| Date: 11 January 2008
Characters: Jamie Tyler, Methos Location: hotel lobby Link to IJ: thread #31051 |
 Jamie walked through the door announcing, "No, seriously, Jack, I just don't kno-" he cut himself off as he didn't walk into the hub, walking into the foyer of a hotel. "-know where I am at all." He finished, confused as hell. "What the hell?" |
 Methos decided that he was just going to stop trying to answer that question when he heard it. In fact, at the moment, he was tempted to camp out in the nice quiet space he'd found on the far side of the lake, except for the lack of things like hot showers and mediocre beer."Welcome to the shared nightmare." Methos watched the young man a moment. "They have a half-decent beer in the hotel bar, if you're interested." Right now, he needed one. He'd managed to avoid too many people for a week, now he'd run into two new arrivals in less than twenty-four hours. This was not his idea of a good week. |
| "Not much of a drinker. I don't have nightmares. What's going on?" Jamie asked curiously. |
| "I don't know." Methos shrugged, shoving his hands into the pockets of his coat. "I woke up here a week ago when I should have been in Bucharest, and I haven't found a way out." Methos squinted a moment, looking into the middle distance before looking back at him. "Most of this is just science-fiction to me. And pop-culture." |
| "..Beg pardon?" he stared, confusedly. "What, like boybands and Star Wars?" |
| Methos chuckled. "Like it all being a TV show." He nodded towards the hotel bar. "Even if you're not one for drinking, I'd like a beer, and they have other drinks, not all of which contain alcohol." He paused, before adding, with a hint of a smile, "I'm Adam Pierson, by the way. What's your name?" |
| "I can do a glass of water," he nodded, "I'm Jimmy Harper." He grinned, suddenly, "You know if you're going to give me a fake name, you probably shouldn't mention sci-fi right before doing it. " |
| Methos's smile faded. "I've been Adam Pierson for over twenty years. I'd like to keep the name a bit longer, thank you." He wasn't about to share his real name, not yet. "Even if it's all sci-fi, from what I've gathered, it's possible others from my reality could end up here, and I'd like for them not to know I'm here until I can't avoid them." |
| Jamie rolled his eyes, "Why would I tell?" |
| "Call it old habits, and survival instinct." Methos grimaced, knowing that certain of his friends called it paranoia, but it had kept him alive this long. He still didn't offer his name, though he was beginning to wonder how the young man had ferreted out the lie in the first place. He had become fairly damned good at lying over the centuries, though perhaps he was slipping lately, with MacLeod and Joe for friends. |
| "5000 years so you must be doing something right," Jamie shrugged, "Though I can't say that I'd like to live that long, though." He started walking towards the bar. |
| Methos froze, staring after Jimmy for a moment, before moving very rapidly after him, barely leashing the instinct to get rid of a threat to his safety. "Who told you I'm that old?" He kept his tone mild and light. "And are you sure they're telling the truth?" |
| "Oh relax," he rolled his eyes, "I'm not going to tell anyone." |
| "I'm more curious as to how you came by that information, because it means someone told, and I like to know who I can't trust as much as I thought I could." Methos wasn't going to relax until he knew how Jimmy had found out that information. If Jimmy was his real name, which Methos wasn't sure he could trust at this point. Even if that was his deeply-ingrained paranoia talking. |
| "...Wait, were you being serious?" Jamie frowned at him. |
| "About what?" Methos held the younger man's gaze. "Not being found? Deadly." He liked staying alive, really. And he prefered not having to kill to maintain that status, but he had few regrets about doing so when it proved necessary. |
| "About really being Methos," he said immediately. |
| Methos gave him a cold smile. "Who told you that name?" |
| "...TV." he said slowly. |
| Methos froze, and then let out a sigh, grinning sheepishly. "TV." Irony of ironies, that he ends up waking up in what resembles the bit of twentieth century pop-culture he actually enjoyed, and he runs into someone for whom he's just a piece of television sci-fi. "There's a show out there about me?" Now he was curious again, the paranoia back to creeping around the edges of his mind. Present, but not the overwhelming drive behind his actions and words. |
| "...Well. About Duncan," he said sheepishly. Because damn, how do you tell someone they're not only a tv character, they're a supporting character. |
| "MacLeod?" Methos snorted. "Bloody Highlander." He paused, taking in a deep breath, and turning the idea over in his mind for a long moment. "Maybe it's better him than me. Not much call for a show about a paranoid old man, I'd imagine." He gave Jimmy a half-smile. "Anything about Alysse on this show?" |
| "Who?" he asked blankly. |
| Methos smirked for a moment before shrugging. "No one important." No one important enough to make it into a show about his world. Which suited him just fine. "So, how much do you know about me?" He started moving towards the hotel bar again, wanting that beer more now, with his paranoia satisfied, and his curiosity whetted. |
| Jamie stepped into pace with him, "Why?" |
| "I'm curious." Methos shrugged. "And I like to know how many of my secrets are out there for someone to know, and how accurate the portrayal is." He slid a sideways look at Jimmy. "Byron?" That was one of his more recent, and less touchy secrets, that he'd been involved with the Immortal poet. That he'd taught Byron about being Immortal, and the Game. |
 "You talked him out of having sex with someone while drunk and he killed human musicians." Jamie said after a moment, trying to remember. |
| "Close, at least." Methos paused, thinking. "Morgan Walker." |
| He got squinchy eyed, "Crap I was at least one-oh wait, got it. You slept with his slave, he got tetchy and stalked you for 100 years and kidnapped Joe's daughter." |
| Methos grimaced. "That is unfortunately accurate." Now, what else would come up in connection with MacLeod... He sighed, shoving his hands into his pockets, his voice quiet as he spoke again. "Cassandra." |
| "I know who she is and what happened," he said, attempting to be mercifully vague. "And about the other three horsemen." |
| Methos twitched, hunching his shoulders and slouching. "How much?" he asked, his voice still quiet, but with an underlying harshness that betrayed just how little he really wanted to discuss that part of his past. But he had to know, had to know how much of that was laid bare to people he didn't even know. |
| "Enough," Jamie said bluntly, "Unless you want me to be deliberately cold." |
| "Ending a friendship before it starts." Methos leaned against the bar, taking the glass of beer the bartender set in front of him, regarding it for a moment before looking over at Jimmy again, a wistful smile crossing his face a moment. "Did they have Alexa on there?" He needed to remind himself that not everything was enemies and his past coming back to haunt him during those couple of years he'd had regular contact with MacLeod. |
| "You loved her very much." |
| "Didn't save her, in the end." Methos took a long sip of his beer, his attention turned inward for a moment, memories flashing through his mind. "She loved Egypt. And Athens." He took another sip of his beer, before returning his attention to Jimmy. "Enough about me. What about you?" |
| "What about me?" he asked curiously. |
| Methos smiled a moment, shrugging. "Where are you from?" It was the easiest question to start with. |
| "Wales," he said sweetly. |
| Not exactly very useful, but a start, and Methos did enjoy a bit of good research now and again. "Anywhere in particular?" |
| "Cardiff," he nodded, "I grew up there." Not that he looked more than 24 now. |
| "Cardiff. Not a place I like to stay too often." Methos grimaced. Once too often finding Alysse there, and getting dragged all over that ocean she adored. "Too close to the water." He took another drink from his glass, studying Jimmy. "You wouldn't happen to know the Doctor, would you?" Though he'd have to ask if it was through another TV show, or in the reality of wherever he came from if he did know the Doctor. |
| "The Doctor? There's only one?" he asked with a confused look. |
| Methos snorted. "There are doctors, and then there's the Doctor. Title character on a silly piece of sci-fi pop-culture that was rather interesting to watch." He smirked. "The historical episodes were amusing, particularly when they decided to follow a piece of history that I had lived through." |
| "Must have missed it," he said with a shrug. |
| "Must have." Methos watched the young man, turning questions over in his mind before he chose one to ask. "Who's this Jack you were expecting to be talking to as you walked through a door into this place?" |
| "My friend," he shrugged, grinning, "I was going to visit him- I just got home from a trip." Stay close to the truth and it sounds less like a lie. |
| Methos knew the tricks to lying, but at the moment, he wouldn't push too much. He was no stranger to wanting to keep secrets, and lying often to keep them just that. He was still curious about Jack, though, and he'd have to give the Doctor credit for that, mentioning the man was immortal. "Wouldn't happen to be someone named Jack Harkness, would it?" |
| "Harper," he shook his head. "Jack Harkness is that bloke from that show with the Doctor isn't he?" ...He was picking up context cues and running with them. |
| "I wouldn't know, he wasn't on the show before it was cancelled." Methos smirked slightly, turning to more fully face Jimmy. "Care to tell me the truth this time?" He actually knew there was some sort of revival of the show, but he hadn't cared to watch it, and had mostly ignored the news surrounding it. For all he knew, there was a character named Jack Harkness on the new Doctor Who, but as he said, he wouldn't actually know. |
| "Not really," Jamie offered with a tiny grin. |
| Methos shrugged. "Everyone has secrets," he offered, before finishing his beer off, and shoving away from the bar. "I was going to see what there is outside of town, if you want to come along." |
| Jamie eyed his water, then shrugged, "Are you planning on killing me and leaving me out there?" |
| "No." Methos shoved his hands into the pockets of his coat again, watching Jimmy. "Not unless you give me a reason to." |
| "I think I've given you all the reason I can so." |
| "Your choice, kid." Methos shrugged, heading for the door, still a little off-balance from the conversation, and not entirely sure what Jimmy had meant by the response he'd just given. It sounded like an incomplete thought, but... He shook his head, deliberately slouching a little as he headed out into the lobby. |
| Jimmy shrugged and followed. Hey. Exploring. Another world. Fantastic. |