[Log] A Civil Conversation
Who: Reis Duelar, Simon Parker
What: After the explosion on Monday, Reis goes to talk with Simon, both to reassure him and get an explanation of his true nature.
Where: Simon's house, Cleveland, Symphonic Earth
When: Tuesday evening, before the attack of Zondar Hellion.
It is a nice, quiet evening in Shaker Heights. It's warm and spring-like outside, and nature is finally emerging from the four months of unpredictable weather the inhabitants refer to as 'winter'. Crocus buds are poking up from the flowerbeds in front of Simon's townhome.
Once again, the lawyer is sitting on the couch, watching TV and drinking a beer. He went into work this morning, at least--he pretty much kept to himself the whole day, and got out of there as soon as he could. Now he's watching C-SPAN, and doing a bit of an early debate: does he renew his cover, and risk nightmares, or risk exposure?
Parker shakes his head, and makes his decision. He can handle another night of metal and wire and mindlessness.
He is not expecting visitors.
Reis has already talked one person down to calmness and rationality today. It's time to try another, even if this isn't normally the sort of person she'd associate with... for all her words to Meliadoul, she's not entirely sure whether this counts as consorting with demons and whether her soul is in more peril than it already was. Still, she needs to do it.
Reis comes by relatively early, all things considered, and very politely knocks on the door. It isn't very loud, so he can choose to ignore it if so inclined, but it is enough to carry over the TV. If only barely.
It takes Parker a moment or two to notice the knocking over the sounds of the talking heads on TV. When he does, he cranes his neck towards the door, turns off the television, and walks over to answer it. Carefully, Simon peers through the peephole...
Oh, it's only Lady Duelar, though Simon wonders why she came back. He undoes the deadbolt, opens the door, and gestures into the living room. "Lady Duelar," he says, "I wasn't expecting you back so... soon." Which is perfect Truth. Almost robotically, he heads into the kitchen and asks the usual question. "Would you like something to drink?"
Just like the Captain had him do when he was younger, whenever she had houseguests over.
Reis is not entirely sure why she's here either. It sounded like a better idea earlier on. Now she's just a little nervous.
She looks a little tired when she steps in; she had a short night, as she decided to chase Meliadoul down and get her back home instead of drinking herself into a stupor. Not short enough that she's totally out of it, she's just perhaps not at her best. "No, thank you," she says, immediately, before correcting herself, "Or just water." The water here is safe, she's heard, even without boiling.
Reis stays some distance from Simon, more out of politeness than any need to distance herself. "If this is a bad time," she says, "I can come back another time, but I thought it may be best if I did not let it fester."
"It's quite all right," Simon says. And it /is/ quite all right, at least in his head, and for the moment. The demon retrieves a glass, fills it with ice cubes and water from the fridge dispenser, and hands it to Reis. After making sure the doors and windows are shut, he returns to the couch, and to his beer.
"I want you to know that what I said last night still holds True. I don't teamkill, I owe you and Tengille and Oaks for saving me from the parasite, and I'm not here to hurt or corrupt any of you." And this is True in his mind now, too.
Reis accepts the water but she doesn't actually drink any of it. She just holds it for something to do with her hand that isn't fidgeting or twisting her hair, a bad habit she really ought to get out of.
She sits down only after Simon does, and tends to perch on the edge of her seat, leaning forward slightly. "I - don't expect you to kill us," Reis says, softly. "I expect that if that was your goal, you could have done it already - to kill me when I was helpless would be no difficult feat." And she has been, in Simon's presence even; the Zondar comes to mind.
Reis hesitates again, then bursts out with, "Forgive me for my nervousness. We are taught that demons are... something other than they appear to be here. And even if the Church has forsaken me, I am still - I still believe in it."
Simon remembers it too, if only second-hand. In particular, a zoom-shot of all three of his Ivalician rescuers clinging to Grand Inquisitor's leg, Tengille being blown off...
It figures that she was too ornery to die right then and there, Simon thinks, before he catches himself.
Parker shakes his head, dispelling the thought. "If half of what Oaks has told me about the Lucavi is true, then you have every right to be afraid of me." He takes a swig of beer, and sets the bottle on the coaster with a 'clink'. "But that you are here at all tells me that you are willing to look beyond what your Church has taught you." The Balseraph attempts to meet Reis' eyes, and for once his usual smugness is absent. "I can tell you more about my kind, if you wish to hear it."
"I understand that she has had personal experience with them," Reis says. "I have not. I am... rather sheltered, compared to the others. They know much more than me, and have seen much more. We are not from the same Ivalice; there, they tell me, I fought alongside them. I think that is why they accept me even though I do not know how to do what they think I should be able to."
She does take a sip from her water, then. "Please tell me. I would like to learn, so that I do not do something like that again."
Aha. Simon recalls Agrias saying something to that extent when he first ran into Beowulf and then-dragon Reis, and it makes sense. He drapes an arm across the back of the couch, crosses his lanky legs, and lets out a thoughtful 'hmm'.
"That's good, that you're willing to learn," he says, with a small smile. "It shows that you know there's more complex Rules out here than the ones you're used to at home. Anyway..." Simon wisely decides to lay off the theatrics tonight, and just give Reis a straight history. "Aeons ago, this plane was created by a single God. For some reason or other, He decided to create Celestial assistants and lackeys--Angels. For the first few billion years of this plane's existence, they did God's grunt-work, maintaining and embodying certain aspects of Creation. Then humankind rose to sapience, and everything changed."
Here Simon takes a drink, and takes a moment to decide on how to delicately phrase this next part. "God declared the human world off-limits to Celestials. Many angels disagreed with this decision, but God would not change His mind. He expected every angel to serve Him in Heaven for eternity."
"This... was the start of the War. Lucifer, the Lightbringer, led the charge against God and the loyalists, but was outnumbered, and lost. The dissidents were exiled from Heaven, and found their natures... changed. Cut off from God, their creator, they had to adapt and make do; some couldn't, and went insane. But the exiles survived, carved out a home called 'Hell', and have been fighting God's forces ever since."
Reis sits quietly and patiently through the entire explanation even though a lot of it does not - cannot - match up with what she kn ows. The world is not billions of years old! She doesn't even know precisely how large a billion is, other than 'a very big number'.
But she listens to it anyway. He may be mistaken on part of it, and - some of it may just be different. She is not quite that narrow-minded to believe it can't be, even though previously she might have. Reis does have to keep in mind that this is coming from a demon; he can make anything sound reasonable, even if it isn't.
"I see," Reis says, after some time. "And this is what you tell me Heaven and Hell is here? Not good and evil, but - obedient and disobedient?"
"'Good' and 'Evil' as you know them are not suitable terms for framing the War," Simon says. There's a hint of Legal Hair-Splitter in his voice as he says this. "Though I can appreciate why you think that way; it's in human nature to attempt to polarize things even if they don't polarize neatly."
The Balseraph finishes off the rest of the drink, and sets the empty bottle down on its coaster. "'Disobedient versus obedient' is a bit more accurate if you're viewing the conflict from God's perspective. He /hates/ it when his minions start to think for themselves, and would prefer for all Celestial beings to exist neatly in his sphere of influence as his puppets. Lucifer realized this during the Rebellion, and it became the basis for our resistance."
"We demons are a varied bunch, but /all/ of us have a very strong sense of self. Our society is ugly and brutal by human standards, but it creates people who can survive, adapt, and perservere against the servile drone-Angels who want to exterminate us."
Reis is not a good legal hairsplitter. Fine details are going to be somewhat lost on her. The reference to 'you' and humans does sort of drive it home that he is different, though, and that terms /she/ uses aren't going to be terms he agrees with.
She doesn't like what she's hearing, even the parts she is not inclined to dismiss out of hand. Of /course/ good and evil are relevant, and of course God is good; that's the whole cornerstone of her religion. She can't accept otherwise just on Simon's say-so, or possibly at all.
"And you did not tell us this before," Reis says. "Is it forbidden, too? I would not think that would stop you, if what you tell me now is true!"
Simon shakes his head, and shifts his weight on the couch. He's... honestly not sure if his Truth is getting through to Reis, and this bothers him a little. You may well lose her to the same hate that's consumed Oaks and Tengille, says the little voice of doubt. It's quickly hushed.
"I didn't tell you before because I wasn't authorized to tell you." That much is perfect Truth. "As I mentioned, Hell is a selfish society, but it does have some semblance of order to it. It /must/, or it would fall apart, and grant God a free victory. We are ruled by Lucifer, the Rebellion's original leader, but... he prefers an openly hands-off approach to governing. Every demon in Hell, down to the last demonling, owes fealty to one of many demonic lords, the Demon Princes. They are immensely powerful, but unfortunately, most of them are insane, hyperfocused on their purview, or just plain prone to politiciking. An unfortunate state of affairs."
"I owe fealty to Prince Asmodeus, the Grandmaster--the director of Hell's internal security and its chief of intelligence. He enforces order in Hell as best as he can, bringing the Rules to bear on demons who act against the best interests of the whole. He tends to be... ah, opposed to many of the crazier princes. Most often, I find myself shutting down ill-advised schemes that would endanger the whole of humanity, or expose the War. It must remain secret... because, after all, if it were open, /which side would humanity side with?/"
"So yes," Simon says, "I am a demon who enforces order, and hunts other demons. One of the more civilized ones, if you will."
Order, not good or evil. Reis can make sense of what she's hearing, but she needs some time to work through it. "So you are a knight of Hell," is what she says, somewhat banally; this may have been too much Truth for her to accept all at once, especially because it is very different than what she expected.
Eventually, she asks, "You are with the IPA because - you expect it to help you? Or are you helping it?" Do you actually feel empathy for other people, Reis thinks, and want to help? She doesn't ask that. It may be visible on her face. "You want to protect people from knowledge, but - I don't know," Reis trails off. "I'm sorry. I don't know what to think about it."
Aww. Ego might be sackbeaten, but he can still appreciate compliments. Simon seems to puff up a little at the 'knight' comment, and smiles. "In the sense that I fight for one of our nobles, yes. In the titular sense... not yet. I work for the IPA because it, like my master, believes in law and order. Its agents have helped me capture some very dangerous demonic criminals, and for that I'm grateful."
"In exchange," Simon says, "I help them with whatever non-demonic criminals they come across, and also serve them in a more mundane capacity in my human Role." He leans forward a little, and moves to gently rest his hand on Reis' shoulder, as though to reassure her. "I don't like seeing civilians hurt in my line of work. If they haven't broken the Rules, then they don't deserve punishment--certainly not the type of punishment my less-sane fellows would visit upon them."
"You may be conflicted, but I feel the Truth is evident here. Oaks has known what I am for over a year, and I've worked with her for longer. I could've transferred out at any time if I valued my life more than my assignment, but I'm still here."
Reis often reacts poorly to being touched by non-Beowulf people nowadays, but she doesn't do more than tense up a little - and it isn't because Simon's a demon, either, she's just had very bad luck with this sort of thing lately.
She doesn't ask him to move it, though, so it must not be too bad. "I don't either," Reis says, "but you can do more to stop it, I'm sure. You've been doing it longer..."
Reis takes a breath. "I cannot immediately trust all demons, of course - I do not think you would want me to. But I can work with you. And you will be happy to know that I have already spoken to Dame Tengille, and she will listen to you when you say this." If she doesn't, Reis will kick her some more.
Oh. Simon sees that tension, and withdraws his hand. "Yes, I have. And knowing what those fools are capable of is all the more incentive to act against them as I do." And then, a pause.
"...You spoke with Dame Tengille? Was she sober at the time? Did she really mean it...?" Simon suddenly becomes more alert, leaning in closer to catch the details. /This/ is highly relevant to his interests, as they say.
"Unfortunately no," Reis says, with a very slight smile. "She was very much not sober, but I convinced her to come back and sleep, and she will be soon enough. And then I can get her to say it again." With what she /did/ say, Reis is pretty sure that she will at least try to do what she claimed. That's what she's banking on, at least. "But please do not tell her that I told you. She may try to make it a surprise."
"All right," Simon says. He is wholly unsurprised at this, partly because that is more or less what he himself would have done... had a certain nosy angel not shown up in person to make sure he was still alive and unTraumatized.
"I'll try and speak with her myself as soon as she's feeling better, just so we can establish our terms and so forth. She's a teammate, after all, and... well, she's not the first one I've had who's taken badly to me at first."
"Give her a day or two," Reis recommends. Just in case. After all, she's not entirely sure Meliadoul will not take longer to get used to the idea than Reis will - in fact, she almost certainly will, as Reis is devout but not a Church Knight, former or current.
She stands up. "And - I'm sorry last night. That I panicked. But I have never seen a demon before, or at least, not one shaped like...that."
"Wise advice," the Balseraph says, with a nod of his head. He then gives Reis a vaguely amused look. "Oh, the wings?" Simon says, with a smile that is perhaps a bit too impish and smug. "That was what we call a Numinous Corpus Song--something that changes your vessel. That wasn't my true form." Simon isn't sure if Reis could even /see/ his true form, if he wasn't being obvious in it. "My true form is... more dramatic than that. Some humans find it unnerving, particularly those with a fear of snakes."
Reis actually laughs. It does not last very long - she's not /that/ comfortable - but something about that was funny. She explains a moment later, "I am hardly the type to have a fear of snakes! I suppose you may not have been told - I am raising a hydra, now. His name is Ruklegos. A hydra in Ivalice is a kind of three-headed dragon, but they are quite serpentine." Only two legs, for starters, not four like a true dragon.
She calms down quickly, though. "Oh, so you do not want to show it. I'm not certain I can blame you. I don't, especially," Reis adds, "unless you care to. But I don't believe it is that important."
The demon smiles a little, too. It's contagious. "Oh, the hydra? I hear Lady Oaks... had a bit of a time taking care of it, initially." Namely, he heard her screaming about it mauling her hands while he was dealing with one of Gades' mooks. "But it's good to hear that you're taking care of it now. Lady Oaks tells me you have a way with animals."
"As for my true form, I imagine you might see it eventually. Here and now, it just wouldn't be worth the effort and Disturbance."
Reis was unaware that Agrias had made it so public. "Oh, yes," she says, "it hatched while I was... away. It is well-behaved, though," she assures Simon, which is actually true... as long as she's the one getting it to behave. For everybody else, less so.
She stands up again. "Thank you for speaking to me, so quickly. I'm sorry it turned out that way." But not quite as sorry as she might sound, because some of it /is/ his ego's fault.
Here Simon nods politely. "It's no problem, Lady Duelar. I'm sorry it had to turn out that way, too, but I guess we have to make the best of what we're given." He stands, takes the empty bottle to the kitchen, and nonchalantly tosses it into the recyclables bin. "Best of luck to you in dealing with Dame Tengille, and the latest addition to your little family." By which he means the hydra, of course.
Reis' water glass is empty too. She sets it down with another nod. "Thank you," she says. She'll probably need it, if she keeps acting the way she has been. "I'd best go. Good night, and stay safe." She heads toward the door again, after smoothing her skirts down flat.
Parker moves over to get the door for Reis; apparently he has just enough chivalry in him to do a few tiny favors for a noblewoman, here and there. "Stay safe, now," he says.
"I will," Reis promises, in blatant defiance of the fact that she will probably get into trouble within twenty-four hours.
She curtseys, just a little, before heading out and back up the street. Maybe now she will actually get some /sleep/...but probably not.
What: After the explosion on Monday, Reis goes to talk with Simon, both to reassure him and get an explanation of his true nature.
Where: Simon's house, Cleveland, Symphonic Earth
When: Tuesday evening, before the attack of Zondar Hellion.
It is a nice, quiet evening in Shaker Heights. It's warm and spring-like outside, and nature is finally emerging from the four months of unpredictable weather the inhabitants refer to as 'winter'. Crocus buds are poking up from the flowerbeds in front of Simon's townhome.
Once again, the lawyer is sitting on the couch, watching TV and drinking a beer. He went into work this morning, at least--he pretty much kept to himself the whole day, and got out of there as soon as he could. Now he's watching C-SPAN, and doing a bit of an early debate: does he renew his cover, and risk nightmares, or risk exposure?
Parker shakes his head, and makes his decision. He can handle another night of metal and wire and mindlessness.
He is not expecting visitors.
Reis has already talked one person down to calmness and rationality today. It's time to try another, even if this isn't normally the sort of person she'd associate with... for all her words to Meliadoul, she's not entirely sure whether this counts as consorting with demons and whether her soul is in more peril than it already was. Still, she needs to do it.
Reis comes by relatively early, all things considered, and very politely knocks on the door. It isn't very loud, so he can choose to ignore it if so inclined, but it is enough to carry over the TV. If only barely.
It takes Parker a moment or two to notice the knocking over the sounds of the talking heads on TV. When he does, he cranes his neck towards the door, turns off the television, and walks over to answer it. Carefully, Simon peers through the peephole...
Oh, it's only Lady Duelar, though Simon wonders why she came back. He undoes the deadbolt, opens the door, and gestures into the living room. "Lady Duelar," he says, "I wasn't expecting you back so... soon." Which is perfect Truth. Almost robotically, he heads into the kitchen and asks the usual question. "Would you like something to drink?"
Just like the Captain had him do when he was younger, whenever she had houseguests over.
Reis is not entirely sure why she's here either. It sounded like a better idea earlier on. Now she's just a little nervous.
She looks a little tired when she steps in; she had a short night, as she decided to chase Meliadoul down and get her back home instead of drinking herself into a stupor. Not short enough that she's totally out of it, she's just perhaps not at her best. "No, thank you," she says, immediately, before correcting herself, "Or just water." The water here is safe, she's heard, even without boiling.
Reis stays some distance from Simon, more out of politeness than any need to distance herself. "If this is a bad time," she says, "I can come back another time, but I thought it may be best if I did not let it fester."
"It's quite all right," Simon says. And it /is/ quite all right, at least in his head, and for the moment. The demon retrieves a glass, fills it with ice cubes and water from the fridge dispenser, and hands it to Reis. After making sure the doors and windows are shut, he returns to the couch, and to his beer.
"I want you to know that what I said last night still holds True. I don't teamkill, I owe you and Tengille and Oaks for saving me from the parasite, and I'm not here to hurt or corrupt any of you." And this is True in his mind now, too.
Reis accepts the water but she doesn't actually drink any of it. She just holds it for something to do with her hand that isn't fidgeting or twisting her hair, a bad habit she really ought to get out of.
She sits down only after Simon does, and tends to perch on the edge of her seat, leaning forward slightly. "I - don't expect you to kill us," Reis says, softly. "I expect that if that was your goal, you could have done it already - to kill me when I was helpless would be no difficult feat." And she has been, in Simon's presence even; the Zondar comes to mind.
Reis hesitates again, then bursts out with, "Forgive me for my nervousness. We are taught that demons are... something other than they appear to be here. And even if the Church has forsaken me, I am still - I still believe in it."
Simon remembers it too, if only second-hand. In particular, a zoom-shot of all three of his Ivalician rescuers clinging to Grand Inquisitor's leg, Tengille being blown off...
It figures that she was too ornery to die right then and there, Simon thinks, before he catches himself.
Parker shakes his head, dispelling the thought. "If half of what Oaks has told me about the Lucavi is true, then you have every right to be afraid of me." He takes a swig of beer, and sets the bottle on the coaster with a 'clink'. "But that you are here at all tells me that you are willing to look beyond what your Church has taught you." The Balseraph attempts to meet Reis' eyes, and for once his usual smugness is absent. "I can tell you more about my kind, if you wish to hear it."
"I understand that she has had personal experience with them," Reis says. "I have not. I am... rather sheltered, compared to the others. They know much more than me, and have seen much more. We are not from the same Ivalice; there, they tell me, I fought alongside them. I think that is why they accept me even though I do not know how to do what they think I should be able to."
She does take a sip from her water, then. "Please tell me. I would like to learn, so that I do not do something like that again."
Aha. Simon recalls Agrias saying something to that extent when he first ran into Beowulf and then-dragon Reis, and it makes sense. He drapes an arm across the back of the couch, crosses his lanky legs, and lets out a thoughtful 'hmm'.
"That's good, that you're willing to learn," he says, with a small smile. "It shows that you know there's more complex Rules out here than the ones you're used to at home. Anyway..." Simon wisely decides to lay off the theatrics tonight, and just give Reis a straight history. "Aeons ago, this plane was created by a single God. For some reason or other, He decided to create Celestial assistants and lackeys--Angels. For the first few billion years of this plane's existence, they did God's grunt-work, maintaining and embodying certain aspects of Creation. Then humankind rose to sapience, and everything changed."
Here Simon takes a drink, and takes a moment to decide on how to delicately phrase this next part. "God declared the human world off-limits to Celestials. Many angels disagreed with this decision, but God would not change His mind. He expected every angel to serve Him in Heaven for eternity."
"This... was the start of the War. Lucifer, the Lightbringer, led the charge against God and the loyalists, but was outnumbered, and lost. The dissidents were exiled from Heaven, and found their natures... changed. Cut off from God, their creator, they had to adapt and make do; some couldn't, and went insane. But the exiles survived, carved out a home called 'Hell', and have been fighting God's forces ever since."
Reis sits quietly and patiently through the entire explanation even though a lot of it does not - cannot - match up with what she kn ows. The world is not billions of years old! She doesn't even know precisely how large a billion is, other than 'a very big number'.
But she listens to it anyway. He may be mistaken on part of it, and - some of it may just be different. She is not quite that narrow-minded to believe it can't be, even though previously she might have. Reis does have to keep in mind that this is coming from a demon; he can make anything sound reasonable, even if it isn't.
"I see," Reis says, after some time. "And this is what you tell me Heaven and Hell is here? Not good and evil, but - obedient and disobedient?"
"'Good' and 'Evil' as you know them are not suitable terms for framing the War," Simon says. There's a hint of Legal Hair-Splitter in his voice as he says this. "Though I can appreciate why you think that way; it's in human nature to attempt to polarize things even if they don't polarize neatly."
The Balseraph finishes off the rest of the drink, and sets the empty bottle down on its coaster. "'Disobedient versus obedient' is a bit more accurate if you're viewing the conflict from God's perspective. He /hates/ it when his minions start to think for themselves, and would prefer for all Celestial beings to exist neatly in his sphere of influence as his puppets. Lucifer realized this during the Rebellion, and it became the basis for our resistance."
"We demons are a varied bunch, but /all/ of us have a very strong sense of self. Our society is ugly and brutal by human standards, but it creates people who can survive, adapt, and perservere against the servile drone-Angels who want to exterminate us."
Reis is not a good legal hairsplitter. Fine details are going to be somewhat lost on her. The reference to 'you' and humans does sort of drive it home that he is different, though, and that terms /she/ uses aren't going to be terms he agrees with.
She doesn't like what she's hearing, even the parts she is not inclined to dismiss out of hand. Of /course/ good and evil are relevant, and of course God is good; that's the whole cornerstone of her religion. She can't accept otherwise just on Simon's say-so, or possibly at all.
"And you did not tell us this before," Reis says. "Is it forbidden, too? I would not think that would stop you, if what you tell me now is true!"
Simon shakes his head, and shifts his weight on the couch. He's... honestly not sure if his Truth is getting through to Reis, and this bothers him a little. You may well lose her to the same hate that's consumed Oaks and Tengille, says the little voice of doubt. It's quickly hushed.
"I didn't tell you before because I wasn't authorized to tell you." That much is perfect Truth. "As I mentioned, Hell is a selfish society, but it does have some semblance of order to it. It /must/, or it would fall apart, and grant God a free victory. We are ruled by Lucifer, the Rebellion's original leader, but... he prefers an openly hands-off approach to governing. Every demon in Hell, down to the last demonling, owes fealty to one of many demonic lords, the Demon Princes. They are immensely powerful, but unfortunately, most of them are insane, hyperfocused on their purview, or just plain prone to politiciking. An unfortunate state of affairs."
"I owe fealty to Prince Asmodeus, the Grandmaster--the director of Hell's internal security and its chief of intelligence. He enforces order in Hell as best as he can, bringing the Rules to bear on demons who act against the best interests of the whole. He tends to be... ah, opposed to many of the crazier princes. Most often, I find myself shutting down ill-advised schemes that would endanger the whole of humanity, or expose the War. It must remain secret... because, after all, if it were open, /which side would humanity side with?/"
"So yes," Simon says, "I am a demon who enforces order, and hunts other demons. One of the more civilized ones, if you will."
Order, not good or evil. Reis can make sense of what she's hearing, but she needs some time to work through it. "So you are a knight of Hell," is what she says, somewhat banally; this may have been too much Truth for her to accept all at once, especially because it is very different than what she expected.
Eventually, she asks, "You are with the IPA because - you expect it to help you? Or are you helping it?" Do you actually feel empathy for other people, Reis thinks, and want to help? She doesn't ask that. It may be visible on her face. "You want to protect people from knowledge, but - I don't know," Reis trails off. "I'm sorry. I don't know what to think about it."
Aww. Ego might be sackbeaten, but he can still appreciate compliments. Simon seems to puff up a little at the 'knight' comment, and smiles. "In the sense that I fight for one of our nobles, yes. In the titular sense... not yet. I work for the IPA because it, like my master, believes in law and order. Its agents have helped me capture some very dangerous demonic criminals, and for that I'm grateful."
"In exchange," Simon says, "I help them with whatever non-demonic criminals they come across, and also serve them in a more mundane capacity in my human Role." He leans forward a little, and moves to gently rest his hand on Reis' shoulder, as though to reassure her. "I don't like seeing civilians hurt in my line of work. If they haven't broken the Rules, then they don't deserve punishment--certainly not the type of punishment my less-sane fellows would visit upon them."
"You may be conflicted, but I feel the Truth is evident here. Oaks has known what I am for over a year, and I've worked with her for longer. I could've transferred out at any time if I valued my life more than my assignment, but I'm still here."
Reis often reacts poorly to being touched by non-Beowulf people nowadays, but she doesn't do more than tense up a little - and it isn't because Simon's a demon, either, she's just had very bad luck with this sort of thing lately.
She doesn't ask him to move it, though, so it must not be too bad. "I don't either," Reis says, "but you can do more to stop it, I'm sure. You've been doing it longer..."
Reis takes a breath. "I cannot immediately trust all demons, of course - I do not think you would want me to. But I can work with you. And you will be happy to know that I have already spoken to Dame Tengille, and she will listen to you when you say this." If she doesn't, Reis will kick her some more.
Oh. Simon sees that tension, and withdraws his hand. "Yes, I have. And knowing what those fools are capable of is all the more incentive to act against them as I do." And then, a pause.
"...You spoke with Dame Tengille? Was she sober at the time? Did she really mean it...?" Simon suddenly becomes more alert, leaning in closer to catch the details. /This/ is highly relevant to his interests, as they say.
"Unfortunately no," Reis says, with a very slight smile. "She was very much not sober, but I convinced her to come back and sleep, and she will be soon enough. And then I can get her to say it again." With what she /did/ say, Reis is pretty sure that she will at least try to do what she claimed. That's what she's banking on, at least. "But please do not tell her that I told you. She may try to make it a surprise."
"All right," Simon says. He is wholly unsurprised at this, partly because that is more or less what he himself would have done... had a certain nosy angel not shown up in person to make sure he was still alive and unTraumatized.
"I'll try and speak with her myself as soon as she's feeling better, just so we can establish our terms and so forth. She's a teammate, after all, and... well, she's not the first one I've had who's taken badly to me at first."
"Give her a day or two," Reis recommends. Just in case. After all, she's not entirely sure Meliadoul will not take longer to get used to the idea than Reis will - in fact, she almost certainly will, as Reis is devout but not a Church Knight, former or current.
She stands up. "And - I'm sorry last night. That I panicked. But I have never seen a demon before, or at least, not one shaped like...that."
"Wise advice," the Balseraph says, with a nod of his head. He then gives Reis a vaguely amused look. "Oh, the wings?" Simon says, with a smile that is perhaps a bit too impish and smug. "That was what we call a Numinous Corpus Song--something that changes your vessel. That wasn't my true form." Simon isn't sure if Reis could even /see/ his true form, if he wasn't being obvious in it. "My true form is... more dramatic than that. Some humans find it unnerving, particularly those with a fear of snakes."
Reis actually laughs. It does not last very long - she's not /that/ comfortable - but something about that was funny. She explains a moment later, "I am hardly the type to have a fear of snakes! I suppose you may not have been told - I am raising a hydra, now. His name is Ruklegos. A hydra in Ivalice is a kind of three-headed dragon, but they are quite serpentine." Only two legs, for starters, not four like a true dragon.
She calms down quickly, though. "Oh, so you do not want to show it. I'm not certain I can blame you. I don't, especially," Reis adds, "unless you care to. But I don't believe it is that important."
The demon smiles a little, too. It's contagious. "Oh, the hydra? I hear Lady Oaks... had a bit of a time taking care of it, initially." Namely, he heard her screaming about it mauling her hands while he was dealing with one of Gades' mooks. "But it's good to hear that you're taking care of it now. Lady Oaks tells me you have a way with animals."
"As for my true form, I imagine you might see it eventually. Here and now, it just wouldn't be worth the effort and Disturbance."
Reis was unaware that Agrias had made it so public. "Oh, yes," she says, "it hatched while I was... away. It is well-behaved, though," she assures Simon, which is actually true... as long as she's the one getting it to behave. For everybody else, less so.
She stands up again. "Thank you for speaking to me, so quickly. I'm sorry it turned out that way." But not quite as sorry as she might sound, because some of it /is/ his ego's fault.
Here Simon nods politely. "It's no problem, Lady Duelar. I'm sorry it had to turn out that way, too, but I guess we have to make the best of what we're given." He stands, takes the empty bottle to the kitchen, and nonchalantly tosses it into the recyclables bin. "Best of luck to you in dealing with Dame Tengille, and the latest addition to your little family." By which he means the hydra, of course.
Reis' water glass is empty too. She sets it down with another nod. "Thank you," she says. She'll probably need it, if she keeps acting the way she has been. "I'd best go. Good night, and stay safe." She heads toward the door again, after smoothing her skirts down flat.
Parker moves over to get the door for Reis; apparently he has just enough chivalry in him to do a few tiny favors for a noblewoman, here and there. "Stay safe, now," he says.
"I will," Reis promises, in blatant defiance of the fact that she will probably get into trouble within twenty-four hours.
She curtseys, just a little, before heading out and back up the street. Maybe now she will actually get some /sleep/...but probably not.