CoR What a Mess

[Tiko]

Location

The rail-yard warehouse

When Sel came upon Desmond in one of the halls, he was engaged in heated words with Julienne. The woman had grown since Sel had last seen her, but she looked gaunt - and if one where being fair - slightly crazed.

"Oh grow up," Desmond snapped. "Yer actin' like a child."

"Oh you're one to talk," Julienne retorted with venom laced words. "Maybe if you had BEEN there, instead of stoned off your ass."

"That's not fair and you know it," Desmond retorted angrily but steered them back on topic. "Liam is not ready to be takin' on guard duty by 'imself."

"Well someone needs to get him ready, before he ends up dead too," Julienne hissed before stalking off.

Desmond let her go with a sigh. She had been becoming more and more erratic as of late. But that one was for Ragenard to deal with.

He noticed Sel approaching and his mood improved a few degrees as he greeted her.

"ey, sorry about that. She's been 'avin a 'ard time copin'," he explained. "Did Xandre get you two settled?"

 

[Hollow glade]

The black haired woman watched their dispute from a fair distance and without interfering. She didn't want to get involved, and she couldn't fault Julienne for having a hard time coping. So she shrugged it off.

"He did, he did. We're settled, and I'm eager to get to work. So... the records?" She asked, preferring to go directly to the topic that mattered instead of dancing around it with social niceties that she didn't have the braincells for at the moment.

 

[Tiko]

Over this way," Desmond told her as he led her to a nearby door. "Afraid it's not much more than a storage closet at the moment."

He pulled a set of keys from his pocket and unlocked the door to let her in.

It was cramped inside, which made the disorganized mess all the more cluttered. A single small desk and a small safe had been placed in the room while stacks of paperwork sat on the floor next to open boxes. The documents sitting out on the floor where largely those regarding the handling of the deceased members assets that had been willed to the pack. Atop the desk were a couple insurance claims. "The Den" popped out in a few places.

There didn't seem to be any organizational system, other than to rummage through the piles to find what was needed and then not put it back where it was found.

"This is what we 'ave on 'and," Desmond said. "The more sensitive stuff is in the safe. I'll talk to Ragenard about gettin' ye' access to it later if you will be pickin' up some of Salem's work."

His voice softened just a tad as he mentioned Salem. Sel and Rhetta may not know him well yet, but he had known Salem for a good five years. That loss was being felt by old and new alike.

"We can get everythin' moved somewhere a bit more comfortable too I reckon," he added. "There's a lot of unused space around this place."

 

[Hollow glade]

She looked at the paperwork, and was pretty sure that it stared back at her somehow. Like the disorganized mess of a closet-office hybrid was a live entity. Then, she gave Desmond a very unimpressed look. Not mad, not sad, not angry. Just... She sighed.

"I'll pick up all of it, and whatever else I can take on, if Ragenard and yourself find me suitable as a substitute..." She said, and god, the words tasted like bile. They burned her throat when they came up and made her eyes water a little bit. Fuck. She wasn't going to cry. No. She didn't do that in front of people. But then she took a couple of steps in and picked up a piece of paper that had Desmonds' writing on it. It had some doodles on the side as well. She looked at it, then at her packmate. Then back at the paper, and finally... At Desmond.

 

[Tiko]

Desmond had the grace to look downright sheepish.

"I'll uh, see myself out," he said. "Before ye find the lewd ones. Need anythin' brought to ye?"

 

[Hollow glade]

She shook her head, but she did have a bit more to say to him.

"Thanks for keeping some order, even if it's... Illustrated. And what I said earlier about my name, I just don't know you Desmond, it's not personal. But I respect you and... Where you have gotten. And we're packmates even if we aren't friends, for now." She said, since she was feeling a little bit bad for being so cold about it earlier. Even if she didn't know this man, he had felt the loss just as hard. And his experience wasn't any less valid than her own. At least he had tried to keep everything together.

 

[Tiko]

"Don't sweat it," Desmond told her. "It's a hard time for everyone. I think we all wish you could 'ave come back to better news. If you do think of anythin' you need, just let me know."

 

[Hollow glade]

She nodded, and Desmond left. For the remainder of the day, she sorted through the different boxes of documents, rewrote some, and stared at more than a few of them for longer than she needed to. Then she reminded herself that she was there to straighten up the records, not to be have a personal moment of melancholy. When it turned dark and late, she took one of the boxes to the room she was staying in. She could do a little bit more before she went to sleep. And she'd return with it in the morning.