LXXII - Cover
Just realized Successional has now hit 200 followers! Wooo!
~~~(LXXII)~~~
Inside a warehouse somewhere in Mantle-
"So…" Began a man in rugged work clothes sat at a round table as he picked his teeth with a toothpick while reading over a few papers. His stubble filled face was offset by a few scars. "Ironwood had few new pawns? And here I thought The Schnee and those Ace-Ops and that damn bot were trouble enough. Do you have any information on 'em?"
"If that bastard, hell, even if that gopher of his would ever attend these meetings, then perhaps we might be able to ask actual questions." A well dressed man with cloudy green eyes framed by curly hair, annoyed expression on his face. "Honestly, I understand why he can't come, high level of scrutiny and such, but surely that weasel can make one of his men do more than offload a few pages of paper... These reports are hardly enough to go off of."
As the two complained about the situation, a third stepped out of the shadowy corner of the warehouse. The sudden and silent appearance of the third man made the two jump, seeing as how there hadn't been anyone there when they'd first sat down. He had a casual get up of varying grays and blacks, one eye hidden by dark bangs.
"Now now, our dear Mr. Patriot is a busy man from what I gather. And besides, we can't be too careful, lest The Tinman catch wind." The two at the table shared a brief look of discomfort before nodding. The gloomy member took his seat, thus beginning the meeting. "Besides, we are all proxies ourselves, to allow our betters a bit of plausible deniability."
"Right…" The working man, as far as the others knew, was under the employ of one "Mr. Unity" and was here to be the man's representative. Overalls and faded flannel covered his skin that was dirtied from hard work.
"I guess you have a point, it would be too risky otherwise." The suited man also came in the stead of his boss who had the codename "Mr. Gold" and had been paid to sit in on these strange meetings. The pay raise was significant and outweighed any morals he might have.
The shadowy man never revealed who he worked for, but it was evidently not the person behind this little cabal. Each had their own suspicions, from a criminal syndicate to a political anarchist. Even if he was supposedly on their side, the sneaky freak and the maliciousness of his smile made the others feel unwell. Like he was waiting for some poison to kick in, killing them both in a painful manner.
The drinks provided for the meeting would go untouched.
"I skimmed the names and did some digging, not much in most of them. Though there are a few winners." He picked up the paper set in front of him and began reading over the information.
"Our biggest worry is Qrow Branwen; brother to Raven Branwen. He's an elite Valean Huntsman and has been seen alongside the late headmaster on many occasions. He's a secretive fellow, but well known to be as cunning as he is powerful. We need to either take great care to avoid his eye or to take him out of the picture."
"And how do you suppose we kill him?
"I didn't say I have a plan… Merely that we should be aware of the threat."
The man pointed next at the photos of a slim Mistralian and a bubbly looking girl. "Some orphans or whatever from Mistral, so nothing of interest or anything to find other than their fight in the Vytal Tournament. One is quick and the other is strong."
Moving on, he gestured to what looked like a young teen with a freckled face. "Literally no info on this one, but if he's with this group, he must be something." The other two read along as he went over the new pieces on the board.
"Daughters of some huntsmen that Teach at a prep school, dead mom too. The daughter of Ghira and Kali Belladonna, yes, those Belladonnas. That's something we can use. The former heiress to Atlas' very own dust king. The son of some Valean huntsman, not much else going for him other than being the leader and partner to the late Pyrrha Nikos." That unnerving smile gained a sinister edge. "And one of the monsters responsible for The Fall."
"Oxon Adhmad, the boy who worked alongside Cinder Fall and helped destroy Beacon. It seemed he was hailed as a hero for helping fix one of their own attacks on the city. How ironic." The fancy man rubbed his chin as he looked over the information they were given. It wasn't much, simple observations and known strengths and weaknesses for most of them. "Why would our esteemed general allow such a threat inside the kingdom, and even what appears to be a mission as well?"
"It doesn't say…"
"But this is a chance for us." Ripping the photo out of the sheet, the slimy creep slammed it down in the center of the table, rattling the glasses set on top of it. "I'm sure he's not here by choice. Why else would he, a man convinced of terrorism, join the side of the law? Parole term? Guilt? Changed heart? No, I guarantee you he's being forced to work with his foes by the general. And we can use this. The more knives we can aim at Ironwood's back, the sooner our goals will be realized."
"Speaking of goals, my employer has begun work on creating more of our party favors. We will soon be able to give the kingdom's men and women a true ordeal soon."
"You mean give those tin cans an ordeal. It seems like Atlas hasn't learned anything from what happened in Vale, those robots are still heavily in use. Every month that goes on, they replace more and more hardworking folks, it's despicable."
"All valid angers to direct at the man we know to be responsible for the kingdom's suffering." Pulling out the last page of the report from their mole, the last few paragraphs were of interest.
"Mission to the Solitas tundra. Sending Adhmad to investigate unusual Grimm activity."
"They're after the orbs."
"They don't even know about the orbs. Besides, I wouldn't doubt that the Grimm have not destroyed the thing yet. There won't be anything for them to find other than Grimm and scrap." The shadowy man took a sip of the drink laid out in front of him. "But that hardly matters, one of us will need to make contact with our potential ally."
"I don't like the idea of working with him, he destroyed an academy!" The gruff man slammed his fist on the table, his knuckles white. "Nobody benefits from doing that! The general may be unfit, but the huntsmen and soldiers are what keep us breathing."
"You really think he'll work with us?"
"It's simple, offer him the thing he wants the most and he'll be ours. We can say we will let him free for his help. I'm sure he's been chafing at the chance to get back at the ones that have him shackled. Why, he might even prove to be invaluable."
The three continued their plotting well into the night, each would have reports to bring to the heads of their respective organizations. In the dark gloom of the Mantle night, a storm began moving through the city. The dark clouds above began pouring out snow, only for it to turn into a heavy downpour thanks to the city's extensive heating network.
~~~(LXXII)~~~
Atlas academy: A few hours earlier-
"Ahh! It never gets old!" The screen in the common area they had taken over faded to black to light blue credits. The long ordeal had come to an end.
In the couch closest to the TV, Oxon sat between Yang and Ruby as the group watched a film by the name of Dust Wars. There had been a heated argument about how to start. Jaune and Ruby fought to start with the first one. Yang and Nora argued that starting with the fourth was correct. In the end, after a bit of thrown popcorn, they settled to start from the first one. For Oxon's sake, they said.
That had been many hours ago. For the last… unknown amount of time, he had been squeezed between Yang and Ruby who had their respective partners beside them. The sisters claimed it was because they wanted good seats and to explain stuff to him, though Yang's iron grip on his shoulder whenever he tried to "take a break" proved her intentions.
Looking at his scroll's clock, he cringed at the fact he had been sedentary for over twelve hours. There had been food and restroom breaks of course, but he was impressed he sat through literally half a day watching old films. His body ached an unholy amount.
"Alright, I need a stretch. No, I'm not going to bolt." It seemed like she was understanding enough to know that after six movies, he would need to recover. After popping the joints in his legs, he did a few muscle loosening stretches to get rid of lingering cramps. "I didn't know what to expect at first. Some tale set in space with lasers and mind powers? It was actually really good."
"Now we gotta show him Space Trek!"
"I don't know, Crater Face, we don't wanna overload him now."
"Fiiineeeee…" the girl submitted to the blonde boy's point, though she was still not fully giving up. "Next week! Next week we'll do this again!"
Now hold up…
"Sure, I'll try and set time aside for our team."
"That was great, a really good story." Oxon eyed the door as he stretched his left arm over his chest. "Can't wait for next week." With a not quite fake yawn, he began inching his way to said escape in order to take a nap. Sure he may get stopped for an unescorted walk back, but it was a worthy risk.
"Not so fast Grumpo!" Not another new one… "There's SOOOOO much more to see tonight. Yang promised Spruce Wills and I already know which one to watch! It was part of the deal!" Zipping to the console, the girl rapidly typed on the touch screen to bring up a new film for them.
"You mean the deal to betray your leader?" All he got was a dismissive wave from the girl. "How could I forget? I cracked the wall with my nose; I had to get drywall out of my nose for an hour."
"What's the saying? Lose the battle to win the war?"
"Valkyrie…" Ignoring his grief, the girl pulled up a movie that showed a bald man in front of a familiar building.
"Die Hard, a classic. Good taste, Nora." The proud girl high fived her leader as she got comfortable next to Ren.
"But Yang, it's seven at night…" He really couldn't do this all night. He had a meeting with the general tomorrow about his mission.
"Good point."
"Thank you." Oxon rolled his neck as he started looking forward to laying down for the night. A nice rest would be perfect before meeting with the man.
"Yo, Weissy, wanna order delivery? I was thinking about pizza would pair well with Die Hard."
"Only if we watch Vitanic later. I won't let action movies be the only thing we watch tonight, there's more to cinema than explosions."
"Deal." The blonde demon turned back to the group with a winning smile. "Alright! Half hour break before the next flick, if you're late, we watch it without you!"
The girl noticed him creeping to the door. "And you. Where do you think you're going?"
"Uhhhh…"
"Sit." Her tone had an icy finality to it.
"N-now hold on, I'm not-"
"You will sit on that couch or tomorrow we test how well you deal with electric shocks to dissuade bad combat tactics." The two locked eyes; wary greens began to battle stern blues. He wanted to call her bluff, but he wasn't confident in his odds.
Capitulating to her command, he completed one last back stretch and walked backwards to the couch. He sat at the left most end. He wasn't about to be sandwiched again. "Yes, Weiss." The small terror gave a victorious nod at him before pulling out her scroll to order them food.
"Yang, I'm going to go make more popcorn. If you start before I'm back, none for you."
"You wouldn't dare, V.B!"
Laughing to himself, the second blonde excited the room followed by Ruby who wanted to see what other snacks the vending machines had. All in all, after a hectic few days followed by a week of daily training, this wasn't bad. The entertainment was fun and the company was relaxing. Oxon could get used to this.
"What do you mean "is this actually Weiss Schnee"!?" Oxon and the rest turned to look at an irate Weiss who was currently on the phone with some restaurant. It didn't seem to be going well. "No, this is not a prank call! Yes, I am trying to order pizza to be delivered to the academy! No, I will not autograph your pizza cutter! Well, if it means it gets here quickly, then perhaps. Yes, I will pay with my card, are you ready?"
"I think we should have her order our food in the future." Yang was leaning on Oxon from behind the seat and wiping a tear of laughter from her eye. The two paused their mirth as said girl sent them a glare as she read off her payment details to the person on the other end. It just made Oxon chuckle and Yang let out a snort.
"I think I can agree with you, Xiao Long."
~~~(LXXII)~~~
"Okay, who ordered the pineapple pizza?"
Oxon walked over to a befuddled Ruby. He picked up the small pizza with a smile.
"That'd be me, Red."
"No wonder, it's always the evil ones who eat that." Oscar!? Why!?
"The signs were all there, how did we not see it…" Yang shook her head as she sat on the floor next to Blake, the two sharing an anchovy pizza.
"And the villain still continues his ways." Nora held up a slice of her own, a meat lover. "It seems like we need to work harder on his rehabilitation."
Oxon rolled his eyes at them. If they wanted to bust his balls, then fine. He still knew his was the best choice among them. He'd die on that hill.
~~~(LXXII)~~~
"Why didn't he just get on the flotsam? Seemed large enough to me." The final movie of the night had been wildly different from the others. It was a romantic drama based on a historical event. The sinking of a large civilian vessel named The Vitanic as it traveled from Atlas to Vale.
"You and a fair number of guys ask that same question. The rest of us know that it's the message." Yang, Blake, and Weiss seemed to have become emotional at the movie's ending. He would admit, it was touching, even if it was not exactly his taste. The story had been interesting, the blow from the iceberg was surprising, and the following events had him hooked.
"It's a favorite of Saph and Sable, they'd drag me to watch it once a year. I thought I'd be free of it now that I'm away from them, yet here I am." The guy seemed nonplussed about it. Years of watching it must have made him desensitized to it. Nora though…
"It's so touuuchiingggg!" Ren was trapped in a bear hug by the sobbing girl. As per usual, he was calm and collected, if maybe a bit short on breath. "I'd never let Renny float off into the ocean like that! I'd drag his booty on to the float and we'd sail to Vale ourselves!"
"Nora, air…"
"Don't go into the light, pal." Oxon only received a slight narrowing of the eyes as the poor guy slowly turned blue.
"It's a very lovely love story set in pre-war Remnant and tells a very realistic and moving love story about two people that live in two different worlds meeting. Rosia, who is in a loveless marriage decided by her parents, meets Corun, who is a lower class man who she normally would never be allowed to be with. Their unfolding relationship and her seeing a chance at real love outside of family obligations is something many people root for. The tragedy of the voyage gives it a poetic Shakepearlian edge to it."
Weiss seemed to be the one most affected by the film, and like the sisters did, sat next to him to see how he felt about the film while also answering a few questions he had. She had been adamant about watching this film and stared down Yang's recommendation of The Sandwich Club with fiery determination.
It was clear that she thought highly of the film. "You seem quite fond of it."
"Yes, I find some of the characters mildly relatable."
"Is that so?" Oxon looked away from the petite girl to see Yang giving her teammate a contemplative look.
Shrugging, he returned his attention to Weiss. "I kinda relate to Corun, the guy was a regular person that got caught up in a dangerous yet exciting situation in an unexpected place." Pyrite vs. Cinder. The antagonist in his life was of course much more dangerous compared to the rich movie personality. That being said, for a civilian, it doesn't take much to put them in peril. "I just hope I don't end up needing to swim like he did while in armor, it's not exactly easy to do."
Ruby smacked him lightly on the back of his head.
Shaking off the surprise, he leaned his head back and gave her an Incredulous glare. "Why!?"
"Don't say that! You're gonna raise a death flag!"
"A what?"
A burst of petals and Ruby went from behind him to her leaning forward with her hands on his shoulders. "You know: "I'm getting married soon", "I'm a week from retirement", "I can't wait to eat my mom's food back home"; those are words of imminent death!"
"I'm sure that it's popular in media, but we know this is reality, not some fairy tale or play."
"Isn't an antagonist turning good also a popular one? And one that's something we've very much experienced in real life?" There was a strangled noise from the silver eyed shrimp as she realized that too. She put her hands on her head and muttered about it all being too late.
"Not helping, Nora…" Blake had her hand on her face, though there was an amused smile on it. "I don't suppose you have an undying love to confess or tell us you're about to be a father, are you?"
Oxon sputtered at the question, his eyes wide and a blush on his face. "Of course not! There's no way that's possible!"
"Then you'll be fine, I've read enough novels to know real life is nothing like them."
"I sure hope so…" Those close enough gave wide eyed stares to a suddenly very still Ruby. "Uhhh…"
"Rubs, don't tell me…"
"It was one time!"
"Belladonna!? How could you!?"
"What!? I didn't give her my books!"
"My baby sister… she's been corrupted by the smut…" The blonde faux wept in despair. Oxon unfortunately knew of what was going on. Honestly, he wished he didn't know the type of literature Blake was into. It was not for the faint of heart.
After a few jokes at the red and black colored girls, the mood began to calm back down; and with it, their energy. Not even fighting back a very real yawn, Oxon gave Yang a tired look. "Well, I'm sure even you will agree that it's actually getting late. Am I free to go?"
The girl held up her scroll with a joking grin. "Mayyybeeeee." Blake snuck up on her partner and swiped said scroll and stuck her tongue out at the surprised blonde.
"Yes, Oxon, that was the last one we had for tonight." She spun away from a swipe from Yang. "I could also go for some sleep. Tomorrow I am going to restock the books that I left at Beacon."
"You're restocking your-"
"My mature dramatic novels with very riveting stories and characters that may or may not have a few risque scenes."
"Sure."
Leaving the partners to their cat fight, he turned to the others and raised his hand. "Anyways, who's going to be a dear and walk me back, I don't exactly want to risk some prissy soldier actually using that button." He heard some movement from beside him when the youngest of them spoke up.
"I'd be happy to." Oscar stood up with a stretch and a smile. "A nice walk will help me get ready for bed."
"Thanks kid, I appreciate it." He got up off the couch and bid his friends goodnight before the half wizard and he walked out the door. As they left, a new conversation began, but he was too tired to attempt to join. He didn't need to be involved in everything.
"You know, it all makes sense now."
"I don't know what you are imagining, but I guarantee that you are delusional."
"Suuuureee…"
The voices faded as he and Oscar walked down the hall. It was much later than he wanted, but the day had been good. He wasn't sure when the last time he was able to relax like that. He knew the next few weeks would be exhausting, so he wanted to hold on to this feeling of ease as long as he could.
A good night's sleep would be the cherry on top for today.
~~~(LXXII)~~~
Me: "Wow! My motivation has returned and my creativity is flowing! I can't wait to write more!
My brain: Hahaha… No."
My brain: *Gives me daily migraines for two weeks*
Me: *Cries*
Some may be familiar with the events unfolding in this chapter, but I swear on the soul of Teddy Roosevelt, I had plans similar to Arrowfell plotted out a year ago, it's a happy accident that the game lined up with this arc so perfectly. Things will be different from the game of course, I'm not scrapping the plan I put together just because a new bit of cannon came out later. That'd be cringe.
This is a nice lighthearted chapter to flesh out a little bit of the changed relationships between each of the cast members. And we got a sneak peak at the trouble brewing under the surface in the kingdom. I also confirmed my new ranger job, so no more stress for summer employment now! It's going to be a good summer, that's for sure.
Also a bit of film review reminiscent of my days in theater. Titanic is an incredibly well done film about the era. Rose was a bird in a cage and Jack set her free (the "I'm flying, Jack!" scene at the front of the ship is a nice metaphor). I personally enjoy tales like that. The Thief and the Cobbler is another great example.
The prequels, for all the hate some give em, shows a very realistic and tragic fall from grace. Anakin does not get seduced by the dark side for evil means, but to protect those he loves. It's a great story and one I can perfectly understand. The man loved too much.