Fandom Distorted Mirror [IC]

[MyrtenRose]

"Never mind, you suck."​

“Whatever you say, man.”​

 

[Gus Gungus]

“Whatever you say, man.”

"Does bein' part of the Tribe on this Remnant just mean drinking 'til you forget your entire personality, or what? Sheesh."

That was the exact dosage of gravelly snark that non-answer deserved, in his mind, though there was wry amusement in his huff as he rubbed the back of his hair sheepishly and tried to weigh whether it was even worth following up on the next train of thought it occurred to him to pursue; the one he'd honestly been kind of building up to with this whole one sided and disappointing buddy cop routine. Had he asked himself that question a month ago, the answer would've been a hard no. They weren't them. Up was down here. With one major exception, he'd done a pretty damn good job of avoiding a majority of the emotional entanglements that had made Yang's time on Remnant Two such a nightmare experience. He wasn't looking to change that now.

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

The fact Yang had been right about one person didn't matter.

If her uncle expected her to be embarrassed about him reading this he was, well, totally right actually, but she made no move to snatch it out of his hand even as her eyes got wider the farther she got down. He'd been the one who'd actually agreed with her that this whole weird not-rescue mission had been worth it, he deserved to see that the person on the other end, outside of the stakes of the literal world, wasn't so bad either.

The fact that he had, on several occasions now, had the chance to personally witness Weiss Schnee acting very... well... Weiss Schnee didn't matter. The fact that the ice queen had—let's not kid ourselves—barely even offered up anything more than an obligatory resistance in the end, that some initial acts of warmth and kindness from the right person at the right time had been all it took to set off a chain reaction of dominoes leading all the way to where they stood now like the soul buried under there had been choking, drowning, starving for them from the very start, didn't matter.

The other Qrow heard the patter of footfall behind him as he neared the staircase, then felt the sting of a sharp pain as his counterpart pitched his empty flask hard at the back of his head.

"Stick around. You don't have to help us, but I think it's about time you took a swing at fixing your screwup. You count an extra head in there, by any chance? Maybe anyone you might have a responsibility for?"

"Son of a..." The man grumbled, rubbing at the back of his skull after the thrown flask bounced off. He didn't turn around fully, just shooting a glance over his shoulder at his lookalike. Qrow's head tilted after those questions, eyes lifting up to the ceiling as if in intense thought...but after hardly a moment, they came back down to stare his other self straight in the eyes as he answered:

Then he turned back, taking another sip from his own flask and started shambling up the stairs.

God damn it, the fact that whatever the hell the 'Red Masque' and the 'Dragon' were even supposed to be were such an obvious product of his own counterpart's sheer stupidity, incompetence, selfishness and neglect, that the apathy of a Qrow Branwen had been the entire foundation for the monsters they became and that he still had the fucking audacity to not care, to just show up playing the coy, aloof drunken dipshit and deciding to hitch his wagon to the right side of the conflict now after all this time like he deserved that, like he got that, like he wasn't one of the fucking monsters to blame for ALL OF IT—

Even the fact part of him had always known, that had he not gotten his shit together and turned his life around he would've invariably become the kind of pathetic lowlife who made his sister look like a champion at her fucking worst, didn't matter. It shouldn't have mattered. That moron's screwups weren't his responsibility. He could not start letting it matter.

They had two relics. Maybe one was still in transit, but in a rare instance he had a good feeling. It was within reach.

He was so close to getting them home. To their dad. To their friends. To a whole other kettle of piranhas, sure, but to their lives.

Now was not the time to start falling to pieces over this... this goddamn place. Not any more than he already had.

He sighed, not even realizing how long he'd been staring into the sunglass stand's mirror as he peered over his shades at the dark, baggy, tormented eyes underneath.

"Shit."

Whether Vernal was still there or had wandered off to do something else while he spaced out, she felt a tap on her shoulder, and when she turned it was to a Qrow whose jaw was set so tightly his teeth ground together when he talked.



"...Tell me everything you remember about Ruby and Yang."

There was a different air to the man now, the lighthearted jocularity he'd been espousing before little more than a drop next to the ocean of sheer despondency and self-loathing she was standing face-to-face with currently.

"Please."​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"Does bein' part of the Tribe on this Remnant just mean drinking 'til you forget your entire personality, or what? Sheesh."

That was the exact dosage of gravelly snark that non-answer deserved, in his mind, though there was wry amusement in his huff as he rubbed the back of his hair sheepishly and tried to weigh whether it was even worth following up on the next train of thought it occurred to him to pursue; the one he'd honestly been kind of building up to with this whole one sided and disappointing buddy cop act. Had he asked himself that question a month ago, the answer would've been a hard no. They weren't them. Up was down here. With one major exception, he'd done a pretty damn good job of avoiding a majority of the emotional entanglements that had made Yang's time on Remnant Two such a nightmare experience. He wasn't looking to change that now.

"...Shit, man, maybe." Vernal admitted, even if he was just being as sarcastic as they come. "Haven't touched the stuff in weeks though, so hey, small step for progress." Granted, that was after quite some time drinking herself silly until Raven came by and she was sorely reminded why she had almost never touched the stuff while at the camp. The Qrow she knew had been there too, but barely aware of where he was or even of which direction was north, from the looks of it. It was as familiar as it was...pathetic, and she could only imagine she'd looked the same to that twink and the others. She'd never said anything about it to his face, never really confronted him about it, 'cause he'd been the best of them once. The strongest rule. That and, well, she had liked being the number two back then. Nearly as much pull but not nearly as much a target on your back for any upstarts. So she'd kept her mouth shut about it back then, and she hadn't broken that trend when she saw him again...but it did get her to stop following in his footsteps in that way.


"..." She thought about saying more, but decided against it. She turned away.​

He sighed, not even realizing how long he'd been staring into the sunglass stand's mirror as he peered over his shades at the dark, baggy, tormented eyes underneath.

"Shit."

Whether Vernal was still there or had wandered off to do something else while he spaced out, she felt a tap on her shoulder, and when she turned it was to a Qrow whose jaw was set so tightly his teeth ground together when he talked.

"...Tell me everything you remember about Ruby and Yang."

There was a different air to the man now, the lighthearted jocularity he'd been espousing before little more than a drop next to the ocean of sheer despondency and self-loathing she was standing face-to-face with now.

"Please."

She had indeed walked away, though not that far. Dressed fitting for the weather or not, that didn't change that it was real fuckin' hot so she'd gone to get some water. Vernal had barely finished her latest sip and screwed the bottle's cap back on when the tap on her shoulder came. Her eyebrows raised and she turned to face him. She was quiet for a few seconds after his please. The look in his eyes, the way he sounded, those were almost painfully familiar and she sighed softly. "Alright." She agreed, throwing a glance over her shoulder at the store owner. "Hey, another bottle for my companion here." The former maiden demanded, tossing some stolen lien on the counter. Once it was in hand, she casually tossed it over to him.

Her gaze shot towards the ground for a moment of weakness-

-before she brought it back up to meet his with a second sigh. She didn't need to go on about how it wasn't a great story, so she didn't. "We, uh...grew up together. I was a little older than Yang, roughly the same age gap between her and Ruby. I don't know if they ever considered me the same, but to me they were more or less little sisters. There weren't really that many kids in the camp at the time, and when Raven left her kid there, I admit I had some of that childlike excitement to have somewhere closer to my age around. Kept it buried to myself, though. For the most part. Anyways, from what I learned later, Raven was all hung up on her own insecurities and doubts, didn't think she was up to task on being a single mom. She hoped that if the kid had a similar upbringing to the one she had, she'd turn out okay, at least, until the time came when she could break away and follow in her mom's footsteps, I guess. It didn't go to plan. Obviously." Vernal shook her head slowly.

"Their other teammate showed up one day, full of concern and more than a little pity for our Qrow. One thing led to another, don't ask me specifics cuz I sure as hell don't know, but eventually along came Ruby. Her mom left too, some time later. Dunno why with that either, only Qrow did and he was tight-lipped about it. So. Ruby was the pride of the camp, the chief's kid, basically a princess if you could even call somebody who lived the way we did a princess." She shrugged. "Treated like it, anyhow." She snickered, but it was a bitter noise, one that didn't have any amusement in it. "Yang...wasn't."

She took a longer sip from her water before continuing. "I suppose on some level Qrow cared, he did agree to raise her here but...he was too lost in the bottle most days, and the times when he wasn't, his attention was given mainly to Ruby, so for the most part he missed the worst that happened with Yang. The older bandits did what they could to mold her into one of them, but not the same way they did with me. I was born into the life, my parents respected among the tribe. But her? The daughter of somebody who'd abandoned them? They were far more harsh on her when her uncle wasn't looking, which was most of the time. She resisted, she didn't want to listen. Held out for so long, with the sheer balls it took to do that when it only got her more and more beatings. I tried to help her the best I could. I wasn't strong enough to stop them, and maybe because I was a kid like her or that I just wasn't as callous as them yet, I treated her with as much kindness as I could get away with. Advised her to stop resisting to spare herself pain, took her into the woods a few times at night, under the cover of darkness in secret to try and tend to the worst of her wounds...but she didn't listen. Kept at it. Until the day she didn't, when she finally snapped under the pressure."

"And Masque, well, she saw what was happening and either adapted quickly to the situation, fitting given her semblance I suppose, or she made them only think she did. Personally, I think it was the latter. Either way, eventually, both of them leave. They disappear. One day I just woke up and both were just gone, and looking back I don't blame 'em at all. Lookin' back now, honestly, I just wish I'd...done more for them when I could have, that even if I was physically weak, my strength of spirit was strong enough to take a stand. Maybe that's just because of everything that's happened or it's something that has come from her influence, growing on me......cuz yeah, after they were gone and I stayed, the time soon came when we found the Spring Maiden. Ya know what happened then. With them both gone, I was the best choice left. I inherited the power and...more than just that." Vernal took a deep breath and drank the rest of what water was left before tossing it into a nearby trashcan.

"Never saw them again until we got dragged into all this when you guys came for us back at the camp. So...there ya go."​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

Such comforting notions were well and truly dissuaded by the shadow that befell Watts' figure from behind, not dissimilar from one of Emerald's stunts in how nary an aura in the room had warned anyone of when and from whence the tree of a man suddenly looming over him had appeared. He was huge; not quite the inhuman man monster they met on their arrival in Gorgon, but nevertheless a tall, chiselled wall of muscle in an athlete's shape, and as he pounded his knuckles off one another a pair of thickly plated bronze-colored gauntlets extending all the way up under the sleeves of his exquisitely fitted suit to his shoulders rubbed together like defibrilators, volatile coils of gold lightning jumping between the points of contact.

"Should put some respect on that mouth 'fore I put that mouth around a curb, boy."

His words were a sneering, posturing taunt, yet the tone they were delivered in was of the same deathly calm as a garbageman who'd been on the job for thirty years and seen all there was to see as he looked down on the latest advancements in the world of garbage. His eyes were hidden behind two impenetrable glass rims, but it wasn't hard to imagine them matching the twitch of disgust settling across the man's lips in sheer acrimony as he sized up Watts's reaction without a stir.

Watts turned slightly to acknowledge the presence of the man behind him, his shoulders tensing up but his expression inscrutable as he pocketed one hand and raised the other slightly in front of him, a hard light screen briefly flickering to life and a dizzying array of button presses happening in a short span of time as he began to speak.

"Respect is ea-"

Mercury and Emerald were already up, rushing to step between their old classmate and the tree of a man with two equally outraged expressions of different stripes, Emerald's eyes flared wide with a more familiar anger than the grimace with a view to violence Mercury wore (despite the cat still draped around his shoulders) as he gave the man a double-handed shove that didn't even make him step back.

"NOT OKAY!"

"WAY over the line!"

"What did you just say?!"

Everything swirling around inside her had almost gotten her to snap on Emerald earlier. One honestly innocuous comment and she'd came close to exploding on a friend who really didn't deserve it. Some random stranger thug threatening her friend, her partner like that? This dude came far far closer to setting her off than Emerald did. All the exaggerated slowness, that lethargic mood, it all just seemed to evaporate in an instant as she whirled around on the man in pure anger. There was nothing shooting out of her eye yet but there was no denying that her single visible eye was burning a much brighter and intense shade of gold as she glared at the man. There were only two reasons she didn't actually attack yet.

Whatever bravado, false or genuine it may have been, Watts had been displaying in the face of that threat vanished in a muddled look of surprise at just how quickly quite literally everyone else in the room took offense to that. Even Neo, had pulled her head up out of Morgiana's neck, her eyes not magically clear of tears but with a look that was quiet in a far different sense than it usually meant for her.

"...You all do know I am capable of handling myself, yes?" He asked, his voice very much wanting to sound dull and not really succeeding this time.

"What I just say about the vibes, my dude?"

They were black. Rather than colors, whites, or anything resembling the typical color composition of the human eye there were just two inky, infinite pools, a pair of silver rims possibly denoting the presence of pupils somewhere in the depths of that darkness. It was impossible to measure precisely which was stranger and more disconcerting to look at between that and the skin immediately around her eyes, which all their color appeared to have drained to and now somehow seemed to drift, shift and intermingle with one another over the surface like some sort of optical illusion, the exact midpoint between a kaleidoscope and rorschach test.

Despite the unnatural sight, the sentence accompanying it was all but casual; completely lacking in threat or any hostile intent. There should have been nothing to separate it from anything else Morgiana had spoken in her light, airy, head-in-the-clouds lilt.

Yet somehow, and in complete disregard of the symphony of cats still yowling to their heart's content, the voice was perfectly audible to everyone in the room. It didn't even sound raised, and none of her facial cues indicated she had done anything more than murmur another placid, sleepy sentence. Still, they heard it, and if abrupt, universal termination of their cries was any indicator so did the cats, all their voices quieting at once in the same moment the candles in the tent flickered before they all scattered back to carrying out their standard cat business.

The man was listening, though unfazed, yet to peel his eyes off Watts even despite Mercury and Emerald's efforts. "It's a precedent thing, Morg. Queen can't rule like this. Stuff ain't gonna pick up."

"Yeah, well, that's just like, your opinion, man." She smiled, as she finally stopped subjecting Neo to what had potentially been the most soothing mode of suffocation she'd ever experienced and drifted backwards, parting some of the illusionist's pinker hair and letting her more startling facial features fade back to normal. "You believe in the old way. Daddy's way. I believe in flower power."

She threw up the peace sign again, this time over one eye.

"Peep this."

As if to illustrate the point, she gently plucked the poppy out from her own ear and (if allowed) slotted it behind Neo's instead, smoothing her tresses back over it to keep it in place. Stretching out, she let her gown's soft folds billow around her, gravity letting the lavish material settle around her feet an finally cling to her form in full as she picked her way across the cluttered wasteland of a carpet towards them, appearing to viscerally enjoy its sensation on her toes.


"Yup."

She answered both queries in the same, sibylline breath, gingerly lifting her hands to either side of her as though gently trailing her way across a meadow of flowers. One alighted on Tyrian's head, giving his crown a tender, caressing ruffle, and the other held the unlit end of what she'd been smoking out for Cinder to take in her lips if she wanted; a sight which, if it transpired, was hilarious enough to finally break Mercury's concentration.

"Oh, God. Cinder's gonna get so high."

Morgiana remained silent until she had passed Watts, Mercury, then Emerald in turn, one hand peppering the towering man's lapel with a flurry of slaps until he dutifully stepped backward with a sigh, observing...

...absolutely nothing, as his boss proceeded to just stand there, arms folded, and stare at Watts as intently as such a dreamy person could muster for the next ten to fifteen seconds, no break in the eye contact unless he did so.

"What am I peepin'?" The bodyguard finally grunted, dubious.

"Shshhhhhh. I'm figurin' him out. I'm knowing him." Her eyes narrowed in abstruse, targeted consideration, never once breaking her tranquil smile from Arthur's face as she tilted her head coyly and tapped an irregular pattern against her lower lip. "Almost there now."

She continued to stare.

And stare.

And staaaaaaaaaare.

Neo's hands were idly drifting towards the back of her boot as the conversation went on, right up until the moment Morgiana's hands brushed her hair after letting her go. She blinked and watched as she took the flower out of her hair and felt her put it into Neo's own, and whatever casual malevolence that Neo had slowly begun to radiate as soon as that threat had cut across the room just sort of.... petered out as she blinked and moved her hands back to her lap, a small blush touching her cheeks as she came to terms with the softest action she'd been subjected to in her life since the last time her mom held her

Watts leveled Cinder with the most judgemental look he'd ever given her when she took a puff of whatever the hell that was, but he didn't speak up in any actual objection as he watched Morgiana cross the room, turning in time with her as she made it past him and the dynamic duo. Initially, he deigned to play along, meeting those strange eyes with his own with a leery frown but still no objections. That lasted for about ten seconds before he rolled them and spoke with a droll frown as he finally found his mental footing again.

"Right, well, I'll let you keep doing that while I finish talking" His eyes tilted back up to his accoster, and he spoke as if just how flustered he'd been a few seconds didn't entirely undercut his unfazed tone.

"Respect is earned sir. And in point of fact, while I'm not going to sit here and pretend I'm thrilled to be in this den of who knows what when we have important things to be doing, and I frankly find your boss weird, my words were true enough. I can respect a leader who cares about their people. I don't need to like someone to respect them. You, however-" he continued as his eyes narrowed "-I don't think I carry either for. Any good Atlesian will tell you to be feared is better than to be respected. But I've always been a bit of a shit Atlesian, so I have to question, what, exactly, you're fishing for here?"

 

[Gus Gungus]

"...Shit, man, maybe." Vernal admitted, even if he was just being as sarcastic as they come. "Haven't touched the stuff in weeks though, so hey, small step for progress." Granted, that was after quite some time drinking herself silly until Raven came by and she was sorely reminded why she had almost never touched the stuff while at the camp. The Qrow she knew had been there too, but barely aware of where he was or even of which direction was north, from the looks of it. It was as familiar as it was...pathetic, and she could only imagine she'd looked the same to that twink and the others. She'd never said anything about it to his face, never really confronted him about it, 'cause he'd been the best of them once. The strongest rule. That and, well, she had liked being the number two back then. Nearly as much pull but not nearly as much a target on your back for any upstarts. So she'd kept her mouth shut about it back then, and she hadn't broken that trend when she saw him again...but it did get her to stop following in his footsteps in that way.


"..." She thought about saying more, but decided against it. She turned away.

She had indeed walked away, though not that far. Dressed fitting for the weather or not, that didn't change that it was real fuckin' hot so she'd gone to get some water. Vernal had barely finished her latest sip and screwed the bottle's cap back on when the tap on her shoulder came. Her eyebrows raised and she turned to face him. She was quiet for a few seconds after his please. The look in his eyes, the way he sounded, those were almost painfully familiar and she sighed softly. "Alright." She agreed, throwing a glance over her shoulder at the store owner. "Hey, another bottle for my companion here." The former maiden demanded, tossing some stolen lien on the counter. Once it was in hand, she casually tossed it over to him.

Her gaze shot towards the ground for a moment of weakness-

-before she brought it back up to meet his with a second sigh. She didn't need to go on about how it wasn't a great story, so she didn't. "We, uh...grew up together. I was a little older than Yang, roughly the same age gap between her and Ruby. I don't know if they ever considered me the same, but to me they were more or less little sisters. There weren't really that many kids in the camp at the time, and when Raven left her kid there, I admit I had some of that childlike excitement to have somewhere closer to my age around. Kept it buried to myself, though. For the most part. Anyways, from what I learned later, Raven was all hung up on her own insecurities and doubts, didn't think she was up to task on being a single mom. She hoped that if the kid had a similar upbringing to the one she had, she'd turn out okay, at least, until the time came when she could break away and follow in her mom's footsteps, I guess. It didn't go to plan. Obviously." Vernal shook her head slowly.

"Their other teammate showed up one day, full of concern and more than a little pity for our Qrow. One thing led to another, don't ask me specifics cuz I sure as hell don't know, but eventually along came Ruby. Her mom left too, some time later. Dunno why with that either, only Qrow did and he was tight-lipped about it. So. Ruby was the pride of the camp, the chief's kid, basically a princess if you could even call somebody who lived the way we did a princess." She shrugged. "Treated like it, anyhow." She snickered, but it was a bitter noise, one that didn't have any amusement in it. "Yang...wasn't."

She took a longer sip from her water before continuing. "I suppose on some level Qrow cared, he did agree to raise her here but...he was too lost in the bottle most days, and the times when he wasn't, his attention was given mainly to Ruby, so for the most part he missed the worst that happened with Yang. The older bandits did what they could to mold her into one of them, but not the same way they did with me. I was born into the life, my parents respected among the tribe. But her? The daughter of somebody who'd abandoned them? They were far more harsh on her when her uncle wasn't looking, which was most of the time. She resisted, she didn't want to listen. Held out for so long, with the sheer balls it took to do that when it only got her more and more beatings. I tried to help her the best I could. I wasn't strong enough to stop them, and maybe because I was a kid like her or that I just wasn't as callous as them yet, I treated her with as much kindness as I could get away with. Advised her to stop resisting to spare herself pain, took her into the woods a few times at night, under the cover of darkness in secret to try and tend to the worst of her wounds...but she didn't listen. Kept at it. Until the day she didn't, when she finally snapped under the pressure."

"And Masque, well, she saw what was happening and either adapted quickly to the situation, fitting given her semblance I suppose, or she made them only think she did. Personally, I think it was the latter. Either way, eventually, both of them leave. They disappear. One day I just woke up and both were just gone, and looking back I don't blame 'em at all. Lookin' back now, honestly, I just wish I'd...done more for them when I could have, that even if I was physically weak, my strength of spirit was strong enough to take a stand. Maybe that's just because of everything that's happened or it's something that has come from her influence, growing on me......cuz yeah, after they were gone and I stayed, the time soon came when we found the Spring Maiden. Ya know what happened then. With them both gone, I was the best choice left. I inherited the power and...more than just that." Vernal took a deep breath and drank the rest of what water was left before tossing it into a nearby trashcan.

"Never saw them again until we got dragged into all this when you guys came for us back at the camp. So...there ya go."

Qrow's brow was in his hand by the end of it, fingers pinching the bridge of his nose where he leaned against the shop counter, his own bottle mostly depleted of its quenching contents.

"...Don't ever tell that story to my Ruby." He slowly grunted. "And definitely not my Yang."

It would've been easy to take the urgent, vigorously terse delivery of the statements as orders, especially given the gritty voice uttering them was one she was used to hearing them from. They weren't, though. The flicker of his eyes over in her direction was too earnest for that, the sorrow in them too sincere, for it to be anything but another, implicit plea.

The distressing part was how much of it he already knew. His sabbatical from Jimmy's fake resistance faction before Weiss picked him up, at a time when he felt his most useless and burdensome, had also been time he dedicated to trying to piece together what exactly went wrong in this hellhole, what he'd convinced himself was morbid curiosity at the time driving him to essentially crack skulls all the way across Mantle's seedy underbelly until he kicked over the right stones to find anyone who'd ever had remote contact with the Branwen tribe or a team STRQ out of Vale. Lot of dead ends there, so that was when he hit the infobrokers; usually crooks with semblances specialized for digging up buried truths. That had been more fruitful, and his picture of how the hell this all went to shit so badly became that much clearer. Not by a lot, but some.

It wasn't until he met the Red Masque in person that everything fell into place.

"I....I'm still trying to come to terms with Weiss and Maria and Yang telling me about the man Ozpin really is. You saw me at Salem's office. I got tossed in there like a wild animal. He was the only figure I could look up to. The only one that paid me any mind that wasn't simply scorn or disgust or...simple willful apathy. Growing up I was a total brat to get what I wanted. Being the boss's daughter didn't mean a damn thing other than people knew my name if I messed up. I needed to feel as if I had power over my life. That I wasn't going to just be the Bandit's daughter and nothing more. That I could be who I wanted to be and assert my authority over someone else. I wanted to be noticed so I took it out on the only person I could..." Ruby let the clear implication of who that was sit in the air for a bit. "I made her do whatever I wanted. If she didn't like it? I'd get her in trouble and they'd always take my word over hers. She was the outcast. The burden to us. I helped keep it that way." She looked over to her stump. "....I've been telling myself lately that saving us from the Beowulf was my only kind act towards her....but the more and more I think about it, I think I just didn't want to lose the only person who listened to ME."

"So, I helped make my Yang what she is. ...To a certain point anyway. Ozpin's....modified her a bit."

The meeting where she practically confessed to it. Sprawled back in her chair and waxed poetic on how she'd broken her Yang down because she wanted to be seen, or something, not a flicker of guilt or remorse in sight, like she was proud of it. Because being the daughter of the chief wasn't enough attention. She needed someone bigger than her to make small.

The camp runts never lasted long around the Tribe. They were rare, and he and Raven were fortunate enough to come from a respected stock, but he remembered them. They existed. The kids whose parents never came back after a raid. The orphans who had nowhere to go other than with the very group who wiped out their caravan or razed their village. It wouldn't be long before the sharks circled, smelling blood on the water. Without an anchor, without some kind of protection, they weren't worth keeping alive; They were just a mouth to feed. A tent to pitch. Bait to lure grimm with, when some of the nastier guys were leading the raids. He could just imagine. Yang, with her big dumb pigtails and goofy crooked smile. The daughter of a traitor. Someone who thought small, weak things were something to be picked up and protected. The antithesis to the Tribe's worldview in just about every single way he could count. And she held out under that. For years.

Because of course she did. Take the hits, get back up, keep moving forward. That was who Yang was. Any number of bandits could take turns kicking her into the dirt and it still wouldn't be enough. She'd struggle back to her feet, every time. Because she was supposed to have people who needed her. It would've taken a very particular set of boots to make her stop moving, and the message they carried must've been crystal clear.

No one was ever going to need Yang.

And Ruby... gods, Ruby was supposed to be the best of them. The most pure.

What the hell was this place?

However much of it served only to confirm what he already knew, hearing it all laid out chronologically like that... it was sending him down some uncomfortable thought spirals. This didn't seem... fixable. It wasn't like Yang could just go seduce Masque into being a less lousy human being too. Ha ha, funny joke, ignorance is bliss. And the Dragon...

From what little he'd seen and heard, it was hard to describe the Yang Xiao Long of Remnant Two as anything other than straight up gone.

The plastic bottle's crackling protest in his hand was his first sign he needed to climb right up on outta his head, and with a stiff growl he tilted said head back to splash the remainder of the water all over his face as a particularly visceral pallet cleanse. Hey, when in Vacuo.

"...There's something you could tell your old boss for me, though. You know, if it comes up naturally in conversation."

The words were casual, if gruffly spoken, but they were a light breeze to a hurricane in relation to his next statement upon pitching his own bottle in the trash.



"Tell him he's a dead man."

It was a level of anger, of fervor, of caring about something that in all likelihood hadn't broken the surface of this world's Qrow Branwen in a long time, even if was plainly evident none of it was directed at Vernal herself. Truth was, he didn't have a damn clue how to help Ruby or Yang here. Maybe they couldn't be helped, maybe being rich meant Weiss just lucked out with the least damaging tragic backstory. He didn't know. Qrow had never really considered himself a particularly adept fixer of things.

What he did know was that there was something he could do that someone better should've done a long, long time ago.

"Could be tonight. Could be tomorrow. But I'm coming for him. Me 'n him, we're gonna square up his debt. The easy way. He'll know when it's time. That's all."

Whatever happened, the world was gonna be better off.

He let that hang over the conversation for a few seconds, running a hand back through his hair and giving it a light tousle so water droplets went flying everywhere. Finally, he spoke again.

"So... the power. Changed ya, huh?"

His eyes shifted briefly in the direction they'd left Yang and Raven in, but the way they flitted back before the second was out said all there needed to be said about his actual worries there. Good luck to whatever tiny fragment of the ice queen passed on getting any kind of foothold in that chick.

Oh, and he felt really bad for Blake too. I'm fucking sleepy okay, Jesus. :|​

 

[Gus Gungus]

"Right, well, I'll let you keep doing that while I finish talking" His eyes tilted back up to his accoster, and he spoke as if just how flustered he'd been a few seconds didn't entirely undercut his unfazed tone.

"Aw! Thanks, cat daddy," Morgiana beamed with a genuinely blissful sway, practically purring herself as if profoundly moved just by him humoring her. Her affinity for coining nicknames also revealed itself to be an entirely spur-of-the-moment, ephemeral thing, as made apparent by the attention Cat Daddy was receiving around his shins as a cluster of the felines assumed his body of words were directed towards them.

Other than that, the rapt intensity with which she was eyeballing him tripled.

Whatever bravado, false or genuine it may have been, Watts had been displaying in the face of that threat vanished in a muddled look of surprise at just how quickly quite literally everyone else in the room took offense to that. Even Neo, had pulled her head up out of Morgiana's neck, her eyes not magically clear of tears but with a look that was quiet in a far different sense than it usually meant for her.

"...You all do know I am capable of handling myself, yes?" He asked, his voice very much wanting to sound dull and not really succeeding this time.

It was hard to judge what exactly it was. Whether it was timbre, tone, the enforced curtness of the words themselves as they washed over his trio of defenders from behind or simply a desire to diffuse whatever was brewing born from a better-than-passing familiarity of both sides of the standoff. Whatever it was they picked up on, it prompted Mercury and Emerald to take a sharp, sudden look at one another before they turned, immediately realigning to affix Watts with two faces he knew very well from the halls of Beacon.



"Oooooh, Art's gonna cryyyyyyyyy."

"He iiiiiisssssss. So cute, but so embarrassing. He's usually way better at being apathetic and distant than this."

"His chakras are totally out of alignment right now, brahs. But this man... this man's tears gush for joy." The thief queen delivered solemnly, still standing in between them and also just joining in on the hazing like she was one of the gang.

"Respect is earned sir. And in point of fact, while I'm not going to sit here and pretend I'm thrilled to be in this den of who knows what when we have important things to be doing, and I frankly find your boss weird, my words were true enough. I can respect a leader who cares about their people. I don't need to like someone to respect them. You, however-" he continued as his eyes narrowed "-I don't think I carry either for. Any good Atlesian will tell you to be feared is better than to be respected. But I've always been a bit of a shit Atlesian, so I have to question, what, exactly, you're fishing for here?"

"I mean... to curbstomp your head and knock all your teeth out. Sorta thought that was obvious."

The man's voice still didn't raise, nor did anything save the single sculpted eyebrow he let rise over one half of his glasses as he sized his much shorter quarry up. Whatever he thought about the fit, the grin his lips slowly peeled back in was mirthless, but wasn't entirely without a hint of approval at how the kid conducted himself either as the gauntlets collapsed into his sleeve and he started primly buttoning up his cufflinks.

"And nah, son. Naw. Don't sell yourself short. I had you pegged as Atlesian the second you walked in this room." He sent Emerald a look, words laconic as he cracked his neck to either side. "This the poindexter? Weren't kiddin' about him, huh?"

"He's an acquired taste. But totally has a point about why we're all even-"

"GROOVY. I did it."

Morgiana threw her arms out to either side of her, stretching out every joint and bone in her body tilting her head back as though singing to the heavens before she sagged back down to affix Watts with another beatific grin.

Then she just walked away.

"...What the hell, Morgiana? That was nothing." The inveterately patient bodyguard still couldn't keep a hint of sass out of his voice as he watched her trail across the floor back to the bed, running her hands over Tyrian and Cinder's hair both this time.

"It was everything. It's done." She declaimed with an elusive simper, hopping back onto the bed with a loopy giggle as her weight bounced Neo a few centimeters into the air and scooting up the length of the mattress to alight against the veritable mountain of pillows blocking the headboard, drawing a single stick of incense out from behind one and lighting it with a touch of the finger. She waved it in Watts' direction when it struck, squinting with her opposite eye and watching the smoke trails start to curl and drift around him as she gave a gratified sigh, like he was some great cosmic mystery she could now officially add to the 'solved' pile.

"He's gauged. I know him, now; I know his nature. Cat daddy's an older soul than the rest. The regular world moves too slow for him, and I move too slow for the regular world. My jaws part, the words emerge, buuuuuutttttttt aaaaaaaallllllllll heeeeeee heeeeeaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrssssssss isssssss thiiiiiiiiiisssssssssssssssssss. My bad, daddy-o. My bad."

From any other face, in any other tone, those words would surely have constituted mockery. Yet the smile Morgiana let glimmer was as muted, sheepish, and sincerely apologetic as Neo's had been when she herself called her over, and she shifted her knees together to smooth out her dress as she draped herself over the pillows comfortably and let her hands rest on her chest.


"Let's talk bidness. But first, might a gal propose someone alleviates the lil spitfire of her secondmost sacred of burdens before she busts a lung and smites us all off the face of Remnant with a cough?"

Her head tilted over.

Yet perhaps there was another way to get out of that shitty mood. Her expression shifted into an awkward grin as she eyed the unlit end before briefly glancing at all her friends...and then shrugged, taking the offering into her own mouth to begin smoking. She couldn't say she'd ever done it before, which explained why she nearly immediately coughed a couple times, but she wasn't going to let that dissuade her. She'd so gladly left home, eager to experience new things and live a better life, and this...this was one of those experiences.

Or maybe it was just really strong...​

 

[MyrtenRose]

Qrow's brow was in his hand by the end of it, fingers pinching the bridge of his nose where he leaned against the shop counter, his own bottle mostly depleted of its quenching contents.

"...Don't ever tell that story to my Ruby." He slowly grunted. "And definitely not my Yang."

It would've been easy to take the urgent, vigorously terse delivery of the statements as orders, especially given the gritty voice uttering them was one she was used to hearing them from. They weren't, though. The flicker of his eyes over in her direction was too earnest for that, the sorrow in them too sincere, for it to be anything but another, implicit plea.

"......Sure thing, man." She responded after a couple of seconds of scrutinizing his face. Whatever she saw in there was good enough for her, it seemed. "Consider my lips sealed about it." She'd never been adverse to keeping a secret and this time was no different.​

The plastic bottle's crackling protest in his hand was his first sign he needed to climb right up on outta his head, and with a stiff growl he tilted his head back to splash the remainder of the water all over his face as a pallet cleanse. Hey, when in Vacuo.

"...There's something you could tell your old boss for me, though. You know, if it comes up naturally in conversation."

The words were casual, if gruffly spoken, but they were a light breeze to a hurricane in relation to his next statement upon pitching his own bottle in the trash.

"Tell him he's a dead man."

It was a level of anger, of fervor, of caring about something that in all likelihood hadn't broken the surface of this world's Qrow Branwen in a long time, even if was plainly evident none of it was directed at Vernal herself. Truth was, he didn't have a damn clue how to help Ruby or Yang here. Maybe they couldn't be helped, maybe being rich meant Weiss just lucked out with the least damaging tragic backstory. He didn't know. Qrow had never really considered himself a particularly adept fixer of things.

What he did know was that there was something he could do that someone better should've done a long, long time ago.

"Could be tonight. Could be tomorrow. But I'm coming for him. Me 'n him, we're gonna square his debt. The easy way. He'll know when it's time. That's all."

Whatever happened, the world was gonna be better off.

"..................."

Now that much did catch her off guard, and she was silent for considerably longer this time with her stare angled away from him and towards the sandy ground with a contemplative frown. On one hand, yeah, Qrow had been her old boss...but on the other, did that really fucking matter anymore when the thing he was boss of hardly even existed now? Apparently it didn't to her, for when she met his eyes again, it was with an indifferent shrug. "Well I for one wouldn't bet against you. Yeah. Valkyrie's killer. Could end up 2 for 2 with that, the crime boss of Vale and the bandit leader from Mistral. Sure you wouldn't want to tell him that yourself, though?" She questioned.​

He let that hang over the conversation for a few seconds, running a hand back through his hair and giving it a light tousle so water droplets went flying everywhere. Finally, he spoke again.

"So... the power. Changed ya, huh?"

His eyes shifted briefly in the direction they'd left Yang and Raven in, but the way they flitted back before the second was out said all there needed to be said about his actual worries there. Good luck to whatever tiny fragment of the ice queen passed on getting any kind of foothold in there.

"Pfft." She snickered. "I mean, yeah. The power itself definitely got to me a little. Ego boost for a while or whatever. Most of the other guys, yeah they were killers and thieves but not a match for huntsmen. But me? With the elements themselves bending to my will and more besides that? Oh yeah, that made me feel strong..." She trailed off, looking down at herself. "...but, nah, it was her that really got to me the most. She'd been kind, and stubborn as hell, and that spark of her that had remained when the power transferred to me, it kept both those traits. Everythin' I did after, there was a part of me that found it..." Vernal struggled to get the actual word out and ultimately didn't. Probably didn't even need to say it.

"Well, I tried to keep it buried. Never really managed to."​

 

[MyrtenRose]

Whatever bravado, false or genuine it may have been, Watts had been displaying in the face of that threat vanished in a muddled look of surprise at just how quickly quite literally everyone else in the room took offense to that. Even Neo, had pulled her head up out of Morgiana's neck, her eyes not magically clear of tears but with a look that was quiet in a far different sense than it usually meant for her.

"...You all do know I am capable of handling myself, yes?" He asked, his voice very much wanting to sound dull and not really succeeding this time.

It was hard to judge what exactly it was. Whether it was timbre, tone, the enforced curtness of the words themselves as they washed over his trio of defenders from behind or simply a desire to diffuse whatever was brewing born from a better-than-passing familiarity of both sides of the standoff. Whatever it was they picked up on, it prompted Mercury and Emerald to take a sharp, sudden look at one another before they turned, immediately realigning to affix Watts with two faces he knew very well from the halls of Beacon.

"Oooooh, Art's gonna cryyyyyyyyy."

"He iiiiiisssssss. So cute, but so embarrassing. He's usually way better at being apathetic and distant than this."

"His chakras are totally out of alignment right now, brahs. But this man... this man's tears gush for joy." The thief queen delivered solemnly, still standing in between them and also just joining in on the hazing like she was one of the gang.

They weren't the only ones to pick up on that. She wasn't as perceptive in general as the more worldly and cool duo, but she was quite familiar with her partner, his attitude and demeanor and everything, and she had turned too after the way he'd said that. He was so touched by the way they'd all jumped to his aid and struggled to hide it, in a way that was just so...adorable. Had to agree with Emerald there, if the "Awwwwwww!" she let out was any indication. If only she'd known it was coming, she'd have had her scroll ready to videotape the moment. For posterity, naturally!
​

Watts leveled Cinder with the most judgemental look he'd ever given her when she took a puff of whatever the hell that was, but he didn't speak up in any actual objection

​

"Let's talk bidness. But first, might a gal propose someone alleviates the lil spitfire of her second most sacred of burdens before she busts a lung and smites us all off the face of Remnant with a cough?"

Her head tilted over.

"H--he--hey!" She started. "It isn't that--that bad. I can--handle it." Even took another big smoke or two to prove it.​

Or maybe it was just really strong...

Oh god.

Maybe it was just her being a first time novice and completely unprepared but it hit her hard.
​

 

[MidwayLives]

Such comforting notions were well and truly dissuaded by the shadow that befell Watts' figure from behind, not dissimilar from one of Emerald's stunts in how nary an aura in the room had warned anyone of when and from whence the tree of a man suddenly looming over him had appeared. He was huge; not quite the inhuman man monster they met on their arrival in Gorgon, but nevertheless a tall, chiselled wall of muscle in an athlete's shape, and as he pounded his knuckles off one another a pair of thickly plated bronze-colored gauntlets extending all the way up under the sleeves of his exquisitely fitted suit to his shoulders rubbed together like defibrilators, volatile coils of gold lightning jumping between the points of contact.

"Should put some respect on that mouth 'fore I put that mouth around a curb, boy."

His words were a sneering, posturing taunt, yet the tone they were delivered in was of the same deathly calm as a garbageman who'd been on the job for thirty years and seen all there was to see as he looked down on the latest advancements in the world of garbage. His eyes were hidden behind two impenetrable glass rims, but it wasn't hard to imagine them matching the twitch of disgust settling across the man's lips in sheer acrimony as he sized up Watts's reaction without a stir.

Mercury and Emerald were already up, rushing to step between their old classmate and the tree of a man with two equally outraged expressions of different stripes, Emerald's eyes flared wide with a more familiar anger than the grimace with a view to violence Mercury wore (despite the cat still draped around his shoulders) as he gave the man a double-handed shove that didn't even make him step back.

Was it super hypocritical for Char to take umbrage with the threat thrown this kid's way? When not that long ago he'd been swinging his sword at some of these same kids himself? Hell, Blanche and him had been tasked with killing what remained of Team MTEN if it came down to the nitty gritty.

Probably. He still reached for the handle of Riot Breaker all the same but very pointedly did not draw it from it's scabbard.



"Less you wanna be laid out, I'd suggest you leave these kids be. They're under our protection."

Blanche for his part appreciated the tenacity of some in the group. Neo had been willing to do what so many in Mistral had been terrified of. She'd stared down the illusive 'Boss' and even fought with him. He couldn't see it on account of having been flung at least twenty or so feet in the air. But if it hadn't been for her and Char, he doubted he'd still be here to be happy about it. Which of course didn't mean he appreciated getting dragged into every little piece of business these kids had. The plan hadn't changed one bit. Work however they could to get the money they needed, say their goodbyes, and leave.

....But he couldn't leave his partner looking like a schmuck.

Blanche's hand rested against the holster of his pistol while his other lit the cigarette he'd placed in his mouth.



"My pal's right on the lien. We came here to talk so let's talk."

Blanche reached up and blew out a cloud of smoke.

"....And if anybody's got any excess stress they wanna work out, we're happy to oblige."

"Damn straight."
​

"What I just say about the vibes, my dude?"

They were black. Rather than colors, whites, or anything resembling the typical color composition of the human eye there were just two inky, infinite pools, a pair of silver rims possibly denoting the presence of pupils somewhere in the depths of that darkness. It was impossible to measure precisely which was stranger and more disconcerting to look at between that and the skin immediately around her eyes, which all their color appeared to have drained to and now somehow seemed to drift, shift and intermingle with one another over the surface like some sort of optical illusion, the exact midpoint between a kaleidoscope and rorschach test.

Despite the unnatural sight, the sentence accompanying it was all but casual; completely lacking in threat or any hostile intent. There should have been nothing to separate it from anything else Morgiana had spoken in her light, airy, head-in-the-clouds lilt.

Yet somehow, and in complete disregard of the symphony of cats still yowling to their heart's content, the voice was perfectly audible to everyone in the room. It didn't even sound raised, and none of her facial cues indicated she had done anything more than murmur another placid, sleepy sentence. Still, they heard it, and if abrupt, universal termination of their cries was any indicator so did the cats, all their voices quieting at once in the same moment the candles in the tent flickered before they all scattered back to carrying out their standard cat business.

Blanche was a bit taken aback by this chick's eyes.

They were interesting and all.

He just would have been happy to have had two.
​

"Shshhhhhh. I'm figurin' him out. I'm knowing him." Her eyes narrowed in abstruse, targeted consideration, never once breaking her tranquil smile from Arthur's face as she tilted her head coyly and tapped an irregular pattern against her lower lip. "Almost there now."

She continued to stare.

And stare.

And staaaaaaaaaare.

"....That a uh semblance or somethin?"

Well, if all it took was some staring to ease tensions then...

Char slowly removed his hand from Riot Breaker and Blanche did the same for his firearm.

Then Blanche gave Char a sharp nudge in the ribs.

"Ow! The hell was that for, man?"



"Makin me put on that 'tough guy' act. It adds at least twenty years of wrinkles, y'know."

"You're pretty vain for a hired gun, Blanche."

Blanche took another drag.

"It's my mystique and boyish good looks that bring in the clients. It's my skills that do the rest."
​

"H--he--hey!" She started. "It isn't that--that bad. I can--handle it." Even took another big smoke or two to prove it.

"Hey, hey, hey! Hold on there, little miss. You're goin about it all wrong."

Blanche made his way over to Cinder and puffed out another trail of smoke himself.

"You don't gotta inhale it all at once like it's a race. Enjoying things like this...it's like enjoying the first sip of wine that you stole to impress the girl you'd been courting for days. You have to take it slow, savor it, enjoy it. " The hitman chuckled to himself before giving Cinder a hearty pat on the back.

Char was a touch more skeptical.



"Ey, uh, Blanche. I know it's not really our place and all but should we really condone underage smoking?"

Blanche rolled his eye at his partner's comment.

"What is wrong with enjoying life's pleasures, Char? No, you're only young once. Better to savor what you can now. As you get older things start to change, old passions you enjoyed in your youth begin to lose their appeal and before you know it? Your hair's turned grey and your teeth start falling out-"

"Alright, we get it Blanche, geez."



"All I'm saying is, enjoy it while you can. Aging is a real bitch."

He smiled though.

"....For some of course, others age like fine wine."

Char rolled his eyes. The two of them.

Trifa for her part was a touch dumbfounded.

"....And you two are hitmen???"​

 

[MidwayLives]

"Should put some respect on that mouth 'fore I put that mouth around a curb, boy."

His words were a sneering, posturing taunt, yet the tone they were delivered in was of the same deathly calm as a garbageman who'd been on the job for thirty years and seen all there was to see as he looked down on the latest advancements in the world of garbage. His eyes were hidden behind two impenetrable glass rims, but it wasn't hard to imagine them matching the twitch of disgust settling across the man's lips in sheer acrimony as he sized up Watts's reaction without a stir.

Mercury and Emerald were already up, rushing to step between their old classmate and the tree of a man with two equally outraged expressions of different stripes, Emerald's eyes flared wide with a more familiar anger than the grimace with a view to violence Mercury wore (despite the cat still draped around his shoulders) as he gave the man a double-handed shove that didn't even make him step back.

Tyrian had been shaken from the blissful state that Morgiana's words had left him in.

Arthur and him had their disputes in the past.

He tried his best to lead and keep order.

Order....just wasn't something Tyrian gelled with.

"How about you hit the trail before I-"

....Before the faunus himself had even realized it, he'd already adopted a combat pose.

...So quick to jump into fighting. Even if it was to defend someone he truly cared about.

Were these part of those rancid vibes?
​

"Yup."

She answered both queries in the same, sibylline breath, gingerly lifting her hands to either side of her as though gently trailing her way across a meadow of flowers. One alighted on Tyrian's head, giving his crown a tender, caressing ruffle,

The sudden burst of anger quickly faded as soon as her hand touched his hair.

It was a comforting gesture and one that put the fight-happy faunus back at ease. Though his tail remained loose and unbound just incase that guy tried anything.

If he did then Tyrian would made sure he'd regret every second of it.

For now though, his tail swayed from side to side in rhythm with the ruffle.

"Mm..."



....But then the faunus saw what Cinder had been gifted.

​

"H--he--hey!" She started. "It isn't that--that bad. I can--handle it." Even took another big smoke or two to prove it.

Tyrian slowly moved with the silence of a phantom gliding along the floor as he stood over Cinder.



"Cinder..."

Vices like drugs were certainly no stranger to Tyrian. He'd been offered just about everything under the sun during his years in the club and the shady people it often attracted. Even many of the fighters offered the youth something here and there. Whether it was to help dull the pain(Tyrian usually preferred cold alcohol for that. Not to drink of course but to pour on wounds.)or ease the nerves, Tyrian always turned it down. He didn't want to seem like he was resting on his laurels. The fans were nice, the lien he earned was even nicer. But what he wanted most was to make a good impression and how could he do that if he was kicking back on his feet, tail in the air, tripping out of his mind. He admired the training he got. He didn't want to squander that bond over something as trivial as recreational drugs.

....With one key exception.

Glancing over at Trifa, her eyes met his and she couldn't help the snickers that escaped. His cheeks turned red with a slight blush.

"Bring back memories, huh, Tyrian?~"

The one time he'd ever smoked a joint during his time in the club had been with her. It'd been after Trifa had went to get lunch for her, Ichabod, and him. She came back with food alright. More than enough actually. At first she played it off as just a lucky mistake. But as she told Tyrian in private the extra food had been a necessary expense.

They were gonna get high as hell. Just the two of them.

....It was a great night. Food was had, drinks were slurped, kisses may or may not have been exchanged(Tyrian didn't kiss and tell. Fighting was always a much more comfortable subject than anything to do with 'other' physical activities.)
​

Oh god.

Maybe it was just her being a first time novice and completely unprepared but it hit her hard.

"Give me a puff..." ​

 

[MidwayLives]

The annoying acrobatic maneuvering of the world's most frustrating midget did its job, Neo's boot smacking into the back of the skull and getting Nora to faceplant right into the wafflemix.

Neo touched down with all the grace one could have amid a trashed kitchen.

Which was to say surprisingly quite a bit.

But then...it was her after all.~


​

he pulled herself right out of there in an instant, though not without licking what remained of the mix on her face(mmmmm delicious), but once that was done her eyes shot to the side and using her peripheral vision.

Neo couldn't help but smirk.



What was the ginger going to do?

Realize how wrong she'd been to challenge Neo to this impromptu food fight? That Neo was her better in every way that mattered? That she might as well get down on her knees and kiss the ground Neo walked on?

Well, the last one was one that Neo just thought would be fun. Wasn't necessarily a dealbreaker.
​

With a fierce battle cry, she spun and whipped the bowl in that direction to splash the tiny annoyance with all the remaining mix.

"....!"

Neo leaned back and Nora could see the smirk slowly fade in real time.

She'd managed to dodge the majority of what was left in the bowl.

But a couple droplets fell out as it soared over head-

*plop*

Blinking and glancing down at where some mix had landed on her cheek, Neo stood straight up and narrowed her eyes.

So, an eye for an eye eh? Mix for mix? See who could get the other messier until they submitted?

Neo knew what to do.~

She shattered once more as the telltale signs of her semblance's use scattered to the floor before dissipating entirely. Then within seconds she was in Nora's face, literally mere inches away from the brawler. Jumping up ever so slightly she sought to slam her knee right into the underside of Nora's chin and send her vaulting over the counter. Right into the mess of everything that Neo had carelessly kicked off in her initial sprint across the countertop.

 

[MyrtenRose]

She shattered once more as the telltale signs of her semblance's use scattered to the floor before dissipating entirely. Then within seconds she was in Nora's face, literally mere inches away from the brawler. Jumping up ever so slightly she sought to slam her knee right into the underside of Nora's chin and send her vaulting over the counter. Right into the mess of everything that Neo had carelessly kicked off in her initial sprint across the countertop.

“Got you.” Nora’s hand snapped up, aiming to grab hold of that leg before it struck and swing the stupid gremlin into the counter herself.

 

[MyrtenRose]

"Hey, hey, hey! Hold on there, little miss. You're goin about it all wrong."

Blanche made his way over to Cinder and puffed out another trail of smoke himself.

"You don't gotta inhale it all at once like it's a race. Enjoying things like this...it's like enjoying the first sip of wine that you stole to impress the girl you'd been courting for days. You have to take it slow, savor it, enjoy it. " The hitman chuckled to himself before giving Cinder a hearty pat on the back.

The advice, purely by itself, seemed sound but there was clearly something about what had just occurred that didn't sit right with her, if the look on her face was anything to go by.

"Touch me like that again and I will freeze you solid and--" She cut herself off. Deep breath, Cinder, deep breath. Good vibes, remember, keep those up, she thought to herself.​

"Give me a puff..."

"...no." She shook her head.​

 

[MidwayLives]

"...no." She shook her head.

"No...?? What do you mean no??? I'd share with you!"

The faunus huffed as he reached for it.

"There's enough for you to pass around!"​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"No...?? What do you mean no??? I'd share with you!"

The faunus huffed as he reached for it.

"There's enough for you to pass around!"​

She stepped out of his reach. “I said no.”​

 

[MidwayLives]

She stepped out of his reach. “I said no.”

Tyrian turned away, his vibes once more soured.

"Hmph."​

 

[Gus Gungus]

"Touch me like that again and I will freeze you solid and--"

"You won't."

The more psychedelic of visuals to spring out around eyes had gradually receded throughout her low stakes staredown with Watts, but whether it was a momentary lapse in judgment or not the second those words left Cinder's mouth they sprang back with an even greater trippy vividity than before, silver circles now pulsing with a thread of insistent amber that peeked out from the pools of black like the light of the sun emerging from an eclipse. It was still a long, long way from being outright threatening, but it did carry an unspoken vow of intervention were Cinder to show any inclination towards following through with that, an ethereal vacancy falling over the waify woman's face as a wave of something intangible rolled out over the room once more; only this time the lights flickered deeper, came closer to total blackness, serving to only better illuminate the rows of intricate runes and sigils scratched and scralled all across the lavish confines of the tent.

The display finally earned a gruff sniff of approval from her bodyguard, though it was evident from her disappointed sigh that the very act of having to lay down the law ran counter to her entire ethos.

"There have been wayyyy too many threats of violence bringin' down the mood in my inner sanctum in this past minute or two, baby birds. Okay? I know, I know, it's not your fault. I get how the dominoes fall. The establishment taught you to believe whoever makes the biggest boom gets the loudest voice, and the lesson stuck. But down here in the dark there are no dominoes, no booms, no establishments. And no lessons. Only peace, love, and the domain of Morgiana the Mystic. Which the fates have led you to for a very important reason today."

She kept that vacant, unnatural gaze locked on Cinder throughout the entirety of the words, eyes unblinking as they were unchanging, voice taking on a pitch and inflection that sounded like they came from another world.

"In case you're wondering, I'm just a borrower, sunspeckle. The well you draw from may be deeper and deadlier than mine, but mine's older. Brandish yours like a gun again and I will use it to seal you."

She held that gaze for a second more, deeper and more penetrating than even the one she affixed Watts with before all at once she brightened with a perky grin.

"Now quit being a bogart and bequeath the freakin' doob! I'll share with Sweet Tea if it's against your ethos, but for reals tho. Pick, puff 'n pass or we pray. For you."



"She's right. Hold onto that thing much longer and the devil's gonna suck your guts out with a straw. You already went way too fast," Emerald chose that moment to inject, leaning over towards Cinder from the opposite side Tyrian did to hold out her hand coaxingly.

The bodyguard gave another flash of perfect teeth, corner of his lips lifting in an endorsing smirk. "Heh. Now there's the Morgiana I wanna see more o-"

"Stand in the corner, Lance."

"The hell?!"

"Yeah, you heard. You kinda did a whole thing and majorly stressed out the flow, so now go face the corner. Hey, anyone wanna throw stuff at Lance until he stands in the corner with me?"

She picked up a pillow and fired it at him to show it was okay, though he batted it out of the air with a scowl.

"This ain't happenin'-"

He barely ducked a half-eaten sandwich fired at his head by Mercury. With extreme prejudice.​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

Morgiana's entire bed, cushions sheets pillows, Morgiana herself and all with a few surprised looking cats besides and also a literal anvil all suddenly went flying over the heads of everyone else, careening in the air straight for the bodyguard at surprising speed

They all crashed into him or the ground with a harmless shattering rather than any sort of cacophony of breaking wood and flying fur, their constitute shards of light scattering around the room before they faded away. Neo was lounging on the bed (that had clearly never moved from it's spot) on her stomach with her feet idly kicking in the air behind her and her chin resting in her hands with an angelic smile that really did a better job of selling that that totally hadn't been her than it should've considering the dearth of feasible suspects, probably due to the actual halo floating over her head

 

[MyrtenRose]

"You won't."

The more psychedelic of visuals to spring out around eyes had gradually receded throughout her low stakes staredown with Watts, but whether it was a momentary lapse in judgment or not the second those words left Cinder's mouth they sprang back with an even greater trippy vividity than before, silver circles now pulsing with a thread of insistent amber that peeked out from the pools of black like the light of the sun emerging from an eclipse. It was still a long, long way from being outright threatening, but it did carry an unspoken vow of intervention were Cinder to show any inclination towards following through with that, an ethereal vacancy falling over the waify woman's face as a wave of something intangible rolled out over the room once more; only this time the lights flickered deeper, came closer to total blackness, serving to only better illuminate the rows of intricate runes and sigils scratched and scralled all across the lavish confines of the tent.

The display finally earned a gruff sniff of approval from her bodyguard, though it was evident from her disappointed sigh that the very act of having to lay down the law ran counter to her entire ethos.

"There have been wayyyy too many threats of violence bringin' down the mood in my inner sanctum in this past minute or two, baby birds. Okay? I know, I know, it's not your fault. I get how the dominoes fall. The establishment taught you to believe whoever makes the biggest boom gets the loudest voice, and the lesson stuck. But down here in the dark there are no dominoes, no booms, no establishments. And no lessons. Only peace, love, and the domain of Morgiana the Mystic. Which the fates have led you to for a very important reason today."

She kept that vacant, unnatural gaze locked on Cinder throughout the entirety of the words, eyes unblinking as they were unchanging, voice taking on a pitch and inflection that sounded like they came from another world.

"In case you're wondering, I'm just a borrower, sunspeckle. The well you draw from may be deeper and deadlier than mine, but mine's older. Brandish yours like a gun again and I will use it to seal you."

It might have been the way she talked, or the terrifying appearance of those eyes, or the near total blackness that almost came with the flickering lights, or the fact that Cinder didn’t even really want a fight, or that the teenager had no idea what “to seal you” meant and also had zero desire to find out, or some vague sense of deja vu from her past, or maybe all of it together. Whatever the case, there was a sudden sheepishness in the way she responded: head bowed, the heels of her boots thudding together nervously and the way her voice cracked as she spoke. “I-I’m sorry um, m-madam Morgiana.”

​

She held that gaze for a second more, deeper and more penetrating than even the one she affixed Watts with before all at once she brightened with a perky grin.

"Now quit being a bogart and bequeath the freakin' doob! I'll share with Sweet Tea if it's against your ethos, but for reals tho. Pick, puff 'n pass or we pray. For you."

"She's right. Hold onto that thing much longer and the devil's gonna suck your guts out with a straw. You already went way too fast," Emerald chose that moment to inject, leaning over towards Cinder from the opposite side Tyrian did to hold out her hand coaxingly.

She had zero desire to provoke any more of that outta the mystic hippie, so there was no way it could have ended up in Emerald’s hand any faster than it did just then. That, and she thought she could feel—​

Morgiana's entire bed, cushions sheets pillows, Morgiana herself and all with a few surprised looking cats besides and also a literal anvil all suddenly went flying over the heads of everyone else, careening in the air straight for the bodyguard at surprising speed

They all crashed into him or the ground with a harmless shattering rather than any sort of cacophony of breaking wood and flying fur, their constitute shards of light scattering around the room before they faded away. Neo was lounging on the bed (that had clearly never moved from it's spot) on her stomach with her feet idly kicking in the air behind her and her chin resting in her hands with an angelic smile that really did a better job of selling that that totally hadn't been her than it should've considering the dearth of feasible suspects, probably due to the actual halo floating over her head

“...hehehehehehhehhahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

What started as soft giggling after that display exploded into uncontrollable laughing, an impossible to rein in happy fit that had Cinder literally rolling around on the floor, hardly minding the various stuff she was wildly scattering around with every movement.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

"..................."

Now that much did catch her off guard, and she was silent for considerably longer this time with her stare angled away from him and towards the sandy ground with a contemplative frown. On one hand, yeah, Qrow had been her old boss...but on the other, did that really fucking matter anymore when the thing he was boss of hardly even existed now? Apparently it didn't to her, for when she met his eyes again, it was with an indifferent shrug. "Well I for one wouldn't bet against you. Yeah. Valkyrie's killer. Could end up 2 for 2 with that, the crime boss of Vale and the bandit leader from Mistral. Sure you wouldn't want to tell him that yourself, though?" She questioned.

He snorted at the prediction, though it was heavy brows and a clouded gaze he leveled down at the countertop as he pushed his shades up the bridge of his nose. Yeah, that was him. Fixing this hellhole the only way he knew how, one skull at a time.



"Get the impression the jackass can't take himself seriously enough for that to fly. Nah. One way or another, next time I gotta look at that miserable mug for more than five seconds is when his time's up. I want him to know that. Know it's coming. I wanna get a good look at his eyes when I tell him to get up, that he's done. See how he takes it."

If he was being honest, he thought he had a pretty good idea already. But it wasn't like this guy hadn't already found new lows to sink to he'd never considered before even on his worst self-deprecating spirals, and maybe the washed-up bastard still had some surprises left in him.

"Maybe he'll just run. Doubt it, but at the same time it wouldn't surprise me. Guess we'll see."

"Pfft." She snickered. "I mean, yeah. The power itself definitely got to me a little. Ego boost for a while or whatever. Most of the other guys, yeah they were killers and thieves but not a match for huntsmen. But me? With the elements themselves bending to my will and more besides that? Oh yeah, that made me feel strong..." She trailed off, looking down at herself. "...but, nah, it was her that really got to me the most. She'd been kind, and stubborn as hell, and that spark of her that had remained when the power transferred to me, it kept both those traits. Everythin' I did after, there was a part of me that found it..." Vernal struggled to get the actual word out and ultimately didn't. Probably didn't even need to say it.

"Well, I tried to keep it buried. Never really managed to."

"...You were the only one who tried."

It was a more haggard, pensive growl he came back to that with, not necessarily wanting to absolve the woman but feeling it warranted mentioning anyway.

"You were practically the same age they were. An age I sure as hell hadn't managed to untwist myself from their backwoods horseshit by, that's for sure. It's a closed community, y'know? Not sure anyone really gets how hard that is, when you're born to it. When ya grow up hearin' your folks say it's okay, when they keep telling you to be more brutal, more ruthless, make you believe the way they live is the right way and it's your god-given right to own whatever you can take from someone else... I mean, it's practically a cult when you get down to it." He snorted. "Then, eventually, you get outside the camp walls. See the kingdoms, how people actually live, realize what a loada crap it all was. But that doesn't make it any easier. And before you ever got the chance, you were still the only one who tried doing... something for her. Anything. Maybe not as much as you could've, but..."

He huffed, falling silent. He stared down at his hands for a few moments before he glanced up at the shopkeep and motioned for four more bottles of water, two extra for when the mother-daughter folk group caught up.

"I dunno. Maybe there was more of Spring already in there than you realized."

Still, he wondered inwardly what that must've felt like. Absorbing not just the power, but a tiny part of the last one to wield it, too; to have a sliver of that person's soul just... assimilate into yours. Thank god Yang was, in a far more deserving sense, as far up her own ass and sure of who she was as her mom was (used to be?), otherwise that might've been a...

"I... I want to hope that means her plan worked, whatever it was. She was going after Ozpin directly, but.... Something, felt... wrong. Like it wasn't just Weiss' soul that touched mine"

...Shit.

He blanched, all the hard work the sun had carried done his complexion over the past weeks erased in a second.

"Shit, shit. Ozma's soul was already in Weiss's body when she died, however the hell that even happened." He was still a little fuzzy on that. "You don't think..."

His eyes inched wider still as he cast a leery glance back in the direction they'd come, clearly at least a little distraught at the thought he'd just had. It wasn't like the two disparate souls could've formed all that much of a link in so short a time, but...​

 

[MyrtenRose]

He snorted at the prediction, though it was heavy brows and a clouded gaze he leveled down at the countertop as he pushed his shades up the bridge of his nose. Yeah, that was him. Fixing this hellhole the only way he knew how, one skull at a time.

"Get the impression the jackass can't take himself seriously enough for that to fly. Nah. One way or another, next time I gotta look at that miserable mug for more than five seconds is when his time's up. I want him to know that. Know it's coming. I wanna get a good look at his eyes when I tell him to get up, that he's done. See how he takes it."

If he was being honest, he thought he had a pretty good idea already. But it wasn't like this guy hadn't already found new lows to sink to he'd never considered before even on his worst self-deprecating spirals, and maybe the washed-up bastard still had some surprises left in him.

"Maybe he'll just run. Doubt it, but at the same time it wouldn't surprise me. Guess we'll see."

"I suppose we will." She left it that, not like she had much more to say about it anyway.​

"...You were the only one who tried."

It was a more haggard, pensive growl he came back to that with, not necessarily wanting to absolve the woman but feeling it warranted mentioning anyway.

"You were practically the same age they were. An age I sure as hell hadn't managed to untwist myself from their backwoods horseshit by, that's for sure. It's a closed community, y'know? Not sure anyone really gets how hard that is, when you're born to it. When ya grow up hearin' your folks say it's okay, when they keep telling you to be more brutal, more ruthless, make you believe the way they live is the right way and it's your god-given right to own whatever you can take from someone else... I mean, it's practically a cult when you get down to it." He snorted. "Then, eventually, you get outside the camp walls. See the kingdoms, how people actually live, realize what a loada crap it all was. But that doesn't make it any easier. And before you ever got the chance, you were still the only one who tried doing... something for her. Anything. Maybe not as much as you could've, but..."

He huffed, falling silent. He stared down at his hands for a few moments before he glanced up at the shopkeep and motioned for four more bottles of water, two extra for when the mother-daughter folk group caught up.

"I dunno. Maybe there was more of Spring already in there than you realized."

"...This you attemptin' to butter me up or something?" She snarked, complete with amused chuckle. "Not to say I don't appreciate the thought, and maybe there was, but...yeah, I tried. Still was the only one of the three to stay when I could have run too. Grew up with that life, became accustomed to it. Part of me eventually came to disapprove but another part enjoyed it." She shrugged, making no apologies for who she'd been. Who she was. Who she is. "I'm no saint, won't ever be, but I ain't no devil either. I walk that middle road, I suppose." She hesitated for a moment while he thought inwardly before adding: "So, this other world of yours...you Branwens get out of the camp the same way?"​

...Shit.

He blanched, all the hard work the sun had carried done his complexion over the past weeks erased in a second.

"Shit, shit. Ozma's soul was already in Weiss's body when she died, however the hell that even happened." He was still a little fuzzy on that. "You don't think..."

His eyes inched wider still as he cast a leery glance back in the direction they'd come, clearly at least a little distraught at the thought he'd just had. It wasn't like the two disparate souls could've formed all that much of a link in so short a time, but...

"I think you're askin' the wrong person." Vernal deadpanned. She sure wasn't an expert on spiritual shit. But he deserved a real answer, so there was hardly a pause before she continued. "I wouldn't stress about it though. Doesn't seem like it to me, your firecracker seems on the level to me. Besides, even if there is a small bit in there, well, that's just it. Small. I know a Yang that held out for years against tough shit, and yours is stronger willed, yeah?"​

 

[Gus Gungus]

"...This you attemptin' to butter me up or something?" She snarked, complete with amused chuckle.

"It's called 'understanding'. Believe me, I know they don't speak much of it where you come from," he grunted, no reservations about meeting snark with snark as he accepted the bundle of waters from the man and paid him. "Look, I'm just saying that whatever your reason is for being here, whatever you're looking to atone for, I think you're on the right track. Closer than some, at least. Take it or leave it."

He unscrewed one and brought it to his lips, because god damn was this desert sun gonna kill his pasty faced goth ass faster and more efficiently than any Grimm had ever come close to touching.

"You want the Tribe-friendly macho version? Maybe I just feel bad I almost twisted your head off your shoulders right before I murked Valkyrie that time. Yeah, think about it. That was almost you."

He was starting to realize maybe he just wasn't dealing with this whole 'Remnant Two' thing that well.

Still was the only one of the three to stay when I could have run too.

"Yeah. Worked out great for 'em."

"So, this other world of yours...you Branwens get out of the camp the same way?"

"What, by walking?"



If she was looking for a game of bandit snark ping-pong, he was happy to demonstrate why he was the regional champ ten years running.

"How'd ya piece that one together, Columbo?"

"I think you're askin' the wrong person."

"The last natural Spring Maiden?" He subsequently deadpanned back. "Yeah, I must be crazy."

In the meantime, he did his best to banish the actual line of thinking from his head. If it came up, it came up. They'd deal with it. Somehow. He was probably just overthinking it.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"It's called 'understanding'. Believe me, I know they don't speak much of it where you come from," he grunted, no reservations about meeting snark with snark as he accepted the bundle of waters from the man and paid him. "Look, I'm just saying that whatever your reason is for being here, whatever you're looking to atone for, I think you're on the right track. Closer than some, at least. Take it or leave it."

She straight up snorted at that but didn't bite back. "Fine man, put it that way, I'll take it." ​

He unscrewed one and brought it to his lips, because god damn was this desert sun gonna kill his pasty faced goth ass faster and more efficiently than any Grimm had ever come close to touching.

"You want the Tribe friendly macho version? Maybe I just feel bad I almost twisted your head off your shoulders right before I murked Valkyrie. Yeah, think about it. That was almost you."

He was starting to realize maybe he just wasn't dealing with this whole 'Remnant Two' thing that well.

"Oh yeah? Alright, okay, if that's in any way truth, consider this your release from those shitty feelings. I forgive you for almost killing me. Not that I think you need forgiveness or anything, I was giving you a couple good reasons to do that at the time." She reached out and grabbed up one of the water bottles herself and took a good sip and spent more just pouring it over her head and letting it run through her hair. A refreshing cold feeling, no doubt about it.

"So consider yourself absolved."​

"Yeah. Worked out great for 'em."

"...Touché."​

"What, by walking?"

If she was looking for a game of bandit snark ping-pong, he was happy to demonstrate why he was the regional champ ten years running.

"How'd ya piece that one together, Columbo?"

"Walking, huh? You sure about that? Seems like a stretch that you'd make it even 2 miles on the twigs you call legs, and Beacon's a long ways off."​

"The last natural Spring Maiden?" He subsequently deadpanned back. "Yeah, I must be crazy."

"That'd explain your fashion sense."​

 

[MidwayLives]

The advice, purely by itself, seemed sound but there was clearly something about what had just occurred that didn't sit right with her, if the look on her face was anything to go by.

"Huh? Something wrong, little miss-"

In fact something certainly WAS wrong.
​

"Touch me like that again and I will freeze you solid and--" She cut herself off. Deep breath, Cinder, deep breath. Good vibes, remember, keep those up, she thought to herself.

"...."

Blanche had already borne witness to the semblance of whoever that hobo who assaulted him. She'd taken away his sight which was up there with aging as one of the things that the hitman feared the most. He'd already lost one eye and had to basically retrain himself from the ground up in order to cope with the lack of depth perception but he'd gotten there. To lose the sensation of sight altogether and at the drop of a hat? The thought scared the shit out of him. Which meant that Blanche definitely had no interest in finding out whatever wacky semblances any of these rugrats had, catching a high or not.

"....Yeah, alright. Sorry kiddo."
​

"You won't."

The more psychedelic of visuals to spring out around eyes had gradually receded throughout her low stakes staredown with Watts, but whether it was a momentary lapse in judgment or not the second those words left Cinder's mouth they sprang back with an even greater trippy vividity than before, silver circles now pulsing with a thread of insistent amber that peeked out from the pools of black like the light of the sun emerging from an eclipse. It was still a long, long way from being outright threatening, but it did carry an unspoken vow of intervention were Cinder to show any inclination towards following through with that, an ethereal vacancy falling over the waify woman's face as a wave of something intangible rolled out over the room once more; only this time the lights flickered deeper, came closer to total blackness, serving to only better illuminate the rows of intricate runes and sigils scratched and scralled all across the lavish confines of the tent.

The display finally earned a gruff sniff of approval from her bodyguard, though it was evident from her disappointed sigh that the very act of having to lay down the law ran counter to her entire ethos.

"There have been wayyyy too many threats of violence bringin' down the mood in my inner sanctum in this past minute or two, baby birds. Okay? I know, I know, it's not your fault. I get how the dominoes fall. The establishment taught you to believe whoever makes the biggest boom gets the loudest voice, and the lesson stuck. But down here in the dark there are no dominoes, no booms, no establishments. And no lessons. Only peace, love, and the domain of Morgiana the Mystic."

She kept that vacant, unnatural gaze locked on Cinder throughout the entirety of the words, eyes unblinking as they were unchanging, voice taking on a pitch and inflection that sounded like they came from another world.

"In case you're wondering, I'm just a borrower, sunspeckle. The well you draw from may be deeper and deadlier than mine, but mine's older. Brandish yours like a gun again and I will use it to seal you."

Blanche would have been happy to have written off the threat thrown his way altogether.

It wasn't the first time he'd been threatened in his life. No, the most recent one before this...? Had to have been when he'd tried asking out that pretty bartender before the Hitman Team got orders to raid the bar she worked at. The same one that housed that pink kid and her friends. Weren't too many fond memories of that incident. He got knocked out before he could even step through the damn doors...

But seeing this other chick step in like that caused both Char and Blanche to snap to attention.



"Hey, Char."

"Yeah?"

"You uh, got any idea what she's talking about? It has to be a semblance or somethin, right?" Blanche inquired in regards to the 'well of power' that Morgiana had referred to. Char simply shrugged in response having no knowledge of Cinder's true nature. "Beats me."

"Fair enough, fair enough."





"....You don't think she really could have frozen me right-"

"I said I don't know, man! Damn!"
​

 

[MidwayLives]

She held that gaze for a second more, deeper and more penetrating than even the one she affixed Watts with before all at once she brightened with a perky grin.

"Now bequeath the freakin' doob, bogart. I'll share with Sweet Tea if it's against your ethos, but for reals tho. Pick, puff 'n pass or we pray. For you."

Tyrian's tail perked up at the mention of his new nickname again.​

"She's right. Hold onto that thing much longer and the devil's gonna suck your guts out with a straw. You already went way too fast," Emerald chose that moment to inject, leaning over towards Cinder from the opposite side Tyrian did to hold out her hand coaxingly.

Looking over his shoulder, he eyed the joint.

"...Thanks Emerald, Morgiana."

He reached to take it and if allowed to, he'd gently hold it between two fingers and bring it up to his lips.

He took a long drag on it and closed his eyes.

The feelings from that one night began flooding back as Trifa approached and slung her arm over his shoulder.

"Now, no more pouting like a big baby?"

"I wasn't pouting....I was angry." He replied as he leaned back against the spider faunus. She chuckled and reached up to gently ruffle his hair just as Morgiana had seconds ago. His tail began swaying from side to side like the interior of a pendulum clock. Second after second, moment after moment, he was always rearing to go. Always ready to punch out the nearest person who so much as looked at him funny. Now that he'd managed to get his hands on what he'd been looking for, it felt like such a relief. An avenue to try and let some of that tension ebb away like water washing over seashells left in the sand.



"Ahhhh...."
​

"Yeah, you heard. You kinda did a whole thing and majorly stressed out the flow, so now go face the corner. Hey, anyone wanna throw stuff at Lance until he stands in the corner with me?"

She picked up a pillow and fired it at him to show it was okay, though he batted it out of the air with a scowl.

"This ain't happenin'-"

He barely ducked a half-eaten sandwich fired at his head by Mercury. With extreme prejudice.

Having felt some sense of relief now that she wasn't worrying about Tyrian or dealing with the continuous aftershocks of the physical trauma that 'Jack' had put her through, Trifa did a stretch from side to side upon hearing the 'offer' Morgiana had just put out there.

Giving Tyrian the biggest of hugs that she could muster, she rolled up the sleeves on her costume and held her hands out.



"Big boy doesn't wanna move huh? Well, that's okay. Some folks got their ways of dealing with stubborn people like that."

She closed her hands and then opened them up.

"Case in point.~"

She fired out a stream of webbing from her hands in Lance's direction. Not in any manner to restrict his movement or tie him up. If anything the intention seemed to do just as the sandwich had before it: annoy the guy into doing what he was told. She did it to Tyrian during their travels, at least a couple of times.​