Mistaken Identity (Victoria)

[Jacob C. Vinland]

Ahhhh micqueot. A city of wine, women, booze, grapes and liquor (as well as booze). It was no wonder the marines had a sizable amount of resources based here. After all, there was a lot of profit for the world government to tax from such a place, and where there was profit there were usually pirates. Like a vicious cycle, where one of those things was (In this case, booze profits) the other two (marines and pirates) were not far away.

In the case of the vice-admiral, he was right in the middle of town under the morning sun, dressed as a civilian while on his way to the marine base. It had been a long trip to get here,and Jacob was eager to just get to the base, get his inspection done, file his report and rest. Its not like anything would go wrong with the inspection, since Jacob happened to be more familiar with marine safety protocol then some of the commanding officers that wrote the damn regulations in the first place. Hell, he had been writing those protocols (among many other more secretive things) while the current batch of commanding officers were still in diapers.

There was, however, a small issue Jacob was trying to work out. Well, maybe a little bigger then "small". This issue happened to be the reason why he was dressed in civilian uniform. You see, Jacob had packed his uniforms and most of his credentials inside his baggage. Baggage that he had not carried into his cabin for convenience, but instead left in the hands of the captain of the boat. Baggage that, by the time Jacob had finished getting off the boat he came in on, was already at the marine base so that he couldn't change into his uniform. Worse still, all the needed credentials happened to be with the uniforms. This meant that there was no way could simply waltz right in after showing some papers. No, the only thing this series of unfortunate events had left Jacob with was an ID (which, quite frankly, any marine could just claim was fake), his clothes, one of his knives and his guns. The vice-admiral thanked his lucky stars that all three of the weapons were in their holsters inside the jacket he was wearing, if only to make things slightly easier. Wearing two huge revolvers and a big knife openly on his person would cause problems with local authorities that Jacob did not need. Unfortunately, due to his weapons large sizes anyone with decent eyes could tell that the vice-admiral was carrying a concealed weapon without his permits on him (take a wild guess where they were).

Yeah. Life was unfortunate for the vice admiral right now. Devoid of uniforms and the governments oh-so-beloved credentials effectively made the vice-admiral, in a political sense, a fish out of water. Jacob really didn't have to much of a worry about his own personal sense of safety for obvious reasons. As he made his way down less populated alleyways and streets to avoid unnecessary interactions with law enforcement officials/marines that would make his life a pain. Yeah, it meant there was a chance a random outlaw would try to mug him, but any idiot dumb enough to try to mug the vice admiral in broad daylight would pay a very steep price indeed. (In hospital bills among other things.)

Turning down a wide alleyway of shop and apartment buildings no more then a block or so from the marine base, Jacob heaved a sigh of relief. Soon he would be at the gate and could start getting this whole mess sorted out. Even if it would be another half an hour at the gate to get confirmation of his identity. Little did the vice-admiral realize just how "exciting" and difficult his day was going to get from having to deal with his own people...

-------------------------------------------

Reference Pictures:

*Jacob, dressed in his civilian clothes. Just remove the flowers and put two large revolvers in his jacket alongside a knife and bingo, you've got the situation hes is in.*

[Victoria Locke]

Only few minutes prior, a female figure had arrived from the local marine base and headed towards the markets. Victoria Locke, a marine stationed here not too long ago, was just starting a morning patrol through the city. Her black uniform coat set her apart from the citizens, while the shotgun strapped to her gray messenger bag acted as a second warning to criminals. Though she wore her usual, coldly neutral expression, not far from a scowl, inside she was almost smiling. The breakfast had been delicious, the city was peaceful and the morning sun was warming her thoroughly. This was turning out to be a great day.

Understandably, Victoria was in a quite good mood as she made her way through the streets. She was sure she could take any challenge today. While scanning the crowd for any signs of trouble, she spotted someone she hadn’t seen around before, a tall, blonde man, coming out from a quite shady alley. Admittedly, the marine gave the man more than just a quick glance, but not for the same reason as other women. What really caught her attention were the bulges beneath his jacket. Being a fan of all kinds of weaponry, she quickly recognized the shape of two unusually large handguns, definitely not something average civilians carried around. Now, this was something worth investigating.

Turning her head away to avoid staring directly, the marine started devising a plan. Simply confronting an armed man was naturally out of the question. Who knew what he might do? She had to catch him in a spot where he couldn’t get away or harm civilians. With that in mind, she pretended to stop to check a nearby stand until the man passed her. Once there was enough distance, she snuck after him while trying to blend into the crowd. Unfortunately, no matter how quiet and stealthy she could be, her uniform wasn’t exactly inconspicuous, but the persistent woman wasn’t going to give up.

As Victoria kept tailing the man, suspicious thoughts started slipping into her mind. For starters, it was odd how he was well-dressed and heavily armed at the same time, but there was more to it. That man seemed oddly familiar somehow. It felt like she had seen his face somewhere before, like in a bounty poster for example. However, she went through dozens of posters every day, so it was impossible to remember anything solid. If only there had been something more to go by... Then the man headed into another shady alley instead of taking the popular main route and Victoria’s suspicion immediately peaked.

He was definitely up to something and the marine was determined to find out the truth.

Glancing around, she checked that she wasn’t being followed as well before hurrying after the unusual man. As soon as they had gotten far enough from civilians, she picked up her walking pace and made her presence known. "Hey, hold up!" At the same time, she grabbed her shotgun, just in case. While she was trying to catch up to the man, her eyes narrowed and grip on the gun tightened. "Mind answering few questions, mister?" She made no attempt to hide the ever-increasing suspicion in her tone, but at least she was going to give the man a chance to explain, assuming that he stopped at all of course.

[Jacob C. Vinland]

"Hey, hold up!" A feminine voice called out from behind Jacob. Judging by its sound, it couldn't have been too bad. maybe it was a flower girl trying to sell him some flowers or-

oh shit.

The instant the vice admiral had turned around, he saw that the woman was indeed rather attractive, but much more then that she was also a marine. The black coat, the way she walked, and the shotgun she happened to be carrying was a dead giveaway. No one but a marine would be carrying a weapon like that unconcealed, as that was a one way ticket to getting arrested. Much like carrying concealed with no permit to carry concealed or usual identification on hand. Which, unfortunately, Jacob happened to be doing.

There was no point in running at this point: Jacob was well aware that if he ran now it would only make things more problematic for getting into the base later, since there would be a POI (Person of Interest) call out on him in rather short order. If, like an idiot, he decided to fight and knock the woman out it would only make things even worse. No, any panicked reaction or attempt to escape at this point was pointless. The only thing that could have allowed him to run was if he had not turned to face the marine woman. Then the whole matter may have been another story. Unfortunately, like a tool, he had turned around. Now he would just have to explain, show what little ID he had, and hope for the best.

"Mind answering few questions, mister?"

Jacob sighed dejectedly as he stopped. He knew how freaking obvious it was that he was carrying concealed. Any rookie could tell from the buldge in his coat alone. Rather then beat around the bush, Jacob would just address the issue immediately and save the woman and himself some time.

"Look, I know how bad this looks. I'm carrying concealed and I'll even admit I don't have my permits on me, which is a big no-no on two counts. I have I.D that I am going to present: its my marine ID card just to verify that I am indeed a member of the military. My credentials were unfortunately shipped to the base ahead of me, which sounds stupid but believe me when I tell you it did happen." Jacob explained.

In compliance with what he knew was a "safe" way to pull out his wallet, the civilian-dressed vice-admiral held his hands in front of him to indicate he had no items in their possession that were a threat to the woman before slowly reaching for his pocket, which was (thankfully) far away from his guns and his knife. Soon after, the vice-admiral finagled his wallet free of the pocket and opened it...

Only to realize that his marine I.D card was gone.

What. The. Eff.

How in the spectre of Barryton Whitehorse was it not in his wallet?! He had just used it to get off the damn boat a half an hour ago then put it back!! There were no holes or moths to eat holes in his wallet, so why, why, WHY was his I.D gone?! All he had was a damn vehicle and sailing license on him. Convincing someone he knew how to drive motorized carts, use wagons, know how to properly manage a sailboat and know the dixy decimal system (which was an accolades jokingly put on his library card by his wife) going to explain the fact that he was carrying concealed in very close proximity to a marine base with no permits or reasonable identification?! Answer: It was not.

And if to only add insult to injury, two more male marines happened to be coming down the alley from the opposite direction. Jacob discovered this when he heard the distinct clacking of marine boots and turned his head ever so slightly to check and confirm the level of screwed he was. Despite how badly his own personal day was going, at least Jacob was going to get to see the marine's ability to handle suspects in action and possibly get some inside details on how the base was doing. He was literally going to be doing a "surprise inspection" by being processed by his own organization.

Oh, what one must do for his government and country...

If the look of absolute despair on Jacob's face didn't give away something was wrong, then the fact that no marine ID was visible in the wallet would certainly confirm any suspicions the female marine might have had. Rather then tempt fate in any sort of way, Jacob knew exactly what he had to do. Putting his wallet away (while doing his best to keep his body language as passive and subordinate as possible to avoid getting shot) Jacob lifted his hands up and put them behind his head. By now, the two marines that had come from the other part of the alleyway already had their guns trained on him.

"...I'm not resisting, don't shoot. Just take me to the base so we can get this sorted out."

[Victoria Locke]

Victoria was admittedly tempted to pull the trigger, several times, while the man tried to explain. Needless to say, she didn’t believe a single thing. Her already frigid stare only got colder and mouth turned into an actual scowl when the man presented a simple wallet instead of the promised I.D. Frankly, she was insulted, as it seemed that the man was playing some elaborate joke on her. Luckily for him, two other marines arrived to the scene, which made her lower her gun due to their presence alone. She didn’t want to harm her allies after all.

After the less than convincing explanation was over, Victoria only responded by rolling her eyes and motioned her allies closer. "Confiscate his weapons." The duo quickly patted through the man, took his weapons and handed them to Victoria, who in turn stored them into her messenger bag. An experienced observer would’ve noticed that she handled them as if they were fine treasures, a force of habit from her love towards all guns. Once the two nameless marines had conducted a thorough search, they ended with an approving nod, a small thank you to the suspect for being so compliant. Alright, that’s everything. We can return to base." They were about to leave, but someone had a different idea.

"Not yet."

Understandably, the duo was surprised by the sudden stop. However, they didn’t have time to ask why when Victoria already started explaining her reasoning. "He is making this too easy." She was convinced that the man’s attempt to make the process easier was leading into some sort of trap. "Check him again. We have to be absolutely sure he’s not carrying anything dangerous, like explosives." While most would’ve recognized such logic leap as mere paranoia, for the distrusting marine it was just a natural assumption. After all, she was armed with more than guns and would’ve tried to blow up an important enemy target without hesitation if given the chance.

Meanwhile, the two marines glanced at each other, silently agreeing that it had been perhaps the craziest reasoning they had ever heard. After figuring out a respectful way to voice their opinion, one of them spoke up. Uh, with all due respect, ma’am, we don’t see how that is necessary. Why would anyone hide bombs in their clothes and walk around in broad daylight?" Victoria could only scoff at how naïve her comrades were. "Hmph, a recruit who doesn’t know any better. What a surprise." Unfortunately, sarcasm wasn’t going to get her anywhere. After an awkward moment of silence, even the stubborn woman had to give in.

"Fine... Let’s move."

The walk back to the base was eerily quiet, but at least it didn’t take very long. Victoria for one had nothing to say to a suspect. She was going to let the captain of the base deal with the situation. Soon enough, the odd group reached the steel gates. The guards saluted the arrivals and cuffed the alleged criminal while Victoria gave them a very short version of the events. She conveniently left out all the unnecessary details, like how the man supposedly had his belongings shipped here. Shortly after getting in, they headed directly towards the basement where the cells were located, regardless of where the man wanted to go.

Walking past the cellblocks, the group arrived before an unmarked wooden door. It opened with a long squeak and Victoria walked in first. The room was dimly lit, plain and empty. There weren’t even windows on the gray walls to provide more light. Only a plain table and two chairs were situated under the lamp hanging from the ceiling. The cold woman glanced at their suspect and gestured towards the father chair. "Sit down." Despite her commanding tone, it was just a suggestion and she wasn’t going to pull the trigger even if the man wanted to stay up. He wasn’t going anywhere on her watch so his preference didn’t matter.

Once the suspect had made his decision, Victoria issued an order to the duo who had accompanied her. "Go get the captain. I’ll keep an eye on the suspect." After the two marines left, an awkward and chilling staring competition started. Victoria had been quite literal with her words. Her unwavering gaze didn’t leave the suspect even for a moment, but she didn’t say a single thing. Deep down, however, she was desperately trying to figure out why the man seemed so familiar even though she was absolutely sure they had never met before. Roughly ten minutes passed, though it felt like a small eternity for the guard, until the door opened and someone walked in...

[Jacob C. Vinland]

"Confiscate his weapons."

Oh good. As Jacob felt his various armaments stripped from him by the other two marines, he figured this was at least where things got easier. At least now that he was unarmed he wouldn't get shot. Because that would be a pain, not because it would kill him, but it would sting and Jacob would have to pull the bullets out and stitch himself up, etc, etc. Even better, Jacob now realized that he could play his mistake off as part of his inspection plan and save himself a shitload of time and effort so he could do actual, important things after he got some rest. When Jacob heard the other two marines suggest that they take him back to base, the vice-admiral thought he was on easy street.

"Not yet."

Oh god dammit. Now what did she want?

"Check him again. We have to be absolutely sure he’s not carrying anything dangerous, like explosives."

Seriously, explosives? Jacob, feigning a bit of shock, blinked a few times before coming up with his smartass retort (which was fun, since he did not get to be a smartass as often as he liked in uniform.)

"Lady, I would have to be the most psychopathically stupid criminal in the world to try and hide explosives yet carry two huge magnums in my coat. Not counting the safety risks, you've already seen how hard it is to hide those damn things in my coat. It would have only made the damn things more obvious and make me look like a lardass if I carried a bomb big enough to do anything but sparkle." Jacob said, actually well aware that bomb technology was advanced enough to hide pretty powerful explosives on one's person. The comment was just part of playing along.

In all honesty, the vice-admiral was actually applauding the young woman's thorough nature on the search. If anything, it was the marines who would probably be getting a lecture if Jacob mentioned they skipped a search on him. All in all, the woman was definitely being cautious, which was a good thing. As Jacob was escorted by the marines, he quietly went over his inspection checklist one last time in his head so that he would be able to get it all done as soon as he could. He would only get one shot at this trick out of uniform before the base captain blew his cover.

Once Jacob had been escorted to the gates, he was handcuffed as the woman explained the story to the gate guards (who passed Jacob's inspection as the vice-admiral's eyes quickly took in all the details regarding gate security). Oddly enough, she omitted the part about Jacob's little story. Why she didn't try to confirm or simply ask Jacob his identity was a little detail that had been bothering the vice-admiral, but he would let it slide. This was all part of Jacob's little ploy.

Several minutes later, Jacob found himself in a rather small, dark room with the marine woman sitting across from him. The vice-admiral sure as hell knew what this room was for, as he himself had given the exact same order the woman had to him and sat on both sides of this kind of table quite a few times.

"Sit down."

Jacob did so on the opposite side of the room to the door, usually where the suspect was supposed to sit. The woman ordered the two marines to find the captain (much to Jacob's delight: meant he wouldn't have to spend too much time in this room or escape). After a few minutes of silence, Jacob piped up with a rather offbeat comment.

"...So why exactly did you dismiss the marines from the room? Oh, I see. Look, there are easier ways to snare a guy. Start at a bar, work your way to a hotel. its easier and ironically a hell of a lot less dirty then this room."

Fortunately, before Jacob could get a response to that question, The door opened and a mid-forties, well dressed marine captain walked into the room. A sly grin crossed Jacobs features as the man took one glance at Jacob and immediately facepalmed.

"Hi there, Captain Williams."

"Oh god dammit. How did I know this was going to happen the instant I heard YOU were coming to town. Your not going to mention this in the report, are you? And how many times have you pulled this trick now?"

"I've lost count. Considering I cause this situation? It never happened. Besides, you know me, this time it really was an accident. From now on, I'll never let my bags out of my sight again." Jacob said, finishing his comment with a dejected sigh.

"Good, because the last thing I need is to waste an hour of my time getting chewed at on the phone from HQ or writing an apology because you decided to be cheeky about the inspection in a roundabout way again. By the way, everything up to par?"

"Nope, got a good look at everything on my way to the brig, and its all good. I would really love my gear back before it gets processed though. Those guns and that knife cost me a fortune in time and money to make."

There was a moment of chuckling at the situation from the middle-aged Captain who seemed to be enjoying the situation now that the obvious buisness was out of the way. The captain, realizing how utterly confused and bewildered his subordinate must have been, elected to fill her in.

"Sorry, Marine Locke, I guess I got carried away. Marine, take a good look at this cheeky smartass and take note that hes not such a clown once you get to know him. Your sitting in front of my mentor and a living legend. Probably one of the oldest members of the marines still active at this point and the only guy to ever be given the honorary title of "The Boss"." The captain said, raising his arm as if to present the man in front of Victoria.

"Vice-Admiral Jacob C. Vinland."

[Victoria Locke]

Victoria was surprised at first when the man spoke up, but that quickly turned into irritation. This was exactly why she didn’t talk with suspects. They never had anything worthwhile to say. She was mere seconds from pulling out her revolver and blasting the insolent man on the shoulder, but stopped when someone walked in. The second she recognized the Captain, she shot up from her chair, clicked her heels together and saluted him. After that, she stepped away to give the two some room for the interrogation. However, at the same time a small detail caught her attention. Captain Williams was present, yet the suspect was grinning. Something was wrong here.

The marine listened carefully as the men exchanged what sounded an awful lot like a greeting between old friends. In all honesty, at first she couldn’t even fathom what was going on here, but as the conversation went on, her doubts started surfacing. When Captain Williams turned to address Victoria, she straightened her back again and attempted to look alert despite her confusion. Getting introduced to a suspect wasn’t something she had been expecting. She focused on the man in question, trying to wrap her mind around it all. As soon as she heard the name, all the pictures and newspaper articles she had seen about him flashed before her eyes in a heartbeat.

That’s why he had seemed so eerily familiar.

It took few seconds for the realization to sink in. Her expression slowly shifted from confusion to disbelief and finally absolute horror. Now she had really done it... Arresting a superior officer was practically mutiny and with a vice-admiral it became treason. Absolutely unforgivable. "This... can’t be..." Luckily, such desperate thoughts didn’t last very long, though it didn’t really make Victoria feel any better. Her cheeks gained a strong shade of red when she finally understood how lightly the two men were taking the whole deal. She felt like she was about to faint and part of her even wished for it, but her training didn’t allow such luxury. There was no escape from this situation.

After the initial shock was over, the marine remembered that she was still carrying something that belonged to the Vice-Admiral. Her hands trembled slightly as she dug out the confiscated weapons from her messenger bag and placed them on the table carefully as if they were made of fragile glass. She wanted to apologize profusely, but words refused to come out. Even breathing felt incredibly difficult. Once all the weapons were on the table, she managed to get out a weak mutter. "Here are your weapons, sir..." With that, she reflexively saluted the Vice-Admiral and stepped back, hanging her head in shame. Looking either of her superiors in the eyes was impossible right now.

[Jacob C. Vinland]

"This... can’t be..."

Jacob felt a twang of guilt as he saw the shame that set in on the young female marines features, whom he now knew to be "Marine Locke", and by extension realized she was in fact Victoria Locke. She also happened to be one of the main reasons why Jacob was here in Micqueot in the first place, if not the primary reason. Any half-assed admiral or bureaucrat could have done the inspection. Jacob had come out here on his own little semi-personal agenda, with the inspection being an official reason for him to be here.

Jacob watched as, soon after, the young marine pulled out the vice-admirals belongings from her bag and offered them to Jacob in a very candid and cautious manner, as if the items in question were made of glass. Taking them gently from her possession, Jacob put the items down onto the table first before he redirected his attention back to the young woman. The vice-admiral reached down to the young female marine and placed his hands on the sides of her shoulders as he spoke (and attempted to act) like a father consoling his child.

"Kid, first off, at ease marine. Secondly, relax. I'm not angry at you. You did your job, you had all the bases covered, and everything is sorted out now. I'm not going to reprimand you for my mistake. Besides, there are some important matters I need to discuss with you in particular." Jacob explained, hoping that his point of "relax" was getting across enough. That, and he was hoping that she would be willing to listen to Jacob and sit down with him for a bit to discuss the important matters that he had to talk with her about.

"Unfortunately,Captain Williams , that means I need to borrow her for some time, maybe an hour or so. Will there be any issues with that?

"none that I can think of. Ill leave her in your custody for the time being, just lemme know when your done."

"Thanks. I wont keep you, Your dismissed captain. Good to see your doing well, Williams. Keep up the good work."

After saluting the vice admiral, Captain Williams then proceeded to leave the room, leaving the vice admiral and the young marine woman. Jacob turned his attention back to the young woman, his voice still calm and non-threatening. He was hoping to get Victoria in a better mood, since it wouldn't help his cause if she was in a bad one when he discussed important issues with her.

"Well, with that out of the way mind showing me to the cafeteria? Id lead the way, but I think being dressed in civilian clothes with no ID on me might get me in trouble. I'm a little hungry and what I need to discuss with you certainly isn't dark enough to require an interrogation room for ambiance. Don't worry, marine, its nothing bad."

[Victoria Locke]

The ashamed marine was quickly sinking deeper into merciless self-loathing. She couldn’t believe how stupid and stubborn she had been with this whole matter. Instead of checking her suspicion with the man, she had just treated him like a common criminal. As far as she was concerned, such disloyalty was completely unforgivable regardless of the reason. And it just kept getting worse... When her mind recalled all the instances where she had been tempted to pull the trigger, it felt like something cold wrapped around her heart and squeezed. Now she was really hoping that she could’ve just blacked out on the spot and welcomed the pleasantly peaceful darkness.

Luckily, there was someone to pull her out from such thoughts. Victoria was visibly startled when she felt the warm grasp on her shoulders. Her whole body tensed as she slowly lifted her eyes, half-expecting a stern speech about her blunder. Much to her surprise, the vice-admiral’s reaction was the exact opposite. Following the order without a single question, she tried to relax, but it was going to take far longer before she could be truly at ease around him. Still, something about Jacob stirred a familiar feeling of safety in her. The way he spoke silenced her nagging doubts one by one. It had been a long time since she had felt like this.

While Jacob dismissed Captain Williams, Victoria gathered her composure. She wasn’t exactly in a good mood, but at least her shame and blush were fading away. When the vice-admiral requested to be escorted, she instantly answered with a well-practiced salute. "Sir, yes sir." While the mention of important matters did bother her, she had no intention of questioning her superior, especially not after this incident. Instead, she stepped out of the gloomy room and headed towards the stairs at brisk pace. It was another awkwardly silent walk, as Victoria didn’t really know what to say, but at least this little tour was much quicker than the first one, taking barely few minutes.

At the cafeteria, things were lively as usual. Around half of the tables were full of marines on a break, chatting and joking amongst themselves. Everything was in tidy order and the food didn’t look half bad, though the selection could’ve been better. Victoria stopped after the door and reflexively straightened herself for a quick salute. "Here we are, sir." Their arrival caught the attention of some nearby groups and the tall man especially gathered glances. Intense whispering ensued among those who recognized him. The change didn’t go unnoticed by the woman either. "Sounds like you can’t escape your reputation, sir." Inside, however, she felt even worse for not recognizing the vice-admiral.

She wasn’t going to forget the mistake anytime soon.

As the duo went through the food selection, the female marine fell silent again. Victoria had completely lost her appetite due to the whole ordeal with Jacob. She only got herself one measly muffin before heading towards a table in a quiet corner. Her stride was slow enough to allow her superior plenty of time to pick what he wanted and easily follow her. Sitting down at the table, she just placed her little snack on the table and ignored it in favor of giving the vice-admiral an expectant gaze. It wasn’t a cold one like earlier, but her eyes still strongly reflected her wariness towards her superior.

She just couldn’t understand what such a great man could want from a simple grunt.

[Jacob C. Vinland]

Jacob had to admit, it was nice seeing miss Locke loosen up ever so slightly and (perhaps involuntarily) forgive him so readily for his deception. A lot of marines in the past had given Jacob a hell of a lot of grief for his demeanor and actions in the past and, although they had been proven wrong with the test of time, made Jacobs life more difficult nonetheless. Victoria was a pleasant departure from that. Yeah, Jacob knew it might simply be from her training, but he would give the young lass the benefit of the doubt. He owed her at least that much.

With a trademark salute and affirmation Victoria escorted the vice-admiral out of the small interrogation room as soon as he had gathered his belongings. After a short

"Here we are, sir. Sounds like you can’t escape your reputation, sir."

"What can I say? Manly charm tends to do that. I'll be honest though, being gossip-fuel for soldiers isn't exactly in my job description. I've learned to manage though." Jacob commented as the duo overheard the sudden gossip and whispers that filled the room as Jacob made his appearance. It was not uncommon for the vice-admiral to have such a thing happen, so Jacob took it in his buisness-as-usual manner and simply went about picking up some food from the lunch room.

"Thank god its not in a package." Jacob commented as he sat down across from his subordinate. "If I had to eat one more MRE on this trip, I would personally make whoever invented those accursed MREs eat the wrapping." Jacob joked with a slight chuckle. After a moment of silence, the Vice-Admiral looked over at his subordinate and could not help but notice the young woman's trepidation over the current situation. It was not everyday that you simply sat down with your superior like this for lunch, nor was it everyday that your superior called you out by name and said he had important matters to discuss. So, setting aside his lunch temporarily, Jacob turned his attention to the young marine before him. resting his elbows on the table and interlocking his fingers, Jacob rested his chin as he looked much like a tactician going over a wall map from across the room. His unwavering yet benevolent gaze, however, was merely focused on the young woman that sat in front of him.

"I can see your obviously very curious as to why I wanted to talk to you personally so quickly after arriving. Its also pretty damn obvious to me that your still pretty leery of me. All things considered, your reaction is perfectly understandable, so rather then leave you with the discomfort of dealing with wondering what I have to talk to you about and if its actually good, I'll cut to the chase." Jacob said with a slight pause as he took a sip of his drink, water with lemon flavoring, before finally finishing his statement.

"...I wish to recruit you for a special forces organization that, with the official backing of the president of the world government, I have been given the task of putting together. Before you give me any sort of answer, however, I'm pretty sure you have some questions for me. So ask away. Permission to speak freely is granted in advance, so don't bother asking for that, just speak whats on your mind, Marine."

[Victoria Locke]

As per the habits picked up over the years, Victoria kept unflinching eye contact and remained quiet while her superior officer was talking. It was no surprise that the man was reading her like an open book. She even expected it from a leader with impressive reputation. His decision to explain the situation right away was met with an appreciating nod. However, nothing could’ve prepared her for the bomb Jacob dropped just then. Victoria’s eyes went wide and she had to struggle to keep her jaw from dropping, even more so when she quickly realized that the man was serious. She could’ve handled it as a joke, but this was unthinkable.

Once the marine managed to regain her composure with some deep breaths, she nodded with a faint smile. Though it wasn’t immediately visible, she was very thankful for having gotten the permission right away. "I am honored that you are even considering me, sir, but..." Lowering her head, she started nervously fiddling with her fingers and the traces of smile disappeared. It took a moment for her to continue. "Why?" Part of her wanted to shut up right now for even daring to question the judgment of her superior. However, she did have the permission to speak freely and she was too bothered by the sudden offer to stop now.

After taking another deep breath to calm her nerves, she elaborated the question further. "Why me? This base alone has several marines who are better suited for special forces than I am." With that, her eyes wandered among the other marines, spotting some of the exact people she was talking about. She spoke with wholehearted admiration. "They are tougher, stronger and smarter than me and have loyally served for a much longer time." It wasn’t as much humbleness as it was simply her honest opinion. Her dream was to be as useful to the world government as those brave examples of true marines, but she still had a long way to go.

Snapping out of her thoughts, she returned her focus on the vice-admiral and quickly summarized the question. "So, what made you pick me?" However, before the man could have a chance to answer, the woman suddenly leaned forward, eager to get all of the questions off her mind as soon as possible. "Furthermore..." If she had stopped now, she wasn’t sure if she had dared to ever continue. "I don’t work too well in a squad. Even my files say so and there have been... incidents..." She hanged her head, afraid that she would disappoint the vice-admiral. Still, honesty was something she couldn’t compromise.

A cold wave of shame washed over her again as flashbacks filled her mind. They reduced her explanation into a mere mutter. "My last three squads were hospitalized because of me..." What she didn’t mention was that none of those incidents were directly her fault. Dealing with pirates was always risky, but that didn’t stop Victoria from blaming herself for those failures. "With all due respect, sir, are you sure you understand what you are getting yourself into?" As soon as that left her mouth, she recoiled back, immediately regretting what she had accidentally implied. "Oh no..." Unfortunately, her composure was now gone and getting a proper apology out was impossible.

"Forgive me, sir... Uh, I didn’t mean to... What I meant, sir, was that... Um..."

[Jacob C. Vinland]

((OOC: okay, going with a bit of "Meta-ing" for the sake of plot here, hopefully its okay. If not let me know and I'll change it.))

"Forgive me, sir... Uh, I didn’t mean to... What I meant, sir, was that... Um..."

"stop right there. You don't need to apologize. I asked for your opinion and questions and you gave me them. Having faith in your own decisions and actions is a source of strength, not weakness. It only becomes a problem when you let your faith cloud your judgement. With that said, I'll move on and address your other questions." Jacob responded, hoping to make his decision a little more clear.

"Marine, I suppose the first question you asked in one word is the most important. Why? Well, for starters, you make some good points. There are marines in this base that are, at the moment, tougher, stronger, more loyal and smarter then you on this base alone. Notice what I said there? "At the moment". I've been training special ops for more then fifty years. To explain the intricacies of training and candidate selection would take years in itself to teach, so I'll save you that and give you two words that will trump all of the above." Jacob said, pausing only to look Marine Locke in the eyes as he stared at her from across the table.

"Commitment" and "Potential"."

Jacob pulled out one of his steam-generating, electronic "fake" cigarettes as he continued, inhaling some of the relaxing (to him at least) heated water vapors before continuing.

"I consider myself an excellent judge of potential and charicter in a person. The potential to be strong, loyal, intelligent and tough. Judging by my track record for training cipher-pol agents and special forces, I think I have a leg to stand on in that record. I've taken guys who looked like complete wimps and turned them into incredible badasses just because of potential alone. guys that, after I was done with em, would make the toughest marines on this base look like toddlers. You have potential. I know it. Its in your blood and I've seen it in you from the moment I met ya on the street outside. You passed that test with flying colors." Jacob explained, wondering if Victoria would pick up on that last line of his and ask him to elaborate on it. It would be an interesting conversation at least, even if it had to be had another time.

"But all the potential in the world means nothing without commitment: The willpower to see it through. I'll be honest, that is harder to spot by a wide margin, and may be impossible, but you had a dead giveaway for that. The explosives you have strapped on your body indicate, to me at least, that part of you is committed enough to your job that your willing to sacrifice yourself for the greater good. While I have qualms about that particular use of explosives, I would like to find a way to train you out of such habits should you elect to join my unit. An old saying goes that "Dying for what you believe in is brave and noble, but making the other bastard die for what he believes in is brave, noble and, most importantly, effective"." Jacob explained. Once again, he wondered if Victoria would question how he knew about the explosives she had strapped to her chest. There was a reasonable explanation for that as well. Taking another breath of steam from his fake cigarette, Jacob wondered how discussions about the explosives would go. The problem with people that possessed high commitment and willpower was that they also had a tendency to be stubborn in the vice-admiral's experience. That might make things difficult to say the least.

"Any other questions, or should I continue explaining what this position entails?"

[Victoria Locke]

Despite her scattered thoughts, Victoria quit talking the very second Jacob told her to stop. Following orders without hesitation was a second nature to her. She kept her eyes keenly on her superior and her face returned to the cold, neutral expression she seemed to wear most of the time. While some new questions did pop into her mind, she kept quiet and listened, trying her best to understand. Seeing the man taking drags made her want to do the same to calm her nerves, but this was neither the time nor place. She was forbidden from smoking in these premises thanks to another misfortunate incident, but that was a tale for another time.

When the vice-admiral revealed the he knew about the hidden explosives, a light shock shook Victoria. Her shoulders slumped in defeat despite the fact that they were on the same side. It simply felt like the man had seen straight through one of her biggest secrets, but she could think of a reason for that. Few others knew about it as well after all. "So... Captain Williams has told you..." After brief pondering, she lifted her eyes and carefully asked for clarification. "Or did you figure it out on your own, sir?" She was worried that her final trump card was too visible. It wouldn’t do her any good if her opponents could figure it out as easily.

Regardless of the answer, Victoria made a mental note to hide her secret better. It was connected to a promise she had made, but she hadn’t told that promise to anyone. While she was at it, she decided to take the opportunity and ask about another thing that was bugging her. "And sir... If you don’t mind me asking... What did you mean when you said I passed a test?" In Victoria’s stubborn mind, a failure was a failure, no matter how it was sugarcoated. Still, she was going to accept anything the vice-admiral had to say as the truth. She hadn’t been trained to question her superiors.

After hearing the answer, the marine woman simply nodded. Figuring that hearing more about the position would be more constructive than asking more questions, Victoria adjusted her ponytail in attempt to clear her mind and leaned forward slightly. "No further questions, sir. Please continue." While her composed expression hid it well, Jacob had managed to stir up quite a lot of interest in her mind. His explanation about commitment and potential did make sense, not to mention that she wanted to be as much use to the World Government as possible. She was slowly starting to understand the vice-admiral’s motives. Whether she agreed with them or not was irrelevant. Superior officers were always right.

[Jacob C. Vinland]

"So... Captain Williams has told you...Or did you figure it out on your own, sir?" the young marine asked Jacob. The Vice-admiral, detecting some slight concern, decided to clarify exactly how he found out about the explosive vest.

"To be honest, I had heard that a marine on this base was doing something along those lines simply through rumor, so I had a bit of an unfair "head start" so to speak as I knew what I was looking for. Initially, when we meet I noticed you were wearing something, a vest of some kind. From my observations, it seemed too heavy to be light kevlar. I thought heavy body armor, but then realized that wearing heavy body armor under your clothing would be uncomfortable as hell and not to mention offer no benefit of protection. This lead me to conclude that whatever you were wearing was 1. Something with an equivalent volume or weight to heavy body armor and 2. Something you wouldn't want to be seen with. From there, you probably know the rest. I gotta admit though, you hide that vest pretty damn well, despite..." Jacob stated, pausing for a moment and, rather surprisingly, turning slightly red as he tried to find the right phrase to describe what he had on his mind.

"Your, uh, "womanly attributes"." Jacob stated in an unusually shy manner. By God, when had he turned into such a wimp about addressing women? Jacob thought that roughly 40 years of marriage would have fixed that, but apparently that had gone away when his wife (rest her soul) had passed on. Rather then let awkward silence fill the air for much longer, Jacob let out a somewhat hearty cough and continued.

"Excuse me. At any rate, that aside, the organization I'm putting together is a special unit that, for now, will be referred to as the "Marine Investigative Police", or MIP. Its a task force that I will be managing and training as a method of combating corruption, overseeing jurisdictional issues, negotiating treaties, overseeing the handling of "black" projects and dealing with dangerous threats outside the normal scope of the marines. I wont lie, its not an easy job by any stretch of the imagination. Hell, its probably going to be one of the most dangerous jobs in the marines. You will, however, be doing the world a tremendous service by joining. You could say this unit could be a new kind of cipher pol. One without all the red tape and oversight, considering this organization operates under the direct jurisdiction of the justice department of the world government, the governing body that dictates operational protocol of the marines. To sum it up: we have much greater freedom in our actions, but also much greater responsibility as an organization." Jacob explained. "I know its a mouthfull, and I probably didn't get all the details in that one sitting, but hopefully I got the gist across."

With his piece said and done, Jacob leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms closing his eyes for a moment to relax. after a moment of silence, he looked back at the young woman across from him. Another moment later, the vice-admiral reached into his coat and pulled out one of his fake cigarettes, offering it to the young marine.

"...No matter what your decision is, I will not think any less of you. You make this military proud. You somke? If you do, try this: doesn't have the "kick" of a cigarette, but is a hell of a lot better for ya and if you get used to it can really ease up your nerves. Just try not to make the same stupid error I do and try to put it out with your boot. Its an expensive mistake." Jacob said with a chuckle, offering the electronic cigarette to the young woman.

[Victoria Locke]

Victoria’s brows furrowed and frown deepened while the Vice-Admiral explained how he had found out. So it was a combination of rumors and deduction that gave her away. This was troublesome. There wasn’t even a shadow of doubt that her superior was far more intelligent than an average pirate, but that was no excuse to be sloppy. She needed to find a better way to conceal the explosives without sacrificing blast strength. If anything, she had to create more compact and powerful explosives. Unfortunately, that was beyond her level of skill. Perhaps she could ask help from someone... Suddenly, she had to interrupt her pondering as she noticed that her superior was beginning to blush.

Why is he-?

...!

When the awkward compliment sank in, it hit like a cannonball. Victoria’s cheeks flared with deep crimson and eyes slowly widened. She was so used to being "one of the guys" that something like this didn’t even cross her mind very often. The defensive part of her wanted to shoot the blonde man a chilling glare and ask him to clarify what exactly he meant, like she usually did with comrades who had said too much around her. Beneath the surprised blush, however, she was very flattered someone took notice of her feminine figure and mentioned it tactfully. Even the cold and trigger-happy Marine still cared about her body and appearance, far more than she wanted to admit.

Not to mention seeing the big and powerful Vice-Admiral suddenly act shy was simply adorable.

Victoria couldn’t even try to be angry with someone who was so visibly embarrassed. Unlike many of the men she had met, Jacob obviously had good intentions and a golden heart. While the Marine woman didn’t realize it at the moment, the Vice-Admiral had accidentally wiped away all the worries from her mind. She could now fully focus on listening to the details about the new position. Good thing too. It was a real flood of information. Luckily, as a quick-witted woman she quickly caught the important details. Difficult tasks, great service to the government, a lot of freedom, but also heavy responsibilities... There were so many things to consider. Could she really handle it? Be useful among elite soldiers?

Upon being offered a cigarette -at least it looked like a normal cigarette to her- Victoria snapped out of her thoughts. She was briefly tempted to accept the offer, but quickly lifted her hand to politely decline it. "No thank you, sir." Directing her eyes to the table, she shook her head slowly and elaborated the reason. "I’m not allowed to smoke on these premises anymore and I’d rather not give Captain Williams the impression that I’m disrespecting his authority." After the fairly solemn comment, she lifted her gaze and actually smiled for a short moment. "But thank you for the offer, sir." It was pleasant to receive such friendly treatment. She didn’t have friends around here, only half-familiar comrades.

After pondering silently for good few minutes and idly poking the dry muffin on the table, Victoria swallowed nervously and returned her focus on the Vice-Admiral. "Sir... I..." Just looking him in the eyes brought her horrendous blunder fresh into the mind and her courage just slipped away. The doubts haunting her kept screaming that she should be ashamed for even considering this. She didn’t deserve it, not in a million years... The trigger-happy failure wasn’t worthy... Never... Shut up! Suddenly, she stood up, clicked her heels together and straightened her back into a full salute. "Sir! I would be honored if you allowed me to join your unit, sir!" That sudden burst of bravery certainly silenced the doubts, but left her trembling.

Victoria was slowly becoming aware of all the eyes turning towards her. It was far too late to back down now. Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm down and stop the trembling while making herself clear. "Sir, please... Let me be useful for the World Government, for Marines and for you." However, Victoria had never been the kind of person to go back on her words. As far as she was concerned, people could gawk and snicker at her all they liked. Their opinion didn’t matter here.

[Jacob C. Vinland]

Jacob waited intently as the young Victoria simply fiddled with a rather dry looking muffin. There was no pressure expectation from him, and Jacob consciously tried to have his body language indicate as such. In this case, he simply tried to act as mature and calm as possible, no matter what the decision from the marine was. Jacob had known too many hardass commanders who tried to "bully" candidates into positions they may not have wanted, and more often then not they got as mixed results as the messages they had given the marine when recruiting them: which to say, the result was usually mediocre. Jacob was of the school of thought that if you wanted a good operative from a unit, you needed to make sure that there wasn't just potential, but the will necessary to follow up that potential.

"Sir... I..."

Jacob waited, not looking at Victoria with any expectation, simply contentment. He didn't want to affect her decision any more then he already had. Jacob already was expecting an affirmative response. What he was not expecting, however, was how expressive she was about her affirmative.

"Sir! I would be honored if you allowed me to join your unit, sir!"

The announcement was rather loud and accentuated with a full-on salute. Jacob watched for a moment and held back a laugh. He was very glad to see that she was so enthusiastic. Jacob could only hope that she would keep that enthusiasm throughout the training that would likely be involved in the near future. After a few moments of quiet (and stares from some other marines) Jacob watched the young woman sit down at the table in front of him, still looking rather nervous as she continued.

"Sir, please... Let me be useful for the World Government, for Marines and for you."

"Atta girl. I'll have additional information regarding new training and other such things sent to your new personal quarters while your still here. Call it a gift from me. Enjoy it, because I can tell you training will be tough. Tougher then anything you've ever known. Don't worry though, I wouldn't have picked you as a candidate unless I knew you could do it." Jacob said, standing up and walking over next to the young marine. Gently he placed his hand on her shoulder, an action meant to show the young marine the faith that her commanding officer had in her.

"I get the feeling you have doubts about yourself. I did too, it's normal. There was a good man who told me something I'll never forget when I was sitting in the exact same position you were: "I can't show you the path for you to walk. That would take away the meaning of what I am trying to teach you. What I can show you, however, is how to walk that path when you come to it.". Don't forget those words. They're an important lesson taught by one of the greatest marines that ever lived. Someone you have more in common with then you might think." Jacob said. With that, Jacob slowly began to walk away, possibly leaving behind just as many questions as he did answers...

The question was how badly did Victoria want those answers.