Glossary: Sheng's Office
Feb. 17th, 2023 02:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dochermesGlossary - Sheng's Office
Argent Investigations, also known as Chuan Lo-Tsing ("Hard Working Fist" or "Fist For Hire"). Opened August 1, 2010. Sheng kept the unusual hours of 12 Midnight until 8 AM because he felt that was when Midnight War clients would need him most urgently.
("The Hartwicke building had two floors of efficiency apartments at its top and an interesting assortment of businesses on its other stories. The ground floor was taken up mostly by a unisex barber shop and hair salon that seemed to be thriving. Sheng trotted down two flights of stairs, checked his box in the bank of tenant mailboxes by the front door.")
On the third Floor of the five story Hartwicke Building, Sheng's office was on the right as one came up the wide wooden stairs. The door had a frosted glass panel displaying the agency's name and office hours. The rest of the floor was taken up by a row of three offices with similar frosted doors: a travel agency, a computer repair shop and one office that has been vacant indefinitely.
Sheng's office had a full bathroom (with shower) in the far right corner and a large closet, but much of the space was taken up by a substantial desk with a swivel chair and a fan-shaped window in the wall behind it. A brown leather couch along one wall had several soft cushions and often a rolled-up blanket. and four straightback wooden chairs with red leather seats faced Sheng's desk. There were two hanging plants behind the desk and a big calendar on the wall with photos of sunsets. An old-fashioned analogue clock hung on the wall next to the door where Sheng could see it from his desk.
To the right as one entered, Uncle Pao's smaller desk sat several feet away from Sheng's, set at a right angle to his and behind where clients sat, This was so the two of them could exchange glances and signals with the clients unable to see unless they sharply turned their heads. The old man could distract clients at appropriate times with a comment that made them turn their heads toward him, giving Sheng a moment to think or hide something or to go for a weapon. ("It also allowed Uncle Pao to make disrespectful faces at whatever the clients said, a pastime he enjoyed very much.")
Next to Pao's desk on his left was a counter on which sat a microwave, a hot plate and a tea kettle. An overhead cabinet held some supplies, including plastic ware and red Solo cups as well as regular china mugs. In a cannister on the top shelf, where he thought Uncle Pao would not notice, Sheng kept a small amount of the Tagra leaves Tel Shai had allotted him. Sheng never realized that Pao pilfered one Tagra leaf every few days to add to his own Snow Tiger Gingeng Tea, nor that this was a reason why Pao remained so limber and energetic in his late seventies.
In the deep left-side drawer of his desk, Sheng kept a long metal case. Its combination lock was a decoy, since the case actually opened when concealed catches were slid away from each other. Here were kept KDF gadgets and weapons which he normally did not carry on him. One of the anesthetic dart pistols sat in its padded interior.
On the south side of the building, the EMERGENCY EXIT had been secretly rigged by Megan Salenger so that Sheng could disable its alarm for twenty seconds with a signal from his key fob. This arrangement was seriously illegal. Megan had also installed Trom proximity alarms on the door and window, with the small pad blinking green and blue lights if nothing had been disturbed.
Sometimes housed at the IMPERIAL GARAGE on 44th Street, Sheng's beloved bright-red Ferrari 458 Italia was often parked near the office if he found a spot. On the driver's sunvisor, small blue and green lights blinked steadily. More Trom-level security alarms. If anyone had done more than lightly brush up against the car, those lights would have turned red and a signal would have been sent to Sheng's Link. Megan had also rigged it so that anyone touching the vehicle longer than ten seconds would receive an electric shock which could be adjusted from a mild static jolt to a blast that would send the person convulsing to the ground; Sheng had considered the legal liabilities of leaving this feature active and normally left it turned off. He spent enough time in court as it was.
Argent Investigations, also known as Chuan Lo-Tsing ("Hard Working Fist" or "Fist For Hire"). Opened August 1, 2010. Sheng kept the unusual hours of 12 Midnight until 8 AM because he felt that was when Midnight War clients would need him most urgently.
("The Hartwicke building had two floors of efficiency apartments at its top and an interesting assortment of businesses on its other stories. The ground floor was taken up mostly by a unisex barber shop and hair salon that seemed to be thriving. Sheng trotted down two flights of stairs, checked his box in the bank of tenant mailboxes by the front door.")
On the third Floor of the five story Hartwicke Building, Sheng's office was on the right as one came up the wide wooden stairs. The door had a frosted glass panel displaying the agency's name and office hours. The rest of the floor was taken up by a row of three offices with similar frosted doors: a travel agency, a computer repair shop and one office that has been vacant indefinitely.
Sheng's office had a full bathroom (with shower) in the far right corner and a large closet, but much of the space was taken up by a substantial desk with a swivel chair and a fan-shaped window in the wall behind it. A brown leather couch along one wall had several soft cushions and often a rolled-up blanket. and four straightback wooden chairs with red leather seats faced Sheng's desk. There were two hanging plants behind the desk and a big calendar on the wall with photos of sunsets. An old-fashioned analogue clock hung on the wall next to the door where Sheng could see it from his desk.
To the right as one entered, Uncle Pao's smaller desk sat several feet away from Sheng's, set at a right angle to his and behind where clients sat, This was so the two of them could exchange glances and signals with the clients unable to see unless they sharply turned their heads. The old man could distract clients at appropriate times with a comment that made them turn their heads toward him, giving Sheng a moment to think or hide something or to go for a weapon. ("It also allowed Uncle Pao to make disrespectful faces at whatever the clients said, a pastime he enjoyed very much.")
Next to Pao's desk on his left was a counter on which sat a microwave, a hot plate and a tea kettle. An overhead cabinet held some supplies, including plastic ware and red Solo cups as well as regular china mugs. In a cannister on the top shelf, where he thought Uncle Pao would not notice, Sheng kept a small amount of the Tagra leaves Tel Shai had allotted him. Sheng never realized that Pao pilfered one Tagra leaf every few days to add to his own Snow Tiger Gingeng Tea, nor that this was a reason why Pao remained so limber and energetic in his late seventies.
In the deep left-side drawer of his desk, Sheng kept a long metal case. Its combination lock was a decoy, since the case actually opened when concealed catches were slid away from each other. Here were kept KDF gadgets and weapons which he normally did not carry on him. One of the anesthetic dart pistols sat in its padded interior.
On the south side of the building, the EMERGENCY EXIT had been secretly rigged by Megan Salenger so that Sheng could disable its alarm for twenty seconds with a signal from his key fob. This arrangement was seriously illegal. Megan had also installed Trom proximity alarms on the door and window, with the small pad blinking green and blue lights if nothing had been disturbed.
Sometimes housed at the IMPERIAL GARAGE on 44th Street, Sheng's beloved bright-red Ferrari 458 Italia was often parked near the office if he found a spot. On the driver's sunvisor, small blue and green lights blinked steadily. More Trom-level security alarms. If anyone had done more than lightly brush up against the car, those lights would have turned red and a signal would have been sent to Sheng's Link. Megan had also rigged it so that anyone touching the vehicle longer than ten seconds would receive an electric shock which could be adjusted from a mild static jolt to a blast that would send the person convulsing to the ground; Sheng had considered the legal liabilities of leaving this feature active and normally left it turned off. He spent enough time in court as it was.
