Quote Originally Posted by Draken View Post
Mortal World
The Tomb of Flame

Before Oscar and Alexandra, a massive brass furnace smolders in solitude, the air shimmering from the heat around it.

"Yeah, yeah. I will take the lead."

Oscar draws his claymore and tears open a gash large enough for himself in the metal shell.

Inside it, the flames roar in a spiraling maelstrom, but do not escape to the outside.

"But this whole place is out of energy, odds are that any guards left won't be able to leave their alcoves."
"...Very well." Alexandra looks around at the flames, concentrating for a moment as Oscar presses forward. The liquid in the bottle almost immediately shifts to a bluish almost vapor-like substance, and the glass, despite the heat, starts to frost over. With that, she taps along after the huge Arrancar. "Then I do not expect freeing the Knight will be a problem." Beads of sweat roll down her face at the heat, but she does not remove her cloak.

[Soul Society]
(SSI research facility)

Chouko pays no mind to the bumping against the wall of her personal lab as she blasts tunes from her proper musical setup. With a smile, she adjusts and checks the bearings and inner mechanisms of her mechanical limbs for imperfections, down to the screw.

However, when the banging comes from her door, she has no choice but to pause it. Approaching the portal, she slides it open, giving the person on the other side an... well, she's grinning like an idiot. This guy basically hated her.

"...Look. The month you were gone was the happiest month in my life. But now you're back. And your music is knocking things off my shelf. I had to put a lip on most of them. Why do you hate me."

"Hate you? Nawww, man. You and I gotta back'n forth. It's for good times sake. And I know you missed those fat beats."

"I did not. I silently wished you would die." The latter part goes unheard as Chouko laughs.

"Aw, c'mon man, I'm enriching your life. Any more and you'll be downright radioactive."

"What does that even mean. You make no sense. You have to know that."

"It means..." Chouko flips a remote in her hand, and the speakers blast to life again.
"Get down, son, if ya can't appreciate the atomic weight of this beat, ya better be ready to throw in and conjugate some lyrical debate."

Her neighbor throws his arms up in defeat. "I hate you." Departing, he returns to his own lab.

...It was lucky for Chouko she only had the one neighbor. Any more and she might start racking up too many complaints and, kami forbid, have to actually turn down her music.

With that, however, the mechanical engineer sets back to work.