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Civilian
HUMAN
22 years old
SCIENTIST
played by REDOX
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And they all said I was mislead But now the odds all stand beneath me
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Post by ALYA KARIMI on Feb 7, 2015 6:29:38 GMT
she really fucked up this time. travelling with a gun was bad enough, but what was she supposed to do when ambushed by wolves in the wilderness, not shoot them? apparently, that was actually the right answer. the soldier who has her body pressed against the ground is being none too gentle to whom he assumes to be an irkallan spy (and he's probably twenty percent correct). alya sweats through her jacket as she watches the uniformed man go through her bag. fuck, fuck, fu-- "watch how you're handling my shit!!" alya grunts as the grip on her wrists tighten. it's like her life is flashing before her eyes when a soil sample falls out of her bag and hits the floor. the imperial soldiers find her passport. they find her letters to the head of the irkallan technology division. they find her journal with her month's worth of research material inside. something inside of her snaps. that's when alya headbutts her captor, gets up, and proceeds to punch the offending guard in the face.
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Champion
human
20 years old
imperial champion
played by tsundere
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my love would not know what to do with a flower garden.
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Post by THALIA DE LUCA on Feb 10, 2015 17:42:08 GMT
right side of the white noise. | The men stationed underneath her in this outpost think her soft, Thalia knows. To them she is a pampered city-dweller, a Champion decked in a gilt uniform who has never known blood or struggle. They think she is stationed at the Irkallan border on the eve of war for the medals and the glory, although she lacks the guts to crack down on the filthy rebels as fiercely as they desire. Sometimes, in the dead of night, when she lies in bed, sleepless, and without her knowledge her nails claw bloody tracks in her forearms that vanish and reopen and vanish again--sometimes then she thinks they are right. When she stares wide-eyed at the ceiling and wishes she saw only the blackness of a room at night. Thalia wonders if in her first lifetime the woman she was could have known that she would fight monsters long enough to live to see humans yearn to tear at each other instead. So when the prisoners squirms free, berserk at the sight a soldier rifling through her backpack, and socks the offender across the face, Thalia does exactly what her men expect of her. She raises her hand and the guards who have their guns drawn in a heartbeat, ready to fire, freeze in a loose circle around the Irkallan woman. "Please hold still while we collect your belongings," Thalia says. "I would greatly regret allowing my men to shoot you, but I would allow it."
The soldier the woman punched gathers up her scattered items and hands them off. Blood trickles from his split lip, and Thalia has no doubt that he would not regret the prisoner's death. ALYA KARIMI |
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Civilian
HUMAN
22 years old
SCIENTIST
played by REDOX
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And they all said I was mislead But now the odds all stand beneath me
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Post by ALYA KARIMI on Feb 10, 2015 18:35:53 GMT
the cutting words come instantly. "if you regretted it, then you wouldn't be doing it, idiot." the uniforms don't impress her -- heck, the guns don't even impress her. give her a toolkit and ten minutes, and alya could probably improve accuracy by at least thirty percent. "so which is the lie? or are they both just things that you imperials tell yourselves to help sleep at night?"this woman wouldn't even face alya herself. she can stand around and look pretty in her black and gold, but it doesn't erase her jaundiced cowardice. the thing to do in her hometown would have been to demand a duel. but this isn't the eastern coast. that isn't how things are settled here. she tries to remember if she can recall all of the information that is about to be confiascated before the shame settles in. what is she thinking? she can't just let the dammed imperials get away with this-- alya settles with the fact that she's just going to have to bide her time. shitty guns or not, alya would argue that bad marksmen were more dangerous than competent ones. of course, this means that she chooses to go about it in the worst way possible. "am i legally obligated to get shot for being mouthy too, or is that just a personal decision?" when she recounts this story later, she'll be telling people that she was sizing up her enemy's willingness to shoot. she'll even believe it too. but memory is a funny thing, and the only thing that she has to blame is the maturity of a ten year old.
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Champion
human
20 years old
imperial champion
played by tsundere
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my love would not know what to do with a flower garden.
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Post by THALIA DE LUCA on Feb 10, 2015 23:06:48 GMT
right side of the white noise. | One of her soldiers brings her the writings from the girl's belongings: a journal, a handful of letters. Thalia flips through them both, scanning the words. She can read--the military taught her that, and her letters--but the woman's notes are far beyond her comprehension. She only make out enough to know that the subject is one that requires great intelligence of a kind that she does not have. And in these times, intelligence is dangerous. Thalia hands the possessions back to the soldier. "Take those to my office," she says. "Have Lt. Furia meet me there when I'm done here."
She watches the door close behind him and then turns to face the prisoner, suppressing the urge to rub her forehead. She can feel a headache coming on. "The rest of you are dismissed," she says. "I'll take over the interrogation."
She longs for a chair, or even to lean against the wall, but such a display would be unwise. She folds her hands behind her back instead and pretends the ramrod straight bearing of an imperial Champion is a strength and not a trial. "I know that Irkalla has no hope against the empire," she says dryly, "But mouthing off to try and antagonize my soldiers into killing you is hardly a better fate."ALYA KARIMI |
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Civilian
HUMAN
22 years old
SCIENTIST
played by REDOX
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And they all said I was mislead But now the odds all stand beneath me
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Post by ALYA KARIMI on Feb 11, 2015 2:29:37 GMT
a gun's not in her face anymore and her stuff isn't being jousted in front of her. alya's mood considerably improves. "lady, i've just come back from clearing fire-breathing salamanders from my sleeves and some seelie assholes from the cave of--" oh shit, BACKPEDAL, ALYA. BACKPEDAL HARD. "-point is!! i'm not afraid of some snooty soldiers who probably couldn't shoot a hippo if you gave 'em a pair of opera glasses." she's not sure why the imperial army is being taught such shitty form, but she hopes that they keep at it. she's obviously not very good at interrogations. usually it was really hard to get people who were interested in hearing every detail of her adventures. that kind of happens when you're ten years younger than almost everyone else at the workplace. "i know how these things work. if i died and left you with a pile of papers that nobody in shara can make heads or tails out of, then there's gonna be someone who's wearing enough badges to put you in hot water." she smirks. sometimes, not even her superior could figure out what her notations were. not because they were genius, but because she had her own set of systems and organization that made sense to literally nobody else. numbers and pictograms were everywhere, joined together with arrows that seemed to practically fly off the page. codes scribbled in what seemed like random margins. "torturing me is like, a total waste of time. which is why you should totally give me all my shit back and we can pretend that all of this never happened. i'll even send the guy a fruit basket." alya bats her eyelashes. except she never mastered how to do it sexily, so it just looks like she's trying too hard. "please?" look, she's not a politician for a living, okay.
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Champion
human
20 years old
imperial champion
played by tsundere
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my love would not know what to do with a flower garden.
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Post by THALIA DE LUCA on Feb 11, 2015 2:49:16 GMT
right side of the white noise. | The headache rolls in, inevitable as the tide and Thalia can't resist a heavy sigh because this is what she's been reduced to: the prospect of torturing children to make sure they aren't crossing the border with state secrets. She nods. "You're probably right. Torturing you isn't useful."
Thalia steps to the door and opens it just enough to summon one of the solders standing outside to her. "Apologize to Lt. Furia for the trouble, but inform her I'd like to see her here and now."
She shuts the door before the man is even on his way and falls silently into that same imperial posture, doing her best to pretend that she's blissfully, mercifully alone in the room despite whatever her prisoner might get up to. A few minutes later the door opens again and a woman sweeps in. The military witch is Thalia's opposite in nearly every way: tall and elegant, her body slim where Thalia is stocky and muscled, her skin pale as cream and unmarred. Her black hair is close cropped, barely brushing the top of her neck and her brown eyes are cool and considering when she looks at the Irkallan woman. "Captain," she says, bowing slightly. Thalia waves her hand; no need for ceremony here, not with what she is about to ask. "I'm sure you've heard about our guest," Thalia says, and va Furia nods in assent. Thalia continues: "We've confiscated her notes and she'll be sent on her way momentarily. Before we turn her out, however, I want you to pull the cipher key for her journal out of her head so we can send it along with the papers to Shara."ALYA KARIMI |
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Civilian
HUMAN
22 years old
SCIENTIST
played by REDOX
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And they all said I was mislead But now the odds all stand beneath me
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Post by ALYA KARIMI on Feb 11, 2015 4:36:44 GMT
"oh, hahahahaha, sorry. i just thought-- i just thought that you said you were gonna pull the cipher out of my head? by force?" alya injects plenty of uncertainty into her tone, but when she looks at the faces of all the occupants in the room, nobody is laughing. she sighs, and tries not to make her antagonism towards the witch obvious, not until-- "okay...well, it was worth a shot." she never gave anyone a warning. alya's form is practically a blur when she moves to sucker punch the witch in the face with a single, clean throw of her weight. not many people from her village might have believed that alya was capable of something so graceful. at the end of the day, she has to admit that fighting humans (witch or not) was several notches under wrestling a real ogre. whatever the consequences of her actions, alya refuses to be made a traitor to everyone who had ever believed in her. (what is she without the trust of people who rely on her?)
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Champion
human
20 years old
imperial champion
played by tsundere
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my love would not know what to do with a flower garden.
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Post by THALIA DE LUCA on Feb 13, 2015 5:01:51 GMT
right side of the white noise. | Zaira va Furia is not a sentimental woman, but she is glad Thalia has chosen this course of action. She has no problem with the woman--might even admit to being fond of her--but it is no secret that their captain is a bad soldier. Whatever assignment she was on before being sent to watch the border broke something vital inside of her: Zaira can smell the weakness in her, even if the others can't. And Thalia either has no talent for subterfuge or no interest in exercising it, because any man who serves beneath her could tell you that Thalia de Luca is terrible at feigning the death before dishonor loyalty that the empire demands of its soldiers. Not that Zaira herself serves the empire above all. She is more like Thalia in this view than she knows: that the empire is a means to an end, rather than a goal in itself. But even if she knew, it wouldn't matter. Her goal is a secret held close to her chest, more precious than breath or blood. Thalia wears the pain of hers stamped across her face like a prisoner's brand. And that is the difference between them. Speaking of prisoners--the Irkallan woman throws herself at Zaira like she thinks she actually has a chance. Zaira doesn't move but will let the woman's fist crash into the magical shield she threw up between herself and Thalia when she entered the room. On impact the spell becomes visible: a cascade of constantly flowing blue sparks that separate her and the captain from the woman. She's always had a flair for the dramatic. "A one trick pony," she sneered. If this was her part in the affair, she'd play it to the hilt with relish. "I would advise you to stay still while I do this. If there is no struggle, the risk of damage to your mental facilities is severely reduced. You might get to come out of this still knowing what a cipher is."
She sensed Thalia tense beside her, but if the woman had any misgivings she didn't voice them. ALYA KARIMI |
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Civilian
HUMAN
22 years old
SCIENTIST
played by REDOX
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And they all said I was mislead But now the odds all stand beneath me
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Post by ALYA KARIMI on Feb 13, 2015 5:40:04 GMT
she has no gun, but she can still talk fast. actually, she'd be talking rapid fire even if she still had her gun at her hip. "a cipher? is that what you think is going to help you?" alya laughs at the witch mockingly, and it's a sincere kind of meanness born of desperation and anger. "how fucking sharan to think that the only important secrets are locked in some secret mumbo-jumbo code. none of y'all would know what to do with an algorithm if i tattooed it to your face." this is a young alya who has not yet had her world crumble into soot and ash. if she fails here, then she will have all the time in the world to find out. "so if i struggle, then it's a lot riskier for you to break into my head? awesome." with that, alya runs for the door, intending to pursue the soldier who had left for the captain's office. she had memorized the overall layout when she had been brought here. hopefully, she wouldn't get too lost.
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Champion
human
20 years old
imperial champion
played by tsundere
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my love would not know what to do with a flower garden.
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Post by THALIA DE LUCA on Feb 13, 2015 18:15:39 GMT
right side of the white noise. | For a moment Thalia was almost tempted to let the girl just run past her out into the hallway. But the guards out there would shoot her on sight if she came barreling out of the room and then she'd be stuck with no cipher and a dead girl and it would all be a waste--of what, she wasn't sure, but it would be a waste, and she clung onto that thought like a drowning woman. In the end it didn't matter either way. Zaira was never going to let the prisoner go. The witch raised a hand and the wall of blue magic that surrounded her and Thalia melted and reformed into chains to freeze the Irkallan where she was. The witch strode over to where the prisoner hung like a trussed pig--and that was an unpleasant mental image. Thalia wished he hadn't thought of it--and pressed her index finger against the girl's forehead. "You misunderstand me," she said, her voice fairly dripping with condescension. "I can rip the cipher out of your head regardless of how you struggle. The choice is merely between whether you leave here a gibbering idiot who needs someone to wipe her chin clear of drool or not."
Thalia made herself look at the scene. "Just do what you need to get the cipher, Lt. va Furia," she said. "Nothing more. Nothing extraneous. Nothing unpleasant." As if this entire situation wasn't leagues beyond unpleasant. She felt sick to her stomach. ALYA KARIMI |
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Civilian
HUMAN
22 years old
SCIENTIST
played by REDOX
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And they all said I was mislead But now the odds all stand beneath me
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Post by ALYA KARIMI on Feb 14, 2015 22:00:30 GMT
she can't betray them, she won't betray them. that's just who alya is, and what would she be if not her home's protector? it would be easy to go back home and recount the scene in great detail to her superiors. it would be easy to say that she had struggled and was lucky to come out with her life. none of that would be untrue. but if she chose the easy path, then she would never be able to forgive herself again. she still hasn't for the first time that she sought the simple solution, the one that made her feel good. "you can damn well try, you nasty swamp witch." alya hisses. "your magic won't last forever." here's to hoping that the chains were a sustained spell. she had almost forgotten that the officer had been in the room. for all of her fancy badges, she certainly wasn't very commanding. "think ya need a barf bag, captain magenta?" somehow, she doubted it.
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Champion
human
20 years old
imperial champion
played by tsundere
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my love would not know what to do with a flower garden.
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Post by THALIA DE LUCA on Feb 16, 2015 4:43:58 GMT
right side of the white noise. | The words buzz around Thalia's head like wasps. It takes effort--not a great one, but still effort--but she ignores them. There are worse trials than this behind her and worse to come. That doesn't mean she's enjoying herself, but she watches Zaira begin her work without wavering or flinching away. ALYA KARIMI |
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Civilian
HUMAN
22 years old
SCIENTIST
played by REDOX
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And they all said I was mislead But now the odds all stand beneath me
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Post by ALYA KARIMI on Feb 16, 2015 6:34:03 GMT
the choice to resist had been made for her years ago. she's gotten plenty out of mileage out of bravado alone, but it will only stretch so t h i n. don't flinch, don't look away, don't let anyone behind you see -- -- that you're only a girl who was forced to grow up too fast, but not fast enough for a war. why fight? why resist? they aren't yours to lose. you could have been better, you could have been so much more, if only you weren't forced to look behind you every five seconds for a smaller set of footsteps. who are you really protecting? (a glimpse of the back of sebastian's head, slightly damp from the sea breeze. larsa's shouts as his older sister pulls out a loose tooth. a new intern who looks down at her feet, as if she already decided that there is an invisible wall between herself and her accomplished supervisor.) the magic feels like a hammer to her head, and her skull is the panel of glass. the force creates cobwebs upon impact, and it's enough to make alya want to hurl. she makes a bold gamble. she was never any good at hiding things-- why not play to her strengths? alya forces the contents of her head through the pipe. some information relevant, some not. if she discriminates, then she would only be doing the empire's work for them. leave it to some idiot swamp witch to sort out the dirty laundry. [salamander shit, neostigmine, double-ended key, elephant parade, glass ashtray, the square root of pi, steam chambers, seven o clock, inquisitive djinn, nine lions, a blue ph strip, the seelie court, radio static, prune juice, <<the midadventures of laura bradley>>, the golden-tipped spear, fifteen grams of silicon, the fifth moon of the solstice, black sun] if she can't get the witch to leave, then the least that she can do is to make sure that she regrets coming in. like most conversations that her colleagues end up regretting. alya almost feels like she's about to lose her grip on her own mind, but she doesn't relent. [up is down, zaquar rivalry, pancake brother, eighth street, promethazine, water waste, chimera's lament, bitter powder, broken watch, silver abacus, free beers--] by the time that drool rolls down her chin, alya is too immersed to notice.
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Champion
human
20 years old
imperial champion
played by tsundere
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my love would not know what to do with a flower garden.
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Post by THALIA DE LUCA on Feb 18, 2015 15:48:57 GMT
right side of the white noise. | Whatever struggle goes on between the two of them Thalia cannot see and cannot understand. She makes herself watch, but Zaira and the prisoner are merely a frozen tableau to her. Only the blue spark of magic moves, recycling back and forth between Zaira's hand and the prisoner's head. The witch coils the spell like a spool of thread and then breaks into movement. Her magic withdraws from the girl and Zaira turns to face Thalia, heedless of whether the body she left behind falls to the ground or not. "I have what you need," Zaira says. A flutter of color rolls over her hand, up her arm. "Though it will take some time to extract what is truly important. The girl was in quite the sharing mood, at the end." The look on her face contained disgust, but also another emotion Thalia couldn't read. "I will have the report on your desk as soon as possible."
Well. What else was there to say. "Dismissed, Lt. Thank you for your work."
Zaira threw out a fluid salute, bordering on careless, and slipped out the door. Thalia's hand itched for the hilt of her sword, for the simple business of killing enemies instead of torturing them, but that was not her duty at the moment. She turned to her prisoner instead, and the question of what to do with her. ALYA KARIMI |
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