The Maltese Talonflame Chapter 1: The Cerise Letter

[DemICE]

Horace was glad James interrupted the ongoing conversations. He discreetly took his shades off and put them in his left inner pocket, without having to explain himself. 

He then walked into the elevator while staring at the man with a furrowed brow.

"Are you sure you are the same person that took your sweet time before answering to my question the second time?"

[DigitalAmber]

Jayden grabbed Inva, who was eyeing Kayn’s hat, and carried her into the elevator. He walked into one of the corners of the elevator and whispered to Inva, “Take the kid’s hat when he walks out of the elevator.” Inva started to greedily eye the hat, waiting for the moment. 

Edited January 25, 2018 by DigitalAmber

[Anime]

Adara walks into the elevator, and stands next to Horace. "Oh i see you took off your shades off, you look good", then she turns to Kayne and says" oh hey, you might want to hold on to your hat, you dont know what can happen to it~"

Edited January 26, 2018 by Amine Chankey3ft7
removed OwO

[Newt]

Kayn looks at Adara with a curious expression. He didn't understand why she was saying that.

"Uh.. Ok then! Thanks" 

Even not understanding why, Kayn takes out his hat and starts holding it with both hands.

[IntSys]

As Horace took his sunglasses off, Serra nodded in approval and stepped into the elevator, hoping that their ascend won't be as painful as the elevator's descent.

[DemICE]

"Uh?" Horace turned to the young girl noting the pointless obvious.  "Yeah, I did, I don't see why is it worth mentioning."  

He then noticed the other girl nodding in approval on him.    

Seriously what is it with girls and my sunglasses? 

[krim]

Arlen slipped the forms onto the assistant's desk as he entered the elevator and stood against the back wall. He grinned a bit when Auri started hopping across the other's heads, but otherwise said nothing. She never did like enclosed spaces much. he thought.

[Aurorix]

Aster turned in his papers and quietly entered into the elevator, Frostbite following closely behind him as the boy did so.

[rustytengo]

Jeanne followed the others into the elevator. Amused by there antics she started to subtlety take pictures of the others with her phone. As she was doing so the  Swablu one of the others had hopped on her head. She looked up at it and blew a small puff of air at it while saying "poof" to get it to move on off of her head.

 

[Anime]

As she was standing next to Horace, a Swablu hopped on Adara's head. she did not mind as his cotton wings were soft and comfy so she left the tiny bird until it decided to hop on Horace's head.

i hope we can get along, this awkward silence is killing me

[Yours Truly]

The applicants finds themselves waiting exactly ten seconds inside of the elevator with its slightly stifling awkward silence and oddly catchy elevator music, and the double doors soon opens to reveal a rather small and well lit hallway with nondescript white walls and a calming light blue carpet covering the floors. James holds up a finger and lets out a barely audible slithering sound as part of the almost universal gesture of keeping quiet, and he quietly says "We are almost at the library, the librarians here really hate it when someone makes too much noise....or leaves any kind of stain on the carpets...so put your Pokemon back into their balls before anything happens".

Assuming that everyone did as James asked; the man spends the rest of the trip by leading the group through the maze-like series of rooms that composed the library, and past the seemingly endless array of judgmental looking, and identically dressed old men and women whose outfits and general demeanor marks them as some form of librarian. The group presumably spends a few moments to stare at an eerily quite scene involving a very tired investigator, and a group of librarians who are still trying to drag the man's sleeping form towards what you assume is the exit.

 

Throughout all of this your tour guide does his best to quietly explain exactly why he finds this place to be rather creepy and unnecessary for the agency in the world of smart phones and ebooks. Although most of you will find the man's statement that the library also doubles as the Psychic pokemon's habitat (Habitats being the place where your Pokemon are allowed to roam relatively free when you are not using them), and how the eerily silent library staff extensively uses the help of their own Psychic Pokemon to be a bit odd....as you have yet to see any Pokemon inside of the whole room, other than the ones you are bringing in yourselves of course. 

Your tour of the seemingly endless library ends rather abruptly as you all shuffle into a surprisingly open room that is dominated by a receptionist's desk in the north of the room that overlooks several currently occupied long wooden tables that seems as if they will fit better in an open garden. The surprisingly young librarian manning the desk smiles and waves at you when you enter; although the various other men, women, and librarians in the room seems to be in favor of ignoring your general existence and continue with their little whispered conversations and other light activities. James quietly gestures towards a set of doors on the other side of the room and just quietly says "That is the HR and Accounting department, no one actually goes there, and I hope that none of you will ever have a reason to go here...as that only happens when someone messes up somehow".

[DemICE]

As the elevator was reaching its desination, horace had felt a soft mass with almost nonexistent weight to be placed on top of his head.  Looking at the elevator's mirror e saw a cute swablu having taken the shape of the hat, obviously proud about it.  Hi lips curled into a small smile as he absentmindedly brought his hand up and started stroking the mass of fluff.

"Whose your partner little birdie? You're pretty cute. You like to roleplay a hat? My now sleeping friend like to roleplay too.. as a gun though." 

It was about that time when the elevator stopped and they walked out, the swablu probably being content staying as a hat.  James had asked them to put their pokemon in their balls, but Magnum was sleeping in his inner pocket anyway, and he had never caused any commotion in his life, having lived in a house and all, so he pretended the horsea was not existing in there, and didn't do anything.

 

After a pretty boring tour where they were explained stuff that everyone could figure out by themselves, reached the room with the smiling deskman, and were left off with an indirect threat, he couldn't help but comment,

"This is a pretty intimidating way to motivate us to not mess up. None's perfect you know?"

[IntSys]

Serra mindlessly followed James through a library that she would probably never visit again until the immense pressure was gone - indicating that they had finally left the library. She sighed, and said softly, "that was not fun." She turned to the doors, and asked, "you said no one goes there, does that mean no one has messed up so far?"

[krim]

Auri chirped happily at Horace's praise, and stayed on his head for the rest of the elevator ride. "She's with me."  Arlen said distractedly. "I suppose I should put her back in the ball though. Wouldn't want our...hosts...having a bad impression." then he took out the red and white ball and touched it to Auri's wing. "I know you don't like it in there, but I'll let you out when I can, okay? Might even get to perform when this is all over." the last part had her eyes light up even as she was being withdrawn. 

 

Then he followed James through the library. It was quite a nice place, all things considered. Quiet and out of view. Good for writing and composing, two of his favorite things. It didn't seem like anyone else felt the same, though, and even their guide was on edge. He found out why when they reached the doors at the end. The HR department, the businessman's worst nightmare. He almost laughed at the absurdity of it, but managed to stifle it to a small smile. He had dealt with a few of those in his time at the other agency, and it was never as bad as people made it out to be. Worse comes to worse, he could just have Auri sing over the intercom and they'd likely forget he was even there by the time they woke up. Not that he knew from experience or anything. 

[Anime]

Adara followed the others Mindlessly followed by Gastly, she stopped for a second and turned to him saying:" Barth, would you please get in the pokeball for me?"

Gastly nodded with a big smile, and touched the pokeball. She then continued her way, following Horace, Serra and the others as she thought to herself Barth is usually calm but he has a tendency of pranking people, that wouldnt be good for a first impression, i guess.

Once they had finally left the library she released Gsatly from its pokeball and sighed, finally we can act normal again she thought to herself.

Then she turned to James and said:" I'm sorry but i feel that you dont completely trust us or something, just wanted to make sure..."

[DigitalAmber]

Jayden pulled his Inkay close and whispered, “We’ll get the hat later, you need to go inside the ball for now. I’ll release you later, okay.” Inva frowned but didn’t try to pull away as Jayden put the red and white ball against her tentacles. Jayden followed James and was both unnerved and excited by the library. It was eerily quiet, but apparently it was a psychic habitat. It was not a place for Inva; she would get kicked out due to how much noise she makes. She seemed to like computers over libraries anyway. As the tour ended, Jayden couldn’t help but answer a question directed at James. “We’re the newest set of hands here and our first day isin’t even over. He barely knows us, so you can’t blame him. Would you completely trust a near random stranger? I know I wouldn’t.”

Edited January 27, 2018 by DigitalAmber

[Yours Truly]

On 1/27/2018 at 6:12 AM, DemICE said:

As the elevator was reaching its desination, horace had felt a soft mass with almost nonexistent weight to be placed on top of his head.  Looking at the elevator's mirror e saw a cute swablu having taken the shape of the hat, obviously proud about it.  Hi lips curled into a small smile as he absentmindedly brought his hand up and started stroking the mass of fluff.

"Whose your partner little birdie? You're pretty cute. You like to roleplay a hat? My now sleeping friend like to roleplay too.. as a gun though." 

It was about that time when the elevator stopped and they walked out, the swablu probably being content staying as a hat.  James had asked them to put their pokemon in their balls, but Magnum was sleeping in his inner pocket anyway, and he had never caused any commotion in his life, having lived in a house and all, so he pretended the horsea was not existing in there, and didn't do anything.

 

After a pretty boring tour where they were explained stuff that everyone could figure out by themselves, reached the room with the smiling deskman, and were left off with an indirect threat, he couldn't help but comment,

"This is a pretty intimidating way to motivate us to not mess up. None's perfect you know?"

James turns to stare at Horace for a few moments before he says "Yes I know that no one is perfect, but in all honesty it is always a good idea to remind people that their lack of perfection isn't an excuse to do incredibly stupid things such as 'Accidentally' throwing the priceless vase you were supposed to retrieve at the thief to try and 'prevent him from getting away'; like Dave before he was let go".

On 1/27/2018 at 3:53 PM, IntSys said:

Serra mindlessly followed James through a library that she would probably never visit again until the immense pressure was gone - indicating that they had finally left the library. She sighed, and said softly, "that was not fun." She turned to the doors, and asked, "you said no one goes there, does that mean no one has messed up so far?"

He then replies to Serra's question with "No actually that was a bit of hyperbole on my part, people have messed up before, but the HR department prefers to use the interrogation rooms or one of the conference rooms if they need to have a very sternly worded or eerily polite conversation with someone, I think it's just one of the few reasons they have for leaving their office during work hours," as he leads the party away from the door leading to the HR & Accounts department and towards the nearest elevator heading to the second floor.

 

Their guide decides to answer Adara's question by saying "Honey, if you want to survive in this business for long, you need to learn to be less trusting of people. Because for all I know, one of you could secretly be a thief who is only joining up to case the place out and steal some files from the File room/Computer center on the fifth floor. Which we are not visiting of course, because we are on a strict time table and the place smells of unwashed nerds and...do I really need to say more?," Once the entire group had finally entered the elevator and left the library itself. He then simply stands there and checks his phone for messages as he waits for the elevator to carry everyone up to their next destination.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

James decides to start their tour of the second floor by immediately pointing out just how convenient it is that the entire facility is in the exact same floor as the ever so dangerous weapon's training ground, as accidents can always happen after all. He then leads the party away from the white tile and verdant green wallpaper medical center itself as "Most of the place is off limits anyway unless you are a doctor, a nurse, or a patient, and I personally don't want to annoy Dr. Zavier any more than I have to so...". He then walks off towards the drab grey color confines of the weapon's training ground and beckons for everyone to follow him.

[Newt]

Kayn, who quietly followed James throughout the tour, was exuding an air of enthusiasm, even if it was just a normal and boring place.

"Oh, that's so cool! I can not wait to get approved and go on my first investigation!"

Kayn spoke with great confidence before following James to the weapon's training ground.

"Hey James, can I get Zaru out of the Pokeball now? He doesn't like to stay there."

[DemICE]

Upon coming close to the training grounds,  Horace felt a familiarity.  He would always either come to the shooting range or  go to the paintball club to relax after the pent-up stress of the day.  It was inevitable that this facility would have one too. He hoped he would be spending quite some time here too. 

"Will we be able to use this place to practice during any of our free time?"

[Anime]

Adara turned to Jayden and said:" yeaahh.. you have a good point there, my bad" then turned to the Tour Guide and said:" touché.." She then quietly followed James throughout the tour till they reachd the Training Grounds.

She looked around the place and wondered to herself we'll we be allowed to use this in our spare time? i guess we'll see

[krim]

A shooting range, huh?  Arlen thought as he followed James through the rooms. He wasn't much a man for modern weapons, but it would still probably be useful at some point. Well. First, he'd need to find a gun. Or maybe... "What kind of weapons are we talking here? Just guns?" he asked.

[Yash]

On 29/01/2018 at 10:25 PM, Newt said:

Kayn, who quietly followed James throughout the tour, was exuding an air of enthusiasm, even if it was just a normal and boring place.

"Oh, that's so cool! I can not wait to get approved and go on my first investigation!"

Kayn spoke with great confidence before following James to the weapon's training ground.

"Hey James, can I get Zaru out of the Pokeball now? He doesn't like to stay there."

As the rest of the group makes their way alongside James, towards the training ground, a few of them ask questions. Upon hearing Kayn, Horace and Arlen, James decides to answer Kayn first, by addressing the group. "You can all now take your pokemon outside their pokeballs if you wish to do so, provided we are not near the armory and your pokemon does not go beyond five feet away from you. Also pokemon should not be brought close to the armory outside their pokeballs under any circumstances, with the exception of the Aegislash line as that is their habitat."

 

On 30/01/2018 at 2:15 AM, DemICE said:

Upon coming close to the training grounds,  Horace felt a familiarity.  He would always either come to the shooting range or  go to the paintball club to relax after the pent-up stress of the day.  It was inevitable that this facility would have one too. He hoped he would be spending quite some time here too. 

"Will we be able to use this place to practice during any of our free time?"

James then turns to Horace, "Not only are you able to use this for practice, it is mandated that you do so at least once per month unless you are in another country on a long term assignment. Keeping your skills polished is a very important aspect of being a detective."

 

16 hours ago, krim said:

A shooting range, huh?  Arlen thought as he followed James through the rooms. He wasn't much a man for modern weapons, but it would still probably be useful at some point. Well. First, he'd need to find a gun. Or maybe... "What kind of weapons are we talking here? Just guns?" he asked.

"For the most part you will only be allowed to use guns over in the shooting range, although we do have a small dojo where you can train with the quartermaster in the proper usage of a large array of unfortunately phallic melee weapons." James, having answered the three questions posed to him decides to check with the others. "Does anybody else have something they would like to ask or should we carry on with the tour?"

 

 

{{Conference Room B}}

Lars waits in the conference room for a few minutes when suddenly the door opens and a woman walks in. Realising she must be Emilia, he stands up and goes to shake her hand. "Hi Emilia, I'm Elias. You may remember my parents Samuel and Judith from your old neighbourhood. We lived a couple of houses away from you before you moved to the city."

Emilia gives the young man with the odd sounding name a once over with her eyes as she shakes his hand, and she notes how firm and steady it is as she listens to his introduction. She gives the man an inquisitive look after she realises that she doesn't actually recall the names this 'Elias' has mentioned, but she replies with an affirmative "Why yes I do, although I haven't heard from the both of them in quite a while...do they still live in that quaint little two story house in the end of the road?" out of a sense of curiosity.

"Ah, you are too kind to call our attic an extra storey. We used to live there. I actually just moved to the city." he says, and after pausing for a second, "As for mum and dad, well, he died soon after you left. It was a hit and run. Mum was still there, so I studied and trained pokemon for a while. My uncle got me a charmander as a gift which I use. Then last year, she passed away. After that, I saw no sense in staying back in the town, so I moved here to find a job after selling all the property. It's been a few months, but I've still not been able to find a meaningful job. I currently work as a waiter in a cafe but I need to do something more. Since you are the only person I knew about in the city, I thought I'd come meet you." He tries to sound sincere and a little sad at his 'bad luck' at finding a job." I knew you were a big shot here, and hoped you could help me out a little. You know I would never come here unless I had no other choice. I've run out of options and am nearly out of money. I'm surviving on the tips I make waiting tables."

Emilia continues to stare long and hard at the young man she could barely recognise before she says"I am sorry to hear that, but I honestly don't know if there are any positions open in our agency right now...especially since you just missed your chance to join the agency as an investigator."

Lars isn't sure how to convince her, but decides to try again. "I had no idea that was the case. I would have applied if I could. I don't mind working as an assistant as well. I'll learn and make my way up as an investigator. I'll do whatever it takes. Please Mrs. Van Graff. Give me a chance. I know this must be strange for you. It is for me too. I wouldn't have come here if I knew of any other way. " Lars tries grovelling, all the while judging her in his mind, trying to gauge how long before she recognises him or figures out something is wrong.

After a few awkward moments of the young man begging pass, Emilia continues to stare at the poor young man whose admittedly handsome face she inexplicably feels she has seen before, and finally decides to ask "You know, I am sorry to say but all of this seems a bit....wrong to me right now. Especially because I have yet to meet more than one person in my life by the name of Samuel, and I am pretty sure that Professor Oak is both alive and not married to anyone by the name of Judith." She then takes a step forward before she asks in an ever so slightly menacing voice "So let me ask you this, who are you? And what are you really here for? I know that I've seen you somewhere, and now you come here making up stories about living in my neighbourhood. Are you stalking me and now finally have the guts to come face to face?" She starts getting tense and a little aggressive with the potential stalker.

"Ugh, fine. You got me. I admit, you are smarter than I expected, though all of this was just an excuse to get into the room with you. Also, no, I'm not stalking you." Lars smiles, seeing just how intuitive Emilia is and how worked up she is getting. "You have seen me recently, or as recent as two years ago could be. I was one of the juniors from the gang you and Daniel arrested in Kalos. I've been on the run since then and made my way here. I was rather impressed by you and Daniel, and realised that if I wanted to protect myself, I'd have to make use of my past and my skills to help your firm. The real reason I am here is exactly that. To protect myself. I've realised that if I can help your agency catch other underworld figures, I should be able to redeem myself in the future and stop living on the run." Lars explains his position to her. He feels that acting as a source of information should be enough to allow him to remain in constant contact with the firm.

Emilia tilts her head slightly to the side before she decides to follow a certain hunch she had and say "And I assume that reason why you keep mentioning the past and you being here to protect yourself is because your past is slowly catching up to you?"

"Not just slowly, very rapidly. I'm near about finished. It took me a while to finally make my way here, and I could have been caught multiple times. I know there are risks associated with approaching you, too. You could hand me over to the cops as well, but I have a feeling that you wouldn't, and my freedom was worth the risk. Quite simply put, I'm very nearly out of options, and living on the streets has taught me just one thing, it's every man for himself. So here I am, taking my shot." Lars is being honest, or at least, as honest as he can be without blowing his cover.

Emilia's mouth slowly moved up to form a rather smug smile before she leans in to say"You know, what is stopping me from calling the police right here and now and nudging you into the witness protection program? I mean it is the easiest way to technically get you what you want without endangering the agency isn't it?"

"You could call them, except I wouldn't really plan on waiting for them. You may trust the cops, but I don't. I've seen enough dirt on cops to know they are no better than us criminals." The distaste for cops is evident in Lars' voice. He would rather leave, than trust his life to them. He shifts ever so slightly on his feet, and stands with one hand behind his back. He has already taken out his Lizzie's pokeball and is getting ready to run at a moments notice. "So what are you going to do? Should be making a run for it or can we have an actual discussion?"

Emilia notices the shifting of his stance, and realising that her joke may not have been taken in the best of intentions, decides to stop fooling around. "First of all, you can calm down. We deal with many informants, and most of them do end up in witness protection, however if you do not wish to go there, we can make alternate arrangements for you, so you needn't run. Secondly, you must realise that Dan and I caught your old gang using our own skill, so we don't need to take your help. Third, despite the fact that we don't need your help, it does make things easier for us to have informants and considering you have made your way hear after all this and even managed to do enough background digging on me to find out about my past, I can let definitely see you will be useful to have around. That being said, I am not sure what I should do with you. However, that is an administrative issue. So congratulations Elias, it seems that you are now officially a CI for the agency, or as official we can make it seem. As I can't just go about printing a paper stating that you are a CI, I feel I'll have to come up with a new designation for you." Emilia pauses and starts walking towards the door leading outside the conference room. "Aren't you coming along, Intern."

The emphasis on the word intern and the air quotes she makes with a rather gleeful smile on her face give Lars a sudden urge to flee. Overcoming that urge, he says, "As you say, boss." While not too happy about becoming an intern, he does realise that it is a possible chance for him to develop a career inside the law. "Where are we going though?" Lars was curious as to the sudden exit from the conference room.

"You're about to meet Daniel, and he will finalise your appointment." Emilia then takes Elias to the elevator and they travel up to the office floor for Daniel. They reach his office and seeing him rather free, Emilia barges in, "Stay here while I speak with him first. Sit on that sofa and wait till I call you." She then shuts the door and Lars, with nothing else to do, stands right next to the door to try and eavesdrop on their conversation. Hearing nothing more than mumbling, Lars decides to actually wait on the sofa.

After a few minutes Emilia opens the door, "Come on in, intern Elias. Come meet your commander-in-chief. Daniel, this is Elias, the criminal-turned-fugitive-turned-liar-turned-informant." She laughs at the long title for Elias, who himself was a little embarrassed. Great, she doesn't even know and she still embarrasses me like this. She is something else. Elias gets up from the sofa and enters the room. Daniel offers him a chair, but as both Emilia and he are standing, Lars' refuses. "Hello Daniel sir, nice to meet you." Shaking hands with Daniel, even Lars' is impressed by his presence in the room. The aura from the man is strong enough to earn him respect from even strangers.

Daniel stares at Elias for a few seconds, recognising something that Emilia has clearly missed. Deciding to not say anything and let the issue develop naturally, Daniel smiles at Elias and says, "Welcome to the agency. I hope you find what you are looking for." looking straight at Emilia with a strange smile in his eyes, hinting to Lars that he has noticed the smaller and finer oddities of the situation. "Emilia, why don't you take him on the tour of the rest of the newcomers? He may be an intern, but if he is to work here, he will need to know the place. I'll be down soon to induct the rest of the group."

 

 

Emilia and Lars make their way towards the group at the end of the hall near the practice arena. Emilia hears James ask if anybody has other questions. "I have one. How are you still here? I can't believe you are this behind already James." Emilia laughs as she makes fun of poor James.

 

"Oh come on Emilia, you know as well as I do that I've covered most of the main places and I'm on time, otherwise you wouldn't be here. Also, why is he here?" James says, pointing towards Lars. "Is Mr. Elias a client? Or was I right?" teasing Emilia back in his own way.

 

"Oh yes, Elias here is an intern that I have decided to hire. I met him at a cafe a few days back and we got to talking. I learnt that he was interested in joining the agency, but since we aren't accepting any applications now that this new lot is here, I decided to hire him as an intern for the next cycle. We'll be joining your tour, James. Why don't you continue with it now?" She stands behind the group as Lars makes his way next to the rest of the newcomers.

[rustytengo]

Jeanne was a bit surprised at the size of the agency though she really shouldn't given it has sponsors like her family supporting it and her family never does anything small. As the lady Emila brought the new guy to the group she gave a little wave at him  in greetings before moving somewhere she could discreetly snap a photo of the new guy and Emila with her phone for her data collecting and totally not just so she didn't forget there names. 

[Anime]

Adara ot Gastly back in his pokeball. "I'll get you out as soon as we get away from the armory, i promise." was what she said before she pressed the button of the half white and half red ball. She then turned to Emilia and the new guy, who apparently is named Elias. Adara waved at them, then she walked towards horace and said:"Hello, who do you think the new guy is? i can feel a bad aura from him, but it could be just me overthinking it."

[DemICE]

"I see, I'm glad to hear it, sir." Horace had replied to the tour guide.

He didn't find the addition of two more tour guides any more noteworthy for him to say anything though so he just stayed a bystander.