#amani and seems are the queer overworked villain duo

[kravkalackin]

She was supposed to be working right now. 

And yes, technically this was work, but it wasn't supposed to be her job to deal with every little disaster that happened in one of her labs. She had more important things to do than listening to reports, let alone in person reports. 

Unfortunately, from what she heard this disaster had not been so little, and so she had to go see what was salvageable. No one else was competent enough to get a few watch dogs back in a cage apparently.  

More importantly though, Not What It Seems had said the "incident" at the lab had been interesting. They had said it with that tone of voice that immediately wanted to give Amani a headache. 

Interesting for Not What It Seems was often just plain irritating. 

Still, the thing that other Kii'tre never seemed to understand was how useful irritating creatures could be. How much more efficient it was to put just a little bit of effort in getting others to do the leg work for you instead of doing it all yourself. 

Well, if they couldn't learn even the most simple applications of interpersonal relations, that was a failure on their skills, not hers.

To say the lab was a mess when she got there was an understatement. Several walls had holes disintegrated into them from the escaped watch dogs, not to mention signs of fires, fights, and quite a few bodies strewn about. 

Leaving some guards to deal with the remaining escaped experiments, Amani headed straight towards one of the only rooms that seemed to have come out relatively unscathed. Letting the door lock behind her, the Voice,Not What It Seems appeared to be lounging back in a desk chair, looking a hair away from tipping over completely. 

"Oh, you came quicker than expected," Seems said, amusement already lacing their voice as they leaned forward, sending the chair clattering back onto all fours. 

"I'd like to get this settled as fast as possible so that I can get back to what's actually important," she said dryly, making sure to keep a close eye on the Voice. So far their working relationships had been quite amiable, but she wouldn't ever be dumb enough to trust a Voice. Or anyone but her own judgment at the end of the day. 

"Fine, I won't bore you with all the extraneous details. I just thought you would want to know about the band of assholes that razed your lab to the ground," Seems said with a shrug, that last part clearly trying to get under her skin. It didn't. 

"Not unless there is a good reason to know, otherwise it's just another waste of my time. Send someone to kill them and be done with it," she insisted, but she wouldn't be surprised if there was a good reason. This lab had been well hidden, and whoever had managed to infiltrate and do this amount of damage at least seemed to have some idea of what they were doing. 

"Yeah, I would have, but you basically said that no one is allowed to kill this group of assholes but you, so I figured I'd check in first," they said, their grin somehow managing to get even wider. Amani could feel a hint of a frown starting to tug at her mouth, eyes narrowing. 

"Fine, stop wasting my time and give me your report," she insisted, letting the irritation she felt slip into her tone. Because she was annoyed, even if she already knew exactly what Not What It Seems was hinting at, and was hoping for possibly the first time in her life to be wrong. 

"Oh you know the ones. The broken Kii'tre, the quiet blanket, angry cat, creepy Voice. Oh, they have a slime mold now," Seems listed off, as if they weren't aware of their names. 

"I made no orders limiting who can kill that group," she said plainly, because if that was the only reason there was not a current chase out on that thorn in her side, she would correct that immediately. 

"Eeeeh, you kinda implied it," Seems insisted, leaning back in their chair again. Amani was still standing right by the door, as she had meant for this to be quick. 

Of course it wouldn't be quick. 

"No, I did not," she repeated, firmer this time. 

"Agree to disagree," Seems said with a shrug. 

"No, that's not how-" she started to insist, before cutting herself off and letting out a sigh. She had such a migraine. 

Voices gave her such a migraine.

"Have a ship sent to track them," she said instead, finally walking fully into the room. 

"Already did," Not What It Seems said with a casual wave of their hand, "did it as you, by the by, so those orders should have gone through no questions asked," they added. Amani felt a frown twitch on her face again. She really wished they didn't do that. Still, the skill was useful. 

"Good, I'm going to set a course for Festhill after this," Amani said, grabbing the seat on the other side of the table and pulling it out to sit down. "But first, a full report. Tell me what they did here." 

"Well, I'm pretty sure they were legally hired by us, to start with," Not What It Seems said, and Amani had to resist letting her head fall into her hands. One sentence in, and it was already this. 

She had not implied it before, no matter the tongue's words, but now, she might just make an order for her to be the only one allowed to kill that infuriating group. 

It wouldn't be any fun if someone else got to them first.