2017-10-25: A Novel Approach
- Log: A Novel Approach
- Cast: Loren Voss, Seraphita, Lily Keil
- Where: Bledavik - Royal Palace
- Date: October 25th 2017
- Summary: Seraphita redefines interrogation procedure. Lily does not comprehend. Loren resigns himself to his fate.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Maybe things are improving somewhat. That is, if 'relocation from a cold dark dungeon cell' to 'a strangely accented and still unlit by natural light but overall nicer modern cell' is an improvement.
At least there's better medical equipment in the room where Lily Keil is currently being restrained -- helpful AND essential, as it happens, when it comes to drawing blood from a captive.
Loren finally pulls the needle free, swapping it for a square of gauze which he presses down firmly for a few moments on the inside of Lily's forearm.
Officially, a 'terrorist' was captured inside the palace -- no names given.
They still need to figure out what they're going to do with her. Leading option is ship her to Etrenank for processing, but admittedly things are a little bit... strained at the moment. An attack may be occuring presently.
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
Every once in a while, which is to say very often, Tolone needs a break from her happier and more carefree half. Bored, the rabbit had looked around to figure out who was doing what and if any of it looked interesting. Upon finding out her favorite lieutenant was on prisoner-handling duty, she decided to be nice to him!
The door to the cell opens, and closes immediatly behind Seraphita after she steps in. She's carrying a stray! A big, nice, silver tray. There are a dozen cupcakes on it, a rainbow of flavors, sugar and sparkles.
"Hiiii! I brought you two cupcakes! The Commander said giving a prisoner cake makes them more likely to cooperate and not bite back too hard!!"
Ramsus didn't say that exactly, but the idea was the same.
Mostly.
He probably didn't mean you should give cake to prisoners with the kind of dossier Lily has. Too late now, cupcakes have been brought.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily doesn't really trust anything down here, so it's not notable that she doesn't trust this 'improvement' and certainly doesn't trust special monitoring equipment that she can see. There was, however, no incident in moving her; she still seems somewhat weaker than she was before her captivity, physically, still in somewhat poor condition...
But she didn't attempt to escape while being moved. Instead, she looked as best she could at the layout of her new prison, attempted to pick up words as best she could from her captors. She didn't get much, given Gebler discipline...
But Aveh soldiers are somewhat easier to deal with.
...She pretty much is a terrorist here though. At least there's a grain of truth? She was found with explosives when searched, anyway.
But in the moment:
Lily rolls her eye, showing no particular reaction to Loren's expert blood drawing. She still isn't wearing sleeves, in gray prison clothes, and her strange, circuit-like markings are dull gray as well. They are not tattoos, as has been established by now. But... Well, she was prepared for Loren. She was going to sass him and try to make his composure crack.
But Seraphita?
"...The fuck?" she prisoner asks aloud, wondering if she's delusional from fever. "Cupcakes." She stares in something like disbelief. "...You realize I can't lift my hands enough to eat one myself." She is dubious, but... Is not openly antagonizing Seraphita, for some reason.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
So this is the scene that Seraphita walks in on, cup-cakes in hand:
Loren, one thumb pressed into the inside of Lily's arm, vial and syringe still held in the other hand.
An ill-looking Lily, restrained with an ether-suppressent device strapped to her head. The so-called 'Crown of Thorns' apparatus.
Loren, from the look on his face -- yes, even in profile, from Lily's position -- has no idea of how to handle this. He locks up, staring towards his superior officer as he attempts to find the pivot point between, quite possibly, 'what the hell' and 'appropriate deference'.
"Ma'am, er... you are aware the prisoner is..."
And it appears to occur to him that he still has a 'patient' on hand just fresh from a blood draw... and that she's bleeding through the little piece of gauze (like anyone would). He sets down the syringe a touch hastily, reaching for the medical tape.
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
"Relax, relax! It's not like this is rocket surgery!" Seraphita argues, which is a round-about way of saying she knows Loren is competent enough it'll take more than a bunny with cupcakes to make him screw up any kind of medical work. Also it's just drawing blood! Maybe some torture thrown in. It truly isn't 'rocket surgery'.
Seraphita picks up one of the cupcakes - which are actually bite-sized, as real cupcakes should be, with big wads of icing and candy on them - and attempts to stuff it in Lily's mouth. "Don't say mean words! Have cake, and then let's talk about some stuff!" It's strawberry, incidently, and it's absolutely delicious. It's also not poisoned or anything like that, as demonstrated by Seraphita taking an identical one and lifting it towards Loren's nose.
"C'mooooon, no one can resist!"
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Luckily for Lily, the Kislevi prisoner in question has no problem with blood, even her own. The sting of the needle doesn't even appear to register to her, nor does the blood dripping from her arm. She is more focused on Seraphita, but then...
Loren's difficulty registers, at the same time that Seraphita argues. No torture yet. Probably. However...
Lily can't really do anything but eat the cupcake, unless she wants to smear it on her face out of spite. ...In this case she doesn't, opening her mouth and taking bites. it's not the most dignified, it's a little messy... But it works. And besides, it might bother Loren.
She hews and swallows, inclines her head. Her chains don't even clink. "Yeah," she agrees, "That's pretty good." Her hair, incidentally, is darkening quickly back to black, now something more like brown. She licks her lips for what cleanliness she can get. If Loren happens to be in her blind spot, well, that's fine. "You should have one, Voss."
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"Well, technically, no, it isn't," he can't help but remark dryly, before taping a more substantial bit of gauze to the draw site, reapplying his thumb.
He is, in fact, in Lily's blind spot. It's both a minor and petty thing to do to someone under his care.
But what's cleaer to him right now is -- as he wipes away that think trickle of blood -- is that he's going to have to be more direct about his objection.
"Ma'am, are you certain you should be giving cake to a... prisoner?" Particularly one that -- though withdrawal signs have faded -- appears to be continuing to worsen slowly under their care.
Too late, Lily's getting cake anyway. If Lily's goal was to irritate or needle Loren today, well, mission already accomplished by that far-too-carefully-neutral expression on his face.
A cupcake is shoved under his nose. He stiffens, leaning back a touch. As if repelled or... trying to resist? Particularly when Lily eggs him on.
But at the end of the day, he's still an eighteen-year-old boy. Military discipline ultimately takes a hike. Exhaling a brief sigh, he finally shifts his hand from the inside of her arm and strips off the medical gloves and takes the cupcake.
It's bitesized. It's not going to last very long in this world. There's only so much he can resist when faced with food, honestly.
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
Seraphita smiles, nodding. "It's my grandma's recipe!! She said, the reason cupcakes are good is because they're small, if you could have infinite cupcakes, you'd get bored of them after a while!" Maybe not in those exact words, but it's very true.
The tray is set aside on the table, next to all that medical equipment, and the bunny looks at Lily, concerned. "Worsening? Oh no! If she dies we can't find out how she can unheal people!" Lily no doubt had already pieced together Solaris' interest in her abilities, if she hasn't been told straight up. So to Seraphita, revealing it doesn't matter. If only she thought this much about everything.
"Maybe she's worsening because she hasn't had good food here? Maybe she's allergic to the desert! People don't seem to like the heat much." It doesn't bother her, but it's not uncommon Gebler soldiers transfered to Aveh complain about the weather. Etrenank has A/C everywhere. You can't cool a desert like that.
... at least, not yet. Maybe Krelian's thought about it.
"So hiiiii, miss Keil!! I don't suppose if we ask super nicely you'll tell us what your cool powers do?"
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
There isn't a lot Lily can do in her position that isn't stew, look for opportunities, try to pull herself together and look for ways to escape. She has little means of strikin back at her captors that don't hurt her more, and frankly, she's still tempted.
...But she can twist the knife at Loren a bit. It's the little things.
She does not, however, smile back at Seraphita, remaining largely stoic. "...Your grandmother is probably right. Too many sweets and you get tired of it." This is probably the most she's spoken in captivity. Something about Seraphita.
She clams right up at the talk of unhealing, finding out, and files that away. ..Unfortunately she misses the way Loren eats the cupcake, but can hear with some satisfcation that he did, ruining a little bit the moment.
"All possible," she suggests. "My medical opinion is that you should unchain me immediately and let me go take a walk."
The heat doesn't generally bother her, really.
"You're..." She shakes her head. "Whatever. Obviously I'm..." She trails off, and if Loren or Seraphita look, they might see the spark of a plan in he eye.
"...Actually," she says, "Yeah. I might. I'll make you a deal. You tell me about how Gebler classifies these abilities, and I'll tell you some about my abilities." A shrug. "Or nothing. I have no interest in helping you, after all."
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"Because things are finite... hm," Loren muses aloud, before coughing and not at all surreptitiously attempting to wipe his mouth off. He'd like to pretend that lapse of behavior didn't just happen.
But to be fair, it was an extremly good cupcake... even if he's too much of an ass to compliment Seraphita about it.
A moment later: "We can always conduct a post-mortem," Loren replies to his superior officer's naked concern, which may or may not help things here. "We're not certain what's causing her deterioration. She's no longer showing shock symptoms and we've successfully treated her withdrawal from her medication, but..." He glances at Lily, as if silently adding another line to whatever notebook exists in his head.
"...Absolutely not." And his gaze lifts to Seraphita as it briefly occurs to him that it isn't impossible that his superior officer might just do what Lily says...!?
And Lily switches up her offers.
He starts to shake his head. "We're not making a deal. You're not in any position to make us an offer..."
However, he's not the only person here, now is he.
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
"Maybe we should find her medication? Oh! Maybe it has something to do with her powers! Both the medication and her condition!" That's probably one of the only smart guesses you'll hear her make, so savor it while it lasts. Of course, letting Lily go for a walk is a big no-no... but information for information?
Tolone would probably say no. Kelvena and Dominia might say maybe, it really depends on what Lily wants to know. Seraphita, well...
"Sure!!!" Ohno. "But it's not super complicated, even I get it. Our powers are called Ether! We classify them by element! Fire Ether like mine sets people on fire or burns things, Water Ether can make water or heal people, Wind Ether can make wind and lightning, and Earth Ether makes big rocks and lava and stuff!"
Loren might appreciate that what Seraphita just said roughly describes all sorcery and, therefore, she didn't actually reveal anything important.
"Yours seems super special! We haven't seen that before! Sometimes rare people are born with special Ethers like that, like me! I can siphon magic out of people!" Well, that one is hers to reveal if she wants to. "Or some people are good at all Ethers! Those are even rarer!"
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
A post-mortem. Lily doesn't obviously react, save for silence at that, remaining quiet for a few moments as he desribes her condition. That struck a nerve. She does not glance back at him.
"Sure, give me back my painkillers," Lily suggests to Seraphita, though the fact that she's in pain contributes to the slip in identifying them. She's not sleeping well in here either. But Loren's response to her first offer gets a light shrug. "Worth a try."
Loren says they're not making a deal, which doesn't surprise her. Seraphita, however...
Lily listens very carefully to that. "Ether," she repeats. Loren of course has seen a variety of spells out of Lily already, and she's well aware of that. The explanation may cover most Sorcery, but even so...
"Special, huh," Lily replies. "...I see." Strange even among those who know her abilities. She glances up to the ceiling for a moment. "...That's a useful ability. I already feel like garbage not being able to use mine." She considers again...
"All right, I'm a woman of my word. I'm proficient in what you'd call Fire Ether as well as ice abilities. That might correspond to water, though I have no knack for liquid-state water. ...I don't use it to heal people. My healing feels more like fire to me, has a similar... Mm, it's hard to describe, but you know how each element feels distinct, I assume."
"I also use darkness Ether. I can attack life energy, destroy organic and inorganic matter. I can also conjure weapons and barriers of all of the above elements."
"Like you, there's no chanting or symbology required. Just will, intent. I had to learn to control it the same way I'm sure you did. There, I think that's a fair trade."
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"Someone would have to administer it. I suppose if Captain Petran approved it we could set up a drip, but I'm not certain it's advised considering the dependence potential." He shifts his weight, regarding Lily a little more critically.
"Though maybe that wouldn't matter at this point," he adds, still talking over her rather than to her.
He doesn't have finest bedside manner.
"I'll bring it up in the next report."
Loren has enough time to have a moment of foreboding.
He stiffens in anticipatory alarm. "Ma'am--"
And then the most cheerful, most basic instruction-level course on ether ensues.
Minus a few details, perhaps -- at least the details that a relatively-freshly-minted Jugend grad like Loren would know -- but otherwise the gist of ether.
Well, Loren considers in the privacy of his own mind, that could have been worse. He ducks his head, fidgeting with his glasses.
All ethers. People like van Houten.
And possibly, judging on what he's seen, perhaps one other.
One eyebrow lifts a touch. In silence, he lifts his head and watches Lily with a touch more interest than before. 'Feels like garbage without being able to use her ether', is it. That doesn't sound right.
But what he does end up saying aloud is, "Fire-aspected healing? Hmm." He attempts to meet Seraphita's gaze, questioningly.
And then to Lily: "We're well aware of your destructive capability at this point, Keil." A little unsettingly so. Probably for the best they ship her off to the labs to deal with.
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
"Yupyup! Ice is usually lumped in with water! But if someone was an Ice Ether specialist then you'd know they favor that over the bigger grouping!" Seraphita cheerfully responds, before listening to Lily's explanation of her own powers.
"I wish I could heal people with fire! All I can do is set people on fire! It's super useful but healing would be cool too. Can you teach me?!" she asks, as if a prisoner would say yes, or be given the leeway to do so. It would have to wait, even if Lily agreed.
"We don't know much about Dark Ether and Light Ether... they're kind of rare!" More than elemental ones, for sure. "But yep, it's will! Different people are born with different potentials, though... you can't really will yourself to develop better or more Ether if you don't already have the gift." That's probably not totally true, but Seraphita's not an expert. She knows the basics because they're easy.
"But! It's really really weird not being able to use yours makes you feel bad!! Maybe the equipment is faulty?" A broken Ether dampener would probably be pretty uncomfortable. "Or maybe your power's weird and your body's used to using it passively?" If Kelvena was here, Seraphita laments, she'd probably be able to help Lily better understand things.
She looks towards Loren, handing him the metaphorical decision stick. "You're the doctor, leftenant! Maybe we could give her small doses? She seems super nice when you're being nice to her too!" There is ONE thing Seraphita knows about drugs. "I know when people take Drive they say you have to control your dose so you don't become afflicted!" Addicted? Close enough.
You may use this moment to wonder if Seraphits uses Drive.
Actually, don't, that's a terrible idea.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"Considering that I was already going through withdrawal for it? Probably. But I have a corneal laceration and it's very uncomfortable." That's not her only injury, but it is one of the more notable. He's talking over her, but she doesn't sound invested in her treatment here.
Mostly she's surprised it's even being considered.
Loren doesn't say much, and where he's standing, she can't judge his expressions well. She relies on breathing, tone, as best she's able. "Yes," she responds about her healing, and then snorts. "You haven't seen half of what I can destroy, Voss."
She looks to Seraphita--she can still smell the cupcakes--and nods after a moment. "Ice, water. I see." A pause. "...Fire is very useful. I..." She blinks. Or winks. It's hard to tell, with bandages over her eyes. "I might be able to teach you," she says. She... wouldn't, because they're enemies, but it's technically true that she probably could. She sounds very dubious.
"Rare, is that it?" She listens. "Can't you?" she asks about willing yourself to do more or better. "Is it that limited?" In her experience... Well, she does sound surprised.
"I wouldn't know about the equipment," Lily says, and pointedly doesn't look down at the bizarre markings on her arms, which pulse lightly more white. "My... power's...?" The thought of it just being weird, passive, disturbs her.
Loren may have noticed in his examinations that she has no scars of any type.
"Nice," Lily repeats deadpan. But before she can say much more of that--
"...Drive?" she asks, looking curiously at Seraphita.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"You shouldn't be in withdrawal any longer after the anti-opioid agent," he says with a shake of his head, once again discarding her experience. Only to sigh as she remarks that she can break so, so much more. "Of course. Need I remind you that's precisely why you're in restraints, Keil?"
Everything can (more or less) sit neatly inside the four main circles, but there are subsets of each. He lifts his eyebrows. That's... more shockingly concise than Loren would have considered. ...Is that respect for his superior officer outside her rank and ability to torch people to fine ash?
Well, yes, actually.
"Ma'am, I don't think... perhaps you should speak with, er..." Loren stops and starts, first attempting to waylay Seraphita's earnest wish, then considering and discarding fobbing her off onto his medical division colleagues. "...We all have our strengths," he opts for, remarkably diplomaticly for him.
He's barely even heard of light or dark ether, to be honest.
Everyone's got their strengths. It's one reason he ended up being shuttled towards medical work: his own talents had bent in a particular direction.
He shakes his head. "It shouldn't be faulty. Medical inspected and vouched for its operational status." Slightly his brow furrows. "...Passively? That doesn't... hm."
Though now, once he's considering it...
She is a rogue user. Perhaps hers is inefficient that way.
"I'll discuss it. We'll need to calibrate the dosage anyway." He pauses, then tilts his head slightly to the right. "...That's addicted. But you're more or less right, ma'am."
There's a reason it's dispensed 'as approved'.
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
"Maybe you can teach me someday! We can train together and I can show you how to set stuff on fire better and you can show me how to un-hurt people with fire!" That is such an odd prospect, but none of this sounds odd to Seraphita.
It goes unsaid, but there's a "if you get out" in there.
Or maybe "if you stay our prisoner for a long time".
Seraphita twirls in place, taking a step back away from Lily and pondering the question. What's Drive again? It's a... it's a thingy you take. Yeah, combat... something. "Combat sti-mu-lant! Hey I got that word right! Yeah! That's what Drive! I bet the leftenant has some on him!! I'm not allowed to carry any though, Tolone says I'm not res-pon-si-ble enough." Seraphita pouts.
It is not hard to see why anyone would think this.
Since Loren is going to consider all the medical stuff, Seraphita twirls one more time, pointing at the tray of cupcakes, swiping one for herself and crunching it down like she hasn't eaten in days. Mouth still half-full, she says: "I'm gonna leave you two now!! Try to eat all the cupcakes, wasting food is awful!" Interestingly that's also Solaris' policy on prisoners. Wasting food is awful. Food for thought.
And with that, Seraphita wanders back out, as swiftly as she arrived. On the bright side she won't be ruining Loren's entire gig up any longer! On the other hand it's already thoroughly ruined.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"Whatever," Lily replies to Loren's expert medical opinion about her withdrawal, which admittedly has subsided. But his sigh an remark gets a light shrug, which is really more a tilt of her head and a lifted eyebrow. "I noticed," she points out. "I don't especially need the reminder."
THey all have their strengths, Loren says, and Lily, through her the mild haze of nausea and pain, files that away. She doesn't have any way to use it right now, but..
"Addictive," she comments. "Well, I guess I'll find out what you decide." It's not as if she has a say in her treatment at the moment. However...
"...Sure, why not?" Lily says. "Maybe someday." She does not think it will ever happen. ...She largely doesn't, anyway. It occurs to her, too, that if things go poorly in the next few days, she could be with Gebler for a very, very, very long time.
The prisoner shivers despite herself, shaking her head lightly. She can only do so lightly.
"Combat stimulant," she repeats. "Isn't that dangerous?" She considers though; has she seen it used, when she was fighting Gebler before? She's not sure. She'll have to think...
Seraphita twirls and points at the cupcakes. "...Sure. See you later."
She stares after Seraphita for a moment and then shakes her head. "...You've got some colorful superiors, Voss."
Lily pauses, turns her head, and looks straight in his direction as best she can. She smirks. "So, can I get another cupcake?"
Responsible enough. Maybe... Maybe if...
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
He'll need to discuss it. But addictive traits -- in analgesics at least -- aren't really a major concern, unless they'll want her system clear in the event of...
Well, whatever tests they'll want to once they've transferred her.
She could end up being with them for a very long time.
Admittedly, there's not anything that Lily can do, restrained and prevented from using her ether, even if she knows he's probably in possession of a particularly potent combat stimulant.
But that DOESN'T mean he doesn't manage a ram-rod straight posture when Seraphita comments on it. It's the principle of the thing -- Lambs don't need to know certain things. "Ma'am," he says -- and it's all he says -- but interjecting as much warning as possible into his tone.
Though it's already far, far too late to warn.
If the look in his eyes as he glances off towards the wall says anything, it's 'why me'.
"It's nothing you need to know about," he replies to Lily's question.
Maybe that's telling.
Just like that, off Seraphita whirls again, hopefully to make life difficult for someone else. Regardless of whatever he might be thinking right now, Loren still rips off a pristine salute and a reflexive, "Yes, ma'am." ...Before it occurs to him, the door closing in her wake, that he's just accepted orders to eat cupcakes.
"Hmph." So more or less runs the sound he makes at Lily's comment about 'his superiors'.
Which is of course followed shortly by: "I'm not hand-feeding you, Keil."