2017-10-23: If Looks Could Kill
- Log: If Looks Could Kill
- Cast: Lily Keil, Loren Voss, Kahm Yugh
- Where: Bledavik, Royal Palace
- Date: October 23, 2017
- Summary: Kahm and Loren pay Lily a visit in her current holding cell to ask a few pointed questions. It goes about as well as one could expect.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
There's something funny about mixing drugs. Take heavy painkillers and a powerful sedative not precisely calibrated to body let alone other dosages and what do you get? ...Well, in this case...
In this case it means that Lily Keil, alias Iris Becker, person of interest to Gebler and highly wanted by both Aveh and Kislev, has been unconscious since Loren Voss caught her amidst sabotage. This has meant that searches (she was carrying a good bit of hidden explosive material), administering an ether damper, and making her disappear into the dungeons has been very quick. ...It has delayed interrogation, however. That's just as well; they had to figure out what they were doing.
What time is it? They wake her up in the evening of the next day. It looks something like this...
Chains hang from a stone ceiling, great yellowed bricks making up the walls. There is no natural light here, but there is enough sickly illumination to get by. There's a setup at the wall to chain someone to it where they can sit and have the run of the back couple of feet of the cell, but the prisoner is established in a chair bolted down to the ground. Her ankles are shackled together with a chain threaded through to attach to the ground; her torso is chained to the chair, her arms placed near the armrests for now, not chained to those but forced down by the chain attached to her wrist shackles down to her feet. There is no longer a brace on her left wrist, though there is a wound there that is slowly healing. On her head there is a strange, thorny headband like a crown--an Ether dampener, prickling through her hair as her head hangs forward in unconsciousness. Her hair is still blonde, but it's starting to darken already.
She is in fairly standard prisoners' clothes, but without sleeves for a reason that may become clear quickly; loose gray pants, a loose gray top. But her arms are strange; there are bizarre, circuit-like patterns running from her fingertips almost like tattoos but not quite, a little too luminous for that. They stretch about her forearms, up towads her shoulders, disappearing as they run past shoulders and fade into body.
They are grayish, for the moment, like a faded white.
The bandage from where her blood was taken is already applied, and the drug to bring her around starts to take effect right... about...
"Gh...?" One eye is still covered in bandages; wounds are apaprent about her body, mostly healing but some fresh and newly-bandaged, burns in many places.
Pain pulses through her body as she starts to wake up. "Ugh, what...?"
Clink. She tries to move, and her golden eye narrows sharply as she suddenly lifts her head to start around the room. An instant of groggy alarm is obvious.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
For a while, it was fine to just keep her sedated. There were other logistics to handle, among them 'who she was' 'what she was doing' and 'whether or not anyone else was involved'.
Officially, as far as the last one goes, nobody knows.
Suffice to say, certain aspects of Lily Keil's self have been more surprising than anyone had anticipated. She was a known rogue ether user, but the markings on her body -- not known for ether users of any stripe -- were quickly determined to not be Symbology tattoos.
Symbology tattoos -- as far as anyone knows -- don't glow.
They also don't change colors, as Loren has testified. While engaging her, he had witnessed the markings change, apparently dependent on the sort of effect she was attempting to conjure.
Someone had to be here to administer the reversal agent and even more importantly, keep an eye on her and her basic vitals as she came to. This isn't quite the place he would have preferred to conduct this process -- a more modern facility would be ideal -- but they have a few problems with that.
For one, Lily's status makes keeping their possession of her quiet essential.
It's limiting in certain ways.
This is the reason why Lily will find his fingers on her neck when she awakens, counting her pulse under his breath.
"...Elevated," he mutters at last. "Bad color." His fingertips slide free. "...Adverse reaction?"
Save for the absence of his gloves, it appears he's one again found himself a pristine lieutenant's uniform.
He folds his arms over his chest, narrowing his eyes.
Well, shit. This is why he would rather have a full suite available. Turning away, he moves to rummage through his kit, open on a nearby makeshift table.
Also of note: Loren having had more than six hours of sleep.
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
"Stabilize her."
The voice was calm, subdued, and potent with the authority of command.
The first thing Lily might see, however groggily rendered, was a vaguely man-shaped silhouette, a dark, lean figure that might provide some context for the woman if she was conscious enough to register the voice. The failing light cast a shadow across his face, but better vision would make the clothing at least clear: A cleanly pressed Gebler Captain's uniform.
Kahm Yugh shared Loren's misgiving about the situation, but convenience was not an ally of theirs link, and this besotted oubliette was the best option they possessed for keeping someone they weren't interested in advertising to whatever loose ears and lips the lambs had in the palace. His eyes occasionally drew across the markings on her arms, wary of their glow, and then the crown-shaped ether damper affixed to her head. The room shooked with an ominous hum, as if they were sharing space with one of the power pylons that dotted Kislev's grim and smoky skyscape.
There were questions a plenty to ask, and most would likely be a waste of time. But there was value in talking to her at least once, from the Captain's perspective.
Once should be enough to make sure she wouldn't be a problem.
"Take care not to move too much, Miss Keil. You're like to harm yourself needlessly." Kahm said, taking one step forward. The unseen thrum of power in the room seemed to undulated with his movement. "In the same vein, i'll have to ask that you don't attempt to use ether. It will go badly for you if you do."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Fingers on Lily's next register quickly. Her eye narrows again and she shifts away, though with the chair back behind her there isn't anywhere to go. Even then, the prongs of the crown press into her skin. "Ugh--"
Elevated is about right; Lily is... agitated, and indeed she's paler than usual. Her temperature isn't ideal, either.
But she does hear the voice of command. Reardless she mutters, "Hands off," trying to make out the silhouette of the figure before her that she can't particularly see well. She does not register the voice for the moment. Alone without allies down here, she begins to feel that strange hum.
Kahm speaks, and Lily looks forward, vision still registering as she feels the chnage int he air. The instant she's asked not to use Ether, like breathing, the markings about her arms pulse faintly and she stares forward. Her fingers don't so much as twitch until after, when her head lolls forward. "Augh--"
The pain is worse, abrubtly, added to by bizarre feedback, her mind blanking out in some sort of noise.
She huffs once, turns to look around the room, look for layout, advantage... She looks a little ill.
"How thoughtful of you," she remarks. "What did you do to me?" Discomfort is a small word for what registers in the stoic woman's voice. "What is that... feeling."
Her chains clink again until her hands start to close, the left slower than the right into fists. She winces at the movement and channels it into a harsh glare. "Since you're so concerned with my well-being."
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
'Stabilize her'.
"Yes, sir."
A bit of a tall order, Loren considers, gaze flickering over the contents of his kit, considering he can think of quite a few things that could be going wrong. Shock, for one, which the conditions of the dungeon certainly wouldn't be helping, but as easy as it is to start to treat -- well, assuming speed -- it's hilariously one of the ones he's least able to effectively handle right now. Not without moving her.
But considering recent medical history...
He takes her arm, rolls it towards him. The scent of iodine burns in the air -- simple, but endlessly effective -- and she'll feel a brief chill where he applies it to her arm.
Followed moments later by the prick of a needle.
"...Narcotic analgesic withdrawal, most likely," he announces for the captain's benefit, recapping the hypodermic. "At her approximate weight, that should suffice for temporary abatement." He glances over at Kahm, briefly. "But if it is shock, we may need to readjust her posture, sir."
He regards Lily in silence after that.
She just tried it anyway, didn't she.
The etheric pressure in the room is hard to miss. It's not directed at him, but it's as omnipresent as fog, one might say.
"...Whatever you're thinking, you're in no condition for it," he says, addressing her at last. Once again, he squints at her slightly. Something's odd about her reaction overall, something that doesn't quite fit. Just the withdrawal? Or is something else wrong?
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
Kahm briefly nodded his satisfaction to Loren's explanation before Lily did exactly what he said not to do. Naturally. Tell a child not to touch fire, and what else should happen?
"You've been fitted with a device that suppresses your abilities." He explains succinctly. "Ordinarily that might be enough, but i'm providing some extra assurance in case those markings on your arms are some sort of trump card. That feeling you have is your neurons backfiring because I didn't like whatever you were thinking about."
The Captain's voice was even, but sternly uncompromising. "I'm concerned with our well-being first and foremost. As long as you don't forget that, we won't have any problems."
With that bit over with, they can turn to questioning. Kahm defers this by turning his eyes on Loren, briefly, "Feel free, Lieutenant. You've more experience on this case than I do."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Iodine. That, Lily recognizes quickly. More touch on her arm is bothersome, and her breath slows as she feels the chill--then the needle. There's a chill that runs through her body at that point, a slight shake of her head. It's hard to control impulses right now, with that bizarre feeling, with the pain of her injuries to begin with...
Well, she totally did try her Ether anyway. Her fingers twitch again. Regardless her mind starts to clear a little, even if by this point Loren can see sweat starting to bead about her temples. When he addresses her...
"I'm thinking I'm going to break your arm," Lily remarks darkly. "Voss." His medical instincts are right though; while her color improves somewhat, she's still very pale. She's sweating, despite the cool temperature down here. And when Kahm answers her...
"Ah," she answers. It's a fairly straightforward answers, though it makes her wonder, "How..." She doesn't expect to get an answer from that.
She sways slightly, where she is, apparently disoriented. "If you didn't like what I was thinking before, you sure won't like what I'm thinking... now." She is, in fact, thinking of very graphic violence.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
She says she's going to break his arm.
"How nice," Loren comments dryly, lifting an eyebrow. Just barely, he bites back on further comment, all-too-aware of Captain Yugh looking over his shoulder, as it were.
Speaking of, he glances Kahm's way once before reaching over to touch his hand to her cheek, thumb resting briefly on the underside of her jaw. He leans in, looking her right in the eye...
And sighs before letting go again, extending one hand for the foil blanket in his kit. Her skin's chill to the touch.
"Close enough to shock-like, but I don't think she needs to be moved. She's still lucid enough to question, judging from her answers," he explains, draping her in it somewhat awkwardly.
In other words: incredibly violent.
The Captain wants him to start? "...I'm not sure how truthful you'll be, Keil, but you must know what your situation is right now. You'll gain nothing by lying." He folds his arms over his chest, staring at her as if he could see right through her. "First of all, what were you doing and why? I recall you telling me once that you considered us your enemy as a soldier of Kislev. Was it related to that?" He pauses, as if considering his options. "Or was it something else? What do you think, Keil? Do you think we should ask the princess about you?"
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
Kahm seems unperturbed by whatever violence Lily was considering in the confines of her own man. Apparently, as long as she didn't try to use ether, he would remain good to his word.
For now, he's content to watch her exchange with Loren like a steely-eyed sentinel.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Her eye focuses more than enough to bore into Loren's as he touhes her cheek. Her eye is bloodshot, but not glassy like it was before. The blanket... Well, she frowns as he puts it around her. "Trying to sweat me out?" she asks, and then shivers lightly. "...Ugh."
Shock. Is that what's going on? She can't tell, for her part. She certainly can't diagnose herself easily. Her chains clink again as she shifts her posture, glancing up and unable to do anything about the crown.
"I can pretend I'm not lucid if it makes it more fun," she says, still a little dazedly.
But Loren starts? Lily scoffs openly as he mentions she'll gain nothng. He stares through, and Loren can be a very harsh man... But it seems to wash of of her as she lifts an eyebrow. She stares straight at him. Then... She opens her mouth.
"First Lieutenant Keil, Lily. Black Wolves, second in command. Specialization field medic, special forces."
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"You're cold to the touch, Keil."
That's his matter-of-fact response, as if dismissing her own assessment entirely. Burning up, but feeling cold? He'd guess hypothermia in any other situation... but while it's cold in here, it's certainly not that cold.
He closes his eyes, pushing his glasses a touch up his nose as if in mild irritation. "I don't think you're in the position to play around."
But she does give an answer, doesn't she. She looks him right in the ey and tells him something he already knows.
A good ten seconds of silent, irritated staring ensues.
"Fine. I'll ask about something else. According to the intelligence we've collected, you're currently wanted by Kislev for treason. Is that true?" He pauses a moment, as if to consider her critically for a moment. "There's also the matter of your father. How aware was he of your abilities?" He never did get the chance to ask properly under another guise.
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
This was going about as well as Kahm expected. No civilian, indeed.
"The Black Wolves." He said, treating the phrase with a degree of regard. "That's interesting, I thought they'd been wiped out."
He remains poised to keep Lily in check if necessary, particularly when Loren strides the shaky ground of asking about her father. You never knew, with a background her talents suggested.
"The man who travels with you." Kahm asked pointedly, not sure if Keil had actually recognized him yet or not. "Is he one as well?"
A Black Wolf? An ether-user? The question was purposefully open-ended.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Cold? Lily appears a little shaken by that assessment, the surprise showing in her face in a little wave before she shakes her head. "...Whatever," she says, unsettled but trying to keep her calm. The small tell is a little hitch o breath once as she starts to straighten her posture.
Her arm aches worse, still tender even if she has the motion in the hand back.
In a position to play around or not, the Kislevi stares back at Loren through each of those seconds, unblinking, even if she has to lean more heavily on the chair than she would like.
The Black Wolves, wiped out. Kahm's statement brings her right fist to curl more tightly than it had been before, a twitch of some irritation in her dry lips.
She prepares to non-answer Loren when Kahm's pointed question comes. There's not even an instant before the Ether damper shows its feedback, before Kahm's abilities kick in and Lily reels with static filling her mind, a groan of outright pain suggesting what rolls through her body as a result.
That would have been a very harsh response.
She breathes heavily after that, shakes her head. "...Captain Albus. Black Wolves, commanding officer. That's all."
Then, "The charges read that I killed the other members of the Black Wolves as part of defection with Albus, and that I in particular was a spy working with Gebler. Unknown how long I'd been compromised."
She spits in Loren's face at that, saying nothing about her father. "Ironic, right?"
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
'That's interesting', the captain says.
Loren's stance shifts, as if he were about to interject, perhaps guessing what he's about to say next. Blue eyes slip over Kahm's way, then return to Lily; Loren settles down. No, actually, he does want to see how she responds to this.
...More or less how he expected, considering her comments to him before.
"Survivor's guilt," he says, matter-of-factly to Kahm, once she's had her reminder of just what this device can do. "It seems her and Captain Albus were the sole survivors."
Was there a defection, he wonders, or was this just a cover-up? "Because of your abilities? Or were there other reasons they would think--"
She's got surprisingly good aim.
And he's also a little close at hand.
Loren wipes off his cheek a moment later, his expression twisted in disgust.
This is going so well.
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
"Captain Albus." Kahm repeats, unmoved by Lily's suffering. She was, in his view, only doing it to herself.
"I see." He said, nodding to Loren, impassive as the junior officer took a blow that damaged his ego more than anything else. The Captain wore his frown openly-this wasn't working. Lily was likely to give herself a stroke if she didn't stop resisting, and he didn't need Loren losing his temper in this situation either.
"Thank you, Lieutenant." He said crisply. "You're dismissed. I'd like a moment alone with the prisoner."
His tone didn't brook any space for an argument, but he would wait.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Maybe she can test her limits in time, but Lily isn't having any success attempting to brute force past the combination of dampener and... whatever Kahm is doing to her. Less than no success, really, though there's a certain satisfaction in the pain of the attempt.
Maybe she'll hurt herself with it sooner rather than later.
"Voss," Lily says, an edge to her tone, at his comment about survivor's guilt. Little magic is required to feel hate in the moment, though it's not as... focused, as before. "As for that, you'd have to ask them. They didn't exactly stop to discuss it with me, as you can imagine."
She glares at Kahm next. "Captain Albus," she repeats, and the edge in her tone is harder now. Then... Loren is dismissed, and Lily immediately looks between the two of them, wary, calculating what might make this move next. ...She takes the time to take a few breaths, to try to steady herself.
"Later, Voss. I'll see you again."
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
She doesn't know how to stop. He's already seen that in action -- she's the type to cut her own leg off if it meant she could bludgeon her enemy over the head with it.
"Didn't stop to discuss it with you." He huffs out a breath. "One would assume, normally."
Is that just sarcasm, or is it doubt? It's hard to tell.
It's just a bruised ego, but if looks could kill...
Well, both of them would probably be dead at this point.
Loren's gaze turns sidelong, towards Kahm, when he gives his order.
And the medic nods crisply, coupling it with a quick salute. "Sir. Understood. Contact me if anything arises or if her condition worsens."
He'll only move to collect his kit -- what hasn't been used, that is.
And pause for a moment, glancing wordlessly at the woman as she all-but-promises that she'll see him again.
Averting his gaze, he'll make his departure from the cell.
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
"Noted. I'll take full responsibility should anything happen." Kahm said by way of assurance as Loren excused himself, turning back to Lily in time follow her parting jab.
"I wouldn't be so sure of that." He stated, taking several steps forward until he was almost as close to Lily as the Lieutenant had been, still standing.
He'd read Loren's profile reports on the woman, and her behavior certainly illustrated what words could merely describe. There was little unfamiliar in the way she repeatedly applied the same flawed action to a problem, over and over and over again, regardless of how many times she failed, regardless of the toll on her body.
The sound of countless wooden swords clattering to the ground filled the Captain's ears, and in an instant the atmosphere in the cell lifted. The ether damper was still in effect, but the additional power Kahm had been exerting was gone in an instant.
Now was the time to take a risk. A calculated one, that is.
"I only have one question for you." Kahm said, his gaze bearing down on the prisoner with all the focused potency he'd ceased to exert on her mind. The princess's intentions, Kislev's agenda, the Yggdrasil....all the players were on the table.
"The man with the blue eyes." He asked with all sincerity, "The one who attacked you. Was he like you?"
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Again, and again. Brute force works for Lily, most of the time. ...Except when it doesn't. It's a problem, increasingly. But for now she recovers from that exertion rather than trying it again, rolling her eye at Loren at his sarcasm, at his doubt, more in his direction than really at him as she recovers herself.
There's no love lost on either side here.
She ignores Loren as he leaves the rest of the way, save to check his motions until he's on her blind side and then look at Kahm.
Kahm suggests that she not be so sure, and she stares at him without response, some of that dark emotion settled on him. She's very good at looking unpleasant, moreso when she seems ill.
But when the atmosphere lifts, Lily sags briefly in her chair, held up by her restraints, as if a physical presence is lifted from her rather than only a psychic pressure. She can feel the difference immediately, and it's almost like air in this stale, musty dungeon.
That question puzzles her. She remains still for a moment, lifts her head as if to study his expression in return, finding nothing but that intense gaze without explanation. Still she stares, as if looking into the sun.
"...That's it," she asks, though it sounds more like a statement. "That's what you want to know."
The blonde woman shrugs. "Why should I tell you? I'm not any fonder of you than I am of him."
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
If Kahm derived any satisfaction from stumping the woman, even for a moment, he doesn't show it. Either her state was making it difficult to recognize him, or she was a better actor than he took her for. Either way, it didn't change his course of action.
"He doesn't draw lines with his victims. I thought you might be interested in protecting people you see as innocents." He said, gesturing with one hand palm up. "But maybe i'm wrong to try appealing to your humanitarian spirit. Consider this instead."
The man's hand draw into themselves and clasp. There was something unerringly fluid about their motions. It was almost a dance.
"If I find him, he might kill me. Or I might kill him. Either way, someone you don't care for is dead."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
The image of his face certainly slides into her memory, but her mind at the moment is fractured, pain making it difficult to focus among other difficulties from the state that she's in that she hasn't had time to inventory, diagnose, compensate for.
But then, disorientation is a perfect accompaniment to interrogation; she knows that herself, has used the same tactic.
But a reason for this track has dawned on her, is slowly spreading its light about her mental landscape as she considers her answer, considers her words. ...The simple truth is that she does consider it. She considers it as she watches his strange motion, considers the simple logic of his words.
"I am interested in that," she admits. "However..."
Her expression is flat. "I'm not interested in helping you."
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
The motions of Kahm's hands suddenly stop, and they fall back at his side. It was as he reported to the Elements: Getting answers out of her was going to take time, even the least relevant ones to her situation. He knew full well why, and part of him could not blame her. She did not know, after all. She had never been taught.
Hatred. I felt her hatred.
"As you like, then." The man said, casually wiping the dust that had accumulated on his tunic during this session. "But I suggest you consider your situation. Restraints you cannot break, a crown you cannot see beyond, and power you cannot overcome. Remember these things."
He turns to leave, looking back over his shoulder before as the iron door creaked open.
"This is as far as hatred gets you."
The door closed behind him, dust settling the floor in its wake.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Hatred. It burns through her, as surely as anything, as surely as the heat that threatens to overwhelm her despite the apparent chill of her skin. It shows in her eye, as she stares at Kahm, a backdrop barely concealed by golden civility, barely papered-over by practiced disaffection.
But the world does not react to her feeling, to her will. The Ether dampener remains in place.
Still he responds calmly, and she watches him, blinking only slowly, as if naturally. He suggests that she onsider the situation, and each side of this triangle falls into place at each word. Three things burned into her memory. Her fingers flex and twitch, the markings on her body still faintly luminous, when sighted through the blanket draped over her.
Hatred. Her golden eye follows him, staring into his eyes as he looks over his shoulder. The door closes. The dust settles.
Involuntarily she shivers, staring at the door through rasping breaths, as she identifies an analogy to the feeling of this crown, a loss of breath that she can't get back.
Still, she glares at the door. "...You haven't seen hatred," she wheezes, losing all pretense. One more word she hisses out before she sits in silence. It slips into the room.
"...Solaris..."