[turboheaven] catchall for ali

[jiaohua]

they held hands so they ARE friends now

Comments

week 0, saturday

[jiaohua]

[well! that sure was a trial.

once it's over and they leave the church, waner just heads straight for the garden in the park instead. who cares if it's late? she needs some fresh air. and maybe a walk among the flowers will help her get her head on straight again.

she nods when she hears the footsteps of someone approaching, though. hello.]

[smokeandglasses]

[Honestly? Not a bad idea. Ali had the same idea too.

When he looks up and sees her, he smiles.]

Looks like we had the same thought.

[jiaohua]

It seems so.

[she is not smiling, but that's mainly because she only just got here and hasn't had the chance to calm down yet.]

...I imagine that was very different from how your bank fraud cases tend to go.

[smokeandglasses]

Very much so.

[He tries to keep the smile up, but eventually he sighs and runs a hand through his hair. It's a bit unusual, since it messes up his normally well-styled look.]

This is more Concord's thing than mine. If he had been here, he would have known what to do.

[jiaohua]

..."Concord"? A friend of yours?

[smokeandglasses]

...I suppose that's an accurate description, yes. He's one of the generals in my country's military. Generally speaking, he handles physical tasks while I handle mental ones.

[jiaohua]

He is the brawn to your brain?

[smokeandglasses]

Pretty much, yeah. He's 200 centimeters tall and built like a brick wall, most find him to be physically imposing.

[jiaohua]

And how do you find him?

[she saw him flustering over the beefcakes at strip check.]

[smokeandglasses]

[Noooo don't see him like that!!!]

I'm the head of the treasury department and provide monthly expense reports to the other departments within the government. It just so happens that, as a general, Concord gets to sit in on those meetings during peacetime.

[More like he's forced to by the king, but details.]

[jiaohua]

Ah, so you see him quite frequently. Enough that you do not find him physically imposing, perhaps?

[smokeandglasses]

[Well yeah, he lives with the guy- I mean.]

Well that's not a fair comparison. Nobody of any size intimidates me.

[jiaohua]

No one at all?

[smokeandglasses]

Not anyone I have seen yet.

[jiaohua]

How impressive.

[smokeandglasses]

It's hard to be scared of any of them here anyway. They all stripped down so easily after one request.

[The secret is that he thinks big, buff men are attractive and he's not scared of what he's attracted to.]

[jiaohua]

...it was a reasonable request, really. We were trying to catch a murderer.

[...]

And even then they kept the important parts covered up.

[smokeandglasses]

[...]

In most cases it would have been a flawed test. Someone who has committed a crime wouldn't willingly submit to a search that would catch them.

[jiaohua]

Mm... we did have enough people refusing that Sir Jing Yuan could have refused as well and blended right in. Perhaps he thought if he cooperated and offered to show the parts that he knew would be unharmed, we would not ask to see the others.

[smokeandglasses]

There is that. But everyone has their secrets they want to keep hidden. I don't think many people will be cooperative going forward regardless.

[He'll help but he will never strip willingly. He's got his own secrets to keep.]

[jiaohua]

It would be preferable if there was no need for them to be cooperative or uncooperative, moving forward.

[if she has to do another trial she will simply perish.]

[smokeandglasses]

...there's that too, yes.

[He sighs.]

Is this what heaven is truly supposed to be like?

[jiaohua]

It does not feel like it to me.

[smokeandglasses]

I wonder if there's any chance we ended up in hell instead.

[It's honestly where he expected to end up, if his life didn't end in nothingness.]

[jiaohua]

That is a very grim thought.