[MillietheWarrior]

Nim’s ‘ears’ droop faintly, and she scowls. “Oh, that explains all the little fires she’s been starting recently. I was wondering why I kept finding singed medical charts in my file cabinets.” Tsume pushes his glasses back up his nose, looking faintly exasperated, as he is prone to do when dealing with someone of a lesser intelligence than himself; it’s an expression he wears often.

[MillietheWarrior]

“Yes, well, considering she is now your employee, it would be advisable to get her a license.” The licenses were something Tsume had come up with in his youth to give to the supernatural beings of both the Dream World and elsewhere to identify them and their powers, and made it possible for them to recognize one another when asked for or shown their ‘OW License,’ or ‘Other Worldly License.’ Those supernatural creatures who were unlicensed were often considered rogue or ignorant of the system, in which case they were hunted down, and either forced to register, or exterminated, depending on the amount of trouble and danger they pose if refused.

[MillietheWarrior]

The licenses were regulated by a bureau of supernatural beings, of which Tsume was the ’headmaster’ and ‘ringleader’ of the bureau. It didn‘t have a very imaginative name either: The Bureau of Supernaturalism, or The Boss for short (The extra ‘s‘ was added by most people, since BOS just seemed odd).  

“I’ll get on that,” Nim mutters in reply, folding her arms over her chest. Tsume makes a little noise in the back of his throat that could be annoyance or amusement, she isn’t sure, but he smiles nonetheless and continues. “And on the subject of your rogue reaper, you can consider him a former freelancer and now under the employment of the bureau. He will be reaping his fair share of souls in no time flat, and enjoying is job to boot. So moving on, that corpse you were talking about?”

[MillietheWarrior]

He slants a look at Spirit, who flinches and pales an unhealthy shade of white. “I doubt you need to worry about her either. I’ve already dealt with it and assigned her to the Soul Collectors.”

Nim perks up slightly, visibly surprised. “Soul Collectors? I thought it was impossible for people to be around them without losing their souls.”

[MillietheWarrior]

Tsume nods, the cigarette in his lips bobbing with the movement. “Well, yes, that’s true. But a corpse made of clay isn’t a human, nor does it have a soul, although she does give the very realistic appearance of being alive. Whoever reanimated her did an amazing job.” He strokes his chin, and Nim wonders if he’s kicking himself for not being the first to try and reanimate someone using a clay body.

[MillietheWarrior]

“Anyway, the soul collectors will keep her busy, and she’ll be able to feed off of the impure souls that pass through their ranks, drastically reducing the amount of time it’s been taking us to process all the ‘exemplary’ souls and cutting their work time in half. No more randomly floating souls for random passerby to collect or absorb.”

Nim thinks it’s a good idea; almost all of Tsume’s ideas are good ones, and have been since he was a child, even if he does have a tendency to wheel around on a rolly chair like an idiot. “I won’t even touch on the subject of that ridiculous mafia you’ve been on about; all of their employees are licensed properly through the bureau, so there’s no need for worry. Yarrakohn, however, is another matter.”

[MillietheWarrior]

He sighs, shoulders slumping. “She’s been releasing more beings from the depths of the Dream World lately; her latest project is a Lightning Spirit and a very pesky Double elemental that I haven’t had any luck in catching.”

Nim can see Spirit shifting to look over Jojo’s shoulder out of the corner of her eye, and she sees the weirdo priest poke at a half eaten tuna and egg sandwich, and ignores him when Jojo growls and bites his finger.

[MillietheWarrior]

“Are you and Marie having trouble?” Nim cajoles, leaning forward with a feline smirk when Tsume stiffens almost imperceptibly. Marie, an old friend of his, and a supernatural being who has the power to transform into a scythe (A power Nim never understood until she saw how effectively Tsume wielded her, and Marie explained that she transformed into the weapon that best suited whomever her partner was). Tsume had discovered Marie working as a waitress at a bar, and when he’d gotten into an altercation with one of the local drunkards, she’d accidentally transformed mid-fight in her haste to aid him, and they’d bee inseparable ever since.

[MillietheWarrior]

Marie was also well known in the bureau for her ability to calm and mediate all issues being disputed; she wore and eye patch over her left eye; she’d once confided in Nim that it was the source of her ‘soothing power.’ Nim didn’t question it, and didn’t want to. “Usually you and Marie can take care of any of Yarrakohn’s little minions. What’s so bad about these?”

[MillietheWarrior]

“Well, for starters, neither of them are actually being controlled by her. They were summoned, yes, but it seems they are completely autonomous entities and are entirely self governing. Which means they’re being sporadic and difficult to track; if I knew where they were, it wouldn’t be so difficult. Not even Shale can catch their scent, and you know how good he is at tracking. It’s not as if I can rely on…my siblings to help.” His lip curls slightly, revealing sharpened, fang-like canines as he mentions his brother and sister, Cortez and Chessa, who aren’t all that reliable when it comes to Bureau business; they’d always been the literal wild ones of the bunch.

[MillietheWarrior]

“What about your mom?” Nim asks, thinking of the wolf shift and healer who had long since settled down with her husband, or ‘mate,’ and become Nim’s unofficial, official aunt, along with Sage, who was like her uncle.

Tsume shakes his head. “You know she doesn’t want any part in any of that. She retired from the ‘supernatural life’ a long time ago with my father.” He cringes slightly at the thought of even asking his mother to do such a thing; if Sevella didn’t try to reprimand him by chewing his ear off (literally), then she’d probably scold it off instead. Even Tsume, as powerful as he was, still wasn’t a match for his mother when she was riled up.

[MillietheWarrior]

“Anyway, Holo’s been bothering me to check on another God who has recently entered the mortal world. So I was hoping I could send you and our newest reaper recruit to look into it.”

Nim’s face falls. “Whaaaaaaat? Why me?”

“Because,” Tsume replies diplomatically. “If there’s any trouble, you are the most experienced member of the bureau, and best suited to dealing with troublesome Gods. I don’t foresee this particular God giving you any trouble, but really, you never know.”

[MillietheWarrior]

His gaze drifts to Spirit, and he flashes the man, who has by now gotten lost in his music and own musings, a creepy smile. Spirit recoils, and tries to look innocent. “I have a job for Spirit as well. I need him to-”

“I WILL NOT BE ONE OF YOUR EXPERIMENTS YOU MESSED UP, PSYCHOPATHIC BOOK WORM!”

Tsume scowls and rubs his ear with a finger. Nim sighs and drops her head into her hands. “Idiot.”

[MillietheWarrior]

“I don’t want you to be an experiment, Spirit. Although if you’d ever like to volunteer…” he trails off and his smile sharpens as Spirit gives a little whine and shrinks away. “…Anyway, as I was saying. I have a job for you as well, Spirit. Since you are technically the next most powerful member of the bureau besides your sister, I’d like you to take Marie with you and pick up the new Corpse recruit; her name is Kikyo. Using Marie’s powers and Kikyo’s ability to sense souls, I’d like you to seek out the lightning spirit.”

[MillietheWarrior]

Spirit scowls, wondering why he needs so much help. “But I can transform my arms into weapons. I don’t need Marie. Anyway, shouldn’t she be with you? You know you only keep her around because she keeps you from going absolutely insane.”