Violet flies into Meridian and enters Solaire to meet up with Hinata again. On entering, she notices the waiting room is about the same. The receptionist has a different dress on, green with yellow flowers. It's super pretty on her. Aside from that, nothing has changed. The waiting room is generic aside from comfortable looking seats and some various magazines. A couple potted plants face the windows towards the streets of Meridian, and there's a little bit of classical music piped in.
Rebecca looks up from her phone and smiles to Violet. "How can I help you?"
Violet smiles back, "I am here to see Hinata."
The receptionist's behavior has changed a little bit since the last Violet saw her. No longer are they bored looking or snapping gum. Rebecca nods and presses a button on her desk, "Lady Hinata, you have Miss Violet here to see you?"
While waiting, Violet strikes up a conversation, "So how have you been Rebecca?"
"I've been pretty well. Keeping myself busy. The weather out here has been horrible, especially a couple days ago. Since when does blood rain from the sk-- you know what, I'm not going to question it," Rebecca sighs, "Aside from Lady Hinata having appointments daily, things have been rather calm on our side. We had to hire someone to clean our windows recently. They were stained with blood!" At this moment, a bell above the elevator rings and Hinata exits. She is back to her usual prim and proper self. Not much has changed about her physically aside from what she's wearing though it's just a different kimono. It has cats on it though, so that's neat. She walks out and greets Violet with a smile, "Ah, Miss Violet, so very nice to see you once more. Please come with me."
Violet follows. "Have a good day Rebecca."
They enter the elevator and it goes up. Rebecca nods and returns to her phone.
----------
As the elevator arrives, the bell rings once more and the door opens. In front of Violet is the same office from before, same figurines though a few more were added. There is a telescope pointed towards one of the windows, and the potted plants appear to have been rearranged a little bit. Still comfortable looking! Hinata turns to Violet, "please look around as you wish. I must take care of something." She turns left and goes into another room and locks the door.
Violet asks if everything is alright, but she gets no response from Hinata. She tries to listen into whatever's happening in private, but no sounds permeate the otherwise thick wood. While she has time, she goes to investigate the office. Over by the far wall, Violet finds a closet featuring Hinata's clothing, bed sheets, and similar such items. There is no room to hide in it. She then walks to the bookshelf behind Hinata's desk and examines it. Most of the books are rather professional-minded: books about business, famous figures that Violet hadn't heard of, and science. Some others near the bottom left corner stand out. Western superhero comic books are amongst the mass of literature, mostly Marvel comics though a couple DC here or there. She also finds a copy of "Magic - An Understanding of Magical Abilities." Flipping to a random page in the book, she reads about the Agency of Arcane Affairs, the governmental body in their world.
The main governing body in our World is known as the Agency of Arcane Affairs, which will be henceforth known as the AAA (because it makes us scream in frustration anytime they're brought up). The AAA controls the magic within our world and can change properties of certain spells and abilities at will. Many have protested against them, requesting more user-intervention before changing mana costs and effects, but they don't appear to want to change. Most of these changes happen without warning. A law was passed years ago dictating that users connected to certain parties are fully unable to use Magical Abilities, but it seems workarounds for this ban are being researched.Violet nods in interest as she writes it down on her notes. She walks over to the door Hinata walked though and tries to open it. It's locked. As time passes, very very silently coming from that door is some kind of sound. It sounds like music. And there's a shuffling of feet. The door unlocks. Violet opens it quietly, looking inside. Inside her private chambers is a place for Hinata to get away from drama and relax. She has high-quality headphones in there to listen to music and just vibe, alongside comfortable chairs, and a bed. Plus snacks! Hinata is dancing around and having fun. Remember her usual prim and proper behavior? Now, she's back to feeling comfortable. Violet enters and looks around with her head as she waves to Hinata. Hinata waves with her headphones on. Seems she was having some kind of a silent disco solo.
"Oh hey! Hope your tour of my room went well enough." Hinata removes the headphones and has a super bright smile on her face.
"You doing alright it seems? Glad you're doing better if so!" Violet nods
Hinata nods, "Yeah. Sorry about disappearing on you like that. Wanna head back out to the Office?"
"Sure!" Violet walks back out into the Office. Hinata follows.
They step out and Hinata goes to sit on one of the really comfortable looking chairs. "So how can I help you Violet?"
Violet steps into the Office as well "Do you have somewhere I could hide during your meeting?"
Hinata tilts her head, "hide? What do you intend to do?"
"I intend on spying on your meeting with the labcoat people," Violet responds.
Hinata shakes her head, "You cannot."
"Why not?"
"Because.. uh what if you get caught? You heard about the camera. They got perception off the charts somehow," Hinata is looking a little nervous, "Besides, I don't want to put any of Luna's friends into danger. You all deal with enough."
Violet shakes her head in disagreement, "First off, I can just jump out the window if things go south. Second, I can defend myself if they do try to attack. I want to help you Hinata. Let me help you."
Hinata takes a few moments to think it over when she hears a familiar voice from the intercom. "Lady Hinata, your evening appointment is here. Should I bring them up?" She begins to panic, her hands shaking at the thought of Luna's friends being put in danger because of her. "Shit. Uhm.. lemme think, um, there's nowhere to hide though. The closet is full of stuff, the chamber is soundproof when the door is closed. Unless you want to hide behind the desk???"
Violet crawls under the desk and pushes the chair as far as she can in. The desk has enough room for someone to hide under, but there is no way to see anything while underneath. "This can work?"
"Hopefully, Violet." Hinata calls Rebecca back. After a few minutes the elevator sounds approach the top of the building with a Ding. Her behavior returns to the usual prim and proper as the two people enter the Office. A male sounding voice and a female sounding voice greet Hinata and ask her about various things.
Male voice: "Hello. What is your name?"
Hinata: "My name is Hinata Solaire."
Female voice: "What is your age?"
Hinata: "I am thirty years old as of January 1st 2023"
Male: "What is your profession?"
Hinata: "I am the CEO and LEADER of Solaire Enterprises Multiveilar."
A bell dings. It sounds familiar.
Male voice: "Good. Now please, sit down, get comfortable. And look into my eyes."
The male voice is soothing. Extremely soothing. Almost too soothing, to the point where someone listening intently would feel rather sleepy. Hinata looks into the man's eyes as he counts backwards from 10 to 1, very slowly. On reaching 2, she falls asleep. "1." Hinata slumps in her chair as the female voice says some things seemingly in another language.
Violet stays as quiet as possible, trying to remember the words in the other language to repeat them last for someone to translate. I should mention the room is dead silent aside from the female voice, so be very very careful. You wouldn't want to get caught. Violet is able to remember the phrase, but she does not know what it means.
The female voice finishes speaking which then follows with another bell ding. They watch over Hinata as she sleeps a seemingly dreamless sleep, as her eyebrows furrow and release. She seems to be deep in REM. After some time passes, the Man speaks up once more. They tell Hinata something in the same language and then count down from 10 to 1 in that same soothing voice. Upon the man reaching 1, Hinata wakes up but stays silent. The two turn around and walk out through the office and into the elevator. The coast is clear.
Violet gets out of her hiding spot and looks around and move towards Hinata, making sure she is okay. Hinata appears to be okay, but looks completely out of it. Her eyes look different, however. They're red and glowing slightly. Violet has her guard up. "Hinata?", she taps her shoulder a bit to see if she will snap out of whatever trance she is in. Hinata stays out of it. She appears to be sleeping still, but her eyes are open. Her breathing is calm, almost snoring a little bit. Violet grabs a piece of paper and writes down that Hinata was put under some trance and that she is going to go meet Luna. She sticks the paper next to Hinata before walking to the elevator. Hinata stays where she's at. Doesn't appear she'll be up any time soon. When Violet enters the elevator, there is only one button. Violet takes notes of it and presses the button. The elevator closes with another bell's ding and goes down. Back to the waiting room. Said ding wakes Hinata up as she looks at the paper.
Violet eventually reaches the waiting room and leaves Solaire. She then calls Luna in one of the servers they share and agree to meet up.
---
Luna appears in the city near Solaire's headquarters. Violet walks out of the castle, looking around for her. Luna turns around, "Oh hey!" she waves to Violet, "What's up?"
Violet walks over to Luna "Alright I just got out of a meeting with Hinata and I heard something that I need translated. But first do you have any bells on you? If so, get them as far away as possible, I don’t want to take any risks."
"Huh? Bells? No, I got rid of all of my bells when I first met Drake. My collar had one on it for the longest time," Luna chuckles.
"Good. Tell me if you know what any of that means." Violet repeats the phrase she heard in the meeting, unsure if she is pronouncing them right but is trying her best. The language she speaks doesn't sound like any foreign language anyone's ever heard, not in any culture on Earth.
"..." Luna's eyes glow red a little bit, which causes Krystal to take over seemingly enraged. Her eyes are now purple and glowing, and a scowl is on her face, "Wha--- where the hell did you hear that???"
"Oh! Sorry! I think that’s how they are controlling Hinata. The man in lab coat I think and a woman stated this phrase and then when they left Hinata’s eyes were red and glowing."
"...controlling Hinata?" Krystal goes silent in thought before growling to herself a little bit. "That sure would explain her weird behaviors. Did you by chance get a peek at their labcoat? Anything odd about it?"
"No I was hiding, but remembering from before if it was the same person I believe it had a crescent moon of it on the back?"
Upon hearing Violet's report, Krystal looks pissed off. "Those fucking bastards are doing it again," they mutter to themselves, growling a bit. "Those people are bad news, Violet. I would recommend watching yourself around them. They...", she pauses and makes sure no one is within earshot, then whispers to Violet, "...are the reason Luna's brain is so fucked up."
"I see… I’ll be careful then. Sorry if I made both of you uncomfortable." Violet exhales.
Krystal takes a deep breath then exhales. "It's fine. I-- We appreciate you for looking into this for us. I had a feeling something really fucked up was going on with Hina... also if you could, please do not speak that phrase in front of Luna. It's an extremely powerful trigger phrase. One that Luna is unfortunately extremely weak to."
"Alright. I won’t speak it in front of her. I’ll probably go take a walk. Please make sure she is ok for me will ya?"
Krystal nods. "Thank you Violet. You're a good friend to the two of us." They go to sit on the curb.
"No problem, just trying my best." Violet walks off into the woods to collect her thoughts and take notes.
Krystal enters Luna's psyche and speaks her unlock phrase, which pulls Luna out of the hypnosis. Luna gains a really bad headache from it and does not remember anything that happened. Then, they teleport home.