kate galloway; (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dedikated) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
hadriel_logs2016-06-22 07:41 pm
dedikated) wrote in hadriel_logs2016-06-22 07:41 pm
Entry tags:
( log four | closed | look at me, i've lost it )
Who: One (1) impulsive idiot (dedikated), and three (3) rightfully frustrated Guard members (hotspurred mismanagement synthedick)
What: Explanations and consequences of really fucking stupid decisions.
Where: The Guardpost.
When: 22nd, after this
Warnings: Lots of talking about the worsening of Silent Hadriel, mentions of tragic backstories probably, classic Nico TL;DR definitely.
[ it would be easier to just hide, to not have sent that text in the first place and avoid the entire discussion she's about to have. as a plan, it is incredibly tempting to just turn around and return to the building she's been using to recover from the exhaustion that hit far too hard and violently after the enchantment worked and everything got so much worse.
but this place isn't like home, where fucking up meant a quick bout of Alicia's mind control to stave things off and running to other countries to try and attack the problem from another angle. she's completely stuck here, with nothing but the whim of a phenomenon no one can control or understand as her only option to escape. so Kate grits her teeth and continues walking down the street - walking, not sprinting, on the street instead of rooftops because her body is still feeling the effects of overwork and when she ran the knife she enchanted to demonstrate her power to Hakkai over her arm the red was so dark it may as well have been black.
total power outage. she couldn't do anything even if she wanted to.
she's nearly there, the armoury visible just down the road and the guards weren't too far from that. Kate inhales, rakes her fingers through her hair as it curtains loosely around her, and squares her shoulders. this is hardly the first fuck up interrogation in her life, and for once it's one she feels is rightfully deserved. she may as well face it head on, rather than shrink into her own guilt, may as well act her age for once, right?
she knocks on the door of the building and forces her arms at her sides, tries to forget about the fact that there are probably bags under her eyes and she probably looks worse than she did back when the fog first rolled in. no folded arms. no shrinking into herself. this won't set anything right, but she has to at least explain. she owes the guard that much, at least. ]
dedikated), and three (3) rightfully frustrated Guard members (hotspurred mismanagement synthedick)What: Explanations and consequences of really fucking stupid decisions.
Where: The Guardpost.
When: 22nd, after this
Warnings: Lots of talking about the worsening of Silent Hadriel, mentions of tragic backstories probably, classic Nico TL;DR definitely.
[ it would be easier to just hide, to not have sent that text in the first place and avoid the entire discussion she's about to have. as a plan, it is incredibly tempting to just turn around and return to the building she's been using to recover from the exhaustion that hit far too hard and violently after the enchantment worked and everything got so much worse.
but this place isn't like home, where fucking up meant a quick bout of Alicia's mind control to stave things off and running to other countries to try and attack the problem from another angle. she's completely stuck here, with nothing but the whim of a phenomenon no one can control or understand as her only option to escape. so Kate grits her teeth and continues walking down the street - walking, not sprinting, on the street instead of rooftops because her body is still feeling the effects of overwork and when she ran the knife she enchanted to demonstrate her power to Hakkai over her arm the red was so dark it may as well have been black.
total power outage. she couldn't do anything even if she wanted to.
she's nearly there, the armoury visible just down the road and the guards weren't too far from that. Kate inhales, rakes her fingers through her hair as it curtains loosely around her, and squares her shoulders. this is hardly the first fuck up interrogation in her life, and for once it's one she feels is rightfully deserved. she may as well face it head on, rather than shrink into her own guilt, may as well act her age for once, right?
she knocks on the door of the building and forces her arms at her sides, tries to forget about the fact that there are probably bags under her eyes and she probably looks worse than she did back when the fog first rolled in. no folded arms. no shrinking into herself. this won't set anything right, but she has to at least explain. she owes the guard that much, at least. ]
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It is about time for Kate to turn up.]
Come in and take a seat.
[Henry has never been enthusiastic about attending court, where he must be civil and restrain his temper at all costs. Yet he finds the experience useful now. He keeps his voice even. There is no aggression in his stance. He keeps his hand away from the sword hanging from his belt as a gesture of peace.
Those are the only kindnesses that he offers. He is otherwise pale and grim-faced. The armour that he customarily wears is absent.
Henry feels no sympathy for Kate's pitiful state as he looks upon her. No doubt she brought it upon herself. The knowledge that she volunteered to pay them visit is the only reason that he does not march her in and demand answers. Instead he gestures to where the desks for doing paperwork are set up, before he returns to his seat without waiting for her. He feels absolutely no inclination to exchange pleasantries.]
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... a lot of things in this place come back to years ago, to The Agency, don't they?
she wordlessly takes the seat indicated, taking care to avoid the natural urge to cross her legs and arms tight against herself, gripping the armrests of the chair instead. ] Just so you know. [ there is one thing she wants to make very clear here, and it may as well be now, before anything gets asked. ] Only talking about my own involvement here. [ because the actions and decisions of Bianca and Sharon are not for her to say. if they decide to share their reasons, they can do so themselves.
after all, there is nothing to be gained in selling them out. ]
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She's hoping for the latter.
Maketh pushes a mug across the table silently.] All right. That's fair.
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He's impassive as he finally speaks, neither immediately judgmental, nor particularly sympathetic. He's not sure how many interrogations Maketh has led, but he has no problem asking the first question.]
All right. Start at the beginning and tell us how, exactly, you got involved in this.
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There is good reason that he leaves the questioning to Maketh and Nick.
He has paper before him. Taking up a pen, in his exquisite medieval handwriting, he writes: The testimony of Kate Galloway, regarding the events of the fifteenth of June until the twentieth of June, year one. Beneath that, he writes her words exactly as she speaks them.
There is good reason, too, for him to do more than just listen. He needs an outlet for his restlessness. For now he does not interject.]
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I believed I would be able to disenchant the item used if it came down to it. [ She's never really liked talking in official investigations, never really felt entirely comfortable with the formality that was required to successfully navigate them.
Back when he was alive, Marc would feed her answers so she didn't fuck up too badly. Apparently she picked up enough to navigate her own way. ] I underestimated the amount of energy I needed to create it while still working normally. [ She may as well admit that, because her exhaustion couldn't be clearer. The first days had been nothing but a blur of bouncing back and forth, exerting energy and barely pausing to regain any strength - of fighting and running and trying to organise the healing efforts all at the same time as creating an enchantment for powers she clearly didn't understand well enough.
She holds back the fact that Sharon's death didn't change anything, holds back the fact that now - sitting here - she thinks even disenchanting wouldn't have affected the twisted world that sprang forth once they bolstered the girl's power.
After all, Maketh didn't ask about the reality, or what she knows now. Just what she believed then. And that was it. She believed it would work the same way any other enchantment would. ]
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You're going to have to forgive my unfamiliarity when it comes to all this magic stuff. Could you explain exactly what it is you did, and who you did it with? I assume the girl who caused all this had some part in it.
[It's a question as much for his notes as it is for the sake of clarity. She seems to be answering honestly -- he'd already known before she answered that the idea came about on the network. He'd been keeping a close eye on it even before the fog rolled in, and had seen the conversation, but the question had been a good way to see just how evasive she might be.
Now it's time for the harder stuff.]
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Besides, he's already indicating that he's well aware. Kate instead sucks in a breath, her shoulders rolling back as she prepares to explain this again.
At least investigations back home didn't involve this. ] I have the ability to create items that will react to other people's powers. [ A pause, and she considers that it might have been easier to bring her weapons bag with her, if only to demonstrate what she means. ] That includes the ability to channel and strengthen powers as needed. The theory was that an enchantment would do enough to open the door. [ clearly it wasn't. ]
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That complicates things.
Maketh rubs her face briefly.] You created an object that amplified Sharon's power in an attempt to open the door. Is that correct? When did it go wrong?
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As soon as I handed it over, I assume. [ she sucks on her teeth with her tongue and allows herself the brief comfort of folding her arms around herself. Recounting these events drained on her soul, knotted her stomach and laid out everything she never wanted laid out. She was quite happy to live unaware of her own clawing and screaming hatred of being underground, of fighting. She was even happier to have left her list of bad decisions alone for years, happy to consider them past regrets and look to a more positive future.
And she would have been thrilled to never hear her own voice promising those kinds of horrific torments to anyone, let alone someone she did feel some amount of respect for in this professional capacity. ] I was... passed out until- [ her eyes catch the sight of Henry writing his notes, silent since he let her in, and her voice dies in her throat. ] For several hours.
[ keep it impersonal. Think of it like you think of an answer to a question Dagny asks: the facts, said slow and clear. ]
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Thereafter?
[He prompts her to continue. There is a harsh edge to his voice now, made stark by his colleagues' professional tones.]
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(Don't blow it, Kate. Seriously. Leave it.)
It always comes back to Marc's voice, tempering her. Even when he's been dead for nearly a decade. It always does. ]
Sharon's body was found. [ That is the one thing she clearly remembers. Remembers the harsh, gut-wrenching realisation that not only did it not work, they couldn't stop it. ] After that... I was too tired to do anything more.
[ She remains frighteningly still during it all, apart from the brief movement of her arms when she wrapped them around herself, and the occasional blink. ]
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She's not a suspect, though. Kate came in of her own volition, and despite what happened -- and the consequences of her actions, some of which were endured by people in the room -- what she'd done had been with the best of intentions. She isn't the only one looking for a way to bring down the gods; she just happened to be the one to jump the gun the moment she found something that looked promising.
And so Nick backs off for the moment, glancing to Henry. His tone is neutral, but far softer by comparison to his superior.]
We've all seen the report on that part of the story. [As the one who wrote it and was present when they found the body, he remembers it very well.]
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So she will be better. Even though it hurts.]
The thing you summoned. What stopped it?
[After it killed her, Maketh means.]
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Need you a drink? We have coffee and water.
[Not that he is done questioning her, just because he offers her a small comfort.]
I would like to know why your monster targeted Hope.
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Kate shakes her head, clearing her throat. ] 'M fine. [ Just ignore the dread that whispers is it really gone. Getting through this requires concentrating on the questions, not the stupid fears.
(It doesn't make sense anyway. She could almost feel the thing under her skin when it was here. There's no such feeling now.)
Unfortunately, the next question is another that is difficult to answer. For more reasons than her own uncertainty - for the entire fact that explaining how much she hates hope (the emotion more than the being that feeds off it) hits way too close to personal issues she can't even fully grasp, let alone verbalise.
But she needs to be helpful, right? As some sort of penance for all of this. So. ] Not sure, but I suppose getting rid of Hope would have helped it. [ Helped it corrupt her, for one thing. ] That... or it thought killing Hope might draw out Fear. [ She sucks on her teeth for a moment. ] Just a theory.
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Had the thing just found Hope immediately, what they did might not feel so sickening.
She leans back in the chair, unfolds her arms and stares at Maketh for a moment, considering the rest of what she said with the kind of care Kate probably should have shown from the beginning of it all. ] Not sure if anyone could really control such a thing. [ A non-response, at first. ] My role didn't extend that far anyway. Never tried to enchant something that would offer me control before. [ Considering the amount of work she had to put in to creating the enchantment as it was, the amount of energy it took just to get it as stable as it was (even if disastrously so), Kate isn't sure it would have been physically possible to try that as well. ]
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If it was, this whole mess would have been handled with an army.
Maketh sits up straighter, fighting to keep her voice even.] I'm not sure I understand. You--created this thing, with the knowledge you would not be able to control it? With no fail-safe whatsoever?
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(Dammit, Kate. Explain that better). ] Was taught to think of it like making a gun. I can make it as safe as possible. Doesn't mean I can control the bullet after it's fired.
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The point is that things did go wrong, and folks got put in harm's way. [His eyes flick from Kate to Maketh, then to Henry.] Some more than others.
[He turns his attention back to Kate, keeping his own voice calm, but firm.] So who was supposed to be in control of it, if not you? Sharon?
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This might just be the most talking she's done since getting here. ] Look. Enchanting is risky. Worse when you're trying to boost powers. [ Even back home, where the way powers work is instinctive to her, there's risk. God only knows Carl suffered enough of them when they tried to figure out how to boost his teleportation power. ] Only testing option is to use it. [ Even trying to place themselves in a space out of the way of the city doesn't mean it would have kept it isolated.
Kate glances to the side, presses her tongue against the back of her teeth for a second, and continues. ]
This shouldn't have been tried so fast. [ Something she tried to keep in mind, tried to explain. ] But I believed that letting the gods get a grip on the situation would have made any sort of later effort less successful. [ Her hand starts moving towards her hair but quickly gets placed on the armrest of the chair instead. ] Looked at the risks and misjudged them. [ Clearly. ]
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Maketh feels her hands shaking and folds them in her lap - hidden by the table, out of sight, she must not be weak. What happened to her is irrelevant. As such it will be ignored.
Control yourself, soldier. Or you will be controlled.]
Then why did Sharon not control it?
[Maketh can feel herself shaking, furious. Kate put all their lives in the hands of a child, with no guarantee that the plan would work, that it would even accomplish anything.
Whatever else is decided here, Maketh realizes, her faith in Kate is dead.]
bad decisions with teenagers, the novel
No one wants to drag kids into this sort of thing, no one wants to put that sort of responsibility on their shoulders. But sometimes the kids are all you have.
(And didn't Rosenberg say the same thing, back when Kate was 17 and stuck in an hour long interview? That she doesn't enjoy hiring children for this work, but Superhumans are rare enough as it is and those who would willingly apply for this line of work even rarer.
It was probably a lie, but in light of all of this, it resonates strongly within Kate - a little echo that singsongs not so different.
Not so different at all).
The question that Maketh does ask, however, is startlingly redundant in Kate's mind. ] I don't know. [ if she did control it. She should have been able to if it worked correctly. But this isn't exactly paint by numbers with clear instructions on how to make a pretty picture. ] Maybe something went wrong. [ She exhales to keep herself from sounding anything but neutral as she speaks, but, really? She was mostly unconscious for all of this. How can she know? The only person who could tell her for certain is dead. ]
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[Maketh rubs her face briefly, trying to soften her voice.]
Don't mistake me. I understand what led to this. But it was luck that prevented disaster and not your actions. This cannot happen again. I--it would be better to do it with your help, your honest help. Are you willing to give it or not?
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My enchantments wear off. That one shouldn't be active by now. [ She wasn't exactly operating on the energy to make something that would last the whole month or anything. ] Can't collect further data on what went wrong at the minute. [ Not without talking to Sharon, if she even gets revived. Not without her powers being active again to perhaps analyse any damage that ] My powers have been down since- [ Well. Insert vague gesture that means 'all of this' and 'my unconscious episode' all at the same time. ] this. Can't do much to analyse anything until they're back.
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But that's for later. For now, they need to figure out what to do about the mess she and her companions made. The Guard might not be a police force, but they have an obligation to protect the people of the city, and that includes protecting them from each other. It's not as though the Guard can lock the perpetrators in a jail cell, but letting them off with only a warning seems too easy in light of what they did and what happened.
Not that they can really enforce any kind of punishment. For now, it's all on an honor system until they figure out something better.]
My question is if you're willing to work with us when your powers come back to make sure that something like this doesn't happen again. What you and your friends did was with good intentions, and that's something that oughtta be taken into consideration. A lot of folks suffered, but there's plenty you can do to help make up for it. Use those powers to make this place better for everyone. You work at the clinic, right?
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And, after a pause - because it sounds vague and she can recognise that much. ] And aye. I work at the clinic. [ Her powers haven't come into much use there yet. Perhaps they shouldn't. Not after this.
But - there's the logical voice in her brain, the one that sounds equal parts Marc and Dagny, depending on the situation - her powers have a lot of applications, ones that have been useful at home, even if not here. Ones that have a whole lot of theoretical applications that haven't even been properly explored. ] Administrator. [ Because so far power consultant has been irrelevant here. Because so far her work has been contained to paperwork, syllabi and occasional first aid.
There's a knot of dread in her stomach, despite the way Nick words it. They wouldn't... declare that she needs to stop working there, too, right? She managed this with a million other things on her plate, who knows what would happen if all she had was her own mind for company? ]
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We would like to hear the conclusions that you reach.
[He strongly suggests, to make it clear that follow-up is desired.]
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