Board Thread:Role Plays/@comment-26104528-20170312033542/@comment-26104528-20171025232511

(We talked about a few things already, but I'm thinking we move the Data Hiest to another RP, probably a little after this one. So I take it that Everest, Tyrian, and Geuda make it to the valley with no real incident?)

After a good hearty lunch, the gang found themselves driving back towards Eagalis Medical Center, this time Ingraham driving like a much more sane person; actually using his turn signals, not weaving through traffic at highway speeds, etc. Getting back up to Kurai's room was no hassle either, same security check, same coded conversations, blah-blah-blah...

As the elevator arrived, Dr. Li could just barely be seen slipping into an office with a small stack of documents for Kurai's early release from the Hospital.

"You guys go on ahead, I wanted to make a call." Fritz said as he wandered off to the side and left Ingraham and the others to head to Kurai's room.

Anozira, 14:09 

Almost stumbling down the stairs and across the pavement, Estellia threw down her duffle bag and collapsed onto the freshly planted grass of Flagg's quad. Her advancement test was finally over and she could already see the Tier-3 Promotion email in her inbox. Rolling onto her back, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she felt the sun on her face.

Even though her 'education' at Flagg was on hold for many reasons, that didn't prevent her from wanting to apply for Advancement anyway. If anything, applying for Advancement only helped solidify her loyalty to the company since there was so much scrutinzing done to her profile and everything since Flagg never entertained the idea of 'job-hopper' employees taking high positions in the company, let alone enemy agents or spies.

Firstly, applying for Advancement had to be done at least 3 Months in advance for Main to get all your records, randomly select co-workers and superiors for thier input, and do a full audit of any incident reports with your name on them. After that was the interview which was almost always held by Flagg employees with backgrounds in Psychology or with Forensics experience; Estellia felt she passed that with flying colors. She might have cheated a little bit when she bribed Honara with a bottle of her favorite Merlot in exchange for some insights into exactly what happens during the interview process, but how would they know? Shutting down particularly difficult and/or rude interviewers and thier faulty logic always felt good, but knowing that was secretly expected to see who actually wanted the job? Some of life's more satisfying things.

Afterwards was a Competancy exam which took the form of an extended combat against a small army of robots and soon-to-expire Grimm specimens, with a random act of BCU at the end. Violence was always one of the Tigress' strong suits, though she knew she must have lost points for electing to destroy the Alpha Manticore instead of hacking it.

Finally and often immediatly after the combat phase of the exam was a final interview designed to test an agent's ability to accurately and diplomatically respond to superiors, law enforcement, etc. Always a good trait to have as a Professional Mercenary. This interview was much tougher and she was certain that the interviewers knew about how her hieghted emotions post-battle.

A reverberating bass noise came off Stella's scroll, vibrating against her neck and waking her up from her catnap.

''Fritz?! What's he doing in country?''

"Hey-hey! What are you doing down here?" she happily answered, sitting back up.

"Medical drama at EMC. Oh, how'd your Advancement Test go?"

"I'm feelin' pretty good but I'm not gonna lie. I think I biffed it a lil' bit at the end but oh well. What's done is done. You thinking of taking yours soon?"

"Maybe...We'lll see when this whole Realm crap's over." Fritz replied, breifly pulling his scroll away from his face. To help him better with intel and resources for Coconut Samoa, Hargreave personally promoted Stahlfritz to Tier-3. He told Estellia it was because Hargreave had some special recon assignments for him which was a perfectly reasonable and true statement, but it still felt uneasy.

"By the way, you book a flight back home yet?" Fritz asked as he leaned against the glass windows overlooking the harbor.

"Yeah, cheapest one was this Thursday. Why?" Stella replied, thinking that for the week after the exam she'd just hang around thier old house, talk to a few professors, or just enjoy Anozira on her own.

"My mom's flying me and a few others back up to Vale. That and...hmmm, how do I put this..." he mused, going back towards the chairs lining the walls of the lounge area.

"It's about Kurai. He told me a few things about his past and I felt you'd be a much better person to talk to than me. I'd have called you earlier but I know you had that test."

"I can totally talk to him about that! Just give me half-hour tops to get my stuff and I'll meet you down here!"

"Sounda good. See ya, love ya."

"Love ya too." with that, Stella hung up, logged back into her airline account to cancel the flight, and dashed back home to get her things.

-

The drive to Windstorm valley was also suprisingly uneventful, despite Hargreave's musings about how'': "The fact that we can't pack heavy without looking like we're invading makes us a softer target if we are ambushed en route." ''Honara's less mature side wanted to call her boss back to rub it in her face, but she'd seen enough tv to know that an action like that was just asking for a Gilligan Cut to more mindless violence.

Instead, the small caravan of Flagg-owned vans parked within the town square and out stepped a handful of well-dressed faunus to set up thier recruitment tent in the designated spot they had previosuly reserved.

Meanwhile, Honara and Beverly both came up to the front gate of the Silverwood Manor. This time, it was Honara who was in her business suit while Beverly was the one looking ready for war. Her weapons were holstered and her helmet was carried under her arm, for what that detail was worth.

"Hello, Ma'am. We won't be coming in this time, but if you could inform Master Silverwood we're here, that'd be appreciated." The Rattlesnake came up to the guard's booth.

(@Kurai: Is it ok we assume that Gretel or someone told Estellia a little more about Kurai's past in an off-screen conversation somewhere?)