fandomtownies | Town Hall, Wednesday

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Town Hall, Wednesday

Another night on the sofa in the back of the office.

Jesse didn't wake up to a phone call this time. Picking up that old 90s phone did nothing either; she didn't even get a dial tone.

If this keeps up much longer, I'm going to have to find a place to live.

With a sigh, she walked into the front office to find herself something to eat, and found herself face to face with-- oh, that wasn't smart. "Nina?" she called.

She seems to always be around. I wonder.

"Yes?" the chirpy woman replied, sticking her head out through a door.

"Can you put in a new requisition for this vending machine?"

Nina blinked a few times. "We had it restocked just last night," she said. "You can eat anything in it, I promise!"

Jesse shook her head. "We need to switch to generic," she said.

Blink. "Generic... what?"

"Generic food," Jesse said, looking over at her. "This is a safety risk."

"A... safety risk."

"Yeah."

"... You're definitely turning out to be one of the more interesting mayors I've ever worked for."

"Thanks," Jesse said, frowning. "I guess."

The mayor was in.

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Even without taking the squirrels into account, news had a tendency to travel fast around this particular island. And after hearing that their new mayor had popped into the Station yesterday to look for Liam- not by name or anything, but she'd been looking for who was ostensibly in charge over there- he figured he ought to come by and, say, well:

"Hello."

Jesse, standing by the desk with some paperwork in her hands, glanced over her shoulder.

"Hello," she echoed. "Can I help you...?"

"Major Liam Kincaid-Price," he introduced himself, hands firmly in pockets. Yes, offering a handshake was the polite thing to do, but they still creeped him out, so he preferred to avoid being the one to initiate the gesture. "I heard you were looking for me." A beat. "I'm the Sheriff down at the Station."

And there Jesse was, thoughtlessly extending a hand.

"Jesse Faden," she said. "The new mayor, apparently. Nice to meet you, Liam. Or, uh, Major Kincaid-Price...?"

Yeah. Still not good with titles.

"Liam is fine," he grimaced a little as he took her hand- or, well, a little more, since his natural expression was kind of frowny to begin with, the dark red triangular mark on his palm clearly visible as he did so. "The rest is a bit of a mouthful, isn't it?" But old habits died hard, even if the 'Price' bit was newer than the rest of it.

Polaris resonated through her for a moment, a brief ripple, as if she was rushing to check the locks, and Jesse didn't really understand why. But she kept the shake instinctively brief, noting the triangle as she dropped his hand.

"Good," she said. "You can call me Jesse, too, please. I'm still not completely sure how I wound up with the 'mayor' thing anyway."

Liam's hand was back in his pocket almost as soon as Jesse dropped it. The shaqarava- that red mark on his palms- was something he explained away as burn scars on the rare occasion someone actually asked, but the truth was they were a conduit for the energy that flowed through his body. That same energy gave him more control over his psychic senses than most, and Jesse was definitely pinging those senses right now.

"This place does that," he admitted, permascowl fading into a grin. "I got hauled into the Station just after I landed, and figured I was in for a citation of some sort. Instead... I was informed I was the new Sheriff, since the old guy had taken off."

"Apparently the old mayor stormed off during some kind of animal-related event last week," Jesse said ruefully, absent-mindedly wiping her hand on her pants.

What was that all about?

Liam let out a snort of laughter. His encounters with Tamsin had been ~~handwavily~~ brief, but she'd struck him as definitely being the abrasive sort. Which wasn't exactly new: Beau, Renee, Lili, Antimony, Rosa... the list went on. The difference was, if Tamsin had a gooey center, Liam certainly hadn't been privilege to any glimpse of it.

"Yeah. It was adorable. I don't think adorable sat well with her."

"It can be a little... off-putting under some circumstances, I guess," Jesse said, and rubbed the back of her neck.

Seriously, something felt weird about that hand, like a last echo of Polaris rippling through it.

"Either way, her assistant came at me when I appeared on the land bridge right outside the island. She seemed pretty desperate."

Liam had thoroughly enjoyed the adorable; but then, Liam lived with talking mice, so it's possible he had a pretty high tolerance for it by now.

"Probably didn't want to get saddled with the paperwork," Liam said. "That's what Ralph told me as far as why I got my job. Though I don't know whether they'd been looking for me specifically, or I just happened to land here at the right time." Or wrong time, depending on how you looked at it.

Jesse shrugged idly. The tingly feeling was beginning to dissipate from her hand.

"According to Nina, my new... assistant, me showing up right after the other mayor left was a sign," she said. "There wasn't really any arguing with her."

And at least this job offering hadn't involved anyone shooting themselves in the head.

That initial psychic ping was already quieting as well, settling in to a gentle background hum.

"Generally isn't," Liam agreed. "You seem to be taking it all in stride, though."

Edited 2020-07-23 05:49 (UTC)

It was hopeless claiming otherwise at this point, wasn't it? There's no real point in faking it...

"This isn't the weirdest thing that has happened to me this year," she said, "Even if I technically left while it was autumn and wound up in summer next year."

"Time travel's almost inevitable, when you're on an interdimensional nexus," Liam confirmed. "I didn't go forwards or backwards so much as sideways, myself. But that it's not that weird for you is actually pretty encouraging."

"Depends on what you're looking for in a mayor, I guess," Jesse said ruefully.

Nina stuck her head out through her office door. "I just got off the phone with the vending machine company," she yelled, "They'll start brown-bagging all vending items! Okay?"

Jesse looked over her shoulder. "Great."

"Someone who can keep her head in a crisis, for starters," Liam told her.

"... Brown-bagging?" he asked, eyebrow arched.

"It's a safety precaution," Jesse said, sounding so serious she barely even recognized her own voice.

"I'll take your word for it," Liam said, also serious. He wasn't sure what kind of trouble a chocolate bar or a bag of chips could cause, but if she thought it was a legitimate concern he was willing to at least entertain the idea.

"It's just been-- a really strange week," Jesse said wryly, "Even before I showed up here."

"See, now I'm just curious," Liam said, a hint of a smile playing about his lips again. Curious, yes, but not about to push, considering they'd known each other for all of ten minutes.

Jesse's mouth quirked, but she didn't elaborate. "So am I," she said. "You've been here for a while. Tell me about the Fandom PD."

"For starters, it's almost ridiculously overstaffed," Liam informed her. "There really isn't very much crime to speak of around here."

"I did notice it's a small island," Jesse said, "But what trouble you do get is unusual."

Liam nodded. "Though those sorts of problems are usually taken care of with a community effort as a whole, to be entirely honest."

"So what's your role in that?" Jesse asked. "I'm not going to make any drastic decisions, don't worry. Just trying to get a lay of the land."

"Muscle, mostly," Liam admitted with a rueful grin. "But that's not always the solution. One year, there was a dance-off. I tried to stay out of the way for that one." His dancing skills had improved since then, of course, but it still wasn't really his wheelhouse.

"Any monsters spitting out large amounts of clocks?" Jesse checked.

For... no reason.

That was an oddly specific question, Jesse. Which earned you another eyebrow raise.

"I think anything other than zero counts as a 'large amount' when we're talking about clocks as something being spat out," Liam said. "But no. Acid, slime, hallucinogenic venom... but no clocks. So far. I wouldn't rule it out."

"It's... a thing," Jesse said, after a moment. "It's happened."

"Must've been a helluva 'thing' for that to be your go-to question."

"From what I heard, they're still digging up piles of clocks from the corridors of that building."

"Huh," was all Liam could think to say, shaking his head. "Back to your question, though. The Troopers? There's nine of them. A full squadron. Though sometimes it can seem like more, just because of... their nature, I guess. They're clones." So yes, under that identical armor were identical faces. Which, oddly, hadn't fallen victim to the accelerated aging that had afflicted their 'brothers' back in their home galaxy. If anything, they seemed to age slower than your average human.

"Some of them have names: Ralph, Calvin, Hugo. The rest... if they do, they haven't deigned to share them with anyone except perhaps their brothers." Liam had asked, a few times, when he'd still been new. The replies had been evasive non-answers, so he'd accepted it as it was.

"Interesting naming theme," Jesse said.

(She only noticed because these were the kinds of things that got things reanimated and-- no.)

"Are they a problem? The troopers, I mean. One of your men didn't seem sure if he could trust them."

"No," Liam shook his head. "Well," he amended. "They come from another galaxy, where apparently they were part of a military force. We've got a few others here from that same galaxy, and there's a bit of... tension. Sometimes. Because of what the uniforms represent, over there." Or represented, because timelines were weird.

"And I guess there's no talking them out of changing into a Fandom PD uniform?" Jesse checked. "Seems like an easy fix."

"I've tried," Liam confirmed. "So did the guy before me. Suppose there's no harm in trying again, though," he added with a shrug.

Men.

"I think trying the same thing over and over again is the definition of... something," Jesse said wryly. "But that explains the tension."

"Does it?" Liam asked. "From everything they've told me, Williams and McGarrett are from this planet."

"Yes," Jesse said dryly, "This world, which has never had jackbooted thugs kicking down doors anywhere, anytime."

"Point," Liam had to concede, "though from what I hear, the two of them were just as likely to be kicking down any doors in their previous job. Hasn't exactly been a lot of call for that here, though."

Good. But also worrying. Jesse's eyes flicked up for a moment, then to his face.

"I hope that'll stay that way," she said evenly, "Regardless of what the new boys are used to."

Sometimes it's easy to remember who I used to be before I had any responsibility but you. Sometimes it's... not.

Edited 2020-07-24 18:27 (UTC)

"We've already had one low-speed rickshaw chase that ended in an explosion," Liam confessed, rubbing at the bridge of his nose.

Jesse rubbed her forehead.

"No kicking down doors on this island without a warrant and a signature from me," she said, "Make sure they know that."

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Town Hall, Wednesday

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