Boys and Toys

Participants:

bella_icon.gif m_alex_icon.gif

Scene Title Boys and Toys
Synopsis Bella asks Mortimer for his assistance in a risky scheme.
Date July 2, 2010

Ruins of Midtown

Abandoned art gallery.


It's morning when Alex calls Bella to Midtown, giving her the specific location of an old art gallery. By the time she gets there, she'll find that the rather large gallery has had a few things built into it. He's wearing a tesla suit, which is kind of glorified chainmail and a bubble cage around his head, holding two metallic sticks. There's dozens of four foot tesla coils around the room, and he begins his grand scheme.

Bohemian Rhapsody begins to play on all the various mechanical machines he has laying around, while electricity bolts from coil to coil to the rhythm of the music. And Bella gets a front row seat at the surprisingly intact door, which has been surrounded by some sort of plastic box and a secondary door that separates her from total electricution.

She drove here in her silver sports car, a crazy gift that she hasn't yet managed to drive like it ought to be driven, always playing it safe as she was taught in driving school. Bella's not that kind of badass. She's not really a badass at all, though she does smoothly extract a silver cigar case from her jacket pocket as she steps into the abandoned gallery, snapping it open and drawing out a long, thin joint, which she places at the corner of her lips. She looks about at the setup, protected by plastic, and takes the seat arranging from her. A lightning show? This is just ideal. She produces a lighter and lights up, taking a first, small toke and getting to work on hotboxing herself.

If she looks up, she'll notice tesla coils on the walls and ceiling as well, and they start making all sorts of colorful shapes in the air while the music continues playing. Hearts, squares, dazzling displays like some sort of interstellar explosion of blue super giants and the formation of nebulas. It goes on like this for the entire song, then the power dies down and the lights are back on, and he's removing his suit.

Well, he removes the tesla suit, to reveal his black suit, red shirt under the unbuttoned jacket, and black tie hanging down loosely. He walks into that plastic box, then takes her hand and leans down to kiss the back of it. "Hello, my dear Doctor."

Oh, this is awwwesome. Bella takes a looong toke now, wanting to get high as quickly as possible for this demonstration. This is better than planetarium laser shows. This is the bomb. Bella has been stressed out for much too long, and this is a breath of fresh air, or maybe a breath of smokey air, but a relief either way. When it's over, it's something of a disappointment. Eyes, already bloodshot, settle on the approaching Alex, and widen a moment as he takes her hand. But she smiles.

"Cad," Bella says, not without coquetry, drawing her hand back from his grasp, "Would you care? Or would it interfere with your meds?" This asked as she offers the joint to Alex.

"I don't take mind altering substances. It may interfere with my medication, and the subtle balance of my mind." Alex knows he has more problems than the medication can solve, he's not taking risks. He opens the door to the outside world for her, then motions her out with him. "I've been building a lot, and my job opportunity turned out to be a bust. I was going to work for a place called the Company, but I hear they're going out of business."

The Company? Bella used to work for them. Wait, no, she still works for them. Technically. But how long can that last? Bella moves in a cloud of pale smoke as she takes the exit offered her. "Well, then you'd best seek more reliable employment, hmmm?" she says, taking another hit and giving a cough, thumping her hand to her chest lightly, a pointless gesture, but one she adopted as habit years ago when she started smoking, "Actually, I've got an investment scheme I was hoping you could help me with." She's a lucid stoner, as many smart, long-term smokers are, capable of staying on task despite the haze they move through.

"And what would that be?" Alex asks. walking over to her car. He runs a hand along the hood, having a look that says he wants to take a peek inside, but he doesn't go so far as to ask. "As long as I get to pursue my goals. The pursuit of knowledge and the construction of my Magnum Opus."

"Now those are things you'll have to tell me about," Bella says, tapping some flakes of ash from her joint. She has the sly, squint eyed smile that comes when she's high and feels clever. "I don't want to interfere, don't you worry your pretty little head. What I want is some help," she bites her lip, "Pulling a fast one on my employers."

"And what would that 'fast one' be? I always knew you were a manipulator, but I didn't think you were one to go against your employers." Alex's eyes shift into their silvery mode as he walks around to the passenger side of her car, still inspecting the overall exterior. "Whatever it is, I'll help. I owe you."

Bella folds her arms across her chest, joint dangling between thumb and forefinger. In these few instants, Alex is likely appreciating this gift from her late lover more than she will in a lifetime. Oh well. Boys and their toys. "My employers are shits, for the most part," she states, dryly, "And shits that have a rather liberal attitude about the expendability of people. I don't care for that. I want a nest egg. I want you to help me ferry out some project information to a safe location where I can later relocate it, without anyone being the wiser."

"I'll need a little more information. Can you open the door?" Alex requests, lightly knocking on the hood a few times. "How is the information housed? Physical documents, computers, disks? These are all very important questions."

Bella unlocks the car and opens the door for him, gesturing him in with a flourish. There's a reason they call it wacky tabaccy. She moves around to slip into the car from the other side. This will make a good hotbox too. She has to relight the joint, and takes a few puffs before answering him, smoke curling from between her lips with each word. "Computers on a closed network, mostly, but most results can be found in printed reports as well, for easy transport and on-hand perusal."

Alex enters the car, slamming the door shut as he begins looking over the various gadgets built into the dashboard, hunched over intently. "I'll build a tranq bomb that'll put everyone in the building asleep. Invisible gas so they won't know what's happening. We'll hire five men, load the physical documents into an unmarked truck, and two of those network databases. Then we'll take the information to your location, and shoot the men in the head."

Bella's eyes slide over to Alex, her expression very much 'what?' "I would really rather avoid that kind of palaver. Also that kind of killing. I'd ideally like them never to notice anything went missing at all. Couldn't you, I don't know… make some kind of device that could take microfilm pictures of the documents. Something I could smuggle in and out without being detected?"

"Microfilm? Is this a seventies spy movie?" Alex laughs, sitting back in the seat to give that a few moments of thought. "I could do that, something nice and small. Buy me a few cameras, non-digital ones, so you might have to look in a few pawn shops. I'll take a look at them and see what I can do. Oh, and…" He motions a hand for her to come over. "Since I'm doing you a favor, I'll take my favor now."

Oh, James Bond does sound fun right about now. Bella gives a giggle, sliding a bit down on her seat, before reaching to adjust it so as to let her recline. She gazes up at the ceiling and blows smoke against the dark lining. "Weee have a deal, then…" she says, only then he mentions his favor. Her head turns in his direction, a red brow arched at the hand, "Hmmm?"

Alex reaches over to pop her seat back even more, until she's flat on her back, then he slips his jacket off and pops his back as well. "Don't worry, it's not a very difficult favor. I'm just a bit embarassed by the performance I witnessed in my head. Mortimer doesn't represent me, you see? And since I'm still building my reputation, I thought I'd start with you."

Bella grips the sides of the seat as she finds herself falling backwards further, her eyes wide with surprise. The joint, almost smoked to a roach, falls out of her fingers and disappears in the darkness beneath the seat. In a moment, though, her hands are lifted. "Oh no. No no no," she stammers, "No, I'm- I'm sorry. But I'm not- not about to fuck anyone as a favor." She pulls herself up by the door handle. "I'm sorry, Alex. But I have very- very clear guidelines I set for myself."

"Favor is a relative term. This is more like a mutually beneficial favor. Well, no, it's more like me attempting to jump on an opportunity I've been looking for." Alex pulls his jacket back up on his shoulders, then pulls his seat back up and shrugs. "It was worth a shot."

Bella manages to pull a smile to her lips. If he'd been pushy, it would be a whole other story. As it is, she can't blame him for the presumption, seeing as she has already had sex with the body he's inhabiting. "Understand - and I don't mean any offense to Mortimer who was very sweet, particularly considering I had a taser to his neck - those were exceptional circumstances. I'd like to get to know you little better, Alex, before I consider adding intimacy to what I hope will be a long and fruitful relationship."

"I understand. Though I'm sure you can see my side of things, considering I remember what you two did." Alex leans forward, pressing an ear against the dashboard, then starts knocking. "I hate these new cars, it's all computers, hard to tell what's doing what. I hate computers."

"Oh, God knows," Bella says, lying back again, perfectly content to enjoy the recumbence Alex prepared for her, if not the activity he was intending to go along with it. "I have no idea what half of anything does in this thing. It was an extravagant gift. I didn't even own a car before."

Alex lays back, mostly ignoring any sort of contact high as he tries to keep his mind focused and distracted. "I'll work on your camera, and maybe a few other treats that'll help you out in your endeavours. But I don't like riding in this big… space ship you call a car, so I'll be refurbishing a new one for you."

Bella gives a light laugh at this. "Boys and their toys," she reflects, out loud this time.


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