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]

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.