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xp_logsBackdated to January 14th. What happened at the meeting set up in these emails, in the wake of Domino's unexpected encounter in Berlin with MacInnis. (OOC: Gah! Completely forgot to put this one up. Bad me. *sheepish look*)
The drink was not helping. Domino glared down into it sullenly, then looked in the direction of the bar, barely visible through the crowd. She couldn't see Pete and David, but she knew that was where they were. "They're over there talking about me, you realize," she grumped.
"Of course they are. And we're talking about them." There had been grumping and more grumping, since Alison and Pete had arrived at the rendez-vous point. Which she had not picked, obviously, and Alison resisted the urge to wave her hand in what would be a vain attempt to clear some of the smoke from her general breathing vicinity. It stank of cigarette smoke in here. "So you're good with the Professor making sure everything is okay and figuring out what happened?" That's all Alison need confirmed, really, just now.
"No, Blaire, I would have preferred to remain in ignorance of what that asshole shoved in my head, actually..." Oh, there she went with the sarcasm again. Whoops. Domino bit her lip, hard. "I mean," she said, in a good stab at a more moderate tone, "I appreciate Xavier checking me over. The time and the effort. All that. I do."
Well, the what would be figured out later and Alison was fairly sure Pete would want to decide whether to tell or not - she was all for keeping the details of the data to the Database for now, herself. How and what had been done though, at the very least, would have to be explained. "Well, it's not like he'd stand by and do nothing, regardless of what the information might be," she replied mildly. Domino had, to say the least, every right to be upset. "Mind walking me through the conversation you had with MacInnis?"
"I'd just ducked out to that club, like I said. I didn't see anyone following me, and I generally pay attention to things like that." At least when she was sober, which she had been at that point. "I was sitting there minding my own business when he just... appears, and sits down across from me at the table." Domino sighed, sipping at her drink. "I didn't know who he was at first, like I said, and I just about went for my gun when he told me. Except then he told me that he had people covering me, and the club was too crowded. None of the bullets might have hit me, but warped trajectories would have taken them somewhere." It was bothering her in retrospect, that MacInnis had known that, understood how reluctant she was to try her luck in a crowd of innocent people.
"Or in someone." Alison had no qualms about point that out - she wasn't about to criticize Domino for that in the least, really. "That's how he works. I don't think he knows how to be straightforward, to save his life." Right now, little fishie Mac was in big big trouble. Doghouse not getting any contact with anyone kind of trouble. "And there's the fact that he probably figured you'd do something unpleasant to him if he didn't have some kind of back-up plan. Since he's worked so hard on making people like him."
Domino actually smiled. Just a little. "Afraid for his safety? Huh... that makes me feel a little better." And it did, oddly enough. "Anyhow," she said, slipping back into briefing mode. "It was like he was trying to persuade me that serving as a go-between between him and Nate would be some wonderful act of altruistic goodness on my part. Seriously. Not that he was telling me what he wanted me to pass along, but he was talking like my conscience would be very happy with me if I did. Which, you know, I found offensive both coming from him and on general principles."
Frowning a bit, Alison thought that over. It wasn't untypical as approaches went for the man - he was a bit heavy handed and if he was used to having either total loyalty or totally induced loyalty, then that would likely be the line he'd take. But with hindsight to help things along... "He didn't think it would work. Probably just trying to stall you long enough for his people to get there." Why in the world hadn't he just emailed Alison directly? She'd told him the lines of communication were open.
"Pete told me you'd been corresponding with the bastard." Domino chewed on her lip for a moment, giving Alison a speculative look. "Unless you really pissed him off the last time you talked, it doesn't make sense that he wouldn't have come to you, or hell, Pete or Xavier even if he didn't want to talk to you. Unless he couldn't." Her violet eyes went briefly distant. "First time meeting him for me, obviously, but he looked... grim. Controlled, but giving himself away in the little ways."
"That's where I was going," Alison sighed, having some to that same conclusion even as Domino said it out loud. "Because my last communication with him made it clear this wasn't the way he was to go about things at all." And for all the griping, MacInnis had continued to talk to her. "Anything you can think of that stood out, small details or anything like that?"
"Oh!" Domino's eyes widened suddenly. "How did I not think to... his arm was in a sling. No cast, but a sling."
"Scrapes, bruises? Make-up to hide the bruises?" Alison pondered that pensively. MacInnis had been the one to advise them that Mistra wasn't interested in Mick or on trying the Pack, which GW had verified... was it because they'd directed their full attention to MacInnis' efforts to steal and decondition their agents instead?
"Possibly. The lighting in that club is odd, so it wasn't immediately obvious. But he wasn't moving well - you remember me using the word 'decrepit' in the email." Domino shook her head slowly. "Okay. This is possibly making a little more sense." She shifted around in her chair, frowning. "Where the hell did Pete and David get to?"
So they'd have to see about finding out if Mistra had been quiet lately, or focusing on something in particular. That would be an interesting challenge. Calmly, Alison looked down at her drink, which she'd pointedly not touched since it had been placed in front of her. "The fact that we're not trying to stab each other's eyes out with little paper umbrellas has probably so unsettled them so much that they're hiding in the men's room."
"But they're so cute, the little paper umbrellas... " Domino said, twirling hers between her fingers. "I know Nate's got to be told," she said more quietly, color flooding to her high cheekbones. "I just don't like being used like that. If I were an irrational woman, I'd hold it against him - this isn't the first time someone's used me to get to him - but it's hardly his fault."
"Well, that's men for you. They don't get we wouldn't want to get blood on the cute paper umbrellas." The waiter, who had been considering bringing over a new drink for Domino, turned on his heel and headed for the bar instead. "Hardly his fault," Alison could only agree with that. "Besides, from what we managed to get together it looks like something more of a 'used to get something to him' thing." Alison paused, then wrinkled her nose. "Or to me for that matter. MacInnis knows he was supposed to contact me." Gah. Well then.
"I suppose my pride's just hurt," Domino said a bit moodily, with another sip of her drink. "Like I really need any more proof that there are plenty of ways people can get around my luck. And I'm sounding very self-absorbed, here, I know that, but I'm in a bad mood."
"Well, you're better off knowing the ways than not." And the finding out hadn't killed her or anyone else at least. With a shrug, Alison nudged her glass a few inches further away from her. She didn't think it had moved, but you never knew. "I can't throw rocks there, I do the same when I'm annoyed about something. By the way. How're the sessions going, if you don't mind my asking." Same tone of voice, though Alison did look up at Domino as she asked the question.
Domino shrugged, much more indifferently than she actually felt. "Not bad, I suppose. This woman Jack sent me to is interesting. Listens to me babble, asks awkward questions... isn't that what a shrink's supposed to do?"
"Some people say that," Alison offered, her question answered in some ways. What she was trying to do with Nathan came to mind and she wrinkled her nose. "They try to make you figure out the answers for yourself, really."
"Feels like being led around the nose, but I suppose these aren't the sorts of things someone else can tell you, not if you really need to absorb them." Domino shrugged again. "I don't... mind it, really," she said a bit reluctantly. "I don't need to worry about keeping the front up with her that I do with most of the rest of the people I interact with. She's the first person I've really had to talk about some things with."
Yeah, exactly what she was trying to do with Nathan with those Danger Room scenarios. Alison sighed and offered a small smile, the first of the afternoon. "Good. Everyone needs that." Just because you had difficulty tolerating someone over more than a day's time didn't mean you kicked them when they were down. "The world's going to end soon, I bet you."
She was having a serious conversation with Blaire. Some might even call it bonding. This was moderately horrifying. Domino smiled a cheerfully savage smile, and met the other woman's blue eyes. "So how's Plastic-Butt?"
Alison returned the smile equally, entirely too amused at Domino's reaction after having the obvious pointed out to her. And there hadn't been any concussions this week, or overdone training exercises for him. "Haroun's doing well," she answered mildly, meeting the jab with politeness. She could always use her little paper umbrella later if need be.
"GW said to say hi. Mina, too. I think Mina rather enjoyed meeting you during that little adventure of yours in Belgium."
"Thank you," sweet, perfect politeness. "Mina and I talked shopping while David piloted the 'copter for a bit." Not much, really - the extraction mission had been weighing on her mind far too much for much light banter, despite Mina's best attempts. "It was nice meeting them both." It would be, she thought, nicer even to meet them in a more relaxed setting.
"And Theo said to tell you to tell Miles 'Grrr... asparagus!'" Domino shook her head quizzically. "Whatever that means."
"I haven't the faintest idea," Alison replied without batting an eye, "but I'll pass the message along. Anything for me to give or tell to Amanda or any of the other kids at the mansion?" She tilted her head to the side for a moment, then nodded. "You're clear, by the way."
Domino tried not to look too visibly relieved. "Uhh... thanks." She hadn't felt anything. Then again, it had been Xavier. "And... no, not really. Amanda would just wonder why I hadn't come to the mansion, and she, at least, doesn't need to be worried with this."
"Good point." Alison grinned cheerfully and set out to unsettle Domino once more. "We're being civil again. Even nice to each other. I'm telling you. End of the world, five minutes from now." This was fun.
Domino raised her glass almost in a salute. "Strange circumstances and nasty manipulative ex-Mistra types make strange bedfellows," she said pleasantly. And quite deliberately gave Alison a long, lingering up-and-down assessing look.
Oh, that was an old one. Alison wrinkled her nose at Domino, eyes glinting with amusement. "How quickly people forget. Show business, remember? I've had everyone, their sister and the vacuum cleaner make a pass at me." She shifted in her seat, trying to find a way to stretch her lower back just a bit. The chairs were that uncomfortable. "And yeah, he'd have that effect."
"Ah, well," Domino said, shrugging and dropping the act easily. "Can't blame a girl for trying." She grinned mischievously. "Would it make you feel terribly old if I told you I had a poster of you on my bedroom wall back in our old St. Petersburg safehouse?"
Ooh. Palpable hit. Ooow. Alison winced and then agreeably folded her arms to hide her face in them, not quite going for the head on table "thunk'. "Oh god." She knew Domino was younger than herself, but that was still a low blow. Alison frowned, looking up suspiciously. "And why did you have a poster of me on your bedroom wall?"
Domino laughed, and for perhaps the first time in a conversation with Alison, it was a real laugh, empty of anything except good humor. "Oh, I don't know, Blaire. Might have had something to do with the fact that I like your music?"
Blink. Alison stared, trying not to be overly rude about it from pure ingrained habit, even as she processed those words again just make sure she'd understood right. And that there wasn't a hint of mockery there, a trap designed to mock her the moment she believed what had been said. Some of the kids had been fans of her music. Hank had been silly about it, but one as well. It was possible Domino liked her music as well, at that. "Huh. Well." She was being horribly inarticulate.
"We had to get out of that safehouse fast," Domino said with some regret. "The first retrieval team hit it one night..." She shrugged, smiling. "I replaced the CDs eventually. Never found that same poster again, and to be honest, I'd kind of outgrown the rockstar-on-the-wall thing by that point anyway."
Dammit, appealing to her vanity was just plain unfair. Alison decided that the world could pretend they weren't being civil to each other and not end for a while longer, and made the mental resolution to maybe perhaps find a way for some of the latest very much unreleased material she'd put down to track to find it's way to Domino. "Huh. Haven't had that reaction in a while," she murmured, more to herself than anything else.
Domino glanced over her shoulder, seeing a shift in the crowd. "Huh. The boys are on their way back over. You'd think they'd have realized that the danger of us stabbing each other was past or something." She grinned cheekily, drained her drink, and set the glass firmly down on the table.
"If you keep looking so cheerful they might decide to run for it again just in case the knives get pulled out again. Although on the flipside, I'm guessing the thought of us uniting strengths might also be enough to break the resolve they've worked up after all the time they had to stay away." Alison snickered, amused at the mental imagery that conjured.
"Men are such wimps." Domino looked back over her shoulder, grinning, and then turned back to Alison. "I don't know if you've got to head back to the mansion right away or not, but David and I have a little bit of time before we have to head off to catch our plane. Want to stick around and see if I can make Pete blush?"
"Pete doesn't blush," Alison replied with perfect equanimity. "Even if you keep jiggling at him like you were doing when we got here and you took him aside to talk to." She gazed at Domino with an expression of angelic innocence. "You did make the bartender nearly drop a bottle on his foot though. That as a lot of jiggling."
The drink was not helping. Domino glared down into it sullenly, then looked in the direction of the bar, barely visible through the crowd. She couldn't see Pete and David, but she knew that was where they were. "They're over there talking about me, you realize," she grumped.
"Of course they are. And we're talking about them." There had been grumping and more grumping, since Alison and Pete had arrived at the rendez-vous point. Which she had not picked, obviously, and Alison resisted the urge to wave her hand in what would be a vain attempt to clear some of the smoke from her general breathing vicinity. It stank of cigarette smoke in here. "So you're good with the Professor making sure everything is okay and figuring out what happened?" That's all Alison need confirmed, really, just now.
"No, Blaire, I would have preferred to remain in ignorance of what that asshole shoved in my head, actually..." Oh, there she went with the sarcasm again. Whoops. Domino bit her lip, hard. "I mean," she said, in a good stab at a more moderate tone, "I appreciate Xavier checking me over. The time and the effort. All that. I do."
Well, the what would be figured out later and Alison was fairly sure Pete would want to decide whether to tell or not - she was all for keeping the details of the data to the Database for now, herself. How and what had been done though, at the very least, would have to be explained. "Well, it's not like he'd stand by and do nothing, regardless of what the information might be," she replied mildly. Domino had, to say the least, every right to be upset. "Mind walking me through the conversation you had with MacInnis?"
"I'd just ducked out to that club, like I said. I didn't see anyone following me, and I generally pay attention to things like that." At least when she was sober, which she had been at that point. "I was sitting there minding my own business when he just... appears, and sits down across from me at the table." Domino sighed, sipping at her drink. "I didn't know who he was at first, like I said, and I just about went for my gun when he told me. Except then he told me that he had people covering me, and the club was too crowded. None of the bullets might have hit me, but warped trajectories would have taken them somewhere." It was bothering her in retrospect, that MacInnis had known that, understood how reluctant she was to try her luck in a crowd of innocent people.
"Or in someone." Alison had no qualms about point that out - she wasn't about to criticize Domino for that in the least, really. "That's how he works. I don't think he knows how to be straightforward, to save his life." Right now, little fishie Mac was in big big trouble. Doghouse not getting any contact with anyone kind of trouble. "And there's the fact that he probably figured you'd do something unpleasant to him if he didn't have some kind of back-up plan. Since he's worked so hard on making people like him."
Domino actually smiled. Just a little. "Afraid for his safety? Huh... that makes me feel a little better." And it did, oddly enough. "Anyhow," she said, slipping back into briefing mode. "It was like he was trying to persuade me that serving as a go-between between him and Nate would be some wonderful act of altruistic goodness on my part. Seriously. Not that he was telling me what he wanted me to pass along, but he was talking like my conscience would be very happy with me if I did. Which, you know, I found offensive both coming from him and on general principles."
Frowning a bit, Alison thought that over. It wasn't untypical as approaches went for the man - he was a bit heavy handed and if he was used to having either total loyalty or totally induced loyalty, then that would likely be the line he'd take. But with hindsight to help things along... "He didn't think it would work. Probably just trying to stall you long enough for his people to get there." Why in the world hadn't he just emailed Alison directly? She'd told him the lines of communication were open.
"Pete told me you'd been corresponding with the bastard." Domino chewed on her lip for a moment, giving Alison a speculative look. "Unless you really pissed him off the last time you talked, it doesn't make sense that he wouldn't have come to you, or hell, Pete or Xavier even if he didn't want to talk to you. Unless he couldn't." Her violet eyes went briefly distant. "First time meeting him for me, obviously, but he looked... grim. Controlled, but giving himself away in the little ways."
"That's where I was going," Alison sighed, having some to that same conclusion even as Domino said it out loud. "Because my last communication with him made it clear this wasn't the way he was to go about things at all." And for all the griping, MacInnis had continued to talk to her. "Anything you can think of that stood out, small details or anything like that?"
"Oh!" Domino's eyes widened suddenly. "How did I not think to... his arm was in a sling. No cast, but a sling."
"Scrapes, bruises? Make-up to hide the bruises?" Alison pondered that pensively. MacInnis had been the one to advise them that Mistra wasn't interested in Mick or on trying the Pack, which GW had verified... was it because they'd directed their full attention to MacInnis' efforts to steal and decondition their agents instead?
"Possibly. The lighting in that club is odd, so it wasn't immediately obvious. But he wasn't moving well - you remember me using the word 'decrepit' in the email." Domino shook her head slowly. "Okay. This is possibly making a little more sense." She shifted around in her chair, frowning. "Where the hell did Pete and David get to?"
So they'd have to see about finding out if Mistra had been quiet lately, or focusing on something in particular. That would be an interesting challenge. Calmly, Alison looked down at her drink, which she'd pointedly not touched since it had been placed in front of her. "The fact that we're not trying to stab each other's eyes out with little paper umbrellas has probably so unsettled them so much that they're hiding in the men's room."
"But they're so cute, the little paper umbrellas... " Domino said, twirling hers between her fingers. "I know Nate's got to be told," she said more quietly, color flooding to her high cheekbones. "I just don't like being used like that. If I were an irrational woman, I'd hold it against him - this isn't the first time someone's used me to get to him - but it's hardly his fault."
"Well, that's men for you. They don't get we wouldn't want to get blood on the cute paper umbrellas." The waiter, who had been considering bringing over a new drink for Domino, turned on his heel and headed for the bar instead. "Hardly his fault," Alison could only agree with that. "Besides, from what we managed to get together it looks like something more of a 'used to get something to him' thing." Alison paused, then wrinkled her nose. "Or to me for that matter. MacInnis knows he was supposed to contact me." Gah. Well then.
"I suppose my pride's just hurt," Domino said a bit moodily, with another sip of her drink. "Like I really need any more proof that there are plenty of ways people can get around my luck. And I'm sounding very self-absorbed, here, I know that, but I'm in a bad mood."
"Well, you're better off knowing the ways than not." And the finding out hadn't killed her or anyone else at least. With a shrug, Alison nudged her glass a few inches further away from her. She didn't think it had moved, but you never knew. "I can't throw rocks there, I do the same when I'm annoyed about something. By the way. How're the sessions going, if you don't mind my asking." Same tone of voice, though Alison did look up at Domino as she asked the question.
Domino shrugged, much more indifferently than she actually felt. "Not bad, I suppose. This woman Jack sent me to is interesting. Listens to me babble, asks awkward questions... isn't that what a shrink's supposed to do?"
"Some people say that," Alison offered, her question answered in some ways. What she was trying to do with Nathan came to mind and she wrinkled her nose. "They try to make you figure out the answers for yourself, really."
"Feels like being led around the nose, but I suppose these aren't the sorts of things someone else can tell you, not if you really need to absorb them." Domino shrugged again. "I don't... mind it, really," she said a bit reluctantly. "I don't need to worry about keeping the front up with her that I do with most of the rest of the people I interact with. She's the first person I've really had to talk about some things with."
Yeah, exactly what she was trying to do with Nathan with those Danger Room scenarios. Alison sighed and offered a small smile, the first of the afternoon. "Good. Everyone needs that." Just because you had difficulty tolerating someone over more than a day's time didn't mean you kicked them when they were down. "The world's going to end soon, I bet you."
She was having a serious conversation with Blaire. Some might even call it bonding. This was moderately horrifying. Domino smiled a cheerfully savage smile, and met the other woman's blue eyes. "So how's Plastic-Butt?"
Alison returned the smile equally, entirely too amused at Domino's reaction after having the obvious pointed out to her. And there hadn't been any concussions this week, or overdone training exercises for him. "Haroun's doing well," she answered mildly, meeting the jab with politeness. She could always use her little paper umbrella later if need be.
"GW said to say hi. Mina, too. I think Mina rather enjoyed meeting you during that little adventure of yours in Belgium."
"Thank you," sweet, perfect politeness. "Mina and I talked shopping while David piloted the 'copter for a bit." Not much, really - the extraction mission had been weighing on her mind far too much for much light banter, despite Mina's best attempts. "It was nice meeting them both." It would be, she thought, nicer even to meet them in a more relaxed setting.
"And Theo said to tell you to tell Miles 'Grrr... asparagus!'" Domino shook her head quizzically. "Whatever that means."
"I haven't the faintest idea," Alison replied without batting an eye, "but I'll pass the message along. Anything for me to give or tell to Amanda or any of the other kids at the mansion?" She tilted her head to the side for a moment, then nodded. "You're clear, by the way."
Domino tried not to look too visibly relieved. "Uhh... thanks." She hadn't felt anything. Then again, it had been Xavier. "And... no, not really. Amanda would just wonder why I hadn't come to the mansion, and she, at least, doesn't need to be worried with this."
"Good point." Alison grinned cheerfully and set out to unsettle Domino once more. "We're being civil again. Even nice to each other. I'm telling you. End of the world, five minutes from now." This was fun.
Domino raised her glass almost in a salute. "Strange circumstances and nasty manipulative ex-Mistra types make strange bedfellows," she said pleasantly. And quite deliberately gave Alison a long, lingering up-and-down assessing look.
Oh, that was an old one. Alison wrinkled her nose at Domino, eyes glinting with amusement. "How quickly people forget. Show business, remember? I've had everyone, their sister and the vacuum cleaner make a pass at me." She shifted in her seat, trying to find a way to stretch her lower back just a bit. The chairs were that uncomfortable. "And yeah, he'd have that effect."
"Ah, well," Domino said, shrugging and dropping the act easily. "Can't blame a girl for trying." She grinned mischievously. "Would it make you feel terribly old if I told you I had a poster of you on my bedroom wall back in our old St. Petersburg safehouse?"
Ooh. Palpable hit. Ooow. Alison winced and then agreeably folded her arms to hide her face in them, not quite going for the head on table "thunk'. "Oh god." She knew Domino was younger than herself, but that was still a low blow. Alison frowned, looking up suspiciously. "And why did you have a poster of me on your bedroom wall?"
Domino laughed, and for perhaps the first time in a conversation with Alison, it was a real laugh, empty of anything except good humor. "Oh, I don't know, Blaire. Might have had something to do with the fact that I like your music?"
Blink. Alison stared, trying not to be overly rude about it from pure ingrained habit, even as she processed those words again just make sure she'd understood right. And that there wasn't a hint of mockery there, a trap designed to mock her the moment she believed what had been said. Some of the kids had been fans of her music. Hank had been silly about it, but one as well. It was possible Domino liked her music as well, at that. "Huh. Well." She was being horribly inarticulate.
"We had to get out of that safehouse fast," Domino said with some regret. "The first retrieval team hit it one night..." She shrugged, smiling. "I replaced the CDs eventually. Never found that same poster again, and to be honest, I'd kind of outgrown the rockstar-on-the-wall thing by that point anyway."
Dammit, appealing to her vanity was just plain unfair. Alison decided that the world could pretend they weren't being civil to each other and not end for a while longer, and made the mental resolution to maybe perhaps find a way for some of the latest very much unreleased material she'd put down to track to find it's way to Domino. "Huh. Haven't had that reaction in a while," she murmured, more to herself than anything else.
Domino glanced over her shoulder, seeing a shift in the crowd. "Huh. The boys are on their way back over. You'd think they'd have realized that the danger of us stabbing each other was past or something." She grinned cheekily, drained her drink, and set the glass firmly down on the table.
"If you keep looking so cheerful they might decide to run for it again just in case the knives get pulled out again. Although on the flipside, I'm guessing the thought of us uniting strengths might also be enough to break the resolve they've worked up after all the time they had to stay away." Alison snickered, amused at the mental imagery that conjured.
"Men are such wimps." Domino looked back over her shoulder, grinning, and then turned back to Alison. "I don't know if you've got to head back to the mansion right away or not, but David and I have a little bit of time before we have to head off to catch our plane. Want to stick around and see if I can make Pete blush?"
"Pete doesn't blush," Alison replied with perfect equanimity. "Even if you keep jiggling at him like you were doing when we got here and you took him aside to talk to." She gazed at Domino with an expression of angelic innocence. "You did make the bartender nearly drop a bottle on his foot though. That as a lot of jiggling."
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