[Ding! +10 P.]
[Ding! +15 P.]
[Ding! +12 P.]
[Ding!...]
'System shut down the point notification.' Simon needed to focus; now that he had the feel of social interaction once again, he couldn't let it slip away by being distracted. Elm finally finished her donut; her smile no longer felt so casual like earlier. Her brown eyes clash with his gray ones; they stare at each other for a few seconds before he gives up willingly. An invitation for her to ask the first question.
"Hmm, friends you say? Yeah, we might have mutual friends, but not sure which friends share which interests with us." Elm said while taking the other napkin to wipe her mouth and hands. Simon gives her an inviting look, as if asking her not to hold back, which she didn't, and asked the question. "Since you are the social one between us, do you mind introducing us to some of them?"
Simon closes his eyes, leaning back into his chair, and he taps on the table with a hesitant look before leaning forward once his eyes snap open. Elm was taken aback by his sudden action, but she doubled down by leaning forward too with a smirk. After hesitating few seconds, he finally started talking. "Hmm, that's a mighty hard request, no? Miss Ederne. I mean, what would they think about me if I just simply talking about their personal information? What if I misspoke? That might stain my relationship with them permanently."
"Not even a clue? C'mon, Jenkins, I thought you said you liked me. I even brought you donuts, let me tell you they weren't exactly cheap." Elm nudges towards the donut box with her eyes. Simon scratched his hair with a conflicted face.
"I can't speak freely, you know... oh, I got it. How about we play a questioning game? If it's a game, then they can't blame me for answering your questions. That's just how games are after all." Simon nodded with a satisfied look, and Elm also nodded her head approvingly.
"Questioning game, huh? Yeah, been a while since I played a game like that. Brings back memories, I loved playing them when I was young."
"Yeah, nostalgic, isn't it? But we are no longer children. So we should put some stakes to make it more entertaining for us." Elm was prepared for something like that; this is where Simon would introduce his own twist, a way to steer the conversation in the direction he wanted. "One sentence, answer can't be longer than that if it's about a friend. Even if it's a game, it's wrong to go into too in detail about our friends. We can skip a question if we want to, but that would also make us skip our turn to ask a question. Sounds fair?"
Elm nodded her head. It sounded simple, and the rules are reasonable enough. But still, she needed to add her own conditions, too, one where her side would have the upper hand when put in practice. But it should also seem simple from the outside, like Simon's two additions. "Can I add my own twist too?"
"I see no problem with that." Simon gestured for her to continue.
"We don't need to necessarily abstain from our turn to question when deciding to skip answering. We can make a request or offer to each other; if it's considered reasonable, then the answering side could accept it, allowing them to ask their question later." Elm said with a smile from outside, this twist seems to be beneficial to Simon, but remember it must be a reasonable request, and Simon is a prisoner. The requests he can make are way more limited than what her side is allowed to. And their offers can be way more varied than Simon's sole asset of info.
'Heh, she is trickier than she let on.' But still, Simon didn't dislike the twist added by Elm, actually quite the opposite. He was starting to rack his brain for a way to introduce [Australium] into the conversation. But thanks to Elm, he now only needs to wait for the right moment. "Sounds reasonable enough. So, how are we gonna decide who would ask the first question?"
"Hmm, wanna do a good old coin toss?" Elm rummaged through her pocket before pulling out a coin. Simon nodded his head in affirmation. "Head or tail?"
"Tail." Elm flips the coin before catching it with her backhand. She then reveals the answer, it was a head. "Aww, it seems like my today is luck ran out by meeting you, Miss Ederne."
Just as Elm was about to ask a question, she felt it, a faint vibration in her left ear. It was her earpiece hidden behind the longer side of her hair.
"Officer Ederne, can you hear me? If so, tap your foot once." It was a little fussy, but she recognised General Ironwood's voice. He is probably watching all this from the hidden room, she taps her foot once as he asked her to do.
On the other side of the mirror, James Ironwood watched all this with a frown. He doesn't like this; it just doesn't feel right. He can accept that Simon Jenkins was planning something, but whatever that he was planning, his instincts are telling him it is bigger than he wanted it to be. So, he decided to intervene this time even though he wasn't planning to do so initially.
'It would have been good if I had let him warm up to Ederne a little longer.' Ironwood presses the button, which allows him to speak through Elm's earpiece. "Start with personal questions, let him talk about himself and his current situation. If possible, find out why he is so lenient towards speaking."
There were many suspicious points in Simon's behavior, for example, it seems to conflict with their current psychological map they have drawn. Of course, one could blame that on their info being inaccurate or stress. Then there is the game he chose; he should know his only value currently lies in the intel he possesses. Yet why choose a game like the questioning, a game that would slowly chip away the only thing that is giving him value?
He could only though of two possibilities: it was either a trap where he was planning to feed them false and incomplete info to let them go around chasing wild geese, or he was intentionally trying to reveal info, perhaps trying to get in their good grace. Each side has its own reasons that could be true, for example, the trap one is to stall time for what he wasn't sure, and the second one was because he was desperate.
Simon's clients were no normal people; if they wanted, they could truly might be able to break Simon free, which is why stalling would make sense. But at the same time, he knows too much, so there is no saying that they won't use this chance to silence him for good, which would also explain why he was desperate.
Still troubled by the unknown, his eyes landed on Elm, who was supposed to ask the first question. Elm was hesitant; the question she was prepared to ask died in her throat due to Ironwood's order. She looked at Simon, who was patiently waiting for her question.
'Sorry, Winter, the order is an order.' With that, she made her decision. "Let's start this slow; we've got time. So, how do you feel about Atlas? I am curious about how high-level criminals see Atlas from shadows."
Simon blinked, clearly confused; he was going through the names he had prepared to throw away to build goodwill between him and Atlas so he could have some credibility when he started introducing [Australium]. He was sure the most questions he would be asked about would be about his previous customers, yet here he was caught off guard. Still, he recovered as quickly as he could.
"The way I feel about the city, huh?" That was actually a hard one to answer; the memories he gained, even though they were a mess, have contained no emotions of their own. They were more of really realistic videos, sure, he could feel emotional for those scenes and guess the emotions the previous owner of the body felt, but that was it. Just like viewers could never fully understand the characters in a movie, where they could only get the feeling of emotion due to visual cues and camera tricks, he has no way to fully understand the original.
'The memory is a set of images recorded in the brain neuron, so I don't have access to anything like the original Jenkins's inner thought.' So, let's go with whatever he could put together from the original memories. "Then that would be the shiniest dumpster in a collection of dumpsters. Looks better from others in the outside but rotten inside all the same."
"Wow, that hurts, you know," Elm said. "You really shouldn't be telling the high-level officers their homeland is a trash can."
"But you didn't disagree now, did you?" Elm remained silent, so Simon took the initiative to ask his question. "Miss Ederne, how is the general situation of the outside world?"
"Really? That's what you are using your question for? To hear some gossip?" Simon simply shrugged his shoulders. He needs to get the general idea of the battlefield if he wanna play the game of war.
"Well, all the secrets are gossip in the end. Besides, I like to be up to date on everything possible." Additionally, he needs to verify that he grasps the correct gist of things from the memories.
"Your turn, your choice, hmm, I am not really into gossip myself, so what I could tell will be limited. Hope you are okay with that." Elm then glanced towards the mirror, before looking back at Simon. "So, most major recent news would be, right, do you remember a faunus activist group called White Fang? Reports have shown that their protests are getting fewer and fewer. It actually sucks, I kinda liked those guys, maybe they are giving up in the end. Also, there has been an incident in one of the Schnee Dust Company mines. They claimed it had been a rogue grimm, caused havoc, and resulted in the collapse of the mine. The people are calling it BS, and probably SDC is a scheme to raise the price of dust once again..."
Simon patiently listens to Elm rambling. It should be said that for someone who doesn't like gossip, Elm sure memorised many of them. Or perhaps she didn't memorise them, Simon had a creeping suspicion that there was more to this than he was seeing right now. 'It seems like they aren't simply observing.'
"...yeah, that's about everything I heard so far after you get captured." Simon nodded his head, accepting her answer. Sure, he could only use snippets from here and there to make the general knowledge he has reliable, and so far, it seems like he has a correct understanding of this world.
While listening to things Elm said, he noticed that everything she told him was something already happened; she only gave him vague answers about what was happening right now, more in the form of the consequence of what had happened. 'It does have info on the current state of the world, but extremely limited and vague.'
"Now you had your gossip, it's my turn to ask." Elm stared at Simon, carefully considering what to ask next. Ironwood told her to keep the questions personal about him, but also reveal info about why he is so okay with revealing his hands. This was tough, can't be too personal, but also should be info-revealing. 'Should I ask what the general is thinking?'
A subtle hint should be enough.
"You don't need to hide if you are getting instruction from the other side," Simon said while staring at the one-way mirror. Elm flinched, but before she could deny or say anything, Simon raised his hand, gesturing for her to stop. He then presses on his left ear, which was where Elm kept the earpiece hidden. "Isn't it uncomfortable to keep it hidden?"
Elm remained silent, not sure if he wanna answer it or not, but after a few seconds, she touched the earpiece. "Understood, sir." She then looks at him. "How did you know? Can you hear it or something?'
"Not at all, I only figured it out because your head kept twitching towards the left side. Seems really uncomfortable, probably sacrificed for the practicality." Elm nodded her head, she scratched her ear side a little relieved look.
"Tell me about it, stuffing something this small into your ear makes it itch like crazy," Elm said in a casual tone. "Now the cat's out of the bag, let me be blunt with my second question. Do you feel safe in here?"
Hearing this question, Simon smiled brightly and said in a confident tone. "Not a chance, Miss Ederne. Your security here is horrible."
This time, not only Elm but also Ironwood remained quite behind the one-way mirror. 'It seems like he isn't lying. Did he already get a visit?'
James Ironwood was a paranoid man, stubborn? Yes, at the time, but that doesn't mean he is stupid. He knows the Atlas defenses might be the best in all four kingdoms, but he would never claim it's impregnable, especially not from the inside.
"So, it's my turn to ask the question." Simon's words pulled Ironwood back to the present. He shook his head to regain his focus. Guesses can come later, right now might be the most important part of this whole interrogation. "Here is my question. What is the most valuable possession I have?"
"Isn't it information? I mean, that was your whole shtick."
Simon simply smiled and waved his finger in front of him. "Nay, Miss Eldene, information seems valuable, but remember what I said. It's all a gossip in the end. It's only valuable if the people believe it. What I say is valuable information because you trust me. You trust my background, my credibility."
"So then what is it?" Elm asked, confusedly, which made Simon smile.
"To answer your question, my dear Miss Ederne. Its credibility, the proof that would make my gossip credible. Since I answered your question, now let me ask mine. Would you believe if I said I have proof for information that could shake the Remnant itself to its core?" Only when Simon asked his question did Elm realize she had just wasted her question. The sudden shift to Simon is a dramatic act that caught her so off guard she couldn't even process it properly.
"I..." Elm pressed on her earpiece for advice; she wasn't sure how to answer it. On the other hand, Ironwood looked a little shaken; his gaze towards Simon changed. Did he believe that Simon learned something that could shake the Remnant as a whole? He didn't think it was impossible after all; he, too, knew secrets like that. "Elm, skip that question, but tell him we are willing to listen if he has any offer he wanna make at a reasonable level."