I embrace willingly that I'm good cop. There's nothing wrong with it. It's more wrong to criticize my leadership style, even after that's what I was hired for. My strength is mine alone, it's what makes me human, a woman, a Commander, and most of all Commander Mars. What I do with it is my business, and how I own it.

What I respect most about Jupiter is that she owns her strength. I could never do what she does, or at least as well as she does. I respect that willingly and openly. This isn't a question of Jupiter's authority when she certainly commands it. Even that still doesn't explain why mine is in question.

Jupiter and I aren't that far apart. We're the same generation, and even though we are different people raised in different ways, we come from the same home in Sinnoh. We grew up on the same world stage, facing the same generational experience and issues that our age brought us. What we did with it is a matter of who we are as human beings, and that's all something we can trace back as a human 'thing' civilization has done for thousands and thousands of years. It's the only explanation for racism and xenophobia we have; we can't explain the choices people make as easily when we come from the place. I imagine Jupiter's older but not significantly older than me. I know Sinnoh is an incredibly diverse region in ways that most regions can't relate to. We're a diverse people in a diverse landscape. To me, it is something unique to us, and that should change the playing field of our understanding, and Jupiter really should know that. I have too much faith in her to doubt it.

Even her having no understanding would be a good explanation, but it's just not possible. I can't believe that. I know that what she does isn't predictable, it comes from long meticulous planning and reasons exclusive to her. The thing I love about her most is the thing that can be most damaging.


"Did she tell you why I named her Geegee?"

WS79 was silent. He had even shifted his gaze downward to watch his own motionless legs. Every part of his face was now totally buried in his collar, with only the blue of his hair indicating he was present. Even though he was bare inches from the wall, he refused to lean against the wall, frozen in place.

"I'm about to give you an order I want you to follow, okay?" said Mars quietly. Her head shifted around to see if there was any ways through the collar to his head. Both her hands landed on his shoulders, holding them gently. "Are you there? Listening? WS79?"

WS79 nodded.

"Okay, I want you to sit in the chair behind you. I want you to relax a little bit, okay?"

As WS79 began to shuffle to the side, having eyed the white desk chair from beneath his collar, he felt a sharp tugging on his own shoulders, as Mars' hands gently guided him around to face her. He looked up into Mars' warm comforting smile with wide and confused eyes. He looked down at his legs, feeling Mars' gentle nudge on his shoulders easing him back with short steps to the chair.

"Just ease into it carefully, alright?"

Feeling the white cushion lip of the chair press into the back of his knees, WS79 dropped into the chair gently. His arms found the arm rests quickly. The grip on his shoulders relaxed, allowing his shoulders to sink into the plush material of the chair. The stiff upright collar surrounding his face bopped against his nose, trying to relax on his shoulders. He couldn't see through or above it any longer. Instead, he felt a sharp tugging forward on the cone-like collar immediately in front of him. He eyed the zipper. It slid down gently, as the collar parted and Mars' face slid into vision. The collar around him popped down around his shoulders.

Fresh air filtered through to WS79 nostrils, suddenly free of his fabric prison. He looked down at the collar's zipper, undone down to just below his shoulders as it followed the track to the right. The collar had popped down and conformed to the rest of his shoulders comfortably, the inner ribbed black rubber of the collar exposed to the surface. With the collar and zipper down just enough, WS79 could see the collar of his undershirt poking up to the surface, pulled just low enough to expose the faded red rings around his own neck.

Mars had finished scooping up the papers on her desk, stacking them into a moderately neat pile and tucking them into a manilla folder. Crouched down to a tall drawer in a small file cabinet beside WS79's legs, she slid it out and stacked the fat folder atop several other similarly stuffed folders.

"I know it's not necessarily regulation, but it's my office. I have the same thing with my skirt. It's not very fun to sit in, especially when I've got paperwork to review and logs to type up, so I make little exceptions that can't be seen. I treat this office like a bedroom, sometimes literally. I don't know, I think it's just roomy. Don't worry, I won't write you up for something like that. I'll put the order in for a newer, better uniform for you," said Mars.

WS79 merely sat there, listening intently to Mars' conversation making. He stared down at Mars as she wrestled with her drawers, trying to close the bottom one and then open the topmost drawer. To the side, draped over the keyboard to the asleep PC, he eyed the detached skirt.

"Do you like M&Ms, some hard candies, or just plain chocolate?" asked Mars, sifting through the various knick-knacks in her drawer. When she met with silence, she looked up WS79. "Oh come on, don't be shy."

WS79 swallowed. "M&Ms?" he asked at a near whisper.

"What was that?"

"M&Ms?" WS79 tried again, slightly louder.

Mars smiled. "I like that a little better."

The rattling sound the hundreds of little M&Ms made in the ashtray-sized glass bowl quickly became the only sound in the room. When the little chocolates filled the bowl to a small curve, Mars set the bowl on the edge of the desk closest to WS79, right beside the keyboard and skirt. She pinched up a few red M&Ms and quickly ate them, smiling as she sat up on the now completely clean desk, careful not to knock over her desk lamp.

"Did Geegee tell you why I named her?" Mars asked again, finishing chewing. She nodded to the bowl and swallowed. "Go ahead, take some."

WS79 didn't even look at the bowl, looking at the hands in his lap.

Sighing, Mars pinched up another small handful, then picked the bowl up and set it in WS79's lap.

"Geegee is my secretary, personal-assistant type. I named her because she works with me alone, and none of the Commanders," said Mars, looking up towards the wall as she thought. "I made it personal, I guess. Sure I didn't want to call her GG22 all the time, but the main reason is I made it clear I cared about her."

WS79 was silent.

"It's like, when you meet someone new and important, you want to use their name to make it personal between you and them. It establishes a relationship." Finishing another few M&Ms, Mars looked back at WS79. "Geegee also did worse on her exams than you did. Bet you can imagine where that put her, considering where we put you?"

Slowly, WS79 lowered his head so that it hung in embarrassment. His stare at Mars sank downwards. He sighed quietly, clutching his bowl of M&Ms to himself, staring at them gently.