video;

[tasteforpoison]

[It's Yelena, here with a quick question. She has a somewhat harried look about her, and she doesn't look like she's slept well with the bags under her eyes, but it doesn't make her any less alert.

That might be because of the coffee-like drink she's enjoying at one of the cafes in the Wood sector, but it's not what she's here to talk about.]

Just to be sure, no one has noticed any ghosts of people who aren't from Keeliai, right? That is, spirits of people who are definitely from their worlds instead of here, for instance?

Comments

[trainwrecked]

Yeah, I did. Didn't expect it to need this sort of a reaction, but.

[He shrugs, easy, but attentive, and settles the tray, pouring tea for fer and arranging snacks, like the nuns had taught them, back when they'd depended on them.]

Thanks for agreeing to tell me.

[tasteforpoison]

Well, I don't have a lot of reasons to trust people, and knowing that a lock on that network can be undone...So it's fine, I don't mind telling you, I'd just rather keep this particular skill to myself.

[Emotionally speaking, she's exhausted, but talking about poison tasting is a bit easier. She's anticipating that there will be questions about why and how she got into this, however, hence the need for secrecy.]

So, I know how to fight with a staff and a knife, that's not really unknown. But back home, what I'm known for is being the Commander's poison taster.

[trainwrecked]

Of course.

[Which is why he suggested it not be over the network at all. He's gleaned enough about security or lack of it, and doesn't really want to think about it, but the facts of the matter remain in favor of not trusting technology. Yet.]

[And then she tells that, and he... pauses, his face darkening.]

Somebody's making you taste their food for poison? So you die instead of them?

[tasteforpoison]

[Yelena lifts her shoulders in a shrug.]

If it's poisoned with something that works too fast for me to get an antidote, yes.

[Valek kept every antidote on hand, but there were some like My Love which were so lethal and fast-acting that surviving even with the antidote was up in the air.]

I've learned the taste, smell, appearance, and texture of a hundred poisons native to Ixia and Sitia...give or take. In food and in drink.

[trainwrecked]

So why is this Commander so important that he'd have people knowingly do that for him?

[Beat. And then, actually softer.]

And why do you do it, for him?

[tasteforpoison]

He's in control of everything. There is none higher than him...and a great deal of how he overthrew the kingdom was through use of poison. It stands to reason that he would worry about it being used against him as well...

[Yelena trails off, looking uncomfortable. She hasn't touched the food yet, though she will in time.]

I do it because it's better than the alternative. The position of the Commander's poison taster is only offered to those whose lives are already forfeit anyway.

[trainwrecked]

[Bucky stares at her for another moment.]

... I think I'm back to disliking the place you're comin' from.

[Because any place where that is an acceptable way to take power needs some good old-fashioned democracy.]

[He lets out a long breath, and leans back a bit.]

So you didn't have that much of a choice. Have you been doing it long?

[Yes, he is curious as to what crime she was convicted of, to get to that situation. No, he doesn't think she's up for answering that, right now. Too... tired.]

[tasteforpoison]

A lot of people who aren't from Ixia don't like it. It's just what I know. [She shrugs after a moment.] I had a choice to live or not. So far it's given me almost a year of life I wouldn't have had otherwise. And well, I learned skills. Ones I use here actually.

[And at this point, Yelena picks up a glass in front of her.]

Did you know that poisoners can mask the taste of a poison in the smell of a drink?

[She swirls the liquid around in the glass, watching it. She takes a sip then with her nose pinched shut, and then as quietly as she can manage, gargles it.]

Sometimes it's as simple as that to detect it's been tampered with.