[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/lWgeF4k.png[/img] [img]http://i.imgur.com/KTXevwK.png[/img] [img]http://i.imgur.com/ogcqUTp.png[/img]
[sub]Collab with [@tsukune][/sub][/center]
[code]Dove Building of the Raven/Dove Joint Headquarters, White Coast[/code][hr]
"[color=crimson]Can’t you help me at all?[/color]”

“I’m sorry sir. I really wish that I could, but there is no reason to believe that Levi Dobson is missing. Without an official report, I cannot help you.”

“[color=crimson]Please, can’t you just check again.[/color]” Jackson urged the front desk receptionist, his voice raising the more he talked.

The receptionist, who was a caramel-skinned woman with dark hair and chocolate eyes, would look at Jackson. First, she noticed his plaid-patterned shorts that came just two inches lower than his knees and his light red t-shirt that he was wearing, and dark red walking shoes The next thing, she  seemed annoyed - or so Jackson would assume - until he saw her eyes, then she sighed. To him, that was an admission of defeat.

Jackson heard her start to type. A moment later, she made a curious sound. Whether she knew it or not, she had Jackson in the palm of her hand. Whatever she was humming about to herself was causing Jackson to reach over the counter, and see what it was that she had stumbled upon. Just as he would, however, she looked at him. As if a kid had almost caught with his hand in the cookie jar, Jackson perked up straight, trying not to appear impatient.

After a moment of silence, Jackson couldn’t take it anymore. “[color=crimson]Well what is it!?[/color]” Jackson shouted, finding his patience at its limit.  His voice was alarming to those around him, causing them to watch him with wary eyes.

A moment later, a couple of security guards approached Jackson from behind. “Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to calm down.”

“[color=crimson]I am calm![/color]” Jackson retorted back, turning around aggressively. When he did, he took notice to the three guards that were behind him, gripping what looked like batons - or something like it, at least.

“[color=cornflowerblue]…What’s going on here?[/color]” the bored voice of Shizuka broke the ongoing drama as he stepped into the front lobby area. He chose not to head straight back to his office after the dry meeting and planned to go for another round at the shooting range, but he hadn’t planned on walking into trouble right now.

His dark eyes traveled from the security guards frozen in their tracks to the source of the commotion - a man with dirty-blond hair at the reception counter - and they narrowed at him. Strolling up to the blond, Shizuka asked, “Haven’t I seen you somewhere before?” There was something about this man that felt vaguely familiar, but he couldn’t quite pull out the name from his memory to match the face before him.

“Just a mild disturbance. We have it under con—” As one of the security guards tried to explain to the man that just appeared, one of them realized who it was. “Oh, I didn’t realize it was you. My apologies, Sir.”

Jackson raised an eyebrow at the guard who was just trying to calm him down not even a full minute ago, and watching him almost falling when he saw whoever just appeared. Speaking of that guy, Jackson brought his eyes upon the face, and something about his eyes reminded Jackson of someone. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but there was definitely an aura of familiarity around him. It was as if Jackson knew this guy, but his name escaped him.

“[color=crimson]I want to say no, but the old noggin here—[/color]” Jackson knocked on the right side of his head three times“[color=crimson]— insists that I do. But hey, guess what? I have no freaking clue....whoever you are.[/color]” Jackson said, laughing at the entire situation. Apparently, for the moment, he had forgotten about what he came here to do.

Shizuka couldn’t help but doing an internal facepalm, wondering if this dude was too deep in the heat of the moment to actually realize what he had just said was throwing more fuel into the fire. With one hand in his jeans pocket and the other running through his hair, he let out a sigh. The old him would have used the [i]hard[/i] way to silence this man into obedience, but he wasn’t his edgy teen self anymore. Besides, he didn’t want this stupidity to drag on any longer.

Shrugging, he spoke to the blonde once more, “[color=cornflowerblue]Whatever. I don’t think you’re here just to make a dumb scene like this. How can we help you?[/color]”

“[color=crimson]Ask dat caramel broad there. I’ve already told her what I wanted, but according to [i]her[/i], what I need help with is impossible.[/color]” Jackson gestured to the receptionist aggressively.

Shizuka merely raised an eyebrow and glanced at the receptionist - he wasn’t expecting him to do the explanation anyway - and she gave him a brief, which made the Japanese agent frown at the mention of a name. Of a DOVE agent named ‘Levi Dobson’.

Shizuka wasn’t close with Levi since they were from completely different departments, other than the occasional polite greetings if they happened to pass by each other in the building. He vaguely remembered Levi talking about how he missed a certain someone, a person he considered close friends with.

Was that person this hot-headed idiot before him?

“[color=cornflowerblue]Right.[/color]” Shizuka had to suppress his urge to roll his eyes, keeping his attention focused on the receptionist instead. “[color=cornflowerblue]Can you try to check the leave records? And when was the last time he’s checked out?[/color]”

“One second,” the receptionist said as she searched Agent Dobson’s sign-in records. “According to his official DOVE account, he last logged out exactly seven days ago at 7:33pm.” She then showed Shizuka what the search produced.

“[color=crimson]Oh [i]surrre[/i], you tell him, but not me.[/color]” Jackson scowled, muttering ‘bitch’ under his breath.

Shizuka glanced at the blond man with a look before he turned back to the receptionist. “[color=cornflowerblue]Last sign-in was a week ago, and no leave records for the absence. He’s not even reported missing by anyone…[/color]”

[color=cornflowerblue][i]This smells fishy.[/i][/color] He wasn’t in the office often enough to keep track of the people around him; besides, DOVE was a separate department functioning under different rules and regulations even if they shared the same building with RAVEN. If this man hadn’t come to make a scene here, no one would have noticed this oddity now - or ever.

It was as if Levi had just vanished into thin air.

“[color=cornflowerblue]Anyway, what’d you want with Levi? Did he told you to meet him here?[/color]”

“[color=crimson]That’s why I came here,[/color]” Jackson stated bluntly, “[color=crimson]do you really think I’d put myself through the unbearable torture of dealing with the worst receptionist in all of Baybridge time and time again if I knew where Levi was? Well, [i]do[/i] you?[/color]” Jackson sarcastically asked, but did so in a way where he was genuinely curious about Shizuka’s response.

This time, Shizuka had to do the facepalm, though cleverly disguised as a gesture of thinking rather than irritation. “Like the guards told you just now, you gotta calm down. You can’t expect people to help you if you keep up with this attitude, y’know.” Sighing again, he went on, “[color=cornflowerblue]While I’m not particularly close with Agent Dobson, I’ve talked to him a few times.[/color]”

“[color=crimson]Say what now?[/color]”

That certainly got the blond dude’s attention, but this was still getting nowhere - not with how the receptionist and the guards were staring hard at this man and Shizuka now. Placing a hand on Jackson’s shoulder, Shizuka said in a tired voice, “[color=cornflowerblue]…Let’s talk somewhere else, yeah?[/color]”

“[color=crimson]Uh, sure,[/color]” Jackson was a bit taken aback from this guy putting his small hands on him. Still, if it meant getting away from the peering eyes on him, Jackson was willing to follow his lead. 

As they were nearly out of the door, a curious thought came to Jackson’s mind, prompting the blond male to stop abruptly. He would turn to Shizuka, and ask, “[color=crimson]you said you knew Levi - how?[/color]”

“[color=cornflowerblue]Seemed like we first met each other back in Verthaven,[/color]” Shizuka replied, taking the lead. “[color=cornflowerblue]He and his friends were trying to help my brother fend off some bullies, but I beat him up instead because I thought he was with those hooligans.[/color]” Then his tone softened, “[color=cornflowerblue]funny how we could get along well even though our first meeting had started off on the wrong foot.[/color]”

Jackson stood there almost as if he couldn’t believe what he just heard, but that wasn’t entirely true. He could believe it. The thing right now, with him, was that he was mentally slapping himself for not realizing that the person beside him was Shizuka Takashiro. Why didn’t he recognize him? Well, it [i]has[/i] been almost a decade; people change in that amount of time. 

Still, Jackson hated that it took him this long to piece it together, because of course it was good ol Shizu. Who would have thunk it? And he no longer had that grey hair that made him look like a premature, middle-aged man. Almost a decade sure made a lot of difference.

[hr]
[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/No63pEQ.png[/img][/center]
[code]Cafe not far from DOVE/Raven Headquarters, White Coast  → Regal Square, Prince Ed-Field[/code][hr]
When Jackson had followed Shizuka from the DOVE building, the two of them would walk for about five or ten minutes along the concrete sidewalk. Most of that time was spent talking and reminiscing about the good old days — well, Jackson talked, and Shizuka listened. Surprisingly, Jackson had a near-endless string of words that formed sentences. He didn’t even know if what he was talking about interested Shizuka or not. Regardless, it sure helped pass the time until they arrived at some local cafe.

Once they were seated at a table, the waiter had taken their order. While Jackson had went with hot chocolate because he’s obviously an adult, Shizuka had went with a coffee. Black. From the time it took them to sit down, to their drinks arriving, they started talking about why Jackson was there at the DOVE building in the first place: to get information about Levi. 

First, Jackson told Shizuka what had happened that raised his suspicions. He told him how he had came back from traveling abroad Brazil and how he first went back to Verthaven to visit his parent’s graves and then went to Levi’s parent’s house, only to be told that Levi had joined DOVE a few years prior. He then told how he returned to Baybridge not even a full week ago, and went to go see Levi at his house. When he didn’t seem to be there, Jackson referred to calling his work, but there was no such luck. He then explained how he had gone to DOVE headquarters day after day and they told him pretty much the same thing that they had told him today prior to Shizuka intervening: there was no record of him ever gone missing. Jackson mused that maybe he hadn’t asked the right questions. 

After he left it out on the floor for Shizuka to consider, Jackson went through about two full cups of his hot chocolate (anticipation made him thirsty). About halfway through his third one - and one small bathroom break - Shizuka had told Jackson that he would look into this, for he was also curious about the circumstances surrounding Levi’s sudden disappearance. He cited that it was weird no one was notified, that his disappearance was reported, or that no one seemed to have noticed.

And, for his services, he wanted Jackson’s help as his own personal informant. Seeing as how Jackson lives in a neighborhood that was known to be filled with criminals and the like, it was a perfect ‘you scratch my back, I scratch yours’ transaction. Jackson had no other choice. At least, this way, he would also be getting extra pocket change.

When it was decided, Shizuka would give Jackson his number so that they could keep one another updated on their respective needs for the other. Jackson would phone him if he had any juicy bits about the local criminal scene and Shizuka - hopefully - would reciprocate with news about Levi. After that, Shizuka had bowed out, leaving Jackson to the remainder of his cup of hot chocolate. 

Feeling partially-satisfied with how that meeting went, Jackson paid the tab, and took to a walk. As he did, he overheard someone talking about a rally happening not too far from where Jackson was now. It seemed to be hosted by DOVE. At the very least, Jackson’s immediate thought was, “maybe I should go check it out? Might have some clues about Levi. Or future job opportunities.” 

And with that, Jackson had made the decision to go to this rally. He heard one saying it was happening at Regal Square in Prince Ed-Field. It was definitely too far for Jackson to walk there, so he would hail a cab. It wouldn’t take [i]too[/i] long.

Traffic didn’t prove to be too bad until the last couple of miles where it was backed up pretty far. Jackson paid the cabby, and would walk the rest of the way. Eventually he would get to the square, and, as he had surmised, there were a lot of people of all shapes, sizes, and colors. And it wasn’t like a protest kind of rally, but rather it was the kind that had food, drink, and even entertainment. Certainly not what Jackson would’ve imagined, but he’s not going to shoot it down completely. It looked like fun, and this meant he would be getting a free meal. Nothing wrong with that.

So Jackson joined the fray, diving head-first into the crowds. He didn’t exactly cater to politeness, not caring if he bumped into someone, or if he knocked them over. Word of the wise? Don’t get in the way of Jackson Drake and his meal. It’s not going to end well for you.
[hider=Summary]Jackson goes to DOVE for information about his friend. He ends up getting it, but not without getting two things: A job as an informant for a RAVEN(though not to his current knowledge) agent and an re-acquaintance with an old friend: Shizuka Takashiro.

Oh and there was some bits about a rally and how there was free food.[/hider]