2024-06-13: Among the Accursed
- Log: Among the Accursed
- Cast: Loren Voss, Leah Sadalbari
- Where: Bledavik - Shakhan Square
- Date: June 13, 2024
- Summary: Shortly after the battle at Scraphaven, Loren speaks to Leah about what's happened to him.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
From a purely technical perspective, the operation to retrieve Azoth had gone as intended. Which is to say, they had tracked Azoth's location after an unaccounted for period of silence based on the signals received, and then had retrieved him after a period of violence.
It had been a significant period of violence. Loren had tried to call in support from Aveh after, but had met instead with silence. Nor had other attempts to ping base (he had even tried the Gear hangar) met with any immediate response.
Time had not been on their side. They had fled into the desert until such time that communications had patched them in to a unit in the field (working, of course, on 'Aveh's behalf') and they had finally been able to return to base.
Communications had come back online while they were still en route. He'd heard the gist of the story even before they disembarked. Nevertheless, Loren hadn't bothered with much in the way of questions, arranging only for the transport of a few individuals to medical before he headed towards a particular office. His uniform still tells the tale of the battle he'd fought. It will need repairs. That, or he'll need a replacement.
He does not knock on the door to Leah Sadalbari's office. Is she in? But will it even matter if she is or isn't?
"The test was wrong," he tells her, without bothering to explain himself. "You were wrong," he tells her, too, and it's as much accusation as it is lie.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
Repair or replacement. Neither is particularly onerous for Solaris.
She, however, shows no signs of injury. Her clothes are perfect, an all-black example of a uniform with no emblem or insignia. She sits at her desk, and watches Loren when he comes in. She of course is aware of the trouble he's undergone.
But she is quite interested in what he says.
"And which test is that?" Leah asks. "I will need some specifity. I've run many tests in the last while."
Is he claiming a moral objective, or a technical one?
She looks somehow more engaged today than she has been in some time, though; it's in her blue eyes.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
She of course looks immaculate, a contrast to the state he's in. It's nothing that won't heal -- won't mend. But the differences between the two of them could not be more stark.
Loren looks at her for a long, long moment, as if contemplating what she's said and how he might respond to that. About what is the best way to explain what has happened to him.
Or, for that matter, to Azoth.
"This," he says at last, extending one hand outwards. In the blink of an eye, there hovering above his hand is a perfect craggy twelve-pointed earthen star. It lasts all of a handful of seconds that way before it warps and distorts itself, transforming with alarming organic suddenness to a swarm of pitch-black ribbons.
He can't hold them there, let alone control them. They begin to snake towards Leah's desk, their advance only arrested when Loren wrests his hand back against his midsection. The force of his struggle drives him to knees and he's left there when it finally abates, his palms flat against the floor.
"...That," he says, when he can speak again.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
Leah watches through that moment. She wwatches, wwhen Loren finally extends a hand, and exerts his Ether. Pitch-black ribbons swirl towards her desk, crashing towards her. But he stops them.
She has not moved in all this time, but her expression is far different. The detached amusement, the almost amiable expression is gone, in favor of somehing thoughtful, cold.
"I see," she answers at length. "Sit."
He might expect her to destroy him for it. To quarantine him, certainly. Instead:
"So you have limited control, but still control." A pause. "I had hoped to avoid your further entanglement with that man..."
"...But we can use this. Even this."
"Tell no one. Not even Medical. They will destroy you, if you do."
"...But we may need the others..." Hm.
"How do you feel?" Leah finally asks. "Is it a struggle even to remain as you are, or only when you exert your Ether?"
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
He'd come in here expecting to be executed for this. But what else could he do? Hiding it would only delay the inevitable, and next time, it could well be worse.
And it isn't possible to run away. He knows better than to attempt it.
She would make it quick, at least. And the idea was no longer as terrible as it once was.
She orders him to sit. Rising slowly to his feet, he makes his way over to a chair and grabs it, moving it to reposition it closer to her desk. If this the prelude to an execution...
...Then it's a strange one.
"Correct. It's limited," he answers her. He's pretty sure it's limited, based on the results of the battle and, well, what happened just now. Testing it further seems ill-advised, especially in the confines of Solaris's own base.
Since the moment he stepped into this room, he had seemed nothing if not grimly determined. But now as night gives way to dawn, surprise filters across his face. "...What?"
She can use this? They can use this? He had expected execution. Or-- to be locked away.
But if anyone else learns about this, he will be destroyed. The fingers of his left hand twitch, but he says nothing. He simply nods.
But how does he feel?
"..." He levels a stare at Leah, beetling his brow.
"...Only when I use my Ether. But not for healing." Closing his eyes, he sighs out a shallow breath; there is a burn of green light over his body that spreads ever outwards like a fractal. And then it is gone.
And then there is nothing more.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
"You must have expected punishment, or worse," Leah says. "And yet you came."
The surprise on his face makes that much clear. Perhaps, Leah has found, she might be able to use even the Stranger, in this. After all... they share much.
"Limited. That's good."
"I see... Then, from this point on, do not use non-healing Ether except at direst need, or on my orders. Only if you'll die without. ...Not even to save your fellow soldiers, though your healing will likely do a better job of that in any case."
"...I confronted that man recently myself. I was able to repel him from one of the Gates." A pause. "We may yet need to understand his power, in order to ensure that it does not work against us. But I will not accept your use as a Ministry test subject, Loren."
"...Though there is one 'test' I must carry out myself. We will gather your friends."
"I need to see if we can overcome 'his' Ether. And the only way is to gather the taint in one place."
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
And yet, he'd come. Was it in spite of the threat of what might happen to him, or because of it?
It's limited. Is it because it's still new, this infestation in his heart? Is it because he's better-equipped as a Solarian and graduate of Jugend? Or is it something else, still?
...Was Lan in control? Was Lan more in control than he was, for that matter? He doesn't know. He can't ask.
And there's the orders. Don't use anything but his ability to heal, until or unless she gives the order otherwise. He nods: what else can he do or say? "None of the rest of them saw. They were defeated before it happened," he says, leaning forward in his seat. He's begun to frown. The surface-dwellers had, though... Perhaps Leah already suspects as much.
Perhaps it doesn't matter, in the scheme of things. Would another Gebler graduate or soldier of Solaris believe something they said without evidence?
And maybe, a part of him can't help but hope, Drive will give him full control once more of his Ether.
"I heard there was an incident," he says instead, straightening again in his seat. "So he came here..."
Was it because of him?
His gaze tracks towards the ground as Leah says she will not bear him becoming a Ministry test subject. Does she mean that because he's useful to her as he is now... or because of familial reasons.
"If that happens... kill me," he tells her, lifting his eyes to meet her. He'll accept a reprieve, but only one that leaves him free to walk outside the secret horrors of the Ministry's labs.
Even he's heard the rumors.
The fact that even the rumors fail to match the reality is as of yet unknown to him.
"...Gather them? But-- what are you planning?" he asks of her, tensing where he remains seated.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
It's hard to say. But Leah will take it as a positive sign. There is some pride in her expression as she regards him. Sure, only the emotions she allows come to her face, now; she could be putting it on for him.
But maybe she isn't.
"Good," Leah says to Loren of the others. The surfacers... May have. But indeed--the Elect won't believe the <lambs>.
"There was," Leah says, but she doesn't say that she suspects he acted solely to draw her out--nor that she found common ground with him. That doesn't matter anyway for now; her plans are unchanged.
"I will," Leah assures Loren, and there is no hesitation in her gaze. "It will be better, than it would be otherwise."
A pause. "Not to destroy them or you," she clarifies, because she expects that's his worry. "I wish to see what happens, when the three of you are together, and if his Ether takes control, to defeat it there, whether I can extract it from you or not. It might free all of you. It might just hurt you for no purpose."
"But I need to know what we can do against his power. So that is my plan. To set myself against 'his' power directly."
"...Though if I can contain it, instead, all the better."
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
He doesn't know -- can't know -- what's in Leah's heart. In the end, he can only hope. Perhaps even trust.
Her promise to him, at least, is something in which he can trust.
But Loren of course wonders at her reason to draw them all out together like that, and his expression might suggest that he's suspecting a particular outcome as the purpose -- but she reassures him that isn't her aim. The expression on his face only barely shifts: he looks about as wary as before.
When he'd last encountered his friends--
Gwen's power had resonated with his own woefully. He would have been defeated if the ceiling hadn't fallen in. And the moment that power had come free from him, Lan had given in to her own curse.
Before that, Gwen had begged him to stand down. Lan had been furious at him.
Seeing either of them again...
Yet, he can't speak that aloud to Leah. He can't let her know precisely how much of a coward he is in his heart. "..."
"And if it takes control of you instead?" he asks her, avoiding the subject for but this one fleeting moment. There's likely something she knows that he does not, though -- there's almost always something she knows that he does not.
She probably knew about the Azoth, he realizes, gazing at her in silence. She must have known about the Metalspeaker. Almost, he wants to lay these facts at her feet, too, and yet, something bids him stay his tongue a while yet.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
There is one thing, at least.
Leah knows of Azoth, of course. She knows a lot of things abou Azoth, and the Metalspeaker, and many other things besides. She has the weight of that knowledge, for better or for worse.
And she looks into his eyes, as he thinks somehting he cannot voice.
"Then we're in trouble, aren't we?" Leah asks. "...But it isn't possible. I learned that, in our recent battle. His Ether can't outpace my regeneration. ...But neither can I defeat him alone."
"Yet. I am 'of' this world, now. I do not cease."
So how did she drive him off? That may be a question. But instead...
"Besides. Our alternative is avoid the matter and hope no one finds out. ...To rely on the ignorance of the Ministries indefinitely."
"...No. To run away is no option. We must confront this head-on. We must take the offensive."
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
There's a lot of things he'd like to press her regarding. There are lot of questions he'd like answers to. But that would first let her know that he now knows these things, and while it would hardly invite certain death, a part of him still bids him hold his tongue. To wait, as much as what he'd endured and learned weigh heavily upon him.
He is not dying just yet, after all.
And she explains to him that there is no way for her to be overcome. That her recent encounter with the Stranger has taught her this much. He frowns -- how could he do any different? -- but all the same, Loren nods.
If it would free them from the Stranger's corruption then, perhaps, it might even be worth it.
"Alright," he says, because it might work.
Because it's better than the alternative.
Because it isn't possible for him to run away.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
Does Leah know, that Loren has these wishes? That he has matters to press?
She might. She knows a lot else. But when he frowns, she notices it. She does not comment. She watches him nod, instead.
"Go get some rest," Leah advises, and inclines her head. "Then..."
"Start looking."
A pause. "It's almost time, now."
"...That's all."