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Nexus Campus Town

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Kotomine_Rin:
Costin

"Heh, I see." So that's how it was. He wasn't dumb enough to ask what would happen if he refused. With a sardonic shake of the head, he sighed in resignation.

"Okay, okay. Luckily, this shouldn't conflict with my employment arrangements. I'm game."

The apostle's arm bulged and swelled with strength. There was a sudden rattling, and a tremor that slightly quaked the room. A creak, then a crack.

Rip. Tear. Then, the sudden spill of red and black ichor, as his hand's raw meat and bone laid bare. He forcefully ripped his hand off the restraint, and despite the excruciating pain, he looked at the headmaster with a blank sincerity.

"Deals should be honored with the shake of a hand." He extended his bloody limb with a chilling calmness, and an almost boyish expression.

The kind of innocent hesitation unbefitting a killer.

YOLF:
Headmaster

She looked at him not as if he'd ripped his own hand off to partially free himself of restraints, but like he'd spilled hot coffee all over it, or anything of similar import and resulting mess. And shook her head, as she was disapproving of a boyish display of excess, rather than holding back cold sweat from the gruesome pointlessness of the display by sheer will.

"We'll shake once we have the contract secured, not before," she said. Her eyes gave the bloody stump an unimpressed appraisal. "And with a clean hand, not a messy stump."

The headmaster leaned back in her seat then, and began to make the arrangements through her mental messages.

Kotomine_Rin:
Costin

"..." His expression shimmered with a quiet discontent, but he kept to himself with a quiet simmer. He couldn't really blame her for that after all that, but that was that, this was this.

It looked like he'd have a busy road ahead of him.

Continued in the slums.

SINIB:
Noelle’s House

Small robots whirred around, busying themselves with cleaning up small messes while she sat lazily with her feet kicked up in her recliner, enjoying her space for the last time in a while. She was idly watching youtube on her HUD while she waited for her hired bodyguard to arrive.

YOLF:
Edelgard

Edelgard flexed her grip on the weapon to which she owed her life many times and rang the contraption that signaled her arrival. As she stared at the door, trying to not strain her eyesight over the traces of spellery she sensed beyond, she couldn't help but think the surroundings were simple and clean, and the whole building seemed to partake of an atmosphere of naive security.

The Forsaken warrior didn't think she fit in here, or in this sprawling urbanization of learning populated by hopeful younglings. Even with their moods hampered by some unseen event she had not seen but could smell the trails of in a section of closed-off streets, their world was entirely different from hers. It had been too long since she had been exposed to that simple joy, and her environment had not been anything like this. The animated plazas and rising centers of knowledge more brought to mind the city of Elewein at the time before bringing armies to its walls. Perhaps it was a mercy then, that others did not feel likewise about her. She drew eyes, but none appeared to scrutinize her for lack of belonging.

Sakura had convinced her to make more use of her "street clothes", since they had gone through such work as to acquire them, and heading to a new district was a perfect to do so, albeit she was here for work. Some vestiges of Edelgard's pride protested discarding her traditional vests for this function, but they lost their purchase when she gave herself a moment to reflect. The prestige the largely unprotective clothes of a devil lancer afforded her meant nothing in the Nexus, and Edelgard did not think she was worthy of the dignity they represented even if they did. She had not done enough to redeem herself, a quiet fragment of her heart echoed.

So here she was, answering this commission she had picked up not too long ago from her sojourns in the outer levels of the Citadel, in perfectly casual dress. Resilient "sneakers", slim black pants, a form-fitting silver and blue-lined top, and the white patterned jacket that half-slipped from her shoulders. And a giant polearms slung behind her.

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