Swans and Snakes [Private/Ahote & Ruben]

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For a few moments, Aoi Itou stared into the mirror on the wall of the twins’ dorm room, sifting her fingers through her long bangs. They’d been called to help out on a task with their guild master of all people – yeah, that kid they’d met on the first day was now older than them and the guild master of all things – and she wanted to make sure she was perfectly presentable. If there was anything the teen idols had learned in their relatively short careers, it was that appearance was one of the most important factors required to succeed in essentially anything.  For what they would be doing – an interrogation of sorts, gleaning information from a legal guild member, a more innocent image might fit better…perfect. Aoi’s specialty.

The youth smiled sweetly into the mirror, adding a slight curl to her bangs to make them seem less serious, and then working towards rearranging her face. The tendrils of flesh swarmed across the surface of her face, surely looking absolutely horrifying to any casual outsider. However, the person who pushed open the door while she was in the middle of her work barely batted an eyebrow at the picture. “What’s taking you so long?” A quiet sigh escaped from her twin’s mouth, the boy flopping cross-legged onto her bed. Already, his own face had been fixed up to the way he wanted it. A rather nondescript, youthful appearance that gave him the image of a teenager who hadn’t fully gone through puberty quite yet. Hmmm…her brother was skillful, but Aoi was by no means about to let him outdo her. Her smirk looking grotesque amongst the moving bits and pieces, the idol watched as her expression slowly took shape on her face. Wide, innocent eyes that looked neither shifty nor surgically performed on, soft features that added just a little bit of fat to the sharp jawline she usually donned normalized her appearance, accented by the small mouth with petit lips that curved up in the way that boys always considered to be “absolutely adorable”. Excellent.

Dabbing on light spots of makeup to accent the look, Aoi would toss her hair up into a loose ponytail before slipping into the sundress that Akano, their servant spirit had retrieved for her. “Alright, let’s go now, brother dearest.” Rolling her eye at the more serious boy, she strolled leisurely out of the room, making her way down the stairs.

“Took you long enough – why do you take so long, anyways? Aren’t you supposed to be even better at disguises than I am?” His tone held a hint of disgust, something the girl responded to with a cheeky smirk. “Perfection cannot be rushed, Aoba. You of all people should know that – I swear, you spend so long with each girl at fan meetings it’s absolutely revolting.”

“Shut the fuck up, Aoi.” The banter would continue cheerfully through their mental connection as the twins slipped out the back door, masks hiding their changed faces. It was one of the advantages of being famous – wear face masks, and no one bats an eye. Perfect for doing a bit of illegal business when needed.

“Where are we meeting the guild master, anyways?” Posing the question towards her brother, Aoi would pause briefly in her tracks. The two had arrived in Hargeon by now, the city where they had arranged to meet up with the legal mage. Going under the premise of being interested in joining Crystal Swan but being too scared to go meet up with the actual guild master or anyone else, they were to meet up with a slightly lower member to learn more about how the guild worked, and maybe gain some basic information.

“Some café around here, I believe,” was Aoba’s response, eyes slipping over the signs upon the recently rebuilt buildings. After the terrible attack a year or so back, the city had barely recovered, and faint signs of disorder could still be seen as they glanced about. They were around the general vicinity, so hopefully they’d catch sight of the man sooner or later.

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