Welcome to Death

As the man moved away, Dana became shocked. It had happened, there truly was a man in the universe able to resist her heavenly charm. Right, now it was personal. She had a reputation to uphold, and now Dana was actually taking the mission somewhat seriously. Narrowing her eyes at the girl that had stepped in and offered the man a drink, the weapon decided she was going to make her move. Calling upon her experience every single party she'd ever been to (one), she gracefully glided across the ballroom floor and over to the man. The air around Dana was different, she moved more elegantly and much more ladylike than she had before and she now carried herself well.

"Ah! The refreshments are here at last, thank you kindly. Excuse me, servant, but I believe there is a man towards the rear who requires assistance. He appears to have wet himself, though he hasn't hinted at it it's quite easy to determine when those of an inferior standing simply don't fit in" Dana stated as she addressed Blake, immediately feeling guilty for being, well, a *****. Turning to look at the man who had ignored her before, she fluttered her eyelashes a little and gave a genuine smile for the first time. "Oh hello, I don't believe we've met. My name is Cara Nightingale, heir to the nightingale family fortune and possibly one of two people who has realised how truly dull this venue is. You seem to have noticed though, it's written all over your face. To what purpose might such a handsome man such as yourself be here for? And if you don't have one, I bet I can give you one" the girl said, speaking very clearly with a wink at the end of her mini speech.​

 

"Yare Yare Daze." Kuro said following Blake going off to head towards their first target. Well she never answered her on just where exactly the next target was, but fortunately it wasn't too her to find them. The red dress that she wore made it easier to find her due to how just how the dress stuck out. That and the fact that someone had bumped into her and made it easier to pick her out.

He strode towards the two shortly after the younger looking one had bumped into their second target, making sure to grab a drink along the way. He still needed to fit the part. "Excuse me madam, might I have a moment of your time?" God did it feel odd talking like this. He needed to do it though and this he would deal with it for the time being. "I have some news that warrants your attention."

 

Blake smiled, awaiting for his response. That was until, a girl stepped right in front of her. "Ah! The refreshments are here at last, thank you kindly. Excuse me, servant, but I believe there is a man towards the rear who requires assistance. He appears to have wet himself, though he hasn't hinted at it it's quite easy to determine when those of an inferior standing simply don't fit in." On the outside of Blake, she was pretty calm for what had just occurred. However, deep down inside, Blake was infuriated and was ready to start a fight with somebody. It's alright Blake. Calm down. Keep your cool. Remember the mission at hand. Blake took a deep breath before choosing her next words. "Oh. Pardon me. I'm afraid you have me confused for somebody else. I'm another guest of this lovely ball as yourself. As for your other comment, I would refrain from saying topics of that caliber." The girl continued to talk to the man even though Blake was speaking. The desire to punch the girl's lights out were growing stronger and stronger. She continued to take deep breaths to diminish the desire. Blake begun to plan out her next move. "Nightingale? I don't believe I ever heard of that name. Please. Do tell me more of your family. I'm quite curious if you don't mind." Blake smiled toward the girl as she asked.

 

Well well well, the girl was ruining everything. Dana wasn't sure who this person was, but she clearly didn't know her. Anyone who knew Dana knew how good at making stuff up she could be. Improvisation was her strength, and one of few things she was never lazy with. She would've cracked her knuckles, but that wouldn't be very ladylike so instead her smile widened ever so slightly as she met the girl's gaze. However, just as she was about to speak she was cut off by the man who proceeded to insult her before walking off. At this point, Dana was feeling more than a little annoyed. Here she'd been there totally in control of the whole thing until this black dressed skank had waltzed in and stolen the spotlight, only to tarnish it and ruin everything.

Whirling around on the girl, Dana hid the annoyance near perfectly, wearing nothing but that same smile she'd had on moments before. "The Nightingales have been a very prominent family of lawyers and bankers. I am the sole heir to the fortune of Viktor Nightingale, whom someone of your stature has likely never had the pleasure of meeting. For many years we've been attending balls such as these, because boring as they may be they are also great places to establish social footholds. I had extremely important business to discuss with that man, despite what it may seem, and it was interrupted by you. You and he may think I was addressing you by your job, but I was, in fact, addressing you by your social standing. You have the stench of a commoner about you, with clothing to match, so I suggest taking whatever business you have with him elsewhere. If needs be, I can pay for a taxi to take you to the nearest brothel so that you may conduct your regular business. If such a deed is required, you know where to find me, if not then kindly take your mask off so people can see you for the whore you are, before promptly inserting it up your ass" Dana insulted in possibly the most posh tone she would ever use, before forcing herself to look as happy as possible. "Have an enjoyable evening!" she said in a cheery tone, before walking off to find Zoey. She wasn't mad, she told herself. Not. One. Bit. But hey, at least she didn't feel guilty anymore.​

 

Well, Dana had failed. Sitting down with a defeated sigh, she began to try to figure out where it had gone so badly. Maybe she'd been too charming, maybe she really was too attractive, maybe she was- oh who was she kidding? She'd had too much of an ego, that was where it had gone wrong. Their target wanted nothing to do with her, so he wasn't going to speak with her. If he didn't speak with her, she couldn't isolate him, and if she couldn't isolate him then what was the point? At the rate she was going, if she kept trying what she was doing then he would probably get pissed off and leave, and then they would have completely failed.

Wait, that was it. If she kept trying what she was doing, he would probably leave. If he wouldn't speak with her, then she would take another approach. He wanted to get as far away from her as possible? That was okay with Dana, she'd make him want to do just that. Then she would strike, bam a plan was created. Her ego hadn't messed things up, her genius had been acting subconsciously and made a plan that suited her just fine.

Just like that, Dana Knightfall, deathscythe extraordinaire, was back and in action. Making her way across the floor once more, she found the male target and stood opposite him. "You know, it's awfully rude to simply leave a lady alone. These are dangerous times, you never know who might be prowling out there to take advantage of a pretty young thing like myself. Would you be a gentleman and dance with me for a moment? I bet I can figure out why you're here. If I can figure it out, then you only have to tell me your name, and if not then I'll leave you alone for at least the next 24 hours. How does that sound to you? I'm sure a little kid like me couldn't possibly figure it out, anyway, but maybe one of those fairy tales applies to you" the girl asked with a slight laugh, holding out her hand as she did so.​

 

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Zoey peeked up when she heard the new voice, turning to the young man that spoke. She could see a black soul and her mouth fell open just a bit. It wasn't like anything she'd seen before...

She heard his comment to the lady, and she responded better to him than her approach. They were up for a challenge.

The mood seemed to shift in the air, and she turned just in time to see Dana walk away and the other off-red soul stand there in... anger? Uh-oh. Something must've happened.

She then remembered what Spirit said and breathed in through her nose. She felt overwhelmed by it all, but they'd have to come to a compromise or they could all fail. She looked over her shoulder to the woman and the DWMA student, waving a bit and then she walked toward the light red soul.

Zoey tapped Blake on the shoulder. "Hey," she said softly, trying not to make the girl explode or draw attention to herself. "I'm not sure what happened... but I apologize on behalf of my partner." She breathed out and tugged at her blindfold ribbons just a bit to make sure it stayed secured. "I'm Zoey. Let me make this clear; I don't want to sabotage your mission, but I need to let my partner succeed. This is your first mission, yes? And you need a soul. There's two, so why don't we each focus on one and gather as much intel as possible. And since we already got our first soul, maybe I can convince my partner to stay back if you really want that second soul so badly."

She then glanced over her shoulder at the other partner talking to the lady and smiled. "Your partner is doing extremely well over there. Spirit told us we needed to stick together with our partners. How about we focus on the guy, and you focus on the woman. That way we can stay out of each other's way and maybe get somewhere without all of us failing because we keep butting heads with one another." Zoey shrugged and smiled gently at Blake, hoping the girl would listen to her. "And if your partner is successful, you'll be there to help him in the nick of time without being completely spread apart from each other."

 

Dana went outside quietly, fuming but more disappointed in herself than anything, her head hanging in defeat as she walked. She'd tried her hardest to actually accomplish something, and had been treated as though she were just a nuisance because of it, which hit rather hard. So hard that the usual cheery attitude and optimism was completely faded from Dana as she made her next move.

Walking around the building to scout out possibly points of entry, she found a pretty damn obvious one. At the back was a door that looked a little run down, as though it got a decent amount of use but almost no maintenance. As she stood there examining the door, a woman turned up dressed in the uniform of a waitress. The woman looked very motherly and had a kind face, so as much as it made Dana's stomach churn she was going to have to exploit that.

When the woman asked if she could help Dana, the girl immediately forced herself to tears. "My father sent me here and I didn't even want to come, but he told me if I didn't uphold the family name he'd throw me out onto the street and I'm so sorry that I'm telling you this I just really don't know what to do at all, I'm sorry..I'm sorry" Dana cried, her tears being a little more genuine than she had anticipated. As expected, the woman simply embraced her in a hug. Dana allowed herself to enjoy the feeling of a parents' love, even if it wasn't actually hers, for a moment before she broke away, gave a weak smile and thanked the woman, before turning her arm into part of the quarterstaff and knocking the woman unconscious.

In just a few minutes, Dana Knightfall was dressed as a waitress, or a 'servant' as she had called them earlier. The outfit may have been a tiny bit big on her (the woman had been relatively short) but with the new mask she'd acquired and putting her hair up in a bun as opposed to it hanging freely like it had been, she looked like practically a different person altogether. Taking a deep breath, the girl pushed open the door she'd seen earlier and walked into the kitchen of the building.

"Where have you been? You should have been here hours ago! It's a disaster, Andrew used so much Thyme Xehanort was able to come back to life!" the presumable boss yelled at her.

"I-I.....what would you like me to do about it sir?" Dana questioned, immediately picking up on an opportunity.

"Sir eh? I like it, sounds more respectful, which I don't get a lot of out here. You lot could learn from this woman!" the man called out, looking behind him at the frantic workers, before continuing. "Just get out there and give the guests come more champagne. Hand out these glasses", he said as he handed Dana a tray of glasses filled to the brim with champagne, "then come back for more instructions" he finished. Dana nodded her head before turning and heading to the door, where one of the other workers opened the door for her and she stepped through, inside the party once more and this time not having a drop of humour or non-seriousness with her. But hey, at least she was rocking that outfit.

 

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Roderick followed Zephyr in a daze, feeling stunned by what had just happened. He finally managed to speak, blushing furiously and letting out a groan. "I'm fourteen!" he despaired. "I don't- I don't- if my father knew what just happened... Oh gosh..."

​

"Haha, that's gotta be right," Matthew laughed, going over to the door with the lions behind it and opening it without hesitation, stepping inside.

 

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"Maybe we should go ahead and report back to Lord Death." Zephyr suggested. Beyond actually going around and playing tourist, there wasn't a whole lot left for them to do here. Plus they would have to report back at some point anyway, better to get it out of the way now as oppose to later. "We can keep this between us if that'll help."

He'd managed to get the attention of the target, step one complete. Now it was time to cross the bridge that was 'figure out what important news that he had to tell' her. "I do apologize, my name is Maximillion Pegasus and I have come to inform your that a college of mine wishes to speak with you. However they had a quick matter to attend to thus sent me in their stead to approach you." Man did Kuro hate speaking like this, despite the fact that it was seemingly working now. "They should be finished with their business thus I humble request you accompany me towards meet them."

 

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Roderick nodded. "Yeah, let's keep this between us, thanks," he said, still blushing. "Um... But yeah, we can report back in. I mean, we've already seen a little of London now, and there's nothing in particular I'd want to look at, so yeah, it'd be best to just get back to the school."

He felt he'd seen enough of London for one night. Besides, he still had 98 Kishin souls to go and one witch soul, best get back to work.

~

Once they got back the Academy, they went to go report in, so this mission would officially come to a close and they could start thinking about preparing for the next one.

 

Well, Matthew at least seemed to agree with him. He wasn't sure about the other two, but surely it couldn't hurt to at least take a peek inside. Lions were pretty quick, but Matthew sure seemed to be okay. Shrugging his shoulders, he too stepped forward and into the room of presumable lion corpses.

@Maka Albarn @Midnight Star


As Dana waded through the ocean of people, her attention latched onto the blonde woman and the boy she were talking to, or at least the one that had tried to talk to her. Thankfully, she'd just ignored the guy, opening up an opportunity for Dana to try and get at least one of the targets assassinated. Stopping where she was for a moment, she smiled at the male nearby her who took the last glass of champagne, smiling back at her. With the last of champagne vanished any hope of making progress for the moment; if she was going to blend in, she had to remain in character, which meant she had to keep doing her job. Turning back to head in the direction of the kitchen door, she couldn't resist taking another glance at the blonde woman. She seemed so carefree, so confident, as though she were the prettiest woman in the room. Which, at the moment, she was, but the very second Dana could get out of that ridiculous waitress outfit she would do just that. Then they would all see who was better.

As she entered the kitchen, Dana immediately had to stifle a laugh. She was still a kid, so when she saw the head chef get water spilled all over his pants right as she entered, it became enormously hard to resist. So hard, in fact, that she didn't. "Uh oh, somebody's had an accident" she laughed, before catching the glare of the head chef. "Just what was that?" he asked, irritation evident in his tone of voice. His face was a little red ball of fury, and he looked like he was going to make her into the next meal served to the guests. With a quick 'eep' Dana corrected herself. "I-I mean sir, somebody had an accident outside. N-not the kind of accident that would be wetting their pants, not that there would be anything wrong with that and it would be the most non-funny thing I've ever seen, but they spilled their food all over the ground" she explained, making up the whole thing like a pro...god she was thankful for her childhood sometimes. Other times not so much, but moments like this it was helpful for.

"Well, what are you waitin' around here for? A written invitation? Go, go! Clean it up before it makes too many problems!" the head chef barked. Dana smiled a little, an idea forming. "Do you want me to take care of any other messes that might arise, sir? If I remain outside supervising the area, then I can take care of things so you can relax an-"

"No, that's a stupid idea. I have a much better one. You go out there and stay out there, watching out for any other messes. We need someone ready to go immediately!"

"That's a brilliant idea sir. Your genius astounds me, one day I hope to be as good at this job as you are" she said, before turning and hurrying out of the kitchen and back into the ballroom. She was free, kind of. She'd messed up before, and that still made her feel very down and pressured but...at least now she could try to make things better.​

 

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Zoey had watched the whooooole scene unfold before her in horror. One minute, Dana seemed to be doing fine talking to the guy. Next minute, she was being booted out of the door by security. She slapped her forehead, muttering to herself as she felt her face flush in embarrassment. "On second thought, I think we're going to pull out," she said quietly to Blake. She smiled apologetically and bowed to the demon weapon. "I-I am so sorry for our intrusion. We might have made things more difficult for you in the long run... But I wish you and your partner success. If we could make it up to you in the future, we will. Now if you excuse me, I must go make a call... You two got this."

The meister found herself in the shadows of the room, pulling out a hand mirror from a pocket in her dress. She put in the number for Lord Death and shakily held the mirror. She hated to do this, but there was no way to recover from what happened. They were too suspicious at this point, at least Dana was... But there was no way Zoey could pull it off all by herself at this point.

She saw Lord Death and swallowed nervously. "H-hi, Lord Death? Yeah... I think we need to pull out this one... We're way over our heads."

~~

It took a moment or two, but Zoey finally found Dana coming out of the serving area. She felt her stomach drop to her feet. She didn't want to be the one to break the bad news, but... It had to be done.

"Hey Dana," she said quietly. "I made a call... We're going to leave... I'll explain later. You go out the back, and I'll meet you there."

With that, Zoey hung her head and walked out the front door, leaving the other team to deal with the masquerade mission on their own. Man, she felt like such a failure and a lousy partner...

​

Mikio cringed in his weapon form when Matthew boldly opened the door without much thought. "Wait-" but it was too late. He stayed strong, listening intently in the room for anything out of the ordinary. Lions that hadn't eaten for three years seemed like the perfect answer, but he was worried it could be a trap. Hopefully it was the safest way to go in the long run. ​

 

Dana stood still in the middle of the party. As everyone was going about and socialising, Dana's eyes became a little teary. "No, I can do this...I can do this" the girl said, her voice a little shaky but not overly so. Stepping forward, she started making her way towards the female target once more, only to bump into one of the guests, who simply looked at her and gave a look of absolute disgust. Stumbling back a little as she mumbled sorry, she bumped into one of the other guests and lost her balance, falling forward and landing on her hands and knees. A couple of people looked towards her, at this girl who was just making a fool of herself, but what hurt more was the ones who didn't look at her. They'd heard the commotion, she was sure of it, but they'd decided she wasn't worth their attention for even a second.

Slowly, but somewhat clumsily, she got up. Her parents' words echoed in her ears, telling her that she was worthless. They were wrong though, she wasn't worthless, she was awesome. She was the best and she was beautiful and...maybe trying too hard. A single tear slid down her cheek as the girl walked out of the ballroom, her mission failed and her confidence taking a severe blow. Part of her didn't want to go back to the school, but she knew she had to. Where else could she go?​

 

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It was a day after the mission went kabluy, to put it lightly. Zoey was feeling down in the dumps, and she could only imagine how Dana had felt. She wasn't herself after they left the mission, and it worried the girl.

So, instead of feeling sorry for herself and moping around her apartment all day, she dragged herself out of her place and made Dana come with her to try ice cream again.

Zoey even put on double layered blindfolds just in case so another day wouldn't be ruined.

She came back to the bench where she left Dana with two cups with ice cream in them and handed one to her partner. "Ice cream as promised," she said with a slight smile. "Hot fudge and sprinkles on it, just like you said you like it."

​

 

"Wow look at that, you actually remembered" Dana said with a weak laugh, though she didn't wear her usual grin on that day. She'd made the mistake of going home just after the mission, although it wasn't much of a home to her. Her parents had been furious, she could still practically hear their yelling. The constant 'failure' talk, comparing her to her brothers, none of it was new. From the perspective of someone on the outside of the family, she'd come from a loving family who only wanted to see her grow, but the love hadn't really been for her, and she'd always just been pushed into what she didn't want to do. Becoming a deathscythe was something her brothers had wanted to do, but neither of them had the weapon gene like she did. Nope, she'd been the lucky one.

Taking another lick of the ice cream before her, she looked up as she caught the eye of one of the guys walking past, staring mesmerised at her Zoey's blindfolds. She stuck out her tongue at him and flipped him off, before continuing to enjoy the ice cream. "So, I've been thinking a bit. Bit of a shocker, but you know..it is what it is. But yeah, I think I messed up that mission bigtime. The pharaoh's tomb was your doing, you carried the hell out of us, but the mission we failed, that was aaaall me. 'Least I looked cute in the outfit. Still, maybe looking and acting all awesome and stuff isn't the way to do this" Dana said, thinking aloud. She paused for just a moment, before she lowered the volume of her voice and spoke once more.

"Maybe being a death scythe just isn't in the cards, you know? Do you think Lord Death would let you have another weapon? I can see you working well with an actual sword or something, going all ninja asassin-y and stuff" ​

 

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Zoey only took a couple bites of ice cream before her partner started to talk. She listened and grew solemn as the conversation continued. When Dana was done, Zoey held her uneaten ice cream in her lap and stared out into space. "A sword wouldn't work for me," she said quietly. "Staffs help me feel the vibrations from the floor to my hand."

She dropped her head down and stirred her melting ice cream in her cup absently. "You helped me with the Pharoh mission. When I got attacked because I wasn't paying attention, you helped me get my focus back." Zoey stopped mixing her ice cream and glanced toward Dana. "That last mission just wasn't a good match for us. It shows us what we need to work on." She smiled a bit and shrugged. "Who knows, we might get another chance at it again."

Zoey took a bite of her ice cream, letting the butterscotch mixed with vanilla melt in her mouth a moment. "I'm glad you're with me, and that you're my partner."

 

"So you don't think that I'm worthless?" Dana asked with a little uncertainty in her voice. "For what it's worth, I'm glad you're my meister. You might not be able to see, but you sure as hell are nicer than the other meisters I've met. I bet their souls would be all bitter and leave a foul taste in the mouth...gives me shivers just thinking about it. Here's hoping they don't become kishin" she said, following up with another slight laugh and for the first time that day the very faintest hint of a smile on her mouth.

"I guess the next mission we do will just be where we try to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. I think I know what I did wrong, so there's the easy bit done. Now", the young girl started, "now we have the hard part. All this work will be the death of me"​