Impartial Eye ~ Eli&Jim

[Elliot Sage]

``London Eye~

and when I close my eyes tonight
to symphonies of blinding light
like memories in cold decay
transmissions echoing away
far from the world of you and I
where oceans bleed into the sky

~{[---]}~

The city of London was busy as always, people rushing by to get to wherever it was that they were going. There was no reason for it, no purpose. There was no purpose in anything anymore. How could there be, when people murdered one another for scraps of metal and paper? How could there be, when governments declared war and sent their citizens to fight for their cause, only to have them come home in boxes? How could this world that people have created have any purpose, other than to suffer in misery and regret?

There could be no purpose. There was no light at the end of the tunnel. The tunnel was dark all the way through, no end in sight. As a matter of fact, there was no end at all. Death met one halfway through and took the life of the man struggling to make a mark on the world, adding his body to the growing pile of rotting flesh behind him. Sometimes Death picked people up from the middle of their lives, giving them some sort of illness or bad luck. But that was the way life was. There was a million ways that one could die in this world, and every day, we face so many of them. But the human race survived, like they always have. Death was inevitable, but those who didn't fear it were able to live their life without this shadow over their head.

Such went the inner musings of a certain Elliot Sage as he stood beneath the London Eye, watching its revolutions as if it was bursts of fireworks. His black leather jacket rested upon his shoulders, unbuttoned and untied, spread aside at the bottom so Eli's hands could shove themselves into the pockets of his gray jeans. White trainers poked out from under the long jeans, having long since turned gray from the dirt and dust. A nice, button up pale blue shirt was exposed under the jacket, not leaving much of his physique to the imagination.

He was allowing himself a break from his plotting and setting up for his plans and things. What better place to go to relax than such a crowded place? Yeah, it wasn't the best idea, but he was in the area, so why not stop by? There was more of a chance of meeting someone interesting here, though so far, nobody had even so much as caught his eye. Everyone here was a simpleminded fool. At least, as far as he could tell. Hopefully someone would come out of the woodwork, so to speak, and be at least remotely interesting. Otherwise, he was in for a boring day. A very boring day. And Eli hated boring days.

[Jim Jimmetty Jim Jim Jim M]

"Have you considered death as an alternative lifestyle choice?
Just think - you can do it lying down!
And it saves a great deal of money on food!"

It was fricking cold, and Jim hated the cold. All the extra clothes needed to keep a person warm were restricting, stopping you from moving freely. Without them, however, people noticed you. Noticed the madman walking along with nothing but his suit on. Jim didn't need that kind of attention, or indeed any kind of attention other than what he asked for. He walked along the pavement angrily, mentally cursing the scarf, coat and gloves he was wearing. Gloves were definitely the worst, you couldn't do anything wearing gloves! They were essentially bits of wool that rendered your hands completely useless. He could not wait for winter to be over.

He moved along, his head focusing firmly on the ground in front of him. He watched the feet of strangers as they moved aside for him. He could tell so much - just from looking at their shoes! Every time he saw a new pair of footwear a new fact about the wearer flashed into his mind. It was annoying, it wasn't necessary, these were people of no importance. Who cared if the woman who just passed was sleeping with her boss, or if the man who barely avoiding bumping into him was a closeted gay? His eyes fell on a pair of shoes ahead, standing at a right angle to him, not moving. Now those, those were interesting...

They had once been plain white trainers, so the owner bought shoes for comfort and purpose, not for style. Nobody bought white trainers for style. Though now, now they were grey. They'd been worn for a long time, and hadn't been cleaned nor polished - so the man, for it was a man, wearing them didn't care too much about the way he looked. This placed him above the age of fifteen, at least, probably older than twenty. His jeans were long, built to last, but not particularly well cared for.

Jim stopped. This admittedly caused a few accidents, and swears and curses were emitted from the crowd around him, but he didn't care. This was someone interesting. He wasn't quite sure why yet, but something about him was not like the others. Perhaps it was the way he just stood there, not moving, unlike the herd of business men and women either side of them.

Jim moved closer slightly, keeping as much distance as he could while making more observations by the minute. Jim smiled slightly, finding his way to the wall and leaning against it, casually keeping his eye on both the man and the wheel as he started to beat out a melody on the rough brick behind him.

[Elliot Sage]

and when I close my eyes tonight
to symphonies of blinding light
like memories in cold decay
transmissions echoing away
far from the world of you and I
where oceans bleed into the sky

~{[---]}~

Eli stared at the people getting in and out of the Eye's cars. What was he looking for? Something to take away the boredom? Something to lighten up his otherwise dismal day? Possibly. Could just be another product of his boredom. People watching had never been his thing, but he would if he had to. And right now, it was pretty much the only thing he could do, other than wander around London. Which was boring. And boring wasn't good. Very very not good.

Boredom led to wanting to do something. Wanting to do something led to trying to figure out something to do. And when he was on a self-imposed break from his "dayjob," if you could call it that, he was definitely hard pressed to find something that would satisfy his superior intellect. The day to day lives of people didn't matter to him, unless they were important people, like the head of a company or something, but the ordinary man's struggle to leave some sort of reminder that he existed before he was wiped off the face of this planet Earth wasn't amusing in the slightest.

So what was he supposed to do? Just sit here and be bored? He had to end up doing something, or else he'd go insane from boredom. Insane? What was the point of calling someone insane? The ones who called others insane saw themselves as the "normal" standard for humans, but what exactly was "normal"? And what if he didn't want to be normal? What if he wanted to be the way he was? He knew that society as a whole hated people like him, hated where they came from, and hated who they were as a person. Why should he have to conform to their "normal" when it was his normal that he wanted to be?

A tapping on some sort of hard surface broke him out of his thoughts. There was a sort of rhythm to it, like a melody. He looked around a bit, and his eyes fell on the man leaning against the wall next to him. The man looked well off, at least, judging from the rather nice suit he was wearing. The scarf, coat and gloves, though, seemed almost... out of place on the man's frame. He looked uncomfortable, as well, though slightly intrigued at something, and when Eli met the man's eyes, the man was staring at him. Odd.

"Can I help you with something?" Eli asked politely, smiling. He had decided to be civil with this man, rather than bite his head off for staring. What did this man think Eli was, anyway? A museum exhibit? He didn't seem that out of place... did he?

[Jim Jimmetty Jim Jim Jim M]

"I'LL SEE YOU LATER.
How much later?
DON'T START READING ANY LONG BOOKS."

Jim squinted his eyes in annoyance at the man who'd just confronted him. He could not quite fathom what exactly was different about this particular person. It couldn't of just been that he was standing still in a sea of intentions. It wasn't the leather jacket - though it was a nice one, well made and well worn. He was getting frustrated and irritated, partially with himself for not being able to work it out and partially with this annoying human being standing in front of him. Why couldn't he just be normal and dull!? It would be a lot less time consuming and he had better things to - ok, no he didn't. He was bored out of his skull, he had no work and no personal problems to deal with. But if this man hadn't been so infuriatingly interesting perhaps he could of got on with finding a couple of people to kill.

None of this had bought him any closer to working out why the bloke was so intriguing. He cursed his brain silently, trying not to get off this train of thought. He held up one finger for silence, the other hand finding one of many pockets to insert itself into. His eyes flickered across the man's form, trying to find points to pick up on - aha! That was it. Other than what he'd seen already, there was nothing to pick up on. He could not tell of the man's past, present or possible future. Not by looking at least.

Letting his hand drop to the wall, starting to tap out his little tune again, he smiled slightly, matching the politeness of the other person's tone, "I don't think so. Maybe. Possibly." He extended his left hand for a handshake, leaving the other keeping its beat, "Jim. And you?"

[Elliot Sage]

and when I close my eyes tonight
to symphonies of blinding light
like memories in cold decay
transmissions echoing away
far from the world of you and I
where oceans bleed into the sky

~{[---]}~

"I don't think so. Maybe. Possibly."

Well? Which was it? Make up your mind! Eli thought, slightly annoyed. Though, he had to admit, being cryptic like that was exactly what Eli himself did on many occasions. It was rather fun, actually. Fun to watch people try and figure out what you meant, squirming and hazarding guesses, at which Eli would never speak the answer, only more riddles. Which would only serve to infuriate his target even more. Though, he was getting a bit off topic. Where was he?

"Jim. And you?"

Eli immediately shook Jim's hand, glad to have the name of the definitely peculiar man in front of him. "Elliot." he replied, his radiant smile on his face. "Call me Eli, if you wish." He usually wouldn't have said that, as he preferred people to call him by his full name, but this wasn't the usual situation. And this man had nothing "usual" about him. He was extraordinary, to say the very least. And Eli couldn't understand why.

"So, Jim." Eli started, looking over at the other man, still grinning. "What takes you from your no doubt busy schedule and brings you here?" Genuine curiosity worked its way into his voice, which was definitely a good thing. With a bit of luck, Eli could figure out just what about this man was different than the rest of them. If he could, then he could then figure out the answer to the ultimate question of judging character:

Would he be useful?

[Jim Jimmetty Jim Jim Jim M]

"I know you have your problems,
And maybe I have mine..."

"What takes you from your no doubt busy schedule and brings you here?"

"The lack of a busy schedule is what bought me here. I am bored," he left it at this, trying to keep the intrigue out of his voice. It was true that the man was interesting and that he wished to know more, but he wouldn't let that show any more than it already did. He'd already given away more information than he'd normally care to release to this man, for no real reason, other than a strange feeling that this man was different from the rest of the herd.

He watched Elliot's face carefully, looking for any clues into what he was thinking. That he was watching for signs at all was odd - normally he assumed that people weren't thinking at all. But this man stood in front of him was most definitely a thinker. Whether he was any good at it was another matter...

Jim tried to find out more, anything, personality, living habits, lifestyle choices. But there was next to nothing he could figure out. It annoyed him, made him feel uneasy. He knew more about the woman who had just walked past (on her wait to cheat on her husband) than he did about the person standing in front of him, and he didn't like that.

[Elliot Sage]

and when I close my eyes tonight
to symphonies of blinding light
like memories in cold decay
transmissions echoing away
far from the world of you and I
where oceans bleed into the sky

~{[---]}~

"The lack of a busy schedule is what bought me here. I am bored."

Boredom. One of the main motivations for whatever Eli did, just under fulfilling one of his plans. "To be honest... me too." he replied, shrugging his shoulders. There was a chance that Jim could possibly be with the police, or with one of the people that wanted him either dead, gone, or on their side. Currently, Eli was flying solo, but he wasn't against some sort of partnership. It was just that no one had given him anything worthwhile. Or seem trustworthy enough to actually partner up with. Trust was vital in a partnership, even if both sides were just looking out for themselves.

It didn't matter, anyway. It was a chance, but very slim. Other than to dredge up the escape plans for this sort of situation, Eli pretty much dismissed the possibility. It wasn't like they were that stupid, right? To just waltz over to him out of the blue and chat him up? He really doubted it. Normally, they would have some sort of surveillance and backup to keep him in the area, then they would send their man over. But he definitely wouldn't be looking the way Jim currently was. He'd look more... American secret service, or at least Eli would be able to tell that he was with some lofty somebody who liked showing off. Or the government. The government usually did that too.

Eli practically shoved himself off the wall, shoving his hands back in his pockets. "So. You're bored. I'm bored." he stated, his smile turning almost childish. "Want to go waste some time?" he asked, looking sideways at his new companion. Was companion the right word? He didn't exactly know yet. He still couldn't figure out what exactly it was about Jim that intrigued him so, but he would find out. He definitely would.