Verge's Story

“Alright, Verge. Go on and do your thing, and be careful around the twins, alright? You know how they get…” Blake patted his son’s shoulder, then gently pushed him towards the doors.

“I’ll be fine, dad” Verge spun around, smirking as usual, and met Blake’s eyes directly. “You know the twins like me as much as they like anyone. They aren’t so bad when you’re a deception mirror anyway.” He waved his hand flippantly, very clearly not concerned.

“Say what you will.” Blake smiled back at the boy, “you know I’m uneasy around them.” Well, “them” actually being “him”, meaning Gale, whose catlike Summon had once tried to eat Blake’s own. Now, the part of him bound to the summon expected such behaviour from the much younger boy ever time. It wasn’t quite fear, exactly. It was just an instinctive distrust.
“Yeah dad, Kay, bye.” Verge disappeared through the doors while Blake, shaking his heading, walked to his office for yet another boring day.

Verge, meanwhile, found the arena empty except for an unconscious man, no twins in sight. Used to such tricks, he called up his own Summon, which leapt out in a battle stance, then turned around and shrugged, of all things, before vanishing. Not here then… What a bother

Calling someone to take care the guy and already composing excuses, the young man began to wander around the base, searching for the children he was supposed to be working with that morning. He hadn’t expected to find them in the cafeteria – he had just ducked in to grab a snack – but there they were, munching away.

“Gale! Olive!” he called out. “Would you, by any chance,” and that chance was very very high, “know why, the trainee WE” he emphasized the word, indicating the three of them, “were supposed to work with was unconscious in the training arena where we,” again with the emphasis, though the gesture was absent this time, “were supposed to meet? And yet you are here. I wonder why?” His eyes, steady on them, said that he wasn’t actually wondering and actually quite openly accused them.

It was clear from their progress in their meals that the twins had been there for a while. Olive had drowned her toast- and bacon, for that matter- in copious amounts of raspberry jelly, and was happily scooping the mess into her mouth through use of a plastic spoon. Her brother, on the other hand, had gone a more reasonable route and was eating in a fairly normal manner, occasionally pausing to wash it down with a drink.

Both stilled upon noticing their coworker, with Olive’s current spoonful of mush plopping humorously back onto the plate.

“Why, yes, we do, Verge,” Gale answered soon enough, smiling as he prodded at a strip of bacon. “You see, we were simply just too excited to wait for you to catch up with us, so we decided to head in early.”

“Our games ended up running out of battery after a bit, though.” Olive chimed in. “We can show you, if you want.”

“So, we decided to try and start early. Get a head start before you arrived, so there would be less work to do.”

“But then he just wouldn’t work with us. He kept on complaining, and saying that it was impossible. He thought that he didn’t belong with us, and it was all a misunderstanding.”

“So we gave him…a bit of encouragement.”

Both paused. Olive took a moment to sip at her orange juice, wiping her lips clean soon after, and Gale bit through his lollipop with an audible crunch.

“It worked, though,” the younger of the two beamed once she had finished. “He had a real big one, too. Really large arms for a Pacifist’s summon- they were sort of ‘round…” Olive stretched out her own arms as wide as they could go, then looped them somewhat. “this big?” She then lowered one of her hands, using the other to take a hold of her spoon again. “Right, Gale?”

“I would say that’s about right,” he admitted, then turned back towards Verge with a smile. “At any rate, the objective was taken care of. You don’t have to worry about anything; we even filled out the paperwork for you, too.”

With that, both went back to nursing their plates, each with a sweet little look upon their faces.

“It worked.” Verge said dully, before dropping into one of the seats. “It worked just this once and now he’ll probably never summon again due to the contrived circumstances you created. Is this correct?” he said, managing to convey the impression of shouting without raising his voice above normal speaking volume. His eyes expressed his disappointment with the twins.

“You know I’m there to talk them into being chill with it even after you two scare the shit out of them by demonstrating what Tommy and Matty actually look like. In fact, I’m there to act as an impromptu combat instructor in the same context. Because I,” he paused, tapping Gale and then Olive on the forehead. “Have this thing called ‘tact’ which you two like to pretend you don’t have even though I’ve seen you demonstrate time and time again that…you know what, who cares? You did the paperwork? Great. What’s for breakfast?” Gale was nearly done and Olivia’s mess was not appetizing to the young man. Without waiting for an answer, Verge then got up to get himself a tray.

“Anyway, the point is…” he continued, sitting back down. “Next time they say wait for me, wait for me. Or wake me up, I’m sure you could hold of my Summon for a few moments if you work together…” his tone was teasing and challenging, pushing the two prodigies in his type of Mirrored towards greater effort. “Remind me to tell your tutors to begin self-denial type training, kay?” he doubted they would actually remind him, but he had faith in his own memory. “You want to master all types of manipulative behaviour, it’ll increase your illusionary range.”

That would motivate them, if anything.

The twins closely resembled a pair of schoolchildren scolded by a particularly favored teacher. Gale had put up his best “what did I do” look, brown eyes wide, lip jutted out slightly in a pout as he listened to Verge’s lecture. The picture of one who did something out of pure accident, and was now brooding over the unfairness of his treatment.

Olive, on the other hand, reflected more remorse than not. She had turned her eyes back to her pile of mush, seemingly fascinated by repeatedly scooping it up and letting it fall back onto the plate. Nevertheless, as Verge returned, wrapping up his chiding, both siblings looked up to meet their mentor’s eyes with “shame”.

“It won’t happen again, Verge,” Gale said softly, hands folded upon the tabletop.

“We’ll get you first next time. Promise,” Olive added, giving a slight nod of agreement.

Of course, to any who knew the twins well enough, it was obvious that they were lying through their teeth, and it would most likely be a reoccurring event for as far as they could push it. Even more obvious was the fact that they weren’t actually apologizing for what they had done; just that they had gotten in trouble.

It was just a bit of harmless mischief, really. Harmless, childish mischief.

Nevertheless, the two soon perked up with interest at the challenge presented before them. For their age and behavior at times, it was clear that they were eager to climb the ranks as soon as possible. A higher rank brought with it more perks, and more perks allowed for more freedom. Less trouble, and more...well, fun for them.

“We’ll tell them at our next session,” both swore.

And that was an actual promise. Truly.

They really are skilled at looking innocent Verge thought, smirking at his younger coworkers to let them know that puppy dog eyes weren't going to work on him. He could tell they were lying as well, but let it slide, only calmly saying "See that you do," with a dismissive hand wave.

If they thought for a second they had fooled him he'd be seriously insulted at their lack of faith in his intelligence.
He didn't bother nagging them, though, as he himself was more scolding them because he was going to get in trouble for their misbehavior as well. He did feel bad for the poor pacifist summoner, but honestly: why had Gale and Olive been assigned to him in the first place? The only explanation was that the Adherents wanted to warp this Summon into something other...in which case, if anything, Gale and Olive had only sped up the process.

With that thought in his head, he paused and rested his head on his interlocked fingers. Had they been having fun or had the twins foreseen this? He'd ask but the knowledge of the deliberate warping wasn't supposed to be discussed aloud. But even if they'd unpredictably been following implied orders, they reacted more than predictably to his challenge AND hints at higher rank, and he chuckled, blinking slowly as he straightened.

"Remember," he said lowly. "Sometimes, a manipulator cannot indulge if they want the end result. Self control is one of the most important factors. Self control will let you project an aura to those who see you, simply with body language and mannerisms, and that transfers onto your Summon. The more people that 'see' what you want them to think of you as a person, the further your Summon can project an illusion, understand?"

He waved again with a graceful hand, and rolled his head to relieve stress in his neck. Double purposed, he also used it to scan the room with narrowed golden eyes, picking out both the brewing fight with one of the returning mission-goers and the girl with the Mirror of Hope looking at them from nearby.

He sat straight again, made eye contact with each twin by turn and then swept his eyes side to side.

Look around those actions meant.

He hoped that the Spiders remembered.

The children of Eden gave no indication as to whether or not their tormenting of the poor trainee had been for a deliberate purpose, instead of just a childish prank for their own amusement. They had, at any rate, dropped the apologetic looks entirely, replacing them with their signature smiles of complete innocence as they finished off their meals.

It didn’t take long for them to pick up on the signal, luckily. Picking at the leftover crumbs on his plate, Gale glanced over at the piles of food remaining from lunch- and, in the process, getting a glance at one of the two Verge had been looking at himself.

Theta. Another of the born-and-raised Adherents.

Mentally, he sneered at the girl, although his disdain was well hidden.

“You don’t think they’ll turn us away if we went up for seconds, do you?” Gale began, voice bright as he eyed the options available at the front. “They didn’t give us much to eat, after all, and I’m still quite hungry.”

“I think they will.” Olive had opted to rest her head on her arms, hair hiding her face like a curtain- and allowing her to watch the other, Ivyrene (speaking of self-control…), in the process. “That old witch up front never gives us enough food. We could just go to the vending machines to get some snacks, though.”

“Oh, so now you want to go get something from the vending machines?” Gale teased.

“Yes, now, because I don’t like eating only trail mixes and Doritos every day. We had something else, so I don’t mind getting a snack now-”

“Well, won’t it just be the same thing? I don’t see much difference-”

In spite of the pair’s apparent argument, their voices were surprisingly calm for those their age. It was almost humorous, really, although it served a clear purpose if one was aware of how, exactly, the twins worked. They had lifted their heads, turning to face one another, and as they spoke, their eyes reflected a different conversation from the one that they were currently having.

An exchange between siblings. Mute, hidden beneath years of careful practice, but an exchange nonetheless.

"...Maybe It would be better if I was to just watch them for a bit?" Theta mumbled. She turned a looked towards the long line of people waiting for food. Her hair began to slide onto her face concealing it. She fell deeper into the slump of wonder. You could see that she was in thought. It was written all over her face.

Theta, picked up fer fork once again and resumed eating her bibimbap. She was careful to look as if she was not stuffing her face all at once and not looking like a slob when eating. Though she tried to keep her face held down and focused on what the day brought ahead, her eyes could not help but wander up and glance around at the empty table around her. In her line of view was the twins, who seemed to be acting differently than before. She kept close watch of them and forgot about her surrounding when suddenly her hand pushed too hard against the side of the bowl and made the bowl of hot rice and namul fall onto her lap.

She quickly got up from her seat and moved back. She did this quietly and tried not to catch anyone's attention. How embarrassing would it be to have your breakfast fall all over you? In a hurry she cleaned up and threw the rest of her food away in the garbage next to the vending machines. She stood there in panic as she tried to clear the stain from her shirt.

Verge broke into the twins’ secret exchange with the prompt, “Go on and get more food. Remind them who you are. And how angry higher ups will be if you are found to be not up to par on your physicals. Although that ‘old witch’ happens to be a powerful Mirror of Clarity, who was badly injured in the field. Give her a break because she can see right through you.” He teased.

Motion in the corner of his eye turned his head, and he watched dispassionately as Theta’s food fell over her. ‘Well, I’ll be right back.” He announced casually, standing up and heading over towards the girl. As he walked, he shrugged off his zip up hoodie, revealing a much neater and formal white shirt beneath. “You might appreciate this.” He said kindly, offering the girl the black cloth with a twinkle in his eyes. “At least until you get out of those clothes. You’re Theta, aren’t you?”

Theta smiled, but her face was still bright red from embarrassment. "Thanks". She said meekly as she took the clothing. "And yes." She looked up at him, she knew she has seen him around before and she knew his name, but at this moment as she was drowning in in embarrassment from someone noticing the food incident, she completely blanked. It started with a V and she knew that. Victor? Vincent? Vladimir? Verge?

For a few seconds she was standing there, still covered in bibimbap, trying to figure out his name. "Ow" she whimpered. She pulled at her burned shirt. A large red burn wound sat under her shirt right where the bibimbap hit her. She tried not to let him notice that it began to hurt her. She kept a straight face through the entire conversation. She put on the hoodie and did a slight bow. "gamsahamnida" she said quietly as she continued to look at Verge, still trying to remember his name.

"Verge!"

Someone swung through the doors as some speed, bare feet skidding on the linoleum as the small figure attempted to redress some kind of balance in order to stop upon catching sight of one of her intended targets. She overshot by a good few feet and had to scramble back level with the vending machines, and stood there, shuffling restlessly from foot to foot.

Standing at five foot two, hair messy and askew, rainbow-coloured woolen sweater with some poorly rendered cat design on the front reaching almost to her knees, where it was taken over by a skirt that went down to her mid-calves, showing that the girl had, once again, forsaken shoes in favour of apparently expediency.

Helena Norrevinter. The Rabbit. Named both for her summoned counterpart, and the ongoing joke about how far down the rabbithole she'd gone. Of the many people who might rush through the door in such a way, Helena was probably one of the least unusual ones.

"Verge..have you got a sharpie or something like that? I need one...like...right now. Turquiose sort of colour would be best, but I can work with whatever."

It was in part she was asking because she believed Verge might be amenable to helping her out.
It was also in part that she felt he might be one of the few people who'd not yet caught on to rebuff her requests for permanent markers as she was not sure if he knew about the confiscation order.

She was, however, pretty sure he'd been present during....that week. The week that had seen the confiscation order passed in the first place. Still... maybe most people had forgotten about it by now.

“Ah, Helena! Good to see you!” Verge smiled brightly at the other young lady before giving Theta a concerned frown. “You should probably get that to the infirmary, if it burns.” He assumed, as most of the cafeteria food was hot (though not hot and she’d made that little pained noise so perhaps she was hurt. He even managed to look concerned, then turned his attention back to the Rabbit.

“And what are you planning now?” his smile was intended to be dazzling. Oh, he was well aware of the confiscation order, as his part in that week was why he still didn’t have one of the fancy titles the other Adherents sported. And as revenge, he kept on helping Helena out. Maybe he even believed that the girl had a strange sort of genius to her. After all, that week had exposed a few structural insecurities, if in a rather unorthodox way. Not that they gave her credit. “And sorry, but I don’t keep sharpies on me in the morning. I have a few in my room, though, but I think they’re all black.”

Theta nodded. She looked at Helena. "I have a sharpie if you need it that badly." She said. She reached for her bag which she placed beside the garbage can. That had bibimbap stain on it too, but it wasn't as noticeable as it blended in with the pattern. She stuck her hand inside and grabbed something. "Here" she answered as she held out a bright red colored pencil case. "There should be plenty in there."

Theta's hand kept still over the burn spot. It made it feel a bit better with some sort of pressure on it. "I should get going." She said to Verge and Helena. "Thank you" she did a slight bowed to Verge again. She sighed and began to walk to the infirmary.

Seeing that Verge had gone to occupy himself with Theta, the twins had quietly gone back to their wordless conversation, rising from their seats and going to retrieve seconds from the front as they did so. They chose to take their time in picking out what they wanted (surprisingly, the server had allowed them to get more without much of a problem, merely grumbling her displeasure and ushering them along the line), but not once did their attention leave their mentor and his new company.

Gale was amused.

Olive was impressed.

In spite of the fact that, in reality, Theta had been there for longer than they, it didn’t seem to show. Acting as clumsy and awkward as if she were a newcomer, visibly fumbling, and-

Their trains of thought were cut short at the sudden appearance of Helena, and, in spite of themselves, both brightened in their own ways. Olive visibly perked up, beaming at the older and waving with no lack of enthusiasm, while Gale only gave his own little wave and slight smile. They quite liked Helena; for a Mirror of Spite wielder, she was quite the fun to have around. That week, in fact, had given them the most entertainment they had had in awhile…

Of course, if questioned, they would firmly deny any form of involvement in that week. The occurrence of the literal rat race that had occurred was no fault of theirs, and there was no proof serving that it was. Placing their now-filled trays upon their table, the twins moved to join the older girl and Verge- after all, if there were markers, then there was a chance of another week like that one happening once again.

Only, upon joining the pair (well, trio if you counted Theta), they immediately fell silent, hands clasped in polite silence as they watched a certain someone walk into the canteen.

Mr. Pelacour. The Pierrot. Percival. The Mockingbird.

One of more higher-up Adherents.

“I’m going on a limb and guessing that you were on a mission during that week, as well as the following announcements on Ms. Helena’s restrictions.” The Hope summoner was quite fresh-faced for his position, appearing nothing like the balding, suited men one would expect to be in his place. Bright orange hair combed with care, but not entirely tamed- several locks had fallen out of place, curling upwards and bobbing with each step-, a wrinkled shirt and pants to go with them, and a deck of cards sticking haphazardly out of his pocket. Nevertheless, Percival held himself with clear authority beneath his relaxed appearance, and it was with a certain sureness that he reached forward, gripping the pencil case before Helena could.

“Just so you know, sharpies are forbidden to our Rabbit, as well as blue, green, and yellow feathers, walnuts, and html code written on paper. Anyway,” without much of a warning, the man flashed a bright grin, “sorry for interrupting, everyone. Carry on, have a nice day, sayonara; what have you.”

Before he turned to leave, however, he added, “Oh, and speaking of meetings, there will be one coming up today. Hope none of you did anything worth complaining about recently~!”

The last part, as expected of Percival, was said in an almost sing-song voice as he finished the turn, beginning to walk away with hands folded behind his back.

“Oh, Mr. Pelacour, sir!” Verge’s voice had gone much higher pitched, and he managed to affect a rather impressive sparkle in his eyes as soon as he registered the presence of the higher up. “I saw those papers you sent to my father, they were simply brilliant“ he simpered, clasping his hands before himself earnestly, leaning in closer. “And of course I haven’t done anything worth complaining about, sir... Although, maybe we could bring up my lack of a title, again, if you please?” with the last sentence, his voice went back to normal range and he stopped the overly dramatic flirtation.

It was a strange habit that had formed out of nowhere one day, and no one quite knew what Verge was hoping to accomplish. Hell, some people wondered if he actually harboured affections for the elder man, while others thought he was trying a more unorthodox way of worming up the ranks. The only one who could know the truth was Verge, and he wasn't exactly prone to telling the truth, so a secret it remained.

Taken back by the sudden appearance of Mr. Pelacour, Theta stopped, walked back, and looked in confusion at the group. She began to bite her tounge in hopes it might spark a memory. "Oh, ...that week?" She said quietly. Her voice changed pitch just a bit. "I was...umm...out during that week." She looked at Helena and then down to her pencil case in Mr. Pelacour's hand. "Just...umm... so I'm on the same page with everyone here,... what exactly happened that week?" She asked almost innocently. Was it her fault that she was on a mission the week in question? Are those little details that important? Isn't there a way to forgive and forget? Helena couldn't possibly do anything too terrible right? She looked around waiting for an answer with her arms folded tightly around the burn spot she acquired, making sure Mr. Pelacour did not notice.

She looked at the twins and at Verge, hoping she didn't look like a complete fool out in front of them. She could feel a strange stare from the twins as if they disapproved of her awkward and timid behavior. "Anyoung hee gaseyo" She said quietly as she slightly bowed her head at Mr. Pelacour signaling a goodbye.

A flicker of disappointment crossed the young woman's features as the marker pen was snatched away from her grasp by an individual too high-ranked to conceivably argue with.

Helena accepted the sharpie-related sanctions quite grudgingly. Frankly she didn't think it was really necessary. What were the chances of...that week happening again?

Still, as it came from the top she did feel the need to make, at least, a cursory attempt to try and uphold the measures that had been set down at the end of the week. Once all the seagulls had been shooed out.

"No-one's allowed to talk about the specific events of That Week." she explained after a few moments, smiling.
"In case anyone tries to recreate it, or in case it reminds me exactly how I managed to do the thing with the boat..."

Helena paused for a moment.
"Uh I've probably said too much."

With access to the marker pen barred to her, The Rabbit pulled a tattered looking notebook from her pockets and began flipping through the dog-eared pages, apparently looking for some kind of alternative to the item.
"I haven't done anything. Not recently. Not recently that anyone knows about. Nope."

“Flattery doesn’t suit you, Verge,” Percival drawled, making a complete 180 in order to face his employees. “If you’re that desperate to get a proper title, however perhaps you should take up a few extra trainees here and there? A little more work could get you far.” Without waiting to assess the other’s reaction, he stepped forth, smiling charmingly at both Helena and Theta alike.

“As our Rabbit helpfully explained, the events of That Week are very much classified. While I would love for you to be aware of what the consequences would be if such things were allowed to happen again, I’m sure that you know better than to do such a thing.” This, of course, was said with an ear-to-ear grin- a warning in its own right. Bringing his gaze back onto the subject of trouble, he smiled even wider, eyes flashing brightly.

“I’m sure you haven’t, miss Norrevinter. In fact, I can say for sure that all of you have done decently well in terms of following the rules; at least, if you haven’t, there are no official reports filed against you.”

“Mr. Pelacour?” Having been silent for a majority of the higher up’s speech, Olive suddenly spoke up, brown eyes wide and filled with what appeared to be innocence. “Um, sorry, but when can me and Gale go out on field missions again? I mean, we like it here n’ all, but it’s a little boring sometimes.”


It was clear from the light smirk upon Percival’s face that he was not falling for this new act, as well. “Well, after your last stunt, we’ve had to take some time to clean things up, but you two should be just about ready to be pulled off of probation. I’m sure you learned your lesson by now, right?” To this, Olive gave a hearty nod, beaming brightly at the older figure and giving her skirt a swirl.

Gale had been content to let his sister speak for him, by the looks of it. While the other Eden vyed for Percival’s attentions, he had been using the opportunity to give his own smirk- eerily mature in its own right- at Theta. With any luck, she would assist Helena in spite of the circumstances; the base was long overdue for some excitement, after all.