What I want to hear on nights I can't sleep is your voice

[philoxenia]

[ ... Well, that was an absolute shitshow, wasn't it? Instead of dwelling on how she feels about everything that just happened, Mira's channeling that energy into something else--and she has a little bit of help doing it. Zerinda and Ema are here in the bar to make drinks, and Mira's brought in a ton of food that's definitely not healthy for anyone, but screw it, who cares about health right now?

Della's here to pass out invitations, too--they let everyone know there's a gathering in the bar, if they'd rather not be alone.

If you choose not to come, well... Mira's got that taken care of, too. She'll place a little container of cookies and hot cocoa outside your door. Maybe it'll help someone feel a little less alone--at least, that's what she's hoping. ]

Comments

[bolderfell]

...

[She's so tall, Therion has to take a step back, but he doesn't look away. Instead, he puts his hand to his chin and considers her for a while.]

None of us but Rose would be enough of a challenge. At least, not on the surface. And you could certainly take one of us out and destroy her that way, if you got away with it. But I don't think that's personal enough for you.

[He drops his arm and shrugs.]

If you took on Rose yourself and killed her, you'd be the first one we'd suspect. But I'm not sure that would stop you, either. Maybe you think that's a kill worth dying for, I don't know. So the fact that you haven't means there's something else.

[He studies her face. You know, what he can make out from way down here.]

Something about the Professor? You hate him right now more than you currently hate us, for taking your strength from you. Or getting rid of Rose in this situation would taint your victory. It wouldn't be enough.

[He lifts his hand again, palm open.]

Is it something like that? Am I close?

[hardnosed]

[ Yeah, it's something like that!

She knows she's not particularly subtle, which is the only thing keeping her from getting irked by a response which she specifically asked for. It's still frustrating, though. It's frustrating that so many strangers have spent so much time in close quarters with her, that completely unrelated humans have knowledge of her vendetta against Rose Quartz. Her hand's long since gone back to her side. ]

I know my limitations.

[bolderfell]

That's part of what I was getting at, though.

He took powers from people like you and Alice. Others, he brought back to health from the brink of death. For me--well, I'm missing what little magic I had, but what's harder is trying to grasp this damned mess in a world so different from my own.

[See: Toilets.]

But Ema--and don't ask me why she thought this was a good idea, I have no idea--from the first day, she started teaching me what an investigator does. How they think. Even before that, the group I was traveling with, we ended up picking up parts of one another's trades. [He shrugs.] Not like it transformed me into a great warrior or, gods forbid, some kind of cleric. I'll never be anything but what I am. Limitations and all.

What I learned is just another tool. Or for you, maybe another weapon. And if Ema's going to teach me about dust and fingerprints, I should think about teaching someone else how a thief does business.

[hardnosed]

[ She looks kind of bored, at first, but it's not for long. Eventually the gaze Jasper directs down at Therion sharpens — not with disdain or a predator's tunnel vision, but with interest — and it appears she's hearing him out rather than just not walking away.

It's not what Gems do, rubbing off on each other and taking up skills they've got no place honing. It's not what she does. But circumstances have forced her to compromise her standards before, and she's compromising herself right now already. Silently, as he wraps up, she steps closer. ]

Okay. [ And that's it, apparently! But wait: ] Why me.

[ While Jasper has a tendency to unnecessarily question any totally innocuous offer or line of inquiry, this one time, she's kind of got a point. ]

Because I won't shoot it down out of some sense of denial?

[bolderfell]

Because you're very different from me.

[He looks her up and down, and it might well be to prove his point rather than take any more of her measure. He is smol purple thing. She big, stronk. She crush pitiful organics in her silicate fists.]

Say. Why do you think I haven't tried anything?

[hardnosed]

You're not small, and you're weak — but that's not why.

[ It sounds like she's responding to the unspoken statement looking her over implies! ]

You're out of your depth. If you act too soon, there's any number of things that could give you away. I've shattered enough lowlifes to know nobody gets anywhere pulling a heist without knowing exactly what they're up against. And you value your puny little life, like you said — too much to go in blind and reckless when he hasn't targeted whatever your weak points are. You haven't tried anything because you can't afford to yet.

[ She's definitely working some of this out as she goes, reasoning using the only language she knows: violence, battle. Tactics. ]

Every week we stay alive here is more information you can use. You get used to what the facility is like, and what the technology does. You see what the people here are like in battle — who acts logically, and who cracks under the pressure. You learn who you could take down, and who could figure you out. Ema trains you on how not to leave evidence behind. And the competition, the people who've got your measure — take themselves out.

You just called it teaching, but you're getting something out of it too, aren't you. Even what I'm saying right now is something you can mine for information.

[bolderfell]

[The points that make his brows twitch a little, since Jasper's surely looking for signs she's struck a nerve, are those highlighting how badly he's out of his depth--and how the Professor hasn't singled him out yet. Yeah. She's not wrong at all. Still, he nods, accepting the answer.]

Of course. That's what I do. Whatever I can get, I take.

But the key thing you said is this: I value my life. As things stand, the most immediate danger to me is the rest of you--or technically, whichever one of you decides to kill that week. I pay attention, but I've got my blind spots. Same as you have your limitations.

What I get out of teaching you my tricks isn't just another pair of eyes that see what I can. It's an entirely different vantage point--a soldier who understands a criminal mind. Next trial, you'll catch things I miss, and I'll be that much further from drowning in this damn glass cage.

[hardnosed]

[ This all has the air of being someone's project, the implication that she needs to improve something instead of simply being what she was made for. If Therion weren't playing it so well, she'd be projecting even more of her insecurities onto it... and even so, it angers her.

But everything here angers her. She lacks the power to simply beat these obstacles into submission. Her back's been up against the wall for so long that even her indomitable instinct to lash out has been tempered with some level of reason. If she can't channel her rage into true power, this is no worse an avenue than, say, taking it out on Anna, and it has the bonus of being less likely to deafen her.

Jasper sighs, pushing her wild hair back from her forehead. ]

Where do we start?

[bolderfell]

[He looks surprised, then pleased, but he's quick enough to shake the expression off and look around.]

...Well, I don't know if Sly would agree with me, but to my mind, the first thing a good thief looks for--before even the likeliest valuables--is his escape route.

[He moves closer to her and the punching bag again.]

If I were going to kill someone-- [At that, he pats the punching bag, indicating his murder victim.] --I'd concentrate first on how to get away with it. [He points to the exit.] Then I'd work out how to do the deed. Our first cases would have looked a lot different if the killers were thinking that way.

[hardnosed]

Right. Succeeding in one aspect of your directive would be worthless to you without some way to save your skin afterwards. There’s no grey area for losers. You succeed utterly, or you die.

[ It’s underhanded, in the way the Professor’s strictures force them to be underhanded, which she hates. ]

But working out your method is part of that. So is picking a victim. So far, everyone who’s killed just went after whoever was there.

[bolderfell]

Exactly. Our killers so far have been strong, or at least highly skilled in combat. Among those of us left, I'm probably in the middle of the pack as far as that goes. Some of you I'd have no chance against. Some are ludicrously easy marks. Unfortunately for me, only a few of the latter category wander around in the hours I do my best work. I'm much more likely to run into you.

[And then he'd be a wine-colored smear on the wall. He pushes the punching bag a little, testing its weight.]

I'd have to stake out an isolated location and hope for the best, like Zelos. [He gives the bag a shove away from both of them.] Or... [He catches it as it swings back.] I'd have to ensure an easy target came to me.

[hardnosed]

You mean an invitation.

[ As ever, this is a question disguised as a very emphatic statement. ]

That’s a risk in itself. How would you guarantee your mark doesn’t mention it to someone else?

[bolderfell]

It'd depend on who I picked. Some are naturally less likely to say anything. Others...

[He tips his chin up and taps his fingers against the punching bag, then looks at Jasper.]

Do Gems ever do forgery?

[hardnosed]

They'd be shattered for trying.

[ Which is not a no! ]

[bolderfell]

All right, so you know what it is. With all the notes we pass around at the meetings, it'd be easy to forge someone's handwriting, write a letter asking to meet. Masks my involvement and gives the rest of you a target to suspect all at once. Could kill in a way that looks more like them, too.

[hardnosed]

You'd have to pick someone nobody trusts, wouldn't you? Or someone who's made themselves suspicious already. [ She's looking down at herself, at this point. She knows how she made herself look after blowing up on Tuesday, and also exactly the kind of person she is in general. ] If anyone catches on, it won't be long before they point the finger at the kind who'd use a cheap distraction like that.

[ And now she's looking at Therion. ]

[bolderfell]

[When she looks at him, he's wearing an odd, considering-but-surprised kind of expression, like what she's putting down didn't quite occur to him. Not the second part, of course, which is what he chooses to address first.]

It'd be a risk. Forging something, making any kind of false trail--it means actively choosing to leave a trace. Can't control what conclusions people will come to or what questions they'll ask.

Rather than frame someone...generally mistrusted, I'd choose someone close to the victim. Someone whose invitation would be believable. Not like people who've been friendly haven't turned on each other. [Lif, Aela. Alice, accidentally. Zelos.] I'd have to pay attention to those who react to the Professor's weekly offers and make up a story accordingly. And it would have to be someone whose strengths I could mimic passably.

[Jasper ain't a good candidate for his hypothetical purposes is what he's saying.]

That's how I would do it, anyway. Guess others could try it your way.

[hardnosed]

My way would get me shattered, never mind a runt like you.

[ There's a low, rumbling bitterness in her voice. This isn't the natural order of things, as far as Jasper sees it, and that's one of the things that makes her angriest. She can't just take out the trash and be done with it. To get away with murder, you need to conform to their standards. ]

But I wouldn't be surprised if someone else thinks I don't know that. Lif was halfway there.