Unwanted Interruptions (Nadia/James)

This was the Velvet Room. A place between dreams and reality, mind and matter. A place beyond the confines of the usual laws of reality that changed and shifted time after time.
What any prospective visitor would have seen in this section of that space was somewhat unexpected compared to the rest of it, however.

In this place of velvet blue, strange contraptions littered the area, arcane and indecipherable in nature. Papers and tomes filled the area, alongside numerous reagents all laboriously labelled and arranged on racks and shelves. A combination of equipment both scientific and occult were set up at several stations across the room, and if you looked closely at the ground, you might notice a great many sigils etched into it that formed part of a grand circle.
If you looked less closely at the ground, you would also see the sofa on top of the circle, and perhaps look up to see the rather disgruntled man sat atop it with popcorn in hand, a television before him paused in the playback of some sort of action film as he glared at the new arrival to his private sanctum.

When Nadia's eyes opened, she was standing in a place all shrouded in blue. It was scattered with all manner of strange, occult, and arcane objects. It was dark and lovely in every way Nadia liked. It was probably a dream, and not the first that Nadia would have had that dealt with the morbid aspects of her fascination. She said nothing as she appeared in the space, no loud outcry, no questions, just began carefully looking and admiring the different aspects of the room without making any sort of fuss. It was a few minutes before she noticed she noticed the person sitting on the velvet sofa noticed her, and she turned his attention to him, partially.

"Hello." She greeted in a passive wave, still half-admiring some skull or other resting quietly on a table between some beakers. It was a dream, right? so whoever this person was didn't really matter. What mattered was this fascinating arrangement of objects - some of which she knew - most of which she didn't. Had they all come from her imagination? Hopefully she remembered them when she woke up so she could draw some of these things. "Is this stuff yours?" She asked, still not touching, but not turning to look at him either, "It's beautiful."

A slight twitch of the eye developed as James found himself ignored for several minutes. The dozy doe trotting about the room hadn't even noticed him somehow, a fact that he would have found preferable compared to the usual flow of questions were she not sniffing around his reagents.
And more to the point...she was in. His. Lab. An inexcusable offence by any measure.

Slowly picking himself up as he prepared for the usual drudgery, he drops one hand into the pocket of his labcoat and paces lazily about the room, picking up a stress ball from a nearby desk and squeezing it a couple of times as he takes each step. "Yes, to both of your questions. I'm glad you appreciate them."
Turning on a dime, he whips the stress ball towards Nadia's temples.
Another sharp toss would soon precisely track any attempt to dodge, the attendant prepared with a stapler that would hurt far more than the stress ball.

He smiles thinly as he grabs another stress ball, tossing it up and down in one hand. "Now, unless you like me throwing things at you, appreciate them from further away. Or better yet - leave."

Nadia's eyes widened as the stressball came at her. Why was he attacking her. She didn't even know what it was he had thrown, but reflexively she moved to the side. The next object that he threw found it's mark. Being off-balance from moving out of the way, Nadia took the stapler to the face and stumbled back, knocking one of the vials off the table and onto the floor with a loud shatter. The look on her face was complicated as she watched the ball bounce up and down in his hand.

Surely, this was one of those "Fight or Flight" situations. But Nadia didn't know where she could even run to with these heavy chains shackling her. "Why did you do that? I don't even know why I'm *here* much less where to go to leave." She was starting to tear up from the sudden and unexpected pain. Even if the stapler was only plastic, it still hurt after being hurtled across the room into her face. More that that, she felt completely and wholey unwanted here, which was a harrowing feeling after what she'd been through lately. There was nothing she wanted more than to be as far away from this person as possible. But she didn't know how to accomplish that, so she grappled for whatever was closest to her on the table...a vial of some kind, and prepared to throw it in defense. The look on her face was defiant, but distinctly pouty and reticent. It was clear she didn't want to fight, but she would if she had to.

The response was fairly immediate as Nadia grabbed the vial, the attendant rapidly scrambling to his feet and waving his hands. "Hey! Hey, hey hey hey...just, put the vial down, and nothing else needs to go flying through the air. For the love of Velvet, you have no idea how annoying is to get more of that stuff." He takes another step closer, watching and ready to stop at any sign that Nadia might throw his precious reagents. "No more thrown objects, and you'll get your answers, but before we can get any of that done I really need you to stop holding precious reagents hostage."

He closes his eyes for a moment and grits his teeth before turning his eyes back to Nadia. "I am sick of having people dumped in my lab without warning..."

Nadia's guarded expression faded to a more curious one was he quickly changed his tune. She stepped away from him warily as he approached, and eyed the vial. She looked from the vial to the attendant a couple times before finally her good will won out, and she set the vial down. Flinching away in case he was going to throw something else.

"You know, I didn't exactly ask to end up here. It's not my fault. You're taking your anger out on the wrong person. Maybe you should see a Therapist. I have been looking into it, and it's not terribly expensive..." Nadia offered helpfully, looking meek and still attempting to keep her distance from the Attendant.

James breathes a sigh of relief as the vial is put down. "Goddammit, you scared me there..." As Nadia flinches, he rolls his eyes, giving her a flat look. "I said I wasn't going to throw things again, and I won't as long as you don't trash the place."

He groaned and rolled his eyes as she started talking again, flopping back down on the sofa. "Yeah, sure great idea! Waltz in, strut over, and go 'Hello good sir, I seem to have a chronic issue of people teleporting into my residence and breaking my shit!' GREAT idea." He shakes his head, grabbing a handful of popcorn. "Believe me, if there were people trained to handle the issues of beings of supernatural origin living in extradimensional spaces, I'd be tempted. It's not like I have to worry about what it might cost."

Nadia was still wary as he reassured her, and moved to take a seat on the sofa. His general outburst of sarcasm didn't faze her. She'd heard worse, really. Underneath the snark and the bad attitude, she sensed that there was real hurt of some kind burried under his scorn, and she came to sit next to him on the sofa, leaving as much room between them as possible. Her chains rattled as she sat down, but she ignored them. Instead, she focused on the man who had pelted her with office supplies.

Her curious eyes darted along his frame as she said. "Well, if you wanted to talk to someone, you could talk to me. I'm a good listener." She said in a muted tone. "I wouldn't mind."

James keeps a careful eye on the girl as they sit down. She was still definitely keeping her distance...but frankly, he preferred it that way. She seemed somewhat withdrawn as she offered an ear, and the attendant smiled thinly in response. "All due respect, a lot of the shit I deal with would go far over your head. This isn't anything you're used to, if you couldn't tell. But, you need an example..." He leans back, seemingly focused on something distant, and snaps his fingers. "Within the confines of this space, I have it granted to me that you are Nadia Marquee, bearer of the persona Ereshkigal. Your body is currently asleep, and your consciousness has been drawn here because you've yet to have a proper introduction to this space..." He grimaces. "...despite the fact you've already ordered a rather interesting pair of boots from here. Ugh, geez...lumping off the work to me again."

He looks back to Nadia, looking somewhat more frustrated before. "I'll spare you the usual speech. You're in the Velvet Room, a place that doesn't exist for most people and lies outside the normal boundaries of reality, where people like me pop into existence to help you get to grips with the abilities of those like you. Whatever force spawned me forgot to make me a slave to the job like most of the people stuck here, but whatever. Go ahead and start asking questions."

Nadia blinked as she listened intently. He knew her name, which unnerved her, as well as her Persona. But as he continued to explain, the missing pieces came into place. So this was the Velvet Room. That made sense. They helped people with powers learn how to manifest them...well she didn't need much help with that, she and Ereshkigal were already pretty far along in that way. She had already garnered some pretty interesting boots, though she had to admit she didn't realize this was the same place. Apparently this place could take many different forms. That explained the chains too. They were like the chains she broke to summon her Persona, only here they were real. Probably a manifestation of those chains that bound her in sleep...or something. So...this was a dream, and she had come here to be given guidance by this man. He didn't seem to keen on the idea, though. Likely preferring to do something else entirely. Watch movies...or fiddle with his incredibly interesting arcane studies. As she watched and listened, She felt the coldness in him as he told her to ask her questions.

She scooted just a hair closer, feeling a little more comfortable now that she was beginning to form an understanding of this person. "No, that's okay, I think I understand now." She shook her head and glanced around the room again. "I learn pretty well from just watching...so if you want, you can just pretend I'm not here, and I'll derive what guidance I can from that." She offered easily, turning to look at the TV, seemingly prepared to watch whatever movie it was in silence. It wasn't like she didn't know how to exist without bothering someone. She did it all the time with her parents. Seen and not heard. Preferably not seen either, honestly. Nadia wondered if this man, who already knew her name and her power, also knew her history. If he did, he no doubt knew that if he really wanted her to disappear, she could do so whether she actually left or not.

Rolling his eyes, James looks flatly at Nadia. "I'm not going to pretend I wouldn't be more than happy just to ignore everything I'm supposed to be doing and going on with my life, but even I know that ignoring you and fucking about doesn't constitute guidance, even by some of the standards this place works on." Shaking his head, he grabs something from his pocket and goes to gently toss it over - only to close his eyes and sigh after remembering what he said earlier, and hold out the hand for her to take it instead. A small, blue key rests in his palm, very similarly coloured to the rest of the room. "Here. This thing will get you in and out of here - and more importantly right now, let you get back to sleeping without being stuck here. If you want to head back here, keep your mind on it as you drift off, or find one of the doors that'll probably be all over the place if past appearances are anything to go by. Just don't stick around here just to loiter aimlessly."

Nadia did her best not to flinch as he pulled something from his pocket. It looked like he was going to toss it to her, but then he stopped. It was probably more of an underhanded toss- not the kind that made bruises - but it was still nice of him to honor his word and not throw it at her.

In the man's palm was a blue key. It was the same shade of velvet as the walls were, a startling shade of blue. Nadia accepted the key, turning it over and over in her hand, and trying to fit it into the locks on her shackles - only to find to her surprise, that there were no locks visible on the shackles. Curious! She went to put the key away somewhere, but realized as well that she didn't have any pockets in the prison outfit she wore, which was a bit more trouble. So instead, she settled on resting her hands, with the key, in her lap.

A moment of silence later and she said, "Thank you. For giving me guidance even though you don't want to. I appreciate it." She offered softly, looking at him with a turn of her head. "But I'll be going now. If I leave now, I might still have some sleep left to dream about my boyfriend." she finished hopefully, standing up from the sofa. In reality, she just wanted to give him his peace.

The attendant quietly notices the way the latest appearance in his realm had to suppress a flinch just from him going into his pockets. Seems his earlier demonstration had done a good job at instilling a healthy respect for what he was capable of.

Brown eyes roll behind as Nadia offers paltry thanks and speaks of her hopes for the night. He knew well enough it was just an excuse for leaving. She didn't need to make it - getting her out of here had been the intention the entire time. He didn't care what excuses she made for it.
James fishes out a couple of objects from his pockets to fiddle with...scalpels? Hmm. He didn't recall bringing these with him after the last creature he'd carved parts out of.
They'd do, though.


"I'd ask where you got that word from if I wasn't already sure the room had given you it." He deftly moves the sharp objects between his fingers, with a practised ease. "It's James, Nadia. Kindly share it with nobody."

Nadia was a little curious about what he meant by which word she got, and then realized he'd never actually said he was an attendant, she had just assumed that was his position from the way he'd described his job. Her father had had many attendants for different matters. But at the same time, now that she thought about it, that thought was a hazy one, mostly it just felt natural to call him that. Maybe it had been planted by the space. Dreams were funny that way.

With a small nod, She gripped the key in her hand and started walking back through the room, away from James, thinking about her nice comfy bed, and Cecil...

and she was gone.

As he feels Nadia's departure from the room, James scoffs and tosses the scalpels, embedding them into a well marked section of wood on one of the shelves.
"What on earth is Long Nose thinking, sending someone like her to me?"
He was plotting something again, he was sure.