2017-10-22: Establishing Superiority
- Log: Establishing Superiority
- Cast: Kahm Yugh, Seraphita, Loren Voss, Tolone (Elhaym van Houten)
- Where: Bledavik, Noble Quarter
- Date: October 22, 2017
- Summary: Kahm calls a meeting to discuss the implications of Lily Keil's capture, and Seraphita brings an unexpected hand on board to help.
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
Needless to say, the events of the past week had not been the best for security concerns. Between the incident with 'Spring Breeze' earlier in the week and Lieutenant Voss's capture of 'Iris Bekker' (That is, Lily Keil) last night, tensions and security alike were higher than the Captain could ever remember.
Both incidents were linked to the presence of Cecilia Adlehyde. A certain consternation was beginning to grow in the upper ranks over whether or not the Princess was worth this kind of trouble, but the Commander and the Prime Minister had managed to quell these concerns at least until the conclusion of the festival, a rare show of unity.
Still, it didn't bode well. One more incident, and someone's head might have to roll.
Under these pretenses, Kahm had called for another meeting of specific personnel. Lieutenant Van Houten was still deep in assignment, but Lieutenant Voss was well enough to at least report, and Seraphita was available. He'd been meaning to talk to her about something else, anyways.
Currently Kahm sits in uniform in one of the palace's private meeting chambers. There is a carafe of chilled water on the table, along with several empty glasses. He sipped from his carefully while awaiting the arrival of the others.
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
Seraphita wasn't the smartest by a long stretch, but she understood that Elly's position as a PIRATE TO BE meant she couldn't risk being seen in Bledavik by outsiders more than she already was. The last thing she needed indeed was for Cecilia or someone else to start having doubts about her loyalties, and for that to get back to the super cool pirates somehow. And so Seraphita took A DECISION, which the Commander had not seen fit to decline. In fact, he was pretty on-board with the idea of having two Elements on the ground, given the circumstances.
And so Seraphita had send a message to Tolone, with a heads up to bring her birdy just in case on the way down. No point leaving that Gear in Etrenank, right? Also, Grandmeow is lonely without a bird to play with. This was a real argument she gave.
The door to the meeting chamber erupts open as Seraphita cartwheels into the room and straight onto the cable. Miraculously, no water is spilled, the rabbit showing great coordination and balance in her random stunts. She looks down towards Kahm, grinning.
"Ta~daaaaa! What do you think about this entrance? Oh, oh, I brought a friend, I brought a friend mister captain Yugh sir!!" She couldn't remember his rank, so she didn't take chances. "She's the one who said dramatic entrances are key to imprinting our soup notoriety!" That's... that's not what she said, but it's close enough.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Thanks to the necessary handovers, reports, meetings, discussions, and assorted necessities of military life when someone who shouldn't have been snooping around a secure room has been caught, started a fight (and caused significant property damage TO said room) and turned out to be a known person of interest and not at all the person they said they were, well.
Loren has not slept in well over twenty-four hours at this point. Which is, yes, another meeting.
Everything is fine.
He has has a lot of caffeine.
A cup of something hot and caffeinated is in fact in hand as Seraphita bursts past him towards the door to the room for his next meeting, which he damn near spills all over himself. Oh good, he thinks muzzily, shaking his head before heading in after her.
"Sir. Ma'am." He salutes, if somewhat less form-perfect than usual.
He's also not in uniform, having apparently opted for the lighter sleeveless wear used during combat practice. This is largely because -- and the bandages running down part of his upper right arm might hint at this -- he hasn't had time to replace his ruined uniform from the events during the night.
And he sort of freezes like that, staring at his commanding officer perched on the table. He should be used to this by now, but he's had a very long day, okay.
"...Dramatic enterances are... what?" he mumbles, brow furrowing as he tries and fails to really process this.
<Pose Tracker> Tolone has posed.
The door swings shut and catches before it closes on one gloved hand.
That hand pushes it back open.
Tolone has a distinctive silhouette. She walks powerfully, not least because the ground very subtly trembles under her footsteps. The Element of the Wind walks into the meeting room and gives Kahm a long lingering nod.
Before she says, with an aggravated undertone in her voice, "'Establishing our superiority.' It's an exaggeration... first impressions are psychologically pivotal." And now, Tolone's face says, they've made theirs.
She breathes in through her nose. "Captain Yugh," she says. "I see I've been introduced. I understand you've had difficulties lately." After this her head turns and she looks dead-eyed at Loren. Her eyes seem to twinkle, from the camera lenses adjusting.
"It looks like we have a witness. Voss, right?" Tolone says. She strides towards Loren - and then past him, towards the seats. She claims one, with some care, pivoting so that her attention can aim at Kahm while still encompassing Loren and monitoring Seraphita.
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
Kahm was mid-sip into his water when Seraphita burst onto the scene, leaping up onto the table without disturbing either the assemble glasses or sheafs of paper reports in a terrific feat of agility. The Captain continued his drink without missing a beat and lowered it to rest on a coaster, seemingly used to (or at least unperturbed by) this kind of arrival from the Fire Element.
"I think you'd have given the the second lieutenant a heart attack if he hadn't followed after you." The man answered, fixing Loren with a firm gaze and nod. "Good work. There's no telling what Keil might have sabotaged-or stolen-if you hadn't sussed out her identity."
From the state of Loren's uniform, and the clear fact that he hadn't slept, Kahm could tell the Lieutenant was quickly learning the price of success in their world. His eyes snap back to Seraphita as she begins talking about someone else, an eyebrow raised in uncertainty. "A friend? I'm not sure I..."
The gloved hand creeping through the gap in the door immediately attracts the Captain's attention as he talks, voice trailing off as events answered his question for him. He immediately stood and rendered a salute. "Wind Element Tolone." He said, mainly for Loren's benefit. "I would say that's an understatement, but yes. Security is a pressing concern as we close in on the date of the Princess's speech, and we don't want any more slip-ups. Your attention in this matter is greatly appreciated."
When attention turns to Loren, he merely nods his head. "Lieutenant Loren engaged and captured the POI last night. I've read the report, but I thought it would be useful to hear his debriefing personally."
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
"Psychologically pivotal! PIVOTAL! I like this word! Pivotal pivotal pivotal!" Seraphita hops off the table and onto a chair. She spins the chair, which is the only one you can ever get her to sit down.
The rabbit's eyes wander from the table to Tolone, then to Kahm, as he explains the situation. Oh yeah the big kaboom she heard! "That's what that was! Oh no, leftenant, are you okay?!" Seraphita leaps off her chair, bounces on the table, and lands by Loren.
She hugs him tightly. Maybe too tightly, given his injuries. He should probably keep his head up too. "Here, here, I'll make it all better! It's like kissy booboo but with a hug instead!" This is not how medical attention works, although Seraphita is pretty warm, predictably.
It's no doubt clear by now that the other Element in the room is the one who needs to hear all the important details.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
He's learning, all right. He's definitely learning.
He also deeply wishes he cut something more of an impressive figure right now, as Wind Element Tolone strides into the room. He stands up that much straighter -- as much as he can manage, that is.
He's still frozen mid-salute. He tries to neaten it up a bit, particularly as that gaze of hers falls on him. "...Ma'am."
And only falls into a respectful neutral stance as soon as she passes.
"I'm uncertain," he starts, reciting what he's more or less had to state in just about every meeting since she was taken into custody, as if reading it off the invisible teleprompter in the what she had been attempting or may have already attempted in terms of sabotage, theft, espionage, or other factors. No doubt Miss Keil will have more answers for us once she awakens and is interrogated. My feeling is that--"
There's no escape. In a move that probably results in the loss of most of whatever dignity and respect Loren might have had among the people assembled in this room -- in particular the Wind Element and Captain Yugh -- he's suddenly and completely enfolded in Seraphita's loving embrace. His cup slips from his hand to land in a splash of generically brownish liquid on the floor.
Oh, and what she's currently saying?
If he could opt to suddenly die right now, he would.
"Ma'am, please, I..." He's gone somewhat limp in her grasp, his gaze tilted roughtly ceilingwards. "I had a report..."
Once she releases him -- if she releases him -- he'll continue, if decidedly more ruffled than before. Like a cat that's been petted the wrong way.
"...I encountered her in a side office she should not have had normal access to, and I'm certain this was not the first time she had ventured out of bounds. Please keep in mind that she maintained her cover for nearly two weeks before evidence gathered suggested she was not who she appeared to be." He finally reaches up to readjust his glasses, left askew in Seraphita's wake. "Keil is a known rogue ether user, the use of which she demonstrated to effect during our encounter. I believe it was her intent to fight to the death if necessary." He pauses, as if unsettled about something. "...Captain, Ma'am, I haven't seen anyone use ether techniques like hers before. She... unmade several of the furnishings in the office."
<Pose Tracker> Tolone has posed.
"Don't mention it. It's our duty to ensure the Commander's orders are carried out," Tolone says to Kahm, with a bit of a shrug in her voice if not her body. "Events aren't always fully predictable. It seems you contained the problem as well as could be expected."
Tolone's face assumes a subtle long-suffering cast as Seraphita sends Loren to Marshmallow Hell. She doesn't go for her water. "Let him breathe! You're going to smother him before we can get a full report. Even we can't operate with maximum efficiency without intelligence."
After this she turns. Maybe it's the chair, maybe it's Tolone. It sounds like a motor is whirring somewhere, faintly and in the distance. She stares at Loren.
There is something Tolone has in common with Seraphita: She doesn't blink.
"I'm sure I don't have to impress on you that your answers need to be complete and forthcoming, Voss. If you need to sit and compose yourself, take a moment. I can see you've been working hard." That went all over the map.
To Kahm, and maybe Sera, Tolone asks, "Keil's contained at present?"
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
Kahm says nothing while Loren writhes as a victim of Seraphita's embrace. Sorry Lieutenant, but there are some things even he can't protect you from.
Once things settle down, all focus on Loren to deliver his report, or what he's able. Keil was expectedly not forthcoming about anything in the moment of capture, and they weren't likely to know more until she awoke.
His eyes were calm but analytical on Loren when Tolone asked for clarification, "Indeed. Could you describe what you mean you say she 'unmade' the furnishings? Was there residue left-ashes, scorch marks? Or were they simply gone?"
It seemed a queer distinction, but Kahm's disposition indicated the importance he weighed. The Captain had been rather nose-deep in cases of 'unusual' ether abilities of later, after all.
He then speaks to answer Tolone, "Keil is still unconscious. She's currently being kept under armed guard in the palace dungeon. Seeing as how we don't have the convenience of null rooms on the surface, she's been fitted with an ether damper."
Even that wasn't something they expected to have at hand, but the Captain had requisitioned a few after a chance talk in November City.
Kahm leaned forward in his chair, "Even when she does wake, I don't expect her to be forthcoming. Keil is no civilian. Answers may take time, which we're in short supply of."
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
Seraphita allows Loren to go free at Tolone's request. You're safe for now, lieutenant. For. Now.
Loren resumes his report, and so Seraphita backs away to flop onto a chair, spinning it to face the table. She gets herself a glass of water while everyone talks IMPORTANT STUFF, a lot of which goes over her head anyway, and after downing it unreasonably fast, the bunny resumes spinning her chair rapidly, muttering a WHEEEEE just low-key enough that it won't interrupt the talking.
Eventually she stops! She thinks of something.
"We should have known she was awesome! Maids are always awesome in story books!" Accurate. "Unmade though? Unmade, unmade... maybe she's like me and she can absorb magic? But like, different! Maybe she absorbs bi-organic matter! Was it wood furniture?" Good guess, but almost assuredly wrong. "I've never met anyone who can do that though! I can set stuff on fire but I can't unmake it! I can vaporize stuff but that's just setting it on ULTRAfire!!" It's better than superfire, just for book-keeping purposes.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
He glances down at the lost cup of whatever-it-was with a faint look of something akin to despair. So much for that.
On the plus side, Seraphita does let him go. Eventually.
It is apparently possible for someone -- sleep deprived and humiliated -- to further wilt. Loren's attention fixes dead ahead as, after that attempt to explain what he had experienced and seen went decidedly due south, Tolone reminds him they need a full account.
In its own way, it might have been better if he had died during that scuffle. Better than this. His shoulders tense.
"Yes, Ma'am. Of course. My apologies."
Everyone's staring at him...
Well, okay, not Seraphita. Who is having a great time with the spinny chair back there.
He takes a breath.
"Gone. There was an ashy residue left at points in the office, but it couldn't account for the total mass of the furnishings. Er." There's a pause as Seraphita pipes up. "I don't think so, ma'am. During an expedition to determine some of the extent of her powers, she apparently disintegrated a section of rock."
Loren hesitates a moment more thereafter, then touches his left hand to his chest. "She struck me here, during the scuffle, with an expression of a similar-seeming display of power from her hand. The best way I can think of how to describe it was healing ether, but in reverse. There was no physical damage, but..."
He shakes his head. "If I had to describe the sensation, it was akin to being torn in half."
<Pose Tracker> Tolone has posed.
"Biological matter," Tolone corrects Seraphita, without looking. "Organic's different."
Tolone keeps staring. She doesn't blink.
Her eyes do turn towards Kahm as she says, "Seems reasonable. I'll take a look once we're finished here." She may not have anything to say to Lily; but perhaps her terrible metal eyes will spot some subtle key and snatch hope out of Lily's grasp, leaving her only the dubious pleasures of despair.
Tolone does enjoy that a little.
She gazes at Loren with her cold machine eyes... and tilts her head in a small nod. It makes her twin tails rustle slightly. Humanizing, perhaps.
"I know the feeling. So it's entropic," she says. "From what you're describing, her affinities might be with Earth or Water. That's interesting. What do you think, Seraphita? Perhaps she's invented a novel technique. It wouldn't be the first time a surface-dweller's tripped on something useful."
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
"Thank you, Lieutenant." Kahm said. He did not appear terribly pleased by Loren's description, but it had nothing to do with how the Lieutenant relayed the event and everything to do with the implications. "It's not uncommon for wild users to develop abilities outside what we would consider normal. What I find more disturbing is the level of control. That suggests she's been trained, somehow."
But who other than Solaris could provide training? There's certainly one direction of inquiry, but the Captain doesn't feel the need to state it.
"Certainly." He asides to Tolone's intention to visit the prisoner, then speaks to Loren again. "Lieutenant, did you feel anything when you received that attack from her? I don't mean pain." Kahm quickly clarified, and paused for a moment as he considered how to phrase his statement.
"Rather, did you get sense of Keil's state of mind during the attack?"
Unlike with Elly, he didn't have time to explain why this question mattered.
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
"That's what I said! Biorganic!" Seraphita repeats, proud of her usage of a SMART WORD, which indicates she is smart. "But you always know all those weird new words, Tolone! Is your brain plant at full power today? 'Entropic'? It's like we're in a lab!!" Is Seraphita swooning? It's kind of like that.
Then the chair falls over and Seraphita with it. She plops back up and sits on the tipped over chair, which is awkward and seems to require several moments of adjustments.
"I dunno though! Maybe we should set a room up with all the glowing testy thingies and machines in it and then make her use her powers on volunteers!" You know. -Volunteers-. That's Solarian for 'people what we don't like and want rid of', '-Lambs-' and sometimes 'prisoners'. The thought that this is inhumane in more ways than one does not remotely cross the rabbit's mind, and the suggestion seems completely innocent.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"Entropic, yes, ma'am." That's a good way of putting it, he thinks a little dully. Let's blame the lack of sleep for that one.
"Actually, sir," Loren interjects, far from at-ease under current circumstances, "Considering her close work with her father, Colonel Dietrich Keil," now there's a name that anyone who has spent any time conducting efforts on the Kislevi front would know and quite possibly curse, "van Houten and I suspect that he was if not merely aware of her abilities, may have been actively engaged in her training. Unfortunately, I had been unable to extract that information from her personally in previous conversations."
So it's also possible that Kislevi might have other ether-users... but not entirely probable, at least not if they kept it hidden this long. In a sense, Lily may just be a hidden weapon of sorts.
"...She's stubborn. She may not be easy to interrogate, particularly under current time constraints," he comments, gaze tilting off and away to his right. "She was prepared to kill the both of us rather than be captured. If I hadn't drugged her, it's possible..." He trails off, tension again riding his frame. It's not something he wants to admit, that he might have failed. It's not something he likes to admit, that a Lamb nearly bested him.
Kahm asks a very particular question.
"Her state of mind, sir?" His gaze unfocuses for a moment or two, as if thinking back. "...Hatred. I felt her hatred."
<Pose Tracker> Tolone has posed.
Kahm raises a good question and Tolone seems interested... until...
"My brain is not a plant, Seraphita! This is how we define the exact details of a phenomenon. Kiel may be contained, but if this is some kind of Kislevi special project, we'd have to go shut it down. Do you want to try to take out some garbage without even looking in the container first?"
Tolone exhales through her teeth. "... She might refuse. And using motivators might interfere. Perhaps if you set up some kind of controlled environment where she wouldn't know she was being monitored..."
"I'm speculating. That's something for Krelian," Tolone concludes, focusing back on Loren. "Her father... a Kislevi colonel? Next you'll tell me she's run away from home. If you've confirmed it, we'll be sure to inform the Commander."
Tolone finally blinks, once. It is about half normal speed. (She had some dust on her eye.) She concludes, to Loren: "Anyway: Don't feel that you've failed. This wasn't your field of battle, but you survived to give your report. I'm satisfied with the information you've given us."
A beat passes.
Hatred, Tolone thinks. (Calculates.)
"You can dismiss him at your leisure," she informs Kahm.
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
When Loren cites Dietrich Keil, Kahm does something the Lieutenant surely hasn't witnessed before-he pinched the bridge of his nose and makes a distinct noise of discomfort. "She had to be related to that Keil, didn't she? I had been hoping the name was a coincidence."
SLIDE-1, Golem Sado, and now Lily Keil. He suppose he had to give the Kislevis a degree of credit-for 'lambs', they were frustratingly resourceful. But Tolone was right....if Keil was evidence of a previously unknown program within Nortune to recruit and train their own ether troops...it couldn't be allowed to continue. But that problem, however foreboding, wasn't one they were going to solve today.
...Hatred. I felt her hatred.
For a moment, Kahm feels the phantom pain of hands swollen and bleeding with the weight of repeated failures, the twitching rewards of hundreds of lessons in futility. But Tolone speaks then, and the Captain's action is no less prompt, "Thank for your time Lieutenant. You're dismissed, get some rest."
Once Loren leaves, he'll turn to the two Elements. "Whatever problems Keil will unravel for us, our current priority is to ensure the security and safety of the Princess, both until and during her scheduled speech." Kahm said, his countenance lean and thoughtful, "The Prime Minister is expecting much, but I don't think the Princess is of a mind to be entirely compliant. She has some other motive for being here, and it's very likely we cant expect some sort of anti-government action on the day she's scheduled to speak."
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
"The thingies in your head!" Seraphita clarifies as Tolone denies having a plant for a brain. You're never getting the rabbit to correctly remember what those are called, Tolone, and you know that. "The clickety whirry parts that make you super smart! Oh, maybe I should get them in my brain too? Then I could be super smart too!"
The implants would probably fail under the astronomical load this would place on them. One must assume Tolone had something special in her body that made her more suitable for those cybernetics than others, because if not there's barely any excuse for not handing them out like candy.
Seraphita turns back to Kahm, kicking her legs up back and forth in boredom. "So you want us to be all like, rawr, and set suspicious people on fire? Oh, if they come out to play that'd be even better! We could throw a big party instead of a speech!" Speeches are boring. Parties are not. It should be an easy decision to take.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"Wanted for treason, actually, ma'am," Loren interjects. He reaches up, readjusting his glasses. "At least, that appears to be the official reason."
That might just raise more questions, all considering.
'Don't think that you've failed'.
Just a touch, a little of the tension fades from his shoulders -- but it isn't so much that he's relaxed. More like resigned himself, though where stress leaves his shoulders it picks up the slack in his jawline.
Resigned impotence, then. He knows better than to think that was more than just a pat on the head.
Nevertheless, he nods. "...Thank you, ma'am."
His gaze flickers over to Kahm, making a brief questioning pitstop the Fire Element's way as Seraphita banters -- apparently? -- about Tolone's 'clickety whirry parts'. Huh.
But nonetheless, he salutes, once more makes an attempt at a formal nod. "Thank you, sir. I'll submit a report if anything else comes in."
He turns to leave, taking particular care not to step in the spilled coffee(?).
Wouldn't that just be the awful punctuation mark on the end of today, he thinks grimly, exiting the room.
But at least it's almost over with.
<Pose Tracker> Tolone has posed.
"They'd rattle loose in all the empty space," Tolone grouses as Seraphita speaks on her brain chips.
There he goes.
Tolone turns in her chair to face Kahm again. Her head nods once. "She seems like a non-compliant type." Her head tilt approximately two degrees to the side at the topic of new anti-government action.
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
"For now, I think it would be enough if the two of you could simply be present when she speaks." Kahm answers Seraphita, "Your presence alone may be enough to discourage an incident, but if something does happen, we'll need your skills."
"The Princess isn't a fool-at least, not the one the Prime Minister takes her for." He said, turning his head towards Tolone. "But she's also young, and may not entirely be guided by anything we could consider reasonable."
Lambs would be lambs, after all. The Captain well remembered her claims of being guided by the world's voice. Who's to say how what kind of mental gymnastics a life spent in the abattoirs of guardianism could enkindle in a mind, particularly a surface mind.
"Ah, before I forget. There's something else i've been informed of that i'd appreciate your looking into, ma'am." The Captain said, sliding a manila folder marked 'PROTOTYPE: SILVESTRIS' towards Seraphita. Inside are all the details regarding the subject Kahm is about to discuss.
"Earlier this month we lost a prototype gear during the refugee migration after the Guardian Temple incident. Quadruped, experimental technology. I believe it may have been modeled to some extent off of your Grandgrowl, so you may be uniquely suited to track it down before it causes us any trouble."
Kahm's hands were palm-side up, suggesting open expectations. "Again, when you should have the time. That's all I have for today, unless either of you need something of me yourselves."
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
"Okaaaaaay~" Seraphita answers Kahm, taking note. Speeches are boring but hey, orders are orders! Even if they're more suggestions than orders. Kahm had proven himself not to be someone the rabbit disliked working for, and so for all intents and purposes he had authority over her anyway, short of the Commander himself coming down to tell Seraphita to stop taking orders from him. Which he very likely wouldn't.
Then she is offered a folder.
That's an awful gift.
She flips it open as the captain explains the situation, glancing through the files. Her eyes glaze over the blueprints like they're the face of Cthulhu itself, and she closes the folder with a nod and another nod. "Okay! I'll go look for it, mister captain Yugh sir! Big kitties are hard to hide so it shouldn't be too hard!" That might prove itself false in time.
"Come on Tolone, I'm hungry!! Let's go see if there's any carrot cake left!!"