IC CONTACT

[ukan]

Leave a message, knock on his door, etc.

Comments

[ukan]

"What kind of things?" He is lying, of course. And he doesn't just keep notes on wardens. But you don't give everything away at a first meeting, or at all, if you can help it. Especially not without hearing something in return.

[yedinyy]

"Things they tell me," she shrugs. "Where people are from, what year..."

Really, anything. But he must know that, too. The problem with these kinds of alliances is just this: neither of them can really trust the other, and that doesn't often make for a productive partnership.

[ukan]

Lark is fine making the first move sometimes. Like when there's little risk. Like now.

"We should compare files on someone we have in common."

[yedinyy]

She gives him a little smile, then pulls out her communicator to scroll through her list of contacts- the same as his.

"Scott Summers? Or Jesse Pinkman- but he's so new." She hasn't read back quite far enough to know the exact relationship between Lark and Jesse from before.

[ukan]

"He's not," Lark says, and Jesse is off-limits in the sense of pack. Except he isn't pack anymore. In any case, Lark has too much information on him to share with Elizabeth right now.

"Scott's interesting." And also off-limits in certain ways, but not this one. Not when it's just a matter of sharing information. "But he does have his own inmate and they are close."

[yedinyy]

"So you propose someone," she suggests, shrugging and picking up her glass again.

[ukan]

He reaches under a stack of books and retrieves a laptop, one that's newer looking but layered with Swedish stickers daring people to go fuck themselves.

"How about..." He searches, searches. "Iris."

Again, because she's been here a long time, and because he doubts she'd care, so there's minimal risk to him if Elizabeth chooses to turn on him about this.

[yedinyy]

"Iris," she nods, agreeing for very similar reasons.

"And then we see whether we're a match in this."

[ukan]

"You have yours ready?" But he doesn't wait to check, he'll give her this bit of trust, that she won't just take what he offers and run.

His file is typed up in shorthand, his personal code, so some of it may not make sense. But what he is plain about is what he knows of Iris's past lives, what she's shared about her physiology, her explanation of the time-space continuum.

The word "BUS" with a question mark before and after it.

And a number at the bottom: 4.3 next to last week's date.

[yedinyy]

Before she replies she puts her hand over the information-- he should know, then. "It's all in my cabin. I don't carry those things around with me."

She already collapsed in the showers, once. She's not risking that again, even if it's all coded.

When she's told him that she uncovers the file again, and looks down at it. She can't decode everything, but what he has is interesting-- Iris talks on the network often enough that she has most of this, but she didn't know everything. At the end, she looks up, pointing at the 4.3.

"What does that mean?"

[ukan]

"I'll tell you when we've shared more than this." It's a peculiar scale so he's not worried about her seeing other people graded by it.

[yedinyy]

It makes her smile, her eyes crinkling at the corners before she hands him the info back.

"I'll need a few minutes if I'm going to get you my information." Because it's all coded with different One Time Pads, and it'll definitely make her look like a spy if she brings it in like that.

[ukan]

If he's surprised that she needs time, he doesn't show it. After all, if she goes digging on his computer, she'll run into encryptions that Lisbeth Salander taught him. He decoded a handful to offer her, and to make himself seem less paranoid as well.

"Sounds fair."

[yedinyy]

She throws back her drink, but before she stands up she smiles at him.

"I'm glad you asked me here. It's good to know that there are more people who care about these things."

[ukan]

"Not enough of us. Most people get stuck in the myths of the place--like that we're all dead."

He packs the laptop, leaves the rest. People tend to ignore books and bottles, he's found.

[yedinyy]

"It's like living with shutters over your eyes," she judges, shrugging as she makes her way through the winding hallways.

"It's not living."

[ukan]

"Ultimatums make the wardens' jobs easier." But yeah, for the rest of them, it's not living. There's nothing to be learned in it.

[yedinyy]

"Of course you don't want to stay here for years to get a unique wish," she huffs, sounding exasperated more than anything. It's all so American, really, but that's hardly a complaint she's going to voice.

"Sometimes it feels like we're a commodity with an expiration date." Even Arthas left, after all. Six years.

[ukan]

"We are." Lark truly believes that. "But even if you get sent home, they can always pull you back again. I've seen wardens come back as inmates. I've seen inmates come back multiple times."

[yedinyy]

"Do you think you'll ever do it, Lark?"

It's a surprisingly intimate question coming from her, but the way she says it it sounds light.

"Graduate?"

[ukan]

Lark could make his answer equally light. But he's had to think about this a lot lately.

"Between you and me," because he always lies about this to Alec, to Steve. "The Admiral seems to hate what I am. He wants me to go back to a set of ideals that I left behind years ago. He wants me to share the same morals and values the wardens have. And I simply don't. I can't. If I tried, I'd end up dead at home anyway. So...no. I'll be here until he sends me home again."

[yedinyy]

"And wardens would tell you you won't go home, but you will," she nods, getting more exasperated by the second.

[ukan]

"I'm trying to catalogue the different answers they give and compare them to the wardens who've graduated at least one inmate."

But that's a topic he has other people investigating.

"Do you want me to just wait outside for toy?" A leap of faith he would never offer most people. Certainly no one else on board now.

[yedinyy]

She could help him with that-- she's been asking those questions, but she won't give the answer unless he asks.

The offer makes her smile, and she reaches to squeeze his lower arm in thanks. "Thank you. Yes, that would help."

Because it's all hidden, too, and the fewer people know the better. "Ten minutes, tops."

[ukan]

He smiles at her, and he leans against the all opposite her door, pretending to fiddle with his communicator. Really he's just listening.

Well he gave her some faith, that doesn't mean he's not still curious. And since no one on board knows how strong his hearing actually is, he enjoys taking advantage of it.