Behrooz meets Rouchefort. And there's conversation about a lot of things.

[kayip.livejournal.com]

Behrooz is sitting at a table, staring at a glass of tea, now a whole lot less sure about venturing back into his world. Images from his dream are playing through his mind - he begins to wonder if he's already becoming like them, like his parents, and if that's the case, if it's safe for him to go back out at all.

If you're someone he knows from CTU, he may be the tiniest bit bitter at the moment. Otherwise he's perfectly friendly, though he might lie to you. Because the truth hasn't done much for him lately.

Comments

[une-ame-damnee.livejournal.com]

That prompts a full-on smile, if a rather evil-looking one. "Touché, monsieur. I am the Comte de Rochefort, personal assistant to His Eminence the Cardinal-Duc de Richelieu."

[kayip.livejournal.com]

Eh, Behrooz is used to evil smiles. His mother never seemed to get the difference between reassuring and downright creepy.

"Um. I'm... Behrooz." It sounds much less elaborate.

[une-ame-damnee.livejournal.com]

Mun does not think that even Michael Wincott can contest Shohreh Aghdashloo in the Evil Smile category, so this is understandable.

"A pleasure to meet you," says Rochefort neutrally, taking a sip of wine. "Where have you come here from?"

[kayip.livejournal.com]

"Erm... that depends on what time you come from."

Behrooz remembers trying to explain what the U.S. was to Mercutio, and isn't sure whether he'll have to give the same explanation to Rochefort.

[une-ame-damnee.livejournal.com]

"It is anno domini 1625 where I come from, monsieur. But by your accent, I might assume that you are from...the United States?" He has to think a minute to remember the name of the country Chappelle had mentioned.

[kayip.livejournal.com]

Well, he's a little relieved he doesn't have to give that explanation again.

"Yeah, that's where I live." Not techincally where he's from. "I'm guessing you met others here from the U.S.?"

[une-ame-damnee.livejournal.com]

"It seems that everyone I have met here is from the U.S. A city called Los Angeles." He takes another thoughtful sip of wine. "But of course, I have not met a great number of people here."

[kayip.livejournal.com]

He sighs a little. "Yeah, it does seem like that." He thinks he could live with fewer people from his world at the moment, but that's definitely not going to happen. "And yeah, I lived there, too."

What past tense?

[une-ame-damnee.livejournal.com]

But this way, we can take over the Bar! It's a veritable army of 24-pups!

Rochefort notes the past tense, but attributes it to the fact that if Behrooz is living in the Bar, he obviously isn't living in L.A. anymore. "Are you Bound here, then?"

[kayip.livejournal.com]

Bwahahahaha!

Well, it could work that way. "I haven't tried to leave."

[une-ame-damnee.livejournal.com]

And Rochefort never gives people the benefit of the doubt, either. Behrooz must just be special that way.

"You find the Bar preferable to your home outside?" Rochefort arches an eyebrow.

[kayip.livejournal.com]

He shrugs. "I don't really have a home on the outside."

There's also the being held by terrorists and new possibly becoming one (not just 'my parents did it' this time) worries, but... eh...

[une-ame-damnee.livejournal.com]

"I see." Rochefort does not seem to feel that Behrooz needs to elaborate on that. "And so you simply fend for yourself in here."

He studies Behrooz momentarily. "Are you grown yet?"

[kayip.livejournal.com]

"It depends on what you mean by 'grown,'" he says. "I'm 17."

[une-ame-damnee.livejournal.com]

"A child, then," says Rochefort, almost dismissively. "Old enough for service in the Musketeers, but not for any real proficiency with a sword...certainly far too young to pose any kind of threat...no, I shouldn't say you count as 'grown.'"

He's sizing Behrooz up almost as if with the eye of a military recruiter. It's how he judges pretty much everyone.

[kayip.livejournal.com]

No, Behrooz probably couldn't do much with a sword. But give the kid a shovel...

"Think whatever you want," he says in the same tone. He's not really one to go boasting about bludgeoning terrorist hitmen to death. And that didn't make him feel grown in the least.

[une-ame-damnee.livejournal.com]

*has mental image of Behrooz facing off with Chris O'Donnell in a Shovel-Wielding Death Match*

"I do not need your permission to think whatever I want, monsieur." He seems amused.

"You remind me--only a little bit--of a boy of my acquaintance, a young outlaw by the name of D'Artagnan, who fancies himself a Musketeer. You strike me as having a more sensible head on your shoulders, but you remind me of him nonetheless."

[kayip.livejournal.com]

"I don't fancy myself a Musketeer," Behrooz says kind of absently. He doesn't contest the outlaw part.

[une-ame-damnee.livejournal.com]

"I should hope not. They do not seem to exist in your time, and so if you did, it might pose a problem."

He contemplates this. "But then, it would pose a problem even in my time. It is a good thing that you have nothing to do with the Musketeers."

Given that Rochefort is something like the 17th-century French equivalent of Hector Salazar, he'd probably approve of Behrooz' particular brand of outlaw status.

[kayip.livejournal.com]

Too bad Behrooz doesn't approve of it.

"Yeah, that's probably a good thing." Pause. "But I don't know your acquaintance, so I don't know if I'm like him."

Behrooz can't really imagine how much he could have in common with a boy from 1600s France.

[une-ame-damnee.livejournal.com]

"Something in your manner of speech," says Rochefort, still pensive. "Only that. He is an arrogant little nuisance; you would do well if you did not turn out like him."

He shrugs. As far as he's concerned, the subject of D'Artagnan is closed now.

"If you do not fancy yourself a Musketeer, though, what profession would you choose? All the others from your country that I have met here seem to work for this...Counter-Terrorism Unit."

[kayip.livejournal.com]

"Well, it probably wouldn't be working there," he says, with the slightest hint of bitterness in his voice.

It's Terrorist Unit, Behrooz would say. If he cared.

[une-ame-damnee.livejournal.com]

Well, Rochefort doesn't particularly care either, and besides, his English is bad enough that he has an excuse.

"No? Would you be working against them, then?"

[kayip.livejournal.com]

"I don't know what I'll be doing in the future," he says, an effort to divert the subject and tell the truth.

[une-ame-damnee.livejournal.com]

A noble effort, which Rochefort supposes he'll honor for the time being.

"Perhaps in your century, you have more time to think about such things than the young men of my time do. Where I come from, a boy would be expected to have already a chosen a trade and begun training in it by the age of 17."

He's not lecturing, just rather curious in a bored sort of way.

[kayip.livejournal.com]

He shrugs. "It wasn't something my parents talked about."

Well, not the kind of profession Rochefort's thinking of, probably. At least, that's what Behrooz thinks.

[une-ame-damnee.livejournal.com]

"Perhaps you will have more time to think about it here."

He gets up and sets his empty wineglass down on the bar. "It has been a pleasure talking to you, monsieur. I have other business to attend to."

[kayip.livejournal.com]

"Perhaps," he mumbles. "I'll talk to you later, then."

And he returns to his tea.