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[looselips]

Characters: Shinji Matou & OPEN
Setting: Dormitory Floor 2; Cafeteria; Library
Format: Action preferred, but I'll try to match.
Summary: Shinji tries to puzzle out his situation.
Warnings: Man idk, I'll update this as things come up.

dormitory
[There is a small, (probably) unfamiliar child in the dormitory today. He doesn't seem as frightened or upset as a child perhaps should be after waking up in a strange place and being informed that his world has been destroyed. Instead, he's seated in front of one of the network terminals, his heels resting on the stool's legs.]

[It's hard to say what he's doing. He isn't touching the device at all, only staring at it really, really intently. Then, abruptly, he makes a noise of frustration and kicks it.]

—Ouch!

[Oops. He must have kicked it too hard, or hit his leg on it as he did so, as he immediately reaches down to cradle his knee.]

[This isn't the first terminal he has tried to do...whatever it is he's trying to, and it probably won't be the last. He might even venture to the first and third floor dormitories to see if he has better luck there.]

cafeteria
[So, after completely failing at what he wanted to do, Shinji has gone to the cafeteria. Maybe things will go better if he has a little food in his stomach? Maybe. Being in a less irritable mood should definitely help, at least.]

[Except the only thing he's given to eat is plain oatmeal. Obviously, this offends his eight-year-old culinary sensibilities. He hasn't touched it yet, and is instead just glaring at it like it's the source of all his problems where he sits at one of the tables.]

library
[...Yep, he's right back to his fruitless efforts with the terminals. This kid is tenacious, even if only in the way a small, loud terrier might be.]

Comments

[blackwitch]

'Twit'..? [ She cackles. ]

Who do you think you are to say something like that? I'm someone who has already earned the privilege of not having to eat slimy gruel the way you do, so if anything, just that would make me your superior already..!

[looselips]

[What the fuck. Who is this broad, and where does she get off talking to him like that?]

I've already met my quota for "talking to brain-damaged schizophrenics" today, so why don't you leave and try again tomorrow? Maybe I'll have caught whatever smarts-sapping parasite crawled in your ear by then, and I'll be able to have a conversation on your level.

[blackwitch]

What, are you saying you'd rather get pranked by me than talk to me? I could easily fill up your delicious meal with spiders. Or.. well, anything else! I'm the Endless Witch Beatrice, after all, I can do anything..!

[ And to demonstrate the fact she waves her hand and in a cloud of golden butterflies a cake appears on the table in front of her. ]

[looselips]

[Well, he doesn't keep sassing her, even if his "brain-damaged psycho" assessment of her remains. He squints at her harder from across the table, trying to figure out how to approach this situation.]

...How did you do that?

[He sounds more suspicious than anything.]

[blackwitch]

Hmm.. [ She hums as if she's pondering it herself, but then she giggles. ]

How do you think I did it?

[ She moves her finger across the top of the cake, getting some whipped cream on it and putting that in her mouth. Hmm, tasty. ]

[looselips]

...You can't be hacking into the system to make something like that. [Did he mention he's still half-convinced this is a computer simulation?] I haven't been able to crack into anything at all.

[Which obviously means that no one can, duh!]

[blackwitch]

[ .. Hack.. crack? Give her a moment, she's from 1986 at best and even then she still acts like a little kid, so it's not like she's very familiar with computers. ]

You think I'm doing.. what?

[looselips]

If you can access the system running this place, it should be easy to create or alter whatever you want. [He sounds a little arrogant, but the explanation is straightforward overall.] I haven't been able to find a way to do that yet, though, so you have to be doing something else.

[blackwitch]

There's no system that you can just use here to make whatever you want, you know! It's not that easy! [ She almost feels insulted by the idea, considering how proud she is of her magic and her status as a witch - and how hard she's worked to get the position. ]

It's magic, of course, magic..!

[looselips]

Hey, don't act like spirit hacking is something just anyone can do! [Well, they can be insulted together, then.] Do you have any idea how many firewalls are in place inside the Moon Cell? You need to be a genius to alter your surroundings there!

[Like him, of course.]

[But, her next words catch him by surprise.]

...Magic? Is there enough mana here to do that?

[blackwitch]

[ .. It's all just lost on her, she doesn't nearly know enough about technology to talk about stuff like that, so it's only the last phrase she gets. Sort of, either way, didn't that one Servant mention something about mana? Magic, mana, whatever, it's all the same to her. ]

There is when you're the greatest Endless Witch like me!

[looselips]

Greatest... Endless Witch? [Her claim makes him skeptical, but at the same time, he can't help but sound curious and a little impressed.] I've never heard of a sorcerer with a title like that.

[Which means she should obviously do something cool to prove it.]

[blackwitch]

[ Obviously. Except her idea of cool things usually involves murdering them brutally.. ]

It's since I'm the only one, of course! .. Well, aside from that old granny, but she's not worth the trouble knowing. She's just way too boring!

[looselips]

[Unfortunately, Shinji doesn't know that, so despite deciding earlier that she's insane, he pushes. He hops up from his seat, his hands slapping down against the table.]

Prove it! Do something else.

[He tries to sound demanding, and succeeds to an extent, but he can't help that he's eager and even excited to see actual real magic.]

[blackwitch]

[ .. Hmm. On one hand, he's just being sort of demanding in that childish way, but.. on the other, there's nothing more that Evatrice loves than her own ego being inflated. So if he'll really be that impressed by her magic..

She cackles. ]

Su-re, if you want to see something really amazing, then why don't you come along with me? [ Can't have slaughter without laughter - aka if she's going to use magic, she prefers to squish a monster with it.. ]

[looselips]

Okay, but it had better be something really good!

[But he's quick to scamper around the table to her side, the oatmeal entirely forgotten.]

[blackwitch]

[ Another giggle. Well, she can appreciate that eagerness, it's a lot like her own.. but in the end it's still fully just for bragging rights. So she just starts walking off towards the elevators and then the floor with the morgue - the one place where she knows for sure there's always monsters hiding somewhere inside the things where bodies are normally stored. ]

We-ll, before I can show off my awesome magic I guess I'll need a monster! Won't you go find one here..?

[looselips]

[When she takes him to a specific floor, he glances around, examining his surroundings. This is the first floor other than the cafeteria and the dorms that he's stopped on. When she speaks, though, he automatically looks back to her.]

Find a monster?

[This response is about what you would expect from a defenseless child. His eyes widen, and he goes pale.]

[blackwitch]

[ It's probably why she did it like this. Alas, Evatrice must always get her kicks in her own way. ]

What, you aren't going to tell me that you're scared, riiight?

[looselips]

N... No way! Of course I'm not scared! [He flushes and puffs up, not that his lie isn't obvious.] I just...don't know where I'm supposed to find one, that's all.

[blackwitch]

[ There we go, at least that's the kind of reaction she expected. With the same grin she points towards where normally the bodies are stored in this kind of place. ]

They're usually in there.

[looselips]

[Shinji is depressingly easy to manipulate like this. His eyes follow the direction she points in.]

In there...

[He stalls for a moment longer, but then he creeps forward, toward the aforementioned chambers. Hesitating in front of them, his heart beats so hard in his chest that he feels a little light-headed when he finally lifts a hand to open the nearest one, shielding himself behind the door as he (very, very cautiously) eases it open.]

[blackwitch]

[ .. There's nothing inside. She can see it from where she's standing, even if he can't see it himself with how he's trying to shield himself instead. She her lips just curl up a little as if she's amused, giving a tiny nod. Not like he's in any danger with this, but hey, psychologically messing around with people is fun too. ]

Not going to look..?

[looselips]

I'm not finding you one so I can look at it, I am?

[But despite this disgruntled reply, he (timidly) peeks around the door as she has suggested. When nothing immediately catches his eye, he leans farther and farther out from his hiding place. He might even peek inside the cold chamber itself briefly, when he sees there's nothing there.]

[It would be relieving, if it didn't mean he had to keep doing this until he finds what she wants. Again, he stalls for as long as he can before looking to the next chamber.]

[blackwitch]

[ It's so tempting to make something pop up from inside to scare him or hurt him, like a jack in a box, but she knows she has to be patient. No matter how much she wants a pay off right now, she has to wait for the right timing, so she tries to hold herself back.

Instead she hums, almost a little impatiently, as he's hesitating. ]