We Should Be Bustin Ghosts, Not Blood Vessels [Elgen&Nadine]

And her was one of the many reasons Nadine didn’t like the police, showcased graciously by this asshole. The result of the divine combination of bluster and the belief of being above others stood in front of her, and was shouting down her door. Oh, and don’t forget to add a gun into the mix for maximum capitalization on potential body count of a bloated ego. Besides, police were known family-abandoning ass-kissers. Ahem.

Really, Nadine ought to just cut the chase and tell him to fuck off if he didn’t have a warrant. She needed to continue patrolling, and she just didn’t want the police, or anyone or anything else, inside her home. Of course, then he’d come back with said warrant at an even more inconvenient hour and continue to sully the atmosphere with his gross sneers. Only she could sully with sneers here, it was the basic right of renters, probably somewhere in the fine print of her lease. Additionally, she didn’t currently have anything to hide. There were no illegal substances within her house, she didn’t allow it of her father, and she hadn’t been to the zones recently. She had nothing to worry about. And honestly, no shadow monster could make it inside her house with her right there, so that was one check off the “do not let into the house” list. Although with this guy’s determination, she didn’t think she could check him off the list with any reasonable speed. Nadine could’ve sworn he was starting to dent her door. She might as well find out why this guy was called here. And being brushed off never sat right with her, so she was practically obligated to be asinine back at him in the process.

A slight grimace flickered across her face as she observed the man trying to yell down her door. She quirked an eyebrow, used her free hand to push up her glasses, and again addressed the man. “It might be the head of house is out. It might also be my business. What do you want.” Huh, maybe he’ll make her say it a third time. After all, third time’s the charm, and if one can’t get superstitious in the time of rampaging monsters, when can they?

Oh, getting testy, were we? The man looked as if his face might rupture like a bloated corpse from buildup of incensed vapours. He certainly seemed rotten enough. Nadine straightened to her full height- decidedly taller than the officer, she smugly noted. She really shouldn’t be encouraging the quarrelsome man, but he should learn not to be condescending. Nadine wasn’t the type to take the doormat role, and she loved teaching lessons in the grittier points of life. Well, maybe not today, jail would be.. unfortunate. But she didn’t forget, and there was always tomorrow to pick ill thought out fights.

Then he paused in his bullying attempts. Tragic, it seemed she wouldn’t get a third time to ask what he wanted. A waste of completely unnecessary drama, but such is life.

Had he seen her before? Maybe it wasn’t a search of her apartment he wanted. Nadine flicked through memories of the previous few days. Had she done something? The only thing she might be pegged for is waving her gun at a few people while skulking through the streets looking for the monsters, but she had a permit. For the gun, not the waving. Maybe that was it..?

Then he got to Lucz. Oh fuck, she knew she shouldn’t have listened to him and instead thrown his petulant ass over her shoulder and dragged him home. She hadn’t thought the lower class police would actually send anyone, and that she’d be able to just forget the whole situation. Again though, such is life.

Nadine had known what she was doing.. Not taking into account Lucz's pure terror. It was.. Understandable. Understandable but unacceptable. Yet he had insisted on going to the police. And by insisted she meant he had thrown a tantrum while they were walking home, saying he felt " unsafe " and " threatened" in the dark. Pah. Did he not trust her? Was she not enough? Did he, in his naïveté, really think anyone would be able to stay with him? She was all he had, and it was for the best. Yet she hadn't been in the best state of mind then, it was unfortunate and wouldn't happen again, but in her weakness she had acquiesced. But night in the lower class had so few safe places.. Especially not the police station, but at least it was reliably lit. It wasn't like she was following Seth's directions, the station was convenient. Just convenient. Besides, he wasn't even in the lower class department, he'd left long ago to live and work above her. So she'd gone inside, fully intending to simply ignore all attempts by officers to see why she was there until the flicker of fluorescent lights calmed Lucz's hyperventilation. But before she could do anything, Lucz had begun gibbering at the receptionist and then at the few officers left at the station who had been called over. She had been unable to stop him. She was sure her air of disapproval and stony reticence would have gotten through to him if he had any sanity left. But they must have gotten something of interest from Lucz, and he must have let their address slip. Hadn’t she warned him never to tell others their address? But she’d see to Lucz’s punishment later. Now, this asshole was here to reward her lenience.

But.. gathering information implied he knew things about the shadows, things that she might have missed. Nadine’s attention was caught. Cooperate was a pretty harsh word, but she might just acquiesce to questioning if it meant she could get some of her own questions answered.

Nadine pursed her lips and gave a slight nod. “I am.” She relaxed her stance, hopefully to encourage him to do as well. “What have you learned so far? I might be able to fill in some blanks.”

And she could definitely fight the police officer recording her personal account if he tried hard enough.

Was he.. trying to be threatening? Nadine had to bite her lip and furrow her brows to keep from snickering as he attempted to stare her down- or up, rather. Paired with his ridiculous pout, he looked almost childlike. Strange, in this moment he seemed so young, impressing himself upon the world amidst his thrashing sea of rancor. Her urge to laugh melted away, leaving her grinding her teeth into her lip as he continued to loudly and artificially claim dominance over the conversation.

Then he gave his paltry excuse for terms of exchange. She raised her eyebrows and repeated, “Generous?” then lowered them in preference for slight smirk. “You don’t give the impression of ever willingly being generous. A partnership, ” Her smirk widened, “ requires set give and take. We can figure something out that’s good for the both of us.”

“It would be hard to tell, I’d imagine being drugged up would have the same affect on one’s senses. So little control over one’s self.” Nadine’s smile slipped for a second, then her smirk turned nasty as she bared her teeth in disdain. “So the police are as scarce as the monstrous shadows, I’d thought the lack of complaints was strange. How fitting. Of course, it’s not like they ever do anything of worth down here.” Wait, she was supposed to be ingratiating herself to the guy, not making biting (yet factual) commentary about his fellow scum. It was no use embittering him while he had things she wanted. “Er.” She paused. Nope, no apology coming, better focus on another topic.

Personal theories? Personal theories were what had kept her awake and functioning on. Uh. An unknown amount of sleep. Personal theories and pure nerves. Hell yeah she wanted to get her grubby hands on sensitive information, even if it meant letting someone into her house. Of course, she had already struggled herself with the paradoxes he had stated. Hopefully he had something fresh “Ah, you mean my apartment?” Had he still not realised? She thought his remembrance of her name and her lingering here made it obvious. Why else would he remember her? She cocked an eyebrow at him, then plucked her key from a pocket inside her belt satchel without breaking eye contact. “I’d prefer you tell me your name first. Strangers don’t come in, although you seem to know me, and it’s doubtful knowing your name will make you less strange.”

He’d been able to get a direct line to data, hot shit this was excellent. She couldn’t wait to grill him, even with his gloomy outlook and inability to put pieces together. Of course, she'd have to actually put her all-consuming confusion into words, but anything concrete would help, right? He wasn’t from the lower district (did that mean he was from the middle district? Did he.. know Seth? She shook away the intrusive thought as quickly as it came), and definitely seemed to think that gave him an advantage. Maybe it would, although it did nothing for his bloated ego. Ugh, his pure pretension and condescension made her want to rethink affiliation with him, or at least give him a good smack about. She was smarter than that though. Probably. She needed him. Probably.

She nodded at his conclusion. “That lines up with what people have been saying online. And Lucz and I were attacked, so that would definitely rule out drugs as the instigator. But you can hear more about that inside.”

Nadine side eyed him at his comments about the police. Not to say that she didn’t thoroughly enjoy hearing smack talk about the police, but had he no sense of duty? It was probably in the same line as she complaining about her family’s general incompetence, but that might be giving him too much credit. He sounded as if he had no love for those he thought beneath him. Bleagh. Well, at least it freed her to rip into them, so there goes that inhibition.

Finally. She had been dismayed that he knew more about her than she about he. And he even thought to present questioning as something soft. Maybe he did have some tact. Although she definitely didn’t like the incriminating tone he used when claiming she was hiding Lucz. Of course, it was exactly what she was doing, but he made it sound like she was jailing him. Which, again, was surprisingly close to the truth. Actually, that was probably why she didn’t like it.

Well, she wouldn’t get away with locking him out by this point, so hesitation be damned. She strode past him to the door and unlocked it, then swung it open. Well, half open, its trajectory was ended by a hefty smack into a head that hadn’t jerked back quickly enough.

“Ow, Nadine! Be careful!”
“You deserved that. Now scram, and make sure Felix isn’t still bumming about in the living room. If he asks, say I’ll tell him about it later. Or that it’s none of his business. Either works.”

Lucz started away down the entrance hall, looking back reproachfully but thinking better of retorting as he turned the corner towards the kitchen and living room. Muffled complaints and coaxings were heard as Lucz shuffled Felix off to Felix’s room.

Nadine walked in through the short entrance hall and turned the corner, then turned back as she took her boots off. “Make sure the door is shut, you’ll have to shove. And take your shoes off.” After ensuring that he had properly closed the door, she continued into the shabby yet meticulously clean living room. Well, except for where Felix had been sitting but a few moments before. Her lip curled in irritation as she took in his usual mess- a beer can mostly empty of it’s swill, the TV remotes scattered amidst the mussed blankets, the pillows all thrown onto the wooden chair- disgusting. She removed the small pile of pillows and place them back onto the couch with care, then turned to Elgen and gestured to the end of the couch not previously occupied by Felix. “Sit, please. How would you like to conduct this? A question for a question?” That was normal for this type of procession, right?

Thank god Lucz was taking an inordinate amount of time getting Felix away, he’d throw the beginning finagling of business out of whack. Or maybe he was just listening through another door. Honestly, if he weren’t, Nadine’d be disappointed. After slamming said door into him, of course. Now, though, he had the opportunity to butt in at the most inopportune moment he could calculate. Great.