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 Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2015 9:57 pm
Gale was again in his office, but without the uninvited guest of a certain Death Assistant this time. There were several folders open on his desk, which was neatly organized and carefully sorted so that everything was in a proper place. One folder contained a series of mission reports, while the others were ones of various new trainees within the division; a pen and a notepad sat next to these, where he'd been jotting down notes.
A pair of reading glasses was tucked into the collar of Gale's sweater, but he hadn't put them on yet, his eyepatch completely off for once and resting on the desk. Beneath it, the skin was unblemished, but the eye was blurred, a shade lighter than his normal dark amber.
It was like, Gale discovered with dismay, trying to read with two different lenses in his eyes, and it was incredibly frustrating, but he was attempting to get used to having diminished sight in one eye. He squinted at the papers in front of him and gave a small sigh.
With any luck, he'd be able to get through these reports without much incident.
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Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2015 12:23 am
Gale's secret hideout was, unfortunately, not secret enough. There were a few warning knocks before the door handle was tried, and someone burst into the room, their face obscured by papers and folders. Somehow, they managed to shut the door behind them and find a seat without tripping. A miniature mountain of haphazard folders were dropped directly on top of Gale's precise organizational system, revealing the newcomer to be Gale's favorite mission partner. "Hi, Gale," Lucky greeted him with more of an exhausted and frazzled look than a warm and friendly one, "You wouldn't believe how hard it is to find your office." At the same time, he was already fishing through the folders, pulling out an assortment of papers ranging from heavily redacted reports repeating the word 'green' in practically every sentence, to photocopies from obscure illuminated manuscripts that told every conceivable variation of the story of the Holy Grail. It appeared Lucky had at least learned enough in life division to get by in the paperwork-intensive division he was now in. Or pretended, anyway. With the first order of business mostly organized in his hands, he glanced up quizzically. "Also, since when did you have an office?"
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Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2015 11:35 am
Gale was now not entirely sure why he even still tried.
For the second time in as many days, he found his door being flung open without invitation, except this time it wasn't Mark that came barging in, but one of the last people that Gale really wanted to see. Lucky's armful of folders and papers were given an outraged look that bordered on horrified as they were dropped unceremoniously onto his own very neat and tidy desk.
"Lucky," said Gale in exasperation. "That's because my office doesn't normally entertain visitors."
He said this pointedly, as though it might have an effect (it didn't). Gale's eyes narrowed a little as he scanned the papers now littering his desk, catching a few key words here and there. Eventually, however, he raised his gaze back to the matter - or rather, the person - at hand.
"For abut a year now," he said, "Not that it seems to do much good. Glad to see you're, er...out and about."
This was said with a certain amount of dry flatness, considering the last time Gale had seen Lucky, the latter had been full of snark and sarcasm even as he lay bloodied and bruised on the sand of a beach. Gale reached for his eyepatch, yanking it out from beneath a stack of folders, and stuffed it into his pocket.
"Is there a particular reason why you're here, Lucky?"
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Posted: Sun Jun 21, 2015 1:54 am
"Oh, yeah, you too --" He suddenly realized the sarcasm inherent in Gale's voice and looked up sharply. " Hey." But whether or not Gale could stand him wasn't why he was here. "Uh," he gave Gale a look like the answer should have been obvious, and waved a handful of papers in a vague gesture. "Big security breach? On the island? Caused by Charlotte? Isn't that what this division is for?" Lucky began to shuffle the pulled papers back into a semblance of order, looking quietly exasperated. He'd hoped that Gale of all people would be taking this seriously. Hardly anyone was. "Seriously, though. Am I crazy or does no one want to talk about this?"
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Posted: Tue Jun 23, 2015 9:30 pm
He just gave Lucky a raised eyebrow, as though somehow this would encourage him to streamline the process. But there also might have been a slight smirk on his lips that disappeared almost as soon as it had come, because Gale was Gale, after all.
"Yes," he said in exasperation. "That's what this division is for."
The prospect of talking to Lucky wasn't really a nice one, but he had to grudgingly admit that there seemed to be no other alternative. After all, there were few that Gale could talk to, and most unfortunately, Lucky was one of those few that held knowledge necessary for discussing the solution.
He gestured vaguely to the other chair.
"I'll talk, I'll talk," said Gale in resignation. "Where do we start?"
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Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2015 1:15 am
"Well," Lucky hesitated a little. He was feigning nonchalance, and very obviously gauging Gale's reactions to every bit of information for the first sign of disinterest or aggression. There was a reason Lucky always lost at card games. "I'm not sure, actually." "Where do you want to start?" Lucky set down two pieces of paper facing Gale, to either side of his desk. On the right side, a medieval drawing of the holy grail. On the left, a photograph of the notorious ex-Moon Assistant. "We, uh, need more information. On both. Even the things we do know, we can't necessarily trust without more evidence. Charlotte's a - a good actress." Lucky stared very pointedly at the papers in his hands for nearly half a minute and did not elaborate. He thumbed idly between the corners of his papers instead of look at Gale as he finally continued. "We also should be prepared for next time. At least the things we've been through already. Attacks on the island, diseases, being disarmed. What else... Uh. Vines?" The idle listing of the last month's catastrophes was going to go on for a while if Gale didn't say anything.
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Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2015 11:52 am
There was a long pause.
"I thought you were going to start," said Gale pointedly, giving Lucky a mildly exasperated expression, but he sighed and leaned over the two papers, reaching for his reading glasses. They didn't do much these days, but at least he could squint a little easier.
"Unless she's Sam, after all," Gale murmured, thoughts flickering back to his conversation with Stormy. "We can't be certain which one she is, which is downright maddening. All I know is that she's an intricate part of whatever it is that's going on with this," he added, pointing a finger at the grail.
Lucky was given a sidelong glance.
"Rogue helicopters?" Gale asked innocently.
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Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2015 4:14 am
"Oh, yeah, definitely." He adjusted his own glasses and frowned. "It's funny, really. Caelius, uh, tried to get her real name out of her once. It didn't work, obviously, but I wonder if even he doesn't know for sure." Lucky began to place more papers on the desk, radiating them around the central themes. The grail was quickly surrounded by mission reports - the most recent security breach, a viral outbreak most of the island had been sent to contain, the mission at the mall, a hastily handwritten and unofficial account of the Opus Labs incident. Another layer out - an image of an infected hunter, another handwritten account of the grail's appearance during the major fight between Merlin and Excalibur, and a simple drawing of one of the red shards Charlotte and Caelius had played a game against each other for. "We've got at least some information on what I think is the biggest immediate threat. If we can... find some hunters in the other divisions to handle the defenses and researching a vaccine, it would let us focus on the unknown - Charlotte, or Sam, or whoever she is." Gale's joke was not well-received, however. Lucky began to loudly shuffle the papers in his hands into some sort of order, looking flustered and a little red. He commented without looking up. "Remind me again who decided to touch the grail and get possessed by it?"
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Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2015 2:32 pm
Gale rubbed at his forehead. "Even if he did know, the odds of Caelius telling us anything at all is slim to none," he muttered darkly. "We're the expendable ones, after all."
Except even after all this time, he was still loyal to his division, his leader, Deus in general. He couldn't quite determine whether it was madness, stupidity, or a combination of both. Gale's eyes swept over the papers Lucky laid out, going from one thing to the next as he carefully took everything in.
The shards; he'd forgotten about those entirely.
"Do you have any contacts in the other divisions who might be willing to help us out?" Gale asked, and then glowered at Lucky, eyes narrowing - but he kind of had a point, one that Gale couldn't really refute.
"Moving on," he said delicately.
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