Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

1. Like Zealous-Box on Reddit, I believe she is actually a rather nice boss to work under, although I also see her having the mentality of 'These are my agents to bully and not yours' and as such will not tolerate any outside factors weighing down on them. Debt? She'll subtly pay off the one they owe. An issue with their kids' schooling? Welp, that school is under investigation now. And so on.
2. She has trust issues as a result of having been betrayed many times in the past. It's the reason she is so quick to put a 'Mark' on someone, so if they betray her she can put them down as soon as possible, however, it can also serve as a sign of trust to those who have proven themselves to her.

A way of saying 'I always have your back, so long as you don't double cross me,' as she could use the 'Mark' to find them if need be. Of the few people she trusts, the Chief is the newest to a very small circle and as such is under her watch.

3. The Chief is her 'Little Rookie,' and no one else's. She is their superior and she will not tolerate anyone else trying to poach someone who is hers from her.

If someone tries to give the Chief an order, she will tell the chief to ignore it, before she has a nice 'Talk' with the person who tried to order her rookie. Said talk may involve her cane and their skull becoming intimately familiar with one another.

4. She hates the Old Men who run Dis. She finds them to be both incompetent and Corrupt to the point she has many times fantasized about removing them and playing kingmaker to find suitable replacements for them, but the threat of Pharma and others keeps her from going through with said dreams, afterall it is better the Devil you know then the unknown ones. She is loyal to the city, not the suit-clad rats that run it.
5. She sleeps with her pistol under her pillow. She likewise has one on her nightstand, another strapped under the bed, and many more scattered all across her home. She even has her room at Minos, it is less a cell and more a room because the Chief has accepted they are largely running more of a rehabilitation center/halfway home/apartment complex at this point, outfitted with several guns of varying caliber hidden across it.
6. She treats her stay at Minos like a vacation from her superiors, and can often be found napping with her hat pulled down over her face and her cane over her lap, Lady Maria style, or doing any other number of things to help try and relax from all the stupidity she deals with daily.
7. She encountered Suspect R once, the event left her absolutely terrified of the woman to the point of suffering nightmares of the woman and her power for several months afterward, this being what led to her meeting Chameleon, who came to be her counselor.

To this day she is terrified of meeting the woman again, and fears that should that day come she may not be able to muster the courage to actually face her. What makes it all the more traumatic to her, is that R did not even try to fight her, she simply overwhelmed her by virtue of her sheer presence alone, and this has led to Langley fearing the idea of just what the woman is capable of if she actually tries to fight.

8. Like KhandiMahn on Reddit, I think that she does collect cute things, although I personally feel she collects things such as children story books and fairy tales and has a single stuffed animal that has been with her since childhood, where it was her only real friend, that she has kept well maintained all these years.

She cannot sleep well without her stuffed animal and would more than likely have a panic attack should it be destroyed. The Chief earns brownie points with her when they find it laying around in the washroom and patch it up before she finds them fixing it in their office, Langley almost begging them to give it back to her with the chief doing so and agreeing to not tell anyone else while Langley hold her old friend to her chest.

Needless to say, Langley threatens them to keep quiet despite what they have said and heads off to get some actual sleep, the chief smiling at their superiors' antics as she leaves.

9. She is not a morning person, at all. Her subordinates consider the idea of waking her up early to be the equivalent of walking into the Rust without a weapon and with a neon sign strapped to your chest saying 'Eat Me'. She is in fact barely coherent or aware until she has coffee in her, and is in particular quite fond of Summer's coffee, the one that keeps the Chief up for a whole day in the supervision incident, though it barely affects her.
10. She suffered a leg injury that makes her occasionally have issues with her balance while walking, hence her cane. She added all of the gizmos and gadgets it contains later on, and has recently had Summer update some of them. Among them being a taser-like function that packs as much punch as a cattle prod, an option to remove the handle, which is attached to a small pistol, and a needle filled with adrenaline with a separate one being filled with sedative.
11. She cannot stand spicy food and has a not so secret sweet tooth. In particular, she is quite fond of strawberry or blueberry flavored ice cream but also enjoys coffee flavored versions of the frozen treat as well. She has a separate freezer in her home that is filled with nothing but ice cream. Her subordinates know about it but are wise enough to not say anything because she frankly deserves it given all she has to deal with. 
12. She frequently has migraines and as such carries around a pair of ear plugs, a pair of sunglasses, and a bottle of aspirin, as strong as she can obtain it without going on the blackmarket, and has a special room in her home and cell that is outfitted with complete sound proofing and no windows. 

Her subordinates have come to recognize the signs of one beginning to form, and will work to get her out of whatever situation she is in and either back to her home or to somewhere she can ride out the oncoming pain till it passes. 

The Chief encounters her when one is forming and takes her to their office to rise out the pain with them pulling down blackout curtains and giving her a pillow to rest her head on as they go to leave, only for Langley to stop them and ask them to stay with her during it and until it passes. 

13. She is somewhat touch starved, but she has had bad experiences with physical contact from her childhood and from her struggles throughout her life, and as such is somewhat adverse to it. 

That said, once she feels she can trust someone implicitly, of which there are few, she will typically be the one to initiate contact, typically through light brushes against their shoulders or by threading their fingers together.

If she ever reaches the point of allowing for herself to embrace someone, or allow for them to embrace her, then it becomes readily apparent that she is quite clingy and will allow for just how touch starved she is to become apparent as she tries to maintain contact for as long as possible or initiate it whenever it is possible for her to do so.

It will be worse still if she has nothing to do, and she knows the one she is holding has nothing to do, in which case they had best be prepared for a lengthy stay.

14. She has something of a fascination with spiders, often pausing to admire their webs whenevers she gets the chance, or allowing them to scurry across her hand or nest in the corners of her home, she also has a terrarium filled with various breeds from harmless if annoying Jumping Spiders, to lethal Brown Recluse and Black Widow spiders. 

Curiously, even the most hostile breeds of arachnids seem to be somewhat docile in her presence and also seem to display something akin to obedience to the Silver Spider of Dis, perhaps owing to an unknown attribute of her Sinner Power or for other unknown reason. 

She is particularly proud of having managed to get her hands on, and subsequently raise, a Female Goliath Bird Eater that she has named Spook, it is unknown if the Spider is normal or not, as it has lived for almost 10 years past its life expectancy and has shown remarkable intelligence. 

All of that said, the chief most certainly did not appreciate it when Spook landed on her shoulder while visiting Langley, the ensuing scream could be heard well across the Bureau and most of Dis.

15. Her driving is…let us just say it is something that necessitates boeing both soundly buckled in for, and having made sure that your last will and testament is in order, as Langley tends to pay less attention to speed limits and traffic laws, than she does on getting where she needs to go fast.

There are many reasons her agents trip over themselves to drive her somewhere, and most of them are owed in part to the sheer amount of accidents she has caused over the course of her time behind the wheel. 

16. She has a somewhat odd relationship with Tetra and Bai Yi, as she has hired the 2 to do jobs for her, and by extension the 9th Agency, before and while she has had many complaints about Bai Yi’s antics in the past, she cannot help but admit that the 2 are among her most trusted independent contractors for when she needs something done outside of her own jurisdiction. 

She occasionally provides them aid by subtly having charges against them revoked, or by having them bailed out of sticky situations, though she always expects them to repay her in some way once she has done so. 

17. She has something of a rivalry with Eirene, the two often being found playing chess against one another and speaking, though few of those who have managed to find them during these games are able to understand just what it is they are speaking about. 

This rivalry also manifest as Eirene going out of her way to purchase assets the 9th Agency is interested in, be it structures and companies, or hiring individuals they were interested in recruiting and then using them as leverage to force LAngley to play further games with her both at the negotiating table and at the chess board. 

18. She has a fascination with Crache and has her eye on her as a potential recruit for the 9th, her ability to effectively control shadows and to appear out of nowhere having the potential to make for not only a lethal agent but perhaps also someone that, if taught correctly, could become a greater legend than even herself in the fields of espionage. 

For now though, she is content merely monitoring the girls growth and ensuring she continues to develop along the right paths, occasionally she will provide little tests and challenges for the girls ability as well as subtly raising the education level of her tests to see her strive to grow, but outside of that she is keeping her hands off of her for fear of a certain nurse catching wind of her interest.

She despises needles and someone with a gun that shoots them is as such quite a bother for her to deal with. 

19. She once attempted to deal with Nightingale’s work out of curiosity for just what the adjutant has to deal with on a daily basis, she promptly had a small mental breakdown after the first hour, crashed from an overdose of caffeine near the third, had another mental breakdown near the fourth, and upon seeing just how much was left gave up and fled to her cell.

She has since made it clear that no one is to speak ill of the Adjutant, be they Sinner or Agent from the 9th or otherwise, any person who can handle that much bullshit and not lose their minds deserves not only the highest of praise, but also whatever the hell else they want or need, whenever they want or need it. 

20. She has a personal stamp made in the image of a widow like spider with a hypercube on its thorax that she uses to stamp all of her documents with, she once attempted to add a webbing design to it…it did not work like she thought it would and resembled more solid circle of ink than anything else and so she tossed the web and went back to the simpler spider design.
21. Her main gun is called the “Silver widow”, she has several spares with similar names, from a sniper rifle called the “Black Widow”, to a shotgun called the “Brown Recluse”, she has likewise had each of the weapons inscribed with the design of the spider they are named after, her main gun bearing the only custom emblem out of the lot with it being her own spider symbol, a widow like spider with a hypercube in place of an hourglass on the thorax. 
22. She shares a feeling of fond exasperation for the Chief and her usual aids, Hella and Hecate, as while they do get results, their methods tend to be…rather unique and occasionally very entertaining to watch and or hear about, but she is also somewhat wary of the most unlikely of the two Sinners for her own reason. 

She sees the Chief as something of a protege, though it could also be argued she seems to have a borderline romantic interest in them, or perhaps it is the growing bond between them simply showing just how lonely she truly is behind the mask of the leader of the 9th.

Regardless she tends to go out of her way to keep an eye on the eccentric Chief of Minos, occasionally going out of her way to aid them from the shadows or protect them from the various elements of Dis that just seem incapable of grasping just under whose protection they are.

As for Hecate, she finds the quiet and artistic girl to be somewhat pleasant to be around, always silent unless she is spoken to or needs to speak and always sketching she is one of the very few to have encountered Langley while she was having a migraine and not earned a bullet between the eyes as she closed the curtains of the room they were in and gave her a pillow to put her head on. 

When she asked why she helped her, Hecate merely looked at her and tilted her head before saying; “You have been kind to the Chief, and the Chief says I should help people if they are in pain, and you looked like you were in pain. Is that not a good enough reason?”

Langley will deny to her dying breath that she gave the young woman a head pat after she said that, and Hecate herself will be strangely quiet on the subject, though there will be a faint glimmer in her eyes at the memory. 

Since then, she has had something of a soft spot for the young woman, typically it is one shown by making sure she is alright upon returning from a mission or by encouraging her to grow beyond her current state of being, typically by arranging tests for her or challenging her to chess, she can proudly say the young woman is showing progress in her growing education.

As for Hella, one would expect her to despise the feral gremlin of Syndicate, what with her foul tongue, disrespect for authorities, and penchant for causing trouble wherever she goes, but in truth she finds her to be quite entertaining as all it takes to cause a spectacle is to say the right words to wind her up and then point her at something as she watches the fireworks. 

She also harbors a grudging respect for the young girl, as at one point she found herself confronted by Hella in one of the many hallways of Minos, the Syndican casually leaning against a wall as Ninety-Nine leaned against the wall across from her.

She had been intrigued from the moment she saw the oddly calm and composed look in the little gremlin’s eyes as she pushed herself off the wall and walked towards her, stopping in front of her and looking up just enough to meet her eyes as she spoke up in an oddly calm voice.

What followed was something she did not expect, the little B-Rank Sinner meeting the eyes of the Spider of Paradiso, an S-Rank Sinner with a kill count in the hundreds if not thousands, and telling her that she didn’t trust her, nor did she like her authority over the Chief, but she would tolerate them.

But if she betrayed the Chief, if she betrayed them or hurt them in anyway…well Ninety-Nine’s fist striking the hypercube reinforced wall with enough force to cause cracks to spider web across the wall and dust to fall to the ground as she pulled her mutated hand out of the pit she had born through it with one strike finished her sentence. 

The display was met with her aiming her pistol at the younger Syndican fast enough neither could blink before the cold metal was aimed at her forehead, the taller Syndican snarling as her eyes began to burn crimson as her power began to surge, only for Hella to do something that caught them both off guard.

She laughed.

She looked Langley dead in the eye, and she laughed as she lifted up her hand and pulled the gun flush against her forehead, the cold steel meeting her skin in a frigid kiss as she unblinkingly met Langley’s gaze.

“Go ahead, pull the trigger you eight legged Eastside bitch. We both know you don’t have enough bullets or strength to keep me from coming back before you can put Ninety-Nine down, and how long do you think that fancy cane will keep us back huh? Think a taser and a few knives and a little pea shooter are going to stop us for more than what? A few minutes? An hour? Doesn’t fucking matter, eventually one of us will break it, then what? How long will you last with that bad leg of yours? I give you about 10 minutes before one of us breaks it again, and this time you won’t have anyone to save you. So go ahead cow, put one between my eyes, I. Fucking. Dare. You.”

As Hella spoke she had reached her hand up to grip Langley’s wrist and begin to rest her smaller, yet more heavily calloused hand, over hers and begin to push down on the trigger finger after she thumbed the hammer back, never once breaking her gaze as she and Langley kept meeting each others eyes. 

Langley could feel Ninety-Nine’s gaze on her as she moved closer to her sun’s side, her posture telling Langley that the moment she squeezed the trigger, she would be fighting the brute up close and personal and she doubted even a round from her gun would stop her.

And so, she pulled her gun back and gave an amused chuckle to the young woman and her hulking companion. 

She looked down into Hella’s eyes and offered her a simple nod of understanding as she holstered her gun and began to walk away, the pair letting her pass with their peace said, though she soon stopped to call over her shoulder to them.

“I’ve known some of the best FAC soldiers and Agents in my life, and none of them have even half the guts you do brat, I look forward to seeing how you’ll turn out, little girl from Syndicate.”

Since then she has kept a close eye on the little gremlin, all the while wondering just what is truly going on in the head of the little B-Rank that had the guts to stare her down like that, because now that she has seen a glimpse of what lays behind the facade of a brat, she can’t help but wonder just what kind of beast stands beside the Chief. 

23. She is bi-sexual, but prefers either females or feminine or effeminate looking males, she is also one to very much wear the pants in any relationship, though she will have her softer moments, especially after a long day of dealing with the bullshit she deals with and her leg beginning to ache on her.

All she will want after visiting her partner afterwards, is to have her leg massaged while she closes her eyes and gets some sleep as she dreams of the day when she finally snaps and sets her paperwork on fire. 

24. She can be quite protective of those she has grown close to, and even more so in regards to those she considers friends or potential partners. Expect the Spider’s web to be thoroughly wrapped around these individuals as she maintains near constant surveillance of them and those around them.

Any fool going after them will have not only the Spider herself after them, but all of the 9th gunning for them as well, because their boss has earned those few treasured individuals after all the shit she has been through and anyone that tries to take those that make her happy from her, had best start digging their grave, cause whatever gods they worship have washed their hands of them. 

And that is about all for the Headcanon we have for the silver Spider of Paradiso at the moment, we may come up with some more in the future but for now this is where we will be ending this little chapter of this mess, we hope to see some of your own headcanons in the comments below.

Also, we feel we should apologize if this formatting is something of a mess, this damn thing did not want to make it easy to be copied into the work text and refused any of our attempts to make it look neater, we apologize if it is rather unsightly as a result, we are wodnering if anyone has any ideas on how we can avoid this happening in the future. 

Till next time, take care and stay safe everyone.

P.S. Our next post should be the next chapter of our Genshin fic, though we cannot say how long off that is from now, see you then.

Chapter Text

1. He had no idea what a Wolverine actually was until the Chief showed him one…he then proceeded to attempt to get one as a pet only to be denied every time, though it did not stop him from trying.

2. He is allowed to leave the Bureau to hunt by the Chief as a means of not only helping add some variety to the kitchen’s stocks but as a means of preventing him from becoming too antsy as a result of being cooped up for so long.

He is of course always being monitored by a multitude of means, though he always comes back, sometimes with some rather…exotic goods, such as a Sand Worm that he had to drag on a small sled and a scorpion he found that was the size of his torso.
Kawa Kawa and Stargaze appreciated having some food from their home, everyone else was not so enthusiastic about it.

3. He attends a special class that the Chief arranged to help the younger Sinners catch up on any missing education, he is a surprisingly decent student in that he is alway attentive and quiet, though this is likely due to the Chief bribing him with extra meat and equipment for his hunts.

4. He has a habit of gnawing on his lips when he is stressed, it can get to the point that he draws blood as a result of his sharpened canines, said sharpening having occurred as a result of a mutation brought about by Mania after he became a Sinner.
It can get to the point he has thin rivulets of blood going down the sides of his mouth, all while he is oblivious to it until it is pointed out. This has resulted in him being given a mouth guard to sleep with and being a frequent visitor of Nurse Anne and Dr. Iron.

5. While he may not understand most of society's norms and standards, and has no real interest in learning about them, he does understand enough of the basics to be left alone for a little while without a supervisor being present, though it is still not advisable for such a thing to be allowed lest someone set him off on accident and wind up with a Pippy thrown at their face and a crossbow bolt somewhere sensitive.

6. He hates mistreatment of animals in any form. If he is going to kill an animal it is because he needs to eat or it was a threat he needed to put down, if neither of these are true and he sees someone hurting an animal then he will be having some impromptu target practice.

7. He supplies Garofano with pelts and hides that he tans himself for her to use in some of her clothes in exchange for her maintaining his own attire for free.

8. He is skilled with not only his crossbow, but also a normal bow and arrow as well as a hunting knife and a hatchet that he keeps with him constantly.

9. He dislikes using guns, he finds them too loud and too cumbersome to be of any real value in his hunts, and besides that they are also a bit too complicated for him to utilize at times.

10. He did not know where babies came from or how reproduction worked until he let slip that he did not know and the Chief told him to go ask Anne and Iron where they came from. They have yet to forgive her for forcing the situation on them.

11. He has become very fond of nature documentaries after seeing one playing on a tv in one of the common rooms and has since amassed a sizable collection of taped ones as well as wildlife books and such, though the Chief had to teach him how to read said books.

All of this has lead to him dreaming of one day creating his own, or at the very least starring in, a documentary about the more dangerous beasts of the Rust, something that Deren and the chief may yet choose to help him with.

12. Pippy has many times managed to get into the vents of the Bureau, and has scared many Sinners and staff alike when it begins to thrash around in the vents as it drags stolen spoils from the kitchen to its makeshift nest near Wolverine’s Cell.

Despite many attempts to prevent it from getting into the vents, nothing has worked and as such a rumor has begun to spread that Pippy may possess a Sinner Power of its own, though there is no proof to back it up.

13. He once got into a boxing match with Zoya in the rec room, though he lost, he fought with enough ferocity to impress the Wolf of Syndicate enough so that she offered him a place in the Legion, though he refused, claiming that he had no interest in working for another gang, Zoya did not take it personally and instead slapped him on the back as she applauded his guts.

14. Another boxing tale has him facing off against Corso in a spar that wound up ending with both of them knocked out and needing treatment, curiously the two seemed to hit it off in the medical bay, perhaps due to Corso and his shared love of animals.
The two have since become friends, and have given the Chief many headaches as a result of them slipping out of the Bureau to not only hunt, but also break up underground animal fighting rings and investigate claims of maltreatment of animals as well.

15. While not a cook of any real renown, he has gained a reputation as making some of the best jerky in all of Dis, enough so that many of the soldiers of the Bureau have approached him in regards to having him make some for their units, alongside of the kitchen staff requesting he teach them how to make it as well.

16. His cell looks like a hunter’s lodge, with pelts and trophies adorning it’s floor and walls, along with his bed being less an actual bed and more a small cave made of mattresses, that the Chief purchased on his behalf with funding earned from his tanning and jerky making, and blankets and pelts.

He likewise has a small projector with a sizable tower of nature documentaries resting beside it, next to an equally large tower of nature books, and a small collection of random objects that he has been given by his friends and the Chief.

17. He is a light sleeper, and upon Dudu being detained, he made it clear that if she did not stop playing her suona, he would find a way into her cell from the vents and make sure that she never performed with it again.

18. He is surprisingly talented at making maps of the areas he has been to, with many of the Bureau’s teams having made use of them during their missions in areas he has already been to.

19. He is a member of a fledgling archery club that has cropped up in the Bureau, to be exact he is in an unspoken competition with EMP for leadership of the club, the pair having never been able to defeat the other in terms of accuracy or rate of fire at the range without tapping into their powers.

20. He is not a fan of flying, and despises being to high in the air to safely land or fight back should the ride be attacked, the same going for swimming as while he has come to enjoy harpoon guns since being introduced to them, much to the Chief’s chagrin, he still finds it too difficult to fight in the water and prefers to remain near to dry land as a result.

21. He can tell real and fake meat apart with just a bite, and even if the taste is exactly the same, he will still become…upset should he find that he has been given fake meat. This came to light during a day when it was uncovered that someone had been attempting to cut costs in the kitchen by using a form of synthetic meat, said attempt ended with them being jumped by Wolverine and other Sinners before they were fired.

22. He is not overly fond of sweet things, though he does enjoy them every now and then, he is more a fan of savory food then sweet, and while he does find combinations of the two types of dishes interesting, he still prefers the dish to be either wholly sweet or wholly savory.

23. He is not fond of rich dishes, not only do they not agree with his stomach, but he personally does not find them to taste any better than the dishes he himself knows how to make, and if anything he finds them to be worse despite the seasoning and techniques used to make them.

24. He is very good at detecting whether or not someone is dangerous, the Chief having come to know that if he is relaxed around someone then they are not a real problem, while if he is tense or uneasy then it is time to be on guard.
The few times he has displayed outright hostile or fearful demeanor of someone, has been in the presence of people like Nox and Dreya (Fear), and Coquelic and Shalom (Hostility), and has been a herald of trying times to come with dealing with these people.

25. As a gift to the Chief, he made a necklace of bones taken from some of his more dangerous hunts, that no one could identify just which beast the center piece, a small skull with multiple eye sockets and a seemingly vertical mouth, only made it more ominous.

Despite the uneasy feeling looking at the necklace gave them, the Chief still accepted the necklace and had it set in a display in their room, something that Wolverine still brags about to this day.

26. He is the embodiment of a ‘Ride or Die’ mentality when it comes to his friends. No matter what happens, they can count on the hunter being there to bail them out in his own way, typically involving a tactically launched pippy aimed at the enemies genitals and a crossbow bolt hellstorm raining down on their foes as he comes to the rescue.

27. He once came back to the Bureau after a particularly deadly hunt with grievous wounds and a claw the size of a normal man’s forearm lodged into his shoulder blade. Despite being in an extreme amount of pain, he was smiling as he told the Chief that he finally found a worthy prey in whitesands.

That the claw was confirmed to not be from a Corruptor, did nothing to lessen the Chief’s concerns over just what kind of monster Wolverine had encountered.

28. He is forbidden from being anywhere near the driver’s side of a vehicle after an incident involving a car, a mall, Pippy hanging on from the antenna of the car, and a thoroughly terrified Chief shooting out the back window at a gang of motorcyclists that were shooting at them.

The specifics of that mission have been classified by the Bureau, partly because of sensitive material, and partly out of second hand embarrassment over what happened that day, though there are rumors agents from the Ninth saying that they had finally found a worse driver than their own director.

29. For his birthday, the Chief took him on a hunting trip with Corso and a few other Sinners, the day ending with Wolverine tucking himself into his small cave with tears of happiness leaking from his eyes as he looked at a group picture that had been taken at the end of the celebration.

All of the other presents, aside from the deer they had caught, while still wonderful, seemed to pale in comparison to that picture, as he looked upon it till he fell asleep with Pippy in his arms.

And that does it for the Savage Huntsman of the Rust, as with our Langley ones we hope to hear your opinions on them and some of your own in the future.
That said, till next time, stay safe and take care

Chapter Text

1. He owns multiple sleeping bags of varying size and quality, several of which seem to be either hand made by a third party or by Che himself, though he will only smirk when asked which of the two options it is. 

2. He has formed an unlikely friendship with Corso and Wolverine over their shared disdain for animal abusers, when they go out to hunt one down or to bust a fighting ring, he seems to come alive and display a truly remarkable amount of vigor as opposed to his normal demeanor. 

3. He can use guns, and is actually quite adept with pistols, he simply prefers his blades due to sentimental reasons. 

4. He has mastered the art of sleeping in uncomfortable positions and situations, from being able to sleep while standing up, to being able to sleep while having several bullet and blade wounds from mania weapons. 

Granted, the last time he fell asleep while injured he almost gave KK and Bai Yi heart attacks as they believed he was dead due to his lack of a response, only for him to wake up when they mentioned getting Anne to take a look at him. 

5. He has an instinctive fear of doctors, or rather any form of medical professional, while he may have some degree of trust in Anne and Iron, due to Bai Yi and KK vouching for them and for them having saved his life several times while the trio was in Syndicate and since joining the prison, he still prefers to not seek them out unless it is a matter of life and death. 

6. He is ambidextrous, and uses this to subtly mess with people by making them think one hand is his dominant, only to use the opposite hand for something the next day or such. 

7. He once asked the Chief if he could be put in a padded cell, his logic was that all he would need was a blanket and he could use the cell itself as his bed. That the chief had begun to laugh as KK lectured him as she told him that it was not an option and that it was not how padded cells work, only led to him sighing and instead asking the Chief for a more comfortable bed. 

The Chief granted the request after she had finished laughing to herself. 

8. Caffeine and sugar do not wake him up, on the contrary they make him even more tired, with Summer’s special blend of coffee having put him to sleep for nearly 2 days straight, something that led to the genius being berated by KK and Bai-Yi once they discovered her involvement.

9. He once painted his eyelids to look like his eyes and fell asleep, somehow he even managed to speak in his sleep and blink his ‘eyes’ in a convincing enough manner that no one figured it out till KK saw him, sighed, and walked over and smacked him on the head to wake him up.

10. The story of him gaining his driver’s license is a long and complicated one that involves the Chief pulling some strings for him to take a test to get one,, a wheel that popped off a few minutes into the test, several gangsters on motorcycles, and Bai Yi and KK trying to run interference before an RPG was launched at them and split them and Che up. 

In addition to a mall that needed a new entry door, escalators, several new store fronts, a fountain, several new columns, and a new exit door along with several damaged vehicles and cases of injuries. 

The tale ended with a battered and broken vehicle resting in a parking lot as the instructor hyperventilated into a paper bag as Che fought off a few gangsters before asking if he passed or failed the test.

He did indeed pass, perhaps out of the instructors fear of something similar happening if they were ever to be involved with Che again, or perhaps out of an exasperated Chief and a cackling Langley having had a conversation with them, to sway their mind. 

11. He is actually a surprisingly good cook when he wants to be, and has many times helped Kelvin and Ignis in the kitchen after KK ordered him to, though he has also been seen sneaking into the kitchen to make meals for the rest of Whitestone Industries. 

That he leaves a list of all that he has taken and used that night in making said meal has earned him no small amount of praise from the kitchen staff.

12. He hates riding motorcycles, he simply feels they are too unsafe despite the speed and maneuverability they offer, and as such prefers the relative security of a truck or of any other form of vehicle as opposed to Bai-Yi’s preferred ride. 

That he can also use the other vehicles as improvised weapons and battering rams for when the situation arises, and that he can recline back in the seat or lay down across the back seat and go to sleep is also a factor in his bias towards other vehicles. 

Of course, the fact that bai-Yi once launched him off of her motorcycle and into a pile of garbage does not help matters either. 

13. He pities the Chief, seeing their constant attempts at bettering the world as respectable, but at the same time ultimately futile given the scope of just what they are up against, though he cannot deny there is a part of him that wants to see the Chief succeed, and since KK and Bai-Yi are so fond of them he has decided to do what he can to help them…so long as it does not interfere in his nap time that is.

14. He suffers from chronic pains centered around his patch covered eye, the intensity of which varies from a dull ache to a piercing agony depending on the amount of Mania in the area around him, he has learned to fight through the pain when it comes to battles and day to day activities and will give little to no sign he is suffering aside from a slight clenching of his jaw. 

Bai-Yi and KK have learned to read him well enough to know when he needs to be forced to get some rest before the pain overwhelms him, with the Chief having learned about the matter due to their connection through the Shackles, with her having nearly been incapacitated by the pain before she was able to figure out who it was coming from.  

As a result, he now has a prescription for high dosage pain-killers that he stubbornly refuses to use unless the pain is to the point of nearly taking both him and the Chief down. 

15. He does not like wearing suits, at all. That said, he is able to pull off a surprisingly roguish look when he does wear one, to the point of having to flee and make up excuses to escape the number of men and women that try and get his number. 

There is actually a video of this happening that began to circulated around the Bureau after Che was asked to attend a part with the Chief as part of a mission, he has since been hounded by many of the guards and sinners alike to wear one again, with Garofano having even offered to tailor make him a suit, an offer he quite vocally refused.

That said, he does have one in reserve for any special mission that needs it, he just hopes ne never has to wear it again…or that he gets paid extra for wearing it if the need arises. 

16. He has managed to bond with Hella and Ninety-Nine over a shared hatred for a certain Umbrella Salesman, a nickname that has spread across the Bureau much to his amusement, and an equally intense hatred for mad scientists. 

17. Through means known but to himself, whatever God was watching at the time, and those involved, he once managed to smuggle several dozen dogs and cats into his cell with no one knowing. 

How they remained hidden from the security cameras and guards, no one has been able to figure out, with Nightingale having posted a reward for anyone that can help her to understand how apparently everyone in the bureau, including the cameras, were blind to the makeshift pound that had formed in Che’s cell. 

The animals were only discovered when Dudu, having recently purchased a new set of speakers, began to practice her Suona, with every single dog and cat in the cell beginning to howl at her in unison as they sung the songs of their people to try and get her to stop playing. 

Upon learning of this incident, the Chief and Nightingale went to investigate Che’s cell and, upon opening the door, were greeted by dozens of dogs and cats turning to look at them, including the sizable Saint Bernard that was laying on top of Che at the time.

The Chief was impressed, Nightingale was not.

The animals then decided they wanted to stretch their legs and promptly bolted with every Sinner and staff member that was available having to work together to hunt them down and corral them again. 

In the aftermath of the incident, due to an overwhelming number of complaints regarding the animals having to be sent to a shelter, and the weaponization of puppy dog pouts from the Triple C Alliance of the Children, the Chief, and Che, Nightingale consigned to the Bureau gaining a kennel that Che surprisingly dutifully helps tend to.

18. He is…less than fond of Shalom, having made it clear to the chief that he refuses to be put on any assignment with her, especially if she is assigned to the role of the team leader, a trait shared with Bai-Yi. 

Likewise, he once picked a fight with Rahu, the exact circumstances of which being unknown aside from footage showing them speaking for a few moments before Rahu attacked him as a response to some form of taunt or such that Che had said to her.

The fight ended with both of them needing treatment from Dr. Iron and Nurse Anne, as well as both having to spend time in differing isolation cells, with neither offering any form of explanation for the brawl aside from citing a ‘difference of opinions on certain matters.’

As to what opinions they differed on such that Che wound up flung into, and then through, a cell wall, with Rahu suffering a black eye as well, still remains unknown, though if the glare Che leveled at Shalom when they crossed paths afterwards is anything to go by…

19. During a test of each of the Sinners combat abilities, Che attempted to coast by with the bare minimum of effort, only for the Chief to persuade him to give the test his all by offering him several days of vacation if he reached a certain threshold in the test. 

Che promptly came to rank in the top 20 of those tested, only being beaten for a position in the top 10 due to an incident involving him sparring with Zoya and his axe damaging her shirt enough for the Chief, who was acting as the examiner, to see that Zoya was wearing a dark blue bra that day. 

Thankfully, Che survived and received his days of vacation once he was discharged from the ICU.

20. When someone continuously flirted with KK despite her desires for them to stop during a mission, he and Bai-Yi took it upon themselves to ensure the would be Cassanova had a night he would not forget.

From Bai-Yi pilfering their wallet before they could pay and then draining their account with it at an ATM across the street before returning it to them with her speed preventing them from noticing what had happened until it was too late.

To Che, who was pretending to be a waiter, lacing their food with laxatives that he had on him for some reason and sabotaging their car to insure that not only would it not start, but that even if it could they would need to find new tires, windshield wipers, and door handles.

And that was assuming they found a way to get the sugar and salt mixture out of their gas tank. 

21. He has a map of napping spots and hiding places across the Bureau proudly displayed in his room, with his reason for not hiding it being simply that there are too many places to search to find him unless the Chief really needs him.

That he has made a habit of carrying a smaller version of said map around the Bureau and selling similar small versions to other Sinners, is something that has driven Adjutant Nightingale mad many times over, especially when she found a copy on the Chief’s desk. 

22. He has a habit of training animals, and while this can be a good thing, his habit of teaching them things in the interest of helping himself out around the house has a tendency to backfire spectacularly. 

For example, he once attempted to train a Chihuahua that he had named Lucifer, given the way its fur seemed to shape into horns, to steal food for him from the kitchen, only for the process to end with the Chihuahua stealing most of the meat from the kitchen and keeping it for itself in a den it had made in the ventilation system, with Corso, Wolverine, and Pippy having to be called in to assist in retrieving the meat from the ferocious beast guarding it. 

In the end, there was no meat left for the cafeteria that day and Che was somehow outed as the one responsible, more than likely by a particularly vengeful Chief who now had to re-order an entire stock of meat for the kitchen, thus leading to him having to contend with several irate Sinners that had been looking forward to the meal that was on the list that day, thankfully he managed to avoid a stay in the hospital wing, albeit by virtue of bolting and hiding until the next day when Bai-Yi informed him of what was heading his way.  

In a similar vein he once attempted to teach a cat called Blank, after the blank look it would give everyone around it, to retrieve money and shiny objects for him, with the process ending when he realized the cat had brought back underwear belonging to Adjutant Nightingale, Nurse Anne, Countess Chelsea, and Cabernet. 

Upon leaving the ICU he decided to cease his attempts at teaching animals to help him…for now.

23. His room is rather cozy in its design, despite not being padded like he wished it to be, with plenty of plush furniture in deep colors that he put together himself filling it, several bookshelves and a small tv resting on a night stand at the foot of his bed.

The only downside to his cell turned room is that it is near to Dudu’s cell, down the hall to be exact, and as such he has many times been awoken from his naps by the sound of her Suona blaring, his own attempts at soundproofing having done little to combat her playing.

He has likewise vowed to either fully soundproof his room, or to destroy each and every Suona in Dis, come hell or high water one of those will be done…or maybe both.

24. While he does not trust, or even necessarily like Langley, he is willing to work with her if it ends up making life difficult for Parma, or if it is for the purpose of protecting the Chief and the Bureau. 

They may not like one another, but they hate the Umbrella Salesman and those that go after the Chief more. 

25. Once upon a time he managed to get locked in a zoo in East Side, the exact reason has been lost to time but is said to have involved himself, a locker, a blanket, a pillow, and a near 2 day long assignment that was finally done, and a moment where he could slip away from everyone and nap. 

By the time it was made apparent that he was missing, Che had somehow managed to slip into multiple enclosures and somehow, by means known to no one but himself and the animals involved, he managed to seemingly tame each of the animals he encountered, leading to him being found in the center of the zoo with an assortment of animals gathered around him as he napped. 

The Chief was torn between being impressed he had managed to somehow tame even the beasts dredged up from the depths of WhiteSands, such as a rather sizable giant scorpion, and exasperated as she had to argue with the zoo over if they could employ Che to work for them due to the Zoo manager being impressed with his ability to get the animals to do what he wanted. 

In the end it was decided that Che would be free to offer up his services to the Zoo for a commission fee, and so long as he did not bring any of the beasts back to the Bureau, the chief would not interfere and would keep it logged as a special dispatch mission for him and whoever else felt like going with him. 

26. He often call KK and Bai-Yi his sisters when doing describing them to others, though he has yet to call them such to their faces, whether or not they know of how he seems to view them is unknown, though if the way they often refer to him as their brother is anything to go by, then it is likely they are fully aware of it.

And that is all we have for the slacker of White Stone Industries, we would like to apologize for the delay with posting this, we admittedly hit several walls of Writer's Block and it has left us feeling a bit unsatisfied with this, but we feel this is a good stopping place for now. 

With that said, we hope you all enjoyed this chapter, we will either be updating our other PtN Fic, Our Dearest Sin, our Genshin fic, or this one, or perhaps it will be our Azur Lane fic, admittedly we are whining it with which one gets our attention at this point lol. 

That said, we hope you all stay safe and take care. 

Till next time. 

Chapter Text

1. She has many times attempted to usurp Nightingale as the chief’s adjutant in an effort to get closer to the Chief, with her efforts ranging from subtle attempts to discredit Nightingale, to outright attempting to have her transferred to a different Agency, though these efforts have all been in vain. 

She has since switched her efforts from removing the Adjutant from play, to making her into an ideal subordinate to aid the Chief and to use as a proxy for her own plans to benefit the Chief, herself, and the rest of the MBCC through a variety of means, some of which have left Nightingale adamant in putting a bullet in the head of whoever is responsible for them.

2. She does not like overly spicy food, something with a little kick is fine, but anything above that is too much for her, a weakness that Coquelic somehow figured out and used against her by lacing one of her meals with a notoriously hot pepper. 

Shalom’s yelp of pain as the spice overwhelmed her, and the way her eyes had begun to water as she downed her entire drink before she asked Rahu to get her another one, is an image that has been immortalized in the halls of The Garden via several covertly taken photos and videos.

That the Garden found its flower garden in the Greenhouse dying barely a week later, in addition to the Chief being unable to get her hands on any additional flower seeds to replace the ones they had lost for several months afterwards was certainly just a coincidence…right?

3. She still has a soft spot for Christina despite past…incidents. And while she desires for Christina to make her own path, she still considers her to be her detective, and as such maintains a careful eye on her.

From keeping track of which cases she is working, the threat they pose to her detective, the people she socializes with, her newest interests, her family’s state of affairs, to the way she decorates her room, and so on, she feels at ease knowing that her detective is safe and sound.

She has made it clear to her detective that she will always be present to offer her help should she need it, granted her help tends to come with the requirement of Chris having to spend time with Shalom while she addresses her as ‘Big Sister Shalom’ during said time and allowing the Hush to call her ‘Little Sister’ as well.

As such she is never able to fight the smile that comes to her face when Christina needs her help, especially when she is able to use the chance to pamper her detective and see how far she has grown while on her own.

4. This suggestion came from EinarKaslana here on Ao3, so please go and show them some love, all credit for this idea goes to them.

That said, it is a shared headcanon between us that she is fond of photography, and maintains many photo albums throughout her places of residence, with specific people, such as the Chief, Christina, and Rahu, having entire albums devoted to pictures taken of them by the Hush.

That some of them were taken by cameras they were unaware of is neither here nor there to Shalom, and so long as they remain unaware of them, it will be nothing to them either…especially so long as they do not discover the albums that contain more candid pictures of them in various states of undress or in certain…compromising positions.

It is safe to say that those albums are among her most well hidden and well defended of treasures, with even Schorl being unaware of their location.  

5. She has a soft spot for cats and dogs, often leaving out food for them or taking the time to pet and pamper them when she encounters them, as such she was one of the staunchest backers for the MBCC gaining an on site pound/shelter. 

That said, she is also an avid fan of cat cafes having dragged Christina and Rahu to enough that they can reliably name the majority of the cat cafes in Dis off the top of their head, with but a few exceptions for those that have yet to have the Hush grace them. 

She also tends to leave very sizable tips at said cafes, enough that the staff go out of their way to meet her expectations, and that they do not say a word about her gathering enough cats to cover herself and whoever is with her at the time in them.

6. Her room is surprisingly rather homey, with a number of bookshelves lining the walls, only broken up by small tables or wall fixtures with lamps and candles resting on them, an assortment of dark colored furniture, a large amount of flowers, both in pots on tables and hanging from the ceiling, and a rather sizable collection of horror related media. 

She also has a large canopied bed that she has covered in enough pillows that many periodically fall off when anything jostles the bed, and a rather sizable amount of scented candles and incense scattered throughout her room. 

Her main outfit of choice, along with several copies of her favorite coat, is kept in a dresser near her bathroom, while a much larger walk-in closet is dedicated to other uniforms and outfits that she has amassed over the years, though they are a subject for later on.

There is also a room that is hidden within her cell, a result of her machinations and of several deals made to allow her skills to be used to benefit the MBCC, said room being filed with a wall of monitors and terminals, a large number of filing cabinets rigged with incendiary devices that she can activate by tapping a button on her terminal, and a sizable amount of targets for her to focus her skills on.

She can never stop herself from chuckling everytime she enters the room, picturing the look on her former handlers faces were they to become aware that the Hush of Paradeisos, has become the Hush of Minos, granted said role is kept secret from the Chief, but it is the thought that counts…at least to her. 

7. While there are many Sinners and staff within the bureau that adore Shalom, there are equally as many that hold in her both dread and contempt, be it because they know just Who she is, or because they feel that something is not quite right with her, some sixth sense warning them to avert themselves from aligning so closely with her. 

Among those who hold her in disdain are Langley, who has seen enough of the mountain of corpses the Hush has built as an agent of Paradeisos to fully trust her, even with her devotion seemingly to have switched to her rookie.

As a result, the Spider has a special bullet with Shalom’s name written on it for the moment she feels the Hush has become more trouble than she is worth keeping around. 

Another one that holds the Hush in contempt is Chameleon, the hypnotist being able to see through the mask that Shalom wears and finding the thing she glimpses beneath it to be of no small amount of concern, hence her own caution in regards to her.

Her trepidation regarding Shalom was only further cemented by the fact that the one time Chameleon attempted to use her power on Shalom resulted in her awakening in her cell with a migraine, a bloodied nose, and a letter reading- “Please, don’t try that again. I would hate to have to explain your loss to the Chief. Sincerely-Shalom”

Of course there is also the Garden and their own wariness of the woman to consider as well, as, while they do admit her actions allowed for them to escape the clutches of the Underground, her methods…have done their perception of her no favors.

Though they can agree with her desire to support the Chief and to safeguard their new home, it does nothing to keep them from having their eyes on her, and a blade marked with her name on it should she overstep her bounds. 

While there are many more who feel wariness of the former Hush of Paradeisos, perhaps rivaled but by that of the former leader of Rustifre is that of her own former protegee and pseudo sister, Chirstina. 

Having seen first hand just how ruthless her mentor can be, along with having gotten a glimpse as to the true nature of her work for Paradeisos, she has since found that while she yet has a fondness for Shalom, she can never feel as at ease in her presence as she once did due to what she has done, something which is bittersweet to Shalom.

8. She is one of a very select few to have actually beaten Eirene at both normal chess, and a specialized version of it designed by the Head Of Quinn, with her version of chess being something which involves multiple chess boards linked to a rotating table, where the players are playing multiple games simultaneously with but a few moments to make each decision and move. 

Said game lasted nearly 12 hours, and ended with Shalom claiming a resounding victory with but minimal losses upon the other boards, a feat which has since earned her no small amount of fame within the bureau, even from her detractors, and a standing offer to play chess with Eirene whenever she wishes to. 

9. While she is physically frail, especially for an S-Rank Sinner, she is still heads and shoulders above an average person in terms of speed, strength, and endurance, being as able of breaking bones with a punch as she is ruining someone's life with a few well placed whispers. 

That said, she is surprisingly somewhat unaware of the extent of this strength, especially given that she is severely lacking in training for CQC and the usage of firearms and other weaponry, given her preference for remaining on the backlines and using the overwhelming might of Schorl to contend with any foe that gets in her way, and has thus not really had any reason to use it. 

Yet even without training, she is still a capable threat should someone get in close, something which has lead to several sinners and staff seeing the surreal scene of her casually flinging a corruptor, that had somehow bypassed Schorl’s scanners, three times her size against a wall before it was vaporized by the aforementioned Paradeisian weapon.

10. She has gained a habit of messing with Schorl by putting stickers and such on it, something which the machine does not seem to enjoy given how it will try and find any way it can to remove the stickers or markings from itself the moment they are applied. 

Shalom even once went so far as to write on the Paradeisian device with a pink marker, using it as a means of reminding herself of an appointment she had with Dr. Iron and Nurse Anne regarding her health, with the machine actually allowing the message to be written and to remain…at least until after her appointment, at which point it bore a hole through a water pipe and used it to wash itself off. 

Similarly, she once brought up the idea of coloring the Schorl, with the machine and its operators adamantly rejecting the very concept of the idea, going so far as to destroy the can of paint and paint brush that she had purchased to do so before they scurried off.

11. She cannot drive. This is one of the few points of agreement the Chief and Paradeisos have ever been able to reach as Shalom’s driving can lead to no small amount of damage to the vehicle she is behind the wheel of, along with the sanity and health of her passengers. 

The last time she attempted to drive she managed to make it a quarter of the way to her destination before Rahu and Christina, both of whom were holding on to one another for dear life, managed to convince her to switch with Rahu while Christina and Schorl spoke with the sherrifs regarding the collateral damage.

They were less than 3 minutes into what should have been a 9 minute long drive at the time.

12. She is fond of dropping by the Chief’s office and helping them with their work whenever the opportunity presents itself, something which has greatly endeared her to the Chief, and, albeit begrudgingly, Nightingale. 

That she tends to leave each of these sessions wondering just how it is that the Bureau has not imploded in on itself or declared secession from Dis in some fit of mad lunacy, is something that tends to add some enjoyment to her day by trying to make sense of the insanity of the MBCC. 

She has even gone so far as to compile many of the more interesting stories and reports into a personal collection to browse for her own entertainment whenever she feels the need for some levity. 

To this day, one of her favorites remains the time that Emp managed to weave so elaborate a lie that it resulted in the FAC spending nearly 4 days investigating a ‘Duck Sinner’ that was responsible for the destruction of a power plant, with the Archer even managing to, albeit unknowingly, have Paradaisos waste several days investigating the same claim when it was relayed to them. 

The true culprit of the Power Plant overloading was of course, EMP herself, though Shalom vowed to take that secret to her grave in exchange for the amount of humor her lie gave her.

13. Rahu once attempted to teach her how to use a conventional weapon for self defense, in the event that Schorl was destroyed or disabled and she was not present, only for the attempt to end with Christina having to get her hat repaired courtesy of the bullet ricocheting off of the target, off of the ground between Rahu’s feet, the ceiling above them, the railing of the shooting range, and then into the top of Christina’s hat. 

That Langley had the audacity to not only laugh when she heard the report, but to then order Shalom not be allowed to touch any firearms in the Bureau has since been something of a sore spot for the Hush, especially since both Christina and Rahu aid the Spider in enforcing such a rule. 

14. While her fondness for the horror genre of film has long been a well established trend in the bureau, with her appreciation for it in literature and art being similarly well known, her fondness for horror games is a relatively new obsession of hers. 

Most of this fondness for the horror genre of gaming can be laid at the feet of Etti, who Shalom overheard running a horror themed tabletop session, EMP, who introduced her to horror anime as repayment for lending her a movie, and Nino, who she watched stream a horror game that caught her fascination. 

Since then, she has devoured many horror games in terms of both playing them and watching them, with some of the games being of such disturbing levels that even Schorl was driven to escape the room to avoid the more disturbing scenes and gameplay. 

That her new fascination has started a trend among the ones in charge of monitoring her via Schorl using the media she enjoys as a form of Test Of Courage, is something she is aware of enough to greatly enjoy. 

With her fondness later extending to Tabletop games and the potential for horror and suspenseful storytelling within them as she learned of many of the horror campaigns that had been run by other DMs.

This being something that led to her approaching Etti to request her guidance on the matter, with Etti agreeing to help her DM a horror themed session, the young dragon all too happy to help a fledgling DM in the art of destro-*Ahem* creating an enjoyable session for everyone with minimal tears and screams involved.

That said session she ran resulted in Horo hiding under Zoya’s bed, Christina hiding with Thistle in a closet, Hella and Ninety-Nine refusing to leave their room without ear plugs on as they cursed her to hell and back, was something that lead to Etti declaring Shalom to be her new apprentice in the art of DMing.

The sheer panic that announcement caused nearly brought the Bureau to its knees.

15. Upon learning of Cabernet’s ability to materialize and consume souls, Shalom sought her out with a rather curious request, as she wished for the Franc Heiress to materialize a piece of Shalom’s own soul so that she could taste it out of her own curiosity. 

After a rather lengthy debate with the Chief, and several tablets of aspirin, it was decided to allow the experiment of sorts to take place, with Cabernet materializing 2 pieces of Shalom’s soul as a pair of grapes, one being given to the Hush and the other being kept by the Glutton of Souls herself. 

Cabernet would later remark that the taste was bizarre, as at first there appeared to be no flavor at all to her grape, only for her to be suddenly hit with an overwhelming bombardment of taste to such an extent she was nearly ill, the heiress later remarking to the Chief that beyond all of the myriad flavors there was something else…a feeling that was unnamable to her, yet left her feeling uneasy for many days afterwards.

Shalom would claim that she enjoyed the  taste of the grape as well, though the true joy of the experience seemed to be an idea that had come to her as she would later approach the Glutton with an offer that she would request be kept between the two of them.

What was that offer? 

Perhaps it is better off unknown if the way the Franc Heiress refused to leave her room for several days afterwards was anything to go by, and it is likely better still to not question why it is she seems to make a weekly tribute of a grape to the Hush, one that could not possibly have been made with Shalom’s own soul.

Indeed, it is better not to question what was said between the two.

16. She is still in regular contact with, and financially supporting, her former maid from her time at Erica Villa, Rosa. 

The young woman having managed to somehow earn the fondness of the former Hush to such an extent that she has been working quite tirelessly to convince the Chief to allow for her to be employed at the Bureau, her main argument being that she could be of great help as part of any of the departments that need her…along with being another at least semi-sane and responsible person to help keep the MBCC in…relatively stable condition. 

With each day she makes the argument to the Chief she wears her down more and more until she will be able to have her maid back at her side, and once more enjoy teaming up with her to make Rahu, and soon the Chief, as flustered as possible with their shared teasing. 

17. She is not allowed any form of caffeine, a rule Paradeisos ‘forgot’ to inform the Chief of when Shalom was sent to the Bureau, with Rahu and Christina thinking the Hush herself or Schorl would have informed the Chief of this rule…only to learn that was not the case.

Indeed, the Chief learned of this rule when someone, she is willing to bet her life that it was either Hella or EMP, saw that the former Hush looked tired and offered her some of Summer’s Special Brew Coffee. 

What happened next is something known but to those who were there that day and who managed to gain access to the security footage, something which was soon locked behind the highest grade of confidentiality that Paradeisos could create, with the files being further encrypted by Summer and Langley as well. 

Any attempts at acquiring an answer from those who witnessed what happened that day would be met with nothing but a thousand-mile stare, with several others whimpering and curling into the fetal position or turning and fleeing as swiftly as they can, with none daring to vocalize just what happened that day. 

All anyone knows is that a substantial portion of the bureau needed repair done to it, several officials that had been adamantly against the Chief and the MBCC had to resign from their positions in disgrace once certain information regarding them was leaked, along with a rather sizable amount of collateral damage being done to several major roadways and side streets. 

Schorl has since been given permission to destroy any source of caffeine Shalom manages to get her hands on.

18. She has been utilizing her abilities to commune with the Mania Monster made of her discarded humanity known as Rebel in a bid to earn its compliance and to be assemble to utilize it to its fullest one day, her primary reason for doing so being something of an emergency measure should Paradeisos attempt to remove her from play along with having an emergency ace in the hole for rainy days. 

That it could be an additional tool for the Chief and a means of further defending her should anything befall the Hush, the monster having long made clear its own deep seated adoration for the Chief to her during their…’Conversations’, is but yet another lie she has come to tell herself. 

That she also wants to reconnect with her lost humanity and to try and bond with it is something she has tried time and again to deny even to herself, yet as time has gone by, and her emotions have begun to return to her, she has found it increasingly hard to deny her true reason for wishing to do so.

The truth of the matter…is that all of this is being driven by Her ability to feel the loneliness of that missing part of herself and her desire to end it and fill the gaping wound torn in her own soul all those years ago by Paradeisos. 

All she truly wants is to feel whole again. 

19. She has an odd relationship with Hecate, somewhere between an almost sisterly bond and that of a mentor, with the former Hush often volunteering to accompany the younger sinner into the field to act as a mentor to her, that she still unconsciously tries to protect her is something neither will directly mention to one another. 

The pair have likewise somewhat exchanged hobbies with Shalom managing to get Hecate interested in the horror genre, while Hecate has managed to convince Shalom to take up sketching and, to a lesser degree, painting as a hobby, something the Hush has taken the somewhat relaxed leash and observation she is under during her stay in the bureau to thoroughly enjoy.  

That most of her works feature the Chief, several even having her in a state of undress or in various…compromising positions, is something that only the Hush and Hecate, who happened to mistake her sketchbook for an empty one, knows of. 

It is safe to say the following exchange was quite awkward for the pair, though they were eventually able to work past it and continue their regular sessions of shared artistic endeavor…with the addition of a rather bright tag to mark which sketchbook is Shalom’s. 

In a similar vein, Shalom has taken a rather sizable amount of time in teaching Hecate how to think strategically and to plan for various scenarios, with the young Sinner having shown a marked improvement in her Dispatches as result of the tutoring, that the Chief saw fit to praise Shalom was simply a bit of icing on the cake to her. 

That said, many Sinner feel no small amount of unease at the idea of the Hush having taken the Chief’s Shadow under her wing, especially given the uncanny similarities the pair seem to share, the only comfort most have been able to find in the matter being their shared loyalty to the Chief. 

Though even so, most fear the idea of just what Hecate could become if Shalom is allowed to mold her enough, thus all of those within the Bureau tend to keep an eye on the pair whenever they are together and they can. 

20. She has mapped out the vast majority of the secret tunnels that span the Bureau, particularly all of the ones that lead to the kitchens and to the Chief’s room, with her making use of them to not only be able to sneak away to the kitchen for late night snacks or when she needs a drink during her work, with her also using the tunnels to deliver snacks to the Chief and to surprise her when she is working. 

She also makes use of them to avoid certain parties and to surprise others, with her usage of them having gotten to the point that a not so small number of Sinners and staff are of the opinion that she is in possession of some form of teleportation device. 

That Shalom seems to find some humor in these rumors and even tends to encourage them through her own actions and inactions has likewise led to no small amount of confusion and unease among the Sinner population due to the potential threat she could pose with such a device. 

The Chief has tried time and again to dispel these rumors, only for them to constantly re-emerge after enough time has passed, something which has led to the Chief and the rest of the administration staff of the Bureau nearing the end of their rope in regards to how to handle the spreading rumors, with Paradeisos offering no help on the matter. 

21. She has found something of a way to utilize her “Mark” in tandem with the Chief’s Shackles, a method of piggybacking off of the Shackles and utilizing her ability in a way that makes it considerably less obvious towards both the recipient of the ‘Mark’ and the Chief herself that one is under the Hush’s influence. 

Even with this loophole removing her need for direct eye contact with her targets among the Sinners, it still requires for the targets to be in a heightened emotional state, and for the Chief to not be aware of her actions due to her ability to sense the influence through the Shackles and throttle it before it truly spreads. 

The knowledge of this influencing power is strictly confidential so as to prevent any panic from spreading among the Sinners, especially among those who have prior experience with the Hush and her power., with the Chief having further heightened her security around the Hush, despite her claims of only wishing to use her power to aid the Chief.

That said, the loophole has a further weakness in that Sinners of strong enough will, or those who are particularly Contaminated, such as Nox, Dreya, and so on, can not only resist the influence of the Mark through this loophole, but can also somewhat retaliate against it, causing Shalom a sizable amount of pain when they do so, Nox’s own retaliation leading to her having a severe nosebleed and being near catatonic for several hours. 

The final weakness of this ability is that she requires time to focus on the Shackles, and the slightest of disturbances can interrupt her ability, with contact with the chief being an additional means of furthering her power’s stability, though since this loophole came to her awareness she has made certain to be on her guard around her the vast majority of the time. 

A final note is that by some means she has been able to keep this development secret from Paradeisos, using it as yet another tool in whatever schemes of rebellion she harbors against the organization. 

22. She has given Thistle the equivalent to ‘The Shovel Talk’, with the exception of her talk involving her simply sitting in silence for a while as she looked Thistle in the eye, smiling as a triangle Mark flared in her eye as an unspoken warning of what awaits the assassin if anything befalls Christina. 

Thistle’s reply simply being to lift up her sword and set it alight with her own silent vow, that should any of the Hush’s schemes cause harm to the detective, she would not live long enough to enjoy whatever form of victory she managed to achieve. 

That the Hush has the audacity to smile at her actions a low chuckle slipping past her lips as she finished her tea before rising and walking past the assassin, pausing but to ruffle Thistle’s hair with an amused glint in her eyes as she left the assassin, only caused her to further despise the woman even if they could agree on protecting Christina.

That Thistle collapsed back into her chair as she fought to control her heart beat and suppress the adrenaline tearing through her body after Shalom had left the room, is something that she will deny ever happened that day.

23. She has met Christina’s step sister several times, each time ending in her being chased out of the house courtesy of the wheelchair bound girl either throwing objects at her or swatting at her with something as she tells her to stay away from Christina. 

That said, she has not stopped her attempts at somewhat courting the young woman’s favor, having arranged for, and personally done, many things to make life easier for the young woman, such as aiding in her finding a stable source of income from home, and ensuring that she and Christina are able to visit whenever they wish. 

Even with all that she has done however, the young woman still does not trust her, and does her best to try and mitigate any influence Shalom has over her, that said, she does appreciate Shalom’s efforts and has at least allowed for them to chat for more than 30 minutes before she starts chasing her out of her home.

24. While Shalom can be said to have a rather refined palate, she does also have a taste for more simple foods as well, especially given that Paradeisos did not allow her to indulge in them before due to her needing to maintain an image as their Envoy and their close monitoring of her. 

As a result of this, and the somewhat increased freedom she has at the Bureau, she has gained the habit of searching for small hole in the wall restaurants and such to dine at with the Chief, Rahu, or Christina, with her having gained a reputation as an exceptionally generous patron. 

More than once, Rahu has been caught off guard by seeing staff greet the former Hush by name and show her to her favored seat in the establishment, one time of note involving a rather portly chef who was easily double Rahu’s own size and weight leaving the kitchen to greet Shalom with an embrace as he sat her down and spoke with her for a little bit before going to cook her meal. 

She has even tried some of the more exotic foods brought back by Wolverine from his hunts, such as the meat of Sand Worms, which she claims has an oddly gamey flavor to it that is not that unpleasant, and a form of lizard that she actually quite liked the taste of, much to everyone’s shock. 

That said, she did refuse to even look at the scorpions and other multi-legged insectoid like creatures the Hunter caught, due in part to a reason that will be touched on below. 

25. She has a case of Arachnophobioa, something even the Hush experiment could never fully remove from her, with her gradually returning emotions having only amplified her fear of Spider or rather anything with over 2 or 4 legs.

The Chief first learned of this phobia when an insectoid Corruptor, resembling a mutated spider/human hybrid, appeared and Shalom froze for several seconds, only for her to snap out of her panic and have Schorl turn the surrounding area into enough glass that the sunlight reflecting off of it could have blinded someone. 

Despite the best efforts of both the Chief and Shalom to keep such information confidential, it somehow managed to leak to both Langley and the Garden, with the pair forming a somewhat un-official alliance to use this newly discovered weakness to get a bit of revenge on the Hush. 

Rahu very much did not appreciate being woken up in the middle of the night by a rather frantic Shalom calling her and telling her that she needed her to come rescue her, that Paradeisos sent a message that, in a rather deadpan way said Shalom did indeed require her aid but that it was not urgent, only furthered her confusion.

Rahu would arrive with the Chief to see Shalom having barricaded herself within a dresser as Schorl hovered nearby, a rather large assortment and variety of non-lethal spiders having taken lordship over her room, with sizes ranging from small to far too large for comfort for most people…particularly the Chief who bolted into the dresser with Shalom, leaving Rahu to deal with the eight-legged invaders.

She had the damndest feeling that Schorl was laughing at her, the machine having not been of any aid due to the risk of damaging the prison should it start to utilize its weaponry on the perfidious vermin…she was certain it was also because whoever was monitoring the situation was getting a kick out of it, but she held her tongue.

It would take several hours, many spider bites, a lot of cursing, and several questionable sounds from the dresser, before at last Rahu claimed her final victory over the spider invasion, the only clue she needed to know who was responsible being a lone flower she found resting outside of the Hush’s room when she was finished.

A bright yellow tulip that seemed to be laughing at her weary form.

She felt no small delight in crushing it under her boot, and her joy only grew when she aided Shalom in her own retaliation on the Garden and Langley, said retaliation taking the form of causing a sizable influx of paperwork for Langley and the 9th as a whole, such that they did not leave their offices for almost a whole week, while the Garden found themselves invaded by a large amount of bees and ants, which would take several weeks to full eradicate. 

In the end the groups involved called a cease fire to this chapter of their feud when the Chief tired of the chaos they were causing, interfered and threatened to avoid spending any time with them if they continued, the potential of the undesirable outcome causing a lull in their feud…at least until something else set it off once more. 

26. That her and Langley have a somewhat…contentious relationship, is rather well known, though the exact reasons are not. 

A part of it is something that is largely due to their differing approach on not only how they handle their work, but also in regards to how they view the actions each other have taken during their respective careers. 

In terms of their work, Langley dislikes how little Shalom shares in regards to any matter she assigns the 9th, many times she has kept the vast majority of information and secrets that could lead to an easier time completing the missions close to her chest, leading to Langley losing many valuable subordinates. 

On the opposing hand, Shalom dislikes how open Langley is with her subordinates in terms of sharing information and formulating plans, believing that by entrusting the information to said subordinates the Spider is putting herself and the operations at risk, a fact Paradeisos has agreed with many times, much to her silent disgust, thus leading to her keeping the aforementioned information largely close to her chest for fear of it being compromised. 

In terms of how they view their actions, it boils down to how they justify what they have done, both of them accept that they have committed, and will continue to commit, horrific deeds in the name of a greater purpose, but whereas Langley claims hers is for the good of all of Dis, Shalom admits that everything she has done was in the name of Paradeisos and their own agenda, with many others being done for her own and the Chief’s benefit later on. 

That Shalom readily admits the fault of her actions does not make them any better in Langley’s eyes, especially given how many of her men and women have been caught in the middle of the schemes of the Hush and Paradeisos and either killed or maimed to the point of no longer being able to operate in the field. 

Her anger is only further stoked as, instead of attempting to change her methods and approach as she has regained her emotions and has gained the Chief’s aid, Shalom largely chooses to keep utilizing methods that are either similar to, or almost identical to, her original methods of achieving her goals, with the few moments she takes a different approach only further infuriating Langley as it proves that, while difficult to the extreme, she can change her methods but seems to not want to. 

On the other hand, Shalom views Langley as being somewhat too self righteous, convinced that she and her Agency are always working for the best of Dis, bending and often breaking the laws of the very city they protect, along with Paradeisos’ own rules, which has lead to no shortage of headaches for her. 

In that same vein, Shalom believes that Langley can be far too gentle in her approach to how she handles certain matters, along with allowing for her fondness for her subordinates to interfere with her decision making process, something that Langley has argued is not the case many times. 

However, having said all of that, the pair are still able to work together remarkably well given the correct circumstances, from a major threat to Dis, to something choosing to target their Chief, these moments displaying just how formidable they could truly be, if they could ever bury the hatchet between them.

Though such a thing seems like it will take a miracle to occur. 

27. The first time she met Oak Casket in person, the Lady of the Romanesque hall approached her and Rahu as they were walking down a hallway, with her stopping in front of them as she looked Shalom in the eye and told her that she could at last put a face to the name so many spirits had cursed to the depths of hell and beyond as they found their way to her. 

She would further claim that even now, within the halls of the Bureau, the spirits of countless maniacs clung to Shalom like a shroud, with her likening her approach to that of a storm front, the wailing and crying of the maniacs being the wind, the rain being their unseen and unfelt tears, and their furious shouting the deafening roar of thunder. 

While Rahu reacted with unease and prepared for conflict, Schorl similarly readying for battle, Oak Casket merely strode forward, uncaring of them, and walked past them, pausing but to say that if she was ever curious what their final words and thoughts were, she could ask the Chief where to find her.

She was not surprised when, several days later, Shalom arrived at her doorstep, the Hush vanishing into the Funeral Parlor director’s room, where she would remain for nearly the rest of the day until she left later on, finding Rahu and Schorl waiting for her at the door. 

Shalom was silent and seemingly in deep contemplation for the rest of the day, with her only requesting that Rahu remain with her the rest of the night, with her responding to any of Rahu’s question with silence, Schorl, that had been eavesdropping into the room, surprisingly held its own tongue…perhaps owing to the sounds that had left its operator in a cold sweat that it had heard from said room. 

It was that day that an odd…bond of sorts formed between the Lady of Romanesque and the Hush, the pair coming to spend time together discussing matters that left those who overheard them more than a little uneasy as they fled the talking pair.

28. She has a much higher alcohol tolerance than one would suspect on their first look of her, with Shalom easily being able to out drink most ordinary people and Sinners alike, with only the more heavy drinkers such as Zoya, Pacassi (When the mood strikes her), Demon (Again, when the mood strikes him), and Bai-Yi, being able to reliably out drink her. 

That said, when she does manage to drink too much it is not readily apparent, she has long since mastered the art of hiding any visible signs of intoxication, even the subtle signs are held tight under her grip, with the only reliable sign that has been found being how clingy she becomes around those she feels safe around when she is intoxicated. 

At a rather low level of intoxication she would prefer to brush herself against them, with a mid level being characterized by her latching on to their arm or holding their hand, and at a severe level of intoxication she will have them put their arm around her, and latch onto their side as she nuzzles into them. 

The problem comes with her not wanting to let go of the one she has latched on to, with Rahu and the Chief having found themselves being pinned to a bed, chair, or any other piece of furniture that can support them by the drunken Hush as she falls asleep atop them, Christina having been spared the fate due to Shalom trying to maintain an image of a reliable older sister around her. 

Though, the Chief and Rahu are not alone in having to deal with an intoxicated Hush, as at one point the Chief was informed that she was required in the Garden’s group dorm by a somewhat baffled looking Sumire. 

Upon arriving in the dorm, she was met with the sight of the Sinners of the Garden looking on in dumbfounded shock as their Mentor was pinned to her bed by Shalom, the Poppy of the Garden shooting a dumbfounded look at the Chief as she approached, with her heaving a sigh as she began the process of trying to get the intoxicated Hush off of a flustered Coquelic. 

Only to be pulled down and pinned by her as well, with the Flowers either chuckling silently at the scene of the Mentor scolding the Chief for getting both of them pinned, or trying to find a way to get them out of their situation. 

Eventually, after much trial and error, they decided to utilize the most tried and true method of dealing with a drunken Shalom. 

They called Rahu and Christina. 

The pair arrived and, with a somewhat ashamed look on Christina’s face and an exasperated look on Rahu’s own face, managed to pry her off of the Chief and Coquelic before they carried her away to her room.

As for why Shalom was drunk that day, they would later learn that she had been having a conversation with Oak Casket as they drank what they had both assumed was a wine with a low alcohol content.

It did not, in fact, have a low alcohol content.

Where they got the wine, no one could ever figure out, though Nightingale and the Chief had a sneaking suspicion that it involved a certain supply office manager, who had taken a couple of days off to allow for the heat to di-*Ahem* to recuperate from a head cold. 

29. While everyone is aware that Shalom has a vast collection of records, most are unaware of just how many records she actually owns, with her having not only several storage racks filled with them, but also a storage unit full of containers filled with duplicated of the ones in her room, the transferal of it from the surface unit to the Bureau was…an adventure in its own right.

Despite this frankly absurd number of records, Shalom has listened to each of them,and can even recite which songs are on each of them just by glancing at the abbreviated designation she has marked each of them with.

In addition to records for her vinyl player, she also owns a large number of cassettes, disks, and even digital copies of each of the songs she has on her records should something happen to them. 

She also attends concerts and live performances whenever she gets the chance, typically draggin Christina, Rahu, and or the Chief along with her to the performance in question, though she has also extended an invitation to a rather dumbfounded Coquelic as well, the Garden’s Mentor has yet to give her a reply to the offer.

30.  It is rather well known that she has something of an…odd relationship with the Mentor of the Garden, the pair able to go from amicably drinking tea together, to Coquelic attempting to throttle Shalom as the Hush smiles at her. 

On one hand, Coquelic does appreciate how Shalom’s little scheme allowed her flowers and her to slip free from the Underground and to find a new home, but at the same time she is…decidedly less than pleased with the method that Shalom aided them, as well as how unapologetic she has been for the pain it caused her Flowers. 

On the other hand, Shalom has a rather sizable amount of respect for not only the sheer power and skill that Coquelic possess, but also how she was able to wrest control of not only her own fate, but the collective fates of the rest of the Garden as well, an act which has earned her no small amount of admiration and, to an extent, envy from the dread Hush. 

The pair have shown that, despite the occasional acts of hostility, they are more than able to have a working relationship between them, with the pair having come to work together to deal with any threat against the Chief or their makeshift home…that their methods are not what the Chief would approve of is simply a sacrifice they have deemed necessary to make for the greater good of her safety. 

By combining the Garden’s, the 9th Agency’s, and Shalom’s own resources, along with the occasional input from various other Sinners, they have been able to locate and remove many potential threats before they could take any form of action against the Chief or the Bureau, the majority of said threats vanishing without being seen again, while others suffer a myriad of…‘accidents’ that can not be traced back to any of the involved parties. 

The sheer efficiency with which they are able to operate is further proof of just how terrifying a force they are capable of becoming when they are not at each other’s throats, making it a rather sad thing that it only seems to happen under such…morbid circumstances. 

Or whenever the Chief sits them down and forces them to work together so she can get some peace and quiet.

31. While Shalom can claim to be a woman of many talents, one talent that has always evaded her, outside of driving, is the art of ice skating, something that she has tried time and again to remedy to…very little success. 

Her multiple attempts at learning the art have led to her having to either visit the medical wing for treatment for bruising, or to go to her room and spend a while laying down as she recovers from the aches caused by several falls to the ice. 

Many times she has managed to convince the Chief or Rahu to assist her in the matter, Christina having long given up on the matter and declared it a hopeless endeavor, with the pair rapidly approaching agreeing with her, especially given how many times she has dragged them down with her.

That many of those falls have led to them being in compromising positions is something Shalom claims no responsibility for, something that the Chief and Rahu are uncertain of the validity of, due in no small part to how Shalom is always smiling and wearing a faint blush during these incidents. 

32. She has an odd relationship with Summer, with Shalom having subtly leaked several pieces of Paradeisos technology and information to the genius sinner as a means of allowing for the Bureau to gain a leg up on Paradeisos and to develop their own Anti-Mania technology, something which Summer has been making many breakthroughs with, the rapid growth being explained as her having a bout of inspiration and her general eccentric nature. 

The only request she has had for Summer is for her to find a way to either replicate, or to take control of, the Schorl that is constantly with her, an additional caveat being that she wants it to speak in the Chief or Rahu’s voice when relaying information to her, something which Summer is treating as an additional challenge.

As for how she managed to make the notoriously eccentric genius work with her, that can be chalked up to a rather sizable amount of expensive chocolate, anime (that a curious Shalom has been coerced into watching with Summer), manga, and many other treats, the promise being that so long as she makes progress, Summer will continue to receive these care packages. 

On one hand, the Chief is rather cross with Shalom for going behind her back on this matter, but on the other hand, Summer has made a rather sizable amount of progress with aid from Eureka, Vanilla, and Dreya, and she has been on much better behavior since the arrangement began. 

With the addition of the Bureau not having to pay for any of this, the Chief has begrudgingly allowed for the deal to continue, under the stipulation that it be closely monitored to insure that nothing goes wrong.

33. She has a rather sizable amount of wealth to her disposal, enough to be in the upper elite of Dis, due in no small part to large amounts of passive income that come from her many investments in wealthy companies, along with her running several shell corporations from the shadow as a means of further supplementing the rather generous amount of wealth Paradeisos has allowed her to draw from. 

A rather large amount of this wealth is pooled into accounts for Rosa, Christina, the Chief, Rahu, and rather surprisingly Coquelic and Langley, with everything being arranged for them to receive access to these accounts should she die.

Rosa, Christina, the Chief, and Rahu, would be set to receive a rather sizable amount of wealth to their name, as well as controlling shares in the companies she has founded, along with control of her investments.

Coquelic’s account is different as it contains a mixture of money, as payment for a final contract, which is also included in an email set to be sent should she die, and a rather large amount of rare and exotic flower seeds.   

Langley’s would not just include a rather large amount of money, but also several flash drives and files filled with all of the information that she has amassed over her rather lengthy stay within Paradeisos, similar files and drives being placed within Rahu, Christina, Coquelic, and the Chief’s own vaults as well, with the hope being that they would finish what she started when she dies.

She has also included several cans of bug spray, particularly designed to kill spiders, and a guide on how to make better tasting coffee within Langley’s vault, with Christina’s containing a sizable amount of novels and aids for her work, with Rahu, Rosa, and the Chief having similar personal gifts awaiting them as well. 

She has also left behind a single bank account for Paradeisos themselves to access, with a flash drive loaded with enough Trojan Horse viruses to fry the servers of a third of Dis, all carefully concealed behind what amounts to her final report to her superiors. 

34. She owns a variety of outfits that she has never quite had the time or reason to try on, ranging from casual everyday wear, to business attire, to formal party attire, alongside other things that one would not normally consider her one to possess, such as maid outfits and lingerie. 

After she came to take up residence in the Bureau, she began to form a habit of trying on each of these unused outfits, or convincing one of those she is close with to model them for her, as she uses them as a dress up doll. 

An example of which was Rahu, who found herself the center of an impromptu fashion show that started with her in a rather formal suit, it was a bit too tight but otherwise quite comfortable…though Shalom and the Chief spent a rather absurd amount of time looking at her before she was bid to try on the next outfit…a maid outfit that was much too tight and small that had her glaring daggers at a blushing Chief and Shalom. 

Granted, the Chief was not exempt from becoming a part of the show, though she found herself with much more…lascivious clothing placed into her arms courtesy of Shalom, who had an oddly hungry gleam to her eyes as she watched the Chief vanish within a side room to don her new attire. 

After seeing her walk out, clad in a much more revealing maid outfit, which was quite the achievement given how the one she had worn looked on her, Rahu felt no small amount of sympathy for the woman, something that soon became pity as she saw the rest of the clothes that Shalom had in mind for her to wear. 

From an admittedly rather tasteful cocktail dress, though none of them could get the zipper to go up all the way, to a uniform resembling what a school teacher would wear, and even a copy of what the Hush usually wore with colors suited to compliment the Chief, something Rahu also found herself trying on…though it was several sizes too small for her. 

Of course, Shalom also joined in, the scene of her wearing a Sailor Scout uniform from an anime that Summer had shown her, left both Rahu and the Chief gaping as they tried to process the sight in front of them, yet little time had they to acclimate to the scene before another blow to their mental state came when Shalom, after spending close to 30 minutes within the closet, entered her room clad in a school girl uniform of all things.

It took approximately several long minutes for the Chief and Rahu to process what they were seeing, with the pair blushing heavily as Shalom smiled to herself at their reaction, knowing fully well that she had many more things to show them.

It is safe to say that both of them needed to take a very lengthy, and very cold shower when they fled to their respective rooms amidst Shalom’s quiet chuckling. 

35. She has joined several other Sinners in keeping an eye on the chief and making sure she does not overwork herself too much, with her method of getting her to stop being to simply walk into the office, grab her by the wrist, and pull her away from her computer and off to either of their rooms.

When that does not work, she will resort to decidedly more underhanded methods, such as slipping into the office via one of the hidden passages, putting her hands over her eyes and telling her that it is time to go to sleep as she waits for her to surrender.

Another option is to utilize the most tried and true method, that being the NHH method, which involves sicking either Nightingale or Hecate and Hella on the Chief, with said method ending in her either being drug out of her office by the Adjutant, often still in her chair, or being bullied into going to sleep by Hecate’s pleading and Hella’s cursing as she chews her out. 

But should all of the above fail, should all seem lost in this endeavor, then Shalom has perfected a final tired and true method of forcing the Chief to relax, one that, during her first attempt almost ended with her becoming a head shorter courtesy of a rather infuriated Sumire. 

The method in question? 

Step 1: Walk into the office. Utilizing passages is not necessary as the sound of approaching heels clicking on the floor and knocking on the door adds a valuable psychological factor to the approach.

Step 2: Do not respond to any of the Chief’s questions, merely meet her gaze with a smile and walk towards her, navigate around her desk and push her back towards the wall behind her. 

Step 3: Utilize greater than average strength to force her to remain in the chair by pinning her to ii, typically done by straddling her lap. 

Step 4: Lean in close to her ear and begin to hum a lullaby as you stroke her hair, and rub her upper back, certain fragrance perfumes also assist in this method, particularly ones including lavender. 

Step 5: Wait for her to give in and then wheel her out of the office and towards her room. 

So far this method boasts the 2nd highest success rate out of her other methods of coercing the Chief into resting, the highest being the NHH method, though other Sinners boast of having more successful ones…granted one of them involves rendering her unconscious and another involves paralyzing her, but they still work, thus the Hsush shall not stop until she perfects a method of getting the Chief to cease overworking herself.

Her current approach being to simply insure that there is no reason for her to overwork herself, with her providing aid on matters that would otherwise take up too much of the Chief’s time, though the Chief is yet hesitant to fully trust her with much of her work, she has so far allowed for the help. 

Only time will tell if this method works though. 

36. She has a curiosity regarding the various other nations that exist beyond the walls of Dis, something that has led to her gathering as much information and memorabilia from those nations that she is capable of. 

She regularly searches out any of the Sinners from foreign lands to speak with regarding their former homes, such as Pacassi and her long vanished hometown, Eirene and Fraser, KawaKawa and Stargazer for WhiteSands, or OwO and Goldion Ville.

It has become a small dream of hers to one day visit the lands beyond the walls of Dis and see what the world is like outside of the reach of Paradeisos and herself, though she does not want to go alone, so she has decided that she will try and take Rosa, Rahu, Christina (and of course where christina goes, Thistle goes.), and or the Chief with her come the chance to slip away.

But for now she will settle with enjoying what trinkets and information she can from those distant lands. She is particularly fond of the chess set that Eirene had brought over from her home city and the paper lantern that OwO made for her. 

37. Similar to Langley, she has many times made use of the skills of the Phantom Thief pair of Priscilla and Tetra, though she has never directly spoken to them, instead utilizing multiple online accounts and middle-men to hire them. 

The pair have long since ceased attempting to investigate just who it is that is behind all of the jobs that Shalom has given them, their previous attempts having ended with the pair finding a flash drive tucked into a drawer that contained their…toys, during a rather passionate moment.

Their session of intimacy being cast aside as they investigated what was on the flash drive, the pair soon finding themselves clinging onto one another as they saw a file containing both videos and images of them going about their daily lives, as well as on their missions, even their homes outside of the Bureau, including safe houses even the Chief was unaware of. 

Amidst the flurry of images and videos was a single document, a simple text file that contained words which managed to send a chill through their cores. 

“I would advise you to not bite the hand that feeds you, I harbor no malice towards you at the moment…but if you continue to pry into things best left unknown…then I will be forced to take much more direct action against you. 

The presence of this hard drive should be proof enough of what I am capable of, as well as the extent of my influence, and be advised that what you see here is but a fraction of the data I have gathered on the two of you. 

But that is neither here nor there at the moment, and I would truly hate to sully the wonderful working relationship we have at the moment, and in the same vein lose two exceptionally useful allies, thus I will take no action against you at the moment.

For now, I would advise you to hold one another close, perhaps enjoy the wine you have stored away in your cupboard. It is a wonderful vintage that pairs quite well with the dark chocolate that Tetra purchased a couple of days ago. 

Take some time off to process this information, don’t worry about anything, your superior at the Bureau is a kind woman, she won’t pry too much, and you have likely received a rather sizable transfer to your account for a job well done in regards to your last few missions from me. 

With that said, I must be going, I have a great many things to attend to that require my personal attention, though before I go, I have to admit that I was impressed by the variety of toys you possess. My own collection seems paltry in comparison…perhaps I should remedy that.

Sincerely X.”

The pair would take their mysterious benefactors' advice and spend the next few days with each other, not only scouring their homes and cell for bugs, but also in trying to bury the terror that the flash drive caused them. 

That the damn thing vanished the next day, only further heightened their fears of this unknown X. 

Curiously, the days following this incident would see Shalom spend a rather lengthy amount of time browsing certain…illicit sites in search of new additions for her own collection, that she asked Rahu, Rosa (Who she communicated with via sharing her screen in a call or by phone), and the Chief their opinion on the objects in question, is something 2 of the 3 mentioned would very much like to forget .

38. Upon learning that Peggy and Joan were two of the musicians whose tapes and records she possessed, she took time out of her schedule to ask for their autograph’s on the tapes and records in question, paying them quite handsomely in return.

She has likewise requested recording of several other musician Sinners performances, from Dudu, who spent several minutes in dumbfounded silence at just how much Shalom offered her before energetically shaking her hand and running off to get started, to Echo and her saxophone, the young musician being ecstatic to record a tape for someone at last. 

Whether or not the music is any good by the standards of the masses is of no concern to Shalom, all that matters is that it is her choice to listen to and enjoy it, and not the whims of her former masters, with it also serving a memento of some of the more vibrant souls present within the Bureau. 

39. Given her fixation on spreading happiness, and Shalom’s desire for happiness, it is a fair assumption to say that she has something of a relationship with Serpent, with the serpentine Sinner having taken upon herself the challenge of making Shalom give her a genuine smile through any means necessary. 

As a result of this, Shalom has many times found herself given a front row seat to the shows that Serpent puts on within the Bureau, the serpentine Sinner having pulled out every stop during her shows to try and coerce as much genuine emotion as she can from Shalom, with the Hush often finding herself feeling emotionally drained and yet deeply satisfied after each performance. 

She has also met the monstrous snake that Serpent keeps as a pet, granted their meeting involved it slithering through the vents and into her room as she was reading a book, but unlike many of her fellows she did not immediately panic and was instead able to keep the colossal snake busy until Serpent could arrive to recover it.

Though it did take them a rather long while to convince the snake to uncoil itself from around her and her chair, especially given that it seemed to be enjoying the story she was reading aloud to it. 

That is not to say it is an entirely one-sided deal, as Serpent has come to find herself with enough money in her account to be able to afford the sun lamps she has wanted for a long while, with Shalom also taking upon herself the duty of babysitting Serpent’s snake when the woman has to leave it behind on a mission. 

She has also aided Serpent in her quest to make the Chief happy, not only through funding but also by helping her in researching a rather large variety of means to try and appease the woman in question.

The Chief has since come to expect that whenever Serpent has a show, she will find herself being seated near the front with Shalom on one side, Eirene on the other, and Rahu and Christina as far away from the giant snake that accompanies Serpent as possible. 

40. She gets cold easily due to her fragile nature, her heavy coat helps her with it to an extent, but during particularly cold or windy days, she needs to wear layers to the point that she needs several minutes to pry off all of them when she is out of the cold, otherwise she will begin to overheat. 

In addition to getting cold easily, she also has a rather weak immune system, even with Paradeisos medicine at her back, thus she can easily fall ill during cold weather, leading to her being bedridden or consigned to the medical wing for several days before her condition stabilizes. 

As a result of this, she tends to avoid leaving the warmth of the Bureau, or even her room for that matter, during such weather unless her presence is requested by the Chief for some matter, though even then she will demand heavy reparations for her presence. 

Typically, said reparations will involve the Chief pampering her while she recovers from whatever illness has come to plague her, even should she be given medication to treat it, she will still request that the Chief stay with her till she is fully recovered. 

That is not to say she fairs any better during hot weather, as she has to wear sunscreen or carry an umbrella to avoid sun burns during the intense heat, with her trying to minimize her exposure to the intense sunlight as much as she can to avoid heat sickness. 

It is safe to say that she enjoys the more mild weather of spring or the cool and yet not freezing weather of fall as opposed to winter or summer, with those being the months she is able to enjoy the sights of the city and the world before she is forced to flee into cover at the changing weather. 

41. She once requested Enfer to make use of her ability to try and sculpt something that could elicit genuine fear from her, with the artist devoting a rather obscene amount of time and effort towards the matter, Shalom funding her ventures as the sculptor tried everything she could.

Eventually, Enfer managed to create something that managed to provoke a reaction from Shalom, the exact nature of the work that managed to provoke a feeling of unease and distress within Shalom such that she was visibly unnerved is unknown however, as Shalom had any visual images of the work removed as she took it to a secure and hidden space within her room.

None but the Hush and the Sculptor themselves have seen just what was made that day, and Enfer refuses to share any information on the matter, the Mistress of Fear herself feeling no small amount of unease whenever she recalls the work she made, and sheer distress it caused to flicker through the normally blank faced Shalom as she looked upon it. 

No threat was needed, no promise of revenge or wrath, nor was a bribe needed, only a glance at Shalom and at the artwork she had made was needed to bid her tongue to stay silent on the matter. 

An oddity is that after the piece was finished and hidden away, the pair tried to spend as much time with the Chief as possible, as though something compelled them to do so…perhaps…no, it is better that road be left unwalked. 

42. She is a regular listener to Eleven’s radio show, and is exceptionally fond of the radio host herself, finding her show to be the perfect thing to listen to as she focuses on work that has either kept her up late, or has awoken her exceptionally early.

Eleven is more than a little wary of the Hush, especially given the rumors she has heard of the woman, particularly from the agents of the Garden and various others, though at the same time she cannot ignore the way Shalom has spoken so highly of her, and the several times she has called in to her show to speak with her whenever she needed to take a breather during her work.

That said, Eleven wishes that the next time Shalom asks to take her photo, she does not have the flash on, especially given that the mirror she was standing beside managed to reflect it and disorientate both of them for several minutes. 

43. She very much enjoys sleeping in on the days she has nothing to do though not quite to the extent of Coquelic, who prefers to spend almost the entire day in bed when there is nothing for her to focus on, with her trying to catch up on any sleep she has been forced to miss as a result of her work.

Whenever someone attempts to awaken her from this slumber they will typically either be met by her Mark blazing in one of her eyes as she glares at them, or with her reaching out to pull them into bed with her, something that Rahu, Christina, Rosa, and the Chief have been the victims of before. 

The problem is that once she has a grip on them, and has begun to fall asleep, she very much refuses to relinquish her grip on them, with her poor victims having to either wait for her to awaken, or for them to find some way to wake her up.

Such as carrying her to, and proceeding to drop her into a tub of either warm or cold water, something that Rahu had to resort to at one point when something came up and Shalom was needed on one of those days.

She proceeded to learn that while Shalom is frail, she is still capable of throwing surprisingly heavy objects with no small amount of force at someone, particularly when they have their back turned to her. 

On an unrelated note, she had to see Iron and Anne for some aspirin to help with a headache she gained that day, where it came from she would not say, only that both the source of it, and the headache itself, were exceptionally annoying.

44. Shalom is not counted among the “Sane People Of The Bureau” as the group of Nightingale, Cinnabar, and recently Matilda is called within the Bureau by both staff and sinner, this is no small part due to her past as the Hush and her fixation on the Chief, along with the extremes she is willing to go to in order to achieve her goals. 

That said, she is still numbered among the “Somewhat Sane People Of the Bureau,” along with the likes of Langley, Zoya, and so on. As while she may not be the most sane of individuals, with Shalom even confessing such a thing herself due to her skewed view on morals and how she was brought up by Paradeisos, she is still more sane than most of the staff and sinners alike and is thus a candidate for leadership and advice should any of the Sane People Of The Bureau be indisposed after something occurs to effect the Chief…or when the chief needs to be overruled and or forced to take a break. 

45. She has a deep seated fascination with the Immortals (Dreya, Vanilla, and Mantis) due in no small part to their own contributions towards paving the way for Dis to be founded by Keylan during the expedition into the Perishing Star, along with the wisdom and knowledge they hold regarding not only the star, but also what they can recall of the world before Dis was founded. 

This is one of the few point where she and Paradeisos are in agreement, the information the Immortals possess has already caused several breakthroughs in regards to how the Perishing Star is viewed, along with information regarding both Mania and the effect it has had on the environment of the land around the star. 

As such, Shalom has been asked by Paradeisos to keep an eye on the Immortals and to help act as an intermediary to exchange information with them, especially in regards to the subjects of the Illusory Moon and it seeming intelligence, alongside of information of the old world that was lost during the years before the Expedition breached into the Star’s domain. 

She tends to speak most with Dreya as opposed to Mantis and Vanilla, as she find the astronomer to be the easiest to converse with of the group as opposed to the survivalist and logistician, though she has orders to try and gather information from Vanilla due to her being a largely unknown part of the Keylan Expedition, alongside of her understanding of the temporal hellstorm that rages within the Star’s domain and her ability to help in reconstructing some of the ruined monitoring stations around 00. 

46. Shalom was rather surprised when she learned that the Chief refuses financial backing and aid from her sinners, alongside of only taking Hella and Hecate with her on her missions, the latter annoying her much more than the former due to potential safety risks.

As a result of this, she is one of many that have brought up the idea of the Chief taking other sinners aside from just Hella and Hecate with her during missions as while she may have success so far with just the pair, she also has tendency to run into situations that heavier firepower would be greatly useful in contending with.

As a result of this, she and several others, including Langley, Eirene, Demon, and Rahu, have worked to put together a means of coercing the Chief to accept further aid on her missions from those who are capable of doing so, with the more contaminated and mania sensitive sinners having to be kept on the sidelines due to contamination and potential risk of going full maniac allowing for them to narrow the suspects down. 

That they have even been able to sway Nightingale to their side is proof of their devotion to this cause, though so far they have had little luck in convincing the chief to accept further help…at least willingly as they have several times simply either pulled rank on her (Langley) or threatened her with withholding her coffee and snacks (Nightingale) if she did not take aid with her on some missions. 

Shalom would go with the Chief on missions herself, if she did not feel that doing so would run the risk of allowing Paradeisos too much information on the Chief and potentially causing the both of them future headaches.

47. Despite her fragility, Shalom possesses rather impressive healing capabilities, though not to the extent of Hella, she is still capable of surviving many wounds that would have been fatal to others, with Schorl furthering her healing abilities with its own technology. 

She cannot regrow limbs or digits, nor can she regenerate organs, or is she immune to illness, but she is still capable of taking a stab or bullet and surviving, at least assuming it is not directly to her heart or brain, something she considers one of the few useful modifications Paradeisos made to her after she became the Hush. 

48. She has an odd relationship with subjects unknown to her, as she is both wary of, and yet also fascinated by, anything that she has know knowledge or comprehension of, something which is quite rare given her eidetic memory and the amount of information she was taught by Paradeisos and has learned on her own. 

This leads to her starting ventures into unknown subjects cautiously at first as she tests the waters before she begins to dive into them in full, hungrily devouring anything and everything she can on the subject until she feels that she is satisfied with it. 

This is not something born of scholarly desire, but rather out of a desire to know what she can use and what can be used against her, alongside of it being something that she has the ability to choose to indulge in without being ordered to do so, it is also something she does to further cultivate her seemingly all knowing image to instill both respect and unease in those around her. 

Among the subjects she has studied are things such as tailoring, animal husbandry (Christina learned far too much regarding breeding habits of animals when she was researching it), entomology (She felt it wise to learn more about her arachnid foes), cooking, and cocktail making. 

49. It is a standing rumor in the Bureau that Shalom’s coat is able to repair itself, as no matter what is done to it, be it burned or slashed, it is always in immaculate condition the next time anyone sees her wearing it. 

The truth is much less fanciful though, as Shalom simply owns many copies of her coat that she can use when she is unable to fix one of them or have a tailor fix it for her, with her having allocated a rather large sum simply to replacing and repairing her coats when they get damaged. 

She at one point had to have a whole new batch made for her as, despite not being contaminated when the Garden and Langley unleashed a hell of spiders into her room, she one day went to put on one of her coats and found a rather large tarantula inside of it. 

How it got there, she had no idea, only knowing that it was the doing of someone in the Bureau, especially given she has spider-proofed her room to the best of her ability since the ‘prank’ pulled on her.

Needless to say, she promptly had Schorl burn each of her coats for safety reasons. 

50. She is very well aware of the irony of her name's meaning and of her profession and the deeds she has committed, with her finding it to be somewhat humorous in a rather dark way, with her using it as a part of several rather dark jokes that she makes when free of Schorl’s gaze. 

51. While Shalom claims to have something of a Black Thumb when it comes to gardening, few know just how bad her attempts at gardening have ended over the course of her attempts at it. 

As not only has she managed to kill the vast majority of her own plants, including ones that should not be easily killable by any stretch of imagination, but she has also managed to, through means known to not even Paradeisos, cause plants that others are tending to on her behalf to die whenever she tries any attempt at caring for them. 

She was particularly upset the day she managed to kill a rose that Rosa had given her, with the maid having to visit the Bureau to console her former employer over the matter, said maid would later confide to the Chief that the flower was artificial and it should not have been possible for it to die. 

52. Shalom very much enjoys egging people on when the chance arises, utilizing her position as a Paradeisian and her own connections to put people who have managed to earn her ire in a position of wishing to strike at her, but being unable to do so.

In particular, she enjoys doing this to high ranking officials or such that try and interfere in her aiding the Chief, finding the expressions they make as they grit their teeth in silent and indignant fury at her to be amusing to no small extent. 

She is confident that should anything occur, Rahu would protect her, though her bodyguard has told her many times to cease her antics or to at least reign in her antics so that she did not have to have her hands on her weapons everytime Shalom meets an official that annoyed her. 

The only response she received from Shalom was an amused smile and the faintest hint of exasperation from Schorl as the Hush went to another meeting with a board of officials, said meeting nearly devolved into a full on brawl due to her pitting them against one another as she sat back and enjoyed the show.

It is safe to say that Rahu has come to dread seeing Shalom smile during meetings. 

53. She has many times commissioned Cassia to make perfume for her, with her finding the perfumers products to be vastly superior to even the perfumes that she would find in luxury stores in Eastside. 

A part of the deal she has with Cassia is an exchange of fragrances so to speak, as she will let the perfumer take samples of her hair to make into perfume in exchange for custom perfumes, though her donations to help Cassia built her own Atelier within the Bureau don't hurt either. 

Cassia considers the perfume she has made from Shalom’s hair to be an oddity, not just due to it smelling of a form of flower she has not smelled before, her best guess being some form of lily, with a rather spicy undercurrent of something akin to cinnamon, but also the feeling of peace it seems to bring the one wearing it, though she claims the feeling of peace feels…unnatural to her.

The perfumer would work to refine the perfume made of Shalom’s hair for several months before she seemed to reach some form of breakthrough, though it did not seem to be a desirable one as she soon destroyed the product and went back to her earlier iteration of the scent. 

Why she did so, she would never say, but the look of pity and unease in her eyes when she looks at Shalom since her experiment ended, tells a tale all of its own. 

54. She finds Hella to be rather adorable, though she is admittedly somewhat envious of the sheer amount and depth of emotions the young Syndician can feel, along with the ease at which she is able to display and switch between them.

Nonetheless, she has come to be rather fond of the gremlin’s antics, with her considering it a pleasant interruption to her day whenever she sees the hellion causing chaos within the Bureau, with her having gone so far as to aid her in her escapes and antics for her own amusement. 

She is also oddly protective over the Syndician, as she has come to the conclusion that Hella is a vital component to the Chief’s happiness, and a valuable means of keeping her safe, and as such she takes many steps to insure that the little hellion is safe during her outings.

Hella once confronted her on the matter, surprising Shalom with her awareness of her involvement, the pair speaking for a while on their thoughts on the matter, with the Rat Queen Of Syndicate surprising Shalom with her maturity and intelligence during their conversation. 

In the end Hella agreed to endure her meddling and watch, in exchange for her monitoring and protecting Ninety-Nine as well, with the gremlin threatening Shalom with going to the Chief and ruining her image in the Chief’s eyes if anything happened to the Berserker.

Shalom had chuckled at the statement, an honest chuckle of amazed amusement at the girl's audacity, before she acquiesced to her demand with grace, smiling to herself as she re-evaluated her opinion on the girl who finished her tea before she left. 

Before Hella had left the room, however, she had asked her how it was she deduced that it was her that was involved, something which made Hella pause before she turned to look at her over her shoulder and said-

“I had a hunch it was someone high up, didn't know who though, so I took a gamble on it being you and you confirmed it for me.”

Shalom had been incredulous for a moment before she began to chuckle once more, basking in both her surprise and the genuine emotion she felt as she watched the young woman leave, silently vowing to herself to see the full potential of the young girl one day.

55. And the final one, is that Shalom fully expects to never truly achieve her happy ending and to die before she can be fully free of the shadow of Paradeisos, to never be able to watch movies with the Chief, see Rahu freed from her hatred, watch as Christina and Thistle grow together, or witness Coquelic and her Garden claim their own pound of flesh from both the Underground and Paradeisos.

 Because of this, everything she has done and continues to do is her rigging the board as much in favor of the Chief and those she feels deserve it as possible, all to insure that once she is gone they will still be safe and can reach their own happiness.

She knows that nothing she has done can make up for even a fraction of the sins she has committed, but at the very least she hopes that these sins can pave the way to heaven for her loved ones while she descends into hell where the Hush belongs. 

She could burn with a smile on her face, so long as she knows they will be safe and happy.

And with any luck, she will drag Paradeisos down to the depths of hell with her, so that they can all burn along with the monster they created. 

Author’s Note: Well this has been a lengthy one, I apologize for the rather long delay with this chapter, life, writer’s block, and other projects kept me busy and left me little time to truly focus on this chapter, but I am quite content with it and feel that it is at a good enough point to call it for now. 

We hope you all enjoyed this mess of a chapter, and we hope to hear your own headcanons and thought on Shalom if you wish to share them with us. 

That said, we are going to try and update either our other PtN fic with a Shalom Chapter, or our Genshin Fic.

Either way, stay safe and take care all.