Chapter Text
Mobius groaned as she dismissed yet another aspiring research assistant that fell miserably short of her expectations. This round of applicants should have been pruned down to the best of the best already, yet the line of whimpering cowards, worthless yesmen, and annoying extroverts seemed to be endless. It seemed, once - if - she found her perfect aide, she would need to replace those nitwits she entrusted the first interview round to…
Mobius could hardly muster up the energy to take notes after a day of agonizing questioning. Next to the applicant's scribbled name, she wrote only two words: "REJECTED, LOUD". She looked to the clock on her desk for salvation and found none. It mercilessly flashed 2:15 PM at her in its typical large red letters, somehow feeling more sinister than usual when it served as a mocking reminder that her schedule still demanded several more hours of monotonous banter. She leaned back in her chair with a groan and rolled her shoulders before finally calling out in a strained voice, "Next!"
A pair of quiet feet stepped reluctantly into the door, a scrawny figure following it and stopping halfway, unsure. Mobius waved impatiently and pointed at a chair, which the individual nervously and quickly placed itself in, each step so indiscernible in motion that it almost appeared to be gliding across the floor. As she scanned the applicant briefly, her displeased frown grew. This is a whimpering coward, I suppose. If I must pick one of these irritating types, I suppose a weak will can be the least intrusive and most easily trained…
"Ah…" The applicant spoke up, jumping slightly when Mobius shifted her piercing gaze onto them. "You are… Doctor Mobius, correct?"
Mobius stared back in silence. The voice is hesitant, but I could not detect any fear. Perhaps I misidentified carefulness as cowardice. Well, I shouldn't get my hopes up. She responded when she saw the applicant attempt to speak again. "Correct. And you would be…" She scanned her list of applicants again, though her exhausted and frustrated eyes blurred the names together and made it difficult to find her place again.
"Klein. I am a graduate of this campus' university, majoring in - "
"Yes, yes, it's all here, Klein. No need to repeat it." She found the name with a slide of a finger and analyzed the information briefly. She smirked at the previous interviewer's note: "This one is boring as hell. I passed her to the next stage because of her impressive scores, but I would shoot myself if I had to work with someone as flat and dry as her. Recommended to skip." Well, she didn't pay any attention to these notes after every applicant marked with a high recommendation happened to be the most unbearable individual she had ever met. The strong displeasure amused her and spiked her interest in this candidate further, and besides... death by boredom perhaps was precisely the sort of punishment that was owed for wasting so much of her time. She fixed her gaze upon Klein once more, noting the brief flicker of a glance away before returning to her eyes. "Why are you here?"
"Why am I here? Well, the..." Klein trailed off slowly, and Mobius' smirk twitched with rising amusement. Too many of her candidates answered with, "The interview, of course," or some variant thereof. This one earned another point for realizing it would be a pointless answer. "To be honest, most of the other scientists I discussed this position with warned me against it. I have heard more stories of the terrifying things occurring in this lab than I can remember. It made me curious to know if those stories were true, and... what sort of person the doctor behind them might be. Curious if... her unique mind was the key to unlocking the secrets of Honkai, and curious if... I could help her and be a part of that."
Mobius crossed an arm across her chest and leaned back in her chair, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. Other candidates wanted to be a part of the most well funded program the MOTHs had for their own gain, others wanted the prestige that came with association with her lab, and others wished for the power that it was often rumored she granted through her experimentation. Naturally, many more lied, hiding their true intentions with the hope of licking her boots and telling her exactly what she wanted to hear. Until now, all of their attempts had been miserably incorrect. She allowed her musings to seep through her lips in a brief summary. "Very, very interesting. Do you doubt the truth of those stories?"
"Hmmm..." Klein looked away and held her chin in a way that seemed to be mimicking Mobius, though she could not tell if it was intentional or not. "Some are quite ridiculous. For example, in my university, it was a common rumor that Mobius is a vampire that only became a scientist to drain victims without suspicion, and I heard a few times that she is in love with a hidden Herrscher and performing her insane experiments to please the Honkai itself. Others, like that her experiments and desire to understand Honkai drive her to experiment even on her own body, or that she frequently humors evolving humanity into a new form to escape the Honkai, sound too extreme to be fake. Personally, I enjoy the rumor that she is fond of cute animals - "
"...That is enough, Klein. Thank you for your answer." Mobius picked up her pen and tapped it against the table idly. If Klein was speaking truthfully, she may be the perfect choice for an assistant - or at least, a worthwhile enough one to justify skipping out on any further interviews. The superficial questioning stage was over for the first time in her hours of examining candidates. Now it was time to test their compatibility. "So, Klein," she asked, stretching the name into three elongated syllables. Her eyes seemed to glow, and her smile stretched her lips as she noticed her subject's nervous expression grow. "I suppose you aren't scared of me?"
"That's... not true. I was terrified when listening to the warnings and stories, and I almost changed my mind twice when applying to be your assistant, and when called for this second interview. But... I guess my curiosity was stronger than my fear." It didn't take a deep examination for Mobius to perceive the truth in Klein's words. Her entire body shook with anxiety, and her voice wavered frequently, yet it remained flat and steady otherwise. Her eyes, as they have tended to throughout the interview, flickered back and forth between Mobius' eyes and a particular spot on the wall, but they always returned to meet her gaze to emphasize each important phrase. The doctor found herself forced to repress a rising excitement in her chest at each detail she analyzed. After all, it would be so very disappointing if she allowed her expectations to build only to be disappointed later.
Mobius rose to her feet, shaking her head when Klein began to follow after her. She gazed down at her promising candidate with a thoughtful frown, noting how the new height difference amplified Klein's anxiety. Of course, this was the desired effect, as was the chill she watched run down her victim's spine at her words. "Are you afraid of death, Klein?"
"...Yes, doctor. Very much."
Mobius' lips curled into a pleased smile. "If I found your death to be necessary to further my research, would you accept it?" She leaned onto her desk using one hand, lifting the other to push the bangs covering one of Klein's eyes out of the way. They widened in terror, restlessly moving across different areas of the doctor's face, fighting desperately to maintain eye contact. Any other applicant would remove themself from the interview immediately upon being asked such a question, posed with no hesitation or remorse for considering such an idea. Klein's white face and panicked eyes indicated a clear desire to do the same, and yet...
"P-please, do-doctor, if... if you could... back away, please..." Mobius' finger that had been idly playing with Klein's bangs froze in shock. Her applicant raised her arms frantically, waving them apologetically, and struggled to continue, "I-I mean, so that... I can answer properly... please."
Mobius' face softened back into a thin grin as she honored Klein's request, dropping her hand to the desk to join the other as support for her leaning, though she chose not to retreat back to her chair for now. After all, giving up a clear view of both of her potential assistant's eyes when answering a very important question was concession enough. "Well?" she prompted with a hint of impatience and amusement.
Klein breathed in deeply to relax herself, allowing her words to come out steadier than before, though still with some difficulty. Her eyes lingered on Mobius' desk, having given up on maintaining eye contact with the doctor. "I would prefer very much to provide assistance with my life, rather than my death, but if you truly believed I could be traded for the future of humanity, then... It would be difficult to reject that choice."
Mobius responded coldly and carefully, with a hint of playfulness. "You put a great deal of faith in me even though you only met me today. Can you tell so easily that I am not insane, or vulnerable to becoming so? Your sacrifice could very easily fuel nothing more than my own ego."
Mobius caught a hint of a smile on the edges of Klein's cheeks. "I can't deny that. But in this era of fear and death, you and the other Flamechasers have been the only thing for people like me to place our trust in."
"Mmmmm. You are very, very..." Mobius drew out the second "very" as she stood up and walked behind Klein, leaning down to speak quietly into her ear. "...interesting. Whether I choose you or not, I will certainly keep an eye on you."
Klein shuddered. "If the warnings I heard were correct, hearing those words is as good as being pronounced dead."
Mobius laughed, a soft hiss pricking Klein's ears. "Then you should know that even if you ran now, it would be too late."
"Yes, doctor."
"Well, then," Mobius placed her hands on Klein's shoulders and squeezed firmly. "How would you like to work for me?"
"I... have to admit, I don't think I could find a... more strange place to work if I tried."
Mobius slid one of her hands onto Klein's neck, finding her jugular vein and pressing gently, counting the pulses. "You seem to be getting used to me quickly."
"I suppose so, doctor." Though Klein's voice was returning to the steadiness it had at the beginning of the interview, her body shivered with each touch and small movement the doctor's hands made.
Mobius laughed, a full laugh, for the first time in her series of interviews. Yes, her mind was already set on the one she wanted, but it wouldn't hurt to do more testing, would it? Leaving her fingers on Klein's neck to track her heart rate, which was unsurprisingly fluctuating significantly, she moved her other hand under the applicant's coat to examine her bare shoulder, squeezing and prodding the bones and muscles that made up that area.
"D-doctor... What are you doing?" A nervous voice interrupted Mobius when she tugged at the coat to reveal more skin for examination.
"Shouldn't you know? You have studied enough relevant fields to be familiar with a physical examination, haven't you? Did you think I was pressing your throat for my own entertainment?"
"Honestly... yes."
"Yet you allowed it. How amusing." Mobius laughed once more, this time letting out a low, rumbling sound. "I suppose you will allow this too, then?" With a slow but firm tug, she pulled Klein's coat, forcing her arms up until it was removed entirely. She laid it gently on her desk, and turned to the blushing figure gripping the bottom of her buttoned shirt and shaking nervously.
"Is this... still part of the interview, doctor?"
"Yes, Klein," Mobius dragged Klein's name out to three syllables once more, as if wrapping it around herself like a scarf. "This should not surprise you. Your health is of the utmost importance as my assistant."
"How many others have you performed this examination on?"
Mobius grinned and gazed deep into Klein's eyes. "Are you wondering in order to weigh your chances? Or, perhaps..." She paused, returning her finger to Klein's neck, finding the veins quickly the second time. "...for another reason?"
Klein winced at the feeling of Mobius' sharp green fingernails digging into her skin. "To weigh my chances at surviving."
"Ah, no need to concern yourself with that, Klein. I assure you that I will keep you alive to the best of my ability for a long, long time." Keeping one finger on the candidate's pulse, she ran the other down her shoulder and teased a shirt button, snapping it free with a pop . "Or is that a threat more terrifying than if I offered to kill you this moment?"
"You forget that I mentioned I am afraid of death not that long ago. You would find yourself with a difficult bargain to strike if you wanted me to accept such an offer..."
"Mmm, you are growing more comfortable at a remarkable rate," Mobius breathed cheerfully. She picked at two more buttons and found the shirt loose enough to remove after. As Klein covered her now bare chest awkwardly, the doctor noted what she saw. Thin, with very little visible fat. Minimal muscle growth. Potentially malnourished? She ran her hands over Klein's thin arms, shoulders, then chest, feeling the potential assistant shiver repeatedly regardless of where her hands examined. “Are you capable of meeting my physical demands, Klein? Being the assistant to the busiest doctor running the busiest lab will take a significant toll.”
“I can’t say for sure until I start, but I am already more accustomed to pulling all nighters than a typical sleep schedule… I don’t have any hobbies outside of my work to get in the way, so I never had issues keeping up like the others.”
Mobius nodded. An unsurprising trait to have for one with a reputation of being painfully boring, but a valuable one for an assistant to the doctor whose research was her life. “Now, Klein, stand up. And remove these.” She tapped Klein’s black tights impatiently.
“Doctor… Surely this is unnecessary… You have access to all of my medical reports.”
Mobius smirked, her eyes once again glowing with a mischievous green shine. “I prefer to do my own research when dealing with important matters. I find no one provides the thoroughness or reliability I expect from my own work…”
-----------------------------------------------
The examination complete, Mobius called for the unconscious Klein to be removed and returned to her room. Once done, the doctor smiled, the most pleased smirk her face had ever made, and added her notes to the candidate sheet before calling for her hiring assistant. She added the last word while imagining the amusing expressions and rumors that would arise from her choosing a candidate that left her interview unconscious. Just what did she do to that poor woman? She knew her new assistant would share no further details than, “It was an examination, which I fortunately passed,” and it would not take long for another terrifying legend to form around Doctor Mobius’ horrifying methods. Just as she liked it.
"Klein: HIRED. NO NEED FOR FURTHER INTERVIEWS. PERFECT."