At face value there are a lot of parents and their children involved and the story revolves around the children, is my guess.
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At face value there are a lot of parents and their children involved and the story revolves around the children, is my guess.
The Reisartin Detective Agency Files: Teresa and the Mystery Client
Spoiler!It was a cold, dark night as I sat in the café watching the people of Ur rush about their business; every passing figure had their own story to tell. As I waited for my assistant to come with our newest client, I couldn’t help but reflect on my own story, the events that lead me to this moment: the heartache, the mystery, and the intrigue that helped me build the Reisartin Agency. I was born and bred a detective of the highest caliber, and my entire life had been one case after another since I first came into this world; no lead was ever left unexplored, no suspect ever left uncaught.
Today, however, the only mystery was when the client would arrive, and what kind of juicy case they would bring with them: what convoluted plot would I have to unravel?
At that moment, she walked over: Gayle —my Girl Friday, my trusted assistant, my investigative apprentice— though, she was suspiciously alone.
“Hey Tess. So, the client is running late; she said she was going to stop by for something to eat after work, and would meet us as soon as she could, so I decided to grab something for us while we wait. Here’s your coffee, with tons of sugar, just like you like it, and I got myself this nice fruit smoothie.”
Lost in my thoughts, I merely replied, “Thanks.” What deeper mystery could this supposed “dinner” entail? Could it be a clandestine meeting with her lover? An information exchange between spies? The air of mystery was palpable.
“You’re doing that thing again, aren’t you?”
Taken aback, I could only respond, “What are you talking about? What thing?”
The look of annoyance on her face grew more intense.
“You know exactly what I’m talking about. You’re narrating in your head again, aren’t you? Ever since we gained access to Earth’s internet, you’ve been reading way too many of their detective stories,” she said in an exasperated tone.
“Don’t be silly, of course I’m not doing that!” I said, attempting to reassure the buxom red-head. “Plus, those detective novels are valuable information! Think of all the new investigative techniques we can learn from them!”
It was clear by her look that she was not convinced… and I’m starting to think I should stop because she’s making that scary smile that she gets just before she decides to start punching things. I am terrified to think what kind of damage this tiny, angry woman might do to this café. I can’t risk that right now; there’s no way I have enough meseta to cover the property damage.
Oh, no, she already crushed her drink. Got to act fast. Time to apologize like you’ve never apologized before, Teresa.
“Sorry, sorry. You’re right. I was just having some fun while I was waiting for you. I’ll stop now, though. I promise. I swear. Please, calm down.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Looks like she’s actually calming down. “Between this and your pranks, it’s no wonder your students don’t respect you. You are too immature to be a proper instructor.”
What is she talking about? My students love my pranks! And looks who’s talking about immature, little miss “you gave me a funny look, so I’m going to punch you in the face.” And then she wonders why she doesn’t have a love life…
Though, I can’t say that to her face; I have to keep her relaxed. Think about the meseta. Smile, Teresa, smile.
“You’re right, I’m sorry. It was incredibly immature of me. Let me go get you something to clean up that mess.”
“Please do. Thanks.” Thank goodness, her normal smile. My wallet should be safe for now. “Hold on, Tess. I just got a message from the client.”
“Perfect! Is she on her way?” I’m a really looking forward to this one; I hear this lady is a high ranking official in one of Ur’s biggest security firms. This is bound to be a really interesting case.
“Nope. Looks like she is just going to head home, but she did send over the full details of the job.”
“Okay, that’s weird.” I would expect a job from a client like her to be carefully guarded, with the need to meet in person to pass off information paramount. “Well, what is the job? Investigating some corporate espionage? Does she need us to tail someone?”
“Hmmm. Looks like a courier job.”
“Excellent! What are we delivering? Some top secret documents? Are we going to be escorting someone to a hidden location? Details, Gayle! Details!” Oops. That might have ticked her off a bit.
“Well, she apparently really liked a coat she saw on Earth’s internet, and wants us to go down there and buy it for her. She’ll reimburse us for the cost of the item, and of course pay us for our time.”
“Again?” This is getting ridiculous; this is the fourth one of these in the past two weeks.
With us ARKS still going to Earth to help the Earth Guides quell the occasional Phantom outbreak, it’s just one request after another from people wanting us to pick up stuff for them while we are down there. I guess goods “from another dimension” are a really big status symbol right now. It doesn’t help that our agency is known for fulfilling any request, no matter how trivial, and being ARKS with authorization to head to Earth is the icing on the cake for these people. I just wish they would pay us more to be their glorified delivery girls. No use refusing the job, though; meseta is meseta.
“Okay, so how much is she paying us?”
“It says here that she will give us… Oh. Wow. 20 million with the promise of repeat business if we deliver within the next 48 hours. So, are we… Hold on, where are you going?”
“To get this woman her coat, of course!” That’s a lot of meseta; I can afford to buy whatever I want with that kind of money. No more needing to penny pinch! Just got to load up my normal Human face on the good ol’ projectors, call up a nice Earthling outfit, request a transport, aaaaaand… done. “Come on Gayle, let’s go! The Reisartin Agency takes any client and any job, no questioned asked, right?! No time like the present!”
~~~~~
Notes:
Spoiler!Just a little off-beat story that takes place during Episode 5. It was mostly born from the idea that with the contact between Earth and Oracle, people from Oracle would no doubt be curious about Earth's culture, and Teresa, who was raised by a pair of private investigators, happens to have become a big fan of hardboiled crime fiction and classic Film Noir.
The agency's name is just a combination of their surnames, Reisa and Artin, ergo Reisartin.
For reference to the "tiny, angry woman" line, Gayle stands at 147cm/~4'10" while Teresa is 167cm/~5'6".
~~~~~
Fair enough, I guess.
A Restless Night Bathed in Moonlight
Spoiler!—bzzzzz—
<Come in! We need back up in the financial district! There are too many! We can’t hold them —ack!...>
—bzzzzz—
<The civilians have been evacuated from the area. We are going to head back to the park… What in the world is that!? It’s massive…>
—bzzzzz—
<Oh, no. Oh, no. Her arm, it ripped off her arm. It came out of nowhere. She was trying to protect me…>
—bzzzzz—
<Hello? Did I make it through? Does anyone copy?...>
—bzzzzz—
<We’ve lost contact with the squads that went into the city center! What the hell is going on?...>
—bzzzzz—
<We need medical evac, now! We have two squad members down… Hold on. Please, hold on. Oh, no. The cut is so deep…>
—bzzzzz—
<Please! He’s bleeding so much… They just keep coming…>
—bzzzzz—
…
Branwyn’s eye shot open. Staring at the clock, she saw that it was 01:28, about five hours until her alarm was set to go off. “Of course it’s that dream,” she thought to herself. “It’s been ten years already; you would think that I could get over it.” After several fruitless minutes of tossing and turning, it soon became clear that sleep wouldn’t come easily tonight.
After staring into the darkness for a few minutes, Branwyn sat up and turned on her bedside lamp. “Looks like this is going to be a thing tonight,” she mused with an audible sigh. “And of course it’s right before the academy’s final field exam.” Her long wine-red hair falling about her, she rose from her bed and made her way to the balcony. Staring out across the cityscape, bathed in the artificial moonlight from the dome above, she couldn’t shake the unease from her mind. “Maybe I’m just stressed about tomorrow,” she audibly yawned into the night. “This is the first time I’m actually going to be an admin for the exam, after all.”
Although she had been a field operator since her own graduation from the ARKS academy, Branwyn’s tendency to put in the bare-minimum had resulted in her being overlooked for various responsibilities, such as the coordination of multi-party operations. Recently, however, she had begun to put more effort into her duties than anyone had thought possible for the Newman.
Much to the surprise of many of her colleagues, this newfound drive had resulted in her assignment as a final exam administrator for a pair of prospective ARKS. Although it was a outwardly easy task —a simple checklist to ensure the trainees were comfortable with their equipment in a non-simulated environment— it was not something she could be dismissive of: this was the first step in ensuring that the next generation of ARKS was ready for whatever mission or emergency may come their way.
So maybe they could avoid a repeat of what had happened that day…
“Nope. Stop thinking about that,” she fretted as that invasive thought began to creep its way in. “Everything is going to be fine. There’s no chance something like that could happen again, right?” Ostensibly reassured with this thought, Branwyn tried to relax; closing her eyes and feeling the cold night breeze on her skin, she tried to clear her thoughts and forget about the dream. “Seriously though, who thought it was a good idea to make a bunch of kids hear those recordings?”
~~~~~~~~~~
Only managing a couple of hours’ rest, Branwyn had slept through her alarm and reached her station at 08:43, almost an entire hour late; luckily, though, the exam wasn’t scheduled to begin until 10:30. After a scolding by her supervisor, she decided to go over her script and checklist between her monitoring duties; trying to forget her restless night, she hoped that she could save some face by being as prepared as possible.
“Bran, you look exhausted. You didn’t overdo it drinking last night, did you?” asked a gentle, yet condescending voice over her shoulder. “You can’t keep doing that to yourself.”
Without taking her eyes off her screen, Branwyn responded, “While I do appreciate the concern, my curly-headed darling, I didn’t have a single drink last night. I just slept in, is all. I know how important today is and have no intention of screwing it up." Turning her chair to face the voice, she added, "You worry too much about this old lady, Kayla.”
“Alright, I’ll believe you this time, 'Granny,'” her young co-worker chuckled. “Just remember, you’re my only friend here, so I don’t want you to get fired. Anyway, I came over to let you know that Regius’ speech should be over soon, so I wanted to wish you good luck. I should head back to my station now so you can get ready. See you later, Bran."
“Thanks, Honey.” As Kayla started to walk away, Branwyn yelled after her, “Remember, you’re treating me to lunch afterward. I was thinking about that café where that hunky dad of yours works.”
Shooting her friend a brief, dagger-like stare, Kayla gave a dismissive gesture and continued to walk away.
With Kayla now out of sight, Branwyn turned back to her station and saw a prompt appear on her screen. It was time. “You’ve got this,” she said under her breath, “Everything is going to be fine.” With that, she pulled up the Naberius feed and, seeing her examinees, delivered her practiced introduction.
“Good morning. My name is Branwyn and I’ll be in charge of your training today. You have a limited amount of time, so let’s get started.”
~~~~~
Notes:
Spoiler!I really, really suck at third-person limited, so this one had been sitting unfinished for over a week (well that, and I started writing another story that takes place in the Forgotten Realms using alternate versions of my PSO2 characters, so that took some of my writing time as well).
Timeline-wise, this take place right at the beginning of Episode 1; Branwyn's little speech at the end is based off of the Hilda's lines in the tutorial.
Regarding the opening lines, because Branwyn was still in the Academy during the AP228 incident, she wouldn't have actually seen what happened; however, after learning about what occurred, she decided to change her course from combat to operator, hoping to avoid it. The idea is that the academy then would have used whatever recordings they had from the incident (that hadn't been "lost"/erased by Xion) to train the operators, something that unfortunately hadn't occurred to Branwyn.
Referencing Branwyn's hair-length, at this point in time I see her having Armeure Hair length hair, that she will then cut short later on.
Spoiler!
Regarding Branwyn's pet names for Kayla, think stereotypical diner waitress.
Regarding the "old lady" line, she calls herself that to poke fun at Kayla's tendency to take on so much responsibility despite being so young (this was especially true when they first met as Kayla was only 16); pretty much saying something like "the way you act makes me feel like an old lady."
Spoiler!". . . Branwyn’s tendency to put in the bare-minimum had resulted in her being overlooked for various responsibilities, such as the coordination of multi-party operations. Recently, however, she had begun to put more effort into her duties than anyone had thought possible for the Newman. "
Heh, it's quite the double edge sword. I also if it being implied that she likes to drink a lot, or party? Also interesting that having nightmares is a recurring theme for most of your characters.Should be interesting to see how that pans out.
@yoshiblue:
Spoiler!I see Branwyn as someone who has cycles; she'll get sudden bouts of positive behavior, like she'll suddenly decide that she wants to learn about botany after stumbling across a florist while she is out on the town, and will put in like two or three months of really substantial effort, and then lose interest again, though still keeping a small potted plant.
As for her drinking, she's what would be considered a "social drinker" (usually no more than seven drinks in as many days, and rarely more than three drinks in a single sitting), though she does occasionally overdo it. Kayla has exaggerated the frequency of these moments in her own mind after joining Branwyn for a night out after a particularly stressful day of work; Branwyn got, for lack of a better phrase, completely shitfaced that night.
Regarding nightmares, while both Erin's and Branwyn's come from being exposed to the traumatic experience that was the AP228 incident, they manifest for different reasons. In the period of time we see Erin in her journal entries, this is still fresh in her mind as it happened only a few months before and she had faced the very real possibility of dying that day. Branwyn's nightmares come more from her own stress about what could be, rather than what she has experienced directly; having heard the recordings that came through during the incident planted a deep seed of fear in her mind despite the fact that she should, for all intents and purposes, be safe since she isn't directly in the field1. Noland's nightmares, on the other hand, are more of a supernatural phenomena that originate from some timey-whimey stuff.
1A real world anecdote that partially served as a basis for Branwyn's nightmares:
Spoiler!So I worked at a call center during the summer a few years back, and one of my fellow new hires had previously worked for a AAA roadside assistance call center, but had decided to quit despite it paying better and having good benefits; according to her, it was fairly easy most days, with just calls for stuff like someone being locked out of their car, or needing a tow truck, but there were a few calls that were really stressful (usually accidents where people would call AAA before calling the police even though the back of the card says to contact emergency services when involved in a serious accident), and that they had a "safe room" that employees could go into to relax after such calls.
She had heard a few of these calls from other agents as part of her training and some had given her some bad dreams, but she figured was just being paranoid and that stuff like that wouldn't happen too often, and that if it did, she could deal with it; however, the first time she got one of these calls was the moment she decided that she couldn't work there anymore.
Some of the details may be a bit off since I did hear this a few years ago, but long story short, a panicked nineteen year old girl called through her car's bluetooth system, she had been hit from the side and her car was completely flipped over, and and while my coworker was asking for her information so she could call dispatch for an ambulance, the girl kept saying "my arm, my arm" while crying; when my coworker asked her what was wrong with her arm, like if it was broken or if she couldn't feel it, the girl finally told her that she could see her arm out in the middle of the road. My coworker stayed on the line trying to keep the girl calm until the ambulance arrived, and after going into the safe room for half an hour, she decided to quit that day. She also said that the worst thing was that she was never able to find out what happened to the girl afterward, and that uncertainty kept her up at night a lot.