"Looks like his plan for today is to sleep in."Hearing this, Amelie furrowed her brows. It was like Brian not to show up for breakfast, but as far she was concerned, he definitely needed the fuel. With the exception of Cayde when he was gaming, Brian was the laziest member of their team. Sleeping in was a waste of a potentially productive day- Amelie had learned that a long time ago.
"Well, I guess he's not. said Amelie with a shrug. And then a mischievous grin as she said
"I know how to fix that quickly."Amelie had a history with mischief. When she had been a child, she had played no short amount of pranks on her sister. But unlike other mischievous children, she had learned the boundaries. Specifically, her father. She still had scars from what he had done to her. Not too many physical ones, but too many emotional. Her mood turned dark at this thought, but she shook it off.
Amelie headed out of the kitchen, going to her room. While in her room, she grabbed three of her favorite tools: a Sharpie, an airhorn, and a megaphone. The Sharpie was simply to amuse herself, and the the airhorn and the megaphone were for the express purpose of waking him from his slumber. Sleeping Beauty he would be no longer.
She creaked the door to Brian's room open, tiptoeing inside.
Brian heard footsteps down the halls. As one of his upgrades from vanilla humanity, he'd gained better senses, in exchange for his soul. He almost worked up the energy to sigh when he heard the footsteps stop in front of his door.
Please don't! Please don't!Unfortunately, he heard the sound of the knob turning. He could have locked the door, but the last time that had happened, the door had simply been blasted off its hinges. Of course, that demon of a fiscal officer had forced him to pay for the damages. She'd said something about building character and learning to be an upright young man. It was something along those general directions. Possibly with an inclusion of the words lazy and slug.
Alas, a slug shall never become a busy bee he wryly retorted in his head.
He cracked an eye open just a sliver as the door opened. As he'd surmised, it was Amelie, and she held implements of torture in her hands. He decided to close his eyes and play dead, while using his powers to press the earplugs in just a bit more securely in hopes of weathering this storm.
As Amelie drew closer to the sleeping Brian's form, she giggled softly. He was so peaceful sleeping there- but that wouldn't last for long.
Amelie leaned over him, Sharpie in hand. She smiled with mischief as she uncapped the pen, and barely contained her laughter as she drew a large mustache beneath his nose. And then a monocle over his right eye. Deciding she had enough of the drawing, she capped the Sharpie and inserted it back into her purple pocket.
Brian kept his breathing even and his expression smooth as he heard his tormentor's footsteps across his floor. With super hearing, he could even hear her footsteps as she crossed his rug. He suppressed the urge to sigh as she giggled. It wouldn't do to give up the game after all. If he was going to play dead, he was going to be thorough about it, and hope to god she'd suddenly feel merciful.
There was a small pop as he heard her uncap the sharpie. He listened intently, and once again engaged his poker face. He could pretend to roll over now, but well, he'd already done that last time. It wouldn't do to make her too suspicious, and at least sharpie washed off pretty well.
He managed to suppress his reaction as the sharp stench of sharpie assailed his nose. He was pretty sure they were named Sharpies due to the smell of chemicals they gave off. He wanted to wrinkle his nose, bat away the sharpie, do something or anything to ignore the smell, but holding his breath would also give it all away.
Another suppressed sigh as he kept his body relaxed. He'd been playing the part of a super deep sleeper in order to get the others to leave him alone when he'd slept. If he let something like this get a reaction, he'd ruin his efforts. Apparently he'd been rather convincing. Perhaps he could be an actor. Or perhaps they'd just given in to his stubbornness. After months, his teammates and other members of the Knight's Order had surrendered the battle and left him in peace, with one exception.
This exception had just finished drawing a monocle around his eye, and Brian carefully suppressed the reflexive twitching and blinking movements he normally would have made when something was near his eye.
Another pop as the sharpie was closed. Was he saved?
He listened intently hoping that Amelie would give in early.
The fun had only just begun, and Amelie had no intention giving up. Holding the airhorn and the megaphone, Amelie activated them both at the same time, creating a blaring noise.
"
HEY, GET UP, LAZY BONES!" Amelie screamed at the top of her lungs into the megaphone. The megaphone was positioned close to Brian, though not in any position where it would deafen him. Her goal was not to cripple him.
That would be bad.
As he was assaulted by the noise, Brian used his powers to ensure the earplugs blocked as much noise as possible.
He regretted his actions deeply. With his powers he'd sort of loosened the earplugs so that he could hear what Amelie was up to. He hadn't been prepared for the sudden blast of noise. He was mentally reeling from it, to be honest. He most definitely shouldn't have tried to listen closely and see if he could sense what she was doing.
I'd probably go deaf if I hadn't worn earplugs. Was the first thought on his mind. Right on its heels came:
Actually, those poor people who had night-shift, my room isn't soundproof!That decided him. For this one, he wouldn't suppress his reactions. He'd need to put an end to this before angry people from the night shift broke his doors and walls down in order to strangle him
and Amelie. Hell, even now he might not manage to escape from that demon of an admin. All it would take would be a few complaints from night shift and he might get dragged out by his collar to the training room by a pissed off office lady/knight.
She was one of the older knight members. She had managed to retire from front-line duty, and that was quite an impressive thing. She was also no-nonsense and a Hammer. She was a ridiculous brute, and she terrified him more than any other brute of a hammer other than the crazy, berserk ones.
He flipped over, shoved his head under a pillow, and used his power to begin a game of tug-of-war with Amelie. There was no way he was letting her keep the air horn or the megaphone.
His actions had also made it clear that the megaphone and the air horn had gotten a reaction. People didn't flip over and burrow into pillows and blankets when they were in deep sleep. Cartesians also normally couldn't use their powers when they were asleep either.
He'd managed to catch her by surprise, judging by how quickly he managed to retrieve her instruments of torture and suicidal death wishes. He quickly teleported them away to some bushes in Grand Central Park.
Powers, great for hiding the bodies.When her favorite toys were snatched out of her hands by force, Amelie scowled. Goddamnit. Brian would
never give them back, even if she begged and pleaded. But nevertheless, she had gotten him up. She grabbed his arm, pulling him off the bed with her practiced strength.
"
Now that you're up, you want some eggs? I made some potatoes, turkey bacon, and eggs. Vegetables, too. Keeps you fueled, y'know?" she said, this time softer. She shook his shoulder. The job of waking him up was completed, and all she needed to do was actually get him to the kitchen.
Oh, that and scare the living fuck out of him.
Using her illusion abilities, she made Brian see some things. In his room. Most noticeably a blood splatter on the wall, a rotting corpse, and a bloody knife embedded in the corpse. None of which were real, of course. If that stuff had been in his room when she walked in- well, he and the boss would need to have a chat. And it would not be a pleasant chat.
Brian heaved a sigh as she dragged him out from under his blankets. He was half tempted to just flop bonelessly to the floor, but that's what he did when he was supposedly "asleep." After all, they'd had hammers on the team. One of the things that had been tried earlier was simply dragging him out of bed by the ankle and leaving him on freezing cold the kitchen floor. Actually, there had even been times when they'd dumped him in the showers, and he'd simply refused to let even cold water rouse him.
No, he'd show no weaknesses. Well, other than the megaphone and the airhorn. The disturbances caused were a quick way to an early grave. Sleep-deprived normies were scary already. Sleep-deprived cranky Knights? Gah, no thanks, he still wanted to live.
He paid half a mind to Amelie's words. Luring him out with delicious food? Hah, no mere delicious food would move him! ...even if he
was tempted.
He finally relented enough to open his eyes.
He was greeted with the sight of a corpse on his floor.
"
That'll be a bitch to get out of the rug y'know. If you just wanted me to help you hide the body, you could have just said so. The airhorn and megaphone draw too much attention, Ames."
He yawned and stretched, secretly plucking out the earplugs with his power and hiding them in his blankets as he did.
He crouched down and eyed the body. There hadn't been a body less than five minutes ago, so he was pretty sure it was an illusion. Plus, there shouldn't have been enough time for rot to set in, if someone had been hacked apart in his room. He leaned in to get a better look at the face. It wasn't a face he recognized either.
"
Really Ames, it's not good form to kill random strangers and leave 'em bleeding out on the carpet."
He still made a try at removing the body, just in case it was real. He doubted it, though. If he'd really been asleep, maybe it would've done something, but he'd already taken a look around his room a few minutes ago.
Maybe if Amelie was a Cartesian, but nah.
He sleepily attempted to poke the corpse's cheek when it didn't get teleported away. Since his powers couldn't touch it, and it should have been well within the limits of his power, he was pretty sure it was an illusion.
His fingers passed through it. He blearily began batting his hand through the corpse and poking at fake blood on his carpet.
"
Your illusions are getting better."
Amelie smiled a bit at this. She always had liked it when people gave compliments to her, whether it was on her powers or her drawings, she had always appreciated praise. Sometimes, she sought approval like a starving wolf would a lamb.
"
Thanks! And I must say, your teleportation is getting better too! You teleported my horn and my megaphone away pretty fast. Even though I'm still mad about that." Amelie added. She would miss that megaphone and that airhorn, though. They had served her well in her pranking expeditures.
With a wave of her hand, the corpse and the blood and the knife disappeared into the air.
Brian tamped down on that bit of disappointment he felt when she didn't really react at his casual behavior with the illusion corpse. This is why newbies were so much more fun to prank. He wasn't exactly an old hand, he'd only been an active Knight for a year, but he was still experienced enough to keep calm, sort of, when faced with stuff like this. Unsurprisingly Amelie was too. Actually most of his group were no longer newbies.
"
Mhm, yeah, thanks. You do remember we've got some guys who were on night shift on this floor, right? And also there are still people upstairs and downstairs who may have been on night shift right? I figured it was better to go hide the evidence before we got murdered by cranky knights."
Brian yawned again.
"
Now, if you'll excuse me-" he started as he began to crawl back into bed.
Amelie face-palmed. "
Of course. I always forget that kind of stuff, Brian. You know me, so forgetful and all." she said with a groan. She'd always remember that one time her door was shrunk by an angry Croscope and she had almost been killed by an enlarged nightstand. Not fun times.
When Brian attempted to get back into his bed, she grabbed his foot. "
Uh uh, mister. You're coming with me." she says as she begins to drag him by the foot out of the room.
Brian clutched at his blankets, but ultimately let go before he dragged them off the bed. He didn't feel like helping everyone clean the hallway floors with his blankets. He heaved a sigh as he let himself be dragged out the door. He made a half-hearted attempt to clutch at the door frames, but after a few tugs he let go of the door frame and just relaxed while Amelie did the hard work of getting him to the kitchen.
It was a good thing the floors were wooden or tiled and all floors were cleaned daily. After all, carpet-burn sucked, and there was a limit to how much dirt Brian was willing to be dragged through. Fortunately, he also had the habit of sleeping in old and worn clothes, so he didn't mind it nearly as much as he could have. He closed his eyes for a bit and waited until he felt the bump of the floor transition strip and felt tile beneath him. Apparently they had arrived at the kitchen.
When Amelie got into the kitchen, she let go of Brian's foot, dropping him to the ground.
Look who I got up! Amelie yelled at the her other teammates. She pointed at Brian, who was currently seated on the floor. She hadn't meant to drop him when she had put her hands on her hips- but, oh well.
It was a good wake-up call for him anyways.
Noticing the hungry faces surrounding her, Amelie began to serve some food. She placed each type of food on the table, including the six pieces of toast. She also set a pot of hot coffee on the table, as well as some creamer.
And then she noticed Connor, already having his drink of choice. Which was alcohol. At 8:00 in the morning. Not a good choice, considering that their line of work required sensibility- something that a drunk man could not achieve. Her face immediately turned from a smile to a scowl.
"
Hey, Connor!" she shouted across the room, clearly a bit irked.
Mind putting down the alcohol? You're not doing yourself any favors by drinking at 8:00 in the morning. Have some coffee instead. Coffee's good."
Brian sighed as he lay on the ground. The floor was cold, but he still kinda wanted to stay down. He daydreamed about curling up in the corner and just falling asleep where he sat, as Amelie began serving the food. She'd had to step over him a few times before he finally motivated himself to haul himself to his feet.
He blinked sleepily at the food on the table and shambled on over. He dragged a chair out and heaved himself into a seat. He promptly lay his arms down on the table and rested his head. He was pretty sure his current position gave everyone a pretty clear view of the sharpie all over his face.
He closed his eyes and activated his farseeing to observe the happenings at the table. Admittedly, he really was still exhausted, but this was a great way to practice his mediocre farseeing and also see how people reacted to his new style.
glowing on his hand. "Temporean huh... It already seemed like I had plenty of time before... Yet it's already been a month and I still haven't fully figured it out."