Mechanical Mantis

It's really obvious to be honest

 Posy woke up with a strange feeling of oncoming dread in the pit of her stomach. She got up and dressed, put her bob-length fluffy red-blonde-brown hair back and made her way down the stairs. Before she even got to the bottom of the staircase, the bell on the door chimed, a customer? Of course she knew the store opened quite early in the morning but none of her customers ever came in this early. She usually had a couple of hours to get ready for the day and work on ongoing projects. She stepped off the last stair and turned toward the doorway. A small smirk appeared on her face as she saw who was standing silently at the entrance of the store, her dirty blonde hair up in a tight bun atop her head.

"What on earth could persuade the almighty general, to visit me, a lowly civilian?" She wondered innocently in a sarcastic tone.

The general stood, surprised for a moment. She turned away, hiding her face. "I have come for a case. A murder and a possible theft, to be specific. Robert Shirly, an avid collector of expensive watches. We need you to confirm the authenticity of the watches left at the scene."

"Wondering why they would leave them there, I suppose. It makes sense for them to have replaced them with fakes. Good work Icy, I'm glad you thought of me." Posy winked and laughed as the general's eyes widened for a moment as she turned her light pink face to the side. "The watches?" The general seemed confused for a moment. "So that I can authenticate?" She smiled as the general quickly took a watch out of her pocket, frantically handing it to Posy who was now sitting at her work desk.

Posy put on her one of a kind "magnifying monocle", also used by her grandfather when she was little. She examined the watch carefully, being sure to take a little longer than she needed to, to relish in the general's glow of embarrassment. She decided, after a little bit of basking in the general's aura of discomfort that she would finally break the silence laying thick in the air.

"It's a fake, it's really obvious to be honest. A respectable counterfeiter would not sell this to a client unless they wanted it to look fake. It barely even tells the time." She said flatly, noticing that the general had calmed down since her last show of emotion. Posy decided she would have to step it up if she wanted to get the general to show emotion like a normal human. Posy took the general's robot-like demeanor as a challenge.

"Well why did it take you so long to come to that conclusion?" The general questioned through squinted eyes, hoping to throw Posy off, she didn't like Posy's odd attitude toward her. Or at least, she wouldn't admit it.

"I wanted to relish that look on your frozen face." She responded, smirking as she looked up at the general with her signature smug expression one her freckled face. The general's eyes went wide for a moment but she quickly cleared her throat, at this point, she had her guard up against Posy's attacks, although this one was particularly strong. She was stepping up her game. Posy decided she would really have to get her head in the game if she wanted to get this frozen tortoise out of her iron shell and out into the sunlight.

"Anyway, do you have any idea of who did it? Who took the watches? Who made the fakes?" The general demanded with her usual emotionless expression still on her face. She stood, holding her hands behind her back, her feet straight in front of her as always.

"Nah, don't know who stole the watches, although I only know one counterfeiter who would try to pull off something this risky. As for the stolen watches and the murder, you should look for someone who just obtained a bunch. Maybe look in some of those sketchy shops in the grubier, more rural areas. You do know where that is? Yes?" She stood up and looked innocently into the general's crystal blue eyes. As Posy was so much shorter than the general, she had an upward angled view at the general's flustered face. They were very close at this point, courtesy of Posy. Posy had two main strategies going into this, smug and confident and cute, innocent, and curious. She was very curious as to which would make the general react the most, this was becoming very interested in this little game.

After taking a step back and readjusting herself, the general cleared her throat and began to speak. "Unfortunately I do not. Know where that is, I mean. I'm not one to go for leisurely walks, believe it or not. Although, I am certain that if I did, they would not appreciate it."

"Wow, well I can take you if you'd like! I know the whole city like the back of my hand and I know the back of my hand pretty damn well." Posy was honestly pretty excited to continue this little game of her's. She had decided to stick with the cute strategy for this conversation.

"Alright then, I guess it's settled. We'll head down and look around in two days at 12:00 hours, meet here." The general stated as she turned to walk out of the shop.

"What makes you think I'm fine with that? What if I have plans? The shop isn't open then, but I could still be going somewhere. Do you mind running this by me before you just up and decide?" Posy crossed her arms and looked up at the general crossly. The general still found it very cute, Posy could tell by the way she glanced away. Posy was being serious though! "Hmph!" She exclaimed, genuinely annoyed at this point.

"Ok! Well, do you? Have anything going on, I mean." The general's head was still facing to the side, a blush brightening her usually pale face.

"No..." Posy responded, embarrassed by the whole situation. "We can leave when you said..." She turned and started heading back to her desk. She smiled slightly as she sat down. She heard the bell chime as the general walked out the door. They both felt a certain warmth in their stomachs as they both left eachother to go on with their days.