asgardchrysalis | o2; Discovery [Closed]

Entry tags:

o2; Discovery [Closed]

Who: Ariadne (

dataset)
What: Talking about mission stuff
When: April 2
Where: Ariadne's Garden
Warnings: Tiniest bit of blood, Potential Game Spoilers.

It was natural for him to look into strange matters and investigate them. In this case, he had been given something new to investigate involving a strange occurrence with the local lake. The details were sparse. He only knew that the lake exhibited some type of ...abnormality.

The best approach was to interview the witness who initially reported the incident before looking into matters further. In this case, the witness happened to be someone he was casually familiar with: Ariadne. Ariadne said that she could usually be found in her garden, so Connor headed there first to see if she was available for a few questions.

He ducked under a branch and stepped into the garden he had been to a few times before, careful to avoid any of the newly budding strawberry plants. "Ariadne?" It had become a habit to look up into the tree branches overhead first in case she was perched up there.

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Connor's face immediately fell into concern. Markus ending up in Asgard would be one of the worst things he could imagine. Not because he didn't like Markus - quite the opposite - he knew how instrumental Markus was to their cause.

Deviant's freedoms were upheld on shoestrings and taking Markus away from that would have disastrous consequences. "If he was here then that would mean there would be no one to lead. That would be..." He laced his fingers together and actually...fidgeted a little bit. "...immeasurably bad for deviants."

"Oh. I hadn't thought of that."

Well, that was a lie. She had thought about it. Quite a lot, actually. And often, she felt very guilty that she was in Asgard, while there was work to be done back home.

But she wasn't a leader. That was difference. She was just a bit-player, a cog in the machine. Someone who could be replaced.

Markus was different.

"Well, in that case, I hope he doesn't come here."

"It would be for the best if he didn't." They had that in common. Connor was able to come to terms with being in Asgard because he wasn't very important. The part he had played in the deviant uprising helped in the end, but going forward they could survive without him. His presence wasn't vital.

Now that he had taken some time to recover, Connor stood up and dusted his pants off. His knees were a little dustier than he would have liked. "Now, let's take a look at your plant."

Ariadne winced, looking over at the blackened remains. "I think Kevin may be beyond repair," she admitted, with a depressed sigh. Even her talents had limits. Still, she stood up and moved to stand next to Connor.

She glanced down at her finger. The bleeding had stopped and the prick had been so small that she could barely even see it. As it was, it took her a second to remember where it had been.

Something in the pit of her stomach told her that it had to do with what she'd been through. But, of course, she couldn't prove that.

...Ke...vin. The plants name was Kevin. She named her plants. Suppose that made some sense, she would have to have something to call them if she held regular conversations with them.

Connor walked over to the charred plant. He reached out and felt some of the leaves between his fingers, watching as they easily crumbled to ash. "Is this the only plant you've taken care of since you've returned?"

"No," she said, trailing after him. "I've been in the garden all morning. Kevin's the only one that I..."

...murdered? Honestly, as much as she loved her plants, that felt a bit extreme.

Ariadne shrugged. "Also the only one I cut myself on."

Then it likely wasn't the plant that had caused it. Though he'd never heard of plants causing fires, Asgard sometimes had surprises in store that needed further study.

He looked to the other - more lively - plants around them. Connor walked to one of the healthier plants which were similar to 'Kevin', picked through its leaves to find some available thorns, and jabbed them into his finger to see what would happen. Though he did cut himself, the plant remained unscathed. "...Nothing."

He didn't exactly want to ask her to do it again but it could be the only way to get similar results to what she had experienced.

She watched him, only a little wide-eyed. Connor would go to great lengths in the name of investigation. That was no great surprise. Not any more. What she still needed to get used to was the vivid color of his blood.

Was it blood? He said he was manufactured. Could you manufacture blood? She didn't know. And it felt a little rude to ask.

"Connor, it's..." She shook her head. "It's not you. I think it's me. I think I'm the one that caused it."

“I needed to replicate the circumstances to make sure. It helps rule out what it isn’t.” A control, so to speak.

It seemed to have started occurring between the cave and the present, so it made sense to ask “Was there anyone with you in the cave that have had similar experiences?”

"I...don't know."

But that made a lot of sense, didn't it? There was no reason to think she was the only one who'd been...what? Cursed?

Cursed.

"I suppose one could ask. On the bracelets." She raised her arm. "Or would that be too personal of a question, do you think?"

"I'm not sure. That would depend on your relationship with them." Whether or not something was too personal generally relied on several subtle social cues. He wasn't certain how well Ariadne knew the others that she had been with, their mannerisms, or if it was something she would even feel like asking.

"If we don't know, that still leaves the possibility that it could be related to that illness." Connor put a hand to his chin. "And whatever you experienced as a result, seems to be triggered by pain." It had to be. It wasn't the plants, she hadn't used any strange ability while talking with him or while she was still experiencing stress, and she emphasized it was when she pricked her finger. The only rational conclusion was that it was pain-related.

"I was in pain in the cave," she said. "Nothing on fire then. So whatever it was, it didn't start until after..."

She trailed off intentionally, more than anything else. To avoid conversations about life and death. It was easier that way. For both of them.

Well, if Connor wanted to approach it in a scientific manner...

"Pinch me," she said. She squared her shoulders and turned to face him. "Really hard. On the arm."

Pinch her?

The look Connor gave her was uncertain. What she proposed was a logical way to test that theory, sure, but he would have to inflict pain on purpose. That didn't feel right. It felt coldly objective to do that to... a person he cared about more than an acquaintance.

"I-I can't do that." He put a hand up in mild protest.

"Why not?" She tilted her head to one side, like a bird. "It's easy. You just have to grab some arm and go..." She demonstrated, albeit in a weak imitation of what she wanted him to do.

Of course, it immediately occurred to her that when he said he couldn't, that wasn't necessarily a lack of familiarity with how to pinch someone.

She frowned. "Do you mean that Androids aren't allowed to pinch someone?" she asked.

See? She was starting to get it.

Sort of...

Connor listened patiently through the demonstration even if it was information he already knew.

Afterward, he shook his head. “It’s not that.”

He proceeded to elaborate. “What you’re suggesting makes objective sense. However, I would be causing you physical harm to get that information.” Perhaps it didn’t seem like a big deal given it was a minor amount of pain and she was the one requesting it, but as someone who struggled with making calculated choices in the past to get what he wanted, he was more than aware when choices like that were presented.

So he could be sincere when he said, “I would rather not harm you in any way, even if that would mean sacrificing the information I want.”

She smiled a little bit. He had some funny ways of showing that he cared. But they showed it, all the same. And who was she to turn down any scrap of affection? It was a valuable commodity. Precious and rare.

Especially so far from home.

"Well," she said. "Maybe there's another way. But I'm not sure you're going to like it any better."

She had some other idea? Though if he wasn't going to like it any better, Connor wasn't sure how welcome of a suggestion that would be. He inquired anyway, if only because curiosity got the better of him. "What do you suggest?"

Ariadne nodded to a pair of gardening shears, lying abandoned by one of her strawberry patches. She didn't much care for the idea of poking herself with sharp metal, but if pain was the variable, she didn't know what else to do.

Connor wouldn't pinch her. And she really didn't think she could pinch herself hard enough to cause any considerable pain.

And none of it would feel like being back in the cave. She knew that.

He glanced at what she had indicated. A pair of gardening shears. It didn't take much conjecture to put together what was intending to do with those.

Connor looked back to her with a wary expression, "Ariadne," If she was willing to press the issue she must have wanted results to what had happened quite badly. "I wasn't implying that I wanted you to hurt yourself."

"Of course not," she said. She could never believe that of Connor. Ever. But what she did believe was that he wanted answers. And they shared that in common right now.

Still. She sighed.

"It's not exactly my idea of a good time," she admitted. "But I'm not sure what else we can do."

“What we know is when it began and what could potentially trigger it.” Not that pain made a logical trigger for a fire... but that aside. Unfortunately, those were precious few details that didn’t amount to much as far as fixing the problem.

"Everything points to that illness being the culprit. We need to know more about it and its side effects." He waved a hand. "Maybe the townspeople or..." He didn't like using the word 'gods'. It felt wrong to refer to them with such absolute authority. "... Odin would have further insight."

But all in all, it seemed that there was nothing that could be done at the moment.

Honestly, she was a little relieved. For Connor and his pursuit of the truth, she would have spilled some blood.

But it would have been uncomfortable. To put it lightly.

"All right," she said, exhaling slowly. "Perhaps you should take it to the skalds, then? I'm happy to answer questions but...there's only so much I know."

“I can, I suppose.” Connor didn’t sound entirely convinced. The concept of having to work as a team with strangers who had unknown qualifications was... odd. He had worked with an assigned partner before but Hank was, on paper at least, a professional. Connor didn’t have any information about the others.

But he tried for optimism anyway. “Maybe having another point of view could be helpful.”

"It often is," she replied.

And by 'often,' she mostly meant 'always.' Which was kind of funny, considering how much she was accustomed to working alone.

Then again, you didn't need as much of a point of view, when you were stealing a ruby the size of your fist.

This was different.

It was something to consider for later.

For now, there was the matter of what to do. He didn't have anything else to ask and his leads were at an end. There was no reason to stay around any longer. But leaving seemed wrong considering what had transpired when he'd arrived. He couldn't just leave. Even if they weren't chatting about anything, he wanted to stay around to make sure nothing happened.

But he couldn't just... ask to stay without some sort of task. He needed a reason.

"Would you mind if I stayed for a while and wrote down the information I've gathered? So I can have it compiled prior to consulting the Skalds." That would be useful and accomplish what he needed to.

Maybe it was still a little obvious...

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demonicbeauty - 2020-04-14 21:35 (UTC) - Expand

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dataset - 2020-04-14 22:35 (UTC) - Expand

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