♗ IC CONTACT

[waiting]

"You've reached Bradbury. I'm out, so leave a message if you need me."

Comments

[enigmaestro]

I'll fix it. As I always do. [His tone is resolute, unerring.] But I'd have to be informed of the matter, first. Hence why I'm making inquiries, with you.

[waiting]

[ He huffs. ]

If I hear anything that's outta my jurisdiction, I'll let you know. Fair enough?

[enigmaestro]

I suppose.

[An for an abrupt shift.]

Do you like her?

[waiting]

[ The shift in tone catches him off-guard, as his perplexed tone suggests. ]

Wouldn't have recommended her to be your bodyguard if I didn't.

[enigmaestro]

Sexually. Do you like her sexually?

I can't believe I have to clarify.

[waiting]

What? No. She's married. [ He sounds vaguely squicked, like he can't believe Eddie's even asking, but-- ]

Was married. And she's seeing someone else.

[enigmaestro]

[A long.







Skeptical.




Vaguely agonized.


Beat.]

Yes. She is.








[The things he does for Lillian.]

But that doesn't preclude your admiration for her physical form.

[waiting]

[ For a moment, he almost thought Eddie dropped the connection. ]

Hadn't really thought about it.

[enigmaestro]

Wow. You hadn't thought about something?

[An unnecessary degree of dryness follows.]

I'm so entirely shocked.

[waiting]

[ Equally dry: ]

Yeah, like I'm shocked you're actually talking to me.

Didn't have anything better to do with your weekend?

[enigmaestro]

Really? Lillian's happiness isn't worth a ten minute conversation to you?

[waiting]

Gonna take more than ten minutes to work out what'll make Lil happy.

[ He doesn't think even she knows the answer to that, truthfully. ]

[enigmaestro]

That must be so frustrating to people without my particular vein of power.

Are you eating anything? At your party that I wasn't invited to? You seem like a sausage sort of fellow.

[waiting]

What, you setting me up for another Q&A session?

I was drinkin' a beer.

[enigmaestro]

How appropriately masculine. [Spoken so dryly.] Is Mitchell with you? Maybe I'll accumulate his company, if you don't want to play ball.

[waiting]

Who do you think dragged me out on a Sunday? [ Screw not drinking on the job, it's Memorial Day weekend. In any case, Eddie said no more rhetorical questions, so... ]

I can see him, if that counts as bein' with him. The usual.

[ a.k.a. Mitch is hobnobbing like the social gadfly he is while Bradbury keeps an eye out for trouble. ]

[enigmaestro]

Oh that's typical, while I'm here chiseling this legislative proposal -- and the battleplan behind it! Robbing banks was less thankless.

[waiting]

You're working on a Sunday?

[ Wow, now he wonders who's the bad influence on who. ]

At least it's less likely to get you arrested.

[enigmaestro]

Hardly. Your assumption plays into your incredulous statement -- yes, I'm working on a Sunday, because I'm still suffering the punitive efforts of our esteemed mayor.

Valentine's Day was literally months ago.

[waiting]

[ He makes a vague noise that. While he obviously didn't get the chance to confront Eddie about it -- dying and gettin dumped into another world shifts your priorities around by a fair bit -- he'd at the very least assumed he was responsible.

He'd be madder if he wasn't busy feeling oddly mollified that Mitch actually did something about it. ]

Did he say how long you had to work it off?

[enigmaestro]

That's rather classified, don't you think? [He speaks acidic syllables. Eddie was content to only tease the information before Bradbury.]

I'm still getting paid. Overtime.

[waiting]

[ Eddie couldn't see it, but the shrug was practically audible. Figures that Eddie won't give it that easy, but... ]

Figured you might've had something to do with that. [ A touch of genuine curiosity: ] Why Valentines? I thought only bitter single people had a reason to harass people then.

[enigmaestro]

As usual, no one else accessed my vision. I was helping you lot connect beneath superficial levels. [He pauses a moment, tempted to delve deeper into self-righteous tirade -- but retreats before the word "delusional" could be so easily thrown around.]

I was successful, regardless of appropriate appreciation.

[waiting]

How do you figure that?

[enigmaestro]

Nothing quite brings people together like the following: hate, humiliation, and tragedy.