IC CONTACT

[ukan]

Leave a message, knock on his door, etc.

Comments

[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.

[yedinyy]

There's the creaking of a floorboard, a soft grunt when she unearths the files she hasn't updated recently, the less urgent ones. Rustling, then the sound of the floorboard being returned to its position.

The next few minutes are scratching of a pen on paper, the decoding process. All in all, she's out in five minutes, and then she invites him in. It's all hidden away again.

"We can sit here, but I don't have much to drink."

[ukan]

"That's fine. I had plenty in the library," he promises, and he picks a seat based on watching her to see which one she consciously or subconsciously prefers him to be in.

"Is this a place you knew at home?"

[yedinyy]

She does that herself, quite consciously, by sitting down on the bed .

"It's my bedroom," she tells him, as she gets settled, leaving him the comfortable chair by the bed.

[ukan]

"It's nice," he says, and means it. His eyes linger on the decor and he smiles at the rug hung behind her bed. "My friend had one of those in his living room. His parents' living room."

But his gaze turns back to her, serious but eager. "Who did you pull up for me?"

[yedinyy]

"I wad probably born around the same time," she laughs, tossing her hair over her shoulder. "Even if we're the same age now."

She hands him the file, with Eggsy's name over the top. It has his usual whereabouts, when he's in which location and what for; what he can do, how strong he is, in what; and details about his past that she's scrounged up.

[ukan]

Lark reviews it fast, committing as much to memory as he can. "He's my friend's warden so I see him sometimes. He's one of those strange people who can't shake off their optimism and can't commit to cynicism."

It makes Eggsy hard to predict, but interesting. Lark would be more involved if not for Alec.

"What do you make of him?"

[yedinyy]

"He's seen a lot, but he's still more or less a boy," she shrugs. It's why she's chosen his file: he isn't harmless, but he has such good intentions. She doesn't bear any ill will towards him.

And he's clearly grown up lacking things, he's clearly experienced something awful, but compared to what Elizabeth has seen not a lot gets her to flinch.

"He's a good kid. Very optimistic, but honest. He acknowledges that they mess up."

[ukan]

Lark nods because that's more or less his take on it, too. What really has his attention is the file itself. How thorough it is.

This is not something a travel agent mother of two would have a knack for. But then, someone as clean as Elizabeth seems wouldn't be here anyway, he's always known that.

"He doesn't have much influence with the other wardens, though."

[yedinyy]

She knows that, and it's a bit of her own self that she's letting show-- just like fighting Alfie in the ring, just like the post she'd made with Nina. These aren't things a travel agent and mother of two should be doing, but then again that doesn't define anyone.

"He doesn't. But there's very few wardens that really know how to influence the rest of them. They're all insular."

[ukan]

"Having even one on our side would be good. But I believe there are more who can be flipped." Ricki's term, which Lark has borrowed shamelessly. "How many do you know well?"

[yedinyy]

She shrugs lightly, runs her thumb along her lower lip.

"'Well'? I don't know. Not a lot. Ricki Tarr-- he's changed less by graduation than I think other wardens believe."

[ukan]

"He sees graduation differently than anyone else I've talked to." Lark agrees. He likes Ricki rather a lot but that means he also doesn't trust Ricki outside of specific, agreed-upon boundaries.

[yedinyy]

"He also doesn't belong with that group as much," she adds, curling a strand of hair around her finger. She doesn't trust Ricki either, their politics differing so drastically and all, but she likes parts of him. He's clever and sharp and unapologetic, which is a quality she can respect even in an enemy.

"When I had problems with my last warden, he helped. He reacted in a way that I didn't expect any warden to."

[ukan]

"Really? What did Ricki do?" Elizabeth seems expert at getting along. If she had a problem with a warden, Lark is eager to have some clue as to what it was.