exsiliumlogs | can't stop the rock

Date & Time: Early summer, 2004
Location: Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Characters: Charles Ofdensen & Alucard Anselm
Summary: Charles & Alucard get sent on a mission to retrieve some information ... from a geologists' conference ~~wat are this~~. The geologists are surprisingly uncooperative.
Warnings: Geeks will be roughed up in the name of future rock science. You have been warned.

Though this wasn't the first mission Charles had been through the gates for, he realized as he looked around that it was the first that he really grasped the surreality of it all. Funny, he thought, that being transported to a coastline several million years in the past, inhabited by dinosaurs, was less jarring than being in a city he'd actually visited, a place he knew well, in a time that he was familiar with. He stood on the street, in an alley off Baltimore Harbor, the smell of the ocean and the city hitting him in equal doses, and shook his head quietly to himself. He could think about how much of a mindfuck this was, later. For now, they had a job to do, and he'd concealed his rapier in what looked like a map case slung over one shoulder, along with a briefcase and a rolling suitcase. If they were posing as conventioneers, he'd reasoned, they'd need to look the part.

Clearing his mind as best he could, he turned to Alucard and smiled slightly. "Well, Alucard? Welcome to Baltimore."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Alucard looked unimpressed. He carried a school backpack for himself, and dressed in a school uniform suit in order to fit in with their cover story as student and teacher visitors.

"Mm. Never been to Baltimore. Never expected to visit it this way, either. At least the weather is nice." Anything was better than the usual Exsilium rain and cold in his book. "But I suppose we don't have time to right now to think about that. Mission first, sightseeing later."

Inwardly, Charles was glad that Alucard felt a need to focus on the mission - while he was good at playing host, he didn't want to waste time on superfluous things, either. There would be time for that once, as his partner had said, they'd finished. "We'll need a place to stay, first. Walking around the convention center with our luggage wouldn't be that great for blending in."

He led the way out of the alley, glanced around to get his bearings, then held up a hand to hail a taxi. "I know a good one that's close. Getting rooms shouldn't take long."

"I'll take your word on that." Alucard looked around the area, the streets busy with tourists and conventioneers. The atmosphere was a welcome change from dreary Exsilium. "I don't know what year you're from, but in 2004 I would have been seven years old."

"Really." The statement takes him by surprise, but a mild raise of his eyebrows is the only sign. "It was, ah, 2012 for me, when the Initiative brought me over... so Baltimore hadn't really changed much."

"I hadn't realized we were from such a similar time line. It was 2013 for me." That was somewhat comforting. He figured the chances of them being from the same world were slim, but they must have been very close anyway.

"So, do you think these people will really talk to us, or just patronize us for being a school student and teacher?" Al wasn't sure whether they'd actually talk to them or just give them the dumbed-down version of the information they need.

"It depends on the angle." Hailing a cab, Charles pulled the door open for Alucard when it pulled up to the curb. "If we handle it right, we shouldn't have many problems at all. And if they try and give us problems, well, there are plenty of ways around that, too."

He slid into the seat beside him, ignoring the cramped space and stale air, and leaned toward the plexiglas so he'd be heard. "Peabody Court Hotel, please."

"What, slip them a few drinks?" He smirked a bit. "Or grab them by the ankles and shake them till the answers fall out? I suppose we ought to just go in there first, see what they're like, then go from there."

All they needed to do was check into the hotel and then head to the convention center. Once they get inside they'll know what sort of people they'd be dealing with.

"Those are both valid options, though not necessarily my primary ones." He said it like Alucard had suggested inviting them to go for a walk around the block, even as the cabbie tore through the traffic like a bat out of hell.

"I'm not sure if we'll run into them at the hotel - they're more likely to stay at the Radisson and Marriot type of hotels on the bay. But in the event that we do need to get creative, staying at a more remote location will be an advantage."

"Too bad. A few drinks at the hotel bar would most likely get them talking. Well, I won't act like we don't have any options left until we've gotten in there and tried. To be honest, I wasn't thinking of this as the sort of missions the Initiative would give out, but they did stress how important the info was. I wonder if it really will have much of an effect..."

Al was mostly thinking out loud as he watched the city go by, quickly reaching the hotel.

"Oh, believe me, drinks to loosen their tongues are always an option, but if we can do it with a little more finesse, all the better. If the UE are looking for the same information, they'll be looking out for people with that sort of standard modus operandi."

Charles paid the driver, then waited for the valet to come take their bags. Like hell he was carrying them in, himself. The hotel looked simple enough on the outside, but the glimpse afforded through the doors alone showed that it was of high enough caliber to meet his standards. "The one thing I've learned from perusing our resources is that sometimes the strangest things can hold interest and potential impact for our employers." He kept his words vague, in case they were overheard.

Alucard knew what he meant. "Mm, that is true. Reading up on some of the places they've gone in the past... They seem unconnected at first, but have much larger consequences later. Like that nonsense about butterflies flapping their wings stirring hurricanes on the other side of the planet. Well then. Let's go stir some hurricanes, shall we?"

"Couldn't have put it better myself," Charles smiled, as he led the way into the hotel.

The convention floor was teeming with nerds. Absolutely clotted with them. Charles adjusted his glasses as he glanced around the lobby, ID badge clipped neatly to his lapel.

"Well, they gave us a pretty substantial list of panels. I suppose the first order of business is figuring out which of them look the most promising."

"Right..." Alucard looked over the crowd with a most judgmental frown. This was going to be boring as hell. Well, the sooner they got what they needed, the sooner they could leave. Time to pull out that program guide they received and give it a once-over. Al's brow only furrowed further, though.

"....I don't even know what these panels are. Damnit. I should have studied this more."

"Well, if nothing else, we should scan the list and see which panels have terms that correlate with our mission. We can get some coffee, and eavesdrop on anyone in the vicinity while we're looking."

If nothing else, Charles knew how to multitask. "And I still have my tablet, which should make this a little easier."

"Right. Extraterrestrial stones. So anything about meteorites would be where we need to start. Right? We can head to any panels on that first." He handed the program guide over to Charles.

"Excellent idea." He skims the guide, frowning. "There's one in fifteen minutes, up here, on the second floor. We should start heading in that direction."

can't stop the rock

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1/3

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the "later" pic had me laughing XD

been waiting for an opportunity to do that since he joined, man

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