(9/18/02)
This. Fugging. Blows. And bad colloquialisms aside, yes, Dirah is an unhappy woman. Poor thing... I mean, here she is, the premiere actress, fashion goddess supreme and spy of the JNK Yggdrasil, and she had the plain bad luck to be captured by a bunch of ill-dressed, dim witted incompetants. That... -hurt-. And there's not all that much she can do to soothe her wounded pride while she's locked up in a room. Sigh. This is such a poor blow to her ego. Bide your time and things will turn out okay, right? But... That's not much of a comfort when Dirah has never been a woman of patience to begin with, she's only been here overnight, and Tifa doesn't know where she is. UGH. The poor woman is somewhat sulking right now, in only somewhat disguise--The eyepatch has been long since removed for the grace of full visibility and depth perception. The overjacket has also been removed, making the outfit but a bit more revealing overall that this is sincerely not a man. Well. No matter that. She sits in the back of the room on a chair, back nudged against the wall firmly. Arms crossed, legs crossed--It seems a pretty fitting unhappy pose for her, with her eyes closed and one foot irritably tapping.
The familiar CLANK-HISS of the thick doors of the Yggdrasil resounded throughout the room, followed by the soft tapping of boots and the swishing of red robes. Father Gabriel Taisen, Protectorate of Nisan and Ship's Chaplain of the Yggdrasil, entered the room with his hands folded and his face carrying as serene a display as he could produce. This woman was one of the infamous "Dark Yggddrasil" crew, and carried with her a whole hell of alot of valuable information. The Young Master was quite pleased that he'd finally caught one of them but was now fairly clueless as to what to do with her-- so, Gabriel being Gabriel, decided to volunteer to talk to her. He'd learned through Kaori that all Shevvites were followers of Nisan as well, so perhaps he could at least "minister" to her. Anything was possible, ne? To that end, Gabriel entered the room with an air of serenity that was worthy of a Priest, and with a smile like the sun he bowed deeply to her. "... Madam. I am Father Gabriel Taisen, ship's Chaplain. Are you quite comfortable? Could I get anything for you?"
...Chipper thing, isn't he? All that smiling and formality could hurt a person. And Dirah raises an eyebrow to quite a many things--The first and foremost being his introduction, and the second being the fact that she never has seen the person who Gabriella was mimicking before. Huh. Friendly son of a gun. Eyebrow still arched, and gaze framed in a perfect little peer, her responce is hardly as cheerful or welcome. "Pleasure, I'm sure." It really doesn't help that she reeks of sarcasm. "And thanks but no thanks, but I'd rather not try my luck on your generocity. Although being let go would be nice." A brief, far too sweet smile at that, even while she keeps a curious eye on him all the while. What a varied group this Yggdrasil is, and she's only had the ill luck to meet a scarse handful. Well, no more so than her own ship, but this all seemed so much more... Silly a way to run a ship.
"Sadly, I cannot give you that. But if you do require special food or other personal needs, I'll be more than happy to provide them for you." There. Gentle, kind, simple. And truthful. Gabriel was given the authority to attend to her needs if indeed she had any, but the others were a bit skeptical of this. Gabriel knew how to deal with political prisoners-- another sad nod of the hat to the Ethos for giving him a well-rounded education. "But, if you don't mind, may I ask you a few questions? If you're not in the mood to talk, I understand. I'm not here to interrogate you... merely inquire if you have any information which you wish to volunteer." Oh, gee, he's just setting himself up for this isn't he? The plethora of possible responses to that are all painful, but he had to say it...
"Hmph. Well. Can't say I wasn't expecting that." Dirah would be foolish to -not- be expecting it. 'Oh, you're unhappy? Please, let me show you outside' would be a beautiful thing to hear, but it's not exactly on the top ten things that captives are generally told on their first day out. Eh. "Right.." She comments, that peer only drawing more curious all the while. So what? Has she got herself an errand boy or someone trying to be religious support here? She'll figure that out later. Right now, she's simply going to shrug. And to his last comment? Ah, her responce could be much worse than this. But she laughs. Outright and entirely. She stands, but that's no cause for alarm--It's only so she can turn the chair around backwards and cross her arms on top of its low back, "Darling, I'm not going to give out my name, address and phone number to the first cute priest who asks nicely. But what the hell? I'm bored. I'm not much in the mood to 'volunteer' anything, but you've at least got my attention."
Gabriel smiles softly, eyes softening even further (the Anime "half-crecent" eyes). "Then I have already won a splendid victory." he says pleasently, walking over to her bed and sitting on it slowly, hands still folded in front of him. "The Yggdrasil is still currently moored off of Nisan, with no sign of your ship or your crew. How you came into our custody is still a mystery to me... the Young Master seemed in no mood to discuss it. Nevertheless, you are here and I see no reason why we can't work together. If you can give us some useful information, I can more than likely barter it for things for you want or need. Perhaps even your release, if it's worth it..." He gave that a second to sink in, adjusting his robes, "I'm a pragmatic person, miss. I see no reason to hold you here just for the sake of holding you here...."
My -word-. No one should ever be as cheerful as this. And that makes the case of Gabriella all that more bizarre--Well, no matter to that. For Dirah just simply -has- to laugh at that, distinctly amused, "Oh, I can imagine why your little Captain wouldn't have been." 'Hi, I just captured the JNK Yggdrasil's second in command, and she kneed me when I tried to tie her up'? That has a glorious ring to it, doesn't it? Quite the boasting fuel. Ha. "But let me get this straight." She interlocks her fingers and rests her chin upon the back of her hands, smiling in a way that is almost morbidly amused, "I give you information about home, my crewmembers and my mission and I might be set free? As charming a proposal as that is, I think I might prefer something a little more dramatic and a little less like treason."
The Nisanite priest allows a slight raising of the eyebrow. "What would that be, madam?" A simple question, but so many different answers. None of them sounded terribly appealing. A sizable portion involved him drawing his gun. But he was a humanist and as such believed that all people were good at their cores. He just had to drag the good out of this woman... whether she wanted it to be or not. Sincerely, he did want to help her... but she clearly did not WANT to be helped. Ah, well, the least he can do is try. And try he shall... it was beginning to look that she would be here for quite awhile...
Oh, goodness. If 'being helped' is willingly giving over informatioon of her friends and homeland, then she'd rather stay unhelped, thank you very much. She might be a vain, self-focused twit, but even she knows that releasing information about her group would be a bad way to be allowed to go back to it. And not wanting to suffer the discipline part of giving out information she'd rather not... Well. She smiles. "Oh, really now. Someone's bound to care that I'm here. And then it's just a matter of several things happening--I doubt we'd get into an all and all fight, as that's simply inefficient, but goodness knows that my crew would be willing to barter for me." She hopes. Oh goodness, she hopes. "It's not like we've not done it before after all." Like Margie in exchange for leaving them alone. It works wonders, you know. But she leans back away from the chair then and chuckles anew, "But from all of that, I assume that's just what you wanted me to tell? Really now. If you were on my ship, would you tell me all about your darling Captain and Holy Mother to be let go? Be reasonable."
"The primary difference, madam, is that Nisan is largely an open book. The Self Defense Force is not a secret project of the nation of Shevat. YOUR program is." A tad blunt, but there we were. "As far as the Yggdrasil goes, you already appear to know a great deal about it. Admittedly I've only seen the Yggdrasil's copy from a distance, but it does appear to be accurate...." He stands again, smoothing out his red robes and taking a moment to gently clasp his angelic necklace, closing his eyes as if pondering a very deep thought... "As I have told you, I am a pragmatic man. I do what is necessary in order to keep friends, and keep the world at peace..." He opens his gray eyes again, looking right into hers-- as if to channel directly into her soul. "I do not want to war with you or your sponsors any more... Besides... I also have a personal favor I may be able to ask of you..."
A snicker again! Oh, this guy is positively -entertaining-. And Dirah needed something like that, even if he's completely unintentionally being so, "I think you might have a few wires crossed there. Dear, we've nothing at all to do with Shevat spare occationally chatting with them. And I doubt we'll be starting any wars to boot--We don't -fight-. We do the clever bits and leave the gruntwork up to to other people. If we've come of as anything else, then... Well, then! I'm simpy appalled!" Oh, faux-drama. Eh, so spying isn't exactly the 'clever bits', but it's something more dignified than holding firepower. With another snicker, she just shakes her head lightly, stretching her arms a little before she folds them again on the top of the chair, "And if you can't tell assosiates from sponcors, I don't really know what to tell you. But go ahead, shoot. What's this favor?"
'This could get a little odd for you, Gabriel...' he thought. 'But you've been pondering it for far too long now.' He sighs takes a few steps to the side, pondering just how to articulate it. Eventually, he begins to settle for whatever words that come to him... "During the Fort Jasper attacks, a friend of mine was taken back to Shevat as a prisoner... Lieutenant Kaori Scivenhien. I would like to know what's become of her. How would I go about that?"
"Ask someone from Shevat, preferably." She answers casually, as offhanded as if it were as simple as that. "I know I really shouldn't say so, but dear, I'm from the city of soot and steam. I've talked to Miss Uzuki on occation, but she's only visited our ship twice. And she's the only one I know from up there." She shrugs idly, leaning back a bit, "Believe me, I'd give you information as meaningless as that if I could--It's no skin off my back--But who's to say anyone would listen to me? My Captain'd have a better chance at that then I would." Which is disappointing. When they have to jump through hoops to get information like that, it's not likely they'll be willing to trade that information for Dirah's release. Bummer. She sighs at that, slumping a little more again in posture.
She's Kislevi? Fascinating. He nods though, the answer a mixed blessing. "Is your captain Shevvite, or just another surface dweller like us?" A casual question, asked with a slight smile. It's meant to sound off-the-cuff, and it mostly was. But any sliver of information he can extract right now would be helpful and useful...
"'Surface dweller'? How quaint a term." She muses gently, before shaking her head lightly in response, "Oh, she's through and through a surface dweller. I only said as much because she's higher in authority than me. I'm not even sure the Shevvites know I exist, much less give a care of my opinion. So, in that manner, I'm not sure I could personally help you much." A few blinks, before she smiles and adds, "Although, who knows? I could fathomably call in connections enough to perhaps see, if there was something in it for me, hm?" What promise could she give? The Shevvites could care less about the D-Ygg, sincerely and entirely. It was a tool of Kislev, and thus something so seldom of fun and use and interest for the good Shevvite forces which asked favors now and then for other favors. But hey. Anything to get Dirah out of here, even if it's a long shot and sincerely unlikely to happen.
"Perhaps so. I think that would help everyone, ne?" The soft smile returns to his face. "Then you could go about your life and we about ours. But I will have to run that by the good Captain first...." He sighs softly, glancing briefly at the painting of the Yggdrasil hanging against the back wall. His thoughts drift to a rumor he had heard lately... what the hell? She might know. "One more thing to inquire of, and I'll leave you be... There were rumours flying around of a mysterious Gear leaving the ancient access tunnels beneath Nisan. It was seen flying toward the desert... it resembled an Angel, with only one wing. Have you seen it?"
To that again, Dirah chuckles. But it is a more content one than all the snickering, mocking and laughing she's done all night--All things honest, she's practically pleased with herself, "Oh, that's just -lovely-. Whatever I can do to help, of course..." A wink. Oh-hoho! Of course, she's glad to help if it doesn't screw over her own home and teammates--But what does -she- care about the Shevvites? They're not allies, thus she's nothing to lose. Ah, lovely. Nonetheless, she blinks at his last comment, and raises an eyebrow curiously.. A one-winged angel gear? Nothing that she saw or was reported to her, but then again, The JNK's been doing a lot of hiding and keeping out of the way since the Marguerite incident. "Can't say I've -ever- heard about anything like that. But if it's a rumor, then perhaps it's just that, hm?"
"... Perhaps." He offers her one last soft, welcoming smile. "Then I'll leave you to your rest, madam. Should you feel the compulsion to tell us anything more, please let us know..." He begins to head for the door, "... And should you need anything special, ask for me and I shall endevour to get it for you."
Dirah only grins at that, "Oh, certainly. If I ever have a burning need to go against all my deepest morals, I'll be sure to tell someone. But for the time being, thanks for the offer. And we'll see if things can work out otherwise with your little friend in Shevat, hm?" To be honest, now that she thinks about it, she's met Kaori before, that one time she was on the Yggdrasil. Moody lady. But whatever trouble she's gotten into with her own country is hardly Dirah's concern. She's just interested in tickets out of captivity, and goodness knows you should take what you can get. Even if you're not sure you can even do it... Cough. Well. Dirah's willing to promise anything. And even on day 2, she'd be just glad as can be to have a ticket out of here. "I'll keep that all in mind, then. 'Ta." Hm. no, no breaking for the exit this time. She has some thinking to do, and... Well. If there are more pleasant ways of getting out, then there's no use trying to claw her way out. Goodness, she might break a sweat or something.