Eventually, sleep is broken by the tread of feet on creaking wooden boards. Estelle standing up and loudly stretching for the night. She twitches, frowning. "Who put an air freshener in the house?"
"Agent Belltower came by this morning," Katherine said simply, resting on the couch angry trying to keep her calm as emotions washed over her. Her feet dangled over the side as she lays on her back with her jaw clenched. "There's apparently a secret society of time cops or whatever. My loops fuck up the timeline for everyone, it's either eternal war with an organization of people like me, or signing up. We're going to get the official speech at ten pm, I'd like your and Eleanora to come, but I won't force you. They said if I sign up, you'll be under my wing, won't be harmed by anyone inside or outside the organization. Also it starts at three hundred thousand a year."
"And you believed them?" Estelle looks incredulous. "This is like, every possible lie in the book for recruitment!" She's loudly proclaiming this, waking Eleanora up fully from where she was drifting to awareness.
"Perhaps Agent Belltower was trustworthy." She says, leaning up and speaking through the doorway.
Katherine tried to work out her internal logic, "If it's a lie, then the next time I die, I'll know most likely. Going along lets me learn the lay of the land. If it's not a lie however, then before even knowing what I'm up against I'm on a time cop vs time cop rampage that threatens everything I know and love. " She puts more thoughts into her phone with a grimace, "If what they said is true, the bubble could just pop, and the next time I die I just don't come back."
"We can hear them out." Eleanora says, drifting down the stairs. "It's not the money that attracts you, it's the danger of refusing them. Thus, we will hear them out."
"Exactly." She said quietly, "He also taught me a very neat couple of tricks. I can booby trap guns by thinking at them hard." Trying to put a positive spin on it somehow.
Estelle still frowns, "This feels like a conscription, Kat." She finally says, uncomfortable with the idea.
"There's a reason conscriptions generally work." Katherine replied a little upset, "The threat of what happens when you say no, is generally very very real."
Three knocks on the door attract everyone's attention, with a growled "Fucking air freshener." Rising out of Estelle.
"Come in." Katherine yells morosely, "We were just discussing my conscription!" Though she puts a smile on her face as she rises, "Who knows, maybe time cop isn't as bad as regular cop." Opening the door, "Agent Belltower hasn't threatened to shoot my dog yet, so he's already one up on the LAPD."
"I don't really feel that's a high bar." Belltower's in the doorway, looking much better, with a fresh, new suit and combed hair. "Compare me to the FBI at least." A smirk on his face.
"Why are you mormon?" She asks raising an eyebrow, before taking a deep breath. "So… Whose car are we taking?"
"Brought mine if you want to share a ride." Belltower points at an obviously armoured SUV, looking like it could take a tank shell. "Looks government, so no-one gives me trouble."
"I thought this was a government job. Though taking two cars at least gives the illusion I'm willing to walk out." Thinking harder, "But then we can't prep much nor will you get a chance to talk to my family. Not that it matters but it might help." She turns to Eleanora for advice.
"I'd like to test the mettle of Agent Belltower." Eleanora says, staring through him. "And vehicles are easily acquired if we need to walk, or fight out." Belltower frowns at that last bit.
"Well, that's settled. Let the unholy fusion of love, government work, and time begin!" She is wearing a button down blouse and slacks over polished black shoes, Katherine's hair spills out from a Trilby and she decides to open carry a large silver pistol, with a french rapier on one side, and a car on the other though wondered much too late if that might have been distasteful.
Belltower unlocks the car with a handprint on the door, turning it on with the same motion as the powerful electric hum comes out of the front. Grabbing the steering wheel, the interior of the vehicle is full of electronics, screens and sensors, showing a three-hundred and sixty degree view of every angle on cameras. The seats are some sort of comfortable polymer, everything looking sleek, advanced, cutting edge.
"Are you trying to impress us?" Katherine says looking at the SUV, "Surprised spy guy doesn't show up in a beater"
"Don't knock on my POV." He chuckles as the car starts up on the road, "She's driven me around on and off the job for…twelve years now. Works fine, if a little shaky on the highway."
"Twelve timeline years or…" Katherine was still trying to wrap her head around time-space and personal vs universal timelines.
"Chronologic years. Before the loop." Belltower's driving is a mite uncomfortable, taking some sharp turns here or there, but still safer than Estelle ever could be. "So, you wanted to–"
"What are your intentions for my Katerina." Eleanora asks the question in the most disarming way possible, making Belltower twitch.
"To give her a job interview opportunity, Miss." He coolly answers, voice even and body language unreadable still.
"What will this job entail?" The elder vampire drills him for information, a smile on her face despite how hard she's pushing.
"Likely, with her skill set? Investigation, data collection, possible combat arms roles on a volunteer basis." He rattles off practiced and capable. "I don't know much more than that, I'm not human resources."
"So I'd still get to kill peo—" Katherine cut herself off rapidly rephrasing for a question more palatable, "I'd just be doing what I normally did but for you guys?"
"Yeah, I'll see about getting you assigned to a really close by office. There'll be occasional travel, but LA's usually plenty busy." Belltower admits to some measure of authority in that.
"Be honest, how much of what the recruiters might promise will be ironclad? How much bullshit?" Katherine says with a deep breath.
"They don't lie." He answers firmly, "Just make sure they actually promised it, instead of saying it's an option. Like any job." The office comes into sight, a grim concrete building that looks like an office built fifty years ago. "Inside looks a lot nicer, outside's just to discourage vagrancy."
The first actual sense of distaste for someone came from Katherine at that, "Oh yes, god forbid a homeless person might want to sleep next to your technological marvel, in a neighborhood where every apartment costs 50k a year to rent."
"The classified building, full of information that can destabilize governments, yeah. They should probably go to the shelter four streets down." He dryly chuckles. "We know how to organize our structures, Miss Doukas. We built this whole area to avoid attention."
She opened her mouth to be pissy, but stopped, realizing that building the area most likely included the shelter. "Well. Okay."
Pulling into a parking spot out front, he stops. "Keep that energy though, it'll surprise the recruiters. They're used to people being all for the job." He smirks at causing pain to the recruitment staff, obviously not a positive relationship there. Katherine wondered if he felt about recruiters the same way a marine staff sergeant did.
Opening the drivers door, and unlocking all the rest in the process, he steps out first, tapping a code into a keypad and unlocking the front door with a hiss of pneumatic locks uncoiling. The door opens up to reveal a clean, brightly lit government hallway, the sort of place where the corners are squared off and the cleaning staff are never bothered.
He gestures for the three women to go in, prompting Estelle to comment lowly, "Yeah, yeah, lets just go into the murder hallway, it's fine." Tapping her fingers on her holster, through the leather jacket she's wearing. Eleanora is intaking the place carefully, eyes skimming over the place with keen, inquisitive focus to them.
Belltower gestures to a door, "Just go in there, Cassidy will be with you, or is already in there." The door is one of those with a shuttered window, a plaque on it saying 'Mari Cassidy, Head of Human Affairs'. Both women wait on Katherine to push it open, this being her night.
With a deep breath Katherine pushes open the door standing tall and proud as she opened the door. Winning smile as she walked into what looked to be a decadent office. A thick wood table resting on plush carpet from the seventies. Filing cabinets lined up in neat rows, while small personal accouterments hung on the wall, a 'Masters in Business Administration', some certificates, a picture of friends partying. Katherine did feel much better when she walked in three to one. The small bit of warmth it brought her putting some confidence back into her as she walked forward with an outstretched hand.
"Hello!" She says in a bubbly effervescent voice, "I'm Katherine, Katherine Dukas."
The woman at the desk is similarly bubbly, a black pixie cut on an asian face, gold lipstick and almost digital-style makeup mixing in with more traditional gothic. She reaches up a hand with half a dozen bracelets on it to take Katherine's. "Hi! I'm Mari, it's amazing to meet you!" She's easily an equal to Katherine's energy.
"Please, you want anything to drink? I've got water, juice, smoothies in the fridge!" Mari bounces from word to word excitedly.
Getting wrapped up in the energy still well within her internal mania, she says, "Oh my god, that sounds so nice. I'd love a juice, I have to keep my blood sugar up normally. I try to keep sweet." The little joke for her and hers.
Mari nods, bouncing up to her full height of five feet and moving over to the fridge, pulling out two slim bottles, "You want pomegranate or orange?" She asks, poking her head past the door.
"Pomegranate would be amazing," Katherine said, starting small talk, "I actually used to make my own pomegranate juice with fruit from a neighbor's tree when I was a kid, a little messy but I've always loved them."
"I know right?" Mari sips at a smoothie, enjoying the taste as she also extracts two red slim bottles, "And I'm ready for any kind of guest! Would you two prefer AB+ female or O- male? I know those are the most popular varieties."
Eleanora shakes her head, "I don't need to indulge, miss Cassidy, merci." Whilst Estelle takes both, shrugging. "More for me." Mari finally settles back down on her seat with a grin, continuing to sip at her smoothie actively. "So, Katherine–can I call you that?"
"Yeah, but you can't call me Kat unless you bite me," Katherine says trying to hide a smirk as Estelle chokes on the blood a little bit.
"Oh you are gonna fit right in!" Mari chuckles, "So, the Union! That's our little name by the way."
"Do you mind if I take notes at all?" She says, pulling out a spiral pad notebook bound at the top, and pencil out from her back pocket.
"No, of course not! Go ahead." The recruiter laughs, "This is all recorded as well, if you want that sent to you?"
"I'm very paranoid and don't trust things that I haven't seen or recorded with my own hands." Katherine said with a smile, trying not to be rude, "It's nothing against you, but I've had someone do very specific mind magic on me, and so now I try to be triple cautious." Then she thought about it further, "Actually, I would like the recording. So I can compare with my notes."
"Of course! Never feel the need to justify that sort of thing to me, I'm just a coworker!" Mari smiles warmly, "So, the Union! We are…" She tilts her head side to side, as if trying to find the right words, "A really, really big, really old…secret shadow government, yeah, I feel that part is obvious?"
"I think as much yeah, a little weird to approach as an anarchist cop, but I guess there's weirder things in the world." She said smiling, scratching the back of her head, but watching Mari's reaction to the words like a hawk.
"Oh jeez, you don't wanna know what political debates sound like around here." She shakes her head with a smile, "I'm a social liberal and even I get into messes. Everyone's welcome!" Mari laughs again, a high pitched, cutesy noise.
It's an affectation, a tingle at the back of the mind says, but why. "I can imagine, you get a bunch of people who can control time and space, and who knows what else into a room and play god, you're going to have disagreements on what kind of god you wanna be." The smile was still there but she was being very pointed with the last statement.
"Well, you and Director Belltower would be the only ones with any sort of temporal education. But yes, one of our many purposes is to control one another! Imagine what happens if someone tries to be…I dunno, President with broad ranging mental affliction? A president that can make you like them through a TV screen?" Mari's still bubbly, but a little more serious, "Threats like that, threats to normalcy, to normal people living their lives and not being manhandled by forces beyond what a can of pepper spray or a pistol for self defense can handle? That's what we stop, control, and push back."
"Well, as long as it's for the grea— Wait did you say Director Belltower?" Her jaw falling a bit, as Katherine's mind tried to piece that together. "Can a Director be an agent?"
"Well, Director Belltower's promotion is recent, last twenty four hours after…uhm, a nasty mess up in Washington State." She explains, "But, technically, we're all agents!" Mari finishes off.
"So not a lie exactly, just a smaller part of the whole picture." She writes down Union, Dishonest to a point, Controlling also seeming to a point. "That makes sense then!"
"I hear he contacted you? What was that like, we don't normally put NWO on recruiter duty. They're a little…much." Mari laughs at her joke.
Katherine smiled warmly, "We spoke." Letting the statement hang in the air with no further explanation, waiting a few beats before saying. "I'm an ex-detective, I don't chat much about other people's affairs."
Mari nods excitedly, "I can see why you two got along! Anyways, you'd be being recruited into the Los Angeles Construct, this one here, we have…several open position due to the aforementioned Washington State fiasco, so!" She starts flicking through folders, before eventually giving up and going to a computer to pull the information up digitally, "Any questions yet while I look? I'm really disorganized sometimes!"
"I actually have a long list of… Requests? Demands sounds very wrong, um…" Katherine tries to put a finger on her chin as if questioning how to say what she wants to say, even though she heavily prepared in the car. "That's for if I take the job though. I'm honestly a little dismayed, one of the reasons I'm interested in this is learning more about the temporal education, but that seems not a thing that can be offered if there's only two people capable or say, learned in it."
"Oh! Oh no no!" Mari assures, "That's just in the, well, area! We're an international organization, we have people in every corner of the world."
"Oh so you could fly or zoom me a tutor?" She asks with a smile.
"Yeah? Should be easy!" Mari assures, "Agent development is a core responsibility of mine, so I'll be working on a personal action plan for that as soon as we get you on payroll!" Her smile is vibrant.
"I'll write that down then!" She says, on a new page writing, Requirements: Tutoring as part of employment package.
Mari squeaks in joy as she finds the document she wants, "Yes! Finally!" She turns her screen so Katherine can see it, a short contract showing on it. "Now, you're gonna wanna read and re-read this over and over, but, there's a key point I'd like to talk about." Mari points to a line.
"Right here!" It reads, Employment within the Union requires a minimum service period of eight years, and minimum contract lengths afterwards are four years. "That one's always a sticker for many!"
"Who does a director answer too?" Katherine said interrupting the conversation very quickly to see if she can pull an answer out.
"Oh, North American Comptroller, why?" Mari answers quickly, in the swing of being an information source.
"Trying to learn the organization structure, and then the Comptrollers respond to like… A… Priest? Or… Probably a better name, like a board or something."
"They answer to Control! A directorate of five individuals, why?" She keeps giving answers, not worried at all as it turns out.
Skipping past the why, she says, "Honestly, I'm down to sign a much longer term of contract if everything surrounding it is good. Is eight years on a personal timeline basis, or a more universal chronology? Say a mission has me looped for six years in one year, did I serve one or six?"
"That'll be up to Director Belltower, an edge case where their judgemnt is trusted!" Mari answers, "But the director is familiar with that situation, so I imagine six." She's been slowly scrolling through the document, letting Katherine, Eleanora's and Estelle's eyes pull across it.
"Can I get an e-mail or print copy of this as well?" She asks, staring at the document with needle point focus. "What would I actually be doing as far as I can tell, I'm like… Time detective."
"Well, lets talk about recent cases!" Mari says, "Our work is very broad, so this'll help. We've had four cases in the last four months, the first one was…" She pulls up a report on the screen, "A tiny little thing, just someone winning six lotteries back to back. We had them return the winnings and stop using Entropic procedures willy-nilly. Our point was proven when their car spontaneously deconstructed on the highway from the luck-debt!"
"Oh, so you didn't just…" She put a finger gun to her own head, "That makes me feel a bit better."
"Oh no, killing's a last resort!" Mari seems very insistent on that, "I refuse to work in some sort of grim faced, murder Construct!" She seems to imply that there are those sorts.
That makes Katherine's eye twitch as she remembers the reason why she was here, and she hopes the very sour feeling didn't show on her face. The look on Mari's suggested it might have.
"The case after that was very much involving me!" She flicks to another file, "It was a very serious case of political fraud, mind-control substance laced mail!" Mari smiles, "Had to trace through the mailing addresses to find the person doing it, a hermit in the woods who we had to commit to a mental institution, he wasn't…going to stop." She frowns at the result, "Not my best work, but it happens."
"Case three was a quick and easy series of disappearances, linked back to vampires. We took out the director and the curve cooled." Mari describes.
"So it's Okay to kill people as long as they're sick or different?" She said, suddenly cool.
"I-what?" The short woman's confused, "It was an operation headed by Director Belltower, he doesn't take kindly to…trafficking."
"Oh." She said, a bit sheepishly. Then that second part she said, "Oh… The… Problems with my head were also related to vampires in trafficking. A thinblood on the LAPD."
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Mari nods quickly, "Yeah, haemophages are very much involved in the flesh trade, its where we come to blows most often. Obviously, they're just moving food to them."
"I mean, it's not haemophages that are just in the flesh trade. There's entire networks very much outside of them. They're people like anyone else." Katherine was very firm on this point, making it clear she wasn't going to back down.
"Hey, I'm not the one to argue against that. I've had to argue down idiots trynna propose "Removal plans" for years!" Mari groans, "I definitely need someone like you aboard, it feels like I'm drowning in authoritarians sometimes!"
She's mirroring you, and saying what you want to hear, word for word. Doesn't mean it couldn't be true though, she supposed. "It might get… Ugly if someone talks about genocide around me." Katherine admits taking another sip of pomegranate juice. "Not violent, it's just not something I really tolerate as… Respectable notions to be stated out loud."
"Mhm, I get that, I do!" Mari assures. "No arguments from me, even if you punch them a little…lot." She smiles broadly, turning to the screen as the last operation is put on it, covered in black lines. "This last one was very rough, all volunteer. In Washington state they found a cult headquarters that was…uhm…practicing human sacrifice." She has a wince at that.
Katherine suddenly felt that maybe she had died a little inside at some point, as she just nodded before realizing that Mari had a reaction. "Oh, yes, bad."
"Director Belltower and five others went there and…uhm…cleared the compound. It went a little wrong, and had to be ended with an air strike." She winces again, "Only Director Belltower made it out, the rest's classified, even to me."
"Is it classified why you risked agents instead of starting with an airstrike?" Katherine asked, looking at the black lines.
"Human collateral. They hadn't worked through their…stocks." She looks a little green.
"Right, and you lost five agents on top of the stocks it sounds like." She was speaking absent mindedly, "I think I might be cut out for some of the… Darker assignments, while the political and mundane… I may lack the delicate touch needed." She hadn't entirely realized she was speaking out loud as she wrote down more notes now a very long list.
Requirements NEED IN WRITING:
Tutoring, in Los Angeles
Life insurance for Estelle and Eleanora
Health insurance, with telehealth and most up to date mental health medication
Leaving Los Angeles voluntary
Negotiable STILL NEED IN WRITING:
Funding to stop repoing / killing cats
Blood readily available at the house.
300k+ salary
Access to cool guns.
Buy/move people out of the house's around Elenora's so we can make an estate.
Full protection from any vampire hunting organizations. Dedicated agent if possible.
Please god do not make me have to play nice.
Eleanora and Estelle get to come with me for all work.
"I think I'm picking up what you're putting down Ms. Cassidy." Katherine says as she flips between the page of requirements and negotiables in front of herself, handing them over.
"Mhmm!" Mari absentmindendly says, looking through the requirements and negotiables, "Are…you sure this is all? You can ask for more, you know?" She says, looking a little concerned, "My hiring budgets three-quarters of a billion."
"I want guarantee that I won't get mind-fu—" She took a deep breath, "I would like a guarantee that my safety from the agency is insured while I'm employed, and if I can really ask for the moon. I want a heavy amount of resources spent on thickening the time bubble I'm in so that it doesn't pop."
"Okay, I can meet you halfway on the last part." Mari nods, "You're worried about age? Or dying? Right?" She fishes for the reason.
"No, I'm literally in paradise. Everytime I die, I wake up in front of half of my family, I go home with her, she calls the other half of my family and that normally continues into perpetuity until one of the three of us dies. Then I get to start over and do it even better. Each time, improved upon the last one. It's not a… Hard requirement, but that's what gets me up in the morning err… Night I guess, is knowing that Estelle and Eleanora are going to be there when I do." She turns a little red at saying this in front of them. Especially since they've only known each other for two nights right now. "I don't… From what it's explained to me, is that the time bubble can't be permanent, both a phsyical impossibility, and it stops the world from progressing. I don't know how to keep them safe, and how to get do-overs when I do something stupid, like… Literally stare into a claymore because it malfunctioned. It's the do overs, knowing that if I fuck it up there's always a second chance."
Mari nods, "That, I can work with, thank you for sharing!" She taps at a computer, "The temporal bubble is beyond, well, any authority you can reasonably ask, but, keeping you and them together no matter what? Far more doable." She taps at the keyboard again, opening something up.
"Not… No matter what, if they want to leave I wouldn't like… As long as people want to be with me." She says quietly still not quite looking at them, "But still safe if they don't want to anymore."
"Mon amour, tu m'auras pour l'éternité, je te le promets." My love, you'll have me for eternity, that I promise. Eleanora offers, touching Katherine's arm gently, sliding down it to hold her hand. She can feel how nervous Katherine in as she suddenly squeezes it, letting all the tension out into Eleanora's tiny palm, knowing the vampire can take her nerves.
"I can have you, and the other two if they consent, signed up for…well, we call it a Revivification Plan." Mari explains, "More or less, if you die, we'll keep a piece and then run it through some really cool processes, and you'll wake up. That, however, requires a twenty year contract."
"Deal." Katherine says almost immediately.
"Oh, you sure?" Mari asks.
"You can really stop the cat thing? Because it's fucking horrific."
"Uhm, it shouldn't be too hard if you know who's doing it? Just send a Black Suit team out and they'll trace it up the tracks." The recruiter frowns.
"Well, no, I'd like the entire practice stopped." Katherine said worried she wasn't clear, "Like, currently, it's just a legal thing you can do. They're on the web."
Mari blinks. "Huh, okay. I'll send it up the chain for legal repercussions to be legislated, but until then, I can assign a budget to you to handle that and whatever other pet-projects you wanna keep."
"How bad are those cool cigarettes for you by the way?" Katherine asks her, "I feel like you might know what I'm talking about?"
"Oh…you took one?" Mari's evidently worried. "They're… really unsafe, long term use leads to emotional deadness, lack of social response, uhm, all sorts of mental dissociation, not to mention physical dependence. "
"That… Tracks, sad." She says quietly, "Nevermind then, unless you make one that isn't all that bad shit."
"It's for crisis resolution, not regular use." Mari explains, "When you need to calm. We have other options."
"To be clear, it was that situation. Just after the fact you wonder." Katherine responds with a deep breath, "Still not as good as a vampire bite to be honest."
Eleanora smiles, and even Estelle cracks a grin at that. Mari shrugs, "I never tried that, I'm…not that trusting of people. But, health insurance will cover a top of the line pharmaceutical plan, or, if you want, we can schedule some neurologist visits, in-house, and see if there's more permanent options for your troubles that you want to consider.""
"Uh…" Suddenly, Katherine had been hit with something she thought was impossible, "Really?" She asked. "So what's the catch? That I might have to airstrike a school?" Pointing to the screen.
"Uhm, twenty years of doing most of what you're told?" Mari answers.
"What I'm told within the stipulations that I gave? Free time, not leaving LA, get to be with my family, protected." She asks trying to study her for some sort of catch. Trying to figure out what the bad thing was.
"Missions like the Washington one are always volunteer only, Katherine. If you don't want to go, you don't have to." Mari's not nervous, just searching for a reasoning.
"Those are really the only missions that make me excited, I'm more worried that I'm going to have to talk to Mr win-the-lottery and not be able to just stick a gun in his mouth and politely ask him to stop fucking the time-stream." Katherine admitted.
"I…think you and Director Belltower will get along." Mari sighs, realizing Katherine is just as crazy as the rest of her coworkers.
She looks at Mari, "Sorry, I thought you knew more about me coming into this. I'm very… uh."
"Don't worry, I try not to judge based on reports." Mari shakes her head, "And besides, they only need one of me, there's a lot more jobs for people more like you, Katherine! You'll be really helpful around here."
"So…" Katherine said quietly, "What are the rules when I'm on a case? And what are the erm… Disciplinary actions. I don't want to make anyone upset… doing work."
"Try to keep things quiet, we can bring force to bear, but if at all possible, it shouldn't be…unnatural?" Mari considers, "Keep the shadow government…shadowy!"
"Secondly, uh, prioritize human life over secondary objectives. If we say "Hey, try and take them alive" and they've got a hostage…just, do what you have to." The woman shifts somewhat uncomfortably.
Looking at Mari with a weak smile trying not to make things worse, "So… If I have to deglove someone for information but they don't die. That's… Okay?" Now wincing a bit, "Can I also get a pass on Jarred Ox of the LAPD for the respecting human life and dignity thing?"
Mari sighs, "Technically, the life of one does not outweigh the whole. Director Belltower rarely interferes with these things." She's a little downtrodden by the way the conversations gone. "I can provide everything else listed, okay?"
"Fine, unless I'm specifically in a life or death situation with Jarred Ox, then Eleanora will not peel his testicles. Like an orange." She harumphs, "Still a good deal, I just wanted to know where the limits were."
"Okay!" She bubbles back to life, another burst of corporate energy as she offers a digital signature prompt on the screen, "Would you like to sign now, or later?"
"Later, I want to review the documents, make sure everything we discussed is in them, and… Do something before I'm in the Union." Katherine said with a smile.
"Alright, Director Belltower is waiting to drive you all home, I'll send this to your personal email, alright?" She gestures at the screen.
"Yeah, that's prettyprettiestprincess@gmail okay? I never got a more professional one." Her own bubbly face on display thinking about murdering Jarred Ox a second time.
Mari cracks a smile at that, "Oh you definitely shouldn't, that one's great!" She flips the screen around, typing away, "Okay, we're all good now! See you…I have an opening Monday, next week, is that good?"
"Sure, my hours start at sunset, and end around sunrise, any availability in there is fine!"
"It'll be in your email." She answers with a happy nod as Eleanora and Estelle stand up with Katherine. Just outside the door, Belltower has another one of the cigarettes in his mouth, puffing at it greedily.
"Director Belltower." Katherine said with a puff of annoyance, "I could not think of more things to ask for, I asked for literally everything I wanted, and got it and then some."
Through the smoke, Belltower gives a very short chuckle, "We're pretty good like that. Promotions recent."
"Tell me there's more work that's uh… Not talking to lottery winners, and more work that's more…" She taps her leg.
"You wanna go out killing people with me on the regular? Because that's my job." Belltower flatly states.
"Maybe, if the benefits and everything else stays as it is." She responds, "Though I can't sign until after a couple of days. I gotta…" Katherine stopped talking,. "Stuff."
He points with his cigarette, "If you're kidnapping the man again, just do it while he's shitfaced in an alley in three days, one AM. It's in the folder. I don't wanna cover up a shoot-out." The cigarette smoke is calming, even just secondary exposure like the best in pharmaceuticals.
"In my defense, I looked very sexy during the shootout." Katherine said with a small smile, "Alright, I'll sign the contract in four days." As they walk back out to the SUV, she asks, "How much of Mari is her being excellent at her job, versus actually being like a weird mirror of myself." She asks with a laugh.
He's got the door opening when Belltower answers, "Mari's actually like that. Product of in-house academies. Never saw life outside the Union." He takes another drag before continuing, "Both her parents were agents."
"I might have spooked her a bit with my erm…" Katherine trailed off
"Naked bloodlust." Estelle said, with a grin that clearly communicated how much she enjoyed it.
"Yeah. You'll see that happen often." Belltower pulls onto the road, "She's sheltered, even in operations. Kinda like the company hundred millionaire pet."
She nods, the type is known all throughout Los Angeles, anyone whose walked past a corporate building knows the type, "If someone suggests purging vampires, can I shoot them or like… What's the maximum acceptable amount of violence?"
"As sole rule of law." Director Belltower carefully answers, "Do not permanently maim anyone, or exceed a hundred thousand in medical costs. That sorta talk doesn't happen often anymore anyways."
"Is that American Medical systems?" Though she snorted, very calm, "Anyone tell you you're very pleasant to talk to? I feel bad I tried to blow you up with a claymore at this point." She looks behind her to Estelle and Eleanora, before quietly saying as he spoke, "Though I might have a type I just get along with better…"
"No, actually." Belltower chuckles, a short sound of enjoyment as the cigarette puffs out, dulling him further. "Usually I get called a psychopath. Which is strange, I've met those, we're nothing alike."
"Most people aren't clinicians," Katherine speaks from experience, "They use words that sound good to them without understanding what they really mean. Medical terms especially. It's… Galling, as someone with my issues."
"You know that stuff's fucking you up, right?" Estelle quickly asks, curious more than worried.
"Yeah, its entertaining." Belltower admits, "I like to imagine the smoke's my soul leaving my body or something suitably poetic. All in the name of function." He puffs again, getting to the end of this cigarette.
"The effects seem like it largely matters on what the existing brain configuration was already like, if it just deadens and dissociates. I knew plenty of people like that in highschool, according to my notes I was in a support group of some kind." Katherine said looking at her phone to pull up the notes, "Yeah, here it is, I was in a mental health support group to help spread suicide awareness."
Belltower taps his fingers on the steering wheel, holding out for a minute before another cigarette's in his mouth, "To be fair, I didn't smoke this much about, real world, seven days ago." He chuckles through the smoke.
That makes Katherine grimace but she can't help but let out a really awful chuckle, "Christ, I can not imagine what that was like. I'd have wanted to murder me if I were you."
"I've gotten really good at navigating the woods of Washington state." He chuckles back, finding deep enjoyment in the situation, "Though, there's no way anyone else makes it out, they aren't…dunno how to say it without sounding cold. Good enough." That snaps him back to a puff of the cigarette. "Remind me to tell you about it, and to avoid having a vision of it, for your own sake."
"Stuff like that has never really bothered me as much as it seems to other people. I feel intensely about people I care about, but sad horror shows don't seem to phase me much." She doesn't know why she trusts Belltower so much, she guess she owed him honesty at least for putting him through hell, "The fact you still want to recruit me instead of the brain scramble means you're probably a much better person."
"Everyone needs rules to live by." He answers, smirking, "My rules mean I don't get to be a kid about this sort of thing. Professionalism and all that I guess." Another puff of smoke, another cigarette to replace the first.
She looks at him as she pulls out a Black and Mild, studying this… Guy. This man who has seen and killed and died in a very real way, but still holds onto his honor and ideals. Trying to figure out what leads a man down that path. She had never truly understood why they did anything, mostly seeming to be violent and impulsive. Which was probably a vast oversimplification and horrific gender based stereotype. She respected him. Then again, it was very clear that her type was damaged and dead.
"Are you going to be my procedure teacher then? Since we're going out murdering all the time." She says a wry smirk on her face. "Also I want to learn those rules I think."
"Sure, you'll end up in a black suit though. Its about tradition." Belltower chuckles again, turning a corner and arriving on the right street.
"Can I wear a pink tie?" She asks with a smile. Looking out at the familiar palm trees, watching a rare dead frond fall from the sky dangerously.
"Not until I think you're good enough." He pulls the park brake ahead of Eleanora's home.
"I think we're both extremely lucky men aren't my thing Agent Belltower. These two'd have to tear you apart." She said with a wink as she left the vehicle.
There's no visible reaction to the joke as the three women leave, the SUV's door sliding shut on its own and driving away. Estelle however, does immediately comment, "I dunno I sensed some real sexual tension there." Bringing a wry smirk to Eleanora.
"I know right? It's weird," Katherine admitted as he drives away, "I just feel like… "
"Il recevait bien les ordres et les donnait encore mieux." He'd take orders well, and give them better. Eleanora comments past her smirk, opening the door and waiting for the two women to enter her home.
"Wait wait wait, I've seen this cartoon." Estele says loudly as she slides into a chair in the living room. "It's the one where they have a blonde with one arm!" Eleanora is deeply confused, shaking her head as she sits with a smile.
Katherine disables a claymore with the RC remote, and looks at Estelle "Full Metal Alchemist?" She asks, "With the talking suit of Armor?"
"Yeah! I watched that in the two-thousands." She chuckles, fondly remembering it, "Ah, I watched way too much TV back then."
"I think I see it," Katherine replies as she walks through the house to grab a more sustainable dinner. "I can't wait to kill Jarred again, that's going to really be the topper for this week I think." Then she remembers all the biting, "Actually, wow it won't even hit top five."