"No," Astrid answered almost instantly. Playing music on the street for horrible Americans was most definitely not what she wanted to do for the rest of her existence. That would be the absolute worst case scenario. "Just for getting of money."

Really, she didn't entirely enjoy playing the cello. Sure, there were times when she liked the sounds she created, but she really hated having to lower herself to the place where she got money from strangers legitimately and had to search for somewhere to sleep each night. It was most definitely not what she wanted to do for the rest of her life, but she held a secret hope that Jabberwocky could possibly fix that.

Besides, she had other plans for greater things, she was just waiting until a point where she was able to put them into action.

>>"Is English your first language?"

Astrid turned a little red and looked away after that comment. It sounded like he wanted an answer that she couldn't give him. And it wasn't like she could lie, either. He would be able to see straight through that. "Is not. The French."

"No," was Valkyrie's almost immediate response. Good. "Just for getting of money." Well, there were probably more effective ways to get money, if you needed money but wanted to stay legal and so under the radar - she could, he didn't know, work at a McDonald's or something. But that'd probably be even more humiliating.

...hilarious, though.

"Is not. The French."

...yes. The French. Well, he could tell, at least. Maybe he could get Noel to give this girl English lessons too? He was turning into a tutoring service, at this rate, or a foster home for random foreign children. Probably the second, if he was being honest. Or just a foster home in general.

That was not his original vision for Ragnarok, but, well, he'd take it? Maybe he'd just be blunt. Get this over with faster so he could ponder his life choices.

"How do you feel about being a member of an anarchic terrorist faction?" Ambrose said, dryly. "We blow things up. In the name of chaos. Membership benefits include infinite supplies of C4 and spray paint."

And this was why he let Panu do the recruiting.

>>"How do you feel about being a member of an anarchic terrorist faction? We blow things up. In the name of chaos. Membership benefits include infinite supplies of C4 and spray paint."

Um, how about hell yes?

That was exactly what Astrid had wanted her entire life. To be part of something chaotic and evil, and get the added factor of her rep boosting tenfold. There was no question in her mind about what her answer was.

If only her throat wasn't so dry.

She stood staring at him for a good long minute, he mouth hanging open and one eye twitching. The words were at the tip of her tongue, she just couldn't coax them to come out. She screamed at herself internally. She was going to lose her chance!

After a good minute or so of that, her throat finally lubricated itself enough to let her speak. "Yes please," she said weakly. 

Well, that was just about the worst way that could have possibly gone.

Um.

Ambrose blinked as the girl stared at him. He couldn't see too many details, but he assumed that this was what honored shock looked like in infrared. There was a solid seventy-two seconds (yes, he'd counted) as Valkyrie apparently tried her absolute hardest to force out words.

Ambrose hadn't been aware that he had that effect on people. Normally, when someone couldn't speak in his presence, it was out of sheer terror. Or shock. Or surprise because a giant dragon had come swooping out of nowhere. Not because they were so flattered by an invitation to join his not-even-remotely-exclusive terrorist group that they couldn't get words out.

Seriously. She could've literally walked up to one of the (at this point) hundreds of people spray-painting Rag's logo around the city, and asked them if they could please recruit her, however they did that. But then, each member took great pride in having their own recruiting "style" - Ambrose knew of at least one member who was setting up elaborate trials to warrant entry, which was not at all necessary but definitely entertaining to watch someone make their way into an evidence locker, blindfolded, and try their hardest to rob the entire janitor's closet with their thumbs taped down.

"Yes please," someone said, and Ambrose was almost surprised to realize that Valkyrie was still there.

"Right then," Ambrose said brightly and immediately, before his impatience showed and possibly scared her off. Nurturing. He was nurturing. He was going to be a very nurturing leader and bring out the worst in all of his progeny, as befitting a terrorist leader. "I'll add you to the email list. Just find a Ragnarök member on the street, preferably one with opposable thumbs, and tell them to add you. Members will be the ones blowing things up or spray-painting a giant R somewhere after the fact."

Yes, they had an email list. Everyone was always so damned confused when he brought that up, like it was unthinkable that a massive chaos syndicate would have an email list. How in the world else would he get a message to everyone at the same time? Word of mouth was slow and impractical. If he wanted to set up an attack, he sent out a form and let people fill it out if they wanted to participate. Cybersecurity wasn't even in the top twenty when it came to threats Ambrose was worried about, thanks to Panu.

...maybe he should change that. Email lists and online sign-up sheets weren't terrifying. They were terrifyingly domestic. Rag should take over a sector of the city, perhaps, and graffiti the walls to communicate. Like a Facebook wall, but literally.

This was sad. Ambrose let out an irritated huff just thinking about it. So much work to do, so many things to fix. Running Rag was so much more... corporate than he'd expected.

That... That was it?

Astrid had fully expected there to be some sort of secret ceremony or initiation that had her professing her unfailing loyalty and writing her name on a wall in the blood of innocents. She had definitely not expected to have to use a computer to gain entry to a chaos faction.

And she definitely didn't expect to have to talk to someone else after the fact. Why couldn't Jabberwocky just add her? Wasn't he the leader or something? It was so entirely disappointing.

Astrid tried her best to shake off her surprise and disappointment at the fact that it apparently wasn't a big deal to join this supposedly important faction. She smiled weakly at Jabberwocky and extended her hand at him. She wasn't sure if he was even able to shake hands with her, but she did it anyway.

"Thank you for the joining me," she nodded to him curtly, trying to seem professional. 

Email. She could probably do email. She wasn't entirely sure what that was or how to access it on a computer, but she would find a way. This was, after all, very important. She was going to get to join a super cool evil organization and get all the benefits of it. She would figure out how to work email.