An Amazing Idea (Aurora)

Geata was taken slightly aback by the invite in. He wondered if she realized who it was that was bothering her, but quickly decided it didn't matter. If she realized after he entered the office, he would exit the room just as quickly as he entered the building in the first place. He imagined it wouldn't take long for her to tell him to get out if she was so inclined. And so, timidly, he stepped into the office. The look of irritation she already had did nothing to reassure him.

If Aurora didn't immediately change her mind, Geata'd take a seat across from her. He took a brief second to arrange his thoughts and a couple more to try and get past the crippling self-consciousness of him being a brain in a robot body and his awareness that such a thing probably weirded out most people, including Aurora. When he did start speaking, his tone was calm, though.

"There are a few things I'd like to take this opportunity to discuss with you, if you have the time, but I'll cut right to the chase and discuss the most important topic first in case you don't." He paused to find proper wording. When he spoke again, his nerves were showing through his voice. "I suppose the blunt version is that I'm trying to fix Azoth, who happens to be my girlfriend. Longer version is that I'm hoping to get her to stop killing people and doing things that might make her a target for, say, scary mind reader lady from the dragon fight that apparently knows all there is to know about everyone. Or at least the more criminally inclined of you amongst my group of friends. Anyway, point is, I'd be eternally grateful if you would assist me in this."

"If you'd be willing, I'd like to arrange a meeting between the two of you. It'd likely happen over in Geataland, neutral territory and all that. I'm not exactly expecting it to be a friendly chat, which is one reason why I'd be there to moderate; and I'm honestly not too hopeful that it would work out the way I'd prefer, which brings me to the second reason: I learn mostly by observing. If I can see what works and what doesn't, I can apply it pretty well, it seems. I'd be doing my best to note what works in this proposed conversation, in the hopes of better understanding how to handle this effectively."

He paused again, this time to make sure he's not forgetting major details before moving on. He also spent the time wondering if maybe he should give a minute for Aurora to ask any questions, but he decided it would be best to cover all of the major bases he could think of before doing that. It would likely make things simpler, which she would probably appreciate to some degree.

"I'm not asking you on a whim or anything like that, Aurora. I've put some thought into this, even if you probably don't think so. But you're probably the only person I can go to that would be willing to help with this and that would be serious in your approach to it. Blue Jay and Limen probably wouldn't make for the most reliable assets for this. The Keepers that I know would be even worse for this than them. The scary lady made it sound like it was mostly up to me to figure out what ought to be said, but I'm an idiot as you well know. It's one thing to hear that 'I need to exert my maximum influence over Azoth', but it's another thing entirely to know how to do that. I need a starting point, at the very least. And I'm still admittedly hoping that it might go well to the point that there wouldn't need to be conflict between the two of you in the future."

He paused one last time, looking out the window in the room. "I'm sorry, that turned into much more of a speech than I wanted. If you have questions, I'm happy to answer them. If you need time to think it over or anything, I'll get out of your hair. Again, sorry that took longer than expected."

Geata regretted bringing up Geataland once Aurora started talking. Still, the mistake had been made, and he needed to keep going. Aurora had made her decision, and he wasn't expecting to change her mind anytime soon. A few comments needed to be made, though, in response. Then, once done with that, he'd move on to the second topic. Such was the plan decided from several.

"It's not-" he started to insist, but he knew full well how Aurora would feel about it. The second he started to try and defend his actions, he realized he wouldn't be able to for long, so he quickly changed his tune. "Okay, okay, I suppose it probably does seem like I'm making fun of you with that. I assure you that's not the intention, but I see your point and can understand your decision. Like I said before, I can't get anyone else who'd be able to help, so I'll try to figure something else out. If it's not too much trouble, though, I'd appreciate it if you'd at least not try to start any trouble with her. I'll be asking the same of her, so hopefully I won't have to try and worry about that. If the two of you were to start fighting, I don't know what I'd be able to do besides just dropping the both of you on opposite sides of the city. That would just be a big waste of time for everyone involved, don't you agree?"

He waited for a few beats before moving on the subject that he expected to take up the bulk of the conversation, assuming Aurora was willing to oblige him with an answer.

"On to topic number two, then. Aforementioned scary lady said a few things about you. Like coming to you for help with that would be a waste of time, for instance. She didn't seem to hold you in very high regard, honestly, but one thing that she said really stuck with me. She said, and I quote, that you 'have some goodwill' towards me. Now, assuming that she was right and wasn't lying for whatever reason," he said as he tilted his head inquisitively, "why in the hell do you have some goodwill towards me? Jay's told me about the qualifications for you to like a person, so I know it's not anything involving that. I'll save you the spiel about how unlikable I am, but you're honestly one of the last people I expected to not outright hate me."

He looked at Aurora, his confusion and concern evident as far as he could tell. "You're not, like, terminally ill or anything are you? Because other than impending death, I can't wrap my head around a reason that makes sense."

Geata nodded as Aurora stated her thoughts on leaving Azoth alone. He wondered briefly if Seraphim might have neglected to inform him of important details, but he decided it likely wasn't important. What was offered was gracious enough, especially if he were to be successful in figuring out how to get Azoth to be less inclined to want a personal army. He also wondered if Pandaemonium was anything besides Aurora's personal army considering how she was in charge and given her general personality, but he knew better than to say anything. Pointing that out would only lead to one of her famous ideological rants, and Geata honestly preferred to not poke the metaphorical bear.

"Alright, that's more than enough," he said. "I'm confident that I can keep her away from the Pandas, so hopefully there won't be any issues there. I can't say that I'll be helping you go after her when that time comes, but I'll be keeping her out of your hair in the meantime. I hope you understand."

Whether he was understood or not didn't concern Geata. He was adamant on his stance concerning the feud. He wasn't going to pick sides unless absolutely necessary, and until then he was going to do his best to keep them from going for each other's throats. He didn't care much if either of them didn't like that he wouldn't be taking their side. He cared about both of them, was going to be doing his best to keep both of them from doing anything rash, and was more than willing to smack both of them upside the back of their heads if they needlessly did something stupid or expected anything different from him.

And, speaking of expectations, Geata was somehow not surprised that Aurora was expecting him to try and manipulate her because she didn't hate him. The fact that people kept assuming the worst about him was getting old. He tried to be a nice guy, help people out; doing so was what had gotten him murdered. And yet he was still suspected of being a completely self serving asshole. At least some people appreciated his efforts, he grumbled internally.

"If I was going to try and do that, I would've been more insistent on getting you to help with Azoth," he said. "And all things considered, I don't think asking 'what the hell is wrong with you' is something that would be used to lead to attempting to try and 'cash in' on cheer and goodwill. Actually sounds a lot more like something that would lead to getting punched in the face, honestly. Um... thanks for not taking that wrong way, by the way."

He paused to consider what had been said and debate whether or not it would be too early to bring up topic number three. Considering how he expected topic number three to end up going less than pleasantly, he supposed it would be best to ask important questions while he still had the chance. As such, he quickly came up with something else to talk about instead.

"So, since you apparently don't have any life threatening illnesses that might rob you from this world before your time," he said, jokingly and dramatically, "what's the next big step on your path to a liberated city-state for supers, Aurora? You've already got the docks under your control, and now an official base of operations. I'd imagine it shouldn't take too much longer to get everything into suitable conditions here. Is the next big thing going to be another, grander message to the general public? Or are you going to be trying to take somewhere else under your wing?"

"Hey, I only started to referring to y'all as such after I had heard a few amongst your ranks saying it themselves." Whether this was true or not, Geata didn't exactly remember, but it sounded believable enough that he was willing to say that there was probably a legitimate chance of it being true. "Besides, my meaning obviously gets across, and it's a lot less of a mouthful. I'll stop saying it around you, but I make no promises for the long term."

Geata was attempting to stall some more, and Aurora's thoughts on self sufficiency were an even more surprisingly welcome topic (especially since he couldn't figure out the right words to justify his idiocy or competence). Right up until she called him out for stalling, that was. Her bluntness was something that he appreciated, but it made maintaining a conversation difficult. He decided to keep his suggestion to contact his family back east for farming knowledge to himself. Odds were that Aurora probably already thought she knew enough on the subject anyway, he reasoned, and he could always offer it later should Aurora get around to establishing those farms anytime soon. Assuming he didn't put his foot in his mouth and cause his own untimely demise. He hoped Aurora was still in her equivalent of a moderately good mood.

"Alright," he sighed. "I have a contact who shared some interesting information with me in regards to you. Specifically, about you a few years ago. I was told about the basic details, but I didn't want to jump to any conclusions and make incorrect assumptions or anything, so I thought it best to ask you directly."

He paused, not for dramatic effect - though it did cross his mind - but to actually figure out if there was tactful way to frame the question. There probably was but it was alluding him so he decided to mimic Aurora's patented bluntness.

"What happened that night when Gaderian was involved with a fire at the Voclain house?"

Geata honestly didn't have much of anything in the way of motives as far as being generally agreeable went. It was just that, in his experience, the best way to avoid conflict with angry, stubborn people was to act like there wouldn't be any need for conflict in the first place. That was why he had relatively quickly shifted the subject from Geataland. He touched on it enough that it would seem reasonable to think that he wasn't avoiding the subject, and then avoided everything about it because it was something that he wouldn't be complacent over. Everything else he simply hadn't had high expectations of really working in the first place, with the exception of Aurora not trying to go after Azoth. And he had gotten enough to work with on that subject, so he simply didn't see the need to ask for more.

Her general demeanor when asked his question gave Geata the impression that Aurora was irritated with it. However, she always seemed irritated and he wasn't missing any important parts so it was probably a safe enough conversation to continue with further. Even if it turned into an ideological rant, he could stand it if it helped sate his curiosity and confusion regarding the situation.

"That's... not exactly what I meant, Aurora," he said with an uncomfortable chuckle. "According to the Google machine, Gaderian means 'unity', yeah? I doubt that coincidence. And, judging by how you are now and how you were apparently a 'pacifist heroine'- you have my respect for trying to go about everything from that angle first, by the way- I also doubt that you resorted to arson. So, my guess is that you were trying to help, people either thought you were responsible or just simply didn't like that, and... the police got involved." Geata doubted that going into further detail was necessary or would be appreciated.

"So, is that what led to the Aurora Disicio of today?" He asked, his voice judgment-free. "You saw how horrible people are towards supers and decided to do something about it, so that nobody else is put into a situation like you were?"

"You're griping at me like this is the first time you're realizing I'm bad with words," Geata huffed in response. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around how to go about having conversations that aren't just going through the motions. Sue me."

Aurora's answer to his question was met with a surprise that Geata doubted should have been present in someone who had allegedly done their homework. He was, however, informed enough that he wasn't as surprised by Aurora's statements as he would've been had she said any of them and he hadn't stumbled upon Azoth's potential blackmail information (he made a mental note to inform Azoth that she may as well forget about trying that with Aurora anyway). He knew about her parents and their views on their daughter's presumably unknown extracurriculars, for instance. He knew about her brush with death on the night of the fire. But this was the first he had heard about another attempt on her life.

Geata, recent events cluing him in to just how sensitive a topic nearly dying is, took a few moments to prepare his words with more care. "I can't imagine how it must have been when you discovered your powers, with parents like that," he said, acutely aware of the fact that he was probably not succeeding at handling the conversation with the proper care he should've. He sighed as he continued. "I... wasn't aware that it had happened twice, Aurora. The information I obtained only mentioned the night of the fire."

Geata searched for a specific enough question that he couldn't be accused of being too vague while still avoiding being harsh and blunt. He wasn't particularly pleased with what came to mind, but he assumed it would probably work well enough. "Were the police involved the same way the other time as they were the night of Gaderian's death?" he asked tentatively, not wanting to refer to it as "the night of the fire" over and over.