Beale tried not to grumble to himself as he walked to the report center, but it was difficult. Who was Sofya to call him a gaslighter? Why did that bother him so much? He knew that he was no such thing, and that somebody needed to keep Veronica's mind on the task at hand. If everyone indulged in her little fantasy, then she would never realize that she didn't have anything to fear.
Beale was one of the few people Veronica had ever felt comfortable telling about the Incident, and he knew that it was a cause of great distress and paranoia for her in her day to day life. Even though she had told him what had happened, he had a feeling that she had kept some details back, and he didn't blame her - it had been extremely painful for her to recount what led her to abandon her universe entirely and hide in the Library as much as she did. He knew that made her think there was someone after her at all times, and he felt badly for her, he really did. He just didn't understand why he needed to act like all of her neurotic fantasies were real. The others didn't indulge Nuereddin when he went on one of his paranoia kicks, did they?
Admittedly, Nuereddin was much more likely to go off about anything and everything than Veronica was. And Veronica didn't really talk that much about things that were making her anxious - she was much more likely to keep things to herself and just carry a lot of tension in her shoulders until they got out of whatever situation made her so tense. So yes, there might be something to the things she was talking about, but she had no proof! No details! Nothing she could point at and say see, here's the conspiracy!
Beale almost walked into the back of the person in front of him at the report center line because he was so lost in thought. He caught himself just in time, mostly because that person's long black tail twitched up and came into his line of sight. "Oops! Sorry. Hope I didn't, uh, step on your tail?" Beale chuckled to himself, trying to make a joke out of the situation and remembering belatedly that many of the creatures who had long tails didn't take kindly to people joking about them. He wasn't sure whether it would be better to apologize again or just stop talking, and decided silence was less likely to cause trouble.
The person in front of him and owner of the tail looked over their shoulder, giving Beale an unreadable look before nodding a little and turning back to face the report center. There were a couple of people in line ahead of them, and judging by their stance, they were staring at something in their hand in front of them. Something about that stance tickled a memory for Beale, and he realized that he was standing behind Cassidy, the one Veronica had been talking about.
Fortunately, before Beale made even more of a fool of himself, the line moved forward again and Cassidy was at the desk, speaking in an incredibly low voice to Randulph. Beale had an urge to listen in on what they were saying, but he knew that wouldn’t go over well with them. Plus, he knew that his urge to find out what they were saying was tied to wanting to prove Veronica wrong one way or another, and he wasn’t going to dignify that kind of pettiness with his attention. At least, he wasn’t going to do it yet. Beale knew himself well enough to know that he was probably going to try to find out something to poke a hole or three in the theories Veronica had floated, but he was willing to put the work into the actual mission first.
Cassidy didn’t spend too much time at the desk, stepping aside and letting Beale move up fairly quickly. They stayed close, however, pouring over the screen of their phone as they leaned against the wall next to the door of the report center. The way their tail was thrashing about told Beale that something had gotten under Cassidy’s skin (fur? Beale wasn’t sure how much of them was covered in fur, as some patches could be seen around the edges of their clothing, but their face and hands were mostly free from excess hair). Either way, Cassidy was clearly done with the report center, and so Beale stepped up with Veronica’s notes at the ready.
Randulph greeted him with what passed as a smile on his scaly face. “Back so soon, I see? I’ve heard there was some drama surrounding your last mission. Veronica told me some of the details, and they are most intriguing. Are you setting off for your next mission now?” One of his hands reached for his notebook while the corresponding hand on the other side clicked a ballpoint pen repeatedly. “I didn’t see anything on the manifest for you, but then, things are changing all the time around here.”
“Tell me about it,” Beale agreed, forcing his body language to read as relaxed but ready for action. He spread the paper from Veronica out on the Dutch door in front of him, smoothing out the wrinkles he’d put in it by fiddling with it and coincidentally giving Randulph a chance to preview his request. Beale wasn’t surprised to see Randulph’s third set of arms begin flipping through a registry on the second desk beneath the main desk, and he assumed it was to begin looking up the book he was about to talk about.
“Well, if Veronica filled you in, then you know that the author of the book we were sent to help showed up in the middle of everything, right?” Beale kept his tone friendly and light, making just enough eye contact to be engaging without putting Randulph off. It was working so far, as Randulph reacted the way any good audience should: nodding, eyes wide, mouth in a small ‘o’ of amazement. “I know, right? Anyway, she did some digging to find out if this had happened before, and she came across this other book where it had. That time, though, the author showed up during the action of the book, and no one’s sure if he came in to save the universe from some kind of threat, or if he was just, you know…” Beale made a motion like he was tossing back a beer, and Randulph laughed. “Anyway, I figure the best way to find out would be to go to the book, you know, check in on the universe itself, see what I can find on the ground. Probably best that I don’t go alone, just in case there was some kind of threat or something, so if you know of any teams that are at loose ends…” Beale trailed off and looked at Randulph expectantly as he handed over the page with the title and author of the book in question.
Randulph took the paper but kept his eyes on Beale, looking quizzical. “What do you mean, any teams at loose ends? What about your team? Aren’t they going to go with you?” He was busying himself with getting the particular transit tunnel location for the universe Beale wanted to go to, along with the forms required for a self-directed mission request, but his curious look kept coming back to Beale.
Beale grimaced a bit and leaned forward, speaking a little lower. “My team’s been through a lot the last few weeks, you know,” he said conspiratorially, looking over his shoulder as though afraid one of his team members might hear him. To be fair, there was a part of Beale that was concerned Niles or Nuereddin might follow him up to the line, and it never hurt to be careful. In the process of looking, Beale noticed that Cassidy had moved a bit closer to the door of the report center, and was probably within earshot of a normal tone of voice. He kept his voice down even lower, just to be on the safe side.
“Veronica’s had a really hard time of it, you know, since she was there when things got bad with the protagonist,” Beale continued. “Sofya and I had a lot of our own problems out in Prime, and she seems to be having trouble recovering completely. And the guys…I love my team, you know that, but sometimes, it’s nice to have some fresh perspective, you know?” He gave Randulph a smirk that contained several things for the reporting agent to interpret if he saw fit.
Randulph tapped the tip of his ballpoint pen against the edge of his main desk a few times as he thought, before he nodded and stuck his head through the half door. “Excuse me a second- Hey, is Cassidy still here?” Randulph had a much longer neck than Beale had expected, and so it caught him off-guard to see him stretch past Beale’s face to look out the open part of the door and search both directions before seeing Cassidy still staring down at their phone, still leaning against the wall as though nothing had happened.
“Cassidy! There you are. Come here, I think I’ve got some work for you and your team,” Randulph said warmly, before retreating back into the report center and looking back at Beale with a smile. His hands had been working the entire time, and now brought up a map of the library with the appropriate transit tunnel highlighted, and the path to that tunnel marked out in ink. When he was settled back into the rest of himself, Beale realized with a start that it wasn’t that Randulph’s neck was particularly long on its own - he just had the ability to stretch it out many times its own length. It was both amazingly cool and incredibly creepy at once, and Beale immediately envied it.
After a minute, Cassidy sauntered up, leaning their elbows on the shelf formed by the top of the half-door and giving Beale a brief nod of acknowledgement. “You said something about work?” they said to Randulph, who had continued moving around the report center gathering forms and supplies together like a many-handed tornado. Beale was certain he hadn’t seen any of the alien’s hands stop moving since he’d gotten to the front of the line, and it was making him tired just watching it.
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"Yes I did!" Randulph responded with a cheer that didn't sound forced to Beale's ears. Who knew - maybe the two of them were actually friendly, or perhaps Randulph just liked Cassidy more than he liked Beale's team in general. It wasn't uncommon to hear that his team wasn't the favorite around the Library - Beale knew that he and the others could be a bit of an acquired taste at times. "Beale here is looking into some history with how an author might appear in their own book's universe, and is planning to make a trip to the last universe where that was known to have happened. What's it called? Children of Darwin. D. Jensen. That's right."
Cassidy shot Beale a shrewd look before going back to the cool cat persona. (Beale wondered to himself if that persona had something to do with their species, or if Cassidy was unique among their own species as well.) "Yeah, that sounds like it could be cool," they said, looking back at Randulph. "You think my team should take it?"
"Well, you were saying that you would love to know more about this whole idea," Randulph reminded them as he put together another couple of forms and made marks where Beale would need to sign. "Ever since we heard that the author showed up in your book's mission, it's all anybody in the Library has been able to talk about," he added for Beale's benefit. Beale wondered if that was part of what made Veronica's face look so tired and drawn. It must have been pretty bad, to have the entire Library talking about her team's work all around her and not having any of the rest of the team with her to take some of the weight off her shoulders.
Beale forced himself to stop thinking about Veronica and turned to Cassidy instead. "Is there room on your team for one more? I really want to find out what's going on with this situation, and the more information I can gather for my team, the better off we'll be to handle whatever comes next." Cassidy raised an eyebrow at Beale, then turned to Randulph with an inscrutable expression. Randulph laughed.
"I know, Cass, I know, but the man's legit. He means it. He wants to know what he can do to protect his team, and you have to respect him for that much." Randulph put the last of the forms on the half-door and turned back to Beale, holding out a pen with one of his dominant hands. "You just have to sign at the marks, and take this one with you to fill out after you make initial contact. You'll have more forms to fill out for me when you get back, but you can work on those with your temporary team, since they'll be working with you on the mission. Sound like a plan?"
Beale looked from Randulph's smiling face to Cassidy's deliberately impassive one, and knew he needed to make a decision fast. If Veronica was right, these two were in the thick of something that could potentially bring down the Library entirely. At the very least, they could be trying to destroy part or all of the institution Beale had sworn to protect in whatever way they asked him to.
If Veronica was wrong, however, then these were two people who had potential to be allies in finding out what had caused the kind of destruction they had found in the last universe, and they may be useful in creating a plan to help protect the universes that were under attack. The way the last couple of missions had come about, Beale couldn’t deny that something was going on, and they could use all the help they could get.
With a smile, Beale took the pen and signed his name with a flourish. He put the pen down on the counter, grabbed the forms, and gave Cassidy a quick bow. "Lead the way!"
Beale followed Cassidy from the report center to a different spot in the work room than he was used to. It took a bit of effort to keep himself from auto-piloting back to the normal table, but, he reminded himself, he wasn’t working with that team on this mission. This time, he was part of a new team, and he was going to enjoy it.
He decided to try to strike up conversation, rather than remaining in the awkward silence with Cassidy. “So! What’s your home universe, then? I’m from ModRom, myself, part of a main character’s group of close…friends.” He tried to shake off the pain that suddenly came up when he remembered that Kelly had dumped him for another guy. “I don’t get a ton of screen time, but that’s OK, it gives me a lot more freedom than I would have as the lead.” He looked expectantly at Cassidy, who was, once again, facing the phone screen in their hand.
“Space Opera,” Cassidy muttered without looking up. They moved through the work room unerringly, managing to weave their way through the gaps between people and desks with ease while not giving the slightest indication of watching where they were going. Beale was impressed, even as he scrambled to keep up and not get caught in the wake of Cassidy’s path.
Cassidy came to a sudden stop, and Beale managed to keep from slamming into their back by only a fraction of a second. He moved next to Cassidy and realized that this was another team space, with a few more people sitting at a table a little smaller than the one he was used to. It was square, and had metal folding legs, as though it wasn’t meant to be a permanent or long-term addition to the space. It made Beale wonder how his team (his usual team, he reminded himself; this was his team now) had rated the heavy, wooden table they used. He turned on his most charming smile and aimed it at the other people seated at the table, all of whom were looking him over.
Cassidy threw themselves into a chair and put their feet up on the edge of the table in a move so smooth, Beale couldn’t believe it wasn’t practiced. “Got a new guy for you, and a new mission, boss,” Cassidy said in their usual monotone, looking up for once and meeting the eyes of the red-haired woman standing at the desk next to the table.
“So I see,” she said, her arms crossed and her face a picture of interested curiosity. “How do you do, young man,” she added, reaching one heavily bejeweled hand out in Beale’s direction. From the positioning of the hand, the manner of her dress, and her apparent age compared to his, Beale took the calculated risk of brushing his lips across the back of her hand rather than shaking it. He also made a note to turn down the seductive levels of his charm and go for ‘boyish’ charm instead - in cases of older women, he’d found that was generally a better fit and worked a little better to get them to trust him.
The gesture worked, at least, as the lady gave him a knowing nod as she pulled her hand away. “I am the Lady Ruby, and this is my team of investigators and Library agents. Cassidy you know,” gesturing laconically at the human cat as they kept their eyes on their phone screen again. “Let me introduce the others, and then you can tell us all about yourself.”
“Here we have dear Joan of the West, a HistFic whose series never really picked up steam, poor dear.” Lady Ruby walked behind a teenage girl dressed in buckskin, her hair in messy braids and a sour expression on her face. Her grey eyes held a challenge for Beale, and he gave her a nod and looked away, not wanting to meet that challenge just yet. He’d just met her, after all.
Lady Ruby continued around the table to the third occupant, a man with several silvered parts on his scalp and down one shoulder. “And this is Kierkkegard, Hard SF cyborg and general softy.” She squeezed the man’s non-metallic shoulder affectionately, and the parts of his face that weren’t silvered turned red. He also shot Beale a look of warning, though his seemed to have more than a hint of embarrassment.
“Now, tell us all about this mission you bring us, and how you come to be attached,” Lady Ruby concluded as she took a seat at the desk by the table. While the table looked temporary and unimpressive, the desk had gravitas and weight. Beale couldn’t quite tell if it actually was larger than Veronica’s, or if it just looked larger because it didn’t have most of its surface covered by the ancient typewriter. The chair Lady Ruby sat in wasn’t a common desk chair; it was stuffed, almost like an armchair, and had the feel of a throne about it. Beale was sure that wasn’t an accident.
He cleared his throat, a little uncertain of how to begin. Fortunately, the paperwork in his hands gave him a good starting point. “So, I’m Beale, ModRom. My previous- I mean, my primary- My team came across something odd on our last mission, and did some digging, and found a universe we’d like to investigate to get some more information. That team - my old team, I mean, - they’re sort of out of the field at the moment, so I asked if I could be assigned to some other team to join the investigation…” Beale found himself trailing off as he looked from face to face.
Cassidy, as expected, showed no emotion. Beale was just happy they had looked up from the phone, even for a second. Kierkkegard studied him, a hint of interest peeking through the metallic exterior. Joan still looked like she wanted to punch him just for…he didn’t know, standing there? Breathing? But Lady Ruby, she was leaning forward in her chair, resting her chin in her hand and watching Beale intensely. Her attention was unnerving, and Beale realized with a start that he didn’t know what kind of universe she was from. He’d assumed HistFic of some sort, but perhaps he’d overlooked the obvious HighFant possibilities? The woman could have magic, after all.
Lady Ruby continued to stare at him, holding his gaze in a way that made him feel like a fly trapped on fly paper, before seeming to snap out of a trance. She reached a hand out imperiously. “Give me the forms, and sit down. We need a full briefing on what we’re going into, and what we’re looking for, before we get started.” Beale, trying to recover from having jumped slightly from the sudden command, walked around to hand the papers to the lady before finding a seat at the table. Before he could let go of them, however, she pulled them, and him, close.
“This,” she said in a low, almost seductive voice, “may be the beginning of a wonderful partnership. Or the end of your career as a Library agent. It’s up to you.” She pulled the forms out of his hand so swiftly they left a burning cut along one hand, and she leaned back in her chair, her focus on the forms. Beale had never been so thoroughly dismissed before.
Maybe this wasn’t as good an idea as he thought.
