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[betterthansubpoenas]

Who: Kalinda Sharma and various. Could be you!
What: A week in the life of an investigator doing surveillance.
Where: All over the city.
When: Any time!
Notes: I've got thread starters for Arthur and Steph, but all are welcome! The settings are flexible, so feel free to come up with whatever. I will roll with it!
Warnings: None as of yet.

Kalinda hasn't been getting near as much extra work as she would like. Rather, she isn't making as much money from her extra work as she would like. Money isn't tight, exactly, but it isn't as abundant as she's used to it being. So much of what she does is built on her image, and that image requires maintenance, that maintenance requires cash. She has a feeling her current assignment, which has had her running from one end of the city to the other, isn't going to result in her being paid the previously agreed upon amount, being as how it's not producing the result her client hoped for.

Fortunately, she took half up front.

Comments

Spit Hearth

[thedominatrix]

"I'll have to see about tonight, I'm ever so busy--" Irene murmurs to the man whose arm she's resting a light hand on, her mind running through the myriad of things she'd like to say to him, from I prefer your wife to please brush your teeth.

However, he's already bought her a new, upgraded and almost ridiculously expensive CiD (well, back at home, her phone had solid gold inlay and sapphire keys; she has a certain standard when it comes to communication devices) and this week she thinks he'll be good enough to cough up for the imported Bordeaux she likes. Thanks to the necessity of stelanmancy it's far more expensive here than it ever was at home, and at home it wasn't necessarily cheap. His benefits outweigh his (nonetheless numerous) flaws.

He's drawing out their goodbyes, which sets Irene's teeth on edge, but she flutters and laughs and casts looks from under her eyelashes anyway, taking steps backwards and eventually turning to make her escape. If she can get a few more steps away, he'll give up on the idea of running after her and making some sort of romantic gesture, she thinks- romantic gestures don't just irritate her, they also devalue her potential blackmail material. But she can feel him take that step, suddenly overcome by his own hopeless infatuation with the dream Irene has fashioned for him, head probably filled with the notion of dropping her into the sort of kiss where the camera pans around in a 360 whirl and the music swells in the background. Well, she is in no mood to indulge him today, which was why she tried to extricate herself in the first place, knowing that she either had to leave or break character in front of him--

Only one thing for it. "Darling," Irene gasps, hand shooting out to catch the arm of a woman walking by her- a woman she has never met before. "God, I haven't seen you in forever, I thought you'd fallen off the face of Baedal. How are you?"

And from the corner of her eye, she sees the man hesitate on the verge of coming closer- and give in, saving his romantic gestures for another day. Good.

Unfortunately, the thing about this particular move- grabbing someone and pretending to be friends with them in order to discourage someone else from trying to interact with you- is that it works best if the person you grab is someone who doesn't ask questions. So, really, it's unlucky that of all the people in Baedal, Irene's hand landed on the arm of Kalinda Sharma.

[betterthansubpoenas]

Kalinda may ("may") be the type to ask questions, but she's also able to answer many of them without posing them to others. It's not difficult to recognise the plight of the woman attempting to flee an over-affectionate man, and as such, she wastes no time putting on a delighted face, placing her hands on Irene's arms before planting a kiss on her cheek.

"It's been too long! Oh, but I am so busy. Please, could you walk with me?" A hand on Irene's elbow guides her decidedly away from her misguided and amorous suitor, as if Kalinda simply hadn't noticed he was ever there. You see? The slight was entirely unintended, she's just so very distracted.

[thedominatrix]

Irene smiles like the cat that got the cream, all positive girlish glee at the prospect of meeting an old friend, keeping up the charade and the chatter until they turn a corner-- "Still very happy to commandeer people for your own nefarious purposes, I see- still, I probably wouldn't recognise you otherwise..."

And then they're firmly out of view, but Irene keeps walking with arm looped in Kalinda's like they're best friends. She gives her a grin full of teeth. "That was masterful, thanks ever so much."

[betterthansubpoenas]

And she smiles back, finding she's actually enjoyed herself quite a bit. But Kalinda always enjoys thwarting men. Or women. Just having thwarted someone in general is quite fun. "It was my pleasure. You didn't necessarily look in need of rescue, but..." She gives a shrug. Surely Irene knows what she means.

"Is he always such a problem?"

[thedominatrix]

Irene knows very well what she means. Anyway, perhaps it's true to say that she was in need of a rescue, there's no shame in that- just so long as, for the most part, she rescued herself.

"Not always, or I wouldn't put up with him. He has his advantages. You know how it is," she says, flicking her eyes over Kalinda.

Well, she doesn't know if Kalinda knows how it is, but if she does, Irene's neatly implying a level of understanding, as if they're co-conspirators, building bridges- and if she doesn't, then Irene's opinion is that she's probably not worth it anyway.

Win-win.