multiversallogs | i hum your name and walk across corpses

Who: Integra Hellsing and Mina Barrett.
What: It's hard to turn down seeking out job opportunities when the suggestion is given to you by Dracula.
Where: The Hellsing Guild Hall.
When: Calling it ~~Saturday~~ Sukkardi night, for ease?
Notes: I got nothin'.
Warnings: Will edit if needed.

Unlike most businesses, after nightfall is when things really begin to pick up at Hellsing. Deliveries from contacts who can't make the trip during the day, more agents coming and going, the occasional grudging visit from something someone didn't quite kill That One Time - be it a mundane evening or the odd night when everything goes completely crazy, the hours cast in the dark are always busier than the ones in the light.

It's why Integra is presently out of her office and standing in the middle of the street in front of the hall itself, smoking a cigarette and checking out the enormous acid-like circular burn left on the pavement with two other employees. While it's certainly not immediately professional to be rubbernecking at the damage done by some godawful thing that's been brought in, she'd had to come out anyway to lend a hand in damage control - there's still gore and ichor on her boots, splattered on her shirt and trousers.

It's not such an uncommon sight.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

For the most part, it sounded vaguely like the traditions. Except the part about not feeding on the unwilling. As far as Mina knew, there was no such thing as willing. Not without a serious Masquerade breach. She sighed. "We have similar rules." She ticked them off on her fingers, reciting them almost mindlessly. "Do not reveal your true nature to those not of the Blood. Doing so forfeits you your claim to the Blood. Sire another at the peril of both yourself and your progeny. If you create a childe, the weight is your own to bear. You are forbidden from devouring the heartsblood of another of your kind. If you violate this commandment, the Beast calls to your own Blood."

Mina shrugged. "Not being the maternal sort, I have no desire to Embrace anyone, so that's not a problem. And being an upholder of the Masquerade, I'm not inclined to harm or terrorize anyone. Well, terrorize anyone. I'll harm anyone who tries to harm me, of course. But that's a separate issue from my Kindred nature. That's self defense."

There was the matter of the Hippocratic Oath, but Mina separated it, in her mind, from her work as an Amazon.

"In any case, I'm not that kind of vampire."

"Then I doubt we'll have any problems." Good. It's all very convenient, so many of the vampires from other worlds being well-behaved. Integra isn't used to any besides Seras who aren't mindless killers. (Alucard is... something else.) "If you'd like to maintain your Masquerade, you should be able to. It is my business to recognize vampires, and outside this organization, it isn't a much-worked gift."

With that out of the way, Integra finds a pen and a sheet of paper and starts writing down a number of inquiries - Mina's contemporary year, her medical focus, notable cases she's worked on, so on and so forth. Hellsing doesn't have a standard application form, considering it's impossible to tailor anything in Baedal. As she writes: "Hellsing is, currently, the only presence in the city that deals with supernatural threats against civilians. The Militia will handle a situation that happens to be supernatural if it's within their scope and ability, as will district police, but as a whole, the city was in a rather sore state of things before I arrived. Baedal being isolated like it is, we aren't gifted with a plethora of options dealing with offenders. Our work is often unpleasant, violent, and while we do extend offers of help and support to those who want it, the aggressive nature of the entities we combat means we do not ask more than once. My agents fight to kill. We have no jail for monsters. Does any of that bother you?"

Edited 2011-05-18 01:05 (UTC)

Rigid. That was the word Mina had been searching for to describe this woman. Very, very rigid. Not that it was a bad thing. The position doubtlessly called for such a personality. Mina didn't envy it, not at all. She had never had aspirations to positions of authority. They were given to her, from time to time, but never sought.

She shrugged again. "I'm a medic. I'm being hired to clean up the mess afterwards, not to judge."

Mina bridged her fingers again, glancing down at her rings. She was feeling just miserable now. Mina hated feeling miserable. She worked so hard to cultivate a certain image for herself; carefree, frivolous, dare she say it, pointless. Baedal would not allow her the luxury of playing pretend. Her feelings were dangerously close to the surface now. She felt lonely and overwhelmed and just...raw.

Well. No matter.

"Is there anything else you need to know?"

Integra isn't called the Iron Virgin for nothing - she is a warrior, and a shadow government cabal member, and a Knight of the Round Table, and a military politician. It's a strange, difficult life, but one she was born into, and has no desire to change. Some people might call it unfair, that she was never given a choice - but Integra finds the sacrifice of one person's life to do a job no one else can to be a very small thing. What is she missing, anyway? Prom night? Pub crawls? She's human; she has one small lifespan in which she must make an impact. This is fine.

"Judging in itself isn't my concern," Integra says, and looks at her with a frank stare. "This is the atmosphere you will be exposed to, and required to maintain confidence concerning. It is not easy work, even as a medic." She passes Mina the paper she's written out, as well as something pre-printed, a basic rundown of Hellsing's operations from a public perspective. Then her gaze gentles slightly - it's not actually sympathetic, but carries less of her hard edge. "Take this, look it over, and consider it for a while. Get used to the city. You needn't process everything in one instant."

Mina accepted the paper without batting an eye. "I'll take a look," she said simply, folding it into three and putting it in the hidden pocket inside of her blazer. "I assume I can contact you over the network with any sorts of questions?"

That was one thing Baedal had going for it. The CiD network. Far more efficient than Chicago's Ghoul Network. And hopefully a bit more private, although Mina wasn't ready to count on that just yet. Somehow, the other shoe always managed to fall, just a soon as she started getting comfortable. Life was funny that way.

Standing up, Mina's mind wandered. She decided she needed to find a pub. Not a dodgy speakeasy or upscale wine bar. No. What she needed as a noisy, crowded room, filled with people who were singing extremely offkey. Perhaps even some dancing. Mina hated dancing, but right now, it might be the ideal tonic to this miserable place with its miserable people.

Somehow, she doubted she'd get directions to one from Integra. "Thank you very much for seeing me. I realize this was...impromptu."

She nods, rising. "I'm easily reachable." Perhaps not promptly, considering her schedule, but Integra always makes sure to get back to anyone who reaches out to her as soon as possible.

"Please, think nothing of it. I'm glad to speak with you." And she means that - she may be austere, and she may not understand... whatever it is that's going on with Mina, presently, but it's been interesting, and she'd rather know than not. (It's a pity Mina won't ask her about bars - Integra knows where everything in the city is.)

"If you need anything, don't hesitate to contact myself or one of my agents."

"I think all I need right now is a pub," Mina said, a bit tartly, perhaps, but she supposed she had a right to be in a sour mood. Then again, she often had that right and chose not to abuse it. She supposed she was just too far out of her own domain. Tomorrow, she decided, she would return to her old ways, cultivating a certain reputation for herself. But tonight, tonight she would indulge.

She offered Integra a hand, despite the fact that their last handshake had put her off. "A pleasure."

They're all out of their own domains. It's how they choose to react to it that dictates how each person behaves - Integra, for her part, has chosen to shove this world under her bloody boot heel just like the last two she was in. (It's a thing.)

"The Ankh in the village here is pleasant," she says. "In Badside, southeast of the distinct the arrival Inn is at, there are establishments that cater to the undead." Integra takes her hand, grip firm, and gives her a small small. "You as well. Have a good evening, Doctor."

Oh. So maybe she did know how to have fun.

Maybe.

She would have to file away that information for now.

Mina pulled her hand back. "Mina," she said, lightly. "I honestly have no love of titles. Probably because I have so many of them." Doctor. Primogen. Corporal. Hierophant. And, in some circles, 'that brazen hussy.' That one was probably her favorite. And then, of course, there was her real name. But that was buried deeper than her emotions generally were. Especially in light of Chicago.

"Good evening."

"Mina. Good night."

And that that, Integra's back to work - well, she's got to fire off a few messages about 'the Masquerade' first, but that's all just more work. (Sigh, vampires.) At least life's never boring.

i hum your name and walk across corpses

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