Scene #7182: Where Demons Fear to Tread

Owner	Pose
Hesinca	The job details are simple and up front: 1. Get to the Business Tower of Heaven in Celestia (easy enough, there's a warpgate in the lobby.) 2. Navigate to Floor 108b, Raqia Meeting Room. 3. Take possession of a cart full of human souls, along with the payment* for taking them. 4. Get both out of the tower. 5. Get paid for participating in this fetch quest. You actually got half up front already, because Hesinca's firm is aware that deals made with demons don't have the best reputation. (* These souls are being 'sold' at a negative value. This can happen when the cost of processing them for reincarnation becomes higher than the value expected to get from them from processing, including the deposit value that purgatory gives for returning a properly blank-slated soul. A useful comparison is how crude oil futures went briefly negative in real life this year; in both cases, paying someone else to deal with the barrels of noxious crude oil (or unpleasant human soul) is a viable business strategy.) Anyone too attuned to chaos may feel a bit uneasy - not because of any sort of angelic aura, but because the whole place is just... too orderly. Straight lines everywhere, precise 45 and 90 degree intersections. Even the nice ornamental fountains in the lobby have their water features angled. The tower's architecture is laid out in some unnatural ways, to be sure, but even that is a sort of ordered unnaturalness, like the cubic clusters on a vein of pyrite. The general vibe is what you'd expect from a stereotypical 'heaven', with soft lights and an overall white aesthetic... albeit one provided by flourescent white panels overhead, looking more like 'business office' than 'fluffy white clouds'. (( https://i.imgur.com/CXjAa4Y.png )) The tower stretches upwards to an ineffable height, and outwards to an untractable width, but at least the lobby is easy to understand. Here is the front desk, over there is the directory and the map (or at least a sort of one). In the back there's rows of elevators in all shapes and sizes. All around rush angels and penguin-golems, going about the divine business of the divine. There's a lot of briefcases and manilla folders and the like. You have a set of strategic initiatives here. Shift the paradigm and scrum to it.
Linehart	This is a Quest. There's a set of objectives. There's a payment. That this happens to involve human souls is really not all that different from any other quest. It's a little odd - normally you get items, not concepts - but hey, if it's how this world works, it's how it works. It's not like Linehart's own world doesn't have concepts other people find absolutely insane. Like, for example, Linehart turning down the payment up front. The huge, dark-armored monster of a man simply walks away when the first part of the payment is offered. He doesn't explain why. He doesn't give a reasoning. He doesn't say, for example, that you should only get paid after you finish a quest, or that he doesn't need any payment at all. His red-scar visor simply stares at the proffered preward as his ever-present music changes from its ominous neutral to an upbeat and confused carnivalesque beat, gets slow and ponderous, and then goes back to neutral when he finally leaves. Man that's weird. Linehart sticks out like a sore thumb in the business lobby. The roiling smoke cape clashes horribly with the heavenly office. The dark and ominous music practically screams 'Evil Overlord', because, well, that's what it is. The crimson glow at the end of his spear, like it's been dipped in blood. The weird silence to his footsteps, to his motions, where there should be a clanging noise. Not that he's stealthy, of course; it's basically impossible to be stealthy when you're seven feet tall and have dark theme music around you. Linehart just kind of walks towards the elevator with the impression of someone who flat-out owns the place. He's not really all that fascinated by the penguins and angels and such; he has no concept of Heaven and the only concept of a God he's ever had is the Evil God Discordia, which, well, let's be honest, fits this place even worse than Linehart does. No, as he walks towards the elevator, visor-front, spear over his shoulder, a trail of smoke in his wake, it's like he's daring someone to stop him. He's not, obviously, but it'd be the obvious look he's got going on with that imperious evil overlord stride.
Guzma	This is not a place Guzma ever thought he'd tread, and he didn't expect it to be so...office-like. Heaven, huh? At least he got paid up front. The thug leader is dressed in his jacket and chains and shades, with the three hair-colorcoded grunts strutting behind him. The white-haired man steps over to a fountain, squinting over it and looking into his reflection, before he thinks. They'll probably have to do paperwork. He snaps his fingers a few times in frustration. "If there's any paperwork, you guys can handle it." "Sure thing, boss!" The three state in unison, as the group moves to bypass the lobby entirely if they can. They're going to walk straight for the elevator, following the 'clearly evil guy', and step into the elevator with him if they can. As they pass by, Guzma thumbs his nose at Linehart. "Man, ain't this place a bore? All white and pristine. It's practically begging for some paint." Start up a conversation. This guy's probably edgy and cool.
Sylvi	Heaven. Even just hearing the name for the place gets Sylvi up in a lather. How dare they demand some service! The gods have some audacity, don't they? The gods have some bloody ner- Arriving at the Straight Place is confusing for Sylvi, who has a red brick in one hand and a crazed look in her eyes, because it's nothing like what she expected. "Uh... Well, it's on a cloud, but -" Nothing's in the right place. "This isn't Olympus, is it...?" She continues, tossing the brick over her shoulder and jamming both hands into her pockets. "Why are you even here, Guzma?" She needles, as the party gathers in the ELEVATOR. "I was expecting something very different." She admits.
Hesinca	Linehart gets odd looks. Huge, dark-armor, cape, and ominous music... "You think you can turn that down?" asks a passing-by angel. Others just steer clear, giving him a wide berth. He sticks out in their pretty little world of order and soft light. Most of them just categorize him as a visiting demon or something like that, if only for the sake of then being able to ignore him and go about their days without further undue curiosity. Guzma and his lackeys, though, get a different reaction. While the angelic masses clear a path for Linehart to close through, they don't part for Guzma and Sylvi, and they have to push through. "Ugh, humans... they'll let just anyone in here now, won't they," says a different angel, not quite out of Guzma's range of hearing. "I swear, they're worse than the prinnies..." adds a different angel, also not quite out of Guzma's range of hearing. Regardless of whichever form of casual species-ism is going on, Linehart and Team Skull both reach the elevator - one that does not go straight to the floor they want, they may note. It'll go up to 33, and then they'll have to transfer to the one that goes to 108b. Just as the elevator doors start to close, a call of "WAIT, DOOD!" comes their way. A prinny, carrying several boxes of donuts, squeezes its way in, and then the elevator starts moving. "Hey, thanks for holding the door, doods," it says, regardless of whether or not they did hold it. "Crazy out there today, right, doods? Thought I'd get trampled, and I don't wanna learn what happens when you die twice, right, doods?"
Linehart	The red-cross scar of a visor slowly turns towards Guzma as the huge man walks. That weird, whimsical carnival version of the ominous beat starts up. He only breaks silence after a few more strides, and when he does, it's a deep, Early JRPG-style set of beeps that somehow translates to normal English anyway. If he had a 'real' voice it would be deep and dark and ominous, the sort of voice that makes fangirls forgive him for atrocities and gets edgy teens to slap him on the front of their school journals. "I suppose." His helmet turns back forward as his music turns back to normal. "It has a starkness of purpose about it. An emptiness. Motion without meaning. Wheels, turning endlessly for nothing." The helmet turns towards Sylvi as well, staring at her in the same manner as he did Guzma, before it turns back towards the wall. "It is indeed a curious existence." He stops when the angel asks him to turn it down. He simply turns to face the angel. There are no words. There is no reply. There is merely the eerie, inhuman stare of the helmet. He stares at the angel until he decides enough is enough, at which point, he turns back to the elevator and strides forward again. As the doors start to close, the prinny shouts 'wait, dood!' Linehart reaches out with one hand and sticks it between the elevator doors in a surprising show of politeness from somebody who oozes 'supervillain.' The Prinny thanks him for holding the door. Linehart says nothing. When the Prinny mentions that it's crazy, however, Linehart does in fact address the Prinny, which as anyone who has played Disgaea knows is a tremendous mistake. Unfortunately, Linehart is not from a tactical SRPG in which you should be grinding to 9999999 before you fight the giga-secret optional boss, and therefore does not know any better. "Is it particularly unusual?" He says, "Why? What manner of disruption has your order in such disarray?"
Guzma	Sylvi is here! Great. Angels are here! And they're insulting Guzma! Double-great. Guzma gestures vaguely in their direction as he passes by, right when they wouldn't notice and right when he's climbing into the elevator. "Yeah, screw you too!" Sylvi gets a response once they're inside, cramped together with his trio. "I'm getting paid by that centaur-demon chick. Need some cash before I train hard." And then, to the prinny... "Yeah, yeah." But it's Rapp, the girl member of the Skull Trio, who responds. "Woah, you're adorable! -wait, is that what it's like to be dead? I can't wait!" Rapp had no idea what she said before she said it, because she has zero filter. She does not actually want to be dead.
Sylvi	Sylvi had discarded her brick because of her belief that this was some weird Big "Heaven" situation that was acceptably different from her idea of 'Heaven'. Some quirk of the Multiverse that she needed to find her chill with, for someone that was part 'of her extended family' - the Concord. Getting insulted on her way to the elevator, however, rapidly depletes any goodwill she had. Still, the simple fact is that nobody here has it within their power to get in the way of Sylvi's walk from A to B. They can get walked on or they can move - really, up to them. Sylvi is called worse than a prinny, as she's jammed into an elevator with An Idiot (named Rapp), and a Prinny (Named Donut). Her eye twitches. "You don't want to be anything from here. This is garbage." The Prinny talking just gets sat on, while Sylvi leans against the side of the elevator and half-crosses her leg, ankle on her knee. "I hate it here and I miss my brick."
Hesinca	Pfft, what, just because it's a Disgaea theme means that there's a super-secret prinny boss that's the hardest fight in existence? ... I mean, yes, there is one, but check back in a year and a half for that particular bonus fight once the main plot's wrapped up. "One of the big firms is, like, balancing the books, dood," says the prinny, not even commenting when it gets sat upon. "I don't mean like literally balancing them, but there's all this paperwork where they make everything square, dood. I mean more extra square than usual, am I right, dood?" "Being dead's okay, dood. I don't remember much of being alive so I don't have much to compare it to, dood," says the prinny, just as the elevator dings and the doors open onto floor 33. "Mostly I just run donuts and coffee and strange women sit on me, which turns out to not be nearly as fun as it sounds, dood," "Right! I think I take this one, dood, here," says the prinny, moving up to one of the other elevators once Sylvi gets off of it. It is, in fact, the same one the group needs to take to reach floor 108b, based on the directions given. A few seconds later, nd when that one dings and the doors open, the donut-holding penguin golem steps forward... ... out into empty space, since the door's opened into an empty shaft without the car being present. "DOOD!" it calls as it falls, the donuts going everywhere.
Linehart	Linehart looks at Sylvi as she sits on the Prinny. He says nothing on the subject. It's just kind of one of those things where the music turns back to the carnival theme, like he's sort of amused by the whole thing, like it's just kind of...funny. "Your brick." The huge man turns back to the door as the Prinny speaks of balancing the books. He's about to ask the question when the Prinny steps out into empty space. For a man in heavy armor, he's surprisingly quick on the draw. The heavy man lunges forward to grab the Prinny by its collar and raise it back into the elevator. "Fool, watch where you step. You nearly led us to our own demise, and took valuable information with you. You have not yet divulged the nature of this firm nor its purpose beyond balancing your books. Speak, lest I drop you back down the shaft." Threats aren't lies, technically. He turns back to look at Guzma and Sylvi. "Our path appears blocked. I may have something to open the way, but if you have an alternative suggestion, it may be more worthwhile."
Guzma	As the prinny steps out the door, towards the other elevator the group needs to take, and naerly double-dies, Rapp gasps, Tupp and Zipp back up Guzma as they are not the stars of this episode, and Guzma crosses his arms. As Linehart proceeds to save the prinny and then threaten it... "Yo, are you a real G? Got that armor, that aesthetic, that tone of voice." And then, Guzma turns to the prinny as well. "Yeah, give us those funky lore drops, 'dood'."
Linehart	There is another burst of that carnival music intruding upon Linehart's theme as Guzma speaks. A moment later, Linehart produces a gold coin and places it in Guzma's hand. It, of course, reads 'Jee.' "I am Linehart, the Mirror Knight. My Sphere is Evil Knight."
Sylvi	"Oh, of course!" Sylvi cants her hands up in the laziest form of a 'throw her hands up' gesture. "They're accountants. Of course. That's why they think they've got shit to say!" It all falls into place. "Accountants don't have a soul in the first place. They can just look at a sheet of numbers and perform..." A dismissive finger-wiggle. "Numbermancy, or maybe just absorb power from the math. They're like monks, who only eat gruel paste and use a level on every surface. Except the paste is just numbers." Sylvi drops her hands back into her lap. "That's just facts." The door dings and the prinny forces Sylvi to brace her back to not fall over - INCONSIDERATE! - as he tries to end it all. Linehart grabs him. "Hey! Don't go trying to kill yourself because you ran out of numbers. Hit the elvator, we need to go to one-oh-eight to get through this garbage. We're saving souls from this hell of accountancy." Sylvi moves over (shoving past Radd) to jam her finger against the buttons to see if they work. "Trust accountants to have defective elevators. It's not even the right number." Linehart asks her about her brick. "Yeah, my brick. I ditched it because I was going to burn this Heaven down. I'm back to contemplating arson."
Hesinca	The prinny is caught. The donuts are not so lucky. "Ah, um, yes of course dood," it says quickly, not wanting to fall and find out for a fact what happens when you die twice. "Um..." "So it's, you know, the afterlife, dood. Celestia. This is where the good people go when they die, dood," it says, a statement that is more opinion than fact, but nevermind that for now. "I died, I have to work off my sins, I get to go reincarnate, dood, assuming that I don't die again? I don't know how that works, dood, and I really don't want to find it out today, dood!" "But like, you have to go work off accumulated... stuff, dood? Like sins, dood. They just kinda drip off, and they get poured into this generator thing I think, dood? And it keeps the lights on, dood. And the elevators running, mostly, dood. And this tower is where it all happens, dood." "Like there's more stuff here in Celestia than just the Tower, like the donut shop... aw, man, I'm gonna have to go get more donuts, dood." All of the elevators in this elevator hall look like they go to different subsets of floors, and there's no real pattern as to which elevator goes to which floors. There is a 108 button on one of them, but no 108b...
Linehart	"A fire seems a most inefficient means of destruction. One would expect that a place in which paper holds such power would be well-prepared against an attack of that nature." Linehart pauses before he says, "Why would you wish to burn it, in any case? It seems a more torturous punishment to simply let it continue to spin its wheels infinitely." The Prinny's talk of the afterlife and so on is basically right over his head, but when the Prinny says that souls can work off their sins here, in this place, Linehart's response is...surprisingly violent. He grabs the Prinny by the face and shoves it into the wall, his visor burning an ominous red color. "There is no means by which one can wash away their sin," his dark voice beeps, "No means by which that which is evil can be made just." His armor presses against the Prinny's beak. "If this place is such a mockery, then I see well why it deserves destruction." This is probably the most violent Linehart has been since he was an actual villain. He releases the Prinny, letting it slide to the floor. Then he stomps his foot lightly, like a general demanding attention. "Stand up. We seek 108b. Find it, else find someone who knows how to find it. And hurry. I am not the only one like to lose my patience among us."
Hesinca	"AWK! I'm sorry, dood, you're right, sins can't work off their souls here, whatever you say dood!" it says hurriedly, in no hurry to find out what happens if you die twice up here. "Um, dood, um, um... oh, I know! You take that elevator to floor 25, cut across, and then there's another elevator that reaches 108b! And what are the odds that both of the 108b elevators are out of service, dood! That'd be silly, ah heh. Heh, dood. (Please don't kill me dood.)"
Guzma	Rapp is shoved past, almost tripping, but Tupp and Zipp catch her. Guzma frowns at that, out of Sylvi's sight, but he doesn't say anything - pick your battles and all - and instead ignores Linehart's rage to look at the floor they're on. He scans for other elevators up, or staircases, or even a directory. Better to be proactive than just sitting around bullying a penguin. "Yeah, what he said." Guzma then says, once his cursory search is done. And then the Prinny tells them the answer! Oh. "It's /out of service/?! If you tell us we have to climb the staircase or the elevator shaft, ugh, g-" He cuts himself off before he slips something that might get Sylvi to snap his neck, replacing it with "guh". "I can get up the elevator shaft if that's the only way, but there's gotta be a faster, less annoying way, yo."
Linehart	The Prinny tells them where to go. Linehart hefts the Prinny by the head in one huge hand. "You had best hope those odds are slim." "An alternative route may be wise in any case."
Sylvi	"Well, if 102 is near 102b, that's fine too. We can just make a path there." Sylvi decides, clapping her right fist into her left palm. "But I'm glad we're on the same page for arson. And hey!" She grins. "We can just ride whichever elevator is back down." Sylvi processes this for a second. "They're all going to be out of order, aren't they." She states. It's not really a question. "Do the STAIRS go to 102 or 102b?"
Hesinca	"... Stairs? Do you think any of us would bother with the elevators if we could use straightforward stairs, dood?" --- Cutting through floor 25 turns out to be a little more difficult than traversing a normal office. The layout of the place doesn't quite make sense; hallways lead into other hallways lead into rows of cubicles that lead through break rooms. The path goes through one such break room where there has been a murder. There's no subtle way to describe it, there's a blood splatter on the tile floor of the break room, a trail of which leads off to one of the break room cabinets that the body has obviously been stuffed inside of, given that it is actively dripping blood. The break room is also occupied by a pair of bloody-handed angels who most certainly didn't abruptly stop what they were doing when they heard Linehart's music approaching and focus intently on making coffee and hoping that nobody notices the obvious murder. No, they're just in here making coffee at the counter, acting like nothing is wrong. The prinny doesn't seem at all surprised. "Gonna have to call the cleaning crew, dood," it mutters as it continues on, as if intending to just ignore whatever's going on here.
Linehart	Upon entering the breakroom there is a very, very long moment where Linehart simply...stops. He stares at the angels. At the bloody hand. At the murder. Claw-gauntlet fingers twitch slightly at the sight. His music turns a deeper, darker tone, one shred away from battle music. The original objective is...not forgotten, but rendered to a different place. The fingers twitch again. If they could make noise they would assuredly click together like crab-claws. It's not a stride. He does not need to stride. The glint of his gaze in the coffee pot suddenly comes alive. The angel making coffee finds a giant black claw-gauntlet reaching out to grab its own. Two voices speak as one as Linehart walks through the room, following the Prinny without looking at the thing. "I am Linehart, the Mirror Knight. My Sphere is Evil Knight." "To know me is to know despair." "Know me." He continues walking out of the room as the gauntlet drags the angel towards the coffee pot. Linehart doesn't spare a second glance as a second massive hand reaches out to grab the angel by the throat. Linehart is very, very strong. He is not going to kill the angel. But he is going to knock it out. And his duplicate is going to flick downstairs and file a very formal complaint.
Guzma	They get to the next floor! A murder happened. Guzma sees the blood and squints, as Rapp covers her eyes and Tupp and Zipp look aghast. "The hell?" The leader says, before... Linehart clones himself and moves to deck an angel. But as Linehart Also decides to follow the prinny, Guzma just, leads his gang along and moves to the next elevator, gold coin still in hand. He flips the jee a few times, still confused about why he has it, but keeping it nonetheless. "You even wondering why that whacked that guy?"
Sylvi	"They're harvesting his sin juice. Like the penguin said, they use it to run the lights." Sylvi opines, fists in jacket pockets. "Which isn't weird, I guess? And then they decided to caffienate. Also not weird." Linehart spawns a mirror copy to grab one by the throat and threaten as a bonus action. "I'm kind of invested in what the souls look like, now. If they're a thing, or like, a corpse with more steps."
Linehart	"A corpse with more steps?" Linehart asks as they walk.
Sylvi	Sylvi pulls her right fist from her coat and starts counting off with her fingers. "They don't talk, they don't think, they don't feel, but they're just a magic ball of being-energy. A corpse with more steps. Something like that."
Linehart	"Do you often deal with such things?" The carnival music returns in full force.
Sylvi	"Sure. My aunt, Hel, runs the Underworld. It's a bunch of hairy dead guys and a bunch of corpses with extra steps. None of them are good at Xbox, so, got that going for me." Sylvi answers. "Like balls of light in cages and stuff."
Hesinca	"What the-" Poor angels. All they were doing was murdering a coworker in order to steal his promotion. Is that so wrong? And now they're getting choked out by a hand coming out of their coffee pot. While Linehart stays behind to accomplish this sub-objective, Linehart and the rest continue on. Fortunately there are no more eventful encounters till they get to the elevator that takes them up to 108b... ... and from there, to the meeting room. It's a surprisingly normal looking meeting room, with a long rectangular meeting room desk, and also a tall dark-haired angel whose face is lightly scarred. "Greetings. I am known as Araqiel, of Sanctified Solutions Incorporated. I take it you're here to pick up?" "Have a seat and make yourselves comfortable, I insist." He's very soft spoken and polite, and if the appearance of the group strikes him as odd, he doesn't comment or react to it. "I hoped to have donuts and refreshments here for you, but they appear to be running late." An anime sweatdrop appears on the prinny accompanying the group.
Linehart	DOWNSTAIRS The huge, black figure of Trahenil emerges from the elevator. In each massive clawed gauntlet is clutched an angel throat. He drags them, physically, along the floor. The bloody hands drip on the flawless marble. The music that follows him is dark and ominous, not neutral at all - music of anger just on the border of rage, of frustration. He strides purposefully past the clouds of angels, the storm of prinnies, the lookie-loos and bystanders. When at last he arrives at his destination, he stops. Thump. Thump. Two unconscious angels are slammed down onto the Welcome Desk hard enough to knock around whatever nameplates might be present. In a voice as ominous as his music, the giant, black-armored nightmare speaks. "I wish to register..." "A complaint."
Guzma	Guzma moves to take a seat as they get there. He puts his hands together like a menacing mob boss, tilting forward his chair. "Araqiel, is that so? I'm Guzma, and these are my 'associates', Tupp, Rapp, and Zipp." "Yo!" They say together. "Where are the souls we're supposed to pick up?"
Sylvi	There was supposed to be doughnuts and refreshments... Sylvi pans her gaze towards the Prinny, simultaneous to the sweatdrop. "They're at the bottom of the elevator shaft that gets off at floor thirty-three." She notes, finding a seat to kick her feet up in. "So, just a free tip: If you have deliveries and pickups, have them on the first floor? I mean, this SHOULD be free, but..." An all-encompassing gesture is given to the Extra Straight Room. "You seem like you have some reality issues. Why bring us all the way up here to take something that you want gone?" MEANWHILE: Linehart wishes to Speak With A Manager. Way to neraK, Mirror Linehart.
Hesinca	"So, as to business..." "... The receipts are here in this folder, the payment is here - if you wish to count it, you may take your time to do so..." A folder and a briefcase full of cash are both placed on the table. "And the souls, of course," says Araqiel, going to a side room and bringing out what looks like a rolling cart that one would use to store basketballs in a grade school gymnasium. (( https://i.imgur.com/rVrJcJQ.png )) Except it's not holding basketballs, but rippling glowing orbs... that are about the same size as basketballs. "Before I answer why we are doing this transaction up here... may I ask what your role in this deal is? Are you simply hired adventurers - perhaps I should use a different phrasing, I do not mean to imply you are 'simply' anything. Quite the contrary, really..." "... But it is somewhat sensitive information, if you happen to care overmuch about a world not your own." "Ohhh!" says the prinny. "It's the audit that's going on, isn't it!" A flicker of annoyance crosses Araqiel's face, but only for a moment.
Linehart	This is so far beyond Linehart's ability to understand on basically every level that the Mirror Knight just doesn't say anything. He stands in the back, behind Guzma and Sylvi and the Trio, looking extremely ominous and doing little else. His music is almost at Elevator Music levels of neutral. Almost. "What we are is not your concern," Linehart says, his voice deep and low, "I would be done with this miserable business sooner than later, lest what little grasp I still hold over my temper falter." He moves behind the rolling cart and grips part of it in a heavy claw. "I can transport these myself far more efficiently, if you wish," he says to Sylvi and Guzma, clearly pretending like Araqiel isn't even in the room.
Guzma	"I work with the centaur lady, if that's what you're asking. Not in Hell or anything, out in the Multiverse." Guzma says, casually, stretching back. "Come on, spill the details. Make this all worth our time, y'know? Or don't, if they're useless. Either way, let's get this over with." He starts to stand up mid-next time Araqiel's speaking, not leaving to ignore him but trying to the exposition going as fast as possible, mashing text boxes.
Hesinca	"If you don't care, then we're trying to clear out toxic assets before our valuation for the merger... and I see you don't care, yes," says Araqiel. "I can possibly offer you some other jobs, if you are willing to work under the table, but if not then I'll wish you well."
Guzma	"Sure." Is what Guzma says about 'some other jobs'. "As long as I don't have to explore this heavenhole more, that's fine. I like getting paid." Is what Guzma says, as he instructs the trio to give Linehart a hand.
Sylvi	"Evil Knight?" Sylvi wonders, before pointing at the basketball carrier. "That's a corpse with more steps." An ineffable finger scratches a single line under Sylvi's column... Metaphorically. It joins the others. Sylvi is Regularly Right. "Toxic assets? They're souls. They should just be assets. No? Okay. Well, I'd love to hear all of this, but I'm really done with this, so we'll be taking the express elevator." Sylvi reaches over, grabs the Guilty Prinny, and tosses them underhanded at the window. The expected result is, of course, the penguin smashing through the window, falling to it's potentially second death, and probably shouting something funny on the way down. Instead, the poor doll-like creature SQUEAK-HONKS as it connects with the window, and squeakyslides down the glass. It doesn't explode, she did not throw overhead. That's science. "I... Ok, so for the angelic mafia, I should've expected security glass. That's my bad. Evil Knight, can you just do the--" She pantomimes sipping a cup, pinky out. "--coffee cup thing and skip us having to do the whole elevator thing again? I'm just jumping down an elevator shaft." "Look. Briefcase of cash, folder with papers, very important, come back soon for shady jobs." Sylvi claps. "Goonzmas, help the Evil Knight." It's clear she just thought of 'Goonzmas'.
Hesinca	"... Dood..." says the prinny, dazed. "I do take some offense at the term 'angelic mafia'," says the mafia angel. "But I suppose I cannot dissuade you otherwise. And yes, this is not the first time someone has tried defenestration - though that was usually in the middle of a deal, not... immediately following its conclusion."
Linehart	The three Goonzmas come over to assist Linehart. The huge, hulking black armor gives them a long stare. After a moment, an inventory window opens. It scrolls down to an empty space rapidly, making a little 'beep' noise with each cursor movement. Finally it hits the empty space, and the soul cart disappears into it with a 'bwip'. It has a little icon and everything! 'Cart Full Of Souls x1'. "Your assistance will not be required. I will ensure that you are paid in full." And then Linehart just kind of disappears into the mirror-polish floor. He will reappear directly in Hesinca's office and just unceremoniously remove the cart from his inventory.
Sylvi	Sylvi stares pointedly as the Mirror Knight disappears into the floor after inventory'ing the Cart Of Toxic Assets. Sylvi seems totally chill for about three ticks of the obviously narratively loud second hand of the mandatory analog office clock. "Stupid EVIL KNIGHT!" Sylvi shouts, out of nowhere, picking up the couch and overhanding it at the window this time, dumping Guzma off it in the process. This, too, bounces off the security glass. "I thought he was going to take us with him! At least he could take me!" "Now I've got to do the ELEVATOR PUZZLE AGAIN!!!" Sylvi storms out of the office into the elevator, and immediately opens the elevator's top hatch to limberly climb up and into the guts of the elevator system. Her voice is distantly audible. "Stupid bleeding elevator puzzle, I'm DONE with you!" MEANWHILE, ON THE FIRST FLOOR, A MINUTE OF FALLING LATER: The lobby has a loud, crunching 'WUMP' dull-thud at the base of the elevator lobbies. A door is peeled open, and Sylvi is lightly dusted in black grease and cable oil. "Ding." She deadpans, and tracks drywall and machine fluids through the pristine white halls on her way out. "The elevator's out of order, by the way!" She calls back to the front desk. "Never coming back here again, shady mafia or otherwise..."