Tough. Thick. Breaking all at once like a warm, leathery apple skin. A flood of iron. Warm, so warm. Pulsing.

Why the fuck am I eating my girlfriend

SOMATIC ANIMAPHAGIA— BODY EATS SOUL

She's not my girlfriend.

EAT THE BODY— EAT THE SOUL

It's all over my face.

PALM TO THUMB TO WRIST THE SKIN THE MEAT THE BLOOD

Should I be more worried about this.

The thumb cracked like baby carrots between her teeth. Warm baby carrots. Leathery baby carrots. Were thumbs always so fragile?

IRON UPON THY LIPS AND CHIN

This honestly isn't the worst.

THE WET OF IT THE WARM OF IT

God this is gonna traumatize the shit outta me

She swallowed the knuckles and splintered bones like pebbles and glass. She felt all the hard parts rattling their way down her throat, buoyed by Weiss blood and Schnee meat.

Did Weiss actually figure this out or am I—

EYES OF CORAL AND PEARL PETRIFIED

Aw fuck, I think she wanted me to siphon.

THE LAST THING THOU HAST BEHELD— THINE OWN CONSUMPTION

Thumb; heel of palm; all she took; all she needed; slithering down her gullet; burning as soon as it reached her gut; an inter-reaction; mingling chemical and spiritual; the bonds of flesh split by acid; hydrolysis of the spirit; cleaving soul from meat and bone and blood;

DEVOUREST THE HAND— IT FEEDS YOU

Am I a bad person.

THOSE WHO EAT FROZEN CORPSES

Should I feel more maligned.

YOU CANNOT HAVE YOUR GUILT

I become mine own mother; this is surely something she would do.

YOU ATE MY HAND— I DIDN'T MEAN IT LITERALLY! WHAT THE FUCK, FLORABEL

Forestall this farce; whyfor—

WHY THE FUCK AM I THINKING LIKE THIS

White erupted behind her eyes and she yelped at the feeling— the organs freezing in their sockets, washed in purifying menthol that flooded all the cavities behind her face and pushed stinging tears past her lids. Sweet, heady juniper surged through her sinuses, but seeped into her mouth as something completely different: thick and dull, a film sticking to her teeth with hot, bitter char; the sharp taste of iron was forgotten; the soul purged her tongue; eating her was like guzzling down candles, wax and wick and all.

Adam recoiled, half-afraid, half-amused. "Woah, woah— what the fuck? Did— haha, whatthefuck— did you just eat her hand? Why— why?"

She felt her wrist cr-crick back into place. Her left cheek sizzled. Her jaw ached. She observed her handiwork with cold, burning eyes, her vision swimming with water. Weiss' thumb was inside her, now.

Ha! Ha-ha-ha! Jollity! N-nay, nay! Damn ye, Weiss! No longer can mine own mind live in its way! Thou'st corrupted me with thy burdensome lect!

HEY, YOU CORRUPTED ME, DICKNUTS— DICKNUTS? WHO THE FUCK SAYS DICKNUTS?

Clever kin with a penchant for wit!

DICKNUTS IS NOT WIT, DUMBASS

Dear god, declare to me thy true feelings.

WHAT

I— I cannot— however shall my sarcasm be wrought true with these verbose thoughts entangled!

She observed her handiwork— mouthiwork?— and tried to forget it, but she could still feel the snap of each bone between her teeth, the memory resonating in her sore jaw. She could feel something between some of her teeth: tendon and sinew. Her body felt overly present like two bodies crammed within the same point in space, which probably wasn't inaccurate.

"Okay, well… enough of this weird shit. You're coming with me."

She looked up at him. The coldness seeped away from her right eye, but not her left. "I will do no such thing," she said, each word feeling like rocks in her mouth. More words ripped their own way out: "Bitch. Fuck you. Kill yourself."

Know thy place! Keep thy words in thine own corpse!

YOU CUSS LIKE A SAILOR, IT'S HILARIOUS

'Tis no fault of mine! Thou'st corrupted my lexicon, ye… ye… ye barmy strumpet!

OH GOD, DO I REALLY SOUND LIKE THAT

Adam laughed, though his eyes regarded her with a sensible amount of fear— who wouldn't keep an eye on the girl who just ate her friend? Ruby noted his lack of violent red Aura. Weiss noticed his footing was shit.

Do not look through mine eyes!

WHY NOT

B-because!

COMPELLING

'Tis— 'tis a violation of my privacy!

SHUT UP, NERD

Adam reached for her. Weiss' heart surged up towards him. Ruby's heart pulled opposite.

Cease!

JUST GRAPPLE HIM, IDIOT. PUT YOUR FINGERS IN HIS MOUTH AND SUCK HIS ASS DRY

Weiss!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

The conflict in Ruby's— Weiss'— body left her fruitlessly thrashing as Adam grabbed the front of her cloak and yanked it up.

"Hey, asshole, watch it! I made that just for her!"

"Wha— thou didst?"

"Shut up! Of course I did! I like making you clothes! It's nothing!"

"Ha! Thou'rt such a homo."

Adam squinted at the girl who spoke with one mouth, two voices, and whose eyes seemed to be making small movements independent of each other. "What the fuck," he reasonably asked. "Uh… sorry, did I, like, break you? By killing your friend in front of you?" He looked down at the corpse of a girl named Weiss. He cringed, hissing, "Oooh, shit, I did, didn't I. That's… wow that's bad. Uh… look, man, I just wanted bullets for my job. It's not my fault you put yourself in this situation."

However couldst thou know this living stain— permit a guess: thy past of slavery which thou'st so Reluctantly withheld from me? Even after mine own beans wert so unceremoniously dumped?

1: YOU SOUND SO FUCKING STUPID; 2: YES OBVIOUSLY DUMBASS

Then make some sense of his ire!

HE USED TO ROUND UP RUNAWAYS. DUNNO WHAT HE DOES NOW

Thy voice 'twas not made for 'dunno'.

YOUR VOICE SOUNDS LIKE A TEN YEAR OLD SMOKER

Oh, er… many thanks?

LIKE A TEN YEAR OLD KID WHO'S BEEN SMOKING FOR ALL TEN YEARS, IDIOT

"'Tis true? Thou wert a huntsman of runaway slaves? Despite being a Faunus thyself?"

Adam shrugged. "I mean, bounty hunter now, but yeah. Those were the good days when the Schnees could pay up."

"The good days when you chased slaves to death? Running them to the altar half-dead? Full-dead, even?"

Ruby could only widen her eye— one of her eyes, but they were both supposed to be hers.

Thou— thou'rt sympathetic! This was but a ploy for revenge!

SO WHAT IF IT WAS

Thou'st beshat the whole thing if so! Why couldst thou not simply tell me! God, Weiss, every time I relinquish an inch, thou takest miles!

IT'S FOR THE BEST!

Thou wouldst not know 'the best' if it did strike thee upon thy empty head!

YOUR HEAD IS EMPTY!

So says the fool who thought my hound would exert sufficient force upon this mad man! Thou shouldst know his capabilities!

THE DOG'S CAPABILITIES OR ADAM'S

The dog hath the capabilities of a dog, ye daft cunt! Adam's!

L-LOOK I— I— I DON'T KNOW, OKAY! I WAS BLINDED BY RAGE, WHATEVER! IT'S NOT LIKE I WAS EVER ON THE RECEIVING END OF HIS ASSHOLERY

Ass-holery?

DON'T ASK ME, I CAN'T HELP IT THAT YOU TALK LIKE THIS

Oh, no, I quite like it. Thou knowest me so well.

SHUT UP. THIS IS ENOUGH AS-IS

Enough? What of?

DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEAS FOR TAKING THIS LOSER OUT

She snorted.

Mine answer dependeth on thee.

DON'T BE VAGUE

The vageurie be a consequence of thy speech, not myself.

OMIGOD JUST TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT

Thy Semblance. Make it known to me.

WHAT? NO

Thy quarry draggeth us away as we speak.

Adam was indeed dragging them away, throwing the stiff and useless thing that may or may not have been Ruby's conflict-frozen body over his shoulder. She felt the eye in the left side of her head holding its gaze on the palest corpse in the world.

FINE, FINE, UH

Thou'st never unlocked thy Semblance, hast thou? Thou wert young at the time of thy accident.

"Wert," Ruby's throat repeated— apparently having two people in you didn't negate any of the things wrong with your brain. "Werrrt."

WHY DOESN'T IT GO AWAY

Indeed.

"Wert. Wer-ert."

BUT WE'RE SAYING IT

Thinkest thou I do this for pleasure?

"Wert."

"Hey, shut the fuck up."

"We— wer— can't! Asshole!"

Adam eyed her. She ticced.

THIS BLOWS

Indeed.

I GUESS I UNDERSTAND THE FETISH FOR SIPHONING NOW

Her mouth sighed. Her mouth also went, "Wert."

Thy Semblance, Weiss. Such that we may put this to an end. How doth it feel?

I DON'T KNOW! WHAT'S IT SUPPOSED TO FEEL LIKE?

'Tis… thyself? It feeleth like thee?

AMAZING. THANKS, FLORABEL

Adam jostled her roughly. "Stop fucking doing that!"

"I have a— wwer, agh!— I have a condition, shitlips!"

"Ah, my bad. Sorry."

She blinked. "Verily?"

He jostled her again. "Nope!"

PLEASE KILL HIM, FLORABEL

'Tis my pursuit. If thou couldst—

COULDST WHAT, HUH?

Thou'rt unbearable.

I'M BASICALLY YOU RIGHT NOW, SO THE UNBEARABLENESS IS ALL ON YOU, BABE

I shall strangle thee.

DON'T THREAT—

Do not, Weiss.

FINE

Many thanks. Now, pay me mind.

She paid herself mind. Whatever that meant.

"Could you stop squirming?"

"Werrrr-errrrrt."

Mine own— my Semblance— 'tis… quick, yes? And a product of my mothers'—

BY THE WAY, WHO'S YOUR REAL DAD?

W-what?

WHO'S YOUR DAD?

I… have no father?

YOU CAN'T HAVE TWO MOMS

Weiss, do not—

NO I MEAN YOU CAN'T HAVE TWO MOMS, THAT'S NOT HOW SCIENCE WORKS

What, pray tell, wouldst thou know of the sciences?

BASIC BIOLOGY

Her right eye flatly blinked.

My Semblance doth represent my deepest personhood— mine infallible soul—

I MEAN YOU'RE CLEARLY NOT ADOPTED— THE RESEMBLANCE IS INSANE— SO WHAT—

Couldst thou shut thy jabbering mouth for a moment and allow me to construct our escape?

"Wert."

I am fast and powerful, I delude myself to be a mindful planner, but I am ultimately reckless. Thus, my Semblance.

OKAY BUT WHAT AM I?

'Tis up to thee.

VERY POETIC, FLORABEL, JUST WHAT WE NEEDED

I am trying to help—

NOW'S NOT THE TIME FOR HELP, NOW'S THE TIME TO GIVE ME THE FUCKING ANSWER!

Thinkest me some sage? Consider thy values! Thou'rt honorable! Honorable above all else, yes? I know that much of thee!

YOU REALLY THINK SO?

Her face warmed. The right eye rolled. She ticced.

What? Whyfor art thou flustered?

SHETHINKSI'MHONORABLESHETHINKS—

Thou'rt perfectly audible, Weiss!

SORRY— I MEAN— I— HOW IS THAT SUPPOSED TO HELP?

Thou rankest the value of honor above all, yes? Simply— er— simply imagine thy honor in jeopardy! This man— this Adam— 'tis he who threatens thy honor! None other! Perhaps a bird could be of help! Somehow!

She adjusted to stare at the back of Adam's head, images and ideas of dishonor flashing through her mind. He'd disposed of her like so much trash— she deserved better! She deserved… a bird! She deserved to protect her honor by summoning a bird that could peck this asshole's eyes out! She called to her Semblance, to her bloodlines legacy: grant her a winged creature of vengeance!

I THINK— I THINK I FEEL SOMETHING!

Verily? Er— yes! Focus on the feeling! Throw thyself upon it!

YES! I CAN FEEL IT! IT'S RISING WITHIN ME— A CRAVING— A FEELING—

"Wert."

GOD-FUCKING-DAMMIT

Perhaps thou'st some part of thyself thou'rt hiding! Some part that must be unlocked! A piece of thee which lie locked deep within the clo—

She tuned the voice out.

Her body bounced along Adam's shoulder. The night was dark. The church was almost a block away. Her body was in it.

Her useless body. Her idiot self. What good was she— 'Florabel, you're doing crime wrong, I'll show you!' As if. As if she could show her anything. What a partner she was— little more than a soulless liability. All it'd given her was the ability to shove her own life in that feathered thing, which never would have happened if she could just protect that creature in the first place.

She could have kept her, too. Safe. Together. Nemeses. But she'd only ever failed that godless girl.

No, wait, there was one time. It may have cost her life (for all the lint and dust that was worth), but she could never be a completely honorless failure. She'd protected her once. Nothing could take away that title— that one moment where she had done right, that one moment where she had felt right, felt it—

Weiss Schnee: Bane of Wendigo.

Her whole left side fell limp, slumping over Adam's shoulder with an intense surge of pins and needles.

That was it! Good job, Weiss!

"What in the unholy fuck is that?"

Weiss?

Oh, right. I guess that makes sense.

"Hey! Hey! What the fuck is that—"

Ruby threw herself up and slapped Adam over the mouth, holding her palm and trying to replicate the intense draw she'd felt when kissing Nora, but it didn't come to her fingers and there was no fucking way she was kissing a dude— let alone this one. It didn't matter much either way, not when her body was launched from Adam's with a backhand sweep of a spectral blue hand.

Ruby barely felt it. Her Aura was like a concrete wall, a big one, and she was gonna eat the whole… use it… whatever! She had a lot of Aura! Most of it was probably Weiss', to be fair, locked in her skin and muscles until, well, eaten, but the means didn't matter in this case! The ends did! And right now, all her ends were back at that stupid, busted-up church.

She took a single look back— and yeah, Weiss had definitely summoned a Wendigo through the conduit of Ruby's body (or something)— before sprinting towards the church, too full of energy to even think of pacing herself for anemia. She blinked sporadically, gaining distance with each puff of red and black as soon as she was sure her Semblance wouldn't debilitate her from the ensuing bout of nausea.

She ran and blinked all the way back to the church, only stopping when she was directly above Weiss. As expected, she immediately fell into a heap atop the dead and gutless girl, her head swimming, the stars in her vision locked in combat with the bulging feeling of her overly-full, overly-active Semblance.

She stared at her partner's lips. She deserved a smooch, honestly, she'd been very good— as good as she could be. She tried. Regardless, she did the respectful thing and put her hand over Weiss' mouth, letting her siphon away until Ruby remembered this wasn't a good time to pass out. Backing off, she watched the parts of Weiss that were still attached pull back in, pooling into the hole through her stomach with a sound like stirring mac 'n cheese, flesh covering the area once more before Ruby could see if new intestinal tissue was being made.

Ruby shook her, careful to keep her hands on fabric. "Weiss. Weiss, get up."

Weiss shifted, her eyes moving behind her lids.

Ruby shook her a little harder. "Dude. Get up."

Weiss made a sleepy little noise. Some might've called it cute.

"If you don't get up, I'm gonna eat another finger."

Weiss shot up, hands darting to her chest, one covering the other protectively. "Florabel! You!"

She looked at Ruby and her arms slacked for a second, then tensed up threefold.

"Thou'st— my thumb! Why ever wouldst thou—"

"Look, it worked. Let's not worry about it right now, we've gotta go home. It's not like it won't grow back."

Weiss looked down at her hands as if she needed to check. Ruby leaned over, pointing at her thumb.

"See? It's fine."

Of course, Ruby took less than a second to process the other thumb in her peripheral— lack thereof, rather, replaced with a suspiciously mouth-sized divot where thumb and palm were supposed to meet.

"Ah… well." Ruby tried to muster her most apologetic look, feeling surprisingly unqueasy with the confrontation that, yes, she had just eaten and swallowed her partner's real, genuine thumb (along with a good chunk of her palm). "At least it was your non-dominant hand?"

Weiss raised a hand— the one with all its (one) thumbs— to slap her, but dropped it with a sigh. "My summon walketh still, but not for much longer. We should make haste."

"Right," Ruby mumbled. After a second, she added: "Sorry."

Weiss said nothing. Apparently there was a lot of words that meant something like 'cold shoulder'. "Just help me up, Ruby."

Ouch.

Weiss glared daggers. "You've no room to 'ouch.'"

Ruby winced. She tried to push herself up to her feet, but the whole way up was extremely shaky, her entire body feeling uniquely empty— 'uniquely' as in not at all like the drain of her soul into Weiss'. Like she had to fill a space that her body was too small for. Like the world around her had become distended. Like her soul had stretch-marks.

Weiss' face wrinkled at her. God, she couldn't think to herself for a second. "I can't walk much better," Ruby stated, trying to shift away from whatever thoughts that Weiss had heard. "We're gonna have to support each other to… we took a tram here, right? You think that's still running?"

Weiss lifted her arm and Ruby tucked herself into it, her own arm going around Weiss' freshly-remade waist as they hobbled forward together. It was a little rom—

"Do not finish that thought."

It was nothing. It meant nothing. They'd done all this for nothing, and they left with nothing in the end. Weiss died for the nth time, Ruby ate her fucking thumb to save both their lives, and they didn't even kill the guy.

"And our pockets remain empty," Weiss groaned.

Oh, right. Ruby had honestly forgotten why they did this. "You mean money?"

"Nay, Fl— Ruby. I mean something else."

"Eh, I just need Ln80. I can get it some other way."

Weiss turned to her. Ruby imagined the sound of wooden creaking to accompany it. "What."

Ruby felt Weiss' rage like heartburn. "I just needed dust money and some money to reserve the etching station."

"You needed eighty Lien?"

Ruby turned to her partner, feeling her heart burn with even greater fury. "Uh… yeah?"

"I could have loaned it to you— I could have paid you to make my damn sword!"

Ruby winced. "Gotta get rid of these bullets somehow?"

"You don't have to— you—"

Ruby watched her fume, then visibly bottle it up in her quaking fists. Meekly, she tried: "At least you unlocked your Semblance?"

"When we are better," Weiss seethed, not meeting her partner's eyes as they limped in unison. "I am going to murder you."