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Post by Tamika Weir on Jun 23, 2011 21:29:25 GMT -8
Time: Morning, Day 5
Weather: Rainy
Warnings: Sneaky girls with their demon dogs, paranoid redheads, and Atlas...being Atlas
Characters: Paige, Atlas, Tamika
Tamika pulled her Celica once again into Atlas's driveway. She and Atlas had gone to the hotel to check on her boss, yet when they knocked on his door, they got no response. "Fool must be pretty hungover today. He was looking rather tipsy when I last saw him. Probably made an ass of himself and now needs to sleep off his stupidity." Not having much else to do, they had breakfast in the hotel dinning area and Tamika decided to drive Atlas home.
Tamika pulled her keys out of the ignition and climbed out of the car. Once Atlas was out too, she turned to him and said with a polite smile, "Thanks for coming with me. Even though Brad was still asleep and probably hungover, breakfast was at least nice."
She was about to walk with Atlas to his front door, when she thought she heard something. Tamika turned around and scanned the area, not noticing anything suspicious. "Great. Now this town is making me paranoid... Still, I could have sworn I heard something" She turned back to the door slowly, keeping her ears peeled for any noise.
"Sorry. Probably just heard a squirrel," Tamika explained with a only slightly nervous smile.
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Post by Paige O'Brian on Jun 23, 2011 21:48:26 GMT -8
Okay, she'd said no more bushes- or, well, at least no more for a while- but this was the third count of bush-hiding she'd done in as many as two days. Plus one bush poking.
But if anything, bushes were giving her good luck lately; including a doggy, an investigation opportunity and now a weirdo-guy-who-was-actually-pretty-cool for a friend, so she figured it was best to keep it up.
As she leaned forward between the tangle of branches, Batdog moving with her, she watched the two adults suspiciously. It was getting closer to Home Time now, since her Dad didn't want her to be out in the rain too late, she had to act quickly.
If there was one thing she'd learned about grown-ups in her time since moving here, it was that they were really fussy and stupid about habit and timetables and all that boring stuff. And they never, ever went out in the rain. Well, not here at least.
Which made these two potential suspects! Possibly collaborators with that ghost. She hoped Super-Cop had gotten someone on that by now. But Paige could handle the rest. She was officially an expert now. A deputy!
As she inched forward, one of the twigs cracked. Both girl and dog stiffened as the woman - she thought, it was hard to tell with all these leaves in the way - turned to glance in their direction. Paige cautiously placed a hand over her mouth, careful not to move, and grinned between her fingers as the lady dismissed it as a squirrel (good ol' squirrels!) and made to keep moving.
"Okay, partner, now we just need to sneak forward real careful now, and-"
...And the dog barked.
"No! No! Bad doggy!" Paige whined, as she scrambled to push herself out of the bush, attempting to bolt away before the grown-ups could spot them.
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Post by Atlas on Jun 24, 2011 16:15:59 GMT -8
Atlas sat back in Tamika's car, wondering how Brad was doing. "No response. Wonder where he could be at this time of the morning?
Especially when it is raining." he wondered. However, he did enjoy having breakfast with Tamika.
Once they have arrived, Atlas slowly stepped out of the car and place his jacket over his head to protect his hair from the rain. "Of course. It was nice to spend breakfast with someone else for a change. Especially you." he replied warmly.
As the two were walking, Atlas heard something, causing him to raise an eyebrow suspiciously. He glanced around briefly, yet saw nothing suspicious, except for rain and more rain. "It's alright, it was probably nothing." he replied.
However, a few seconds later, he heard a dog barking. He glanced around, nervously, hoping that Barghest Jr. wasn't nearby, but then heard a girl's voice from the same location as well. He turned towards and source. "Hey! You! Over there!" he yelled out, pointing his finger at the disturbance.
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Post by Paige O'Brian on Jun 24, 2011 16:33:45 GMT -8
"Run for it!" Paige shouted, finally scrambling her way out from between the branches and dragging Batdog by his leash, bringing the yelping animal with her.
She skidded to a halt, however, when the man pointed his finger at the duo, stopping to stare incredulously.
Seeming to forget about the Amazing Escape Plan, Paige cocked her head sideways, eyes lighting up as she apparently came to some sort of epiphany, before dramatically pointing her own finger at him,
"Hey! Are you some kinda lawyer?!" She shouted enthusiastically, the dog behind her awkwardly standing with one of its front paws up, confused as to whether it should continue running or stay put.
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Post by Tamika Weir on Jun 24, 2011 17:12:59 GMT -8
The barking startled Tamika and she whipped around, hoping it didn't come from Atlas's giant dog. To her relief, it came from a normal sized dog who had a rather interesting owner. "Pointing at something makes you a lawyer now? Does that mean she is a lawyer since she can point back?"
While walking toward the little girl and her rather confused looking dog, Tamika answered in a slightly bemused voice "Yes he is. Now can I ask you what you and your dog are doing in those bushes?"
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Post by Paige O'Brian on Jun 24, 2011 17:24:43 GMT -8
Paige turned to goggle at the lady, eyeing her hair. First blue, now red-red. Not just orange-y like hers. It was like... super-red.
Maybe they were on waring sides? One of them was probably a spy, too.
Blue was the good guy colour, anyway.
"Knew it!" Paige grinned at the lady's confirmation. Ignoring the rest of her question, she turned to the man again, "Hey you're one of the good ones, right? You're not a pros-..." She paused, frowning, "A prosee... You know! The bad ones! You're not, are you?"
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Post by Atlas on Jun 24, 2011 17:41:32 GMT -8
Atlas stopped after seeing the girl enthusiastically point back at him. "Uhh..." he started before letting Tamika finish for him. He was still trying to accept the fact that a girl and her dog was hiding in his bushes during a rain storm. "You'd think in this day and age, parents would be watching their kids like hawks..."
"Well, actually, I'm not a prosecutor. I'm a defense lawyer. Though it's a little more complicated than "good ones" and "bad ones". There needs to be both for a proper trial." he replied. "Though to be honest, a good deal of the prosecutors I've dealt with have been giant pricks."
"Say, do you parents know that you are here hiding in my bushes?"
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Post by Paige O'Brian on Jun 24, 2011 17:49:08 GMT -8
She chose to ignore the last part of that, too, "Nope. They're the bad ones," The girl said, very seriously, "It's good you're a defence 'tournee. That makes you on the side of Justice. So I trust you."
She nodded her head, as if they'd just agreed on a serious matter, then broke into another grin, "But you need to do your finger point better! It's like - Objection!" She added, with an over-the-top self-demonstration, "Like that! I should know! I've played it like a zillion times!" The last part came out in a conspiratorial whisper, "I can give you tips!"
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Post by Tamika Weir on Jun 24, 2011 18:01:44 GMT -8
Tamika rolled her eyes at the demonstration. "Oh God. What sort of child is this? And what the hell is she talking about? Why would anyone want to play an attorney?" She muttered a "That's very nice," and decided to try the other bush hider for answers. "Who knows? Maybe the dog is the saner of the duo."
Crouching down in front of the dog, Tamika let it sniff her hand and the petted its head. "Hey doggie. Can you tell me why you and the girl were in the bushes?"
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Post by Paige O'Brian on Jun 24, 2011 18:14:59 GMT -8
The dog, looking delighted to have someone new approach it, gratefully leaned into the woman's hand, moving closer to the two adults. It gave a cheerful bark in recognition.
Huffing unhappily, Paige poked her tongue out at it, "Traitor!"
Sensing that the two would keep pressing the issue, she dropped Batdog's leash and threw her hands up melodramatically, "We were scouting for spooks! And you two were suspicious-lookin'. Especially you, lady!" She added, glaring at the Super-Red-Head, "I trust Mr. 'Tournee here, but I can't rule out that possibility that you're a monster!"
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Post by Atlas on Jun 24, 2011 18:25:27 GMT -8
Atlas shrugged as the young girl seemed to ignore his reason. "Nevermind then. At least she trusts me, so best to leave it at that." he thought. Though the idea that anyone would want to play as an attorney mystified him. Surely, the legal system would not make for an interesting game of any sort. "Imagine the size of the rulebook. It would be at least twice as think as my college textbooks." he thought.
"Spooks, huh?" Atlas asked, not very happy that she thought Tamika looked like a monster. "Well, I'm glad that you trust me. Though I do know for a fact that Tamika is not a monster. If she was, then I wouldn't be hanging around with her." he replied.
He was curious about the dog was well, so he had decided to let the dog sniff his hang. "Hello, buddy."
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Post by Paige O'Brian on Jun 24, 2011 18:45:22 GMT -8
"Hmmmm," Paige studied the red-head closely as both adults moved to pat the dog, who was now ecstatic from all the attention. As it moved to lick the man's face, Paige nodded grimly, "I can't argue against that. I guess I trust you too."
Suddenly looking sheepish, she clasped her hands behind her back, "Err, sorry about the bush-thing, I guess. Maybe."
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Post by Tamika Weir on Jun 24, 2011 19:04:32 GMT -8
Tamika smiled a bit at the girl. "It's alright, though spying on suspicious people isn't exactly a great idea." With an evil smirk, she added,"Think about it. If we had been monsters, we might have had to cut you open and tie you to a tree and eat your poor, sweet doggie. And that would have been a terrible thing."
While rubbing the dog's tummy, she added, "My advice: if you see someone suspicious, remember their face and stay far away from them." Tamika's face turned somber as she finished, "Staying away from bad people will help you avoid a whole mess of trouble."
Realizing how depressing she had gotten, she smiled at the girl. "You look pretty clever though. I'm sure you and your dog won't have to worry about trouble, right?"
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Post by Paige O'Brian on Jun 26, 2011 21:36:53 GMT -8
"Whoa, you are a weirdo," Paige responded, looking surprised. Nevertheless, the young girl kept grinning.
She was actually quite impressed; all the other grown-ups avoided talking about the murder, either completely- like they were stupid enough to not know about it! - or only in passing- little bits and pieces that slipped out.
It was great to have one actually speak about what happened, even if it came with all the usual "stay-home-at-night-and-don't-talk-to-strangers" junk they all followed up with. Like she hadn't heard that a thousand times before!
"But you don't hafta worry about us! Me and Batdog are expert ghost busters by now! We spied on one last night and even found a clue!" The girl grinned wider, "But you're the second and third non-scardey cats I've met today, being out in the rain an' all!"
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Post by Atlas on Jun 27, 2011 15:43:09 GMT -8
Atlas smiled and chuckled as the dog licked him. "Heh heh, such a good boy." he said to the dog as he scratched him behind the ears. For a while, he seemed too preoccupied with petting the dog to notice Paige and Tamika talking.
After a bit, however, he listened in when he heard her talk about a ghost. "A ghost? Could she be talking about those shadows?" he thought. "Well, we happen to be ghost-busters as well, though we only just started. What did the ghost look like?"
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