Trooper Station, Friday

[firstofitskind]

In the wee hours of the morning, Liam's global had buzzed with a frantic call from one of the townspeople: something was trying to break into their house.

He'd arrived at the scene to indeed find something large and furry currently making a valiant effort to break and enter.

An alot of crime, of course.

So, yes, one of the jail cells in the station was currently occupied, and Liam was at his desk, going over post-arrest paperwork.

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[died8yearsago]

"What," said Rosa, "is that?"

She had come in to talk to Kincaid about something, but she was easily distracted by the thing in the cell, spending the last five minutes just staring at it and sipping from a mug of coffee before she actually came around to asking.

[firstofitskind]

"An alot of crime," Liam informed her, deadpan.

[died8yearsago]

Rosa narrowed her eyes at the creature in the cell, and then turned her skeptical gaze toward Liam. "It doesn't look like much crime to me," she said. "What'd it do?"

[firstofitskind]

"Break and enter," Liam replied. "I'm not sure if it had plans to actually steal anything, or was just causing mischief," he admitted.

[died8yearsago]

It was an answer that didn't help Rosa's confusion in the slightest.

"That's it?" she asked. "That's not a lot of crime at all. That's...nothing."

Man, these small town cops didn't know how good they had it.

[firstofitskind]

Rosa, if Liam knew your narrative was calling him a "small town cop", well. He'd feel compelled to argue that point.

"No, it's-" Liam stopped, and sighed. "The creature is called an alot. This one seems only to be interested in committing crimes. Hence, alot of crime."

As if to prove Liam's point, the alot in question was currently attempting to pick the lock of the jail cell. Considering it only had paws and not hands, it was not terribly successful.

[died8yearsago]

"Hey!" Rosa barked at the creature in a way that let it know that she had a baton tucked away in those tight pants of hers somehow, and she wasn't afraid to use it. "Stop that."

And then her ire was shifted back to Liam. "An alot is what it's called? That's a dumb name. And...confusing."

[firstofitskind]

"Hey, I didn't name them," Liam pointed out. Even if he, personally, thought it was more funny than dumb, he had to concede the 'confusing' point. "I think the confusing thing is on purpose."

[died8yearsago]

Rosa shook her head. "I can't believe I'm saying this," she said, "but I think I prefer when it was just squirrels that needed to be locked up."

And that, she decided, was as deep as she wanted to go into it, and she resolved to ignore the alot unless it kept trying to jiggle with the locks. She was more than ready to take out her frustration on how dumb it was with a little police brutality.

Besides, she had business. Sort of. She moved away from the cell, her attention already dropping the prisoner. "Oh, by the way, looks like my transfer here still includes some work back in New York. I got an assignment, I'm gonna be gone a few days next week. Also, my friend's getting married soon, I might need time off for that. Figured I'd let you know now."

There was a slight pause.

"If you still feel you need to fire me, though, I'll understand."

It would...kind of be a loophole, right?

[firstofitskind]

"Do you... want me to fire you?" Liam checked. "Because there's nothing that says you can't keep whatever other job you have off-island. It's not like we're understaffed here or anything."

[died8yearsago]

Rosa's nose wrinkled a little. It wasn't fair to just ask her. "No," she said, a bit sullenly. "I still like, you know, eating, having a place to live. Motorcycle maintenance isn't cheap, either. There's...some...weird...legal gymnastics involving my terms of employment right now, not even Santiago can figure it out and she figured out how to use an old-timey permit from, like, 1922, to have block party. Long story. Doesn't matter. Maybe they're just starting to figure things out or something if I'm getting NYPD stuff here and there."

A small glimmer of hope. She didn't put much into hope, usually, but for this, she was willing to allow it.

[firstofitskind]

"I don't know, maybe you decided you'd rather work at the coffee shop or something other than the weird police station where 90% of the crime is perpetrated by forest creatures," Liam pointed out. "I wouldn't judge."