Awww. you made her blush. How sweet.
She's a sweet girl, she's just a homicidal maniac? *brain explodes*
Hmm ... y'know, the scary thing is that I sometimes babble like that without the need for any medication.
*image of Midori snapping off a salute to N!Tate and doing her 'HiME Sentai, Sanjo!' spiel*
I'm still waiting for N!Tate to go off on a tangent on how he's the Man with the Plan, Kaiser freakin' Soze, wohooo ... wait, that'd have to have him kill off his allies, err ... ingnore he just said that?*ahem*.
Wait, does this mean he gets a parakeet out of the deal?
*rubs forehead*
Damnit, this took too long, and I still think I got her wrong. Too serious or something. Even despite the fact that she'd all but hijacked the post. I'd meant to write more Yukino and Haruka, maybe start in on Nagi, and so on. Maa ...
For once, the timing worked out.
It was about the only thing that did, though.
Let me clarify.
The first time I'd met Juliet-ane-san, as in spoke with her, rather than the first time I'd seen her - evening, Rorschach, blond guy nearly messing his pants and something about a missing Coral Otome uniform - had gone remarkably without incident. Well, without much of one.
"So, you're saying you want us to do what? Spy for you?" her tone was somewhere between amused and irritated.
"Maa ... you make it sound like such an ugly thing," I replied, ignoring the two gorillas propping up the warehouse wall behind where the redheaded sometimes Pearl stood. "Besides, no, we wouldn't want or need you to do that. We'd just want you to watch, listen and remember things. Maybe occasionally ... walk by one place or another, and do it there."
"Uh-huh," eyes narrow, arms crossed, evaluating. "And what's the hook, then? We've had something like that offered before, and they were willing to pay more than what you named. But there's _always_ a hook."
"Oh, what did they want?" I chuckled in reply and made an educated guess. "Something silly about being ready to accept the Black Letter when the time came?"
Juliet-ane-san didn't react. The two goons she'd brought, though, looked like they were about to move.
"Tch. So well informed. Dumb enough to come alone, though, and to a place like this."
"You know better than to assume," I gave her my best level look. Not all that good, but it brought the point across. "This is for subtlety's sake. After all, I want to propose this to Juliet-ane-san ..."
A few steps took me close enough that the whisper of "... and not Juliet Nao Zhang. Conflicting loyalties make people do less than their best work ..." reach her and only her.
I could almost see the flash of anger in her eyes, but it was quickly suppressed, and she waved off her two enforcers before they could as much as move from where they were.
"Blackmail?" she ground out, keeping her voice down. "You bastard ..."
"You misunderstand ..."
"Oh, I understand alright," tensing. Not good.
"You say 'no'. I walk out of here. Nothing about that little tidbit gets told to anyone," the expression of disbelief wasn't hard to read, not that she was trying to hide it. "You say 'yes', I hire Juliet-ane-san, and Ms. Zhang and whatever information she has access to is never as much as mentioned."
It had taken a little more than that, but we'd ... ironed ... that difference of opinion out. Somewhat. Enough for the proposed arrangement to work.
This time, though, it was Pearl Juliet Nao Zhang I was faced with.
As to how this situation had come about?
I'd dropped off the messages at the villa. That is to say, I'd dropped off the one for Garderobe with the instructor they'd left behind at their camp to watch the students before they managed to get back. Yukariko Stein-something ...
The one for Yukino I delivered myself, but something there must have meant more to her than it did to me, because another shovel's worth of worry seemed to be added onto the already tense atmosphere when she went over it.
I made a mental note to run through the contents of that compilation when I got back to Windbloom.
Also, this was my cue to leave. I didn't need to be told twice. Actually, I didn't need to be told, point. Add to that the fact that I didn't exactly have much of an excuse to, you know, actually justify _being_ there.
While normally I wouldn't really mind that sort of situation, since it helped keep people off-balance and sometimes made them slip when they were confronted with the unexpected, the show Schwarz and Aswad had just provided made that sort of popping out of the woodwork a bit of a dicey affair.
I even managed to not trip across a runt on my way out.
Good. I wasn't in the sort of mood that would be conductive to a discussion with Machiavelli Jr.
My mind was doing handstands, trying to fit events into any sort of recognizable pattern, but all I ever came up with on the way back to Windbloom was a half-assembled jigsaw puzzle. And even then I'd cut the corners on some of the pieces.
And then I'd arrived, having borrowed a Frame again - mental note, need to send a replacement along - and was confronted by an unusually serious looking Juliet Nao Zhang, lurking in an alley that ran behind Windbloom's Black office building, right beside the rear garage entrance.
"You've never actually screwed me over, so I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt. I'm only going to ask this once," she said when I'd removed the runner headgear and gave her a quizzical look. "Is Black detaining Garderobe personnel?"
See what I mean about the timing being the only thing being right?
"Wait. Back up. Repeat that. Say WHAT?!"
Yes, a definite WTF moment. And again, yes, it's all connected. You'll see. The idea will either work out, or be lame enough for me to have to stalinize this thing.
-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
She's a sweet girl, she's just a homicidal maniac? *brain explodes*
Hmm ... y'know, the scary thing is that I sometimes babble like that without the need for any medication.
*image of Midori snapping off a salute to N!Tate and doing her 'HiME Sentai, Sanjo!' spiel*
I'm still waiting for N!Tate to go off on a tangent on how he's the Man with the Plan, Kaiser freakin' Soze, wohooo ... wait, that'd have to have him kill off his allies, err ... ingnore he just said that?*ahem*.
Wait, does this mean he gets a parakeet out of the deal?
*rubs forehead*
Damnit, this took too long, and I still think I got her wrong. Too serious or something. Even despite the fact that she'd all but hijacked the post. I'd meant to write more Yukino and Haruka, maybe start in on Nagi, and so on. Maa ...
For once, the timing worked out.
It was about the only thing that did, though.
Let me clarify.
The first time I'd met Juliet-ane-san, as in spoke with her, rather than the first time I'd seen her - evening, Rorschach, blond guy nearly messing his pants and something about a missing Coral Otome uniform - had gone remarkably without incident. Well, without much of one.
"So, you're saying you want us to do what? Spy for you?" her tone was somewhere between amused and irritated.
"Maa ... you make it sound like such an ugly thing," I replied, ignoring the two gorillas propping up the warehouse wall behind where the redheaded sometimes Pearl stood. "Besides, no, we wouldn't want or need you to do that. We'd just want you to watch, listen and remember things. Maybe occasionally ... walk by one place or another, and do it there."
"Uh-huh," eyes narrow, arms crossed, evaluating. "And what's the hook, then? We've had something like that offered before, and they were willing to pay more than what you named. But there's _always_ a hook."
"Oh, what did they want?" I chuckled in reply and made an educated guess. "Something silly about being ready to accept the Black Letter when the time came?"
Juliet-ane-san didn't react. The two goons she'd brought, though, looked like they were about to move.
"Tch. So well informed. Dumb enough to come alone, though, and to a place like this."
"You know better than to assume," I gave her my best level look. Not all that good, but it brought the point across. "This is for subtlety's sake. After all, I want to propose this to Juliet-ane-san ..."
A few steps took me close enough that the whisper of "... and not Juliet Nao Zhang. Conflicting loyalties make people do less than their best work ..." reach her and only her.
I could almost see the flash of anger in her eyes, but it was quickly suppressed, and she waved off her two enforcers before they could as much as move from where they were.
"Blackmail?" she ground out, keeping her voice down. "You bastard ..."
"You misunderstand ..."
"Oh, I understand alright," tensing. Not good.
"You say 'no'. I walk out of here. Nothing about that little tidbit gets told to anyone," the expression of disbelief wasn't hard to read, not that she was trying to hide it. "You say 'yes', I hire Juliet-ane-san, and Ms. Zhang and whatever information she has access to is never as much as mentioned."
It had taken a little more than that, but we'd ... ironed ... that difference of opinion out. Somewhat. Enough for the proposed arrangement to work.
This time, though, it was Pearl Juliet Nao Zhang I was faced with.
As to how this situation had come about?
I'd dropped off the messages at the villa. That is to say, I'd dropped off the one for Garderobe with the instructor they'd left behind at their camp to watch the students before they managed to get back. Yukariko Stein-something ...
The one for Yukino I delivered myself, but something there must have meant more to her than it did to me, because another shovel's worth of worry seemed to be added onto the already tense atmosphere when she went over it.
I made a mental note to run through the contents of that compilation when I got back to Windbloom.
Also, this was my cue to leave. I didn't need to be told twice. Actually, I didn't need to be told, point. Add to that the fact that I didn't exactly have much of an excuse to, you know, actually justify _being_ there.
While normally I wouldn't really mind that sort of situation, since it helped keep people off-balance and sometimes made them slip when they were confronted with the unexpected, the show Schwarz and Aswad had just provided made that sort of popping out of the woodwork a bit of a dicey affair.
I even managed to not trip across a runt on my way out.
Good. I wasn't in the sort of mood that would be conductive to a discussion with Machiavelli Jr.
My mind was doing handstands, trying to fit events into any sort of recognizable pattern, but all I ever came up with on the way back to Windbloom was a half-assembled jigsaw puzzle. And even then I'd cut the corners on some of the pieces.
And then I'd arrived, having borrowed a Frame again - mental note, need to send a replacement along - and was confronted by an unusually serious looking Juliet Nao Zhang, lurking in an alley that ran behind Windbloom's Black office building, right beside the rear garage entrance.
"You've never actually screwed me over, so I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt. I'm only going to ask this once," she said when I'd removed the runner headgear and gave her a quizzical look. "Is Black detaining Garderobe personnel?"
See what I mean about the timing being the only thing being right?
"Wait. Back up. Repeat that. Say WHAT?!"
Yes, a definite WTF moment. And again, yes, it's all connected. You'll see. The idea will either work out, or be lame enough for me to have to stalinize this thing.
-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