Introductory Communication Studies 101

[tactician]

It wasn't like any of the decor on his home planet, which was, served to say, non-existent and in the few cases where it wasn't, almost painfully efficient. 'Decor' was a foreign concept that his home society hadn't found any need for and therefore had quickly and thoughtlessly abandoned. That wasn't to say, however, that the environment was gaudy. There was an understated sense of class and style in the few furnishings that decorated the waiting lobby, noticeable in the fine color and quality of the polished wooden doors, in the understated color of the paneled walls, the low-pile textile covering the floor - not that Calibri could tell.

"My essay was about the volunteer Peace Corp mission I participated in during my senior year of Intermediary Education," said one of the other students awaiting an interview, leaning forward on his plush-cushioned seat. His tone of voice was boastful, proud. He was waving his hands animatedly while the other student listened with an air of forced interest. "It was a third-world planet, you see! They hadn't even settled on a way to collect solar energy, can you imagine?"

How curious, thought Calibri, sliding the toe of his shoe across the wine-colored carpet. What's the purpose of putting something soft under your shoes?

"Nathaniel H. Calibri," intoned the mechanical announcer, tacked to a wall adjacent to the double doors leading to the would-be-benefactor of whoever won the scholarship competition. The doors swung open automatically, wide and synchronized with each other, before the previous interviewee walked dejectedly out, dragging his feet on the carpet.

Calibri stood up as his name was called, neither intimidated nor nervous. (He only briefly wondered if that was the purpose of the plush flooring after all - friction? Maybe the generated heat was recycled and re-purposed elsewhere on the ship.) He bypassed the other students without even a glance of acknowledgement and strode through the entrance into an even more ornate office - brightly lit by glass windows covered with sheer curtains and an entirely inefficient use of space, considering how far apart all the furniture was.

He strode right up to the large desk occupying the center of the room, careful to drag his feet as much as possible as to provide the maximum friction and contribution (he might as well, while he was here). "Present, sir."

Comments

[pugsmuggler]

With a sweep of the hand, Garamond casually pushed Danny away from the case a good five steps. He held onto a pleasant smile. "That wouldn't be a good idea, Danny," he said. "Most of those will kill you if you drink them. And not an entirely painless way, either. Why don't you get some juice from the cabinet, hm?"

[tactician]

Calibri ran his fingers over the smooth bumps of the glass containers, picking out one after another - a small test tube of clear, colorless liquid, only slightly more viscous than water, a watery dark substance that resembled black ink, clinging to the walls of its container in spiderweb patterns whenever it was jostled, a transparent yellow-green mixture with specks of something fine and glittery mixed evenly throughout. He held each of these up to the light and examined them closely. "These won't kill you, if you're interested," he said to Danny, ever so helpfully.

He turned his eyes up to Garamond, curious. "Are you giving me them?"

Random thought: does Calibri speak bug language

[kobacake]

Danny stumbled back as he was pushed, disappearing behind the desk again as he stepped off the drawer back onto the carpet. His eyes widened at the mention that the liquids in the case could hurt him and shrank back a few more steps with a whine.

Following his father's advice (and rather wanting to put some distance between himself and that case), he walked back to a large liquor cabinet against the far wall. With a bit of difficulty he pulled open one of the large double doors. Inside the cabinet was an array of bottles filled with liquids as strange and varied as the ones in Calibri's case. Of course, Danny wasn't interested in any of these. He reached onto the third shelf from the bottom and procured from amidst the alcohol a Super Juicy™ 100% Tangy Amora Fruit with Vitamin C for Healthy Kids! juice box. Score.

A good question

[pugsmuggler]

"I planned on it," Garamond said with a smile. "I'd like to see you expand your research. Unfortunately I couldn't get the clearance for you to leave with them on your flight, but I can pull a few strings and have them mailed. Just don't let anyone catch you with them. That'd get me in a bit of trouble, you know."

Yes. He does.

[tactician]

Wordlessly, Calibri looked from the garishly bright-colored juice box in Danny's hand to Danny himself, then to his father and finally at the questionable gift of highly lethal substances he had just been gifted. After only a moment, his hand shut the metal-plated box with a cushioned 'thud.'

"Oh," he said, looking so intently at the Amora Fruit Juice that it might as well have been the Vitamin C high-fructose liquid he was speaking to. "You're criminals."

clicklickclickclickclick click chirp

[kobacake]

For a moment the only sound in the room was the slurping of liquid through the small plastic juicebox straw. Danny frowned, looking at Calibri like he'd said something moronic. "Criniminals are bad guys, idiot!! We aren't bad guys."

[pugsmuggler]

“I prefer to call it above the government,” Garamond said pleasantly, sliding the box back to his side of the table. “Of course, if you don’t want the gift, that’s fine too. What we’re doing here is purely an act of generosity, I can assure you that much. We like to see bright children climb the ladder up to high society. You are our future, after all."

[tactician]

A hand shot out and slapped down on the surface of the box in mid-slide with a surprising amount of force. Calibri may not have looked intimidating in stature and appearance - soft-spoken, perfectly groomed and not exactly tall or largely built for his age, but the entire table still rattled with the force of the impact, even if the owner of said hand still didn't have a hair out of place.

"Please don't misunderstand," he said mildly, the incline of his head making the artificial lighting of the room glance off his glasses, hiding one of his eyes from view from underneath that blond fringe. "I was merely making an objective statement, sir."

[kobacake]

Danny jumped as Calibri slammed his hand on the case. As he looked up at Calibri's face, glasses glinting and eye obscured, a chill ran through his body and he suddenly decided it seemed like a better idea to watch the exchange from behind the safety of his father's chair. This guy had a creepy face AND hated cheeseburgers... There had to be something wrong with him.

[pugsmuggler]

A smirk tugged on Garamond's lips as the box was locked under the anchoring weight of Calibri's hands. He relented his grip, rolling a subtle shrug off of his shoulders, and the small rumble that shook his chest suggested he was laughing. It wasn't the usual guffaw. It was muted. This boy, he thought, was interesting. The essay had said as much, but Calibri somehow exceeded the impression he had left in his written words. This boy was either a genius or a psychopath.

"You are smart," Garamond said, amused.

[tactician]

If Danny thought the obscured eyes were scary, then the small smirk that just barely quirked the corners of his mouth up must have been more so. It was the first show of obvious emotion on the teenager's face since beginning the interview, and upon catching sight of Danny hiding behind his father's chair, it became a fraction more pronounced.

"Now that," he said, sliding the box of poisons back to his side of the table, "was a prerequisite, I believe."

(This boy could have been both.)

[kobacake]

If anyone was a criminal, it was definitely this guy. Danny was sure of it. He gulped as Calibri's smirk settled on him.

"Boss," he whispered, though not nearly quietly enough to keep Calibri from hearing, "he gives me the creeps."

[deductivedoctor]

"Nothing to be scared of," Garamond reassured Danny. "There's no need to be rude to Calibri. In fact, I think he's shown himself to be a very promising candidate."

He turned his eye on Calibri.

"About that contract," he said. "Have you reached a decision?"

[tactician]

"I'm not a criminal," he informed Danny shortly. "The Borinian Embassy Chlorophide-Amphemine incident was an accident." And he had made sure it had been scrubbed from his record before applying to any universities to begin with.

"I accept the terms of your arrangement," Calibri answered Garamond, latching the box shut now and carefully gathering it to his chest. It seemed large and bulky against his frame in comparison, like his thin arms weren't strong enough to carry the weight of it, but his embrace held tight and firm regardless. "In return for a covered tuition to any university of my choice, I will be under contract for you upon graduation."

[kobacake]

Danny narrowed his eyes skeptically. He had no clue whatever Calibri'd said second, but the only way he could look more suspicious is if he had a curly mustache and a cape. That was saying a lot, considering that "suspicious" was a regular descriptor for the people who Danny encountered on a regular basis. It seemed like Calibri would be here to stay, though... Danny would just have to trust his father's normally decent judge of character.... And maybe be careful around this guy too.

[pugsmuggler]

Garamond did not press the issue of Calibri's "accident." As far as he saw things, hardly anyone was without a few skeletons in their closet (Of course, with Garamond, there was more skeleton than closet). He offered Calibri an agreeable nod and gestured toward the tablet and its pen.

"Good," He said. "All I need is a signature."

A white packet appeared in front of Calibri. Garamond affixed it with a signature of his own, pushing it like a hockey puck across to Calibri's side of the desk. "Bring that to a bank," Garamond advised. "It's an advance of 5,000.

"Oh, and... you do know you can't bring that back with you on the shuttle," he added, looking pointedly at thr case of poisons.

[tactician]

Before it could slide off the desk, Calibri stopped it with his hand, although this time he didn't apply enough force to even send a tremor down the table - it was only just enough to stop the mass of papers from slipping right off the surface. Before he could sign it though, his head snapped up, expression mildly (and very mildly at that) alarmed.

"I can't smuggle it?" he asked, looking longingly at the poisons.

please imagine this scenario for yourselves while i casually pass out

[kobacake]

"Can't you just do what you did last time, Boss?" Danny suggested, helpfully revealing illegal activity to a stranger he decided moments ago was scary and totally untrustworthy. "When you sent that weird bug thing to those cat people or whatever but you couldn't just send it the normal way."

[pugsmuggler]

"Well, a concealer chip is very expensive," Garamond explained, crossing his hands in front of him. "And even then, Calibri here could be apprehended if they decide, for some reason, to do a luggage search. That would bring an unfortunate end to our partnership. Though If you think you can get away with it, it is not my place to stop you."

A smile.

"I didn't imagine our little gift would make such an impression on you."

[tactician]

"They're useful," Calibri answered distractedly, although as to why a sixteen-year-old going into university would think a box of lethal substances was useful was a question in it of itself.

He had spread the box open again, undoing the metal latches with a swift flick, and was now running a measuring eye over its contents with a thoughtful frown. At length, he picked one or two small vials up, murmuring something quietly to himself about how they could be easily extracted from a living organism even after ingestion, which, all things considered, was not really the best line of thought for a sane person to go down.

"May I borrow a mammalian creature of any kind?"

[kobacake]

"Are you gonna kill something with those?" Danny asked, once again curiously venturing out from behind the chair.

[pugsmuggler]

"What? You mean like the dog?" Garamond said, his glance edging sideways to the sleeping Pomeranian in the corner of the room.

[tactician]

"It won't die," he reassured Danny, meanwhile casting a sidelong glance at the fluffy, innocent, peacefully resting little dog. "But isn't that your...companion animal?"

[kobacake]

"W-What?!" Danny's eyes widened in horror at his father's suggestion, immediately running to the dog's side and outstretching his arms as if that would protect it from the massive figure that was Garamond. "DON'T TOUCH FILET MIGNON HE'S MINE!!"

Of course all the commotion caused Filet Mignon to jump awake. Instead of being alarmed he began running circles around Danny and wagging his tail. He certainly was an interesting looking dog... He was a cream sable, though there was a small darker tuft of fur on the top of his head that looked rather like a faux hawk and had obviously been dyed auburn. In place of a collar, he wore a rather stylish black bow tie. It was obvious that he was loved by someone.

The Pomeranian almost seemed to smile at Calibri as he barked in his direction. "Yap, yap!!"

My username is so ironic right now

[pugsmuggler]

"Yes, the dog is a pet," Garamond said to Calibri, his glance falling down on the hyper-energetic dog (funny, he expected the dose of sleeping medication he had slipped into the pup's food earlier would have lasted a little longer). "I don't think Danny would be too happy about you borrowing him, unfortunately."

Garamond gave a cool smile, turning back to Calibri. He eyed the box momentarily, trying to reason through to the best way to smuggle the contents onto the shuttle. Yes, shipping the parcel afterwards was the most convenient method, but Calibri's grip on the box was fixed, his hands welded onto its hinges.

"I suppose you could just risk it."