Fandom Shattered Hourglass [IC] [CLOSED]

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

She didn't have any thoughts on potential other avenues to explore, because not only did she trust Arthur, not only had her plan of attack, or lack thereof, lead to her plummeting out of the sky, but also she was more concerned with the clearly troubled Penny. "Are you..." Cinder caught herself mid-sentence, not wanting to ask a stupid question. "I mean...Penny, if you need anything that I can give...you know I'll give it to you, right?"

Penny didn't look up, though at least she stopped staring at the blade as she let it fully retract and float back to storage while she shook her head.

"I know, Cinder. It is alright. I will be alright. I am just doing my best to keep up with all of this." she said as she finally looked up, though it was over to Raven that her eyes went. She was dressed differently than the Raven she knew, and she immediately agreed with Watts about not being from this world. A group of friends in the throws of an ill advised drug use session having the same delirium was one thing, but could she just assume Raven had been there as well? For seemingly no reason? Either she had and her mind had been affected even worse than the others, or... or the world was even more confusing than she found it this morning.

...It just now registered that the people they were talking about rescuing were the very people she had assisted in apprehending. If this was all true, they had been entirely innocent. She had second guessed then too, and yet...

-the sheer lack of color in Ruby's face, the full blown panic attack her vitals suggested she was having and the reluctance of even the clearly agitated Yang to engage in any further hostilities had even Penny opting to second-guess her next actions, blades spinning and cannon halfway charged before she halted the process and shot the general a quizzical look; unsure of how this affected her orders.

Her features fell even more, her hands clasped tightly in her lap. She had betrayed Ironwood, whose faith she'd tried so hard to earn over the years. Yet she had waited til she had already done so much damage to do so. The worst of both worlds. It was as if she never knew the right choice to make unless it was simple, as if her brain wasn't wired correctly. Like she was not...

-"she's an incredible prototype, and recreatable, as we know now after... last time."

"What, like a software update?" Emerald snarked

"Figure out if you're kicking the tin can out or throwing it a party-"

"That's pretty funny, Teenage Robot.

"...I will be *hic* fine." She repeated quieter-

"Hey."

clang

"Gotta be honest, babe. After all this time? I still like, barely know who you are."

Her back shot ramrod straight at the sudden touch, and she was wide eyed and alert and oh so very confused as she turned to stare at Mercury, her words laced with some flavor of trepidation as she responded with a statement that felt obvious yet also seemed an apropos reasoning for his stated lack of knowledge.

"We have never once exchanged a single word before this moment."

He had vague recollections of her starting to hang around Cinder at some point and he was pretty sure he just went with it, despite the very obvious and poorly disguised fact that she was a synth. "Doesn't mean I don't appreciate what you did for me back there, though. There's just one thing you forgot to put back..."

Personally, he found her kinda dowdy looking. This was more meant as a shot of adrenaline for them both than anything with expectations attached.

"My heart."

That got a small smile out of her at first, a simple soul at heart; just the fact that someone appreciated her help was enough to pull her at least a little out of the murk- Her eyes widened as the frown returned in concern, as her eyes lit up and Mercury got to know what it felt like for someone to look right through you as Penny zeroed in to stare at his chest for a good few seconds. No lacerations, no immediate dangers of heart failure, beating at a relatively normal rate for someone in the midst of a caffeine recovery from a powerful chemical upper. What could he possibly mean?

...

Ah!

"That was a joke!" she announced to everyone at large, apparently quite proud over parsing that out herself as she beamed. Didn't laugh, at all, but smiling at least

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"Mmmyeah I don't see that working. With the manta, anyways," Emerald offered lightly enough when someone summarized Watts' briefing for her, trying not to seem too obvious about enjoying how contrarian she was getting to be today. "I know you went ahead and took our ship off the grid, and I know broadly speaking the policy with this stuff is 'don't even worry about it 'cause Watts did a thing, bro, he just hacked it, ooooh, hacking, always hacking. Nothing means anything anymore 'cause Watts can hack stuff and it's all ok, ooo. Hacking'."

He rolled his eyes. "Do I give you shit about your capability for fleecing people and knowing your way around Vacuo's magical little underworld? We all have our fortes Emerald. If you really want me to give you a crash course on the cutting edge of Atlesian Security systems that I'm quite literally almost a year ahead of now, I will. It will be incredibly dry"

He had given her shit about that actually he was pretty sure, but that was besides the point

he waggled her fingers for emphasis, vaguely reminiscent of how Arthur used his rings.

"...But if we show up in a Manta without the proper landing codes or clearance we're totally getting shot outta the sky."

"I hate to say it but Penny could help, unless Ironwood's blacklisted her from their systems. Between her and Watts, it's possible. And if we had to escape the ship in the manta following being discovered..."

"No, she is right about that, at least." he murmured, biting at the knuckle of one of one hand as he ruminated, far less annoyed to have mistakes pointed out when they were the sort that would get his friends obliterated by AA fire. "Its not as if its a stealth manta we've gotten either, so radar would be another issue, even if we could procure landing codes."

He glanced over to Raven. "How accurate is your semblance? Can you place your portals wherever? Unless they're all in the same hardlight block, portaling directly to miss Xiao Long will only get her out. And no offense to your daughter, but miss Rose is the priority target. You'd need to be able to land yourself outside the cells, where the controls are. Although those are almost certainly keycard or password coded..."

he sat on a thought as he picked at it. It wasn't as if it was just Raven that could go through her portals, that was half the bloody point. There was absolutely no shot the cells were on any network, but if he could get access to the control panel himself, then...

"Eeeeh, it's a good idea Neo but..."

Roman held up his right hand and looked it over. Then he pressed it against Neo's forehead.

Then he pulled his hand away.

"I think it was just the stress of seeing Merc and you in such a bad state and you with a black eye.." He frowned and furrowed his brow. "That got this going in the first place. I was able to heave-ho the desk but what if this poor schmuck is still wearing the suit when we go in to try and nab it, destroy it, whatever? We'd be running into the possibility that whatever I can do here, it may or may not pick up organic stuff and if it DOES? I don't wanna stick some schmoe in some weirdo dimension. Who knows what could already be in there? Or if life could even survive in there." Well, truth be told, Roman didn't know exactly WHAT or WHERE his stuff went. Just that he could drop it wherever he wanted. "Best case scenario is that it takes the armor and dumps them right on their ass. Whatever happens after that, we'd just have to see I guess."

She gave Roman an odd stare as she tilted her head, snapping the armor back into existence and pointing at it while its helmet popped off like a champagne cork, revealing it to be empty. Which was what she meant. Just taking the armor itself, not the entire whole ass soldier and sending him to the netherrealm or whatever.

That was a dark thought. What if the place Roman was connected to was where he'd... been. What if he was just sending stuff straight to he-

"Hey, did Neo pitch my thing like I told her?" Mercury suddenly called over from however he was faring with Penny, curious but wanting to douchily avoid getting involved.

"Your thing was stupid and made no sense."

"What? Name one way it didn't make sense."

She threw her hands out to either side as she dismissed the illusions, exasperated as the two Y chromosomes most important to her gave her the one two punch of nonsense. No, obviously she hadn't pitched his thing. His 'thing' was a bunch of drug addled nothingburger! What did a moonslice even mean?

Wait.

But she was just too goddamn good, and 'almost' wasn't in her vocabulary. There was nothing almost about how she poured every last piece of energy her semblance had accumulated into one slice, what was less a sword and more a beam of red light intent on painting an equally red line all the way through the monstrosity's neck and severing yet another appendage Yang was holding on to, the night sky briefly awash with crimson.

She gasped as she held a finger up (from her perspective anyways), and suddenly instead of Neo lying upside down on the couch it was Eve Taurus, her hair puffing out to match the surprised look on her face like she was in a ghibli movie, a disconcerting visual for anyone who'd spent more than .2 seconds in the same room as her. That was actually super smart! The white Fang had known their shadowy bros were going to attack Beacon, they'd shown up to help! If there was anyone who could give them a strong lead on whether that had changed that wasn't part of the world's biggest army who hated their guts right now, it was her group!

Watts who'd been party to none of this exchange, just saw Eve Taurus and connected the same dot Neo just had, as he pointed at her with a snap of his own fingers. pausing his thoughts on the jailbreak for a moment "Clever, Neo. If we could find the White Fang, they could probably tell us at least what the shadow fang are up to, whether they're still building up here or not. that would go a long way."

They would just need some way to find her. They had some success before, poking at this very location for information on the SF, but they were different organizations. He glanced over to Tyrian, then thought about that longer than two seconds and glanced at the rest of the room instead.

"Anyone know how to find them?"

 

[MyrtenRose]

Penny didn't look up, though at least she stopped staring at the blade as she let it fully retract and float back to storage while she shook her head.

"I know, Cinder. It is alright. I will be alright. I am just doing my best to keep up with all of this." she said as she finally looked up, though it was over to Raven that her eyes went. She was dressed differently than the Raven she knew, and she immediately agreed with Watts about not being from this world. A group of friends in the throws of an ill advised drug use session having the same delirium was one thing, but could she just assume Raven had been there as well? For seemingly no reason? Either she had and her mind had been affected even worse than the others, or... or the world was even more confusing than she found it this morning.

"Good." Cinder flashed a reassuring smile even though Penny was looking over at the drunk sad birdlady instead of her. "And yeah, it really is a lot to wrap your head around, I'll say that much." She finished with a nod. Her head tilted up as Penny addressed Mercury directly, with her eyes likewise peering up as she tried to remember everything...is this really the first time her and Mercury have talked? She dug real deep but couldn't find anything that either proved or disproved that assertion. Not that she didn't trust Penny, because she did even after that assault earlier but it was just bizarre if they had never talked to each other before. She gave it a few more seconds of trying to recall before she just shrugged slightly and shook her head. That wasn't the priority anyway.​

What could he possibly mean?

...

Ah!

"That was a joke!" she announced to everyone at large, apparently quite proud over parsing that out herself as she beamed. Didn't laugh, at all, but smiling at least

Oh Penny...please never lose that endearing innocence. ​

He glanced over to Raven. "How accurate is your semblance? Can you place your portals wherever? Unless they're all in the same hardlight block, portaling directly to miss Xiao Long will only get her out. And no offense to your daughter, but miss Rose is the priority target. You'd need to be able to land yourself outside the cells, where the controls are. Although those are almost certainly keycard or password coded..."

"That's a lot more precise with it than I usually am." Raven replied."It's more...a link to a person that I hold onto. It brings me directly to them, that's how it works. Trying to get it into a specific spot around them...I would not bet on it." ​

She gasped as she held a finger up (from her perspective anyways), and suddenly instead of Neo lying upside down on the couch it was Eve Taurus, her hair puffing out to match the surprised look on her face like she was in a ghibli movie, a disconcerting visual for anyone who'd spent more than .2 seconds in the same room as her. That was actually super smart! The white Fang had known their shadowy bros were going to attack Beacon, they'd shown up to help! If there was anyone who could give them a strong lead on whether that had changed that wasn't part of the world's biggest army who hated their guts right now, it was her group!

Watts who'd been party to none of this exchange, just saw Eve Taurus and connected the same dot Neo just had, as he pointed at her with a snap of his own fingers. pausing his thoughts on the jailbreak for a moment "Clever, Neo. If we could find the White Fang, they could probably tell us at least what the shadow fang are up to, whether they're still building up here or not. that would go a long way."

They would just need some way to find her. They had some success before, poking at this very location for information on the SF, but they were different organizations. He glanced over to Tyrian, then thought about that longer than two seconds and glanced at the rest of the room instead.

"Anyone know how to find them?"

Cinder gasped, witnessing that sudden illusion change. Oh right, there is her too! The young maiden mentally slapped herself, how could she have forgotten that was someone else they could potentially link up with...they had been on that train to Mistral with her, for a while there. Eve Taurus, powerful. Influential. Pretty scary. All of the above. Another ally, if they played it right. She framed her chin with her thumb and index finger, briefly thinking about it. "I think...well, there is somebody or a couple somebodies we could ask. I think. I mean, we could try to reach out to Sun. Maybe she could point us in the right direction? I don't know, worth a shot?" ​

 

[Gus Gungus]

"You're sassing me like you were listening, but if you were then you missed the part where I said "anything I could give", cause that isn't something I can give, Em. Not on my own, anyway. Stop trying to make things more confusing!" ​

“Burn?”

There was a lot she could’ve done with that, honestly, but she rarely if ever got much out of making Cinder feel bad relative to other people. Or glorified scroll apps that looked like people.

She was gonna stoop to making her self-conscious just this once, though. Just to kind of. Encourage her to mentally play stuff back once before she said it.

“Are you gonna keep your hair long this time? I kinda think you should.”

That and preventing the epidemic of atrocious style choices the Fall of Beacon apparently unleashed was becoming a personal priority for her as much as Watts’ dumb suit was for him and no one else. She had her eyes on Branwen next…

​

"..." Cinder facepalmed. Oh my god. Really? Trying to spit out a line, now? Of all times? It wasn't even remotely close to a good line, even! She may have been a disaster at being charming in that way, and flirting though not as much a disaster as Yang, it was all pretty new to her, but man, even she recognized that was terrible. She didn't even try to hide her thoughts on that as she looked at Mercury. "Mercury, I love you man, but please-"

“Don’t hate a player ‘cause you got no game, Cindy.”

And Cinder was lucky she buried that thought all the way down in strikethrough cuz he had been semi flirted with by both Yangs and she was objectively better.

​

Her back shot ramrod straight at the sudden touch, and she was wide eyed and alert and oh so very confused as she turned to stare at Mercury, her words laced with some flavor of trepidation as she responded with a statement that felt obvious yet also seemed an apropos reasoning for his stated lack of knowledge.

"We have never once exchanged a single word before this moment."​

“Girl, tell me about it. What’s up with that?”

Cinder didn’t have a clue what constituted a good line and what didn’t, clearly. Even he would’ve admitted some concern after having somewhat fallen out of the habit somewhere over the course of his team’s long, harrowing losing battle with depression, but he was on today. His smirk could’ve induced palpitations in any organic chest. His words were liquid honey, poured directly into Penny’s ear cavity. This was what the world had been missing for so long. Keepin it light. Some classic Beacon-era Mercury heartthrob shenanigans. This steel-plated chassis was putty in his hands—

​

"That was a joke!" she announced to everyone at large, apparently quite proud over parsing that out herself as she beamed. Didn't laugh, at all, but smiling at least​

“…”

“Cold.”

What was this feeling in his chest? Had the light always reflected off her freckles like that?
​

Roman held up his right hand and looked it over. Then he pressed it against Neo's forehead.

“Excuse you?”

“The f*ck?”

Maybe it had been a minute and they sorta forgot the entirely platonic but was it though touchy feely aspect to the whole Roman-Neo dynamic, but either way they weren’t sure how else they were supposed to take that other than to stop whatever they were engaging with and emphatically intrude in unison.

“Dude. Did you just try to table her?”

“He totally just went for it on the DL. Roman, you literally just got back and you’re manifesting your codependency in physical form.”

“Who took my nunchucks?”



He sounded more bummed than anything, like he only just remembered them.​

 

[MidwayLives]

She gave Roman an odd stare as she tilted her head, snapping the armor back into existence and pointing at it while its helmet popped off like a champagne cork, revealing it to be empty. Which was what she meant. Just taking the armor itself, not the entire whole ass soldier and sending him to the netherrealm or whatever.

That was a dark thought. What if the place Roman was connected to was where he'd... been. What if he was just sending stuff straight to he-

"oh."

He sheepishly rubbed the back of his head.

"Yeah, I guess that makes more sense, huh?"

She gasped as she held a finger up (from her perspective anyways), and suddenly instead of Neo lying upside down on the couch it was Eve Taurus, her hair puffing out to match the surprised look on her face like she was in a ghibli movie, a disconcerting visual for anyone who'd spent more than .2 seconds in the same room as her. That was actually super smart! The white Fang had known their shadowy bros were going to attack Beacon, they'd shown up to help! If there was anyone who could give them a strong lead on whether that had changed that wasn't part of the world's biggest army who hated their guts right now, it was her group!

Watts who'd been party to none of this exchange, just saw Eve Taurus and connected the same dot Neo just had, as he pointed at her with a snap of his own fingers. pausing his thoughts on the jailbreak for a moment "Clever, Neo. If we could find the White Fang, they could probably tell us at least what the shadow fang are up to, whether they're still building up here or not. that would go a long way."

They would just need some way to find her. They had some success before, poking at this very location for information on the SF, but they were different organizations. He glanced over to Tyrian, then thought about that longer than two seconds and glanced at the rest of the room instead.

"Sorry Arthur, not much cooking up in the ol brain compartment here.." Roman admitted while giving Neo a thumbs up. She'd gone ahead and gotten an idea of hers called clever! Way to go!

Tyrian's reaction was a bit more, well, physical.

*SHATTER*

The glass in his hand broke into pieces as he squeezed it with WAY too much pressure. The aura around his hand shimmered and the wet glop of milkshake spilled over across his section of the table. Along with a trail of blood from where glass shards were roughly embedded into the palm of his hand. It seemed as though he'd let his aura down by accident. "Oh geez! You okay, Tyrian??"

"...yeah, yeah I'm ok. S-sorry. I'll clean this up. I'll...I'll be right back." Tyrian said as he pushed himself up to his feet and went to grab whatever napkins or tissues they had stocked around here. Probably had some in the bathroom. Yeah. As he walked away, he pressed his left hand up to his forehead and grit his teeth.

'I hadn't been there.'
'Things would have been different if I'd been there.'


Ì̶̙̥͍̰̲̻͔̥͇̙̙̤̝͗̈́͋̓̊͐̆̃͛͂͑͊̈́͘̕ ̸̧̛̦̘̲̺̩̪͚̫̞͇̘͓̟̾̇̐͒̌͗͒͑͐W̷̬̦̤̜̜̅̂͑͌̉͘͘͜͝ͅÁ̵̧̨͉̳͚̩̬͇͎̺͔̩̣̫̰̚͜S̶͇̺̺̈́͑͘͠͝ ̴̨̧̛̟̞͚͈̠̦̗̠̭̻̺͖̠̘̓͑̿̂̏͋̆̽͋̕Ṅ̵̞͓̠̬̩͙̖̮̓̈͊͗̓̅͝E̶͚̞̯̳̝͖̋̅̌̏͊͒́̏̃͐̅̐̅̂͘V̴̪̫͈̻͕̯̱̥̘͈̺͍̊̊͘͝ͅĔ̶̮͍̘̱̜̭Ȓ̷̯ ̵̫̟̦̜̇͐̌̉̕̚T̸̯͊͊̈́̇͊̿̐̏̈̔͒͐͐̚͠Ḩ̴̧̳̻̜̼͚̭͎̪͔̼̗̱̳̀̐̈̈́̋̔̊̋̏̕E̴͔̦̞͚̮̊̍͋̍̃͂̆̿͗̋͆̀̚͝͝R̷̹̤͗̈́͛̒́̈́͗̃͆̽͋́̾̕͝͝É̴̡͔̣̭͎̦̠͎̈́̈́̍͌̔͛͝.̴̧͎̝̟̩͎̗̬̥͉̲͉̥̤̦̈́̉̿̄̃̀̊̏͛̈́̊̊̂͗͊͘͝ͅ ̷̡̛̓̀̋͂̔̈́̔͑͆͆̉͌̂͗̆̕I̴̛̳̘̝̓͋̀̒͐̈́͝'̴̢̡͇̥̲̼̰̭͓͔̠̠̝̟̌̀̊͐͛͐̇͒̉̈́̇̍̈́̂̉͝D̵̡̡̡̛͇͇̣̯̳͚̱͔̞̦̖̗̹͛̍̀͋͌͋͛̓͗̂̑͗͝ ̵̳́̓̐̿̂̂͛͒̏͒͝͝L̸͔͍̹̱͕̇͆́̀͛̀̈́̄͂̈́͆͌̚͝Ế̴̲̮͇̗̜̭̖͋̄F̸̢̱̝͕̜̱̜͇̩̳̺̲̞̆́͌̑̾̑͆̑͐̎T̸̡̛͙͓̟̜͇̤͎̩̱̳͆̍ ̶̼͊̈͑́̋̚͝͝Ï̵̛͈͈͓̤̝͔̝̮̼͈͕̀̏͋̑̅̂̀̄̎͆̑̉̕͝Ţ̷͕̺̣͙̉̓͂̈̀́̀͒̎̎̊͛̄̕̚͠ ̸̠̰̋͗̿́̍̚͜A̷͉͕̞͊̅̈̏͐̀͐̈́͌͛̊͝L̴̡̡̛͚̬̤̝̘̠̞͖̠̘̞̒̕L̶͖̫̜̳͒͛ ̷̨͔̯̘̼̦̻̯̱͎̗̥͓͎͚͊̏̀́͋͆̅́̕̕͘͜͝͠͝B̸̡̨͓̘̙̫̹͙̙̮̪̱̞͚͑̈E̴̡̹̠̳̬̘̫͓̙̓͆̽̊̈̾͂̾͋͒̌H̷̦̲̪̯̠̮͚͋̐͂̉̀͌̾̓Į̴̨̛̟̳͇̝͈͎̫̝͆͐͑̇͆̌̚N̵̳̺̙̳̱̤̣̳̜͖̯̼̍̑̈́̀̋̍̄̏D̴̙̰̘̾͂̓̾̑͋̓͂̈́̌͠ ̸̧̖̫̹̯̻̼̳̤̠̗̿̅̈́̾͆̑̉̋̐͑̓̍͂͜͜ͅM̶̛͓̥̮̋̄̋̐̿̑̊̋̂̚͘̕Ę̶͙̲͙̱͎͚͚͙̋́͗͊̐̾.̶͔̹͓͑͑̽̔̊̇̇̍͂̋̈́͝ ̵̤̬͊̃̔̏̔͑̽͠N̷͈̲͈̩̻͚̣̠͎͔̱͋̚E̷̢̡̧̥̘͇̳͕̖̭͎͈̰̩̊̽̇̈͊̕̕͘V̶̧͕̫̗͔͕͚̰̖̞͓̬̙̼̒̆̅͐͊́̈́̚ͅĘ̵̨̘͖͊̍R̵̛̰̟̜̺̣̺̝̙͇͋̓̓̅͆̄͌̓̽́̈̑͜.̴̨̗̮͍͉̘͍̹̹͍̬̝̙͙̺͖̉.̶̳͖͎̱̮̬̼̬̩̲̤̳̥̙̙̖̂̒̋͋̈́̈̇͗͛̾̋̾̀̓̚̚͜.̸̧̂̉̇̽̓͐̚͝ͅ.̴̧̡̺̞͇̻͖͙͓̖̃̉̾̔̒̽̕͝͝W̷̧̢̹̑̋̍̅A̵̢̩̟͚̣̩͙̓̓͛̅̈͒̏S̸̨͕̼̯̪͖̘̳̣̥͔̹̓̄̈́̄̑͐̐̽͒͊͗̇̊̈́̾̚.̴̡̞̥̞̼̑͆̇̓͜ͅ.̴͖͉̰̼̔̑̑̌͝.̵̳̪̜̝̭̋̓͋͐̀̃͐͑̔͛.̶̳͐T̸̨̞͙̭͎͈̙̹̞̩͙͉͊ͅͅH̸̢̨̜̟̯̯͖̫̱̟̜͕̑͐͋̓͑͐͐̏͂͌́́̎͝͠E̷̗̭̝̝̗̟̣̤͈͙͕̠͍̯͗͛̅̈́̒̓̀͋͒͊̅̇̕͘͜Ŕ̸̛͈̮̇̿̎̀̒̽̈͒̓̈́͠E̴̡̨͍̻̜̜̤̻̺̦̝͔̟͈̔̃͛̊̊̃̾͘͝.̷̧̟̥̺̗͔͍̗̃̓̔̌̍͒̂̽̕.̷̙͎̯̦̹̹̥̼̟̒̈́̈́̀̄̓̾̒̉͜͠͠.̴̰̞̬̖͎̝̤̲̓͆͌͂͑̉͜͠͝.̶̙͖̣̱͈͖͕͔̰͉̟̹͚̗̗̲͑͆̇̕ͅ.̸̢̧̥͕̪̜̟̘̝͔͎̅ͅE̵̡̥̝͈͖̘͓̯̿V̴̧̡͙͉͔͉̯̻͉͕̥͎͇͔̻̔̏͆̂̽͗̿̅͘Ẽ̷̛̘͖̩̭̞͙̃̅͛̈́͑̃̾̏̚͠R̸͖̙̻͙͕̠̜͔͚͍̹̔̓̀̉̽̆̾͋̚̚͜͜ͅ.̴̨̩͎̱̱̞̜̝̉́̈́̅͋̾͋̓̒͑̈́.̸̨̳̹̬̳̗͙̰̿̇́͂͌̓͌̃͐̈́̀͘͝ͅ.̵̣̺͇̬͉̯̭͔̤̩̖͖̰͊̿̑̀̕͘e̷̢̥̖̦̯̼̲̗̰̩͓̟̽v̵̧̢̲̖̜̩̹̯̗̅͒̇e̸̜̦̲͚͙̙̖͉̜̺͕̊́̂̈́̒͒̈͜ͅŗ̸̤̠̟̹̱͕̜͍̥̮̼̂̔̀̿̈͂̿̃͂̑.̵̻̍͑̑̃͋.̴̧͇̙͓̹̹͕̜̣̖̙͈̈̅̋̆̎̈́̌͐̓̊.̵̨̱̟̠̞̰̟̘͕͐̔̒̏̆̀̈̏̕.̷̝̫̺̈͑͒̒̏̍̎̿


He grabbed at either side of his head and growled under his breath. "Get a hold of yourself...They're all going to see you acting like a lunatic. You're not that. Whatever happened...." He closed his eyes and exhaled. "...you didn't do it..." He rested his bleeding hand under the sink's nozzle and let the warm water run over it. He couldn't stay on like this. The anger from earlier had boiled over upon seeing Salem's head practically explode and it still hadn't faded completely, he'd just kept putting more and more walls up to try and distract himself. Keep things from getting any further out of hand. He was lucky enough that none of them had seen him punch that man he'd bound up. He was lucky that he didn't go any further and cave the son of a bitch's head in and splatter his brains all across the-

"No!"

He slammed his non-bleeding hand down and cracked the sink's mantle. He pulled his hand out from under the water and grabbed some paper towels to wrap up the wound. "You're gonna get out of here. You're gonna go back there and tell the others what could help them. What you NEED to tell them. What you need to..." He looked back in the mirror that spread across the length of the room.





I̷̢̫̖̗̣̫̺̜͔̱̱̓͒̇̋̿̽̉̈́͋̕ͅT̴̡̧̟͕̺͔̭̘̰̝͎̲̩̭̠͇̺̺̯͕́͊̍̇͛̒̃͂̆̐́̃̀̽̈́̈́́̓̈́͋͒̉͆͠͠͝͝ ̸͔̑̄̈́̄̈́̔̽͑̌̒̀͂͗̌̐̄̓͋̑͒͘D̷̡̡͍͓͚͙̦̤̘̼͉͙͖͇̳̺̫̻̙̣͉͖̜̭̜͊̀̀̔̑̍̓͊̍̇ͅḬ̸̡̛͙̫̥͇̲̺͖͙̟̲̳̦̜̳̃̈̀̎̾͂̉̅̅̒̇̆́͌̃̓͒͒̿͌͂͗̈́̇̄̈́̀̐͘̕͘ͅḌ̸̨̡̢͇͈̼͈̮̼̪̖̜̰̠̯̩̗̭̼̖̪͕̗̠̰͖̙͎̥̗̺̾̾̿͐̈́̽̿̀̌̇̀̔͛̈̏͘͜͠ͅN̶͍̗̰̗̿̆̂ͅ'̵̛̛̛̘͔̳͋͛̈́͊͗͂̑͌̿͐͛͘̚͝T̸̡̧̡̨̨̧̥͍͙̪͙͉̳̱̭̓̎́̈̈́̌͑̏̀͋̋̿̂̉̓̀̌͘̕͝͝͝͝ ̷̢̢̪̗̭͇̻̦͙͓͍̬̦͇̝̗̜̟̬͙̙̯̰̠̞̥̆ͅM̷̮̟̦̆̎̀͠A̴̛̬͍͌̈́̏̏̓̾̓̓̊͆̐̈́̀͑́̐̽̿͌́̄̍̇̎Ṭ̶̯̭̬̺͖̤̠̼̭͈̍̽̇͂͊̊̊́͊̐͑̎̓̔͋͒̂̐͒̐̕͜͝͠T̴̫͇̝̣͍̙̻̮̙̮̫̤̘̙̂̈̆͌̒͛͋̋̉͛͘̚͘͜͜Ȩ̵̡̨̡͙̱̼̝̬͙͇͉͓͙̗͔̤̥̗̹͎͓̳̬̤̬̹̭͔̦̯̎͆͑͆̑̐͗̎̉̃̇̏͋͋̊̔̈́̕͜͠ͅͅR̵̢͓͇̮̙͙͙̤͎̖͋̑̔́͗̋͂̎̓͗̐̒͌̀̃̄́̈̐̒͂͋̊͛̕͘̚̕͜
̵̢̛̻̳̬͈̗̥̥̰͓̜͈̈́͂̈́̈́͂̎̊͆̒̾̊̊͗̏̈̐̊̚͜
̴̡̨̢͔̦͖͙̦̜̜̟̩̝̮̝̻̜͕̺̻̱͖̱̮̖̘̞̃̉̓̀̊̔̂̇̄̀͗͊́̂̉̒̎̎̕͝͠͝͠Į̵̧̠̻͕͇͎̫̼͙͍̝̼̩̦̞̣͕̫̜̥̙̖̗̑͋̌͜Ț̸̡̰͔̭̼̜̲̼̦̺̹̭̈̐̃̽̐̉͛͌̑͐̍̿̅͒̏̒̈͒͒͝͠ͅ ̴̢̡͈̣̹̜͙͇̦͓͇͇̹̬̼͕͉̥̘͔̍̾̃̿̎͌̓͗̆̈́͌̍̀̇͊̈́͛̊̕͝͝͠ͅN̸̢͈̺̗̗̤̖̞͓͓͓͖̄͗͆̎̇̀͜Ȩ̷̡͉̤̻̟͖̗̜̤̺̟̱̀̓́̉̀̃́͘͠V̶̨̧̧̡̟̱̖͈̯̮̣̼̩͈̫̩̦̳̹̤̼̥͉͚͚̥̟̙͖̼̲͋͂͐́̈́̒͊̍̿̈́̍̀̀̅͂͗̚͘͜Ę̴͍̯̤͍̪̳̟̬̪̗͔̠̼͓̭͔̙̖̟̭̰͇̩̙̟͌̄́͐͂̿Ŗ̴̛̖̹̝͈͉͓̜̦̲̜̹̱̭̽̃̔̚ ̶̢̛̱̥̩̹̞̝͉̘̰͈́͛̀̑̄͋̄̇̐́̓̾̓̈͛̀̋̒̔̏̕̕͠M̶̧̢̧̝͈̗͍̫̬̫̞͉̣̪̝̞͙͙̝͓̻̟̖̳̭̥̼̎͜Ä̶̡̢̢͔͙̟̖̦̥̖͈̫̰̜͕͔̳̫̯̤̮́̏̄͛̑͂̄͆̚͘͜͜ͅT̷̛̻̖̺̟̫̭̻̻̦̙̳̩̟̺̩͕̐͒̑̒̎͛͐͑̈́͊̍͐̉̽͗̋͌̆̿̓͒̿̔̎͊̈̋͛̕̚͘͠͠T̷̛̛̖̟̹̳̃̒̔͛̾̈́̏̅̈̀́͋̌̇̅͂͘͠͝͝Ȩ̶̧̧̡̢̢̢̹̼͎̞̹̩̲̲̪͓̯̗͕̺̤̟̫͔̻̲̻̪̜͓̲̀̾͆̓͂̐͑̾̂̍̓͑ͅR̷̢̡͖͉̝̺̬͖̗̗͔͇̰͍̜͈̪̮̝͙̳̟̒̄̃̉̓̾ͅÉ̵̡̢̨̨͕̲̱̱̻̜̺̗̗̟̳̮̖̙ͅͅḌ̸̢͚̳̺̞̬͈̲͉̭̙͉̠̠͍̳͉̲̘͉͊̐͛̐̌̔̀̊́͐̎̄̓͑̋̉̔̐͑̓͘͘͜͜͝ͅ
̶̨̡̨̯̬͍͔̤̯̭͎̗̪̬̜͚͈̜̗̩̖̫͗̒̈́̈́͌̔͆̚̕ͅ
̸̢͕̺̳̪̣̼̘̲͎͚͕̭͍̟̳̦̼͉̓̌̓̈́̃̑͑̋̂̑̄̏̆͆͋͊̅̆̑̈́͗̍̎̌̓̕̚̕͜͠͝͝Y̸͇̻̱̼̙̬̠̦̖͔̘̙̳̳̙̞̲̬̯̦̩͔͆̓̾͛̀̒͆͊̈́̔̈́͊̒́͐̔͋͗̋͒́͑̾̇͒̈̿̕Ỏ̴̡̨̟̹͓͓̹͔͎͔͍̘̣̩̜̪̰͇̫͉̗͙͍͈̫̭̖̻̻͍͖̝͔̒Ų̶̖̲̮̝̭̬̼̪̺̒͌͒̋̍̎̽̆̇̉̚̚͝͝ͅ ̴̡̡̡̡̛̭̱͙̙̤̥̩̟̭̜̗͔̭̙̠͓͔̭̟͍̤̲̥̋͛̊̌͊̌̌̑̄͋̀͋́̅̐̆̽̏͑̉̅̾͌̀̓͂̕͠͝͠͝Ẃ̸̡͔̟̘͕̫̱̹̬̦͓̙̳͉͖̩̘̤̼͓̟̫̫͇͉̮̌̎̌̆̔͗̈́̔̏͛́̓̀́̿̽̒́̈̓̕͘̚̕͠͠͠͠͠Ę̶̨̢̬̩͍̑͂̅̈́̌͛͋̈̒̀͂͌̓̐̀̿̅͛͛̍̈́͋̑̚̚̚̕͠͠͠͝͝R̸̨̹̯͚̳̠̤̘͍͇̻̯̟͇̟̯͖̪̣̟̣̫̲̰̅̉͗̅͊̈́̑́̈́͐̆͂̈͒͒̊͗͊̓͝ͅE̷̛͖̎̿̾͆͒͘͠ ̶̡̧̨̻͇̭̗͉̙͉͇̖̪͉͍̻̤̖̳̣̰͒̓̽̎́̐̆̎̈̓͊̌̿̑̀̏͋͑̐̓̈́̊̓̉̚͝͠͠Ț̸̽̉̇̊͋͒̑̄̈̿͗͜͝H̶̢̹̼͖̳̗̱̺͇́̒̎̏͛̽̈́͋̈́̌̆̈̎̄̇̿̍̓̉̾̎͐̋́͒̓̄̿̕͝͝͠͠E̷̢̡̨̢̧̡̨̠̬̠̤̬̹̗̞̤̳̺̩̺͇͎͉͓͈̝͈̹͓͓͕̱͐͛̚͜Ṙ̵̨̡̝̥͕̺̖̙̠͍͍̯̭͑̓̍̔̾͆͐̑̈́̋̏͑̓̀́͂͘͝Ë̷͓́͆̀̋̑̾͊̍̿͒̃̐̈͌͂́́̄̈́̿̄̐̃͊̎̃̔̐̚̚̕͠
̷͙͖̺͍̳̺̂
̸̢̦̭͔͓̬͈͕̇̄̒͛̀́̆̍̐̃͑̏̃̆͐̽̒͑̓̂́́̚͝Ǟ̷̢̨̧̛͓͓̫̜̘͙͉̤̪̙̻̘͎̥̩͍̝̗͚̥͐̈̏͑̓̈́̂̈́̽̆́̊̒͊͐̉̀̈̍̎͝͝N̶̢̲͚̻̺͖͋̌͌́͛̀̊͑̋̇̇̆̄̎̓͌̓͊̿͗̄̍͑̕͝͝ͅD̷̗͕̜̲̜͗͋̎͛̔̆͒̿͊̎͒̐̈̋̐̄̀͆͗̀̈́͛̄̃͠͝ ̷̧̨̢̧̛͍̼̠̼̩͇̼̣̞̥͎̱͔̰̝͕͙̻͕͙͇̒́͛̀̉̅͆̽́͆͊̊̇̃͒̇́̓̐͐́̉̒͘̚͠ͅŞ̵̜̭̻̙̟͖̲̦͎̰͙̯̉̾̔̈̒̓́̒͛̿͑́̊̎͐̾͌͗̕̕͘͜͜Ơ̵̧̢̡̻̜͇̮̱̥͍͚̦͉͓̻͙̙̰̱͓͓̭̭͓̼̲͖͙̣͚̫͔̱̱̓̈́̈́͋̄͂̂̚͝͝ ̵̹͕̪̟̦̓̔̄͋͒̓̉͌́͋̃̐̊̄́͛͐̿̓͛̊̋̈́̐̽̚͝W̴̥̭̤͕̙͔͔̱̰̖̹̪̞̺̗͎̒͜ͅA̸̢̡̧̯͔̱͔̲͔̻͉̩͈͈͉̺̥̟̭̹̻͕̞̺̘̰̜̙̦̱̬̟͛͛̓͜͜S̸̡̹͉̜̣̬̫̮͓̺̲̠͖̣͋̆̋̀̓̽̄̃̇͂̓͒̈́͗̄̃̍̍́͜͝͝ͅ ̷̪̟͙̣͙̳̣̗͒̅̅̃̈́̈́͂̃́͗̈́̈́͑̌́̓͜͝͝͝S̷̛̛͖̽̃͗̄̋́̌̍̋͂́̈́͌́͛̅́͒͆̋̅̚̚͝͠͝Ḥ̶̠͛̇̈́͛̀͌̈Ę̵̢̣̻̞̫͙̹̻̥͓̱̱̝̯̹̟̭͎͚͓͓̱̰͗̄̒͐̈̎͌̈́̍̊̇͑͒̇̏̃̔̾͊̍̐͘͘͜͜͠ͅͅ



̸̡̟͇͔͔͍̣͎̦̳͕͉̻͎̫͆



The faunus trembled and nearly tripped over his own tail as it slumped to the bathroom floor, the stinger hanging mere inches away from the tiles. His anger, his appettite to wet his whistle with violence and combat. Seeing that illusion had set something off. Even if it hadn't been Neo's intention. He squeezed his hand to try and put more pressure on the wound and ran out of the bathroom, the mirror looking as it always had...

“Excuse you?”

“The f*ck?”

Maybe it had been a minute and they sorta forgot the entirely platonic but was it though touchy feely aspect to the whole Roman-Neo dynamic, but either way they weren’t sure how else they were supposed to take that other than to stop whatever they were engaging with and emphatically intrude in unison.

“Dude. Did you just try to table her?”

“He totally just went for it on the DL. Roman, you literally just got back and you’re manifesting your codependency in physical form.”

"I-I was not! I was....I was just proving that I can't pick up organic stuff! Neo didn't poof so I was right! Theory proven! That's all!"

Roman exclaimed, quick to try and defend himself against these HENIOUS accusations. Also, y'know to get his mind off WHATEVER the heck just happened with Tyrian. Peeking out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tyrian step out of the bathroom and called out to him. "Tyrian! You feeling any better man? What was that all about, huh...?" The faunus bit his bottom lip as he moved back to the booth and tried to clean up what he could of the mess he'd left behind. "Sorry about that. Really. I just...wasn't prepared for that."

"S'ok, man. We're all friend-adjacent here." Or at least Roman hoped so, it sounded comforting enough.

Settling back in his seat and resting his arms and chin on the table, Tyrian huffed.

"I know someone who might be able to help us..."

Tyrian glanced away for a moment.

"she's a member of the White Fang too."

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

"That's a lot more precise with it than I usually am." Raven replied."It's more...a link to a person that I hold onto. It brings me directly to them, that's how it works. Trying to get it into a specific spot around them...I would not bet on it."

Watts nodded with a frustrated hum.

"We'd better not risk it then. If I had the time or resources, I could whip up some sort of EMP device to put through the portal, make it easier to get them all out and through, but both of those are in short supply. Our second best option is, well, you two-" He said with a glance towards Raven again then Cinder-

he did a brief double take when he saw whatever the hell Mercury was getting up to with Penny, but she was smiling at least, which was the first time since they'd left the office. So whatever. Definitely didn't irk him in the slightest

"... and Penny could fly there directly. You're small enough that Penny should be able to shield you from radar, and if one of you could carry either Neo or Emerald it would let you get close enough to get access"

Neo immediately raised her hand; she loved flying, falling, other various high speed motions outside of her control, and she was at least pretty sure Emerald didn't. Watts nodded.

"I'm aware you three are probably our most dangerous combatants, but hopefully finding the white fang and infiltrating the tower will be quiet affairs. I have less faith this job will be" he added with a bit of a grim frown.

“…”

“Cold.”

What was this feeling in his chest? Had the light always reflected off her freckles like that?

Penny tilted her head, Mercury gaining more of her focus in lieu of spiraling further down her own heavy thoughts alone. What was this strange look he was giving her? His heart rate was also increasing, and his blood flow was increasing to various parts of the body. Was this.... "Friend Mercury..." she said, as she reached out...

and put a hand on his forehead and spoke with some measure of concern, checking his temperature. "I believe you may be suffering stronger withdrawal symptoms from the Entropy than initially expected"

At the table, Watts snorted.

“Excuse you?”

“The f*ck?”

Maybe it had been a minute and they sorta forgot the entirely platonic but was it though touchy feely aspect to the whole Roman-Neo dynamic, but either way they weren’t sure how else they were supposed to take that other than to stop whatever they were engaging with and emphatically intrude in unison.

“Dude. Did you just try to table her?”

“He totally just went for it on the DL. Roman, you literally just got back and you’re manifesting your codependency in physical form.”

“Who took my nunchucks?”

He sounded more bummed than anything, like he only just remembered them.

"I-I was not! I was....I was just proving that I can't pick up organic stuff! Neo didn't poof so I was right! Theory proven! That's all!"

Neo's face scrunched up in genuine shock, and if Roman's hand was still on her forehead she slowly but very firmly pried it off, as she leaned to the side to peek past it and slowly shake her head at Roman to make it very clear he was never supposed to try that again. She did not want to go to netherrealm

"I know someone who might be able to help us..."

Tyrian glanced away for a moment.

"she's a member of the White Fang too."

"Miss Trifa, correct?" Watts said, glancing back to Tyrian. "It can't hurt to try. Sun as well, annoying as she is" Watts added a bit more dryly. He had never liked that faunus. Couldn't ever really place a finger on why, but he didn't

 

[MidwayLives]

Neo's face scrunched up in genuine shock, and if Roman's hand was still on her forehead she slowly but very firmly pried it off, as she leaned to the side to peek past it and slowly shake her head at Roman to make it very clear he was never supposed to try that again. She did not want to go to netherrealm

Roman sighed.
No getting around that.
"Sorry, Neo. Won't happen again."
He still wasn't giving the nunchucks back though. That'd remain between him and the weasel. He's pretty sure that's what that was.

"Miss Trifa, correct?" Watts said, glancing back to Tyrian. "It can't hurt to try. Sun as well, annoying as she is" Watts added a bit more dryly. He had never liked that faunus. Couldn't ever really place a finger on why, but he didn't

Tyrian opened and closed his injured hand, having wrapped the paper towels around it like a makeshit bandage.

"Yeah...ugh." He'd have to pick the glass bits out at a later time. With his mind in the state it was in, he'd end up doing more harm than good.

"...I don't remember or even know how high she's ranked. Or what details she'd be privvy too." He didn't even like calling her if he was being honest. It made his heart sink everytime. "...But I'm sure she'd be happy to tell us whatever she DOES know. Maybe even get us in touch with..." He mumbled incoherently after that.

"....It's worth a shot at least."

 

[MyrtenRose]

She was gonna stoop to making her self-conscious just this once, though. Just to kind of. Encourage her to mentally play stuff back once before she said it.

“Are you gonna keep your hair long this time? I kinda think you should.”

"...I....that can't seriously be what's on your mind right now." ​

“Don’t hate a player ‘cause you got no game, Cindy.”

"I can't believe you two." ​

Tyrian's reaction was a bit more, well, physical.

*SHATTER*

The glass in his hand broke into pieces as he squeezed it with WAY too much pressure. The aura around his hand shimmered and the wet glop of milkshake spilled over across his section of the table. Along with a trail of blood from where glass shards were roughly embedded into the palm of his hand. It seemed as though he'd let his aura down by accident. "Oh geez! You okay, Tyrian??"

"...yeah, yeah I'm ok. S-sorry. I'll clean this up. I'll...I'll be right back." Tyrian said as he pushed himself up to his feet and went to grab whatever napkins or tissues they had stocked around here. Probably had some in the bathroom. Yeah. As he walked away, he pressed his left hand up to his forehead and grit his teeth.

"Holy shit Tyrian!" She blurted out, kinda without even thinking about it. That was...not something she expected, and she watched him go off with concern in her eyes. He said he would be fine, and he would be...physically. Aura would fix him up no problem. But mentally, that was another story. One they unfortunately didn't have time to get into at length. When he was out of sight, her attention returned to the others.​

Watts nodded with a frustrated hum.

"We'd better not risk it then. If I had the time or resources, I could whip up some sort of EMP device to put through the portal, make it easier to get them all out and through, but both of those are in short supply. Our second best option is, well, you two-" He said with a glance towards Raven again then Cinder-

he did a brief double take when he saw whatever the hell Mercury was getting up to with Penny, but she was smiling at least, which was the first time since they'd left the office. So whatever. Definitely didn't irk him in the slightest

"... and Penny could fly there directly. You're small enough that Penny should be able to shield you from radar, and if one of you could carry either Neo or Emerald it would let you get close enough to get access"

Neo immediately raised her hand; she loved flying, falling, other various high speed motions outside of her control, and she was at least pretty sure Emerald didn't. Watts nodded.

"I'm aware you three are probably our most dangerous combatants, but hopefully finding the white fang and infiltrating the tower will be quiet affairs. I have less faith this job will be" he added with a bit of a grim frown.

"Sounds like a plan to me. That is, if Penny is willing." Cinder commented before glancing towards her compatriot in tinydom. "I can carry you, Neo. I mean...I did it before." Raven for her part was silent now, but shrugged and gave a slightly reluctant nod.​

Settling back in his seat and resting his arms and chin on the table, Tyrian huffed.

"I know someone who might be able to help us..."

Tyrian glanced away for a moment.

"she's a member of the White Fang too."

"Miss Trifa, correct?" Watts said, glancing back to Tyrian. "It can't hurt to try. Sun as well, annoying as she is" Watts added a bit more dryly. He had never liked that faunus. Couldn't ever really place a finger on why, but he didn't

Tyrian opened and closed his injured hand, having wrapped the paper towels around it like a makeshit bandage.

"Yeah...ugh." He'd have to pick the glass bits out at a later time. With his mind in the state it was in, he'd end up doing more harm than good.

"...I don't remember or even know how high she's ranked. Or what details she'd be privvy too." He didn't even like calling her if he was being honest. It made his heart sink everytime. "...But I'm sure she'd be happy to tell us whatever she DOES know. Maybe even get us in touch with..." He mumbled incoherently after that.

"....It's worth a shot at least."

"Great! You know one, that gets us our in. Maybe. And Sun too. Tyrian, you...have her number right?"​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

Tyrian opened and closed his injured hand, having wrapped the paper towels around it like a makeshit bandage.

"Yeah...ugh." He'd have to pick the glass bits out at a later time. With his mind in the state it was in, he'd end up doing more harm than good.

"...I don't remember or even know how high she's ranked. Or what details she'd be privvy too." He didn't even like calling her if he was being honest. It made his heart sink everytime. "...But I'm sure she'd be happy to tell us whatever she DOES know. Maybe even get us in touch with..." He mumbled incoherently after that.

"....It's worth a shot at least."

Watts did a double take as his player realized he literally did not put those events in the right chronoligical order and just totally ignored Tyrian shredding his hand the dangers of 3am posting he managed to pull his focus out from his own gears turning and put two and two together with the shattering sound and shook his head.

"Tyrian- When the hell- You need to get those shards out out or your aura is going to heal over them. Come here."

His tone didn't really brook an argument, and he pulled out the most mundane of tools at his disposal; a pocket vale army knife that included a pair of tweezers, normally used for doing more manual work on devices he was trying to fix or crack on the go, but apparently serviceable as first aide. He grimaced at the sight of Tyrian's hand as he went to work, dropping the glass shards onto a napkin as he kept talking.

"At least she's for sure in the Fang, Sun's just a faunus so, you know. A bit on the nose to assume." He said with a sideways glance at Cinder Schnee

 

[MyrtenRose]

"At least she's for sure in the Fang, Sun's just a faunus so, you know. A bit on the nose to assume." He said with a sideways glance at Cinder Schnee

"W-w-w-whoa, no no, I meant like...y'know, she's like the kind of person who, ya know, would keep her ear to the ground! Be aware of what's going down around, rumors on the street and stuff, I'm not.....it's not like that...Tyrian Hazel somebody anybody back me up here. Pleaseee." ​

 

[Indolent]

"Rat problem? A frickin' stoat?"

"Hey! He might be a tiny weasel but he's been my bestie for... three years." Gretch pursed her lips, realizing how sad that likely sounded even with the eventual context of her semblance.

The faintest pang of familiarity may or may not have crossed Gretchen's mind just then. The echo of a memory of a dream from long, long ago (or yet to pass?), a muted flicker in her mind's eye that danced just out of range when she tried to catch hold of it, eternally just beyond reach.

Or perhaps... beyond touch?

That said though, this entire exchange. This vibe, this energy from the faunus across the bar from her smacked of familiarity and then something more, almost a foreboding deja vu of something that happened in another lifetime but wasn't supposed to have had... just yet.

Gretchen furrowed her wispy brows, golden hazel eyes glinting in the light as she absolutely scrutinized the bartender's face as she tried to make complete sense of it. Was it juuuuust a dream maybe? Like the dream from earlier today, like the stuff Hazy referenced that definitely sounded like a crappily concocted story made for jokes.

"Know what? Like I frickin' give a crap. I hope he eats all da rats. I hope he eats my boss. I hope the lousy frickin' HEALTH INSPECTOR shows up and SHUTS THIS JOINT DOWN before I hafta make this STOOPID MUDDAFREAKIN' DRINK YOU JUST ORDERED, WHICH IS JUST TEQUILA, SYRUP AN' JUICE—with a crappy lil umbrella inside THAT WE REUSE—SO I DON'T GOTTA KEEP SERVIN' YOU PISSANT KIDS FROM THAT HIGH-'N-MIGHTY SCHOOL UP ON THE HILL; WHICH BY THE WAY, I MOVED ALL THE WAY TO THIS STUPID EYESORE CITY ALL BY MYSELF JUST TO FIND OUT MY DEADBEAT LI'L AWOL SHITBIRD OF A BROTHER IS NOT. A STUDENT OF!!!!!"

Oh good, she wasn't hating on weasels everywhere. Cool, she could get along with the bartender, and definitely along with her anti-capitalist attitude if that's where she was going. Or if she was more anarchist adjacent, all the more power!

"I'd just heard about it but with how you put it, it sounds like it blows-- oh." Gretchen started before cutting herself off as the Bartender seemingly exploded in the verbal side, the huntress's profile somehow halving in size as the faunus's frustration echoed across the countertop between.

"That is unfortunate."

She slammed her palms down on the counter, leering at Gretchen through the wild curtain of bangs falling over her eyes.

"AN' NOW I GOTTA GO ALL THE WAY BACK DOWN TA THE FRICKIN' CELLAR AGAIN , CAUSE WE KEEP RUNNIN OUTTA JUICE 'N TEQUILA, ALL CUZZA SOME STUPID TWO-FOR-ONE PROMOTION JUNIOR'S RUNNING ON THIS SUGARY PISSWATER THAT BROUGHT ALL YOU BROKEASS LIL JERKS WHO CAN'T HANDLE YER LIQUOR SCURRYIN' DOWN HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE! Excuse me!"

"HEY I'M NOT BROKE AND DON'T MAKE IT BUT DO ME ONE BETTER--"

With a light vworp she suddenly seemed to drop through the floor as if a trapdoor had opened up directly beneath her, though a cursory glance over the counter revealed no such hatch existed. About fifteen seconds later another sudden vwoop saw her pop up through the floor itself like some manner of groundhog, landing on her feet with two tall glasses of red-yellow liquid complete with ice, umbrella and straw balancing on her palms that she lightly slid across to Gretchen before grabbing a dishcloth and starting to wipe down the counter.

"So what's the deal, hun? How much ya tippin'?"

ಠ_ಠ

The sensation of familiarity seemed to fold inwards towards eternity in a way that made it almost a certainty that it wasn't really a dream. Even then, ever the skeptic, Gretchen had her doubts.

Though, the intangibility nonsense that just happened, ye, there was no doubting that.

"Alright sooooo... we're gonna move these over to the side--" The pair of drinks actually shoved to the side as Gretch leaned forward, the backside of her hand aligned with her mouth so as to speak in a very inconspicuous fashion with matching tone.

"That was awesome. But! Nothing I haven't seen before. I wonder if you know em. I'm not going to make assumptions though nor should I. But similar semblances like that aren't unheard of... leave it at that though. Honestly super neat and I'm slightly envious."

Gretchen pulled back and readjusted her scarf, loosing the base of her hoodie so she could breathe a bit freer with a minute adjustment of her head before pulling out a bundle of lien from inside the many sleeves inside her scarf, slapping it down atop the counter.

"... Yeah, that's wet now but that's how much. Especially if you can either spruce up those drinks or make me something better for an initiate breaking into alcoholism and, just maybe, tell me anything interesting you've heard lately," She said while interleaving her hands together, eyes glinting anew, "I've never been in such a seedy ass dive-- pardon, club-- like this and I'd love to try for some underworld goss."

One of those things was very much a lie.

 

[Indolent]

Cinder gasped, witnessing that sudden illusion change. Oh right, there is her too! The young maiden mentally slapped herself, how could she have forgotten that was someone else they could potentially link up with...they had been on that train to Mistral with her, for a while there. Eve Taurus, powerful. Influential. Pretty scary. All of the above. Another ally, if they played it right. She framed her chin with her thumb and index finger, briefly thinking about it. "I think...well, there is somebody or a couple somebodies we could ask. I think. I mean, we could try to reach out to Sun. Maybe she could point us in the right direction? I don't know, worth a shot?"

Hazel frowned in consideration, remembering the relatively aloof faunus. Bombastic and energy with the proclivity for fun, and very very prone to monkeying about. As it were.

"They certainly get around but there's something to be said for immediately involving our friends-- and acquaintances-- in this. Even if it's out of necessity and It's definitely worth a shot. But keep this in mind. While I made the suggestion to veer our course to Junior's bar because of my..."

He glance towards door and closed his eyes, shaking his head, before finishing the line of thought.

"Prior history-- altercation rather-- with him, it's because of that and who he is that we can't make more use of him beyond that. It's the degree of involvement. Just don't be too quick to throw someone's name in the ring, especially if they weren't as involved last time, in the... previous run."

That said, he didn't really have anyone's name to suggest.

Tyrian's reaction was a bit more, well, physical.

*SHATTER*

The glass in his hand broke into pieces as he squeezed it with WAY too much pressure. The aura around his hand shimmered and the wet glop of milkshake spilled over across his section of the table. Along with a trail of blood from where glass shards were roughly embedded into the palm of his hand. It seemed as though he'd let his aura down by accident. "Oh geez! You okay, Tyrian??"

"...yeah, yeah I'm ok. S-sorry. I'll clean this up. I'll...I'll be right back." Tyrian said as he pushed himself up to his feet and went to grab whatever napkins or tissues they had stocked around here. Probably had some in the bathroom. Yeah. As he walked away, he pressed his left hand up to his forehead and grit his teeth.

"Tyrian..." Hazel uttered low under his breath, almost having been compelled to stand from his seat to help him but the smaller faunus moved faster than he could have . It was an eminent concern that painted his face but at the same time, from their time together at school and the memories that flowed of another life time... their relationship as partners seemed inevitable to strain if not evaporate. It was a rare moment that Hazel uncharacterisically seemed to hesitate as he, like the first time before, genuinely had no idea how to help beyond the immediate first aid that their team leader was already managing.

Settling back in his seat and resting his arms and chin on the table, Tyrian huffed.

"I know someone who might be able to help us..."

Tyrian glanced away for a moment.

"she's a member of the White Fang too."

"Miss Trifa, correct?" Watts said, glancing back to Tyrian. "It can't hurt to try. Sun as well, annoying as she is" Watts added a bit more dryly. He had never liked that faunus. Couldn't ever really place a finger on why, but he didn't

"I remember her, thoughly barely as you've rarely mentioned her before. If you think she can help us then, especially as someone connected to the White Fang then..."

"W-w-w-whoa, no no, I meant like...y'know, she's like the kind of person who, ya know, would keep her ear to the ground! Be aware of what's going down around, rumors on the street and stuff, I'm not.....it's not like that...Tyrian Hazel somebody anybody back me up here. Pleaseee." ​

"Sorry, Cinder, you're on your own. By the looks of things, you've swallowed your foot to your stomach. I suggest not doing that next time."

 

[Gus Gungus]

Tyrian's reaction was a bit more, well, physical.

*SHATTER*

The glass in his hand broke into pieces as he squeezed it with WAY too much pressure. The aura around his hand shimmered and the wet glop of milkshake spilled over across his section of the table. Along with a trail of blood from where glass shards were roughly embedded into the palm of his hand. It seemed as though he'd let his aura down by accident. "Oh geez! You okay, Tyrian??"

"...yeah, yeah I'm ok. S-sorry. I'll clean this up. I'll...I'll be right back." Tyrian said as he pushed himself up to his feet and went to grab whatever napkins or tissues they had stocked around here. Probably had some in the bathroom. Yeah. As he walked away, he pressed his left hand up to his forehead and grit his teeth.​

"Damn." Mercury summarized.

"That sucks about the milkshake, right? They prolly ordered that in just for him." Emerald commented, sipping on her martini. It was gnarly and all, but after having spent all that time around Tyrian in Mistral the two had eventually just accepted he was Like That sometimes and stopped stressing over it. Not much they could really do about it besides give him some room, which was usually what he needed anyway.

"Know what though? Makes me wonder if there's some hidden backstory between him and that Eve lady we're all just now gonna find out about."

"Makes sense. Didn't he used to wander around the streets at night yelling her name during our whole bounty hunter phase?"

"Right. You know, I feel a lot better 'bout how we both looked at him automatically the second the White Fang came up now."

"Yeah, Watts did it too. Now he's hanging Cinder out to dry to cover for himself."

"It's sad when they can't confront their internalized behaviors like that."

"Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad.""Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad.""Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad.""Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad.""Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad.""Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad.""Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad.""Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad.""Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad.""Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad.""Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad.""Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad."

Whether the existence of gods implied there was an afterlife, if Roman had been there, and if his hands had now become miniature portals to them were all questions given cause to hang heavily over the group's minds that morning, but Watts at least was fairly certain he knew what hell was like as he was beset from all sides by a seemingly endless horde of Emeralds and Mercurys the moment he finished helping Tyrian, all parroting the same word, some of them sporting adorable little animal noses and ears.

She may have been annoying them, but when the torch was lit, Cinder called for aid, and they were sufficiently bored enough, Mercury and Emerald could always be relied upon to answer.

Also for as long as he couldn't call in a personalized tank on them at any given moment they were definitely gonna be taking advantage of that.

​

Neo immediately raised her hand; she loved flying, falling, other various high speed motions outside of her control, and she was at least pretty sure Emerald didn't.​

"I'm aware you three are probably our most dangerous combatants, but hopefully finding the white fang and infiltrating the tower will be quiet affairs. I have less faith this job will be" he added with a bit of a grim frown.​

Neo immediately found that hand slapped five without Emerald looking her way. No qualms about being an open book on that one.

"Hey, so I just Boogled it," she piped up again, waving her scroll around in Watts' face with a mild note of smugness if she wasn't getting under his skin today already. "And now I'm thinking the CCT's a waste of a trip. If Ironboner just found a virus designed to mess it up he's gotta have that shit on lockdown, and I don't feel like running illusions on that many people if we're doing the second worst night of our lives again later. Also, like, why would we physically need to go there?"

Unless it was for expository purposes for anyone who might not know what it was, but they all did. So yay.

"Anyway, apparently Merlot's been in Vale for months. It's where his company started before the Schnees snapped him up. Loooootta people aren't happy about it. Sheezh, Arthur, you never told us your hacker dad was famous for 'unethical regional experimenting'!"

She whistled as though actually impressed, scrolling further down in the Vytality Fair article she was reading.

"He has his own private island he's set up on. Just off the coast, near Mouuuuuunnnnnnnntttttttttttttadasfdfvd."

Hrm.

Rare was the hiccup that could truly faze Emerald when she was in her full-tilt grifter's flow, so whatever had her screech to a halt as emphatically as a motorcycle did when it ploughed into a brick wall must've been quite the revelation indeed. She stared blankly for a few moments, finger hovering on the screen as her eyes scanned over the paragraph a few times, then she coughed and slid it into her pocket, pointedly resisting the urge to look at either of the people her brain wanted her to.

"...It's... not that far. 'Bout an hour each way, as the Manta flies. Ironwood must've shot over there for his big state-of-the-kingdoms thing as soon as he got through dealing with us; it's a day trip, but we can still make it before the finals are in full swing. If you really think it's that important."

​

Penny tilted her head, Mercury gaining more of her focus in lieu of spiraling further down her own heavy thoughts alone. What was this strange look he was giving her? His heart rate was also increasing, and his blood flow was increasing to various parts of the body. Was this.... "Friend Mercury..." she said, as she reached out...

and put a hand on his forehead and spoke with some measure of concern, checking his temperature. "I believe you may be suffering stronger withdrawal symptoms from the Entropy than initially expected"

At the table, Watts snorted.​

There was a brief moment where—as she touched his forehead, jazz lounge piano tinkled away gently at the back of his mind, and he for some reason found himself picturing an entire future ahead with this girl complete with wedding bells and tiny little robo-legged babies—the pillar of steel-encased emotions that was Mercury actually looked flustered, tremulous, unsure of what to say.

Then he heard Watts give his precious little snort, and Beacon's bad boy was back. Just like alliteration.

"The only thing I'm addicted to..."

He started, eyes flashing with a rugged steel as they flickered back to her.

"...is that smile."



A new song started up, as if by some stroke of divine acquiescence to his smoothness (that was how he was taking it anyway); he reached up to grip her cold hand in his calloused ones, moving to start leading her down towards the dancefloor, not afraid to put some heft into it since it wasn't like he was budging her an inch if she didn't want to.

"Know what I hear helps with the shakes? Dancing. C'mon. Seems like this talk's mostly happening around us anyway."

In the event she did comply, he made sure his hand was out of her ocular radius when he passed Watts' table and casually flicked him one of these.

 

[MyrtenRose]

Hazel frowned in consideration, remembering the relatively aloof faunus. Bombastic and energy with the proclivity for fun, and very very prone to monkeying about. As it were.

"They certainly get around but there's something to be said for immediately involving our friends-- and acquaintances-- in this. Even if it's out of necessity and It's definitely worth a shot. But keep this in mind. While I made the suggestion to veer our course to Junior's bar because of my..."

He glance towards door and closed his eyes, shaking his head, before finishing the line of thought.

"Prior history-- altercation rather-- with him, it's because of that and who he is that we can't make more use of him beyond that. It's the degree of involvement. Just don't be too quick to throw someone's name in the ring, especially if they weren't as involved last time, in the... previous run."

"Hazel...I get what you're saying. I do. It's just...whether we like it or not, us being here again gives us a chance to try and prevent a lot of awful things. Tragic stuff. Salem was taken out, who knows how long it will take for her to get back together, and who knows what Ironwood did with her and Glynda after we left. They were all too willing to imprison us, after all. Two major pieces of the board last time, and they might be off the board entirely for all we know. If tonight's coming like it went down before, I think...I think we should have as many hands on deck as we can. They're going to be involved if an assault comes, one way or another. The only difference is how aware they are of what's really happening."​

"Sorry, Cinder, you're on your own. By the looks of things, you've swallowed your foot to your stomach. I suggest not doing that next time."

Top ten anime betrayals.​

A new song started up, as if by some stroke of divine acquiescence to his smoothness (that was how he was taking it anyway); he reached up to grip her cold hand in his calloused ones, moving to start leading her down towards the dancefloor, not afraid to put some heft into it since it wasn't like he was budging her an inch if she didn't want to.

"Know what I hear helps with the shakes? Dancing. C'mon. Seems like this talk's mostly happening around us anyway."

He really was trying to do that right now. Today. With little time to waste. She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out before her mouth shut again and she just let it go in appreciation of him and Emerald coming to her aid against Arthur's insinuation.​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

"Damn." Mercury summarized.

"That sucks about the milkshake, right? They prolly ordered that in just for him." Emerald commented, sipping on her martini. It was gnarly and all, but after having spent all that time around Tyrian in Mistral the two had eventually just accepted he was Like That sometimes and stopped stressing over it. Not much they could really do about it besides give him some room, which was usually what he needed anyway.

"Know what though? Makes me wonder if there's some hidden backstory between him and that Eve lady we're all just now gonna find out about."

"Makes sense. Didn't he used to wander around the streets at night yelling her name during our whole bounty hunter phase?"

"Right. You know, I feel a lot better 'bout how we both looked at him automatically the second the White Fang came up now."

"Yeah, Watts did it too. Now he's hanging Cinder out to dry to cover for himself."

"It's sad when they can't confront their internalized behaviors like that."

"Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad." "Sad.-

"-Emerald." watts cut in about 2 seconds into that nonsense, his voice sharp while he tried to keep his hands steady as he got the last bits of glass out. "Stop jamming yourself into my head while we're trying to figure this out or I am going to take drastic measures."

Depending on whether she did or not, when Watts finished with Tyrian's hand a second screen flickered into existence from one of the rings still on his hand with a inscrutable mass of code being typed offhandedly, the results of which were not immediately apparent

"Hey, so I just Boogled it," she piped up again, waving her scroll around in Watts' face with a mild note of smugness if she wasn't getting under his skin today already. "And now I'm thinking the CCT's a waste of a trip. If Ironboner just found a virus designed to mess it up he's gotta have that shit on lockdown, and I don't feel like running illusions on that many people if we're doing the second worst night of our lives again later. Also, like, why would we physically need to go there?"

He rubbed at his eyes again before he pulled his hand down his face.

"I can almost appreciate the implication earlier that I can just wave my hand and every bit of technology jumps to whatever whim I've cooked up, but no matter how far ahead I'm am of Atlas right now, I can't perform miracles. What do you think the CCT tower does? just a big antenna that makes your scroll go?" he drawled with an eyeroll "There is no way for me to access any information outside of Vale without going through it, and Ironwood has it cut off from the rest of the network after his discovery of White Queen. Getting into it directly would give me or Penny much more ability to pinpoint where the attack is happening if it is."

"If?" Penny cut in, sounding a bit distraught at the idea that she'd jumped ship from Ironwood on maybe. "You all were so sure that it was happening. Did it not... last time?" She asked, even the question sounding odd on her tongue as she nonetheless tried to at least start buying into this Time Travel theory.

"Yes." Watts continued "'If.' White Queen was a huge part of the attack's success. Genuinely, there is a far smaller chance that Beacon would've fallen, even with the dragon, if Atlas had been able to bring its full might to bear against it as Ironwood intended. How did you all find it?" Watts asked, turning to Penny.

"...It... we found traces of it in your dorm room's scroll setup, as well as very similar inroads made into Beacon's systems as when you found the information on-"

"Right." Watts cut off, turning back to the group. "We were framed, but the enemy used one of its best pieces to do it. There's a good chance that even Atlas' finest can contain it before the attack, and even if they can't ironwood can take countermeasures. It could put the entire thing into the bin, ruin the strike that Ozpin's alcolyte's have spent an entire year preparing for. But what if its NOT Vale?" he asked as he leaned over the table, his side project finished as he instead focused on the main screen. If his mind was running a mile a minute, it had been doing so for the last few months, if not longer. It showed.

He looked tired. Older even.

"Because now all of Atlas' might is focused like a laser beam on Vale and Beacon. Now they're not even looking in this direction, and the rest of the world can't even reach Vale. If one of the other towers falls, no one will be able to reach any of them. Its almost a given that whoever with Ozpin remembers enough of the last time to frame us got here earlier. An entire kingdom could fall off the map, and we'd have no way of knowing unless we got access to the tower. Even the Fang won't have contact with cells outside of Vale. And before anyone says anything-" he said as he took a deep breath as he stood up straight again and closed his eyes, putting a hand up as the other rested on his hip. "-yes, I'm aware thats a lot of conjecture, and no, there's about shit all we could do about it without maybe the other Raven's help. But if I could find something, We could... warn them at least, and access to the CCT would give us as close to perfect information as we could get if the attack is still pointed at Vale."

"Anyway, apparently Merlot's been in Vale for months. It's where his company started before the Schnees snapped him up. Loooootta people aren't happy about it. Sheezh, Arthur, you never told us your hacker dad was famous for 'unethical regional experimenting'!"

She whistled as though actually impressed, scrolling further down in the Vytality Fair article she was reading.

"He has his own private island he's set up on. Just off the coast, near Mouuuuuunnnnnnnntttttttttttttadasfdfvd."

Hrm.

Rare was the hiccup that could truly faze Emerald when she was in her full-tilt grifter's flow, so whatever had her screech to a halt as emphatically as a motorcycle did when it ploughed into a brick wall must've been quite the revelation indeed. She stared blankly for a few moments, finger hovering on the screen as her eyes scanned over the paragraph a few times, then she coughed and slid it into her pocket, pointedly resisting the urge to look at either of the people her brain wanted her to.

"...It's... not that far. 'Bout an hour each way, as the Manta flies. Ironwood must've shot over there for his big state-of-the-kingdoms thing as soon as he got through dealing with us; it's a day trip, but we can still make it before the finals are in full swing. If you really think it's that important."

"...I see." he said with a sharp frown, the information potent enough that Emerald's continued inane hostility towards him for reasons he was incapable of parsing himself went unanswered. He also was able to follow basic context clues and what particular mountain would be ill advised to bring up in current company, and with a glance it was clear that he wasn't the only one as Eve Taurus The Shorter suddenly spun herself right-side up, gripping at her wrist with a frown, the rest of her expression hidden underneath a blindfold that eventually flaked away with the rest of the illusion to show Neo wide eyed and frowning.

One side of her face was also splattered with blood, until she apparently realized it and quickly and haphazardly for her brushed it off, the illusion flaking away like the last, actually on purpose one. It wasn't the first time Em or Merc had ever seen her semblance take on a mind of its own after Haven, but it was a first for her partner, and she looked anywhere but him with a slightly ashamed frown.

There was a brief moment where—as she touched his forehead, jazz lounge piano tinkled away gently at the back of his mind, and he for some reason found himself picturing an entire future ahead with this girl complete with wedding bells and tiny little robo-legged babies—the pillar of steel-encased emotions that was Mercury actually looked flustered, tremulous, unsure of what to say.

Then he heard Watts give his precious little snort, and Beacon's bad boy was back. Just like alliteration.

"The only thing I'm addicted to..."

He started, eyes flashing with a rugged steel as they flickered back to her.

"...is that smile."



A new song started up, as if by some stroke of divine acquiescence to his smoothness (that was how he was taking it anyway); he reached up to grip her cold hand in his calloused ones, moving to start leading her down towards the dancefloor, not afraid to put some heft into it since it wasn't like he was budging her an inch if she didn't want to.

"Know what I hear helps with the shakes? Dancing. C'mon. Seems like this talk's mostly happening around us anyway."

In the event she did comply, he made sure his hand was out of her ocular radius when he passed Watts' table and casually flicked him one of these.

Mercury managed to pull Penny's attention back out of the current conversation, and frankly this entire situation was.... strange. She was not used to people being so nice to her! Polite, certainly, respectful, absolutely, lest they face Ironwood's reprimand. But all of Atlas that knew of her knew what she was. It was only Cinder and the rest of team WTCH that had treated her more like a person, but they had never been... this flavor of nice.

At the offer, she frowned, and slowly shook her head. "...No, we should not. I even if we do not have anything to add in the immediate, and as much as I would love to dance, we should be ready as soon as we are able once-"

"-Actually, no matter where we go I'm going to need ten minutes with everyone's scrolls." Watts cut in with a sideways look. "I don't trust our group chat's basic encryption if all of Ironwood's net goons are trawling every communication for a sniff of us. Not enough time for what I made on the way to Haven, but some basic adjustments would go a long way."

Penny's eyes widened slightly before she allowed Mercury to move her (from where she had not budged an inch on his initial attempt), standing with a bow that didn't really connect right with the giddiness in her tone. "Oh, then I would be delighted to dance, I was only allowed to do so by myself at the beacon ball!"

Watts held out a hand for Mercury's scroll as he past if he was willing to give it, his own finger going up nigh reflexively in response despite his bizarre case of wingmanning, and regardless he looked to the rest of the group expectantly- and flinched as Neo's hit him square in the forehead before it shattered and her real scroll was lightly tossed onto the table.

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

Five minutes into that ten minutes, in the midst of wondering whether he should even bother telling Tyrian he should change his password for the thirtieth time, Watts saw something very simple; Raven, cooling her drink with a bit of ice flaking off her hands. Frazzled as he was, it took a good few seconds longer than normal for the thought to breach the surface of unconscious to conscious, as he stared blankly at the little bits of ice and cold and wondered why that was suddenly so interesting to hi-

"oh. Wait, shit-"

Then he called back whoever wanted to listen and told them the much quicker, more sensible plan of having Cinder and penny maidenblast the cell's ability to hold prisoners to smithereens.

 

[MidwayLives]

"Great! You know one, that gets us our in. Maybe. And Sun too. Tyrian, you...have her number right?"

"I KINDA know one...it's...been a while." Tyrian mumbled as his tail swayed wistfully over his shoulder. "Don't exactly think I can ring Trifa up and ask for the details. If things are still as they are, and I can't imagine why they wouldn't be, the higher ups probably monitor stuff like scroll activity. Helps make sure no one's a filthy louse or a snitch." Tyrian winced as blood continued to seep through his paper towel coverings. "...Sun's probably leagues easier to get a hold of but what would I even tell her? Come to this club we're going on a mission that may or may not involve trying to find the White Fang? I'd rather leave her out if I could help it..."
He liked Sun well enough. She was an excellent fighter with amazing form. She could even give him a run for his money. He wouldn't admit it outright to Sun's face but it was true. "...And I'd probably need someone to tag along for any of the White Fang stuff. I didn't..um...Well, Trifa will probably be the ONLY person happy to see me there. Let's just say that."

"Tyrian- When the hell- You need to get those shards out out or your aura is going to heal over them. Come here."

His tone didn't really brook an argument, and he pulled out the most mundane of tools at his disposal; a pocket vale army knife that included a pair of tweezers, normally used for doing more manual work on devices he was trying to fix or crack on the go, but apparently serviceable as first aide. He grimaced at the sight of Tyrian's hand as he went to work, dropping the glass shards onto a napkin as he kept talking.

"At least she's for sure in the Fang, Sun's just a faunus so, you know. A bit on the nose to assume." He said with a sideways glance at Cinder Schnee

"Sun's a bunch of fun but the Fang isn't for her." Tyrian added, shaking his head in pain? Disappointment? Shame? Who knew for sure?
"Ow..." He murmured as Watts went through the effort of picking out the bits and bobs of glass. "...Sorry about that again. Should have controlled myself better." The faunus admitted and once his friend/leader was done, Tyrian leaned back and hopped to his feet and tried to close his injured hand up into a fist.
"...Ugh, still stings and it's probably gonna be that way until my aura heals it. But that's my own damn fault."

She whistled as though actually impressed, scrolling further down in the Vytality Fair article she was reading.

"He has his own private island he's set up on. Just off the coast, near Mouuuuuunnnnnnnntttttttttttttadasfdfvd."

Hrm.

Rare was the hiccup that could truly faze Emerald when she was in her full-tilt grifter's flow, so whatever had her screech to a halt as emphatically as a motorcycle did when it ploughed into a brick wall must've been quite the revelation indeed. She stared blankly for a few moments, finger hovering on the screen as her eyes scanned over the paragraph a few times, then she coughed and slid it into her pocket, pointedly resisting the urge to look at either of the people her brain wanted her to.

"...It's... not that far. 'Bout an hour each way, as the Manta flies. Ironwood must've shot over there for his big state-of-the-kingdoms thing as soon as he got through dealing with us; it's a day trip, but we can still make it before the finals are in full swing. If you really think it's that important."

While Roman was mostly glad that he apologized to Neo (even though Merc and Emerald were totally wrong/he wasn't TRYING to 'vwoomp'-yes that was his new name for it-Neo. He still had no idea where his stuff WENT!) he raised an eyebrow at how Emerald kinda just trailed off there. "You okay, Emerald? Kinda lost the plot for a second there..." Was that what the saying meant? He really wasn't sure but he hoped he'd said it with enough confidence nobody would second guess it.

"Well, I say that we go! No matter how far, I'm up to doing what needs to be done!" He gave his empty glass a slight shake, the icecubes clinking around. "Besides, what's the alternative? Sit around drinking and letting Arthur think up stuff and we poke holes until something else crazy happens? Just tell me where I might be the best used and I'll go!"

Er, well, provided Neo came with. To make sure she was safe and all.

 

[MyrtenRose]

"...Sun's probably leagues easier to get a hold of but what would I even tell her? Come to this club we're going on a mission that may or may not involve trying to find the White Fang? I'd rather leave her out if I could help it..."
He liked Sun well enough. She was an excellent fighter with amazing form. She could even give him a run for his money. He wouldn't admit it outright to Sun's face but it was true. "...And I'd probably need someone to tag along for any of the White Fang stuff.

“You mean….someone like Sun?”

​

 

[Gus Gungus]

"Hey! He might be a tiny weasel but he's been my bestie for... three years." Gretch pursed her lips, realizing how sad that likely sounded even with the eventual context of her semblance.


That said though, this entire exchange. This vibe, this energy from the faunus across the bar from her smacked of familiarity and then something more, almost a foreboding deja vu of something that happened in another lifetime but wasn't supposed to have had... just yet.

Gretchen furrowed her wispy brows, golden hazel eyes glinting in the light as she absolutely scrutinized the bartender's face as she tried to make complete sense of it. Was it juuuuust a dream maybe? Like the dream from earlier today, like the stuff Hazy referenced that definitely sounded like a crappily concocted story made for jokes.

Oh good, she wasn't hating on weasels everywhere. Cool, she could get along with the bartender, and definitely along with her anti-capitalist attitude if that's where she was going. Or if she was more anarchist adjacent, all the more power!

"I'd just heard about it but with how you put it, it sounds like it blows-- oh." Gretchen started before cutting herself off as the Bartender seemingly exploded in the verbal side, the huntress's profile somehow halving in size as the faunus's frustration echoed across the countertop between.

"That is unfortunate."

"HEY I'M NOT BROKE AND DON'T MAKE IT BUT DO ME ONE BETTER--"​

"I axedya for yer tip, notcha life story toots."
​

"Alright sooooo... we're gonna move these over to the side--" The pair of drinks actually shoved to the side as Gretch leaned forward, the backside of her hand aligned with her mouth so as to speak in a very inconspicuous fashion with matching tone.

"That was awesome. But! Nothing I haven't seen before. I wonder if you know em. I'm not going to make assumptions though nor should I. But similar semblances like that aren't unheard of... leave it at that though. Honestly super neat and I'm slightly envious."​

"Didja really just order a twoferwun drinks special then wait til I was finished makin 'em before changin yer mind?" The barmaid asked in tones as sweet as honey, a marked contrast to the pair of bowie knives she produced from under the counter and started sharpening together. At the second part of Gretchen's musings, though, the blades froze mid-scrape, tanuki ears twitching in dangerous fashion as Gretchen thought she heard the following over a peak in the DJ's current track. Of course, she couldn't be sure.

"Well, let's assume I wantcha ta assume. Let's say the oddsa me GUTTIN YA shoot way down if ya do."
​

Gretchen pulled back and readjusted her scarf, loosing the base of her hoodie so she could breathe a bit freer with a minute adjustment of her head before pulling out a bundle of lien from inside the many sleeves inside her scarf, slapping it down atop the counter.

"... Yeah, that's wet now but that's how much. Especially if you can either spruce up those drinks or make me something better for an initiate breaking into alcoholism and, just maybe, tell me anything interesting you've heard lately," She said while interleaving her hands together, eyes glinting anew, "I've never been in such a seedy ass dive-- pardon, club-- like this and I'd love to try for some underworld goss."

One of those things was very much a lie.​

Far more unambiguous was the way the barmaid's eyes lit up at the stack of lien, a well-timed cha-ching soundbite booming through the speakers in the midst of whatever remix Deft Funk were dropping in response to the renewed energy Mercury and Penny's contrasting styles brought to the dancefloor. In a flurry of motion she snatched the notes up, gracelessly stuffed them down her shirt, tipped what must've been about a third of a bottle of what looked to be pure grain alcohol into the Strawberry Sunrises and promptly lit them both ablaze with a spray of sparks from the bowie knives, downing half of what appeared to have been claimed as hers in one go.

"Aight, boo. Let's talk bidness. First order: I wanna know just who you know's bin moseyin around with MY clan semblance."

It proved a most enlightening conversation for them both.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

"-Emerald." watts cut in about 2 seconds into that nonsense, his voice sharp while he tried to keep his hands steady as he got the last bits of glass out. "Stop jamming yourself into my head while we're trying to figure this out or-"​

The result the pushback yielded was, in fact, immediate.

"Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?" "Or what?"

It just wasn't the desired one.

"Or what, exactly?"

Tick.

Mercury, Tyrian, and the more cartoonish aspects of the illusion all vanished.

Tock.

Then the rest of the room, the sole exception being the strobe lights that continued to pulse between blue and red.

Tick.

Its contents followed suit, save for Watts, a solitary Emerald, and a giant, rustic hourglass that took the place of the DJ podium, its sands almost finished running through. The rhythm of a distant clock replaced that of the club speakers, the only thing echoing through the void; and if he squinted hard enough into the endless, unforgiving black...

Tock.

Things he couldn't quite articulate the shape of stared back.

Tick.

"Go ahead, douchebag. I really wanna know what 'drastic measures' looks like."

Then his hands started to wrinkle.

Tock.

"Think you can dig something up on me that beats what I have on you?"

The nails on the end of each finger started to grow, on and on as his skin continued to prune up like he'd fallen asleep in the bath for too long.

Tick.

"I doubt it."

If he checked his reflection in the hourglass he saw a gaunt, shriveled Ironwood staring back at him, aging faster and faster by the second as the sands continued to flow.

Tock.

"C'mon, brainiac. Figure it out already. Shouldn't that be easy? Isn't that the point of you?"

The lights flashed from blue to red, and now Merlot's was the face looking back at him, continuing to age past even the doctor's advanced state as his hair and beard grew more and more unkempt, skin sallow as ancient parchment, like a scene from a nightmarish take on Dorian Gray.

Tick.

"Or you wanna finally admit to yourself what I already figured out a half hour ago?"

Tock.

One last pulse of the lights saw Watts finally come face to face with himself; old, decrepit and alone, sad eyes and a long, droopy mustache all he had to show for his ordeal.

GONNNNNG.

"That you don't have a fucking clue?"

The invisible clock struck twelve the same moment Watts' skin turned to dust, and his reflection's bones plunged forever into the void right before the hourglass shattered, its contents an infinite avalanche that spilled out to bury him alive—

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
​

Watts held out a hand for Mercury's scroll as he past if he was willing to give it, his own finger going up nigh reflexively in response despite his bizarre case of wingmanning, and regardless he looked to the rest of the group expectantly- and flinched as Neo's hit him square in the forehead before it shattered and her real scroll was lightly tossed onto the table.​

"C'mon, chief, try not to have a full meltdown. There's always the next dance."

—He was standing back in the VIP booth, Tyrian's return from the bathroom and subsequent events having occurred after his admittedly sensible exchange with Penny for logistics reasons, Mercury vainly snickering at the sight of him seemingly having a straight bluescreen moment while he tried to pass him the scroll. It was hard to tell how much time had passed, the only noteworthy changes to the room being the absence of an Emerald who had vanished to get herself another martini and Neo—who incidentally she had just straight shanghaied out of the booth somewhere in the middle of all that—something with a lot of sugar. So juice. She was gonna buy her some juice to feel better about stuff.

Mercury slid the device into his breast pocket instead of waiting any longer, giving him a consoling pat on the chest and speaking to Penny over one shoulder as he with permission led her down the stairs.

"Human brains do that all the time. You're not missing out on much."

Emerald, by contrast, had not turned over her scroll as requested, because A: seemed like a bad idea given their escalating shadow cold war and B: he wasn't the only one who knew how to sideload a freaking VPN.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
​

Five minutes into that ten minutes​

Spoiler

"WOULDN'T IT BE WILD IF THIS WAS THE FIRST AND LAST TIME WE EVER TALKED BECAUSE WHEN TONIGHT HAPPENED ORIGINALLY YOU DYING IS WHAT KINDA STARTED EVERYTHING AND EVEN THOUGH I DON'T THINK THAT'S GONNA HAPPEN NOW BECAUSE OF YOUR CHOICES I PERSONALLY HAVE A LOTTA DEATH FLAGS WAVING? HEY, REMEMBER WHEN YOU ARRESTED ME?"

Whether it was everything she ever imagined it'd be or not was for her to decide, but Penny at the very least was given a very authentic 'young woman on the dancefloor' experience by a Mercury who had to yell just to be heard over the bass down here. He did his best to match the synthetic girl's quite frankly dorky vibe while keeping his own personal aura of detached coolness intact, which pretty much invariably meant things were headed for a danceoff.

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

Emerald, by contrast, had not turned over her scroll as requested, because A: seemed like a bad idea given their escalating shadow cold war and B: he wasn't the only one who knew how to sideload a freaking VPN.

Unfortunately for her, his 'oOOoh mAgiCAl HAckIng' wasn't particularly concerned over whether he had the scroll or not , which became apparent as his 'drastic measures' took effect, and how much of a different scale they were operating on;

Watts' being much more petty, because all it was was that her scroll background had changed. It was some selfie Watts had took months ago he'd been weirdly proud off with him staring off into the middle distance, thoughtfully perched on a rock with his chin nestled between two fingers, that he'd showed to basically everyone and equally everyone pointed out it was just kind of lame despite his protests that he'd 'spent all night looking up proper photography framing and color theory'

Extremely simple, extremely petty, but the button to change it in the options was just... gone. Potentially forever.

Also he was OBVIOUSLY doing more than just 'sideloading a VPN' thank you, anyone he was friends with was basically forced at gunpoint to have installed one of those a million years ago

"C'mon, chief, try not to have a full meltdown. There's always the next dance."

—He was standing back in the VIP booth, Tyrian's return from the bathroom and subsequent events having occurred after his admittedly sensible exchange with Penny for logistics reasons, Mercury vainly snickering at the sight of him seemingly having a straight bluescreen moment while he tried to pass him the scroll. It was hard to tell how much time had passed, the only noteworthy changes to the room being the absence of an Emerald who had vanished to get herself another martini and Neo—who incidentally she had just straight shanghaied out of the booth somewhere in the middle of all that—something with a lot of sugar. So juice. She was gonna buy her some juice to feel better about stuff.

Mercury slid the device into his breast pocket instead of waiting any longer, giving him a consoling pat on the chest and speaking to Penny over one shoulder as he with permission led her down the stairs.

"Human brains do that all the time. You're not missing out on much."

Emerald, by contrast, had not turned over her scroll as requested, because A: seemed like a bad idea given their escalating shadow cold war and B: he wasn't the only one who knew how to sideload a freaking VPN.

Watts was indeed seemingly lost to the world by the time Mercury knocked him back into reality, but he didn't look particularly harrowed; just somehow more tired than he had before, not even bothering to acknowledge Mercury's jab as he snatched the scroll and slumped down at the table with a deep frown and started to work in silence. Penny was also more taciturn; while she was giving Mercury her attention, it was very easy for her to do that and pay mind to the rest of her surroundings; and she was essentially the only one who could be monitoring their scroll network's aura levels while not using her eyes to do it. It was very easy for her to gauge when someone else was using their semblance.

But she had no idea what Emerald had done, and Watts had made no mention of it, or reacted much at all. Surely it could not have been anything terrible. Yet it did leave more of a swirl in her soul's gut; These people were meant to be friends. Some of them had at least treated her likea friend, so why were they all so... not nice to each other? Were they truly any better than what Ironwood was trying to be?

her thoughts spiralled more as she was led down the stairs-

"WOULDN'T IT BE WILD IF THIS WAS THE FIRST AND LAST TIME WE EVER TALKED BECAUSE WHEN TONIGHT HAPPENED ORIGINALLY YOU DYING IS WHAT KINDA STARTED EVERYTHING AND EVEN THOUGH I DON'T THINK THAT'S GONNA HAPPEN NOW BECAUSE OF YOUR CHOICES I PERSONALLY HAVE A LOTTA DEATH FLAGS WAVING? HEY, REMEMBER WHEN YOU ARRESTED ME?"

Whether it was everything she ever imagined it'd be or not was for her to decide, but Penny at the very least was given a very authentic 'young woman on the dancefloor' experience by a Mercury who had to yell just to be heard over the bass down here. He did his best to match the synthetic girl's quite frankly dorky vibe while keeping his own personal aura of detached coolness intact, which pretty much invariably meant things were headed for a danceoff.

-There was so much going on (ﾟヮﾟ)

Penny was not one for sensory overload, as mentioned above. Except this was as bad as the worst combat stress tests she'd been put through, large group exercises that descended into chaos by design to test decision making under pressure.

This was like one of those, except everyone was having fun! Many of them with the aid of hallucinogenic substances and alcohol! SHE WAS VERY OVERWHELMED!

"I WOULD BE VERY DISTRESSED IF YOU PASSED! CINDER IS MY BEST FRIEND AND IT IS CLEAR YOU ARE ALL IMPORTANT TO HER! I WILL DEFEND YOU WITH MY LIFE! YES! IT WAS FORTY SEVEN MINUTES AND THIRTY TWO SECONDS AGO! THIS IS FUN! I AM SCARED : D !"

While she had been mostly just sort of doing the shuffle when they'd first gotten down here-

-The more complex Mercury got, the more she got. In fact, the moves looked familiar. Incredibly so. Beacon Ball with his team almost move for move so.

 

[MyrtenRose]

head. "...No, we should not. I even if we do not have anything to add in the immediate, and as much as I would love to dance, we should be ready as soon as we are able once-"

"-Actually, no matter where we go I'm going to need ten minutes with everyone's scrolls." Watts cut in with a sideways look. "I don't trust our group chat's basic encryption if all of Ironwood's net goons are trawling every communication for a sniff of us. Not enough time for what I made on the way to Haven, but some basic adjustments would go a long way."

Penny's eyes widened slightly before she allowed Mercury to move her (from where she had not budged an inch on his initial attempt), standing with a bow that didn't really connect right with the giddiness in her tone. "Oh, then I would be delighted to dance, I was only allowed to do so by myself at the beacon ball!"

Watts held out a hand for Mercury's scroll as he past if he was willing to give it, his own finger going up nigh reflexively in response despite his bizarre case of wingmanning, and regardless he looked to the rest of the group expectantly- and flinched as Neo's hit him square in the forehead before it shattered and her real scroll was lightly tossed onto the table.

It was plain to see, the moment that it occurred to her that she had dropped her scroll back in Salem's office when she first spotted Merc and Neo cuffed and hurt...and she hadn't ever picked it back up. Not that she would have had the chance, with mach 9000 Penny air-tackle out the window right into an aerial battle and her narrow brush with death after that weapon hit her full on. Yet she said nothing, hoping that brief look had been overlooked by everyone. That and the fact that she didn't hand over anything.​

"oh. Wait, shit-"

Then he called back whoever wanted to listen and told them the much quicker, more sensible plan of having Cinder and penny maidenblast the cell's ability to hold prisoners to smithereens.

"...Freezing...can't say I've done that too much. Mostly um...fire." She smiled awkwardly. Yeah, she should done a lot more of expanding into the other elements in general...oh well. "Still, I think we can do that, yeah! But, so...what will be our exit strategy? I'm pretty sure that'll draw alarms or whatever, unless you disable all that I guess. Wait nevermind forget I said that, you probably got it all figured out already." Still, she looked troubled. She feared that there was so many ways this could go wrong far too easily. And that was without getting in the can of worms that Beacon and Vale itself might not even be the targets anymore, but someplace else. Conjecture by her partner, sure, but that was not a comforting thought.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

"I WOULD BE VERY DISTRESSED IF YOU PASSED!"​

"WHAT? WHICH TEST DID I PASS?"
​

"CINDER IS MY BEST FRIEND AND IT IS CLEAR YOU ARE ALL IMPORTANT TO HER!"​

"NAH, NAH YOU GOT IT ALL WRONG! CINDER'S JUST A FRIEND, I'M INTO YOU!"

​

"I WILL DEFEND YOU WITH MY LIFE! YES! IT WAS FORTY SEVEN MINUTES AND THIRTY TWO SECONDS AGO! THIS IS FUN! I AM SCARED : D !"​

While she had been mostly just sort of doing the shuffle when they'd first gotten down here-

-The more complex Mercury got, the more she got. In fact, the moves looked familiar. Incredibly so. Beacon Ball with his team almost move for move so.​

"THANKS! YOU'RE CUTE TOO!"

Truly, it was the experience anyone had ever had in a club.

Mercury paused coming out of a solid thirteen headstand rotations, sprawled out with head propped on his elbow like the centerpiece of a boyband poster as he squinted up in recognition. Then cognition. Hey, he knew those moves. Those were his moves. Well, his team's moves, but he wasn't about to forget how his own contributions validated all that time he spent learning capoeira in a hurry.

He... honestly had no clue she'd been there that night. Which meant she'd seen him that night. And what he was wearing... that night.

Well, that pretty much meant he didn't bother having to act all cool anymore, and he kipped back up to his feet to start circling opposite her where the crowd was naturally parting for them on the dancefloor.

"SUP, GIRL? WASSUP? YOU WANNA JACK MY STYLE?"

Spoiler

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

Five minutes later, Mercury was seizing a brief lull in the music to double over with hands on knees after deploying just about everything in his considerable arsenal to keep up with Penny's synthetic coordination, having moved onto the 'physical detriments' phase of his academic exploration of Entropy use.

"...So you wanna make out, or..."

Whatever Penny's reply was would be lost to the ages as she abruptly found her wrists snatched and hauled all the way over to the far corner of the dancefloor, whoever wanted her attention now having a far easier time of it than Mercury did. It quickly became apparent that had little to do with strength upon cursory inspection of the floor, where her heels glided without friction along a pathway of rainbows trailing from the figure in front of her until she abruptly skidded to a halt and spun around.

"Ohhhhhhhhh migoooooosh. PENNY?!"

Neon's tail swished merrily, eyes awash with wonderment as she pivoted on her wheels to skate continuous 360 degree loops around the android, checking her up and down as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"Girl, like, HOW? It is SO great to see you! Isn't this place soooooooooooo grody? Ugh, it's so me, I've been here ALL night! I was like, totally sitting with Flynt earlier and he said he saw you, and I was like naaaaaah, c'mon Ironwood's suuuuper weird about that girl he doesn't let her do anything, then he said it was definitely you and he got up to call Ciel, and I was like, psshhh, sit DOWN, snitch, no wayyy it's even her plus we'll all get detention too if the general knows we're here, and he was like, blaaah and holy heck YOU NEEEED to get on my slapchat story!"

She was already on her fifth pose and selfie with Penny by the time the run-on sentence concluded, posing with duck lips by one ear and bunny ears by the other as her scroll lens clicked with a flash.
​

"...Freezing...can't say I've done that too much. Mostly um...fire." She smiled awkwardly. Yeah, she should done a lot more of expanding into the other elements in general...oh well. "Still, I think we can do that, yeah! But, so...what will be our exit strategy? I'm pretty sure that'll draw alarms or whatever, unless you disable all that I guess. Wait nevermind forget I said that, you probably got it all figured out already." Still, she looked troubled. She feared that there was so many ways this could go wrong far too easily. And that was without getting in the can of worms that Beacon and Vale itself might not even be the targets anymore, but someplace else. Conjecture by her partner, sure, but that was not a comforting thought.​

"What sorta alarms?"

The alarms of most concern to Cinder, Watts, and anyone else yet remaining in the booth were the ones blaring in their heads as a recognisable face of their own chose that moment to saunter into the booth, hands in his pockets and instrument case slung over one shoulder. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and cast a glance around, giving a half-sneer when he laid eyes on Hazel and Tyrian. Their bout the previous day hadn't ended as amicably as most.

"So, you're all here. Thought that was Sustrai I saw down at the bar... gotta say, I never figured her for a 'two martinis, looks at her scroll and starts crying' kinda gal."

He stretched idly, rolling his shoulders out and cracking his neck from side to side.

"You guys have matches to prep for later, right? Pretty weird place to end up at lunchtime on the day of the finals. You not care, or are you all just that damn cocky?"​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"What sorta alarms?"

The alarms of most concern to Cinder, Watts, and anyone else yet remaining in the booth were the ones blaring in their heads as a recognisable face of their own chose that moment to saunter into the booth, hands in his pockets and instrument case slung over one shoulder. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and cast a glance around, giving a half-sneer when he laid eyes on Hazel and Tyrian. Their bout the previous day hadn't ended as amicably as most.

"So, you're all here. Thought that was Sustrai I saw down at the bar... gotta say, I never figured her for a 'two martinis, looks at her scroll and starts crying' kinda gal."

He stretched idly, rolling his shoulders out and cracking his neck from side to side.

"You guys have matches to prep for later, right? Pretty weird place to end up at lunchtime on the day of the finals. You not care, or are you all just that damn cocky?"

No.

She took that as her cue to step out for a moment as well. She wasn't quite sure why she'd lingered that long anyhow. There had to be stronger stuff behind the bar.​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

"...Freezing...can't say I've done that too much. Mostly um...fire." She smiled awkwardly. Yeah, she should done a lot more of expanding into the other elements in general...oh well. "Still, I think we can do that, yeah! But, so...what will be our exit strategy? I'm pretty sure that'll draw alarms or whatever, unless you disable all that I guess. Wait nevermind forget I said that, you probably got it all figured out already." Still, she looked troubled. She feared that there was so many ways this could go wrong far too easily. And that was without getting in the can of worms that Beacon and Vale itself might not even be the targets anymore, but someplace else. Conjecture by her partner, sure, but that was not a comforting thought.​

Watts sighed before giving CInder a concerned frown.

"Cinder. Not to put too fine a point on it but I'm starting to think you've overadjuste-"

"What sorta alarms?"

The alarms of most concern to Cinder, Watts, and anyone else yet remaining in the booth were the ones blaring in their heads as a recognisable face of their own chose that moment to saunter into the booth, hands in his pockets and instrument case slung over one shoulder. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and cast a glance around, giving a half-sneer when he laid eyes on Hazel and Tyrian. Their bout the previous day hadn't ended as amicably as most.

"So, you're all here. Thought that was Sustrai I saw down at the bar... gotta say, I never figured her for a 'two martinis, looks at her scroll and starts crying' kinda gal."

He stretched idly, rolling his shoulders out and cracking his neck from side to side.

"You guys have matches to prep for later, right? Pretty weird place to end up at lunchtime on the day of the finals. You not care, or are you all just that damn cocky?"

Watts snapped upright as his head whipped towards the door, presumably mirroring Cinder as they both stared in surprise at the entrance. then glanced at Cinder, likewise probably equally thrown off by that descriptor of Emerald, but there was the more immediate problem of a pile of scrolls on the table between them in a club backroom.

Not exactly the least suspicious layout, yet far less egregious a reason for reporting than 'having just committed treason against Atlas' highest authority less than an hour ago. Hrm. Not good.

"...Haven't you heard?" Watts eventually said, slowly reaching for his own slop of sugar and juice to pull it back towards him for a sip, a tool for buying time to think.

*siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip*

...

*straw vainly being sucked despite an empty glass except for some melted ice noises*

"...We were disqualified. Tyrian's antics were considered.... overboard, in the last match." he settled on, internally screaming as he watched Raven go when depending on how this went they were going to have to make a very fast exit.

"SUP, GIRL? WASSUP? YOU WANNA JACK MY STYLE?"

"YOU ALL LOOKED LIKE YOU WERE HAVING SO MUCH FUN!" She yelled with a delighted giggle as they slipped into a particularly technical bit "I PRACTICED IT FOR HOURS AFTERWARDS! I DID NOT EXPECT TO BE ABLE TO PARTAKE WITH ONE OF THE CREATORS!!"

Five minutes later, Mercury was seizing a brief lull in the music to double over with hands on knees after deploying just about everything in his considerable arsenal to keep up with Penny's synthetic coordination, having moved onto the 'physical detriments' phase of his academic exploration of Entropy use.

"...So you wanna make out, or..."

Penny had acquiesced to the break with no concern, bouncing back and forth on her heels with a content smile on her face along with the rhythm of the by then gone music. That had been fun! She would have to thank Mercury at some point; perhaps he had realized how she had been feeling. It was not as if those concerns had vanished, but-

"...Oh!"

Her hands shot to her mouth at the question as she gave one last bounce on her heels. Penny was not dumb. She was naive, and had woeful gaps in her knowledge that did not relate to keeping the peace and protecting others within the ramifications of military, police, and search and rescue actions, but she did still have a strong understanding of basic vernacular, and that was far more direct than anything she had ever received on that front as she stared at Mercury wide-eyed

"...My f- Oh dear-"

Whatever Penny's reply was would be lost to the ages as she abruptly found her wrists snatched and hauled all the way over to the far corner of the dancefloor, whoever wanted her attention now having a far easier time of it than Mercury did. It quickly became apparent that had little to do with strength upon cursory inspection of the floor, where her heels glided without friction along a pathway of rainbows trailing from the figure in front of her until she abruptly skidded to a halt and spun around.

"Ohhhhhhhhh migoooooosh. PENNY?!"

Neon's tail swished merrily, eyes awash with wonderment as she pivoted on her wheels to skate continuous 360 degree loops around the android, checking her up and down as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing.

Penny herself had been too off balance to do anything about the impromptu kidnapping, staring blankly ahead as she was moved by someone else as easily as she had ever been. She kept her arms out to keep her balance when they came to a halt, and blinked as she was finally addressed.

"...Hello Miss Kat-

"Girl, like, HOW? It is SO great to see you!-

"I-it is? Thank you, I-"

Isn't this place soooooooooooo grody? Ugh, it's so me, I've been here ALL night!

"I thought gr-"

totally sitting with Flynt earlier and he said he saw you, and I was like naaaaaah, c'mon Ironwood's suuuuper weird about that girl he doesn't let her do anything, then he said it was definitely you and he got up to call Ciel,

She gasped "oh dear ple-"

and I was like, psshhh, sit DOWN, snitch, no wayyy it's even her plus we'll all get detention too if the general knows we're here,

The tension started to leave her shoulders "Thank goodn-"

blaaah and holy heck YOU NEEEED to get on my slapchat story!"

She was already on her fifth pose and selfie with Penny by the time the run-on sentence concluded, posing with duck lips by one ear and bunny ears by the other as her scroll lens clicked with a flash.

She jolted as Neon put her face up against hers, and without really thinking about it she threw up a peace sign and a nervous smile of her own to go with the last photo. That was what people were supposed to do, yes? She was not allowed to have a slapchat, but she remembered seeing similar pictures online. This girl may have been the only person in Atlas who could match her in energy output, nay, exceed her even-

Wait.

Oh no.

She was frozen in her pose, still staring ahead with that nervous smile as she asked. "Miss Katt, did you... already send those? I think my friends and I may be in immediate danger if you did."

 

[MyrtenRose]

"What sorta alarms?"

The alarms of most concern to Cinder, Watts, and anyone else yet remaining in the booth were the ones blaring in their heads as a recognisable face of their own chose that moment to saunter into the booth, hands in his pockets and instrument case slung over one shoulder. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and cast a glance around, giving a half-sneer when he laid eyes on Hazel and Tyrian. Their bout the previous day hadn't ended as amicably as most.

"So, you're all here. Thought that was Sustrai I saw down at the bar... gotta say, I never figured her for a 'two martinis, looks at her scroll and starts crying' kinda gal."

He stretched idly, rolling his shoulders out and cracking his neck from side to side.

"You guys have matches to prep for later, right? Pretty weird place to end up at lunchtime on the day of the finals. You not care, or are you all just that damn cocky?"

Cinder didn't quite jump in her seat, but her eyes did widen as she turned towards--Oh great. She refrained from actually rolling her eyes, but the feeling was still there regardless. This is not what we need right now. She had not expected to be interrupted by him of all people, now of all times, but of course it tracked that he would be here. This kind of place was his kind of jam. Hell, it was his whole team's. Once she got past her initial surprise, she flashed him a quick, if kind of awkward and not at all forced smile before sharing a look with Arthur. Emerald did what now? Crying?? "Well..........." ​

Watts snapped upright as his head whipped towards the door, presumably mirroring Cinder as they both stared in surprise at the entrance. then glanced at Cinder, likewise probably equally thrown off by that descriptor of Emerald, but there was the more immediate problem of a pile of scrolls on the table between them in a club backroom.

Not exactly the least suspicious layout, yet far less egregious a reason for reporting than 'having just committed treason against Atlas' highest authority less than an hour ago. Hrm. Not good.

"...Haven't you heard?" Watts eventually said, slowly reaching for his own slop of sugar and juice to pull it back towards him for a sip, a tool for buying time to think.

*siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip*

...

*straw vainly being sucked despite an empty glass except for some melted ice noises*

"...We were disqualified. Tyrian's antics were considered.... overboard, in the last match." he settled on, internally screaming as he watched Raven go when depending on how this went they were going to have to make a very fast exit.

"...Yeah. That. Trust me, you couldn't even imagine how harsh Professor Goodwitch was when she called us up. Again. For what seems like the thousandth time." Cinder shook her head, followed by a loud thud as she overenthusiastically smacked the table on an empty spot. "I mean, crapbaskets, we were so close to getting to be the finale! This freaking close!!" She held her hand up, her index finger and thumb mere centimeters from each other. "We could have been the champions! Team CFVY? Pfft, please. Or Team MTEN? Forget about it! We woulda been the new talk of the school, the team to watch out for, but nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...Tyrian just had to go way too far! And now we're just..." Cinder sighed, not even bothering to finish that sentence. Her eyes glanced at the table before lifting up to the way Raven had just left. Well, if the drunk bird was going to go, then...

"Meh. That's why we're here. Speaking of..." She grabbed one of the empty glasses, which was decidedly not hers because she had absolutely refrained from drinking anything at this place, but it would do regardless. "I think I need another drink. So uh, scuse me a sec." She commented as she moved to slide past and totally not leaving Arthur hung out to dry, dealing with that guy. As soon as she was out of sight, she put some more rush in her step as she went to go find Emerald because what. Crying???​

 

[Gus Gungus]

She jolted as Neon put her face up against hers, and without really thinking about it she threw up a peace sign and a nervous smile of her own to go with the last photo. That was what people were supposed to do, yes? She was not allowed to have a slapchat, but she remembered seeing similar pictures online. This girl may have been the only person in Atlas who could match her in energy output, nay, exceed her even-

Wait.

Oh no.

She was frozen in her pose, still staring ahead with that nervous smile as she asked. "Miss Katt, did you... already send those? I think my friends and I may be in immediate danger if you did."​

“DANGER?!”

Her skates’ brakes squealed once more, and the excitable faunus’ rainbow track reversed its colour arrangement as she started skating backwards counterclockwise around the android’s rooted position instead. The look on her face seemed too cartoonishly gobsmacked to be disingenuous, her thumbs a whirlwind unto themselves as she scrambled to undo her error.

“YOU GOTTA BE KITTEN ME! I had nooooo idea! Are you being stalked? That kinda stuff happens to me ALL. THE TIME but I think it’s actually kinda fun, do you wanna give them my number and pretend it’s yours??? I just deleted EVERYTHING, don’t worry I put it on Close Friends and the only people who saw are Kobalt, Ivori, Miltia and Melanie, deadmau5, Roman, Emerald, team CRDL, Cookie the bouncer, team CFVY except for Yatsu he doesn’t like me (D: ) (pretty sure he wants me tho), Sun, Neptune that dude I know is down bad, team BRIR, Tukson, Prisma, Harriet from the Ace Ops it’s G she’s soooooo chill if you know what I mean, Professor Port, nurse Maple, professor Alyss, Lie Ren, that old guy who runs Dust til Dawn down by the waterfront, Lisa Lavender, and I swear that’s ALL! Hey, isn’t it cool how all those people wanna be my friend? Gasp we should throw a HUGE RAGER and invite them all, wouldn’t that be AWESOOOOME? Hey, do you want me to call Ciel? I have her on speeddial, chick keeps promising to hang out with me but then she disappears off the face of Remnant for like, EVER, like where does she go? Everyone says she’s kinda boring but I knoooowwwww she’s a party animal deep down—“



A Mercury who seemed to be increasingly hitting his stride in at least one respect sidled up then, having finally located the two on the fringes of the gyrating mass of bodies once he figured out to follow the rainbows. He coolly rested a hand not just on Penny’s shoulder, but Neon’s too, slut player that he was, though it was the former who had his majority focus.

“We don’t have to if you don’t want to by the way, we can just keep dancing.”

“OMG, HIIIIiiiiiiIIIIIIIIII handsome!”

“Sup. Real quick, what’s the vibe check on that ginormous list of names I arrived halfway through?”

He had a feeling he knew the answer, but a guy could dream. And ignore urgent developments around him for as long as was lucidly feasible.

​

"I think I need another drink. So uh, scuse me a sec." She commented as she moved to slide past and totally not leaving Arthur hung out to dry, dealing with that guy. As soon as she was out of sight, she put some more rush in her step as she went to go find Emerald because what. Crying???​

“She’s cryin in the bathroom now, if yer wonderin’.” The barmaid informed dully, snatching the money like she thought Cinder was going to make a try for it. : |

​

"...Haven't you heard?" Watts eventually said, slowly reaching for his own slop of sugar and juice to pull it back towards him for a sip, a tool for buying time to think.

*siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip*

...

*straw vainly being sucked despite an empty glass except for some melted ice noises*

"...We were disqualified. Tyrian's antics were considered.... overboard, in the last match." he settled on, internally screaming as he watched Raven go when depending on how this went they were going to have to make a very fast exit.​

"...Yeah. That. Trust me, you couldn't even imagine how harsh Professor Goodwitch was when she called us up. Again. For what seems like the thousandth time." Cinder shook her head, followed by a loud thud as she overenthusiastically smacked the table on an empty spot. "I mean, crapbaskets, we were so close to getting to be the finale! This freaking close!!" She held her hand up, her index finger and thumb mere centimeters from each other. "We could have been the champions! Team CFVY? Pfft, please. Or Team MTEN? Forget about it! We woulda been the new talk of the school, the team to watch out for, but nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...Tyrian just had to go way too far! And now we're just..." Cinder sighed, not even bothering to finish that sentence. Her eyes glanced at the table before lifting up to the way Raven had just left. Well, if the drunk bird was going to go, then...​

“Right...”

Cinder’s enthusiastic playing along appeared to rescue Watts from the long, dubious look Flynt was giving him, the trumpeter more adept than most at seeing through whatever his particular flavor of bullshit was. Raven got an even longer, more scrutinising stare, but while an eyebrow did arch at the sight of this old ass lady WTCH seemingly had hanging out with them it was unclear if there was any recognition in it.

“…Well, anyone with eyes could tell y’all cheated. Aura nullifying and scorpion venom ain’t exactly in the spirit of the thing, are they? Neon ended up on an IV drip.”

Seemingly giving his assent to the lie for now, he crossed to the sofa opposite Watts, leaning up against the armrest with arms crossed and swag on full display.

“I wasn’t gonna say, but some folk been wonderin’ why you guys were pulled from the bracket this morning. Lotta folk, actually. But I guess that makes sense.”

He paused, never letting his eyes leave his fellow team leader’s for a second.

“Know what I don’t get? Why Penny was. Or why she’s hangin with y’all, minus her handlers, in the shadiest part of this low-rent kingdom.”

Despite the barb against Vale, an edge crept into his tone he only reserved for a particular subset of Atlesians, his eyes hard over the rims of his glasses as he repeated his question from earlier.

“What alarms?”​