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Topic 25: Pet Peeve (Ficlet)
Jun. 12th, 2006 06:12 pmWhat is your biggest pet peeve?
The CIA and its various counterparts in other nations shared, among other things, a tendency to recruit more conservative people with traditionalist leanings than youthful rebels, which usually translated into discipline in the office, if occasionally a lamentable lack of initiative and imagination. Most people would assume that your basic terrorist organisation, on the other hand, mainly went for the rebels, but that was true only for a minority and only in the very early stages. Usually, the majority of players were traditionalists as well. They never saw a reason to abandon the old-fashioned idea that power should be shared by as few people as possible, they soon impose firm structures, and they expected unquestioning obedience to the given goal of the organization in question.
There was, however, one pointed difference, which might explain why Arvin Sloane, when leaving the CIA and joining the newly formed Alliance, proposed to lead his own cell by disguising it as a black ops division of the CIA and fooling the majority of employees into believing it was just that instead of going the more simple road of just hiring the most enthusiastic and skillful cutthroats around. Despite an adolescence spent during the 60s which might or might not have included declaring George Harrison to be his favourite Beatle and a trip to Woodstock, Arvin Sloane liked formality in the office. It made for a clear hierarchy, it served as a useful intimidation tool when necessary, it allowed him to create the impression of intimacy when he needed to by offering a very selected few to dispense with it, and he was simply more comfortable with it. Terrorists, mercenaries and independent entrepeneurs all shared a tendency to assume that they were on immediate first name basis with someone just because of a shared killing score. He would never have admitted it, but it annoyed him. Being called Arvin by Jack Bristow or Irina Derevko was an acknowledgment of the tangled web that tied them together, and he enjoyed it. Being called Arvin by anyone else, on the other hand, be it young Mr. Sark, various Alliance members who showed up in Los Angeles when they weren't invited or later pesky members of the Covenant... that was simply impertinent, and irritating to boot.
When the CIA offered him his second pardon agreement and his very own black ops division to boot, he was appreciative for that factor as well as for many others. True, basically everyone in the office who knew who he was distrusted him, but that very fact prevented unwanted chumminess, and new personnel did not dare due to the earlier mentioned traditionalism. After nearly half a year uninterrupted by being annoyed that way, fate struck again, in the form of the relentlessly cheerful Eric Weiss. Being invited into Sloane's home to amuse Nadia at her birthday, he fulfilled his purpose well enough until, as it did with all good intentions, his ran astray.
"So," said Weiss in the middle of a conversation about cars, "what do you think, Arvin?"
The ensuing silence was as universal as in a tomb. No one could accuse Weiss of being slow on the uptake, though, which of course was what made him a good agent to employ, aside from his uses for entertaining Nadia.
"Um," he said. "Mr. Sloane."
Being what Marshall Flinkman once called an evil genius did not save one from having pet peeves; but it did ensure one did not have to suffer through them.
The CIA and its various counterparts in other nations shared, among other things, a tendency to recruit more conservative people with traditionalist leanings than youthful rebels, which usually translated into discipline in the office, if occasionally a lamentable lack of initiative and imagination. Most people would assume that your basic terrorist organisation, on the other hand, mainly went for the rebels, but that was true only for a minority and only in the very early stages. Usually, the majority of players were traditionalists as well. They never saw a reason to abandon the old-fashioned idea that power should be shared by as few people as possible, they soon impose firm structures, and they expected unquestioning obedience to the given goal of the organization in question.
There was, however, one pointed difference, which might explain why Arvin Sloane, when leaving the CIA and joining the newly formed Alliance, proposed to lead his own cell by disguising it as a black ops division of the CIA and fooling the majority of employees into believing it was just that instead of going the more simple road of just hiring the most enthusiastic and skillful cutthroats around. Despite an adolescence spent during the 60s which might or might not have included declaring George Harrison to be his favourite Beatle and a trip to Woodstock, Arvin Sloane liked formality in the office. It made for a clear hierarchy, it served as a useful intimidation tool when necessary, it allowed him to create the impression of intimacy when he needed to by offering a very selected few to dispense with it, and he was simply more comfortable with it. Terrorists, mercenaries and independent entrepeneurs all shared a tendency to assume that they were on immediate first name basis with someone just because of a shared killing score. He would never have admitted it, but it annoyed him. Being called Arvin by Jack Bristow or Irina Derevko was an acknowledgment of the tangled web that tied them together, and he enjoyed it. Being called Arvin by anyone else, on the other hand, be it young Mr. Sark, various Alliance members who showed up in Los Angeles when they weren't invited or later pesky members of the Covenant... that was simply impertinent, and irritating to boot.
When the CIA offered him his second pardon agreement and his very own black ops division to boot, he was appreciative for that factor as well as for many others. True, basically everyone in the office who knew who he was distrusted him, but that very fact prevented unwanted chumminess, and new personnel did not dare due to the earlier mentioned traditionalism. After nearly half a year uninterrupted by being annoyed that way, fate struck again, in the form of the relentlessly cheerful Eric Weiss. Being invited into Sloane's home to amuse Nadia at her birthday, he fulfilled his purpose well enough until, as it did with all good intentions, his ran astray.
"So," said Weiss in the middle of a conversation about cars, "what do you think, Arvin?"
The ensuing silence was as universal as in a tomb. No one could accuse Weiss of being slow on the uptake, though, which of course was what made him a good agent to employ, aside from his uses for entertaining Nadia.
"Um," he said. "Mr. Sloane."
Being what Marshall Flinkman once called an evil genius did not save one from having pet peeves; but it did ensure one did not have to suffer through them.
