Ludwig Karlfeldt
Rothschild - Halls
11/16/2026
Monday - Early Morning

---The Virtual Shift fades as quickly as it had appeared, the distant glimmer of a butterfly's wings the last thing to disappear of the artificial space; it was a bit of a risky move, a gamble on being able to drag any hypothetical opponent into the artificial world due to their proximity to you, in essence, it was a brute force method of locating someone, cutting the rope rather than solving the knot so to speak, however...

Nothing appears.

---Does that mean no one else is truly around? Or simply that whoever was around was doing so at a distance? Studying you to see how you would behave before closing in to do something more drastic?

There are a number of theories a paranoid mind can conjure, but in the end, nothing particularly strange shows on your face.

No.

Same as always, stoic in the face of whatever problem life throws at you, in comparison...

"...heh..."

Blinking in the face of those lights, and perhaps understanding the significance of the imagery, the silver-haired girl's mask of professionalism does crack for a moment as she lets out a sound that could be a chuckle... Considering how brief it was it was hard to say, indeed, her expression returns to the calm of a soldier soon enough, but...

Well, in comparison...

Perhaps its the more obviously human of the responses?

Either way...

The journey to the distant shop starts smoothly, pace that of a determined walk rather than a run, even if only for the sake of being able to respond to outside stimuli quicker, rather than sprinting into a danger that surpasses your senses, and...

The ship truly does seem to be empty.

You are able to confirm that much a dozen times over; while the SLEIPNIR is never the loudest of places -barring the cafeteria- there was always a sort of ambient noise in the background, the sounds of life, of the non-tamer personnel chatting as they clean or perform basic maintenance, but this...

Nothing.

Nothing but the ambient hum of lights, the distant rumble of the engine, and...

Your own footsteps.

---Still, as time goes on, it begins to feel like you might be jumping at shadows; of course such a thought is nonsense, there is clearly something going on here, the mounting tension of all of this is proof enough of that, and indeed, while the continued nothing is both a calming and an agonizing thing, the glow of the aura around Astra never fades, the girl's sharp eyes taking in everything around her, searching for whatever threat is buzzing at the back of her mind, but, eventually-

"...So, this thing you're looking for in Brewed Awakenings, what is it...?"

-she speaks, as you round the corner to the entertainment wing of the ship, and-

"...Figured you'd come this way eventually."

-as if drawn forth by those words, by her voluntary shatter of the silence, comes a new voice. It's not one that you've heard before, nor is it possible to place it as being male or female, it has the properties of both, a calm, emotionless voice that sounds like it's being produced through some sort of synthesizer rather than anyone's vocal chords, and...

The owner of it...

There is a person... Or what seems vaguely like a person, leaning against the door to the coffee shop. Their arms are crossed, black clothing covering a form that only seems truly humanoid at a glance, yes...

Because the person's head, their exposed skin...

It's like whirling black flames, flames in the shape of a skull...

It does not belong on this ship.

It is not someone you know, it doesn't fit this area at all, it's something that your brain says is 'off,' a thing that simply doesn't mesh well with the scenery, a hazy form that was almost like a hazy shadow, yes...

It does little to hide itself.

Had it been waiting here this whole time? Or...

"Well what do we have then? Someone telling stories outside of class? Another one keeping all the stories to themselves?"

Either way, it chuckles...

---There is no humor in that laugh, no...

Even you feel a bit of a chill run down your spine...

"Xanadu kids always make things difficult, the script makes life easier for us all, you know?"

It's head raises.

The eye sockets are empty, burning only with flames.



"Ah well, don't get to do Tamers normally... So this should be pretty fun."

Encountered: LUCID - Reaper of Cognition

An unreasonable existence.

Even without your ESP, you could tell...

An unreasonable malice.