edelstein | GP: IC INBOX

[Smugness shifts to displeasure. A crease forms at her brow as the waiter sets a plate of jianjiao between them.]

Toma was right, you are stupid. You don't think my business has a reputation to keep?

[He tips his head.]

I think your reputation wouldn't be affected by killing me, specifically.

[He grabs one of the jianjiao with his fingers and eats it. They're definitely still too hot, but that doesn't affect him in the slightest.]

[ . . . ]

At the rate this is going I won't be surprised if you end up paying me to find ways to kill you since death isn't permanent here. I would, however, like to assert that I don't want my reputation to be "the woman who kills customers she doesn't like".

You saw what happened on the network. I'm just aware of where I'm at.

[He is hurting very deeply over the thing with Esikko, but he also figures it isn't anyone's problem how he's feeling about it. So that's where he's leaving it.]

Anyway, I've got sources for most of what I need. I'm just learning more about you.

[Kind of... she was just skimming it really. Rin is simply thankful that "J"s assetment of her as 'prey' is roughly 2yrs old now. Almost impossible to get to without a lot of patience.]

Nothing worth learning. I typically don't get myself involved in the problems of other people. Mages are isolationist by nature.

[His head tips to the other side, like a dog trying to suss something out.]

Silent observers are more useful than people that get involved in other people's shit.

[Which... he historically is incredibly bad at not getting involved. But he does try to keep people at arm's length, at least, as much as he can. He thinks people who can actually work in the shadows are aspirational.]

Why the isolation? Wouldn't people want to get their hands on magic?

While the ideal mage only concerns themselves with research and advancing their craft the fact of the matter is that we're all in competition. For resources, for political status, for pride. Mages, who value power over humanity, will kill each other to gain access to spiritually powerful lands, ancient items that enhance their craft, or simply remove a rival in a similar field of practice.

[With that explained Rin takes a sip of her drink before grabbing a pair of chopsticks to begin enjoying her appetizer.]

Mm. Isolating from each other, not humans.

[His habit of categorizing 'humans' as 'anyone with no powers whatsoever' is cropping up again.]

Sounds a whole lot like crab mentality.

[His thoughts start moving a lot slower once Rin starts eating, though. Because Dodger is very fixated on watching people eat, and he completely stops glancing around to just focus all of his attention on the jianjiao moving from the plate to her lips, and then her lips moving while she chews.]

[Eating in front of company she doesn't trust is an act just like anything else. It needs to be immaculate, and reserved. The fried dumpling is dipped into sauce, and delicately placed into her mouth. The free hand cups under her movements should any dripping happen. Tohsaka's soft lips close around the wooden utensils before they pull away. The tips leave slightly damp from both the sauce and her mouth. Chewing is polite; quiet and closed mouthed. She only speaks after swallowing.]

Common people aren't allowed to learn of magecraft. The Mages Association has made it clear that any human who does must be "taken care of". Otherwise the mage who slipped up will be executed. To them the power of Mystery is diluted the more the truth of it is revealed, and to protect it's power is to keep knowledge of it as limited as possible.

[About half of Dodger's brain is still following. This is another world where powers can be learned or gained - that seems to be the norm for magic. And aside from magic becoming more rare, it sounds like the kind of world he'd been striving for back home. One where humans get put in their fucking place.

It still sounds like crab mentality, though. He can't imagine that level of in-fighting from mutants.]

Uh-huh.

[The other half of his brain is entirely being taken up by the sight of Rin eating. Polite, proper, and therefore taking longer and giving him more to watch. He can appreciate Chobe eating things like a stray dog just as much, but they're just different experiences.]

I don't really have to agree with their rules or systems, though. I simply need to keep them from finding out if I break any, and excel to the point they're unable to consider disposing of me.

[Another small sip of her drink is taken before she eats her second jianjiao. Uncaring if the convesration falls off or dies entirely. If he's barely engaging she doesn't need to reveal more.]

[Excel to the point they're unable to consider disposing of me. That also gets locked away, another thing they both have in common. Dodger prides himself on being useful, because there are many reasons for people to want him dead. Especially the people he works with.

Dodger readjusts himself as casually as he can, crossing his legs while he eats another jianjiao.]

Likely what everyone else is doing, too. People only do as much as they're forced to.

If that's your assumption I have no reason to correct it.

[Rin's true self, her desires and ideals, are nearly antithetical to her training as a mage. Yet even if she had a choice to do anything else there would be nothing she could choose that would bring her fulfillment. She excels in the field, she enjoys learning new things and solving the puzzles that come with being a mage, and with her tendency to give up on things she's not immediately good at leaves little else. Expectation and tradition prevent her from truly loving magehood, but her uprbinging and personality make her unable to decouple from it. She's locked into a life of constant struggle between discarding her humanity and being unable to snuff it out entirely.]

[He wrinkles his nose, and purposefully drops his gaze down to his whiskey so he can actually focus.]

It's not an assumption, it's observation. People have passions and interests, they follow those without any guidance. Leave an artist in a room with art supplies and they'll make art, even if there's no one to show it to and nothing to force them. But if you want people to behave, and uphold a system, you have to make them. And you have to keep coming back and checking in different ways, because they'll find ways to skirt around the checks and balances.

Maybe that's the only way you can see it, but I wouldn't say I'm forced. Like I said: I don't do anything I don't want to do.

[For now Rin has decided to stop eating. Because of her image she's careful about regulating what she eats. Not because she wants to stay skinny, but more about being careful about building the type of muscle that easily "hides" unless you're using it. Even her physical power is masked by the soft layer of fat that makes up her feminine outline. In a way she's lucky to be a girl. Able to hide types of strength and to be underestimated based on misconception and prejudice.]

Whatever you say.

[He's hitting the limit of how much he can argue, anyway - it isn't his world, things might legitimately be different there. He's been reading enough philosophy lately from worlds with only humans that he's starting to accept that as an option.

He gestures toward the dumplings.]

Keep eating. Otherwise you're wasting food.

I don't want to ruin my appetite. They brought the plate to share, and you may finish the rest. I'm petite, after all.

[If she has too much she'll have to spend more time at the gym... she doesn't want that because it would increase the likelihood of her being spotted at the odd hours she keeps.]

Fine, suit yourself.

[He pulls the plate closer to finish it up - quick work, Dodger's pretty much a bottomless pit and he eats like he's starving. Although by the time he finishes eating them, his free hand has started tapping anxiously on the table. It's been a while since he's smoked, it's starting to bother him, but he doesn't want her making good on that threat to leave.]

If you end up tapping out on your entree, I'll finish that too. I just don't want you to leave here hungry.

[The fidgeting doesn't to bother her. In fact his restlessness doesn't even catch her attention immediately. After all she does something similar: occupying herself by tracing the circular top of her glass with the tip of her index finger.]

Don't worry. I'm not the type to starve myself, but eating more means I should exercise more. I have a strict schedule I only deviate from for something fun.

[He raises a brow. Right, normal human. They have to exercise and care about what they eat. Hard to remember when neither of those things are true for him.]

Well... good. I hate picky eaters.

[His fingers keep tapping. Fuck, he hates this.]

Does this count as 'something fun' or is it fitting into the schedule?

-You really have to ask that? This has been more interrogation than it has been date. We've been sizing each other up like animals drawing territory lines. How many people do think would find that fun?

[She's not yet laughed and only got to feel smug once. Dodger, you have no rizz.]

[Dodger ducks his head, like a dog being corrected.]

I didn't want to- overstep.

[He honestly has no idea why this isn't working. And he's tempted to just write it off as Women Are Confusing, but more than anything it's making him think of talking to Toma. And just having no idea what to do if someone isn't already interested in sleeping with him.]

[She hates that. She hates the pang of guilt and the unease that pity brings to the pit of her stomach. A sigh of exasperation twinged with a bit of relenting defeat falls from her lips. A hand raises to pinch the bridge of her nose briefly.]

Maybe we can play another game? Something simple we can do verbally.

[Combine "learning about you," and "fun". Maybe. Depends on if Rin gets competitive.]

[He chews his cheek, and takes a moment to drink the rest of his whiskey.]

Sure. Uh... I used to play something back home with some of my coworkers. Ask questions, the other person either answers or they take a shot. You go back and forth until someone's wasted.

[A pause.]

We can- skip the drinking part, just end it when we get bored. Sure you can't keep up with me.

[You can't keep up with me. There it is. Rin's expression turns harsh, and she leans in.]

If you can afford it, then order the drinks.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject