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Post by Red Irish Dragon on Jan 9, 2019 3:26:58 GMT
Seth remained in his strange position against the wall as she started to leave. After her threat, however unwilling, he was focused on every word she said now, filing everything in case any of it became relevant later. While he did grow curious at her comment about solving problems in the past, it was a generic enough phrase to not latch too tightly to it at the moment.
At her last line, however, Seth’s eyes opened wide, and very uncharacteristically. The usual mask faltered, but the look of surprise quickly faded to one of being deeply touched, standing as his hands went to his heart in his usual dramatic way, a big, lovey-dovey smile spreading across his face perfectly in character. “Why, Officer Aphrodite… you DO care!”
His laughter was very, very audible even as the door was slammed shut behind her.
---
The only thing more annoying about waiting around in an airport for your flight is having to get there extra early to go through the specialized screening needed to approve a known thief and his handler. Miguel was far more tolerant than most with the thief’s antics and had thus become less and less of a target as time wore on, but even he was susceptible to having his belongings returned as Seth fought his boredom. The doctor had more than once admitted that it was the inability to keep an I.V. in his arm that really bothered him since it was actually helpful. But the scans had shown things were at least steady, so he was there to help the thief board safely. The rest was up to his handler and their colleagues in China to handle the rest.
It really didn’t help that, upon discovering who his handler would be, Seth dissolved into very badly managed sniggering. He really had a way with people, it was repeatedly commented upon.
Now, however, after the overly thorough screening and rechecking of tickets, and reclaiming said tickets, the three waited for the plane, Seth taking to card tricks with a near pout, clearly bored and annoyed at the same time for his predicament. Last time he planned to be in the airport, it was on his own, money in hand, out for… the end. Of course, he hadn’t said as much to anyone, but Miguel was better at studying people than he seemed to be and had apparently caught on to the thief’s lack of concern for himself and how it was connected to his string of thefts. This was why he was waiting with them, unable to go himself but wanting to keep an eye on Seth as long as possible.
Naturally, he had warned Nima of his discovery of Seth’s strange attitude to his situation, voicing fears of intentional negligence and worse. He had also put her in charge of medication to keep Seth safe, in case of another attack and hopefully to prevent them.
Of course, Miguel didn’t know about Nima’s deal with Seth, and that he had a reason to be at least a little more careful than he feared he might be.
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Post by Kelathi on Jan 13, 2019 10:59:14 GMT
It certainly hadn’t been her idea. She had left the room and pretty much washed her hands of the situation, or at least, that had been the plan. She hadn’t expected to be told that she would be acting babysitter for the thief. With further contemplation though, it did make sense. If he chose to run, who better than she to track him down? But still, it wasn’t going to be an easy job, what with his motor-mouth and his bad habit of pushing people’s buttons whenever possible. She of course would be a prime target of this, judging by his ‘joyous’ reaction when he saw that she would be joining them.
It had put a certain person’s back up- too. Carter was pissed. He couldn’t understand how she managed to keep herself involved, despite this now being his case. Unbeknownst to him, her Employee had had some firm words with his superiors to ensure that she would be present for all of this, so all he knew was that she was coming whether he liked it or not. Currently, he was staring daggers at her, and she was pointedly ignoring both his and Seth’s attentions, both equally annoying if completely different in approach. Miguel had been an unhappy mediator until they had had to leave him at the last gate they passed through. They were now sat on the second floor, right by a metal banister, where below they could see the sprawling crowds of people rushing back and forth to catch their planes. Nima was stood with her back to both men, arms resting casually on the banister as she looked over the sea of heads.
Eventually, Carter had had enough of letting his intentions be know through body-language alone, especially as it was currently being wasted on her, and opted to verbally voice his displeasure, not for the first time today. “What’s your role here, again?” He growled. Nima breathed out slightly, a barely audible sigh, before replying. “I’m the psychiatrist.” It was a half-assed reply, but whatever she said he was sure to be just as equally angry. Carter laughed in response, a short, unpleasant, punchy sound. “It’s not his first heist, is that really what government money is going into nowadays? Babysitting criminals?” Nima turned round then, leaning her back up against the rails instead as she regarded him. “Actually, i’ve been sent to hold your hand. Tell me, how does it make you feel to have me coming along? Do you need to do some breathing exercises?” She responded tartly. This drew an uttered growl from Carter that sounded suspiciously like ‘smartass bitch’ as he dug in his pockets, drawing out a pack of cigarettes. Instead of interrogating her further (for now) he pointed at Seth instead. “You. Stay. And you,” he turned his accusing finger towards Nima. “Watch him. I’m going for a smoke.” And then without waiting for an answer he stalked away.
Nima watched him go, glad to see the back of him for a short while, and feeling a little triumphant, even if that did mean she was left with the full problematic attention of Seth. He shouldn’t be any trouble in terms of making a break for it, Carter opting handcuff the thief to a chair every time they changed seats, hence his warning of ‘stay’ being more of a taunt than an order. Nima couldn’t help feeling it was overkill, after the threat she had placed on Seth ensuring he wouldn’t run. But still, Carter didn’t know about that, and she was hardly going to let him in on information he didn’t particularly need to know just yet.
Something was troubling her though. Miguel had been seriously concerned about Seth’s welfare, and had voiced his opinions to the police that he was less than fit to go on such a mission. These concerns had been brushes aside, and so Miguel had sought help from Nima instead, even if in her position there was not much she could do other than listen and take his words on board. He had said that Seth was unstable, and likely to take risks at the expense of his own life. He had asked her to keep an eye on him, and make sure he kept up with his medication.
Nima couldn’t comment on any of this. For one thing, no-one, except her Employee knew of her abilities, but for another, she couldn’t confirm nor contradict Miguel’s concerns yet anyhow. People were complicated, she could often tell what was at the forefront of someone’s mind from merely a touch, but to really get to know someone she’d have to spend a longer period of time in their presence, with extended periods of contact- for example, she had dumped a previous boyfriend after a long period of holding hands when walking through town had suddenly revealed that he had been cheating on her.
Seth’s handcuffs were drawing curious glances from others, and amongst other things, the constant stares from people who thought they were being discreet but were not was steadily grinding on her nerves. But Carter had the key, so for the moment, there was nothing she could really do about that.
When they finally did get on the plane, it was going to be a long flight...
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Post by Red Irish Dragon on Jan 13, 2019 19:36:38 GMT
Seth’s preference for who to torture seemed to reveal itself quickly, as teases towards Nima remained primarily vocal. Carter was the one who was having to put his watch back on, somehow even after chaining the thief to a chair. The only difference was Seth tended to hold onto the item until it was discovered missing, once being a hilarious seventeen minutes. Carter finally picked up that the quieter Seth was being, the more likely he was timing how long it took him to notice something missing.
Except for this last time, where Seth was able to declare his innocence and got a good laugh out of Carter’s growing paranoia around him.
This was why he only raised his eyebrows with a mock look of, “who, me?” as Carter ordered him to stay put, marching off. With his eyes on Carter’s back, his hands began to fiddle and a few moments after the man had disappeared, the cuff was popped off his wrist. This alone drew some surprised glances from those not really hiding their curiosity, Seth shrugging at them and making them blush. “Badly made prop,” he voiced, seemingly to no one, but seeming to answer a lot of peoples’ questions, pulling him away from the spotlight that he seemed to otherwise crave. It was an interesting move, to shun the attention, given how he had behaved before.
Rather than getting away from his chair, he rubbed his wrist without revealing the tool he had used to escape the cuffs with, evidently hiding it expertly again. Despite being free, he showed no sign of wanting to run. Whether or not it was the deal with the government or Nima’s little threat, was unclear. Seth glanced over at Nima by the railing, shaking his head a bit. “Your buddy’s a bit of a prick, ain’t he?” he asked casually, knowing that the framing of their relationship would get some annoyance even if it was mostly a slight directed at the now-absent agent.
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Post by Kelathi on Jan 13, 2019 20:31:01 GMT
She had merely watched without comment as he fiddled with the handcuffs, but couldn’t help the slight widening of her eyes in surprise as they suddenly popped off with ease. Even so, she made no move to correct the situation, as she had thought them unnecessary, anyway. His question towards her had gotten at least some of the reaction he had been looking for, as she visibly looked disgusted at the idea of Carter being referred to as her ‘buddy’. She agreed with him, however. “Yes, he is. A lot of a prick, in fact.” She added the last bit for good measure. “How long before you get tired of these little tricks?” She was of course, referring to his brief spells of thievery. She had been lucky, so far. This was probably simply to the fact that Carter had been the one closer to Seth, what with unlocking and locking the handcuffs to different places.
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Post by Red Irish Dragon on Jan 13, 2019 20:36:49 GMT
Nima’s correction to the volume of prick earned raised eyebrows and an expression that simply said, ‘good point.’ Her question earned a bit of a mischievous smirk, however, eyebrows remaining raised.
“And here I thought you were enjoying the show,” he replied innocently, referring of course to Carter’s reactions to reclaiming his belongings. This answered her question easily enough; no, he was most assuredly not getting tired of his “little tricks.” In fact, his expression almost hinted that he’d make sure to keep them up to “amuse” her. Amuse or annoy, whichever way the thefts went…
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Post by Kelathi on Jan 13, 2019 21:40:05 GMT
“When you piss him off, you make him more of an asshole than he normally is. And yes, that is possible.” Nima explained, waving away the suggestion that she had been enjoying Seth mess with Carter, when in fact Seth had hit the nail on the head. But she wasn’t here to make friends with the convict; in fact she didn’t want to be here at all. Her eyes grew glazed for a moment, at first revisiting the facts that surrounded her circumstances, and afterwards landing on wondering how her cats were getting on. It might seem like a pretty odd thing to think about, but as sad as it might sound to others, they were all the family she had. Well, she had her father, but because of circumstances he did not have a prominent role in her life.
The cats gave her reason to be concerned. They were being looked after, again, by one of her Employer’s goons. Whilst she didn’t doubt they were safe, it was the same man whom had been asked before, she feared for their health under his care, as he was prone to give in to their every whim. It was very likely that they were greedily tucking into a takeaway meal right now instead of their cat food…
At this thought, she found her hand straying to her phone. She hesitated, appeared to think better of it. Not a moment later she had pulled it out of her pocket. “Um, give me a minute.” She could hardly go anywhere for privacy with Seth no longer being cuffed, but she walked a few paces away, hoping that the din of people talking might drown out her voice.
A moment later, the goon had picked up. The conversation went something like so:
Nima: “Hi, it’s me.” Upon realising that caller ID exists, she added- “Um… obviously. Just wanted to check up on how the boys are doing?” Goon: “Hi Miss, yeah they’re doing great. I did wanna ask actually, the black one, what’s his deal?” Nima: “You mean the black and white one? That’s Jerry, remember. What do you mean?” Goon: “No, I mean the all black one. Jerry’s cool, he’s chilling on the sofa. But the black one is a right mean bugger.” Nima: “Fully black? I don’t have a… wait, how many cats can you count?” -A moment of silence.- Goon: “6. I count 6 cats.” Nima: “I only have 5 cats!” Goon: “5?... Wait, so… the bloody freeloader! I’ll call you back.”
And then he hung up.
Nima returned the phone to her pocket, paused… then shook her head, before returning to where Seth was seated. Had she just… unintentionally adopted a sixth cat?
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Post by Red Irish Dragon on Jan 13, 2019 23:23:58 GMT
Seth seemed only slightly curious at Nima’s momentary departure, as she had clearly seen him remove the handcuffs, even going so far as to pocket them after removing them from the chair. Even with the threat hanging over him, he had yet to show any real concern for it, merely reinforcing Miguel’s concerns. He watched with the same almost disinterest as she sat beside him again, but seemed to shrug out of nowhere.
“So you really are a crazy cat lady.”
As expected, that usual mischievous smile lit up his face a few moments after his deadpan delivery, glancing at her and her legs, clearly recalling the pjs he had caught her in before.
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Post by Kelathi on Jan 13, 2019 23:31:19 GMT
Upon her return, she had automatically sat next to him, unintentionally closing the distance she had been keeping since they had first met. She had been so distracted she had not noticed the closer proximity until he had begun to talk. For a moment, she appeared to be mulling over his words... then a slight redness tinged her cheeks. At his straying eyes, she immediately crossed her legs defensively, even though she was quite clearly wearing trousers, and found herself crossing her arms, too. "I'm not crazy." She stated, perhaps a bit too defensively. Strangely enough, that word seemed to have struck a cord in her, and in fact for reasons as yet unknown, had annoyed her more than anything he said yet. "But yes, I have cats. Most normal people have pets. What of it?"
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Post by Red Irish Dragon on Jan 13, 2019 23:44:25 GMT
As he had done, Seth made mental notes of her responses to his comments, always feeling out what were the boundaries and adjusting as necessary, either pushing buttons or pulling back. The way she initially responded to being called “crazy” was telling, even if it was part of a typical phrase, and he quickly adapted. For once, he went for something other than pushing buttons.
“The last person I heard of with five to six cats was a breeder,” he replied easily enough, deciding to avoid the topic of “crazy” altogether. “Agent Cat Breeder? Sounds a little… fishy to me.” He paused dramatically, watching her and waiting for the reaction to his pun.
Clearly he didn’t have to rely on his little “tricks” to entertain himself while waiting for the plane…
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Post by Kelathi on Jan 14, 2019 0:03:57 GMT
She regarded him for a moment, and didn’t respond straight away. But then, slowly, a ghost of a smile crept onto her lips. “Really, Seth? That was pretty bad, even by your standards,” came the teasing taunt. Evidently, he had been successful in switching the mood to an easier one. “And it’s 5.” She corrected, settling back a little more comfortably. “Or at least, it was 5 when I left. I have no idea where the 6th one came from but apparently it’s causing my cat-sitter some trouble.” She noted, with a laugh.
The sudden light attitude did not last long, however, as she was able to glimpse Carter returning. She sat forward a little, suddenly aware at how relaxed she had appeared, before standing up altogether and returning to the banister where she had been earlier. Carter was sure to be less than happy when he figured out Seth was now cuff-less, and Nima was not looking forward to the nagging, which would be aimed at her.
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Post by Red Irish Dragon on Jan 14, 2019 0:22:49 GMT
Seth shot her back a humorously offended look. “I’m paw-sitively offended by your suggestion, meow-dame,” he retorted, seeming to take special care to make his puns now as painful as possible. Before he could comment again on the sheer volume of cats she had, her expression shifted and for once not because of the thief. He didn’t have to look over to know, sighing and dramatically rolling his eyes.
“Oh… has the prima donna returned already?” he asked, none too quietly either as Carter came back into earshot, purposefully keeping his formerly bound wrist in his lap to hide the fact that the cufflinks were now in the other pocket. Clearly he didn’t want to get the whole tirade of Carter discovering the key had been snagged right then. Not like he was going to return the key… Carter had been the one to insist on the cufflinks, so if anyone was going to end up wearing them on the plane, it was gonna be him, not Seth.
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Post by Kelathi on Jan 14, 2019 1:39:44 GMT
“Please stop.” Nima added, but still in good humour, as evident by the fact that she was smiling openly now despite herself at his awful puns. When Carter returned, it unfortunately did not take long for him to notice that all was not as it should be in regards to the handcuffs.
***
12 hours. The flight was going to be 12 hours of Seth in one ear and Carter in the other. Nima had packed headphones for this very reason, intending to drown out the both of them, and hopefully even get some shut-eye- not that she thought she’d be able to sleep with a skilled and mischievous thief like Seth merely yards away. Due to their status of being cops [despite the fact that Nima was not one] and their ‘cargo’ [Seth], they were given 1st class seats, probably in an attempt to keep their convict away from most of the other passengers. Their seats were lavish, with a huge amount of leg-room and all the perks one can expect. It was a small consolation in the scheme of things, if she hadn’t been so wrapped up in her job, she would have been quite excited at the prospect of going to China, as she had never been before. It was hard to tell if Carter felt the same way, his face was as grim as a judge, as always.
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Post by Red Irish Dragon on Jan 14, 2019 2:04:34 GMT
Seth seemed about as happy as a caged animal even though it was probably the first time he’d ever sat in first class. One might assume at first that it was because he was in fact trapped, with two agents keeping an eye on him, but the constant drumming of fingers as soon as the captain began announcing the pre-flight checks indicated otherwise to more observant eyes. Of course, it took knowing what happened one of the last times he got onto a plane… he almost didn’t make it.
Carter almost seemed to like how Seth went quiet during the initial part of the flight, clearly distracted as he stared aimlessly at the back of the seat in front of him, still drumming a few fingers, far more anxious on the plane than he had been in the airport. In truth, a lot of it had been simply to ease his fears, but locked in his seat, he had nothing to distract himself, nothing to say that the tightness in his chest was simply a memory rather than recurring.
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Post by Kelathi on Jan 15, 2019 23:16:20 GMT
She was surprised to find that Seth wasn’t over the moon. True, under the circumstances that would be understandable, but up to this point he had seemed rather exuberant. As he was sat directly besides her, she could see the thief was clearly tense; although his mouth was silent his fingers weren’t, one minute they were drumming on his leg, then on the arm of his chair… Nima’s reaction was pretty much the opposite of Carter’s. Although she too had hoped the plane ride would run relatively smoothly, she didn’t revel in Seth’s discomfort like the agent seemed to. Clearly, she thought to herself, he was afraid of flying. It was not an uncommon fear, but she wasn’t quite sure how to ease his tension. Distraction seemed to be the best bet, so at that thought, she looked down at the seat in front of her. In the pocket that normally held the flight safety instructions, she found a few magazines. Picking one at random, she moved to hand it to Seth. “Seth, try…” He seemed to move his hand at exactly the same time, his skin brushing with hers…
Images flashed through her mind. Ones she didn’t understand and faces she didn’t recognize. They moved too quickly for her to pinpoint on one, but then suddenly she was aware of the mounting pain in his chest, and she knew it was the curse and she knew it had come to…
All that had only taken a second. The moment their hands had brushed she had jumped, the magazine falling from her hand to the floor.
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Post by Red Irish Dragon on Jan 17, 2019 0:26:23 GMT
Her touch and reach towards him had surprised him, but he recovered easily enough with that ever-ready mask. Seth did pause in surprise when she promptly dropped the magazine she was offering, but something in the woman’s expression kept him from remarking on it.
“Ooh, SkyMall… last time I was on a plane, they had these Kleenex boxes that were supposed to look like the Moai statues, y’know on Easter Island? Only these have the tissues coming out of the nose…” he started with a laugh at the memory, eagerly taking the distraction as he began leafing through the magazine. Clearly disappointed when he couldn’t find it, he shrugged, looking back at her with that lopsided grin that was both playful and mock defeated at the same time. “Well. I guess you’ll just have to imagine it until I get some WiFi…”
Strange, to have him so jovial when he’d experienced so much on previous flights…
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