[Fin] A Growing Bias [Lucca]

[Esfiel]

Never.. never wanted.. climb.. stairs...

I. Hate. Tuglies. Even if he were going to help her, she wouldn't have needed his help if hadn't asked her if something was the matter in the first place! Tuglies were supposed to be cunning, and police officers had to have some smarts. Combine the two and you had someone smart, even if they were also cruel and uncaring. He knew there was a problem, and he choice to give her the chance to climb the stairs. Did he really think she was going to complain about her leg?

Aima forced herself not to glare at the goat, especially when he offered his shoulder. She wondered if he'd help her for a moment, and then quickly move away to let her fall down the stairs. That way he could claim that it'd been an accident. He hadn't pushed her down the stairs or anything. Then again, he could probably push her down and still claim it was an accident. Maybe.. he actually meant to help her?

Ah, that's right. He needed to arrest her and get the credit for taking in someone with a broken leg for theft. He must be so proud. she thought cynically while she kept one paw on the railing and put the other on his shoulder. "What about my crutches?" She'd let him help her, but she wouldn't put her faith in him.

[Lucca]

He just stood there passively while the girl decided if she was going to let him help her or not. He personally couldn't see that she had much of a choice, but then, she'd already proven herself to be foolishly stubborn and arrogant, hadn't she? When she put her paw on his shoulder, he took a slow step up, hopefully carrying the Martin with him, assuming she knew enough to move with him.

He paused at her question and turned his pink eyes to look at her, devoid of emotion. "I'll fetch them for you after you're safely on the landing," he informed her calmly, and then took another step up, nodding to her to move. He didn't want to be here all night, and he was pretty sure she didn't either.

He was also pretty sure by now she hadn't done it, but he'd wait until he had her in a holding cell to speak anything about the 'crime' and ask her questions. Just in case, he wasn't going to allow her to know he'd come to any of his own conclusions. Not yet.

Assuming Aima cooperated, they be at the top of the stairs in five minutes, and here the Goat would carefully shrug away from her (after he made sure she had a stable footing). "I'm going to go get your crutches now. Wait here please."

[Esfiel]

Aima let the goat help her up the stairs, though was still too paranoid to let go of the railing. When he looked at her to respond to her question she didn't make eye contact. His eyes were increasingly alarming her. Somehow they were the same Tugley eyes, but far more frightening than Mrs. White's eyes. It just seemed like he was trying to.. to eat all her emotions and turn her into some type of droid. Oh no. Maybe he was trying to make her his slave or something. His mindless follower! Her face would have went white if it weren't for the blue fur, though the blue must have certainly looked pale.

Normally the martin wasn't this paranoid and quick to jump to outlandish conclusions. She took pride in her ability to think, her intellect, and the fact that she was a medical Corvie, but people from Tugley Woods just had a way with messing with her mind.

Once at the top she was tempted to reply with a sarcastic manner. 'No, I'm going to dash off with this cast on,' was on the tip of her tongue, or a even more cynical, 'I thought I'd chuck myself over the end of the stairs and race you down.' Instead she stared at the ground muttering an okay and that she'd wait. There wasn't anywhere else to go, after all.

[Lucca]

Aberforth snorted a bit as the girl avoided meeting his eyes. Granted, a lot of people got nervous around Tulgies, but this really took the cake. Maybe I'm not the first of my kind she's met? flashed briefly though his head, but he shrugged the thought off as Not Currently Important. Without another word towards the girl, the officer made his way back down the stairs, hooves echoing oddly once again, though this time it could almost be blamed on the fact that the stairs were marble.

He picked the crutches up carefully in his mouth, getting a firm grip before he returned to Aima's side, setting the devices down beside her. This was all done in the span of moments. He nodded to her. "If you would follow me, we can move to a conference room for routine questioning," the Goat told her, but he waited until she had her balance with the newly-regained crutches before leading her into the station, breezing past the front desk with a nod to the officer on duty there, and, using a ring of keys around one of his legs, unlocking the door to a small room, and pushing it open, looking at the Pine Martin expectantly as he held the door for her.

Inside the room was a large, plain table and several wooden chairs, made to accommodate Animal, Human, and Biped forms.

[Esfiel]

Aima liked how he called it the conference room instead of the interrogation room, almost as though he were trying to make it seem more friendly and less horrible. She knew, though, that he was not trying to put her at ease. He was trying to get her to drop her guard so that she could be easy pray to what was sure to be his horribly rude and unfair questioning. She had an eye on him, even if she wouldn't make eye contact!

As she entered the room she warily took a chair made for Animals. It was time to mentally prepare herself. Wait, maybe she ought to physically prepare herself as well? She'd heard crazy stories about the violence police officers used to get answers. At the time she'd thought them crazy. Threatening to use violence was like to produce more lies than truths as the ones giving the answers tried to please their questioners from fear. Now she wasn't so sure. They'd hire Tugleys, what else would they do?

Maybe she ought to also prepare her defense. Here she was thinking of all the horrible plans he had for her instead of trying to enforce the fact that she was arrested wrongfully. The broken leg was probably the biggest proof. How in the world would she have stolen the pouch and gotten that far with it? She'd need more considering how oblivious he seemed to it, so she could also include a lack of time. She'd left work not long ago. What else...

This is what she was pondering and thinking as she waiting for him to begin his attack.

[Lucca]

When Aima had seated herself, Aberforth shut the door, to give them some privacy, and then moved towards the table, though he himself did not sit. He eyed the girl for a moment, considering, pink eyes as unreadable as ever. His neutral expression twitched, as if trying to turn into either a smile or a frown, though it wasn't clear which as it didn't make it.

"All right, we'll start with the simple ones...what's your name? Where do you live? How long have you lived there?" he asked her calmly, pacing a bit in front of her, hooves still making that odd noise even on the rug that had been put down to cover the floor. After speaking, he got out a note book from his jacket, placing on the table near himself and nosing it to a new, blank page that wasn't taken up with information on his current big case.

He took out a fountain pen, and holding it carefully in his mouth with surprising capability (he had, after all, been practicing for years, needing to keep track of his independent blacksmithing business records), be began to write in a flowing script. If Aima were to glance over, she would see that he wasn't writing in Common, so she probably wouldn't be able to tell what it said. Unless, of course, she could somehow read Tulgey.

[Esfiel]

Confusion and suspicion hit Aima instantly as the goat started to ask his questions. He had said this was routine questioning, and amazingly enough.. it actually sounded like it. Was he trying to lead her on? Was he honestly trying that hard to make her think he had nothing worse in store for her? Very well, she could play his games. Trying not to look like she knew, she answered his questions in the best monotone voice she could pull off, which was not very good at all, sounding instead flat and unsure.

"My name's Aima," she started, her voice quickening in her want to get this over with, "I live in the Capital currently, though for the most part I live in Corvistowne. I've been in the Capital for a few months on research." Now she frowned, unable to shut up now that she'd started. "I've been working at a cafe to help make money to stay here, and was in fact on my way home from said job when I was so wonderfully arrested."

Now all attempts to talk emotionlessly and in monotone was thrown into the wind. "Usually I'd work as a waitress, but I've been switched to hostess due to a little problem I have with being unable to walk quickly and balanced." More sarcasm began oozing into her tone as she couldn't help but get angry. "You know, broken legs tend to do that, but apparently I still had time to get off work, run over to that area, steal that obnoxious woman's money, run back towards work, and then for some mad reason turn back around and walk back towards the yelling!"

Aima deflated with a huff in her chair, now looking more like a wrongfully accused child than an adult. She still refused to look at him. She didn't want to see his gaze or his.. his Tugley-ness. It would only no doubt make her feel very foolish and unsettled when she would rather be rebellious and angry. Looking at him, in the end, would only make her defeated.

[Lucca]

Aberforth's eyes narrowed slightly, though it was hard to tell exactly what emotion this conveyed. Was it annoyance or confusion? It was, in actuality, a bit of both. He hadn't done anything to the girl, and already she was being hostile to him. And jumping way ahead in her answers. His ears pinned back against his head, and he paced a bit more, noticing she also wasn't looking at him directly. Yes, she definitely had something against Tulgies...

Or maybe just against him? Did she really think it was -his- fault that she'd decided to take the stairs on her own? Or that she'd fallen on them? How did he know this wasn't all an act, some stupid thing to catch him off guard? Every word out of her mouth could be a lie! Not for the first time, he wished he was a Diamond so he could be sure if he was being lied to or not.

The Goat shook his head, trying to dispel the paranoid thoughts. Just remain calm, keep asking questions. That's your job. "All right, Miss Aima, all right," he said placatingly, though the tone of his voice was the same as before. "Please tell me, in your own words, what happened tonight, not leaving anything out." He still decided not to mention that he didn't think the crime was committed by the Pine Martin. He'd wait to get the full story from her first.

[Esfiel]

His narrowing eyes were lost on her, as was any formulation of what it could mean, not that she'd get it right even if she had seen it. She wasn't sure if he was mad or not, and was beginning to wonder if he had any emotions at all when he continued to question her in the same manner before that left any evaluation fruitless. Maybe he was the droid. Maybe they hadn't been able to find enough people for the police force so were brain washing people?

That was a bit much even for her Tugley induced paranoia. Stop thinking nonsense and answer the question. By now she was careless in how she spoke to him. It seemed to have no effect so why should she keep rein on her emotions? Whereas she couldn't guess a thing about him correctly, it would be easy for the majority of people to guess what she was feeling.

"Well, when I got out of work I decided that I would go home. I was just walking down the street when I suppose I heard some yelling, but I wasn't really paying attention to it. Bad morning, bad afternoon, bad evening, bad night, why should I bother with some random person's problems?" She wouldn't be poking into anyones life for a good while. People were nothing but trouble. She'd stick to her research. "So I turned the corner when some canine ran straight into me. We both fell over, but he ended up helping me up, getting my crutches for me, and booking it down the street. At the time I thought it was an accident and that he was in a hurry, but that was before the yelling was directed at me. Everything that after that you have played witness to."

[Lucca]

To some outside observer, the fact that they were both extremely paranoid about -each other- would have been quite amusing, or at least an interesting case study.

To Aberforth, it was just cause for him to feel somewhat affronted as she went off in this -tone- that he felt was hardly necessary, as he'd been nothing if not cordial to her this entire time. His mouth twitched into a slight frown, though he continued to write down the facts about the case from Aima's point of view. Finally, he looked up, eying her and setting down the pen.

"So you're saying that this canine was the thief, and you were merely an innocent bystander? And that he stuck the purse onto you? I wonder if he took anything else out of it first." He snorted. Why would a thief grab a purse and then toss it off onto someone without even bothering to keep anything in it? He probably should have brought the other woman in for questioning too...perhaps now was as good a time as any to bring all his cards to the table, metaphorically speaking.

He set his hooves on the table, with that weird echoey sound, and gave her a level look. "Miss Aima...I'll be honest. I don't think you actually committed that crime, as it would be impossible for someone with a broken leg. Please describe for me, if you can, what this canine looked like, so that we can catch the real criminal and clear your name."