Fandom Distorted Mirror [IC]

[Gus Gungus]

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.

"Or we could focus up and not do this." Emerald suggested with just a hint of a pointed bite in her tone, turning her head barely a quarter of the way to address the two over her shoulder while she walked. Her sigh made it obvious just how fast and hard the subsequent guilt hit her, though, and when she continued it was with some of the tension diffused from her words.

"Just... we're starting work now. Everyone's half asleep. Can we just figure out what's happening first and go from there?"

​

 

[Gus Gungus]

"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!"

"Guess when your first language is gibberish there are no regional dialects," came his faint, exasperated grunt, blunter than usual this morning, though still not without a quietly impressed bend to his eyebrow as he unloaded the next cutlery tray and set it down. Just a little more help with the prepwork and then he was outta here, provided banditdum and banditdee felt like getting out of bed in the immediate.

"Also, that was a helluvalotta stuff to remember and rattle off all in one like that, even without the cartoonish accent. Nora, are you... smart?"​

 

[MyrtenRose]

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"Guess when your first language is gibberish there are no regional dialects," came his faint, exasperated grunt, blunter than usual this morning, though still not without a quietly impressed bend to his eyebrow as he unloaded the next cutlery tray and set it down. Just a little more help with the prepwork and then he was outta here, provided banditdum and banditdee felt like getting out of bed in the immediate.

"Also, that was a helluvalotta stuff to remember and rattle off all in one like that, even without the cartoonish accent. Nora, are you... smart?"​

Nora glared at him, annoyed. “Jeez, what, just because someone enjoys having a good time a lot, that means they can’t be smart now? Why does everyone assume I’m dumb—yes, I’m smart! I pick up on things, okay! We couldn’t have survived on our own without it.” She sighed but it was hard to make out with how quickly she shifted back to a grin and spoke much louder: “Just gonna put this out there but I know Ren’s way of making the most killer pancakes by heart so how’s about a mountain of pancakes for breakfast, huh?!” She paused for a second before adding. “Eggs on the side would be great too!”​

 

[Gus Gungus]

Nora glared at him, annoyed. “Jeez, what, just because someone enjoys having a good time a lot, that means they can’t be smart now? Why does everyone assume I’m dumb—yes, I’m smart! I pick up on things, okay! We couldn’t have survived on our own without it.” She sighed but it was hard to make out with how quickly she shifted back to a grin and spoke much louder: “Just gonna to put this out there but I know Ren’s way of making the most killer pancakes by heart so how’s about a mountain of pancakes for breakfast, huh?!” She paused for a second before adding. “Eggs on the side would be great too!”

He didn't answer verbally at first, just held a steady gaze on her throughout the rebuttal as he wiped his hands off with a dishrag. Suddenly he threw it at her, followed closely by an (again, oversized) apron.

"Good enough for me. Reason I ask is you're in charge. Prolly for the best I don't stick around once the actual patronage start showin' up." He didn't elaborate as to why, instead wiping the sleep away from his oversized bags as he stepped around the counter and rolled out a nagging kink in his lower back. "Theo's given me the brushoff the entire time I've been here, and now the only person who could back up our link to Salem isn't... is gone. Meaning our best idea now involves heading up there with Vernal, my sister and crummy me and not taking no for an answer 'til he gives us a meeting."

The grim, disgruntled growl he delivered the words in spoke volumes as to how he rated that particular iteration of 'best' next to 'great', or even 'good', but it was what he was. He had faith they could be persuasive if they had to be.

"Once we get it we'll bring the rest of ya in through a portal, so be ready for that call. Also."



He let his gaze flit over to the other two majestic busybodies, who for the purposes of this post we'll assume were currently in this phase of their setting up process, and inched closer to Nora in a conspiratorial sideways lean.



"Just make stuff up for Penny to do. And don't let Yang near anything that gets warm."

It wasn't personal. Penny was impressive, a freaking android, but in retrospect he had his doubts about putting a girl who had never needed to eat and had no pain receptors anywhere near a stove or firepit in a wooden inn. And Yang? Yang was sharper and more intuitive than huntresses years her senior.

Just not anywhere near the remote vicinity of a kitchen, specifically, where he'd always felt it was important she knew she was one of the dumbest goddamn people he'd ever seen.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

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"Or we could focus up and not do this." Emerald suggested with just a hint of a pointed bite in her tone, turning her head barely a quarter of the way to address the two over her shoulder while she walked. Her sigh made it obvious just how fast and hard the subsequent guilt hit her, though, and when she continued it was with some of the tension diffused from her words.

"Just... we're starting work now. Everyone's half asleep. Can we just figure out what's happening first and go from there?"

​

There was an almost lethargic slowness to how long it took Cinder’s gaze to meet Emerald’s back, that nearly empty look in her eye returning. Nearly. Just beneath the surface, there was a glimpse of a lot of raw emotion. She didn’t lie to herself, there was a part of her that wanted to snap on Emerald.

“NO! OKAY? NO! YOU GUYS WANTED ME TO TRY AND HELP, AND I WANTED TO! YOU PASSED THE BATON TO ME. BUT WHEN I TRIED, IT ALMOST—I ALMOST HAD TO WATCH A FRIEND KILL HERSELF IN FRONT OF ME. SHE WOULD HAVE IF I HAD BEEN ANY SLOWER AND THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN ON ME AND...AND I....JUST LET ME HAVE THIS! LET ME HELP! LET ME FULLY UNDERSTAND WHY, OKAY?!”

That is what part of her wanted to yell, but she didn’t. She knew in her heart that wasn’t fair to say. That it was cruel and mean and it was just her often explosive temper that was talking there, aggravated by the distressed sadness and frustration and all the painful, terrible thoughts that took the place of an actually good sleep. They didn’t deserve to have that thrown at them. So she didn’t say any of it.

“Maybe you’re right.” was all Cinder said, but as they continued walking, her gaze nevertheless swung back over to Neo to see what her response was.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

He didn't answer verbally at first, just held a steady gaze on her throughout the rebuttal as he wiped his hands off with a dishrag. Suddenly he threw it at her, followed closely by an (again, oversized) apron.

"Good enough for me. Reason I ask is you're in charge. Prolly for the best I don't stick around once the actual patronage start showin' up."

He didn't elaborate as to why, instead wiping the sleep away from his oversized bags as he stepped around the counter and rolled out a nagging kink in his lower back. "Theo's given me the brushoff the entire time I've been here, and now the only person who could back up our link to Salem isn't... is gone. Meaning our best idea now involves heading up there with Vernal, my sister and crummy me and not taking no for an answer 'til he gives us a meeting."

The grim, disgruntled growl he delivered the words in spoke volumes as to how he rated that particular iteration of 'best' next to 'great', or even 'good', but it was what he was. He had faith they could be persuasive if they had to be.

"Once we get it we'll bring the rest of ya in through a portal, so be ready for that call."

"Will do!" She acknowledged, complete with enthusiastic military style salute.​

He let his gaze flit over to the other two majestic busybodies, who for the purposes of this post we'll assume were currently in this phase of their setting up process, and inched closer to Nora in a conspiratorial sideways lean.

"Just make stuff up for Penny to do. And don't let Yang near anything that gets warm."

"You got it. Hehehehe."

She was really in charge of the kitchen! She could boss Penny and Yang around for this! And make really delicious food! And eat a lot of it! God this was going to be so much fun. Pancakes and eggs and meats and good food for all!!!​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

Yang’s eyes snapped open in the morning with a suddenness that would normally belie a nightmare, especially with how soundly exhaustion had sent her to sleep. That wasn’t the case this time though. Her head was just… too wired. Falling asleep hadn’t even really been an active choice so much as a biological prerogative once the adrenaline had fully left her system. It had been night, maybe twenty minutes since they’d left the whale, and then it was morning, the desert chill of night already heating up and a few beams of pre dawn light peeking through her windows.

She pressed her forearm against her eyes as she sucked in a massive breath.

She felt awful.

She felt awful because she’d never felt more relieved.

It hadn’t been free, not at all. Nora got all kinds of messed up. Raven dos and the other Ruby had ended up on the wrong side of the portal. Weiss still had Ozma inside her. And yet….



Weiss was okay. For the moment, at least, she was free, and more than that, they’d turned what was Vacuo’s encroaching doom into what might very well be permanently crippling shot at Ozma’s forces.

It hadn’t been pointless. Yang did that. For the first time since she’d gotten dumped on this godforsaken remnant, her struggling hadn’t just made things worse for everyone.

Yang was tough. Bawling her eyes out at two am when you basically got accosted by a friend’s ghost notwithstanding, she could take the emotional hits almost as well as the physical ones and keep going. But even she had her limits. There was a point where even Yang Xiao Long would crack. But this was was the reset. She’d eaten her hits, and finally landed a punch back on life.

Now all there was to do was to keep on swinging, just like always.

Also whoever decided to finally decide to drag her out of bed walked in on her like that, eyes very clearly shiny as she shot up in the bed with an embarassed, baffled grin that shifted to a growl before the offending party got absolutely obliterated by a mach 20 pillow.

“Don’t you k-knoW HOW TO KNOCK?!”



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


In the kitchen, Yang was clearly only half listening. She was leaning on the counter, a slightly bemused frown on her face as she stared intently at her flesh and blood hand and kept giving Nora surreptitious glances from the corner of her eye. Whatever mystery she was trying to solve however just didn’t seem to warrant any further brain power as she then raised said hand and spoke up about the words she had followed, i.e.; none of the big guys’

“Or. oooor. You take me with you to see this Theo guy, I shoot fire and lighting out of my ears, and he literally has to believe that this is all important and relevant and stuff to his job as Salem’s third pro simp.”

She gestured at the kitchen. “Like. Yea, I feel bad about… well all of this, but this was all important huntsmen work, the academy can foot the bill for the repairs, and I think everyone here knows that I will not make anything better from the confines of this room."

"We have 28 cartons of eggs, seventeen gallons of goat milk, and an incalcuable amount of butter in the cellar!" came Penny's voice from down below

"Side's, I bet penny's a machine in the kitchen" she finished with a flippant grin.

 

[MyrtenRose]

“You better not be trying to weasel out of all this food making...” Nora shared with sloooooowly narrowing eyes. “Come on, you can’t abandon team—uh—“ She paused for a moment, trying to decipher what the hell kind of team name this kitchen crew would be. She was in charge now so N had to be first but that left only Y and P. NYP and NPY both sounded real lame. Damn. Well it could be VXP or VPX for last names but that was also ehhhhhh...dammit if Penny was running the show they could literally be team PNY that woulda been perfect. Oh well.

“Okay so the name’s a work in progress but yeah you can’t just leave, you are a valuable part of the team, and so long as you just follow the very precise recipe I have we’ll be good! Oh and if you leave, Raven won’t have anybody here to portal to when the talk over there reaches a agreeable conclusion and we’ll be losing valuable time on with the whole walk through the large city it’ll take to get there so it really is for the best you stay.” : D​

 

[Gus Gungus]

"We have 28 cartons of eggs, seventeen gallons of goat milk, and an incalcuable amount of butter in the cellar!" came Penny's voice from down below

"Holy crap, you serious?!"

Bingo.

"In that case, your job for today's the most important one of 'em all, Penny. Ya gotta calculate it."

Also whoever decided to finally decide to drag her out of bed walked in on her like that, eyes very clearly shiny as she shot up in the bed with an embarassed, baffled grin that shifted to a growl before the offending party got absolutely obliterated by a mach 20 pillow.

“Don’t you k-knoW HOW TO KNOCK?!”

His reaction then had very much in common with the one he fielded Yang's questions with now, Qrow already mid-turn to shut her down by dispensing some good old-fashioned pro huntsman slash sagely uncle home truths.



"That's... actually very sensible."

Better than rocking up with a lookalike and two ex-maidens and just hoping Theo was in the right headspace to receive information that could possibly hurt him, anyway. More times than not the only headspace Theo was in was the one to brawl.

Also, holy freaking crap Yang was the Winter Maiden. That was gonna take some getting used to.

He hid the fact that he had just straight up failed to take that into account, and how disappointed he was at not getting to be mister wise enigmatic mentor guy, behind a stellar effort at continuing to be mister wise enigmatic mentor guy anyway.

"Mmmh, still, I dunno firecracker. Your dad might say a day of boring menial tasks like what's in store here's exactly the kinda thing that's gonna keep you humble now you got all that ancient, mystical, seasonally mismatched power swirlin' around inside there. I mean, you went after this nice, hairy elephant of a guy's livelihood. That's cold. There any lines you won't cross?"

His smirk was droll, the dry, chiding notes he sent her way the first thing to set off her developed sense of when her darling uncle was getting her goat as he leaned back on the bar with both elbows, grabbed his mug of coffee, and levied an elucidating finger her way.

"Way I see it, yer basically one bad day away from being Cinde—"

A red, swirling, miniaturized portal opened up in the air between them, no larger than a letterbox, and before anyone could really even do more than whip their gaze in its direction it was gone, the tiny object fluttering to the floor in its wake revealing itself to be an elaborately folded sheet of paper.​

 

[MidwayLives]

Well.

Probably time to get up.

Neo squinted at the ceiling.

Maybe if she just stayed up here they'd all forget she was here. Then once they figured out what to do, she could just sneak along.

No more needing to stick her neck out. Or having to get beaten up like she had.


She missed Emerald.

She really missed her.


AGH!

She wasn't gonna get any closer to bringing the two of them home laying in bed like a bump.

The covers were thrown up and Neo rolled out of bed.

Flipping her hat into the air so it'd land delicately atop her head, she strolled out of her room and down the stairs.

Maybe she could have a bit of fun.

It'd be the least anyone here could offer her after what she'd went through.

Noises were heard in the kitchen and Neo glanced over.

Despite what one may have of expected of someone with her past, she actually hadn't managed to damage any of this place. Be it through any kind of accident or just sheer malice.

Not like she could have anyway.

She peeked inside and blinked.
​

A red, swirling, miniaturized portal opened up in the air between them, no larger than a letterbox, and before anyone could really even do more than whip their gaze in its direction it was gone, the tiny object fluttering to the floor in its wake revealing itself to be an elaborately folded sheet of paper.

Oh?

What had that been all about...?

The distinct noise of glass shattering was heard and Neo was no longer standing by the doorway.

Instead she was propped up on a counter, one leg crossed over the other with the mysterious paper in hand.
​

 

[Gus Gungus]

Well.

Probably time to get up.

Neo squinted at the ceiling.

Maybe if she just stayed up here they'd all forget she was here. Then once they figured out what to do, she could just sneak along.

No more needing to stick her neck out. Or having to get beaten up like she had.


She missed Emerald.

She really missed her.


AGH!

She wasn't gonna get any closer to bringing the two of them home laying in bed like a bump.

The covers were thrown up and Neo rolled out of bed.

Flipping her hat into the air so it'd land delicately atop her head, she strolled out of her room and down the stairs.

Maybe she could have a bit of fun.

It'd be the least anyone here could offer her after what she'd went through.

Noises were heard in the kitchen and Neo glanced over.

Despite what one may have of expected of someone with her past, she actually hadn't managed to damage any of this place. Be it through any kind of accident or just sheer malice.

Not like she could have anyway.

She peeked inside and blinked.




Oh?

What had that been all about...?

The distinct noise of glass shattering was heard and Neo was no longer standing by the doorway.

Instead she was propped up on a counter, one leg crossed over the other with the mysterious paper in hand.

The very efficient origami envelope the sheet had been compressed into (because of course it had) opened as effortlessly as petals in bloom, revealing penmanship that had clearly been scribbled under a time pressure and emphasized legibility over presentation and style.

Spoiler: To whom it may concern

Despite the concluding missive, the rest of the page was blank. Qrow was already cutting a rapid stride over, in no way in the mood for this as his baggy, sleepless eyes locked onto Neo with a threatening glare, teeth bared in a grimace.

"Yea, what a concept, let's get the mute chick to read it out. Oh, wait. Gimme."

He fully intended on walking right up to the criminal and snatching it, only for a glint of white in the corner of his peripheral vision to catch his attention first. The letter had contained a second, smaller (if denser in font) note that slipped out during Neo's absconsion with it, and Qrow made no attempt to keep the gratification clear of his tone as he turned his gaze back to her with a bitter grin.

"Bad luck, huh?"

Thus did he snatch it up, eyes rapidly scanning over the note Weiss had, unbeknownst to him, specifically told him not to.

Which begged the question: who exactly had his semblance just screwed over?​

 

[MidwayLives]

The very efficient origami envelope the sheet had been compressed into (because of course it had) opened as effortlessly as petals in bloom, revealing penmanship that had clearly been scribbled under a time pressure and emphasized legibility over all else.

Huh.

Well Brawnen wasn't dead.

Neo supposed that was a plus? She had helped give Penny the chance to save Neo's life. So no real complaints there.

That other Ruby apparently going back to the other side meant that Neo could kill her too now.

Another positive!

....As her hands gripped at the edges of the sheet though, Neo frowned.

Wasn't the same as getting it out on the originals.​

Despite the concluding missive, the rest of the page was blank. Qrow was already cutting a rapid stride over, in no way in the mood for this as his baggy, sleepless eyes locked onto Neo with a threatening glare, teeth bared in a grimace.

"Yea, stellar, let's get the mute chick to read it out. Oh, wait. Gimme."

Neo stuck her tongue out.
​

"Bad luck, huh?"

Thus did he snatch it up, eyes rapidly scanning over the note Weiss had, unbeknownst to him, specifically told him not to.

Which begged the question: who exactly had his semblance just screwed over?

Neo quietly huffed in annoyance.

Fine. Wasn't like she wanted to piece together Schnee's sloppy handwriting anymore anyway.

.....That comment about the staff had certainly been thought-provoking though.​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

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.

View attachment 874105

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.

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"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.

View attachment 874141

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.​

Neo wanted to scream.

She hadn't felt such a messed up knot of emotions since before Haven. At least some of them were good. She really was happy to see Cinder, and Watts. She hadn't even realized just how much of the weight on her soul was how they'd left things; what she'd tried to do, the thoughts she stewed on for so long after. Knowing that Cinder just didn't care, forgave her, was... nice. Just as being in someone's arms was nice. Mercury and Emerald weren't exactly the most touchy feely of people. Before Haven, Neo only kind of let that got in the way; she was an affectionate friend, just on the cusp of it drifting from endearing to annoying, but it was the easiest way for her to show that she cared in place of words. After Haven it was.... different.

She was different.

It hadn't really hit her how much until she'd seen their faces when they'd actually come out of the ravine. She'd even been smiling herself when they first came up; the relief she felt at being saved was palpable, if it was any sort of balm to their own worries, but the look was scorched off the face of the earth once she saw them.

At first she looked almost sheepish, a cutesy shrug of a silent 'oops' her initial response, but the full weight of what they were carrying on their faces settled on her, and she realized what they thought happened. Did... Did Cinder think that too? Did everyone? It wasn't what happened. She didn't just jump to end it all or something! She just...

...decided to daredevil between two rickety bridges to avoid a small conversation. Absolutely, violently determined to avoid it, no matter the consequences. Because she didn't deserve it.

As his hands shakily reached inside his pants pocket, he pulled out a lighter and cigar. He'd saved one as a just as case. If the train were attacked or if gods forbid, something happened to Neo. But as he tried to ignite the cigar, he cursed under his breath.

"The hell...*sniff* let us ride this damn train...*sniff* when it's got holes in the ceiling...Letting all this damn rain in..."

There was so much blood.

She couldn't even protect one person

After somewhere around two minutes passed, all their senses of sight returned just as suddenly as they had been taken away. The camp was exactly the same as it had been, save that it was now short one person. The target of their vengeance. She was gone. ".......no....." Cinder murmured, the weak shaky feeling in her legs finally giving way as she dropped to her knees.

All she did was make things worse; anyone she cared about always ended up getting hurt for being near her. Her friends, her family, their allies; she was a walking fucking curse.

Emerald ignored it. "See? You don't wanna end up like that, do you? You have to let it go, sweetheart. Life goes on, Remnant keeps turning, and the more times you have to sever these messy links to the past so it doesn't hurt so much the easier it gets. Pinkie swear."

"I wasn't just talking about them, kiddo."

And they even knew it.

....Or at least.... that's what she'd told herself. But Cinder's rescue, and what they came back to was... it was humbling, in a way. Warming, even with the sheer guilt it had levelled at her.

No one would ever care for her like Roman did; that part of her was gone, forever, and she mourned it and him as deeply as the day he'd died, and the ugly fires of revenge still churned inside of her. But people did care for her.

She needed to be better for them.

And she had no idea how to tell them that was the case. That she was gonna try.

Hence, the desire to scream.

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.



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.​

View attachment 874260

"Or we could focus up and not do this." Emerald suggested with just a hint of a pointed bite in her tone, turning her head barely a quarter of the way to address the two over her shoulder while she walked. Her sigh made it obvious just how fast and hard the subsequent guilt hit her, though, and when she continued it was with some of the tension diffused from her words.

"Just... we're starting work now. Everyone's half asleep. Can we just figure out what's happening first and go from there?"

​

Which her body really did try to do when Cinder surprised her out of her little internal reverie, the little huntress jolting in surprise before she affixed Cinder with an attentive smile of her own that immediately turned into a wince at Emerald's snap. She gave Cinder a sheepish smile in return and grasped her hand with a tight squeeze for a moment, a wordless promise to field that question when she could before she let go and quickened her pace a bit to try and catch up with Emerald.

As she passed Watts, she gave him a sly smirk and a knowing wink, and if someone caught her at the right angle they would've swore her eyes shifted green for a moment that got an ever so slightly flustered eye roll in return that strangely lacked any verbal bite to accompany it

They'd had a discussion of their own last night, in a few spare minutes when neo had slipped out of the room from an inability to sleep and found Watts similarly positioned outside his and Cinder's tiny rock hole, apparently not to keen on simply trusting this place at Emerald's words. A far more directly needed apology for firearms being shot into faces, that Watts was initially only very begrudgingly going to accept, along with stern words towards his treatment of his own partner.



She made it up to him though.

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

“You better not be trying to weasel out of all this food making...” Nora shared with sloooooowly narrowing eyes. “Come on, you can’t abandon team—uh—“ She paused for a moment, trying to decipher what the hell kind of team name this kitchen crew would be. She was in charge now so N had to be first but that left only Y and P. NYP and NPY both sounded real lame. Damn. Well it could be VXP or VPX for last names but that was also ehhhhhh...dammit if Penny was running the show they could literally be team PNY that woulda been perfect. Oh well.

“Okay so the name’s a work in progress but yeah you can’t just leave, you are a valuable part of the team, and so long as you just follow the very precise recipe I have we’ll be good! Oh and if you leave, Raven won’t have anybody here to portal to when the talk over there reaches a agreeable conclusion and we’ll be losing valuable time on with the whole walk through the large city it’ll take to get there so it really is for the best you stay.” : D​

Yang turned and slowly levelled her finger to point at Nora.

"........nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnno."

She gave an apologetic shrug. "I'm there to make sure the talks are agreeble, and its not like our scrolls don't work here. I'm super proud that you're taking all the damage here seriously and stuff, Nora, but... y'know, priorities? Saving the world and so on? So-



*A whole bunch of posts about letters in the the breeze and reading*


Yang blinked, too flabbergasted by the sudden appearance and disappearance of the portal to react in time to get to it herself, and now doing her best to peer over Qrow's shoulder with a relieved grin. "See?! I told you Weiss would keep Raven and Rubes safe. Whatsit say?"

She seemed to be doing everything in her power to very pointedly ignore Neo

 

[Gus Gungus]

Yang blinked, too flabbergasted by the sudden appearance and disappearance of the portal to react in time to get to it herself, and now doing her best to peer over Qrow's shoulder with a relieved grin. "See?! I told you Weiss would keep Raven and Rubes safe. Whatsit say?"

She seemed to be doing everything in her power to very pointedly ignore Neo

Spoiler

Qrow made no attempt to stop her, given that this particular note was very obviously and clearly addressed to Yang. That didn't stop him from continuing to read right up til she snatched it out of his hand, though, or failing that until he reached the last line during his power-scroll then just straight up stuck it to her face with his palm.

"Yeah, this does nada for me. Broad really digs you, though."

It was clear he'd been looking for some very specific names and information, and as soon as he'd ascertained that this particular sheet contained neither he was in motion again, hands digging into his pockets as he strode for Neo with a flat, unamused expression and stuck an arm out, beckoning for her to hand it over.

"Cut the shit."

The bottom half of Yang's letter was neatly folded over and bundled in a similar way as the first had been, and if she opened it out she was graced with truly the most majestic of sights.

Spoiler

Namely an (attempt at an) exact imitation of her ridiculous, juvenile free hug coupon, complete with hearts and a stick-figure caricature of Weiss herself in Yang's place, only the former councilwoman had forgone penning out the specific number and instead simply jotted down the sideways-eight infinity symbol to denote the voucher's true monetary value. Which was nothing. It was an entirely conceptual gesture, now supplemented by a conceptual mathematical symbol. It wasn't unfair to say she had remade and made it more sensible.

Also, in terms of style and composition the drawing itself was altogether less adorable and more haunting in how terrible it was than Yang's had been.

​

 

[MidwayLives]

Yang blinked, too flabbergasted by the sudden appearance and disappearance of the portal to react in time to get to it herself, and now doing her best to peer over Qrow's shoulder with a relieved grin. "See?! I told you Weiss would keep Raven and Rubes safe. Whatsit say?"

Yeah, keeping them real safe.

To be...what a deliverywoman and a crazy person on her leash?

What had that one soldier from Atlas told her? The one who'd pursued Neo like a bloodhound.

That she was sick.

Neo huffed. Some people just didn't have a sense of humor like hers.

Case in point.

Neo whistled to try and get Yang's attention. Even if it was clear that Yang was making it a point to not have anything to do with the murderer on their side.
​

She seemed to be doing everything in her power to very pointedly ignore Neo

If Yang didn't look that was fine too.

Neo waved her hand while running her eyes over the letter and what appeared to be a lifelike lookalike of Masque appeared beside Neo. Most of the details seemed pitch perfect from the matted hair to the bloodsoaked canines to the scars running down her human arm. But her eyes were blank, as though there was no light in them at all. Her right arm was also still just an empty sleeve. Not corrupted or filled by the entity that'd taken to calling itself 'Ruby.' Strapped to the Masque's chest appeared to be a sign of some kind.

'Waste of time. ^'

It was the centerpiece. Below it in smaller text.

'Ran running back to Oz. Her sister. Like the psycho she is.'

Neo resisted the urge to etch in 'better off dead' on the illusion's forehead. She was amused enough.

All while in her hand she waved the actual letter. If anyone tried taking it, she'd stick it down her shirt and shatter.

She'd gotten out of bed for this. The fun had to be at least worth it.​

 

[MidwayLives]

It was clear he'd been looking for some very specific names and information, and as soon as he'd ascertained that this particular sheet contained neither he was in motion again, hands digging into his pockets as he strode for Neo with a flat, unamused expression and stuck an arm out, beckoning for her to hand it over.

Neo watched as Qrow approached.

She had tried murdering him a...what was it? A couple months back?

She supposed that probably warranted an apology but he didn't seem to be complaining about it so why should she?

As for him sticking his hand out, Neo leaned back and thought about it.

Hmmm....
​

"Cut the crap."

Neo folded up the letter and neatly stuck it down the front of her shirt.

​

 

[Gus Gungus]

Yeah, keeping them real safe.

To be...what a deliverywoman and a crazy person on her leash?

What had that one soldier from Atlas told her? The one who'd pursued Neo like a bloodhound.

That she was sick.

Neo huffed. Some people just didn't have a sense of humor like hers.

Case in point.

Neo whistled to try and get Yang's attention. Even if it was clear that Yang was making it a point to not have anything to do with the murderer on their side.


If Yang didn't look that was fine too.

Neo waved her hand while running her eyes over the letter and what appeared to be a lifelike lookalike of Masque appeared beside Neo. Most of the details seemed pitch perfect from the matted hair to the bloodsoaked canines to the scars running down her human arm. But her eyes were blank, as though there was no light in them at all. Strapped to the Masque's chest appeared to be a sign of some kind.

'Waste of time. ^'

It was the centerpiece. Below it in smaller text.

'Ran running back to Oz. Her sister. Like the psycho she is.'

Neo resisted the urge to etch in 'better off dead' on the illusion's forehead. She was amused enough.

All while in her hand she waved the actual letter. If anyone tried taking it, she'd stick it down her shirt and shatter.

She'd gotten out of bed for this. The fun had to be at least worth it.

"I don't give a crap about the Red Masque."



He just wanted to make that perfectly clear. Especially not when all she did was exactly what he had pegged her to do from the very second she showed up. The elder huntsman was stock-still throughout the entire display, little to denote anything in the way of a reaction save the angle on his eyebrows growing that bit angrier and his jaw setting that bit tighter. A whole big swathe of time had passed between when he heard about what this chick almost did to Yang and his first time getting a look at her for himself, during the initial fracas back at Haven, and as far as his whole thought process on that was concerned there was one little-known, yet important, fact to consider.

Drawing her blade from Hush, Neo made her way over to Qrow with a light skip.

She looked over him and quirked her head.

": )"

Then immediately started trying to drive Hush's blade into his side through attempted repeated stabs.

She could keep this up all day! No matter how many stabs it took, something had to give, and Neo was curious to see what would break first! Qrow's aura or her patience! .

spoiler: She was betting on Qrow's aura.

She LITERALLY almost did the same exact goddamn thing to him.

This chick could screw off.

Neo folded up the letter and neatly stuck it down the front of her shirt.

View attachment 875109

Qrow remained deathly, almost serenely still, watching the gesture without actually breaking Neo's eyeline as one second passed. Two. Three.

"That's too bad. 'Cause the letter I just read talked all about where Emerald Sustrai ended up."

His period of feeling out Weiss (and vice versa) during his self-imposed exile in Atlas hadn't been without its share of perks, one of which was all the juicy little details on the duo's surfacing in Mantle that one time in case it ever became relevant. Truth was, he had no goddamn idea what had happened to her.

But the moment Neo's eyes widened, or went towards the page Yang held, or showed any other signs of having a particularly vivid reaction towards the lie he'd just told, Qrow's hand darted right down her shirt after the letter and snatched it back out as quickly and vigorously as if he was yanking something from a pile of hot embers, genuinely not really giving a shit beyond to utter a single, casual barb as he turned.

"Lotta empty space down there, huh?"

Guess he never had managed to shake off that bandit's sense of chivalry.​

 

[MidwayLives]

Qrow remained deathly, almost serenely still, watching the gesture without actually breaking Neo's eyeline as one second passed. Two. Three.

"That's too bad. 'Cause the letter I just read talked all about where Emerald Sustrai ended up."

Neo's eyes brightened.

She hadn't seen any mention of Emerald in this letter. Did...Had she been captured by Oz's forces? Was Schnee holding her somewhere?

Was she ok-
​

But the moment Neo's eyes widened, or went towards the page Yang was reading, or showed any other signs of having a particularly vivid reaction towards the words, Qrow's hand darted right down her shirt after the letter and snatched it back out as quickly and vigorously as if he was yanking something from a pile of hot embers, honestly not really giving a shit beyond to utter a single sardonic barb.

GAH!

Neo pressed her hands to her chest once Qrow had pulled out his hand.

Geez. It caught her so by surprise she couldn't even shatter...
​

"Lotta empty space down there, huh?"

​

 

[Gus Gungus]

There was an almost lethargic slowness to how long it took Cinder’s gaze to meet Emerald’s back, that nearly empty look in her eye returning. Nearly. Just beneath the surface, there was a glimpse of a lot of raw emotion. She didn’t lie to herself, there was a part of her that wanted to snap on Emerald.

“NO! OKAY? NO! YOU GUYS WANTED ME TO TRY AND HELP, AND I WANTED TO! YOU PASSED THE BATON TO ME. BUT WHEN I TRIED, IT ALMOST—I ALMOST HAD TO WATCH A FRIEND KILL HERSELF IN FRONT OF ME. SHE WOULD HAVE IF I HAD BEEN ANY SLOWER AND THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN ON ME AND...AND I....JUST LET ME HAVE THIS! LET ME HELP! LET ME FULLY UNDERSTAND WHY, OKAY?!”

That is what part of her wanted to yell, but she didn’t. She knew in her heart that wasn’t fair to say. That it was cruel and mean and it was just her often explosive temper that was talking there, aggravated by the distressed sadness and frustration and all the painful, terrible thoughts that took the place of an actually good sleep. They didn’t deserve to have that thrown at them. So she didn’t say any of it.

“Maybe you’re right.” was all Cinder said, but as they continued walking, her gaze nevertheless swung back over to Neo to see what her response was.

Well if she had said all that Emerald would've been even more jacked up.

Which her body really did try to do when Cinder surprised her out of her little internal reverie, the little huntress jolting in surprise before she affixed Cinder with an attentive smile of her own that immediately turned into a wince at Emerald's snap. She gave Cinder a sheepish smile in return and grasped her hand with a tight squeeze for a moment, a wordless promise to field that question when she could before she let go and quickened her pace a bit to try and catch up with Emerald.

As she passed Watts, she gave him a sly smirk and a knowing wink, and if someone caught her at the right angle they would've swore her eyes shifted green for a moment that got an ever so slightly flustered eye roll in return that strangely lacked any verbal bite to accompany it

They'd had a discussion of their own last night, in a few spare minutes when neo had slipped out of the room from an inability to sleep and found Watts similarly positioned outside his and Cinder's tiny rock hole, apparently not to keen on simply trusting this place at Emerald's words. A far more directly needed apology for firearms being shot into faces, that Watts was initially only very begrudgingly going to accept, along with stern words towards his treatment of his own partner.

She made it up to him though.

The remainder of the ascent passed in virtual silence, Emerald having quickened her pace and seemingly having lost any and all motivation to keep playing obligatory tour guide as she chewed her jaw in silence. Mercury reached the catwalk's peak well before they did, and was sitting with legs dangling over the parapet by the time they reached the peak of the pillar themselves, rucksack on his lap and chewing what looked to be a very plain sandwich clutched in his grip.

Emerald gave him a light touch on the shoulder as they swept past, which he didn't acknowledge for a few more seconds of distant, contemplative chewing before he absently tossed the crust into the abyss and stood, shrugging the pack onto his shoulder and turning to follow.

Now that they were atop the igneous spire, affording them a bird's-eye view of the caves and all their many tents, huts, and connective bridges, it was immediately apparent that the tent they stood before was heads and shoulders more luxurious than any of the others put together. It was a tall, sprawling canopy, spanning the entirety of the elevated dais built into the towering monolith, and the closer they got the more clearly they could see the rows upon rows of sigils and runes embroidered into the tent's flap, gently pulsating just about every shade on the color spectrum.



As they might've expected, it was large. The way it was sectioned off into multiple compartments even made it comparable to a snug, one-story house, though the voices they could already hear murmuring through the various fabrics making up the walls were much easier to trace to their source than if it had been one. It was evident that whoever lived here was a hoarder of the absolute highest caliber, the runed floors cluttered with knick-knacks and treasures, artifacts and oddities of every stripe, dusty books tomes stacking on the floor halfway to the ceiling and bookshelves instead populated by jars containing mummified desert creatures and viscous liquids. Equally apparent was the tent owner's fondness for superstition, the walls adorned with guides and schematics detailing complex processes for alchemy, astrology, numerology, crystal balls, tarot reading and virtually every other pseudoscience you'd care to name. The air was thick with the smell of incense, a stick of which burned in just about every corner of every room, notes of lavender, nightshade, cinnamon, citrus and dragonsblood all mingling together to form a heady scent that engulfed the senses and clung to the lungs.



Despite the mess, Emerald seemed to know where she was going, picking her way across the desolate landscape with the catlike grace of a master thief and pushing her way through a hanging curtain of beads. This brought them into the messiest, most spacious and most central room, which is where they at last first set eyes on Morgiana.

Or more accurately, first they set eyes on Morgiana's veritable horde of cats. At least a dozen of them, of all shapes and breeds, strewn across various comfortable points in the room, every last one of whom hopped down and came padding up to them with an uproar of curious meows as they started purring and rubbing against their legs. At least one jar containing a balm or oil of some sort fell and shattered from its shelf amidst the stampede, but the figure draped across the lavish four-poster bed at the back of the room didn't seem to mind, almost easy to miss amid the tangles of colorful silks and fabrics practically drowning her where she lay. Her head dangled over the bedside, inverting the curious, dreamy smile she affixed them all with, and between the long waves of startlingly red hair cascading to the floor around her and the loose, flowy gown she was just about covered by she was almost camoflaged until she finally spoke up.



They knew. Even before they saw the flower wreath, the single bloomed poppy behind one ear, or the small, lit cylinder she held clasped between two fingers that even beneath the blanketing odor of incense smelled far too funky to be a cigarette, the second they heard her voice, they knew.

"Right on."

This woman was the biggest hippie they'd ever seen.

"What it is, soul siblings. Morgiana Moonflower. Enraptured to make your acquaintance," she breezed, tones floaty and carefree as the air itself as she swung up to flop over on her stomach, chin in hand and legs kicking back in the air behind her. Even more curious than her demeanor was the fact that she looked barely older than them, if at all, and she sized them up, framing the two unfamiliar faces between thumb and forefinger like she was setting up a photograph as she went from Watts to Cinder then back again. "Acquaintance... made. Now, my little gemerald here tells me—oh no."

There was something undeniably spacy about how she did a double-take, sheeny eyes flying a little wider at whatever she saw now she was the right way up as her eyes scanned across the group again.

"Oh, ducklings, no no no no. This is bad. This is so very, very bad. My heart weeps at what it sees in you. This cannot be in this place." She gave a drawn-out, mournful sigh, and rolled off the bed to glide to her feet, snatching up what looked like an honest-to-goodness runed dowsing rod from under her bed, giving it a few smacks as she pointed it their way and ran it back and forth over them from end to end, occasionally giving the edges a sharp smack. Whatever she perceived when she brought it up to her ear had her heave another heavy, solemn breath, and she looked back at them, eyes heavy like that of the doctor prepared to tell the patient they had terminal cancer.

"It's even worse than I thought. You all, each and every last one of you... have atrocious vibes right now. And I think I know why. Neo?" She sat back down on the bed, immediately scooting right of where she landed and taking a drag of the still-not-a-cigarette as she patted the mattress next to her with her other hand. "Come here, moonbeam."



Mercury was sort of just losing himself to the cats at the far end of the room, and Emerald had lapsed into a tense, almost sullen reticence as the guild's leader started doing her whole bohemian schtick, only now speaking up with a slight edge lining her voice.

"Uh, Morgiana. Do we really need to do this whole—"

"Not now, Emmyboo. This is why we broke up."

Her expression flattened even further and she muttered something about remembering why they broke up, but she rubbed her elbow and fell silent other than to give Watts and Cinder a meek glance and a listless shrug.

"See? I'm not gonna say literally the last thing anyone expects, but..."​

 

[MyrtenRose]

Which her body really did try to do when Cinder surprised her out of her little internal reverie, the little huntress jolting in surprise before she affixed Cinder with an attentive smile of her own that immediately turned into a wince at Emerald's snap. She gave Cinder a sheepish smile in return and grasped her hand with a tight squeeze for a moment, a wordless promise to field that question when she could before she let go and quickened her pace a bit to try and catch up with Emerald.

She supposed that was about as fair as any answer she could have gotten. Her gaze tracked Neo for a second or two further before adjusting to just generally be looking straight ahead, not at anyone in particular. Cinder's own walk slowed a bit and she fell as silent as Neo while they trekked on, her thoughts almost entirely elsewhere.​

Yang turned and slowly levelled her finger to point at Nora.

"........nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnno."

She gave an apologetic shrug. "I'm there to make sure the talks are agreeble, and its not like our scrolls don't work here. I'm super proud that you're taking all the damage here seriously and stuff, Nora, but... y'know, priorities? Saving the world and so on? So-

"Alright, fine, but don't come complaining to be when we have to do this work for more than just today and you and me are stuck here while everyone else adventures."​

 

[MyrtenRose]

Now that they were atop the igneous spire, affording them a bird's-eye view of the caves and all their many tents, huts, and connective bridges, it was immediately apparent that the tent they stood before was heads and shoulders more luxurious than any of the others put together. It was a tall, sprawling canopy, spanning the entirety of the elevated dais built into the towering monolith, and the closer they got the more clearly they could see the rows upon rows of sigils and runes embroidered into the tent's flap, gently pulsating just about every shade on the color spectrum.

As they might've expected, it was large. The way it was sectioned off into multiple compartments even made it comparable to a snug, one-story house, though the voices they could already hear murmuring through the various fabrics making up the walls were much easier to trace to their source than if it had been one. It was evident that whoever lived here was a hoarder of the absolute highest caliber, the runed floors cluttered with knick-knacks and treasures, artifacts and oddities of every stripe, dusty books tomes stacking on the floor halfway to the ceiling and bookshelves instead populated by jars containing mummified desert creatures and viscous liquids. Equally apparent was the tent owner's fondness for superstition, the walls adorned with guides and schematics detailing complex processes for alchemy, astrology, numerology, crystal balls, tarot reading and virtually every other pseudoscience you'd care to name. The air was thick with the smell of incense, a stick of which burned in just about every corner of every room, notes of lavender, nightshade, cinnamon, citrus and dragonsblood all mingling together to form a heady scent that engulfed the senses and clung to the lungs.

Were she in a much better mood, she probably--no almost definitely would have been awed by what she saw around her. The vibrant colors that glowed like lava lamps, the cozy nature of the tent inside, all the intriguing stuff littering the floors and lining the walls, even the powerful smell that filled the place. Just like she had been with the way they had entered the cave in the first place. The sort of things she'd never expected but had always hoped to see one day, to prove her parents wrong and that the world really was a magical place. But now...

Now she couldn't find it in herself to show any enthusiasm, or even really care. She just took it all in with utter silence and a nearly blank expression. Like a fire had gone out inside her.​

Or more accurately, first they set eyes on Morgiana's veritable horde of cats. At least a dozen of them, of all shapes and breeds, strewn across various comfortable points in the room, every last one of whom hopped down and came padding up to them with an uproar of curious meows as they started purring and rubbing against their legs.

Not even the cats made her crack a smile. Quite the opposite, with a brief but heavy frown flickering on her face.​

At least one jar containing a balm or oil of some sort fell and shattered from its shelf amidst the stampede, but the figure draped across the lavish four-poster bed at the back of the room didn't seem to mind, almost easy to miss amid the tangles of colorful silks and fabrics practically drowning her where she lay. Her head dangled over the bedside, inverting the curious, dreamy smile she affixed them all with, and between the long waves of startlingly red hair cascading to the floor around her and the loose, flowy gown she was just about covered by she was almost camoflaged until she finally spoke up.

They knew. Even before they saw the flower wreath, the single bloomed poppy behind one ear, or the small, lit cylinder she held clasped between two fingers that even beneath the blanketing odor of incense smelled far too funky to be a cigarette, the second they heard her voice, they knew.

"Right on."

This woman was the biggest hippie they'd ever seen.

The appearance of the woman, just as colorfully dressed as her home would suggest, didn't rouse anything out of Cinder either. Her golden eye rested on the woman, taking her in from top to bottom in a once-over look, but the teenage maiden still said nothing.​

"What it is, soul siblings. Morgiana Moonflower. Enraptured to make your acquaintance," she breezed, tones floaty and carefree as the air itself as she swung up to flop over on her stomach, chin in hand and legs kicking back in the air behind her. Even more curious than her demeanor was the fact that she looked barely older than them, if at all, and she sized them up, framing the two unfamiliar faces between thumb and forefinger like she was setting up a photograph as she went from Watts to Cinder then back again. "Acquaintance... made. Now, my little gemerald here tells me—oh no."

Even the greeting only got a lukewarm "Hey" out of her. It wasn't even clear if she'd heard the nickname she had used for Em.​

There was something undeniably spacy about how she did a double-take, sheeny eyes flying a little wider at whatever she saw now she was the right way up as her eyes scanned across the group again.

"Oh, ducklings, no no no no. This is bad. This is so very, very bad. My heart weeps at what it sees in you. This cannot be in this place." She gave a drawn-out, mournful sigh, and rolled off the bed to glide to her feet, snatching up what looked like an honest-to-goodness runed dowsing rod from under her bed, giving it a few smacks as she pointed it their way and ran it back and forth over them from end to end, occasionally giving the edges a sharp smack. Whatever she perceived when she brought it up to her ear had her heave another heavy, solemn breath, and she looked back at them, eyes heavy like that of the doctor prepared to tell the patient they had terminal cancer.

"It's even worse than I thought. You all, each and every last one of you... have atrocious vibes right now. And I think I know why. Neo?" She sat back down on the bed, immediately scooting right of where she landed and taking a drag of the still-not-a-cigarette as she patted the mattress next to her with her other hand. "Come here, moonbeam."

Yeah, no shit. You don't say. Cinder kept her thoughts to herself but if nothing else, the woman's...flamboyance was enough of a distraction that it wrenched her away from thinking about other things.​

Mercury was sort of just losing himself to the cats at the far end of the room, and Emerald had lapsed into a tense, almost sullen reticence as the guild's leader started doing her whole bohemian schtick, only now speaking up with a slight edge lining her voice.

"Uh, Morgiana. Do we really need to do this whole—"

"Not now, Emmyboo. This is why we broke up."

Her expression flattened even further and she muttered something about remembering why they broke up, but she rubbed her elbow and fell silent other than to give Watts and Cinder a meek glance and a listless shrug.

"See? I'm not gonna say literally the last thing anyone expects, but..."

But that actually threw Cinder for a loop.

"You...dated....?"​

 

[MyrtenRose]

But the moment Neo's eyes widened, or went towards the page Yang held, or showed any other signs of having a particularly vivid reaction towards the lie he'd just told, Qrow's hand darted right down her shirt after the letter and snatched it back out as quickly and vigorously as if he was yanking something from a pile of hot embers, genuinely not really giving a shit beyond to utter a single, casual barb as he turned.

"Lotta empty space down there, huh?"

GAH!

Neo pressed her hands to her chest once Qrow had pulled out his hand.

Geez. It caught her so by surprise she couldn't even shatter...

That whole moment suddenly had an echoing, ringing and seemingly endless round of gut-busting laughter serve as the composed background music for the scene. It came from the woman who'd come down just in time to see that go down in front of her. What an early morning kick that wasn't coffee or tea. She hadn't expected that. Not at all.

"Did you really--just--do that, lit--little brother?" Raven managed to force out between laughter the likes of which she hadn't had in years.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

That whole moment suddenly had an echoing, ringing and seemingly endless round of gut-busting laughter serve as the composed background music for the scene. It came from the woman who'd come down just in time to see that go down in front of her. What an early morning kick that wasn't coffee or tea. She hadn't expected that. Not at all.

"Did you really--just--do that, lit--little brother?" Raven managed to force out between laughter the likes of which she hadn't had in years.

Some of the inherent tautness in Qrow's shoulders had been dissolving as he found the assurances he was looking for in the letter and breathed a sigh of relief, only for his favorite childhood sound to bludgeon his ears and bring it all piling right back on again. He hid it well, limited to a single twitching eyebrow as his reaction was, but on the inside he was all kindsa pissed.

"Oh boy, look whose funny bone finally grew back a billion years later. She knew the risks when she sent the huge important thing we just got straight to marshmallowland, okay? Believe me, I wish I had a glove."

Because of course she would come down right at that exact moment. Of course.

He exhaled and prepared to hand the page over to her for a look, but before he could raise his arm more than halfway he halted, considering, then turned back, deciding he might as well take a dual opportunity to completely flip the script on stab-happy here and give Yang a mental image she was really gonna have to burn out of her memory banks. He straightened his slouch, swept a hand back through his messy tousles of hair, let his head fall playfully to one side and looked Neo in the eye dead-center, channeling every last drop of his devil-may-care allure into a coy, confident smirk.



"Want I put it back?"​

 

[MyrtenRose]

Some of the inherent tautness in Qrow's shoulders had been dissolving as he found the assurances he was looking for in the letter and breathed a sigh of relief, only for his favorite childhood sound to bludgeon his ears and bring it all piling right back on again. He hid it well, limited to a single twitching eyebrow as his reaction was, but on the inside he was all kindsa pissed.

"Oh boy, look whose funny bone finally grew back a billion years later. She knew the risks when she sent the huge important thing we just got straight to marshmallowland, okay? Believe me, I wish I had a glove."

Raven gave a half-shrug with her shoulders. "Hey, dumbass. Not like it's my fault this is the first time you've been real funny since that time you showed up to class in a skirt. You just walking in with that ridiculous slouch you think is so cool, your pale twig legs on full display and then you slam a leg down on some other girl's desk and the best line you could come up with was 'like what you see?', that was as sad as it was funny. Even got the blowhard teacher's aide Peter to leave the room before he cursed us with that ridiculous laugh of his. Though..." Raven cupped her chin with her index and thumb, considering something.

"When you nearly burned down the whole camp when I gave you one of the sparklers I stole from Mom and Dad, that was quite possibly more hilarious." She couldn't help point out with a cheeky smirk. It vanished for a second as she bit her lip, her mismatched eyes briefly averted. It was a weird thing, this moment. This feeling that belonged more to the old days when they really acted like siblings. She didn't say that though, her stare snapping back to him with that smug look on her face once again. "Marshmallow land? Really, bro? Are you 11?" Raven shook her head. "It is a shame, though. The whole no gloves thing." She pointed out as she clasped her gloved hands together. "A real pity. So, what's on--"​

He exhaled and prepared to hand the page over to her for a look, but before he could raise his arm more than halfway he halted, considering, then turned back, deciding he might as well take a dual opportunity to completely flip the script on stab-happy here and give Yang a mental image she was really gonna have to burn out of her memory banks. He straightened his slouch, swept a hand back through his messy tousles of hair, let his head fall playfully to one side and looked Neo in the eye dead-center, channeling every last drop of his devil-may-care allure into a coy, confident smirk.

"Want I put it back?"

"You do know I won't have any problem with grabbing it back out of there if you do that, yes?"​