"That's the plan? Run in, be like 'hey, we're here' and then run out so you can kill him? There's about forty other, better ways to do this."
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
"I suggest being a bit more subtle. Bring him to us instead of throwing us onto his turf. Get him in a bad situation, make it worse."
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
"Convince him you have something of value, maybe." James suggested.
Cowell looks at them with a bit of disappointment. "The whole idea was to use you as bait." He gestures to Tasha. "If I bring him to us then I might as well be doing it myself."
"And how do you plan on getting him out here without us, hm?"
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
James sighed. "Whatever we do, it requires a certain level of deceit. He needs to have a good reason to be drawn out of the town in a place where he's more vulnerable, but even then I'm not convinced he won't have at least a pair of his henchmen by his side. So no matter how you draw him out, you'll need our help, unless you think you can take on a drug lord by yourself."
Cowell raised his brows in a sort of facial shrug. If Cowell didn't know better he would've said it sounded like James knew who the guy was - since Cowell didn't mention the man was a drug Lord or anything like that.
"So what do you suggest we do? And maybe something more specific, you know," Cowell asked.
James looked at Cowell for a moment with a focused expression, though it really only looked like he was angry. Cowell didn't break the awkward pause of silence by saying anything, but looked at Tasha with a raised brow.
Spoiler! :
James is thinking and so am i b/c im too tired to come up with anything good rn but hopefully when i wake up i will... i just figured i should reply since i've been putting it off
After a few seconds of prolonged silence and deep thought, James spoke up.
"...I think I have an idea for how to draw him out."
Cowell's eyes lit up and he perked up to hear James's idea.
"I could tell him I have some quality product, and that I'm willing to offer it to him for a price. If that arrests his interests and he's willing to make a deal I can tell him that the drop spot is out here, outside the limits of the town, and we can set it up as a trap. He won't come alone, but if it's the three of us, I think we could take them."
"And how you know he won't just send one of his goonies to grab the 'goods' though? If he's a drug lord like you say I don't think he's going to do something like a routine pick-up."
James gave Cowell a sharp glance. "I'll work something out. I can request that only he comes."
Cowell looked down at James from his nose, pursing his lips thoughtfully, before his mouth spread into a grin. He smacked a hand on James's back with a laugh (which James promptly flung back in annoyance). "Haha! Well if you think you can use your exceptional skills of deception, then go ahead and give it a shot!"
Spoiler! :
@Falconrygirl9086 ?? hopefully this is ok! also james is deliberately leaving out that he actually has some hallucinogens/drugs on him from the forest of weird glowy plants so he actually has bait/proof to convince sr.drug lord but he doesn't wanna tell Cowell that
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
James looked over to Tasha, and back at Cowell, simultaneously swiveling his hips and cracking his back with his hands on his hips. "Well then that's settled," he says flatly to Cowell.
Cowell scratched his nose a moment, giving James a calculating stare. "So you wanna set up the drop spot here?"
"No," James replied. "Some place with more cover. You know of Sailor's Rock?"
Cowell nods. "'S a little further from here. You really wanna draw him out that far?"
James looked at Cowell with a deadpan expression, his eyes communicating that is was non-negotiable. "You'd prefer to point him blindly into the forest to some indeterminable tree? There aren't a lot of landmarks out here. From Sailor's rock we should have plenty of cover - element of surprise and all that."
"Ok, ok. You're right, that's good. So..." Cowell let his sentence hang in the air as he looked at James expectantly.
James half-rolled his eyes. "I'll get going soon. I'll clean up first, though. First impressions and all that," he explains with a fake, venomous grin. Then he sat down on a nearby rock and pulled out a little knife from his boot.
Cowell sighed, and ran off a moment, returning with his horse, and a mirror in his hand. "Hey," he said, catching James's attention and tossing the mirror to him. "If you're gonna shave that overgrown forest off your face, do it well, mate."
Tasha leans back against a tree, watching the two of them with an analytical gaze as she deciphers their relationship and figures out what she can of this land from what little they say before getting a hairbrush out of her bag and starting to get the tangles out of her hair - a bit of a job, but at least it isn't that long.
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
James muttered something along the lines of "piss off" in response to Cowell, but accepted the mirror as he chipped away at his scraggly beard. Once his face was clean shaven, he ran a hand through his hair - or rather, tried to. It was a knotted, matted mess. It was disgusting. So he hacked it off, leaving it short and messy. Once done, he brushed off fallen hairs from his shirt and pants. He tossed the mirror back to Cowell, who was nodding in approval.
"You honestly look like a completely different person," he comments.
"I am," James responds dryly, so much so that Cowell isn't able to read whether he's being sarcastic, or truthful, or both.
"So who are you now, then?"
"Lucas, for today," he replies, tucking in his shirt and adjusting his bag's strap over his shoulder. "Not that it's of much business of yours, since you and I shouldn't be crossing paths with our target until we're going to capture him, anyway, right?"
"That's right, Lucasssss." Cowell chuckled.
James simply gave him a flat look, before turning to Tasha, his countenance visibly more relaxed and open when he switched to talking to her. "You ready over there?"
She ties her hair back and reties her eyepatch. "Ready as I'll ever be. Seeing as aliases are the way to go, call me...Agrona."
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
Back to the old guise, then. "Pleasure's all mine, Cowell." Can't play it innocent like I used to. Too many scars now. Should I play it tough?
She takes off her sword and straps it to Nightmare's saddle.
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
"Ok. You two head off to Sailor's Rock, then?" James asked, though it was more instruction. "And I'll head back into town and find our guy. Depending on how things go, I could be coming back with him, or I'll come back alone and he'll be coming later. So be ready."
Cowell nodded, looking over to Tasha (or Agrona, as he knew her), and grabbing the reins of his horse.
Gender:
Points: 481
Reviews: 117