u_can_have_it_4_a_song | Office Hours [Amelia]

She may not be able to appear out of thin air, but Amelia does know how to make a quiet entrance. When Schön closes his eyes to enjoy the brightly lit sky, she steps down the lane silently, stopping a small step back.

"Taking a pause to reflect before we begin our meeting?" she asks in a soft tone. Her look is more "normal" for her today: she's covered in her usual leather armor, but she has only her slingshot hanging from her belt for visible weapons. The reason for it isn't clear yet, but she must be getting more comfortable if she doesn't feel the need for all of her weapons.

His lips quirk up in a small smile, his eyes slowly opening. "It can be a long life, but not truly living, if we don't take the time now and again to savor the little things." He opens the door, then sweeps the hat off of his head. "Good morning, Ms. Ronsam. You are looking well; feeling it, too, I trust?"

She nods and smiles a bit. After stepping inside she removes her cloak, laying it gently across her arm. "Quite well, thank you. You seem to be faring well this morning, too. I take it you've fully recovered from Samhain?"

"Quite," he answers, hanging his hat on the rack that stands beside the door, his cane placed with care beside it. There's a short stack of folders on his desk, arranged with precision in the center of the otherwise-empty blotter. "Time heals all, they say, and there have been some little balms in the intervening days. Would you care to sit?" Whatever her answer, he has made his way behind his desk, and settles into his thronelike chair.

"For both of us, it would seem." She carefully lays her cloak on the back of one of the chairs in front of his desk then takes a seat in it. The neatly stacked files get a look of approval, but she doesn't comment on them just yet.

"Before we get down to business, I need to tell you about an... incident I had with Naugus yesterday." Her brow furrows a bit and a small frown plays at her lips. "Or perhaps you would prefer it wait until after?" She's not asking to put it off - she's asking for his blessing to delve into a subject she knows he's not going to like all that much before doing so. Manners are important when rebuilding trust, after all.

He raises a brow, intrigued. "No, no. If something has happened with that one, I should like to know."

She takes a slow, deep breath before she begins. "Naugus came to answer my question in the Forum, which lead down the path of speaking about my current inability to come home. He offered to make me a portal. I refused. He became upset at my refusal and pushed the matter, going so far as to tell me his deals require a 'favor' of someone in addition to their handshake for his services. When I still refused, he dropped even that, his pride making him offer to try without asking for anything in return."

Here, she pauses to regain her composure. Her voice had become quite strained, and it takes a moment before she can speak again. "I won't lie to you - the offer was tempting. I even teased out the idea of having him try without fully accepting his help. But in the end, he grew impatient with me, as he had when we first met, and walked off." There's no justification offered for her actions - her desire to go home isn't exactly a secret. "I didn't want you to hear about this from anyone else, though, which is why I'm bringing it to your attention now."

He rests a fingertip against his lips, elbow against the arm of his chair as he listens to her tale. When she's done, he nods. "I appreciate your keeping me apprised. Your bargains are, of course, your own to make, but I have a deep suspicion of my rival's offers." He grows thoughtful, his voice dropping to a murmur half to himself as he adds, "by the pricking of my thumbs, there is some hidden clause I've yet to tease out."

The shift in mood is duly noted and she'll follow suit, taking on the air of the business-savvy rogue. "He admitted to it being some kind of favor, but was vague about the details." She thinks back to the conversation with Naugus carefully before adding, "Something that he can call for at his discretion, and something that wouldn't require a magical touch, since he can take care of such things himself. But what that might entail, I don't know. My instincts tell me that it's not a deal anyone should take without knowing the exact details, though."

He nods. "My favors, too, may be called in at my discretion, but I make no secret of that, nor of the general nature of what I might demand. That he chooses to occlude his bargains so carefully, and presents them as cost-free agreements is exceedingly suspicious. That the nature of his swindle remains unknown is troubling. If ever you learn more of his method, either from himself or from someone whose favor he has cashed, I should like very much to know."

"I can't promise anything, but I'll see what I can do." Having a leg up in a 'favor for a favor' sort of arrangement is never a bad thing. Schön may have asked, but without an agreement that she would, she feels like finding out later would make the information all the more valuable for her.

Sorry, therapist, but there's no training that part out of your patient.

He nods, accepting the offer as it stands. He isn't going to order her into risking herself simply to find out what he wants to know, but he's made it clear between them that the information, if found, has value. "Thank you."

"Are there any other matters you would like to bring up?"

"No, there was nothing else on my mind right now." Liar. Her tell is her answer being too quick. But she's not about to pause and ask about going home right now. If he had anything, he would tell her. ...right?

There's no break in the conversation flow to mark her lie, though. "Other than another job, of course. And perhaps that offered drink for a proper toast?" She smirks as she settles back into her chair a bit more. He offered, after all, and she's not about to turn down something that piques her curiosity so much.

If he suspects the lie, he doesn't call it out. Perhaps he's taken in by the bluff, or perhaps he's simply filing it away among his knowledge of her tells.

"Ah, I did mention a toast, didn't I? I believe Champagne is traditional, for celebrations, especially this time of year--but your world may not have had it. A sparkling wine, the name comes from the region where it was first made. Indeed, it cannot be truthfully labeled champagne unless it comes from Champagne." The peril of working with Schön is the chance that he'll start woolgathering about the origins of this custom or that rare thing, and become distracted from the matter at hand.

But he comes back to the present, managing not quite to start at the transition. "Do they have sparkling wines, in your world?"

She shakes her head at the suggestion of champagne. "Sparkling wine doesn't exist in my world, but I didn't enjoy champagne when I tried it at the Samhain ball." It was full of bubbles and acidic and generally unpleasant. "Truthfully, I'm not usually one for drinking except at family celebrations. Even then, I usually have very little idea of what kind of wine or ale I might be drinking." A clear head is necessary in her line of work, and that's meant turning aside all possible distractions. Well, the ones involving the usual vices anyway.

"Hmm, not sparkling, not alcoholic." He steeples his fingers. "Let me think." He steeples his fingers, tapping the index tips together. After a moment, he decides on something and rises, crossing to his sideboard and crouching down to rummage through the bottles stored within.

He comes out at last with a gleaming, silvery flask, embossed with a brass tree and encrusted with spiky protrusions of green glass. From it, into two small stem glasses, he pours just a tot of a liquid that glows with a warm, golden light.

Tucking the flask away again, he brings the glasses back to the desk, offering one to Amelia. "A rare berry on a particular world is used to make a drink whose name translates from the elven as 'sunshine.'" As promised, he raises his glass in a toast.

The glowing liquid gets a raised eyebrow as Schön pours it, but there's no trace of the confusion or skepticism on her face when the thin man turns back to her. She carefully takes the glass with a nod of thanks. "It certainly lives up to its name," she notes with a smile.

Her glass is raised in accord with his - and clinked, if that's his custom - before she tries a small sip of the glowing liquid. It might be a little disconcerting that it's glowing, but she's not about to turn down the chance to literally sate her curiosity about something so unique.

"To the quest for good health," he intones, clinking his glass against hers.

The drink is warmer than room temperature, and sweet, and a little sticky--like honey stirred into a mixture of fruit nectars. It's potent, though, warming the body through with even a tiny sip--Schön takes his a very little bit at a time.

The surprising warmth elicits a small, surprised noise from Amelia - and requires her to go back for a second sip shortly after the first. It's sweet, but the right kind of sweet for her palate. The fruit nectars are unrecognizable, but create a wonderful flavor that balances itself out. She smiles as she settles back into her chair again.

"Thank you. This is absolutely wonderful." The drink is swirled in the glass and she takes one more sip before adopting a more serious air.

"Down to business, then?"

"Down to business," he confirms, setting his glass on the edge of the blotter and sinking into his chair.

Taking the folder from the top of the stack, he opens it onto a tidy dossier of a familiar man, with particular focus paid to a thick gold band on his left middle finger, the band etched with curves and lines that might be some kind of diagram. "The first option is a simple recovery, and the assessment of punitive damages. You might remember him from last time, although I understand he's made some effort to improve his security since then."

Her glass is set aside carefully so that she can get a better look at the dossier. "Ahh, yes, I remember him." Breaking into his home and been alarmingly easy. It's both exciting and disappointing that it won't be so easy this time. "What exactly has he done to the place, in terms of security?"

"From what I can tell, better locks, motion detectors, and some hired muscle. He also had a local wizard in last month, so there may be some magical wards up, or that might have been for something else," he answers, turning the dossier and pushing it across the desk to Amelia.

Things like the make and model of the various security devices he's purchased lately are included in the dossier (including an electronic security system and keypad-operated locks), but Schön's sources haven't been able to determine where the various alarms and sensors have been set up, whether there are any blind spots, or other questions of that nature.

Amelia frowns as she leafs through the dossier. Security systems are far out of her comfort zone, even after the heist in Verity's world. Samus was always the one who dealt with the systems themselves while Amelia dealt with the easy parts like swiping keycards or distracting guards. And considering their last two conversations, she's pretty sure Samus isn't going to help her with this. Which means she has to do it on her own, and needs to find new help to understand all of these systems and learn to disable them and--

"I don't suppose you have someone who could teach me more about these systems?" Spiraling thoughts aren't going to help, so it's time to ask for what she needs when she needs it. A small step forward in the grand scheme of things, but a huge leap for her personally.

"I'm certain I could find someone," he answers. He refrains from remarking on her previous ventures against electronic security, sensitive as that subject is. "Will you want an introduction, or a name and address?"

"An introduction would be nice." Not that she can't make do with a name and address, but given her hesitation with all of this, a deterrent from second guessing herself would be best.

A thought occurs to her as she goes over the dossier once more. "Is there a reason why I should look to take back what is yours while he sleeps rather than attempt to retrieve it during the day?" She looks up at him with a curious expression. It certainly wouldn't be the first time she snatched something directly off a person's body in broad daylight if the option is open to her.

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