Yin takes the long way home. Walking, just walking...takes in the familiar sights, sounds, and smells of Okarthel. It stops being granduer when it starts being home. Her feet head to a park without her direct instruction, to a play area. She stops, standing far off to the side, beside some trees. Watches little dragons--almost all full-form, it takes awhile for them to learn to maintain humanoid forms--have a grand time, chasing each other and biting and laughing. Or the hissing equivalent of laughing. Thoughts wander to Troix a few moments. Thinks of Shem. Thinks of Jasne. Yeah. Kids are kids, regardless of race.

She leans back against a tree.

Revilier. Adelisa. Her sudden resignation from dragoon service. Her assigment into dragon service. Cutting out of the spy life. Wondering whether she can. Maybe research is just the change she's been desperately needing for awhile now. Maybe she's not smart enough. Maybe she'll get bored. Arux. Eleven. Ja, her successor in the Unit. The kids are cute, pity she'll never be able to change that detail of her life. Revilier.

It's all too much. Crowds together to the point her mind is a buzzing, unsettling sort of silent, a mess of white noise that any particular thought only occasionally manages to poke a nose out of.

After a long time, she stands up from where she'd been leaning and starts towards home, intent on flopping on her too-pristine couch and not regaining consciousness for awhile.

At her door, however, a courier waits for Yin. He's an interesting looking fellow, decked out in a chic clubbing outfit of dark vest, easy-fit jeans, and no shirt over his soft blue skin. He flashes Yin a soft smile when she arrives.

"Good afternoon. I'm Passion Leonide." He holds out his hand, the little spade shaped tendrils quivering at his fingertips.

She blinks once, though she manages a faint though not insincere smile in return. Well...he seems nice, anyway. Maybe if she were in the mood for company. But of course, this probably isn't a pleasure visit. Takes the hand lightly. "Hello. Yinxirziji Iejir, a pleasure. I apologize; I hadn't expected to have someone waiting for me or I may have been quicker."

"No need, I only just arrived." The tendrils slither lightly over Yin's skin, searching her for emotions or dangerous chemicals in only afew seconds. Leonide watches her carefully.

Her emotions, of course, are a mess...but mostly she's just deeply worn out, more mentally and emotionally than the present physical tiredness. If there are any dangerous chemicals, she doesn't know about them.

Yin considers the tentacle-things...is taken aback by them, but avoids jerking since she'd previously noted that his eyes aren't focussing on her. Interesting. "So. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

Leonide takes his hand back, satisfied that she's safe and having a handle on her mindset.

"I work for Matthias MacInerny. I am your colleague, now, and I am to show you activities you'll need to fill your day."

"Ah...right then. Nice to meet you. Care to come inside, then?" Unlocks the door as she speaks.

"Certainly." Leonide turns a bit on his heel, setting his misty green hair aflutter as the afternoon sun pours over him-- almost as if he'd intentionally stood in that spot so the light would frame him when he turned. "If this is a bad time, though, I can come back."

"Not at all." Door clicks open--along with some quieter security procedures--and Yin steps inside to flip the not-always-used light switch, leaving the door open for Leonide. "I didn't have any interesting plans for the evening. You're interesting, I hope?"

"As a Coraderm serving in a racially and specially ultra-biased Dragon military, I like to think so. Plus I have this going on." He waves his hands over his chest, trailing the slightly darker blue swatches of veins that form a sort of ink-drawing on his skin.

Yin grins a bit. "Lovely. I bet you're loads of fun drunk. Speaking of which, can I get you anything?" She's heading that way, anyway, to wash some tree sap off her hands.

"These have a mind of their own when I drink, so no, thank you." Leonide holds up his hand, waves his tendrils around. He follows placidly along, handsome, effeminate face bemused at the decorations of Yin's sometimes Spartan, sometimes Venetian home.

The vampiress runs some water into a basin, of course, before dipping her hands in and scrubbing up. She then fixes a drink for herself...nothing too potent, but it involves a bit of alcoholic beverage, a little bit of human blood, and just a touch of dragon blood. Good stuff, that.

Leonide patiently awaits her return. He organizes the papers for her perusal - most of it is official orders and the like, detailing their pairing in the department. The sort of thing one glances at the top and bottom of.

"Have you ever done field research before, Ensign Iejir?"

"Only in the slightly different vein of 'intelligence gathering.'" She crosses her legs delicately when she sits, a proper lady when her mood suits.

"I know that it will be a major alteration in your lifestyle, so I took the liberty to have you installed in a combat-tech position. Your essential job will be to field test equipment and vehicles. It's all safe, but you'll be doing efficiency tests."

Yin's lips twitch towards a smile. "It sounds like a vacation, not having anyone pulling out all the stops to kill me between 'go' and 'stop.'" Sips her drink. "It sounds more like something I can do than the nutshell job offer, to be honest...honestly, I'm quite frankly worried that I'm not smart enough for a research position. Or, the right kind of smart."

"You aren't, for most. Neither am I." Leonide shows her a piece of paper with a diagram of a sword riddled with holes. A sphere cut-out is shown in the handle. "Weapons R&D is more our style. This, for example, is a sonic weapon powered by a cold fusion generator, developed especially for ice dragons. It's just about ready to test, and its your first project."

Yin takes the paper, looking it over interestedly. "Fancy. What does it do?"

"Well," Leonide puts down another sheet with a cross-section of the weapon, "the handle is made of porcelain reinforced with woven strands of rubber over a latex core, with a thin steel rod attached to the generator. It's designed to absorb the ultra-high-speed vibrations the machine pumps through the blade so the weapon doesn't quiver in your hand. The vibrations are tiny and almost imperceptible, but the idea is to create a chainsaw effect and give the weapon superb cutting power. Theoretically."

She considers this...eyes the diagram, lines up what he's described with the moving parts she's seeing. Okay, makes sense. "So where does the 'ice dragon' bias kick in? Manipulating temperature to ebb the vibration?"

"That's a possibility. Right now, it's mostly to keep the weapon cool so the generator doesn't overheat. Electrons run fastest through a cold circuit, and all." Leonide leans back in the chair, crosses his own well-developed legs. "Do you have any thoughts, or concerns?"

"Well...it will probably be easier to see the testing facilities and procedures first hand; I'm sure they'll be explained to exhaustion when the time comes. So, just overall bits. Security protocols, getting onto the base and what to do once there, any special procedures I should know about, any format that I need to record test observations onto, and so on." Sips her drink. Smile-smirks a little. "The really mundane stuff."

"For some reason, you're being given a very simple ride of it. It's almost as if the weapon testing is just busywork-- I know that Matthias MacInerny is more interested in your Golden spell than anything else." Leonide gathers the pages into a folder, and lays that folder on the table. Smiles at her, a charming smile that seems genuine in a nice-to-meet-you way, as opposed to the 'I'm not looking at your breasts, I swear' kind of smile Yin likely gets more often than not.

She has to smile a bit as she picks up the folder to flip through. Well...Leonide seems nice, anyway. Interesting, a bit arrogant. The kind of person she gets along with. "It's good to know that that's not being swept under the table, since it's the whole reason for the more-or-less career change. I'm sure I make a good lab rat, anyway." She's also a bit worried that someone somewhere is making another bid to weaken perception of dragoons by putting her in a job she isn't qualified for...but that may be paranoia talking. And probably is.

"If you ever see the inside of a lab during this gig, it'll shock me. Dragon scientists are as uptight as it comes." The Coraderm shrugs his shoulders just a little, lets his eyes wander around the room. "Technically I'm your superior officer. Don't take it the wrong way, but I think it's best if you're considered a guest adviser instead of a ranked Dragon. We won't trip over anything that way."

"Fair enough. I'm not exactly planning on much on the way on camraderie anyway, despite the pretty little show back in the council. A 90% chance of passive aggression with scattered overt storms, and a slight chance of getting my ass kicked." Swirls her drink thoughtfully, watching it, gaze a bit tired before she stuffs this. "Not technically a dragoon, never a dragon, messing with people's norms and not giving them any easy way to know how to act around me. I just want the best chance to get the projects at hand done, and this may just be it."

Leonide is almost taken aback, and for a moment he just gazes at her, a crooked smile on his face.

"That sort of candor is sort of a delicacy in this business, you know. Not everyone will approve of the flavor." He chuckles. "Speaking of the project, where is your friend? The one you are trying to help?"

A smile teases an edge of her lips a moment. Throwing people for a bit of a loop is both a spy skill and a hobby. "Oh. I told him to wait upstairs about seven hours ago. And of course he listened unconditionally." She shrugs a little. Also, has monitoring equipment about, so knows there are no problems there. "It's just easier for me to keep him secured than anyone else, so I'm husk sitting."

Leonide nods approvingly. "Creepy. But he is eye candy, I suppose." Looks up the stairs thoughtfully. "Have you tested what he can or can't do, in this condition?"

"In terms of physical enhancement--and excepting the fact that he doesn't sleep, which creeps the hell out of me--it's hard to get a read on what the Golden spell did for lack of a baseline. It's not like he was human to start, he's a silver wyvern. I've fought both his daughters, which gives me a ballpark...but I don't know if he was stronger or faster to begin with. Mentally, though...I've been continually surprised at the complexity of commands he can carry out. It's not so much mindless as a total lack of free will or emotion; I have yet to find a threshhold."

"I was thinking about this, after my briefing." The blue-skinned fellow switches his leg-crossing. "Have you tried asking him to do something that he probably doesn't know how to do? Like... play a flute, or something?"

Yin blinks, folding an arm behind her pale-haired head to rest on. "That's an interesting idea. Revilier," she calls, "come down here."

A few moments pass before the former general, whose eyes seem equally alert and empty, glides down the stairs and halts near Yin's chair. Leonide looks him over rather approvingly, though Yin might not notice the type of approval if she isn't feeling perceptive.

She notices...out of the corner of her eye. Mostly because a certain black-haired best friend of hers would have had very much the same reaction. Heh. It's all she can do to keep from smirking.

Her eyes are on the wyvern, though. "Revilier, get a piece of paper and a pen and transcribe some sheet music for me. Vivaldi's 'Winter.' But transpose it up a fifth." She sips her drink.

Leonide watches with more interest than he really wants to admit as Revilier calmly searches Yin's bookcases and desks for a paper and pen. This much he'd suspected-- there is a limit to how much he knows and doesn't know as a puppet.

After a while he finds some, and sits wordlessly at the desk. Begins to write feverishly, not really looking at the page, and the music begins to form perfectly. And, in neater penmanship than his own.

"Hmm..." Yin sips, then sets her drink on the table--uses a coaster, even!--and stands to head over to the desk, retrieving the first page when it's done. Looks it over with a critical eye. "This...looks right. Even the tricky spots, the chords look perfect." Pulls a keyboard out from behind the couch Leonide is sitting on. Eh. Everyone has little shames they don't talk about much.

She sets this on the table, switches it on, and begins working through the treble part without looking at the keyboard past an initial glance, too intent on the music held in her left hand. "Time change should be coming..." she murmurs. Blinks. "And there it was. Perfect." Hand keeps flowing away as she speaks.

Leonide claps a little bit, not too petulantly, now and again. "Brava, my dear, brava. How much of this song do you know?"

"Huh?" Yin looks down at her hand, almost sheepishly. "Um...all of it, actually. Also 'Spring,' and most of 'Autumn.'" Smirks just a little. "It sounds odd transposed up. Like I have a chipmunk lodged in this thing's speaker. Still..." considers, looking over at the still-writing wyvern. "That isn't easy to do. It doesn't even pretend to be easy, actually, it takes a lot of background knowledge and he's not even pausing. And he's not making any mistakes."

"I tend to doubt he's a musician. Do you suppose this Golden bit implies a kind of shared knowledge or anything?" Leonide scootches forward and leans on his fist. "I ask because reports of the warehouse incident showed several of Adelisa's Golden acting with equal levels of flaw and skill in their combat methods. No deviation, even among more seasoned soldiers."

"It's possible...but I wonder whether it's a hive-mind kind of thing, and how far that extends if so. Or if it has something to do with whoever 'created' them and their knowledge base. Or with the Golden 'officer' commanding them. Or...wherever else they may get it." Yin keeps playing for a few lines after the page ends, but then the transposition gets far too difficult to continue as hard as she's thinking about the Golden conundrum, and ends up tapping idle, comfortable strains at the keyboard.

"We would have to ask him to do something that you would know how to do that he and Adelisa wouldn't, and then ask him to do something that you and he can't do and she can... it makes my head spin." He smiles a bit. Looks Revilier over while Yin is at the keys.

Yin's other hand joins hers thoughtfully. An Icelandic melody she'd heard many times growing up, with an improvised harmony. Considers. "That's enough, Revilier. Thank you. Now ...there's some raw blood in the metal bowl in the fridge. Please prepare it for storage. And add a pinch of the spices in the jar by the sink."

The puppet ceases writing, leaving the pen and paper where he sat. Without hesitation he moves to do exactly as she'd asked, quickly and efficiently.

"I doubt he would know how to do that," Leonide nods approvingly.

"Agreed. Only one of us in the room is a parasite, after all." Yin switches off the keyboard. Considers what to have Revilier do of Adelisa's knowledge...that wouldn't wreck the house.

Leonide watches a bit longer, pondering, and brushes his misty hair. He's wondering the same thing, actually. "Can you juggle, Yin?"

"Not well enough to say 'yes.' But do you suppose Adelisa can?"

"She can. Years ago, she and her sister performed for Dragon and Spider dignitaries as part of a culture exchange program some wing nut came up with. At the time, we were hoping to stem hostilities and prepared a few elaborate social functions where things like that went on. You probably remember, if you weren't on assigment." Leonide glances at his fingernails, smirks approvingly, and looks back to Yin. "Part of the dance was juggling knives."

"Mm...I was probably out in this or that part of the planet, it only rings a bell in remembering all available member of my unit being put on security-esque details due to high sabotage risk." Looks to the wyvern. "Revilier, there are some knives in the top drawer on the right. Juggle some for me."

The former general walks obediently to the drawer to retrieve the knives. He gazes at them emptily, head tilting, utterly silent.

And then he begins to toss the knives. Four seconds later the knives lie on the floor and a long gash crosses his left palm. He doesn't make a sound, but bends down to retrieve the knives to try again.

"Enough. Stop that. Thank you Revilier." Yin murmurs a curse in her native language as she stands quickly...which is probably a sign of how tired she is. She usually swears in simplified Draconic. She heads towards the wyvern and reaches out to take his hand, the rune glowing to life on the back of her own.

The wound seals, of course, and Revilier straightens up to await his next command.

"So," Leonide muses out loud, "he has instinct still. Enough that he didn't stop breathing when you said 'stop that'. Enough intelligence to perform complicated tasks and, apparently, a shared set of knowledge and skills with you." He leans back a little in his chair, pondering. "No wonder Adelisa wanted the spell. Imagine a fleet of scouts all knowing what each one knows."

Yin frowns, thoughtful. "Enhanced strength and speed. No need for sleep. No mental fatigue. Unconditionally, blindly loyal troops without compunctions. No need for training, they automatically know everything they need to. Spread the spell to a few loyal officers, and...well." Folds her arms, gazing thoughtfully at the wyvern, expression broodingly bemused. "No wonder he guarded it so jealously. I hadn't really gotten it until Adelisa took over." Silence. Finally... "thank you, Revilier. Go sit down."

"What a gift he gave to you, eh?" Leonide ponders something else for a moment. "But he did. Gave it to a Dragoon, of all people."

"I still don't know why, really." Yin nods a bit as, of course, the wyvern complies, to an involuntary sigh on her part. Looks over to Leonide. "He has a thing for me. I don't really know if it's genuine or a facade or something; he's the damned hardest man to read I've ever encountered. And we've only met on half a handful of occasions, none fun. He doesn't seem the sort to make serious decisions on the whims of his boy-parts, anyway...so I quite frankly don't know what was going through his mind when he gave it to me. Wouldn't feel safe betting anything on a guess." Quietly cuts the power to her keyboard and picks it up to stash again.

Leonide watches her, studying as always. He leans his chin against his fist, eyes glowing with thought.

"Why don't you ask him?" he chirps.

Yin blinks. "Well. Because it hadn't occurred to me." Glances thoughtfully over to the deposed general. Finishes stowing her keyboard. Considers. "Revilier, tell me why you gave me the Golden spell."

"A steadfast character is needed to harness the full nature of the Golden spell. A healthy body is needed. Justice is not necessary, only steadfastness." Revilier speaks in a monotone, quickly and efficiently, wasting no breath. "You intrigued me. Your strength consumed me. You and your friend suffered through my inaction. You deserve the spell. You deserve the spell."

The vampiress is...silent. Just...silent. Sits. It's nearly a minute before... "well. He retained his memory, even. That's useful." Of course, this is one of the further things from her mind.

"Useful, of course." Leonide uncrosses his legs, and leans even further onto his hands. "Are you alright, Ensign?"

Yin's eyes are gleaming a little, though off to the side. She's fairly skillful in drawing attention away from this...actually, through posture. An "accidentally" more suggestive stance should draw attention away from her face. "I'll be fine." Finally manages the spy thing, face forced neutral, and looks back over to Leonide. Smiles a bit. "Thank you for coming by. I'm very tired, though...it may be better to continue this tomorrow." She stands up.

He's not without decorum, though of course suggestion is totally ineffective on him. He rises, understanding the cue to leave. "As you wish, Ensign. Report to the address I've written inside the folder around noon tomorrow, and we'll set up your locker and such." He gives her a short bow.

Yin returns it. Pauses. "I apologize for not seeing you out. But I'm sure you remember the way. See you tomorrow." And she simply turns to head for the stairs, squeezing her eyes shut once her back is turned, step a touch stiff. Just...damn her. Doesn't know why she's so weak suddenly. She'll have ground to make up tomorrow..."impervious" is something she can and should do well.

Damn her, damn her.

Leonide goes, of course. His opinion of her is not lowered in the least-- she's had an amazingly trying few weeks. No one can be invulnerable all of the time, anyway.

One long, wracking cry later, Yin half-sits against the headboard of her bed, face buried deeply in her knees. She doesn't have any tears left, she's quite sure. Just an aching sense of despair. She has no idea how long it is before she moves. Can't guess...but finally turns her head just a bit. "Revilier, come up here."

The general is at her door in a moment, gazing emptily inward. Doesn't move, simply waits for her command.

Yin wipes her eyes a bit. She's actually oddly acclimated to the concept of Revilier not being...there. Not having to hide things from him, since he isn't really even a "him." "Come over and stand by the bed."

He does, of course. His eyes settle on her, but it's almost like an afterthought, a glowing golden afterthought.

"Revilier, can you still use your version of the Golden spell?"

"Yes." Quiet, quick, and without elaboration.

"Will you light it for me, please?"

He holds out his hand, and the spell glows to life. Just as ever, just as bright.

Yin examines it for several long moments, before shifting to wrap her own hands around his. "I wish it would be so easy to heal you," she murmurs. Gazes at the light when her own spell--stronger still, she's putting more power into it--glows to life to join his. Finally, after a few moments, shifts to lift both their hands, pressing them tightly to either side of the base of his jaw, the power involved soaring.

Her features are absolutely, solemnly intent.

Now and again, a flicker of reason lights in his eyes. Reason, and need, but never the despair that he ought to be feeling. Just as quickly it fades, though, no matter how much power Yin puts into the spell. Revilier reverts to the puppet's eyes, and gazes at her perhaps a bit more warmly.

Finally...she sighs. It simply fades. Yin looks down, and withdraws her hands. She hadn't known what she'd been doing, anyway. Hadn't known what she'd wanted to accomplish. Had hardly known that she was doing it, really.

She needs to stop reacting like a panicked child. She can hurt someone. She can hurt him. Real solutions don't come from passion. She closes her eyes.

"Revilier, go lie down. Sleep if you can do that."

He looks around, as if considering where to go. A moment later, he trots across the floor and lies against the wall, eyes closed, asleep in an instant. He's still got an aura from the casting, fading only a little bit by the moment.

Yin watches this quietly. Finally turns over, still fully clothed--though she kicks off her shoes--draggins a blanket around over her, and closes her eyes, hoping to do the same.


Yin hadn't been prepared for how thrilled she is to set foot in her own house again. Actually sighs with relief despite herself. "God it feels good to be here. It's been...what, a month and a half now?"

"I can't even remember," Alou chuckles. "God, but this place is huge. It's always awe-inspiring to see places built for real dragon convenience." Alou places his fingerless gloves on a table and stretches. "Hey, do you have a mirror? I might need to shave and groom before we go to dinner."

"Please do." She grins at him. Pulls back her hair from habit. Startles herself. Damnit what was in that stuff? LSD? "The upstairs hasn't been changed since you were living here before, you're still welcome to that anytime. And you know where the rest of the bathrooms are, you're welcome to any of those too, of course. I should clean up too, really."

"Alright. I'm going to grab a change of clothes from the truck and get cleaned, then. I think we'll be going someplace nice, but not formal, so don't make yourself too beautiful." Alou winks. Heads for the door, intending to grab clothes, come back, and have a shower/shaving session quickly.

Yin smiles, and nods. Heads upstairs, herself, for a quick bath. Nothing makes you feel grimy like being pawed by a bunch of on a stage that accomodates sweating dancers. Ah, well. She'd done decently, anyway. She sets aside the dark-skinned fellow's bills and those touching them in a sealed off bag to look at later. They have folded corners. And there's plenty left in the rest to buy dinner.

She feels oddly like looking like a girl. A fairly normal girl, not one who can kick your ass. Ultimately changes up her makeup a little. It's the same light touch as usual, but less hard-lined. Pulls her hair back into a simple style, curling just a few small sections into loose ringlets. One mid-length, semi-casual, ice blue dress later, she throws some other things into a bag for their trip--it's kind of nice just planning for a somewhat normal trip and not a full operation--she heads back downstairs.

Alou rushes, but thankfully is quite good at getting cleaned up in a hurry. He shaves his face clean, washes his barely-more-than-a-crew-cut hair and his skin, trims his nails, cleans his spinnerets, and dresses in a basic, but very fitting and flattering to his frame, black chino pants and button-down polo shirt. It makes him look a bit more muscular than he is, and emphasizes his lean strength nicely. Black shoes, of course, a bit on the shiny side, and he's headed downstairs to meet Yin.

She's busily poking through the fridge and selecting a few flasks of blood. There are a few different flavors and species in here, so it depends on mood. Looks up briefly when Alou walks downstairs, though. Smiles at him before making her choices and sticking those in her bag. "You look nice."

"I'd same the same to you, but I'd be lying." Alou smiles a little, and gives her the quick look-over while she's turned away. "You're gorgeous in that dress, Yin." Pauses. "I'm gonna look like a hobo sitting next to you, it's just not fair."

"Pbbbt." Hey, she can be semi-proper most of the time, but everyone needs a juvenille moment. "Hobos," she points out, "do not look nearly as good in facial tattoos." Buttons her bag, turns, and smiles. "So what's the plan? Dinner, flight, hotel, flight to Pakistan? Flight, dinner, hotel, flight to Pakistan?"

"Pakistani food is lizard drool," Alou is quick to answer. Wonders if she can ever take a compliment. "I could go for a pizza. Something bad for me. There's a nice place just down the way from our hotel. I got us an option for separate rooms, if you want your own. Unless you'd rather sleep here?" It's not a moot point. The hotel's closer to the airport, but not by much. Fifteen or twenty minutes' drive in medium traffic. "This is your place, after all."

She smiles. "Hotel is fine. It'll be a time saver, and besides, nothing's wrong with having someone else tidy up."

"Okay. If you change your mind after dinner, though, we'll come right back here." Alou pulls the door open for her. "Mademoiselle?"

Yin smiles at him. "Merci, monsieur." And heads outside.

The drive is easier for Alou than talking to her. It gives him something else to concentrate on. The simple truth of his matter in this is not that he's falling for Yin or somesuch - this simply has no place in his mind, and would be more of a desecration to the sort of professional and personal partnership they've formed than a boon - it's that he's been alone for a long time and their friendship, despite its nature, has been so close that he could, and unfortunately often does, imagine sharing a bed with her just for the sport of it. It's the curse of being male, and he knows it.

Thankfully, dinner goes pretty well even if Yin does sometimes get a faraway look on her face when he takes her arm to lead her to the table. A hotel night in separate rooms later, and the two of them are bound for Jahdee Prison in Pakistan.