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."

[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.

[SINIB]

Noelle

As she approached, small drones burred around in the yard about her. Lights turned on automatically, and before she could knock, the house itself greeted her. A magical eye just above the door focused down upon her—she could feel it scanning her for a few moments before the door swung open.

"Hello! Thanks again for answering my call on such short notice! Please, come on in so we can discuss our plans in a private setting, where prying ears are absent."

Inside, Noelle sat up and folded the recliner back, closed her browser and cleared her search history. She scurried towards the entryway to greet her guest. After all, just because she was an employee of hers at this moment didn't mean she shouldn't show her the same decency she afforded every person.