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Offices were plagues, and so he'd avoided them. That was how he worked, mantra and motto under which he'd run his life like a girl in a yoga class who doodled up 'manifestations' and put them into neatly behearted little envelopes with stickers n glitter all over them.

No offices, meant no worries, his own warm, safe little Hakuna Matata. Worry free, and he felt he'd done a damned good job of it, avoiding things like plagues. Doing his due diligence, or job, or however the people who ruled the castle wanted to phrase it...

Then he'd gotten called the ******** in.

Hadn't read a letter of whatever was in the letter, except for the part that gave a time and date and office number ********>." wondered if he should leave a will, or tell someone - burned those ideas to ash because he'd be damned if he'd upset either his boss or bossette by breathing a single solitary word of this to them. Getting called in, for reasons, for any reasons at all. Nope, they didn't need the drama, and if it was something simple - if it was just for a chat and any of the worse things it could've been. Wouldn't do that to them.

Especially since he was getting called in by Axinite, that was his firebrand's top boss. Guy who ran the schtick he fell under inso far as information ran. Wished it was Lepidolite, wondered if the kinds of things that led to promotions were always this ominous. Missives, summons, and -

Whatever

Girded his ******** loins because he'd never been sheepish about this stuff before, brought a present becasue that's how he'd gotten everything else done in life. Worked with Nembus, worked with Faustite, meeting peoples needs, feeding them? Always made them a little less - stabby -weepy - dead behind the eyes..whatever...

Strode up to the door, unseeing of it, solid obstacle in his way and he didn't bother knocking so much as he just paused for a few moments, because the guy was a General King, ******** Sovereign on high. Wouldn't insult him by thinking he didn't know who was wandering just beyond his periphery at every passing moment - wondered if that got annoying - wondered if that was an actual real thing that they had to deal with...

Had all sorts of questions all of a sudden, but wasn't getting any of them answered by standing and marveling at what could be in the space that laid beyond. Made to shove it open in some way that passed as 'trying to be gentle with your framework, sorry!?'

"Hey, uhm...so. Is this the right place, or?"

Wanted to say he was wondering the same things, if he was in trouble, if something was wrong or not? Didn’t ask it like that, because rude, ‘n also he knew better sometimes - then to answer questions with questions.

Then to ask questions of those who were so far above him it felt like staring into the sun, a little dizzying even if it was lovely. For how warm Axinites office was. Comphy as ********, the whole of it, smell of sweets and baked goods. How it flooded the place, his senses; made him think of early morning bakeries.

Made him wonder where the guy who lauded lordship over all of an entire operation of agents even found the time to do such things.

Time enough to get warm platters of cookies ready, to keep an office that begged easement, a place one could go to escape stress, such a far cry from the cold looming gloom that permeated so many other places in the castle. Like his firebrands office, for one.

Set the small box of - what had Faustite called it? Blue tea? - Little box of loose leaf herbs that ended up getting sat between the pair of glass covered, cookie laden plates. Left it there without explanation, easier to do it quietly maybe, then running his mouth off about nothing on accident.

While he acknowledged the offer, gave a little nod at Axinites words, still he chose to stand.

The idea of sitting before the man, even amongst the sweet warm haze that seemed to permeate the place - cozy as a cottage kitchenette.

Even with all that? Albite still would’ve felt small, rankled at that, knew there was nothing to be done for it - standing before a man with an aura like that. Who’s weapon was his namesake.

Better to keep standing maybe, in case the sitting made it worse. It wasn’t his office, wasn’t his boss, he shouldn’t have been getting comfortable in it.

“Thanks, really, but m’thinking I’d rather know what I’m here for than get comfortable, yeah? Maybe after…” roll of a shoulder, a rough imitation of a shrug and feigned nonchalance for all that he was nervous beneath the grin. For all that Axinites smile made him worry - sharp powerful things shouldn’t have been tucked away in soft packages.

It was why he enjoyed Faustite as his General so much, there was no lie in his form, no room for Albite to mistake anything for other than what it was. A dangerous half-youma that looked dangerous, all things in balance for that.

Tight thing that uncoiled in his chest, and Albite immediately felt better for the knowledge of *why*.

Self assured grin, tension that eased out of his shoulders and stance as Axinite went over his entry, flashed the screen full of his own errant phrasing into view.

Knew it was his, remembered doing it, wasn’t a mistake in there that he could see.

Maybe this was the thing it’d taken to get himself noticed? He’d thought it all along - when he’d asked about the how of climbing the ladder he hadn’t cared about until someone had given him a reason to do it. Dangled a prize overtop of it and bade him to take each rung at speed - no matter the folly of skipping a few steps.

Albite took pride in having come up with this on his own - out of everything else he’d done - this? This was the one thing he’d slacked on, dreaded, hated, outright ignored.

Figured that taking the initiative would finally do it. Bit the bullet of paperwork and systems - put something out to show ‘worth’, if the rest hadn’t been quite enough yet.

“Well, ******** - *yeah*, except also, no? That’s mine though.” Really was ,and he smiled to see it. “I kinda - I should’ve maybe asked? It’s something I should be able to do though, right? Figured I’d try it out - only thing I haven’t done yet is, uh, report type stuff - I’m more of a ‘field based type’?” words inlaid in quotes, slant of a grin as he shrugged for Axinites pause - for his questions.

How else to phrase - ‘I punch s**t hard and meet my marks’ - but wrote like a four year old. Took information in feelings and colors for those things, rather than names and dates and times.

Wasn’t sure how else he should’ve put what he had. Was only sure that it should’ve been put somewhere- though maybe not by him.

He couldn’t let himself put it on his superiors forever though…..

“Why? Is it —-“ shut his mouth and wondered at how Axinite had said *informal*, wondered if maybe the man meant something else…

"Uh-huh. Listen...." and bad was the most polite way he could've phrased things. Nembus polite, except even she buckled down and put on the mom voice when he acted up. Faustite never pulled any punches with his phrasing, demanded it out, lest Albite drown his own superior within the verbal quicksand of his own tangential mire.

Certainly his own language use skewed towards the more abrasive end of the spectrum. Axinite was smiling though, highlighting the importance of everything contained within the database. Making it abundantly clear that it was his 'baby'; more than a passion project or data-mine.

Important to him directly, to his people, to increasing chances of survival in upticks of percentiles. N' Albite could get that - could get behind a guy who cared so much he'd drag his dumb a** in for skewing things. Axinite was the information guy, head and heart of it, made sense he'd care. The problem lay in Albite, and he knew it. Axinite wanted knowledge, and for anyone else? Sure, but for him? His mind a sieve and the details scattered puzzle pieces to put back together after sifting through the mess of it all. Casting out the useless and picking up the pieces that mattered..

"We'll make this easy on each other, yeah? Being direct, works real good with me, else you'll have me in here all day long - over nothing. Not because this is nothing, it isn't - it's just..." quick to assuage that fear, to reassure that he wasn't disregarding the very important and Albite thought it was maybe better that he did sit like he'd been asked to do the first time. Odd to be on the other side of a desk instead of around it and next to the guy. To walk into cookies and smiles instead of fire perched atop it like a centerpiece demanding quick answers to simple questions.

"It's not my thing? Ah, not a strength of mine? I have the others help with it - team wise - maybe a little too much?" wanted to eat the words as soon as they'd left his mouth, because he wasn't going to toss his betters under the bus for his own failings. Sighed and sidled up instead, sat and faced Axinite earnestly.

"It's important though, yeah? Problem is - if it's details - then I maybe shouldn't touch the thing till I have 'em. I mean, I'm standing here taking up your time, and like, knowing now that I shouldn't have. Except that I already did...so..." a shrug where an aplogy should've been. Except saying sorry was childish. Better to own it and sit down, better to stay.

It was his ******** up, and so he'd fix it. Espescially since Axinite was offering up his time, and asking questions, and Albite could center himself enough to start answering those. Mabye learn how to get out the information needed; to ask for it next time he got around to running into people.

"Didn't catch any names - for any of 'em. Faustite would have the dragons, but I was half outta it from all the wisp sitting. You wouldn't believe how much damage a pack of ornery orbies can do to a basic unit!" stopped his mouth before it could run away with fawning over his wisps, and reigned back in his mind before he went off about 900sqft of rampantly destructive merchant pets.

Axinite was asking about his deer. "Anything else though, aside from names?" because the people he'd run into weren't friends, or acquaintances. They weren't super hero's and villains on tv who did grand introductions and shouted out monologues over rooftops of who they were, and all their sad backstories, before getting in on it.

Or maybe some of them were and Albite had just been going about it all wrong?

More than just a day job to him then - more than a livelihood - and it was interesting to see devotion in form. A person that wore it for reasons beyond the 'call'. Except, Axinite probably bled, ate, and slept it. Albite wondered if he had anything outside of the Negaverse. Anyone. The idea fell flat against the imagery he was getting - this was his home, and they were his people, information was his 'baby' - and anyone who ******** with it....

So maybe Axinite had put the weapon down - had picked up a pen and housed up in a room with a desk, but he wasn't any less sharp of a thing for it.

"Huh...so this is like. Everything to you? N' I can get that - get behind it - not gonna lie n' say I considered the, uh, information aspect of things before? I don't really use it when I go out....." soft shrug for that, and no reason to lie to the man and say he was deep in the books and inner workings of the place. He left that to them. People smarter than him who could work out the worth of a thing written in words - they told him to fetch - he did it. Simpler that way.

"They would though." and he could be considerate of those he held as 'his', could never widen his scope to the whole of it the way Axinite did, wasn't large enough to manage that. He could make himself care if his ******** got one of his people injured. His team. People he was shepherding into being 'people' for the sake of themselves.

"She was alone - I felt her out from the edge of town and chased her into the woods. Kinda, sifting through the aftermath of the whole wispzilla ordeal, yanno? Not sure if the merchant was around anymore or not, but she was." eyed one of the glass casings a little more introspectively, wondered if he should eat out of politeness, wondered what Axinites thing with the cookies was. Baking fanatic, stress relief, guy didn't look like he ate them all himself....

Brief widening of eyes as his mind tripped over another crumb to add to the pile of a mess he'd made with the database entry. If anyone would know maybe Axinite would? He'd been around longer than some of the others, and Albite wasn't really het up to go hunting down Generals who would've known a name.

"Oh..sidestep to the Deer - because I'm thinking about it now 'n I didn't put it in writing, cause I didn't know if it was true or not, but the Knight had said he was General Uranophane? Like I should know his a**. Except that didn't make a bit of sense. Since he was also a Shovel Knight?" easier to leave it to other people to puzzle out. To sigh and take the lesson and get better at putting things down - or to hound his teammates to be on him about being better himself. Lest the debacle of errors continue throughout all of time...

Tilted dog's head of a look that begged curiosity, and Albite could only nod, could only gaze on at the bevy of near emotions that flitted across Axinites nigh unreadable features. The man was a thousand piece puzzle sometimes, a rawhide bone to chew on. Albite was good with bones though. Dug in on it as he followed the General Kings train of thought. Tracked his words, and found himself smiling for them. Grinning for the concern.

"He..heh...they? M'bettin they probably weren't lying then. I didn't know it was even a real person, but if they were? Most Knights don't just go around telling you to let people know 'they're back'. N' they didn't introduce himself as a knight at all - was all ominous like n' such - especially with that aura? Absolutely terrifying." the fight had ended well at least, for all that it'd had a bang of a start and lackluster middle, the end had been intriguing enough that Albite wanted more. Not the near drowning - but the rest? The promise of retribution?

"See..and that's the thing with all this. The thing I'm good at? Like, tracking down the Deer, with the pastel flowers 'n antler crown? The one who shoots a bow like nobody's business. Heh, and the Knight? Chances are that I am gonna run into 'em again." because it was what he did, was all he knew *how* to do. Core of himself, and the details were blurry at the edges, but the desire he had to hunt went beyond the need for command - to find people and talk - to find people worth fighting when the talking lost its appeal?

"This is where you can help me the most - yeah? Picking out the pieces that I need to hone in on - 'info wise'- so I can bring it back here. Cause, believe me Axinite, I can talk forever. My attention to detail is usually what gets sacrificed in all that - specially when you're in the thick of it? But! If I know what sorta details I should bother keeping in my head, to get put into this datamine?" sharp little grin, because he could do that.

Could find a way to do that. To teach himself how to take note of very specific things. He wasn't a vault, but he could pick stuff out. "Like - spec ops - right? N' that's how you know what you need on an enemy - so what should I be 'knowing' on 'em?" and he could put that in, would put it in if he knew it. Would likely lack for names because none of this was a Saturday morning cartoon. He certainly wasn't handing out his name, rank, and file, so they could ask around for him, wasn't shouting about himself from the rooftops.

He found people - and then he did things - simple s**t. Would make it useful if it would make the rest of them happy, if it'd keep his little pack just a bit safer.

Albite sought to say more, opened his mouth and closed it, the way his features softened for Axinite as he took in what was said. Locked enough of it down to make it worth remembering. He could do that, would do it. Would heed the simple command of 'bring stuff back and talk about it'. That was all good, well, and easy for him to do even.

Then there was the lingering pause--Albite both flared and winced under the praise. Felt like too much, wanted to offer reassurances, somehow...

"I'm on it Axinite. Promise. All this? Consider it gotten and done. I don't even need to hunt you down for it every time, yeah? My whole team's, like, one big info ops branch in n of itself. I just need to - I'll go to Nembus n' Faustite from now on, right off the bat instead of trying to be all - I dunno, impressive without the workings for it? Ah, I can be more than my ego when I think about it." wove sincerity as he poured his heart into it, leaned on the words. Errant good will and emphatic gesture of truth all in one.

"Are you good though, do you like...do you want some cookies, or tea, a hug? Something? I can do simple s**t yeah, n'like...you've got better to put up with than all this, no matter how good a job I'm doing at - ah - this?"

Clearly the guy could’ve opened a bakery with what he had. Smelled good enough for one, and it was all a little less intimidating to consider the offer now. To excuse the aura and see the man beyond it.

To see Axinite as *people*. More than a desk jockey that had gone soft and sweet under the amount of sugared dough he produced on the regular.

To imagine all that terrifying power that had once been wielded at the tip of a special ops spearhead. That had been bridled and reigned down into information - out of love? Out of passion for the lives of those beneath him?

It was mind boggling - made the cookies feel like less of a trap at least…

“Yah, why not? M’always bringing stuff in for the others. Sharing is caring n all -“ and albite found that if he pushed it - they were happier for it. Less gaunt, more well fed, less stressed by far…

“You’re welcome, and yanno that the same applies to you, right? Like, you’re still people, even if you’re a boss a** in charge kinda people? You can delegate people time where your not - ah - trying to do the ‘thing’…Oh! Or it’d be *badass* to see you ‘do the thing’.” grin for that, and Albite did try a cookie, requested a box to fill for his team. Imagined Axinite in his prime - or just in action - what a sight that would have been.

“You’re probably really pretty when you fight, yeah ?” Spoken around a shrug and a warm mouthful that made him humm for it. Axinite would’ve made someone a perfect househusband, it was a wonder if he wasn’t claimed up yet.