007 | Violet City; | Video / Action;

[nostabbing]

Being back in Violet after a successful thieving mission has left Parker...oddly restless. Sure, it was great to be back On The Job With A Team after a long dry spell of personal freelancing — albeit with A Team that surely would've driven Nate to drink even more than he usually did (which is saying something) — but working a job in the first place, and completing it, has put her in something of a Mood. Working (stealing) is something she understands. It's something she's good at. It's one of the few things in the world she could actually confidently say she likes.

The problem is, the long con has never been her game, and while professionally speaking she doesn't actually have a problem with stealing, thieves, or committing crimes in general, there's something that still puts her off about the thought that Team Rocket is the Bad Guys™. The capital letters are significant; even if you are something of a bad guy yourself in the strictest law-abiding sense, the Bad Guys™ are the ones who hurt people and deserve to be crushed into the dirt in flawless Nate Ford fashion, and helping out the Bad Guys™ in their aims — even if it's all part of a plan to situate yourself to be able to take them down in the long run — still doesn't quite sit well with her.

On the other hand, part of what they do (that is, she and her team of bad guys who are not Bad Guys™) is protecting the people who are Actually Good, and there's some of that to her promotion, too. It's always better to have the head of security's ID card than some average grunt's; just the other day, she successfully pulled rank on somebody and it got him to lay off. So this is a good thing, this promotion into the Bad Guys™'s fold. She just...doesn't...like it.

What she does like is stealing, and stealing suggests jewelry stores, and that's how she'd ended up at the little mom-and-pop jewelry store tucked away down a side street in Violet City, where her standard perusal of the modest wares was promptly derailed — the clerk, apparently whiling away a somewhat boring afternoon behind the counter, had been amusing himself with making simple bead sculptures to decorate the window display case, and Parker's creepy rapt fascination with his work had quickly led to the offer of a demonstration.

(Was that flirting? Maybe it was flirting. Giving her the benefit of his employee's discount on an assortment of beads and wire to take with her when she left was probably flirting. ...Maybe.)

Which left her with an armful of boxes, a head full of new information, and a slip of paper with a guy's phone number on it. Did it actually make her feel better? She's honestly not entirely sure. But hey, competently (?) navigating an everyday social interaction? She'll take her successes where she can get them.


~

[This afternoon, Parker "Alice" can be found at an outdoor table belonging to one of the cafes in Violet City, an iced tea condensing and forgotten on the tabletop near her as she concentrates on something that, given her level of fixation and focus, appears to be infinitely more interesting than her drink. Assembled in front of her are a set of tiny clippers, a spool of thin jewelry wire, and a few boxes of beads in bright and cheery colors; at the other end of this operation, a finished cell phone strap lies completed while a second, half-finished one takes shape beneath her careful fingers.

Every so often, she snaps a picture with her Gear, almost absently, like she's momentarily forgotten that it's set to upload those for public consumption to the Gear network when she does.

Bead art. It's serious business, apparently?]


[OOC: The reference picture used in this post was originally found here!]

Comments

[ardent]

...What else did you tell him?

[He can see many ways this might have gone badly; if that was all, then that was all and he doesn't fault Naegi for it even with just that much to go by, but...]

[nostabbing]

[Hmmm. She purses her lips again, thinking back over it.]

I said I liked his hoodie.

[ardent]

...I meant about the suicide, but he does have a very magnificent hoodie, yes!

[nostabbing]

Oh. Um...oh. He got mad right after I said it was good to know the difference between an honorific and ritual suicide because it'd be really bad for people to go around disemboweling themselves for honor. And that nobody would want someone to do that.

[WAIT HANG ON. HANG ON. SAYING IT OUT LOUD IS MAKING HER GET IT.]

Did his little sister stab herself?

[ardent]

N-No...

[Alice is probably the last person he wants to discuss the incident at the school with; he can't imagine it doing anything but making her upset at best. At the same time, he's hit with the hideous realization that he has no idea how Oogami actually died - just that Naegi had said she'd killed herself.

So just...give him a moment.]

...It would be best not to mention death like that around my classmates.

[nostabbing]

All of them?

[And you know, there's a sort of chain reaction here as all the bits and components of the interactions that led up to this start to jumble together and toss around in different ways — Ishimaru, classmates, school, the day they met.

It was a while ago now, and her recall is good, but not perfect. But she does remember, right before the part about honorifics — there was an incident at my school, and what she'd said after: you're safe here.

That was when they'd really become friends, wasn't it?]

Is it because of the thing that happened at your school?

[What had Asahina said? "Where we were before, with everything going on, it wasn't a romantic setting at all"?]

[ardent]

It...yes, it's because of that. The situation isn't good, Alice-san.

[It's kind of a hideous understatement, that. The situation isn't good. The situation is about as far removed from good as possible.

But he doesn't try to correct himself; he just leaves it there.]

[nostabbing]

[Well. Well, that...that sure did just...

That...

they're just little kids]

Nobody's gonna hurt you. Any of you.

[This is how Nate feels. This is why Nate acts the way he does when they do jobs with little kids.

He's the one she sounds like when she speaks next.]

I am not going to let anyone hurt you.

[ardent]

[He takes a moment, before he answers; lets himself breathe, tries to brace himself and come up with something to say. He's not going to cry over this - he's spent too long crying over this, and he's quite frankly sick of crying over it, and if he doesn't pick himself up now and carry on with his duties and what passes for a life here, then maybe he's never going to and that's not acceptable.]

...I know, Alice-san. I know! And I won't let anything hurt any of the others, either; I've given them my word, and I intend to keep it!

They've been through enough, I think; nothing like that will happen to them again.

[nostabbing]

[As is per standard for an Ishimaru and Alice-san interaction, passerby are probably staring, but who really gives a shit.

Certainly not Parker, who is carefully mustering words herself.]

Listen. If we have to...if...if you ever get told—

[Punctuated by a significant look.]

—that you have to...do something. Something that's bad? Let me do it. I should do it. Not you. Okay?

[ardent]

...Alice-san, I'm not going to make you do that!

[He looks a bit alarmed again, his words sharp and rushed.]

I can't ask you to do that for me - I can handle things, if it comes to that!

[nostabbing]

You shouldn't have to. I don't want you to!

[...And so the truth comes out.]

[ardent]

...I-It's okay. We'll work something out, I'm sure of it! Don't worry about it for now, all right?!

[nostabbing]

I'm not worried, I'm just...!

[...SOME...THING...SHE CAN'T...adequately identify Sophie where are you...]

[ardent]

You're just what?

[Unfortunately this kid is absolutely no help.]

[nostabbing]

[Look, can you see the wheels starting to smoke as they turn in her head, because she's trying SO HARD to articulate this shit and she seriously just has no idea.]

...

[...]

You're gonna get hit by a car.

[ardent]

...what?!

[...Parker, whatever he was expecting, it wasn't that.]

Why would you say something like that?!

[nostabbing]

[ALARM. That was not what she meant to say, how did that get out.

For a second, she wants to bolt, but between Ishimaru, the beads, and the table keeping her relatively pinned, she resists the urge and just swallows hard instead, furiously trying to work out why words are so damn hard.

Turns out, it gets a lot easier when you stop trying to think about them and just go for it.]

Bad stuff isn't supposed to happen to good people, okay? Good people aren't supposed to get hurt. And you're, you guys, you...guys, you're good, and you're gonna get hurt because you really suck at being a bad guy but I don't, okay? Maybe being a bad guy is just...what I'm good at and I don't like it but I do like it when it means I can do the bad stuff so good people don't have to try to be bad when I'm bad already and I can do it. And you really suck at being bad and I don't want you to go off and do stuff when I'm not there to bail you out because you're gonna get caught. You're gonna get caught and maybe you don't care because you're like me and you think that it should be you who gets caught so other people don't but I care and...and you shouldn't have to do stuff like this anyway, you should be able to just be with your family and not be in trouble and not have bad stuff happening at school and ride a bike without ever having to worry, okay? You have a family. You have friends and your brother and you're just, there aren't enough good people as it is and you shouldn't have to have to be bad just because some scumbag said so and I know you're not going to listen but you should because if you get in trouble I'm going to come get you anyway so either way I'm going to get in trouble so you might as well just let it be me in the first place!

[ardent]

[While he looks tempted to interrupt that several times over, in the end he doesn't; it's hard to bite it back, his posture going incredibly tense as Alice continues, but he has more than enough control to do it. He knows he does.

That doesn't stop the words from bursting out of him as soon as she's done; he doesn't stop to think about them, he just goes but for the time being, that's going to have to be good enough.]

You're my family too, Alice-san!! That's what I'm trying to get you to understand - you're like a sister to me and I'm not going to stand for you doing things like this on my behalf! What I'm doing is breaking rules and if I get caught out by either side, then I deserve whatever punishment I get; if you really want to help me, then I...I guess I can't stop you, but we'll work on this together, all right?! We look out for our own, my friends and I, and that includes you!!

[nostabbing]

I guess...

[And now she's thinking of Archie, and the team, and the way it'd felt when she'd called Hardison's cell phone for help and the answer she'd received back was we're already here.

Maybe she's just got a knack for tripping over families, these days.]

I guess if we're both going to try to stop each other from doing bad stuff, we might as well just help each other instead. Then we're not getting in each other's way.

[A beat passes.]

...And you really need the help.

[ardent]

That sounds good, Alice-san! That sounds very good.

[...although, uh.]

...it wasn't that bad, was it...?

[nostabbing]

[Well, that earns him a little smile.]

You can't pick a lock with shaking hands. ...Okay, I mean, you can, but it'll take you a lot longer and you'll probably slip up at least once. It's not good for your personal speed record.

[ardent]

Personal speed record??

[WHY, THOUGH.]

That's not something I would really want to have in the first place!

[nostabbing]

Why, you don't want to track your improvement?

[ardent]

Well, I didn't say that! Lock-picking just isn't something that I really think I'd want to excel in!

[...]

Though I...guess I can see where it would be useful.