*bad boys bad boys whatcha gonna do~ plays distantly in the background*

[sciencesaggressively]

It had started out innocently enough, just a casual conversation with Kate on the topic of the envelope mystery. It's when she'd brought up the idea of getting ahold of the security footage that they'd both stared at each other, clearly coming to the silent agreement that they need to get ahold of the security footage. It doesn't take long for both of them to get changed--all black, of course, because that's what the movies always say is best--and rendezvous at the train station at 1800 hours during a convenient switching of the shifts at the information booth.

Newt tries to look cool, leaning against the wall nearest the empty booth as a few people pass him by--and he finds it kind of weird that they seem to be noticing him more than usual, or maybe he's just being paranoid. The door to the security room is just around the corner and the station is emptying out, so it's pretty much now or never. Well, never until the next shift change, whatever. He peers around the corner, failing to notice Kate coming up behind him, so when she taps him on the shoulder he can't stop the yelp that escapes from his throat, and he really wishes he'd bought that ski mask he'd seen at the store because his cheeks are awfully red right now.

"I thought you were the fuzz," he says even as his eyes crinkle from a wide smile and he leans over for a kiss. "I think we're in good shape to do this, you ready?"

Comments

[everyonetakes]

"I don't want to make Chuck cry," Kate says, taking the bag with the VCR, because as long as she doesn't have to touch it, she doesn't mind carrying it. Besides, she can't expect him to carry it all and she's pretty happy that they've found him some stuff for his apartment. It makes it seem like he's a little more content with the idea of staying here and although she'll never say it, the idea that he'll be the one to figure out how to leave is a little scary. He's a genius, she figures if anyone's going to do it, it'll be him, but she likes him being here. She doesn't want him to figure out a way to go.

"I haven't even met him yet, it seems like it'd be pretty rude of me to have a hand in making him cry," she continues, pushing the door open with her hip and holding it for Newt to follow her back out onto the sidewalk. "So I'm going to take that to mean we just shouldn't die. Not that we shouldn't make out." That's sort of how she'd rather this day went, anyway, with very little in the way of their deaths.

[sciencesaggressively]

"Yeah, no, I don't think it'd be pretty. He's got one of those faces, y'know, it looks weird if it's doing anything other than being stern." He's strategically places the bongos under one arm and the two framed posters under the other and walks with her out of the shop, totally satisfied with his purchases for the day--save for the VCR because yeah, nobody could ever be satisfied with a VCR at this point in life, though he also has to admit that he kind of owes it one considering the reason they'd come here in the first place was for that piece of archaic machinery. So he sends a silent thanks to the little guy and considers them square.

He is excited to find just the right spot on the walls for the posters--even think he might stick the Pyscho one in the bathroom so that anyone who comes over can see it when they look into the mirror. He's silently cackling at the very thought when he realizes how nutty it is that he's already planning on having people come over at all--other than Kate, of course, Kate is invited always--because isn't the reason he'd gone to help Kate get that tape in her bag partly because he wanted to help her solve the mystery of whoever's behind all the shit in this city... so he can leave? It doesn't really seem like much of a priority right now and maybe that's just because he's with her, having a great time and there's really nowhere else he'd rather be. But he figures he can worry more about that later, likely in the late, late hours of the night.

"Aw, you'd like him, he's fussy but he tolerates me in ways most people can't, so I have no choice but to believe he's a good guy," he says. It's true, though, he feels so lucky to have Chuck around, someone who understands what it's like to come from a world ruined by kaiju. It makes it a lot easier to know that there's at least one person in this city he can talk in-depth about it with, if either of them ever wants to. "I prefer your plan, though, with the no to the dying and the yes to the making out. You have the best ideas."

[everyonetakes]

"I'm pretty much brilliant," she agrees brightly, conscious of the tape bumping against her hip as they walk. They're not far from their building and she shifts the VCR long enough to dig her keys out of the little pocket in the front of her bag, wondering if they're really going to find anything. If she wants to find anything. She's always felt comfortable here, more comfortable than she ever did on the island and maybe it's just part of growing up, being away from home, but she feels like this is probably a better place for her than Overland Park.

Her family was always the only thing that would have kept her there, she thinks. But her mother had been getting better and Kate's been away for so long now that she doesn't think they really need her anymore.

She doesn't want to leave. Trying to figure out the envelopes, getting the tape, it's all just a game to her, but she suspects it's not just a game to Newt and she finds herself hoping there's nothing on the tape. She doesn't want him to leave.

Twisting the key on the lock, she holds the door open for him to go in, then asks, "What if there's something on the tape?"

[sciencesaggressively]

"I can't argue with that," he laughs, nudging her with the corner of one of the poster frames. "But I'm glad you already know it." That's something he likes a lot about her, the way she carries herself, the fact that she can say something like that without a hint of self-deprecation. He's always felt that way about himself--confident in his skills and the kind of person he chooses to be, to a fault if the way people have treated him for that sometimes is any indication. He thinks the Marshal had appreciated it, though, that Newt had never acted like he second-guessed himself. He thinks that's why no matter how many complaints Hermann would file against him--even though most of them had been filed just so Hermann could say he'd done it--he'd never really been disciplined. He's good at what he does, he knows it, and he's not sorry for it.

By the time they get to her place, his mind is already back on the tape. What if, that is the key question, isn't it? He doesn't think the answer to getting out of the city is going to be there, not even close--though he's not sure he wants it to be because as much as he hadn't believed it possible, Darrow is actually starting to grow on him. "If there's something on the tape, we'll be mystery-solving rock stars," he eventually answers, unceremoniously dropping his stuff down on the floor before gesturing at the bag holding the VCR. "Only one way to find out."

[everyonetakes]

Jeff runs over to them when the door opens and Kate nudges her aside with her foot as she wrinkles her nose, thinking about what he's said. There really is only one way to find out and she hands him the VCR before going into the living room and turning the TV around so he can access the connections in the back. It's a pretty shitty TV, but she hasn't bothered with a new one, mostly because she doesn't watch it often enough for it to be a thing. Now, though, she's kind of glad. If there's something creepy on the tape, the last thing she wants is to be able to see it in great detail.

"Hi," she says to the dog, crouching to rub her ears, though Jeff seems way more interested in Newt than she does Kate at the moment. She wags her tail, sniffs around at the bags on the floor, then moves over to his feet, following him wherever he goes.

"You're new, she likes you better," Kate says as she sits down to pull off her boots, leaving them on the floor without a second thought. Her place isn't messy, exactly, but she hasn't bothered to pick up after herself lately and she's suddenly very aware of the fact that half her closet is draped over the chair in the living room. "You do that, I'm going to..." She gestures at the mess, then grabs a pile of clothes to get it out of the way.

[sciencesaggressively]

He smiles with delight when her dog runs over to him, dropping to his knees to scratch behind the pup's ears. "She's so friendly, what's her name?" He laughs a little when she rolls over onto her back so he can scratch her belly, not wasting any time in obliging. Kate holding the VCR out to him brings him back to focus on the matter at hand, and he fiddles with the wires on the TV, absently petting the dog as Kate cleans up around the apartment. It's not hard to figure out, pretty much the opposite of rocket science, and he connects yellow to yellow, red to red, white to white with his one free hand.

"Don't clean it all up, what I find a tube top I want to borrow?" he calls out to her teasingly, picking up Kate's bag to get the tape. "Totally going into your purse for the thing, by the way, just sayin. I'm about to be ready when you are." Once he's got it, he pushes it into the VCR and presses pause so he can wait for Kate to come back to the room. He takes a deep breath, knowing fully well that a creepster dark-haired girl isn't about to crawl out of the TV and find them but the thought of finding something that's actually useful on the tale suddenly seems terrifying. "Place bets now on what's going to be on here or forever rest in peace."

[everyonetakes]

"Jeff," she answers, piling her arms with clothes. "She's named after this friend I had on the island. I used to bug him by calling him my Fake Island Dad, but he wasn't actually like my father figure, he was mostly just... he was Jeff." She isn't sure how else to describe Jeff Winger, except that she loves him and she misses him and she'd made it her personal mission to make him as uncomfortable as possible almost all the time. She smiles a little, then disappears into her bedroom to dump her clothes on the bed, which is actually a really good way to keep herself from wanting to pull Newt in here after they watch the tape.

There's always the couch, though, and she wrinkles her nose, wishing there was something she could do to make that less tempting.

"Okay, so, here's hoping we don't die?" she asks when she joins him in the living room again. And maybe she's sort of hoping they don't find anything useful on the tape either, a thought she doesn't express as she joins Newt, then slips her hand into his.

[sciencesaggressively]

"I like it," he says, and he does, it's different. Unique. Like her owner. The last dog he'd been around was Max, Chuck's pup, and he'd been a good little guy. He suspects Chuck must miss him pretty terribly, they'd been practically inseperable whenver Chuck was in the 'Dome. In fact, it's only with Max that Newt ever remembers seeing Chuck even remotely vulernable, and he briefly weighs the consequences of finding Chuck a new dog here in Darrow before deciding against it. Maybe a little stuffed bulldog, though.

He squeezes her hand as he hits the play button, taking a deep breath. He's tapping his foot against the ground, and he tries to stop it, it's a nervous thing, but it's awfully hard with all this suspense. The video flickers, and it's just footage of Kate looking bored at her post at the information booth for a few seconds until it cuts to snow and static. Which, okay, that's awfully anticlimactic. He looks over at her, trying not to look too disappointed. "Um. At least we're still alive?"

[everyonetakes]

"That's it?" Kate asks, wrinkling her nose as she stares at the TV. She's not sure what she was expecting, but something relatively more interesting than her own face for a couple of seconds before it dissolved into nothing. She steps forward, pressing the fast forward button on the VCR, then waits for something else to appear, but it really is just a whole lot of nothing. Just more snow. She stands there for a long moment before she hits the play button again, waiting to see if there's something they're missing.

"Well shit," she says, stepping away from the TV again to look at Newt. "That was a whole lot of buildup for a whole lot of nothing." And she's weirdly disappointed. She doesn't want to find a way to leave Darrow, but they've kind of gone through a lot just to get the tape and then they had to buy a VCR and yeah, so they kind of got some great stuff for Newt's apartment out of the trip, but she still feels cheated. "I demand a refund."

[sciencesaggressively]

"Think the train station will give us one? We should march back over there and see." He sighs, feeling a little frustrated that all the effort they'd put into getting this damn tape had amounted to no new information. "Okay, well, we know that something was moved in that security room, which is suspsicious as hell." Almost like someone had known they were coming, but Newt pushes that thought aside because he refuses to become that guy, the one who's paranoid to even say anything out loud. "And seems to me that this tape's been erased. So what's on it that somebody doesn't want us to see?"

He's convinced that however the envelopes get to the station must have been shown on that tape, he doesn't care if it sounds like he's reaching. But the only proof they could have hoped for is a bust, so he groans, falling back on the couch. "This town is fucking weird."

[everyonetakes]

"I don't know," she says, watching the tape for a moment longer before it reaches the end and just stops. There's nothing else, no matter what else she wants, it's just a blank tape and she huffs out a long sigh before she sinks down on the couch as well and leans forward, her elbows on her knees.

"Yeah, this place is really fucking weird," she agrees. "And what's weirder is that I'm not sure if I'm actually disappointed that there's nothing on the tape." They've been working together on this and she knows he's doing his own thing, too, but she realizes that she doesn't actually want to go anywhere and she doesn't want Newt to go anywhere either, which is probably super selfish of her and probably not the sort of thing she's supposed to say this early on in a... dating thing. So she's not entirely disappointed that they haven't found some clue toward figuring out how to leave Darrow, but at the same time, she still wishes they would have found something. It's confusing and it's complicated and she frowns deeply.

"This is a pain in the ass," she says, leaning back on the couch and looking over at Newt.