Playing the Part

[Adam Wells]

Aahh Libraries. A focal point of human knowledge, and a gateway to many beautiful worlds.

It did irk him slightly, however, about the “hush-hush” nature of them. Especially the bias, they were perfectly fine with shouting sign language! Actually, he had wanted to start learning sign language in a couple of weeks’ time. But this war might have messed up his schedule.

Not that it’s a problem; he wouldn’t be here if it was. This war would be amazing, he knew it. Besides, planning ahead is best done in small doses, and this was a…

Uuhh, system purge?

Yeah, this train’s slowing, moving to another.

Why was he here? Well, he had come to Lucca to see the sights, after all. And damn there was a lot to see in this library. He remembered the one back in his hometown. Probably not even as wide as this place was tall. His eyes slowly swept through the ceiling. Images, patterns, the sheer size and distance. It all came together to create such… gladness.

After all, the reason such buildings were still around was to be a feast for one’s eyes. They had done it, they had crafted something that could bring joy. They should be proud. It was the pinnacle of very profession; some had it easier than others. Adam was not too proud to admit acting was not the most difficult profession to reach that precious point, the point where one’s work could bring joy to so many others.

Oh no, there were jobs where it was a lot more difficult…

A person brushed past him, clearly in a hurry. His footsteps echoed loudly making him the victim of a couple of glare. The footsteps combined with the brush snapped Adam back to attention. Yes, the Library was certainly a sight, and it was also a place. A place filled with people, potentially a Master to chat with, perhaps he’d find a friend, or heck a BRO.

And, of course books. He could find lots and lots of books. Books that had pretty writing that, with some effort, he might be able to understand!

Actually, he was right next to a stand with a book right now. He glanced down at one of them. Oohh, was that a super colourful swirly “G”? You know what would make the book prettier? Being on fire, if only for a beautiful few seconds.

But then it would be less enjoyable. Aahh, what a killjoy.

Hmm…

…

…

He needed to find another nice looking book, and find out if a building in this city is scheduled for demolition. Very important, that.

[William de Torquemada]

William was in a peculiar mood. He flipped absently through an old book of forgotten lore in the library, but his mind was not on what he read. There was another magus in the building. That had been the only reason he had stopped. The knowledge of the unenlightened held no power over a magus. William could have reduced this building to ash if he so chose—why did he care what garbage they believed about his kind?

”Assassin. We have another magus present. I am unsure if he is a target, so be on your guard. Do not reveal yourself unless it becomes absolutely necessary. I am going to attempt to hide my position as a Master. If he is also a master, we may catch him off guard.”

It was quite an interesting puzzle. The boy coughed into his hand, speaking a few words, trying to turn his words to make them sound as a native would. It would be easier for this man to assume he was unrelated to the war if he heard the voice of a native magus rather than a foreigner. There was little question as to why a magus would immigrate to this city when a War was scheduled to begin.

There was another problem due to the location. It would cause problems if he was forced to kill everyone in the building to protect the secret of magecraft. Questions would be asked if that many people went missing. He would have to stage some sort of event that could be blamed for the deaths, but even that was not foolproof. William was far too methodical to allow such things to be overlooked. Indeed, the best option seemed to be not fight the man at this time.

”It’s reconnaissance then. If we are drawn into battle, I have no doubt that we will be victorious, but we could not allow anyone in this building to live after. It would be better to avoid such problems in the first place.” William made an effort to transmit his thoughts to the Assassin who was still following with him, though he could not be said to think in straight lines and he did not always transmit entire thoughts. He had faith that she could figure out what the fragmented pieces of knowledge meant and understand the plans of action he was formulating.

“Waiting here accomplishes nothing.” William snapped the book shut with that declaration, replacing it on the shelf he had taken it from. He felt naked without Nightmare strapped to his back, but removing the obvious weapon had been necessary for operating in daylight. He still had his combat knives, his jacket, and various other weapons sequestered on his person. Not to mention that his Reinforcement would allow him to beat almost any magi in a fist fight if it came to that. William was not intimidated by how much taller the man was.

“e scuzi.” William stepped beside the man, his voice low, perfectly pitched and inflected in the musical language. He had practiced his Italian in preparation for this war. He had prepared for every scenario he could think of. Failure was not possible. The weight of the blade hidden in his sleeve was a comfort as he stared straight ahead, not looking at the man he had put at his shoulder. With a single motion, that long blade could find his kidney. In a second, William could gut him with it. The Art was not a fighting style for those who wished to remain clean.

“It seems odd for two people like us to be in a building at the same time. Welcome to Italy, my friend.”

[Mochizuki Chiyome]

... It was difficult trying to catch the contents of books when they were not open. Assassin was staying in Spirit Form, keeping a look-out for her Master at the moment without allowing herself to be seen by anyone or sensed by anything. Currently it was simply favorable to be a spirit. Think, what if she had been able to make use of the ability to turn incorporeal during her own lifetime? That would have made many of her jobs… a great lot easier. Of course, then there was the set-back of being bound to an individual this way… Whether or not her life would have been easier or not was debatable. In any case, this way it was very difficult for her to read anything, despite all the books. Although the letters were quite different, Assassin found herself interested in the contents. So much information. In her own time, she’d have had her students seeking through this place for valuable books every once in a while. Also, something to read would be very useful to simply relax some time.

But that was not for now. Assassin became aware of the situation quickly and prepared herself. Indeed, it could very well be another Master. This was the Holy Grail War, after all. Assassin noticed how William was trying to make himself sound native and understood at once what he was trying to do. In her own time it was common, too, in order to perfectly mix in with the location. In fact, she would have been more than capable of copying that accent herself. Though, it was more fitting for William to do so now considering the situation. He did a pretty good job sounding native, considering the situation. Assassin judged the situation for herself… and came to some quick conclusions not unlike those of her Master. This library would actually serve an excellent battlefield for the Assassin, but there were other things to consider. Such as people, and so. A large part of assassination was to make sure it took place as discretely as possible. And also to have the right target. Was this individual a Master.

‘Very well. I will keep myself hidden until further notice.’ With that Assassin made some distance between herself and her Master, as if her presence could reveal him. Presence Concealment was kept active, and it would take a lot to find her right now. Then again, any Servant could have an ability to detect another Servant that was hidden. It all depended on the hero. Assassin kept her senses peeled as she snuck around on a slight distance trying to feel if there was a Servant there… As a Servant she could still get to her Master pretty quickly should it be needed, but... Was there anything there? Would it be hiding somewhere, possibly? Or was this just a passerby magus…? As her Master contacted the other magus Assassin kept her guard and concealment up as she looked around in her incorporeal form…

[Anne Bonny]

With little interest in dusty tomes during her life, Anne had retained her disregard for bits of ink on flapping paper in death. Besides, ship life wasn't exactly conductive to a bookish-sort, and squinting at tiny font under candlelight in your cabin was generally in bad form. Oh, sure, she had nothing against folk who might enjoy that sort of stuff (bloody weenies), it just wasn't what she'd pictured doing during a life-and-death struggle for a superpowered wish-granting artifact. She'd always assumed there was going to be more fireworks involved. Explosions! Light shows! Property damage!

Destroying the library, however, was probably a bad idea. At least her Master seemed to be happy! Anne just kept herself occupied with admiring the book covers -- slightly less bland than the contents inside -- casually perusing the shelves, sliding out one book at a time, a reasonable distance from her Master. Not that there was any need for her to be there, and unless they started getting viciously assaulted by books (in which case she'd finally get a good excuse to burn the things), there seemed to be very little chance for this routine visit to the library to end with any more bang than it had started with. Sure, there was another magus present, but what else did wizarding-book-people do but read books in their spare time? Unless the fellow was a Master (unlikely, considering she didn't detect the presence of any other Servant when they were usually a beacon of leaking prana), and he was feeling particularly inclined to brawl it out (equally unlikely, considering he'd been there for just as long, if not longer than them), there was absolutely, positively, nothing that could have led to an end in wanton destruction. A great pity.

Amazing. Truly amazing. This was exactly how pitting superpowered historic personalities against each other was meant to go down. Well, 'historic' in the general sense of the term -- Anne still liked to think of herself as young. She'd have half a mind to just leave her Master there and wander out elsewhere. Maybe get in another bar fight or something (hopefully a less sorry excuse for one). But in plain sight, hair pulled back, a simple blouse thrown on top of a pair of dark slacks, Anne was doing as little as she possibly could to remain hidden, and it would be a little bit of an inconvenience if, say, an opportunistic Assassin took their chance in her absence to assassinate her Master. That would definitely have been a dampener.

So, therefore, when the dark Magus sauntered boldly up to her Master, poised like a coiled snake, Anne stayed put. It sure took the man long enough ,if he was planning on doing anything, but hey, something happening was better than nothing. And it wasn't like she couldn't intervene if they tried to stab each other or anything. A teeny tiny part of her might even have been hoping that would happen. Regardless, if the man was a Master, Anne was announcing her presence loud enough that no magus, no matter how half-assed, within a hundred meter radius should've missed.

[Adam Wells]

Well, wasn’t this a beautiful surprise?

Here he was, chilling out in a library, fun thoughts in his mind, and here was a person, coming right up to him and greeting him, needing no prodding like so many tended to. Straight meet and greet of a stranger, just didn’t happen as often as it should. Barely happened at all in fact, maybe he had met a bro after all!

‘Can I just… ssssssshhhhhh’ He shushed himself as he turned to the friendly stranger, hey, why let the citizens of the library have all the fun? Sharing is caring. He started again, softer this time, but with no less energy and enthusiasm. ‘Can I just say, it is great to meet a kindred spirit. I gotta ask though, how could you tell of the bond we share? Is it the smile? People always question the smile don’t they?’ Adam gave a “wait it’s able to get bigger?” smile.

Meanwhile, he gave his new bro a once-over. Sure enough, they had a smile on their face too, that was what first came to mind, although theirs was nowhere near as impressive as Adam’s.

It was all just- all so sudden! Did he dare believe it?

Oh, don’t you get involved Inwardly, he scolded the pain on his shoulder. Sure, that meant another Master was nearby, but that didn’t mean this guy was just pretending to be his friend to stab him in the back (although he was lacking one of those people at the moment, hmm…). After all, his Servant was still keeping her distance, so it was unlikely she suspected a Servant being in here.

Even if, if, this guy was another Master, they still wanted this, didn’t they? Or maybe that was what they had meant when they had asked about the odds of two of them being here…

Or maybe he had meant actors, the thought made Adam give the guy a twice-over. Well, no part of the guy rang a bell. But then, how many Italian films had he seen? Well, if they were, he could add a few more films to the ever-growing list. So much love and passion to sift through!

He hoped neither of the alternatives was true however, sure meeting another Master or another great actor could be great fun, but a BRO? Someone who understood the joy of… well, joy? That was something else entirely.

’Well Rider, you may just have some competition now.’ He made an awkward motion to give some momentum to his arm. It was difficult to give the right “oomph” to the motion of offering an open hand to his new friend when they were so close. ‘Put her there, pal.’ Hopefully that term made sense in Italian as well.

[William de Torquemada]

William hated this man already. Everything from the false smile to the fake way he spoke, to his greeting; William hated him. He would have loved to plant a knife right into the taller man’s face, but propriety and necessity dictated otherwise.

William smiled back, his innocent grin practiced and well used. The man extended a hand, the gesture friendly, and William had no choice but to clasp the other magus’ hand in his own. “William,” he said, by way of introduction. The man didn’t need to know his family name; he was only another target.

The man never seemed to stop smiling; William absently wondered how he would feel with a Glasgow smile carved upon his lips, so that every twitching movement would cause immense pain, but he kept such thoughts to himself. Obviously.

After a suitable amount of time, William withdrew his hand, having gained nothing from that exchange; there were a million ways where the inferiority of his body betrayed him in a single day, and his inability to gauge another man from a handshake—a ritual he understood to be the entire point of the gesture—was one of them.

“I’m afraid I don’t get your meaning… pal.” Did this man honestly find himself to be… friends… with William already? Even if they had known each other, there was a clear disconnect in the way the two men held themselves. A business relationship, possibly, but it would be impossible for the serious and coldly unemotional Torquemada to enjoy the company of this boisterous, loud… tall man.

“A pleasure to meet you, of course. I can guess your purpose here by the feeling I get from you, so there is no need to speak of such matters where unfriendly ears could lurk. I just make it my business to know what is going on in the city of my birth.” The less attention you brought to a lie, the better; and Torquemada was interested in what this man thought he was doing. His Servant would, naturally, be nearby, but where? They couldn’t sense Chi, which gave Torquemada the advantage at this stage. Until he became known as the Master of Assassin, he could use his relative anonymity to track those who could not hide themselves as Assassin could.

“These… games,” he decided on, giving enough emphasis to the word that even an idiot would know what he meant, “tend to have rather destructive consequences for the unwary.”

[Mochizuki Chiyome]

... Oh. There she was. In plain sight.

A woman, with long blonde hair and wearing simple common clothes of the era, was standing inspecting some books (outside of them anyway). Assassin immediately recognized some of the benefits with being materialized, it meant she could protect her Master even in broad daylight with people without worrying about people seeing her materialize from nothing. Pretty good for countering assassins during daytime. Assassin made note of her visual heritage for later guessing of her identity. As for her class… it was too early to say. She could still materialize virtually any kind of weapon related to her class. … Heh, Assassin had to admit. She had somewhat expected herself to be the only woman Servant in the Holy Grail War, but it would appear that was not the case. Not that she had any basis for such an expectation and would certainly never allow it to cloud her actions, but it was just a little notion that had appeared in her mind. However, for now there were things to consider.

Servant sighted. Woman with blonde hair, Caucasian (I assume), about 1.7 meters tall, located materialized about 20 meters away to your 10 a clock. [if anything I say is incorrect, please correct me, but Chiyome would supply such detailed information so I tried my best] If you wish to eliminate the Master, I will be able to stop her long enough to prevent her from stopping you. For hiding from common people, I can throw a smoke-bomb which will hide us from the sight of normal people, although the smoke will be quite visible. Give the word if you desire my action. For now, I’ll watch. So concluded her report, also having used a more modern way to indicate direction which she had learned among other things when summoned. She positioned herself in Spirit form slightly to the side of being right between the other Servant and where the two Masters had made contact with one another. She did want to be close if the other Master by some reason moved against William, and her safety-range was apparently a good deal shorter than the blonde woman’s.

There she remained, inwardly projecting potential scenarios including different weapons the blonde woman could pull out if she needed to protect her Master, and how to abuse the current terrain to maximum effect. … There were a little too many people here for any kind of combat between Servants, but who could deny that otherwise it was an excellent opportunity for an Assassin…? But that boiled down to her Master’s decision. She had given her word.

[Anne Bonny]

What a grim, overly polite little man. These were the kind of people she had no business with, that lived life so seriously. She could be wrong, but often on a ship like hers all you had were first impressions to make a decision, so she got particularly good at it.

No Servant from him yet so she just kept browsing the titles of books. Had one been about her she may have even actually opened one instead of looking at the sometimes… interesting forms of art on the front page (Was that pose even possible? Was this the place to try?) Maybe he was just a creepy stalker, but it never paid to be flippant about things like that. Guns could quite easily form in the hand from the ether when in this body. A convenience, but she would have preferred the flesh. Either way a chance to live again and see just how boring civilization manage to become… again.

Perhaps it was because she was away from the ocean, from Nassau, from people who actually had fun. Even one such as her could not counter this entire population of stale people, though her Master was some small colour in an ocean of grey waves.

Making fun of the short little man would probably be entertaining, if only to potentially see his blustering, but upstaging another already performing seemed a wee bit too breaking, something more for some stiff knight summoned in the war to do.

The Pirate Next Door!? What kind of title was that? And how did the man on the front get so clean on a ship?

She took that one back to a table and pretended to read it, leaning back in a chair, her presence still echoing off the walls of this place. There was no chance of her actually reading this, even pretending was a strong word when she held it upside down.

Everything was a wall to some people, and they could never picture a bullet coming from between precious pages, from behind doors, through dresses and coats, anything really. Most of the things she shot through she was doing a favour for anyways, as they would not survive a month with the sea spray and air getting into everything. There was that one time in the bar when she was thirteen…

Anyways, she just wasn’t going to upstage her Master, but underestimating her and thinking she didn’t play a part if some meters laid in the way… too many men thought with the wrong part of their sword, that proximity was the trump of all. To them swords and the hidden knife were unstoppable weapons, but the age gunpowder trumped the age of steel, providing many object lessons that, even if you were close, you just couldn’t beat a bullet.

[Adam Wells]

Hmm, not his soulmate, he could tell almost immediately. Where was the embrace? The pat on the back? Not to mention the handshake itself was kind of lacking in commitment. It was so automatic, and here he thought there was SOMETHING at least.

Well, on the bright side, that left a whole new day for him to find his soulmate. And a beautiful day it would be.

’Still a chance for you yet Rider, so what do you think of my not-best-friend now that I know jealousy won’t cloud your judgement?’

He let out an exaggerated sigh. ‘Yes, yes, always a pleasure to meet any old person, but I thought…’ He broke off, pressing his lips together and releasing them to make a noise akin to a bubble popping.

He listened to the man, taking in this idea of wanting to keep his birth city safe (well, “know what is happening in it”, but that seemed like what he was implying in any case). Strange for a Magus to care, but not unheard of Adam supposed. If one was more cynical, perhaps he had some sort of morally and ethically questionable operation going on here and didn’t want to be so rudely interrupted by a war in his backyard.

Adam wasn’t cynical, but then that idea was more entertaining than the guy simply being “nice”. Well, if it was the case he probably shouldn't meet the guy in a dark alley, but it wasn't like the guy had brought up any scenic dark alleys to go to yet.

‘Yep, gonna be a whole heap of destruction in this war I imagine, lots of combat, love, tragedy, betrayal, all the good stuff… And it won’t be easy for the unwary.’ A pause, Adam chuckled, took a step back and raised his arms up to the sky. ‘But then, that’s why we love the underdog, the one who somehow rises to the top, the spanner that makes those who are wary scramble for cover, or burns them to ashes in their carefully laden trap.’ He closed his hands into fists and gave them a shake in front of his chest, along with a hearty chest chuckle. ‘I dearly hope to see someone do that, be it me or someone else. Not the most likely of occurrences to happen within my field of view, but the opportunities out there.’

He flashed them a toothy grin. ‘You’ll give me a holler if you’re in the middle of something epic, won’t you? Never know your luck, I just might hear you. Pays to connect, am I right?’

[William de Torquemada]

If William believed in a god, he would have been wondering what merciful being would have put such an idiot in a war of magi. The man even made noises with his mouth like an infant and used odd slang that Will couldn’t place. Still, the stupid were easier to manipulate than others… Will decided to take what luck he had and go with it. He had nothing to lose, after all, and much to gain.

”Get as close as you can to the enemy Servant without revealing yourself. Attempt to figure out what her Class and abilities are.” Will didn’t waste time stroking his Assassin’s ego or giving her more instructions. She would figure out what was expected of her without Will second guessing her decisions and creating miscommunications.

“Ye…es,” Will replied, safely, unsure of anything that the other man who had yet to introduce himself was saying about dogs and the things they’re under. Maybe it was a threat. Will wondered if a simple man like this one thought being big was intimidating.

“You mistake my intentions, my… friend. My desires are strictly academic in this. Research is more important than risking my life for a prize I don’t particularly desire. If I find myself in particular danger, I’ll call on you, but I don’t plan to be in danger.”

Will could have driven a knife into the simpleton’s neck easily, but it would leave a mess to clean, and beside that, Will was certain that others would have the same idea. Anyone as idiotic and trusting as this man would inevitably attract others of this war to them. That could make him useful if Will simply followed him around to gather intel on others. As the young magus kept up his polite façade, he began to work on how to make his plan a reality.

[Mochizuki Chiyome]

[TLDR: Assassin sits in Spirit Mode and does nothing.]

... Hm. In some ways, her new body was a liability. This Servant body. While it was a very particular kind of experience, being so many years ahead of her own time as a spirit like this, it nullified some very basic things Assassin had been able to do in life. Like, putting on a disguise and talk to her opponent without being detected. Had she still had her human flesh, she would have been able to approach the blonde Servant woman as a friendly kin and that way find out more about her. … But like this, another Servant would (apparently) be able to see through Presence Concealment if they focused on an Assassin at that range for any consistent amount of time, and then all eyes would fall on her Master, except for those which were aimed at her and took away the greatest advantage of being an Assassin. That simply wasn’t acceptable.

Being void of that possibility, all Assassin could do was watch the other Servant, which proved not to be the most fruitful of tasks. She probably wasn’t a Caster, but without reading any further from here it was impossible to tell which of the other five classes she was. She was reading a book of… holding a book of The Pirate Next Door? An amusing thought crossed her mind that maybe this individual was familiar with pirates because of this, a few names flashing through her mind. Assassin surely would have been curious about a book called The Ninja Next Door, likewise. However, that was purely speculative and could as well be nothing but an elaborate coincidence. As well… the Servant wasn’t actually reading the book, or she wouldn’t have been holding it upside down. Then again, it could be a special kind of book… … too much speculation.

The other Master… Assassin had seen his kind before. It was possible it was just a facade, but the kind he showed before them right now was one which she had met before. She was reminded by a few people back in her time, a few samurai or otherwise, who were speaking and looking a bit like that… They were usually a nice bunch. Sometimes they lived quite long, able to attract quite the following and have successful careers… and other times people got annoyed by them and killed them. Other times still, and that was the kind Assassin preferred the most, they would simply remain friendly people in town. However, this particular one had Will looking at him, and he was a Master in the Holy Grail War. Not the best of premonitions. Ending the line of thought to herself, Assassin kept her attention on the Servant while still in Spirit Mode and thought about things she could do to examine her abilities without showing herself.