Things Belloq likes

[archeologue]

Who: Belloq and OPEN (Spam or prose welcome)
What: Three starters. Belloq artifacts and wine.
When: Today. Morning, afternoon, and evening respectively.
Where: The Museum, the Ruins, and Pugsy's
Notes & Warnings: None. Will change if necessary.

Comments

[archeologue]

Come in.

[Belloq calls out without looking up from his survey maps. He's an archaeologist; searching for promising places to excavate is part of his job. He doesn't need to hide it. His ends may be illegal, but the means are perfectly above board.]

[ratkicker]

[Jade unassumingly opened the door and quietly walked in. Belloq was busy at his desk, but she headed over there anyway.]

Hey, just wanted to meet up with you before we went on a mission together. [She stopped right in front of his desk and crossed her arms, finding a relaxed standing pose.] You working on something right now?

[archeologue]

[He looks up when she approaches his desk and pushes the maps aside.]

Nothing that cannot be interrupted. Have a seat. [He gestures politely to a chair on the other side of his desk.]

Tell me a little about your background, if you please. I'm always interested in the people I'll be working with.

[And interested in how much he can trust them and with what.]

[ratkicker]

[Jade grabs the back of the chair, slides it closer, and sits down.]

So, back home, I'm a freelance photographer. The last big thing I worked on was documenting all the wildlife; the rarer the animal, the more credits I got. [She leans back.] It's been a lot of crawling into small places and finding hidden passages for me. Abandoned ruins won't be that different to me.

[It's probably not a good idea to go around telling strangers that she had just finished a mission for a rebel group that involved breaking into military complexes and photographing government secrets while sneaking past guards.

That might put her in danger.]

[archeologue]

Excellent. Then you don't mind getting a bit dirty.

What you'll be doing on site is photographing the artifacts before they've been removed from their place of discovery. It's a documentation both of precisely where they were found, in case of error in the written records, and a visual inventory to catch out any thefts. If we have a photograph of an artifact and the museum does not possess said artifact, then we know to contact security and have an accurate image of what was stolen.

[And conversely, if he can smuggle things out of the dig site without a picture being taken of it, it will be as if it had never existed. No one will suspect any thefts and Belloq can say that he takes exacting security precautions.]

[ratkicker]

[She takes mental note of what is expected of her at this job. It looks pretty reasonable for a research group to take careful documentation of everything they find, only this time, her subjects will be completely still.]

Sounds alright. When do I start?

[archeologue]

You can start tomorrow, if that's not too soon for you. I have a dig site at the local ruins; you can't miss it.

What are your rates? I must warn you that we can't afford to pay very much. With the quarantine in place, funding for scientific discovery isn't what it used to be.

[ratkicker]

[She thinks over it for a few moments. It probably won't be as expensive as her rates for photographing moving subjects, but Belloq looks like someone who can afford to spend a little bit extra for quality.]

I'd start with two hundred emeralds for most artifacts, if they're complete enough. For the ones that are broken or kind of big, I'll have to charge a bit more to make sure it's properly documented.

[archeologue]

Agreed.

[He nods and holds out a hand to shake to seal the deal.]

And who knows? After we know each other a little better, I may find further work for you as well. Not so official as this, more...odds and ends.

[ratkicker]

[Jade accepts and shakes.]

I think I'll see how this works out first. But doing other things sounds like fun. [And it means more money for her.]