[centre][img]https://i.imgur.com/5MIYERD.png[/img][/centre] Meet Magdalene Lovell, age twenty-two, an undercover operative of the Investigation Sector of Shinra’s General Affairs Department. Currently standing in a dump in the middle of Midgar’s lower slums, the girl couldn’t help but appreciate how thematically appropriate her current surroundings were. After all, in less than twenty-four hours, she had botched a rather important meeting with a prominent leader in the terrorist group Avalanche putting months of undercover investigative work at risk, blown herself up with explosive Fire magic from short range, and now an unknown, likely dangerous individual who was apparently capable of slicing into a highly experimental - not to mention top secret - Shinra prototype security mech, was aware of her undercover identity AND the fact that she was an agent for Shinra. It would probably be safe to say that in this moment, Maddie wasn’t exactly having the best day. In fact, it was all she could do to keep up her cheerful outward demeanor for the SOLDIER while she silently had a crisis as the weight of everything began to settle on her. Obviously she wasn’t cut out for this. She was waaay out of her depth here. Everything was crumbling down. Panic was settling in. Everything fucking hurt. She wanted to run - just say fuck it all and get away. Bury her head in the sand somewhere and just forget about everything. It was too much. She was overwhelmed. … Well... She had an out...but...she couldn’t...it would...how do you...how can... [color=39b54a]"Naomi? I thought you were Elena. Kinda' hard to tell from a distance. She was in a guard unit I worked with, a real ass-kicker. You were that consultant, right?"[/color] Heh. The SOLDIER recognized his slip-up and was trying to offer her a cover, huh? It was a little too late, she felt. The seed was already planted, but...Maddie’s smile grew a little less forced and little more natural. It was a sweet gesture. Probably completely futile considering the death stares Maddie could feel coming from the other woman, but still sweet nonetheless. ...wait...did he say Elena...? [color=1BC6D0]”Yeah, no. I get that a lot actually. I think it’s the hair.”[/color] ‘Naomi’ off-handedly mentioned, not missing a beat. She had been reminded of the sister of one of her senior colleagues - well, former colleagues. Emma. The veteren Turk had been something of a mentor to Maddie in the brief time they spent together before...well… Anyway. What would Emma do in this situation? When everything was going to shit? Would she just sit around and throw a one woman pity party? No. Maddie knew exactly what her senior would do. So she began to steel herself. The panic began to fade and a cold calmness filled the once-occupied space. She may need to do something rather unpleasant… ...but she could do it. She could. Right? [color=39b54a]"I'm Joe Hockner. And hey, no problem. It's what I do. Let's get out of here."[/color] [color=1BC6D0]“Right. Sounds good..”[/color] She had felt the glares coming from the unknown woman the entire time she spoke to Joe, despite her internal freakout. She had attempted to ignore it, or at least not let on that she had noticed, but it was...sort of hard to miss that sort of hyper-focused hate. While Maddie hadn’t quite heard the hacker’s mutterings, everything about her body language told the Turk that this woman was on edge. And she couldn’t help but notice the small robot with it’s gunbarrels seemingly trained directly on her. Which was unnerving, to say the least. Considering that it was highly likely that she now believed Maddie to be a Shinra operative, continuing to point a gun at her seemed to imply that the woman was a radical.. After all, who else would be stupid enough to threaten to gun down Shinra personnel in the middle of fucking Midgar? With a SOLDIER operative standing right there? [color=8dc73f]"Are you two done flirting in broad daylight!?"[/color] ...what..? The woman’s outburst had caught Maddie completely off-guard. It hadn’t even fully registered with Maddie before the woman continued on, ranting and raving. [color=8dc73f]"I swear to the lifestream you two just go and get a room... in fact by the way you are going at it, why not just hide behind a trashpile somewhere here and get to it. At least you will stop bothering me.”[/color] ...oh. Oh, she was unhinged. Great. Simply lovely. That made everything just [i]thaaaat[/i] much more complicated. [color=1BC6D0]“Uhm...sorry!”[/color] Maddie called as she hurried after the woman in the wheelchair, her face flush from embarrassment. She pivoted after a few steps and silently mouthed [color=1BC6D0][i]“What the fuck?”[/i][/color] towards Joe before spinning and continuing her little jog. As she approached the woman, she saw her pull a pair of headphones on - the universal sign for Don’t Talk to Me. A dark thought flashed through Maddie’s mind and her hand instinctively went towards the small of her back to grab the gun...but she resisted and let her hand fall back to her side. If the woman had been a member of Avalanche or something, her course would be simple - pull the gun, put a round or two in the head, contact headquarters to have a cleanup team get rid of the mess. That would be the textbook answer, honestly. But…after that outburst, and the way she seemed to be carrying herself, Maddie couldn’t picture the woman as a part of ANY organization. Not being as uncomposed as she was. It honestly seemed as if she were just an unfortunate citizen who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. But that didn’t change the fact that she still heard something that she shouldn’t have. But did it really matter? Who could this absolute nutjob tell that would believe her? And what would she even say? “I heard a SOLDIER operative call Naomi Chambers an ‘agent’?” The language by itself wasn’t exactly incriminating - part of the Naomi cover WAS being a Shinra employee after all. Even assuming this whackjob COULD get that information to the right people, Maddie felt as if she could talk her way out of it. And… Call it a hunch or intuition or whatever you’d like, but Maddie had a feeling that Joe wouldn’t just stand by and let her murder a disabled insane woman. Which, to be fair, when she put it that way, was actually rather dark. She felt her stomach turn at the thought. She was completely disgusted by even considering the act. It would be within her authority to do so...but at what cost? Would she truly be alright crossing that line? She was in a pickle. [color=1BC6D0]“So…!”[/color] ‘Naomi’ started as she pulled up beside the woman and matched her pace to the wheelchair. She spoke loudly, fully aware that the woman would likely try to drown her out with whatever she was listening to. She considered how she wanted to approach this for a few moments before bending at the waist and trying to make eye contact with the woman ignoring her. [color=1BC6D0]“I think I’ve seen you around a few times. I’m Naomi, if you didn’t hear me earlier.”[/color] She lied. [color=1BC6D0]“What’s your name?”[/color] If murder was off the table, then she needed some information. She was clearly not in the right place to make this decision, so she’d simply pass it on to her higher ups. Even if it came back to bite her later, she’d let someone else sign the death warrant. She needed somebody else to justify her pulling the trigger.