"There he is! Guy on the left in the purple shirt!" Glitch exclaimed, though not physically appearing, seemingly having decided that would sufficiently fulfill their agreement.
"How do you even know that?" Nessa mumbled under her breath as she walked through the doors.
"Simple. The second we got within five feet of the building, I was able to access the computer system with the employee database, he IS in there under a pseudonym, BUT I was able to trace back where all the information came from AS WELL AS pull up security footage from when he first came in AND ALSO how long he's been here today!"
"Hm." Slightly impressive, even if mildly concerning how he was able to find that so quickly.
"Also, when he was turned towards us earlier, I could see his name tag. THAT helped slightly! Not to mention the fact that that's one in the faces pre-installed in my software," Glitch added.
"Ah," Nessa muttered. That made more sense.
Now, how to handle the situation? Maybe just walking up and asking Michael why he was working here in the first place, perhaps give vague warnings that he should leave. Couldn't go that badly, right? Worth giving it a shot, and what better way to do it than diving in head-first with barely any plan. At this point it was more of a 'what did she have to lose' situation anyway.
"Are you just going to STAND there? Staring? Here you were the one calling me a WEIRD CREATURE! Wow. Just wow," Glitch interrupted her train of thought bitterly.
"You are weird, I stopped calling you that, get over it, and be quiet so I can actually have a conversation without looking like a madwoman, as per our earlier agreement," Nessa muttered in reply.
To her surprise, Glitch didn't respond. Thank goodness for that. She walked over to Michael. "So, you're the new employee..." Nessa glanced at his name tag. "Mike Schmidt?" With any luck he wouldn't recognize her.
Michael looked quite shocked that someone was speaking to him at all. He stared at her for a moment until she could practically see a lightbulb appear over his head. "Nessa? Vanessa? Whatever your name is? What are you doing here?"
Okay, so he did recognize her. That's fine, she could work with that. "Nessa is fine. I'm supposed to be checking on Ballora. What are you doing here?"
"I'm surprised you don't already know." Was that bitterness? Nessa honestly couldn't tell.
"I don't technically work here. It's... it's complicated. But why would you want to work here?" she asked, squashing the irritation that threatened to come through her tone.
"Also complicated. Why are you here if you don't work here?" Michael asked, very obviously suspicious at this point.
"Like I said, complicated. But I'm pretty sure you have less reason to be here than I do."
"I'm pretty sure I have more reason, actually. I'll consider explaining my complicated reason if you explain yours." Michael crossed his arms and glared.
"It's a long story and you probably wouldn't believe me," Nessa insisted.
"Oh yeah? Try me," he said, almost smugly.
"Now you're just being petty," she grumbled.
"Guess if this conversation isn't going anywhere, I should get going! I'll be starting my shift a bit early, but nothing wrong with that, right?" Michael was definitely rather smug at this point. which was incredibly annoying, especially since he had the upper hand.
"William asked me to check on Ballora, okay? Said she was acting weird," Nessa admitted before he had the chance to walk off.
"That doesn't sound long and complicated. Just sounds like you're still under his thumb and he holds surprisingly little grudge against you. Given that you stabbed his arm. Isn't he in jail?"
