you can live in this illusion | you can choose to believe

[fucktennyson]

Characters:  Sydney Bristow and Shiori Sakita [closed]
Location:  Apartment complex A-4
Planet: Coruscant
When: During the Bikini curse
What: Sydney tries to get information out of Shiori about why she might have been picked for this weird experiment.
Rating: G/PG I'll assume

Comments

[lily_schlaflied]

As it happened, Shiori was alone in the apartment. She opened the door smiling broadly at Sydney. "Welcome! Please come in." She stepped aside, giving Sydney room to enter, before letting the door close behind them as she hurried into the kitchen. "Would you like some food, or something to drink?"

It was probably obvious to someone like Sydney that Shiori was avoiding eye contact like the plague.

[fucktennyson]

It was more than obvious to Sydney within simple moments of seeing Shiori face to face that she was hiding something, from the erratic movement of her eyes, to the thin sheen of sweat evinced on the back of her neck when she turned to enter the kitchen. The last thing Sydney wanted was for the girl to feel like this was a shakedown so she gave her a friendly smile and took a few steps inside.

"Some coffee, if you had any," she said instinctively, trying to buy herself an extra moment to look around. She realized only after saying it that coffee here wasn't exactly the same as back home: she could probably deliver it with the tap of a button. Oh well. She still stole a cursory glance around the apartment for open datapads, et cetera, as she waited.

[lily_schlaflied]

"Coffee..." Shiori muttered to herself. She had loved making coffee, at one point. Eri's cafe was one of her favourite places, apart from the orphanage, the church and the library.

Shiori had a lot of favorite places.

She brings Sydney the sad excuse for coffee with an apologetic wrinkle of her eyebrows. "I'm still not sure what stands in for sugar around here, sorry. Please, sit." She gestures over to the couch.

Taking her seat, Shiori clasps her hands in her lap. "Why...why do you think someone would take us? I-if that's what's going on here."

[fucktennyson]

"Thanks," Sydney said, taking the cup and holding it between her legs, pretending to wait for it to cool. Really, she wouldn't trust it enough to take a sip at this point, not until she knew more about Sakita, but she was prepared to pretend

[lily_schlaflied]

"Elaborate would be the word for it..." Shiori bit her lip, wringing her hands in her lap. She took a deep breath before beginning. "I...am one of those people, I suppose, that claim to have abilities beyond normal. The Father calls it a blessing from God, and I always supposed it was, but..."

She gathers her courage and turns to meet Sydney's gaze. "I am a psychometer. Or the psychometer, I don't know. I've never met anyone else who can do what I do. I can sense...well, Nakanishi-san called it 'sensory memory.' I can see the sensory memory of objects. Where they have been, if someone has touched them, imprints of emotions and memories of the people that have touched them..."

Here, Shiori looks away again, pulling her hair in front of her shoulder. "If what you say is true, then...I just don't know."

[fucktennyson]

Sydney kept her gaze even and level, not letting any doubt register on her face about what Shiori was telling her. If it was true - if she really was the only person in the world known to possess such a power - of course numerous agencies would be clambering over themselves to use her to their advantage.

She couldn't help but feel a little sorry for her, because her personal worth would be overrode by her worth as an asset. There would be no escaping, unless she managed to erase her identity completely.

But she had to make sure this girl was telling the truth, before she extended too much compassion.

"Have you tried to use that ability on any objects you've seen here? If this is an illusion, the objects here would be no more than props, and someone would have had to set them in place."

[lily_schlaflied]

"I have. It works," Shiori answered, "though I haven't been able to learn anything that could support your theory." In fact, she had only seen things that would support the opposite. Even so, she smiled to herself. Having someone know about her took a weight off her shoulders.

"But I don't understand. The only people who know about me are the Father, Detective Nakanishi-san and my friend Eri-san."

[fucktennyson]

Well, that was unfortunate. Sydney frowned, wishing that she'd arrived in this world with anything that was hers in some way, so that she could test the theory that way. So long as they were on even ground, Shiori could just as easily be making things up or deluding herself.

"This detective, and your friend: you trust them completely?" she asked. She was certain the answer would be a 'yes' but that didn't mean anything either. And it was possible that they could have been overheard discussing things by any sort of operative worth their salt. "Not just not to tell, but not to have slipped something out by accident in conversation with somebody else?"

[lily_schlaflied]

Shiori nodded. "I do trust them both, but...I suppose it is possible for someone to have overheard something. I was working with the police on a case, a...a serial homicide case." Shiori's gaze shifted as she looked out the window. It hadn't been long since the case had been closed. "We were careful, but I guess not careful enough."

She looked back at Sydney, eyes searching. "Please believe me. It sounds impossible, but...well." She gestured around them. She had been about to talk about Catty's ability to travel through time, but it wasn't hers to divulge.

[fucktennyson]

"I believe you," Sydney lied effortlessly, with an easy, reassuring smile. Truthfully, she believed it was more likely than not that there was some truth to it, but she needed proof before she'd be one hundred percent sold. "Since you've arrived here, has anyone tried to make you use your ability? For anything, even something that might seem innocent?"

[lily_schlaflied]

"No." Shiori shook her head. "Not at all. I haven't mentioned it to anyone. Although, it's why I've been wanting to go to Telos. Everyone's been talking about there being information there, answers...if I could get there I could help." She shrugged. "If we are in some kind of, of lab, maybe this is a test. If we can pass it, maybe this can all be finished."

[fucktennyson]

"I don't think playing along with their endgame is the best idea when we don't know what their intentions are," Sydney countered, frowning ever so slightly. "But a certain amount of going with the flow might at least give us a better sense of what that is."

She hesitated a moment, before asking: "Did you want company?"

[lily_schlaflied]

"To Telos?" Shiori frowned. "I...would, but please don't feel like you have to. I don't want you to have to uproot everything you have here. It's probably a fool's errand anyway."

[fucktennyson]

"Trust me. What I have here? Isn't much worth staying for," Sydney admitted, thinking wryly of how the only person she really knew well was Sark. Now there was a horrifying thought and a half. "If there are answers there, it's worth the trip. And I'd like to see how... real the trip actually feels."

[lily_schlaflied]

"Okay. Thank you," Shiori said sincerely, smiling in her way. "Thank you so much. Ah, I'm going to see the owner of the ship, Richard Riddick, tomorrow. You wouldn't happen to know how to get these things off, would you?" She shifted uncomfortably, indicated the metal bikini.

[fucktennyson]

"If I did, I wouldn't have one on under this either," Sydney admitted, a little sheepishly. She'd done her best to cover it up with clothes, but it was still cold under there. "Is he giving you passage?"