|
Mei got back from a stakeout a few hours ago, and while she can just make herself not be tired, that doesn't mean it's necessarily the right thing to do, so sleep happens.
In her case, she came in and flopped down on the couch, expecting to just rest for a few moments, and dozed off instead. She's still wearing her street clothes, including her jacket, and is currently drooling on one of the couch cushions while she snores softly.
Liezel deigned to skip out on one (1) night of her routine of visiting Maddy's for an early breakfast and/or very late breakfast-for-dinner. Instead, at the moment, having slept (for the most part) through the night, she's in her trousers and sleeveless blouse, sitting at whatever counter or table space she could procure with a handful of different-colored, high-caliber rounds on the surface in front of her to serve as visual aids and memory anchors. In the air above them, she's testing various Imago combinations- tangled spells crammed into Prime/Force weaves to hold the spells until triggered. It's all very fancy, and much safer and Potentia-efficient than actually trying to cram the spells into Energized objects- the Supernal equivalent of a self-cleaning whiteboard.
There's also an orichalcum handmirror facing upwards in the middle of the table, as if to project her "workspace" above. It's not, it's just one of her dedicated tools, but she likes the visual symbolism, so it stays, even after its purpose is played out.
Mei stirs a bit on the couch and, in her sleep, starts trying to roll over. The thing is, she didn't expect to fall asleep when she laid down, and one of her arms and one of her legs are hanging off the side of the couch, and when she sleepily tries to roll over fully onto it, she manages to instead slide off and land on the floor with a thump. Which does wake her up.
For a couple of seconds she lays on the floor, groaning in sleepy annoyance, before she starts finally pushing herself back up to her feet while rubbing sleepy eyes. As her hands come away she glances around, spots Liezel and does a bit of a double take, and then smiles as she straightens her jacket and starts heading over that way. "What time is it?" she asks wearily
Liezel looks up at the thump, blinking. "Mei?" It takes her a moment to realize the thump was Mei falling out of sight onto the floor, and once she sees the other woman sitting up, she relaxes, everything once more a relatively known quantity. She catches the double take and offers a smile as an intentionally welcoming expression. "Hello. I think it is after noon. I haven't been paying attention. I've been experimenting. You were out late. Did you have a good time? Or at least a productive one?" Liezel asks, betraying her lack of info on Mei's activities the night before.
Mei blinks at the clustering of statements she receives in response to her query, but only because her brain is still trying to get itself into gear and it takes a moment to process all the input. Once she's made sense of the words she gives a lazy smile and comes over to pull out a chair at the table and plops herself down on it. "Productive," she answers. "I was tailing someone for a case I'm working on. I didn't see any of the kinds of things I was looking for, but sometimes that's exactly what I'm hoping to find, so it was good." She looks at what Liezel is doing and asks, "what's going on here?"
"Oh. I am glad you didn't find the things you didn't want to find. That's always good. Nothing bad about things being better than we suspect," Liezel confirms with a nod. "And two things. One, I've rewoven the space above the table to produce a sort of friction with Imago as they're formed- instead of being held in the mind, they're visibe to any Arcanum's method of Sight. Second, I'm using that space as a sort of whiteboard to see what happens when I mix combinations of spells into the same Imago, and then place that single Imago into the theoretical storage created by energizing an object with a pattern of Supernal energy charged with a fragile web of mundane Force designed to break under certain conditions."
Which is a whole lotta talk to say I'm visualizing putting combo spells into bullets laced with Energize Object.
"When someone hires me to find out if something is going on that might shatter their world if it is? I'm always glad when it's not," Mei explains without really providing any details, because it's not professional to talk about the details of your client's personal lives. She starts listening to Liezel explaining what it is she's trying to do, and she does listen, but she's also not quite awake enough for this. "That sounds like a lot of work," she says when Liezel finishes. "You're trying to make bullets that set off spells when they hit something?"
"Well. More designing spells to put into bullets that will do that. Testing different combinations to make sure the Imago are compatible and aren't going to tear each other apart. Not that it's happened like that, but I needed something to do and theorycrafting superbullets in silence seemed more polite than turning on the television while you were sleeping," Liezel admits. "Do you want to hear some of my ideas? The nice thing is I can give the bullets to anyone once they're charged. Once they're fired, they'll kick in."
Mei's quiet laugh comes when Liezel says she didn't want to be rude with the TV. "I appreciate it," she says. "It's really my fault for laying down there when I was so tired, instead of making my way to bed, but I do appreciate it. At least in this place you don't have to worry about waking everyone else up once the TV's on. Sometimes I wonder if Zoya has hidden Forces spells in the walls to help soundproof them. What kinds of things do you like to watch?"
She leans back in her chair and nods. "I would like to hear some of your ideas. I don't really use guns, but I'm still interested in hearing what you can do."
"I like Forged in Fire," Liezel offers, unsurprisingly. "Um... Making It is nice, too. I like to watch people put things I haven't made together. And I could have used Forces to listen to the television silently, but. This was honestly more fun."
"Oh, I have lots of ideas. Combining friction reduction with velocity increase to drastically increase both range and impact. Using velocity reduction to reduce rounds to nonlethal speeds and packing them with potentia-eradicating spells to disable mages without killing them. Including spells to detain the ghost of anyone killed by the round in case we both need them dead and talking." Pause. "And then just silly stuff like creating monumental amounts of confetti on impact."
"Oh, I like Forged in Fire too," Mei agrees with a quick smile. "Or other shows about people making things. I'm not a big fan of the drama that a lot of those shows have, though. It makes me super uncomfortable watching people fight like that. Forged in Fire rarely has that, so it's easier to watch than a lot of shows."
She listens to all those ideas about how to modify bullets in various ways to make them useful or different effects, then lets out a slight snort of laughter at the last one. "I'm picturing someone accidentally loading a magazine full of those last rounds in a pitch battle and only discovering it after there are clouds of confetti everywhere."
Liezel nods. "I don't do well with awkward or uncomfortable scenes. It makes me uncomfortable. I usually just leave or change the channel. I don't like it at all."
"That would be funny as long as they won anyway. There's lots of interesting things you could do. Scary ones, too." Liezel picks up a tracer round. "I thought of putting a spell to increase the size of the fire this creates, and then Perfect it. Deliver a Perfected inferno from- miles away, potentially. Or just..." She shrugs a little. "There's an Off spell. For people. You can just turn off all the electrical signals that make them function at once. But... that isn't good. Or even interesting."
"Yeah, that's about how I feel about it," Mei agrees on the uncomfortable scenes. "And..." she looks thoughtful. "I'm an Adept of Life, so I start thinking a lot about the ways I could incapacitate someone without hurting them. Like causing them to faint. Or, potentially, making them bigger? If someone is suddenly twenty feet tall, it might be easier for everyone else to hit them, and harder for them to hide. Not good if there are Sleepers around, though."
Liezel blinks. "Oh. Like transmuting all their clothing into metal so they can't move? That would... actually work really well. Hm. I hadn't considered alternative goals for the payloads. That's a very interesting one..." Liezel nods. "I have not invested much into the Arcana that affect the self. I do not... like. The idea of changing myself or other people like that. I don't mind if others do it, but to me, it feels like... bad form. I like changing the environment, and creating or improving tools."
"It feels more fair."
"I don't like having to fight people in the first place," Mei admits with a wince. "I can, and I do, when I have to. I'd just rather do anything I can to avoid a fight, and tend to view a fight happening as more often than not meaning I did something wrong at some point. That's not always the case, but it's always worth looking back at it to see if it was." She taps her knuckles on the table a couple of times. "If I do have to get into a fight, I'll do everything I can to win it with the least harm done. If bad form or cheating means more people are going to survive, or come away without serious injury, I'll do it."
"I don't mind fighting. If it's people that deserve it. But it's often easier all around to avoid it. Convenient that the same Arcana that creates explosions and magic bullets also lets you be invisible, huh?" Liezel smiles quietly. "But... I don't... like. The idea of my body and my mind being different day to day. I don't like the instability of having knowledge one day and not the next, or of being able to move one way now and not later. Knowing how my mind and body work, those being steady and reliable... that's..." Something she relies on.
"That's absolutely fair," Mei says with a smile. "I don't feel the same way necessarily, but I can absolutely understand and respect why someone would." She turns her head to look out toward the windows, over the city. "I don't like fighting because I don't like to hurt people. I empathize with others too easily, and inflicting pain is really uncomfortable for me. I'm pretty good at fighting, but in a strange way my motivation is making it so that I can end a fight as quickly as possible, and need to inflict as little pain as possible in the process. Ruthless efficiency as mercy."
Liezel nods a little. "By the time I'm willing to fight, I have little mercy left. If someone has left me with no option besides violence to stop them from causing harm, then at that point, I'm already committed to doing what needs to be done. It doesn't happen particularly often- I don't think I've fired a round at a being since defending the Tree, and that was months ago- but I don't take half measures. I don't like to fire at the same target twice. So I suppose we end up at the same stop, just different routes?"
"I guess we do," Mei says as she turns back and smiles at Liezel. "I think a lot of us here are that way, for our own reasons. We all want to get things done if there's a fight, and none of us are interested in just causing pain. You might fit in well with us, with that kind of perspective."
"I do not think I could be friends with someone interested in causing pain for pain's sake. It is different if it is deserved- a punishment, or a remedy to a cancerous existence. Eliminating a truly toxic being is surgery, not malice," Liezel agrees. "And Fox seems to think I would fit well. I wanted to talk to everyone and get to know them. My last cadre was... different. It was Dandelion and people close to her, but when she moved on, everyone else did, in their own way. So I am hoping to make stronger connections before I make a decision."
"Neither could I," Mei agrees with a nod. "I mean, outside of a mutual agreement in the bedroom or something. Consent is key, right? I'm sorry to hear your last cadre didn't work out." She kind of shrugs a little. "I just sort of fell into this one, but it has been pretty good for me. There's no need for you to rush into any decisions, and I'm happy to have you hang around more often to see how things fit."
"Well. That would be pain for pleasure's sake, really. Wouldn't it?" Liezel murmurs, pondering that question. "It's alright. Things happen. I had plenty of work to do on my own, anyway. So maybe it's best I was unattached while I attended to all that." She turns to look at Mei and smiles. "I am happy you're happy to have me around. I'll try to keep it that way, whichever way things turn out."
"Probably?" Mei answers with a laugh. "I don't know, it's not really my thing." She slides off her chair and pauses next to Liezel. "How do you feel about physical contact? I'm inclined to reach out and put a hand on your shoulder right now, but I also want to be respectful of boundaries and not make assumptions."
"Oh." Liezel nods solemnly. "I don't mind. Being touched is nice. And I don't usually think to seek it myself. You can assume I'm happy to accept whatever contact or affection you like to share. I will say if I decide otherwise." Another smile. She's trying to be liberal with them. "Thank you for asking, Mei."
"Of course," Mei says as she reaches out to put her hand on Liezel's shoulder. "It was nice talking with you. I should probably go clean up, though. I need a shower and some clothes I haven't been wearing since yesterday morning."
|