infomodder | IC contact [Mask or Menace]

[ and agreeably, stiles switches to video. he's in his pjs, and he looks kind of tired, but that might be more because he's just woken up. his hair is a mess, but he's not visibly injured in any way. ]

Hey.

[ he waves at the screen. ]

Is this okay or do you wanna meet up?

[Well, video for video is fair—above and beyond, this one. Will switches his on, too, slouched into a futon but wearing a name tag, the hair a mess in the way that he totally just took off a hat—another day at work, basically.]

This is fine, just doing some bookkeeping. [Being the boss means he can do that on the futon. Being the boss? It's great.] I—should I ask why it took so long?

[Because asking questions like "are you okay?" is really not his thing.]

[ stiles is almost jealous: he dreams of working from home. he scratches at his chin, which is basically his I'm trying to work out how much of the truth I'm gonna tell gesture. ]

I got to go home for a while, actually. Live out a few exciting months back in California.

[Bookkeeping helps him look distracted, has him shuffling papers off his lap as he settles into talk, tangible reason to not stare at Stiles directly. He notes every little thing, of course, but the more he can do that without it being obvious, the better.

Good thing he's working in a bait shop; the way his mouth opens and then shuts is reminiscent of a fish dumbly, mindlessly doing the same as it swims. He's not sure how one goes about this talk when there's no groundwork already laid—a survived gutting, a missing leg...]

Isn't it always exciting in California? [Perhaps a little State humor isn't far off the mark.] Earthquakes, wildfires, droughts, gold mining. [The way he says it, one might believe Will is old enough to have taken part in said gold mining.] You didn't just get back, did you?

[Because the serial killer father triangle talk can totally wait a day or two if Stiles is already compromised. If he's not, Will can just...alter it.]

Yesterday afternoon.

[ he shrugs, not quite apologetic. ]

I had a lot of messages.

[ and he'd sent out a bunch of texts letting people know yes, actually, he's still alive. and today had been making sure he still had a place at school and a part-time job. vanishing without notice for a week tends to put people out. ]

And, you know, I needed a day to recover after all that time in the mines.

[That seems to be the right answer, or close to right. Not much is right here. Will might be able to move from one hideous thing to another with little to no warning, but Will's also got plenty of years (he assumes Stiles is what he looks and not lying about that) and plenty of experience. He might need a hour to deal with this weird universe being slammed back in his face, but a kid? Probably more. That Stiles took the time he needed (or felt he needed) is noted away, though whether it's because of forethought or just him "finally" getting to it, well. He's not sure.]

Probably need to get checked for lung cancer. The ventilation down there was horrible. [Padding, and padding along. Enough shifting, time to settle in and take a breath without realizing he's doing just that, giving himself away.] Abigail told me about this really, really nice boy she went on a maybe picnic date with and told about some— [His nose wrinkles.] —stuff. If Abigail wants to share any of that with you, that's fine. But.

[He's so glad he took off his hat now. It was such a Goddamn stupid hat. Trying to be all solemn and bordering on growling dad while wearing something that said REEL WOMEN FISH didn't seem to match up.]

I need you to keep any actual references of that stuff out of the public eye. Not for me, not for her, but for you.

[He's not privy to a conversation the two had, talking about Stiles being safe. Will would like for him to be safe in the way that he's not murderous jackass, of course. But he'd also like him to be safe in the way that he doesn't come under fire from a murderous jackass.]

[ oh, shit. this is an actual serious talk. for some reason, despite the switch to video, he wasn't expecting that, but it stands to reason in retrospect, given the initial messages. ]

Okay.

[ it's just filler more than real agreement, drawn out while he processes. should he tell will that he's not sure stuff is gonna work out with abigail after all? but he still doesn't know what he's doing there, can't really say anything before he's talked to her himself. so for now, whatever rules will wants to set in place are gonna stand. ]

We mostly talked about her dad. And you. And keeping other people's secrets.

[ mostly his friends', but he gets what will is saying. ]

[When it comes to talking Abigail Hobbs, Will's pretty serious. It's sort of difficult for him to be anything else, all things considered. He doesn't need to tell him things probably aren't gonna work out with her, especially since she's off...wherever. It hasn't been long enough for him to get super worried. His makes a tsk sort of sound, nose wrinkling. Her dad, him, and keeping secrets, that's what they talked about before Stiles dropped the surrogate dad bomb.

Well that makes it all worse.]

That's great. [No it's not.] In the little group from our world, what you said is common knowledge. It's not here. It needs to stay that way.

[He tries to sound neutral but it's really a loss. He's just so curious and not yet trying to squash that down. It'll change.]

She tell you I killed him?

It was implied.

[ he hasn't had the circumstances explained directly, but stiles is good at piecing together information, and he's formed a pretty good picture out of the facts she has given him, over time. his glance flickers away, back again. ]

She said you were just doing your job.

[So basically Stiles is a huge jackass is what Will's getting. Not what he's saying or giving off because he doesn't need Abigail mad at him for rudely profiling everyone she looks at twice, but some things are never turned off.]

It was me doing the job. Job's not always very. Kind. [To the people who do it, to the people they have to deal with, killer or victim or survivor or person who might have seen something late one night at the gas station, not kind for anyone. He offers a little smile, but it's one without mirth.] Have you told anyone else?

No! Oh my god!

[ kind of offended by that, because he understands talking about Abigail's real father being dead is a dock move: he wouldn't want people talking about his mom. and he hasn't told anyone about her dad being a serial killer, because that seems like the kind of secret you keep, and stiles is good at keeping secrets. so telling people "will graham killed Abigail's serial killer dad" would be some pretty significant overshare as far as he's concerned. ]

[Kind of offended. That's good. Will can play off that. If he can get Stiles in a place where he's feeling offended, it's easier to make him understand why Will's a little offended himself.]

So you wouldn't tell anyone else, but you'll call her my surrogate in a public forum where anyone can read it. [Not difficult leaps in logic to make here, not in this case.] And anyone can read that and wonder how the hell a former profiler with the FBI ended up with a surrogate daughter. You realize that opens up a whole slew of questions for both Abigail and myself that we might not want to share with the entire world, and serves to remind us both of what happened that lead to being surrogates?

[He's calm about it, voice steady and at a proper indoor level, no sign of anger on his face. But maybe that's could make him sound a little more dangerous in the end, when it comes to talking about Abigail: how quiet he is. Intense is a good word.]

[ stiles rakes a hand through his hair. ]

Anyone could have a surrogate daughter. I mean, for all they know, you met her here and not back home.

[ sadly he's always been the kid to try and talk his way out of stuff instead of just apologizing. usually he just talks himself further into trouble. like now, as he gets nervous and defensive and continues to... say dumb things. ]

And you know, I don't even think I mentioned Abigail. Has anyone ever told you you're kind of paranoid?

[It's okay, they can both say dumb things together. Will's dumb things, at least, have been proven to be a set up. But they are very terrifying dumb things Freddie Lounds might have once longed for, so unleash the hounds of hell it is. He squints at the overwhelming rudeness before him and decides that fighting fire with fire isn't always the worst thing.

There is no mute button on this TMI.]

My unofficial psychiatrist told me I sounded paranoid shortly before I was arrested and wound up here. [The fucker.] Since then? Freddie's probably said it a time or two.

[Putting Stiles down with Freddie, in the gutters. Yes. That's one way to show some love.]

[ this is before Freddie tells the whole world that Derek and Lydia are supernatural creatures, and Abigail's said some nice things about Freddie, so Stiles really isn't as horrified by that comparison as he should be. ]

[ and there's more important things, anyway. ]

You were arrested?

[ to the tune of "whoa, cool". ]

[Fridge Brilliance or Fridge Fuck Up?

He does not like that tone of voice, that much is obvious. If he was arrested for Fighting The Man by saving dolphins from Sea World or something else that anyone, in their right mind, could feel pride about? It would be different. But he wasn't and he's starting to see in Stiles what it might have been that Abigail saw in him, too:

He's alarmingly normal. Or, at least, capable of acting normal. Maybe he is as close to normal as they come. Maybe he's from somewhere as big a mess as Baltimore and he clings to normalcy where he can find it. And if there's one thing Will Graham can relate to, it's that search to be normal and what happens when it doesn't work out. The boot of the world crushing the life out of a kid who thought, for a split second, maybe he could deal with it. Learn the ropes. That he could eventually get invitations to Christmas parties and Never Have I Ever and any sort of party, really, as opposed to resorting to holing up away from the normal world because trying proved fruitless and exhausting and giving up? Can be so, so, so, so easy.

He is not supposed to like this kid. He is not supposed to peel back the veneer of a finally worn teenage boy suit and come away with anything appealing. Hell.

This is backfiring.]

For five murders. [Stated like fact from an old textbook as opposed to anything overly personal. Abigail's real father was a serial killer, why shouldn't her surrogate end up being an ex-convict?] I was set up, mind. If I'd actually done any of them, no one from our world [Abigail and he are a we, an us, an our, he is going to use that as much as possible.] would be very comfortable with me on the streets.

[Or might be comfortable with him on the streets as long as he was on a leash or might be comfortable on the streets right next to him, but that's giving away far too much.]

Not that they could do much about it.

[ just a murmur. stiles knows a murderer who's walking free, after all. crimes committed back home don't seem to have any sticking power here. still, he's pretty sure will wouldn't even mention this if he was actually dangerous, if he'd actually done it. and he feels like abigail would have warned him in amongst everything else. ]

Must suck to stand trial for crimes you didn't commit.

[ he adds more clearly, even though that's the understatement of the century. he just wants will to know that he believes him, ok. ]

[There is one serial killer Will knows who is rolling free, even after at least two offenses committed here. Stiles is right that they couldn't do much about it, but if Will was the sort of nasty they had once thought he was?

All they would need to do was wait for the gruesome murders to pop up. Eventually. Put some people on his tail. As far as he knows, none of that is going on.

He shrugs his good shoulder and pulls a face—yeah, okay, suck is one way to put it. Yes, it does suck.]

Haven't made it to the trial just yet, but I'm sure it'll suck quite a bit. [Look at him, getting into the vernacular. Like the cool kids...in absolutely no way at all, it's so forced.] Which wasn't— [Why he wanted to talk, but perhaps this is better than going down the path of Lecter. He's two seconds from running a hand over his face, that much is obvious.] —I just need you to keep what you know about Abigail Hobbs to yourself for. Ever, preferably. Knowing her is fine, but mentioning anything that gets into that is too much. [As long as Lecter's around.] Got it?

Got it.

[ and to his credit, he doesn't once start pushing as to why. ]

IC contact [Mask or Menace]

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