dramadramaduck | [accidental video

Entry tags:

michael westen

[accidental video - "Lesser Evil"]

[The video shows a small room which, judging by the ship's wheel and dials at one end of it, is on a boat. On one side of the room, slumped against cabinets, is a man who looks to be in his early forties, dressed in a cheerfully striped shirt. He's bleeding from a wound to the chest- it looks to be a gunshot wound- and breathing with some difficulty.

On the other side, leaned up against the door and testing its handle, with a cell phone to his ear, is the man some people on the community might know as "Peter." He's looking a little different from the accountant he supposedly is- the suit he's wearing looks expensive, though he's without a tie. And he has a gun lying in front of him.]

"Carla?" [He is, evidently, talking to whoever is on the phone.]

[And by community magic, you can hear the other side of that conversation, if a little faintly. The speaker is a woman.]

"Bad day for a cruise, Michael. A very, very bad day."

"You think so?" [The man in the striped shirt pulls a cleaning rag from a shelf and presses it to his wound, trying to slow the bleeding. Michael has the door opened a sliver now, and is peering carefully through.] "And here I was hoping you came to see us off." [He closes the door.]

"I took the precaution of having the local marinas searched when I lost contact with Victor." [Michael has picked up the gun is moving along the room now to the windows, just barely parting the blinds to look through them.] "It seemed like a long shot, I hate to think my two favorite operatives might be making nasty little little plans together."

"Sorry to disappoint."

"Well not to spoil the fun-" [Carla's voice turns hard, as Michael moves back next to the door.] "but the boat's wired with C-4. I can't have you leaving before we have a chat."

"Greaaat. Come on board, let's talk." [For all the casual confidence in his voice, the look he gives the door is distinctly worried.]

"I'm fine here, thanks." [In the pause that follows, the very faint sound of a helicopter approaching can be heard.] "Michael." [Her tone is clipped now, strained.] "Management's on the way. They're going to want to know what happened here. Any story I have to tell them has to begin with Victor's dead body."

[Michael lifts the corner of the curtain on the door window as the sound of the helicopter grows louder.] "Afraid of what he might share about your history together?"

"It's not important." [She's beginning to sound a bit desperate.] "What's important is that this story needs a hero. It could be you. Kill him, or send him out and I'll do it." [Michael, looking distinctly troubled, retrieves the gun from the counter where he'd set it while looking through the window and sits back in the corner.] "If you leave me no other alternative there's always the C-4."

"Want to explain blowing up your entire team? It doesn't speak well for your management skills." [Michael seems to almost be teasing her, but a note of worry creeps in at the end.]

"Yeah, well I'd have to explain two dead bodies, you'd have to be one of them." [Michael seems to be fighting a bit to keep his breathing under control. The helicopter grows nearer still.] "Just end this, Michael. He's a killer. You know that."

[Michael looks directly at Victor, who is struggling against blood loss, as he replies.] "He's what you made him."

"Time is up, Michael!" [She is definitely desperate now, close to screaming.] "Finish him off or I will finish it for you!"

[There's the report of a gunshot, and a grunt from the woman. The phone call ends. After a few seconds, there's the sound of a gunfight. Michael sets his own gun down on the counter again to peer out the corner of the door window. The gunfire decreases for a few moments, then increases distinctly. The helicopter is extremely close, now.

Michael moves across the room, gun in hand, to sit next to Victor, helping to apply pressure to his wound. The sounds of gunshots and of the helicopter gradually cease.

Victor grimaces, and speaks through slightly clenched teeth.] "We gotta talk, big guy. You have to get out there-" [He almost gasps for breath.] "and get on top of this before her body cools." [Michael glances away, turns back to Victor. Victor gulps for another breath.] "Take the file." [Michael looks back to the table in the center of the room. There is a file on it. Michael's expression is serious, considering.] "Tell them when you found me, I turned on Carla." [A sniff.] "You lured her here, had your team take her out-" [Victor is gritting his teeth again.] "and then killed me."

[Michael turns back to Victor sharply, a questioning look on his face.] "...Killed you?"

[Victor shakes his head.] "It's over." [His breath hisses in past his teeth.] "The only question is-" [Sniff.] "whether you're the traitor who helped me-" [He swallows.] "or the ace operative who shot me."

[Michael's faint expression has come somewhere between confused and regretful. He looks down. Towards the window. Calculating, trying to think of another option. Victor is struggling still more to breathe.]

"Help me out. I'm dead one way or the other. They get me alive and they're going to take me apart." [Michael is looking in the opposite direction of Victor.] "You know it has to be like this!"

[Michael turns back to Victor, some deeply felt apology behind his face. Victor reaches out and guides the gun in Michael's hand to rest against his chest. Michael's face goes blank. For a moment Victor seems deeply afraid, but he pushes it away. He almost smiles.] "It was good playing with you, sport.

Get out. Get out while you can."

[They look at each other for a moment- Michael gravely expressionless, Victor intense. Then Michael pulls the trigger.

Victor stops laboring to breathe.

Michael opens his mouth, blinks, presses his lips together, turns away. He's fighting back tears. He spends a few moments collecting himself. Then, with that same grave expressionlessness, he turns back and closes Victor's eyes.

He leans back against the cabinets, holds the gun against his forehead. He struggles against tears again. But then he stands, walks over to the table, and picks up the file. He looks back at Victor's body. Then he puts on his sunglasses, and walks out the back door.

The video stays inside, but the sounds continue. A voice on a megaphone says...something as Michael leaves the room. Another few seconds pass, and Michael can be heard, with that casual confidence he had earlier.]

"Heeey, took you guys long enough."

((ooc: Regular text is Michael, bold is Carla, italic is Victor.
All replies will icly be dated somewhere between two and three days after the post, seeing as how Michael has to do things like jump out of a helicopter, swim five miles, get arrested, and be held in prison. It's a busy time of his life, alright.))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh, so you're a spy-type?

[It posted something. Of course it posted something, it's not like he already has enough to deal with.

What did the community see-]

[Oh.]

[Yeah he figured there wouldn't be any way to delete this.]

[He can't seem to find it through any kind of search, though. Apparently the community hides its entries from search engines and the like even to members. So at least the cops, Management, the CIA, the FBI, a whole bunch of Russians, some Afghanis, ...and a lot of other people shouldn't be able to make his life harder because of this.

Unless, of course, they're on or join the community.]

[At this point, it's probably best to give out a base of mostly truthful information and dodge from there.]

I used to be.

So, what are you doing now, other than pretending to be people you aren't and getting shot at a lot?

no subject

[days later] 1/idk yet

2/still not sure

3/wait for it

4/5

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no subject

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[Video]

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[Locked]

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video

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I GUESS MICHAEL COULD GET SOME HELP

BUT THAT COULD INVOLVE DEALING WITH HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS also, [text] [days later]

YOU CAN DO IT