Inconsistencies

Who: Eris and Bailey
Where: Babylon
When: 10:30 PM

Eris was in her office, which had enough soundproofing in it both physical and magical in nature that she didn't have to deal with the noise from downstairs. Or upstairs for that matter. She was going over buisness expenses, and while she didn't strictly have to do it--it wasn't as if her buisness was legal in any sense of the word--it was giving her a break from having to be downstairs for now. She was still hiring help, and would still need to do more, though she knew that wouldn't be a problem. There would be enough people in town who were curious if nothing else, and of course the cases of those who just couldn't find anything else and she paid well. Pampered her employees, even. It was good for business. She paused and took a sip of her wine, leaning back in the leather chair she sat in, eyes drifting shut for a moment as she listened to the music she did have playing softly.

Bailey climbed the stairs up to Eris' office, the noises all around falling on deaf ears. The first thing he'd learned once Babylon was built was how to ignore the sounds behind the doors and only allow in that which needed to be heard. There were screams of pain and there were screams of pain. Funny how similar they could sounded, though the later was always followed by the sweet sound of silence as the perpetrator was teleported away. It made his job a bit easier, not having to worry about what went on behind those doors. Still there was one door that continued to intrigue him, that he'd hesitate to enter, yet couldn't stay away. He knocked on that door and waited, positive that Eris sat inside.

She smirked. Bailey. She could tell his knock, it always had a certain tone to it. Like it was hesitant, but trying to sound like it wasn't at the same time. "Come in." she called in a silky tone, setting her pen aside and closing the books she'd been working on. She crossed her legs and reached over to turn the hurricane lamp light up a little, the only other light from the fireplace that was going. It wasn't throwing heat tonight, just light. She liked it, and she knew that it always set a certain tone. One she particularly liked thworing out there when Bailey was around.

He opened the door, eyes seeking her out instantly as he stepped inside and shut the door behind him. The lighting she lived in provided a dramatic touch that he was learning to expect, yet that didn't change the result. She was beautiful by candle-light and he wouldn't deny it. He'd just rather not say so in the first place. "Just checking in," he said, strolling over to the desk. His hands braced on the back of the chair that sat across from it, but he did not take a seat. "Wasn't sure if there were plans for tonight. How did this morning's interview go?"

"Random." Eris said. "She just wandered in off the street so I gave her a job. I think we'll have a few more by the time the week is out. Probably more than enough to tend bar and watch over the club. We'll see." she replied. She was of course giving him an amused little half smirk. Just checking in. Mmhmm. Sure he was. "Did you go out tonight?" she asked. She hadn't gotten a look around town, what with being under strict house arrest. It was something that was truthfully already starting to take it's toll on her, even if she knew how incredibly necessary it was.

It amazed him that people would do that, wander in to a brothel and take a job. Of course, Eris could be incredibly persuasive. He'd seen that for himself. She could make people do just what she wanted and sometimes she didn't even have to lift a finger. Bailey could do the same, though they may be missing fingers of their own by the time he was through. "Just for a bit. A local bar burnt down. Should be good for us. Apparently there was a crucifixion there recently," he said, as if discussing the weather, rather than a rather brutal act of violence. It was too bad he had missed it. Crucifixions weren't exactly typical fare, especially in small towns.

She arched an eyebrow at him. "Really? Well, isn't that interesting?" she asked, tsking. Leaning back in her chair, she slipped her heels off and put her feet up on her desk, crossed at the ankle. "Wouldn't think there would be much call for crucifixions in a town this size. Someone's being a flashy little baby, aren't they?"

"Just showing off, I assume," he said, coming closer and actually leaning against the side of her desk, almost taking a seat. "I'd say we one up them, but then we'd have to find something to burn down, and town scares always result in such a mess. Someone'll go and put a curfew into effect and that's bad for business," he shrugged, though if she wanted him to go out and crucify someone on her behalf, there'd be no arguing. His eyes moved to the hem of her skirt, then back to her face. "I'm constantly surprised by the things we cross paths with here. Marquette seems like it should be quiet."

Eris was amused. She wondered just how long it would be before he'd do something like sit down without being invited. And of course she noticed him eyeing her hemline--which was short. She usually wore things to catch his attention in different ways, and she noted how he responded to each. "One upmanship is for children." Eris said. "If people want to go around shitting where they live, that's their business. That's not how I do it. You don't go pulling bullshit like that in a town like this and expect to live very long. That's needless, bad attention. All that'll do is make life more difficult for everyone else for a while, really. I swear, some creatures don't have the tiniest lick of sense." she purred. She sipped more of her wine, smiling at him over the top of the glass.

"So am I included in that group?" he asked, a little smirk forming at what she'd insinuated. "I went down to watch it burn. You could feel the heat from a good fifty feet. You really should have been there." But she couldn't be and he knew that. To his knowledge, he was the only one who knew that, and while he shouldn't rub it in, she'd just called him a child. He was still testing the waters where things like this were concerned, waiting to see her reaction. The last thing he wanted to do was genuinely piss her off, but annoying her was fine on the odd occasion he could manage it. Words were never his strong point.

"Rash, exciteable and sadistic with a penchant for the dramatic...sounds like a child to me." Eris replied with a lightly mocking tone to her voice. "I've seen a lot of things burn, dear, I don't know that some random bar would really get me hot so to speak. But as long as you were entertained..." she trailed off, wondering if he'd get irritated with her.

Bailey stared down at her for a second too long, his fingers moving along the wood of her desk, rubbing lightly. He told himself he would not get annoyed. He told himself, but he didn't obey, though he did his best to conceal the fact. "Occasionally I enjoy the odd act of destruction, even when it's not my own," he told her. It wasn't the first building he'd seen burn either, and it certainly wouldn't be the last. Yet he wondered how she'd been exposed to so many. Younger than him, it wasn't exactly a regular occurrence, no matter where she was before.

"A lot of people do." Eris said. "it's an inner taboo. Watching something go, seeing things being consumed by a destructive force not their own. And even if they started it, it's it's own animal after that." She liked seeing the little bit of tension in his frame after she'd spoken, and she wondered if she should go for trying to get him to snap at her tonight, or if she wanted to play a different game. Since hiring him, Bailey had proven to be a highly entertaining employee. In fact, he may very well be considered her favorite toy.

"I prefer it to be my own," Bailey said, though she would know that by now. Or should. Other people's destruction often left him feeling bored, either with their methods or their execution. Sometimes the best ideas were wasted on idiots that didn't know how to carry them out. The fun thing about Eris was that she always had the best ideas. Bailey was rarely bored with the plans she'd set out for him, even if he didn't know the reason behind them.

Eris finished off her glass of wine and set the crystal glass down on her desk. "Of course you do." she said. "Did the fire make you want to go out and do something substancial? Or are you just reporting back to me to have an excuse to talk to me?" she asked, looking like she was giving him her absolutely undivided, hanging on the edge of her seat attention. Of course she also looked like she hadn't just said something potentially embarrassing to him.

Bailey's jaw tightened just a touch, an action so small that most would never notice. The answer was fairly obvious to him, when the question was put out there like that, but it bothered him that he hadn't seen it before hand. If he had, he might not have mentioned the fire in the first place. "I thought you should know," he said, taking a route that hadn't been offered. "Though the desire to set something on fire was not present. I enjoy watching the flames, but it takes far too long to burn out."

"I didn't ask if you wanted to set another fire, I asked if it made you want to do something more substancial." Eris pointed out smoothly. "There are of course many levels to destruction...I know you're well aware, sweetiepie." And evil, impish sort of expression settled into her eyes.

While there were a number of pet-names Bailey was willing to tolerate, that was one he'd prefer she not use. His eyes narrowed slightly and he resisted rolling them, thinking that was probably the reaction she was aiming for. "I'll admit I'd have liked to do something of my own," he said, "But I had other matters to attend to." Like getting back to Babylon. Just because he had an itch, didn't mean it needed scratching.

She of course adored the eye narrowing. She shifted herself, leaning farther back in her chair as it tipped back, and she stretched languidly, arms resting up behind her head on the back of the chair. She knew it hiked the hem of her dress up that much more. "If you hadn't had anything else to attend to, what would you have liked to do?" she asked.

Bailey made himself a touch more comfortable on her desk, though he was careful not to move anything. As he did so, his eyes were drawn up her legs again, her new position offering a bit more skin. She was his boss; she was off limits. But if he could look without getting caught, then it wouldn't hurt him. "The bar was empty," he said thoughtfully. "If you're going to burn one down, it might as well have people in it. Though fire's not really my style." He wasn't sure what he would have done. Now, given the question, he was starting to consider it.

Eris didn't react to him eyeing her up, he was trying to do it subtly, but she was watching for it. It's what she had been going for, after all. "Boring." she said, feigning a yawn. "Come on, B. Put a little thought into it. Say you could just run off and do whatever you wanted. What would you do?"

He gave a little laugh, his eyes catching hers. "There's just so much out there," he said. "I think it'd be fun to see how far you could take a vampire before they completely bled out. Start at the fingers and toes and work your way up, but avoid the heart or beheading. I'd like to know if destroying the brain has any bearing on their continued state of non-living. An experiment, per say. It's something I've been considering. Humans are generally far too easy to kill."

"So you would want a challenge." Eris said. "Though, from what you're saying, you'd just like to play mad doctor. It's not a challenge if you have a quadrapalegic reanimated corpse on a table and you're just cutting off bits to see when it'll finally expire." It of course sounded like she was making a judgment on his statement. She was doing it on purpose.

"Would the challenge not be catching the vampire in the first place?" he asked. From his exposure so far, he knew he could handle it. Vampires were high on his list of supernatural creatures that he hated, and he was always willing to torture just for fun. "I suspect there are other beings... I guess it depends on if I'm looking for personal pleasure or a public demonstration." He was trying not to alter his answer and defend himself, but the instinct came naturally. He didn't like the way she seemed to think his answer boring again.

Eris looked at him thoughtfully, absently twisting one finger around in a lock of her hair, around and around. "Sure, but that didn't sound like what you really wanted out of it. You were talking about the torture afterwards, sweetcheeks. You can't go changing your story halfway through, you know."

"It's not always the challenge that interests me," he admitted. In this case, it was the torture that he was looking forward to. "If I'm looking for a challenge, then there has to be more than capturing something and killing it. Whomever it was that did the crucifying? They attacked a girl. A human girl. While that send a significant message, I'm sure, it's also shamelessly easy. I say, if you're going to crucify something, go for something that will kick and scream the entire time."

"That depends what message you're trying to send, and to whom." Eris said. "And, of course, how badly you want to fuck over the area. If you put say, a vampire up and crucify them, when they won't die, that's going to tip off the police and hospitals that something weird is going on, now won't it? It blows everyone's cover. It makes things harder for everyone, and in the long run, really fucks with the dynamics in an area. There's sublty, my sweet. There's so much you can get away with if you just do it under the radar."

"I wasn't saying that I wanted to publicly crucify a vampire. I just think it'd be interesting to fuck with one on my own time. But I see what you're saying," Bailey agreed. He knew that Babylon survived best things in the area ran smoothly. The last thing they wanted was the police all aware of the supernatural, but that didn't seem to be the case thus far. "So what would you do?" he asked, turning it back on her since all his answers had been wrong. "Or are you completely above it all?"

She shifted, scooting her chair closer to the desk so she could rest her legs more comfortably on it, and possibly give him more room to sit. Possibly. "No one's above it all." she said. "I would bide my time." she answered. "Too many people rush into things. Go for the instant gratification of it all. I like to know what I'm dealing with. And I also like to effect the whole picture instead of only one small part of it. It's what I'm already doing, moving into this backwards little town. I'll be providing services to people who can't do for themselves, and I'll give the more interesting people in this town something to talk about, somewhere to go, and if anything is going to be going down around here? I'm going to know about it before it happens."

Rather than actually scooting back onto the desk, Bailey leaned back, resting his hand in the newly vacated space. It allowed him to be a bit more relaxed without actually taking a seat, a move which he'd prefer not to make. She wasn't officially offering, so he wouldn't officially take it. "So you run the whole show. Little by little, you collect people, till you can pull the strings you want when you wish it, correct?" That was how it sounded to him, a much more elaborate plan than he'd ever concocted. That was something that impressed him about Eris, the way she could forward think through the sort of scene that could shift and turn beneath her. Bailey was beginning to learn that she'd make it work; he just enjoyed seeing how.

"Correct." Eris said, smiling at him. "If you're not going to do something right, why do it at all? I prefer to make sure everything I do is thorough, I won't do anything half-assed. I haven't got the patience for those who do. Though, those people are easy to manipulate, of course. Lazynes makes people weak. If you can do something for them, they'll pay a price to get it done where they don't have to. then of course there's those who can't pull things off. can't manage what they should be able to or what they think they should be able to. everyone wants something they can't have. If you can give it to them..." she smiled. "Things fall into place nicely."

"And what about me?" he asked, a hint of a challenge in his eyes. They hadn't known each other all that long. Bailey wasn't sure if he was as transparent as the rest of them, or if he'd actually been able to remain a bit of a mystery to her. Either way, her answer would be interesting, considering Bailey didn't know the answer. "I don't think I'm lazy. What is it that I want that I can't have?" And for that matter, what was it that she wanted? Bailey would guess that it had to do with being entertained, though Eris' was entertained in ways that most women weren't. That was part of what made him so interested in her, attempting to understand what made her tick.

Eris looked at him with a purely evil sort of expression in her eyes. She leaned closer to him, the turn to her lips mostly unreadable. "You're not lazy, princess, you just haven't learned how to truly plot then draw things out yet. you will. I have faith in you." she said. Then she dropped her feet down to the floor, and stood up, stepping in closer to him, but not close enough to make contact. Really just enough that he could scent her perfume. "I don't know. What do you want that you can't have?" she asked, voice light.

Sweetiepie was better than Princess any day, but he took the pet name in stride, more concerned with the words around it. She had faith in him, which was interesting, and he actually believed it. That was probably a bad idea on his part, but Bailey found himself trusting her when she said things like that, possibly because she had no reason to lie to him. Then she was standing, so close he could smell her, and for a moment he was distracted completely. Only a second though, a second of weakness that was immediately pushed aside. "Maybe I have everything I want?" he questioned back to her.

"Do you expect me to believe that, or are you being hypothetical?" she asked. "Because you can't convince me that you believe that." Eris continued, moving along to partially behind him, reaching up to brush imaginary lint from his shoulder. "You want something. You probably want a lot of things. And while you're not the sort who's never satisfied, I think it takes a lot to accomplish that with you. Your tastes are off color, refined in different sorts of ways than usual which has you right here, right now. But you can't tell me that you're perfectly content."

"I'm not," he admitted, turning to look over his shoulder as she stepped behind him. "But I'm not sitting around moping over what I can't have. Things that I want aren't the sort to easily obtain, nor are they very concrete. They come and go. When I see what I want, and I know what I want, I go for it." The real trick was knowing. Bailey didn't chase things on the off-chance that he might like it. By the time he was set on pursuing something, there was no question in his mind about whether he wanted it or not. There was only one thing in his life that fell into a gray area and Eris was the last person he'd discuss it with.

"I didn't say you were." Eris said, smirking faintly at him. "Listen to what I say, don't read in. It'll save you a lot of time. You're not moping. Though you do know that if you're not actively seeking anything out you stagnate, right?" she asked lightly, picking another bit of imaginary dust off of the back of his shirt. "If you have nothing driving you, you might as well be dead."

There was only so long Bailey could stand with his back to her. Instinct told him that she was too dangerous to have in such a position and that he needed to turn around and face her. Yet, he knew Eris well enough to believe she was waiting for him to do just that. He wouldn't even consider the option that there might be something on him. "I'd hardly say I'm dead just because you don't know what I'm actively pursuing."

"You were the one implying that you weren't persuing anything." Eris pointed out. "Remember? You implied that you may have everything you want. If you're going to be playing games, at least get your goddamn story straight." she said, voice far too sweet. She started away. "If you're not going to be even the slightest bit consistent to hold up your end of the conversation, perhaps you have something better and less mentally demanding to attend to."

Bailey rolled his eyes and finally turned to face her. He couldn't standing talking to her without seeing her face to face. "I'm not hunting," he said, falling back on the word his mother had used when she referred to his father. "I'm not desperate for what I want. I'd rather take the time to figure it out. See if I really want it. Maybe that makes me stagnate, but I believe that if I were to jump the gun, I'd lose my chance completely. I don't know where that puts me, but I don't think I'm mentally challenged for that either."

"You're not. You're mentally challenged because you can't even hold up your end of the conversation without tripping all over yourself, not keeping your story straight, and definitely not doing anything like making coherent sense. If you're going to talk to me, you might want to start with not fucking around. Otherwise, why bother?" She shrugged, a lazy, slow rise and fall of her shoulder as she turned to walk around the room. She was pushing, of course. But she liked to push.

Now Bailey frowned, annoyed, put out, and tired of this discussion. "If my company has grown tiresome, I'll take my leave," he said, rising to his feet, but not yet heading for the door. He wanted to point out that when she was being a bitch, she wasn't worth pursing, but that wasn't quite true too. He knew he was just sore because his skills at verbal manipulation didn't compare to her own. In fact, no one could beat out Eris in that area, not that he'd seen.

Eris waited for a good minute, looking around her office as if fascinated by some of the items in there. She wasn't, she was just amused that he hadn't actually taken off yet. Like he was waiting to be dismissed or possibly begged to stay. Eventually she turned her eyes back on him. "Still here?" she asked lightly. "Do you have more to add? If so, please. Indulge me." she invited.

Bailey did his best not to huff in annoyance, and this time he did leave, his steps a little harder than he would have liked them. The only thing he would have had to add were words he refused to throw at her. Somehow he'd gone in with the intent to be professional, and instead he'd ended up getting his head so scrambled that he wasn't even making sense. It hadn't started that way, but Eris was getting better and better at it, or he was just getting worse. Neither option was appealing. Both resulted as a fault on his part, and that was intolerable as far as he was concerned.

And the moment he was out the door her felt like a petulant child. Seriously. Men his age didn't stomp out of rooms. It was as unprofessional as their conversation had been. Turning on his heel, he stepped back into her office and shut the door behind him. Bailey paused, thinking for a moment, then spoke. "How do you do that?" he asked. It seemed like a fairly straightforward question to him.

Eris was amused. Damn amused. So much so that she very nearly laughed, but she didn't. "Do what?" she asked, smile conveying all. She took a few steps closer to him, hands clasped demurely behind her back as she watched his eyes.

"You take my thoughts and twist them till I'm not making sense any more," he said, arms crossing over his chest. "I'm positive I started out logical enough, but by the time you're done I might as well be speaking gibberish." She was the first one to be able to do that to him. If he could understand exactly what she was doing, then maybe he could prevent it. Somehow he doubted she'd give him that much.

"You're the one who's plagued with inconsistencies." Eris pointed out. "I just notice them. Maybe other people haven't in the past, and you do it all the time. Or, maybe you just get flustered around me. That's entirely possible. Don't think I didn't notice when your gaze strayed."

"I don't do it all the time," he said, clearly displeased with that idea. If he was that illogical, he'd be dead by now. No, this was a recent development, one that had to be brought to a halt. "And if my gaze strayed, it was your doing." If she wasn't so good at what she did, she wouldn't be there in the first place. Bailey had no doubts that she would try to use it on him. She was to blame, though he'd prefer he hadn't looked at all.

"Oh, clearly it was my fault. You have no control over yourself, or your eyes, that's all me." Eris said, clearly teasing. Her tone dripped 'poor baby', and she walked closer. "Are you blaming the violated for your own indescretion?" she asked sweetly, voice very light.

"You are not the violated," he said pointedly. "And I have plenty of control over myself. Not perfect, but more than you can imagine." But not enough to keep his eyes off her, it seemed. Bailey could try all he wanted, but he was still a man, and she was better at pushing a man's buttons than any woman he'd ever met.

"You just blamed me for your shortcomings." Eris stated. "And how do you know I'm not violated? I might be offended tha somene who's supposed to be a trusted employee--in fact, trusted far more than any others--was eyeing me like he might wonder what color panties I'm wearing. Or if I'm wearing any."

Fuck you, he thought and the expression on his face said as much, though the words never made it past his lips. Until she'd said as much, he hadn't even considered the fact that she might not be wearing anything beneath her skirt. Now he was and it was entirely her fault. Bailey took a good five steps across the room, putting a distance between them before he even attempted to speak up again. "My apologies, Miss Stockard."

Eris smiled as he all but retreated, making sure he was far away from her. It was probably lucky for him she had a large office. Moving over, she sat down on her desk, crossing her legs as she kept her gaze heavy on him. "Accepted, Mr. McCree." she said. "...on the condition that you actually are remorseful. I don't like empty statements. If you're going to apologize to me about anything, mean it."

Bailey actually found it insulting that she would question his sincerity on this point, considering how rare it was for him to apologize in the first place. "Those are not words I use lightly," he told her. "You will never hear them from me unless I mean it." In this case, he most certainly did, even if it was for slightly the wrong things.

"You don't seem the type to really apologize much." Eris mused. "But then again, you also just told me this was all my fault too, so I'm not entirely convinced of your intents." she added. A smile was still curling her lips as she eyed him.

Bailey thought maybe he should hold his tongue, but what he knew of Eris was that she wouldn't let it rest at that. This had to go somewhere or he had to leave, and leaving might as well be giving up. She wouldn't win that easily. "You are not an honest woman, Miss Stockard. You are a manipulative bitch," he said, lips turning up just slightly. "And while this is something I admire in you, I don't appreciate it when it's aimed at me. I was not looking up your skirt any more than you were tempting me to."

"So, you like that I'm a manipulative bitch, but you don't want it to be directed your way?" she asked. "Tsk. Silly little boy." She got up off of her desk again and started advancing on him. "Am I supposed to be different when I'm with you, sweetie?" she asked. "Are you supposed to be exempt from it all? Am I meant to show you some hidden side of me that no one else sees?" She stopped directly in front of him, looking up at him to keep her eyes locked to his.

"No," he answered, refusing to move as she advanced upon him. "Because if you were different with me, then it would mean it's all a show, and it's not. You're not supposed to be anything but what you are. What I said was that I don't 'appreciate' it in that instance, even if I don't expect you to change. If there's some hidden side of you, then you do a damn good job of hiding it." Because most of the time, he was fairly certain he was getting her 100%. That was how he liked it, even if it was torture.

"I see you've spent time figuring me all out." She said, smirking at him. "Really have it all figured out?" she asked. Reaching up, she straightened the collar on his shirt. "If you can't handle a little heat, Aiden, you really need a new job."

"I wouldn't say I have you all figured out. It could never be that easy." It was when she said things like that that he remembered she'd seen his file, the fact that she'd pulled his first name seemingly more important than the details within. "Bailey," he said, correcting her this time. "And if there wasn't a little heat, I wouldn't be here."

"Now that I believe." she said, finally satisfied that his shirt was straight, and she let her hands drop back to her sides again. "I wondered why it is you dropped your first name." she said. Funny how he hadn't corrected her on the pet names, but did there. She found that fascinating.

"It was my father's middle name," he said simply. "I don't like it." It was what his mother had called him as well. And his sister. Aidan and Ashling. Bailey blinked and the memories were gone. Silently, Bailey wondered if he'd ever had anything on his shirt or if she was just messing with him again.

She noticed the blink, and she smiled. "I touch a nerve?" she asked, voice soft even if it still held onto a nearly mocking but not quite note of amusement. It wasn't clearly making fun, but might have been. But then Eris excelled at borderlining things.

He could lie, but he was starting to realize that she knew when he did. "It's my past, Miss Stockard, and not something I wish to discuss at this moment." Nor ever. Eris would have to dig her fingers in a lot deeper to pry that sort of information out of him. Cut through bone, most likely.

"Not at this moment." Eris repeated. "Good to know." she added, abruptly turning, and heading back towards her desk. "You are of course entitled to your privacy." she added. Her tone and everything about her, however, suggested that his decision not to talk about it she was taking to mean she wasn't to ask about anything, and the conversation was therefore closed. It couldn't be farther from the truth--Eris would pry it out of him someday, but she liked keeping him off balance.

"Why, thank you," he said, as if she'd just granted him some gracious wish. Of course he was entitled to his privacy, but Bailey didn't think for one moment that he'd actually get it. Eris would be looking for a way to get it out of him. Unfortunately for her, he was the only one who had these answers and he wasn't going to give them up easily. It wasn't the sort of thing that just slipped out. "I don't suppose there's anything you need me to see to this evening," he asked, thinking it was about time he left.

She made a show of thinking about it. "Nothing immediatley leaps to mind." she said. "If you want the night off, you can have it, if you're that bored." she added. A little smile crossed her lips. "Just so long as you don't get yourself into too much trouble, of course."

"I wasn't suggesting I want the night off," Bailey said, "Just merely asking if you had anything in particular that you needed me to do." He was trying, after fucking up a good number of times so far, to do his job. Playing the roll of a bodyguard was not a challenge in itself, but Eris made it so.

"Nothing specific, no." Eris replied. "I'm just going over books tonight, so there isn't anything harrowingly dangerous to attend to, and as far as I know, there aren't any errands I need to have run. I'll have something for you soon enough, but I'm still waiting on the details. So you can just play intimidating bouncer if you like."

"That's fine," he said, wondering to himself what she might have planned for him. Occasionally she came up with things he enjoyed far more than he should, but Bailey rarely bothered with worrying about that anymore. Eris was not one to judge him on his lack of morals. "So can you give me an idea of what you have planned, or are you going to leave me in the dark till you have more information?"

"I'm going to leave you in the dark until I have more information." Eris said. "I love to give out surprises, you see, so you're just going to have to wait. Don't worry. You'll find out soon enough." she assured him.

Bailey wasn't sure if a surprise from Eris was something to look forward to or something to dread. It could be either/or, so maybe it would be best to try and prepare himself either way. The hard part was, how was he to prepare himself for something completely unknown. As a soldier, he'd taught to always be on guard. That was the best stance he could take. "I'll try to be patient then," he said, feet taking him towards the door. "Let me know if you need anything. I'll be around," he said, letting himself out. He'd hear from her soon enough.