savetheearth | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Who: Melissa, Eugen, and eventually Karl.
When: Saturday, March 15, afternoon
Where: A cafe
What: Melissa and Eugen meet up, and he's got some serious stuff to talk about. And then Karl shows up and it takes a turn for the ridiculous.

Melissa isn't usually the first one to show up to her and Eugen's infrequent meetups. She's punctual, sure, but Eugen can take it to a kind of neurotic level. So if she's there first, he must be distracted by something. Not that she's terribly surprised by that. Especially since he's apparently got a robot now... she can only imagine how much time he's sending on that.

And here is today, picking a good out of the way spot for them to chat, and waiting for her friend to show up. She wasn't actually mad at him for being late. There was plenty for them all to be distracted by. But that doesn't mean she's not going to give him shit for it anyway.

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Eugen is rarely ever late since he makes it a point to always arrive at least half and hour before the appointed time to avoid any unforeseeable situation. But there're instances when even he could be late and that's when he's preoccupied with his research. Having just gotten himself a Gundam and is finally being allowed to look at it, albeit with strict supervision, distracted him enough for him to be twenty minutes late.

Hurriedly parking his bicycle, he rushes into the cafe as he straightens his hair and clothes. Once he catches the sight of his childhood friend, he heads over with an apologetic smile.

"Sorry I'm late." He takes the seat opposite her, glad that she has chosen a more secluded table for them since he has important things to discuss with her.

Melissa looks up at him with her best disapproving frown, though he'll know her well enough to see the slight smirk behind it. "Wow, Jenny, I don't see you for ages and you wind up coming in late?" It fades into a real smile fairly quickly. "Got a project you're playing with, I'm assuming?" She doesn't flat out want to say 'so you were messing with your robot huh?' in public.

He expected the chastising but that doesn't stop him from noticing the faint smirk behind her frown. Well, he should have known she wouldn't really be angry about his being late but that doesn't mean he's not sorry. "I don't think it's long enough to warrant the nickname." He too, breaks into a smile but before he answers her, Eugen leans in to give her a small peek on her cheek. It must seems rather odd to her since he's not one who would normally greet anyone so intimately but it's the only way he could think about that would allow him to speak to her covertly. Speaking quietly to her ear "I'm under FBI's surveillance." to alert her of the two FBI agents trailing a few tables behind him quietly, he pulls back before taking the seat in front of her so his back would be facing the agents following him. "You could say so. I found a solution to my thesis project."

Even though he was already told he would be under surveillance, it's really annoying to have them following him outside. He has things to discuss with her face to face but he can't possibly do so if the agents linger around.

Melissa is surprised by the greeting, and Eugen's comment doesn't help that. She manages to regain her composure quickly enough, but a comment of "You'll have to tell me about it sometime" along with a very pointed look should make it clear that she wants to know what the fuck is going on eventually.

Still, she knows well enough that they can't talk about it here, and honestly she's just kind of happy she's not in uniform for the moment... though depending on how much they care, they could find out she's a cop pretty quickly. Not to mention the FBI presence makes it hard to actually talk about anything that they really need to talk about. "So how've you been doing?" she starts, keeping up a very cheerful and unaware look while still noticing the feds positioning themselves nearby.

Even though Eugen didn't respond to her reply, he heard it and trust Melissa to know that he would tell her what's going on when he can. It helps that by sitting with his back against the FBI agents, he could slips her information quietly without looking suspicious.

Eugen isn't too worried about them finding out she's a cop because they are connected far longer than her recent occupation in Locke. And he trust that she, of all people, is certainly not corrupt. He smiles to keep up with the cheerful set up so it wouldn't look suspicious to anyone watching. "I've been alright, busy, but I welcome it. You?"

Picking up the menu, he flips it open to check out the menu. "Have you placed your order?" His eyes flickers downwards as he starts tapping the alphabets on the menu to spell out a message to her. I'm not in danger.

"Pretty busy, yeah. Hopefully things will calm down soon." But she highly doubts that, and it's probably obvious.

It takes her a minute to figure out what the hell he's doing, but once she figures it out and reads the message she relaxes slightly. Ok. Good. Eugen doesn't deserve to get involved in any of the really serious bullshit going on. "Not yet, I was waiting for you." She doesn't dare try and do the same trick, seeing as the agents can more easily see her.

"It's good to be busy while we can though." He nods in agreement.

Once he's sure she has gotten the message, which she most likely does when she relaxes, Eugen browses the menu so they will get to actually ordering their food. "Let's get this done then, I'm starving." He doesn't always eat out since he's relying on his scholarship and grant to survive but he does has a bit of saving he can spare for meet up such as this. Plus, he deserves a treat for not dying in the Gundam.

"Ready to order?" Holding the menu up with a grin, he hurriedly slips another message through in a hushed tone. "I'm working on the robot with the FBI."

Melissa will pay for him if she must- she knows how tight of a budget he's on, and since she's just got her apartment to pay for really, she can help on the little things.

"I think so," she says, glancing up at the hushed tone with the slightest of nods to show she heard him. Again, she can't really reply with the agents staring right at her, but it at least explains the gist of things. "You didn't forget to eat again today, did you?"

If she offers he won't deny it, not that she doesn't know already. He'll appreciates it, of course.

"I might have..." He forgot and no one is surprised considering how excited he is with the Gundam. It's a bad habit of his whenever he works on something new or fascinating or both, and unfortunately it's going to be stuck with him for a long time. His colleagues were nagging him to eat before he heads over here. Leaning back into his seat, he waves the waiter over. "You first."

Melissa rolls her eyes- of course that's what happens. When Eugen gets into something, everything else in life kind of goes to hell. She'll order, and inform the waiter that it's one check while giving Eugen a look that is effectively 'now you can't use your budget as an excuse not to eat enough.'

He lets out an amused chuckle at her reaction before nodding in understanding and places his order. If she's buying, he's not going to say no to her generosity. Once done taking their order, their waiter informs them their food will be served when they're ready. Lingering behind a few seconds longer to catch another glimpse of them, the waiter heads back to the station. If he notices the gaze, Eugen makes no effort to acknowledge it.

"I hope you had beauty treatment listed in your busy schedule because..." He grins before continuing with a dramatic tone, "...are those dark circles under your eyes?" If Melissa thought his behavior is strange, that's because he is trying to throw the FBI agents off him by having a bunch of ridiculous chats. Not that he's sure how convincing he is but if the agents looks through their background, it would be evident that Melissa is a childhood friend and they share more than just a normal friendship at some point of their life. Them meeting up now would seems like just a catch up session between two good friends. Or so he hopes...

Melissa notices the gaze, but she doesn't do anything about it either. She's use to it, and she's sure Eugen is too.

But naturally, Eugen knows juuuust want to say to earn him a frown. She doesn't care if you're trying to throw them off, though her irritation will certainly help. "Wow, thanks," she says, sighing, "My concealer's not doing the trick, then? Guess I'll actually have to get some sleep now." It's a little bit of a joke, but she does need to get some more sleep. "Not like you can talk."

Edited 2014-03-18 19:41 (UTC)

"You use concealer now?" Even if he instigated this in hope of diverting the agents' attention, he's secretly amused with her response nonetheless. Shrugging off her comment off with a snorts, "Hey, now. No one is going to care that a research assistant has dark circles. It's actually a standard fashion accessory in my department." before proceeding to talk about the latest movies screening in the theater and how despite being interested in one or two, he has no time to catch one.

If the agents were listening in on them, Eugen hopes their little chat is enough to throw them off. Unfortunately, since his back is facing them, he can't see their reaction. He'll have to rely on Melissa to watch them instead.

Melissa will roll her eyes and partake in his movie talk, since she hasn't been to a movie in ages either but there have been a couple she would like to catch eventually. Sure enough, by the time their food arrives, the agents have made certain that these two are just friends meeting up take their leave. Melissa will glance after them as they leave, breathing a sigh of relief. Now she can only hope Eugen isn't bugged or anything. "You're ok, right?"

Despite the surveillance, the FBI hasn't bugged him yet or so he hopes since he can't be sure if they did anything when they were held for investigation. But the cooperation they offered certainly tilts things in their favor for now so he's more willing to believe they would spare bugging him.

"Yes. It's a lot of hassle going anywhere now but they haven't done anything bad to us. It helps that their primary concern is securing the robots and us. You?"

That's good to know. He said he wasn't in danger, but considering that hiding the giant robots wasn't a real possibility, this was probably the least the FBI could have done. "Fine. I was on duty when it happened, so I was mostly running around evacuating people. Didn't get involved in the fight, so no one could have noticed me."

He pauses to look at her, his expression unreadable as he observes her quietly for a moment. When he finally speaks again, there's a hint of disbelief in his voice. "There were smaller snakes all around the city, so many of them to the point that I have to rescue people who are trying to escape. How could you possibly not be involved if you were there?"

Oh. Well... there is that.

"The short version is I can move really fast. The long version... how much do you know about what's been going on at the station?" She's not going to keep what happened from Eugen. She might not entirely be cool with the network, but it's pretty clear the choice she made wasn't the best one.

Whatever she's planning to tell him, Eugen has a bad feeling about it. The Melissa he knows rarely preface anything this way unless 1) she fucks up something royally or 2) she made a bad call or 3) both of them. He sips on his drink before responding, hesitation clear in his voice.

"Faster than you normally are? Well... not much beyond the corruption and killing. Why...?" He frowns, worry beginning to creep into his nerves. However, before she can reply, the waiter returns with their food, placing them down carefully before retreating away with a "Enjoy your lunch.".

"You're not allowed to yell at me." Yeah, that's a sure sign that it's option number 3. Whoops. Melissa sighs, reaching to mess with her hair and not even thinking about touching her food until she's done explaining. "So, uh. Basically because I'm pretty good at my job, I got approached about six months ago and was asked to be a part of a 'special assignment.' Which basically is that I'm supposed to be hunting down numbers, but I obviously wasn't told that."

And before Eugen can ignore her and yell at her anyway, she'll continue to the main point. "Some people who wind up working with them get offered 'modifications' by the alien. From what I understand of it, they basically put animal genes in people. I... may have gotten modified with cheetah genes." By which she obviously means that that's what happened. "I literally got my number right as I woke up from that."

That's not an ominous start at all, Melissa. His eyes narrow at her, bemusement already settling in him before she starts. He couldn't even be surprised by her screws up any longer. With a huff, he waves a hand nonchalantly for her to start.

By the time she's done, he's feels so done himself. He's so close to reaching out right from where he's seated to choke her with his bare hands. It's a good thing he's not the reckless one between them, so the only thing he does is to glare at her angrily for a good minute before he starts berating her complete lack of sense and horrible call of judgement. "Are you stupid?! How can you possibly think such special assignment is not questionable?! Why the hell did you even let anyone modified your body in the first place?! Have you got no sense in your mind at all?!"

She told him not to yell at her! Already breaking rules, wow Eugen.

No, but really, Melissa expected this. "I know, I know!" she groans, messing with her hair, "I get that now, ok? At the time, I just... I don't know, Eugen, they were cops. And I trusted that. I had no reason not to." Now, unfortunately, it appears she has plenty of reasons not to. But they were people she'd put her trust in, who she'd worked beside for years. Melissa doesn't give out trust easily, and it doesn't break that simply either.

He's just going to stare at her with an incredulous expression because he can't believe what he's hearing. "They were humans!" Which means they should be subjected to the same amount of scrutiny everyone else receive if not more because of their position. Slumping back into his seat, he lets out a heavy sigh before bringing a hand up to his face momentarily.

"...Just, tell me you're okay. Does the modification harms or endangers you in any way?" He's going to focus on the important thing because he doubts yelling at her is going to be any help. "Next time you have to make important decisions, you will call me and talk to me first. I don't want to wake up to phone calls from the morgue or crime lab, ever."

"I said I know that now, ok?" Ugh. She really doesn't like being lectured like this, even if she knows Eugen's only doing it because he's worried about her. And luckily he drops back to that in just a moment's time.

"I've fine, don't worry." It was stupid dangerous going into it, but he doesn't need to know that. But the second part gets a bit of a deadpan look from her. "I can't call you every time something comes up." She knows she makes bad decisions sometimes, but at least they're hers. She just has to own up to them, and she's fine with that. Maybe she'll figure out how to do this decently well eventually.

Even if she said so, Eugen observes her a while before finally accepting her answer since she doesn't seem any worse for wear.

"Whenever you can then. I know you don't like how it sounds but at this point, I'll rather be a bother and have you be safe than otherwise." With another sigh, he picks up his cutlery to start digging in. He wasn't kidding when he said he was starving. "They're going to get cold if we wait any longer."