Post by Nina Lüceanu on Jul 16, 2014 17:17:46 GMT -5
A dark-haired woman with a peculiar hair accessory approached the building at a leisurely pace. Her slightly slouched posture was telling of fatigue to those who knew her well, which somehow included every resident of the mansion. Memory implants were simple if routine work, and whatever else, Nina Luceanu was thorough... or, in this particular case, she had been bored out of her mind and into those of others. It was quite telling of her character that when bored, the girl jumped straight to mindraping random bystanders but that is a point of little relevance for the magus herself.
Regardless of moral implications, all of her neighbours now knew that the young woman had been around for years, if not actually living in the complex until recently, that she was an "independent researcher" or a "mad scientist" depending on who you asked - ironically, both descriptors were as accurate as one could get them without mentioning the m-word. But perhaps most importantly, everyone knew her to be a withdrawn and private person, rarely willing to actively engage in idle chatter or otherwise socialize. So they left her alone, she left them alone, and everyone was content with the arrangement... well, almost everyone. But then again, Giacinto was not "almost everyone", and almost everyone was most definitely not him, which was something even Nina had learned to appreciate - the world could not deal with much more "youth" than... that. At least, she knew she would not, and it was a coin toss on which of the two - Nina or the world - had more patience.
It had taken some time to find this apartment complex but it was time well spent. Few of the modern buildings in the district had lodgings on the ground floor, fewer still had one available with a sub-basement attached. Indeed, its closeness to the ground, allowing for a swift and safe escape through a window... or wall, if necessary, as well as its closeness to the earth, with its bountiful energy from the potent ley lines running beneath the town, were well worth the effort put into finding this place.
Obviously, nothing was perfect, and this was not an exception by any stretch. Having grown up in a mountainous region, far from large settlements, Nina considered the electronic lock on the front entrance to be a nuisance. This went past the general dislike of technology inherent to most magi, even though that contibuted to her issues with the device. What mattered more on a personal level was how this incomprehensible mechanism existed to annoy her, apparently. If it had an Origin and Element, those would be aligned and defined with something along the lines of "the bane of Nina Luceanu's fortification efforts". Whenever the magus had attempted to expand a bounded field over that door, amaintanence crew would come running no later than the next morning as the mechanism stopped reacting to keys and calls, effectively locking people outside their homes. In the end, she had stopped trying after the sixth attempt - that was not worth the effort, even if the puzzling failures irked the woman every time she passed through.
Nina's apartment itself was situated at the end of the ground floor corridor, ensuring that no local resident had business getting near it. The flat had two rooms, with their windows looking out the opposite sides of the building, thus making for three escape directions overall. A few low key bounded fields, focused on concealment and detection rather than any active defense, covered the premises. The young magus could not help but proudly smirk inwardly at just how right that decious had turned out as she thought back to the power - both destructive power and staying power - displayed in the earlier battle by her own Servant as well as Saito Musashibo Benkei, the other Lancer, the second Lancer, a curiosity not anticipated in any way, and far from a trifling matter.
After retreiving a cooled bottle of "high quality" mineral water - a pale imitation of the real thing which she was used to, freshly raised from the depths of her sub-mountainous homeland, - Nina broke the silence that had reigned undisturbed over the entire walk from the fallen bridge to the comfy armchair the brunette had just occupied.
"Lancer, we may have... a problem."
One could almost see the frown trying to make its way through the woman's impassive expression.
Regardless of moral implications, all of her neighbours now knew that the young woman had been around for years, if not actually living in the complex until recently, that she was an "independent researcher" or a "mad scientist" depending on who you asked - ironically, both descriptors were as accurate as one could get them without mentioning the m-word. But perhaps most importantly, everyone knew her to be a withdrawn and private person, rarely willing to actively engage in idle chatter or otherwise socialize. So they left her alone, she left them alone, and everyone was content with the arrangement... well, almost everyone. But then again, Giacinto was not "almost everyone", and almost everyone was most definitely not him, which was something even Nina had learned to appreciate - the world could not deal with much more "youth" than... that. At least, she knew she would not, and it was a coin toss on which of the two - Nina or the world - had more patience.
It had taken some time to find this apartment complex but it was time well spent. Few of the modern buildings in the district had lodgings on the ground floor, fewer still had one available with a sub-basement attached. Indeed, its closeness to the ground, allowing for a swift and safe escape through a window... or wall, if necessary, as well as its closeness to the earth, with its bountiful energy from the potent ley lines running beneath the town, were well worth the effort put into finding this place.
Obviously, nothing was perfect, and this was not an exception by any stretch. Having grown up in a mountainous region, far from large settlements, Nina considered the electronic lock on the front entrance to be a nuisance. This went past the general dislike of technology inherent to most magi, even though that contibuted to her issues with the device. What mattered more on a personal level was how this incomprehensible mechanism existed to annoy her, apparently. If it had an Origin and Element, those would be aligned and defined with something along the lines of "the bane of Nina Luceanu's fortification efforts". Whenever the magus had attempted to expand a bounded field over that door, amaintanence crew would come running no later than the next morning as the mechanism stopped reacting to keys and calls, effectively locking people outside their homes. In the end, she had stopped trying after the sixth attempt - that was not worth the effort, even if the puzzling failures irked the woman every time she passed through.
Nina's apartment itself was situated at the end of the ground floor corridor, ensuring that no local resident had business getting near it. The flat had two rooms, with their windows looking out the opposite sides of the building, thus making for three escape directions overall. A few low key bounded fields, focused on concealment and detection rather than any active defense, covered the premises. The young magus could not help but proudly smirk inwardly at just how right that decious had turned out as she thought back to the power - both destructive power and staying power - displayed in the earlier battle by her own Servant as well as Saito Musashibo Benkei, the other Lancer, the second Lancer, a curiosity not anticipated in any way, and far from a trifling matter.
After retreiving a cooled bottle of "high quality" mineral water - a pale imitation of the real thing which she was used to, freshly raised from the depths of her sub-mountainous homeland, - Nina broke the silence that had reigned undisturbed over the entire walk from the fallen bridge to the comfy armchair the brunette had just occupied.
"Lancer, we may have... a problem."
One could almost see the frown trying to make its way through the woman's impassive expression.
