[oWOD] The Vampire and The Time Mage: Now, Then, and Forever - [COMPLETE]

[Dapperlad1]

Unbeknownst to my Co-Author (I think?) the Entire manuscript is cut up into Obsidian on my end with a fuck-ton of tagging and where it's referencing so that I can flip back and forth to check things.

Click to shrink...

I'll pretend like I know what an Obsidian is to seem cool and collected and knowledgeable. And not like I just write words on a doc and remember shit lmao.

 

[Princess Scribe]

I'll pretend like I know what an Obsidian is to seem cool and collected and knowledgeable. And not like I just write words on a doc and remember shit lmao.

Click to shrink...

I was thinking about doing this in private, but it'd be cool to share, so I have all of our stuff in Obsidian sorted like so:



When I click the highlighted text, it brings up where it's referenced, creating a web like so:



I can then use the web to see what event is referenced where, and be consistent through-out the writing.

 

[Dapperlad1]

I was thinking about doing this in private, but it'd be cool to share, so I have all of our stuff in Obsidian sorted like so:



When I click the highlighted text, it brings up where it's referenced, creating a web like so:



I can then use the web to see what event is referenced where, and be consistent through-out the writing.

Click to shrink...

That's wicked cool lmao. I have a notebook IRL I write in shorthand in. It keeps things mostly straight. Just have to reference it sometimes while writing which is when I slow down for a sec.

 

[Princess Scribe]

> Be me
> Get a Masters in Data Science
> Be one of the forefront scientists in the tech field
> Create wonders of technology beyond comprehension
> Your co-writer is approx. 300 years old
> Writes in a notebook like an animal
> Indispensably improves final product you could create on your own with all of your fancy toys.

wtf chat I'm calling a goddamn audible.

 

[Lain]

Good, good. Nice to see you happy and nice to see stories concluded even if there is a hint of promise for MORE...

 

[Lain]

> Be me
> Get a Masters in Data Science
> Be one of the forefront scientists in the tech field
> Create wonders of technology beyond comprehension
> Your co-writer is approx. 300 years old
> Writes in a notebook like an animal
> Indispensably improves final product you could create on your own with all of your fancy toys.

wtf chat I'm calling a goddamn audible.

Click to shrink...

Seems legit.

Analog Sorcery is a perfectly respectable scholarly field.

 

[Princess Scribe]

016 - That Boom Boom Boom

As fetid ocean waters rise under the Santa Monica pier, the sound of joy and laughter echoes out from the distant festivities. There's a blocked off part of the street, an animal attack tarped over and covered by uniformed officers idly mumbling conversations in flickering lamplight.

Watching from afar, someone with broad shoulders and a large coat pretends not to watch. She has a cigarette between her lips, her eyes are empty and sallow. Large dark circles making them puffy and the red cracks betray months without rest. Her hair is thrown into a tight auburn bun, and the smell of tobacco permeates every part of her being. She ashes it with mis-matched fingernails, covered in chipped emerald nail polish. Her trench coat has stains of something dark, and the very edges are frayed from years of use. Her phone is out, with a professional lens attached to slyly take photos.

The corpse is barely visible under the cover, looking like an industrial accident. It's just one of a dozen distractions that keep everyone's attention tightly wound to the life around them rather than anything more worrying. A diner calls to travelers in the night, Surfside, a place that looks like it should have closed down decades ago, but somehow clings to life.

Click, the near-silent photograph as the officers don't even bother to care to notice is saved, blood spattered pier recorded on the device. A buzz pulses in the background of the sight, like a speaker set to infrasound. Finally, an ambulance arrives, more clicks, more photographs. The body is moved, slipping out from under the tarp to show the vomit-inducing horror of ruined flesh, shattered bone and deep organ-spilling furrows that happened across its frame.

"Motherfucker." Katherine screams angrily, "Cette ordure! Cet enfoiré! Cet enfoiré en costume noir." That fucking scumbag! Black suit wearing fuck! "I can't fucking believe I blew my own face off with a FUCKING CLAYMORE." Two police officers turn to stare at the screaming detective, and the EMTs are now staring. She gives them the finger, "Just eat them already, Eleanora. Son of a fucking bitch."

Its a hair raising moment as, suddenly, something changes. With the delay, Eleanora rises and pounces on the officers first, draining one in seconds as the other pulls her gun, only to be shot from behind by Katherine. The bullet ripping through her leg, causing her to drop the weapon and then Eleanora drains her as well. The EMTs now panicked receiving gun shot wounds as well. Eleanora devours them. Angrily, Katherine sticks her gun back in her ankle holster bristling with fury.

"I can't believe I died in three weeks. God fucking damnit." Katherine bemoaned to herself looking at Eleanora dripping in blood, "You want a ride home?" She asks, knowing she already fucked this up.

Eleanora stares, covered in blood. "J'ai l'impression de vous connaître." I feel as if I know you. A tilt to her head, predatory in nature. Black eyes drilling into Katherine with hunger.

"Je t'aime depuis des centaines d'années, mais à chaque fois, tu dois réapprendre qui je suis. C'est une malédiction pour moi, et un cadeau pour toi." I have loved you for hundreds of years, but each time you must learn who I am again. It's a curse for me, and a gift to you. She responds in perfect french, but also very sad, "I am normally far less angry when we meet. I caught a claymore with my face."

"Ah, I see." Eleanora nods, listening to distant sirens, "I barely believe you, but I do. Show me to your car, mon futur amour." She stands, offering a bemused hand.`

Her face falls as she says that, knowing that Eleanora will have to fall in love with her again. "I'm sorry, I do this a lot better normally." She takes it with tears in her eyes, Yep, definitely a manic episode, she realizes as her brain chemistry snaps into its new position. She talks to Eleanora as they walk, "You take care of me, normally. You find out that I'm very sick in the head but for some reason it makes you care for me more. I teach you how to use your phone, and text, and I hide in your house… Normally, for a while. Then my apartment blows up and you call Estelle and…" She opens the car door, letting Eleanora in, "And the three of us make each other very happy. I didn't think this would be so hard for me."

Eleanora slowly drifts into Katherine's words, imagining it with a smile as they both enter her ancient junker of a car. "You make it sound so beautiful." A breathy tone to her, as if there, in that dreamworld, now.

"God it is, mon amour, it is." She replies, tears in her eyes as she drives, trying not to make eye contact, "It's hard, it's in my future, but I've also lost it. It won't be the same, because it's never the same, no-one can do everything the same exactly. Perfectly. I'll be a little less shy, a little less inexperienced, you'll be a little more wary and confused. It's all different now and my heart breaks for what's already in front of me." She looks at Eleanora, "And I realized that like… None of the affection started immediately, it took a while, and that… I'll have to wait, because of course you don't know me yet. I'm just… Yes I know," She says getting on the I-10, "Hollywood off of Beverly and Highland."

"Oui." Eleanora's eyes are still closed, "Estelle as well? I thought she…hated? Yes, hated me."

"No? I never saw anything of the sort, you called her to help, she showed up and we talked. She was a little rough at first, but we got to know each other." She couldn't stop herself from crying now, "You guys seemed friendly, you'd call us mes amours, together. We went to a theater and it was… An experience. I was covered in bites before I looped. I'm a bit of a brat normally."

"Perhaps I am conflating her memory with anothers." Eleanora places a hand on Katherine's leg, the bloody chill drawing out some tension. "Would you like me to hold you, Katerina?"

"Yes please." She cries, her eyes pouring tears now as she pulls into the driveway, the hyper active parts of her brain tearing itself apart in a panic mournful fervor. Almost desperately grasping at a semi-balance of normalcy that was ripped from her. "Goddamnit."

The car pulls to a stop, Eleanora reaches over and holds Katherine for a second, saying, "Lets go to my bedroom, oui?" She asks calmly, smiling at the other woman, trying to be comforting.

"Oui." She responds dismayed, her heart bleeding from a million tears and cuts. "I just saw you yesterday, and it was beautiful, and now it's today and you don't know me." The house was… reset, the small additions Katherine had made to make herself feel comfortable were all gone. None of the weapons hidden or on display were there. There was an emptiness in it, a chill from not having been filled with love yet. An empty receptacle, and a blank canvas. She's unthinking as she walks up towards the bedroom, before remembering this isn't your house yet. It may never be.

Eleanora walks to her bedroom, something like need in her, a need to feel what's being offered, a desire to know what Katherine is describing. "Can I call you ma Katerina?" She whispers, sitting on the edge of the bed.

It makes her burst out into a little gasping sob, "Yes ple-ple-please." She says through shuddering breaths. Shattering as she crawls into familiarly scented sheets. "Can you hold me? Your touch is soothing, like a breeze. I'm sorry I'll be more romantic next time I promise."

"This is more romantic than I could have dreamed, mon amour." She whispers, holding Katherine tightly, "A love I did not expect coming into my unlife, knowing me." Eleanora's voice is bright, exuberant. "Une historie d'amour que je ne connais pas." A history of a love I do not know.

"A hundred and seventy years, mon amour." She says quietly as Eleanora holds her, "And I fuck it up by staring into a claymore I was told would go off. Well, no, the last loop was a month-ish."

Eleanora shifts, smiling as her lips near Katherine's. "Can you teach me something, again?" She whispers.

She kisses Eleanora deeply, for a few seconds, relishing in the contact, "I will teach you things forever, mon amour." Another deep breath, "I am really happy that being like this didn't ruin everything." Shuddering breaths again as she latches on to Eleanora in a deep hug.

"I like your joy, mon amour. Vous êtes comme un soleil. Mon soleil." You are like a sun. My sun. Eleanora compliments, breathing a steady rhythm as she leeches more heat from Katherine. "You will stay, oui?" She looks to the other woman curiously, hopeful.

"Et tu es comme la brise, la brise qui rend une journée de printemps parfaite." You are like the breeze that makes a spring day perfect. She responds clunkily, "Oui, it would be hard to keep me away, mon amour."

"Mon amour." She repeats back, smiling with fangs, "Would you like to rest tonight?" Her eyes have faded from black, returning to a pretty and bright blue.

"I don't know what I want anymore," She whispers, "I want things to be like they were. You were always allowed to bite me, but you had a strict four week rule." Nodding matter of factly. "I want to sleep and wake up knowing you'll be here still, and you'll still love me, and that we'll still be fated to be together forever."

"I swear to love you, mon amour." Eleanora whispers, "I could never deny your love."

The weeping is harder, joyful now, but still overwhelming emotion as she grips the tiny woman.

---

An apartment explosion is on the news as Eleanora awakens, stretching the last bits of last night out. She stares over Katherine's shoulder. Blue eyes reflecting the phone's glare.

"Yeah, it's mine LAPD human trafficking ring was using domination magic to fuck with my head. Gave me schizo-affective disorder, or worsened it. They're blowing it to try and cover loose ends, a thin blood is behind it named Jared Ox." Katherine says as she updates her notes with everything that happened so far, updating her files from memory, checking her phone. "This time I ordered everything under a fake name, and hid the car in the garage so it wasn't waiting out all night on the street. Also when you concrete your kindred just know I fully support you."

She's not looking at Eleanora as she scribbles into her notebook frustrated, "Fucking… Do you know what this means 'Rule of Law is to be Human, something… Immortal is bad." She couldn't remember and it drove her nuts. It was only a week ago.

"It sounds like something a Hunter of Kindred would say, mon amour." Eleanora is in a bathroom, door open as she runs the shower, waiting for it to heat. "Or someone who believes mankind can lead itself." Slipping into the shower, she starts to get the blood off her.

"Yeah, it's who got me blown the fuck up." She says outloud, "Came by the house when we started murdering LAPD to give us documents and then threatened us. So I tried to claymore him, but it didn't go off until a few seconds later after he walked out. I was staring into it to figure out what had happened." Her jaw sets angrily, as she writes, "Some fucking… ARGH. His name was Agent Belltower, does that mean anything to you, love?"

Eleanora pauses, before saying, "I've heard that last name before, twice in five centuries. The bearer of it is always dangerous. I believe it's a title."

"Fuck. He's a time person like me, but he said his loops were smaller, I don't know if that's true." She started to peel at a number two pencil with a KA-BAR until she had an extremely long exposed piece of lead, and then started to sketch out her best attempt at a picture. Scrawling the face out in shadow, teasing it from the paper into being. "Next time I'll just shoot him in the fucking head."

Eleanora laughs warmly, "Perhaps you should contact him instead?" She suggests, "Take…how do you say? L'initiative?"

"I think I know how," She takes out her phone and sends a text to the Maine Coon breeder, "Agent Bell Tower, Katherine Dukas." Following it up with, "Oops wrong number." Then types the same thing into a google search for good measure.

A buzzing ring immediately arrives from a Canadian number.

She answers it and says, "First of all, fuck you." Her throat catching with venom.

An office, quiet but still with some amount of life in it is heard, familiar to a police officer's ears. And a tired voice answers, still dead. "Good morning, can I call you in three hours?"

She groans, "Yes, but I'm going to be pissy the entire time." Katherine admits angrily. "You blew me up."

"I told-nevermind. Alright, I'll be on the phone in three, just need a nap." He seems to try hanging up, obviously stretched thin before saying, "I can't see very well, help me on your end?" Eleanora raises an eyebrow as she comes out of the shower with a towel around her.

"Have you been watching us fuck you creep?" Katherine says, her mind going in entirely the wrong direction, before getting up and checking that the blackout curtains are properly hung.

"I can't see the damned phone well enough in the dark." He growls, annoyed at himself.

She is very confused, and turns a light on at that "I turned a light on, and put you on speaker, does… That help?"

A noise of a phone being thrown is on the other end, cutting off as it slams into a wall, ending the call. Eleanora is very confused as well, "I…hmm." She whispers, looking at the disconnected line. "Maybe he had one of those…button telephones? Without light?"

"He blew me up, so if he's pissy that's fine." Katherine said angrily, looking at her phone, but still with a tinge of concern.

With a placid neutral look, Eleanora gently approaches Katherine, "Mon amour, what you described did not sound like his actions leading to your demise."

It wasn't… untrue but she didn't like hearing, so Katherine merely huffed in a response.

Her phone buzzed again three hours later, Katherine picked it up and again said, "First of all, Fuck you don't throw shit like a child."

Belltower sighs, "That was unprofessional, yes. It's a rough start for me." He admits, voice evening as he talks, a sip of something starting to rejuvenate him. "Did you have something you needed this early?"

"Are we fucking wizards or super-heroes or what the fuck is going on? You came to my house, scared the shit out of me, and then let me blow myself up with claymore." That felt slightly more accurate while still shifting the blame off herself. "I want some answers."

"Then you want a conversation in person." He finishes the drink in a gulp, coffee machine sounding out as it prepares another dose of caffeine.

She huffs again, "What loop with us is this for you, it's second for me."

"With you that's lasted past the six hour mark? Two, yeah." He's distant to the phone, but still audible, "I still don't know how I got caught in it. Rookie mistake." Belltower's aggravation and emotions show much more prominently when he's tired.

"Wait…" She said quietly, "Oh no… I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."

"You didn't do anything, Miss Doukas. You Awakened." The agent offers some support, returning to nearby the phone.

Katherine bites her nail, taking deep breaths, "Yes, but I didn't know I'd be trapping someone in a six hour cycle with me when I was having my hundred years of… Career workshopping. No wonder you were so cagey alright, you know where to meet me. Just walk in."

"Flights in two hours, Ontario to LA isn't a short one." Belltower confirms to himself and Katherine. "Be seein' you." He hangs up.

Eleanora frowns again, "He is dangerous, I can taste it in the air. A viper in human skin."

"He won't do anything to me until he can figure out how to break the loop." She says, though she wasn't sure, "Unless he kidnaps me and keeps me permanently alive so the time stream doesn't break. I guess. Or something worse. I'll just shoot myself in the head and start over if things get squirrely."

"I dislike this plan." Eleanora admits, staring at Katherine with mild annoyance. "May I be there with you, mon amour, when you speak to him?"

"Absolutely, but he will almost assuredly be here at day time, he was desperate to leave before either of you woke up." Katherine responded quietly, "Can you come up with a reason for Estelle to come over?"

"I could say I received a vision that I will love her." Eleanora shrugs, pulling her phone out, "And I need her now. How is that?"

She looks at her thinking, then nods, adding, "And tell her there's a six foot tall woman who desperately wants to meet her. That might work."

The phone buzzes twice as Eleanora prepares her voice humming, and as it answers she says, "Estelle, I need you." Causing a choking gasp on the other end of the phone that needs a minute to calm down. As it does, "A six foot tall woman at my home needs you even more." Another rattling choke as Estelle tried to smoke again to calm. Eleanora is smiling broadly.

Katherine yells into the phone, "I'm very cute! And, I now know there's two Irelands!"

"What the fuck did I miss!?" Estelle shouts at her end of the phone, "Fuck, gimme thirty-christ."

"If you get here in twenty, I'll give you a reward!" Katherine giggles into the phone over Eleanora's shoulder, "I love bites that hurt."

A Firebird's engine roaring is clearly heard on the other end as Eleanora hangs up, holding back a laugh. "Ah, Estelle's such a direct woman. No useless complexities." She's delighted by that.

"I missed her as well, her apartment gets blown up by cops and she moves in. Though I guess it won't get blown up by cops now, unless I ask her to do the research that makes the cops show u—" She's suddenly very sad, "Oh no… She doesn't know about the sex we had after I pulled all the bullets out of her…"

Eleanora laughs, her mask of calm breaking fully. As she recovers, crystal voice tickling Katherine's ears, she says, "Mon amour, I can see why I fall for you every time."

"I am adorable," Katherine admits, as she finally finishes her sketches, notes, and orders.

 

[Princess Scribe]

017 - Reconnections

Seventeen minutes after the phone call, the front door is swung wide open. With Katherine's eyes a-glow with mischief. Though she realizes as she looks into Estelle's, there's no recognition. It's still a gut punch, maybe it'll get easier next time.

There is, however, a rake of eyes across her figure, a newly born lust in her eyes. "Well, hello." She growls through a puff of menthol smoke.

"Hello Estelle," Katherine says, "I'm Katherine, everytime I die, I wake up to kill some police officers with Eleanora, then I come here, and we call you because you were a part of us. It made me extremely happy, so I try to do that part every time. Also last time I got your apartment blown up so you moved in."

She stops and thinks breathing heavily as she gets up and leaves to go get wine in the kitchen talking over her shoulder as she moves. "Though it was actually rather hot? Because you came in with all these bullet holes and then I pulled them out, but to pull them out required slowly undressing. It just got more flirty and intimate as it went on. I'm kind of sad that won't happen this time, but maybe something cooler will."

Pouring herself a glass of wine from Eleanora's stocks, "I drink all the wine in a week," She apologizes to Eleanora, before turning back to Estelle "Anyways. Yeah, I desperately need you in my life to be happy. It's very unfortunate, as I drive you insane with teasing. Well unfortunate for you, I have a lot of fun."

"So is that permission to hold you against a wall?" Estelle smirks, striding in to the house as Eleanora watches her with a keen eye.

"If you can catch me, but currently you've always been too slow." Katherine says biting her bottom lip, "I tend to get behind a door or wall just in the nick of time."

Estelle hums to herself, continuing to get closer, "Sounds like poor planning on my end." Her voice is so deliciously smoky as she's nearly upon Katherine.

Katherine darts towards the back door with a gleeful giggle, hopping over the kitchen island, pealing away as fast as she can trying to get the door shut in her face before she gets to her. Instead her eyes going wide as it clothes on an arm that snakes out and grabs her, only causing more nervous excited giggles. "Oh no," Katherine said as she was yanked in, "You caught me."

"Mhmm," Estelle growls, pushing Katherine down as she sinks overtop her, attraction instantly back in her black eyes, as if this was all she needed. With a nervous giggle, Katherine bites Estelle on the neck first before she can, hard enough to draw just a bit of blood that she licks.

"I'm gonna–" The vampire hisses down, interrupted by Katherine.

"I know." Katherine says happily with a smile, "Maybe stop before I actually die though."

"Elle ne sera pas seule." She won't be alone. Eleanora leans in the doorway, "First taste is mine, oui?" She's looking at Katherine with hunger, black streaks starting to slip into her eyes, fangs showing clearly as her smile grows.

"Oui, but it's best when you do it together." She admits happily that things were coming back to what she remembered at least slightly, "Salty and sweet. Ice and fire."

Eleanora moves behind Katherine, gently prodding Estelle to let her sit instead of being flat to the ground. "Let's get these things off, no?" She starts to unbutton Katherine's shirt, reaching from behind skillfully while Estelle smirks, "Yeah, let's." Pulling off Kat's belt. Every ounce of their attention on her, two hungry hunters toying with prey.

The nervous giggling now reaches a crescendo as she's lifted by Eleanora at one point as Estelle helps slip off her pants. Sitting between the two completely naked, flush and overwhelmingly ecstatic. "I was really worried one of you would find this weird in a bad way." Her eyes are tearing up happily, "I love you both so much."

"Mon amour." Eleanora smiles, looking at Estelle, "Mhmm, no. Mes amours." Catching her black eyes and smiling at her. Estelle freezes slightly at the look. But finds bravery to keep going rapidly, descending into lust while Eleanora lowers against Katherine's neck, starting to nip and lick, finding the perfect spot, the exact same spot as always.

Estelle raises up, hand sinking past Katherine's waist and between her legs as she grins, going to the other side of her neck, "This is gonna hurt, bad this close."

"That's the best part," Katherine whispers, as she jams her hands in both vampires hair forcing them onto her neck. "It always does," She gasps as they connect, her mind overflowing and her eyes rolling back in her head as they drink. Raucous laughter spilling out unbidden as she realizes that even this, the worst case scenario where she shows up sad, angry, and confused, will still start at least, the way she wanted with her two favorite people addicted to her as much as she was to them. Though those thoughts were hard to collect after the first few seconds and the drinking became greedier and deeper.

It stops sooner than last time, Eleanora pulling away, grabbing Estelle's hair and tugging her off in an effort of strength as Katherine shivers, smiling.

"Sorry," She gasps, shaking and trembling, "I forget how much weaker I am today, and how" Another shuddering gasp as the shakes get more intense, "How far into your head I can get." She gasps one more time very light headed and dizzy with an over abundant pleasant coolness to herself, "I think I will pass out if I don't get a bit of blood in me. Don't worry I'm AB positive." She says with another gasp. "Universal receiver. I think that makes me a vampire power bottom."

"I'll care for you, mon soleil." Eleanora stands up while Estelle chuckles, looming back over Katherine. "Just cause you're outta blood, doesn't mean I'm done." Sinking between her legs, hiking both onto her shoulders.

"Oh… No." Katherine says giggling and shaking with joy.

---

Hours later, after several transfusions and much torment and fun, Estelle and Eleanora are in their daysleep, leaving a shivering, far too energized Katherine between them when, at exactly ten minutes past sunrise, a knock echoes from the front door.

The knock can't sour her mood, though she tries to seem angry. She walks away on wobbly excited legs with a pure overwhelming joy as she opens the door. Though still holding a gun pointing at the ready as she answers it. Looking at Agent Belltower with a very dreamy facial expression, in spite of his presence rather than because of it.

"I'm less mad about you killing me now." She says with a smile still trembling like a leaf. Then she frowns, "Jesus you look like shit."

Belltower is not the carefully presented image of last Katherine saw him. He's paler, eyebags visible past the edges of his mirrorshades, a cigarette in his mouth and a half-empty freshly bought carton in his pocket, barely visible. "Feeling better already, thanks." He answers.

"Let me get you some coffee," She says, turning her back on him and walking inside. "The only safe chairs are the ones closest to the doorways."

"Yeah." He follows in, sitting on a safe chair, leaning back into it with a sigh, "Like I said, get a rough start." He accepts the coffee, not putting sugars or creamer in it as he immediately starts drinking at the mug-full.

"I start in the throes of a manic episode, which is less fun than it sounds. Very emotionally intense." Another deep breath as she calms herself, "So… We're like… Timelords? Time-jumpers?"

"Awakened, Enlightened, one of… maybe two thousand people globally." The agent answers after gulping down his mouthful of coffee. "Time's just one of the tricks we have, one me and you share to different extents." He explains.

"Sounds like I'm kind of fucking you when I loop though, if this is what you look like after a nap and breakfast." She says, still somewhat aghast at his appearance, "You looked much better last time."

"I loop back in the middle of a raid on a compound." He chuckles, "As I get shot." Belltower's finger prods at a point under his suit with a frown, "They packed armour-piercing, so it goes straight through the specialist plates."

She gives him a grimace, now actually feeling guilty, "sixty five thousand plus times in a row… Um." It's hard to make eye contact with that. "Sorry."

"Stop getting me shot so often, it'll count for more." He smirks, clean-shaven even through the injury and exhaustion.

"How do I help you see? The phone? Like you were asking, I'll try to remember next time." She says, with a deep breath.

"That would have been blood loss talking, just ignore me." He waves a hand at it, slipping the mirror-shades off to show heterochromatic eyes, one blue, the other green. Blinking them.

"Heterochromia is rare, but blue and green is like triple rare, plus a time mage? You really go all out." There's a small snort to her, not sure why she finds it funny.

"You awaken to it, its not a sure deal." Belltower chuckles, "We were born like anyone else, just had the right…moment to make us different. Yours? Probably the loop star–."

"Love." She said happily, looking upstairs, "I knew it was special the entire time, the talk in the car."

"Yeah, lucky you." The agent rolls his eyes, slipping the mirrorshades back on. "Usually less fun than that." He pulls a manila folder out, putting it on a coffee table nearby, "Here's the old info. Managed to save it."

"Wait you can save shit?!" She says shocked, as she picks it up, "How?!"

"That's very classified." He answers, smirking. "Maybe if you come aboard, we'll walk you through it."

With a stare at him, a very untrusting one she says, "Don't you guys want to hunt people like Eleanora and Estelle to extinction? A bit of a deal breaker, I'm very fond of them."

Belltower shakes his head, "They're a stabilizing influence. Vampires make the world go 'round. Middle managers of society more or less." It's a joke he's said a thousand times, "Couldn't do anything without them making sure nukes didn't fly whenever someone got really uppity and we weren't there."

"Has anyone told you that you're equal parts terrifying and depressing?" Katherine says as she flips through the documents, "I can handle this, but after I get my meds right, which takes a month. Schizoaffective." She points at herself morosely.

"Just anxiety here." He shrugs, "And, well, you know, twenty years as magic police I guess. That's probably caused PTSD." He pulls another cigarette out, smoking it quickly.

"I don't believe in PTSD," She says quietly, as she looks through the notes, reaching for a black and mild then lighting it, "I'd be riddled with it." Before her eyes suddenly dart around the room as she heard… Something. Before going back, "Do I learn more magic by practice, or do I need to look up books, or snort crystals or…"

"Just in case you ever talk to my co-workers, they don't like the M word. Makes them trigger happy." Belltower says rather seriously. "You'll figure it out, though, find someone to teach you if you wanna do it fast."

She glares at him with a tilt of the head, gesturing angrily with the black and mild, at the folder and then at himself. Nonverbally communicating, What about you?!

"I'll have you know." He points at Katherine with his own cigarette. "That folder cost the US government about a hundred million dollars in black budget. That makes it secret, not magic."

"So less than a percentage of a percentage." She says with an eyeroll, "Teach me some magic. I'll cook you breakfast. When has a human being given you positive attention? Years?"

"I'll teach you some procedures, sure." He ignores the barb with a smirk.

She smiles, moving to the kitchen, "Do you like pancakes?" Her mania in full swing now feeling… Perfect, unbeatable, cocky, and surefire.

"Haven't had a pancake in three years." He answers with a grim enjoyment of the incoming reaction.

Katherine laughs, but then stops sadly, "Oh wait, that's my fault." She said suddenly, "How does that… How do you keep track of the time necessarily? Because it's like, a five hour loop, I did sixty five thousand times by my count. So that's either, thirty years, or if in days, a hundred and fifty-ish, or It's just yesterday." She takes out a pan, and butters it before mixing flour and water.

"I was talking about perspective three. From a time loop perspective, if you make hashbrowns I think I might actually lose it." Belltower smirks again, dryly telling the joke.

She grabs a potato, and onion out of the fridge to grate them, receiving a harsh glare from Belltower, "Well if you insist." There was something in the moment that made her feel in control, when she knew she wasn't. Then she saw the glare, "Do you actually not want hash browns? I make really good ones." Pulling a cast iron pan out, and putting it on the stovetop. "I had Instacart run groceries over last night, everything is new and fresh."

"I'll try them." He answers, not quite committing, "But you'll have to work hard to beat blacksite cafeteria hashbrowns." The smirk grows on his face, very amused with himself and his dry jokes.

The challenge not entirely aware of the joke tickles the back of Katherine's mind as she grates, and seasons the mixed vegetables before putting them in a salad tosser to quickly de-moisturize them, pressing them tight between paper towels, smushing them with the cast iron, before buttering that as well, getting it extremely hot. "I have been cooking for longer than you have been alive Mr. Belltower. I'll beat any food out there."

"Looking to impress me?" He quirks an eyebrow as another cigarette slips out, third in minutes.

There's a moment where the statement catches her, and she drops an egg. "No." She says suddenly, as she grabs paper towels to clean it up, "Well maybe a little, still worried you're going to put me in a cell or something to keep yourself from looping. Or worse, just murder me when you need a do-over."

He shakes his head, "We take…uh…protect and serve is closest. We take it pretty seriously where I'm from."

"Oh I was with the LAPD," She said apologetically, as if that explained the entirety of it. Then putting everything into the pans with different timings. Ecstatic at how her powers make cooking so much easier. Before pulling out a second black and mild from her coat.

"Yeah, not exactly the same atmosphere in my line of work." A fourth cigarette, "Being black hearted like that gets you field retired." He jokes again.

There's a momentary pause, "Did… You see… Anything with us when we were uh… having discussions with Captain Jarred Ox." The tone very careful.

"Torture's not new, Miss Doukas." He chuckles, "We do worse."

"Eesh, I better make good pancakes then," She says staring into the pain, watching with delight as little timers in her soul seem to count the moments. Knowing they'll all be done exactly when they should. "What's the right word for what we do, and how do I properly ask 'teach me a cool wizard spell.'" She puts magic fingers up wiggling them excitedly.

"That's a topic which has had our type killing each other for a thousand years." Belltower shrugs, fifth cigarette now steadily burning down. "With me, Procedure works."

"Less than two thousand people global killing each other over whether to call it a spell or procedure." Katherine says with a snort, as she flips the pancake, "Glad to know we're all still very human then."

"Yeah, used to be more. Before ninety-nine. Bad year, if you ever figure out time travel, skip that one." He grimaces at the thought. "Real bad year."

Katherine writes that down in her phone very quickly. "If I ever find out time travel, I'm going to use it to give those two," she points up stairs with the spatula, "The most amazing lives they could ever have from birth to death to undeath to redeath. Then I'll die and do it again. Forever."

"At least you're not political." Belltower chuckles again. Sixth cigarette finally seeming to calm him down somewhat, an almost invisible anxiety lifting.

"I figure if time travel is real, getting involved in anything historical is going to be a shit show of immense proportions." She admitted as she sets another cup of coffee, two plates, food, orange juice, and an assortment of unopened condiments out in front of him. "When we loop again, keep this breakfast in mind for when you get shot. Something to look forward to."

He leans forwards, unbuttoning his cuffs and pulling them up to mid forearm, "Suit material's not good to eat." Belltower comments as he dives into the food, eating at a rapid, military pace. Used to not having much time for such luxuries.

Katherine's own plate has three tiny silver dollar pancakes, and a small bit of hashbrown that she knows she can stomach, more to be polite rather than an interest in eating. The meal was had in silence, though she has no way of knowing how odd that would or wouldn't be. Though Belltower cleaned his plate, so at least he must have liked the food. "Ok… Ma—" She stops, not magic, then with an even brighter smile, "Ok Method Man, show me a procedure."

"Pull out your gun," He gestures to Katherine, "Point it at me, chamber a round." Belltower doesn't sound worried about the command.

With a raised eyebrow, Katherine pulls a handgun out of the oven, and chambers a round pointing it at him, though taking care to not aim at anything vital. She felt the holster at her side tap against her as she aimed, a momentary thought hit her Hmm. This was probably not the gun he meant. Putting that one down, in case it was important for the procedure she unholstered the side arm, chambering a round and pointing it at him.

"Now, focus down the sight, get a good sight picture." He explains, "There's gonna be a feeling in your hand, like something's off."

Sure enough as he said it, the feeling was intense something was wrong, similar to the feeling when they got jumped in the warehouse. Still she aimed at him.

"Check your chamber." Belltower suggests, as Katherine does so, the bullet is half-fed, a malfunction waiting to happen. "That's what we call hyper-stat. More or less applied butterfly effect."

"So you did blow me up with a Claymore." She said annoyed, though also excited, very quickly taking out the mag, clearing the jam, ejecting the bullet and assembling the whole thing back together with the safety on. "I can do that?"

"It's easy, you just listen to your instinct on it." He explains, drawing his own gun, "You'll want to be the one to tell me to chamber. Important trigger of the procedure." Belltower waits for Katherine to acquiesce.

She looks at him, and with a deep breath, trying to focus on… Something, she says, "Ok Agent Belltower, chamber a bullet and point it at me please."

"Good touch, always mention the name you know them by." He racks the slide on his black pistol of an unknown make, unfamiliar to Katherine. Aiming it rock steady at the woman, centre of mass. Something like a string snapping echoes in Katherine's mind, like the world just had something be shifted.

"If I pull this trigger, I lose a finger." Belltower chuckles.

"A finger!?" She says quietly.

"You have…metaphysical weight I guess? I'm better at the trick, you've got muscle." He explains, unloading the double-feed, two rounds crammed into the gun's chamber.

"Holy shit, that's so dangerous," She says aghast looking at bullets as he unloads, "Though it explains why I cleared an entire city block pretty much by myself, and sometimes outrun vampires." She picks one up still a bit aghast at the destructive power of time magic.

"That's pretty much self defense procedures. They get way nastier." He holsters his weapon, settling back down. "You can do it with most…things, though the less possibilities there are for the thing to break." He stops, "Term we use is entropic probability, the harder it's gonna be, the more possible it can go wrong. Guns are nice, they can break a dozen ways any second"

"Did you plan for the Claymore to blow me up, or did you not plan for me to stare at it once you left?" She said still stuck on the ball bearings shredding her skull last time.

"Once you switch up your dice roll, the universe keeps going." Belltower shrugs, "I just made it not detonate. You stared at it."

She nods, she kind of knew it already, but the confirmation helped, "Fair enough. I'll… Not stare at land mines around Time… Touched." She says, trying to remember one of the words from before. "How does anything bad happen when time ma- methods are real?"

"You haven't noticed it, probably cause you do everything in private." He thinks, "Remember what I said? That we're not different, just…awake? Everyone's got an idea of how the world's supposed to be." Belltower turns his head to look out the window, through the early morning rays of sunlight piercing it. "When you do something that changes what a lot of people were expecting, you get…ripples, paradoxes, unreality. Stuff starts to break and fast."

"Is that why when Eleanora chose to take me home I felt a… nauseating somewhat existential tear?" She says quietly, "Like a piece of me and everything around me had been shredded up?"

"Backlash, yeah. It happens." Belltower's nodding now, much more energetic after the food. "That one wasn't too bad, it gets a lot worse when you push it." He touches his neck scar, "When you really beat the odds, it takes its pound of flesh."

"Do you keep meticulous notes and charts on everything around you? Like obsessively?" She asks now a bit lost in her thoughts, "Ever since I was young, I've kept a journal of every thought, emotion, memory or plan I've ever had. It's paying off well now but… Is that what made me a Time person?" She asks thinking, watching every second around her tick around at rates of decay.

He shakes his head, "Not of my emotions or thoughts, but yeah, I track everything else. Full might of the modern panopticon at my fingers after all." He looks at a non-descript phone that he slipped out of his pocket, "I can look at any camera in the world, any microphone ever set up, any electronic. After all, we tapped them at manufacture."

"So how do I light up the phone for you next time, so you can see?" She asks suddenly, shifting back to that first thought. Not sure why her mind bounces from place to place.

"You want some of my meds? Mood stabilizers and anti-anxieties, fifty years ahead of Sleeper." He offers a cigarette from the fresh carton.

"Ahead of 'Sleeper'?" She says looking at him, but taking the cigarette, "And maybe, if you guys have good psychs. Not ones that'll make me go to therapy necessarily, but will get the brain working right."

"Sleepers are, well, normal people." He pulls his own cigarette out, "And our health insurance is great. Fix up bullet holes in an hour great."

"What's the benefits package like for family?" She says, gesturing her head up at the second floor.

"Don't join up with my branch of it if you want to keep 'em." He chuckles, offering a lighter, "We're all about that spy life, no connections outside the service."

"That's a deal breaker, sorry. I live and die by my connections." She says, lighting her smoke, and inhaling the almost soporific fumes, forcing a nervous system relaxation over her near instantly. Its like morphine but keeping her mind sharp and focused, nervous ticks dying down. Quietly she whispers, "Oh fuck you," with a small laugh "This owns."

"Yeah, my anxiety gets rough too." He is familiar with the reaction as it turns out, smirking.

"Do I have to sign up for these, or can I just get a card that says 'Method girl, woman of time procedure.' Maybe with a little blue cross on it." Her breath finally calming down, even the little… Bugs that crawl between her shirt and skin seem to have died off.

"There's four others branches." Belltower chuckles, "But mine's the only one that lets me take as much as I want. They don't care as much about our health." He puffs his own cigarette, seven in his system now. "Usually make it a pill too, assholes."

As she gets halfway through she very gently in a practiced motion, licks her fingers and pinches off the cherry. "I'm going to save half of this for an emergency." She said as her mind reached something her normal demeanor returned. She suddenly said, "I have said… Quite a bit today."

"You're talking to a trained interrogator. Its how it is." Belltower smirks again, closest to a smile he gets. "You want a sales pitch though? Or no?"

"Sales pitch for the company, or the spy branch? I'll never give up the family." She said point blank, "But I'm not exactly busy, either."

"I will never, sell the NWO as anything other than a shitshow." He finally laughs, "This place is miserable, overworked, underpaid and with no time off. No." Belltower shakes his head, cooling the dry laugh down to a smirk quickly.

"We've got medical, engineering, societal, socioeconomic, pretty much any branch you can dream of. People whose whole jobs is figuring out what the next super-product is, people whose whole job is staring at the stars all day." Its a practiced pitch, not the first time and certainly not the last time he'll say it, "We start you off at three hundred a year, benefits kick in after sixty days. Retirement, medical, life insurance, the works."

"Can I still be a ghoul? Live with Estelle and Eleanora?" She says, "I don't want to go gallivanting around the country doing stupid shit when I could just be playing in a time bubble in paradise." The cigarette is placed into a tiny ziploc she labels, 'in case of emergency Suicide / Homicidal thoughts' and gently places it into her trench coat.

"The time bubble isn't gonna last forever, you know." Belltower carefully says this. "Reality is gonna strain it, it'll crack, maybe in ten years, a thousand, or a million. But nothing like this sticks around forever." Its almost apologetic, almost sorry for having to be the one to say it.

Her hand twitches as if she could somehow… Shoot the statement, open fire on the truth, "Unless I can figure out how to stop that from happening." She says to herself, "I mean just less ripples, don't strain it… Don't use the powers keep it going…" It's quiet, upset. Trying to reason a way to move forward.

"And keep the world from moving on, forever?" He asks, no heat to him, just curiosity.

"It's just… My timeline? Isn't it? The world still exists, before and after. It had to exist before I was born, before I started looping, the universes I die in must exist after. I'd just keep… My little chunk to myself." She wonders if she's pleading now, if the begging is apparent.

"There's one timeline we're all in, Katherine. You're pulling it back every time." Belltower's leaned forward at the shift in tone.

"Then why doesn't anyone else remember?" She whispers, but she doesn't like this she doesn't want to believe it's true. "That can't be true. There…" Of course it couldn't last forever, her brain told her mocking herself. "That seems rather unfair." She wasn't entirely sure what she was saying at that point.

"Yeah." Belltower answers her pointless question, frowning behind the mirrorshades. "It seems that way."

"I don't… want to stop the world from moving forward." She admitted, gathering her thoughts, putting them into words as she clears breakfast quietly, "I'm just happy now. I feel like… That's not a crime, it's not happening at anyone's expense." Her breath catching a little.

"It's not." He slips his glasses off, showing a measure of humanity in his multi-coloured eyes.

Turning back to him, she says, "Can one of my benefits… Being that they get taken care of? Watched over?"

"We call that life insurance, Katherine." He assures the other woman in an even voice.

The thought tickles her, makes her want to laugh, "They're rich, I mean… From the other fucked up horrors."

"Yeah." He nods, "We call that life insurance. They're under your umbrella." Belltower puts the mirrorshades on the table nearby.

"Okay, as long as I don't have to leave them, and they're safe I'll join, I guess." She says quietly, "I really did think it would go on forever. That I'd just have an infinite paradise. That was stupid. Of course it was stupid."

"It was hopeful. We need that these days. Too many people like me, not enough like you." Belltower grumbles to himself mostly, "You wanna swing by the office? Get a nice receptionist to tell you the benefits instead of me, who barely remembers what he signed twenty years ago?"

"Is the office twenty-four hour? I'd rather show up with Eleanora or Estelle with me. If you guys are as strong as you say, it shouldn't affect you, and it'd make me feel better."

"Sure. I can tell them to man it. Ten PM?" He's surprisingly gentle with his words, a spy through and through, even freshly shot.

She nods, then asks, "Where do you see this ending?"

Belltower thinks, "Right now? Five years? Ten years? A hundred?" He pauses, thinking deeper. "Its all the same, really. Just people making decisions with bad information. We do the best we can and hope it ends well."

"I'm a major threat… Until this loop gets fixed. To everything." Katherine says with a deep sense of resignation, "There's no way I'm not."

"You want the truth?" Belltower asks, a look of similar resignation to him.

She nods.

"Orders on high are to disable you. I'm creatively interpreting them." He admits with a sigh. "Supposed to take you in, scramble your brains until you're not doing this anymore."

She nods again, "That sounds more familiar to the world I live in. Become an asset so that doesn't happen or at least until it breaks and it can't happen. Fuck." With an even quieter swear she said, "Let's just go now then, I'll leave a note."

Belltower works his jaw, sighing as he has to pull another cigarette out to arrest an annoying twitch of his fingers. "I'm…not gonna do that. Let's wait for backup." He looks at Katherine, "Our recruiters are gonna chew you all up and spit you out, but it'll be less bad with three heads."

"Even though I hate everything about this conversation that happened." She said, giving him a smile as she lights another black and mild, "You are still invited to breakfast. Any time. Swing by at ten, we'll be ready."

He responds with an amused puff of smoke, slipping the shades that pull the humanity out of him, rising back up. "Be seein' you." Before striding off, the door unlocking itself.

"I'll leave the phone on the dresser," She said with a laugh waving.

As he steps out, and she hopes he's well without of earshot she lets out a frustrated SCREECH. Lifting one of the plates and smashing it against the floor. Letting the pained noise drag out mourning that she had once chance and she blew it. Just wailing in anger fully giving in to overwhelming frustration and rage. At having to be a puppet, to not being in control anymore, for her little fun bubble to have already popped, that'd pop again. She wouldn't be able to plan for it, that the next time she died that'd just be it, and she might not even know. She gave a guilty look to the gun on the counter top, a brief… Dangerous thought being put back away, stowed in fear and anger.

Overwhelmed with shame and disgust at herself, she started to clean the Kitchen of plates and shattered ceramics. Before finishing some errands, and going to sleep.

---

 

[Princess Scribe]

018 - Interview

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."

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."

---

 

[World Illusion]

i think he knows why he's trapped with them, deep down, if not consciously. the loop only traps her, normally and its chief concern is her loved ones. so he has to play a mentor role and become one of her special people to make her feel loved and fulfilled enough so he can be free and he knows it. it's why he didn't kill/brain scramble her, i think. maybe she needs more than romantic and sexual love. there are other time wizards in the organization but he's the only one who seems to be aware of the loops. just like eleanora is somewhat aware that Kat is a special person to her, watchtower also just knows. except he's a time wizard, so he knows a little better. that's just my theory though. i think there needs to be a reason he's special and not any of the other time wizards.

also, i love how many updates there are! it's very rewarding!

 

[Princess Scribe]

I love reading theories, makes me happy like a ferret in macaroni.

 

[Sesparra]

This, this is amazing and I can not wait for more of it<3!!!
Very very well done.
Somewhat sad she can't just loop forever but… this is WoD, good things never last and she's sadly not an exalt so she cannot fix that herself.

 

[Princess Scribe]

If you're from the near east (Europe) I apologize profusely.

 

[Princess Scribe]

This, this is amazing and I can not wait for more of it<3!!!
Very very well done.
Somewhat sad she can't just loop forever but… this is WoD, good things never last and she's sadly not an exalt so she cannot fix that herself.

Click to shrink...

Thank you! its one of my favorite stories I've written

 

[Sesparra]

Thank you! its one of my favorite stories I've written

Click to shrink...

They're all really super cute together too, and they make want to cackle when they go out killing again<3

 

[Princess Scribe]

019 - A Normal Day

Four days pass, the third being a raucous night that ends with the inside of a car needing a deep clean and a missing person poster emblazoned near every precinct as well as Estelle grow slowly more aggravated at being called "feral". The young vampires who do this are then chewed out aggressively about kindred and camaraderie by her "pet ghoul," unclear if this makes matter better or worse.

Still, the night comes, and Eleanora dangles her keys in front of Katherine. "Mon amour, ready for your first day at work?" Her smile is self-indulgent, enjoying this shot of normality in her night-life.

"Not really, no, but they've already bought out the surrounding buildings so I feel as if I must at this point." With a big grin and a kiss on the cheek of Estelle and Eleanora, she grabs the keys. She had just finished updating her Spreadsheets with its meticulous list of weapons, bullet counts and armaments. Quickly taking the new meds from the company, finding them oddly efficient.

"See ya, agent lady." Estelle chuckles, smoking a black cigarette, radiating menthol and cherry from the couch.

The keys go in, the car goes out, and heavy broadway show tunes play her out as she goes to the dingy office on the Miracle mile. The drive is rather pleasant, if quiet. Her first time truly alone in a few hundred years, and her first time going back to a real job in even longer. The normalcy settled on her as she stepped out in a black suit, with matching black tie. Her auburn hair done up in a tight bun with sparkling hair clips. She had to settle for less weaponry without the Trench coat, but everything else fit, and a longarm wasn't… That necessary she supposed. Sure enough her badge, biometrics, and codes got her into the building. The metal detector making a very panicked noise as she walked through, though no-one seemed to pay it any mind. The trench coat had most of her things, which irritated her having to cut down on pockets to something more business-like.

The central hallway leads to a door marked 'Common Room'. Entering it reveals a hotly contested ping-pong competition, where two women are glaring at each other whilst a betting ring has already formed. Both are terrifyingly muscular and have an odd scent of oil about them, slowly deforming the paddles in their hands.

In a more quiet side of the room, Belltower and another, much younger man, share a drink, both in suits and keeping an eye on everyone else. Belltower nods to Katherine as she comes in. "Welcome to the party."

She smiles watching the game, and gives him a nod, "Did you bet?"

"God no. It's an even fifty fifty." Belltower laughs, short and curt.

The laughs returned as she sees the ball start to move terrifyingly fast, "I don't think I'd have the self control to not see what happens if I messed with it if money was on the line. I try not to put myself in tempting situations like that.

"Don't worry, Agent. We won't be sticking around here long. We've got work while they play." The Director clarifies, finishing his drink and igniting another cigarette, starting to drag it down. "You'll make acquaintances with them later."

Not something that interested her very much, but she understood the importance of it at least. She very quickly did a check of everything, though not taking the weapons out, "You ever consider a trench coat? It's like a walking backpack."

"Trench coats are at least fifty years out of date." Belltower answers, rising up. "And we stopped wearing fedora's to go with them thirty years ago." He gestures to a side door, not the entrance Katherine came from.

With a faux offended gasp to something she's heard a million times. "How dare you. I'll have you know the trench coat and trilby is a detective classic. You show up in that and everyone knows you're a detective!"

He opens the door, waiting in the cold metal entryway to a very different part of the building. "Come on, we've got an armoury to raid first. I spent a quarter of the budget on this thing." The smirk that's growing familiar returns to him as he walks off that way.

"Please tell me you have a Barret M107." She says quietly, almost skipping at the word 'Armoury.'

The downward incline hallway quickly opens up to a room that is packed top to bottom with guns familiar and unfamiliar, from military kit, to smooth polymer pieces with unfamiliar names and advanced looking everything. "If we're being low key, you can take an anti-material rifle, yes." Belltower gestures to the model hanging on the wall, hand length rounds in a row beneath it.

She squeaks with joy as she runs over to the giant gun, looking at with awe. "You know, I never had thirteen thousand dollars. I could never afford one of these, let alone a scope or bullets." Then her mind clicked over at the rest of the sentence, "What if we're not being low-key?" She asks as she looks around the room.

"Then we use these." He points to a wall of black polymer and smooth metal firearms, bullpupped and very clean, holographic sights and magazines without casings. "Caseless hyperburst, about thirty years ahead of the Sleepers, no casings, the flechette degrades in an hour after impact, and can punch through three feet of concrete but still tumbles in meat." He pulls one off the wall, shouldering it. It seems light.

Tiny sparkles in Katherine's eyes light up as she hears that looking at the adorable weapon. "You really need to make more things in fun colors, imagine this with zebra stripes." She says quietly as she looks at both suddenly struck with indecision of the thing that is cool and the thing that feels cool, before deciding the unnamed gun was probably much better at almost anything they were going to do today.

"Think its called the IX-5 or something. Didn't pay much attention to the eggheads gushing about it." He presses a button, letting a wall unfold into a range.

The firing range had three rows, tables, and cubicle dividers, while a small stream of water flowed into grates. Laser lights portrayed moving targets doing different things. Some quick drawing, others walking, some standing still. As Belltower fires, parts of the target light up, showing accuracy, grouping, and speed in a display next to the target. While something very gelled and wet in the back of the range caught the bullets fired through.

She very quickly checks both sides to look for a clear safety, before disengaging the clip, checking that the chamber was clear, before placing the clip back in, and turning off the safety. Then walking to the range, squeezing off tight controlled bursts. The weapon didn't kick. It was as close to a laser rifle as she could imagine.

"Electromagnetic recoil handling. Uses some sorta ferromagnetic fluid to counterbalance the recoil actively. If the computer fails, it's got about as much recoil as an M4." He describes, watching the whizzing bursts of target shredding fire.

"Is there a button for the computer in case of malfunction that isn't immediately recognized by the weapon?" She asks as she very quickly empties a clip, and then puts a new one in.

"Yeah, it's in the stock, you can dump the whole assembly, just press these latches." He shows her, catching the hard polymer box as it slips out. "Quarter million dollars of computing in a box."

She takes the stock off quickly, placing it respectfully on the table in front of her. Before testing the recoil without the stock, and still finding it surprisingly light. Very quickly, she placed the computer stock back on. Then flicks the safety, switches out the half empty clip, checks the inside of gun, and the affixes it to her shoulder a carried precision keeping it pointing away from herself or anyone else.

"Tonight, we're going after a-Well." He carefully rephrases, "We're going to harass a Christos Valailokos. No chance in hell we actually tag him tonight."

"Be careful, I'm an overachiever." Katherine says, though making sure to add, "Not in a gung-ho way. I'm just incredibly good at what I do. I think. I can't imagine why all the gun muscle memory and mind wiping otherwise."

"Yeah, this asshole's just being doing it for four centuries." He pulls out his phone, showing a photo of an astonishingly cut Greek man, clean shaven and looking to be maybe twenty-five. "He's like me, but nastier, faster, luckier and three hundred and sixty years more experienced." Belltower shakes his head, "Thankfully, he's got a much bigger hit team on his ass. We're there to make him move."

There's something about what Belltower says that gives Katherine a tingle that she can't help, "I feel like… We should wait ten minutes before we leave? I don't know why."

Belltower thinks, frowning, "You…might have the muscle to predict him, or enough to try anyways. Let's follow that hunch." He shows Katherine to a suit while they wait, not fitted for her yet, "Take this home when we get back. It's like mine. Carbon weave and non-newtonian gel inserts. Lowkey body armour."

"I mean, I can probably change now?" She says as she begins to unbutton her suit, and then stops. "Right. Normal people don't do that. Also I guess it needs to be tailored."

"It'll chafe the hell out of you if it isn't." The Director answers, not looking at Katherine's unbuttoning. "And, I'm beginning to realize, you are not…socialized." That last word is tired.

"I spent… Ten years in an apartment, alone. I would go to work, I have a very hazy memory of what I did at work, I would come home exhausted and smelling like gunpowder. I assumed it was because I was sick, or my meds." Katherine admitted as she very quickly re-buttons. "Then the time loop happened, after about… I dunno, a while it all stopped being so hazy."

"Brainfog? I get that off the cigs." He admits, looking down at the stub between his fingers.

"They showed me tapes occasionally, Estelle said it does something to make you more susceptible to domination magic." She pokes her cheek with her tongue. "Then they rip out your memories. A few years in, started having paranoia, anxiety, hearing phantom sounds, and occasionally I'd see a spider or a thing that wasn't there. Thanks to one lovely Jarred Ox."

"Funnily enough, I relate." He lights another cigarette. "There's this thing, it's not used anymore. Called Conditioning. It was used to stabilize people who we're losing it, or we're flipping to the other side. I used to have a…lot of it." The cigarette vanishes in under a minute. "We're better at it than vampires though, no side effects like that."


"They're permanent." She said with a sigh, "Neurologist showed up next day, took a peek around, need to basically reconstruct the entire thing, build a new person." There was a very bitter tone there.

"Bet they were excited to try." He smirks, the look fading after a second, back to something placid and normal.

"They were, I had to remind them that Estelle and Eleanora only seem pleasant." The memory of the black eyes going at the mere mention giving her an actual moment of panic for the two doctor's lives.

A chuckle escapes him, "Yeah, they always wanna push the limits of what they can do. The two girls in the other room, did you smell it?" He asks, curious.

"The oil, was it pneumatic?" She responds looking at him curiously.

"Yeah, they're…enhanced. Went under the knife for it. It's another sort of Procedure. Can you tell why we don't like the M word yet?" He asks, curious once again.

She looks at him very… Sheepish. "No, not really. Though, they mentioned computer eyes that could store terabytes of data and that is going to live in my head rent-free forever."

"It's been a long, bloody mess. But the other side are the…magicians I guess. This Christos guy? He chugs mercury, and instead of killing him, he can track a bullet in flight." He sounds bitter about that. "We figure out how it works before we start making it, more academic."

That makes sense, "At least with enough bullets he'll just be tracking an untimely demise." She said, noting in her mind that ten minutes exactly had passed, and it was time to go. Then moving towards Belltower's car.

Belltower stands up without a word, likely with the same realization. Entering the drivers seat, the engine already on, he starts driving, a cold business infecting his demeanour, stiffening him to the world. "Like I said, we are a distraction. Don't try your luck."

"I am planning to follow orders," She says trying to be placating, "When it's my show, it's different. This isn't my show."

The drive isn't long, fifteen minutes on the road before stops outside of an antique shop. "Alright." He grabs an IX-5, seven magazines already mounted on a slim tactical vest he slips overtop his suit. Another one's ready behind Katherine's seat. She grabs it and puts it on, very quickly. Though she checks all seven magazines, before checking the IX-5, then double checking the safety, magazine, and chamber of the weapon.

The antique shop is rustic and wooden, stylistically built in an "old" style. A scent of mildew from age is easily imagined before Belltower or Katherine even gets near it. He takes a position on one side of the front door, motioning for Katherine to get in behind him

She falls in line as she feels a slight ripple of… Something. She taps Belltower, who gives her a slight nod. He must have felt it too. Did they already know they were coming. Training kicks in almost immediately, as she starts to buzz with anticipation.

"You know." A voice passes through the door, mildly accented, "I didn't expect just two." Belltower responds by flicking to automatic and emptying through thee door, moving to kick it open and reveal the open plan building, stocked with glass cases, suits of armour, flintlocks and revolvers alike, a mishmash of collectables from every era of paraphernalia. Christos, is leaning aside, a few holes in the jacket of his suit stared at distastefully.

Katherine is in behind, but instead of aiming at Christos, fires into a wall hearing a pained gurgle from behind it. "Ooops." She said quietly, before pointing her weapon back at the greek man, before on a second hunch, firing into the floor to more yelps.

"Ah, cold hearted." He groans in response as Belltower finally points and starts to shoot. Christos moves.

"Christos I wouldn't go left." She says, pointing her gun to the right and firing. Trying to will a split decision as he makes his own movements.

The strings coil and twitch, forced to start to split, time and probability mixing before a second will interferes, coiling and practiced around her own effort. He moves straight, arriving between the two without skipping a beat, magic and skill intermingling in this centuries old fighter.

"Shit." Belltower barks as the Greek grabs his weapon and bends the barrel with a grit of effort.

She opens fire on Christos, bullets riddling the floor as she tries to aim for his legs. More pained screams from beneath the room, while Christos finally twists, throwing Belltower at Katherine, one bullet slipping through the waves of twisted probability and nicking his leg.

Katherine ducks under Belltower, switching to her ankle weapon now opening fire with a small Sig, saying "Christos, Stay or run? I'd stay." Trying to get the man to fight instead of flee as she continues emptying her mag.

More bullets fill the air as Belltower sails past, smashing through a decorative pillar with a groan of pain and cough. He stops, scrambling up to his feet fast. Christos shakes his head, sliding into cover behind a case as bullets rip through the air near him. "I don't like fighting women, I'm sorry." He apologizes.

She reloads her IX-5 and tosses it to Belltower. Before switching to the weapon in her chest holster and fires into a random wall at leg height. Prompting a groan of annoyance from Christos. "Can it just be between me and the Belltower?"

She refuses to respond, as she pulls a fragmentation grenade from her pocket, throwing it to him. Christos darts into motion, twisting through the air to grab the grenade, crumpling it in his grip slowly.

She fires at it the minute he touches it, trying to detonate it. Time suddenly moving at slow speeds. As if everything was happening in an atmosphere of molasses. The bullet impacts, blooming shockwaves and shrapnel that tosses Christos against a wall bleeding with a grit of his teeth and concusses everyone else in the room.

"He's still moving." Belltower grits out as the blackened man stands up, bleeding from a dozen impact points and then rushing at Katherine, footsteps shattering wood floorboards in a superhuman charge. She lights her zippo throwing it at him, hoping to god centuries old meant vampire. This guess was off the mark, zippo bouncing off as suddenly, she's pushed against a wall hard. Smell of burnt pork and blood mixing as he slowly heals at a miniscule pace.

A rib cracks, and she spits up a little blood onto him. Choking as something else breaks. "Should you really be trying to kill me instead of running?" This time, she doesn't put time magic behind it, just trying to freeze him for a moment. Anything to buy a few more seconds.

A whooshing of rotors is heard outside, something shining a spotlight through a window before a ripple of rounds tears into the building, forcing everyone to hit the deck or be torn to pieces.

Katherine grabs for her KA-BAR and doesn't stop trying to kill Christos, bloodlust rising as she tries to bring it down on the man's brain. Her ribs broken, her head weary and dazed. Damnit she wanted the kill to be hers so fucking bad. Slamming it down just off the mark, catching his cheek and tearing away with a small piece of tongue. She reaches into her coat pocket, before remembering she's out of guns.

The bloody man rushes away as bullets rip through the walls, a helicopter painted black unloading a rippling minigun into it under moonlight, somehow not attracting every pair of eyes in the city. Belltower stumbles to his feet, the dazed and uncoordinated movements of a spinal injury evident.

"You have a gun at your feet!" She yells, as she reloads her pistol and starts firing into the wall in a very clear direction following some invisible line through the building. The zippo having fallen right next to Belltower, "Have a cig walk it off."

He snaps to the gun, sending rounds after Christos who jumps ten feet clear up the building, hanging off a window sill from the second story before vanishing into an alley while the helicopter turns to chase. "Fuck!" Belltower shouts, stumbling.

Katherine rushes over to Belltower, getting under him. "It's not over," She says quietly, handing him one of his smokes and lighting it with the zippo, "We can go to a… Donut shop over by highland if you want to continue. Or we can stop. Your show."

Belltower shakes his head, "No, they're bringing the hammer down on him. Hammer with a blast radius." He has a tremble to his fingers, "Damn, gonna be under the knife for this one, hit my back dead on a corner." He's not scared, just aggravated.

"That's gonna suck," She says looking at him with a small snort, taking the majority of the man's weight onto her shoulder, "I can just carry you to the car, unless your pride says no."

"Pretty sure I'm lighter than you, go ahead." He stumbles, not able to keep his feet underneath him immediately as his mirrorshades slip off.

She catches the shades before they hit the ground, with the same motion scoops under his legs and picks him up gently, carrying him out in her arms. "Fuck I love this job." She says as she carries him to the passenger side of the Suv, though now slightly nervous never having driven such a large car before. It's probably the same though, she hoped looking at the multitude of dials, knobs, buttons, toggles and switches.

"Automatic drive, homebase. Legal pace." He mumbles, sighing as the car starts driving itself. "It's not a fast driver, but it's a decent one." Belltower pats the dash, immediately regretting it with a mild twitch of his face.

"Jesus christ, how did you do any of this without back-up?" She asked, looking at him, before coughing up blood onto herself. "They got something for a punctured lung right?"

"You'll learn to love Sophia." He chuckles, "And her knives." The car continues apace, taking turns, respecting lights, avoiding incoming police cars and generally moving with a purpose back. "It doesn't usually go like this. Christos's just…special. Fresh off from eviscerating Union upper staff in Istanbul."

"We almost got him." She said trying to cheer Belltower up, "I don't know how close you usually get, but I got a little chunk of tongue as a souvenir."

He nods approvingly, "Good work." It's a curt compliment, but by far and away meaningful, it's said without a second thought, instantly. "Usually Christos just uses me as a punching bag for six to eight minutes." Belltower grimaces.

She deposited the meat on her KA-BAR into a small ziploc, wondering if it might have some use. "Yeah, he didn't seem so fond of me comparatively."

"He said why." Belltower shifts, trying to get comfortable but finding no spot to get comfortable. "Asshole's from the Renaissance, has opinions on gender equality I guess."

"Well, he's going to have a harder time saying them." She says as she looks at the little ziploc, "Will you think I'm a freak if I put this in a locket to remember our first mission?"

"Only a little bit." Belltower smirks, no heat to him. "I'm gonna get blasted after this. Next mission's not for a week. Should be easier, just a problem with a post-noetic en-Its a revenant, I'm talking about a revenant." He cuts off the practiced proper speech and uses layman's terms.

"Thank you." She says happily, "No offense but trying to classify magic shit seems… Well intended, but a little silly. You call a vampire a homeophage, and I think you're just a bit homophobic."

Belltower snorts, "Yeah, tell me about it. No one outside of the fuckin' symposiums actually uses any of these terms. I'm just so used to giving reports it's slipping out." He seems chatty while injured, not as raring to smoke, calmer in general.

She nods, "I'm actually good at paperwork if you want me to do it, as long as I can work that part from home."

"I got it, agent Doukas. It's my job anyways." He waves a hand, "You might be spending the night under Sophia's care, depending on how rough you look, though."

She immediately pulls out her phone, calling Estelle, hearing it get picked up after only a ring and a half, "Estelle it's Katherine, I broke two ribs and am going to one of their special doctors, good news though. I'm fucking great at this."

"Wicked! Stop breaking ribs." Estelle matches Katherine's energy with a rough gravel, "Did you kill anyone?" She excitedly asks.

"Cat shows up tomorrow by the way, also! So close, but he has these powers that are insane I fired into the floor and killed like seven people, then a wall and another three, then through his legs to a guy planting… Something. Then I tossed a grenade out a window he catches it and I shoot that and it blows up in his face and then this big hulking freak rushes me all charred up throws me into a wall, and THEN a helicopter shows up and fires with a miningun, we all drop and I stabbed him in the MOUTH and now I have a little bit of his tongue."

"God." Estelle growls, "You gonna be back tonight or no? If not I'm gonna go bother Eleanora."

"No, probably not, they're going to do a science on my ribs." Katherine admits, "Hopefully back in time for the cat in the morning."

"A science?" Belltower quietly whispers, staring at the dash with confused amusement.

She looks at him with a shrug as they pull onto the Miracle Mile.

"By the way, Kat, you want a video?" Estelle casually asks, making Belltower actually tilt his head to the phone in confusion. "Of, you know, me and Eleanora. Since you won't be home."

Katherine turns bright red, and squeaks into the phone trying to find words. "Eeep?" There's a slight uptilt at the end as she tries to intonate… Something. More stuttering as the words leave her. "Maybe. Yes. Depends on how private the hospital room is, but yes." She tries not to look at Belltower as she says this, "Tell me what's appropriate behavior in a hospital, wait no get Eleanora, have her tell me what's appropriate behavior in a hospital." She coughs up more blood as she gets panicked, it now dribbling over her chin.

"It's a clinic, more of a room. It'll just be me, a curtain, you." Belltower describes, dreading tonight.

"Sounds like I'll have privacy, yeah send it." She says as Belltower speaks, now very aware of a new person to tease.

The car stops, and before either can get out, the two women, now having black instead of brown hair come out the door with stretchers. They move to the doors and pick up Katherine and Belltower like they weigh nothing.

"I can walk," Katherine says quickly, "I have a very tough woman image to maintain. I need to seem properly rugged." The smile as she's carried in is somewhat marred by the copious amounts of blood.

"Yeah, and you've also got a lung to maintain, Agent Doukas." The woman carrying her answers, pulling the stretcher along quickly to a clinic, sliding it in and shifting both Belltower and Katherine to a much more comfortable bed, the sort that can control its angle and shift with button presses.

In the room is a tall, black haired woman with very mediterranean features, olive skin, a birthmark on her cheek and long hair in a loose bun. She's got a labcoat on and is already pre-measuring bottles of pharmaceuticals as the duo was interred in her clinic. "So. You've gotten injured again, and dragged someone else along too, hmm Director?" Sophia's voice is very accented, rolling every R she can get her hands on.

"I'm not injured really." Katherine says smiling, playing with her phone, "You should see the other guy." Swiping gems together making full volumed pops, jingles, and whizzes.

"Now there's two of you." Sophia stands, moving to Katherine first and jabbing her in the side with a needle. It pierces thee clothes and skin so fast it takes a second for the woman to realize anything at all happened. Sophia's already moving to Belltower, inspecting him closely whilst the gurgling of blood slows in Katherine.

"You, Director, are once again a ruin." Her eyes glimmer a deep orange before returning to their amber, "Three cracked vertebrae? Remind me again why I let you leave my clinic." She starts pulling his suit off, cutting it with scissors much to his protest, "Doc, that's a million dollar-Damnit." Fluid spills from the suit as she cuts it off him.

Katherine snorts at them both as she continues to excitedly match gems.

"Don't think you're getting off easy, Agent Doukas." Sophia turns her head, "I'll have you opened up tonight, don't you worry." The threat is…interesting to hear from a doctor.

"I'll have you know that I always ge—" She stopped suddenly, "I haven't been in a work environment in over a hundred years. I may need sensitivity training."

"Yeah, she's worse than you." Belltower grumbles to Katherine as Sophia smiles warmly at him.

"Oh good, well have you considered that instead of a punctured lung doc, that you might just have… Does that line work? I think it does. Lungs. Breath away. It works. I think? Do you have my prescriptions on file?" Katherine asks suddenly, very concerned.

"I do. And if I wanted to steal your breath." Sophia chuckles, "I'd just put my electric pads to use." There's a glimmer of orange in her eyes.

"That's a weird name for them but I like it." Katherine responds as she turns back to her phone, now switching to a different game app.

"No making her find out, Doctor Illyanova." Belltower suddenly orders, "Professionalism for gods sake."

That makes Katherine frown a little, "But I like new experiences." She doesn't push it though, "I think I'm still a little tweaked on adrenaline."

"Don't mind the director." Sophia says, little arcs of electricity passing between her fingertips, "He's a grouch." She smiles.

"Wow, I find him incredibly pleasant. My girlfriends love him too." Katherine says winking at the Director.

"Oh, so do I! He's still a grouch, it's part of the charm.' She reaches down a finger and shocks his arm, making him twitch. "Nerve function is still reasonable, not too bad, Director." Sophia refocuses, looking him over, "You'll be thirty minutes under the knife, I think I can get her done in fifteen, recovery is probably six hours each. Lets pencil in eight for spinal and cardiovascular safety, mir?"

"Do you think you could get me home before sunrise?" Katherine asks hopefully, "I have family waiting for me doc."

"Ah, I'm sorry." Sophia shakes her head, "Earliest I could let you out is thirty minutes before, and I'd feel bad doing so."

"Can you top me–" She's cut off

"Sure, later?" Sophia chuckles, making Belltower groan again.

"Off with extra blood then?" Katherine finishes giggling. "You're going to have to fight two vampires for the honor ma'am. I'm very monogamously polyamorous"

She's flipping Belltower over, cutting his shirt off to reveal a trim, muscular and scarred back, a tattoo of a skull at the centre of his shoulders with latin phrases above and below. "Oh~, haemophage lovers? How delicious. I'll see if I can get you something, do you want to be on an enhancement list? Bone marrow implants can vastly increase blood production." Sophia idly suggests

"The neurologist was also talking about eye computers, so I could keep all my logs and things in that." Katherine admits with a nod, "Do you know if the bone marrow implants affect the flavor?" She says thinking about Eleanora and Estelle suddenly being put off her blood.

"I'll give you a bag of mine to test." Sophia says as she finally hooks an IV to Belltower, rapidly putting him to sleep. Then, scalpels come out as she quickly opens him up with barely a second to spare from his eyes drifting shut. As she works, suturing bone with gels and repairing nerves with eyes that shrink to pinpricks to see precisely enough, she talks. "I never had the chance to be bitten, what is it like, agent Doukas?"

Katherine thinks, "There's two kinds, a really intensely burning painful one that I really like. Like every nerve is being torched and electrocuted simultaneously. Like if it doesn't stop you're going to die, but you never do and you're left trembling. The other kind is less rare apparently, and that one is like… Being edged for half an hour and then finally releasing, but over and over for like five minutes straight." It's all said matter of factly, without looking up from her phone.

"Oh." Sophia says very breathily, "That's…well advertised." A clack of bone being sealed together by hissing gel fills the room.

"There's a reason ghouls are a thing, that and drinking vampire blood also rules." She says absent mindedly, "I don't really know if I want to mess with biochemistry if it's not well researched to be honest. You have two people who love you exactly the way you are, you don't want to come home worse just because good enough wasn't enough."

"Very true, but striving for better is important too." Sophia raises a scalpel covered in blood as emphasis, "Still, have you ever seen the Director naked?" She shifts conversation sharply, reminded of something as she seals the cut on his back, starting to work in injections instead of surgery.

Still not looking up from her phone as she rapidly swipes through an album of what seem to be some sort of comic, she says, "Guys aren't really my thing, I've made him breakfast though."

"He has this delightful scar on his upper right torso. I can't place what caused it, which is rare, I'm the leading trauma surgeon on…the continent!" Sophia sounds excited at the very idea of something she can't identify. "Director Belltower is a mystery wrapped in a lie, drip fed through to us." She bemoans as she carefully measures out silvery fluid, injecting it into Belltowers IV.

There's a notification with a jingle and two quick buzzes on Katherine's phone, which she instinctively opens then immediately closes as feral moans escape her phone. "Ope." She says as she turns a dark red.

"Ah, someone has a loving pair of lovers. They're sending get well presents!" Sophia laughs, finally pulling away from Belltower to wash her hands in a sink.

"Do I recover faster without… Whatever you did to him?" Katherine asks looking at Belltower anesthetized.

"Ah, no, I will not do surgery on a moving patient." Sophia smiles, "Besides, it's the stress of the surgery, not the anesthesia that will have you not wanting out of bed for at least a third of a day, Agent." She pulls a sharp new scalpel out, using it to cut Katherine out of her clothes quickly.

"Careful doc, I'm a screamer." She says with a grimace as the clothes are practically ripped off of her. Katherine now feeling a bit exposed. Though not shivering in the cold, far used to worse.

"I'm a good doctor, agent Doukas." Sophia assures as she starts marking off incision lines with a marker, "Unless you ask me not to be." She smiles darkly at her words, finishing the lines and starting to prepare an IV.

"Don't do anything I wouldn't do I suppose." She responds with a giggle, looking at the needle with an odd sort of joy. "Sorry, needles and… Fun are inextricably linked in my mind now, since they normally happen very close to each other."

Sophia jabs the needle in smoothly, hitting a vein first time, exactly like Eleanora does. "Good! It means this is enjoyable for both of us." She turns the valve, letting fluid flow down the IV and into Katherine, "You have one to three minutes, any requests?"

"Do you do tattoos?" She asks with a giggle as the fluids start to take hold.

"I do scars." Sophia whispers with a grin as the last of conscious thought leaves Katherine.

 

[Princess Scribe]

020 - Cat

Waking up in a hospital bed feeling sore is never fun. Belltower is already reaching for a cigarette while Katherine is blinking, the curious pharmaceutical scent filling the room as he smokes, calming down.

With a big smile, Katherine says, "I didn't know we could smoke in here!" Reaching into her slacks pocket for her Black and Milds and Zippo, lighting up the champagne flavored cigarillo, clenching the wood tip in her teeth.

Sighing under his sheets, shoulders visibly losing a steel-cord like tension as the cigarette works, "Who's gonna tell the Director where he can smoke?" He jokes dryly.

"The lady who turns his organs into a Benihana grill I'd imagine." Katherine fires back, seeing a small pile of recognizable pills on the nightstand next to the bed, shooting them with a swig of water.

"She can get in line for that." Belltower smirks, taking another puff. "You feeling alright?" He prioritizes Katherine over himself immediately, leadership instincts sharp.

"Yeah, I made you look old and myself look competent." Katherine teases before wincing as her ribs twinge, "I don't feel a thing." Not true at all, she was in immense pain, but she liked pretending that she wasn't.

"Sure, the wince was just an elaborate ruse." Belltower evidently fully supports Katherine's story. "Need more painkillers, press the button. Its the fun button." He dryly comments, pulling his own phone up.

Katherine shakes her head a little sadly, "Sorry, my blood is for three, can't come home pumped full of morphi—" Then she stopped, thinking about it. "Or… Hmmm." Looking at the button with an odd temptation

"It's ketamine." Belltower warns, "If that…changes anything." He seems unsure if it does, starting up a video on his cellphone.

She fires a group text to Estelle and Eleanora before remembering they're both asleep during the day. "Probably not worth it to be honest, I'll just ask them, for next time. Sophia's nice! Everyone is nice. It's very off-putting."

"All the assholes in black suits 'cept for me bit it, so the general niceness average is up." Belltower chuckles, dark and short as he rewatches the fight with Christos, looking for mistakes, weaknesses, anything.

"Can you send me a copy of that? I want to show Estelle and Eleanora, then write notes on what I did wrong. Besides not asking if he was a vampire." She admitted with a wince.

"Good guess, but no, he's immortal 'cause of other tricks." Belltower shoots the video over by email, having a slight realization, "I never told you my first name, huh."

"It's not Agent?" She asks as she looks at the E-mail address. Its seemingly a normal gmail, but as she reopens the email, it changes to another. Always seems to end up on a J first name, though.

"Not that predestined, thankfully." He smirks, "Its less impressive than most people hope for, I'm warning you."

"Its Jacob." She says looking at him with a grin.

"Didn't get to pick it." Jacob grumbles, "Woulda gone for something better if I did."

"I kinda lucked out, Katherine, Akaterine, Chronos and all that jazz. Like all the stars aligned and picked me for best belle at the ball of time procedures." She's back to her phone checking the video now, but still listening.

"Belltower's not my last name though, that's just an NWO thing. Means I'm a director." Jacob explains, taking another cigarette as, it seems, pain is the way to make him talk. "Don't remember it, it got caught in a wipe at some point."

She stares at him for a second, focusing wondering what the probability of picking the right name would be, wondering if she could use her powers to do it. "Jacob I think your last name is…" Strands of time and probability whip out and around the infinite probabilities of name, but of course, there aren't infinite probabilities. He's from Canada, his first name is Jacob, could narrow it down to English or North American names, or at least common ones. Trying to narrow it down further she googles a list of North American last names by census data.

"Levy?" She says suddenly.

He shrugs, "Your guess is as good as mine. Its gone."

"Is time procedure a muscle? Like could you and I train by flipping a coin and trying to get it go heads or tails?" Katherine asks, looking at him pulling out a coin.

"Until it suddenly landed on its edge and the roof collapsed, yeah." He nods, "You haven't seen a big backlash yet. You will." It's a very assured statement.

"Oh!" She gulped, looking at him, "How bad do you think all the Christos stuff was, the time bubble, and then the name thing was?"

"I'm pretty sure that karmic swords already swung. It doesn't usually wait." Belltower comforts Katherine with the absolute certainty his words have, "Might have been the hundred and fifty years of isolation, maybe."

"That was good though, uh for me I mean. Sorry." Katherine said with a wince, not because of her ribs this time, "I got to hang out with Eleanora and just… Learn, study until everything was perfect."

"I can't say it was all bad. After the sky stopped bleeding and I had the fucking Deviant." He spits that word out, "On his knees, it made a lot of the bullshit worth it. Even when it was repeating. Learned a lot about how painful I can make things."

"Huh, I've done a lot of research into that too, but I think I was coming in from a different angle then you were." Her phone was making more buzzes and chirps as she updated her journals, logs, and then accepted notifications from missed timers.

"Yeah, real practical learner." He chuckles darkly, looking at a very quiet video of something very bloody with an angry focus.

"Sophia don't forget you promised me a bag of your blood to see if the marrow implants affect taste." She just kind of shouts out into the clinic, not entirely sure where the doctor was.

From an adjacent office, a shout of, "I'll get it to you this morning!" Sounds before a head hits a desk again, going back to sleep. Belltower rolls his eyes, an amount of anger drained at the absurdity. Stabilizing off his people. Then wondering if that was Katherine's plan or if she actually planned at all.

"Planned or instinct?" Jacob bluntly asks, not caring to play mind games.

"Entirely planned," Katherine admitted looking back to him, "A lot of the paranoia comes from me seeing my behaviors in other people. Then assuming that they're doing it the same reason I am, instead of that actually being their personality."

"Assuming people act as twisted as you do." He uses a general you, pointing at himself while he does, "Usually leads to bad intel. No one's exactly like you, despite what the paranoia is screaming." Belltower seems to understand it, though, "It's why I smoke."

"It's why I actually generally avoid most medications and drugs. Outside of liquor and brain meds. I want to be sharp because the paranoia gets me to keep my logs, check my timers, double check every mag, slide, and chamber. A lot of trouble is avoided by just letting it run wild…" Then she thought harder on it, "Until I guess you decide to stare a Claymore in the fa— Oh, that was probably time backlash. I was probably doing unconscious stuff to get you into the Claymore chair," She said thinking, "Because you picked the chair, you could have picked any chair. They weren't all mined."

"You've got paraphysical muscle." Jacob nods, "Use it like a drunk, but you've got a lot of muscle. Naturally gifted I guess. Usually easier to go along with or twist your procedures. Fighting them like Christos did is a chore."

She immediately takes notes on that in her phone, making sure to note down word for word, then her thoughts on what they could mean and her interpretation. Then how she could use that information to improve. She set an alarm to check it in fourteen days and update her thoughts on it.

"Fuck this." He groans, leaning up from the bed with a hiss of effort, multi-coloured eyes twitching with a sudden wave of pain at the edge of it.

"What are the odds of you getting back in bed and waiting it out I wonder." Katherine said, staring at him, though not trying to sound as threatening as she probably did.

"What are the odds of me throwing a sedative into your neck before then." Jacob smirks, standing up with an immediate grit of his teeth.

"Is it incredibly fucked up, that while not today, I do want to find out those odds." She says, as she leans back down pulling up the video of the fight studying her movements. Trying to figure out what the odds were, how to change them. Statistical analysis and data running in her mind.

Belltower leaves the room, stumbling out and vanishing.

"Sophia, Belltower left." Katherine yells, not looking up from her phone.

"That bastard!" Sophie shouts, the click of her heels sounding as she rises and chases him viciously. Nine minutes later, Belltower returns with two plates of hot pockets, freshly warmed. "You want some?"

"Ah fuck, no I snitched you out. You keep them" She admits as she looks at the hot pockets, "Feel bad now, thought I could slip out while she was chasing you."

Rolling his eyes, he places the plate on Katherine's front, moving to his bed and sitting back down with a series of pained hisses and grimaces. "Payback for breakfast, call it." He pulls his phone out and idly munches on the snacks as he scrolls.

"Deal," She says, taking the hot pocket and eating it. Then winces, again not because of the ribs. "Global panopticon huh? So…" Did you see my temper tantrum when I thought you left. The sentence wasn't finished but it hung in the air between them anyways.

"Yeah, see most everything." He answers with a shrug.

"That blows." Katherine admits as she finishes her hot pocket, the new meds finally unleashing her appetite. "Christ, I'm starving." She says suddenly, opening her phone, "Can we get doordash?"

He offers his plate, shaking his head, "I'll go make more." Gritting his teeth as he has to stand up again and make it to the kitchen.

"Like… Four." She says matter of factly as she finishes the second one.

"Yeah yeah." Belltower grumbles, returning in fifteen minutes with a pizza box and eight hot pockets. "They ordered pizza for ping pong night, its still warm." He puts the box on Katherine's bed, and the hot pockets, taking one for himself.

"I'm going to warn you," She says as she hoovers up the pizza at almost lightning speed, "I'm going to only get stronger and hotter now that I can finally hit my macros." Looking up the pizza and logging, calories, carbs, protein, sugars, and fats of each slice, then adding the hot pockets.

"My tr-"He growls out as something pops with escaping gas in his back, a deep noise that isn't often heard. Breathing in to calm down, he continues, "My trick with fist fights is to have a gun." Laying down in bed and eating his hot pocket.

"I tossed you one when yours broke, it's not my fault you didn't use it." She snickered, though the noise causing a moment of concern. "I probably should have caught you in retrospect."

 

[Princess Scribe]

021 - War Games

The morning light streams through shuttered windows, making both people blink at the arcing rays. Sophia finally enters the room, looking equally as beautiful as the night before, "The pain should be settling down soon, and after that, or just…now! You can go home." She's talking to Katherine mostly, Director Belltower, as far as anyone can tell, lives here.

"Did you get the bag of blood, I was serious about that," Katherine said again, "Pretty much only thing keeping me from the bone marrow and other upgrades. I was thinking that, the eyes, and something that can do math really fast. Like a brain powered calculator that runs statistical models." She says, her eyes lighting up with excitement.

"Ew, cyberware." Sophia mock-gags, before grabbing a icebox and putting it next to Katherine's bed. "Five litres of prime B+ Sophia, report back soon!"

"I'll e-mail tonight," She said, then to Director, "I typed up a full after action report, and sent it to you with some forms I found on the intranet that came with the employee manual. I also took notes, videos, and worked on I think everything?"

"Good work." He sighs, starting at his phone, "Just have the AAR with the Comptroller and this op's in the past." Belltower stands up with much less of a hiss, rising to his feet grimacing as he stares at where his suit lies in ruins.

As he stands up Katherine looks at him with a weird tingle. "Can you give him a back… Thingy? Brace? The thingy. It goes on your back."

"I can't fix him being a beaten up fourty year old, no, agent Doukas." Sophie chuckles.

"The neoprene thingy I think it's called, not like hardware." She says still staring, very intensely feeling odd.

"M'Fine." The Director shakes his head, brushing a hand to straighten out his brown locks. "Just need a day off."

Katherine looks at him, "Director, it's a feeling. Please. A small piece of elastic won't kill you."

The please makes him twitch annoyedly. "Fine." Whilst Sophies eye's widen. She gets a back sleeve and slips it on him before he leaves in a fussy, annoyed mood.

"I have known the man for fifteen years, he's never crumbled that easily." She stares at Katherine with mild amazement.

Katherine looks at Sophia with a very pleased smile, "In his defense, I am adorable." Standing up with a stretch to leave grabbing the icebox. "Also, like, every precognition I've had has turned out immensely important and useful," she followed it up with as she left.

Katherine got home just in time to meet with the cat breeders who dropped of the very large Cat, and signed a lithany of paperwork, that after nearly fifteen minutes, she finally lost her cool and said, "Here's fifteen thousand dollars, if you come to my home to take my cat I will fucking kill you. I will also get away with it." Practically chasing the two men out of her home with shooing motions handing them fifteen bands in a plastic bag. "Everything about this process has made me want to find your families and execute them." She says as they run off.

The large grey cat seemed pleased in the home as it explored, though still flinching at new sights and sounds as a new cat does. Katherine had placed two litterboxes throughout the house, and had done meticulous research on the right food. She had purchased a ridiculous amount of automatic and manually operated toys, and every twenty feet of floor space was dotted with an automatic water fountain. While nip diffusers after even more research lined the home in various outlets. The Kindred forums had shown that some vampires kept cats, and she had tried to do everything she could to make the tiny behemoth feel comfortable.

"Gonna name you…" She stares at the animal as it almost instantly moves to lounge into her lap. "Gaius."

The thing meows as time starts to flow, the day passing in a monotony of chores and errands, the closest to a fast-forward anyone can get. It's only when the last of the orange rays dip below the horizon and lunar dark spreads that a budding excitement forms in Katherine. Groaning from upstairs, including from Eleanora shows that two vampires can leave very lasting consequences on eachother. "Kaaaaaaaaaat." Estelle calls out, "We went too haaard."

"I brought snacks!" Katherine said as she pulled the ice chest out of the fridge and ran up stairs to the bedroom, "And the cat showed up." It followed behind her, before flinching at the vampires, but not hissing or running. She placed the chest on the end of the bed on a chest, pulling out a blood bag, and passing it to Estelle.

Estelle greedily digs into the blood bags, briefly stopping, "Huh, this is…like…a twinkie?" She continues drinking unabated after that.

"Sweet, but not satisfying?" Katherine asks not worried, but curious, "They offered to do it to my blood but I wasn't going to do anything without testing."

"Nah, nah, its…like corn syrup sweet, I could just keep going." She finishes a second bag, going for a third as Eleanora raises one to her lips, gently tasting it.

"Apparently bone marrow enhancements makes your blood like that, and produces much more than normal." Katherine says looking at them happily, "I was considering it."

"Oh I'd be biting you every hour." Estelle grins, looking at Katherine with a hungry lust. Eleanora swallows a gulp. "This woman is unhealthy. Not enough sleep or food, she has some sort of untreated tumour, its why it feels less filling, Estelle."

Katherine bit her knuckles, but dutifully noted down observations. "Huh, but nothing off other than that?" She says looking at them both.

"I have a very refined palate and cannot taste much different. Except of course, that you are better." Eleanora is practicing her English again, trying to stick to it.

That makes Katherine bouncy, nodding, "Awesome, and honestly that was perfect Eleanora." She said suddenly. Then through-out the night regaled them with her tales and exploits. Showing them both the video of the incident, talking about the people she met, and just excited about her life in general, wanting to share every moment with them she could. The E-mail already sent off to Sophia, with all observations dutifully recorded.

"So they just… pay you six figures to kill someone…once a week?" Estelle is very curious. "Like…that's it?"

Katherine shrugs, "It seems they lack the amount of people with the necessary skills and disregard for life to do it. Which is kind of sweet in it's own way."

Eleanora nods, "Every…order requires its warriors, and every warband needs its killers. It is a stable place to be." She is currently trying on dresses, bite marks clearly evident all up her waist and arms.

"You guys bite each other?" Katherine asks, "Last loop Estelle told to not even talk about that."

"Uh…Yeah." Estelle rubs her arm, "You shouldn't…its not a good look."

"Legally speaking, its illegal. But, well, the law rarely applies to me." She smiles into the mirror, deciding on a green silken dress.

"Especially now," Katherine looks at Eleanora's lack of reflection, "What do you see when you look in a mirror?"

"A monster." She answers with the smile still on her face, turning from the mirror.

"Like, metaphorically or… Do you see a fucked up reflect— Oh!" She says as Eleanora cuts her off.

"Very literally. Yes." Eleanora finds the word. "The Beast which has replaced much of my soul lurks in reflections, too terrible for mortals to bear."

Katherine looks at the mirror then back to Eleanora, then to Estelle, "It feels like most of the beast stuff is a condition of circumstance more than anything. If vampires could feed in non harmful ways, and allowed to live like… Normally, I feel like a lot of things would be different?"

"Certainly, but we would never accept rule from mortals, and they'd never accept rule from our kind." Eleanora gently explains, slipping the dress on and turning to see how light it really is, finding the ends almost float with small gestures. "Co-existence has been a goal for many over centuries and millennia, but…it never quite works out."

"Shame," Katherine says quietly, "I guess depending on how long I live I'll add it to my list of goals. I need new ones now that I have a Cat and two girlfriends. That… Was it. I didn't really plan beyond that. It was that or the revolver."

Estelle reaches over and smacks Katherine, "Suicidal ideation gets annoying smacks." She does it again.

"That was in the past, now I mostly think about…" Katherine stopped for a moment trying to think about what's on her mind. The pause is extended as she finally stops and looks at her journal, "You two and guns."

"Mon amour, you are very…cute? I think that's the right word." Eleanora sits on the bed's edge.

"Cute, hot, dangerous, sexy, adorable, violent, meticulous, happy," Katherine lists off on her fingers with a grin, "Good with a gun, good with animals, good with people, a time wizard, one of the best lovers in the world."

"Good with a tongue." Estelle adds, finally unfurling from the bed and showing lines of bite marks on her back.

"Jesus." Katherine said, but biting her lip. "Definitely getting that marrow implant. I… Want that." She points at the line with glee.

"Eleanora is fucking dangerous off the handle." Estelle almost complains, "She realized she couldn't hurt me and just fucking lost it." The comments bring a wry smirk to Eleanora's face, settling in to stay awhile.

Katherine sent a second email to Sophia, Make me invulnerable to death but bitable? Short form rejuvenation? Thinking carefully about attaching the video, but deciding against it the idea making her cringe internally that the intrusive thought was allowed into her mind.

"See, this bitch, would just jab down far enough that it hurt, and keep doing that." Estelle continues her tirade, "And then when you aren't ready, after an hour of fucking fake bites, she just goes for it out of nowhere and makes me brak a bedpost!"

"She does that to me doesn't she?" Katherine looking at Estelle confused, "You both do that."

"Its a little different when you can just…chomp instead of the sorta gentle slide we do with you." Estelle explains, gesturing to her back.

"That's gentle," Katherine asks both excited and concerned. "How tough do I have to be to get chompable…" She wondered quietly looking at the marks. "Would you be willing to bite down on a pressure gauge later or am I getting into weirdo territory?"

"Actually, already done that. Eighteen-hundred pounds per square inch at a snap." Estelle chuckles, snapping her mouth shut with a clack of enamel on enamel.

The noise gave Katherine an excited giggle even though she knew that would never happen to her, "You know… This new doctor fixed two ribs and a broken spine in like six hours…" The… Suggestion thrown out with hopeful and reckless abandon. A third email, Can you make my skin resist eighteen hundred pounds per square inch?

Eleanora looks at Estelle, then Katherine, "Ma Katerina, you want us to hurt you?" She's blunt, wry smirk on her face.

"Did… Oh right, we haven't had that conversation yet." Katherine said suddenly, "Our first date was at a movie, and we all got insane so I decided to see how far I could push the limits. I cut myself on a knife then ran like prey to the car, then ran like prey to the house, then did the same thing to the bathroom and locked the door letting you both pound on it. Then, I finally opened it up and I think if I hadn't asked politely not to be murdered that was going to be the loop right there." She starts listing things off, "We've tried fire, electricity, razors, needles, knives, crops, paddles, belts and… There's one more that's super important but I can't remember… Oh caning rods."

"Can I use my cigarettes on you?" Estelle asks, lightning one up and putting it in her mouth.

"Yes." Katherine says, "We haven't found the limit yet, but I'm sure it's there… Somewhere." Then as she walks up, and snatches Estelle's cigarette out of her mouth, she winks, "The down side is because I'm into all that I push very hard."

"Tu me gâtes, mon soleil." You spoil me, my sun. Eleanorra watches keenly, blue eyes sharp and focused on Katherine's actions.

She looks back smiling, "The feeling is mutual, mi brise." Then back to Estelle, as she takes another puff of the cigarette and backing away, "I wanted to engrave my guns, but I think I might have done so in bad taste, so now I want to ask. I put a fencing épée on one side, and then on the other a car?"

"A…car?" Estelle laughs.

"To… Represent the weapons of your respective… Homelands?" Katherine said, now a little concerned

Estelle is broken by this, devolving into insane cackles as she falls off the bed. Words try and come out, dying in the mass of cackling and laughter. She moves to silent guffawing until she can get another breath in, starting the cycle over.

"Her reaction makes me think that this might have been extremely offensive." Katherine admits worriedly looking to Eleanora as Estelle rolls on the ground.

"Just a tad, my love." Eleanora is smirking, a very soft chuckle to her.

"The claymore's Scottish right?" Katherine said quietly, "It felt very poignant at the time, but the guy asked me like six times 'Are you SURE?' and I… Guess that was the first hint."

"Perhaps a…how do the gaelic say it? Shillelagh?" Eleanora considers.

Now Katherine was a bit more confused, as she pulled up her phone, typing the word into google, "You mean a stick?"

"An irish war club, yes, my love." Eleanora is looking at the screen, nodding recognizably at the very tiny images on the general tab.

She switched to the images tab, then saying "Oh, actually, this is bad ass yeah."

Smiling, Eleanora gives another soft laugh as Estelle is slowly unrolling herself from the ground.

"In my defense I learned what the troubles were like, literally a week ago." Following it up with, "And those words were never used, so I had to do more googling on my own time."

"How do Americans like…exist in the world?" Estelle asks through shivering giggles, trying to stand up and go to her clothes, very very amused.

With a small pout Katherine says, "It's not like people in Europe are aware of every conflict Americans are in!"

"We are. We get dragged into them!" Estelle complains, getting her pants on and stretching with a hiss.

Eleanora shakes her head, "Come now, no politics in the bedroom mes amours." She stands from the bed.

"Wait seriously?" Katherine says confused with a yawn, then cooing as the cat leaps onto the bed. "See I knew she'd like you two." The look Gaius was giving Eleanora implied more fear than anything, especially as it flinched and twisted as the vampire moved through the room.

Estelle leans down to the cat, eyes glimmering, calming it down almost instantly, "I'm actually pretty good with predatory animals." It rolls over, staring at her. "It's the herbivores that really freak. Had a cow charge me once." She slowly reaches out to pet it, getting a hiss. "Not that friendly with 'em yet." Estelle straightens back out, letting the glimmer fade.

"Well when they roll over that's actually a defensive position," Kathrine pointed out as the animal continued to lounge on its back, "They tell you what they need it's just a different language." She picked up a toy and whacked it, sides of whirling as the whirring animated ball tumbled in her hand. She threw it with a casual toss watching the cat dart to chase it around the house.

"Well you know how I feel about learning languages." Estelle smirks at the cat's actions. "That thing reminds me of someone, can't put my finger on it." She pointedly stares at Katherine while talking.

"Oh you see it too?" Katherine replies looking at Estelle, "There's someone else here who hisses at people regularly."

Estelle's smirk grows to a grin, "I was talking about the chew toy, Kat."

Feeling brave, Katherine stepped forward and wrapped her arm around Estelle's waist, pulling her into a hug from behind. Then she bit her on the neck, "Who's the chew toy now?" She said giggling.

Breathing out a sigh of enjoyment, Estelle says with a still present smirk, "You." Grabbing Katherine's arm and gently nibbling on it without fangs, obviously well satisfied from the other night.

She released Estelle after giving her a gentle kiss on the head. "I'm really happy." It was a blunt thing to say, but it was true, and it had been rare enough for a while, that simply stating it made her feel more in touch with reality.

"God you're cute." Estelle replies, smiling broadly as she gets her shirt on. Trying to find a jacket amongst the room's many pieces of furniture and corners. Eleanora's drifting down the stairs to the living room, picking an untrapped chair to sit down in and waiting for the other two.

"Are vampires good at Laser tag? That might be fun." Katherine wondered, "I guess there's also like paintballing, though I think I'd be a little more scared than average running around in the woods while hunting the two of you with a gun." Then thinking further, "Well, I guess you two would use paintballs, and I could use a real gun, but that seems unsporting."

"We could just be unarmed." Eleanora smirks, staring at Katherine from the living room, having heard every word. "And you're alone in the woods with a gun." There's a terrifyingly threatening tilt to her very soft voice at the suggestion.

The idea does sound very exciting, and Katherine looks at them with nervous jitters at the thought, "Okay…" She said quietly, "How do we do that safely? I'm getting very good with guns and time stuff."

"Kat." Estelle says, amused, "You're going into the dark forest with two vampires with no night vision. You're fucked. We see in the dark."

"I can see into the future." Katherine says now getting very excited by the idea. "I shoot into walls at people I don't even know are there."

"Sure. But you're gonna accomplish jack and shit shooting us with a normal gun." Estelle does pause, "Well, you'll get me more excited." She smirks, sliding down the stairwell railing again to make it downstairs.


"I get a fifteen minute head start, the one who tags the other is dinner then." Katherine very quickly putting together a game for safety and fun. "So if you get shot, no big deal except for knowing that you lost. If I get grabbed no big deal, except for you know… Having shot at and been chased by two horny vampires. So it's pretty much a big win-win for me."

"I could make this more fun." Eleanora's gently rapping her fingers on the armrest of her seat, "What about the two of you are running, and I'm chasing?" She tilts her head at the suggestion, considering it herself even as she offers it. "If you can…how did you say, tag me? I'll succumb to your decisions. But if I catch you, mes amours…well~." A very uncommon smile's on her face and the rapping on the armrest is a tad quick.

Estelle's quick to say, "Are you like, gonna be playing or…hunting? Cause of the three of us, you've probably ac–"

"Is there's a difference?" Looking at the two of them, already changing into tactical gear and grabbing a long arm with a holo sight. While the two woman talk she pulls out her phone excitedly.

"Yeah there's a difference, she's actually chased people down in the woods! Like, for real, to eat!" Estelle complains as Eleanora continues to smile.

"Director Belltower, I want to do… Training, in the woods, can you keep people out of Millar Falls? The park just north of Alta Dena?" Katherine says excitedly. "We're going to run around and be shooting live rounds at each other."

"Huh." Belltower answers, "Sure, I guess. Don't get crippled." He goes back to whatever he is doing with a crack of a can opening, fizzy drink inside it audible.

"Cool!" She says hanging up, "Alright, boss man says they'll keep an eye out so we can run around shooting at each other without worrying about police or whatever."

"I'll drive." Eleanora stands up suddenly, pausing as Katherine talks.

"Better idea." Katherine said, "You wait fifteen minutes, and we'll take two cars."

"Yeah, sure, that'll make this so much better." Estelle rolls her eyes, "We're gonna end up pinned to trees."

"You have no faith in your abilities you know that Estelle? Don't worry, I'll take care of you." The wink and dart out of the door was fairly similar to the cat from the bedroom.

"You bit–" Estelle chases Kat with a growl, both of them ending up outside as Eleanora pulls free a knife and cuts slits down both sides of her dress. Sitting back down and starting to count seconds with a smile.

 

[Princess Scribe]

022 - Miller's Falls

The trail to Miller's Falls is picturesque especially on a beautiful, quiet night like tonight. At a funny tingle, Katherine told Estelle to park nearly half a mile away from Fiver corner's park, and then hoofed up the trail head to the camp. Getting to the falls twenty seven minutes in. The sparse forest in the dim moonlight was astonishing, and some stars even poked through as they pulled away from the light pollution and smog. The hilly terrain broke sight lines, both a boon and a curse. On a whim, Katherine fired into a bush hearing a loud angry wild cat yelp and collapse.

"Here," She said suddenly, "Cover yourself in this." She looked to Estelle and then took out her KA-BAR very quickly bleeding the animal, removing a paw for each of them to put in their pocket.

"This is gonna go so fucking sideways." Estelle leans down, coating herself in a trickle of blood on her neck and wrists. "Discourage a bite, animals taste rank."

Katherine didn't know that but nodded, "If we're shooting wildlife," She realized suddenly, "Then all the animals will smell like gunpowder and blood." Not entirely sure that was why the precognition had sparked, but it was a thought. Then she started running quickly.

A loud hiss echoes through the forest, bouncing off the trees and reaching Katherine and Estelle while they move through the woods, a preamble, a warning, a game. "Jesus Christ." Estelle complains under her breath, "She's five hundred years old, she can outrun a fucking race car."

"We're not trying to outrun her," She whispered back, "We have to land a shot, she knows that just as well as we do." She jerks right suddenly as something flashes past her into the woods a hissing blur. Eleanora's face can be seen just beside a tree, blonde curls spilling past her head as she's leaning, eyes black and fangs showing, somehow visible, barely, in the dark.

Estelle immediately takes a shot, but the elder vampire blurs back into motion with an echoing, ethereal laugh that bounces between trees, vanishing into the dark in shifting green and porcelain white. "See what I'm talking about!"

"Hope she never stops underestimating us," With that, Katherine once again did a roll as Eleanora burst through a thicket just missing her by a hair. Instead of aiming where she had gone, she aimed at Estelle, firing just past her head a small puff of dirt exploding at Eleanora's feet. "Sorry Estelle." She whispered looking at a thin line of heat on her cheek.

"Your bullets are slow, ma Katerina." Eleanora taunts, lounging on a tree branch above, dress falling past the branch.

"Then why does your dress have a bullet hole in it, ma brise," She retorts with a small chuckle as she begins to sprint again.

"A game ended too soon is a shame." She responds, slipping off the branch and disappearing past brush and leaves whilst Estelle's reloading her weapon. "Why do I feel like she's just waiting for one of us to get tired." The younger vampire complains.

"Because she is." Finally seeing what her head told her there must be, pointing up ahead at a cave. "Choke point. Fire into it as we run. I think the precognitions are giving her a little bit of wariness. I think if you fire into the cave we'll nick her with a ricochet." She opens fire into the cave with her weapon, watching carefully as something rushes out from there, reaching out aggressively with strands of time, though momentary panic hits as things seem to warp, weave and strain slightly.

It's odd, Eleanora is surrounded in time. Bending around her, vibrating…faster than her surroundings. Strings woven and tied to a new source of impulse. She's not just running faster, in that odd half-state where everything slows to a crawl and Katherine can see her, she's not even running, she's at most jogging, whilst her personal time is pushed at many seconds per second.

"Oh fuck." The sight making Katherine gulp suddenly, now entirely panicked, "Oh we massively fucked up." She whispered, watching the strands of her game snap as the bullets somehow all collide into each other in a single dense point, sending shrapnel out that starts to wreck their hiding spot as rocks fall around it. A small avalanche of stone suddenly knocked the entrance closed as she watched Eleanora's fast walk continue. She tried to reach out and see if she could… slow that time down, or make it faster, something to throw her off. Not really thinking, just feeling that sensation of time trying to wail on it without precision or focus.

The rippling field is a hellish thing to…hold? Onto? It's powerful and driven and static, like a freight train on the railroad. Slowing it down is an effort, a time consuming task, and Eleanora notices. "Mes amours, if you start slowing me down, I'll have to…how do you say." She whispers from almost every direction, cool air hitting both of the other women's necks. "Return the favour?"

As Eleanora says that, Katherine thought about what Belltower said, how he worked with probability, not against it. She pushed time the other direction seeing if she could get Eleanora to move faster than she expected, putting her somewhere she didn't expect. "You're going to grab Estelle," She says, then just to the left of Estelle's head, slightly overmark, she fired. Scared of what time may do to her manipulations.

Pushing Eleanora forwards, she turns from a blur to a haze. Catching Estelle with a yelp of pain and fear from her. The round screams past Eleanora and catches a lock of her hair as she vanishes with the other woman, a drifting blonde curl landing on the forest floor.

"Hair counts!" She yelled into the woods, "That totally counts." She says as she sprints to pick up the trophy. She doesn't hear anything. "Hello? Hair counts!" Still nothing, her weapon at the ready as panic clutches her suddenly. No, wait, that was Eleanora she realized with a start.

"Mon amour." Eleanora's voice is almost like a banshee's wail. "I don't think so." She laughs, flickering in the dark between trees. "If you put your weapon down, I'll let you join Estelle." A crooning promise from bright blue eyes in the dark, shining in multiple places.

That bolstered Katherine suddenly, "Oh my god," She said breathlessly, as she mentally counted her bullets, four of seventeen, thirteen left, "You know I can do this." Looking at the eyes with ecstatic fear. Letting the ripple around Eleanora guide her instead of manipulating time, simply watching it.

It's pulse tells the future, Eleanora shifts from place to place, slowly, the pattern becomes known as she speaks. "Nothing is certain, my love." She whispers behind Katherine in an instant, "If you surrender, you'll enjoy it. I promise." Another promise, breathy in Kat's ear as the movements clarify in her minds eye.

The pattern continues, a shape, a string, a ribbon. She watches very very closely hearing the whispers, letting the ripples guide her. Letting a thousand possibilities reach out before her before picking one. Katherine drops her weapon, then simultaneously pulls the trigger on the concealed weapon in it's neoprene sleeve at her side, wincing as the bullet rips just the edge of her hip, but slams into something with a shocked yelp. Katherine turned around to see Eleanora with her hand curled into Katherine's shoulder, a small stain on the very edge of her thigh, and a second hole in the dress. "Was… I don't know if that was a tie or not." She whispered looking.

"What does a tie mean–" Eleanora stops, grinning wide suddenly, a frenetic enjoyment on her face. "Oh, no, mon amour. We did not tie. Estelle lost."

The thought flits through Katherine's mind in excitement, and she starts to blush ever so slightly, "Oh, she's going to hate that." It's a sound of pure enjoyment. She followed Eleanora to a clearing in the wounds where Estelle was staked. "Christ Eleanora," Katherine whispered a little giddy. "You're mean."

"If I was mean." She kneels down, dress splitting at the hip. "I would have bitten her." Eleanora takes the stake out, making Estelle rush back to life, glaring at Katherine. "You used me as bait!" She growls loudly.

"Yes, what's worse is, I tagged Eleanora just as she grabbed my shoulder." Katherine very quickly rushed behind Eleanora anyways at that, terrified but still wanting to tease, "So technically you're the only one who lost when the game ended."

"You–" Is all Estelle gets out before Eleanora has her mouth on Estelle's neck, freezing her with the passage of fangs. "Don't be a sore loser, mon amour." Eleanora's whisper still carries that unnatural, ghostly reverb to it, "I'd hate to punish you." She smiles as she says it, looking forwards to that very much.

Now emboldened and excited as adrenaline and victory courses through her veins, she walks forward, very gently placing her hand just beneath Estelle's waistband. "I keep telling you to go running with me." She whispers, letting her hand simply rest below the waistline. "It's not my fault you're slow." With that she pushes her hand down just a little bit more, to rest just between Estelle's legs. A small giggle as she whispered, "You don't seem that upset about it."

Eleanora laughs at Estelle's simultaneously enraged and aroused expression, running her tongue up and down her carotid, trying to tease a pulse out of it. "Indulge me, Estelle." She whispers, making Estelle twitch again as she obeys, flush fully appearing on her as she mimics life, veins pulsing to life and bringing a deep enjoyment to Eleanora's entire body. She's still seconds away from biting, never fully pressing her fangs anywhere.

"Mon amour Katerina." The elder says playfully, "What should we do with the defeated? I've too many ideas."

With a small glimmer, "I didn't know if I'd win or lose so… I brought a few party favors?" She said quietly. They were in a clearing at the campsite near Miller's falls, there was no light, tents, anything really besides a few buildings, a fire pit, and a picnic table that had been sanded down by years of wear, use, and time. She stares at Estelle as she brings a few things out of her own baggy camo pockets.

Prolonged eye contact as she very slowly pulls out a telescoping baton placing it gently on the table. Two sets of hand cuffs. A small box of sterilized surgical steel medical grade needles, alcohol, cotton swabs, a set of earrings and resting in a small box of alcohol, a piercing needle with the proper gauge for earrings. "Though, I'll admit I was planning more to lose so I got a little over ambitious."

"H-hey." Estelle starts to bargain, "We can just, you kn–" Estelle is bitten by Eleanora, halfway in, making her groan and lean forward into the fangs.

"Mon amour, we won't hurt you…much." Eleanora promises, separating before Estelle can get her Kiss. Estelle gives a glare at her, still not trying to run off, "Fucking…stupid French…." She grumbles as Eleanora gestures for Katherine to continue.

The final thing she pulls out is a choke chain, for larger dogs, gently putting it around Estelle's head with a smile. Tapping one of the spikes with a grin, before giving her a tender kiss on the lips as she puts it on. Leaning in with a whisper, "Remember Red means stop." Very gently tugging on the chain to lead her to the picnic table. Staring in delight as she shuffles forward. Eleanora gently releases her so she can follow.

"Off." Katherine said pointing at the clothes, her heart now pounding at her rib-cage as she watches the woman very slowly begin to undress. Katherine so rarely got to be on this side of the game. The sound of cloth rubbing against skin made her feel flushed, and seeing Estelle bare under the moonlight gave her a moment of pause. "You're beautiful," she whispered, "Lean on the table." An even softer touch as she grabs Estelle's hands and guides them to grip the table.

"How the fuck do you do this." Estelle complains, still flushed and showing all the clear signs of embarrassment someone can, gripping the table tightly.

"It's the next part that's my favorite." She says as she grabs the telescoping baton letting it whistle through the air with a few practice swings. Slapping her own hand with it to feel the impact before she began. Without saying much else, she brought it down hard just above Estelle's thighs, delighting as a thin almost purple line showed up right where she struck. Excited as she watched the burst vessels slow fill before healing away.

Estelle swore loudly. The table creaking as she gripped it.

"Count…" Katherine said quietly, "Down from fifty, if you mess up we start over…" The baton is very gently tapped up and down the thighs tickling them with the threat of another impact.

"One…" Estelle said, swearing as a second impact came down, this time lower on the thighs slightly above the calves.

"Count down from fifty. So that was Fifty." Katherine said looking at Eleanora excitedly. "At twenty five, Eleanora might give you a bite if you ask nice."

"Fifty…" Estelle said, aggressed and annoyed, but the tingling from the sting not going away, helping something deeper and more ancient be brought out. A very subdued passion that had been left untouched and unseen.

The second baton strike, in the same exact spot, making Estelle say "forty-nine" The next five all coming and going without event, and the five after that equally uneventful. Estelle however, had started to shake around the legs despite the healing, and had started to get nervous.

Katherine brought the wand down hard but stopped moments before impacting Estelle who yelped and in a panic yelped, "Thirty nine!" Which got a laugh out of Katherine, "No… Sorry…" Whispering in her ear, "We start over."

Estelle growled angrily, but didn't let go of the table. At the snarling lips Katherine leaned in gently, giving her a deep and passionate kiss, letting her tongue slide over both of their senses, for a second simply blocking the outer world out. Katherine soon learned that even vampires could bruise with enough time and effort, watching purple splotches blossom on Estelle's skin, with a damaged gray surrounding them. When Estelle had finally gotten to twenty five, Eleanora without warning came in and gave her a bite, hard on the carotid. Letting Katherine watch, making eye contact with her the entire time.

Estelle moaned into The Kiss, as it stretched across her causing blistery lights of pleasure and ecstasy, her whole body stiffening and shaking simultaneously. As Eleanora ceased and pulled away, Katherin whacked her again with the baton, though much lighter than she had previously. Still Estelle yelped, and part of the picnic table crumbled in her hand, wood cracking and splitting under an inhuman grip.

The next twenty-five came just as fast as the first and Katherine whispered to Estelle, "You're such a good girl." Tapping for her to hop on the table. "Good girls get a reward." She's still so quiet and breathy, whispering and pleading the actions into being from Estelle.

With a groan and a mumble she turned around and laid back on the table. Though that groan elongated into a much more satisfied tone as Katherine descended upon her, and Eleanora gave her a second kiss, this one just below the rib cage.

Katherine's head was gripped by two powerful thighs, almost cutting access off to air as she latched on. She let her tongue very gently drift out to gently lap at Estelle's body, parting Estelle's inner lips slightly, moving up and down her core with ease. The sensation brings a choking gasp as it's mixed with the sensation of another bite from Eleanora. Both working in tandem on Estelle, showing that with much pain, comes many rewards. She squeals and writhes under the ministrations of the other two, before Katherine pulls away.

Katherine walks over to the slightly curved piercing needle. "So this was for me." Putting it down with, what on closer observation were definitely not earrings. Bars maybe? Then a rising moment of nerves as Estelle realizes what it might be.

"What are you doing?" She very quietly asks, eyes wide at everything around her as Eleanora teases another bite, looking gleefully at the piercing.

"Nothing," Katherine says, "This isn't a spur of the moment decision kind of thing, I don't even know if vampires can get piercings." Then smiling, "But, if this one was ever one you'd consider…" Katherine ran a finger gently up Estelle's legs before stopping right on top of the clit. "This is one of the many things I learned to do in the loop."

"Uh." Estelle is entranced by the touch and Eleanora's half bites, trying to think but finding her thoughts slipping out of her fingers to conclusions she's not sure are sane. "I-." She's nervous, fingers creaking more of the table's edges as words try and spill out.

"I don't know how to talk right now." Estelle realizes, bluntly stating her issue with a shaky breath.

"Yes, I know! Isn't it great?" Katherine says smiling, her tone suddenly bubbly and warm, "This was just a threat though, I would never actually do this on the first go. It was something I was going to do to myself later. I just wanted to freak you out a bit." She very quickly pulls the box away.

"Unless~." Eleanora whispers to Estelle, "That was desire I saw?" She strokes a hand through Estelle's brown hair, looking at her mascara ridden face, stained with blood and makeup alike from tears. Estelle's freezing reaction makes Eleanora hungry for something.

"If it was, I guess you'll have to lose again." Katherine says slowly putting the box of piercing equipment away almost as if the task was arduous.

"I-fuck." Estelle's staring at Eleanora and then back to Katherine, "What does lose mean." She tries to deflect with a shiver.

"That depends on the next game we play," Katherine says her eyes now delighted, "Though seriously, Yellow, the piercing's not happening tonight without me doing a lot of research on Estelle's uh anatomy."

"Oh thank fuck." Estelle groans out, "Fuck you two, you make me think stupid."

Katherine's grin is from ear to ear now, "See? Being at the bottom is very fun." Then following it up with, "Luckily, poking someone with medical needles is very safe comparatively, and doesn't need nearly as much research." Approaching her chest with the box.

 

[World Illusion]

each chapter continues to make me alternately gasp in shock, squeal in excitement, and get all sorts of soundless, warm fuzzy feelings

 

[Princess Scribe]

The ping-pong table lies unused, a slight stain on the edge from where a drink was spilled nights ago. The place is much emptier during a normal day, Mari is mostly in her office, the Director is actually busy as it turns out, gruffly attending dozens of meetings.

One other person is in the day room, sipping at a bottle of mineral water as he lays back on a couch, putting his feet up on it and watching a picture-in-picture video on a tablet while drawing something quickly. He's short, maybe five seven if he stood up and has ruddy red hair, cut short and messy. Freckles dot his face and very green eyes shine at the screen.

He's been ignoring Katherine's presence for six minutes, continuing to draw while she's trying to find something to do. She pulls out her phone and switches it to mute as she logs her journal and triple checks her medications and spreadsheets. She unfolds the new company phone outwards twice into a tablet, pulling out her own stylus to doodle out a pair of fangs biting a neck.

The red head glances as she draws, but returns to his own tablet quickly, going back to some very careful detail work. Barring any interruptions, there's a buzz on Katherine's work phone, a text from Director Belltower.

DJB
Office, next twenty five, brief.

She long pressed the text and reacted to it with a thumbs up.

DJB 👍
Office, next twenty five, brief.

Before waiting the precise amount of time so that she would walk in at precisely twenty five minutes later. "Had fun drawing with you," She says to the red head, making his eyes widen as she leaves.

Director Belltowers office is analog. Filing cabinets full of manila folders tagged with inane, arcane sorting methodologies that likely only exist in his head. Not a computer, camera or electronic in sight to assuage his paranoia, merely pen, paper and outside the room, a fax machine to communicate written reports electronically. Drifting tendrils of smoke rise from a cigarette in his mouth while he finishes up the last bits of a report, pulling the paper off the table and refilling the fountain pen in a practiced motion while the sheet falls onto a pile. A giant flat screen box Televison with built in VHS sits in the corner, paused with a flashing symbol in the corner of what looked to be an office building splattered in paint.

"We've got a mission, this one's easier on the tin." Jacob speaks past the cigarette as the door closes, locking off all sound exiting the room.

"I still want to find a reason to use the anti materiel rifle." She admits openly, "Just to feel that thing kick like it's god's own foot."

He smirks, breathing smoke out of his nose, "Very likely you'll get a chance, expect to be out of the office most of these next few days." Belltower explains, lighting a second cigarette. "I'll be handling dayshift since your hours are tight." The paper is flipped around and shown to Katherine, detailed information on something called a "Therianthrope."

As she picks up the file she asks, "If you're Director, how come you don't have them make those into cigars or cigarillos, like my black and milds. At least they'd last longer." Very quickly flipping through it.

"'Cause." He dryly states, "If I change my prescription, they might realize I'm still getting it."

"So people who turn into animals? What's the problem with it?" She says looking back to him, "Sounds like something you could handle with a cat trap and a bit of cheese."

"Think ten foot tall, regenerator with extra-dimensional contacts." Belltower chuckles dryly, "It's a mess. These ones have been spotted turning corporate offices into charnel houses. Bounced between three before we caught a furball on camera and realized its our sort of problem." He taps the paper with a pen, "I have the video on tape."

Katherine opens her phone, but realizes that the signal in here is dead, no ingoing or outgoing messages, no service, not even the building wi-fi. "Ah, I never want to be in your office again." She said loudly, as she notes the complete stillness of technological life.

"Why's that?" The Director asks as video of furry monsters, looking like nightmarish fusions of animal and human at twice the height and five times the weight take a corporate office apart into bloody chunks, carving people to pieces with rough claws and teeth, laughing with a twisted growl throughout.

"Because you're playing tape on a CRT and I don't have wi-fi. It freaks me out. Also, I have issues with VHS Tapes in general." She says gesturing to a far-off time and place. Katherine's not looking at the Director however, watching the creatures carve through people laughing, "Is this motivated in some way? Connections between the companies?"

Jacob nods with a grimace, "Ecoterrorism. These are oil and lithium companies. Rough on the environment."

"I always forget Lithium isn't just a pill…" She says quietly as she goes to google lithium mines and then grits her teeth slightly annoyed, realizing she'd just have to put her phone away in the Director's office.

"It's a common problem with therianthropes, shapeshifters in general really. Got some sort of holistic…psychic maybe, thing with the environment. Fucking lose it on the regular." He describes as the on-screen monsters take a man apart like a wishbone. "Don't stick close to mirrors or reflective surfaces. Common trick is coming out of them."

"Are they at least getting like executives?" She says staring at the cubicles, "This just looks like… Paper pushers. Am I supposed to figure out a peaceful way to bring them in, or can I just…" She points gently at her side arm.

He shakes his head, "Humans first, innocent humans especially." Belltower lights a third cigarette. "This is gonna be in cooperation with the ATF, not that they know it. I've already switched all their rounds with silver nitrate. We just gotta cover for anything nasty."

"Nice." She says, with a smile, "Do I get a badge?"

Opening a drawer, he pulls two wallets out, each containing an ID, six hundred dollars in twenties, and a badge from the Department of Homeland Security.

Katherine pulls out her phone to text Eleanora that they should get a display case for all the badges she'll collect, and then scoffs again annoyed when she realizes it's still offline. She puts it back in her pocket, and then takes the wallet. There's a moment where she considers sitting on the Director's desk, before remembering the sensitivity training packet she had requested from… Candi? Mirandi. The HR rep, and chose to sit in the chair instead.

"This is probably gonna end with a lot of dead ATF. Just in case that's an issue." Belltower admits, "We're going to prioritize ourselves over them." Its a cold statement, but seems to slip out easily from the man as his multicolored eyes are dangerously perceptive in the dark, scanning over papers over and over again.

There's no reflection of concern on Katherine's face, as she takes that in, "So shoot through, not around got it." She says out loud with a nod. Checking her phone again then wincing internally.

"Alright, Investigator Doukas." He confirms her identity, "Be here an hour early for the flight, we've gotta go to Fresno so we aren't tracked."

With a scoff, looking at Belltower, "We're flying to Fresno?! It's like…" She thinks about it, "Well I guess it's a four hour drive, but still that's not that long. And mostly in traffic."

"They'll see us coming on the highways." Jacob smirks, "And I've got budget to burn before the fiscal years done. First class sounds good."

"I want one of those fancy gun ranges then now that they've started tearing down the surrounding homes around our estate." Katherine said immediately hearing there was free money out to grab. "And… I'll think of more stuff. Can the agency buy a Starbucks and put it like, down the street? In fact, a little strip mall with all my favorite shops."

"We aren't building you a neighborhood, no." Belltower shatters Katherine's dreams immediately, "I was thinking a helipad and one of those Mark Seven Assault Rotors. You saw one when we were going after Christos."

"Oh hell yeah," She said quietly, "We should totally buy out the next block and build me a strip mall with all my favorite stores though."

"Ask Mari. She's got her own money." He's picking up papers as he speaks, putting them in a duffel.

She takes out her phone quickly, to text Mari That's her name Mari, and then growls again as she remembers again that there's no wi-fi or cellular in this goddamn office.

"I have a landline." Jacob points at a red telephone with a rotary number selector.

"It's not that I want to make a phone call," She says with a deep breath, "It's that I want to like, text, check e-mail, make notes, double and triple check my spreadsheets. Make sure that my deliveries for food and groceries are all on time. Check the Cat cam. Check the house cams while they're asleep." Katherine stands up straightening her tie, continuing the excruciatingly long list. "I keep all my meds on little scales so I know exactly how many pills are in the bottle. I want to check those counts to make sure that the journal notes, and alarms match with the spreadsheets. Then I weight all my guns, count bullets, and keep them on scales, so I want to know if anyone's touched them since I left."

He offers a cigarette. "This is how I deal with that."

She takes it and lights it, the fog of worries and stresses dissipating almost immediately. "I guess." She says as she exhales, her voice now a bit more level, "It's a bit neurotic. There's no way in hell I'm getting a script for these though." Katherine admits looking at it, "They've got a whole psychological profile of 'This chick's crazy.' Shame." Another puff as her heart starts to unclench, and tiny whispers fade to silence.

Smoke fills the room as Belltower takes a break from the wall of noise, "Not to mention the consequences of abuse." He chuckles dryly as a drag of the cigarette enters him, held for a few seconds and then is released in a plume.

Her off-line notes are brought up quickly, "Emotional deadness, lack of social response, all sorts of mental dissociation, not to mention physical dependence." Reading the words off thinking. "They know a lot of people are just born like this right?"

"I wasn't." Belltower shrugs, taking another drag.

The words hit her head and she looks at him then back to the phone, then back to him. "Oh, I uh… Think I'd be fine." She admitted comparing the side effects with her own personal psychological records. "Eh, I probably don't want to seem too desperate for the super cigarette that makes you dead inside."

Belltower chuckles dryly at the joke, "You'd get pills. They're stingy with these ever since orders came to 'clean up our image'. "Another drag, "Black suits and cigarettes are too threatening."

"I'm not going to stop wearing a black suit and smoking," Katherine said setting an alarm in fifteen minutes to message the new company psych about the pills. "It makes you look badass. The pink tie though, that'd set the image straight."

"Alright Agent Doukas," Belltower shakes his head, smirking at the idea of a pink tie, "You're free to go for the da-well, it's one AM. Be rested when you get here." He waves his hand for Katherine to go, "You're salaried, so hours don't matter."

"Excellent, see you at the helipad." She says, as she leaves the office, messaging her doctor when she's out of the office and has cellular again. The appointment is set up in less than an hour, and the prescription is at her doorstep before she even gets home. Then she calls Sophia, wondering if it was a stupid idea to begin with, but the clinician seemed like she might be the type. She picks up the bag of pills and steps inside her own home, ripping the opaque plastic bag open, and pulling out an orange pill bottle with blue capsules, filled with powder of some kind.

"Hello Katherine!" She's bright and engaged with something evidently entertaining.

"Hi Sophia!" A smile brightening her face, "I didn't hear back on the E-mails, but I can get the bone marrow thing done. I also sent extensive reports on the lovely ladies' taste profile of yours."

"Ooh!" Sophia makes an odd noise, "I hadn't been c-checking my emails these last few days! It's something I do Sundays usually."

That's not what I think it is, let it go brain. "I've got a prescription for uh… ExS4995, and wanted to know if I was having trouble keeping food down, if there was a way to make it easier to imbibe."

"Well-" She pauses suddenly, before continuing apace, "If you really need too, the exterior coating is just a case, it c-can-" She pauses again, "Dissolve in water!" Sophia finally gets the words out after nearly ten seconds of silence.

"Can I roll it into a cigarette?" She asks point blank, as she realizes that Sophia may be very distracted.

"It can be perfused, yes!" Sophia answers, still managing professionalism on the call. "Though as your doctor I'd prefer it if you swallowed it normally."

"Are you talking to me with that last part?" Katherine asked before realizing how wildly inappropriate that most likely was. "Never—"

"Don't worry, they've already swallowed me." Sophia chuckles.

Katherine suddenly feels guilty, "I forget other people are busy at three AM, tell Director Belltower I said hello." As she hangs up, suddenly wondering why she said that.

The only other person in the house is Eleanora, enjoying the last few hours of night as she relaxes into a loveseat. Estelle is nowhere to be found.

"Hey Eleanora, how are you?" Katherine asks as she moves to the first aid kit, grabbing a pack of her black and milds, pills, a piece of paper, and a syringe with a large gauge needle.

"Wonderful mon amour, now that I see you." Her eyes drift open, shifting to make space for Katherine to be near her. "What do you have a needle for?"

As she sat down Katherine said, "This new medication is as needed, but I don't want to be taking anymore pills because I take like seven at different times during the day, so I'm taking the medicine." She says, popping open capsules onto the piece of paper, "Putting it into this syringe," She uses the paper as a funnel to fill the syringe, affixing a sterile needle, "And adding it to my black and milds." With an even hand she pushes the syringe in the center, and carefully doles out an even stream of medicine along the entirety of the cigarillo.

"Doing three pills to a cigarillo, because that's the dosing apparently." She says looking at the instructions on the bottle.

"Hmm, you know your medicine, so I presume this is safe?" Eleanora looks at the powder, somewhat concerned.

She looks at Eleanora and smiles, "Yeah, I called Sophia, the lady getting railed on the phone? She told me that it can be perfused." Not quite answering the question Eleanora was most likely answering.

"I think you misunderstood exactly what was happening on that call, mon amour." Eleanora smirks, but refocuses, "I trust you, don't hurt yourself." She gives a meaningful look at that, trying to convey some amount of worry.

"I'll be careful, of course mon amour," Katherine replies, as she finished the first pack of black and milds, before moving onto the second. "What did you think was happening on the call?"

"Well, my love, I heard gagging." She smiles, an amused look on her face, "Very feminine gagging, while she was talking to you." Eleanora rests her hand on Katherine's leg as she speaks, cherishing the contact.

"Oh, that makes a lewd comment make more anatomical sense." Katherine said, as finally, her cigarillos had been — for lack of a better word — juiced. She took one, and lit it leaning back. It seemed this was largely how they made them already, the experience seeming almost one to one as she finally relaxes, her heart feeling a bit more normal and at peace. She wondered if Eleanora could feel the anxiety release. "What do you think I… Feel like right now? Can you tell my emotions because you're insightful, or is it like… Mind reading?"

"Insightful. Your heart is beating slower, you aren't shivering as much. Your eyes aren't darting to the corners of my home." Eleanora leans in putting her head on Katherine's shoulder, cold contact bringing even more relief, "This new medicine is very powerful. I wonder what it tastes like." She says idly.

"Oh… I should consider that, the effects might be worse for you." She says looking at the label, "Long term side effects are: emotional deadness, lack of social response, mental dissociation, and a physical dependence. Though I guess that could also be vampirism one oh one for some right? No, not really, you and Estelle are constantly feeling."

"It sounds familiar. May I?" Eleanora asks, shifting to bring Katherine's arm to her chin, watching as Katherine nods. Her teeth sink in as Katherine braces herself, supping on the sanguinous fluids. It strikes her in waves, making her lean into Katherine, smile broader as she separates, licking the wound shut.

"Ah, mon amour." Eleanora chuckles uncharacteristically. "Il met fin à tous les soucin." It stops all worries. She stares up at Katherine with a loving gaze, completely sunken into her emotions. "I feel sated. Not…hungry."

That's not a thing she'd… Ever heard a vampire say. Not even something she had thought was physically possible. That seemed extremely important but also meant that she could know Eleanora on a deeper level one where the hunger wasn't gnawing in the back of Eleanora's mind. One where whispers and shadows weren't gnawing in her own.

"That's… Insane right?" She says, as she continues her cigarillo, "That's abnormal for vampires generally?"

"The only time we feel sated like…this." Eleanora nearly knocks over a glass vase on a coffee table as she swings to sit on Katherine's lap, "Is when we take a life. It's incredible." Her eyes are bright with life, even the slightest creep of glossy black distant from them, she's smiling and almost…human in her actions.

"You're still willing to share right," Katherine asks a bit worried, especially as Estelle isn't anywhere to be seen. Still she leans in to hug her, "That's awesome. Maybe we just discovered something… Truly amazing. If not for everyone, at least for us."

"Hmm? Of course, with the right people." Eleanora holds Katherine, sinking into the hug with a smile, "Estelle is out completing a few of her boons. She'll be back in a few nights at most, mon amour." Her assurance is honey, further diminishing any sense of unease.

Katherine feels normal finally, very very normal. Now nearly crawling into Eleanora's lap. Checking her phone to see when she needed to be at the Helipad, the alarm reading 9PM. "It'll be nice to cuddle just us for a little bit, tomorrow night though I'm leaving for a few days, we're hunting eco-terrorist shape shifters."

"Oh, be careful mon soleil. They are dangerous." Eleanora warns with a frown, "But you have help, that…what's the man you like called again?" She tries to remember.

"I don't like men, but my boss is Director Belltower. Though I guess I do find him very friendly albeit in a masculine way." Katherine says and she feels Eleanora ensconce her like a blanket, "Do you know anything about them? Belltower said watch-out for mirrors."

"Their claws sting like fire, and kill just the same. As do their teeth. I have seen them leap up a building before, and heal faster than a mitrailleuse can hurt them." Eleanora explains, "But I do not roam in the woods far beyond civilization often."

"How do you know the difference between a major and minor boon? You and Estelle talk about them like their currency, but also jobs and favors." Katherine asks, puffing a bit slower on her black and mild.

"It is…informal, but agreed upon by both parties, and then judged by a Harpy, usually me." Eleanora smiles at that last part, "If I judge it fair, the boon is recorded by the Prince, Seneschal and myself, and is to be repaid at the recipient's leisure. Major boons are usually for things like saving a business or warning them of an enemy, minor boons are such things as getting the police to drop a case relating to you."

"There is also Life boons, when you save a Kindred's life, but those are rare. We do not get into dangerous encounters often." Eleanora finishes, obviously having much experience here.

"It's kind of sweet," Katherine says as she listens, "I like that. Networks of people looking out for each other, on the faith that the favor will be returned."

"It is often more treacherous than that. But more often enough, it is honest." She gestures upstairs, "I have my copy of the book of boons upstairs, though, perhaps you should read it in the daylight, where there won't be watchful eyes."

"Maybe, some day, right now I'm just happy to sit in your arms and watch stuff and read things. If I want to go snooping into vampire secrets, I'll know where to look." Katherine muses kind of outloud, "Time magic has these… Things, where if you interact with time, you end up stretching a band, and when that band snaps it whips back and cuts you open. Like when we fired into that cave and caused an avalanche."

"I think a lot of life works that way. If you keep pushing your luck, sticking your nose into things, trying to uncover secrets and delve into conspiracies, especially without good reason, it's going to snap. There'll be a rockslide, and you might just get swept up in it." The medicine worked and it worked well.

"Everything has consequence. The more you use the power of the blood, the more the hunger deepens." Eleanora is whispering, "Nothing is free in this world. You just pay the price knowingly or unknowingly."

"Whatever price I paid for this was very worth the cost of admission." Katherine says, as she looks at the remote. "I bet that remote will land in my hand if I throw a pillow at it just right." She tries to reach out with bands of time letting them wrap around, and she grabs a pillow and throws it at the remote. Which careens into the glass around the fireplace, shattering both together. "Shit."

Eleanora laughs, standing up with Katherine and having to angle to not turn over. "You forget that I am strong, my love." Carefully walking over, grabbing the remote and then sitting down with it, ignoring the broken glass. "Though, we will have to clean that before sunrise. Cela me rendra fou." It will drive me crazy.

"Yeah, fair. I was told I could practice time procedures, but I keep forgetting that the backlash is unpredictable." Katherine sighs as she stands to get the dustpan and broom. "At least it's safety glass, though I'm a little pissed because I just got that replaced."

Eleanora smiles as she turns the TV on, flicking through apps, "We need to catch up on more shows. I am decades behind." She tries to find something interesting, but mostly waits for Katherine's input.

"Here you seemed to love this one the last few loops I showed it to you," She said as she flicked over to American Horror Story.

 

[Princess Scribe]

The sun rising drifts Eleanora and Katherine to sleep on the couch, nestled into one another. Hours pass and an alarm goes off, bringing Katherine back to consciousness in a sharp moment, noise blaring from the cellphone nearby, an alarm two hours before she has to be anywhere. She picks it up off the charger, and puts it in her coat pocket before quickly grabbing a heavy breakfast. The new medication now leaving a long famished Katherine a return of the sense of hunger. She weights chicken, avocado, and even the bread each marked off by weight, calorie per gram, and nutrient per gram.

Director Belltower had made it seem like a waste of company resources to get food tested for their actual nutritional value, but she was finding tech nerds agreeable for raunchy stories about her vampire love life. The quick breakfast is logged and recorded, before a quick shower, putting her hair up in a hair fork that has a pretty mushroom carved into the handle. She checks the magazine, barrel, and safety of her weapon, including each additional magazine, again making sure that each weapon is in its place, logged, and put away.

She continues onto her medication, each one taken off its scale, into a travel pill case where they are weighed a second time, stored away into a container with a small plastic piece with two toggles, One for taking the med, one for ending the day. Again, it goes into the spreadsheet logged. Checking her phone, she still has a half-hour before she leaves. The surveillance tapes are sent to her phone via a private media server that she hosts through its own secure network with only three points of connection. The computer, the outbound server for back-ups, and her phone.

A final check of her spreadsheets, and as she walks out of the house her phone beeps. She looks at it, and winces, as she realizes it had gotten too far from her car keys and wallet, which she had almost forgotten, forcing her to check everything again to make sure. Still, she had plenty of time to spare, as she got into her "new" car, a complete non-descript Honda Accord from two thousand eight or nine, in steel gray. The entire engine block, and innards having been ripped out and upgraded with a hydrogen burning engine, but still looking almost invisibly casual on the outside.

Though, to a gear head, the roar of the engine would give pause. Katherine had also been taking driving lessons from Estelle, and that combined with latent precognition created a quick and nearly lethal path through LA traffic, as she duck, swerved, cut through alleys and around cars, only slowing moments before intersections to avoid speed limit cameras.

Then, she was at the helipad, the pain from her new piercing now just a slight tingle as she walked up and down stairs, or moved in just the right way. Something had told her it was a great decision. Before going upstairs, she checked her phone, which connected to NFC tags on all of her gear, each taped, that told her she had everything. Then she manually checked again, but this was more of a casual thing, and didn't need logging.

Belltower's smoking in the rotorwash, hair and clothes rippling as waves of air hit him. He's just wearing a suit and tie, a handgun holstered to his side under the suit. Much more casual, much less prepared at least on the very surface. There's no doubt he's as ready as Katherine in his own ways. "You're early." He shouts over the helicopter, grit in his voice that's not normally there being forced out by the volume.

"Flying makes me nervous. Never been to the helipad before, haven't left the city before. Wanted time for more casual checks." She shouts as she enters the helicopter. "If I can perfectly time everything, why not show up five minutes early for a bit of peace and quiet?"

The interior is spartan, metal and padded cloth covering up the internals of the continuous explosion that is a rotorcraft. Belltower hops up, closing one of the doors and sitting at the lip of the other, dangling his feet as it rises up suddenly, going deathly quiet, the loud blades and rumbling avgas engine dying out to be replaced with a barely audible rush of air.

"Luckily for you, these have silencers on 'em." He nods to the flying machine, smirking as he feels the air hit his legs and face, obviously enjoying flight in a way that even the dulling of the cigarette can't stop.

She pulls her own cigarillo from her pack, very very grateful that she had made them the night before. The instant relief as a puff hits her allows her to settle into the seat. Though she wonders if Belltower can tell what she's done, or if Sophia mentioned it. Which set her mind on a conversation path, "This anxiety drug or whatever? Blood with it makes vampires feel full, as in… They've had enough."

"It's top of the line psycho-pharmaceuticals, well, was, twenty years ago." Belltower chuckles.

She looks at him, "Do you get how important that is?"

The Director nods, "Yeah, not a chance we can help all of them even if any amount of the Union would agree. A bottle runs a cool hundred million."

"Okay, but you're saying that like a hundred million means something." Katherine was pushing, but more for conversation's sake. "Unless you grind up actual people in it, it's all resources and man hours at it's base. There's something here that could make life easier for…"

"One million, two hundred thousand, six hundred and twelve as of last December." He finishes for Katherine, "Still, rounding error. Same guys that make this cure things like that zombie virus that slipped out of the Amazon, and even if they did have free time, well, gonna be really honest with you." Belltower takes a puff, "They couldn't give a fuck less about vampires."

The reality hit her, and the logic makes sense. She cared because they were close to her, but looking at the resources and toys being played with it probably wouldn't make a difference. "So you think even if I phrased it as 'Blood Analogue that saves human lives,' there'd be no play?"

He's got a sour look on his face, "They hear about vampires in statistics. How they alter the murder rate, how they commit most organized crimes where they're dominant. They don't see them as people, just something that drags down local quality of life. You'd have better luck arguing for a cure to vampirism."

"Do they not take sociology classes?" Katherine said with a dark laugh, taking another puff on her altered black and mild, "It's fine, mine are taken care of, and I feel like a cure for vampirism would be cultural… Genocide? That doesn't sound right, it's like if you cured all the deaf people. You take away their community as well."

"Well, I would equate immortal superpowers with being deaf." Belltower chuckles dryly, "But I see your point, yeah. Here's the big issue." He points at a skyscraper, "The people who make all these? The rifles and silent helicopters and fighters and tanks and whatever other fucking sci-fi bullshit? They live in those, in the nicest places on planet Earth, surrounded by more money and power than you could imagine."

He puffs at his cigarette, letting the wind take the smoke, "They got no idea what it's like outside, and they've got one half of the vote."

"Oh good, I was hoping for a bit more normalcy in my life." Another weak laugh, and a deep sigh. "You're going to make a career girl out of me, I can feel it. I want to change shit and help people. Makes my life easier, wish other people'd see the bigger picture. Like…" Her jaw clenches a bit, but she's just having conversation, "You live what, five hundred plus years right? And you see society grow. New shit keeps getting made, better. That only happens because there's more healthy people able to try creating new things, safe enough to fail. Which gets you something even better. There's things we haven't invented yet that'll change how we can conceive society out there."

Belltower nods, "You wouldn't believe how much is already there. Just…out of reach. You wanna know something wild? Like, actually fuck you up wild?" He turns, a smirk on his face still.

That sounds interesting. "I'm always up for new existential terrors."

"We have a fucking moon base." He spits, "And we haven't made the Sleepers catch up to that. One asteroid, one unlucky cosmic coincidence and we're all gone. Its like we're fucking around keeping things from getting worse so much, that were not getting better." This is a passion point of his, drilling through the dullness to let something that, at one point, might have been Jacob.

"Just keeping the machine ticking along, shaving off rust and keeping parts on instead of building something new." He growls, smoking heavily, moving to a second cigarette that vanishes in three puffs.

"Why?! What use is there for us to have a moon base?" She laughs grabbing her temples, "Terraforming a planet seems like something that's only useful if it's shared on a societal level. What's even in it six guys playing grab ass with space cheese?"

"It's a dead end assignment. Like fifty people I think." Jacob grumbles, "They use high precision industrial machinery up there, spit out the really cutting edge stuff while going crazy from gray on gray on gray." This is definitely getting him angry, but that shot of emotion seems refreshing, making him lively.

"What's fucking me up, I can't tell anymore when things go right because of who I am, what I plan, or precognition." Katherine says, "Like my first instinct is to send them some fucking dyes and paints and maybe like… Anime cat stickers or something."

Belltower snorts, "We've also got a deep sea base, but that's pretty much par for the course. We're Bond villains." He looks at urban landscapes turn to rural and then wilderness as the city limits are exceeded. "It's just…I'm NWO, you don't have a Convention and probably won't for a couple years. Neither of us get the new toys, the new info, the new anything. Yet I'm one half of the whole effort on keeping society together in a globally important city."

"It's tiring after a while." Jacob admits, staring out into the green of woods and light gold-brown of dry grass fields.

Katherine could see the ocean where the stars met the sea. Watching it's stillness with a smile, the… Stability of it bringing a sense of calm. Or it was the second Black and Mild. "I'm going to sound very old, but I live with a six century vampire, and was around for a couple myself. It's always tiring, no matter what. Tiring is the default. Energy, like social, physical, it's in the things you assign meaning too. I couldn't give a shit about anyone most days. I make meanings, write down thoughts and things even if they're not always true. Reading stuff like that, you can gaslight yourself into finding hope."

"That's depressing as fuck." Belltower comments, not particularly affected by the words.

"Ah I was going for hopeful," Another puff as she laughs, "I'm going to write down that you were very touched by this speech. Expect more in the future."

"Yeah, I hope I get to play with a laser gun again." He admits, "That was fun. Though they docked my pay for a year when I broke it."

"Did you break it, or did you 'break' it." Katherine asks, updating her log in her phone stopping only to do air quotes. "Also how much do you make?"

"Like two mil a year. Most of it goes back to the budget though, I think I still keep sixty." Belltower says off-handedly. "Not much for my rank, but I don't ask for raises, or stock options."

"Wouldn't you be able to raise your budget if you ask for raises then send it back through? I think I make… Three point six mil gross, but I don't know what to do with it. I can't get rid of it fast enough." She admits

"Yeah, ask Mari, she can get you up and coming tech and defense corporations we're funneling advancements through. Something to blow money on." Belltower shrugs.

"Am I allowed to just… Help people?" She looks at him.

"It's your money, do whatever." He answers, "We've got you on Google books. So you're money's real."

"I guess I could just build my own strip mall at that point…" That didn't sit right with her though, something about it just… It was different when things were gifts or favors once the money was real, a product of her own decisions it suddenly made everything feel unnecessary. What was life past your basic needs? Once you had food, meds, love, time for art, time to study, time to create what was she actually doing with it. "Tell me if you need more in the budget I guess, I'm probably going to blow it all on chocolate."

"If you can slip a cool ten million into the budget. I can finally get Rachel her full body resleeve or whatever." He answers with a groan at thinking of his budget.

"So… Like five years? Sure whatever," Katherine says finally putting her phone away, "Ah fuck, this is why people go and fight for their country isn't it?"

"Yeah, this and patriotism. That's why I did." He looks at the landscape, still hours away from Fresno. "By the way, Iraq sucks to fight in. It just sucks." Belltower reminisces the place fondly as he complains, "Everything about that place hates Americans. Especially the local magic types."

"Well it's not like they don't have a reason," A moment passed where she felt like she might be getting a bit too comfortable. Not entirely sure what it was about, she decided to check her guns again. The new med should be blocking out random paranoia.

"The whole invasion thing was all us, yeah. Dunno if that covers turning people to glass, but eh." He shrugs, "It was like six layers of conspiracy, and we were only two of them." Belltower does suddenly realize something that has a perturbing effect on him.

"Holy shit. I'm old." He stares blankly into the air outside the helicopter. "I just talked about something that happened two decades ago." There's a very mild dread in his voice, very mild.

"If it makes you feel any better, I think I was like… Ten, at the time." Katherine says, looking at the safety again.

"Fuck you too, respectfully." He leans back, closing the doors and letting the inside of the helicopter warm up. "By the way, we've got a fashion budget. You know how to buy club wear? I haven't been in one since I was twenty three."

"I watch a lot of fashion tiktok yeah, I could probably throw something together. You taking Doctor Sophia to a club?" Thinking back to the phone call, but not entirely remembering what Eleanora said about it.

"Hmm? No, why would I?" Belltower asks, confused at the question. "We're going to do some ground work before we go for them. Make sure it isn't a network, or if it is, track the network down."

Katherine looks at him, "You… Look fourty." She said very pointedly, "We may not want to dress you specifically in club wear. Maybe high-roller type stuff, while I can dress a little younger."

"We can get a facelift on site, if that helps?" Jacob asks, turning to face Katherine fully, "Shave off some decades, looking twenty will probably help."

"If we both do it, yeah. A thirty year old and fourty year old walk into a club like military ops, they're going to smell cop a mile away." Though looking at him, he did age pretty well, even if it dulled the edges a bit. "I could never get LAPD to understand they needed to lean back a little, I don't think they even realize they do it."

"Yeah, gait's what usually gets you. I can change that easy enough, just need a day to practice." He answers, tapping at his phone, "I'm scheduling mine, you want a lift? It's reversible if you're attached to looking your age."

"Um… Yes? Please?" Katherine says, excited to shock Estelle and Eleanora by finally looking their age. "Can we do like crazy stuff? Can I turn my hair weird colors so it just grows that way?"

"Yeah? I know a guy who went under, like, a gene therapy. He grows bioluminescent hair. People think it's UV paint." He shakes his head, "Seemed like a waste of time to me, but I only rarely care what I look like after thirty-five."

"I think… I"m going to get it turn violet and make it shimmer like car paint." Katherine says touching her chin, "Which would actually help with the club aesthetic. Maybe have it fade off into a white ombre."

"I'll settle for getting the gray out." Jacob chuckles at the exotic desires put before him, "God, I haven't seen myself like that in years. I'm gonna be so baby faced." He's complaining at the idea, "Couldn't even really grow stubble back then."

"We're turning tanned leather back into veal, it's great." Though now that Katherine checked one gun, she felt like she needed to check all of them, when suddenly, she noticed that one of her ankle Sig Sauer was now double fed. That wasn't right. She very quickly cleared it. "That's… Concerning."

Belltower looks at it with a frown, "Hmm." He doesn't comment any further, turning his head to stare back out of the window, watching it carefully for anything odd.

"Maybe I'm fucking around with time too much, but I didn't do anything since last night, and that I just shattered a glass fireplace with a remote on accident." She starts to check her logs on that as well.

"You'll learn the balance eventually, its always a little different for everyone." The helicopter shifts to a new angle, continuing to move. "Something I've been meaning to ask, you're living with two vampires, right?"

"Yeah, it's great." She responds, picking the rounds up and considering whether to put them back in the magazine or not. Just staring at the bullets in her hand. On the one hand it technically wasn't the bullet's fault. On the other hand the bullet's did betray her. She eventually decided on loading them again, triple checking everything, before re-holstering the sig.

"Is there any political troubles you're involved in? Its a lot more important now that you're affiliated." Belltower asks.

She shakes her head, "No I largely stay out of their affairs by choice, I don't ask about their world, I don't interfere. Though, I'm hoping the life insurance package does cover me going on a hellish rampage if someone touches one of them."

"I'd prefer if you asked me for help, first." He admits, "But just…don't start a war I have to win. Because I will win." There's a grim surety to his words, Belltower's certain.

Her head nods there's no panic to take away after the black and mild, but that still feels right. "Global panopticon right? Can you show me what Estelle's doing right now? Is it like a google search?"

Jacob gets his phone out, typing something before turning the phone over, a live feed of a warehouse is present. Estelle can be seen lurking in the night, barely visible eyes in the dark sneaking up behind someone with an inaudible snarl before pouncing. Snapping teeth in his neck, he shivers, paling in seconds before he dies.

Taking out her phone she texts Estelle, "You are so cute when you murder. Good luck on your boons, love you. Stay safe. Warehouse looks scary."

Standing up from the corpse and pulling out her phone, Estelle smiles with blood on her mouth, replying. "You can see me? Cool. Just about done I think. Love you more."

"I'm out of town, but I'll see you when I get back. I told L about it." Then quickly adding, "Don't forget, the cat gets fed a small can of wet food 2x /day 1 when you wake, and 1 before you sleep. Automated toys on timers during day."

She's still smiling, doing a little giddy shuffle as she texts Katherine, adorable. "Awesome, waiting for u! I'll get L to get someone to make sure it happens during the day. How long u think u are gone??"

"Week max, told a few days, padding in case complications. Thinking of getting hair surgery. Violet Ombre to white? Shimmering maybe." She's folded her phone into an L her thumbs a rapid blur as she types.

"Sounds sexy. I'll be waiting." Estelle texts back, before looking at a direction annoyedly, still bouncing.

Feeling mischievous Katherine then takes a saved image on her phone and sends it, "Piercing healed nicely. Good luck."

Estelle looks at the phone, her grin appearing before, suddenly she has to duck when a gunshot goes over her head.

"I should probably stop texting her now, Thanks Director. I was concerned for some reason." Belltower pulls the phone away at that, disconnecting from the link.

"Remind me to get you the access code to the VIGIL satellites. So you can do this trick." He adds, leaning his head back, closing his eyes behind the mirrorshades.

She looks at him before opening her surveillance footage from the house, taking notes in a separate window on the phone. "I don't know if I can be trusted with that to be honest."

"Neither can I. Yet here we are." Belltower chuckles dryly. "Just don't abuse your power obviously and no one cares."

Another odd feeling, and she checks her Sig again. This time, the safety is off. She puts it back on with a small harumph.

The flight is not as long with the conversation. It starts lowering suddenly, landing on a pad somewhere outside of a major city. Belltower rises to his feet with a sigh, opening the door and jumping out onto the isolated concrete construction surrounded in wilderness. A highway visible a few miles away.

 

[Princess Scribe]

He moves to a car, getting into it, it's a simple, inauspicious black hulled Ford sedan, four doors and looking exactly like what someone would buy as their second car. The engine starts as he says, "Need to stop by the doctors before we complete the flight, facility isn't small."

She still feels off as she gets into the car. Not entirely sure what it could be. "Do you know if we get… Screwed around with by fixed points in time? The vampires move fast because time around them bends. I just feel… Nothing can shake what I'm feeling right now."

"Fixed points have the worst backlashes. They're not meant to change." Belltower explains as he drives into a chunk of wall that is sliding away. Driving into an underground chamber and further past a series of doors, nearly half a mile of distance coated in thick concrete and marked with Americana fifty years out of date.

Her eyes widen as he says that, and then squeaks just before the wall drops. When the drive finally settles out, she says "So I should stop using time procedures on them for extremely… For fun I mean. For practice I mean."

"I'd….recommend you don't use procedures for…fun practice. Yeah." Belltower slowly answers with a bemused tone, turning the car into a garage that's lit up by harsh hospital lighting, white tile and glass intermixing to provide a very sterile appearance.

He gets out and walks up a short stairwell, followed by Katherine as they both make it to a door marked 'Operating Theatre'. "Can I walk in with my gun in my hand?" Katherine asks looking at Belltower. "Still feel… Weird."

"They're civilians. Breathe, you're safe here." He says confidently, trying to calm Katherine as a small hint of worry worms its way into him. "Just a doctors visit."

She nods, quietly, but the hairs on her neck prickle when the door sticks the first time he tries to open it, she notices him having to pull harder to get it unstuck. That doesn't happen. It was very quiet in Katherine's head. She kept looking for things and finding nothing.

The theatre is two chairs with some sort of…face device on it rolled to the side. "All Agents, please, sit down at the automated facial reconstruction chairs." A synthetic voice drones from speakers, making Belltower blink. "Huh, automated now. Cool." He moves to the further one, eyes clearing the room twice before sitting down.

She keeps wanting to take deep breaths to calm herself, but she is calm. Her heart isn't tearing out of her chest. Yet something is clearly wrong. Still she trusts Belltower, though she does a circle around the room, rubbing her hand against the entirety of the perimeter before finally sitting down.

"Try focusing on something that is in your control." Jacob says as the devices shift, moving in front of both people's faces. "Like this fancy touch screen." He comments whilst an image of Katherine's face is shown to her. Options on one side for hair, skin, nose, ears, chin and everything else on a scrollable menu.

Her mouth puckers a little at the options, so many to choose from, but she liked everything about herself. Mostly. Not anything she'd want to change at least. The hair options were thrilling and she spent quite a few minutes watching her own hair on a generated 3D image twist curl, bounce, flair, and do whatever else. Then noted that freckles were an option and dotted her nose and cheeks with them. Finally, adding an L and and S behind her ears, typing in a description, excited by the myriad of generated choices from the text. Each had fangs underneath, and on one side, a foil, the other, a shillelagh.

Playing with the touch screen did make Katherine feel a lot better. A heat builds in her face as something shifts, freckles pulsing onto it with sizzles of a beam, stress melting off, wrinkles falling away. Its painless but unceasingly odd. A feeling the human body has no real context for. The cover moves off her face, revealing Belltower looking very…boyish.

He wasn't kidding about being baby faced, with a smooth shave, no deep sinking of his eyes over decades of stress. And his eyes are somehow brighter, more focused, or at least look better on him. Belltower wasn't being adventurous, so otherwise he looks normal, if a little more…young.

"You look like a highschooler," Katherine crooned with delight, "You're going to get carded everywhere we go you realize."

"I got carded till I was twenty eight." He grimaces, voice pitched up, not as degraded by years of smoking.

She squeals, "You sound like a baaaabyyy." Pure delight on her face.

He glowers at her, frowning, "I sound normal." Belltower complains, trying to give a grain to his voice, failing immediately.

"I'm trying to imagine you fighting in a war, and it's like…" Her eyes light up as she pulls out her phone, "Seen any of the Monty Hall movies? The rabbit that goes nuts on people?" Showing him a youtube video of the scene.

"My god." He grumbles lightly, standing up, looking very grown up in his suit, "Knew I should have stopped at thirty."

"Honestly, I'm surprised you didn't go with the sugar daddy cover. You'd be able to have basically BS your way out of stuff by just trying to seem impressive." Katherine says quickly putting the phone away, "Though now, everyone's just going to assume you have a fake ID." She was definitely laying it on thick, the back and forth between her and Estelle now leaking into her personality.

"They can squeeze me for a hundred to get in the club." He waves off the concern, before pausing, "They still just shake you down for money, right? The bouncer doesn't actually stop anyone?"

She shakes her head sadly, "LAPD and the… One of the alphabet agencies, send in narcs regularly and fine everyone involved. If your paperwork checks out it's fine, but money doesn't spend like it used too."

"I've got an ID marked at twenty three." He gets out the door, making it to the car and slipping behind the wheel again.

Katherine nods, "You'll be fine then," the feeling was now getting very normal, just being a part of her background. Easy to ignore at least. It was just an emptiness. A stillness she supposed, as they drove she looks at him, "Do you think you can pull off a fishnet top?" Deeply enjoying the new look purely in how it made Belltower cranky.

"I did." He frowns, driving up the entrance way. "If you can believe it, they were popular in the nineties and two-thousands." There's a grumble of self-justification in him, trying to make something embarrassing better.

"So like that limited edition Ken barbie everyone had in your millenia." Lighting up a cigarillo as a timer beeped, feeling pleasant warmth passing through her as something chilled her neuroses. Maybe she'd skip the casual check for once.

The drive up is easy, and then back into the helicopter for the last short leg of the journey. Belltower's missing a few scars, including the one around his neck that's so distinctive. Looking untouched by the world as of yet. "You had freckles?" He asks.

"No, never. I just think they look cute." She laughs, "I always have, it kind of felt right. I almost added a scar over my eye? Like one of those claw swipes you see in shows to prove a character is grizzled but I had to stop and think of the mission."

"Yeah, odds are the therianthropes will oblige you anyways." It sounds so fun when he uses big words.

Looking over her glasses at the Director, "I'm to be obliged? Jesus, I'm going to ask for a raise."

"What?" Belltower asks confused, trying to catch up with the joke. "I-what-huh?" The little sputter of words is very adorable.

Looking at him with a laugh, she says, "Just… You're a hundred so I guess you'd call it… Horndoggery?"

"I'm forty!" Jacob complains loudly.

"Wow, so it really is the cigarettes that took the grit out. You emote way clearer now. I feel like I can read you now." She says giggling.

He lights up and puffs one with a frown, "Yeah don't get used to it, back to old and busted right after this." Belltower sucks down the cigarette, external changes not translate to internal.

"I'm honestly fine with that." Katherine says with a wild grin. Her face now almost elastic and vibrant looking into her phone's front facing camera suddenly wanting to cry. "Oh… Fuck."

"You alright?" Belltower questions, face showing a hard read of Katherine's emotions in a second.

She looks back from the phone with a smile, "Uh… One of the side effects of Lurasidone… It's face tremors? Your face kind of… Numbs." She says looking into the camera. "It's the first time I've seen my real smile since I was… Sixteen."

He nods, "Yeah, that I get." He glances at a reflective surface nearby him. "Shrapnel and, more importantly, shockwaves fuck up your surface nerves." Belltower's face shifts as if he is going to smirk, except a smile cracks open instead, bright and young and full of life.

"Still can't put light in my eyes though," She says morosely as she leans in, "Such an odd thing… They had a specularity slider… I maxed it."

Tilting his mirrorshades down, he smiles darkly, looking through with dead eyes. "I don't think it's all biology, really."

"More… Ma— Procedural." She shifts the word suddenly, "Christ… I can't believe it…" Quietly whispering to herself, "I… Think that time loop might have been the single greatest thing to ever happen to me at this point…"

"It's…yeah, I get that." He looks up at the roof of the helicopter, "I got a hell of a training session at least, bright side." The Director smiles darkly at that, face immediately expressive in every respect. "And always had a way to unload stress."

She snaps her head to him, now aware that she probably can't hide the overwhelming guilt and concern at all. Instead, trying to keep her voice level. "Oh, god right. I keep forgetting."

"Shrinks keep wanting to have me open up about it." He doesn't lose his voice, but there's a hair of something to it, "No idea how to even start. Woulda talked to them even without the…repetition." He lights another cigarette, quickly returning to his old pace.

Looking to him as she lights a second Cigarillo, quickly becoming unaware at how quick she was consuming them, "I think that makes them shitty therapists to be honest. If they're walking in saying 'Hey, trauma dump now so we can fix it!' Though, I guess the good ones, the really good ones work out of shitty strip malls at extremely low rates trying to help as many people as they can."

"Yeah," He repeats a vocal tick, now becoming a pattern, "These ones just want to get me back to work and not have me, I dunno, take a helicopter and ventilate an office building with the miniguns." It's an annoyed admission, "So I just told them it felt like there were mind procedures involved. They smiled, said there's no sign, and chalked it up to stress." Belltower grimaces, his whole demeanor shifting with it.

"You have enough…" Then she thought about it, it wasn't a money problem. Who do you talk about these things with? A trauma counselor could work through the… Stuff, but they're not magic inclined. Kathrine might actually be the only person who could possibly have the experience and knowledge to help at all. "Christ. Yeah, so they don't want you to ventilate an office building with miniguns?"

"Not a random building full of Sleepers." He measures the statement, grimace fading to a smirk that feels cocky. "Specific buildings that need minigunning are my speciality." It's a definite deflection, he tried a tinge of vulnerability and then recoiled from it. So much easier to read.

"There actually was a bad part of the loop for me, probably in a different way." Katherine said quietly, " Eleanora the french vampire? She bit me, killed me every morning just at Sunrise, but you survive a bit past that. The blood gets sucked out but the brain still still has to die. So… I did. Sixty five thousand times. Each time, I'd watch her heart break in different ways." A deep breath as she sucked on the psych and mild, "I never ever understood why she had to do it, why if it hurt her so much she went through with it. There's a tiny question, because the thing that breaks the loop, is me telling her that I'm in a loop." Another big puff.

Belltower stays quiet, face darkening as Katherine talks, "I didn't make it that far the first…couple thousand times. Hostile space, corners leading into dead drops. Left is right, up is down." He's putting a chill to his voice, like a briefing, something safe. "EDE, the target, was cracking reality a new one after the cult brought it here. And radio couldn't get out of the bent space. The other five never make it past seventeen minutes, you can't. Not without knowing everything that's coming, knowing to take a left instead of right step so you don't step on mud that'll have you merged into a fucking tree." The briefing voice fades as a hiss of anger gets him.

Katherine simply gives him space to talk, watching quietly, with her homemade psych and mild. "I hate that time magic taught us that some things are impossible."

"Not…impossible. Just improbable." He's staring off into a corner, looking much too young to have that look about him. "Made it to the compound attempt eleven thousand, sixty three. Didn't get too deep into that until the twenty thousands. Reality was in a real bad shape here, walls breaking down, it was trying to let more of its kind through. Could taste fucking hashbrowns." Jacob hisses, "Made it through that, stumbled into a room. EDE was possessing the cult leader. Figured out how to fight him exactly halfway through the loop."

Oh holy shit, he wasn't being sarcastic about the hashbrowns. Katherine thinks, trying not to break the calm look she imagines comrades in arms give.

With a dark, vile smile, the bloody and dangerous and vicious sort that only murder with a rage behind it can give, Jacob continues "I got really good at killing him, at the end there, could do it with just a knife and five hours."

"Sometimes, I tried to take my anger out on Eleanora." She said having the dark parts dragged out. "I couldn't even get close. She's five hundred moving at inhuman speeds, a hunter with centuries of experiencing toying with prey. So… I said mean things, things I only knew because of other loops, or I'd shoot myself in front of her." These parts didn't come out ever, "I was trapped, so I… Just fucked with the only person there."

"I kinda cracked too. Only had seventeen minutes of friendly faces, but I had…a lot of unfriendly ones." Belltower scowls. "I lost it, strung them up on trees, killed my way across the compound with a pistol, a knife, sometimes my hands. Just…a game after a while, six hours of game where the only play was bloody."

"Do you ever get scared? That people are going to see the cracks?" Katherine doesn't know if she's asking for his benefit or hers now.

"Aren't you?" Jacob asks, a dull spark of amusement at the question.

"Constantly. I love Eleanora, but if she knew what I did to her in the loops…" Her eyes go a bit more vacant, "That'd be it I think… There's more ways to kill then one. You can talk someone into doing it themselves."

Belltower smiles cruelly, "Yeah, I got good at that too." Its a soft, violent affirmation, "It's not something you should get good at. But here we are." He looks up at Katherine finally, blue and green meeting hers with the dull gleam of too much life lived.

"You get… bored." She admits, softly. "I'm sorry for the loops that lasted longer, but only two or three days. I… When I did that to Eleanora, I had to go back, then a thousand days later I'd get mad again because nothing worked. I had to try over and over and over because if I killed her, I couldn't live with myself. If she killed me I didn't get to leave."

"Those were bad. It took six days for pickup. So I just got to stand in the bodies. Drink water out of their well. Eat their food." He's grimacing uncomfortably again. "Just…rough." He sighs, the depth of the noise at odds with his appearance.

"If it happens again… Can I do anything to help? I get to roam free after an hour." She says, looking at him.

"Stay alive for seven days. I get some really fun drugs in seven days. It's pretty worth it." He chuckles to himself.

Katherine nods, quietly, "Well, you can call me. My number never changes. It might be easier with conversation."

"I'm not gonna be real interesting with two bullets and probably a claw in me." Belltower deprecates himself with a smile.

"I'm interesting enough for both of us, that's half the reason you took me on." The smile is soft, letting the moment sit. Even pass, if it needs. Sometimes you can't help, sometimes the biggest help you can be is just staying alive so you're on the other side.

"What's a decent cover?" He shifts topics, "I was thinking brother and sister but we look nothing alike."

She looks at him with an arched eyebrow, "You're… Joking. Brother and sister. You realize we might be the only two people there hot enough to actually be with each other right?"

He twitches at that, "Feels unprofessional." A curt admission.

"Just keep your hands above my clothes, and careful with the piercings. We'll be fine." Then she thinks a bit more, "Maybe no tongue if we have to kiss. We both smoke like chimneys and you're not going to be vampire cold."

"Hmm." Belltower grumbles in a light voice, "Still feels odd, don't normally do this sort of thing." He starts tapping a foot.

"I think my sense of what's normal has been completely twisted by the vampire polycule." Then it hit her, like a freight train. He did not have Eleanora in the loop, or a polycule outside of the loop. This might be the closest thing he's gotten to a date after hundreds of years of bloodshed. "Things are a bit more casual now, then they were twenty years ago." Katherine wasn't entirely sure that was true, but it was definitely the right thing to say, "Couple means no-one approaches you, but couple looking for a third lets you still follow your own path. Brother and sister can definitely work as well. Cousins. Girl who's taken a guy out to get a free dinner and drinks. You look young enough to be a tech bro, so if we dress up professionally this could actually be a business call even in a crowded club."

He shakes his head, pulling his sleeve up to show a patchwork of scars. "Tech bro's don't look like this past the wrist." The sleeve is released as he annoyedly frowns.

"Put a semi colon on the wrist and people will just think you had some mental health issues growing up." Katherine said as she looked, "It looks like it hurt though, but if you want to keep things suit and tie, then yeah. Even a henna semi-colon to say you're 'testing it out' first."

"On the other hand, we need a cover that lets me booze around probably criminals." Belltower's thinking, pushing through any nerves with a trained drive, "So, couple or, executive protection? Keep you at a slight distance, glare at people that come near, you tell me off, I lurk around, making conversation? Still, might scare someone off." He's thinking out loud.

"I think executive protection is easier because it won't seem odd if you get sketchy and want to sneak off. Let's me make a big fuss by picking a random fight if you need cover. Let's you handle the people since I'm not…" Her mind going back to a memory with a smile, "Socialized."

"I'm not exactly socialized either." He grumbles, "Last time someone touched me, I nearly broke their jaw in six places." But he's not disagreeing.

"We could also switch, because women and men are probably going to fawn. You look… This is going to sound bad, but you look very pretty and haunted. It's a look." Katherine says bluntly, trying to get the point about touching across.

"Hmm." Belltower makes a noise. "We can lean into that. Make me eye bait, you work the crowd." He's considering something, "Suppose at that point I lean into it, how's your eye shadow?"

"Very practiced in application." Katherine says with a smile, pulling out a phone and very carefully sending him the right picture. "Here's a picture of my pre-shower makeup that I took when it went really well." Then looking at him squinting. "It's basically practice make-up you do before you shower."

"I'm aware. I wore fishnets in two-thousand." He jokes, a dry and sarcastic tone that's familiar. Looking at the photograph and nodding, "Probably better than I can do, two decades out of practice." Jacob sighs. "Alright, next step, you just want to stick to real names? First names to be specific."

"I want to be… Shark." She says thinking of a cool nickname, "No. Wait, Deadeye. Or… Just a number, like Seven."

"That's taken." He chuckles, "So is Six and Nine. It's the aesthetic."

She'd let that one slide for his sake. "I'll be Moxxi with an I, and you'll be… Ivan." She says staring at him.

"Ivan." He states, staring back. "That's what you're going with."

"What's wrong with Ivan!" Katherine says, "It's like… Russian? Oh. Wait." Looking at him suddenly as she thought. "What do you think of Eight?"

"Nostalgic." Belltower smiles. "I can work with Eight, already respond to it."

 

[Princess Scribe]

 

[World Illusion]

Click to shrink...

I am suddenly very aware of why her girlfriends were so immediately infatuated with her-