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Fandom Soul Eater: F.A.T.E

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Crafted for the Crafter



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Tags: RedArmyShogun RedArmyShogun EmperorsChosen EmperorsChosen (for the lulz)


April 7th, 2067



Having been somewhat surprised by the message, after she checked it out in the later hours of the morning, Maria was quietly at work in her workshop, reflecting at the time he intended to show up and how soon it was, she hurriedly pinged that she was in her workshop in response to his message, so that he would not be searching too much for her.

Reflecting on the contents of the message, there were but every few years a birthday would be celebrated for her, typically with Mirai, though given the longevity of Witches, celebrating every year was seen as foolish, though she got well wishes from the rest of the staff that oversaw her isolation, the fact that most humans routinely had a birthday party or well wishes every year came to be something of a shock. Even now, well, no, it was nice Rand would bother. So as to not make things more difficult for him, she left her workshop and in a rare appearance, waited in the central Lobby of Deaths Hollow.

A simple place to find, at the least. Rand wasn’t exactly sure what to expect from any of his agents outside of the field. Not that he couldn’t look it up, mostly that he couldn’t be bothered. That type of information didn’t appeal to him. He wasn’t exactly off-put by the small, rustic feel of the place, and in any case, it would suffice for his needs.

He let out a simple hm sound as he saw her upon walking in. In social settings, he wasn’t actually the most skilled. He was a very cut and dry individual, and after the events of Dall Island, he had expended what felt like a whole year’s worth of effort and emotion. At least that bared fruit, given what his agents got out of it.

”Birth days aren’t something our kind typically values a lot…” he said, trying to think of anything to say here. He was correct, though. It was more of a human gesture. ”I remember how absurd I thought it was how they were treated when I first got here…” he admitted to her. Aside from his meager attempts at small talk, he seemed like his normal self. Black robes, white sash, headband. The only outstanding feature of him happened to be a tan colored backpack of sorts, or perhaps more akin to a satchel, that was thrown over just one of his shoulders, and it seemed to be fairly full as he held onto it with one hand.

”Mind if we sit?” he asked her flatly.

A little nervous about the whole situation, she was quick to dart into her tool pouch, what she was grabbing, going for, doing, she stopped. Forcing herself to calm her nerves, Maria looked at her instructor, was this how he normally dressed? Well, no, this was normal for him, just as her dress was for her, looking at the backpack, or rather satchel on his back, she was curious, holding a hand out to him, she motions to the cushioned sofas and chairs that dotted the lobby. ”Of course ins…no. Of course Rand. I would take you to the workshop for some tea, but you seem busy, or rather likely are, I… Thank you for coming.” At least she was trying to not say anything too out of hand this time around.

”I never found myself so busy as I am as a mentor,” he told her, admitting the simple fact. ”I used to have time to research magic and arcana to my heart’s content, blare music for hours on end, sometimes forgetting to eat for half a day… now I can’t go that long without someone summoning me somewhere,” he told her, quite truthfully venting some of the more frustrating parts of his role.

”You are welcome, Maria. Even if this isn’t our normal custom, it is one for the DWMA. I find it important to integrate the gesture. We do have to mesh our cultures to some degree,” he explained, trying his best to explain why he went out of his way to visit her on this specific day out of all three hundred and sixty five of the year.

”I may be wrong, but you seem a little off-put by my visit. You are not in any trouble,” he told her, worrying that she was concerned she had done something wrong.

Listening to his words, the first bits she understood all too well, her health would be even more dire if not for her fitness routine and vitamins. For her diet consisting mostly of sandwiches and whatever was kept in the vending machine or that Nadia would offer her. ”Yes, I understand that problem all too well, or is it that the problem understands me?” She says initially, as he went on to explain why he was here.

She wanted to say something to the gesture as he put it but she waited, it seemed in trying to be less awkward, she had simply made the situation worse. Collecting herself, this time she did take her hand out of the tool pouch, procuring a knife and a small block of wood as she cut and scrapped at the surface, carving who knew what, but it did seem to calm her mind more than attempting to be calm. ”You will outlive me and I will out live nearly all of those I’ve came to met, minus you and the other witches, the idea that humans…well, it's not like we aren’t humans. I am not sure how to feel about it. I…” She stops cutting into the wood for a brief instant.

”I am not off put with your visit, but those such as you coming to see me, with all that has happened, it…” With that she let out one of her awkward and giggly laughs as her expression briefly shifts. ”I feel bad for taking up your time like this, but, it was akin to when my birthday was celebrated inside of the Guild, it isn’t a bad feeling, but it was a rare one that never really happened, as you said to our culture it is alien.”

Rand considered what she said and how she reacted. From what he could gather, her considerations were quite fair. It was a world different. His culture shock, especially being a royal and even more so of the Mabian line, was intense upon entering the DWMA. He recalled quite a few times pranks were pulled on him, much to his chagrin, as he didn’t understand many of the norms. He caught on quickly, and back then, had a vindictive streak. One that he had mostly overcame, but he didn’t allow himself to meander on that thought during this visit.

”I’ve only been in the human world a few years, honestly,” he admitted to her, ”and even then, my biological age is merely in my early twenties. I am still just as young as you are in the grand scheme of things.”

His features did soften here slightly. He wasn’t entirely robotic, just slightly awkward and often missing on social cues. Still, Maria was another Witch–sorceress or not–and that made the gap between them easier to bridge. ”I have come to believe that celebrating life, as humans do, isn’t really such a waste. Our bodies will rotate around the laughing sun hundreds of times more than theirs… yet they seem to enjoy the moments they have more than many of my long-lived cousins do back in the Witch Realm. If somehow these rituals result in an inkling more happiness in the long run, then I can’t imagine how that is a bad thing,” he explained to her, giving her his honest opinion on the subject itself.

”On the note of rituals, it is a tradition to provide you a gift. I have not one, but three,” he told her, taking what he considered to be a smooth transition from one topic to another. ”Don’t consider yourself spoiled here; I originally only wanted to make one… something crafted for the crafter was my idea… but my grandmother had another idea, and when she heard what I was making, even a third. I must admit her ideas were much grander, and I couldn’t allow my ego to shorthand you glee on your day,” he explained to her, though the implication that some of these gifts were essentially from Maba herself was not lost there.

”If you are ready, you can choose which one to see first. My original one, the one from my grandmother offered, or her… improved version of mine,” he told her, still flatly. At heart, he did feel like what his grandmother offered by far outweighed what he made, and that did steal some of his thunder. He couldn’t help it, but nonetheless, was excited to see what she thought.

Listening to his offer, the very thought that the Maba herself would offer her something was awe striking. It honestly silenced her for awhile as she weighed the three choices. To which she looked up at his forehead, or rather what the white wrapping hid. She wanted to hold true to her teachings and that of her Master, who forgoed all titles and trappings. ”...I know you have not cared at times for my artistic demands, they caused problems every so often on Dall Island, even still I would and will make the same arguments again. To be offered anything by the Maba is a great honor, if people would kill you for that eye, then an item personally made by her would invite the same. You have come here and made something with me in mind, to which was also improved upon by your Grandmother.” She then looked at him directly in the eyes and spoke with what had been an uncharacteristically, certain and direct acceptance.

“Even should it be inferior by your own remarks, I would first have what you made. For it is not the use of what a craftsman item determines its worth, but rather the feelings and intentions put into them. The rest I can accept when I am worthy of them. For now I wish to understand your well wishes through your own works Rand. If the Maba is angered by this answer, then I will beg her forgiveness, but I know you and this is from your own intentions.”

Rand considered what she said. There was some merit to the idea that an item crafted by Maba held value, but he was somewhat doubtful that what she had made in this case would be of considerable use to anyone other than Maria. As for the other gift… that had value. That had value across the world. That had value to even the likes of Davis. She wasn’t wrong in that regard.

He sighed, considering what to do here. He could ruin the surprise, but that went against the spirit of the day. He would have to think of another way.

”My grandmother wouldn’t be angry. What I have was given to me in good faith,” he explained to her, ”but, before you do decline it, one of the gifts, I could… or I will. I will tell you that your mentor had requested it many years ago and was denied. My understanding is that secrets were held in higher regard then, and information itself was not easily shared. The item would not just be of great value to you, but to your mentor; that is why I think she thought of it as a gift.”

Rand gingerly slid the bag off his shoulder, then heaved it up to the table. It did, from this angle, clearly seem more like a satchel he had elected to simply carry oddly. Despite that fact, when he unclasped its enclosures, he did so in a way that at the very least prevented Maria from seeing what else was inside. What he pulled out was a device of his own creation. Woven from magical threads and already attuned to the personal mana of Maria, this item was obviously very carefully crafted specifically to her.

At first, it would appear to be an amalgamation of leather straps forming some type of simplistic harness, all with stitchwork not unlike her own. He unfurled it onto the table to show it better, and once apart, it truly was a simple, lightweight item. Its straps resembled a heavy backpack of sorts and upon its back were simple dowels of dark stained wood in the form of spools. If not teeming with mana, it might have seemed like an odd fashion statement more than anything.

”Having watched you fight and control your dolls in battle, I noticed a downside to how you fight. Your hands are in constant use with your threads,” he explained to her, ”so, I recreated the spell you use to control your dolls, and created these spools that can generate that same thread. It will still take your mana, and you can only create four at a time, but if you wear it, it will free your hands. I don’t know if the idea had occurred to you before, and it’s not exactly easy to make… It took some creative applications of some texts from ancient China. But, it should allow you much more freedom, if you don’t find it an affront to your puppetry.”

As she listened to him and looked at the item, and heard tell in a way that her master had something to do with this, she just laughed. Not as if she were laughing at his gift but about the words she had just said. ”It is very much in form for it to be something utilitarian. And for me to be the Artistic one.” She decided to accept it, holding her hands out, placing the knife and the carving block down upon her lap. Though she would explain the sudden change of reasoning.

With what he first had to say, Maria laughed, an amused chuckle, the story of which would come after, for now her focus was upon the pack, listening to his words, the craftsmanship was a little rough by her own standards, but the mana coming from it and the details on functionality, she was impressed, overall. Reaching out to grab it, she took hold of it and fiddled with the various components, nodding her head. “I may alter it a little to blend in with what I wear, but it is very utilitarian, though I cannot deny it’s function, and being able to free up my hands for other tasks would be nice… Hmm, reminds me, I had things to run across the Lab, I do not think my ideas can be made reality before the next mission starts however. I could also use this with my normal skills for a wider range of control or minions…” As if to remember her laugh, Maria looked as if suddenly shocked.

”Oh! Ah the laugh, it was not to you or this, but why my Master… No, I need to remind myself I am now something more than a child… My mentor, while it is tempting to give her such a thing, she prefers to learn for herself, handing her something I had not earned would only disappoint her. Thank you Rand, I just need to think how I wish to integrate this into my own things.”

”I am a scholar at heart,” he told her, not offended by her comments. ”I would not expect my work to compare to yours in quality, but the knowledge behind it… that was the real gift, I suppose,” he explained. It was true that it was, at best, a little rough. With all of his skills, creativity itself was not at the forefront of his mind. He had no consideration as to embellishing the leather or the spools, only making sure the engravings were perfect. The magical traces that ran through it suited specifically to Maria and her personal mana. The spellwork behind it executing reliably. Had he more time, perhaps he might have focused on the finer details, but her birthday was just barely a week out from when he had devised the idea.

”I should clarify… there are two more gifts in this satchel for you–and they are for you. I’m sure one is such that even Mirai would be envious of, but it would be yours. The other is one that compliments the one you have just seen,” he explained to her, doing his best to make sure she was quite aware of the situation.
”I can take them back or hold on to them… I could simply give you this satchel and let you decide in your own time,” he offered her, not quick to allow her to pass up the opportunity for these, though avoiding delving into the realms of imposing on her.

”A suggestion, if I may,” he told her, now thinking he could at the very least plant the seedling of this idea in her head, ”you may want to see what they first, then decide what you wish I do with them.”

“Three…, oh my, here I was thinking I could only have one of them, now I do feel spoiled… Er, I’ll take them, but..” Getting her nerves together, she nods her head. ”Very well, I’ll see what they are then decide.”

Rand nodded, then elected to pull out another item from the satchel. It was difficult enough to get her to this point, it seemed. Perhaps Mirai instilled some deep humility in her, or the idea of gifts was still too foreign, but that was not the purpose of this endeavor. Besides, Rand intended to do this for all of his agents. Ark, Raph, Chant–when the time came, he would gift them all something.

The next item was a stark contrast to the first. For various reasons. It was a holstered blade, somewhere in the range of fourteen inches–so hardly a knife, but still quite short for a sword. It was surrounded in a sheath fit specifically for it, as the black leather that surrounded it matched the grip on the handle. The entire design was simple, yet elegant. It’s simplicity was quite deceptive in nature, as the smallest of flares from its curved guard that was perfectly fitted to a transitional piece of some type of silverish metal in such a way that nearly no seam could be seen. It was designed, despite its length, for a smaller hand such as hers, and its grip reflected that with a slight contoured bulge just where her fingers would rest when gripping it, slimming down ever so slightly for her palm before widening again. It had no pommel, or at least, not one of a traditional construction. Instead, its end was curled over, creating a rounded cup similar to a skull-splitter, although it was done in sections to resemble that of plain petals for a flower.

Rand withdrew it from its sheath, revealing that it was not mere leather, but a dark wood covered in it, fit perfectly to the shape of the blade with another silver guard at its base, common to prevent damage to the fine wood or leather. The deceptively simple design was present here again as it had a ricasso blended into the base of the blade seemingly by design. Though, it was mostly unnecessary as the blade itself was quite slender and came to a fine point, most similar to a stiletto with a thinner, almost rapier-like tip. Runes were traced down the length of the blade, each glowing a fairly bright blue, and the mana that radiated from them dwarfed that of even what Rand produced with his own creation. This was clearly not made by the same hands.

”A blade. Neither this nor what I made have a name, but this does have quite the definite purpose,” he told her, his own eyes looking down at the blade. As it looked now, it appeared to be quite dainty. Flimsy. Perhaps something used by an assassin or for ceremony, but not in combat. Yet, that assumption would be wrong to anyone using it.

”It can cut or stab, and won’t break as easily as it may look; more importantly, it will work in conjunction with your threads–so long as you hold onto it.. It is a runeblade and by pouring your mana into it, you can attach a thread to anything you stab. Instead of creating a wound, it will inject your mana. Whether or not you can control what you stab or make use of it in a fight will depend on how strong you personally get, but as you know, it is no small feat to inject your mana into a foreign object or being. It is a feat even I could not muster by force,” he told her before sheathing the blade and placing it on the table in front of her so that she could review it personally.

Studying the knife, or rather the short sword, it seemed rather eloquent, if not expensive. Was this the item the two of them made? Rand and the Maba? It was a little heavy towards the front from what she could visualize, but not definitive enough to disrupt her use of the blade. The problem was it looked far too ornate to be used in a direct conflict… Was it made of Silver? No, something didn’t look quite right. While silver may indeed be the main component of the blade, she suspected it was an alloyed blade, if not for the fine craftsmanship it would be interesting to collect a sample for analysis. Coupled with the wood, or not quite so wooden handle and supports and the runes, it clearly was a Magic weapon, the question of what it did would soon be described by Rand himself.

“Hmm…” Listening to the explanation he gave for the blade, she was sure it would not be useful… ”No… that is not the case at all. while it may have seemed she was talking about the blade at all, she judging by the way her eyes seemed to gloss over, was talking to herself. ”Huh… I don’t think I can take over a being with it, an object more of depending on how close it is to things I can understand intuitively. I do not have blood magic so much as enchanting. The idea of using it to control a person, I was trained and raised very carefully to not do such. However, I do think with this and the backpack I can grow my forces brought to bear considerably, or even progress into my pet project. The problem is now being able to physically move the material. Which is what I was pondering with the lab. This gift may take some thought and time to make use of.

It is a lovely piece, but I’m afraid I must dirty and wear it with use. Thank you instru… no, thank you Rand.”


”I would save your gratitude for the final gift,” he told her, listening to her yet again thank him when there was still yet more to come. He smiled at her, though faintly. He rarely had strong, outward expressions of emotion.

”How you choose to use your gifts is entirely up to you, and that is something that you should consider with this final one… but…” he went on, though stopping as he collected his thoughts as to how to explain what that knife specifically did, ”...I can explain how it works, I just can’t make one myself. Mana you channel into the handle will be sent to the blade and the runes will turn the entire blade ethereal. You need not actually stab something, just graze or cut it, and it will inject your mana at that location like an anchor. The deeper you do stab, the deeper it is anchored, but otherwise, there is little difference,” he told her, going into just a bit more depth about the blade. She didn’t like the idea of controlling another with it, which was fair, but it certainly had other uses. ”Any magic related to your threads will work, I believe. Creating a living puppet would be absurdly difficult, but using it to bind their movement, or track them, set up traps… or even on an ally to pull them out of harm’s way,” he told her, ”all are options. My grandmother told me that my vision lacked scale when she made this. She told me that knife had more creativity to it than the harness I made for you ever would.”

He reflected on her words. He supposed she was correct. His visit to the Witch Realm, however brief, was quite eventful. In just a few days following their return from Dall Island, he did more in the Witch Realm than many did in years. Maba herself was interested to see what the ley line had to offer, not to mention, some of the surprises they brought back.

”Are you ready for the final gift?” he asked her. ”I believe it will be the one you like best,” he told her, ”and do recall, I’m not much of a hugger.” He joked. It was rare, but the implication that she would like it enough to hug him spurred on one of his rare few attempts at humor. Deadpan though it may be, it wasn’t too difficult to pick up on.

With further explanation of the use of the knife, while her single minded focus had allowed her abilities to expand past that of others, it did also mean she was not given to thinking outside of the box. The idea of using it to ensnare to slow or to trap had not occurred to her. If she could get in close enough it meant she could do more than just make another vector of control. While she would likely never cross the line into control of another, the other possibilities were in agreement with her own ethos.

With his next words and the brief signs of a smile, she was worried about what this gift would be, he had already given her so much, hopefully the rest would get such attention, but even if gifts were given for nothing, this all made her annoyance at the events of Dall Island to fade to the background, she would repay all of this, even if it were not required. In terms of pricing that may always be out of her grasp, but surely she could make something… Either way, that was a thought for later, clearing her mind, she nodded her head vertically to indicate she was ready to see the final gift.

The final item he pulled from his satchel turned out to be a book. Leather bound, but brand new-looking. A dark, thick cowhide stretched across a pristine surface with Witch Text inscribed all around it, the spine of the book marked not with runes but with that same witch text, and a single blue stone in its center surrounded by some type of darkened brass fittings that both extended to the top and bottom of the spine and to a latch over the opening of the book. From this angle, it was hardly recognizable.

”This is just a copy… but it is a copy from the Mabian library. The Index Magica Fragmenta. Well, one volume of it. This one is dedicated to magical substances found in the Earth realm,” he told her, again, picking it up and setting it down in front of her. The latch itself was not actually locked, simply requiring pressing down on two clicking mechanisms to spring open. The entire book itself had an air of mana about it; it was clearly a magical item in and of itself. In fact, the reality might have started to settle in that the satchel he used somehow obfuscated all of these clearly magical items, implying it might not be so run-of-the-mill itself.

”Open it and you will find entries dating back thousands of years to what witchkind has found and collected. In the wars of the Witch Realm, information was often taken by the victor, and books like these contain all of the spoils that Maba collected during those times,” he explained to her, more so emphasizing how it contained entries from a vast array of cultures and even long-dead family lines of the Witch Realm.

”If you would open it to page IV, two pages after the index, I can explain to you the true value of this book,” he instructed her for the first time, wanting to show her precisely how this one worked and more so why he found she might find it the best of the lot.

With her scant time in the guild among others and her attention to her craft, Maria had caught glimpses or even a brief look at other such copies, often kept in restricted areas or only what the most highly ranked or trusted of witches were allowed to see, nevermind to touch or to read, and even then it was just as Mirai had business in there and wanted to take her prodigy along for the ride, with strict instructions to not touch anything. The original copies of these works were just things one never seen, minus Rand here with some exceptions. She did not respond at all, it was akin to watching a hamster wheel suddenly stop, her eyes widened and her jaw was a little slack as she pondered how best to deal with this, or how to respond at all, as the words faintly hit her.

She was not even sure to follow those words, but did so mechanically, her hands shaking a bit, as she stood to her feet, grabbing the book, she paced inbetween where he sat and where she up till now had been seated, opening the book as he said and turning to the requested section.

The page she opened to was a simple one. A large circle surrounded by witch text on one side, blank inside the circle, and a blank page to its right. Rand then delved his hand down into his pocket and pulled out a simple twig. A large twig, but a simple one. A wood Maria would be familiar with–a type of willow that worked quite well for channeling mana. Soft and flexible, so it had its uses, but they were few and far between.

Rand plopped the twig down onto the page and as soon as it hit the inside of the circle, the black ink began to glow blue and soon enough, witch text began to fill the blank page on the right. The entire book was written in witch text, or at least was for now–many entries would be written in the native tongue of their author–but this index was their universal language. There, it identified the species of wood and a few other unique characteristics such as its magical conductivity and quality. Then, a page number. That was the important part.
”That is the power of the Index. Any magical material you can fit onto the page will be identified if the book has an entry on it. It will be graded, as materials vary from specimen to specimen, and then page numbers listed for related entries. Some overlap, some materials are so deeply related that it may send you to their page as well. There are even some magitech entries since Davis has added to the book,” he explained to her, going into a fair amount of detail about this mechanic. ”Put a rock on there with no special properties, nothing happens. Put a rock on there with three or four trace minerals that are useful and it will identify them all,” he told her, still going into detail about the function of this book.

”That piece of willow has nearly eighty entries despite being such a simple material… that is because this book references every article ever written by a Witch studying it. Many overlap, some may be inaccurate, but you’ll be at no loss for information,” he told her, knowing full well that this book could result in information overload. Each substance had a main entry, but all others were kept as sources. Most of the time, the main entry was sufficient, but the archivists of the Witch Realm had a penchant for preserving every ounce of information they could, no matter how trivial.

In one of a few rare instances, as she did as she was told, the normally perfect doll face with the outlines of a smile seemed to waver, unknown or perhaps known via other means, her heart was racing, nearly equal with her thoughts as a wide arrange of possibilities struck her, long had she made do with the elements on hand, of experimenting and finding the right materials she needed. This book opened all sorts of doors, and while she would still need to test materials and confirm or disavow information recorded within, this could allow her to one day write a book of her own with all the findings or possibilities of expansion.

This could not be considered just a gift, but that is what he stated it to be. Crossed up in her emotions she sat the book down on the table that originally was between them. He had said to not give him a hug, so Maria decided to do something else, while a lip kiss would be looked at poorly, she instead gave him a kiss on both cheeks, moving in lightning fast, curiously a couple drops of water that were not there previously would dot his clothing or hand, she was likely crying, though she did not seem sad or mad from the brief instance he would catch a glimpse of her, her face was also significantly red.

”I…I will keep the book, i-if you will trust me with it, I’ll put it to use in my research, Mirai asked me to be a bridge between the Guild and DWMA… This gift is too much and I’m not sure how to feel about it… You said I couldn’t hug you, so…”

Rand turned bright red. It wasn’t necessarily a look of fear or disgust that crossed his face, but something crept across his pallid skin that was entirely new to him. It was true, he wasn’t one much for hugging, but that in general was because he did not like to be touched. He wasn’t about to point that out at the moment as the gesture itself had him speechless. No matter how red her face was, his most assuredly was entire shades darker.

He didn’t have a response and he wouldn’t for some time after she mentioned the hug, or the DWMA, or anything else. His brain needed a moment to catch up with his body. What he felt and what he thought might as well have been on two different planes of existence. His physical response, or his most instinctual one, wasn’t one of displeasure, but quite the opposite. Even a minor display of affection or gratitude such as that was something he truly hadn’t experienced. His brain went to places of how inappropriate it was given he was her mentor. That was his first thought. The implications of his family line would only come far after.

Despite the gap between what he felt and thought, he would eventually return back to reality. ”Uh-Uh… yeah… my grandmother. Sh-She said that once Mirai saw that and, uhm, you told her it was from m-from her on your birthday, it would.. Mean a lot more. She said Mirai would get it. Something about how… Witch culture is changing..” he told her, stumbling over what excuse he could come up for as an answer while he was entirely frazzled.

He then thought about it a moment. She brought up the hug and given her little pecks, he rationalized that she had some intention on showing him gratitude that way. The rational part of his brain told him it was her birthday, the instinctual side told him it might not be a bad feeling… this time.

”I-If you want a hug, Maria… I guess it is your birthday,” he sheepishly told her, offering really in the only way he could muster.

With the subject of her Mentor brought up, she seems to cool down and calm back towards her normal personification, hearing the details behind why the Maba had wished to give her this. It all made sense and to give it to Mirai would be just a waste. It would also be against the spirit of why it was given. Laughing with a chuckle at what he said next, she still keeps her back turned.

”I would do such to Mirai when I was small as she also did not like to be touched, I cannot say I much like it either at times, seemingly in my area, it wasn’t unheard of for close friends or relatives to greet in such a manner or in emotions to be used to thank or greet… Ah I said that… No, I don’t think I will do that, Rand. When another teacher stood up for me and cheered me up, I got carried away with that as well.

I truly thank you from the depths of my soul, while we may not think alike and your disregard for function over form angers me, I now consider you special, the same as Nadia, Dani, Mirai and others aside… I… don’t want to make this more weird than I already have, though I likely will make a couple things for you now. I…hmm…how best to strangle the cat.”
A curious expression to be sure, as she paused to think…

“Should you need my help and I am able, you need only ask, and extend my thanks to the Maba as well. Or rather, to your Grandmother, far too many fear her for what she is, than respect her for the who she is.” She thought of also mentioning should another trespass against him, just as Raph had Dani and Nadia, then she would do far worse than the little scare she had done to him. Most people tended to react poorly to that being shared. In place she said;

” Though if your Grandmother ever gets angry at you, I’m afraid I can’t stop her.”

Taking note as she glanced at how dark his gaze had gotten, maybe she should have just given a hug, even against his permission.

An odd type of disappointment welled inside him as she elected not to indulge in the hug offered, but her explanation seemed to dull that. He rationalized it was just a new sensation he was not accustomed to and wrote it off. As she continued to speak, his nerves continued to calm, and her proclamations only further drew him out of that excited–and confused–state he was in. The flush in his face faded quickly.

”There are few that could do much if she was angry… but I don’t believe you need to worry about that,” he told her, rolling off the end of her conversation organically. He considered responding to the rest of what she said. Her promises and reassurance. The alliance she effectively offered him. But, honestly, he wasn’t sure how.

Instead, he stood up and lifted the now-empty satchel he had from the table to sling over his shoulder again, though now much lighter and less awkward to carry. ”Maria, I do value art and the form of things. I love music. I love the instruments that make music. Craftsmanship is not lost on me, it is just… something I am willing to sacrifice in a moment of need,” he told her. He did really wish to clear that point up. He knew she was upset with how he handled the situation on Dall Island, but there were few other choices. Even fewer given what it took for them to succeed where all others had failed.

He sighed, but realized there was a good parallel to bring up here. ”We have long lives, Maria. So long that even the idea of a birthday seems pointless; years just fly by for us,” he told her, ”but sometimes, regardless of our longevity, we don’t have the time to make or do something perfect. We can’t always be our best selves, or produce our best results.”

”I am deeply sorry that my instruction then upset you as it did and made you feel like I do not hold your skill in the value it deserves. It was not my intention and it is regrettable that events unfolded… as they did,” he admitted to her, apologizing quite sincerely for how things went. ”I can’t tell you it won’t happen again. We basically saved a species because I convinced you to cut corners. But, I do want you to know that your work–even when you are not proud of it–is still nothing short of impressive. You may fall short of your standards, but not mine,” he told her, still flatly, but with a tone that conveyed his sincerity in the matter.

”Ha, don’t worry about it… I won’t say I wasn’t mad, or that I won’t be mad in the future, but thanks to you, Witch of a thousand spells, I have learned a great many more things and seen my perfection, my dearest perfection and my creations, that specializing in one thing alone will not help me. And though I’ll be angry even still in the future, I will still do what I must…” Thinking back to Dall Island and his own measure of herself, Maria actually did turn to face him this time.

“It is only good enough when I can no longer move. While I thank you for those words, I still have yet more to do.” It was then that she turned to face him and gave a bow, lifting her skirt a little in curtsy out of manners, her expression was more solid and there was a determination to her words.

“While I cannot say what I will do from here, I will one day make it out of FATE, and I am not so sure that the lab is the only place or even the best place for me. I shall continue with the hopes and dreams that Mirai, You, Lord Death and the Maba have entrusted with me. This has to be one of the happiest times I’ve had in my life, though I’m unsure where to rank it among three others, though one of those is bitter sweet.

And I must show that I shall continue to surpass those expectations till I hit the limits of what I can do and continue past that.

I look forward to the day we can speak as equals rather than as Student and Teacher.”
The moment was going too well without one of her little quirks showing through as she tilt her head a little to the side and picked up the book once more, sitting it with the rest of the items. They were all great gifts. Giggling to herself she stopped once more. ”Ah, I should ponder how to integrate the knife and harness now..”

”I am glad to give you a moment such as that,” he told her. He hadn’t realized this would be one of her happiest times, though he did expect a lot of excitement about her gifts. His grandmother truly did overshadow him here, but he couldn’t bring himself to be frustrated by it. He had been overshadowed most of his life.

”This program is just one small step in your story, Maria,” he told her, ”I don’t doubt that there will be a day you look fondly on these days, and me as the just the Witch that taught you when there was still plenty left to learn.”

With that said, Rand gave her a slight nod and decided it was time to take his leave. He still had plenty of things to do for the day; making time for Maria was actually a tough task for him, all things considered. Not that he intended to let her know that; he hoped his visit, however short, was enough for her. ”Just don’t forget to take breaks, Maria,” he told her–instructed her, really. He was back to his stern tone.

”It’ll be as easy to get lost in that book as it is your work, but do try to take care of yourself, too,” he added before turning around to leave the lobby of Deaths Hollow.
Bowing once more as he left, though without the curtsy, she though on his last words. To take breaks. To have been alone for so long, the words that saddened her, when her Master, no, Mirai admitted to making tremendous mistakes with raising her, they started to make sense, and from what was being kept from her in the Kitchen, she was sure now she had friends that would make sure she got those breaks. And she would cherish them all.

Still, there was another thing or two added to her to-do list. ”Do be well… Rand.”







 

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Date: March 29, 2067
Location: Lake Nordall, Dall Island
Interactions: Ark, Maria, Chant, Rand, Mother
Mentions: N/A
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Hearing everyone’s invested interest in wanting to learn about the spiders more, he let go of the vine. Maria asked a good question, and he looked back at Rand to see if he had an answer. He then looked back at Maria. “Considering we just saw spiders attack those with mana and absorb it, I wouldn’t be surprised if the witches had their fair share of troubles. They may not be strong, but they more than make up for it in numbers. I elect to think they’ve become food.” It wasn’t a pretty picture, but he preferred it.

As they continued along and made their way to a lake, the sudden burst of energy Raphael felt just being near had him gasping in awe.

Was this a leyline? It certainly felt like it was.

Not only did Raphael feel rejuvenated, but he felt like he could keep casting magic forever by being here. No wonder their queen took over the lake. Not to mention how absolutely gorgeous this place was. Raphael took a long look at the lake in front of him as they stepped up to the shore. He felt compelled to touch it.

It was only Maria’s warning that he noticed something was happening further away. Something rose from the very waters, only for the spherical webbing to reveal a large spider. But even this white spider held some ethereal beauty. He didn’t think that was possible, considering he didn’t really think of spiders as anything that wasn’t ugly, but she was the exception.

Even though he was more into men than women, he felt like he could make an exception if any woman looked as beautiful as she.

She walked along the waters as if she were some godly incarnate, but he figured that there was more webbing just under the surface of the water to make it look like she was walking along it. And just as she got closer and was bathed in a glorious light, he looked away, only to see her transform into a woman. He looked over at the orb she came from and saw it was littered with eggs.

She spoke, and it was as if angels had sung. Was he falling for a spider queen? Of course he was, she was absolutely beautiful and teeming with power. He felt like he should be bowing or giving some sort of respectful gesture. He ended up bowing anyway, Maria and Ark speaking to her, then asking her questions. While Maria took care of the “sky beasts” her children mentioned earlier and Ark took care of asking the history between these two groups, Raph decided to ask his own question. “How did you learn to speak our language if humans didn’t come here too often, Mother?”

Aaand now he was daydreaming about being her mage-knight. Move out of the way Ark and his Adonis body, this queen of spiders was practically calling out to him.


 

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Date: April 10, 2067
Location: Duchess of Discord, Death City
Interactions: Ark, Maria
Mentions: Sara, Eva, Gauss, Noah, Arky
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Raphael nodded as Ark asked about booze. He dug his fingers into his scalp, itching at it aggressively before smoothing out his ruffled hair. “Just… Just fine…” He got up to fetch himself something, getting something that was rather strong. In fact, he grabbed stuff so potent it practically smelled like isopropyl alcohol. Not wanting Ark to tell him no, he downed the first two shots, only to be nearly knocked on his ass by the sudden kick they gave him. The two spirits were enough to make him slightly dizzy just from taste alone, so he ordered a couple screwdrivers and came back, only to see Maria had finished explaining her thing to Ark and was drinking the same orange liquid he was. Her reaction seemed like she had no idea they were alcoholic in nature, but he didn’t care enough to tell her it was. He noticed a duo and then a trio coming through and then leaving quickly up the stairs, one of which he recognized as Sara, but he didn't have the energy to wave at her.

That’s when he realized that the present he had for Maria was stuffed safely in his satchel. He almost forgot to give it to her today. He simply pressed his forehead against the rim of his glass and sighed. That was when he realized Maria - five cups in - left for the stage and performed. He looked at Ark, then back up at Maria in surprise. Wow… That was really cool. He smiled, feeling the effects of the alcohol kick in hard. The room became dizzy, but the only fixtures he managed to find any reprieve from his double vision were Maria and Ark.

He leaned over to Ark, not exactly realizing how close he was if he did this. He began poking his bicep, a tired, dazed look in his one good eye. “Is th’s muscle or magic’lly enhanced?” His speech was already very slurred. At the end of Maria's performance, he sloppily clapped, nearly knocking over his drink in the process, but he managed to save it despite overcorrecting it and splashing some on his arm. He pouted, sighing. Bloody hell... He groaned, trying to find napkins to dry himself off.


 

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Date: April 10, 2067
Location: Duchess of Discord, Death City
Interactions: Sara, Gauss, Arky, V
Mentions: Nadia, Dani, Eva, Midori, Elly, Adrian
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Noah couldn’t help but wonder how bad the beef was between V and Gauss. Maybe talking to V would garner some answers, as it seemed he was wanting to get along with the trio. He patted Gauss’s shoulder reassuringly, not exactly seeing a problem anymore about the issue.

As V continued on with his speech, Noah tried to stand there politely and listen. But he was more interested in finding alcohol. He very slowly walked his way over to the bar as politely as possible while V explained himself, then continued with the announcements. The collars were going to be mandatory for even non-Fate agents, commended them on their bravery, and then that they’ll be changing around teams to be more modular with designated teams - of which he knew Gauss would be a team leader. He only worried that mages would be involved in their group, as Arkayis would have to keep himself from burning any of them. But to hear they’ll be going on missions…

Honestly, there was a hint of relief, but it conjured up some anxiety. He grabbed a strawberry mimosa, and grabbed a mango mimosa for Sara. He smiled and nodded at the praise, then watched Nadia and Dani walk away to see what the people were doing down below. He wondered too, but now wasn’t the time. He walked over to where Gauss was, a drink in each hand. His gaze was dead set on Sara, as if hoping she’d answer to his stare.

Of which, she did.

Meanwhile, he spoke to Gauss. “Hey, wasn’t as bad as ya thought, huh?” He coolly said, sipping his drink as he held out the drink for Sara away. “I would getcha somethin’ ta drink, but I wasn’t sure what ya’d like for this occasion.” He said, noting that he wasn’t just doing this for just Sara and was willing to accommodate him.


 

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Date: April 10, 2067
Location: Duchess of Discord, Death City
Interactions: Noah, Eva, Gauss, Midori
Mentions: Dani, Nadia, V, Adrian, Elly, Arky
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There was just so much going on. A girl she figured out was Annika was talking about her new prototype as V asked her, Nadia and Dani were talking to each other, Adrian was rather silent which helped, but the one person who had her attention was Midori. While Midori spoke and teased Elly, Sara giggled, unaware of what was really going on between the two - considering the two hid it so well. Elly smelled like a confusing bout of nothing and Midori smelled like autumn leaves and a cool mist as he always did. She absolutely beamed when Midori reiterated it was nice to see her again, but then pouted when he said he couldn’t confirm anything else, just that they were alive.

Which put her at ease immensely. She rested her hand on her heart and visibly sighed. “Oh, that’s nice to hear. I was worried about you three. Glad to see you doing well at least.” So when V came over and began asking something that sounded a bit pointed to Sara, it seemed Midori took it well. He then disappeared and reappeared, noogying Adrian for not greeting him. Giggling, she then listened to V explain himself then go on about the announcements.


Wow, not only was every agent going to be wearing collars, but their teams will have team leaders and be more modular, even pairing up with mages??? That’s so cool! That’s when she noticed someone was staring at her and she looked behind her to see Noah holding out a mimosa. Eyes widening, she hopped on over and grabbed it from him, taking a deep sip and listening to what Noah was saying to Gauss. Was he anxious? About what?

Either way, it didn’t exactly concern her, nor did she want to be nosy and get into Gauss’s space. She looked back at Eva and smiled, looking at the bar. “You want something, friendo?” She noticed Dani and Nadia had left already, and there was some music playing in the other room.


Whichever Eva did, she looked on over at Gauss and gave him a sweet smile. “Is there anything I could do to help, Gauss?” She didn’t know him too well, but he was friends and partners with Noah, so she was going to extend a helping hand if he needed it. “If you need anything, I’ll be around.” She smiled a bit wider, thanking Noah for the mimosa before seeing where Eva went.

 




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Rand Mabason

"Soundwave Sorcerer"

Species Witch
Partner N/A
Rank Two Star

Location Dall Island, Lake Nordall beach
Mission Excursion to Dall Island
Status Interest piqued, observant



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Rand listened to the various questions his students had asked. All valid. He could infer a lot about them and more so about the island, but if the queen could answer the questions they were asking, she would save him the speculation. As it stood, he did not possess a question he considered valuable enough to ask. Mostly because he could ask a million questions with his scholarly knowledge, but none of them would be relevant to their mission or glean information he was sure would be valuable to take home. The others were doing a fine enough job as it stood, regardless.

The Queen was incredibly stoic as she listened to their questions. She was, regardless of intelligence, not nuanced in human communication and her sense of language still presented a barrier, even if it was not one as grand as that of her children. Once Raph had asked his last question, she finally began answering them, in order from simplest to most difficult--for her own sake.

"In truth, I know not how to speak with your words. Forgive me if it is... rude... as you would say, but I have used the mana in the air to connect to your minds--like a web. I know not all your thoughts, but I do understand your feelings. When I want to speak, I look in your minds for the correct word and piece it together as best I can. There is much I do not understand and until you say the words, the magic that aids me is too blurry for me to understand. It is not a spell like you cast, but just something I can do because of the lake," she said first, answering the question Raph had asked as best she could. In truth, she didn't fully understand what she was doing, only that it worked. It functioned more as instinct than it did as any intelligent act.

"We call them sky beasts. When we first were born on this island, there were many kinds of beasts, but most have been consumed. We rarely see sky beasts, and some do try to consume us. My children thought what you flew here on was a sky beast. Now that I have seen what they have seen, it is unlike any sky beast I have ever known. I do not know how you... tamed it," she explained, answering the question Maria had asked. Truth was, they thought the hot air balloons were sky beasts the whole time. Perhaps in retrospect, that might have been obvious to such simple-minded creatures.

"The rest is not so easy to explain and I fear to admit is my fault," she told them.

"I was not born on this island. I was brought here. Summoned, is the word you would use. While my children do not know him, my sisters and I knew him as Father. He gave us the task of covering the island in webbing and capturing those on it--like yourselves," she explained to them, almost sullen in her tone now as she reflected on the past, "but only days after being summoned, he left. We have not seen him since. Many of us continued with our mission, most of us died. I decided that the only way to continue the mission would be to procreate, so I became the Mother. I continued to cover the island, but many of the beasts here were too powerful. I had to change my children so that they could fight them. The Brunnias were born to fight those with magic. The Nigrias were born to fight those that were large and powerful. Those you see around you are also not like me. They are the Albais, born to defend the Lake. Without Father to give direction, my children betrayed me. They had mothers of their own and went to war. The Brunnais consume mana as they were born to do and in turn would consume all of us if they could, but they cannot kill us near the Lake. Its power is too great. The Albais were born to use that power. They can do more than what you have seen. They can cast spells as you do," she explained to them, but stopped. It wasn't clear why she stopped. Perhaps to think. Perhaps still sad about the situation. It wasn't obvious, and her deadpan expression relayed no information about it.

"The Nigrias hunt the Brunnias easily, but not the Albais. I do not know for how long, but it has been this way. The Nigrias stay on the outside of the island, hunting all that comes to shore and the Brunnias that overpopulate into their region. I have seen terrible wars between them, but neither ever win. Instead, they retreat. The Brunnais feast on the mana they can, but cannot breach this territory, grow too large in number, are feasted on by the Nigrias, war breaks out again, culling both sides, and the cycle starts again. I once tried to stop the endless war with a new child, the Rubrais. It did not succeed and the war that followed created the area where there is no mana. The Brunnias learned to burrow in that time and feast on the mana of the land itself," she told them, "and I fear to try again."

To Rand, these explanations made perfect sense. Almost too much sense. It was like predicting the plotline of a movie only to watch it happen moments later. Still, it was both eerie and ominous to hear this history firsthand. The island was drastically different than it was three years ago. Then, it was ever-shifting. So full of mana that the dirt itself would shift with spikes from the storm that surrounded them. Terrain felt alive. There were countless creatures and dangerous. Now, it was comparatively dead. Now, there were but a handful of species all living off each other, and he could only assume that this queen and the Lake itself was the only reason this place remained an impenetrable bastion.

"It matters not," she told them, "as there is a storm brewing that will kill most of us. In a few days time, even the burrowed Brunnais will not survive. I doubt any of my children will, and I most certainly will not. I have expended most of my life force procreating. Even the Lake cannot sustain me indefinitely," she told them. Her voice held a sense of defeat to it. She had fought so long and even tried to quell these wars, but it had all been for not--and even if she succeeded, would have likely been pointless regardless.

"I do have a request of you. If you wish to take living things with you," she said, shifting tones and topics all at once, "Would you take with you some eggs? My children. My last children, most likely. I will make them for you. They will be small. Intelligent, so that they may speak. Passive and peaceful, so that they may live among you. I will call them the Caerulais, and make their eggs and sacs strong, so that they may survive the journey. I will understand if you decline, as my kind has done nothing but kill endlessly since our creation, but I do not wish that for my children. As I have grown, I also grown fond of them. I do not hate the Nigrais or Brunnais for what they have done. I am sad that they behave as they do. I know that is uncommon for my species. Some eat their young, some leave them and hope for survival by number. But, this Lake has given many gifts, and one I believe is understanding what it means to care. There was time when all I cared about was fulfilling the mission of Father, but watching my children war, I only care now for peace amongst my children. Soon, we shall find it, but if you can give my children a peace I cannot, I would be grateful," she asked of them.

This. This was when Rand stepped forward. He was the de-facto leader of this group. More importantly, there was something about this final explanation that had touched him. He was never close to his actual mother, but he was doted on by Maba herself. Often called the "favorite grandson" and even picked on for it by some of his cousins, Gav included. Hearing how this queen had transitioned from a mere dutiful soldier to a caring maternal figure, it spurred something inside of him that would not allow him to simply refuse this request. Besides, there was so much valuable information that could be found here. The creatures she offered--her children--could perhaps give valuable insight to the evolution of creatures through mana, or their creation in general. It seemed multiple different species all originated from her, and each were incredibly different. If that could be recreated by summoners, it could prove exceedingly valuable.

"We will take what we can, but we must first figure out how," Rand answered her, standing now in front of the others and speaking for them--whether they agreed with his decision or not. "We do still need to climb the great tree, but our sky beast can only carry so much. We leave tomorrow, and time is important. If you could offer aid in any way, we may be able to do more," he told her, outlining what the objectives were and what would be needed.

"My children can get you to the top of the tree. That is no challenge. I do not know of a way to cross from there, unless you could tame another sky beast," the Queen responded, simply, flatly, still not quite accepting of the request she had made being honored without some type of concrete solution.

Rand considered this dilemma. Creating the original hot air balloons was difficult enough, and he wasn't sure just what the group could handle even if they could just up and create more balloons. Not that they could so easily; the reeds they used were originally along the shore, which they no longer had access to. The lake did not possess those same plants.

He had but one hope. He looked over to Maria and asked her a simple question. "You have a small army of magical spiders and infinite mana. Think you can make a bigger, better sky beast in time?" he said, poising her with a grander challenge and access to far more resources.



 



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Thaddeus Thales

"Gauss"

Species Human
Partner Noah Wiley, Arkayis Misonuka
Rank Fate Agent

Location Death City, Northwest District, Duchess of Discord
Mission Discourse at the Duchess
Status Mildly frustrated, slightly anxious, intrigued



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There he went. Acting like mister perfect. As if just calling him up to hang out was that easy. V was always super busy, and any time they spent together tended to be super awkward. Plus, Thea always somehow managed to turn up and ruin things. But of course, it was Gauss' fault for not hitting up his brother. That road went both ways, and if Gauss called his brother out on it now--especially after that speech--he would look like the dick.

So, he let it go. Vee wasn't that bad, just a little self-righteous. Gauss would get over it. Besides, the information V was giving them was in fact valuable. More missions, higher ranking, mages, some new collars--though he doubted they would actually make every agent wear a collar. There had to be a better way. Maybe integrate it into their knife or communicator. Hell, even their phone would be useful. Regardless, it was all actually solid information. V had connections Gauss couldn't deny. Gauss couldn't tell how much that they weren't actually intended to know, but regardless, it was good. Gauss, though he hadn't told anyone but his teammates, was one of the two selected of the small group to become leaders. He was sure some of the other Fate Agents they hadn't met were in the same boat, but that was neither here nor there.

"I didn't exactly walk in with expectations," Gauss said, responding to Noah. It was the truth. Gauss had a low bar for this and the tension that was there happened to be bearable. He wasn't pleased by it. In fact, under different circumstances, he might have been pleased to see his brother. This event just... brought out the worst in him.

Then Sara popped in with a question. Simple enough. Kind enough. It was a pivotal moment where he could choose to let the tension come out and affect others or internalize it and just try to be a half-way tolerable person. Reflecting on this therapy and under the pressure of his still-present brother, he elected for the latter. "Well, you could tell me how the fuck you trained Noah to bring you drinks," responded in a jovial tone, shooting her a relatively light-hearted joke. Even his vulgarity was spoken with awe, as if he was impressed by her. In a way, he was spitting a joke out at Noah as well.

Meanwhile, it looked like the Witch he fought in the tournament had herself opted to dance on stage. He didn't get to catch all of it, but he was impressed nonetheless. He had forgot until this moment that all the Fate Agents were invited, not just the ones he fought with. "So... she does more than play with dolls..." he commented, though not really directed at anyone. In truth, he knew little about the Mages of the Fate Program. Given they would soon be his partners as well, and he assumed he would be a leader, there was solid ground to think he should rectify that.



 



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Eloise Keegan - Duchess of Discord
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The moment they entered, they drew the attention of the werewolf. Elly recognized her as the one Noah spoke about and who wielded Midori during the tournament before her own tenure had begun. However, a good portion of the wolf's interest was on a Zosar and Adra, of whom the statuses of were seemingly hush-hush. Interesting. Something to prod the ninja about later.

"Good to see you again," Elly chimed in response to the pair, however quickly had her attention taken by Annika.

Approaching her and hooking the girl by the arm, Elly ran a couple fingers along the arm of the dress to feel the material, gasping with astonishment.
"Hard to believe the the chainswords and beautiful dress are crafted by the same woman. You have to make me one! ...Unless those untested other things involve fire or some kind of explosives. Then I can wait for you to test it."

Teasing her a bit, Elly let go of her arm motioned with her hand to the site of Midori terrorizing Adrian. "Well, as he said, I am quite smitten," She with a jovial yet sarcastic tone. "Still, it is an adjustment from Sage... Poor boy..." She commented before following Annika's look toward Midori. "He is quite strong, a Hoshi, so that's a plus. Three weapon types too, you know! However, I fear I'll have to work thrice as hard to keep up."

Saying that, she circled Annika and gave the girl's shoulders a light squeeze. "You'll get one, dear. And until then, you can stick with me and help rein in our mentor," She remarked, referring to Midori, of course.

Leaving to go get a drink from the bar, passed by Gauss, Noah, and Arky, giving a short wave of her fingers as she did so.
"Fashionably late. Tsk, tsk Noah," She briefly teased, but ultimately didn't spend too much time on him before getting glass from the bar. A bright, orange drink in the form of a mocktail.

It wasn't long thereafter that Vee spoke about the news he had insinuated would be spoken here. It was interesting enough, though nothing flabbergasting. Most notably, they would essentially be treated like normal agents, in the sense they would be sent on missions. The collars were less interesting to as she wasn't currently a wearer of the device like some of the others.


"Missions, mm?" Elly mused to herself, pondering as she took a sip from her drink.

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Uneasy Advice for Broken Souls



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April 4th, 2067



Another day, another Fate Agent. This one assigned by Cyrus. Apparently, she had some type of odd situation of being stuck in a semi-transformed state and it made training a little difficult. The hope was that his training could find a way to work around that. Admittedly, Starwulf wasn’t sure if he could work around a biological barrier like this. If it was anything like attempting to train the undead, there weren’t really many tips and tricks he could offer her.

But, still, here she was in his dojo, fairly early in the morning, and willing to go about training. He was accustomed to werewolves. He had trained a few and with a few. There was only one Clan he knew of that could transform even remotely close to what she looked like, but apparently this was her default state. It was an oddity, for sure.

”Let me make sure I understand your situation fully,” Starwulf said, starting out the conversation after their initial round of pleasant introductions. ”You cannot revert back to a fully-human form and if you go into your werewolf form, it’s like blacking out?” he asked her, his tone flat and his question fairly blunt. He was starting from the basics.

Being told to attend training for Starwulf was an honor, and being able to enter such a dojo the likes of Black★Star’s dojo was fantastic! She felt a sort of nostalgia or spiritual awakening through those torii gates. However, she was uncertain if her biology was going to help in this endeavor considering the natural Werewolf soul didn’t like using any wavelength abilities. So, when Starwulf asked, she felt a pang of nervousness. Was he able to see that with Soul Perception? She tried not to overthink this. Not wanting to talk Starwulf’s ear off, she tried to lower her word count down like she did with Adrian, but that was so difficult!

She just loved talking!!

Arms at her sides in a polite posture, she nodded. “Yeah. Considering my clan, we’re not supposed to do that. We’re more sniffers and listeners than anything else. There are moments where I can see what I’m doing as a full werewolf, like an out-of-body experience, I just am unable to influence any of my actions or hold myself back. It’s uh… A bit of a nightmare.” She chuckled nervously, looking away. But then she shook her head and stared up at Starwulf with defiance, her determined smile shining and her eyes alight with passion. “BUT! I won’t let my body’s hiccups get in the way! If I have been able to resonate with quite a few people since it all happened, I can get through this without needing to worry about transforming back to human! I just need to prove to myself that I can!”

She honestly sounded like a shounen protagonist.

Starwulf found her energy peppy and profound, but a little overcharged for his taste. Ambition was a good thing in moderation. However, at his heart, Starwulf was a realist. Sometimes, hard work and creative solutions only side-stepped a problem. They didn’t resolve it. This was something he had learned the hard way over the decades.

”I am no biologist, but I do know this: even the Three-Star werewolves in the DWMA have difficulties with wavelength control when transformed. I can only think of one with anything close to mastery in his transformed state. I would imagine just at seeing you–no offense meant–that you have a natural disadvantage with wavelength control,” Starwulf outlined for her. He wasn’t exactly a downer. Not a negative attitude or a drain, but he certainly didn’t match her energy. Perhaps in his youth he might have, but even then he wasn’t quite so radical. Just a bit stubborn.

”Show me what you can do,” he instructed her, ”Attack me, attack a dummy, I don’t care; just use wavelength amplification.” He was fairly matter-of-fact in his request, but more so because he wanted to get things going. He needed to know precisely what he was working with to determine if there was any recourse for her condition.

His realistic approach to her issue had her slightly pouting. But, he was right, and she conceded. But only partially. That same fire within her only excited her to do better. “Alrighty, then get ready, Starwulf!” She said it with such bravado that it was almost comical with what happened next. Yes, she amplified herself with her wavelength and took a brief moment to do so, but some of that wavelength energy went into her legs as she did a short lunging hop towards him to close the distance, then the wavelength had to race to her arm as she came with a punch. It empowered her speed and strike like she wanted and was taught due to her smaller stature and shorter arms, but something within her knew that this wasn’t how it should be, yet she was stuck as a creature of habit. There was a sense of a lack of confidence or maybe just a sense of understanding within her despite going through the throes of the strike as per her normal use.

She knew it needed to be better, she just didn’t want to think about it until it hit her right in the face. In this case, the punch to Starwulf was the smack she needed as it came from the form of the power that was produced by her punch. While it could crack concrete with a weapon, it wasn’t enough, and her understanding and possible lessening confidence showed she knew, and was past her denial as soon as she made that punch.

Starwulf watched the entire flow of her wavelength as she utilized it. He saw an assortment of problems arising from before she even started, and it only compounded as she went on. For the most part, agents at her level could at least make use of their full wavelength and do so easily. They might do it inefficiently, or lack finesse, but they had it wrangled down. Sara did not. She was only using a portion of it, and even then, it was fighting her.

He took the punch straight to the gut, and for Sara, it would have been akin to striking a steel wall without padding or amplification. The most she received was the thin veil of cloth his shirt provided as comfort. Starwulf was, for all intents and purposes, rock solid. He didn’t tank this strike for the sake of showing off or denouncing her. In fact, normally, he would have caught, dodged, or deflected it.

But, he wanted to actually feel what she could do. To experience the brunt of it first hand. He wasn’t precisely an expert, but her form should have allotted her some amount of increased strength. With wavelength amplification, she should have much more force than she demonstrated. As it stood, she was actually under-performing in comparison to a regular human Meister at her age and experience. The problem didn’t seem to be entirely on her, either.

”Your wavelength fights against you, almost,” he commented. ”Would you compare it to trying to swim upriver?” he asked her, quite genuinely trying to gauge just how difficult this task was for her.

Maybe she wasn’t on her A-game, but man did that hurt! She retracted her hand and shook it with a hiss, trying to mitigate the pain with a slight chuckle. What was he made of? Steel?? Titanium??? As Starwulf asked, she looked up at him, a sheepish grin on her face. Her tone was like night and day to how she talked earlier, sounding a bit down on herself. “Eh yeah, it does. Always has been, ever since I got sick with MIBVI and was stuck like this. While I can attempt resonance and generally be proficient in adjusting to other weapons, it’s when I amplify it that feels like it’s fighting back. Of course, I know just brute forcing it won’t work, as doing that just hurts, like stretching a muscle too far.”

She went to scratch the back of her head, completely forgetting she had wolf ears until realizing it as she did it. “So, my biology is to blame for another stunt, too?” It was clear it’s been weighing on her for a while, the way she underperformed from the likes of Nadia. She always tried to keep up her optimism though in spite of that, trying to keep her head up, but she’d been ignoring the why until she chose to finally face it today.

”I’m not an expert in regards to the nuances of resonating as a werewolf,” he started out, directly answering her question without much adjustment for how she had reacted. As an instructor, he was fairly stoic and to the point. ”But, I do know the generalities. Werewolves have two forms–most of the time. The soul is a direct reflection of the mind and body. When your body shifts, so does your soul. From what I understand, controlling your ‘wolf’ wavelength is akin to relearning the entire skill; and, on top of that, it’s more difficult than your human wavelength,” Starwulf explained to her, doing his best to make the explanation seem almost textbook in nature.

”From what I’m seeing, your wavelength might fall somewhere in between… which means it may be one of the few wavelengths I’m not necessary suitable to train you with,” he informed her, ”but, I know someone who is, and he’s already worked with other werewolves in the F.A.T.E Program.”

The information presented to her made her realize before Starwulf said it that he won’t be able to help her. The more he spoke on it, the more she realized her issue was far greater than she had realized. Her ears were about to droop before they perked up upon hearing that someone else could help train her. She tilted her head. “Oh? Who is he?” She didn’t think she heard of anyone like him.

An almost sinister grin crept across his face followed by a deep, hearty chuckle. He was a hell of a man. One of the few that went toe to toe with both him and Herakles. A man whose skill bridged the realm of genius and beast and whose strength and ferocity could instill fear in many that still remembered him in his prime. ”His stage name is Apex,” he told her, ”and, I believe he’s a bit of a hero figure in werewolf culture.”

That grin that appeared on Starwulf’s face had her ears drop when she saw it. Then to hear it was Apex… “N-no way…” She blinked a few times, then she chuckled nervously, then she shook her head, then she looked on in confusion. “Will I actually get to train with him…? But, wh-... I’m ju-...” Her words got caught and she was reverted into speechlessness. She finally regathered her composure, a budding ray of hope coming out with her deeply gracious smile. “I-it would be an honor to train under him, if you don’t mind referring me to him.” Even though it was also extremely nerve wracking.

”I’ll have to contact him to see if he even has time,” Starwulf told her, ”I believe he’s enjoying time with his grandkids these days, but the recent call to arms the DWMA sent out might be enough for me to steal him for a moment.” There was some truth to that. Apex was an older man that had retired some time ago. He fought without a weapon for most of his career, and that had taken a pretty big tole on his body.

That didn’t mean he was someone to be fucked with nonetheless.

”That said, I’ll at least go over what I can do for you now,” Starwulf told her, ”as you are assigned to me by Cyrus. Unless, that is, you would rather wait until I have word on Apex.”

Sara stared blankly at Starwulf. On one hand, she wanted to train with Apex and maybe wait so as to not frustrate Starwulf. On the other, it would be a good idea to at least get some insight from Starwulf before getting trained by Apex. Well, when she put it that way, the latter option was more beneficial, and it’s not like she couldn’t apply what she learned here for later when she somehow found the ability to transform.

With a determined gleam in her eye, she stood there proudly with her hands at her sides in a form of respect and bowing at her hip. Considering how the place was designed, she was so glad Noah taught her Japanese customs. “It’ll also be an honor to learn at least something from you, Starwulf. Let’s try what we can now because it might be of use later.” All the while, her mind was absolutely in fits. Apex? Really???

”I would normally go back to the basics to teach anything,” Starwulf told her, ”fix all the bad habits improper training creates. It’s the first step for most agents.” His explanation, while simple, did have the heavy implication there was some type of improper training. He didn’t delve deep into that, but whatever it meant, it was clearly important enough that he would send most people right back to fundamentals.

”In your case, I can’t really do that. Instead, we’ll try to push you forward and work on correcting mistakes later,” he explained, though there was some disappointment laced in his otherwise stoic voice.

”What I want you to do is amplify your fist as much as possible, then feel your wavelength flow through your body. The way I see the flow in your body is that it is sporadic, you don’t have a lot of focus with it. Even when you shift it to your legs to move, for example, some of it gets lost as if there are holes that leak it out,” he told her, trying to equate what he saw to how she would feel. ”Think of your body like a series of pipes in an old building. When you up the pressure to go one way, it springs a leak and goes others–so you lose water pressure. So what I want you to do is focus on just your right hand. Then, go through and find all those little leaks and use all your focus to close them one by one,” he instructed her, believing his word choice to be clear enough that she could follow. Whether or not she could actually accomplish this in one setting was an entirely different thing. Chances are, she probably could even despite her werewolf heritage, she just wouldn’t be able to do it repeatedly or in a timely fashion.

Despite that, the first step to success here was acknowledging the problem. If she could fix it once even if it took her a half hour to do so, that gave her a stepping stone to practice with.

Sara listened attentively, and thankfully she was the imaginative sort. Was it really like that? A half werewolf wavelength was like a leaking set of pipes? She looked at her right hand, wondering what sort of training she underwent that was wrong. Considering her situation though, almost any training fit for a more human meister wouldn’t work with her. She took in a deep breath, prepped her wavelength, then surged into her hand. With her eyes closed, she felt for her fist and only her fist, mostly ignoring everything else around her. She felt the leaking, parts of her hand feeling weaker than the rest. She’s never been aware of this until now, so how long was this like this? The entire time?

Man, she felt stupid.

Taking in another long, deep breath through her mouth and out her nose, she focused on those little holes and tried to cover them. Well, she tried. Her lips curled a bit as she felt frustrated, powerless to these little leaks that sprouted up as she didn’t know how to cover them. Eventually, she realized she should constrict these holes like how vessels worked. After a total of twenty minutes, she managed to block one pipe. But then another made itself known somewhere else in her fist. She was really starting to feel like those cartoon characters trying to stop too many leaks in a boat with too few limbs, especially when those limbs felt like they were swimming in molasses.

Another fifteen minutes went by and she managed to cover the hole that leaked out recently, only for the hole she covered before to leak again. Did she need to divide her attention? How the fuck did Apex do this??? Her lips pursed in frustration, but she kept at it, not exactly wanting to stop. However, the control of her wavelength was beginning to wane with increasing exhaustion from both her soul and mind. She decided to stop, her eyes fluttering open as her gaze seemed almost blank. Wavering slightly, she kept herself standing. “Uhm… How do I cover the holes? Maybe I should have asked that before trying to do it myself, haha. How long has it been since I started?” Nervous laughter again, Sara scratched the back of her head sheepishly. It was like asking a teacher how she fucked up on an assignment, unsure if the answer was there in plain sight.

”Nearly forty-five minutes,” he answered her flatly. The reality of the situation was that he had stood there stoically the entire time. Each leak she covered, he saw. Each ebb and flow of her wavelength, he saw. Each new flaw, he observed. He did so silently and without judgment, almost robotically.

”You can use whatever analogy you want, but at the end of the day, wavelength control is the direct result of willpower–at least for normal Meisters. What I see in you isn’t uncommon, so don’t feel terribly discouraged. Normally, it is with more junior agents or even those still in EAT classes, but I would surmise this difficulty in control is the direct result of your biology,” he informed her, doing his best to offer her some semblance of encouragement while giving her an enlightening answer.

”What I can tell you is that I feel uncertainty in your soul. You lack a type of confidence, and you seem off-put ever since I mentioned Apex,” he told her, his nigh-monotonous voice now calling out the insecurity she had in this demonstration. ”A Sound Soul resides in a Sound Body and a Sound Mind. Your biology may be different, but your mind is yours to control,” he told her.

”So, control it. Temper your anxieties, forget about Apex, and reign in your wavelength. It is yours. It is an extension of yourself. It is not a great river that cannot be tamed or some other force of nature. If you allow yourself to believe in failure, you make it a reality. Reject failure, try harder, and try until every ounce of your wavelength is in your fist,” he instructed her, shifting to a more stern tone, not quite demanding, but most definitely guiding her into the mindset she needed to be in. Until this became second nature to her, which certainly wouldn’t happen overnight, she would need to approach using her wavelength with the correct state of mind.

Forty-five minutes? And he was still standing there??? Man, he had quite the patience. Admirable, Sara wasn’t even sure if she had that level of patience to stand there for nearly an hour watching someone. Then again, there was ample entertainment in her struggle, she guessed. Not allowing herself to deviate into a tangential thought process, she hung onto every word Starwulf said. To hear this was practically normal among those who were around her skill level was a bit comforting. Was she accidentally comparing herself to Apex?

Oh dear Death, she didn’t want to do that to herself.

So, just forget everything. Well, not ‘forget’, but be in such a trance that nothing existed except the objective. That state of mind was something she was able to do when wielding Midori, so it wasn’t completely out of the realm of possibility for her. But without Midori’s guidance in this, she wo-

No, she can’t think that, otherwise all of Starwulf’s advice would just be ignored. She’d have to do this herself. Considering her soul space, she did think her wavelength was that of nature, but she forgot she was also a part of it and by proxy her wavelength was a part of her - her extension. Reject failure - at least the wording - had her smile out of amusement, but she kept her tongue to herself.

Steeling her resolve, she took another deep breath to calm herself, and remembered what she had to do with Midori, calming her wavelength to a sort of manageable degree before putting it in her fist. Instead of trying to focus on one hole, she focused on her entire fist - not the air that it occupied, but the flesh the wavelength was coursing into. If she just made the wavelength in that one area dense enough, it should be able to prevent any leaking. Focusing on the core of her fist, she worked on squishing it down in an attempt to make a dense sphere within her fist. She did feel some parts of it waver as she felt it fight for control - likely that werewolf part of her soul - but she aimed to squish it down like it was a stress ball regardless. She didn’t know how long this took, but it certainly didn’t feel like forty-five minutes again.

”You are doing better,” Starwulf commented after some time of watching her. It was true. Whether it was her steeled resolve or drawing from her past experiences, she was gathering much, much more of her wavelength. Given what he saw, he did expect some problems to arise from this method. He doubted she would be able to recreate it for consistent use any time soon, but that didn’t mean it was entirely useless.

”Consider this. The pathway your wavelength takes is just as important as your fist itself. The core of your soul is located in your torso and that is its origin. Try concentrating your wavelength in your left fist–a shorter path–and envision the path it takes as well as how you are storing it there. In this case, the journey is just as important as the destination,” he explained to her, offering more of his guidance. If she could concentrate harder on what she was doing, it stood to reason that if she simplified the process, she could further that success.

The praise had her grinning, but she knew she wasn’t out of the woods yet. Adapting was her main game though, and it was something she prided herself on. She stalled so she could listen to Starwulf before trying it a slightly different way in accordance with his advice. It took her a moment to realize he was meaning the heart when explaining her left fist, but once she did, she went to swap hands, taking a moment to build up that wavelength again like she did earlier and paying attention to the flow this time to properly send the wavelength into her hand at a much faster rate than before. And just as she did so, she tried to make the wavelength in her fist dense enough where there won’t be much leaking, then opened up her muscles to amplify them to feel the difference.

Time passed. A fair amount of time. An hour, two hours, Starwulf even opted to personally leave and take a few breaks over this period of time. Extended training sessions like this were common, especially when dealing with technique refinement as Sara was doing. It was time-consuming and required a lot of repetition. Now that she was on the right path, it was all about practice.

Once he returned, he could see not only was she significantly better at the technique–at least in this one strict application–but she was becoming fairly drained. Her reserves must have been under half of their maximum capacity, and that likely was going to start having an effect on her performance. Werewolf or not, and even in her quasi-transformed state, her spiritual stamina was still roughly that of a human.

”Time for something new,” Starwulf announced, this time quite a bit louder than normal in an attempt to break her concentration. ”You haven’t quite mastered the skill yet, but you have reached the level I think you need to be,” he told her once her attention had fallen onto him.

”One thing you know is that your body can only handle so much of your wavelength. Push too much and you risk damage. Even from the beginning, you were sending the proper amount; it just wasn’t all arriving. Now that you can send more without it leaking, we’re going to try something else,” he explained, giving some pretense to this next bit of training he was going to push her to.

”Whatever you're sending to your fist, triple it. Focus on it just as hard, try to avoid the leaks, but if it does leak, ignore it. Instead of channeling it like you have been, try to force it out all at once in a burst. Then, punch me again,” he instructed her, opting to give her instructions that were not only counter-intuitive to everything that he had taught her, but everything she had ever learned prior from other instructors. This broke virtually every rule that had been outlined for her when it came to wavelength amplification.

Sara broke from her concentration, and the sudden realization of how tired she was took its place. She was breathing a bit deeper to compensate, to keep herself focused on what Starwulf was saying once she was done exercising her wavelength in her hands. When he spoke of what he had noticed of her wavelength and how much she was able to take, Sara was wondering where this was going. Then, he said to triple it. The counter-intuitive idea didn’t really strike Sara as weird, as there were many techniques to do many things differently, and Sara was no stranger to this.

Like a blast? Sara had heard of people doing that in games, where they recklessly shot forth a blast of their power shooting out of their hands or fists. This was actually almost similar to the application of Soul Conduction she did with Eva, though that was far more rushed and she was running on fumes then. While she was more tired, she also wasn’t running on fumes or being rushed.

Taking her right fist, she closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, summoning her wavelength around her core to amass the amount she needed, though it slightly hurt. She lost a little as she started making it move through her arm, but that was fine. As soon as it went halfway through her arm in the condensed form she had it in her fist prior, she dashed forward and aimed a punch at either Starwulf’s hand he would hold out to catch it with or his stomach if he opted not to, the large amount of wavelength harshly rocketing towards her fist felt like her hand was going to explode with its power right as she made contact with him.

Starwulf opted to catch her hand this time. For good reason. Not necessarily that she could harm him, though this blow might have made him feel something. Instead, it was so that he could gauge precisely what was going on. For Sara, this was an entirely different feeling. He told her to use triple, but it felt more like five or six times the amount of wavelength was being shot out of her. Not by her volition, but because of her lack of control. It was again like a dam bursting open, and she hadn’t quite the willpower to keep it shut.

More so, the power of this strike was emphatically greater than anything she had ever used prior. Upon impact, her wavelength shot out of his hand like a shotgun shell and permeated through his skin to his wavelength. Beyond that, she wouldn’t have much sensation as to what was occurring. Starwulf could feel it, though. The extremely small but countless reactions going on between their wavelengths. Miniature forms of wavelength rejection all throughout his palm. He was strong enough to overpower the vast majority of what she released, but the point was, she released it.

That was her doorway into Soul Force.

It was sloppy. It was hardly controlled. It was massively inefficient. That one punch probably took out of her as much as an hour’s worth of her previous training. The focus required for it alone probably meant it couldn’t be effectively used in a fight–yet.

But, she could do it. What she could do, she could practice.

”Not the cleanest execution, I’ll admit,” Starwulf told her, ”but congratulations, you just used Soul Force. Given it’s not on your dossier, I assume that’s your first time.” He was entirely genuine with his comment. In a way, it was perhaps condescending, but those were simply meant to be honest observations about the technique. It was her first time; neither of them could expect perfection. Or really, anywhere near it.

”I’m sure you’re feeling it now–the drain, I mean. It will take a lot more practice to do that without wasting as much energy and even more before you can use it in a fight, but until I can find you a specialist like Apex, at least you have a goal,” he told her, essentially explaining why he opted to teach her a technique like this when she seemingly wasn’t really ready for it.

When the strike connected, she took a moment to retract her hand and shake it from the stinging pins and needles that stabbed throughout her skin. It felt like her hand had blown itself up but there was no physical damage or loss of a limb. Despite the pain, she was grinning through it.

She did it!

She nodded when Starwulf said it wasn't in her file, her hand flexing and relaxing to still the pain. She felt so proud of herself, she felt like she was getting somewhere. However, it was a miracle she was even standing, giving Starwulf a sleepy nod with a goofy, dazed smile. A thought crossed her mind though.

If she was going to find it difficult to use her wavelength as she was now, that meant using resonance techniques with Eva was going to be extra difficult, especially with her fragmented, distorted soul.

With a smile still plastered on her face, she spoke in an oddly serious tone despite her dazed state. "So uh… If this biology situation is hurting my ability to resonate with my partner - especially given her soul is distorted… How do I do the soul explore thingy with her? How do I undo this thing MIBVI put me in?"

Starwulf hummed for a moment. He was familiar with her partner and her dossier. He hadn’t formally evaluated her, but he was familiar with the relatively rare phenomenon of soul distortion. That was the proper term for what had happened to her partner. It was a case-by-case issue. In some cases, he could assist. In some cases, it was a problem that someone with more traditional methods, like Reiko, could help with. In some cases, it was something that only the individual could work through.

She did ask one question he could answer quite directly, at the very least. ”What you are referring to is Soul Diving. For someone as inexperienced as you, it is not something to be done alone. You should always have someone capable of causing Forced Rejection to shut down the connection to sever the dive. In fact, given both of your unique circumstances, I wouldn’t suggest attempting it without a high-ranking Meister there. You have plenty of mentors. Weapons like Fia and Reiko won’t cut it, either; not that they don’t know what they’re doing, just that a Meister would need to make the severance as quick and clean as possible,” he explained to her, first pushing the safety element of this task. Despite how quickly he put his body and that of his students into danger, based on what happened with Erikk back in Lot A, he would not risk their souls so quickly.

”If Emmett were around, I would suggest him first. I’m not sure if Midori is capable of it. If you ask him and he declines, don’t push him on it; you can do more damage to both you and your partner should you delve too deep, too quickly,” he explained to her, giving her further suggestions despite the lack of one of the mentors being present.

”When you wield a weapon, you create a spiritual bridge between yourselves. If you can imagine it, it’s like atoms swirling around sharing a few electrons; the bond is there, but they’re still two separate atoms. With Soul Diving, you are no longer Weapon and Meister. You are equals. One enters the soul of another. You do not merely get a glimpse of their Soul Space, but you can explore it in their entirety–and the greatest danger here is that very few people actually learn how to explore their full Soul Space. That is typically a life-long journey of self-understanding, and by pushing them too quickly, you can force them to face parts of themselves that they just plainly are not ready to,” he told her, his voice stern and his eyes furrowed as he explained all of the details of Soul Diving and its dangers.

”When you Soul Dive, there is no transformation. Both individuals must be relaxed and accepting. The person diving must be willing to place their very conscious self into that of another, and the recipient must be willing and able to accept. You will need to have full focus, such as with Calm Mind training, and a close bond, then establish physical contact before you establish spiritual contact. From there, it will eventually come naturally–it’s not something I can describe once. It is different from person to person,” he said, giving her instructions and emphasizing why and how Soul Diving was different than merely wielding a weapon.

”With all that said, I must admit that you are in a considerable disadvantage here on two fronts. Wavelength control is extremely important for both resonance and Soul Diving. I’m not sure if your condition is caused by MIBVI or if it is some natural phenomenon of your body; you will need to confer with some type of expert on that. Either way, I can pretty confidently confirm something is inhibiting your Wavelength control,” he told her, trying to break this bad news gently while still maintaining his stern and stoic tone, ”and, your partner has what we would call a distorted soul. I would need to see her for evaluation to give advice. I’ve worked with those afflicted with distorted souls before, so unlike your werewolf biology, I can shed some light on that issue.”

Hearing that the Soul Dive was going to be far different than what she realized, she sighed. Still, she listened to everything he had to say attentively. She wished she could just do this whole Soul Diving thing alone. Even if this was in the outskirts of her soul? Just to understand and test its edges? Sara didn’t even think diving anywhere past the surface was going to be doable. Honestly, the warnings scared her. She didn’t want to be responsible for hurting Eva if she did this wrong.

But maybe there was a way to do a Soul Dive just barely - like make it not even constitute as a Soul Dive, like how Soul Conduction was the closest they could get to a hit without the use of Resonance. But he did say they could cause damage if they dove too deeply too quickly. So just shallow level stuff when they do it. Hearing that true exploration of the soul took a lot longer than she realized, she might have asked for the wrong thing, but still understood it was no easy task that could be done overnight either. She guessed that Eva trying to do this herself or Sara doing this with Eva might take twice as long if not longer, and that’s with help.

Upon hearing that something was definitely causing her wavelength control to be undermined, she sighed. “Yeah, that’s what I figured…” Hearing he had some advice on distorted souls at least, she tilted her head in curiosity. “Yeah, Eva absorbed a Witch’s soul during that whole Fool’s Festival fiasco. Do you know what happens to a distorted soul when they do that? She’s getting some pretty bad nightmares and she’s not sleeping really well. If I do a Soul Dive with her, I don’t think I’d want to even go beyond the surface or even further than a glimpse of what her soul looks like. I also tried some very small resonance with her the times I’ve connected with her, but it feels like I’m just getting a single patch out of an entire patchwork quilt.” Her brows were knitted together, her voice gravelly.

”Therapy,” Starwulf said. A simple word. A stern tone. A serious meaning.

”She needs therapy. Give her time and some space to process it on her own and use the resources the DWMA spends a small fortune on,” he told her, remaining quite stern in his instructions here. ”We are quick to think that our problems should all be solved through spiritual means and in doing so forget that a Sound Soul resides in a Sound Mind and a Sound Body,” he explained to her, his tone shifting back to a more educational one.

”Allow me to give you some insight. Many people think of that saying as math. Sound Mind plus Sound Body equals Sound Soul. That is incorrect. The truth of the matter is that all three are in a constant relationship with each other where they both affect and are affected by the others. You won’t heal her distorted soul with therapy, but a professional can help her through it and by extension help soothe both her mind and soul,” he told her, trying to emphasize just how important this balance was.

”To answer your other question: souls that are distorted aren’t as accepting to consuming more souls in general. Rarely is there an issue with just consuming a Corrupted Soul, but she may need to consume more than the normal ninety-nine to become a Death Scythe. Witch’s Souls are an entirely different topic. If her soul is distorted where the fragment of a Witch’s Soul is, then it will be painful and traumatic each time she consumes one. Worse, she may have to consume two or three to accomplish the same transformative effect. The best way to think of it would be… she doesn’t absorb as efficiently and their energy doesn’t get distributed in her soul as evenly. The side effects of this often come in the form of having nightmares or reliving past memories of the Witch she consumed. Anxiety, depression, rage. Some turn to liquor, some turn to the comfort of lovers, some turn to even worse methods to deal with it, but it does get better. It may take weeks or months, but the spiritual energy will settle. I would avoid consuming another Witch’s Soul or even other souls in general until her soul has settled, though,” he explained, though this point had more conjecture and was less structured than his previous one. That was solely because this was based primarily on his personal experience and observations whereas the topic beforehand was part of his training.

The stern tone with which ‘therapy’ was spoken in had hit her a bit harder than she had thought it would. The answer was so simple, yet she honestly forgot about it. She’ll have to ask Eva to go to therapy then, and hope she complied. She also honestly forgot that the three sound parts of a person should be taken into equal consideration. Sara nodded, now already thinking of giving Eva more appointments to see her therapist, but she should probably ask first.

The information about distorted souls had her worried. Weird though, despite the obvious differences, the effects of a distorted soul were a bit similar to her own stunted biology. She nodded at his advice, smiling a bit more. “Thank you. Though, I noticed she sometimes thinks she’s her former meister partner, thinking her hair is black when it’s actually white, and sometimes acting not like herself. I hope she doesn’t have nightmares of the witch she ate, she already has her own trauma…” Sighing, she realized there was nothing for her to do here for today, and it wasn’t likely Starwulf could help her further without Eva being here.

Unsure of when Eva will be coming back from the hospital, she smiled again, albeit it was her attempt at showing her gratitude despite her feelings towards Eva’s situation. “Anyway, I don’t think there’s anything else I can learn today for right now, unless you think there’s something else I should hear of before I go. I don’t know when Eva’s coming back from the hospital, so I should probably return soon. Was there anything else I should know before I go?” Tilting her head, she awaited his answer.

”There are a thousand things to teach and a million more to learn, honestly,” Starwulf answered her, ”but, only one I can think of that will be immediately useful. Depending on how her soul became distorted, it is feasible that the damage done to it has partially imprinted her former Meister. I have seen before; in fact, in the worst case scenarios, it can create a nearly split personality. What you described is more mild. In the worst case scenarios, Madness is all but assured,” he explained to her in greater detail, providing her information that did seem to directly relate to Eva.

”Bring her here when you can for evaluation and I will give you my further input, but until then, I highly suggest you have your partner seek professional help. If she is Fate, too, she likely already has a designated therapist. Urge her to setup more consistent care and consider the options of medication,” he instructed her, ”I may treat my body like a temple, but there is a time and place for drugs. I am no expert, that is why I tell you to seek one.”

He inhaled deeply, trying to think of anything else he could say, but there really wasn’t. Neither her situation or that of her partner were simple ones. In a way, it was unfortunate they were paired as there were so many difficulties to overcome. In another, it served a benefit in that they may find kinship in their shared struggles. In either situation, they were both clearly creations of this world.

”Visit your partner. And, if you do elect to train with Soul Force, do so sparingly. At the rate you expend wavelength, you do run the risk of exhausting your soul. Then, it’ll be your partner visiting you in the hospital, he warned, giving his final piece of advice.

Hearing that Eva’s issues could’ve been worse, she sighed a little - partly from relief and partly from how long this road will be. Not that she couldn’t handle it, she’s gotten along with many standoffish people, and some of those took a few years. Her tenacity in social situations, even when those situations come attached with mental issues, was nothing to sneeze at. She thought about when to bring Eva over. She wasn’t sure when that would be, but hopefully it would be some time tonight or tomorrow.

She nodded at his ideas, thought her brow furrowed at the mention of drugs. She hoped it wouldn’t have to come to that. She was able to manage her anxiety without drugs before she got too far into the Fate program. “Yeah, she’s Fate. I think she’s got her own therapist, so I’ll do that. I got nothing going on for the eighth this week and I think Eva should be coming home before then.”

His warning on her Soul Force training had her smiling a bit guiltily. Considering she liked to train until she was nothing short of exhausted, she wondered if that level of training would be a good idea. Considering she was new to this, she wouldn’t want to hurt herself and become unavailable for her partner if she needed anything. She simply just nodded in understanding.

Smiling, she didn't see any disagreement for the eighth from Starwulf, so she cheerfully spoke. "Yup, okay, we'll see you on the eighth. Thank you again, Starwulf. See you later." With a wave, she left.










 
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Maria Mayer - Dall Island

As the Queen explained her situation, how she came to learn and her origin stories, for these beings to seek out life akin to them and mana targeting, they were clearly bioweapons that were more than likely unleashed during the problematic times of this island. Ones with a high potential of evolution and while rudimental, intelligence. They were dangerous. But so was all knowledge. Mankind unleashed fire upon the world, had built civilization with it and erased the civilizations of many others with it. The wheel could carry the sick and infirm on all manner of medical devices, or it could move a multi-toned monster of steel and shot in the form of a tank.

The possibilities here were endless but depended heavily upon those who handled them. Magitech was another boon upon the world, and yet also a curse. However, should she just allow a whole species, regardless of it's origins that it clearly broke from to perish as it might be a threat? Starting to pace and lost in her thoughts, the voice of Rand broke her from it all. He had made his decision and she wasn't much one to just close a door because of what might be inside. These spiders could be of great use for all the chances they may take. It would fall upon them, the Guild and the DWMA to chart that course, and she would have to grab the wheel as well.

"As I said before Rand, I am not an aeronautical engineer, I build dolls and other handcrafts. Theoretically it would be easier to build a craft up here depending on the resources we have on hand. In effect I offer three solutions. All three depend on reaching the top of the tree in some fashion and all three are dangerous. I will also need the full co-operation of the spiders and to transmit my ideas to them as feelings. I should note, this could end very badly for us. Though we have no other choice to get out of here, we took those same risks getting in. However, the spider silk, long have alchemists and inventors chased after it, spider webbing, you see is a wonderous material, light in weight than aluminum, stronger than steel if you can get enough of it... Very durable, very flexible, at least till water is thrown into the mix."

"If there were gas supplies on the Island I would suggest an airship, but with heat alone we run terrible risks, a balloon at this point is worthless to us, with reached it's maximum benefits for size. We could also try a massed paradrop from the tree, and hope webbing parachutes work for us and the cargo. My prefered method would be to press Ark into building us a huge ramp and building a glider and having Raph and you act as a booster engine with your magics, spell circles, whatever have you, a little fire won't kill the Dall Tree.. But that being said the more solid materials we can get hold of for the frame and skeleton the better, wood for the bottom would also be ideal, but we can make do with webbing and a bouncy impact... The wings however, must, no matter what have a solid flexible frame. I would just make more balloons, but we only have two possible sources of fire here. The control surfaces for the glider must also be designed to specifications. It should be noted that way before now, it was common practice for Armies to carry large groups of men and cargo in those flying boxes made of wood and fabric... Though it should be noted Metal ended rather poorly... Ah, ignore me, history was just one of those things that interested me. Not as much as cultral arts, but I digress, to skin a cat and all that."

"There are other ways we could get across, but they do not allow for as much or any cargo, and let me be clear, the glider's greatest flaw is if the wings break, or we break our arms trying to land on the beach as I must make some form of flight controls for it. The Airship will be a race against time, organic components simply make for terrible additions to machinery, we will get one flight and one flight alone out of it. The massed paradrop has it's problems as well, history shows them. I will need the cooperation of everyone for any of these plots to go forward, while the Queen may wish to entrust her hopes for us, there is no safe path, but these are safer than wandering that dead zone. So, which shall I draw up plans for?"

Maria did not bother explaining any of this to the spider, but the balloon they had serve its purpose, and building it larger at this point only gave diminishing returns. None of them were safe, and Maria admitted she was mostly going off of guess work. If they survived this she might just start looking into aviation. She already drove most of her teams around, flying was a small matter and as pilots say, any landing you can walk away from is a good landing.

With all that said, Maria decided to take another approach as well, approaching some of the smaller spiders in turn. "I've heard tell that spiders use tufts of webbing to naturally glide waves, to float through the sky across long distances, though we could also make several smaller paragliders... We do have endless Mana for here and now."

Communicating her feelings and the concepts that danced in her head towards them, via her wires for them to touch, she was sure they could relay it the the queen as well. "Do know by these means we can take a number of your eggs but more than a few of your current brood will be unable to return once we've crossed the gap." Given the time limit they were still under, Maria felt the gliders may still be the best option, the big one would likely be beyond them, unless they... No, they had a limited timeframe.

"Can your children learn to make fire? If so then I could make several baskets and balloons, the problem, ah, sky beasts as you call them, we should be able to carry several of your eggs with us, but I must figure a way to get us down safely." Sketching Diagrams on the ground as she awaited confirmation or denial, Maria seemed to have a lot on her mind as she tried to make this idea work.

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Arkayis Misonuka



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Arkayis was overall pretty calm and content with sticking by Noahs side, as V started to make their speech, most of it seemed pretty standard though some of the new information wasn't all too concerning to Arkayis. Not like the expansion of the collars was something they cared much about, they honestly found them annoying to wear some of the time, though the mandatory meeting that was going to happen tomorrow seemed like it could be a headache, it wasn't like they had any plans in the first place though they supposed. Though the fact that they wouldn't be allowed to vote for their own leader amongst themselves was a bit concerning, though they would probably be able to easily give out reasons why they would not want to allow them to vote on their own leaders. Though they weren't really worth complaining about either way, Arkayis wasn't exactly happy nor was he annoyed or angry with the news so far, and the speech seemed pretty standard overall.

That was until he began to mention that their goal was to introduce Sorcerers and Witches to their teams causing Arkayis to quickly freeze in place, the genuine hate could easily be seen in their eyes. Though as they take a deep breath in and out, they resorted to clenching their fist and teeth, they needed to vent, but they didn't want to get in trouble with Noah, and Gauss they supposed. Though they were definitely going to vent out their frustrations later, it was more so a question of where than anything else, as the revelation has put Arkayis in a clearly foul mood. The only news that Arkayis was actually somewhat liked, was the announcement of the aviability for Higher Risk missions, something that was within his comfort zone, still it wasn't enough to make up for the news that they wanted witches and sorcerers in their team, a possibility that could be made worse if they somehow decided to mix things up and make them team leader for a mission. The dreaded thought would typically be enough to set him on a Firey rampage, but he didn't want to do that here, It can wait. was the thought Arkayis repeated in their head many times in order to stop himself from causing a scene.

Though as Noah left to go get drinks, Arkayis attention returned back to their companion, who soon made their return to chat with Gauss and look at, Sara? Still though it seemed like, it gained her attention as she went on to hail them, more specifically Gauss, who responded in his own typical way. Arkayis let out a sigh, as he took a moment to cool down, before coming towards the side of Noah, and lightly pulling his arm on his shoulder, ignorant to the fact that he had gotten pretty hot from being so worker. But still he began to ask Noah "How long are we gonna be here? Can we go, somewhere else after.. This..." it wasn't everyday Arkayis made a request so he doubted Noah, would dismiss them out of hand. But he really needed to vent after being brought here, and he would prefer for it to be a area that no one would mind getting, absolutely destroyed if need be.


 



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MidoriHoshi

"Dark Star"

Species Death Golem
Partner Eloise Keegan
Rank Two-Star

Location Death City, Northwest Quarter, Duchess of Discord
Mission Discourse at the Duchess
Status Intrigued. jovial



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Midori inevitably released Adrian. Not precisely because he had gone too far, but as a reaction from Adrian electing to transform spikes around his neck to force such a release from Midori. Mean trick, but it did work.

"Yeah, yeah, nice to see you, too, Midori," Adrian said, though his words were spit out more like venom than an actual greeting. "Not like ya had a lot competition, man," he added, electing to stand up out of his seat now, arms crossed, facing Midori with a distinctively displeased look on his face.

"Fair point," Midori responded sarcastically, "who could really compete with yours truly?" he then asked sarcastically.

Adrian let his eyes dart daggers at him, but he was genuinely pleased to see him again. He could have lived without the abrupt greeting, but regardless, his face brought back an era that felt like easier times. "I'd say Cyrus, but you have less chances of beating him than I do beating you," Midori responding, smirking now as he started to fire back at his cocky mentor.

"Oooh, look at you, Maiden-chan," Midori retorted quickly, letting out a quick chuckle at the shots fired by his former trainee. "Growing a bit of a backbone, I see. Tell me, do you still show up late to everywhere and drenched from head to toe?" Midori asked, firing right back.

"Sure do, just like you keep chasing girls way outside your league, pal," Adrian spat back.

Midori raised his eyebrows then let out a more hearty laugh. "Is that how it is? You ought not be judging. You got yourself a pink-haired girlie-friend, too, so the apple didn't fall far from the tree," Midori shot back, knowing a bit more than the Adrian thought he would. Another situation that blew up in his face.

Adrian turned red and the confidence he had suddenly vanished. He paused a moment, blinked, looked over to Dani, then looked back to Midori. "I-It's not like that," Adrian responded, stuttering slightly. He cracked. "I don't--"

"Bud, you ought not try to lie to an assassin. Spying is what we do. You think we let a bunch of hormone-fueled troublemakers run around without at least a little observation?" Midori asked him, though rhetorically again. An almost sadistic grin crept across his face as he was now knew he was most definitely under Adrian's skin. "We knew sparks would fly eventually, but I do have to admit, I was quite surprised to hear the first ones were from mah boy the Maiden," Midori told him, almost as if he was proud of the autonomous weapon.

Adrian glared. He didn't know what to say. He didn't know that people from Fate were watching them. He feared this might not be a good revelation for Dani. He was abso-fucking-lutely sure Nadia wouldn't be pleased. And, when Nadia wasn't pleased, it caused friction between her and Dani which in turn was not good for them. More so, Adrian was still reeling from the embarrassment of being called out so openly, especially when nothing between them was even official yet, as it stood.

"Yeah, well... uh... my pinkie is prettier than your pinkie was, so fuck off," is all Adrian could muster as a response. He was lost.

"Aw, good call there, bud. Toss her a compliment after you said Elly was out of my league. Maybe that'll keep you out of the doghouse tonight," Midori went on, still teasing him. Midori then extended his hand out to grab Adrian's shoulder and offered him a genuine smile, despite how much he had just knowingly stirred the pot. "Really though, I'm proud of you. I heard you beat Madness back and are working on a seal. Reports from Reiko say something about nominal improvement. Good on you, bud," he told him, offering Adrian some words of encouragement.

Adrian just stared for a moment, trying to process all that happened between them and the sudden shift in demeanor. After a brief silence, he finally was able to conjure up a response: "Yeah... thanks. Reiko isn't so bad--and at least she's around most of the time."

"Sorry 'bout that," Midori responded, not sure if Adrian was talking about Emmett or the absence Midori took while dealing with Zosar. Either way, he meant it. "But, on that note, there's one other person I want to talk to," Midori said, "catch ya later, Maiden."

With that, Midori was gone again with another after imagine. He was an asshole like that.

Only a few moments later, Midori found himself closer to Noah and Arky. Waltzing up to those two with Gauss distracted, he snapped his fingers out, allowing a bit of his wavelength to shoot out from them, hoping either the sound or the feeling would glean their attention.

"Well, hellooo, gentlemen," Midori said aloud, wanting to get this conversation rolling. "One of you happen to be labeled a weapon more dangerous than I am. Care to guess who?" he asked them in a half-whimsical tone, as if playing a game. In truth, his intentions were clear. He wanted to check out Arky. Fact was, that boy was one of the most dangerous people in the entire program. Few things attracted Midori more than unbridled danger.



 
Reacting to Elly’s touch the fabric began to shift, a rainbow like effect rushing out from the point of contact. Moving her own hand down Annika tapped on it in a rhythmic tone before it fluttered and returned to its previous form. “Yeah, you definitely seem smitten.” Annika responded with a smirk. She listened to the upcoming changes to the Fate program and nodded along. It was something she had been expecting for a bit now, or at least it was something like she was thinking.


Their recent show had ended up bringing far more attention to the program than anyone was likely expecting. It was good press, but press nonetheless can bring big changes and it seemed Fate’s time had come. Seeing Elly get herself a drink Annika took another shot, perhaps her last as she began to feel the effects. Moving up next to Elly she leaned over and whispered in her ear “I’m not against making you one. But I would need your dimensions.” Annika said before pulling away with a smile.


Turning her attention then to Midori as she gently leaned against Elly she looked him up and down “A Hoshi? That's pretty neat… I guess that comes with extra goodies and a hell of a lot of baggage. I get that, the baggage part at least… not the extra goodies. I didn’t get any fancy tricks or genetic goodies. Well, kinda… I have an eccentric soul that doesn’t like to sit still.” Annika spoke up, this being her first real interaction with Midori.


Suddenly snapping back towards Elly it was clear the alcohol was starting to work its way through her system. “There aren’t as many people on the dance floor but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be fun. Would you want to head down there?” Annika asked. Being super social was something she was still trying to work on, she had been dragged out of her home kicking and screaming months ago by Starwulf and the DWMA and despite coming a good way she was still a piece of work.

Annika felt her attention move to Midori and Adrian interacting as she raised and eyebrow and cringed slightly at their interactions. Looking back to Elly for a moment she moved her head back and forth as if in thought before speaking up “Yeah, you are kinda out of his league.” Annika said to Elly. “Sooooo… about that dance floor.” She finished, shaking her hips abit before going into a small twirl around Elly.
 




Ark | Duchess of Night | Rings: 3/3




He didn't like how Raph had dropped the topic in lieu for grabbing drinks, but he didn't try to press him over the subject matter.

Unlike the others, when the drinks came, Ifechi did not partake when the others had ordered, and they had taken theirs. He did take a single sweet alcohol beverage, a Strawberry Hennessy, followed by non-alcoholic fruit drink mixes. The single drink alone was enough for him. Not because he had a low tolerance. He merely had lost interest in tasting alcohol for recreational purposes. If in comfort a single drink or two would suffice, but even now, he barely had finished his Strawberry Hennesy before focusing more on the non-alcohol ones. Returning to the Astraeus estate, with his growing credit before FATE had brought on the necessity to fraternize more times than he had personally wanted. He'd attended balls, parties, meet-ups, events and had drunk enough over the span of a year till his mission in the Congolese War to be bored of it-- and then left in discomfort from the kinds of memories certain liquors could dredge up. The tase of a hard liquor like Scotch reminded him of the time he’d shared a drink with a kind officer, simply guiding him and his fellow teammates out to the source of mercenary activity in Edea, where a group of hired aids had been hiding.


Watching Maria get on stage and dance was honestly refreshing. It reminded him of other times. He didn't know about Rand- but he didn't doubt their mentor figure wasn't also subject to the same cultural necessities. Being here, invited to this even if he hadn’t played a part of a role exactly in what the Agents in Death City had done to save the citizens here, was just a reminder of that. If it had been the Realm, he wouldn’t have been invited at all, he’d played no part so why should he be there? And if he did show up here uninvited or expected, it’d only be for posturing, an expression of power and to scope the area. Rand might be familiar with it-- the politics at least, then again he also might not. He didn’t know any other direct descendants of Maba like Rand, and if he did, it wasn’t uncommon for her descendants to keep certain members of their family unknown for benefits. Iris he’d never known till their fateful encounter at the training grounds prior to the first day.

It paid to keep yourself reserved in social settings, and paid even more to let other see what you wanted them to see. Allowing yourself the luxury of 'cutting loose' was generally one of those things that only happens when you have the power to not have to care about other people’s opinions. A few decades, and Witches being more friendly with humanity and willing to side with DWMA, did not just change the rest of their society instantly.

So watching Maria sing and dance, did make Ark smile. Seeing Raph hiccup after he downed his third drink, did make Ark shake his head.

There was a freedom here, that he found he could never really let go.

Informal dances like these were frowned upon for someone like him. Being a Common, meant being part of the most conniving class. It was not just about establishing a good name or power, it was also about one-upping your peers. The realm, for all that most here did not consider it, was still an aristocracy that to this day, still governed by stringent rules. There was a rebellion to Wiccan life, something almost innate to Witches, an influence of the Pull- something he hadn't been a stranger to. Though treated less as an equal, there were the select few cases he had chosen to leave with Grangran’s aid, only to run into some of the very Witches he would meet in the Realm and get into bitter arguments or fights with. Concerts, mosh pits- in a way watching a few people, Maria aside, dance, brought this back to him. If he hadn't allowed his own Pull in exploring that which managed to catch his genuine interest, he would have never broken out of learning to dance in more formal settings. His aunts would have a fit if they knew. Though that scrutiny tended to fall flat the greater status you held in the social circles, and the more positive the talk was about you along the great grapevines. You could shrug off a lot with the right privilege and nepotism awarded. He was glad, in essence, watching Maria, and even listening to Raph's mutterings and feeling him invasively poke at his arm, that neither one of them would ever understand that kind of lifestyle, even if they’d only glimpsed at it from their experiences in the Guild. He had no choice in living and adapting to it. It was his heritage.

At the very least, the past weeks activities would do him some good at least when word got back to his Aunts. Mother didn’t care, but not even she would want him slacking in presenting some good effort since he was in FATE. A feat most in the Realm that ran in Aunt Noir’s circle still did not fully get out of clear negligence.

"It's not 'enhanced muscle'" he corrected Raphael in his rambling as he prodded him again. "That's al naturelle" he flicked the clearly inebriated sorcerer on the forehead. "I'll have you not say such things again my friend. You can feel it through the skin after all can’t you?” he asked with a chuckle.

Turning his attention back to Maria he hollered out: “BRAVO! Another dance!” He called out to her, a wicked grin forming. Of course he was only jesting. He didn’t think she would. It to him had seemed like a very spur of the moment decision on her part.




Mentions: n/a

Interactions:: Merciless Medic Merciless Medic Sir Les Paul Sir Les Paul RedArmyShogun RedArmyShogun Meredith Meredith
 

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Daniella Ethalyn - The Duchess of Discord, Death City
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Dani watched Maria with a chuckle. Taking a drink from her cup, she considered going down there to save the girl from her lack of sobriety. Then there was Ark, cheering for another. If she did stay for long, it would probably mainly be to help watch over the dollmaker, though there were a few others here she enjoyed the company of. Dani was sure Nadia would only stay as long as she needed to.

However, while smiling next to Nadia, her attention was drawn back to a conversation occurring behind her. Midori and Adrian weren't exactly being quiet, likely on purpose in the case of the prior. Dani glanced back at them, gaze going between the two.

She wasn't overly concerned about being watched. She figured they always had been to one extent or another. Creepy as it was that they apparently knew of relationships that had yet to be officiated, she supposed it also meant they were tolerating such things, for better or worse. Either way, for now she was just listening in while sipping her drink. That was a mistake.

'His?'

Hearing that come out of his mouth made Dani freeze, holding back a spittake. Her face flushed lightly and she looked back at him again. She wasn't sure how to react, but it made her happy nonetheless. It seemed like she was receiving green light after green light to dim her reservations, not including Nadia. Nadia's was more like a yellow light, but still. Since Maria's party, Dani had all but confirmed he felt the same as her, or something close to it.

A talk for later.

"U-Um... I'm gonna go get Maria down and give her some water. I'll be back," Dani told Nadia before setting her glass down and making her way down to the first level and over to the stage where Maria was at. Dani outstretched her arms to take hold of Maria by hers in order to help her down. "Okay tipsy, come on. You're gonna fall."

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While Maria herself never made a big issue of it, much less mentioned it in the coming days, Nadia and Dani both decided to hold a surprise party for Maria. It was to be a simple affair, just some food, snacks and a cake, if anyone wanted to bring a gift or not did not matter too much. With the Doll maker largely keeping to her workshop, the two girls found it unlikely she would be going anywhere, much less doing anything.

Given how often she would share about her other friends in talks if asked, or speaking of her team, it was an easy affair on who to ask and they could bring anyone they wanted. First was Sara, then her mage group, though one of them they didn’t bother with as she seemed to still be suffering the after effects of the Dall Island mission. They had even gotten her Master, as she called the woman to send a voice message and a little gift, she was still busy with the reconstruction efforts and internal politics of the DWMA and Witch Realm to take part in the party herself, Deciding the late evening would be best, Nadia had taken care to track down the rest and finalize who else wished to come and to avoid Maria for the duration of the day, asking the rest to do the same, if they did or not was another matter altogether.

The final touches of the party were now underway.

Dani for her part had helped set up and gotten a gift in the form of a handheld system. Nothing incredibly fancy, but it was something that they could play together and came with a MegaMan Collection. Maria probably wouldn’t have minded getting a present or not, but Dani wanted to give her an extra something. The sorceress had given Dani something without prompt after hardly knowing each other, the least that she could do is give her something on her birthday.

“Do we need anything else done Nadia?” Dani asked.

”Hell if I know, everyone is just bringing in what they want or planned to, Not that many people are coming I think, it’s just us too, I assume your friend,...There was a slight bit of an edge on that word and who it meant. ”Sara I think, and two males from her class, don’t know them that well, but Ark and ah, yes, Raph… Doubt he’ll show his face, provided either turns up. Seemingly the Witch Realm and its offshoots don’t celebrate these days like we do, rather its every so and so birthdays or when milestones have been reached… That’s not important, Sara could not be here but is sending a cake.”

“He is just a friend…!”
Dani retorted with a flustered scowl. For now, at least, but Dani wasn’t going to verbalize that. Today was for Maria anyway. “Ark was the other guy we fought, yeah? …I guess I ignore the twink for a day…”

“Oh, shit we did fight him too. He just didn't earn my ire, now I feel a bit bad at saying that… Well, we still got an hour before I planned to get her. If they turn up sooner, then I’ll get her sooner.” Looking at the gift that Dani had gotten her, Nadia gave a shrug and then tapped her chin. ”She might like that, I got her a damascus steel carving blade, no idea how that matches up with what tools she makes though.”

Adrian was outside the apartment complex nervously waiting. He didn’t exactly meet up with Dani or Nadia. He didn’t quite feel comfortable just barging in without them. Sure, he met Maria once before, but he didn’t actually know-know her. Not enough to do something like this. He arrived a touch early hoping to latch onto someone he knew so that he could essentially use them as a social buffer for this situation.

Again, he was awkward at times. He actually went to the effort of wrapping her present in bright wrapping paper adorned with Happy Birthday text plastered all across it, and the extremely typical ribbon curled up around its edges. Problem was, that most definitely gave away his reason for being there. A problem he did not realize until he was hovering outside of the apartment just waiting. So, this led him to the predicament of nervously sitting on a bench hunched over the present in his lap–which itself wasn’t terribly large–in an attempt to hide it, all while being vigilant to see literally anyone he knew.

“Yeah, he seemed cool… Apparently some big deal in Africa or something,” Dani mused in reference to Ark. She wasn’t excited about Raph, but she would forgo killing him today.

Pulling out her phone, she tapped against her phone to send a message to her friend as Nadia had growled. Just a quick text to let him know Nadia was getting Maria in an hour or so if he wanted to show up sooner or closer to the time of. “Ah fuck, that would’ve been a good idea. Something for her carving and shit,” Dani said, now wondering if her own gift was as fitting for the birthday girl.

“Have you checked to see if he was already here? Ah, the cake is arriving soon, not a very large one, but is only so many of us here. And don’t worry about it, they say the spirit of the gift is what counts, don’t they? Plus I’m sure she’ll do something for us in turn either way.”

With that all said and done, Nadia turned her attention to a side door, shooing Dani out to go take a look. “
We might want to just go ahead and get Maria anyways.”

Adrian caught the text and sent a quick one back. It consisted of an MMS of the inn and the simple message telling her he was there way earlier than he expected. A moment later, another MMS of his frazzled face while sitting on the bench. At the very least, the lighting was good, but the look on his face said it all: save me. The text simply told her he was guarding his gift like Cerberus to Hades.

“You just know everyone I’m texting don’t you…” Dani remarked sarcastically. The woman was right, but still. As her phone buzzed in turn, the Weapon looked down at it again and held a snicker. “Pfft-Shit, okay. Yeah, we might as well. I’ll go grab him.”

Sticking her tongue out at Nadia as she was ushered out, Dani left through the side door and made her way out to the outside of the complex to see Adrian with the same ‘save me face’ as in the picture. “Hey! Come on! You don’t have to sit out here you know,” She chastised him, though held a smirk. “We’re probably gonna just grab Maria and get started right away.”

”I have never been so fucking happy to see your face,” Adrian uttered out loud once he saw Dani. Of course, he looked over to confirm it was her. He stood up, didn’t bother dusting himself off, and shifted his gift under his arm. His face lit up upon seeing her, but it was pretty clear he was a bit anxious beforehand. He felt weird just waiting there.

”I didn’t pay attention to the time… or really know what the hell we’re doing honestly,” Adrian told her, falling back to a problem he had with Midori back in their meeting in Hallowed Grounds. ”And, my dumbass didn’t think to cover the giant birthday present to, y’know, save the surprise,” he admitted shamelessly.

Dani responded with a short giggle seeing how anxious he was, waving him along. “Yeah, well as cute as it is watching you freak out, come in. It’s just a small party. Witches don’t do shit like this usually and Maria probably hasn’t ever had something like this. It’ll be fine,” She assured him, leading him back in. “Just uh… fuck, I dunno, hide it behind a chair or something until you give it to her. “

Adrian followed her and laughed back at her comment. He didn’t blush–at least as much this time–at her comment about it being cute how he was freaking out, but he did give her a quick retort, ”Oh, you best watch out. If your partner hears you calling me cute, she might kill the whole mood.” He was teasing. He had no idea that was a legitimate possibility.

At least his gift was small. Hiding it would be simple. Maybe someone had a bag, purse, backpack, jacket–something to put it under. Though, a jacket was super unlikely in Nevada weather. Still, his decision with the bright, vibrant, obvious wrapping paper wasn’t his best choice.

"You mean she might kill you," Dani joked, somewhat, back. "But she'll be fine. Probably. At the very least, she'll wait after Maria’s birthday."

Watching the two as she got a message, Nadia simply rolled her eyes and exhaled, then speaks up. ”Honestly… Either way, don’t worry too much about hiding the gift, its one of us human things, and she makes most of her shit anyways. The Gesture would likely be welcomed, just don’t be surprised if you have a gift in the next couple of days, maybe two. Anyways, cake’s here and I think the only other person showing up is Ark, if he doesn’t then ah well. Still, I’ll go get the cake.”

Whilst Nadia was away getting the cake, Adrian elected to slip in a snide remark, just quiet enough for Dani to pick it up. ”Nah, if I let her kill me, I’d be breaking my promise,” he said first, ”more importantly, if you let her kill me, I’m going to make it my last request that you call me cute one last time at my funeral.” The weapon raised his eyebrows at her and smirked; it was a touchy subject, sure, but Adrian definitely possessed the audacity to joke about it.

”Not sure which face would be more priceless: yours or hers,” he added.

“Aight, we’ll be here,” Dani acknowledged Nadia. As the other left, she leaned closer to hear what it was that Adrian whispered. When she heard, she let out a small, amused scoff and stood straight with a vague pink hue on her face. “You want me to carve ‘cutie’ on your grave too?” She remarked back smugly.

A shit-eating grin crept across the face of Adrian. He was enjoying this back and forth. His first comment might have been risky, but with that line crossed, he felt a lot more confident in continuing. Not that his face didn’t flush and his heart didn’t race around Dani, just that he had adapted to not be quite so sheepish when it happened.

He hummed slightly and that grin of his let his pearly whites shine through for a moment. ”Nah, that’s too easy,” he responded, not quite as hushed as before–in part due to his own excitement. ”I think a real challenge would be to hear it out loud as anything other than whisper,” he told her, almost in the vein of a challenge.

“You’re not hearing anything if you’re dead, dummy,” Dani challenged before rolling her eyes and feigning a look of contemplation. “So… it sounds more like you’re just fishing for compliments. And I can’t have you getting a big head when we’re already at capacity for egocentrism.”

Adrian crossed his arms almost petulantly, then let out a slight scoff. With a roll of his eyes, he didn’t even have to lend a thought to his reply. ”It’s not the compliment that matters,” he told her with a tone of near condescension as if it should be obvious, ”it’s the person saying it.”

Dani looked at him with a raised brow, then smirked with confidence. Folding her arms to match, she turned to face him completely and stepped forward and looked him in the eyes with a challenging glint. “Yeah? What about the person then? What’s special about them?” She questioned expectantly, predicting he was half likely to panic and fluster again.

Adrian paused. She called his bluff. Worse, her question required critical thinking. How fucking long did it take to get a cake? Death damnit. Nadia had the bad habit of barging all the time; why couldn’t she do it the one time it would be convenient for him. His face was turning more and more red as he thought about it. Fact was, he honestly didn’t have an answer.

Adrian didn’t actually know what it was about Dani that he liked. He just felt comfortable around her. Sure, she was pretty and stuff, but that wasn’t it. Not for him. He just felt like he could talk to her, and every little risky thing he said seemed to be funny to her. They meshed well. And, he had no idea how to put that into words.

Fuck fuck fuck.

He thought more.

Fuck fuck fuck.

He failed. He didn’t answer. He did at least think of a strategy. If he couldn’t come up with an answer now, he could later. New plan: stall.

Feigning the confidence that was so authentic a moment ago, he kept his smirk and doubled-down on his bold statements. ”Well, if this hypothetical person is sooo curious, maybe she should ask that question on actual date,” he suggested, being absolutely sure she wouldn’t take the bait on that comment–especially given she hadn’t yet came up with whatever answer she was so adamant she would eventually have for him. To Adrian, this was checkmate.

Dani’s confident look grew the longer the silence lasted. Then he spoke and brought pause to her. She was stunned. She had told him that she would decide what she wanted, which in part she had come to terms with. Nadia had agreed to lay off as well, at least for now, but they hadn’t spoken about anything further.

Nonetheless, while her smirk faltered, she didn’t buckle, and hummed with suspicion. “Oh, so you want an actual date with this person?” She challenged for clarification.

It became a game of chicken. She was not in checkmate. She turned the whole game around. Adrian forgot that while he was great at video games, he sucked at chess. He didn’t even consider what to do, though. He went by instinct this time. If his first plan was to double-down, then his only option moving forward was to triple down.

What was the worst that could happen?

”Well, I mean,” he started off, though not stumbling over his words as much as he was being haughty, ”I wouldn't be opposed to the idea.”

”I’m also not opposed to more video games and pizza,” he said, diffusing a little of the tension that was created, that confidence and smarmy tone dropping pretty quick with the transition. ”It’s just uh…” he trailed off, finally cracking a goofy smile and a small laugh.

”I’ve never been on one, so I got no clue how that shit works,” he admitted.

Nadia would soon call back, actually calling the Cellphone rather than coming back, a terse Russian swear, or series of them bouncing back as Dani answered, breaking their mood for a little bit.

”Dani, Sara dropped the cake off at Maria’s doorstep so I need to figure how to explain all this shit unless she doesn’t answer the door, we’re just going to wing it. Bring it with me, Ark should be there before things get too far.”

Outside of the room and down below was a box with a little figure sitting atop, a figure of a gift plushie made to look like Maria and a small vanilla sponge cake with a yellow fruit filling and little dolls iced on the top on gray strings to Maria’s doormat for her birthday - doing a bit of a ding-dong ditch as Sara knocked and as quickly left, Nadia passed by her with a sigh. She should just drag all of them to the basement, but that wasn’t the most festive of venues.

”Well, unless you guys want to say hell with it and come down here. Not like we were getting food and drinks unless I ordered them.. Hmm… Maybe I should… I don’t know, Dani, what do you think?”

Watching him squirm was admittedly fun for Dani. She chuckled a bit in response, thinking the shift in demeanor was cute. Then she received a call from Nadia and picked up. "What's up?" Listening to what Nadia had to say, she deadpanned. "...We are shit at coordinating… Fuck it, I'll order pizza or something. Just bring it here if you can."

At that exact moment, there was a rattling on the door and a follow message in the respective group chat set for Maria’s party.

I’m here. The text message said- from Ark.

Once let inside, Ark beamed, shooting Dani a smile and Adrian a nod. Been a bit since I got to see you two again, nice to meet without the pressure of a hundred eyes, yeah?Offering his hand to Adrian as he spoke. Pleasure to meet you by the way, don’t think I’ve officially met you before. Ifechi” he nodded towards him, “ Or Ark, either one’s fine. Where’s our crafting queen?

”In her room likely, I just need to explain the cake and plushie being from Sara and, honestly this isn’t much of a surprise party now, but ah well. I’ll be up with her soon. And do it.” With this all said, Nadia hangs up the phone, agreeing with the pizza option in short.

Adrian extended his hand to shake the one offered to him from Ark. ”Adrian Hackney,” he said, introducing himself in response to the one given by Ark. ”I, uh, was on a different team when you met everyone else, I think,” he explained, not terribly sure about the situation and withdrawing his hand afterwards.

”Pizza sounds great. If you want to splurge, I think there’s one of those chains nearby that has the white sauce and garlic crust… they do an amazing chicken ranch…” Adrian mentioned, though realistically, he absolutely knew this was true as it wasn’t very far away and he sat outside on that bench long enough to have the nearby streets burned into his mind before Dani saved him.

“Yeah. Nice talking when we’re not being a bunch of monkeys in a pit fight while a bunch of morons jeer,” Dani agreed, albeit with a harsher description of their first meeting. “Yeah, they’ll be here soon,” She said, agreeing to Nadia’s statement as she tapped on her phone to look for this pizza place.

A few minutes later Nadia and Maria herself would join the party, as Nadia carried the cake carefully, laying it on a table for the group to share, Maria for her part, though her face was as blank as every, gave a cheerful hum then stopped to stare at each of them in kind,

“Ah Ark, Nadia, Adrian, Dani! Well I already greeted Nadia, you all didn’t need to take time from your day for this, but still, thank you, this is a lot different from life in the guild, I need to thank Sara, oh silly me, I’ll shut up for now.” She said, looking at each in turn as Nadia headed over to Dani, glancing between her and Adrian, her gaze finally settled on Dani and lingered for a bit before breaking off.

“Well, we were going to get you later when the food was here, but the cake was a sudden notice. Either way, Happy birthday.” Nadia said, handing the crafting knife over, not bothering to wrap it as she reached into one of her pockets for it.

Happy birthday Maria” Ark grinned, “I hope you’ll like the present I have in store for you. Afraid it’s not quite done yet, but I’m sure you’ll like it when it is.” He explained cryptically. “I did however, bring this”, he dipped a hand into the inner pocket of his jacket, and pulled out a black case, turning it over to reveal six flowers sitting behind the glass in a velvet cushion. Petals black and dotted gray in small barely visible shapes. “Those are flowers I picked from the Witch Realm. They are called Nyx’s Lights. They glow in the dark, and make for a good source of light.

“Didn’t need to, wanted to,” Dani corrected, giving the smaller girl a smile and pat on the head. “Happy birthday. Food shouldn’t take too long. Maybe a half-hour since the place is close,” She said, leaving Ark to announce his gift as she went to get hers. A smaller, rectangular box, wrapped none too ostentatiously, but it still had the effort of wrapping and a bow.

Pausing a bit to look at each gift in kind, they were all sweet or personalized in their own way, hefting the knife up and down she checks the balance and then the blade’s edge, it was adequate but likely would not hold up to the use she had, still it was the thought that counted for Maria and she would keep the knife in her possession.

Arcing an eyebrow at what Ark had to offer, he seemed rather well acquainted with this, was it from all his time in the human world? And not done yet? Her expression did not betray the curiocity, accepting the box he offered, she briefly parted her lips as if to be surprised, or actually to be surprised. Knowing these flowers from books, this was her first time seeing them in person. They would be rather useful; she would just have to make sure to take care of them.

Then there was Dani, looking at the box, unsure what it would be as she undid the wrapping, this was one of the handheld consoles wasn’t it? And an older one at that. While she did not know if she would have the time to mess with it too often, it was a heartfelt gesture, and who knows, maybe she would one day soon have time to mess with it, maybe there were games in line with her hobbies and work. Still, she felt a warmness that she felt only a few other times. She was unsure what to give the rest of them, surely something, wasn’t that correct to do, even if delayed? Gathering her thoughts and looking at the pair, she seemed to have briefly short circuited like she had with Rand earlier in the day.

Adrian finally presented his gift, a not too large box, something like ten by eight, wrapped with absurdly obvious Happy Birthday print paper and coiled, springy ribbon–all quite pretty, for a man doing the wrapping. A meager comment from him came as a preface, ”I, uh, don’t know anything about magic, but I do know how to make things look cool.” His gift offering came somewhat sheepish, as he had no idea how well she would receive it.

Prior to the gift being opened, one of the workers for the front house called up, requesting Nadia. Apparently, someone was at the front door with a delivery for her. The pizzas would have made sense, had it not been nearly twenty minutes early for their intended arrival.

Squinting her eyes a little at being called, Nadia was curious what this would be about, it couldn’t be the pizza’s no one was that fucking fast. With a tired sigh she decided to go see what it was. “I’ll be back, shouldn’t be that long, if it’s the pizza I’ll pay the tip myself.” With that she departs the room with purpose.

For her part, Maria was unsure what to do with the things she already had, setting them on the table for now, but still close to her, she looks at the boss with her normal stare, curious what was inside she stars with the ribbon, with a chuckle, she nodded at his words. ”I’ve never had a present wrapped as such, and you don’t need to worry, at least half my gifts were not magical, even I can like things of that sort.. Though, ah that gives me an idea.”

At the door was in fact a man carrying pizza. In fact, he was carrying too many pizzas. Seven in total, all as large as they could be, with an assortment of bags in his hand for assorted sides, including a few sweets such as cinnamon twists and wings. It was absolutely incorrect, but it didn’t stop the man from immediately shoving the lot into the arms of Nadia once she opened the door.

”Glad it was you who opened the door. There was a twenty-three percent chance it wouldn’t be in this timeline,” he mentioned, his tone quick and somewhat sarcastic. It also wasn’t a delivery boy per the normal, but a fully grown man in a trench coat. Once Nadia had taken control over the pizza with arms full, he slid his hand into the tan lining of his coat to pull out a roughly wrapped box in what looked like brown paper wrapping one might find at a grocery store.

”Aaand, that is for Maria, make sure she gets it,” he mentioned, ”No tip needed, don’t worry,” he added, speaking pretty damn quick and not allowing a moment for Nadia to get much of a word in edgewise. ”One last thing. Won’t make sense now, but it will. Make a left at the purple tree. Don’t forget that, it’s important,”[/color] he told her. He then quickly reached for the door to pull it shut, slipping the crudely wrapped item onto the top of the pizza boxes.

Meanwhile, what Adrian had procured for Maria as a gift was a complete set of metallic compounds, a ceramic version of the Rub n Buff system, that all came in the largest size available. The gift was small as each tube, despite being the largest available, didn’t need to be large. Much like oil paints, a little went a long way. It was a neat product. Purely for finishing something. Went on like a hard wax, cured in ten days as a tough ceramic coating, and could make damn near anything glisten like metal. The kit came with an assortment of colors, ranging from natural metals–steel, chrome, bronze, brass, nickel, and so on–with some variants of “antique” to a few flat colors, such as blacks, blues, greens, purples, etc. Adrian surprisingly went down the artistic route for the Witch.

Smirking a bit at Adrian’s present, Maria didn’t show much emotion usually, but Dani had grown accustomed to her enough that she could read the girl’s limited facial expressions. “Be happy none of them are wrapped by my brother. He was that jerk that would wrap something in twenty-things of wrapping and duct tape,” She joked as she sat down, watching in amusement as the girl went through her gifts.

“Wh-” As the pizza were given to her and the door was being shut, Nadia made to reach for it, as best as she was able with a few fingers, catching it just in time with a bit of effort, pulling it back to look, the mysterious man was gone. With those looks, the sudden nature of showing up and doing the Pizza place’s job, she had always heard urban legends about this very situation, it reminds her of that SCP shit some people liked to read about or make up. Still, a left at the purple tree… Nadia decided all on her own to keep this event to herself, no one would believe her anyways. Stopping at the front desk Nadia speaks to the old lady manning the counter. “Tell anyone that comes in or comes down to go to the kitchen, no way we are eating seven large pizza’s, no catch, say it’s from the FATE Team, and to say Happy Birthday to the girl in the blue dress with the ribbon.” And with that she headed back

Unwrapping the box Maria did smile subtly, gazing at the contents of the package, this was useful, in fact she knew what she would do to test it out, put use to all three of the related presents, the light, the knife and the compounds set. She would then give Dani’s gift a try. She actually teared up a little before she turned to face away. ”Haha, just give me a minute… While I’m still upset about why I ended up here, I’m happy to have met you all, and I do know the first couple of things I’ll make for this. Speaking of, Adrian, if you have any controllers you would like a more durable material cover, bring me the information for it.”

Arriving back at this time with the stacks of Pizza, Nadia looked at Maria, then to Dani, the gifts and all else that happened. ”I’m hoping we won’t have another pizza in twenty minutes… Either way it all seems to be good, I invited the whole complex to come to get some, as no way we are eating seven of these. Ah yes… this was also for you…”At the top of the box was an item wrapped specifically for Maria who took it with a curious glance and went to open it.

The brown paper wrapping was wrapping in the most literal sense. It was not held on by tape, ribbon, or adhesives. If anything, it appeared as if it was wrapped with whatever was conveniently nearby. Held inside was a third knife for her new collection. This one is made of some type of glass or crystal, clearly transparent, and actually somewhat heavy. While not perfectly clear and far from perfectly formed or cut as around its blade edge were jagged, upward-facing serrations created from what appeared to be poorly-shattered stone. The blade itself appeared more akin to knapped obsidian, and it did have a type of wrapping around its handle that provided some level of comfort, but the entire body of the knife was one single piece.

A secret perhaps for later was that the blade would not appear with an entry inside the new Index Rand gave her, and if she elected to test it, was nigh-indestructible. And, at the very least, stupidly sharp–even more so than a razor.

”Obsidian? No…” dropping the knife, it did not break nor have the same sort of sound that dropped obsidian did. This was something else altogether, it would require more study, more so Nadia was purposefully not mentioning who it was given by. She would like to thank them, but the puzzle before her did draw away some of her attention. Shaking it off, she stowed the knife into her carrier belt. She would deal with it, or at least study it more once the party was over, it would be rude to ignore the others. “Thank you, Ark, Dani, Adrian, Nadia, I’ll thank Sara later, and I guess I owe the mysterious pizza man thanks as well.” With that she decided to spend her time with the rest, the knife could wait till tomorrow.

“This truly has been a happy day.”

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Maria Mayer - Death City - Duchess of Discord

As her song and dance finished, Ark seemed to want her to continue and Dani was reaching out for her. Oh did Dani want to dance? Reaching out for her, the stage wasn't big enough for more than a choreographed one with close synchronization, Dani and her had never practiced that, and the one person that did... Well, that was a story for another day, in her partially dazed and encouraged state, Maria grabs Dani's hand and comes down, only then to use her deceptively high strength and freedom of movement to begin a waltz with Dani.

Taking her by the hands and moving to a hum she was carrying out Maria twisted and twirled Dani, stepping back and forth as the other had little choice unless she wished to fight her, stepping with her, feet side by side, Maria finally finished with a twirl then a flourish leaning Dani backwards as she went in and then kissed Dani on the left cheek. It was then that all of her movements had caught up with her as she got lightheaded and let Dani go as she went to cover her mouth and then suddenly seemed to partially realize what she had done.

A little unsteady, Maria makes her way back to the table she was at when all of this started, though she then paused and looked at her former dance partner. "Dani! Don't just stand there!"

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Nadia Semyonov - Death City - Duchess of Discord
With her drink in hand, Nadia took some interest in Maria's performance, in fact there were a few more dances she knew the girl could do at the very least. Might have been interesting to see some more, if not for the fact Maria would likely lock herself in her workshop for a week out of embarrassment. It was then that nearby conversations came to her attention. Chiefly that between Midori and Adrian. While both expected her to be mad about it, and point of fact she was not pleased in the slightest, she valued Dani enough to have a talk with her all about this the night prior. She had decided to trust in Dani. And by extension Adrian.

Looking directly at him with a turn of her head, narrowed her eyes and smiled. It was not a kind smile, but rather the one she would get when a good battle was to be had, a dominating and sinister smile. While he was strong, he would not be the first weapon she put in the hospital if he betrayed that trust. Of that she was sure. Even if it were to be painful. Should he seek this out, then if he had to let Dani down it better be as gently and gentlemanly as possible. While she would not show that now, the Bear had an Ice Giant behind it. Still for something not yet official he seemed to believe it was settled.

She would need to have a talk with him sooner or later. Dani was, now for better or worse, her family. And that owed a certain loyalty to it. But still for one that had said she was interested in this, had Dani lied to her? Shifting a stone hard gaze to Dani the other was quick to make her escape. "Coward." Nadia says in conversational tone as the other took the escape she was given.

Watching what was to unfold next, Nadia made a note to make sneak alcohol into more of the drinks she made. Maria was an interesting person when drunk. Not that she was a boring one now. She knew the dance however, the waltz was, Waltz number two by Dmitri Shostakovich. A classic, and one Nadia liked a bit herself. Standing there the Russian raised her arms as if to be a conductor as she hummed the tunes of the Waltz in line with Maria down below, if only the noise was not so loud for those below to hear, or if the operator of the sound system had the presence of mind to play the number.

Still it brought a smile to her face, a more pleasant one as she watched the dance unfold, Maria skillfully moving Dani about, if likely not for how confused Dani was by all this, then she would have no problem getting out of Maria's grasp. It was the final twirl and the cheek kiss that had Nadia laughing as she covered her mouth and contained herself, setting her drink aside in case she spill it in turn. Maria would for sure attempt to lock herself away once realization caught up with her. Still it was nice seeing this at Dani's expense. Turning her attention to the conversations behind her, not much stood out, minus one of the weapons being called more dangerous than the Hoshi golem himself.

Had to be the new guy.

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Thaddeus Thales

"Gauss"

Species Human
Partner Noah Wiley, Arkayis Misonuka
Rank Fate Agent

Location Death City, Northwest District, Duchess of Discord
Mission Discourse at the Duchess
Status Bored, slightly anxious, looking for a distraction



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Hum diddly dum. The dance was over. Midori was off talking to Noah and Arky. He implied Arkayis was more dangerous than him. Gauss couldn't conceive that Noah was. An interesting thought, but Gauss was still fairly certain Midori could put down any one of them it he felt like it. The statement was a gross over-exaggeration. He didn't feel the need to get involved. That, and he was still a little frustrated with Arkayis and his annoying disdain for Witchkind. Such a drag.

The cute blonde witch girl kissed Dani. That was interesting. Unexpected. Honestly, Gauss was more curious about the gravity that held for Adrian. His mind went straight to a place of mild jealousy thinking that Maiden might get to enjoy both of them. Catching himself on that feeling and tucking it away knowing it was a little too toxic for the knew him, he did at least wonder if it stemmed from the idea of the blonde witch in general or just the both of them.

He moved on.

He was sober. Hadn't drank a damn thing yet. Noah didn't bring him anything despite his obvious hint. Selfish man. Of course, he could get his own. But then, that would mean going up to the bar and ordering it, and something about doing even that around his brother didn't sit right with him.

Gauss was sober. Gauss was bored. Nothing interesting was going on. He couldn't misbehave. The ever-present eye of his brother bore down on him like an iron cross.

But, he had to do something.

Then he noticed it. A golden opportunity to do something interesting. Something unexpected. Something that could stir the air a little bit without upsetting his brother to much. He saw Nadia playing conductor for the waltz.

He wondered if she wanted a waltz herself.

Gauss pulled out his phone and pulled up the DeathTube video of the precise waltz she was referencing. Well, not exactly. It took a him a minute. He had to piece together which waltz he thought it was based on what the two were doing, took a guess it had to be of Russian heritage for Nadia to know it, then figure out what song was the actual backing to it. But, he did it. Wily mother fucker he was. Not easy given the drunken twirls that the girls called a waltz.

Regardless, he approached Nadia before setting his phone down on the table to blare the song at its loudest volume, which itself didn't necessarily compete well with the ambient music, but was at the least audible. Gauss stood up straight. Refined. Regal, even. He slipped his left hand behind his back, as was tradition, and held out his right one. "Ehm," he cleared his throat, ideally to try and get her attention.

"Miss Semyonov," he said aloud, quite formally, and clearly, and even politely. He put up quite the act for this little request. He then bowed to her, his legs and hips straight, his torso cantered over at the perfect angle yet his spine still straight, executing it quite well and again out of character for the man. He then extended her his right hand, bent at the elbow, palm facing up, fingers perfectly straight--as tradition. "Might I have a dance?" he asked her cordially, and quite seriously. Even if her eyes wanted to sneak a peak at his intentions with some Soul Perception, there wouldn't be a hair of dubious, nefarious, or lewd intent.



 




Ark | Dall Island | Rings: 3/3




It did not surprise him they had misconstrued what the balloons were. He didn't find it funny or even cute, just a logical conclusion they would have made given their limited understanding of the world outside of this ever-shifting island. The Queen's tale was a sad one. To be created and given a single mission, adapt beyond that and then watch her children fight due to the lack of direction from their essential 'god'.

He frowned. What a mess, was the thought.

He didn’t understand half of what she meant about being brought or summoned to this island with her children for the purpose of capturing people like them- other FATE Agents, possibly? He knew three years ago that for some reason or another, PAEAN had been moved from Dall Island to Death City- at the time it had been assumed that this was just another natural step in the program, he only knew this from a friend who had been in the program prior. However, knowing that these spiders had played some kind of role by chance, changed a lot of things he had considered before.

Someone bringing creatures like these spiders, so capable of adaptation, to this island with the specific purpose of kidnapping essentially defunct Agents on probation. However, listening to her tale on each of the spider groups that made up the ones they had encountered so far, Ark could not help but think how versatile these creatures were. To be the weakest at first to then the strongest- all thanks to the unique cycle of this island and its copious mana.

At her request and Rand’s response, Ark did not do anything but nod. He would have argued with him if he had said otherwise, and would have promptly disobeyed him in the process if it came to rejecting the offer to take the eggs of a dying race back.

Listening to Maria go over the possibilities and standing a space away but tall enough to see her rapid diagrams, Ark turned to Raph and said: “You think you could whip something up if it became necessary? I’m sure the spiders here could help us out on some level gathering materials if they can control this forest with their magic.”



Mentions: n/a

Interactions:: Merciless Medic Merciless Medic Sir Les Paul Sir Les Paul RedArmyShogun RedArmyShogun Meredith Meredith
 



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Eloise Keegan - Duchess of Discord
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As Annika approached her, Elly leaned in to better hear what the girl was whispering. After she pulled away, Elly let out a chuckle with a mischievous smirk. "Well, all you have to do is ask, unless you were hoping to take them yourself~" She replied before taking another drink of her beverage. "Oh, don't sell yourself short love. You're right on the baggage, but from what I understand a large part of what make the Hoshi who they are is their upbringing, not any special genes or wavelengths."

Elly wondered if Annika really understood her strengths. The girl was part of a program that was formerly seen as a waste of resources by most, and yet she was given access to Davis Labs. That wasn't a privilege given to just anyone. It was because of Annika's ingenuity.

"Now that brain of yours, that's not something you can very easily train," Elly added to finish her point. The girl needed some more confidence, but she was getting there.

Looking to Midori and Adrian as Annika did, Elly giggled a bit watching the exchange, and Annika's reaction to it. Still, it presented ammunition to tease Adrian about in the future, so it wasn't a complete loss.


"Then I suppose I should dance with someone in my league," Elly said, taking another moderate drink before setting her glass down on the bar. Then, she took Annika by the hand and led them both down to the dance area on the first floor. As they reached it, Elly spun around to face her, pulling her hand up above their heads to playfully twirl the other once. Then, Elly released her hand and begun to sway and jive to the music.

Mook-LandStrider Mook-LandStrider

 

Sara & Noah1684567351458.pngPJ Casual Noah.jpg
April 10, 2067
Location: Duchess of Discord, Death City, Nevada
Interactions: Gauss, Arkayis, Midori, Elly, Eva, V
Mentions: Annika, Eva, Adrian, Nadia, Dani, Maria
Sir Les Paul Sir Les Paul Mook-LandStrider Mook-LandStrider RedArmyShogun RedArmyShogun EmperorsChosen EmperorsChosen Peckinou Peckinou


Noah was confused by Gauss’s words. If he didn’t come in with expectations, then why was he so worried? Asking him about it won’t solve anything right now, he’ll just ask later.

Elly’s tease was met with Noah deadpanning and a happy Sara wave before Elly went off to grab something from the bar.

As Sara looked between Gauss and Noah worriedly, she giggled as Gauss asked her how he trained Noah to get her a drink. Her tail wagged as she saw Noah’s face turn red, and she held up a finger as she explained. “I just told him what I like and he usually gets it for me. If you end up switching drinks often though, he’ll just ask what you want because he won’t know what you’re in the mood for. Buuuuuut~, I bet if you told him what you normally would like and wouldn’t complain in having, he’d get it for you when he feels like you wouldn’t mind having one. But ya gotta tell him what you’d like, or else he’ll not do it.”

“Gee, thanks…” Noah scoffed, a bit peeved Sara just spoiled one of his more secret of consideration.

That’s when they heard the music of someone singing - and possibly dancing - and Dani and Nadia were watching. Sara couldn’t help but overhear the exchange between Adrian and Midori, giggling at how Midori teased him like some older brother.

Then, Sara’s ear flicked as Noah peered over at Arkayis. Sara smelled frustrated rage, and Noah saw that look in his eyes. He wanted to destroy something.

Noah hadn’t had to do that in a long time. He wondered what happened to his inclination to just destroy something. Wrapping an arm around Arkayis’s shoulders, he nodded, squeezing Arkayis to his side as comfort and reassurance, his voice low. “Sure thing, bud. Soon.” He even zapped him slightly with his electrical healing wavelength, hoping that would calm him down and take the edge off that anger.

Sara noticed Nadia laughing her ass off and peeked over to have seen Maria with Dani. She wondered what happened, but didn’t think about it long as she stood beside Gauss, Noah, and Arkayis.

Then, Midori appeared. In fact, it was good timing. Sara just about jumped and nearly spilled her drink, to which Noah practically chuckled at. “Eyy, Midori. I dunno if ya’ve read my dossier, but I’m pretty much the least competent fighter of the bunch. ‘Sides, he’s absorbed more Witch’s souls than I have. W’s thinkin’ ‘bout demonstratin’ it pretty soon.” Disguising Arky’s destruction time with ease, he squeezed Arkayis’s shoulders again, then took a sip from his drink. “Now, about Gauss’s dr-” That’s when he noticed Gauss had actually left his side and went to go…

Dance with Nadia?

He was seeing things, wasn’t he? “Now, why’s he doin’ that?” He asked in stupor - dumbfounded awe.

Sara looked over and giggled behind her hand, shaking her head. “Wowww, I can’t believe he’s doing that. I hope he doesn’t get thrown off this floor, teehee.”

“‘Ey, don’t laugh at that. Though, if he does get thrown off, it’d be his fault.” Noah sighed. He noticed Annika and Elly having left to go dance. Interesting couple choice. He looked up at Midori, sighing. “So… How’s tryin’ ta gel with Elly? I’ve met her a few days ago… She’s… Eccentric. She’s like a walkin’ red flag tryin’ ta be green sometimes.” He knew it wasn’t fair to compare her to that, but he couldn’t help himself.

Sara looked over at Arkayis. Having never met him before and him looking so cute, she had to talk to him. Of course, he towered over her - being 5'1", but everyone did. “You must be Arkayis. I'm Sara, Noah's former meister. Nice to meet you. He's talked a bit about you, hehe~.” She chuckled, earning a rather deadpan glare from Noah. “Awww, who's a good big brother~?” Noah groaned and rolled his eyes, looking at Midori to hope Sara stopped teasing him, to which she did.


 

Raphael ValeriasChara7.jpg
April 10, 2067
Location: Duchess of Discord, Death City, Nevada
Interactions: Maria, Dani, Ark
Mentions: N/A
RedArmyShogun RedArmyShogun EmperorsChosen EmperorsChosen The Regal Rper The Regal Rper


While Maria was dancing up on stage and finished and Ark yelled for an encore, Raph pouted, especially with the finger flick to the forehead. He had sloppily cleaned up the juice stain, then drank again. Now, he found his head lolling against his own forearm as he laid on it. Ark’s answer sort of registered, the kiss Maria did to Dani a second thought. He was busy thinking, and he soon found himself unable to hold back his tongue.

“I lied… Not doing good… I’m worried…” He then looked up at his arm, eye squinting as he poked at it again. “Why don’t you want me not sayin’ it again, ya got pride for yer physique? That’s funny.” A lucid response, but that didn't last long. He chuckled, shaking his head. “I’ve never seen you hold pride f’r anything… Except maybe your studies…” He grew quiet, as if contemplating something.

Then, he was back to pouting, his eyebrows knitted. It was clear the alcohol was making him rather loose-lipped and making his thoughts flit. “I’m worried ‘bout… Eh, stupid shit. This…” He sighed, clearly unable to talk very well. “It’s hard makin’ friends when ya got Madness… I feel driven to do things I don’t wanna do… Feels like a fish outta water here, Ifechi…” Realizing he called him by his actual first name, he bristled, eyes widening. At least he had some wherewithal. “Ah, s-sorry… Ark…” His head came up, only to be supported with his hand as he propped it up. “I’m afraid… That it’ll get worse… When you helped me that day, I-I know it didn’t seemlikemuch, but… I’m glad I found you then… I was hopin’ I’d find you, but I thought you were too busy to be around… ‘Cuz I needed you… You helped me ground myself, even though you probably didn’t realize what you did. Please, just… You’re the only guy I can really turn to for settin’ me straight… Don’t be afraid to get physical either… It… Silences it for a short while… Like beatin’ it into submission… It’s like a bloody itch in a hard to reach spot on yer back, and ya only have yer mate to help ya reach it.” At least he was making some sense.

Looking up at Ark, there was a glimpse of pleading in his eyes, very similar to the look he gave him a day or two ago, but far more raw. Then he chuckled. “Yer like a big ol’ bloody teddy bear. I bet ya give great hugs…” He poked him on the arm again, eyes in a sort of sleepy, alcohol-induced daze.


 

Raphael ValeriasChara11.jpg
March 29, 2067
Location: Lake Nordall, Dall Island
Interactions: Maria, Rand, Ark, Mother
Mentions: N/A
RedArmyShogun RedArmyShogun Sir Les Paul Sir Les Paul Meredith Meredith The Regal Rper The Regal Rper


The Mother explained all that she could, and Raph listened with rapt attention. He was - for a lack of a better word - entranced by her. What she said to his question - while intrusive - he happily didn’t mind. In fact, he seemed to rather enjoy the thought of her connecting to his mind. Though, when he realized he might be making himself to be a fool to her, he had to quickly shut off the more… Interesting thoughts and only really focusing on the objective at hand. However, it was rather difficult.

The sky beast answer had him chuckling. “Oh, we made it, the sky beast you saw us ride on wasn’t alive, but created for treading the sky.” He then promptly shut himself up, letting her continue. But as she continued the sad recollection of what happened, he pouted. Man, it really was rough living here. It was like a whole kingdom split into more kingdoms. When she said she was summoned here, he was wondering if she was legitimately summoned here through magical means.


Which would make sense considering she had magical properties.

When she explained that there was a storm brewing and she would not survive, he was downtrodden. In fact, he felt like his heart broke, which made him almost irrationally angry. The only thing that seemed to release the tight grip on his satchel was her offer to give them eggs to take with them. Her eggs.

Hell yeah! A baby, magical spider? Hell, like he’s gonna say no to that! Especially if it's coming from the Mother! Ohhh, he's gonna be such a good father to the little thing.

He practically nodded eagerly, but was cut short by Rand. When Rand explained they still needed to climb the tree, Raph realized they were going to be riding on the backs of spiders if she said her children were willing to help them. He looked so giddy, he was practically bouncing with excitement.

Spiders became his favorite living things.

Maria explained her situation with making another sky beast. “I think the glider option is a better idea. We can cover it in a bunch of spider silk for durability, so even if it does break, the silk can keep it in place just long enough. Ark’s right, too. With their speed and multiple legs plus ability to hold items in large webbed sacks, they can forage and carry like no tomorrow. Plus…” He leaned into her ear and spoke quietly. “These spiders are just going to die tomorrow night. I hate to say this, but I don’t think they’d mind dying for our goal if it means the continued survival of their eggs.” With that, he pulled away. Was it right to think that? No, but it was in line with what’s considered by others in the past. “Though, with the eggs, we can just put them in a big sack and use them as a counterweight. If I use my chains to hold the bottom of them and attach to different key points and then make them lightweight, it can help lessen the load.” He wasn’t sure how much that would help, but it was a start.


He looked up at the Mother and asked. “What can your brood do and your next children in those eggs do when they hatch? Any abilities we should be aware of?” If they knew more about what they could do, they might be able to make a better plan.

 

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Streets of Death City, near the apartment
April 8, 2067


We Do a Little Bit of Hazing

After having helped with the reconstruction effort and needing to take a few days break to get back into the swing of things, Raphael had taken some time to himself to reflect. Allie was gone, a lot of his old friends were, too. Why couldn’t he have been here?

Why didn’t he just take the easy way out in Dall Island? At least he would have time to see them again before they perished…

Frustrated beyond belief and honestly just wanting to punch something or someone, he found himself walking through the older part of the city, the one where the generations that included Maka and Soul Eater Evans had lived around. The old infrastructure gave a sense of nostalgia that he didn’t share, but it was nice nonetheless to walk through. There were also some nice alleyways to duck into, but for now he was just walking down the sidewalk next to an apartment building. He wasn’t sure who lived there, just knew Maria lived somewhere near here.

It wasn’t like he was wanting to talk to her, at least not at the moment. What would he even say anyway? Probably gibberish, honestly. It didn’t matter too much, he was too busy lost in his own thoughts, his satchel with his grimoire and Demon Tool resting at his hip. He walked into the apartment, contemplating further if he should go have a chat with Maria, if she was even here.

Dressed in some shorts, running shoes, and a tank top, Dani emerged from the elevator with Nadia in tow. It was decided today that the pair would spend some time training, now that Dani’s wounds were long since recovered. However, the moment the doors slid open and she locked eyes with Raph entering through the front, the woman’s face very clearly shifted to one of displeasure.

“...This fuck-” She growled.


Nadia for her part was in her normal garb, while Dani was laid up in Medical, she had to be the face of the FATE program, or rather of the hostage rescue operation and aiding in reconstruction. Honestly it all was trying to behave, boring, tedious and in its own way draining. So this bit of happenstance… Was he here to see Maria? He likely was and lost the nerve, or lost in general with as aimless as he was being. Acting like he was a kicked puppy.

Smiling at that and letting out a bit of an amused giggle, she grabs Dani with her right hand, squeezing her shoulder as she normally did to comfort her. “No. Let’s have a bit of fun. With all this horseshit we can’t do anything too bad, but I figure we owe him some thanks. Afterall this fucking collar I’m stuck in did help make us into a real team. Still, I think a bit of hazing is in order, show him the pecking order and rough him up a little. Then I guess we’ll be even. Still won’t like the magic fuck, but we should put him through a little of the training we went through.”


Staring him down, her eyes only narrowed as Nadia spoke to her. Silently mulling over the suggestion, Dani wasn’t at all as amused as the other was, but she couldn’t kill him anyway. She was just going to glare at him, call him an asshole, and then leave. This could be an okay consolation. “You mean we should help him…” Dani snarled, particularly using the logic Raph had justified during the arena fights.

That pink hair, then the ice giant behind her that was difficult to fight against…

Oh, were these Maria’s friends? This must be the right apartment then, but this was also a really bad time. Heartbeat in his ears, he barely heard much of what they said to each other, just knew it was about payback towards him for what he said during the tournament and nearly making them go mad. He raised his arms up in surrender, a nervous smile appearing on his face and his voice oddly quaking.

This was a bad time to be blind in one eye.

“Uhm, I think I found the wrong apartment. I’ll just uh…” Not wasting a second, he bolted, running out of the apartment building as fast as his legs could carry him as he dipped into an alleyway. He fumbled with his satchel, trying to get out his Demon Tool and grimoire to get some help in evading them, because he knew they were much faster than he. “Shit shit shit shit, why does this have to happen today…!” He scolded himself, hoping he got out his equipment in time to make a speedy get away.


“And here I thought you didn’t appreciate the finer things in life, Dani.” It was just as soon as they saw him that he was trying to bolt. While the stairs at the DWMA made him and most of the mage class better health wise than most normal people, it still did not approach what a Meister and Weapon could do. And around here if they played it carefully, there wasn’t too much he could do without drawing a rebuke to himself. Giving chase, she motioned for Dani to follow.

“YOU SEEM A BIT LOST! YOU HAVE THE RIGHT BUILDING LET US HELP YOU DOWN THE STAIRS!” She said, screaming the words at him as she barreled towards him.

And the pink-haired one was right behind her. “DON’T RUN AWAY! YOU MIGHT JUST FALL AND SLAM YOUR FACE INTO THE CONCRETE!” Dani shouted, with oddly specific and emphasized verbiage.

Their yells only sparked the fear of Death in him, Raph’s legs working overtime as he tried to get away. He ducked into an alleyway, but he can just hear them getting closer. All he had to do was jump, kick off the wall, and clear that fencing.

That’s when he realized - they were too close. If he jumped, they were just going to grab his leg.

Backed into a corner, he pulled out his grimoire and Demon Tool, the chains lengthening as he slid and turned on his heel, hitting his back against the fencing as he glared at them. Again, that cocky smile came back, but there was no way he was feeling confident after having just ran away like a coward. He had no friends left besides those of the mage group, and it wasn’t like anyone was willing to be on his side. He was alone, fighting against karma in the form of the victims of his hubris. “Please, if you think you’re gonna have any fun with me without a fight, think again…”


As they cornered him, Dani let him speak, still with an angry scowl. Rather than answering him verbally, she instead spoke to Nadia. “Grab the chains,” She gave a rare order whilst bringing her hands together and cracking her knuckles with an audible ‘pop’. “I’m going to help him.”

“I don’t like where this help is going…” He simply responded, his body tensing.

Grabbing hold of the chain, they didn’t have too long till he tried moving his fire between it, or those damn seals. The difference between now and then was there was no white flat field keeping them at a distance out of fairness. The advance was already atop him. Pulling in quickly before he could work his magics in full she pulls hard. “I just want to thank you for the accessory you gave me. Let me share with you how I learned to fucking use it.”

“I think I’m bloody fine-!” He grunted as he pulled back on his chain as if this were some childish tug of war. However, her strength far surpassed his, and he was knocked off balance, falling forwards. His grimoire glowed, and the chains were starting to get warm.

“Yeah… and you helped me so much with my anger. Let me show you how fucking well I can control it!” Stepping forward while the chains were subdued, Dani wasn’t worried about him winning a tug of war with Nadia. With his arms otherwise predisposed, she cocked an arm back and slammed it into the side of his face. However, notably, she wasn’t trying to stab him. “Now you’re bloody fine… You fuck.”

“OOMF-!” The punch sent his mind reeling. He tasted iron. Maybe it was a good idea not to get on their bad side. Huh, wasn’t that a fucking wonder? His hand slipped off his demon tool slightly before he renewed his grip, but his mind was running blank from that one swift punch. The hold on his grimoire slackened, and the dizziness actually made his spell fail. He literally stood there, swaying like some NPC who got stunned in a fighting game. It was a wonder that he was still standing, but that was likely because he was still holding on to the chains and Nadia was keeping him up like some pinata.

Not wanting to give up, he tried fighting back again. Sorta. He tried to kick out at Dani but lost his balance and practically fell on his back, losing his grip now on the chains completely and groaning in pain. “Ow…” He realized he was in a very compromising position and his head was starting to hurt. He attempted to scramble back up to his feet, the anger on his face letting them know he wasn’t subdued yet as he snarled at them, though his earlier tripping made it seem like he jumped straight out of a cartoon. “Yeah? Looks great on ya, giantess. And your anger, Princess Bubblegum? How about mine?!” He went in for a jab towards Dani’s chest, not caring if Nadia were to use his own chains against him for that. However, because it’s been awhile since he’s done any street brawling and his footing was horrendous due to his dizziness, it’s likely the power behind the punch left much to be desired.

“Those words won’t work anymore.” Nadia said with a cold steel to her voice. “For the last, well since before France, we were berated, insulted, shot at with various things and had our pride trampled in the mud. You set out to do what you wished, and now you are going to learn just a bit of that. Fight all you want, it changes nothing. But don’t worry, so long as you kneel like a dog we won’t do more than needed, then you can go home.” Tilting her head a bit as she rushed forward with the chain in an attempt to catch him with it before his spells could formulate in her presence copied with the punch she says clearly in his ears.

“Kneel. Given you did bring us together ultimately, I’m gonna let you go once, but call it payment for being on a tropical island getaway while hell happened here.”

To be tangled up in his own chains? How embarrassing. Growling, he met Nadia’s eyes with his red and discolored, blind ones. She was right, and he hated it. In fact, he was seething. He looked between Nadia and Dani, and realized fighting would really get him nowhere.

“Fine…” He spat, trying to wrestle free and back off, fixing his coat and satchel a bit more. He let Nadia’s words seep in more, but the voice in his head tried denying him that. He winced and held his head, grunting. “You were… Already bullied before, huh? Hah, aren’t I the insensitive one? How the tables have turned.” While still breathing heavily through his nose and in quite a bit of mental pain, he was able to silence the voice of pride within him by telling himself he was just being a smaller man by bullying them, then trying to fight back as if he were the victim. He deserved this. “I guess, thank you for setting me in my place and you’re welcome for kickstarting your growth. Heh, what scum I’ve become.” He had an odd smile though, not one born of madness, but one of mental clarity and freedom. He looked back at the two, face snarling just slightly. “I’m glad you and the others were here. Was told by Sara what happened. Wish I could’ve been here to help. Want me to kneel? I’ll kneel.” Wanting to outdo this command he was given, he gave a cocky grin as he not only kneeled, but did a flourishing bow in the process. “For besting me. Though, I admit it didn’t really take much. Not exactly at my A-game today.” He stood back up, fixing the two girls with a tired stare. “At least you were better than the witches who bullied me when I was a kid.”


“Heh. We killed one, the others got two, as surprising as it may sound. I largely led the evacuation at ground zero of all this, and did what we could.” Watching the rest of the reply, Nadia looks over at Dani. “I just want to give him a nice good kick to the gut or chin. You?”

Raphael gulped.

Folding her arms as he spoke, somehow taking everything so well slightly irked her more, though Dani didn't get much satisfaction even from the punch she landed. Shrugging, she stated "I already got him in the face." Narrowing her eyes a bit more at him, she added on. "But, you talk shit about my brother again, and I'll bury you where Cyrus wouldn't find."


“Da, some ghosts are better left where they lay…” With that she kicks him very hard in the gut, enough to send him rolling as she looks on, releasing the chains. “Tch.” Nadia stares at him for a bit, then gives Dani a pat on the back. “No, it doesn’t make up for it. But, we can’t be the people we were before now, at least not too often. Pick yourself up, Magic Boy.” Spitting off to the side, Nadia turns to walk away.

Raphael was sent sprawling into the fencing behind him from the kick, the wind knocked out of him as he coughed. Hah, they won’t like the ass-kissery either to get away. Well, looks like he had no choice but to actually be of help and be generally nicer. The maddening voice had spiked up however from the kick, and he grunted. Still, he got up and took his chains back, pocketing them.

So, they killed three witches… That only had him growling a bit, not because they died but because there were witches who attacked the DWMA to begin with. “Noted… I’ll keep my lips sealed then. You have my word.” He forced out through a pained diaphragm. Especially now that he didn’t want to get his ass kicked. Yeah, their hazing worked - if he could even call it that. Felt more like a beat’em up. This was karma enacting its own karmic hand to keep him in place and not feel so high and mighty. He wasn’t sure if he was supposed to follow, but considering there was no other way out of this alley without going back the way they came or scaling that fence - which he was in no shape for - he spat out the blood that formed in his mouth and followed.


“Well, now that I really don’t want to fuck with you two, I’ll uh… Well, I’ll keep myself in check for you two. I don’t fully like what I do to others, but I guess that’s just the madness at play. I don’t know when we’ll have to work together, but uh… I’ll try not to butt heads with you too much, like I would usually do with my peers. Unlimited favors for you two, as well, though I doubt either of you would care.” Feeling like he shouldn’t overstay his welcome (he guessed), he made a move to walk away from them. “Hopefully your days get better.” Wanting to leave on a somewhat positive note (whether out of fear, respect, or some other mixture), he left it at that, unless they wanted to say something else to him.

With that, Nadia paused. “If it were not for your madness, we would not be having this conversation at all. I might not forgive, but I can forget… I can’t speak for Dani, but unless you fuck around again I’ll even show you were Maria stays.”

“I don’t want a manservant or a waiter. Just don’t be a dick,” Dani remarked with a huff.


 

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Nadia's Apartment, Death City
April 6 2067
Collab with RedArmyShogun RedArmyShogun ; Also has a little Maria

Learning from a Warrior

A few days after the events around the April 1st attack Nadia had some time off for a change from the press conferences or DWMA appearances with some of the rest in FATE and from the general rebuilding efforts. She had finished her morning walk around death city and her general workout, seen Dani and Maria and was making some final plans in regards to her own past.

All in all it was a fairly melancholy day. Sitting down with a cup of tea, she turns on her record player, humming a soft tune to herself, finally some relaxation could be had.

Noah has had a rough few days. Sleeping proved difficult and the toll that took upon his mind was not lessening in the slightest. He’s tried community service and talking to others, but it did not help him in the slightest. He’s tried talking to Sara, talked to Dani (though, it was mostly about her shit with Adrian), and vented a bit to his partners, but it didn’t make things any better. Maybe he needed a new perspective on subjects like this, and the only person he was able to think about was Nadia.

Sure, she was cold, but her general demeanor and words backed by her actions only cemented further that she was practically alien to him. In fact, he’s never really seen her in her natural element - and by that, he meant at home - and not when she’s beside Dani or in the thick of combat.

Honestly, going up and asking her for some advice wouldn’t be all that bad, but he had a feeling this was going to feel similar to asking a war veteran.

In his sleep-deprived mind, he thought it was a good idea to just go up to her door and knock, and as soon as he did so, he realized too late that he should have probably brought something. Ah, manners be damned, he needed help. He looked rather worse for wear. Despite his usual attire looking like he hadn’t ironed it in years and his normally unkempt hair, he was starting to form circles under his eyes and his posture was a lot more lazily slouched than usual, movements languid. He honestly just hoped Nadia was going to help.

“Hmm…?” Hearing the knock at her door, Nadia had her tea cup up and frowns, half tempted to not answer it at all. Though she doubted it was something she could just ignore, having decided to at least partially live up to the standards others had in her, she set her cup and saucer aside, getting to her feet with a bit of a grumble. Walking swiftly she speaks out. “If you are here for an interview or to sell me something, then fuck off if you would kindly.”

Opening the door, she was a bit surprised, blinking a couple times to be sure she wasn’t seeing things, it was Noah. “Huh.” As if deciding what to do, she eventually opens the door and motions for him to enter, with some minor grumbling she grabs a second saucer and tea cup. It was good manners to welcome a guest. “Come inside, I assume you have something to talk about. If it’s to deal with that fucker Gauss then turn around now and leave. If it’s a quick message then come in all the same.”

Nadia’s warding speech before she opened the door had him scoffing in amusement. When she did finally open it, he realized just how short he was. How did he just notice this now? She wasn’t really wanting guests it seemed, but she at least made him an exception. He chuckled when she mentioned Gauss, shaking his head. “No… In fact, for once, I’d like ta hear ya talk instead of him.”

Walking inside, his instinct was to take off his shoes, but was unsure what her custom was for the apartment. It was rather nice, so he decided just to do so as to not track in dirt. Once he did so, he stood there and waited for her to gesture to a chair, as he didn’t know where to even begin to sit. “It’s… Been hard, tryin’ ta sleep. Was wonderin’ how ya even do this… This thing ya do.” He gestured around a bit to seemingly nothing, but one could infer he was talking about the events that transpired earlier. “How ya keep goin’ despite how harsh things got.” His tone was rather subdued, monotonous from lethargy. “Guess I’m here to listen to yer tales if ya don’t mind humorin’ me for a bit.”

Hearing his words, Nadia finally decided to look at him, a bit shorter than she was and a hell of a lot more tired looking. He looked to be a man that was troubled. If she had to guess it was all that had happened recently, but she doubted it was guilt or some foolish notion of regrets regarding those whores they cut down. Was it just the sheer scale of destruction and deaths? Not so long ago Nadia would have said this wasn’t her problem and told him to piss off. Unfortunately for her and fortunately for him, being with Dani and taking responsibility for the civilians had changed her, even if a little. Sighing at him she was happy he took off his shoes at least, though she wasn’t going to ask.

Between the furniture and rugs she had invested a not so insignificant sum in it all. Still, tea was not to be had alone with what he was asking and seemingly bothered by.

Walking away towards the back, Nadia returned soon after with two double shot glasses and a bottle of Vodka. Laying it on the coffee table that was between two of her white and floral designed chairs she turns her attention towards him as she pours a little tea and some vodka for the two of them. “Tales eh. I can do that. But I must ask, for what reason and what sorts of tales did you want? As Dani would say, you look like shit.”

Noah watched as Nadia walked towards the back, anxiety riddling his chest with what honestly felt like moth holes. Seeing the saucer and later shot glasses were put in a way where he’d be sitting in one of these seats, he cautiously walked over and sat down, his body leaning forward once he did so. Though, there was a silly smirk on his face when he saw the vodka. “Didn’t think I was gonna get plastered, but I should’ve realized that.” Having an attempt at humor, he straightened his back as he sat up. “Just…” He paused, unable to find the words.

Quickly though, he found them. “I… Just the massive amounts of death… I don’t know how community service helped, it just made the idea cement more in my head with how many’re dead. Yeah, we saved a lot of people, but I… We couldn’t save the others… For once, I’m actually concerned f’r DWMA. It’s all I’ve ever known since the MIBVI shit, ‘n’ I certainly can’t go back to whatever childhood I had that’s been ruined by it.” He realized talking about MIBVI was likely a sore subject, and he shook his head. “Sorry, didn’t mean ta bring it up. I just need… I guess another opinion. Yer views on the shit that happened. What death means ta ya.” He fell silent, eyes darting to the tea and alcohol before falling to the floor, sighing to keep his emotions in check.

Listening to his request, Nadia’s eyes narrowed, running her right hand underneath her chin, she took on the famous philosopher pose before lifting her head. “Whether you get plastered or not depends on you. I drink often but not enough to get in the way of the job or being aware. Though if you pass out on the way out, I’m sure the resident urban legend or Sara will pick you up to rest somewhere. They are both such good girls.”

Still the rest of what he said she had to think about it a bit. “There is no going back, not for any of us. And anything that offers you it will demand something all too terrible to pay. As to how I deal with it, with all the deaths, the screams, the cries, the laughs, the slams, the bangs, the booms. Little girls crying in the snow, old men laying in half.” A popping of her jaw could be heard as audible as the record player next to the two of them carried on with its orchestral piece; she seemed to be at an impasse.

“I don’t. Those events forever stained my life and guided my hand. I spent several months in a city churned by abominations and artillery fire, with nothing but the pacific ocean on one side and the vast expanse of Siberia on the other. One by one was my family taken from me, till it was my brother and I. We did whatever we needed to survive, eating rats, crossing minefields, dodging sniper fire, hiding beneath rubble from twisted human forms. Even now it haunts me in the depths of night.

Ultimately my brother was separated from me. I’ve heard no word, so I assume he is dead, I hold on to no false hope. When me and others were tossed into a Marine ship and sent to Reno, the situation was not much better, the Orphans like I had no one to help us, the others had survived thanks to others. Those in my group it was. So I stood up, I took charge and I made sure we were fed, that we were not fucked with, figuratively or literally.

I was determined to not allow it all to happen again. Till one day I nearly killed eight people that did fuck with us. They put some of mine into the hospital with broken bones or bruises, so I gave to them three times what we got. Then the police took me into custody and I was spared jail or deportation by joining a black star dojo. I met the man more than a few times. He told me while nothing could be done about the past, that I had the strength to shape the future.”


Letting that bit sink in, she took a drink. “So I then came to the DWMA and only respected the strong, which landed me here. Dani has also suffered a lot and in that common history have we come to see one another as family. Do not take my strength to mean I am not bothered by it all. In fact I never can consider the war, the madness, it is never over. All I can do is make sure it reaches as few as possible.

I very much am a slave to the past, but I drag forward the future, because someone must.”
With that said she takes a shot of her Vodka, with a little more to say. “You get numb and get used to it, or it consumes you. I was very angry that so many died and I took command to make sure, to the best of my ability, that very few Dani’s or Nadia’s were made that day. Also as to the DWMA, I am not sure how I feel, but only we can lay to rest the souls of those consumed by evil. We must be strong for the sake of others. Strength is not apathy I have come to learn.”

Noah glanced up at Nadia to see her in that famous “thinker” pose and it nearly made him laugh, if it weren’t so serious and if he had the strength to even do so. The resident urban legend had him raising an eyebrow. Must’ve been new, he’s been here for almost as long as Sara had and he had never heard of this new person. Either way, if Nadia said they’re good girls - and Sara was indeed a wonderful person - then this urban legend probably wasn’t so bad. He just let slip his own comment on the alcohol before she continued. “I say that cuz one ‘r two shots of vodka might get me hammered.” He smiled as he thought about it before shaking his head.

The Demon Weapon listened intently, having grabbed the shot glass and thoughtfully rubbed the rim of it with his thumb. Every silence, his eyes darted back up to Nadia, letting her know he was listening. Her life was so difficult, and yet she powered on. Whether it was out of obligation or a duty she gave to herself to keep her sane, he didn’t know. But for being as cold and violent as she was, she was rather noble and kind. Logical, even. He just thought her and Dani were a big ball of anger, but upon learning more about them, that first impression shattered more and more. Which was honestly a good thing.

She was so open about her past, he felt compelled to explain his. “I guess… We’re not so different after all. Well, we are.” He chuckled, then shook his head. “Just… Similar paths, jus’ yours w’s more hectic. Can’t even begin ta imagine that mess.” He sighed, his eyes now glued to the alcohol. “Had a nice life in Portland, up until MIBVI hit. We’re taken to a safe house, but my father - who w’s supposed to be handlin’ the madness outbreak - busted his way in. He wanted to see his family, ‘n’ nobody was able to get rid of him as he’s a warhammer demon weapon. Like, those things ya see in fantasy novels ‘n’ pictures that’re huge ‘n’ usually wielded by giants. My mother, a casual wielder of the healin’ wavelength, thought she could cure him of his corruption… She-...” He closed his eyes, his jaw clenching. Finally, he managed to speak after a brief moment of silence.

“He hugged her, so hard that she became all but paste…” His voice choked. “He tried gettin’ me, but the door closed ‘n’ we were moved somewhere else because our area’s compromised. DWMA was so swamped to their eyeballs ‘n’ their lack of action had caused the destruction of Portland…” He looked at the shot glass, then took it, his face screwing up at its potency, the liquid running through his system with a spicy, almost smooth warmth. He felt warmer from it almost immediately.

He set down the shot glass. “I can’t seem to run from my past, ‘n’ what happened at the Fool’s Festival just made everythin’ worse. Yeah, tha’s a coward thing for me ta say, but I’m just not strong enough.” He paused for a moment, mulling over her words over and over again in his head. “I’ve been tryin’ to not let it bother me too much. Just keep trudgin’ onward in some perpetual sad march. I can’t seem to just ‘go numb’ as much as I wish I could, ‘n’ it seems everyday I’m fightin’ it from makin’ me depressed. Or maybe I already am…” He gritted his teeth as he stared angrily at the floor, fists clenched. “‘N’ no matter how much I train, I always feel so far behind. I need ta start calm mind trainin’, I need ta work on my wavelength ‘n’ element, I need ta work on resonance, jus’... So much work left to do ‘n’ it doesn’t feel like I have enough time for it all…” Once his angry rant was out, his anger came out with it, and he sighed as he calmed down.

Realizing he spoke a while, he shook his head and held his head up with his hand against his forehead. “Sorry, I came here ta listen, not ta talk… Guess I needed ta vent, too. Yer quite noble though. Not to be a dick, but I honestly wasn’t expectin’ that. To be honest, thought you were some angry Russian lady who liked ta train, bust walls, ‘n’ smash heads in.” Now that he said it, she sounded like some action anti-hero, and it made him chuckle.

“No. It's fine. I used to think you Americans had it better. Death’s sake, I still do. But you all had your share of smoke and fire. And hmm…” Listening to his comments on herself, she smiles. “That is the one area we differ. It is not as I am mad however. Call it my ancestry. I get a sense of enjoyment and pleasure out of battle, at being the strongest. As I said, I want to keep more of this from happening to others, but I don’t have the mindset of a soldier, I am not a shield to defend, but a sword to be thrusted. A warrior.”

“It is not rage that drives me, but as I rather enjoy this job. To garner glory and to smash the enemies of civilization to a pulp. I’ll admit being teamed with Dani is likely something that works with me more than most others in the program…. Though, I am sorry to hear that about your mother and city… There is no glory in such a death.”


Pondering the rest of what he had to say she pours him another shot, then continues with another for herself. “And you are looking at it wrong, you may never be numb to it, you may be more of a soldier than I can be so to speak. You do not need to be stronger, but you need to be better. I know you have a lot to do in training, but pick one to focus on and knock it flat. I was always a fitness nut in a manner, I liked to run, to climb, fight, pull and lift, likely owe that to my blood as well. But I had to climb, to crawl, I’ve had challenges before me that I had to climb up over, even now I’m not content with the likes of Cyrus being stronger than I.”

With that said she looks directly at him. “You cannot be me, but you can choose something to surpass, to protect, to destroy. You will never see me shed tears but that does not mean you should not.

Earlier you had mentioned the DWMA and had lost faith in it. Aye, I’ve hated it here lately since it started all of this marketing and tech shit, losing its way. But this is the only place I can be that lets me kill suka blyat’s that deserves it, so I’ll stay till it falls or they throw me out. Though hopefully now through the pain it comes back stronger… Ah, that is what I mean, do not worry about copying me, just focus on moving forward, even if it is painful. You survived once before, you can do so again. Or maybe you can’t then you just fall.

However you are not alone, and I don’t mean me, you got that voyager fuck, vooyage? Fuck it, Gauss. And you mean a bit to the wolf I’m sure. If you can’t get angry about it all or enjoy it, find some other emotion or need.”


Hearing Nadia be oddly kind was a nice breath of fresh air. If Gauss gave her the common courtesy Noah was giving her now and sought to understand her without throwing glib remarks, they may not be at each other’s throats unless it’s the planning. Which, he understood that’s where they differed and were always going to butt heads with. When she said that the Americans had it better, he let out a sad scoff and shook his head. They all had their fair share of shit, no experience was worse than the other in terms of the emotional and mental toll, but Russia was in worse shape in America, he at least could agree with that.

It was honestly good seeing the giantess smile instead of snarl or scowl. He was worried for a bit that there was no feasible way to connect with her, but there was. Only if she allowed it, it seemed. He chuckled upon hearing it was from her ancestry, grinning. “Yeah, I remember that, at least.” Finally, he stopped leaning forward and rested his back more comfortably against the chair’s back, kneading the spots just above his knees as he had put a lot of pressure on them. To hear she was just a warrior, a weapon to be used and not that of a protector, it was strange. But it wasn’t an unwelcome idea either, it just oddly worried him. But she had survival instincts to come out of Russia alive, so he wasn’t going to knock her thought process either.

Hearing his mother and city be brought up, he nodded and bowed his head in a sort of silence. Though, hearing the toughest one out of the group he’s interacted with most lent a bit of sympathy was honestly nice. When she started telling him how he was looking at things wrong, he took his shot glass and looked at her this time. Him, a soldier? A funny smile - like he didn’t believe her - appeared, but when he remembered what she said earlier, it melted into a sort of grim acceptance. Yeah, he guessed he was. Hearing how she even didn’t like Cyrus being stronger than her made him chuckle. “I jus’ plain don’t like ‘im.” So, just go through and train hard on one before moving onto the next. Yeah, that was a good idea. That required commitment, but it was something he was learning to have.

Having this woman stare right through him was a bit intimidating, but when she imparted some advice he honestly needed to hear, he calmed down some. She wasn’t going to knock him for shedding tears either. That was… Something. He thought she would have seen it as a form of weakness. And then having her agree that she also had reservations against DWMA? He at least felt like he wasn’t alone with all these sheeple. Her native tongue popping in had him chuckling. “So, just like that really old fish movie ‘bout findin’ a kid clown fish, just keep swimmin’. I’d rather not fall, thank ya very much. It’s painful.” He chuckled at his dry humorous take of it, not wanting to think about dying or failing grievously in that way. In doing so, he picked up the tea and sipped it, finding that the manners his mother instilled in him for slightly formal get togethers - whether it was at home or in someone else’s home - were still there. The bitterness of the black tea helped, oddly enough. Now he knew why some people drank black tea to ground their emotions.

Even with her reservations against Gauss, she still held some level of reason, which was what Noah admired in anyone. She didn’t let her emotions guide her reasoning too much - unless it were battle. He nodded along that he had a support group as his eyes looked at his alcohol, which he took and the sour face he had likely might amuse Nadia as it hit him rather hard this time. Some other emotion though? What other emotion was there besides being a sadist or one seeking revenge? “What other emotion would there be? All there’s in a fight’s hate, anger, ‘r panic… Unless ya count the more positive emotion of love ‘r some such anime trope shit…” Sighing, it didn’t seem like a bad idea, but he didn’t know how to go about it, and he was just one sad and angry man.

He looked back up at her, setting down the shot glass. “Thank ya, by the way. Feels good ta know we’ve got a lot of common ground. Now yer not some alien from some world conquerin’ planet or somethin’.” He chuckled, the alcohol helping him feel a lot looser and generally better.

“It doesn’t suit me, the film or the lovely shit as you put it, but I can tell you that Black★Star did fight with such positive emotions. He wasn’t the only one either. Sometimes fighting for your mates is good enough. I can’t give you any other answer really. We aren’t the same, I, no, I still do judge others to my standards, I likely will always in some form. This style of room is never going away, but at least now I’m trying to not see those below me as trash to leave in my wake. The Paris mission, the training, the shit that just happened, even my soul space has changed a little.

And hmph, I am very much a conqueror. Don’t misunderstand me. I’ve just come to see, my achievements don’t mean a damn thing if there is no one to see them, to share in them. Just because I gave you some alcohol and took all those efforts to help the civilians, don’t go seeing me as some sort of saint.”


Noah chuckled. Of course, the ‘friendship is magic’ shit didn’t work with her. But if Black★Star managed to do it, then it was doable. And to hear Nadia had changed rather recently? “So, guess Fate’s workin’.” He chuckled a little, the alcohol making him be a bit more verbally impulsive. “I never did see ya as a saint. I don’t think anyone could ever be seen as a saint. Callin’ anyone a saint’d be like sayin’ Justin Law was a saint and- well… We all knew what happened ta him.” He chuckled slightly with his own dark humor, then shook his head. “Still, I find more comfort in seein’ ‘n’ knowin’ the other person in front of me ain’t a saint ‘n’ they own it. ‘Sides, I can’t imagine ya as a saint anyway. Would ruin yer reputation.” He smirked, chuckling. “The best kind of people ‘re the ones who aren’t saints.”

Listening to his words, Nadia was not so sure on all of it, but decides not to ruin the mood, From what she’s had to do and been told, just yesterday point of fact. Still, he meant well. “Hmm, the best kind eh, and reputation. Wonder what I’ve earned in the later. Still, anything else on your mind?”

Thinking for a moment, Noah stared off into the table as he sipped the tea, realizing his time was up with Nadia. He was a bit surprised that he felt a bit… Bad? Like he wished he could stay longer. But it was best to let resting giants lie. He smiled at her and shrugged. “That’s all. Unless ya have more ta say, I think I should get goin’... Before I end up gettin’ too drunk to walk.” He let out a chuckle-scoff, setting down the finished teacup down before standing up. “It w’s nice talkin’ to ya. Thank ya for uh… humorin’ me.” He sighed, trying to find a way to awkwardly get out of here, but his mental faculties left much to be desired.

He was at least able to stand and walk normally, but he certainly seemed quite out of it. “Huh… I don’t recall the door bein’ there…” He was staring at the front door, but his eyes saw it being on the wall adjacent to it. Oh boy…

“There are couches in the lobby, do be careful on the way back, drink water.” Nadia says as she goes back to listening to her records. Pondering why he was leaving so soon, it was likely for the best. Maybe with this talk and the alcohol his dreams would be peaceful, he could move on.

Her nightmares always returned, but in a way, it felt good trying to help someone out like this.

Noah nodded somewhat absentmindedly before making his way out of the apartment, failing to catch the door knob before realizing he needed his shoes on. Putting them on, he finally left and took the elevator down. However, the alcohol was really setting in and he realized he probably should get on the ground flo-

Where was he? It was quite cold down here. Was he under the ground floor? Ugh, he didn’t want to wait for the damned moving box. So he attempted the steps back up to the ground floor.

Attempt being a strong word. He barely got his foot on the step before his body dangerously careened.

“Hmm…” A blonde haired figure flanked by a taller robed figure came to the partially conscious Noah. “Oh dear… Poor thing, you’ll catch a cold down here…” Peering over him, she waves her right hand, causing the taller figure to remove its cloak, weapons and armor gleaming to be seen, and she takes the discarded fabric in hand. In spite of her small size, the girl was rather toned and used to heavy labor, picking him up in a princess carry, she made her way up the stairs and laid him on one of the couches, throwing the cloak over him as he started to drift in and out, before turning to leave.

Noah didn’t know what was going on, only that the world was suddenly turning and that he was being carried not unlike a hug, and then feeling warm. He heard a voice, unable to parse who it was but decided to try being considerate by mumbling out a “thanks” before he fell asleep.



 

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