entrancelogs | [Open] I'm a professional thief

Entry tags:

[Open] I'm a professional thief

Who: Seth and Anyone
Where: Here, there, a bit of everywhere.
When: during the event
Rating: PG unless otherwise stated
Summary: Seth's taking advantage of all that's at their fingertips.
The Story:

[FLYING CARS, DAMMIT!]

Let's be honest, the moment Seth saw that there were flying cars, he knew what the first thing he was going to do was. Sure he had what passed for money in this place, and he had a lot of options that meant he could just get himself a car and enjoy it for as long as he wanted.

Yeah, that wasn't nearly as entertaining as seeing if he could obtain a car. In the end, Seth Gecko was a thief and damned if being in Wonderland where the closet pretty much gave you what you wanted hadn't made him complacent even in a short time. It was time to ensure that having the things he wanted in the world - people and wardrobe and everything else combined - hadn't destroyed his skills.

So he is likely to toy with a few of them, working on finding those that are easy to open, trying to figure out the dynamics enough to hot wire the car. In the end he finds one left running though, and that is what he borrows for a while. Definitely flying like he drives, fast, controlled, dangerous. There's times he'll stop, maybe try another one he might find. Easy to find when he's not showing off.

[FUN BEFORE BUSINESS]

When he's not driving, or working on the heist that had become the best part of this event Wonderland had dropped them in, Seth is just doing what he can to have fun. Trying various alien liquors, enjoying some, avoiding others, assured some of them were going to eventually leave him under the table.

There's dancing in there, mostly from the alcohol and he's enjoying himself. Some time spent in the arena, finding it a good practice as well as entertaining with the laser tag with others and against the "house". Even the arcade gets hit up, for reasons that are all about him just enjoying himself and totally not trying to win a prize for Kate or anything. It didn't make up for all he'd done to her, but he believed in their life here, Richie, Seth and Kate. The people she wanted in his life.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Don't think so." Richie. Kate. Pretty standard names, but at least he can say that he watched their brother and/or friend steal a future car. For whatever that's worth.

Does he get bored? Well, sure, who wouldn't? But whatever he did back home, it wasn't nearly as exciting as whatever you call this. It was existing. Surviving. It was holding a mind-numbingly boring job, returning to an empty apartment, and walking an extra mile just to avoid the street that hosted a cheap motel that looked a little bit too much like one of the dozens he and Jay holed up in during their - exploits.

"Back home? Didn't really have much to go back to, I guess." One shoulder hitches up in a vague shrug. "Unless you're patriotic for Alabama."

Neither of them are likely to be surprised, though Seth might get shit for it.

Turning the car, moving around another car, considering. "Wonder if we can get near the docks and see outside. I walked down that way and it was stunning seeing the sky beyond."

So he moves the car that way, though he is driving a bit more sedate than it was before.

"Alabama? Uhmmm, no. Not that I'm patriotic for much," he admits, glancing at the other guy. "I feel the same. Everything I'd want back home is here, though I could use something to focus on. My brother and I are working on that."

"Yeah, don't ever go there," he counters dryly. "Not unless you've gotta thing for drunk rednecks with shotguns and pick-up trucks." Though if he can say one thing, he can give Alabama this much: it made his and Jay's job a hell of a lot easier when it came to sneaking around on private property. Pretty much everyone else was doing the same, the primary difference being that he and Jay were unfortunate and stupid enough to do it sober.

"People tend to make their own fun. I guess." Like by stealing future cars, for example. And then...do they even have traffic laws here? Should he be worried?

Fine time to start worrying.

"See, you're just selling it right there," he teases, because that definitely had him not wanting to go anywhere near that. "Spent a lot of time in Texas, and more recently down in Mexico. No plans to be near Alabama." Though the way life is going back in his world, who knew where he might end up.

"That's all we can do," he points out. "What else is there in life? You're going to die anyway, so might as well make the best of it until you do."

Which he also knows isn't entirely true. Not anymore. People die and they come back, but he's not letting that shape his life even if it's changed it entirely.

Ha. You're gonna die anyway, and there's no real point in bothering, right? Make the best of life in the meantime. Or just...sit and wait quietly for your life to roll to an end, so you hurt as few people as possible in the long-term, and don't leave ripples of your influence behind.

Not gonna be his luck, here. He can't even just wait it out; no one ages in Wonderland.

"Not so much now. Guess we've got limitless time to...drive tanks and hijack future cars in space."

Yeah, that's what Seth believed until recently. Now he was caught between death and Culebra turning and it almost made him wish for the days of just knowing death loomed on the horizon. Which was part of why he was the sort that seemed to embrace their life in Wonderland.

"And supposedly the ability to come back from the dead when we do it," he adds. "Not that I plan to toy with that little supposed perk but so I've been told."

"Yeah, I'd rather not try that first-hand. Dying doesn't really look like my kind of recreational activity."

Well, that's a lie. Maybe dying is unpleasant, but after that comes a sense of release, undeniably. That's got to be better than...whatever he's doing here and now. Putting things off. Pretending he can exist in a semi-normal, semi-permanent space and not end up damaging people irrevocably in the process.

Jay. Max. Zacharie. They're just the latest in the long string of names on his conscience.

"You'd be surprised people I've met that just jumped right in with both feet." Shaking his head thinking about it, knowing that one day he might do it, but not Wonderland style.

He just didn't want to be one of those people making that leap. Not intentionally. Not if he ever had a say in it.

"You ever wonder how they do it?" Glancing sidelong once more, but mostly keeping his eyes on the traffic. "Bring the dead back? You think they're ever really dead?"

Sorry, Kid, but Seth's been wanting to ask people about this without Kate or Richie hearing him and worrying what he had on his mind.

He wonders a little too much, truth be told. More than is likely healthy for someone like him. More than any doctor of his would recommend back home. But he's not back home. He's away from all of it and, paradoxically, closer to it than he's ever been.

"You'd have to ask someone who's actually kicked it." Like, say...Alex. When he was here. Almost immediately, his gaze slides sideways, staring out the window. "But from what I can tell? I think that maybe it's just...like, your body's the thing that dies. You just kinda stick around for a day or two, maybe, until you get it back."

But that's just a theory. He wouldn't know much about it at all. Not in this context.

"See, you say it like that and it is definitely not shit I want anything to do with," he admits, banking the car at a much slower pace, bringing it to a landing level. "I know a couple who have, not here though, and they all think it's amazing. I'm not agreeing with that, but then I'll never find out," he adds, knowing he will do whatever he has to not to die before his time. Everything but stop risking his life, and not committing crimes.

"About as good a theory as any," he said, bringing the car to a stop, letting it idle. "Though where do they get the new body? Not that we know but it's definitely the things I don't want to find out."

Yeah, he's definitely thinking clones and not returned from the dead.

People who think dying is amazing? Well...hey, maybe that's not so outlandish, given Tim's own proclivities. Given what he wants, and what he should have gotten back home. What he should have now, but what Wonderland won't let him actually possess.

"Recreational dying. Yeah, I'm sure it's a great Olympic sport." The dry tone paints a fine layer over the longing he's unwilling, unable to vocalize. No point in it. No point in wishing. "Might just be the same body. Just...made nice and good as new again."

Talking about the logistics of dying! The way normal people do!

Course they come back as vampires, but for Seth they die and he is avoiding most of that but where it related to one person. And with the revolving door on death Wonderland has, who knew. Maybe some got off on it in this place as well.

"Yeah, see, that's the part I find hard to swallow." Violent death. Days later just as good as new. Sounded too much like what culebra venom could do to a person.

"I think too many just rush into accepting death in this place, that isn't this place but you know what I mean." From the man that has just been driving like a maniac.

"Yeah," says Tim, wryly, eyeing Seth from beneath lowered brows. "Can't imagine how that's like. Rushing into accepting death in, like, a flying car they don't know how to drive or something. Weird, right?"

For all of his sarcastic drawl, Tim's commentary is utterly devoid of genuine vitriol. Since when does he have a leg to stand on as far as judgment goes, right? Not his fight to pick.

Seth is smirking when he turns, looking at the other man full on. Actually silent a moment, just staring at him. "Now now. have I gotten you killed?"

He doesn't say yet. Of course, he's not even thinking yet, right?

"I've rushed headlong into a lot, but I haven't died yet. No plans on it either."

"If you do get me killed, I'm gonna be pretty upset," says Tim, though it's considerably more amiable than one might expect. "Outta all the ways I thought I'd go, flying car crash is not up on the list."

Rushing headlong into anything is pretty much a Grade A way of getting killed and worse. Just ask Jay, for fuck's sake. But if he's talking to an expert in rushing headlong into things and miraculously not getting killed, then he won't complain. He's liable to be better at it than Tim or Jay ever were.

"If I ever get you killed, you have every right to punch me and I won't swing back," he says, because that's the proper answer to that, right? "Though I'm curious now the ways you did think you'd go."

A few months ago Seth would have counted on bullet by cop, or on a beach as he swears by, but lately it's been a lot worse.

"You always play it safe?" He'd accepted a ride from Seth so he's not sure if it's just him or how Tim is all the time.

That might've been a lot funnier if almost every item on that proverbial list wasn't just straight not being able to deal with it anymore. A shaving razor, a fistful of medication, just plain not getting out of the way fast enough - yeah, that's just about how he figured it'd go.

Too bad that wasn't in the great cosmic plan. Or whatever the polar, hellish opposite of that is.

"Not really. Kinda impossible, around here." Artfully avoiding that question of so how did you think you'd be dying, Tim? 'cause who wants to hear about that, really?

That was definitely a direction Seth had considered. He's done a lot of dangerous and reckless things, but he has never outright thought to end his life. Now more than ever working to avoid that.

"You weren't always here," he pointed out. "I know before this place, I still took those chances. Though you're right. Wonderland is all chances and death. Except this place."

Which he shouldn't say. For all he knew others were getting killed as they spoke.

"Wasn't really a risk-taker back home either. I dunno." And that's a lie, pretty outright. He's always been a liar. Call it a talent of his, or maybe just an unfortunate compulsion. Either way, the safety of the status quo, once Jay thoroughly upended it, was never going to keep him in an agreeable position for very long.

"Guess there just wasn't really anything worth risking things for."

Anything or anyone, up until a stupid cameraman blundered into his life and reawakened a mess of old memories that should've stayed dead.

"Sounds like you needed a place like this then," Seth says, though there's a laugh and a snort that dismisses that. "Not that I think kidnapping people, or wormholes, or whatever Wonderland actually is is that good for people."

Except he didn't know if he wanted to leave, though he hadn't been there long enough for the events to start to wear down on him.

"Except the events I've dealt with, it's a vacation I know I'm going to get bored of quick."

"No student loans. No economy to crash. Free food and healthcare. What's not to like, right?"

It's like prison, but better, because it pretends not to be a prison. Which isn't necessarily the way you wanna go, but it probably beats wasting your days away in an actual prison. Like Seth said; a vacation.

"So, what? The events are just around to shake things up and make sure we don't get bored?"

"Yeah, I lived that life for four years. Believe me, eventually there's things not to like." Because Seth knows for fact that how Tim describes things is exactly like prison. "I'm making the most of it, but I know how it can get."

People got stir crazy, and he suspects that eventually he'll be one of them.

"Don't know. I haven't been here long enough to figure it out. I just get from others they come every few weeks, you can't avoid them, and they will destroy you if you let them. Again, kind of keeping with the prison theme they've got going."

It's a nice set-up, but even the nicest set-ups have something wrong with them. And even if they don't, eventually they will. Wonderland's shown enough of its hand to prove that such is pretty fucking obviously the case, like it or not. Inevitable, really.

"Still waiting for the other shoe to drop during this one, to be honest." He opens a hand to gesture at the other hovering cars, which are pretty innocuous as far as flying cars go, but haven't made any movements to kill or maim or destroy them, or worse. "This whole space station thing is way too nice to start with."

"Well that we definitely agree on."

Seth could get stories from so many people in Wonderland but he isn't sure he trusts it won't just keep getting worse, definitely getting worse and worse as things went on. How could he believe otherwise?

"All the events are bad," he says, sighing. "That's what my brother told me. It's awful and people die. So what's this? Why this?" He glances at Tim. "I think you have it right. Why this and what's coming."

"If it's meant to be a breather, place has done a good job making sure we don't treat it like one." Conditioned them to fear events, right and proper. No avoiding it, even if the event itself turns out to be generally harmless.

"Who knows? Maybe the place runs off paranoia."

In which case, that'd explain why it bothered to drag him and Jay here. They can probably supply an entire mansion's worth of paranoia in the span of a couple days.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

cw suicide reference lol

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject