2017-10-26: If
- Log: If
- Cast: Lily Keil, Tolone
- Where: Bledavik, Royal Palace(?)
- Date: October 26, 2017
- Summary: Gebler's prisoner receives another visitor.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
The prisoner, of course, has been moved since her original placement. Still she can't get a real sense of location here, can't map it to her snooping in the palace and thus orient herself, but it doesn't stop her trying, takingthat opportunity instead of openly resisting.
...But now she's stationary again, and has been for some time. The incident with Seraphita and Loren has been some amount of color, but it's past now; the bandage on her arm is no longer as necessary, from the blood drawing. She is dressed in gray, sleeveless, the bizarre, unexplained patterns of circuitry down her shoulders to her fingertips still unexplained. She's pale; she's been somewhat ill since her captivity, nauseous by turns and fatigued, though it doesn't help that her old injuries and new are still painful.
She is sitting in a chair, chained there, hands on her legs shackled together at the wrists and stuck to her legs, Ether dampener a crown at her temples. Her hair is nearly black again without the dye, and her single visible golden eye is staring into nothing in particular.
She's focusing on... something, it being hard to tell what. The markings pulse lightly occasionally.
What time is it? Who knows. Not her. There are no windows here, though the medical monitoring equipment in this semi-modern room remains shining, ready.
<Pose Tracker> Tolone has posed.
o/` Prisoners of love o/~ Blue skies above o/` Can't keep our hearts in chains
The door opens, eventually. In comes Tolone. She speaks briefly with the guards, but the details aren't clear. Lily probably has better things to do with her time.
Tolone walks with weight. She is dense and powerful despite her outer appearance. She takes a slow ambulation around Lily, a full rotation without saying anything. It takes about ten seconds. If Lily is paying attention, she would feel studied, perhaps.
This is entirely accurate. Tolone didn't have to be polite here. But the scan is complete, and she ends up in front of Lily once more.
"You've been causing some problems, haven't you?" Tolone says, presently. Her arms fold.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
It's mostly Aveh guards now, rather than the original Gebler guards she was dealing with before. Lily can't entirely make out the words of discussion with the guards, though; she shifts her gaze Tolone's way as she walks in, but remains quiet as she studies her.
This one she doesn't /know/, and there is a sense of... weight, yes, that she can pick up even without being at her best.
Lily keeps eye forward rather than attempting to look around at the slowly circling Tolone, not bothering to sy anything. She is paying attention more than enough to notice that she's being studied... But then, wouldn't she be reardless?
Now that Tolone is not in her blind spot, Lily looks up at her. Her eyes are a little bloodshot, and not only because of the spotlight over her head. She's sweating faintly.
There's silence for a few moments before she shrugs, the movement at her wrists clinking her chains. "Have I?" she asks. "As I recall I've mostly been sitting in a room."
<Pose Tracker> Tolone has posed.
"Heh. You're showing more spirit than the Princess did," Tolone says.
Then her tone gets, if not friendly, businesslike. "You're a little flushed. I'll call for water if you need it." There is a brief moment, in which Lily can, perhaps, REVEAL A VULNERABILITY
Or get water. Her call.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily stares blankly at Tolone at the talk of the princess. She looks for something useful in her gaze... But probably doesn't find it. For her part, the Kislevi prisoner seems a little... sour, overall.
It's a vulnerability though; she stares a little overlong. She pauses at that, and glances to the side, thinking. "...Doesn't matter," she says instead. "If you want. I doubt you came here to check on my health."
She's thinking, for her part, but isn't coming up with it yet. "...Spirit. Whatever. I know how this goes."
<Pose Tracker> Tolone has posed.
"Do you? Too much doubt can be bad for you," Tolone states.
Her interior sensors create a profile. The investigation notebook application boots up again. As this happens, Tolone stands and lets the silence stretches.
"Have you been on the other end of these situations in the past? I suppose it might be interesting for you, considering everything."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"Probably no worse than this machine," Lily counters, not bothering to try to gesture up at the Ether dampening 'crown' at her brow. She's established a theory of her own, though there's not much to it yet. It's still in the works.
Elevated heartrate, temperature lower than it should be for a woman of her build and overall health. Depending on what Tolone can pick up, her condition is... less than ideal.
The question surprises her. There's a pause as she considers the harm, and then answers, "Yeah." She lets that hang a moment, "I'm a certified interrogator. I guess it's interesting in that sense. Your protocols are certainly different from Kislev's."
<Pose Tracker> Tolone has posed.
"Of course," Tolone says.
"So, a certified interrogator... that's an interesting sort of thing to get a certificate in, isn't it?" Tolone says. She starts to perambulate around Lily then, moving gradually out of her peripheral vision. "You seem pretty young. Were you a prodigy?"
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Of course. What angle Tolone's working at isn't clear to Lily immediately, especially because of how /easy/ it is to move out of Lily's peripheral vision; all it takes is going to her left side, where her vision is out, given the completely covered, injured eye there.
"I picked up a lot of extra skills in the Academy," Lily answers amiably enough. 'Amiable' for her is still mostly deadpan, obviously wary. "I suppose I'm young for my position, but I don't know about prodigy. I was second in my class among the other officers. ...My specialization is field medicine."
<Pose Tracker> Tolone has posed.
"Really?" Tolone says, with a half-suppressed laugh. "Field medicine."
Tolone is directly behind Lily when she stops.
Something whirrs.
"Is the Academy where you learned to do 'That'? It's a pretty remarkable skill."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"Really. I'm very good at it," Lily says without much intonation. "The stitching in particular I find very relaxing." It... doesn't sound like there's much humor in it, but it does stall her for a little bit of time. Not much though.
Whirr. What is that?
"...To do what, precisely?" Lily asks, though she can imagine what it is. Her dark hair hangs in Tolone's field of vision, her head tilting back slightly. The bandags wrapping about her head of course are visible.
"I learned a lot of things in the Academy that are remarkable."
<Pose Tracker> Tolone has posed.
"Like lying?" Tolone asks.
The whirring returns. If Lily leans back she can see Tolone's head. Tolone is watching her but the source of that noise is not immediately apparent.
"It's pretty ruthless of Kislev to undertake an operation like this. You've got guts, but I suppose it's to be expected. You've got a reputation to live up to, don't you?"
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"No, I learned to lie much younger than that."
This comes out a little sharper. Lily does lean back a little further, looks up at Tolone thoughtfully, before she gives her dignity a little help and looks orward again. She can't tell what that noise is. But Kislev...
"Heh," Lily answers the charge. "It is, isn't it?" She might be going along with it too easily; she certainly seems relatively relaxed. "That's right, I do. This is hardly the only infiltration I've performed."
<Pose Tracker> Tolone has posed.
"It'd be awful to disappoint people, wouldn't it?" Tolone asks. The whirring stops.
(It was, secretly, just a fan that Tolone was cycling for psychological reasons.)
"Do they know what you can do, back in Kislev? Or do they think you're just a medic?"
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
The comment about disappointment gets no real response; Lily remains silent at that, staring forward into nothing in particular. The whirring stops... But it's done a job already, giving her a mystery that she can't identify.
Well, can't solve. But she attempts to set it aside, not knowing the secret. This next question though...
If she answers, it gives them a certain amount of military intelligence. On the other hand...
"...Mm," she answers, rather than giving anything more concrete than that. "Why? Haven't you encountered any others like me in Kislev?" She goes out on a limb.
<Pose Tracker> Tolone has posed.
"None that matter," Tolone says.
IMAGE: the limb getting hit by an axe (the axe is Tolone's hand)
The orbit of Tolone puts her back into Lily's vision again. Her hands are folded behind her back. "But all this 'Academy' talk is pretty provocative. Did they teach you those techniques there?"
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
It was worth a try. ...Even if it very definitely didn't work. Lily quiets after her exploratory question gets her nothing, her eye focusing on the Element again once she's in vision. Not that watching her expression helps very much. Lily herself is fairly unexpressive, but still..
"Hmm," she answers. She debates for another long few moments, silent except the clink of her chains as she takes the opportunity for what stretching she can get.
"No," she answers eventually, closing her eye. "I developed them myself. I've been working on a lot of new techniques since I left the war front, actually." A beat, "The Academy is just Nortune's officer training school. Very prestigious, but I never enrolled in their sorcerous offerings."
<Pose Tracker> Tolone has posed.
"Did that disappoint your father?" Tolone asks, because ultimately she's a cyborg killer and doesn't really do subtle in the long term.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Disappoint her father? Lily remains in her default somewhat sour expression, sweat running from her temple as it has been since they started this particular 'conversation.'
"No," she replies almost boredly. Too boredly, really. "He supported my choice of division, and my specialization. My ARM was a gift from him on entering the Academy." She stares into nothing for a few more moments. "...If he was disappointed, he didn't tell me as much. Who knows?"
<Pose Tracker> Tolone has posed.
"Mm," Tolone says.
"Your ARM, you said. It's more like 'your arms' from where I'm standing, isn't it?"
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
The track shifts easily enough. Lily quips quickly, "Take off this crown and I'll demonstrate how they work." Regardless of what comes at that she shrugs a moment later.
"I mean the rifle I use. I didn't bring it on this mission. ...My arms are unrelated." She flexes her fingers at that, a light pulse going up her left arm, gray turning white as it passes. ...It goes back to gray in short order.
"...Your Ether use doesn't manifest like this," she starts, and it comes off as something of a question as much as it is a statement.
<Pose Tracker> Tolone has posed.
"Maybe in a better environment," Tolone says, with a ghost of amusement.
"Are you curious about that kind of thing?" Tolone asks. "Or are you asking me personally? So it's a side effect... I'd almost think it was Symbology, or a ruse to conceal your abilities."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Not the answer she was expecting. Lily lifts an eyebrow. "Sure. Just let me know." It has a touch of bravado to it... But why not? It's something like an opportunity, anyway. "It's not like I'm deciding my environment at the moment."
A question gets a question, and Lily lowers her head briefly, looking down into the floor, then at her fingers. The patterns draw her eye. "..."
"Both," she admits. "I've studied Symbology; it's very different. As a matter of fact, I used the pretense of Symbology to conceal my abilities before. ...I could probably draw you a few Symbols, given the use of my hands."
<Pose Tracker> Tolone has posed.
"I doubt it's going to happen," Tolone says.
"Hmh. I think I'll decline the opportunity. I'm familiar with the basics. So how did it happen, exactly?"
Tolone carefully reaches out to touch Lily with her left hand, on the arm, where the power flowed. Her fingers are cold.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily doubts it too. She talks about it lightly regardless, shrugging as if it doesn't particularly matter. The truth of that matter is that she isn't feeling at her best regadless, and it shows.
"Whatever." A beat, "Sure. It doesn't matter to me; I'm not really an expert regardless."
How did it happen?
Lily freezes as she's touched, her breath catching briefly. Her body language is clear in how little she likes that. The marking itself is cool to the touch like her skin, but too smooth even for unmarked flesh; it has a strange texture, more like ribbon than organic matter. The addition of light hairs on the arm makes the sensation a little more unusual.
"...They manifest when I use my abilities. At some point they started failing to disappear. Nothing really happened."
<Pose Tracker> Tolone has posed.
"Don't like that?"
Tolone runs her thumb along the marks. Too bad, apparently.
"Any of your abilities?" Tolone asks, and her voice lacks edge. This one is pure curiosity. Maybe? Something about Tolone seems wrong, up this close.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"..."
She obviously doesn't. Tolone obviously isn't going to stop just because Lily doesn't like it. The darker-haired woman keeps her silence a little longer at that, evening out her breathing again as she goes. Her teeth grit briefly.
"...My Ether abilities," Lily clarifies. Is it curiousity? Lily can't tell. She's not... the best with people to begin with, but she doe attempt to study her, spotting for what that wrongness is. "As you call them."
<Pose Tracker> Tolone has posed.
"What do you call them?" Tolone says.
She takes her hand away. "It's an interesting effect, that's for sure. Hurt?"
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily takes a few moments to answer the first question, relaxing very slightly when Tolone takes her hand away. She considers her answer before saying simply, "I don't usually call them anything other than that. They just are. My magic, if anything."
'Ether'...
"It's fairly normal to me," Lily points out. "...And no, they don't typically hurt. Obviously there's the matter of overexertion, but I doubt that's any different from the ones under Gebler training." Pause. "...Limited as I gather that may be."
<Pose Tracker> Tolone has posed.
"Hmh," Tolone says. It might be a laugh.
"Well, that's about the end of my curiosity... though you're probably going to get more visitors. Hope it won't interrupt your quiet time too badly. There's just one more thing that's lingering for me."
Her arms fold loosely. "When you first met the Princess..."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
It might be. Lily finds herself tired, and not pleased to have gotten relatively little information in return this time. Curiousity? A bloodshot golden eye stays focused on Tolone for a few moments longer.
"I probably will," Lily agrees, with a glance outside towards where her guards must be, and back to Tolone. "Somehow I imagine I'll get enough quiet."
One lingering thing?
"...Is the question when I met her, or something about it?" she replies in her usual accent. "Regardless, you might have to wonder about that."
<Pose Tracker> Tolone has posed.
"Heh. You'd be surprised," Tolone says.
"No... we're just running down the lines. Were you activated by a local contact?"
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily might be. On the other hand, quiet hasn't helped her sleep very well without her usual medicines. Excitement gives her something to do.
Running down the lines? The ex-Lieutenant looks faintly amused. "I'm not going to tell you that," she points out simply. "Or anything else about my mission here. Which you already suspect, I'm sure."
<Pose Tracker> Tolone has posed.
"Hm... that's unfortunate. You might've been able to clear up a few of the suspects, but you've definitely got the guts to hold your peace," Tolone muses. "Still, it's rough on the staff. Oh well; not like there's a shortage."
"Unless you're eager to volunteer any information, I suppose that wraps things up here."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
The implication is obvious; Lily spoke with a number of the maids and others on staff while she was undercover, after all. A different kind of woman might blink at that, but whatever reaction Lily has, she keeps to herself.
A heartless shrug is her primary answer. "I'm sure it is. How unfortunate for them." A beat, "It's surprising how reasonable you all are about all this, really. I was expecting much more violence."
There's a beat before, "No. I think I'm about done myself." She keeps her eye on Tolone. ...She frankly still doesn't know anything about the other woman. But she doubts she'll get the chance to learn more right now.
"If I make it out of here and see you again, I'll be sure to show you some more new techniques."
<Pose Tracker> Tolone has posed.
"You're a professional, aren't you? Then you know as well as I do, that if I started inflicting pain, you'd just tell me lies to make it stop," Tolone says. "I don't need to give the commander bad intelligence covered in blood."
"Heh. If," Tolone says, and then she turns to the door and walks through it. There is room, perhaps, for a closing remark.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"Like I said, surprisingly reasonable," Lily answers about the bad intelligence. Regardless she has no doubt that Tolone /could/ cover whatever she got in blood.
...For her part, she'd simply assumed a certain amount of that. The fact that they haven't suggests they have something else in mind. he's not sure how she feels about that.
Regardless, Tolone turns to the door and walks away. Still chained to her chair, the dark-haired sorceress looks after with her single good eye. 'If', Tolone repeated to her.
"...If," she agrees, and closes her eye. Her next breath is long, and slow. She says nothing else.