The assignment seemed more like a shopping trip to Helen. Every now and again they would very specific instructions about where to be and what to do. They would perform the usually seemingly trivial task and then they would move on to the next one.
The morning briefing hadn't really presented Helen with any opportunity for asking any of the probing and serious questions she had been compiling into a list in her mind all the way through their morning commute. There didn't seem to be anyone suitable senior involved that one would ask such questions of. She was assured that she would get to meet their main boss, this Mr Drewer, later this afternoon. It sounded like he was definitely the man she would have to speak to about the details of this arrangement they had planned for her. He clearly wasn't the one running the whole operation, but she could already pick up on the fact that he was the one who was usually in charge, at least in this specific office. Even before she had met the man she could easily pick up on the fact that he was someone that everyone she had met so far either respected him or feared him, or both.
Tobias had warned her that he was a little creepy. Not in a 'you wouldn't leave your children in his care' kind of way but more in terms of just being unnaturally calm and composed. As well as Tobias could remember no one had ever witnessed Mr Drewer get anything more than slightly irate. Tobias had explained that while you could tell when he was angry, disappointed or had lost patience with you there weren't the usual visible signs you might expect from normal people. Tobias also assured Helen that he knew all this far too well from personal experience. It was rather that you felt Mr Drewer's displeasure more as some strange sense of impending doom rather any kind of a direct threat. Even when you knew he was furious he wasn't in any way you could tell, yet you could still feel that if things were not resolved in a manner that Mr Drewer found acceptable then you were going to regret it. You definitely did not want to be on his bad side.
He didn't sound like the friendliest of characters, which was in stark contrast to most of the staff at FATE incorporated that she had met so far. Everyone seemed to be nice, reasonable and average. As average as immortal beings who claim to be running the fate of the world can be at any rate. Helen was beginning to get used to playing a little game with herself of guessing which time period each person she met originated from. It wasn't as easy as you might think either. Some were seemingly obvious until you learnt that many of the staff apparently took to representing a certain era even if they weren't necessarily from their themselves. There was an infamous guy in accounting who fell in love with the seventies and had worn an ABBA style white jumpsuit every day since sometime in nineteen seventy four. He was actually over two thousand years old and one of the senior employees but had just absolutely embraced everything seventies because he could. People in FATE Inc weren't that judgemental about such things. In fact they seemed to believe firmly in embracing the things that allowed you to be as comfortable as possible in your work.
Mrs Peabody, who had re-appeared to take the first part of their morning briefing, had explained just that to Helen. If there was a device that you were particularly attached to then you would be allowed to continue using it as long as you wanted. That is why you could still see all variety of strange pieces if equipment scattered around the offices. From ancient abacuses through quills and typewriters all the way up to all manner of electronic equipment that seemed to span the entire modern age. Helen wondered how it all kept working and was told that the company had store rooms full of spare parts for just about anything you might possibly need. Apparently it was relatively trivial to make small objects slip through the cracks in time and conveniently appear in the store room. There was in fact an entire department dedicated to just that purpose Mrs Peabody had informed her. It did explain a thing or two about why those odd bits and pieces you could have sworn you had somewhere tended to disappear. There was a lot that she had been told since yesterday morning that started to make quite a bit of sense when you actually thought about it.
The man that had taken over from Mrs Peabody and given them their specific instructions for the training assignment was also perfectly agreeable and pleasant. He was quite young, in appearance anyway, Helen hadn't asked how old he might actually be, and she pegged him as being close to her own age. His name was Carl and Helen thought he might just have been flirting, but she wasn't exactly sure if it was with her or with Tobias. He seemed very forward, lewd almost, certainly not politically correct. It was those little things that hinted at when in time these people might have come from. It wasn't so much how they dressed or how they had their hair because with the odd exception they were generally wearing modern clothes, it was more the things they said or did. Sometimes it was more overt than others, but Helen was starting to get a sense of the all the different types of societies that these people might have come from. Even though they were immortal it seemed that some things stick with you.
The briefing itself was a lot more mundane than she had imagined. Carl took them through a series of tasks that they would be expected to perform, all of them relatively close to the office. They seemed to be fairly average everyday activities. Open a door here, pick an item off a shelf there, delay a little on an escalator and block someone coming down for ten seconds, all very everyday things that have happened of their own accord. She had asked why the tasks were important and both Tobias and Carl smiled. Apparently it was normal for new recruits to want to know why they were being asked to do something whereas the more experienced operatives soon stopped checking. There was a paragraph about the background to each task in the folder that they would get at the end of the briefing Carl had explained. It was completely optional whether you chose to read it. They did both stress that she shouldn't let it effect her judgement though.
It was still something she was probing Tobias about as they made their way to the location where they had to perform their next task.
“So what exactly did you guys mean when you said you shouldn't let the backgrounds effect my judgement?”
“It's like this,” Tobias replied, “not all the actions we are asked to carry out have a necessarily happy result, at least possibly not for someone.”
“What exactly do you mean by not necessarily happy?”
“Well, you know, bad things may happen to people, sometimes as a result of our actions. In the greater good and all that. Ends justifies the means and so on, you know the kind of stuff.”
“and that doesn't bother you?”
“I guess that it did for a while, and for some it always does. That's why not everyone is cut out to be an operative. Moral reservations quite often mean operatives don't feel they can continue. I mean if you know that you did something that directly lead to someone's death do you think you could handle that?”
“In the greater good?”
“Sounds callous doesn't it?” Tobias sighed. “I guess that it is as well, if you dwell on it too much.”
“I think being asked to kill someone is bloody well worth dwelling on.”
“Yes and no,” Tobias shrugged, “you know how many people die every single minute of every day?”
Helen shook her head slowly.
“No? Well, a lot I can tell you, and you know what? You have probably already been responsible for the death of more than one person in your lifetime.”
“I most certainly have not!” Helen snapped back. “How dare you say that!”
“You sure about that?”
“Of course I am bloody sure about that. Don't you think it's the kind of thing that one remembers? I am pretty sure I would remember if I had murdered anyone.”
“Hey, I never said murdered,” Tobias said throwing his hands up in mock surrender, “I said 'been responsible for the death of', there is a difference there.”
“What do you mean by that?” Helen demanded, “I haven't killed, murdered, or been responsible for the death of anyone!”
“How exactly do you know that?”
“You clearly want to explain something to me,” Helen sighed, slightly irritated, “so come on, just come out and tell me how I killed someone.”
“Again, I never said you killed anyone,” Tobias sighed, “at least not on purpose. Look at this way, we explained how all our personal choices are all connected right? A simple decision by any one of us can lead to a chain reaction of events, sometimes close to us, sometimes far removed.”
“So you are saying that I have accidentally killed someone at some stage by doing something completely innocuous?”
“More than likely,” Tobias replied, nodding, “we all have. It's virtually impossible to go through even a normal human lifespan and not have inadvertently caused the death of another person. So we look on it as part of the cycle of fate.”
“What people call the butterfly effect again?”
“Precisely, so it's not worth getting hung about is the point. Given that our random actions still inherently have a chain reaction through people's lives, and can occasionally be chaotic or even fatal, why should we then worry about it if we do it more consciously?”
“because that's the difference an accident, unintentional manslaughter and murder maybe?”
“If you want insist on looking at in a linear fashion then sure.”
“I think if it's premeditated, it is not quite the same as having inadvertently caused something.”
“Maybe,” Tobias conceded, “but it does help to keep it in perspective in our line of work.”
“It isn't my line of work yet.” Helen reminded him, “I haven't said yes yet. This is just a trial assignment remember?”
“True enough, but they think you are operative material. They would have already stuck you behind a desk already if they didn't think you were up for it. So whichever analyst had your file passed over their desk felt that you would make a good operative.”
“How exactly did they come to that conclusion?” It didn't seem to Helen that these people had any grounds at all for the apparent faith they had in her abilities.
“I'm not sure of the entire process to be honest,” Tobias started to explain, “but I do know that they get to pull on all kinds of character information that you wouldn't think possible because they can check through all the possible time-lines that you existed in. Over every possible available time-line that is a lot of potential aptitude tests, psychological assessments and so forth. They get a pretty good insight into your character by all accounts in this day and age.”
“I don't think I have ever spoken to any kind of a psychiatrist or done any damn aptitude tests since I left school,” Helen pointed out, “so I really don't think they could have gotten much there.”
“Maybe this you, the real you, didn't have any of those things. Between all the other version of you, in all the other time-lines, living out all the choices that you didn't make, there is a lot of information for them to gather.”
“Those other versions of me aren't me though are they?” Helen interrupted, “I mean you just said it yourself. They would be a result of all the decisions in life I didn't make, or didn't get to make, so doesn't that make them inherently different people, with different circumstances?”
“Unless you believe in one true soul that is,” Tobias grinned, “guess we didn't really cover that much so far.”
“or at all,” Helen said sceptically, “I am pretty sure that no-one has mentioned my soul yet. So what is this revelation then?”
“Don't be so sarcastic,” sighed Tobias, “I should have mentioned this one before I guess. Like I said yesterday I don't do this whole greeting thing all that often.”
“Ok, I forgive you,” Helen smiled, only slightly mockingly, “now you can make up for it and tell me all about it.”
“Very funny, anyway the theory goes that despite the fact that there are many different decisions made who you are remains consistent in a way. Your circumstances and situation might vary from time-line to time-line and that might indeed change elements of your personality, but at some underlying level there is also a consistency. A set of traits and characteristics that make you who you are, they refer to it as the 'one true soul'.”
“That almost sounds religious.”
“Well, it was a religiously minded guy that coined the phrase I believe,” Tobias replied slightly dismissively, “but that isn't the point here. It's just a phrase really. What matters is that it means the character of your other selfs in the other time-lines can yield valuable insight into your character.”
“Still, that sounds like it's something you believe in rather than something you guys have proven. Hell, it sounds like something that would even be hard to categorically prove even if you wanted to.”
“Maybe, hard for me to give any perspective. I was brought up a catholic and told what to believe from before I could even understand it.”
“You aren't religious any more?”
“Not so much as you would define it now no. It is hard to believe in a divine presence when I help changes things on a daily basis usually. I guess there are still things that I choose to believe in though. Things that I have faith in.”
“Like what?”
“Like human nature,” Tobias smiled, “for good and for bad, and yes, I do believe in the one true soul by and large. I have occasionally peaked at the other versions of me in other time-lines and from what I see there is some real truth to it. After all believing in this being the one true time-line is kind of a cornerstone of what we do. Wouldn't be much point otherwise would there?”
“I suppose not,” Helen nodded, “so you believe in what these reports would have to say about me?”
“Can't really say there. They don't let the likes of me see the origin reports. I had to sleep with three different department secretaries in order to get a quick glimpse at mine when I got curious about it a few decades ago.”
“Why doesn't that surprise me?” Helen smiled, “so what you did see was accurate?”
“Pretty much,” Tobias replied, “kind of the same as you would see. I didn't really have any faith in what they saw in me. I needed to see it for myself. Damn thing was almost too accurate. It was almost scary, like reading a report from a mind reader. There were things in there I hadn't even admitted to myself at that stage!”
“What makes you think I don't have faith in this potential you people keep saying I have?”
Tobias grinned widely, “You really have to ask that? Really? Come on Helen, not only am I am man, I am several hundred years old. Standard female insecurity is something I have had a lot of practise with. When you get several lifetimes to figure it out you get better at it, but I think I would have guessed that about you the first time around.”
“Is that so?” Helen laughed, “So you believe this file about me might be correct? That I might have potential?”
“Whatever is in that file,” Tobias smiled, “won't tell me anything I am not learning for myself anyway. Come on, we have to go and press the button on these traffic lights up ahead.”
Helen recalled that the purpose of the button pressing was to delay a car that was going to approach the crossing in about ninety seconds time. It was important that the driver of that care was delayed exactly forty five seconds so that he would then just miss being involved in an accident later today. While this particular cause seemed noble enough she couldn't help but wonder if a life walking around pressing the buttons on traffic light crossings was something she could aspire to. “Don't these tasks get tedious?” She sighed.
“The basic assignments do for sure,” Tobias confirmed, “but something tells me you won't be stuck doing these types of things for long. I think they have plans for you, all this potential and all.”
Helen was beginning to get decidedly curious about exactly what might be inside this file of hers.
The morning briefing hadn't really presented Helen with any opportunity for asking any of the probing and serious questions she had been compiling into a list in her mind all the way through their morning commute. There didn't seem to be anyone suitable senior involved that one would ask such questions of. She was assured that she would get to meet their main boss, this Mr Drewer, later this afternoon. It sounded like he was definitely the man she would have to speak to about the details of this arrangement they had planned for her. He clearly wasn't the one running the whole operation, but she could already pick up on the fact that he was the one who was usually in charge, at least in this specific office. Even before she had met the man she could easily pick up on the fact that he was someone that everyone she had met so far either respected him or feared him, or both.
Tobias had warned her that he was a little creepy. Not in a 'you wouldn't leave your children in his care' kind of way but more in terms of just being unnaturally calm and composed. As well as Tobias could remember no one had ever witnessed Mr Drewer get anything more than slightly irate. Tobias had explained that while you could tell when he was angry, disappointed or had lost patience with you there weren't the usual visible signs you might expect from normal people. Tobias also assured Helen that he knew all this far too well from personal experience. It was rather that you felt Mr Drewer's displeasure more as some strange sense of impending doom rather any kind of a direct threat. Even when you knew he was furious he wasn't in any way you could tell, yet you could still feel that if things were not resolved in a manner that Mr Drewer found acceptable then you were going to regret it. You definitely did not want to be on his bad side.
He didn't sound like the friendliest of characters, which was in stark contrast to most of the staff at FATE incorporated that she had met so far. Everyone seemed to be nice, reasonable and average. As average as immortal beings who claim to be running the fate of the world can be at any rate. Helen was beginning to get used to playing a little game with herself of guessing which time period each person she met originated from. It wasn't as easy as you might think either. Some were seemingly obvious until you learnt that many of the staff apparently took to representing a certain era even if they weren't necessarily from their themselves. There was an infamous guy in accounting who fell in love with the seventies and had worn an ABBA style white jumpsuit every day since sometime in nineteen seventy four. He was actually over two thousand years old and one of the senior employees but had just absolutely embraced everything seventies because he could. People in FATE Inc weren't that judgemental about such things. In fact they seemed to believe firmly in embracing the things that allowed you to be as comfortable as possible in your work.
Mrs Peabody, who had re-appeared to take the first part of their morning briefing, had explained just that to Helen. If there was a device that you were particularly attached to then you would be allowed to continue using it as long as you wanted. That is why you could still see all variety of strange pieces if equipment scattered around the offices. From ancient abacuses through quills and typewriters all the way up to all manner of electronic equipment that seemed to span the entire modern age. Helen wondered how it all kept working and was told that the company had store rooms full of spare parts for just about anything you might possibly need. Apparently it was relatively trivial to make small objects slip through the cracks in time and conveniently appear in the store room. There was in fact an entire department dedicated to just that purpose Mrs Peabody had informed her. It did explain a thing or two about why those odd bits and pieces you could have sworn you had somewhere tended to disappear. There was a lot that she had been told since yesterday morning that started to make quite a bit of sense when you actually thought about it.
The man that had taken over from Mrs Peabody and given them their specific instructions for the training assignment was also perfectly agreeable and pleasant. He was quite young, in appearance anyway, Helen hadn't asked how old he might actually be, and she pegged him as being close to her own age. His name was Carl and Helen thought he might just have been flirting, but she wasn't exactly sure if it was with her or with Tobias. He seemed very forward, lewd almost, certainly not politically correct. It was those little things that hinted at when in time these people might have come from. It wasn't so much how they dressed or how they had their hair because with the odd exception they were generally wearing modern clothes, it was more the things they said or did. Sometimes it was more overt than others, but Helen was starting to get a sense of the all the different types of societies that these people might have come from. Even though they were immortal it seemed that some things stick with you.
The briefing itself was a lot more mundane than she had imagined. Carl took them through a series of tasks that they would be expected to perform, all of them relatively close to the office. They seemed to be fairly average everyday activities. Open a door here, pick an item off a shelf there, delay a little on an escalator and block someone coming down for ten seconds, all very everyday things that have happened of their own accord. She had asked why the tasks were important and both Tobias and Carl smiled. Apparently it was normal for new recruits to want to know why they were being asked to do something whereas the more experienced operatives soon stopped checking. There was a paragraph about the background to each task in the folder that they would get at the end of the briefing Carl had explained. It was completely optional whether you chose to read it. They did both stress that she shouldn't let it effect her judgement though.
It was still something she was probing Tobias about as they made their way to the location where they had to perform their next task.
“So what exactly did you guys mean when you said you shouldn't let the backgrounds effect my judgement?”
“It's like this,” Tobias replied, “not all the actions we are asked to carry out have a necessarily happy result, at least possibly not for someone.”
“What exactly do you mean by not necessarily happy?”
“Well, you know, bad things may happen to people, sometimes as a result of our actions. In the greater good and all that. Ends justifies the means and so on, you know the kind of stuff.”
“and that doesn't bother you?”
“I guess that it did for a while, and for some it always does. That's why not everyone is cut out to be an operative. Moral reservations quite often mean operatives don't feel they can continue. I mean if you know that you did something that directly lead to someone's death do you think you could handle that?”
“In the greater good?”
“Sounds callous doesn't it?” Tobias sighed. “I guess that it is as well, if you dwell on it too much.”
“I think being asked to kill someone is bloody well worth dwelling on.”
“Yes and no,” Tobias shrugged, “you know how many people die every single minute of every day?”
Helen shook her head slowly.
“No? Well, a lot I can tell you, and you know what? You have probably already been responsible for the death of more than one person in your lifetime.”
“I most certainly have not!” Helen snapped back. “How dare you say that!”
“You sure about that?”
“Of course I am bloody sure about that. Don't you think it's the kind of thing that one remembers? I am pretty sure I would remember if I had murdered anyone.”
“Hey, I never said murdered,” Tobias said throwing his hands up in mock surrender, “I said 'been responsible for the death of', there is a difference there.”
“What do you mean by that?” Helen demanded, “I haven't killed, murdered, or been responsible for the death of anyone!”
“How exactly do you know that?”
“You clearly want to explain something to me,” Helen sighed, slightly irritated, “so come on, just come out and tell me how I killed someone.”
“Again, I never said you killed anyone,” Tobias sighed, “at least not on purpose. Look at this way, we explained how all our personal choices are all connected right? A simple decision by any one of us can lead to a chain reaction of events, sometimes close to us, sometimes far removed.”
“So you are saying that I have accidentally killed someone at some stage by doing something completely innocuous?”
“More than likely,” Tobias replied, nodding, “we all have. It's virtually impossible to go through even a normal human lifespan and not have inadvertently caused the death of another person. So we look on it as part of the cycle of fate.”
“What people call the butterfly effect again?”
“Precisely, so it's not worth getting hung about is the point. Given that our random actions still inherently have a chain reaction through people's lives, and can occasionally be chaotic or even fatal, why should we then worry about it if we do it more consciously?”
“because that's the difference an accident, unintentional manslaughter and murder maybe?”
“If you want insist on looking at in a linear fashion then sure.”
“I think if it's premeditated, it is not quite the same as having inadvertently caused something.”
“Maybe,” Tobias conceded, “but it does help to keep it in perspective in our line of work.”
“It isn't my line of work yet.” Helen reminded him, “I haven't said yes yet. This is just a trial assignment remember?”
“True enough, but they think you are operative material. They would have already stuck you behind a desk already if they didn't think you were up for it. So whichever analyst had your file passed over their desk felt that you would make a good operative.”
“How exactly did they come to that conclusion?” It didn't seem to Helen that these people had any grounds at all for the apparent faith they had in her abilities.
“I'm not sure of the entire process to be honest,” Tobias started to explain, “but I do know that they get to pull on all kinds of character information that you wouldn't think possible because they can check through all the possible time-lines that you existed in. Over every possible available time-line that is a lot of potential aptitude tests, psychological assessments and so forth. They get a pretty good insight into your character by all accounts in this day and age.”
“I don't think I have ever spoken to any kind of a psychiatrist or done any damn aptitude tests since I left school,” Helen pointed out, “so I really don't think they could have gotten much there.”
“Maybe this you, the real you, didn't have any of those things. Between all the other version of you, in all the other time-lines, living out all the choices that you didn't make, there is a lot of information for them to gather.”
“Those other versions of me aren't me though are they?” Helen interrupted, “I mean you just said it yourself. They would be a result of all the decisions in life I didn't make, or didn't get to make, so doesn't that make them inherently different people, with different circumstances?”
“Unless you believe in one true soul that is,” Tobias grinned, “guess we didn't really cover that much so far.”
“or at all,” Helen said sceptically, “I am pretty sure that no-one has mentioned my soul yet. So what is this revelation then?”
“Don't be so sarcastic,” sighed Tobias, “I should have mentioned this one before I guess. Like I said yesterday I don't do this whole greeting thing all that often.”
“Ok, I forgive you,” Helen smiled, only slightly mockingly, “now you can make up for it and tell me all about it.”
“Very funny, anyway the theory goes that despite the fact that there are many different decisions made who you are remains consistent in a way. Your circumstances and situation might vary from time-line to time-line and that might indeed change elements of your personality, but at some underlying level there is also a consistency. A set of traits and characteristics that make you who you are, they refer to it as the 'one true soul'.”
“That almost sounds religious.”
“Well, it was a religiously minded guy that coined the phrase I believe,” Tobias replied slightly dismissively, “but that isn't the point here. It's just a phrase really. What matters is that it means the character of your other selfs in the other time-lines can yield valuable insight into your character.”
“Still, that sounds like it's something you believe in rather than something you guys have proven. Hell, it sounds like something that would even be hard to categorically prove even if you wanted to.”
“Maybe, hard for me to give any perspective. I was brought up a catholic and told what to believe from before I could even understand it.”
“You aren't religious any more?”
“Not so much as you would define it now no. It is hard to believe in a divine presence when I help changes things on a daily basis usually. I guess there are still things that I choose to believe in though. Things that I have faith in.”
“Like what?”
“Like human nature,” Tobias smiled, “for good and for bad, and yes, I do believe in the one true soul by and large. I have occasionally peaked at the other versions of me in other time-lines and from what I see there is some real truth to it. After all believing in this being the one true time-line is kind of a cornerstone of what we do. Wouldn't be much point otherwise would there?”
“I suppose not,” Helen nodded, “so you believe in what these reports would have to say about me?”
“Can't really say there. They don't let the likes of me see the origin reports. I had to sleep with three different department secretaries in order to get a quick glimpse at mine when I got curious about it a few decades ago.”
“Why doesn't that surprise me?” Helen smiled, “so what you did see was accurate?”
“Pretty much,” Tobias replied, “kind of the same as you would see. I didn't really have any faith in what they saw in me. I needed to see it for myself. Damn thing was almost too accurate. It was almost scary, like reading a report from a mind reader. There were things in there I hadn't even admitted to myself at that stage!”
“What makes you think I don't have faith in this potential you people keep saying I have?”
Tobias grinned widely, “You really have to ask that? Really? Come on Helen, not only am I am man, I am several hundred years old. Standard female insecurity is something I have had a lot of practise with. When you get several lifetimes to figure it out you get better at it, but I think I would have guessed that about you the first time around.”
“Is that so?” Helen laughed, “So you believe this file about me might be correct? That I might have potential?”
“Whatever is in that file,” Tobias smiled, “won't tell me anything I am not learning for myself anyway. Come on, we have to go and press the button on these traffic lights up ahead.”
Helen recalled that the purpose of the button pressing was to delay a car that was going to approach the crossing in about ninety seconds time. It was important that the driver of that care was delayed exactly forty five seconds so that he would then just miss being involved in an accident later today. While this particular cause seemed noble enough she couldn't help but wonder if a life walking around pressing the buttons on traffic light crossings was something she could aspire to. “Don't these tasks get tedious?” She sighed.
“The basic assignments do for sure,” Tobias confirmed, “but something tells me you won't be stuck doing these types of things for long. I think they have plans for you, all this potential and all.”
Helen was beginning to get decidedly curious about exactly what might be inside this file of hers.
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