Team Tembo: Day one

[sparednothing]

[By now you should have already woken up to your surroundings. Your camp is in the jungle, surrounded by tents, vehicles and cages full of dinosaurs. Wander around, check out the armoury, wonder why there are a bunch of dinosaurs in cages, or get yourself a tent]

[[ooc: The camp | Pick a tent | The dinosaurs | Roland Tembo | Day One OOC post | Plot Hub]]

Comments

[ensorceler]

[ She watches with a placid expression, listening even if she appears not to be. Anne continues to look at the rifle, never him directly, even when she finally speaks up. ]

You have a bounty upon your head.

[gottaknockhard]

[That's not the response he was expecting. Although it makes him curious more than anything.]

Do I?

[ensorceler]

[ She holds her hand out for the rifle. ]

I said it once before, and I meant it for true, but it was never so clear before the news Mister Frodo brought with him.

You will lose your head.

[gottaknockhard]

[So she meant 'bounty on his head' literally then. He smiles faintly, like he always does when the subject of doom is brought up. As if she needed to say what he knows is on her mind.]

It wouldn't be the first time.

[Without elaborating, he holds the rifle out for her. It's better if he doesn't mention the odd parallels of the decisions that pushed him into his career in bounty hunting. Not when the ending is less than encouraging.]

[ensorceler]

[ She squints at him once more as she takes it. ]

Not the first time you have lost your head, or have been a bounty?

[gottaknockhard]

[Handing her that is probably a bad move if he's going to start being vague again.]

That depends on how literal you want to be.

[ensorceler]

How do you think I mean it, you fool? Do you still test my patience with your jests in such a crucial matter?

[gottaknockhard]

[Apparently. But he had a reason for bringing it up, even if that's suddenly escaping him. No turning back now.]

I've had people out for my head before.

[ensorceler]

...For what cause?

[gottaknockhard]

[Was this supposed to comfort her? Or is it just what he feels he owes her after reading her history.]

Associations, more or less. [...] It's a long story.

[ensorceler]

Do you have elsewhere to be in a hurry?

[gottaknockhard]

[He looks beyond her and shrugs lightly. He doesn't.]

What if I told you that hearing it could get you killed someday?

[ensorceler]

Do you ever consider your words before blurting them out as if you were nothing more than a mule waiting for the next moment to bray?

[ Anne's tempted to hit him in the head right now for his dumb. But she holds in the violent urges, as numerous as they are, and lowers the gun to look about. Ever paranoid, but not about dinosaurs. ]

I am already a dead woman. Speak now or never speak again.

[gottaknockhard]

[It's almost worth testing her when she comes up with such creative ways to call him an idiot. She's going to give Crowley a run for his money.

Long story or not, he does his best to sum up something that he's seldom alluded to in the years after he changed his profession. He justifies himself by thinking that it's about time he mentioned the danger he puts her in when the syndicate is still following him around. Even if history has other ideas for her.]

I wasn't always a bounty hunter. I betrayed the organization I was a part of, and faked my death to get out of their radar. If I hadn't kept a few friends, they would have tracked me down a lot sooner than they did.

[ensorceler]

Organization?

[ She moves back near him, slowly, but not stopping until she's much closer than proper, her voice barely a whisper. ]

What organization? Whyfor did you turn traitor?

[gottaknockhard]

[He appreciates her gesture, even if he's not sure how far her understanding will carry as he continues.]

A crime syndicate. One of the largest, at the time. [He isn't bragging, but it helps to put things in perspective.] And I left for a woman.

[ensorceler]

[ She looks surprised to hear he was part of a crime syndicate. Not so much that he left for a woman. Hadn't she accused him of being affected by a woman shortly after knowing him? ]

A criminal? You.

[ Maybe that's why he hunts them, then, if he knows how to think like them. Now, she thinks...wow, who on earth did she get involved with? ]

...You changed for her? Did your love protect you?

[gottaknockhard]

[The worst kinds of criminals are the ones who can pass as someone with a conscience. Even now, his real regrets aren't over the crimes he committed.

Spike shakes his head at her second question before he can even address the first. Speaking plainly like this is something he's imagined doing countless times, but actually saying it is another obstacle altogether, made harder by the things he doesn't remember.]

It didn't protect either of us. She died.

[ensorceler]

[ She's quiet for a time at that, either because she's absorbing or simply giving the faceless woman a moment of silence. ]

And the criminal died with her?

[gottaknockhard]

[This time he nods, hoping that alone will be enough to explain every lie he's told.]

It wasn't long after.

[ensorceler]

[ Yeah no. ]

And then what of the bounty hunter?

[gottaknockhard]

[That gets a small smile.]

He didn't fair much better.

[ensorceler]

But you lived? A part of you, at least, lived?

[gottaknockhard]

... When I came here, there must have been something left.

[ensorceler]

That is untrue. I have been told of people being brought here after their death. In then, are they anything but an echo?