[://SERVANT]:

The makeshift weapon rested in her grip, steadied again with a nod. She hoped that it wouldn’t be necessary with a servant nearby. 

---”I will. Thank you.”

She was missing their name, class too. To be determined later, their simple chat was coming to an end with the discordant screams of citizens appearing at the end of the tunnel where the servant came from.  The short purple-headed homunculus turned her head towards the street to the right of them, signaling the servant to make a run for it as well.

---”This way! I analyzed the layout from a safe room I used to monitor movements before. There should be a hangar bay.”

[//:RULER]:

At his offer, she gave a light bow of her head and reached for the menu card before them. All kinds of coffees, small treats like cake-slices and donuts... She’d never sat down in a cafe like this before, though the decision should be easy when searching a ratio of quality, price and nutrition values it turned difficult when trying to think simply of what to try.

---”...This one. Is this a cafe self-service or is there a waiter...?”

Her finger rested over a picture of a strawberry cake- it looked the most colorful. After this decision, she pondered their wars and what concept Ruler was meant to protect.

---”A ritual using servants to determine a winner... I see.”

The idea of doing battle in secret because their holy grail did not provide an arena away from the eyes of innocents was strange but not as much as when one thought of it as a very barbaric ritual. Raising her head, she then shot a question tipping the scale-

---”So who won your grail war? How did it end?”

[//:FLEXIBLE SERVANT?]:

---”Ah...”

That was true, though rare, barefooted humans still existed in this day and age. Rani’s hold on the pipe loosened as she analyzed this servant. High readings of prana didn’t lie, this one was likely a greater threat than their misleadingly bland appearance suggested.

---”A compliment... I am not designed for combat but I will acknowledge it: thank you.“

Now that she was down here, she had a better look of the streets themselves. They were empty, deserted and save for the servant and the small noises of steel creaking and the wind everything was too still. The saying of ‘silence before the storm’ swept through her mind but it was an opportunity all the same. 

---”I am Rani. Maybe the humans that were driven mad to attack us are distracted elsewhere with another group... unfortunately I cannot even deliver percentages on that.”

She hated this uncertainty.

---”But our chances of survival would rise if we teamed up... would you be okay with that?”

@formidablemudball // FRAGMENTATION

She could hear the steps, soft like skin was not separated by footwork from the ground panels. Expecting a crazed citizen or monster, she waited atop the exit of this tunnel for them to exit. The risks were against her favor, but there was a chance she could salvage better weaponry if she succeeded. 

Slowing her breath, she loomed over it and when the target stepped into the light, jumped and brought the steel in a swipe down on it.

But what she hit wasn’t a foe and the way the pipe made contact was the stuff of nightmares to any humans, yet-

---”...a servant? My apologies, it seems my predictions were off.”

[://WEISS]:

---”Ah, that’s true... Unfortunately, I cannot see everything from this room. I hope they’ll find their way here soon.”

She gave a glance at the monitors in the back, divided into several panels. Some were on static, likely broken cameras, others showed their immediate environment. 

---”That was a strategically sound decision. Rations are vital for survival. If you give me a moment I can deduce the safest route for you to take after you caught your breath. But your phone, does it work? It’s useless if the scientists haven’t unlocked it...”

She wondered if she could maybe repurpose it to something else if it was unfunctional.

[://ON THE RUN]:

---”Good, now just follow the corridor, then stop at the last door.”

She was glad the instructions were followed without complaint. Swirling on her chair to face the exit of the room, she hopped off and undid the barricades she had placed on the door. Security lock, chairs, random items she found laying around, anything that ensured it wasn’t broken into easily electronically or by force. Once all was set aside, she opened the door and waved to the arriving girl.

---”Greetings, I am Rani. You... really were the only one then.  Or have you seen anyone else while fleeing?”

@disgracxd // FRAGMENTATION

---”Hello? You there with the pony-tail and blue eyes. There are enemies closing in, 150 meters behind you on my monitor. Take the left alley, then the first entrance you see.”

The girl’s voice carried itself slightly distorted from the speakers down the streets. Holed up in one of the security rooms, Rani focused on one of the cameras on which a person had shown up. She wished that she had kept her ability to freely dive into networks, if she had she could have simply taken control of the entire district. But all she could do right now to aid survivors was acting as a communicator and hoping none of the enemies would break into the room.

@embryonalis

Her pursuers were still right on her heels. Hadn’t it been for the limitations put on her, she could have at least given herself a chance to fight back with her code-casts. Lamenting that was useless. Bellowing from right behind her she could hear the howls of the animal-like monsters.

Rani took a sharp right, hoping for a shortcut into a less empty main-street. 

A mistake. She was now face to face with a wall. Inhaling sharply and shoulders raised in unease she turned around to face them. The street lights didn’t spare her from bringing out their disgusting features. But. She also caught a glimpse of a familiar red.

@chivalour

There was something running over her magic circuits like a prickling sensation, alarming enough that she looked up from her phone. Surprised but not surprised at all she locked eyes with a young man with blond hair and red-dyed strands of hair. He fit into the crowd.

---”Oh... you’re a servant. Are you waiting for the ‘concert’ to begin too?”

Rani looked in every sense out of place among the groups of modernly clothed people in hoodies and hot pants. Donning the same lab-coat and glasses as always one might assume she lost her way on the way to an important scientific meeting somehow. And even that wasn’t off. It was a project for her in a sense- exploring what people enjoyed, the fun of attending such events... those ‘opportunities’ she had been told of. Perhaps the servant had been doing the same now that there was no grail war.

@avengier

---”...why are you saying such hateful things towards humans?”

The homunculus swallowed but her breath was still short. The unknown servant had began spewing words loaded with malice for no immediate or discernible reason, seemingly directed not at an individual but humankind in its entirety. And even if she had one, didn’t this attitude go against the idea of what heroic spirits were supposed to be... ? Rani already felt as if she had allowed herself to bite bait by seeking to satisfy her curiosity. She knew a reaction was sought... but why? 

To her the relationship between humans and heroic spirits was the same as creator and creation- for the latter to bite the hand of the former did not sit right with her.

@erroneoux

---”...I was wondering when you would show up.”

Nonchalant as ever, their reunion was a quiet and awkward one as if they had never parted ways. They simply walked into each other on the grounds of the academy as if they had never left the SE.RA.PH. But ever since she had run into the fox-eared Caster, she had spent longer than she’d like to admit on calculating the chance the winner of the moon cell would appear as well somewhere in the city. Perhaps doing so was nonsensical, after all in terms of probability it was likelier to win the lottery thrice. But it was this person she had been waiting for and even the chance of meeting her in the first place was something only her heart but not her processing could grasp.

The stars wouldn’t tell her but that was unimportant now. Rani looked at Hakuno like either of them may wake up from a dream or burst into bubbles any moment now.  

---”Are your functions stable? ...Do you remember everything from the moon cell?”

[:// CA & INDIE STARTER CALL ]

OOC. Hit that ❤ if you’d like a starter. Capped at 3, no cap for the Fate/-Cast.

Mother? Negative.

But she had a creator. Her professor.  But her professor had been terminally sick. She had with 99,74% certainty passed away during the third to fourth week of the moon cell grail war. 

But to live as successor of her hopes... that was much like what a daughter would do, wasn’t it? 

[://A STORY OF OPPORTUNITIES WE NEVER HAD]:

Did humans not venture out to the moon? Was the moon cell never discovered in the parallel world Mr. Roman spoke of? In what context could spiritrons and pseudospiritrons exist then? He was so fascinated that it fascinated her in return how fascinated he was.

The matter of war passed her like a freezing wind she had summoned herself only to twist back into a stream of warmth again.

She had a hard time keeping up with how he swung back and forth between these moods like he was a child sitting in a swing. While he shifted through these colors of emotions as if it were a rainbow, the homunculus found herself stuck to gray, only dragging herself slowly back into warmer tones.

---“Opportunities? ...what opportunities have you found here?”

A blank file. Living. Ah, of course. These were things she’d never even considered before. Enjoying yourself, having a hobby. Things that wouldn’t be possible otherwise... if one treated this city like the moon cell in a passive state it would be that. She blinked at him as if he had brought up something that would take her days to consider. Opportunity- somehow the word fit this man.

[://SERVANT WITHOUT PURPOSE?]:

---”No.”

The answer spilled out as if his presence drew it out. But it was not wrong. Of course the imposing servant was right. Her means to lack where a death sentence and he would be the most fitting form of such an image. Though did he declare the grail a folly? She traced back his words to what mattered.

The lack of purpose in this city. So he was not summoned inside this city but summoned into the city, perhaps even from the Throne itself? She collected herself, noting the percentage by which the regulation of her air-system stabilized. 

---”....I see. I apologize. My conclusion did not consider the current circumstances.”

As always, she did with a bow. The spectacles did not hide the genuineness and clarity in her eyes. It was not a great start for a conversation by any standard and it didn’t get better. 

---”Can I ask you...if you are not a servant interested in the grail then what is your purpose?”

Once she was a doll without but she had found meaning at the end of her journey. It all had been thanks to that one person. This meeting brought up a problem that never crossed her before: what happened if meaning was lost?