2014-06-05 - Begin Phase Two
| Title: Begin Phase Two | |
|---|---|
| Summary: Team Labyrinth has little to do except mock Westar for his failures - until now. The order has been given. It's time to begin using Nakewameke to gather energy, and Eas is driven enough to go first. Soular will continue mocking Westar for his failures, of course. | |
| Who: | |
| Where: Desolate Mansion | |
| OOC - IC Date: Unknown - 6/5/2014 | |
<Pose Tracker> Eas [None] has posed.
Having a mansion means never having to worry all that much about space. ...And yet, a lot of it tends to go unused anyway; large and drafty, the building clearly predates such innovations as central heating and air just by its design. Old wooden furniture, rugs to make the floors a little less bare; it is certainly not a /bad/ place. It's dusty, but dusty in the sense of something with mystery, a place to be explored.
...And it's chilly, right about now.
Eas, for one, seems to neither notice nor care. She sits in a chair in a room with a wide table and some couches, a notebook on her knee and a book on the table beside her. She is writing away at something. She is not looking up.
This is normal.
<Pose Tracker> Westar [None] has posed.
A door slams open. Literally slams - dust flies off of nearby fixtures, the hinges rattle, the sound echoes through empty hallways. Framed in the doorway is a figure garbed in black with a white cape, and pale green hair. Westar, a faithful servant of Mobius-sama, supreme ruler of Labyrinth.
He looks annoyed.
In his hand, he holds a mysterious-looking robe - which he immediately flings to one side, where it tangles around an unoccupied chair. "It happened again! Things were going well, the boy was interested in hearing his fortune, but everything I said just seemed to make him /happier/!" He storms forward, digging in a pocket - and slamming a handful of yen bills and coins on the table. "No despair, no weeping, he just threw down a bunch of money and ran out laughing! What am I doing wrong?"
<Pose Tracker> Soular [None] has posed.
The thing about an old, drafty mansion is that it's filled with antiquities--relics from ages past. That enhances its mystique, the allure and fear that the humans who wander in feel. That's precisely why the inner room is off-limits to visitors; explaining the viewscreen is equal parts too troublesome and too bothersome to have to do.
When the door slams open, even the china on the table rattles a little--a cup and saucer, specifically. The pot of tea and the tall box of sugar cubes are too heavy for that. Soular, for his part, has the spoon hooked between gloved fingers as he watches said viewscreen with a slight smirk, legs crossed as he sits on the other side of the table from Eas. The viewscreen already empty, of course, but he makes a point of drawing his attention away from it and over to Westar when the larger man barges in, all complaints.
"Now, now," he says in a tone that might be encouraging were it not for the layer of smug condescension that colors it, "the deepest misery is born from the greatest joy, isn't it? You'll get there, one baby step at a time."
He turns in his seat, elegantly lifting the pot of tea and pouring a measure of its contents into his cup. "But," Soular adds, smirk widening as steam rises from the porcelain, "just out of curiosity, what was it you were *trying* to do?"
<Pose Tracker> Eas [None] has posed.
"Don't be so loud," Eas says, not even looking up from her work. She does, however, frown more deeply than she had just moments prior. ...The sudden noise made her pen slip. There is now a stray mark just staring up at her from her notes.
It's annoying.
She then remains silent for a few moments, notebook still perched on her knee, as Soular offers his... comfort, on the matter. And as Westar throws the robe. She hears the clank of coins.
"What didn't you do wrong?" she deadpans, and tears the page she was working on out of the notebook, crumpling it up in both hands.
<Pose Tracker> Westar [None] has posed.
Westar slams his hand on the table again in frustration. "I was trying to cause despair, like you two do! It's all just making up things about their future, right? And that's what I was doing!" Leaving the money behind, he storms off to another corner of the room - one with a chair much like those the other two have, but this one with a supply of dumbbells and other weights piled up next to it.
Thump. Westar sits down heavily, making no move to even pick up the weights. "I don't get it - what kind of human is happy to hear that the thing they want will take a lot of hard work? And what kinds of things do you guys say to get Misery Energy from fortune-telling, anyway?"
<Pose Tracker> Soular [None] has posed.
The cup filled to the right amount, Soular sets down the pot and picks up the box of sugar cubes. A veritable hail snows down on the cup, gradually turning the tea into tea-flavored sugar cubes. It isn't until it's brimming with them that he stops, motions as self-assured as always, as if he knows exactly what he's doing. Which he obviously does. Clearly.
"It's a simple enough matter to turn around," Soular remarks with a shrug. "If his 'hard work' comes to nothing, he'll taste misery soon enough." As if to illustrate, he takes a sip of the concoction that can only loosely be called a beverage. His lip doesn't so much as twitch at the vile mixture; a personal victory, in his opinion, particularly with Eas present. He channels this into an unpleasant smile. "But you should already know that, shouldn't you?"
<Pose Tracker> Eas [None] has posed.
Eas continues in silence, setting the crumpled paper in the trash and preparing to work on another page, a simple motion that doesn't even require her to /look/ over at the can. She doesn't bother looking up, even now, as Westar moves over to his chair. She certainly doesn't look at Soular.
She has no reason to make him think she has anything good to say about his mastery of tea.
"Humans are bizarre reatures," she proclaims finally, after Soular's advice. "Don't bother trying to understand them. You won't."
Now, does she mean it's impossible, or it's impossible for /Westar/?
She sighs, heavily, and then /finally/ looks up, over his way. "Your technique is off and you're forgetting the most important part. It barely matters what you say to them. Do you even remember what we're trying to accomplish? You set up their hopes, then track them after they leave, and make sure it goes wrong. You don't try to gather the energy here, that'll only tip them off to where we're hiding."
...Her tone, as usual, drips with the condescension that Soular, at least, makes a token effort to hide. Sort of.
"I don't know why you bother to try if you're going to be so half-hearted about it."
<Pose Tracker> Westar [None] has posed.
Westar visibly staggers at Soular's parting shot. He hangs his head, picks up a dumbbell, starts half-heartedly lifting it. So the last four have gone away happy, is that his fault?...well, yes. There's a faint clanking - the weighted discs aren't solidly mounted on the handle, and rattle a bit with each lift.
Eas's words, however, give as much hope as condemnation - and so Westar ignores the latter to focus on the former. "Wait - you mean I haven't been doing everything wrong?" He sets down the dumbbell. "So, I can still gather the Misery Energy from the people I was talking to after following them, and watching things go wrong for them...thanks, Eas!"
Westar stands up, proud, confident once more. He has a plan again - take everything he's done thus far, and now it all works out. Gathering Misery Energy, fulfilling Mobius-sama's command, completing the mission!
...and then he slumps, hanging his head as his arms dangle like dead weights. "...I forgot to get their names..."
<Pose Tracker> Soular [None] has posed.
Really, has Eas ever said anything positive about someone who isn't Mobius-sama? Soular doesn't expect any such thing from her, nor, judging by his demeanor, does he particularly care. ...Mind, they've also both got Westar to viciously mock right now. Advice is a generous description for what the silver-haired young man just said, but regardless, he chuckles the faintest bit at Eas's input.
He also steadfastly ignores the clanking from Westar's ill-fitted weights, opting instead to take another delicate sip. When he pulls the cup away, it's with a look of distaste--but not so much the tea as Westar's counter-proclamations, from his gratitude towards Eas to his admission that he doesn't even remember who he was talking to.
Soular doesn't say a word, though. He just shoots Eas a *look*.
<Pose Tracker> Eas [None] has posed.
Leave it to Westar to take a perfectly suitable chastisement and turn it into something to feel optimistic about.
Since obviously, that's all she was going for. 'Thanks'. "Hmph." She looks back down to the page before her, scribbling a few more notes down about... something. She certainly does not tell him he's welcome.
She looks back to Soular at precisely the same moment. It is the same look.
It doesn't last, as she instead turns to Westar, "You're hopeless. Forget it, I'll be handling the next arrival. You just stay back here and try to find something /useful/ to do."
<Pose Tracker> Westar [None] has posed.
Something useful to do? "That's what I'm trying to do! But all there is for us to do is wait for customers to arrive, and try to get them to despair!" He starts pacing angrily - footsteps verging on outright stomps from time to time, china rattling in his wake.
After a few circuits of the room, accompanied by incomprehensible grumbling, he finally finds something else to distract himself from repeated failure after repeated failure - Soular's current topic of interest. The tea. "Soular, what is that stuff - some human drink?"
<Pose Tracker> Soular [None] has posed.
Classic Westar, yes.
Soular just shakes his head a bit when Eas re-declares her disdain for the other executive, and goes back to sipping his tea. ...That is to say, sipping it once, then letting the cup just rest in his hand for a while, because actually imbibing this stuff takes time and nerves. "That is true. Things will go much more easily when we receive orders to start using the Nakewameke... not that it'll help you much," Soular snipes.
Another sip, ignoring the rattling of china, and Westar expresses his interest in the drink. "They call it tea," he replies, neutrally. "It's extremely common in this region of the world, particularly sweetened." And, with the utmost dismissiveness imbued into his voice, "It's nothing special."
<Pose Tracker> Eas [None] has posed.
"Don't make excuses. It's annoying."
Eas frowns. "And stop walking so loudly."
She sighs, however, as only a teenager from /any/ world can sigh, when Westar pollutes the room with his question about /Soular's drink/. She of course has no comments about the orders, and she certainly has no comments about the drink, though...
...It does have an unusual smell to it. She's still not going to ask. Total waste of time.
At this moment, however, the room dims, somewhat. A voice echoes through the room, dark and commanding. It is familiar to all three of the room's occupants.
"It is time," the voice intones. "Begin phase two. It is time to draw forth Infinity."
"M-Mobius-sama," Eas starts, despite herself, suddenly sitting up straight. But he does not reply, as such.
"That is all."
<Pose Tracker> Westar [None] has posed.
Westar looks at the pot, the box of sugar cubes, and considers Soular's explanation. "Hm. Aren't the cubes supposed to float, or something?" He hasn't exactly encountered this before, but one of the customers had a glass with something that was kind of like this - some brown-black liquid, with cubes in it. "Are you sure you made it right?" He has, however, finally stopped stomping around, even if he didn't intend to do what Eas said-
And then, from behind Westar, there is that dark commanding voice. He starts, whirls around in a fluster. He really doesn't have good results to report, but hopefully Mobius-sama will understand that the humans really don't make sense-
-oh.
The message ends, and Westar blinks. "Phase two. That means..." His face begins to brighten. "It's time, right? Time for us to use the Nakewameke to gather Misery Energy!" He grins, a savage look on his face. "Great! I just need a few minutes to get ready, then I can go out and accomplish our task by force!"
<Pose Tracker> Soular [None] has posed.
'Are you sure you made it right?'
Soular's green eyes narrow the slightest bit. But before he can slice Westar to ribbons with his razor tongue... things of far greater import occur. Eas isn't the only one surprised by the Supreme Leader's sudden appearance, but while shock passes like lightning over Soular's features, he has his teacup set down and himself standing and bowing with one arm crossed over his chest in an instant, in one smooth motion.
"Your will shall be done, Mobius-sama," he says respectfully, eyes shut, compure back in place as if it had never gone. If that's all, then there's likely no reason that Mobius-sama will linger--not that he ever does--which is good for Westar, anyway. When Mobius's shade vanishes and the grey static in the room vanishes, he straightens, resting one hand on his hip as he glances over at Westar.
"'Ready'?" he echoes, peering down his nose at him (despite being shorter; Soular is very good at what he does) with disdain. "After that pitiful showing? Letting *you* go first would only disgrace Mobius-sama."
<Pose Tracker> Eas [None] has posed.
If not for the sudden arrival of their new orders, Eas might have had something to say about Westar's observation. ...But probably not, probably she still would have just smirked some about it. The important thing is that--
Well, no. The important thing is that they have their new orders. And /she/ has...
"Everything for Mobius-sama," she replies, even as the voice is gone. And then she looks up to the two of the others, first Westar, and then Soular. She sets down her notebook, and stands. "...I will go first."
She doesn't really seem to talk about it like it's a suggestion.
"I will meet the next guest to arrive, and then pursue our first target. Unless you intend to foolishly reveal our plans with a weak, unplanned showing?"
<Pose Tracker> Westar [None] has posed.
That wild, savage grin of delight freezes, and there's almost a sound like glass shattering. "But- but-"
Westar cannot deny either of their arguments - if they're to be judged on their success at gathering Misery Energy to date, he's firmly in last place. This was the chance for him to change that, because sending out a Nakewameke is all about simple, brute force. Right? "Then what am I supposed to do here?"
Westar almost starts stomping around in a tantrum again - but just storms back to his chair, and starts lifting his weights to calm down. After a few repetitions of this, one thing sparks in his mind. "Hang on. You're going out alone, Eas? I've heard there are humans who are foolish enough that they might fight against the agents of Mobius-sama - are you sure you can handle them?"
<Pose Tracker> Soular [None] has posed.
'I will go first,' Eas says, as though it's a declaration of fact. Soular glances her way--then smiles, just as "pleasantly" as before. "I'm sure you can't do any worse. Why don't you show this world's humans what you can do?" he says, "supporting" her. Westar goes completely ignored in favor of Soular returning to his seat, long legs recrossed as he once again picks up his teacup.
Not to mention, Eas has a valid point; she's likelier to come up with a decent plan than Westar is. Not, Soular is certain, that either of them are on *his* level, but he'll have to sit back and wait for their results before he can adequately plan his own next move. (The other reason why he's content to cede the first foray to his rival.)
Really, though, does Westar expect them to tell him everything? Soular doesn't even dignify his first question with a comment--nor does he come to Eas' defense when Westar seemingly doubts her ability to get the job done. In fact, he takes this opportunity to lean back and watch the inevitable sparks fly with a faint smirk tweaking up one side of his mouth.
<Pose Tracker> Eas [None] has posed.
Soular's 'compliment' (not a compliment or an encouragement) gets nothing from a vague look of derision out of Eas, like... well, most things. But Westar's reaction instead gets a raised eyebrow, Eas not even allowing him the dignity of laughing at him. "That's not my problem."
She does of course have a number of plans already formulating; she's been working overtime to prepare for this phase, after all, considering that the fortune-telling aspects themselves come easy to her... and only take up so much of her time.
Regardless of /why/ Soular supports her here though, she'll take it. ..For now. But what she won't take is Westar's comment. She turns to him and that eyebrow arches harder, her eyes narrowed. "What a stupid question."
Eas turns on her heel and starts for the opposite door to where Westar came in.
<Pose Tracker> Westar [None] has posed.
Westar...is left without a mission to pursue or a task to complete. So he just continues lifting his weights. No one, not even Mobius-sama, has told him to do anything different, so...training. Training for when it finally is his turn.
And in spite of his question, Eas is storming off. He watches her go, because whether or not it was a stupid question, she doesn't seem inclined to answer. So he continues his weight training until she's left, and continues in silence for at least a few minutes.
Some time after Eas has left, he sets down his weights for a moment. Whatever answer he doesn't know, there's someone who might. "Soular, do you think it'll go well?"
<Pose Tracker> Soular [None] has posed.
That went about how Soular expected it would. Perhaps with less fire than he might have liked, but well within his range of anticipated results. Eas does so like to storm off, and really, in the absolute privacy of his own head, he can hardly blame her. He'd have been just as insulted in her place.
Naturally, Soular doesn't say so, and once the youngest of the executives is gone, silence reigns in the viewing room as Westar trains and Soular savors his (disgustingly sweet) beverage. He shuts his eyes as he mentally processes orders and runs over various ideas he's had. Not all of them will make it to final stages, and he'll need more data before he can figure out which will and won't be used, but...
'Soular, do you think it'll go well?'
He tilts his head at his sole companion.
'Of course it well. Eas is more dedicated to Mobius-sama than anyone, even you or especially me. Failure in our mission is not an option, and so she will ensure that this first foray goes well. Even if there is interference, she's sure to collect a significant amount of Misery Energy for the Sorrow Gauge,' is what Soular does *not* say, even though it's what he genuinely thinks. Out loud, he responds with airy indifference, "Who can say?"
And then a calculated smirk.
"It should be amusing to watch, regardless."
