Stronghold of Madness

(( RP blog for Clive from Professor Layton: Unwound Future. There will definitely be spoilers. ))

[notavigilanti-deactivated201409]

"Well I mean, they’re stupid guys yeah." She huffed and pouted, annoyed at the fact that she had gotten more then a few comments with her playing with the guys, at least at first…and sometimes still. "I think they forget half the time that I’m a girl now that they’re used to me, and frankly, you haven’t seen me in my detective’s outfit yet. Everyone mistakes me for a boy then, even if they hear my voice." She’d been told she had a rather boyish voice too, though she supposed it was a bit more high pitched than would be expected. Perhaps they thought she was younger as well? "I think you’re the only one who can identify my gender just based on my voice." 

[misguidedjusticearchive]

Clive couldn't help a quiet laugh at her pout, but, realizing that was probably rude (and not very gentlemanly at all), he very discretely passed it off as a cough. Whoa. Smooth. "Well, some people can be very stupid about sports." Clive wasn't one of those guys that were overly enthusiastic about soccer, but even he knew it was very strange for a girl to be playing the sport, or any sport really, with a bunch of boys. He wasn't sure he'd be thrilled to play against a girl himself. "I suppose your detective's outfit is men's clothes then, if everyone mistakes you for a boy? Does that make it easier to investigate?"

[notavigilanti-deactivated201409]

"I….guess?" She frowned, pausing for a moment in confusion. "I mean, sure sometimes the boys complain when I kick their butts and…well I dunno." She took off her hat and ruffled her hair before resuming her stride. "I suppose it’s not an issue because half the time people mistake me for a boy anyway. I don’t mind that, really…well, I mean it’s a little bit tiresome after a while, but on a case it’s bloody handy." 

[misguidedjusticearchive]

"Well, I suppose it would be surprising if they didn't have their complaints." He commented with a look of thought. She was certainly acting like that accomplishment was no big deal. It was something to make note of, he thought. "I don't quite understand how anyone could mistake you for a boy. Even if you do have a short haircut, anyone should be able to tell that you're a girl if they so much as listen to your voice."

[avenirbon-archive]

Imogen was quiet for a while after he spoke, her eyes focused on the table rather than his face. So he’d attempted to destroy London in hopes of ridding the city of evil and rebuilding… Oh. He’d… probably hurt a lot of people in the process. Maybe even killed people. Her lips twitched into a strange mixture of a smile and a frown. She couldn’t quite sort through her thoughts at the moment so, instead of speaking immediately after he fell silent, she reached out and slipped her hands over his. She gave his hand a gentle squeeze, drawing her eyes from the table to his face. He looked so… 

Remorseful. He’d lived long enough with people judging him for his actions. She’d never done something quite so bad, but… she knew what it was like to carry that weight. She supposed that’s what prompted her to slip out of her seat and make her way around the table. If he didn’t stand, he didn’t stand. It didn’t matter one way or another to her as she slipped her arms around his shoulders. She rested her cheek against his and murmured softly, “It’s okay, Clive. I promise. It’s okay.”

[misguidedjusticearchive]

Clive couldn't seem to bring himself to look back at Imogen during the silence that followed his words. He didn't want to see her expression. He didn't want to see that friendly smile before turn to the same look that everyone else had given him for over a year. But when her hands moved across the table to meet his, he was so startled that he broke out of that mentality. She was smiling. Well, sort of. It didn't seem particularly sincere. Yet, she wasn't looking at him with disgust or fear the way others did.

His alarm didn't stop there as she stood from her seat and proceeded to... hug him? Other customers were staring, but for the time being, that didn't occur to Clive and it wouldn't matter if it did. He was used to staring, but this was something entirely different. Not one had anyone ever reacted like this to his story, and maybe it should be worrying him a little, but he wrapped his arms around her anyway. He hadn't hugged anyone but Spring in the past five years, and certainly not someone who would tell him it was okay what happened.

"Thank you, Imogen."

[notavigilanti-deactivated201409]

"W-well…" Okay Charlie, you can do this, it’s just a little harmless socializing. It was only fair that he knew about you. "I like football, I play with the guys at my university now and then…and I like to hang glide, mais….it’s a big difficult to do in the city." How she managed it was a mystery even to her. "I mostly spend my time reading or studying however..haven’t had much time for a game." 

[misguidedjusticearchive]

"Really?" Well, you've caught Clive's attention, Charlie. "That's impressive. I've never heard of any men letting women play football with them. That must have taken some doing." No, he was really impressed. How should he know that she was from an entirely different time period where something like that was less of a big deal than it was in his own? He couldn't possibly just know that. And so he couldn't even begin to know how dumb he just sounded.

[avenirbon-archive]

Imogen smiled gently as he spoke of his cat, though the gentle curve of her lips hid the startled expression that lingered just behind her eyes. She hadn’t exactly expected him to answer the question about his cat. It wasn’t that she thought he was particularly dull, but, yes, the whole cat thing was rather… unremarkable compared to her life. She listened regardless, as it was the polite thing to do and she was genuinely interested, despite how… normal his life seemed compared to hers. Everything probably seemed normal when your days were spent with animals that could eat you without a second thought.

"That sounds like my Pokemon. They just eat and sleep all day. They’ll occasionally join me on early morning jogs, but it’s pretty rare nowadays." She pressed her chin into the palm of her hand and settled her eyes on his face, brows furrowing just a tad. "I don’t want to seem… Forward, but…" Now or never, Imogen. "What happened here? All the construction and… Well, why did you think I wouldn’t consider you a friend because of your past?" If only she knew how loaded those questions were. "I mean— you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable or.. put a damper on our lunch."

[misguidedjusticearchive]

"No, it's fine. You should know." Clive responded quickly. Surprisingly quickly. No, as much as he'd prefer that Imogen never find out what he did, if she was curious, she deserved to know. She should understand the kind of person that she was having lunch with, shouldn't she? After all, she had put a lot of faith in him so far, calling him a friend so soon. Still, he couldn't stop a solemn expression as he began to explain. "It involves that explosion I told you about, to a degree. You see, I lived in that apartment building that was damaged when I was a child. Two of the people who were killed were my parents."

"I... became a bit obsessed in the years following that. All I could see was evil in the world that I felt needed to be eliminated. The reconstruction that London needs is my own fault. There is no simple way to say this." He paused for a moment to consider his words, and he gaze fell to the table rather than Imogen's face. "In my attempts for 'justice' against those who did wrong, I tried to destroy all of London to rebuild it from the ground up. I failed, of course. A man named Hershel Layton put a stop to my plans, but... I did quite a bit of damage beforehand."

[kirishimaeriko]

i imagine clive being personally shocked and offended by someone saying robots are lame

[notavigilanti-deactivated201409]

Well fine then. Don’t fix the fourth wall. Gawd Clive. :V

Oh riiiight that insane faux pass that she totally did not to long ago. She’d almost managed to forget about that. Thanks Clive. “A-ah, desole again about that, by the by…I should have just asked I just…you seemed uncomfortable and I-” Yeah, yeah, yeah, we’ve been over this already charlie, move on. “Ah, anyway….uh….what do you want to know? I’ve already mentioned I’m trying to become a detective….and my Papa is the inspector in the Parisian Constabularly.” It wasn’t like she was even that interesting to begin with. Just some gal trying to make her way out of her father’s shadow.

[misguidedjusticearchive]

Clive decided to just not comment about the whole 'digging up information on him' thing. Even if she was apologizing now, he still wasn't 100% okay with it, even if it made sense that she would do her own research. What a touchy loser.

"Come now, Charlotte. That can't be all you have to tell about yourself." Except maybe it was. Clive could sort of see her as the type of girl who was always focused on work above all else. Maybe that was all she had to say because it was all she thought about. Oh boy. That would be a little disappointing actually. "You must be interested in something other than detective work. Lets start there."

[avenirbon-archive]

She almost laughed. How many times had her house caught fire — small ones — or how many times had something ended up breaking because of a particularly nasty tousle? Too many to count, she realised as a slow curve overtook her lips. “Ah… Yeah, there have been a few small fires. Usually he puts himself out so he doesn’t start anything, but there were points when he was still a baby that he’d crawl under the couch and suddenly it was on fire. He broke himself of that habit, thankfully.” She snickered gently at the thought. “I mean, It’s weird for me to travel places and people not knowing what Pokemon are. I’ve been around them my entire life, so just the thought of them not being around is a bit sad, really.”

Ah, yes, she had plenty of questions. Like what happened, what was with all the construction, why did he think she wouldn’t be friends with him if she knew the truth? These thoughts bounced around her head for a moment before she suddenly blurted, “Tell me about your cat?”

[misguidedjusticearchive]

Clive gave the girl an awkward smile at her response. She sounded so casual about it. He had never in his life heard someone talk about fires like they were no big deal, let alone laugh at the thought of them. "Well, it's good that they aren't a problem too often anymore." That didn't mean he was all too eager to meet this Pokemon. Although, that could very well be his fear of fire speaking for him.

"Er..." He blinked at Imogen in surprise. "My cat...? Well, I'm afraid he won't sound terribly interesting to someone who's used to creatures like the ones you've told me about." Which really made him wonder why she asked about his cat in the first place. Come on, Clive, puzzle this one out. There are other things that she wants to ask. "As I told you before, his name is Bolts. He's a grey, fluffy little fellow who spends most of his time lazing around the apartment or eating. Unfortunately, he doesn't really do much other than that. I adopted him about a year ago. I suppose that's all there really is to say?" Wonderful.

[notavigilanti-deactivated201409]

Tangebility schmangibility. Someone’s gotta fix that damn wall up once and for all and it’s not gonna be charlie. Knowing her, if she tried it would just break even more because she can’t. Stop. Poking at it.

"Alright then. Lead the way Monsieur." She couldn’t help grinning as he gestured for them to head on over to one of the cafe. She trusted his judgement, he was a local here. And who the hell was she to care what a bunch of Englishmen thought? She hardly cared what most Parisians thought, so long as she kept them safe. So what if she was technically having tea with a man on probation? It wasn’t like her best friend wasn’t the most notorious (and tamest) thief in all of Paris. Like she’d give a shit.

[misguidedjusticearchive]

Well, Clive's not about to fix it just for the damn thing to come tumbling down again. What was this, that one episode of Drake and Josh where they kept shooting the wall with the laser? No way is he putting up with it.

"Right this way." He took the lead towards the cafe. It shouldn't be too long of a walk, but starting a conversation now would be wise. "You know, Charlotte, you've learned a lot about me recently, but I've hardly any idea who you are beyond your name." There it was; the main reason he had even decided to ask Charlie to tea. It didn't take long to bring that one up. It seemed so odd to him that she had quickly taken such an interest in his past and was able to dig up the relating incidents in surprising detail. And he didn't know one thing about her! For shame, Clive.

[notavigilanti-deactivated201409]

Er, yes, of course it wouldn’t what was she thinking? And that pesky fourth wall was always breaking, aren’t you a mechanic Clive? Get to fixing it. Chop chop. “Right…Ah, where did you have in mind? I’m not very familiar with the cafe’s around London..” She was barely familiar with London at all, despite her penchant for wandering into it. Like. All the time. Really Charlie, you need to familiarize yourself with the city I mean goddamn girl there’s just the giant craters and cracks in the street to contend with.

As well as irritable constables and that CREEPY stalker guy that keeps trying to tell you about puzzles. What the fuck, go away sir I don’t know anything about puzzles or hint coins leave me alone.

[misguidedjusticearchive]

He builds machines. That's a whole different world from fixing metaphorical barriers between fictional and real universes. Tangibility is sort of a big deal when it comes to these sorts of things, you know.

"Well, there's a place just around the corner that I've always enjoyed." He motioned in the direction of the cafe. Clive knew all the cafes in this part of London. He knew just about everything there was to know about it. He spent way too much time on these streets, in all honesty. "If you're interested, we could go there." Since he invited her, he'd be paying of course, so what was there for her to lose? Except for the respect of most Londoners, obviously.

[misguidedjusticearchive]

notavigilanti:

Huh, funny that. You hadn’t expected Clive of all people to show up out of the blue like this. Usually it was Raph or something….come to think of it, you actually didn’t get any ‘invites’ from anyone unless it was Raphael. …you REALLY needed to get out more. "Uh, oui, I mean, sure! I-I’d love to! That is, if it won’t be any trouble for you…" Could he have guests being under such careful watch as he was?

She seemed surprised. Well, he supposed that it was a bit sudden. More than a bit, actually. How did he even find her? Man, RP verses are really weird. This stuff happens all the time, and that fourth wall will never, ever be repaired.

"Of course it won't be any trouble." Clive responded with a smile. That really seemed like a given. Why would he have asked if it would've been a problem for him to begin with?

[somesubparstuff]

If you listen closely you can hear the smarmy bastard being snide again.

[misguidedjusticearchive]

(( Clive has not been working with me at all and I swear I'm trying to reply to things okay but I just can't for the life of me seem to do it ))

[stmysteres]

It was pretty funny to see Clive worried about the professor finding out about their little adventure together. Here he was, the guy that nearly destroyed the entire city, and he actually sounded a bit nervous. It was kind of cute. Was it alright to think that about an ex-convict? Flora wasn’t sure. Either way, she happily took the lead when Clive motioned for her to, stepping her way into the alley with a little excited squeak or two.

"Oh, don’t worry, I’m really good at keeping secrets. And with your acting skills, he’ll never find out! And even if he does, we can always just say you decided to kidnap me again!” There she goes, only worrying about herself again.

Surprisingly enough, the little walkway Flora had thought of as creepy and mysterious for so long wasn’t that intimidating at all. Most girls would be happy about that, but Flora on the other hand couldn’t help but be a little disappointed.

[misguidedjusticearchive]

Flora didn't seem worried at all. Which, in all honesty, was completely reasonable in her case. She didn't have much to worry about. Sure, the professor might get a little angry with her for slipping out of the office to hang out with an ex-criminal who once kidnapped her, but in the end, it was really him that would get into trouble if they got caught. And considering her next words, she was completely aware of that.

"I sincerely hope you're joking about that, Flora." He responded with obvious alarm. Wow, that would be some way to throw him under the bus. 0/10, would not take on an adventure ever again. "That would have me put in jail again for certain."

Clive was surprised when, after following Flora to the alleyway she had mentioned, he saw that the place wasn't even remotely close to creepy. Wow. You'd think that a girl who didn't even flinch when she saw one of the most dangerous men in England arrive at her door would be able to handle a place like this on her own. 

[notavigilanti-deactivated201409]

She frowned as she listened, having expected the death of some of his family but not the motive. She’d thought that perhaps he’d wanted to use the machine himself to try and save them, but revenge…

Well, then again, the idea of time travel actually WORKING was a fairly ludecrous concept to start with, and from what little she was seeing of him Clive certainly was no idiot. Of course he wouldn’t be taken in by something so far fetched, and especially when revenge itself was so much easier and more doable. 

Plus, who on earth WOULDN’T want to take it out on the arrogant men who dared to put multiple lives in danger on the off chance for something that…frankly…was nothing more then another example of human hubris? Time travel just seemed like one of those feilds that had no bearing on the well being of the human race, instead, more accurately it seemed to symbolize their downfall…at least according to all of the books she’d read, stories or not, there had to be SOME reason why time travel always ended badly. 

"Well….I can’t really blame you to be honest. I think…I’d be tempted too." Though she frowned and looked away, her face taking on a stern expression. "Granted, because of the way I was raised I wouldn’t actually do it, Papa would kill me first of all, and second…I couldn’t bare to harm my city over something like…that." She sighed and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. 

"But, I don’t blame you. What’s past is past, and clearly you’re trying to make up for it. So…that’s that." She coughed awkwardly. Well, this conversation got interesting…

[misguidedjusticearchive]

Of course Clive never wanted to use the time machine. He had watched the contraption kill the people he grew up around. He had struggled through the rubble, fire, and mix of dust and smoke in the air to survive. He knew you couldn't possibly save anyone with something like that. You could only harm more people. And, in the end, that was exactly what he did anyway. He supposed he was just as awful as the ones he was trying to get 'justice' against, at the end of the day.

The memories of the disaster were bad. Thinking of them easily caused Clive to become visibly uneasy, changing his posture, generally avoiding contact with who ever he was talking to. But it was much worse when he heard what Charlotte said. His eyes shot back up to hers rather quickly and his brow furrowed. Did she think that hearing 'I don't blame you' or 'I may have considered the same thing' made him feel any better at all?

"No, don't say that, Charlotte." Clive frowned at her. He should be appreciative that she was taking all of this in such stride, but maybe that was part of what was bothering him. "I ruined lives. I ended some. I don't want anyone to ever consider doing anything remotely close to what I attempted. And I certainly don't want anyone thinking it's something that can just be shrugged off afterwards. I know that I did a lot of damage and there's still so much more for me to do before I can ever be forgiven."

"But... Thank you." He reverted back to that awkward posture from before, glancing over to the side once again. "You're giving me more of a chance than most people are willing to."

[notavigilanti-deactivated201409]

"I…Yes. I suppose I can understand that…" She sighed and ran a hand through her light brown hair, wondering how exactly to break the awkward ice now. She really…really sucked at this whole making friends buisness…

Well…he did say to ask questions… “….Something happened with that…accident…didn’t it? The one that took that woman…Clair’s life…Something to do with you.” 

[misguidedjusticearchive]

"Er. Yes. That accident had a huge impact on my life, actually." He responded, taking a deep breath. Well, here goes. It's better than if she tried to read up on the event, that was for sure. "I lived in that apartment building that blew up in the explosion when I was a child. Of the victims other than Claire, two of them were my parents, and the others were my neighbors." He let out a sigh, looking to the side as he gave the back of his neck an awkward rub. "And that's why I committed my crimes. Revenge on the scientists who took them from me."

[notavigilanti-deactivated201409]

“J-Je suis desole…I…didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable Clive…” Good going Charlie, now the only person you know in England is going to not want to talk with you at all after this. You were BAD at socializing, even when you wanted to.

"Okay, okay, I’m sorry! I’ll not accuse you of being untoward towards the fille again!" 

[misguidedjusticearchive]

"It's alright, Charlotte. Just... make sure you ask questions rather than make assumptions from now on, please. I'd rather give you the truth than have suspicions going around." God knows he's already got all of London making presumptions.