Touko's Service Threads [Will Be Used For SQs From Service]

It just seemed very dull today, just scanning and signing through the paperwork. Today's bulk order of fliers had been issued the night before and god only knows how she was able to get that done in a single evening. But it wouldn't take much to realize that her copier-printing machine played a significant role. As usual, she allowed her lips to sip from the mug while idly signing off the last of the paperwork for this hour.

Shop Rank: 4
SQ Gained: +2 Intelligence

Bored.

She was uninterested and weary. There was absolutely nothing stimulating in this empty office. One could only keep reading and signing papers a couple of hours straight before flipping the table over out of annoyance. There hasn't been anything of interest for a long while.

Honestly.


Tinkering with these flesh-like appendages were the only thing that kept any modicum amount of sanity. The art of puppetry had been an old art that Touko immersed herself in thoroughly. The sinews and nerves of the dismembered part twitched as she slid the stylus across the grains. A green light continued to ebb and dim in a slow gradual rhythm. The static electric chip poked out of the skin as she re-calibrated each nerve and muscular tissue together.

"Jeez, what the hell," she muttered nonplussed at the odd coding on the laptop screen hooked up to the computer chip through the thin cables transmitting and conveying each electric impulse. There had been a continuous pain in the ass. Each time she continued to re-calibrate the arm for the simple act of grasping, all it did was to give a simulated response of flipping the bird instead. Normally she would be amused, but after two hours of this, it became an overused joke.

The redhead swept back a hair and simply dropped the stylus and everything else back onto the table. The need to give up and glare at the arm was strong. "What the hell am I going to do with you...?"

Shop Rank: 4
SQ Gained: +2 Intelligence

The paperwork was endless as usual. Finding herself in surrounded in stacks of documents, the Velvet Attendant would find to her ire that this was increasingly becoming a normative part of her life. But what is a girl to do when her very livelihood relies on mundane shit like this? The growing lack of customers for her other job was becoming disconcerting, with the old crumbling relics beginning to gather dust. The dwindling funds were also an object of concern...

Shop Rank: 4
SQ Gained: +2 Intelligence

"Well, well, well...
I didn't think you'd be able to follow me here, ▅▅▅▅▅.
Color me impressed."


"My, live a little, won't you?
You'll grow wrinkles in no time."

She ignored the stiff frown. It was the same old thing that happened almost ritualistically every time they met. Touko coolly nibbled on the filter as she hissed a stream of smoke through the gaps of her teeth. It was a wonder how this individual was able to track her down. The Velvet Attendant was so sure that no one from her world would find her. But here ▅ is. It couldn't be an easy journey, but if it was the likes of ▅, then it was possible.

"Did you really come all the way here for that?" she wondered out loud. The maroon hues studied ▅ expression and ▅ body gestures. Currently ▅ had a hand on ▅ hip with an air of command and impatience. They were marks of someone used to obedience and competence. But the answer she got was a focused glare in which the Attendant grew a deeper Cheshire smile. "So. How many of you know where I am?"

It made her wonder if the rest of the ▅▅▅ knew her current location. It would be safe to assume a number of them did if ▅▅▅▅▅ was here. What a troublesome prospect, she left that place for several reasons after that colossal failure. To think that they could all come over here allowed her to experience a spasm of excitement and dread over her spine.

The individual shifted ▅ weight to ▅ other foot "You're looking at the only one."

Touko's face fell. She looked crestfallen at the news. Demons and the Persona Users, they were wonderful factors that could change the facet of human history and their fate. But if they came here, would that conflict continue here too? What an utter shame, perhaps she'll never know. Knowing ▅, her location would be kept secret.


"Wrapped tight in a Tetramorph seal. It's for nobody to see."


"Say please."

A flash of metal whistled through the air and soon a polished blade was aimed at her neck. Touko looked unconcerned as the razor edge was almost a millimeter away from her carotid artery. All it took was a single nick and the entire desk would be drenched not only in red, but the entirety of her life. She began to flick the cigarette into ash tray where it belonged, still looking composed as she looked into ▅ eyes. It didn't take much of a moment for her to understand something here.

"You're desperate," she finally remarked as she could see the fingers on the blade tighten at her comment, "That's new. What happened back at home?"

▅ spoke.

The news was something that Touko didn't expect. But she finally began to laugh at it. How ridiculous, to think this situation has gotten this bad. But it was only a part of the process that several participants had agreed to acknowledge. Except for one, it seems.

"If you still insist, then come back tomorrow. I'll have it ready for you. Your thousand-times folded steel can leave my neck now."

▅ silently removed the blade from her neck and sheathed it. She seemed displeased, but was ultimately satisfied at the outcome. "When can I come back in?"

"I'll call you. Same number, right?"

▅ nodded and said, "I'll be back for it."

Without so much of a goodbye, the door slammed shut as ▅ left. Touko sighed as her visitor was finally gone with the receding sound of footsteps from the stairs. What a day, to have an old 'friend' to come visit her. The Velvet Attendant knew she actually wanted something 'stimulating', but this wasn't exactly what she had in mind...

Not that she would complain.

Shop Rank: 4
SQ Gained: +2 Intelligence

With her guest's recent appearance, Touko never thought the events of the past could reach her here, in this new world of Psyche Terrorists, Cadets, and Demons. But then again, when it comes to the supernatural, theoretically anything can be possible. But not just that, it also spoke a lot about what the human will was capable of if given the opportunity and resources. Yet it was that lack of both that made it even more impressive.  

The door creaked when she pushed it open. It was dark, but not for long as she flipped the switch on. Her solitary footsteps filled the space. It was a basement, unlike most it was remarkably spacious as if it was a place made for work both academic and non-academic. There were a number of shelves full of dusty paraphernalia. An ouijia board there nestled near the number of archaic tomes filled with knowledge dating back a few centuries ago. A row of mannequins posed statically on their stands, frozen in a garden variety of postures. Each of them were missing a limb or two, creating an increasingly odd foliage of wax figures.


From one of the shelves, she drew out a small box. It was arrayed with Biblical figures on its surface. But most conspicuous of the designs was a symbol of the Four Evangelists. Interestingly enough it was a Church practice, but it was an increasingly effective Seal. There was a reason why the Church had such permanence as an organization that hunted down Demons. The Attendant began pressing on a switch, causing a click and clack of mechanisms that began to turn and move with life. The designs began to spin clockwise... then counter-clockwise before beginning to fall off the box and land with a thump on the wooden oak desk.

She could begin to feel a miasma beginning to coalesce inside the sealed contents. As far as the redhead was concerned, it couldn't escape as long as the lid wasn't raised. The rest of the designs were just a means to keep outsiders from accessing the box's insides and to help facilitate the setting of the primary seal, the tetramorph.

"Sheesh, even after all this time," Touko muttered to herself in amazement, "It's still active."

She grasped the stylus that was once used for the chip in the dismembered arm from yesterday. A red glow began to emanate at the tip before Touko pressed it on the Seal...

Shop Rank: 4
SQ Gained: +2 Intelligence

"I'm home, I'm back. Home sweet home," Touko murmured to herself in a sigh as the door broke open with a twist of her key.

Breakfast was hearty and nice with Gabriel's presence. It was interesting that she was getting to meet him far more often these days. Usually most of her Guests were too busy in her previous period of tenure, but things obviously were different this time around. Fate did work in very strange ways, all wonderful, inane, and horrendous. Kicking her shoes off, her freed feet glided across the wooden floor as they brought her tumbling back onto the couch. A cascade of loose documents floated off the nearby table as she made impact. A displeased grunt soured her features as she bothered to pick them back up.

But oddly enough... there was a personal check, all written up with a signature and amount. Reading the name on the sliver caused the tips of her lips to point up in a grin as she shook her head before setting it aside near her boring stack of documentation.


Dealing with it was a thing to be done later. But things were so boring as usual, not even the tiresome glance at the morning news did much to stimulate her interests. In fact, she just laid there in the couch staring at the ceiling. In the midst of her travels, so much has happened and caught her attention as an observer. But right now, it was that boring period of waiting to see what happened.

"Well those papers aren't going to sign themselves, I suppose," she glared at the stack from the comfy cushioning of her couch.

It was so tempting to just forget about work and simply lie there like an useless piece of fodder. But tonight's events for her were going to be quite bothersome, so she thought better about it and began to get back on her feet.

Shop Rank: 4
SQ Gained: +2 Intelligence

There was a kind of excitement and dread racing through her veins as she readied the operating table. This evening promised a bloodbath of a huge, yet nostalgic scale. The odor of bitter antiseptic tickled her nostrils when she wheeled in all the necessary electronic equipment standing at her hip level. She looked at the place with satisfaction, everything was in place. Now the Attendant needed to wait for the star of the show to finally make ▅ appearance.

She glanced at the mahogany-like skin of the chest near the table. It had a odd lock keeping it shut, but more strangely it was shaking. It took all of last night for Touko to move that thing into a new container, to drain and weaken it enough to safely use for this procedure.

Even so, there was no guarantee of safety for her client. If anything, getting out of it alive and without losing visual acuity in the process was a miracle in itself. A curl of an amused smile began to grow on her face.


Shop Rank: 4
SQ Gained: +2 Intelligence

It reeked of copper and iron.

Scarlet streaked against the walls, it was as if it was straight out of your usual horror flick. The stainless steel apparatuses and implements that the Attendant used for this procedure have all been drenched in red. The mahogany wood chest had been shattered into splinters with each piece spread across the edge of the room, as if it were flung there by some violent urge. Touko sat near it, sitting there as the smoke trailed from her cigarette.

It had been done. Her client was still unconscious, consumed by the dreams that plagued everyone. She watched ▅▅ peaceful slumbering face, observing every inch of it. Just a couple of hours ago, it was contorted in some kind of indescribable agony as if thrusting a white hot iron rod through the spine. All that morphine and other related anesthetics hooked into the body had long been doing its work.

There was still that residual aura from that thing Touko implanted, but it was finally beginning to die down and become dormant. The white eyepatch that covered ▅▅▅'s eye had become a tight seal, a brace to keep it from consuming the client. She was almost tempted to charge extra for that procedure. One little mishap, there would be no client to speak of. Or hell, no Touko Aono or the Reflective Grotto. It had been immensely risky to do so, but in its own way, it kept things interesting enough to forgive it. Almost, if it weren't for the tiresome blood splattered all over the walls.

Touko was about to rise from the ground and wander off as she waited. But hearing the Sleeping Beauty beginning to wake caught her attention. She could see the remaining eye beginning to open, clearly groggy from all the painkillers in the system and from just beginning to awaken..


The purple hue of ▅▅ eye was unfocused, but was beginning to attain what it lacked. It would soon notice the looming redheaded figure and the soft index finger on ▅▅ lips. It kept the invalid from speaking and it only became a cause for ▅▅▅'s ire towards the surgeon.

"Ssh... Don't worry about it, poppet. Just lie there and sleep it off. We can talk about it later," Touko crooned at ▅▅. Unlike every other expression she ever made in life, the Attendant appeared a tad bit motherly, if only for a sparse moment.

▅▅▅ made a soft frown, not wanting to obey. But the client decided otherwise from protesting as the eyelid began to close shut. It had been a dangerous and taxing evening. There was always tomorrow, and there was always sleep to re-experience those vivid nightmares. Touko drew herself away from the operating table, again watching the motionless body to continue to slumber.

There was a lack of any other rooms to move ▅▅▅ and it was unwise to move ▅▅, but the operating room would have to do. As she began to reach for the light switch near the exit, she gave one last look at ▅▅ before giving the reins to the dark.


But, of course. She would have to come back soon to clean up.

Shop Rank: 4
SQ Gained: +2 Intelligence