Troublesome

Participants:

richard_icon.gif zelda_icon.gif

Scene Title Troublesome
Synopsis After the chaos of the meeting, Zelda confronts Richard about important issues she had with his presentation.
Date October 18, 2018

Raytech - Richard's Office


After the presentation, Wilhelmina Falkenrath was rather prompt — she got up, and after throwing about her Yamagato credentials a bit (and going through all required security measures), has made her way to Richard Ray’s office, where she sits with a rigid posture, one leg crossed over the other. In her hand, she has a Yamagato-issued tablet, which she quietly reads over while waiting. There’s never a lack of reading material, especially with her job.

Normally, she wouldn’t make much of it, but the one lie she did detect was a pretty big thing to lie about, especially in light of the other information given — and one that many people would probably be upset with Richard if they found out about it.

Perhaps it is out of the kindness of her heart that she is confronting the man before blasting his lies for others to see, but she’s certainly angry about the lie, her mouth pressed into a line as she reads…whatever it is that is scrolling past on her screen.

She has the credentials for it, certainly, but given how busy things are - and the high state of security after Samson’s appearance inside - she’s kept waiting for quite some time before she’s actually shown to the office.

About two hours, really. Fortunately, those tablets really do have a lot of memory!

“Ms. Falkenrath,” Richard says as he steps into the office, fingers raking back through his hair as he heads for the desk that she’s sitting in front of, “My apologies, this is a rather busy day as I’m sure you can tell…”

A faint, tired smile as he steps behind the desk and eases down to sit in the high-backed chair, leaning back in it, “What can I do for you?” Just a hint of strain showing, now, subtle shadows behind his eyes.

The initial anger from the lie has settled, thankfully, and the woman has had plenty of time to rehearse what she should say in her head. It’s pretty fortunate that she’s a stubbornly patient woman, as most people would give up after about an hour.

As he enters the office, the woman stands, offering a hand. “Mr. Ray, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.” Her accent is crisp, likely east of London if one is good enough with accents to tell. Most people aren’t.

After a moment, she seats herself once more, powering down her tablet and setting it on the table. “I wanted to address your talk earlier, as I’m sure you’ve already been dealing with,” she begins, adjusting the lapel of her business suit before settling into a slightly more comfortable stance.

“Mostly, I wanted to address one particular point. Before I do,” she murmurs, making sure to make full eye contact with Richard, “I should mention my particular ability. I am…what you would call a walking lie detector.” She doesn’t mention that she’s fairly new to the ability, or that she can’t tell the severity of a particular lie — that’s all trivial information.

As the hand’s offered, Richard leans forward to clasp it firmly before easing back in his chair. “Quite,” he admits, leaning back with a slight raise of both brows, “And I don’t envy you that ability. I knew a man who possessed a similar one once— a good man.”

A wistfulness to the latter, “One of the martyrs, just before the war.”

His hands spread a little, “So, what point can I elaborate for you on?”

Zelda’s features soften a bit. “I’m sorry for your loss.” She frowns slightly — the civil war is a strange time for her, where she watched from the sidelines as her fellow evolved had atrocious things done to them.

Then, she leans forward slightly. “Well, for the most part, I was pleasantly surprised by your honesty throughout the presentation.” She’s not being cruel with this remark — just pointing out that a lot of people could lie, and he didn’t. “But unfortunately, I did detect a lie about one thing, and it was a rather important one.”

She fishes out her notebook, flipping to a particular page, and presses her finger against the paper. “You said, ‘We need to focus on defending our world before we can work on getting them back.’” She turns her dark brown gaze up to Richard’s face. “You were at least partially lying. Why?”

The question brings silence, the faint smile fading for a more neutral expression as Richard watches her face for a long moment… and then he leans forward slowly, hands folding atop the desk as his weight shifts towards the black glass between them instead.

“Eight or nine months after traveling to another superstring,” he says, quietly but seriously, gaze unwavering on hers, “Elisabeth Harrison gave birth to my daughter.”

There’s a long pause, “I’m not going to do anything to endanger our world or its people unnecessarily, but I am going to work on getting my family back, Ms. Falkenrath. Anyone with a family they love would.”

The woman tilts her head to one side, listening thoughtfully to his explanation. “I understand, Mr. Ray.” She nods quietly, scribbling out something on her notepad, before she slips that into her purse. “Are you completely sure that doing so won’t put our world in danger?” She watches Richard quietly, idly fidgeting with the straps of her purse.

“I will not make a mention of this to my employer if you can assure me that it will not bring this world to harm.” And she’ll know if he’s lying, that much is pretty implicitly clear.

“I have neither the desire nor the intention to do anything to put this world in danger, Ms. Falkenrath,” says Richard with a shake of his head, “Working on theory and making plans isn’t acting. I suspect that whether we act or not, however, the danger will come to us…”

Silent a moment, watching her, he says, “I’ll tell you one more thing, and you’ll know it’s true, if you’ll promise me that you won’t speak of it to your company.”

That answer seems satisfying to the woman, and she nods promptly. “I won’t mention it, then.” She fidgets at the strap of her bag a bit more, before setting the purse down on the ground, crossing her hands in her lap.

The next bit causes the woman to raise her eyebrows. “I’m a woman of my word,” says the former barrister, leaning forward slightly. “I will not inform my employers of whatever it is you’re about to say.” She’s putting a great deal of trust in Richard as it stands, so perhaps it’s not a bad idea to allow him to do the same.

“This entity appears to move from body to body like a host,” Richard says, eyebrows raising ever so slightly, “The last host of the entity was named Nisatta.”

Slowly, he leans back, “So you may understand how I’m equally worried about your employers having intentions that put the world at risk.”

For a moment, Zelda briefly manages to keep up that lawyer mask — however, it doesn’t last long, and an expression of concern replaces it as the woman suddenly slumps back a bit in her chair, watching Richard with a frown. Sometimes it’s difficult to remember that she can tell lies from truth, and she ends up having to wrestle with her own disbelief.

“…I do understand why you would be worried about such a thing.” She frowns. “Kam Nisatta? As in the chairman of the Yamagato Fellowship?” She might be a little paler than normal right now. This isn’t her direct boss — but this is the woman who put her in charge of organizing the Matsuri.

She’s also now wrestling with a crippling sense of doubt about the employers that she has so enjoyed working under — and a very big worry that something might happen with the upcoming Matsuri that she planned.

“I don’t know if it was Kam Nisatta or not,” Richard admits, “All I have is a surname, but… given one of the Company’s founders was Kaito Nakamura?”

His hands spread slightly, “You can see my concern, especially as our companies work so closely together. I would keep an eye out for anything— unusual if I were you.”

The woman purses her lips, before frowning. She looks like someone just kicked her dog or something to that effect — or perhaps the floor just got dropped out from under her. “I can see your concern, yes.”

She signs, taking a breath and lifting a hand to gently pinch at the bridge of her nose. “I will keep an eye out for anything concerning, yes.” She takes another breath, before refocusing her attention on Richard. “Thank you for sharing that with me, Mr. Ray. I appreciate it.”

It’s troublesome, but she appreciates it all the same.

“I have a feeling that the world’s about to get very interesting again, in the Chinese curse sense,” says Richard dryly, shaking his head, “We’re all going to want to keep an eye on the state of things… because we’re not the only people in the world or beyond it with an interest in how events turn out, Ms. Falkenrath…”

He reaches over to the chessboard on his desk, lifting a black piece and carefully moving it, “…and the others aren’t keeping idle.”


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