The Aspiring Archivist

Variance stood in a corner, form fuzzy. Keeping their captive senseless had taken a lot out of him, and he was definitely worse for wear. "Will my help be needed anytime soon? I should probably know in advance." @Channelknight Fadran @Szeth_Pancakes

Variance sighed, then whipped out a dagger made of an impossibly black material, plunging it into Strohger's chest before he had time to react. The man immediately went limp. In an instant, his senses were gone. All of them. He had no sight, no hearing, not even a sense of his own physical self. He just was, independent. He couldn't even be said to be floating, for he neither experienced gravity nor a lack thereof. There was nothing at all. It was extremely disconcerting, if not downright frightening.

"I'd say it can probably last for... about an hour, if I push it. If I didn't supplement it at all, maybe 15 minutes or so."

Variance spoke only to Ayia and Allera. "If we really need to, I can use the Perception dagger to make him effectively gone for a while without killing him. If we need to have some privacy or not let him see where we're going or something." @Channelknight Fadran @Szeth_Pancakes

Variance nodded at Allera and stepped back. He seemed exhausted for some reason.

"I don't see why you care about any of this. For the record, I don't think either of them are bad people."

"To stay where I was. I was the one who wished to go with them."

"I had a choice."

"No, not very long."

"Yes."

He frowned. "That doesn't seem important for you to know, either."

"That's hard to gauge. I hardly consider myself a person. I wouldn't necessarily say I'm better than either of my companions. I wouldn't be sure you are, either."

"That's an odd line of questioning for someone who doesn't know any of us."

"I don't see why that's important to you."

Variance looked at him silently, and shrugged. "Which question, exactly?"

"Why do you want to talk to me?"

Variance watched all of this silently, looking somewhat uncomfortable.

"Who knows? There might be some pretty unprotected maps to help people around the place."

"So, we're going to rob some sort of information center?" @Channelknight Fadran

"Okay. We should probably be working a little more on our infiltration plan here. I can legally get us in undetected, but what then?"

"My name is Variance. What just happened isn't very important for you to know, I'd imagine." He looked to Ayia, and spoke only in her ears. "What are we going to do with him?" @Channelknight Fadran

He nodded slowly.

"Do you mean that in the metaphorical sense?