[X] Ask him about his past, and how he and Neo met. Yang was kinda curious.
Torchwick walked back into the Schnee manor, as Yang took a moment to adjust her grip on the box, making sure she had a secure hold on the arcade machine within. Wouldn't do to drop it.
"I don't have all day." Roman called out, beckoning Yang over. "Do I need to get some carrots? Maybe put a stick behind you?"
"I'm doing you a favour, jackass." Yang replied, quickly catching up to Roman and keeping pace behind him. "Do you want me to just throw this at you?"
"I think Neo'd rather have that working." Roman pointed out. "Neo paid a lot to order that. She'd be very upset if you broke it."
"I'm sure she'd have a lot to say about it." Yang replied.
"You joke, but that might be what pushes her over the edge into using Text to Speech." Roman noted. "She's refused this far because she thinks not talking makes her interesting and mysterious and frustrating. I can confirm that last one."
It didn't take the two of them long to reach the stairs, and Yang sighed as she looked up them, quickly re-adjusting her grip so she wouldn't hurt her back walking up those.
"So..." Yang began, somewhat curious. "How'd you get into the babysitting business anyway, Torchwick?"
"I assume you're talking about Neo?" Torchwick asked. "Long story, recently. To give the full description, we need to go back to the days where I was young, handsome, and in other words basically like I am now but smaller. Young Roman, back in the days where I lived outside the walls of Vale."
"You're from outside the Kingdoms?" Yang asked.
"Not too far off." Roman replied. "My hometown's probably still standing, actually. Most of the people I knew as a kid are probably dead, but the buildings should be fine."
Skipping up to the top of the stairs, Torchwick looked down to where Yang was struggling with the box.
"It would have been around about... Back when I had to pretend I had a legitimate job, actually." Torchwick noted. "Sure, I'd steal from the relatively rich and give to the me, but it was back before I managed to set up ties to the gangs in Vale. Had to get a job as a merchant, I think it was. Let me go around so I was never in one place for too long, could steal out of some delivery orders and overcharge when I needed to."
"I'm having a hard time imagining you doing any work." Yang noted, as she reached the top of the stairs herself. She took a moment to breath, resting the box on the ground for a moment before picking it back up to carry again.
"I'm feeling so insulted right now." Torchwick sighed. "I work hard all the time."
Yang looked at Torchwick's empty arms, and at the box she was carrying for him.
"Uh huh." Yang nodded. "Sure."
"Well, come along, child." Torchwick shrugged, moving his hands as if he was tapping something on the ground before looking down and realising he didn't have his cane. He looked sad for a moment, before walking on to wherever Neo's room was, and- And he was going up more stairs. Yang groaned, shifting her grip again, as she followed him.
"It 'twas the night before some day that nobody cares about." Torchwick explained. "I was counting my stock, comparing it to the orders I'd gotten, figuring out what I could keep for myself without arousing suspicion and making as much money as I could as safely as I could. I was stashing it all in a cave, caved it in a bit so that nobody would think anything important was in there and so I could dig my way back in. But it was funny, I was searching the area before I went to sleep for the night, and I noticed something odd."
He looked back at Yang, as she took a moment to lean against the hand rail of the stairs, adjusting the centre of mass a bit so she wouldn't slip while she did so.
"The cave was still caved in, when I looked at it." Roman explained. "But for some reason, the rocks were also all over the ground, just scattered all over the place, like someone had been digging through them and just threw them away."
"Neo's Semblance?" Yang asked.
Torchwick shushed her. "Come on, blondie, spoilers."
Walking back up the stairs again, Torchwick continued speaking.
"So I start thinking that something's not right, and shoot into the cave in. Cave in shatters, and I get a good look at a small child eating a bunch of preserved jerky or something. Caught like a deer in headlights. She tries to run, but I knock her down before she can manage it. Turns out, a gun solves lots of problems."
"And then you adopted her, apparently." Yang noted.
"She had potential." Roman mused. "And I didn't want to leave a poor child out in the cold to starve. So, as the kind, compassionate man I am, I humbly allowed this poor beggar to ride with me for a bit. I gave her food, she refused to leave, and the rest is history."
"Out of the goodness of your heart." Yang deadpanned. "And I'm sure that her Semblance didn't factor into that decision at all."
"No, no, goodness of my heart is right." Torchwick nodded. "My heart is at it's goodest when I'm rich and fed, and she allowed me to be both once I managed to teach her to cover all of her tracks. "
Finally reaching the top of the stairs, Yang looked over towards the next set, leading up to the floor above, and noted Roman taking a step towards it.
Is Neo really on the top floor, aren't there people paid to do this sort of thing-
Torchwick looked back, and smiled.
"Nah." He dismissed, turning away from the stairs and instead walking down a corridor. "Neo would never live on one of the higher floors. I think she's scared of heights, she gets spooked if she stands on her toes sometimes."
"That sounds fake." Yang pointed out. "But I guess for a short person, being able to look down on things slightly more would be toe-rrifying."
"Ugh." Torchwick complained.
"Yeah." Yang admitted. "That was a stretch."
"Never make a pun around me or my hat ever again." Roman decided.
"I'm not sure I could resist temptation." Yang replied. "You and your hat should go on a head, I'll catch up when I get it out of my system."
Torchwick looked back so that Yang could watch the eyes rolling.
"And here we are." Torchwick declared, opening the door and allowing Yang to walk through it.
As she did so, Yang immediately noticed the noise. Looking over to the side, she noticed Neo standing on a box in front of an arcade machine, frantically pressing buttons on some kind of fighting game. She didn't looked back as Yang walked in.
"Hi." Yang called. Neo still didn't react.
"She's busy." Torchwick pointed out. "Don't be rude, blondie. How would you like it if some strange woman barged into your safe place with a box and started talking to you while you were busy, I dunno, watching grass grow or whatever your hobby is."
Yang put the box against the wall. "Do you need me to take this out for you as well?"
"Nah." Roman shrugged. "Neo can work for it in a moment."
Over on Neo's side of the room, the announcer for the game declared a victor, and the small person jumped off her box, smiling. Her eyes looked different somehow, as if they used to be the other way around in their colouring. Pink in the left, brown in the right, not the opposite.
Neo looked over to the box, and nodded.
"Anyway, a deal's a deal." Torchwick decided. "Neo, do you still have it?"
The girl lifted her hand, and the air above it shattered, revealing a small leather-bound tome.
"So, your uncle was over here the other day." Roman noted. "Qrow Branwen, was it? Interesting guy. Different name to you and your sister, I notice."
"He's my mother's brother." Yang replied, confused as to the sudden change in topic. "What's this got to do with anything?"
Torchwick shrugged. "I just thought it was interesting. Anyway, Neo?"
The small girl lifted her free hand, and drew a line across her lips.
"You don't want me to talk about that?" Yang asked.
Neo shook her head. She tapped the book a few times, then covered her eyes, giving herself only a peak.
Yang frowned. "I shouldn't let people see it?"
The pink, brown and white themed girl shook her head again, seeming a little agitated. She moved her mouth for a moment while facing to the right, then turned to face to the left and did her best to look confused.
"...Different language?" Yang tried.
Neo nodded, and held up her free hand again, separating her finger and thumb by a small difference.
"There's only a little bit of it translated?" Yang asked.
With another nod of her head, Neo stepped forward, and offered the book to Yang. The blond girl took it, and held it up to the light, to see what it was called.
She frowned at the sight of it, confused more than anything.
Branwen.
"...Why is there a book named after my uncle's family?" Yang asked.
"It's an old one, from what I understand." Torchwick replied. "I thought it might interest you. Not exactly what you were looking for last I checked, but hey, maybe you'll find something interesting in there."
"...My uncle does know a bit about the silver eyes thing." Yang replied, muttering under her breath. Maybe this book would have some kind of clue? Though, if there wasn't very much of it translated, it'd take a while to go through it enough to check if there were any answers.
"Well, it's been fun, kid." Roman decided. "But you can go now. Don't let us keep you. Door's where you left it. Bye."
"...Well, I guess I don't have a reason to stay." Yang decided, as she turned towards the door.
This book didn't really seem to be that much of a gift, she'd need to work just to see if it was anything like what she was looking for. But then, at least she'd be making progress. Which was better than how things were going with Qrow and One.
"Bye." She waved. Neo vaguely nodded her way, then went up to the big box Yang had been carrying. It hadn't been that difficult, apart from keeping a good grip on it, so the book she'd gotten in return wasn't really that much of a bad price. Just not what Yang had expected.
...Well, she could think about it some other day. Check what was translated and try and work out the rest when she had the time for it. Slipping it into a pocket on the inside of her jacket, Yang tried to focus on happy thoughts.
Like the fact that today was her birthday. Ruby was waiting for her over by the dining hall, organising a bigger breakfast, probably getting everyone who was still here to join in for breakfast too. She had a bunch of presents to unwrap. She'd be allowed to ride her own motorbike later today, once she got somewhere out of the way where it wasn't likely that she'd run into things. A day to relax and unwind a bit.
She'd had a few of those lately, and to be honest, she'd missed them. Fretting over the mystery of Ruby's silver eyes and why Five wanted them so much really was getting to Yang too much, and it just felt so much easier to just forget about it for a bit. Enjoy today. It was a nice day. She wouldn't have to worry about anything as long as she just went along with whatever Ruby had planned out for the day. Maybe she'd get some nice weapon upgrades, and maybe Ruby managed to convince the chefs to make a big fancy cake for her to enjoy.
She could work on this whole thing sometime tomorrow, Yang decided. For now, she should just enjoy life. Have fun for her birthday. She'd barely made it through Ruby's birthday without making some kind of mistake, considering how Yang had ended up running into Four and agreeing to help her with the White Fang there even if she'd escaped unharmed for a bit longer. She should at least let Ruby be at ease by letting her see Yang be happy on her own birthday.
And if she started stressing about the silver eyes thing later, well, it was just one day. She wasn't going to change that much in one day anyway, so there wasn't any point worrying about tomorrow just yet.
For now, she should just be happy.
Yang might not have gotten to go see what One's plan was, meaning that I don't need to write out everything about what happened up in the battle, but some knowledge of what was going on there should be recorded for the sake of it. But whom shall we observe for this recording?
[X] Sage Gaiden: Standing in the Shadow of God.
[X] Ren Gaiden: A Light in the Endless Dark
[X] Ilia Gaiden: The Enemy is Fear