[center][img]https://i.gyazo.com/6780d70991c2c395d97399e21db9999c.png[/img] [h3][color=fff79a]Ibaraki Douji[/color][/h3] [i]Rashoumon no Oni[/i] [i]Strauss Workshop, Shinto[/i] [@Paradox Witch][/center] And so in a progressively smokier room, a demon listened to a young man talk. To have returned to her land once more was not an entirely welcome occasion. On the one hand, the land of Japan was her home, but it was also the place she hated the most. A comfortable seething at her core, a familiar feeling that honed the mind, focused it to a point. Yes, she hated Japan. Were she in the position to do so, she would sink Kyushu and eat up the bloated bodies. She would crack the pillars that supported the land itself, and host a vile revelry in the heart of the capital -- Tokyo these days. How times change. Her dwelling on Ooeyama could hardly have been considered to have been apart of Japan, as it were. So prevalent were Oni in that isolated little mountain paradise of theirs, it could have been called distinct from even the texture of the world. An otherworldly realm, where things ceased being ‘human’. And, as she appraised the companions of the human, she recognized what they were. Even in this era, her kind were not completely lost. While they had diluted their blood with that of humanity in order to survive -- a plan which she could still recall the inception of in the wake of her defeat -- there were still [i]‘Oni’[/i] alive and well in the world. The young man before her proved that much. There was promise there. An ambition which burned all those who sought to fly beside him, human or otherwise. A passionate avarice, pure and simple. With a quiet consideration, her eyes shut to better hear his words, bare legs coming to fold over one another, pressing a hand against her knee, her interest captured by the mention of the enemy Masters in particular. She hummed, rubbing her lips against the pipe. “[color=fff79a]You plan ahead. This is good. I can see many more in your position being aimless, but this is not the case. My abilities and your own, they are not without their compatibility, I suppose. Here...[/color]” As if possessed, strands of her long, golden hair raised up, moving in the air as if they were appendages of their own will. She reached up lethargically, twirling a few around her finger, before forcibly tugging them out. She held them out, clenched in her crimson hand, grip like iron as the sun-coloured strands of hair dangled out of her grip. “[color=fff79a]Take these. They should be of some use to your work, I assume. In the meanwhile, I shall act as your eyes and survey our opposition further, as my Class would dictate I do. Unlike undead animals infused with power, I am more than capable of reaching those unreachable places. Should you feel in danger, hesitate not to recall me with your marks of power.[/color]” Tilting her head to the side, she let a vicious little smirk spread across her face, a fang protruding from her lip. “[color=fff79a]It would not do us well if we were to lose you so soon, [i]Master[/i].[/color]” [hr] [center][img]https://i.gyazo.com/5f31dd59d26c08531fc7e3dc9239ce33.png[/img] [h3][color=9e0b0f]Ana Einnashe[/color][/h3] [i]The Youthful, Ganymedean and Odd Heir of the Lonely Forest Family[/i] [i]Einnashe Workshop ‘Lucus’, Fuyuki Outskirts[/i] [@Froppy][/center] It went without saying that Ana was excited to summon basically anything, and the sight of the decadently posed creature before him did nothing to change that. Crimson eyes widened with a childlike awe at his Servant’s lazy entrance, nothing as grand as a boisterous announcement or subdued greeting. Dismissive, whimsical and outright uncaring! It was…It was… So cool! Sure, he loved his heroes as much as the next young man, but there was something great about characters like the one before him -- well, he wouldn’t consider her a character from that point onwards. That was a bit reductive, if not outright insulting, and he’d hate to be disrespectful to the tiny yet undeniably powerful package of Mystery before him. That’d be just rude, and also probably life threatening. “[color=9e0b0f]Mh, I did! Although, I’m not really a child so much as I am very young. Important distinction! I have my memories partitioned very cleanly, and I’m no longer in the ‘child’ section! I’m in the teenager section now, you know![/color]” he near enough rambled, speaking a bit quicker than he usually did. Years of control over his bodily mannerisms shattered by the sight of one legend, and it wasn’t even because she was hardly wearing anything. If anything, he seemed completely accepting of that fact, as if it were completely normal. Nearly naked little demon girl? Completely normal. “[color=9e0b0f]Uh, wait. I’m Anaxstolas, but you can just call me Ana! I should have said that from the start, my bad. Welcome back to the world, I guess! And welcome to my Lucus Workshop![/color]” Ana opened up his arms, gesturing around him to the little slice of paradise he had created within his week in Fuyuki. The name ‘Lucus’ was not inappropriate. A sacred grove in the tongue of the Romans, a natural temple to the splendor of the world and the gods that ruled it, merely tended to by man but not made by them. That same beauty was reflected in the Workshop, if it could be called that. The summoning circle sat in an opening in the grove, the juices of the smashed pomegranate bleeding into the grass by that point, creating a pattern of red around the Servant. Dotted around the opening were a variety of trees, some local, others less so, but each of them could be felt breathing Magical Energy like a furnace. At the far end of the opening, about as long and wide as it needed to be in order to seem ‘comfy’ and contain all the equipment needed for Ana to work, was a patch of trees, each growing a strange variety of fruits, with brushes at their base doing similarly so for berries. At the center sat what was clearly a lynchpin, a piece of arboreal life that almost seemed to glow beneath the bark, standing a little bit taller than the other healthy, thriving trees. Although nothing grew from it, its branches spread out far enough to intertwine with the canopy of the forest. But, perhaps most importantly for the Servant, the area was a veritable well of Magical Energy. “[color=9e0b0f]It’s not my best work, but a week isn’t really… you know, ‘masterpiece time’. But it’ll get better, I swear! If you want any fruit, then you can have all you want! I know I have.[/color]” He was very open, to say the least. Not so easily cowed by the sight of a Servant, despite the discrepancy between them. It could have been called stupidity, but it was more akin to an absence of a particular brand of human reason. Once he finally noticed the offered bowl, having been caught up in his own talking, he squat down, blinking at the bowl, the smell rushing up his nose and hitting him like a brink, causing him to scrunch up his expression. But, it was clear that this Servant liked their booze. And so, if he was going to be having a good ‘ol time with them, he was going to embrace that. Anaxstolas, legendary lightweight of Europe, embracing booze. And so the boy made one of the dumbest decisions of his life. He accepted sake from Shuten Douji, and ended up face planting the grass for it. A pristine start.