The Larger Details...

And I hate saying it, but Red really knows how to ask for what she wants.

A day later, she called me back to iron out what she wanted in exchange for becoming the proper proxy that the higher ups had wanted since day one.

Just one sentence this time.

"We need to meet, Tag."

Guess I have to pack my bags.
 
 -Transcription Start-

Me: "So, you're back on the payroll. Enjoying your time as a lacky of the hire ups again. But you know they're keeping tabs on you, right?"

Red:"I figured. I know how this goes. Constantly stalking me."

Me: "Left and right, so like I said. Keep your nose clean.But fuck all, find out what's going on. Even I don't know why they're watching you."

Red: "So basically always act as though I'm being recorded. If it wound up on the news, would she have to move Sanctuary or want to?"

Me: "Well, no. The Board has already staked too much into it to move it. They'll make that part disappear."

Red: "What do you mean?"

Me: "Oh they'd make it look like Sanctuary is a burned out patch of land with no strategic value. Mental trickery, bunch of bribes. Like it never existed."

Red: "Kind of like Hogwarts."

Me:"Yeah, kind of like Hogwarts. Except there's no anti muggle spells. Just armed personnel with an axe to grind."

Red: ".....who will be guarding Rabbit Hole? And I need to hire mercenaries. To kill those narcs for you. May I use the slush fund?"

Me: "Your choice of our finest mercenaries, all expenses paid. And yes, you may use the slush fund."

Red: "Is this a permanent bonus or a temporary one?"

Me: "Kill those three middle management pukes, and then I'll tell you."

Red: "Fuck.

Can I at least get a promotion?

Because K8s make shit pay."

Me:"How about K6 pay with benefits?"

"And you'll owe me one."

Red:"And I will need permanent access to the slush fund. Especially to pay off Sanctuary's mortgage."

Me:"You're killing me Red. But fine. Deal."

Red:"Fine. One favor that follows the Code."

Me:"You're no fun, you know that?"

Red:"I will file a formal request each time. I won't ditch the paperwork if I get the promotion?"

Me:"And you'll say you're sorry to the Tax Adjuntant for flipping her off."

"Lady holds a grudge like nothing I've ever seen."

Red:"I'll finally be getting paid fairly. Thus, I can actually travel to do my job."

"I will ask each time, report each assignment. You can even publish the tame incident reports if you think it will help PR."

Me:"Make them as gory as you like, you know the higher ups love a good orgy of violence and suffering. Just keep up with your paperwork, and next bonus is sure to be properly handled."

Red: "May I ask if I may make special requests from R & D?"

Me:"Within reason."

Red: "Or bribing the necromancer to help him fix the broken magic on my healing ability?"

Me: "You can use the slush fund for that."

Red:"I also need a hush favor, valid for up to one year, in each timeline."

 "So.. 20 hush favors for 18 deaths and two active timelines?"

Me:"Fine. Put that in the contract. I'll make it legal."

Red:"We need to put everything in clear writing. Dobyoi formally requests that Sanctuary be on protected status in every timeline."

Me:"You actually got Dobyoi in on this? Come on, Red. You know even I can't say no to a big (Redacted).?"

Red: "We need additional training classes, both for me as middle management and for the Rabbits."

Me:"Slush fund."

Red: "I need R&D to create a better version of my Sanctuary slips. Nonfading magic."

Me:"That can be arranged."

Red:"I need special detailed pocketwatches. I will send the specs to you later."

Me:"Sounds like you're starting some kind of cult. Or underground society."

 Red: "We need a communication source that will work in every timeline."

Me:"R&D has a rotary phone for that."

Red:"This will take contacting the Alexandrian library."

"No. My Rabbits, my land, my rules."

"We have to keep them safe. It's already a stipulation of the top brass that I do this. To pull it off, I need tech and magic. You know how to make this happen. I know you do."

Me:"I do, but it's going to cost extra to get everything into place."

 "But yeah, you're one of my best. I'll expedite the process."

'You'd better deliver, Red."

Red:"You're the one with his neck in a noose. You want this to be a rush order. Make it happen."

Me:"Fine. But whatever it is they're trying to get from you. Don't let it happen."

"Good hunting. For both our sakes."

Red: "I won't. I will swear in blood not to directly attack the other Fears. I can keep the Rabbits alive in No Man's Land and Underland. I decided we're going with literary quotes for my land since Dobyoi has agreed to help."

Me: "Fine. That's going to be in writing. No one can break it."

Red:"They can't attack either. Every time you call me Red, my base personality becomes stronger. But in contrast, so does Dobyoi. It's a trade off."

Me:"Well, you're lucky I enjoy your original nickname,"

Red:"We can write up my formal Code of Conduct, add a few concessions as a good faith move, and put it in the Charter for Sanctuary. Contract must be signed in freshly spilled, nonbespelled blood. If we have to use temporary fizzle magic to make this happen, we need to."

"Proxies and Runners and neutral parties get access to training classes. And They swear They will not cause the Rabbits permanent death. We must be able to retrieve them after their trial in Underland us over."

Me: "Right."

Me: "Just do me a favor. Stay alive this time, will you?"

"Hell of a lot of paperwork to bury you again."

Red: "I will swear not to attempt suicide again. Accidental deaths shall have no repercussions."

 "You mean those Proxy bodies after Bleeding Tree got done devouring their soul as a power source?"

Me:"Good. Can't have the last few times put more people in that pretty little head of yours again."

 "Well, yeah. You think we just kept leaving you in the ground to rot?"

"But the BT needs fresh meat."

Red: "I get protection for the Red Road."

"All it takes is one time of being buried while I was sleeping, and wake to have my pulse start from nothing to heart attack range staring down the inside of a casket lid, to crawling my way through the grave and pulling a Kill Bill on my knuckles to get out, for me to never want to be buried again."

"The Red Road will be repaved and fairy lights put up to illuminate the road. No more Silent Hill darkness."

Me:Not sure that's my department, and armed guards can be acquired."

Red: "Freya wishes herself to have access to her occult books and supplies. She wants to apply for shaman training formally with the Cherokee Nation."

Me:"Would you like nice hopping streetlamps to follow you through checkpoints there, Chihiro?"

"Access to the Cherokee Shaman Tribe? Doable"

Red:"I actually want fairy lights. And sign posts warning visitors of the risks of breaking the Code and leaving the Red Road."

Me: "Fine, fair lights and warning signs."

Red:
"I want jasmine and Japanese cherry trees planted in the areas next to the Red Road to deter 
Codebreakers. Liliana misses home."

Me:
"Fine. Call Terry in landscaping. He loves decorative trees and shrubbery"

Red:
"Cypress trees and mangroves for Amanda. Pictures of her children and proper Wiccan burial for them with trees planted as headstones. She wants her ashes moved to the New Orleans graveyard. Not Marie's graveyard. Don't you dare."

"Proxy protection in all timelines against the other magic factions. Even in the event of war."

"Freya wants permission to kill Dal Matia."

Me:
"Yes, yes, yes, yes, Don't worry, we aren't that big of assholes, sure, that one is complicated, and absolutely not. In that order."

Red:
"She committed a blood offense. I demand retribution."

"She broke the Treaty. You know the price for that."

Me:
"You know I can't authorize that."

"You can maim, not kill. Take a finger off or something."

Red: 
"Dubyoi says off with her fucking head. We keep the head of hers and the narcs on pikes by Rabbit Hole. I want white roses planted around Sanctuary and Rabbit Hole."

"She tried to hex me out of my body. It almost worked. If I weren't dead already, it would have."

"This is nonnegotionable. Contact Higher Management. I'll wait for their answer."

Me:
"Ladies, we've talked about this, you want Dal Matia dead, you go to the Higher ups directly."

"I can send in the form."

"That's about it."

Red:
"She broke Their rules. You know the penalty of killing one of my bodies. Of breaking the Rules. She broke every truce that mattered. I get to cut their heads off myself."

Me:
"I know, it's in the treaty.

"But trust me, all 18 of you don't want to do this."

Red:"No. Call BT. I want to formally call in my token for the hiding from IA for The rape and torture of a K8 by the K-3 agent, David."

Me
:"You're calling in that favor with the BT?"

Red:
"You owe me, Tagalong."

Me:
 ."..fucking no strings attached policy."

 Fine, I'll get you your violent date with Dal Matia."

"Don't ever say I didn't do anything nice for you."

Red:
"Yes. Nonnegotionable, being called in as of now."

Me:
"Fine, but you're personally feeding her body to the Tree."

Red
:"I don't want the payoff money. The 5 years lump sum will go straight into investing into businesses we will control and own as our own. Even split of resources we get as profits, distributed to all Rabbits."

Me:
"You want to take your personally earned salary and dump it into your rabbit cage?"

"Fine by me."

Red:
"We formally request David himself to make amends, create a truce, and lend his fizzle magic to my personal resource pool. One week notice prior. Regular maintenance. Terms negotiable. I still need to show him what it's like when Catherine rapes HIM."

Me:
"Doable. Might as well fuck up the day of one of the original 12 for some well deserved payback."

Red:
"Of course we'll enjoy it. But the point remains. He owes sexual healing and he knows it. It's very little to ask of him, all things considered."

Me:
"Whatever he does to any of you in his spare time is your business. I'll just get the paperwork done."Spare me the details."

Red:
"I don't need revenge. I'm five hundred and twenty this July. I'm too old to care about old wounds. I just want to be acknowledged as more than a rape doll for Wooden Girl, or a torture pet for David."

Me:
"I always forget that, Red. Fine. All requests and demands accepted, pending approval by Higher Management. Doth I please the queen, this insipid bumpkin for sooth?"

Red:
"Dobyoi requests official recognition of the Red Road, Sanctuary, and No Man's Land. She gets formal goddaughter status with the Fears. So all of us do by technicality as hers."

"We need protection, I need protection from Them. All deals are held to the intent of the letter and upheld til the day after eternity ends."

"So no direct intervention, attacks and or psychological damage to the 18 personalities inhabiting the one living vessel."

Me:
"Eternity is a long time."

"Better make it worth their while."

Red:
 "You people made me into this eldritch mindfuck. Time to claim ownership and make it formal."

Me:
"Don't say I didn't warn you. But fine, I'll put the paperwork through."

Red:
"Paid vacation. Travel expenses, food costs, per diem, mileage. I want the Blood Red credit card in my real name. No limit. Only to be used with written permission from higher ups."

Me:
"... Slush funds at your disposal, Red."

Red:
"In my real name. So it's legal in all timelines."

"Protection from Proxy assignments on all of my lovers and informants. No more watching a 
Berserker kill my lovers. Too many of us lost our timeline's future husbands to the Quiet. They get the choice of which timeline to live in."

Me:
"You know you're asking me to bend time and space on a head for you, right?"

"You want the moon and stars while I'm at it?"

Red:
 "In return, I will be the field agent they always dreamed of."

Me:
"Hefty boast. But fine."

Red:
"No more fuck ups. No more suicides. No more Running. No more setting house fires or averting prophecies that are neutral in nature."

Me:
"As long as your deliver and give us what we want in return, you'll get everything you're asking for, Miss Renalda."

Red: 
"I will write incident reports. I want the cities of Nola and all of Mobile counties as my district and formal territory in Overland."

Me:
"That's for the zoning board to decide, but the chairman owes me a favor.)

"Businesses, populations and subsidiaries as well?"

Red:
"Complete with recognition as middle management and your equal in status if not rank or salary. I have access and leadership of the Proxy squads in those areas."

Me:
"You know that's going to basically make you just like me, right?"

Red:
"Yes. We are reclaiming Nola and the home of Mardi Gras."

"I will still be operating in collusion with you. Out of respect. You are still my ranked superior by experience if not status."

Me:
“Aww. Well that’s nice.”

“But you know that if you or I screw up, we’re both going down for it. Right?”

Red:
"I will finally cooperate and become a Proxy. I will be considered a District Manager."

Me:
“Is that how far you’re willing to go?”

Red:"
I will make weekly instead of monthly sacrifices to Bleeding Tree."

Me:
“Where are you going to find the bodies?”

Red
"I want my old mask back. When dealing with Rabbits and on assignments."

"Be the management they truly want. It will be a bloody district."

Me:
“You are about this?”

Red:
"I'm not done."

Me:
“You’re losing a lot of Autonomy.”

Red:
"I will publicly declare myself as Keeper and create an Archive within the Alexandrian library."

Me:
“You’re doing what now?”

Red:
"I will donate all but my trophies from my souvenirs and storage. At my discretion what is exempt. No matter what I found."

"Kids will stop being killed in my district. 12 and under are off limits in No Man's Land and my district."

"As well as individuals over the age of 80. They earned a peaceful death. They should get it, even if I 

 can't."

Me: 
"Lot of specifics here, Red. You sure about this?"

Red:
"Whatever happens outside my district is free game until the unlikely event I get promoted again."

"I will not punish those that break my Code outside of my district."

"I will be culling the rapists, murderers, and pedophiles from my district beginning at 12:01am Saturday morning. Retroactive. The witching hour of February 14th will be the go time."

"Bleeding Tree will get fat off the sacrifices I am about to give it. I am about to soak the ground red with blood enough that Rabbit Hole's grass will grow red for eternity."

Me:"Well, as long as you get them in on time, I don't think the higher ups will be all too disappointed in your incredible work ethic. "

Red:
"I get to kill Omega as many times as I want for funsies. Any and all means allowed. No permanent deaths."

Me:
"Omega? Fine. He can't die anyway."

Red: 
"Give Them some amusement."

Me:
"You're a real people pleaser, you know that?"

Red:
"I get acknowledgement for my true kill count."

Me:
"That's going to take a while."

Red:
"Updated daily. Publically posted."

"I received my old notebook and can count through my scrapbook."

"I know The number anyway."

"Once a month for 4 years. Once a year from 16-22."

"You do the math."

"From here on out, kill count Updated to once weekly."

"Wooden Girl makes Dobyoi an enchanted Noh mask. Same design as before."

Me:
“Same sort of glass?”

Red:
"Must inspire Fear and loyalty somehow."

"Looking Glass. Ability to see through the timelines without jumping."

Me:
“We’ll make it extra scary for you then.”

Red:
"Reinstatement of my ability to heal and travel the path. Removal of health consequences for doing so. I need to find Justice. He has a prophecy I need to hear for myself, but he lives in the Path now."

Me:
“You know that one is dependent on the higher ups performance reviews. If they are happy, you’ll get that one on your own.

"Anything else on your to do list?”

Red: "What do the eldritch Old Ones want from me that I haven't already promised?"

"We must follow the Code. Here, now."

Me
"If that’s what they already told you, I guess nothing.”

Red:
"One last thing."

Me:
“What is it?”

Red:
"I have a catch of my own this time."

"My legal persona, Shady, and the Board all get 33%"

 "Ownership of everything involved."

Me
"You want to split this land and all of its assets into thirds?

Red: 
"This District will be formally recognized as a melting pot. No killing in Nola or 251 or the surrounding areas. I have family in both."

"Yes. Legally recognize it as a neutral zone. Until the day every timeline is eaten by the Quiet or humanity wins the Great Game. Not a moment before."

Me: 
"That's asking for a whole section of non sacrifices. well, if you want it, you have it."

Red: 
"I will more than make up for it with Codebreakers."

Me: 
"Don't make promises, you can't keep, Red."

Red: 
"There will be a culling. As of Mobile time, 12:01 AM Saturday."

"It's going to be the Purge, Underland style."

"Better warn your people to run. My Rabbits are already stationed outside every oathbreaker's house. You have 5 minutes to finalize this deal before they begin."

"And of course, rending metal to flesh, feeding the hallowed ground with the blood of the unclean."

Me:
"You're threatening me, Red?"

"That hurts my feelings."

Red
"No. Promising you a District level Apocalypse. Straight out of Their sickest desires."

Me:
"Fine, I accept the terms in full."

Red:
"The streets will run red with blood in 4 minutes."

Me:
"3 more than I'll need. Men, let's move out. Get out of their line of fire."

"I'll be in touch, Red. Don't you disappoint me now."

Red: 
"Add in my Code. Just use negotiable terms."

Me:
"All terms adhere to the code."

Red:
"We can fix it later. Now which blade am I using to get the blood?"

Me:
"Polished steel, black handle pen knife."

"Make it deep."

"I'll be doing the same."

Red:
"Wait."

Me: 
"What is it now?"

Red:
"Protection for Gallows. Should he want it. Priority level."

"3 minutes."

Me:
"Fine."

"Twisting my arm here, Red. You know that?"

Red:
"And Shady."

Me:
"And I 'm already late.. Shady?"

Red:
"She's part owner, after all."

Me:
"Fine, suit yourself,"

"They get full protection."

-pen scratches as she signs the contract-

-pen scratches as he signs the contract and dates-

-it vanishes by magical fax-

Me: 
"Now that is what you call blood binding and quick sending.:"

"So, I need to go before I get a ceremonial dagger to the face."

"Always a pleasure, Red."

Red:
"2 minutes. Any last warnings for the Code Breakers?"

Me: 
"Try not to get my good side."

-Transcription End-