[Open] Watershed

[pace_tua]

Hotels were always strange for Peace. There was, of course, work to be done. Expectations as a member of the Illuminati to be maintained (do order room service, do not order pizza), while she waited for her assignment to come trickling down. Miklos was busy, had been busy for a while, and while Peace was generally glad to not have to shove her hands into someone’s body, relive their memories, it was easy to get bored. Who knew where Anna and Calen had gotten off to? Since their break up, it was awkward to deal with either one of them. In fact, she hadn't even seen Anna, having been told to go to Agartha first and take the nearest portal to their targeted city.

God-in-Heaven, was she ever bored.

She spun around in the chair, clutching her knees to her chest and letting the centrifugal force move her ever-faster, one foot on the floor, kicking the carpet. It was nice to let her deep blue hair just fly around her head sometimes, instead of pinned up into a fancy side bun. She watched hours of mindless TV, then shut it off when the commercials started to hurt her eyes. Peace slept, off and on, unsure of how to handle this free time without Sir Pugsley barking to be let out for a potty break, or lick her nose for attention, or curl up in the curve of her legs as she slept and let out a little puggle sigh of content.

Really, if she had to admit it, Peace was kind of jealous of her dog’s ability to just be. No responsibilities (but, then, she had so few), nothing like the End of Days to worry about. No swallowing a bee. It must’ve been great to be a dog.

As she dozed off, she heard a click at the door as the magnetized lock came undone and immediately rolled off the bed and under it, glad for the thinness of her body, how easily she fit. Maybe now she wouldn’t have to be so bored. Her breathing stilled and she waited to see who it was that had decided to come breaking into her room with no announcement.

This probably would work out better for her, she thought in hindsight, if she'd been dressed properly in clothes and not sleeping shorts and a t-shirt.

Comments

[pace_tua]

"Keine Versprechen," came Peace's terse reply. She didn't like sharing space with people she didn't know. And didn't make much of a show when she dove into bed. It was important to hide the scars on the backs of her legs, at least to her.

There were times where looking like a waif helped her, but now wasn't one of them. Her stuff was already put away, after all, and she had made a pile of pillows and the soft white comforter her protective fortress. Safe from prying German eyes, Peace scrolled through the message that Miklos had sent her, trying to parse it out.

[psycelliums]

The report was laid out as usual, beginning with his personal information.

His name is Reiner König, born and raised in Berlin. His parents [redacted] are heavily involved in pharmaceuticals and invest in companies all over the world. They are rumoured to have age old ties to the Templars.

He hadn't left all that long ago but his devotion to the Eye in the time he's been us them raises no questions of loyalty.

Reiner glanced over in her direction. "Do you fault everyone that follows orders?

[pace_tua]

"Nein," Peace mumbled from inside of Ft Kickass her blanket nest. She checked her time again. "Aber das wird einfacher, in 30 Minuten zu sein, wenn ich weiß, was ich sage."

[psycelliums]

"Thirty minutes? Then we wait.." He propped his head up again on one arm, toying with his phone again.

"Dreißig Minuten und nicht mehr umständlich kreischend mit amerikanischem Akzent.." he muttered half under his breath.

[pace_tua]

Essen Sie meinen ganzen Arsch, she thought bitterly and then aloud said, "Ich kann nicht verstehen, was ich sage."

Thirty minutes passed faster than she would have liked, flipping through the rest of the text and playing a game. Which lasted all of five minutes before she dozed off for the next twenty-five.

[psycelliums]

That was perfectly acceptable. Once he had grown bored of whatever app had entertained him previously he got up, setting his bag down on the bed and rummaging through it. It was half-taking an inventory and half-looking for a suitable change of clothes. It wasn't like making the trip was anything like conventional travel but he simply had a weird quirk about trying to relax in clothing that he'd worn in the midst of extra-dimensional travel. Or whatever they wanted to call it.

A few things in hand, he headed for the bathroom. A shower might do nicely to help him settle down after his unpleasant welcome (see: not likely. but it was a nice thought). She would inevitably wake up at some point and have more words, presumably in her own language. Which was just thrilling to consider. He could only picture some sort of a tiny, angry dog. Like a chihuahua.

[pace_tua]

Peace slept for a while and then woke, sitting up in her nest of thick hotel comforters blearily about an hour later. She grumbled to herself, then fell forward into the space between her bent legs and stayed there.

Immortality was great, but it didn't make one less impervious to the horrible sleep-death that came with too-long naps. "Mmph."

[psycelliums]

Reiner had taken his time but had still managed to finish before she'd woken up again. Which didn't surprise him as he came out of the bathroom -- which was now hazy with steam and sauna-like since apparently he had nothing against searing hot water -- and headed over to his bed again. His hair was still damp but he was fully dressed, nothing too fancy on account of the fact that he didn't anticipate going anywhere.

He looked over at her and then checked the clock a moment. "Should've set an alarm. Twenty-six minutes."

[pace_tua]

"NASA naps aren't appealing," came Peace's muffled - and thank goodness, in English! - reply. "Didn't actually intend to fall asleep."

She stretched, reaching for the end of the bed, though her fingers fell well short of the mark. "Okay, so now that I can kind of understand you again..." She turned her head - peering at him through a mass of blue-dyed hair. "Miklos didn't tell me you'd be coming, and I'm kinda sorry about punching you. But in my defense, people who just waltz into other people's hotel rooms usually mean bad news, and I was not walking from the anima well to get revenge in my shorts."

Also I kinda saw some things but I can't focus on what they were at the moment.

[psycelliums]

"They are when you're on a time limit, have a quota, and desperate.."

He peered at her and raised a brow, but didn't look for very long. Somehow he got the feeling that wouldn't be well-received even if she was still mostly covered in blankets.

"I didn't waltz in. I had a key. I'm also guessing you're more the 'hit first, ask questions later' type?" It was kind of a big thing to leave out accidentally. "If so, you should ask your friend there to just tell you when to hit someone because I'm sure it would have been a lot less traumatic.."

[pace_tua]

"I am the 'defend self, then ask handler what just happened type',so yeah, kinda."

Peace shook her head and her spine made several pleasing popping noises while she continued to reach for the end of the bed. "Miklos gave me your file, but I don't know why he didn't say anything. He's really on top of telling me to expect someone. He doesn't like it when he has to do up additional paperwork."

[psycelliums]

"I'm sure. I doubt it was an accident. More.. passive-aggressive. Though I don't see the point. Who really suffers here?"

[pace_tua]

"Did you call him an angry Scandinavian Viking lately?" she asked rolling to her side to look at him. For a very brief moment, the ugly, angry-looking scars on her thighs could be seen, but vanished under a thick coverlet the very next. "Ooh, or a robot. He hates that. I mean, he basically is and just needs to accept the truth of it in his life, but he hates it."

[psycelliums]

"No. Well. Not to his face, anyway. Robot. Not the Viking bit. It's less obvious when you're not-.." He paused to consider his words. "Tall blondes are not that uncommon in my country. So the Viking bit is lost on me."

He was curious about the scars but it was one of those things that common sense suggested he maybe didn't want to bring up. It was debatable if it was the battle scar sort of thing. In his experience it was in too specific a place to fall under that category.

[pace_tua]

"Then I dunno. He spies on texts too, at least according to what he says sometimes about mine." Peace shrugged. "But he's been less friendly with me lately, and I'm not sure why that is."

Peace frowned. If she could touch him, the answer would be hers in seconds, but he'd been even less affable than usual and (she hated to admit it) it stung a bit. Maybe he was unhappy with her performance lately, and so this had happened.

Who knew?