An obvious question. (Draccles~)

[Anonymous]

Annoying words kept buzzing around in Marshal’s head, words like ‘providence’, ‘electromagnetic pulse’ and ‘Soren’. He was stretched pretty thin at the moment, with his candidates, the investigation into Providence’s murder and his normal duties as a Seeker which often involved trawling through long phone or VCN conversations looking for gospel activity. He didn’t go through every email sent of course; the Seekers had long relied upon a program that flagged communications that contained key phrases that might relate to gospel activity. Pilot’s numbers and addresses came up first, naturally, and then candidates, then everyone else.

He trawled through mostly useless information, occasionally discovering someone planning murder or some such thing who was too stupid to just talk about it face to face with their accomplice. It wasn’t his job to deal with everyday crime, so unless it was connected to a pilot, he just referred them on to the local police.

Breakfast was not the best time to be mulling over these things, but unless he was spending time with Satori or Fala, or dealing with his candidates, Marshal tended to fixate on his work.

Thus far he’d concluded Soren had the most to gain from Providence’ untimely death. He had just made a gigantic blunder in declaring, for no reason at all, that they would lash out at the Libra in some idiot land grab. The plan was doomed to fail, especially after (naturally) Edanith stepped in to try and take advantage of the situation. For all their power, the dragons still couldn’t defend Haviah indefinitely from an Edani barrage fired from space, so the fleet being wiped out in a dogfight with the Libra and her fare weather allies would have likely doomed them all. However, just in the nick of time, look what happens. A dragon dies, which predictably lead to the immediate withdrawal from Libran space. And of course, Soren had the most experience with the Axis point, were he a gospel he’d certainly be skilled at hiding it.

Still, even Marshal wouldn’t arrest the Cant Imperial without solid evidence, or at least a tangible connection to gospel activity. He personally believed Soren was an idiot, and that if anyone deserved the top job it was him, but that was irrelevant.

He idly wished Satori or Fala were here, drinking coffee and eating warm porridge as he was, just to distract his mind. Roman was just as much his friend as those two, but with Roman he tended to discuss his theories, so that didn’t help. Actually, the only other pilot who sufficiently distracted him was Seiteki Tora, who managed to irritate him enough that he stopped thinking about work.

Maybe a candidate call was in order, get Farica or Arrow trotting over here to keep him amused. They could both be quite entertaining, from what he’d see-

Waaait…

An odd thought had just occurred to Marshal, one that made him drop his spoon into his bowl and forget to close his mouth. A question that he could never remember asking before, and yet now it seemed the most obvious thing in the world.

Not bothering to put on shoes, Marshal strode out of his suite at a brisk pace, concentration furrowing his brow. He was still in a loose pair of pants and a white undershirt, but he didn’t care. This was too big a question to wait, even for a few minutes.

Composing himself, he rapped his knuckles on the door several times in quick succession. If no one answered, he would bloody well override the lock.

[Anonymous]

Ugh.

The door was knocking.

It was barely noon, and someone was already here to harass her. Though the question stood… Who the hell would come to harass her? Why? A quiet huff and she looked down at herself, a simple white tank top and some black sweat pants. Faded scars ran down her arm, an especially white one ran from her left shoulder down between her breasts and disappeared beneath her shirt. A few scars curled up over her shoulder from her back. Needless to say that who ever was at the door would see why she loved her sweaters.

Seiteki’s hair was up in a pony-tail too, showing off her pointed ears.

Screw them, if they had a problem she could just punch them in the nose.

Rolling her eyes towards the ceiling she pursed her lips and smiled sneeringly before smacking the button to open the door. “Oh, it’s you.” the sneering smile was on her lips still and she placed her hands on her hips and opened her wings, effectively blocking his entrance should want to push past her. “ Can I help you today, Madam?”

A too happy smile and a too happy voice. Seiteki wasn’t in a good mood.

[Anonymous]

Without being too invasive, Marshal could feel Seiteki moving around inside. Out of courtesy to another pilot, especially one he hoped would co-operate, he kept his psychic tendrils away from her. Legally she was obligated to answer any questions he had, but pilots like her tended to ignore that law and get away with it too.

His head slumped forward and his eyes closed as Marshal tried to rally his thoughts. Honestly, he should have thought this through more, checked the records and such, but asking was just as effective. A hand supported him against the door frame to fight a momentary dizzy spell that sent stars floating across his vision. Stress was starting to get to him.

The door slid open with a tiny hiss and Marshal opened his eyes again and was about to pull his head up to look her in the eyes when something distracted him. Obviously someone else was at Seiteki’s suite, because he certainly wasn’t looking at her. He’d honestly forgotten, over the years of bickering, that Seiteki Tora has breasts beneath the sweaters. Yet there they were, in all their glory, behind a thin layer of cotton, and obviously only one layer, judging by the pokies. She certainly had a lot of scars, but so did a lot of pilots. Look at Remi.

His mind noted that they were both wearing almost the exact same thing, except his top wasn’t showing off his cleavage. Wait…did he have cleavage?

No. No he didn’t.

Thankfully the shock of Seiteki’s melons was short lived, which hopefully made his staring less obvious. He looked up to meet her gaze and he returned her overly pleasant tone with a thin smile. “Sorry to disappoint,” he sneered, “but I need to talk with you. Can I come in or are you going to be childish?”

[Anonymous]

A hand went up and waved past Marshals face.

Nope, completely zoned out on her tits. Such a guy. Seiteki folded her arms across her chest to at least hide some of it from his view and gave him a look that clearly spoke of how thrilled she was to see him. Which was not at all. Seiteki pursed her lips and took a step to the side, and tucked her wings close to her back before rubbing at the bridge of her nose.  

The apartment of the winged woman was spacious. Little clutter, clean of everything but finger prints and the odd gray feather that fell from the downy section of her wings, near her back and the bends of them, the long flight feathers crossed at her ankles.  “You can come in. And I’m going to be childish.” Seiteki offered up a pleasant smile and then went to the kitchen and looked around for something to offer her guest.

“Chat away while I… Boil water.” She turned around, plugged in a kettle and pulled down several things. “Tea or coffee, Marshland? And don’t look at my tits, it’s my house, I don’t have to wear a bra if I don’t want to.”

[Anonymous]

Marshal did his very best to keep his face neutral, even though just looking at her made him irritated on some deep, irrational level. Stepping inside and closing the door behind him as he followed her inside, Marshal said, “Thank you,” in a tight voice. It was difficult being civil with Sei.

He took a seat on her couch, plating his knees apart and resting his elbows on them. Right, time to be civil. She hadn’t exactly done anything bitchy, not compared to her usual charming self anyway, so until she did he’d just keep his temper and not be the one to start a row. “Tea please, milk and two sugars.”

Plucking a little feather from the couch and twirling it between his fingers, Marshal sighed softly and made himself sound as pleasant as he could. “Of course you don’t. Sorry, I’d forgotten you had any.” He chuckled lightly, sounding a little forced. “But I’m not just here for the view. I had an interesting thought Sei. I realised I have no recollection of you ever being a candidate, or who your mentor was. You just…appeared. You weren’t around during my candidacy….of course not you’re too young, but I can’t seem to place exactly when you appeared either.” There, that had been a civil tone. Friendly even, at a stretch.

[Anonymous]

Ew. A tea drinker.

Seiteki huffed quietly and dipped the tea-thingy into the mug of steaming water she poured while he was getting himself seated, the milk and sugar had been added and Seiteki too the mug in both hands and walked over towards where Marshal was on the couch playing with a feather. Crap. She cleared her throat quietly, suddenly feeling awkward in her own house.  It was a pretty.

Everything was in gray and blues, and there were more than a few cases of old weaponry. A ornate sword that still shone was against the wall opposite the couch, above the television, Seiteki hadn’t used it for years, but she still took care of it. In a corner stood a rather lethal looking spear with more points and edges than was probably healthy. Looked like it got caught in people and the blades got stuck in ‘em. A few of the points and blades were missing and this one was rusted, so obviously it had been used before and not taken care of.

Seiteki liked how it looked all old and rusty. A dark look filled her odd eyes and she smirked, knowing that more than a little rust was due to the blood she didn’t clean off.

Of course, then Marshal asked his question and Seiteki stood there with a good splash of tea down her front and her eyes wide and staring. Shit, shit, shit. “Ah… Sorry… Here’s your tea…” She bent down and put the tea on the table and then sat down, ignoring her wet shirt. Her eyebrows were drawn together and she cleared her throat.

What should she say. Just let him ask questions. “Interesting. What do you want to know…?” Her arms were crossed over her chest and she was cold now, her eyes kept drifting to the sword in it’s glass case before they snapped back towards Marshal.

[Anonymous]

He’d expected a reaction of shock, maybe even violence, if he’d unearthed something big. A pilot managing somehow to circumvent candidacy was a big deal, though he still couldn’t figure out how she’d done it. While he was expecting some sort of reaction, Marshal’s eyes still went wide when half of his tea when spilling down Seiteki’s chest. He cringed, imagining how hot that must be, then that cringe turned into a little grin. Again he lost his focus, forgetting why he was there in the light of Seiteki’s breasts, which were quite visible thanks to her now translucent tank top.

When she put his tea down and plopped herself down onto the other end of the couch he forced his eyes up to her face, fighting the pull of her nipples, which were clearly showing through. Quite the accidental show he was getting.

The arms getting in the way actually helped him to stay focused on the right things. As a Seeker Marshal was expected to have in depth knowledge of the human psyche, and be able to read what people were thinking even without psychic help. Honestly he wasn’t the best at it, he often read something to mean one thing when it really meant something entirely different, but watching Sei fidget and glance at her ornate weapons collection, he was rather sure she was nervous. Whatever he’d stumbled upon could likely get her arrested. Luckily for her that wasn’t his job, so unless it somehow linked to gospel activity, no one would really need to know.

He knew plenty of secrets, but just because he had the legal right to questioning and unrestricted mental probing didn’t make him the Citadel gossip.

Picking up his tea and eyeing it briefly before he took a sip, Marshal took time to formulate exactly what he wanted to say. After two large sips the tea was gone, the rest apparently having gone down her shirt. Setting the cup down again he said slowly, “What I want to know, Seiteki, is where you came from. Explain to me why I can’t recall you ever being a candidate. Tell me where you came from, and tell me how you did it.” He looked at her levelly, hands clasped together. His mind steeled itself, ready to defend itself if she decided whatever lie she was trying to maintain was more valuable than his life. If she was a gospel, and he’d just unearthed some key evidence, things could very well turn sour.

[Anonymous]

Drawing her lower lip into her mouth, Seiteki gnawed on it and opened and closed her wings briefly, adjusting them against the back of the couch so they were at least a little comfortable. Truth time. Luckily the truth was just so damn weird that it would sound like a really funny story. Ah, she loved her history. Hey, guess what guys? I’m older than most of your dragons. Ahaha. Seiteki poked out her tongue and counted backwards from ten.

”I became a pilot in Adela. You can’t recall me as a candidate because you weren’t awake yet.” Seiteki turned to Marshal and watched his face for his reaction.  A smile on her lips and she flicked her eyes to the weapons in cases, “Do you know your history? Do you know where those weapons are from, Marshal?” Her eyebrows went up into her bangs and she licked her lips and got up, walking towards the case that held the spear-type-thing.

"Do you know what Adela is, Marshal?" Her fingers traced over the corner of the glass and she tucked her wings close to her back before she turned around and smiled again, an arm carefully placed over her wet front as she looked at him and smiled.

(OOC: DX I'm sorry))

[Anonymous]

Fighting the urge to fiddle, Marshal waited patiently for a response as she poked out her tongue and fidgeted. He was ready for whatever response she gave, but when it came, he was dumbstruck. Sure, he’d expected evasion, even perhaps downright lies, but at least something mildly believable.

As she spun her little tale his left eyebrow crept slowly upwards, until upwards no more could it creep. His lips quirked into a smile, stifling the urge to laugh, but laughter got the better of him. Doubling over and clutching at his sides, Marshal laughed harder than he’d laughed in a good while, laughed until it hurt to breathe.

Short of breath, he sat back up, wiping a tear away from the corner of one eye. “Ehe, ehe…very funny. But really, cut the bullshit. You expect me to believe you’re thousands of years old? Or that you…travelled through time or something?” He couldn’t help grinning at her, at the pure audacity of her to spin such bullshit.

Clearing his throat, Marshal tried to sound more serious, finding that hard amid little outburst of giggles. “But seriously, just because you have an antiques collection, however impressive, that doesn’t mean I’m going to believe that. So unless you have some,” he snickered, “Compelling proof, how bout you tell me the truth eh?”

[Anonymous]

Well… Laughing was good. Maybe not in this exact case, but good none the less. Seiteki was slightly pleased that this was so un-believe able. Also a little irritated at how un-believe able it was, she didn’t exactly go and tell everyone, but Mara was a few hundred years old, why couldn’t she be a few thousand? Dyerlich was old. Seiteki crossed her arms over her chest and lift up an eyebrow, wondering if Marshal had every looked at her.

Sauntering over to him, hips swaying and her high pony tail flopped over her shoulder. “Now, Marshal, Dyerlich is a few hundred years old… And Mara is a few hundred years old…” She tilted her head and looked down at him, smiling before opening her wings and putting her hands on either side of his head, folding the her wings up and around them, cutting off a good deal of the lights from the morning window.

Marshal wouldn’t be able to see her chest because of how she was bent over, just the neckline of her stained shirt. “Why is it so hard to believe that I’m older than them? Why won’t you believe me, hn? I can use every weapon in here, you know, they were mine at one point.” A lovely smile shone on her lips and she drew a finger over the scar on her chest.

”How do you suppose I got this? Or the marks on my back? My ears are pointed, my eyes are odd, I have wings…. Why is my being thousands of years old so hard to believe?” The finger that had run over the scar moved to Marshals face and gently ran down the cheek. “I’ll let you in on another secret, I’m exactly twelve years older than Whiro. Older than almost all your precious dragons… The ones who so carefully use us and our little brains.” Seiteki didn’t move, her wings wrapped around the pair, she waited for him to laugh again.

From how she acted and what she looked like, she’d expect him to laugh harder.

[Anonymous]

“Well I-,” he began before she swooped down at him, making him suddenly go very stiff backed as he tried to work further backwards into the couch. She plunged them both into a twilight that Marshal thought was a bit unnecessary. What, did she think he was afraid of the dark or something?

She had a fair point, there were immortal races out there. Her argument was made more….compelling when she traced a finger along her chest, drawing Marshal’s eyes down. He couldn’t see much in the dark little wing cave, but still. The weapons thing was just silly; anyone could train in old weapons, some pilots chose to.

His cheek tingled when she touched it, making him furrow his brow. She certainly wasn’t showing any obvious signs of deception, but a gospel wouldn’t, of course. With a smirk he retorted, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen your back Sei, so I have no idea what’s there. Hell, I’d forgotten you actually have tits, you cover yourself up so much, so the scar argument isn’t going to well. Lots of pilots have a few scars, even I have a few scars and I’m not front line soldier.” There was the understatement of the year. Marshal didn’t go into actual battle, he took control of his enemies and made them fight themselves.

“It’s hard to believe because the probability or a pilot living that long is tiny. We live dangerous lives, so why aren’t you dead? And why does no one know about this, of you’re so ancient?”

[Anonymous]

With a disgusted sigh and a roll of her glowy blue eyes, Seiteki moved herself from pinning her lovely co-worker to her couch and then stood with her arms across her chest. Annoying. Always annoyed. Of course it wasn’t her fault Marshal seemed to have the brain capacity of a six year old, then again, a six year old would take one look at her and believe her. Maybe a dog. Yeah…

Marshal had the same brain as a dog.

No, wait. Dogs were nice, they liked people. A cat. Only without all the people cooing over him and wanting to make him happy. Seiteki still couldn’t fathom him having sex with anything let alone a living woman. Too weird. The winged pilot had thought everyone better than that, or at least having some taste in who they screwed. Seiteki gave Marshal a quick look over and shook her head, fucking him would be like screwing a stick.

Not fun.

”Look, you can believe me, or you can fuck off, or I can kick your ass into believing me. You can pick, though I would like to put on a bra before you let me kick your ass.” The female pilot flashed her co-worker a pleasant smile and tucked her wings close to her back, staring down at him. Seiteki wasn’t smug. She was better.

[Anonymous]

Feeling considerably more comfortable without Seiteki looming over him like some overgrown pigeon, Marshal shifted around for a moment to get comfortable again.

When she spoke he rose to his feet, standing just barely taller than her. It wasn’t enough to make the slightest bit of noticeable difference, and with her huge wings Sei definitely looked more imposing than he did. Regardless, Marshal met her stupid neon-sign eyes with a stare of cold indifference. “There’s a simple way to settle this.”

A tendril of thought reached out from Marshal’s mind, or rather, one of the many tendrils already idly probing the room thickened into a noticeable strand. The thread touched on the other pilots mind, feeling the hard surface of her shields impede it as it drew close.

“Lower your shields Pilot Tora, prove it to me,” he said sternly, attempting to show some of the authority by all rights he had. With Seiteki though, his legal privileges would probably mean squat.

[Anonymous]

For a bug, Marshal was surprisingly non-creepy. Seiteki tilted her head to the side and lift an eyebrow, her eyes dimming somewhat when she widened her eyes. The fact he had to use his authority as a seeker to get anything out of her made her chuckle lightly before stretching and crossing her arms over her chest. Of course, leave it to the little guy to say that he was and could be bigger than her, pull out the authority badge. A quick sigh and she rubbed her forehead before staring at him and gently opening her shields.

Uegh. She’d always hated this. It was gross, having a part of that in her head, even if it wasn’t really… Real. Still. Ew. Though she knew he’d be looking around, Seiteki smiled and began to shove memories at him, the day she found Whiro in his egg, the first time she killed someone, being a dragon rider before they were corrupt useless things for a corrupt useless country.

Still completely aware of her surroundings, Seiteki opened her wings slightly while pushing more and more images at Marshal. Getting whipped, getting impaled, stabbed, slashed, beat. The day her mother died, the day King Akkiel died and everyone she loved was gone, when she and her brother went and hid. How everything turned into a vast wasteland. Coming back, seeing Whiro, the new addiction, how it took so long to get over. Using one hand, she gently placed it on Marshals shoulder and shoved him back roughly, using her physical hand with a psychic pushed to it to break his psychic tendrils while she closed her shields tightly again.

”I’d like it if you left now. If you don’t believe me, I don’t care. But get out.” A pleasant smile and Seiteki turned around and went back to her kitchen to stare at the sink.

[Anonymous]

Despite the legalities that effectively forced her to do it, Marshal was still surprised when his probe slipped through the many layers of defence around Seiteki’s mind. As each retreated he watched it with his minds eye, remembering, just in case he ever needed to break in here by force. It was easier to break into a vault once you’d been inside.

His probe thickened and multiplied, several strands attaching themselves to the pulsating mass that was her mind. They wove inwards, finding the scattered stores of memory and delving into them, sending a rush of images, sounds and feelings into his head. The first thing he noticed was the quantity.

If any average human had a single glass of memories, Seiteki Tora had a lake. They were less pure, many of them hazy and half forgotten, but still they were enough for a thousand lifetimes, maybe more. He searched quickly, well versed in how to suck as much information out of a mind as was possible.

Down the stream of information came the memories she pushed at him, obviously things she thought would prove her story. He took it all, relevant or not. Not all of it could be viewed and sorted now of course, so he just stored it all in his mind, aware that he was effectively getting her entire life.

When she pushed him back, he’d gotten almost everything. It was remarkable really, in that time normally he could have drained a hundred people of their memories, yet just her had taken that whole time. It seemed unlikely that they were fake.

He stumbled back, having lost focus on the real world, the backs of his knees hitting the couch. His tendrils withdrew, the tips being sliced off by the closing of surprisingly powerful shields.

He swallowed as she turned, hitting him with the tips of her wings as she did, still reeling from the wave of memories. After a moment he went to the door and opened it.

Pausing for a moment he grit his teeth and said, perhaps to quietly for her to hear, “I am sorry.” Sorry for not believing her, yes, but more so because the life he was seeing was long and full of hardship. It was a wonder she was still alive, let alone sane. With that, he left, returning to his home to spend the day viewing the long and twisted life of Seiteki Tora.