Siegmund + Diana - questioning
Who: Siegmund and Diana
When: The 18th
Where: Guard station
Rating & Warnings: PG for talk of dead people.
This was a bad idea, this was the WORST idea, and he'd called RHYS an idiot? Siegmund was going to get arrested the second he stepped inside, they'd take one look at know he was a Gladio or they'd take one look and decide they weren't going to protect Others after all or--THIS WAS A REALLY BAD IDEA.
But he had to do it. Others were getting killed, and it was only a matter of time before he was next. Signifer Gladio couldn't do anything about Cita, but maybe the Guard could, and they'd need help to do it.
(Oh god it was still a really bad idea though.)
He went down to the station, dressed in his best legally obtained clothes, which made him look poor, but not criminally so. Like he came from a hardworking family in the Grounds, instead of like he was a streetrat who stole 98% of what he owned. He stepped nervously into the dimly lit station, and the relief from being out of the bright sun was tainted by the immediate intimidation of being surrounded by Guards and not knowing what to do. He'd been trying to play it cool, but he froze up the second he caught sight of armour.
From what Diana could see, this Siegmund Heissenrech was a self-righteous character, but at least he seemed willing enough to help even though he decided to openly cast aspersions on so many influential forces in the city. It was brave if not stupid.
She was sitting at her desk when she was informed that someone who looked like they came from the Grounds had shown up. Going out to meet him, she took in how nervous he looked. Was he just full of false bravado or was he just braver behind the ledger where no one could attach his words to a face? "Mr. Heissenrech, I presume? Thank you for coming. If you could follow me, please."
Diana had set aside a meeting room for this. He wasn't quite a criminal being interrogated. Yet.
No, it was stupid. Siegmund was not what you would call "someone who thinks things through."
It was also definitely bravado (...and maybe a little bit of the anonymity ledgers provided. Internet troll in the making, go). His bravado was completely absent as he looked up at the lady Guard addressing him. She looked stern. This was going to go poorly.
There was a subtle flash of surprise, and maybe approval, across his face when she pronounced his name correctly. He nodded in silent affirmation, because he was still too nervous to open his mouth. Stoicism was cool, right? He could play that off.
Ignoring his misgivings, he followed her deeper into the station, his dread growing with every step. Maybe the Guard had Others--mindreaders, who could hear the thoughts of criminals, and they'd learn he was a Gladio--DON'T THINK ABOUT BEING A GLADIO.
She made no note of his surprise, only briefly wondering what was there to be surprised about before leading him away. Opening the door to the room, she indicated he go in first. There was a long table with chairs. "Please, take a seat."
Diana stayed standing for the moment. She wasn't quite ready to take on a friendlier front. "Expand on what you were talking about yesterday, if you would. How do you know they were all Others being killed, and when did you notice that a higher number of people were being killed?"
He froze up in the doorway for about half a second, because walking into an empty interrogation room felt exactly like walking into an empty jail cell. But he forced himself to walk over and sit down, splaying himself in the chair like a typical rebellious teenager. He tried to turn his bravado back on. It was just him and the single Guard, now. If things got bad he could pull his shadow disappearance (which was still TOTALLY AWESOME) and get himself out of here.
The single lantern used to light the room might work as an intimidation tactic for anyone else, but Siegmund hardly even noticed. He could see every detail of the room perfectly, and the light was dim enough that it didn't break his concentration or muddle his thoughts the way the sun had outside. The soft glow of his eyes was obvious in the dark, a sign of his Otherness.
"If you live in the Grounds it's easy to know who's an Other," he answered, his German accent obvious. "Fortunetellers and witches, the harmless ones, they live off of it. They have disappeared first. I remember first hearing people talk about since it a few weeks ago, when the witch with the flower shop was dead outside her door. After that I noticed the ones I knew disappearing."
Diana wasn't surprised by how Siegmund chose to sit, but she was hardly surprised by it. He wanted to seem like he was unaffected when just moments before in the vicinity of multiple guards, she could see he was nervous. It almost made her want to smile.
"There are people who are poor and desperate enough to fake being a fortuneteller, though." If they were going to die soon away without money, what did they have to lose? In this city, how many would question their validity? "But I will admit there is that possibility." She placed a hand on the table, sporadically tapping her fingers on it as she thought. "And you're positive that the other disappearances meant their deaths and not because they were moved?"
It wasn't necessarily that she didn't believe or couldn't see the possibility of what Siegmund said, but she needed incontrovertible proof, undeniable evidence. It was enough to start an investigation but nothing to formally go against Cita with unless this boy could say he saw or heard of more people seeing the Cancellari killing.
"Yes. I said the witch's body was outside her shop, yes? There were others found." She didn't believe him. The Guard was skeptical, why should that surprise him? They'd never cared about the Grounds before. Why would they care now? Ugh, he shouldn't have come, this was dumb.
His annoyance came out on his face as a furrowing of his brow, a slight frown at the corners of his mouth. His glowing eyes focused on the table instead of her. "I saw the Cancellari cloaks there one night, and the next day a friend of mine was dead in an alley. She was a dryad."
She noticed his annoyance, but it wouldn't sway her. "A witch and a dryad for certain? Did you take note of how they were killed?" She paused. If he were really just an Other from the Grounds, though, he wouldn't have the requisite knowledge to discern that. Diana also wondered if the bodies had been moved or buried yet, but she knew that was perhaps too insensitive a question to ask the boy.
He also saw their telltale cloaks, he said. That would be condemning proof. "Do you know of any others who might back up what you say?" Which was to say, was there anyone else stupid or brave enough?
EYEROLL, DIANA. He folded his arms and stared up at her. "I saw her turn into a tree. Yes, a dryad. My friend was hacked apart and left dead in an alley and you think I come to the station to lie to you?" He was exaggerating his relationship with the girl only because he thought the Guard was more likely to believe him than if he said "a passing acquaintance."
"Ask any other person who is outside at night in the Grounds. They can tell you the same thing." But none of them were stupid enough to come down to the station and argue with the Guard.
Was that an eye roll? Did he honestly eye roll at her? The fact that his eyes glowed somehow made that act even more of an annoyance. She narrowed her eyes and pressed her lips into the thinnest of lines before walking around the table to look down at him, keeping her hand on the hilt of her sword just in case.
"Listen, Mr. Heissenrech," she began brusquely. "I am only after facts and testimonies I can use to back any cases I have. You may be an Other, and you may be a member of the Ashen Order, but I do not need your exaggerations or your dramatics today or any other day. The way you drew attention to yourself on the ledgers has me questioning many things about your character, but I was giving you the benefit of the doubt. If you want to help, if you want to see justice by the law, just answer my questions as honestly and matter-of-factly as possible."
She made sure to look directly at him before enunciating, "Do you understand?"
OH MY GOD THIS WAS THE WORST IDEA WHY HAD HE COME SHE WAS GOING TO ARREST HIM RIGHT HERE AAAAAAAAAAAAAA
He instinctively tried to get as far away from her as possible while still staying in the chair. Bravado, completely ruined. He was immediately outed for what he really was: a scared kid.
"Yes," he answered, very quietly. And then, "I don't exaggerate," in the same tone.
Satisfied, Diana backed away and walked around to finally sit across for him. Now that he was cowed, she felt she could be a tad bit friendlier (if that were possible). "I'll be the judge of that."
She clasped her hands on the table. "I will have these deaths looked into as soon as possible. From what you've told me, there are at least two confirmed Others that have been wrongly killed and possibly more. To confirm, and I'm sorry to bring it up again, but your dryad friend was cleandly cut in half?" That was not a pretty death by any means even with the skill of the Cancellari--if it was the Cancellari.
"And you are sure that other people in the Grounds will testify the same?" Diana had some doubts if there were really mostly only humans left. Cita had healed the majority of them, she had heard.
Still shaken, he situated himself properly in the chair, tense and wide-eyed. It was a good thing she decided on "friendly" because any further intimidation and he would've bolted.
He shook his head. "No, she--" What was the word for that? Suddenly he couldn't remember. "Decapitated?" he said in German. He slashed a hand across his throat. "Her head was off. The rest of her, it was cuts, everywhere. Like a sword. And nothing was stolen from her body, so it was not thieves." He knew because he'd been the one to pick her clean, a fact he still felt guilty for, but the dead had no use for their money.
He wasn't sure other residents of the Grounds would testify the same, and his doubt showed on his face. "I'm sure they see it," he corrected. "But only ones who hate Cita will tell you he does it. Others think it's just."
Unfortunately, decapitated was not in her German vocabulary, but she understood his meaning well enough especially with his following explanation. She nodded. That made sense. "All the bodies were just left? Have people in the Grounds moved them from where they fell?" She paused, considering. "I apologize if these questions are too morbid."
She tapped her fingers against her knuckles. "If you know anyone personally who will testify, too, please let me know."
Too morbid. No, not for him. He answered tonelessly, like he was explaining the weather. "The Cancellari leave them, people in the Grounds move them. Or the Others that eat people. They are not all dead yet. You won't find bodies unless they're fresh."
He'd thought before that it would be cool to be a type of Other that devoured souls or murdered hapless wanderers in the middle of the night, but now he was glad he was only a shadow witch. It was one less thing to fret over while sitting in an interrogation room with a Guard in front of him.
He knew plenty of people who had information, but would they testify? That was another story altogether. He shifted in his chair, eyes on the corner of the table. "The people I know who can tell you, they aren't," stupid enough, "willing to come to the station to talk. They aren't the sort of people who like to be around Guards." (Please God don't let her figure out he was a Gladio there were plenty of non-gang kids who hung around gang kids for her not to jump to that assumption.)
His tone piqued her interest--or some suspicion. What kind of person was he that he could talk about the dead like that? "That doesn't surprise me too much." People in the Grounds as well as any other part of the city would prey upon the dead--in different ways but it was preying all the same.
Her suspicion grew at his last words, and her eyes narrowed slightly. Criminals or gang members, he meant. "Are you one of these people as well?" If he was, how stupid was he to step into the Guard station? Even if she didn't know all the profiles of all gang members, it wasn't highly unlikely that another guard wouldn't have seen his face before.
OH GOD SHE KNEW ABORT MISSION
No, wait, panic was the worst response to give to a question like that. He stayed calm, forced himself not to react. He shook his head. "I'm here, yes?" Please please please let her accept that answer.
"That either tells me you're not or you're foolish." Either way, she didn't have evidence to claim that he was a criminal of some sort, but her instincts said he was perhaps more on the foolish side.
"However, you came and answered my questions, so I'll let you go for now. Thank you for cooperating and making sure the investigation can be underway." She stood up, clasping her hands behind her back. "I think I've asked you enough questions for today, so I'll show you out."
Foolish was a kind word for it, he thought. He was definitely not off the hook, he knew suspicion when he (convinced himself he) saw it, but it seemed she was willing to overlook it in light of his cooperation.
It was a relief when she dismissed him. He pushed himself up from the chair and waited for her to lead the way out. He didn't want to look too overeager to leave.
For now, it seemed, he was going to get away with being the biggest idiot in Signifer Gladio. He wouldn't test his luck like this twice. Next time he had information to report to the Guard, he was using the Ledgers.
When: The 18th
Where: Guard station
Rating & Warnings: PG for talk of dead people.
This was a bad idea, this was the WORST idea, and he'd called RHYS an idiot? Siegmund was going to get arrested the second he stepped inside, they'd take one look at know he was a Gladio or they'd take one look and decide they weren't going to protect Others after all or--THIS WAS A REALLY BAD IDEA.
But he had to do it. Others were getting killed, and it was only a matter of time before he was next. Signifer Gladio couldn't do anything about Cita, but maybe the Guard could, and they'd need help to do it.
(Oh god it was still a really bad idea though.)
He went down to the station, dressed in his best legally obtained clothes, which made him look poor, but not criminally so. Like he came from a hardworking family in the Grounds, instead of like he was a streetrat who stole 98% of what he owned. He stepped nervously into the dimly lit station, and the relief from being out of the bright sun was tainted by the immediate intimidation of being surrounded by Guards and not knowing what to do. He'd been trying to play it cool, but he froze up the second he caught sight of armour.
From what Diana could see, this Siegmund Heissenrech was a self-righteous character, but at least he seemed willing enough to help even though he decided to openly cast aspersions on so many influential forces in the city. It was brave if not stupid.
She was sitting at her desk when she was informed that someone who looked like they came from the Grounds had shown up. Going out to meet him, she took in how nervous he looked. Was he just full of false bravado or was he just braver behind the ledger where no one could attach his words to a face? "Mr. Heissenrech, I presume? Thank you for coming. If you could follow me, please."
Diana had set aside a meeting room for this. He wasn't quite a criminal being interrogated. Yet.
No, it was stupid. Siegmund was not what you would call "someone who thinks things through."
It was also definitely bravado (...and maybe a little bit of the anonymity ledgers provided. Internet troll in the making, go). His bravado was completely absent as he looked up at the lady Guard addressing him. She looked stern. This was going to go poorly.
There was a subtle flash of surprise, and maybe approval, across his face when she pronounced his name correctly. He nodded in silent affirmation, because he was still too nervous to open his mouth. Stoicism was cool, right? He could play that off.
Ignoring his misgivings, he followed her deeper into the station, his dread growing with every step. Maybe the Guard had Others--mindreaders, who could hear the thoughts of criminals, and they'd learn he was a Gladio--DON'T THINK ABOUT BEING A GLADIO.
She made no note of his surprise, only briefly wondering what was there to be surprised about before leading him away. Opening the door to the room, she indicated he go in first. There was a long table with chairs. "Please, take a seat."
Diana stayed standing for the moment. She wasn't quite ready to take on a friendlier front. "Expand on what you were talking about yesterday, if you would. How do you know they were all Others being killed, and when did you notice that a higher number of people were being killed?"
He froze up in the doorway for about half a second, because walking into an empty interrogation room felt exactly like walking into an empty jail cell. But he forced himself to walk over and sit down, splaying himself in the chair like a typical rebellious teenager. He tried to turn his bravado back on. It was just him and the single Guard, now. If things got bad he could pull his shadow disappearance (which was still TOTALLY AWESOME) and get himself out of here.
The single lantern used to light the room might work as an intimidation tactic for anyone else, but Siegmund hardly even noticed. He could see every detail of the room perfectly, and the light was dim enough that it didn't break his concentration or muddle his thoughts the way the sun had outside. The soft glow of his eyes was obvious in the dark, a sign of his Otherness.
"If you live in the Grounds it's easy to know who's an Other," he answered, his German accent obvious. "Fortunetellers and witches, the harmless ones, they live off of it. They have disappeared first. I remember first hearing people talk about since it a few weeks ago, when the witch with the flower shop was dead outside her door. After that I noticed the ones I knew disappearing."
Diana wasn't surprised by how Siegmund chose to sit, but she was hardly surprised by it. He wanted to seem like he was unaffected when just moments before in the vicinity of multiple guards, she could see he was nervous. It almost made her want to smile.
"There are people who are poor and desperate enough to fake being a fortuneteller, though." If they were going to die soon away without money, what did they have to lose? In this city, how many would question their validity? "But I will admit there is that possibility." She placed a hand on the table, sporadically tapping her fingers on it as she thought. "And you're positive that the other disappearances meant their deaths and not because they were moved?"
It wasn't necessarily that she didn't believe or couldn't see the possibility of what Siegmund said, but she needed incontrovertible proof, undeniable evidence. It was enough to start an investigation but nothing to formally go against Cita with unless this boy could say he saw or heard of more people seeing the Cancellari killing.
"Yes. I said the witch's body was outside her shop, yes? There were others found." She didn't believe him. The Guard was skeptical, why should that surprise him? They'd never cared about the Grounds before. Why would they care now? Ugh, he shouldn't have come, this was dumb.
His annoyance came out on his face as a furrowing of his brow, a slight frown at the corners of his mouth. His glowing eyes focused on the table instead of her. "I saw the Cancellari cloaks there one night, and the next day a friend of mine was dead in an alley. She was a dryad."
She noticed his annoyance, but it wouldn't sway her. "A witch and a dryad for certain? Did you take note of how they were killed?" She paused. If he were really just an Other from the Grounds, though, he wouldn't have the requisite knowledge to discern that. Diana also wondered if the bodies had been moved or buried yet, but she knew that was perhaps too insensitive a question to ask the boy.
He also saw their telltale cloaks, he said. That would be condemning proof. "Do you know of any others who might back up what you say?" Which was to say, was there anyone else stupid or brave enough?
EYEROLL, DIANA. He folded his arms and stared up at her. "I saw her turn into a tree. Yes, a dryad. My friend was hacked apart and left dead in an alley and you think I come to the station to lie to you?" He was exaggerating his relationship with the girl only because he thought the Guard was more likely to believe him than if he said "a passing acquaintance."
"Ask any other person who is outside at night in the Grounds. They can tell you the same thing." But none of them were stupid enough to come down to the station and argue with the Guard.
Was that an eye roll? Did he honestly eye roll at her? The fact that his eyes glowed somehow made that act even more of an annoyance. She narrowed her eyes and pressed her lips into the thinnest of lines before walking around the table to look down at him, keeping her hand on the hilt of her sword just in case.
"Listen, Mr. Heissenrech," she began brusquely. "I am only after facts and testimonies I can use to back any cases I have. You may be an Other, and you may be a member of the Ashen Order, but I do not need your exaggerations or your dramatics today or any other day. The way you drew attention to yourself on the ledgers has me questioning many things about your character, but I was giving you the benefit of the doubt. If you want to help, if you want to see justice by the law, just answer my questions as honestly and matter-of-factly as possible."
She made sure to look directly at him before enunciating, "Do you understand?"
OH MY GOD THIS WAS THE WORST IDEA WHY HAD HE COME SHE WAS GOING TO ARREST HIM RIGHT HERE AAAAAAAAAAAAAA
He instinctively tried to get as far away from her as possible while still staying in the chair. Bravado, completely ruined. He was immediately outed for what he really was: a scared kid.
"Yes," he answered, very quietly. And then, "I don't exaggerate," in the same tone.
Satisfied, Diana backed away and walked around to finally sit across for him. Now that he was cowed, she felt she could be a tad bit friendlier (if that were possible). "I'll be the judge of that."
She clasped her hands on the table. "I will have these deaths looked into as soon as possible. From what you've told me, there are at least two confirmed Others that have been wrongly killed and possibly more. To confirm, and I'm sorry to bring it up again, but your dryad friend was cleandly cut in half?" That was not a pretty death by any means even with the skill of the Cancellari--if it was the Cancellari.
"And you are sure that other people in the Grounds will testify the same?" Diana had some doubts if there were really mostly only humans left. Cita had healed the majority of them, she had heard.
Still shaken, he situated himself properly in the chair, tense and wide-eyed. It was a good thing she decided on "friendly" because any further intimidation and he would've bolted.
He shook his head. "No, she--" What was the word for that? Suddenly he couldn't remember. "Decapitated?" he said in German. He slashed a hand across his throat. "Her head was off. The rest of her, it was cuts, everywhere. Like a sword. And nothing was stolen from her body, so it was not thieves." He knew because he'd been the one to pick her clean, a fact he still felt guilty for, but the dead had no use for their money.
He wasn't sure other residents of the Grounds would testify the same, and his doubt showed on his face. "I'm sure they see it," he corrected. "But only ones who hate Cita will tell you he does it. Others think it's just."
Unfortunately, decapitated was not in her German vocabulary, but she understood his meaning well enough especially with his following explanation. She nodded. That made sense. "All the bodies were just left? Have people in the Grounds moved them from where they fell?" She paused, considering. "I apologize if these questions are too morbid."
She tapped her fingers against her knuckles. "If you know anyone personally who will testify, too, please let me know."
Too morbid. No, not for him. He answered tonelessly, like he was explaining the weather. "The Cancellari leave them, people in the Grounds move them. Or the Others that eat people. They are not all dead yet. You won't find bodies unless they're fresh."
He'd thought before that it would be cool to be a type of Other that devoured souls or murdered hapless wanderers in the middle of the night, but now he was glad he was only a shadow witch. It was one less thing to fret over while sitting in an interrogation room with a Guard in front of him.
He knew plenty of people who had information, but would they testify? That was another story altogether. He shifted in his chair, eyes on the corner of the table. "The people I know who can tell you, they aren't," stupid enough, "willing to come to the station to talk. They aren't the sort of people who like to be around Guards." (Please God don't let her figure out he was a Gladio there were plenty of non-gang kids who hung around gang kids for her not to jump to that assumption.)
His tone piqued her interest--or some suspicion. What kind of person was he that he could talk about the dead like that? "That doesn't surprise me too much." People in the Grounds as well as any other part of the city would prey upon the dead--in different ways but it was preying all the same.
Her suspicion grew at his last words, and her eyes narrowed slightly. Criminals or gang members, he meant. "Are you one of these people as well?" If he was, how stupid was he to step into the Guard station? Even if she didn't know all the profiles of all gang members, it wasn't highly unlikely that another guard wouldn't have seen his face before.
OH GOD SHE KNEW ABORT MISSION
No, wait, panic was the worst response to give to a question like that. He stayed calm, forced himself not to react. He shook his head. "I'm here, yes?" Please please please let her accept that answer.
"That either tells me you're not or you're foolish." Either way, she didn't have evidence to claim that he was a criminal of some sort, but her instincts said he was perhaps more on the foolish side.
"However, you came and answered my questions, so I'll let you go for now. Thank you for cooperating and making sure the investigation can be underway." She stood up, clasping her hands behind her back. "I think I've asked you enough questions for today, so I'll show you out."
Foolish was a kind word for it, he thought. He was definitely not off the hook, he knew suspicion when he (convinced himself he) saw it, but it seemed she was willing to overlook it in light of his cooperation.
It was a relief when she dismissed him. He pushed himself up from the chair and waited for her to lead the way out. He didn't want to look too overeager to leave.
For now, it seemed, he was going to get away with being the biggest idiot in Signifer Gladio. He wouldn't test his luck like this twice. Next time he had information to report to the Guard, he was using the Ledgers.