"I agree," Arsen said. He kept a tight reign of his temper, although, with the tension in the car, it was a miracle how he managed. "We can't blow this. We have to act perfectly." He spread his hands on his legs. "How do we want to seperate? You remember what the target looks like, right?"
"Of course I do." Joanna whispered, glancing up to the driver. "I'm sure it won't be hard to find the man, though you say it like we're trying to kill him. Relax a little, I'm sure he'll be perfectly happy to take a look at your work."
"I hope so," Arsen muttered. "I know my part, you got yours. In and out. We can do this." He shook his head. "How do we want to bring him to the System? Or do we just kill him after the interrogation?" He didn't like the idea of killing anyone, but it was part of the mission; they had to.
Joanna froze up, glancing back up to the driver. She swore to god, if Arsen wasn't more careful, she was going to single handedly murder him on the spot. "Honey, what are you talking about? I think you're a little drowsy still from your nap." Joanna said sweetly, giving a light laugh. She so hoped he caught the hint. The driver could be listening, and they didn't need a trip to the police station on top of things tonight.
"He isn't listening," Arsen informed her in a quieter tone, understanding her glance. He waved one of his hands, and a silver barrier beccame visible over the windows and walls and floors. "You don't think I'm not careful?"
Mouth gapping just slightly, Joanna huffed just slightly. "I wouldn't know. It's not like you've been very careful around me." She snapped some, leaning back into her seat. "That would've been nice to know five minutes ago, so I didn't think you were going to get us taken to jail."
"It's better not to display my ability to others who aren't Diviners if I can help it." Arsen crossed his arms. "I've already broken that rule way too many times on this mission." He snapped his fingers, and the silver slowly melted back into their surfaces. The barriers were still there, but invisible.
"I've seen magic like that before," Joanna shrugged, scooching away from him some to give more space between them. "And in any consolation, it's not my fault you've shown me your magic. That was your own choice. You could've just told me you had it covered, or that the driver couldn't hear us."
"Yes, but if I told you, would you really have believed me?" Arsen asked, raising an eyebrow at her. He knew the answer to that, of course, but did she?
“I… I don’t know.” Joanna admitted letting out a huff of air. “I honestly don’t. Otherwise I’d tell you.” She mumbled, trying to switch back to the plan. “We aren’t going to kill him. We need to bring him back to the system, so they can continue from there. We may forget something in our investigation.”
"That's true," he acknowledged. "But weren't we assigned the job of killing him? I know part of the mission was to blow up the place, but should we… yeah, we should probably bring him back."
(Ooh, what if the reason why they are supposed to blow up the place is because it is a meeting of the rebellion, and the System knows, but thinks it would be more amusing to have the top leaders of the rebellion destroyed by two university students?)
(I like that, that works for me! It can be the reason they find out what happened in the past.)
"Bring him back, just in case. We'll kill him afterwards if they don't want him. We'll figure it out then what to do." Joanna nodded curtly, glancing out the window. "How long are we stuck in this car for?"
(Cool! And Luna and Jake are there too…)
"We should be there in a few more minutes," Arsen mumbled, staring out the window, deep in thought. I hope we can pull this off.
When the limo stopped and the driver opened the door, he was the first one out, turning to let Jo out with a smile that almost looked genuine.
(Of course lol)
Taken aback, she gave him a soft smile before sliding out herself. "You have the invitations, right? I'd be rather frustrated if I got all dressed up for nothing." Joanna hummed, feeling the urge to adjust his tie.
"Of course," he said with a fake sniff, sliding easily into the role he was given. "I'm not that forgetful." He held out his arm to her, sending her a smile as he did so, one that was almost real.
Pursing her lips, she ended up adjusting the tie before taking his arm. "I just wanted to make sure. I meant to ask you back at the hotel, clearly I forgot." Joanna hummed, standing up tall so she could press a kiss to his cheek. "Lead the way darling."
Adjusting the tie… that had been a very wife thing to do. Clearly she knew what she was doing. Arsen led her into the building. Cameras flashed, but he ignored them, just like any other rich person. They were annoying. As they stepped into the building, he fought a gasp. His family was one of the richest in the country, so he had seen many things… but this… this was enormous.
Joanna jumped a bit at his gasp, giving him a look of confusion. "Honey, haven't you been to a party before? You look surprised." Joanna teased him, leaning up to kiss his cheek softly. Normally the young-woman would be just as awed as he was, but she only had one thing running through her mind at the moment. And that was to get this mission over with. "Let's go get a drink, before we have to socialize."
"If you insist," he said in a teasing manner. Arsen stiffened suddenly at a feeling he knew too well, of eyes being upon him. He leaned down to whisper, "Something doesn't feel right. I think we're being watched." He led her to the drinks. "What would you like?" He asked Jo.
Whatever makes the nightmares go away… Plastering on a smile, Joanna tried to ignore the odd feeling she was getting. "Anything is fine with me. I really don't care." She hummed softly, glancing over the dozens of glasses. "Surprise me."
Arsen turned to the guy running the drinks. "She'll have anything. And… I'll have the same she does." He had never had half the drinks on the menu. They sounded exotic.
Joanna would agree, everything was so foreign and strange sounding. She wasn't sure she want to drink something she didn't even know how to pronounce. "Are we trying to look for my cousin, or just let her come to us?"
"We can go to her," Arsen decided. He accepted the drinks from the bartender, handing one to Joanna. "I have no idea what this is, but it smells good," he murmured with the smallest of smiles.
Smiling back, she took her own drink and sipped from it. "I just hope it's not poisoned," Joanna joked with a light laugh. "Guess it's too late if it was, I'll know in about twenty minutes."
"Or maybe an hour," Arsen said, grinning, with a shrug. "Who knows. Maybe it's a slow-acting poison, you never know."