I've been walking forty miles of bad road. If the Bible is right, the world will explode.

[akablackkitty]

Walk by the CCTV room of the Kashtta Tower, and the following conversation can be heard:

"You know, I've got about a billion security protocols to run through and, uh, there's-"

"Mr. Flinkman, I think you can be spared from your duties for five seconds to humor me a little."

"....You're angry. Okay, that's... Yeah, it's not every day I can actually

Comments

[chimaerasaurus]

"...Marshall?" Abby sticks her head into the room, scowling at Sark's back and at the respective tones of voice goin' on in here. "All right?"

Sark does not get to pick on her sort-of-pseudo-not-boyfriend-friend-thing. So there?

[akablackkitty]

Marshall attempts to spin his chair around. This proves rather difficult when there's a Sark in his way who is looking at Abby like she might potentially be the person who left those flowers on April's grave... In his defense, she started it.

Meanwhile, after some struggling, Marshall finally settles on leaning a little bit to the side and peeking at Abby from behind Sark. "Hi! Uh... Yeah, everything's fine. Just, uh, checkin' somethin' for, um... Mr. Sark here."

And Sark is not strongarming him at all! Because that would be wrong and if he says as much, he might... Hurt him.

[chimaerasaurus]

Abby raises an eyebrow at Sark, utterly unimpressed. "Checkin' what?"

She crosses the room and braces her hand against the back of Marshall's chair, not overtly protective, but certainly gettin' up in Sark's space. Abby eyeballs the flowers. "...Weird arrangement."

She glances from it to the computer screen and glances at Sark. "Got a secret admirer?"

[sarkraticmethod]

Sark doesn't bristle, but he does narrow his eyes a bit more just to let Abby know how much he disapproves of people being all up in his business.

His jaw twitches a bit. "That's what I'd like to find out, although I hardly see where it's any of your business." He pauses, almost smirking a bit when he adds, "Unless you're Torchwood, here to see who is strongarming your Op-Tech personnel, but you aren't, are you?"

Marshall is turning several shades of red and stammering, but mostly keeping quiet. He hates being in the middle- in this case, literally.

[chimaerasaurus]

"I work for Bristow, actually," she says, raking Sark over in a glance before returning her attention to the screen. She sees your disapproval, Sark, and will raise you a big fat don't care. "And Marshall's a friend. Who're you?"

Poor Marshall. Abby puts a hand on his shoulder, though whether it's to help him feel better or to keep him quiet is an open question.

[sarkraticmethod]

Twitch. Again. And, once again, it's followed by a tiny smirk. "Julian Sark. Hardly one of Bristow's prized agents, but we do often do business together." If you can translate 'do business' as 'Bristow gives him work to do so he doesn't die of ennui and insists on those jobs being the most degrading, below-his-station jobs he can dredge up.' Abby doesn't need to know that though.

Marshall stares at Abby's hand on his shoulder for a second and then shoots her a look that is both apologetic and deeply, deeply pained. "We were, uh... Just finishing up. Right... Mr. Sark?"

Sark arches an eyebrow at him and Marshall gives him a pleading look that gets an amused look in response, and while Sark has no real desire to make Flinkman happy, he's not really getting anywhere with him and this woman is... All in his face. It's a problem. So he quietly excuses himself, collecting the flowers on his way out.

As soon as he's gone, Marshall lets out a relieved breath like he's been holding it in for awhile.

[chimaerasaurus]

Abby gives Marshall's shoulder a little squeeze and a pat before standing back. "All right?"

There is a glaaare following you, Sark. You cannot see it, but it is there. "What'd he want, anyway?"

[akablackkitty]

"Yyyyeah," Marshall drawls, once Sark is safely away. He flops back in the chair. "He's just... Kinda scary. A little bit. I mean, just a smidge." He holds up two fingers about a millimeter apart and then flails nonchalantly. "I could take him... Actually, no I couldn't." Yeah, that moment of bravery in the face of attractive women was brought to you by Marshall's sudden horrified realization that saying that tends to make people want you to prove it.

He shrugs and rolls his chair back to face his computer. "He, uh... Wanted to know if I could find out who, um... Ordered those flowers and put them on April's grave.. April.. You know, the girl who died during that whole Carnival... Thing. I mean, that... Still gives me the chills. Buh." He shudders involuntarily, most of his words mumbled as he focuses on the computer.

[chimaerasaurus]

"Someone putting flowers on her grave is a bad thing?" She half-sits on the desk, resting her hip against the edge of it. She didn't really get out to the carnival--after everything she's heard, it's a good thing. "Though yeah, the bouquet is a bit funny."

[akablackkitty]

"I guess it is when no one was supposed to know about it. She's been gone for, ah... Months now. That was the first I'd even heard of it. Sark said he only told a couple of people and they- Huh?"

In his ramble, he only just barely caught Abby's last sentence and he turns away from the computer to look at her. "What d'you mean funny?"

Obviously, Marshall does not speak Ze Language of Flowers. It is a rather odd arrangement though, now that he notices. Not what you normally see on graves.

[chimaerasaurus]

"Just... not really flower's you see together." She scratches her chin. "Had to be picked on-purpose, so... Either they mean something to him," she gestures at the door, "or they're like..."

She tries to remember everything she used to know about flowers and their meanings, picked up from a few months working at a flower shop before university. "Dunno. Look up..."

What were they, what were they. "Stargazer lilies, that was one. Uhh... Anemone. Bachelor's button. Steph... Steph..." Crap, what was that last one?

[akablackkitty]

"Well, I don't really know Mr. Sark's flower preference, but..." Marshall trails off, fingers flying across the keys as he brings up three tabs with a page for each of the first three flowers, lingering as he tries to think of the last one.

"Stephanopolis... No that would be a city. A really... Weird name for a city, but, um..." He screws up his face, lost in deep thought before it finally hits him and he resumes typing. "Stephanotis! That's it!"

He flips through each of the tabs, frowning, "Um... So we have... Congratulations or I'm sorry... Um... Anticipation or hopelessness. Blessedness. ....And marital happiness? That can't be right." He chews his lip and flips back, combing through the sites. "Well, either way it's not exactly much of a funeral bouquet."

Weird. Very weird. No wonder Sark was so freaked out over it- maybe it had just as much to do with the flowers themselves as it did with who sent them.

[chimaerasaurus]

Abby chews on her lip. There's a message here. Or a warning. Or a threat.

...She feels like Bristow should know.

"Could you print out the best stuff about them? The flowers?"

[akablackkitty]

Marshall bites his lip, debating whether helping Abby trumps Sark beating the hell out of him... And then realizes that Sark doesn't have to know about this. "Sure. Of course. Um... Anything. I could actually, you know... if you're really interested, I'd started looking into flower shops that actually carry those sorts of flowers to maybe, uh... Narrow down the search a little. If you... Want me to?"

He shrugs a little awkwardly, smiling just a bit. Anything to help a lady in distress, you know.