Jaune's boots crunched within the ankle-deep snow as he walked along the outside of the high wall surrounding Mantle. The towering, grey-green barrier stood high enough that he couldn't see the buildings on the other side from his close proximity, and he estimated that the structure of concrete and steel was at least three feet thick and thirty high. He had never seen anything like it, nor had he ever experienced the need to constantly raise his hands to shield his eyes from the reflection of the sun off the wall and the ground.
"Snow blindness hitting you?" Elm asked as she continued to lead Jaune along the perimeter.
"Huh?" Jaune replied as he squinted his eyes and looked up to his companion.
"Snow blindness," Elm said again as she turned her head and looked back at the younger man. "The sun reflects off the snow, giving off a glare that has a nasty habit of going right into the eyes. It's worst just after dawn, due to the angle. By midday, Atlas usually blocks it out entirely. Just another one of the many wonderful aspects of living in Solitas."
"Oh. Uh… any tips?" Jaune inquired as he jogged forward to walk at Elm's side.
"Chin up, eyes forward," the woman answered. "That's also my advice for dealing with most things."
"Heh. You seem… really positive," Jaune observed. "You know, compared to Harriet and Clover, I mean. Maybe even Marrow. A lot of the time, I can't help but wonder if he's putting on a brave face and forcing a smile for everyone else's benefit."
"And I can't help but wonder if you're speaking from experience," Elm replied as she stopped near a steel panel with a red light upon it embedded in the wall.
Jaune coughed nervously into his hand and shuffled his feet in the snow, feeling incredibly naked.
"Uh… y-yeah, a little. Takes one to know one, I guess? I'm not as good at it as he is, though."
"He's a master of soldiering on, no matter what he's feeling. It takes a lot to make Marrow's cracks start to show," Elm explained as she flashed her scroll across the waiting light. A ladder began to descend to ground level with a series of clanks, ending right next to the I.D. reader. "It's an admirable trait. He's a good teammate, and an even better man."
"Is… that what you do, too?" Jaune asked as he watched Elm begin to scale the wall. "Set aside your own feelings and smile for the sake of everyone else?"
"…sometimes, I wish," Elm said cryptically as she reached the top of the wall and turned to watch Jaune climb up behind her.
"I'm not sure I get what you mean," he admitted as he continued to climb. "You seem to do a pretty good job of encouraging everyone around you and staying positive, no matter what you're feeling. Isn't that the same?"
"That's the thing," Elm answered as she clapped her palms together to free her gloves of errant flecks of snow. "I… don't really have many negative feelings. Nothing 'big' to complain about, compared to what my colleagues deal with. I appear content and enthusiastic because… well, I am."
Jaune blinked, suddenly feeling very stupid that he hadn't even considered the possibility that someone could just be happy.
"…oh. Uh, great!"
Elm offered Jaune a grin and an amused little noise as he crested the wall and brushed the snow from his pants with his hands.
"Yes and no. Seeing the demons that the others are dealing with while I'm simply coasting along makes me feel a bit… guilty. There's that, and the fact that I achieve that happiness and contentment you spoke of by keeping people- even the Aces- at a certain distance. Most problems are caused by other people. Establishing firm boundaries from them while staying generally pleasant to others saves a lot of headaches… but it also prevents me from helping individuals as much as I'd like, sometimes."
Jaune took some time to consider Elm's words as he walked with her along the top of the wall. To his left was the city of Mantle in all its gloomy glory, with structures of brick and steel standing tall in the morning sun. To his right was a field of mostly barren snow leading up to a massive and incredibly deep crater beneath the floating city of Atlas. The impossibly wide and frighteningly deep hole in the earth was bordered on the far side by mountains that reached almost halfway up to the city. Altogether it looked like the yawning mouth of a gargantuan creature, its rocky teeth reaching up toward Atlas as if it was threatening to swallow the city whole.
"I think I get it… almost like survivor's guilt, but with being spared from tragedy entirely?"
"That's actually a pretty apt description, yes," Elm agreed as she continued along the path. "I've had my moments of woe, but compared to what Marrow deals with due to being a faunus, and now the Schnee propaganda? Harriet and Clover's personal issues that I'm not about to discuss? Mine aren't worth mentioning. Losing Vine and the divorce are the two big ones, but the first was a shared experience, and the second one is long in the past."
Jaune felt as though he had experienced a sudden bout of whiplash as his mind caught up to Elm's words.
"Wait, you were… you were married?"
"That hard to believe, huh?" Elm teased as she made her way to an enclosed check-in point upon the wall.
"No! No, not at all, I…" Jaune tried as Elm once again swiped her I.D. and stepped into the tiny command center. He was quick to follow, sounding apologetic as he scrambled to explain himself. "Just… unexpected, is all! I didn't think any of the Aces would be tied down."
"We're not," Elm clarified as the lights within the booth turned on automatically and the door closed itself behind Jaune. "It was a while before I signed on, fresh out of the Academy. We were young. Stupid. Convinced that we were soulmates. Living with someone and being codependent is very different from only meeting up when it's fun or convenient. I learned that the hard way. We weren't compatible."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Jaune offered as he took in the various panels, monitors, and other high-tech pieces of equipment within the control room.
"Eh, it was a learning experience, and we still talk," Elm said with a wave of her hand as she sank into a computer chair and rolled up to a desk occupied by rows of switchboards. "Like I said- nothing to get upset over now, and it was ultimately a positive."
"I'm glad that you see it that way," Jaune replied as he approached and looked over Elm's shoulder while she began to fiddle with switches. "What's our goal here?"
"Monitoring and data entry," Elm answered in a bored tone before pointing to a wall occupied by a grid of screens. "Do me a favor and check the security footage over there? Make sure nothing's on fire or exploding."
"Does that happen often?" Jaune joked as he made his way to the collection of monitors.
"Less than you'd think, but more than you'd hope," Elm teased. "Learning and growing from tragedy is a useful lesson to learn, Jaune. I think it's one that you understand, from what I've seen of you since you arrived."
Jaune took in a deep breath through his nose and blew it out from his mouth as he began to examine the monitors one by one, checking for any signs of disturbance. Most of the camera footage was devoid of anything interesting, though a few showed scenes of people walking through the city.
"…yeah. I… I kinda felt like you do now, until I lost Pyrrha. Like my problems were small, compared to everyone else's. But I think there's value in speaking up about what you're going through, even if it seems insignificant in comparison to what's happening to the people around you. I, uh… I had some concerns that I brought up to the group, and one of my friends… they… you know, they took care of it for me. It was… it was really nice, feeling supported."
Elm raised a brow as she listened to Jaune fumbling over his words. Though she couldn't see the furious blush he wore as he faced the monitors, though she could tell that something had him flustered. She made a mental note to find out just what it was later.
"Maybe so. But sometimes, voicing those things only compounds the problems of those you care about. Do you know anything about Vine?"
"…a little," Jaune said hesitantly. "Very little. Weiss told us some stuff this morning based on what she learned from Clover, but she didn't go into detail. I just know that he was your former leader."
"He was, yes," Elm confirmed as she slid her chair over to a waiting computer setup and began to type on the keyboard. "He was an incredibly calm, patient man who somehow knew exactly what each of us needed at any given time. Clover and Harriet got far more focus from him than I did, though I don't mean that as an accusation. The opposite, actually. He knew that they both needed help with more personal issues, so he chose to spend more time and energy on them. They were both very close to him."
"But you weren't?" Jaune asked as he looked over to watch Elm entering data.
"I was, but on a different level," Elm tried. "We spoke fairly often, but he, too, appreciated the distance between us. We would drink together every now and then. Make small talk. Losing him hurt me, but not to the extent that it hurt the others… especially Harriet. I did what I could to support her and Clover."
"And you never let them know what Vine meant to you?" Jaune asked, suddenly feeling uneasy.
Elm spared him a brief, impartial look before turning back to her work.
"…it didn't seem right to do so when they were affected so heavily. Losing a drinking buddy and coworker doesn't compare to losing… someone as close as he was to Harriet. It wasn't my place."
"Well… if you ever do want to talk about how you feel, I'd be willing to listen. You know, as an outsider. I'm sure the rest of our team would say the same," Jaune offered as he turned to face Elm and folded his arms across his chest. "Sometimes, you've just gotta get your feelings off your chest before they eat away at you and become something that won't let you hold it back anymore."
Elm kept her eyes on the screen, her posture and expression totally unchanging as she continued to work.
"…thanks. I'll keep that in mind… but no promises. Boundaries, and all that. Let's talk about something else."
Jaune paused for a moment before his lip twitched ever so slightly.
"Hey, mind explaining how your semblance works, while we've got a second without anything pressing going on?" Jaune asked suddenly. "You used it while we were sparring with Sun and Pyrrha, but I'm not sure I've really got it down just yet."
"Hm? Oh, I suppose I could go into detail, sure," Elm said with an air of confusion. "It's a fairly simple semblance, though I'll admit, it's a bit weird. I can form a sort of crystallized sheath around my feet to root myself to the ground. I'm practically unmovable, unless of course someone were to cut me off at the ankles or something."
"What would happen if the ground below you became unstable?" Jaune asked. "Like if it was concrete and someone cracked it, or you tried using it on something loose, like dirt?"
"I've tried it on dirt, and it's… less than effective," Elm replied. "With the concrete example… well, it wouldn't be ideal. I'd probably fall over and have trouble disconnecting from it, since I'd take the fragments with me while trying to lift my feet again."
"That's about what I figured," Jaune said with a nod as he made his way to the window overlooking Mantle and set his hands upon the sill. "You really do come off as resilient and immovable, but Sun told me that semblances are a reflection of their user's personality… or maybe something even deeper than that. If your foundation becomes unstable, even with a buildup of little cracks and shifts, then it's going to be pretty hard to stay standing on your own. My semblance lets me boost or restore another person's aura as their defenses start to crumble. Just… think it over, okay?"
Elm stopped typing as she listened to Jaune's words, disliking them more and more as he continued. She turned off the computer monitor as he finished and found that the reflection staring back at her within the blackened glass was anything but cheerful and enthusiastic. As much as she wanted to look away, it took her quite some time to tear her gaze from the screen and rise into a standing position.
"…follow me. We've still got six other stations to check," Elm ordered as she made her way to the door and walked back out onto the wall.
Jaune looked over to watch Elm as she left, before moving to follow in silence.
Author's Note:
The callbacks never end…
-RD