video. private.to_be_capricanOctober 15 2011, 11:51:51 UTC
Gaius is already wincing by the time he realises he has a filtered message sent to him from the. Crazy magic serial killer woman. But gods, he's not going to ignore it or something. That might have her coming to find him, should she feel the desire, and that would be worse. He taps his fingers against his thigh, communicator clutched in other hand, as he watches the message.
And squints at the filter settings on that last one. Oh, perfect.
That's just-- "Yes, hello, Ms. Lestrange," Gaius says in reply, the stress audible and visible already, but kept level. "I would urge you to perhaps refrain from splashing Mr. Connor's name about on the networks, specifically in relation to me. The communications have gone a bit funny--" And as if in indication, his own transmission wavers in and out in a fit of static.
"--arker more likely to supply me with such, but I can see what I can do. Is something the matter?"
video. private.bestlieutenantOctober 15 2011, 12:00:01 UTC
Gaius' request not to have his name linked with that of her Warden's draws a puzzled expression. "But I did no such-" She then frowns at the traitorous communicator. And utters something that, while there's briefly noise over both the picture and the audio, sounds suspiciously like bollocks.
"You have my apologies. It was not my intent..." As to something being the matter, she does look like something could be gnawing at her. Whether she's letting her guard down for him and putting on a mask for Connor, or wearing a mask for both... is indiscernible. "I thought perhaps you being in at least a tangentially similar predicament to myself, you might be able to offer some... insight."
Bellatrix Lestrange is lonely. Or it's what she'd like Gaius Baltar to believe.
video. private.to_be_capricanOctober 16 2011, 09:55:41 UTC
"Well..."
Scrubbing his hands over his face, Gaius then peers over fingertips to assess his room, then back down at the video transmission. "Right, perhaps I can do that. You may have to make do with just the cigarettes on this short a notice. Where did you have in mind?" But he's getting up and taking communicator with him, Bellatrix afforded a view of the ceiling when it's set down again.
The sound of a drawer rattling open and closed follows.
video. private.bestlieutenantOctober 18 2011, 23:28:05 UTC
"I'd rather keep this conversation between us, and I believe you are of a similar mind?" There's a moment of hesitation, as if she's considering the best location for their secret/not-so-secret meeting. "If you would not mind coming to my room? It's on the fifth level. With the library. Number eleven. Is that acceptable?"
video. private. --> action.to_be_capricanOctober 19 2011, 06:06:36 UTC
Bellatrix can't see the way Gaius' head tips back in exasperation, a pantomime of 'nooo', but-- that's what happens. It isn't fair, really, she isn't doing anything to suggest that she will devour him once he gets there, but it wars against a hyperactive sense of self-preservation.
"Yes, of course," rings out clear and sincere, meanwhile.
It takes him a bit longer than expected to get there.
But by the time there's knocking on the door, it's frantic and almost scrabbling, and by the time the door opens, Gaius is altogether too pleased to get inside - the hallway is fancying itself a blizzard, ice flurrying through the air in sudden dropped temperatures. Snow peppers through dark hair blown wild and melting on his jacket as Gaius rushes into Bellatrix's quarters for cover.
"What the deuce is going on out there?" Bellatrix lingers in the doorway long enough to poke her head out and see the blizzard raging in the hall. She promptly leans back and shuts the door again. "Do you suppose that's normal?" she asks incredulously, following it up with a grumble of, "Better bloody well not be."
In a past life, she used to know a thing or two about being a good hostess, and her room happens to be equipped with a fireplace. (Because the Malfoys know how to do everything with style.) "Sit," tries to sound more inviting than ordering as she sets about fussing about the hearth. This was so much easier when she had her wand. At least she isn't completely oblivious about how to light a fire.
In a moment. Gaius hovers near the door as he shakes snow out of his hair and off his suit, gesturing pointlessly about whether or not the CES normally does this.
Better than being asked to make the hearth go, at least, although Gaius probably could. But 'sit' is a straight forward command, even dogs can do that much, so Gaius finds himself an armchair and more or less perches on the edge of its seat, for a few seconds, before relaxing back into it. It's a nice room, she has, slightly less sterile than his own Caprican apartment, all fabric and shadows where he had steel and artificial light.
He takes out his cigarette pack and shakes it free of a couple of smokes. "Thank you," he adds, when he realises building the fire might be for him.
Bellatrix gets the fireplace going without too much difficulty, but she does wonder how Muggles can stand having to do such menial tasks constantly. "You're welcome," she murmurs. Rising back up from her crouch, she moves to sit in an armchair beside Gaius.
"Thank you for coming on such short notice," she thinks to say. She hasn't entirely forgot how to function in society, even if that was a lifetime ago. "This place is... Taxing, I think. You seem- are an intelligent sort. What do you make of all this so far?" She holds her hand out not quite expectantly to wait for a cigarette to be passed her way.
The cigarette is handed off to her between two fingers, palm them opening up for her to take the lighter clutched there. Gaius lets her go first, his own unlit cigarette rotated around his other set of fingers, leg coming up to cross over the other and forcing himself to relax just a little. Which, by normal-people standards, is blandly wound up.
His eyebrows knit together at her assessment of his intelligence-- she might actually be among the first-- and he glances from fireplace to her.
"I've been trying hard not to make too much of it at all, but in a word: ridiculous."
"I quite agree with you there." Bellatrix puts the cigarette between her lips and stares at the lighter for a moment. Without bothering trying to figure it out, she passes it back. "I don't know how these things are meant to work," she admits with only the barest hint of sheepishness. "I generally have my wand for such things."
Because just doing it for her wasn't going to get them anywhere. Inching to the edge of his seat, Gaius places his own cigarette between his teeth and demonstrates the workings of the wee device. It also says a lot about his current experiences that he barely bats an eye at mention of a wand, because that's just part of Bellatrix's crazy, and the Barge's crazy, and they're all from Earth anyway so what the frak does Gaius Baltar know about it? Let them have wands.
He lifts cigarette away from flame once it's done, then offers both lighter and his hands to help guide her in lighting her own. "You wanted to ask about Connor," he adds, in the meanwhile, cigarette twitching along with each syllable.
Bellatrix realises if she wants to be able to smoke, she's going to have to figure out how to work the damn Muggle contraption, and so she does watch as Gaius demonstrates, and leans forward when it's her turn to light up. Once success has been achieved, she leans back in her seat and sighs contentedly as she breathes out the first drag of smoke.
"I did," she concedes with a bit of a smirk. "What do you know about him? He's my new Warden, after all. I'd like to know what I'm getting into."
"I expect you'll know most've all you need to when you meet him."
It isn't Gaius' intention to be evasive - he's being honest, in this moment, remembering briefly how he'd gone from close to wielding a chair between himself and John Connor to relatively amiable. "My Warden is his mother, I suspect you're aware, so there's a bit of a time divide. But the Barge doesn't seem to mind time and space continuum very much, so there you are.
"But I only know his childhood, a little, and. Circumstances. He's a bit like a brick wall and demonstrates a genetic disposition towards paranoia. What did you want to know?"
Brows hike upward as Bellatrix listens to what Gaius knows about John Connor based on first impressions alone. "Paranoia. Hm." That can both work for and against her, depending up on how she decides to play it. "What's your opinion on his mother? Just out of curiosity."
That 'hm' causes Gaius some hesitation, perpetual worry sharpening some in sidelong glance, but he doesn't chase after it with anything verbal. Inhales some smoke instead, itches a knee. "Sarah?" No, someone else, Gaius. "She's... well, she's very capable. She didn't teach him everything he knows, but she laid down the foundation. They're quite close, really, but--"
He jolts a shrug, and looks down at the embered tip of his cigarette. "It's probably not something you'd find worth touching on, Ms. Lestrange. And as for her Wardenship, well, she makes for a useful body guard."
"So the two are very much going to work as a sort of team, I take it." Bellatrix crosses one leg over the other and stares up at the tendrils of smoke climbing toward the ceiling of her quarters. "Do you reckon you need a bodyguard in this place? You don't seem the type to have the sort of enemies that want to put a knife in your back on a regular basis."
There's suddenly a loud BANG! on the other side of the door, and Bellatrix startles, ash falling from the tip of her cigarette and onto her skirt from the jostle. "Bloody-- It's been doing that all day. What was I saying?"
And squints at the filter settings on that last one. Oh, perfect.
That's just-- "Yes, hello, Ms. Lestrange," Gaius says in reply, the stress audible and visible already, but kept level. "I would urge you to perhaps refrain from splashing Mr. Connor's name about on the networks, specifically in relation to me. The communications have gone a bit funny--" And as if in indication, his own transmission wavers in and out in a fit of static.
"--arker more likely to supply me with such, but I can see what I can do. Is something the matter?"
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"You have my apologies. It was not my intent..." As to something being the matter, she does look like something could be gnawing at her. Whether she's letting her guard down for him and putting on a mask for Connor, or wearing a mask for both... is indiscernible. "I thought perhaps you being in at least a tangentially similar predicament to myself, you might be able to offer some... insight."
Bellatrix Lestrange is lonely. Or it's what she'd like Gaius Baltar to believe.
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Scrubbing his hands over his face, Gaius then peers over fingertips to assess his room, then back down at the video transmission. "Right, perhaps I can do that. You may have to make do with just the cigarettes on this short a notice. Where did you have in mind?" But he's getting up and taking communicator with him, Bellatrix afforded a view of the ceiling when it's set down again.
The sound of a drawer rattling open and closed follows.
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"Yes, of course," rings out clear and sincere, meanwhile.
It takes him a bit longer than expected to get there.
But by the time there's knocking on the door, it's frantic and almost scrabbling, and by the time the door opens, Gaius is altogether too pleased to get inside - the hallway is fancying itself a blizzard, ice flurrying through the air in sudden dropped temperatures. Snow peppers through dark hair blown wild and melting on his jacket as Gaius rushes into Bellatrix's quarters for cover.
"Oh, shut the door, shut the bleeding door!"
Reply
In a past life, she used to know a thing or two about being a good hostess, and her room happens to be equipped with a fireplace. (Because the Malfoys know how to do everything with style.) "Sit," tries to sound more inviting than ordering as she sets about fussing about the hearth. This was so much easier when she had her wand. At least she isn't completely oblivious about how to light a fire.
Reply
Better than being asked to make the hearth go, at least, although Gaius probably could. But 'sit' is a straight forward command, even dogs can do that much, so Gaius finds himself an armchair and more or less perches on the edge of its seat, for a few seconds, before relaxing back into it. It's a nice room, she has, slightly less sterile than his own Caprican apartment, all fabric and shadows where he had steel and artificial light.
He takes out his cigarette pack and shakes it free of a couple of smokes. "Thank you," he adds, when he realises building the fire might be for him.
Reply
"Thank you for coming on such short notice," she thinks to say. She hasn't entirely forgot how to function in society, even if that was a lifetime ago. "This place is... Taxing, I think. You seem- are an intelligent sort. What do you make of all this so far?" She holds her hand out not quite expectantly to wait for a cigarette to be passed her way.
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His eyebrows knit together at her assessment of his intelligence-- she might actually be among the first-- and he glances from fireplace to her.
"I've been trying hard not to make too much of it at all, but in a word: ridiculous."
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Because just doing it for her wasn't going to get them anywhere. Inching to the edge of his seat, Gaius places his own cigarette between his teeth and demonstrates the workings of the wee device. It also says a lot about his current experiences that he barely bats an eye at mention of a wand, because that's just part of Bellatrix's crazy, and the Barge's crazy, and they're all from Earth anyway so what the frak does Gaius Baltar know about it? Let them have wands.
He lifts cigarette away from flame once it's done, then offers both lighter and his hands to help guide her in lighting her own. "You wanted to ask about Connor," he adds, in the meanwhile, cigarette twitching along with each syllable.
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"I did," she concedes with a bit of a smirk. "What do you know about him? He's my new Warden, after all. I'd like to know what I'm getting into."
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It isn't Gaius' intention to be evasive - he's being honest, in this moment, remembering briefly how he'd gone from close to wielding a chair between himself and John Connor to relatively amiable. "My Warden is his mother, I suspect you're aware, so there's a bit of a time divide. But the Barge doesn't seem to mind time and space continuum very much, so there you are.
"But I only know his childhood, a little, and. Circumstances. He's a bit like a brick wall and demonstrates a genetic disposition towards paranoia. What did you want to know?"
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He jolts a shrug, and looks down at the embered tip of his cigarette. "It's probably not something you'd find worth touching on, Ms. Lestrange. And as for her Wardenship, well, she makes for a useful body guard."
Reply
There's suddenly a loud BANG! on the other side of the door, and Bellatrix startles, ash falling from the tip of her cigarette and onto her skirt from the jostle. "Bloody-- It's been doing that all day. What was I saying?"
Reply
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