[002 - audio] by the pricking of my thumbs

[freeholding]

[There is the rumble of an engine in the background and some wind distortion, but John's voice is very clear. The benefits of training your voice to be as measured and newscaster-bland as possible.]

You spend enough time around certain elements and you get a sense for things. That feeling of 'something wicked this way comes.' Though a friend of mine is always quick to point out that in context, the hero of that story was the something in question and blind to it.

I tend to have a better track record than that, though. [Not that he isn't wicked, mind. But he's not exactly in the hero role anyway. Christ, and he can almost hear Nathan ranting about literary theory and storytelling conventions and et cetera.]

Anyway. Does anyone know where a concerned citizen might gain access to some firepower? Something better than what the pawn shops have on offer.

[With an ounce of humor:] It is the shopping season, after all.

Comments

audio; PRIVATE!

[forzare]

Is my presence that much more danger than you're used to? Here, I thought I was supposed to be the paranoid one. It's not my fault if they're so damn disagreeable. If I didn't think I had it, I wouldn't get involved.

[ No, he would. Only after careful prep work and a shit ton of backup materials. But he doesn't have any of that, does he? Just himself, and - uh, John, if he could admit to it. ]

Yeah, about the Ways...

Re: audio; PRIVATE!

[freeholding]

Dresden, when you see video feed of an entity standing in the Darkness with a conspicuous lack of monsters, you don't go lecturing it.

[John sighs. Not a small sigh either; it's a deep inhale and a long exhale.]

Tell me.

audio; PRIVATE!

[forzare]

You know I don't take kindly to bullies, Marcone. Especially pretentious ones.

[ Kind of hoping you're not driving right now, man: ]

I tried them when we first arrived. Surgeon's general warning: may cause extreme nausea, migraines, physical pain and explosive epistaxis. They're open, but it's probably going to be really hard to get through them without excruciating pain.

Re: audio; PRIVATE!

[freeholding]

Time and place, Dresden. I know that restraint is a difficult concept for you but you are being unconscionably reckless. [I cannot protect you if you are going to be this stupid, wizard.]

[John actually pulls off the road. He knows better than to drive when he's-- when this is happening. The engine sound fades out.]

... The Pull. Something was mentioned in the greeter pamphlet. And I've heard talk about it. [Especially when he lurks around the nightclubs when the SERO and AGI lackeys wander in.]

audio; PRIVATE!

[forzare]

[ Yeah, why is he being so damn foolhardy? ]

I forgot you don't really care if people get hurt if it means you'll get to the finish line. Unfortunately, I'm not that sort of guy. I don't know if you forgot that because we've been working together, but I don't actually approve of your methods.

[ The fire's starting to edge into his voice: ] The Pull. I figured as much too, at least we're on the same page. The Ways aren't broken, closed or denied to us - but the Pull is making it a bitch and a half to get anywhere. I've been trying to combine alternative practices to see if there's a magical way to break the hold the Pull's got on us.

[freeholding]

[It's like the first ray of sunlight that breaks through your window and steals over your eyes the night after a hangover. It doesn't matter than it's a sliver of light-- it's bright and angry and sharp as a knife in the ribs.

That is the crack of genuine frustration that steals into John's voice.]

This is not our goddamn finish line! Do not play this game with me again, Dresden, I have neither the time nor the patience for your petty moral myopia. These are not our people and these fights are not ours, and I cannot keep us both alive if you are going to goad potential dangers into taking a swing at you!

[...

Fuck.

Pull it the hell together, Baron.]

[Softer, slower:] I have a free holding of two-point-seven million souls and you have a war and your apprentice's Doom. We can not do this. We can't be thrown into a situation we still understand so little about in a world that our rules demonstrably do not apply to and decide to martyr ourselves.

[forzare]

I didn't say this was our goddamn finish line! [ Tit for tat, his temper flares when he's given heat to match. He's never heard Marcone like this though, and a note of disorientation causes his voice to crack at the height of his words. ]

There are living people here. They're not ours, no, but that doesn't mean they deserve to get kicked around by some nutjob on a power kick or that I'm up to watching that happen without lifting a finger to help them. I have seen too many people in that situation to stop now, be this Chicago or be it not. Do not tell me not to care, because I will fight you every step of the way on that!

[ Pause, breath deep, shiver through the words: ] I will get you home, John. You know me, I wouldn't break a promise.

[freeholding]

[Here is the realization. That Dresden's empathy is going to screw them over. And that John doesn't spare a single kind thought for this island.

Without Chicago, John has nothing. Is nothing. This is the thing that he hasn't looked in the eye for the fear it will kill him: Here, Dresden still has power. Here, John does not.

Now what?]

You won't if you're dead.

[John sighs. He's burned out his anger. There's nothing left, like he's set fire to a year's worth of fury for that one outburst.]

I have a lead on some firepower, but it'll take some legwork. I'm not sure when I'll be back. Don't wait up. [No, this isn't avoidance, it's important work obviously. Nothing to do with being unable to handle being in the same room with the man who's seen his soul.]

[forzare]

I won't die. [ Not on you, not on Chicago, he means. But the sigh marks the end of it, he knows. Not much room for arguing after that. ]

[ Don't get hurt, he wants to say. What he gives? It's less than supportive, and reveals the rift between Harry's ability to sympathize with others as a whole, and how poorly he sympathizes with this man, as an individual: ] Yeah, all right. I'll catch you later.

[ click ]