factors together now.? But he does, however quietly.
She pulls a clammy hand from her back pocket and slowly slides it through his arm to rest on his forearm.? "I was, yes.? Back to New Haven, actually.? Do they perform the Mass in Latin there?" She turned a bit and nodded towards the church behind them. Distract and redirect was the name of the game right now.
He'd played this game with her once before, and she was very good at it, but the card twice seen is recognized. For the moment, though, he keeps playing.? "They do... which I'm not very used to, but it's not the first time I've seen it.? We Gallican Catholics have done things a little differently for a long time..."? He walks them slowly, strolling on a pleasant day out of WestEnd and towards the bridge.? Flatboats float along the river, strong-armed men (and a great many other races) steering their craft and their cargo with long poles. "Are you feeling any better?"
"Hmm?" she asks, distracted by thoughts of bliss, of what that bag in her pocket means.? He's talking about the last time they saw each other, the night after the jonesing had hit her so hard.? When she was still feeling the sweats and the shakes and the fever.? "Yes, thank you.? I think it was just some 24-hour thing."? She is impressed by how nonchalant her voice is, how sincerely she lies.? Not for nothing did she have that Oscar sitting on her mantle.
It's such an effective lie that he's calling that part of the assumption into question, though not the conclusion he's arrived at:? that not only did she recover at her home, in America, but here she's suffering from a relapse.? "That's good...? I have to admit, I was worried...? It reminded me of a time my friend got very ill."
She pauses in her steps at his side and covers it with a downward glance.? Apparently she's caught her heel in the broken sidewalk.? He knows.? Alain knows.? Of course he knows - he checked her out before investing.? Someone as smart, someone with his background, would never just jump in blindly.? Deciding to chuck the facade and confront him, she looks up at him, haunted eyes meeting his.? In a soft, desperate voice, she asks, "What do you know, Alain?? Do you know everything?"
It's not normal that Alain goes to Mass at the Perp Miz, as the locals like to call it, or at this hour... but his normal Sunday morning's been wrecked, and a "person of interest" was in attendance.? It is this reason, with Fate likely playing a minor role, that one of Lelah Rivka's chief investors exits the cathedral in time to see her deer-in-headlights look, and the shady figure retreating but not that far away yet. Enough to know the point of origin?? What Alain has or hasn't seen isn't immediately clear.? "Lelah," he says with a faint smile, approaching her once he parts ways with his company.? As always he is at least decently dressed when he goes to Mass, today in a tieless wool suit.
The time it takes Alain to cross the street and arrive at her side is all the time she needs to compose her face into the bland, neutral mask of pleasantry she most frequently uses with reporters who ask uncomfortable questions.? "Alain," she says and tries not to notice the trembling of her hands as she stuffs them into the back pockets of her jeans.? Her dark eyes tick from the church to Alain's face then back again with all the regularity of a metronome.? "You've just come from Mass?"
"That's right," he says with a flicker of a grin; "it's not far from my brewery, ironic as that is.? What about you?? I don't think I've seen you in this part of town before..." It becomes more obvious as more time passes, but he's assessing her, picking up little details in the people around him but, more so than anything else right now, in her.? He spent two years as a private investigator, and a longer time still as a mercenary, and certain of those skills remain as sharp as ever, if not more refined by experience now.
A bubble of panic bursts in her breast.? Had he seen her buying gear?? No, he couldn't have.? The doors of the church had been closed and the street had been empty when her new dealer had put that bag of pearls into her hand.? But Alain could have seen the tag end of the deal, the dealer walking away and Lelah walking in the opposite direction. "I've been exploring the city," she answered after only a minute's pause.? "I saw the bell tower from the bridge.? It's the only one I've seen and I was curious."? It was plausible, right?? Surely he'd believe it.? Except that she was alone and she'd been in Rhy'Din long enough to know that pretty girls did not venture into WestEnd alone...not if they wanted to leave again.
"WestEnd's beautiful in its own way, I've long believed that... but it's an easy place to get lost."? The widening of the grin does not reach his eyes.? "They're not kidding when they say the streets change here."? He offers his arm to her and asks, "Were you headed back across the river?" Perhaps if she had not been unwell in the Inn before, so strangely feverish, and perhaps also if Alain had not tried and failed to rescue an addict in the past, or if he had not run his own background investigation in every major investment he made, would he add all the factors together now.? But he does, however quietly.
She pulls a clammy hand from her back pocket and slowly slides it through his arm to rest on his forearm.? "I was, yes.? Back to New Haven, actually.? Do they perform the Mass in Latin there?" She turned a bit and nodded towards the church behind them. Distract and redirect was the name of the game right now.
He'd played this game with her once before, and she was very good at it, but the card twice seen is recognized. For the moment, though, he keeps playing.? "They do... which I'm not very used to, but it's not the first time I've seen it.? We Gallican Catholics have done things a little differently for a long time..."? He walks them slowly, strolling on a pleasant day out of WestEnd and towards the bridge.? Flatboats float along the river, strong-armed men (and a great many other races) steering their craft and their cargo with long poles. "Are you feeling any better?"
"Hmm?" she asks, distracted by thoughts of bliss, of what that bag in her pocket means.? He's talking about the last time they saw each other, the night after the jonesing had hit her so hard.? When she was still feeling the sweats and the shakes and the fever.? "Yes, thank you.? I think it was just some 24-hour thing."? She is impressed by how nonchalant her voice is, how sincerely she lies.? Not for nothing did she have that Oscar sitting on her mantle.
It's such an effective lie that he's calling that part of the assumption into question, though not the conclusion he's arrived at:? that not only did she recover at her home, in America, but here she's suffering from a relapse.? "That's good...? I have to admit, I was worried...? It reminded me of a time my friend got very ill."
She pauses in her steps at his side and covers it with a downward glance.? Apparently she's caught her heel in the broken sidewalk.? He knows.? Alain knows.? Of course he knows - he checked her out before investing.? Someone as smart, someone with his background, would never just jump in blindly.? Deciding to chuck the facade and confront him, she looks up at him, haunted eyes meeting his.? In a soft, desperate voice, she asks, "What do you know, Alain?? Do you know everything?"