2212/So, I Have This Friend

So, I Have This Friend
Date of Scene:	26 August 2017
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	SWORD needs a few good agents who understand about aliens and threats. Priscilla happens to work for them, and she thinks she knows someone who could help. She makes a point of introducing Taboo to her AWESOME BOSS!
Cast of Characters:	Voodoo, Taboo, Abigail Brand

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Voodoo has posed:
"C'mon, Amanda. It's just overpriced, overcomplicated coffee drinks and weight-gaining baked goods, paid for AND SERVED by someone else. I just want you to meet and talk to her. What you decide is up to you. Seriously. And if she tries anything mean, I'll be right there to back you up and zot her brain."

Yes. That was Priscilla's final pitch when trying to set up a meeting between her friend, Amanda Reed - aka Taboo - and her boss, Abigail Brand. Abby has been saying how SWORD needs a few (more) good women. OK, OK, men can apply too! But Priss is convinced she knows a good woman who would really be able to help out; now she just has to get them together long enough to prove her point to both of them.

Once final agreement is re-issued, Priscilla texts Abby with the address of the coffee place in question, and then gathers up Amanda and tosses the redhead on her bike to ride over to the shop in question, on the other side of town from the one where Amanda works.

Just in case.

Taboo has posed:
Amanda Reed shrugs, "Yes. I know what it is Priscilla. And I understand the principle of who is paying and serving. But I like where I work. It's dead end, there are no benefits - unless you count being able to smuggle home any three day old pastries and the bits of grounds left in the machine before it gets cleaned as perks _which I do_ for the record." She sighs, "I just hate how everyone else makes coffee. It's too... snobby." Somewhere the Irony Fairy is madly drawing out a flow chart to try and demonstrate just how that statement.. well.

Abigail Brand has posed:
    Abby's nothing if not punctual. And, after ensuring the station's transporter technicians have all passed their quarterly safety reviews, she's not bothering with all the pomp and circumstance of landing a shuttle by a coffee shop. Just a quick zip down to an empty alleyway that allows her to walk a block and a bit to the coffee shop, and of course take a casual look around. Or, you know, an intent casing of the joint, more to make sure there's no one who seems to be looking out for Priss than herself. She's too damned self-confident to think anyone would be plotting to ambush -her-. Well, except Priss with some sort of intervention about how she's working too much. She even goes for... well, not casual, but she's wearing a suit and tie instead of her usual SWORD bodysuit and holster. And so she finds herself stepping into a coffee shop, enduring alternative music no doubt, and sweeping around her gaze before she heads up to the counter to order a drink. Oh yeah, she's -totally- inconspicuous. Although she does her best to give a sly little nod to Priss to let her know she's just... you know, blending in before joining the duo.

Voodoo has posed:
"Tighter around my hips, honey." Priscilla calls out over the Bluetooth comm setup in the motorcycle helmets they're wearing as they ride through the streets. "You know, I always considered the ability to claim lingerie as a business expense on my taxes to be an awesome perk. I get it."

That said, Priscilla drives past the shop and parks in an alleyway, kickstand down and killswitches enabled. Then she gives the area the thorough once-over both visually and empathically before she leads the way inside, giving a nod to Abigail when she spots her. Yeah, the green hair really helps for instant recognition.

Priss leads the way into the line, hopefully still with Amanda by her side, as they await the opportunity to order overpriced, overcomplicated coffee-based drinks and hypercaloric baked goods. And all on SWORD's dime. Isn't life grand?

Taboo has posed:
Amanda Reed is what one might call an easy rider. The sort of back seat girl who, for one thing, looks great tucked up against the driver and, for the other, easily maintains the shift of balance and center of gravity. Some passengers just seem to fight the driver's motions. She flows with Priss and has no trouble hanging on. As they arrive at the shop she slips off easily enough, and walks in beside her friend, looking around. "... snobby.." she protests quietly.

Abigail Brand has posed:
Abby gets her own drink, likely more whipped cream and flavouring than coffee she figures, but hey... whipped cream's an important food group! And a flaky pastry, the sort you don't eat in the car because you'll be finding little flakes and crumbs like you'd find glitter months after you ever touched the stuff. But rather than wait right by the line for Priss and Amanda, she slips off towards the back of the shop, laying claim to one of the corner nooks with overstuffed chairs, for people who apparently haven't got day jobs to sit in for hours at a time. Which it turns out, are hard to look stern and authoritative in. Especially with a dot of whipped cream on the tip of one's nose.

Voodoo has posed:
Priss gives Amanda a little eye-roll and a gentle elbow in the tummy. "C'mon. Give it a chance, willya." That said, she orders first of the pair, asking for an iced cocoa with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles, and asking for one of the triple-fudge muffins of eternal decadence. She waits for Amanda to order, and then pays with a new credit card she's carrying for just this occassion or one like it.

Once they have everything, Priss leads the way to the back and that nook with the green-haired business-suited woman. "Hi." she offers, setting down her drink, then unzipping the leather riding jacket she's wearing, tucking her helmet down under one of the chairs as she settles in. "Abigail Brand, this is Amanda Reed. Amanda, this is Abby."

Fingers will be crossed.

"She's my new boss." Priss appends.

Taboo has posed:
Amanda Reed sniffs. "I -am- giving it a chance. But they claim they roast their own coffee. And they've burnt it instead!" she protests. "It's going to be soooo bitter." Look at the coffee snob! She just huffs and orders a mocha frap instead. Finally they make their way to the table. Amanda's green eyes fall on Abigail and she regards the woman cautiously. She knows what military-slash-government types can be like. Freaks like her tend to become lab experiments. Hard to shake that vibe.. Even if it isn't a fair perspective. She moves to sit and nods. "Hello. Ms..? Brand?" She looks to Priss, then back, "Not really sure if you have a rank I should be using or whatever. so."

Abigail Brand has posed:
Brand smiles crookedly and shakes her head, "Oh god no, I mean... technically my rank is Director? But if you say that around here I'm going to have like fifteen hopeful screen writers or something I'll have to punch out to make them leave me alone." Her eyebrows perk up as she looks Amanda over, taking a moment to sip her own drink, just to give herself a few seconds to consider things. "So, I understand you... ah... might have an interest in joining Priss in her new job. The hours are flexible, and... well, I mean, the short pitch is that really, you only have work to do that would directly benefit you and anyone you know anyway. Plus, we're not the Avengers or anything, so you don't need to keep an eye out for giant spotlights in the sky, or crazed costumed nuts from the future wanting to mess with you. It's just... ahh... visitors from out of town, you know? But you can just call me Abby, or Brand... I mean, Priss calls me Abby all the time, so I think it's probably going to stick."

Voodoo has posed:
"Abby's really great." Priscilla admits, as she sits and sips her drink and watches the two of them try to work out their way of communicating and understanding one another. "I told her how you helped with the shooter. And that you knew a lot about certain 'out of towners,' that you could be an asset to dealing with those sorts of things." Priss pauses, and turns to look the redhead in the eyes. "I wanted you two to meet, so you could have the opportunity to consider the idea. You do what you want, and I'll back you one hundred percent. But ... if you wanted things to be a bit better than the challenges of the barrista, this could be a way to make that happen. It's been helping me." Priss doesn't have to strip anymore to put food on the table. It's nice to have options.

Taboo has posed:
Amanda Reed knows how to be tactful. It's just that sometimes? She just doesn't care. "Priss's told me you fight space aliens." Boom. Drop it like it's hot. She shrugs. "I don't know anything about them. But I've got a lot of first hand with Daemonites. Vampires if you'd rather." Once again, there's no tact like having no tact. She sips at her frozen drink, lips curling up around the straw briefly before she sets it down. "I'm a freak. A lab rat. The Daemoonites used me as a guinea pig to test out some custom armor before they dared give it to their... vampire king. Or whatever you want to call his ass. Except it stuck with me. You probably know that from Priss. Just telling you my side. So. What you see is what you get. More or less. If you want to see the armor and what it can do, I'll admit to still feeling uneasy. But I'm tired of being alone. They're still out there and if they ever find me. Well. I guess it'd be nice to have some friends or allies, at least, I could turn to for a little backup. Not sure if you have space vampires. But if so. I guess I could be your girl."

Abigail Brand has posed:
Brand just -grins- at Amanda's matter of factness. "Well, I've got to admit, your candor's refreshing and... yeah, that's about the plan. These Daemonites seem to be getting more and more up in Earth's business, and not in a cool 'We want to help you go to space' way, but like 'We're going to shoot places up and stuff' way that like... is totally what SWORD exists to stop." She shrugs lightly and sighs out, "I'm not really worried about the specifics of your armor, honestly we've tried the whole alien symbiote thing before and... it's just not worth the extinction-level threat it always leads to." She snickers and murmurs dryly, "Plus, the two of you know each other, so like, I can totally make you partners and you won't have that weird getting to know each other phase that always gums things up." Abby clasps her hands and shrugs, "And really, no one's going to see your recruitment paperwork but me, and... I usually just sort of skim it and throw it in the archives. So you basically get a license to kick alien ass for the price of... probably being called up into space to kick -more- alien ass when some big bad jackass comes cruising by."

Voodoo has posed:
Priscilla apparently knew this was coming; isn't empathy great? So she lets Amanda vent, and she sits there calmly sipping chocolate, then nibbling some on yet more chocolate. Addict? Yeah, what of it? She watches Brand handle it all smoothly, and smiles around her straw.

"That was the idea, anyway." Priss ammends, nodding to Brand and then looking at Amanda. "Like I said: it's your call. But the opportunity is there. And you'd be sanctioned to kick Daemonite butt, and have backup." And since Amanda once did time thanks to the alien asshats, being sanctioned and cleared probably has an appeal. And extra weapons loadouts and backup even moreso.

Taboo has posed:
Amanda Reed didn't consider herself to be venting. She was just laying her cards on the table. It isn't like she's had a lot of training. There isn't a correspondance course for 'So you were a 19 year old hooker who became vampire food and then unfortunately bonded with the vampire king's personal symbiotic armor and now they want you dead almost as much as you want them dead but don't know where to go from here'. It just wasn't in the syllabus. She checked. Three times.

"Yeah. well if I can do anything to help kee earth safe and my own butt safe too? Sure. I'll give it a go if you want me. I hope you have some sort of training program though. I'm more of a School of Anything Goes kinda fighter." She lifts her chin toward Priss. "She knows. I'm sure you do too." A shrug. "My only stipulation? We better not, ever, come back here again for team meetings. Their coffee suuuuucks" she protests.

Abigail Brand has posed:
    Brand has to stifle a wider grin. Oh, this girl's going to go -far-. ...Okay, space police -always- go far, because they totally work on a space station in orbit. But still. She's going to like... be a totally awesome space cop. She quirks an eyebrow and shrugs her shoulders, "Well, our official guidelines for fighting off alien invasions -actually do say 'Anything Goes', so like... you've got that going for you."

Brand gives a quick shrug of her shoulders and clasps a fist in her opposite hand. "Now, if you want a bit more of a... training or sparring thing, I can definitely help with that... uhhh, you know, the symbiote armor things we've had experience with -really- hate fire. On a scale of 'Don't care' to 'Worst nightmare', how do you handle a bit of fire? I mean, if we're going to be doing... intense training, it might come up is all." She snickers and shakes her head, "Oh no, our meetings will probably be up on the station where... the coffee still sucks, but like, it's free and it sucks in that... police TV show way, where -all- law enforcement coffee is awful."

Voodoo has posed:
"If we hire her, be prepared for the coffee on the station to immediately //cease// sucking. She won't be able to tolerate any less." Priscilla admits. She finds Amanda's coffee snobbery adorable, and she's only too happy to share the funny around. "There won't be any Keurigs, either. The nasty face she made when I suggested getting one for my apartment almost took the curl out of my hair." She gently elbows the redhead, and winks.

"I've been training more, since I signed up. It's a good thing. And a lot more challenging than most of what I can get around here." Priscilla had better when she could practice with Zealot. But the white-haired Coda did not stick around for that; they barely had time to wave at one another intensely before the woman moved on. Joining SWORD has been her best chance at getting back into a 'team' feeling. So far, so good.

Taboo has posed:
Amanda Reed considers as Abigail talks. She nods. "I'm okay with making it up if you are. I'm still figuring out everything I can do as Taboo." She smiles. "As for fire... pretty sure I'm okay with it. As long as it doesn't singe the hair. Otherwise...? Issues. All the issues with fire." She smirks some then eyes Priss dourly. "Just because I happen to have learned about proper brewing of coffee and you heathens have not - it doesn't make it any less true that most places can't brew a good cup of coffee to save their lives. If you aren't careful I'll leave you in the field on your own and just set up a coffee kiosk in your base and live happily ever after..." the struggle is real.

Abigail Brand has posed:
    Brand sighs and... probably rolls her eyes? Those shades of hers are a lifesaver. "Well, I suppose I can let you teach the mess staff how to not make foul tasting rocket fuel, in exchange for helping you get a more thorough education on close combat and the like." She peers at Priss, eyebrows perking up, "Oh my! You know, I haven't sparred with you either. Remind me to surprise you during one of your training sessions. See? This is what happens when I only meet my best agents when I'm doing paperwork. Pandemonium." She shrugs her shoulders and grins, "So, I'll get all the paperwork together, and bring it by sometime soon."