Eventually Mlynar had fallen asleep, fitfully with dreams of absolute darkness only punctuated by a single moment. A singular memory of the past. Not of his days galavanting in the countryside. Not of his days working in the office buildings. Not even of his day juggling his new responsibilities of caring for Margaret and Maria. No, this memory was older. A time even he had forgotten as he did not see the memories, but rather felt it. Heard the voices of those who meant the most to him.

"Mlynar, straighten up your back!"

"Come now father, lighten up on him. He's been training since the early morning hours."

"And yet he still has the energy to smirk."

"Kiril! Fritz! Mlynar welcome back!"

A pleasant smile. Warm laughter. A sense of accomplishment. Feelings and emotions that had long since felt dormant to him. He was held up and despite him towering above the other two, even at the age of sixteen no less, he felt small compared to them. He felt like a blind stranger hearing and feeling this version of him.

No. Wait. Don't. He felt the feelings and voices grow fainter as he felt a sense of distance grow between them. He couldn't move. His legs felt like they were bolted to nothingness. Please! Don't leave me!

"Stop." Mlynar's voice came out weakly as he saw his arm was raised up and reaching towards a textured creme ceiling. The fan above him weakly spun and began to recollect his bearings. He remembered the day's events. Leaving Rhode Island, driving Pen-

"Ah," he verbally noted. He let out a sigh before running a hand over his face, but then smelling the air and blinking. There was an aroma to it, someone was cooking. He blinked as he saw that faint memory again. The pleasant smiles and jovial atmosphere. His body was even aching the same way, then he blinked and he was no longer in Kazimierz.

No longer at the outskirts of the territory, doing a training exercise alongside his loved ones. No longer a fresh faced youth prospect, second to the Nearl family.

He was in Columbia. He was nearing his own father's age when he handed the reins of the family to his brother. But in both instances, he wasn't alone.

The couch was an acceptable place to sleep, but it was quite short compared to the one in the Rhode Island dormitory. It seemed to be shaped for more shorter individuals to lay down on it, or perhaps was never meant to have someone sleep on it while lounging. Regardless of design, when Mlynar swung his legs to sit up, he felt a slight pang of discomfort on his back and neck from having to maneuver his body to sleep properly. There was even an audible crack from his knee when he stood and he let out a small grunt at that noise. Ultimately it was painless, but an annoying reminder of time.

When he stood and stretched out his neck and back, he heard and FELT more cracks that caused him more discomfort. Blinking the discomfort away, he saw the morning sun. He had many qualms about Columbia, from its society to its effect on Kazimierz, but the deep blue of its sky remained a pleasant sight to him.

Then he turned to the origin of where he smelled food. In all fairness and honesty, he had forgotten that the room had a small kitchenette. Nothing large or fancy, but the three essentials of kitchen appliances were there; stove, oven, and fridge along with enough counter space. It seemed as well that his new roommate took full advantage of having such, though he was also a little apprehensive upon noticing her current morning attire.

Penance stood in the kitchen, a simple black apron in front of her, but Mlynar was able to get a look at her from behind. She wore a some sort of white and gold accented sweatshirt that seemed to have been put over something, and a pair of shorts that barely reached her thighs. She was bare legged, but her tail covered much of her behind, of which Mlynar did not realize he was staring at until he saw it twitch, then his eyes went back up.

Cursing himself inwardly at his own lechery, he also heard a soft humming. It was from Penance, as she cooked what he could only assume was either a late breakfast or a brunch, she was humming to herself. She seemed to be in her own world, and he opted to not bother and had moved to go to the bathroom to freshen up, only for his knee to crack against a low table and he let out a loud hiss and curse. Loud enough to stir Penance as she whirled around with a wooden spoon. Both stared at each other before Mlynar spoke while rubbing his shin.

"Good morning Lavinia," he ground out as he put his leg down once the annoying stinging went away.

" Buongiorno , Mlynar." Bereft of her usual ornaments, like hair clips, necklaces, or even the barest amounts of makeup that she wore, Penance stood in the kitchen. Her long hair tied simply behind her and out of her face, and there were a few white powdery stains on her face and cheeks. She turned around quickly before turning off the oven. Her hands quickly donned a pair of oven mitts before opening said oven. A rush of delightful smells, of roasted garlic, onions and peppers, came out before Penance pulled a large tray from the oven.

"Would you like frittata?" Penance asked. "Uh, breakfast?" Seeing her earnest look, Mlynar only let out a breath before speaking.

"If you'll have me," he said before moving towards the small kitchen table. The chairs and table felt a little short for him, but he did the best he could sit down as Penance divided the "frittata" as she called it. Closer now, Mlynar saw the amount of flour stains on her arms as well as her apron as well. He also noted the flour stains and used kitchen equipment resting in the sink as well.

"What time did you awake?" he asked. She finished dividing the meal before responding.

"I… I am not quite used to sleeping so long. So when I awoke, I had decided to go out for a jog." Mlynar nodded. He usually woke up, but it seemed that when he wasn't mentally preparing himself to work he could sleep through a lot. "But on the jog there was a farmer's market happening. It seemed that this community has a lot of Siracusan immmigrants, so I ended up buying some ingredients. As thanks I wanted to cook breakfast. As thanks for letting me stay."

"You have no need to–" Mlynar moved to speak but then Penance held her hands up, letting her finish.

"I know that you're being a kind person-" Mlynar almost openly laughed at that analysis of his character. "But I do not like feeling that this relationship is one sided. I would feel like I'm taking advantage of both you and Rhodes Island, so I want to at least do something. If not, then think of this as a gift for a… friend." Friend. That was a word that Mlynar hadn't often used or had the pleasure of having many of nowadays. But at Penance's statement, he couldn't find much of an issue with the statement. Indeed, he couldn't say they were coworkers much, they were honestly too familiar to be counted as such. There's been a sense of professional boundaries that have been passed, so it only made sense that it seemed they could be called friends.

"Very well," Mlynar said, though the small smile on Penance's face made him feel somewhat relieved. He had guessed that this improper professional relationship weighed on her mind, and apparently his now that he self reflected on it, but now that it was established that they were something akin to friends, it seemed to make them feel more relaxed. They were no longer coworkers, or associates connected by another who held very little in regards to professional separation, Deszcz, but formally friends it seems.

"What is this then? This… Frutatata?" She let out a laugh at his mangled attempt at speaking Siracusan. In truth his natural Kazimierzian accent made his Siracusan sound more Gaulish or even Leithanian.

"Its called Frittata. Just some cheese, meats, and vegetables baked together in a deep dish," Penance said as she dug in. "Please try it. It's…" There seemed to be a sort of lingering feeling that came with the dish, one that beget a sense of sadness that Mlynar knew well enough to try and meander away and so instead took a bite. He immediately hissed upon the heat of it.

"Oh, be careful it's hot!" Penance cautioned. He gave her a look that read as "really, do you think?" before he let out a few hot puffs of air before his mouth cooled down the morsel and he ate it. It was quite good, and he voiced it as such in a clipped tone before continuing on eating it, taking careful bites and blowing on it.

It was a pleasant morning between the two. The events of last night completely buried deep in their minds, but on the occasional glances to each other that would bring out the nearest hint of redness, it was more so the case that both didn't want to speak of it now.

- L&L-

When Leontuzzo was told of the new living arrangements, he was initially ambivalent to it all. Mostly because while some individuals were given lodgings by Rhode Island to live alone, there were a fair bit who volunteered or were chosen to live with another or two others. Leontuzzo was put amongst the group who were to live with others as a result of both security, he was in charge of finding intelligence in regards to the growing resentment amongst marginalized groups in New Orange. He was also someone who was part of the latter half of the two types of people who were set up to live with other people.

He had no qualms about living with others, he had previously lived alone on Rhode Island so was somewhat interested in living in a group setting. The closest he had to such an idea was almost a lifetime ago for him. When things were less confusing for him. When the two most cherished people in his life didn't feel like strangers now.

But now, it seemed he would rather get back to living on his own as the sound of strings crying out shot him out of his room, revolvers in tow in a half dressed state. His eyes were wild and adrenaline pooled in his ears as he snarled out a loud, "who's there!". Only instead of some rancorous intruder or even some sort of beast, it was his roommate who looked up at him from the center room. The large instrument rested in his lap, a bow in his hand, but the noise he continued to make was not one it should make.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" Leontuzzo snarled as he glared at Ebonholz, his sole roommate.

"I am checking over my instruments." He said it with such a flippant and matter of fact tone that Leontuzzo almost let it happen then and there had the man not used his bow to pull another barbarous note from what can only be described as an ailed instrument.

"No stop that shit right now. It is WAY too early for that," Leontuzzo growled. Holstering his revolvers and tossing them behind him onto his, he marched over to the Leithanian musician and ripped the bow out of his hand. That caused a rather volatile reaction however.

"What are you doing?!" Ebonholz shouted as he turned towards Leontuzzo. The Leithanian was still dressed richly in the morning. Designer and patterned pajamas and despite the earlyness of the morning, even had the time to freshen up in preparation for whatever this was as Leontuzzo saw it.

"Stopping whatever the shit this is, stronzo ," Leontuzzo growled back. At this Ebonholz stood up and glared eye to eye with Leontuzzo. There was only a singular centimeter difference between the two, but Leontuzzo stood up a little straighter to accentuate his one centimeter advantage as much as possible.

"Give. That. Back." Ebonholz glowered. There was a menacing air, but this wasn't Leontuzzo first standoff.

"Are you gonna play more of that merda ?" Ebonholz's glare deepened. His eyes and ears flicked and a look of pain flashed before his eyes before he went back to glaring at Leontuzzo.

"And what if I do?" Leontuzzo bared his teeth as he glowered at the other man. They were roughly the same age, maybe Ebonholz a little younger, but there was something haughty about the Leithanian that irked him. When they first met there was an air of aloofness, he also had some qualms about sharing a room, which Leontuzzo didn't take offense to at the time. If anything, if he knew his morning would be met by this, he would have gladly supported the motion, however when Leontuzzo tried to greet the man amicably, the Caprinae just waved him off. So on their first meeting, the disrespect was a given and had him mull over it in the night. And now, well, he just wanted to get even after all.

"I might as well break it then," he responded. A look of outrage overtook Ebonholz's face and before Leontuzzo could even act, the Caprinae tackled him to the floor. The cello bow sent sprawling away before Leontuzzo threw Ebonholz off before they hit the ground and the Caprinae fell on his side. Previously in the morning, Ebonholz had moved much of the furniture of this small two room apartment they had in order to give him enough space to ready the instruments, so there was nothing at risk of being destroyed.

Now though he wished he kept some chairs around to break over the head of the insufferable Lupo in front of him. He shook his head, no the Lupo wasn't insufferable, but that damn melody was getting worse. He could also hear it laughing at him before he stood up to see Leontuzzo run at him.

"Fuck! Bastardo!" the Lupo roared before punching the Caprinae in the face. In fairness to his blue blood, Ebonholz took the punch and stayed standing. In fact he was so accepting of the punch that he just sneered before his foot shot out and caught Leontuzzo between the legs. A mix between a gasp and a squeak came from Leontuzzo at the strike as he doubled over gripping his injured area.

"Dirty fucker," Leontuzzo groaned in a noticeably higher voice before looking up to see a smug look on Ebonholz' face. "Fuck! You!" He rose up to catch the dome of his head to slam into Ebonholz's face.

A shower of blood came from the impact as Leontuzzo felt dizziness from his head and his groin. Ebonholz meanwhile gripped his face as blood streamed out from the appendage. The melody was no longer playing, instead stars and stinging pain came to override his senses.

"Fotz!" Ebonholz roared, eyes watering but a fist reared back Leontuzzo stood up despite the pain in his groin.

"Bastardo!" Despite the pain still crumpling his legs, his own first was raised back.

"Fuck you!" They both shouted at each other with vitriol and venom before sending their fists flying. Both were clocked on their chins with resounded cracks and saw the stars amidst inky darkness. Shaking unsteadily on their feet, they both toppled backwards, ending their first morning as roommates on a rather violent note. Or at least thats how Chiave, Aosta, and Broca found the two when they went over to see if Leontuzzo would want to have brunch with them.

- L&L-

Bison didn't sleep a wink that first night. More nervous than anything as he and only a handful of others stayed on the landship. None of the other members of Penguin Logistics stayed, they had a property they had on hand in the city and had offered Bison a bunk there, but he insisted on staying on the landship. It wasn't entirely because he saw that staying on the landship would make coordinating the logistical effort easier, but partially because New Orange seemed a rather terrifying prospect of visiting and partially because the idea of staying in a safehouse with the other members of Penguin Logistics would drive him insane. It was alright when Mostima was around because she could temper their relentless energy, but Texas seemingly grew a little more intense ever since they came back from Siracusa.

Honestly, ever since Penguin Logistics formally introduced him to the greater system of Rhode Island, Bison felt so out of touch with everything. If he felt small compared to his coworkers at Penguin Logistics, then he felt absolutely diminutive compared to the giants of Rhode Island. There were loads of people who knew more about logistics in their fingers than he could in his entire life, but he was in charge of this great undertaking.

"Hey good morning Biso-Holy crap!" That was Angelina's voice as she walked into the logistics office that Bison occupied. She had half expected her younger coworker to have been tiredly getting his office set up for the day, but noting the many cups of coffee and his jittery hands, she saw he stayed the night.

"O-Oh, g-g-g-good morning Angelina," Bison croaked as he sent a flickering smile.

"Did you stay here all night?" Her eyes were wide as she took in her temporary superior's haggard appearance.

"Oh, is it the morning already?" His voice gained some stability but his eyes lost some strength as he tittered forward a bit before catching himself and straightening up. "I wanted to finish the inventory listings first."

"Oh, which ones did you get too, I can get to the rest while you take a nap," Angelina replied as she went over to him. "Wow, that's a lot of files. So which ones did you get too?"

"Hmm?" Bison looked up at her, almost in a daze as his eyes glazed over before blinking himself awake.

"Bison… How many did you do?" Angelina asked again, but this time there was a little apprehension in her voice as she realized that all the papers that spread on Bison's desk weren't just a random assortment. There were distinct piles, each labeled for a specific purpose and listed almost to their entirety.

"Uh, all of them. Why?" Bison grabbed one of the lukewarm coffees still on his desk before attempting to the train the last dregs of it before it was taken by Angelina.

"Maybe, let's cut back on the caffeine for now, okay."

"Heyo Mini-Boss, Catapult here-woah, who stole Ezo's beans?" Catapult came in to check in when she leaned back from the intense smell of coffee. "Oh, morning Ange. Whatcha doin?"

"Can you take Bison to the break room, please?" Bison protested weakly but Angelina just patted him between the horns and his eyes grew heavy. Then she looked to Catapult. "So Bison might've stayed the entire night and cataloged most if not all the inventory listings." Catapult's eyes widened as she let out a long low whistle. She quickly took the job of wheeling a now softly snoring Bison, meeting up with Spot halfway and having the both of them lead Bison to the break room while Angelina did her job as his temporary adjutant.

A knock on the door came and Courier came jogging in.

"Morning Angelina," he said with a wave.

"Good morning Weiss," Angelina replied before seeing Courier picked up a stack of papers. "Uh, Courier, what are you doing?"

"Oh, well, Bison didn't want to trust his judgment on the authenticity and accuracy of the reports, so Master Silverash offered to be his quality control checker. I come by every hour to pick up new ones for Master Silverash to check… Actually speaking of Bison, where is he?" Angelina stared at him, though he was a Messenger like herself, his exclusive employment with the Silverash family gave him more unique jobs as the personal "courier" of the Karlan trade company. If the blade still kept at his hip made any inclination on wat that sort of job usually meant, but in fairness, with the landship empty of their usual heavy hitters, weapon ordinances had been put to free carry in the event some forces outside see the stationary and empty landship as something for the plundering.

"He was about to collapse," Angelina said quickly as she helped organized the files so they looked more presentable. "Are you telling me that Silverash put him to this?"

"On the contrary Angelina, Master Silverash was actually trying to tell Bison to rest at least for an hour before continuing work, but Bison just bulled through it," Courier responded with somewhat of a look of respect. "At seeing the younger man push through it, the Master could only due his do diligence in remaining awake as long as possible alongside him if the younger Bison was able to do so." Courier let out a small bout of laughter. "Well if you said that the young Bison is resting, then I can tell Master Silverash that he can rest as well. I'm sure Matterhorn will be happy with that." Angelina only nodded before Courier turned to leave.

"Hold on Courier," the man turned on his heel. "Can you bring back all the unfinished and finished documents that Silverash has? We need to get them authenticated by the Doctor before moving onto the next step."

"Of course, I don't think I'll be making it one trip though."

How much did Bison do?! Angelina thought with alarm before just waving off Courier's words.

"It's alright. Grab anyone free if you think it'll be faster. I think I saw Spot and Ethan on their third breakfast run." Courier laughed before waving goodbye to Aneglina. Leaving her alone in the office with several stacks of paperwork that she realized also wasn't the full extent of it was meant to be.

"I'm sooo glad I'm not the Doctor," Angelina whispered to herself before another knock on the door pulled her attention. "Who is it?"

"Itsa me!" the Doctor's voice came double muffled from behind their mask and the door before it opened to reveal the Doctor. Hands in their pockets, they had a plate of breakfast pastries in their hand while the other had a cup of coffee. "I just saw Bison get wheeled out in their chair, is everything alright?" At seeing the Doctor a wide smile spread on Angelina's face.

"Actually now that you're here, everything is more than perfect!" Angelina's smile scared the Doctor, who was about to quickly backtrack out of the room before the girl bounded over to them and tapped them lightly. Suddenly weightlessness was upon the Doctor as they felt significantly lighter, and much more easily movable.

"A-Angelina, wh-whats going on?" the Doctor tried to desperately find purchase with their feet on the linoleum floor, but floated just beyond it.

"Bison was hardworking and thorough enough that he did A LOT of inventory work last night, and this morning, Doctor," Angelina said sweetly as they took the plate and cup from the Doctor's hands and set them down in front of the chairless desk. "And Silverash was kind enough to double check some of them as well."

"Wait wait!"

"So in order to make their efforts worth it-"

"No no no! It's still breakfast time!"

"I think that they would really appreciate it-"

"I-Its pastry day Angelina! Pastry day! That only happens once a month and I can finally get the strawberry jam scone! I never get one!"

"If you got started on those documents now." The Doctor sent a pleading look towards the girl, but she like many of the other longtime staying operators had grown used to the Doctor's tactics at trying to weasel away from doing work. Well most of the time, she almost fell for those big eyes and quivering lip, until a knock on the door came as Courier announced his arrival once more.

"Hey Angelina, oh, good morning Doctor, starting work early this time?" Though Courier's statement was good natured, the evil smiles of Ethan and Spot behind him did not speak of good intentions, nor did the stacks of paper they held look anything but malicious.

"Indeed he was!" Angelina smiled as the Doctor tried to move only to be held down by Spot and Ethan when they came over to drop the documents next to the Doctor.

"Wh-What are these?" the Doctor asked with fear in their voice and a look of betray in their eyes.

"Forms that Silverash cosigned. Just need your official check over before we can start our inventory process EARLY for once, ain't that nice Doc," Spot smirked. "We got to do another trip, but after that, that should be all six boxes taken care and ready for the Doctor to check over, just in time for the strawberry scones to finish baking. You want one Angelina?"

"Ooh, that sounds lovely!" Angelina gushed. "Luckily the Doctor has their breakfast ready, so they':ll be fine."

"B-Betrayal! This is betrayal at the highest magnitude!"

"Yes yes Doctor, but this note from Amiya that reads "do whatever it takes to ensure the Doctor does their work" is pretty explicit on what we're meant to do." The Doctor now looked around him and realized just how worse it was when Kal'tsit and Amiya were out. They almost tried to call on their last life line of Closure before a loud howl was heard amongst the pipes.

"No! How did THESE PIPES break too!" A look of defeat finally registered on Doctor's face before they opened the first box and saw the multitude of light colored files and they felt the urge to cry.