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The Curatorium of Secrets, occupied as it was by so many people, was a bustle of noise, a veritable wave of sound as the Nod-Krai Savior Squad (as the Traveler had taken to calling them in her head) rushed back and forth, subgroups splitting and mingling as conversations were had, plans were made, worries were shared. The blonde’s golden eyes took in the busy space, and despite the stress hanging over all of them, the nervousness that hung heavy in the Traveler’s chest, she smiled slightly at the sight of everyone working together. Their enemy may have been powerful, borderline omnipotent, but she was utterly convinced that together, they would defeat him.
Her eyes wandered from Albedo, Durin, and Paimon, to Nicole and Varka, to Lauma and Nefer, to Arlecchino and Jahoda, to... hm.
She stalled at the sight of Sandrone busily working in the corner of the room, loose papers and journals spread out in a wide fan across the table; her eyes flicked over to the opposite side of the room, where Pulonia appeared to be at work preparing tea for her, and despite the reaction that she knew her chosen course of action was going to garner, she elected to carry it out regardless. (Story of her life. Hah.)
Kicking back up to her full height from where she was leaning against the wall and crowdwatching, she carefully maneuvered to settle at Pulonia’s side, clearing her throat to get the robot’s attention. When they looked over, the blonde granted a small smile up at them, and gestured towards the now-complete tray of tea and snacks. “Let me do it,” she offered. “I wanted to talk to her anyway. Plus, it’ll be easier than you trying to move through everyone, I’ve seen the way you barely fit inside.”
Pulonia, silent as always, “glanced” between the Traveler, Sandrone, and the squad in between, before silently handing over the tray.
“Thanks, boss,” she said, giving a casual two-fingered salute with her free hand, balancing the tray in her other, and while the robot didn’t respond verbally, the blonde was absolutely certain that she saw them give a polite nod in response. With one win in the Traveler column, she made her way back across the room, silently preparing herself for phase two of her master plan.
Well, if you could call anything the Traveler did a “master plan”, anyway.
Making sure to not interrupt, so as to avoid setting her off, the Traveler silently set the tray of snacks down in a free space on the table in front of the Marionette, a small smile coming unbidden to her lips at the sight of the Harbinger reaching over to snap a madeleine off the plate without looking away from the journal she was reading intently. “Thanks, Pulonia,” the doll said distractedly, and the Traveler was unable to restrain her soft laugh in reply.
“I’ll make sure they get your thanks. Unfortunately, all you’ve got as a delivery woman is me.” There was a beat of silence as Sandrone’s gaze flicked up for a split second to lock onto the Traveler’s face, before the brunette scoffed and turned her attention back down. “Whatever,” she growled. “If you have something you need to say, spit it out. Some of us have work we need to do.” Perhaps unwisely, the blonde merely hummed in reply before flopping down into one of the empty chairs seated at the table, taking a madeleine for herself to nibble on.
“I wanted to check in with you, and see if there’s anything I can do to help.” Instantly, Sandrone rolled her eyes, and the Traveler had to resist the urge to flick the woman in the forehead. “Unless you can suddenly come up with a way of giving me more computing power, no. I’m being bottlenecked by a lack of power to spare, in between keeping myself and Pulonia functioning while still dedicating every other available iota to my calculations... ugh. When I get my hands on that Dottore...”
Sandrone trailed off into aimless grumbling, which... well, if there was anything the Traveler understood, it was that. His attempts at manipulating her still fresh in her mind, the blonde sighed, inclining her head. “Gotcha. I’m not sure there’s much I could really do on that front...”
She paused, an idea occurring to her.
“...actually, I do have a couple people I could talk to about figuring something out.” Almost instantly, Sandrone looked up from her journal, sighing exasperatedly, as though having to explain something to a child. “Well, what are you waiting for? If you want to be helpful so badly, stop bugging me and go talk to them.” The blonde merely hummed again, nibbling at her madeleine, before sitting up and stretching in her chair. “I will, I will, relax. Just...”
There was a pause between them, Sandrone’s expression only growing more and more annoyed as time went on, the Traveler seemingly unbothered by it as she attempted to find her words. When she finally did, her voice was softer, “I know how hard you’re working, Sandrone. I’m very glad we can count on you to help save everyone, Columbina especially, but... make sure you’re not going to end up blowing up your processor or something.” Taking advantage of the fact that the doll was apparently completely flabbergasted by the show of concern, the Traveler continued, “I’m not gonna harp on you about it, but... I’ll just say, Columbina would be happiest if both of us were there when we bring her back.”
The Traveler, with a small, sad smile on her lips, stood up from her chair, and leaned over to lightly pat Sandrone on the shoulder. “Not to mention, I would be pretty sad to see anything bad happen to you. So, don’t forget to take care of yourself, okay?”
Dusting off her dress, the blonde stood up straight once more and waved to the Harbinger, Sandrone stunned into silence as the Traveler made her way out of the building, presumably to find whoever it was she needed to talk to. The doll, unmoving for the past several moments, shook her head quickly to free herself of the sudden stupor that had fallen over her, grumbling under her breath as she turned her attention back to the journal before her.
“Stupid Traveler... stupid Columbina... ugh.”