This Should Be Interesting (Bee) [Jack Quest]

[Lauryn de Vampyre]

Lariel had thought long and hard about if this was the right decision for her. After hours, days, weeks of consideration she'd finally come to a conclusion. She still had no fucking clue if this was going to end up being a mistake or not.

The Bobcat had ended up forcing herself to at least write the letter to Her Majesty Sadie, requesting an audience about obtaining a Jack Quest. With all that had just recently happen to their entire world, and her being a high ranking Diamond, Lariel had been warring within herself to man up and do the right thing for her Suit. Though she hadn't been around the Courts, well... ever, she had to believe they were just as lost and in need of help as the rest of the world right now.

Lariel had decided to see if they could use her help in any way and if worst came to worst, they could tell her she wasn't exactly what they were looking for and that would be that. At least she would give it a go and beyond that her conscience would be clear. Then again, it would make being a Black Market dealer just a little bit more tricky. But if accepted into the Courts, as shocking as it felt to her, she'd be willing to give that up. For awhile at the very least.

Having never been to the Diamond Court, the idea of making her way around such a large establishment was daunting to say the least. So when she received a response letter with an appointment arranged with Her Highness Mnemosyne, she started regretting her decision. But she had come and had found her way -after many wrong turns and stops for directions- to the King's office.

Consciously smoothing down her lion fish fins, Lariel read the letter one more time to make sure she'd gotten the day and time correct. With no more reason left to stall, she folded the letter and put it away and knocked on the door.

[Bee]

There were several important things happening around the palace of course; the entire goddamn place had gone straight to hell, donned a party hat, and somehow managed to burn itself alive and dance on its own ashes. Mnem had a headache. Scratch her last. She had a terrible headache. She was aware that technically alcohol did not alleviate headaches so much as postpone them for a little while and then make them infinitely worse, but the prospect was looking increasingly tempting, especially as she heard the knock at her door and remembered that she was in her office for a reason.

Death; chaos; doing her job. What was the world coming to?

“Oh do come in,” she said, with only mildly acrid pleasantness. In a way she was looking forward to this meeting, if only for its potential end as opposed to the whole process. Mnem had spent most of the cataclysm unconscious in a bed of tulips, infuriatingly powerless, but the after-effects were dead apparent; the losses of Iria and Ceren and Kushrenada were particularly galling. She hadn’t been close to any of them personally, but she had respected them and they had been colleagues. And working members of the Court.

She wondered if it were good manners to be angry at them for dying horrifically.

Probably not, she decided, and mentally prepared herself for the ensuing interview.

[Lauryn de Vampyre]

Hearing the invitation issued from inside the room, Lariel pushed open the door and walked into the office. Immediately she saw the Human woman who she assumed must be Mnemosyne. The Bobcat shut the door behind her, took a steadying breath and turned to walk further inside.

She stopped a few feet from the woman and bowed her head awkwardly, "Your Highness."

Now what? she thought. If there was something akin to court protocol for this kind of meeting, she was none the wiser. The lion fish fins at her back flexed in small movements, a visual representation of her nerves. At this point she merely hoped to not be laughed out of the room for her inept Court Manners. Still, she was never one to give up without a fight and decided being direct was the only weapon she had in her limited arsenal for the time being.

"I'm here for my Jack Quest. How would you like me to prove myself as a potential valued member of the Diamond Court?"

There. To the point with no false pleasantries. She didn't know this woman and respected her title too much to mince words and waste time talking about oh, say, the weather and her health.

[Bee]

She gave the woman a critical eye as she walked into the room. Those were an interesting couple of mutations, certainly, and she vaguely thought that her daughter would adore this woman before stuffing the whole set of observations into the Don't Actually Give A Shit file in her brain. When the woman--Lariel, yes--did her awkward little dip and greeting, Mnem decided she was going to get away with a spot of whiskey under the pretense of hospitality and pulled the necessary equipment from inside her desk, where all her important things were kept. She poured two shots and slid one across to Lariel. She may as well go big on this headache or go home.

"First you're going to need to prove you can hold your liquor, it's the keystone of any skill set," she said, dryly. "Sit down. Now, I admire an opportunist. This is an excellent time to consider joining our illustrious ranks. I've numerous ways I could roll this, but to honor your charming bluntness, I'll respond in kind. We had Selkies in our staff. They are of course dead as all fuck. However, some of their bodies are still missing, and their more genetically-fortunate relations are clamoring for their return and, equally importantly, being a pain in an ass that really doesn't need any more pain than it currently has. We have decent reason to suspect Corvies might be involved. We have a couple of serviceable leads."

She took a sip of deliciously burning mana from Dionysus. "If you wish to prove yourself useful to the Court, you can sort this mess out. I want the bodies, I want you to smooth over the ruffled feathers of their poor families, and I want you to do it as quickly as possible."

[Lauryn de Vampyre]

She watched as Her Highness pulled out the alcohol and shot glasses. Instantly her posture relaxed and her fins did likewise at her back. If the woman was pulling out The Drink, then maybe things weren't as formal in this scenario as she'd been lead to believe. It was a welcome difference, of course.

Her clawed hand reached out in time to catch the shot glass that was slid her way. She grabbed the liquor, sat down in front of the desk as instructed and took a small sip to gauge how the liquid would go down. Suits, but it was strong! Strong, but good as it burned its way down her throat and into her stomach. She took another, slightly larger, sip.

Mnemosyne was being as blunt and straight forward with her as she had dared not hope, and combined with the lovely effects of the liquor, Lariel felt the rest of herself relax and calm. However calm she felt on the inside now, she was still all business and listened attentively while the woman spoke.

Bodies missing? She held nothing personally against Corvies, but body snatching.... really? She never had to consider what a Corvie would do in order to further their experiments, but she was being forced to now. She thought of how'd she'd feel if they had snatched the carcass of one of her family. Well, she didn't really care about her parents to much so instead she found herself imagining it had been Nova's body instead. There, now she definitely understood how the families must feel about their lost ones.

Lariel found herself smirking pleasantly at Her Highness. She had never expected in a million years to meet with a Noble who was so very crass and at the same time down to earth. She found herself liking the woman. She lifted up her shot glass towards her and took a larger drink, coughing just a tiny bit as the burn of her throat caused her eyes to water.

"I will gladly prove to you any day of the week that I can hold my liquor. And by the by, thanks for sharing your stash with me; it's greatly appreciated. And I know I can handle that task," she said with all confidence.

"If your Highness doesn't mind, I'll be needing information on all of those leads. Also, how will you want the bodies delivered? I could bring them to your office one by one, but I doubt you'd appreciate them smelling up your office."

"And," she added as an afterthough, "Do I have the Court's permission to use any means necessary as long as it doesn't involve maiming or murder?"

[Bee]

"The maiming and murder will come after the guilty parties are apprehended, I imagine," Mnem said, her smile becoming sardonic. Though while she did not doubt that some of the distraught families would be clamoring for blood, she was uncertain what fate the thieves would meet. Come to think of it, she also didn't care. It was great when things worked out that way. "So I would appreciate it if you kept your force nonlethal and tried not to cause any permanent impairment. Beyond that, the investigation is your sandbox. When you find the bodies, we've got an impromptu morgue set up in the basement; someone will be on hand to assist you."

She polished off her drink in one go. Leads, that was what she was doing. "We've got a cook--not a Corvie herself--who was entertaining Corvie relatives at the time of the...events, and through when the bodies disappeared. Then they themselves conveniently vanished." She shrugged. "I've lived most of my life with a Corvie, so this could be entirely circumstantial because they are just erratic little bastards, but it's a little too timely, don't you think? The cook's name is Miss Bart. She's a Seven, a Kahmden woman." She glanced down at her little sheet of paper, upon which she had hastily scribbled notes pertaining to this meeting. She smiled grimly. Ah yes, and this one. "We've a lady in housekeeping, Miss Van Osborough, a Morganberry, a ferret. Evidently she found a severed Selkie arm."

She let a tendril of hair curl around the bottle and pour herself another shot. "They look somewhat promising. As do you, so don't fuck it up. If you don't have any more questions, you're dismissed."