It was one thing for Zach to joke about this being Crispin's longest standing job - considering the cat's running record until now, that was something about him that stood out to his peers. But now to ask about his family? Crispin couldn't hide his bewilderment. But behind his shock, he could hide his suspicions.

First, it seemed his own medication that was saving his life tried to kill him. (Never mind that was due to his own blunder.) Then, the summoning to the almighty "Director." Now, this dark room. It seemed a bit too... planned, to ask something so personal, in this environment.

[i]Is this a threat?[/i]

"Well, this is sudden." Crispin furrowed his eyebrows in thought for a moment, before relaxing back in his chair and looking moderately less alarmed. "They're not in any danger, are they?"

Of course, Zach wasn't going to give himself away. "I don't know. Are they?" he said with a smirk. And left it at that.

Crispin sighed. Can never really tell with this guy. Poe's Law and all that. Then again, for as long as Crispin knew Zach (Crispin's done his fair share of eavesdropping), this is pretty much how he responds to anything remotely serious. The cat shrugged. "Yeah. Okay. Thanks."

[i]Just keep it cool.[/i]

He leaned back into his chair and brought a finger to his chin, as if pensive. As if this topic that meant to much to him was a joke. "Where do I start? Well, there's my twin sisters and my mother. And having older twin sisters is a bit of a nightmare. Be grateful you didn't grow up with that. One's married, the other's not..." He took a deep breath, paused, then spoke again. "Yeah. That's really all you need to know about them.

"Aaaand Mom? Works for the Feds. Big techie, but I think she's gotta be a Merc on the side or something. Carries around a scimitar like it's a purse. Never lets us touch it, never tells us why." Never really told them about what she does for work - she just comes home with money; that's all. While Crispin's pretty toned himself, his mother was most definitely considered [i]built.[/i] And one-eyed, wearing a bandanna over the fucked-up part of her face like a pirate. Crispin jokingly relayed this information to Zacharias, laughing at himself in between sentences.

Crispin either didn't know or had straight up forgotten that he had listed his mother as his emergency contact on his resume quite sometime ago. Zach had all the information he needed to know on her. "Lady" was her name. Lady Ocelot. And based on this shit the cat fed him, he wouldn't doubt she gave this name to herself.

[i]"And your father?"[/i]

"My [i]dad?[/i] Uhhh. He'd been working abroad since I was a baby. What's the word for it - expat? No? Is that not the word for it?" Much to Zacharias' dismay, Crispin rambled on about the right term for his dad's situation before eventually giving up on it. "Eh, I guess that's not important. Honestly, I couldn't tell you much about him even if I wanted to."

He looked at his gloved hands. "Though I get my looks from him, I guess. Mom & sisters are purple, I'm dark gray. Markings here, no markings there, blah blah."

Unless Zacharias and the Big Boss needed to know names and deets, that's as far as Crispin was willing to share.

While Crispin was mostly carefree (and careless to some extent), he was defensive about his sisters and mother - so mismanaging his pill-taking was, as far as his coworkers knew, the [i]only[/i] thing that ever caused him to worry. And now Zacharias knew a bit about his family. Cool. Crispin had been pretty chill with him, all things considered, up until they hit this room.

The ocelot maintained his usual laid-back persona, though was now much more guarded. "Frankly, Zachy, if this is how you start your small talk"--Crispin laughed--"yer pretty bad at it. Might wanna get some help with that. You wanna tell me about your fam too?"