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 Posted: Sun Jun 21, 2015 2:01 am
Their new tenant had brought in another new tenant. Colin Hargrove, read the application, employed with the Destiny City Ballet Company. Not like it mattered; they didn't charge rent. Only one thing mattered to Nick and Finn, and that was whether Mr. Hargrove was a member of the celestial club. Aleksy swore that he'd seen Colin Hargrove become Sailor Aegir before his eyes, but Nick was too cautious to just trust that. They'd see if Colin had a henshin pen before going any further. That didn't mean Nick had to be rude. He made tea and cracked open a plastic tin of store-bought cookies (neither he nor Tallulah was a baker) and settled down at the little table in the bay window. Now that Avalon lived upstairs, he had no reason to fear the view. She wouldn't be coming for Nick or his wife. He still looked through the glass with an entirely consequential fear of seeing a Negaverse agent staring back at him. Not today, though: Today, all he saw was a man with tousled blond hair walking up the sidewalk with Aleksy there to guide him. Nick had left the door open, so he waved the pair in. Aleksy demurred: "I have matters to attend to." "That means he's going upstairs to do his not-safe-for-work videos," said Nick with a friendly smile at Colin. He stood and offered a hand. "I'm Nick Wellington. Finn and I run the apartments together. He'll be along in a few minutes, I think his girlfriend has him a little tied up. Why don't you have a seat?"
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Posted: Sun Jun 21, 2015 2:31 am
Colin came dressed somewhat sharply, in black skinny jeans, a super soft tan long sleeve under a black t-shirt with the #DCBC logo on it. In pink. Over it all was a dark grey peacoat with the Starfleet Insignia on a lapel and on his feet were heavy black s**t-kickers. Nominally dressed up because he wanted to make a very good impression on his potential new landlord(s). Aleksy was with him, up to a point, but even if he hadn't been there Colin would have moved with confidence. "Hm, oh. Okay. See you later Aleksy." The blond stepped through the door, giving his friend a bit of a good-bye wave as Nick said something about 'not safe for work' videos which pinged somewhere in his mind but for later thought. "I...see." He took the proffered hand and gave it a firm shake, very much the sort of handshake he'd given hundreds of time in the course of his career at Destiny City Theatre. "I'm Colin Hargrove, it's really nice to meet you." He'd take a seat after removing his coat and resting it over his arm; it held his phones and henshin stick - it was one of the easier ways to cart those things around without his dance bag being in tow. "I suppose you'll both have some questions for me, yeah?"
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Posted: Sun Jun 21, 2015 5:22 pm
So, here was the thing: Finn trusted Aleksy. Trusted him implicitly. He'd come through purification and knew the value of Florence Court's services personally, and someone like that had no cause to put the whole operation in jeopardy. Besides, Aleksy was hardly the warmest and most cordial person Finn knew. If he recommended someone to the building, someone who would be living in close quarters with them, then it had to be someone who hard wormed his way into Aleksy's circle of trust. He passed Aleksy on the way down the stairs - a sure sign that he was running late to this meeting. "Sorry," said Finn, throwing the door to Nick and Tallulah's apartment open. He had no idea of the innuendo that had just crossed Nick's lips regarding him - if he had, he would have probably been more blush than freckles. "Name's Finn Derouen," he said, joining Nick and the blonde at the table. "I'm the building manager. We've just got to vet you - not gonna ask for a full background check, just gotta make sure you're not, like, secretly a minor or a wanted criminal. And that you fit the requirements. Aleksy explained a little about the building?"
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Posted: Sun Jun 21, 2015 5:31 pm
"Only a few, and nothing terrible," said Nick, and he hunted up his henshin pen from among the cushions. He set it down on the table between them, not particularly carefully--he wasn't actually fond of his place in the war, and never transformed if he could help it--and watched it roll around on the weird planetary ring. "Eternal Oenone of the Bells," he said. "Aleksy says you're a senshi as well?" He nodded to Finn. "Aleksy's our newest tenant," he said. "Recently purified--as of January, wasn't it, Finn? But he lived with his brother for a while. Which was useful, since he only spoke Russian at the time." These things were not secrets; Aleksy certainly had secrets that Nick was privy to, but, secrets. Not to be shared. "I'm surprised he's bringing someone new in so readily." Was that a hint? It was definitely a hint: show us your credentials! it's a matter of security.
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Posted: Tue Jun 23, 2015 7:02 am
"No need to apologize, I'm very glad you could meet with me today." Colin greeted Finn with a wide, welcoming smile. "Colin Hargrove." The comment about him possibly being secretly a minor or a criminal amused him, but he just nodded - he understood their need. It was extremely important to keep Florence Court safe. "Ask away, I'm pretty much an open book." Oh hey, so that's what an eternal stick looked like! The blond's eyes went just a little wide - he'd actually only ever seen his own pen, okay. Colin rested a hand on his coat, over the pocket he kept his henshin pen in. "I am. Aegir of Silence." He paused to fish out his own stick, reminded by the pokey shape that he'd recently upgraded. "Super Aegir, actually. Recently. It's still kind of weird." For whatever reason, Colin couldn't make himself set the henshin pen down, but he did hold it out for inspection. "I guess I met him not long after then." There was a bit of surprise at the purification mention - he'd had no idea. So Aleksy had been..someone else before, working for the Negaverse. His friend was so goddamn interesting! "Met through work...he does some of the posters for the ballet company I work for." Colin shrugged and told himself to stop being silly, neither Finn nor Nick - Oenone - were going to grab his pen and run. He set his pen down near the Eternal's pen and then pulled his hands back into a nervous knot in his lap.
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Posted: Wed Jun 24, 2015 7:13 am
Finn pulled his signet ring off his finger and set it down beside the pens, the best proof-of-knighthood he could manage right now - and it wasn't very good. It just looked like a normal ring. No one looking at his hands would guess that it wasn't a class ring or a family crest. (And, in a way, it was a family crest.) "Babylon Knight of Mercury," he said. "So that's all settled. Good. You passed the first test - flying colors, I might add." Flying colors, Finn thought to himself, was an incredibly weird expression. What did that even mean on, like, the sub-idiomatic level? "Now that we all know we belong to the same club - roughly the same club - I think Nick's got some things he wants to go over with you, and then I'll explain some essential community stuff. Sound good?"
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Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2015 12:59 am
Nick grinned. It tugged at a split in his lip, but it was whatever, as they said. "Polar opposites, the two of us," he commented. The shape of Colin's transformation pen was familiar. He'd had one himself, though in different colors, until recently. And with a different symbol, then. "May I see your driver's license," he asked, pulling some paperwork out from under the tray. "Have some tea while I fill this out, please. So. Ground rules--rent isn't paid in money, here, since it's meant for people on our side who need a hand. You pay in sweat equity--that's patrols or helping out around the complex. Helping out can mean anything from helping Finn rake or looking after an injured tenant, and if there's something in particular you want to do, just let me know." Nick was the one who figured out who needed to do what, after all, now that Kaatje was gone. Tallulah helped, but she was in school--he just had to read sometimes, and collapse sleepily all the others. "I'm a surgeon, so if you're hurt and don't feel safe going to the hospital, give me a call and I'll come. Don't transform in the apartment building, don't lead Negaverse officers or agents to the building, if you gain a guardian cat they'll need to speak with me before taking up residence just like you." He paused for breath, and to see if there were any questions.
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Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2015 1:23 am
"I think I know more Knights than Senshi at this point. You guys are pretty prolific." Definitely not a bad thing, the Knights seemed - generally speaking - to be against the Lords of Chaos, which meant they were allies. Even if they might not want to be or resisted any such appellation. Still, Colin could not help being pleased at hearing he'd 'passed'. Flying colours, huh? Good. It'd be sad if I screwed this up...it's basically just waving my pen around. "Sounds good." That bells and silence hardly could be called bedfellows hadn't escaped him, but he didn't hold to the idea that silence was better than sound. It was a voice meant to be filled, typically with something greater, or it was an accompaniment, like in music. "Seems like." They were literally meeting for the first time, he would not start in with some weird dogma right off the bat, just like he would not wax on about dance. "Sure. Just a sec." Colin leaned forward so he could fish his wallet from the back pocket it resided in, pulling the plastic laminate license out and offering it to Nick along with one of his business cards from DCBC before tucking it back to it's original resting place. "Figure you might want to know where I work too." Taking a cup of tea afforded him something to do with his hands as well as refreshment while the paperwork was filled and Nick offered more information as well as some ground rules. It all seemed quite sensible to him, though the 'sweat equity' thing might prove a problem during the program seasons. Colin figured they could talk that out, work things so he wasn't killing himself (more than he already was, rather) and so all parties would be happy with the arrangements. "As you probably noticed from my card, I'm one of the principle dancers at the Destiny City Ballet Company, my hours there generally start from eight and don't end until midnight sometimes. I never work Sundays though, and most of the time I get out before six. I'm happy to be put to work doing anything you guys need, but I do patrol almost nightly." The unspoken there was "even after work is done" - they didn't need to know about his problems, beyond that he was an order senshi that needed a home. "Everything sounds reasonable and...kind of like common sense. I think I'm good with it." Nick was a doctor - no, a surgeon. That was impressive. How the hell did he manage medical school whilst still being a senshi? Something to ask later, when they knew each other better.
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