Cross Effects > Areas
Nexus Campus Town
YOLF:
Headmaster
She stared into his lightless pits without taking a breath, and bent her fingers. The floor and pillars rattled, and the chains jerked back at once, slamming Costin back into his seat. The feet of the chair grinded noisily against the tiles before they froze to her will.
"Don't presume to know me," she said, heavy to the ear with judgement. No scorned lover, but a rightfully jilted stranger, that was how she responded to his excitement. But giving no heed to the passing mood, the Headmaster freed a shallow exhale and slouched but a sliver on her own chair. "I don't like killing, though some souls would be better off buried. If you think that's strange... well, I'm not here to argue lifestyles. This idea is to my benefit. To extract what reparations are possible, if you care about such a thing, and to pacify my conscience. But it is also to your benefit."
The enchanter's face tightened with practiced mirth.
"Let me avoid assumptions by asking, this time. Are you ready to hear a proposal?"
Kotomine_Rin:
Costin
Two abyssal pits leered beneath his dark shades. There was no love, no hate, no emotion in those eyes - but it wasn't because he couldn't feel. Instead of eyes, his sockets revealed an infinitely deep abyss, gouged inside his flesh so cleanly there was naught to see. Nothing but a pair of pits crowned not by lashes, but sets of sharp teeth, leering wide like hungry maws.
He didn't like showing them though, and if she could see them at all it was by accident. Maybe that's why he felt relief when she hurled him back against the wall.
"Ack-!"
He groaned and wiped the soot off his body, all while his long locks of moppy hair trailed down unsightedly. Despite that, he found good enough humor in things to laugh cooly.
"Heh, shame then. Killing's the one thing I'm good at." And with that, he relaxed and leaned back once more, so calm and collected you'd be fooled to think he'd never have tried to lunge at her in the first place.
"I'm all and nothing but ears. Shoot."
YOLF:
Headmaster
She curled her fingers into her palms, resting loose fists on the table. The words took their time to come, not because they were difficult to say, but because of the concession they were.
"Track down the ones who decided to count the days to our demise," the Headmaster said. "Pursue them, and capture, that their plans might be exposed. And, should you deem it, in good faith, that they cannot be reasoned with, that they will consume yet others without the possibility of stopping, or that restraining them is impossible - eliminate them, if you can. This is what I would have you do, with my clemency and your duties recorded in a mutually binding oath."
Kotomine_Rin:
Costin Andrei
His maws gaped and blinked for a second, less so at the outrageously bold offer - but the fact she asked him of all people something like this.
“Hoy, hoy, hoy. I mean, I’m glad you can tell greatness when you see it, but my expertise isn’t exactly subterfuge slash cover-ops. With all due respect, are you sure I’m the right man for the job? I did just get caught and all.” He grimaced with sincere uncertainty, and a slight rictus crawled up his old mug.
It was the sort of smile a professor might see often, that of a student unsure of one’s own competency, with the familiar fear of expectations and the disappointment they harbor. And in a way, the small concern that he might do wrong for her.
Was that care that slipped past his ivory expression?
“Look, I'll try to make sure you don't regret it. It's the only thing I can promise, yknow?”
YOLF:
Headmaster
A single helpless little laugh escaped from her throat at his concern.
"You don't have to worry about that," she responded. Shaking her head, the magician smoothed out the creases around her eyes and the edges of her mouth back to a passably neutral look. "I wouldn't expect subtlety from you. Only that you will hunt them down. If you agree, I will have these terms engraved with magic upon the two of us."
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