exsiliumlogs | Single mixed-gender lawyers, talking about clients

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Single mixed-gender lawyers, talking about clients

Date & Time: 6/1 in the late morning!
Location: A cawfee shop.
Characters: Sofiya Karimov and S'all Goodman
Summary: Sonya wants to pick Saul's brain and possibly charm him into doing what she wants.
Warnings: Notta one!

[Sonya always liked sitting down with her opponents. After a court case, getting a coffee with the person who you just defeated - or, every once in a while, who defeated you - is nice. It's a gesture of reconciliation and professionalism, a chance to exchange thoughts with them and get the measure of them a little bit better for next time. Sure, in the courthouse, she pretends to be combative and puts on a great show of hating the person she was clashing with in there for the benefit of onlookers, but she's got more in common with defense attorneys than she has with most people. She likes chatting with them, the cynical motherfuckers.

Saul's not going to be an opponent for the time being, but he's still one of those defense attorneys she likes so well. Smooth operator, slick, quick-talking - everything she likes to see, someone who's practical and seems just short of amoral. That's why she's looking forward to this meeting; she knows she's going to like him.

So she sits, coffee in front of her, legs crossed, foot swinging, tapping away on her tablet with a little smile on her face.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Saul is, of course, on time. It's their first meeting; a good impression isn't just desired, but absolutely necessary. So he's in his best suit, briefcase in hand, Bluetooth secured to his ear. It's almost like this could pass for a completely normal meeting, if they can forget where they are.

He skips the counter and heads straight for Sofiya's table, all to eager to get down to business.]

Ms. Karimov?

[She looks up, smile at the ready. She doesn't get up, but she does hold out her hand, at an angle precisely between well met my good man and you may kiss the papal ring. She's curious how he'll react - with a hearty handshake or with taking her hand like she's royalty.]

Mr. Goodman. I'm glad you made it.

[That sure is as calculated a move as he's seen from his brethren in law in a while — and so immediately, too. He can't help but allow his smile to grow into a toothy grin.

A very proper, businesslike handshake it is.]

Wouldn't have missed this for the world. [He gestures to the seat opposite her.] May I?

[And she's glad of that proper businesslike handshake. She likes that's the route he goes. He looks so appropriate, too, all slick shyster - the earpiece is the best touch - that she can't help a swell of affection for him.]

I'd be angry if you didn't. What are you drinking?

[He sits, waving a gently dismissive hand as he gets settled.]

Nothing right now. Thanks. I'm kinda on the clock, so...

[Click-click go the locks of his briefcase, and out comes his tablet.]

I'm all ears. Tell me about your plan.

Cheap date. I like it.

[She leans back and swipes at her own tablet, banishing the network and bringing up her notes instead. A bit of the playfulness drains away in favor of thoughtfulness.]

Since I made that transmission, I got a good number of people talking with me. I didn't hear much resistance to a bit more order, but I heard some. Is that about right? Most people are receptive, some aren't?

Sounds about right for this and every other world.

[He leans forward as she leans back, resting his elbows on the table.]

Let me stop you right there. You're ambitious, right? That's an accurate assessment?

[She leans forward in response.]

Like no one you've met before.

[Aw, that's cute.]

Ambitious enough to build an entire legal system from the ground up while keeping in mind the fact that the people here come from worlds so far removed from our own that the term "alien" doesn't even begin to cover it?

[He's not trying to burst her bubble. He just wants to see how serious she is.]

[Firmly:]

Yes.

Okay.

[He sits back.]

So you've made your intentions known, stirred up a little interest on the network. Great. Where do you go from here?

I wanted to ask you that. Who's in charge? I saw you with that Medusa woman. Should I talk to her?

In charge of the Department of Initiative-Transport Relations, yeah, but we don't really have any — what's the word...? — influence on anything. We're messengers. It's a nice bridge between that metaphorical gap, but that's all.

[For now, anyway.]

The only people "in charge" are the Initiative, and their priorities lie elsewhere. Implementing a system of government for the masses they've kidnapped? Nah, not important.

[Yeah, fair enough.]

What about the people who haven't been kidnapped? The ordinary citizens? Do they care?

As far as I can tell, no. The two groups don't really mesh.

[She leans back.]

I'd sooner incorporate them. There are, what, half a million of them?

[And cue a very, very skeptical look.]

You think that's such a good idea?

Sure. The greater the constituency, the greater the legitimacy. No one gives a shit about the mayor of Fuckall, Connecticut. They care a little more about the governor of New York.

True, but I can see about a dozen problems stemming from that. More, probably, if I really think about it. What makes you think the two groups want anything to do with each other? What if the natives want one thing and the Transports want another? A vote wouldn't exactly be fair — they outnumber us. Then again, they're not the ones who've been brought here specifically to fight.

[He stops there, frowning thoughtfully. Then, before she has the chance to jump in:]

I admire your ambition, Sofiya — may I call you Sofiya? — and your idea, but there's a lot about this place you don't know or understand yet. You're not the only one at this table who's working on that. It's gonna take much more than a few hours of your — maybe our — time and a post to the network for you to really get the details. And that's what we do, isn't it?

[But then he smiles in spite of himself, mostly because it's been so long since he's had a conversation like this. He's missed it.]

[She studies him for a moment. Sonya doesn't tend to get angry at people. At situations, sure, but if you're angry at a person, that means you've been wronged in some way, and if you've been wronged that means you let yourself fuck up enough to let someone get one over on you. That said, sometimes it pays to play outraged - to bristle at being lectured. She wonders if she should play that with him - pretend to be offended.

No, she decides after a moment. No, there's no merit to it. She likes Saul, and it's good advice - and he'll probably see through it anyway.]

Friends call me Sonya.

[It's not exactly phrased as an invitation, but it is one - an invitation and a bit of a test, checking to see where he thinks he stands. It's also largely a lie: her family calls her Sonya; she doesn't tend to have friends to do so.]

And don't worry. I'm willing to play a long game. But you're right enough; the situation here is complicated.

[She tilts her head to the side and asks, more than a little flirtatious - ]

I guess I'm going to have to beg a spot at your knee where I can sit and learn, aren't I?

[He'd have felt a little bad, maybe, if she chose that card — it was hardly meant to come off as a lecture. He thinks out loud, sometimes. That's all.

(Though it might have been a little fueled by the fact that she's so young.

Not that he has any room to pull rank.)

As it is, the look on his face largely matches her own, for a moment: analyzing, curious. What's she playing at? He understands the need to keep busy and focused, and damn if he hasn't missed his actual job, but her enthusiasm is cause for concern. Such things always are, with Saul. This is why he thinks Elmer is crazy.

Then, up goes an eyebrow, not in surprise but in amusement. Really?]

No, Sonya. [Entirely deliberately, matching her in tone and all.] I won't make you do that.

[Interesting. And good, for that matter. If he's not really into her flirting with him, that means he won't much be into flirting with her. And Sonya, no matter that she'll simper with the best of them, has slept with exactly one man in her life and will sleep with no other until she gets married; she finds the innuendo she has to engage in to match wits with her coworkers sort of distasteful.

And she really hopes that means that he isn't into it. If he isn't, she'll sort of...respect him a little bit more yet. She likes Saul very much.]

Then maybe you'll just tell me what you think I should know without anything special.

[It's not that Saul refuses to sleep with other lawyers out of any sense of professionalism; it's that he knows there's no worse combination in the world. The mixing of two volatile chemical compounds would have a better outcome, as far as he's concerned. Maybe he's had some bad experiences. Or maybe he just doesn't know chemistry that well.

He shrugs a shoulder.]

Today marks my second month here. I'll be happy to write down what I know, but I think you think I have more information than I really do. Most of my energy's gone into dealing with some personal business.

[It's only a half-lie. The truth there is that Saul's focus has been fairly narrow, attention locked about 75% of the time on Jesse Pinkman.

The lie is that he has plenty of information, thanks to watching the network the way he does. But even that is, in part, true as far as Sonya's overarching curiosity is concerned: Saul has a wealth of others' personal information stored in his laptop and his head, but very little of it addresses the political issues, the anarchy, the lawlessness.]

[And she automatically opens her eyes a little wider, giving her face a slightly more innocent cast. It's not even a conscious thing she does anymore: she hears something like that, she just wants to know about it, and she'll automatically go into information-gathering mode. And the best way for a pretty young woman to gather information, she has found, is by playing sweet and naive.]

Personal business?

[He expected that. A slight tilt of his head to one side, followed by a smile, followed by a wag of his finger.]

Personal business, yes.

[A test, maybe. If she really wants to know, and if she's as good at her job as she seems to be, he's sure she'll find out on her own.]

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pretend there was an extra o in that 'to' ಠ_ಠ

Okay but fair warning I'm going to pretend there was an extra o in the wrong one

acceptable.

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