*receives*
Saa ... it does seem to be in genre.
Way to make a first impression, though. Although, since nobody tried killing anybody else at the end there, it should be labelled a tenative success.
I'm wondering, though - will N!Tate leave explaining things to Shizuru to Natsuki, or actually talk to her himself?
And I wish your fans good health and a long life. *snrkk*
*returns*
*timestamp - grainy picture of a blond guy flinching away from something*
There are places like that everywhere.
I don't neccessarily mean, exactly like, just built around the general idea or adapted thereto.
Sort of like Cest la Vie or, on a larger scale, Istanbul.
The Rorschach was a bar just on the edge of being a dive. It was also, due to some quirk of fate or unspoken agreement, pretty much neutral ground for those who wanted to trade information. Didn't mean people didn't eavesdrop, and you could learn just as much by keeping in mind who was meeting whom, and putting together whatever snippets of conversation you could catch. The latter was not always possible, since it was a bar after all, but the former alone warranted that the Rorschach became a place to visit for some of the more subtle of the office staff.
Ren had a stool there with his name on it. Not literally, but it could have been and it wouldn't have made much of a difference.
I wasn't exactly a regular there, but occasionally, I did show up. I'd initially wanted to catch a glimpse of the famous, or should that be notorious, Juliet-ane-san.
Turns out that I did.
Social conditioning had a lot to do with information gathering. Some things you noted instantly, some things you ignored. It was why I'd taken pains to try and build Black up into a multi-viewpoint sort of establishment from the very beginning. I'd like to think I'd managed it, but some things it really does take an outsider to notice.
When most people on Earl hear Otome, they consider it synonimous with these utterly honorable and virtuous warrior maidens.
You wouldn't expect one of those to head a gang of street toughs and hang around in seedy bars on the less savory side of the social border.
The key, I think, is that they hear too much maiden and too little warrior, and that they likely hadn't bothered to read any Sun-Tsu.
Me? I'd been sceptical about this whole Otome principle ever since a certain blue songbird first sang to me about them. Because, undeneath it all, no matter how well trained or behaved, people are people. Shunting them all into a single mold just because that's the lore, with the diverse character traits and nationalities there, is about as big a mistake as you can make.
Juliet-ane-san moved with the grace of a martial artist, and was certainly more aware of her surroundings then her companions were.
Having her ask about some small bit of information related to Garderobe, something about a uniform or so, only firmed the theory in my eyes.
Not a good thing, really. If she'd been just an 'independant contractor', things would have been easier. As it was, I had potential blackmail material on hand - since the Otomes' collective reputation was being put into doubt, or would be, if this were ever released.
Still, that was never a good basis for recruitment, and I was reconsidering that whole bit anyway, what with the new information.
I sipped my coffee, which was too strong and not nearly sweet enough, and watched the girl and her gang leave. And leave a guy scared nearly shitless behind.
No, subcontracting them to do Black's information gathering work in these circles should do. We'd look for another possibility, of course, but this ... it was both a bad and a good thing.
I made sure to level off the usual tab I left for some of the 'off duty' employees who'd arrive in the evening, and left. A few snippets of the overheard conversation, or should that read interrogation, stayed with me, however, and I found myself slowly gravitating towards ...
... well, let's just say that a few hours later, I was back at the office, cloth bag in hand.
Ren didn't comment on the Meister Otome figurines that decorated one of the formerly empty shelves of my office on the next day.
Although I had no idea why the hell I'd gotten one of Haruka Armitage. I was going to be seeing more of her in two days then I'd have liked to in the coming year - the business lunch had the be rescheduled due to some ongoing political bickering that, from the sound of it, was as important as it was boring.
You can take the fanboy out of the anime, but you can't take the anime out of a fanboy.
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm
Saa ... it does seem to be in genre.
Way to make a first impression, though. Although, since nobody tried killing anybody else at the end there, it should be labelled a tenative success.
I'm wondering, though - will N!Tate leave explaining things to Shizuru to Natsuki, or actually talk to her himself?
And I wish your fans good health and a long life. *snrkk*
*returns*
*timestamp - grainy picture of a blond guy flinching away from something*
There are places like that everywhere.
I don't neccessarily mean, exactly like, just built around the general idea or adapted thereto.
Sort of like Cest la Vie or, on a larger scale, Istanbul.
The Rorschach was a bar just on the edge of being a dive. It was also, due to some quirk of fate or unspoken agreement, pretty much neutral ground for those who wanted to trade information. Didn't mean people didn't eavesdrop, and you could learn just as much by keeping in mind who was meeting whom, and putting together whatever snippets of conversation you could catch. The latter was not always possible, since it was a bar after all, but the former alone warranted that the Rorschach became a place to visit for some of the more subtle of the office staff.
Ren had a stool there with his name on it. Not literally, but it could have been and it wouldn't have made much of a difference.
I wasn't exactly a regular there, but occasionally, I did show up. I'd initially wanted to catch a glimpse of the famous, or should that be notorious, Juliet-ane-san.
Turns out that I did.
Social conditioning had a lot to do with information gathering. Some things you noted instantly, some things you ignored. It was why I'd taken pains to try and build Black up into a multi-viewpoint sort of establishment from the very beginning. I'd like to think I'd managed it, but some things it really does take an outsider to notice.
When most people on Earl hear Otome, they consider it synonimous with these utterly honorable and virtuous warrior maidens.
You wouldn't expect one of those to head a gang of street toughs and hang around in seedy bars on the less savory side of the social border.
The key, I think, is that they hear too much maiden and too little warrior, and that they likely hadn't bothered to read any Sun-Tsu.
Me? I'd been sceptical about this whole Otome principle ever since a certain blue songbird first sang to me about them. Because, undeneath it all, no matter how well trained or behaved, people are people. Shunting them all into a single mold just because that's the lore, with the diverse character traits and nationalities there, is about as big a mistake as you can make.
Juliet-ane-san moved with the grace of a martial artist, and was certainly more aware of her surroundings then her companions were.
Having her ask about some small bit of information related to Garderobe, something about a uniform or so, only firmed the theory in my eyes.
Not a good thing, really. If she'd been just an 'independant contractor', things would have been easier. As it was, I had potential blackmail material on hand - since the Otomes' collective reputation was being put into doubt, or would be, if this were ever released.
Still, that was never a good basis for recruitment, and I was reconsidering that whole bit anyway, what with the new information.
I sipped my coffee, which was too strong and not nearly sweet enough, and watched the girl and her gang leave. And leave a guy scared nearly shitless behind.
No, subcontracting them to do Black's information gathering work in these circles should do. We'd look for another possibility, of course, but this ... it was both a bad and a good thing.
I made sure to level off the usual tab I left for some of the 'off duty' employees who'd arrive in the evening, and left. A few snippets of the overheard conversation, or should that read interrogation, stayed with me, however, and I found myself slowly gravitating towards ...
... well, let's just say that a few hours later, I was back at the office, cloth bag in hand.
Ren didn't comment on the Meister Otome figurines that decorated one of the formerly empty shelves of my office on the next day.
Although I had no idea why the hell I'd gotten one of Haruka Armitage. I was going to be seeing more of her in two days then I'd have liked to in the coming year - the business lunch had the be rescheduled due to some ongoing political bickering that, from the sound of it, was as important as it was boring.
You can take the fanboy out of the anime, but you can't take the anime out of a fanboy.
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm