SPPA Chronicles (Sarre & Nix)

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[BCOLOR=transparent]Xyne was fully prepared to give a verbal report, but he hadn’t been expecting the Commander to grill him on every little detail. It was obviously going to be a long meeting. [/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]Cass, who really didn’t like Eleanor, frowned. “New orders? What are you talking about? If it is something really important, Officer Baker.” The last two words were said dismissively. “Then I suppose you can leave them with me. I can find someone who can cover your slack.” [/BCOLOR]
 
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[BCOLOR=transparent]"I'm not in a position to decline any orders from a Captain," Eleanor told her. "And I figured you'd want them done sooner rather than later. I'm sure there is someone working in the SPPA without gifts that will be more than adequate with desk-work. I'm needed in the field."[/BCOLOR]
 
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[BCOLOR=transparent]Eyes narrowing, Cass made a motion with her hand. “Of course, it is important to follow orders… Still, not everyone that works in an office is a powerless paper pusher.” She crossed her arms, before settling back into her chair.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]“So, going out in the field… it’s dangerous out there, are you sure you can handle it?” [/BCOLOR]
 
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[BCOLOR=transparent]Eleanor felt the tense bitterness in Cass' voice before she analysed the words for it. "Of course not," she said. "And neither am I. I'll be fine in the field, thank you for your concern." She didn't mention the obvious fact that the SPPA moved in pairs for safety. It was an extra note that was best left unsaid. "Let me just go get the stack," she said, stepping away from Cass' desk.[/BCOLOR]
 
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[BCOLOR=transparent]Xyne left the office with a headache, even though in the end she was mostly approving. After all the alley fight hadn’t been his fault or even caused by anything he did. It was just one of those wrong place at the wrong time kind of thing.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]Idly wondering where Eleanor went, he chatted with Cass, who was suddenly in a much better mood until his partner showed up. “There you are, we should be going. Nice to talk to you, Cass.”[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]Not even bothering to glare at Eleanor, the secretary just smiled as she took the stack of papers. “Be careful.” [/BCOLOR]
 
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[BCOLOR=transparent]Eleanor nodded to Cass, though the woman wasn't even looking at her. She seemed to be forcing herself to stare away. They walked away wordlessly. Near the door, she turned and asked Tristis, “Hey, Captain, you mentioned Cass before," she said. "Do you know her well?"[/BCOLOR]
 
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[BCOLOR=transparent]“Hmm? Oh, I’ve known Cass for a while. We became friends while I was stuck in the office with a broken leg a few years ago.” Of course that was after a full week of Cass calling him ‘Sunshine’ and him returning the favor with ‘Sparky.’ “She was new to the city, so I helped her find a decent apartment.” [/BCOLOR]
 
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[BCOLOR=transparent]"Oh, that's cool," Eleanor said. "I'm asking because, well... Is she the jealous type? I'm asking because I had a really tense conversation with her when you were in the commander’s office, and now that I think about it, she's been cold to me all day. Not unlike... half of the people here..."[/BCOLOR]
 
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[BCOLOR=transparent]“That’s weird, usually Cass takes some of the newer ones under her wing so to speak.. I guess I can’t help you there. Maybe someone told her something about you she really didn’t like?” He had never thought of Cass as jealous, she always seemed at least mostly normal to him. “Don’t worry about it. She’ll either get over it or she won’t, either way, it shouldn’t affect you.”[/BCOLOR]
 
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[BCOLOR=transparent]"Well, if you say so," Eleanor said, pulling open the door of one of the unmarked SPPA cars. Most of the trip was idle small-talk; barely worth remembering, and of course, Captain Tristis barking directions like GPS machine. The streets became noticeably more crowded the closer they got to the place.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]They parked their car about a block away from where the market started, and took the rest of the way on foot, often bumping shoulders with scuttling strangers, some hairy, some smelly, some cold as ice.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]There was quite a bustle of activity. People were wandering from stall to stall, looking at various trinkets and popping various treats into their mouths. She'd never come to the place at this time, and she noticed that many of the quiet daytime stalls had transformed into active and playful ones for the night.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]And was that a whiff of pot she just smelled in the air?[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"I never noticed how lively this place was in the evening," she murmured to Captain Tristis. "It's like one of those Japanese festivals I heard so much about, back when the island was a whole country.[/BCOLOR]
 
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[BCOLOR=transparent]Honestly, Xyne liked the market. It was a unique place, where you could find nearly anything that you were looking for, and even a few things that you weren’t. “It makes sense though, right? All the stands that vampires run are closed during the day, so it’s a lot emptier, and since only the agency polices it, it’s a perfect place for people to cut loose.” [/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]Still he scanned the area with a practiced eye. “I should go check in with Stephen. He’s the guy in charge at night. I also check in with a couple of contacts here when I can. In fact… I think you will like one of them. Her name is Asmara, she’s an old Shifter, whose stand is in the exact middle of the market. She likes coffee more than you do. Why don’t you go say hello while I talk to Stephen. I’d send you, but he’d just drool on your shoes. Her stand has the birds.” [/BCOLOR]
 
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"Ah, I see! The hub of vampire nightlife culture!" Eleanor exclaimed playfully.

On the way to Asmara, she took note of the cheer in the place. Even back home, most vampires were considered quite docile; the most normal-behaving of the types. Here, it was evident. There was much laughter, drugs (that may or may not have been legal), and alcohol, yet despite all that there was a certain elegance to it all. A good half of the people there showed little signs of being drunk, except for a redness in their cheeks and felicity in their voices.

She also found out, from picking up a free samples of food from various hawkers, that blood-infused things were actually pretty good....

Eleanor made sure there was no food in her mouth when she arrived at the shop.

In this central area, all the merchants operated from buildings, but there were no doors. At night, she supposed that they could close like a garage. The door was the last wall. She fought the temptation to join the crowd of people huddling around cages and wiggle her fingers at all the animals chirping and squeaking.

Instead, she sought out the owner. There was nobody at the table, so she assumed it was the elderly woman that seemed to be avoiding the hoard of people trying to seduce the animals, and was instead lining cage trays with newspaper.

The woman looked up when she approached. "Oh dear please don't tell me you think so-and-so is adorable and could you have one," she said, with a visible twitch and a dark scowl.

"Oh no, I'm only an impulse buyer around shiny objects," Eleanor replied, forcing her face to smile despite the glare. "I'm Eleanor Baker, Captain Tristis' new partner. I heard you were Asmara, one of his contacts." She held out a hand, "Pleased to meet you."
 
Xyne worked his way through the crowd, nodding at people he knew, rolling his eyes at some, and pointedly avoiding Alyssa's stand because her strange mutated snake was just weird. With everything that an agent saw on a daily basis, it was STILL weird, it's heads were pink and there were three of them. Plus, the witch tended to pet the thing like a cat. In all, too strange for Xyne.

Stephen, while being a general louse of a human, actually ran the market fairly well. As usual, all the man wanted to talk about was the market gossip, rumors and generally pointless things. Tonight though, he asked question after question about what had happened, why he hadn't heard of the fight, and tried to weedle as many sorrid details as possible. Xyne was absolutely positive that a greatly embellished story would spread from here by dawn.



The old shifter, eyed Eleanor warily. "Oh, are you now?" After a careful study of the girl, Asmara nodded once. "At least you seem more put together, not like that last one." Rolling her eyes, she patted one of the cages fondly, the brilliant colored bird inside chirping at the attention.

"So girl, are you gonna stay long, or are you moving up to a fancy office?" Settling in her chair, with one hand gripping her cane, Asmara, let out a soft sigh.
 
"A fancy office sounds lovely, but more often than not, it's a world of paperwork, right?" Eleanor said. She leaned against a stack of heavy boxes beside the cage. The red bird inside it hopped onto a branch close to her and chirped. Caving, she wiggled a finger at it, and tapped its beak playfully. Too bad she didn't have any treats. Eleanor liked to feed things.

"What was the last one like?" she asked.

Then the bird bit her.
 
"Pepper! Don't bite the customers!" Asmara scolded the bird lightly, before muttering. "That's my job..." Making a commanding gesture, she directed Eleanor over toward a fancier cage with a blue bird in it. "That one doesn't bite."

Satisfied that she had done her duty to not get sued, Asmara leaned back in her chair. "Oh the last one was a little wuss. The lightest hint of blood and off he went, be gone a while too. Let me tell you something, this ain't no place for a wuss. Especially some know it all little bastard that thinks just because he can make his hand glow all pretty he's smarter than the rest of us. I almost did a dance when Xyne told me he got transferred. Little prick."

Eyeing Eleanor again, the old shifter frowned. "You don't look like a wuss....."
 
"Ow," Eleanor muttered. She knew enough not to lick the injury; but it was good she was on the job and had some basic first aid with her. It was simple enough to pull out a little bottle of antiseptic fluid and squeeze a few drops onto her finger. All as she continued with the conversation and looked at the blue bird. This one was more interested in the ropes in the center of the cage, though, and generally ignored her.

"Glowing hand, I remember seeing him briefly," she said. If her memory served correctly, the glow hardened his hand into an effective punching tool, or hammer "Nobody liked him very much. I certainly hope I'm not like him." She wished there were more animals here in the back end of the store she could poke at, instead of just these two birds. There was even a little monkey in the front. A monkey!

Instead, she kept chatting politely and dabbed at the bloody antiseptic with some pocket tissue. "The guy that evaluated me told me I looked delicate," she said, "Glad you think differently. Can't be looking like a wuss in the SPPA."
 
Surprisingly the old shifter smirked. "Nothing wrong with looking delicate..."Abruptly a scowl crossed her face and she levered herself out of her chair, moving faster than expected with her cane. She crept up behind a teen who was poking at one of the animals and soundly smacked him with her cane. Several times.

By the time she was finished, and the teen had run, she motioned to Eleanor again. "See, nothing wrong with looking delicate, actually being delicate is something else."
 
The teen hadn't been alone. When he scurried off, about four other people had gone with him, much to the relief of the serval in the crate they had crowded around. Eleanor wanted to feed that too, and pet it. Instead, she restrained herself. She was probably just another annoying human to it.

"I guess you've got a point," she said. "I don't think you seem delicate, though. I mean, I can't imagine the animals you receive are always calm and docile."
 
Pleased, Asmara took a moment to pet the little animal before turning back to Eleanor. "You girl.. I like. Keep on as you are, and I might even let you have one of my friends here." The old shifter grinned, smoothing her sleeves. "Where is Xyne? He's knows better than to be here and not stop..."
 
"One of your friends here?" Eleanor asked. She looked around. "Well, I don't see any common chickens, and that's the only thing I know how to care of. Not sure if I can handle exotics, though they are pretty..."

"Captain Tristis said he wouldn't be long. He's seeing a Stephen. You know him?" Time to test the market's gossip machine...
 
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