2017-08-08: The Power of The Abel
- Log: The Power of The Abel
- Cast: Kahm Yugh, Elhaym van Houten
- Where: Bledavik, Shakhan Square (Underground)
- Date: August 8th, 2017
- Summary: Kahm briefly returns to Bledavik to debrief Elly about her upcoming infiltration mission, providing her with custom equipment and a few pointers on the finer aspects of etheric theory.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QexUDaMLPbo
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
Gebler had constructed it's gear bay underground, on account...well, where else were you going to put one in the desert? Going underground meant not only a degree of practical discretion, but it also kept things at moderately cooler temperature, safe from the overbearing sun.
Captain Kahm Yugh stood alone on the sleek steel with rows of towering gears flanking either side of him, Hauteclaire and Vierge among them.
Not long ago, he'd sent Lieutenant van Houten a missive to report to him here. There a few things that had been dwelling on the Captain's mind, and he wanted to ensure he had the time to share them with her before she departed on her own crucial mission.
Kahm's impromptu meeting with Riesenlied still played over in his mind as he looked up at Hauteclaire's implacably white visage, musing on answers unspoken to questions never asked.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
One of the things that Elly silently hopes is that Bart von Yggdrasil's sand-encrusted metal tube of seamen has A/C. Something on that scale - obviously it has to be reliquary somehow - should. Right?
She is still in her summer uniform as she enters the Gear hangar, her footsteps a faint tattoo on the metal walkway as she approaches. Kahm can see her coming, of course, a little dot of intense auburn that gradually resolves into red on top of white on top of brown, and then finally into... well... Elly.
Coming up nearby, she pauses at about three paces distance to sketch a crisp salute and say, "Reporting as ordered, captain."
Her eyes are drifting towards Hauteclaire and Vierge, revealing, no doubt, CURIOSITY on the topic.
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
The metallic staccato beat of Elly's footsteps turned Kahm in her direction well before she was in speaking range, though he'll regard her silently-with his hands behind his back-until she's near enough to salute.
His responding salute was no less snappy. "Lieutenant." He said, his gaze following hers back to their respective gears. "I wanted to ensure the technicians were securing the Vierge's AEROD system with additional black box protocols before she...goes missing."
His voice dropped to a quieter octave, though it was wholly unnecessary while they were by themselves. "I don't think they appreciated the extra oversight, but command isn't a popularity contest." He said, shrugging haplessly. "Thank you for meeting me out here. I'd wanted to provide you with your field materials and orders personally, so I appreciate the indulgence."
His hands slipped from behind his back to reveal a small pack of sorts...well, to be more accurate, it was a lady's handbag.
Kahm was holding it very seriously.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly smiles at the 'going missing,' though it's a sort of sad smile - is it? She has sad eyes naturally. Resting sad face.
She steps closer a pace as the voice lowers. "I'd thank them personally, but I suspect that might not mean much to them."
Matters move on. Field materials. She nods briskly, and says, "Of course, sir! I appreciate your conc..."
Handbag.
"I'm sorry," Elly says then, recuperating desperately internally and seeming on the verge of a smile externally. "It's quite a stylish design - I think I saw similar ones in Adelhyde. It's specially prepared...?" She doesn't reach for it. Perhaps she fears a hidden laser.
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
"Don't apologize." Kahm says briskly, but distinctly absent of annoyance as he turned the purse over and examined it. "Hm, I suppose it is. Can't call them R&D without the research, I suppose. And yes, it was developed for your mission in particular."
The Captain unzipped the back with strangely practiced military efficacy, producing several pens first from inside. "Each of these is armed with a different manner of neurotoxin, all fast-acting. You click the pen twice to arm it, then stab the target. For personal defense and-if necessary-targeted neutralization."
Next up is a tube of woman's lipstick. "Normal for the purposes of application." Kahm says, turning the twisty to end to display a nondescript red, then tugging hard on the bottom, "Hidden compartment, contains a cube of plasic explosive. Should be good enough to open a secured door or safebox."
The contents are placed back in the purse, which is zipped up and handed over to the Lieutenant's keeping. "There's more, but the instructions inside will cover them. They're not as dangerous to you if mishandled." Kahm said, placid blue eyes matching Elhaym's with growing scrutiny, "If the situation calls for it, you may need to use these for your own extraction."
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly looks in, fascinated. The media ecology she's fed in doesn't have much in the way of spy thrillers - there are, after all, few rivals - but the idea of a tricky thing is universal. The neurotoxins take some of the joy out of it.
The lipstick isn't bad. She nods along, and then accepts the purse - carefully - though it goes over her shoulder almost immediately. The strap is fiddled with, just a bit, but then she nods slightly to herself and looks back.
Her eyes meet Kahm's.
"I understand," she says. "The neurotoxins... are they all fatal?"
Her eyes do flick downwards for a moment.
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
"Only the the red one." Kahm answered succinctly. "The others are incapacitating in nature."
Why this would matter, and why was it a problem if they did all kill? The Captain never asked that kind of question of the Lieutenant, not even with his eyes. He merely provided answers to questions as they were asked. Maybe he wasn't a man given to caring about the whys of the world-perhaps that's what enough time on the surface did to you.
"There's something else, too." His lips press into a flat line, and he looks again at their gears, just long enough a pause for it to feel awkward before he turns back to the Lieutenant with that question on his lips.
"Lieutenant, am I correct in understanding your element training is incomplete?"
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly seems mildly relieved. To all appearances, she doesn't like killing people. Loren would read things differently of course.
Then she blinks several times. "Oh - Well, I wasn't chosen for the program," Elly says, her eyes turning aside for a moment, leaving the bloody red haze of The Incident floating in a nice neat parenthetical aside: "So... I wasn't ever able to take advantage of the advanced seminars that I know Kelvena attended."
Then Elly looks up. "I didn't inquire of the details, sir; it seemed like a need-to-know matter."
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
Perhaps it was a matter of operational perspective. Kahm had long taken the view that killing to accomplish matters of policy was neither as simply or effect as some might hope, though that didn't mean it couldn't still be necessary. The Lieutenant's reluctance...this could be the right crucible in which to temper it.
"Ah, I see." He said, inclining his head at the mention of the Elements leader.
But this was one instance where Kahm wasn't going to let details get in the way of operational success. "Well in any case, it won't do to have you going in alone without all the tools to help you succeed, and that includes your talents in etheric manipulation." He said, cracking his knuckles with a degree of enthusiasm, "I can hardly compress everything in the time we have....but I think you're prepared understand what makes an Element and Element, if you cotton my meaning."
There was a subtle, but perceptible shift in the world as it inhabited the space the two currently occupied, distinct hum of electronic disturbance in the air. The Captain's will.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Perhaps those eyes will become the eyes of a killer! And even if they don't, sometimes a report does more than twenty dead specops troopers.
Kahm cracks his knuckles and Elly looks momentarily startled. When he speaks - understanding dawns on Elly's face, or at least partial understanding. The subtle beadnet of the cosmos around them grows tenser with etheric potential.
Elly purses her lips. It feels warmer - like the floor is radiating heat after a few hours in the sun, but not enough to be uncomfortable - afterwards, when she looks up to Kahm, hand clutching on the strap of the purse. "Should I match you, or try to oppose...?"
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
"Do what you think is best-there is no one way to get to this point. That's what trainees have the hardest time understanding." Kahm said, the potential in the air undulating in waves and troughs as he spoke, the intervals themselves widening and shortening in tandem with the dept. It was not unlike an extremely unpredictable metronome.
"You often use your power the way the surface dwellers cast their spells. This is by design - such spells represent clear, concise thoughtform patterns with a clear beginning and end, easily embraced by the mind." He said, pacing around Elly while mindful of the heated floor, which begins to exhibit a slightly charged property with each step...though not enough to actually shock them.
"However, that's only the the touch of the iceberg. The average initiate closes their mind to further growth as soon as they learn to shape their power in a desire measure of force. A fireball. A freezing blast of ice. No subtlety."
Kahm held up one hand, writhing with curlues of crackling electricity in twining, evolving undulations, none of which seemed to do him harm. "You can use all the elements but fire is your strongest affinity, so let's start there. I imagine you visualized the floor getting hotter, so it did." He spoke with an instructor's patient deduction, turning to face the Lieutenant with a commensurate increase in the outpouring of power (Even the gears seemed to react a little, at this point).
"But consider this: What if you took it to a deeper level? Instead for floor getting hot, imagine the individual molecules in the steel exciting, growing more frenetic. Visualize the process of oxidation at an atomic level. Harder to grasp, but far more potent. Far more versatile."
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly nods slightly, more of a tip of her head, and takes a step to the side. She almost leans against the rail, but when her hand - which is bare, as the main part of the desert uniform is 'no full arm pleather opera gloves' - brushes the rail, she snaps it back, sucking in air through her teeth.
Kahm speaks. Elly attends.
And then she hesitates, and does nothing, for long seconds even as the air grows more and more charged, even as she steps away from the railing. A stray surge in potential sends a flicker of light through the LEDs in Vierge's eye.
The final explanations seem to give her resolution, or permission, or SOMETHING. Her lips set and her cheeks puff slightly out as she tightens her face. She looks at Kahm -
But then, abruptly and firmly, down at the ground. There is a sense like someone is grinding their fingernails over a chalkboard, or the side of a Gear, but it's JUST beyond the sense of perception as Elly's lips draw back slightly from her teeth and -
A spot catches fire.
It's a small burn, perhaps the size of the bottom of a coffee cup, such as is commonly enjoyed here in Bledavik. And yet: Steel catches fire, and doesn't go out until Elly relaxes. The oxidized metal powder falls to the hangar floor, no doubt to baffle a maintenance crew team.
"... I worry that I'll lose control," Elly says finally, a little sweat on her forehead. "That was - that's what took up most of Kelvena's time."
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
Kahm does not break eye contact while Elly meets his gaze.
Against all conventional logic and reason, steel ignites and burns. Kahm watches it it rapt attention, quietly ruminating on how long it took him to form even a weak electromagnetic field in his mind's eye. The Lieutenant achieved phenomena actualization with little more than a basic explanation and demonstration.
Is this the power of the Abel? He thought, ceasing the flow of his own power the moment Elly's flame snuffed out. The gears returned to their slumber, and the world became conventional once again.
"Control is the defining issue." He admitted. "This method is more powerful but requires more concentration, harder to use while you're being shot at. Most who master it find a way to couple it with a powerful emotion, using it like an anchor to keep themselves in the here and now while their mind does the work. Serenity, righteousness, courage..."
Hatred. Anger. Rage.
Kahm turned away again, his eyes fixated on that scorched spot of metal.
"Does it weigh on you still, Lieutenant?" He asked without looking, then clarifies. "The reason Lieutenant Voss is afraid of you."
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly exhales sharply. It's almost a whistle. She straightens up as Kahm outlines matters. "... I suppose I should try it, with the other polarities, just to be sure that I understand the differences... It took me a while to master the basics of earth manipulation."
Or at least, that was the last one she got certifications for.
Then a question comes and Elly sounds uncomfortable when she answers. "Yes," she says.
"I know that... It wasn't my fault. Everyone has a reaction like that, and I just had the bad luck to..." Elly doesn't quite finish the sentence, instead moving gently on to a different thread. "It's still a loss of control, and I didn't want to hurt any of them at all."
Now she looks up. There is less wetness in her face than there might have been two or three months ago. "I'm going to make certain that it won't happen again."
There is an uncomfortable silence, before Elly asks, "Do you think that I should take a supply of that compound with me, in case of an emergency?"
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
The differences do not escape Kahm. It was a gradual, but the Lieutenant had grown. If she could stay alive, she would continue to do so. He offered a wordless nod in respect to her resolve.
"There's already a standard supply of it in the field pa..er, purse." He corrected himself. "For emergency usage, yes. You haven't had much training with the AERODS, as I recall. It'll help with that, should it come to it."
Personally, Kahm had his own opinions on that method, but he was in no position to suggest otherwise to the Lieutenant. After all, he used to...sparingly.
"Keep in mind what I've told you, and do practice with the other types. As long as you mind your limits, you risk of cascading should be low, and you'll find it gets easier with time." He said, full knowing that the hard part was over.
This time a the pause came in Kahm's end, holding it for an uncomfortably long time before weighing in. "I also lost control once. People died for it." He sighed, closing his eyes, "Understand, Lieutenant, that in the end there are no excuses. Waste is waste."
His eyes turned towards Hauteclaire.
"We are both responsible for carrying those burdens with us. For accomplishing what they might have accomplished, in their stead."