May 19, 2021 #873
Chapter 53: I think I'll call him Snowflake.
A warm welcome to our newest editor: euphoric, who did a fantastic job helping to edit this chapter. Really, you should've seen them go.
And thanks again to boothnat, who also helped edit this chapter.
You can find her story The Traveler's Guide to Teyvat: How to not kill people - Chapter 1 - boothnat - 原神 | Genshin Impact (Video Game) [Archive of Our Own] , on her AO3 page: boothnat | Archive of Our Own.
Tick
Tock
Tick
Tock.
The Schnee manor was mainly digital. Though, if one knew where to look, it was still possible to find artifacts of its analog past hidden away in the nooks and crannies.
The clocktower was one such example, and its steady beat rumbled through the metal rafters that webbed through the dark interior.
Being so close to such a thing left Blake's ears in quite a shape, as they'd unfortunately made their entrance just before noon struck like a giant hammer on a humongous bell. This both in the metaphorical and literal sense.
"Why are we here again?" Blake rubbed at her ears annoyedly, wincing with pain.
"No reason," Weiss answered confidently, looking casually around at their rustic surroundings.
Blake sent an annoyed scowl in her direction.
"I'm allowed to have my secrets, Blake!"
The scowl deepened.
Weiss broke.
"I know Winter's going to ask us to attend Pyrrha's training today and I'm afraid she'll look for me."
"Look for us, you mean?" Blake corrected.
Weiss sighed. "Yes, us."
"And how long is this supposed to go on?"
"Just until she gives up looking," Weiss answered easily. "I doubt she'd keep the search up for longer than five minutes."
"No, Weiss," Blake took a hold of Weiss's hand. "How long are we supposed to keep away from her? Why are we even doing this? I've already told you: you don't have to choose between us! And she seems committed to keeping things civil, at least. I'd be fine if you kept seeing her, even if she didn't like me."
"You'd be fine with it even if she hated all faunus?" Weiss pressed.
Blake choked out her words. "I… wouldn't be happy with her beliefs," she admitted lightly, "but she's your sister, Weiss. And, even if she held some… unpleasant views about faunus, as long as she wasn't advocating for anything criminal, I'd… be ok if you didn't choose to separate from her."
"Yeah, well, I wouldn't," Weiss sulked, resting her forearms and her chin on the metal railing.
"Why not?"
"Because she's Winter!" Weiss sprang up, raising her hands into the air in divining form. "And It's not supposed to be like this! Gods, I've been an idiot!"
Blake remained silent.
"Do you know -'' Weiss said with a particular chuckle "-I can't even remember the last bad thought I had about Winter? At least before… before all this. When I was a child, things were always so… confusing at home. Sometimes I didn't even know right from wrong-" Weiss laughed. "Well, you met me at Beacon, so I guess you would know," she said bitterly.
"That's not true!"
Weiss raised an eyebrow at her.
"You… were rough around the edges, sure, but there was something in you! You just... seemed lost, but I could tell that you had a heart brighter than anyone else's, Weiss. I could tell from the moment I first saw you. I didn't believe my instinct's at first- I didn't want to believe them because, well, I-"
"You can just say it, I'm a Schnee."
"But I was right in the end," Blake leaned in closer, taking Weiss's hand. "You're a good person. You don't care to admit it, but I've never met anyone who would try to save someone like me," she glanced away.
Weiss looked sadly at her. "Don't say that."
"And I never thought I'd have someone who'd care about me so much-" Blake cut herself off, feeling teary emotion coming into her voice. "You're a good person, Weiss. And that was true even back at Beacon! You were just confused. That's all."
"Yes, well, I would have been a lot more confused if it weren't for Winter," Weiss quipped.
"Then don't give her up!"
"That's just it, though!" Weiss exclaimed. "Winter was always the one I could look to. You wouldn't believe me, Blake, but before I left for Beacon, for years this house was utterly insane. I didn't- I couldn't even tell myself that there was anything wrong in the first place! That's how messed up everything was."
"I believe you."
"But Winter," Weiss repeated. "She was off with the Academy most of the time but, when she came home… It was like the world was finally right again, Blake. I knew I could always follow in her footsteps and be sure- and be certain that I wasn't turning into my father. It sounds pathetic to say it out loud but I worshiped her, Blake. I still do. She was the only thing keeping Whitley and me together for the past seven years."
Weiss rubbed her arms, trailing off.
"But, recently," Weiss continued after some self-encouragement, "I've been having some thoughts. What if… Winter believes all these horrible things about faunus? What if she thinks they're beneath human dignity? What if she thinks our relationship is disgusting? What if she wants them wiped off the face of Remnant?"
"Does she?' Blake asked somewhat worriedly.
"I don't know!" Weiss answered in the middle of her nervous pacing.
"You don't know?" Blake said.
"Believe it or not, our relationship consisted of more than updating each other on how racist we were," Weiss said, taking mild offence. "We never talked about faunus, unless it was about a character in a story book or something."
Blake considered her girlfriend's words. "And… you're afraid that she does believe all these horrible things. But she raised you, didn't she? And you didn't have any problems changing your mind once you met me."
"I had a Winter looking over me," Weiss responded coolly. "She didn't. Ugh!" She brought the heels of her hands up to cover her forehead. "I just… don't know what she actually believes and it's eating me up inside!"
"Well, you should probably ask her soon," Blake admitted, a terrified and embarrassed expression coming to her face.
"Why?" Weiss asked.
"I'm… being coronated as the head of the Faunus Outreach Committee tonight."
Weiss - this being the first time she'd even heard of Blake heading that committee - answered in the perfectly natural and expected fashion.
"What!?"
"What?" Schwarz fixed an inscrutable glance onto Zama.
"I'm afraid Mr. Schnee does not wish to be disturbed," Zama said coolly, standing guard outside his bedroom doors.
Schwarz was angry. Firstly because Zama apparently thought she could keep her from doing her job. And secondly because: that was her line!
"We'll see about that!" Schwarz brushed Zama aside and strode into the bedroom.
The blankets were a mess, curled like vanilla frosting. The back of Mr. Schnee's head was a natural camouflage as it peeked out from the confectionary bedspread.
Schwarz, for once, was very perturbed by this behavior. She'd sensed that Mr. S had been acting strange lately, but to see him sulking...
What could possibly be causing this?
However, that was a question for another time, because Ironwood had arrived just twenty minutes ago and they were far behind schedule!
"Sir!" Schwarz started off strongly with a voice that was somehow - simultaneously - completely understanding and uncompromisingly urgent: "I understand there isn't much anyone can do to fix whatever is bothering you, but I felt you should be aware that Ironwood has arrived early."
"Send him away," Mr. S said curtly with a wooden voice.
"He's arrived with the missile design team, sir," Schwarz clarified.
"Send them away."
Schwarz grit her teeth and forced a polite entreaty: "I know I don't need to tell you this, but this is a rather important meeting."
"Reschedule it."
Again, Schwarz was at a loss. This was hopeless! "Sir…" she paused, searching for a way to best explain the situation. "It's a bit more complicated than that, sir," she settled for at last, adding: "Trust me. I think you'll want to attend."
For a long moment, Mr. S lay in silent deliberation.
"Keep them busy for ten minutes," he said, finally.
"Of course, sir." Schwarz rushed out the doors, where she came to an abrupt halt, stopping just short of Weiss's bowing form.
"I need your help."
"What's wrong?" Schwarz asked, showing none of the harrying impatience that drove her.
"I don't know if my sister believes horrible things about faunus and I need her approval," Weiss reported, voice bleached of anything except restrained panic.
"Your father has already given his blessings," Schwarz tilted her head. "What do you need Winter's approval for?"
"Nothing," Weiss admitted, looking off to the side and rubbing an arm. "I just need it."
Schwarz considered it and decided that was fair enough. She put away her anxiety about the schedule and took a moment to think on the problem.
"Do you remember the river wars?" Schwarz asked at last.
At Weiss's confused look, she elaborated:
"I think your textbooks would call them the post-revolutionary conflicts."
Weiss, of course, remembered. The various small battles that lasted through the decades following the "conclusion" of the Faunus rights revolution. From the way Schwarz was asking, however, Weiss thought she might have been looking for personal stories.
"I don't remember it very well," Weiss said. "I was very young when they ended. Or, at least when they stopped broadcasting it on the news."
"Well, those news broadcasts were actually what I wanted to talk to you about," Schwarz said.
"Where are you going with this?" Weiss asked, a suspicious note to her voice.
"Well, do you remember the reports that played towards the end of the war?"
"Yes," Weiss nodded, "it was always the same movie about how Atlas would never fall. It got kind of tiring, actually," she admitted with a guilty look.
"The repetition was the point," Schwarz informed. "They didn't rerun the same movie because the propaganda division ran out of film."
Schwarz spoke in riddles, though they were very obvious ones. And Weiss, catching on, was quite unimpressed with the solution.
"What? I'm supposed to tell Winter to accept our relationship everyday until she does?"
Schwarz shook her head. "That's not likely to work. Not to mention, she doesn't have the best history with Faunus-"
"What!" Weiss cried, on the verge of tearing into the woman for even suggesting something so insulting. "How dare you-!"
Weiss cut herself off. She took a deep breath.
"Feeling better?" Schwarz asked.
"What do you mean, exactly?" - Weiss pronounced the words with excessive politeness - "when you say Winter doesn't have the best history with Faunus?"
"Oh, I thought you knew," Schwarz said apologetically.
"What did she do?" Weiss was on the verge of panic, now.
"It's nothing serious," Schwarz assured. "She's just... not the most accepting, when it comes to her views."
"What are you saying?" Weiss cut.
Schwarz pushed herself to get the words out. "There are very few top-hunters," she explained. "We all know one another and... we tend to become intimately familiar with everyone's quirks. And... Winter: she doesn't refuse them, exactly, but she is among the hunters who tend not to end up on teams including Faunus," Shawarz admitted awkwardly.
"Now, this isn't abnormal," she quickly added. "Generally, Faunus hunters tend to stick together and Humans do the same, but it's something I think you should know before you get into this."
"Has she ever requested to be removed from a team just because it has a faunus on it?" Weiss asked.
"No." Schwarz answered. "She'll work with faunus when she has to, it's just that- when given a choice- she's always avoided the prospect."
"Well, obviously, she just doesn't want to inhibit team performance because she's a Schnee." Weiss answered. "She knows she wouldn't be popular with many faunus," Weiss took a step back, crossing her arms and looking angrily up into Schwarz's eyes. "Just because she doesn't want to get into a civil rights argument in the middle of a mission doesn't mean she hates anyone! She's nothing like those other hunters!" Weiss finished her sentence with panache, and with a sense that she'd done very well not to include insults into the addendum. Really, it was such a silly thing. She was surprised Schwarz had even needed to be corrected on such an obvious matter. "You wouldn't understand, because you're not a Schnee," Weiss dug the point home with some subtle relish, "but there's a lot of politics in our lives you wouldn't understand."
"I know, I know," Schwarz calmed with a guilty look. "Those are all valid. But you should still know the facts before you try convincing her of anything."
Weiss sighed. "Just… tell me what your plan is."
At this, Schwarz perked up, pulling out her scroll and flipping to a page with what must've been a thousand titles listed on it. Leaning forward next to Weiss so that they were both at eye level, Schwarz held the scroll out for their common view.
There was a moment of silence as Weiss took in the words on the screen.
"Books?" Weiss reared back from the selection. She looked again at the scroll. "Romance novels?"
Schwarz blinked over at the girl. "I'm surprised you recognize them."
"These are all the books that Blake reads! I know that one!" she pointed at a particular title. "She's been trying to get me to read A Love For The Ages for ages!"
"Have you read it?" Schwarz asked.
"No," Weiss answered, obviously.
"Well, you should, it's quite good."
"Thank you for the book recommendation," Weiss said severely. "But how does any of this help me?"
Schwarz rolled her eyes. "These are all books with positive portrayals of Human-Faunus relationships," she explained with interest. "Try getting Winter to read them."
Weiss stared at her.
"Isn't that a little, I don't know, blatant?"
"Oh, no," Schwarz assured. "Most of it is very subtle, actually. Books like this weren't really legal until a short while ago, and even now it's not 'publishable', so everything is pretty well hidden unless you know what to look for. I doubt she'll even know what she's reading,"
Weiss, if anything, only looked more skeptical.
"Subliminal messaging works," Schwarz promised, wrapping an arm around Weiss's shoulder.
Weiss seemed offended now. "Winter isn't an idiot!" she spat. "She's not going to change her mind because of a couple of stupid novels."
Schwarz, in a very Christ-like manner, decided to overlook the girl's comments about her romance selection, and not to handle it like Winter would have.
"Weiss, has Winter said anything to you about Blake so far?"
"No."
"Then you have to understand that, if anything, she's just worried about how your relationship might turn out. And seeing an example of a good one, even in fiction, may ease her worries. Trust me, it doesn't seem like much, but, after a couple of months of this, I think even she'll be surprised at how much she's warming to the idea."
"But I don't have a couple of months!" Weiss panicked at the unfortunate reference to the concept of time which, so far, had not been on her side. "Winter's going to be making a statement at Blake's coronation tonight, and I need to know what she thinks before then!"
"Well, I can't really help you if that's the case," Schwarz stood up straight, stepping back from Weiss. "You can still try to get through to her after the coronation, but one day is quite a short time to change someone's heart. If it even needs changing, that is. Maybe try talking to her before then."
With a respectful nod, Schwarz turned away. She didn't get far before a sharp tug on her hand pulled her back.
"Schwaaaaaarz!" Weiss begged, clutching onto the limb.
Schwarz, feeling her sense of time ringing as she remembered Ironwood's team, turned back with an annoyed expression.
"Why are you even coming to me with this?"
"You're literally the only competent person I know," Weiss admitted desperately, looking up at Schwarz with a hopeless look.
"I'm right here, you know," Zama scowled over from where she'd been standing guard.
"Sorry Zama." Weiss smiled half-apologetically. "But, to be honest, even in your past life you were never the best at emotional matters."
"That's not true," Zama denied, crossing her arms haughtily, "I'll have you know I've been advancing my studies of emotion quite rigorously since we last spoke. I've taken on and paid off several thousand lien's worth of credit card debt, and I've gotten into several online arguments about current huntress rankings, of which I have won two, all others ending inconclusively. Not to mention, I've cultivated several quite nuanced opinions on current societal trends and political developments."
"What do credit card debt and online arguments have to do with emotion?" Supreme befuddlement coated Weiss's words.
"From my research, those two subjects seem to be the primary objects at which human emotion is directed."
Weiss tried to shoot back with an immediate retort but then realized that she didn't actually have one and quietly left.
Schwarz caught up with her, explaining her schedule, and promising Weiss that she'd make time for her later.
Soon, they drifted around the corner and were out of earshot.
Zama, taking a careful look around with the security cameras, quietly stepped backwards and slipped into Mr. Schnee's bedroom.
There, Mr. S, no longer wrapped under the blankets, had spread out gingerly across the mattress. Painful breaths accompanied the steady rise and fall of his bare chest. Under his left pectoral, a richly colored bruise indicated the spot where he'd been hit yesterday.
A scanner hovered quietly over the area, feeding a data stream directly to Zama.
"You've cracked a rib, but nothing's broken."
"I've cracked a rib?" Mr. S tilted his heat to look at Zama, slightly offended. "Willow's the one who hit me!"
"Why did Willow strike you?"
"I don't know," Mr. S shut his eyes tiredly, bringing his head back down, "I think I made her angry. And she didn't even hit me, really, she just - " he raised a hand, pointing a finger in a mime of the motion " - jabbed me."
"It's a good thing you didn't make her any angrier," Zama observed, hovering the scanner back over the center of the bruise. "If she'd hit you any harder, she might have punctured your lung."
"That wasn't even my only near-death experience of the day," Mr. S sighed. "Do you know they almost tossed me into Farbe's cell without protective equipment? It was like an oven in there! I had to make up some crap about poisonous metals before they changed their minds." He hissed suddenly, shutting his eyes as the scanner lightly brushed against the surface of his bruise.
"Mr. Schnee had an aura," Farbe explained. "They'd expect him to survive in such an environment quite easily."
"Yeah, and next time, I might not be able to come up with a stupid enough excuse." Mr. S hissed again as the scanner made another pass.
Zama paused for a cycle and said: "I could make you a dust suit."
"What's that?" Mr. S asked, struggling to maintain an interest through his pain.
"Well, you're aware of how many hunters incorporate specialized dust types into their weapon alloys?"
"Yeah, structural dust or something, wasn't it?" Mr. S grasped for the concepts haphazardly in an attempt to distract his mind.
"Well, something similar could be incorporated into your suit," Zama explained. "If you order enough material, I could make an embroidery pattern that should increase your survivability."
"Could you?" Mr. S said with pained desperation.
"It'll take time," Zama answered. "For now, I can give you painkillers to help numb any discomfort. You shouldn't be in any danger of aggravating the wound as long as you don't exert yourself or move your left arm too freely."
As she spoke, Zama helped Mr. S up into a sitting position, putting a glass of water into his hand and opening up her own palm to reveal two white pills.
"Where'd you get these?" Mr. S asked, popping the pills and following them with several gulps of water.
"I stole them from the medical suite. You should experience some drowsiness."
"Now you tell me," Mr. S said, feeling the pain dull, as if soft cotton had been injected into every nerve cell.
Thankfully, Zama was quite capable of supporting him from a distance, taking advantage of the small metal plates she'd inserted into the lining of his coat to puppeteer him into a picture of sobriety. Which he was thankful for.
"Mr. Schnee Discovered Doping on Stolen Painkillers After Domestic Abuse Incident."
Not the headline he really needed right now.
Ironwood was too distracted by the upcoming meeting to pay attention to Mr. Schnee's occasional slurred syllable.
"They're getting restless," Ironwood paced, a note of worry hidden in his voice.
"They don't seem too impatient," Mr. S observed, leaning on the balcony for support and looking down at the waiting room where members of the rocket team sat in a ring of chairs, being entertained by members of staff.
Most of them were on their scrolls, occasionally looking up to give a polite nod to the servants.
"You've kept them waiting for twenty minutes!" Ironwood almost yelled.
"I had other affairs," Mr. S answered coolly.
"Other affairs-!' Ironwood cut off, reminding himself of the need for quiet. "Nevermind," he continued. "You've gotten a good look at them; what do you think?"
Mr. S let his eyes drift over the five individuals. He paid attention to their eyes, sparing a glance at their items and observing their particular ticks and habits.
"Five people is a bit small to be an engineering team," Mr. S said with some disappointment. "They're hardly a design committee."
"Well, I'm sorry," Ironwood said, surprising Mr. S with his capacity for sarcasm, "but I'm afraid I can't fire thousands of government employees without arousing attention neither of us can afford right now!
"Besides," he continued, "you'll be lucky to have them! As far as engineers go, they're the best of the best of the best," using a marketing term he was quite fond of labelling his teams with. "Delta over there, for example," he pointed to a young-ish woman with deep blue hair, "she's an A-Grade aerospace graduate from Atlas academy. Finished second in her class!
"And Osche," he pointed to a bull of a man shuffling through a deck of cards while engaging in small talk with one of the butlers - one of the few not on his scroll. "He's been with us for ages- was the vice president of the department before I convinced him to retire."
"Smalls," he pointed to a younger man who was, if anything, even larger and more muscular than Osche, "came in second place at the national engineering competition."
"He's the intern?" Mr. S asked.
"One of two," Ironwood answered, pointing to a rabbit faunus, about the same age as Smalls, who sat pretending to look at her scroll while occasionally shooting nervous glances at her surroundings. "Vee came in third at the same competition."
"I'm seeing a lot of second placers in this line up," Mr. S complained.
Ironwood shot him a dirty look.
"Fine," Mr. S spat, standing and turning away from the scene. "I guess it would be expecting too much to ask for all your top guys."
"It wasn't easy getting you these guys either," Ironwood retorted.
"But you've got Jon on board, right? Or is that his twin brother who was born second?"
Mr. S pointed out the last seat, where a middle-aged, unassuming looking man in a brown suit and a bowler hat sat sipping a cup of tea.
"Actually, I haven't gotten any of them on board," Ironwood said.
"What?" Mr. S asked, unintentionally quoting Schwarz who - much like Jesus - was inherently quotable.
"I can't force them to transfer to a job that isn't in the Atlas Government," Ironwood said. "All I could do was convince them to quit and recommend them here, now it's up to you to 'get them on board' as you put it. Why do you think I've been trying to get you to this meeting?!"
"I think I can afford their salaries," Mr. S said.
"This isn't about salaries!" Ironwood stormed. "They're some of the finest in the world at their fields; the best of the best of the best, they can get any job they want! They're not going to stick around here if you bore them, so I suggest making a good first impression."
"I know that!" Mr. S stopped himself from saying. After all, he had quite a lot of experience being, as Ironwood put it, "the best of the best of the best."
The only hiccup was that he hadn't expected to have to win them over. Perhaps being - he checked the clock - twenty-five minutes late probably wasn't the best idea, in hindsight.
Still, Mr. S smiled.
"Don't worry," he assured with a confident smile. "I think they'll find my proposal interesting enough."
Winter, after several hours worth of fruitless searching, gave up finally on including Weiss in her lesson and decided to just start the damn thing. So, at the appointed time, she, along with team Juniper and Ruby and Yang, gathered in the garden.
"Greetings," she greeted, pacing pedagogically before the double-line of students sat on the ground before her. "As you are already aware, Pyrrha is the new fall Maiden, and as her friends, it is vitally important that you understand and support her in her inevitable struggles to take on the Mantel. In order to best do this, it has been decided that you will join her in some of her lessons, conducted by me, in order to better teach her, and you, of what it means to be a Maiden. Any questions?"
Winter paused a moment, standing over her quiet students whose criss-cross applesauce method of sitting - combined with her heels - caused such a height difference that she looked to be the very picture of an elementary school teacher standing amidst her students.
"Hi!" a chipper voice came from off to the side, sounding greatly in need of approval. "Winter!" Weiss called, smiling energetically and waving happily as she approached. Beside her, Schwarz strolled along, a steadying look to her features.
"Weiss," Winter greeted, "It's nice of you to join us."
"Right!" Weiss chuckled nervously. "I guess I missed you. Anyway, have these books!"
Weiss held out a stack of books, four spines thick.
"Romance?" Winter looked at the pile skeptically. "You know that's not my genre, Weiss. Besides, I haven't really had much time to read lately."
"Oh, everyone has time to read!" Weiss insisted. "Besides, these are special books, Blake got them for- Ow!" She winced as Schwarz elbowed her. Quickly rebounding, she corrected: "Oh, I mean, I got them for you! They're really good! You should read them! Right now!" She thrust the pile of books closer.
"Weiss, I don't have time for this! I'm in the middle of-"
"Actually," Schwarz interrupted her, "I'm going to have to borrow the Fall maiden for some... security procedures." She was hardly trying, glaring at Winter in their silent, shared language of stern looks to just give her a break and go along with this.
On one hand, Winter felt this was very non-standard. On the other hand, her lesson had also been very boring.
"Well, I suppose I can lend her to you for several hours," she acquiesced.
"How fast does your sister read, anyway?" Yang leant out around the corner, flicking her Aviators up to better observe the pace at which Winter flipped through the novels. "Seriously, were those picture books or something?"
"She's a fast reader, but that's not the point!" Weiss said. "We need to improve her opinion on faunus and we need to do it before tonight! And I don't think those books are going to do it."
"I don't think anything is going to do it," Nora muttered, drawing a deep look of ire from Weiss.
"Thank you, Nora," Weiss said insincerely. "But I'm looking for helpful suggestions here."
"Well," Ruby started with an innocent look, "maybe we can start by finding out why she hates faunus."
"She doesn't hate faunus!" Weiss clamped her hands over her mouth at the sudden volume, looking to Yang with wide eyes.
"I don't think she heard," Yang reported, still on lookout.
"She doesn't hate faunus," Weiss repeated sternly, if more quietly now.
"Then why are we-?"
"Because she… might not…" Weiss stalled, trying to think of a valid argument. "It doesn't matter! Whatever her opinion is, we just need to make it better! Ok?" She looked desperately around at her friends, who decided it might be best not to question things further.
Schwarz stepped in, feeling sympathy for the distressed girl. "In all likelihood," she supplied, "I doubt she feels any particular way. I wouldn't be surprised if she's never even thought about the matter until just now."
"Exactly!" Weiss agreed. "That's good… right?" She looked to Schwarz.
"It would give us a lot of space to help develop her opinions. She's likely to be more open to your ideas if she doesn't have any preconceived notions clouding her judgement."
"But what can we do?" Weiss swiftly returned to her nervous pacing.
"How about a pet!?" Nora cheered.
Everyone looked at her.
"What?" Nora shrugged. "It's not like we can do anything to change her opinion in one day, so why not just focus on making her as happy as possible before the coronation? And Weiss loves dogs, right? A cute animal would be sure to cheer her up!"
That...oddly enough, made complete sense to everyone present.
"Of course!" Weiss said. "We just need to keep her in a good mood and then break the news to her!"
"Doesn't she already know the news?" Yang asked.
"Hush, you! I mean to tell her personally; that's different."
"Ok, but what kind of animal does she like?" Pyrrha asked.
"I can go ask her!" Ruby volunteered, raising her hand like an overexcited elementary schooler.
"No!" Weiss declined. "It has to be a surprise!"
"Ok, how about we just get her a cat, then?" Blake suggested.
"Yeah."
"Sure."
"That sounds nice!" Everyone chimed in with varying degrees of assent.
"What is wrong with all of you!" Weiss shouted.
Everyone looked at her with quiet confusion.
"A cat?" Weiss said judgmentally, "we can't just go get a cat!"
"Why not?" Blake asked, wagging her cat ears in confusion.
"Well…" Weiss sputtered, "consider the context!" she implored.
"What context?" Ruby asked, for once not the only one with a dazed, innocent bewilderment about her.
"This context!" Weiss answered, gesturing to herself and at Blake. "It'd be weird!"
"Why would it be weird?" Blake asked, drawing sounds of similar confusion from everyone else.
"You're really going to make me say it out loud, aren't you?" Weiss said, growing bashfully livid. "Because I will!"
"Say what, Weiss?"
"Yeah, why would it be weird?"
"Oh, come now. It's obvious why it would be weird! And by making me say it, I'll just end up looking like the bad guy, as always!"
"Are you… allergic to cats?" Ruby tilted her head, still sitting criss-cross applesauce.
"You know what! Fine!" Weiss spat. "You can have the cat! I hope you're satisfied with yourselves!" She turned away with a dignified stride, turning back to say: "and it better be a white cat!"
…
And soon there was a beautiful specimen of a White feline being held in Winter's arms.
It was of a pedigree not found on Earth but, superficially - it resembled that breed found most often in spy movies - sitting on the supervillain's lap whenever he invited a group of scientists into his secret lair.
Its fluffy puffs of fur warmed Winter's confused fingers as she held it by the armpits and brought it close to her face.
"I think I'll name it Snowflake," Winter decided at last.
"Really?" Weiss asked, confused and relieved that her sister had, apparently, failed to recognize the inherent weirdness of the situation. Thankfully, Blake was not present, having gone to get fitted for her dress for the coronation.
"It is traditional to name a pet, no?" Winter said, not looking away from the cat as it stared into her eyes. "It's very… cute." She tilted her head, causing the cat to mimic her in its confusion.
"Are you feeling any better?" Weiss probed tentatively.
Everyone present leaned in to better hear the answer.
"I think it was very thoughtful of you to give me this present," Winter said. "And, yes, I do feel happy, if that's what you meant to ask. I've always wanted a pet."
At this, the cat hissed and swiped at her cheek.
Winter let go. It landed on all fours before taking off and disappearing into the garden.
Frozen, Weiss held a disappointed hand up to screen her face.
"Perhaps it'll be an outdoor cat," Winter suggested.
"Don't worry!" Ruby leapt up. "We can find it!" She fell to her hands and knees next to the bush, pressing her cheek to the dirt like an expert worm farmer as she searched through the undergrowth. "Here kitty!" she nervously whispered, calling to the earth itself, almost.
Suddenly, Winter noticed her watch.
"Actually, we'll have to save the search for later. I have to go now."
"Where are you going?" Weiss asked.
"The same place Ms. Belladonna has," Winter said, sending heart attacks through Weiss at her mention of the event. "I have to get ready for her coronation. I'm going to be making the statement there."
Delta, Smalls, Vee, Osche, and Jon Braun.
They were the best of the best of the best.
That still put them in league with hundreds of similarly talented engineers, however.
So the same question haunted all of them when they were finally invited into Mr. Schnee's inner chambers: why them? And why now?
Jon Braun was the first inside, and behind him Smalls had the honor of being the first to catch a glimpse of their prodigal host.
"You may approach!" Mr. Schnee's great booming voice filled the room. It approached from where he sat at the far end of the space. The room was dark except for where the sparse lights illuminated the meeting table. The engineers were all drawn to it like moths.
As they approached, the large, black chair at the head of the table rotated, bringing their host into full view.
Mr. S sat confidently in the high-backed structure, stroking a fluffy white cat that had found its way onto his lap.
"Please," he implored, speaking with an affected accent he used to hide his drug-induced speech impediment, "have a seat."
He smiled, gesturing to the five seats that bordered the wooden table, and to all of them he looked to have the eyes of a man who was burning with dangerous fascination.
