meadowlarklogs | interrogating the unknown: part two

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interrogating the unknown: part two

WHO: Riko Satou and V
WHERE: New Amsterdam's 12th Precinct Jail
WHEN: Night of October 21st
WHAT: Arrest and interrogation.
NOTES OR WARNINGS: Loss of autonomy, consent, likely references to nonconsensual surgery. Any additional warnings will be added.

[ This whole business has her on edge. When it was Tak and Alexei — is that his name? no, not the one she saw him ultimately end up with right before he vanished off the face of the Earth — they had a reason for bringing them in. They had committed actual crimes. And Heine — he was just an unlucky fuck who was there with them. Or so he presented himself.

This guy — he barely looks like he can hold himself up. Covered in tattoos, he stands out. There's a stereotype here. So far, everyone's said he doesn't even fit them.

Riko knows that she's called in out of respect. They saw how rough the previous go around had been. This isn't any different. Boy, she wishes it could be — mostly? She's just freaked out. Very.

So, in she goes. Hair drawn back. A bottle of beer in her hand, along with a pair of mugs that she holds on to by the handles. ] Hey. [ She pushes a mug over to him. ] The last guy in here like you — well, one of them — he had a thing for beer. I figured I'd cut to the chase so we can be friends right off. How's that sound to you? [ She smiles, leaning forward to open the bottle. These are all actions to make her seem relaxed, but her eyebrows arch in a way that defies that. ] I'm Detective Satou, but you can call me Riko. How's Halloween treating you?

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[This day just keeps getting more interesting.

Tossed into festivities, in a place unknown. Forced to wander, to run into people who say they offer answers and help, but to what avail? None, should he take the time to decide for himself who to trust, and where to better place his caution — because what was the reward for his wariness? Detained like some kind of criminal, situated on the other side of a table as if this were to be an interrogation.

When the woman comes in, sliding a mug over, V doesn’t so much as move. He’s leaning back in his chair, tired and pale, the day’s events not kind to an already weak body.

And yet he still smiles, thin and lopsided and drained of any real amusement.]

Well. As much as I’d like to get into the festive spirit, I just can’t seem to find the energy.

[A huff of air.]

The “last guy” was surely better company than me.

That's a shame. You don't mind if I — [ She motions with the mug. Riko brings it close to her mouth for a long sip. ] Well, I hope not. Don't worry — I won't get too chatty. I tend to keep that reined in.

[ A smile. Thin and strained, the end result of this keeping her up for the past month. ]

He was a killer. You aren't. I'd say you've got that over on him.

[Not a killer. Wan lips twist into amusement, just a degree higher than before, but he has nothing to say to that. The expression seems about as thin and strained as the woman's across from him.

A beat.]

An advantage that means what? That I’m going to be released into the wild again, like some nameless animal?

[He wonders; at least, he assumes it’ll not be so simple, if he’s here.]

I imagine you have questions. [A spread of his hands, indicating at himself, fingers long and pale.] So do I.

Edited 2019-05-12 23:02 (UTC)

No. I have a feeling you'll have somebody coming to get you soon. The veil of being legitimate, and yet falling off the face of the Earth. Tell me — [ It's a direct order. Not intended to be one, sure, but it is all the same. ] — would you have killed someone? Was that what you were put out there to do?

[ That's the thing about Tak and Alexei. The deaths at their hands made no sense. Had no paper attached to it.

It was random, and that's what made it worse. ]

[He wants to say that he knows nothing about that. Someone coming to get him. The phrasing of “falling off the face of the Earth” not exactly comforting, either; he knows so little about this society, but if he’s being detained for having a blank slate of an ID, it doesn’t take a clever man to assume that this world runs on a web of connected information, a trail undoubtedly hard to erase without substantial effort. Likely impressive resources, to boot.

A thought hastily derailed when she asks a question, phrased in a way that’s interpreted as a command. V feels the compulsion — hates the idea of being under a thrall, purposeful or otherwise — but hasn’t the ability to fight it.

Out comes the answer, eyebrows at a slant, fingers curling into loose fists.]

I won’t kill on a whim. I doubt my capabilities as I am. [Nothing to be said about his power clamped down tight across his skin.] As for why I’m here, I’d like to know that as much as you. Perhaps you should be asking those who dropped me off to begin with.

Dropped you off.

[ Interesting. ]

Tell me more about that. [ Well. Wait. As a cop, she's grown used to seeing someone's name on meeting them. Permissions that don't exactly get to be shut off, in part because sometimes someone needs to think on the move. ] Actually, tell me your name. Or the name you'd choose for yourself if you'd have done it already. I wanna make sure I get that right.

[Two questions, one nipped in the bud. V’s shoulders relax by a mote, though tenseness still runs through his jawline.]

You can call me V.

[“His” name, and a name he would’ve chosen for himself both. A slightly more convoluted matter for a man like V, but the addendum allows him to avoid going into too much detail. If it even matters, really, in a world so far from his own.]

But something tells me you'll find that answer lacking.

[ "V" is lacking. No surname? At least he's not pretending to put much effort into it. ]

Can you tell me more about this drop off?

[And with that question, not framed as a command, V leans forward, elbows pressed against the table. The mug is ignored just as thoroughly as before.]

Your previous guests— [The others she keeps referencing, one of them an apparent killer.] —weren’t as forthcoming with their own stories? More tight-lipped than me?

[His mind is split in twain; one half running wary, the other wanting to shed light on just what’s happened to him in these last few hours.]

'What is now proved was once only imagined.’ [The quote comes out naturally, thoughtlessly.] I’d like to know where I stand in all of this, else you have me at a great disadvantage, wringing out information when I don’t know who to trust.

Edited 2019-05-13 00:25 (UTC)

They weren't keen on providing specifics. [ Some of their specifics hadn't made sense, either. They make more sense now. As a detective, she has to go over the same questions, and ask the same details. She has to make sure the situations are the same. ]

Here's the deal, V. [ She smiles, takes a sip of her beer. Draws it out. ] You're an anomaly. You heard all that coming in, right? Your implant isn't registered, and while there's some shit where people can rig up something in their heads out there to clean it up? It's not a good play. It's a stupid play. I'm not even sure what it's like to have one that's not all set up. [ They have them from childhood, after all. Riko can barely remember a time when she didn't have one. ]

But — see. If you don't have a registered one in place, we have to wonder why. And the other guys ... well, let's say that the foot they started off on wasn't a good one in the first place.

[ Riko wants to spin a wild theory about how he was going to poison someone's drink or shoot them in the head, but between the scrubs and the rest of it? He was empty handed.

Fuck, he looks more like he's walked out of some horror flick after a long stay at the hospital. That's closer. ]

[He’s comparing notes silently in his own head, cogs turning slowly, contrasting what she’s saying against what he was told, running into others that claimed to be like himself after being so unceremoniously dumped on the street.

So far, it matches up. He was even warned that an unregistered ID would lead to an arrest, and here he sits, those same warnings come to life.]

…You said you’re a detective, Riko. [—he starts slowly, carefully. Perpetually testing the waters with one foot, the other rooted to the shoreline.] I would think that the clues on display would be obvious enough, if you take time to sweep aside any biases rooted in… past experiences with unsavory individuals.

[In other words, he has no need for their first impressions to be slung in his direction.]

Isn’t it obvious that if it’s a ‘stupid play’, then it wouldn’t be a purposeful choice on my end? Or do you think I enjoy appearing as conspicuous as I do amongst the masses?

[ It's like he can read her mind. Unlike before, Riko can't shake how troubled she feels by all of this. The beginning of Halloween festivities are typically more relaxing. She can hang back, go in when needed. Sometimes they sit around and drink here.

And then this. ]

Do you think you have anything in common with those men? They were sharp, too. Not the types to easily get caught once they had the ability to rest. [ Hers is a world where bad shit happens. Bad shit that she can't change. This past month has made her and her coworkers feel powerless. ] And they had that, so it felt like I was hitting my head against a wall. [ She shakes her head. ] It's not a pleasant memory.

[He’d say he’s sorry to grant her a repeat of the same circumstances, or at least a very similar one, but V is his own brand of tired, too lost in his own concerns about what’s happened and how to approach it, to offer much sympathy.]

Other than the apparent lack of registered IDs?

[He can summon up a few similarities based on pure assumption, yes. It’s a matter of choosing which to present. How bold he wants to be, sitting here on the other side of an interrogation.]

I don’t know who they were. But the parallels run awfully close together in some ways, don’t they? Dropped off, I assume, and probably just as confused as I was. Tell me, were they found in the middle of a large crowd then, too?

That's right. [ The lantern festival. It's a good place to leave someone. ] Here's the funny thing: they spun some wild tales. [ The mention of Russia. Of China. ]

Can you tell me a bit about yourself, V? Your past? [ Riko won't give him ammo to match up. ] Are you from around here, or did you come here recently? [ She expects that he'll know why she's being vague, but she needs to be — and maybe he'll get that, too. With Alexei and Tak? It was different. She hadn't expected their answers. Now she wants to see if it adds up. ]

[He imagines they did have wild tales, though he keeps that much to himself.

The rest is… telling, he thinks. Her vagueness must be purposeful, for what kind of detective doesn’t overly hang themselves up on every little detail? Though he’s having frustrating difficulty telling if it’s for his benefit or hers.

A pause hangs before he breaks it.]

I arrived very recently, coming from a far away place.

[The details of his past are his own. He’ll not dive deep into any of it, unless commanded to answer.]

Wow, that's definitely a new one. And were there princesses and princesses running about? [ Riko doesn't know what she expected. The fact that he doesn't tell her is enough. It would create the possibility of searching for something.

But he knows that, doesn't he? ]

You said you had some questions. Why don't we go back to that for now? [ Her voice warms up a bit here, leaning back. Riko has a feeling she won't have the answers he needs. ]

I’m not much for fairytales, myself.

[A question avoided, and now an opportunity for him to ask something of interest.]

You’ve answered a few with your own questioning. But what am I if not constantly curious?

[Playing off his exhaustion with lilting amusement, the smile plastered on his face is so thin that it might slide off. He might not be fooling anyone.]

You’re the authorities around here. I don’t want to speak out of turn, but something about me has changed without my consent, and I figure that might be a concern for you and yours. Did the others before me complain of something similar?

[His familiars beyond his reach. It feels like limbs gone missing — he has to ask, bold as it might be.]

They didn't try to tell me that story. [ There is something in how she relays this that shows her concern. The similarities are there, but no sob stories. Sure, this could be one. Her amiable disposition that had been there for them isn't here. It's wiped away by necessity. By sitting on this for weeks, trying to find the answers.

It doesn't help that those two men just disappeared. Riko felt played. Feels played. ]

The circumstances are the same. You're high off your ass, the same way they were when they were found. They were oddly compliant — I looked it over before, but ...

[ Riko draws her arms up onto the table, pressing her forearms forward. It's meant to be disarming. ]

Look, I don't know how to say this, V — but this one? This case? The only reason we aren't losing our heads is because the world is falling apart around us. The only reason. I usually like interrogations. I love this. [ She raises an arm. ] But I'm at the end of my rope here. The worst part is that I can't even make a case of this because you don't exist.

[The skew of his grin remains, though any faux humor has long drained out of it. No information about his powers gone silent, disappointing in its own right.

He taps a finger idly on the table’s surface, his attempts to seem unaffected ratcheting up with her own shift in body language.]

Not by choice. [‘High off his ass.’] Maybe you’re noticing a pattern here, Detective. I can’t help you otherwise with what I am.

[The same as the others, then, shuffled off that van with him? In his haste, if only he had stuck close to more of them, comparing and contrasting circumstances. He would be wheeling in the wind far less recklessly than he is now.]

What do you mean, the world is falling apart?

Monsters. People attacking each other based on mysterious illnesses. Freak snowstorms in otherwise temperate regions. [ She counts them off on her fingers. Riko doesn't even know the worst of it. ]

Why's that the part that stands out to you?

[The first real sign of hesitation, drawing himself away again. Even the discomfort of the chair’s back against his spine drags out air through his teeth.]

I told you, didn’t I? I come from somewhere very far away — or so it would appear.

[Realms, worlds. Time, in accordance to what someone else had told him. All disparate compared to what should be the reality for him.]

Mysterious illnesses and freak snowstorms are all news to me.

Why is it that you don't know this? Even a world very far away gets the news. [ Maybe that's not the right question. ]

Or — tell me your theories, V. You're clever enough to be working over a few. I can tell.

[Tell me your theories, interpreted as command once more. He's already cursing his inability to halt the words, even as the they slip out.]

Worlds as I know them are rarely divided by more than just a thin veil. Enough power, and a man can slip through them, bring in what existed on one side over to the other. Gates, portals. Call them what you will.

[How many times has he seen it first-hand? But more worrisome, how will he be perceived, relaying this unwillingly to an authority figure in this world?]

Perhaps that's what's happened. Maybe you have leak somewhere, letting all manner of catastrophe in.

Wow, that's — [ Not what she expected? But then, monsters weren't real until a few months ago. What the fuck does she know? ] Well, it certainly fits what you're saying. A far away place, isn't that right? So, V. Say this is true. [ Riko doesn't believe it at all. ] You think Tak and Alexei are from far away places, too? Ones where Russia could still be real?

[He nearly shrugs his shoulders, stiffly, but laughably decides against the effort.]

If that’s what Alexei and Tak told you, then who am I to say otherwise? Maybe your skepticism dictated that you didn’t believe them either way. My words won’t make much difference in swaying you.

[He considers her for a moment.]

There’s a line in a poem about the doors of perception. Maybe you know it. It seems to apply today.

Would you believe that I'm not one for poetry? [ Riko bets that he believes it. She doesn't ask him to recite the poem. She's not interested. ]

I have a hunch that things with you might work out the same way they did for them. Just a feeling. So — I'm here to offer you a deal. To ... get ahead of things. [ She draws her hands back finally, dropping them to her sides. ]

I need someone who can move freely in this world. There's a good chance that might be you. It's possible that whatever you tell me while you do will be done while I'm willfully blind. Who's to say I'll finally open my eyes to the truth? But I don't want to be in the dark should this happen a third time.

[He makes a noise that might be construed as a half-hearted scoff. Landing in a strange time, a strange world, and already cutting deals.]

And the benefit to myself would be what, exactly? You may need me, but do I need you?

[This feels all very lopsided.]

[ Somewhere, Riko can see her boss scolding her for making promises she shouldn't be making.

She knows how frustrating these past few months have been. The past month alone was awful. ]

You'll be well compensated. Mind you — you'll have to get yourself a name after you're sprung from here. That's what the others did before. But you can count it as a job. It's likely just far less risky, and I can see if I can pull the veil off my eyes.

[ There was a time when she used to laugh whenever she slipped into fanciful thoughts where she saw every possibility as a door opening. Times have changed.

This could all be one terrifying coincidence. She'll have to see. ]

I'll give you my business details so I can't just ... [ She shrugs. ] ... Disappear. How does that sound?

[What the others did, she says, and once more his mind springs to what he was told: a safehouse and the ability to have his ID registered. Not difficult to put two and two together, of what he should possibly seek next, not in the wake of what Riko is telling him.

Regardless, V doesn’t care much for supposed compensation, the very idea implying that his stay here is likely a semi-permanent one. His concern, as it had been before, are the responsibilities he’s abandoned by being in this world. Time that he can never afford to waste by playing as someone else’s eyes and ears.

But she mentions a veil obscuring the truth, and V is far more interested in her digging up that same truth rather than letting her biases smother it dead. A means to an end, then — point her in the right direction, armed with resources that he cannot hope to possess, and maybe she’ll unearth a solution to whatever nebulous problem hangs over his head.

A door of perception, cracked open.]

I don’t like to be at anyone’s beck and call. Nor do I like obligations hanging over my mind like a knife about to drop. A working partnership, though, that would be far more reasonable.

Sorry — I can be a bit thick sometimes. [ Not at all. It's just that he's using a lot of words, and she's trying to make sure that they aren't negotiating terms. They could be, and if they are, Riko will handle them. ] Is that a "yes"?

[Or maybe V just likes the sound of his own voice sometimes.]

It’s a ‘yes’ as long as I’m not upended by the leverage you may or may not have on me, if for some reason I don’t perform as well as you like.

Unfortunately, I have no leverage — I'm betting on you. [ Betting that he'll be sprung. That the conditions will be unusual. All of it. ] Unless you take to harming someone, and by then, I don't think you'll be able to slide out of it.

[ And betting that there's more to this. Because two guys killing some other guys, just cause or ordered to do it, is strange. But someone like him? It's fascinating.

And something about this has bugged her all along. ]

I won’t harm anyone, unless they take to harming me first.

[A flash of teeth in a fleeting smile — anyone just needs to look at his current state to know how funny that sounds in its unlikelihood.]

But... in that case, then I agree. I’ll help you, if you can eventually return the favor.

[ Social link obtained!

Riko extends her hand over to him. After all — despite everything, she didn't cuff him, assuming the worst. ]

Understand that I can't help you if you tell me nothing, V. And if you change your mind before you contact me again, I'll take it as a sign. [ Needless to say, her investigation doesn't end there. No. It starts here — with or without his help. ]

Don’t worry. I have no intentions of leaving you high and dry.

[Not if she has a use to him — and V, with literally nothing to his name, can only view this new ~~social link~~ connection as beneficial. He’d be some kind of fool to not utilize it.

A slow reach over to complete the offered handshake.]

You’ll see.

I hope I will. [ If there is a bigger mystery — she wants to find it.

Riko draws back her hand, standing up. She gulps down her beer, taking it down like a pro. Then she sets up the growler and two empty glasses. ]

Someone will be coming in to escort you to your cell. Don't worry — I'll arrange it so you don't have any visitors. Or company.

[ Since he hasn't actually done anything wrong, but she knows they'll want to hold on to him for as long as possible. ]

You'll be out soon either way. [ She's confident in this. Where and how and why? She doesn't know. But it'll be way harder to sweep it under the rug. ]

[V drops retracts hand, folding it against the other as he watches her stand.]

How generous of you.

[Faintly dry, though he was never once adverse to solitude, anyhow. She appears confident that he’ll be released by some mysterious means that he cannot seem to parse — but V supposes he’ll find out sooner rather than later how this’ll go.]

Then I’ll be waiting patiently until then. [Not that he has choice in the matter. A running theme.]

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interrogating the unknown: part two

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