Scene #9594: Trauma Response

Owner	Pose
White	Whatever it is that White does all day, it doesn't require her constant focus and personal attention. She has her 'agents', the eight legged ones, and she has her soldiers and her fellow Commanders back home to delegate to, and she has a terrible midweek urge to just get out of the house and try something interesting. Rather than stop by the konbini again or go to another local spot, there's somewhere further away, on another version of Earth, where she's somehow caught wind of an excellent hole-in-the-wall mexican restaurant. This puts her in the unusual position of actually having to be seen in public while she makes her way through the appropriate warp gates for her first visit. She's missable, with a longer dress in the usual white with floral colors and her favorite silk cowl lifted over her head and shading her face, but certain people are more likely to take notice of her usual color scheme than others. Tamiel can spot her in the terminal seemingly by pure coincidence, flicking rapidly through pages on her phone with the side of her thumb while she waits for her turn to pass through the gate and the sheer number of people in the crowded space provides enough cover that White doesn't notice her back immediately, especially while so consumed with imagining what she'll eat today. A confrontation then and there isn't ideal for either of them, but it's probably trivial to take a gate to the same Earth and pick up the trail again before White reaches her destination. Coming out the other side, it looks like they're somewhere in chilly-and-rainy northern America, and White strolls off from the other side of the gate immediately like she's already been here before... Though she really just studied the route in advance. She has a cute little spider-themed umbrella and everything, so she came prepared for a fair bit of walking in the light drizzle. The question then is just how Tamiel plans to get close in the congested, linear city streets, whether she can remain unnoticed, and what she even plans to do when she gets that far.
Tamiel Luxis	This hadn't turned out much like Tamiel's daydreams at all. Few things did. This should have a surreptitious investigation to corner and interview an accomplice to murder. She had anticipated, feared, some kind of hunt for a quiet moment, with danger hanging in the air like a guillotine on fraying string, in a shadowed alley. Instead, she was hunting a woman with a cute spider umbrella on a day trip for some food. Wrath might have given the tip off for when White was going to take her time off, but that still left the question of where. Tamiel had been hard at work, practicing her own spycraft. Little too-dark cats, shadow-spun, sitting in the terminal, licking their paws disinterestedly. Look at her please, I need to see... Her own little familiars were so distractable, so enticed by every noise and sound, that she spent more time hassling them than she did sulking. White could see without opening her eyes, which meant she might not need her eyes to see at all. Tamiel couldn't rely on line of sight at all to go unnoticed--instead, she did her best to track White without every stepping within line of sight of her. Her fussy animals were all she could count on--and at the very least, they led her to the warpgate. Tamiel only stepped out once she'd already stepped through, fidgeting with her keychain.
White	Tamiel does at least have the benefit of White assuming there's no reason to be especially on her guard today. In a less populated area, it'd be very hard to approach her without standing out, but with the other pedestrians around that she mindfully steps around as she traverses the sidewalk without looking up from her phone, she at least has something else to think about. Whether Tamiel follows from the rooftops or just several rows of other people behind her, White doesn't seem to notice anything strange enough to become alert, at least as long as that distance is maintained. She unknowingly leads the way around half a mile away from the gate, pausing only a few times to examine shopfront displays, and once to make a note in her phone after walking past a textile shop. From there she steps off the main thoroughfare somewhat, zigzagging her way through city blocks until she arrives at a somewhat quieter street with overhead rain-covers above the sidewalks, flanked on one side by small restaurants, a candy store, and an arcade, while the opposite side of the street is lined with a long row of food-truck trailers. She makes another note in her phone after slowly panning her head around, then spends about half a minute folding her umbrella back up and shaking the rain off of it under a covered spot before walking inside one of the restaurants. The building doesn't even have a visible name, the only sign is an old pattern-blinking neon sign showing a burrito wiggling side to side. It doesn't seem like there are any other customers inside right now, either, so there won't be any groups to hide behind if Tamiel follows White in... At least for right now, White seems to be pointing her eyelids at a menu and typing something into her phone without looking, probably writing her order into text-to-speech.
Tamiel Luxis	So far so good! The ease at which White has been traveling puts Tamiel at ease--until she wonders whether it's deliberate--and then dismisses it to return to that ease--only to worry about it again. She rubs her hands on the side of her arms, above her elbows. She didn't know if this was a high-stakes or low-stakes stalking. What would she do, just disappear? But she COULD disappear, Tamiel had seen it. At a thought, probably. She might corner White, but she couldn't CORNER White. If she's still there, she wants to be there. She couldn't quite decide what to think of that, but it settled Tamiel down, somewhat. The shadowcat surveilance system continued to serve Tamiel well--she caught up with White on the other end quickly enough, and the relaxed pace meant that she was not overly stressed. Everything really did look delicious--but Tamiel's stomach was too tied up to enjoy the sights or the smells. I won't let her scare me off again, Tamiel bit down on her lip. She stared, briefly, at the little hole in the wall that White had taken shelter in, worrying about whether she'd been seen before deciding that it didn't matter. Tamiel fussed briefly at her jacket, working up her courage, before stepping into the restraunt. She was wearing a white tank-top and a jacket, with holes in the back for her wings, and a colorful keychain danging from the side, and a pair of shorts. It felt casual. Too casual...But coming in shrouded in shadow would be a little bit like walking in with her hands on a gun. Tamiel's shadow quivered slightly behind her, looking to the side and angling though looking about the place. But Tamiel's eyes were strictly on White. Okay okay, I practiced... Tamiel marched up to White. Steady. Steady! "We need to talk."
White	It's probably a bit strange, seeing White's head turn sharply but slightly toward Tamiel to fix her implied gaze on her, without opening her eyes or even brushing the bit of her hair aside that's hanging on that side of her face while she leans in toward the menu. There's a moment where her feet shift beneath the table like she's considering standing up, but whatever she's thinking she sets aside that impulse before long. What she's thinking is pretty straightforward anyway, thoughts hammering out back-to-back starting from before she even recognizes Tamiel. 'Oh, there's someone here after all. I kind of wish there were more tables so I could have some privacy, but-' 'Wait. Wait wait waitwaitwait-a-second, isn't this the setup for something really bad?' 'A spider and an angel walk into a bar-' 'Not that kind of bad!!' 'She's totally still mad about that time before. She was still being weird about it during that time with Mister Hohenheim too. Why couldn't I rehearse for this first? Write a script? I don't wanna get into a fight here... Korewa saiteida...' Somewhere amongst her silent mental complaints, she simultaneously makes the tentative decision to brace for impact but go with the flow, and the most comfortable-seeming thing she can do without opening her mouth is, after a few moments following Tamiel's mission-statement, to gesture lamely at the chair on the other side of the table. It takes her another moment after that to set the menu down slowly, and then another after to decide to turn it toward Tamiel with her fingertips. Might as well see if that lowers the tension a little...
Tamiel Luxis	Tamiel keeps standing for a moment, before she takes the seat opposite White, settling down, strangling a 'thank you' before it gets the chance to emerge. She clasps her hands in front of her, as though to make a wall between them. Outside, a Tamiel-shaped shadow was flipping through a notepad. Put a finger to a line. Inside, Tamiel began to read it. "I know you were there, when we met Vertin for the first time, with Flamel. And fought the Manus Vindictae. You know what they've done." A sigh. "...I guess it doesn't matter. Because you also saw what happened next, right?" "You two. You say, you want to do it to save Schneider, right? And somehow. Helping her kill those people, that made it happen." A pause. "But you--both of you--you were there. You saw the Storm, didn't you? And--you saw the ways to get through it." "You knew. Knew! That Vertin has a way for arcanists to get through the storm. So you don't trust the Foundation." She breathes out through her teeth, hard. "No one should! They line up too much with so many other historical organizations that have just hurt people--But Vertin. Vertin I trust. I thought you did too." "And Regulus NEVER had to join the Foundation." She glared across the table at White. "So tell me why those people didn't get killed for NOTHING."
White	Getting put on the spot is, admittedly, not White's strong suit. That was clear from how minimal her explanations were the day of the massacre, too. It takes her a few moments to set aside the urge to stay inside her own head and complain, before she reaches for her phone and scoops it up off the table. She turns it sideways in one hand, looking at the screen instead of Tamiel as she starts gathering her thoughts, then starts to type on the screen with three fingertips from the other hand. She's quick, but she keeps deleting whatever she ends up typing, and that makes her progress slower overall. It doesn't help that, like before, there are things that she doesn't think she can just come out and say. It makes it a lot harder to come up with an explanation that might actually satisfy someone with a more... Morally stringent perspective. But, she might as well try. She almost forgets to keep acknowledging Tamiel in the process, but she turns her head slightly upward to imply she's looking at Tamiel's face now and then, just so the angel doesn't get fussy quite as quickly. When she starts actually playing what she's written through the TTS app on low volume, she does so in split-up parts. "I did see." "I do trust Miss Vertin's intentions." "But she can't save everyone." "It's all she can do to give some people dignity before the Storm kills them." She pauses a little longer, and rewrites the next parts a couple of times each per line, the only sign of her pensive consideration being the slight dip in her posture. She really has to think about what's okay to say, here. "I already tried to give Miss Schneider a different way out. The people on the other side didn't want to help me arrange it. I had to give away my plan to even ask. Miss Schneider is good at drawing attention; do you think the Foundation would accomodate her as a civilian at this point? Do you think they would take care of her? They don't even take care of Miss Vertin." "I'm not going to let someone I like get killed so that strangers can live a little longer before the Storm takes them, anyway. That should be obvious." Yeah, there's really no good way to convince Tamiel without giving away even more of her hopes and plans. The best she can do at this point is rip the bandage off, and point out the obvious.
Tamiel Luxis	"Miss Schneider is good at drawing attention; do you think the Foundation would accomodate her as a civilian at this point?" "...As far as the Foundation is concerned, Regulus was dead the moment she refused to sign on. You know that, right? I think they might have been happier if she really DID die that day." Tamiel bites on her lip, briefly. Continues. "...Matilda keeps trying to get her to sign on, sure--but Matilda is Matilda. And they were all perfectly willing to let her die." "But Vertin wasn't. I wouldn't be surprised if part of the reason they're hard on her, is that she's another way for people to get through the Storm. Not completely under their control." Tamiel frowns, now struggling with her own version of what-not-to-say. "I think Vertin will do what she has always done." She settles on. "No matter what the Foundation threatens her with. I want to make it easier on Vertin." "And those dead people will make it very. VERY hard." A pause, grimace, correction. "...Already has. Vertin's grown attached to her." It wasn't safe to say her next thought aloud, so she left it unsaid. "You say it like its a tradeoff. One for the other. But it doesn't feel to me like those deaths made anyone any safer. Just put walls between her and someone who could've helped."
White	"There were already walls." What those walls were, given they relate to Schneider's own secrets, White seems unwilling to specify. But it still ends up being the first thing she addresses, without correcting her writing once. But, she doubles back to the rest anyway. "It's good you already understand the Foundation, though. In Miss Regulus's case, I made an offer. That if she was mistreated or coerced after surrendering and could get word to me, I would help her escape. I think she almost agreed, before some of those monsters attacked and spooked her. One used to be someone she knew, which must have been hard." "You are also right that Miss Vertin is being used, for being unique. People tried to do something like that to me, once, when I was mistaken for a 'divine beast'. It makes me angry." Though, her expression doesn't really change as the phone reads that line off. "... I wanted to offer to help her escape, too, but she believes in what she's doing. I don't think it's fair for her, but it is still her choice. I want her to succeed as a 'Hero', as long as that is what she also wants." "But that only goes so far. I regret how things turned out, a little. I wish I had more time before Miss Schneider was given that task, to at least prevent the fight. But it was clear she was being tested. If she failed, she would have no value, and lose her only sure way through the Storm. Hers, and others'." That's as close as she can get to mentioning the family again, right now... "We tried Mister Einar's ship and found out removing people from that world won't save them. Otherwise I would have already taken Miss Schneider away and found a job for her in the Demon Armies. But I can't. Either Miss Vertin can find a way to convince her, as they get to know each other... Or they'll fight for each of their hopes." A few moments later she adds, "Regrettably."
Tamiel Luxis	"It makes me angry. That's when some of the stiffness starts to come out of Tamiel's wings. "It's not fair, what they're doing to her," Tamiel agrees. "I think she knows. It's hard to watch," she confesses, raising a hand to twirl a finger through her hair. "Someone who knows she'll be treated like that, how little it'll get her...but keeps deciding to go in anyway." "The way she keeps her heart closed up so tight, maybe it makes it harder for the Foundation to hurt her. Or understand her." "Hers, and others'." White can see the question rouse behind Tamiel's eyes...But she doesn't give it voice. "...I see, a little." Instead, the topic comes back to Vertin, and Tamiel comes into it in earnest, "Vertin believes that the Foundation is the best way to stop the Storm for good." She said, aloud. "As long as she believes that's true, her alleigance to them won't change. She might even be right, even though they treat her like...that." We tried Mister Einar's ship and found out removing people from that world won't save them. "I know," Tamiel's wings drooped, miserably. "I don't think I could help them either. Protecting them from death won't help, if it can just go back to and erase a time where they weren't protected. People would need a way to become acausal. To exist on their own, without relying on a yesterday that might not have been. That's a hard puzzle." "...I don't like the you've been doing things." Tamiel reiterated, but a lot of the heat was gone from her voice. "Just because people are shorter-lived, doesn't make their lives worth less. You were willing to throw them away for a maybe." That wasn't a question. "I don't think Vertin wants to fight her, either. But." They'd been pals back during Flamel's big meltdown, and Tamiel wasn't sure that either were the type of person who'd just forget that. But it wasn't like the world was all that willing to give them a chance to choose, was it? The shadow on the outside got to the end of Tamiel's notes, and she was left silent for a moment. "...It would be regrettable." She flicked, once, at the keychain on her jacket. "It's not how I want things to end, I think."
White	"I've never had the privilege of being powerful enough to make everything that I might like happen." White continues with her TTS, taking a moment to adjust her hair with the other hand after finally noticing how it's fallen partly into her face, after her posture slackened for several minutes. "It's frustrating. Whether I act, or don't act, someone will get angry with me. I should have done more. I shouldn't have done anything." It's not entirely clear why she's chosen now to, seemingly, just vent in Tamiel's direction, and the fact that the artificial voice's tone remains so even and calm may only be slightly more offputting than if White had bothered to say it in her own wispy voice. But, her eyes have opened slightly, just enough to look vaguely downcast with the subtle magenta glint of the Evil Eye barely reflecting off the screen of her phone. "It wasn't that long ago that my own world's recovery might've depended on exterminating humanity. Sometimes, I wish humans would make it a harder choice. I don't want to be an enemy to people. I really hope that Miss Vertin comes up with something. I already ran out of ideas that might save everyone. It'd be nice, if the people I want to save had a better option than me, or the Manus."
Tamiel Luxis	"Whether I act, or don't act, someone will get angry with me." "I am angry at you." Tamiel said, as if to clarify. "These secrets make everything hard. But I can...Understand being frustrated." But, there's something new in the tilt of her head, the angle of her wings. Her back goes stiff upright when White mentions 'exterminating humanity,' and her response is momentarily stiff, "...I'm very glad that's past tense," Tamiel breathed. "...If you really to stop all this, there's a lead you might be able to follow up on." "Flamel's weird psychoportal experiment...To stop it, Regulus had to dredge something out of Vertin's consciousness." She bit her lip. "I don't remember what he called it...the will to live no matter what? The determination to keep living one second after the other...?" She shakes her head, dismissing the thought, and, "If it relates to why Vertin can survive the Storm, it could be a start. Maybe something could be synthesized? Shared? Learned?" "If it could stop this, I'd help you." Tamiel says, getting up from her seat.
White	White is, predictably, unsurprised by Tamiel reiterating her anger. She doesn't seem to disagree about the secrets either, so she lets it slide off unchallenged. Instead, she glances up and focuses in on what Tamiel decides to share, eyes widening slightly, then narrowing back to neutral, and she lets out a soft breath. Then, she types on her phone again. "... I should have been there after all. I helped prototype for that project, but it seems like distancing myself after that backfired. Again." She's always missing the most important moment whenever she does decide not to meddle... "I remember Mister Flamel talking about that, before he started that experiment. But he was speaking about Miss Schneider back then, and why he wanted to see her live. If Miss Vertin has that same quality, then... Perhaps the two of them will figure something out." It's not enough to get hopeful about, but- "Thank you." Said from her own two lips in a murmur instead of the phone's speaker that time, it'd be easy to miss if they weren't more or less alone in the restaurant still. "... I'll let... You know. If I... Think of something." She still has to go back to the phone to convey, "Have a safe trip home."
Tamiel Luxis	"I helped prototype for that project, but it seems like distancing myself after that backfired. Again." "I don't know if it would have helped," Tamiel admitted. "After a point, it sounds like Flamel took everything on himself. Maybe afraid that someone would say 'no.'" She might have been one to push for that 'no,' mind, but she wouldn't have been asked her opinion in any case. "It's not your fault he tried to turn it into some...world-changing portalmaker, powered by his own suicide." That one, at least, she held ENTIRELY on Flamel's head. Tamiel is already turned around when White's whisper catches up to her. She rubs at the back of her neck. "...I'll keep an ear open. Wrath knows where I am." Shoving her hands into her jacket pockets, Tamiel makes her way outside, leaving White to her food in peace.