Sibling Question Time~ [Pandora]

Another job, but fortunately not as restrictive as the previous. Artemis was wearing his guild armour as he made his way via carriage into Lavanitir Port City. At least he had chosen to take on this job, and he wasn't specifically ordered to kill anyone. He wasn't quite ready to deal with that, whatever means his Father was using to transformed into a 'hardened leader. He needed a break, he wanted to do the job his way, in a way that would make him feel less trapped. He had an idea but it meant stepping up, and taking control, not as even feat when he had his family putting pressure on him. The only ones that weren't we're his siblings. Ren who was working with him inside Hidden Blades, and well Pandora, who he'd had seen for...well a pretty long time. He couldn't help but wonder how his big sister was fairing, she generally kept to herself. Which he understood better than anyone, the intrusive and judgemental values of their families. So yeah, being as involved as little as possible. Well he didn't blame her one bit. He hadn't managed to escape their families hold, and there was even less hope for obedient little Ren. But Pandora, in Artemis's mind, at least she had a chance at freedom.

He arrived at the location where he would be meeting the client. He was going for even more discretion that usually today. Not only did he have the guild armour on, but he was wearing the ring of concealment as using it to change the appearance of the armour. So that it looked different to the guilds, just a generic mages in armour that made him look like a Knight. Not a Rune Knight, but a generic soldier of sorts. At the very least, he would be less noticeable this way. A man in armour wasn't that uncommon in their world, not when you had the likes of lamias and nekos running about. He stepped out of the carriage, he spotted the Head Detective waiting for him, arms over his chest. He recognised him from the file Blanche had given him when he'd accepted the job. He approached,

"I'm here for the job." He stated simply, the man nodded at him, before responding gruffly.

"We're waiting on one other then we can get started," Artemis nodded, another mage huh? Blanche had mentioned that was a possibility, but hadn't quite confirmed it. Either that or she had and he'd skimmed over it in the email. The latter was the more likely option.

Artemis had just been wondering who it was that would join him for this task, he had to be careful. He couldn't act like he was doing this as a guild member, the rule with Hidden Blades was if working with mages outside the guild you had to pretend you were guildless. Which wasn't really too much of an ask really, he just had to make to state he was freelance were he to be asked about it. But it really depended on how chatty his partner was. He heard her approached, and glanced over. It took a moment for him to realise, the red-headed woman looked familiar. But why? Then it dawned on him.

Pandora?

His eyes grew wide under his mask, she wouldn't see this but his jaw dropped. Standing next to him was none other than his older sister. Whom he had seen in the longest time. She looked different. His eyes fell on her eyepatch, a visible scar protruding from underneath. He closed his mouth, clenching his fist. He sudden felt a great wave of irritation. Just what the fuck has she been up to? He thought angrily. He wanted to call her out, to tell her it was him but he couldn't. Not in this gear he was wearing, not with people watching. He needed to stay hidden, this was a job for the guild after all. Once they were alone however...

He said nothing as she apologised for her tardiness, he couldn't talk right now. He wanted to shout, to call her an idiot and demand that she tell him what happened. But he couldn't, he had to stay composed for now at least.

"It's alright, now that you're both here I shall re-cap the job and what we need you to do. As you may now there as an 'incident' involving one of our ships, there was an explosion on what of our best vessels. We've managed to narrow down some suspects but they're not talking, we feel like 'mages' might be a little more effective at this point. See if you can get some answers, perhaps one of you could play good cop, bad cop. Whatever you decide just do whatever you can, we can only hold them for so long without evidence before we have to release them."

Artemis nodded, it was simple enough, get them to talk by any means you could. He may have been better at this by himself, but still he was glad he took the job. At least now he was reunited with his sister, even if he was incredibly pissed off at her right now. He had always considered himself close to both of his siblings. If he looked up to anyone in his family, it wasn't his Grandfather, nor his actually father. But his big sister, who always seemed to stand so tall in his eyes. Seeing her after all this time made reminded him of just how long it had been since it had been since he had seen her. He hadn't a clue what she was up to, the family just said she was working. Perhaps they didn't know either, and were just trying to save face. Either way, he felt guilt itching away at him. I should've tried harder.. He thought. The detective turned leading them towards the building where the suspects were being held for questioning. Artemis glanced over at Pandora, wondering when would be a good opportunity to reveal his identity to her. No, perhaps after the job was done at least. Then again, maybe she would realise it was him once he started talking, it depended on just how much she remembered of his nature. Guess we'll see.

Artemis followed the Detective and Pandora into the building, walking through the hallways. His red eyes scanned the walls under his mask; he spotted a few security cameras. Which meant that they were likely to be watched. Hidden Blades had the means to hack into any security camera they wanted, which meant that Blanche would have access to this footage and so would their father. The detective led them into a monitoring room, with a large window to one wall which would give them the ability to see the suspects once lined up. The likelihood being the window was mirrored on the other side meaning they couldn't be seen in turn. The detective instructed them to wait while they brought in the suspects for them to review. Leaving the two of them in the room alone. It was awkward, here he was standing alongside his older sister, and she had no clue. He wanted to talk to her so bad, to scrap the job and just check in with her. Heck, as gross as it was, he could even hug her right now. His sister was the only one Arty could be straight with and after so long. He realised how much he missed her.

The men were brought into the opposing room. Artemis turned his gaze from Pandora to the suspects. Deciding that he should at least try and focus on the job at hand. There were four of them in total, all men and all keenly unique; an oaf of a man covered in tattoos and muscle, a clean-cut officer, most likely the Ship's captain, an older bloke who seemed to be particular angry about this situation, staring towards the glass hatefully and then finally some small fry, practically a weasel shaking with nerves. It was quite the selection to work with, Artemis knew he could find out who did it without an interrogation, but that was quite the ability to use — invading their minds one by one, sifting through their sins. He would wait and see. Hopefully, the situation wouldn't call for it.

Pandora spoke finally, turning to him and drawing his gaze to her. Asking who they should start with, before following it up by asking his name. He looked her over, wondering what to do. He wanted to say 'It's me, Arty' but he couldn't. He eyed the room for a moment, noticing the security camera in the far right corner behind her. He cleared his throat, he wanted her to know it was him, but he had to do this carefully. He wasn't actually sure how much Pandora knew about Hidden Blades, and father would be furious if he revealed too much as he had with Ren. As he spoke, his voice came out gravelled and distorted, slightly deeper than how he would actually sound, an effect of the voice changing mechanic on the armour.

"Let's start with the brat, he looks ready to crack already." He remarked. If the kid did have anything to do with it. He would be the easiest one to get information out of, and if he hadn't any partners in crime amongst the line-up. Then they would undoubtedly know this. "As for names you can call me Bill, or Mr Smith for now. Although..." Artemis moved past her, towards the corner, he stepped under the camera, reaching up he released a dark vine of magic from his palm. It would glide upwards towards the camera, gently tugging on the wire to loosen i. The light flickered off, and the thorny vines retracted back into his palm. He turned to her,"Afterwards I'll tell you who I really am, in case you haven't already figured it out by then, Pan~." He said, eying her face to see if the childhood nickname would jolt her memory.

Behind the black veil that covered his face, his red eyes would soften at the sight of his elder sister's reaction as it dawned on her. The truth behind who it was actually standing across from her. It was more difficult of a moment than he realised it would be, the urge not to hug her, and greet her properly was almost overwhelming. It was pretty frustrating having to play pretend, even if it was for both of their sakes. Even so, it would only be for a little longer. Fortunately, She quickly picked up on that fact he didn't want her to acknowledge him openly, at least not yet.. Hopefully, they would be able to talk privately after and catch up on a decade's worth of mystery. Artemis had quickly realised that there was a lot that had happened to his sister that he had been oblivious to, the mixture of guilt, confusion and frustration he was feeling right now lingered like a weight on his chest. He didn't care much for his family, most of them were obnoxious, narrow-minded and narcissistic. But his siblings were different, they understood the burden of being the child of a Dagger, it was what connected them so much more than normal siblings.

She would go on to introduce herself as 'Galeyne Lockheart', to which he would nod. He wasn't sure why she was using an alias, perhaps she too had something to hide. A slightly concerning thought, hopefully, he would soon find out her reasoning. She would take it upon herself to question the brat, which he was happy to let her do. She would make a remark about his 'appearance' to which he would grin under his mask, she did have a point; his armour was rather menacing. He would follow behind her, leaving the 'monitoring' room only to move to the actual 'interrogation' room that had been set up for them. He would say nothing, shutting the door behind him. He would manoeuvre to the far wall, behind Pandora who had taken a seat across from the boy. Leaning back, he would gaze over the kid blankly. The guy looked genuinely terrified, Artemis would almost feel bad for him, trying to imagine what it was like being that much of a coward. Artemis had only felt scared a few times in his life, and the redhead having been in trouble with the authorities several times, for delinquent teenage behaviour. Nothing teachers or Rune Knights ever did would worry him, he was much more concerned about the reaction he would endure when he got home.

He would observe as Pandora got into the actual questioning, talking to the fellow in a calm tone. He would introduce himself as 'Billy Smithers'. He would listen to her words when she mentioned his alias and hinter at his lack of patience. Artemis chose that moment to stretch his neck from side to side, as though limbering up slightly. The boy glanced between the two of them before cracking and spilling his guts. Artemis arched a brow at his explanation, Seriously? This is what constitutes as a 'dare' these days. Artemis could think of much more ludicrous dares to partake in. Not that he had time to screw around like that anymore, the twenty-two-year-old barely had enough time eat or sleep. What with all the work that was being dumped on his desk these days by the unforgiving hands of Blanche.

As Pandora addressed him, asking for his opinion on the matter. Artemis would push himself off of the wall, stalking slowly towards Billy. He would stop in front of the guy, standing over him, reaching forward he would touch him on the shoulder. The boy would tremble under his touch, even though it was light. Artemis resisted the urge to chuckle. He honestly couldn't see any deceit in the kids gaze, he just seemed like an idiotic guy who wanted to impress his friends and made a pig's ear of it. Besides if they didn't get the answers they needed, then Artemis would go him back for a 'second' interrogation alone, for which he could always use 'that ability'. He let go of Billy's shoulder, straightening up he glanced over to his sister.

"I would say so," He returned his gaze to the kid, addressing him stonily, "We'll need your written statement, a name and contact information for your alibi. Bare in mind, if your story doesn't check out, I'll be dragging you back here myself for a private chat. Which would severely test my patience, trust me, boy, you don't want to see what happens when it runs out." He said, his tone was flat, but still laced with an ominous tone, the threat that lay behind those words was enough to cause Billy to let out a whimper. He would turn, nodded Pandora to follow him out of the room.

Once they were outside, Artemis would inform a passing officer that the witness was ready to give his statement. He turned to his red-hearted sister, or rather the current Mrs Lockheart. "Who shall we see to next?" He asked her, seeing as it had been his decision the last time, he figured he would let her call the next interview. After all, she was pretty good at taking charge, but then again it was very much in her nature. His sister was strong and a good leader, despite all the years apart. She was still Pan~. There were slight mannerisms, a certain way she said things, it was still her, his big sis. It was kind of comforting, seeing her again. It really had been too long.

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