Alfendi Layton (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
selfdenying) wrote2016-11-01 05:12 pm
selfdenying) wrote2016-11-01 05:12 pm
DAY 9 (AFTERNOON) ALFENDI & ELIZABETH
[He's worried.]
[He's mad too, of course. He's always mad. In a place like this, with a morbid game so frustratingly arranged against him and the others, it's hard not to be.]
[But now, after that strange conversation with the dead, he's worried. "Sleeping with the enemy"? And Dojima, suddenly leaving him a note asking about Bigby Wolf, and whether he's innocent or not? He hadn't considered it. He had trusted everyone in his apartment, assumed that they were all allies, they were on his side...]
[But were they, really?]
[He briskly walks through the Complex, finally catching sight of who he's been looking for - he walks up and stops her in her stride by stepping in front of her, his expression twisted in a frown.]
Elizabeth. [He says, his voice low.] I...I need to talk to you
[He doesn't allow her much time to reply, since he lets out a sigh and speaks up again:]
I'm worried that Bigby Wolf might be staff.
[He's mad too, of course. He's always mad. In a place like this, with a morbid game so frustratingly arranged against him and the others, it's hard not to be.]
[But now, after that strange conversation with the dead, he's worried. "Sleeping with the enemy"? And Dojima, suddenly leaving him a note asking about Bigby Wolf, and whether he's innocent or not? He hadn't considered it. He had trusted everyone in his apartment, assumed that they were all allies, they were on his side...]
[But were they, really?]
[He briskly walks through the Complex, finally catching sight of who he's been looking for - he walks up and stops her in her stride by stepping in front of her, his expression twisted in a frown.]
Elizabeth. [He says, his voice low.] I...I need to talk to you
[He doesn't allow her much time to reply, since he lets out a sigh and speaks up again:]
I'm worried that Bigby Wolf might be staff.
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Dies, died, will die.
She wonders, will that be in her future with that psycho slithering around. The cards were dealt to her in a way where she has to just... play. That's all she can do - win or lose, there's no other option but to play.
When Elizabeth was approached, she gives a worried expression. ]
Did something -
[ She doesn't get to finish her sentence before he suddenly casts quite the concern. He can see the way her lip twitches a bit and her eyes soften, as if there was a change in her mind completely. ]
What brings this on, Alfendi?
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[He doesn't want to believe it. He had cast Bigby aside out of suspicion when he had been attacked by Kei, and had trusted him since then, but now...]
It can't be you, obviously. Can't be me either. I don't think it's Alice. Shijima is up in the air, but...what if it's Bigby, Elizabeth?
[He shakes his head.] What if whoever told Kei to kill him knew that he was staff?
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... I - I can promise you nothing that vulgar had -
[ Look? Why are people trying to cockblock.
But on a serious note, Alfendi's explanation makes her heart sink a bit and she feels her fingers grow numb. As if they lost all life in them. ]
No - that's... that's not possible.
[ No... it very much is, isn't it? Elizabeth checked Alice. She rightfully should view Alfendi, Shijima, and Bigby in the same suspicion and she does now. She's trying to be logical despite the quickening of her heart. ]
Why can't it be you...? [ That does pick up. ] I'm - ... we have to think about this. Please explain, Alfendi.
[ But then: the Kei comment is brought up and she doesn't have an answer. ]
What if he didn't defend himself..? As if he killed him and brought the body back - ... I'm going to be sick.
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[The question makes him shake his head vehemently.]
I know I'm not one. Yes, I know that I have that...other person, that other me rattling up around in my head. But he's not one, either. He was suspicious of Rhys and Ciel for a long time, and he voted for Luke back when things were up in the air. I've done nothing but try to track these people down, myself, I pointed the finger over at Rhys and his stupid collars before the truth came out... I'm not staff, Elizabeth. I'm not.
[He lets out a sigh.]
I can't believe it either. I thought all of us were innocent but...
[For the first time, in a long time, he actually looks...helpless. Like some of the bravado has drained out of attitude. He's a smart man, a brilliant man, he knows this, but to think that an enemy has been sitting under their noses the whole time? It's a shock, it really is.]
I don't think that's what happened, I don't think it would go that far. But then again, he was awake to defend himself, wasn't he? We all believed it was because he was getting stabbed, but...what if he was awake because he was staff? I don't know...
[A pause.]
Do you have any clues? About him or Shijima?
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[ She listens to Alfendi, the logic that he makes by connecting two trains of thought... Never once has she pegged him for being mad. He was brilliant and when the other man showed... he thought of plans to continue alliances. It was nice... thoughtful, she thinks.
Faith is the word Bigby whispered to her. Have faith. So.... she does - ]
...I believe you, Alfendi. Without any concrete confirmation, I do believe you.
[ And she grows silent. He can see how her face twists in doubt. Elizabeth did doubt Bigby when he pushed her against the wall, threatened her for pulling strings like some puppeteer among the men to make them do her dirty work. Alfendi's question makes her feel betrayed - because that right there makes her panic. ]
Alfendi...
[ Elizabeth repeats his name, looking down at her side. She'll lift her shirt up and show him the wound for emphasis, through the bandage. ]
... We didn't wake up when we were stabbed...
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[He opens his mouth, looking a bit shocked, disappointed even, but doesn't say a word. Now's not the time to ask about that. Whatever went on between them happened. It's in the past. Right now, with a murder that will certainly happen tomorrow, with a target painted so brilliantly on Elizabeth's back...he has to find the remaining pieces of that little group and extinguish them. It's the only way to get this whole charade of a game to stop.]
Thanks, Elizabeth. [Those words mean more to him than he can say. He's a mad man who somehow has not made himself the subject of a witch hunt in other people's eyes. He's grateful for that. He's...grateful for her, some semblance of an island in the middle of this metaphorical chaotic sea.]
[And then she reveals that, the wound in her side, and his eyes widen when he realizes the implications.]
Shit. [He didn't even think of that. It should've been obvious, considering that most of them got stabbed in places that would be excruciatingly painful. And yet Bigby was up and ready to tear the poor person's throat out when he was attacked. It was obvious, why didn't he think of that before? Was he that blinded by his own trust of the man?]
I-I can't believe it. I mean, I still don't know how the damn drugs work, because Rhys said that Hitsugi woke up during her murder too...but she's dead, that's the difference. She woke up too late. But Bigby, he woke up just in time. But that's...how didn't we see it, Elizabeth?
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It was just a kiss.
That's all.
It was temptation in it's rawest form. ]
I don't know... I - [ Elizabeth tries to gather her thoughts but fails. The words fail her. ] He can't be like them. There's no way. He wasn't...
[ God, she feels sick and she takes a moment to find somewhere to sit down, to carefully rest her knees from trembling. ]
It has to be something airborne with a chemical agent. I would suggest something structured to our DNA since Alice was allowed to awake as was those chosen by the security officers.
[ She sounds a bit sad, honestly. ]
...I need to talk to him.
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That would make sense. Or maybe something with the ankle monitors, but they only give shocks as far as we know...
[He doesn't know what to do. He's not a man who feels for others, who reassures, who calms the families of victims back home. She's distressed, he can tell that, and a part of him wants to help, but no words that come to mind can help her, he thinks.]
[Finally, he lets out a sigh, raising a hand to push away some of the hair draping over his face.]
...Be careful. Please. [She's already at risk. She might not be alive when he wakes up tomorrow morning but...god, he can't think of that. He can't.]
For all we know, it could be Shijima that's the culprit, but...just be cautious, Elizabeth. I know you will be, I just...well, just do that.
[He doesn't know how to express "I'm worried you'll get yourself into something terrible and I won't be able to help you" adequately.]
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It's technology or chemicals far beyond my knowledge... I'm afraid unless we stumble on a secret I'm the terminals or Judy is willing to elaborate... we are at a loss...
[ She hates it, but she has to move on. Think logical as opposed to with emotions. She had only one friend back home - Booker... In that moment, she has to wonder if he would have thought of her as naive for trusting anyone. ]
It could be, yes... but in the case that it is Bigby, I'm the fool in that regard. He - he forced me into a wall when we arrived, believed i was pulling some sort of con with the men. When I defended myself, he has shown nothing but kindness to me. I just... I don't know why I didn't check him...
I could have put you all at risk and for - what? Human connection...?
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[Another disadvantage lined up for them upon a mountain of disadvantages. What's new. Elizabeth's statement, though, makes him visibly bristle.]
He did what? What the hell? What con? [Holy moly, Bigby, what were you doing when he wasn't keeping an eye on you?] And don't blame yourself. Though there's still a chance that those dead freaks are messing with us, if he is staff, you couldn't have known. It's not your fault, Elizabeth.
[He trusted Bigby too. Didn't even look at him twice. And people are dead, because he thought that the people closest to him wouldn't stab him in the back.]
[(There's a certain familiar painful pang of a feeling at that thought, but he doesn't know why it's there. He shakes it off.)]
We both messed up, Elizabeth. For now, let's find out what we can. You'll be meeting your partner soon, yes?
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[ Elizabeth looks up a bit defeated, she opens her mouth to defend him because she truly feels that he acted on his anger. On a lot of things, he's also shown his softness and sympathy with her. ]
It wasn't - after we disposed of Diva's body, I think we were both at ends. I... [ She blames herself and that's why the games she played with the men - the femme fatale image that worked so well in Rapture came undone. The moment he pushed her against the bathroom stall, she knew she'd get someone killed again at that rate. ] I was pulling strings when I arrived here - using the men to try and find a way out, try and find those staff members. Jack, Alvin, Bigby... only one of them called me out on my bullshit.
[ Elizabeth feels her stomach churn at this point and she has to explain - ]
...He knows I'm working against them. I confided in him that knowledge. [ She feels alone. She feels as if she made a mistake and maybe she did? She hopes and she tries so hard to ping back to the word Bigby used on her - faith. She tries to have faith. ] I'll... yes. I've met with my partner already.
...Alvin's innocent.
[ She should have cleared Apartment 7 first. ]
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If he is staff, I'm surprised he hasn't taken advantage of that, yet. He hasn't fed you any information of his own, right?
[Because if he did something to push her off the scent...well, then, that's bad news.]
Alvin? That man? [Ugh. No wonder he was suspicious, but apparently he wasn't staff, as Alfendi had once thought. He lets out a huff, almost looking disappointed, like a dog whose had a piece of meat stolen right from under his nose.] Ugh. Well, then, I guess I can take him off the list of suspicious people, then.
...Is there anyone else you know of who's innocent?
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[ Besides #grudge. ]
Just keep an eye on him, keep Alvin alive. Make sure he knows the basics.
[ Elizabeth grows silent a bit, knowing that she'll need to meet with Bigby. After this...? There's no way. Elizabeth shakes her head, her hand resting on the cast at her wrist. ]
...I have a list for you, Alfendi. I'll provide it to you before we sleep tonight. It's all of my musings, all of my theories... The innocents, suspected, and highly guilty individuals are on it with some answers I've found.
If anything happens to me, check inside of my pillow.