(Untitled)

[farsees]

Characters: Cassie, Open
Rating: PG?
Time Period: Modern
Location: A random hallway of the castle
Relative Date: The afternoon of Cassie's arrival
Status: Open to anyone and everyone

Comments

[mulder_trustno1]

The sound of the table legs being dragged across the hall floors echoed all the way down to reach Mulder's ears. He was glancing in room after room, looking for any sign of Scully, and the lab she had supposedly set up, but coming up empty. He had a bad feeling, in the pit of his stomach, but he was trying to be rational about it. Just like that Camel had told him.

He had a feeling if he said that part out loud to anyone, "rational" really wouldn't be the word that sprang to their minds.

When he first spotted the girl, he first thought it might have been Dairine, due to her size, but she was slightly taller, and her style of dress was a little more... outlandish. He folded his arms and leaned against the wall in the hallway behind her, watching with some amusement as she tugged at the weaponry. Something had to be said for her determination.

"You know," he said, with the tiniest wry smile. "when people want to defeat a dragon these days, they're more prone to jump for the tank approach. I have to give you credit for sticking with the classics."

[farsees]

Taken off guard, Cassie instantly removed her hands from the merchandise and held them up in the air, and slowly turned to face the owner of the voice. "I wasn't going to actually take it." She was quick to defend herself, and hopped down off of the table. "I only wanted to look at it." She looked over at the man, wary of his presence, unsure if he was the owner of the place or just some random sucker who happened to be stuck there as well.

"Who are you?" She demanded, her tone more curious than harsh. She took a couple of timid steps over and reached down to grab at her bag, and slid it over her head and to rest on her shoulder. She held onto it defensively, as if she was expecting him to try and steal it from her.

[mulder_trustno1]

Mulder just chuckled at her defensiveness. He had the feeling she was new here. It was just that vibe.

"Fox Mulder. I'm with the FBI. Did you just get here?" he asked. His tone wasn't interrogative, but rather as friendly as he could keep it. If he had to break the bad news about this place to her, he might as well do it gently. In case she didn't believe him, he eased his badge out of his jacket pocket and flipped it open. Most people here hadn't pressed him for identification but she already looked pretty suspicious of him.

[farsees]

"FBI?" Cassie looked skeptical, even after she saw his badge, and she just nodded in slight appreciation that he had gone through the trouble to show her. "Yeah, I just got here. I'm not even sure where here is, though. So far, I'm not impressed." Which was a lie, since just exploring the castle had been pretty interesting to her so far. Nevermind the fact that she still wanted to get the sword and shield off the wall.

"What is an FBI agent doing here?" She was still cautious and guarded, unsure of why he would choose to approach her at all.

[mulder_trustno1]

Mulder slid the badge away again. His instincts had been right: a recent arrival. It bothered him that whoever was heading this joint up was bringing kids and teenagers here.

"Probably the same thing as you. Being tricked by some duplicitous greater power into coming to this castle under false pretenses, only to learn we're all pawns in a larger elaborate game, the rules of which the participants are unaware of, and have to discover as we go along." He drew a toothpick out of his pocket and stuck it between his teeth, his hands moving into his pockets, as his suit jacket rode up around his wrists.

[farsees]

Cassie just stared up at the man, a little wide eyed and dumbfounded. "So no one here is going to help me find my mom?" As hard as she tried to sound pissed off, her voice cracked just a little, and she found herself feeling betrayed and disappointed. Her mom was waiting for her, depending on her. And now she was stuck in some unknown place where she could do anything.

Her hands grasped hold off the strap to her bag, and she took a few cautious steps back and away from Mulder. She didn't trust him, just simply because of the fact he had delivered that crushing news a little too casually for her liking. She wanted to rip that toothpick out of his mouth and stab him with it, just because he had been the bearer of bad news.

"What game are the people here expecting us to play? I'm not just going to go along with it."

[mulder_trustno1]

Mulder felt a pang when he saw the pain written across the girl's features with the realization, and there was much more sympathy in his tone when he spoke again.

"'Fraid not. They sent messages that pulled on a lot of people's heartstrings, but they were apparently mostly fraudulent." After a moment, he added: "I'm sorry about your mother."

He understood all too well what it was like to get your hopes up about finding family and then have them crushed.

"As for what they want from us, we honestly don't know. But it involves a room upstairs that allows for transportation between various years in the past and future. And this location."

[farsees]

"Show me where it is." She demanded, glaring up at him. He was just delivering more and more bad news, and she wasn't sure how much more her short patience would allow. Her arms crossed over her chest, and she stood there, silently fuming, daring him to argue with her. It didn't matter that he apologized about her mom, it really wasn't his problem, as far as she was concerned. So he could shove his sympathy and just help her figure a way out, and it sounded like the best place to start would be that transportation room.

[mulder_trustno1]

"Fine," he said, not letting her demands overrule his authority, "but under one condition. At least one of the buttons goes somewhere incredibly dangerous - I know one man who was injured there, and was almost killed myself. There are cannibals, on top of it just not being a very pretty sight in the first place."

"You're not going there." His tone brooked no argument.

[farsees]

She arched an eyebrow at being told what to do, and tightened her jaw as she mumbled out a simple 'fine' to his command. She was used to adults trying to tell her what to do, trying to control her, but this one's tone told her not to argue. At least not to his face.

"I'll avoid the cannibals, okay? But if one of those places can get me closer to going back where I was, it'd be pretty helpful."

And with that, she turned on her heel to march off toward the staircase, to try and find this magical room he had mentioned. Generally, adults would follow, since they didn't want the innocent looking little girl to be hurt. She didn't care if the FBI agent did or not. She could tell that she wasn't going to be able to manipulate him, making him not all that useful in the long run.

[mulder_trustno1]

"Yeah, well the combined forces of however many odd people we've had here for the past year haven't been able to make heads or tails of it, so don't expect too much too quickly," Mulder cautioned, moving to keep up with her. He wasn't about to let her go off on her own.

"Did you get one of the mobiles?" he asked, sliding out his own from his pocket. "Looks like this, probably has you locked out."