onepassingnight | Report IV: Fountain Pen

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Report IV: Fountain Pen

Interrogations were rarely something pleasant to have to go through, ones with the Turks were usually terrifying and one that needed Tseng's personal attention rarely ended with laughter and a cup of coffee. Hopefully this one wouldn't end with maintenance having to patch a bullet hole in a wall again.

There wasn't much in the thin file he held as he watched the person through a mirrored window. So little, in fact, that it bothered him. No matter, there was certainly enough to start off with. He nodded, shooting a glance at the person beside him before entering the room.

Hopefully this wouldn't take more than a few hours, he really didn't want to be in the office until the sun came back up.

[[OOC: Open to whichever you want to tag in as! Good cop bad cop (...or bad cop worse cop as it were) or being questioned! ]]

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She's not fooled by the approach, she tells herself. But the truth is, having expected a sudden and brutal end if it ever went this far, she is taken aback by the surprise of such a different outcome.

"Say what you have to say," she says brusquely.

"As you may not be aware of the location where we picked you up is for authorized entry only, and you aren't on any of the lists of those with authorization to enter." He said, eyes narrowing. "Frankly, you don't show up on any database. Which, considering recent events is extremely troubling to us."

Us, a lovely term vague enough to be either just him and Rufus or the entirety of Neo ShinRa or the WRO. "I'm sure it's only a small confusion, you missed the signage and were lots. Perhaps you got married recently and with the communications networks down the files simply haven't been updated in our systems yet."

Things click into a different place. But she still doubts a simple paperwork error merits this.

She tells herself it doesn't feel like the over-mighty bureaucracy of tyranny. She searches her brain for a way to come up with the papers.

Then it occurs to her: What is she being afraid for? She has always carried out her duty. She has not betrayed, or double-crossed (~~except in her dreams~~).

"Are you sure you remembered to look in the right place?" There's just a little emphasis on 'remembered' - and a tiny nudge of her power to try to make him question it himself.

Tseng looked at the papers, a tiny smile on his face.

"You must not be familiar with what you've gotten yourself tangled up in; your misstep has gained the attention of the Turks." He said, "We are the right place to look for information on people."

What should that mean to her? They evidently have the manpower to get her in here, but whatever they're after is nothing to her. Less than nothing; the Turks will be swallowed up eventually, like everyone else, the same fate that drove her to this one.

To this fate. She's betrayed. Has someone set this up to pay her back for it? Well, it's fine. She can weather it out, and find Mnemosyne later.

"You'd get better answers if you asked without all this," she notes.

"If I had them I wouldn't be here talking to you." He countered. "Now, if you'd like to stop being evasive we can get this over with. Or this can become unpleasant, I have no problem with the use of force."

"If I'd known it was monitored, I wouldn't be there." She was starting to relax. This apparently had nothing to do with what she'd been afraid of at all, and genuine innocence... is a lot easier to maintain than trying to hide those sparks of wishing Galaxia was different.

"The large signs should have been the first clue." He raised an eyebrow, crossing his legs beneath the table.

"And the fence topped with razor wire."

She had no answer. How could she? She'd never seen anything like that. Now that he's focusing her attention on it, she can't really recall what came before finding herself in this room at all.

It can't be amnesia; she may disclaim the value of memories, but it'd be too ironic even for Fate to rob the senshi of Oblivion of hers. Then... What?

Only one thing seemed to matter much. "Where's Mnemosyne?"

"Oh. She's quite safe, so long as you cooperate I assure you she'll remain that way." He smiled, fingers lacing beneath his chin. "Again, what were you doing so close to a mako reactor without proper clearance?"

There were far too many dangers in the area, both to whoever was there and the company itself. They were unstable at best.

For a second, it does exactly what it was intended to do. It makes her want to give in right away, for the sake of her sister. But Lethe has learned, over the years and centuries, not to trust.

"Let me see her," she says simply. "Then we'll talk about whatever there is to say."

There it is.

The chink in the armor he was casting for.

"Sadly, with the communication lines being what they are that's currently impossible. We take good care of our guests, she's quite comfortable I assure you." He smiled, "All of the snacks and tea she can ever want, and plenty of conversation. I'd hate to have to have one of my associates have to harm her, she's a very sweet young lady."

It's a plausible excuse, but she still knows not to base anything on it. On the other hand, she can't take a chance. If she loses Mnemosyne, if she fails to protect her, then everything she's done for so long is meaningless. Useless.

"I still can't tell you more than I know," she points out.

"That's for me to decide." Tseng replied, "You may know far more than you think."

He flipped open the file, flipping a photograph towards her. "You went right past these signs, what are you after?"

But she hadn't. She stared at them blankly, and shook her head.

"I'm not after anything. My goal is to live in peace with my sister. My only quarrel is with people in the way of that." And as far as she knew... that did not include ShinRa.

He didn't believe her, not at the moment anyway.

"Then why go snooping around a mako reactor?" He asked, "They're not exactly inhabitable."

A mako reactor? Sounded like something nuclear, to her. But she didn't know why she'd been near one any more than he did.

"I wasn't snooping!" she said, finally getting a bit of spirit back in her frustration. But she doubted saying she didn't know how she got there would be believed.

"You know I'm not carrying anything in or out anyway. Why are you holding me here?"

Information wasn't always physical, and reactor technology was something the company still had a firm grip on.

"As I said, this is all quite obviously a slight confusion that can be cleared up with your cooperation. Now, tell me what you were doing in a reactor?"

Confusion, yes, but far more than slight. However unbelievable, she decided to tell the truth.

"The last thing I remember is being in this room. I don't remember being brought here, or before that."

Wait. Maybe the problem wasn't her.

"Did you drug me?" Her jaw tightened.

"No." He replied honestly, "Mako has been known to cause memory loss however, I'm sure it will come back."

It certainly wasn't uncommon, and it very well may not come back.

"There have been cases where people forget their entire lives."

She's not sure she believes the person who possibly drugged her, telling her he didn't drug her. On the other hand, it's a relief: He believes her own story.

"That shouldn't happen while they live," she says simply. Her oblivion has its place. It isn't everywhere.

"A lot of things shouldn't happen in this world." He replied blandly, "Mako isn't something to go playing around in."

Lethe took the plunge, finally. "What is mako?"

From everything he'd said, she gathered the basic idea: a source of energy that was somewhat dangerous to use. So were many forms of energy.

Tseng's eyes narrowed in suspicion. There wasn't a person on the planet that didn't know what mako was.

"I'm going to get you a doctor, Ma'am. There's something that I need verified."

That was very correct. There wasn't a person from this planet who didn't know what mako was. On the planet Lethe, however, or at the river Oblivion, it was different.

She was different.

"I'll wait," she said with heavy irony.

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Report IV: Fountain Pen

I am the sweetest of muns.

You are~

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