Lina Inverse looked over the archaeological dig taking place over what had once been Sairaag. About five centuries after the third War of the Monster's Fall had completely obliterated the city for the last time, she had finally gotten around to digging up the Blessed Blade.
Irritably, she wiped the sweat off of her forehead and decided to call it a day. She had been working as an archaeologist for several years now and it was almost time for her to switch professions again. Ever since magic had disappeared from the world, slowly dying out until only she and a handful of mazoku and dragons who survived the war and were immortal still had it, she hadn't been able to find a job she really enjoyed. Oh you have no idea how hard it was for Lina Inverse to pretend to be a normal, mortal, magicless human...
Standing up she hit the button on her walkie-talkie that would signal to the other workers at the dig to clean up and head out. With that, Lina pulled the tarp over the hole she had been excavating and pegged it down, then headed home to the apartment she shared with Xelloss. She hoped the fruity bastard wasn't home yet. All she wanted right then was to shower, grab a quick bite to eat at the little café under their place, and then fall into her bed, maybe sleep for a few hundred years, or at least till magic came back in style.... She sighed. Well, it was a nice thought anyway...
Unfortunately for Lina, said 'fruity bastard' was at home. But L-sama didn't completely hate our dear sorceress supreme. The happy little trickster priest was quite busy with his own things, and was actually hoping not to see Lina soon.
His master had just given him a new assignment, and well, it's a secret, but he had to start working on the background stuff pronto. And he most definitely didn't need Lina-chan distracting him from his work. After all, Juuou-sama has to come before Lina-chan, no matter how much more fun 'spending some time' with Lina might be. Sigh.
Lina trudged into the apartment soaking wet and carrying a very big bag of carry-out. "Just figures it would start raining," she mumbled under her breath as she attempted to wring the water out of her still very long red hair.
"Xel, ya home?" she called from the entry way. "I brought carry-out!" She tossed her jacket at the coat rack in the corner on and it landed on top of a pile of her shoes and a few other coats, which had similarly missed the various hooks. She kicked off her mud-caked boots as she walked in, not bothering to put them in the disorganised pile with the others. "Erg, I'm exhausted," she muttered as she headed into the living room, to set the food on the living room table on top of whatever Xelloss was working on. "Have at it, I'm taking a shower."
Iria phased into existence at the location of her new "event". She had spent the last six hundred years or so documenting "events" on another world, and she barely recognised the feel of the world where she had first met Lina Inverse. Lots of interesting "events" surrounding her, she thought. And then she noticed the table with carry-out in front of her. And then she noticed who was behind the carry-out, it could only be Xelloss....which meant...no, no, there was no Lina could not still be around, it had been over six hundred years since Iria had last been here.
"You must be my assignment," she informed Xelloss. And then sat down and waited for his reaction. And to try and get the notes for this "event" from her bag, she really wanted to know if Lina was involved...that girl just...well she was almost as annoying as that Random!
"Assignment?" Xelloss responded, talking around his mouthful of lo mein. "Whatcha talkin' about, Iria-chan?" 'How the hell did she get back here, anyway?' he thought to himself.
Iria resigned herself to waste a few breaths speaking. "Fate sent me here. I follow you and record whatever "event" is going to take place."
Iria continued fishing in her bag, evidently Fate had decided she didn't need to know the details of upcoming event yet, because every page she pulled out was just something she was a little behind with. She couldn't believe that Fate was blaming her for the Books of Fate not being done yet, she knew at least two other Scribes who were at least a millennia further behind than she was.
Lina stepped out of the master bedroom to which the bathroom with shower was attached wearing only a towel, and with her hair piled up on top of her head. "Xelloss, do you know what happened to my shampoo?...erk! Iria! what the hell are you doing here?!?" She quickly jumped back into the bedroom and peeked around the doorway to speak. "Xel! Why didn't you tell me she was here!?!"
She affectionately threw her slipper at the priest and it beaned him in the head.
"Aah, that feels good, Lina-chan! Care to throw the other one?" Seeing that Lina was obviously not in the mood, he continued, pouting, "I thought you didn't like it when I came in and disturbed your showers? Oh, and the shampoo's by the medicine cabinet." ^_^
Lina blushed bright red at the mention of the previous times he had joined her in the shower and decided to oblige him with tossing the other slipper at him. "Xel!"
She turned to Iria, or more appropriately peeked around the door in her direction, "What are you doing here?!?!? Erg! Never mind, I don't care, I'm taking a shower and going to bed! Xel, don't turn on the light when you come in or I'll kill you! Ja!" She hurried back into the shower leaving the two to talk.
Iria sighed and resigned to record this "event" without the notes of Fate to guide her. She didn't bother to complain about it, that being a waste of energy, and sat back and waited. Either Fate would give her some notes soon, or something would happen for her to record. Some part of her brain used a little effort and noted that she should really work on some other projects, but she ignored it.
"Humph, well, that's Lina-chan off," Xelloss said idly, watching the red-head scurry back into her awaiting shower. He turned back to Iria, only to find her writing in that damn book of hers.
Knowing quite well he wouldn't get a peek inside, Xel sighed and went back to his dinner. Sure, he didn't need to eat, but he always took advantage of Chinese take-away. That was the one bad thing about living with Lina Inverse. Food had become a bigger part of her life now that magic was hard to get away with openly, and unfortunately, Lina-chan was sensitive about her cooking. Meaning Taste-Tester Xelloss had to down every single disgusting concoction with his trademark grin. Urk Take-away was a blessing to his pallet to say the least.
Iria finally decided that looking through her bag was taking too much effort, and curled up for a nap. As her eyes closed she noticed the fluttering of a single sheet of paper, a single sheet of paper that looked suspiciously like it was falling out of the ceiling, *!@#, she thought towards Fate, and sat up. The piece of paper was falling slowly and she realised she had better hurry and grab it before anyone else could. The lazy scribe stood up quickly, knocking the phone, which had been laying on the floor amongst a phone book opened to the "Food" section in the yellow pages, off of it's cradle. She exerted more effort than she had in the last 250 years, and jumped at the floating sheet, so she could keep it from Xelloss. Really, she hated it when Fate forced her into a situation where she HAD to exert some sort of effort.
The light turned red and she crossed the street with the hurried crowd. Once safely on the other side, she quickly started reading the numbers on the buildings as she walked past them. She stopped suddenly and cried out with joy, which got her odd looks from the passers by. She quickly covered her mouth, embarrassed by the outburst...but who could blame her for being excited?
She rechecked the torn page which she "borrowed" from the restaurant's phone book to make sure she was correct. "Up! Hehe, finally!" She cheered, mentally this time. "Hmmm....not quite what I was expecting, but the café below definitely does seem to fit." Smiling to herself, she quickly skipped to the nearest pay phone. Gawkers quickly shook their heads and tried to ignore the loud-voiced (and loudly-dressed) young girl, figuring it was a Prozac overdose or something.
A look from side to side proved no one was in hearing distance, and she dialled the phone number circled in red...
Kiro looked around the city curiously. The plane hadn't been very comfortable, and she was glad to get out of it, but now she wondered what to do next. Erk, maybe find an apartment first, this pack is heavy.
She started down the sidewalk (which just happened to head in the direction of Lina and Xel's apartment), smiling and greeting anyone who's eye caught hers.
Zelas tugged at the sleeve of her white jacket and watched the rain outside the café. She wasn't in a bad mood, just things where going to be moving very delicately for a while and that always annoyed her a bit. Alas, the work of a mazoku lord is never done...even if no one really remembered you anymore. Oh well, Xel-chan always does good work...
She caught eyes with a blond girl with lavender eyes. The girl smiled, but Zelas bared her teeth - she wasn't in the mood today. Said girl began to rush off - but something about her didn't seem quite right. Figuring she had enough time to kill, Zelas left the table and trailed the girl, pretending not to hear the angry waiter as she left without paying.
She quirked an eyebrow as she heard a few sharp bangs and loud knocking sounds on her end of the phone, followed by the sound of someone making a small grunt of exertion. 'Oh my!' she thought, her mind jumping to the worst conclusion immediately, of course. "Well, maybe I should call another time as it seems she has her hands full at the moment."
She hung up the phone and started to back up when she stopped and her lips formed into a sly, evil little grin. "Hehehe, aww what the hell...and from the sounds of it she probably will need to replenish her strength anyways....Hope she likes anchovies, heh..." The blue- haired girl nodded and congratulated herself for coming up with such an evil scheme as she dialled another number.
"Yes hi there, I'd like to order a pizza...my address? Yes, it's..." and as she looked back down to the torn page for the address, she noticed a blonde-haired girl walking by and her grin widened...
Lina emerged from the shower to the sound of someone jumping in the living room. 'What the f*ck?' she thought and hurriedly put on one of Xelloss's shirts and a pair of red plaid pyjama pants.
"What are you two doing in there?" She asked, knowing it must be something really, really odd for Iria to be jumping! Jumping took effort! It couldn't have been Xel 'cause he floats, not jumps....She raced into the living room, ignoring her protesting muscles, sore from working all day, to see the mess of her front room...and that Xel had been into her lo mein...AGAIN!
Garv grumbled as he stomped up the stairs. He came to the door and switching the pizza box to one hand banged furiously on the door.
"OI I'VE GOT YOUR ^%@$@#@! PIZZA DELIVERY!!!! OPEN THE %$#$&#! UP ALREADY!! DAMN (*^^%$%^@#!@#!!! IT!!" he yelled.
Thread 2 | Fanfiction