Fandom Distorted Mirror [IC]

[MidwayLives]

“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.

Neo's eyes widened for the briefest of seconds as Nora's hand made contact.

But that look of disbelief didn't last long. Instead quickly being replaced with yet another self-assured smirk.



As she was hoisted into the air in order to be swung down into-and given this chick's strength-through the counter, Neo swung out with her free leg. Intending on cracking Nora right in the side of the head in order to free herself. The second Nora's grip loosened even if it felt miniscule, Neo shattered and reappeared further down the length of the counter with what appeared to be the very same frying pan that Nora had used earlier to deflect/smash Neo's egg barrage. Flicking whatever leftover yolk was on there to the floor and to the walls, Neo stared down the way at her opponent. It pained her to admit it to herself but....She was actually having fun?

With this chick of all people?

Ugh. Maybe she was running on an empty stomach.

Either way, this game was over. Leaping in the air with frying pan gripped on both sides of it's handle, Neo swung downwards....and shattered again. This time knocking over a chair as she launched herself off it to try and smack Nora with the cooking implement turned weapon of war.​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

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.

"I'd actually rather just get hit by the brick wall behind you all then let this keep going." He replied with a scowl, his other hand moving to be symmetrical with the other in his pocket as he tilted his eyes back up to his accoster

"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.

"Well, you're the tenth most indimidating person I've been face to face with in the last twenty four hours. At best." he replied drolly, allowing himself to mirror the eyebrow raise as the lapels of his jacket fanned outwards as he shrugged without removing his hands from their pockets. "It puts me past unimpressed to just plain annoyed at this whole game, so forgive me for not being particularly interested in meeting you halfway."

"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-"

"oh Emerald, You know how much I love when you talk about us to strangers" He said, clearly not loving how much they talked about them to strangers.

"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.

"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.
"...no." She shook her head.​

Cinder's reaction to the advice and the touch from Blanche had Watts' eyes widened slightly, momentarily distracting him from what Morgiana's words had implied

"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.

...But not for long, and while everyone else joined in on the minor heckling, Watts shifted slightly so that he was perpendicular to the sides of the room Morgiana and Lance were on, and if anyone was still reading the vibes in the room Arthur's had gone frigidly cold as he hand gently shifted towards the lantern before he caught himself, and it instead shifted to rest lightly on the holster of his revolver.

"You know more than I assumed you would." He directed towards Morgiana-

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

Only to duck instincitvely as all that went over his head with a small "Fucking-"

"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.

"...That was..... gross."

 

[MyrtenRose]

Neo's eyes widened for the briefest of seconds as Nora's hand made contact.

But that look of disbelief didn't last long. Instead quickly being replaced with yet another self-assured smirk.

View attachment 876067

As she was hoisted into the air in order to be swung down into-and given this chick's strength-through the counter, Neo swung out with her free leg. Intending on cracking Nora right in the side of the head in order to free herself. The second Nora's grip loosened even if it felt miniscule, Neo shattered and reappeared further down the length of the counter with what appeared to be the very same frying pan that Nora had used earlier to deflect/smash Neo's egg barrage. Flicking whatever leftover yolk was on there to the floor and to the walls, Neo stared down the way at her opponent. It pained her to admit it to herself but....She was actually having fun?

With this chick of all people?

Ugh. Maybe she was running on an empty stomach.

Either way, this game was over. Leaping in the air with frying pan gripped on both sides of it's handle, Neo swung downwards....and shattered again. This time knocking over a chair as she launched herself off it to try and smack Nora with the cooking implement turned weapon of war.​

“Ugh, you slippery little...” Nora’s grumbling continued under her breath as she braced herself for Neo’s frying pan lunge of absolute warfare, ready to catch the blunt instrument against crossed forearms...but it never landed. A strong gust of wind raced through the air between them, petals of red drifting in its wake as a very familiar person popped into view, now clutching the pan she’d wrenched away from Neo before that attack could land.

“Guys, seriously? I leave you alone for five minutes several hours and this is what you do? Especially without having a Glynda around to clean it up! And when the guy already—“

“Okay I know this looks bad...but...it’s not as bad as it looks?” Nora interrupted with a confident smile.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

".........You guys..." Ruby shook her head in absolute annoyance at what she had to put up with here.

"What did I even miss???"

"So it's like this..." Nora started, proceeding to sum up everything she missed.

*A few minutes later*

"They...left me here..." : (​

 

[MidwayLives]

“Ugh, you slippery little...” Nora’s grumbling continued under her breath as she braced herself for Neo’s frying pan lunge of absolute warfare, ready to catch the blunt instrument against crossed forearms...but it never landed.

Neo swung and the pan was on a direct course to clash with Valkyrie's defense.
​

A strong gust of wind raced through the air between them, petals of red drifting in its wake as a very familiar person popped into view, now clutching the pan she’d wrenched away from Neo before that attack could land.

In the end the pan had been snatched from Neo's grasp and she very quickly had to regain her balance, nearly coming inches away from clumsily toppling over infront of Nora's feet. The very same thing she'd mused that the huntress would do if she wanted any hope of mercy from Neopolitan.

The falling rose petals meant it could have only been one person.



Her.
​

“Guys, seriously? I leave you alone for five minutes several hours and this is what you do? Especially without having a Glynda around to clean it up! And when the guy already—“

“Okay I know this looks bad...but...it’s not as bad as it looks?” Nora interrupted with a confident smile.

Neo had-for better or worse-gotten used to this world's version of Red.

Best way to describe her was a lost cause. Total basket case with a serious case of complex for her own family. What complex that was? Neo couldn't point in a psychology book and tell you but she could at least guess it'd take years of therapy to even get past the surface of what made that weirdo tick. If there was one thing that Neo despised even more than the face and voice she shared with her Red? It was how she seemed to have a bodycount of her own(Neo had personally seen her cut down Atlas troops who attempted to interfere in their fight)and yet tried playing the 'goody two shoes' card and it only took til...what her literally climbing through their window for Blondie to realize maybe this chick was beyond help.

Or at least that's the vibe Neo got. Sue her, she wasn't a mindreader.

At least Neo knew what she was at her core.

Someone who could care for others, had the capacity to let others in like Emerald, Roman.

Eyeing a knife that'd been scattered likely as a result of her 'fight' with Nora, Neo stomped on the handle to fling it up in the air where she deftly grabbed it. Looking at her reflection in the steel of the blade, she scoffed.

Killing was part of who she was. To think otherwise or to pretend to be somebody she never had been was a fool's errand.

Maybe the other her would turn out better.

Neo hoped so.
​

".........You guys..." Ruby shook her head in absolute annoyance at what she had to put up with here.

"What did I even miss???"

Lowering the knife from eye-level, Neo turned her attention back towards Ruby.

The one from her world.

The one who'd caused her Roman's death. Cinder had told her as much and in her heart of hearts?

Neo needed someone to blame.

She pricked her finger against the bladed edge of the knife. She winced as it easily tore through the fabric on her glove and left a small cut on her index finger.

The guy who ran this place wasn't a slouch. He worked to keep his tools in fine working order. Which made it even more hilarious that the place was in absolute shambles. Finding humor in the most twisted of places, yup, that was her. Moving towards Ruby with the knife teetering between her fingertips, she didn't make any effort to interrupt Nora filling her in.
​

*A few minutes later*

"They...left me here..." : (

She continued to approach.

The knife was raised and there was that glint in Neo's eyes.

The same one that'd been there when she'd skewered the Malachite of this world like a fat pig. Or when she'd tried to pull the same trick on Qrow. The very same man she'd playfully attempted to seduce just moments ago.



She could have it all right here.

Get revenge for her Roman and then she'd only have to kill the sisters of this world! Then both Romans could be avenged and Neo wouldn't have to tolerate the existence of a Ruby Rose in any world that she happened to be pulled into at any goddamn given time! The knife was raised!

It struck downwards!!!

....Then fell from Neo's hands right into a nearby drawer.

Wasn't the time or the place. She didn't have Hush and Valkyrie's strength was something else. Not to mention all the attention attempting a murder here in a region she wasn't familiar with would cause. She'd have nowhere to go. No one to turn to.

Ontop of it all, there was still that feeling she couldn't shake. One that'd come about during this little skirmish. It felt like fun but not in the usual way Neo got her kicks. It felt strange and she didn't like it. But with a sharp turn of her hips, she bumped the drawer closed and moved to situate her hat back atop her head, it'd been knocked off in all the excitement.
​

"They...left me here..." : (

If Neo had the ability she would have laughed.

Instead all that came out was something that barely constituted a croak.

Just a dry... 'noise' of some kind. At Ruby's expense of course.

But while Neo couldn't care less about Ruby's problems, she looked around the ruined kitchen.

Utensils were laying everywhere, food was on the walls, the floor, on them. Everywhere but where it needed to be.

Neo could have just left things as they were. But she didn't actually have any lien and murdering shopkeeps to change her attire probably wouldn't have flown under the radar. Which meant that if this place's owner walked in and saw his place a mess like this? He'd probably flip and Neo wasn't here to listen to that. So holding her hands out to the side, she focused her semblance....

The kitchen no longer looked atrocious. It looked just as pristine-or well as close as pristine as a tavern kitchen gets-as it'd been before the fight had started.

Of course it'd shatter once and the mess revealed once Neo let her focus slip.

Which meant that whenever Blondie and the others got back? They were leaving no ifs ands our buts about it. She wasn't staying here another night.



"..."

Hmph!​

 

[Gus Gungus]

"Well, you're the tenth most indimidating person I've been face to face with in the last twenty four hours. At best." he replied drolly, allowing himself to mirror the eyebrow raise as the lapels of his jacket fanned outwards as he shrugged without removing his hands from their pockets. "It puts me past unimpressed to just plain annoyed at this whole game, so forgive me for not being particularly interested in meeting you halfway."

"Yeah, yeah, and I can think of ten more intimidating dumps I've taken than you. More personable, too. Point stands. Watch your mouth around the Queen of Thieves," he shot back with a snort, quiet confidence undaunted as he reiterated his message with finalcy. Whether Watts considered this a victory or not, however, there was a substantially diminished undercurrent of actual hostility to the words, as though the brief fencing match had given him whatever insight he needed into Watts to assess the actual threat posed to his charge by the attitude and deemed it nil. Kids with social disorders deserved a little patience now and then more than anyone.



That was around when Mercury leaned over as nonchalantly as possible to nudge Watts in the side, coyly passing some advice like a coach in his corner between rounds or something. "Just so you know, Em and I've sparred two-on-one with this dude a whole bunch and come close to winning 0 times. Just so you know. Okay, keep going, he's rattled."

It might've occurred to Arthur to ask why he sounded so encouraging in spite of that fact, almost like he was willing the situation not to deescalate, but he was already leaning back out.

And lo, hell descended.

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.

"Oh my L—Wha—Got you—Morg?!—Aww, what in the—The hell's-?!—WHY??? WHY WAS THIS NASTY SHIT THE ONLY REAL THING????"

Lance demanded, having carried out his bodyguardian duties to a fault and punched, punched, very gently caught, also very gently caught (not letting so much as a single cat fly by), and ducked Neo's various projectiles in sequence, only to grow more and more visibly confused with each shatter. He had turned, then, something between a challenging grin and a sneer on his face, and stood imperviously with his arms spread wide and fingers beckoning towards himself as he clocked the joke.

And that was how he ended up with Trifa's goop all over him.

"...Pwaaahahahahahahahahahahaha! You're so weeeeeiiiird!" The at-least-equally (and in reality far more) blazed Morgiana declared with genuine, rapturous delight as she fell apart into deliriously squealing laughter herself, having sat up with wide eyes and a giddy look at the sheer cacophony of movement and color and, like, sound that was. Any irony in her having the gall to call anyone else weird was lost in just how admiringly she said the word, like in her eyes it was the height of compliments.

"You're blowin' my mind, moonbeam. I like you."

She flopped back and went really, really quiet, staring up at the her various tapestries with face locked in the rigid stiffness of a perennial stoner trying not to succumb to the giggles just because a first-timer in the room was—

"—nope, pfffffffffffffffaaaaaaahahahahahaaaaaaa!"

She relented, hands flying to her stomach as her legs kicked madly in the air. This went on for some time, Neo now authentically able to add 'defused a mystically fraught staredown by making both parties turn into puddles' to her credentials, whatever that was worth.

The best part was Trifa had sponged off all the heat.



"Get your ass up!" Two large, vigorously powerful hands seized the courtesan by the lapels and jerked her up off her feet, practically launching her like a discus at the flap to the previous compartment where a majority of Morgiana's alchemical solutions were arrayed. "Get the hell up out this room right now and help me figure out what dissolves this shit! And don't let me hear you start flappin' your gums on about all that persecution bunk, hear? I don't want your goddamn bioorganic discharge all over me! Bitch, do you see this suit?! Do you SEE the label?! 'Stand in a goddamn corner', couldn't pay me to FIND the goddamned corners in that goddamn musty ass room—"

He shoved her through the flap, his livid ranting growing more and more muted. Not vanishing or anything, though, since it was just a tent, and the bodyguard's disgruntled venting formed more or less a continuous auditory backdrop to the rest of the exchange.

"...That was..... gross."

"That it was, soul brother, that it was." Morgiana solemnly agreed, finally reining herself in with a few forced, steadying breaths and giving him a more peaceable look. "Now if honesty's our new jam, I honestly think you should stop thinking 20 pages ahead of everyone else in the room and just go with the flow, dude. Hear out the notes I wanna lay down. You might like how they sound. I mean, I get it. Thieves. Blarghblargrah."

She curled her fingers into the shapes of claws and mimed taking a bite out of Neo's head. "But the job title's really just a hand-me-down. This was papa's empire, and since he's been gone Lance mostly handles the shady biz for me. My vocation was always more 'connoisseur of neat stuff'; y'know, bugs in jars, special looking rocks, kitties no one else thinks are cute. Occasionally, sure, those things are expensive, and maybe they've even fallen into the wrong hands before finding their way home with me. But only when the stars tell me they belong with me instead! Dig?"

She fluttered her lashes, sticking her chin out in a deliriously coquettish smile.

"They're always telling me things. So are the trees; and the rivers. Even the sand has its stories to tell, if you let it bend your ear, and I'm sorry but I just started thinking about Neo's thing again OH GODYAAAHHAAHAHAHAHA—"






*Thirty seconds and one hard reset later*

"...There is magic in this world, ducklings."

She smiled, soft and serene as she settled back in a more enigmatic pose on her throne of pillows and tried to reassert her mysterious soothsayer gravitas like it was nothing.

"It used to be all of ours, but then one day it was stolen from us. It's true. The moon saw it all go down. Taken away like it was a toy we couldn't be trusted with. Stripped, buried and forgotten. But not erased." Her lips quirked wider, vivid hair plunging to one side as she gave a coy tilt of the head, taking a wrist in her hand and stretching her arms out langurously above her. "Ohhhhh, no, no, no. They did their best, but they could never take all the magic of the world away. It soaked into the soil and gave us dust; danced into our souls and gave us aura. And then, of course, our semblances. That little spark of magic unique to each of us."

Her knowing eyes flickered through each of them, where they lingered on Watts and a suddenly-sullen Mercury a touch longer than the rest.

"Some of those sparks, they're old. They flickered into being in a time before kings and kingdoms, before huntsmen and the hunt. Like mine. As I understand it, papa's bloodline plumbed the depths of their semblance for hundreds of years before my great-great-great-granddaddy ever even discovered this place, founded the Forty Thieves." She nodded over to a dustier corner of the tent, where a grand portrait of a man in a cloak and turban standing at the mouth of the vast cavern sat unhung against a pillar.

"It's called Attunement. It lets me open my eyes to a world hidden from us—open my ears to the truth the man tried to silence. My soul becomes a conduit for the latent power in the roots, the dirt, the animals and the skies. They sing me their song. And when I listen—"



"—I can write the language of gods."

She blinked, the strange eruption of all color from within her eye to the skin just outside it coinciding with the lights in the tent dimming once more. Then the room flashed, as if struck by lightning, but the glowing imprints burned into their retinas revealed a starker truth; the interior of the tent, and just about everything in it, were covered from wall to wall and ceiling to ceiling in the same elaborately constructed runes and symbols they'd seen blanketing the cavern, the effect of all of them igniting in an array of colors at once near dizzying.

"Therein lies the rub of the title, I guess. King-slash-queen of thieves: only one loco enough to commit the high act of theft against the deities themselves, stealing back what was ours from the very start. Ohp! Well."

She cast her gaze back over towards Cinder, again sheepishly apologetic in the way she corrected herself.

"I thought I was the only one. Then Emmy tells me she's got friends coming for a sleepover, and I'm like groovy, girl, right on. Then they walk on through my portal, and I know right away sunspeckle here's carrying a gazillion times more power than I could ever even come close to drawing without burning out, even before she uses it to save Neo from the big plunge. Just, like. Inside her, no biggie. And that thingy cat daddy's carrying on his hip? It makes her look like a tealight."

She scooched forward, having alighted herself on her knees during the last few sentences of her declamation, now hovering near the edge of the bed with eyes wide, eager, and burning with curiosity. She threw her hands up.

"...Like... guys, what is up with that????"



"HOLY SHIT, THAT'S HOW YOUR SEMBLANCE WORKS????? YOU NEVER TOLD ME THAT! THAT IS COMPLETELY CRAZY!"

Before anyone else could answer it was Emerald who, having slowly just looked more and more like she was rethinking everything about her life up to that point as the speech wore on, finally erupted in an absolute baffled uproar, unsure of how else to react.

Morgiana pouted. "Papa wouldn't let me tell you, Emmy. You know how he was. And heyyyy, it's not like I ever knew you had other magic friends!"

"I DIDN'T THEN! I DUNNO HOW THE HELL I KEEP JUST... JUST RUNNING INTO YOU GUYS!"

Oh shit, were sorcerers her type?​

 

[MidwayLives]

"Oh my L—Wha—Got you—Morg?!—Aww, what in the—The hell's-?!—WHY??? WHY WAS THIS NASTY SHIT THE ONLY REAL THING????"

Lance demanded, having carried out his bodyguardian duties to a fault and punched, punched, very gently caught, also very gently caught (not letting so much as a single cat fly by), and ducked Neo's various projectiles in sequence, only to grow more and more visibly confused with each shatter. He had turned, then, something between a challenging grin and a sneer on his face, and stood imperviously with his arms spread wide and fingers beckoning towards himself as he clocked the joke.

And that was how he ended up with Trifa's goop all over him.

Ripping off a strand of webbing that'd thinned out as it extended from her hand, Trifa swung around the 'rope' of webbing she'd secreted with a smirk. "That's a job well done, I'd say." That wasn't to say she didn't feel bad about getting this stuff all over a total stranger. Usually she kept this kinda thing for when she needed to:

-Annoy somebody(namely Tyrian when he had his head up his ass)
-To stop criminals that the police weren't equipped to
-For clients with a bit more 'unique' tastes.

This fit mostly into the first one and also just because Trifa felt good having a bit of fun. All the stress she'd had nestled inside her was ticking like one of those egg timers. Once it went off she'd be a wreck and she knew it. Unless she did something to get her mind off it.

Here was that something.
​

"...That was..... gross."

"Aw, c'mon honey. I wouldn't knock it until you've tried it. Some folks kind the experience 'relaxing.'~"

Trifa said with a bit of a flirtatious touch in that last word.

"Smart guy like you I'm sure can figure out why.~"
​

She relented, hands flying to her stomach as her legs kicked madly in the air. This went on for some time, Neo now authentically able to add 'defused a mystically fraught staredown by making both parties turn into puddles' to her credentials, whatever that was worth.

The best part was Trifa had sponged off all the heat.

Having had her bit of fun, Trifa turned back towards Tyrian who was still very much doing his best to relax.

His tail continued to take small-like there was a rhythm to it- turns from side to side. It was as though the faunus was in his own little world.

Not wanting to pull him from that, Trifa settled on just leaning forward and gently taking the joint from Tyrian's hand.

"I can't lie and say I fully understand the energy of what's going down here. But I'm glad that things seemed to have chilled out, for everyone."

"Mmm." Tyrian murmured softly as Trifa took a drag off the joint and blew a small tuft of smoke out before handing it back to the scorpion.

Trifa had been right for the most part.

With one key exception.
​

"Get your ass up!" Two large, vigorously powerful hands seized the courtesan by the lapels and jerked her up off her feet, practically launching her like a discus at the flap to the previous compartment where a majority of Morgiana's alchemical solutions were arrayed. "Get the hell up out this room right now and help me figure out what dissolves this shit! And don't let me hear you start flappin' your gums on about all that persecution bunk, hear? I don't want your goddamn bioorganic discharge all over me! Bitch, do you see this suit?! Do you SEE the label?! 'Stand in a goddamn corner', couldn't pay me to FIND the goddamned corners in that goddamn musty ass room—"

Her semblance 'Alert' had gone off! Which meant that there was-

She reached up to grab at Lance's hands the second they made contact with her.

Launched as she was, she didn't seem perturbed or even annoyed. If anything she seemed more amused.

Folding her arms behind her head, she strolled through the flaps without so much as a care in the world.



"Easy there, big guy! It costs more than that suit to get rough with me like that.~" She giggled before disappearing past the flap, her voice slowly fading. "Don't get your panties in a twist, my webbing dissolves naturally!"

What Trifa didn't add was that there was a certain timespan to reach that dissolving point.

Which was precisely an hour.​

 

[MidwayLives]

"Oh my L—Wha—Got you—Morg?!—Aww, what in the—The hell's-?!—WHY??? WHY WAS THIS NASTY SHIT THE ONLY REAL THING????"

Lance demanded, having carried out his bodyguardian duties to a fault and punched, punched, very gently caught, also very gently caught (not letting so much as a single cat fly by), and ducked Neo's various projectiles in sequence, only to grow more and more visibly confused with each shatter. He had turned, then, something between a challenging grin and a sneer on his face, and stood imperviously with his arms spread wide and fingers beckoning towards himself as he clocked the joke.

And that was how he ended up with Trifa's goop all over him.

Blanche and Char considered themselves professionals. They wouldn't have gotten a place in the Hitman Team otherwise.

They also knew when something was funny and that right there? What with the illusions and the web goop?

That was pretty damn funny.

The two hitmen leaned against eachother as they laughed up a fit. "Pfft!! Did you SEE his face light up, Blanche???" "I did, my friend. I only wish I had but one more eye so I could have seen it..." He leaned in to Char. "Doublevision."

The two threw back their heads and laughed.
​

"—I can write the language of gods."

She blinked, the strange eruption of all color from within her eye to the skin just outside it coinciding with the lights in the room dimming once more. Then the room flashed, as if struck by lightning, but the glowing imprints burned into their retinas revealed a starker truth; the interior of the tent, and just about everything in it, were absolutely covered with the same elaborately constructed runes and symbols they'd seen blanketing the cavern, the effect of all of them igniting in an array of colors at once near dizzying.

"Hence the title, I guess. King-slash-queen of thieves: only one loco enough to commit the high act of theft against the deities themselves, stealing back what was ours from the very start. Ohp! Well."

She cast her gaze back over towards Cinder, again sheepishly apologetic in the way she corrected herself.

"I thought I was the only one. Then Emmy tells me she's got friends coming for a sleepover, and I'm like groovy, girl, right on. Then they walk on through my portal, and I know right away sunspeckle here's carrying a gazillion times more power than I could ever even come close to drawing without burning out. Just, like. Inside her, no biggie. And that thingy cat daddy's carrying on his hip? It makes her look like a tealight."

"We've always been honest with eachother haven't we, Blanche?"

"Well..." Blanche started as he recovered from his laughing fit. "I like to think so."

"Alright. Then I'm gonna be honest." He leaned in to whisper so as not to sound like the ignorant prick he was pretty sure he was gonna sound like.

"Did you get ANY of that?"

Blanche seemed as though he were giving the question some actual thought. For a couple of seconds before he eventually just shrugged his shoulders.



"Char, my dearest friend of friends. You know I'd never steer you wrong. Through thick and through thin I'll be there for you. You asked for honest and so I'm gonna give it you." He placed a hand on Char's left shoulder and squeezed it tight. Lifting his head up to meet Char's eyes with his one, he opened his mouth. Char, having a feeling where this was already going, held up a hand. "You don't have the slightest clue."

"None at all, my friend. I prefer to go with things as they happen. Let the flow of fate take it's course and all. Scary and unpredictable as it may be, such is life, no?



"Mmm, yeah, I guess so."

Char didn't really pride himself on his skills for deductive reasoning. But whatever may have been going on here, he could tell two things right off the bat. One being that this Morgiana was all she was cracked up to be. Somebody not to mess with. The second being that Pinky seemed to be in higher spirits and despite everything else going wrong like nearly dying to the Boss and being separated from the rest of his grieving comrades who'd hightailed it to who knows where?

He was happy the kid was doing better. She'd saved his life.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

Folding her arms behind her head, she strolled through the flaps without so much as a care in the world.

"Easy there, big guy! It costs more than that suit to get rough with me like that.~" She giggled before disappearing past the flap, her voice slowly fading. "Don't get your panties in a twist, my webbing dissolves naturally!"

What Trifa didn't add was that there was a certain timespan to reach that dissolving point.

Which was precisely an hour.

"Oh, okay. Then we steppin' outside."

He laid a heavy hand on her shoulder and invited her to keep walking all the way outside, exiting out onto the empty section of the dais atop the pillar between catwalk and tent. Once there, he sniffed, cracked out his neck , unbuttoned his cufflinks and pumped out his fists like two pistons, bidding the gauntlets collapsed within to slide out and slot over his knuckles.

Then he absolutely exploded with electricity, a brief flare-up of his aura's dark purple hue preceding a veritable maelstrom of tesla from his eyes, mouth, and between the points of his knuckles as he bashed them together, producing a spark like jumper cables.



"And I'm gonna beat your ass continuously until I personally witness that happen."

Unwritten law of the guild #11: Don't fuck with Lance.

A rule which everyone in that tent had just broken but anyway.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"HOLY SHIT, THAT'S HOW YOUR SEMBLANCE WORKS????? YOU NEVER TOLD ME THAT! THAT IS COMPLETELY CRAZY!"

Before anyone else could answer it was Emerald who, having slowly just looked more and more like she was rethinking everything about her life up to that point as the speech wore on, finally erupted in an absolute baffled uproar, unsure of how else to react.

Morgiana pouted. "Papa wouldn't let me tell you, Emmy. You know how he was. And heyyyy, it's not like I ever knew you had other magic friends!"

"I DIDN'T THEN! I DUNNO HOW THE HELL I KEEP JUST... JUST RUNNING INTO YOU GUYS!"

Oh shit, were sorcerers her type?

"BAHAHAHAHAHAHEHEHEHEHEHAHEHEHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHEHAHEHEHEHEHAHAHAHAHAHA-"

Her fit of laughter, on the other hand, had no end. Nothing that indicated it would stop any time soon. The only thing that changed was what she was laughing about. What Morgiana had just revealed, it was full of wild, intriguing, thought provoking stuff, things very much worth discussing more but right now Cinder didn't focus on any of that. She just zoomed right past it all and concentrated on one thing.

"-HEHEHE EMMY AND THE MAGIC RAINBOW HIPPIE LADY SITTING IN THE, HEHE, THE TREE AND K-I-S-S-I-N-G--HEHEHE HAAAAAA?"

There was a more surprised bent to that latest laugh as the intensity with which she was laughing had her forcefully propel herself up into the air with a gust of wind, the teenage maiden now floating up near the ceiling. A few blinks followed as her nose was nearly touching said ceiling but after that the laughs resumed anew. She spun herself around but didn't fall, the hysterical giggles coming from up above now as she slowly floated to the left.

This was going great.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

"BAHAHAHAHAHAHEHEHEHEHEHAHEHEHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHEHAHEHEHEHEHAHAHAHAHAHA-"

Her fit of laughter, on the other hand, had no end. Nothing that indicated it would stop any time soon. The only thing that changed was what she was laughing about. What Morgiana had just revealed, it was full of wild, intriguing, thought provoking stuff, things very much worth discussing more but right now Cinder didn't focus on any of that. She just zoomed right past it all and concentrated on one thing.

"-HEHEHE EMMY AND THE MAGIC RAINBOW HIPPIE LADY SITTING IN THE, HEHE, THE TREE AND K-I-S-S-I-N-G--HEHEHE HAAAAAA?"

There was a more surprised bent to that latest laugh as the intensity with which she was laughing had her forcefully propel herself up into the air with a gust of wind, the teenage maiden now floating up near the ceiling. A few blinks followed as her nose was nearly touching said ceiling but after that the laughs resumed anew. She spun herself around but didn't fall, the hysterical giggles coming from up above now as she slowly floated to the left.

This was going great.

"Whoa. Heady."

Morgiana's awed, hushed observance of Cinder's majestic ascension and completely loopy state totally sidetracked her from all that super serious plot advancing stuff she'd been saying, distractable as she was.

"Fly higher than you've ever flown before, little jezebel. But, uh, remember to come back down." She turned back to the others. "Hands up, I totally forgot this was my dankest shit. Guess all that smoking up every single day for the last year built a wicked tolerance. Who knew? Sorry, ducklings. I just wanted to make yall feel at ease."

There was that sheepish look again, her arms folded with hands rubbing her elbows in slightly worried fashion. That was like, a lot of power to be that goofy. If she flew up a little harder right now Morgiana was reasonably certain her entire tent was just gonna be outta here, straight gonezo. She started mentally preparing herself for a reality where that occurred just in case.



"Heeeeere, Cindy, Cindy, Cindy. Cooooome on."

Emerald and Mercury, for their part, had also realized this, and as such had leaped into action as the professional Cinder wranglers they were, MTEN's former leader attempting to gently hook the maiden around the ankle with a lengthy stick or a rod of some kind. It merited noting that Emerald wasn't quite looking as suave, given the exact nature of what was being yelled.



"Cinder. Cinder, please come down and talk quieter. Cinder. Cinder, please."

Whatever happened to 'don't embarrass me'?​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"Heeeeere, Cindy, Cindy, Cindy. Cooooome on."

Emerald and Mercury, for their part, had also realized this, and as such had leaped into action as the professional Cinder wranglers they were, MTEN's former leader attempting to gently hook the maiden with a lengthy stick or a rod of some kind. It merited noting that Emerald wasn't quite looking as suave, given the exact nature of what was being yelled.

"Cinder. Cinder, please come down and talk quieter. Cinder. Cinder, please."

Whatever happened to 'don't embarrass me'?

"Hehehehe-...huh?" The gentle prodding she felt against her pants leg caught her attention and she angled her head until the dynamic duo came into sight. Her eyes narrowed as she peered down at them, confused.

"Oh hey guys!" She greeted brightly in the next second with a hyperenthusiastic wave of her hand. "Hehehehe...you look like upside down people from up here. What does that feel like, please tell me!"​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

“...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.

"Oh my L—Wha—Got you—Morg?!—Aww, what in the—The hell's-?!—WHY??? WHY WAS THIS NASTY SHIT THE ONLY REAL THING????"

Lance demanded, having carried out his bodyguardian duties to a fault and punched, punched, very gently caught, also very gently caught (not letting so much as a single cat fly by), and ducked Neo's various projectiles in sequence, only to grow more and more visibly confused with each shatter. He had turned, then, something between a challenging grin and a sneer on his face, and stood imperviously with his arms spread wide and fingers beckoning towards himself as he clocked the joke.

And that was how he ended up with Trifa's goop all over him.

"...Pwaaahahahahahahahahahahaha! You're so weeeeeiiiird!" The at-least-equally (and in reality far more) blazed Morgiana declared with genuine, rapturous delight as she fell apart into deliriously squealing laughter herself, having sat up with wide eyes and a giddy look at the sheer cacophony of movement and color and, like, sound that was. Any irony in her having the gall to call anyone else weird was lost in just how admiringly she said the word, like in her eyes it was the height of compliments.

"You're blowin' my mind, moonbeam. I like you."

She flopped back and went really, really quiet, staring up at the her various tapestries with face locked in the rigid stiffness of a perennial stoner trying not to succumb to the giggles just because a first-timer in the room was—

"—nope, pfffffffffffffffaaaaaaahahahahahaaaaaaa!"

She relented, hands flying to her stomach as her legs kicked madly in the air. This went on for some time, Neo now authentically able to add 'defused a mystically fraught staredown by making both parties turn into puddles' to her credentials, whatever that was worth.

Neo beamed at Cinder and Morgiana's giggle fit, more than willing to take weird as a compliment as one hand ceased propping up her chin to wave in the air next to her and conjure a double of herself to give lavish bow to each of the pair in turn, and turned to give Lance a more apologetic one before the real Neo and the clone seemed to realize that he was having... other problems.

"That it was, soul brother, that it was." Morgiana solemnly agreed, finally reining herself in with a few forced, steadying breaths and giving him a more peaceable look. "Now if honesty's our new jam, I honestly think you should stop thinking 20 pages ahead of everyone else in the room and just go with the flow, dude. Hear out the notes I wanna lay down. You might like how they sound. I mean, I get it. Thieves. Blarghblargrah."

She curled her fingers into the shapes of claws and mimed taking a bite out of Neo's head. "But the job title's really just a hand-me-down. This was papa's empire, and since he's been gone Lance mostly handles the shady biz for me. My vocation was always more 'connoisseur of neat stuff'; y'know, bugs in jars, special looking rocks, kitties no one else thinks are cute. Occasionally, sure, those things are expensive, and maybe they've even fallen into the wrong hands before finding their way home with me. But only when the stars tell me they belong with me instead! Dig?"

She fluttered her lashes, sticking her chin out in a deliriously coquettish smile.

"They're always telling me things. So are the trees; and the rivers. Even the sand has its stories to tell, if you let it bend your ear, and I'm sorry but I just started thinking about Neo's thing again OH GODYAAAHHAAHAHAHAHA—"

*Thirty seconds and one hard reset later*

"...There is magic in this world, ducklings."

She smiled, soft and serene as she settled back in a more enigmatic pose on her throne of pillows and tried to reassert her mysterious soothsayer gravitas like it was nothing.

"It used to be all of ours, but then one day it was stolen from us. It's true. The moon saw it all go down. Taken away like it was a toy we couldn't be trusted with. Stripped, buried and forgotten. But not erased." Her lips quirked wider, vivid hair plunging to one side as she gave a coy tilt of the head, taking a wrist in her hand and stretching her arms out langurously above her. "Ohhhhh, no, no, no. They did their best, but they could never take all the magic of the world away. It soaked into the soil and gave us dust; danced into our souls and gave us aura. And then, of course, our semblances. That little spark of magic unique to each of us."

Her knowing eyes flickered through each of them, where they lingered on Watts and a suddenly-sullen Mercury a touch longer than the rest.

"Some of those sparks, they're old. They flickered into being in a time before kings and kingdoms, before huntsmen and the hunt. Like mine. As I understand it, papa's bloodline plumbed the depths of their semblance for hundreds of years before my great-great-great-granddaddy ever even discovered this place, founded the Forty Thieves." She nodded over to a dustier corner of the tent, where a grand portrait of a man in a cloak and turban standing at the mouth of the vast cavern sat unhung against a pillar.

"It's called Attunement. It lets me open my eyes to a world hidden from us—open my ears to the truth the man tried to silence. My soul becomes a conduit for the latent power in the roots, the dirt, the animals and the skies. They sing me their song. And when I listen—"

"—I can write the language of gods."

She blinked, the strange eruption of all color from within her eye to the skin just outside it coinciding with the lights in the tent dimming once more. Then the room flashed, as if struck by lightning, but the glowing imprints burned into their retinas revealed a starker truth; the interior of the tent, and just about everything in it, were covered from wall to wall and ceiling to ceiling in the same elaborately constructed runes and symbols they'd seen blanketing the cavern, the effect of all of them igniting in an array of colors at once near dizzying.

"Therein lies the rub of the title, I guess. King-slash-queen of thieves: only one loco enough to commit the high act of theft against the deities themselves, stealing back what was ours from the very start. Ohp! Well."

She cast her gaze back over towards Cinder, again sheepishly apologetic in the way she corrected herself.

"I thought I was the only one. Then Emmy tells me she's got friends coming for a sleepover, and I'm like groovy, girl, right on. Then they walk on through my portal, and I know right away sunspeckle here's carrying a gazillion times more power than I could ever even come close to drawing without burning out, even before she uses it to save Neo from the big plunge. Just, like. Inside her, no biggie. And that thingy cat daddy's carrying on his hip? It makes her look like a tealight."

She scooched forward, having alighted herself on her knees during the last few sentences of her declamation, now hovering near the edge of the bed with eyes wide, eager, and burning with curiosity. She threw her hands up.

"...Like... guys, what is up with that????"

"HOLY SHIT, THAT'S HOW YOUR SEMBLANCE WORKS????? YOU NEVER TOLD ME THAT! THAT IS COMPLETELY CRAZY!"

Before anyone else could answer it was Emerald who, having slowly just looked more and more like she was rethinking everything about her life up to that point as the speech wore on, finally erupted in an absolute baffled uproar, unsure of how else to react.

Morgiana pouted. "Papa wouldn't let me tell you, Emmy. You know how he was. And heyyyy, it's not like I ever knew you had other magic friends!"

"I DIDN'T THEN! I DUNNO HOW THE HELL I KEEP JUST... JUST RUNNING INTO YOU GUYS!"

Oh shit, were sorcerers her type?

Neo and Watts were about as equally surprised by that, and initially equally as silent in their reactions; Neo rolling to her back so she could sit up and affix Morgiana with a fascinated stare, and Watts with a far more dubious but not completely dismissive frown as he chewed on the inside of his cheek and weighed just how much he was willing to buy that line of thought from the word go. That'd certainly be one way for Morgianna to know that Cinder and the lamp were special.

Or, and far simpler an answer, someone had just told her.

Or Salem's long and storied secret war had more holes than she'd either realized or been willing to share.

....He eventually tilted his hand off the holster of his weapon, though it didn't return to his pocket like its fellow as he let his shoulders edge towards relaxed.

"...Right then. So I suppose my next question is if that changes why we're here" He said, gesturing towards whichever point of the tent's ceiling Cinder was coasting near. "Another question I'd still like an answer to, mind. Hopefully nothing time sensitive" He added, finally letting his voice drift back to sarcastic as Cinder's drastic giggle fit continued.

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

She did her best to keep her face composed, to maintain that neutral look, but it was hard to deny hearing Yang's words had an effect on her...and it was impossible to miss the way her eyes just lit up after hearing that. She opened her mouth to say something, only to hesitate as her eyes darted to the side and she thought better of it, deciding to say something else. "You don't have to apologize." Raven knew there were far, far worse things to say to somebody when you were angry, and scared, and hurting. She'd...she'd said some of those things herself. Her neutral look only changed when Yang was no longer looking, when she was resuming the walk, when she had her back to her. It was only then that Raven allowed herself a small smile. "And...you're welcome." She added, falling in line behind Yang as she also resumed the walk.​

"No, no, I definitely do" Yang snarked, turning to walk backwards with a cheeky smirk for a second as she shrugged with both hands. "I I know you're still readjusting to this whole 'think of people outside of myself' biz again, but you actually do need to apologize for things smaller than 'sided with the people who almost killed your teammate and cut of your arm'" she said, her tone carrying no bite but also gleefully ready and willing to pepper in those little fun facts from history to milk a bit of guilt out of Raven as she wheeled back around. "You're totally gonna apologize to Weiss for that when we get back, by the way."

But she only made it a few steps before she stopped with a sigh, the smile vanishing. "Wait. Yang, hold on, wait. There...there is something else." Raven remarked, rubbing at her forehead. "Something I've been trying to wait until the right time to say." She wasn't sure this was that ideal time to do so, but Yang was in a much better mood than at earlier times, especially after that letter. And being honest, after what her daughter just said, continuing to withhold important information would only get more and more stressful. "I don't know if this is that right time, truthfully. I...well. You've had to deal with so much, handle so much...more than your fair share. I didn't want to burden you more. You're strong, much more than me, but everyone has their breaking point. Even you." Raven bit her lip in apprehension.

"That said, right time or not, you deserve to know. So...try not to lose it, okay?"​

Yang rolled her eyes and slowed down instead of doing a full rotation this time, putting herself beside Raven and throwing an arm around her. "Mom, I've been through some stuff. A lot of stuff. A decent amount of it your stuff, speficically. So unless you're about to tell me that I'm adopted or that Dad's dead back home or something, I promise you that I can take it. Give your kid some credit here. Hit me with it. Unless dad is dead. Don't hit me with that one I definitely shouldn't have even spoken that one into existence." She said, her light tone fading somewhat as she stared ahead morosely for a beat before she shook her head and drew the grin back up.

 

[Gus Gungus]

Neo beamed at Cinder and Morgiana's giggle fit, more than willing to take weird as a compliment as one hand ceased propping up her chin to wave in the air next to her and conjure a double of herself to give lavish bow to each of the pair in turn, and turned to give Lance a more apologetic one before the real Neo and the clone seemed to realize that he was having... other problems.



Neo and Watts were about as equally surprised by that, and initially equally as silent in their reactions; Neo rolling to her back so she could sit up and affix Morgiana with a fascinated stare, and Watts with a far more dubious but not completely dismissive frown as he chewed on the inside of his cheek and weighed just how much he was willing to buy that line of thought from the word go. That'd certainly be one way for Morgianna to know that Cinder and the lamp were special.

Or, and far simpler an answer, someone had just told her.

Or Salem's long and storied secret war had more holes than she'd either realized or been willing to share.

....He eventually tilted his hand off the holster of his weapon, though it didn't return to his pocket like its fellow as he let his shoulders edge towards relaxed.

"...Right then. So I suppose my next question is if that changes why we're here" He said, gesturing towards whichever point of the tent's ceiling Cinder was coasting near. "Another question I'd still like an answer to, mind. Hopefully nothing time sensitive" He added, finally letting his voice drift back to sarcastic as Cinder's drastic giggle fit continued.

"?????? Hello, broham???? I just asked you guys a question! You're like the rudest person I've ever met," the mystic sulked, pulling a face and finally letting the tiniest smidge of frustration poke through her hippy-dippy exuberance. Frankly, though, it warranted pointing out that the sheer amounts of petulant and non-threatening she looked as she threw her gaze to the bedsheets, let her lower lip wobble crossly, and draped one arm over the other across the midriff meant said frustration carried about as much teeth as a newborn puppy did. It was hard to tell whether she was more disappointed at her eager curiosity not being indulged or just self-conscious that her big grand arcane rundown had left most those gathered mystified, been totally brushed off by Cinder and essentially dismissed by Watts with an 'ok then'; It might've occurred to those present, not for the first time, just how completely baffling it was that such an elaborate and once-prestigious larceny organization was headed by someone so apparently sensitive.

She lifted her gaze a few seconds later, at least giving Neo a small smile at her seemingly rapt attention and riding that wave free of sullenness and all the way back to her dauntlessly airy self, albeit one who sighed with profound resignation.

"Okay, daddy-o. Okay. I feel. You guys are nonconformists, like me; from your end of the room I'm just the latest in a line of big brothers, pinnin' you down, holdin' you back at a time you gotta keep on truckin' like no other." She flashed the room a broad, more general smile, tinged with melancholy as it was. "The stars told me enough to roll with. I know I'm just a face along the way to y'all, and my final bow ticks nearer and nearer. So let's make with the reason you care about any of this."

She glanced up and grabbed hold of a drawstring nearly hidden amongst the fabrics, giving it a hard yank down to reveal an extremely drawn-on map of the continent. Several key points had been marked, scribbled over, then marked again, but where she directed her attention was the northern quarter of the desert, far beyond the kingdom where the dunes started giving way to lush greenery before meeting the sea. "Got a buzz from one of my peeps to the north last night. The way they tell it, our funky little desert played host to a high-speed chase across the stars. Freaky deaky, right? Like something outta a movie!"

Her eyes gleamed, and though it looked very much like she wanted to spiral off on a tangent of some kind she made a wilful effort to stay on focus, biting her cheek.

"So, the story goes a ton of these Atlesian whirlybirds chase another one down and shoot it right outta the sky. Pow! And this poor guy, he's banking hard, he's goin' all zig-zag, still a little ahead, still trynna shake 'em off, and suddenly! Nyooooooom!"

She slapped the tip of the ruler she'd procured at an unspecified point down right at a specific point on the map, where a red X scratched out what appeared to be an ugly, jagged scar in the world's crust. Emerald seemed to know it, judging from the way her eyes widened sharply and her voice took on a prickly speck of urgency, luring her away from their attempts to corral Cinder. "That's..."

Morgiana smirked, though this one was glum and her eyes too downcast to meet Emerald's stare head-on. "That it is, Emmyboo. Our guy, prolly not even realizing, nosedives right into what was formerly the miner town called Gneiss; now the mouth to hell known only as Revenant's Ravine."

She fell silent, her eyes flitting downward. They all knew what it meant when a settlement had been wiped off the map like that, renamed to a macabre reminder of the dark fate that befell it. Vacuo, more even than any of the other continents, was an ancient land of bones and tombs. There were as many dead townships as there were living ones.

"These hombres on his tail—Pigs, from the looks of it—" She wrinkled her nose, offering her first fleeting inkling of being capable of things like disdain. "—They land, set up their perimeter, and down they go. The way my crystal ball tells it, none came back."

"They're not going to. That's suicide." Emerald stated flatly, without an ounce of indecision. She glanced over to inform those not in the know. "Gneiss was one of the kingdom's richest Dust exporters. Every time they tapped a vein they found another one, and every time they did the population swelled and swelled. Then one day... that fissure in the ground, it just... opened up and swallowed them. Everybody died. Everybody. And everyone else just crossed it off the map."

Her chest heaved out a sigh, but a moment later whatever personal stake she may have had in that tidbit was buried behind the level stare she gave Morgiana.

"You need to drop this one. Whatever salvage they might have isn't really worth the certain death of it all."

She waved her hands disarmingly. "I would, babe, you know I would. What're we lookin' at, crates on crates of that sterilised mass-produced Atlesian trash? Ugh, snoozeville. Occupation: me."

Her tone very much implied this was leading to a 'but', proverbial if not literal.

"It's just, these past few days have seen a big stir in Atlas. Media's outta the loop what with their borders closed, but my feelers have told me there's been another wrinkle in the power dynamics there. Some politician said some general was a traitor, now that general's managed to completely flip the public script and convince the world that very politician was the traitoriest of traitors all along! Kooky stuff, right? It's almost like politicians and generals are the same thing or whatever."

She let her head loll back lazily, feeling around her bedside cabinet for a moment until she found another herby-smelling stick she could pop between her lips and ignite. "Anyway, just a lil context. This is the part you guys perk up for, and man does it ever blow to have to be the one to say this. But I'm sure, dudes. It's deep down now, like us, below this withered land where the heartbeat of the planet beats loudest and my energies are at their most potent. And I can feel it. Far away and to the north, distant, but it's there all right. Sending out pings like a beacon that fell from the stars. Calling out to the dark, and to its sister."

She stopped dreamily tracing the constellations above her bed and pushed herself up on her elbows, eyes meaningful as they sought out the weight hanging from Watts's belt.

"To her."

"Oh hey guys!" She greeted brightly in the next second with a hyperenthusiastic wave of her hand. "Hehehehe...you look like upside down people from up here. What does that feel like, please tell me!"

"Oh, this is a hard no." Came Lance's assured rumble as he stepped back into the room looking grumpy and unfulfilled and saw that, more webby remains clinging to his suit than ever and trailed by a Trifa whose face was all kinds of messed up. In a fun, cartoonish way. He forewent any of Mercury or Emerald's goofy tactfulness, strode right up to the inverted Cinder, seized her shoulders in two strong, calloused hands from behind and slammed her right back down on her feet the right way up before she started breaking shit.

"Love when you invite children over for playtime without telling me, Morg. Really love that."​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"No, no, I definitely do" Yang snarked, turning to walk backwards with a cheeky smirk for a second as she shrugged with both hands. "I I know you're still readjusting to this whole 'think of people outside of myself' biz again, but you actually do need to apologize for things smaller than 'sided with the people who almost killed your teammate and cut off your arm'" she said, her tone carrying no bite but also gleefully ready and willing to pepper in those little fun facts from history to milk a bit of guilt out of Raven as she wheeled back around. "You're totally gonna apologize to Weiss for that when we get back, by the way."

"...I didn't have a choice. It wasn't willing. They had our backs against the wall, forced our hand." She replied with a grimace, not out to excuse herself but to offer at least some explanation, even if Yang wasn't deadly serious here. She sighed. "It wasn't a decision made of my free will. Not one I would have made if I had any real say in the matter. Your team isn't the only one to have suffered at their hands." Raven shook her head and moved on. This wasn't even what she wished to talk about.​

Yang rolled her eyes and slowed down instead of doing a full rotation this time, putting herself beside Raven and throwing an arm around her. "Mom, I've been through some stuff. A lot of stuff. A decent amount of it your stuff, specifically. So unless you're about to tell me that I'm adopted or that Dad's dead back home or something, I promise you that I can take it. Give your kid some credit here. Hit me with it. Unless dad is dead. Don't hit me with that one I definitely shouldn't have even spoken that one into existence." She said, her light tone fading somewhat as she stared ahead morosely for a beat before she shook her head and drew the grin back up.

Alright. That would have to be enough. Here goes nothing.

"Your partner is here." She dropped the bombshell immediately, looking straight ahead as she did so. "The actual one, not the terrorist that looks like her. Though that one probably has known about her good double the whole time. She's being used by the Shadow Fang, held hostage and coerced or forced by some semblance into doing their work for them. When I was down in Mistral, hoping to find Vernal and that even bigger alcoholic to try and press them into line, I ran into her. Or she ran into me, I suppose. She said that they'd gotten deep into Mistral's government, that things were going to get so much worse." Raven fell quiet there, turning her head slightly to gauge Yang's reaction.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

Morgiana smirked, though this one was grim. "That it is, Emmyboo. Our guy, prolly not even realizing, nosedives right into what was formerly the miner town called Gneiss; now the mouth to hell known only as Revenant's Ravine."

"Hehehehehehehehehe she called you Emmyboo, hehehehahahehahahe--"​

"Oh, this is a hard no." Came Lance's assured rumble as he stepped back into the room looking grumpy and unfulfilled and saw that, more webby remains clinging to his suit than ever and trailed by a Trifa whose face was all kinds of messed up. In a fun, cartoonish way. He forewent any of Mercury or Emerald's goofy tactfulness, strode right up to the inverted Cinder, seized her shoulders in two strong, calloused hands from behind and slammed her right back down on her feet the right way up before she started breaking shit.

"--h-huh?!"

She hardly even registered the hands that grabbed her, much less who they belonged to, before she got slammed down to land on her feet again. It seemed to be a stable landing, at least initially, but after a second she stumbled back and fell straight onto her ass. There was a considerable pause on Cinder's end as she sat there, but rather than get angry or defensive, the laughs just immediately resumed. Cinder's wild giggling echoed through the place again as she fell back even further to lie on her back, apparently finding that whole grumpy assault super hilarious.

It wasn't even clear if she'd heard any of that mega important stuff about the Atlas ships fighting each other or that the thingy was calling out to her sister.

Her head moved to peer in Emerald's direction, wherever she was. "Hehe hey um, Emmyboo...when you kissed her, did her lips taste of rainbow glitter sprinkles...?" Asking the important questions here.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

Her head moved to peer in Emerald's direction, wherever she was. "Hehe hey um, Emmyboo...when you kissed her, did her lips taste of rainbow glitter sprinkles...?" Asking the important questions here.

"All things with clear, definable tastes."

"Ughhh, Cinder, no offense but what the hell are you talking about?! It's JUST pot! Why can't you just wanna eat the entire universe like a normal person?!"

For what it was worth, Mercury appeared to not only be content to secluding himself to this side of the room but actually getting a kick out of Cinder's complete mental retrogression into a baby. Emerald, less so. A straight answer to the question, naturally, was only ever going to come from one place.



"Yes. Also, lovely, please know that even though you're absolutely missing out on a bonkers amount of key info over here where you are right now is where I need to be, always." She beamed her approval.

"Yeah, be a damn improvement," Lance muttered, already backing up professionally a few steps to assume a post by the shelves, shoulders squared and arms crossed. What had his choices led him to?

​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"Ughhh, Cinder, no offense but what the hell are you talking about?! It's JUST pot! Why can't you just wanna eat the entire universe like a normal person?!"

“Rainbow glitter sprinkles, Emmy! RAINBOW GLITTER SPRINKLES.”​

"Yes. Also, lovely, please know that even though you're absolutely missing out on a bonkers amount of key info over here where you are right now is where I need to be, always." She beamed her approval.

“It does? It really really does?”

Her face scrunched up as she spun to look at Morgiana, clearly thinking about something as her hand rose up to her mouth and she bit down lightly on her index finger. “Can...can I have a taste then? Please?”​

 

[Gus Gungus]

"What's happening and why." A very, very monotone Emerald pondered aloud as she watched Cinder hit on her ex like a hawk watched a mouse, not expecting or really even wanting an answer. Well, one way to lay a crush to rest. All yours, Neo.

“It does? It really really does?”

Her face scrunched up as she spun to look at Morgiana, clearly thinking about something as her hand rose up to her mouth and she bit down lightly on her index finger. “Can...can I have a taste then? Please?”

The venerable, free-flowing queen of thieves Morgiana, boundless fount of arcane mysticism and sensuous, lowered-guard mystique, curled her legs beneath her, shifted her body of flaming red hair over one shoulder and started kneading it anxiously like a lump of dough, face rosy all the same. "Ohhhhhh, pppfpfoofpwhaaaaaaa, pffftf, sunspeckle I love you as much as anyone else in this room but we are simply on two different planes right now, ya dig? The vibrations just don't align. It would feel very unrighteous of me to say yes."

...

"Did you mean... food?" She ventured, peeking up with a blend of realization and hope. "As in, like, you're hungry?"​

 

[MyrtenRose]

The venerable, free-flowing queen of thieves Morgiana, boundless fount of arcane mysticism and sensuous, lowered-guard mystique, curled her legs beneath her, shifted her body of flaming red hair over one shoulder and started kneading it anxiously like a lump of dough, face rosy all the same. "Ohhhhhh, pppfpfoofpwhaaaaaaa, pffftf, sunspeckle I love you as much as anyone else in this room but we are simply on two different planes right now, ya dig? The vibrations just don't align. It would feel very unrighteous of me to say yes."

...

"Did you mean... food?" She ventured, peeking up with a blend of realization and hope. "As in, like, you're hungry?"

Cinder looked at her in total awe. “Oh, wooooooooooow. You really are wise. I didn’t even realize we were on one plane, let alone two.” Must have been a really cool airline, to let all this stuff around them onto some of their planes. And such quiet engines too! Amazing.

She even got that right too! “Yeah! Starving!”​

 

[MidwayLives]

"And I'm gonna beat your ass continuously until I personally witness that happen."

Unwritten law of the guild #11: Don't fuck with Lance.

"That so, huh? Well, it's your lucky day, big boy. I've been spoiling for a chance to show what I can do."

That serial killer had caught her off guard, frightened her, intimidated her.

She had no chance of fighting back.

But she'd stood with Tyrian even as they had no chance in hell of defeating someone or something like Fox.

She could handle this guy.
​

Her semblance warned her of incoming danger.

Which seemed more like a 'captain obvious' alert given who was standing infront of her.

She readied herself-

Wait.



"Too fast too fast too fast-"


​

"Oh, this is a hard no." Came Lance's assured rumble as he stepped back into the room looking grumpy and unfulfilled and saw that, more webby remains clinging to his suit than ever and trailed by a Trifa whose face was all kinds of messed up. In a fun, cartoonish way. He forewent any of Mercury or Emerald's goofy tactfulness, strode right up to the inverted Cinder, seized her shoulders in two strong, calloused hands from behind and slammed her right back down on her feet the right way up before she started breaking shit.

"Love when you invite children over for playtime without telling me, Morg. Really love that."

Trifa strode back in.

She normally considered herself very attractive. Came with having a lot of self-confidence and believing in herself.

She still thought that even if her face resembled this:



Tyrian glanced over and with all the concern he could muster in his relaxed state, he cried out.

"Oh god....Trifa what happened....?"

Trifa took it all in stride. Wasn't worse than being caught and sexually harassed by a serial killer.

"I got what I had coming."

She paused for a second to reconsider.

"...And probably a couple things I didn't have coming."

God her face felt sore.

Tyrian embraced his friend and held her close to him. She leaned against his chest. "...Uh, thanks Tyrian. Really this-OW!" She cried out in pain as Tyrian absentmindely poked at one of her many bruises.

"oh. sorry."
​

"Did you mean... food?" She ventured, peeking up with a blend of realization and hope. "As in, like, you're hungry?"

"I wouldn't mind something to eat."




"...an ice pack would be nice too."​

 

[MidwayLives]

"It's just, these past few days have seen a big stir in Atlas. Media's outta the loop what with their borders closed, but my feelers have told me there's been another wrinkle in the power dynamics there. Some politician said some general was a traitor, now that general's managed to completely flip the public script and convince the world that very politician was the traitoriest of traitors all along! Kooky stuff, right? It's almost like politicians and generals are the same thing or whatever."

Char and Blanche exchanged glances.



"Hey, you hear that?"

Char blinked and shrugged his shoulders. As though the answer were obvious.



"I dunno, you and me are both standin right here listenin. Did I hear it or not?"

Blanche gave a quizzical look before shoving his partner lightly. "Yeah, yeah, whatever smartass. I know..." What with the whole bailing on Mistral/the Bound Ashes in general, the two knew full well just how obsessed their illusive Boss had become with trying to establish some kind of foothold in Atlas. Whether it meant throwing money and bodies at it until he couldn't afford to anymore, the man didn't care. Atlas was a piece of the pie that he just felt entitled to. Last the members of the Hitman Team had heard, one of the Boss's elite guard had been sent there to try and either shape things up or convince the Boss the whole thing was a write off.

Word hadn't gotten back for a while, no real new updates or anything.

Typically when that sorta thing happened it meant the Atlas authorities raided whatever place the Ashes had tried to set up shop in/arrested the lot of them. When that happened the Ashes main base in Mistral cut ties and left those poor souls to whatever fate Atlas had in store for them. Hearing these words come out of this kooky chick's mouth though certainly seemed like it'd explain a lot. Which brought Blanche around to what he'd been trying to say.

"..That things aren't great with the family right now, but-"

"We left that behind, Blanche. It's done."

The Hitman Team had put in blood sweat and tears for years for that gang. All they got in return was their own blood spilled.

"....But what if any of those guys escaped? Find out what happened in Mistral? About us splitting town?"



"...I'll just say this and then we drop it. Who gives a damn?"

Way that Char saw it. They'd left the Ashes behind. End of story.

Blanche didn't press him on it and so the two continued to listen to Morgiana's enticing tale.
​

She let her head loll back lazily, feeling around her bedside cabinet for a moment until she found another herby-smelling stick she could pop between her lips and ignite. "Anyway, just a lil context. This is the part you guys perk up for, and man it blow to have to be the one to say this. But I'm sure, dudes. It's deep down now, like us, below this withered land where the heartbeat of the planet beats loudest and my energies are at their most potent. And I can feel it. Far away and to the north, distant, but it's there all right. Sending out pings like a beacon that fell from the stars. Calling out to the dark, and to its sister."

Char listened with his attention 100% focused on Morgiana's words. If he had to give this chick anything, it was that she sure know how to make going on a trek through the shitty desert to find something sound like some kind of otherworldly quest. Sure, there was no doubt in his mind it'd be dangerous. Life-threatening wouldn't even begin to cover whatever perils probably awaited them out there. Reaching down and gently gripping the handle for Riot Breaker, Char exhaled. For the longest time he'd spent the years overcompensating. Flaunting a bad attitude and an impeccable need to want to be recognized and treated fairly among his peers. An understandable goal that anyone would want.

More so when it seemed like everyone you turned to looked down on you. Elites like Black's old man couldn't even stomach being near the Hitman Team. As though they were beneath his notice. Even his fellow enforcers doubted his skill outside of the 'Null Zone.' But even after being pummeled/overwhelmed by Mercury and Emerald's teamwork, he didn't give up. He'd actually done the impossible.

He'd stood up for himself and fought with all he had.

Like a man would. No, like he would.

Blanche on the other hand was a touch more adverse.

"I think Char and I can sit this one-"

"We're in. Whatever you guys decide to do. All hands in."



"Oh. Love it when you decide things for the both of us, Char. I really, really do."

Like when he'd volunteered them to go find the Mistral Murderer or when he'd convinced Blanche to go on a double date with him. The list went on into perpetuity he was pretty sure. He turned away from Char with his hands in his pockets and muttered something under his breath. "yeah, yeah. what he said."​

 

[Gus Gungus]

She even got that right too! “Yeah! Starving!”

"I wouldn't mind something to eat."

"Hmmm. Horrifying lump of swollen flesh has a point, my dudes. Maybe fresh air, fresh food 'n fresh vibes are exactly what we need to pick things up in here."

Morgiana took a long, discerning look at the room's oft-touted vibes right now, considered the fact that she was already three joints into the morning and her tummy was also a-rumblin', and made a snap decision.

snap

Literally. She clicked her fingers with a perky smile, and the runed lion's-head gateway marked in faded paint on the tent wall behind her bed erupted to life in a wall of vibrant, shimmering green, matching the glow that expanded to fill its leering eyes.

"BK or Wendy's?"

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



Thus did the entire scene shift to the queue for whichever of those people liked most, a significant line of angry breakfast-seekers forming behind a Morgiana whose doe eyes stretched wide with wonderment as she let them slowly wander back and forth across the menu, finger touching ruminatingly against her lip doing little to help hasten her toward figuring out what she actually wanted.



"So are you like, sure there was never a secret vegan menu...? Yes, I absolutely consider palm oil an animal product! Do you not?!"

Lance, ever at his charge's side, let some of his current stress levels slough off in the form of a tense, resigned rumble as he scanned the room, his wary ocular analysis of the restaurant through the lenses of his glasses as clear an indicator of how rarely Morgiana left the safety of her own tent as her pale skin and fragile form were. Once satisfied there were no immediate threats to her wellbeing, he peered down at the till attendant—who was exasperated by the waif's indecision but too intimidated by the wall of power and poise flanking her to say much—over the shades.

"Royale with cheese."



Away to the side stood Emerald and Mercury, the former too dismayed at how all this had played out to feel hungry and glaring over at the latter rummaging through his own purchase with visceral contempt.

"A Happy Meal? Are you shitting me?"

"I like the toys."​

 

[MyrtenRose]

Were she not in the current state of mind that she was, Cinder very much would have been feeling somewhat guilty at how pissed off the people still waiting in line were, given that she herself had been a significant part in why it was backed up. Alas, for them, she was pretty much in her own little world, seated somewhere in a back corner and given a wide berth, given how sloppily she was stuffing her face with two of just about everything listed on the menu and making a mess doing it.

She didn’t quite om nom nom but she might as well have. There were only a few things on her mind right now. The food before her, the need to satisfy her munchies and her stoned wondering about how many calories maidens burned doing their thing.

“God, this hits the spoooo—*burppppppppp*”​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

"?????? Hello, broham???? I just asked you guys a question! You're like the rudest person I've ever met," the mystic sulked, pulling a face and finally letting the tiniest smidge of frustration poke through her hippy-dippy exuberance. Frankly, though, it warranted pointing out that the sheer amounts of petulant and non-threatening she looked as she threw her gaze to the bedsheets, let her lower lip wobble crossly, and draped one arm over the other across the midriff meant said frustration carried about as much teeth as a newborn puppy did. It was hard to tell whether she was more disappointed at her eager curiosity not being indulged or just self-conscious that her big grand arcane rundown had left most those gathered mystified, been totally brushed off by Cinder and essentially dismissed by Watts with an 'ok then'; It might've occurred to those present, not for the first time, just how completely baffling it was that such an elaborate and once-prestigious larceny organization was headed by someone so apparently sensitive.

She lifted her gaze a few seconds later, at least giving Neo a small smile at her seemingly rapt attention and riding that wave free of sullenness and all the way back to her dauntlessly airy self, albeit one who sighed with profound resignation.

"Okay, daddy-o. Okay. I feel. You guys are nonconformists, like me; from your end of the room I'm just the latest in a line of big brothers, pinnin' you down, holdin' you back at a time you gotta keep on truckin' like no other." She flashed the room a broad, more general smile, tinged with melancholy as it was. "The stars told me enough to roll with. I know I'm just a face along the way to y'all, and my final bow ticks nearer and nearer. So let's make with the reason you care about any of this."

Watts rolled his eyes at the reaction, his own arms shifting to crossed as he suddenly found himself beset by whatever the hell that was supposed to be from the supposed king of thieves, along with a slightly disapproving glower from Neo, who frankly should, OF ALL PEOPLE, have understood the dangers of people being exposed to their particular little clusterfuck of a destiny, or what sort of dangers could be brought upon Watts and Cinder themselves if the wrong people learned the wrong things. Being guilted for this was just asinine.

He also wasn't, y'know, entirely made of stone, and it wasn't like what Morgianna had just shared probably wasn't its own flavor of important secret, so while he didn't just cave and tell her anyways, his voice was a bit less blunt when he spoke next.

"...Nothing of the sort. You were kind enough to give us a brief safe haven last night. Its only that the what that is up with isn't something you want to be dragged into. Its chewed up and spat out enough people." He said, shooting Neo a focused glance that took the air out of her posturing and made her look off to the side. "The sort of thing you're involved in whether you want to be or not once you know. But please, continue"

She glanced up and grabbed hold of a drawstring nearly hidden amongst the fabrics, giving it a hard yank down to reveal an extremely drawn-on map of the continent. Several key points had been marked, scribbled over, then marked again, but where she directed her attention was the northern quarter of the desert, far beyond the kingdom where the dunes started giving way to lush greenery before meeting the sea. "Got a buzz from one of my peeps to the north last night. The way they tell it, our funky little desert played host to a high-speed chase across the stars. Freaky deaky, right? Like something outta a movie!"

Her eyes gleamed, and though it looked very much like she wanted to spiral off on a tangent of some kind she made a wilful effort to stay on focus, biting her cheek.

"So, the story goes a ton of these Atlesian whirlybirds chase another one down and shoot it right outta the sky. Pow! And this poor guy, he's banking hard, he's goin' all zig-zag, still a little ahead, still trynna shake 'em off, and suddenly! Nyooooooom!"

She slapped the tip of the ruler she'd procured at an unspecified point down right at a specific point on the map, where a red X scratched out what appeared to be an ugly, jagged scar in the world's crust. Emerald seemed to know it, judging from the way her eyes widened sharply and her voice took on a prickly speck of urgency, luring her away from their attempts to corral Cinder. "That's..."

Morgiana smirked, though this one was grim. "That it is, Emmyboo. Our guy, prolly not even realizing, nosedives right into what was formerly the miner town called Gneiss; now the mouth to hell known only as Revenant's Ravine."

She fell silent, her eyes flitting downward. They all knew what it meant when a settlement had been wiped off the map like that, renamed to a macabre reminder of the dark fate that befell it. Vacuo, more even than any of the other continents, was an ancient land of bones and tombs. There were as many dead townships as there were living ones.

"These hombres on his tail—Pigs, from the looks of it—" She wrinkled her nose, offering her first fleeting inkling of being capable of things like disdain. "—They land, set up their perimeter, and down they go. The way my crystal ball tells it, none came back."

"They're not going to. That's suicide." Emerald stated flatly, without an ounce of indecision. She glanced over to inform those not in the know. "Gneiss was one of the kingdom's richest Dust exporters. Every time they tapped a vein they found another one, and every time they did the population swelled and swelled. Then one day... that fissure in the ground, it just... opened up and swallowed them. Everybody died. Everybody. And everyone else just crossed it off the map."

Her chest heaved out a sigh, but a moment later whatever personal stake she may have had in that tidbit was buried behind the level stare she gave Morgiana.

"You need to drop this one. Whatever salvage they might have isn't really worth the certain death of it all."

She waved her hands disarmingly. "I would, babe, you know I would. What're we lookin' at, crates on crates of that sterilised mass-produced Atlesian trash? Ugh, snoozeville. Occupation: me."

Her tone very much implied this was leading to a 'but', proverbial if not literal.

"It's just, these past few days have seen a big stir in Atlas. Media's outta the loop what with their borders closed, but my feelers have told me there's been another wrinkle in the power dynamics there. Some politician said some general was a traitor, now that general's managed to completely flip the public script and convince the world that very politician was the traitoriest of traitors all along! Kooky stuff, right? It's almost like politicians and generals are the same thing or whatever."

She let her head loll back lazily, feeling around her bedside cabinet for a moment until she found another herby-smelling stick she could pop between her lips and ignite. "Anyway, just a lil context. This is the part you guys perk up for, and man it blow to have to be the one to say this. But I'm sure, dudes. It's deep down now, like us, below this withered land where the heartbeat of the planet beats loudest and my energies are at their most potent. And I can feel it. Far away and to the north, distant, but it's there all right. Sending out pings like a beacon that fell from the stars. Calling out to the dark, and to its sister."

She stopped dreamily tracing the constellations above her bed and pushed herself up on her elbows, eyes meaningful as they sought out the weight hanging from Watts's belt.

"To her."

"....Shit."

It wasn't a reaction he even meant to say aloud. it just came unbidden to his lips as he realized just how bad this was. His hand slowly went through his hair as he stared at the map. He actually knew the basics of Gneiss; A cautionary tale of the dangers of non-atlesian dust his home kingdom was just a little too enthusiastic to include in the history books. That wasn't what got his attention, rattled him though. Nor was it how the news of Atlas' internal power struggle going all to hell had already reached this 'unthreatening waif's ears.

No. Its that he knew damn well what was on that ship

Who'd been on that ship.

"...Cinder. It's the staff. That's where the-"

"Hehehehehehehehehe she called you Emmyboo, hehehehahahehahahe--"



"--h-huh?!"

She hardly even registered the hands that grabbed her, much less who they belonged to, before she got slammed down to land on her feet again. It seemed to be a stable landing, at least initially, but after a second she stumbled back and fell straight onto her ass. There was a considerable pause on Cinder's end as she sat there, but rather than get angry or defensive, the laughs just immediately resumed. Cinder's wild giggling echoed through the place again as she fell back even further to lie on her back, apparently finding that whole grumpy assault super hilarious.

It wasn't even clear if she'd heard any of that mega important stuff about the Atlas ships fighting each other or that the thingy was calling out to her sister.

Her head moved to peer in Emerald's direction, wherever she was. "Hehe hey um, Emmyboo...when you kissed her, did her lips taste of rainbow glitter sprinkles...?" Asking the important questions here.​

“Rainbow glitter sprinkles, Emmy! RAINBOW GLITTER SPRINKLES.”



“It does? It really really does?”

Her face scrunched up as she spun to look at Morgiana, clearly thinking about something as her hand rose up to her mouth and she bit down lightly on her index finger. “Can...can I have a taste then? Please?”​

Cinder looked at her in total awe. “Oh, wooooooooooow. You really are wise. I didn’t even realize we were on one plane, let alone two.” Must have been a really cool airline, to let all this stuff around them onto some of their planes. And such quiet engines too! Amazing.

She even got that right too! “Yeah! Starving!”​

"Hmmm. Horrifying lump of swollen flesh has a point, my dudes. Maybe fresh air, fresh food 'n fresh vibes are exactly what we need to pick things up in here."

Morgiana took a long, discerning look at the room's oft-touted vibes right now, considered the fact that she was already three joints into the morning and her tummy was also a-rumblin', and made a snap decision.

snap

Literally. She clicked her fingers with a perky smile, and the runed lion's-head gateway marked in faded paint on the tent wall behind her bed erupted to life in a wall of vibrant, shimmering green, matching the glow that expanded to fill its leering eyes.

"BK or Wendy's?"

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



Thus did the entire scene shift to the queue for whichever of those people liked most, a significant line of angry breakfast-seekers forming behind a Morgiana whose doe eyes stretched wide with wonderment as she let them slowly wander back and forth across the menu, finger touching ruminatingly against her lip doing little to help hasten her toward figuring out what she actually wanted.

View attachment 876595

"So are you like, sure there was never a secret vegan menu...? Yes, I absolutely consider palm oil an animal product! Do you not?!"

Lance, ever at his charge's side, let some of his current stress levels slough off in the form of a tense, resigned rumble as he scanned the room, his wary ocular analysis of the restaurant through the lenses of his glasses as clear an indicator of how rarely Morgiana left the safety of her own tent as her pale skin and fragile form were. Once satisfied there were no immediate threats to her wellbeing, he peered down at the till attendant—who was exasperated by the waif's indecision but too intimidated by the wall of power and poise flanking her to say much—over the shades.

"Royale with cheese."

View attachment 876596

Away to the side stood Emerald and Mercury, the former too dismayed at how all this had played out to feel hungry and glaring over at the latter rummaging through his own purchase with visceral contempt.

"A Happy Meal? Are you shitting me?"

"I like the toys."​

Were she not in the current state of mind that she was, Cinder very much would have been feeling somewhat guilty at how pissed off the people still waiting in line were, given that she herself had been a significant part in why it was backed up. Alas, for them, she was pretty much in her own little world, seated somewhere in a back corner and given a wide berth, given how sloppily she was stuffing her face with two of just about everything listed on the menu and making a mess doing it.

She didn’t quite om nom nom but she might as well have. There were only a few things on her mind right now. The food before her, the need to satisfy her munchies and her stoned wondering about how many calories maidens burned doing their thing.

“God, this hits the spoooo—*burppppppppp*”​

"jesus fucking christ"

Watts sat at the back of the restaurant, well away from the rest of the 'party' as it were, one hand holding up his head while the other drummed its fingers against the table with all of the inherent patience of a hyena who hadn't eaten in a month staring at a baby seal.

How? Why? Where did his life go so wrong that he'd be sitting in a MicDynlod's, waiting for his partner, the fall maiden, get over the case of the munchies?

He didn't look up as he felt a reassuring pat on his shoulder, most everyone else in direct view as he spoke. "Your sympathy is appreciated, Neo."

She gave him a wan smile before giving his shoulder a more firm shake, giving him cause to pull his gaze more firmly towards her direction. She held up her hand, and a lantern appeared to float within it. The lantern. Then a far less discernable shape appeared alongside it; a black outline of a stick, orbiting with the lantern as she cocked her head to the side in askance.

Watts leered at her for a moment before he glanced over to where Mercury and Emerald were still arguing over the material and metaphorical worth of a happy meal toy before he gave a rigid nod.

"Yes. That one."