#karina alkaev

[tenoutten]

👶

A solemn boy of ten stood quietly by the Watchlady, unsure of what to do he simply stared ahead. He watched the uniforms walk past, first looking at their feet and then how they were around other people.

Then he glanced up, at the Watchlady. She was different, she didn’t fit. She stood different, smaller even with all the space she took.

[tenoutten]

Insouciance

@masterofthewatchhounds

A pebble skittered across a street. The man shot up to his knees, barely missing hitting his head on the pipes. Pretty sure he heard something, the man squinted, looking back and forth, up and down the empty street.

He took a moment longer, staring and willing his paranoia to settle. Night shift was the worst, even if he got the good jobs. It was nothing like the distillery district, you had to hire some goons and you were never sure they weren’t Bottle Street to start with.

“Damn, rotten luck…” he picked up the wrench and got up, tapping on the screen by the valve obscured by a thin, film of dust. “Lot good of nothin’ comin’ here. Coulda told me before I even got out.”

With a sigh that drained all energy from his stance, the man slouched back to the open door just around the corner. This time the wind howled and again, he stopped, frozen with hunched shoulders.

The Outsider could be about. The Overseers said he could be anywhere, how did you know he wasn’t watching all the time? He had asked Adams about it the other day and just gotten a surly look. Here’s to hoping he didn’t think he was bad in the head and spilled the beans to the ‘Seers.

“No pressure, gotta be the boiler. Can’t be bothered to fix it, the day guys do it.”

Past the door, more like a glorified walk in closet and the reason for the pipes scattered through town, there was the boiler.

Well. Uh. Sure, didn’t boil a thing, just helped spread it out. Still calling it a boiler, he was no fancy engineer fresh out of them Academy but he could do enough handwork and he could understand if they explained what to do. It was enough.

There was a low hiss then a squeak and he jumped on his heels, dropping the wrench. A rat shot out of a pile of trash bags by the corner of the opposite building and ran down the street. He looked up though, the dark not done with moving yet.

“Oi. Kinda late for a stroll.” Patting at his breast pocket, he gathered his wits. Geesh. No need to be so jumpy. “What are you doin’ here?

…

Gabriel sighed.

“For the nth time, Watchman.” Fingers intertwined, clutching at each other tighter still. His eyes turned to slits, even behind the mask. These idiots were just wasting his time. “All details of the encounter can be found in my report, if not in your Watchman’s.”

The interrogation room was a sham for all the atmosphere it provided. Perhaps it worked on the ordinary lowlife; a flickering light swinging just a little above their heads, the narrow table, the narrow chair. Dull, grey and only one way out. Gabriel was surprised he wasn’t up in chains yet.

“We’ve uncovered a smuggling den.” With a cutting motion, his hand chopped a line between him and the polite yet uninterested guard sitting across him. “A rather well organized, complex one at that. I’d suggest instead of wasting my time you’d put yours to a better use by finding them before they—“

It was the third time he had been called to go over the facts. Perhaps did they think they had rehearsed a story? Absurd. It was just the Watch being petty about their pet hate towards the Abbey, and Gabriel had the sore luck of being on its receiving end.

“Understood.” The guard scribbled something down on a scrat of paper – not even a clipboard, a ledger, anything remotely convincing – before biting back a yawn. “Sure. I think this is enough for today. Thanks for your help.”

Gritting his teeth, Gabriel stood sitting for a moment longer before the implication sank. They weren’t even trying to pretend anymore.

Standing up briskly, he turned towards the door, straining it on its hinges as he stomped out of the hearing room. Yes, because the Watch called it ‘hearing room’ when Gabriel had just been proved there was actually little to no hearing being done.

Once outside their headquarters, he took a moment to breath. In and out, in and out. Whenever he thought the levels of incompetence couldn’t go beyond what he had already sampled, the Watch came to the rescue. Proved him wrong.

“You feeling fine over there?”

Someone bumped him on the shoulder, trying to get into the headquarters. They mumbled an apology before noticing the mask, then the look on their face turned into a scowl.

“Yeah.” Yet the scowling guard looked like he’d just stepped on shit. Brilliant. “Just a bit queasy. Nothing much.”

“You sure?”

Another guard joined queasy, fitting a shoulder under his friend’s arm when they dangerously veered to the opposite side of Gabriel, almost threatening to fall. He, Gabriel, on the other hand, took a couple of steps back as if the guards had fleas.

“Yeah, yeah. Fine. Let me get on with it before major ‘bitch’ gets her pants up in a bunch.”

Not very happy he was listening in, they glared before going inside. Their steps and their voices echoed down the long hallways of the keep. Echoes of ‘dogs up sick´ and ‘ up in my business’ or ’all over my face’ were heard until they turned the corner.

Gabriel’s focus, however, had shifted. Only now had he noticed… there was no sound of barking. Odd for a place that had its own kennels, odder still if it had hounds that weren’t a modicum as disciple or obedient as Abbey hounds.

Well, that certainly provided an excuse for a visit.

[tenoutten]

Karina ' s hound goes missing so to say and is given to a novice Overseer. The excuse once she complains and it's "found" a week later is that it simply chose to follow the majority of the other hounds so they kept them thinking it was their own. BP for Gabe being an asshole and keeping her hound himself.

[tenoutten]

masterofthewatchhounds

"You." The word booms effortlessly through the lecture hall, Gabriel quickly taking two steps down at a time as he adjusts the mask over his face.

The room is white, with navy blue and gold banners of the Abbey, the exhibit of the ceremonial urns of past High Overseers and a very out of place Watchwoman (how curious) surrounded by two of his brothers. Rather anxious brothers, he should add.

Clearing his throat, Gabriel stops a few paces away. “I’m afraid you’ve been banned from the Abbey grounds, Miss Alkaev.” Who hadn’t heard of the crazy she-heretic who had cost the Abbey thousands of gold? Holger’s Square had been warned first thing once she transferred and had been wise to refuse her a second time, she had assaulted one of them.

“You’d do well to allow my Brothers,” at that he nodded at the two Overseers, one on each side of her, “to escort you out safely .”