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 Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 2:41 pm
A gaggle of squirming children waved their grubby hands from behind an equally dirty piece of glass as Ms. Crook's expensive car sped away from the squat form of Mrs. Bernadine Gorey and the imposing fortress behind her. Reghen was behind the wheel, and although he was a reasonably well-behaved young man under normal circumstances, he didn't have any sort of driver's license and it showed. One could only hope the evening news wouldn't be filled with tales of the untimely deaths of three rowdy kids and a pale, worried teenager. "I thought everything would be all right," distraught-Mrs. Gorey said as she peered into the TV camera, brown eyes full of tears. "The black-market-child pickup station just didn't have any parking."
Her morbid reverie quieted for a moment and Mrs. Gorey turned toward the abnormally large building. Interesting. She was well aware that Reghen had obtained an baby from some sort of necklace, but she had never bothered to ask him how he had been chosen for such an honor. Again, he was a nice young man, but certainly not some pillar of responsibility. Maybe these Divinity people would have some answers for her. How did Gaians so unqualified for child rearing get their hands on so many helpless infants?
She pulled open the door in front of her and strode through it, taking small, careful steps forward until her eyes adjusted to the light.
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Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 1:39 pm
What part of 'enforcer' did this organization not understand? Enforcer was not supposed to be synonymous with meet-and-greet. Plus whoever thought Dmitriev would be good at this kind of thing should be shot. Or maimed. Or tortured. Or any of the other methods of bodily harm he had acquired over the years.
Nevertheless, Dmitriev was stuck behind a too-small desk, twiddling his thumbs. He'd gotten bored of magazines over an hour ago, and was still entertaining himself with thinking of how many different ways he could get back at Nikita for leaving him with this job. Next time he'd make sure to make himself be 'busy' whenever his skills as an enforcer were needed.
The door opened. Finally, something interesting. Dmitriev leaned back in the wooden chair--how did Nikita tolerate sitting in this giant mass of splinters all day?!--and peered at the woman over the top of his sunglasses. Sunglasses that he insisted he wore indoors.
"What do you want?" he asked in a gruff voice. If she was here about a Sylph, great. If not...well, then he would give himself the pleasure of throwing her out. Literally.
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Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 12:13 pm
Mrs. Gorey canted her head and turned around briefly to look behind her. Surely this brute and his unfortunate personality weren't talking to her? No matter. She was supposed to be here, and this man was probably just some sort of bouncer, meant to keep the rowdies out. She pat her graying locks and made her way over to the front desk, removing a wrinkled letter from the pocket of her housecoat.
"I am here about this," she said, placing the letter on the desk and pointing to her name at the top. "I would be happy to live here and take care of one of your children. Nevermind that I could be a child molester or crazy. I assure you, I am not." She offered the man a faint, standoffish smile and began wiping her reading glasses clean with a handkerchief produced from the same pocket the letter had been.
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Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 1:20 pm
Dmitriev glanced at the letter, not reading it but knowing exactly what it was. Crap, and here he thought he was going to have some fun with an uninvited intruder. He returned her smile with a blank, apathetic stare. He hated this job.
"That's a good thing," he said, reaching into his own pocket to pull out a cigarette and his lighter. See, he had cool stuff in his pockets too. "Or else you'd have to deal with me on a regular basis."
Not that she didn't have to deal with him right now, but if they ever did get any crazies in here...well let's just say Dmitriev had ways of making them 'disappear.' At least this woman looked fairly normal and was willing to work with them. He stuck the cigarette in his mouth, and lit the end.
"Good, too, that you agree to our request," he responded, smoke coming out with his breath. Then he decided he might as well cut the crap. "So what do you want me to do. Give you a guided tour? Let you go look yourself? Show you out and let me get on with my day? I really don't care, but the third option is preferable."
Again, there was a very good reason why Dmitriev was not made for welcoming committees.
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Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 2:15 pm
She was admittedly a bit taken aback by his reaction. She certainly hadn't come all this way just to be brushed aside. Where was this being she had been asked to take care of? Had this all just been some sort of fanciful interview process? She could have done this over the phone!
Mrs. Gorey coughed politely into her handkerchief and settled her glasses as close to the end of her nose as she could without them falling off. "I don't think I want to leave just yet," she said into the little piece of cloth. "At least not until you've told me exactly what you expect of me." Slightly more pressing was the fact that she had told Reghen to bring the car back in an hour, and it hadn't even been twenty minutes yet. "A tour would be lovely as well."
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Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 2:30 pm
Dmitriev's eyebrow twitched. She was doing this to spite him, he knew it. Could this lady not take a joke? Did he look like a tour guide to her?
"It's really simple," he sighed, letting the cig hang from the corner of his mouth. "We give you a Sylph. You live here and take care of it. We monitor it to make sure nothing bad happens."
...and the Sylph does whatever Divnity tells it to, but he decided it'd be better to leave that part out. He doubted anyone would like the idea of raising children for some hidden agenda. Well, he didn't mind...but at least he knew he wasn't 'normal' by any parenting standards.
"You want a tour?" he asked, a slight hint of 'please don't make me do this' tracing the edges of his voice. Though this lady probably wouldn't back down. "Fine, I'll give you a stupid tour."
He stood up, revealing that he was probably close to seven feet tall with broad shoulders to match. Walking toward the door, he looked over his shoulder and huffed, "This way..."
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Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 7:43 pm
"That sounds simple enough," Bernadine said, refolding her letter and handkerchief and tucking them back on her person. She certainly knew how to take care of children, and with these people watching over her Sylph as well, she was confident nothing bad would happen.
When Dmitriev rose to his feet, Mrs. Gorey couldn't help but stare for a moment. He was so tall! She started after him, managing a question as she tried to keep up. "Why do they need your services here at all? You're obviously some sort of one-man police squad, but... Have there been many incidents where force was necessary?"
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Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 1:17 pm
Dmitriev led her through the back door to the open yard where the apartment buildings stood. The sky had started to get cloudy since he'd been inside the front office all day. Maybe it would rain, and then the lady would go home. Then he could go back to his own apartment, whack Rodya upside the head for forgetting to put the trash out again--he always did, that boy had the memory of a goldfish--and then watch TV for the rest of the day.
"Oh, there's more than just me," he replied nonchalantly, as if it were perfectly normal to have a small army of bodyguards for a relatively unknown organization handing out small children. "I'm the Head Enforcer here, but for god-knows-what reason they have me wasting my time introducing you people to the compound. And no, we haven't had any incidents on the compound itself."
Yet...
"I'm here to make sure the Sylphs are safe. There are those who might be considered a threat to them later."
The tone in his voice held a warning against further questions down that topic of conversation. He yawned.
"Anyway, those are the apartments," he gestured toward three buildings, though he didn't offer anything beyond looking at them from a distance. "When you come pick up your Sylph, our actual public relations person who is currently indisposed for some reason, Nikita, will give you your key to whatever building you want."
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Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 3:00 pm
"Oh..." For the first time, Bernadine felt a flicker of nerves over the whole situation. There was a whole army of large, unpleasant people here? And others who wanted to hurt these kids? Against her better judgment she kept any further questions to herself for the moment. She had a feeling this man wouldn't answer them all anyway.
Bernadine nodded as she looked around. This place was nothing like the well-appointed mansion she had lived in for the past twelve years, but it would do. It was nice to hear that there was some sort of human resources presence as well. She had almost been ready to believe the whole place was staffed by muscley security-types. "Nikita," she said, to indicate she had been listening. "I'll be sure to call ahead to make sure this... Nikita is in before I come by again." She smiled up at Dmitriev as pleasantly as possible.
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Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 3:16 pm
Dmitriev was thankful that the woman didn't press the issue. It was then that he realized that he hadn't bothered to remember anyone's name who he'd met. All he knew was 'this woman,' or 'that weird kid with the girl who asked too many questions,' and 'that one really annoying guy.' One day he would learn names. Today was probably not that day.
"You do that," he nodded back, though not really smiling. "Because as you can probably tell, most people and me don't really get along. Nikita's enough of a doormat to be anyone's friend."
Which was why he was in public relations. Nikita knew how to deal with people that didn't involve bodily harm or threats. To each his own, Dmitriev always said. Negotiations cramped his style, anyway.
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Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 5:13 pm
At least he is aware of his own unfortunate personality, Bernadine thought as she lowered her head to look back out toward the apartments. Her mouth thinned into a fine line, as if she had just smelled something unsavory.
"I suppose I will be going then," she said. "Unless there is more to see?" Hopefully Reghen hadn't found anything worthwhile to do and was still circling the block.
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Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 11:18 am
Thank whatever gods were looking down on him. She was leaving!
"Nope, nothing more to see here," he gave her a saccharine smile, which was probably worse than if he just scowled. Gesturing back toward the front office with one hand, he used the other to guide her back to the exit. It would be more helpful if his 'guiding' wasn't more like 'pushing.'
"We'll call you when your Sylph is ready. With any luck, I won't be here for that event."
Guardians. Hate guardians. Watching them fawn over their Sylphs was even more sickening. No, there was no possible way he would ever supervise a pick-up. He would drag Nikita out of whatever hold he was hiding in to prevent that from ever happening.
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Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2007 9:03 pm
Mrs. Gorey didn't make a sound as she was forced toward the exit. When her feet were gathered under her again she nodded to signify that she had understood, but when she looked around, she realized she was alone. And outside. Well, that was just rude!
She looked up and down the block for a moment. No cars. Pushing her glasses further up her nose, Bernadine slowly began walking toward the corner to wait for her teenage chauffer. Hopefully he wouldn't be long. It certainly looked like rain.
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