@agent-ashley-graham | continued.
“You’re good.” Jill shakes her head and places a reassuring hand on Ashley’s shoulder.
These first few days will surely be overwhelming for her, but Jill can try and make her as comfortable as possible. Getting her familiar with the place will be a good start.
“I’m a special operations agent, so I’m usually either with a partner or on my own,” Jill explains. “Agents like me handle covert operations. Infiltration. Espionage. The kind of work that demands you be quick on your feet. Get in and get out without anyone noticing. Of course, it doesn’t always work out that way. That’s why it’s nice to have at least one person watching your back.”
Walking down the hallway, she points Ashley to all the offices they pass by, the main conference room, then she comes to a stop by the break room. A few operatives are sitting at the tables or standing by the vending machines. They acknowledge the two of them with firm salutes and bright smiles, and Jill takes the time to introduce Ashley to them, some of whom will be training alongside her. Best to get her acquainted with people as soon as possible.
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joint missions are a hassle, clashing protocols always ending in some higher up deciding that their organisation has more relevance in the order of things. with the BSAA claire can usually get things done her way regardless - ironically enough people who know her brother trust her instincts by association, something claire will never really understand but knows better than to argue against. but the DSO? when it comes to them there's only so much a gossip magazine moniker can grant her.
@agent-ashley-graham : "Do you still keep in contact with Leon?"
there's a soft hum as claire's head turns toward ashley, attention still half settled on her phone screen as they wait for their debrief meeting. fingertips drumming against table surface comes to an halt - for a moment claire wonders if this is a prelude to the information that leon will be joining them on the mission. alright, she will bite... for now. "uhm, yeah. every now and then." leaning more to then lately, life always getting in the way. "we both have busy schedules..." voice trails as hand gesrures vaguely to the papers on the table. "bet you probably see him more than i do."
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They said a stalker’s boon was preparedness, but not even the events of the past years could have prepared Schwarzwalders for when the tides turned. Stalkers were always seen as an under-class. People to be avoided, on par with the poor. But Germany took it to a greater extreme, where stalkers were told to not exist, usually very violently and without a trace. The erasure of their very existence made Schwarzwalders uneasy and quiet, unsettling in normal crowds of normal people.
That changed when the world outside ended, when the Schwarzwald breathed her heaviest and swallowed not only the security walls and fences and cordons, but the world outside of it as well. The monstrous temperamental Zone had added another staggering twenty miles to her girth and thirty to her height, effectively swallowing the corner that had been France, Switzerland, and Germany in a seemingly-endless sea of dense forest and craggy mountains.
Now, survivors had swarmed into the territory of the ancient wood and it was Schwarzwalders who had stepped in to help the uneducated survive. Stalkers were no longer a subclass of people, they were saviors, and the shift was still staggering to most of them here. It felt strange to be seen and even liked to some degree, even if they tried to keep people from penetrating further in, passed the Threshold, into the forest propers and among the features and inhabitants that made Schwarzwald so treacherous to any who did not know the mechanics. There were few of the more stone-etched rules here in the new fringes. It allowed for more to better survive.
Along the eastern fringes was a structure that still stood, in a clearing, even after the final expansion. Built like a house with the aesthetics of the most common structures of the area, with hand-carved embellishments alongside pine and oak, the steep peaked roofs and dormers, a wrapping porch, and illuminated by black iron carriage lights that had the flicker of flames in them. The lights were electric, the flames fake. Like the rest of the tavern was powered, it was a mystery when the influence of Schwarzwald was so close by.
There are simply some things you do not ask about, only accept.
A mantra that kept people alive in Zones. Things happened. Indescribable things. Things that should not be anywhere near possible, but were. Stalkers always said that to survive, you did not question these things. Simply accepted them as natural, and so far, it seemed to keep people who took refuge in the overgrown fringes alive. It held true here, as well.
Wulf knew it well, exiting the front doors for a quick puff of smoke as part of her break, regarding once more with a mild curiosity the flickering lights on the porch and those by the sign at the end of the driveway. A tall woman, with piercing eyes and an overzealous mane of hair, she struck an intimidating profile. It didn’t take her long to sit and settle on the railing of the porch with a relaxing sigh, packing a pinch of loose tobacco into her pipe before lighting it and beginning to puff on it.
A small encampment had put down roots surrounding the tavern, shanty houses and tents around group firepits. Many of them were other stalkers, but there were some who had been civilians in a time in the past. So far, they seemed to get along with each other and with the tavern itself, and she offered a nonchalant wave of greeting to a few members of it as they climbed the stairs to the front doors. After them, the evening grew quiet.
It didn’t stay quiet for long. The trees surrounding the clearing plot began to groan, creaking wood at volumes so loud and frequencies so low that the structure for the tavern itself rumbled with it as though responding. It rolled around for a brief moment before it rumbled off into the distance, replaced in Wulf’s ears with the sound of whispering voices. Schwarzwald was speaking, but the words were muddled and hard to make out. Her brow furrowed a little in trying to make sense of it.
The sound of the chains holding the bench swing on the porch reached her, a slow creak and a jingle of metal. Her head turned slowly to look at it. A stout old woman, wearing long skirts and frilling tops with an intricately embroidered cap on her greyed head, was sitting on the cushions of the swing. It came to a slow halt while Wulf offered the woman a crooked smirk.
“Aaaah, Oma. Was not expecting your visit tonight...” she hummed, an undertone of affectionate familiarity to the anomaly.
Her response was a low chuckle, like a cluster of wind clacking leaves, followed by a voice made of the murmur of creaking wood and humming insects. “O My Child of Blood and Bone. It is not a simple visit that brings me here tonight. I come with a message, the same I give to my others here at this time. Visitors come to the east border.”
“Feeling a little more wild tonight, hm?” Wulf poked with some nonchalance before looking toward the end of the front walk and beyond that. The eastern boundary huh... “From that exclusion zone southeast of here, I assume?”
The seat began to rock again, the groan and clink of chains rhythmic with the breeze playing low along the ground. “Perhaps. Wherever they are from, it is a place my influence does not reach. I only noticed them when they entered where I can see.”
Wulf could only nod, puffing at her pipe for a second in thought before pushing with a little effort to stand and stretch. “Are the others coming, then?”
“The Raven and The Hare are on their way. I send The Fawn to you as well. The rest are too far from here to properly greet any guests.”
“Right. Well. I can’t go too far from the tavern just yet...”
“...As I know...”
“...So I’ll wait at the end of the path. If the others arrive in time, I’ll send them for you.” the taller woman stated, walking with relaxed -yet purposeful- steps toward the porch entry.
“I know I can count on you to maintain my peace.” the old woman whisped in her ear behind her. “But if they are naughty little pigs, GiVe Me ThEiR bOnEs...”
The low emphasis on the last command ticked something in the back of Wulf’s conscious mind. She could feel it, a pull on a metaphorical chain only she could feel against the nature of the command given. It wasn’t time yet, she told it, it would have to wait until conditions were met.
Oma was gone again before Wulf had left the porch, leaving the creaking porch swing behind. It wasn’t long before she arrived at the end of the walk, standing next to the wooden sign framed in wrought iron with Kreuzungs Taverne carved and stained in scroll font on the front. Standing next to one of the flickering carriage lights, she waited for either her brethren to meet up with her or the newcomers to arrive first.
@agent-ashley-graham
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