(no subject)

[iliketodruitt]

John had been enjoying his afternoon. Joan was quite a pleasant companion and it was nice to be with someone that didn’t look at him as if trying to decide if at any moment he was going to try and kill them. He could tell she didn’t quite believe everything that was going on, or at least not the more fantastical explanations, but he couldn’t blame her. At least she was being polite about it and humoring him, although he tried not to talk about the more fantastical things.

They had wandered around looking at the various sights, John imparting what memories he had a places or sharing historic significance of something that he had learned over his years. All in all, he was having a wonderful time with her and found it an excellent distraction from his current worries.

“Is there anyone on the island that you know from home?” John asked after moment’s lull in the conversation.

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[lysistrategic]

They've spent enough time together that Joan's comfortable tucking her hand into his arm while they walk and using his height as a shield against the occasional gust of wind. It's nothing like the comfort she has with Arthur or Auggie, and she is very aware of his guardedness and the occasional harsh look from someone passing by. She's increasingly aware of the feeling of being observed, but if they're are being tailed, their tail is extremely well-trained. Joan has used every trick in the book while they wandered the city, but she's been unable to flush whomever it is, or to lose them.

John's question draws her back to the moment and she nods once, briefly, before answering, "I'm fortunate, I'm told, not to be completely alone. Two of my occasional colleagues are here. They're young and more than a bit taken with each other, but I'm fond of them both." She cocks her head up to tip him a slightly warmer than polite smile. "And yourself? I realize we've not spoken much of personal things, even though you've been so kind."

[iliketodruitt]

"It's quite alright, I'm not entirely used to this sort of conversation, so I do not mind easing into things and probably would think nothing of it if things got passed over completely."

While John knew how to be polite, interacting with humans as equals was something he was terribly out of practice with. Joan was incredibly patient though, and fortunately always had something worth listening to to say.

"And there are several people here from my world. Helen, who was my fiance more years ago than you would believe, as well as a former colleague and two people that I have only a passing acquaintance with."

[lysistrategic]

The choice of words is telling, Joan thinks, as is the softness around her name when he says it. He loves this 'Helen' still but it must be complicated. A former colleague, as well, and two he hardly knows. That may explain some of the guardedness, or there may be more here that she should know.

She squeezes his arm gently, a gesture of support, suggestive of understanding, and an invitation to talk (read: to provide her with information). "May I ask what it is that you do, or rather, did? It seems to be another one of those topics that hasn't yet come up."

[iliketodruitt]

"I have had the good fortune of inheriting quite a bit of money and property from an acquaintance. Mostly I do a lot of traveling or assisting friends in their cryptozoology work. I recently finished a personal project of mine though and have been just been relaxing."

It was all true, after a fashion. He doubted that she would believe the more fantastical explanations and he wasn't about to tell someone he had been Jack the Ripper when they wouldn't believe he was alive back then, let alone that he had been possessed by an evil entity. Nor was he ready to explain that his personal project had been hunting down those responsible for the death of his daughter.

[lysistrategic]

Joan cocks her head and cranes her neck to look the long way up to him. "I've heard official government briefings that gave more information," she says, mild and clearly unoffended. She understands secrets and the need for them, but it's unusual for someone to be so blatantly vague. Not for the first time, Joan wonders if he doesn't work for one of the agencies. He seems more sanguine about being on the island than almost anyone she's met.

"Please don't take my habit of skepticism for lack of interest." For as long as she's stuck here in this world, Joan has no choice but to be interested.

[iliketodruitt]

"I am not, if you were not interested, you would not ask so many questions," he said. It wasn't that she asked more than anyone else, but if she wasn't interested in what he had to say should wouldn't ask anything he was sure. Still, he wasn't quite ready to share everything with her, despite what she said.

"But at the same time, some things I have done require an explanation you are not willing to accept to be fully understood, and I would rather remain a mystery than be misunderstood. You are free to ask nearly anyone else on the island about me though, I imagine most everyone has heard by now."

[lysistrategic]

Oh, she certainly will ask about him with an invitation like that, and yet, Joan knows well the perils of the gossip machine. "I prefer my information straight from the source when it can be had. Less distortion, unreliable narration aside," Joan tells him, but there's a warning in his words that troubles her.

A gust of wind catches the edge of her coat and she's abruptly chilled. "Maybe you'll join me for some tea and we can discuss the things I'm not willing to accept. I'm not close-minded, John, just from a world in which magic and metahuman abilities are either a myth or a very jealously guarded secret."

[iliketodruitt]

"I assure you, I never thought you close minded, merely cautiously practical," he assured her.

She seemed someone who had enough experience in the world to know that there was a reasonable explanation for most things. He had no doubt once she exhausted those explanations, she would arrive at the conclusion that others were telling the truth.

"Tea would be wonderful, there is a shop not far from here. And I understand, we could be from the same worlds and you would never know it, the existence of such things are indeed very closely guarded secrets in my world."

[lysistrategic]

Joan dips her chin and slants him a look that will pass for coy if you've never met her, but beneath the lowered lashes, her eyes are appraising and shrewd. "Tea it is, then."

There is a small part of her that wants to tell him that it would have to be extremely secret to be above her classified status, but it is only a small part, and one that rises and rankles because she's far from her world, far from a place where she's earned respect and the power that goes with it.

She pushes it back down with the other things she won't permit herself to think about. "My skepticism's less of the supernatural than of this place in its entirety. The more time that passes, the more I have to accept this as reality. And if I accept that this is what it appears to be, then nothing else is too incredible to be true. But I still expect it to be a bizarre dream every morning when I wake, or the side effects of something I was drugged with during a tribal ceremony I attended out of politeness."

[iliketodruitt]

John smiled back at her, enjoying the coy glance she gave him. There was something interesting about her that interested him. Perhaps it was just how well she was taking it all. Perhaps it was just that she was a beautiful, intelligent woman who wanted to talk with him.

"Do you often attend tribal ceremonies?" John asked, only half joking. It was not the sort of remark most people would have made, though it could have been nothing at all, it was merely something that had peeked his interest.

[lysistrategic]

"Not often, no, but from time to time. My work with the World Bank requires understanding the people we're trying to help." It's as true a statement as she can make while keeping her cover intact. Substitute 'the Agency' for 'the World Bank' and 'monitor' for 'help' and it's accurate, if not complete. Her voice is warm and well-modulated, inviting him to feel as though she's sharing with him specifically, rather than stating simple facts. An old seduction technique, even though she's not precisely trying to work him. "I find it helps to participate in their lives when I'm invited."

Joan has long since stopped hating the lies. They're necessary and she makes every effort, in her social life, to stick to things that would be true if circumstances are as she represents them.

[iliketodruitt]

"I would love to hear of some of the things like that you've seen and experienced because of your job," he said. John had traveled around so much, but he didn't exactly get invited to a lot of ceremonies and the like. He knew of them and observed some of the more public ones, but rarely anything private. He had tended to have a damper on things like that.

"You must have traveled a good deal?"

[lysistrategic]

"I traveled more when I was younger. It's an unfortunate truth of my work that the more experienced you are, the less you get out of the office." If she sounds wistful, it's illusory. She does miss the field, but she made the decision for the right reasons and she doesn't regret it.

"Is that the tea house you had in mind?" Joan gestures with a tilt of her head and lift of her brows to a standalone building on the other side of the street and up half a block.

[iliketodruitt]

"It is indeed, it has a rather impressive selection and a pleasant atmosphere," he said as he lead her there, opening the door for her. He could feel the warmth of the shop thaw his face a bit and enjoyed the feeling. It was almost relaxing.

"Did you have a favorite place to visit?"

[lysistrategic]

"I'm very fond of--" Joan's voice breaks as she slips, ankle twisting in her boot when the heel catches some black ice. She catches herself on John's arm, but not before she's half-straddled between the sidewalk and the street, head precipitously close to his groin.

Years of Krav Maga get her back on her feet before he can even help her up, but her cheeks are flushed with embarrassment. The embarrassment quickly turns to apology when she notes, "You're bleeding," from five long gouges she managed to put in his forearm. "I'm terribly sorry,"

[iliketodruitt]

The tumble caught John by surprise just as much as it had Joan. The sudden pull and sharp pain on his arm caused him to gasp. There was a flash of anger as well, the desire to strike out at the source of the pain. Even if he was free of the energy creature, it was hard to completely remove himself from impulses that had been a part of him for over a hundred years.

"It's quite alright," he said, giving her a slightly pained smile. "They are, after all, scratches. And I have been hurt far worse than this."

[lysistrategic]

There, for a brief instant, Joan sees something unpleasant in John's face. The sort of rage she's seen before in rogue operatives and traitors. It's gone before it can settle and Joan files it away for more consideration if she ever sees it again, but for now takes it simply under advisement.

"So have I, but that doesn't make them sting any less," she says as mildly as she can while trying to shake off the adrenaline rush of almost falling and the shooting, wrenching pains in her back and hips. They're not serious and will pass. It'll just take a few minutes. "I think I have a handkerchief. Hold on."

She digs in her bag as they step through the doors and finds a pale blue square with lace on the edges which she hands over to him.

[iliketodruitt]

"Thank you," he said, pulling up the sleeve to wrap the handkerchief around his arm. It would at least stop what little bleeding there was, though he would have to be sure to clean it properly. Fingernails and Victorian London were both notoriously dirty, though he imagined Joan's were more clean than most.

"Are you alright, did you hurt your ankle at all?"

[lysistrategic]

Joan tests her weight on the foot and winces, not at the ankle but at the twisted boot and the laces cutting into her foot. She scans the room for a table, and finding one, gestures to it. "I'll be fine as soon as I re-lace the boot. Thank you."

But she does wait for him to help her to the table if he will, since her foot is half out of the boot and she'd rather not trip again.

[iliketodruitt]

"Of course," he said, taking her arm and helping her to the table. He was glad that she was not hurt badly, though he could have assisted her to the clinic, even carrying her if necessary. Thankfully, that was not the case.

Especially since this way he could have a lovely tea time with a charming woman. That was a rare opportunity for John and one he didn't want to miss out on.