Private Barracks/Imperial Condos Innovation More gears for The Machine

[Nicolas of Iron Pit]

Guillaume sat down by the desk.

The stoat almost instantly put his sharp claws to opening the few envelopes on the prepared desk in this empty, safe for few chairs, room in the basement. Each contained a Curriculum Vitae prepared by agents who are tasked with scouting our new talents or potential threads to ministry and recruit them. This time, in his bright-brown furred paws, there were six envelopes.

According to the procedures, he was not meant to know anything about the recruits before meeting them. It was meant to keep his mind free from opinions and favouritism. As such, this was the first time he actually could see who would he be dealing with.

It was after all the best time to do it, ten minutes before all the invited recruits were meant to come inside.

---

Rue awaited in the entrance for the six beasts that were meant to be evaluated today. The black fox, wearing long, loose pants and frilly blouse, very acutely stared at the watch. They knew that whoever won't be there by the agreed time, they will already fail their first assignment. Ministry cannot allow for failures to be a part of it.

The six beasts that were meant to come today were making Rue somewhat excited about the evaluation. They of course did it long ago already, on a different grounds, but it made no difference. The characters coming in were interesting to them. From petty criminals who sought to learn and former associates to foreigners and promising engineers. The letters were delivered by the agents who scouted them for a while now and Rue, being in charge of them, were the one who approved even giving them a chance. They were all either brilliant, capable or knew enough to find a place in the ministry... or to be a danger to The Plan.

Rue was especially curious to see them tackle their section of the trial. But of course, no beast would be able to tell that just looking at them and their passive expression..

Fixing their monocle, the black fox looked at their pocket watch. Five minutes left.

And here was coming the first candidate. Just as expected.

@SwifttailTheFox @Herman Lasichin @Elliot Berkshaw @Cryle @Adelina Laska @Kaii Nashirou

 

[Cryle]

Giddy. She hadn't expected this so soon. Was it the rescuing of the patents from that horrible, fateful party? Was it from Griblo running his mouth about the machine she'd made to press shapes into paper so blind beasts could read by feeling? Or did it go all the way back to that horrible, fateful event at the workshop she'd snuck into? Or did it go further back - had they been watching her sniffing about the warehouses in Magh all her life, watching her explore the Windthrift caves, watching her trying to watch them back...?

All of it, perhaps. Her whole life felt like it was leading to this moment. But that was illogical. Her interest in this Ministry was solely because of her missing sister... Her interest in the universe had nothing to do with all their terribly terrifying bureaucracy.

Perhaps it was fate. No doubt at some point, their paths would cross. Hers, a straight line. Theirs, a sine-wave zigzagging, overlapping, constantly disrupting her life... Too many probabilities to think about the future like that. Here and now, it was time. Her time.

She'd cleaned and washed her clothes, and carried her adventuring gear with her; whip, grappling rope, telescope, toolkit, stylish hat, impeccable ruffles all down her front, pineapple candies well-stocked, her favourite pencils sharpened, and a brand new journal to take notes in. And, of course, summons in paw - the letter that had woken her roommate, Korya, with a dignified, rat-pitched "Woohoo".

She'd mapped the way to the rendezvous point, but alas, her contact with the architectural depository had failed to procure anything for the building in question. And then told her never to ask for something like that again. So that was a little worrying. But not enough to take the pep from Cryle's step!

There was a black fox, checking a pocket watch... Cryle's peppy step slowed. She arrived in front of them.

"Rascallo," she said, and then tried to bow and salute at the same time.