[h2][center]Astrid Kim[/center][/h2]
Fire.
Blue flames wreathed the land, stretching into the sky as if to block anyone else from bearing witness to what was within. She, of course, was in the middle of it all. In her arms, an older man, bearing on his face a pair of glasses, lay limp. She, too, seemed to have no strength in her limbs; her legs refused to move, and her hands remained firmly clasped in place.
And as the flames grew brighter, the heat grew, until finally——

Astrid opened her eyes as the apparent nightmare ended, the mild concern evident on her face as she groggily got up from her bed and stretched her arms. The scene that presented itself was unnaturally vivid, and the young woman could feel the cold sweat on her forehead slowly dripping down. While the caffeine from last night's coffee had done its job well (down to the perfectly timed crash following her shower and change of clothes), the scant hours of sleep she had been given were just a few too little. The sun seemed to barely rise over the horizon, judging by the light barely streaming through her window, but that meant this was probably one of the best times to handle any other issues at hand. It was definitely far too early to go shopping—that'd have to come after some breakfast—but at the very least, she could attempt to contact her mother. It was probably sometime in the evening in Korea, anyhow, and it wasn't as if she was a magus with the ability to prepare. She could make a few runes, yes, but without actually having burned any resources during their scouting last night there wasn't much of a point in doing so.

With that in mind, the half-valkyrie pulled out a laptop from her luggage and, after setting up whatever needed to be set up, attempted to contact her mother. The miracle of the internet was not something to be underestimated, and Astrid wasn't so fixated on tradition that she would pass up the opportunity to use this on the job anyhow.

"Oh, right, Lancer," Astrid remarked as the somewhat obnoxious sound of the call connecting bounced through the room, "we should visit the Church before buying you a change of clothes. I believe that was something mandatory to be handled...?"

Before long, the sound resonating from the computer stopped, and after a second of pause, the sight of a woman with blonde hair chatting with an older Korean man popped up on screen.

"Oh, Astrid!" the man said, waving at the screen from the other side as she waved back. "I heard you went to America for—"

"Not now, Seong-il!" berated the woman next to him, and before long the old man was shooed off somewhere to the side. "So, young lady, did you meet any troubles over there?"

"Er... No, not particularly, but I did meet... I don't know, one of my aunts? I think that's the best way to describe the situation..."

"Oh?"

Given that her father wasn't exactly aware of anything involving magi, Astrid found this to be the easiest way of dancing around the issue. It was possible that Lancer would poke her head in to speak, but... Well, she'd cross that bridge when she came to it.

[@KoL]

[h2][center]Archer[/center][/h2]
Once the matters for the night were handled and his Master returned back to his base, Archer wasted no time in slipping out and scouting the rest of the town out. Finding 'contacts' was far easier than he had expected, and the funds that he had obtained from his Master were enough to at least set up a basic information network. Despite learning of the marvel that was modern technology, the idea of having something so easily traceable by others turned the old dandy off from the idea of utilizing it altogether. While it might be easy to connect with others, a system like that made it just as simple for any plebian to follow the tracks back to him.

That was far from the ideal.

Once that was handled, though, Archer returned back to the hotel where his Master was and took some time for himself to sleep. Despite being a Servant (and, by all means, dead), the feeling of rest after having accomplished something was still something worth savoring. There was still more to be done later, but for now...

This would do fine.

Awakening early the next morning was a simple task, but it was a matter of waiting for his Master to be awake and alert before seeing if any of the seeds he had sewn had borne fruit.

[@King Cosmos]