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[milkbonesoldier.livejournal.com]

[OOM: Gruinard Island cast a long, long shadow.

It is a lucky thing indeed that the Master of Shadows was there when the Island's shadow finally fell.]

The door opens on London, and on Harry Wells. Anyone who knows the man even the slightest bit will sense something's wrong; it would take a blind man- a very stupid blind man- not to notice that Wells has gone right past anger and rage and over the thin blue line that defines the border of fury.

It is probably for the best for all concerned that he does not stop at the Bar proper, but stalks straight through the open space to the back door, heading for the hay-bale-and-paper-bullseye target range.

Comments

[stilljustandrew]

*A few people see him stalk through, though.*

*One of them drops his spoon into his half-finished bowl of Cap'n Crunch and abandons his table to follow his cousin outside.*




Harry?

[milkbonesoldier.livejournal.com]

Wells pauses, mid-stride, and looks over his shoulder.

"Andrew," he says, and his speech is very clear and precise.

He's found it works better that way, sometimes.

[stilljustandrew]

...

What happened.

[milkbonesoldier.livejournal.com]

"They tried t'kidnap Susan."

[stilljustandrew]

...oh HELL no.

Is she -- was anyone hurt?

[stopped-signal.livejournal.com]

One of the other people who sees him stalk through has... probably a fair idea of what might have caused such a rage.

He watches, warily, until the other man's out through the back door, then seems to come to a decision. He gathers his things and follows at a safe distance.

When Wells is calmer, he wants to ask a few things.

[milkbonesoldier.livejournal.com]

Wells will be calmer eventually, but it's going to take four or five clips' worth of target practise to get him there. Silent, odourless, smokeless practise- aside from the inevitable jerk of recoil and a brief muzzleflash, neither sound nor smell betrays his firing. Only the twitch of his finger and the appearance of a hole in the target.

[stopped-signal.livejournal.com]

Definitely staying at a safe distance, a long way behind Wells.

He'll go over when Wells stops shooting, he decides.

[milkbonesoldier.livejournal.com]

Which Wells eventually does, lowering the gun and staring at the target. He's quite still for a while.

"You're up-wind, you know," he says without turning away from the range. "I know you're there."

[stopped-signal.livejournal.com]

"Well then", he says after a bare moment's surprise - knowing a thing doesn't mean being used to it - "it's a good thing I wasn't trying to keep you from knowing."

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

At some point there is a pyro sitting quietly in the grass, who's staying very much out of the range of fire, thank you very much, but...

Angry Wells... scratch that. Insanely furious Wells is never, ever a good thing.

Can't blame a pyro for being curious. She'll just... wait.

[milkbonesoldier.livejournal.com]

Wells got himself a goodly quantity of ammo before coming to Milliways; he doesn't like pestering the Bar and getting tiny amounts in return.

He's gone through four or five clips before he realises there's another smell on the wind, and lowers his gun.

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

"You were in a better mood last night." Ace observes, quiet. "Sommat gone wrong?"

'Duh' would be an appropriate answer, but there's not a limitless supply of ways to say 'okay, who the hell do I need to kill' without sounding like an uber-violent maniac.

...

Even if you are one, there's some things one doesn't advertise.

[milkbonesoldier.livejournal.com]

"Attempted kidnapping," says Wells. "While the baby was at the hospital. The son of a bitch disguised himself as one of the orderlies and tried to walk off with her."

There isn't a dropped consonant or slurred dipthong anywhere to be heard in his speech. None of the sounds are swallowed. You can hear every single thing that Harry says, and hear it perfectly.

This is not necessarily a comforting thing, no.

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

Um. No. Not terribly.


At all.


"Attempted." Ace repeats, because quite frankly, it's the very thin shield between relative human sanity and the sudden urge to go rip a certain someone's throat out. "Attempted. She's a'right?"

[princeinexile]

"What happened?"

That would be the rest of the pack -- great gray hounds and prince, dressed in peasant greens, but his swordbelt on. There was the scent not he air and then one wolf to another, the prince and his pups outside.

The boy's head is high; the two pups are down, wary, ears cocked but back, tails held down, but not tucked. They are cautious. Ready for attack. There is something, some danger.

All three know it.

[milkbonesoldier.livejournal.com]

"Hallo, Zuko," Wells says as he moves to reload his gun. "Someone tried to kidnap my grand-daughter."

His accent is a good deal more collected and precise than his usual- more controlled. He sounds like when he used to have to pass for someone born somewhere posh, like Chelsea.

[princeinexile]

"And will be be hunting?"

For they're all ready, fangs of steel and ivory just waiting to be bared.

[milkbonesoldier.livejournal.com]

"Not yet," says Wells. "The one who did it's dead. Arithon saw to that. The one who set him to it's going to have a very bad day- very, very soon." He holsters the gun. "I believe I need to speak to him myself, this time."

[princeinexile]

"... maybe he should see more then one of us," he says. A hand rakes through Gifr's hackles, soothing. Shh, shh, there is nothing to fight here. We will hunt soon, get the earth beneath our feet and good stag.

Gifr and Gheri remain unappeased.

[krazyglusurgeon.livejournal.com]

He comes running out not too long after (http://community.livejournal.com/milliways_bar/14671667.html), tea spilled on his dress uniform (what he's been wearing to work every day since they put him on desk duty).

Out back's as good a guess as any.

"Sarge!?"

[milkbonesoldier.livejournal.com]

Wells is where Cooper expects to find him, really. He's on the firing line, practising in the near-total silence afforded him by Hephaestos' gift.

He concentrates a lot under the circumstances, so he won't notice Cooper for a while yet.

[krazyglusurgeon.livejournal.com]

Which is why, after spotting him, he just walks up, breathing a little hard from having run the entire rest of the way.

"Sarge."

[milkbonesoldier.livejournal.com]

Wells glances over his shoulder, then lowers the gun arm.

"Saw the news, did you?"

[krazyglusurgeon.livejournal.com]

"Bloody hard to miss," he admits.