A Closeted Conversation

From the destruction of a bunker, there were clues as to

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who caused it. After doing the work the clues lead to Lily. Waiting for the opportune moment to talk with Lily away from people had found them and tapped on their shoulder.

“Lily do you have a moment?”  Karla "Candy" Santoyo said with a low voice to indicate that they were trying to communicate with them without others hearing them or Lily.

Lily turned to face the reaper, and upon seeing who had addressed her let out a disgruntled sigh. “Oh. It’s you. What do you want?”

WIth a bit of dower expression in their voice Candy responded, “A messy bunker that might require a conversion.” Trying their best to be subtle while to indicate they had reason to suspect Lilly’s connection to the destruction of the bunker without making a scene.

“What? Do you work for the school or something?” Lily replied, a little anxiety clear in her tone. “I’m not going to discuss this with you unless you have some ID or something.”

Seeing the indication of words have led to a spike in anxiety adds a bit of a soft pause between words to indicate they are trying their best to appear calm. “Yes. If. You. Do. Not. Wish. A. Private. Conversation. I will have to follow protocol and report findings. I. Do. Not. Think. You. Wish. That.” Understanding that an extra pause in conversation is often a best way to indicate importance without appearing threatening.

Lily backed away from the weirdo in a skull mask. “Who the fuck are you? Report to who?” She clutched her arm as she seemed to grimace slightly.

Extending a brown glove out in an attempt to appear friendly. “Karla, most tend to call me Candy because of the mask. Report to higher ups, seeing what I have to put in my report regarding who is the cause of destruction to campus property. Since I was tasked with cleaning up the mess. As I do with a lot of the other groundskeeping work around the campus.” This was said with a soft voice. “I would rather just have a conversation privately then have to do any reporting. It lets me keep the more special reasons off the book.”

Lily wasn’t convinced just yet. “Do you know what that bunker is used for? If you do then I’ll have this ‘conversation’ with you.”

Pulling back the extended arm since it wasn’t received as a friendly expression. “Whispers of the more extreme,” stopping to use the quotation mark with their fingers, “Allergies.” making it clearly evident they do not mean Allergies but have no other way to say publicly. “Those “allergies” are why I would prefer to keep things off the book. If there is no clear indication, such as a private conversation, those “allergies” are present it must be reported. I would wager a fiver that you wish those allergies to not be reported.”. Even through the shades and mask it was clear they were a bit frustrated. Candy doing their best to indicate there is a need for a private conversation in which they could speak a bit more freely than one could in an open hallway. Since one would be liable for some gossip if spoken out in the open. Which Candy had no wish to occur.

Lily relaxed a little when Candy showed she knew about the bunker, but grew agitated again when she talked about reporting them. “I’m going to ask one more time. Report to who, because the school already knows about my ‘allergy’. That’s why they let me use the bunker.”

With a bit of volatility in their voice. “Those paid to clean up report to more than just the campus. So if you want that allergy to be a campus only thing, then we NEED a private conversation.”

Lily grimaced once again as Candy spoke. “...Fine, but you better explain what this is about.” Lily closed her eyes and clutched her pendant, taking a few moments to calm down. “Do you have a spot in mind?”

Candy nodded in agreement, before leading them toward a janitor’s closet, pulling out a yellow key and opening the door. It looks like a bit of normal janitor’s closet with almost a yellowish filter of light over it. Once  they crossed the threshold it led to an empty room with yellow painted walls with two comfortable seats instead.

“I apologize for my rudeness and or crudeness. I am not the best when it comes to social interactions. Now that damage was a result of beastal nature with most of the force caused by radical change in muscles needing a release correct?” Candy said very plainly. Now if Lilly would step in then out of the threshold would hear the sound of campus but when past the threshold wouldn’t hear it at all. A filter between this weird lounge area and the campus dividing the sound.

Lily glared at Candy, not happy with her treatment in the slightest. “I’m not answering anything until you explain what bullshit is going on. I don’t know if you’re some kind of magic police or something, but I have no reason to trust you.”

Candy nodded, “Well there was evidence in the bunker the destruction was caused by either someone of a beastial nature going through a release or was being harmed. If you were harmed then I need to follow that line. My job is protection of the campus against threats infra-, extra-, and juxtaterrestrial. Though an MP is something you might be right of, in the past. More the world of the supernatural and normal world function well together, and we do our best to help others who are connected to that. Though for me, it’s focused on the safety of others. Which again, I apologize for my rudeness.”

They said this in a very clinical manner. Indicating this was not the first time they had said these words.

Lily took a moment to figure out just what she meant. Lily wasn’t used to magic or supernatural goings on, so she was quite out of her depth here. “So basically your job is to make sure everybody is safe from supernatural stuff?”

Candy gave a bit of a shrug before moving their two hands up and down like a scale. Giving a bit of a self argument on if that is correct or not before responding, “Eh, that is close enough. If you promise not to repeat any of this under oath and pain of nails being pulled. I might be able to give you a more concrete answer.”

Leaning back and crossing her arms, Lily replied in disbelief, still wary of the skull masked woman. “Wait, so you’re secret police? Do you have a badge or something to prove you are what you say you are? Cause I’m not going to make an oath with someone who could just be lying to me.”

Candy shrugged a bit, “Well in a sense” then brought their fingers together in a pensive formation. “The doorway that leads to this inter dimensional hub for private conversations is only able to be opened by those who do the job. Which isn’t a badge. Also the oath is optional. Much like I can only be so candid on what I can speak of, unless there is that agreement. A bound word. Honestly I don’t have any powers or strengths on my own. Only the authorization to use such tools that do have magical properties.It wouldn’t be much of a secret if anyone could look us up.  Though if I give you a name of the person who is above me work well enough, for now? I know this isn’t the best. Though at this point ya done well enough that I can justify in paperwork is private. Since I wager if you were harmed you probably said something about it by now.”

Lily sighed. “It’s not like I’d be able to tell if the badge was real even if you did have one. Fine, I swear I won’t tell anybody about your ‘secret club’.” She leant forward with a questioning glance. “Why is it secret though. Like keeping members of the group secret, sure, that makes sense. But the group itself? Wouldn’t dangerous people be less likely to do shit if they knew an organisation was around to stop them?”

“Logically, yes. Though the elasticity of the unnatural worlds and their secrecy is built on people knowing. If you don’t keep to that same elasticity of kind of hidden, outside of what is real. It kind of makes it tougher to see or protect. The weave tends to make it tough to see what is there if you’re aren’t a secret too. Almost as if the more well known, and the less secret you are the harder it is to see and interact with it. Much doesn’t make sense for the purpose of making sense. When I put my key into the janitor's closet, it would make sense for us to enter a janitor's closet. Instead we did not. Almost as if you put an order to any of it will change for the sake of changing. Which I will give you is some timey wimey hogwash. Though a beastial transformation also defies the law of mass conservation, which again, to make sense it doesn’t make sense.”

Lily just looked confused. “Okay, I understood about ten percent of that, which I think might be kind of the point?” She sighed once more and resigned herself to the situation. “So what do you want to know?”

“The only required information I needed to know was whether you were harmed in that bunker. The conversation so far seems to indicate you were not. Which means on paperwork I can say private transformation and not give them any information on you. This stays between you and me, I swear.” with a raised hand. For a second the hand glowed yellow.”It was also kind of why I had to leave in a lurch while talking over at The Target. I apologize for that.” They said before getting up and giving Lily a bow.

“Unless you wish to swear an oath that will be all I can say.” Before procuring a voucher the size of a dollar bill out of a pocket. “This will give you one item from any vending machine on campus. In thanks for your time.” With a hand extended out with a voucher. “I apologize for any inconvenience.”

Lily reached out for the voucher with some trepidation, halting just before taking it. “Just how much do you actually know about me?”

“General information. Beastal in nature but not the cause. This was via the evidence at the bunker had to repair as well as clean up. I am not giving any private information. Anything like that would be higher up with Ash for example. Ash is very much Ash. So odds are if she knows anything. She has forgotten and would require someone higher up approval before I would know.” replied with hand still extended out.

Lily sighed, grabbing the ticket as she stood up. “Okay, whatever. You really need to work on this whole thing, cause I think a lot of magic people might not be really receptive to the whole ‘out of nowhere interrogation’ thing.”

Candy quipped, “You’re not wrong. Though to be fair, I am a bit shite at this. This was primarily to keep you as an unknown. Some others think it is better to put all in a file labeled threat regardless of the why. There is this loop whole, as long as I have personally talked to the person, they see the unnatural humanoid wasn't a threat and are safe. There is no reason to be in any file.”

“If you say so mate. Seems a bit naive to me though.” Lily walked to the door and opened it, suddenly hit with the sound of a campus once again. Just before leaving, she turned around and faced the reaper. “Just because you can talk to someone, doesn’t mean they aren’t dangerous.” With that Lily left, running off to her next class.

“You’re right,” was the last words heard from Candy as Lily took off. As they reach to close the door. With a turn of a key the janitor’s closet was nothing more than a regular closet.