Fandom Distorted Mirror [IC]

[Gus Gungus]

Watts, indeed, did not have a copious amount of experience with the fairer sex, but that was less for lack of trying and more for lack of interest when there were so many other problems and mysteries to solve; he wasn't entirely immune to their charms, and his face wasn't as stoic as it could be, but when Tyrian found himself interrupted by another old friend, Watts took the moment to walk back over to Emerald with a smile that didn't quite reach sincere.

"I know you and your team don't want to rejoin this little clusterfuck of a war, nor do I blame you; I'm not even sure we should be dragging Tyrian along with us, nor am I sure how good of an idea it was that Cinder just wandered off to find Neo, but-"

"If your boss or anyone else tries to take this, regardless of the consequences, I am going to shoot them. Fair warning."

Well, that still didn't really work. Meh. Worth a shot.



"Woooow, you got fun in Atlas. You know, chief, one day you're gonna hit puberty and some nice, dorky girl's gonna actually manage to pull a normal conversation outta you. Word of advice? Wife her."

​

 

[MidwayLives]

"So, hey-" A certain voice called out, the faunus still seated in the stands having decided this was the best time to point out that she was still here. "-this has been pretty amusing to watch but if you're still interested in some sparring, I'm in for breaking a sweat."

Tyrian looked over his shoulder at the voice. It was Sun.

"Oh, uh, hey Sun!"

Well, the urge to fight hadn't exactly left him. It was always there actually.

Burning inside of him like a raging inferno.

He doubted it'd ever leave.
​

Sun offered, thumbing at herself. "If not, that's cool too. You guys really have a knack for livening a place up, huh?"

The faunus chuckled a bit.

"It's fine. really."

He looked over at the cracks his tail had left in various spots on the floor.

...Maybe the others were right.

"C'mon." He got on all fours and his tail curved up ready to strike.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

Tyrian looked over his shoulder at the voice. It was Sun.

"Oh, uh, hey Sun!"

Well, the urge to fight hadn't exactly left him. It was always there actually.

Burning inside of him like a raging inferno.

He doubted it'd ever leave.


The faunus chuckled a bit.

"It's fine. really."

He looked over at the cracks his tail had left in various spots on the floor.

...Maybe the others were right.

"C'mon." He got on all fours and his tail curved up ready to strike.​

“Yo.” She greeted again, throwing a single finger gun and a wink the scorpion faunus’s way. “Been a while, huh? I’d ask what brought you all to Vacuo, ya know, besides the stuff I’ve been sittin’ here listenin’ to, but first...” The monkey faunus stood up from her seat and jumped down into the arena, landed with an entirely unnecessary but cool looking roll along the ground and came back up to standing in a combat stance with her staff already extended.

“...Just don’t pout when I kick your butt.” Sun grinned, completely bold and at ease. “Wouldn’t be your fault, not everybody’s equipped to handle my level of awesome.” She didn’t make a move yet, waiting for him to do so.​

 

[MidwayLives]

“Yo.” She greeted again, throwing a single finger gun and a wink the scorpion faunus’s way. “Been a while, huh? I’d ask what brought you all to Vacuo, ya know, besides the stuff I’ve been sittin’ here listenin’ to, but first...” The monkey faunus stood up from her seat and jumped down into the arena, landed with an entirely unnecessary but cool looking roll along the ground and came back up to standing in a combat stance with her staff already extended.

Tyrian's tail swayed from side to side as it had when he'd been so happy to see Watts.

"Too long I'd say. Seeing you again certainly ain't bad."

As far as the roll went though, he waved his hand from side to side.

"...Ehhhh, 8/10. Tops."
​

“...Just don’t pout when I kick your butt.” Sun grinned, completely bold and at ease. “Wouldn’t be your fault, not everybody’s equipped to handle my level of awesome.” She didn’t make a move yet, waiting for him to do so.

"Sun if there's anyone on this planet that can handle you?"

Tyrian skirted forward as his tail came swinging down with the back of the swinger crashing down like a wrecking ball.

"It's gotta be ME!"

Seeing old friends and reuniting was great. Hugging Watts and Cinder had been even better.

But the weight hadn't budged off his shoulders. Maybe it was just an inherent part of him at this point but even when he'd been apart of the team, fights were always what he craved. It didn't matter if the Grimm was the size of a mountain. He'd rush headlong into certain doom if it meant getting to stretch his muscles. It was just...how he'd always done things. No matter what opponent he had booked against him, he'd give it an honest try and enjoy himself no matter the circumstances. If anyone impeded that well it just felt like a raw slap in the face.

Sun understood that. She enjoyed a good fight or two. That was part of why Tyrian enjoyed her presence so much.

The other part?

She was so damn GOOD at it.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"Sun if there's anyone on this planet that can handle you?"

Tyrian skirted forward as his tail came swinging down with the back of the swinger crashing down like a wrecking ball.

"It's gotta be ME!"

“That’s the spirit.” The easygoing grin never left her face and she didn’t even move an inch from where she was standing until the last possible second. She sidestepped then, letting the tail slam down through nothing but air and moving into a two-fold spin, the lower end of her staff coming down meant to press against the back of Tyrian’s own tail and push it down against the floor even faster while simultaneously the other end of her weapon swung over, intent on cracking him in the head as she snickered.​

 

[MidwayLives]

“That’s the spirit.” The easygoing grin never let her face and she didn’t even move an inch from where she was standing until the last possible second. She sidestepped then, letting the tail slam down through nothing but air and moving into a two-fold spin, the lower end of her staff coming down meant to press against the back of Tyrian’s own tail and push it down against the floor even faster

The stinger crashed into the floor with a thundering smash, sending pieces of tile flying everywhich way.

It was a good enough thing that Mercury and the others got jobs around here. He was really making a mess of this room's floor.

Brushing away the dust the impact kicked up from his face, Tyrian looked over and was greeted by-
​

even faster while simultaneously the other end of her weapon swung over, intent on cracking him in the head as she snickered.

*thunk*

Tyrian rolled off to the side as his tail dragged itself across the floor.

"Ow." He muttered as he staggered to his feet.

But then he smiled.

"I missed fighting you."

Then he was on the move again, his tail going in for quick thrusts all while he let out with slashes and swipes. The two avenues of attack meant to try and keep Sun on her toes to the point that an opening would eventually reveal itself due to pressure if nothing else.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

*thunk*

Tyrian rolled off to the side as his tail dragged itself across the floor.

"Ow." He muttered as he staggered to his feet.

But then he smiled.

"I missed fighting you."

Then he was on the move again, his tail going in for quick thrusts all while he let out with slashes and swipes. The two avenues of attack meant to try and keep Sun on her toes to the point that an opening would eventually reveal itself due to pressure if nothing else.

“That right?” Sun’s head tilted slightly to the right, briefly considering. “Nah, I think it’s more you just like fighting anything and everything, to be honest, but hey, I’ll take that compliment.” That was followed by the sound of her separating her staff into two with a snap, the two gun-chuks better suited to matching Tyrian’s intense flurry with his own dual weapons.

She gave as good as she got, parrying strikes, shooting point blank, and throwing in kicks, the two of them moving at swift speeds, but it was her giving ground. And after a combo of that tail and a rising slice knocked her back and to the floor, she pushed into a somersault backwards, lamenting the fact that her own tail was not as much a weapon as his.

“Heh. Not bad. You’ve gotten faster. Been training with somebody?”​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

“Neo, wait, please! I just want to say something-“ Cinder burst into a run too, but her pursuit didn’t stay grounded for that long as almost immediately, flames spurted out of her boot heels and she flew forward like a cannon to land in front of Neo. The rope bridge now blocked off by herself, she held her hands up in a pleading manner, the gesture matched by the look in her eye.

“Please. I know I-

For a moment, it looked like Neo intended to tackle the taller girl head on, not a bit of speed lost when Cinder landed in front of her. The look on her face was... harrowed, not angry or even sad.

She juke right at the last minute and jump straight off the cliff.

Hush's handle caught the wooden pole holding the bridge up on that side, torquing Neo's momentum into a swing that she released to send her flying back towards the bridge, holding herself perfectly straight to slip between the gaps in the ropes going to each plank to land in a slide that sent the hold bridge swinging and groaning. She rolled to her feet out of the slide and continued her dash.

 

[MidwayLives]

“That right?” Sun’s head tilted slightly to the right, briefly considering. “Nah, I think it’s more you just like fighting anything and everything, to be honest, but hey, I’ll take that compliment.” That was followed by the sound of her separating her staff into two with a snap, the two gun-chuks better suited to matching Tyrian’s intense flurry with his own dual weapons.

"Fighting..."

Tyrian started in between taking swipes and lifting his arms up to block any return strikes from Sun.

"...Is what makes me whole."

The standoff continued with each party getting their own blows in. Tyrian's face scrunched up in pain as the halves of what had once been Sun's staff cracked him in the sides/head. His aura lighting up to show the blows had certainly done their trick. But the faunus was anything but deterred. He was getting more excited if anything! It didn't matter who his opponent was so long as they knew what they were doing, It was at the core of who he was as a person. Fighting was in his blood.

.....For better or for worse.
​

She gave as good as she got, parrying strikes, shooting point blank, and throwing in kicks, the two of them moving at swift speeds, but it was her giving ground. And after a combo of that tail and a rising slice knocked her back and to the floor, she pushed into a somersault backwards, lamenting the fact that her own tail was not as much a weapon as his.

“Heh. Not bad. You’ve gotten faster. Been training with somebody?”

Tyrian leaned forward slightly with his tail poised above him looking like it was ready to strike.

"Yeah, actually. You can say we're making eachother stronger. You saw that little pink-brown haired girl? That's Neo and she's..."

'One of the best fighters and people I know.'

"...Helping me become the fighter that I want to be!"

His tail thrusted forward the stinger passing inches from Sun's left shoulder. Retracting it, Tyrian moved in close with his tail swinging and his blades swiping. Truth be told that during the battle with this world's Qrow, he'd actually been the only person that Tyrian had ever actually managed to injure with his stinger. It'd been a rule that he'd tried to keep to even as a youth. The venom in his stinger could do serious damage and the pain would have been horrible for anyone who had the misfortune of being struck by it.

Not that he enjoyed fighting those he perceived to be 'weaker' than him anyhow, but he knew he didn't need to hold back with someone like Sun. She could handle just about whatever she had thrown at her and the scorpion loved that. A fighter who could enjoy the craft of fighting itself and was no slouch either.​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

View attachment 873509

"Spiders are good luck, dude. But, whatever." He sighed, thinking back on his passionate, torrid love affair with one such arachnid hailing from Mistral in particular. No, not Tyrian's girlfriend. Or a faunus at all. It was more an occupational thing.

Oh well. He took another, more measured sip of his remaining drink and fell silent, mulling over his next words with an uncharacteristic broodiness. When he spoke again, it was with eyes distant and transfixed on the row of colorful spirits displayed on the bar shelves, a quiet blankness falling over his features as he knit his brow in remembrance.

"...Does it ever get any easier? I just... I dunno, I guess." He thought over his message carefully, thinking back on his time at Beacon and weighing it against what had come before. "I mean, me, I've done two, now. My old man—He was like the best assassin in Anima, don't worry—and some... some guy. A bad guy, for sure, totally had it coming, but..."

He thought back on those moments, the brutal murder of one of his teammates and what had come afterwards, the healer he'd watched heal the very one who carried out the act and who refused to do the same for someone who mattered way, way more.

"...I dunno. I guess I just thought 'cause I'd be doing the world a favor it'd be easy, or whatever, but sometimes I still think about their faces, you know. In that last moment. Which I think makes me screwed, since I'm pretty sure this might be the only thing I know how to do. Any advice on that?"​

"Does it get easier?"

Lupin's gaze fell back down to his own cup, the ice inside melting just so so that the cubes inside shifted and clinked against the glass.

"...No. Not really. If the first one sticks with you, the seventeenth probably will too. Doesn't mean you can't do the job though. Some of Remnant's worst monsters were the sort who remembered every kill, and some of its gentlest warriors could snuff out a life in the blink of an eye if it was the right thing to do. It just means that for someone like you, that every time you have to make that choice, it'll have to a choice. And that's not necessarily a bad thing, kid." He said, ending the point with a hearty clap on the shoulder.

"Its the other kind of people that are really dangerous. The ones for who it just doesn't matter. They can have the nicest smile and still be capable of tearing out your throat with their bare hands. killing just becomes a play in the book, not something with any weight. And you never know which kind of killer someone will be till they finally cross that line"

He suddenly downed the rest of his glass.

"Like my third ex-wife."

 

[MyrtenRose]

Tyrian leaned forward slightly with his tail poised above him looking like it was ready to strike.

"Yeah, actually. You can say we're making eachother stronger. You saw that little pink-brown haired girl? That's Neo and she's..."

'One of the best fighters and people I know.'

"...Helping me become the fighter that I want to be!"

His tail thrusted forward the stinger passing inches from Sun's left shoulder. Retracting it, Tyrian moved in close with his tail swinging and his blades swiping. Truth be told that during the battle with this world's Qrow, he'd actually been the only person that Tyrian had ever actually managed to injure with his stinger. It'd been a rule that he'd tried to keep to even as a youth. The venom in his stinger could do serious damage and the pain would have been horrible for anyone who had the misfortune of being struck by it.

Not that he enjoyed fighting those he perceived to be 'weaker' than him anyhow, but he knew he didn't need to hold back with someone like Sun. She could handle just about whatever she had thrown at her and the scorpion loved that. A fighter who could enjoy the craft of fighting itself and was no slouch either.

“Oh yeah?” Sun replied. The other faunus was no longer counter-attacking or even blocking, she just kept herself moving. Sidestepping, ducking, leaning or hopping back, doing all she could to dodge and avoid Tyrian’s attacks. Some were easier than others but all were done with that smile never leaving her face, her messy hair ruffling in the breeze as she moved. “So what happens after that? Say you become this world class fighter, what then? What’s the big plan for little T?”​

 

[MidwayLives]

“Oh yeah?” Sun replied. The other faunus was no longer counter-attacking or even blocking, she just kept herself moving. Sidestepping, ducking, leaning or hopping back, doing all she could to dodge and avoid Tyrian’s attacks. Some were easier than others but all were done with that smile never leaving her face, her messy hair ruffling in the breeze as she moved. “So what happens after that? Say you become this world class fighter, what then? What’s the big plan for little T?”

"Well, I'll-"

....

Tyrian skidded to a stop.

What did he actually want?

If he went back with the others, continued on the quest to stop Ozpin and his forces, find Ichabod's killer and bring them to justice.

....What did he really want from life after that?

"...I don't know. I never thought I'd get that far."​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"Well, I'll-"

....

Tyrian skidded to a stop.

What did he actually want?

If he went back with the others, continued on the quest to stop Ozpin and his forces, find Ichabod's killer and bring them to justice.

....What did he really want from life after that?

"...I don't know. I never thought I'd get that far."​

“...So, you thought you’d be dead before that? Kinda dark, dude.”​

 

[MyrtenRose]

For a moment, it looked like Neo intended to tackle the taller girl head on, not a bit of speed lost when Cinder landed in front of her. The look on her face was... harrowed, not angry or even sad.

She juke right at the last minute and jump straight off the cliff.

Hush's handle caught the wooden pole holding the bridge up on that side, torquing Neo's momentum into a swing that she released to send her flying back towards the bridge, holding herself perfectly straight to slip between the gaps in the ropes going to each plank to land in a slide that sent the hold bridge swinging and groaning. She rolled to her feet out of the slide and continued her dash.

"Damn it, Neo." Cinder whispered in frustration with a shake of the head before she took off in flight again. This time she was heading straight for Neo directly, and while she hadn't gone for the tackle, the maiden intended to do so. Just as Neo was about to take that last step off the bridge and onto the other side, Cinder closed the distance as a fiery blaze shooting through the air, aiming to send them both dropping to the ground. "Can't we just talk??? Seriously?!"​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

"Damn it, Neo." Cinder whispered in frustration with a shake of the head before she took off in flight again. This time she was heading straight for Neo directly, and while she hadn't gone for the tackle, the maiden intended to do so. Just as Neo was about to take that last step off the bridge and onto the other side, Cinder closed the distance as a fiery blaze shooting through the air, aiming to send them both dropping to the ground. "Can't we just talk??? Seriously?!"​

The moment the whoosh of fiery flight came just close enough, Neo pivoted on her heel mid-step and put all her practice with Tyrian to good use, catching Cinder's outstretched arms at the wrist as she fell backwards, rolled, and planted her foot hard into Cinder's chest to send all that flight momentum hurtling right past Neo and into a nearby wall. Cinder opened her eyes after the hit just in time to see Neopolitan give her a forlorn glance before diving straight off the side of the bridge for another one below it.

The answer to Cinder's question was an emphatic no. She knew what Cinder was trying to do; what she wanted to apologize for.

It wasn't an apology Neo deserved. She wanted to apologize for a choice, for trying to do the right thing. But Neo-

*CRACK-SNAP*

Her eyes shot wide as her boot hit the bridge and the plank at her feet shattered into moldy pieces. She'd been too inside her own head to even realize- the lower rope clotheslined her mid-fall and sent her tumbling in the air, and she frantically reached for Hush only to realize it was still swaying idly from the upper bridge where she'd left it as it briefly spun into her vision before she found herself facing the abyss.

She couldn't even see the bottom.

Maybe this was for the best. She'd gotten Roman killed. She'd spent the last six months making her only other friends in the world miserable. If she continued as she was going, she'd already seen what the end result looked like.



Remnant was a better place without Neopolitan in it, no matter the flavor

 

[MyrtenRose]

The moment the whoosh of fiery flight came just close enough, Neo pivoted on her heel mid-step and put all her practice with Tyrian to good use, catching Cinder's outstretched arms at the wrist as she fell backwards, rolled, and planted her foot hard into Cinder's chest to send all that flight momentum hurtling right past Neo and into a nearby wall. Cinder opened her eyes after the hit just in time to see Neopolitan give her a forlorn glance before diving straight off the side of the bridge for another one below it.

The answer to Cinder's question was an emphatic no. She knew what Cinder was trying to do; what she wanted to apologize for.

It wasn't an apology Neo deserved. She wanted to apologize for a choice, for trying to do the right thing. But Neo-

*CRACK-SNAP*

Her eyes shot wide as her boot hit the bridge and the plank at her feet shattered into moldy pieces. She'd been too inside her own head to even realize- the lower rope clotheslined her mid-fall and sent her tumbling in the air, and she frantically reached for Hush only to realize it was still swaying idly from the upper bridge where she'd left it as it briefly spun into her vision before she found herself facing the abyss.

She couldn't even see the bottom.

Maybe this was for the best. She'd gotten Roman killed. She'd spent the last six months making her only other friends in the world miserable. If she continued as she was going, she'd already seen what the end result looked like.

View attachment 874022

Remnant was a better place without Neopolitan in it, no matter the flavor

Cinder grunted in pain as she smacked into the wall, a curse or two ceasing to be only thoughts as they escaped her lips: "Shit, really now Neo, fucking--" She blinked first in surprise then in shock and worry as Neo straight up dived off the bridge. It wasn't possible for Cinder to scramble to her feet any faster than she did just then. She rushed to the edge in a blink, the pain and frustration be damned, and she got there just in time to see the bridge Neo intended to land on break and give way beneath her drop, the thing too old and rotted to provide a sturdy landing.

The frustrated stubborn fire blazing out of the corner of her eye dimmed immediately, and the eye itself widened in pure fear. She didn't have aura, or Hush for that matter!

"NEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

She screamed harder and longer than she ever had in her entire life. She didn't even recognize the voice as belonging to her, so choked up with too much emotion and the wind rushing past her so fast and so loud, for she was in the air in less time than it took to blink. She raced down, flying as fast as she could and beyond even that, the jets of flame shooting out of her feet exploding out far beyond the normal distance. It didn't matter. She put everything she could into those flames, racing through the air even more like a fiery blur than before. Every bit of the magic she could muster was put into making her faster, pushing her past any top speed she'd ever achieved before. In any other situation she would have taken some pride in shattering her own record but right now she just didn't give a damn.

All that mattered was saving her friend.

Neo was plummeting, the rate at which she was falling getting faster and faster but so was Cinder. The magic won out.

She managed to get into range, grabbed hold of Neo in a mid-air hug but by the time she did so, they were both going so fast and the now visible bottom rushing up to meet them just as swiftly that there was no time for her to reverse the momentum entirely and soar back up. So Cinder did the only thing she could think of in the heat of the moment, flipping the two around so that it was herself that would land back first on the ground, and conjuring up a twister of air below meant to slow their descent as much as it could. It did manage to do so, to some degree, but the thud that echoed when Cinder struck the ground was still a loud one, throwing up plenty of dust and smoke and her golden aura rippling but not breaking as she protected Neo with every inch of her body.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

"Does it get easier?"

Lupin's gaze fell back down to his own cup, the ice inside melting just so so that the cubes inside shifted and clinked against the glass.

"...No. Not really. If the first one sticks with you, the seventeenth probably will too. Doesn't mean you can't do the job though. Some of Remnant's worst monsters were the sort who remembered every kill, and some of its gentlest warriors could snuff out a life in the blink of an eye if it was the right thing to do. It just means that for someone like you, that every time you have to make that choice, it'll have to a choice. And that's not necessarily a bad thing, kid." He said, ending the point with a hearty clap on the shoulder.

"Its the other kind of people that are really dangerous. The ones for who it just doesn't matter. They can have the nicest smile and still be capable of tearing out your throat with their bare hands. killing just becomes a play in the book, not something with any weight. And you never know which kind of killer someone will be till they finally cross that line"

He suddenly downed the rest of his glass.

"Like my third ex-wife."

"...That's actually really good advice relevant to my exact situation. Where the hell did that come from? You keep your third ex-wife's head in a freezer somewhere?"

He shot back bluntly, frankly a little shook. He figured there was at least an element of them just humoring each other to all this, like how barflies in movies nodded along and pretended to care about the guy next to them spilling his guts more and more with every drink, but for perhaps the first time since Mistral's kingpin of petty crime was beset upon by their ragtag crew of then-bounty hunters (and never really unbeset) Mercury's gaze glimmered with a hint of genuine admiration for the mustached man. He slowly lowered it, swirling his own glass in his palm a few times and watching the head swish around the interior as one particular snippet of Lupin's sage wisdom played itself back in his mind.

"And you never know which kind of killer someone will be till they finally cross that line."

"...Yea."

It was funny. Mercury always figured he was the closed book of the team. Emerald's book was written in another language and some of the pages were missing, sure, but choosing to furtively sidestep all that sappy, emotional stuff she pretended to hate wasn't the same as his whole deal.

He really did hate it. Or at least, there was still that tiny voice in his head somewhere telling him he should hate it, that he had to hate it, that he was weak for not hating it. A voice that, sometimes, when he was in one of his moods, actually wasn't so tiny, and sounded distressingly hard to distinguish from his own. The Black family tenets weren't exactly comprehensive when it came to processing emotions that weren't all the rage you had, leveled right at the life that needed ending, the contract that needed completing. The mistake most people fighting Mercury made was assuming those clanky stilts he walked around on were his weapons. His dad would've given him hell for saying as much. They were a part of him, every bit as much as his flesh-and-blood set of legs had been, but outside what they could offer him in that respect they were just another tool. Just another crutch.

When you were a Black, you were the only weapon that mattered. Everything else was just... performance enhancement.

Whatever else could be said for old Marcus's propensity for raising his own blood, the weapon he had forged to shed others' was a damn fine one. Not only in its physical aspects, but the mental, too; the way Mercury knew right away whenever an opponent was favoring a leg, if either side of their limbs were particularly tender, if they were projecting their aura and thus confident in its current rate of consumption or conserving it, running on empty. In a world of huntsmen and huntresses, the key to being one of the best killers in the game wasn't to be the most straight-up skilled fighter around, it was to be the most efficient. The most lethal. Knowing where to strike and how hard to achieve the maximum effect. In truth, the biggest adjustment for him when he washed up in Beacon hadn't been anything to do with the social climate.

It was pacing himself enough to stop sending people to the hospital during spars.

As it turned out, learning to kill Grimm and learning to kill people were two very different things, and just about every time he walked off that sparring court after a win it was with a dark scowl on his face and an unfulfilled pit in his stomach; bar some of his more heated bouts with Tyrian or one particularly frustrating match with a supposed Mistralian transfer Goodwitch had to bring to a halt before either side suffered a serious injury. He knew he could've put most of them in the hospital if he wanted to. He could've put just about any one of them in the dirt if he wanted to. That didn't make him feel good. That didn't make him feel like he was cut out to be a huntsman. It made the prospect of a Mercury Black who was a huntsman seem neutered, unattainable. His dad's voice was always at its loudest during those spars, demanding why he wasn't pushing, wasn't capitalizing. Why they were still standing. Why they weren't dead yet.

Why his son had to turn out to be such a weakling.

It was never a struggle he'd shared with his team. It wasn't one they'd get, and more than that it just felt like his particular mountain to climb. No matter how hard he tried, the life of a killer was destined to always be one that called out to him. It was what he was reared for. Conditioned for. And, ultimately, there was one key virtue he possessed copious amounts of to ensure he could always pull himself back from the brink.

Spite.

His old man could kiss his ass. He was never gonna turn out that way.

Both times he'd ended someone had been impulsive, heat of the moment calls, and they would stay with him, but they were never going to change who he was to any meaningful degree—and that was the whole rub of it.

Because it felt like every time he looked at Neo now, he was looking at a version of himself without that same assurance. Sure, beat-by-beat their roads here had been pretty distinct. But there was overlap. Ever since Roman, Neo had been a closed book that made Mercury's seem about as impenetrable as a newspaper comic. They both came from nothing, had no one, had thrown everything they had into the whole Beacon thing as a result only to kinda get spat out like pieces of gum. And now they were both drifting, rudderless and anchorless, and everyone was telling them they were supposed to just... keep going. Keep moving forward and act like there wasn't all this anger inside them. Think happy thoughts til you're normal again. Between the two of them, how many reasons did they really have to listen? To care?

Perhaps most crucially, Mercury Black of all people knew what someone living for the next kill looked like. They were balancing on the same precipice, but when he looked down Mercury would always see that safety net, ready to catch him.

What could Neo possibly have been seeing other than a gaping, endless abyss?

And just how the hell was he supposed to hash all this out in a way where he wasn't the asshole? With someone who couldn't talk? Why couldn't the Black family have been a lineage of elite, like, grief counselors or something?

He gave a half-amused snort, settling back in his stool and flicking his eyes up towards the ceiling with a mystified shake of the head as he offered a brief toast before tipping the rest of his drink back. "Thanks, dad."















His head suddenly whipped towards Lupin, normally steely eyes radiating alarm.

"Uh. That was like a, 'thanks for nothing, you old bastard!' You know, with a..." He vigorously motioned flipping off the sky or whatever in one hand, miming a solemnly raised glass and doing his best to infuse all the layers of sarcasm and complexity that had made the whole thing such a wonderfully subtle affair in the first place that he even had to point this out.

"I wasn't calling you my dad." ​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

"...That's actually really good advice relevant to my exact situation. Where the hell did that come from? You keep your third ex-wife's head in a freezer somewhere?"

He chuckled. "Haha, no, no. That's what she did. Serial killer. Mistral's Small Pipe Slayer. The name was uh... ironic -Bartender, refill me here" He said with a rough cough

He gave a half-amused snort, settling back in his stool and flicking his eyes up towards the ceiling with a mystified shake of the head as he offered a brief toast before tipping the rest of his drink back. "Thanks, dad."

His head suddenly whipped towards Lupin, normally steely eyes radiating alarm.

"Uh. That was like a, 'thanks for nothing, you old bastard!' You know, with a..." He vigorously motioned flipping off the sky or whatever in one hand, miming a solemnly raised glass and doing his best to infuse all the layers of sarcasm and complexity that had made the whole thing such a wonderfully subtle affair in the first place that he even had to point this out.

"I wasn't calling you my dad."

There was a self satisfied grin on Lupin's face as he gave his head a rueful shake and gave Mercury another solid pat on the shoulder. "Course you weren't kid; you killed your dad. I'm something better; your mentor-"

*CRACK-SNAP*

Cinder grunted in pain as she smacked into the wall, a curse or two ceasing to be only thoughts as they escaped her lips: "Shit, really now Neo, fucking--" She blinked first in surprise then in shock and worry as Neo straight up dived off the bridge. It wasn't possible for Cinder to scramble to her feet any faster than she did just then. She rushed to the edge in a blink, the pain and frustration be damned, and she got there just in time to see the bridge Neo intended to land on break and give way beneath her drop, the thing too old and rotted to provide a sturdy landing.

The frustrated stubborn fire blazing out of the corner of her eye dimmed immediately, and the eye itself widened in pure fear. She didn't have aura, or Hush for that matter!

"NEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

She screamed harder and longer than she ever had in her entire life. She didn't even recognize the voice as belonging to her, so choked up with too much emotion and the wind rushing past her so fast and so loud, for she was in the air in less time than it took to blink. She raced down, flying as fast as she could and beyond even that, the jets of flame shooting out of her feet exploding out far beyond the normal distance. It didn't matter. She put everything she could into those flames, racing through the air even more like a fiery blur than before. Every bit of the magic she could muster was put into making her faster, pushing her past any top speed she'd ever achieved before. In any other situation she would have taken some pride in shattering her own record but right now she just didn't give a damn.

Lupin's reaction to the calvacade of sound and screaming coming from the rope bridge area leading up to the bar was so swift and fluid that, for one fleeting moment, he looked as dangerous and capable as Snake Style sounded like it was supposed to be.

It was also completely inaccurate to the situation at hand, as his reaction to the loud and indistinct sound behind him was to whirl on his feet and whip his gin glass straight behind him, determined to dissuade whatever was clearly coming to attack them.

He watched it sail out the door, just barely missing another patron's head before it hurtled down into the abyss outside, trailing an orange glow that sounded vaguely like a jet engine before it disappeared.

"...What was that???"

Cinder grunted in pain as she smacked into the wall, a curse or two ceasing to be only thoughts as they escaped her lips: "Shit, really now Neo, fucking--" She blinked first in surprise then in shock and worry as Neo straight up dived off the bridge. It wasn't possible for Cinder to scramble to her feet any faster than she did just then. She rushed to the edge in a blink, the pain and frustration be damned, and she got there just in time to see the bridge Neo intended to land on break and give way beneath her drop, the thing too old and rotted to provide a sturdy landing.

The frustrated stubborn fire blazing out of the corner of her eye dimmed immediately, and the eye itself widened in pure fear. She didn't have aura, or Hush for that matter!

"NEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

She screamed harder and longer than she ever had in her entire life. She didn't even recognize the voice as belonging to her, so choked up with too much emotion and the wind rushing past her so fast and so loud, for she was in the air in less time than it took to blink. She raced down, flying as fast as she could and beyond even that, the jets of flame shooting out of her feet exploding out far beyond the normal distance. It didn't matter. She put everything she could into those flames, racing through the air even more like a fiery blur than before. Every bit of the magic she could muster was put into making her faster, pushing her past any top speed she'd ever achieved before. In any other situation she would have taken some pride in shattering her own record but right now she just didn't give a damn.

All that mattered was saving her friend.

Neo was plummeting, the rate at which she was falling getting faster and faster but so was Cinder. The magic won out.

She managed to get into range, grabbed hold of Neo in a mid-air hug but by the time she did so, they were both going so fast and the now visible bottom rushing up to meet them just as swiftly that there was no time for her to reverse the momentum entirely and soar back up. So Cinder did the only thing she could think of in the heat of the moment, flipping the two around so that it was herself that would land back first on the ground, and conjuring up a twister of air below meant to slow their descent as much as it could. It did manage to do so, to some degree, but the thud that echoed when Cinder struck the ground was still a loud one, throwing up plenty of dust and smoke and her golden aura rippling but not breaking as she protected Neo with every inch of her body.

The thought hadn't even crossed her mind. She'd been so sure she was dead. In the last spin on her own, unaware of the approaching meteor above her, and she saw the abyss one last time, she'd squeezed her eyes shut and fought back the tears. This was for the best. It didn't matter if it wasn't what she wanted. She never got that anyways.

It was probably for the best that she didn't. even with her eyes shut, she felt the light and warmth before the end, and she let her shoulders relaxed and hoped it was quick.

Then she felt the arms around her. They snapped open in shock and stared blankly at Cinder, a sheer and complete uncomprehension on her face. In Neo's eyes, no matter what Cinder's own faults, her own were unforgiveable on this front. Yet she could tell just by looking at Cinder that she just didn't care. That, even if she really did understand what Neo had wanted to do back at the camp, even if she understood just how much of the dark was festering inside the little huntress' soul and all the blood she still longed to spill, she'd jump into the abyss a hundred times more to stop her end. Because they were friends.

The tears that came out of her disappeared up into the flames trailing their fall, sparkles in the dark before the evaporated in the fall maiden's heat.

...........


As the smoke slowly cleared at the bottom, Neo was still, right up until Cinder tried to speak again. She seemed determined to not let the maiden get her apology in, even after everything else. Except this time it was to pull her up into the tightest embrace Neo could manage, Cinder able to feel how wet Neopolitan's cheek was as Neo it buried into her shoulder, her shoulder shaking with silent hiccups of emotion, a sort that she desperately hoped that even without her voice, she could convey properly just this once.

'I'm sorry too'

(HxH Narrator Voice)

Even in the dark, at the bottom of the world, the two had found a bit of warmth. Far from everything had been solved; Cinder's quest for power to turn into strength to protect others was a tightrope she'd still have to walk. Neo's light had been saved, but her darkness had as well. To say nothing Ozma's inexoriable return, or even what the mysterious Morgiana had in store for them in the morning. But come what may tomorrow, they would be there to face it. Together

 

[MidwayLives]

“...So, you thought you’d be dead before that? Kinda dark, dude.”

"...Dark? No...No I don't think so."

Tyrian didn't mean it in an argumentive sense. Infact, his expression seemed surprised by Sun's take on what he'd said.

Holding up a hand to signify a pause in the fighting, he hunched over and folded his arms across his chest.

"...Ever since I was a kid I've always made choices."

The choice to work alongside his parents in the mines. Even if handling the physical labor had been difficult at first.

The choice to take the hand of the man that'd introduce him to the world of combat.

"...Nobody made em for me. I did it. All on my own."

Every blow he'd thrown. Every bullet he'd fired. Even every swipe of his tail.

They were all things he chose to do.

"....Growing up around folks who knew how to hold a grudge, heh, someone else would probably be surprised I'd made it this long. I am too but I'm okay with that." He smiled and stood straight up again. "If at any point something came up: a challenge I couldn't surmount. Be it a fighter stronger than me, an illness I couldn't overcome, a wound too grievous to heal. I'd accept whatever fate awaited me because the ability to make my choice would have been pulled away from me and that's...almost liberating in a way. Just let things go as they are." His stinger waved from side to side. "Don't get the wrong idea though. I'm not looking to die or anything. But I made the choice to fight for my friends a long time ago. If something happens that stops me from doing that? Well."

He shrugged his shoulders.

"I'll take whatever comes because it'll no longer be the choice that I'd made. It'll be someone or something else's. Fate maybe? Who's to say?"

There was the slightest of pauses.

"....Thanks for letting me talk. I'm not the best at getting my feelings across in words. I usually just hug and let it go from there." He admitted sheepishly. If there was another brightside to add to seeing Watts and Cinder again, it was the chance to wrap them up in a nice warm embrace. Because he cared about them.
​

 

[Gus Gungus]

It was also completely inaccurate to the situation at hand, as his reaction to the loud and indistinct sound behind him was to whirl on his feet and whip his gin glass straight behind him, determined to dissuade whatever was clearly coming to attack them.

He watched it sail out the door, just barely missing another patron's head before it hurtled down into the abyss outside.

It barely missed Mercury.

Before that unholy din could even start reverberating off the cavernous interior walls after it first sounded the younger man was gone, already through the door by the time his stool tipped over from where it'd been left teetering and toppling with the force of his standing. He was at the side of the bridge clutching the rope handhold in both palms before the glass was even out of sight, trying to set his jaw in a grimace that came off more panicked than anything with how wide his eyes were, wider than anyone in the entire cave network had ever seen them before regardless of how much time they'd spent around him as they desperately scanned the chasm again and again, trying to find any sign of life or movement amid the ball of flame already far below, trying to figure out what the fuck was even going on.

He had never heard Cinder scream like that before.



He didn't move. If he moved he was gonna jump after them so he just didn't move, didn't react, didn't blink as he felt the bridge's weight shift from the bar's other patrons only now beginning to emerge, drunkenly mumbling in askance as to who fell. He ignored them. In his periphery he saw other, equally confused faces begin to populate the network of bridges and catwalks arrayed below them, rubbing sleep from their eyes as they pushed through the tents of their flap and started calling to one another across the cavern, irritation in their voices palpable. He ignored them too. It wasn't the first time someone had fallen. Morgiana ensured there were always procedures to follow, a process to determine who went over, and whether their odds of survival were enough to justify a search party delving into the subterranean depths, beyond the protection of her runes where Grimm yet roamed.

Nothing really came of it, most of them content to simply curse the name of whoever screamed for waking them and wander back to their cots or dealings. There was still the occasional curious spectator hovering by the time Emerald got to him, out of breath, having hoofed it all the way from the arena chamber when that awful scream reached them even there, and when he ignored her first, frantic "What happened?!" she thumped him on the arm and repeated herself louder, more desperately.

He almost didn't answer again. She almost didn't need him to. Even as delinquents went, neither were the most in touch with their feelings, and neither could claim a ton of practical experience in the whole friendship thing. Especially not... not this. They were the cool, aloof kids who fell into their little snarky routines and criticized stuff. They weren't equipped for this. They weren't even programmed for it.

Which meant neither had any real answers for what this horrible feeling they both had was. The only remotely befitting word for it was dread. Just... weight, pure and simple, bearing down on their chests, dragging their hearts all the way to the deepest pit of their stomachs and threatening to drown them there. Neither wanted to assume the worst, but ironically both were far better at reading other people—and each other—than they were themselves, and in that moment both knew exactly what the other was thinking. All the terrible thoughts and possibilities their minds were running through, because god dammit they knew something was off with Neo, they knew, could feel the unacknowledged tension hanging in the air between them of late, had let themselves get caught up in their own drama and left her in the lurch the one night everything that had happened was gonna catch up to her. Because of them. They knew, and they didn't do anything about it because they were too cool to get over themselves and now it was happening again.

Emerald was considering slapping him when he finally did respond, voice utterly toneless and somewhere far, far away.



"I g-guess she fell."

------------------------------

"Okay, so, stuff to know about Morgiana."

Emerald's voice sounded tired, almost obligatory in effort as she led what had to be the most ragtag crew the cave had ever seen assembled up a long, winding catwalk that wrapped around and around the cavern's huge central pillar, which disappeared deep into the shadows below and climbed almost as high as the ceiling. Most the cave's features were natural formations, Emerald had explained, the Vacuan minerals once rich with Dust having enabled the cave network to develop in such an interesting way even before the copious amounts of runic street art now adorning its walls.

Her heart didn't really sound in it.

Spoiler: Hours earlier, cnt'd

That was how they had stayed for as long as it took Cinder to return with Neo safe in hand, and frankly neither could recall seeing a Mercury or Emerald who looked less like themselves. From a distance it was impossible to discern anything positive or negative in their expressions as they stared unblinkingly at their approach, simply pure, unmitigated shock.

Then they drew closer, and what they saw definitely wasn't positive.

Emerald had plainly been crying, not even so much out of grief as out of nerves, worry and helplessness, having proven as unable to stop the panic she'd just about managed to evade earlier from creeping up on her and dragging her towards the worst-case scenario as she was unable to hide her leaky eyes or irregular sniffles. Mercury, meanwhile, was so emotionally constipated he literally hadn't cried once since that day Neo and him broke down together at the Tribe camp—which, incidentally, he had spent the last few minutes playing over and over again in his mind while he did everything in his power not to spiral out.

All in all, there wasn't a trace in sight of the slick, unflappable, dauntless Mercury and Emerald who'd once ruled and terrorized Beacon Academy's hallways in equal measure. But if Neo needed further refuting of the notion that Remnant was better off without her, she wasn't going to find stronger than in those faces. Two miserable, dejected, shaken faces who right now didn't look anything but scared for her, who'd stuck it out with her through the worst, who quite frankly couldn't have been any less qualified to step back into emotional support roles with all their own baggage but who had tried their hardest to anyway. Because they loved Neo, cared for her, even if their respective hangups made them bad at saying it. They wanted to be by her side through this no matter how long it took.

Neither had ever felt like a bigger failure.



They knew. It wasn't clear whether it was intuition, having spent so much time learning to read Neo's cues that they could see through her in a way few could, or the simple fact that they'd spent the last several months of that time in constant, implicit fear of this exact thing, but somehow they just knew. Any hope of passing what had happened off as solely some kind of freak accident dissipated by the time Cinder touched down, their utterly desolate expressions finally starting to give way to more conventional ones of confusion, hurt and betrayal as two of the most effortlessly personable people either Cinder or Neo had ever met tried to figure out what to even say.

Ten minutes later they still hadn't managed it, when the trio trudged through the door to their rustic little cave room after showing the others to the similar one across the hall. Mercury went right for his bed, snatched up the bundle of blankets and a single lumpy pillow waiting there, then turned and strode right back out, his only regret that the door didn't slam any harder. Emerald watched him go with a resigned, doleful look, but didn't follow, instead sighing and making for the bathroom, where she turned the lock and didn't come out for about half an hour. When she did she moved straight to her bed, and if Neo was still awake did manage to give her a small, wan smile that was at the very least sincere in its relief.

But it never quite reached her eyes, and the next time Neo looked back she had rolled over to face the other direction.

It had been... a fitful night's sleep, to say the least. Nobody felt particularly rested by the time Emerald knocked on their door, but if nothing else the groggiest of the cobwebs had been swept away, and her lack of heart and generally drained demeanor weren't from a lack of sleep. They were about halfway up by this point, and she swept her hair back to tie it in a bun as she continued tersely.

"God, where to start? She's not whatever you're expecting, for one thing." They could practically hear the eye roll in that sentence, punctuated as it was by the sardonic tilt of the head she gave. Then she huffed. "Look, I've known her a long time. She's... actually not that bad a person. Most folks either hate her or get totally spellbound within a minute, so just aim for somewhere in between and you'll be ok. Ok?"

She tried to inject an optimistic uptick in her voice, but even to her it sounded forced. Mercury had already been standing by the foot of the catwalk when they approached, and turned and started ascending it ahead of them, about a full flight higher than them by now at the pace he was walking.

The look on his face for the brief moments they saw it did not encourage anyone to lessen that gap.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

Meanwhile, on approximately the same continent...

Even as this Remnant's heroes began their monumental ascent below the ground, another's were beginning a climb of their own on the surface. As the likes of Vernal and Neopolitan slept soundly, undisturbed by the first rays of dawn beginning to trickle through the cracks in the roof tiling, the man mountain of an innkeep stood proudly before his quartet of indentured volunteers; namely, the louts who'd dealt the most property damage to his sole place of business and income source during whatever the hell last night had been.



"Roigh' then! Oi'm off to sleep in 'til evenin' on account o' yer lot's jocularity keepin' me awake til the wee 'ours. Yer lot's t'keep the place runnin' smooth til oi wake up. 'Member, there's t'be a crowd o' hungry laborers comin' in 'rounds 'levun for breakfast, and you'll wanna pop the stew o'er the foire so's the meat's good'n tender boi 6 fer the dinnertoime rush," he explained in rapidfire fashion, all without taking a breath as he polished the last of his mugs. "Nowt smokin' in th' common area, they's kin go outsoide, an' jus' t'be on th'safe soide ye'll wanna have breakfas' fixed fer that lot yer with before noine. Y'can make tracks on fixin' summa the stewpider damages in an'roun the place, t'boot."

Slamming the final cup down and laying his hands flat on the bartop, he puffed up to his full height and glared machetes at his chosen unfortunates.

Name: Yang Xiao Long. Reason: Massive unexplained frost and waterlogging damage to room 2A. Special skill: I Burn (non flammable kitchen materials, somehow)
Name: Nora Valkyrie. Reason: Nora Valkyrie shaped hole in wall. Special skill: Electrocuting herself with the toaster
Name: Penny Polendina. Reason: Broke a window. Special skill: Still being alive here
Name: Qrow Branwen. Reason: Just showed up. Special skill: Leaving early

All in all, it may well have been the single worst team ever put to kitchen.



"...Ok?" Answered a Qrow who very clearly had not slept enough to be doing this, looking like absolute shit as he emerged from below the counter with a tray of cutlery.

"Good on ye. Boi!" The man rumbled jovially, slipping a comically oversized sleeping cap over his head before lumbering off to the backrooms.

Qrow immediately turned to Penny. "You got that, uhh, whatsit.... speech-to-text or whatever?"​

 

[MidwayLives]

It had been... a fitful night's sleep, to say the least. Nobody felt particularly rested by the time Emerald knocked on their door, but if nothing else the groggiest of the cobwebs had been swept away, and her lack of heart and generally drained demeanor weren't from a lack of sleep. They were about halfway up by this point, and she swept her hair back to tie it in a bun as she continued tersely.

The sleep hadn't...been the best for Tyrian.

Don't get him wrong the sleep itself had been fine.

It had been reaching that point that bothered him so much.

The constant tossing and turning.

The bewilderment running through him, the sheer rush of adrenaline coursing through his veins.

The worry.
​

"NEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

His tail hung loosely with the stinger just inches above touching the ground.

Trifa attempted to reach out a comforting hand to his shoulder.

But the faunus just kept on moving.
​

She tried to inject an optimistic uptick in her voice, but even to her it sounded forced. Mercury had already been standing by the foot of the catwalk when they approached, and turned and started ascending it ahead of them, about a full flight higher than them by now at the pace he was walking.

The look on his face for the brief moments they saw it did not encourage anyone to lessen that gap.

Having deigned to walk at the back of the group-mostly due to Blanche feeling a touch unfamiliar with....just about everyone but the kids who's drunken hobo friend beat his ass.

Also just because Char's mind seemed to be elsewhere.

"You, uh, doin alright man? You've been pretty quiet." Blanche whispered.

"Hm? Nah...I...I just hope Pinky's ok."

Blanche looked away. He could always comfort his partner/best friend on just about anything. Except this.

"She fought the Boss with you right? She's a strong kid. She'll be ok."

"....Yeah."

Char didn't say anything substantial but he knew in his heart. Being physically strong was different than emotionally.

Looking at the slightest hint of his reflection in Riot Breaker, he frowned.

He...uh, knew that all too well.
​

 

[MidwayLives]

Even as this Remnant's heroes began their monumental ascent below the ground, another's were beginning a climb of their own on the surface. As the likes of Vernal and Neopolitan slept soundly, undisturbed by the first rays of dawn beginning to trickle through the cracks in the roof tiling, the man mountain of an innkeep stood proudly before his quartet of indentured volunteers; namely, the louts who'd dealt the most property damage to his sole place of business and income source during whatever the hell last night had been.

This world was....odd.

It was also unfair on top of that. Just absolutely plain unfair.

She'd run into a man who made her semblance null and void. He'd even punted her through a window.

Then when the time to take her vengeance for this world's Roman was within her grasp....

She floundered.

Couldn't seal the deal. Hell, if it hadn't been for Raven Brawnen of all people(something Neo was still trying to wrap her head around), she would have been killed.

Neo rubbed at her forehead. It hurt like you wouldn't believe. Like someone had taken a sledgehammer to it. Though fortunately that'd been the 'Red with the creepy incest vibe and not her. She didn't get out of bed just yet. Having lost Hush and even that shard of broken sword she'd been using, Neo ran a hand over her neckline. It angered her to the core of her being to admit it. But after one glance at those piercing eyes and the way she'd moved with such lethality, Neo felt something of a cold sweat beginning to ebb on the side of her forehead. All while she continued to rub where Gambol Shroud had wrapped itself around her neck.

*thwack*

Neo waved her hand from where she'd punched the wall.

Ow is 99% likely what she would have said.

Flumping back into bed, she sighed.

.....She hoped the other her was doing ok. Wherever she was.

​

 

[MyrtenRose]

Between the state of mind she had been in approaching this from the start, the way Neo was hugging her and the wretched sobs that came with, saying what she could not, and just...how dangerously close one of her friends had come to dying...with all that, Cinder was not ashamed to admit that she also broke down crying in the embrace, the tears pouring from her eye with seemingly no end. They ran down her face, some falling onto her new longcoat, others just hitting the floor and landing on Neo. Any attempt to actually get her apology out was just a nearly incoherent mess and the length of time it took for her to fly back up with Neo in tow had far more to do with the fact that she just didn't want to let go. But she had to, and eventually she did.

The look on the two's faces when they neared were about what she expected, but also just so strangely...alien. Like it wasn't even them. Her miserable gaze drifted between the two, back and forth repeatedly, and the only reason she didn't have any tears emerge then too was that she was all tear'd out by then. Like them, she had no idea what to say. Any words that came to mind got stuck in her throat...it was all-around a real depressing situation. That painful silence lingered all the way to the rooms they were staying in, and every step they took was one that stung all the more in that quiet walk. When she entered the cave room that was to be her lodging for a little while, she didn't even make it to the actual bed. She just lowered herself to take a seat on the floor next to it, leaning her back against it. The sound of a door banging across the hall had her gaze jump up in that direction, but soon enough it returned to the ground.

She didn't know how long she sat there but she knew at some point she crawled into the bed. It felt like shit. Nothing against the bed, but it have could been the richest thing imaginable, with the softest mattress and the warmest, most cozy blankets and it still would have felt like shit. Cinder barely got any sleep that night, if at all. It was just too hard. Every time she closed her eyes, she could just see those faces. Mercury and Emerald, so distraught they didn't even look like Merc and Em. She could practically feel Neo's wretched sobs on her even now, long after her inner fire had rid her of them. And worst of all, her imagination running wild...the very thing she had just been talking about with Tyrian, the what ifs...try as she might, she couldn't manage to follow her own advice right then, to not dwell on the what ifs. It stuck to her like glue.

What if I hadn't been fast enough?

The idea of what might have happened when Neo struck the ground falling like that...what she might have looked like...the thoughts plagued her all night.​

"Okay, so, stuff to know about Morgiana."

Emerald's voice sounded tired, almost obligatory in effort as she led what had to be the most ragtag crew the cave had ever seen assembled up a long, winding catwalk that wrapped around and around the cavern's huge central pillar, which disappeared deep into the shadows below and climbed almost as high as the ceiling. Most the cave's features were natural formations, Emerald had explained, the Vacuan minerals once rich with Dust having enabled the cave network to develop in such an interesting way even before the copious amounts of runic street art now adorning its walls.

Her heart didn't really sound in it.

It had been... a fitful night's sleep, to say the least. Nobody felt particularly rested by the time Emerald knocked on their door, but if nothing else the groggiest of the cobwebs had been swept away, and her lack of heart and generally drained demeanor weren't from a lack of sleep. They were about halfway up by this point, and she swept her hair back to tie it in a bun as she continued tersely.

"God, where to start? She's not whatever you're expecting, for one thing." They could practically hear the eye roll in that sentence, punctuated as it was by the sardonic tilt of the head she gave. Then she huffed. "Look, I've known her a long time. She's... actually not that bad a person. Most folks either hate her or get totally spellbound within a minute, so just aim for somewhere in between and you'll be ok. Ok?"

She tried to inject an optimistic uptick in her voice, but even to her it sounded forced. Mercury had already been standing by the foot of the catwalk when they approached, and turned and started ascending it ahead of them, about a full flight higher than them by now at the pace he was walking.

The look on his face for the brief moments they saw it did not encourage anyone to lessen that gap.

But regardless, when the time came she got up. She did her best to not seem as tired as she was, and more than that, tried to give everyone a friendly smile and brighten the mood but it still felt hollow. She listened half-heartedly, glancing from Emerald to Mercury to Tyrian but her look landed firmly on one person in particular, and she adjusted her walking speed to match hers, putting herself next to her as they went. "Hey, Neo? Can I...can I ask you something?" Cinder leaned over slightly and whispered.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

Qrow immediately turned to Penny. "You got that, uhh, whatsit.... speech-to-text or whatever?"

"He's going to be sleeping in until tonight because we kept him up into the early morning, our job is to keep the place going great until he gets up, there's gonna be a bunch of people coming in at eleven for some breakfast chow, somebody's gotta be on meats and plant them over a fire so they're perfect by the time the dinner rush arrives, there's no smoking in the common area so we should tell any who try to go outside, and we should try to have breakfast done for ourselves(SQUAD) ready before nine, oh and maybe a more capable person can start trying to repair some of the damage we left. Totally unrelated note, the hole in the wall is not my fault. Blame Yang. The other Yang, not best Yang!"

​