@DONQUIXOT3, video

[icanfixer]

[ yes it has been some days. yes this is not the first time she's spoken to the network at large. this time, however, she is showing her face and standing quite proudly this morning in front of a parking lot. cars, empty of gas but otherwise whole, scatter the background. ]

Good morn, dear fellows! I have come to thee today to ask a favor, to grant thee an honor, and help this young knight with a missive most important to all!

[ a beat. she swings into frame an umbrella, popping open the apple printed "lance" with a laugh before closing it as she continues, easy-going like she isn't going to be talking about what she is.

unbeknownst to most, don quixote needs this. ]

Thou may have seen some days ago an anonymous message regarding murder. Well! I am here now, asking thee to assist me with something like it -- nay, the exact same! I would like to see for myself, and as proof of the effects for others, what happens when one dies.

I shall not fight thee, unless thou shall wish for it for I am most happy to oblige, and I shall take only one volunteer. Whomever has the daring, the will, and the capacity to kill, I ask that thee throw thy hand up and seek to claim my life! My dear friends need not apply, for I shall reject thee post-haste!

[ she is NOT letting a fellow sinner do it. not her coworkers. she's been fussed at and she's going to be fussed at again. she might let one of the other city-dwellers do it, given they're both fixers (or formerly) but not her coworkers, war vet be damned.

gregor couldn't do it the other time, after all. ]

However, allow me to lay bare the possibilities of what may happen to thee should thou take it upon thyself to do so.

There is a chance thou may forget that which is most precious to thee, that thou will forget the moment of my death itself, and face... certain difficulties in speaking about it. [ she doesn't know if kromer mentioned that, but it's something regardless. ] I may suffer the same. The goal of this is to learn if it is the victim who forgets, if it is the murderer who doth, or if both have it struck from their mind; the secondary goal, a more personal one, is to learn if both may suffer from the others I have mentioned.

... I understand it is difficult to think of killing another, but I can assure thee, such a thing comes up frequently in my work. We are ever prepared to do so, and to die just as well!

[ helps they don't stay dead but she's not. gonna. say that. it might be odd to wonder what effects who in this case, but. well. a lady keeps her secrets. ]

Any who wish to act as witness may attend as well, for we will have need of thee. I thank thee heartily for thy time and thy consideration on the matter.

[ a small bow, hand to her chest and umbrella tucked behind her, and that's that. ]

Comments

[icanfixer]

Forsooth! Though my job title is Fixer, we are valiant knights who heroically dash evil off the face of the City!

[ it's fine. everyone has blood on their hands. her roommate drew a cultish crowd his to hometown by accident and now lives with keen survivor's guilt as the only person in his family to be let off the hook because of a woman's obsession with tormenting him to become what she wanted him to become (it did not work out). her bus is full of darkened histories. ]

A squire merely need follow their knight's requests, should it not dis-align with their own values, and to take time in their company! However, I do not see it as the sort of relationship in which I am deserving nor expectant of thy compliance, for we are much the same... The other who has become my squire, for it is quite loose in how many one can have, is moreso under my protection should it come to a fight.

[ sort of a background support. ]

And thee shall have a place where thou needn't hold thy tongue nor rattle thy mind for a correct answer, for I shall endeavor to show thee examples of the justice that comes from a world that seems to have rotted so -- for there is still a seed of hope, of light, within the center of that fruit, waiting to be planted by patient hands and protected all the same. We will see what thy tasks should entail in time, though they shall not be unreasonable in the least.

... Besides, [ she follows up after a moment, wry and a little playful, ] have thee anything to lose?

[kampfgeist]

[ oh, they're good guys good guys. it grates against the edges of what heine believes about himself to even consider the idea the he, too, could be an agent of justice—at best, he could be a scourge, maybe. a wild creature who leaves a trail of bloodshed behind him.

but then again, the orphans. then again, nill rescued from the mobs—granny liza and her family of rejects—the kidnapped children enslaved into the service of einstürzen's fucked up army of dogs. don't they deserve justice? how long has heine spent drowning in his own agony to the exclusion of everyone else? and the people who have known him for who he is and been kind to him, regardless—doesn't he owe it to them?

all of this, assuming he'll ever return home. assuming that when he returns, he'll remember what happens here. she's right: he doesn't really have anything to lose. ]

Let me... think about it. [ there's still something silly about being called a squire, if he's honest. but the idea... the idea itself isn't bad. ]

Although— [ sighs. ] I'd have to be a squire at a distance. I have a... thing about getting close to women. Physically.

[ THANKS, MOM. ]

[icanfixer]

[ no... no they're not... if heine ever talks to roland or gebura, he'll find they're far more realistic about their jobs... it's just her... ]

Oho, that is perfectly well! I shall be indisposed the rest of the day 'til morrow's light anyway, should I lose the duel I have thrown the gauntlet for, and thee need only seek me out once thou've made up thy mind.

[ she's interested, of course, about the "thing", but it's also none of her business! she will not pry. simply accept. ]

Whether thee accept the position or not, consider me ever an ally -- it is rare to meet one who is the same as us, after all. [ ... ] My coworkers are the same, being under the same employment, but I would not approach them with it as a greeting.

[ though having like, a functional immortality club would be pretty fun. ]

[kampfgeist]

[ good guy donqui... tbd guys roland and gebura... perhaps one day he will learn the Truth but for now he can just believe they're all agents of good

the reminder that this conversation sprang from a post where don quixote was literally planning her own death does make heine's nose wrinkle. maybe because he never had a choice about his own functional immortality, but "i'm gonna kill myself just to prove i can't die" vibes weirdly.

but as yet another member of the "do not pry, simply accept" state of mind, heine doesn't comment further—she doesn't strike him as someone who's going to back down from something she's determined to do. ]

Yeah, you too. [ heine might not be able to stand too close to her, but having people to fight alongside if it comes to that isn't a bad thing. ] I don't think I know any of your coworkers, but I won't bring it up.

[ sensitive topic, he gets it. functional immortality therapy group. ]

[icanfixer]

I shall introduce thee one day, should the future allow it! Both... of whom it affects, in any case, have scolded me quite well this fine day -- Young Sinclair there, and Ser Gregor. They are good men, I assure thee, though they are not Fixers as I am.

[ so he'll at least know them by name, if nothing else. though. they both have traits that make them quite standoutish, from gregor's more obvious cockroach arm to the sometimes "murderous gaze" that sinclair doesn't seem to realize he has himself. ]

Thou shall have no trouble getting along with them, since thee have none with myself.

[kampfgeist]

[ guessing that the scolding didn't have much of a deterrent effect, but it does raise heine's opinion of sinclair and gregor! he commits those names to memory and also makes a note to ask about the different job titles at this company, like, what are they if not fixers? ]

I'll look forward to that. [ there's not a lot of inflection in heine's voice generally, but he's not being sarcastic. ] Let me know how the death experiment goes.