Prisons and Mercenaries

Prisons and Mercenaries
Date of Scene:	20 March 2014
Location:	Vector
Synopsis:	Rakassa meets her prisoner, and makes deals.
Cast of Characters:	Rakassa, Zerum Valos

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Rakassa has posed:
Rakassa strolls into the holding area, admiring her handiwork; she had this particular cell created to exacting specifications. Plastic and other non-metal materials hard enough to stand up to any amount of cage-rattling, and general abuse her prisoner might be able to dish out. So far, it's worked, particularly given she's kept him nice and tied up.

There's a dull sound as Rakassa knocks on the prison bars. She frowns. Not as good as metal ones, but it'll do.

"Ohhhh wakey wakey~" Sing-songs the woman, before she laughs.

"How is my favorite prisoner doing? How are the accomodations? Ahh, at least you haven't been lonely!" There's a sick, twisted grin on her face. A guard behind her laughs loudly, before she looks back and glares. He shuts up, mumbles, and quickly heads out the room.

She then pulls up a (non-metal!) chair and takes a seat. She looks at him like some kinda of spider before an insect; hungry.

Zerum has posed:
To say that Zerum Valos was contemptful towards Rakassa would have been an understatement, given that he was trussed up even though he was already inside of a cell. Though, in all fairness, this was probably mainly for the duration of her visit, and upon departure, he'd most likely be liberated of his malleable bonds, while, on the other hand, he'd still have bars, or walls that were immobile that would keep him from doing too much moving.

Given Rakassa's sadistic streak, it was entirely possible she'd leave him like this, as well, since he was apparently her favorite prisoner, which caused him to emit a riposte concocted just for this occasion, "Your sardonic utterances are neither amusing, or witty.... so far. You probably tell everybody that they're your favorite, just to parody the kind of alleged 'privileged treatment' that they receive." The dark elf grumbles, when she pulls up a chair to examine him more closely, but then he gives a faint smile, "I preferred the drow female's companionship to yours, yes."

Although, ironically enough, Rakassa did resemble a dark elf of certain sub-divisions, when accounting for her blue-tinted skin and tapered ears. "I can already guess why I'm here, you know. I kept in contact with him before he self-destructed. Yet, I suppose that since you can't get /him/, you decidedly settled for second-rate plunder, it must already be obvious to you by now that I possess a meager shadow of his potential; what I cannot figure out is exactly how you gained this information about both of us."

Rakassa has posed:
Rakassa chuckles. "How sharp~ You Valoses were always that way. Mmm. Not quite as sharp as /him/ though."

She shrugs. "Actually, you're the only interesting one today. The other two died; too weak. You at least will probably live through what I do to you."

She chuckles. "I thought so. Mmm, I wonder..."

She goes silent a bit as he quite easily noses into her plan. Really, it doesn't matter.

"Try third-rate. You're weak. Very weak. Buuut, you have enough of what I need for you to be worthwhile. Picking you up was cheap, and easy anyway. Not gonna tell you how I found it~" More sing-songy.

"Mmm, I wonder though...do you like it here?" Her grin grows.

Zerum has posed:
Zerum frowns when he hears that the others perished, at which point he realizes that what's in store won't be pleasant, unless he can weasel his way into finding a compromise with the woman-- code of the Black Chevaleresque notwithstanding, he was still willing to bend on a few things intermittently. "Survival seems to be one of our attributes, yes. I'd call it a redeeming quality, but my cousin would have called it a curse, which was why he did what he did."

When she claims that he's third-rate, he tries his best to undermine her efforts to belittle him, so as not to have his will broken so easily, "Yet.... I'm strong enough to resist your Slave-Crowns, which seem to be effective even on some of the hardiest individuals. That's why you're here. You can't make me a slave, so you can only kill me, or bargain with me, and you didn't go through all the trouble of taking me alive just to extract those samples. Well...."

He chuckles, "Minus the one you had Miss Alazne kindly take from me, which I had no issue with surrendering. I do know that certain things 'spoil' rather quickly after the body dies.... Even then, you've now had pretty much the entirety of my bodily fluids for a good number of weeks, which disqualifies /that/ theory." The dark knight squirms a little bit, trying to get comfortable, regardless of his hamperings, "By 'here', do you mean this room? No. 'Here', as in the city in general, I can hardly say, seeing that I was considerably dazed when you had that bat and her drow servant haul me around." He shrugs, "In any event, here is the way I see things....." He raises a brow as he postulates with curiosity, "You want something from me, and you haven't yet gotten it. You're trying to figure out what I want from you, so that we can strike some kind of deal. But.... do feel free to correct me if I'm mistaken...."

Rakassa has posed:
Sigh. She leans back, frowning. She crosses her legs, kicking her feet up on the bars.

"...You're no fun. That, too, is something that seems to run in your family. Alright, then, down to business. I need someone competent. Someone with a brain. And someone who isn't a coward. One /not/ in Vector. You're a mercenary, right? I'll hire you. Five thousand munny a job, more for the riskier ones. /And/, you get to get out of here. What do you say?"

Zerum has posed:
Sighing, and rolling his eyes, Zerum remarks, "You think I care about munny? How daft are you?" He adorns a devilish smirk as he decides to throw Rakassa's way what might be construable as a curve-ball, "Hmmm... Well, not being fun /is/ something that people seem to say about me. And on that note, were you aware that magnesium is an element that is /vital/ to the existence of humanoid life forms? Hmmmm...." He nods his head, as if to reaffirm this as an important notation, before he delves further, ".....And, were you aware that magnesium is a metal?" One of the more insidious truths about the Valos family is that they tend to be educated, such that many have studied anatomy, or philosophy, mathematics-- this is something that /usually/ catches folks a little bit off-guard, since many people envision drows as just being nasty sprites that like to go around spreading meaningless chaos for the sake of appeasing their sadistic side.

Zerum Valos is assuredly testing Rakassa, because she may, or may /not/ have entered the room knowing this little tidbit about herself, which could've made this little notification somewhat horrifying, since she was undeniably familiar with the extent of Zerum's magnetic powers. On the other hand, if she didn't suddenly wince, or tense her shoulders, that could've meant that she did understand in advance that she was entering the lion's den when she waltzed into Zerum's cell, and that a necessary part of reaping huge rewards always included large risks. A third possibility was that she didn't predict this, but is so brave that she's able to improvise in spite of the fact that if either decided to end the other's life, it would come down to who was the quickest on the draw.

Was the dark elf planning on doing anything to her whether she proved courageous, craven, or somewhere in-between? Of course not, as that would complicate matters, considering that he was still in a giant plastic alcove-- but it wasn't a bluff, being that he didn't specifically state that he /intended/ to exploit Rakassa's vulnerability..... no, this was just a test to see how she'd respond. If there's one thing Zerum liked to do, it was to run scientific experiments..... and since he was in the Magitek Factory, it was the perfect location to do it, even if it was just a psychological one.

Rakassa has posed:
"Poor picture of a noble you are." She fires right back, chuckling.

Rakassa /smirks/. Then, she laughs. "Good thinking. I was wondering when you'd mention that. Yeah, yeah, I know. Do you know how many creatures I've cut apart and examined? You don't get into my line of work without knowing a bit about life."

"You'd be a fool to kill me. Then, you'd be locked away to rot, deprived of any stimulation. Just stillness. And I don't think you're like the /other/ Valos. Wanna die of insanity, or starvation? Go on. Kill me."

Then, she smiles. "But I wonder...are you like minded? Wanna probe the depths of knowledge, of what you can /do/ with things? With people? Come on. You're right. A chance to work with nearly unlimited resources...better price?"

Zerum has posed:
At this point, Zerum is a little more impressed that Rakassa is fairly enlightened to some of the more cultured disciplines of the world, but he yet retains his moderately calm demeanor, even if he didn't manage to spook the Vectorite Admiral. "You were trying to hold out on me, so I had to put my ace on the table. Either you were hoping to see if I'd tolerate a piteous five-thousand munny, or if I'd insist that I was worth more than that....." He shakes his head, and scoffs, "You needed to know I was worth more, and I needed to let you know that I'm not a sucker."

With that, a grin, "I'm actually not as like-minded to him as you might've imagined. I've only got one foot in the door of what that guy was into, thus..... I can be bribed. He never once begged for mercy when he was subject to the torment inflicted on him by Garland, after the Iifa Tree incident. Why? Because he believed in the domino-effect. He subscribed to inevitability." The dark elf twisted his body a little bit, still trying to adopt a more cozy position, which was difficult with his present physical limitations, "I'm more a free-will kinda guy, which means I think that what I do isn't completely futile.... So, access to resources would be a lot more promising than a few round pieces of metal. But tell me, if you'd be so kind, are you more of a free-will type, or a domino-effect believer?"

Rakassa has posed:
"What can I say, I enjoy cheating people like that."

She listens. Then, she smiles. "Me? Call me a believer in being able to shift things to your advantage. Other than that? I work with the nows. Not with something so useless as philosophy."

"You want this 'Garland' to beg, then? Deal. And the experiments too." After all, taht'll help /her/.

Zerum has posed:
Zerum tilts his head perplexedly, "I don't care what Garland does; that business was between him and Gidarch." Following this, he sneers, disapprovingly, "Useless? You're ignorant to say that. Everything that makes you sapient is based on your belief-systems, otherwise you'd be operating on instinct, or not at all, if you were a rock." Suddenly a mildly sheepish look comes over his countenance, "Well.... aside from rocks who formerly went by the same surname as myself, that is!"

After all, Zerum was made of flesh, which made it a little easier for him to relate to Rakassa, which was presumably why they could relate, whereas some folks just couldn't communicate because they were too alien to those with whom they may have attempted to associate. ".....But I was going to get to my point, before you derailed us, Miss Rakassa. Since I believe in free-will, that means I have an appreciation for the legitimacy of amassing data so that one can supposedly make informed decisions, which, as you realize, would not be applicable if I felt that everything was predetermined." Then, to bring his explanation to a close, the dark knight elaborates, "The more information you have, the more incisive your capacity to take the appropriate course of action. And that begs the question..... what is knowledge, in its most fundamental manifestation?"

He grins widely-- he knows Rakassa doesn't have the answer to this one; on the contrary, she might not even care, but if she wants his cooperation, she might at least entertain his rambling by inquiring as to the answer, assuming she doesn't know it. If she /does/ know it, or thinks she knows it, then Rakassa would unquestionably be able to endear herself to Zerum even more, and mayhap earn a little additional loyalty by at least taking a stab at trying to formulate a response.

Rakassa has posed:
By this point, Rakassa is leaning back, and looking as though she's only pretending to listen. She even adopts the arms-folded-behind-the-head motion that speaks of utter boredom. Which is probably true, but inwardly, she's listening. No, she has to cultivate a 'higher than you' look here. Both for her pride, and for propriety's sake. After all, she's talking to a prisoner.

"Data." Is her answer. It's said without a moment's hesitation. "Facts, information...all of that, put into useful context. Where a person lays their head at night. The melting point of mithril. The number and placement of bones in a warg. Anything inhereently useful when applied to a task."

Zerum has posed:
In Zerum's mind, she was a little bit off the mark. He shakes his head, "Disagree. Phenomena is what I'd call information when it is applied to whatever its unavoidable destiny, but I wouldn't call knowledge something that one knows that can be put to a 'useful' context, because knowledge may also be misused, and cause failure, or, it can be acquired without ever finding itself being applied."

He finally becomes still for a bit, deciding that he won't be able to feel relaxed until he's in a better state, "Knowledge is perception committed to memory." The dark knight's head oscillates, "Knowledge should be defined in this way because.... without physical stimuli that is present to be absorbed by the senses, there is nothing to be known, and without a location into which to place the aforementioned knowledge, that which could be known would not be able to be utilized for even the most minute fraction of time......"

"Ergo, I say, something must be assimilated, and simultaneously lodged, to be utilized, otherwise, you have a ray of light travelling from one end of the universe to the other, but nothing to acknowledge its existence, and therefore, there is no knowledge to be possessed, and no possesser to possess it." He unconsciously wiggles around, "Therefore.... I need both a greater memory, and the power to piggyback on the experiences of other conscious entities, to attain the maximum amount of knowledge possible." The elf looks from side to side, then back at Rakassa, "That is my price. Knowledge."

Rakassa has posed:
Yaaaawn. Rakassa rudely does so right in the middle of Zerum's little informative speech. Indeed, she almost seems to be nodding off, when he says something that truly gets her attention.

"...You little /wretch/." The way she says it, it's as though she's happy about what he's implying. "You want to see people's memories...no. No. You want more than that. You want to know a person inside out, and all of their experiences. Perverted little noble, what a voyeur. Heh. You'd fit right in."

Then, she grins. "Yeah. Yeah, we can work towards that. Sounds fun." She sounds a little excited by now.

Zerum has posed:
Zerum simply shrugs, "Don't deny that you already do the same thing, to some effect." He lazily allows his eyelids to droop as though feeling uninterested in her insults, "What do you do all day long? You go around seeing things, and inwardly labeling them. When you don't know what something is, you label that so that you can figure out how to identify it more quickly for the future, to allow you to manipulate it more efficiently than when that object had no real purpose. Then you stick one label on top of another to narrow it down, for instance.... figuring out the different parts of an object that you've assigned a purpose."

He flounders a bit, "I'm glad you think I'd fit right in here, but these cords are not what I want to fit into, so let's start with you taking them off..... it's not as if having them on me does you much good, since being in a plastic room already makes me about as powerless as I can possibly be." Well, not unless she has some kind of fetish for seeing young men cinched up.... in which case, it did serve a function, but the dark elf could always hope that he wasn't being mentally used for some kind of sick fantasy belonging to Rakassa.

Rakassa has posed:
Oi, she needs a drink. If this were Queegma, she'd just shut him up. But here, she can't just throw around her weight.

"Riiight. Labels. Well, I won't deny it. Part of my job to know assets."

Rakassa halts her leaning, staring at the trussed up elf. She tilts her head this way and that, admiring him. It's likely to swiftly become a bit creepy due to the way she's staring. And it doesn't stop. That may very well answer Zerum's inner question.

Especially when she takes a picture. With a heavy sigh, she stands. Walking out, she comes back with a guard; no metal on this one, though that spear he's carrying looks like it's pretty sharp despite being plastic.

The man will open the cell, and unlock Zerum's cuffs. "Get going." He orders.