thenearshore | [Semi-Closed] Heads I Win, Tales You Lose

Entry tags:

[Semi-Closed] Heads I Win, Tales You Lose

Who: Schwarz and business acquaintances
What: Meeting Loki's OG Boss
When: June 12
Where: Loki's Hollow
Warnings: General meeting of broken moral compass gods and the poor not-as-bad people who got bonded to them

The icy cavern outside of Loki's Hollow is a fair deterrent to standing around outside of the alcove entrance for very long. If you do know where to find the latch on the little table, it's no trouble at all. It pops the turning door when touched, which leads into the main living space. That much is communal.

Unlike many other temples, Schuldig's isn't very large. Perhaps that's because he has the full expanse of the exterior cavern and a hallway leading into it that he gets to 'guard' as part of his temple. In the warm space, there's really only the two bedrooms and a guest bathroom plus Schuldig's master suite. It's a luxury hotel space tucked away in a mountain, the likes of which have become popular in Europe of late, the kind of place Schuldig spends very little time in unless he's sleeping. That's why it's not an ideal meeting space... unless you want that meeting to be as clandestine as possible in the Far Shore. And today, introducing his shinki to the newly-arrived boss and meeting his shinki in turn, that's about all the temple needs to be used for. At least the entryway-plus-living room is quite large. Maybe they can be convinced to play some cards.

[[OOC: If Schuldig or Crawford hasn't told your character the location of Loki's Hollow, or your character's power doesn't allow them to spy, please ask about finding Schuldig's temple.]]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"So what does a hearth goddess have to do with this?"

It sounds as though Chikusa's implying that Hestia's not here -- or at least not involved -- which is interesting all on its own. If he hasn't been invited on the strength of his connection to one of Loki's allies, the way Scully has, then it must be something about his own abilities that brought him here. Or something about his knowledge.

She watches him curiously, interested to see what he thinks, and what about it he might be willing to divulge.

If he were honest, Chikusa would have to admit that he's not entirely sure what could have Crawford get "Skylar" to fetch him for this little meeting. They met once, seated next to each other at a fire, and apparently that short conversation was all that was needed for something of interest to be seen in him.

It's a wholly unfamiliar sensation to Chikusa, when he's used to fading into the background as someone uninteresting and quiet.

However, sometimes he's not really honest, and now is one of those times as he dryly says, "Loki needs better interior decorating, I guess..."

Well, there's that answer. Dana laughs briefly, glancing around at the walls of what, despite its hotel-room decor, is still basically an apartment in a cave.

"I can't argue with that," she admits, relaxing. And she can't shake the real answer out of him... but if they're going to be discussing their plans, then, she thinks, it's likely enough that she's going to find out.

A laugh means she know he’s not saying everything, but doesn’t mind. That’s good, he supposes. It means, if nothing else, she’ll be easy to deal with, and he can figure things out at his own pace.

Oh, but this reminds him of something- “Did you ever look into those corpses…?”

She nods, crossing her arms and leaning back against the wall with a thoughtful expression. "I looked. I couldn't find any bodies that had been involved in that, though. Names, but not the bodies.

"Someone must have cleaned it up."

And in a hurry, too. Or she wasn't looking in the right places, and she's still having enough trouble reading Japanese characters that that's just as possible. She pulls a face.

"What about you? Did you find out anything further about that?"

The news that she hadn’t found anything isn’t surprising. He’s been breaking into morgues and Hakkai’s psychic friends have been on the case, and even they haven’t found much. Unless she’s been keeping some tricks hidden up her sleeves, he doubts someone so new could find anything.

The question being turned back on him just has a shrug. “Nothing new… Just what I already knew before. The corpses brought themselves somewhere, masqueraded as a parade…. And that’s that.” Mayhem, you know.

And then the mayhem. Or so she's heard. Scully nods, an absent look flitting over her face as she turns over the problem again. The bodies must've been brought there somehow. They must have been affected somehow. Someone had to have done a lot of work... but it seems as though it had all somehow been done magically, and she has no idea how to track down evidence of magic.

At least not when it's not the kind that involves clearly drawn mystic sigils and ritual components. (She's not even sure that kind's real, but with everything else that's turned out to be real recently, she's not betting against it.)

"We might have to focus on something else unless there's a break with the corpses," she admits. "... Besides, I've heard looking for my own past is too dangerous to risk it."

Ah. “So you heard about ayakashi then…?” he ventures. Considering how much she’d wanted to hunt down evidence, he’s curious what a skeptic like her makes of the whole thing. There’s never been any doubt in his mind; it was easy to simply believe Axel and find a new purpose in life. All the more after seeing the corpses, and then moreso after their first prayer. Was it the same with her, then?

"I've heard enough," she replies, holding back a sigh. She's not fond of the idea that looking up answers might be literally dangerous-- that information alone can threaten her life, and not just the reactions of people who might not want that information to get out-- but she can't deny the way her gut twists with atavistic fear every time she thinks of looking up her own name. It's as reflexive as flinching from a snake or huddling close to a fire when there are noises in the dark.

Maybe it's a programmed response... but she doesn't want to risk her life. Things aren't desperate enough to consider anything like that. Not yet.

Well…. So long as she doesn’t become an ayakashi. That’s the important thing, honestly. There’s enough on Chikusa’s plate; he doesn’t need to deal with a situation like that. Although, he supposes, it wouldn’t necessarily be his problem. It’d be Crawford’s, which is fine.

“So…. what are your next plans?”

"That'll depend on what this is all about," Scully says, nodding at the gods on the other side of the room. She can keep investigating her own questions, but, in the end, there was only so far that one woman with no memory and no real leads could go.

If Schuldig or Crawford have caught hold of a solid lead, she's willing to follow it up. It's not loyalty, exactly; she barely knew Schuldig, and Crawford, while pleasant enough, played his cards close to the vest. It's just teamwork.

"Is there anything you're planning on?" she adds, curiously.

A solid plan as any, at least for when they’re shinki reliant on gods for any weight and don’t have the memories for anything else until they stumble onto skills they didn’t know they even had. He can’t really say he’s much better, with how he had to work with Hakkai to find anything at all.

He’s not surprised when the question is redirect back to himself. “I guess I have a few things I have for the future,” he murmurs, head lolling down a bit. “But… they’re going to take time.” It’s partially a lie. He doesn’t have a lot on the table, and certainly no leads for the answers he wants to know: what happened with the corpses, where missing gods and shinki go missing to, what the Heavens are hiding.

But he has his poison. And that, at least, will be a good thing to have up his sleeve if the time comes to use it.

A pause as something else apparently comes to mind, and he glances up again. “...And I want to catch goblins.” That, too. He almost forgot about that.

"Goblins?" Scully repeats, and blinks at him. "...There are goblins?"

Ayakashi she's heard of, but weirder creatures -- no. Surely not. Something has to just be a fairytale, instead of a secret reality.

“They steal books,” he clarifies, or rather, clears up nothing, because obviously Scully’s life has to get just a little stranger despite how much it is surely driving her up the wall. “At least that’s what we’ve been calling them…. Who knows what they really are. But they’re annoying…”

"So, just to clarify. We're talking about tiny monsters that steal books," Scully says wearily, and tucks her hair behind her ear. Why not? Why not.

"Our books? Should I be locking my bedstand drawers?"

A loose shrug. Sure, that’s what they’re talking about. How else is he supposed to describe them? ‘Goblin’ says all it needs to. He could go into cultural associations of monsters and the like, but…. Well. It’s unnecessary. And he’s not going to talk more than he has to.

“They were books that were found scattered throughout the Far Shore…” He considers her for a second. “I don’t suppose you found any like that?”

"No. I saw a few people mentioning them, though." She shakes her head, with more certainty, and adds: "The only books I found have been in the library, and most of those didn't do me any good."

Although she is -- by necessity -- getting a little better at reading Japanese.

"Because of the subject matter.... Or because you can't read them?" By this point, he's heard references of people not understanding Japanese much... but this is just as much of a guess as anything else he could say. That's not something he's ever really had a problem with, although that's also why Chikusa is feeling unsure about his knowledge on various Italian subjects.

~~Fucking thanks Mukuro.~~

"Both," she said bluntly. "I haven't found anything with a useful subject matter, and I'm still working on reading characters."

She seems to speak the language well enough, at least, or she'd be even less useful here than she's been so far. Reading, unfortunately, is a different matter.

At least she seems to have a decent grasp of English. She's been spending a fair amount of time trawling through the internet for information.

Well, that’s certainly a problem…. For her. “Most of the stranger events have happened in Japan,” he says simply. “So you’ll want to learn if you want to be useful.” It’s…. Certainly blunt, but what else is there to say? It’s true. Certainly, going to other countries is something that he can imagine happening easily in the future, there’s no denying the importance of Japan to events connected with the Far Shore.

"I've noticed," she shoots back, and flicks a hand out, lips thinning. "I've been working on it."

Useless is an accusation that stings more sharply than she'd expected. She's not, anyway. She's just a little behind on her literacy, that's all.

Well, if she says she’s working on it… Shrugging, he begins to move away. It feels like he’s gotten what information he could out of her anyway, and he doubts she has much more to talk to him about. “Good luck with it, then… And with whatever we end up working together on…”

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Semi-Closed] Heads I Win, Tales You Lose

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject