Much Ado About Nothing

[Alice]

January 25, Year One

Alice gave a small, discontented huff, and lifted the box to her chest.


  It was all well and good that she had been permitted to join the Rogues, yes. It was more than acceptable, truly, that she had been named an Apprentice. And certainly, Alice was most grateful(happy even!) to be able to help "fight the good fight" in any manner possible.


  But... surely they could have found something more interesting than being an errand girl.


  She supposed she couldn't complain... outwardly. But perhaps inwardly, thought Alice, was a proper place to complain all she wanted. She carried the box from its original home in storage, off to its desired destination. "A new home for you," Alice had stated to the box, seeing as there currently wasn't anyone else to talk to; the heels of her mary janes clicking along the hard floor was the only other sound occupying the hallway.  "Soon a rightful place and a rightful job that you'll rightfully do." Alice paused long enough to utter a small 'hup!', as the box was rather large, and attempting to slip from her grasp. Once she felt she had herself in order, she was off again, both on her feet and on her words.


  "And perhaps I'll find my rightful place too," she wondered aloud, "I'm sure I could do far more good than this." Soon as she spoke, however, she seemed to go about chastising herself, her brows knitting together in frustration. "But come now, Alice." She scolded, "There are a great many more than just you here, you know, with very important jobs to do.  And what would they think of you, making such a fuss like this?"


  Alice's nose had turned upward, much in the way one does when looking down upon such a misbehaving and complaining child. This also caused her eyes to close, if only briefly, as her legs continued to carry her down the hall.

[Varian]

He was on his way to deliver a bundle of special metal back to Shanty's workshop, before he slipped away to continue working on a few prototypes he'd been cooking up. He knew how to build automatons that could be controlled from the inside, and though he hadn't shared this idea with anyone else as of yet, it was something he wanted to toil with a little longer. The design of his original was cringingly bad looking back at it, or at the very least it had a lot of design flaws and weak points, but he'd been feverishly sketching new ideas that he was eager to try.

He was distracted from his own thoughts as he kept on his way, completely oblivious to the voice behind him, and the girl it belonged to, who also seemed completely lost in thought as she carried her own load to wherever it was it needed to be going.

If Varian was a more poised and balanced person, he probably could have caught himself and NOT fallen into a heal of gangly arms and legs, but he wasn't, so with the loud clatter of metal echoing through the halls, he stumbled to the floor when her briefly closed eyes knocked her into him.

It took him a moment of gathering his bearings to realize that he was now on the floor, before his eyes widened and he looked up at the girl, "oh! That's why I ended up on the floor...Ha!" He jumped up to his feet, "sorry...I guess I was in the zone, didn't even hear you sneaking up!" He hummed as he reached to collect the metal, and his furry friend that had also been knocked to the floor, "you appear to be new? Or at least I've never seen you before! I'm Varian! Alchemist and inventor extraordinaire! What's your name?" There weren't a lot of people his age that he'd seen yet, so he was a bit eager to finally have someone who wasn't older to talk to.

[Alice]

"Goodness!" Alice had all but dropped her box directly on top of Varian, the sudden jolt of knocking into him causing her to halt in her tracks. Her eyes snapped open to look around, locking onto the young inventor at her feet just as he spoke.


  "Oh I do beg your pardon!" Her brows knit together in concern, silently reprimanding herself for not watching where she was going. Now this was exactly the sort of behavior one shouldn't be doing, thought Alice. Certainly not if they want to impress someone. But come now, the boy seemed well enough, at least judging by his seemingly boundless energy.  Attempts at betterment aside, she truly was grateful to see that he didn't seem hurt in any way.

"sorry... I guess I was in the zone, didn't even hear you sneaking up!"

  Friendly, too! Alice's head shook in disagreement. "Really, it was my fault. I should have been minding my surroundings better." However the young man was already in the process of introducing himself, so Alice decided not to pursue the matter any further.
  Instead her gaze had been caught by the inventor's fuzzy companion.  Alice did so adore animals, especially of the furry variety, so she couldn't help but utter a soft 'oh!' of pleasant surprise.

"What's your name?"

  "Oh, yes of course." She smiled, and did her best curtsy that she could manage. Which, given that she had no available hands to hold her skirt, and was balancing a rather heavy box in her arms, looked... admittedly, a bit silly. "My name is Alice. It's a pleasure to meet you, Varian."

[Jack Castle]

"Hrm," Castle dug into the various boxes he had ordered into his office. Expenses reports, tax papers, mercantile contracts, and all manner of paperwork was collected in boxes and heaps around the room. They had spilled from his desk to piles on chairs and eventually on the floor. Castle was normally a tidy man, it was his liege that was the more chaotic of the two, but this project was such a hefty under taking he needed to utilize all the space he could. A great many of the files also had important information that Castle couldn't afford to have copied, so he couldn't requisition one of the larger rooms to use.

Thus his office had become a paper jungle.

Well, at least the bulk of the papers had been transferred. Now he just needed the office supplies necessary to combine and collate the pages together into a more efficient system. He had saved this task for last so that the apprentice Alice could fetch them while he got to started on the paperwork. He hadn't wanted her to carry the mass of paper files on her own. Those boxes got obscenely heavy and she was a small girl. But the packages left in the storage room were a mix of binders, spiral rings, highlighters, staplers, pens, and various bric-a-brak, and those weren't so heavy. Cumbersome. But not heavy.

Castle sighed, and briefly considered moving the pile of pages on his chair to sit and take a break. He was an old man, god damnit. But that would require finding a spot for that pile and then he would need to move more pages and frankly the point was moot. He might as well get started on his work and make room. Well, as soon as he had some of the supplies Alice was fetching for him.

Castle smoothed his thick mustache, where was she?

He decided to go down and check on her. Nothing much else he could do here until he had the office supplies anyway. With a grunt, a groan, and a slight popping of old joints, Castle stood up and then picked his way out of his office. A brisk walk later he spotted Alice speaking with, oof... Varian. 

Castle didn't mind the boy! He had a keen mind, and an earnest heart! It's just his tendency to explode was very, very expensive.

"Kids," Castle nodded between the two, "How are things??"

[Varian]

Varian seemed utterly unphased by the collision as he began to collect and gather the metal he'd been carrying, "no harm done! See? That is the nice thing about metal!" He laughed at his own words, then glanced down, "this is Ruddiger, my official lab assistant!" He grinned, then nodded when she gave her name, giving a little giggle-snort at her attempt at what appeared to be a curtsy, "likewise, I haven't met anyone anywhere near my age yet! Kind of nice...Everyone here seems to be so much older..." It was all well and good, but it was difficult to relate to someone three times his age or more.

He glanced to the side and laughed when he spotted Castle, a man he hadn't spoken to at length, but knew of by word of mouth, "speaking of old!" He couldn't help the slightest cheek aimed at the man, given the thread of conversation, the opportunity was just too much to pass up.

He nodded a greeting to the older gentleman before inclining his head towards Alice, "excellent if I do say so myself! Making friends, keeping out of trouble!" His eyes sparkled with a hint of mischief, "which I am sure you appreciate more than anyone, sir!" He knew vaguely what he did for the army, enough to make a jab at the amount of probably costly messes he made, but that was the price for science and progress! They'd be thanking him once they saw what he was cooking up!

[Alice]

"'Ruddiger'," Alice said aloud, trying out the sound of the animal's name. "What a charming creature!" She smiled down at Ruddiger, only all too enamored with the raccoon. When Varian commented on the lack of youths around their age, Alice found herself nodding most earnestly, hair bouncing around her shoulders in direct response. 


"Indeed! And it's the most troublesome thing, too!" She leaned into the conversation with great interest, rocking idly on her heels. Looks like he's gotten her started now. "We're not children, but you'd hardly know that from the current state of affairs." That was a nice, official-sounding phrase. The 'state of affairs'. Alice could feel herself being a little more mature already, and she turned her chin up proudly as a result.

"Kids," [...] "How are things??"

Her eyebrows promptly flew downward, ready to protest to being called a kid. But when she saw the accusation had come from Mr. Castle, she remembered both her place and her manners, and Alice's mouth snapped shut. Varian's little quip against the financier's age caused Alice's eyes to widen, her lips pressed into a thin line. But the inventor was also quick on his words, moving the topic along, and Alice wasted no time in following suit.


"Quite right, Mr. Castle." She attempted another one of her hands-free curtsies, with roughly the same result as the first, and hoisted the box in her hands up as if holding a grand prize. "I found the box you had sent me for, sir!" Alice beamed proudly. "I was just on my way to deliver it to you."

[Jack Castle]

"Uh-huh," Castle said flatly at Varian. He recognized teenage sass when he saw it, "I'm glad you're making friends... we'll see how long you stay out of trouble though."

Castle harrumphed quietly at Varian. He actually liked the boy. He was very bright, and would surely grow into a strong man. But between Clopin and Shanty SOME ONE needed to keep the boy down to earth with a little discipline. Playing the no-fun straight man seemed to be Castle's lot in life.

Castle then focused on the other apprentice, Alice. She wasn't as obviously a troublemaker as Varian, but he recognized the ambition and anxious energy to be DOING THINGS in her. Not properly channeled she'd be just a loose a canon as Varian was before Shanty snuck him under her wing.

"Thank you, Alice," he slipped his hands under the edge of the box and lifted it out of her arms. His larger frame was able to manage the cumbersome size a little easier, "Good work."

The old treasurer looked between the two youths, mustache crinkling to one side of his mouth as hawk-like eyes traveled between them. He had originally planned to have Alice assist him with the files. The extra pair of hands would have been a great help. But he knew the work would have be a huge chore for the girl. A near nightmare.

Castle closed his eyes and sighed quietly. He didn't want Alice to feel like she was being punished, "Well, your package was delivered. Consider your task complete. Why don't you go along with Varian on his delivery and see if there is any work you can assist Shanty with, or any other assignments, hm?"

Castle bounced the box higher in his arms, then turned and began the lonely walk down the hall way to his sequestered corner of an office.

[Varian]

Varian didn't seem put off in the slightest by Castle's comment about staying out of trouble, only chuckling with a good natured grin and a slight wink, "scientific discovery is rife with trouble, my good man! It is merely how you choose to handle it that determines whether the trouble is troublesome or not!"

He glanced to the side at Alice with a sort of knowing kind of smirk, clearly amused by his own quips and jabs, he wasn't necessarily attempting to be disrespectful, but he certainly worried that maybe it would be taken that way and cleared his throat, "ahem...Uh...No...No disrespect meant of course!" He punctuated it with a grin trying to look innocent.

His eyes lit up just a little though when Castle asked Alice to accompany him on his own errand, clearly pleased by the idea, "yes! Excellent!" He chuckled and glanced to the side, "Shanty and me always need extra hands! And Ruddiger's are just too small!" His comment was responded to by a chattering from the fat animal that scrambled to perch on his shoulder.

He watched the older gentleman turn before glancing sidelong at Alice, "so! Looks like we are partners in crime now, eh? I believe you'll find our workshop fairly exciting!" He grinned, and then adjusted the metal in his arms before holding it out to extend the offer for her to help carry it, "two sets of hands are better than one, right?"

[Shanty]

"Mister Castle, there you are~"

Ah, get rid of one, and the other appears, it seems. Though, it seems Shanty's been looking for Castle, and even intercepts him at his office door. Despite her usual penchant to be a toying sort, and not exactly the most serious of Assassins, Shanty was at least... mostly polite, and carried an odd sort of wisdom about her. Shanty knew rather well that she was undoubtedly another ream of work for Castle; between Varian's explosions (while she did encourage his learning, she did wish he'd be more careful from time to time. Experimentation is good, losing your life to a curiosity is not) and her own tasks, they were a sink of their own. Not the sort of sink that throwing a party was, but still...

A gloved hand opens Castle's office door for him, and the small Captain offers the treasurer a soft nod.

"If you're not too busy, Dear, I have an inquiry for you. I've been tasked with streamlining the teleportation system, and I don't just want to go in breaking things."

[Alice]

  Alice opened her mouth to say something. What it would've been, she wasn't sure. There was a part of her, a part she would later decide must have been the grown-up Alice, that felt she should have gone with Mr. Castle instead, that she ought to help him more, especially with the dreadful state his office was in.  Sure, it wouldn't be very exciting work.  She would, at best, be stuck sitting still, filing and organizing and probably... dusting.  Oh yes, it would be dull, dull, dull.  Alice supposed that was the nature of Castle's work, and that she really ought to be helping him.  It would be the responsible thing to do, after all.


  But instead, Alice thought nothing of those things, and instead was only all too happy to be free to pursue activities of greater interest.  And right now, Alice decided, the most interesting thing today was whatever Varian was currently doing.


  "Scientific discovery, you say?" Alice's eyes lit up with interest, turning to her new friend. "What sort of sciences are you discovering, then?" Alice knew well enough that there were many kinds of science. She actually quite liked some of them, even if she sometimes had trouble following them. So her curiosity here was genuine, hands idling themselves by clasping together in front of her pinafore.