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Bella wakes up in a house she's never seen before that has to violate six building codes and an air quality regulation. There's furniture - abandoned, crappy furniture - but she's on the floor in the plaster dust among shards of glass that miraculously haven't cut her. She's got her cross on her neck but no crossbow, no stakes, and she feels like she's moving through gelatin. She's not sure if she could stand - she used to be able to stand! - let alone walk, let alone kick a vampire in the chin.
Oh, fuck, what happened, the last thing she remembers is -
- her birthday magic teacher clearly not being Giles's present after all, stupid, stupid -
- she doesn't seem injured. There's a tender spot in her arm but no bruise, just - is that a needle mark. Oh, powers that be fried on a stick.
She shuffles on her knees over to the door, slowly, slowly, sneezing. She tries the knob. It doesn't work - she thinks that's a lock and not her kittenish weakness. Well, of fucking course, you don't dump incapacitated girls in houses and leave the door open, but she had to try. She tries a window. It is also locked, what the fuck kind of house locks from the outside like this, and painted shut to boot. She could punch right through the glass if -
She can't punch through the glass.
Maybe among the debris on this floor is something she can improvise into a lockpick. She's acquainted with the theory, just because she keeps having to break doors down -
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cross_and_bow
cross_and_bow
"Mm. ...How confident are you that you actually can get out of here without being spotted?"
eversomuchfun
"Highly. Stealth is a longstanding hobby of mine. I believe the relevant quotation is, 'I followed you.' 'I saw nothing.' 'That is what you may expect to see when I follow you.'"
cross_and_bow
"I was trying to find something to pick the lock and didn't come up with anything, and breaking shit is loud - out here in what sounds like the middle of nowhere even forcing a painted-shut window might be loud."
eversomuchfun
"I can get out of this house without making loud noises or being more than minimally visible. If they are watching all the exits, very closely, then they'll see me. I don't think they're watching all the exits very closely, because that takes a significant resource investment."
cross_and_bow
"I suppose once you have an exit traversable we can always fall back on 'confront the asshole' if it turns out you do make a sound. So you get out, if you can find a payphone you try 911 and if that doesn't work you find a quarter and call my dad -" She provides the number. "And tell him where I am. If you can't find a payphone find my house -" It has an address, fancy that - "don't go too near the porch, I think he's home tonight but if he's not 911 will work better anyway."
eversomuchfun
"Understood. Suggested approaches for 911 and the house visit? Particularly, if your father wouldn't believe I am an innocent vampire coming in peace to alert him to his daughter's state of peril, what will he believe?"
cross_and_bow
"Tell the dispatcher that you... found me, which is almost true anyway, and read my school ID. Isabella Marie Swan. When you talk to Charlie, whichever way you wind up doing it, tell him - I don't know, um - tell him that you are a friendly shenanigan and I need a ride away from an unfriendly shenanigan. If he calls bullshit you can be all movie villain 'very well. But regardless, your daughter is at thus and such an address' wherever it turns out we in fact are, and then he has to check it out anyway. Do not make any attempt to be invited into the house, give him a berth on his way out to the car."
eversomuchfun
He grins brightly, steps out of the light, and soon afterward ceases to be perceptible in any way. Well, he did claim to be very stealthy.
(A quick circuit of the ground floor to map all the most obvious exits and decide where he would be watching if he were imperfectly watching this house; then he picks a back window that is not visible from any likely vantage, and carefully coaxes it open. Out he goes, without making a sound.)
Now: payphones, or Bella's house? Which shall he find first?
(A quick circuit of the ground floor to map all the most obvious exits and decide where he would be watching if he were imperfectly watching this house; then he picks a back window that is not visible from any likely vantage, and carefully coaxes it open. Out he goes, without making a sound.)
Now: payphones, or Bella's house? Which shall he find first?
He finds a payphone first, but it is broken. Very broken, probably by either a car or a demon.
He finds the house before he finds any other pay phones.
He finds the house before he finds any other pay phones.
eversomuchfun
Without getting within porch-light-activating distance of the front door, he comes close enough to listen—is anyone home?
sundayfish
Footsteps; there isn't a peephole so Charlie looks through the window.
"What do you want at this hour?"
"What do you want at this hour?"
eversomuchfun
"Message from Bella Swan. She describes me as a 'friendly shenanigan' and requests a ride away from an unfriendly shenanigan at," he gives the location of the abandoned house.
eversomuchfun
"Reasonably ordinary humans with an inscrutable agenda kidnapped her, drugged her, and locked her in an abandoned house. It seems there was meant to be a danger present for her to either cleverly overcome or die of, but that part didn't work out as planned, so she is not in immediate peril and managed to send me out to summon a rescue."
sundayfish
"Rrrright. You stay put."
Charlie gets his gun and peers out the front window to detect a lack of Sherlocks there and goes and gets in his car and drives. Lights, no siren.
Charlie gets his gun and peers out the front window to detect a lack of Sherlocks there and goes and gets in his car and drives. Lights, no siren.
eversomuchfun
Sherlock makes himself comfortable in a handy shadow and awaits developments. It's not like he's going to get ahead of the cop car if he tries. Maybe if he'd had a little longer to get to know the town.
cross_and_bow
The cop car is back, with Bella in it, twenty-five minutes later.
"Friendliest shenanigan?" calls Bella. "You there?"