Ravindra + Missie // Questions
Who: Ravindra and Missie
When: November 9th
Where: Guard station
Rating & Warnings: Ravi does not flip any tables and that is a disappointment. PG because of references to vivisections.
In which Missie is super unhelpful.
The station had been hectic lately. With the aftermath of the Hour situation, the various investigations involved, the search for the missing culprit who'd escaped his cell, the Evandros family filtering in or being visited for questioning, the place was constantly abuzz with activity. Ravi had, for the most part, managed to avoid notice over the course of the day. He hated being stuck filing papers, but so long as he did the work, nobody bothered him.
That is, until he made the mistake of pausing just long enough to light a cigarette and one of the LTs decided that meant he wasn't busy and directed him to handle the questioning of the Evandros sibling that had just walked in.
He let out a sigh, rising from his desk, and went to meet her. Melissa Evandros Valance, he'd been told her name was. He didn't feel like being polite because it just took so much energy, but he greeted her with a simple, "Lady Valance. Please follow me," and led her to a private room for questioning.
Missie knew why she was here. At least, she had a pretty good idea. She talked to an assassin. About Duncan. Things were happening. Illegal things! And Missie was party to the plot! Kind of. A little bit!
They didn't know that part, she was pretty sure. But one time a neophyte tried to interview her and she stumbled over everything and forgot the answers to questions and it was awful! And now there were guards! And they would interview her and ask her questions and if she got them wrong it would be even more awful! More than just being embarrassed awful!
Very stressful. But Missie would cooperate, following her assigned guard in with a smile. "Thank you." Was she supposed to say thank you? Too late! "Um," she started, unable to help a fidget, "May I ask what this is about?"
He motioned for her to have a seat and sat across from her. She seemed a bit nervous, he thought. It was hard to miss the fidgeting.
Ravi, for his part, projected an image of cold and stern, but in reality he was annoyed to be there and just wanted to get the questioning over with as quickly as possible. He took his cigarette out of his mouth and blew out a cloud of smoke. "Duncan Evandros is missing," he said, watching her reaction closely. "Do you know where he might have gone?"
Missie started at Naran with honest surprise. Hearing it from the guard was different from hearing it from an assassin. There had still be doubts, she realized. Maybe someone had wanted Duncan's ledger for other secrets. He was already going to die, already confessed everything. What trouble could she have gotten him into handing it over?
But no. Duncan was gone. Duncan wasn't going to die.
"Really?" her voice squeaked when she said it, barely audible. Oh! He asked her a question. She was supposed to be answering those. "Uh..." Missie didn't actually know where he was. Well. She had an important clue, but for this conversation, Missie was content to pretend she didn't. That put the question in a new light: where would Duncan actually go?
"...Home? No, I suppose that would be the obvious thing. He's, um, a doctor so I guess maybe he would be smarter than that. I mean, maybe, if it were me, the first thing I would do is leave Tyrol?" She raised it into a question, watching for Naran's reaction to judge if that was a plausible idea. Missie had never been a criminal. Maybe leaving was a terrible plan and everybody knew that. So she kept babbling. "But, then, maybe not! Because he's never been out of the city before, and there are highwaymen out there, and. Not a lot of people would want to help him now." Lynea would have helped him. "Um."
Missie fell quiet, gnawing on her lip. She didn't have any good answers and there was a man sitting there wanting answers!
Well she certainly seemed surprised enough by the news. That reaction made Ravi disinclined to think she had anything to do with Duncan Evandros's disappearance. Furthermore, her guessing at where she thought he might have gone seemed legit as well, not at all like she was trying to lead the Guard away from where he would really be.
When she searched him for a reaction, she'd find none. Ravi was quite good at not giving social cues--it was part of being awful at picking up on them. When she fell quiet, he waited another moment to see if she'd start talking again, and when she didn't he asked, "Can you think of anybody who would want to take him in? Any notable acquaintances or business associates?"
"The Hour?" she blurted it out without thinking, and quickly reminded herself now was not the time to be saying things with little thought. This time, it was safe-- mostly. Duncan wasn't there, but what if the Hour had more evidence, somehow? "Well. It's just. Um. They were hiding this, so they might try to hide more things? I guess it would be silly after all this, even if they were only recollecting their doctors." Right? Missie wasn't clear on how any of this worked.
Use that. Keep babbling about nothing, Missie told herself, searching for more pointless answers only to frown at a memory. "Um. He didn't have a lot of friends. There was one, but she passed away before any of this happened. There's Murphy, though! He talked to Murphy more than any of us, but Murphy's a skeleton. It would be unusual for him to help anyone break out of prison." Her tone suggested that, though unusual, it could have been possible. She was still Missie.
His eyebrow rose when she started talking about Murphy. "A skeleton?" Like her, he said it without thinking, but coming from him it sounded like a legitimate question and not careless talk. Her babbling sounded like nonsense to him, but who knew with the Hour--maybe it was a living skeleton, some sort of strange Other.
From what he could tell, Lady Valance genuinely had no idea who might have freed her brother or where he might have gone. Back home or back to the Hour--he'd be easy enough to find in either case. Out of Balfour, not so much.
Missie nodded, brightening. This was an easier topic to talk about! "Oh, yes. Duncan has had him for quite some time! He's friends with Alice-- my doll, you see. He doesn't talk. I suppose skeletons can't. They just sit there. And listen. But that was probably the best friend Duncan had." On reflection, that made her brother sound possibly unstable out of context. ... No more so than vivisections. "Murphy was always in Duncan's office. I guess he would have been moved after the, um, incident." She frowned at that. Duncan would miss Murphy! Maybe she could send him a new Murphy? But one couldn't get new Murphies! There was only one of those. Probably.
Ravi's eyes narrowed. "I see." Nope, this entire conversation had been a waste of time. Lady Valance didn't know anything and didn't have anything useful to tell him.
"That will be all," he told her, pushing himself up from the chair. "Thank you for your time."
Oh. It was over? It was over! Missie wasn't going to try and stay any longer than she had to, standing up and smiling to the nice guard man. "I'm glad I could help." And more glad that she hadn't been any help at all.
When: November 9th
Where: Guard station
Rating & Warnings: Ravi does not flip any tables and that is a disappointment. PG because of references to vivisections.
In which Missie is super unhelpful.
The station had been hectic lately. With the aftermath of the Hour situation, the various investigations involved, the search for the missing culprit who'd escaped his cell, the Evandros family filtering in or being visited for questioning, the place was constantly abuzz with activity. Ravi had, for the most part, managed to avoid notice over the course of the day. He hated being stuck filing papers, but so long as he did the work, nobody bothered him.
That is, until he made the mistake of pausing just long enough to light a cigarette and one of the LTs decided that meant he wasn't busy and directed him to handle the questioning of the Evandros sibling that had just walked in.
He let out a sigh, rising from his desk, and went to meet her. Melissa Evandros Valance, he'd been told her name was. He didn't feel like being polite because it just took so much energy, but he greeted her with a simple, "Lady Valance. Please follow me," and led her to a private room for questioning.
Missie knew why she was here. At least, she had a pretty good idea. She talked to an assassin. About Duncan. Things were happening. Illegal things! And Missie was party to the plot! Kind of. A little bit!
They didn't know that part, she was pretty sure. But one time a neophyte tried to interview her and she stumbled over everything and forgot the answers to questions and it was awful! And now there were guards! And they would interview her and ask her questions and if she got them wrong it would be even more awful! More than just being embarrassed awful!
Very stressful. But Missie would cooperate, following her assigned guard in with a smile. "Thank you." Was she supposed to say thank you? Too late! "Um," she started, unable to help a fidget, "May I ask what this is about?"
He motioned for her to have a seat and sat across from her. She seemed a bit nervous, he thought. It was hard to miss the fidgeting.
Ravi, for his part, projected an image of cold and stern, but in reality he was annoyed to be there and just wanted to get the questioning over with as quickly as possible. He took his cigarette out of his mouth and blew out a cloud of smoke. "Duncan Evandros is missing," he said, watching her reaction closely. "Do you know where he might have gone?"
Missie started at Naran with honest surprise. Hearing it from the guard was different from hearing it from an assassin. There had still be doubts, she realized. Maybe someone had wanted Duncan's ledger for other secrets. He was already going to die, already confessed everything. What trouble could she have gotten him into handing it over?
But no. Duncan was gone. Duncan wasn't going to die.
"Really?" her voice squeaked when she said it, barely audible. Oh! He asked her a question. She was supposed to be answering those. "Uh..." Missie didn't actually know where he was. Well. She had an important clue, but for this conversation, Missie was content to pretend she didn't. That put the question in a new light: where would Duncan actually go?
"...Home? No, I suppose that would be the obvious thing. He's, um, a doctor so I guess maybe he would be smarter than that. I mean, maybe, if it were me, the first thing I would do is leave Tyrol?" She raised it into a question, watching for Naran's reaction to judge if that was a plausible idea. Missie had never been a criminal. Maybe leaving was a terrible plan and everybody knew that. So she kept babbling. "But, then, maybe not! Because he's never been out of the city before, and there are highwaymen out there, and. Not a lot of people would want to help him now." Lynea would have helped him. "Um."
Missie fell quiet, gnawing on her lip. She didn't have any good answers and there was a man sitting there wanting answers!
Well she certainly seemed surprised enough by the news. That reaction made Ravi disinclined to think she had anything to do with Duncan Evandros's disappearance. Furthermore, her guessing at where she thought he might have gone seemed legit as well, not at all like she was trying to lead the Guard away from where he would really be.
When she searched him for a reaction, she'd find none. Ravi was quite good at not giving social cues--it was part of being awful at picking up on them. When she fell quiet, he waited another moment to see if she'd start talking again, and when she didn't he asked, "Can you think of anybody who would want to take him in? Any notable acquaintances or business associates?"
"The Hour?" she blurted it out without thinking, and quickly reminded herself now was not the time to be saying things with little thought. This time, it was safe-- mostly. Duncan wasn't there, but what if the Hour had more evidence, somehow? "Well. It's just. Um. They were hiding this, so they might try to hide more things? I guess it would be silly after all this, even if they were only recollecting their doctors." Right? Missie wasn't clear on how any of this worked.
Use that. Keep babbling about nothing, Missie told herself, searching for more pointless answers only to frown at a memory. "Um. He didn't have a lot of friends. There was one, but she passed away before any of this happened. There's Murphy, though! He talked to Murphy more than any of us, but Murphy's a skeleton. It would be unusual for him to help anyone break out of prison." Her tone suggested that, though unusual, it could have been possible. She was still Missie.
His eyebrow rose when she started talking about Murphy. "A skeleton?" Like her, he said it without thinking, but coming from him it sounded like a legitimate question and not careless talk. Her babbling sounded like nonsense to him, but who knew with the Hour--maybe it was a living skeleton, some sort of strange Other.
From what he could tell, Lady Valance genuinely had no idea who might have freed her brother or where he might have gone. Back home or back to the Hour--he'd be easy enough to find in either case. Out of Balfour, not so much.
Missie nodded, brightening. This was an easier topic to talk about! "Oh, yes. Duncan has had him for quite some time! He's friends with Alice-- my doll, you see. He doesn't talk. I suppose skeletons can't. They just sit there. And listen. But that was probably the best friend Duncan had." On reflection, that made her brother sound possibly unstable out of context. ... No more so than vivisections. "Murphy was always in Duncan's office. I guess he would have been moved after the, um, incident." She frowned at that. Duncan would miss Murphy! Maybe she could send him a new Murphy? But one couldn't get new Murphies! There was only one of those. Probably.
Ravi's eyes narrowed. "I see." Nope, this entire conversation had been a waste of time. Lady Valance didn't know anything and didn't have anything useful to tell him.
"That will be all," he told her, pushing himself up from the chair. "Thank you for your time."
Oh. It was over? It was over! Missie wasn't going to try and stay any longer than she had to, standing up and smiling to the nice guard man. "I'm glad I could help." And more glad that she hadn't been any help at all.