The first thought to cross his mind was annoyance above all else, as a ray of light pierced the black and forced the usual morning grogginess to become prevalent. Although his annoyance was somewhat short-lived, as he looked down upon himself and noted that he was in a bed, the window that the light bled through revealing what seemed to be a city just outside of his room. It was strange, as he could've sworn he was just on a desert world fighting some crazy dude who was swinging a purple laser stick like some sort of madman.
"Huh... weird... where am I?" He asked to nobody in particular, noting his voice to sound somewhat... younger, than it previously sounded. To boot, he also felt stronger... much stronger. Pulling himself out of the blue bed that he'd previously been sleeping upon, he took stock of his surroundings, more specifically making note of the bathroom just to his right and his weapons and armor sitting just at the foot of his bed. There was also a wallet and some weird sort of folding device sitting on the bedside table, and a quick moment of inspection revealed a new ID card, stating him to be a citizen of some place called "Vale," and claiming him to only be 17 years of age.
That was possibly the strangest part, as he knew he was much older than 17. 44 years of age was more than double what the ID card had claimed him to be, but the rest of this ID had matched up with what he already knew. Scratching his chin, he stepped over and into the bathroom, eyeing himself up for a moment before removing his shirt and taking stock of what he saw. Cut from diamond and built like some sort of Olympian, Jango Fett chuckled as he admired his more youthful appearance and flexed his muscles, now slightly larger than they'd used to be, before settling down and returning to his bed, sitting down and thinking about what had happened, and how he was here... and more importantly, why he was here, and younger, too...
"Hmmm... I was on Geonosis. I was fighting a bunch of crazy space-wizards with laser swords when one with a purple blade decided he didn't like me. Last thing I can clearly remember was him swinging to divorce my head from my body, and my jetpack effectively gave me the middle finger at the worst possible moment." Jango thought aloud while equipping all his gear. He didn't quite think there was an afterlife, and even more he didn't quite expect it to look quite like this. Nevertheless, as soon as he had everything he needed, he stepped over to the window and began observing the city that spanned out away from himself. Crossing his arms, he idly wondered just where in the galaxy he was, and more importantly, what had become of Boba?
"Boba... Call it a hunch, but I don't think I'll be reaching you any time soon, if ever. I know I taught you enough to survive without me, but I am sorry I won't be there to finish your training." He quietly lamented, before snapping on his helmet and taking a step back at the sight of so much more than there used to be. In his HUD, not only could he notice the tracking systems used in his helmet's built-in computers to be more sophisticated, but he had an actively adapting map, compass, cross-wind sensor, physical status tracker, a thermal imaging viewer, and an active equipment tracker. All nice things to have, to be sure, but he wasn't quite sure what this "Aura" thing it was tracking was, however given that it appeared around his body status tracker like a sort of shield, he could take a hint and assume it worked kind of like an energy shield... that being said of course, he hadn't activated any shield, so he had his first personal research objective in mind.
-=𝕼𝖀𝕰𝕾𝕿 𝕬𝕯𝕯𝕰𝕯: 𝕷𝖊𝖆𝖗𝖓 𝖆𝖇𝖔𝖚𝖙 𝕬𝖚𝖗𝖆=-
"What the hell was that?!." He gasped as a sort of feminine voice rang in his head and the words burned across his upper peripheral vision in a text too fancy for his liking. His attention was drawn to a sort of quest bar appearing in his upper left peripheral vision, simply being occupied by the apparent quest he'd accepted. As a final note, there was an active tracker on his adaptive map that pointed him towards where he needed to go. "So... any mission or objectives I give myself or accept just appear there? And the map and compass will automatically point me there? Can I find my ship with this?"
-=𝕼𝖀𝕰𝕾𝕿 𝕬𝕯𝕯𝕰𝕯: 𝕱𝖎𝖓𝖉 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝕾𝖑𝖆𝖛𝖊 1=-
"Well, that answers that question, I suppose." Jango mused, before looking in his wallet and finding his room key. After gathering all of his stuff and looking over everything, making sure to leave absolutely nothing behind, Jango found a pair of electronic keys for the Slave 1 that previously hadn't existed. It wasn't something he really thought about, but the added security was a bonus, he supposed. That being said, it seemed like the Slave 1 was parked just outside, so he wasn't really all too concerned about it doing much more than taking up some parking space. After making a triple-check of all his things, Jango stepped out of his room, turned in the room key, and walked outside, taking note of his ship looking the exact same as before.
However, upon entering and looking over the systems, he learned that due to this planet's fuel becoming inert upon exiting the planet's atmosphere, his ship was no longer space-worthy. It was an annoying detail, to be sure, but not something he wasn't expecting on some level. Nevertheless, upon entering and learning that his ship was no longer able to travel through space, some new text appeared in the place that the "quests" had originally appeared
-=𝕼𝖀𝕰𝕾𝕿 𝕮𝕺𝕸𝕻𝕷𝕰𝕿𝕰𝕯: 𝕱𝖎𝖓𝖉 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝕾𝖑𝖆𝖛𝖊 1=-
𝕽𝖊𝖜𝖆𝖗𝖉: 𝕬𝖈𝖙𝖎𝖛𝖊 𝕾𝖍𝖎𝖕 𝕿𝖗𝖆𝖈𝖐𝖊𝖗
"Well, that's convenient. Now I'll never lose my ship." Chuckling, he noted the active tracking beacon his ship emitted on his compass before taking his leave from his ship and mobile home. Now he just needed to learn how to use his aura, and he'd be set to start his adventures in this new world. He was fairly certain that as long as there was sentient people here, which he'd already learned there were, that he'd never be out of work in the line of Bounty Hunting, like he'd already been doing. "New world, same line of work. No issue... Now I just have to find out where bounties are posted."
-=𝕼𝖀𝕰𝕾𝕿 𝕬𝕯𝕯𝕰𝕯: 𝕷𝖔𝖈𝖆𝖙𝖊 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝕭𝖔𝖚𝖓𝖙𝖞 𝕳𝖚𝖓𝖙𝖊𝖗'𝖘 𝕲𝖚𝖎𝖑𝖉 𝕳𝕼=-
"Knew that would work... now..." Pulling up the curious device in his pocket, he pressed a button and raised a brow at how the short little device extended into some sort of data pad. Interestingly enough, it already had listed all the information he needed about his aura, making him somewhat curious about whatever this new power of his was. It sounded like something the Jedi would use, but at the same time it didn't. Possible coincidences and connections aside, he was at least appreciative of this new layer of extra protection that didn't weigh him down at all. "So, I can train my aura to react on instinct or manually raise it in case I can't "sense" anything. Interesting."
-=𝕼𝖀𝕰𝕾𝕿 𝕮𝕺𝕸𝕻𝕷𝕰𝕿𝕰𝕯: 𝕷𝖊𝖆𝖗𝖓 𝖆𝖇𝖔𝖚𝖙 𝕬𝖚𝖗𝖆=-
𝕽𝖊𝖜𝖆𝖗𝖉: 𝕬𝖚𝖗𝖆 𝕾𝖊𝖓𝖘𝖊 & 𝕬𝖚𝖗𝖆 𝕮𝖑𝖔𝖆𝖐
"Okay, now what's aura sense and cloak?" His question was answered by another tab opening on his "scroll," this one detailing what exactly they were. "Oh. So cloak allows me to hide my aura from others, and sense allows me to... sense the auras of others and incoming threats. Wizard."
While he was looking at all of this, Jango was actively making his way towards the Bounty Hunter's Guild HQ. It was a longer walk than he was anticipating, being on the other side of the city and all, but after about an hour and a half of walking, he'd finally found himself just outside the Headquarters, a tall building of maybe four stories, comprising of designs one might've expected of a big-wig government type building, marble pillars and all. He idly surmised that Bounty Hunting must've been a much more "legit" form of work here than it was back where he used to be, thus explaining why it all looked so damn official. However, before he could even enter, he found out that access was restricted to Government Officials and certified "Hunters," meaning he had no access to the only facility which he could partake in his line of work. It was annoying, to be sure, but he was sure it wouldn't be too difficult to become certified as a "Hunter..." whatever that was supposed to be in this world...
He was wrong about his assumption, as it only took a little reading to learn that he'd have to attend some sort of academy for four years and pass a number of exams and classes to obtain official certification. It was truly bothersome, but he supposed that he was the exact age required to be accepted into a Hunter Academy, so it wasn't exactly something he didn't think he could do. He just needed to submit an application and take a diagnostic combat exam, something he was certain beyond all else that he could easily accomplish.
But for now, he was taking a look at a weaponry catalogue in a store called "Dust to Dawn." It wouldn't do to delve into combat within the world without knowing anything about its' weapons. There really wasn't anything worth noting, most of it was easily outclassed by his own gear, with the exception of some custom equipment that these "Hunters" used that he couldn't quite say anything about. Some of them were just so unique that he couldn't compare them to anything he was familiar with, so he didn't bother trying.
It was currently approaching nightfall, maybe thirty minutes until the last shreds of sunlight faded from the city, when a young girl clad in black and red stepped into the store. His aura sense lit up upon her entry, and with the inexplicable difference in apparel compared to everyone else he'd seen, he could only assume she was a Huntress... or at least one in training. A closer examination from over his shoulder revealed some sort of steel box resting on the small of her back, possibly a concealed, folding weapon as those seemed to be popular with hunters, if the catalogues were any indication. The girl's eyes lit up upon spotting him, and she immediately hurried over to his side and started looking him up and down. Feeling slightly uncomfortable with the completely unashamed over-examination of his person, Jango loudly cleared his throat, bringing the girl back to reality.
"OH! I'm so sorry! I uh... I've never seen you here before, is all!" The girl in red stammered out, and in a single breath no less. It annoyed him somewhat, prompting him to grasp her by the shoulder with one hand, and hold up another hand signaling halt. Fortunately enough for his sanity, the girl did so, stepping back a step as he pushed her gently and scratching the back of her neck.
"Breathe. You aren't doing either of us any favors by disregarding that basic function." He chastised gently, before taking his hand away and looking the girl in the eyes. Blushing as she was, most likely from embarrassment, he was able to make a few basic notes on her. Short, choppy black hair that turned crimson at the ends, pale skin, silver eyes, somewhat heart-shaped face, youthful, possibly younger than he supposedly was now. "Yeah. 17 years old my ass."
"Right, right, I'm um... I'm Ruby! Huntress in training! I've never seen you here before, but judging by your stuff, I'd guess you're a hunter in training too?" She questioned, drawing a short shrug from him as he looked himself over a few times. He idly wondered if it was just normal for these "Hunters" to look nothing like anyone else. Given this girl was the only one he'd seen so far in gothic clothing and a loud red cloak, he decided that it was likely a safe bet to make.
"Something like that. I'm submitting an application to... "Beacon Academy" later tomorrow... I'm Jango Fett." He introduced himself and his purpose to the girl, Ruby, hopefully to glean off some information and make his job easier. Given how the girl's eyes lit up at his statement, he assumed that wouldn't be too difficult.
"That's so COOL! I-I'm still too young to attend Beacon, being 15 and all I still have 2 years at Signal Academy before I can attend Beacon, but that's where I plan to go, too!" The girl's excitable nature clashed somewhat with his own, more reserved personality, but it didn't quite annoy him as much as he'd normally thought it would. However, her expression turned to a curious one, as she narrowed her eyes at him slightly. "That being said, though, I don't think I've ever seen you around Signal, are you from one of the other academies?"
"Self-taught. Never attended an academy." He spoke swiftly, lying without missing a beat and seemingly convincing the girl. It wasn't a complete lie, but it wasn't complete truth, either. He had truly never attended any academy, but he was trained by his mentor and father figure, Jaster Mereel. Still, he didn't think that information would really mean anything here, and he didn't want to possibly draw any parallels to someone who might not exist here. After all, with so many... unique things to this world, and the fact that he was at least 110% sure he'd been killed with a 10% chance for error, he was certain that he wasn't even in the same reality or dimension as before. Wouldn't be too much of a stretch, all things considered.
"Oh, that's even cooler! If you're gonna attend without even attending a secondary combat academy, then you must be REALLY good!" She beamed, before turning her eyes to the magazine in his hands and chuckling somewhat, pulling another magazine off the rack and pointing to one of the weapons. A crimson scythe, folding and with an integrated high-caliber rifle. It was an interesting weapon, but a scythe was far from an effective weapon on its own without adjustment, so he supposed that the rifle part must've helped to some end. "This is my weapon, Crescent Rose! It was featured in this issue of "Arms & Armor: Hunter Edition!" Made her myself."
"Interesting. I suppose that's the weapon you're hiding with your cloak?" He surmised, drawing a surprised look from the younger girl as she shifted her feet a bit and lowered her head.
"I uh... most people don't notice it that quickly... The cloak usually does a really good job at concealing my weapon, even if that's not the intended purpose... Still! You must have really good eyes if you picked it out so fast! And if I were to guess what you're packing..." She looked him up and down again, before smirking and beginning to list off his weaponry. "Dual pistols, a flamethrower, dart gun, missile launcher, hidden wrist blades, whipcord launcher, knee-missiles, grappling hook, grenades, jetpack, jetpack missiles, a rangefinder, and energized armor. Am I missing anything?"
He was silent for a moment, surprised with how she listed off nearly every piece of equipment currently on his person with but a glance, even the concealed ones, but quickly recollected himself and nodded once in affirmation. Most would've only listed off the obvious weapons, but not this one. Despite her peppy, upbeat and overall naïve nature, she was observant, had sharp eyes, and smart... "I'm gonna have to keep on my toes around this one. My junior or not, it wouldn't do to let someone possibly get the drop on me later."
For the next hour or so, the two idly conversed, with Jango occasionally making something up or flat out lying about something in terms of his personal life whenever something couldn't be answered in a way that wouldn't raise questions that couldn't be sufficiently answered. He kept things grounded, and all within this world, and never bothered to mention the finer details. Everything believable, most of it untrue with simple sprinkles of reality mixed into the equation. However, eventually they'd parted ways, simply trading contact info before the girl took off for the other side of the store. He supposed that as far as first contacts went, she wasn't a bad option.
However, shortly after they'd parted ways, the doors swung open, with some sort of commotion at the front taking his attention. Still, he decided he'd bide his time, listen in and see what happened. Something about these newcomers robbing the store of its dust. The seconds ticked by as he lie in wait, allowing one of the goons to approach him from behind.
"Hey, put your hands up!" The man yelled at him, although he didn't regard him, simply continuing to pretend browsing the catalogues. If he was right, and he usually was, the goon would try to approach him, try to intimidate or rob him. He just needed to wait for him to close the distance...
"What are you deaf or something? I said put your hands up!" The voice was getting closer, and Jango couldn't help but count the paces the man took, mentally gauging the distance he was crossing, and how much was left between them. Looking to his equipment tracker, he smiled faintly as he knew that he was armed well enough to massacre everyone in this store with ease, and even without his gear in mind, he knew he could take them all. After all, he was stronger now than he was when he fought at Galidraan, and he doubted anyone in this room could measure up to the Jedi Knights he'd slaughtered that day.
Finally, he felt a hand rest itself on his shoulder, and like a cobra coiled and ready to strike, Jango Fett sprung into action, whipping around and knocking the man's arm and weapon aside in one move before striking him in the throat with his left hand, striking with just two fingers extended and easily crushing his windpipe. Taking advantage of the staggered man, Jango swept his feet out from under him with a sideways kick aimed at the ankles, and finished him with a stomp to the face, knocking him out with relatively little noise. The moment another reared around the corner, Jango shot his whipcord launcher around the man's neck, yanking him in violently as he choked him out. Ducking under a sloppy wild haymaker from the man's left, Jango shot back upright and slammed his left elbow against the back of the base of the man's neck, knocking him out in an instant before discarding the cable and drawing both blaster pistols and pivoting around. Squeezing the triggers each once one after the other, Jango's bolts sailed true as one slammed into the chest of another thug rounding the corner, and the other nailed his buddy beside him in the abdomen, dropping both to the ground with little effort. His blasters were set to stun for the moment, as he didn't wish to try his luck with possibly being labeled as a murdered, knowing that some worlds took the whole "pacifism" thing way too seriously.
He'd only bothered with dispatching the last two goons in a manner most would classify as "loud" because he'd heard an even louder commotion coming from the other side of the store, most likely from Ruby. Following the sound of shattering glass, he noticed that she wasn't just speaking from her ass when she said that big gardening tool was her own weapon, as lo and behold, she stood over the unconscious form of another grunt in the street, with the rest of the goons rushing out to confront her head-on... possibly too many for the girl to take on herself, given she was outnumbered at least 16-1, not counting the head honcho in the white coat and bowler hat. Chuckling slightly, Jango approached the doors that had automatically closed themselves behind the robbers.
"How about we even these odds?" He thought as he stepped up and kicked the doors wide open, taking the rear by surprise and drawing attention to himself with a handful of shocked gasps. Before they could react, Jango raised his right pistol and shot a stun bolt into the second closest thug to his left, before whipping back and smashing the base of his Westar-34 against the nose of the closest on his right, making him stumble back. Drawing his second blaster, Jango shot him in the gut from the hip with another stun bolt, knocking him out. Ducking under a horizontal slash, Jango pivoted his whole body and struck the assailant in the side with his heel, sending the man falling back down against the concrete with a heavy Thud!, before throwing himself to the side and rolling over his shoulder, dodging the incoming fire from his far right and blasting off with his jetpack to close the distance. Despite being the furthest away, it was still a markedly short distance, and the violent impact of his shoulder against the man's chest sent them reeling back several meters. Rolling over his shoulder again, Jango snapped back up into a crouch with both pistols drawn, nailing two more thugs in the head before they could even think to pull the trigger. Kicking off for some more force, he blasted off straight up with his jetpack to attain and exploit his portable high ground, and fired his concussion missile between the two remaining thugs, blasting them away just as they'd drawn a bead on him and knocking them out in a heartbeat, as well as of course sending them flying several meters away from each other.
Looking right, he noted that the girl had finished all of her foes at about the same time that he had, although was finishing up with one last one by the time he'd landed, slamming them into the ground under her scythe. With a simple nod to the girl, Jango raised both blaster pistols towards the leader of this attempted robbery, prompting Ruby to train her eyes on the same man.
"Tsk. you truly were worth every cent..." the man grumbled, before dropping his cigar and crushing it under his cane. With nonchalant motions, he fished a crimson dust crystal out of his pocket with his free hand. "Well, as entertaining as this has been, you two, I really must be going, so... Sayonara!"
He noticed a little too late that he'd been supercharging the crystal with his aura, and with it being tossed his way like a grenade, Jango did the only thing any sane person would do, and threw himself down and away from the incoming explosive, rolling over his shoulder, under the explosion and coming up into a crouch. given the sound of a firing weapon and the second explosion, he assumed he must've used some sort of concealed weapon to attack Ruby. Rushing now through the smoke, he nodded to Ruby, who seemingly had evaded the attack as well, before looking around for this criminal that had accosted them. A brief gaze upwards revealed the man to be escaping via the rooftops... a foolish escape route against one with the aerial advantage.
Blasting forward, Jango scooped Ruby up under her left armpit and brought her up onto the roof with himself, ignoring her panicked sputtering as he dropped her off and she had to refind her footing. Nevertheless, she'd found it, and now they both stood with weapons trained on this man's back.
"Freeze!" Jango demanded, drawing an annoyed grunt from the white-jacketed man as he turned to face them. However, in an unexpected turn of events, some sort of gunship rose up from the alleyway, amazing Jango that it could've even fit in the narrow passageway, and training its spotlights on the duo of warriors.
"End of the line, Red and Blue! This is where I'll be bidding you farewell!" He yelled back over the roar of the gunship's twin engines. Twirling the blasters on his index fingers, Jango readied himself for a fight as he remained unfazed by the increase of force. However, before he could really do anything, the criminal tossed out a wide cluster of crimson crystals, and before he himself could react to the threat, the crystals had already crossed a line that the explosion would've been dangerous to both himself and Ruby far more than they'd be to the thrower. Acting on instinct, Jango grasped Ruby from under the armpit again and blasted backwards, clearing the dangerous radius of the explosive crystals just in time to avoid being blown sky-high as he'd shot one of them and caused a chain reaction, blanketing the rooftop in the ensuing detonations.
However, just as he lowered back into the smoke, he noted the presence of some sort of... librarian? Office worker? He wasn't too sure, but they'd erected some sort of barrier to protect themself from the explosions, and they wielded a riding crop... he idly wondered if dominatrix would've been a more fitting title given the item in her possession, but he cast the thought aside as he stood upright and switched from stun to kill setting, and began firing on the transport. Each shot did a satisfying level of damage, as each impact rocked the gunship and left a violent scorch mark and dent in the armor... However, as soon as some sort of shadow-concealed lady stepped out and began glowing, both he and Ruby began training their fire upon her.
For Ruby's shots, she merely raised a hand and blocked each shot, however, for the much higher volume of his own attacks, and the targeted precision at each limb, the lady found herself struck several times, once in the thigh, once in the shoulder, and twice in the abdomen. In a fit of anger as she doubled over, she raised a hand, and some sort of fiery sigil began to form beneath them. Unsure of what this could've been yet also unwilling to stick around and find out, Fett launched himself back, just in time as both the librarian and Ruby mimicked his action just in time to avoid another, much more violent detonation.
Amazing him slightly, with a wave of her riding crop, which he assumed more appropriate now to call a wand than anything else, gathered up all the debris and formed several tendrils from the rubble, lashing out against the transport several times yet causing less damage than he would've hoped. Shrugging as it seemed their goal now was less capture and more simply erasing these two from existence, Jango lowered down to a runner's stance, locked on with his rangefinder, and fired his jetpack missile at the transport, aimed for the fuselage.
And yet, before it could strike true, several large rings formed around the gunship, and blasted outwards, disintegrating the incoming debris and prematurely detonating his missile. With nothing left having the necessary stopping power to destroy the aircraft decisively, the gunship was able to lumber just out of their reach, and fly away, leaving all of their sights after just a few short moments as it disappeared into the cloudy night sky. A sigh escaped his lips as these criminals had temporarily escaped him, which left his with a feeling of disappointment in himself. He was Jango Fett, the Galaxy's Greatest Bounty Hunter. No prey escaped him, and those that did didn't get off free for long. Even if these two were somehow just "petty" criminals, which he doubted, them escaping had made things very personal to him, now. Next time they met, he swore, he would bring them in.
"Oh. My. Gosh... You're a REAL Huntress!" He cringed under his helmet as he could practically hear the older woman's displeased voice without even speaking. Somehow, he just knew that this wasn't going to end well. "Can I have your Autograph?!"
It wasn't a jail cell, but it was an interrogation room. He wasn't quite sure which was worse, but he did still have all his equipment, so he doubted they were actually detaining him. After all, he hadn't killed anyone, not unless those first two that had fallen before him were just bitch-made on another level. Still, he currently sat down with his helmet on the table, Ruby right next to himself. They'd already been chastised and almost praised by the Huntress, one they now knew to be one Glynda Goodwitch, Vice Headmistress of the very Beacon Academy they both desired entry into, and introduced to the Headmaster, Ozpin. He'd had his conversation with Ruby, granting her entry into the academy two years early, but now, his entire attention was trained onto Jango. A curious expression rose on his face as he looked the mando up and down, not that he even knew what one was.
"And you must be Jango Fett." He spoke, taking a sip from his mug of coffee and examining him while he simply sat there with an unreadable poker face. "I saw the footage, and I can tell you were holding back... and yet our files on you only date back to today. Rather bizarre as it is, I'm as curious about why someone as dangerous as you would want to become a Hunter as I was for Ruby's reason. I'd imagine you have more than enough skill to get through any occupation you wanted without having to go through the trouble of attending a Hunter Academy."
"Official certifications. I can't take on official contracts without being a licensed Huntsman." Jango explained briefly, keeping his answer short and any deeper reasons close to chest. This, however, drew a similar question to what he'd asked of Ruby.
"You wish to pursue government contracts?"
"Official Bounties, yes. I wish to be a simple bounty hunter making my way in the world. I take it that isn't an issue?"
"No, no, not at all. On the contrary, we've been rather shorthanded on real Bounty Hunters over the last few decades, so hearing that someone of your caliber wants to be one is rather refreshing." The man, Ozpin, seemed something of an enigma to Jango, but he couldn't quite pin it down. Something about him just seemed... off. He wasn't about to raise this concern directly to the man's face, lest he accidentally kill his chance of getting into Beacon. It wasn't so much fear of the repercussions that kept him from raising the matter, merely the knowledge that certain things required a degree of tact and patience. "So. You wish to join my academy?"
"You mind?" The headmaster simply chuckled at the response, before standing upright and nodding once, a satisfied smile resting upon his face.
"It's settled then. Allow me to be the first to congratulate both of you for your acceptance into Beacon Academy." He allowed a slight smirk to tug at the corner of his lips as those words were uttered. Seemed he wouldn't need to write up an official application after all...