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Post by Phobia/Pierce Fobster on Oct 31, 2012 19:11:34 GMT -5
OOC: Month 8, Week 2, Day 3. Hospital. Semi-private.
Pierce is lying in the hospital bed waiting for the results of his X-ray at the moment and calculating the cost of his stay in the hospital. As he was Pierce Fobster, the inner-city monk and workaholic with a stable source of income, he wasn’t particularly in any danger of financial problems. However, as he was Pierce Fobster, he was also borderline neurotic of any large expenditure of money.
That, and it more importantly, it kept his mind off of... things. Bad things. With the medication stopping him from blacking out every time he breathed, there just wasn’t a lot to do in a hospital other than worry. Increased chances of getting communicable diseases, mix up of medication, nothing to check if the hospital food was poisoned or not, open windows and doors that anyone can come through...
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Holi
Major
Captain Can-Do
Posts: 672
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Post by Holi on Nov 15, 2012 9:56:22 GMT -5
Anyone like a police detective. Fortunately, they didn't send one of the grizzled, hard-as-a-coffin-nail types to visit Pierce; they sent the wide-eyed, baby-faced, unassuming Stuart Hollister. Which was quite probably a counter-intuitive decision. He's been told he's almost too good to be true, too amiable and ready with the smiles. Makes him look more distrustful with certain types.
But Pierce Fobster isn't the sort of fellow Hollister usually confronts, either. Politely pausing on the hallway side of the threshold, Hollister adjusts his glasses and lightly raps on the doorframe.
"Mister Fobster?" he ventures at a perfectly social tone. "May I come in?"
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Post by Phobia/Pierce Fobster on Nov 15, 2012 16:50:30 GMT -5
“Ah,” Pierce says, blinking at the door. He can distantly feel the presence and it was no one he’d felt before. Possibly another nurse but nurses did not come into the room with an air of someone looking for information. Investigator or journalist? Too far away to tell at the moment.
He didn’t particularly want to deal with this. Ever, really, but not now especially since he was busy trying not to think about what had happened. However, as a person who rarely has his way with anything, Pierce very gingerly sighs, sucks it up, and utters an unhappy, “Come in?”
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Holi
Major
Captain Can-Do
Posts: 672
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Post by Holi on Nov 21, 2012 20:52:26 GMT -5
Well, Pierce could always have said he doesn't feel up to company and Hollister would have quietly stepped out to wait in the hallway, sitting there, patient and unobtrusive and just close enough to maintain a presence until he wore the patient down and was invited in anyway. At least he's a little better than the detectives in the department who'll stay right in the room playing casual nuisance?
"Ah, thank you," he says sincerely, stepping across the threshold. It may take him a moment or two to single Pierce out from the background buzz of the hospital, he thinks as a nurse passes the door closely enough for him to hear her silently wishing the old lady in the corner room down the hall would stop falling asleep on the call button remote so she could actually finish watching last night's Ballroom Celebrities on Youtube. "How are you feeling, Mister Fobster?" And he focuses as best he can – hopefully, it's good enough – listening for both answers.
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Post by Phobia/Pierce Fobster on Nov 21, 2012 21:43:47 GMT -5
Pierce knows for a fact that he won’t be left in peace. That was no problem. He could very well endure annoying cops and even Hollister’s polite, persistent presence with very little effort- he is a psychologist and an interrogator after all. But because he is both, he is also curious about what what information the investigator could provide. That and he is feeling somewhat fatalistic today.
Well, Hollister was pretty far removed from what Pierce expected but then Pierce was generally used to dealing with ‘terrifying’. Hollister could be terrifying still though. Maybe. There was an undercurrent of deception in the presence that has him quietly peering at the younger be-glassed man somewhat warily.
“I am doing surprisingly well,” Pierce answers softly. He is sore, nauseated and drugged, and possibly experiencing some severe if currently rather dampened emotional trauma. Hollister does not need to know that, however.
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Holi
Major
Captain Can-Do
Posts: 672
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Post by Holi on Nov 23, 2012 13:03:09 GMT -5
There's an undercurrent telling Hollister that Pierce is being painfully sarcastic. He sounds miserable, and the detective's whole-hearted good cheer gives way to sympathy. He's had days like that. He tamps down the impulse to commiserate, however, because what he hears and what Pierce tells him are different. He can't give himself away like that.
"Given what the reports tell me," he says instead, "I'd say you're doing great. I'm Detective Hollister, by the way, Detroit police." He holds out his right hand for a shake and waits long enough for Pierce to accept or refuse before he goes on, "Do you think you feel well enough to answer a few questions?"
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Post by Phobia/Pierce Fobster on Nov 23, 2012 19:32:16 GMT -5
Pierce visibly hesitates when the hand is offered. He feels far, far too raw to deal with touches right now, but not touching left him vulnerable to deception and a lapse in vigilance could very well cost him more than he has lost. After a moment of internal struggle, he delicately reaches out to return the shake.
"It... is nice to meet you," he begins and then kind of falters.
Hollister is kind of not terrifying at all.
"Uhm," he adds, somewhat at loss for words. "I... can answer questions, yes. Although you will have to forgive me if I fall asleep in the middle of it. The drugs have drowsiness as a side effect," Pierce continues hesitatingly.
"What do the reports say?" the man asks carefully.
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Holi
Major
Captain Can-Do
Posts: 672
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Post by Holi on Dec 13, 2012 21:16:28 GMT -5
"No, no, I understand," Hollister murmurs. "It's all right. Just let me know if it's getting to be a bit much." He can see it now: Worst Interrogator of the Year award. He also politely ignores that question about what's in the reports. He wants to see if Pierce's story slots in with what the cops already know, or if there are glaring differences they should investigate.
Hollister takes a bracing breath before he tries again to 'tune in' on Pierce and drown out the background noise. It isn't easy, and he does his best to keep his expression open and neutral. It actually sort of hurts.
"So," he ventures, "what can you tell me about the other day, when you were injured? Try to recall what you did that day from beginning to end, and please include as many details as you can, even if you think they don't matter."
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Post by Phobia/Pierce Fobster on Dec 15, 2012 21:05:36 GMT -5
Pierce notes the polite dismissal and accepts it with an air of tired acceptance. He’s not really up for mind games at the moment. The pain Holister radiates does not escape him however although he does not react to it.
“I woke up at six, got to work at seven,” Pierce begins. “Uneventful day, generally. Then the detectives came at late midday. I believe one of them went to the washroom. The other asked me about physical microfiches that our library stores. We were waiting for her partner to return when my...” here he begins to falter despite himself.
“... My... my boyfriend...” he desperately tries to form the words. It wasn’t his boyfriend who broke his rib. It wasn’t his boyfriend who’d looked at him like he was going to murder him. Not his boyfriend who fell into the river with a hole in his head. But Xavier was still dead, even if it was Rampage who was shot.
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Holi
Major
Captain Can-Do
Posts: 672
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Post by Holi on Dec 18, 2012 20:23:30 GMT -5
Lacking any powers of empathy, Hollister doesn't feel the emotions that come with the words and images flickering through the back of his mind. He sees a face, briefly; he doesn't know that face, but Pierce does – and yet doesn't. He picks up snippets of memory that tell him how wrong the face feels.
He hears the names. He's careful not to write much yet; Pierce hasn't said anything terribly substantive.
"Take as much time as you need," he murmurs, trying to be as reassuring as he possibly can. "Could you tell me the names of the detectives who visited you?" Maybe backtracking to something less distressing will help him settle down.
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Post by Phobia/Pierce Fobster on Dec 20, 2012 12:04:02 GMT -5
“I’m afraid I don’t know,” Pierce answers quietly after moment. “They never introduced themselves properly and I didn’t find out after the incident.” But he remembers the teal and the pink vividly, remembers the complete blackout of his empathic senses. He suspects he knows who that is, but without the confirmation of his senses, it was difficult to be sure.
The pale man peers curiously up at Hollister with a quizzical look. “I suspect you know?”
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Holi
Major
Captain Can-Do
Posts: 672
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Post by Holi on Jan 18, 2013 15:11:00 GMT -5
There's a momentary flash of bright colours – pink and teal – that Hollister recognises. He keeps that to himself, however, and carefully steers his look of surprise toward what Pierce said out loud. Now that he has a reason to write down something, he dutifully reports the unidentified detectives, estimated times, and in the margins, little scribbles of mashed-together kana that are supposed to be names.
"That sounds… odd," he murmurs without having to lie the least little bit. Detectives not identifying themselves is out of the ordinary.
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Post by Phobia/Pierce Fobster on Jan 20, 2013 9:30:24 GMT -5
“It is quite peculiar,” Pierce agrees. Of course, Decepticon investigators never needed to introduce themselves so it wasn’t quite that peculiar to Phobia. They just arrived and scared the living daylights out of everyone. “I didn’t think it would involve me further and I didn’t think to ask.”
After a pause, and because he simply could resist it, he adds; “I recall the red headed detective saying that their captain had sent them on this errand. Their department is not very efficient,” the pale complains to the detective. “All of the microfiches have been scanned and put online but apparently they need to send detectives all the way to the library to get them. I don’t understand. I organized those personally and they are much easier to navigate than the library’s traditional storage.” There might be a bit of a huff in there. Just a bit.
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Holi
Major
Captain Can-Do
Posts: 672
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Post by Holi on May 30, 2013 21:30:27 GMT -5
The confusion Hollister blasts out is genuine; it makes no sense to him whatsoever that detectives would be sent in person to pick up something that could be accessed online easily and at far less cost to the department than the man-hours and fuel cards. Unless there was some other reason to arrive in person – like investigating Mr. Fobster.
"I apologise for the inconvenience," he says sympathetically even though he had nothing to do with it himself. It's an automatic courtesy, innate to Hollister and unrelated to his job. "I can look into the matter for you if you'd like." Give and take, right? Others are more likely to do things for you if you make it sound as though they're doing you a favour. People love feeling like others owe them.
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Post by Phobia/Pierce Fobster on Jun 2, 2013 12:38:43 GMT -5
Frankly, Pierce doesn’t like the feeling of anyone owing him anything. Mostly because they either didn’t care, or they tried to find ways of wriggling out of the IOU later on anyways. The only thing Pierce wanted people to owe him were the library books and even that was mostly because it was part of his job to get books back.
“I suspect internal drama involving the detective or detectives and the Captain,” Pierce offers instead. He recalls the look on Petunia’s face as they’d talked. Scowling, he continues, “Nothing I need to know about. I am more concerned about what is happening presently. And... and why any of this happened.”
“... If it isn’t too much to ask, I’d also like to know what happened with. Well. The body?” Referring to Xavier obliquely seems to help somewhat, although Pierce’s voice still cracks despite his best efforts. “Have they found it?”
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