Mu Ein

[04:55] Mu unlocks the door and walks inside.
(Mu Ein)
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[04:56] Mu Ein asks, "I would hope that you of all people might respect the sanctity that is the life of a mask?"
[04:56] Rindou Sakamoto asks, "Why do you think we came here?"
[04:56] Rindou Sakamoto says, "Kept hush."
[04:57] Mu shrugs slowly.
(Mu Ein)
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[04:57] Rindou Sakamoto says, "No Sheng would be caught out there this far."
[04:57] Rindou Sakamoto says, "None that young."
[04:57] Rindou Sakamoto says, "It was a poor play."
[04:57] Mu Ein asks, "Was it?"
[04:57] Rindou Sakamoto says, "You were forward."
[04:57] Mu Ein says, "Mu Ein."
[04:57] Rindou Sakamoto says, "Unless you wanted me to notice me."
[04:57] Mu Ein says, "Unmei."
[04:57] Mu Ein says, "Meaning Fate"
[04:58] Rindou Sakamoto says, ".. notice you, rather."
[04:58] Mu Ein says, "I'm here to ensure Cordelia doesn't make anymore mistakes, but I'm here."
[05:05] Rindou shook her head lightly. Guesses had been right and a gut-feeling caught and twisted within her, screaming that this was nothing but a lie. It was obvious, to some. To all. To her. As she said: Too young.

"I wanted to prove you wrong when I returned to Agartha. To show them— you that I wasn't the pawn you cast me out to be."

Her right hand reached up to her face, passing over it, giving her a rather... objectively good but far from perfect familiar face. Calista's, to be exact. A temporary, brief period was all she could offer.

"But her stare told me otherwise. She looked at me like my best use would be a sacrificial one, never reaching the finish line— never becoming the princess I should have been."

The mask faded by the time she was done speaking, showing her own weakness in the matter, though displaying what he may have expected out of her. If not wanted.

"I never took you to be the type to worry for people far beyond your generation. I'd do a lot to ensure the people I love live. So long as they bring me what I need of them.

Why do you bother?"
(Rindou Sakamoto)
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[05:18] Mu stared and listened. His eyes were a very dull grey, bored with this world just as he said he was. He was mildly interested in seeing her face shift, Calista Shimasu's looking back for only a second. "Impressive." came Malentine's voice. He crossed his arms across his chest, fingers drumming along the sides.

"If you wouldn't take me for someone to take concern in another generation then clearly you don't know what my family name means. Cordelia is part of that family, and I'm making sure she upholds the name."

"Blood, Rindou Sakamoto. It is what my kin holds above all else."
(Mu Ein)
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[05:31] Her eyes remained their amber own. Alive, bright, yet so jaded with the hand reality had dealt her - or perhaps the one she had dealt for herself. It mattered little at this point, however.

"I know little of your kin. I've heard bad things about you. When I spoke your name back in Gehenna, Huangzhou, and Levengard the reactions were all the same. Shock. Perhaps confusion, indifference, and doubt were mixed it but for the most part people seemed to doubt I could have survived my meeting with both you and Sors and came out alive."

She glanced up to the ceiling for a few moments, thinking, before her gaze shifted back down to this reflection. She had wanted that mirror put up on auction for a reason, though now it felt like she stood before it.

"They may be family or creed, but I'm certain I would have known if they were like us, but they are not, are they? They'll never understand; some of them might see being different - immortal like a blessing. Like the name Invidia makes them above the common magi.

.. But then again I can see it. I understand it. It makes sense." She said, nodding to herself before taking a small step forward.

"We wouldn't want our children - our family to have to suffer as we had to."

It wasn't unlike the way she spoke when she was outside. Rindou was... losing her marbles a bit. After Despair and suffering came a load of desires. It left her wanting more, craving more, desiring things she couldn't have and treating the ones that she did receive like they were never enough.

She wanted to meet Malentine Invidia again to ask him how he saw through to her truth. She ended up being inconsiderate, impolite, selfish, and challenged his thoughts and claims.

It was as if she couldn't be satisfied, even when the world gave it straight to her.
(Rindou Sakamoto)
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[05:39] "I wouldn't expect them to take kindly to you telling such stories. You should have kept them to yourself, really." He said idly, still not really caring one way or another. The roof to this building was half torn off, the floor covered in constant snow and ice. It was not a very decent shelter, but it was the only place on Agartha Malentine would call home.

"Not many will understand, no. It takes one of these curses to see the world the way we do. Sors bears one, fortunately for you, so I suppose you have him around to thank. But.. well, it is nice to see another one exactly like me." A small smile. "The last one who spoke of an unfillable hunger became a dog I had to put down. She got out of hand, didn't listen, was unentertaining. A shame, really." It wasn't like Malentine had really ever filled his void, it was more like he had mastered it.

In most Sins, the curse ate them alive, consumed who they once were, but somehow throughout everything he had experienced, Malentine had come out the other side as a single piece, broken in different places, definitively cracked, but still Malentine Invidia.

"It's vampiric to care for another who bears our blood. Cordelia was Neo's daughter. That makes her my great niece or something or other. She came to me with concerns, with silly notions of heroism and bravery. I had to do my part in shattering them and put her back on the right course, the course her father would want for her." He finished explaining why he was there with another shrug.

"You're the one still choosing to be Rindou Sakamoto. If I were you, I would begin living new lives. It's what I did, it's the only sensible thing to do. Don a mask and see how long it survives."
(Mu Ein)
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[05:55] Sors bears one, fortunately for you

A monster. A man that she hated despite the countless attempts he made at befriending her and giving her everything she wanted, or could want. This was the type of person that she was wounding where nothing remained to wound. What for? It all begun because of the shrine, because she knew he was bad for Agartha.

... He still remained so. Even if Lea had befriended him. She... she couldn't understand.

"I wish I were exactly like you. I'm not as apt as I should be. As I have to be to do what I desire."

It couldn't be quite called irony. Perhaps this was just expected; one could hardly find the opposite of irony after all. Rindou desired to have the talents Sors had spoken of when he spoke of Malentine. The ability to be whoever she wanted, whenever she wanted. The one who dons the cloak of Envy. She wasn't good enough.

"I have tried to live another life. Everyone... seemed to love me. I was invited over for dinner. I was treated like a valuable doctor. I was complimented. I was never told I shouldn't be there or that I was worthless. It felt nice.

No one knows of it. I don't intend to tell anyone, either. I'm sure you can understand that."

Malentine of all people could be trusted with a secret like this one. What was he going to do? Turn into a mask of his own and scream about a girl he knew nothing of? That would not work. Though with that thought came an idea that she could only revel in - something that... oh, felt so incredible.

"I have to prepare in the coming years to take the life of one of the few greatest magi in the world. I believe I'll do better if I hide while I set things up, though the world will noticeRindou Sakamoto if she goes missing. Or at the very least they'll assume and treat me like a criminal if I'm not often seen around settlements."

She didn't mean...

"You could watch over her from my spot. I don't wish to abandon her. Yet I believe I must kill her mother."

A crazy idea. A once in a lifetime offer. She couldn't help but grin, both because she knew Malentine had no reason to accept something like that that may put him at risk, but also because she knew all too well how it felt to be consumed by that desire to be someone else. To live another's life.

And what better way to reflect on your own than by living one that was exactly like it?
(Rindou Sakamoto)
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[06:09] Malentine laughed. He had only taken the face of someone he knew once. It had lasted nearly five years, one of his greatest tricks, but Rindou's offer was declined with a shake of his head. "That isn't my place. I manipulate from afar, watch when I choose to. I don't intend to take an active role in something like that, in greater plots."

Another slow shrug. "Apologies." Apologies that didn't mean anything.

"You're on your own on that one. But a suggestion? Stop worrying about losing Rindou Sakamoto. And start living as someone else."

Malentine looked out a window, the sun was rising. "I must head out again. Need to walk around. But I'll be here. Or there. Or somewhere. Trust, Rindou." He smiled pleasantly. "If we mask wearers can't honor the sanctity of one another's disguises, then who will we turn to?"
(Mu Ein)
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[06:18] Rindou expected that laugh. Humor that only the two of them could share at a time like this. The young woman actually drew a smile for her more seasoned replica before she moved towards the door, watching the sun rise up and the future beckon for them. Or rather, for someone else.

"If I had absolutely nothing left, I would. I'm sure you can understand that; you've returned for the same reason, haven't you? From a place where I watched Sors pull perfectly cooked meal out of nothing alongside a table and chairs to the reality that Agartha is filled with individuals after your life.

You really wear that name like a badge."

It flashed in her mind.

Isn't it odd? They seem much more like a family than anyone else.
Do you think we'll be like that one day?

.. Perhaps if the sands of time were to grasp that tightly around her. When the paradise would come.

"I've given you my review on this one. You can do much better.

Tell me about your life when you'll want to hear about mine."

She said, aiming to exit.
(Rindou Sakamoto)
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[06:18] Mu Ein says, "Of course."