Forty-Eighth Theory [Accidental Video/Action for Housemates]

[i_speak_softly]

[It should be immediately obvious that Don didn't mean to turn his journal on, and isn't even aware that it is on. He isn't looking at it. He isn't saying anything. In fact, he might not be awake. He's just sitting slumped in a chair, his head on the desk-like counter before him.]

[If you look past Donatello to the background of the scene, you might be able to identify the setting as a subway car. A very strange subway car, though - it's stuffed with technology that might look futuristic even to someone from the same world and time as Don.]

[Do you quietly look away, Lucetians? Or do you intrude on the private moment?]

((Backdated to a little earlier this morning, thanks LJ.))

Comments

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[herotypical]

I would've said yes if this was before you set Smoker on him. [ a sigh. ]

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[i_speak_softly]

... Oh.

... I could call him off?

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[herotypical]

...Do you even think he'd be called off? He kinda sounded a little -- fanatical. Scary, even.

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[i_speak_softly]

Calling off scary people is what I do.

[The parallels give him a little pang, deep down, but - he covers it.]

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[herotypical]

He's not a bad man, Don. He doesn't deserve to have bounties tossed onto something he made with his own hands.

[ she might be rationalizing something larger than the smoker fiasco. ]

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[i_speak_softly]

[Now Don feels a little bad. It hurt to lose the Battle Shell, even if the next one he'd built was even better.]

I really was going to give it back.

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[herotypical]

...I'll talk to him. I'll try talking to him. But first? You'd better tell me about this improvement Smoker mentioned.

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[i_speak_softly]

He must mean the Shell Bell. I need a ship to launch it from. You can tell Captain Sparrow I'll trade him dive-time.

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[herotypical]

...We'll see. What even is one of those?

[ she doesn't have high hopes. jack built the joanna joyce with his own hands to his specs. someone else just adding something? well -- it's a wholly different matter entirely to her offer to decorate the cabin. it was surgery. ]

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[i_speak_softly]

You know, a diving bell. It attaches to a crane and winch.

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[herotypical]

Actually? I don't know. My sum knowledge of sailing has come from the one time I've been out on the Joanna Joyce.

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[i_speak_softly]

Um... to be honest, I've never been sailing at all.

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[herotypical]

[ aha. no wonder he asked a pirate-hunter to take a pirate's pride and joy boat. not that buffy was big on that ship knowledge but...but she's known jack long enough, now. she has second-hand understanding. ]

...Right. So, say Smoker can't be called off? If he gets the Joanna Joyce and hands her over to you -- can I count on you to do the right thing and return her to her captain?

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[i_speak_softly]

After a week?

[That's fair, right?]

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[herotypical]

...But no alterations without his permission.

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[i_speak_softly]

I wouldn't know where to start.

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[herotypical]

...And for my part? I'll remind him how you helped out during that one Shift. That might -- might -- salvage this mess.

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[i_speak_softly]

[It's a deal.]

Thanks, Buffy.

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[herotypical]

...Don't thank me until it all works out okay.

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[i_speak_softly]

I'll thank you again when it works out.

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[herotypical]

...Business aside -- are you doing okay?

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[i_speak_softly]

[Don hesitates a moment, thrown by the sudden change of subject and unsure what he wants to say.]

Raphael went home.

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[herotypical]

[ a gentle sympathy: ] Oh, Don. That's never easy.

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[i_speak_softly]

It's all right. I'm happy for him.

[The hardest part is the guilt over feeling just a little bit happy for himself.]

[herotypical]

...At least he'll be back home waiting for you, right?