2013.08.23 - Dead Men Don't Have Causes

This room has seen better days. While it's not in a state of disrepair, the furniture, internal decor, and overall "feel" of the place is very old. Just outside the elevator is a hard wooden bench, the sort you might see in old movies. Next to the bench is an old style coat stand, and a standing ash tray. There's another bench like it lining each of the exterior walls and at the rear of the room is a wall. The three exterior walls are covered in an old, smoke yellowed pinstripe style wallpaper, in stark contrast from the middle wall. From the floor to perhaps waist height it is wooden paneling, all of dark stained wood, and then above are panes of glass that have been frosted white. In the center of the wall is a single door, framed in the same dark stained wood, but made entirely of what appears to be a single pane of frosted dimpled glass. On the door in gold lettering are the words:

Johnnie G. Carmichal - Chief Investigator

In front of the door and to the left is a desk with some file cabinets behind against the half glass wall, and on the desk is an old fashioned looking rotary telephone. The cord is straight, rather than spiraled giving clue to the vintage of this equipment. The floor itself is covered in a thin beige carpeting that looks as though it might have been quite nice and stylish at one time but has since become worn, and a bit ragged.

Past the door, this office is neither very large, nor very small. Measuring perhaps fifteen feet by fifteen feet it makes use of its footprint nicely. At the rear of the room is an old fashioned wooden desk, behind which sits an old rather worn office style chair of wood. To the left of the desk are several filing cabinets and towards the front of the room is a sofa that looks as though it might have been rescued from the street before the trash collectors could cart it away. All and all though the upholstery on it is still in good condition, and the cushions look very soft and comfortable.

The desk itself is cluttered with various papers, an ashtray, and a lamp which seems to be the only source of light in the room. The glow from the lamp casts a dim light throughout, leaving many and varied shadows. Next to the door is yet another coat rack of the old fashioned wooden variety, standing stoically as if guarding the door, and in the rear of the office is yet another door, of solid wooden construction, with an old brass knob, and an old fashioned keyhole.

It's morning, and Jocelyn is scheduled to work today. So the teenager is in the office, working on some paperwork, paying off some of the bills, that sort of thing that her job as secretary requires. It wasn't just being a secretary, in some ways, but she was also taking care of some of the things that were more modern than John usually dealt with. Online payments and things like that. Nobody has stopped in yet this morning, but that was normal, because it was still early. Besides, it gave Jocelyn a chance to catch up on some of the paperwork she needed to do.

"BZZZZZT" comes the intercom from John's office, followed by his voice. "Miss Stream, can I see you in my office please?" he says "And if you could, turn on the bug scrambler, and sound suppressers on your way in?" at that, the intercom clicks off.

John hadn't entered through the front, so it was likely he had either slipped in ghost-style (which he seldom did), or he slept here the night before (which he more often did). He had been in and out of the office more sporadically lately, and gone for a day or two at a time, which wasn't totally unusual, except that it had been happening lately with MUCH more frequency.

Jocelyn pushes the intercom button. "Right way". She locks the computer, stands, and goes to turn on the requested devices. Satisfied that they're working, the girl then steps into John's office. She's half-expecting to find a rollaway cot or something of that nature. Usually she checks to see if the man is already in his office when she arrives, but today she hadn't, her mind occupied with other things on it. She had to make some tough calls soon, she knew.

As for his disappearances, Jocelyn had figured he was either on a case or on something SHIELD related. While he hadn't outright told her anything, he'd 'told' her plenty with heavy hinting, so Jocelyn had enough of an idea of what was going on to put things together. Jocelyn suspected, however, that may have been deliberate. If nothing else, you learn a bit of deductive reasoning working for a detective.

John is behind his desk, looking clean and sober, and not rumpled like he did when he slept here on the sofa. Of course, he's got a bit of an apartment/flop on the roof access shed of the building, which has stairs that lead to this office, so, chances are he had slept up there, if he had slept anywhere in the building.

He looks up and smiles, and stands to greet her, stepping around his desk and giving her a warm, and gentle hug. (Something he had begun doing since his mood had markedly improved in the convening weeks they'd known one another) "Mornin' Jocelyn...." he says "please, take a seat....I have a problem, and I'm really -really- hoping you can help me with it...well, I'm hoping we can help one another." he says.

Jocelyn accepts the hug, then takes the seat as requested. "What's the trouble?" Jocelyn asks easily. She suspected he must have another mutant case. That tended to be what he asked of her, when it wasn't asking her about advice for talking to a girl in this day and age. She's fairly relaxed at this point, mostly because she doesn't know exactly what John is going to be asking. She was glad to see the man had improved his overall mood lately. It would certainly help him drum up more business, if nothing else!

"Well, it's like this...." John begins, and then pauses, his lip pursing as he seems to think on how to continue his thought. "You knew I took that case a few weeks back concerning mutants..." he says "And even though he had asked it remain confidential, I told you it was for the Genoshan Imperator, right? You remember?" he asks.

A nod is given. "You had some pretty strong opinions about it, if I remember correctly. A bit conflicted, it seemed," Jocelyn offers. Any conversation that started out with the Genoshan Imperator being mentioned was bound to be two things. It was going to be interesting and it was going to be dangerous. Jocelyn, who had been in a bit more of 'secretary' mode, perks up a little as this conversation starts. This was something that required more focus than just about anything else John could be speaking about, in Jocelyn's mind.

John nods back and lights a cigarette. "Right...well, I'm still conflicted, but that has to remain between you, me, and these walls." he says "Please." he says "Listen, here's the thing....Magneto has asked me to join his cause..." he says "For reasons I don't wanna discuss I have agreed to work with him." he says "Your friend Odame...." he frowns "Well, he got involved with him too...but now he's disappeared." he says "I don't know if you've heard any of this or not...." he adds "But I liked your friend Odame the couple times I met him. He seemed like an upright kinda fella..."

"Well, he can be a little bit shifty at times," Jocelyn conceeds about Kwabena, not noticing the indirect pun she made as she speaks. Ah well. Nobody here would appreciate it anyway. The girl does raise her eyebrow at the statement that he was going to join Magneto's cause, and her mind starts racing. Either he was infiltrating it like he'd talked about, or he really did believe in it. One of the two. Jocelyn was betting on the former, but couldn't discount the latter.

A frown is given at the news Kwabena had gotten involved with Magneto. "I haven't heard much about him since the last time we talked about it, I'm afraid". Which was technically true. She'd heard from him, but not about him. There was a difference! "He's a good guy, all in all".

John nods again "Well, he seemed decent enough the first time I tracked him down..." he says "Here's the problem, Magneto wants me to track him down again....and I really don't wanna do it." he says "I don't think the Imperator has his best interests at heart, and frankly he's your friend, which means I'm his friend too, whether he likes it or not." he says

"So...if you know how to get in touch with him, or can get a message to these X-men he's supposed to be involved with...." he says "I would appreciate it. Let them know Magneto's set me on the trail...and I'd really rather not find him." he says "Also...if you could have them contact me...." he says "or give me some way of contacting them...." he shrugs and sighs.

"Jocelyn I'm sort of in a bind here..." he says "I don't trust Magneto's aims...he talks a good game, but he's up to something bigger than we're all seeing...." he sighs "So I feel like it's my duty to stay close, and do what I can to lessen the impact of whatever game he's playing. But I have to maintain the belief that I'm his guy...." he says "I don't know if you can get word to these X-men or not....but if you can..." he says leaving it hanging "Tell them I want to help make sure Magneto doesn't drop anymore mountains on people."

There is a touch of shock on Jocelyn's face when John speaks, and she doesn't speak until the man has finished speaking. "You mean the X-Men are real?" Jocelyn asks. "I mean, you hear rumors, but, well, geez". Jocelyn leans back in her chair, arms crossed as she thinks that over. Now, technically she's not a member of the X-Men. And she can't tell John she's heading on an undercover mission into Genosha herself. "If I find anyone who might have a connection, I can try and pass the word, though they're apparently real good at keeping their existance secret. It would help if I could tell them a metahuman was looking though. Wouldn't drop your name until I'm talking to them though. If the X-Men are real, they're not going to take well to a human detective nosing around Genosha and the X-Men".

Jocelyn shakes her head. "If I manage to track down Kwabena, I'll let him know. If he's disappeared from Magneto's service, chances are he's gone as far to ground as he can, then dug himself a deeper hole to hide in," she adds. "Did you find some way to prevent yourself from being scanned by Magneto's telepaths?" she asks.

John just shrugs "If you can get in touch with Odame, tell him what I said. And I don't know if these so called X-men are real, or not. Magneto believes so....he warned me to look out for them, told me they were enemies, and dangerous." he says "Showed me a bunch of pictures, but only one of them stood out." he says "A blue guy who looked like a devil out of some kids comic." he says "Fact is, I met that guy...Karl..no Kurt..Kurt Wagner, that's his name." he says "He seemed like a pretty decent fella to me too, so when Magneto told me he was dangerous, and an enemy...well.." he just shrugs "Said he was an X-man..." he says taking a drag off his smoke. "Not yet...." he says "But Rain is working on it for me....so far so good." he says and shrugs "But it aint like they can kill me, is it?" he says "if I disappear, look for me in Genosha." he says "I'll probably be locked up somehow...but alive."

"Can you describe the others in the pictures? I might know some of them," Jocelyn says. She makes note that Kurt was included. So Magneto's intelligence was outdated. That was good to know. "That would make it easier for me to track them down, especially if any of them are as distinctive as a blue devil". Then she could, in theory, make some connections if needed.

"No idea how he'd lock you up," Jocelyn admits. "If you disappear for too long, I'll look for you there," she says.

"That actually brings me to the other bit of news. If you're going to be in and out, and I've got school coming up fast. This was going to be a summer thing, working as a secretary. I'm still fine working with you on things, but I think my schedule is going to prevent me from doing my secretarial duties in the near future," Jocelyn offers. "It's actually my first chance at a bit of a real education, and I want to make sure I take it. I know the timing is awful, but the school calendar waits for nobody".

John's brows knit as he thinks back, and then shakes his head. "no, no, I don't think I can." he says "he showed me several pictures, but I was so shocked with that Wagner fella's picture being up there, I sort of missed the rest of the photos." he says shaking his head. "Rookie mistake really, but then I also don't have one of them photographic memories that some people have either. I'm good, just not that good." he adds.

"Anyway, I think I can track down this Wagner fella on my own, I just figured you might know how to get in touch with Odame directly, and didn't want to track down this Wagner fella and find out he actually IS someone I need to put down instead of on the side of the angles as it were." he says and shrugs. "I'd put nothing past Magneto, doll...weren't you the one who told ME that?" he asks concerning being locked up.

"Dollface, you go to school." he says "Don't worry about me, or this place...we'll both be here when next summer rolls around. Besides, I have a feeling Rain might be willing to help out while you're gone..." he says "But...I do hope you aren't gonna be a stranger...you know you're still my best friend...well, best friend still alive anyway." he says.

"Alright," Jocelyn says with a nod. "If I hear anything, I'll let you know, and you know how to get in touch with me. I'll finish up this stuff here today, and then I'll let Rain take over. Glad you've got someone else to pick up on it. Otherwise, I'd be able to give you a list of people who might be good fits," Jocelyn suggests easily. She stands up and offers him a hand.

"Been good working for you, boss. Keep safe out there," the woman says. "I'll be by to check on you, and make sure Rain doesn't mess up the system too much," the girl jokes. "Just don't expect to see too much of that for the first month or so of settling into school," she admits.

John takes her hand and then drags her into a tight, meaningful hug "The pleasure has been all mine, dollface..." he says "Still gonna need to see you as often as possible. Rain's far too nice to tell me when I'm being a complete palooka, and using words that might get me stabbed." he says "And yeah actually if you've got some good suggestions let me know. Rain's probably okay, but with her magic and stuff, she might accidentally make one of these computer's try and eat someone or something." he says with a chuckle.

"But don't you worry about me, hear? Just look after yourself....and know *I* will be looking in on *you* from time to time too...." he says.

Jocelyn chuckles. "I expect nothing less, and I'll get you that list," Jocelyn says. And with that, if she's excused, Jocelyn will head back to her desk to finish things out before leaving her job for the final time. Next stop: Genosha.