Path Into Town/Junkyard [Mid Monday Morning to Late Morning/Early Afternoon] [NFB]
[OOC: Follows this]
After dispatching of Officer Sun, John's made his way outside. He's walking briskly, a destination clearly in mind as he heads towards town.
There's much work to be done, much plotting to be completed and he's already lost too much time dealing with Crichton's doe eyed girlfriend. It was honestly unclear to him how Crichton managed to survive in this world what with his meek intelligence and even meeker ability to defend himself.
Rory's on her way back from town, grumbling about her broken coffee maker and clutching her mocha like a liferaft. She smiled when she saw John, and waved. "Hey! What are you doing out so early?"
Internally, he rolled his eyes. But outwardly, he put on a pleasant enough smile and said, "I've business in town. Thank you for asking."
"What kind of business?" Rory asked curiously. "I didn't know anyone but the Perk was even open yet."
"Business of my own," he said, disdain in his voice. "Why does everyone think they should know my business?"
Rory looked wounded. "I was just asking. It's okay if it's a secret. Sorry."
He could hear John screaming inside his mind but it was easy to block it out. "It's a secret then," he said. "My secret."
"An Aeryn secret?" she asked with a tiny smile.
He sighed and said, "And if it is? Does that mean I should tell you?"
Rory looked sad. "You don't have to, I just thought maybe you would. Are you mad at me for some reason?"
"I am merely trying to get to my destination with minimal distraction," he explained as sweetly as he could which wasn't very sweet at all. "And you are preventing me from doing that."
"Oh." Rory wasn't quite ready to let him be on his way. He was acting weird. "Are you okay?"
"You find something wrong with my behavior?" he asked, staring at her intently.
"Your speech patterns are...off," Rory said slowly, suddenly a little nervous.
"I've no time for this," he said, scowling irritatedly at Rory before attempting to just walk by her.
Rory reached out to lightly grab his arm. "Wait."
Enough of this.
John stopped and, still smiling, swung his free hand towards her in a sharp, tight punch.
The blow connected and Rory reeled back, falling backwards. "What's wrong with you?" she yelled.
"If you're smart," John said, stalking towards her, "you'll forget you ever ran into me."
He punctuated this by reaching out, grasping her arm and bringing his elbow towards her face.
Hey, getting hit in the nose with an elbow hurts. Who knew.
Rory coughed, her knees buckling and fumbled in her pocket for her cell phone. "Let me go," she said hoarsely.
John started laughing. "Soon enough." And that's when his knee met Rory's face with a loud crack.
And that was when Rory fell down and didn't get back up again.
"Terribly sorry," he said mildly. "I do hope that doesn't hurt too much."
And he continued on his way.
It wasn't like Anakin spent a lot of time sleeping these days.
He headed towards school early with a vague thought towards working on lesson plans when he saw the crumpled body.
He began moving faster.
He recognized who it was.
He moved a lot faster.
"Rory!" he called, kneeling down next to her. "Rory, wake up."
Rory didn't respond.
Anakin didn't panic at the sight of all of the blood.
Much.
"Rory," he repeated, moving his hands up to her face, careful not to touch the eye that was already beginning to swell up. "Rory, wake up."
Her head lolled slightly and she made a soft noise, but didn't respond in any other way.
Not good.
Anakin picked her up, resting her head against his shoulder, and began walking quickly towards the clinic.
"Come on, Rory," he coaxed. "Wake up for me."
Rory's eyelashes fluttered, and she gave a soft moan against Anakin's shoulder.
And Anakin could breathe again.
"We're almost there," he said softly. "Stay with me, please."
There would be time enough later to figure out what happened.
Rory's eyes opened enough for her to take in the barest of her surroundings.
Her pounding head and the blackness encroaching on the edges of her vision.
The wetness on her face.
The soft, familiar texture under her cheek.
The dizzying movement of the ground below her, and the strong arms around her.
She inhaled a weak breath through her mouth - her nose hurt for some reason that seemed far away.
Her mouth formed the first word she connected with, her voice coming out as a barely audible whisper. "Anakin?"
Anakin smiled down at her. "Hello," he said, keeping his voice low. "We're going to the clinic for a visit."
"Head," she breathed, turning her face into his shoulder.
"I know," Anakin said, biting back the involuntarily "my love," he wanted to add.
"What happened?" he asked as the clinic came into view.
"Hurts," Rory replied dizzily. "Tired."
"Stay awake for a little longer, okay?" Anakin asked, holding her a little more tightly. "The doctor will make it hurt less."
"John hit me," she mumbled. "M'face's all wet."
Anakin's eyes flashed, but he kept his voice carefully controlled. "John Connor hit you?"
"Nuh uh," she said, shaking her head a fraction and succeeding in smearing more blood into his shoulder.
"Then who..." Anakin's blood ran cold. "Not Crichton?" he asked shakily.
Please, please no...
"Talked funny," she whispered, her eyes crashing shut.
He's not going to be able to talk at all by the time I'm through with him, Anakin thought furiously to himself as he looked down at Rory's bloodied and swollen face.
Then they were at the clinic and there was no more time for questions.
This place really was crawling with insolent students, wasn't it? And, of course, John wouldn't stop screaming in his mind, begging him to stop. Really, did he have to be so loud? He wasn't doing anything that bad and, besides, people were getting in his way. That had to be rectified in an appropriate and quick manner.
There were things to do. The junkyard was almost in view now. Soon, he would be rid of this place.
Cameron was on his way back to the dorms from his morning run when he spotted John.
"Yo, man," he called, crossing the street to say hi.
"Yes, what?" John asked in a long suffering tone. "Can I help you?"
"Uh no," Cameron came to a stop and gave John a confused look. "Just saying hi. You okay?"
"Perfectly fine," he said, sighing. "I'm merely on my way to town."
"I think that's the first time I heard you say merely," Cameron remarked, not sure what to make of John's attitude. "You going for breakfast?"
"Does this whole entire town need to know my exact move?" John said scornfully. "There are far too many distractions."
"No. Just..." Cameron frowned as this felt off somehow and the last time that happened, the person had thought he was a courtesan. "Distractions from what?"
"I'm leaving," he said mildly. "Should you stop me, I'll dispatch you."
"You'll dispatch me?" Cameron asked incredulous. "Is that some sort of threat?"
"If you'd like it to be," John said, smiling pleasantly. "It would be easy, you know? To get rid of you. I've done it twice already today."
The smile and the words didn't add up. "What? Is this some kind of joke, because it's not one of your great ones? What's going on, John?"
"Tsk," John said, nodding solemnly. "It was such good advise and yet, you were too stupid to take it."
Okay, he really wasn't liking this. "Did you eat anything weird? Maybe we should head down to the clinic," he offered, taking a step closer.
"And my intelligence level has plummeted just by being in the same proximity as you," John said, sighing. "I would advise you to carefully consider stepping closer. It would be quite easy to make you cry."
Cameron raised an eyebrow. This definitely wasn't John Crichton and whoever it was, or whoever John thought he was, it wasn't sitting well with him. "Uh huh. Did Aeryn teach you some moves?" he asked, more to see what would happen if he brought her up than anything else.
He smiled slowly. "She didn't have the chance. Pity that."
That sort of sealed it and despite the earlier warning, Cameron stepped right into John's path. "Right. How about we go ask her now?"
"Step aside before I hurt you," he said wearily. "I grow tired of Crichton's insolent friends."
"Sorry," he said, the fact that John had just called himself 'Crichton' pretty much sealing the deal. "No can do. You're coming with me."
Snarling, he reached across to dig his fingers into the Cam's shoulder. "If you do not move, I will move you."
Cameron winced and tried to grab John's arm as he tried to pull loose.
"People who don't listen to me," he said slowly, "tend to disappear."
He dug his fingers in harder. "Do you want to disappear?"
"No one's disappearing," Cameron growled, ignoring the pain in his shoulder and he tried to push John back. "You're coming with me, buddie."
"Unfortunately," he said, swinging his free hand towards Cam's face. "I'm not."
Cameron tried to pull back, but as John was still holding on to his shoulder, he was too slow. The hit connected with his jaw and his head snapped back. Blindly, he punched at John's chest, trying to get him to back up.
"Have a pleasant day," he said mildly before driving his fist towards Cameron's face, hard and sharp.
Still whoozy from the first punch, there was no time to react. Cameron didn't even feel it as he fell to the pavement, already knocked out.
"Goodbye," he said, dusting his hands off and continuing on.
This place was really beginning to irritate John. It was just too small, too quaint and there were far too many insignificant distractions getting in his way.
He was done with this place. With that in mind, he was headed towards the junkyard, wanting to get off this island and rejoin Scorpius as soon as possible.
Jamie just happened to be coming back from the quick stop to pick up a full batch of new socks for his puppets when he saw John. "Stickbug brother! How goes it?!"
John schooled himself, putting on his best smile. "It goes well, thank you. I'm just on my way to an important engagement, actually."
"Oh yeah? Where you going?" Jamie asked. "Doing anything fun?"
"No," he said with a small frown. "A private matter, I'm afraid. Not for you to know."
"Is it a secret?" Jamie asked. "Because I'm totally awesome at keeping secrets. Except for the part I'm totally not."
Suppressing the instant anger, John said, "Yes, it's a secret and no, I'm not telling you. Please step aside so I can continue on my way."
"Dude are you all right?" Jamie asked. "You're acting kind of weird. Should I call Aeryn?"
"Fine," he said with a long suffering sigh. "And that's really not necessary. She won't answer anyway."
"Why wouldn't she answer?" Jamie asked reaching for his cellphone. "Is she in class or something?"
"I would advise against doing that," John said, voice deceptively calm.
"Well if she's in class then it really isn't a big deal," Jamie replied as he started to scan through his speed dial. "She just won't answer."
John sighed. He really didn't wish to have to do this continually. Nonetheless, he reached out and put a hand on Jamie's arm.
"Please, don't do that."
Jamie looked at the arm.
And then back at John.
And totally misinterpreted what was going on.
"John? I'm flattered but I'm not that kind of guy."
John scrunched up his face before snapping, "Not that, you brainless peon. Stop dialing. Or I shall have to make you stop."
Peon?
"Yeah. I don't think so," Jamie replied as he hit "send". "No offense dude but this is not you."
"No, it's not," John said, keeping a hold on Jamie's arm and using his free arm to swing wildly towards Jamie's head.
The phone went flying and the blow was severe enough to make Jamie disoriented enough to knock him to his knees and create another disoriented duplicate.
"Dude! What the hell?!"
"Oh, wonderful," John said, blinking at the dual Jamie's. "This place is horrific."
Taking advantage of the disorientation, John smashed one knee into one Jamie and swung another punch towards the other Jamie.
Blood spurted from Jamie's nose when the knee connected with his face. His dupe was thrown back from the punch of the blow and hit the ground pretty hard.
Creating two more duplicates. Both in some pain.
"Get him," Jamie growled as he wiped the blood from his face. "He's lost it."
The dupes stood up and attempted to circle around John.
"I hate this place," John muttered before putting his hands up in a defensive stance. "Do you really want to do this? I'm sure there are far better matters for you and your...clones to attend to."
"You mean like keeping you from going all 'Punch and Judy' on our asses?" Jamie glared and motioned for his dupes to grab John.
"Listen to me," John said quietly, smoothly. "You can either try and apprehend me or...you can stop Aeryn from dying."
That did nothing to make Jamie less angry. "What did you do to her?" he growled.
"Perhaps you should run and see," he said, flicking his wrist in the general direction of the dorms. "Perhaps she's still breathing."
Jamie looked back at the dorms and then back at John. "If you've hurt her..."
Jamie doesn't finish the sentence but absorbs the duplicates and heads off in the direction of the dorms.
Well not all the dupes. One sticks behind just to keep an eye on John. In a sneaky type fashion.
John, too busy being proud of himself to notice the sneaky dupe, turns and heads back towards his original destination.
[Pre-played with rory__gilmore, darthbanthabell, cameronmitchell, and multi_madrox. No IC interaction, OOC comments craved and will be eaten with glee.]
After dispatching of Officer Sun, John's made his way outside. He's walking briskly, a destination clearly in mind as he heads towards town.
There's much work to be done, much plotting to be completed and he's already lost too much time dealing with Crichton's doe eyed girlfriend. It was honestly unclear to him how Crichton managed to survive in this world what with his meek intelligence and even meeker ability to defend himself.
Rory's on her way back from town, grumbling about her broken coffee maker and clutching her mocha like a liferaft. She smiled when she saw John, and waved. "Hey! What are you doing out so early?"
Internally, he rolled his eyes. But outwardly, he put on a pleasant enough smile and said, "I've business in town. Thank you for asking."
"What kind of business?" Rory asked curiously. "I didn't know anyone but the Perk was even open yet."
"Business of my own," he said, disdain in his voice. "Why does everyone think they should know my business?"
Rory looked wounded. "I was just asking. It's okay if it's a secret. Sorry."
He could hear John screaming inside his mind but it was easy to block it out. "It's a secret then," he said. "My secret."
"An Aeryn secret?" she asked with a tiny smile.
He sighed and said, "And if it is? Does that mean I should tell you?"
Rory looked sad. "You don't have to, I just thought maybe you would. Are you mad at me for some reason?"
"I am merely trying to get to my destination with minimal distraction," he explained as sweetly as he could which wasn't very sweet at all. "And you are preventing me from doing that."
"Oh." Rory wasn't quite ready to let him be on his way. He was acting weird. "Are you okay?"
"You find something wrong with my behavior?" he asked, staring at her intently.
"Your speech patterns are...off," Rory said slowly, suddenly a little nervous.
"I've no time for this," he said, scowling irritatedly at Rory before attempting to just walk by her.
Rory reached out to lightly grab his arm. "Wait."
Enough of this.
John stopped and, still smiling, swung his free hand towards her in a sharp, tight punch.
The blow connected and Rory reeled back, falling backwards. "What's wrong with you?" she yelled.
"If you're smart," John said, stalking towards her, "you'll forget you ever ran into me."
He punctuated this by reaching out, grasping her arm and bringing his elbow towards her face.
Hey, getting hit in the nose with an elbow hurts. Who knew.
Rory coughed, her knees buckling and fumbled in her pocket for her cell phone. "Let me go," she said hoarsely.
John started laughing. "Soon enough." And that's when his knee met Rory's face with a loud crack.
And that was when Rory fell down and didn't get back up again.
"Terribly sorry," he said mildly. "I do hope that doesn't hurt too much."
And he continued on his way.
It wasn't like Anakin spent a lot of time sleeping these days.
He headed towards school early with a vague thought towards working on lesson plans when he saw the crumpled body.
He began moving faster.
He recognized who it was.
He moved a lot faster.
"Rory!" he called, kneeling down next to her. "Rory, wake up."
Rory didn't respond.
Anakin didn't panic at the sight of all of the blood.
Much.
"Rory," he repeated, moving his hands up to her face, careful not to touch the eye that was already beginning to swell up. "Rory, wake up."
Her head lolled slightly and she made a soft noise, but didn't respond in any other way.
Not good.
Anakin picked her up, resting her head against his shoulder, and began walking quickly towards the clinic.
"Come on, Rory," he coaxed. "Wake up for me."
Rory's eyelashes fluttered, and she gave a soft moan against Anakin's shoulder.
And Anakin could breathe again.
"We're almost there," he said softly. "Stay with me, please."
There would be time enough later to figure out what happened.
Rory's eyes opened enough for her to take in the barest of her surroundings.
Her pounding head and the blackness encroaching on the edges of her vision.
The wetness on her face.
The soft, familiar texture under her cheek.
The dizzying movement of the ground below her, and the strong arms around her.
She inhaled a weak breath through her mouth - her nose hurt for some reason that seemed far away.
Her mouth formed the first word she connected with, her voice coming out as a barely audible whisper. "Anakin?"
Anakin smiled down at her. "Hello," he said, keeping his voice low. "We're going to the clinic for a visit."
"Head," she breathed, turning her face into his shoulder.
"I know," Anakin said, biting back the involuntarily "my love," he wanted to add.
"What happened?" he asked as the clinic came into view.
"Hurts," Rory replied dizzily. "Tired."
"Stay awake for a little longer, okay?" Anakin asked, holding her a little more tightly. "The doctor will make it hurt less."
"John hit me," she mumbled. "M'face's all wet."
Anakin's eyes flashed, but he kept his voice carefully controlled. "John Connor hit you?"
"Nuh uh," she said, shaking her head a fraction and succeeding in smearing more blood into his shoulder.
"Then who..." Anakin's blood ran cold. "Not Crichton?" he asked shakily.
Please, please no...
"Talked funny," she whispered, her eyes crashing shut.
He's not going to be able to talk at all by the time I'm through with him, Anakin thought furiously to himself as he looked down at Rory's bloodied and swollen face.
Then they were at the clinic and there was no more time for questions.
This place really was crawling with insolent students, wasn't it? And, of course, John wouldn't stop screaming in his mind, begging him to stop. Really, did he have to be so loud? He wasn't doing anything that bad and, besides, people were getting in his way. That had to be rectified in an appropriate and quick manner.
There were things to do. The junkyard was almost in view now. Soon, he would be rid of this place.
Cameron was on his way back to the dorms from his morning run when he spotted John.
"Yo, man," he called, crossing the street to say hi.
"Yes, what?" John asked in a long suffering tone. "Can I help you?"
"Uh no," Cameron came to a stop and gave John a confused look. "Just saying hi. You okay?"
"Perfectly fine," he said, sighing. "I'm merely on my way to town."
"I think that's the first time I heard you say merely," Cameron remarked, not sure what to make of John's attitude. "You going for breakfast?"
"Does this whole entire town need to know my exact move?" John said scornfully. "There are far too many distractions."
"No. Just..." Cameron frowned as this felt off somehow and the last time that happened, the person had thought he was a courtesan. "Distractions from what?"
"I'm leaving," he said mildly. "Should you stop me, I'll dispatch you."
"You'll dispatch me?" Cameron asked incredulous. "Is that some sort of threat?"
"If you'd like it to be," John said, smiling pleasantly. "It would be easy, you know? To get rid of you. I've done it twice already today."
The smile and the words didn't add up. "What? Is this some kind of joke, because it's not one of your great ones? What's going on, John?"
"Tsk," John said, nodding solemnly. "It was such good advise and yet, you were too stupid to take it."
Okay, he really wasn't liking this. "Did you eat anything weird? Maybe we should head down to the clinic," he offered, taking a step closer.
"And my intelligence level has plummeted just by being in the same proximity as you," John said, sighing. "I would advise you to carefully consider stepping closer. It would be quite easy to make you cry."
Cameron raised an eyebrow. This definitely wasn't John Crichton and whoever it was, or whoever John thought he was, it wasn't sitting well with him. "Uh huh. Did Aeryn teach you some moves?" he asked, more to see what would happen if he brought her up than anything else.
He smiled slowly. "She didn't have the chance. Pity that."
That sort of sealed it and despite the earlier warning, Cameron stepped right into John's path. "Right. How about we go ask her now?"
"Step aside before I hurt you," he said wearily. "I grow tired of Crichton's insolent friends."
"Sorry," he said, the fact that John had just called himself 'Crichton' pretty much sealing the deal. "No can do. You're coming with me."
Snarling, he reached across to dig his fingers into the Cam's shoulder. "If you do not move, I will move you."
Cameron winced and tried to grab John's arm as he tried to pull loose.
"People who don't listen to me," he said slowly, "tend to disappear."
He dug his fingers in harder. "Do you want to disappear?"
"No one's disappearing," Cameron growled, ignoring the pain in his shoulder and he tried to push John back. "You're coming with me, buddie."
"Unfortunately," he said, swinging his free hand towards Cam's face. "I'm not."
Cameron tried to pull back, but as John was still holding on to his shoulder, he was too slow. The hit connected with his jaw and his head snapped back. Blindly, he punched at John's chest, trying to get him to back up.
"Have a pleasant day," he said mildly before driving his fist towards Cameron's face, hard and sharp.
Still whoozy from the first punch, there was no time to react. Cameron didn't even feel it as he fell to the pavement, already knocked out.
"Goodbye," he said, dusting his hands off and continuing on.
This place was really beginning to irritate John. It was just too small, too quaint and there were far too many insignificant distractions getting in his way.
He was done with this place. With that in mind, he was headed towards the junkyard, wanting to get off this island and rejoin Scorpius as soon as possible.
Jamie just happened to be coming back from the quick stop to pick up a full batch of new socks for his puppets when he saw John. "Stickbug brother! How goes it?!"
John schooled himself, putting on his best smile. "It goes well, thank you. I'm just on my way to an important engagement, actually."
"Oh yeah? Where you going?" Jamie asked. "Doing anything fun?"
"No," he said with a small frown. "A private matter, I'm afraid. Not for you to know."
"Is it a secret?" Jamie asked. "Because I'm totally awesome at keeping secrets. Except for the part I'm totally not."
Suppressing the instant anger, John said, "Yes, it's a secret and no, I'm not telling you. Please step aside so I can continue on my way."
"Dude are you all right?" Jamie asked. "You're acting kind of weird. Should I call Aeryn?"
"Fine," he said with a long suffering sigh. "And that's really not necessary. She won't answer anyway."
"Why wouldn't she answer?" Jamie asked reaching for his cellphone. "Is she in class or something?"
"I would advise against doing that," John said, voice deceptively calm.
"Well if she's in class then it really isn't a big deal," Jamie replied as he started to scan through his speed dial. "She just won't answer."
John sighed. He really didn't wish to have to do this continually. Nonetheless, he reached out and put a hand on Jamie's arm.
"Please, don't do that."
Jamie looked at the arm.
And then back at John.
And totally misinterpreted what was going on.
"John? I'm flattered but I'm not that kind of guy."
John scrunched up his face before snapping, "Not that, you brainless peon. Stop dialing. Or I shall have to make you stop."
Peon?
"Yeah. I don't think so," Jamie replied as he hit "send". "No offense dude but this is not you."
"No, it's not," John said, keeping a hold on Jamie's arm and using his free arm to swing wildly towards Jamie's head.
The phone went flying and the blow was severe enough to make Jamie disoriented enough to knock him to his knees and create another disoriented duplicate.
"Dude! What the hell?!"
"Oh, wonderful," John said, blinking at the dual Jamie's. "This place is horrific."
Taking advantage of the disorientation, John smashed one knee into one Jamie and swung another punch towards the other Jamie.
Blood spurted from Jamie's nose when the knee connected with his face. His dupe was thrown back from the punch of the blow and hit the ground pretty hard.
Creating two more duplicates. Both in some pain.
"Get him," Jamie growled as he wiped the blood from his face. "He's lost it."
The dupes stood up and attempted to circle around John.
"I hate this place," John muttered before putting his hands up in a defensive stance. "Do you really want to do this? I'm sure there are far better matters for you and your...clones to attend to."
"You mean like keeping you from going all 'Punch and Judy' on our asses?" Jamie glared and motioned for his dupes to grab John.
"Listen to me," John said quietly, smoothly. "You can either try and apprehend me or...you can stop Aeryn from dying."
That did nothing to make Jamie less angry. "What did you do to her?" he growled.
"Perhaps you should run and see," he said, flicking his wrist in the general direction of the dorms. "Perhaps she's still breathing."
Jamie looked back at the dorms and then back at John. "If you've hurt her..."
Jamie doesn't finish the sentence but absorbs the duplicates and heads off in the direction of the dorms.
Well not all the dupes. One sticks behind just to keep an eye on John. In a sneaky type fashion.
John, too busy being proud of himself to notice the sneaky dupe, turns and heads back towards his original destination.
[Pre-played with rory__gilmore, darthbanthabell, cameronmitchell, and multi_madrox. No IC interaction, OOC comments craved and will be eaten with glee.]