Information Gathering: Nirvana [mission/sol] (Read 217 times)

[Deleted]

“Climbin’ into the ‘ol Saiyan space pod,” Marso muttered to himself; a new member of a quickly developing guild known as Grimoire Heart who typically wore a world-weary expression. Doubtlessly, those who’d had the pleasure of meeting him noticed his apparent arrogance for there were few more dismissive than him. They were mistaken to define it as arrogance. Oh, no. Marso wasn’t arrogant. He was quite the pessimistic lad, actually. In fact, the very job he was given, the one he was going to do that moment – Marso couldn’t help but feel at least some disgust in the fact that despite information gathering being his forte, he had yet to develop much in terms of information gathering skills. His father was leagues more useful than him and his magic was far more vague than his own. That was an irksome thought.

He climbed into a spherical vessel. He assumed his partner for the job to do the same. The hatch closed. “Alright. What do I do again? Boop, boop…” The pod took off and before he knew it, he was settling gently on the edge of the town, near the forest. He climbed out with a sigh and looked for his partner. Spotting her, he would say, “Remember where we parked.”

[SOLACE R. KALARE]

MARSO ●

"It kind of does look like one.~" The statement might have been rhetorical but I decided to respond to it anyway. Over the last twenty or so years it's been mandatory for me to maintain a positive attitude and be optimistic unless I wanted to lose what sanity I've managed to retain. Yet, this has made me painfully nonchalant and hardly anything ever effects me. Lately, it has annoyed people but I'm far too apathetic towards others to really demonstrate much aside from general amusement when people didn't like me. Which was usually just the stupid ones and the authorities. I had my own personal Saiyan pod just like the rest of the crew. When I opened up the hatch I stepped in and closed it back up. I sighed to myself as I did. I remembered when I could fly and I didn't have to rely on technology. Additionally, I remember when I was within a different airship. Maybe it is in my blood to fly, because I keep on ending up in airborne vessels. A thought for another day. The landing was always so gentle. There we were, about to begin a task of my specialization, placed at the edge of town we were. Then, without further ado, I climbed out of the pod and closed it back up. In response to Marso, I nodded. "Understood, Marsiepoo.~"

LAIKA OF GS!

[Deleted]

"Even if I'm covered in the mud of my defeat, if I can keep fighting and look up at the sky as I lie on the ground, that alone is proof of true strength."

A pet name. Solace had been more than friendly with Marso, but the same was true for, pretty much everybody she crossed. Nevertheless and despite being quite aware, Marso could not help but crimson slightly after the deliverance of his cutely-skewed name. Of course, the ceaseless weight responsible for his characteristic, half-opened eyes was there. He did advert his gaze, scratch his cheek momentarily before attempting to dismiss the somewhat alien, unfavourable state with a throat-clearing cough.

“Alright then,” Marso said as an offering to conclude the exchange. He decided to lead the way. While the boy possessed little idea as to where to go, he did know he had to, at least, make his way into the town. “We’ll start just heading into town. Gotta admit, I’m not sure where to start looking…” While he executed his casual, unhurried strides, he drew in a long, refreshful breath. The novice mage released it with some reluctance and opened the eyes he’d temporarily drawn closed. Nothing appeared to change – like at all. Marso was content, however.

“We can’t just ask people about it. We need a lead or somethin’. Like, say, a library. A library sounds boring and I can’t shake the feeling that we’ll find dick-all there.”

ELECTRIC HAS GANGNAM STYLE

[SOLACE R. KALARE]

MARSO ●

"I have not heard too much of this thing before, so I'm afraid I hardly know a good starting point, either." I confirmed, smiling apologetically. While I could disguise as well and collect the actual information well enough that didn't necessarily mean I could figure out where to start looking any easier than others. Perhaps that would be my partner's forte. Or so, at least I hoped that was the case. This job could take longer than I originally expected. As we walked, we talked. A library was the first destination to be suggested. Contemplatively, I placed my index finger at my bottom lip as I momentarily turned my gaze skywards. "Books about it might be locked up in there; who knows if they try to keep the knowledge of it out of the public's hands.~ If they do, it'd be easy for me to sneak us in. Of course, that's only if it's as guarded as I'm making it out to be." I giggled, bringing my hand before my mouth as I did. While my magical power these days was limited I had a lot in my arsenal to prove exceptionally useful in situations like these. I was a good spy and thief, but no longer a good combatant. I resolved to fix that.

LAIKA OF GS!

[Deleted]

"Even if I'm covered in the mud of my defeat, if I can keep fighting and look up at the sky as I lie on the ground, that alone is proof of true strength."

So, she didn’t know a good place to start either. “That’s okay,” Marso replied to the paltriness filling her, seemingly, habitually likeable smile. “Nobody really knows where to go. Big B’s probably hoping to hear the results of the Magnostadt group since it’s them with the forecasted largest percentage of success.”

Potentially, there was a possibility that they kept books there tucked away in a safe place, as Solace explained. Perhaps they did it because they thought the information too dangerous for public consumption, but too valuable to destroy. As they spoke, they continued walking through the town. It was a bit embarrassing for the boy to stop and ask for directions at one point, but at least he only has to ask once.

“Okay, so it’s this way,” Marso declared after the individual left. He wasn’t one to mistake directions, so it wasn’t surprising when he brought the both of them to the library. He opened the door so Solace could step in first. Before long, they would be inside. Marso looked around, whistled in awe of all the books shelved before him. It was then did a wall of “SHHH” slam into him. After recovering from the explosion of shushing, Solace found hovering before her a screen, pink, shaped like a pig that told her a call was incoming. She could press a button on the screen to answer or decline.

ELECTRIC HAS GANGNAM STYLE

[SOLACE R. KALARE]

MARSO ●

I looked at all of the shushing people with my usual look of genuine curiosity while placing my slender index finger at the corner of my lip. People could be so rude these days. In this case that was ironic given they were being rude in response to something they considered obnoxious. These people all looked unnerved. One of them even jumped out of their chair when they entered. It was because of all of the Undead were breaching the city's walls. Authorities were constantly busy with snuffing these gross things out before they bit someone and they in turn changed into one of them. But all of these people knew one of the shambling corpses could smash through a window right now and attack them. You could imagine the initial panic of the town. Oh~ Interesting~ I couldn't help but utter as I seen the screen appear before me. I rarely seen magic of this nature but I was on this world long enough to know of its existence. It was an exceptionally convenient magic and it was especially useful in situations like these. Whatever I was receiving now was in the form of a call. It was definitely an interesting thing, and it reminded me of those IM calls on computers. Reaching out, I pressed the accept button. My, my, does this include all of my thoughts? There was a hint of suggestiveness in that query. italics = thoughts bold = speech

LAIKA OF GS!

[Deleted]

"Even if I'm covered in the mud of my defeat, if I can keep fighting and look up at the sky as I lie on the ground, that alone is proof of true strength."

Her implicative thoughts confirmed her acceptance. His eyes would have too, but they were busy boring forward towards nothing in particular. They also kept the relatively good mood Marso was in stable. 'Heh. Only the one's you're willing t' share,' he commented. 'I haven't gotten the hang of anything more than that. Otherwise, I'd be finding suitable people to mind read.' Of course, Marso was speaking via thoughts, which were heard by Solace as if, essentially, he were actually speaking. It took a slight bit of effort to project thoughts with his spell, which meant sharing thoughts unintentionally was unlikely.

There were no more shushes, but there lingered an air of anxiety. Even the young achieve mage could see that. 'Why's everyone so edgy?' The question was posed in such a way that it wasn't completely clear whether he was asking himself or her. This was his first time touching down in quite some time. Whatever events were unfolding were unknown to him. 'Well, anyway, I do have an idea as to how I might get this done quickly.' He'd move over to an aisle, settle into a comfortable sitting position before beginning to poke at the air. Ostensibly, he was poking at nothing. 'I just haven't done it before. I'll try searching Nirvana through all of these books, which'll require spreading my aura throughout this entire place...' He paused, likely busy starting what he'd just explained. As he did, a screen appeared before her. 'Wanna place some Candy Crush Saga as you wait?'

ELECTRIC HAS GANGNAM STYLE

[SOLACE R. KALARE]

MARSO ●

Ah, good. You see, there are many things on my mind that simply could not ever pass as acceptable. My image is far too fabulous to be marred by my indecent passing musings. I was kidding for the most part. It was a very convenient ability. It would get downright noisy if all of these thoughts, for example, were transferred into my partner's head. For someone adept at espionage like myself, something like this was ridiculous useful for carrying out secret conversations while on a job. Spies obviously had to be quiet when they were spying. With this, I could talk yet not be heard. Oh? I responded inwardly as he revealed he may have knowledge of how to complete the task at hand. I followed behind him as he made his way into the aisle. It seemed that information gathering was his forte as he disclosed his ability to scan the books within the vicinity, using Nirvana as a search term. Oh my~ Then, a screen appeared before me. It looked to be a game featuring sweets. It reminded me of Bejewelled but catered to the destruction of those candies surrounded in a clear, gelatinous fluid. Highscores for me to trump?~ This will be fun~ With that said, I began eliminating as much jelly encased sweets as possible. italics = thoughts bold = speech

LAIKA OF GS!

[Deleted]

"Even if I'm covered in the mud of my defeat, if I can keep fighting and look up at the sky as I lie on the ground, that alone is proof of true strength."

Marso appeared rather engrossed in his work. Such wasn't a surprise. The task he was performing required obvious concentration, especially with the fact in mind that he had not done such a thing before. Solace was left to play the game Marso had loaded for her, which she appeared to be doing happily enough. Did he find anything? It would have been somewhat surprising if he had found absolutely nothing at all. Amongst all of the books surrounding them, there had to have been something.

'I was beginning to lose hope there for a second,' Marso piped up using the telepathic capabilities of his spell. 'First, I had to cast aside all of the Buddhism shit; but I knew I'd have to. After that, there were a few mentions of it, but it was only mentioned briefly – and when I say briefly, I mean pointing out the fact that it supposedly exists and harbours powerful magic. I did learn something. While the entry wasn't anymore than, maybe, a paragraph, it did mention something about stages. It sounds like this thing exists in an unawakened state. It'll need to be activated somehow to become whatever it is that it's supposed to be.'

He got up. When he did, a woman was standing before him. “Is there anything I can help you find?” she asked.

ELECTRIC HAS GANGNAM STYLE