Fourth Casefile: Damage Control. [Voice/Written/Action]

[quicktoanger]

[Voice]

I paused, staring at the journal, not sure what to say for a moment.

What the hell do you say?

"Right. Sorry ab-"

Let's try this again without the accent, Harry.

"Right. Sorry about last week. If I was... off, or confused anybody, or offended anyone, or whatever."

I paused again.

"I lost the jacket, Richard, but did you at least get to keep the rifle?"

I sat for a moment longer, then chuckled.

"Least the hand didn't stay shot. Alright, I think that's it."

I shut off the feed and set to work on a filter. I suck at those, for the record, but this kind of needed to be said and was private, so...

Hell's bells, those things are more trouble than they're worth.

[Written- Locked to Molly Carpenter, filter at 2% 5% 6% 9% 9% 13 16% 20%]

Kid. Molly. I'm sorry about last week. Really, really sorry.
I never meant to
It was like I
Forget it. Look. Let me make it up to you somehow?

[Action]

That done, I tucked my journal in my pocket and went into town. I felt a pressing need to talk to people, which, let me tell you, never happens to me. Ever. Plus, there were a couple awkward conversations I wanted to have.

Comments

[ voice ]

[greenjacketed]

For God's sake, Harry. Let's not talk this bloody mess out over these infernal things.

[ but yes. they definitely needed to talk. sharpe is mostly FREAKED OUT. ]

[ voice ]

[quicktoanger]

"The bar?"

I wasn't sure what to call him. My brain kept immediately supplying "Major" or "Sir," and of course that was ridiculous. I'd never been in the army. I hated the army.

This, I guess, was my first shift. Richard's too.

I guess I could have shared it with worse people?

[ voice ]

[greenjacketed]

[ he suspected the bar was a touch too...public. and the major needed to rail.

so: ] No, B--Dresden. I'll be at that fountain we met at last...well, there. I'll be there. With a bottle of brandy.

[ Action ]

[quicktoanger]

I picked up on the implications of that loud and clear. This wouldn't be a discussion for a quiet corner of a bar, then. Fair enough.

It didn't take too terribly long for me to make my way to the central plaza. I may have lost my taste for Arthurian adaptations, but I certainly had to admit that the fountain was still attractive.

[ Action ]

[greenjacketed]

Sharpe stood at something almost like attention -- the blasted (but loved) rifle on his shoulder. He woke up this morning only to find the gifted gun to be his own, familiar weapon instead. The Shift had made him identify it with Harry. Or perhaps the departure of the Shift had qualitatively changed it. Richard hardly knew; hardly cared. Other problems to untangle.

He cleared his throat when he saw the man. A hesitation found its way into his features.

[ written ] 20 percent filter

[talentsgirl]

[Molly sees this and... scarcely dares hope, really. So she doesn't bother the filter, she just writes a single line in response:]

Do or do not _______________.

[written ] 20 percent filter (DAMN YOU FORMATTING)

[quicktoanger]

She didn't trust me.

It stung me a little bit. A lot had gone on between us, better or worse, and I hadn't always been the greatest teacher and she hadn't always been the greatest student, but... she'd always trusted me. With her life. She followed me into a room full of people who wanted to cut her head off and trusted me to walk her back out alive.

... maybe it stung me more than a little bit. Maybe that conversation didn't help. It hurt even then, when I didn't remember who she was. Looking back on it as her friend, as her mentor? As the guy she should have been able to trust?

... I responded, but it was slow and shaky. Simply filling in the blank she had left for me.

Do or do not, I am your father

Here's hoping she can still smile about bad jokes.

[ voice ] 20 percent filter

[talentsgirl]

[...

Screw writing.]

Harry? Is that really you?

[ voice ] 20 percent filter

[quicktoanger]

Oh, good. Voice. Voice was a good sign.

"The realest."

[ voice ] 20 percent filter

[talentsgirl]

Oh, I'm so glad!

[Such relief.]

I was so worried - you're really you? I mean - nothing's all mixed up, you remember things? Do I need to start quoting Dora?

[Which, yeah, she knows he'd hate. Still - she thinks he'd appreciate the little mental test to see if he knew what he knew that he liked.]

[Action]

[fleurdesel]

[One of the few people Harry might need to speak to is spending the afternoon enjoying her lunch in Seventh Heaven, a stack of letters and sketches spread out in front of her. Notes, thoughts, diagrams, memories from a life that's not really hers, not any longer.]

[Action]

[quicktoanger]

Oh, Hell's bells.

I didn't remember conversing with an Adele last week prior to my meeting with her, because I guess in that memory, we hadn't spoken at all. Which was a weird thought, but there you go.

Now, of course, it was easy to put together Adele, the woman I spoke to on my first day, with Adele, the "bloody witch"- or, as I could more accurately figure out with my modern memories properly restored, the Jedi Knight- who I'd met last week.

... Who was apparently in love with a Jedi called Ben. Obi-Wan Kenobi?

Holy hell, this was weird.

No less so because I remember that even without her using the Force on me, I'd been utterly smitten with her. It was really kind of embarrassing, especially when I'd just come in for a doughnut. Maybe if I just... walked past, and she didn't spot me?

If only I had my duster, it plus my longer hair might make me less recognizable from the back. But no, my duster was probably back at my place. The place I'd neglected last week. That, or Jack still had it.

[Action]

[fleurdesel]

...

[That...that was a tall man. Adele noted his appearance in her peripheral vision before the sheer height of him made her turn to look properly. In her memory, altered or otherwise, there was but one in the village that looked anything even remotely like him.

Harry Blackstone. Onyx. The man she'd called lovely and kissed in the clinic. A man that had held her hand so her emphatic self could manage to sleep.

Well...she's done worse. And better. But other than mild surprise and connection the height with a name- Dresden, she's fairly unperturbed. If he wanted to talk, he'd talk. If he didn't, he wouldn't. Not everyone was as amused and ambivalent to the events of the previous week as she was.]

[Action]

[quicktoanger]

She recognized me.

Dammit. Dammit dammit. She didn't say anything. Maybe she wasn't planning to. But she definitely recognized me.

I'm a wizard, and I'm a private investigator. You get to know things. You develop a certain insight.

... Yet she said nothing. Awkward? Embarrassed like me? I couldn't believe that. She'd been far too outgoing, that last week, far too confident. She didn't seem like she'd be embarrassed, she seemed like she'd be amused at worst.

So what if she wants to see what I'll do? What if she takes my disinterest as some sort of personal slight?

... Or, what if I just am not sure whether I want to talk to her and I'm projecting and aw, screw it.

I slid into the seat opposite her.

"... You told me on the journals you were French."

[Action]

[fleurdesel]

[She could almost hear the cogs in Harry's head grind as he stood, awkward and hesitant, not far from her table. She does the man the kindness of looking down once it gets to be it's worst so he can either move on if he wanted or say something. She honestly expects him to move on, and is somewhat surprised when he does not. Adele looks up from her sketches and scribbled notes, smoothing them out of the way once Harry joins her.]

Last I checked, that is still the case, Monsieur Dresden.

[Voice]

[hisdarkmark]

[Now that everything was normal, and Draco was finally back to having his own magic at hand, he decided it might be best to introduce himself properly whether Dresden was ready for it or not. So when the feed clicks on, he might sound a bit guarded.]

You may have very well done both, actually. Still think you're a bit old to be listening to talk of wizards?

[Voice]

[quicktoanger]

"Nope. On the other hand, I was right. We haven't met."

... Though I have heard that name before. Maybe he was one of the pop-culture people from around here, and I'm just not familiar?

Who the hell knows.

"I'd introduce myself, but I think you've had a better grasp of my name than I have lately."

[Voice]

[hisdarkmark]

We haven't, but to be fair I'd met Molly prior to everything. [Not that that will help his case, but.]

Introductions aren't needed, Dresden. I'm Draco Malfoy.

[Voice]

[quicktoanger]

"I recall. You said as much. Nice to meet you with my head on straight, anyway."

Not that we were really meeting. Conversing? Man, these journals screw everything up in my head.

[Voice]

[hisdarkmark]

I do believe this will go much more smoothly now that you're actually aware of magic. [If he sounds interested at all, it's because he is.] The fact that you don't seem nearly as perturbed by the subject this time around tells me something about you.

[Action] somewhere in town?

[thefinaljedi]

[Luke's wandering around town, picking up stuff, doing things that Jedi do. Out of the corner of his eye, he spots Harry. He hasn't seen the wizard much, and figures maybe he should check up on his...fan.]

Hey Harry.

[Action] I WALK THESE STREETS

[quicktoanger]

I was lost in thoughts, wandering the little streets in the village, but the voice snapped me out of my reverie.

"Oh, hey. How's it going?"

[Action] I RUN THIS CITY! AND I GOT A GANG, TA DO IT WIT MEH

[thefinaljedi]

Well enough, Harry. How about you?

[Action] We built this city on rock and roll?

[quicktoanger]

"Not bad, I guess. Dealing with the shift last week. My first proper shift, apparently."

I was making friendly conversation with Luke Skywalker.

This was never gonna stop being awesome.

[Action]

[thefinaljedi]

Oh? What happened to you?

[Luke quirks his head to one side and smiles, curious]