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tampered2008-05-03 09:36 pm
knightbalanced.livejournal.com) wrote in tampered2008-05-03 09:36 pm
(no subject)
When; Saturday afternoon.
Rating; PG
Characters; Luke Skywalker (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
knightbalanced) and George Blake (not_alaska).
Summary; Talk of police forces and other Forces and things of that nature!
Log;
It was a walk and then a subway ride into the City from George and Logan's house off in the Forest, but she didn't mind the commute. It was worth it to live outside the City proper
and a car seemed somewhat superfluous. The Café was off the square and wasn't hard to find, but she had forgot to ask if Luke knew how to get there. Then again, he wasn't likely to have a hard time getting directions from someone. Even if she was excited to meet a childhood hero, it wasn't in her nature to show it. She was just having lunch with a prospective member of the police force.
With that in mind, she approached the quaint storefront, a few minutes early as usual.
--
Luke had been spending most of his time talking to people and exploring, so finding the cafe was no trouble. People were friendly, eager to help, even if they were sometimes forward enough to unsettle him. But aside from curses and dark magic, things were all right. He smiled as he approached George, recognizing her presence from the network.
"Hi!"
--
She was planning on going shopping for a gift for Rose after this, and that meant dealing with stores that sold baby supplies, which also meant dealing with the twisty pain in her stomach every time she thought anything having to do with babies and children. But she wasn't going to be the one to rain on the parade, and she had always been good at hiding her weak spots. It was why she was good at her job. Telling Logan had been a help, like pulling a splinter out.
"Hey!"
Despite all her thoughts, she was smiling when Luke called out to her, immediately extending a hand to shake. Jeeze, it was impossible not to smile around the guy. He practically had a halo.
--
If anyone cared to notice, Luke did have something of an affect about him - calming, pleasant. It wasn't something he exuded all the time, but since stepping into the chaos of the City, he'd found it helped to just let the Force have that. Being used as a conduit had its upsides.
He took her hand, shaking. His right hand was still covered in a black leather glove, the end of it tucked into his jacket sleeve. "George, right? Or Ms. Blake, sorry." He grinned. "I'm Luke. I haven't kept you waiting, have I?"
--
George had a pretty engaging personality herself, but that was caused by a lot of hard work. Eye contact, a firm handshake, and positive body language all intended to put anyone she met at their ease. No Force needed.
"Not at all. Just George is fine, unless you end up working under me. Pleased to meet you, Luke."
She pushed open the door to the coffee shop and passed inside, inhaling the scent of coffee and fresh-baked goods. Just because Seattle had created Starbucks didn't mean that Washington didn't run on coffee.
--
He nodded, following her inside. It reminded him a little of the stations on Ryloth, but there was such a lack of non-humans it was almost off-putting. It was one of the things about the City that threw him: how Imperial it seemed in its inclusion of human-looking beings. But he wasn't going to dwell on that right now.
"Any recommendations?" He peered at the selection of sandwiches - some people still made those on certain worlds, and it was nice to see something besides processed-for-perfect-nutrition rations.
--
George would expect a certain amount of discomfort from anyone in their first few days in the City. Everyone came from different worlds, and most weren't nearly so used to a North American-style city.
"They're all good," she commented, finding a small table in the back of the room. "Ham, Turkey, Chicken, BLT, the usual."
--
He plunked himself down and looked things over, curious but otherwise calm. Luke had been on some diplomatic missions before, but diplomacy in the Outer Rim involved a lot of blaster fire. He'd never had a job interview, either. Awkward? Maybe. But he meant well.
"So." He looked up. "Tell me about the police force."
--
The waitress arrived before George could reply, but once she had ordered a coffee and turkey sandwich she turned back to her newest likely candidate, hands folded in front of her on the table.
"Well, I think 'police force' is a bit of a misnomer because we don't have people walking the beat or intervening in domestic affairs, but we try and keep some of the more dangerous citizens in line and respond in the case of emergencies."
--
Luke ordered some water and BLT, since it was one of the things George mentioned, even though he had no idea what it was. He paid close attention to her, though there was no obvious signs over over-intense staring.
"Have you had any success?"
--
George smiled a little ruefully at that, and shrugged.
"Well, considering the population of the City, there are a lot of people we have no hope of controlling on a regular basis. We can just hope to keep the levels of chaos to a minimum and protect as many people as possible."
It was a problem that had plagued her for a while now, her powerlessness compared to most. But, as Nicholas had said before, it just meant you had to work harder.
--
He nodded, and it was obvious he understood the struggle of trying to manage something like that. He folded his hands on the table.
"I don't know if 'control' is the right goal," he said with a shrug. "From talking the people, I've gotten the impression that people either don't take you seriously because they have enough power where they don't have to, or don't take you seriously because they haven't any idea what you're about. I kept asking around about your practices, and people just kept saying no-one knows. Laws aside, it strikes me as strange. The man who contacted me and gave me your name locked up all the comments about it, and said it was because the police roster is kept secret. I'll be honest with you, that bothers me." He didn't sound hostile or accusatory in the slightest - in fact, there was a hint of curiosity in his voice. Surely this place was a nightmare to manage.
--
The waitress got a smile as she came back with their sandwiches and drinks, but once she was gone George rubbed the wrinkled of frustration that seemed to appear between her eyebrows every time she thought about her job.
"Laws are built upon tradition, something that the majority of people have to agree on. I don't know if you've noticed, but trying to get any groups in the City to agree on anything is like herding cats."
The coffee was hot and satisfying, she had forgone any this morning in the hopes of cutting down. But even if it dealt with the caffine withdrawl headache, it didn't deal with the headache of trying to police a people who either didn't want to be policed or didn't trust you.
"And without laws, the police don't really have a mandate, they don't have the trust of the people. Believe me, I know it's chaos. I asked all the same questions as you after taking the job, but we're doing our best by our morals to keep justice. As for keeping the roster secret, it's not as secret as all that. Everyone's free to talk about their work with whomever they want, and considering the amount of telepaths and hackers out there, not to mention curses... Although I'd definitely agree we need some way to make everyone more visible, some sort of marker system, since we don't do real day-to-day groundwork it hasn't been a priority."
--
Luke felt more than saw her frustration, and he gave her a knowing smile. He'd just come from a war zone - inability to get people to cooperate was a familiar trend.
"The fact that I had to dig and speak half in private to even figure out there was a police force speaks of a bit of an infrastructure problem," he said with an apologetic-sounding laugh. "I hope it's not to presumptuous of me, but I might be able to help on that end. I spent the last four years in an organization that was military-like, but didn't really have enough people to fill all positions permanently, so everyone wore a lot of hats, so to speak."
He pokes at his sandwich a bit, seeing what it's put together with. Cool. It earns a smile.
"I, ah.." talking about himself is obviously weird for him. He's been playing it pretty cool on the network, but the truth of the matter is, the attention and awe makes him a little embarrassed and uncomfortable, and it shows. "I do have combat experience. You mentioned telepaths. I do have that ability, as well as a number of other things. I'd rather not jump right into combat again just yet, is the thing."
--
His investigative approach to his food made George's smile twitch ever so slightly, but she definitely didn't laugh.
"Well, back home I was second in command of a major intelligence agency, so a lot the management skills I've developed don't really scale down well. It would be good if we had someone to help with the organization, although we just plain need more bodies at this point."
She took a big bite of her sandwich, but didn't speak while chewing - military manners.
"The fact is, I can't promise to keep you out of the field, because if something comes up - zombie invasion, alien attack, vampire rebellion, witch hunt - we need all the help we can get. And if you're as nice a guy as I think you are, you won't be able to sit back and watch it happen. Otherwise, I'd be prepared to offer you job just working with the people we have, training, organization, PR, that sort of thing."
And if you couldn't get people on your side with Luke Skywalker presenting your case, you were really fucked.
--
Luke pursued his food while George spoke, as polite as any nice guy next door could be. Not bad, for a sandwich. Definitely better than rations. He smiled a little (maybe a little sheepishly) at her note about PR. He was aware he was well known from whatever media existed in other worlds.
"I would never sit back and let people get hurt if I could help, you're right," he said, chuckling a bit. "Though I understand the need to present a unified face on the front lines. Maybe aside from laws you just need to have a process. If that makes sense - cultures and eras are going to have different reactions to things like theft, drugs, contract violations, stalking, honor killings in battle, blood feuds, whatever else. For everything like that, you might have to react on a complaint-only basis, which would mean making yourselves well known and easily accessed. As far as emergency crisis response.. can I ask how you guys are handling the current disturbance with blood turning to dust?"
--
And another headache presents itself. George wasn't used to talking about her job with civilians, it just felt unnatural, and it was probably true that most of the others felt the same way, coming from military backgrounds. Put on a good front, but don't tell them anything important.
"From what I've found out, the girl who set the curse was only doing it to spite one person in particular, and it's a personal matter that has gotten out of hand. Vampires aren't known for their patience, so if it keeps up for another day or if one of them makes a threatening move, we'll have to call it off. There have been some unaffected caches made public, but we can't force people to donate to the hospital if they don't want to. The hospital has many supernatural healers they can lean on in an emergency, and they've dealt with worse situations than this before."
She hated feeling like she was just making excuses for their incompetence, and hid her bitterness behind a cup of coffee. They should be able to handle all of this, but they couldn't. Known for thinking outside the box, she wasn't, but if someone would just point her in the right direction...
--
"I'm actually friends with her roommate," Luke said. He knew about the situation already - then again, anyone who read the network could easily be informed with a little clicking.
"I ask because it's a circle. Someone committed a violent act. Now someone is using negativity to respond. The reactions she's getting are threats of yet more violence. And what happens if someone makes good on one of those threats? What then?" Obviously rhetorical questions. "I get the feeling you're going to end up needing people on your team that can do more... really convincing talking versus going into a situation guns blazing. Particularly in a place where martial law is the closest to anything official."
--
Okay, so that got a little chuckle. The sandwich was almost done, and she was on her second refill of coffee. This was turning into a pretty philosophical conversation, one that a year ago she never would have believed she'd have.
"You don't have to sell me, Skywalker. You're hired as far as I'm concerned. If you think you can add anything to the Force we'd love to have you."
--
He laughed. "All right. The Force, huh."
Yeah, he's going to the punitentiary someday.
"I'd love to check it out. I'm sure I'll end up sticking around."
--
"Good to hear. You could come on as an adviser of some sort for now until we sort out some sort of title."
Some small part of her was freaking out at the thought of Luke Skywalker working for her, but she had a firm hold on that. This was the reason why she loved her work: nothing like it for totally wiping out thoughts of your personal life. She motioned to the waitress for the bill and dug her wallet out of her jacket pocket.
--
"I'd like that. Thanks, George."
She might realize soon enough he had a bit of an absentmindedness problem with remembering titles and formality - Generals and Admirals were usually about as formal as he got, though when Han and Lando had made that rank, he still yelled at them down the hall like anyone else. It worked for the Alliance, though: everyone was friends fighting for a common goal.
Luke offered his own currency - thank the Force for exchanges - for his part of the meal.
"I assume I'll be seeing you around, yeah? I try to keep an eye on the network. I hope we can all work something out about the blood problem without any more violence."
--
It might have just been the climate in Washington at the time, but political buddy-buddying she was completely used to. It almost reached the point where calling someone by their title was an insult, but she could tell that his choice to user her first name was just a natural friendliness. Damn, why was he so cute?
She stood and offered her hand to shake one more time, to seal the deal.
"I'll speak with Hawkeye and get you on the list, so feel free to get started whenever you like."
--
He stood, shaking her hand as offered.
"Great. I'll keep an eye out for sudden filters opening to me." He smiled. "It was nice meeting you. You seem like you've really got a handle on being here, it's impressive. As a person, not just with the police."
--
"Thanks, after being here long enough it's hard not to build a second life of it. I'm sure you'll settle in soon enough."
Then again, there were those who spent all their time hunting for a way out. Right now, she was just heading for the door in front of her. At this point, she didn't even know if she wanted to go home.
"Be sure to drop by the offices some time, you should meet the Warden and some of the others if you haven't already."
--
"I've gotten used to moving around," he said, "Though it's hard without my friends." He didn't sound too upset, though - he had a strange mix of being a far too jaded war hero for and a wide-eyed farm kid all at once. He figured he'd get home when he was supposed to.
"I will. Let me know if you need me for anything immediately, and feel free to just say hi whenever." He was all smiles, it seemed. "Thanks again. See you." He raised a hand as he took off, pleasant as always.
Rating; PG
Characters; Luke Skywalker (
knightbalanced) and George Blake (not_alaska). Summary; Talk of police forces and other Forces and things of that nature!
Log;
It was a walk and then a subway ride into the City from George and Logan's house off in the Forest, but she didn't mind the commute. It was worth it to live outside the City proper
and a car seemed somewhat superfluous. The Café was off the square and wasn't hard to find, but she had forgot to ask if Luke knew how to get there. Then again, he wasn't likely to have a hard time getting directions from someone. Even if she was excited to meet a childhood hero, it wasn't in her nature to show it. She was just having lunch with a prospective member of the police force.
With that in mind, she approached the quaint storefront, a few minutes early as usual.
--
Luke had been spending most of his time talking to people and exploring, so finding the cafe was no trouble. People were friendly, eager to help, even if they were sometimes forward enough to unsettle him. But aside from curses and dark magic, things were all right. He smiled as he approached George, recognizing her presence from the network.
"Hi!"
--
She was planning on going shopping for a gift for Rose after this, and that meant dealing with stores that sold baby supplies, which also meant dealing with the twisty pain in her stomach every time she thought anything having to do with babies and children. But she wasn't going to be the one to rain on the parade, and she had always been good at hiding her weak spots. It was why she was good at her job. Telling Logan had been a help, like pulling a splinter out.
"Hey!"
Despite all her thoughts, she was smiling when Luke called out to her, immediately extending a hand to shake. Jeeze, it was impossible not to smile around the guy. He practically had a halo.
--
If anyone cared to notice, Luke did have something of an affect about him - calming, pleasant. It wasn't something he exuded all the time, but since stepping into the chaos of the City, he'd found it helped to just let the Force have that. Being used as a conduit had its upsides.
He took her hand, shaking. His right hand was still covered in a black leather glove, the end of it tucked into his jacket sleeve. "George, right? Or Ms. Blake, sorry." He grinned. "I'm Luke. I haven't kept you waiting, have I?"
--
George had a pretty engaging personality herself, but that was caused by a lot of hard work. Eye contact, a firm handshake, and positive body language all intended to put anyone she met at their ease. No Force needed.
"Not at all. Just George is fine, unless you end up working under me. Pleased to meet you, Luke."
She pushed open the door to the coffee shop and passed inside, inhaling the scent of coffee and fresh-baked goods. Just because Seattle had created Starbucks didn't mean that Washington didn't run on coffee.
--
He nodded, following her inside. It reminded him a little of the stations on Ryloth, but there was such a lack of non-humans it was almost off-putting. It was one of the things about the City that threw him: how Imperial it seemed in its inclusion of human-looking beings. But he wasn't going to dwell on that right now.
"Any recommendations?" He peered at the selection of sandwiches - some people still made those on certain worlds, and it was nice to see something besides processed-for-perfect-nutrition rations.
--
George would expect a certain amount of discomfort from anyone in their first few days in the City. Everyone came from different worlds, and most weren't nearly so used to a North American-style city.
"They're all good," she commented, finding a small table in the back of the room. "Ham, Turkey, Chicken, BLT, the usual."
--
He plunked himself down and looked things over, curious but otherwise calm. Luke had been on some diplomatic missions before, but diplomacy in the Outer Rim involved a lot of blaster fire. He'd never had a job interview, either. Awkward? Maybe. But he meant well.
"So." He looked up. "Tell me about the police force."
--
The waitress arrived before George could reply, but once she had ordered a coffee and turkey sandwich she turned back to her newest likely candidate, hands folded in front of her on the table.
"Well, I think 'police force' is a bit of a misnomer because we don't have people walking the beat or intervening in domestic affairs, but we try and keep some of the more dangerous citizens in line and respond in the case of emergencies."
--
Luke ordered some water and BLT, since it was one of the things George mentioned, even though he had no idea what it was. He paid close attention to her, though there was no obvious signs over over-intense staring.
"Have you had any success?"
--
George smiled a little ruefully at that, and shrugged.
"Well, considering the population of the City, there are a lot of people we have no hope of controlling on a regular basis. We can just hope to keep the levels of chaos to a minimum and protect as many people as possible."
It was a problem that had plagued her for a while now, her powerlessness compared to most. But, as Nicholas had said before, it just meant you had to work harder.
--
He nodded, and it was obvious he understood the struggle of trying to manage something like that. He folded his hands on the table.
"I don't know if 'control' is the right goal," he said with a shrug. "From talking the people, I've gotten the impression that people either don't take you seriously because they have enough power where they don't have to, or don't take you seriously because they haven't any idea what you're about. I kept asking around about your practices, and people just kept saying no-one knows. Laws aside, it strikes me as strange. The man who contacted me and gave me your name locked up all the comments about it, and said it was because the police roster is kept secret. I'll be honest with you, that bothers me." He didn't sound hostile or accusatory in the slightest - in fact, there was a hint of curiosity in his voice. Surely this place was a nightmare to manage.
--
The waitress got a smile as she came back with their sandwiches and drinks, but once she was gone George rubbed the wrinkled of frustration that seemed to appear between her eyebrows every time she thought about her job.
"Laws are built upon tradition, something that the majority of people have to agree on. I don't know if you've noticed, but trying to get any groups in the City to agree on anything is like herding cats."
The coffee was hot and satisfying, she had forgone any this morning in the hopes of cutting down. But even if it dealt with the caffine withdrawl headache, it didn't deal with the headache of trying to police a people who either didn't want to be policed or didn't trust you.
"And without laws, the police don't really have a mandate, they don't have the trust of the people. Believe me, I know it's chaos. I asked all the same questions as you after taking the job, but we're doing our best by our morals to keep justice. As for keeping the roster secret, it's not as secret as all that. Everyone's free to talk about their work with whomever they want, and considering the amount of telepaths and hackers out there, not to mention curses... Although I'd definitely agree we need some way to make everyone more visible, some sort of marker system, since we don't do real day-to-day groundwork it hasn't been a priority."
--
Luke felt more than saw her frustration, and he gave her a knowing smile. He'd just come from a war zone - inability to get people to cooperate was a familiar trend.
"The fact that I had to dig and speak half in private to even figure out there was a police force speaks of a bit of an infrastructure problem," he said with an apologetic-sounding laugh. "I hope it's not to presumptuous of me, but I might be able to help on that end. I spent the last four years in an organization that was military-like, but didn't really have enough people to fill all positions permanently, so everyone wore a lot of hats, so to speak."
He pokes at his sandwich a bit, seeing what it's put together with. Cool. It earns a smile.
"I, ah.." talking about himself is obviously weird for him. He's been playing it pretty cool on the network, but the truth of the matter is, the attention and awe makes him a little embarrassed and uncomfortable, and it shows. "I do have combat experience. You mentioned telepaths. I do have that ability, as well as a number of other things. I'd rather not jump right into combat again just yet, is the thing."
--
His investigative approach to his food made George's smile twitch ever so slightly, but she definitely didn't laugh.
"Well, back home I was second in command of a major intelligence agency, so a lot the management skills I've developed don't really scale down well. It would be good if we had someone to help with the organization, although we just plain need more bodies at this point."
She took a big bite of her sandwich, but didn't speak while chewing - military manners.
"The fact is, I can't promise to keep you out of the field, because if something comes up - zombie invasion, alien attack, vampire rebellion, witch hunt - we need all the help we can get. And if you're as nice a guy as I think you are, you won't be able to sit back and watch it happen. Otherwise, I'd be prepared to offer you job just working with the people we have, training, organization, PR, that sort of thing."
And if you couldn't get people on your side with Luke Skywalker presenting your case, you were really fucked.
--
Luke pursued his food while George spoke, as polite as any nice guy next door could be. Not bad, for a sandwich. Definitely better than rations. He smiled a little (maybe a little sheepishly) at her note about PR. He was aware he was well known from whatever media existed in other worlds.
"I would never sit back and let people get hurt if I could help, you're right," he said, chuckling a bit. "Though I understand the need to present a unified face on the front lines. Maybe aside from laws you just need to have a process. If that makes sense - cultures and eras are going to have different reactions to things like theft, drugs, contract violations, stalking, honor killings in battle, blood feuds, whatever else. For everything like that, you might have to react on a complaint-only basis, which would mean making yourselves well known and easily accessed. As far as emergency crisis response.. can I ask how you guys are handling the current disturbance with blood turning to dust?"
--
And another headache presents itself. George wasn't used to talking about her job with civilians, it just felt unnatural, and it was probably true that most of the others felt the same way, coming from military backgrounds. Put on a good front, but don't tell them anything important.
"From what I've found out, the girl who set the curse was only doing it to spite one person in particular, and it's a personal matter that has gotten out of hand. Vampires aren't known for their patience, so if it keeps up for another day or if one of them makes a threatening move, we'll have to call it off. There have been some unaffected caches made public, but we can't force people to donate to the hospital if they don't want to. The hospital has many supernatural healers they can lean on in an emergency, and they've dealt with worse situations than this before."
She hated feeling like she was just making excuses for their incompetence, and hid her bitterness behind a cup of coffee. They should be able to handle all of this, but they couldn't. Known for thinking outside the box, she wasn't, but if someone would just point her in the right direction...
--
"I'm actually friends with her roommate," Luke said. He knew about the situation already - then again, anyone who read the network could easily be informed with a little clicking.
"I ask because it's a circle. Someone committed a violent act. Now someone is using negativity to respond. The reactions she's getting are threats of yet more violence. And what happens if someone makes good on one of those threats? What then?" Obviously rhetorical questions. "I get the feeling you're going to end up needing people on your team that can do more... really convincing talking versus going into a situation guns blazing. Particularly in a place where martial law is the closest to anything official."
--
Okay, so that got a little chuckle. The sandwich was almost done, and she was on her second refill of coffee. This was turning into a pretty philosophical conversation, one that a year ago she never would have believed she'd have.
"You don't have to sell me, Skywalker. You're hired as far as I'm concerned. If you think you can add anything to the Force we'd love to have you."
--
He laughed. "All right. The Force, huh."
Yeah, he's going to the punitentiary someday.
"I'd love to check it out. I'm sure I'll end up sticking around."
--
"Good to hear. You could come on as an adviser of some sort for now until we sort out some sort of title."
Some small part of her was freaking out at the thought of Luke Skywalker working for her, but she had a firm hold on that. This was the reason why she loved her work: nothing like it for totally wiping out thoughts of your personal life. She motioned to the waitress for the bill and dug her wallet out of her jacket pocket.
--
"I'd like that. Thanks, George."
She might realize soon enough he had a bit of an absentmindedness problem with remembering titles and formality - Generals and Admirals were usually about as formal as he got, though when Han and Lando had made that rank, he still yelled at them down the hall like anyone else. It worked for the Alliance, though: everyone was friends fighting for a common goal.
Luke offered his own currency - thank the Force for exchanges - for his part of the meal.
"I assume I'll be seeing you around, yeah? I try to keep an eye on the network. I hope we can all work something out about the blood problem without any more violence."
--
It might have just been the climate in Washington at the time, but political buddy-buddying she was completely used to. It almost reached the point where calling someone by their title was an insult, but she could tell that his choice to user her first name was just a natural friendliness. Damn, why was he so cute?
She stood and offered her hand to shake one more time, to seal the deal.
"I'll speak with Hawkeye and get you on the list, so feel free to get started whenever you like."
--
He stood, shaking her hand as offered.
"Great. I'll keep an eye out for sudden filters opening to me." He smiled. "It was nice meeting you. You seem like you've really got a handle on being here, it's impressive. As a person, not just with the police."
--
"Thanks, after being here long enough it's hard not to build a second life of it. I'm sure you'll settle in soon enough."
Then again, there were those who spent all their time hunting for a way out. Right now, she was just heading for the door in front of her. At this point, she didn't even know if she wanted to go home.
"Be sure to drop by the offices some time, you should meet the Warden and some of the others if you haven't already."
--
"I've gotten used to moving around," he said, "Though it's hard without my friends." He didn't sound too upset, though - he had a strange mix of being a far too jaded war hero for and a wide-eyed farm kid all at once. He figured he'd get home when he was supposed to.
"I will. Let me know if you need me for anything immediately, and feel free to just say hi whenever." He was all smiles, it seemed. "Thanks again. See you." He raised a hand as he took off, pleasant as always.