CASSIDY MARSH + GENESIS GERMAN
frenemies talking shit, then talking shop
early August, right after the Sycamore case | St. Thomas library basement aka MOL HQ | PG13
Working with the Men of Letters wasn’t exactly a significantly taxing experience; it was busy, yes, filling hours that most people would have free, especially during the summer break from college. But it wasn’t like it took a strain on her to do the work.
Which wasn’t always ideal, not when Gigi wanted to burn off some excess energy.
She’d been a little more short and brash lately, and she knew why, but she didn’t exactly want to deal with it, instead deciding to work through the simmering anger with some training and working out.
The Men of Letters weren’t the Templars, it wasn’t like she’d be dropping out of planes to go through remote areas to find lost Biblical artefacts, or swimming below sea level to look for the lost library of Alexandria. But there were still certain expectations and possibilities which meant being in shape and knowing how to defend yourself.
At the college, the MoL training area, hidden under the college through numerous corridors and doors.
She’d pulled her hair up into a high ponytail, changed into some work out gear and proceeded to kick the bejesus out of the punching bag in the training area, getting as much of the pent up feelings out less she simmer for longer and potentially have an episode.
Her playlist started to cycle again, and Gigi hit pause, unstrapping her gloves and moving back towards the study area to grab some water and take a break. She could probably focus long enough to get through a few more pages of her thesis.
As distracted as he had been lately, what with having come clean to Kitty and having spent a good portion of his free time with Austin exploring gem mines - he hadn’t seen his MOL co-trainee much. But when he did she was a force to be reckoned with. Genesis was a spitfire in general, and their friendship could best be described more as frenemies due to their competitive natures… But he’d be lying if he said he didn’t notice that it’d been worse as of recent.
He had had every intention of working on putting together an actual profile on the cryptid clues that he and Austin had found. However, when he was essentially met with Gigi fresh from the training area, Cassidy stopped like a deer caught in headlights.
“Hey,” he said tentatively before realizing he rightfully had no reason to be walking on eggshells around her. As far as he knew, and he was usually pretty self-aware even for a male, he hadn’t said or done anything to warrant her wraith. “Hitting the ole punching bag pretty good, huh there Slugger?” Cass said, making a mimed motion of punching the air.
Taking a long drain of water, aware suddenly how badly she needed to hydrate and how sore her muscles already were, Gigi just sighed at Cassidy. She mostly enjoyed their battle of wits, verbally sparring with him was something that just came naturally, even if most of the time they were lightly teasing each other, it was fairly standard. “Do you wanna stand in for it?”
It wasn’t said with any real heat, since it wasn’t like Cassidy was to blame for her mood -she was probably biting off everyone’s head lately. Which obviously wasn’t fair. Gulping down some more water, she tried to at least shake off the mood.
“What’re you up to? Wanna write my thesis for me? I’ll go take a nap somewhere?” The wraps and gloves were all set aside, Gigi wiping her neck and shoulders before grabbing her zipper to wear while she cooled down. No more punching things right now.
Cassidy expected a good verbal lashing from Genesis. It was kind of their thing. But in terms of sarcastic comebacks, hers was a little weak this time. With a faint grin he shrugged it off. “Depends on how hard you can hit with those manicured nails of yours,” he retorted, letting his book fall haphazardly onto the table in front of him.
The fiery redhead asking him what he was up to was what caused his head to practically spin round like the Regan MacNeil’s in the Exorcist. Genesis - showing actual interest in what he was doing and not just assuming he was looking at porn or playing video games or otherwise goofing off? Weird.
“You wouldn’t even lend me a pen before an exam last semester and now you’re asking me to write your thesis?” Cassidy pointed out with as much shock as he had confusion for the matter.
There was a reason that Gigi never let her nails get long and talon like, not like Vee did, and it was mostly because she’d stab herself or take too long to figure out how to work with them, but it had a little to do with sparring and punching too -hard to curl your fist when your nails could impale your own palm. “Hard enough.”
It wasn’t up to her usual standards, that was true, but it wasn’t like she was on her A game anyway.
“My pens are expensive and you chew them, there’s no way I’m giving you anything I wouldn’t just let you keep. And I wouldn’t let you keep a number two pencil.” Slightly better form, that was true. “Besides, I don’t have to give you a pen for you to type, do I?” It was probably a little more clear that she was swinging from bored, angry and disinterested at odd rates and never really for much reason.
Taking her emotions out on other people had always been a problem, but Gigi never really sought to correct it anyway.
And he didn’t doubt her ability to land a punch. He had witnessed her working out on more than one occasion and, well, it was enough to make him never want to be on the receiving end of her swings. Not that he was alright with being on the receiving end of anyone’s rage, anyway.
Cassidy flashed her another little grin; “Touché.” He usually had his laptop on him, but the occasional note or thought simply needed to be scribbled down. Still, he found his thoughts focused more on how she was delivering her quips. They were falling flat, all things considered.
“Alright, what’s up with you today?” he asked, expecting an answer without having to really pry given their work relationship. And the fact that they generally were comfortable enough with each other to constantly take jabs at the others expense, but then remain civil.
Genesis understood scribbling notes, but most of the time, especially for class, it was quicker to type some notes, even with the random typos in the words, and go back and fix them later. Not to mention sometimes they didn’t even need to take notes and their time could be spent working on more interesting stuff without people realising.
When he asked what was wrong, genuinely what was wrong, Genesis toyed with telling him to mind his own business. Except it wasn’t like she didn’t tell him trivial stuff anyway. For all that she and Cassidy snarked at each other it was a comedic kind of thing. She liked that he was intelligent, that she could challenge him, and he would come right back with something, that he didn’t just assume she was some airhead.
“It’s just…” Hormones? Probably, but then it wasn’t like it was silly to be upset about things. She knew the moment she let Velina know someone was going to be hunted down and stabbed. And honestly, she was fine with that. “That guy I went out with? The possible serial killer? Just a run-of-the-mill asshole instead.”
Ah, the Russian guy that Cass had purposely forgotten the name of. “I’m sorry, Gen,” he said after a brief pause. There had been conflicting feelings there about the whole date thing from the start - Cas wouldn’t dare say ‘I told you so’ in this instance, though.
He remained standing, though he wasn’t entirely sure as to why at the moment, his fingers tapping lightly on the table top. “Want me to ruin his life?” Cassidy offered, completely serious. “I know a girl at the diner who knows her way around a computer…” He knew of the girl at the diner. Had never asked for anything before but well, he wasn’t opposed to it for Genesis.
Sitting herself at the table with a sigh, Genesis propped one elbow on the table to rest her chin on her hand, drumming her short, trimmed, manicured nails against the wood, “I’m not even sure he’s worth that effort.”
It was odd, honestly, despite the fact that she’d been fairly into him, in more than just a basic attraction kind of way, she hadn’t exactly ever really been so forward with people -and really, aside from his attractiveness it wasn’t like they had a lot in common. So, her base urges were clearly what had been at play in the whole thing, and he got what he wanted, she had fun.
Her pride was the most wounded, really.
Besides, Cassidy’s contact might need more than a first name and dick size to go on. “I just have to get the stupidity out of my system and until I sit down with Velina and curse his heritage, I’m wallowing.” Which was attractive. “Seriously though, what’re you up to?”
Oof. Nothing said asshole-guy like a woman just not wanting to get revenge of some sort. Like the revenge would just be turned into some kind of shallow self-praise. Honestly, the guy was lucky all things considered. Not because Genesis didn’t let Cassidy do his thing - but because she wasn’t hellbent on totally demolishing the man’s reputation. Cas had never witnessed it for himself but he could easily picture it all. And, well, as long as he wasn’t on the receiving end of it? It was glorious.
And the fact that Gen had Velina? Even better. Velina was.. Intimidating. But in a good way? Out of his league by a few lightyears kind of way.
Cassidy took a seat on the table top nearby, facing the redhead so they could keep talking without it being awkward.. “Attempting research,” he answered, doing a little Vana White motion toward his books and laptop. If she wanted the subject changed he was more than willing to follow her lead. “My buddy Austin and I found a bunch of weird stuff in the gem mines when the Sycamore case was active,” he explained, grabbing his laptop and starting it up to get to some pictures of the claw marks, the carcasses and bones.
“I was going to try and put a profile together for a new cryptid, possibly,” Cassidy said as he set the laptop on the table in front of her so she could see. “Want to help?”
Normally it would be a bigger deal, if she’d put more of herself out there, connected with him better. If that’d happened she would’ve burned his life to the ground and left a smouldering pile of shit where his reputation had been. As it was, they’d had a brief fling that she’d thought maybe could’ve been something else. After shit talking him with Velina she’d likely be past it, consider him nothing more than a good night between the sheets and find something worthwhile elsewhere.
The Sycamore case was an interesting one, especially since they didn’t actually have a confirmed cause of death as far as Genesis knew. “Sure,” research would at least keep her mind busy, and all things told she did enjoy working with Cassidy on research. They had the similar determination to find out the truth, even if Cassidy had far more interest in conspiracy theories than Genesis did.
“Did you manage to get any of the coroners reports on the autopsy?” She knew he’d been found in the mines, knew that he’d been looking through a few of them and that there’d been some kind of animal attack attached to his death if not causing it. The notion of there being a new cryptid species in Seven Devils was definitely enough to put her relationship woes aside and dive into the books.
When she agreed he smiled gently, pleased that she’d at least humor him a little for an hour or so. And, if nothing else, if she needed to pick apart his organization and research? Well he wasn’t exactly going to give her too much attitude in return.
“I haven’t,” he replied, casting a glance over at her. “I’m not sure they’ve released them yet and my hacking abilities are severely lacking,” Cass said, wiggling his fingers in her direction to mime the act of typing.
“Besides, I can’t imagine it’s not covered up,” he added, reaching up to run his hand through his already tousled hair. “If anything putting together a rough cryptid profile could help us dissect the autopsy report and see what information could be skewed?” And, Cassidy did something he often didn’t do - which was look to Genesis for her approval and opinion.
There were times when Cassidy went off on his conspiracy rants that Genesis just zoned out of entirely. Some of the time it wasn’t worth really paying too much attention because they delved into aliens and what not and Gen just wasn’t interested in those black holes.
Every now and then she could indulge in the cryptid hunter thing. After all, they all had to be discovered at some point.
“I’m mostly surprised neither you nor your little friend have tried breaking in to get a copy off the coroners' computer.” Although it could be edited down, there’d likely need to be initial findings and pictures, which could help with any gaps in the information.
“You’ll also need to know where he was exactly and what the wildlife around there is, to rule out the basics of coyotes, wolves or raccoons.” Being in a dense forest, in a damp mine, in a dark cavern, it wasn’t just cryptids that made their homes there. “The sheriff report would likely be a good place to get information too, they’d need to document what was in the area to see if it could’ve been a person.”
Of course, getting into the station would be harder than the hospital. “Would your hacker friend who could’ve destroyed my erstwhile lovers reputation be able to do something about that?”
“Little friend?” he countered. “Austin is not a little friend, he is a this-tall-ish, friend,” Cassidy insisted, holding his hand out in the air at roughly the height of Austin. And while it was the only quip he gave her -- he actually listened to the rest she had to say.
“I’m not too keen on committing a federal crime this week,” Cas shrugged nonchalantly. “Although I do know someone who would.” The girl at the diner, purely rumor, of course, but it was worth asking. He had some chump change he could fork over for it if needed. Getting into the local police network would be arguably a lot easier. Still highly frowned upon in legal terms, but something he and Austin could probably do in a weekend.
Cassidy cracked a small grin and looked at Gen again. “Also are you trying to hint at some cyber meddling for your Russian ex-lover?”
Gigi didn’t know a lot about Cassidy’s partner in crime -she listened to their podcast sometimes, because honestly, it wasn’t like she didn’t enjoy rolling her eyes at Cassidy’s theories and poking at him lightly over it. She enjoyed when he got worked up and argued with her, one of the few people who could actually argue with her without it descending into pettiness.
And to do that she needed to have a vague understanding at least about what he was talking about. Not that she’d ever let him know that.
“If she can break into the police system to get the report, maybe it’d be worth fucking him over at least a little.” At the very least she could get out a bit of her own mild petty revenge too. “Okay, lets see how many laws we actually need to break this week, hmm?” Not that she needed to, but it was a distraction. And Cassidy offered it for her, why not just go with it.