[closed] man you really freak me out

[lavelly]

Who: Lavellan, Chara, Cole
When: Sometime near the end of May for Chara, [RASPBERRY NOISE] for Cole
Where: Normandy Securities office and Elfhaus
What: Lavellan is bad at children and also investigating
Warnings: Every character involved is their own warning label
[ 01. chara ]

[Lavellan has only met Chara in passing--being coworkers is the only thing they have in common, and Lavellan has a lot of other reasons not to want to associate with someone like Chara. Mostly because he's not that comfortable with even well-adjusted small children, which Chara decidedly isn't.

But the recent events make it unavoidable. All Lavellan knows is that Chara is the one truly responsible for tampering with the Ingress, and yet Shepard is the one that took the fall for it. That had been over a week ago, and there's still no sign of her. So he'd gone to the intermediaries, and while they couldn't give him any of the information he'd really wanted, they had suggested that Chara had agreed to make Shepard a scapegoat.

So that's that. Chara may be young, but some things can't be left to stand. Lavellan wants answers and Chara is apparently the only one that can give them to him. He'd heard they'd been spotted squatting the Normandy office--which takes some gall, honestly, but at least that makes it easy for him--so that's where he goes.

It's open but dark when he enters, and it's impossible to tell whether someone else is even in there. He's starting to feel silly, but this might be his only chance to get an explanation, so he makes himself stay, and call into the dark entryway.]

Chara? If you're there, come out. I just want to talk.

[...No point in coming out weapons drawn. Yet, anyway.]

[ 02. cole ]

[He has no idea where all this is getting him. He has the deepening suspicion that it is in fact nowhere.

All he can find out in his poking around is that there's definitely something more unsettling when it comes to Savrii law enforcement than is obvious on the surface, but he could tell as much himself after his conversation with Chara. Everything he's unearthed is just circumstantial, and he's really no closer to finding out where Shepard is than he was when he started.

He's not used to making every effort and not getting any traction. It's times like this he almost misses the Inquisition, at least for the resources at his disposal. Very little had been hidden from him then.

He's so absorbed in reviewing his own notes that he probably wouldn't have noticed Cole even if he was a truly corporeal being and not a ghost playing at being human who can appear out of thin air as he pleases, but as it is he's very unprepared for being that badly startled.]

Comments

[inconsequence]

[They laugh.

It starts low and faint, a rasping titter that soon swells into something louder, their head jerking back. Of course! Of course it was their fault in the end, wasn't it? They should have known better! They really should have done more! Why couldn't they have prevented something like this? Why couldn't they have planned things better?

They were never meant to return from that doomed expedition. The blame was to be theirs, and theirs alone. Those sins crawling on their back again!

It always makes them laugh.]

I suppose they weren't wrong! It's my fault she ended up the way she did, is it not? If I'd never made such a rash decision in the first place, none of us would be here now!

[Yet another destructive conclusion they can add to their name! Yet another well-meaning group of people they've soiled with their touch!]

[lavelly]

[Oh, for fuck's sake. If Lavellan wasn't sympathetic before, he's fully exasperated now. Chara's free to have their mental breakdown when he's not trying to get something concrete out of them.

He doesn't even bother to mask his sigh and the roll of his eyes.]

I meant that her being arrested in her place was your idea. [And, just in case Chara wants to misconstrue that too:] That is, you suggested it to them directly. In words. Considering how you've been acting, I feel safe assuming that isn't the case.

[Then he stands.] I really do want to make this right, Chara, and I admit that I may have had the wrong impression of this. I apologize for assuming you were at fault. [He tries to make that sound as sincere as he can, because he really does mean it. Even if he is irritated.] If you ever have enough of wallowing, I could very much use your help. I'll keep in touch if I find out anything on my own. I assume I can find you here if I need to?

[There is one last thing he wants to ask, but it might be better to give Chara some time first. He does feel for someone as young as them having to deal with this. He's just not the right person to help them through it.]

[inconsequence]

[He draws his conclusions. He decides they're not to be put at fault. How nice for him. That's bound to work out beautifully in his favor, is it not? Children are useless, and they make errors, and they wallow. They're awful, ugly little things, children. They look terrible. Why are they even alive? Their utility has reached its end. What more would he want from them?

Just like any other adult in their lives, he takes what he desires and he leaves them in his wake. At least he will not have to blame himself for the broken nature of his informative source. That was there long before he happened along.

Their gaze snaps to his again, their smile twitching, the corners of their lips contorting, briefly.]

Whatever plan you've formulated, [says Chara, the words soft and uneven,] I feel obligated to suggest you reconsider.

[lavelly]

[Well, if they insist on continuing the conversation, then Lavellan might as well ask now. That way he won't have to come back and do this again.]

Because of how they "get in your head"?

[He won't lie and say that he thinks he's untouchable. Any potential danger must be investigated, especially as he has no small amount of respect for Shepard's own abilities. But he has fared quite well for himself, and one child's fear isn't enough to dissuade him.

And if they are right, if their fears are grounded, then that only means it's more important that he continue forward. Because that means a good, innocent woman is in danger, and maybe that's the crux of his concern: of all the people he knows, she deserves this the least.

Which, of course, is precisely why she is there in the first place.

But Lavellan has plenty of sins on his conscious and deserves plenty more than he's ever gotten. If he can help Shepard, it doesn't really matter what might happen to him because of it. It will be a fair trade, as far as he's concerned.]

[inconsequence]

They render resistance impossible. In more ways than one.

[What more could they say that would possibly persuade him? What further evidence would they put forth on their own behalf, when he so obviously trusts mere slivers of what they say, picking and choosing what merits believing for his own purposes of interpretation? At what point does he understand that a creature such as they is forged, raw and unalloyed, from a determination so fundamental to the atoms of their world that they could not be decoupled from the code that bound it all together, even as they bled out through their mouth and their pores?

How does one explain that the very embodiment of human determination was worth nothing, meant nothing, in the face of those that could subluxate them with a simple emotional exploitation without hesitation, or exertion of effort?

What would it matter, when he would never believe them?]

[lavelly]

[He waits for them to continue.

When they don't, he spreads his arms, like: is that it?]

Care to give me something more specific?

[Chara's opinion of him doesn't matter much to him, but if all they have to give him are vague warnings, then the less convinced he'll be of any real danger. He'll take his chances with or without Chara's information.]

[inconsequence]

They will take what you love, and they will exploit it.

[Said shortly, flatly. It is easier, is it not, to be staunchly objective. In the wake of Shepard, of what they have caused, in what she has done on their behalf, for their sake, it is...

They've lost. They've lost more than they can say. Their LOVE can serve as no weapon, no shield. when it's been withered away by hopeless sentiment and careless wondering.]

They will do as they see fit to ensure cooperation in the future.

[lavelly]

[That does make him hesitate; while he doesn't much care what happens to himself, he does have many things he wants to protect.

But the fact of the matter is that Shepard is a person. Not a thing. A person who doesn't deserve to suffer for someone else's sake, Chara's or his. This isn't some hypothetical, this is something that is affecting someone right now. And he couldn't live with himself if he just ignored it.]

So they took Shepard, because she's important to you. [Apparently.] Did they tell you for how long?

[inconsequence]

[If that is what he wishes to draw in terms of conclusions, they are hardly in a position to stop him. It is what they've connoted thus far, is it not? Or perhaps he is simply unwilling to acknowledge that one such as they fails, consistently, to form any lasting attachment to anything without harming it irreparably.

Let that be his failing, then. He's already stacking up quite the list of them. Why break the chain now?]

They told me nothing. They were simply - aware of any and all who might claim an emotional attachment to a demon, no matter how ill-advised.

[lavelly]

[Lavellan smiles down at them in a way that he hopes is kind, but he doubts it will be taken well. Chara seems fairly determined to avoid friendliness at all costs.]

I've seen my share of demons, and they're generally much uglier and more growly than you are. [Also, that's the most transparent deflection he's ever heard. Yes, he's definitely figured out what the situation here is, good job, Lavellan.]

Thank you for your help.

[inconsequence]

[I, your humble servant...

Well, we all know how this story is. He is free to exist in perpetual denial about the core of what they are, if he so chooses. One can never be certain what will convince another of that fact.

Eye him flatly, dispassionate. A business transaction. Nothing more.]

Will that be all, sir?

[lavelly]

[He doesn't sigh, but he does look away and exhale with a sense of finality. Well, he had tried. He can't force Chara to cooperate, and he's gotten enough to start somewhere. He hopes.

He nods at the floor, by way of confirmation.]

If you've nothing else to tell me, then yes. I'll let you know what I find.

[inconsequence]

Do.

[They do not turn away. They do not turn their back on that which may leave a knife in it. Given his disposition, they've no reason to trust him when he claims they've been helpful, that they are not to blame. Everyone knows precisely who and what is to blame, here.]

When they find you guilty, [and they will, they believe wholeheartedly,] simply know it will not be you who suffers for it.