Application: Vesper Lynd, Casino Royale (2006)

[contra_account]

A wet, bedraggled body lay in a pool of salt water, a blood-red dress clinging to its curves. Presently the water seeped into the stone floor of the Sorting Room as if drawn in by suction, and a newly dry Vesper Lynd sat up with a series of convulsive, gasping coughs.

Once those subsided, she smoothed the skirt of her dress, once again its original

Comments

[papayagami]

"I understand. About not liking salt anymore. I feel the same about apples."

[contra_account]

Vesper smiled and raised an eyebrow. "Funny that, you don't look very much like Snow White to me. Still, I'm glad you take my meaning."

[papayagami]

Soichiro coughed, trying to choke back a laugh. "It's a long story. But yours is likely one as well."

[contra_account]

"Oh yes, it is. Be it ever so Grimm," she quipped. "I am right, aren't I, that I'm not in Venice anymore?"

[arrogantmage]

Lezard Valeth glided into the Sorting Room -- his toes a good twelve inches above the stone floor. His first reaction, as always, was disappointment: the new arrival was not the person he had hoped.

That was not to say she lacked her own charms.

"Whoever told you of your beauty did not lie," he said gallantly, with a bow. Bowing while levitating took some practice! And he had practiced just such gestures for hours on end! "Welcome, my lady, to Hogwarts."

Then, just because he could, out of the aether he produced a bouquet of roses the exact color of her dress.

[contra_account]

Vesper's eyebrows rose in surprise - both at the roses and the levitation. Still, good manners seldom failed to help in any situation, however startling.

"I thank you, kind sir," she said with a sketchy bow of her own, and held out a hand to accept the roses. "May I ask, what is this Hogwarts, and however did I get here?"

[arrogantmage]

She took the roses! Score!

Lezard alighted gently on the ground. She had asked him for information, which was even better. Lezard enjoyed nothing so much as the opportunity to show off his knowledge (case in point). "I can tell you what Hogwarts claims to be, certainly. It's ostensibly a school of wizardry. In practice, no one studies, and the students exhibit what I would not call much talent to begin with."

[contra_account]

"So, rather like the House of Lords, then," she said drily. "It's certainly not where I expected to end up, either case."

[blond_bondshell]

Nobody here knew either of them well enough to expect a reaction from Bond. If anyone was, though, they would be in for a disappointment.

James stood away from her, examining Vesper from a distance. His face was set in a stony mask, nothing given away by his lips or his eyes. Satisfied that she passed a physical resemblance, he stepped forward and read her application. The details seemed in order.

"What is the cocktail recipe?" he demanded. His voice was sharp and cold. Behind the mask there was something almost like hatred in his eyes, but only Vesper would see it.

[contra_account]

"James." She paled, and flinched ever so slightly, as she breathed the word.

She was unable to stop the next question from tumbling past her lips: "Did you get my present? I left you a present. On my 'phone. Did you get it?"

[blond_bondshell]

"I did." He almost flinched, almost, because she had left that for him, left it before she had ever walked out the door on the day she knew she was going to die.

What saved him was the knowledge that he'd told M, who probably put it in a report somewhere, where it had circulated through secretaries and file clerks before coming to rest in God knows where in the bowels of MI6. Vesper wasn't telling him anything that at least four or five other people also knew.

"What is the cocktail recipe?" he repeated.

[contra_account]

"Did it help?" she blurted, then shook her head. "Three measures Gordon's, one measure vodka, a half-measure Kina Lillet, shake well on ice, serve with a thin slice of lemon peel. Hold the poison, if you please."

[mayhem_george]

"Evil?" George pasted an expression of wounded innocence on his face. "How can you say that about someone you don't even know? I'll have you know, I'm the good twin." He pulled a bag of candy from the pockets of his robes. "Care for a snack while you wait to be sorted?" he asked. "It's Weasley's Wizard Wheezes Halloween blend. If we did it correctly, your hair will turn orange. If we bungled it up, you'll turn into a pumpkin, but you'll get better."

[contra_account]

Vesper grinned. "Ah. Fred and/or George of the Gryffindor question, I take it? No, I meant you'd be the protect-ee. From the forces of evil that are always Out There Somewhere." She eyed the bag suspiciously. "I'll pass, thanks. Some plain water would be nice, though, if I could get some?"

[mayhem_george]

"I should have known finding people to test out our products in the Sorting room wasn't a good idea," George said with a theatrical sigh. "Oh, well. 'Course I'll get you some water." She was hot. What else was he going to do?

As soon as the water was procured and handed over, he offered a hand. "George Weasley. Fred's my twin brother, but even our mum can't tell us apart, which is a shame, really, considering she gave birth to us. At any rate, I'm the better-looking one, if that clears anything up for you."

[contra_account]

"Quite. Vesper Lynd. Pleasure." She shook George's hand and took the water. After a long sip, she said, "Is there much of a market for food that turns you into other foods, hereabouts?"

[doctor_hook]

"Hej. Need a doctor? Because I am one."

Incredibly, this was not a proposition, it was Hook's version of offering medical assistance outside the confines of a hospital.

[contra_account]

"Good to know, Doctor," she replied, and patted down her dress. "Remarkably, no, I don't seem to need one. Had you checked with me ten minutes ago...well, then you'd have been underwater too, I suppose."

[doctor_hook]

"One of the dead ones, eh? I was an incomplete zombie, myself. I never rose from the dead to eat anyone's brains." Leave it to Stig Helmer to botch a zombification. Helmer botched every other operation he did, so that was par for the course. "Instead I ended up here. I'm Jørgen Krogshøj, for what it's worth. Everyone calls me Hook, whether they're my friend or not." The tall Dane laced his fingers together and flexed them, stopping just short of cracking the knuckles (awful sound, that would make). "You know, I think I should stop telling people that. It'd be interesting to hear them try to say Krogshøj." Not easy for a non-native speaker of Danish to pronounce well. They'd sound a bit silly even if they managed it; they'd overcorrect.

[contra_account]

"Ahh, so you're a vegetarian zombie? I rather imagine you're forever having to explain yourself when the other zombies offer you some brains to be polite." She grinned. "Did you have a specialty? As a doctor?"