thisavrou | [Video]

[A]

So, listen--

[Anybody who pays attention to any of Elizabeth's network activity probably notices something odd about this: it's a video. She uses audio only almost as a rule. But maybe she's not really thinking. It sure looks like she's not up for much deep thinking, if the unfocused way she keeps looking around the bar she's in is any indication. There's a glass in front of her, but who knows how much she's actually had.]

Who here... knows a thing or two 'bout 'attachment'? Because God, I could talk about it for days. About how great it is at first, but then in the end, it utterly destroys whoever it manages to get in its steely little claws. [This is accompanied by a very appropriate 'claw gesture' with all nine and a half of her fingers.]

Because the only thing that's ever constant... [She has an amused little laugh at the word, like it's a private joke.] ...is change? Who wrote that... Hey! [She snaps her fingers over at someone behind her.] Who wrote 'the only change is--' No, 'the only constant is change'? Who wrote that when you're from? ...ah nevermind, you probably couldn't read your own name. [She turns back to the camera, disgruntled noises coming from the insulted party. But Elizabeth doesn't seem concerned.]

What I'm saying is-- nobody warned me, so now... [She points into the camera.] I'm warning you. You start liking somebody, start thinking you have a home someplace, and someday, somehow--

[The camera jerks as Elizabeth takes a punch to her temple. Somebody didn't like being called an idiot by someone half their size. Something close to the camera glows blue and then Elizabeth's got a beer bottle in her hand and she's screaming bloody murder. The feed swings wildly with her hand and cuts out with the sound of breaking glass.]

[B]

[An indeterminate amount of time later...]

[Elizabeth is back at her apartment with a split lip and a bruise under her eye, but she hardly looks embarrassed.]

I meant what I said. Nobody warns you until you're in pain. Consider yourself warned.

[She looks like she could say more, but apparently decides it would just be a rehash. So she turns the feed off.]

((OOC: Feel free to action-ify the first prompt, bar brawl for all. Otherwise Elizabeth will reply to any immediate reactions/messages/jeering the next day!))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh, aye.

[ He squints at her for a moment, as if trying to figure her out. ]

Though it also remains to be seen why a lass would come to such a place alone, to get drunk and pick fights.

[Elizabeth pulls the ice off her face so she can look at him, really study him for a moment. The compress is painful, it's probably not helping her any, so she unfolds it over the glass to discard the ice before handing him the handkerchief.] Your nose is bleeding. [Even drunk, she can spot a bloody nose a mile away.]

I don't think I've seen you before. You weren't with the Moira, so you must have shown up here recently. Has anybody told you about the Moira?

[ The gesture almost reminds him of Claire. No matter what else the situation, if someone was injured, she would see to it. He gently dabs at his nose, and shrugs a bit. ]

I've heard enough to ken I'm glad I wasna on it.

You're looking at her former First Mate.

[Elizabeth picks up one of the ice chips and runs it along her lip. At least she can work on this, even if her eye is going to be a lost cause.]

I've been away from where I started for close to sixteen months now. Not that I care, I wouldn't go back to where I came from unless I was in a pine box. You couldn't pay me to go back. [She contemplates a dent in the bar for a moment.] So that ship was my home. And sixteen months.... you lose a lot in that time.

[ As much as he hates sailing, Jamie can at least understand a feeling of loss, of never being able to go home again. He nods in understanding. ]

Such things can be verra difficult. For what it's worth, I'm sorry.

[Elizabeth laughs, and it's harsh and disbelieving.] Yeah, pretty automatic response, 'I'm sorry'. You don't even know half of the things that have been done to me, half of the things I've seen, none of the people I've lost, and yet you can still say that. And I'm expected to nod along like it's somehow made me feel better.

You don't even know my name, for God's sake. You just saw a woman get punched in the face and thought 'Quick, she's helpless!', right? [Of course he did-- everyone does.] Not the first time I've been hit square in the temple. Not even the second.

[God she wants another drink, if only to get that image of Atlas grinning away out of her head. But she knows she's had more than enough, and the shame will increase exponentially if she wakes up tomorrow in a place that's not her apartment.]

C'mon, I have an idea. [She shifts on her barstool to face the man, carrying on as though she hadn't just told him in so many words to piss off.] Tell me the worst thing that's ever happened to you, and I bet you I can at least match it if not blow it completely out of the water.

[ Fortunately, Jamie is a patient, persistent bastard when he wants to be. He takes her angry diatribe in stride. ]

Helpless or no, no man lays hands on a woman in my sight without answerin' for it.

[ Simple as that. Jamie's not about to apologize for trying to help someone, regardless of who it is. ]

As for your idea, I see no reason to do such a thing - I dinna need to ken what you've been through in your life to have fellow-feeling for your losses. The world is hard on a great many people.

[ He has absolutely no interest in playing the 'my backstory is worse than yours' game. But he does offer her his hand - the right, scarred and stiff and crippled. ]

My name is Alexander, and I would like to see ye home safely, however.

Aren't you a regular knight in shining armor. [Elizabeth rolls her eyes, still not quite buying the explanation, but she's quite cynical at the moment.]

[But not quite enough to shove his hand away and tell him in exact words to piss off. She does want to go home, if only to get away from the people staring at her, and she's not sure she won't be followed out of the bar if she's not with someone. Still suspicious, she eyes his hand but slowly reaches out to take his arm.]

I have a taser. And you look old enough to be my father.

[It's progress.]

I dinna ken what a taser is, I likely am old enough to be your father, and I have no designs on ye. [ He shrugs vaguely. He hasn't had designs on a woman in twenty years, he's not about to start now.

He considers her for a moment more, and then offers something: ]

Back home, I have step-daughters. Two of them. The elder is perhaps of an age with yourself. I'd no want her to have to find her home, in the dark, soused and unescorted.

And if I get home nice and safe, you won't have to find out what a taser is. [To be fair, she didn't know what a taser was either before she'd arrived here, but circumstances forced her to become at least somewhat familiar with futuristic weaponry. Elizabeth wasn't about to trust something in a spray can, so taser it was.]

[She walks along with him, looking like a very cross baby owl with a fat lip, but the further away from the bar they get, the more Alexander talks about his own children, the looser Elizabeth's shoulders get.] ...my father's not here. But I imagine... even knowing me, he wouldn't want me walking around like this either.

[He'd be horrified to see her drunk, probably. He'd feel responsible, he'd tell her what a stupid mistake she just made and she-- if she really wanted to hurt him-- would say that she learned how to solve her problems by following his example.]

But that's n-neither here nor there because I'm-- [Elizabeth swallows and tries to steady her voice, but she's intoxicated and also talking about the worst thing that's happened to her. She's starting to cry.] --I'm never going to see him again.

[Video]

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