2017-07-23: Missive from the Dark
- Log: Missive from the Dark
- Cast: Riesenlied, Noeline, Lady Harken
- Where: Photosphere
- Date: 23rd June 2017
- Summary: Lady Harken awakens in the Photosphere recovery centre, with more questions than answers...
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied has just kind of been shaking her head ever since she got back to the Photosphere -- meeting with Zed to check on his convalescence, finally getting those undone After-Action Reports checked and in no matter how late it is, planning on what's going to happen in the future. It's a bit of a right mess, but she's got to try. Besides, being back here in the Photosphere is -- a relief of its own. No matter how alienating and foreign its halls can be, there's no fear of being cast-upon with all kinds of eyes on her, as Lacour can be at times.
But there's a distinct priority here -- Harken. So it's to the recuperation bays that she goes, to check on the Quarter Knight that just went... went... what did she go? Out of control. There's no way to express what happened there but that.
<Pose Tracker> Lady Harken has posed.
Encounters between 'disappearing from the arena' and 'being transported back to the Photosphere' notwithstanding, and probably to be documented at a later date, there is no mystery and no difficulty in locating the Quarter Knight Lady Harken.
Protagonist-y Metal Demons like Riesenlied and Noeline can probably go where they want in the Photosphere without attracting untowards attention, so long as they aren't lugging canisters of fuel into Mother's chamber, or something. So it's as easy as checking the medical databases to see who is currently interred where to see that [LH] occupies a singular medical ward for post-surgery recovery and, hell, I dunno. A regeneration bath? Flamethrowers that finish building new Metal Demons instantly?
Whenever the inquisitive Demons in question make their way to find the newly-crowned Most Violent Quarter Knight, they find her sitting up in a cot wearing a standard-issue hospital gown. She's staring at a blank screen, silently. She looks a lot less imposing without being in hundreds of pounds of plate armour, despite still being enormous. The entire right side of Harken's face is slightly lighter in shade than the rest: newly-redone flesh of some kind. Her right arm is a work in progress, encased entirely in a huge cylinder with a blinking green light on the end.
Nobody's entrance goes noticed by Harken, although there's probably an orderly of some kind to let people in. Eerie.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline has never really liked coming to places like this - after all, while she's not Tainted, she is built of rather less material than your average Metal Demon, with a number of adjustments to her facial structure that deny her the ability to easily shapeshift. As such, she's always taken care not to take significant amounts of damage - and even when she does, she'd rather heal up herself than return to the Photosphere, where any significant medical procedure would be likely to reveal her rather dangerous secrets.
So she seems rather subdued when she catches up, having spent time alternately aiding Riesenlied and trying to do her own quiet sniffing around. Not that there's much to really catch up on - the records of Arctica within the Photosphere archives do not exactly state much about the city's recent events or significant figures within it, instead referring either to centuries-old history or else neutrally thought-out tactical strike plans.
In both cases, the reports she /herself/ wrote.
She's silent as she slips in a bit after Riesenlied, her expression drawn into a line. For a faction feared and loathed, she considers for a moment, they do seem to be meeting a lot of Quarter Knights in the medical bays as of late.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied is, no matter her origin, a commander, and this is often begrudgingly met with respect the higher up she goes. Ultimately, those who complain tend to be pointed to the fact that Lord Siegfried approves of what she does -- what she has done, what she continues to do. It gives her latitude and leverage in a way no other Tainted's quite been able to do.
The scene is... a lot less bizarre or horrifying than she might have expected. Harken almost looks /normal/ how she's laid up on her cot, in her hospital gown, to the screen. She quietly bows her head, then steps in respectfully as she expresses, "Milady Harken... it is Riesenlied."
She pauses.
"I hope you are feeling better?"
<Pose Tracker> Lady Harken has posed.
Now, if Riesenlied had been /too/ early, /too/ quick, things might be different. Even with Lord Siegfried's admiration, Riesenlied might have found her entrance barred by armed guards. Inexplicably. But that didn't come to pass, so clearly, nothing is amiss.
The rhythmic beep and hum of some unseen machine monitoring one of the Photosphere's primary killing-machines in the flesh sounds a few times inbetween Riesenlied's greeting and Harken's awareness of company. Scarlet hair pools somewhere around the woman's waist as she slowly turns her head to regard Riesenlied, pupils dilated a little. It gives her a slightly dazed look, a concussion in-progress. "Riesenlied. Noeline."
It doesn't sound bad, but the whole arm-encased-in-cyclinder thing makes it awkward to really manoeuver herself properly. "I'll live. What news?"
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline - for all her worries, whenever she comes to the Photosphere - is still kind of a shit sometimes. So in response to the question, she actually snorts outright, and simply replies with: "'You', ma'am."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied knows when she might be overstepping her boundaries, and it's with a kind of 'what??' kind of stare that she casts Noeline, then glosses over what she perceives to be a bit of a faux pas with, "... there has been an uproar in Lacour since your flight, as you might expect. But the tournament still continues. I'm afraid to say the reception is not good." She's almost half expecting to say she doesn't care.
"... if I may, Lady Harken," she says after a pause. Then she just cuts to the chase:
"What /happened/?"
<Pose Tracker> Lady Harken has posed.
Well, that's to be expected. The elephant in the room should be addressed and not skulked around. There's not really a recoiling or a look of distress from the bedridden Harken, who blinks dully at Noeline's (accurate) jab at her being the biggest news article around here. Which is fair. "Lacour." Harken kind of repeats the name, as if it has a funny texture to it.
Okay, now there's a reaction. Her pupils shrink and the Quarter Knight glances to the door, a kind of 'oh shit, how did I get here!?' reflex as something in her mind catches up to reality.
Harken's good hand strays to her chest, as if something there hurt. Because it does. "Something... happened." is her very un-erudite explanation. "I remember... a missive from the Photosphere, and then, I felt tired, and awoke in the arena, and there was blood..."
Very slow, very incomplete, very useless. Great explanation.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline swallows at the sight of that first reaction, her eyes wide as she takes an involuntary step backwards. She knows that kind of look, has cast it herself at the doorways when she's been certain that Berserk or Alhazred might be right on the other side. To see it occur on Lady Harken's face is almost surreal, and difficult for her to countenance for a moment.
It leaves her off-kilter, and for all that the Quarter Knight's quick recap of the events of the day lines up in every way with what she was expecting, it still stuns her into a solemn sort of silence, completely uncertain of what to really say.
'Sabotage' isn't really the word, because this sort of plan is acceptable to at least a fair number of demons around the Photosphere. 'Incredibly unhelpful' might be a better description, perhaps.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied slowly takes a seat next to Harken, because if there's one lone soul in the Photosphere that's ever deigned to think that mental issues should be treated with respect, dignity and therapy, not with a fist to the face, a cryolocker with the padlock thrown away and derisive laughter... well. Let's not get into that.
"... it's okay," Riesenlied answers. She shouldn't be able to say that. She doesn't know if it's okay. If it'll be okay. It's her /boss/ she's telling that to. "A missive... so-- there was just blank between that and the arena? You recall nothing at all?"
She explains just a little more. "From our perspective... you were-- enraged. Your voice was raspy. I heard Zed say you were -- /leaking/ with some kind of malevolent energy."
She draws in a breath and dares to reach and hold her hand. "Could you tell me in a bit more detail... what you do recall, up until the point you don't remember?"
<Pose Tracker> Lady Harken has posed.
Harken is sort of crinkling her nice standard-issue gown with a hand uneasily as she tries to knit the events together through the fog of painkillers and, probably, Dark Energy Withdrawal. If such a thing is real. "Something about a decision... not by Lord Siegfried's hand, but another..." she murmurs hazily. "But I can't ... remember, save for disappearing into darkness..."
The neutral thrum of the background machines continues. The Quarter Knight's head hangs a little. Reassurances do, perhaps, little to comfort her. Then again, does someone like Harken require 'comfort' or 'sustenance'? Are the rumours true, and Riesenlied and Noeline's experiences as of late an outlier? Is their superior just as much of a bloodthirsty hulk as Berserk?
"Something to do with the Demon of Elru...?" the scarlet-haired woman doesn't seem to know what, exactly, said Demon would have to do with her though. Riesenlied can grab Harken's hand if she wants, sure, she's not doing much of use with it. "You are both right--I wasn't in control. I don't know why, but it's as if I woke up from a nightmare in the middle of a war zone. A great light..."
Like, say, a Federation phase-pistol blast.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Her earlier outburst aside, Noeline does have the sense to know when not to speak her thoughts aloud - but it's hard /not/ to when the different components that make up Harken's story tell a very distinct sort of picture. Slowly, she folds her arms, huffing out a breath as she looks to one side and bites hard at her lip.
Was this a test run of some kind of plan to attempt to counter Id, then? Take the Demon of Elru's raw bloodlust, or something very much like it, and apply it to one of the Quarter Knights? Berserk couldn't orchestrate something like this - wouldn't even care to do anything so scheming and indirect when he could just land on the arena himself. Harken hardly seems the sort to be so machiavellian as to do it herself and then make herself forget, and Siegfried--
With a glance at Riesenlied, Noeline decides to trust Harken's words. She doesn't particularly want to think Siegfried's fallen that far, for the sake of her companion.
Besides, Occam's Razor here. Creepy scientist, creepy science.
"... can you describe what you mean by 'disappearing into darkness'?" she mutters, almost as if she didn't mean to voice the question in the first place; something about it seems similar to Riesenlied's stories of the mentalscape she entered, which only seems to bolster her conclusions.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied rubs at her chin for a moment, before lowering her head. "Id. The Demon of Elru. The one we encountered at Old Petra."
This was really unusual, to be certain. Even if Harken was overtaken by this -- control, this subterfuge, did it have specific orders? If so, did someone /know/ where Id was -- in Lacour? Or did Harken simply go off-course and crash into Lacour? There's all the theories she could muster, and none of the evidence.
It's easy to draw all the lines back. But there's nothing to be gained, and everything to be lost, from a baseless confrontation.
"... I definitely believe Lord Siegfried knows something of your condition," she shares with Harken. "I think he would be able to illuminate some light on this situation."
She narrows her eyes quietly. "Would you come with us to speak with him, when you are able?"
<Pose Tracker> Lady Harken has posed.
To be fair, if Harken were in a more jovially coherent state, she would probably also just immediately blame Alhazred as a first port of call as well. So Noeline is in good company, in that respect, even if she doesn't know it. For now, alas, it's all she can do to struggle past the haze and try to piece the events together logically. For her sake as much as Riesenlied's and Noeline's questions. Her good hand travels up into her hair somewhere, clearly frustrated at how spotty this all is.
"It was as if... a veil, pulled over my eyes, something numb in my veins..." Harken's tongue is dry, speaking is hard. A handy nearby ECG shows a climbing metal heart-rate and metal-blood pressure. "Like I was dreaming? Things--ideas... people... blurry, indistinct. Feelings, but not really understanding.
They're not getting anywhere quickly with these descriptions, are they? Luckily, Riese can distract Harken from her bad-mojo memories from earlier. "Lord Siegfried is recovered enough for such? If he would know, I'd like to as well." the Quarter Knight's own eyes narrow in turn. "I am not some weak-willed waif in need of a hug, but I would know what /happened/."
Trying a bit hard there, aren't we?
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline is one for getting surprised today. Going and talking to Siegfried, well, that was basically a given. Taking Harken along seems-- not exactly unwise, but certainly remarkably bold, and the spy has to weigh up the options for a long moment as she tries to figure out whether she approves or not. In the end, from th sound of her quiet huff, it seems like it's the former - at the very least, it's a good way to try to force a point.
On the notion of thoughts and sensations, however, there her knowledge runs dry - so she looks towards Riesenlied as if for clarification, fidgeting a hand through her hair as she lets out a breath. "At the very least, Siegfried was awake and conscious, and I would not put it past him to actively be taking the reins once more. He was-- rather stubborn on that point, given the vacuum it might otherwise leave," she notes with something approaching diplomacy.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
It's the only way to get headway, Riese reasons. They could leave midway if they needed to, but as it stands, this was the most direct path to resolution that she could think of. "I've... felt feelings like that before. When I contacted Id, it was much the same way. My body was not my own, my conscience was frozen in time even as the cross moved... ..."
That frosted cross flashes in her mind again.
Having doubts?
She kind of glosses over the comment about being a waif, since it kinda comes in close and sore to her. "I could use the light of empathy and see if I could... connect with you, Lady Harken. But I do not know what I will find, or if it will be safe for either of us..."
It's a horribly bold plan, if not a reckless one. "If you do not wish to, though, I would not blame you. Speaking to Lord Siegfried would likely be the safer course of action."