LOG; don't want to die in this; KIPLING + VALENTINA
who: Kipling and Valentina
what: Plotting against Makar.
where: His flat, amazingly.
Valentina glanced down at the address she'd written down before leaving, double checking that it was correct, before rapping her kunckles against the door, and taking a step backwards to wait. She'd been surprised at the quick response comparatively to their previous meetings, and really, she hadn't expected him to ever invite her to his place of residence, without her somehow invading on her own.
She was curious as to it possibly having to do with his private lock, but she'd been good and avoided prying into his personal life, for the moment.
It wasn't like him to give out his address so easily, especially after he vowed that he would keep this place private. But after returning from Berlin, after his time with Karin, Kipling was in better spirits. It might not have meant much for him in the end. But for now, he was doing all right--or as well as he could be considering the situation.
When the knocks came, he left his kitchen and moved toward the door. A hesitant smile formed before he opened the door. At least he wasn't frowning and staring at the floor like he had been the last time he saw her. "Come in," he greeted, stepping back so that Valentina could make her way inside. He looked outside in a paranoid fashion after she came inside, and then closed the door.
"Hello~" Valentina was naturally a very outgoing person, and she tended to put forward the extra effort to verge on almost obnoxious when around people who were particularly grumpy. So accompanying the greeting where you could practically hear the tilde in her voice, she smiled brightly at Kipling, moving past him and into his home, looking around curiously. You could tell a lot about a person from the way they kept their home.
His place was a little messy, but it was to be expected from a bachelor. Plants, because of his power, lined the walls, and there were even more than there were back in his old flat because he no longer had to worry about Anastasia's annoyed expressions whenever he did something with them. Part of the earth or not, he felt as if they were a part of him. Having them around was necessary. There were a couple plates on the coffee table and a few shirts that rested in an obviously just made pile on the side of the couch, not quite out of sight but just barely.
Kipling felt a little uneasy around Valentina, but it was mostly because she was so cheery, so outgoing, so willing to be how she was that he didn't know how to respond. He understood women that were a little on edge or shy, or even like Karin and a little bad with words, but she didn't have any of those problems.
"Suppose I should tell you to sit," he said.
Valentina looked back at Kipling after her eyes scanned his apartment, and she smiled again, canting her head to the side very slightly. "I think I could have figured that out for myself, but thank you for the invitation." She moved to the couch, sitting down and crossing her legs at the ankle, pulling her messenger bag up into her lap and balancing it in such a way that would suggest that she either had a very thick and stiff notebook or a laptop computer stuffed inside. Given her abilities, it was probably safer to assume the latter.
Once she was settled she turned to look at Kipling again, her expression fairly innocent. "Unless that wasn't an invitation. It's hard to tell with you, sometimes."
"Meant it to be. Some people--" Anastasia "--like to stand around while I make a fool of myself. Must be a bit of a routine with some of them." Kipling considered sitting in his seat, but after observing the hard object in the bag, he decided to sit down beside her.
Her eyes followed him as he sat down, and once he did, she smiled, crossing her arms over her bag, rather than opening it. "So, you probably want to know why I was so insistant in speaking with you in person." It occured to her she wasn't exactly being a team player, but some things really didn't need to involved EVERY one. And surprises were always such nice things.
"Imagine I wouldn't have asked you over so quickly if I wasn't," Kipling said with a slight shrug of his shoulders. He wasn't the type to do anything urgently, and instead, often forgot he was supposed to meet with people. It slipped his mind. But it also was because he was rather antisocial at times.
"And here I thought you just asked me over so quickly because you just couldn't wait to see me again." She could go directly to the point. Or she could flirt and be a generally annoying eighteen-year-old girl. Besides, she didn't really think it'd take her too long to get her point across and lay out everything she wanted to say. She was very organized when she wanted to be.
"Could be that, but you might have an angry German woman after you if I did that." Giving away a little bit of information, but Kipling imagined it wouldn't hurt. Seeing Karin angry was near impossible, however. She wasn't exactly the type that emoted very well, and seeing her get up that kind of mindset would be very unlike her.
"That aside, why did you want to speak in person?"
Choosing not to persue the angry German woman comment, due to more interesting topics she tilted her head slightly, as if taking a moment to consider, before speaking.
"What if I told you that I can enlighten the world on all things Makar Peotrovich?" Her tone is light, and she looks at him for a brief moment before her eyes shift and she's watching her fingers trace out a pattern along the canvas of her bag.
Kipling leaned back into the couch. It was something he wanted for some time--proof that he wasn't lying, that Makar really was pulling everyone's collective leg. To most people, it looked like Kipling was mad. He just wanted to be against a man. He just wanted to believe what Anastasia had said. But he was deceived and he felt it; it was a willing choice and every single one of the Fated should have had some idea of that.
But proof that he hadn't lost his mind wasn't presented to him until Valentina asked him that question.
"Have to say I'm interested. All things?" He slid his arms to cross them over his chest as he slouched down a little.
She smiled, flexing her fingers until her knuckles cracked, and she pulled back the flap of her bag, hauling out her laptop. "Anything he's written under locked filters, anyway." She was opening up the laptop again, speeding it through its setup. It took far quicker than it probably should have, but her hands were also positioned on it in such a way that made her almost look like she was feeling out the machine.
"It'd be dangerous, of course. For me. Once he knows that I'm a Seal, and what I can do, my usefulness will be somewhat limited, as far as any previous hacking goes." She looked over at Kipling, canting her head to the side. "I'll be convincing my brother to transfer to another school, and my parents to go with him, so that they are unable to be used as any sort of leverage." She took a deep breath while looking back at the screen, stroking her fingers over a few of the keys on the computer, the cursor moving over pages without her even touching the touchpad built into the laptop's casing. "I've noticed an increase in my powers since I became a Seal, but unless I can make a clever use of nearby machinery, I don't think I'd last very long in a fight. Or if he decided to kill me."
If Kipling put a lot of his secrets under there, it wasn't surprising that Makar did the same. Momentarily, he was paranoid that she had read his posts, but he realized it didn't matter. He slept with Anastasia. It was a fact. Grigori had publicly stated that he had a feeling about it, and as a result, other people probably believed it. That wasn't an easy thing for him to get through. The Karin thing was another part, but again, it didn't matter.
Unless the Berlin Angels found out, but he doubted they would. It wouldn't matter, in the end. He doubted he would be returning there until the end of the year.
"Could set up cameras and have access to most of the electrical systems in the city, couldn't you? What if you could make your way into a building that held the access to the city? Think you could do something with it?" It was a thought. Her powers combined with Anastasia's could be beneficial to the Seals. Add some of Natalia's powers in, and they could really have a complete hold over the city. "Just a thought, I suppose."
He hesitated before going on. "The filtered information should be a help. Believe it could be just what we need to justify ourselves. Might keep the less aware neutrals away from him."
Valentina nodded, her fingers moving over the keys, a lot of gibberish popping up but she was staring at it like it made complete sense. "It'll take me a few days to compile everything and decode it so that the filters are completely bypassed for the general public, but I can do it." She paused, turning to look at him, and for probably the first time in her brief meetings with him, looked completely serious.
"I don't want to die because of this, Kipling."
The solemnity surprised him a little, but he understood what she meant. Kipling, a few weeks prior, would have decided that it would be a foregone conclusion. They would die, even if the city would live. Now, that had changed. He couldn't even respond to that appropriately.
"Neither do I," he said after a moment of pondering the matter. It was very definitive for him, and he would probably regret it later on. "Not about to do as little as I can. Will end up dying either way if I just sit around avoiding death. Angels will see to that." Even if there was an Angel who wanted him alive, it wouldn't be enough.
She smiled slightly, before nodding and turning back to her computer. After a few keystrokes, the first entry she'd picked came up, decoded. "There. I thought I'd show you I'd be able to do it, just in case you weren't sure." It was complicated, but when you knew where to look and you had the machine helping you, wanting to help you, it opened all kinds of doors that you never exactly realized were there before.
"Can make it open," he murmured thoughtfully, "but could you compile it, just in case? Save it all so he doesn't have a chance to change it. Possibly make it so he can't change it. Remove his access and the such." Kipling figured something like that could be done. "Let it up when the damage has been done." It would mean a lot of work for her, blocking him from the network, but he wanted this to work perfectly. If the Angels intended to take down a barrier soon, it would just be some vindication on their part.
And if she was offering this, he had no doubt that Makar's private information would certainly prove interesting.
As he talked her fingers were moving over the keys again, and for a second she didn't respond, before she nodded. "I can divert access, make it exclusive to the person with the codes--me, naturally- and while it could probably be rerouted in time, or I could undo it so he could hide his secrets again, there really wouldn't be a point, by then." She was as curious as to how Makar would respond to the situation as anything. She'd been tracking his entries since she'd figured out how to hack through the private filters when she first found the community. She wouldn't admit it, but she was morbidly fascinated by him.
"Suffice to say, he won't see it coming."
"Think you can keep some tabs on all the Angels?" he asked, meaning it a bit more idly than anything. If he couldn't ask Anastasia, couldn't even bring himself to do it, he could possibly go through Valentina. It was a round about way to make sure that all parts of the Angels were watched, and there were only two members that were known to be this violent.
It really did seem easy to her, but the plants in his room all spoke to them. He could probably have them around her immediately and choking her--if he wanted that. Of course, that worked for all visitors, and it also worked if someone came in while he was sleeping. Any minor disturbances would reach him, and it would probably work better than an actual security system. He imagined she could be a living, breathing one, if she tried.
"It'd take some work, and some better equipment than what I've got at my disposal right now..." She leaned away from the computer, flexing her arms behind her. "But when my home is deserted I'll have run of the place and can set things up how I see fit, so, it's plausible." Video feeds, phones, anything networked, really, she wondered if she had the potential to take advantage of that.
"And if you can't do that, we always just have the community. Get a good idea if they're lying or planning on doing anything. Not all things are planned through dear Makarei." He sat there for a moment longer before lifting up and moving toward his shoes. "Just do what you can. All I can ask of you." Kipling slid his feet into them and stood awkwardly. Ask her along or not? It didn't seem like a bad idea and he was in good spirits. They were working well again. This could work in their favor.
She nodded, before taking note of his movements and backing out of her programs, shutting the computer down and sliding it back into her bag, easily enough. "Like I said, it will take some time, but I think I can do it." She hadn't really tested her powers to complete and full potential. She hadn't really had a reason to, but if she was going to put herself out there now, well. She needed to find more aggressive ways to be useful.
"Look forward to the results." It was all very business-like. He remembered his previous ambitions of bringing the Seals together and making them close. This seemed to be a far cry from those ideals. Meet with him, plan something out, talk about it later. He wasn't an organizer or anything--he was a Seal.
That decided it.
"Mind having something to eat with me? Unless you need to start on that immediately."
Valentina stood, slinging her bag over her shoulder and shaking her head. "I can get started on it tomorrow. I never pass up a meal with a handsome man." There was that grin again, and any previous seriousness she may have had a few minutes ago was gone from her face. She wasn't so good as to be able to forget it completely, but she was good at pushing things to the back of her mind for later access.
He started, just a little, but decided not to pay it any more mind. Kipling moved toward his television set to grab his wallet and tuck it in his pocket. "Off we go, then." He opened the door and after allowing her to pass through the doorway, he followed after her. Even if he felt more like a manager of some sort for the Seals, he would try to change that. It was worth a shot and it might make living a little more possible.
what: Plotting against Makar.
where: His flat, amazingly.
Valentina glanced down at the address she'd written down before leaving, double checking that it was correct, before rapping her kunckles against the door, and taking a step backwards to wait. She'd been surprised at the quick response comparatively to their previous meetings, and really, she hadn't expected him to ever invite her to his place of residence, without her somehow invading on her own.
She was curious as to it possibly having to do with his private lock, but she'd been good and avoided prying into his personal life, for the moment.
It wasn't like him to give out his address so easily, especially after he vowed that he would keep this place private. But after returning from Berlin, after his time with Karin, Kipling was in better spirits. It might not have meant much for him in the end. But for now, he was doing all right--or as well as he could be considering the situation.
When the knocks came, he left his kitchen and moved toward the door. A hesitant smile formed before he opened the door. At least he wasn't frowning and staring at the floor like he had been the last time he saw her. "Come in," he greeted, stepping back so that Valentina could make her way inside. He looked outside in a paranoid fashion after she came inside, and then closed the door.
"Hello~" Valentina was naturally a very outgoing person, and she tended to put forward the extra effort to verge on almost obnoxious when around people who were particularly grumpy. So accompanying the greeting where you could practically hear the tilde in her voice, she smiled brightly at Kipling, moving past him and into his home, looking around curiously. You could tell a lot about a person from the way they kept their home.
His place was a little messy, but it was to be expected from a bachelor. Plants, because of his power, lined the walls, and there were even more than there were back in his old flat because he no longer had to worry about Anastasia's annoyed expressions whenever he did something with them. Part of the earth or not, he felt as if they were a part of him. Having them around was necessary. There were a couple plates on the coffee table and a few shirts that rested in an obviously just made pile on the side of the couch, not quite out of sight but just barely.
Kipling felt a little uneasy around Valentina, but it was mostly because she was so cheery, so outgoing, so willing to be how she was that he didn't know how to respond. He understood women that were a little on edge or shy, or even like Karin and a little bad with words, but she didn't have any of those problems.
"Suppose I should tell you to sit," he said.
Valentina looked back at Kipling after her eyes scanned his apartment, and she smiled again, canting her head to the side very slightly. "I think I could have figured that out for myself, but thank you for the invitation." She moved to the couch, sitting down and crossing her legs at the ankle, pulling her messenger bag up into her lap and balancing it in such a way that would suggest that she either had a very thick and stiff notebook or a laptop computer stuffed inside. Given her abilities, it was probably safer to assume the latter.
Once she was settled she turned to look at Kipling again, her expression fairly innocent. "Unless that wasn't an invitation. It's hard to tell with you, sometimes."
"Meant it to be. Some people--" Anastasia "--like to stand around while I make a fool of myself. Must be a bit of a routine with some of them." Kipling considered sitting in his seat, but after observing the hard object in the bag, he decided to sit down beside her.
Her eyes followed him as he sat down, and once he did, she smiled, crossing her arms over her bag, rather than opening it. "So, you probably want to know why I was so insistant in speaking with you in person." It occured to her she wasn't exactly being a team player, but some things really didn't need to involved EVERY one. And surprises were always such nice things.
"Imagine I wouldn't have asked you over so quickly if I wasn't," Kipling said with a slight shrug of his shoulders. He wasn't the type to do anything urgently, and instead, often forgot he was supposed to meet with people. It slipped his mind. But it also was because he was rather antisocial at times.
"And here I thought you just asked me over so quickly because you just couldn't wait to see me again." She could go directly to the point. Or she could flirt and be a generally annoying eighteen-year-old girl. Besides, she didn't really think it'd take her too long to get her point across and lay out everything she wanted to say. She was very organized when she wanted to be.
"Could be that, but you might have an angry German woman after you if I did that." Giving away a little bit of information, but Kipling imagined it wouldn't hurt. Seeing Karin angry was near impossible, however. She wasn't exactly the type that emoted very well, and seeing her get up that kind of mindset would be very unlike her.
"That aside, why did you want to speak in person?"
Choosing not to persue the angry German woman comment, due to more interesting topics she tilted her head slightly, as if taking a moment to consider, before speaking.
"What if I told you that I can enlighten the world on all things Makar Peotrovich?" Her tone is light, and she looks at him for a brief moment before her eyes shift and she's watching her fingers trace out a pattern along the canvas of her bag.
Kipling leaned back into the couch. It was something he wanted for some time--proof that he wasn't lying, that Makar really was pulling everyone's collective leg. To most people, it looked like Kipling was mad. He just wanted to be against a man. He just wanted to believe what Anastasia had said. But he was deceived and he felt it; it was a willing choice and every single one of the Fated should have had some idea of that.
But proof that he hadn't lost his mind wasn't presented to him until Valentina asked him that question.
"Have to say I'm interested. All things?" He slid his arms to cross them over his chest as he slouched down a little.
She smiled, flexing her fingers until her knuckles cracked, and she pulled back the flap of her bag, hauling out her laptop. "Anything he's written under locked filters, anyway." She was opening up the laptop again, speeding it through its setup. It took far quicker than it probably should have, but her hands were also positioned on it in such a way that made her almost look like she was feeling out the machine.
"It'd be dangerous, of course. For me. Once he knows that I'm a Seal, and what I can do, my usefulness will be somewhat limited, as far as any previous hacking goes." She looked over at Kipling, canting her head to the side. "I'll be convincing my brother to transfer to another school, and my parents to go with him, so that they are unable to be used as any sort of leverage." She took a deep breath while looking back at the screen, stroking her fingers over a few of the keys on the computer, the cursor moving over pages without her even touching the touchpad built into the laptop's casing. "I've noticed an increase in my powers since I became a Seal, but unless I can make a clever use of nearby machinery, I don't think I'd last very long in a fight. Or if he decided to kill me."
If Kipling put a lot of his secrets under there, it wasn't surprising that Makar did the same. Momentarily, he was paranoid that she had read his posts, but he realized it didn't matter. He slept with Anastasia. It was a fact. Grigori had publicly stated that he had a feeling about it, and as a result, other people probably believed it. That wasn't an easy thing for him to get through. The Karin thing was another part, but again, it didn't matter.
Unless the Berlin Angels found out, but he doubted they would. It wouldn't matter, in the end. He doubted he would be returning there until the end of the year.
"Could set up cameras and have access to most of the electrical systems in the city, couldn't you? What if you could make your way into a building that held the access to the city? Think you could do something with it?" It was a thought. Her powers combined with Anastasia's could be beneficial to the Seals. Add some of Natalia's powers in, and they could really have a complete hold over the city. "Just a thought, I suppose."
He hesitated before going on. "The filtered information should be a help. Believe it could be just what we need to justify ourselves. Might keep the less aware neutrals away from him."
Valentina nodded, her fingers moving over the keys, a lot of gibberish popping up but she was staring at it like it made complete sense. "It'll take me a few days to compile everything and decode it so that the filters are completely bypassed for the general public, but I can do it." She paused, turning to look at him, and for probably the first time in her brief meetings with him, looked completely serious.
"I don't want to die because of this, Kipling."
The solemnity surprised him a little, but he understood what she meant. Kipling, a few weeks prior, would have decided that it would be a foregone conclusion. They would die, even if the city would live. Now, that had changed. He couldn't even respond to that appropriately.
"Neither do I," he said after a moment of pondering the matter. It was very definitive for him, and he would probably regret it later on. "Not about to do as little as I can. Will end up dying either way if I just sit around avoiding death. Angels will see to that." Even if there was an Angel who wanted him alive, it wouldn't be enough.
She smiled slightly, before nodding and turning back to her computer. After a few keystrokes, the first entry she'd picked came up, decoded. "There. I thought I'd show you I'd be able to do it, just in case you weren't sure." It was complicated, but when you knew where to look and you had the machine helping you, wanting to help you, it opened all kinds of doors that you never exactly realized were there before.
"Can make it open," he murmured thoughtfully, "but could you compile it, just in case? Save it all so he doesn't have a chance to change it. Possibly make it so he can't change it. Remove his access and the such." Kipling figured something like that could be done. "Let it up when the damage has been done." It would mean a lot of work for her, blocking him from the network, but he wanted this to work perfectly. If the Angels intended to take down a barrier soon, it would just be some vindication on their part.
And if she was offering this, he had no doubt that Makar's private information would certainly prove interesting.
As he talked her fingers were moving over the keys again, and for a second she didn't respond, before she nodded. "I can divert access, make it exclusive to the person with the codes--me, naturally- and while it could probably be rerouted in time, or I could undo it so he could hide his secrets again, there really wouldn't be a point, by then." She was as curious as to how Makar would respond to the situation as anything. She'd been tracking his entries since she'd figured out how to hack through the private filters when she first found the community. She wouldn't admit it, but she was morbidly fascinated by him.
"Suffice to say, he won't see it coming."
"Think you can keep some tabs on all the Angels?" he asked, meaning it a bit more idly than anything. If he couldn't ask Anastasia, couldn't even bring himself to do it, he could possibly go through Valentina. It was a round about way to make sure that all parts of the Angels were watched, and there were only two members that were known to be this violent.
It really did seem easy to her, but the plants in his room all spoke to them. He could probably have them around her immediately and choking her--if he wanted that. Of course, that worked for all visitors, and it also worked if someone came in while he was sleeping. Any minor disturbances would reach him, and it would probably work better than an actual security system. He imagined she could be a living, breathing one, if she tried.
"It'd take some work, and some better equipment than what I've got at my disposal right now..." She leaned away from the computer, flexing her arms behind her. "But when my home is deserted I'll have run of the place and can set things up how I see fit, so, it's plausible." Video feeds, phones, anything networked, really, she wondered if she had the potential to take advantage of that.
"And if you can't do that, we always just have the community. Get a good idea if they're lying or planning on doing anything. Not all things are planned through dear Makarei." He sat there for a moment longer before lifting up and moving toward his shoes. "Just do what you can. All I can ask of you." Kipling slid his feet into them and stood awkwardly. Ask her along or not? It didn't seem like a bad idea and he was in good spirits. They were working well again. This could work in their favor.
She nodded, before taking note of his movements and backing out of her programs, shutting the computer down and sliding it back into her bag, easily enough. "Like I said, it will take some time, but I think I can do it." She hadn't really tested her powers to complete and full potential. She hadn't really had a reason to, but if she was going to put herself out there now, well. She needed to find more aggressive ways to be useful.
"Look forward to the results." It was all very business-like. He remembered his previous ambitions of bringing the Seals together and making them close. This seemed to be a far cry from those ideals. Meet with him, plan something out, talk about it later. He wasn't an organizer or anything--he was a Seal.
That decided it.
"Mind having something to eat with me? Unless you need to start on that immediately."
Valentina stood, slinging her bag over her shoulder and shaking her head. "I can get started on it tomorrow. I never pass up a meal with a handsome man." There was that grin again, and any previous seriousness she may have had a few minutes ago was gone from her face. She wasn't so good as to be able to forget it completely, but she was good at pushing things to the back of her mind for later access.
He started, just a little, but decided not to pay it any more mind. Kipling moved toward his television set to grab his wallet and tuck it in his pocket. "Off we go, then." He opened the door and after allowing her to pass through the doorway, he followed after her. Even if he felt more like a manager of some sort for the Seals, he would try to change that. It was worth a shot and it might make living a little more possible.