“Oh, the Thieves of Elsewhere? Hmm, they do have a rather solid reputation, don’t they? Wait, just how many connections have you managed to make already, Lucas? It can’t all just be coincidences, can it? ...Wait, you have a connection with Alley Cat, don’t you!? What is it!?” When Mark draws this conclusion, he’s fighting back laughter as he asks Lucas for clarification.
“Wha-? How did you guess!? I haven’t even met them yet, Mary just introduced us over the phone, though, so why should..?” Lucas’s confused expression as he answers is making his face scrunch up to a rather comical degree.
“Ha! You’re going to give them a bunch of money for something, aren’t you!? So <
As Lucas starts heading in the direction of the men’s room, Miss Chievous seems inspired by the mention of pending photography, deciding to give Sylph her own photoshoot first.Pulling out her phone, she doesn’t even hesitate to interrupt Dan’s ongoing canine conversation.“Dan! Dan! Dan! Ask Sylph for me if I can take her picture too!” As Miss Chievous excitedly shouts out her request, he pauses in the middle of undoing the chaotic braiding of his hair, clearly surprised by the sudden address.After a slight delay, he snorts softly and proceeds to whistle the request to her majesty.Between Sylph’s cheerful little song accompanied by her fluffing her feathers and dancing a bi
As Lucas goes to resume walking towards the men’s rooms, Jonathan seems to hesitate for a moment. Noticing this, Lucas chuckles and slaps him on the shoulder, holding his strength back just barely enough so that it only stings slightly.“What, ya don’t wanna go hang out with a buncha supervillains without me? Heh, come on, we haven’t really had any chances to talk, anywho. Shit’s been pretty crazy lately, yeah?” Following Lucas’s teasing and invitation, Jonathan has a clear look of relief, starting to nod in agreement as Lucas finishes his broad observation of recent events.While he hardly appreciated getting hit, it was clearly preferable to heading back to continue triggering his social anxiety.“Yeah, it’s&helli
“All right. We got this, now to go get it over with. Man, this’d be so much easier without Mikah around, though.” After saying this, Lucas pauses for a moment, takes a deep breath, and slowly exhales it before heading to the door. As he starts reaching for the handle, he looks over his shoulder at Jonathan, speaking up one more time before pulling the door open for him. “Whelp, here goes nuttin’, yeah?” Jonathan similarly takes a deep breath, even slapping his cheeks twice before nodding at Lucas and heading out the door.[...Maybe the two of you ARE stressing over Mikah as much as I am.]
After some more time spent in hearty laughter, Miss Calculated eventually takes her glasses off with her left hand, reaching up with her right hand to wipe away the few good-humored tears which formed during her bout of hysterics. “All right, all right. We get it Chi, erm, I guess I can just openly say Maria now, huh? I’m so used to not saying it in front of others, it’s more liberating than I would have expected, hmm.” Before Miss Calculated even puts her glasses back on, she turns her attention over to Miss Chievous, lightly scolding her with a laughing tone that turns contemplative by the end.Miss Chievous gives one last firm, yet equally ineffective, kick at Lucas’s ankle. With a dissatisfied snort, she takes half of a step back, standin
Shortly after Dan has exited the front of Faunahorde, he shifts the contents of his right hand over so as to hold both objects with his left hand, and then goes to whistle with the assistance of his now free right hand. However, before he actually starts, the door is shoved open by a small amount by Franz, now reared up on his hind legs and leaning to the side to stick his snoot out the gap of the door in order to bark at Dan inquisitively.Dan pauses in his movements and turns around to face the questioning doggo, mindful not to move his head too much so as not to disturb her majesty’s roost.Apparently, Franz is satisfied with the answer Dan quietly gives him, as he shoves the door open further and dashes the few steps over to stand alongside Dan, with his tail wag
In a well-lit and immaculately clean, to the point of seeming sterile, office, only a few blocks away from MF’s Fashion Boutique, a man in his early thirties, dressed in a white button-up shirt and black slacks, is furiously typing away at high speeds whilst seated before a computer setup with four monitors. After diligently maintaining these efforts for some time, he pauses to grab a large insulated mug of coffee with one fair-skinned hand, rubbing his face with the other. Not that he rubs his face for long, as he stops while wrinkling his nose distastefully, clearly not enjoying the sandpaper sensation of his bristly overdue-for-shaving facial hair.Shifting to hold the mug with both hands, he takes a moment to savor the aroma before finally enjoying a few sips, making a contented sigh once he’s done.
Upon deeming the prepared beverage offering satisfactory, Ji Soo first heads back over to his desk and pulls open a large drawer, pulling out and donning a cloth face mask with multiple layers of carbon filters. After ensuring it is snugly in place, he pockets his phone, grabs the modified coffee, and ventures out of his safe space, carefully shutting the door behind him.Out in the front office area, Ji Soo glances over to his right, checking to see that the front door set in the all-glass wall of the entrance has its closed sign in position. Noting that Spectrum is leisurely pacing while on his phone out in the shared corridor of the multi-tenant building, Ji Soo just turns to his left and heads in the direction of the break room.The office in general has a distinctive art deco style, with a much warmer ambiance than Ji So
By the time Ji Soo has switched to drying the freshly cleaned dishes, the break room door opens and Spectrum walks in. He does a double-take when he sees Jeannine, considering she is snuggled up with her knees drawn to her chest to hold the blankets in place, occasionally sipping the coffee and smiling at Ji Soo’s phone as she continues perusing the Mr. Quacks gallery. He at least manages to recover before either of the room’s inhabitants notice his expression.“Well, I’m glad you seem to be feeling better. Good news, Kamalani is gonna be fine. He’s a bit woozy from the amount of blood loss, but he’s with the Blood Smith, so he’s all patched up. Seems they already had a connection from his time with Howling Cartographer, before Kamalani got shafted by their mass layoffs. ...Just what managed to get you smiling like that?” Once Spectrum
Lucas and Jonathan—dressed decently but nowhere near as fancy as yesterday—are most of the way to Cat’s Paw Cafe, pointedly not utilizing the stinky subway station to get there.‘Ya know, it’s been surprisingly peaceful, yeah? Though, not havin’ people gawk as much as yesterday is kinda nice. All that attention was gettin’ old fast.’[Ahem, well, fortunately, Boss System approved my long-term task priority filtering proposal.]‘Oh? Whassat?’[Compared to before, now it requires an opt-in before being bombarded with every single task in range. Before receiving alerts—and therefore penalties for ignoring them—we’ll run the calculations of the tasks’ estimated impact vs. potential unwanted attention. This effectively weeds out a majority of minor tasks—plus some moderate ones—by accounting for how suspicious it would be for you to know the event was taking place, let alone be believably compelled to interfere. I knew there was no need to ask if you were interested in activating it immedi
Once the allotted thirty minutes have passed—precisely down to the second—427 tentatively undeafens Lucas. At first, all he can hear is a booklet’s pages being flipped through, followed by Lucas grumbling.Hesitantly removing the remaining sensory suppressions one at a time, 427 nearly sighs with relief upon discovering that Lucas is standing in the kitchenette by the new automatic drip coffee maker—thankfully dressed—in the midst of poorly attempting to demystify its instruction manual.‘How the hell is this so complicated?’[Ah, making good on your promise to Jonathan?]‘Oh, thank fuck; yer back. Took ya long enough.’[…Hello, again, to you, too.]‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. Welcome back. So, anywho, can ya scan through this or somethin’ and tell me how to use it?’[…I already looked up the instructions from everything’s model numbers earlier. First, measure out—]427 guides Lucas through measuring and grinding a serving’s worth of coffee beans and setting it up in the machine with such in-d
For a few peaceful minutes, Lucas delights in demolishing the delicious delicatessen delivery. As Jonathan reaches for his coffee cup to gauge if it’s cool enough for a sane person to drink, he ends up cutting himself off with a yawn, earning a side-eye from Lucas.“Hey, ya barely got any sleep, yeah? Instead of havin’ caffeine, shouldn’t ya go take a nap?” Upon Lucas’s question, Jonathan pauses, looking at the contents of his mug with an obvious longing. “I’ll make ya a fresh one in like half an hour; I’m sure 427 can figure out howta use whatever newfangled machine ya got,” Lucas continues, his eyes also fixed on the beverage.[…I suppose I appreciate your vote of confidence.]Jonathan’s gaze lingers on the coveted coffee for a moment before he sets it back on the table. As soon as he lets go of it, Lucas lays his claim upon it.“Um, o-okay, yeah. I just, um, sh-should take a shower first,” Jonathan stammers as he stands.Lucas hums an agreement around a mouthful of coffee.[Did y
Thankfully, there are no further interruptions during the rest of this round of deliveries. Or even during the next one, either.Once Jonathan finally has the fourth and final load of freight, he makes a detour to a delicatessen. More specifically, the one where he previously purchased yesterday’s breakfast.After equally uneventfully acquiring milk, third breakfast for himself, and first breakfast for Lucas—since he’d totally only eat sugary baked goods if real food wasn’t conveniently available—he makes his way home.With his back to the recently re-locked front door, Jonathan reclaims the last armload of supplies as he looks at Lucas’s still-shut bedroom door.‘…Our food will still be too hot to eat for a little while; I’ll make some coffee first.’Jonathan may or may not be making up excuses to keep putting off waking up Lucas in the hopes that he’ll do so on his own, knowing full well that he probably won’t.While taking longer than necessary to decide which appliance to christen
“Ah! Um…” Jonathan’s face scrunches up a bit as he looks over his pending purchases.‘Can we at least turn off tasks while my hands are full? I really don’t want to drop everything and have it get broken or stolen by the time I get back to it… It will be annoying enough having to run back and forth a bunch.’[Requesting temporary task suppression… Permission granted; disregarding minor tasks for one hour at no penalty, effective immediately.]Jonathan barely represses his urge to sigh with relief.Before Ji Soo works up the nerve to express concern over Jonathan’s vacant stare at the wall behind the service bot, Jonathan’s attention returns to reality and redirects to said bot.“Um, c-could you hold some of it for a few minutes once I’m done paying? I-I won’t take long… Like, five minutes?” Before fidgety Jonathan even finishes asking his question, the bot is already nodding.“Certainly. Do you wish to use a private scanning kiosk to complete your order?”‘I’m surprised it’s even an
Jonathan, however, doesn’t hear the utterance of recognition. Unaware, he continues his quest for a coffee maker.A short time later, Jonathan stands--while quietly grumbling--before a row of two-in-one coffee/espresso machines.Behind him is a sea of drip coffee machines, with cold press equipment further off to the side. Alongside the arrangement of two-in-ones sits a selection of espresso machines, both automatic and semi-automatic.‘How are there so many!? What even are the differences? Wait, no, don’t answer that. The technical details will probably just be even more confusing.’[Understood.]Although Jonathan notices movement in his peripheral vision, he doesn’t outwardly react to the recent arrival at the end of the aisle. Instead, he pulls out one of the two-in-one machines set at eye level, rotating it so he can read the back of the box.“Ah! Don’t get one of those! That entire line is overpriced trash,” the newcomer blurts out, muffled by the layers of carbon-filter fabric f
After the harrowing--see also; totally normal--experience of getting his hair professionally cut, Jonathan blinks a few times as he looks himself over in the mirror. ‘Oh, wow. That’s way better.’ He’s now sporting a long-top, backswept, tapered hairstyle with a rounded back. Given how clearly tense he was throughout the entire cutting process, a trendy skin fade would have fairly obviously been too much for his liking. After giving Jonathan a few moments to make his mental evaluations, one of the hairdresser’s dreadlocks uses a soft-bristle brush to clear away the loose hair clippings around the collar of the barber cape. A few other coils of his hair organize the various tools he used, setting them aside for cleaning. Meanwhile, he quickly sweeps aside the bulk of the rogue tufts of hair on the ground in a much more conventional hands-on-broom method as he uses the mirror to make eye contact with Jonathan again. “Lookin’ good, mon. Well? Whaddya tink?” His question pulls Jonath
Once Jonathan is finally en route to the hairdresser...[Safe distance from Mikah’s power detected. Alert; you have exceeded 10 GDV. You have one enhancement available.]‘Oh! Um, you said before that rank three vision should be good enough to see through Maria’s powers, right?’[Correct, rank three should be sufficient as long as her target is in motion. Rank four would be necessary to see anything stationary, given the current strength of her powers. Please be aware that going beyond rank three for any individual enhancement has additional requirements.]‘Three should be good enough to avoid most of her pranks... Use my upgrade on vision.’[Please confirm that you would like rank two vision.]‘Yeah.’[Understood. Please close your eyes during calibrations to avoid nausea.]Jonathan slows from running at enhanced speed into a normal-paced jog for a few steps, then stops and shuts his eyes.[Bzzt... Calibrations complete.]He opens his eyes and looks around, blinking several times.‘Wo
The duo’s fiery funnel further forces the growing multi-car pile-up towards the middle of the street for a few seconds longer. Finally, the flames falter and fade. After a short delay, the wind wanes as well.‘Oh, I shouldn’t give them any extra reasons to think I’m a threat.’Jonathan swiftly shuts and pockets his switchblade as he follows the sidewalk. While doing so, his attention flicks between the ongoing chaos in the street and the front door of Howling Cartographer’s HQ lobby.Ashley steps through the door with Jason right behind her. They both take a moment to appreciate their destructive handiwork with smug expressions. Considering that Jonathan is conspicuously the only person still in the immediate vicinity, they quickly focus on him.Before either of them manage anything beyond a glare, Jonathan raises both hands in a submissive gesture, showing that he isn't wielding a weapon. "I-I just wanted his gun!"Ashley's exposed eye squints with amusement, the not hair-hidden cor