2017-06-07: The Hug Method
- Log: The Hug Method
- Cast: Riesenlied, Kalve
- Where: Photosphere
- Date: 7th June 2017
- Summary: Riesenlied seeks reprieve from her injuries from Kalve, and asks him of his opinions of the battle of Adlehyde. Also, a discussion on the merits of hugging Ida.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied has had a very rough couple of days, starting from Operation: Gungnir, where she's had to... fight off a good half-dozen of very angry Drifters in a rather emotional engagement, which exacerabated an already severe shoulder injury to the point where her left arm was non-operational. She's been staving it off, but she's been running around so much that she hasn't had the time to have the wound truly looked at... a fact that has annoyed some people, like Noeline.
She had questions for Kalve anyway, and at this point, the wound was bothering her to the point where it was rendering her weakened for several moments at a time. She's sought out Kalve's usual haunt in the Photosphere, dressed in her Ellurian cloak and the white shirt and skirt combo with the armwarmers and leggings as always. "Mister Kalve? It is Riesenlied..." she speaks, softly. "I would like to speak with you and -- seek your expertise, if time allows."
She had to ask for his opinion on the phenomenon of light that she manifested too...
<Pose Tracker> Kalve has posed.
Kalve didn't get off much better. The invasion was a very trying time. He took out his frustrations on humans who thought themselves his allies, and on the machine of one who did not know his enemy. His own injuries were severe, but he recovered quickly. It pays to be what passes for a medic, especially when you have more precise control over your body than most.
Kalve's haunt is tucked away in the Photosphere, accessible through a winding, meandering path that, to Demons, mountain trails are reminiscent of. It juts out from the wall it is affixed to, a bubble of smoothly curved metal like a blister on the wall, with a single iris-like entrance low on the edifice. People don't come this far without a purpose, and the rather precise path of arrival means it's out of the way, even for a place as enclosed as the Photosphere. He must not appreciate random purposeless interruptions.
The door opens when Riesenlied draws near. The interior is tiered around a central space like an ampitheatre, with vertical specimen tanks full of half-formed ARMs and quicksilver-like fluids organized in clusters seemingly randomly around the chamber. Monitors are set here and there, glowing softly and adding to the sparse illumination of the chamber. Most of the light comes from the ceiling, but it's broken up as if filtered through what looks like branches of trees with no trunks entwined in a canopy near the domed ceiling.
The branches, though, are weapons. Dozens of them; suspended, all. Its half a display piece and half a form of storage. Primitive and advanced ranged weaponry, blades and bludgeons of all types, geometric constructs with harsh edges or mysterious indents. Nothing seems to be holding them up. Swords of Damocles, perhaps?
Kalve stands in the center of the chamber, bent over a pool of crimson fluid, manipulating something with the fur extra arms extended from his back and around his body. He's humanoid, but with a body covered in what would be grey, almost insectile body armor with black gauntlets and greaves -- but it isn't really 'worn', and it isn't really 'armor,' is it? He's stopped suppressing the more notably alien aspects of his appearance, his largely humanesque face crossed with lines of metallic silver that seem to writhe while he concentrates and with an intricate marking like a third eye in red on his forehead.
"Come," Kalve calls. His secondary arms continue to sculpt something like clay in the pool. His primary hands cup a holographic display hovering above the cistern. "I will be unoccupied momentarily."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Compared to even the regular metal demon, Riesenlied has very poor control over her body. Kalve knows. He's seen to her wounds before, and they are troublesome. The living metal inside of her is of an extraordinarily impure quality; this is problematic on several levels -- on normal operations, it results in brittleness and a lack of tensile strength; it is incapable of coping with the stresses of rapid transformations the way Kalve enjoys of the Mercury method; and more direly, it tends to inhibit healing, due to how the streamlined nature of living metal is... disrupted.
Riesenlied looks around the ARMs and the fluids rather curiously, as she often does when she arrives at Kalve's chambers. His curiosity is something she shares, and she might've shared her findings over the many years in turn. She places a hand to her cheek, with her one good hand. "... I need some medical assistance ... once you are done," Riesenlied speaks patiently, curious about the clay that he is molding. Is that blood, or... something else, that crimson fluid?
<Pose Tracker> Kalve has posed.
The ARMs and fluids are always full of interesting things. Demons come to Kalve to have their weapons formed, often once they realize they need something more precise or complex than something they've created themselves. Those are always more organic-looking. An array of weapons like human firearms are half-built, too, but their purpose is unclear. As for the central basin...
It's definitely blood, and that is not precisely clay.
Kalve works with what looks like human flesh. It isn't. It could be a convincing prosthetic. He's apparently building an arm... or an ARM. There is a precise slice where he's peeled the skin off like a sheet. It looks like the inside is full of complex mechanisms instead of actual musculature, making it a great deal less gruesome than it otherwise might be.
The Manipule Array's arms withdraw. The blood sluices off of them back into the tank with a flicker of yellow light. Kalve gestures, and a specimen tank slithers up out of the depression and seals around the arm. He slides it smoothly off to the side of the room, and with another motion, brings up a familiar seat in its place. One of his hands makes an inviting motion at it.
"You were injured in the fighting," he says. It isn't really a question. "It is dangerous to leave injuries so long." He cycles containers up out of the floor, countertops and computer consoles Riesenlied has certainly become familiar with. They're mostly for the process of extracting a suitable sample to create an ARM, but he uses the same equipment to treat serious injuries. "Let me see it."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied nods slowly, as she walks towards the seat and strips her cloak off to fold onto one side. It's a bit cumbersome, with only one hand, but she also descends on the seat to sit down upon it. "... Miss Ida spoke of you," she comments, if only to fill the air while she looks towards the extent of the equipment Kalve works with. "... I had not known that you had made a connection with her... but I had an inkling you spoke to people in your own time." It isn't accusatory, the way other demons suspect others of being human sympathisers.
There is a faint chuckle. "She said you tried to throw her when she tried to hug you."
<Pose Tracker> Kalve has posed.
Kalve helps with the cloak once it's clear she's having trouble. He moves to Riesenlied's injured side, taking her left arm and gently probing it with some kind of twisted metallic tool. There's a faint vibration from the device. One of the nearby monitors starts to fill in with details on her shoulder and arm in wireframe.
"You are, ah... acquainted with her?" Kalve's normally stoic demeanor is set a touch off-kilter by the commentary. "Zed and I have made a number of casual acquaintances among the humans, yes." Riesenlied chuckles. Kalve frowns. "I was... unprepared," he says, after a second, "for that sort of contact. She had just attacked me, besides."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied couldn't help but chuckle. "I understand," she assures. "I have myself made... perhaps more acquaintances -- even deep friendships -- with the Drifters of Adlehyde..." It is no light admission. Friendships with humans? Then again, Riesenlied has always done things her own way... even amidst commanders, amongst those who lead, the elders often meddle and try to veto her due to her radical teachings, such as empathy and understanding, even under the guise of knowing your enemy.
"In fact, she was the one who urged that I see you to mend myself. She does care... she is a gentle soul, that one," she muses. Kalve's monitoring reveals something of an anomaly -- part of it is what that he's already used to. The resonance from the metal is weak, as has been strained beyond the point of rigour. It happens, from time to time, and he already likely has ways to deal with that... he can mend this problem. It will take time to heal, but he can set it forth on the right track.
The tool, however, also highlights another anomaly -- one that registers on a fundamental, elementary level. Probing deeper would reveal that the particles that make up Riesenlied's body appear to be a little less stable than before -- unstable, on some imperceptible level that should practically not matter... until it does -- or one chooses to take advantage of it.
"The fighting taught me many things... and reconfirmed others, in a way," Riesenlied admits. "What about you? What did you think of the battle?"
<Pose Tracker> Kalve has posed.
Riesenlied's teachings come from experience with those stuck at the bottom of the ladder within their martial society. Kalve's own methods come instead from interactions everywhere /but/ there. Knowing your enemy is something that he can agree with, but that sort of empathy never seemed useful to him until very, very recently.
"Too gentle," Kalve says. "That quality makes her easy to form emotional attachments to, and obstructs her own martial development. I am concerned what it may mean if it were to continue." That's about as close to admitting he likes her as Kalve is likely to get, barring pressing. He twists the tool and makes a little motion with it, paralyzing Riesenlied's injured arm and shoulder. The arm of the chair raises to support it. He turns away to retrieve something: a sort of dust, and a material like liquid metal. Once he's mixed it, it's basically a high-tech sort of unguent.
Kalve works on applying it with his secondary hands, building a layer of something like a metal cast around it. It'll integrate itself into her system in relatively short order after it's hardened and help fix the problem. It isn't the first time, after all. His eyes flick instead to one of the monitors, displaying something that makes him frown. He draws it up on a flexible cable and looks more closely.
"The humans are determined, but largely underequipped and unfocused." Kalve's nearly murmuring, examining whatever the screen is telling him more intently. "A mechanized combat unit was deployed against me along with a number of unique ARMs and fighting styles, but their unit discipline and coordination was severely lacking." The tool moves further down her arm and hums for a moment or two. "Have you been experiencing any anomalous physiological episodes recently?"
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied flinches as Kalve works on the tool, and what little feeling she can still feel is gone as the arm goes completely numb. "Ah..." she sucks in a breath. The way that she reacts to pain is certainly more extreme than other demons -- closer to that of a human's. It's not a fact that has been lost to many of her detractors.
"But at the same time, such an emotional attachment has allowed her to learn more from the others that she's surrounded," Riesenlied muses softly, trying to regulate her breathing. "It is useful, in her line of work... one cannot be a solitary island in academia. It holds true for them as it does for us, does it not?"
His question catches her attention, though, and she has to frown. "Physiological... episode?" A pause. "... actually, now that you mention it, when I last utilised my ARM..."
Kalve would know of her ARM as well -- it's something that has come about only out of a lot of hard work and a lot of personal pain, the way it kind of haphazardly tears through her to form its body rather than seamlessly integrate. The Fallen Sword, Laevateinn... named for a myth in Hyades for a wilted flower that dared to grow in the ground, mistaken for a nonexistent magical sword everyone sought and never found.
An apt analogy, perhaps.
She reaches up with her good hand, and focuses -- and one of the feathers along the stretch of her wing floats up, shimmering on a bed of photon particles. "... I was about to be struck down. I could sense it... I could tell -- and before I knew it... my entire body had..."
A pause, as she hesitates. "It happened in a split second, but I had -- moved places instantly. It was like my body had been utterly torn apart, and then reconstructed elsewhere, with the assistance of my Pinions -- through a curtain of light. ... I can't quite explain it... Cetiri mentioned something about... delocalising my phase transition... but I could not really understand it."
<Pose Tracker> Kalve has posed.
"That is an apt description for my first steps into the Method," Kalve says, a ghost of a smile on his face. He touches the screen and jots down notes in some shorthand or another. His eyes flick back to her, and he nods. "I am glad to put you on the road to recovery. I would recommend meditating on this new discovery. I would be very interested to see where you take it, or if we may make something of it."
Kalve takes a moment to check the unguent's application, and then sweeps the component pieces away into a container, secreting them away. He busies himself in Riesenlied's immediate vicinity, watching her while she lays out her question. He knows better than to interrupt someone like her when she gets going... which is to say, anyone who sounds like they've got either a pointed speech or something to get off their chest.
Zed stressed the importance of that sort of thing. Kalve took note. The world is made stranger as a result.
She looks right at him, surely looking for some sign of understanding, acceptance, revulsion -- anything but the stony demeanor he wears. Kalve's secondary arms bend at the elbows and fold up behind him; his primary hands are instead folded in front. He looks like he should have a short stick to lean on. He tilts his head slightly to the side, and the silvery lines that cross his face twist and move, shifting into something like an hourglass shape.
"I am uncertain that our present method of operation will meet with the success the Knights and other, older members of our people hope for," Kalve says carefully. "However, such a change is not to be undertaken lightly, nor alone. Do you have others who have already agreed to fight with you? What would you have me do, were I to consider such a request? And, further --"
Kalve lowers his head slightly, eyes locked on hers. His voice takes on a slightly grim tone. "Do you still fight for the restoration of Mother? To build a home for us," he sweeps his left hand out, and the two secondary arms on that side mimic the motion, each a half-second delayed, "beyond these walls? You do not agree with the eldest, you have made this clear, but we have a mission nonetheless. What," Kalve asks, "are you willing to do to see it done?"
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied's expression is still firm as she says, "I do have others. The Ebony Wings. Noeline. Zed." A pause. "I even have sympathisers from outside," she shares something that could incriminate her quite a bit. "I have no doubt that, after that meeting with Sir Volsung, we shall have some assistance from the Veruni as well. Theirs is no less complicated and full of conflicting sentiment as ours, Kalve."
She looks towards the ceiling again. "I shall still see to the restoration of Mother. After seeing what happened to her... after seeing how much she hurt due to the chains the Guardians have bounded upon her..." she bites her lip. "I still have hopes that Mother will be the bridge between us and the rest of the world. To see Lord Siegfried's face brighten so at her presence... it has redoubled my faith that she is truly miraculous, the saviour that we all need."
There is a slow sigh. "But you are right. What I seek is more than just restoration. I want to teach our brethren, those that are still young and inexperienced, how to grow as a people. I care for the future of the Hyadeans as a whole... as a people to see grow and develop, not simply as a band of warriors who seek a simple end."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
She pauses. "And, as for what I would like you to do... I'd like you to serve as both a medic and researcher, as you do now," she looks towards his office. "By positioning yourself out on the field, you'd best be able to reach those of us in need, and you are also more likely to find samples for the Sorcery that you wish to study. I shall do all I can to provide as well... in time, we may even find ourselves with allies with such talents."
<Pose Tracker> Kalve has posed.
Kalve does a very good impression of the overbearing wise man seeking certain answers from his student. He may have epxerienced it from the other direction enough to get a pretty good idea of what to do to affect that demeanor.
Riesenlied seems to have answered as correctly as she was able. He nods slowly, expression going from stony to thoughtful. "You look to the future beyond the next mission objective. An admirable quality in a leader. And you make a number of salient points regarding the disposition of the humans and the usefulness of field operations..."
Kalve straightens, and then inclines his head. "I will assist you, Riesenlied, and any you call ally. To embrace the Method is to be one with change. Wholly embracing the stasis that the elders wish to impose upon us is not something I ever intended to do regardless." Well that sure is an incrimination to trade across with hers. "Finding another way, teaching the youngest to do more than hate, to have purpose beyond this war..."
"A path may not present itself so easily," Kalve says. "The way forward may need careful synthesis. It is well you sought me out for such an endeavor."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied certainly seeks advice from Kalve. No matter their difference in age, she sees to him for wisdom that she herself does not possess. This humbleness is one such thing that Riese thinks has brought her this far: that she does not view herself as superior, regardless of anything. Everyone's experience is valuable.
"... I thank you, Kalve," she bows her head humbly. "I will not disappoint you. Indeed, as you say, the path is wrought with peril. But it is a path worth striving for. You have much wisdom to impart to all of us, and in martial discipline, in the study of the Ruins, and the study of sorcery as well, I would very much like to share and hear about your further findings, as I will share with you mine."