Vanity Repaid [Marceline Exam]

I HAVE BECOME DEATH

the destroyer of worlds

TAGGED: ...   |   WORDS: 3,215   |  NOTES: ...

Despite how busy the the Temple of the Undying typically was, today was a rather silent day; hardly any Grim Heresy cultists were around the ground level. To the left, off in the Hall of Respite, few of the cult members were dining there, being served by skeletal waiters. Marceline could here the soft chatter of her workmates as they conversed with each other, seated in booths and various tables. The succulent scent of the food being dined on wafted in through the corridor and out into the Council Meeting room. She breathed in the sweet scent and drooled a little at the thought of being able to chow down on some delicious food. However, she wouldn't have the opportunity to do such a thing when she needed to get herself busy with errands and jobs. Having just recently become a Grim Heresy member, herself, the woman felt it necessary to show her devout nature to her master.

Steam rose up and out from a hallway just beyond where the undead woman stood, chatter there being heard, too. As enticing as that area was, clay and water did not mix very well, and was not a place the female trusted going into. Deeper into the steamy room, the gentle splashing of blood could be heard as it filled an obsidian pool from statues of sorrowful princesses. That was a pool she would be more willing to try, but alas, she could not join in on the fun without being distracted. Turning away from the two tempting rooms, Marceline sauntered casually toward the Hall of Attainment, where the Augurs were. Perhaps, they would have a job for her to take up, one that would be quite easy and fun to do than the previous ones she had been on. Quietly, the deathly woman entered the corridor that opened up into a large chamber, filled with papers, reports, and files.

However, before all of the papers and files, various things that the undead didn't care to look at or look for, was a corridor of doors. Each one led to a separate Augur's office, all for different purposes, but for the one she was looking for, it was not far off. Picking a door close to the entrance of the Hall of Attainment, the young woman pressed it open and walked inside. A creature, disturbed by the entering of someone unfamiliar, stopped the caring of its files and looked at the lady. It blinked each of its eyes, though they were only single on the multiple heads that it carried on its body. Tentacle-like limbs slowly moved around as it finished putting away the papers and reports that it had out. Marceline silently walked up to the booth, in which a glass-like substance blockaded her from being able to climb over it.

She stood there and watched as the tendril-like limbs moved turtle-like around the room, hanging down from the ceiling. Her ruby red eyes guided upward, to stare at the multi-headed creature as it dully continued on with its duties. Carefully, Marcy raised a curled fist and knocked on the window of the bank teller booth, gaining its apparent attention. Slowly, one of the heads moved downward, coming to rest at the window and clasp two of the tentacles together as it waited. Marceline cocked an eyebrow at the strangeness of the Augur, but didn't say any words toward the ghastly being. Instead, she looked around at the back of the room behind the Augur, then let her gaze fall back onto it.

"Do you have any jobs for me?" Marcy inquired, leaning closer to the window, waiting for an answer from the Augur.

Momentarily, a tentacle that had been clasped politely in front of it, moved away from the window and toward the back. The Augur shook its head in reply to Marceline; however, it told her with a single movement to wait at the window. She scrunched her eyebrows together in confusion as the Augur left the window and subsequently, her in the silence. If there had been no jobs for her to take, then why was the Augur making her wait here at the window for it? Marcy bit her lip and raised herself to her toes, hoping to catch a glimpse to see what the creature was looking for exactly. To no avail was she able to see what was going on and in defeat, fell back onto her heels and played the waiting game. Luckily, it was no more than a few minutes before the Augur returned and handed a piece of paper to Marceline.

Curiously, she took the parchment from the creature and unfolded it, reading what had been written inside of the paper. Once she had read the information over, the undead woman nodded her head once and handed it back to the Augur. "I didn't realize Master was preparing a special job for me; I'll get to her right away," she exclaimed in a rather giddy tone for her nature. To be honest, she had believed Eris would have made her wait a little longer to give her such a dangerous and tasking job, but this was exciting news. Smiling, the woman turned away from the window and headed back through the door and out into the hallway. She heard a slapping sound as a tentacle from within the Job Augur's room smacked against the bank teller's desk. Likely a goodbye sign as she was sent on her way to meet Eris in Bosco, wherever Bosco happened to be.

She ducked through the entryway and back into the Council Meeting room, once again passing by the steam room and bedrooms chambers, turning down a corridor. This corridor, much like the hallway in the Hall of Attainment, had many doors lining the cavern walls of the temple. Each door led to a different destination, in which the cult member opening the door would have to summon up. Marceline walked the long distance of the hallway, searching for the door that would be correctly labeled for what she was looking for. So far, each of the doors she had passed lead to one of the six remaining nations and the rest were towns within those nations. It didn't take long for Marcy to come across the door for that nation of Bosco, and opened it excitedly. What stood before though was simply a brick wall, so she had to figure out how to activate the door in the first place.

"I know there's a way to get this door working, it's just a matter of getting it to work the proper way," she mumbled to herself.

Quietly, the woman placed a hand on the wall that the door opened to, and watched as it wavered and gave way. What stood before her was a vast land of technology and vehicles, of mages and humans alike, roaming the streets. Bosco was a rather nice looking country; she knew about it, but she had never been there before in her entire life. It was one of the reasons why she had to take one of the doors rather than effectively using her ash travel to get there. Because her physical form had not gone to Bosco before now, she was not able to travel by ash to the country. To her, it was amazing at what these doors could do, and she quietly stepped through the wavering visage. She stepped foot into Bosco the moment she crossed over, quite shocked at how easy and painless that was.

Eris was located in an opera house, but she didn't exactly know where one would be at in such a large country. So, the death mage walked forward and grabbed hold of the nearest person, instantly gaining their attention, which happened to be angry. A quick look of helplessness and the mage had them in the palm of her hand like pudding, smiling kindly at them. "I just wanted to ask if you knew where I could find an opera house or a theatre; I'm supposed to meet someone there for an important job." Their face didn't look as angry as it had been and they merely nodded in understanding, pointing a finger to the left. "Just beyond that block up ahead, if you turn right and walk about half a block down, you'll come across the theatre." Marceline smiled widely again and hugged them before bouncing off down the block, throwing a "thank you" over her shoulder.

Marceline did as she was instructed and as she reached the end of the first block, she turned right and headed down the other. It was only a few minutes after turning down the right way that she had come across a tall-standing, elegant building. The building had a name scrolled across it, but it was in such fancy lettering that she wasn't quite able to read it. Looking both ways, the woman crossed the street and quickly entered the building, following those toward the auditorium. People gathered in quite the large room and as she looked around, she spotted her master in the balcony, seated in a fancy chair. Silently, the magus dispersed into a cloud of ash and appeared at the side of her master, turning to look down at the stage. So, that happened to be her goal? Eris wanted her to kidnap the lead actress of the play and replace her on the stage.

Not wanting to keep her master waiting for long, the young mage shifted from her material form to her immaterial form instantly. The flecks of ash floated downward into the crowd of humans and mages, weaving through the rows of seats and away from them. Chatter was still filling the air as the scene wasn't yet ready to be displayed to the audience, though she had a feeling it was to be soon. Popping out from the front row, the subtle cloud of ash meandered toward the door to the backstage with ease, almost too much ease. They swirled together in a flurry as Marceline reappeared at the backdoor, pressed tightly up against the farthest wall of the room. Looking to the crowd, she smiled, as it appeared to her that the throng of people were far too busy conversing with each other to have noticed her. However, it was the guards that she had to be wary of, as they were patrolling the sidelines, looking for the unruly ones.

Just as she turned her gaze away from the people, the lights in the room dimmed and everyone seemingly hushed into silence. Her ears rung from the suddenness of it, though she was able to bite back making any harsh comments toward it. All eyes were upon the stage now, and she tilted her head a little, hair falling over her shoulder, as she looked to see the curtains rising. They rose slowly, but behind them, she could see a bright light at center stage, meaning the lead actress would be starting first. As much as she liked the idea of being here, operas were not something that she completely enjoyed, rather she liked the scenery. The loud singing was what turned her away as it hurt her sensitive ears and it was clear this was what the actress was planning. For as the curtains showed a bit more than her waist, the sound of singing began to echo into the air, but softly at first.

Trying to ignore the singing, the undead woman turned back to the door and grabbed hold of the handle, despite it starting to decay on her. She turned the knob and flung the door open as quietly as she could, and disappeared into the darkness of the backstage. Led down a dark hallway, she turned a corner and was instantly blinded by the brilliant light of what would be the backstage. Standing there in the doorway to the backstage, she found that she couldn't quite move herself to get into the room. It was almost as if her mind was trying to stop her from doing such a thing, but she didn't understand why it would be doing that. Pursing her lips, she shook her head, then took a step inside and looked around at the scenery that was displayed before her. Yet the moment she had stepped in, a voice shouted behind her and she swiveled on her heels to face one of the guards.

Out of instinct, the woman instantly dispersed into her ashen form and darted away from the S rank butler for safety. She turned through the hallway in which she had entered, slamming the door behind her and disrupting the crowd for a second. Many eyes were upon her and she sweat-dropped at the fact, smiling and silently apologizing to them before they looked back to the opera. Marceline breathed in deeply, only to had banging on the door as the butler behind it tried opening it to get out.

All right, plan B. . . she thought to herself as she shifted into her ash travel again and darted through the door she went through to get into the current room.
Weaving through the empty hallways, she looked for another door to get into the backstage, one filled with less guards. Looking around, she darted down another hallway and along the ceiling, looking at the marked doors that led to insignificant places.

Marcy could hear footsteps as they bounded along the ground in search of her, though they had long since passed the hallway she went down. Sneaking back to the entrance of it, she dashed toward the opposite direction the butler came from and back into the auditorium. Shifting back into her human state, the woman looked around and at the people intently watching the actress singing on stage. It would be a lot easier to just take her from there, but she didn't want to make a huge scene like she had already started to. Shaking her head, the lady ran back down to the door she had originally gone through and ducked through the entrance quickly. Closing the door behind her, Marceline saunter calmly down the dark hallway, until she turned the corner and entered the backstage. Many people were running around like chickens with their heads cut off, simply making sure the play was running smoothly.

Despite looking like a foreigner, someone had run past her and started yelling things at her, only to come back and drag her along. Wide-eyed, she wasn't certain how to respond to this, for she was soon stuffed into a different outfit and shoved onto the stage. Warily, Marceline walked along the stage, coming to the center by the actress and turning to face the crowd. She wasn't certain what she was supposed to do, but looking to the other people on the stage, she simply followed along with them. Thrown into the throng of the dance, Marcy was a bit nervous with how the performance was going and if she was doing all right. However, that state of mind quickly diminished and her sole focus became that of the lady that was the lead of the play. Just as she was nearing the center of the stage though, the curtain came down on the stage, ending the scene it was on.

With the curtain down and the audience applauding, the people of the play meandering away, Marcy darted toward the actress. A slender hand snaked around the woman's wrist and she pulled her into her cloud of ash, darting through the congregation of play members. Another person called out already, asking if they had seen Marissa, who happened to be the woman she just kidnapped, but no one could answer her. They simply assured the other lady that Marissa had gone ahead to her dressing room and would see her later. Unfortunately, they may never see her again, for Marcy was dragging her along to the back of the building, where a door to the guild was. This would happen to be a much more daunting task, for as she exited the backstage and reformed into her natural state, the woman was trying to pry herself free. The two argued with each other, with Marcy pulling Marissa along harshly, then ultimately bumping into another of the butlers.

Freaking out, Marceline yanked the woman forward and dashed past the butler, narrowly dodging the first of fired bullets. "What the hell are those things?!" Marcy shouted out, wide-eyed as another bullet flew past her and Marissa as they turned a sharp corner.

"They're the high tech butlers for the opera house; used to serve and tend to the players of the operas and the audience. They were also meant to be a source of protection for those who are famous in the opera world, such as myself," Marissa answered her. "Now, would you kindly, unhand me?" The woman yanked herself free and managed to get a little distance between Marcy and her. However, Marceline simply reappeared at her side from her ash travel and snagged her by the hair, dragging her along.

"Bitch, you aren't going anywhere; you're my catch and I'm going to bring you back to Master for her to handle you," Marceline snapped back.

Reaching the door to their guild hall, Marcy tore it open and threw the blonde down through the portal and into the guild. She slammed it shut and darted off back toward the play, knowing that she was gone too long, the play would be thrown into panic. Yet she still had the butler chasing her and had to lose him first, though it wouldn't be that hard since all that machinery made them a tad slow. Weaving a labyrinth through the opera house, Marceline eventually lost sight of the butler chasing her and headed back to the backstage. Once she returned, she donned a blonde wig, put on the extra outfit that Marissa had been wearing, and got onto the stage. Breathing in deeply, the curtain was pulled up and the spotlight was dropped onto her, all eyes staring back at her. Marcy bit her lip and glanced back at all of her background members, who nodded and queued for her to start again.

Despite a few hiccups and trying to retain the composure that Marissa had on the stage, Marcy did fairly well in mocking her. Her master might notice, but other than that the ones watching the play weren't aware that she was not the true lead actress. Perhaps being on the stage was punishment for her in someway; she didn't know how, she felt that it was. Yet as the play progressed, Marcy found the longer she stood on the stage, the less she felt nervous and more like she was meant to be there. It was likely her personality kicking in, the old royalty-like persona that she donned back when she had once been a princess. This was in her blood to be a leading character and while the character was just that in a play, she was starting to take it seriously. Of course, she was merely winging the play now and acting on what her background characters did to get the hang of it.