in Milliways

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Rich Brook enjoys filming for The Storyteller. He honestly does. It may not be the role of a lifetime, but he could do worse than to spend the day reading fairy tales to kids.

He's always liked fairy tales.

Still, when Milliways pops up during a break in filming, he doesn't turn it down. He glances back over his shoulder first; then, when no one else seems to see anything amiss, he goes in.

At the Bar, he asks for a club soda with lime. He could have something stronger if he liked - with time stopped at home, no one would be the wiser - but it seems wrong for the Storyteller to drink while he's technically on duty.



[OOC: For clarity, Jim is in character as Rich, and will be making a much stronger effort to remain in character than he usually does in Milliways. And yes, he really is coming in from filming. DVDs don't make themselves.]

Comments

[searchingfordistraction]

(They're all but guaranteed to be from the same world now, given Milliways's sense of humor. Jim can work with that.)

"Well. Just promise not to tell?" he asks. "Just in case?"

He is sort of dying to talk about it. He doesn't really get many opportunities to.

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And that's all Martin needs, on top of everything else. To start seeing a look-alike of himself showing up in the papers.

Oh well.

"I don't know many people I'd be able to tell it to anyway."

Between Icarus Removals and MJN, Martin doesn't have many friends. And the ones he does have are, well...

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That's good enough for Rich. It's not like a just a few random people could ruin the whole thing once they've really got it going, anyway.

He explains about how he got the job, the meetings with Mr Holmes and so on, and how the story escalates a bit at a time.

"The hard part right now is getting all the permissions," he finishes. A fake break-in at the Tower is tricky to set up. Who knew? "We're all sort of on hold while he works it out so I don't get arrested for real."

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"Wow," says Martin, genuinely impressed. "I didn't know the police and stuff would actually let people do that sort of thing. It seems a bit like the thing they'd want not to happen."

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"I think he's bribing a lot of people," Rich admits. "He doesn't, um, really encourage questions about that. But all the stuff with the pretend bombings worked out fine, so I don't worry about it much. The worst thing that happens with this is someone tries a copycat theft and gets caught because it's not actually possible."

Really, a few lines of computer code? Even Rich knows better than that.

[captaincrieff]

"Wait, bombings?" That sounds a bit...

"He's not playing around, is he?"

He vaguely seems to recall a few explosions being on the news or something, but that was over a year ago. He's probably mistaken and just confusing them for gas leaks or something.

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"It was all very controlled," Rich assures him. "No one actually got hurt. There was one woman I supposedly blew up, but she was an actress. I worked with her a few years ago, on an independent film. It's all fake."

He's not talked to her since, but it's not exactly like they run in the same social circles. He didn't see much of her in the gap between the film and their being hired by Mr Holmes, either.

[captaincrieff]

"Oh, well. That's good. I guess as long as no-one's actually getting hurt, and the police know what you're up to."

He's not even going to begin to mention how unwise it still all sounds. Lord knows Martin's taken a few foolish jobs just for the money.

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Rich makes a rueful face.

"I know. I know how it all sounds. There are bits I'm not really that thrilled about, but I need the work. Acting is incredibly competitive, I can't afford to be picky."

He might have thought twice if he'd got the Storyteller job first, but - well, that's just not how it worked out.

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"No, I—I get that," Martin says. "I really do. You have to take what you can get."

There he goes, being all honest again.

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"Of course," Rich says. "I don't have to explain to you, do I? You must have to decide about, er, jobs in bad parts of town, that sort of thing."

Removals jobs. Of the legitimate sort. Being as that's what Martin does, as opposed to anything else that may have been inadvertently implied.

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"Bad parts of town, scary clients," Martin says, confirming Rich's statement. "People don't realise it, but it can be a pretty dangerous job. You make your living going into strange peoples' houses. We have a chart on the fridge with my schedule on, just, you know. In case."

He doesn't want to say in case of what. In case of anything, really.

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"That's only sensible," Rich says. "Do you work with anyone else, or is it just you?"

Isn't that what he asked before, more or less? Well, now he knows what not to say next.

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"It's just me," says Martin.

Hang on. Didn't he say earlier something about working with a guy who has a thing for Hester MacCaulley?

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(He did, didn't he?

Jim, at least, has noticed the discrepancy.)

Something isn't quite lining up here, but Rich is not prepared to push until he's worked out what it is.

"That's especially dangerous, then. At least I'm not in mine by myself."

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"Luckily, I live with a few other people, so there's a little bit of a safety net there."

Someone to report him missing, at least.

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"That's good," he says. "Lot of flatmates?"

He knows how that goes.

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"Something like that, yeah," Martin says. "If you know the right people, you can get into the sort of places you're not technically allowed to be."

Which is how a 34-year-old pilot is living in student housing.

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Rich laughs.

"Everything comes down to networking in the end, doesn't it?" he says. "It's all in who you know."

Also something he knows a thing or twelve about. Talent is optional for actors. Knowing the right people in mandatory.

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Martin laughs. "Yeah, I know someone who gets through life entirely by just knowing the right people."

It's a bit maddening.

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Rich . . . pauses, as a few things start to come together in the back of his head.

"What, like - Hester what's-her-name?" he asks tentatively.

If Martin says no, he'll let it go. He's not one to force the issue when it's not really all that important.

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"Oh, uh. No. Well, maybe. I don't know." Martin wouldn't be surprised, with the way she behaved. "I only knew her for about a day.

"No, it's this other guy I sometimes work with. Everything goes his way, even when he should be getting in trouble for something."

If Martin sounds a bit bitter, well... Rich would understand if he knew Douglas.

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"A repeat client?"

Being an actor, Rich is good at sounding innocently confused. Admittedly, it isn't that hard, because he really is confused. He just doesn't want to sound like he's interrogating Martin or something when he really isn't.

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"Nnnno," Martin says slowly. He realises now that he's been contradicting himself this whole time.

"I, uh, do some other stuff on the side. It's more of a hobby, really — or charity work, really, since I don't get paid for it or anything."

He considers leaving it at that, but then figures that he's bound to embarrass himself sooner or later, and he may as well get it over with.

"I fly a jet for a small charter airline. Well, airdot, as the owner calls it. Just the one jet, and only one other pilot. But it takes up most of my time, which is why I need a job with flexible hours."

And now's the time when he starts steeling himself against being laughed at or mocked. That's what usually comes by this point, because who spends so much time indulging their hobby that they take a job as a removalist just to get by?

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"Oh."

There are entire chunks of this conversation that suddenly make more sense.

"God, it must be nice to be able to set your own hours. I've been sacked because of rehearsals running too long before, it's a scheduling nightmare sometimes."

In other words, the bloke who has mostly not quite made a living pretending to be other people isn't about to judge someone else's professional choices.