Fandom Soul Eater: F.A.T.E

[Sir Les Paul]

North of Steel Pier, Atlantic City Beach, New Jersey​

GM Post

The battle—the slaughter—had come to an end. The team had come back together and with the withdrawal of the Effigy came a dampening of the Pull. Those destructive tendencies not vanished, but well within manageable ranges. For the trio of mages in the group, instead, what was left was a type of pride and cultural awareness of the past that couldn't be normally achieved without being directly present. Eyes at least slightly opened to what the truce between the DWMA and Wiccan Council truly meant.

It was not the same for others. Even Gauss was still taken aback with what he just saw. How each one of them for a brief while seemed to become crazed lunatics with only Raphael even bothering to remain briefly in contact. Arkayis thought he was alone in how he felt on edge, but he wasn't. What Gauss felt alongside defeat was apprehension. There was so much he didn't understand and what little he did understand is that if push came to shove, he wasn't sure if he and his partners would be a match for even a single one of the Sorcerers.

Many of the questions that both Gauss and the mages had would soon be answered.

Once Mercy had dismissed the Effigy and combat concluded, she once again addressed the crowd. She was quite the charismatic speaker. She was unlike many Witches in that she didn't possess a supernatural bust or an array of attractive human features. Her skin was like woven burlap, her eyes glowing with the yellow-orange tinge of a jack-o-lantern, and all that made her humanoid in truth was her bipedal shape. Despite that, she a way of reaching out and touching a crowd; so long as that crowd happened to also be Witches and Sorcerers.

She explained what the Effigy actually did. Many were confused, believing it to be some type of parallel to resonance. It was not. The Effigy was the combined consciences, the souls one could argue, of countless hundreds or thousands of Witches. It was a type of magic typically forbidden by Maba. Spiritual Magic was considered a harsh taboo, but the Salem Effigy was an allowance. A compromise. Demon Weapons were allowed to consume Witches souls, so why wouldn't Witches? Beyond that atrocity, it was more mundane. A repository for a vast wealth of mana and all the collective experience of their kin. Most importantly, when connected to it, one did not merely gain some relative boost to their abilities.

One gained a wealth of mana and much of their latent potential unlocked. What an older Witch with more mana and experience gained from this Effigy was vastly lesser than what a group of young sparks like many on the battlefield would gain was wildly different. As it was explained, this Effigy wouldn't have made a considerable difference during the initial attack because most of those Witches fighting were grizzled veterans. Those here in Jersey, on the other hand, were the perfect vessels for its power. A power, she explained, that could only be utilized by her family line. The line that started the Effigy some six-hundred years ago.

In sum total, what she asserted was that the Effigy was not some mysterious source of power, but it was a means of essentially giving young Witches a bolster as if they had lived that six hundred years. It was nothing to scoff at, but Witches like Yara or Mirai would gain little from it. The group had already met Witches well beyond what the Effigy could help with. What it mostly showed them was just how far they could go. Their potential today was often less than what it could be tomorrow.

The rest of her speech was yet again geared at how she stood against the bloodshed and cycle of vengeance that pit Witches against humanity. Political commentary and rousing speeches, sure, but they were the same words heard at the DWMA ad Infinium.

Debriefing was much simpler. For the most part, the groups assigned to clean up the area and search for survivors had done their part. Many would go down in history books for their findings, but this portion of the fight would not go down in history as part of the official kaiju confrontation. They were not the killers of Kaiju Number Nine, but arguably a much more dangerous threat in the form of the aquatic fungal colony.

Each of the sorcerers were given an in-depth debriefing about their experience under the leadership of a Meister, but mostly as a guise for asking questions about the Salem Effigy. In all reality, Gauss came into his individual debriefing bitching about leading a group of sorcerers enough for them to get the drift. It wasn't a good idea. New methods would need to be adopted.

Yes... this was a learning experience. There would most certainly need to be a change up coming.

RedArmyShogun @Meredith Merciless Medic Peckinou The Regal Rper​

 

[Sir Les Paul]

North of JFK Airport, New York City, New York
GM Post​

Car Rentals JFK Airport​

The Witches were dead. Every single one of them. The remains of the necromantic Witch began to degrade, turning into an alabaster paste that resembled wet cement before crumbling away entirely. This was the same fate for the bodies of every Witch that Samuel had cut down, and he had cut down aplenty. Save for the Patchwork Witch, of course. She was disintegrated by Aki.

There was little time to relish - or relent - in their situation. Under normal circumstances, Samuel might have tried to overpower and capture one or two of these Witches. Seeing their bodies dissolve as they did, killing them blindly would eliminate the greatest chances of unveiling any of their secrets. Their current situation did not allow for that. Apparently, there was an attack back at the Airtrains Operations building.

Samuel only debriefed the trio briefly, telling them to follow, and retrieving Korne in the process. His only acknowledgement of their deed being that it was "impressive" they withstood Korne so long. There was truth to it. The moment he left the hands of Feng, all three of them felt the relief of both his bloodlust and his ambition leave them. It was the type of thing that had built up slowly over time. Insidious in nature, to the point that it wasn't as obvious how much it was present until it was gone. Korne was perhaps paired with Samuel because he couldn't do the same to his soul. There was little time for speculation, though.

There were already casualties.

Samuel and Korne were gone, blitzed off at a speed that Feng couldn't keep up with. Not that it would matter. By the time Samuel arrived, it was already too late. Obviously, the same would be true for the trio.

What they arrived to was desolation. The entire parking lot and Airtrains building had been destroyed, left to rubble. Samuel was hovering over Kenny, the only survivor, though that appeared to merely be luck. Kenny was impaled on a piece of rebar and missing his left forearm below the elbow. Strewn out across the rubble, bloodied and have conscious, he could only recount some of the attack. It was effectively an ambush. What he described were assassins with incredible Soul Suppression skills that had slipped in and targeted high-priority targets, mostly Demon Weapons before they transformed. He fought one, hurt it even, but it didn't matter. His partner had already been killed.

Unlike Samuel, even Kenny couldn't act as a solo Meister.

After the initial massacre, what he described as a swarm of Witches came through wreaking havoc. They killed many of the agents in the infirmary, spirited away the weakened or hurt Witches they were housing, and caused general destruction.

It was a surgical strike. Eliminating as many pairs as they could. It would have huge ramifications in the DWMA. Sylas Kallis, his partner, was the nephew of Cyrus. No matter the outcome, that loss would likely have lingering effects through the whole program.

The reality was that they didn't need to have lingering effects to be hugely impactful. It was immediate. There were faces and bodies that the group had known, even if only for a short time.

Noelle was the partner of Rudeus. She was part of the Fate Program, someone that had been seen since the Hawai'i trip. She was the vacuum cleaner that sucked away the magic that had caused chaos on that trip. She was, under normal circumstances, quiet, reserved, beautiful by some standards, and one of the few in the program with an anti-magic wavelength that was often seen on missions. Her soul was the one with the low, soothing hum that Wes had heard when they first passed through this place. A curiosity, perhaps, as to why it was soothing, or why it persisted, all irrelevant now. It would be a sound he would never heard again.

Noelle was one of the first killed. Her body mostly intact, laying some ways off by the original reception desk that had survived most of the bombings simply due to being anchored to the ground. Broken, crumpled, with her neck gouged by a quick stab, her face was left mostly intact. Rudeus, her partner, did not have that same luxury. His body was scattered throughout the building as blood stains and bits of flesh, killed during his final attempt at resistance. Truth was, there was no hope for him against the forces that he was against. Not without Noelle.

Had Samuel been there, Korne or not, they might have been able to prevent this. Samuel proved already that he could cut down Witches en masse and even without Korne, he was faster and stronger than most Meisters. Chances were, he was baited out. Those cries of help, his nature of refusing to let someone go. All of it factored in for this result. The pieces fell into place for him, though not perhaps for the rest of the group. He was played. Manipulated into leaving his post so he could pretend to be some type of hero. This was his fault, he felt, and his soul wailed in rage and sorrow. Medics were incoming, but they couldn't save the dead.

And, no one could save a damned soul like his own. Not now.

RedArmyShogun Shotgunpenguin EmperorsChosen​

 

[Shotgunpenguin]

Wes Kraven
North of JFK Airport - New York City, New York
September 26'th
Mentions: RedArmyShogun Sir Les Paul EmperorsChosen ​

---

As the dust finally settled on the blood soaked pavement of the parking lot, Wes allowed the resonance between himself and Feng to slowly fade away until both of their souls returned to normal. As the resonance fell away, Wes felt a wave of lethargy wash over him. The world felt duller, and all he wanted to do was for this mission to be over. As much as he wanted it to be, there was still the matter of getting Samuel back to the shelter. As well as the opportunity present before him.

A witch’s soul, an impressive and highly sought after prize for any demon weapon with aspirations to someday become a death scythe. Even now as it floated in the air it thrummed with power, echoing the last vestiges of everything that the witch was in life. To Wes, it was a somber tone, tinged with a flurry of emotions. Strings plucked in screeches of rage and fury, spiking over the deep echoes of loss spurred on by her companion. Even in death, the silent bloodlust she possessed in her final moments continued to roil, as if promising vengeance from beyond the grave.

‘Take it.’ The aftereffects of Korne’s bloodlust was working its way into Wes’s thoughts, a rush of desire flooding in and overwhelming the usually apathetic weapon. He felt a rush far stronger than any he felt before, to devour the soul in front of him, to claim the prize of their bloody brawl. Both Feng and Aki would feel a flash of his soul, usually so listless and still, flare up with desire. A quick look into what Wes could have been, had he just taken the initiative and rose above his current drifting attitude.

And yet, that sensation was as quick to disappear as it was to rear its head. The second Korne had departed from their group the lingering bloodlust was almost immediately purged from his system. Back came the veil of indifference and boredom, and with it went the pull to take in the soul in front of him. With a quick sentence that was at most five words, Samuel departed with his weapon in tow, leaving the trio to stand in the ruined parking lot, surrounded by rapidly decaying flesh and the faint glow of the countless souls that littered the battlefield.

“Wait… did he say the shelter was attacked?” The immediate question of by who flashed through his mind. It couldn’t have been the scavs that they had encountered before, they wouldn’t be dumb enough to try and attack a shelter full of agents. Samuel didn’t give them any more details than that there was an attack, an annoying tibet that would have been useful to know before he bolted off.

Wes breathed a deep sigh as he undid his transformation, landing on his feet with a small grunt. Slowly approaching the patchwork witch’s soul, he held out his right hand and closed his eyes. He gathered spiritual energy into his palm before using his wavelength to alter it in order to produce a deep and piercing noise.

A deep sound akin to that of a funeral bell sounded from his palm, both a small service for the souls killed by the witches and an act that slowly drew the soul of the patchwork witch into his palm. Another toll, deeper than the first, would follow as the soul held within his outstretched palm would vibrate slightly. It would quickly increase in intensity, shuddering and shaking against his palm, until suddenly going still. The third and final bell would toll as the witch’s soul was absorbed into Wes as he consumed it.

The soul of the necromancer witch still remained where she had been slain, gently bobbing in the air much like the other souls of the witches Samuel had slain. Turning back around, he jerked his head towards the soul. “That one’s all yours Aki. You deserve it.” Transforming back into his weapon form, he once again secured himself against Feng’s arm and waited for her and Aki to finish up any business they still had.

The rush back to the shelter was far slower than Samuel and Korne managed. What they arrived to was leveled buildings and the increasingly familiar scent of blood and bile. Samuel was there, his face set in stone even as his soul screamed out in a discord of screeching strings. Beyond him, there was only one other soul that he was able to pick out.

While Wes may have been less than average when it came to remembering faces, he was more than able to pick out the unique sound a soul produced. It was how he recognized the disfigured meister impaled on a piece of rebar. Even as weak as it was, Kenny’s soul was still audible, like a wounded lion on its last legs.

Unfortunately, for once in his life, Wes found himself wishing that he was hearing more than he was. The two souls that reminded him of a summer's breeze and the humid night were silent, the faint humming like that of a refrigerator completely cut out.

The level of carnage was stomach turning, with one unfortunate agent having been literally scattered around the grounds. It was brutal, almost akin to torture that would have anyone crying out for-

Wes stilled, his lidded eyes slowly widening further and further as a realization suddenly came to him. This much pain and suffering, it would make even the strongest call out and wish for death. A sensation that would only reflect even brighter the stronger a soul the person had.

Strong enough that it could have carried all the way to the overpass.

The sound of screaming, of souls crying out in pain and fear. He assumed that the cause was further ahead, that the witch who sicked those hellish hounds on them was the cause. And once they arrived at the parking lot, the revived corpses were all he needed to see to think that his hunch was right.

"Fuck..." His thoughts quickly turned back to that moment, back to when he had heard those souls crying out. There was a strangely familiar quality that he had heard before it was washed away. A low humming that had put him at ease, yet he overlooked. He didn't think much of it at the time, but he should have. He should have at least given pause, to think for a moment. But he didn't.

Slowly, an insidious and frighteng thought wormed its way into his head. ‘So what?’ The tone sounded almost bored, as if the deaths in front of him were something old and dull.

‘Yeah it sucks they died. But you didn’t even know them. Besides, even if you did figure it out-’ Wes tried to shake the thought out of his head, to shut it out and stop it before it could finish. But it was useless, the thought slowly finishing and sending a wave of disgust at himself deep into his chest.

‘-It’s not like you would have said anything.’

 

[EmperorsChosen]

Aki Kiyoko - North of JFK International Airport

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

It was over, though Aki felt more energized and motivated than she had for the past while. She didn't feel all that better than she did before regarding her abilities here. It was just because of the lingering effects from Kane. She was eager, ambitious, in a constant state of go like she was when she first entered the program. However, when Kane left their little group and the feeling of his soul washed away, so did said feelings. It gave even Aki pause. She wasn't bloodthirsty, but Kane's wavelength certainly made her want the witches dead beyond simply as they were threats.

The battleground was a mess, various gibs and gore adorning it. It was a site that made even Aki's face scrunch slightly, though note enough to prevent her from taking the Witch soul. Normally, she would have insisted Wes to take it. He was far more imperative in this mission than she was, so he should get it. However, with Kane and Samuel quickly moving on, Aki wasted little time in grabbing the soul and scarfing it down before returning to Feng. Better they not waste such a resource.

As the group made their way back to the shelter, Aki could feel Wes's reaction, affecting her where she otherwise would have been almost entirely indifferent. A couple people she had seen before, but Aki had the most interaction with Kenny, which wasn't saying much. Still, her soul did hitch at the sight of him, an indication of worry or something akin to grief.

Looking around, it wasn't a fight but a slaughter. It was like that job in South America where her whole group was lost and she was picked up by DWMA afterwards. It was hard to say if the DWMA could have been said to even get some good hits in, but Aki doubted it from what she saw here. Perhaps if Samuel had been here, given his power. Perhaps if he had just eliminated the witch threat instead of holding back to elongate the engagement, he would have returned and been able to deal with this. From the look on his face, he realized it too. Aki wasn't the type to rub such things in, nor did she feel like she was in a position to given how little she contributed herself.

"Hey," Aki spoke, grabbing Wes's arm softly. The thousand-yard-stare he was wearing told her much of what he was thinking paired with what she already knew of him. He was a good person. Her mom would say, too good for this kind of work. "If we were here, we would've died, or at least Feng would have."

It was blunt. Not quite cold, but very nonchalant, like saying you'd get wet if you went out into the rain. They were weapons, they could survive if they remained in weapon form. Aki thought the world of Feng, too, but if this many people were torn apart with what appeared to be ease, she didn't think this was an engagement the woman would have enjoyed a different fate in. Perhaps she would have given as good as she got, but nonetheless.

"...You also helped a lot more than me this time around," She added, giving his arm a little squeeze at an attempt of comfort.

RedArmyShogun Sir Les Paul Shotgunpenguin

 

[RedArmyShogun]

Feng Long
New York City - North of JFK Airport
September 26th​

With the wake of the battle, Feng was left exhausted, or near enough, as she watched Sam seemingly having done all of what he did, alone, as if it were nothing. Dust and debris were all around the group, the witches laid dead, their remains long gone. Which was a problem, remains didn't just get up and fuck off. This all stunk as far as Feng saw it, then there was Sam running off and leaving no less than 22 Witch souls laying around for the group to just do nothing with... Or something in this case..

While she couldn't figure out why this was seemingly a good idea to him, she did find it pleasant to be in control now that Korne was gone. The man had even remarked on that as well as saying something about the shelter had been attacked.

Had. The keyword as Feng seen it. The attack was done. As Wes and Aki had a talk about who gets what soul, she would seek out the other 22, 11 for each and scratched her head. As far as weapons went and what she knew of the DWMA and this pair, they were not as strong as some others as they had not been in the soul collection business. Speed running the collection process, Feng would then retrace their steps, moving as fast as she could.

Finally arriving to the scene, it wasn't a battle, it was a massacre. Feng had been on the giving end to them more than a time or two but being the one it was inflicted on was a whole different deal.

Everything was just gone, leveled, blown up, and Kenny sure as hell had seen better days. There were two things that caught her immediate attention, and Kenny confirmed as much in his pain ridden state. One, they had been surgically hit, two, it was a one-sided slaughter. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out.

But what worried her was the fact the assassins were called it. That could carry more than a few troublesome meanings, depending on if it was a descriptor or if the "dogs" had returned. Or something far worse. She would not press him for now, as she listened to Aki, while she was not wrong, there was one thing worth pointing out;

"The only survivor is a meister, this enemy came with the intention of killing weapons." Giving Wes a bit of a pat on the shoulder and keeping her distance from Sam for the time being she tries to get in touch with Nadia again, to inform them that reinforcements would not be coming, there were none to send.

Interactions: EmperorsChosen (Dani) Sir Les Paul (NPC's) Shotgunpenguin (Wes)

 

[Sir Les Paul]

North of JFK Airport, New York City, New York
GM Post​

Airtrains Operations rubble​

Feng didn't know how right she was. The attack on the Airtrains Operations Center was in fact a surgical strike. In fact, there were several such surgical strikes occurring all throughout the area as they spoke. The attack on Nadia resulting in the skirmish with the church just being one of a dozen. Who or whatever was sewing chaos was making excellent use of the state of emergency KN9 had caused. Regardless of how much damage these assassins caused, it paled in comparison to what the kaiju ultimately caused. In fact, it posed the question: was someone merely being incredibly opportunistic with the kaiju or was it somehow orchestrated?

Certainly, no one could orchestrate a literal kaiju attack...

Regardless, there was a lot to soak in and a large majority of questions would never be answered. Could Feng, Aki, and Wes have made a difference if they returned here? Maybe. Would they have died? Also maybe. What would have happened if the three stayed with Nadia? Or, better yet, what would have happened if the entire team fucked off the moment Nadia was blitzed by the blue-haired Paladin? Unanswerable questions. All they could do is ultimately count the lives they did save. Even if it was just a handful forcing that sniper to move, it was something.

Not to mention, the Bloodsuckers were going to get some bolster to their reputation from this. As it would turn out, it would be much needed after what a certain Duke was doing around this time in a European country. It wasn't necessarily lives saved, but it was a step in the right direction to prove they could be partners while eliminating the ancient evils.

Feng was eventually able to catch up with Nadia and get the debrief. This was sometime after their skirmish; they were on their way to fight the kaiju. If Feng hurried with Aki and Wes, they could see the fruits of those labors. All this strife for an attempt to wound the beast. At the very least, they were rewarded with exactly that: a fairly large wound of bubbling, rotted flesh on the thigh of the creature. Something that could be attacked. Something that later was attacked, helping to send the kaiju off into the sea. They still couldn't kill it, but they could certainly harm it.

Fox Hunt wasn't able to do anything on the scale of Nadia and Dani, but they were the catalyst for the duo to do so. In the end, however, all that mattered was getting it into the water. For all the magic thrown at it, all the artillery, all the attacks from various agents and species, what would truly do the beast in was the awesome and terrifying might of man once he forfeit the shackles of morality and became his own God of Death.

With KN9 retreating back into the sea, it was tracked until it was considered a safe distance from the coast, then bombarded with one final attack. A large sphere of sorts. A hydrogen bomb designed to detonate underwater. Despite the warnings, nothing could truly prepare one for it. It dropped into the water and a "plunk" could be heard. A half minute later and it finally happened. A massive spout of water shot into the sky, water vaporized nearly instantaneously, turning into a mushroom cloud thrice the size of a land-based bomb due to the water. Molten salts were flung out for hundreds of feat, sizzling in the water, not that one could tell.

The ocean itself shook. The wildlife destroyed from the bomb was probably beyond measure, but it was the only means they had of assuring KN9 was dead. Almost immediately following the mountain of exploding debris and water vapor, the pressure wave followed. The water itself couldn't keep up with the force of the wave. Through the air, it pounded like a drum in the chest of everyone that saw it. While not as intense from this distance as a sonic boom, eardrums were still rattled. Some soldiers with less fortitude would soon find themselves releasing their guts into the streets from the distress it caused their equilibrium.

After that initial pressure wave came the actual tidal wave created by the bomb. It was large, it would reach up and consume much of the beachline where they were and return it to the sea. Most importantly, what it showed was that the power of man could even shake the very ocean. A specialized hydrogen bomb made specifically for aquatic warfare. It was a hell of a thing. Worse, they had four more ready to go in the event the first one or a single drop wasn't enough. They could just do this. When mankind agreed on a course of action, the destructive force it could output by far exceeded that of Witches, Corrupted Souls, and even the Shinigami himself.

It made one wonder if giving them Demon Weapons was truly such a wise decision...

RedArmyShogun Shotgunpenguin EmperorsChosen​

 

[Sir Les Paul]

LOCATION—Death Colosseum, Death City, Nevada
DATE—10/31/20267 | Monday
TIME—1101

It was time for the FATE bracket of the Shibusai to finally begin. October had been a month of preparation, the likes of which Death City hadn't seen in decades. The amount of security and effort that went into assuring the Death Festival went off without a hitch was only rivaled in recent times by such acts of importance like the signing of the treaty between the DWMA and Wiccan Council. It was one thing for Death the Kidd to appear on television, proclaiming that their city would now bow to terrorists or sacrifice its culture to those that would see it in ruin. It was another to see the drills for response times, various security installations, checks and stops implemented at airports and gates, and even the vendors being educated on the security and how to use it. Everything was integrated. There was no chance for another slip up like the jester girls from April First.

There would be no folly or fuck-up this time.

The EAT bracket had already ended. It began at ten o'clock, but hardly lasted half an hour. As a battle royale, the fights were quick, decisive, sometimes unfair, and all that mattered is that one emerged victorious. It might come as no surprise, then, that the victor of the EAT division was one from a country where survival was paramount. Innesa Sokolov and her partner, a halberd named Richter Meier, won out their bracket. It meant whoever won the FATE bracket would be against them first in the semi-finals, and from their performance in the first round, that would be no easy feat. It shouldn't be, given she one of the personal students of Anya Vasiliev, the rank three Meister in the DWMA with the title of White Reaper.

That first performance demanded a lot of the FATE bracket to keep up the momentum.

Not that the event didn't start off heated to begin with. Given that there were far fewer FATE Agents than in the EAT bracket and an hour of prep time ahead, it meant some people went in with clear targets in mind.

Feng and her set of three partners was one such unlucky individual. She had no way of knowing it, but her time wielding Korne had made her somewhat well-known amongst the niche set of swordsman within the DWMA. Not those like Nadia, but those that were obsessed with the way of the blade. Some with an odd, over-the-top fixation on Black☆Star and his rivalry with Mifune, while others were simply obsessed with the culture of knights of feudal Japanese samurai. It was a weird crowd, though that didn't meant it failed to produce a handful of interesting or skilled warriors. That is what Feng was encountering now.

The battle royale couldn't have been started for more than a few moments before the loud clunk of a steel ball hit the shield that Wes' form acted as. Quick and decisive, it served several purposes. One, it was to get her attention. Second, it imparted some of the wavelength from the Demon Weapon into Wes. This caused a handful of problems. It was a simple wavelength type: fortified. It came from a fairly classic weapon: a Kusarigama. This application of a normally defensive wavelength would act to dampen the effects from Wes briefly. Only a minute or two, but enough that it would weaken his sound-based abilities and skill in wavelength regulation. It was a cheap trick, but cheap tricks were to be expected from a man using a Shinobi weapon.

"I am Kyle Sheffield," the meister announced, knowing his first attack full-well would get her attention. The ball end of his weapon retracted back to him, though he wore it a weird way. In fact, there was a lot that was odd about him that could be picked up after his introduction. "And, you are the one that is rumored to have wielded the Mazuko Muramasa," he added, having little shame in the way he sounded. In the time since Feng had partnered with him, she had picked up some of the rumors about Korne. His nickname, his problems, the fact that being partnered with Sam was, in part, how he was kept in line. It just wasn't clear that he was this famous.

"I wanna see what you can do," he told her, though the sass in his voice made his real intention come across as fairly clear: this was a challenge.

Kyle was in the F.A.T.E. Program for a reason, though. While he was no Utility Meister, he did wield two Demon Weapons. One was still sheathed, and he had Distorted Soul that was heavily damaged. Kyle had went to great lengths to damage his own soul in his left arm just to wield him. The problem was that Kyle also had other hyper-fixation he had acted on that ended up landing him in the program, in no small part due to his own borderline self-destructive behavior and rejection of rules. In either case, right now, he fought with the Kusarigama, though the scythe end wasn't in his left hand. While the ball-end was now swirling in his right hand, he didn't grip with the left, where the greatest amount of damage to his soul was.

Clearly, something was fucky about him.

---

Adrian had picked a target out as well. He wanted a rematch against Sara. Recalling their last fight in the cages, he wanted to see what he could do against her while wielding a weapon. He didn't much about Dante, but he didn't care. He was sure the man felt pain just like everyone else. In all reality, Adrian had a fairly good stake in this fight. With the restrictions on Resonance, his Pain Wavelength gave him an incredible edge. This is what he came into the fight knowing. He would have to strategize. Stall it out, keep up steam, avoid people like Gauss at all costs. Avoid elemental affinities if possible, too.

Gauss, Noah, and Arkayis presently were dealing with consequences of their triple-affinity team. Three other duos had decided to try and jump him all at once for a quick elimination, not wanting to deal with such a large threat on the field. Whether or not that trio made it was up in the air, but it benefited Adrian not to defend them. Against a man with two weapons and a magnetic wavelength, Adrian was fairly sure he was fucked in the worst of ways.

But, Sara? That he could deal with and have fun.

"Oh, Saaaara," Adrian announced, his voice almost sing-song. He wasn't as aggressive as some of the others ready to pick a fight. He wanted things to be fair, at least relatively. Jumping someone with his Pain Wavelength never made for a good fight. Besides, the longer he stalled this out, the better his chances were. That was his rationale.

He waited to grab her attention, then opened up his arms as if to greet her. Of course, two spikes shot out from his palms.

"Care for a rematch?" he asked politely, feigned somewhat as there was a hint of sarcasm laced within his words. Playful, at the very least. "I'll even let you warn your weapon what I can do," he offered, though this was more a jab at her. A warning meant danger, and danger was what he thought they were in. She might have been the werewolf, but he saw prey. He couldn't help but hide the toothy smile on his face.

---

Oh, a split decision. Kisei and Elly started without a clear target ahead of them, but now were two familiar ones not far off. Zosar and Wren, the former of which that Kisei had to convince to join. Some late nights telling him that he might as well indulge in the traditions of the DWMA considering he forsook the Enlighteners for it. This type of thing was almost a ritual, after all. A battle royale with rules and limits, first to hit the same target three times, then onward to more traditional fights. It was a glorified game of tag, in a way, but it brought people together in ways not quite anything else did. Not even the Fool's Festival.

This year, in fact, the turnout was so great that a second, levitating arena was built over top the first which allowed for the additional seating of Witches, magical creatures, and anyone so bold to ride the lift up there. The fights couldn't be seen directly, but across dozens of screens and magnified for highlights. It was effectively the biggest UFC event possible, all with the goal of watching these fights for the favor of the Shinigami. This wasn't bloodsport, it was just sport. Not that it couldn't be brutal or entertaining. Innesa proved that in her fight.

The other choice was Gavril. Someone that Kisei had a lot of experience with. They went back, real far back to the Paean Program. Gavril tried to make his way as a Solo Meister only to find out how entirely wrong he was. It took him some time to repair his pride and get back in the game, but he was here. Gav would no doubt be the more skilled fighter between himself and Zosar, but in terms of raw strength, Zosar had him beat due to that Volatile Soul. Decisions, decisions...

'What do you think, love? Zosar or Gavril?' Kisei asked, inquiring from their shared Soul Space. He truly was struck with indecision. Of course, they could pick a fight with just any other random Fate Agent, but there was a benefit to fighting the devil you knew. Kisei was only allowed to fight due to being partnered with Elly. Some others in similar situations chose not to, feeling it wasn't fair. Fairness wasn't what an assassin or a criminal cared about.

Still, until a decision was made, their target wasn't secured, and the more sparsely packed group of Fate Agents did have several more individuals either trying to be strategic or lit up with indecision. Not everyone was so quick to pick a target. Then again, the last match and even now showed that people were more than willing to take attacks of opportunity if left open. Sure, Gauss was being dogpiled on, but in the last match, people would wait until a decisive moment between two others dueling and strike out the victor. The rule was three strikes from the same target, not any target, so even getting that one hit in ahead of time could mean the difference.

Pumpkid Merciless Medic EmperorsChosen @Haze- The Regal Rper November Witch RedArmyShogun Breadman Peckinou Shotgunpenguin

​

 

[The Regal Rper]

Leo | Death Festival/ Tournament Stands

The energy in the stadium was charged, and that's exactly what made this something to experience. It was the whole reason he had pressed Corr to join him, reminding her that if she was going to be part of FATE which, irrespective of others opinion, was part of DWMA, then she may as well join in the traditions.

She had complained about it, and sure she had told him before she wasn't interested in participating in the tournament itself, which he had been fine letting go but the excuses had been enough and he hadn't particularly been interested in giving her a reason to just select option B to toy with her gadgets or lock herself up when there was more fun, exciting stuff happening outside beyond doors. Besides, this festival was a big thing in Death City. October was the busiest time of the whole year. Lots of One Stars took this opportunity to really have fun, he remembered being in their shoes, plenty of others were bound to make the most of this festivity. So being repeatedly shut down for admittedly, nothing of huge importance besides her own interests that he hadn't really been getting as involved in recently, really just had gotten under Leo's skin.

It was one thing if she wasn't interested in being in the tournament, that he could accept, but passing up the entire festival for virtually nothing more than personal experiments that she had been studying for weeks already, really was the last straw.

This festival had been something Eda and he had been looking forward to this year, and this year, that wasn't going to happen. Not with her incident, and not with her being away now that she wasn't an agent anymore and frankly leaving to go spend time with family away from DWMA.

He wanted to at least make up for that, by spending some of the time with the Tinkerer, so it was a bit frustrating to see the sheer lack of enthusiasm. Just a little.

Getting Corellia to the stadium had required him to drag her there. The girl had been intent to just brush the whole day away, and only submitted to his constant prodding because of his persistence. Not exactly how he wanted to start things, if he were being honest, but at least he had gotten her here and she wasn't trying to leave or escape.

He hoped the energy in the atmosphere would leak some of that energy into her as things were getting started. They had arrived just after the EAT bracket concluded and the FATE Bracket was starting. This meant there was a clear chance to identify other people in their group. The TV sets available made it all the more easier to see just who was facing who and gave a great opportunity for some analysis in the future should anyone in this bracket be on their team in the future or if any of them were in theirs.

“Word is for FATE there's going to be quite a mix of individuals in this bracket.” Leo told Corr, excitement contained but the slight snicker on his face clearly visible. “If we're lucky we might get some interesting information on anyone that we may end up being teammates with in the program[/color].” He informed Corr.

And he was right about the people coming into this match. There were a few in the Bracket that Leo could pick out. Thaddeus was one example. He knew Gauss, not so much personally but indirectly, through friends that had interacted with him.

Ganging up on him wasn't bad or good, it was more how well he could use that wavelength of his to his advantage and how much of a nuisance it became. Gauss from what he knew could do a lot of annoying stuff with that Magnetic wavelength of his, none of it good for your average Weapon from what others had said.

Then there was Gavril. Gavril was someone Leonard had experience with briefly in EAT and a few interactions with. Their exchanges hadn't been a lot, but like with most people Gav had interacted with in the past, he left a impression. Word was he actually had been training pretty hard after finishing Paean with his new partners, seeing him in the tournament honestly made Leo feel like he was kind of missing out this year.

The most curious of the bunch was also the one with the most striking features. Unlike Gavril or Gauss whom he knew something about, Leo knew only some things about the one that used to go by Loki. If his features weren't so striking, he probably wouldn't have noticed him at all but given Loki or Zose, was someone with both unique hair and eye colors, it was hard to miss him. The Volatile Soul in action would be a sight to see given he never had seen Loki out on the field personally himself. Plenty of friends of his that had interacted with Gauss when he had been in EAT or his own run ins with Gavril before he joined Paean, had a lot of details. Loki however, beyond the generics of his strong wavelength and apparent fallout, this was going to be quite a display to see.

Feng was another one, though he had only heard of her through some friends. Carrying three Weapons into this really gave her a list of options here.

To some extent, Leo tried to get Corr engaged by relaying bits of this information as the participants now got into engagement. Specifically the ones he knew of at least. Some blitzing off to attack, others not quite making their mark yet or some sabotaging or capitalizing on others mistakes.

It was bound to be an exciting match, and as he sipped on his soda, Leo, kept a close eye on the screens as the engagements began.

Mentions: n/a

Interactions: November Witch

 

[Shotgunpenguin]

Wes Kraven
Death Colosseum - Death City, Nevada
October 31'st
Mentions: RedArmyShogun EmperorsChosen Sir Les Paul ​

---

​

The roar of the crowds were almost as deafening as the roar of the variety of souls around Wes, an almost nauseating blob of clashing soul signatures. It reminded him of the Hawaii trip, back when they had that dinner in the banquet hall of the hotel. Only this time, he didn’t have Annika’s wavelength to help him tune out the majority of it. To be honest, he really didn’t want to be here, competing in the festival. The audience with lord Kidd didn’t interest him that much, and while the prospect of being able to ask for a fast track back into the EAT program was tempting; He knew that there were other agents who would fight tooth and nail to take it for themselves.

But there was a very important reason as to why he was participating. Or rather, two very important reasons for his participation in the festival. His thoughts drifted back to just shy of a week ago, before the festival but after his mission in New York, and to the event that pushed him towards joining Feng and Aki.

---

Wes found himself waking up to the sound of an alarm, his heavy eyes slowly fluttering open as his phone screamed angrily at him from the coffee table. A limp arm snaked out from underneath the blanket, swiping against the screen once, twice, and finally managing to shut it off on the third attempt. The room was dark and quiet as he let out a low groan, burying his face back into the couch pillow and wishing he had never set the alarm in the first place. Unfortunately, he had already slept for nearly twelve hours straight, and if he didn’t get up and get some form of food he’d likely be waking up when everything was already closed.

Reaching up, he slid off his headphones and breathed a sigh as the physical world came rushing in to catch up with the spiritual. While it wasn’t much, the additional noise only reinforced the idea that going back to sleep wasn’t an option. Letting out a yawn, he brought a hand up to his open mouth, only to pause as he recognized a certain soul rapidly approaching from the first floor. It took him a second to place the sound he was hearing to a name, but as soon as he realized who it was he couldn’t help but let out a low groan. “Aww, fuck. It’s Vince.”

Vince was another agent in the program, albeit one who had a few more years on Wes. His defining characteristic was his hair, a midnight black pompadour that seemed to defy gravity itself. He had an easy going personality that allowed him to get along with most people, and under different circumstances Wes might have been one of them. Unfortunately, due to his current position in aiding Wes in his rehabilitation, he had taken a much more active role in trying to get the purple haired weapon up and out of his apartment.

Briefly, he wondered if he could just pretend that he wasn’t home and hope that Vince would just leave him alone. This hope was quickly shattered as the door to his apartment rattled, before being pushed open and letting in a ray of light. Vince let himself into the apartment with an almost casual disregard to the privacy of its actual owner, eying the room before his eyes landed on Wes’s blanket clad form.

“Wow, I’m impressed. I can almost breathe in here without feeling like an orange was aggressively trying to shove itself up my nose.” Wes rolled his eyes at the comment, sitting up and swinging his feet off of the couch and onto the floor. After his last interaction with Sara, Wes decided that he would at least try his hand at cleaning up his apartment. It wasn’t 'clean' clean, but it was a notable difference for the few who managed to find their way into his apartment.

“...The door was locked by the way.” Wes pointed out to the intruder, not even bothering to ask how he bypassed the lock. Not that it even did much good, considering that most agents could easily rip the doorknob off and shove past the door like it was plywood. “What do you want?”

“Just thought I’d stop by, check in on you and- aww screw it, never was good at being subtle.” Vance admitted quickly, dropping any pretext of just dropping in to visit the weapon. “Came to ask if you and your partners were planning on participating in the festival.”

Wes was momentarily caught off guard by the brazen admission, his eyes widening slightly before returning to his natural lidded stare. He hadn’t planned on participating, let alone attending the festival. Despite the DWMA’s assurances that this year nothing would happen, he was still hesitant to attend any kind of celebration after the whole Hawaii fiasco. Better not to risk it and spend the week catching up on his shows. “I mean, I think Feng and Aki are competing. Haven’t really talked about it. Not that it matters, since I’m not going. Crowds aren’t my thing.”

“Yeah see, I thought you might say that.” Vince sighed and shook their head, bringing a hand up to scratch at the back of it. It was a habit of his that Wes had picked up on whenever they got annoyed by something. “So I took it upon myself as your ever loved mentor to give you some motivation.”

“What are you talking about?” Wes’s eyes narrowed into fine slits at Vince, a creeping sense of dread slowly worming its way up through his stomach and into his chest. The sudden interest in having him attend the festival, and to a greater extent actually compete, was suspicious enough on its own. But the fact that he came in person and even rudely came in unannounced, almost as if he had something he just couldn’t wait to reveal was far more concerning.

“Oh nothing much.” Vince’s expression became quite cattish at Wes’s confusion, his eyes glinting with a hidden sense of mischief as he continued. “Had some extra cash laying around, so I decided to treat my favorite shut-in to a nice surprise. The festival is so much fun, too much to experience it all by yourself. So I just made sure to invite some special guests to come out and spend the week for the festival. They’ve never been, despite their son living here for years. Real shame.”

Wes’s narrowed eyes suddenly shot open as the creeping sensation suddenly became an ice cold chain that stabbed into his heart and wildly thrashed around. He couldn’t have. The blood in his veins ran cold and a look of pure horror painted itself on his face, realization and disbelief slamming into him. “You didn’t-”

“Oh, and by the way.” Vince cut him off, his previous coy look being replaced by an absolute shit eating grin. “Your mom says hi.”

---

His parents were watching the festival from somewhere in the crowd, whether they were in the stands or watching from a screen he couldn't tell. The sheer number of souls made picking them out specifically difficult. While he could do so given the time and concentration, knowing whether they were actually watching him in person or not wasn't high on his list of priorities. Their reunion had been a bit on the awkward side, at least on his part. Beyond the embarrassment of being manhandled by his mom in public, of having to endure the universal slew of questions about his love life, Wes found himself cringing through it all. They were just so happy to see their baby boy, their baby boy who hadn’t been returning their calls or texts and hadn’t so much as sent them a text to let them know that he was alive. Their baby boy who was going to spend the entire week catching up with them and showing them around the city and introducing them to all of his friends.

After his parents had enough of grilling him for every bit of information they could squeeze out of him, they thankfully left in order to check into their hotel, but not before making a promise to catch up even more tomorrow. Wes had felt drained, unsure of whether or not he could take another day of having his parents pry and pick over every last detail about how he was doing and who he was speaking to. He needed an out, something that he could point to in order to avoid having to go through with it again. A quick call to Feng later, and a non-negligible amount of begging her to take him with her if she planned on competing, he had gotten his excuse. While his parents were slightly saddened by the fact that he wouldn't be able to be with them all week, they made sure to have him promise that if he got eliminated that they could spend the remainder of the week together.

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted as something hard impacted against his weapon form, sending out a low rattle that sounded out through the arena. ‘What is this guy’s deal?’ His mom would probably have some choice words for him for judging a book by its cover, but Wes’s first impression of Kyle was that he was an absolute weirdo. Between his odd fixation on the fact that Feng wielded Korne, him using only his right arm, and a distorted and damaged soul that sounded as if someone smashed a guitar, put it back together with scotch tape and glue, and tried to play it like normal; there was a lot going on with him.

Still, regardless of weirdness, Wes couldn’t deny the fact that that first hit did have an effect on him. It felt like he had cotton stuffed into his ears, not enough to completely block him from being able to hear, but enough that everything came through muddled and offset. While it wouldn’t affect his effectiveness as a shield, it meant that if Feng kept using him to block Kyle’s blows, he’d be rendered far less useful than normal. If this were just a one on one fight, that might not have been an issue. But the bedlam that was rapidly breaking out around them proved that the other participants wouldn’t give them any time to rest.

‘His hit did something to me, I can't hear as clearly as normal.’ Wes quickly informed Feng and Aki of the effect Kyle’s wavelength had on him, moreso for the former than the latter. While resonance was off the table, he could still give Feng a boost via regulation, but if the lingering effects of the wavelength lasted for long enough she would have to rely on Aki more.

 

[RedArmyShogun]

Nadia Semyonov
Death Colosseum, Death City, Nevada
October 31st​

In the wake of her mission and the various problems and praise that would accompany her performance. Some seemed to disagree with her decisions, some supported it, but none could deny the final results. With her scant time to speak with the others after their own missions it seemed they all were rather busy, with the Mage team under Gauss also dealing with situations that were a surprise, unplanned, and without a briefing. The doll maker was less than pleased with the whole situation, and Nadia was displeased that the beast they had believed to have killed was some sort of zombie that had to be defeated again. Once again Witches would do something unexpected and displayed a massive show of force. And as far as witches went the identity of Feng and Dani's magical interference was left in doubt as to who they were, the same for the slaughter that befell the units under the Meister known as Sam.

The next few days would pass with no notable events taking place on Nadia's side of things as they rolled into the tournament. Normally Nadia would be slightly disappointed in what she viewed as a punishment, but on the other hand, this punishment, was one she did not mind. That being assigned to a security detail within the colosseum. Lord Death was in attendance and offered an interesting prize to the overall winner of this battle royale. The EAT Bracket was over with a Russian and German pair taking first place in what was hardly a challenge, so thoroughly defeated the noncombat origin ones were from the rest in terms of power and scale.

Then it rolled into the second half of the event, with a few people that she and Dani personally knew were next to fight. Given what had happen and her protests being ignored, Nadia pointedly couldn't care less if one of them were defeated. In fact, she hoped for as much... Still, it would not do to agitate her partner in the event that yet more things went wrong for the DWMA.

Watching from what amounted to a front row seat, or at least a front row stair landing, Nadia would motion to Dani, or for the time being would be standing alongside her, to where what few they knew were out on the field. She didn't much care which one of them won, but Dani would want to cheer one of them at least.

Or, with the girl's disposition, she would likely stand there with glare pretending she didn't care at all but would only look at him. "We can take a break for now, da, but we'll be moving again.

I'll try keeping us on the bottom runner at least. Be alert, who knows what may happen. Hopefully nothing, but we shall see."


Interactions: EmperorsChosen (Dani)

 

[RedArmyShogun]

Feng Long - Aki Kiyoko -Wes Kraven - Domas Krogertas
LOCATION—Death Colosseum, Death City, Nevada
DATE—10/31/20267​

With the events of the NYC mission snowballing to their conclusion, getting a new member to the team in the form of Domas, and the general debriefing, Feng rather enjoyed the few days of downtime and what few days of relaxation she was allowed would come to an end with the fighting competition only a scant few weeks later.

She and Aki has planned to join from the start, Domas was a new factor and she planned to ask him, and while she did not expect that he would agree, she would ask Wes as well. Or so she would have, if not for the fact he had reached out to her, with some casual questioning it became clear mighty fast why it was to be. If anything, maybe it would be a good source of inspiration in the future, or more glumly, black mail. But that was neither here nor there once the battle commenced, Feng had an open link with three weapons, it was honestly a bit much, but she settled her own thoughts and focused on her immediate surroundings.

True to form, Wes found this all problematic, though he did not voice as much, and a lunatic had sought her out. A Kyle Sheffield, armed with a Kusarigama, Feng had contact with such weapons before, and a second weapon, that did not seem just right, as she smiles coyly, carrying out two conversations, on internally, and one externally.

”I am Feng Long. I would not say I used the bloodthirsty blade, so much as I swung him about to remove things that bothered me.” She said with a mix of humor and warning, before more or less accepting the challenge as she aimed Aki right for the target in her left hand, Wes was tied to her left arm, and Domas was in her right hand, in whichever form he wished to be in.

Ignoring the crowds, even as she waved at them, or rather a vague perception of them, she started pulling off shots, regulating Aki for now as she talked to the three;

’Need a little more detail than that Wes, I can try overwhelming all the sounds but eh… Might be hard, what with that I can’t resonate.

How about you two, Aki, Domas? Feel anything off, minus the creepy <bastard>” She said in Mandarin, which as far as she knew only Aki understood.

’I got an idea to deal with them, but I need to make sure that chain doesn’t have any electrical crap. We have two mercs with us now, suggestions outside of mine?’ In the outside world, Feng was already stepping off and running, she had wanted to go through this as an equal opportunity ass kicker, it was a royal rumble after all, but this was not to be, not yet at least.

‘It's like I'm trying to hear things through a wall. Everything's muffled, harder to make out.’ Wes offered to Feng in clarification, quickly adding ‘I think whatever his wavelength is only affects what he hits.’

"Off? No. Feels like any other weird creep I've seen." Domas answered with a tinge of ridicule in his voice, aimed at their adversary. As the fight began, he had taken his role in axe form. "Swing at him a few times. Feel the electricity in the air and fry him like a chicken." They told him Feng was different from the usual people who used him before. A line that was fed to him over and over through the years, rarely true. Not like he made it easy for anyone. To call him surprised now would be underselling it. The open wavelength of this particular meister was different. She had taken up the axe, and he felt a very different sensation than the one he was used to. He was going to have fun on this tour. "You can also just...cut him. A bit mundane, but sometimes a good hack and slash can be very rewarding."

‘My perception was never the best, so I can't really tell anything weird. Well, there's weird, but–you know,’ Aki replied simply. ‘Probably don't let him get ahold of anything with that chain and… just shoot him, I guess.’

’Eh, I was going to grab the chain actually and pull him close for a beating. But you all seem to think that is a bad idea. But yeah, let’s see what a little thunder and fire can do…’

With the axe form of Domas at the ready, Feng found it troublesome that she couldn’t just hack them up like that, but she could put on a show. Ducking down low and to the right she speaks to the team internally; ’Wes, see if you can regulate us, or at least yourself, if you can’t at all, I’ll go through myself with all of your wavelengths.

Domas, ready yourself for action, we’ll get in close and do it quickly.

Aki, gather what bit of you wavelength that you can, focus on power.’ With that said Feng quickly rushed in, dipping low and to the left of her opponent, her violent tendencies and berserker lineage coming to the front as she swung the axe as Domas had directed, letting static charge build up from her right arm, while her left with Wes and Aki, fired off a few potshots, her goal here was aggression and overwhelming firepower. It wouldn’t hurt to shit talk the weirdo while she was at it.

”Yeah, I don’t know much about that sword. But if you want to see what I can do, then don’t blink.” she said as she attempted to unleash the elemental and firepower torrent.

Interactions: EmperorsChosen (Aki) Shotgunpenguin (Wes) Breadman (Domas) Sir Les Paul (NPCs)

 

[Sir Les Paul]

Date Night
Collab for Dani and Adrian​

Note 17,000+ word count.

1844 | September 23th, 2067​

---

Some time ago…​

”So, yeah, uh… I thought you, uhm… Or that I should ask,” Adrian said, stumbling over his words in a failed attempt to tell the man what he wanted. In fairness, if this were either an official order or a threat of some kind, he would have done fair better.

Instead, this was an awkward approach asking for assistance. Advice of a romantic kind. Not only that, Adrian didn’t really know the guy well. They were in the same program and had been on a fair few missions, but they specifically didn’t interact a lot. Unless it was on a rare mission where he was separated from Nadia and Dani, but even then, most of their talk came in the form of orders. It had been months since they said anything of value to another.

Yet, here they were. Adrian had waited around the DWMA, skulking the halls near the upper conference rooms waiting for Gauss to get out of one. It might have seemed slightly odd at first glance, but he at least had the sense to send a message beforehand asking if they could talk. It was a bit of a back and forth, though, as Gauss wanted to make sure Adrian wasn’t going to break out into a fight. After that was confirmed, the Meister really had no reason to decline. It was settled then that they would talk after Gauss’ most recent debriefing.

Adrian, in his anxiety, took that literally. He approached Gauss only moments after he exited the conference room.

The golden eyes of Gauss were fixated on Adrian. He could see the insecurity within his soul, but he didn’t even need to: Adrian wore his heart on his sleeve. Adrian was biting his lip, rubbing the back of his neck, his back slightly hunched over to make his form shrink, and his voice had no aggression in it whatsoever. He was a whole different man. A lot of energy in him still, but it was painted in a brand new color.

It left Gauss wondering how to best navigate this situation. He still wasn’t sure what Adrian wanted in general and it completely evaded him what would cause him to behave this way. It perhaps was a combination of their lack of previous discourse and his own lack of insight as to certain emotions. Not only that, Adrian still had quite the temper. Gauss most commonly saw him out on missions, which meant that it was without Dani. Without her around, his temper was often worse or mood more foul–at least, by accounts. Apparently, it was such a well-known trait that for any mission of significant importance, he was always paired with Nadia. He was only tested in other team configurations on lower-stakes missions.

Point being, Gauss was well-aware that Adrian was still a man to carry some tactic around. A more constructive response with a more delicate touch was likely required here. Still, even with that in mind, Gauss was still Gauss.

Gauss lifted his hand, open palm toward Adrian, gesturing to him to slow down. ”Adrian, buddy…” he said before pausing, commandeering the situation for a moment. ”Complete sentences, man. Slow down, form a thought, then say it,” he went on, doing his absolute best to make that come across with some organic compassion instead of a condescending tone. It half worked.

Adrian paused and continued that pause all through the comment Gauss had made. He couldn’t really be mad given the situation: he was coming to Gauss for help, and fumbling over every turn. If anything, this only added to his embarrassment. He took the advice to heart.

A deep breath in. A deep breath out. Beating around the bush got him nowhere. Worst case scenario is Gauss laughed and they fought it out. If that were to come to pass, it was probably gonna happen regardless of how Adrian asked the question. That was how he rationalized his new bravery.

”So, uh… I want to take Dani out somewhere nice. Like, really nice,” Adrian explained, ”and like… I know that’s, uhm, your thing, so I thought… I’d ask what, uh… you’d do..” The man went from nearly-trembling to still as death itself once he finished his sentence. The anticipation from what Gauss might say caused him to freeze up entirely.

Of all the things in all the world, Gauss would have never guessed that Adrian was coming to him for romantic advice. It wasn’t exactly fatherly advice, though. At least there was that. And, clearly, Adrian and Dani didn’t need a discussion about the birds and the bees–thank Death. In fact, there was a fairly logical reason to come to him. Granted, Gauss wasn’t exactly happy how close said reasoning came to his more colorful past, but it didn’t seem Adrian was harping on that. He wanted help.

It took a moment, but Gauss both processed and came around to the idea. Not only out of his own benevolence, but the Maiden owing him a favor might just be useful in the future. If not, it might at least improve his attitude on the rare mission they did together.

”Okay,” Gauss responded, believing it wisest to at least put the two on the same page of agreement before he moved the conversation on. This tactic seemed to work pretty effectively given that he could see Adrian relax as if his entire body released a collective exhale.

He then ruined that entirely, causing Adrian to tense up once again the moment he put his hand on his shoulder. ”I think I’ve got just the place in mind,” Gauss answered, grinning knowing he could not only get Adrian in, but would likely impress even Dani. With enough vodka, it might even get Nadia’s approval.

”Y-Yeah?” Adrian responded sheepishly. Even when it came to Zari, Adrian didn’t do a lot of touching. There was no super strong bro-bonding. It was dueling and time spent together. Gauss touching him was a bit out of his comfort zone, but that was a sacrifice he was willing to make for the moment.

”Yeah, man. I got you,” Gauss responded, spreading his confidence through both his words and soul via the touch. ”You see, I could get you into some place incredibly difficult to go to, like the Deathstraunt… but where’s the fun in that?” he asked, shooting Adrian a hypothetical question. With his free hand, he turned it outward and with a shrug, as if to actually get a proper answer.

”I’ve never been there, so it might be nice… I hear it’s nice,” Adrian admitted, not meaning to argue, but Gauss was somewhat disjointed with the common man. The vast majority of people–even inside Death City–never got the chance to eat there. It wasn’t exactly easy getting inside any Michelin star restaurant.

”I mean she tells me she never really cares where we go, y’know… like, she just wants to be there together,” he explained, trying to share his experience, ”and it is always fun.. but, I wanted to take her somewhere really nice. And, like, I didn’t want to make her wait a whole year, like, uh… an anniversary was the only excuse to make it nice.”

His rationale was not lost on Gauss. The man might have been ignorant to a lot of things and his empathy wasn’t always on-point, but this was a feeling he could and truly did understand.

”Don’t worry, man; I got you,” Gauss reassured, still grinning. Only getting more excited, even. ”You don't want the place to be too over-the-top or classy. You want a place that’s beautiful–a feast for the eyes–and unique. Women love a surprise when it’s executed well. And, I know a surprising little place that not a lot of people know about. It’s as gorgeous as any scenic view, the food there is amazing, I think it’s the only place like it in all of Death City,” Gauss explained, sharing his thought process.

”That… actually sounds great,” Adrian responded, gaining at least some amount of confidence based on the description. It did leave him with one question, though: ”What’s it called?”

---

The Solar Barge. It was once a decommissioned Riverboat Casino operating out of Lake Michigan. It was then bought and repurposed into an Egyptian-themed restaurant built into the reservoir behind the dam that controlled the River Styx. It was truly a beautiful vessel. The previously white-painted wood had all been stripped down, dyed black, and coated over repeatedly with a protective clear coat, then bound in what looked like the bright gold the Egyptian aesthetic often had. The black, gold, and gloss layered on top of the Louisiana-style design made for a luxurious-looking ship.

It was more than that, though. When Gauss said ‘I got you’ to Adrian, he meant it. He covered the cost of a suit and ride to and from the place. Adrian elected not to actually wear the jacket of the suit, though. It was Nevada. It was hot. Still, this left the blue-haired man being cleaned up, hair cut and styled instead of spiked, and wearing a button down under a dark-gray vest. Slacks and Oxfords were the obvious part of the ensemble, too.

Dani was dressed in probably the nicest clothing she owned. She wasn’t in a full dress like for the ball, but wore a long-sleeve off-shoulder black top with a tan skirt that reached to the mid-point of her thighs, and short black pumps that had a strap that curved up from the heel to wrap around her ankle. She wore a pair of silver earrings and a bracelet and had tamed her hair so that it actually looked kempt and stylish with her bangs parted over her left eye and swept to partially cover the right.

Most surprisingly, she actually wore some makeup. It wasn’t heavy, but it was certainly enough to be noticeable. The lip gloss made her lips slightly more pronounced, the product applied to her cheeks gave a permanent, subtle blush and her cheekbones more pronounced. There was some eyeliner that made her lashes appear longer and her blue eyes stand out. Paired with the eyeshadow, her eyes were simultaneously softer yet more striking. Even her nails seemed to have been touched up. (Pic related)

Adrian didn’t really know how to handle all of these things being thrown in his lap, but he wasn’t going to reject them out of pride. The entire idea was to give Dani a nice night out. Something fancy. Something scaled up. They had had dozens of more relaxed, casual dates by this point. Extravagant and eternally memorable–even if it was outside of his normal means–was the vibe for tonight.

That was his conviction before even seeing Dani. Upon actually seeing her, that conviction only grew. Not that there wasn’t some internal conflict. Adrian was extremely excited for the date. From the moment he brought up pictures of the spot to when he told Dani he had a surprise for her, his anticipation had been building. They had already put the date off once due to a mission that had ran long, so this moment was definitely overdue. Then again, just seeing her as she was now… part of Adrian wouldn’t have minded taking her right back to her apartment.

Obviously, that wasn’t the direction this was going.

Still, it was a thought in his head. It was rare that he had such an intense, intrusive thought of that nature. Normally, that occurred in situations under circumstances they could reasonably act on it or were in private. Such was not the case. Even beyond that idea, though, Adrian was still quite shook by Dani. Not that she wasn’t attractive every other time he had seen her, but when you took something naturally beautiful and had it adhere to the beauty standards pushed by society, it would have been an absolute lie to deny that there was a powerful, synergistic effect.

Adrian didn’t really know how to respond. Part of him worried any compliment he might offer could be interpreted as she didn’t look as good normally, but that wasn’t actually it. Adrian just wasn’t smooth. If his mind was a hamster wheel, the rodent had already exhausted itself trying to think of what to tell Dani. Or, even how to narrow down the million things he thought and felt about her in this moment. He wanted to say or do something, but really, all he had was an adoring gaze and mind lost in the possibilities of what to say and the probabilities of how saying it might go.

“Y-You know…” Dani spoke up after a period of silence. Dressing up like this always somehow made her more nervous. Compounded with the makeup and she felt like she was in a Halloween costume or the sort. Nadia told her she looked good before grumbling off to hibernation, but she still felt odd all dolled up. At this point, it was hard to tell what was from the makeup and what was a natural blush.

Thankfully, they had been together long enough that Adrian’s presence had somewhat of a calming effect so she wasn’t a complete stuttering mess. “I think I kinda like you in a vest,” She said with a small smirk as her thumb and index finger lightly pinched the lining of it and traced the edge.

”Well… I, uh… I know I like you in that dress,” Adrian replied, proving he wasn’t quite as calmed as Dani. Not that she didn’t have an effect on him, just that the effect in this case was doing the opposite. Her fingers tracing the lining of his vest only worsened the thoughts he was having, forcing him to push those down deep.

”It, uh… ac-actually with a jacket, too… “ he admitted, still clearly nervous. ”I thought it’d be too hot tonight,” he told her. This was a truth. And, now that Dani was near and her body heat was radiating onto him, he absolutely knew that was the correct decision. Especially if they were to dance later. ”Seeing you, now I’m sure it’d be too hot…” he added.

Dani chuckled sheepishly at that. “...Well, at least I didn't fuck up that choice,” She replied, signifying her own uncertainty. Her blush seemed to deepen a bit, flagging that it certainly wasn't just makeup now. “Smoothtalker…”

Her smirk remained though, and drew her hands from his vest. “Yeah, you would be too hot,” She remarked as she leaned back in the seat and hooked one leg over the other. Over the period of their relationship, Dani had remained a bit timid and flustered when it came to herself, however she certainly grew more blatant with what she liked. In this case, that was him.

“So, where're we going? You just told me it was fancy.”

For Adrian, self-control was becoming the name of the game. Every move Dani made, mundane or otherwise, revealed her form in a way that Adrian appreciated on a very primal level. Over the course of their relationship, she had grown accustomed to just taking what she wanted when she wanted. It was far less often for Adrian to initiate, but right in this moment, he sure wanted to.

He just had to remember it would be a shame to ruin that make-up before they arrived.

”If I tell you the name, it might ruin part of the surprise,” Adrian responded, his tone playful. Teasing, really. In truth, he welcomed a topic of substance. Any distraction in the moment was appreciated. ”And, I’m pretty sure you’d never guess Death City had one of these. I didn’t even know until I was shown,” he explained, still only releasing tidbits of information.

“Aw, you’re gonna fuckin’ tease me the whole way there…” Dani chuckled at that. “Well, if it’s the kind of place we dress like this for, I probably wouldn’t know it existed anyway,” She said humorously. She was pretty tomboyish and given her hobbies and interests, dressing up and going out somewhere like this was unusual, even without taking into account she spent much of her time with her brother and then alone.

At that peculiar information, her head tilted slightly in thought and her hand idly patted against her lap. “Can’t be a club, there’s plenty of those things. Uh… or a restaurant… A special restaurant?”

Exhaling a bit she looked over at him again with a mock pout. “Come on, gimme some hints before I guess something really stupid. Can’t be a waterpark.”

Adrian reached his hand across the seat and rested it on hers, squeezing her fingers between his. Gentle, soft, attentive. In moments like these, he had a side that the rest of the world might not have ever guessed existed. He tossed her a gentle smile, offered her a cocked head, then topped it all off with a soft laugh.

”Babe, we’ll be there soon,” Adrian answered, that chuckle almost lingering in his words. Truth was, he saw an adorable cuteness in the inquisitive nature Dani had. Even down to her pout. ”And, I think you’ll like it more seeing it without any hints,” he went on, really just trying to push the surprise factor.
He then unclipped his seat belt and scooted closer, leaning in closer to her. He knew she might have bitched about it if she had much time to think, so he didn’t allow it. Instead, he dived in quick, pressing his lips onto hers. It wasn’t quite as gentle as his words, but he didn’t touch her face or play with her hair; he did worry about ruining that make-up. A kiss somewhere in between gentle and forced. Whatever it was, it didn’t lack passion. It didn’t lack warmth. And, it certainly didn’t lack desire.

Dani’s fingers interlocked with his and returned the squeeze. There was some smartass remark waiting to leave her lips, but that was interrupted as soon as he moved closer. She cared a lot less about wherever they were going than this, and it showed as she leaned forward into the kiss. Her lips curled into a giddy smile after a bit before breaking away, her hand trailing along the side of his cheek. “I know what you’re doing, smartass…” She murmured before leaning in again. She knew, but she definitely didn’t disapprove.

She may damn-well known what he was doing, but the distraction worked well enough for the remainder of the ride. Which happened to be no small task given the route: from the residential apartments on the East Side all the way down to one of the most Southern locations in the entire DWMA. The fact the ride took them through the entirety of the historical district and even down past DAX only made it all that much more confusing; the entertainment district, which would have made far more sense, was west.

It all started to make at least a little more sense once they started driving along the road beside the River Styx. Given they were in the work district far away from any place else that made any amount of sense, whatever surprise Adrian had in store could only be related to the river or the water.

Which would soon be confirmed. The luxury sedan the two were picked up in would soon find itself turning left and gliding downhill to a set of docks. The road they were on and the parking lot it led to had been carved out of the road. Once the river neared the dam and reservoir, it effectively became a cliff overlooking the water–unless an area like this was dug out. What it meant was that the two were given a broad view of the parking lot, other cars, docks, and of course, the riverboat in all its glory.

One might call a riverboat casino the original party boat. Even before being remodeled, the Solar Barge was an impressively wide and well-lit craft. It was unlike yachts with their slanted designs, instead being unashamed in how wide, broad, and square it was by design. More and even brighter lights had to be installed to counteract the darker wood and black staining, but it made for a fairly flashy appearance once they got a better look.

There was no real hiding it now. Their date was on a riverboat in the middle of Death City. A feat truly only feasible through magic.

”It’s called the Solar Barge,” Adrian told her, his lips curled with an excited smile. He thought he’d give her some context while their driver made his way through the parking lot. He would be dropping them off, after all.

”It used to be a casino, apparently. It has live bands and dancing… for later,” he continued on, perhaps dropping hints. Ever since the Duchess of Discord, dancing was something that had somewhat been forever associated with Dani.

Dani’s reaction to the date location was fairly obvious. “...Is that a fuckin’ boat?!” She gasped and stared out the window as her face lit up.

Adrian chuckled at her excited response. ”Yeah,” he answered. It was incredible, honestly. Not just how ornate or beautiful the boat was, but the fact there was a boat in the middle of Death City–in the middle of Nevada alongside deserts and seas of sand.

The sedan pulled around to the edge of the boardwalk which itself was connected to the dock platform that led to the on-ramp for the boat. Essentially, it was a wooden red carpet that would allow the two to walk right onto the riverboat. Adrian was quick to slide out of his seat so that he could usher Dani out through the same door. A sweet gesture, but also one that made them both highly aware of the live jazz music playing from the boat. A small band, amplified by a PA system onboard, but impressive nonetheless.

​

Dani grinned as she took his hand and slid out the side of the car. She looked up at the boat and between the sight and the music, Dani momentarily even forgot about her earlier anxieties she discussed with Nadia. Whether Adrian opted to lead her or not, she hardly gave him the opportunity. Instead, she hooked her arm around his and did the same with their hands, lightly urging him forward.

“How the fuck did you find this place? Fuck–I should stop talking,” Dani remarked. These types of places were nice, but they did always make her more aware of her sailor’s mouth than she usually was or cared to be. “Seriously though… Death damn.”

As one would, Adrian guided Dani down the docks. The feeling of the platform beneath them reacting with every step was unique. Not as intense as it could have been. While they were topped with wood, underneath them were sheets of metal. A combination meant for longevity, though dock design was likely in neither of their portfolios. What it meant to them was each step gave way ever-so slightly on larger four-by-four platforms that comprised the docks. The shift in weight every time they stepped over the threshold of one was fairly obvious, especially as the docks transitioned into what was effectively a short bridge to their boat.

And, from that bridge was a literal boarding plank. While it was definitely wider and sturdier than what one might have thought of with a quick image of a pirate ship, it was still fundamentally the same thing: a thin, but sturdy platform to walk from the edge of the dock to the edge of the ship.

”I did get little help…” Adrian admitted, downplaying just how this was basically someone else’s idea entirely, ”but this is supposed to be special, so I thought reaching out couldn’t hurt.”

Finally, a step onto the boat. Somehow, it was more stable than the docks, though that might have been in part due to its wide design. The design of the boat was such that a railed walkway was featured around the entire thing, only broken by the absolutely massive paddlewheel in the back. The boat itself had four stacked levels with them currently at the lowest. Or, at least the lowest that guests could visit.

”So… if I remember, this level is like a museum-lobby type thing. It has a lot of the old betting tables and history stuff, I think. Then above that is the ballroom with the band and bar. Above thaaaat is the actual restaurant… and above that is, uh–another secret,” he explained, trying to pull from his memory the layout of the place. He tried to memorize it in the weeks prior to the visit so that he could more effectively escort Dani around.

“I’ll still give you full credit,” Dani remarked with a chuckle as she eyed the surroundings while simultaneously trying to make sure she didn’t stumble in the shoes she was wearing.

As they reached the actual boat, Dani looked around and, sure enough, it did seem like a casino, or what used to be a casino. There were plenty of tables and machines suited for that purpose, but without the bustle and smoke. Dani turned to look at him with a raised brow. “Another secret, huh? Hm…” Pondering that, she didn’t see anything that would be a giveaway on the walk from the docks to the boat. She was sure she would see what it was soon enough and the other two options were both enticing for their own reasons anyway. “Alright, so which are you gonna show me first?”

At her question, Adrian had to peek down at the watch on his wrist, which Dani had a hold of, but he had the finesse to see the time without bothering her grip. Combined with a quick glance into the sky and how it was still, for the most part, a clear blue with the sun barely kissing the horizon, Adrian could determine they still had a fair amount of time, but not enough for their whole meal. It was a slight flaw in the plan that would lead to a later dinner, but not a huge problem given what he expected would be the highlight of the date.

Still, it did make him think about how to proceed.

”Weeeeell… we could either take a look around the museum in the lobby,” he said, starting off their options, ”or, we could go check out the band in-person then see if we can dance on a boat without kissing the floor.” He had a clear preference between the two, but he wasn’t about to entirely take autonomy from Dani. If she wanted to scope out the old gambling tables and other display pieces, he wouldn’t have minded going through each installment to read the plaques and see the history.

Dani snickered a bit at that and tugged at his arm eagerly. “I think you’ll be fine, Adi…. Ya’ might have to catch me, though,” She warned him. “I think I’ve gotten better at walkin’ in these, but… uh… I don’t think I’ve ever danced in them…” She added a bit sheepishly. The museum and plaques would be interesting and Dani wouldn’t mind going through them with him, however the dancing provided Dani a focus she was far more interested in than history.

”Of course I’ll catch you,” Adrian responded, a light-hearted tone, and a jest to follow, ”Nadia would kill me if I brought you back bruised from the floor.” A memory flashed of the first time Adrian had left a few marks on her neck… Nadia was not happy.

With Dani on his arm, Adrian walked the perimeter of the boat to get to the lobby. The boat barely rocked; the reservoir wasn’t exactly still water, but it didn’t have currents like an actual river nor tides like the ocean. It had a flow, but it was perfectly regulated by a downstream dam. Even at the worst on the edges of the boat, it was fairly easy to adapt to. Heels, on the other hand, were a whole different struggle.

The lobby was exactly as promised: a well-decorated, albeit somewhat cramped, museum of sorts. It featured different betting tables, some sawn in half to show the years of wear under the wood from the highly-specific placement of cards during blackjack. A roulette table mounted against a corner, hoisted in the air to show the mechanisms for how it spun. There were even various stalls throughout the area that, should they have stopped, told interesting stories regarding the time the boat was a casino, including certain thefts, a time it almost sank, and even a time a man was shot aboard. Dramatized, of course, as if it were the wild west.

The lobby was not their final destination, though. Instead, they had to ascend a flight of stairs to the next floor. A little extra support was given to make sure there was no tumble down the stairs. That type of accident might have literally caused the reaction Adrian joked about just a moment ago. Luckily, no such falls were fated to occur.

The ballroom was huge. Unlike the lobby below, this floor was rebuilt without walls or structural beams to help support it. Instead, it used a series of rafters and supports along the edges of the most outer walls to create an almost bridge-like series of supports that were then all decorated over with hand-carved ebony trim. The room best resembled the dark mystique of some victorian-era manor, but it all worked well given that this floor itself maintained the same theme all-throughout. At the very front of the room, the opposite way the two had walked from the lobby and thus close to the actual front of the boat, was an elevated stage that cut into the next floor. This allowed for a much larger reverberation of the live sound and for it to echo into the restaurant floor for those dining in. A decent space-saving design that worked both for the live band, those that wanted to dance, and the diners above.

There were only a few tables in the very front, intended for those that wanted to sit and listen to the music. There were already a few couples there doing exactly that. While the receptionist downstairs paid them no mind, it seemed the servers on this floor were lively and friendly as well. They all buzzed around a bar that was opposite to the stairs they just ascended where there were two bartenders and a few other patrons. This place wasn’t as packed as the Duchess of Discord, but it was certainly lively.

These designs all of course led to a fairly open floor plan between the bar and tables. Well over half the room was designed to be open-space for dancing. That said, there weren’t that many people dancing. A combination of the swing dance being a lost art and the previous song playing being slower. That song just so happened to be winding down and coming to an end. There were already three women shifting on the stage; a distinct change given that the previous song and band had no vocals.

”Hopefully, the next song is a little easier to dance to,” Adrian commented, having led Dani and himself off only slightly so that they were out of the way of the stairwell. He let out a ‘tisk’ sound from his cheek though as he noted the women, ”but normally a bunch of singers is more for the show…”

Dani replied with an amused scoff. “I don’t bruise that easy unless you’re trying to bruise me,” She said with a bit of a smirk. Evidently, she remembered that incident as well.

As they walked through the ship to reach the second floor, Dani’s eyes drifted to some of the gambling machines as they passed by. She couldn’t quite read the plaques or the like, though. It wasn’t as if she was all that interested in gambling, feeling as though the games of chance or luck would piss her off and she knew she wasn’t crafty enough for the ones involving any kind of skill or knowledge.

Thankfully, they weren’t the focus.

Dani kept close to Adrian as they entered the ballroom. Her head rotated to catch all the decorations and ambiance. It looked like they walked into a manor or something now, though still had the vibe of a club. Her hand gave his an idle squeeze as her head nodded to the music, though watching the dancers, if there ever was a dance that would make her fall, it was that.

“There’s no way it’s harder than that was…” Dani murmured before shrugging. “So? We can still dance to it, and if not, you can just get started on getting me tipsy before the next song,” She remarked with a slight nudge as the smirk returned to her face.

”Oh, I don’t know about that… if I get you tipsy, you’ll wanna go home that much sooner,” Adrian replied, teasing Dani right back. There was an insinuation there, after all.

​

With the previous song at an end, the new one started soon after. With a beginning marked by a jovial beat, then the three women vocalizing a set of ‘Oooo’s, the song was in fact one that could be danced to. This was the moment Adrian was waiting for. He grasped the hand she offered him a squeeze with and tugged her over to the dance floor, though not too harshly as to avoid the trip-up.

Once on the dance floor, he turned around to Dani and held both her hands. He then smirked. What she didn’t know is had put down the games for a while to practice a little swing. A quick look down to check their feet positions, mostly so that he wouldn’t step on hers, and he started. First step was simple: get the beat of the music. With that, bob along, then bam, start a triple step.He started with a quick, but short dash of his right foot over to the right, his left to match, then his right one more time about twice the distance–all in tempo with the music. Then again with his left in the opposite direction. A simple start, but no one was expecting rage-prone Demon Weapon from the Queens to know swing.

Dani chuckled at that as he led her to the dance floor. “I can control myself just fine, smartass…” She remarked, taking his other hand as he reached for it.

However, while she was ready to dance, she wasn’t ready for Adrian to start off with so much animation. Her eyes widened briefly in surprise before she began to laugh, not at him, but more so from the shock and invigoration. She swayed and twirled a bit to the best of her ability as she tried to keep up, but it was clear he had been practicing and she had definitely not. “W-Where did this come from?” She questioned through the laugh.

”It turns out,” he replied, keeping his breathing and timing with his steps and his steps in time with the music, ”if I put the down the controller when I’m not training or with you,” he continued, his words almost sing-song as he kept up the pace, ”that free time can be used to learn all sorts of things.”

Adrian then pulled her right hand over to his right using his left, switching over to hold her right hand with his right with a different grip, holding her fingers between his own fingers and palm–more open and easy to move. With that, he followed the triple step beat, except on the third beat, ducked under her arm to spin, then twisted around to see her again from under–a movement that wouldn’t have worked as well while holding their hands directly across.

A prideful grin crept across his face as he pulled off that move. Practice though he did, he didn’t have a partner, so moves like those were all theory. ”Think you can keep up?” he asked, half teasingly.

Dani giggled a bit at that as she moved with him, mostly concerned with making sure she didn’t trip up over herself or him. Honestly, if it weren’t for the passive effects of amplification and resonance training behoving her hand-eye coordination, she probably would have already. “Oh~ You’re proud of yourself for that one, huh?,” Dani teased him back with a smirk.

Following his lead, she hummed a bit cheekily. “Who knows? You already promised you’d catch me though,” She said cheekily. “Now what else have you learned in secret?”

”Oh, a few things, but that last spin I did was only a demonstration. It’s meant to be your move,” he answered in a tone that fell somewhere between a challenge and more teasing. The jovial smile on his face, though, made sure to paint it in a positive light regardless of how she interpreted it.

His next step was simple. Well, next step aside from the triple-step he kept up with to stay in line with the music. Adrian now lifted his right hand and with it, Dani’s. It was her invitation to try the twist under the arm.

“My move, huh,” Dani said with an amused hum. “I feel like you forgot how ungraceful my moves are,” She added. What ‘moves’ Dani had didn’t typically involve dancing. Not to mention, they had grown from hesitant to curt in the span of their relationship. Like he said earlier, she could be very persistent if she wanted some alone time.

While Adrian kept in line with the music, Dani was more focused on keeping in line with him. Stepping in turn and swaying along, as he lifted his hand up it took Dani a second to realize she was supposed to maneuver under. So, she did, spinning counter-clockwise as she stepped under his arm from the outside, circling completely to come face to face with him again as she came through and continuing to step with him.

”I haven’t forgotten anything, Dani,” Adrian replied, his eyes bobbing up and down as they danced to make sure his foot placement weaved well between hers. He danced to the music and she followed his lead. Without any actual experience, though, he needed to make sure he never stepped around in such a way their feet collided or a shin was kicked.

It would have been easier had he more experience, but he had only practiced without a partner.

”I remember when we first held hands, when our souls first touched,” he told her. He was being matter-of-fact, oblivious to the subtext to anything he said. It gave him a certain type of boldness in his proclamations, even in public. He had no shame because he didn’t see it.

”It was loud and angry. Worried that one shout or outburst would ruin everything… scared over having another good thing…” he continued, listing these observed traits between steps to the dance. By this time, the two had a fairly good rhythm down. With the three female singers kicking with the vocals, the place livened up.

”But now, when it’s just us, your soul is never that loud. It’s hard to even tell you have an angry soul. You curse at the world, but I see the sweetest side of you. You scare the hell out of sorcerers, but still stop to admire a flower. You tell me you aren’t graceful, but when I watch you crawl out of bed, it’s effortless how you make me want you to come right back,” he explained, maintaining his composure pretty well through the entire list. In fact, well enough that it might have come across as slightly rehearsed. There was calm stability in his voice that was rarely there when he came up with a compliment on the spot.

Dani’s smile shifted as he spoke, falling slightly to something more neutral. However, this wasn’t an effect of offense or some time of displeasure. That much was made true through her soul. It wasn’t loud, but it did flutter and spark like kindling at his words. Her eyes softened and she seemed speechless before a bashful smile returned.

“...Yeah… I was,” She conceded. It was an apt description. Dani lived her whole life with her brother pushing people away to bide away the hurt and pain, and then when he died she did the same exact thing. She figured that even if it was lonely, if it hurt, it was better than coming to cherish something again just to lose it. She didn’t even want to get a pet for that same reason. All she could think of was how it would feel when it's time would come. She had changed though, or perhaps not.

It still scared her, but much as she tried to keep herself from caring, she couldn’t. So, she only had the choice of pushing forward and clinging to them stubbornly.

“I still am. Scared, that is… but… I dunno,” Dani mused, her eyes trailing briefly to where their hands clasped with each other’s. “You just… muzzle it,” She said with a terse chuckle. It was a fitting expression, but also quite literal. Dani couldn’t really feel that ‘thing’ when she was with him. In general, it had gotten a lot quieter outside of missions. “I see you smile or laugh and it just makes me giddy. You go beet red, and I just wanna lock you up somewhere… and when you’re hyper-fixated on something, it just… makes me wanna fight more—Makes me feel like I can.”

Stepping with him, when there was opportunity to, she leaned forward briefly to sneak in a quick peck on the corner of his mouth before pulling back with a grin. ”...Sorry, couldn’t help myself,” She added with a short giggle.

Adrian wanted to play it cool. He wanted to say something smooth about her kiss, point out how she wasn’t exactly controlling herself like she claimed earlier, to both keep the conversation lively while still teasing. Unfortunately, remaining calm and wordplay weren’t his strong suit–at least, not when it was intentional. Between her short, sweet kiss, and the implication of her saying she wanted to lock him up, Adrian turned red. Red and silent.

At least, for a moment.

”You don’t ever need to apologize, babe,” he responded, smiling despite the new found shade of crimson that painted his face. At the very least, he wasn’t so distracted that his dancing was impacted. Perhaps for a moment he slowed down, but that had past.

”Besides,” he went on. He then swapped his hand holding before continuing. He now decided to loosely hold both of her hands parallel to his own. ”Neither one of us is good at controlling ourselves,” he told her, words dripping with mischievous intent.

Without a lot of time to reply or respond, he took her left hand and pulled it over to the right before twisting it around her, the motion itself being fairly fluid and natural for her to turn around. The goal was to guide her to have her back facing him with her arms crossed in front of her while he held them.

Instead of the next move that would come with the dance, Adrian instead decided to lean down to kiss at her neck, more so biting really, and in fact somewhat rough. It was a distinctive change in pace and public act, but both far from unfamiliar and oddly referenced by both of them at different points in the date already.

Dani seemed pleased with herself at that. “There it is~” She chimed with a snicker as Adrian turned red. However as he responded, her expression became a bit sheepish. “...Ey…” She murmured, sensing that he was up to something.

However, she didn’t have much time to interject before he threw them into another dance routine. Dani followed along, slingshotting herself out before returning akin to a yo-yo along his arm. Her back pressed against his chest as his other hand took hers. She felt his lips on her neck, and then his teeth. Her face turned red with a slightly nervous smile. “...Bloodsucker… You’re lucky I don’t have that drink,” She warned him, the smile erupting into a soft laugh as she leaned against him.

”Still talking big, huh?” Adrian responded, his breath hot against her neck. Within his words was a challenge.

Adrian pulled himself away from her neck–despite his better inclination not to–and spun her back out into the dance floor, not unlike how he had done so earlier. The difference with this spin was that once she reached full distance, he pulled her back in with a touch more force, almost yoinking her. The point was so that he could step forward before she spun and transition into swooping her up into his arms, holding her as if in a cradle. Except, even then, it didn’t stop.

In dance, normally partners had to work in conjunction with each other to make the best use of momentum. Adrian, however, was strong enough that the forces of gravity and inertia meant nothing to him. All it took was a mild spike in his wavelength to adjust.

With Dani in his arms cradled to the left, he tossed her upward and shifted her weight around his chest so that she spun on his chest like a top, resulting in her head and feet changing positions. Not exactly a standard move, but he followed up by hooking his arm under her leg and holding her by the shoulder. Had she known the positioning, this would have been a move called fish. As it was now, it was more so a move called “ragdoll” and it ended with Adrian sliding her feet onto the ground and his hand down to her back so that she could end in a dip.

”Am I still lucky you’re sober?” he asked, proud of himself for pulling off what might have been a few sloppy albeit creative moves to onlookers.

The breath tickled Dani’s neck, causing her to let out a shuddered huff as she tilted her head a bit to shoot him a smirk. “Yeah? Whatcha’--” She trailed off, her taunt cut short.

Dani’s eyes widened a bit as she felt her body spun out and pulled back into his arms, not giving her much time to react or intentionally follow along. However, it didn’t take long for her to start giggling, much as she had when he lifted her at that party. While the sudden movements may have been more akin to a ragdoll or whiplash, she had already told him that she didn’t mind it if it was him.

When the maneuver finished with her looking up at him, her face was red, though this time it was at least in part from the rush. Dani finished with her snickering, still holding onto his arms as she hung from them. Her eyes narrowed slightly as her smile turned a bit sly as she leaned her head up just enough so that the lower volume of her speech would still be heard. “Hah… Extremely fuckin’ lucky,” She said with low tone that bordered on sultry, enough that the implications of her warning were petty clear. Though, it wasn’t a warning that told him to stop, rather one that goaded him on. Dani aside from everything else did also enjoy that prideful look of his.

Dense as he was, these implications were not lost on Adrian. After all this time, he knew Dani well enough to pick up on exactly what she meant. The dancing king was far from the best at reading people, reading a room, or even picking up on certain social queues, but she was an exception. The change in her voice. The way it deepened and was modulated by the faintest of course sieves in her inspired response. The way the blood ran through her to flush her cheeks, the difference in her smile, the way her heart beat. Adrian was in tune with it all.

Which only made sense, the two had tangled their souls and bodies together plenty.

Unfortunately, the specific song they were dancing to was coming to a close. The beat carried on, but the majority of the actual instruments died down as the three singers began their final verse, first one at a time then in unison:

♪ ”Whe-ee-enn…

♪ …I-I-I… ♪​

...gee-ee-et… ♪​

♪ “ Whoa-oh-oh… low, I get hi-igh!“ ♪​

With the lyrics training off, the entire song came to a close. Adrian set Dani back onto her feet, gently of course, and grinned. If the after-date was to have its tone set by the current attitude of Dani, Adrian was in for a hell of a time. At that, any man would smile. Well, any straight man with an attraction to pink-haired firecrackers.

”Hopefully, that luck will hold out for a few hours,” he replied, not exactly dismissive, but admirably focused on the date portion of the night. Such took a surprising amount of self-control given his usual antics with Dani. ”The dancing isn’t even the main draw of this place, I think,” he told her, cluing her in that there was potentially something worth waiting for here.


Dani snickered a bit as he set her down, combing strands of pink from her face with her fingers. “We’ll see,” She remarked, taking his hand in hers and sort of hugging his arm to her. She looked up at him with a smirk and tilted her head slightly. “That so? What is, then? The food or the secret floor?” She asked with a nudge.

It was, in fact, getting to be about that time. Her prodding was a reminder of that. Perhaps even a needed one. As much as he tried to watch the flow of minutes pass them by, it was so awfully easy to lose track of them while around her.

”I think you’ll need to be the judge of that,” Adrian responded, playfully giving in to the banter back and forth. Of course, the food wasn’t the actual main draw of the place; this wasn’t an actual Michelin star restaurant. What he meant - telling her that she would need to see for herself - that was something obvious even from between his words.

His arm was already nestled against her. It wasn’t hard to lead her back through the dance floor and to the other set of stairs that lead to the dining area. As fancy, though dimly lit, as it was and as delicious as the food did smell, it wasn’t the final destination for the two. Just tantalizing enough to spark the appetite, but meal plans were paused for the moment. And, for good reason. There was another set of stairs just parallel to the one they ascended on the other side of the boat. Those led to the top.

Before they completely started their final ascent, a warning from the intercom:

”Ladies and gentlemen of the Solar Barge: we are about to depart from the docks. In approximately two minutes, you may feel a sudden movement as we begin our journey on the River Styx. Please brace yourselves for the initial movement; afterwards, the trip is typically gentle. To our guests on the deck, please either take a seat on the secured chairs or brace yourselves against the railing. We hope you enjoy the ride.​

Adrian couldn’t really hide much more after that even if it didn’t entirely reveal the surprise. He waited for her reaction, holding onto the railing on the side of the stairs and Dani. Not like a little rough sailing would throw him off his feet anyway.

Dani responded with an amused huff as he led her off. She could already smell the food even as they approached the stairs, but as enticing as the scent was, it wasn’t exactly a surprise. Certainly it wasn’t something to hide for the sake of anticipation. Plus by his tone, he was clearly inferring that she just needed to see whatever it was.

Her hand grasped at the handrail that accompanied the ascending stairs as her foot stepped onto the initial stair, but she paused as the voice reverberated through the intercom of the ship. Dani’s head tilted to glance up slightly at the disembodied voice before her eyes settled on Adrian again.

“...Wait, this thing actually sails?” Dani questioned with surprised eyes.

”W-Well… yeah?” Adrian responded, his tone conveying confusion. It was a boat. On water. Why wouldn’t it sail? Riverboat casinos sailed, right? Wait, did they?

He didn’t know. Did the casinos just sit in place? Were riverboat casinos only technically on the water? Was it a tax thing?

A brief flash of panic hit him. Nothing major, just the reality of how little he understood about the nature of the boat they were on. Well, history of the boat; the nature of it had clearly changed. More importantly, he didn’t want his reply to come off as a sarcastic shot at Dani. Not that he didn’t poke the bear every now and then, but that he didn’t want to taint the moment.

The boat did jar as it started up, as warned by the loudspeaker. Nothing major, but the warning was appreciated. Probably more so by the people topside. Adrian took that jar as a moment to move the conversation right along. Well, actually, more like move the entire scene. Adrian elected to grab her hand and guide her up the stairs, though not so quickly that she might stumble. He was a little more thoughtful than that. Then, ushered her to the top deck.

The deck along was a sight to behold. One that couldn’t easily be seen from the lower floors. Long, stained-black and sealed wooden planks separated by what looked like gold trim. Chairs and tables were installed into the deck at various places, but the theme was yet again black and gold. Even the safety tails for the top deck were gold, notably with filigree of various floral designs that kept the sheen from reflecting too much sun. A small touch that ended up making a big impact given how glaring the sun could be.

The entire deck was also surprisingly cool. One would think all this black under the hot sun would be miserable, but the truth was, this top deck had an enclosure for all other hours except this one and was air conditioned just like the other floors. The deck was truly designed for this exact moment.

The laughing sun was sinking low in the sky. The desert air was already becoming cooler. The barge itself was swimming through the water with relative ease, gentle and serene. Which made sense, the entire River Styx was man-made with its flow very well-controlled. Still, man made or not, it complemented the natural scenery in a way that the rest of Death City really didn’t. The sun was often a cruel thing in the desert, but right now, it was nothing short of beautiful. The light refracted off of the placid waves in what looked like a field of infinite sparkles that only grew more magical as the sky itself began to shift color from the falling sun.

Adrian had seen the pictures and even heard the grandiose description from Gauss, but absolutely nothing compared to seeing it in person. He was struck silent, his mouth half agape, once he saw the sky, and clouds, and waters all merge together in an impossible dance that looked like it must have been a spell cast by Maba herself. All he could do was walk forward, still with Dani in hand, to the edge of the platform.

Then it happened. The barge turned westward, facing the setting sun. This entire part of the reservoir was built so that through the year it could further out or inward to align with the perfect angle to see the setting sky. The exact placement of the barge on the water, too, aligned well with the horizon of the desert. In fact, the Mojave probably had few views as beautiful as this naturally. The reservoir itself was elevated far above the ground and at the very most west edge of the city so nothing but the desert and sky were captured.

All that expanded outward for miles was the water from a relief spout, the desert itself, and a million shades of blue, pink, and purple within the sky slowly overtaking the yellow, oranges and reds in what was perhaps the most bewitching the sky had ever seen. At least, it was in the eyes of that blue-haired boy on this cool September evening.

“I dunno… I thought it just sat here as like a restaurant on the water,” Dani explained a bit sheepishly. It was sitting on water, so of course it could sail. Perhaps she should’ve phrased it better in that she didn’t think it would.

Taking his hand, she followed him up the steps until they reached the top of the deck. In the ascent, she found herself first noticing the decorum, which was as fancy as the rest of the boat. Black and gold which was somehow intimidating, or perhaps just made her more conscious of potentially breaking something as she was prone to. However it quickly stolen by the sky and lights. Her expression shifted to surprise as she made her way to that same ostentatious railing she initially noticed and grasped it to lean against it as she took in the view of the sky and water. She didn’t say anything, at first. Some poet could probably comment a whole essay and more on the sight. Even though Dani didn’t coin herself verbose enough to do so, she could still recognize that it was beautiful.

“...I… didn’t know Nevada could look like this…” She muttered out, not necessarily to Adrian. It was just a statement that came out. Her expression turned from surprised and awestruck to slightly more somber. Dani had lived in Nevada a great deal now, but still didn’t know something like this existed here. Perhaps she just wasn’t dandy enough to come to a place like this, or perhaps, she thought, she had never really looked, having been so absorbed in her own misery for so long. She still was, somewhat, but at least now she allowed herself pockets of levity.

”Y-Yeah…” Adrian verbalized, barely getting out words at all. He was just as awestruck as Dani, in all truth. In fact, at that moment, he was almost entirely absorbed. Lips separated, never coming closed after he muttered back to her in agreement. Those eyes of his, a bright turquoise, locked into the distance as the colors and hues changed. His face softened, more like melted, as if his shifting focus had made him surrender. It may not have been submission, but couldn’t have been more gentle if it were cotton itself.

He had seen sunsets before. He had seen colors mix. He had seen some of the most beautiful attempts to recreate nature in the world of VR and some of the most impressive graphics a screen could display. Nothing compared. Nothing in the world compared to the way nature itself came together. How it felt like every color of the rainbow could be present, but instead of some contrasted series of stripes, it was a perfect amalgamation of color and light.

It was how the sky itself surrendered. It was how the light from the sun, ever fading, still managed to bring out the best of colors in the linings of the clouds and how hues bled into each other, having one forget where orange began and purple ended as the red that married them was so strong. How every second that passed, even against the same clouds in the same sky in the same horizon, seemed to paint a vividly different picture. It was how the boat softly rocked and the wind gently blew, giving the sensation of life to the moment.

Adrian didn’t have much thought. Instead, all he tried to do was soak in the next few moments, the last twirls of an effervescent dance, as the sun continued to sink. They had, truly, caught it in the climax. Even if it was intentional from the crew, that stole nothing from it. Not in his eyes. The colors faded as did the light, slowly but surely, and Adrian didn’t know what to say or do that could make this moment any better.

Dani’s eyes locked on the horizon as the lights of the sky faded and with them, the almost magical shimmering of the water. She slowly exhaled through her nose as the sky returned to its normal beauty that she had come to expect of it.

“...Well, so far the secret floor isn’t disappointing…” Dani mused, a half attempt at humor, though it almost felt in bad taste in the face of that scene’s exit.

She paused for a few moments after, before her hand then overlaced with his. She gave his hand a little squeeze as a small smile stretched across her lips. “...Thanks, baby. Really…” She said softly. “Can honestly say I would’ve never seen that coming.”

The colors may have been fading, but that wasn’t what broke Adrian out of his trance. No, it was her voice. She spoke to him in several separate sentences and each one tore into his attention with more and more ferocity. Sweet were her words, but they demanded his attention nonetheless. The pet name on top of it all only further refocused his mind.

”Well… for what it’s worth, babe, I’d’ve never came here if I wasn’t tryin’ to impress you,” he admitted, sweetly, shamefully almost. Niceties like this one truly weren’t his typical thing even if they took the very breath from his lungs. Sharing them with Dani was an entirely different story. He might not have minded a wild goose chase to the very ends of the Earth and on the edge of the Otherworld if it were for her sake.

As the dimming sky encroached on them and the gold itself stopped to shimmer, he gripped her hand back that much tighter.

”I’d miss out on a lot if not for you…” he added, pointedly.

Dani let out a breathy chuckle at that his response. The words from his mouth were almost a bit awkward, a stark contrast to his image as the angry guy. Though Dani knew by now that he was much less spiky on the inside. “You impress me plenty without trying,” She remarked, her body swaying a bit to lean into his arm.

That was a fact. They had both missed out on a lot as it is and Dani didn’t want to anymore. That fear of loss paralyzed her and she didn’t believe she would ever be rid of it, but she also knew she wouldn’t trade moments like these for anything. She still wanted to talk to him about those rifts, if only to give her some peace of mind were he to ever run into them, but perhaps she could avoid spoiling the moment and save it for the end of the night.

“...Maybe we should go looking for more stuff like this, though,” She further suggested.

For the life of the boy, Adrian couldn’t figure out what he had ever done to actually impress Dani. He wasn’t a run-of-the-mill agent. An Autonomous Weapon like himself would always be weaker than a proper duo. He had a few gimmicks, but at the end of the day, how well he did in a one-on-one rarely mattered. Why would it? Any single individual out there either had to compare to literal fucking magic or partners.

The stars had to align for him to actually impress anyone.

Those insecurities were hushed pretty quickly by the warmth of her body leaned onto his. He couldn’t argue the results that were right in front of him.

”Maybe…it is a nice change of pace,” Adrian commented, his soft facial features now offering Dani a gentle smile. His eyes traced down her figure, if only for a moment. ”I can’t say that I don’t enjoy seeing you in a dress…” he admitted, not as if he was hiding it.

Then he chuckled.

”Though, I can only imagine the fun your partner would poke seeing you all dolled up,” he added, a fair point, though he didn’t actually know Nadia all too well.

What he did know, and what his stomach was about to audibly announce, was that he was starving. That undeniable growl from his gut was the last thing he had to add, for the moment.

Dani cocked her head a bit as she looked to him with a smirk. “Yeah? ...I guess I could wear’em more often,” She replied semi-aloof. The Demon Sword wasn’t the type to dress in a way to garner attention. She never paid attention to any looks she may have been given, positive or otherwise. However, the man standing next to her was an exception. In his case, she did like the attention.

“Nadia fights in a damn skirt most the time and she only started wearing shorts ‘n spats after I told her to. She can’t complain,” Dani remarked jovially, squeezing against him a bit just as his stomach decided to urge them towards getting food.

Dani paused in surprise but couldn’t stifle the laughter and grin that followed. Though she did her best to rein it in, the timing was too perfect. “Pfft… Alright, come on. Let’s get some food in you.” Her arm that was coiled around his reached over to teasingly tap at his abdomen before returning to tug at his bicep, leading him away from the railing and back towards the stairs.

Of the many things that could make Adrian sheepish, his own hunger was not one of them. If anything, Dani shifting the focus onto food was a relief to him. It meant she was on the same page and of course that food was on the horizon. It couldn’t possibly be as impressive as the sunset, but food for the starving was just as exciting.

Getting back downstairs was slightly trickier than going up due to the other guests making their way down, but it created a line. A sense of order. It wasn’t terribly long before the two were seated. It was a smaller table near the left corner, but given the circumstances of the ship, a slightly smaller size wasn’t a huge issue. Besides, the table itself was draped with a thick, lush tablecloth and they were both immediately met by a server.

Adrian, of course, ordered water. He also made a spur of the moment decision to order an appetizer, remembering some of the suggestions made by his unlikely comrade. It was an order of their falafel and green creole dip. This place was a fusion restaurant, after all. It brought together some traditional Egyptian cuisine with a flair of cajun flavoring. In the case of what he just ordered, the falafels would be pretty standard, but the dip was where things got interesting.

Spicy, savory, a little sweet. Made with the holy trinity base of onions, celery, and green peppers, it then gained an even greener hue by the addition of hot sauce base made from immature peppers, Worcestershire sauce, thyme, and finished off by simmering down slightly before adding a dollop of butter. It made for a more silky, smoother texture to coat the falafel. It paired oddly well with the savory, herby, nutty flavors of a falafel.

Adrian had little idea what any of that meant, even if it was explained to him. He simply trusted the advice of the man that got him entry.

”So, uh… not gonna pretend like I know half the food on the menu, but a few were suggested to me,” Adrian spat out, breaking the silence that hung in the air after they ordered.

”The shawarma gumbo is apparently a winner. I’m not super sure what either of those things are normally, but this one has lamb, sausage, and flatbread… and I don’t think I’ve ever had lamb before,” he went on, describing one of the dishes he had explained to him previously. Honestly, he only remembered it because of the Shawarma reference. Even decades later, the words of Tony Stark were still a meme. The MCU never really died, it just evolved over and over.

Dani had ordered another drink, something fruity and sweet with some vodka mixed in. She wasn’t in a much better position than Adrian with the menu. She hadn’t had Egyptian food and this place was extra fancy which meant words and adjectives she didn’t know. She looked at the menu like it was a map, albeit there were a few things she could latch onto given that it was a fusion place.

She brought the glass up to her lips for a sip, her eyes turning to him as he spoke. She hummed as the glass was set down on the table again. “Mm. Well, I’m not much better. Gumbo’s like a… soup, I think. No clue what a Shawarma is. Is that what you’re gonna get?” Dani asked him, glancing down at the menu again. “Lamb’s pretty good. They have it sometimes at a Mongolian Barbecue place close to the apartments. Though, it’s probably gonna be different at a place like this than there,” She mused as her eyes continued scanning the items. “There’s a lamb… tikka naffer? Whatever that is… There’s some kind of a barbecued fish too,” She hummed with a bit more interest. That, she could understand.

”I’m not sure,” Adrian responded, his focus shifting to the menu. He hadn’t given it the attention Dani had, but now that she was scouring through it, he found himself doing the same. His tone carried the exact message his words had, though blended thoroughly with perplexity and mild confusion.

He had found that so long as he read the description beside the item, he could get a general idea of what each thing was. Annoying though it may be, it simply lead to him reading through each individual item. Slowly but surely, he flipped the pages.

”I wonder if they mean barbeque just as like… grilled,” Adrian mused, curious about what barbeque fish was like, ”or, is it like smothered in some Sweet Baby Ray’s?” A question that Dani could pick up the underlying subtext of; Adrian wasn’t much for sweets. He preferred his food spicy or savory most of the time.

A chuckle shot out from him before much of a response could be made. Flipping through the pages, he found an interesting selection amongst the poultry. Stuffed Squab, a take on a traditional dish using some type of cajun rice. The thing was, it was a deep-fried pigeon. A delicacy in Egypt, maybe, but Adrian was a New Yorker at heart. Pigeons were flying fucking rats.

”Th-They,” he said, unable to speak without letting a laugh escape, ”have pigeons. Page seven under poultry, look.” The humor might have been lost on her, but those along the east coast had a special, hateful relationship with pigeons. This wasn’t something he could easily get past.

“Huh? I… I guess you could be right…” Dani said with a puzzled look at the item on the menu. Of course, she assumed the American interpretation, but this was an Egyptian place. Did any Egyptian cuisine call for barbecue barbecue, she wondered. It sounded good either way, but still.

A smile broke across her lips. Having Adrian say it out loud, she really didn’t think the barbecue was the barbecue they assumed. “No… There’s no fuckin’ way,” Dani chuckled out before stowing her amusement with a light sigh.

She continued perusing the menu until Adrian’s snickering reached her ears. Her blue orbs turned upward to look at him on the other side of the table. Her head tilted a bit as that puzzled look came back. “Pi–Pigeons?” She repeated as if the word were foreign. Dani’s eyes shot back to the menu and she flipped to the page, scanning it until her eyes settled on it. “...Huh… Wait, are pigeons common in Egypt? …And you can eat them?” She questioned before looking up at Adrian’s chuckling face, a slight smirk appearing on her own as she leaned forward to speak in a more hushed tone.

“...Think they catch’em fresh here?” She asked in jest.

In one smooth motion, Adrian shrugged his shoulders and tilted his hands outward, the menu shifting over entirely to the left and his right simply opening up and waving.

”I don’ fuckin’ know,” he spat out between rounds of his laugh, which only became louder and more rowdy. He fed off her energy, gaining momentum once he saw she also saw the humor in the situation.

”I mean, it’s not hard; they’re fuckin’ all over, babe,” Adrian added one he had calmed down slightly, though he only entertained the thought of catching local pigeon to a minor degree. The rhythm of his reply made it pretty clear he was still responding to her last question, even if he was somewhat skeptical about it.

Not once in his morning runs did he ever see some dude with a net trying to capture a pigeon. Surely, they had to be farmed somehow.

Once the momentum from their encounter with the unexpected form of poultry slowed down, Adrian at least could redirect himself back to a slightly productive track of conversation while the two waited for their appetizers. ”I think I’ll have something with lamb, not flying rats, thanks,” Adrian declared, a tinge of nondirected sarcasm still present in his tone.

Her grin widened as he broke out into a laugh, causing her to do the same. “Talkin’ a lotta shit about pigeon trappers. How else are people gonna get their flying rats?” She remarked as her laughter subsided. The shit-eating grin, however, had not. “Think they use, like, a net? Shoot’em? Or maybe there’s pigeon farms…”

Her questions, alongside the train of thought Adrian was already on, only took him further down the rails. He had actually seen videos in the past of how large scale chicken farms worked, if only because a lot of his gamer-buddies were a little left-leaning into their animal rights views. The thing was, Adrian just could not imagine tons of little pigeon chicks going through an assembly line. For various reasons, pigeon chicks also weren’t as cute as chicken chicks. But, as she said it, a farm of some kind made sense. He could imagine some idiot running around with a net launcher, what he couldn’t believe is that it made sense.

The idea of someone shooting nets at pigeons was entertaining, though.

Dani’s eyes returned to the menu as the topic faded and with it, so did the smirk to one of more normalcy. However, then Adrian spoke up again, referencing the flying rat discussion again. Dani’s lips curled and she did her best to suppress them from becoming obviously mischievous. Giving a couple of slow nods as if in affirmation or acknowledgement, she contemplated her own choice.

“So, hypothetically, if I got the flying rat, would you still kiss me or would that be a deal-breaker?” She confirmed.

The specific smile Dani had on her face was one that Adrian knew all too well. The two had become close enough that they could pick up on the slight differences in the body languages of the other. Like how a parent could tell what type of cry they heard, Adrian knew he should expect a doozy from whatever followed out of her mouth.

Except, it wasn’t even that bad. The answer was simple.

”Babe,” Adrian responded, cool and collected which only meant he was confident in his next answer, ”I still kissed you after I learned you had metal-melting venom.” He raised his eyebrows and cocked his head slightly, feeling like he was in checkmate. To him, that was a valid point. What did a little pigeon breath mean in comparison to her fiery new ability?

Dani let out an amused scoff at his response, though her lips were still drawn in thin lines as if fighting back the smirk from growing. “I mean, I don’t spit it and it doesn’t come outta my teeth… then you would’ve melted a while ago,” She remarked, averting her eyes down a bit as she brought her drink to her lips. The look in her eyes as they came back up to him while she took a sip said that she felt like she had the checkmate.

As the glass came back down onto the table, she allowed herself to snicker a bit. “It’s still… kinda weird though. Like a fuckin’ phantom limb…” Dani added a bit. Even she still hadn’t truly gotten used to it.

While Dani was explaining her phantom limb, their waitress had finally returned to the table. Adrian was smirking the entire time, still thinking himself the victor when it came to the lack of venom in her teeth. With the falafel being presented to the table, his focus was admittedly shifting. Actual hunger was beating out the metaphorical kind here. Which was probably for the best given how public it was.
The falafel itself was a good, dark brown with a solid crust. It had a mild smell to it, a mixture of the slight nuttiness of the sunflower oil it was fried in and a few minor ingredients to taste, like the garlic. It was the sauce from where the true aroma came from. A peppery type of smell with underlying onion and herbiness. The sauce itself was a dark red, more consistent than salsa but similar, and served warm. While it wasn’t an overwhelming smell in general, it was definitely winning out over the falafel.

Adrian was practically drooling over the falafel. His stomach was roaring before they even got to the table.

With the table situated, the waitress finally chimed in, ”Are you two ready to order?”

Dani turned a brief smile and thanks as the falafel was served before her attention swapped to Adrian. She couldn’t help a smirk stretching onto her face as she watched the change in his expression as the food was served. Few things disarmed her like that face, and though she was hungry she was fairly content watching how he locked onto the falafel.

“...I think so,” Dani replied, turning her attention to the waitress as she looked back at the menu for quick reference. “I’ll have the barbecue fish,” She decided before setting the menu aside for the waitress to take.

After the waitress had taken both of their orders, she took her fork and cut one of the falafel in half before forking it. “...Ya’ know, babe… They do intend for ya’ to eat the food,” She verbally prodded, her grin growing a bit as she transported the piece into her mouth with a hum of approval.

Adrian had politely informed the waitress he would have whatever dish he was discussing earlier that had the lamb. In all reality, it had a lot more than lamb, Adrian wasn’t entirely concerned. What he knew is they had food in front of them, Dani was absolutely right, and the thing he ordered–very importantly–did not have pigeon. He was silently glad to see Dani elected not to go the route of pigeon, either.

Perhaps a bit rude, but somewhat expected: Adrian didn’t wait or reply to enjoy the food. Dani had said enough. As was his nature, he wanted to try the falafel first without the sauce. He preferred to try virtually any food at first without the sauce. Not only that, Adrian typically ate fairly healthy. He wasn’t honestly sure what was in falafel, but he knew it was fried. His mind still equated fried foods to being unhealthy.

Alone, the falafel was decent. As decent as any fried, fluffy food. It was that, though; surprisingly fluffy. Not that Adrian had a lot of experience with the food item, but they did nonetheless exist on a spectrum. Some were drier, some more seasoned, some crunchier, some mushier. In this case, it was somewhat dry and very crunchy. If bitten into without the dip, it wasn’t terribly impressive outside of how light and fluffy the chefs managed to get the chickpeas.

With the sauce, however, an explosion of flavor and texture opened up. The sauce coated the thicker crumb of the crusted exterior quite well and combined with the fluffiness of the falafel, created an interesting experience. The inside of the falafel was still warm and steamy, so biting into it resulted in a quick bit of that steam coming out, which entered the mouth alongside the spicier notes of the sauce and gave an interesting early taste. Then, once one had actually bit fully into the bite, it was a good mix of crunchy, airy, yet still wet–like good hot wings–that offered a very full flavor. Weirdly, not the type of dish where dunking it in the sauce more really did anything; just a thin coating did the trick.

Adrian was enraptured by the little appetizer. Not only did he rarely enjoy such a breaded treat, he was hungry regardless and the combination of flavors and textures was fantastic. He could see why it was suggested.

For a moment, though brief, he did zone out from the date element of the night and was taken by the food itself. Not in a truly negligent way, but in the type of way one might expect someone with his attention span and tendency to hyperfixate to be. The food was good, after all.

As Dani chewed, she watched her partner’s attack on the plate and daze as he savored the taste. A small giggle escaped her lips, a bit of a rarity for her. She didn’t mind his hyperfixation. It was usually either cute, funny, or a mixture of both. Dani didn’t need to have the attention on herself nor a constant stream of conversation. She was comfortable. It was a relationship where they could just not talk and it still wouldn’t be tense or awkward. She had lounged around while he played games a few times already. She wouldn’t take offense to him focusing on the food for a while. She couldn’t blame him with how good it was either.

She brought her fork to pierce the other half of the falafel she had cut earlier. Dani wasn’t sure what she was expecting from a place this fancy, but if everything was likely overpriced, the food better be insanely good. Even so, she wasn’t really prepared, having never been to a like restaurant.

“...I’d bet they could’ve made a sky rat pretty tasty,” Dani hummed as she popped the other falafel half into her mouth. Her comment was enough to break Adrian out of his food-induced trance.

”Maybe.” He continued to chew through the most recent falafel he had in his mouth.

With a sip of his water, he could finally down the rest. Enough to speak more politely, at least.

”But, I don’t know if I could get past it,” he admitted, though without the normal shameful undertone. "It’s almost like eating a horse?” he explained, a reminder of his big city heritage. He was the type of person to have a clear divider on the animals that were and weren’t for consumption. He didn’t grow up on a farm. Pets were pets, livestock were food, and he never imagined it any other way..

“I think I could eat a horse… Wouldn’t be my first choice,” Dani trailed off before taking another piece. She passed it into her mouth with her fork before thinking on Adrian’s words. As she chewed, she decided to have some fun seeing what her partner would or would not eat. “What about gator?” She posed curiously.

There were alligator farms in the south, but most where they lived didn’t see the animals as farmstock. As Dani recalled, there was just one place downtown that even had gator–one of those gourmet burger places that offered a few unusual hamburger meats. “I was young as shit, but I’m pretty sure we had a neighbor that would cook possum,”[ She added, trying to suppress a smirk.

Adrian looked up to her. His bright blue eyes slightly mystified, a touch of hesitation hanging in the air following her question. Luckily, her follow-up explanation regarding possum was enough to break the tension and jerk a chuckle out of him.

”I’ve had gator.” He was pretty sure he told her about the mission where he also ate gator, but either she forgot or he misremembered how he told the story and left out the gator.

”It was that mission in Florida,” he recalled, ”they thought it was a cryptid, but it was just some junkie strung out on meth claiming he was Manbearpig.”

Not every mission was some big, elaborate thing. Especially when Agents were first starting out. Sometimes, they went out to check on potentially paranormal, supernatural, or just odd activity just like what Adrian described. Chances were, Dani had been on a similar mission at some point in her life. Some absurd thing that local police probably could have handled.

But, why do that when you can throw some superhuman teenagers at it?

Dani let out a light laugh at that. Those were the missions. There was no danger or threat, not really to them. She remembered Mikey used to get ticked off saying it was a waste of time, though the food was a nice consolation. “That’s an old-ass reference…” She hummed in amusement.

“No crackheads anymore now…” She trailed off with a light sigh. “Just tree spirits, fire clones, and priests. I’d kill to have to deal with someone tripping on shrooms thinking they’re the second coming of Asura…” Like eating a horse, it wouldn’t be her first choice, but certainly over the actually dangerous jobs they were given now.

She was right. The stakes were getting higher. Adrian had expected to be sent on some of those missions, ones Mikey would have dubbed a waste of time, but the program had other intentions. The first, fleeting thought that came to mind as a rationalization was that the DWMA didn’t want those simpler missions that dealt more directly with locals to go to Fate Agents, but it might have equally been likely that most of the agents were older and more experienced than he was. It probably wasn’t something so simple.

What he wanted to do, after he got out his laugh, was bring up the question of if there could be a second coming of Asura if he never really left. If he’s locked up on the moon, wouldn’t it be more like a jailbreak?

Before he could, they were interrupted in perhaps the best of ways. With food.

A waitress came by with a large black platter that had their food, which itself had legs that unfolded so she could set it down and transfer the plates from the platter to the table. This turned out to be a slightly more thought-out process than at a typical restaurant. As the waitress sat the plates down onto the table, it turned out the bottom portions of the plates mated to a hidden recess in the table found underneath the cloth. This was mostly to keep them from sliding or moving with the movement of the boat. A trivial, but interesting feat of engineering not really seen anywhere else.

Adrian received this lamb shawarma. It was a surprisingly vibrant meal. Aside from the strong smell of spices that filled the air when its steam rolled off it, the most striking trait was likely the combination of bright red and greens. Pomegranate seeds and fresh herbs came together to liven up the whole dish, which itself was mostly the shredded lamb on a bed of couscous. Some garnishes were set around the dish, lemons and some other type of stalked herb, all for a surprisingly large portion.

Then came the flatbread wraps that had been steamed and rolled into aluminium foil, which were placed beside him. The dish could apparently be eaten directly or as a wrap.

Dani had an equally impressive display. ’Barbeque’ fish was a poor, or at least incomplete, description of her dish. What she received was in fact a grilled Sea Bass, bled quickly and cooked to perfection with those fantastic char lines one would expect, but it was served on a bed of seasoned, yellow rice, topped with a tomato sauce with the same peppery flavor profile as the majority of the meal, all mixed together with caramelized onions and fresh green peppers. Appearances were important, too, with lemon slices and large red pepper flake being added for bursts of color in the otherwise muted dish, though most of said color were variations of red. Along the corner of the plate opposite to the lemon were three relatively large shrimp, cascaded down the edge for presentation, tails on but still steaming from their recent grilling.

Last was something neither of them ordered, but was thrown in nonetheless for the experience. For the price paid, it didn’t hurt. Purely vegetarian in nature, it was a cored out zucchini stuffed with fluffy rice, fresh herbs of parsley and coriander, baked until tender, and served with not one, but two sauces: a bright red one that would arguably be too hot for either of them to realistically eat more than a bite of, then a more creamy orange one with flavors reminiscent of a crab boil, but without any actual fish or seafood involved.

The waitress offered a soft smile and asked, politely of course, if there was anything else she could get them. It didn’t seem they were in need of a refill on drinks just yet, but courtesy was courtesy.

Dani’s eyes directed to the food as it came, following it but more focused on her own dish. It was an impressive display and her gaze gleamed with an excitement that she was at least pleased with how her own dish looked. She let out a half-laugh after it was set in front of her. “Alright. Different kind of barbecue, but I still chose right,” She added verbally to her thoughts.

Dani’s eyes then turned to Adrian’s, which certainly looked as good, and then the zucchini dish. She raised a brow, not remembering ordering it, however she saw the sauces next to it and mistakenly believed that it was the same as a dish of Ahi Tuni she had at a sushi restaurant near the apartment–at least, that the sauces were the same.

She took one piece, dipping it into each sauce before bringing it into her mouth, and it didn’t take long for the heat to hit her. “Oh-Okay, nope. Not what I thought-” Dani said, going for her drink to water down the spice. “Mm… Fucking fire tail but still can’t handle spice…”

Adrian couldn’t help but let out a chuckle at seeing Dani half-choke on the spicier of the sauces. Unlike Dani, Adrian loved spicy food. He could pick out the different varieties of peppers and had a pretty good idea of what tastes he liked in his palette. He still hated the absurdly spicy concentrates that tasted more like metal than food, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t handle them.

True to her word, Dani couldn’t.

Before she could sip her water, Adrian reached out to stop her. A quick reaction. Not forceful, but a reminder he was built differently. More a Meister than a Demon Weapon. He didn’t explain this reaction, either.

Instead, he flagged down the waitress that had just asked them if there was anything else. He took a risk, given his age, but on a boat like this, ID’s weren’t checked. ”White wine, please. Any. Quickly, if you can,” he asserted, not rude, but clear in how he was trying to expedite the issue. The waitress had a pretty good idea of what was going on given the first glance at the situation and Dani’s rouge face.

With the waitress darting off, Adrian then explained; not like it would matter now that the instructions were sent off. ”Spicy food is caused by capsaicin. If you drink water, you’ll just spread it down your throat,” he warned, more informed of, really. Dani, being his girlfriend for so long, was well aware one of his favorite foods ever was spicy tuna rolls. He had a detailed list of which sushi places in Death City had the best rolls. Only now did she see the extent of his spice-related knowledge.

The waitress returned, lukewarm wine in hand, but with two wine glasses. She poured one in front of Dani and Adrian followed up with the instructions, ”swish it around your mouth, spit it out.” The double entendre was lost on him.

Dani’s eyes shot to Adrian as she paused, bringing the glass closer. “...Alcohol won’t just make it worse?” She debated, but nonetheless she set the glass down. Dani waited patiently, but not pleasantly, for the wine to be brought. Once the glass was filled, Dani wasted few seconds grabbing it and bringing it to her lips unceremoniously. However, even with her mouth on fire, she still couldn’t help herself from following up on his little remark.

“Never thought I’d hear you say that…” She murmured before intaking the wine and swishing it around as instructed. Dani knew Adrian didn’t hear the euphemism. He usually didn’t, which just made it amusing for her to tease him about it. Though she wasn’t able to remark much with her tongue burning.

After a few swishes, Dani slowly spat the liquid back into the glass and set it down on the table. “Thanks babe…” She said, sniffling somewhat before bringing her cloth up to cover her nose briefly. “I’m not a pansy, that’s insanely hot, right?” She asked through the napkin.

Adrian had to pause for a moment, thinking over the next few words he said very carefully. Truth be told, while the food certainly had a kick to it, he had hot sauces in his own fridge far hotter. Some that he would splatter on a pile of eggs when she wasn’t around. What mattered now was whether he tried to play this off as mild teasing or not. He could see the situation unfold either way, but he also knew people tended to be more heated when they were… well, heated.

He erred on the side of caution.

”Well, it’s not the hottest exactly… it definitely doesn’t have anything on your scorpion tail–-or you, in that dress,” he answered, dancing around the topic with a quick and admittedly blunt compliment. It wasn’t common, but Adrian could in fact be calculated.

With the sauces sorted out and the flavor profiles now more well-known, the rest of their dinner went smooth. The foods were often spicy with splashes of vibrant citrus flavors, matched by how there were often vibrant colors on the plate. The food was plainly excellent. It had to compete with multiple impactful moments during the night to be a highlight–and it did. It proved that the floating riverboat wasn’t just a gimmick for the establishment. It was still fine dining.

The banter back and forth continued, but for a while, the food became the focus. Hunger needed satiated, after all. Adrian was keen on not letting a morsel go to waste. He typically ate a lot anyway given his still-growing body and high activity levels. The brief shift in focus did result in a lull in the conversation, but it was a natural one. Even more natural given how delicious the food was.

Finally, though, the plates were nearly cleared and the fixation on food could come to an end. A natural transition back to each other, no different than the one before. If anything, now that neither of them were hungry, there was a better means to focus and reflect on the night thus far. It had been everything promised and perhaps a touch more.

He received a small snicker and blush in response, followed by a soft tap against his shin with her foot. “Good save,” She added before they turned to their food. Dani wasn't one to waste either, especially when the food was as good as it was here.

As they finished, she wasn't sad that it was almost over. Dani was happy, grateful even to feel as she did now. However, as with every time she felt happy or content, that other feeling always started to creep up. The fear and the worry of how hard it would be to lose all of it.

She went from smiling, just observing his face to looking down slightly at the table. She almost hated herself for speaking up about it, feeling like it was ruining the moment and all the good energy, but if she didn't, she knew she would just keep worrying. Dani knew she would never stop, but at least if she told him she would feel at least a bit more assured.

“...So, uh… I was kinda looking for the right time to bring this up, but… I don't really think there is one,” Dani began, her eyes trailing back up to his. “About the portals, and shit. It was one thing when I thought I just managed to fall into Alice's rabbit hole, but then it happened to Nadia, and Gauss… Um.. point is I'm scared shitless that one's gonna pop up around you too.”

It was impossible to miss the shift in tone. Adrian wasn’t one for anxiety, but for a brief second, he felt it. The prospect alone of picking out a time gave the conversation a pretext that didn’t necessarily bode well. Adrian tried to predict what this was about, but came up short. They were too young to retire. He doubted this was when she would drop a bomb like pregnancy on him, and even then, they were still too young for that–in his opinion.

No matter how many times Dani had conveyed how fucked up and twisted the world was where she fought herself and saw Mikey, the fact that was the topic sent a wave of relief through Adrian. It wasn’t but a few seconds, but a short eternity lived in those seconds and during that time, he felt entirely breathless. Knowing this was just about the portals gave him a moment he could breathe again, even if it was to continue listening to Dani.

Pausing to search for words, she had debated exactly what to tell him. Dani wanted to tell him just to never go near the damn things, but it didn't work for Nadia and likely wouldn't work for him either. “I was gonna tell you that if you ever see like, black fire shit with a voice or a weird pull… a familiarity, to ignore it and run in the opposite direction, but…” It wasn't that simple to just ignore it. She knew that. Then there was also how bad the other him was supposed to be. The other Mikey was completely nonchalant about the evil her, but Terrified was something else apparently.

Her hands fiddled with the napkin in front of her idly, her eyes looking down to it in between each pause. “In case you don't,” She said, looking at him again with an accusatory point of her index finger. “And you still fucking should. But if you don't… just remember that that thing isn't you. It will say or do whatever it thinks will get you to lose your cool, to agree, but you can't. It'll throw your past in your face, your memories, everything. But you aren't it and you won't ever be it.”

With another pause, she reached over and took his hand. “You have to say and mean that, no matter what… Well, I don't know if you have to actually say it out loud–Mikey told me to, but… just don't listen to their bullshit, okay? You're fucking amazing and I don't know what I'd do without you at this point, so…”

Adrian reached across the table and clasped her hands. He could tell, as any person with any amount of empathy could, that this was important to her. He tried his best to be patient, to let her finish whatever it was she wanted to say, but eventually it just turned into a soup of sweetness that perhaps lost whatever point she was trying to get across. If asked point-blank, he wasn’t exactly sure what she was trying to get at. Thing was, he didn’t need to be.

”I don’t know what I’ll do about black flames or demonic portals,” he told her, rock solid in his assurance and focused with those bright blue eyes of his. He had a type of simple conviction that made it hard to reason with him sometimes. Sometimes, it made him more reliable than one would ever give him credit for. ”But, I don’t think there’s a version of me that doesn’t love you more than video games and spicy tuna rolls,” he told her, not needing to take time wading through the swamp of possibilities she listed. He already knew his anchor.

”If it–or anyone else–tries to tell me there is, well…” he continued, confident to a fault with his stubborn self and making no effort to hide it, ”I’ll just have to kick its ass myself.”

Dani searched his eyes as he began to speak, but her concerned expression broke as soon as he started relating his love to video games and spicy rolls. She let out a short snicker as her head turned down briefly, giving his hands a squeeze. “You’re such a dork…” She said through the chuckle before looking back to him.

“I’m not sure having a fistfight with the Hell demons is the play, babe. Just… know that they’re full of shit and that I love you more than anything, alright?” Dani replied sincerely, but with a more relieved smile.

Adrian just had to leave it at that. He didn’t intend on ruining the moment with some type of facetious warning about letting Nadia hear her say that. No… no. Funny as that might be, things were perfect just the way they were.

EmperorsChosen​

 

[The Regal Rper]

Gav | Death Festival/ Tournament

Waiting was always the worst.

Melissa sat a short distance on one side, Austin on the other, all of them watching the screens.

In the ‘locker rooms’ where FATE’s division had been held Gav had mainly put his attention on watching the EAT division and the winner. A pupil of the elites.

He was genuinely curious in seeing how well he'd measure up against her. If he got that far.

Which was funny because a few years ago there would have been little doubt in his mind he would, as long as he played smart.

There was something about hearing a crowd and knowing there was an audience around that put him in a mood. Austin felt it before the announcement that all FATE related agents should be getting ready and outside shortly in a few minutes for the prep of the FATE Bracket. The emotion was more clear in his partner’s hands. Gav ignored the tame humored chuckle that came from his Weapon partner through their link. Save for any brief interaction with Noah or anyone he personally knew most of his exchanges had been restrained or polite and briefly engaging while watching the EAT division from the waiting rooms.

It was a fat contrast from a few years ago, where the exchanges would have been provocative, perhaps even patronizing.

It wasn't that Gav didn't have it in him to be polite, it was just most times back then, he chose not to. Wiccan rules had always been about undermining others to make yourself the bigger dominant. He'd lived by that, learned it personally, for so long it came naturally, but today, he was actually behaving far better than most might have expected given his reputation still preceded, especially since this was the first time since he became an agent again that he participated in any tournament.

They had spent months training for this. And he was out to do what he did best: put on a damn good fucking show, and kick ass.

Only the focus was less on dominating and more on just enjoying the game. Which, in a way was strange if anyone beyond Melissa and Austin knew what he was thinking.

He had to remind himself that even as the EAT bracket came to an end, that he wasn't going to obsess over winning or losing. It was a ritualistic process nowadays, that his therapist, a field of work he has scoffed at in his start at Paean, had suggested he do long ago. It helped. Kept him grounded like meditation did. Reminded him that he had put a majority of his Wiccan family in their place already through his mother and siblings.

As the EAT bracket came to an end Gav reminded himself: This was for fun.

What hadn't changed, was the fact he loved the thrill of a good fight or competition.

Contained as his expression was, Gav’s soul was energetic like the flames of his Weapon partner might appear to any that would look at Austin's soul.

Admittedly, he knew other members of House Phoenix and their affiliates would be in the crowd watching this match today. His parents weren't here, his father obviously busy and his mother being the head of a House, well that was expected but his siblings and cousins? If it was him in this at least, he knew a few of them would come to bare witnesses. To see just how good he had really become after two and a half years had gone by from his initial ‘fall from grace’.

Three hit tag out meant being ganged up on was going to be the worst case scenario unless you had a trick up your sleeve. Speed here was going to be important, and out of everyone here, Gav knew he was one of the fastest, if not the fastest. He didn't cement that idea though, Kisei had shown him flatly in Paean, there was always going to be someone better. Whether it was genetics or training or whatever, he had bitterly accepted that and taken it as a lesson long ago. Being in Paean in a more support based role didn't give him access to knowledge the mentors in FATE had without clearance, but he knew a majority of the people in this match from his work so far by being in the Waiting room for their part alone, he’d been smart and taken a look at who was around.

That was a greater advantage than nothing.

Gauss and Adrian were the biggest issues, the person eyeballing Feng and their weapon partner would also be annoying, specifically due to that wavelength. In the time the announcement was being made as they all got onto the stage for the final reminders on what wasn't allowed, Gav ticked every person on the field in this battle Royale off from the most annoying threat to the one with more tricks up their sleeve than a magician.

When the countdown finished, Melissa and Gav enacted their strategy, she blitzed for a target while Gav kept an eye on anyone moving in her direction. No one seemed to take the bait though so he merely shifted his position to keep himself in a spot where he would have full view of everyone moving, and from the looks of it he wasn't the only one doing so.

The Volatile soul user, Zosar, did similar, strategically focusing on his guard while maximizing his range of sight, as did a select few others yet to make an immediate move.

Gauss was immediately jumped and Adrian focused his attention on Sara, while Feng was occupied with that peculiar fellow. Elly and Kisei were two who caught his eyes, and Gav considered blitzing them, using Austin's flames as a deterrent would be easy and then he could capitilize on that to attack any blind spot available, while Austin's eyes watched out for anyone approaching.

Instead he moved in on Feng and her fight as she shot off a few rounds.

A reunion was overdo.

Austin was on the lookout though even as Gav made the decision to seemingly blitz the utility Meister’s opponent as he closed the distance rapidly- unless someone else caught his attention whether it was Austin warning him or someone else catching his eye.

Mentions: November Witch Sir Les Paul Merciless Medic EmperorsChosen

Interactions: Breadman Shotgunpenguin RedArmyShogun

 

[EmperorsChosen]

Eloise Keegan - Death Coliseum, Death City
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'Mm...' Elly hummed back, taking her time to peruse the battlefield as if she were taken out window shopping. 'How about we start with a bigger problem first and see which of them is in a less fortuitous position.'

It was a split decision. One she was sure Kisei predicted he would have to spend more effort convincing her to partake in. Elly wasn't a combat fanatic. She didn't enjoy struggle or stress. Challenge didn't appeal to her. Publicizing herself she also wasn't a fan of despite enjoying attention. However, this was a local event with less eyes gleaming inward from outside the area. Plus, a favor from Kidd was too enticing for her to pass up.

Though, while the benefit was worth any risks here, she did quite detest having her hands tied. No resonance, just amplification and other techniques, which left them a bit limited. Kisei had multiple forms, experience, and was a Death Scythe, which were all advantages. However, she still didn't like the idea of engaging someone like Zosar in a head to head brawl given his wavelength. She knew little of Gavril as well, but given how he darted off towards Feng and her team, he certainly wasn't apprehensive about getting in the thick of it. Elly, however, wanted to win and had no issues playing a bit dirty to do so.

Her eyes turned to Gauss as well as the teams trying to work in unison to eliminate him. He too was a utility meister. However, more aggravating was his wavelength, a magnetic wavelength that put anyone with a conventional weapon on a backfoot. Their best opportunity was going in now, while he was being overwhelmed and getting their hits in quickly to get him out. 'Any qualms with a little backstabbing?' She suggested, a smirk playing at her lips.

Sir Les Paul

 

[Sir Les Paul]

Kisei☆Hoshi​

Deadsoul​

Species Death Golem
Partner Eloise Keegan
Rank Two-Star

Location Death Colosseum
Mission Deathfest Tournament
Status Focused

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Tags: EmperorsChosen Merciless Medic

The word choice from his partner, at least briefly, threw him off. Everyone in this bracket was connected to the program. In that regard, attacking anyone would be akin to undermining a fellow Fate Agent. Kisei also wasn't particularly close to Gauss personally. In that way, targeting Zosar immediately seemed like it would be a bigger betrayal. Fortunately, their connection was close enough that Kisei could make out what she meant when her attention turned to Gauss.

In principle, Kisei had no qualms targeting him. In practice, however, he didn't believe it to be their wisest decision. Sure, Gauss was being dogpiled, but he was holding his own.

Right this very second, Gauss had already eliminated the first of his attackers by stunning him with Noah. He used Arkayis to create a barrier of fire for the rest. Even if he was now outnumbered, four to one essentially, he had a lot of battlefield control. He also was apparently going half-manic. The three strikes it took to take down his first target were quick, but occurred in no small part because his attacker couldn't land a hit and the subsequent shock was just too much. Without resonance bolstering resistances, even Meisters fell to muscle spasms. Not to mention, there was something off-putting about how Gauss was cackling at his crowd, telling them that Noah's street name was 'Taser-me-Elmo' and these were his streets.

In short, Gauss was outfit far too well for this type of fight. Crowd control with fire, the ability to stun from a range, and the ability to block most attacks that utilized metal. He had offense, defense, and support covered.

Which transitioned into the worse problem: all of Kisei's weapon forms were made of metal. He was pretty sure it was ferrous, too. In all reality, actually, the person who should be fighting Gauss was ironically the other Utility Meister: Feng. Domas was a stone axe and Wes was a non-ferrous metal. If Feng could do something about Aki, she stood at least a decent chance of dealing with Gauss.

'No, but...' Kisei answered, hesitant as he didn't want to see too awfully argumentative, 'I don't think I can land a hit on him. '

Kisei wasn't one to shoot down an idea without presenting another. 'If your goal is to eliminate Gauss, perhaps we should help Feng and ally with her.'

 

[Sir Les Paul]

LOCATION—Death Colosseum, Death City, Nevada
DATE—10/31/20267 | Monday
TIME—N/A

"It's unfortunate that you don't know the privilege you were given," Kyle answered. One could easily write the man off as fanboy or over-excitable enthusiast, but there seemed to be some actual sincerity in his voice. He wasn't overly excited. Not anymore, at least. Feng, who might have been what one would consider his type, ruined his interest in both categories the moment she began speaking. How she downplayed the art of swordsmanship, to him, was philistine at best. Not enough to infuriate him, just enough to dampen his excitement.

It didn't help that he was so unimpressed by the display Feng was putting on, either. A lot of ranged attacks instead of a proper frontal engagement.

Of course, electricity was fast, so his list of options was limited. The same advantage Gauss was using against others. Kyle did have an answer, though. Electricity always wanted the path of least resistance. Domas might have commanded lightning, but without resonance, that control was not so great that he could force it to go against its nature at this range. The counter was straight forward. The Meister hurled the ball end of his Kusarigama at the electricity, to which it instinctively jumped, and was then channeled through the length of the weapon. This was where the Fortified Soul of that Demon Weapon came into play. Did sting? Sure, slightly, but not enough to cause any real damage. The static build up was burnt out before it even had the chance to reach Kyle.

The shots from Aki were a different story. Due to the limitations on resonance, her shots were neither terribly powerful or fast. Admittedly stronger than average due to her Volatile Soul, but not so much that Kyle couldn't deal with them. And, deal with them, he did. Unsheathing his second sword and using it in an adjusted one-handed stance, he was able to slash through a portion of the incoming volley such that he could create openings to keep himself safe. Of course, this required Soul Conduction through the weapon, but there was the benefit of his self-mutilation. His own soul was Distorted in such a way that it matched another. A vile thing perhaps, nearly as off-putting as the necromantic Witch the trio had fought in New York, but it was what they were faced with.

A man that could wield two weapons, yet was not a Utility Meister. A man that at a time was so fixated on his fantasies that he would damage his very soul to make them a reality.

"Surely, you can do better than that," Kyle goaded, truly disappointed with the display. His head bobbed a single time as if to emphasize his displeasure. He yanked back the ball end of his kusarigama, but kept his sword unsheathed. If he needed before, he would likely enough need it again.

By this time, the effects of the Fortified Wavelength embed in Wes had diminished. Like most wavelength abilities, it had a timer. Hitting him once with a fair amount of force dampened him, but without reapplying it or a stronger initial application, it wouldn't persist. What Wes heard once those spiritual ears of his were unclogged was clear, if not disturbing. The sword Kyle wielded was a Demon Weapon that did, in fact, possess a Distorted Soul. It created a chaotic, annoying cacophony that luckily wasn't worsened by Resonance. The actual soul of the Demon Weapon was perhaps have asunder, if not less. Much more damaged than someone like Evangeline, but in this case, it was a trait that the trio leaned into. It wasn't clear if the undamaged part of that Soul had any effect, but what was more clear would be the fortified nature of the kusarigama. It was an odd sensation. Wes could hear something, or at least knew their was a sound, but unlike a Suppressed Soul, he couldn't make it out. All he could hear was how well it was drowning out the elemental affinity of Domas. That spiritual lightning was put out like the burnt end of an old cigar: snuffed.

More than anyone, Wes could hear the disappointment. Kyle didn't exactly hide his feelings. He suppressed himself to land a sneak attack, sure, but that was gone. His goading was dripping with a disappointing venom that Wes could hear originated from his very soul. The man had hoped for more from his encounter with Feng and it just wasn't coming to pass.

EmperorsChosen RedArmyShogun Breadman Shotgunpenguin

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[EmperorsChosen]

Daniella Ethalyn - Death Colliseum, Death City, Nevada
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True to Nadia's presumptions, Dani's eyes remained focused on mostly one person in particular. She didn't like these games. They weren't her cup of tea to begin with, but she may at least have not hated them were it not for the smaller tournament the first FATE agents were shoveled into earlier into the program's start. The circumstances of this royale were far different and, most notably, voluntary. Still, the earlier tournament left a poor taste in Dani's mouth.

If she wasn't participating as a guard, Adrian would otherwise be the only reason she would be here.

"...Yeah, that's fine," Dani replied simply, hands shoved in the pockets of her jacket. "If we gotta go, we gotta."

She'd rather make sure things were safe than watch. The DWMA seemed incapable of something going on without a hitch as of late. Plus, while she wanted to be supportive, being here kind of ticked her off in a way. Not that she wanted something to go wrong, of course, but the circumstances of the tournament. Three tags and you're out, no resonance, no mages. If it were like this at the tournament, maybe she wouldn't have had such a horrid time and a lot less people calling her a screw-up.

Dani removed her hands and leaned against the railing, a slight pout forming on her face as she exhaled. "At least he's havin' fun," She mused, referring to Adrian.

 

[RedArmyShogun]

Feng Long - Aki Kiyoko -Wes Kraven - Domas Krogertas
LOCATION—Death Colosseum, Death City, Nevada
DATE—10/31/20267​

‘Seriously, what is this guy's deal?’ Wes felt he had to once again ask the question as Kyle expressed his disinterest in the way Feng was currently fighting. Did he seriously expect for her to just rush in headfirst without any thought? Actually, if Korne was really so well known amongst his little fan club, then yeah he probably did expect for Feng to fit his idea of someone who wielded the katana. Wild, bloodthirsty, and one to look at the person in front of them not as another meister, but as someone to defeat.

Still, Aki’s barrage and Domas’s lightning bought enough time that Wes could shake off the dampening effect he felt from the first blow from the kusarigama. And what he heard was odd, specifically the lack of sound that was coming from the weapon itself. Compared to the ear grating sound that was coming from the sword on his hip, it was the complete opposite. Not quiet, that would imply there was something about it to be heard, but a lack of sound entirely.

‘He wants us to rush in and fight him. Sounds genuinely disappointed. If we get close we can keep him from just swinging at us from afar.’ He offered to the trio, more of a possible option than a plan of attack. Feng was the one who would have to get them in close, and there was always the chance that others could rush them the second their backs were turned.

Speaking of. ‘We have someone coming in quick from the right too.’ Wes pointed out, hearing the soul of someone itching for a fight. He didn’t recognize their soul signature, but that hardly mattered in the utter bedlam that erupted.

Watching all the interactions that had come to pass from this, Feng didn’t have much to add to what Wes had to say. And of course there were some of the other spectators watching that wanted to jump in more likely than not. Though she had gotten what she wanted, some idea of what the second weapon could do. And a glimpse at his soul. The fact someone like that had the nerve to think he deserved any amusement was rich.

Then there were the bullshit rules on what she had expected to be a battle of elimination, was more of a game of tag. A dangerous game of tag. That was her and Aki’s own mistake for joining in without finding out more. Still, Wes was right, and the distorted bastard in front of her couldn’t just be shot away unfortunately. ’We are going to play it up front and direct,going to see if I can catch his little chain. Punch him in the face or the back of the axe into his ribs, need to watch out for that other weapon of his as well. Unless you all got differing opinions on that, we are going in.’

"Fuck...off..." Domas felt the exasperation creep in as his element was snuffed out. "Not you...that prick..." He corrected himself in a hurry. As if it wasn't bad enough that he could feel the exhaustion take hold, the loud noise was beginning to pound louder and louder. His own thinking was beginning to feel more labored. "We to get closer to him. Smack him in the face. Push him off balance." He felt a very specific anger build up against their opponent. "Hit him hard and fast. Don't stop." Domas was nearing the point of rambling. He was focused, but the exhaustion was creeping in.

‘<Ugh, what a dickrider…>’ Aki chimed in Mandarin. She didn’t think all that highly of the Death Scythe katana or his partner. They were plenty strong, but they also were arrogant. Aki had seen arrogance lead to death plenty of times. To her, it was equivalent to simple stupidity. Then again, that feeling mostly applied to the Death Scythe’s partner than himself.

The fact this guy wanted them to engage in close combat also put her off, not that she doubted Feng’s ability. ‘...I don’t really like that he’s asking for it, but there aren’t many people that I think could beat Feng physically without resonance…’ She mused. ‘We can go for it, I think.’

'We can't take our time with him, but at least we have some idea in what he can do. That blood-soaked blade seems to want to cause me more trouble.' They were dealt a bad hand back then, and Feng wasn't about to agonize over her choices. If she were to ever do that, she would have stopped moving long ago. Still, the weasle's words did irk her slightly.

"Privilage? Ha. Death and fucked up things were all I seen with that sword, and all I seen before it, is that something new for you?" Speaking in what only Aki would likely understand, the tonal beauty of her speech dripped with acid.

"<Bark and Bark, the Dog gets hit. Who the fuck even are you?!>"

While she couldn't go all out, which pissed on the mood for her, she could do what was expected by her partners and push the cusp of it.

Stepping off with self enhancement Feng dived to get in close and give him one hell of a love tap with the back of the axe, while she kept an eye out for the Chain, opening what would turn into a multitude of blows. She didn't much care what the rules said, she would make sure her opponent would come to regret his words and for picking her as a target. If it all went to plan at least.

Interactions: EmperorsChosen (Aki) Shotgunpenguin (Wes) Breadman (Domas) Sir Les Paul (NPCs)

 

[Sir Les Paul]

LOCATION—Death Colosseum, Death City, Nevada
DATE—10/31/20267 | Monday
TIME—N/A

"Who am I?" Kyle responded dryly. He intentionally ignored the rest of her pandering, choosing specifically to only respond to her in her native tongue.

Of course, he knew Mandarin. Some of it, at least. Not only was it the most widely spoken language in the East, it was part of the trifecta for those obsessed with their world. Right alongside Japanese and Korean.

"Wǒ de yìmíng shì Disturbance (My stage name is Disturbance)" he answered. His own rhetorical question, but of course that question was a mocking response to the very one Feng had asked. Not only that, he demonstrated he could speak - fairly well given his obvious American lineage - the language as well as understand it. Not everyone could.

Not that there was much time for banter. Feng was finally coming at him, and he was all for it. A tinge of long-hidden excitement shot through him at the realization. A shit-eating smirk shot across his face. Of course, he could only go so far. With resonance of any kind limited at risk of disqualification, and knowing he had an inhibitor collar on him in the event he went out of line regardless, he had to keep this fight fairly neutered. It would come down, in his mind, to skill and technique.

In no world would her happenstance assortment of weapons defeat his carefully curated team and fighting style.

His first course of action was to yet again launch the ball-end of his kusarigama at Feng, this time aimed right for her pretty little head, then shoot off at her head first. His katana remained behind him, that distorted soul of both himself and his katana becoming more and more clear as the distance closed. A fortified wavelength, a severely distorted soul, then a partially distorted soul all in one being. In a way, he resembled some type of abominable beast more than a human. He would soon prove this was even more the case while living up to his stage name.

In one deft move, Kyle intended to respond to both her attack with Domas and launch a secondary surprise of his own. A sword had reach on an axe, this was no secret. Stopping short of their clash, Kyle swung upwards with his sword in a wide, circular motion. It was fast, even faster given he had just amplified himself with his own Wavelength Amplification. That was secret he had kept close: the true nature of his wavelength. Kyle possessed a Thunderous Soul. One he kept fairly well suppressed since the beginning of the fight, only intentionally leaking out blunt emotions like his disappointment. A feint the entire time so that he could now have his wavelength explode in front of Feng.

A Thunderous Soul was a frustrating thing. In much the same vein as someone like Adrian, it was something that couldn't be ignored but didn't inherently make the person using it stronger. In this case, it didn't matter how good Feng was with her perception. She, Aki, Domas, and worst of all Wes would be hit with a cacophonous boom to their spiritual senses, sight or sound, made worse by the fact his soul was Distorted. A distraction timed with an attempted slash to the wrist holding Domas, or if she proceeded, with her momentum, her forearm and possibly torso.

He wouldn't pull that punch, either. Even if hurting Feng meant a disqualification, he would take it to land that hit. All with that same smirk on his face.

EmperorsChosen RedArmyShogun Breadman Shotgunpenguin

​

 

[RedArmyShogun]

Maria Mayer
Streets Near Death Colosseum, Death City, Nevada
DATE - 10/31/20267​

In the days after the operation and the activities to come, Maria found herself exceptionally busy, if not somewhat motivated by the power she had that day. Between that, properly rebuilding, expanding and laying plans for her constructs, Maria seldom pried herself away from her work, outside of forced interventions, going to the lab or meeting the one true devil of this world, and all worlds. Money.

Even if her ideas were great, there was but so much the DWMA paid her and the amounts of materials she used could not always be written off in one way or another. However, she had a way to make money; by using her skills to craft specialty items and selling these products she always had a source of income to fuel her work and hobbies, the joys of Capitalism. Setting up a stall with the blessing and help of a local store owner that she bought materials from along the old city avenues leading towards the Colosseum, Maria would not be attending the competition. Mages were not allowed, and the purview seemed much more constrained. And while Lord Death was there, Mirai was not.

Thus, there was no interest nor purpose and more importantly, this was a good time to let go of simple items and lower quality gear she had made over the year. Though a bit of red tape had to be gone through and permits purchased, but even then, she would still make a profit. Not that said permits were ever truly expensive. On display were a number of wooden crafts in the forms of sculptures, toys, tools, sewn plush dolls of popular figures within the DWMA with her normal signature style of button eyes and stitched mouths were also among the crafts on the table.

Behind this, however, was a weapon rack that contained a number of swords and daggers of various makes and models that looked like a mix of practical and artistically designed blades, latched securely with a restraining bar over the guards of the blades, and at the base at the bottom was a crossbeam, preventing them from being removed easily. And in yet another cabinet, though in much lesser numbers with a glass plated door behind lock and key were a couple breastplates, gauntlets of steel and gloves of leather, chainmail. None were enchanted or special in any other way material wise, the value being in their construction as Maria seemed unbothered by the attention, she may garner, while she was a social oddity at the best of times, she knew enough and was comfortable with matters of trade provided they did not drift or the haggling went on too long.

Interactions: ???

 

[November Witch]

Corellia Gadrone

~{An Uninteresting Situation}~​

Status: Annoyed
Location: Death City, Nevada
Interactions/Mentions: The Regal Rper

Her foot tapped the ground restlessly and her eyes squinted at the rays cast down upon her from above. The sun was too bright to be comfortable. So was the noise of the crowd around her, and the energy they carried. It reminded her of being in a fight. But not doing any of that fighting felt weird. Everything about this was uncomfortable. Even how much Leo had pestered her to come out and do something. He was too damn persistent. She had only relented because she knew how important it was. That, and he was getting annoying. Magitech was an ever evolving, ever changing world. She needed to catch up on it all if she wanted to be able to make something great. Something useful that hadn’t been come across yet.

She ruminated on theoreticals of her work, vaguely mapping out problems and solving them as best she could in her head. But without a pen and paper or a phone to put her thoughts down in, she never got very far. While she had her phone on her, she knew Leo would try to take it from her if she was paying it too much attention.

The girl was pried from her thoughts as Leo spoke. Her elbow rested on the armrest of her seat, and her chin sat upon her head, looking between the giant screens and the fight happening below them. But her eyes shifted over to him as he spoke. She looked incredibly bored. She paid the first portion of his words no mind, just spoke up in response to the second half. “Or we could just ask them. Surely that would be easier than just trying to glean something useful from a fight.” Well, unless they didn’t want to talk. But she had always found the more silent, secretive teammates the worst to work with. She could only hope none of them fit that description.

The girl yawned as she watched the fight unfolding before them, seeming more tired or even annoyed than entertained.

 

[Merciless Medic]

Sara & Dante​

Date: October 31, 2067
Location: Death Colosseum, Death City, Nevada
Collab with Pumpkid
Interactions: Adrian
Mentions: Gauss, Noah, Arkayis, Elly, Kisei, Zosar, Wren, Gav, Feng, Wes, Aki, Dromas
Sir Les Paul

The day had arrived where the Death Festival began its week-long celebrations.

Since having Dante out on a pumpkin hunting celebration, Sara wanted to bring Dante out of his house again. So, she excitedly knocked on his door. While she would wear something gothic to represent the holidays, she heard about the FATE bracket of the Death Colosseum and assumed she was going to take part, so she wore her usual clothes.

But Dante didn’t need to know that.

“Danteee, come on out!” She yelled through his door, giggling. “Come on, come on, you can’t be in there all week when the Death Festival is soo fuuuun~!”

Dante woke up to the banging of his door, loud and annoying much like—he sat up with a great gasp. Death Festival is today, meaning his birthday as well. There is no way Sara knew about it. If she somehow learned or even dug through his profile somehow, he will have a few words to share with the optimistic pup. Maybe if he kept quiet, Sara wouldn't barge in, but as he thought about it more, the werewolf was tenacious or maybe he was paranoid. He can never tell with her as their relationship had barely budded. He couldn't risk having Sara in his apartment and start marveling at his place only for her to tell the others. He would be a laughing stock.

Reluctantly, Dante dragged himself out of bed with a groan and a messy set of hair. He threw on his pumpkin designed slippers and leaned against the door with an arm resting on it, as well as his head to hear her. “Go away!” He groaned, unwilling to hear it. This is not the way he wanted to start his day.

Sara whined, pressing herself against the door. She had heard him walk up to the door, so she was not going away now. “Daaanteee, pleeaase~...? It's the 31st, we should experience the day and have fuuun~. Why sit inside all day when you can have fun with aaaalll the pumpkin stuff?” She grinned, knowing what she was doing since their pumpkin hunting spree.

If only Sara could see the growing tick mark on his head the way she's using his favorite squash against him. He knew he never should have admitted it. It's bad enough she has more of an edge on him while he's barely learning a thing or two about Sara. The ironic part is she's an open book, yet Dante stupidly refused to be invasive. “Oi! Do not use that shit against me. We already had our day, isn't that enough? There is no rule that says I have to spend time with my partner outside of work.”

Sara sighed, clicking her tongue. “But there are other FATE students I want you to meet, aaaaaand I do owe you some alcohol. Besides, it’ll be great fun. Buuuuut… If you’re so insistent on me going alone, then I guess…” Her lupine ears and tail fell, and she pulled away from the door. She was actually upset he was so insistent on staying, her tone sounding a little broken. “Besides… I’ll feel better if you’re with me. Just in case something happens.” Her last ditch attempt. She wasn’t intentionally trying to guilt trip him into coming along, as she did actually sound afraid that something bad would happen at this deathfest like what happened during the Fools Festival event.

Dante rolled his eyes. He didn't care to get close and chummy with other people. He liked his solitude. No loud noises, or worrying about making a ruckus. Did he sound like an old man? Yes. He is an old soul at heart. A true grandpa core fan. “And you think I care to be part of your life? We're just partners, pup. Second of all, you do not owe me a damn drink. I was talking to myself that day.” Even after his first mission, it's not like he was going to agree to hang out with her after and chill with a cold beer in hand.

Dante was ready and willing to turn away from the door and return to his sleep if not for Sara's change in tone. She didn't barge in, and sounded distraught. A surprise compared to when he’s standing by her side. He can sense the apprehension within her voice. Whether that was guilt or not, he couldn't help the nagging feeling of letting her win this time. Something told him it might have something to do with her past. Dante chewed on his inner cheeks, indecisive for the moment as he thought about the pros and cons. The cons were longer regarding socializing, being around Sara, and having her know more about him than needed. This outweighed the negative list. Sara was afraid. She has friends, she doesn't need him, however he is her weapon, a way to defend and save people in case of anything. Security. She was asking for help, something Dante cannot turn away from.

He let out a heavy sigh, grumbled under his breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. How can one wolf have a hold on him so easily? He must have an L on his forehead or something. “Fine, but you don't get to manipulate me again, understand? I don't think that shit is cool.”

Sara’s ears perk up as she heard Dante agree. Her tail wagged, only to still when he mentioned manipulating him. Did she really do that…?

She gave a sheepish chuckle. “Oh, did I? My bad, I guess it’s a bad habit. I’ll make sure to be better about that in the future.” She said, cheerily. And yet, she still couldn’t shake the shakiness in her voice. Dredging up past memories was something Sara hated, especially when it so easily stopped her from better controlling her emotions.

She then hummed. “So I’ll wait here for you until you come out. And then we can go together.” She smiled, finally managing to push the shakiness out of her voice halfway through it.

“Yep!” He replied as he had Sara wait outside for a while rather than invite her in to wait like most people would do. Granted, Dante would rather keep his space hidden than see all the pumpkin merch he has. On top of that, it felt as if once he allowed Sara in. She is bound to let herself in from here on out.

As soon as the door opens, Dante throws his jacket over Sara's head to keep her from peeping through the cracks of his door as he exits and locks the door behind him. He retrieves his jacket and puts it on, a black leather jacket unlike his hoodie, yet it did have a hoodie attached to it. He even brought a messenger bag just in case. “Alright, let's go.”

Sara gave a surprised squeak as a jacket was flung at her, and she quickly took it off. That’s when she smelled pumpkins all over the jacket. She smiled, but tried not to talk about it as she gave it back to him.

She wagged her tail happily and walked along beside him, skipping to catch up with him whenever her short legs lagged her behind a bit. Her tense shoulders relaxed, and she was back to being her bouncy self. But then, as they left the grounds of Dante’s home, that’s when her optimism settled for uneasy realism, sighing as she looked up at the sky.

“I really do hope nothing bad happens this time…” Her reminiscent tone sounded melancholic, but not outright sad. Just warily hoping for the best despite her reservations.

Dante shoves his hands in his pocket as they walk out of the complex area, quietly. Those merrily skips died down which caught his attention. Her words did not go unnoticed, and somehow he couldn't help, but agree even if it's his birthday. It felt like another another day. What came out of his lips next, would be the dumbest thing he’s ever said. “You’re really caught up on that, huh? You think every event will be a disaster? If I had a nickel for every time I thought about the past, I'd never be able to move forward and let the fear consume me.”

His words were hypocritical, but it was his form of comforting Sara, trying to figure out the source of her fear. When she asked for him to come, it was like a child clinging onto him pleadingly to hold his hand and be able to cross the street or at least a dark tunnel. Across the way is the light needed to lift the weight off of her shoulders. Dante halts in his tracks and tilts his head to the side with a heavy sigh. “Alright, spill it. Why are you so afraid of festivals? Does it have something to do with…”

He took a pause before he could spit something offending her way. Dante understood the death of a friend is a touchy subject. He understood what loss is. “...tragedy?” His gaze focuses on what's ahead as he waits for an answer.

Sara gave a light scoff as he gave that hypocritical statement, but she could read between the lines. He also was lost in the past sometimes, and he didn’t want his partner to suffer the same. She didn’t answer his question at first. Instead, she stood there when they paused from their walk, gaze fixated on the ground, as if seeing something that wasn’t there. She took a deep breath and fished in her jacket pocket.

Holding out her hand once she grabbed something, she turned her hand up and opened to reveal a custom-made earring. A loop had black and blood red ribbons interlocking each other on top of the loop and into a bow. Sitting at the bottom was a small block that sat a stud earring - a skull with mugs in the formation of crossbones.

Sara gave the earring a shaky smile. “On the day of April Fools… During the Fool’s Festival, I lost Allie…” She gave a sigh. “Allie was just a girl, who ran away from home and became a homeless drug addict, until she finally regained control over her life and became a clerk of Cafe of Skulls… Her favorite colors were red and black, her birthday was on April Fools, and her favorite drink was chocolate peanut butter banana shake, which sounds awful until you try it.” She gave a pained chuckle, which only made her tears want to fall, but they didn’t.

Her gaze grew dark, her lip minutely curling up in disgust as anger colored her words the more she spoke. “Then, before she could own the cafe and after touching so many hearts with her unconditional kindness, she was frozen along with the rest of the crowd as those mannequin jesters gunned them all down, and everyone there - myself included - were wearing those damned red and black beads that froze us in place and I could do nothing…” She clenched the earring in her hand, anger taking hold for a brief moment, a feral growl coloring the last of her words.

She then took a deep sigh, closing her eyes. “Before that, during a tournament that would show Death City and the world that the FATE program is a good thing that isn’t a waste of money, something happened and a few of Zosar’s friends from before the DWMA came and died trying to take Zosar away, and Zosar was put in prison for their attempt at trying to save him.” She sounded a little mad at that, but she didn’t linger on it. “After that was the travesty that was the Fool’s Festival, a cruel prank…” She huffed. “After that was the event in Hawaii. Someone had magically fucked with the food and wine so that - when taken together - it would cause people to be put under a spell where they would fall in love briefly with the first person they see.”

She looked up at Dante, a mockery of a smile on her face which looked uncanny. “And you wonder why I don’t like festivals.” She sighed, gaze resting on the ground. “I used to. But now I can’t enjoy them alone.” She gave a scoff. “But at least, whoever is out there, thinks that the FATE program is going to ruin their chances of doing something evil, which is why we never give up and to show terrorists we won’t bow down. If we do that, they’ve won. Plus, Allie wouldn’t want me to give up or not enjoy life, so I won’t.”

She shook her head, realizing she had rambled and probably bored Dante. “Whatever…” Dismissive, essentially giving Dante an out without making a fool of herself. She thought about putting away her earring, but she didn’t put it back in her pocket. Instead, she opened the loop and looped it through two holes in her lupine ear, sighing as the familiar weight rested back on her ear.

Dante squated after some time during the story to take in what had caused Sara a deep disturbance. The more he listened, the more he wanted to hang his head and bang it against the wall with how much of an asshole he tends to inconvenience like a mechanism to make himself better while this woman suffered internally. It's no wonder Wren, Zosar, and even Kisei were protective. Everyone has their demons, however Sara had her fair share of bullshit that just seems to be piling up with him included, yet handles it like champ.

When she opened her hand for him to admire her earring covered in clutter, he realized it was a symbol of someone precious much like Rory. He clutched his necklace making sure it remained in his hold. Sara would be surprised how similar the two are if he ever told his story which had him wonder if he should confess his sob story to show some form of trust or maybe out of pity to convey to Sara she is not the only one who has dealt with loss, and still presses on with his life. That is until she assured him she does not back down on festivals.

Dante’s brows knit together, “Whatever? That's not something to shrug off. As a matter of fact, that story was…a lot. It's like having to carry bags after bags of burdens like washing the blood off your hands that never goes away. Sorry…for your loss.” Words were not Dante's forte sometimes. Thankfully, Sara didn't need to hear anything he had to say. She knew where she stood in the world, and could take care of herself which only solidified one annoying thing. Sara is just a nice girl going through so much just to keep it together. It made sense why he felt a bit of madness during their fight. The trials of life are forced to overcome.

“If it's any consolation, you know you're not the only one who lost someone dear. At least you got to say goodbye. Some of us don't get that chance.” The faint memory of watching a funeral at a distance because he was afraid or he was not a Hoshi. He could have been brave like Sara, but his insecurities always seem to get the best of him. He ran a hand through his bright orange hair as soon as he stood back up with a heavy sigh. “Guess it makes sense now why you're so afraid. Luckily, someone wise once told me: ’fear is the heart of love’. You’re afraid because you care too much. You can't count on anything bad happening every single time a festival happens, though I don't think that would convince you.”

Dante offers his hand to Sara just for the moment putting down his walls to give her solace “I'm not easy to kill. Trust me, I've tried many times on missions. I'm not going anywhere so…if ever you want to feel safe, you can count on me just on occasions like this or when you're really scared.” His embarrassment is evident As he rubs the back of his head, eyes averted like a true tsundere. He took his hand back after a while realizing how weird it would be to let her touch, instead he pats her head three times before sanitizing and retracting his hand. “Alright that's enough, let's get going.” Before they start moving, Dante puts on his signature shades and shoves his hands in his pockets.

Sara noticed the way Dante clutched something around his neck, the way he looked at her, and the message he was trying to convey when he spoke. It was clear he didn't want a way with words, but she could get the gist of what he meant to say. She was at least reassured she didn't bore him. When he did open up a little, she looked up at him, curiosity evident in her amber eyes.

When he gave those wise words though, she smiled. Then that smile turned sad. “Thank you… but if I don't have at least some healthy caution, I would be a little too disappointed that something bad happened and I wouldn't be ready for when I'm needed most.”

When he reached out his hand, she stared at it, her arm moving a little to reach out, but then he patted her head. She gave a sweet coo, her tail wagging.

She could tell he wanted to move on, but they got this far. She wanted to know more about Dante's life, and guessing by his mannerisms wouldn't help her right now. She hummed. “If you don't mind talking about it… could you tell me a little bit about who you lost? They must have been a really good friend to you.” She gave a sweet smile. “If it means anything, I'd like to preserve their memory, too.” This wasn't an attempt at placating the poor man to get what she wanted, but an earnest wish so that Dante's friend would never go forgotten or be only known by a few. She may not know who they are, but that didn't matter to her.

The question was a loaded gun, taken aback by it had Dante deliberate on whether or not he should tell her. It's not like she didn't know, no thanks to Kisei. At least Sara did not press him about it whenever she had the chance. She probably forgot about it until now. She asked for their name, not the entire story, so he supposed it's fine. “His name is Rory. He was my first and last partner before I became an AW. He was the only friend I ever made in my entire life.”

And that was all she needed. She just smiled as she walked along beside Dante, piecing together the dots that Rory likely had something with a Hoshi, and that’s why Dante had something against them if his reaction to Kisei was anything to go by.

Sara patted his upper arm. “I’m glad he was there for you.” And that’s all she said.

After a short walk into the city proper, the Death Festival was underway. People dressed up in Halloween costumes, others were selling pumpkins or designs, others were selling symbols and items used for Wiccan culture, and there were a lot of souvenir vendors and face painters.

Sara walked with Dante, taking in the sights before meandering their way to the Death Colosseum since her phone had a text message that told her to come by because she was signed up for something. The colosseum was huge, and Sara balked at the size despite having been here before. “Jeez… I never get used to how big this thing is…”

She heard someone calling her name and she looked back at Dante before walking over. “Seems like you’re a part of the FATE bracket, yeah?” Asked the clerk.

Sara gave an unamused look. “I bet someone signed us up for the tournament.” She crossed her arms.

The clerk just shrugged. “I can’t tell you whether someone did or not. I just know that those able-bodied to participate and are in the FATE program get put on the list for the battle royale in the FATE bracket. It’s a three-point tag system. One person tags another three times, they’re out. No resonance, and if you use a weapon partner, you must either tag someone three times with your weapon partner OR three times with your own body for the knockout to count. If you win, your next opponent in the semi-finals will be that Russian chick, Innesa Sokolov and her halberd weapon partner, Richter Meier, winner of the EAT bracket.”

Sara looked back at Dante, clear distaste on her face but seemingly willing to go ahead with it, misunderstanding that this was something you opt in with and not automatically signed up for from the get-go. “Well, shall we make this quick?”

“What?” Dante croaked out, shocked that FATE was signed up without permission. Sara's face told him she was not the one who planned this. She wouldn't dare lie either. “Hell no I'm not going in there. Why would I want to be some entertainment monkey for everyone? It's stupid.” Dante crossed his arms, against the idea of competing until he heard the champion was to be involved. His ears twitched with interest. Another halberd had won before, maybe Dante can actually be the next Victor and win with flying colors. “Fine, I'm on board.”

What he forgot was the fact that he and Sara were barely learning to synchronize. He might not be so lucky, and Sara being half-baked doesn't help either. Dante grits his teeth in annoyance, ignoring the moment the two shared earlier. If only his partner was someone stable.

Sara sighed and shook her head at Dante’s unwillingness and then willingness, making her grin a little. “You’re so funny…” She said under her breath. “Alright, might as well enter.”

After showing off their DWMA IDs to mistakenly opt in for something Sara and Dante thought was an automatic sign-up and given the rundown again, they were allowed in the colosseum proper. Once inside, Sara realized how much bigger it was. There was a second row of bleachers hovering over the first with magitech most likely, and she barely make out screens for those who were too far away.

She looked around, noticing that Gauss, Noah, and Arkayis were being dogged on by multiple people, Feng, Aki, Wes, and their new weapon partner was fighting off against a meister with two Demon Weapons, and then-

"Oh, Saaaara."

Sara’s blood ran cold and her ears perked up as she whirled around to see Adrian. The little hug he had his arms out for became deadly as spikes shot out from his palms. She gave a soft yet nervous chuckle, remembering her humiliating defeat in the cages. She immediately grabbed for Dante’s sleeve, clearing her throat to speak as Adrian asked for a rematch.

She looked up at Dante and gave a sheepish grin. “Ah… Okay.”

But while she had her hold on Dante, she established a connection to speak to him momentarily. ‘He has the pain wavelength and is an AW. So when he focuses his wavelength and taps someone, he can make them feel a lot of pain. Even works on Demon Weapons, and it’s very debilitating.’

Fighting an opponent who is likely very aware of where his opponents’ limbs are and where their attacks are coming from to push his wavelength into them at a moment’s notice was going to be a bitch and a half.

Dante took notice of her hold the moment some blunette called out to Sara like a creeper. The switch in her demeanor, and the grip on his sleeve agitated him. Whoever This man was only triggered Dante to stand in front of her, blocking their vision on Sara. He glares suspiciously at the stranger underneath his shades.

As Sara connects a link with him, Dante learns the secret behind the person who has Sara intimidated. Even as Sara warned him to be cautious, Dante was in disbelief. He clicks his tongue, “There is no way something like that exists. Pain or not, it's nothing to be worried about. I've dealt with far worse.” Dante puffs his chest, certain they would be alright. “Hey!” He directed it to Adrian. “Why don't you back off, punk.”

Sara gave a slight snort, trying to hide her amusement. “Oh no…”