Given that this was the guys' dorm ... *snicker* did N!Tate just lose his living quarters due to an oh so unfortunate accident? *we're looking at you, Nagi*
Przypadki chodza po ludziach, as they say where I was born. Ancient Polish proverb. Well, for a given value of 'ancient'.
It meant as much as: Coincidences happen.
The town was quiet after dark. A good thing, since someone who looked like he'd just drowned, and I'm not even going to mention the sort of damage my jacket and shirt had taken, wouldn't exactly blend into the normal flow of human traffic.
It took me the better part of half an hour after getting to it to find the local office.
"Boss?!"
I did my best poleaxed steer impression for a moment, which was met with the same from the person on the other side of the door.
"Um, yo?" was perhaps not the best line for the situation, but I think I'm excused for using it due to extenuating circumstances. Like being in dire need of a warm bath and a warmer drink. "Mind moving? It's cold out."
Picture one, Tsujimoto Natsumi. She was, quite likely, the best runner we had in our employ. She was also brash, arrogant and...
... you know, if I didn't know better, I'd say she and Armitage were somehow related.
... well, I didn't really blame Ren. Meeting Miyu can be an unsettling experience.
"The facial structure, his genetic print ..." she was rubbing the index finger and thumb of the hand she'd offered Ren to shake against one-another. "There is more than a 93% probability, when extrapolating from existing evidence, that the man is at least a second cousin of the Aries Republic's President."
"We knew there was a relation, though his files list one a bit more distant than that," I replied. "It's under control."
I did know better, though. She and her fellow Jipang expatriate, Kobayakawa Miyuki - and every time I heard those two names, I got the impression that I was missing something, like one of the universe's little jokes - had only been with Black for the past few months, but they'd both gone through the screening without any problems, and they'd both met Miyu.
I didn't ask how Miyu had accumulated the sheer volume of data, genetic and otherwise, she seemed to have access to. Likely, it had been a long and ardous process ... or not, since I can't really recall Miyu ever having trouble getting somewhere where she wanted or needed to go without arousing undue suspicion.
Tangents aside for the next little while though, it actually took a moment or two before I could go in.
You know, you've got to respect the guts of the person running someone looking like I did there and then through a security check.
Still, once that was over and done with - I _must_ remember thank Miyuki for the hacked together DNA readers, crude thought they were. We'd finished outfitting the offices with them and updating their databases just two months ago, after quite a bit of effort, but they were proving to be a blessing all the same - things started going smoothly again.
"Sorry, it's just, nobody in the Windbloom office knew where you were and Turippu-san was being really evasive about it," Natsumi informed me after I was back to being more or less fit to face the civilized world again. Such as it was.
Coffee, how I love thee, let me count the ways.
Or, you know, not.
"How's he been doing while I was gone?"
"Staying in more, occasionally cursing the paperwork, little edgy," she frowned, looked like she was about to ask me something, then shrugged.
"What?"
"Well ... some of the ... there's been rumors," she fidgeted. Though when she did start going, she picked up steam preatty quickly. "And really, you show up here, half dead. What the hell happened to you, anyway? I mean, there was that wild rumor that started going around a day or so ago in the Windbloom office, that Turippu-san killed you and did away with the body. I just got here yesterday evening, and with the way you looked ..."
Say WHAT?!
Okay, that definitely counted as one of those moments where you either laughed your ass off or cried out in disbelief. I barely managed to _not_ snort the coffee. That could have been ... painful.
On a sidenote, it should be said that a normal run from Windbloom to this far in Aries territory usually takes a Frame somewhere around a day and a half. But then, Natsumi's riding has been described as borderline insane before.
"Let's just say that's about as far from the truth as possible and leave it at that," I finally managed.
I could almost feel the 'That's _it_?!' in the air, barely being held in by the fact that ... well, I paid her wages, or at least delegated that task.
"What are you doing here, anyway?" I asked, finishing my beverage.
"Info packages. Turippu-san sent one along for the Garderobe people, one for the Aries bigwigs. Figured they'd be meeting here and it would shave off the extra effort of having two runners taking care of it or the whole thing taking twice as long," she told me.
It was about that time, I realized. Nodded. Stood, navigated out of the kitchen, grabbed an empty message tube and a sheet of paper from one of the three desks in the main area of the office, and started scribbling down a message.
I handed her the tube, and a bit of a raw deal. Well, the boss had some leeway on acting like an asshole, especially when he paid his runners as much as he did.
"I hate to do this to you, but I need this message to go to Windbloom as fast as possible. Hand it off to Ren personally, if you can. Since I'm here, I'll take care of the Garderobe and Aries deliveries," plus, it would let me get an impression of the moods all around. "And yes, you can tell them I'm still alive and kicking, but try not to mention the way I showed up here, yes?"
She groaned, took a deep breath, and nodded. "I'll be on my way first thing in the morning."
And since I really didn't want to have to deal with the beehive that was the Garderobe encampment right now, plus, it had been a while since I'd had a decent nights' sleep, I retired for the night as well.
It wasn't a large room, barely big enough to hold a bed and a dresser, but it would do. Especially since the bed _was_ fairly big, and the blessing of spare uniforms had been bestowed upon me.
I stiffled a yawn, stripped down to my boxers, and collapsed into bed.
And then ...
... Suzu... no ... who is that? So familiar, yet not. What did they call me? Is that my ... no. It isn't ...
... wolves howling at the scarlet moon ... flames spearing through the sky ... the clash of steel ... memories ... memories ... but ...
... how am I alive?
... arms around me as the world loses definition, fragmenting into shades of viridan ...
"Do you want to see her again?", a voice echoes in the nothingness.
... I abruptly awoke to the first rays of dawn, muddled recollections of another dream that I was increasingly more certain mean something ... possibly that I was going completely off my rocker now ... fading away into nothingness.
This one seemed more intense, somehow. More vivid than the ones I'd had before.
With a sigh, I got out of bed. Even if it did mean something, I had no bloody idea what, and right now I had things to do other than staring blankly at the wall and wondering 'What the hell was _that_ all about, anyway?'
I did make a silent resolution to either close the blinds or not sleep in a room with a window facing East next time the chance presented itself.
In my defense, cameos are easier to come by than original chars.
Now I sleep.
Ja! -g
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
Przypadki chodza po ludziach, as they say where I was born. Ancient Polish proverb. Well, for a given value of 'ancient'.
It meant as much as: Coincidences happen.
The town was quiet after dark. A good thing, since someone who looked like he'd just drowned, and I'm not even going to mention the sort of damage my jacket and shirt had taken, wouldn't exactly blend into the normal flow of human traffic.
It took me the better part of half an hour after getting to it to find the local office.
"Boss?!"
I did my best poleaxed steer impression for a moment, which was met with the same from the person on the other side of the door.
"Um, yo?" was perhaps not the best line for the situation, but I think I'm excused for using it due to extenuating circumstances. Like being in dire need of a warm bath and a warmer drink. "Mind moving? It's cold out."
Picture one, Tsujimoto Natsumi. She was, quite likely, the best runner we had in our employ. She was also brash, arrogant and...
... you know, if I didn't know better, I'd say she and Armitage were somehow related.
... well, I didn't really blame Ren. Meeting Miyu can be an unsettling experience.
"The facial structure, his genetic print ..." she was rubbing the index finger and thumb of the hand she'd offered Ren to shake against one-another. "There is more than a 93% probability, when extrapolating from existing evidence, that the man is at least a second cousin of the Aries Republic's President."
"We knew there was a relation, though his files list one a bit more distant than that," I replied. "It's under control."
I did know better, though. She and her fellow Jipang expatriate, Kobayakawa Miyuki - and every time I heard those two names, I got the impression that I was missing something, like one of the universe's little jokes - had only been with Black for the past few months, but they'd both gone through the screening without any problems, and they'd both met Miyu.
I didn't ask how Miyu had accumulated the sheer volume of data, genetic and otherwise, she seemed to have access to. Likely, it had been a long and ardous process ... or not, since I can't really recall Miyu ever having trouble getting somewhere where she wanted or needed to go without arousing undue suspicion.
Tangents aside for the next little while though, it actually took a moment or two before I could go in.
You know, you've got to respect the guts of the person running someone looking like I did there and then through a security check.
Still, once that was over and done with - I _must_ remember thank Miyuki for the hacked together DNA readers, crude thought they were. We'd finished outfitting the offices with them and updating their databases just two months ago, after quite a bit of effort, but they were proving to be a blessing all the same - things started going smoothly again.
"Sorry, it's just, nobody in the Windbloom office knew where you were and Turippu-san was being really evasive about it," Natsumi informed me after I was back to being more or less fit to face the civilized world again. Such as it was.
Coffee, how I love thee, let me count the ways.
Or, you know, not.
"How's he been doing while I was gone?"
"Staying in more, occasionally cursing the paperwork, little edgy," she frowned, looked like she was about to ask me something, then shrugged.
"What?"
"Well ... some of the ... there's been rumors," she fidgeted. Though when she did start going, she picked up steam preatty quickly. "And really, you show up here, half dead. What the hell happened to you, anyway? I mean, there was that wild rumor that started going around a day or so ago in the Windbloom office, that Turippu-san killed you and did away with the body. I just got here yesterday evening, and with the way you looked ..."
Say WHAT?!
Okay, that definitely counted as one of those moments where you either laughed your ass off or cried out in disbelief. I barely managed to _not_ snort the coffee. That could have been ... painful.
On a sidenote, it should be said that a normal run from Windbloom to this far in Aries territory usually takes a Frame somewhere around a day and a half. But then, Natsumi's riding has been described as borderline insane before.
"Let's just say that's about as far from the truth as possible and leave it at that," I finally managed.
I could almost feel the 'That's _it_?!' in the air, barely being held in by the fact that ... well, I paid her wages, or at least delegated that task.
"What are you doing here, anyway?" I asked, finishing my beverage.
"Info packages. Turippu-san sent one along for the Garderobe people, one for the Aries bigwigs. Figured they'd be meeting here and it would shave off the extra effort of having two runners taking care of it or the whole thing taking twice as long," she told me.
It was about that time, I realized. Nodded. Stood, navigated out of the kitchen, grabbed an empty message tube and a sheet of paper from one of the three desks in the main area of the office, and started scribbling down a message.
I handed her the tube, and a bit of a raw deal. Well, the boss had some leeway on acting like an asshole, especially when he paid his runners as much as he did.
"I hate to do this to you, but I need this message to go to Windbloom as fast as possible. Hand it off to Ren personally, if you can. Since I'm here, I'll take care of the Garderobe and Aries deliveries," plus, it would let me get an impression of the moods all around. "And yes, you can tell them I'm still alive and kicking, but try not to mention the way I showed up here, yes?"
She groaned, took a deep breath, and nodded. "I'll be on my way first thing in the morning."
And since I really didn't want to have to deal with the beehive that was the Garderobe encampment right now, plus, it had been a while since I'd had a decent nights' sleep, I retired for the night as well.
It wasn't a large room, barely big enough to hold a bed and a dresser, but it would do. Especially since the bed _was_ fairly big, and the blessing of spare uniforms had been bestowed upon me.
I stiffled a yawn, stripped down to my boxers, and collapsed into bed.
And then ...
... Suzu... no ... who is that? So familiar, yet not. What did they call me? Is that my ... no. It isn't ...
... wolves howling at the scarlet moon ... flames spearing through the sky ... the clash of steel ... memories ... memories ... but ...
... how am I alive?
... arms around me as the world loses definition, fragmenting into shades of viridan ...
"Do you want to see her again?", a voice echoes in the nothingness.
... I abruptly awoke to the first rays of dawn, muddled recollections of another dream that I was increasingly more certain mean something ... possibly that I was going completely off my rocker now ... fading away into nothingness.
This one seemed more intense, somehow. More vivid than the ones I'd had before.
With a sigh, I got out of bed. Even if it did mean something, I had no bloody idea what, and right now I had things to do other than staring blankly at the wall and wondering 'What the hell was _that_ all about, anyway?'
I did make a silent resolution to either close the blinds or not sleep in a room with a window facing East next time the chance presented itself.
In my defense, cameos are easier to come by than original chars.
Now I sleep.
Ja! -g
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