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In equal measures, Scarlett was listening and not - the words, as spoken by Libra, Capricorn, and, presumably, Elise to follow suit, they flowed into her; meaningless, worthless; a pledge made in hope and faith. To summon a Servant was to abandon the principle belief in such things, and embrace the hopelessness and endlessness of the war you invoked upon yourself until it was done.

"Forgo silver and steel; the essence is blood and marrow," Scarlett began, as she set her Mystic Codes into the center of the ritual and stepped back, chanting, "Transmute our connection, a contract of muscle and bone. Erect a wall of flesh against utter destruction heralded. Let it be quartered keys into that lock the Cardinal Doors to our world. And, let each be turned five times around - breaking the afforded time asunder, that simply..."

Scarlett focused on Heartstring - the Aztec sacrificial dagger could afford her quite the Servant, if luck favoured her in this endeavour. "Let the road, thrice-forked, from the Crown until the Kingdom turn once more. And, let it be known henceforth," she says, "your flesh is to serve me, and my power is to serve you. To this end, I ask you to willingly submit to this service in my name. Harken to me, if you will, and submit to subservice to my will and truth."

Narrowing her eyes, Scarlett continued, "For an oath is to be forged here; so I shall obtain all virtues Heavensent, and so I shall rule over all vices Hellbound. Mine is no summon, but a draft to preserve the future, to serve humanity, and to save the world!"

"Rise forth from the depths of Hell! Descend swift from the apex of Heaven! Attended by the Three Great Words of Power, storm forth from the Ring of Restraint, Protector of the Holy Balance!"

Once the oath was finished, altered as it was, a blinding surge of light would burst forth from the accumulated mana, revealing a man that was a bit taller than Leon standing with his back turned to Scarlett. He had the appearance of a matured warrior, the slightest hint of graying in his hair showing the age of the Servant she’d summoned. Judging from the lance sheathed comfortably upon his back, there was no doubt that he was of the Lancer class. Turning to face her, he would give an aloof smile before saying: "Well, you completely fucked up the oath, but I still found my way here, Master. To you who reeks of blood, I swear the lance of Celtchar. Got any Monsters that need slaying?”

Scarlett narrowed her eyes, "I showered this morning, you smelly asshole," she says, sniffing the air, "I can't help the scent any more than you can. But, you could complement my deodorant, at least." Chastising Celtchar, Scarlett didn't look up from Heartstring and Heartbeat. Clucking her tongue, she sighed, "Well, you aren't my first draft pick, but you look competent. Ulster Cycle Irish, if I can wager a guess. Not on par with Cu Culann, but leagues beyond Diramund."

Celtchar’s nostrils flared up a bit at the comparison, saying: "Listen, not everyone’s a freak like that hound and not everyone’s got a curse that makes them beautiful. I’m the Grey Knight of Ulster, and while I know history remembers those dicks a lot better than me…" he would unsheathe his lance from his back and proudly stamp its shaft against the ground. "I guarantee neither of them are as good at slaying Monsters as I am. So, just play to my strengths or whatever and we’ll win."

Going over, Celtchar would gingerly poke Scarlett’s forehead, leaning down a bit before saying: "I’m just glad my Master isn’t someone who seems afraid to get their hands a little dirty."

"Blood stains more than my hands," Scarlett says, lifting his chin with her off-coloured hand, "I like you. I would have probably shot anyone else without the sense to stand on their own and fuck blessings." Scarlett smirked, as she flicked her knife; the obsidian blade swishing through the air. "That little oath isn't going to bind my mind to you, just because," she says, "A drop of blood, however, that's worth remembering."

Celtchar would deftly catch her knife with the bare point of his lance, an absolutely flawless block intercepted by the tip of the blade. "Heh. Diarmuid was always the one that gave better speeches. But if its a drop of my blood you need, all you had to do was ask. Or, enforce a geas on me. A command spell wouldn’t even be necessary, my despicable Master," he would say, before grabbing Scarlett’s wrist and her knife, and cutting a gash across his palm after removing his glove.

"Yada yada I am your sword, and I’ll die like a dog properly if it comes to that. Now, put that thing away before I start thinking you’re just into bleeding out men you meet."

Scarlett smirked. "Hardly," she says. "Libra. Capricorn. Director. Don't remember their names. Don't put the effort forward. Too much else is more important to remember, in my academic opinion," she sliced her palm, and let Heartstring drink, before slicing a bit of her hair, "Consider this a matter of necessity. I need to remember you, so I'm putting you forward in my memory..." Scarlett clenched her bloody hand into tight fist with her blood and hair mixing, before she opened it; healed and containing two translucent vials on a chain with her blood and Celtchar's mixed.

"A blood pact, if you will," Scarlett says, presenting him a necklace. "Now, I won't forget your name, Celtchar. My little, Irish mosquito."

"Yeaaaah, please call me literally anything other than a mosquito," Celtchar said, accepting the necklace and tightening it, letting it hang from his wrist instead of his neck.

"No," Scarlett chirped in a manner that could almost be cute, if she weren't everything but. Celtchar could, likely, see through her fragility and attire - he was partnered with a killer, playing at being normal.

That was perfectly fine with the Ulster hero, seeing as he was little better than a boasting warrior proficient in slaying impossible beasts. Heroic Spirits often made their way to the Throne atop a pile of bodies, so who was he to judge his monster of a Master so long as she kept it to battles, and wasn’t bleeding everyone dry? Turning and standing at her side, Celtchar would pat her back. "Off to a fantastic start, you and I. Also, word of advice: Don’t ever ask me to unsheathe my Noble Phantasm. Its a bit temperamental, and if I don’t bathe it in enough blood, I bet it’ll just go for you from the smell. …Bit of a pain, but I promise its worth it once it gets going."

"Don't give me a reason to ask, then," Scarlett says, plainly. "Now, if we needn't do elsewise, you can help me grade these papers. I'm sure the Throne afforded you the knowledge to do basic Algebra II and Calculus?"

"Now is REALLY not the time for this, Master!"
Irish and I are about finished with our collabs. I'll be posting tomorrow, since I have the day off. Little hectic at work lately.
As the Director spoke, Scarlett rolled her eyes at his flaccid attempt to promote his power and position over her - Incompetent. Bureaucratic. Typical Mage... - as she ate her sandwich while the Director and Libra made their empassioned cases; against her and to her, respectively.

Not a bit of it she listened to. Instead, she focused on the composition of her half-eaten sandwich. The premade sandwich was absolutely perfect on a mathematical level - the bread was symmetrical, top and bottom, the crimp was evenly spaced all the way around, and the amount of peanut butter paste and strawberry jelly puree was perfectly filled in each half of the bread cups. It was alchemically wondrous as well, as each important factor of the peanut butter and strawberry jelly were measured to end in even numbers - fats, trans fats, carbs, sugars; all bundled together in a perfectly fashioned puck, and flash-frozen in its ultimate state.

It could not be more perfect...

"Though, you could be a bit bigger, but I can always eat more," she says, finishing her train of thought aloud, before remembering where she was, "Oh, I'm sorry, you started making excuses and bringing in your lineage, so I tuned out. I've heard it all before... Time and time again..."

Scarlett rolled her sandwich bag into a knot, and put it away; preparing to continue. As she did, Capricorn would speak his piece, and she'd take careful note of his statement until he said that her delivery was "subpar" - she'd remember that for a later date, when he needed something dire.

She'd be subpar in her delivery, once more.

She, also, ceased listening to him, as she formed a counterargument as to why her points were not subpar. However, before she could issue anything, Elise spoke up, and she paused to listem - keep notice her getting close, until she felt the elbow in her side...

Elise agreed with her points of contention in confidence; the dismal state of things; the half-assness of it all - even if she was for taking up the mission at hand. Scarlett was not, but if she was forced to choose between a world without her favourite sandwiches and students to teach or the reverse, then she would save the world.

"Very well. I will help save the world," Scarlett says, "but, not for Libra nor Capricorn nor the Director. No. I'm doing it for the sandwiches I've yet to eat, and the children I've yet to teach."

"That's worth my time. Not silly ideals of heroism and teams or searching for potential lost causes and justice."
"I thought you were supposed to address my concerns, not put words in my mouth," Scarlett says, as she graded a page, "I said, 'If they failed,' and followed that with, 'Death is suitable punishment for failure.'." Scarlett flipped to the next paper, "Sure, I believe that you believe what you said, and what you believe you heard me say,but I do not care enough to leave your belief unchecked. Nor yours, Caster, as far as the human condition goes. If there was any true concern for their condition, and it is deemed unrecoverable, the decision would be clear..."

Scarlett looked up, turning her grading planner around to show the last paper with right, red, underlined "F" upon it to her Director.

"Shut down their coffins, and accept the failure. Give them mercy."

Storing her grading planner away, Scarlett clapped her hands."Anyways, onto the matter of Servants, then," she says, "I find myself taking issue to that, as well. I'm busy enough that I didn't give it the space in my thought over time, but now,," Scarlett crossed her arms, "I'd like to speak on the fact that you've been training us, supposedly, to be Masters, and yet, only now, when you need us to perform in an emergency, are were allowed to summon our Servant, and take them into real world combat with zero practical experience with them?"

"I highly doubt that Elise or Capricorn have been in real, live combat, where their lives are under the threat of death against things without conscience," Scarlett says, "Libra, maybe, can hold his own against such adversity, but you are throwing us, a team of four, essentially strangers, with no one-on-one time with our Servants that we've just summoned, two Masters with, likely, limited to no honest combat experience, and fully expect us to save the Masters and Servants with months of successes, because they suddenly went radio silent? Oh, and, this is our first official meeting, I might add."

Scarlett reached into her bag, and pulled out a peanut butter and strawberry jelly sandwich in a zip-up bag, taking a bite, as she scoffed, "Seriously, you're supposed to be our director, in charge of our safety? Laughable."
Team A is down. Fuyuki is empty.

That's what Scarlett took away from the words of their Director, a man she didn't dedicate space in her memories to, as he answered Capricorn; the questions he posed were simple, yet their Director had to bring himself to answer plainly... Perhaps, because, he knew he had no convenient answer...

A problem, in and of itself, if one considered the daunting nature of the task set before them.

Scarlett didn't look away from her book, nor pause her scribblings, as she proffered, "Shut it down, then, and start over. If they've failed, that should not become our immediate problem. Death is a suitable punishment for failing to perform as they should have on Humanity's behalf. Besides, History remembers dead losers more fondly..."

Stowing her book away, Scarlett would take a thick binder out with a trio of pens in red, black, and blue and multiple papers - student essays. More invested in grading her students' papers, she didn't look up to see the emotional or physical reactions to her suggestion -- no, not really a suggestion.

A solution.

If Team A failed their mission, sending Team B in behind them recklessly was a foolish course of action.

" Additionally, there's no apparent reason for us to rush in, so I'll ask, from one teacher to another, Director," Scarlett continues, finally looking up, "To what end should we achieve victory where they did not? Pyrrhic? Guns blazing? How would you like us to end up, so you can have a better idea of what to tell Team C when we fail?"

Her Director would be confronted by the cold and indifferent eyes of someone that had seen and caused countless deaths; friend or foe; guilty or innocent; and become hardened to it. Scarlett, truly, did not care about Team A, nor her position on Team B, but the fact she was being sent on a mission in critical condition and spiralling out of his control as the next best option when she'd so many lessons to grade.
@Lugubrious

Mae continues to be a goddamn treasure of a character.
Cool. I wasn't worried, but I was thinking about pinging soon.
Scarlett looked at Libra, and tilted her head at him... did he realize he was coming off as that senior jock at the bar trying to pick up a freshman by attempting to appeal to her vulnerable state and newness? Furthermore, to things that Scarlett didn’t feel she had in the slightest - she was hardly vulnerable and wasn’t remotely new to any of this.

Suddenly, she had an idea, though; reaching into her schoolbag - a ratty, old leather messenger bag - and withdrawing a composition notebook of all things.

Spinning a pen, she would start to scribble into it. Her expression was thoughtfully, as she wrote down her thoughts. As she was consumed in herself, and her notions, she wouldn’t even acknowledge Capricorn.

A part of her was sure he was speaking - maybe, even saying something important - but she really couldn’t be bothered to pay him any mind. Limited as she was, Scarlett couldn’t afford to intake more distractions to her mental processes, and would have to sacrifice something else to her Sphere of Consciousness; though, infinite, it could be and would be, that state made pulling thoughts back a difficult.

Maybe, this book would be helpful. That’s why she was keeping it, right? Frowning, she would quickly close it, and write on the cover, [Scarlett’s Helpful Book], before returning to it.

Looking up, Scarlett would look beyond Libra and Capricorn, and frowned, “Oh, Miss Barbette, you are here, as well.” Shutting her book, she would pass by Libra and Capricorn, and waggled her pen, chastising, as she scolded, “You missed your lessons, young lady. Just because you aren’t at the Prague Academy any more, doesn’t mean you can skip out on your supplementary lessons,” and she would end with a huff, saying, “You won’t properly graduate, if you keep playing around.
Alright going to give everyone a chance to bounce off each other maybe a bit to let a person speak up if they intend on joining still then we'll move on to director orson. Someone did contact me about a rider servant but they have not yet committed entirely.


Forgot to mention, I do have something I want to post, but "after work" turned into a closing shift, so I may post tonight or some time tomorrow afternoon.
@Rezod92 @vancexentan

So, uh, I'mma gonna hafta get ahead of a potential issue.

Scarlett didn't say anything out loud.

Her listing off those names is internal monologue, which is one of the most classic way to express a character's thoughts within a narrative sentence. She's gonna do that - a lot.

So, unless, Leon or Conner can suddenly read mind, they didn't hear anything.
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