Where: Primatech Paper
When: August 9, 2012; Afternoon
What: Agent Finnegan and Agent Minawa pay a visit to Zan.
The door to Zan's cell opens unexpectedly — there's no such thing as knocking for prisoners, after all. Of all people, it's Agent Finnegan carrying a bag of In n Out and a to-go container with not only two sodas but two chocolate shakes. The smell of burgers and fries fills up the tiny space quickly, and it's certainly more interesting than anything Zan's had to eat, if maybe less nutritious.
"Your ass is negated, right? No more fly boy theatrics, right?" Finnegan tosses to Zan, moving to an empty bunk across the way and not making any offer of the food to the other man at first. While he waits for the other to answer, he punches a straw into one of the sodas and takes a long draw; it's hot out in the 'real world,' after all.
With things having gone from worse to Life In Hell, Zan's composure is an often shaky and unpredictable thing. With today being no exception. He startles when the door swings open, whatever half conscious state he'd been in closing out the majority of his awareness until the unexpected noise jars him back to the present. He's not even sitting on the bunk provided, but camped on the floor opposite the door, and when Finn enters, he crabs along until his shoulder touches the first corner furthest from the bed.
"Yeah," the boy offers, his voice holding strains of continued sleeplessness and stress. A faint quaver highlights his apprehension, residual from being startled and his own dilemma, anew with the presence of the agent. "I… it's gone. Can't feel it." The explanation is offered as he settles himself a little, arms draping over his knees, furtive look cast toward the agent.
Finn watches the boy's skulking, then nods, busying himself with unwrapping another straw and punching it through the lid of a second soda.
"Good. You keep your shit together and I'll keep mine together then. Deal?" He looks up again and picks up the soda to hand to Zan. "I figured you might want something besides mystery meat meatloaf or whatever the hell they feed you in here. And we can have a chat. Like civilized people. No more blaming one another for whatever went wrong, all right? Bygones. You want cheeseburger or plain?"
The agreement is made by nodding first, Zan's gaze angling more toward the older man. "Deal," he agrees. Though still shaken, he unfolds himself enough to turn and face Finn, and he's slow at reaching for the proffered soda cup. "Thank you. Plain is fine."
He settles back again, still not wholly together. His fingers curl around the cup and hold it, however he's far from any temper he'd shown the other day. "What'd you want to chat about," he asks the agent after a moment, looking up at him.
A paper wrapped burger and a box of fries are pulled out and set on the bunk the agent's claimed, then the bag tossed to Zan. "Chocolate shake for dessert if you're good," Finn says, as if he's bartering with a preschooler for good dinner manners.
His own burger is unwrapped enough to take a bite; he chews thoughtfully for a moment, studying the contents of the cheeseburger as if to determine its inner secrets, before he finally looks back at Zan. "I need you to tell me more about this doctor guy. Did you meet him the first time you went back? Why do you think he he would have kept Rylie from you when he knew you were looking for her, aside from that he's just clearly not a nice guy?" he asks, reaching for some fries.
The bag is caught and, while Finn scrutinizes his own burger, Zan investigates the contents. The soda cup is set next to his hip as he opens the bag and pulls out the remaining burger. He peels back the wrapping, eyes lifting to the agent as he begins to speak.
"Didn't see him the first time we went back," the boy answers, looking at the uncovered bun. "I don't remember hearing anything about him then either. When I went back the second time, one of the kitchen staff told me about him. Why he'd keep Rylie…" He shakes his head, worried creases forming across his brow. "…I don't know."
Fries are chewed and another pull of his soda taken and Finnegan nods.
"Tell me what you know about this Thisbe. How did you know her boyfriend comes and goes, and if you know of any connection between Thisbe and Doc? Has Miss Abrams said anything to you about her time with Doc that we should know about?" The anger from the other day seems to have faded for the agent as well; he's much more relaxed as he questions Zan.
The burger Zan's unwrapped is bitten into while Finn shoots off another short list of questions. He crosses his legs, folding them in front of him and rests his elbows against his knees. Another bite is taken before the first is finished off, so it's a good minute before he answers the older man.
"Thisbe was supposed to headline for Eartha Kitt the night Rylie and I went back," he explains. "She wasn't too happy about it, but didn't seem too angry either. When I found out what date we were in, and where we were… we stayed for a couple of songs, Thisbe gave us the seats when I told her we'd try to find her boyfriend in our time. I don't know about any connection between her and Doc, and all Rylie's told me is she spent the last two years working at Pearlies."
Finnegan sighs, clearly unhappy with the answers though not at Zan for not having more to offer him. Really, he's more irritated at himself for not coming up with better questions, but maybe it's because he's still healing his concussion.
"Right. I guess I should go find Thisbe's boyfriend and see what he can tell me. Has Thisbe been over in this time period as far as you know?" he asks, before taking another bite of his cheeseburger that he washes down with a large swallow of Coke.
Bribery isn't an uncommon thing in Las Vegas, certainly, though something about this one has gotten someone's attention; the knock, click, and buzz of the cell door is abrupt, and someone familiar to both of them slides halfway in, looking like he is searching for something. Curiosity didn't kill this cat, at least not yet.
"Someone told me you were heading down here with food. I think I was expecting to find one of you in a pulp-shape by now." Nobara seems to have named himself the responsible type. That's hil-ar-ious, really. "And I wanted to talk to him a bit myself, but I see you're ahead of me there, too." The other agent closes the door behind him, other hand finding the pocket of his straight-legged jeans. Seemingly against the usual grain of suits and ties, the t-shirt under his short sleeved sport jacket is plastered with a picture of comic-style Loki. He has to make himself stand out here, somehow, for the most part. If it's one thing Nobara hates, it is being everyone else.
"I don't know," Zan answers, dropping his gaze to his burger. He takes another bite, less enthused this time and as though his appetite so suddenly found had just as suddenly vanished. He's about to say more when the door opens again, just as unexpected as the first time, and the boy gives another start.
Letting out a shaking breath, he looks toward the door and shakes his head. The only sign of any physical violence would be the bruise on Zan's face from his last chat with Finn. The further reply he had been working up for the first agent is swallowed along with his latest bite of burger, attention appearing to return to his food.
When Zan swallows whatever follow-up he'd had to his initial response, Finnegan sighs, turning to narrow eyes upon Nobara. "We're fine, and I don't need you checking up on me every step I take. Did Shaw put you up to it, or have you decided all on your own you're my keeper?" is his irritable greeting for the other agent.
His grayish eyes slide back to Zan. "What were you going to say? Did you think of something?" he asks, not unkindly. "If you think of anything that might be useful… I know you and I don't always get along, but I really am trying to get to the bottom of what happened to Miss Abrams, kid."
"Might be both. I'm not going to tell you, though." There is a little rivalry here, with the Japanese man's tenuously coy smile and all- that much is obvious to Zan. So far it does not seem to be malevolent. In fact, there might be some extension of Nobara aimed at being a nuisance, but if he is allowed to be, so much the better. Rather than leave, however- at least immediately- Nobara slides in beside Finnegan on the edge of the cot. Impudence? A little.
"She seems like a nice girl. I'm here to help- her state's a pity, but at least she is healthy for now, right?" He finally directly speaks to Zan, offering a short wag of his hand in greeting. "I'm Agent Minawa, two-point-oh." Version one is his father, of course.
"Zan Caldecott," the boy answers, as if it were truly necessary. "She is nice, special. Fun and just the right amount of sassy and sweet. Beautiful singer; she's passionate about music. Loves movies and video games." He smiles, just a shadow of it touching his expression before it turns troubled and sad. "She's going to help me produce my first film. And she loves flying…"
He drags his hands over his head, fingers rake through his hair. A flick of his gaze goes to Finn, then drops away again. "Thisbe might have," he answers, hands dropping away from his head to set the burger aside. "I don't know for sure. Just like I didn't know anyone else knew about the place and didn't have reason to. But she knew where the guy came and went from, the closet. Might be a safe assumption that she's been here before."
The burger finished, the little basket of fries is passed off on Nobara. One of the chocolate shakes is handed to Zan — apparently Finnegan is pleased enough with the boy's cooperation this time around, and Zan gets to have dessert after all. "Fair enough," he says. "If we ever go back in time again and I come to chase down your ass, do me a favor and give me all the information you know sooner rather than later, all right, Al?"
The agent rises, though he's sure to bring his own chocolate shake with him, leaving the rest of the trash for someone else to clean up. "I have to get to work. It's been real," he tells the other two men, before moving to the door to let himself out.
"So you're a filmmaker, then?" Interesting. Nobara listens, otherwise, considering things, and taking Finn's leftovers without much of an eye batted. He'll probably get the trash, too. "But if he told you everything first, where would the fun be?" Nobara exaggerates his expression when he asks this, stifling anything more with a french fry between his teeth. "You don't just give away plot points, right?" The rhetorical question is posed to both of them, though mostly Zan, as Nobara is offering Finn a departing wave of one hand.
"I'm thinking, increasingly, that we need to just start assuming that people who knew about that closet are more than our fingers and toes. This is when I wish we had a robocop patrolling rips in space-time."
"Have you been able to speak with her much, since you came back here…?" If Finn was the one to ask about what else Zan knows, Nobara appears to be the one inquiring as to his psychological state, for better or worse. His tone is neutral, but his sincerity sounds true enough.
"Trying to be," is Zan's answer to being a filmmaker. Quiet and inconsequential. He looks up when Finn approaches, a touch of apprehension crossing his already worried expression. He takes the shake when it's offered, though it's side off beside the barely touched burger.
The boy isn't quick to answer Nobara's next question. His legs draw upward, knees bent and arms drawn around them. He doesn't look toward the older man when he first shakes his head. Concern, and fear, more for his girlfriend than himself becomes evident and he takes an unsteady breath before speaking. "She asked questions about how I knew her and her life here. And about me. I think… I might have… she might believe me but…" He pauses and presses his lips to his knees. "Haven't seen her since… the other day. They put me in here…"
"I don't know what they've been able to accomplish with her, so don't ask me." Getting that out of the way now. "But know that she's safe." Nobara leans forward and puts his elbows on his knees, looking for all the world not quite one of his captors. More like a college kid. The youthfulness takes from the bite of his being one of these people, hopefully.
"If they've figured out what that guy did to her, there's a better chance our own doctors can help." And you know, not-doctors too. "Think of this all like cleaning up an oil spill, and you guys, our teams, and these people from fifty-five all have to be kicked in the balls with safety protocols. You and your lovely are unfortunate seabirds, in this case." In other words, Nobara is asking Zan- boldly so- for just a little more blind understanding, or faith in his captors.
"I'll bring it up with my boss- maybe getting you in to see her. It may help to get her back to …herself, somewhat."
"He screwed up her memory," Zan says, and amazingly it lacks intensity. "How can that happen? How can someone just… go and change things? Why her anyway?" He drops his forehead to his knees and drags his hands against the back of his head. "I just wanted to find her and get her home," he confides in the agent. "I didn't want to cause trouble, I didn't want to go back. One trip was enough, and then… Rylie went off alone and she was hidden for a week. And when I finally find her she doesn't know me."
His head comes up and Zan looks imploringly at Nobara. "Please," he asks, and here's where the intensity comes in. "Please. I promised her I'd do anything to help her remember this life."
"There are a lot of things that would surprise you. You probably never saw anyone like me before, either, have you?" Nobara puts the food down beside him on the bed, folding his hands a moment, dark eyes watchful, though even Zan can see there is some sort of a wall there. "I'll tell my superiors, but I can't- won't- promise anything. I'm not exactly unscathed myself, and I don't have the pull that someone like Finny there does." But perhaps, a gesture can be worth something here.
"What made her go off on her own, anyway? Is she the type to do reckless things?"
"I can fly." Despite it likely already being known, like his name, Zan says it anyway. It's as much an admission of some vague knowledge of others out there somewhere with abilities as his own quasi-viewing of Nobara's special gift. To the rest, he sighs heavily, if quietly, and nods. It doesn't assuage his fears much, but it's something more than he'd had before. "I just want Rylie back," he says in general.
Pressing his chin to his knees, the younger man shakes his head. "She left me a note that said she thought we did something and was going back to change it." His voice catches as he speaks, and he pauses to swallow. "She can be impulsive sometimes, but… normally she's… not like that. I didn't know she was going. I might've tried to talk her out of it if I had known."
Nobara likes that. His expression goes from somber to smiling in a few seconds, and he stands up to gather some of the garbage up. He leaves the uneaten food as it is. It was Finn's offering, not his.
"So at least she was aware of something going on. But I can't help but wonder if someone lured her into a trap." The Someone quite possibly being our little antagonist in Level Five. "Maybe luring us, too, but god knows why." The agent gives a small shrug, and looks to Zan, concerned in that remote sense of someone who gets sad when Feed The Children or Sarah MacLachlan commercials start airing.
"I need to tell someone what you've told me, in the meantime. I expect someone will see you again, before long. Maybe Finn, if he hasn't gotten, ah, busy…"
"Doc pulled a gun on my girlfriend," Zan says, possibly drawing the same conclusions as the agent, though his knowledge of the Doctor's whereabouts is as lacking as his knowledge of his own location. "Like he was going to try to keep us from taking her."
He goes quiet when Nobara starts gathering up trash, gaze following him but no words forthcoming. He nods to the agent's words and glances toward the door. The boy, though, isn't looking to make an escape, the shift in his attention is more driven by the implications of his visitor leaving. "Yeah. Don't forget," he asks, "about Rylie. Please, Agent Minawa."
"I'll do what I can." Which likely isn't going to be much of anything, in the end- Zan is, after all, in trouble for attacking someone on the grounds. Nobara offers another small grin, and a roll of a shoulder. "Don't get your hopes up, is all. And for fuck's sake, behave yourself. This isn't the Hilton on a con weekend. If you do something like that again, I don't think Senior Agent Shaw will be pleased."
"Eat the rest of your food, keep your energy up. Wait it out." That's all that Agent Minawa #2 can advise, as he takes his leave of Zan Caldecott. The door closing and locking behind him is a rather lonely little sound.
