The Unpopping of John Amsterdam (Open RP)

[400-years-young.livejournal.com]

There was a pop, a wet splooosh, and John Amsterdam flopped on the floor in a buttery tidal wave. Naked and slimy, he groaned as he rolled himself onto his back. "I could have gone another 400 years without that," he said. As he stared at the stones in the ceiling and tried to collect his thoughts, a pair of bare legs entered his field of vision. The legs were cut off by a terrycloth towel, and John knew what he'd see if he kept looking up.

"Hey," he said to the German as Dieter bent down and offered him a different towel. "Do I know where this thing's been?" he asked.

"No," Dieter said.

"Perfect." John started to towel himself off. He dabbed off as much butter as he could, and for the sake of modesty, wrapped the towel around himself.

"It's good to see you back," Dieter said. The naked Ravenclaw twins were back, in original and with extra butter.

((John Amsterdam and Dieter Prohl are in the popcorn room together. Meta is intentional, as they're played by the same actor. Please let me know which one you're tagging to, of if it's for either one.))

Comments

[400-years-young.livejournal.com]

He shrugged. "I'll give it a try. I was stabbed in 1642 and saved by a Native American shaman. I can't age or die until certain conditions are met." She didn't need to know about the conditions. "It doesn't mean I can't get banged up, though."

[ilikemyscars.livejournal.com]

"I bet you're hell on your doctor. Doctors." Claire took a second to process.

"That sounds like some bleeding-edge medicine for the 17th century. I've found that bleeding edge medical technologies tend to be kept tightly held by the elite few. How'd you rate? In the estimation of a Native American shaman, anyway?"

[400-years-young.livejournal.com]

"Only the ones who go looking for something wrong in a perfectly healthy thirty-five-year-old," he said with a wink. "As for how I rate, I had two options: I could let my fellow soldier run through the girl he was aiming for, or I could do something about it. And since I hadn't signed up to murder the women and children, I chose the heroic but fatal option."

[ilikemyscars.livejournal.com]

Claire suppressed a wince. The Dollhouse had her so used to thinking in terms of profiteering she'd forgotten the altruistic motive.

"Thus motivating her to repay you with heroic measures? Nice." She nodded. "But how do you explain the never-aging business in everyday life?"

[400-years-young.livejournal.com]

"That depends on who you ask. There's John York. John Benwaar. Charlie. Johnny on the Spot. Johann Van der Zee. You've just got to ask them quick, because they're only around for ten years or so."

[ilikemyscars.livejournal.com]

Claire frowned, looking more troubled than the quip really warranted. "A quick-change artist, then. But how do you keep them all straight? All those identities -" She shook her head. "Sorry. I was having a bit of an identity crisis myself before I arrived here. Touched a nerve."

[400-years-young.livejournal.com]

"You know how I keep them straight?" he said. "But cutting off all contact with friends, family, loved ones - they all think I'm dead, or a deadbeat who skipped out on their lives. And then, after enough time goes by, they're all gone, and nobody cares. Nobody remembers."

[ilikemyscars.livejournal.com]

"Memory's a fickle thing," she agreed. "I ought to know, it's one of my specialties."

[400-years-young.livejournal.com]

"Oh? Why, how many people have you been?" It was clearly meant as a joking comment.

[ilikemyscars.livejournal.com]

"About 60, I think. Three years as an Active, the last two in high demand - maybe a little more than that." Claire shrugged. "The last year or so I've just been Claire, though."

[400-years-young.livejournal.com]

"What was it, some sort of military work?" Maybe spying, he thought, where you had to remember what cover you were going under. "How does it feel to just be Claire?" he asked. "Are you sticking with it, or is it just who you are for right now?"

[ilikemyscars.livejournal.com]

"No, the Dollhouse is strictly private sector." She laughed wryly. "Oh, I'm sticking with Claire for as long as I can. She's very - reassuring, I guess. Safe."

[400-years-young.livejournal.com]

"Safe is good," he murmured. "There's nothing wrong with safe."

"I'm a cop in New York," John continued, "and to be a good cop I've got to keep my ear to the ground. I've heard some stories about a Dollhouse. Just stories, mind you." He wanted to see what she'd say.

[ilikemyscars.livejournal.com]

"There's such a thing as too safe, though..." Claire looked away, remembering, then shook herself back to the present.

"As a cop, you should know there's usually at least a little truth to be found in 'just stories.' I don't know how the New York house compares to L.A., but I can tell you the Dollhouse I came from is both more and less strange than whatever you're likely to have heard."

[400-years-young.livejournal.com]

"I've heard that they rent people's bodies out for whatever might tickle your fancy, given enough money," he said bluntly. "And that they give you the minds to go with them. I've heard a lot of crazy stories in my time, like the one about the immortal guy who was resurrected from the dead. It's not the cop in me who believes it, but the cop in me who wants the facts as well as the stories. And so far, the facts have been hard to come by."

[ilikemyscars.livejournal.com]

"That's about the size of it," Claire said cheerfully. "That's by design, the shortage of facts. The only reason I'm feeling comfortable enough to talk about it now is that I figure anyone would just think it means I'm crazy. Like the way they would if I started rattling on about magic schools in Scotland, for instance."

[400-years-young.livejournal.com]

"The bright side about here is that you're never the craziest one in the room. Or if you are, then you really need to worry. You share your story much around here?" He tightened his towel. The butter was making it loose.

[ilikemyscars.livejournal.com]

She shrugged, ignoring the towel action. (Spend enough time around perfect-bodied Dolls and their communal showering, and you built up an immunity to that sort of thing.)

"Not much. There were a couple of people I felt comfortable talking with at my Sorting. As I say, I haven't been here very long. I spend a lot of my time simply trying to find my way back to Ravenclaw consistently, like now, for instance."

[400-years-young.livejournal.com]

There was communal showering and he had missed it?

"Would you like to see a shortcut?" John asked. "That happens to be my house, as well. Sad to say, this isn't my first time making it back there from this room."

[ilikemyscars.livejournal.com]

"I would love to," she said, relieved. "By the way, I'm not crazy on this point, am I? It is hard to find your way around this castle?"

[400-years-young.livejournal.com]

He smiled. "No, you are not crazy. Yes, the stairs move. There is a way to get from one point to another, but sometimes the fine details of how you get there are subject to change. How good are you at jumping from vast heights and across great distances?"

He was kidding. Really.

[ilikemyscars.livejournal.com]

"I'm sure I've done some of that in my checkered career, but let's just say those skills have really atrophied of late." Claire smiled. "So who are you being this week, John York-Benwaar-On The Spot, if you don't mind my asking?"

[400-years-young.livejournal.com]

"The one and only John Amsterdam. A name I plan on using for a while. Nobody goes by Johann anymore." It was a shame. He still thought of himself as Johann, when it was just him and his thoughts. "And you are?"

[ilikemyscars.livejournal.com]

"Claire Saunders. Doctor Saunders, to my patients. Claire, to friends." Not that she had many she'd call friends, but there was a principle at work there. She held out a hand to shake. "Pleasure to meet you, Officer Amsterdam."

[400-years-young.livejournal.com]

"It's Detective Amsterdam, as much as I can lay claim to any one position. Should I show you to your house, Dr. Saunders? It's really not that far from here, and I could really use a shower."