![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Title: Black Edelweiss
Series: Zeitgeist
Follows: One Giant Leap
Wordcount: 519
Summary: Two weeks after Claire Bennet's televised leap from the Ferris wheel, the 12th handles it's first case delving into the strange world of specials. Evidence points the investigation toward a former Company Agent, a man Noah Bennet would swear up and down doesn't exist.
Details: Minimal details due to inflation. Full warnings and details in main post.
PREV: Interlude 16 // MAIN // NEXT: Chapter Seventeen
Konrad & Claude—Odessa, Texas; 1990
"You're Konrad, right? The one who's all mysterious. The one the higher-ups whisper about?"
Konrad looked up at the voice, surprised. Few of the newer agents were even aware of his existence—let alone able to address him by name.
The man looked familiar, but that didn't mean much. Konrad managed the file archives, and he saw most of the agents come in and out every day—though once they walked out the doors, most forgot they had seen him at all. The man standing before him was in his early thirties, tall, long-legged and thin, and spoke with a Northern English accent that Konrad identified easily enough, though he couldn't say he remembered it fondly. The man also didn't seem surprised by the undisguised assessment of his person by Konrad's eyes, though Konrad still felt somewhat chagrined when he caught himself.
Having spent the past seven years knowing his actions would immediately be forgotten, some of his social manners had grown a bit lax.
"Sure," Konrad said, setting the files he had been sorting beside him where he sat on his desk, giving the man his full attention. "How do you know me?"
It was a frustrating question, but one Konrad had long grown used to asking to understand just how he had come to earn someone's notice.
"Ivan's spoken about you on occasion," the man said easily, as if the conversation were nothing unusual. Which, if he knew anything at all about Konrad, was possibly some pretense at normalcy meant for his benefit.
The man hesitated a moment before he added, significantly, "And Haram."
Konrad managed to school his reaction to the name, though the man's pause neatly indicated that, yes, he clearly knew a great deal about Konrad. It wasn't the sort of encounter Konrad was used to anymore. It took him a few moments to respond.
"Oh, yes," Konrad said with a faint smile, once he managed to find his voice. "Claude Raines. Our invisible man."
This time it was Claude's turn to look somewhat off balance. Konrad spared him with another smile.
"Being forgettable isn't that different from being invisible," Konrad said, "and I'm not the only one they whisper about."
Claude frowned at that, but Konrad pretended not to notice.
"And I do still talk to Ivan, occasionally," Konrad admitted. He paused. "And Haram...though it's normally less painful for both of us if he lets himself forget."
For a moment, Konrad was tempted to go into exact detail on his painful past relationship with Haram. Over-sharing carried very few consequences for him these days. It wasn't something he did often, but sometimes it felt good just to vent and to watch other people's reactions of embarrassment and horror. But there was something especially solemn in Claude face that was out of character for what he had seen and heard about the man that made him decide not to.
"Thompson has you partnered with Haram these days, doesn't he?" Konrad asked, trying to leave the man an opening for whatever it was Claude had come to him to say.
Claude obliged his expectations, though as his dark expression deepened, Konrad felt dread creeping in.
"That's actually what I want to talk to you about."
PREV: Interlude 16 // MAIN // NEXT: Chapter Seventeen
Series: Zeitgeist
Follows: One Giant Leap
Wordcount: 519
Summary: Two weeks after Claire Bennet's televised leap from the Ferris wheel, the 12th handles it's first case delving into the strange world of specials. Evidence points the investigation toward a former Company Agent, a man Noah Bennet would swear up and down doesn't exist.
Details: Minimal details due to inflation. Full warnings and details in main post.
PREV: Interlude 16 // MAIN // NEXT: Chapter Seventeen
Konrad & Claude—Odessa, Texas; 1990
"You're Konrad, right? The one who's all mysterious. The one the higher-ups whisper about?"
Konrad looked up at the voice, surprised. Few of the newer agents were even aware of his existence—let alone able to address him by name.
The man looked familiar, but that didn't mean much. Konrad managed the file archives, and he saw most of the agents come in and out every day—though once they walked out the doors, most forgot they had seen him at all. The man standing before him was in his early thirties, tall, long-legged and thin, and spoke with a Northern English accent that Konrad identified easily enough, though he couldn't say he remembered it fondly. The man also didn't seem surprised by the undisguised assessment of his person by Konrad's eyes, though Konrad still felt somewhat chagrined when he caught himself.
Having spent the past seven years knowing his actions would immediately be forgotten, some of his social manners had grown a bit lax.
"Sure," Konrad said, setting the files he had been sorting beside him where he sat on his desk, giving the man his full attention. "How do you know me?"
It was a frustrating question, but one Konrad had long grown used to asking to understand just how he had come to earn someone's notice.
"Ivan's spoken about you on occasion," the man said easily, as if the conversation were nothing unusual. Which, if he knew anything at all about Konrad, was possibly some pretense at normalcy meant for his benefit.
The man hesitated a moment before he added, significantly, "And Haram."
Konrad managed to school his reaction to the name, though the man's pause neatly indicated that, yes, he clearly knew a great deal about Konrad. It wasn't the sort of encounter Konrad was used to anymore. It took him a few moments to respond.
"Oh, yes," Konrad said with a faint smile, once he managed to find his voice. "Claude Raines. Our invisible man."
This time it was Claude's turn to look somewhat off balance. Konrad spared him with another smile.
"Being forgettable isn't that different from being invisible," Konrad said, "and I'm not the only one they whisper about."
Claude frowned at that, but Konrad pretended not to notice.
"And I do still talk to Ivan, occasionally," Konrad admitted. He paused. "And Haram...though it's normally less painful for both of us if he lets himself forget."
For a moment, Konrad was tempted to go into exact detail on his painful past relationship with Haram. Over-sharing carried very few consequences for him these days. It wasn't something he did often, but sometimes it felt good just to vent and to watch other people's reactions of embarrassment and horror. But there was something especially solemn in Claude face that was out of character for what he had seen and heard about the man that made him decide not to.
"Thompson has you partnered with Haram these days, doesn't he?" Konrad asked, trying to leave the man an opening for whatever it was Claude had come to him to say.
Claude obliged his expectations, though as his dark expression deepened, Konrad felt dread creeping in.
"That's actually what I want to talk to you about."
PREV: Interlude 16 // MAIN // NEXT: Chapter Seventeen
