鏡中花,水中月

Vanessa Chow | F | 19 | Agency [Dependent Nyo!HK for Hetabungou]

[windonthehill-blog]

"What's That Up There?"

SANTA BUDDY

Well, you know what they say. Yolo, mofos.

Feliciano doesn’t even bother with the pretense of ‘oh what’s that??’ and just leans in to get in his quick cheek smooch before he dies. “Merry Christmas~”

[gengfaayuen-blog]

Vanessa squeaked, and flushed pink. That’s her first time being kissed under mistletoe, oof. At least it wasn’t on the lips. Still, she should have been more observant.

“You should take that down,” she huffs, sounding a touch more annoyed than she intended. “Work is not the time nor place for such things.”

[gengfaayuen-blog]

It's a couple of days late, but Mizuki's present for Vanessa has finally been posted to her. Inside is a note that says "Thanks for working with me this year. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! From Murasaki Shikibu (or just Mizuki)", and a 3-pack of small scented candles.

Aw, that’s sweet. And somewhat reassuring, because Vanessa can’t be screwing up this vice leader thing too badly if she’s getting Christmas gifts from her coworkers.

[gengfaayuen-blog]

There was an envelope on her desk with a card containing a voucher for a weekend getaway to some spa and resort. The Christmas card read "Merry Christmas! I wanted to thank you for the work you put into the murder mystery with Poe, and if you work just as hard now as you did then, then you definitely deserve this. Im glad to know that you are the Agency's vice leader and don't want your work to go unnoticed. Sincerely, Samiri Al-Dilmun" With a streak of gold underlining his signature for flare.

What a thoughtful gift. Maybe she really ought to spare some time to relax, Sheng’s been sending unsubtle hints for a while.

[gengfaayuen-blog]

lilianzwingli:

“I-I just get so nervous. I know nobody is going to judge me here, but… that doesn’t stop the fact that people fall asleep around me when I lose control.” She sighed again, still obviously upset with herself for losing control.

“Well… he asked where I was taking him and I pointed to the dorms. He’s an ability user too. He told me so, anyways. I didn’t see him use his powers, but I think he made the connection about where I worked. He asked if I was detaining him.” She laughed a little, “I told him I’m pretty sure I don’t have that authority.”

“It could be worse,” Vanessa tried to reassure her. Probably not the best thing to say, but did you really think Vanessa was any good at emotional support? “I have an old friend who had pyrokinesis and cryokinesis. He, uh, caused quite a bit of damage when we were younger. People falling asleep isn’t that bad, in comparison.”

Well, that was concerning. “Hm. Could you give me a description of him? Did you get his name?” If he was an ability user, chances were he was also affiliated with an organization. God forbid Lili become an easy target for any of their enemies - Vanessa had no wish to see any of her coworkers hurt.

[ladypurple-ada-blog]

Sleepytime Junction |

[gengfaayuen-blog]

ladypurple-ada:

‘I’m not sick though!’ She half-snapped, then realised how she had spoken. ‘I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have spoken like that. I’m not sick, I promise. If it makes you feel better though, I have a face mask in my-’

As she dug around in her bag, she frowned at the absence of the face mask she usually kept with her just in case. ‘I thought it was in here,’ she muttered to herself, then turned to Vanessa again. ‘Anyway, I need to finish these today, I told Sanun-sama that they would be finished at the end of today.’ She smiled hoping it would reassure her, and mask her feelings of desperation and need to “fix her failures to the Agency”.

‘I’m fine, Vanessa-san. Please, believe me.’

Now Vanessa was extra worried. From what she knew of Mizuki, she was typically fairly amicable, and outbursts like this weren’t entirely in character. At the very least, Mizuki hadn’t caused trouble the same way certain members of the Agency had.

Mizuki wasn’t well, evidently. That much was obvious. But Vanessa could sympathize with the frustration of being asked to stop working when a case was nearly finished. A compromise, perhaps, could work here.

“I do sincerely think you need a break, however. Falling asleep while working isn’t beneficial to anyone, be it yourself or the Agency. How about this: you can finish off the work you have today, and take a vacation day tomorrow. How much do you have left to do?”

[gengfaayuen-blog]

lilianzwingli:

She blinked, shocked and a little embarrassed that someone had researched something so personal to her. “It’s… not so much that I intentionally put them to sleep. If their emotions are confusing or muddled - like they don’t have a ‘strongest’ emotion - then in order to pacify them I put them to sleep. I have less control when I’m scared, though…” She sighed, turning very sheepish in admitting her faults.

“Anyway, he was scary and at first he was rude and didn’t want to answer. I just pressed him a little more to figure out why he wouldn’t tell me anything about my brother’s friend Roderich. Then he got all…” she made a sort of wobbly gesture. “I can handle someone who is just angry with me, but he wasn’t just angry. I was about to give up when he started asking me questions and it hurt my head and I just… put him to sleep, I guess. I tried to move him from the sidewalk and he fell on me. Then I felt bad, so I got him into a taxi. He woke up on the way.”

“That’s alright. Most people lose control when they’re emotional.” Vanessa would say thank god she wasn’t part of that group, but really, her ability didn’t have tangible effects anyway. She’d maybe get a jumpscare or two at most if she lost control. “You might’ve heard this lecture from Mr Boonliang already, but part of what we do at the Agency is help people learn to control and develop their powers. You don’t need to be ashamed of not having perfect control, because no one here has the right to judge you for it.”

Oof. “It sounds like you made the best of a less than ideal situation. You said you brought him back to the dorms?” Not the best idea tbh. Outing your alignment aside, you’re also potentially providing easy access to a member of an enemy organisation, and again, knocking someone out then bringing them home is. Really sketchy.

[gengfaayuen-blog]

lilianzwingli:

“Home- the dorms.” Lili blinked. Vanessa knew about ability users? This was news to her. She assumed that Mr. Sanun had sent all of the invitations to the agency. “I- how much do you know about my abilities? I-I don’t know how much to explain.”

“Um, to start, I guess… I was trying to practice investigating… The man didn’t seem happy that I was asking questions. He looked so scary.”

Sigh. They’d probably have to have a conversation later about maybe not taking unconscious strangers home, because that’s a really sketchy thing to do. But that’s not the point right now.

“Your ability is Shrill Felicity, and can largely be summed up as ‘empathy’.” Vanessa recited. She had a passing knowledge of most of the abilities each Agency member had. It was important to know, as the vice leader, in case any Incidents(tm) happened. Like this one. “You can feel the emotions of those around you, and you can either pacify a person’s strongest emotion or put them to sleep. You cannot induce emotions, you cannot read minds, and you cannot control people to any extent. Those are the basics of what I know - should any of it be incorrect, inform me or Mr Boonliang and we will note it down.”

Oof. There’s better ways to practice investigating than interrogating strangers on the street, but that conversation can wait till later. Best let Lili explain the whole story first. “And then? I assume his emotions overwhelmed you, and you put him to sleep?” Why not just... walk away from him??

[gengfaayuen-blog]

lilianzwingli:

“Well- okay he’s alive- and breathing and everything so… I just needed to hide him because he fell asleep on the sidewalk. It was kind of my fault.” She recalled what Samiri had said about keeping her ability a secret from strangers. She hadn’t known Vanessa for that long. 

“But I dragged him out of the way and then called a taxi since nobody answered…” she shuddered a little, “he gave me this scary glare, though.” She looked at Vanessa, trying to gauge whether or not to trust her with the whole truth. “He fell on me, that’s how I hurt my leg.”

A man falling asleep? Because of Lili? Sounded like an ability related incident. It wouldn’t be the first time it happened, and it wouldn’t be the last; part of the Agency’s role, after all, was to help ability users better understand and control their powers. Mishaps were bound to happen along the way. “Ah, you lost control of your ability? Don’t worry, it happens to most people at some point.”

That... didn’t alleviate her concerns. In fact, it just raised new ones. “You... called a taxi? To where? ...Actually, please, just recount the incident from the beginning. I’m a bit lost at the moment.”

[gengfaayuen-blog]

@lilianzwingli | from here

Lili wore a long shirt and a pair of leggings, so if one looked close enough, they could see the bandage on her leg. Though it wasn’t so bad an injury that she was limping, a skilled member of the Agency like Vanessa would obviously see it.

She immediately flushed at Van’s question, recalling the panicked voicemail she left, “Oh, um… I was hoping you or Mr. Sanun could help me with… well, um, hiding a body, but it’s fine now! I figured it out… kinda.” Lili didn’t pay attention to how awful that sounded and attempted to continue about her work.

Um.

Um.

Hiding a body???

Vanessa was silent for a moment, replaying what she just heard in her head. After she ascertained herself of what Lili had said (hiding a body???), Vanessa said, “Hiding a body? I do hope that’s simply poor wording on your part, else you have a lot of explaining to do.” Heck, she had a lot of explaining to do even if it was simply poor wording. Good grief.

[ladypurple-ada-blog]

Sleepytime Junction |

[gengfaayuen-blog]

ladypurple-ada:

Mizuki stirred slightly, then jumped at the sudden appearance of Vanessa next to her. ‘I-I-I’m so sorry, Vanessa-san!’ she said, slightly panicking, ‘I’m trying to work, I promise! And I need to keep working on these cases, but I always get stuck!’ She wanted to scream in frustration, but she knew that was highly unprofessional, and instead took some deep breaths, and held back the tears of stress that were threatening to fall from her eyes by moving her gaze to the ceiling.

She shuffled in her seat uncomfortably. ‘I cannot take the day off though, I’m so close with one of them, and once I get there it will be done!’ She nodded somewhat sharply, as if to emphasize her stubbornness and willingness, not to mention her deeply felt need, to keep working.

Oh boy, Mizuki was tearing up. This isn’t Vanessa’s forte, thanks. She’s no good with emotional support. Thankfully Mizuki seemed to be keeping it mostly under control, meaning that Vanessa wouldn’t have to attempt comforting yet.

Hm. Vanessa knew well the frustration of being so close on a case but being not quite there yet. However, perfectly healthy people did not fall asleep at their desks, and it would be detrimental for Mizuki to keep working as she was. Vanessa hoped that appealing to logic would work here; otherwise, she’d be at a loss for what to do.

“I understand it’s frustrating, but it won’t do anyone any good to keep working when you aren’t well. You might miss important details in your cases because you’re too tired, or you might get others in the Agency sick.” That is, assuming Mizuki was sick and wasn’t staying up all night doing gosh knows what. “It’d be best, I think, if you got some rest before resuming on your cases”

[gengfaayuen-blog]

lilianzwingli:

Lili pauses for a moment, flipping through her notebook and trying to decide how to best summarize the case. “I guess… I don’t really know who was involved. It was some kind of robbery? The person I talked to lives next door to the room that they think was robbed, so they don’t know all of the details but they feel unsafe.”

“It was in an apartment complex downtown late last week - they said there was a lot of crashing and the handle on their neighbor’s door was broken, but their neighbor is staying across the hall for now, so… they want the agency to investigate the breaking and entering, I suppose…”

Hm, a routine robbery case. Not quite important or complex enough for the Agency.

“The police are capable of handling robbery cases, no need for us to take it on. You can call the person back and tell them to take their case to the police; unless, of course, ability users were involved. That’s the main reason we take otherwise routine cases. But again, you can take the case if you want to. It might be a good start to take easier cases first before working up to the more complex ones the Agency usually handles.”

[gengfaayuen-blog]

[left on a voicemail] "Um, Ms. Chow I... I could use some help... I don't really know what to do in this situation"

It was a while before Vanessa had the spare time to check for messages on her phone, and even longer before she had time to call back. By then, Lili had already returned to the office. At least there was no question as to whether or not Lili was in physical danger.

Approaching Lili, she said, “My apologies for not picking up my phone earlier, I was busy. I’m glad that you’re safe; what was it that you needed help with?”

[gengfaayuen-blog]

whitebircl:

  “Gotcha. Thanks, didn’t really think this place would be packed.”

She placed her drink onto the table and took a seat across from Vanessa, scooting forward so she wasn’t too far from her drink. “Oh yeah, I’m Emily Jones. Don’t want ya like not knowing my name since y’know, I’m sitting here with ya.” She held out her hand and flashed a bright smile.

“Nice to meet ya!”

Vanessa avoided eye contact, choosing to stare at her drink instead. Her face was already burning; she was certain actual prolonged eye contact would cause her to spontaneously combust. This was a horrible first impression, she was hopeless, she’d never have a chance with any pretty ladies--

...Well, at least she couldn’t be as bad as Sheng.

Vanessa took Emily’s hand, her eyes flicking up briefly to meet Emily’s before shyness caused her to look down again. Her eyes were pretty, her smile was pretty, oh god Vanessa is hopeless. “I-I’m Vanessa.” She tried to offer a friendly smile. “It’s nice to meet you too.”

[gengfaayuen-blog]

lilianzwingli:

[after time skip; post-interview]

“So… what should I be considering? I mean… I trust that the person I interviewed told me everything they knew about the incident, but how do I decide whether to take the case? If I take it, I have to investigate more, right?”

“You will have to do more investigation, yes. For the time being, talk me through the basics of the case. Who was involved, what happened, where did it happen, and when?”

[ladypurple-ada-blog]

Sleepytime Junction |

“Healthy” wasn’t necessarily a word you would use to describe Mizuki at this current time. She had neglected to brush her hair that morning, or to cover up the dark under-eyes that became increasingly more common as she had sacrificed sleep for either work or study.

So there she sat, exhausted from working hard, finally asleep with her head on her desk at the Agency headquarters. She had worked through lunchtime again, something that seemed to be becoming a habit, and her body had decided that it needed a rest, whether Mizuki agreed or otherwise. Naturally in her sleeping state, she failed to notice a particularly concerned-looking Vanessa looking on.

@gengfaayuen

[gengfaayuen-blog]

Far be it for Vanessa to judge someone for falling asleep at their desk - she’d done it once or twice before, when she tried to work through illness (and inevitably got ushered home by Sheng, Mei, Mr Boonliang, or any combination of the three). It would be hypocritical of her to chastise Mizuki for falling asleep, and that certainly wasn’t her intention when she went to wake up Mizuki.

Rather, she was worried - admittedly she hadn’t talked much with Mizuki beyond the time they got lost and the initiation case, but clearly something wasn’t right if she was falling asleep at her desk. Perhaps Mizuki was ill, and if she was it would do no good for her to risk infecting the rest of the agency and likely produce lesser quality work while she was at it.

(Vanessa really should take her own advice, but that's currently irrelevant.)

“Murasaki Shikibu,” Vanessa said, softly shaking her awake. “I’m sure it can’t be comfortable sleeping like this. Would you rather take the day off and sleep at the dorms?”

[gengfaayuen-blog]

lilianzwingli:

She nodded, writing down in a small notebook the answers to the various questions she’d asked so far. “Okay, I’ll try.”

“So… where do I go for the interview? Where are they at? Is there a private place for asking questions?”

“Interviews take place in the cafe, usually. It’s not exactly private, but it’s usually not too busy either. You can do the interview somewhere else if you’d like, but the cafe is convenient.”

[gengfaayuen-blog]

"Excuse me, do you know where my cubicle is?"

Vanessa turned to see a man whom she didn’t recognize. Another new member, then.

“Perhaps, yes. May I ask your name?”

[gengfaayuen-blog]

hikiiko:

Vanessa. He could swear that he knew someone with that name- perhaps a character from some long forgotten anime. But he dips his head at her introduction. “My work alias is Haruki Murakami,” he mentions. Neither of them felt the need to be all chatty and social, which he was ridiculously grateful for. Vice-Leader- looks like the place was professional.

“Thank you,” he says, again. After a bitter pause, he realised that he had received little to no information about the details of the job. What had to be done, not even the Leader’s name or credentials. Kiku didn’t even have a background in police work, merely forensics and some mathematics. “Is there any task I need to complete?”

God, she wishes the Agency was professional. Maybe with Kiku joining their combined influence could make the place more professional somehow. Maybe.

“At the moment, no. We don’t have any extra cases that need to be taken, or at least not anything that could be handled by a newcomer. It’s a busy season though, so there’s a chance something will come up soon. In the meantime, you can help out with paperwork if you want, or just try and get used to the Agency.”