Fandom Distorted Mirror [IC]

[Gus Gungus]

Something that seemed to occur to more than just the two of them, as in the moment just before he went to snatch up his? The heel of a second, not crippled Raven Branwen stepped down on top of it, preventing it from being snatched up. That was a split second before a firm hand thrust out to push him back the way he came with enough force that he'd end up by the chair again. "I'd listen to her, if I were you." The other Raven advised, differentiated from her double not only by not being crippled but also in the changed outfit she wore.

"Don't do this. Be better than my brother." The not crippled non-maiden pleaded.

"...You two..."

There was an almost revelatory twinge to the words that came out of the grizzle huntsman's throat as he came to a halt following two full spiraling rotations from his other sister's push, a strange grace and coordination to the movements despite their sloppy nature only those who'd witnessed Qrow drink on the job could attest to seeing. Which to be fair was pretty much every single person he ever worked with. He leaned forward, eyes squinted and voice filled with mock wonder like he was a simple punter wandering by a street performance and wondering how the two identical women were doing that.

"...Should consider putting together some kinda magic act. You'd make a killing in Vacuo. Ooh, could even work in the birdy gimmick."

The dust of his outburst having settled, the tone he adopted was an almost disrespectful one when weighed next to the sincerity and gravity both incarnations of the female Branwen were blitzing him with on either side, and he didn't even bother speaking a word to counter any of it. It was a stubbornness that offset just how hunched his spine seemed to have gotten during the older of the two's renewed verbal lashing, how much of a dismal trudge his poised stride had become. But he hadn't wavered, and he hadn't slowed. All the hard truths and signs of growth in the world in someone he thought he'd never see those signs in again couldn't have changed the most important and irrefutable truth of them all right now, the one only he could truly understand. Nobody else had seen their own life go to hell in that many ways that many times just when things were starting to seem good; it was the kind of understanding that could only be born from being the one who lived through that again and again. It wasn't anything to do with character, wasn't anything to do with any of their past failures or mistakes. When it came to all that stuff, she was preaching to the choir.

It was him. It was the curse of Qrow Branwen. Not even two different flavors of somebody who shared a womb with him could ever really get their heads around that, and in his current state of mind to listen to either of them now would amount to little more than dangerous negligence.

His work was just one of the many walls Qrow had built around himself over the years to put others at a distance, to discourage them from following any road he chose to walk down. The booze. The sarcasm. The nomadic nature that made him a sporadic presence at best during Yang and Ruby's formative years... all of it was there for a very specific purpose. With the way things had been going on the Remnant they were actually born to, the strength and determination his nieces showed standing side by side with friends who'd been with them through thick and thin, the way it inspired him, the almost comfortable rhythm and routine they'd settled into once they reached Atlas... he'd almost lost sight of what could happen when he had the arrogance to forget why those walls were there in the first place. When he let himself get complacent.



People important to him got captured. They got their backs broken. And that was just the start. Even in the other, somewhat less screwed up Atlas, in retrospect it was like he could feel that old sixth sense of his start to tingle like static in the air before a storm. He didn't know where. He didn't know when. He didn't know how it was gonna happen. Yet it always did happen, and it happened in cycles. Maybe not the type of cycle he could learn to predict with any sort of real accuracy, but there was enough of a gut feeling there to know. Know that pretty soon...

Spoiler

...Somebody important to him was going to die. The timing was about right. It was due. Things were going from bad to worse with the sort of regularity and escalation that only the misfortune that dwelled in his spirit could really facilitate, and that only ever ended one way. And if he didn't nip it in the bud now, remove himself from the board ahead of time before his karma took things past the point of no return? It was gonna be his fault.

It only took a glance around at who the somewhat limited field of figures significant to Qrow Branwen roaming this world comprised to make him adamant that that wasn't an option. Because this time, that number was concentrated. It wasn't just gonna be a drinking buddy or colleague on a mission. This time the curse was coming for family. If he let it, it was going to take away one of his lifelong bonds, someone he made the mistake of getting close enough to that the sickness in his soul sensed it, reached out, and claimed them too.

Maybe it wasn't a sure thing. Maybe he couldn't prove it. But in his heart of hearts, he was pretty sure that had already happened once.

Spoiler

And that once had thrown enough lives into disarray forever for him to know that it could never happen again.

"You were right about... a hell of a lot of the things you just said, actually. I'll admit... I'm proud of you."

It wasn't entirely clear which of the Ravens he meant that last part for. He kept his back to his native twin, just as she'd shown him her back all those years, but the first half of his statement was obviously addressed to her, while his eyes stayed locked on her more overtly heroic self's with an undeniable sadness that shot up through the bristles he'd forced into his countenance.

"...But I'm not making a Raven bad decision. Or a Qrow who dresses like Raven bad decision. It's... it's not even a bad decision at all. I know you don't understand it, and it hurts, and it's gonna rub a lot of people the wrong way... but it's a right decision that only I can understand. That's just how it is. This is just how it goes. I'm not just being whiny; Neither of you have ever stuck it out with me long enough to know... you haven't seen how bad it can get. The lousier I feel, the more impossible to control it becomes. And the less I can control it, the lousier I feel. This entire mess has dragged me right back to the deep end of that. If I don't do something soon... the two of you... you just open doors. You don't get it. There's no way you can know what it's like to wonder if every single bad thing that happens around you is happening 'cause you were there... And to know deep down that it is."

His gaze fell down to the flask where the standing Raven had it pinned, expression flickering with momentary indecision before he seemed to come to one in his mind.

"Tell Ruby I'm sorry it had to be this way."

Then the man was gone in a flutter of charcoal feathers, and the bird left behind in his place beat its wings hard enough to propel itself through the room's exit like a bullet as he left the flask behind.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"You were right about... a hell of a lot of the things you just said, actually, I'll admit. I'm proud of you."

It wasn't entirely clear which of the Ravens he meant that last part for. He kept his back to his native twin, just as she'd shown him her back all those years, but the first half of his statement was obviously addressed to her, while his eyes stayed locked on her more overtly heroic self's with an undeniable sadness that shot up through the bristles he'd forced into his countenance.

"...But I'm not making a Raven bad decision. Or a Qrow who dresses like Raven bad decision. It's... it's not even a bad decision at all. I know you don't understand it, and it hurts, and it's gonna rub a lot of people the wrong way... but it's a right decision that only I can understand. That's just how it is. This is just how it goes. I'm not just being moany; Neither of you have ever stuck it out with me long enough to know... you haven't seen how bad it can get. The lousier I feel, the more impossible to control it becomes. And the less I can control it, the lousier I feel. This entire mess has dragged me right back to the deep end of that. If I don't do something soon... the two of you... you just open doors. You don't get it. There's no way you can know what it's like to wonder if every single bad thing that happens around you is happening 'cause you were there... And to know deep down that it is."

His attempt at irreverent humor to deflect the issue had been ignored entirely by both of the Ravens, or seemed to at a cursory first glance. There was a subtle change in the eyes of the one sitting down, but from where she sat it went unnoticed. Not a word came out of either Raven then, not until he returned to being more solemnly serious. "Qrow...that's not true." The Raven of this world began. "You can't say that, you shouldn't think like that. You're not being fair to yourself when you are. Yes, it can't be denied that your semblance isn't the greatest, that random spikes of misfortune can make a bad situation worse...but you are not to blame for all the terrible things that happen to people around you. Sometimes bad things just happen, and they are no one's fault. To believe so, to isolate yourself because you dread what might happen...it's not right. No man is an island. Staying closed off, that's not living." She started to step forward to get closer to him. Whatever she intended to do, she didn't get to go through with it.​

"Tell Ruby I'm sorry it had to be this way."

Then the man was gone in a flutter of charcoal feathers, and the bird left behind in his place beat its wings hard enough to propel itself through the room's exit like a bullet as he left the flask behind.

"QROW!"

There was hardly a moment's hesitation before she likewise shifted from person to bird, disappearing just as swiftly in a desperate attempt to follow after the other one. The two's departure left just one person alone in the room, the slowly falling feathers that were on their way to littering the ground the only signs left that there had been three Branwens in the room. Those, and the flask. The maiden's eyes rested on the left behind object, and after a second, she forced herself to rise out of the chair and slowly amble towards it. When she was close enough, she bent down(an action that sent an particularly bad flash of pain coursing through her) to pick it up. She held it there in her palm, eyeing every inch of it for quite a while before she sighed and slipped it into an inner pocket.

"Is this how it felt, when I..." The rest of her question trailed away into nothing in the empty room. The only answer she could get was silence anyway. The maiden started for the door out of the room to go find the medical staff again and let them know she was ready for...whatever came next.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

The bartender's glass cleaning slowed as her eyes started to widen, a pale of dread sucking the color her features as she processed one of those sentences.

"...You... you sayin Marcus Black ain't dead? It's been... its been almost a year since he's been seen kickin around, everyone's assumed... well shit."

She shook her head and quickly filled a glass of water to slide across to Mercury, and whatever comment she might've made about Neo's magically shrinking alcohol tolerance since the last time she'd seen her was overshadowed by that revelation. "We-heeeeeelllll certainly a man you wanna stay on the good side of. I'm sure you know this, but your father's a bit of a legend, Mr. Black." she said with a mixture of newfound respect and nerves as she refilled the peanut bowl.

"Ghuuuuhhhhh." Mercury pounded the glass she slid over to him without even looking at what was in it, and seemed mildly disappointed when his taste buds informed him it was just water. "I said beer what the hell. And he doesn't go outside anymore 'cuz he drank too many 'n got fat, that's why. He retired. He whittles ducks and swans now, and I runs the family business. Now I'M the man, th'man you should be worried about. GET IT?"

As if to ram home his point, he whipped the empty glass past Tyrian's head and let it hurtle across the room, shattering against the back wall. It wasn't like anyone present really knew all three all that well (or at all), but in the omnipresent narrative sense it was then that the true holy trinity of Remnant became clear. Qrow was the depressed drunk. Weiss was the classy fun drunk. And Mercury?

Mercury was a lightweight. But he was well on his way to becoming the mean drunk.

"GLASS ME!"

It wasn't even clear which meaning of the phrase he was going for at that point, slamming his fist into the counter with a belligerent growl.

For whatever reason, barely a second later he mimed snatching something up from the counter and swigging it down the hatch even though the bartender hadn't served him anything yet, and Emerald waved her off with a muted shake of the head as she stared at him intently and continued babysitting one of the three emotionally crippled wrecks she was now stuck with.

Neopolitan didn't even seem to register the glass put in front of her, her fingers tracing along the swirls of wood in the bar top with a taciturn frown as she thought about... something, but what it was was even harder to pick out than normal for obvious reasons.

"You goofin?" The thief inquired bluntly as she leaned over with mild interest, chin in hand and asking mainly so she could pointedly ignore the mess starting to unfold behind her.

What was he supposed to do here?! Trifa hadn't signed up to be a bounty hunter and she wasn't going to want to stay cooped up in the motel all day. It'd been one brash decision after another on his part. From declaring that he'd take on the entire Shadow Fang organization to sitting here at a bar apparently(???) run by his old colleagues. Trifa wouldn't go for it if he asked her and he didn't want to beg either. That kind of groveling was beneath him. Really it seemed like he only had one option infront of him...

To drink.

And drink he did as he took another big swig out of his glass.

Several of Tyrian's real drinks (and Mercury's illusionary ones) later...

"TYRIAN! LET'S FIGHT!"

And then he really did glass him.

 

[MidwayLives]

She just hadn't realized she transplanted some of that realization onto this Neo, valuing her presence and sticking up for her. Doubly so when she could very well have easily abandoned the thief that night following the General's attack. There was something about it, a connection that had formed between the two beyond the fact they hailed from the same world and worked with one another once upon a time. These eyes that gazed up to her now was enough to pull her back to the forefront of these emotions, the proverbial replacement of the gauze for her wounds which staunched the gaping bloodletting that would've otherwise transpired.

Neo's eyes never left Emerald's.

Back home they'd been nothing but tools for Cinder to use for her own machinations. Weapons for which a name didn't matter. Only what they could bring to the table.

Here they were more and Neo didn't want to lose that.

She'd lost enough for two lifetimes.
​

Disgusting analogy aside, Emerald did respond. Though there was a second's worth of hesitation in these mocha arms of hers, the thief finally admitted her appreciation for her diminutive partner by returning the embrace. The gesture persisted for minutes, Sustrai recognizing the awkwardness of it all with the ultimate decision that she didn't care. She needed this. Neo probably did too. So when the sentiment in the moment had faded, that was when the embrace was disengaged with a series of suppressed sniffs as crimson eyes leveled over onto these chocolate and strawberry ones.

Neo snuggled into the embrace as best as she could.

She truly couldn't remember the last time she'd ever gotten a hug.

It felt...nice.

She almost didn't want it to end.
​

"... We're a sorry pair aren't we?" She muttered, scoffing at the circumstance before shaking her head and rubbing away the offending tears in the corner of her eyes with her wrist. "S'not the time for it, sorry. We, uh, we probably should find the others?"

Okay, maybe as much as she didn't care, the awkwardness still struck full force.

Neo nodded her head in silent agreement. There was still an uphill battle with the others in that group seemingly to barely tolerate Emerald and Neo's existence.

Except for that kid who'd offered to help Neo. The assassin liked her.

The smile she showed Emerald told her something.

That Neo liked her too.

​

 

[MidwayLives]

"Ghuuuuhhhhh." Mercury pounded the glass she slid over to him without even looking at what was in it, and seemed mildly disappointed when his taste buds informed him it was just water. "I said beer what the hell. And he doesn't go outside anymore 'cuz he drank too many 'n got fat, that's why. He retired. He whittles ducks and swans now, and I runs the family business. Now I'M the man, th'man you should be worried about. GET IT?"

As if to ram home his point, he whipped the empty glass past Tyrian's head and let it hurtle across the room, shattering against the back wall. It wasn't like anyone present really knew all three all that well (or at all), but in the omnipresent narrative sense it was then that the true holy trinity of Remnant became clear. Qrow was the depressed drunk. Weiss was the classy fun drunk. And Mercury?

Mercury was a lightweight. But he was well on his way to becoming the mean drunk.

Alcohol in itself was a vice that Tyrian had never wished to indulge too much. It'd eventually transpire into an obsession. You'd become like a big stupid dog who couldn't stop eating! You'd find excuses to have one more drink and then another and another until you were just a shell of your sober self.

Tyrian truthfully didn't think he had the mental fortitude to hold down a healthy drinking lifestyle.

Which is why as the glass sailed past him, Tyrian sneered from under the hood of his jacket.

"The Man, huh? What man can't hold down his liquor...?"
​

"GLASS ME!"

It wasn't even clear which meaning of the phrase he was going for at that point, slamming his fist into the counter with a belligerent growl.

For whatever reason, barely a second later he mimed snatching something up from the counter and swigging it down the hatch even though the bartender hadn't served him anything yet, and Emerald waved her off with a muted shake of the head as she stared at him intently and continued babysitting one of the three emotionally crippled wrecks she was now stuck with.

Perhaps it was his own fair share of drinks but Mercury's antics grew to amuse Tyrian more and more.

On one hand, it may have been good to see Tyrian laugh after the volley of trouble he'd been through lately.

On the other, it meant that his already flimsy inhibitions were down. Flashing a slasher-like grin at the bartender, Tyrian downed his current glass and leaned back in his seat, giggling to himself.

"Hehehehe!!! Didn't you hear him??? 'The Man' wants more!!!"

The voices were no longer in his head.

They were his voice.
​

Several of Tyrian's real drinks (and Mercury's illusionary ones) later...

"TYRIAN! LET'S FIGHT!"

And then he really did glass him.

The glass hit home and shattered on Tyrian's aura.

The faunus fell from his seat and blinked as his aura shimmered around him.

Sparing a glance at the shards of glass scattered around his person, he looked at his reflection in the razor sharp pieces.

"Mercury...."

He placed his hands on either side of his head.

'I think I dropped my face."

Brushing off that seemingly major problem offhand, Tyrian hopped onto his feet, his presence shaky as he stumbled to and fray.

"Hehehehehehhahahahahahah!!!!!!!! No complaints for what comes next!!"

Tyrian steadied himself and hiccuped before looking at Mercury with a crazed look in his eyes. The walls had been lowered and the man that Tyrian tried to keep locked up as best as he could was finally free. He was going to enjoy bodying his friend! Tyrian's tail smashed into the countertop and dragging it along, he sent a flurry of glasses flying Mercury's way. But they were just the main act. Tyrian's boots hit the booze soaked floor as he leaped forward to try and spear Mercury right through one of the nearest tables. His dad owned a dealership!

Or whatever Mercury said, Tyrian's mind wasn't in the 'make sense' camp right now. It was in the 'fuck somebody up' one and he was LOVING it!

But what of Trifa...?​

 

[MyrtenRose]

Ruby was less than amused throughout the whole ride there as she watched Nora soar through the air on her grimm mount with copious amounts of laughter while she was stuck holding on to some rude nobody on the back of his horse. Though she was quickly over it by the time they actually got there. She couldn't get off that horse any faster than she actually did if she tried, beyond eager to not be stuck in such an embarrassing position. As Ruby bounded across the snow to put some distance between her and that dude, the Warhammer wielding ginger swirled overheard a couple times before bringing the summon down for a heavy landing.

"Ruby! That was so exciting, wasn't it?"

Ruby, after brushing a ridiculous amount of snow off her face and out of her hair thanks to that landing:

Though by the time Nora actually turned to face her specifically instead of just appreciating her newly gained mount, the silver eyed huntress had forced herself into smiling. "Yeah, Nora, real fun..." She composed herself further as she stepped closer, just as Nora moved to dismount. "So this is the place, huh?"

"Seems so." Ruby shrugged. "Distant enough at least. Though..." She shivered, doubting she would ever truly get used to this level of cold.

"I'm guessing that's a no on making snow angels while the other guys do their thing in securing the area?"

Ruby fell silent as she genuinely seemed to consider that.

"Or maybe a snowman!"

Robyn just trotted past the pair at a leisurely pace, a raised eyebrow the only indication that she had somewhat vaguely heard the two as she went. The leader of the Happy Huntresses went for the door to the warehouse they were gonna use for this meeting, only dismounting when she was within a few feet of it. She strode right in, intent to scope out the place itself instead of the surroundings.​

 

[MidwayLives]

Trifa had heeded Tyrian's instruction and hadn't left their shared motel room.

As time clicked by however, it was weird, it felt as if she was getting paranoid?

Her semblance-'Natural Alert' warned her of potential danger. Like how it'd stopped Fox from blowing her head clean off her shoulders into a fine red mist. Yet it wasn't activating here leaving her to only wonder if she was just overthinking everything that had transpired. The door was locked and quite honestly this place was only one step up from being a grade-A shithole. Paint was chipping off the walls and Trifa was sure she'd seen one of the clerks leer at her when they thought she hadn't noticed. One of the benefits to that she supposed was lack of room service so nobody would bother her. She'd told her mother she was going away for 'business-related reasons' and she'd paid lip service and contacted her every other night or so to let her know things were going smoothly.

But that couldn't have been any further from the truth.

What had originally started as Trifa simply wishing to catch up and patch things together with Tyrian had turned into a two person crusade against the world's most dangerous organization. She'd spent her time after leaving the ring mostly helping the police nab small time crooks. Guys who carried a knife or a knife but never both oddly enough. They were small fry and the justice system would chew em up and spit em out. Yeah, see, that wasn't the case with the person Tyrian and her had just fought. Fox's entire being sent shivers down Trifa's spine. The eerie rhyming, the distortion of their voice masking themselves even further, and their horrific semblance that felt like something straight out of a horror movie.

To enter another person's skin and become them while they're....aware?

Trifa didn't believe you did much more than rot in the ground once you died but if there was a hell? That semblance was about as close as one could get to it. Fox had been right that the human they'd come to meet was no angel. He was a creep who'd sell his mother down the river if it meant saving his own hide. Even she wouldn't have wished the fate he got on him. On top of that, Fox had spoken of killing both of them with such casualness as anyone would wanting to take their sunday stroll. Tyrian was little more than a mad dog that would be put down if need be and Trifa was little more than afterthought, a loose end to be tied up after Tyrian was dealt with. It didn't sound like the rantings of a super villain threatening that next time the heroes would certainly perish.

They'd voiced it as a certified fact.

If Tyrian and Trifa continued interfering in Shadow Fang affairs and continued hunting down Taurus?

They were going to be killed. Horribly.

Tyrian struggled to cope with that and Trifa could tell from a mile away. There was someone out there stronger than him? Capable of treating him like the child he was? It pissed him off and although he could tell her up and down he was going out to 'investigate', Trifa knew the truth. He was going to try and find Fox...

And kill them. To prove to himself that he wasn't as weak as the bodysnatcher had implied. It was stupid, it was irrational and it only served to demonstrate just how mentally unwell Tyrian was. From the loss of Ichabod to the other tragedies that Tyrian had told her of, she wasn't surprised but she could only hope that he came to his senses and soon.

~~~



There was a knock at the motel lobby's front door.

The clerk after having had to deal with a temperamental tenant in Tyrian wasn't exactly in a greeting mood. Even when it was pouring cats and dogs outside. S'not like the door was locked, if they wanted in, they could just come on in.

And so they did.

Glancing up from his magazine, the clerk watched as a strong gust of wind blew the door open. The reading material dropped from his hands as he overlooked the stranger who'd apparently been knocking. Their jacket soaked from the rain, they seemed to pay it no mind as they took a step inside and crossed the threshold into the lobby. Mistral had gone to the dogs lately but the clerk hadn't paid it too much mind beyond the cash it raked in. People with lower incomes seeking some kind of refuge from the chaos that was quickly becoming a staple of daily life or people who just needed some time to themselves like what he figured was the deal with Trifa and Tyrian. He had his reasons for thinking why Tryian walked out of here as angry as he did. But so long as the money was good, the clerk kept his nose clean and didn't pry too hard into his people's business. Things were a lot safer that way.

Well....

There wasn't anything safe about the tower of a person standing before him. If he had to guess they were around 6'6 at the very least??? He might have been off and he wouldn't be surprised. Abject terror did tend to cloud your mind. If this 'thing' had a face, the clerk couldn't make jack or shit of it. It was as if there was a constantly blowing trail of wind surrounding their head masking their facial features to anyone they didn't want peeking he guessed. But if there was anything he wouldn't forget it was the glowing white eyes staring down at him and the twisted grin. Both of which seemed to be visible enough despite the wind.

"C-Can I-I h-he-help you...?"

The stranger stared down at him and tilted it's head. As if they were a dog taking in the order they'd been given. Or a killer pondering what best way to utilize to kill their victim. Sweat rolled off the clerk's forehead as water droplets raced down the Stranger's jacket. The clerk weighed his options as they were available to him.

1:Beg for his life. He very much liked living. This would be the preferred outcome.
2: Offer cash. It'd suck but at least he'd still be alive, preferable if risky.
3:Try to fight.

Yeah, three wasn't really an option, just wishful thinking if nothing else.

"Room number."

The figure spoke and their voice was raspy and it sounded...distant. As if they were speaking from across the room rather than right infront of him. Despite that, it still carried a overwhelming presence behind it that got the clerk's attention. Whoever they were, they weren't to be fucked with is the vibe he got from that voice.

"W-Which...?"

"Spider."

Oh, her. Yeah, she looked like a fine piece of ass if he was being honest. Though given that the guy she seemed to be traveling with looked as though he was one foot into the deep, he didn't say anything. Might have ended up in a situation akin to this where he couldn't talk his way out of it. He quickly scrambled for his scroll and opened up the document detailing all the room numbers and the names of the occupants in each one. Was it scummy of him to rat out somebody who'd paid here looking for food and board to a total stranger? Oh yeah. But he'd like to see if the people who'd argue with what he'd done stand in his shoes right now. Scrolling through it until he saw her name pop up, he prematurely spat the room number out.

"1-107! She's in 107!!"

The figure continued to quietly stare.

"Thank you...."

As the figure turned to leave, the clerk slumped against the wall and let his scroll fall from his hand onto the floor. He was so worried that he'd slip up and call out the wrong room number and get himself killed by the time this freak figured that out. Still, while a normal person might have felt the least bit scummy for ratting someone else out like that, he was just more relieved if anything else.

"Hey! Why do you want her...? I...I mean if you don't mind me asking..."

The figure stopped and looked over their shoulder at him.

"Because I saw her."

That....Was it? Because they'd laid eyes on her that was reason enough to stalk her down? Course, he didn't or couldn't wrap his head around a thought process like that. It was just far too creepy for his liking. Still, perhaps he'd grown too comfortable in his perceived safety now that he'd given the stranger what they'd desired from him. To the point that he let out a crass comment or two about the 'Spider.' Continuing to rattle on he failed to notice the Stranger closing his hands around what could have been assumed to be the handle of a knife-only there was nothing in their hand. Or at least anything that the clerk could have seen.

"I tell you what, I'd take her out myself-"

*slash*

It'd all happened so fast, the clerk blinked twice before it'd finally hit him. Or rather it took that long to register the blood gushing down from the fresh opening in his throat. Practically jumping back against the wall, he watched blood drip from around the man's hand but he couldn't see any weapon! it looked as though he was holding a knife but...but....

'I never even saw them reach for a blade...I....'

Waiting until the man was for sure dead, the figure lowered his hand and continued for the door.

"Whatever I see is mine."

Back in Trifa's room, she couldn't stand it anymore! From the dripping of the sink's faucet in the bathroom to the jostling springs on her bed, this place was giving her the creeps in a major way. If Fox was out there and they wanted to get the two of them?? Then they could go ahead and just come in already. She was terrified but sitting in this room by herself was going to kill her before Fox did! The steadily building paranoia and the fear that someone might be out there to get her was scaring her and pissing her off!!

"Fox...If you're out there and you can hear me? THEN JUST COME AND GET ME ALREADY!!!"

Silence was all she got in response.

"Ugh...C'mon Trifa, c'mon! You're losing it, girl...What the hell is keeping, Tyrian??" Pulling out her scroll, she typed up a message to the scorpion and sent it.

Whatever the message said, Tyrian wouldn't see it as he was currently in the middle of spearing Mercury through a table. It was fine.

"Asshole. Gets us into all this trouble and then..." She paused and froze deathly still.

There'd been a knock at her room door.

She wasn't hallucinating or anything. She'd actually heard that. But who could it have been? She'd paid the asshole at the front desk the lien already! It couldn't have been Tyrian. The guy didn't like knocking on doors. His go to was just to kick them open usually.

The door was knocked on again.

'Who the hell is out there??? Did Fox really track us down that easily?? Did they capture Tyrian?!'

She wanted to scream but she couldn't find the strength to do so. All this worrying had left her absolutely petrified of whatever was lurking on the otherside of that door.

....But scared as she was, she couldn't let anything happen to Tyrian.

"I don't know who's out there but you'd better back off if you know what's good for you! The door's locked and I'm calling the police!"

'See how that works...'

Trifa's threat was given and the knocking seemed to subside. Maybe it was just someone bringing new towels for the bathroom? Or maybe another person staying here wanting to check up and see why things had been so quiet?? Just as she was about to breath a sigh of relief, Trifa noticed something seemed a bit ajar. She could feel a cool draft coming in from under the door. Ugh, maybe it'd just been the wind and as usual, she'd gotten all worked up over nothing. Walking into the bathroom and grabbing a towel from the bathroom, she started towards the door. If she didn't try to block off the underside of the door, it was going to be freezing in here before long. As she approached, she still felt uneasy and there just didn't seem to be any reason as to why. Was it maybe just worry about Tyrian?

Once she was right beside the door, she looked around and spoke.

"....hello?"

Nothing happened-

"Semblance is going off! Gotta-"

*CRASH*

An arm ripped straight through the door and grabbed Trifa by the neck and hoisted her straight off her feet. Slamming her against the door so her face was pressed against it, the owner of the arm knelt down so the two were at eye level.

"Hello."

"Wh-Who are you?!" Trifa sputtered. Whoever they were, they had a grip like a vice!

The stranger slammed Trifa's head against the door again.

"I've been watching you...."

Trifa paused in between yelps of pain.

"what...?"

"You can call me....Jack.~"

​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

"Hello, Penny! And... new recruits?" A melodic voice rang out from within the interior, the owner craning her head around the driver's seat courtesy of lack of seatbelt. The fair face the voice belonged to was an intrinsically curious one, high cheekbones with green eyes set above them with a kind smile that enamored you to her. Her scalp was adorned in a wave of almost-curly white hair, draped over her fore with a pair of ears the same color extending out from the side lengthwise that spoke to her reality as a faunus, her left pierced with the right dangling a tiny bell from the center.

View attachment 713211

"I see your investigation went without incidence, Penny. Is that all of them?"

And also, yes, she was the one driving. She brought the van, she drove it. >:|

" Hello miss thyme. It did not at all, and no it is not!" Penny replied with with a quick salute to the happy huntress as the others loaded in. "Two members of Salem's forces from Remnant One were accompanying them, and when I identified them, they escaped. I..failed to give chase, as I was distracted at the time"

her eyes flicked over to the steering wheel, and whatever moroseness slid into her tone instantly disappeared with bright smile. "That being the case, I believe it is most logical for me to drive the transport; I have the entire Mantle road system downloaded, and know all thirty eight hundred traffic laws so as to avoid any suspicion, three of which you broke on the way here."

...


"Also it would make it so I could sit next to Cinder as she has called shotgun."

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

It was rather hard to make out if Ilia said anything in response, thanks to the sudden jarring noisy thuds of a scroll being thrown at a wall so hard it bounced off and further bounced a couple more times as it clattered to the floor. Yet somehow it miraculously stayed functional, and once that noise of that settled some soft sobs could be heard. Snake had promised not to lie, had been...willing enough to help her with unlocking her semblance, and...well, despite herself, there was a degree of wanting to trust the other faunus at her word. Plus...she couldn't exactly see a member of the Shadow Fang and a human coming together to try to lie to her with the same story...so...it had to be true. That twisted Yang's reveal was corroborated by Snake. Eve really had...after everything...

There was some faint sounds of movement as Ilia crawled over to the scroll. A few seconds later there came an even fainter:

"...why?"​

"...Because of what I tried to tell you before, Ilia."

Her words were soft and empathetic, but bu no means apologetic. "We are not the monsters you make us out to be, Ilia. We are soldiers and leaders fighting a war for the faunus. We may have dangerous allies, but the Fang is subservient to none. It took miss Taurus some time to come to terms with that; Time I fully understand. This fight, and what must be done in it, has been harder on all of us than we show."

"But she saw what the humans had to offer, she tried to lead the fang her own way, and neither gave her what she wanted. Salem and her lot have been making the faunus empty promises for centuries now. No matter what faults you may find with the high leader, none of her promises are empty."

Snake paused on the other end of the line, her fingers drumming against the top of her desk as she bit the top of her lip.

"...I could pass a message on to her, if you would like me to." she eventually offered

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

"Hmph!" Masque huffed. "Then just tell me who you have a crush on if I win!"

Maybe it'd help her with the own feelings stirring throughout her...


"You're better than my Yang. By a country mile!"

"You don't hit me or call me nasty things! I think that alone pushes you over the top in being the best sister ever!"

Sister certainly wasn't the word that the Masque's Yang would have used to describe their 'relationship.'

Following along after Yang with a skip and a hop, she settled down onto the floor and watched as Yang dealt the cards.


View attachment 713098

Although it'd certainly seemed like the Masque enjoyed Yang's company/detested the idea of fighting her, the question she'd been posed struck a nerve. Taking her glance away from the cards in her hand, she tried to think about how best to get across what she'd been through.

"I did try to keep the promise! I did, I did!!!" The Masque exclaimed with a stubborn frown plastered across her face.

"After you left with your friends, they tended to my stump and I was stuck in a hospital room for a while. My vitals needed to be checked and the bandages on my stump needed to be changed every couple of hours or so, real boring stuff. But nobody talked to me or wanted to talk to me. I'd think about Blake, Weiss, and even you! Then after a while authorities wanted to talk to me, they asked me questions, 'why did I do what I did' 'who was I working with' and some of them weren't very nice to me. I get it though, he told me form the begining that people wouldn't be nice to people like me who wanna help him." Even as she conversed with Yang and played games with her, her loyalties hadn't seemed to change. "Do you wanna know what I did when they asked me all that stuff though? I put my lips together and..."



She giggled and almost dropped her cards in the midst of that laughter.

"They got so red in the face! i wish you could have seen it. They didn't think it was funny as I did though. They threw me in a cell that dampened my aura so I couldn't use my semblance. Even with it, I wouldn't have gotten too far. I'd lost Crescent Rose-rebuilt her though!-and didn't know where she was. I sat in that cell for..."

The Masque's eyes seemed to grow distant as if she was looking past Yang and beyond.

".....For a very long time." She settled on, bringing her eyes back to meet Yang'.s

"I got fed but I never got to leave my cell and the cot wasn't very comfortable. Some of the guards didn't like my whistling and told me to shut up or else. But I like to think that it's what helped me stick through all that time alone. I was hoping that he'd have sent someone to rescue me. Someone who'd come in like my knight in shining armor to set me free and we'd ride out together!" The Masque's enthusiasm seemed to grow higher and higher as she stood up and waved her arm around while still holding onto her cards. "AND THEN IT HAPPENED!!!"

She sat back down.

"But not for a while though. I was thinking about what you'd said to me all that time. I couldn't wait to tell you why I'd stayed loyal to him all that time in that cold cell. He sent someone to save me and she did. I never got her name but she was tall, had one eye, and gave me this sword!" She gestured idly to the golden sword strapped to her back. "I left the other one..." She murmured something unintelligible under her breath. "....And I knew it'd hurt his feelings if I didn't take my chance to escape. So I did after tying the other blade to my stump. I didn't kill any of the guards. I didn't really want to. Even after they'd been so mean to me...."

"But I should have been more considerate of your feelings!!! Sorry about that, Yang.."

The Masque tacked on near the end of her recap on what she'd been up to. "I escaped and eventually made my way back to him. I mostly spent my time trying to rebuild Crescent Rose and a new arm but I got too frustrated trying to make my arm...." Sparing a brief forlorn look at her empty sleeve, she sighed. "Then my Yang told me we had a job to do and here we are! I wanna stop by and see Weiss though! Get her to make me a new arm! Like the one you yoinked!"

"What about you, Yang? Been keeping busy? ...Are you doing okay?"​

"Eh, nothin' that interesting" she said with a shrug as she slowly mulled over Ruby's words in her head. "Go fish by the way." She added, before she drew a card herself and smirked as she laid down her fourth pair of the game. She leaned back slightly and started to count on her fingers.

"Went to Haven, fought nobody interesting, got the relic, tried to rescue ironwood, got myself captured by Weiss, annoyed her for a month and half, escaped, met up with Ilia, met myself having her midlife crisis in her twenties, and now I'm playing go fish with you! Go fish again, by the way."

Her smile wavered a bit as she looked down at her own cards.

"...I'm glad you didn't kill anybody escaping, Ruby. Its good to know that you know that's something with some serious weight. But... I gotta ask, hun." She said as she tilted her eyes up with a quiet frown. "Why are you working with these people? With that other Yang, with Ozpin? It doesn't sound like they treat you very well." she muttered with a flash of red in her eyes

"...also, go fish. Again."

Yang had some straight up belief in the Heart of the Cards tier luck going on.

 

[MidwayLives]

"How precious." The military operative remarked. Both her and Jennings were observing the scene from a distance, atop one of many of Mantle's buildings. A combination of things had led to her zeroing in on the general area the intruders had to be in. The abundance of cameras that she could interface with, that was one. Another was Jennings, whose computerized mind processed and shifted through all the footage for signs of the group at inhuman speeds. A third was that they had elected to jet around the city in pursuit. All those things had significantly cut down on the time it might otherwise have taken to pursue. And while it was very efficient, as she thought fitting of someone carrying the rank of Special Operative...Gwen did not believe it stood out, or was worthy of exceptional recognition. No, in her eyes, this level of efficiency was just simply to be expected. Nothing beyond the norm.

Though, perhaps, it was premature of her to think it efficient. For while she had tracked the group to this general area as quickly as she could manage, it was only through their own actions that let her narrow it down further. The two of them, out in the open in that emotional display she witnessed from afar. It was sheer luck, not skill or talent that let her hone in on the pair. What's more...it was only the two of them. Not the group of five that had been sighted on the cameras. There was no sign of the rest, none she could spot from here at least. A hand rose to press two fingers to her earpiece. "This is Special Operative Helios to all units in the vicinity of-" Gwen's head turned to read the street names nearest her position before reciting the names. "-I have located two of the trespassers. Be on standby for when I find the rest." There was no doubt in her voice, only the complete certainty that she would find them all soon enough.

There was also something of interest she saw beyond their presence. That brief projection of a certain image, before the whole thing shattered to pieces. Had that been one of their semblances?

"Did you hear that, Paradise?"

"I did, Magenta."

You couldn't really call what Magenta did a smile but it was unsettling all the same.

"Then let's not keep Miss Heilos waiting..."

What'd been an inital search to find members of the Rebellion had turned into an opportunity for a field test.

Paradise's modifications were truly remarkable if Magenta did so say so himself. To finally see it tested on live targets was going to be quite extraordinary and if all turned out well? Paradise would have turned out to be a worth investment and one of Magneta's best pet projects. As the two made their way off to join Gwen, Paradise could notice that Magenta had something of a slouch in his walk.

"Is something wrong, Magenta?"



"Ah? It's nothing rest assured, my sweet Paradise. I just don't quite see eye to eye with Ms. Helios's ....tactics."

The ability to control technology of all kinds was remarkable. Magenta wasn't an idiot, he could see and understand that. If you wanted his two cents, it's a semblance like hers that got her the position she had in the first place. Nothing to do with actual skill or competency. But if a semblance like that were to side with vermin like the Resistance? It could have meant disastrous things for Atlas's efforts to weed them out and keep the people safe. But to do that, Magenta was of the mind that warm bodies mattered more than mindless automatons of steel and wires. They could be hacked into, they could be taken out with EMPs, etc etc. The line of reasoning that 'more automation meant less human sacrifice' was something he'd heard quite a lot when he used to openly espouse his views on the matter.

He didn't agree with it. Not at all.

Of course, it wasn't for the reasons one might have assumed. Being a call duck faunus and with a very noticeable trait like his, it'd be easy to assume he had a chip on his shoulder. Yet, for all that humanity had done to him for being unable to control what he was, it'd also given him opportunities he simply couldn't pass up. With a semblance like his, he could have been eyed by many hospitals/clinics and so on. But he wanted to help the men and women fighting for Atlas every single day. If they did their job well and to the best of their ability, the success would eventually trickle down to the average joes and janes that Magenta might have been stuck helping otherwise if he'd just settled for being a 'regular' doctor.

....Plus, organic bodies continued to amaze him. The injuries he'd seen and stitched up, the amputations he was forced to do every now and again, the surgeries. The people on his operating table faced insurmountable odds and continued to get up despite it. He admired that and it's why he modified Paradise to the degree that he had. The boy had been willing to go through the harsh, often extremely painful surgery that'd be required to implant 'Twisted Love' and throughout the pain he continued to smile at Magenta and follow orders.

Like a good soldier.

You couldn't get the same feeling of loyalty from machines.

~~~

Paradise had heard of Helios and truth be told, he didn't have any glaring issues with her!

Of course, he was just a soldier. Albeit one who was picked out specifically by Magenta to be his assistant but just a run of the mill grunt all the same. He didn't think he was anything special at first. Just another grunt who's purpose was to do whatever he was told and to shoot whatever his superiors ordered him to hit. To see people like Gwen and Magenta give their all in their respective fields gave him a certain lease on his role in the Atlesian military. It was thanks to Magenta that he'd started to take pride in being a faunus, a rabbit one to be exact, and let his ears flop to and fro when not in private with the doctor.

While Gwen preferred the company of machines and Magenta the company of people, Paradise resided somewhere in the middle.

Sometimes it was nice to be around machines. They didn't judge or ask questions. They did what you told them. But if you stayed with them for too long then you risked getting lonely and Paradise HATED that feeling.

So, it was with a smile and salute that he greeted Gwen.

"Greetings, Special Operative Helios!"

"Hello." Magenta said a bit more plainly and less enthusiastically.

"Have you deduced either of their semblances?" ​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"Also it would make it so I could sit next to Cinder as she has called shotgun."

"What she said!" ​

 

[MidwayLives]

"Eh, nothin' that interesting" she said with a shrug as she slowly mulled over Ruby's words in her head. "Go fish by the way." She added, before she drew a card herself and smirked as she laid down her fourth pair of the game. She leaned back slightly and started to count on her fingers.

"WOW! You're really good at this, Yang!!"

Did...Did Yang challenge her just to flex her go fish ability?

.....Nah!
​

"Went to Haven, fought nobody interesting, got the relic, tried to rescue ironwood, got myself captured by Weiss, annoyed her for a month and half, escaped, met up with Ilia, met myself having her midlife crisis in her twenties, and now I'm playing go fish with you! Go fish again, by the way."

"....Weiss never captured me..."

The Masque murmured softly sounding a bit dejected.

"Oh! Is IIia the friend I saw you with? She's cute! Not as cute as Weiss..." The Masque said with a bit of love in her voice. "But I got the feeling she didn't like me very much. She never waved to me like you did, she only glared at me. I wonder if I did anything wrong." The girl seemed to give it a thought before shrugging it off.

"I saw that. I think it was funny. My Yang tends to write...um....checks...her butt...can't cash....?? I think that's how the line goes.." She didn't sound too sure of it personally.

Man, Yang was really good at this.
​

"...I'm glad you didn't kill anybody escaping, Ruby. Its good to know that you know that's something with some serious weight. But... I gotta ask, hun."

Ever since the convo started, the Masque had been bubbly and joyful.

Less so after that comment.

"I don't like killing people. I only do it to people who hurt me first. They have it coming."
​

"Why are you working with these people? With that other Yang, with Ozpin? It doesn't sound like they treat you very well." she muttered with a flash of red in her eyes

The Masque set down her cards and scooted back a good distance from Yang.

"You're right. They don't."

She said it as though it were a fact.

"My Yang hates my very being, I think. If she could kill me, she would. I like to think it's because she's jealous of how everyone else thinks she's unimpressive. Like how you do for example. But I know that's not it. She hates me because when we were kids growing up in the bandit camp? She wasn't supposed to be there. She was excess baggage I heard some of the grownups say. A little brat who wasn't needed and could go ahead and die. She struggled to adapt to our lifestyle. I didn't."

She waved her empty sleeve back and forth.

"I bullied her every other day or so. Kicked her to the ground, pulled her hair, kicked dirt in her face. Made her know that she'd never fit in like I did. That she wasn't fit to be here. I even made her cart me around in a wagon. If she didn't do it then I could make up a rumor that the other bandits would buy and she'd be punished. So she knew to do what I said. We ran into a Beowulf one time and I saved us but..." The evidence spoke for itself. Or rather the lack therefore of. "When I turned 15, I left the camp behind and struck out as the Red Masque. I don't know what Yang did in the time since then but I knew from even back then she didn't see me as her sister."

The Masque's eyes began to dimly glow.

"She hated me, Yang."

The glow vanished.

"My best friend was all I had after I'd left the camp behind. Yang hated me, I didn't really know my aunt, and my dad was a lush. Probably still is, I haven't seen him in forever." Once again stated very matter of factly. "Ozpin was the only one who was there for me. That I could talk to and know I wasn't entirely crazy. I mean, I am, but not 100%? Maybe. When Yang and I met eachother again? The first thing she did?"

The Masque mimed grabbing someone's hair and then slamming them into the wall.

"She didn't stop for a good half hour. But you know what, Yang? it hurt, it hurt like a lot. But I never cried or sobbed. Because I knew why she was doing this and why she'd keep on doing it. I'd already won, y'know? She could beat me up but it wouldn't change our past. Besides..."



"Being there for someone you love is what you'd do, right?"

Another go fish....

"....You're really good at this game, Yang. Too good..." The Masque's bottom lip started to tremble before she broke out into a small fit of laughter.

"No...Ozpin left me to rot in that cell for a month, months? Who knows. But what would you have me do? I've no one else, Yang."

"You win."

The Masque said as she pushed away her cards and looked a bit less happy than she'd been before.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"Salem and her lot have been making the faunus empty promises for centuries now. No matter what faults you may find with the high leader, none of her promises are empty."

"Yes they are." Ilia spoke from experience as she cut that off at the knees, not wanting to get into this discussion at length again. They were free to wrongfully believe as they wished.​

Snake paused on the other end of the line, her fingers drumming against the top of her desk as she bit the top of her lip.

"...I could pass a message on to her, if you would like me to." she eventually offered

"...How?" She didn't manage to keep the curiosity out of her voice. "With one of the towers down, you can't...are you going to write a letter?"​

 

[MyrtenRose]

So, it was with a smile and salute that he greeted Gwen.

"Greetings, Special Operative Helios!"

"Hello." Magenta said a bit more plainly and less enthusiastically.

"Have you deduced either of their semblances?"

Unlike with Jennings' proposal to play some showtunes to pass the time, the sounds of two new voices was enough to momentarily tear her gaze away from the duo hugging it out in the distance. Oh goody, duck lips and his hanger-on are here. Now it's a party. She thought with a slight smirk. "Evergreen. Lavender." Gwen greeted the more independent agent and his flunky in a more casual manner than would normally be expected of someone with military discipline. Bordering on completely indifferent. "I did catch a glimpse of something that might have been the shorter one's. A briefly projected image that shattered like glass shortly after. Jennings?"

"Yes, Master Helios." The AK unit sounded happy to be included. If it was possible for him to beam, beyond emoticons, he probably would have been doing so. His faceplate glowed briefly before a holographic display shot out of it, as if his faceplate had suddenly become a movie theater projector. The recording showed exactly what Gwen described. "Estimate 77.9% chance that was indeed the shorter one's semblance."

"Thanks buddy." Gwen reached over with one hand to pat him on the back before turning back to the pair. "So, reckon you got my message, then? Good. I was beginning to grow curious if anybody had. We got these two here, but there's still three unaccounted for. I've been waiting for these two to hopefully lead me to the others. That's the situation. " ​

 

[Gus Gungus]

Ruby was less than amused throughout the whole ride there as she watched Nora soar through the air on her grimm mount with copious amounts of laughter while she was stuck holding on to some rude nobody on the back of his horse. Though she was quickly over it by the time they actually got there. She couldn't get off that horse any faster than she actually did if she tried, beyond eager to not be stuck in such an embarrassing position. As Ruby bounded across the snow to put some distance between her and that dude,

"Yeah, kay, whatever. You're welcome. Bitch."

The facility Cobalt ended up leading their ragtag posse out to was located a few klicks deep into the tundra, an old Dust mining site owned by one of the corporations who went under to the ruthless crusade Weiss launched against her father's competitors whose ethical breaches were of similar severity to his upon her takeover of the SDC. Now it stood forgotten, all but frozen over by the time the resistance got to it, clearing out the Grimm who moved in and putting it to use both as a storage and dust refinement site to weaponize the raw crystals Ironwood was able to procure from outside sources. One of several similar facilities they utilized, and not one they kept manned by anything more than a skeleton crew to ensure the machinery stayed operational; should the meeting that was about to ensue have ended up compromised, it was not one Robyn and Ironwood's joint faction would feel the sting of burning, while retaining the benefit of being familiar turf remote enough to avoid bringing down a true siege of Atlesian forces.

While the mechanised gunslinger and their crew went to tie up the horses, only the most eagle eyed spotted Winter as her and her mount's white stylings blended perfectly into the snowy backdrop of the tundra, landing the manticore high above on a construction catwalk that gave her the ideal vantage point to scout anyone coming from a few hundred feet in any given direction. Robyn found a number of Ironwood's delegate setting up inside, most former Atlesian operatives themselves or huntsmen or bounty hunters who owed the former general some specific favor or another dating back to his tenure. For a duo who had been at such heavy odds with one another ever since Robyn's graduation from the academy, between her social outreach and his pragmatic cunning and knowledge of Atlas military workings they had been able to mount a more effective resistance than even seemed conceivable upon Ironwood's initial return, considering how skilfully Weiss had orchestrated public opinion of her in both capitals. They were largely perceived as dangerous criminals, and progress was admittedly slow, but they were entrenched and the military was having trouble rooting them out altogether, which was enough to instill a sense of hope among the ranks while they searched for the right gust of wind to bring the councilwoman's precarious house of cards crashing down.

"Hill."

The man himself briskly greeted her, prompt and to the point as always as he strode across the length of the factory floor.

"I trust Cobalt briefed you on who it is we'll be meeting. Some of Salem's, along with a pair of otherworlders known to associate with Ozpin or his equivalent. As you can imagine, we'll be making use of your particular talents."​

 

[Gus Gungus]

"Mercury...."

He placed his hands on either side of his head.

'I think I dropped my face."

"I dunno, looks more like your ASS!"

Emerald calmly raised one finger as she stirred her drink. "Stole that. From me, circa one hour ago. And said it way worse."

Mercury was well past acknowledging her as he grinned and put his fists up to block the shower of glasses shattering against his aura with his wrists, then locked his elbow around Tyrian's neck in a guillotine choke when he was tackled to willfully let his feet leave the floor and drive one of his knees into the faunus's solar plexus again and again. Being put through a table obviously put a stop to that, but he kept the choke locked in and started ramming his elbow into the kid's spine repeatedly with some very lethal efficiency for a seemingly plastered brawler. There was no question in his mind; among WTCH and MTEN, the two top teams in their Beacon year, the assassin's son and former pit fighter had been far and away the most technically proficient combatants of the bunch, having a depth of training and genuine fight experience that the rest frankly just lacked. That meant Tyrian always had been one of his favorite sparring partners.

Neither of them were exactly at their best right now though, scrambling for leverage in a tangled heap on the floor as they both clobbered the living hell out of each other.

"YOU ALWAYS WERE A PUSSY, CALLOWS!"

Literally not even two minutes of embarrassingly uncoordinated nonsense later

"Youuuuuu always were's like... my favorite guy, Tyreese." Merc slurred, his arm slung around the scorpion's shoulder as they did generously timed can cans to whatever music happened to be playing in the bar.​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

"WOW! You're really good at this, Yang!!"

Did...Did Yang challenge her just to flex her go fish ability?

.....Nah!


"....Weiss never captured me..."

The Masque murmured softly sounding a bit dejected.

"Oh! Is IIia the friend I saw you with? She's cute! Not as cute as Weiss..." The Masque said with a bit of love in her voice. "But I got the feeling she didn't like me very much. She never waved to me like you did, she only glared at me. I wonder if I did anything wrong." The girl seemed to give it a thought before shrugging it off.

"I saw that. I think it was funny. My Yang tends to write...um....checks...her butt...can't cash....?? I think that's how the line goes.." She didn't sound too sure of it personally.

Man, Yang was really good at this.


View attachment 713672

Ever since the convo started, the Masque had been bubbly and joyful.

Less so after that comment.

"I don't like killing people. I only do it to people who hurt me first. They have it coming."


The Masque set down her cards and scooted back a good distance from Yang.

"You're right. They don't."

She said it as though it were a fact.

"My Yang hates my very being, I think. If she could kill me, she would. I like to think it's because she's jealous of how everyone else thinks she's unimpressive. Like how you do for example. But I know that's not it. She hates me because when we were kids growing up in the bandit camp? She wasn't supposed to be there. She was excess baggage I heard some of the grownups say. A little brat who wasn't needed and could go ahead and die. She struggled to adapt to our lifestyle. I didn't."

She waved her empty sleeve back and forth.

"I bullied her every other day or so. Kicked her to the ground, pulled her hair, kicked dirt in her face. Made her know that she'd never fit in like I did. That she wasn't fit to be here. I even made her cart me around in a wagon. If she didn't do it then I could make up a rumor that the other bandits would buy and she'd be punished. So she knew to do what I said. We ran into a Beowulf one time and I saved us but..." The evidence spoke for itself. Or rather the lack therefore of. "When I turned 15, I left the camp behind and struck out as the Red Masque. I don't know what Yang did in the time since then but I knew from even back then she didn't see me as her sister."

The Masque's eyes began to dimly glow.

"She hated me, Yang."

The glow vanished.

"My best friend was all I had after I'd left the camp behind. Yang hated me, I didn't really know my aunt, and my dad was a lush. Probably still is, I haven't seen him in forever." Once again stated very matter of factly. "Ozpin was the only one who was there for me. That I could talk to and know I wasn't entirely crazy. I mean, I am, but not 100%? Maybe. When Yang and I met each other again? The first thing she did?"

The Masque mimed grabbing someone's hair and then slamming them into the wall.

"She didn't stop for a good half hour. But you know what, Yang? it hurt, it hurt like a lot. But I never cried or sobbed. Because I knew why she was doing this and why she'd keep on doing it. I'd already won, y'know? She could beat me up but it wouldn't change our past. Besides..."

View attachment 713691

"Being there for someone you love is what you'd do, right?"

Another go fish....

"....You're really good at this game, Yang. Too good..." The Masque's bottom lip started to tremble before she broke out into a small fit of laughter.

"No...Ozpin left me to rot in that cell for a month, months? Who knows. But what would you have me do? I've no one else, Yang."

"You win."

The Masque said as she pushed away her cards and looked a bit less happy than she'd been before.​

"....oh...."

That... that was so fucked.

Yang's chin dropped to rest in her palm as she slowly churned all that new information around in her brain. A Yang that still grew up alongside Ruby, who's outlook on the world was sharply changed by her sister (or cousin, whatever), being in her life. Except here it was...

She genuinely couldn't even imagine it. Her eyes flickered up to meet Ruby's with a studious frown as tried to picture a Ruby Rose who was a some sort of monster child. This was.... the whole thing felt different than Weiss, or even Blake. Weiss she got; she could connect the dots from what Weiss had told her about her life to see where her path continued and where the Weiss of this world diverged. It was the same thing with Blake, even if she hadn't spent nearly the same amount of time with this one; there was so much hurt and leftover embers of a righteous anger in their beacon years, burn marks on Blake's soul that the faunus was just starting to come to terms with when they all reunited at Haven. It was easy for Yang to see how the wrong words, a malicious guiding hand, could lead to the zealot who's better nature was buried under dogma that she met at Beacon.

This wasn't like that at all. The Ruby sitting in front of her, despite her goofball nature and sweetheart smile, and how open and honest she was, hadn't started her life out anything like her sister had. The line may have been running some kind of parallel to where Ruby was right now, maybe, a similar vein to the Ruby she knew, but who knew when that line would diverge?

That wasn't even the worst thought, either.

No, the worst one was the vicious whisper in the back of her head wondering if it was really a stretch that Yang Xiao Long could end up like that if she grew up like that. That the reason this Yang was such a sad, nasty, horny, janky armed, childish, vicious, murderous hyper loser was because she got pulled into Ruby's orbit just like Yang herself had, and it ripped her straight off the path she should've been on.

and yet

it was still Ruby Rose sitting in front of her. Her sister. There wasn't any denying that.

So all Yang did after she was done thinking was shoot Ruby a sly grin as she shrugged her shoulders "What can I say; Xiao Long house champ, twenty year's running. Think I get to borrow your scroll now, punk" she teased.

As she waited for Ruby to get it out from wherever she kept it, she crossed her legs and planted her hands on her ankles as she looked up at the ceiling. "Y'know, That thing you said isn't really true, at least, not anymore." She said as she turned to shoot Ruby a light smile. "Ozpin's not your only option for a friend. I do not play go fish with my enemies. Not even Weiss."

Because she said no :' )

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

"Yes they are." Ilia spoke from experience as she cut that off at the knees, not wanting to get into this discussion at length again. They were free to wrongfully believe as they wished.



"...How?" She didn't manage to keep the curiosity out of her voice. "With one of the towers down, you can't...are you going to write a letter?"​

Snake let out a slightly exasperated, almost hurt sigh as Ilia snapped at her, and there was a quiet ternseness in her words as she replied.

"Such surety from one not even from this world. You asked, Ilia, and despite your hate for us not once have I lied to you. Unless your opinion of Taurus is low enough to think she lost her better nature entirely, it is the answer."

There was a tension in the silence that followed, broken only by the incredibly faint sound of Snake's nails drumming on a desk as she stared at the city below her, till she finally answered, her words lighter if not quite reaching the genuine warmth of earlier

"We have our methods. We're the shadow fang after all, not some two bit terrorists or band of thugs. We were one of the only major players on remnant who knew in advance the tower was going down, and we took steps accordingly."

 

[MyrtenRose]

"Hill."

The man himself briskly greeted her, prompt and to the point as always as he strode across the length of the factory floor.

"I trust Cobalt briefed you on who it is we'll be meeting. Some of Salem's, along with a pair of otherworlders known to associate with Ozpin or his equivalent. As you can imagine, we'll be making use of your particular talents."

"Nice to be appreciated. It is relieving to know I didn't ride all this way only to play glorified bouncer." She snarked back as she stepped up, eyes roving over all the other individuals moving about and setting things up. "Some hell of a group it must be. To go to these lengths for them. Bringing this many people to an old, abandoned, more isolated dust mining site." Robyn commented. "And speaking of them, what exactly are you planning to ask of them in this interrogation of yours?"

"Must be thorough stuff if you need to be so sure of the truth." ​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"Yeah, kay, whatever. You're welcome. Bitch."

 

[MidwayLives]

Unlike with Jennings' proposal to play some showtunes to pass the time, the sounds of two new voices was enough to momentarily tear her gaze away from the duo hugging it out in the distance. Oh goody, duck lips and his hanger-on are here. Now it's a party.

As an independent contractor, a lot of Magenta's business was his own. He'd still report when asked to or when it was expected of him. But he knew there were certainly rumors abuzz the bases about the extent of Paradise and his's relationship. Childish gossip that he'd no interest in even partially entertaining. Whatever use his fellow faunus may have had as a soldier was only expounded by the use as a bonafide guinea pig. For which he performed remarkably and Magenta couldn't have been happier with how eager the grunt was to stick by his side no matter the trials he had to endure. It was almost kind of heartwarming.

Y'know to anyone who wasn't the good doctor.

As for the ducklips comment, it was perhaps for the best that Magenta and Paradise hadn't heard it. Magenta hid his bill not out of any feeling of insecurity but rather a measure of pride in his heritage. Everyone worth a damn knew what he looked like and for some it rubbed them the wrong way. To share a base with a 'filthy animal' like him. For those not in the know, well, it amused Magenta over what they might have thought. Did he need the mask to breath? Was it just for aesthetic purposes? Was he a tucan faunus?

He almost laughed just thinking about it but he stopped himself.

When uncontrolled his laughter turned into quacks.

A most embarrassing tic he hadn't gotten rid of.
​

"Evergreen. Lavender." Gwen greeted the more independent agent and his flunky in a more casual manner than would normally be expected of someone with military discipline. Bordering on completely indifferent.

Noting the casual manner in which she'd greeted them, Paradise quickly dropped the salute.

Now he felt silly...

But still it was a great honor to meet a special operative! Having been trained almost all his life for a career in the miltary, there was a part of him that was worried he'd never amount to more than just another body. He'd either live and retire as a nobody or die and be shipped home in a box. Both miserable endings if you asked him.

Working with Magenta had given him so much more and he was happier than could be.
​

"And I did catch a glimpse of something that might have been it. A briefly projected image that shattered like glass shortly after. Jennings?"

"Yes, Master Helios." The AK unit sounded happy to be included. If it was possible for him to beam, beyond emoticons, he probably would have been doing so. His faceplate glowed briefly before a holographic display shot out of it, as if his faceplate had suddenly become a movie theater projector. The recording showed exactly what Gwen described. "Estimate 77.9% chance that was the shorter one's semblance."

Magenta tended to go through the motions with the seemingly same unimpressed expression on his face.

Dealing with Helios and her robot manservant was no different.

He'd concede that machines had their uses. They made for good fodder if nothing else. Mindless drones to throw at an emey while the organics did the things that actually mattered. To see Jenkins speak disturbed him quite frankly and it always had since he'd met Helios. Robots should have been seen and not heard apart from automated warnings and pre-programmed dialogue.

Still, you didn't get far in this placce if you went mouthing off to everybody so he kept his opinions to himself. It wasn't like someone such as Helios would understand where he was coming from anyway.

"I see. I'm guessing an illusion based semblance then? Could be potentially irksome but given that you saw it shatter, it's physically-based, not mentally. So between your machines, they can simply ignore anything that they know for sure isn't a living breathing target. Nice tidbit to snag. Shame we weren't able to get anything on the other yet."

Illusion semblances were quite tricky to deal with. Ones that messed with your head had the potential for severe trauma, PTSD, and so on. Out of some of the people he'd treated, some spoke of hallucinations and any semblance that'd let someone play on those fears/weaknesses was something to watch out for. In a way he was grateful the shorter woman's semblance seemed to be easier to manage.
​

"Thanks buddy." Gwen reached over with one hand to pat him on the back before turning back to the pair.

"...."
​

. "So, reckon you got my message, then? Good. I was beginning to grow curious if anybody had. We got these two here, but there's still three unaccounted for. I've been waiting for these two to hopefully lead me to the others. That's the situation. "

"Oh, definitely. Paradise and I were actually out ourselves trying to see if we could spot any Resistance activity and pounce upon it. Running into you was just a bonus." His tone didn't give away whether or not he was being sarcastic. "I haven't had much of a chance to stretch my legs lately and I figured Paradise could use something of a wake up call. Depending on the semblances of the other three that we've yet to pin down, I believe the three of us should be sufficient for the purposes of apprehending them. Wouldn't you agree, Paradise?"

Paradise saluted and nodded his head. "Affirmative, Magenta!"

Magenta gave him a good pat on the back.

"Glad to be working with you, Helios.' ​

 

[MyrtenRose]

Snake let out a slightly exasperated, almost hurt sigh as Ilia snapped at her, and there was a quiet ternseness in her words as she replied.

"Such surety from one not even from this world. You asked, Ilia, and despite your hate for us not once have I lied to you. Unless your opinion of Taurus is low enough to think she lost her better nature entirely, it is the answer."

There was a tension in the silence that followed, broken only by the incredibly faint sound of Snake's nails drumming on a desk as she stared at the city below her, till she finally answered, her words lighter if not quite reaching the genuine warmth of earlier

"We have our methods. We're the shadow fang after all, not some two bit terrorists or band of thugs. We were one of the only major players on remnant who knew in advance the tower was going down, and we took steps accordingly."

"...Okay then." The chameleon eventually replied. She took the shadow fang agent at her word, it made sense after all. Though Ilia deliberately ignored any addressing of the first half of what Snake had said, truly and fully not wanting to get dragged into that once more. "Then, if you are really willing..." Ilia paused for a moment as she bit her lip. "...could you just tell her I'm sorry? That I'm sorry I didn't consider how she felt about any of it? That I'm sorry my absolute focus on Blake, and the other me, didn't let me see...truly see, somebody else who needed help. Not until it was too late, judging from how she returned to Sienna and your group." She shook her head in regret. A chance to help Taurus before she completely lost her way like Adam had, and it felt squandered. "Also, if you can, and if she's willing...could you ask her to come here? To Atlas? For a meeting on neutral ground."​

 

[MidwayLives]

The facility Cobalt ended up leading their ragtag posse out to was located a few klicks deep into the tundra, an old Dust mining site owned by one of the corporations who went under to the ruthless crusade Weiss launched against her father's competitors whose ethical breaches were of similar severity to his upon her takeover of the SDC. Now it stood forgotten, all but frozen over by the time the resistance got to it, clearing out the Grimm who moved in and putting it to use both as a storage and dust refinement site to weaponize the raw crystals Ironwood was able to procure from outside sources. One of several similar facilities they utilized, and not one they kept manned by anything more than a skeleton crew to ensure the machinery stayed operational; should the meeting that was about to ensue have ended up compromised, it was not one Robyn and Ironwood's joint faction would feel the sting of burning, while retaining the benefit of being familiar turf remote enough to avoid bringing down a true siege of Atlesian forces.

Grey had been so focused on enjoying his first ever ride on a horse that it didn't really hit him until he got off it.

Standing before not just him but the whole group was a sign of the power Schnee wielded.

Once she'd gained power? A rival corporation that'd plagued her father?

Gone. Like dust in the wind.

Even when she wasn't hurling blizzards, the woman's tenacity was something to be feared.

'But everybody, no matter how great, has some flaw. Just waiting to be exploited...'
​

 

[MidwayLives]

"I dunno, looks more like your ASS!"

"Well, I'm gonna put your ass DOWN!"

Swish!
​

Being put through a table obviously put a stop to that, but he kept the choke locked in and started ramming his elbow into the kid's spine repeatedly with some very lethal efficiency for a seemingly plastered brawler.

Tyrian hadn't been exaggerating in his earlier ranting.

His inhibtations, limited as they were, were gone for the time being.

As Mercury continued to choke him, Tyrian snarled and his tail swung around like a wrecking ball. Glasses were sent flying through the air, chairs were smashed into pieces, and tables were flipped over. Gripping on the offending arm, Tyrian dissipiated the aura around it and sunk his teeth in, hissing like an utter lunatic. "GRrrrrrrRRRRR!!!!!!"

​

"YOU ALWAYS WERE A PUSSY, CALLOWS!"

"I'LL FUCKING END YOU, BLACK!!!!"

Tyrian loved when he fought Mercury.
​

"Youuuuuu always were's like... my favorite guy, Tyreese." Merc slurred, his arm slung around the scorpion's shoulder as they did generously timed can cans to whatever music happened to be playing in the bar.

A soon to be black eye and bruised face later, Tyrian was eagerly joining in the can cans.

"I....I...never wanted to end you, Merc...It was all lies! It's bullshit! It's not true! You're like *hic* so handsome."

As the two enjoyed the other's company, Tyrian ignored the beeping coming from his scroll...​