bridgescribble | what sounds better? revenge or popcorn?

"Yeah. I mean, you could go back in time, you could go forward. It's your time machine, your rules. Where would you go?"

It's the sort of question that always rattles around in Jimmy's mind when he's got too much time to think. Where would he go? What would he do? How would he change his life or the world because of his choices? He has plenty of answers to those questions, albeit private answers, some things he barely wants to admit to himself and wants even less to share with Lalo Salamanca of all people.

But as it stands, he's here to defend Lalo--sorry, Jorge de Guzman, in court for the heinous murder of some poor minimum wage worker. And he knows his job, he knows what he's supposed to do, because he's now a friend of the Cartel. And even if he wasn't, he knows he has very little choice but to do as Lalo asks. The one thing he knows comparatively little about being the man sitting in an orange jumpsuit before him. It isn't important, he doesn't need to know anything about Lalo in order to do his job quickly and get Lalo out of his hair, but Jimmy has never had an easy time resisting his curiosity.

What the hell kind of question is that, man? Lalo's brow furrows like he's trying to make sense of it.

But it seems like a game of some kind, so — okay! Far be it for Lalo not to go along with a game.

Still leaned forward, Lalo rubs his chin and his mustache thoughtfully. Deciding.

Then he sits back in his chair and slams down on the table with one hand. "Aha! Alright! Got it!" He sounds entirely too happy about whatever he's come up with.

"First, I'd use it to send anyone who double crosses me back to dinosaur times." Lalo sounds positively gleeful about this part. He trusts his lawyer will see the brilliance.

"Then, I could charge anything I wanted for people to use it. My machine, my rules. I'd make billions. Maybe I'd charge a billion a go. And if anyone didn't pay up — "

He grins.

"Dinosaur times again!"

He's not sure what he expected as a response from Lalo, but somehow all of this is perfectly in line with what he knows of the man. Is it bullshit? Is it his real answer? It's difficult for him to say. Lalo is the kind of guy that's near impossible to get a read of beyond 'danger.'

But he has a role to play here, too, no matter how sincere Lalo is with his answer. He raises his eyebrows, pointing at Lalo in a well-practiced way, something seemingly approving and impressed with his reasoning.

"Now there's an idea!"

It's an idea, of course, but not an idea he personally is too big on. But that's just a minor detail, they don't need to dwell on that part.

"You might even get people willing to spend billions for that dinosaur trip. Take Jurassic Park and kick it up a notch."

Lalo's eyes glitter. "Now you're talkin'! I like it!"

Whether his initial suggestion was sincere or not — which, honestly, who knows — he seems taken with Saul's upping the ante, even giving a Saul an enthusiastic finger point that's nothing at all like the ones Saul is known for.

Then he leans back in his chair, alllll the way back, rocking as the first two legs leave the ground entirely. He strokes his moustache thoughtfully, his energy quieter but no less foreboding. "For myself, I think I'd just go back to all the times I loved. You know? I wouldn't change anything. I'd just re-live it. Just like it was the first time."

This answer, at least, is probably more sincere than the first one. Lalo doesn't traffic in regrets. He does traffic in copious amounts of bullshit, though, so it's always impossible to verify his sincerity with foolproof accuracy.

He leans forward again. There's a faint clang as the metallic front legs of his chair collide suddenly with the concrete floor.

"What about you? Hmmm? Where would you go, Saul?"

He sounds like he's trying not to laugh out loud.

Somehow Lalo's second answer is a softer one than Jimmy expected. For all he knows, though, the times Lalo loved could be things like... brutal torture, or killing an innocent man in cold blood, or arson, or anything worse than that. He's going to keep a happy thought and imagine that maybe deep down, there's something normal about the cartel boss sitting before him, and that he enjoys things other than crime. For his own sanity as he bullshits the law to get him out on bail. Somehow.

Truly he doesn't know much at all about Lalo, and really, he doesn't want to, much like he told his cousin a year or so prior. The difference now is he doesn't have much of a choice in knowing the other man and being tangled up in his business. It's not as if being a friend of the cartel or not is a real choice he can make. It's either that, or death, probably, and he knows it.

"Me? I wouldn't go too far back. Just a few years, but it's all about the game and not what you could see with a time machine."

That part, at least, isn't him bullshitting. A few years earlier, he could change things. Maybe he could fix Chuck, spend more time with his mother before she passed. But those are thoughts that not only does he not want to think about, Lalo doesn't need to know that part of his life either. So instead he goes with--

"Think about it. Knowing what we know now, which companies end up being huge, you could play the stock market and win. Rake in all the cash you want as you sit on the beach being served mai tais by a bunch of waitresses in bikinis."

Oh, you know. Some of Column A, some of Column B! Would Saul be queasy to know that some of what Lalo wants to re-live is, in fact, killing and torturing people, just as he suspects? Or would he simply be relieved to know that not all of it is? Mixed in with the (pleasant and nostalgic, to Lalo) memories of arson and snapping people's fingers with pliers and shooting people execution-style in the desert is, indeed, what most people would consider to be normal memories as well -- parties, learning to cook, Ciro's first shaky steps. For Lalo, those memories meld seamlessly with the memories of torture and murder; all of it gives him the same slightly warm, slightly melancholy feeling of wanting to experience something lost to time, that can never be repeated again.

Maybe it's a good thing Lalo isn't elaborating after all.

Lalo cocks his head as his laywer starts to talk, rubbing his moustache a little bit as he listens. Then he pulls his hand away from his face. "The... stock market?" he repeats incredulously, like he's making sure he heard Saul correctly. Lalo pulls his hand away from his face and shakes his head. He snorts, and laughs silently a little.

"That's bullshit." Lalo doesn't sound angry, despite the blunt confrontationalness of his words. In fact, he sounds vaguely amused. "What would you really do, Saul? Hm? C'mon. You can tell me."

If you can trust Lalo Salamanca with your most private desires, who can you trust?

Saul doesn't even trust himself with his most private desires. Trusting Lalo with them makes even less sense, and would require him to admit to things he doesn't even feel comfortable accepting. There are too many things in his life that leave him thinking what if that dwelling on them serves no purpose except to upset him when he's in an especially down mood. What if he hadn't done that one last scam with Marco, what if he hadn't just left after that final argument with Chuck, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

But he isn't about to fold to Lalo's claims of bullshit. Instead, he points with both hands, eyebrows raised, like he's about to lay out some fantastical truths about illegal time travel stock market manipulation.

"No, think about it. Anything you missed out on in the past? That can all be solved with an extra bit of cash, can't it? Slip on a patch of ice and screw up your knee permanently? Not a problem if you can afford the good doctors. You can even set up your own foundation, scholarships and everything, and watch those dividends roll in."

"Foundation?"

Lalo gives a baffled snort. A foundation does sound like the kind of pointless thing the Saul in Lalo's imagination would want though. At least in Lalo's mind, Saul can be annoyingly goody-goody at times, for a scumbag.

"Sure, man. Whatever you say." Lalo frowns though. He thinks about Hector, alone in the nursing home, with a condition no doctors — as far as Lalo's been told, anyway — could truly cure.

He's leaned back in his chair, and gives Saul a listless half-shrug.

"Gotta say, Mr. Goodman, seems to me you're way off-base about the doctors. If you ask me" — and Saul definitely didn't, but since when has that ever stopped Lalo before? — "there are some things no doctor can fix."

He strokes his moustache thoughtfully. "Maybe if there was a way to prevent slipping on the ice in the first place. In a sense, right? Then maybe..." He puts his hand down.

"Ah, but sometimes there isn't, is there?" He makes a face, raising his eyebrows. "Sometimes the ice is just inevitable." As far as Lalo is aware, anyway, it's not like he could do anything to prevent his Tío's stroke.

Edited 2023-02-20 22:03 (UTC)

Underneath the facade of Saul Goodman, he doesn't disagree with Lalo. There are some things that just can't be fixed, and really it would just be easier to prevent those things from happening in the first place. To un-shit that sunroof, so to speak, but he's not sure he'd want to do that one.

Lalo's reaction, though, is interesting to him. It's not what he expected. Lalo, incredibly wealthy scion of a drug empire that he is, seemed to Saul like the type to appreciate a good scheme and living the wealthy life. After all, he was the one who told him his (admittedly bullshitted) motto should be changed to 'just make money.' Lalo having this much of a reaction to the hypothetical best doctors fixing a not-so-hypothetical injury is far from how he assumed this would go.

He pauses for a moment, pursing his lips as he weighs his options. He doesn't need to know Lalo as a person to do his job, not beyond what he already knows, and he also doesn't want to know him. But he'd be lying if he said his curiosity weren't getting the better of him.

"Sounds like you've got your own slip and fall injury, so to speak."

Hey, far be it for Lalo to say no to a scheme or money! Both excellent things. Both far more worthwhile than some bullshit foundation. But this is a time machine they're talking about here.

As if he can read minds (...he can't though, can he? Can he, Saul?), he cheerfully clarifies, "Hey, if you just want money, don't let me stop you. But me personally, hey, I think we cornered that angle already with the dinosaurs." Hands up, palms out, eyebrows raised. Then he laughs.

Even Saul has to admit that lottery numbers and stock options are boringly pedestrian when you can charge people to ride a... what are the ones with the horns called? Ah, whatever! Doesn't matter!

Saul's phrasing throws him for a loop, though, as he tries to decipher what exactly is being said here. "...Slip...and fall?" He squints and tilts his head as he works out in real time when Saul is alluding to. Or what he's trying to say. Eventually it seems like he figures it out, though, or gets close enough.

"Ahhh, not me! My tío. He's sick. Of course, I don't know how far back I'd have to go, what I'd have to do, to make sure he didn't have his stroke." Lalo is as chatty as ever but his voice becomes quiet, soft, thoughtful. "Maybe get him to retire?" A private joke only he gets; Saul won't understand why it's funny that nobody retires from cartel life. "Nah, but he can't. Not with the Tuco the way he..." Lalo laughs and makes the crazy sign at his own head. "Well, you know Tuco!"

Saul's run-in with Tuco is still a source of entertainment for Lalo, when he thinks about it. Which isn't really all that often, but it's hard not to call it to mind right now.

A thought occurs to him. "Maybe I'd make sure Tuco never started using. Get somebody on him day one. Before it got to this. Yeah. With a time machine? I think that's what I'd do. Keep Tuco clean." Tuco is increasingly eractic and unpredictably violent even by Salamanca standards, after all, which is saying something, and Lalo has the sinking suspicion it'll only get worse if they don't keep somebody on him every second. Which they will, but what if they didn't have to?

It's all fantasy, anyway.

The softness, the thoughtfulness, the quietness is gone in an instant. Lalo perks right back up again and slaps the table. "Hey, but what am I telling you this for? You don't give a shit." He laughs.

Edited 2023-03-01 01:44 (UTC)

Ah, the uncle. Of course it's the uncle. Now if Saul were honest and not at risk of being a future cartel hit as soon as he's out of this room, he would say good riddance to poor tio Salamanca. As far as he cares, the fewer of these psychos out there in any vicinity to him, the better. But he can't say that, and instead, trains his face to look sympathetic as Lalo explains his situation. And truthfully, ignoring his own feelings about Tuco, it's not hard to be a bit sympathetic here.

"No, that's not it. I mean, I've got first-hand experience with meeting Tuco in... less than ideal circumstances. You know that."

Less than ideal, of course, being the nicest way to put his experience with Tuco Salamanca, and he would be happy to never have to repeat that ever.

"I think it's admirable, how close your whole family seems to be. You seem to really look out for Tuco and your Tio, and I remember how protective Tuco was of your lovely Abuelita. Jorge de Guzman must feel the same about his family, too, huh?"

A cloud crosses over Lalo's expression at the mention of Abuelita, but it passes quickly. Instead, he zeroes in on something else Saul said.

"Jorge... De Guzman...?" he repeats. Then he snort-laughs.

"Sure," he says, with the air of a parent humoring a small child playing make believe. "Jorge De Guzman loves his family, too."

As far as Lalo is concerned, Jorge De Guzman doesn't love anyone or anything because he isn't real. Just a fake name to stay out of trouble with the law long enough to get out on bail and head home to Mexico. But he'll go along with Saul's statement for now, out of curiosity to see where this thread leads if nothing else.

Edited 2023-03-13 03:11 (UTC)

He notices Lalo's clouded expression, and that's enough to tell him to not touch that area. Poor Abuelita probably had her age catch up with her, that's the only thing he can think of, and that it's a miracle she managed to live as long as she did with a family as stressful as hers. But he's not about to tell Lalo that.

"Now, uh, let's just say I'm hip to how all this is going to go."

The bail, he means, assuming anyone would even go for it, and that Lalo is going to end up long gone and never to be seen again once he's free from prison. And in fact, that's what he wants! Please, go have fun over there.

"But that family stuff, that plays well with the judges. So, introduce me to Jorge De Guzman. That's who I'm here to represent. A... fine and upstanding family man from the greater Albuquerque area, who ended up in an unfortunate mix-up with the law."

It's very smart of Saul not to pursue that line of conversation any further. Very smart!

What Saul is saying seems to be the right tactic, though. He's sitting straight up, instead of languidly flopping back in his chair or crouching forward like a cat on the hunt.

"¡Buena idea!" he says, and he slaps the table. He's grinning, which isn't unusual, but he's actually listening to what Saul has to say without being a dismissive asshole about it, which is. "So... if I had a family..."

He laughs. "'Ey, see what I mean? You're the guy for this! Evil genius."

He's not entirely sure how he feels about being called an evil genius as a positive, or that he's just reassuring Lalo's idea that he's the guy for things like this. But that's an issue for future Jimmy to weigh the morals of. Right now, he has a job to do, and figure out how to end up getting bail for a guy who absolutely did the crime he is accused of. Being a lawyer sure is fun!

He offers a smile at Lalo's compliment, because he's sure Lalo expects him to be pleased by this acknowledgement. And even if he's in prison, keeping in Lalo's good graces is the safest place to be.

"I've just got some experience in this area, shall we say. And the best stories always have elements of truth to them. It's how you make it more believable."

The wheels turn in Lalo's brain. Lies with a grain of truth. How you present things. Yeah, that sounds good. Sounds like advice with more than one applicable purpose, too. He'll have to keep it in mind. For later.

For right now, though, he's intent on the immediacy of how it can facilitate his release from prison, so he can merrily jump bail back home to Mexico after murdering an innocent person in cold blood.

Aren't you happy and proud to be helping this piece of shit, Saul?

It's a good sign for Saul that said piece of shit's eyes are lighting up. "So, then... how were you thinking we were going to make it believable?" Lalo feels like he might have an inkling of where Saul is going with this, but he wants to hear Saul say it out loud first, just in case he's wrong about his guess.

Besides, it's more fun to watch Saul squirm when he has to say the horrible things he's planning to do out loud.

Perhaps one day, further down the line, Saul will have to wrestle with the fact that he gave good advice on being a dishonest person to a cartel boss. But that's not for present Saul to care about, especially because present Saul feels like that's just something guys like them (not that he's like Lalo at all, thanks, but it's better if Lalo thinks he is) already knew by default. Right now, what matters the most isn't justice or making money, it's making sure Lalo isn't pissed at him, that he can do his job, and get Lalo as far away from him as possible.

As far as Lalo's question goes, however, Saul can't help but wince a bit. Because he knows where this is going, and it was his idea to go there in the first place.

"Well, bringing your actual family into court won't be the best idea. I get the feeling they might blow your cover, so to speak."

Aha! So Lalo was right about his guess as to where this was going. He grins as wide as Saul as ever seen him grin, points directly at Saul and snaps his fingers.

"Fake family."

Edited 2023-03-27 21:33 (UTC)

At least Lalo isn't slighted by Saul's suggestion that his real family showing up in a display of support wouldn't be the best idea. Thank God for the small mercies, he supposes. He returns Lalo's point, like the two of them are both on the same page with something simple, like what restaurant they want to order from for lunch. Not, you know, hiring a fake family for a fake man to commit elaborate perjury and get a psychopath freed on bond for a murder he absolutely committed.

He can wrestle with the moral implications of this later.

"Exactly. You wouldn't happen to know anyone who knows anyone that could get us an appearance from Jorge De Guzman's family, would you?"

Hey, Lalo loves his family — in his own fucked up way — but he's not an idiot. If nothing else, he's very aware of how it would look to have a bunch of Salamancas show up after he gave the cops a fake name. Besides, Tuco's in prison, Hector's in the nursing home and as far as the others... eh, better keep them as far away from court as possible.

And hey! Saul's point genuinely delights him.

When Saul asks if he knows anyone, Lalo leans back and just smirks. It's not even one of his usual grins. Just... a smirk.

Does he know a guy?? Who does Saul think he's talking to? Okay, most of his contacts are back in Mexico, not here in the States, but even here, he has enough cartel connections to find somebody.

Lalo rubs his moustache almost gleefully. "Yeah, I think I can maybe rustle somebody up. He'll call you later with the details. But — " Lalo leans forward and slaps the table " — anyway, time for you to run on along home!"

Saul absolutely agrees. It is very much time for him to go home and prep probably one of the worst cases he thinks he'll ever work on, if not mostly because he has no choice but to get one specific verdict. He doesn't want to think about what might happen if he somehow fails to get it.

He shuffles the paperwork he brought in with him so that it fits neatly in a folder, and quickly files it away in his briefcase. He's not going to think about that JMM emblem emblazoned on the briefcase and what he originally wanted it to mean. For now, it's Lalo's way and he knows it. Justice matters most? No. It's just make money, and just get Lalo out of his hair.

"Make sure you dress your best for the judge. But if you need me before then, you know how to reach me."

Hopefully without getting any underlings to kidnap him. A normal phone call will do.

"Oh, don't worry. I'll be in touch."

Lalo winks. As far as he's concerned, they're not done yet. Oh, no. This is just the beginning.

He smiles and makes a 'run along' gesture at Saul.

what sounds better? revenge or popcorn?

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