Violet lands in Downtown Meridian, looking around for the usual bright yellow tent in the middle of the abandoned road. Shockingly, the tent is no longer found. Near its location is a very tall skyscraper showcasing Solaire's gaudy logo. There are two doors with big golden door knockers on each. Violet has a look of awe on her face while she walks up to the large and intimidating doors. The doors open rather easily. It appears the knockers are just there for show. Looking inside, it's just as dark as the tent was, a pitch black void separating the location from the rest of the city.Violet heads inside with her guard up.
The inside of Solaire has changed drastically. No longer is it the comfy looking lounge with multiple doors to various rooms, but instead a boring-looking white room with a receptionist. On the walls, various wall-scrolls and Solaire posters can be found.
Violet looks to the posters and scrolls, making her way to the receptionist. "Hello?" she says.
The receptionist looks up. She's rather pretty with cherry red lipstick, thin rimmed glasses, and blonde hair. Despite her prim and proper appearance, her behavior is anything but that. "Oh hello, how can I help you?" Between each word, Violet can hear her snap gum. She looks and sounds rather bored.
"Well I'm here to meet with a Lady Hinata? She said to come over and look around," Violet explains to her
On hearing Violet is Hinata's guest, her demeanor changes drastically. Instead of looking dreadfully bored, she sits up right and smiles, "Ah, I see. And what is your name?" No more snapping gum too. It seems she swallowed it.
Violet smiles towards the receptionist, "Violet Naomi, and what might be yours?"
The receptionist presses a white button on her desk and says, "Lady Hinata, there is a Violet Naomi here to see you."
A woman with a polite voice replies with, "ah thank you Rebecca, I will be down momentarily."
The receptionist sighs and returns to her previous bored but casual look. "My name's Rebecca. It's nice to meetcha."
"Well pleasure to meet you Rebecca!" Violet looks around trying to think of small talk while waiting for Hinata. "So have you been working here a while?"
Rebecca nods. "Been workin' for Solaire for a few years yeah. Not gonna lie, when I was told I would moving to da Meridian branch, I thought I was goin to da actual Prime Meridian in Greenwich, England, not somewhere with red skies and zombie things."
Krystal - The Meridian Apocalyptic Incident, also commonly known as The World Reached, took place in a veil where most of the world was brought to its knees by some kind of apocalyptic threat. Red skies and zombie-like creatures roaming the streets were extremely common sights in Meridian.
Violet laughs a bit, "No this is the farthest you'll get from... Greenwich, England? Just expect a lot of weird and learn to accept it and you'll be fine."
At this moment, Rebecca looks up at Violet and squints a little bit. "Uhm...", she pauses unsure how to word her thoughts, "so you're a deer... with wings. You know what I'm not even gonna question it. My apologies. Do you have any questions before I make things awkward?"
"You're fine. To keep it short and simple, I'm an Envy demon with bodily modifications from some other company. Is there anything I should expect meeting with Hinata?" Violet asks, taking mental notes along the way.
"Not really. Honestly I feel bad for her," Rebecca sighs.
"Why do you say that?"
"Simply put, she wasn't even meant to have this job. This was meant to be for some--"
At this point, the elevator plays a bell sound, and a fair-skinned woman wearing a bright red and black kimono with brownish hair and a pair of yellow heart sunglasses perched on top of her head walks out of it. She is walking very gracefully up to Violet with a soft smile on her face. "Ah, you must be Violet Naomi. It is a pleasure to meet you in person. Please, come with me."
--- PAUSE ---
Luna here. Apologies, but I'd like to show you what Hinata looks like. Just like Toby from before, all Solaire employees are not allowed to have photos of themselves on their phone. Thus, I've created a picrew of what she looks like. Honestly, she's really pretty..
Either that, or I'm just amazing at using Picrew. Hmm.. Anyway, back to the logs!
--- RESUME ---
"And you must be Hinata. Pleasure is all mine!" Violet follows her into the elevator as it closes shut. Hinata presses a button and they go up quite a bit. Hinata is dead silent during the trip up, so it's awkward. The elevator bell dings once more as they enter directly into Hinata's office. Hinata's office is a rather large room with various seats scattered around a huge desk. There is definitely an Asian-inspired sun theme to the room. On the various shelves, there are vases with red and yellow flowers and some figurines. It looks really comfortable. A book shelf can be seen behind the desk, behind Hinata's chair.
"Please, look around if you wish Miss Violet." Hinata says before heading into the washroom.
"Why thank you." Violet looks around at the figurines, before making her way to the book shelf, curious of her reading habits.
The figurines appear to be all female anime and game characters. There's a Rei Ayanami figma from Neon Genesis Evangelion on one shelf, a 2B figurine from Nier: Automata on another, and a few others from some more obscure shows and games as well. As Violet walks towards the bookshelf, Hinata walks back in and tries to stop her, "Apologies, but that needs to stay private. I rarely have people up here, so I keep forgetting to put some things away."
"I see. I apologize, I just was interested in the books you have is all." Violet steps away, looking around at what she can, trying to possibly get a glance at the titles of the books and writings.
The bookshelf appears to be rather ordinary. Violet can see one very strange outlier to the textbooks, "Magic: An Understanding." The rest seem to be science or math related books, though one seems to be "Business for Dummies" though.
Violet takes note of the books, "So Hinata, how is being CEO treating you?"
Hinata takes a deep breath, "It's going well enough. I'm not used to the job yet, but I'm sure it'll get easier as time passes." She has a very soft demeanor about her. Friendly too. "You might be wondering why I asked you to come by."
"I am. Of all people why did you decide to invite me over? I can assume it's not just for small talk."
Hinata smiles. Her previously stiff and awkward vibes relax quite a bit. "There are a few things I wanted to ask you in person. I read in my logs that you've had some experience with the plushies we're making now. Just wanted to know your thoughts on them."
"Oh. Well, to be honest they're a bit.. creepy. They seem that they needed help? That they needed saving? I just don't know what they meant by that."
Hinata raises an eyebrow, "that shouldn't be happening. Are you sure you're not just hearing things?"
"What do mean should not be happening?" Violet looks at Hinata confused. "What are they?"
Hinata takes a deep breath. "They're just toys. We mass produce them and sell them to children. Are you certain you heard what you heard?" There's a serious tone to her voice.
"You have a very obvious tell, you should work on that." Violet sounds serious as she looks Hinata. "So why are you lying to me?"
"I'm genuinely not. This is a surprise to me too. I know our scientists were working on something to make the toys a bit more lifelike, but even I'm not sure as to what it is." Hinata looks sorrowful. "Even so, I appreciate you telling me about the Hinata4U's. I just wanted to make the multiverse a better place."
"If you say so. Well then tell me. Who was supposed to be the CEO? I know it was not supposed to be you," Violet continues.
"For one, you're correct. I was not supposed to be the CEO. It was in Jan's will that his daughter was to take over the company in case he passed on or his mental state degraded far enough. Do you think I want to be here? I just... wanted to be normal." Hinata sighs. "And two, I am unsure who the true successor is. It was redacted in the will."
"I see. Well if you need anything I am here to help. I'll try and make things as normal it can be. At least anything I can do."
"Thank you Violet. Did you have any other questions about Solaire? I can try to answer anything you'd like." Hinata is fully relaxed and comfortable.
Violet asks, "Is Toby alright? What exactly happened to him?"
"Toby had to return home to finish some work. I'm sure he'll be back at some point. In fact, he was the one who suggested I bring you here. He thought you were trustworthy." Hinata smiles
"Really? Well thank him for me. Anything you have left to ask me?" asks Violet.
"I will. And me? Nah, I got nothing else. Anything else for me?" Hinata shrugs.
"Not at the moment but we can keep a pin in that." Violet nods.
"Alright, well I must prepare for another appointment, so may I show you out?"
"That would be lovely. Thank you." Violet and Hinata ride down the elevator. A black-cloaked male walks into Solaire's Castle. He speaks to Rebecca who goes to press the intercom when Hinata and Violet arrive on the ground floor.
Hinata says to the man, "oh. hello. You must be my next appointment." She is back to her usual stiff demeanor, fully removed from any comfort she felt with Violet.
The man does not respond and waves dismissively. "Apologies Violet, but I must go now. Have a good day." Hinata says.
"You have a good day as well." Violet walks out the castle doors, trying to get a good look at the man on her way out. The man is rather tall and fit, maybe 6ft 3in (191cm)? The cloak is closer to a robe on closer examination. On the back of it is what looks to be a moon symbol of some sort. The two of them walk into the elevator and it closes with a ding. Violet leaves shortly after.