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Post by demikara on Jan 20, 2020 16:22:40 GMT -6
Zander strode the halls like he knew where he was going, following directions given to him by Molly. He was taller than most, and had dropped the glamour hiding his fae nature on entering the unseen portion of the building. It meant he got some stares, but they were mostly humans, so they really didn't matter that much to him. Right now, he had a delivery to make and a student to bother. Or a child who was basically his daughter to embarrass. He hadn't decided which one he was going for today. Either way, she'd leave work with bright red hair and cat eyes as far as he was concerned.
Molly had gotten her sense of mischief from him and they all knew it.
It didn't take him long to find his ward, apparently actually hard at work, though judging by the math there was a distinct chance that she wasn't hard at work on what she was supposed to be doing. her partner was nearby and he set the netted bag of fruit on top of the math and grinned down at her annoyed expression, which quickly changed to delight.
"Zander!" She was up and hugging him with that and he returned it, smiling down at here. "I didn't realize fruit delivery was today. What'd you bring me?" She didn't stop to wait for him to answer before she was digging through the bag to look over every he had brought. It was mostly food stuffs she couldn't get in the human realm and since she was stuck here, she couldn't get home to get it. "Oh man, you're the best Zander." He smiled down at her and messed up her hair. It turned bright red in response and Molly didn't even notice. She smiled widely up at him, her pupils slit like a cats and he decided his work here was done.
"Just the usual. Your mom sent you some sweet bread. Your dad sent your allowance, and it should be in your pouch." Not that it would do her any good. She wrinkled her nose at that and blushed. Did he have to say that in front of her partner? She had a job. It was ridiculous her parents still gave her an allowance. Though she'd never say no to her mom's sweet bread. Her mom was the best baker ever as far as she was concerned. Curious, Molly went through the bag to see what else her parents might have sent her.
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Post by Circe on Jan 20, 2020 16:58:48 GMT -6
For the most part Xiaolian ignored when Molly had visitors, and given that she had a report about the incident in the train station, wasting time with said visitors wasn't on her list of things to do. Frankly she found these visits a bit annoying and disruptive to her daily schedule. Normally she would have made it a point to use range time, gym time, or work outside the office to get away from the fae child and her near constant parade of visitors.
"Molly when you're done with visiting, I'm going to need what you have on that thing from Baird's exam." Xiaolian commented, not even bothering to tell the other that she might need to look in a mirror. It was high time the other suffered a bit, after all she'd spent the better part of the last few months pranking half the office. The only reason Xiaolian had remained safe was the near constant nullification field she cast.
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Post by demikara on Jan 20, 2020 17:13:29 GMT -6
"I have a write up. It was basically harmless." Molly clicked over to her computer and emailed a file to Xiaolian quickly. "Less MCU and more extra-planar stuff. And since it didn't really break the law, I let it go home." But she still did the MCU write up of it. She was trying to do better about paperwork. "Not a big deal. Pwyll came to get it for me." Since she couldn't take it herself. Zander looked between the two and frowned.
"Why would Pwyll come to get it, Molly? Your lieutenant has a Guardian's pendant. She could handle that task easily." There was no need for Pwyll to come all this way when there was someone capable of the task right there. And it looked like she was a full guardian, though it had been some time since he had seen any of them at all. He offered the partner a smile. "You're Lieutenant Boyuan, yes? It's good to know my ward is partnered with some one who can understand the In Between more." They'd have something to talk about.
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Post by Circe on Jan 20, 2020 17:23:05 GMT -6
Xiaolian half ignored Molly's comments about the worm being basically harmless, she had been taught to treat anything that was outside it's proper place as a threat. Mostly harmless was how her home had been taken from her, they had relied too much on wards and the fact that most things like the soldiers hadn't done their village much of any harm. She had dumped the worm on Molly because she had had her hands full with Maria and the Cedar Ridge alpha blowing up her phone over every single little thing he thought MCU could fix. Xiaolian now regretted giving him her card with her contact info, but she had known better than to blow off O'Hara like she had wanted to.
"Yes... what can I do for you?" She then replied automatically to Zander as she quickly dropped the pendant beneath her blouse. Most people didn't give it a second thought, and this had caused her to become complacent. Gaurdians weren't supposed to be noticable, that was one of the first things she had been taught. They should only be noticable should the situation warrant it, and even then it was to enforce and protect. Much like MCU did on this plane, which was partially why she had gravitated towards it when she did. It had and still did to an extent provide a cover for her and her service to the will of Heaven.
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Post by demikara on Jan 20, 2020 17:34:31 GMT -6
"Ah, I just didn't expect to see a guardian here." He said simply, stepping back. "Though I suppose the career makes more sense for a guardian to take than it does a ratatoskr." An enforcer made a better police officer than an engineer or scientist did. And Molly was very much a scientist. He was still astonished she had chosen this as a career at all. Though it likely had more to do with the incident some time ago more than anything else. At least as a specialist she could still do some research.
"What? What are you talking about? She's not a..." Molly looked closer and frowned. "You can go to the In Between?" She hesitated a moment. "Wait. Guardians call it something else. You're a lot less scary than the guardians I was told about." Less likely to kill her, probably. Maybe. Molly didn't know for sure, but was willing to bet that her partner was not, in fact, the stuff of nightmares.
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Post by Circe on Jan 20, 2020 17:49:24 GMT -6
Xiaolian crossed her arms over her chest and gave Zander a very annoyed look. "And is that a problem?" She asked, daring him to find a problem. Her family had served as Gaurdians since time immemorial, and there had only been a scant hundred years of gap in their service to Heaven. Xiaolian had been taught well, and her father had made certain to tell her and her siblings how fortunate he was that heaven had seen fit to grant him not only a son, but two daughters as well. This often flew in the face of their culture's ideals that males were worth more, and brought luck to their family. "Guardians don't have the same restrictions as Ratatoskrs do... more often than anything we're cleaning up messes you've caused." Most of them like Xiaolian didn't have much of anything good to say about Ratatoskrs. Explorers and Scientists of their world, while valuable, often left them to hold the bag when it came to making sure the laws of contact weren't broken.
Sighing she looked at Molly with the same annoyance and exasperation reserved for when the other did something really stupid. "We call it the void," She added bluntly. The only reason Molly was so convinced the other wasn't frightening was that she had never had to deal with Xiaolian as a Gaurdian, and instead as her much aggrieved partner assigned by the Warden. "You think you're a special case Molly, that you're the only one who does what you do. That's why you're so utterly convinced of this opinion."
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Post by demikara on Jan 20, 2020 17:57:43 GMT -6
"People who can access the void" she tripped over the term, "aren't exactly growing from trees." She pointed out. "And I am a special case. I-" A spell shot her way had her silent and she shot Zander and offended look and sat back, recognizing the order for what it was. She huffed though, making it clear she wasn't happy that this had happened at all. Zander sighed and put a hand on her head and forced her to bow to Xiaolian, bowing politely as well. He knew what the guardian's were and had a better idea of their social customs as well.
"Please forgive my frankly idiotic apprentice. Were it not for the terms of her binding, she'd be in remedial education because of how deeply she has failed to retain certain information. And how incredibly arrogant she has clearly become." That he could work out of her in the ring, and it looked like he may have to become a bit more involved in her life than he currently was. If she was going to act like a stupid apprentice, he'd treat her as one. "I'm afraid she's rather spoiled, due to the nature of our kind. I'll take steps to rectify this." Molly shot him an alarmed look, not liking the sound of that. Steps meant he'd step right into every aspect of her life all over again. "And she was taught to follow the rules of the void. I can't guarantee she recognizes human rules, but the void ones, she certainly does." They were careful about that.
While Molly may not be scared, Zander knew full well what a Guardian could do and was not going to push it.
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Post by Circe on Jan 20, 2020 18:25:45 GMT -6
Xiaolian raised a slender eyebrow at Molly's response, the girl was lucky that she did just strip her ability to walk right then and there. 'Heaven above... is this some sort of test? This girl exhausts my patience...' She thought to herself as she debated a response. But Zander was quicker and soon had silenced his charge before she could speak further against her own case. The fae child was indeed spoiled, and often the bane of both her and the Warden's existence. However, both each in a different manner, the Warden with her ties to the fae and her own ties as a Guardian.
"Zander... I appreciate your levity here. But... she is also your apprentice." Xiaolian said slowly, the tone of her voice changing to something much more formal. If Molly thought her partner had been joking or treating the situation with the same mild exasperation as ever, then she was very wrong. "Admittedly I have little love left for spoiled children, and I will hold you to resolving this situation. If not then I will have to take matters of both of you into my own hands."
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Post by demikara on Jan 20, 2020 18:31:19 GMT -6
"There is no need, Guardian." Zander assured her. "I will take the appropriate steps to censure my apprentice and she will begin to treat you with civility demanded by your position." The warning to Molly was clear in his voice. "And given she has proven herself too immature to be a journeyman, I believe I may need to speak to your warden about her hours. If she plans to behave like a child, then I can easily have her demoted to a child's position."
Molly looked downright alarmed at that and tugged at his sleeve demanding the spell be removed. Zander raised an eyebrow at his apprentice and she crossed her arms and glared up at him. "I believe Alex can handle the farm on his own, Molly, since you've decided you need a firmer hand again." Oh that did not mean what she thought it meant, did it? She glared up at him, a snarl on her face. "I'll find us a place to live in the human realm, so that we won't be violating your parole."
That meant exactly what she thought it did. She shot Xiaolian a furious look for managing to get her in this position, and got a smack upside the head for the behavior.
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Post by Circe on Jan 20, 2020 18:47:18 GMT -6
"See that there isn't." Xiaolian replied, clearly unamused with having to go through this whole mess when she'd much rather be doing other things. MCU was one thing, but Guardian business was few and far between. "Molly's performance here at MCU is something I will monitor. Sargeant Bronson will learn her rank and place." She added. The constant shirking of duties, begging off, and dumping things on Xiaolian had gotten old. Molly had been exceedingly lucky that Xiaolian was considered one of the most tolerant of the Guardians from the Lin family line and in general; her brother was much stricter and her sister had never had the chance to complete her training due to circumstances beyond the family's control. "However, I can recommend to the Warden that she be placed on probation."
At this point she didn't care if Molly liked her or not, or even considered her a friend. The other's behavior had reached intolerable levels, and it was time that matters were taken into hand before they became worse.
Xiaolian met Molly's furious look with one of neutral and stony indifference, but it was clear that something had stirred sluggishly and sleepily in the Guardian. That something had set it's sights on Molly and was very clearly angered by what it saw.
"If you need safe haven, my brother would oblige you by allowing the space above his restaurant to be occupied."
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Post by demikara on Jan 20, 2020 18:51:39 GMT -6
"That is very kind of you, but Molly has an apartment we can use while I find a more suitable location." And she wasn't going to like the more suitable location largely because she was behaving like a child and he was going to treat her as one. "And right now, I don't trust her around other guardians while she relearns how to behave." She'd get herself into trouble. Hopefully, nothing would come of it, so long as she didn't break the laws, but they didn't exactly want the kind of scrutiny that angering a guardian could have. "I will leave the silencing spell on her until I come to pick her up this afternoon. Though I believe she is already on probation due to her behavior."
And she would shape up or he would speak to the council about confining her to the fae realm instead of the human one. He had no doubt they wouldn't mind that either.
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Post by Circe on Jan 20, 2020 19:07:20 GMT -6
"Of course." Xiaolian agreed. Her brother could be difficult at times and had always chided her for being too soft. Most of the affairs of the Guardians she stayed out of, in exchange for intercepting anything that MCU might encounter, like the worm. As far as she was concerned, it was a decent exchange unless she was having to deal with things like right now.
"The spell isn't necessary and I can't have an officer unable to communicate outside of signals and signs." Guardian though she may have been, readings signs and signals wasn't where her talent lay. For her it was blending in, and making herself innocous.
Xiaolian would hear what Molly had to say after Zander was gone, and for the moment ignore her role as a Guardian. That much of a reprieve she could grant the other before Zander had his way retraining his apprentice. Besides which, it might give her a chance to look ahead slightly and see if this really was a lost cause or not.
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Post by demikara on Jan 20, 2020 19:13:56 GMT -6
"Mm." He didn't agree, but she was in charge here, and he removed the spell. "Molly, I will be by to pick you up when you get off. You will wait here for me. If you have to go into the field, you will call me and let me know you will be late." He had a phone, though it was rarely used. Molly had gotten it for him and it generally stayed at her apartment. "When you get off, I'm removing your book. You won't need it for awhile anyway. And we are going to have a long overdue conversation about your increasingly unseelie behavior."
Molly nodded. "Yes sir." There wasn't more that she could say and she knew it.
"Have a good day Guardian. And rest assured, Molly will be dealt with appropriately." And thoroughly. He left them, heading out the front door, rather than Walking out of there like Molly used to.
Molly gave Xiaolian a sideways look and sighed. "The worm-arm-thing was returned to its people. I just emailed you the report. It's complete." She had been doing good on her paperwork, filling it out completely and in english, even if she wasn't fond of english. She had been doing better at work entirely, but it apparently still wasn't enough. And now she was back to being an apprentice who wasn't even trusted to walk the tree on her own. Not that she could either.
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Post by Circe on Jan 20, 2020 19:36:31 GMT -6
Xiaolian nodded to Zander as he left after having given Molly her instructions. This was not a mess she had wanted dropped into her lap, but questions had forced her hand. Even then she had been begrudging and relatively cooperative with Zander, she didn't have to work with him on the issue at all. She could have stripped Molly's ability right then and there, and then lied to the Warden about it being a fluke of testing a nullification field. But, she didn't want to do that. Catherine had treated her as competent, knowledgeable, and trustworthy. It was something that her previous department hadn't, and that left scars.
Leaning back into her chair, taking a deep breath and letting it out she looked over at Molly. "Good. Let's hope there aren't more where that came from." More worms would mean that there was a problem that she would have to look further into, and Zhen would not be happy to be pulled away from his customers that long.
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Post by demikara on Jan 20, 2020 20:11:08 GMT -6
"I'll keep an eye on it. I suspect there will be more though. It was built specifically for...Sergio, I think it said the name was." Something like that at least. She shrugged. "I'm going to look around Sergio's place, to see if I can find anything else about the worm and where it's from. It had limited intelligence and I didn't recognize most of the terms it used." She didn't always recognize things like that. Her job was to return lost people to places and to explore the world tree without actually contacting the species there. Glamours were heavily used in most places.
Spell work kept them largely invisible. It was how they worked around the no contact rules. Though anyone who got themselves on the wrong side of the world tree it was probably too late for no contact. She considered her options and shrugged. "I'll have to do it outside of MCU. I'm not actually supposed to cross the two duties over." They were supposed to be kept as separate as possible.
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