Jane Doe would never classify herself as a paranoid person. Paranoia could create biases that could clash with her job, and creating a profile on a target with incorrect information could quite literally get people killed. In that regard, she felt that she was relatively centered as a person and as a behavioral psychologist.
But that wasn't to say she didn't find herself creating mini-profiles for people in her head as a hobby. It was an inevitable reality that work would bleed into life, and the other way around. For her, however, she just liked to study people. She wouldn't have gone into this field of study if she didn't enjoy it. Seeing tiny little tells that people let off. The pattern that emerged from seeing tens upon hundreds of similarities.
For example, one of the locals was pacing back and forth outside of the restaurant she was currently seated at. She could see him through the window, checking his phone every 30 seconds. Anyone could tell he was obviously anxious about something, but it was how he touched the ring on his finger, how he didn't seem to be distraught but more nervous than anything, that led Jane to believe he was waiting on some life changing news from his partner.
She didn't want to assume preferences or anything, but she wouldn't hesitate to wager a friendly bet that he was waiting on news regarding his kid. Yet to be born or not. Wife in the hospital? Husband getting adoption papers signed? Kid coming back from the first day of school?
Not enough information to create a comprehensive profile by any means, but small little clues often painted a bigger picture. And for five minutes of observation about a stranger she knew nothing about, she considered that good enough.
Another example… would be the woman sitting across from her. Jane had much more time to observe this little study, and she had more vested interest in them compared to anyone else currently.
Purely for her own curiosity, of course.
A soft, short blue mane of hair. Big, round aquamarine eyes that always seemed to sparkle with excitement. Clear passion and enthusiasm for their job, however mundane working as video store manager may be. All that and more.
Occasionally Jane would see razor sharp intelligence coming from the shorter woman. Belle often held her true opinion about matters close to her chest, but when bits and pieces of it leaked out, Jane found herself wanting to listen.
People often liked to listen to the sound of their own voice, if just to tote their own ego. Not Belle. When Belle spoke, usually it was because they wanted to share some sort of excitement and passion they had with the world, or because they believed they were saying something worth listening to.
"...and that's how the existence of the Inter-Knot, and by extension proxies, has influenced movie culture as a whole in recent years!" Belle finished her spiel, aquamarine eyes bright and glittering as they rambled on about a topic they clearly cared about.
It was amusing to Jane, at the least. Pro-proxy opinions weren't exactly uncommon, and some were even seen as a necessity depending on what area a person lived in, but most people didn't spout such opinions to someone who worked for PubSec.
Not that Jane advertised the fact that she was technically employed by PubSec. Behavioral criminal analysts weren't exactly common, but contract work was still work. She wondered how Belle would react if she dropped such a bomb on her right then and there.
"You seem quite invested in this topic." Jane commented after she swallowed a bite of her noodles.
There wasn't any real physical change in how Belle reacted to such a comment. No tightening of the eyes, no tiny flinch, no guiltily looking away. If Jane wasn't paying so much attention, she would have missed the way that Belle's gaze sharpened upon her.
Jane felt as if her entire existence had been looked upon and evaluated in a singular moment. Like Belle, the small woman in front of her, weighed a scale and measured some invisible value to decide on how to react. It was a miniscule, nigh impossible, shifting of atmosphere that Jane couldn't even be sure was real. That the almost imperceptible half a second delay in how fast Belle usually responded was nothing more than her creating ghosts from the wind, but her gut said there was something. And she'd be damned if she didn't listen to it.
Not that she believed Belle was into anything nefarious. To presume such a thing about a friend was rude. No, she was merely certain that there was more to Belle that met the eye. Some sort of secret that Belle believed to be big enough that warranted caution.
It could be anything. Just because a person believed a secret to be big didn't actually mean it was big in the grand scheme of things. It could be that Belle had a secret third sibling that her brother didn't know about. It could be that Belle hired a proxy in the past and believed such a thing warranted caution to everyone she spoke to. It could even be that Belle had an alter ego where she was actually PubSec's number one enemy, as a legendary proxy herself.
The actual secret itself didn't matter, truthfully, just that Belle had one in which she used to evaluate her interactions with others.
"Of course I am! I'm a movie connoisseur. I take these things very seriously even if I know others would brush it off." Belle responded with her same usual bright tone. Not a single thing was out of place.
Or, alternatively, Jane was simply being a bit paranoid. Everyone had secrets, but not everyone had to have an identity changing one. Perhaps she had been working too much on her latest case. She'd have to ask for some time off when it was over. Especially since Belle had a good way of creating a story as she explained things. It was one of her gifts, amongst many others. She'd hate to miss more of it because she was stuck thinking about work.
Her job could wait. She was out at dinner with a cute nerdy movie enthusiast. Everything else came second.