[X] Roman Torchwick
"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaappy..."
Yang slammed the door open suddenly, stepping forward with a huge grin on her face.
"Birthday to me, Happy birthday to meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..."
She stopped suddenly, when she saw that the dining hall was empty.
...Huh. She would have thought everyone was here for breakfast. She was sure she timed that perfectl-
...This is going to be a surprise party thing isn't it?
Yang sighed.
"Come on guys, I thought we were over this." She called out. "Well, at least we're not pretending that a birthday isn't happening this year, but it's starting to get tempting, just losing the calendar and saving money when dad's gets around..."
Sighing, Yang looked towards the kitchen, and walked over. There was a metal sheet separating the bench between the two rooms, opened when the chefs were reading to serve food. Fortunately, it's also something that can be opened if there weren't any chefs in there.
Pressing a button next to the metal sheet, a door swung open, allowing Yang to step in and find some food.
...Huh. No chefs. Did her father set all the clocks to go off really early then somehow make the sun rise early? She wouldn't put it past him to try, but this does seem somewhat more successful than anything he would have tried before now...
Well, it's also possible that he just talked the chefs into helping set up a surprise party elsewhere. Or something. Probably didn't matter. Walking past a fridge, Yang quickly grabbed some bread, and on a whim, decided to see how good her Aura control was.
Her hand burst into flames, and the toast burnt for a moment, until Yang shook it to extinguish it. She took a moment to observe the end result, and sighed.
Bunt and charged. Nope, still need to work on that a bit. Precision wasn't really her strong suit when it came to the flames. Yang knew that some people with elementally charged Aura's could manipulate the element enough for greater effects, and some people even managed to work it out well enough that it was effectively a second Semblance. But then, those people usually either had Semblances already relating to their element, or had years of experience on Yang. Control wasn't really her strong suit anyway, even after how much she had trained it up in the last few months.
Sighing, Yang just picked up another two pieces of bread, and shoved them into the toaster. It wasn't much food, but she had a big dinner so she didn't mind too much. She was mostly curious as to where everyone else had gone.
Let's see, they're not in the dining hall, so where else could everyone be?
...Well, come to think of it, it was Yang's birthday, she knew what her father had gotten her, Qrow had been here a few days ago via airship and Yang knew she was getting a motorcycle of some kind. So if people were going to try and surprise her, then the most likely place for them to keep all the presents, keeping in mind that a vehicle was amongst them, was outside.
Under that logic, it was too obvious and in reality, everyone was probably hiding somewhere in a balcony where they'd be able to see Yang leave the building and jump off to try and spook her. But the Schnee manor was a big place and Yang didn't really have the time to look on every floor, so she may as well let people think they won.
Yawning a bit to herself as she got her toast of the toaster, Yang chewed at her breakfast as she wandered towards the general direction of the front door.
It didn't take her too long to get to the front of the manor, and looking around, Yang found that she couldn't see anyone. Keeping quiet, she walked forward, then turned and looked upwards at the balconies above her.
There was a flash of red that suddenly ducked down as Yang's gaze turned towards her, and Yang smiled.
"I saw that Ruby." Yang called, smiling.
"...Nobody's here!" Ruby replied, after a moment.
"Huh." Yang replied. "Guess I must have imagined it. Ah well, I'm going cookie shopping, I wonder if Penny would like some..."
"I'm not that obvious to bait!" Ruby objected.
"I think I heard nobody talking there." Yang mused, turning away. "I guess nobody else likes cookies."
There was a barking sound, and Yang turned back in time to notice Zwei flying through the air in her direction. The dog hit Yang in the face, toppling her backwards, and she took a moment to brace herself as she hit the ground. As prepared as she was, her Aura was able to mitigate any pain, and Zwei shifted as Yang hit the ground, before licking her face.
"Hey dog." Yang noted. Zwei barked, and moved off of Yang, sitting next to her head rather than on her. Yang stood up and quickly dusted herself off.
"Where is everyone anyway?" Yang mused. "I didn't see anyone inside."
"Dad told everyone to avoid you for a bit to make it work." Ruby replied. "We were hoping you'd get confused before we surprised you."
"Well, that didn't work." Yang pointed out. "Looks like I win the birthday game yet again."
"It's not a game..."
"You're the ones who made it a game." Yang pointed out. "So, how do I get to that roo-"
In the distance, there was a revving motor, that quickly got louder and closer. A cloud of dust kicked up, blinding Yang from the source for a moment, even if she knew full well what was going on.
The dust cleared, and Taiyang became visible through it, sitting on a yellow and black motorcycle.
"Oh, hi Yang." Her father noted, reaching into his pocket and pulling out something that could fit in the palm of his hand. "Happy birthday."
He threw the object at Yang, and the girl quickly caught it before it could hit the ground. Opening her palm to look down at what she had caught, Yang blinked.
It was an exact replica of the motorbike her dad was sitting on.
"Well, that's your birthday done." Taiyang decided. "Bye."
The motorcycle revved as he turned it around, and dust kicked up as he prepared to leave.
When Yang didn't react, Taiyang turned back to look at her.
"Not taking the bait?" He asked.
"I'm pretty sure you've done this one before." Yang pointed out. "It's up there with the 'Giant box with a smaller box inside that goes on until I get something tiny' joke as far as presents go."
"I put a lot of effort into it, too." Taiyang sighed. "I even had Ruby sitting up there to let me know when you left the building."
"I mean, I was in favour of just putting everything in your room and acting like you had forgotten a day entirely..."
"It never would have worked." Taiyang shouted up at Ruby. "Scrolls have dates."
Turning down to his other daughter, Taiyang got off the bike, turning and removing the key in the process.
"Here you go kid." Taiyang declared, throwing Yang the key.
"Sweet." Yang replied. She reached for the keys, which slipped just past her fingertips, but Zwei caught the keys as they approached the ground and approached slowly, allowing Yang to take them.
Ah, the joys of extremely lax vehicle laws. As long as Yang didn't drive that motorcycle on proper roads until she got qualified for being able to not crash it in the middle of the street, she was basically allowed to do whatever she wanted to with it.
...Though, come to think of it, the Schnee manor might not have been a public road, but it was property which Yang didn't own and might not approve of her crashing through a wall while trying to get around.
"Hey." Yang asked. "Would the Schnee be mad if I broke their things while figuring out how to ride that?"
Taiyang paused, in consideration.
"That is an excellent point." He decided. "Fortunately, I was looking around and found a dirt trail that goes nowhere not far from here, just a big loop, if you want to give this thing a spin. For now, I'll just move it to wherever the garage is."
Picking up the motorbike and holding it over his shoulders, Taiyang wandered off with Yang's present. Zwei barked, and started following him.
"My present's better than yours." Yang called up to her sister. "You need to feed yours, mine is shiny."
"It's not a contest, Yang." Ruby sighed.
"Only because I'm winning." Yang pointed out. Ruby seemed to realise she wasn't going to get anywhere with that train of thought.
"Hold on a moment." Ruby decided, as she disappeared from view from the ground. "I'm coming down."
A moment later, Ruby was suddenly noticeable again, as she vaulted over the edge of the balcony while holding a collection of different wrapped boxes in her hand. She rolled as she hit the ground, bleeding off some momentum, and came to a stop just past Yang. Turning to her older sister, Ruby put the boxes on the ground.
"Happy Birthday!" Ruby declared. "I got you some nice stuff. And Qrow left behind something when he came to visit when you were out. Wanna open everything now?"
"I'm not sure now's the best time." Yang replied. "Or at least not out here. Should at least open them inside somewhere once dad finishes putting the bike away."
"I'll put them inside, then." Ruby decided. "And I'll tell the chefs to make some food. Meet you in the dining room!"
"I've had-"
Ruby disappeared in a shower of flower petals before Yang could finish talking.
"...Some... Toast..."
Yang watched the flower petals fall for a moment, then sighed. Well, toast on it's own wasn't the best breakfast anyway, she really should get something else.
"Is it your birthday?"
Yang turned towards the source of the sudden voice, and saw Roman Torchwick holding the door open as he looked over at her.
"Why, I had no idea." Roman noted. "I feel left out, blondie. After all I've done for you, you don't even tell me when your birthday is coming?"
"...Why are you here?" Yang asked.
"I can walk where I want to walk." Roman replied. "As long as it's withing boundaries of the Schnee manor, I mean. It's been too long since the Intoners were around so I'm not trusted outside the fence. Or with a weapon. Too big a chance of a psychotic breakdown, apparently. I suppose that's what happens when you take addictive song magic and shove it into someone's soul."
Yang winced at the reminder of Five's whole... Thing. It was easy to forget about it most of the time, but come to think of it, Yang hadn't seen Velvet, Coco or Melanie since her day out at the clothes store. Or Neo, for that matter, but that didn't exactly mean much when you considered that Neo had a ridiculous Semblance.
"Is there something you wanted?" Yang asked.
"A nice red supercar, grand prize at the lottery, a good looking girl..." Roman listed off. "Nothing you can help me with there, I'm afraid."
"Then why are you standing around?" Yang asked, confused.
"There was supposed to be a delivery here today." Roman replied. "For a lot of things, or something. In fact..."
Craning his head, Roman looked past Yang, as the gate to the Schnee manor began to open. A small vehicle rolled in a moment later, a truck with an open back that was being used to hold some sort of giant box.
The driver, a young woman dressed in black, grabbed some form of notepad while stepping out of the vehicle, checking it while looking up at Roman and Yang.
"Delivery for the Schnee Manor." The woman stated, in a confident voice. "One arcade machine with Galactic Infiltrators for Miss Neopolitan. Robot control array equipment for Miss Polendia. Carving wood for Miss Three."
"I'll sign off on the arcade machine." Torchwick spoke up. "Legal guardian, there should be a rule saying I get to do that."
The woman looked at her clipboard. "That would be correct. Please sign here."
...Huh. An arcade machine. Weren't those things expensive? How was Neo-
Oh right, Schnee card. One probably has them monitored, so they can't have used too much of the Schnee fund, Yang supposed.
Not letting herself be distracted any longer, Yang looked over to notice Torchwick walking towards the truck, as the driver pulled the large box out of the back and put it on the ground.
"Your delivery." The woman noted, passing Torchwick the clipboard with a pen. He quickly signed his name and handed the clipboard back, before looking at the arcade machine box and sighing.
"Hey, blondie!" The former criminal called out, turning to Yang. "I need some muscle. Help me move this, and I'll lend your some reading material Neo found lying around."
Initially, Yang felt like turning him down. Why should she care about what Torchwick was struggling with? But then she thought twice.
Why would Torchwick think she cared overly much about reading material? Yang wasn't much of a reader. Sure, she'd read books here and there, but not enough to do a favour for reading material. Unless the reading material was something that someone knew she was interested in outside of it being reading material.
Such as, say, a certain topic which Yang had been researching, which Roman knew Yang wanted to know more about. Something that Roman had advised Yang search One's secret belongings for. Something that'd be protected enough that you'd need some sort of ridiculous illusion powers to get to it.
And with that in mind, Yang reached a decision. Even if she was wrong...
"Making the birthday girl do all the work?" Yang asked, as she approached the box. "Truly, there has never been a greater gentleman."
"You say that, but you're the one offering yourself up as free labour." Torchwick pointed out, as Yang picked the box up and held it over her shoulder. "Now, follow me, I'll show you where Neo's set up her little play room."
In the time it takes Yang to carry the box to Neo's room, she will have time to talk to Roman.
[X] Ask him about his past, and how he and Neo met. Yang was kinda curious.
[X] Talk to him about his opinion on what's happened since he heard Five's song.