Post by AjentAnjel :) on Aug 3, 2006 21:46:26 GMT -5
Author Note: All characters are of my own creation, please do not plagerize my writing, and if you do enjoy and want to share with others please ask or quote giving credit where credit is due.
PS: the idea of a society accepting of every creature was inspired by Laurell K Hamilton's ANita Blake books.
INTRO:
It's so hard to tell nowadays, whose alive, whose dead, whose even human. It's been 3 years since the government put the Paranormal Act of 2057 into place. "As per the Paranormal Act of 2057, all 'creatures' (a term used very loosely) have all rights as any and all living humans. As long as said 'creatures' abide by the laws of said living humans. And said 'creatures' must acquire and maintain while in public view the appearance of said living humans." I wasn't such a fan of the Paranormal Act, but it did keep me in business.
ONE
"Welcome to Death Becomes You, my name is Samara Crimson, I'm the Founder and Director of our facility. My job, is to make you fit in, to make you human, to pass you off as one of 'them' in a society full of people that despise you and fear you. It won't be easy, and it will not be fun, but by this time next year, if I, we, here at Death Becomes You have succeeded, you will be one of 'them'." I had said this speech so many times that I read it like a play. I had the whole thing memorized, I knew when to pause, when to breath, when to sigh with just enough emotion to make it sound like I really cared. I walked around the table as if choreographed, setting down a stack of folders in front of each one of our perspective clients. After I finished performing the 'Danse of Samara', I got back to business.
"This is Brynndel, she is our Human Lifestyle Specialist," right as I said it Brynndel walked in through the door behind me like clockwork. "Brynndel is here to give you your first assessment in this process." I knew they weren't paying attention to me, but I continued any way, as the mix of vampires and lycanthropes all stared at Brynndel. I really couldn't blame them, I found myself staring at her all the time. She was beautiful, but not in a typical way, she was tall, and slender, her black as night hair was like a veil of mystery. Brynndel was exotic and her beauty demanded attention, but most importantly, she was very good at what she did.
Her voice was stern, but something about it comforted you, she spoke with dignity, "Open up the folder on top of the stack, it should be a RED folder." She listed off instructions like a drill sergeant, I expected them to say "Yes Sir" after each order she gave, but they didn't, they just did as she asked. When they were all finished with the analysis test, Brynndel collected them and left the room exactly how she entered, with all eyes on her and her high heels clacking against the hardwood floor.
I excused the guys for lunch "You only have 2 hours, and if you come back with blood on your clothes you aren't allowed back in the building". I chuckled to myself, and it didn't seem like anyone else was laughing, so I just picked up my bag and my coat, draped them over my shoulder and headed out of the conference room. I headed over to the restaurant across the street where Brynndel was waiting. We met at Ralphie's on every orientation day, to go over the folders and assessment's of the perspective clients, we never needed to ask, or tell eachother, we just went. The owner Jerry, who surprisingly was not named Ralphie, was one of the first clients I had everf had. Back when I was just a private eye Jerry was accused of killing his bride to be. Because of him being a Vampire, he had no rights, and came to me to solve the case. I tried to steer clear of the paranormal cases, but they always seemed to pay more. Right after clearing his name the Act came out, and he came to me again for help, and in return, I get to eat free at Ralphie's.
"Hey Jer" I waved as the familiar sound of the bell hanging above the door jingled in the background. I didn't listen for a response, I didn't really even expect one, I just walked back to the corner booth and sat down. Brynndel sat down with a huff, she was hot, I was hot, it was hot, very hot. But what can you expect living in Phoenix, it was at one point called Valley of the Sun. The first thing we had to do was sort the assessments into Vampires and Lycanthropes and from there we would break it down even further. Vampires would be broken down into bloodline, and Lycanthropes were broken down into species, rat, wolf, leopard, etc. Each group was assigned a color, Brynndel did the sorting and I did the color coding. After sorting we had to go through each one, check over their answers and documentation just to make sure they were legitimate, and ready for a program like ours.
After a good hour of shuffling through papers and casually eating the sandwiches we had ordered for lunch, I came across a paper that stood out to me. All of our clients were men, but the handwriting on this paper spoke differently, long lean lines, perfect cursive. It was elegant, and didn't look like it could be from any of the clients we had seen that day. Being the inquisitive mind that I am, I started looking further into the paperwork. The words belonged to a Marcus, Marcus Haffield. He was a vampire, from a bloodline originating in Russia. He was over 800 years dead, which meant, he was here for something other than becoming a citizen.
Vampires that old, didn't care about things like rights and citizenship, they care about power amongst fellow vampires, lycans, humans, they craved it. They lived solely off of fear and the illusions they casted on those weaker than them. Generally the oldest Vampire in an area, is what we refer to as the Master Vampire, or Head Vamp. Surely someone of Marcus' age was amongst one of the higher ranking Vampires in this city.
"Brynn, what do you think of this?" I handed her the paper, and pointed to the age of the Vampire, "Do you think he is lying?" I just couldn't fathom the reasons why a Vampire like Marcus would be coming to us.
"Hm, that is a little strange" Brynn said as she handed me back the paper and continued on with what she was doing. I admired Brynn for that, for a lot of reasons, unlike her, when I see something like this, I what if, and overanalyze every little aspect. Until I get so frustrated that wrong accuse someone, or push too far into something, and have to fight my way out of it. They say 'curiosity killed that cat', I am starting to adopt that as my motto, maybe my tombstone will read, 'Curiosity Killed the Samara'. See here I go again, overanalyzing the fact that I overanalyze. At that moment I decided to try something new, just set it aside, continue on with work and worry about that later when it actually posed a threat.
Brynndel and I worked quietly and quickly, we weren't really friends, just coworkers, it always seemed we were too different to spend time with eachother outside of work and have us both enjoy it. So we just decided to just be happy with the fact that we worked well together and we didn't hate eachother.
Afer finishing the paperwork we headed back to the office, this time I decided to help Brynndel carry the files, since they were pretty heavy. I got my badge out and swiped it across the reader, waiting for the green light to proceed through the door. We had just implemented the security system after a break in we had. Why someone wanted to steal files, was beside me, but it caused a lot of long nights for us here at Death Becomes You. We spent hours renaming and resubmitting papers for all the clients whose files were stolen. Luckily a few weeks before the break in, we started backing up all the paperwork to hard copies on our computers, making it a tad bit easier. We stopped by Brynn's office first so she could start entering the data into the computer, then I dropped off the rest of my sandwich in the mini-fridge in my office.
When I got back to the conference room, a few of the guys weren't back yet. Me being a fan of punctuality locked the door, and continued with the meeting. If they wanted to be here, they would have been here on time. I gave lots of chances to people that did the program, but the first day wasn't the place to make a mistake. First impressions may not always be the best impressions, but they are normally the most honest.
At four o'clock the clock chimed four times, signalling there was about an hour left to the day. I had one more speech to give about the importance of the program and this company, a few more forms to fill out and sign, and then the clients would be free to go.
PS: the idea of a society accepting of every creature was inspired by Laurell K Hamilton's ANita Blake books.
INTRO:
It's so hard to tell nowadays, whose alive, whose dead, whose even human. It's been 3 years since the government put the Paranormal Act of 2057 into place. "As per the Paranormal Act of 2057, all 'creatures' (a term used very loosely) have all rights as any and all living humans. As long as said 'creatures' abide by the laws of said living humans. And said 'creatures' must acquire and maintain while in public view the appearance of said living humans." I wasn't such a fan of the Paranormal Act, but it did keep me in business.
ONE
"Welcome to Death Becomes You, my name is Samara Crimson, I'm the Founder and Director of our facility. My job, is to make you fit in, to make you human, to pass you off as one of 'them' in a society full of people that despise you and fear you. It won't be easy, and it will not be fun, but by this time next year, if I, we, here at Death Becomes You have succeeded, you will be one of 'them'." I had said this speech so many times that I read it like a play. I had the whole thing memorized, I knew when to pause, when to breath, when to sigh with just enough emotion to make it sound like I really cared. I walked around the table as if choreographed, setting down a stack of folders in front of each one of our perspective clients. After I finished performing the 'Danse of Samara', I got back to business.
"This is Brynndel, she is our Human Lifestyle Specialist," right as I said it Brynndel walked in through the door behind me like clockwork. "Brynndel is here to give you your first assessment in this process." I knew they weren't paying attention to me, but I continued any way, as the mix of vampires and lycanthropes all stared at Brynndel. I really couldn't blame them, I found myself staring at her all the time. She was beautiful, but not in a typical way, she was tall, and slender, her black as night hair was like a veil of mystery. Brynndel was exotic and her beauty demanded attention, but most importantly, she was very good at what she did.
Her voice was stern, but something about it comforted you, she spoke with dignity, "Open up the folder on top of the stack, it should be a RED folder." She listed off instructions like a drill sergeant, I expected them to say "Yes Sir" after each order she gave, but they didn't, they just did as she asked. When they were all finished with the analysis test, Brynndel collected them and left the room exactly how she entered, with all eyes on her and her high heels clacking against the hardwood floor.
I excused the guys for lunch "You only have 2 hours, and if you come back with blood on your clothes you aren't allowed back in the building". I chuckled to myself, and it didn't seem like anyone else was laughing, so I just picked up my bag and my coat, draped them over my shoulder and headed out of the conference room. I headed over to the restaurant across the street where Brynndel was waiting. We met at Ralphie's on every orientation day, to go over the folders and assessment's of the perspective clients, we never needed to ask, or tell eachother, we just went. The owner Jerry, who surprisingly was not named Ralphie, was one of the first clients I had everf had. Back when I was just a private eye Jerry was accused of killing his bride to be. Because of him being a Vampire, he had no rights, and came to me to solve the case. I tried to steer clear of the paranormal cases, but they always seemed to pay more. Right after clearing his name the Act came out, and he came to me again for help, and in return, I get to eat free at Ralphie's.
"Hey Jer" I waved as the familiar sound of the bell hanging above the door jingled in the background. I didn't listen for a response, I didn't really even expect one, I just walked back to the corner booth and sat down. Brynndel sat down with a huff, she was hot, I was hot, it was hot, very hot. But what can you expect living in Phoenix, it was at one point called Valley of the Sun. The first thing we had to do was sort the assessments into Vampires and Lycanthropes and from there we would break it down even further. Vampires would be broken down into bloodline, and Lycanthropes were broken down into species, rat, wolf, leopard, etc. Each group was assigned a color, Brynndel did the sorting and I did the color coding. After sorting we had to go through each one, check over their answers and documentation just to make sure they were legitimate, and ready for a program like ours.
After a good hour of shuffling through papers and casually eating the sandwiches we had ordered for lunch, I came across a paper that stood out to me. All of our clients were men, but the handwriting on this paper spoke differently, long lean lines, perfect cursive. It was elegant, and didn't look like it could be from any of the clients we had seen that day. Being the inquisitive mind that I am, I started looking further into the paperwork. The words belonged to a Marcus, Marcus Haffield. He was a vampire, from a bloodline originating in Russia. He was over 800 years dead, which meant, he was here for something other than becoming a citizen.
Vampires that old, didn't care about things like rights and citizenship, they care about power amongst fellow vampires, lycans, humans, they craved it. They lived solely off of fear and the illusions they casted on those weaker than them. Generally the oldest Vampire in an area, is what we refer to as the Master Vampire, or Head Vamp. Surely someone of Marcus' age was amongst one of the higher ranking Vampires in this city.
"Brynn, what do you think of this?" I handed her the paper, and pointed to the age of the Vampire, "Do you think he is lying?" I just couldn't fathom the reasons why a Vampire like Marcus would be coming to us.
"Hm, that is a little strange" Brynn said as she handed me back the paper and continued on with what she was doing. I admired Brynn for that, for a lot of reasons, unlike her, when I see something like this, I what if, and overanalyze every little aspect. Until I get so frustrated that wrong accuse someone, or push too far into something, and have to fight my way out of it. They say 'curiosity killed that cat', I am starting to adopt that as my motto, maybe my tombstone will read, 'Curiosity Killed the Samara'. See here I go again, overanalyzing the fact that I overanalyze. At that moment I decided to try something new, just set it aside, continue on with work and worry about that later when it actually posed a threat.
Brynndel and I worked quietly and quickly, we weren't really friends, just coworkers, it always seemed we were too different to spend time with eachother outside of work and have us both enjoy it. So we just decided to just be happy with the fact that we worked well together and we didn't hate eachother.
Afer finishing the paperwork we headed back to the office, this time I decided to help Brynndel carry the files, since they were pretty heavy. I got my badge out and swiped it across the reader, waiting for the green light to proceed through the door. We had just implemented the security system after a break in we had. Why someone wanted to steal files, was beside me, but it caused a lot of long nights for us here at Death Becomes You. We spent hours renaming and resubmitting papers for all the clients whose files were stolen. Luckily a few weeks before the break in, we started backing up all the paperwork to hard copies on our computers, making it a tad bit easier. We stopped by Brynn's office first so she could start entering the data into the computer, then I dropped off the rest of my sandwich in the mini-fridge in my office.
When I got back to the conference room, a few of the guys weren't back yet. Me being a fan of punctuality locked the door, and continued with the meeting. If they wanted to be here, they would have been here on time. I gave lots of chances to people that did the program, but the first day wasn't the place to make a mistake. First impressions may not always be the best impressions, but they are normally the most honest.
At four o'clock the clock chimed four times, signalling there was about an hour left to the day. I had one more speech to give about the importance of the program and this company, a few more forms to fill out and sign, and then the clients would be free to go.
