The house isn't too shabby so the client can't be too poor. He is definitely skittish and doesn't seem to get much sun. Kumiko can't help but scan the room to figure out what has him this afraid of social interaction. She half expects to see a dead body or evidence of necromancy... Instead, she just sees a lot of coffee-stained cups, "So... Not to say I wouldn't mind a bit of hospitality do you have anything to say about the job?"
She moves over to sit on a loveseat. It's a bit lumpy, but compared to sitting around Zeke's dusty office it is better than a royal suite at an inn, "Yes, yes... All in good time I still have preparations... Coffee?"
"Nah... I can't have my hands trembling. I don't drink much caffeine, and beastkin are already pretty sensitive to stimulants." The fox girl holds up her hands as she leans back, "It's best if you focus on the task at hand for now... Though if you have food I won't refuse that hospitality."
The woman curls her lips into a smile as Seek has already shrunk down and moved to lay in her lap, "I have bread and cheese... I haven't been able to safely go to the market for the past several days..." The shut-in replies back in his nervous voice.
"No offense, but... What have you done to warrant such secrecy or scorn? I mean you don't look like you could really be worth harassing." Kumiko tries to draw some information as she scratches Seek behind the ears. His presence becoming natural more and more as time goes on.
"You'd be surprised... What if I told you that I found the secret to immortality?" He walks out with some old bread and dry crumbly cheese. Kumiko can't help but lick her lips at the prospect of something other than jerky and dry tack.
"You'd probably have people swarming your door, and notice or not be dead before I ever found you," Kumiko responds rather blankly as she bites into the somewhat stale bread.
He stares at her for a few moments before letting out a nervous chuckle, "I was going to chide you about judging a book by its cover, but it seems I misjudged you... If I'm honest I'm a philosopher, and my teachings are rather unpopular..."
"Yeah... Heard that one before. I dunno what deal you have with Zeke, but I'm not a pawn of his. Why don't you tell me what makes you unpopular rather than beating around the bush?" After hearing about the recent laws involving monsterkin she is very skeptical of any unpopular belief system. She sighs as he looks around skittishly.
"Well... Surely you're aware of how things work in this city because the Automata have such a warped view of law and order?" He says as he clasps his hands together, and sits back in his chair, "There have been talks of using magic to forcibly adjust their parameters. I'm personally opposed to it as the Automata are sentient as far as I am concerned. A hivemind, and a bit dull, but sentient."
Kumiko relaxes her posture as she now gets why he can't go out in public, "Yeah, and those who set those new parameters are the ones in power. In this place, those at the top only want to secure their position, and those at the bottom are happy with the scraps that fall below. It'll just increase the gulf."
"... Yes... That too I suppose... Do you not care about a sentient race being forcibly adjusted to fit our desires?" He asks looking almost a bit defeated as he picks up a coffee mug and starts sipping on it.
"... How much of that stuff do you drink..? Nevermind... I don't know when people are starving because of their definition of law and order, I don't think much about how they'd feel having their morals adjusted." The fox girl sighs not wanting to get drawn into a debate, 'Though it's my fault for asking a philosopher about their philosophy.'
The entire time Seek has green eyes as he listens intently, his eyes on the man the entire time. Neither side really having a response for the other. Not necessarily that there isn't an argument to be made, but more than the morals of the situation are rather grey. This breaks the minor awkward silence as he looks down at the strange creature.
"Your friend seems interested in the conversation. It's not a common beast, is it? I can tell he's not just listening, he's comprehending." He holds out his hand to Seek as the strange wolf-like creature allows him to pet them, "Can't say you see that every day... Look it's one thing to change someone's ideas through convincing them, and another to overwrite them. What if we used that magic to open an equal line of communication instead?"
"He's a good boy," Kumiko says as she sighs softly and realizes she can't hide from this conversation by stuffing her face, "The automata can survive having their laws changed. People can't survive having their homes taken away, and being denied food. Hell the new monsterkin laws..."
"... New monsterkin laws? Oh... That wasn't imposed by the automata. That was imposed by the urban planning committee." He says as he just downs the rest of the coffee, and sets the cup on the coffee table with all the others he's finished, and not yet washed.
"Figures, still, they didn't do anything. So it doesn't mean they aren't responsible. Inaction is the same as doing it themselves." Seek tilts his head as he turns and looks at Kumiko, and speaks audibly this time.
"Then is it wrong to not deal with the man keeping your sister captive?" This causes the air in the room to drop a few degrees as Kumiko feels herself develop a cold sweat.
"... Seek..." She sighs as she puts her hand over his eyes and smiles at her host with a 'You saw nothing' stare as she just shakes her head, 'Not a conversation for now, or ever. There's a line between inaction and idiotic action that gets people killed.'
"Absolute fascinating! I must say this is the greatest thing to happen in weeks." He moves to his feet as he starts working in a frenzy to gather his paperwork.
"... Yes I admit a talking dog is a pretty cool thing to happen, and I appreciate you having a pep in your step, but..."
"No, no, no, you don't understand. You've given me the last piece I needed. The problem isn't the flimsy execution of the laws, it's that they only selectively execute it!" He starts to write down a few pages in his own journal feverishly, "If the automata were to execute their pre-existing laws fairly then things would be better!"
"For the people in charge yeah! Hey, let's not go crazy here. You literally hired from one of the biggest scumbags in the city to escort you. You do realize that your little plan would lead to a lot of people being tossed out of the city, right?" The fox girl all but pulls his chair from the desk now feeling a bit too involved to just act as a bystander, "Look, they're a bunch of broken machines that only care about maintaining a status quo. The situation isn't going to get better by making them crackdown on those that break the mold even more."
"... You know I figured that man would send me some no-nonsense brawler without any sense, but you actually have a mind in there don't you?" He says as he taps his forehead a few times before pulling out the page he was writing.
"I never claimed to be stupid. I'm just too weak to do anything effective. I write down my thoughts and observations all the time, but no one wants to read them because I don't have a fancy title. What people ultimately look at is your accreditation, how much your thoughts align with their's, and then maybe if you're lucky they'll see if your thoughts are worth a damn." The silver fox girl relaxes as she sees that offending article tossed in the trash. His notes now all gathered up she looks forwards to finally getting the job done.
"Have you ever considered being a scholar...?"
"I want to see the world and be a part of it, not write about it from a dark room. Thanks but no thanks." By now Seek is sitting by the door his eyes returned to that soft white glow, and his gaze locked on his master, "I know I'm making stuff difficult on myself, but... Well, my family has dreams too. Ones I can't give up on."
"Truly fascinating... Well if I survive past today maybe you can tell me how that works out for you." He says as he slings his bag over his shoulder, "I'd send you by yourself, but well... As you noted... Bullshit laws."
Kumiko actually cracks a genuine smile and laughs. "For a pencil pusher busy body, you're pretty cool to me. Don't know if that's a bad thing or a good thing." She shakes her head and pulls her hood up. It's made of hardened leather so it's better than no protection, "You good? If push comes to shove we may just have to run. Though I swear they're making a mountain out of a molehill. It's not like they haven't ignored this shit in the past."
"Well... You know the rich, bored, and they always hedge their bets." He suddenly looks a lot more weary now that Kumiko pushes open the door. Once outside nothing seems off yet. No one even cares he's left the house, but the fox girl doesn't let her guard down. It's not that she hasn't done jobs for Zeke before, and more the moral conundrum of actually taking from others.
That doesn't mean she's confident about her abilities in a fight, but with Peri's life on the line, she doesn't really have much of an option. Going back empty-handed will be just as bad as dying on the side of the road, "Alright where to? I haven't been in town for a long time."
"Well... it's a straight shot up the main road, just before the bridge between the peaks." While there is one main road that snakes up the mountain there are several stairways and ramps that lead back to the lower section or towards the automata's scaffolding.
'Seek follow behind him and ensure no one sneaks upon us. I should have any approaches from the front.' She says warily as they move in formation. With Seek's otherworldly nature most people keep their distance, but it's as they move forward that they smell smoke.
"... Huh I never considered they'd go that far. Guess this was doomed from the start." Just as she's about to ask what he means she realizes...
"Right. Rich, and bored, they..." Kumiko now realizes why Shiori and Peri couldn't come. Zeke was duping this poor guy from the start, and Kumiko was the fresh face that had no bad wrap, "Is there no other publisher?"
"Not unless you can get us to the bottom of the other peak in the next few hours... The organization that holds the rights to my work only has two offices in the city." He says as he hangs his head down, and Kumiko looks to Seek.
'You got large enough for me to ride you once... Can you carry two people?' Kumiko asks not having the heart for this to all go Zeke and the city's way. Even if his work winds up doing nothing it's better that someone have their dreams be actualized in her mind.
"You may pass out again. Do I return you back to that man, or back home with this one?" Kumiko points to the scholar not trusting Zeke as far as he can throw him as a retinue from the merchant's guild starts to move to cover the bridge and she wraps her face in her scarf as Seek starts to grow larger. Kumiko can feel her heartbeat as she fights the urge to heave, but he manages to scoop up both of them onto his back despite the scholar's staunches objection.
The road clears as everyone, even the paid guards clear out of the way of the massive creature as it barrels down the streets. The gas lamps and buildings becoming a blur as even the screaming of the man she is pinning to the wolf starts to sound like a lullaby to her. However, as she's about to drift off into slumber she feels something catch on to her hood, and scrape her neck as she is wide awake again.
'Sorry, one of them tried to stab me with a spear!' He sounds defeated as she feels him start to shrink beneath her.
"No, no, good boy, good boy! Just a bit further! I'm fine!" Kumiko desperately tries to fluff her new best friend as he regains steam and barrels down the road. However, soon it isn't just the merchant's retinue that is in the way as automatons riding the cables start to catch Kumiko's attention.
"Halt! Unauthorized use of esper detected! Banish the summon or we will be forced to use anti-mana ordinance!" Kumiko flinches forgetting that what she's doing isn't exactly legal.
"Seek... How durable are you?" Kumiko asks as she debates on giving up. The bots won't exactly let her off with a warning for this, but as she asks she hears their weapons revving up. They look like pillbugs with cannons, and while it may just be anti-magic ordinance one blow will likely be a disaster for her.
'Well, I am mana so.. Not durable at all.' As he says this he jumps through a shop window and bowls out the other side as he starts tearing through stalls, 'I'm durable enough to do this though!'
"Seek! Hey! Not... You know what, good boy!" Kumiko screams as they barrel their way through wall after wall and eventually make their way down to the bottom of the other peak, and deposit the scholar on the side of the road near his destination before they run out of the city limits, and for the second day in a row, Kumiko falls asleep on top of this strange, strange creature.
o.o.o.o
Kumiko's eyes open and she is on that love seat again, "Oh boy, you're actually alive! I thought you'd be possessed forever!"
Kumiko tries to speak but finds she cannot. It isn't that her throat is parched, and she doesn't feel sick... It's more that words don't come to her anymore. She starts to panic a bit before she feels two pairs of hands hold her down, "Hey, hey... It's okay stay down alright?"
The silver-haired fox girl relaxes as she hears a familiar voice, Shiori's, "I was supposed to be here to deliver a notice that was basically Zeke going... Ahem... Haha, I win. I'm the smartest and you got your hands dirty... But then you just had to go and pull a dumb-ass move like that. Atta girl!"
"I really do not know if you should be encouraging her. She's lucky none saw she herself, and I do not know how she managed to walk back to my door on her own." The man speaks up as he moves a water skin to my lips.
"Come on Atticus ease up. You got your reports and book published, and honestly, the automatons can stand to do more than snipe pickpockets, and build another factor for rich nobles and merchant princes from out of the town." She speaks in a calm tone as she kneels next to the love seat, "Care to explain to me what the hell that was all about? I thought you got a damn dog, not that you became a spirit tamer or whatever."
"Spirits cannot be tamed... Even I know that." She can hear him clanging together metal in his kitchen, "Ah. Out of coffee... A shame. A crime really."
"Tell you what, for the trouble... I'll get you a damn bag, first I have to get dummy here to speak up. So out with it tail for brains." She has a stern expression on her face that makes Kumiko sweat.
'... I literally cannot reply.' Kumiko holds up her hands and motions to her lips as she mouths out: I don't know. She cannot figure out for the life of her why she can't speak and starts to look around for Seek only to find him not there as she panics. She had grown to care for the creature and if she lost it playing hero she'd never forgive herself.
"I'm trying to sleep Master... I can't play right now. We had fun though. Didn't we?" She hears Seek in her head as he yawns and she feels herself fall asleep right with him despite Shiori shaking her insistently.
-.-.-.-
"Oh, you came with me this time!" A young boy walks up to her, and grabs her hand, "Look I made a little house!" It looks like the scholar's hovel, but there's no furniture inside except a large bed just sitting in the middle of the room. It reminds her of when she, Peri, and Shiori made their little clubhouse as a kid and they gathered grass and straw and brought it in the city to make a place for them to sleep. It only lasted a week, and it wasn't worth the effort... But it's a good memory.
"Seek?" Kumiko asks finding that this time she is actually in her normal form, and not a floating concept, "You're... Human now."
"Nope. I'm just a Seek." He says as he pats the bed next to him, "Will you read me a story?"
"... Are you a child? Did you not have enough excitement today?" She asks incredulously as she pulls out her little pocketbook anyways.
He shakes his head and tilts it as little wolf ears pop out of his head, "I had too much excitement. I need to calm down. Please no scary stories..."
"Well, there goes most of my writing as a child. I was a bit obsessed with vampires... Ah, here's one." She lies as she just has an open page, and begins writing on it in her dreams, "It's the story of the boy who could."
"... You do know I can read your thoughts. If you're going to make up something on the fly just say." He scowls at her as she sighs, and pats his head.
"Fine, I guess I can't lie to you. I always did like taking care of Peri like this 'til she outgrew me and resented me... She taps her pen against her bottom lip before writing and speaking at the same time: There once was a boy from the forest. Every day the guards would come and grab him, and take him to a group home.." She pauses as she watches to see if Seek is listening, and understanding what she says. Seeing no confusion she continues as she bounces her left foot in a steady rhythm.
"However when he went to this place he could only shrug and say, this supposed home has no homeliness to it. So the cycle would continue as he'd escape, and they'd catch him and bring him right back. It wasn't until he met a girl from the city..."
"Is she you? I want her to be you." Seek insists as he clings tightly to her arm.
"So clingy... I thought you'd like it to be my sister."
"She's good too." Seek replies back without missing a beat.
"Twerp. Well... I don't like writing stories about myself.. So.. This girl.. Right? She comes to him and says... You know, I don't think me and you fit in this place. Our hearts are far too large to be kept in such tiny neat boxes..." She says as she draws a lockbox with a heart starting to break out of it, "And at night when everyone was asleep she picked the lock on their door and they broke free. They made for the stables and rode a horse into the night."
"Did they escape? Or did they get caught again?" Seek asks now half asleep in this strange space he made for them.
"That's the point. It doesn't matter if they got caught, or if they escaped. With people that crazy, you can't keep them caged." Kumiko says with a devious smirk and kisses him on the forehead, "Seriously don't call me your wife if you're going to look like a small child and ask for bedtime stories."
"... So you'd prefer if I looked more like an adult male?" Kumiko just holds up her hands.
"Why don't we work on your independence, and ensure you behave like an adult before you start worrying about that, alright? Down boy." She motions rapidly at Seek and puts a blanket on him before moving to explore the space, "I'm not ready for downtime yet so I'm going to go upstairs."
"I'm going to sleep... I put things up there I thought you'd like." Seek says with a wave as he disappears into the bed and blankets falling right to sleep it seems.
'Hmm... I can't say I exactly like what's going on, but it seems innocuous.' Kumiko ponders as she makes it up the steps to see a little training dummy, a few books, and a small desk. All rather fancy-looking, but it's made out of mumbo jumbo so what could anyone expect?
"What would a book conjured by Seek be about?" She opens a book that has her name on it and squints at it. There's also a book on Atticus, Shiori, and Peri. Then one more that just says Mementos of Yesterdays. The last is pretty simple as it's just the events that happened since they met. Nothing too earth-shattering and a lot of it is simply about Kumiko herself.. 'Not egotistical enough to care about how my fur looked shiny when walked down the street'
She however wonders why he'd write a book where he mostly just describes her doing things and a book that is about her. So despite her lack of self-interest she opens it up, and realizes she cannot read a single word of it, 'What the? It's a random string of words, and even just trying to read it makes my head spin.. Are the others like this?'
She opens up Peri's expecting to see the same thing, that or a comment on how he liked her petting him, "The changling plots to bring the end of the..." Oh. This... This is not good. I don't know what the hell she's planning, but I'm not letting her kill anyone. My hands are dirty enough in that regard.