All is quiet in the Kashtta lobby. You know, the way things ...probably shouldn't be, considering the Kashtta, but that's beside the point. At least it doesn't stay that way for long
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Where there is an Arlin, there is likely to be a Luka somewhere in the vicinity, even if he doesn't always realize it. Luka had been some distance off, and had just caught sight of the monster and was pulling out her gun from her jacket to shoot it when it exploded all over Arlin. That is not supposed to happen. Not that Arlin attacked the monster before she could, because he's closer and she knows he's perfectly capable of doing such a thing, but monsters are not supposed to explode. It's just not right. And it got slime all over his suit too. If it was her, it wouldn't matter because most of her clothes are cheap and from thrift stores, but she's sure Arlin's suit was very expensive.
"...Hi," she says as she walks up while putting the gun back into her jacket.
It was only moderately expensive, Luka, don't worry too much. Arlin's just mostly annoyed that he'll have to get another one; this one's definitely ruined, which is why he's not even trying to wipe any of the slime off for now. Better to keep one's dignity, he thinks.
He is, however, removing the jacket when Luka walks over; he doesn't need to be more covered in slime than he needs to be, and the jacket took the brunt of it. He gives her the usual glance and a nod when she speaks.
"Hello Luka," he says, any trace of wariness over her existence not showing in his voice. Yes, Trickster week might have upset him, and he might have been avoiding him since, but that's done and over with. Dwelling on things isn't--well, it is what he does, but he's not going to do so when it's a hindrance or there's nothing he can do about them. Publicly anyway
( ... )
Luka shrugs. "Not enough time and too far away anyway," she says. "But better to be safe than sorry. Monsters can be unpredictable." She doesn't go searching them out, but when one spends as much time wandering around Chicago as she does, you're bound to run into one now and then. And Luka's not one to let an opportunity for a fight get away--she's always looking to sharpen her skills, even if it's against a nonhuman opponent.
"Any interesting jobs come in lately?" Luka expects she's probably heard about them already, unless they're really recent, since she spends a fair amount of time working with Duncan nowadays. But talking about work is generally a safe topic, so she asks anyway in an attempt to start some sort of conversation that is less awkward than their last encounter.
Arlin nods, moving toward the edge of the crater with his slightly-less-slimy jacket and still-very-slimy book. The nod is all Luka's going to get in agreement, but it's not like she shouldn't be used to that by now. He sits down at the edge of the crater, grimacing at the sliminess of...everything, and then tries to open the book. No luck; it's lost.
At her question, he tosses the book aside and shakes his head. "There was one I sent Kylar on a few days ago, but nothing since," he says. It was a relatively easy job, considering, anyway. He's not entirely sure Luka wouldn't have found it boring; Kylar certainly complained when it only took her a few hours, including preparation. But one takes what one gets in this city; for all it's explosions, there aren't quite enough people who want other people dead. Arlin misses the jobs back home; they were long, complicated, and paid a helluva lot more.
Luka probably would have found the job boring, but she would never admit as much to Arlin. For one thing, complaining would have just earned her a smack and additional time working at whatever she'd complained about at the Laboratory, so she doesn't do it here either. But more important to her is Luka's attempt to try to become indispensable to Arlin. Jobs are jobs, after all, and someone needs to do them regardless of whether or not they are interesting. If she does all of her jobs efficiently and without complaint, Arlin might give her more.
"I might have heard about that one," Luka says noncommittally as she sits down next to Arlin. She spends a number of hours each day working for Duncan, which puts her in a position to occasionally pick up bits of info about targets besides her own.
"Speaking of work, I wanted to ask you something." Luka's always been a bit nervous about asking questions, so she tries to break in the subject gently.
"I'd imagine you would have, as it did go through Duncan," he says. Theoretically, most of that is classified, but if she's working as Duncan's assistant, he can only assume that a number of things that go into that office get noticed by her. He doesn't generally care about what the assassins see in regards to jobs so long as they don't fight about them, and so long as it's not a job for one to knock off the other -- it's happened in his time at the O before, and he's sure it'll happen again. But those he generally delivers to the proper assassin, and doesn't send them through Duncan at all.
He gives her a bit of a '...and?' look when she continues, though it's not so much annoyed as vaguely amused that she's being so shy about it. "Go on," he says. "You don't need permission to ask a question."
Luka is not one to fight about jobs--overtly, at least. Her way of fighting for jobs involves proving she can do more and better than any of the other assassins Arlin has, so he will assign her more jobs. It's a very private fight that none of the other assassins realize she's waging.
"I feel like my rifle work has been subpar lately," Luka admits to start off. Perhaps her standards are unnecessarily high, because it's perfectly normal to miss a shot now and again. She'd even still managed to complete the job satisfactorily, despite the initial miss. But Luka being Luka, anything other than perfection on a job was unacceptable. "I want to practice, but the range at HQ is not built for it. Is there another range I could go to? And would there be someone to take me?"
Arlin merely nods for a moment. He hasn't noticed anything off about her rifle work, but then again, he hasn't been around to notice, and he's aware of this. Really, if she's feeling like it's off, it probably is; he knows better than anyone that when someone ceases to feel they're doing their best in terms of weapons, their performance starts to lag whether this is true or not.
"There are a few better ranges out of town," he says after a moment, "as you're right, the Organization's is not well-equipped for long-range work." It's adequate, but with his assassins, 'adequate' is rarely enough. "I could take you out there, if you'd like," he adds, if a bit grudgingly. He'd send her with Duncan, but he needs Duncan at HQ. And he supposes it would be good to get a better idea of her talents at the rifles, really.
It's obvious to anyone around that Luka perks up when Arlin mentions he'd take her out to the range. "Really? Thank you," she says. She had been expecting he'd send her out with one of the other assassins or Duncan rather than going himself.
Looking over at his ruined jacket and his book she adds, "When did you want to go? I'm going to need some time to check out weapons and bullets, but I don't want to do that too far in advance." Plus there's the obvious but unspoken fact that Arlin is going to need time to change out of his slime-laden clothing. Besides, he might not even have time to go today. He might have important things he needs to do right now, and she wouldn't know. Better to ask than assume.
Well, being out at the range means he doesn't have to be in the city, for one. There's only so much hiding in his flat that one can do before one starts going stir crazy, and if all that taking a walk in the park is going to get one is a slime monster, one might as well try to go a little farther away from home.
Arlin thinks for a moment. "Sometime next week would be best," he says. Oh, he's got time today, or possibly tomorrow, but he probably should check into HQ at some point instead of waiting for Duncan to call him with updates. And he's sure there'll be business waiting for him that Duncan didn't think he needed to bother him with. "Shall we aim for Thursday?"
See Arlin. See Arlin pull a random day out of a metaphorical hat.
"Okay, Thursday sounds good," Luka says happily. You'd think Arlin had just given her a pony or something like that. Well, actually, she'd be a lot more confused if Arlin had given her a pony. Ponies are not useful for assassination, after all. Luka would prefer high-caliber weaponry any day of the week.
Now that that's taken care of, Luka's going to sit here and enjoy being next to Arlin. She fully expects that he's going to get up soon and head back to his flat to change out of the beslimed suit, but she'll enjoy it while it lasts.
He doesn't miss the happiness in her voice, but he also doesn't show anything outwardly. It does still bother him a little, how attached she is to him, but she's not being nearly as clingy as she had been. So he figures it's fine, for now; people deserve happiness, after all, even if he's not used to being the source of it.
He spends a little time finishing cleaning the slime off of him as best he can -- no use dripping his way back home, after all -- but not all that long. Now that he's soaked through (why does this keep happening to him?) he'd rather not stay outside in public, honestly. So after a few minutes he stands up, looking down at Luka. "Shall I meet you at the office on Thursday, then? We can leave from there."
It's not just you, Arlin, although that's a big part of it. She also gets to spend time with big shiny weaponry. Well, not literally shiny. That would attract too much attention on jobs. But you get the point. Watching Luka on Thursday will make this perfectly obvious.
"All right. I usually get there around 8 to help Duncan, but I'll let him know I'm going out with you to the range that day instead."
Arlin nods, but says nothing. He was going to go through Duncan's office anyway, but she doesn't necessarily need to know that.
But right now he has slightly more uncomfortable things to deal with. Like the aftermath of an exploded slimeball. "Then I suppose I'll see you then, if not before," he says, then turns and starts walking toward downtown and his flat. It's like saying goodbye.
"See you," Luka says. She's not real big on good-byes either, so Arlin's fairly abrupt departure is just fine with her. After a few more minutes of sitting on the edge of the crater, Luka gets up and heads back towards whatever she was doing before they met (wandering around, most likely).
"...Hi," she says as she walks up while putting the gun back into her jacket.
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He is, however, removing the jacket when Luka walks over; he doesn't need to be more covered in slime than he needs to be, and the jacket took the brunt of it. He gives her the usual glance and a nod when she speaks.
"Hello Luka," he says, any trace of wariness over her existence not showing in his voice. Yes, Trickster week might have upset him, and he might have been avoiding him since, but that's done and over with. Dwelling on things isn't--well, it is what he does, but he's not going to do so when it's a hindrance or there's nothing he can do about them. Publicly anyway ( ... )
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"Any interesting jobs come in lately?" Luka expects she's probably heard about them already, unless they're really recent, since she spends a fair amount of time working with Duncan nowadays. But talking about work is generally a safe topic, so she asks anyway in an attempt to start some sort of conversation that is less awkward than their last encounter.
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At her question, he tosses the book aside and shakes his head. "There was one I sent Kylar on a few days ago, but nothing since," he says. It was a relatively easy job, considering, anyway. He's not entirely sure Luka wouldn't have found it boring; Kylar certainly complained when it only took her a few hours, including preparation. But one takes what one gets in this city; for all it's explosions, there aren't quite enough people who want other people dead. Arlin misses the jobs back home; they were long, complicated, and paid a helluva lot more.
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"I might have heard about that one," Luka says noncommittally as she sits down next to Arlin. She spends a number of hours each day working for Duncan, which puts her in a position to occasionally pick up bits of info about targets besides her own.
"Speaking of work, I wanted to ask you something." Luka's always been a bit nervous about asking questions, so she tries to break in the subject gently.
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He gives her a bit of a '...and?' look when she continues, though it's not so much annoyed as vaguely amused that she's being so shy about it. "Go on," he says. "You don't need permission to ask a question."
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"I feel like my rifle work has been subpar lately," Luka admits to start off. Perhaps her standards are unnecessarily high, because it's perfectly normal to miss a shot now and again. She'd even still managed to complete the job satisfactorily, despite the initial miss. But Luka being Luka, anything other than perfection on a job was unacceptable. "I want to practice, but the range at HQ is not built for it. Is there another range I could go to? And would there be someone to take me?"
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"There are a few better ranges out of town," he says after a moment, "as you're right, the Organization's is not well-equipped for long-range work." It's adequate, but with his assassins, 'adequate' is rarely enough. "I could take you out there, if you'd like," he adds, if a bit grudgingly. He'd send her with Duncan, but he needs Duncan at HQ. And he supposes it would be good to get a better idea of her talents at the rifles, really.
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Looking over at his ruined jacket and his book she adds, "When did you want to go? I'm going to need some time to check out weapons and bullets, but I don't want to do that too far in advance." Plus there's the obvious but unspoken fact that Arlin is going to need time to change out of his slime-laden clothing. Besides, he might not even have time to go today. He might have important things he needs to do right now, and she wouldn't know. Better to ask than assume.
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Arlin thinks for a moment. "Sometime next week would be best," he says. Oh, he's got time today, or possibly tomorrow, but he probably should check into HQ at some point instead of waiting for Duncan to call him with updates. And he's sure there'll be business waiting for him that Duncan didn't think he needed to bother him with. "Shall we aim for Thursday?"
See Arlin. See Arlin pull a random day out of a metaphorical hat.
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Now that that's taken care of, Luka's going to sit here and enjoy being next to Arlin. She fully expects that he's going to get up soon and head back to his flat to change out of the beslimed suit, but she'll enjoy it while it lasts.
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He spends a little time finishing cleaning the slime off of him as best he can -- no use dripping his way back home, after all -- but not all that long. Now that he's soaked through (why does this keep happening to him?) he'd rather not stay outside in public, honestly. So after a few minutes he stands up, looking down at Luka. "Shall I meet you at the office on Thursday, then? We can leave from there."
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"All right. I usually get there around 8 to help Duncan, but I'll let him know I'm going out with you to the range that day instead."
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But right now he has slightly more uncomfortable things to deal with. Like the aftermath of an exploded slimeball. "Then I suppose I'll see you then, if not before," he says, then turns and starts walking toward downtown and his flat. It's like saying goodbye.
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