[IC Inbox | Meadowlark]

[lifetothefullest]

@lance.sweets | ■ ▲ ◌ ▼

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[evocation]

come home?
i made you dinner

[Which clearly does not mean she needs to tell him something.]

[lifetothefullest]

[Oh yeah this is definitely not worrying at all.]

Okay, I'm not far. I'll be there soon.

[And as promised, he'll show up about fifteen minutes later.]

[evocation]

[And Kyna already has some sort of curry thing set out for them both which, in hindsight, was not a great plan if he was busy. But whatever. It's fine. This is going great so far and it's going to keep going great. As soon as he walks through the door, she's hugging him.]

Hey. Um, I have something to tell you, and you can totally be mad, but just... hear me out first. Okay?

[lifetothefullest]

[Although in principle he wouldn't be inclined to complain about food or hugs, it doesn't take a psychologist to know this is all a setup for something. That's only confirmed a moment later when she speaks, but he'll address that in a moment; first he hugs her in return, careful to avoid the empathy bond for now.]

Okay, I can do that. What's going on?

[evocation]

[It's not that she's trying to bribe him, exactly. It's more of a preemptive apology, a sort of admission of guilt. She takes a deep breath, rocking back on her heels.]

So... You know how I went to New Beijing to keep an eye on things, right? Um... It was actually because Ren asked me for help with something. With Riverstone.

[lifetothefullest]

[He's watching her reactions carefully, though is trying to tone down some of his usual intensity so she doesn't feel too scrutinized. But this is already starting off in a way that makes him want to pick up as much as possible, rather than relying just on words.]

What kind of something?

[evocation]

[She's already a little fidgety, and already bracing herself. It's clear she expects him to be upset with her.]

Ren, uh... He wanted to see if we could find out anything about Riverstone. You know... Break in. And I would have told you, I swear, but he made us all promise not to until it was over.

[Unfortunately this Kyna seems to have that same flaw the other Kyna did—a propensity to keep secrets and promises for the people she cares about even if it's detrimental to her.]

But he was right. We found something.

[lifetothefullest]

[Break in. Right. Brilliant.

But with all of this lead up so far, he's prepared to hear something like this, even if he couldn't have guessed the specifics. So he keeps his comments to himself for now, even if he can't quite hide that his posture closes off just a little; at least he's resisting the urge to cross his arms.

He'll just move past a lot of that for the moment, and instead ask--]

What did you find?

[evocation]

[She notices, and she bites her lip, hesitating for a second before plowing forward.]

Well, uh... I found a bunch of monster parts that they were studying. Really recently, too. Mostly the slugs, but a ton of stuff. And Ren got way more than that. One of the Riverstone guys admitted that they don't care about our powers at all. They just want to be able to control us later. Ling's been trying to get to us for a while.

[lifetothefullest]

[Lance is waiting for some sort of big revelation or detailed piece of information or something, but then it's... That. He's trying really hard not to make this any more difficult on Kyna, and so he doesn't say the first thing that comes to mind, instead asking something a little more neutral.]

Did you find out anything else?

[evocation]

Uh... I guess they were only interested in Rey in the first place in order to get to us. So now everyone can stop being stupid about them wanting to help us. We've got proof.

[lifetothefullest]

[That's not exactly the conclusion he would've drawn out of this, but he tries not to let that show.]

Okay. Did anyone from Riverstone figure out what you were doing? You said Ren talked to someone there? They were just willing to tell him things like that?

[evocation]

[Well, this is already going more poorly than she'd expected.]

Ren used his powers. And, uh... Yeah. They knew. It was me, Ren, Akechi and Sam. They weren't happy with us.

[lifetothefullest]

'Weren't happy' is a very vague statement.

[And the most concerning part of that response, though it's only barely beaten out by Ren using his powers. The team's makeup is... Unusual, and he's going to file that away for a little later, but right now it isn't the most pressing issue.]

[evocation]

We started running into trouble in New Beijing. Restaurants wouldn't serve us, and we were... you know. Getting a bad vibe. That's why we left early. And they searched us about a million times on our way out.

[lifetothefullest]

[That gives him pause a moment, causing him to furrow his eyebrows a little.]

That's it? Were you out of the building before they figured out what had happened?

[evocation]

Yeah. Easy peasy.

[It's... sort of a joke.]

So I probably shouldn't go back to New Beijing for a while. Or ever.

[lifetothefullest]

Probably not.

[He isn't going to argue that, though ultimately this was a much more mild reaction than he would've expected; either Riverstone is planning something, or they don't want to risk outright antagonizing Displaced in a way that would prompt retaliation and instead are just relying on intimidation. Either way that's good to know, he supposes, though of course it would've been better if it weren't an issue in the first place.

But before he starts making commentary, he promised he'd hear her out, so--]

Is there anything else?

[evocation]

Um... No?

[She crosses her arms, clearly bracing herself.]

[lifetothefullest]

[He sighs quietly, finally deciding to move from where he'd stopped just after coming in the door, shoving his hands in his pockets and wandering toward the table as he responds.]

I don't think this was the exactly the best choice of action, but it's done now, so what matters is figuring out what to do with it.

[evocation]

[Somehow, this is about ten times worse.]

You're not going to... lecture me?

[Please lecture her.]

[lifetothefullest]

What exactly would be the point of that?

[It comes out a lot more defeated than he meant for it to, and he immediately tries to cover that up by continuing.]

I mean, if you really want me to break down all the places this was a bad idea, I can. But that's not going to undo it, it's just going to be a waste of time and make us both feel terrible.

[evocation]

[Ouch. Something in the tone of his voice hits her like a blow. It's too close to the way her brother reacts when he's particularly upset with her, that sort of resigned disapproval, and she can't hide the hurt from showing on her face.]

I'm sorry.

[It comes out uncharacteristically quiet.]

[lifetothefullest]

You don't need to apologize to me.

[He's frustrated with this situation on many levels, but she hasn't actually done anything wrong, exactly. Not to him specifically, anyway; maybe the Displaced as a whole, since this will affect them all, but he's already accepted that people are going to make those sorts of decisions without thinking them through. He just hadn't necessarily expected Kyna to be one of those people.]

[evocation]

[Kyna bites her lip again, suddenly fascinated by the floor.]

It was just us. No one else had any problems.