Victor // "Dollhouse" // Bar

[mm_catslash]

"I forgot where the sauna is," Victor says.

"You told me."

"I like the sauna," Victor says.

"Big surprise there."

Asshole, Victor thinks

Comments

[consequenceless]

Among the things that weren't here thirty seconds ago is one Adelle DeWitt, who looks up from whatever she'd been studying on her table (just the wood grain, as it happens, through the bottom of her empty glass) and studies Victor with a look that would best be described as impassive.

There's a brief pause on her end, before she offers up a slightly stilted, "Hello, Victor."

[v_left_blank]

In his shock over the sudden and dramatic change in location - aside from not having been here thirty seconds ago, this place is also way louder and more crowded than any of the other areas have been, and doesn't really seem like a good place to stash a bunch of people who've had their brains wiped or whatever the hell - Victor forgets, for a second or two, to play it like he is one of the brainwiped masses.

He blinks at the woman, then thinks oh FUCK right, play it down, play along and tries to look totally blank as he says,

"Hello."

[consequenceless]

She smiles, one eyebrow rising very slightly.

"Are you quite alright?"

[v_left_blank]

Shit!

"I'm fine," Victor says, blanding it up as hard as he possibly can.

Then, very very carefully, because he can't get caught seeming interested in something but dammit even in some creepy institution this cannot be a normal situation, he continues,

"I don't remember there being a restaurant outside the sauna."

Where you should definitely not go to find that asshole still asleep, please and thank you.

[consequenceless]

It's -- kind of weird, and tremendously entertaining at the same time.

"There isn't," she says, perfectly cheerfully.

"Besides, they call it a bar."

She draws out the last word, as if it offends her British sensibilities.

Then, cheerful once more: "The bar at the end of the universe."

[v_left_blank]

. . .

"Oh."

It's a good thing the blank staring is in character, because he doesn't fucking know what to say to that.

[consequenceless]

A beat.

"You could sit down, if you like?"

[v_left_blank]

Which reminds him. He blinks hard. Random bars and insane British women notwithstanding (her accent reminds him of the one Sierra's been developing since they all woke up; interesting, but probably a coincidence), he has shit to do. Sierra is waiting for him, and she can only loiter blandly for so long without getting sent off to, whatever, Pilates or some damn thing.

"I was going to" - he can't say the sauna, he just left the sauna, what else is there - "the pool. To swim. Thirty laps every day. It helps me be my best." Whatever that creepy bullshit means. It's too bad Mike got himself caught, but at least he ended up giving Victor something he could use.

The relief of that is extremely shortlived, though, as he turns back to the door and NOW WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON.

[consequenceless]

Oh, this. This is too good.

"There's a lake out back," Adelle offers.

"With giant squid."

(Exactly how good her mood is probably has to do with a combination of the empty glass on her table and the situation Victor is currently in.)

[v_left_blank]

Still striving desperately for careful, and sounding more strained than anything else:

". . . Where did the door go?"

He hasn't moved from this spot. There is no reason to turn around and have the door not be there.

[consequenceless]

"Away," Adelle says, very simply.

"Don't worry your head about it, it'll come back."

Reassuring, she is not.

[v_left_blank]

One of the things Victor has rapidly come to hate is the way these people talk to them. He hates it almost as much as he hates the fact that there really isn't any other way to talk to people who haven't got a single thought to call their own.

This isn't exactly the number one thing on his mind at the moment, but it's definitely not helping, either.

"Away where?" He barely even notices that he's used verbal italics. This is getting to be too much. If they're making the door disappear (and there's got to be a logical explanation for that, fake paneling or something) then there must be a reason. Maybe they've figured him out, and now they're keeping him from warning the others.

[consequenceless]

"Nobody really knows. And nobody can control it. It's a bit of a nuisance, really, but it can't be helped."

[v_left_blank]

Funny, how he doesn't believe a goddamned word of that. But maybe she expects him to swallow it. Maybe it's a test.

And maybe she's just a bitch and she's fucking toying with him, but right now he's thinking it's not possible to be too paranoid.

Well. As long as he doesn't start babbling about aliens.

So he thinks, and stares at the wall, and says,

"I was going to the pool."

Limited and repetitive. Limited and repetitive. Play it to fucking perfection, or he's worse than dead.

(What is happening to Sierra right now?)

[consequenceless]

To be fair, she is a bit of a bitch, and she is toying with him (just a little, she swears).

At the moment, however, she just shuts her mouth and opts to let him choose what to do next.

[v_left_blank]

Limited and repetitive. Limited and repetitive.

And calm.

"I swim thirty laps every day. It, it helps me be my best."

His best at what?