Chapter 21: Disharmonious Rhythm
It had been two weeks since the Glass Gala and it seemed like Team VIEW had fallen into some sort of rhythm. They would walk up, eat breakfast, and go to class until lunch time. Eat lunch quickly, occasionally joined by Team CARD then study or practice a few simple drills before classes resumed. After Dust studies they would either meet for further practice or go back to the dorms or library to work on homework or study for the next quiz or exam. It was a great system that left them with two or three hours of relaxation before they prepared for bed. Even Ifiral's excursions fit into this rhythm as every other night for the entire two weeks Ifrial would leave the dorm after he thought everyone was asleep, make his way down to Mantle and hunt down the next name on his list.
Since it was the end of another two-week period, rankings were posted again, this time Team VIEW took their rightful spot as top of their class. Team KNGT had fallen to the second spot while Team CARD surprisingly were ranked fourth. It really didn't matter but it meant that the team would receive a larger stipend for this two week period and if they kept it up would get first pick in missions.
First years would be going on their missions in about two weeks and people were starting to get excited. No one knew what to expect from the missions, upperclassmen were not helping in that regard. Team RMJT said that they would be sent to protect the city of Mantle and fix obviously systemic issues. Opal and her team said that they would be flown out into the wastes and told to dig for dust… Everyone figured both were talking bull.
Currently, Viralious and Winter were sitting in the common area waiting for Ifiral and Eckhart to join them. Surprisingly, Eckhart had slept in later than normal. Winter gives a forlorn sigh which gets Viralious to raise an eyebrow.
"I know that sigh, what's eating at you this time?" Viralious says jokingly.
"I'm not that readable, Viralious." Winter says
"No, but you only sigh like that when you have something on your mind." Viralious responds smugly, getting a flick on the head from Winter in response.
Winter rolls her eyes at Viralious' comment, "It's just that I was thinking we really don't know much about Ifiral."
"What do you mean?" Viralious questions.
"We only know some basics about him. We know he's from Mantle or Atlas, has a brother and is a strong fighter… We know nothing about his past, his family, or whatever is going on between him and Professor Kaine! I know we act like friends and teammates, but the truth is… we don't know the first thing about him." Winter says sullenly.
"Truth be told I hadn't thought of that." Viralious says with a smirk, "I mean you don't have to know someone's past to be friends with them. Think about it, are you friends with Delphi?" Viralious questions to Winter.
"I would say so." Winter responds.
"Then what makes Ifiral different? We know she has a sister and is from Menagerie other than that she hasn't shared anymore of her past with us." Viralious states scholarly.
Winter ponders his words for a minute before nodding, "I guess that makes sense."
"I'll see if this weekend we can do some form of team bonding experience, try and get him to open up, I guess. But truly it's up to him to share his thoughts." Viralious says giving a small smile.
Winter nods, "Alright."
Eventually Ifiral and Eckhart join them, and they make their way towards the cafeteria to start the day with a balanced breakfast.
Viralious yawned as he looked at his scroll as Cinnamon went over the basics of magnetostatics for a coaxial wire. Sure, Ampere's Law was interesting, but they had spent the last four classes going over basically the same thing between electrostatics and magnetostatics. Still it was better than BJTs and MOSFETs as that stuff was still a little confusing. Eventually the bell rang signaling the class was over. Cinnamon sighed as she was in the middle of writing an example on the board, she then turns to the class and says "Just as a heads up we are a third of the way through the semester, it might be a good idea to review the topics we have studied up until this point as we will be having a midterm after your first missions. It will be a mix of both physics and chemistry so plan accordingly." Cinnamon says scholarly before waving the class off.
"Great so we're going to be expected to study while shooting at Grimm." Russet says jokingly as both teams walk out of class.
"I think it would make more sense to study before, and after. One can never prepare too much." Winter responds with an eye roll.
"Yeah yeah, snow princess you're sounding like my mom." Russet claps back.
"Snow Princess?" Viralious raises an eyebrow at the nickname.
"Wow I'm surprised don't see your partner as a frigid bit-" Russet starts before getting interrupted by a strike to the stomach by Ariel.
"Be nice Russet, Winter's our friend. Besides, she's doing a hell of a lot better than you." Ariel says, rolling her eyes.
"Are you guys going to join us for lunch?" Viralious asks, trying to steer the conversation to a less annoying topic.
"Nope, Delphi wanted us to try out some new moves." Celica says in her typical innuendo.
"Celica… Please try t-to… keep it PG." Delphi responds while fidgeting with her hands.
"I concur with that statement." Winter says.
Celica puts an arm around both Delphi and Winter, "Awww but then I won't get to see both of you cuties be flustered. You both should relax more; you look cute when you smile." Celica responds sarcastically.
"That is the worst pick up line I've ever heard." Eckhart says bluntly.
"I've heard worse." Viralious responds thinking back to a few of the stories Qrow had told him and Zeliska.
"Y'all are no fun." Celica says in a huff.
Eventually the two teams split off and Team VIEW gets in line for their lunch. Since it's the actual cafeteria staff it takes them much less time to get their food and the food is actually edible. Sitting down the team takes a moment to eat before Ifiral decides to get up and get some more salad. As soon as Ifiral is out of ear shot Eckhart speaks up,
"Okay, do either of you know where Ifiral has been going at night. It's starting to get on my nerves being woken up at 4 in the morning every other night." he sighs with an annoyed tone.
Viralious raises an eyebrow while Winter stares at Eckhart confused, "I honestly have zero idea what you are talking about Eckhart." Viralious responds.
"Same here, this is the first I've heard about this." Winter concurs.
"Great so no one knows what's going on. Honestly, I'd assume it was him going to the bathroom but it's every other god damned night." Eckhart says, rolling his eyes.
"Have you tried asking him directly?" Viralious deadpans.
"No, figured I should see if you guys knew something, and I just didn't pick up on." Eckhart responds.
Viralious facepalms, "No offense Eckhart, but how did you plan to be leader if your strategy is to let others figure things out for me…. Wait no I see it you were trying to approach it like leading an army not a squad." in response to this Winter flicks Viralious' ear.
"Be nice." she responds.
"Viralious' comments aside, we should try and figure this out. Even if it's something small like IBS or a secret girlfriend it can affect his studies and I really would prefer it if we keep our top spot." Eckhart responded confidently.
"Eckhart, while I agree, you and Winter would drag me and Ifiral kicking and screaming to study so we stay at the top of our class. Seriously, I didn't think it was possible for anyone to read the chemistry textbook like a novel." Viralious says, rolling his eyes.
"Oh that was one time." Winter huffs.
"And you're going to get shit for it until you graduate, Winter." Ifiral responds, setting his tray down in his normal spot.
Viralious raises an eyebrow, "I'm surprised you got the salad."
"What can I say, when it's not a whole thing of shaved lettuce it's actually good." Ifiral deadpans.
This gets a small laugh from everyone before Ifiral asks the obvious question, "So what did I miss?"
"Eckhart was asking if we knew why you were going out every other night and getting back at four in the morning." Winter responds simply.
Instantly Ifiral's smile drops, and he becomes tense.
"So, mind revealing what's up?" Eckhart responds.
Ifiral just stares blankly at him, not even shaking his head.
"You alright Ifiral?" Viralious asks in concern.
"Yes." Ifiral says with no hint of emotion.
"You mind answering the question?" Eckhart asks.
Again, Ifiral doesn't answer.
"Do you want us to drop it?" Viralious asks concerned. Getting a simple nod from Ifiral.
With a sigh Viralious responds, "Alright we'll drop it but seriously dude, if it's serious or something stupid you're our teammate and we're willing to help."
Ifiral doesn't respond. The four of them finished eating after that with simple conversations except Ifiral never responded with more than one word.
Team VIEW walked into the Dust lab, and it was obvious they were concerned for Ifiral. Even more so since he had started avoiding them, would only talk to them with simple one- or two-word answers. Taking their normal seats Eckhart once again tries to start a conversation with Ifiral only to get the cold shoulder. Scoffing, Eckhart turns to Viralious "This is ridiculous."
"He's obviously trying to hide something. The question is what though?" Viralious responds.
Just then Winter places her scroll in front of Viralious, glancing down he reads a text message from Ariel.
It's not a secret girlfriend, Celica and Opal were unable to find any rumors about it and Russet couldn't find him on any of the camera feeds. We did see him going towards the locker room during one of them.
This gets Viralious to raise an eyebrow and turn to Winter, "You really asked Ariel about it?"
"I figured it would be an easy way to put the issue to rest. Besides, now we know it's not a girlfriend." Winter says with a shrug.
"What did you have to pay her with?" Viralious deadpans
"I simply told her I would give her the answers to the history homework." Winter responds.
"Fair enough, that does seem like a reasonable trade… granted paying someone to go behind a friends back probably isn't a great idea." Viralious shrugs back.
"Affirmative." Ifiral growls at Winter getting her to jump.
"Attention class: today instead of a lecture we're going to have a practical quiz. Each person has to create a dust mixture that reaches at least 85% effectivity with the limitations of what is provided at your desk. If you can prove it to me by the end of class you will pass, if not you will have to stay extra until it is done." Basil responds, breaking through the conversations throughout the class.
Delphi raises her hand, "Um… Miss Basil… Is there a reason for this quiz? … we just had a test on Wednesday."
Basil rubs the bridge of her nose, "The SDC, our glorious benefactors want proof that you are all actually learning and ordered that this quiz happen to see if it's a 'worthy investment.'" Basil says in an annoyed tone, "Off the books I'm pretty sure it's because Jacques found out that I'm teaching the class. Probably doesn't take too kindly of a Faunus outperforming him when it comes to dust."
This gets Viralious and Winter to give a small smirk, Basil really was a great professor and seeing the confident side of her was always nice. Basil then gives them all a simple smile, "Alright you all have fifty minutes, if you need help, please call me over. Also, blowing up the Dust lab is an automatic failure. Good luck."
The four of them ended up being the first four to finish, only taking about 20 minutes. Ifiral handed in a mixture of combustion and electric Dust which created a type of magnetizing solvent. Eckhart handed in a set of stasis dust vials. Winter gave her patented pure coolant dust, somehow making a near 100 grade mixture to Basil's surprise. Viralious chose to be a little fancier and created a purification dust mixture, its whole point was to filter out toxins from liquids or when charged with electricity the air. Something that Basil told his team they should probably carry with them much to Viralious' chagrin. With that they were dismissed and went back to their dorm.
Things in the Team VIEW dorm did not improve after class, Ifiral had basically shut them out refusing to acknowledge them, even when they tried to just ask him if he wanted to work on the history homework. Eventually, after what felt like an hour of frustration, they asked if he wanted to get dinner with them. Ifiral didn't even give them a second glance.
"This is bullshit." Eckhart deadpans, setting his tray down taking a seat next to Russet and the rest of team Card.
"Still having issues with Ifiral?" Celica asks, cocking an eyebrow.
"Kind of. He obviously doesn't want us to know what's going on… But I'm starting to worry." Winter says with a sigh, "He's our teammate and It feels like we should help him but he keeps shutting us out."
Viralious is about to respond before his scroll starts ringing. Picking it up he realizes it's a call from his sister.
Answering the call Viralious says, "Hey sis what's up?"
"Figured I should check up on you, that and I don't want to go to another one of Jehuty's early morning training sessions." Zeliska jokes.
"I heard that Zel." a voice on the other side of the line responds.
"I know it was aimed at you!" Zeliska yells to the other person.
"Umm should I hang up?" Viralious asks sheepishly.
"No, you should tell me about your team. It's been a hot minute since our last call and Qrow hasn't stopped asking me if I've heard from you." Zeliska deadpans.
"Oh… Listen, I really don't want him to know where I'm at Zeliska." Viralious responds.
"He apparently already knows so little late for that bro."
"Fucking hell Zeliska you tol-"
"I didn't tell him."
Viralious gives a deep sigh, "My team is great Zeliska, honestly I really can't complain…"
"That's great as Team Jacuzzi is falling apart… well kind of one fourth is dropping out." Zeliska responds.
"I'm sorry to hear that." Viralious says in compassion.
"Don't be. Guy's a fucking asshole and deserves to be kicked out." Zeliska responds in a furor.
"I…see…" Viralious responds confused.
"So how are classes going?"
"Great, we're top of the class. How about you guys?"
"Same here Jehuty really does push us to get everything done on time if not Chaud and I would have probably missed a few by now." Zeliska says, smirking.
Suddenly the scroll is ripped from Viralious' hand by Celica, "Hey Zel how are you doing?" Celica says with a wide smirk on her face.
"Celica? I didn't realize you went to Atlas!" Zeliska beams.
"Yep, came here and am right across from your brother. His team sure is driven. In fact, I think that he has a crush on-"
"Thank you, Celica, and don't do that again." Viralious says, ripping the scroll from the fox faunus' hands and putting it back to his ear.
"You're no fun." Celica says before smirking, "Remember what I said during the sparring match? You should ask her if it's true!" She states in her normal degeneracy.
"Frankly Celica, I want to scrub that from my mind." Viralious says before shifting his focus back to his sister, "Sorry about that."
"It's fine, Celica was always like that growing up. You get used to it." Zeliska says with a shrug, "Say Viralious we should try to talk more. How about every sunday? At 10 in the morning here?"
"So 10 PM here, yeah sure why not." Viralious responds, smirking, "Anything else you want to talk about, my food is getting cold."
"Yeah, face your problems head on. Even if they don't want to open up." Zeliska says with a wink.
"What?" Viralious says befuddled.
"I caught on to your flinch when you said your team was great, obviously something is going on and I have a feeling it's recent since you normally speak your mind." Zeliska says.
"Any other advice?" Viralious asks.
"Don't take Celica's advice when it comes to dating." Zeliska deadpans.
"Do I even want to ask?" Viralious asks.
"No… unless you want to get with a turquoise fox faunus." Zeliska continues.
"Noted." Viralious says giving Celica a side eye. She's smirking a wide grin.
"Well, it was nice talking to you, I'll call you around noon on Sunday, I guess. Have a great day, Viralious!" Zeliska says smiling.
"Yeah, it was nice, talk to you later, Sis." Viralious responds also smiling. Both hang up. Viralious then turns back to everyone at the table, "Sorry about that, So you guys have any plans this weekend?"
"Nope… I was wondering if you guys wanted to do something tomorrow." Delphi asks hopefully.
"Sure, why not, I'll let Ifiral know." Viralious responds before catching himself.
Winter puts a hand on his shoulder, "Viralious… I think if we give him time he'll come back around." She says compassionately.
"Yeah, I'm sure you're right."
They all end up having small conversations about life before they separate back in their dorm rooms. Once inside they see Ifiral sitting on the couch reading the reading for history.
"Why didn't you want to work with us on that?" Viralious questions.
Ifiral doesn't respond.
Viralious breaths in and is about to ignore it before his sisters words echo in his head
Face your problems head on. Even if they don't want to open up.
Sighing Viralious turns to Eckhart, "Did Ifiral go out last night?"
Eckhart shakes his head, "No, he did not."
"So, he's going to be going out again tonight. Is that correct?" Viralious says looking at Ifiral getting no response.
"Viralious, where are you going with this?" Winter asks.
"Ifiral, please tell us what's going on. We are starting to worry." Viralious says pleading to him.
Ifiral simply stays silent and doesn't respond.
Viralious gives a sigh, "Fine if you won't tell us then we might as well come with you after all they are a team so might as well take it as a team 'bonding' exercise"
"WHAT!" Both Ifiral and Winter say in unison.
"Viralious, that's crazy! We have no idea what's going on and proper sleep is important." Winter says in a hurry.
"It's an invasion of privacy! I don't have to tell you shit!" Ifiral responds angrily
"Yeah, but truth be told everything you've given us with this gives us cause for concern, Ifiral." Viralious responds.
"I think it's a good idea." Eckhart says catching everyone off guard.
"Really?" Viralious and Ifiral say in confusion.
"Yes, well it's obvious that this is growing into a large issue. So, nipping this problem at the bud will improve everyone's sleep and morale exponentially. As well as it's the weekend and truth be told other than the history assignment, we don't really have anything to do. Getting this taken care of before the first mission is probably the best course of action that we can take." Eckhart says in a scholarly tone.
Winter ponders Eckhart's thought process for a minute before nodding, "Alright I can see your reasoning."
"Well then, it's decided, we're accompanying Ifiral tonight." Viralious says punching into his palm.
Ifiral doesn't respond, he just storms out of the room.
"Should we follow him?" Winter asks.
"No… He forgot his scroll…" Eckhart says holding the offending item up.
"We should probably leave the door unlocked just in case." Viralious says moving into his and Winter's suite.
Character Change: Viralious- Ifiral Phenrix
Location: Atlas Academy: Cafeteria
Ifiral sits there eating his food alone grimacing and thinking to himself.
Idiots! It's fucking obvious I don't want them to get involve yet they fucking barged into and are now planning on coming with me tonight! What a sack of horse shit really, I shoul-
"Is this seat taken?" A feminine voice says breaking through his left.
Ifiral turns and sees the M of Team RMJT holding a tray of food, "Yes." He responds deadpan.
"Good." She responds sitting down across from him. "Name's May Marigold."
Ifiral blinks before rolling his eyes and going back to eating his food.
"What's your name?" May asks
"Ifiral."
"So what's the reason you're fighting with your team?" May asks poignantly.
This gets Ifiral to cough and choke on his food for a second. Taking a long drink from his water he looks May straight in the eye, "The fuck is you doing?"
"Trying to give you some advice." May responds matter of factly.
"I don't need your fucking advice." Ifiral says anger rising.
"Those who say they don't often need it the most." May says reminiscing. "Look I have no idea what's going on, but Opal said you were avoiding your team a bit today after lunch. Hearing that reminded me of something I did not too long ago and figured I could drop some advice."
"If it's a recommendation of a doctor for a sex change, I don't need it." Ifiral says bluntly.
May is taken aback by this, "What!? how did you-?"
"I'm familiar with the Marigold family May. They had a son named Matthew. But they suspiciously disowned them not too long ago." Ifiral says looking straight at her.
May looks down at her food.
Ifiral sighs, "I'm sorry that was a little blunt of me… May, if it makes you feel any better, I think-"
"It's fine… I'm just glad you are using my actual name…" May says, giving a weak smile.
"So, what was your advice?" Ifiral says neutrally.
"Share your problems with your team… they oftentimes will accept it and help you move forward… I mean I don't think I would be sitting here as May if I didn't talk with Robyn and Fiona about it." May says smiling at the memory.
"Sounds like you have a good team to support you." Ifiral says leaning back.
"Yeah… So Ifiral share with your team and odds are things will get better for you." May says picking up her tray and walking away… Rejoining the rest of Team RMJT.
Ifiral sits there for a few minutes letting May's words sink in…
Maybe she's right… Regis said the same thing… They have been supportive… I hope May is ok… Well, Johanna hasn't come over and punched me yet so she's probably fine… Fuck, I should apologize later.
Ifiral gets up, placing his tray on the carousel before checking his pockets for his scroll… until he realizes that he left it in the dorm room when he stormed off. "Fuck." is all he says upon realizing it.
Ifiral had returned to the dorm room and was currently sitting in his and Eckhart's suite scrolling through Russet's meme page. Sure, it was boring, but he really didn't want to interact with his team right now… sure May's advice was still going through his head.
They just wouldn't understand… Besides, I don't want them to become an accessory to it.
Ifiral's thoughts are interrupted by a small reminder triggering on his phone. Glancing at the time he sees that it's 11 PM… time for him to get moving. Getting out of bed, Ifiral exits the suite and sees the rest of his team sitting in the common area. Viralious is sitting on the couch fully ready in his combat gear, Eckhart is "resting his eyes'' on the chair next to him while Winter is sitting next to Viralious, her head starting to slightly droop onto his shoulder.
Ifiral gives a small roll of his eyes and is about to yell at them before May's words echo in his head one last time
Share your problems with your team… they oftentimes will accept it and help you move forward
With that Ifiral gives a sigh before saying loud enough to wake both Eckhart and Winter "Alright, follow me and don't slow me down. Do your best to not appear on cameras or drones."
The four of them would stop by the locker room and get changed into their combat gear. Eventually they make their way down to the Airship docks and Ifiral knocks twice on the familiar bullhead.
"Get in quickly. Next sweep is in two minutes." The pilot says quickly opening the door.
All four quickly enter as the pilot turns to see the larger than normal crew, "There's about three more of you than normal."
"Don't worry about it. Just follow the typical schedule." Ifiral says annoyed.
"Whatever you say boss. Folks you might want to strap in, winds have been a little strong today."
Sitting inside the bullhead, Ifiral looked at the rest of his team, sitting there dressed in their combat attire and bearing their Huntsmen weapons with a sigh he closed his eyes and cursed himself.
The bullhead takes off after what felt like forever leading Team VIEW into one of the glimmering nights of Mantle.
A/N
Some of you may have noticed that there are horizontal lines breaking up the scenes and Character changes now, this is due to FFnet making my previous method of doing that a singular hyphen(-) no longer work for some reason. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ or at least with the previous chapters, I will experiment and make them consist when I figure out which is actually working properly.
A little bit of a shorter chapter but not by much, as you can tell I am taking Ifiral's portion a little bit faster than Eckharts as if I dragged it on the formula would get a little stale. We have the two-week time skip simply to show that Team VIEW is starting to fall into a rhythm of the school year, even one as disharmonious as it is. This chapter is meant to be set up and foreshadowing for the events to come. Now then let's look at the content.
Winter and Viralious' conversation is meant to foreshadow later events in this chapter and build into the lunch. The lunch scene is meant to kickstart the conflict of the chapter into gear simply put, Ifiral doesn't want them wrapped up in this. As for the Cinnamon lecture in between, that's just me putting some of my E&M notes into the story to make it seem like a real education. Dust applications are meant to also emulate this and give a small bit of character foreshadowing for the main four.
The dinner scene with Zeliska is meant to do two things. First establish a little more of Zeliska's team and two give Viralious the Idea for accompanying Ifiral. This leads us to Ifiral and May's talk. Truth be told I had no idea who I wanted to talk to Ifiral, and I rolled a dice between team RMJT Opal and Kaine, May just ended up winning the dice roll. So, I think I was able to give Ifiral some realistic advice from it.
Overall, this chapter is fairly good and I am excited to get the plot going a bit more, so tune in next week for that.
This is where I would like to thank my Editor AmoebaHewdraw who sucks at hunting Khezu in Monster Hunter Rise.
AmoebaHewdraw's Note: I'm a Doot Hammer main! Only good damage I can get in is bashing its stretchy face in! (AmoebaHewdraw's note inside of note: Doot Hammer is the improved name for Hunting Horn)
… You focused the tail with the hunting horn… you also somehow managed to cart against HR 5 Rathian while wearing the Sunbreak catch up armor.
Until Next Time Xcom Out
