[closed]

[wrackful]

CHARACTERS: John Murphy and The Darkling
WHERE: Bellamy's room, The Bearings
WHEN: DAY :033
SUMMARY: Murphy searches through Bellamy's book collection while he's out, The Darkling catches him at it
WARNINGS: TBA

[Murphy has no interest in spending more time with Bellamy than he needs to. He knows in theory that distance shouldn't make a hell of a lot of difference to the thing they've all got jammed in their heads now, but seeing Bellamy the first day he'd arrived had been... messy. Staying away is the best way he knows how to stop that happening again, and besides, he has nothing he wants to say to him anyway.

Until the idea of the books comes to him. But asking is still considered and dismissed within a moment. He doesn't need to. Bellamy doesn't lock his door.

Murphy leaves it open a crack behind him, cautious about doors closing on him against his will, maybe not overly concerned about keeping his presence hidden. He certainly isn't being careful with the books, the previously neat stacks on the desk already half rifled through, pushed into disarray and disorganisation as Murphy goes through them.

Two have already fallen on the floor. He hasn't stopped to pick them up.]

Comments

[wrackful]

[Murphy recognises intimidation when it looms in a doorway at him, but he's spent too long around grounders to show fear in this kind of situation. He can hold his nerve, steel himself with caution even as his expression turns completely unimpressed. Felt it. That was invasive, irritating, and would make this guy something like Mara on Bellamy's side.]

Yeah, we go back. [Really, laid out on a timeline, he hadn't known Bellamy that long. But with everything they'd been through, it might as well have been a lifetime since the dropship hit the ground.] But that'd be between me and him.

[unsea]

[ A waiting game, then. Someone has to move first, and so, he makes it himself. Crossing into Bellamy's room in order to collect the fallen books that Bellamy had hunted down within a digital world. They're titles he doesn't recognize, to be honest. And they don't seem to be what Murphy was looking for.

He holds them at arms length, offering them to Murphy. ] I'll ask him, then: "Bellamy, what could Murphy possibly need from you?" Might narrow down the search, don't you think?

[ Easy as thinking it. ]

[wrackful]

[The urge to roll his eyes is difficult to stifle. He was going to pick the books up, eventually. They were paper. It wasn't like dropping on the floor would break them.]

Sure. [He says, taking the books, not breaking eye contact. Not flinching from the threat - and that's what it is, wrapped in the simple suggestion.] Knock yourself out.

[Bellamy won't know why he's in here, but if Murphy was concerned about his reaction to it, he'd have done more to cover up his presence. There's a touch of amusement, too, thinking of all the ways Bellamy could answer that question.]

[unsea]

[ That's a response that is plenty telling - far better than a back and forth questioning about motive and method. Murphy and Bellamy are old companions, and whatever is between them, it's not hostile. It defines Bellamy's reaction to seeing him, when the new hosts had arrived, that much better. Which means now he can just... """"playfully"" prod at Murphy's buttons. ]

-- if you were looking to get him a gift, old books would definitely be something to start with.

[ it's half-questioned, once more calculating and assumed, as he heads back to the door. ]

There's a shop, a few blocks from here. Sells old antiquities. He frequents it.

[wrackful]

[Incredulity is an immediate spike, followed quickly by bemusement. The idea of him getting a gift for Bellamy is hilarious, and he can't tell what kind of mental leaps this guy would've had to make to get there. He definitely hasn't actually asked Bellamy.]

Yeah, I'm really not.

[He drops the books back on the table, just as haphazard as the rest he's gone through. Bellamy's going to know someone was there, whether this guy contacted him or not.]

But maybe someone should tell him to stop wasting his time on useless crap.

[The rest of the room's bare. Murphy would be hypocritical to point that out specifically, but he's only been here a few days and Bellamy's frequenting antiquities shops, not stocking up on weapons, food. But then, maybe it wouldn't stand out as seriously weird to anyone not from their world.]