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Post by Marigold Jadis on Apr 23, 2014 17:09:33 GMT
Marigold smirked. "I was always rather fond of the expression pick your poison. Would definitely choose knife tossing to insanity." Would something like that be enough to stop a desperate or depressed person from going crazy? She doubted it. But people were odd and could be fairly unpredictable. The littlest things could make the largest differences.
She chuckled. "What was it that made you strut the line between madness and sanity?" she asked, not certain of how serious to take him. People threw the word crazy around like it was no one's business. Most crazy people weren't born mad. Situations forced them into pitiable mental states. Her father hadn't started the way he was. She tried not to be bitter, tried not to blame him. It could be hard but pointing fingers wasn't helpful to anyone.
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Post by Guillermo Barrera on Apr 23, 2014 19:46:59 GMT
No more identifying details. "My parents were, ehm, not the best. Father drank, mother was addicted to cocaine until my father killed her, leaving me to the system." Guillermo also decided to make more of an effort to disguise his accent. If this woman truly was police, he didn't want to give the enemy ways to find him.
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Post by Marigold Jadis on Apr 24, 2014 0:29:18 GMT
Weird. All of a sudden the guy's accent was different, almost forced. Now why would he bother with that? Did he have something to hide? Or was he merely ashamed of sounding non-American? No...Likely if it was the latter, the change would have happened before now. But what was he trying to hide? It wasn't like he'd acted overly suspicious or anything. So he had some skill. People had weird talents.
She conspiratorially raised her coffee mug. "Father drank, did drugs, and gambled. Mom hit the hills. Me and the twins technically had a Father but in name only. Still, I wasn't sure if the system would be any better." Somehow she really doubted it so she'd coped on her own and never sought help.
Marigold wondered if his story was truthful. He said it all so carelessly well minus the accent adjustment. Either he'd come to terms with it long ago or he was detached because the story didn't actually belong to him.
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Post by Guillermo Barrera on Apr 24, 2014 1:49:09 GMT
"A fellow of troubled background." Guillermo replied. "More in common than might have met the eye at first." His American accent needed work, but it sounded passable to him. He had no clue if it actually sounded right, especially since he'd been speaking with his Portuguese accent just a minute before. He wondered if he was arousing suspicion. He had to be; no one speaks with a foreign accent then suddenly changes accents mid-conversation.
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Post by Marigold Jadis on Apr 24, 2014 2:21:01 GMT
Marigold smirked. "Troubled background, such an interesting phrase. When people say troubled background what they usually mean is troubled person. They're just typically not bold enough to own up to it. I, however, don't consider myself troubled. I just think I have a clearer perception of this funny thing people call reality." She was still trying to puzzle out why he'd bothered to change his accent mid conversation. What made him so uncomfortable that he felt the need to adjust the way he spoke? That was definitely odd behavior.
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Post by Guillermo Barrera on Apr 24, 2014 2:23:17 GMT
"Tough times at a young age do that to people. I don't believe I caught your name?" Guillermo immediately began cycling through aliases in his head. No identifying information. He'd given her too much already.
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Post by Marigold Jadis on Apr 24, 2014 2:32:34 GMT
"Marigold Jadis." She didn't feel the need to lie. She didn't particularly enjoy baring her father's name but there was nothing for it. At least it was an appealing sounding name she supposed. When she was a child and had a stable home, she had thought the name was quite pretty.
"What about you?" she asked. "What's your name and do you consider yourself troubled?" she questioned with a smirk.
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Post by Guillermo Barrera on Apr 24, 2014 2:34:38 GMT
"Alex Swann. I don't consider myself troubled, but others might. Some people view such skill with a knife as a surefire sign." Guillermo replied. He needed to remember that name; he was Alex Swann now, and if he slipped, he might as well turn himself in.
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Post by Marigold Jadis on Apr 24, 2014 2:43:37 GMT
Alex Swan? Not Hispanic sounding. But he might have changed his name when he moved here to blend in better. But Swann...? "Alex short for something?" Devil was in the details. If you lied you needed to be descriptive enough. But then later it was difficult to remember exactly all that was said. Alex could be an abbreviation for several things.
Marigold shrugged at his knife comment. "People need hobbies. Twirling a knife in your spare time doesn't make you a serial killer." Of course it didn't make you not one either. At this point in time pretty much everyone was a potential suspect. Police force knew practically squat at the moment.
She chuckled. "I need to find myself a hobby. But then I'd need to find the time first."
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Post by Guillermo Barrera on Apr 24, 2014 2:46:52 GMT
"Alexander. Named for the conquering general, though I haven't done much conquering." He considered his kills conquests in this sense he supposed, but he didn't need to get into that. "You know how people can be with their preconceptions. People already naturally distrust me because my father was Hispanic. Don't need to give them any more."
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Post by Marigold Jadis on Apr 24, 2014 3:02:55 GMT
"A strong name." Marigold had always admired Alexander the Great. But she wasn't entirely certain Alexander was his real name. It wasn't Hispanic. And she could have imagined it but she thought there was a pause, just a fraction of a second before he gave his answer. People knew their names and most spat them out immediately.
She raised her cup towards him before taking another repugnant sip of burned coffee. "I have nothing against Hispanics. And I for one find your knife twirling quite impressive. Where was your father from? Were you born in the states?" Unlikely. Not with that accent.
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Post by Guillermo Barrera on Apr 24, 2014 3:06:54 GMT
"My father was Brazilian. My mother was American. I split my time between Brazil and America as a child, staying with grandparents." Guillermo was on a roll, inventing quite the rich backstory for this Alexander Swann character. He could feel she still wasn't quite convinced, but she didn't need to be.
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Post by Marigold Jadis on Apr 24, 2014 3:13:35 GMT
Bullshit. If his time was split between Brazil and America as a child then he wouldn't have an accent like he did. Children were very adaptable and picked up accents as well as languages much faster than their adult counterparts. Now she was convinced he was lying. And if his Father was Hispanic she would have expected him to have a more Hispanic sounding name at least in terms of his surname.
And he hadn't mentioned anything about grandparents earlier, just being stuck with the system.
"How were your grandparents?"
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Post by Guillermo Barrera on Apr 24, 2014 3:16:38 GMT
"They were certainly better than my parents at raising a child. They were quite old, and unfit to care for me by the time I went into the system, unfortunately, but they did the best they could." Shitshitshitshitshitshit. This wasn't good. He needed to fix these contradictions before she got too suspicious.
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Post by Marigold Jadis on Apr 24, 2014 3:24:30 GMT
Better than his parents but suddenly unfit to care for him? He sounded like he was making this up as he went along. Old people typically didn't deteriorate that quickly, it was a fairly slow and steady process in most cases. If they were fit to care for him early on then there shouldn't have been that much trouble later. And for both of them to be incapable of caring for him...Warning bells were going off in Marigold's head. Why would a complete stranger find the need to lie about his past?
She was really confident that at the very least his time hadn't been split between Brazil and America. His story about grandparents would have made more sense if he said they died and then the system happened. But it was like he'd entirely forgotten about that part until just now.
"Father killed her, leaving me to the system". That's what he said early. There had been no mention of his grandparents whatsoever. But given this new version the father was imprisoned first.
"It must have been so terrible for your grandparents to learn what their son did or what happened to their daughter," she commented, pretending not to notice the discrepancies.
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