Participants:
| Scene Title | Batman's Sidekick |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Tallie comes clean to Alec about her ability, and accepts his job offer |
| Date | February 15, 2009 |
Tallie enters the deli from within — if he's paying any attention, a door down the hallway opens, and she comes down the hall, peeking in the deli area. She has an ace bandage wrapped around one wrist, and is wearing black yoga pants, a gray NYU sweatshirt, and moccasin slippers. Her hair, usually in that loose bun, is in a ponytail, showing off the blonde ringlets. A bruise extends from her lower jaw to her neck, as if a large hand had gripped her there. As she sees Alec, she frowns a little, and limps noticeably over to his table, slipping into the seat across from him. She doesn't say anything, but stares down at his magazine until he speaks.
Alec says nothing. He takes another bite of his sandwich, continues reading, and after he's swallowed and finished the paragraph he was on, he looks up at her expectantly. "Out with it." he says simply.
She lifts her eyes and gives a shake of her head. "I didn't hurt him," she says, her lips pouty and her brows knitted together. "I just… put him to sleep. He would have done worse to me. You saw." There's a defensive tone to her voice, as if Alec might argue the fact that the mugger would have caused her harm.
Alec shakes his head, "No argument here, I was about to bean him with the tricycle thingie… I just wanna know how you did it. Like a Judo Vulcan nerve pinch or something?"
"Yeah. Something like that," Tallie says slowly, her voice neutral. She lifts her slippered feet onto the chair and wraps her arms around them. Her steely blue eyes stare into his — her pupils are now normal once more, though her eyes are narrowed a little as if trying to keep out the fluorescent deli lights.
Alec nods his head, "Uh-huh. I read up last night, there are no nerve bundles in that part of the arm. Try again." he continues to wipe his hand on a napkin, his eyes meeting hers evenly.
She doesn't blink — so quiet and still, she really could be a giant person-sized doll. Finally she speaks. "What are you going to do if I tell you? What are you going to do if I don't tell you? You aren't a cop. You aren't my boss. You are just some guy who eats in the deli that I happen to live in," she says. "Why do you need to know?"
Alec chuckles, "You're right. I am just some guy that knows where you live." he rephrases her words to make them sound more ominous. "Because I need to know if there's something I shouldn't test for when you come in to take your drug screening." he states simply, ignoreing the possibility that she might not want the job.
She frowns. Ominous, then on her side — the mixed signals are confusing. "I told you I don't need your job," she says in a low voice, but her eyes do flicker this time, from his face to the hallway and back. "I can leave. This isn't my home, it's just a place I sleep sometimes. If you're going to send cops after me… just because of what you saw…" she shakes her head. "Why do you care?"
Alec meets her gaze still, almost unblinking, and again ignores her question, "Why don't you?" he says simply, "I offer you everything you've wanted, I can give it all. Power, wealth, freedom. You seem not to wish for any of these things. Why?"
Tallie looks away. "If I'm gainfully employeed somewhere… there are records. Paper and records and things to find me," she says quietly. "The life I lead right now might not be good, but it's the one I know how to live right now." She slips her hands inside her sweatshirt cuffs, teasing the edges with fingertips. "You're only the second of two people who know what I can do," she adds quietly.
Alec nods his head, "I thought as much." he stares at her for another moment or two, "So. Done feeling sorry for yourself yet? Cause I can sit here all night if we need to keep going, I'll ask Al if he has any hats in the back for your pity party." Alec has stopped being the nice charming goofy guy she remembers, now he's hard and unforgiving. His arms cross over his chest, "What you can do, isn't all you can do. You've made a life for yourself, a shitty one but a life none the less, which means your tough and at least not retarded. If you want, I can show you how to turn those two gifts into something more, something that can make you powerful and rich and secure. There is a price, because there is always a price, but it's not unbelieveable."
She glances up, her eyes hard. "I wasn't feeling sorry for myself," she says, her tone one of restrained anger at his words. "And I wouldn't call that a gift. Not when it could get me killed more just as easily as I can use it to save my own ass." She drums her fingers on the formica table. "Fine. What's the price?" she asks, looking bored, as if she is not truly interested.
Alec doesn't blanch in the slightest, "You do what you're told until I deem you're worthy to move along." he says flatly, "I will teach you things that could save your life, get you into great trouble, but mostly I will teach you things that will put your destiny back into your own hands."
Tallie's eyes narrow, and she reaches into her front kangaroo pocket of her hoodie to pull out a bottle of Tylenol. "Hold that thought," she says and stands up, then limps over to the counter. A discussion with someone behind the counter gets her a paper cup full of ice water, complete with lemon. She hobbles back to the table and sits, shaking out four tylenol and downing them with a swallow of water. "Can you talk in, like, concrete terms instead of abstracts? Words like destiny and such don't mean much to me anymore."
Alec reaches over and takes her Tylenol bottle once she's got the pills she needs and he pours them out on the table. "I'm going to teach you how to never lose." he waves a hand over the pills and a good quarter of them are gone. Another pass, half of them are gone. He turns his hand over, there are no pills in it. "No, it's not like what you do, it's skill." he opens his other hand where all the pills are, "I can show you how to make something out of nothing by taking from people who have everything and don't deserve it." he scoops up the pills and starts to put them back, "As I said, I can give you power."
She watches but looks unimpressed as he plays with her Tylenol. "Great, now I have Deli table germs and Alec germs all over my pills," she points out, wrinkling her nose. "I was a bio major. I know what kinda shit lives in the soapy lukewarm water they use to clean the tables here. And God knows where your hands have been," she says, taking the bottle back from him and tossing it into a trash can. "That cost me $6 by the way," she adds pointedly. "And when you do what I do… you get crappy headaches once the …" she waves her hand to fill in the gap for the word she's not sure of, "fades."
Alec chuckles, "All the great powerful people in the world had nothing like you do, the last few multi-jillionaires had nothing like you do. Imagine what you can do with the right training, the right knowledge. Of course, first you'll have to want something more then… this." he waves a hand at the Deli.
She shrugs. "There's people with worse things than what I can do, that can hurt me a lot more than I can hurt them," she says. "But fine. So say I'm interested. How are you going to make sure I don't get … tested… and all that shit?" she asks, looking skeptical. "You're not your own boss, right? You have corporate protocal to follow."
Alec snorts, "Right, because following the rules is what makes everyone rich and powerful." he makes a face at her, "The guy who does the testing for my company is gay and married with a family of four. He doesn't know I know, but I do. His father's a televangilist and he's a deacon at his church. I'll tell him you smoke weed, he'll use fake whatever and the test will pass."
Tallie arches her brows as she listens. "Fine. So then what? The same deal you gave me the other day? Running around as a bike courier by day, and being Batman's little sidekick by night?" she asks, crossing her arms on top of her bent knees, her chin resting down upon her forearms. "Same pay?"
Alec nods, "Same pay." he states evenly. "Catch is the same though, you do what I tell you, when I tell you."
Tallie nods. "So I'll show up on Monday … where do I go?" she asks, glancing up at him. "And if it doesn't work out… can I quit at anytime?" she asks a moment later, apparently a second thought before selling her soul to the devil.
Alec nods his head, "Ask the receptionist in the entryway, she'll explain it all to you. After that, when you get off, you meet me here and we begin." he ponders that, "For the first three months, you may quit at any time, after that you won't want to." cause she'll be in to deep, but he doesn't say that.
Tallie nods. "Fine, see you Monday," she says, though she looks rather skeptical, then unwinds herself and slips out of the chair. "I need to go sleep. Have a good night." It might just be the first nice thing she's said to him.
Alec nods and watches her go, "You too. You're gonna need it. Buy some motrin, tylenol doesn't help with muscle aches, and when we're through, you're going to hurt all over." he stands and drops a twenty on the table before heading out the door, the goofy charming smile back on his face.
 February 15th: Healing And Dealing |
 February 16th: WAKE UP |