milliways_bar | (no subject)

Entry tags:

elle,
x-23

(no subject)

If there is a particular sense of gloom around the Bar, it doesn't seem to have touched Elle. At least, not in a way that makes her seem any different from normal.

Tonight, she's sitting at the bar, curled up on a stool with her legs twisting oddly around around it. There's a glass of soda in front of her, though at the moment, she seems more interested in bending the hot pink straw that's come with it, as her ice melts at an ever-increasing rate.

But her fingers are absent of sparks, for now.

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"Elle," X says, hesitating a moment before settling on her own barstool.

Bar obligingly offers up a root beer float.

Someone here is predictable.

"You are okay?"

It could have been milk.

Elle looks up, but doesn't stop bending the straw.

"Yeah." The overly-bent plastic isn't meant to suggest otherwise. Really.

"Are you?"

"I am not hurt," X says.

And --

"You have heard anything?"

Beat.

She'll get to it.

"About West?"

Shaking her head, "Not since last time."

Her exhale is slightly sharper than normal, just for a second.

"People are afraid," X says.

"And they do not want to answer questions."

It's enough to get more of Elle's attention, and she finally puts the straw down.

"The other people out there?"

"Yes."

Beat.

"You have talked to any of them since the murder?"

"Bela."

She shrugs one shoulder. "Before I talked to you."

There's a longer pause, and then, sounding vaguely uncertain, "She - I think you - freaked her out..."

By the time she's reached the end, she actually sounds frustrated.

"Oh."

X considers that for a moment, then shrugs, one-shouldered and quick.

"She did not want to answer. It is problematic."

Elle's pressing the straw between her fingers again.

"You think she didn't tell you something?"

X is silent for a few moments.

Then --

"Yes."

Beat.

"I do not think anybody told me everything. You have met someone named Lara here? Who is not me?"

Pause.

"No."

Unless the girl who asks a lot of questions is named Lara. But she's fairly sure that's not right.

"Okay."

Beat.

"She did not like answering questions, either."

It is annoying. But not as annoying as a murderer on the loose.

Elle looks away, finally using her straw to sip her drink.

(It doesn't work all that well now.)

"Does she do anything?"

X considers that.

And then --

"I do not think she is like us."

But she can't be certain. Not really.

She frowns, dimly.

"Would... she want to take his muscle?"

Or... whatever.

X considers that.

"She smelled human."

Beat.

"I do not think she is a cannibal."

Well...

"Maybe they just... don't like answering stuff..."

She could get that. About some things.

X considers that, too.

Then --

"Maybe."

Beat.

"But sometimes it is deliberate."

The not-talking, that is.

"Yeah."

After another sip, "I don't know why they'd want to kill him, though."

"I do not, either. Even if he was annoying."

Beat.

"There was a knife. At the scene."

"Oh."

Spending most of her life in the Company means Elle's mind doesn't work entirely like a normal detective's would. In this case, her first response is -

"A telekinetic wouldn't need that."

"No," X says.

"Or they would not have dropped it."

Or really they would have found it really easy to pick back up.

"There was brain matter on it, too. The knife. But the head was missing."

"You wouldn't need -"

- it at all, as she's about to point out. But something X has said makes her stop entirely.

"That -"

She stops again. Mostly because now, she's not sure at all what to think of that.

Edited 2009-07-22 05:17 (UTC)

"Julian would have made his head explode. If he tried."

Beat.

"His control is not good anymore."

Or it wasn't, anyway. Last time she saw him.