psychoshenanigans | GRATIA // PSL

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GRATIA // PSL

So, here's what Irahl knows.

He's alone in a dark, cold cave. He has most, if not all, of his gear. No one is guarding his location. As he heads away from the spot where he came to consciousness, no one tries to stop him, and no one gets in his way. The few people he finds down there seem human, and not about to approach the nearly-seven-foot man that comes stalking out of the lower tunnels. Honestly, everyone here seems a surprised and a little astonished about his... Entire scene.

There is a way up. It's a maze of twisting corridors and confusing passageways, half of which feel too small for him. It's bigger and bigger groups of people, some of which scatter like schools of fish, and some of which have to be pushed through to get anywhere. It's climbing up into streets lit with dingy lights, graffiti-covered hallways, warehouses, weird holes in stone walls that may or may not be windows. It's alarm bells, it's people yelling at each other down the street. It's just an absurd number of stairs. A couple of people make an attempt to stop him somewhere, and it goes poorly for them.

Elsewhere, events are being set in motion where Irahl cannot see. But he's on his way out.

Eventually, more people try to stop him. At the end of another long stretch of Underground city, a group of official-looking folks are putting a real effort into blocking off the obvious exit, and some of them have weapons.

Down a side alley, into another tunnel, and then the space opens up into a... Plaza, of some sort? The floor is made of stone. The buildings surrounding it are made of stone and are hard to distinguish from one another. At at least the ceiling (also made of stone) is a lot higher than before. Cavernous. There's some kind of sculpture in the middle of it, some impressive feat of geometric stonework that gives the illusion of defying gravity despite weighing literal tons.

This is where someone finally catches him. Sounds have been echoing unhelpfully down every passageway, making it hard to tell if people are coming or going - but this series of quick footsteps comes from an upward direction before someone hits the ground about five feet in front of Irahl.

His clothes are different. His hair is better-kept. Maybe if the situation wasn't quite so tense, there'd be time to see the ways in which his face is different, the way his eyes don't have quite as vicious and sharp a gleam as they used to. But whatever Irahl can take in of him, there is Robin, having hopped down from a rooftop to put himself between him and the exit again.

"...Holy shit."

Kind of weird that he looks absolutely shocked to see the person in front of him, though.

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His opening was far more casual than it could have been, and it will be en lieu of any other niceties like asking if he'd like a drink or suggesting that he have a seat. Seth himself may very well stand right here in front of this chair the entire length of this conversation, unless things really get spicy and he decides to pace a little.

At least he has enough sense to reach over and pull the curtain the rest of the way closed. The room gets a little darker, but he won't have to worry that someone's out there speechreading them.

"He has."

Vincent told him a great many things, only three of which Seth actually understood with any meaningful clarity. Those are the only things he's actually interested in talking about here, and all of them are difficult topics to broach for one reason or another.

That said, while Seth is vaguely aware that the "polite" thing to do would be to come in with a softer, less-threatening subject and work his way up, he also has no reason to waste his very limited patience for small talk on this man. So he doesn't. He cuts right to the big one.

"Chief among them being that you are what this area calls a Brab'ja. Kin to monsters. Is this true?"

As if Irahl would have any problems with going immediately for the kill, in any context. The lack of niceties and frivolities is refreshing, and cutting straight to what Irahl considers the vital point here is a relief. If there is going to be a problem between them, he would like to know up front, and this is the way to do that.

He has never understood how wasting time circling around the point of a conversation for the sake of 'politeness' is considered a show of respect. This makes much more sense to him, and he shows his appreciation for the other man's directness by being just as direct himself.

In a demonstration of more personal honesty than he typically offers others, he reaches up to hook his blunted claws on the edge of his scarf and tugs it down away from his face, lifting his chin just enough to show the scales marring his neck. It's the quickest way to explain a couple of things at once.

"At least it makes me good at my job."

Unlike Vincent, Seth has two perfectly good, working eyeballs with which to perceive Irahl's response. With a quick glance, his question is answered and they can skip a lot of clumsy back-and-forth about the other man's situation.

"Noted," he says, by which he means that he's put a pin in Irahl's comment and plans to get back to it later, "Do you know how far back?"

By that he means how far back in his bloodline the monster part was introduced. This is a little bit of a trick question. He already kind of knows the answer, but he wants to see if and how Irahl will volunteer this information.

When amputating a limb, you want it to be quick and clean. Surgical. Why wouldn't it be considered ideal for a difficult conversation to be the same way? Irahl has never understood why people have to pick at everything around it first, drag out the discomfort until he's fully agitated by the time they get to the point.

He has always appreciated Vincent's blunt honesty, even if there's often a cushioned edge to it, but he maybe appreciates his brother's methods even more so. Seth's conversational tools are much sharper, but Irahl (after being reassured by Vincent that his twin is not deceptive) can't help but trust in how he wields them.

"Yeah, but I don't think you're going to like it."

And by that Irahl is pulling back on the reins, but in a way that is very intentional and still giving something in exchange. He's putting a warning out there that he knows the answer isn't great, implying that he's willing to tell; he just either needs a reassurance of what kind of ground he's stepping on with it, (if the answer is going to be a deal-breaker or even a threat to his own life, he'd love to know now,) or even an admission that Seth has already been told.

Good, Irahl is aware. Seth folds his arms behind his back, getting down to business.

"Vincent has explained that your situation is unique, but his explanation was..." He pauses, briefly, to find a word that summarizes the perplexingly batshit way his brother had gone about it. "...Lacking. I would like to hear it in your own words."

He also knows that Vincent was trying to protect this man's privacy, ponderous as it was. But Vincent isn't here right now. He's in the lobby, eating cave-krill.

This, Irahl can do. He's had this conversation often enough. As unpleasant as it is every time, at least he's the one who put himself here to have this conversation. For once, he has only been strong-armed into it by the situation at large, and not an individual or institution.

So, it's said much the same way he would give any report. There's only a shift of his weight from one foot to the other and slight rounding of his shoulders to show his discomfort.

"I'm full-blooded. There is no percentage of me that is human."

He lets a small pause sit, as this news had apparently been unbelievable to Vincent. His brother may not be the same way, but Irahl still wants to give the statement a beat of space, just long enough to sit before he further explains.

"He probably mentioned I was born in a lab." And if not, there it is. "But, I'm stuck in this form. I can't transform."

And then he waits, quietly braced.

Seth's reaction is mild. Irahl's answer is satisfactory, and much easier to parse than the mess Vincent had sent him. Is this explanation unsettling? Absolutely, but if Seth got upset about every existentially-challenging thing he learned about monsters, he'd have been out of a job a long time ago.

As it is, his attention drifts somewhere else as he balances this account against what he already knows, and he responds with a slight nod, but that's it.

"Have you ever been in a situation where you've lost control of your senses, or hurt people unwillingly because of it?"

Oh, and there's that extremely blunt and personal question asked with the same inflection as everything else.

It isn't the fact that this question would be considered blunt and terribly personal by the vast majority of normal people that bothers him. This is the question that he would ask, after all. It's the fact that--somehow--no one has ever thought to ask it before. So, it's not something that he has ever had to tell anyone.

He hardly admits to himself that it had happened, let alone admitting it out loud to someone else. For how impassive he is, the fact that he doesn't catch himself glancing off to the side is telling.

Lying isn't an option, though. It only takes a few seconds of deliberation for him to know that he wouldn't get away with avoiding or clouding the truth here. It's a gamble that he has no chance of winning.

So, another surgical admission (which is in no way similar to ripping off a bandage).

"Once... But I was young. And it had been my only chance at freedom."

Edited (new experience: correcting a typo while taking a shower) 2024-07-30 17:34 (UTC)

Unsurprising. In some ways, better than a 'no' would have been.

"I believe this is not an uncommon experience."

Which is not him saying that he's okay with it, exactly, but he's at least stating that this is normal and something he has dealt with before. Frankly, whatever his opinions on Irahl's supposed full-bloodedness, Seth can forgive one mishap. It would be horrendously hypocritical of him not to.

But he didn't say this to commiserate, either. He said it because he's about to get into something that's going to sound an awful lot like a threat without some assurance that he's not going to destroy Irahl over a singular incident.

"Has Vincent explained what I do for a living?"

It is reassuring, if only because it's another sign of hope toward Seth being a reasonable person, and not a hypocrite.

Irahl had seen one of Vincent's little 'slips.' He isn't expecting to be forgiven for what he himself had done, of course, but he would have been a little salty about any instant condemnation coming from either of these particular brothers.

So, he isn't exactly put at ease, but he does feel like he has enough room to answer with something not quite as clinical as everything else.

"'He does some political and military stuff.'"

They've been talking about some grim subjects--monsters, violence, being a weird lab experiment--but hearing what is undoubtedly a direct quote from his brother is the thing that finally gets him to frown.

It's disappointing to hear that his brother still doesn't think highly enough of his work to mention it, but he won't waste either of their time voicing this out loud. This man is already privy to more of their family dynamic than he's comfortable with anyway.

Instead, he'll balance out this (frankly unacceptable) display of emotion by reaching over to press his fingers lightly into the cover of that book he was reading. It means nothing, it just helps him shift his attention back to the task at hand. His gaze remains pointedly on Irahl while he speaks.

"I am one of a few high-ranking generals responsible for overseeing all extensions of the Capitol's military forces. Most relevant to this discussion, I've spent a decade cultivating the reputation and experience required to have been granted lead over a unit dedicated specifically and solely to the eradication of monsters."

A bit of a mouthful, but he could probably say all that in his sleep. Irahl isn't the only one who's had to give the same report over and over again. He'll give the other man a second or two to really let that sink in.

Edited (ugh i saw a typo just as I hit "send") 2024-07-30 21:00 (UTC)

Seth is not the only one who breaches the established rapport of trading facts and statements that are currently divorced from whatever attachments to emotion they may or may not have.

After he fills in the gaps of Irahl's knowledge with something that does sound quite a bit like a threat, the sniper breaks character with a smile.

It is not a good smile.

He can't help it; he is darkly delighted by everything contained in that statement. He loves the fact that he really does find himself talking to the exact person he'd want to be talking to right now. He loves that this dedicated monster-hunter is part monster himself. He loves the fact that this whole thing is more or less a threat--or, at the very least, there's a good chance that this man would probably love to kill him. He can't help but wonder how far it would go, how it would turn out, if it came down to it.

All in all, it is not a reassuring expression in the least. And the way that he's honestly quite pleased but the smile does not come close to reaching his eyes is probably the most inhuman thing he has done so far.

Unacceptable. He scoffs near-imperceptibly.

"Wipe that look off your face."

Not a very big reaction. He barely moves, doesn't seem particularly angry or disappointed, but it is an direct order and he does expect it to be followed.

He just finds the other man's expression disgusting and doesn't feel like he has to put up with looking at it. That's all.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, calling him out on his absolutely inappropriate expression makes it worse, for a couple of different reasons. Only one of those reasons is how suddenly he can picture this man saying the exact same thing to Vincent, probably a hundred times over. All of the other reasons are much more related to the actual situation at hand.

While Irahl is very good at following instructions, he is not a soldier. So, the smile spreads, and though he does tilt his head down semi-apologetically, he doesn't bother stopping the smile from turning into a low, easy chuckle.

"Sorry." He is absolutely not sorry. "Guess this is a bad time to ask if you're hiring, huh?"

It has been a very long time since his last interview, and if he remembers correctly, it had gone something like this as well.

Admittedly, he's been having a hard time understanding how his brother could be such good friends with this man. Bleeding heart or no, Vincent hadn't eased up on his grudge against Seth in nearly a decade, yet he thought this man's life was important enough to swallow his pride and ask for help. Not that he doesn't find Irahl agreeable. That's the problem. His brother doesn't have taste.

Unfortunately... Things are finally starting to make sense. There it is.

He continues to look vaguely disgusted with this behavior, but even he knows that Irahl isn't actually doing anything wrong. He hates being pushed, but it would be unreasonable to escalate things now.

"This isn't doing you any favors," he'll at least make that clear, "But I'm open to hearing why you would be interested."

The smile doesn't disappear, (not while his favorite subject is now being talked about,) but does rein in to a slightly-more-tolerable smirk as he explains. It won't make his initial smile any less distasteful, but clarifying a few things might at least put it into context.

If he accomplishes nothing else here, he wants to at least make sure that this man doesn't think that he'd been laughing at his life's work.

"Because I'm a hunter." He jostles the heavy, rifle-case-shaped bag still on his shoulder. "Sounds like we have similar callings in life. And I want to get back to work."

Well, that's a pretty good reason to be interested. With something of a pointed exhale, he takes his arm back. With the shift, he puts away his vague impulses to kill this man where he stands and returns to business.

Enthusiasm is not necessarily a bad thing, after all. It's just not his style.

"Yes. Vincent also informed me that you're a capable sniper."

And here they are, at that thing he put a pin in earlier, the second important thing he was told about this mystery man.

He can forgive Vincent for having said whatever it was that has resulted in this man using the word 'capable' without any other qualifiers attached.

It's fine. It's a term used positively, and there is nothing about how it's said that would give good cause for Irahl to be offended by it. And it's not like Vincent would have any logical reason to have said more than that much about it.

It's fine.

"I'm a very capable sniper."

He corrects this evenly, as if it's a simple fact that the record should be set straight on before they continue, as should be done with any other mistake.

"Back home, I'm the best hunter under the city's employ, and among the top marksmen on record."

Poor Vincent, out there eating cave-krill without a clue that Seth's absolutely going to let him take the blame for his own downscaling of this man's achievements. What else are little brothers for, right?

Anyway, Irahl's corrections are probably true. Seth probably believes him. But it's time for a brief detour.

"Which city would that be, exactly?"

Good news! Seth has found a way to finally wipe the last traces of Irahl's smile off of his face. It still takes him a moment, as so many decades of never hearing the phrase 'which city' is hard to unlearn, but a frown starts to appear as soon as he recalls the details of a certain conversation from the day before.

"A city so big and so singular that most people have forgotten it ever had a name. Which, apparently isn't 'the Capitol' Vincent had talked about."

As wild of an explanation as that is, it at least might tell Seth why Vincent had been so sure that the Capitol was where Irahl lived.

"Heard it called a couple of different things by different groups. Heard 'Precipice' and 'Timetica' most often."

While he did not ask the question just to wipe the smile off of Irahl's face, it sure makes him feel better to see that it actually works. But the information is helpful, even if he narrows his eyes slightly at a couple of city names he's never heard before.

"I see."

This also means that whatever records they kept are not helpful to him, so he's also abruptly done with the topic. It will be a research project for someone much smarter than he is, some other time. Back on topic.

"Why sniping?"

Irahl is always grateful to move off of a topic that he doesn't want to think about, and just as ready to latch onto a new one--especially one from the very short list of things that never fails to get him fully invested.

This is another one of those questions that he has been asked many times over the years, and so there exists a small pool of default answers that he has waiting to hand out whenever needed.

However, it seems a disservice to give this man one of those answers, because none of them are quite honest. This seems like one of the rare circumstances that calls for an honest answer. It's the sort of honest that he usually only uses around the group who all share the brand on his wrist. It's certainly not the sort of honest that he uses around Vincent.

"Any kill that is less than instant is a potential disaster. And only one thing is instant."

"Good answer."

Now they're talking. Irahl is rewarded for this brutal honesty with a slight incline of the head and a renewed interest in what else he has to say. Which, of course, means more questions.

"Other skills?"

The more that Seth reminds Irahl of the comrades that he has seen less and less of in recent days, the more some of the old enthusiasm that has been wearing away lately begins to return. Even though this man is still technically a stranger, this conversation has Irahl feeling more right than he has in a while.

"I'm a hunter--do my own tracking, scouting, and dispatching whenever I can. Basic field medicine and mechanical knowledge. Excel at marksmanship, but can also take care of myself up close without teammates around. Stronger and faster than I look... And I'm very hard to kill."

Seth has been interested in potentially hiring this man ever since Vincent told him there was another self-possessed brab'ja out there, and that they were good with a sniper rifle.

Dangerous as they are, the few others of his kind he's found during the course of his work have been very fast, very strong, and usually very loyal; these qualities put them a step above everyone else, regardless of their actual skill with a weapon.

But it's a pleasant surprise to hear that this one is basically already good to go, they just need to evaluate a few things. Mainly how well he works with others, since there's a distinct absence of that in his list. Seth barely reacts on the surface, of course, maintaining his stony composure. Irahl will just have to take it as a good sign that he's continuing to ask questions.

"How are you at following orders?"

An honest question. He'll even pretend he doesn't already have an opinion.

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