hadriel_logs | Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...

Entry tags:

whistler

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...

Who: Whistler + OTA
What: Whistler decides to voluntarily leave his apartment for once
Where: Around town
When: Now
Warnings: N/A. Will change if needed. Update: Warnings for some discussion of self-harm in Whistler and Julie thread.

It was odd. Generally the heat didn't bother Whistler much, not so long as he was inside anyway. But today it seemed to be getting to him. The skin of his back kept sticking just a little too much to the floor as he tried to work and his palms kept getting slick with sweat to a point where it made fiddling with small wires too frustrating.

But if he couldn't work there wasn't much he could be doing while he was holed up inside.

Which was how he ended up outside. Something that is normally only done out of dire necessity: when he needs groceries. But today he's giving it a very tentative chance. Mostly just to get himself moving. To feel something other than floorboards and stone walls.

If you look for him at his apartment you will only find a messily scribbled message jokingly saying 'Gone Fishing' (inspired by his conversation with a young man only the day before). But hey you should be impressed that it is legible at all given the circumstances. And he mostly figures no one is going to come looking for him.

But if they do he can be found in various locations:

Pools near the outside of town

Whistler has shrugged off his shirt and rolled up his pant legs so that he can lay with his legs in the water, back on the sand with his shirt over his face so as to protect his eyes. He's naturally tan so he's not overly worried about getting burned, but even so he's made sure to lay in a patch of shade. After all, tan or no tan, two suns is two suns.

Around the shops

Whistler can either be found shuffling along the town streets with his cane swinging in front of him or sitting on a bench picking at a berry muffin with his fingers and placing small bites of it almost delicately into his mouth. He's savoring it, thank you very much.

Wildcard

Want to bump into him in a shop? Maybe you catch sight of the blind man about to try on a horrific technicolor t-shirt? Or you see him in the park napping?

Choose your own adventure.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Pft!] God, you're so easy. C'mon.

[It's funny to her that he doesn't argue, that he just makes a face at her but bends entirely to her suggestion. Funny, but sweet, and she finds her step quite light as she walks away from the water, turning her head to make sure he's following.]

Hey, you want to get hold of my arm?

That's what they called me in college: Irwin 'Easy' Emery.

[The farthest from the truth, but he figures she could put that together for herself. He holds out a hand expectantly for her arm]

I don't think they called you that. [She snickers at him, backing up to loop his arm through hers.]

How'd you end up with a name like 'Whistler'?

Hey. You weren't there.

[He smirks, hooking his arm through hers.]

Mm. I'm gonna let you take a guess. How do you think I got the name?

Oh, come on, that's not fair.

[She nudges him lightly while they walk, keeping his arm tucked close to her side.] Uhhhmm... I don't think I've ever heard you actually whistle...

[Well let him treat you to a show right now then, he whistles a little ditty which is actually the Mickey Mouse Club tune but it devolves to quiet chuckles]

I don't know...I'm not sure if I should let my greatest secret out.

That's your greatest secret? Not the 'we discovered a universal black box codebreaker'? Ugh. I've been lied to.

[But she's grinning at him, watching the path ahead for the both of them while they walk.]

C'mon, tell me.

One man's trash is another man's treasure...one man's greatest secret is another man's....i dunno...not their greatest secret?

[It's gotten natural again. The feeling of walking together. Joking stupidly about things. He doesn't want that to change.]

It's, uh, it's how you hack phone lines. You gotta listen for different pitches and you gotta be able to recreate them to override the system. So you...well...you gotta whistle. So I guess it started as a job description. I was a whistler. Now...well...now I'm just Whistler.

[She makes an impressed sound, an 'oooh' of curiosity and interest.]

It's... It's weird thinking of you being a criminal. [Julie laughs. As weird as it is, she clearly doesn't mind it.]

You're so... I dunno. Unassuming, I guess? No one's gonna look at you and think god, yeah, that guy's a troublemaker. [A beat.] Unless they heard your jokes. Then they might change their mind.

[He snorts, the sound breathy and nasal. Hitting him below the belt, eh Julie?]

Well, I don't really think of myself as a criminal. But I guess that sort of worked to my advantage. No one is ever gunna suspect the blind guy, right? So I get to kind of slip under everyone's radar.

[A shrug]

But technically I'm legit now. Well...mostly. 'Cause of Bishop.

[There's been some recent problems, however... and technically the deal Bishop had made at the start of this whole mess had only guaranteed that his record would be cleared, not the rest of the team's.

So...maybe really he was just still a criminal.]

No one suspects the blind guy. That's so sneaky.

[A good point, though. Whistler's not exactly the kind of guy you'd expect to see in a criminal lineup, and definitely not the kind of guy she would have expected a criminal to be like.]

But, ah, I see. A 'mostly legit' phone hacker. Mmmmhm.

[She's teasing, lightly baiting him to see how he'll react.]

Well...more like 'phone hacker who now gets regular paychecks'.

[He hears that teasing. He's gunna skate right past it, k thanks]

It's not like Bishop is a miracle worker. He can't really get rid of my record. So 100% legitimacy is not ever gunna be in the cards for me.

Ooh, so serious. [Ignoring her teasing? How rude. She squeezes his arm against her side while they walk.]

I guess you don't need to worry too much about that while you're here.

Maybe the sun brings out the serious in me. You need to let me go back inside.

[He half grins before shrugging]

If I end up going to prison, I end up going to prison. S'not like I didn't know from the beginning that was an option.

You're not going back inside. [She huffs at him, knowing full well that he could easily head back indoors if he wanted to go that badly. Evidently, her company is the more attractive option, and she's glad of that.]

... I hope you don't end up going to prison.

[Part of him is tempted to point out that, depending on how that van crash went, the whole issue of prison might not even matter at this point, but he thinks better of it.]

If I went to prison I could be inside all the time

Pfh... Whistler, come on, that's not funny.

[It's a little funny. The slide from one name to another comes in the wake of company, albeit distant, in the form of other people milling about in the park.]

Besides, they'll make you go outside for exercise. I've seen the movies.

[The ease with which she transitions names in conversation makes him smile softly despite himself, but he makes no comment on it. That would defeat the purpose, now wouldn't it?]

I can exercise indoors. Just get me one of those pull up bar things you stick in the doorway.

[In fact he used to have one of those in the team headquarters. Mother used to use it as a party trick, getting people to bet that the blind man couldn't do a full pull up then watching with glee as Whistler proved them wrong by doing several in a row. And then, as per agreement, Whistler would get a cut of the proceeds. That or Mother would have to do that week's paperwork. But that last bit often annoyed Crease.]

Edited 2018-04-11 22:04 (UTC)

[That he doesn't want everyone knowing his real name has been something established from the very beginning of their friendship, and Julie has worked hard to place herself in the position of trust that she holds with this singularly reclusive person. There's no way she'd want to ruin that.

She looks up at him, making a face she's sure he can feel even if he can't see it. Her lips purse, then she shrugs.]

Yeah, okay. I've seen you without your shirt on. I can believe you can use one of those.

[His grin turns bashful despite the fact that he was the one who brought up the subject. Perhaps he just didn't expect her to actually confirm his statement.

Shyly he clears his throat, trying a little less than successfully to act cool]

Well, being this pretty doesn't just happen naturally, Jules.

Oh, yeah, I could see you've worked really hard at it. [She hums out nonchalantly, her grin wrapped audibly around her words while she speaks.]

Could bounce a quarter off those abs.

Edited (ugh wrong icon) 2018-04-11 22:20 (UTC)

[If life were like Looney Tunes cartoons, Whistler's face would be bright red with steam coming out of his ears from his embarrassment. It's not as though the team back home had never had a chuckle about the fact that Whistler was secretly athletic, and it's also not as though he's never had a lady make a comment on it...but...this is different.

He can't exactly put his finger on why. But it is. Maybe because he takes Julie's words with more weight than he does 99% of people. Maybe because he normally never lets people see him the way she's seen him. Or maybe all of the above.

In a desperate bid to turn this around, he bumps into her lightly]

Well maybe I'll let you try it sometime.

[His reaction provokes an instant, gleeful laugh from the young woman and she gently hangs off his arm as they walk.]

I can't believe you just said that to me. [She tells him bluntly, with no small amount of good humour.] Mister Emery.

[He burst into a fit of embarrassed laughing, trying to say something but then being too overcome to manage any actual words. Its the kind of laugh that curls his nostrils and forms deep dimples in his cheeks, eyes screwed shut and shoulders shaking.

Finally he manages to catch a steady breath and he wheezes]

Oh god don't call me that. You make me feel like a dirty old man.

[While he's laughing she stops walking, only provoked into further giggles by his response. By the time he's calmed down enough that she can stop grinning, her cheeks almost ache from smiling.]

Can't have that. [She chortles out. It's good to see him laugh like that.]

I think you're supposed to say something like 'Mister Emery was my father'.

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