[Closed] You can't raise hell with a saint

[volksdaemon]

Who: Schuldig volksdaemon etc.
What: Random CR check-ins
When: May 3+
Where: See Prompts
Warnings: Schuldig and his immoral compass

[Closed Prompts in comments]

Comments

[volksdaemon]

Schuldig nods initially, confirming that at the very least he's paying attention and is open to hearing what Ukoku's perspective of the situation is. Okay fair, spotlights he's not into. If he wanted to do that, he would just post a big advertisement on the network and blame someone else for it like they did for Weiss. For all that people thought of him as flashy, he was alive today because prudence won out more often than not. And maybe because of Crawford's involvement. A little.

"No, you blow the element of surprise on something you've been planning for at least several months, if not years. I thought it would scare them, but keeping their guard down is probably better." He slouches a bit more, holding his chin. "What, bug their precious Ama-chan's temple instead? Hijack the mind of a temple attendant? If there's even one I can get to - most of them I can't. Could puppet a regular joe to just walk in there instead... I just wanted to know more about what they were up to, try to draw out the folks in power again."

[existentialcrisis]

Ukoku's smiling while he listens—the receptive outlook confirms it; someone's in this position on a regular basis, managing efficiency and subtlety and Schuldig with (what must be) a patient hand.

"And that's the objective, right?" Puppet needs to be addressed, but it can wait. "But Suijin can make statements from anywhere, yeah? They came out to meet with the little people because no one trusted Amaterasu. And why should they? If you remember, after the picnic, there was some kind of—you know, 'down with Amaterasu,' or whatever, stuff floating around. That was it, that was whoever's message. And they burned some trees down while everyone was having a good time. Terrible, right? Amaterasu was just trying to throw her subjects a party. It was nice of those bad people to make their intentions clear so we all knew who the victim was. And—lest we forget—her three best friends are a lightning god, a water god, and a wind god."

He ticks the three off on his fingers, and raises the fourth slowly, meaningfully: fire.

[volksdaemon]

Alright, this is getting somewhere interesting. Childish wrist-slapping attitude forgiven. Not that Ukoku would have asked for it, of course.

"Right, I do remember that. Fire, huh..." Occasionally his favorite element - when he can make people think they're spontaneously combusting - and occasionally his least - when someone else is doing the kinesis part of the pyrokinesis. "So a mind-reader could try to root out these little mice who're so ready to burn things to the ground while carrying those banners. Because they're probably back underground again by this point."

He gets a clearly curious expression on his face. "You think there's some kind of way to use fire against her a second time, if we use that resistance to initiate things? I certainly can't control fire and I didn't think you could either. But get a whole mob with torches and you're in some kind of business."

[existentialcrisis]

Ukoku opens his mouth, pauses, and closes it. For about half a second he tries very hard not to laugh—and then he's doubled over the table with his head in his arms, shoulders shaking.

"No! No." He's still kind of laughing when he sits up again, pushing up his glasses to wipe his eyes. "No, listen. It was a false flag, see? There is no mob."

Or it wasn't, and whoever had organized the whole thing was really that staggeringly incompetent, but that isn't a useful conclusion.

[volksdaemon]

Now he's frustrated, but not at Ukoku. He's more incensed that he didn't get a chance to scan the crowd while he had the chance. He hadn't thought a thing about them at the time; they were just a nuisance to avoid. "What proof do you have of that, exactly? A false flag... you're saying there's some other group did this on Amaterasu's behalf to get her some sympathy?"

He sits back in his chair and scowls a bit while waiting for further clarification. When he can't just rip the twisting plots out of someone else's mind, he's a hypocritical grump because of struggling to untangle everything the hard way - a skill he hasn't had to deal with much in years thanks to the presence of Crawford.

[existentialcrisis]

Ukoku doesn't answer immediately, slouched again in his chair with his head on his arm like a bored cat. They're going about this the wrong way, he suspects.

"Would it be easier for you to just hear it?" He points to his head without moving too much, lazy. "Even if I don't organize it for you?"

[volksdaemon]

He nods. "That'd be a start." It might even elicit a thank-you at this point because open-book telepathy is so much easier to 'organize' for himself when he's not trying to scoot around the parts of the mind that would notice his presence, or the walls some people can put up to corridor off certain topics. It's a lot of puzzle work he's good at, but nothing he enjoys per se. That would be purposefully trodding everywhere when someone CAN sense him and they still can't do anything about it, like with Sousuke.

"At least then we'd be on the same page to explain what your theories are."