The Return of FoodFight!!
(And new Guests I guess)
Friday, March 18, 2011
Brockton Bay
It was just a normal start of the weekend for Brockton Bay. As civilians avoided the obviously upset tinker, making his way throughout the city block.
"Damn it Mouse! Did you really have to make the condiment gauntlet explode too!?" Foodfight complained as he examined the now busted gauntlet, which was currently leaking ketchup that strangely sparkles.
"How am I supposed to get more of that crystal stuff now, that the Oathbound took it all. Damn hoarders." FoodFight grumbled.
Meanwhile in a second story building nearby, a teenager was looking at the dejected tinker as he walked into an alleyway through a pair of binoculars.
Putting down the binoculars, the teenager reaches for his phone to text his friends. The ones from the Panda Gang.
I think we found a good way to get into the graces of Michael and Jun - Kyo
Dude we been over this, just because they met Nexus doesn't mean they can get us to meet her- Ryan
I'm listening. And it better be better than trying to collect any of those stray crystals.- Dylan
I don't want to explain to my parents why I lost my other eyebrow- Dylan
Well tough shit then, because we need to talk to Josh about it - Kyo
Kyo sighed before examining the paper talisman he's been making over the week. On the talisman is a circle with 3 scythe-like blades within it and a Japanese Kanji for fire on the center.
I think I need some of it, the fire one especially - Kyo
Kyo, why do we need more of that stuff - Ryan
Kyo. No, I refuse to loss anymore of my hair- Dylan
Come on! If we take out this guy, I'm sure we can - Kyo
"Kyo! Come on, it's almost time for your evening lessons!" Kyo's mother exclaimed from the other side of the door.
"In a minute, I'm talking to some of my friends!" Kyo shouted back.
I'll tell you guys the plan in the morning, meet me at Rico's pizzeria. - Kyo
Fine, but you are paying - Dylan.
Kyo texted goodbye before he started looking for his gi.
—--
Saturday March 19, 2011
Rico's Pizzeria
The three friends sat on one side of the table with a short but built teen on the opposite end.
"So," Josh started, "You guys need the flame crystals but you need it powdered." He then points to Kyo, "So he can make a fire starting glove."
Ryan, a tall but lanky teen, shrugs and nonchalantly points at Kyo. "He usually comes up with the plans and he's the only one who knows how to fight out of all of us."
Dylan, a former member of the school's track team. "Hey! I know how to fight too!' He crosses his arms.
"Just because you know how to throw a kick doesn't make you the best fighter. Smartass." Ryan replied, leaning back into the booth they were all in.
"Look," Kyo started bringing attention to him, instead of his friends, "We just need some powdered dust, I only need enough to last ten minutes." Kyo put his head down and arms over, "Please, we need this to prove ourselves to the Panda Gang."
Josh looked down at Kyo, then looked at Ryan and Dylan who both threw their arms up as if to say 'yes he does this often and yes it is embarrassing still'.
Josh put a finger to his chin and began to ponder, as their food arrived. Just as the friends were about to begin their meal. Josh clears his throat and says, "Alright I'll give you the dust."
Before the group of friends could say anything, Josh held up a finger, "IF you guys give me the credit of supplying the stuff and introduce me to Trainwreck." Josh stated.
The three friends looked towards each other before nodding their heads and saying "Deal!" All at once.
—--
Sunday March 20, 2011
Random Alleyway
Food Fight rummaged inside a particularly full dumpster.
"Score! Half eaten burger!" Food Fight exclaims. "The bun would go great with the pickle smasher." He looked to his back where a pickle made the head of a hammer.
"I just need to find something that would provide a good electricity conductor." Food Fight taped the burger to his cheeks as he tried to think of what to use.
"How about a rice cooker!" Shouted a new voice.
FoodFight snapped his finger and turned to thank the new voice only to see a trio of semi-masked teens.
Among them he sees a teen wearing a white bandana with eye holes cut out wearing what seems to be a black gi ensemble with white padded gloves. Another teenager is wearing a football helmet along with football pads as armor, with the last remaining teen wearing a bandana with generic symbols, a baseball hat, and sunglasses.
"Are you serious?" Food Fight asks, "I know that I'm considered a joke, but do you really think a couple of teens with no powers can beat me?" He discarded the half eaten burger and pulled from his hip a can of cheese whiz in a modified paste squeezer.
"Don't underestimate us!" Shouted the properly dressed teen. Weight shifted towards the teens legs before he charged towards the tinker.
Food Fight scoffed before shooting a mound of liquid cheese towards the teen. Seeing the yellow goo escaping the squeezers nozzle the approaching teen he swiped his arm in response causing a symbol to glow. Fire immediately bursted towards the cheese soon after causing it to harden and fall into pieces.
"What the-!" Food Fight shouted, the teen continued his charge while taking advantage of the newly made opening he raised his leg above the villain's head before swiping it down. Seeing the ax kick coming, Food Fight raised his arm to block the attack, dropping the cheese gun in the process. The baseball cap wearing teen rushed in to grab the fallen weapon before retreating to his compantroiat.
"You're mine!" The masked teen shouted as he continued his assault. Throwing two kicks towards the villains knees. Food Fight feebly tried to block the attack before a fist slammed to the side. The fist began to glow, Food Fight's eyes widened before a burst of flames ignited separating the two fighters.
"How do you like that!" The masked teen shouted waving his hand whilst sparks of flames seemed to echo around the glove.
"Hmmp," Foodfight scoffed, slightly singed from the flame. "So you figure out about the crystal too huh." Reaching for his left side he pulled out a pineapple and began to toss it up in the air and back. "But I know that they are in short supply. Meaning you only have so much of that."
The masked teen clicked his tongue. "That may be true but I don't need it all to beat a loser like you."
Food Fight stopped tossing the pineapple up and down before narrowing his eyes. Rolling the pineapple towards the masked teen, he couldn't help but look down at the fruit. The pineapple's hair suddenly began to spark before quickly rushing down the stem. Adrenaline rushed through the masked teen before he rolled towards his allies, the pineapple exploding into an acidic mist with the dumpster decaying soon after.
"You know." A silhouette of the villain stood from the other side of the mist. "It's been a while since I had a good old fashioned back alley brawl." As the mist starts to dissipate the sounds like the squelching of fruits rang to their ears. "I was never the strongest, but I knew a good dirty trick or two." The mist dissipated revealing Food Fight with durians on both his fists.
He slammed them together, causing the fruits to spark momentarily. "So, are you ready to fight the Juking Jester?" Rushing towards the teenager whilst swiping his arm. Kyo shifted his body away from the prickly fruit just as another was following through.
Reacting quickly, Kyo raised his arm towards the villain's behind the fruit. Causing the arm to knock the villain's arm to be knocked off course.
Just as Kyo was about to retaliate with an attack of his own, he felt his gut pricked by the villain's follow up strike. The prickly fist raised to the air as Kyo's feet skidded on the ground, thankful he was close enough for the attack to not cause much damage.
Raising his fist, Food Fight readied to punch overhead with a haymaker, unbeknownst to him however as he took a step back a stream of liquid cheese flowed past Kyo, creating distance between the two fighters. Kyo snuck a thumbs up from behind, Food Fight scowled unaware of the signal before holding up his arms in preparation to block. His eyes soon widened in surprise as Kyo suddenly whipped his hands in motion, two foot tall lines of fire approached him. Food Fight stepped back further in the alleyway to avoid the flames that continuously approached him, his back hitting a wall just before the flames could reach him.
Kyo charged towards Food Fight as soon as the flames began to dissipate, raising his arm the teenager clenched his hand to slam the villain with the side of his fist. Food Fight saw the telegraphed attack from a mile away, throwing his own obvious strike to the left of Kyo's skull only to quickly throw a hidden punch to the right of his gut. The durian covered fist slammed into Kyo, forcing the teenager to gasp for air as he flew back a few feet before collapsing to his knees. Not willing to let go of his advantage, Food Fight rushed to deliver a few blows towards the teen.
Raising one of his legs, Food Fight prepared to crush the teenager, only for one of his friends to jump in with a drop kick, the pair of soles forcing Food Fight to land against the wall. Meanwhile the other friend, who picked up the cheese gun, helped Kyo back up. Kyo lets out a dry cough as the villain slowly tries to rise up with a hand on his head. Weakly pounding his fist on the ground, three symbols of a scythe head surround the still recovering Food Fight.
"Ah shit." Food Fight said before pillars of fire trapped him in with a wall on the other side.
The three teens look to each with relief as the villain is trapped on the other side of them. "Should we call the PRT now?" Asked the teen with the baseball cap and sunglasses.
"Why them? We can just haul him into the Heap and meet Oathbound directly!" The armored one says excitedly. "Guys focus." Said the gi clad teen. "He is just on the other side of the fire. He can still hear us." Kyo narrowed his eyes at the silhouette of the villain.
"Shit, shit, shit." Food Fight mumbled underneath his breath as the fire blazed in front of him. He manages to pry one of the durians off his fist and grabs a vial from his belt. He pours the liquid on the fruit on the ground before kicking it toward the fire which explodes with a watery torrent.
The teen prepares themselves for the next round. Ripping off the other durian Food Fight threw it at the cap wearing teen. Before the projectile could hit, the armored teen turns around to cover him. The durian smashed into the back of the football helmet knocking him unconscious, leaving a dent in the helmet, and causing the armored teen to collapse on the other one.
Kyo took a stance against Food Fight who in turn reached behind his back for a giant pickle on a stick, appropriately named the Pickle Smasher. Before he could fully draw the weapon out, Kyo rushed towards Food Fight, the villain raising a single handed guard in response. Jumping towards the wall, Kyo sprang off of it preparing to kick Food Fight's neck.
The villain felt a sharp sense of pain impact his arm before throwing it to the side, readying his Pickle Smasher to swing towards the seemingly defenseless boy.
Seeing the staff of the weapon, Kyo's eyes widened momentarily before whipping out both of his arms towards the villain. A stream of fire immediately pushed the teen back just as the weighted pickle grazed his gi. With but a moment to act, Food Fight twisted his body before the oncoming flames as they singed the back of his costume.
Twisting back, he observed Kyo sliding to another stance. Rather than run towards the villain this time, Kyo set his glowing arms behind him. A burst of fire ignited shortly after before the villain could swing his weapon, Kyo's knee impacting the villain's stomach.
Food Fight dropped his Pickle Smasher in an attempt to grab the teen. Only for him to launch himself back with his rocket-like hands. Clicking his tongue, Food fight reached for something more built to deal with speedy opponents. The Celery Cutter.
Kyo tilted his head towards the newly revealed bladed vegetable, Celery for the blade with a cookie as the handguard. If it wasn't made out of modified bit's of food he might have mistaken it for a katana.
Food Fight retracted his blade horizontally behind him. Taking his chances, Kyo proceeded to burst forward the villain once more. His eyes widened as the blade swung to his direction, managing to cut bits of his hair as he attempted to rotate his body out of the blade's path before planting his feet towards the villain.
Pushing back, the villain merely skidded to the wall behind him. Kyo observes the gap on his gi's sleeve before looking back towards the villain retracting his blade back behind him. Kyo's soles planted itself to the ground once more.
A mental picture began to form on his head, an image of a short blade, yet wide forming out of his fist. 'I just need to focus' Kyo took a deep breath. 'I got this' Small fires begin to ignite in front of Kyo's hands before turning into a small but steady stream of fire. Observing the terrain around him, he noticed the fallen Pickle Smasher on the floor. Sprints towards Food Fight, who was trying to steady his remaining condiment gauntlet at the teen.
Kyo then kicks up the fallen Pickle Smasher to hip height before grabbing and throwing the weapon towards the villain. The head of the weapon smashing into his hand. The echoing crunch of broken finger bones rang between the two fighters' ears as Food Fight tried to muffle a scream. Dropping the celery katana.
Random condiments start to shoot out of the gauntlet as the five triggers are continuously being pulled. Mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, syrup, and honey all spew out as Food Fight's arm flails around in pain. Taking the opportunity, Kyo charges in. Crouching before cutting most of the gauntlet apart.
Down a hand but still having motion in his arm, Food Fight threw an elbow at Kyo in the face. The strike broke his nose, causing him to stumble back a few feet whilst he held a hand to his face to stop the bleeding. Kyo glared before turning on a leg and with a switch of the hip, throwing a sidekick straight into Food Fight's knee causing it to buckle. The villain falters just as Kyo throws his hands down dispelling the flame punch dagger. Bursting behind the villain he puts Food Fight he grabs hold of his arm around the villain's neck in a headlock.
Food Fight reached behind the teen, grabbing him by the gi belt and tossing him toward the ground. Air knocked out of his lungs as Kyo is slammed into the ground. Food Fight goes to kick the fallen teen only for him to throw his hand up creating a blast of fire causing the villain to retreat. Kyo got up breathing heavily, his opponent doing the same.
Taking in a deep breath, he rushed towards Food Fight once again, who in response activated his bread armor, the Crusty Champion. Kyo, seeing this, starts to lay fire on his fist before raining blows on Food Fight. With a jab and hook that Kyo throws out, Food Fight found himself on the back foot. Barely able to escape the physical force with a few burns.
The villain reached for his back once more, noticing the distance it took for his hand to find something he clicked his tongue. Retracting the weapon revealed an oversized Chinese lettuce, the Lettuce Waver.
"What's the matter? Are you getting desperate there old man?"
Ignoring the teen's taunt, the villain threw the tip of the weapon to the ground before quickly waving it towards the teen. A nauseous aroma entered Kyo's nostrils as the teen winced in disgust, the teen barely noticing the broken eggshells on the ground.
Seeing an opportunity, the villain charged towards the teen. Noticing the villain speeding towards him, Kyo immediately pointed his hand to the ground before propelling himself to the air momentarily. Though he landed on his feet, the flames threw him higher than he expected from the gas in the air.
Clicking his tongue, Kyo began to visualize the fire on his hand once more. An intense burning fire echoed to his mind as a burst of blue flames mimicked his imagination. Bursting a shot towards the leafy lettuce, the projectile flew right through the weapon.
Seeing Food Fight gawking at the searing hole in his weapon, Kyo began to pepper more holes in the lettuce. With the fourth hole appearing near the base of the handle, with the hole nearing where the weakest holding point of the makeshift bansho fan, the leaf fell off the stem of the vegetable.
The villain squinted his eyes, teeth grinding in frustration at the boy. He stomped his foot in aggravation only to flinch in pain as it was the buckled knee. Getting more mad that he can't even show his anger, Food Fight throws the remainder of the leaf at Kyo. Kyo responded by flinging his hand towards the makeshift projectile, sending another miniature blue fire ball to knock the handle out of the way.
Fury overtook the villain's sense of reasoning as he began to reach for a garlic bomb, only for it to set off prematurly at his face. Large pepperoni rings flew towards the boy only for it to be intercepted, a pair of radishes tied together shot apart by the stems. A squash quickly found itself with a sear on the center before sidestepped. An egg scorched by the unforgiving blu-
"Oh crap."
A large explosion rang towards the boy's ears. A foul odor entered his nostrils, having the teen jerk in disgust. The bright light blinded him for a few seconds, only to feel someone brush past him.
Prying open his eyes, Kyo attempted to see past the teary vision of the silhouette. But only managed to catch a glimpse of the figure right as it turned right outside the alley. Kyo was about to give chase when he heard the groans of his companions. He turned around to see them leaning their backs against the wall with the armored teen still unconscious.
"This is not the last time you've seen me! Random bandana wearing kid in an admittedly cool looking gi and friends!"
Kyo, still squinting, hears the noise. "Seriously? Why are you still here?" He replies.
"That's what I want you to think! For you see, I have planted my signature stereo oysters around to taunt you! Now leave me or I shall taunt you a second time!"
It took some looking around, but Kyo managed to spot an open oyster with a stereo speaker in the top half. Kyo snaps his fingers towards the oyster, but nothing happens. Kyo repeatedly snaps his finger but not even a spark comes out. "God damn it. And he forced a Monty Python joke in his getaway line…" Kyo grumbled. He proceeded to grab the oyster and flung it towards the rooftop. "There, someone else's problem now." Kyo says, wiping his hands together. He turns towards his friends, and tries to help them back up.
--
Author's Note: I hope you guys enjoyed the omake. I didn't do this alone Ozimyy helped me out with extending the fight scenes as well as general grammar correction.
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Chaotic_Homepath
May 16, 2022
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Mar 31, 2022
#44,908
Friday, March 18th, 2011
Atlas Flagship, City of Vale
Remnant
"Report." Ironwood intoned stiffly, gently setting aside a ring binder full of analysis and data garnered from every specialist he could after forwarding them every piece of footage he could find of the breach.
Well. Less the breach and more the Maiden who had shown up during the event.
General Ironwood was passingly familiar with the capabilities of the Maidens - but he had never been as focused on one before as this. As powerful as they were, the Maidens weren't capable of dealing with Salem. That meant that they only held two purposes in his mind.
As strategic assets, and keys to access the various relics. They were like highly dangerous bombs. You couldn't really use them for much besides posturiny, and you definitely didn't want your enemies to have access to one.
Taylor Hebert was different.
If the average Maiden - in so far as a Maiden could be average - was an explosive, that girl was like a walking weapon of mass destruction. Brief footage of her capabilities and what little he had been able to garner from interacting with her had shown him that her efforts at the breach were barely even efforts at all. Her aura had barely flickered with the expenditure of power. She could - in all likelihood - apply that level of force continuously and at will, which was somehow only slightly more scary than her absurd precision with such wide area attacks.
Being able to simultaneously snipe hundreds of Grimm across a city sized area was amazing, right up until you realized the other applications of such an ability.
Like, say, on people.
So, while he stuck true to his word to Ozpin, and did his best not to catastrophize, he continuously came back to one singular point.
If she was on their side, Salem would want her.
If she wasn't, they had to be able to stop her.
No matter how much outlandish nonsense she spewed. Actually, especially, given how unbalanced she seemed to be.
"The target has continued to maintain a standard schedule and pattern of behavior consistent with a normal student from Haven Academy preparing for the Vytal Festival. There are brief points when surveillance is impossible, and we have correlated these with sudden disappearances of various low ranking criminals in the area, as well as White Fang holdouts not yet captured by the Asset." Winter rattled off at him in perfect military fashion, before her expression and demeanor shifted - her official duty done.
"Sir, if I may, Cinder Fall's activities are most consistent with someone sent to protect several of the students here. We could better use our resources trying to locate Raven Branwen. We could seek clarification from Leonardo at Haven - it's possible he sent them with a mission in mind." She pointed out.
"No. You can lower surveillance, but I still want to know if something happens with her. We can't go to Leo until we can confirm his loyalties." Ironwood responded tiredly, resisting the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose.
It wasn't that he didn't trust Leo - but he didn't get to be a General in the army by failing to do his due diligence. A semi credible accusation had been leveled against the man - so Ironwood would investigate. If it turned out the accusation was false, then great - it was just more proof that the girl was unstable and needed to be contained for her own good.
If the accusations were true though… if they were true, then it meant some of the highest levels of Mistral's politics were subverted.
And that couldn't be allowed to stand - even if he didn't know what he was going to do about it just yet. It wasn't like he could declare an operation in Mistral to clean them up, that would be an act of war.
He wouldn't do that. Yet.
Friday, March 18th, 2011
Pine Family Barn, Mistral
(Nexus)
"So, when we come here, is it always gonna be through this barn, or what?" Emmy asked her in this emulation's typical lackadaisical tone of voice.
She had never 'disliked' one of Emmy's forms. Even this one had his charming points, and seemed - overall - to be a good person, if somewhat on the slovenly and chaotic side.
But Taylor would be lying if she said that his casual demeanor and general joking personality didn't occasionally grate on her nerves. She didn't mind that he often went off to do his own thing, or made his own decisions - she even enjoyed knowing that her friend was growing as a person, and had something resembling their own life and friends!
But seeing as how a vast majority of the things this Emulation had instigated, were things that seemingly only existed to annoy, distract, or otherwise shake up her normal daily life, she felt she could be forgiven for being less than pleased by a lot of it.
Driving was fun though. At least, when she was out on the open road and didn't have to worry about driving slower than she could casually jog. There was an art to it that she couldn't quite describe. An economy of motion and control that her powers didn't let her cheat at, at least not completely.
Regardless, she had to shake her head clear of such thoughts before answering him.
"No, but I wanted to check in with Oscar." She responded easily, shrugging at him with one shoulder.
"Bit young for you, but honestly-" He started to say, so she rolled her eyes and casually hurled a bale of hay at him with a wave of her hand and a call to any ambient wind spirits that could hear her to shut him up. It didn't work - it never worked - but it was still satisfying to watch him pretend to 'barely' avoid the projectile while exaggeratedly complaining about it.
"Hey! This is genuine demon leather! Do you know how hard this is to clean?!" He barked, his tone completely lacking in any seriousness despite its content.
"I'm sure I could magic up a solution." She responded dryly, glancing around and making sure to listen for anyone who might be approaching the - until now - empty barn.
Ozma asked her.
'First or Third. No offense, but your style of magic works better for me as an on-the-fly combat thing.' She responded automatically.
In the weeks since acquiring him, she had settled into a fairly steady relationship with the man.
He kept things organized for her, and helped her come up with new applications for her powers. It hadn't taken him all that long to figure out Onmyoudo and Runecrafting, and upon his suggestion, she had taken to listing the various forms of Magic she had access to by the order she had received them in.
First, Second, and Third - the First being Onmyoudo, the Second being Ozpin's odd form of sorcery, and the Third being Runecraft.
The old hero said pleasantly, before vanishing into the back of her mind as he tended to when doing… whatever he did to pass the time.
He had mellowed out significantly since her first visit to Remnant, seemingly assured that she both could and would help his home world through the events of his past life. She appreciated the vote of confidence, but wished there was an easier way to earn the local Ozpin's trust.
Things would be a lot easier overall if nobody was giving her a hard time about things like 'collateral damage' and 'public displays of overwhelming force'.
"Yeah, but then it won't have the lemony fresh scent I like." Emmy complained again as the pair made their way to the barn doors and gently shoved them open.
It was evening time here, and the sun was already low in the sky, casting an orange haze over everything around them. Lights were on in the small house between the barn and the fields, and Taylor instantly turned to start heading towards the building - rising into the air as though climbing a set of stairs as she did so. Emmy didn't bother to do even that, simply phasing into his immaterial form and walking through the outer wall of the building - and, presumably, up the stairs to the room she was headed to.
Gently, she knocked on the window leading into Oscar's bedroom, and waited.
"W-who is it?" She heard in the way of a muffled whisper from the other side of the glass - which was covered by a curtain to obscure her view inside.
She could have just teleported in, but she knew better than to surprise the poor kid like that.
…or to walk into a teenage boy's room without knocking.
"Your Dragon God Mother." She responded jokingly.
"…don't you mean my Fairy Godmother?" Oscar whispered back after a long pause to parse the words she had spoken.
"Just one problem, I'm not a fairy. Now let me in." She responded.
Slowly, the curtains slid to one side, and the window gently slid open, revealing Oscar who took a moment to gape at her - since she was standing on air.
"…but you are a dragon?" He asked skeptically.
"Yup. I don't have a bunch of time, just wanted to check on you. But I can stop to tell a story if you want." She said with a grin.
In the back of her head, she really wished she could just bring Oscar back with her to live with Mem and Mun. It'd certainly be safer than where he was now. Unfortunately, she still hadn't quite gotten the hang of stabilizing people from other realities using Gaps. She had a hard time limit for this kind of interaction.
For now.
"Okay… I-I'd like that." The boy said with a blush.
"Bet you would." Emmy said, appearing suddenly behind him.
There was a muffled shriek, and a point where she had to grab the boy to prevent him from falling out the window.
"Was that on purpose?" She asked with annoyance, while Oscar struggled under her right arm like a confused cat.
"Me? Prank someone? Never." Was Emmy's response.
She snorted, deposited Oscar back inside the room, and then slid in herself - closing the window behind her.
Friday, March 18th, 2011
Beacon Academy, City of Vale
(Nexus)
Ozma pointed out as she appeared inside the headmaster's office at Beacon Academy.
'I don't exactly have an inter-dimensional cellphone number for this place.' She pointed out in response.
'Yes.'
"Hey Emmy, can you watch the elevator? I kinda miss this chair." She said, not bothering to use her typical 'happy skipping' motion since no one was watching.
Did she act like an airhead on purpose? Yes. Was she actually such a bubbly, happy person as to skip really anywhere? No.
But if there was one thing she had learned from Yukari Yakumo, it was that it was never a bad thing to have to deal with thrown off opponents.
"On it." Emmy agreed, phasing through the elevator door and falling straight down to the bottom of the shaft with casual ease.
So it was while sitting with her eyes closed, hands in a relaxed position behind her head when the doors of the elevator finally slid open, revealing General Ironwood, Ozpin, Winter Schnee - who she had only a passing acquaintance with - and Qrow Branwen.
All of whom stared at her like she was an alien.
Probably because she was.
"Sorry it took so long to get back, I was-" She started to say. She had a whole thing planned here. A big grandiose speech about how busy she was, where she could thread in a bunch of true but insane sounding information without any context.
She realized this was becoming both a habit and a hobby for her, but really, a girl had to have some kind of a pastime, and everyone around her insisted that training didn't count.
Unfortunately, as he had so many times since changing emulations, Emmy ruined it by embarrassing her.
"You know, I can see why you think this guy is hot. He's kinda like me!" Emmy said, appearing next to Qrow and sticking one finger beneath his cape to lift it up for inspection.
"I do not-" she started to say heatedly, already regretting ever having mentioned it. It wasn't like she was attracted to the guy, she just had a soft spot for overworked guys like her dad. It wasn't a 'type', it was just empathy!
"Yeah, yeah, I know. Lightened the mood though, right?" He responded, vanishing to walk straight through the entire group, just in time to avoid the initial panicked frenzy as everyone in the elevator abruptly registered the presence of someone they didn't recognize standing alarmingly close to them.
It was surprisingly disorganized, for all that these were some of the best trained people in this world, and she made a mental note to dig up the PRT handbook so she could give Ozpin a crash course on dealing with Strangers.
…There are vanishingly few, if any, beings on this plane capable of qualifying as Strangers. Her headmate pointed out somewhat sullenly.
She ignored him to focus on the situation at hand.
"Sorry, new guy, Emmy is a bit of a punk right now. So!" She said, hopping up from the seat and clapping - to draw their attention to her as much as she could to distract from Emmy's commentary.
"I'm back. I've got some stuff to do, so I won't be sitting in an office with you all day again, but I figured I'd check in." She said.
"…Miss Hebert, you are aware that we have a front door, yes?" Ozpin finally said, gesturing down and away in the direction of the massive castle complex's main entrance.
"Yeah, but it would have probably taken you ages to show up if I went that route." She countered instantly.
She really didn't mean to be rude, but when she said she had a time limit, she meant it. She'd be here a day, maybe two, tops - and she had a lot to accomplish in that span of time.
"Be that as it may–" Ozpin said with a sigh but was spoken over by Ironwood.
"We can't find any record of a Taylor Hebert in any registry–"
"You wouldn't have, given the way my sister operates…" Qrow grumbled.
"--So far, your 'tip' to look out for one Cinder Fall has turned out to be fraudulent. I'm going to have to insist that you return to Atlas with me." Ironwood stated strongly. This earned him a look of surprise from nearly everyone else, so she guessed they hadn't exactly talked it over before he made the decision.
"Two things. One, I cursed Cinder to be a good girl so you wouldn't have spotted her doing anything evil - she'd have just died if she tried. And two - James, I get that you've got a one track mind, and you're the hard man making the hard decisions for the greater good and all - but shut up for a second, and ask yourself this; if I really didn't want to go - how could you make me?" She responded pointedly.
Qrow groaned again, and she made a mental note to clear up that particular misunderstanding as fast as possible. It had been funny at the time, but it was clearly wearing on the man, and she hadn't really intended to cause him so much distress.
Taylor watched with interest as everyone in front of her processed that statement. Winter seemed offended - possibly by the idea that the Atlas military couldn't contain a teenage girl, while Ironwood's gaze sharpened and his non robotic fist tightened noticeably.
Glynda - perhaps due to years of dealing with unruly super powerful teenagers - seemed mildly annoyed at worst, and darkly amused by Ironwood's suffering at best.
Qrow had been a nervous wreck the minute he saw her and nothing she said really changed that, although she did appreciate his imperceptible shift towards Ironwood - like he was going to stop him if need be.
And Ozpin seemed as blank faced and bored as any other time she had encountered the man. Unfortunately for him, she had the inside edge on that one.
Her mental duplicate of the man said placidly.
'You have a lot of very uptight friends, Oz.' She noted dryly.
"Might I make a suggestion?" Ozpin finally stated, breaking the tense silence.
"Sure. I mean, I've got a time limit, but I've mostly got all day." Taylor responded, ignoring Emmy as he popped in and out of existence around the room like a ghost, posing as though he had always been there whenever someone turned to look at him.
To the watchers, it would be like one of those horror games - no matter which direction someone turned, Emmy would be sitting there, pulling books off shelves, waving, pointing at them.
Since Taylor could see him even when he was invisible, she was the only one that got to see him desperately sprinting back and forth in order to maintain the facade.
"Excellent. I, too, find myself curious about the exact extent of your capabilities, so–" he began slowly, and Ironwood perked up at the prospect of support from his friend - only to have his expression sour as he finished.
"Might I interest you in a guest lecturer position?"
Taylor couldn't help herself.
She smiled.
She had no idea why, but for some reason, that made Qrow flinch.
Friday, March 18th, 2011
Beacon Academy, City of Vale
(Nexus)
"Students. We have a… guest… today. She will be helping to assess each of you prior to your entry into the Vytal Festival this year. Now, she is a very busy woman and won't be here that often, so I encourage you to make the most of this opportunity." Glynda said diplomatically while Taylor casually glanced around the room.
'It's a concrete box with bleachers and a widescreen on the roof.' Emmy pointed out blithely as he meandered through the seats, invisibly listening to the students gossip.
Taylor… she could remember this. The Combat Cells. She remembered visiting them to adjudicate duels, to train students.
She remembered a lifetime spent teaching, one that she had never actually lived - and some small part of her missed it.
'Only so much you can refurbish an ancient castle for school use.' She answered with a shrug, feeling slightly defensive. It wasn't her castle, but it still sort of felt like it was.
'Yeah, but… come on, look at this place! It's a concrete box! There are bloodstains on it! This looks like the place prison guards bring inmates for bloodsport!' Emmy continued hysterically - like he thought the entire thing was hilarious.
Once again, demonstrating how much he had settled into his role as an annoying older brother.
Lots of people theorized that Taylor got what she 'wanted' when Emmy changed Emulations. The PRT report, she was pretty sure, would rate Emmy as a high ranking Trump power that gave her whatever she needed, whenever she needed it. That would certainly explain her ridiculous luck since getting her power. She always seemed to get just what she needed at just the right time, like some unseen force was planning it for her.
She had her own theories. To her, all of Emmy's forms were different relationships. Ones she could have had. Ones she would never have. Brothers, Sisters, Parents.
And unfortunately, her current 'Older Brother' was kind of a dickhead. Great if she needed him to beat someone up. An absolute menace otherwise. Shaking the thought away, she took the cue Glynda had given her - one which she had actually missed the timing on somewhat in her pondering - and stepped forward.
"Hello everyone. My name is Taylor. Taylor-" She started to say, but was cut off.
"She doesn't look that tough. She's even younger than us!" Someone said, and she paused.
"...Hebert. Who said that? I'll help you first." She said pleasantly, panning her head around to stare directly at Cardin Winchester - who she had somewhat expected this from.
She had taught the boy at one point, after all, and outside of the hazy dreamlike simulation she had encountered him in, he had no reason to even pretend to respect her.
"Mister Winchester, show some respect! Headmaster Ozpin went to great lengths to-" Glynda snapped, but Taylor waved at her so she paused.
"No, no. I get it. You guys go to the greatest school in the world. You think you're the best - or on your way to being the best," She said with a thoughtful humm, before her expression became suddenly sharp and serious.
"Unfortunately, you aren't yet. I am." She explained, with all the patience of an adult speaking to a child who simply couldn't understand that water was wet.
She heard a snort, and some murmuring - along with several pointed looks towards one Pyrrha Nikos, who would otherwise generally be considered one of the greatest fighters in the world.
Then she beckoned at Cardin Winchester, the large boy already wearing his thick metal armor and hefting his warhammer onto one shoulder, like it was a toothpick.
She watched with great patience as he sauntered down the stone steps to reach the arena she was already standing in.
"If you would, Glynda? I promise I'll actually teach him something when he wakes up." She said sweetly, earning a glare from the boy in question. She shrugged apologetically at him. It wasn't her fault he was such a good example.
Glynda frowned at her, but acquiesced, stepping out of the area and gesturing at the wall, which lit up with little glowing bars to represent their remaining Aura pools. It was remarkably game-like, and - in Taylor's opinion - took a lot of the danger out of sparring. It also removed the combatant's ability to accurately judge such things without someone holding their hand.
Not great, and not something she would replicate at her own school.
'You do get that no one is gonna go to a school that treats them the way you think people should learn to fight, right? I wouldn't - you're scary as hell.' Emmy said, accurately pinpointing exactly what she was thinking at the moment.
'I liked you better when you were the other guy.' She grumbled back at him as Glynda began to count down to the beginning of the duel.
'Et tu, brute?' Emmy mocked, placing both his hands over his chest, as if wounded.
Taylor rolled her eyes at him, sighing internally as the countdown ended and Cardin took her gesture to be an opening.
It was, but not for someone so much slower than her.
Which is why she responded by kicking him.
Once.
"You alright over there?" She called after him when he hit a section of hastily vacated bleachers and stopped moving.
Well. He was still sorta moving, but only to breathe.
Which was ideal really.
Taylor shot a glance at the board that displayed aura, wobbling her head from side to side at what she saw. She had been going for a solid fifty percent of his aura - the cut off for a duel to end safely.
She had ended up taking roughly sixty percent off. Not great, but not the worst. She'd work on it.
"So… who's next?" She said with another - more genuine - smile at the crowd of concerned looking students, even as Glynda sighed and levitated Cardin up and over to her with her semblance.
Weird. Why did that make them look more concerned? Oh, hey. Cinder was here. And she was praying. Good for her.
She found God.
Friday, March 18th, 2011
Beacon Academy, City of Vale
(Nexus)
"So uh… Taylor…" Ruby said demurely to her, much later in the afternoon, and well after she had finished actually teaching most of the kids. The rest of the class had gone much smoother once she had demonstrated that yes, she could, in fact, obliterate any given one of them individually, or all at once.
Past that point, everyone had been mostly pretty respectful.
Mostly.
Yang Xiao Long - the blond girl from her first trip here - had been more than slightly forceful about wanting to talk to her after class.
And by 'more than slightly forceful', Taylor meant 'had tried to physically lift and take her away'.
It was cute in an annoying kind of way.
'Pffttt hahahah! Oh man, you look ridiculous!' Emmy laughed uproariously at her as she was carried by the four women of Team RWBY directly up a hallway to their dorm room.
She didn't have to let them carry her, but she had a soft spot for these four in particular, so she let it slide.
Mostly.
'Shut up. Not everything is a joke.' She whined at him.
'No, you can't see yourself right now, but this is definitely a joke.' He insisted, continuing to laugh the entire way.
"Yes, Ruby?" She answered with all the dignity of a person who had just been dropped on a bed unceremoniously.
So, not much, but she tried, damn it!
"Um. Are you my sister?!" She blurted out, before gasping and covering her mouth when everyone - the white haired and dainty Weiss, the dark haired and uncomfortable looking Blake, and the unimpressed blond, Yang - turned to look at her.
"Sorry! I just really wanted to know!" She explained quickly.
"...right. So uh, Taylor. My girl, my sistah from another mistah." Yang said, her voice shifting towards a somewhat more aggressive growly tone than her norm.
"I'm not your sister." Taylor said flatly, appreciating the triumphant snort from Weiss as she spoke.
"But Uncle Qrow said-" Ruby blurted.
"I was messing with him. He thought I resembled Yang's mother and jumped to conclusions. I thought it was funny, so I never corrected him." She explained gently, glancing at Yang who seemed to relax slightly at the admission.
"So… you're not related to me at all? You don't know my Mom?" The blond asked pointedly.
"Oh, I know your Mom by reputation. I just don't know her personally." She answered truthfully. She'd never actually seen Raven Branwen, but given that she was in an entirely different dimension, she found it unlikely.
"Aaaaand we're allll friends now. See? Easy as that." Emmy said, appearing in the middle of the group and rubbing her head along with Yang's.
""Hey! Don't touch my hair!"" Both girls barked at once, then paused and stared at each other in surprise.
"...They do actually share some similarities." Weiss pointed out slowly.
"If you remember that they would have had different fathers and squint a bit, they actually do kind of look similar…" Blake added.
"...Why is no one commenting about the teleporting hobo?" Ruby asked, leaning away from Emmy and slowly reaching for her weapon.
As a group, they all turned to stare at Emmy, who shrugged.
"I'm her power." He said, gesturing with a thumb towards Taylor, as though that explained everything.
"Huh. Weird. Do they kind of look like they have the same cheekbones?" Weiss offered, before immediately pivoting back to the previous conversation.
"A little? Yang has a bit more fat on-" Blake replied.
"Hey! She's not my sister! She even said so!" Yang erupted at that, interrupting the conversation angrily. If nothing else, the relief of the moment seemed to have returned her to her typical, more jovial attitude, which Taylor was thankful for.
"Here, I can prove it." Taylor said, omitting the unspoken 'and ruin Raven's day' as unnecessary.
"...How?" Weiss asked suspiciously.
"I can cast a tracking spell to find her, then take us to her?" Taylor offered with a shrug. She didn't know the woman well enough to cast the spell in absentia, but she could damn well use her own daughter as focus to make the spell function.
"Those were… definitely words." Weiss offered.
"Right. The.. alien wizard thing." Yang said weakly. Taylor rolled her eyes.
"Look, do you wanna meet your Mom, or what? I promise she won't even recognize me." Taylor said. It was on the list of things she wanted to do while she was here - help Yang deal with her trauma before she got her arm cut off, that is.
Not that that would happen anyway, but still…
"Yes!" Yang blurted.
"No, guys seriously, why isn't anyone questioning this?!" Ruby insisted, flailing her arms in Emmy's direction.
"Ruby, come on, eyes on the prize." Yang cheered at her.
"I have eyes on a teleporting hobo!" Ruby yelled back.
"He said-"
"I know what he said!"
Taylor ignored them, in favor of casting her spell - and waiting.
Friday, March 18th, 2011
Branwen Encampment, Wilderness
(Nexus)
"I didn't think teleportation would be so…" Weiss gestured wordlessly at the Gap behind her as the rest of team RWBY stepped out of it
"Full of malicious demon eyes?" Blake responded, eyeing the receding portal suspiciously.
"I think they're cute. Dunno why everyone hates them…" Taylor grumbled, mostly to herself, but still loud enough to be heard.
"'Cus they're creepy." Yang said with a shrug.
"Uh… guys? Are we gonna ignore these hobos too?" Ruby asked, drawing the group's attention to the large group of men and women, who had drawn weapons and begun to encircle them the second they had stepped free of the Gap, and into the middle of what looked like a walled encampment in the wilderness.
Taylor snorted, made sure she had things under control - and then released her spiritual pressure, sparing her charges its direct effects. The spider that she was told always accompanied any significant amount of her power being released was probably hanging overhead right about now - but she didn't care. It was the easiest way to deal with this many mooks at once.
Even if Leet had made a point of spreading technology around back home that stopped her from doing it as often.
The jerk.
"...Yeah, I guess we are…" Ruby muttered behind her as Taylor slowly started picking her way through the army of mooks, who were now pressed against the ground like a giant was stepping on them.
"...I'm confused. She's definitely used more than one semblance in the last five minutes." Weiss muttered behind her as she walked.
"Maybe some people have more than one?" Ruby offered.
"That's not how--" Weiss turned to snap at her, but was cut off.
"What the hell is going on out here?!" Someone barked, and a thickly muscled woman with lengthy black hair wielding a cavalry saber stepped into view.
Taylor would have made note of Yang's muttered 'Mom', but she herself was too busy staring at the woman.
That… definitely looked like her Mom. If she had spent her entire life lifting weights and fighting Grimm.
…and also being a huge bitch to everyone she met, apparently.
"Yang? What–who are these people? What are you doing here?" The woman - Raven - demanded, stalking towards them like a predator on the hunt.
"I- I mean, I just-" Yang stammered, apparently too overwhelmed by the situation.
"Why'd you leave?" Taylor found herself asking, her mouth moving before her mind had finished processing the distressing similarities Raven Branwen and Annette Hebert shared.
Raven glanced around at her men, all still glued to the floor by her Spiritual Pressure, and then back to Taylor - the very obvious source of the phenomenon. Her body language fully oriented on her, and her blade came up in a line to point at her.
"Release my men. Then we can talk." She said coldly.
Taylor took a moment to compose herself - realizing that Yang, Ruby, Weiss, and Blake were looking at her funny, and then slowly retook control of her power, compressing it down until it was no longer suffocating everyone around her.
"See? She doesn't even know who I am." Taylor said, though the strain in her voice was probably very obvious.
"Indeed. As to your question…" Raven answered, and Taylor had to resist the urge to flinch.
This wasn't her mother. It had never been her mother. But looking the way she did… it still bothered her all the same. And she found herself more than slightly invested in what happened next.
"...I couldn't risk you." She said after a minute to think, seeming - to Taylor - smugly satisfied by the admission.
"Risk me? Risk me to what? Mom-" Yang said, taking a step towards the dark haired woman.
"She's lying." Taylor said flatly, staring straight at the woman with her mother's face.
"Do not act as though you know me. I would never abandon my daughter, now that she is strong enough to be with me." Raven insisted.
It was, of course, a lie. Everything Taylor knew about the woman made her sure of it. Her powers, her instincts - all of it agreed. This woman was a liar, and a coward.
"Again. Lie. You were scared of Salem, and you were scared of being a mother. You can teleport to her at will - you have no reason to not have been there." Taylor snapped. At this, Yang turned to her, evidently not fully grasping the meaning of the name Salem, but seemingly putting together something else. The blonde's head ticked from Taylor, to Raven, and back again, as though making a comparison for herself - and a frown bloomed on her face.
A frown that Taylor ignored.
And in retrospect, she really shouldn't have.
"If you know about her, then you should know fighting her is pointless. Come, Yang. I can start training you today." Raven intoned, turning her back on the group and walking away in what she probably thought was a power move. 'I don't even need to watch you', as it were.
Stupid.
The whole thing was just stupid.
It was so stupid that Taylor found herself standing behind the woman and reaching out to grab her shoulder before she knew what she was doing.
It was so stupid that she ignored the cavalry saber in the woman's hands when it swished around to slash at her.
"Oops, almost had a bit of a problem there. You have no idea how close to death you are, huh?" Emmy said, his tone almost annoyed-sounding as the two fingers he had grasped the blade in gently pulled it away from her.
Raven - brilliant woman she was - immediately hit the button on her sword that unclipped the handle for the blade, and slid the entire thing back into its sheath to retrieve another - all while taking a quick step back from the pair.
Taylor didn't bother to follow after her. She had come here to help Yang see that her mother was a horrible person. But seeing her own mother… she couldn't quite bring herself to do so.
"I'll kill her." Taylor said angrily, controlling her temper enough not to literally growl.
"Who-"
"Salem. I'll kill her. Right now." She repeated, cleaving a Gap open and gesturing with her head at it.
"I'll be right back." She said, eyeing the woman.
"And if any of these girls are hurt when I get back, you better not be here when I do." She added without thinking, eyes narrowing into slits and her face shifting into the decidedly unpleasant smile she had inherited from Yukari.
Then she stepped through the Gap, and into Cinder Fall's bedroom.
Friday, March 18th, 2011
Beacon Academy, City of Vale
(Nexus)
"Nexus! I-" Cinder blurted out the second Taylor appeared in her bedroom.
"Talk later. Where's Salem right now?" She asked, cutting the woman off and spearing her two compatriots with a look that promised immense violence if they continued to try and draw their weapons.
Well. Weapon, really. Mercury didn't have a weapon - just his prosthetic legs.
"She resides in a castle at the center of the Dark Continent. We have a network of Bullheads that can be tasked to–"
"Don't care. Keep doing what I said and praying." She cut the woman off, stepping through a Gap and back out into the night sky.
Friday, March 18th, 2011
???, Dark Continent
(Nexus)
"A castle? Seriously, just a giant castle?" Taylor lamented loudly over the howling winds around her.
'I mean, there was no way you could have known, right? Even if every big bad I fight tends to be at the end of a spooky castle…' Emmy said thoughtfully.
'Wait, we own a castle. Are we the big bad?' He blurted out.
"Wha- No! Why would you even think that? I'm a good person!" She countered immediately.
'You're technically hovering over the capital city of a sovereign nation and getting ready to assassinate its queen.' Emmy pointed out. Taylor glanced down below her, to where the excessively creepy castle stood amidst a blasted purple tinged wasteland. She was standing in the sky miles overhead, and even she had to admit the place was kind of scary.
At least it wasn't alive like her castle. Probably.
Hopefully.
Maybe she'd ask before destroying it. Just in case.
No reason to cause any collateral damage after all.
How would you like to go about this? (Please denote energy expenditure if any, and a rough outline of actions taken)
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(Some notes for people who aren't aware of RWBY lore. Salem is immortal. You can kill her but no matter what degree of damage you do to her, she always rapidly regenerates to 'not dead'. She has control over armies of monsters - many of them Kaijuu sized - and is a Sorceress of considerable power. The only reasonable way to stop her is to force her to submit so that Dante's power to turn monsters into weapons kicks in - so keep that in mind while planning. This has been RWBY lore with BHG.)
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Threadmarks Yang Makes a Discovery by KokuenDG (Canon)
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KokuenDG
KokuenDG
Good Civ Inspector
Apr 6, 2022
#45,189
Uh...I did a thing again.
Yang Makes a Discovery
There were a few times in your life when you felt truly angry.
Sure, if you consider how you tend to react to people touching even a strand of your hair as getting angry, or your admittedly reckless way of charging at targets when your emotions flare it would be easy to claim that you have a relatively short fuse. And yes, you were aware that you had a low tolerance for people messing with Ruby or your friends, but really, who doesn't get mad on behalf of the people they care about and want to cave an idiot's face in? As far as you were concerned though, those were just daily annoyances that you could quickly slap down and get back to more important things.
You were also aware of your reputation as a bit of a hothead, but you'd like to consider those incidents as varying levels of frustration rather than anger; it would be accurate to say that it's more of an expression of your 'fiery spirit' as Dad likes to say. Anger is completely different though.
In your opinion, to be angry was to have that ever-present flickering ember in your chest erupt into an all-consuming bonfire of blinding rage; one that refuses to be put out until whatever pushed you to your breaking point learned in excruciating detail why pissing you off was a bad idea.
So yeah, there were very few times in your life where you felt angry. And even as you watched Taylor and her hobo friend disappear through her creepy eye portal, you couldn't really say that you felt angry.
You were damn close to it though.
"What the hell is your problem?!" you grit out, turning your blazing red eyes from the rapidly disappearing portal to glare at your estranged mother, who was still staring at the closing portal with a confused frown. "Mom!"
Raven blinks with a start, meeting your furious gaze with her cold red eyes. "What's my problem, you ask? My 'problem' is that some random upstart dared to enter my encampment, attack my men, and attempt to attack me. She's lucky that that man was here to stop her from losing her head."
"Lose her head? Lose her head!?! Do you have any idea how messed up what you're saying even is right now!?"
"And how, pray tell, am I supposed to act in response to a supposed attack on my tribe Yang? The only reason I even gave the girl a chance to de-escalate was due to you and your little team here," She casts a glance towards your teammates, pausing for a moment on the nervous-looking Ruby before continuing, "The only real good thing that came out of this whole farce was that she brought you to me. Now come along Yang." You watch her turn away with an astonished look on your face.
'Come along? All of that just happened and she expects me to just obediently follow her?' You think to yourself furiously, clenching your fists as you struggle to contain the growing blaze in your chest. 'Did she even listen to Taylor at all? Even properly look at her before dismissing her existence entirely?'
Now, you'd be the first to admit that Taylor is very difficult to read from your limited interactions with her. But even if it's hard to tell sometimes because of Taylor's general demeanor and that ever-present smile on her face, you couldn't help but notice just how stricken the dark-haired girl looked the moment she saw your mother. And those words she said while you were stumbling over your own words after seeing your mother…
"Why'd you leave?"
You know that you weren't the only one that heard the pain in Taylor's voice, or saw how her expression completely crumbled when those words - that sounded more like a plea made out of desperation than a simple question - came out of her mouth. Even if she seemingly recovered after noticing the looks she was getting from you and the others, something like that just doesn't come out of nowhere. And for her to just blow her off like she didn't matter like that was just…
"No."
Your mother stops at your words, turning back to look at you with a raised eyebrow.
"No? Weren't you the one that wanted to see me in the first place? That was the whole point of this little venture of yours was it not," she says with that fucking tone that you're starting to hate—that cold, condescending voice that says more than anything about how much this whole thing is barely even a footnote to her.
"See? She doesn't even know who I am."
"You expect me to go anywhere with you after all of that?" You grit out, fists clenching hard enough to draw blood.
"After what, exactly? After I was accused of cowardice by someone that thinks they can judge my life and my decisions? Really, Yang, you should know better than to believe such lies," Raven says with a sardonic chuckle. Just hearing that almost set you off. It was only by the virtue of the fact that you and your team were essentially surrounded by potentially hostile forces that stayed your hand.
Instead, you force yourself to calm down, feeling the flickering flames of your hair settle back into its golden blonde hue. You want to say a lot of things right now; to call out her negligence and irresponsibility, demand who this 'Salem' that she seems so afraid of is, ask why she was so willing to acknowledge you, and completely ignore Taylor's existence.
"If anyone has the right it's gonna be her," You decide to say instead.
She raises her eyebrow again. "And how, exactly, does she—?"
"What she said was true, wasn't it?" you interrupt. "That your semblance lets you teleport to me anytime you want, right? But instead of doing that, you decided that it was easier to not show your face for over a decade and surround yourself with people who kiss your ass rather than be a mother."
Raven's glaring at you now, but you can't find it in yourself to care much beyond the cold satisfaction that your - and Taylor's - words are getting under her skin so much.
"I told you that I did what I did for your safety, Yang," Raven—lies, a voice that sounds like Taylor's echoes in your mind. "There are many dangers out there that you've been blind to in your life under Ozpin's thumb; dangers that I didn't want you involved in until you were strong enough to take care of yourself."
"I didn't need a protector! I didn't need someone who would 'watch me from the shadows' or some other bullshit excuse! I needed my mom," you pause, glancing at Ruby as you continue. "And thankfully, I had a Mom. An awesome mom who gave me an awesome sister, and who did more for me in the few years she was around than you've ever done."
Raven follows your gaze to your younger sister, who puffs up defiantly in response. "Yes, I'm sure that Summer did a wonderful job raising you in my stead in those few brief years. However, she was unable to instill in you the understanding of this world and the threats that are greater than the Grimm; Something that I can do now that you've made the wise decision to seek me out." She turns her gaze back to you with what you would've assumed to have been a proud smile had you not known any better.
As you are now, it only looked smug and triumphant—like she was so self-assured that her lies would be enough to convince you to abandon everything just for the chance to do…what? Start over? Act like the mother she never was?
Then you were struck with a dawning realization.
"You don't actually care, do you?" you ask softly.
"Why would you think—?"
"You barely even see me as your daughter. Hell, the only worth I am to you is as another fucking lackey in your group. If I didn't go out of my way to see you, you would've been just fine acting like I didn't exist. Taylor was right, you're a coward and a terrible mother."
You watch as Raven's smile crumples into a frown with a small amount of bitter satisfaction. She huffs and crosses her arms in annoyance. "I do not appreciate you throwing baseless accusations at me—" She starts, but you're long past listening to her make excuses.
"And what about Taylor? Do you even care enough to acknowledge her existence? Did you ever actually look at her before dismissing her? Hell, aren't you even worried that she's gonna get hurt fighting whoever this Salem is?!"
"And why, exactly, would it matter to me what happens to her?" She replies dismissively.
"Why wouldn't it matter?! You said so yourself that fighting her was pointless!"
"Because it is pointless!" She suddenly shouts out. You flinch back, startled by the sudden change in demeanor. "You have no idea what you're talking about child. You stand there thinking you have the right to judge me for my decisions when you are blind to the realities of the world you live in." Her hand sweeps out, gesturing towards the encampment. "Everything I've done—everything I've made and all of those you see around you right now. All my sacrifices were for the sake of one thing." She looks at you pointedly, cold red eyes bearing down on you.
"It's to survive. You have no idea of the dangers that exist beyond the Grimm Yang, and you will remain ignorant as long as you continue to play as a Huntress."
"'Play as a Huntress'!? How dare you—!"
"Weiss, not the time!" you hear someone whisper out and what sounds like muffled protests, but you ignore that in favor of the woman in front of you. You two stare silently at each other for what feels like hours as you consider everything you've just heard. If you're being honest, a lot of it sounds like the paranoid ramblings of a madwoman, but with how Taylor went out of her way to go after this 'Salem' person, there may be a grain of truth in there somewhere. And if you're being honest, you do want to actually understand why she believes that her path was the correct one to take; it's the whole reason you came out here after all.
However, despite all of the questions floating in your head and the desire to actually understand your mother—
"You…just really don't care at all, do you?" you eventually say. You watch as Raven rolls her eyes, and feel your heart sink.
"I thought that I made myself clear. I refuse to concern myself with anything that threatens me or my tribe, up to and including that girl. Whether she lives or dies is of no consequence to me," Raven sniffs in disdain. "She's made her choice, and I don't intend to care about another fool who throws their life away in Ozpin's war."
"…Of course you don't. That's the kind of person you are, after all," you say.
While this realization would've hurt a lot more a few weeks ago – not so much now though. Now, you just feel tired – your thoughts instead turn to the mysterious girl who stormed off to kill that Salem person. She knew that this was how your mo—how Raven was, and yet she still chose to take you to see her despite knowing that she would be rejected by the woman. Granted, you didn't exactly force her to take you to her, but just knowing that she was willing to put up with that kind of treatment just for your sake was…
Well. It would be a lie to say that you don't feel a bit crappy for your part in this whole situation.
She watches you silently for a few moments, searching for something in your gaze before closing her eyes. "Perhaps…it's too soon for you, Yang. It doesn't seem like you're ready to face the truth of things just yet. Regardless, I feel that you and your friends have overstayed their welcome." Opening her eyes, Raven settles a hand onto the pommel of her blade before striking out and cleaving a red portal into the empty space between them. "This will take you to Taiyang. Go home, Yang. Seek me out when you've grown a bit more."
"…" You do nothing but stare at the woman in disappointment, before shaking your head. "…Let's go guys. This…was a waste of time. There's never gonna be anything for us here."
You almost feel like you saw her wince at that remark, but she just shakes her head and walks away. You watch her go with a sad gaze, before feeling a hand rest on your shoulder.
"Yang," you hear Blake say. "I..I know that I can't understand how you feel right now, but we," she pauses for a moment, before continuing, "we're here for you, okay?" She finishes somewhat awkwardly.
"Yeah. Like you said, Yang, we don't need her or any of these jerks anyway," Ruby chimes in, glaring at the members of Raven's tribe who continue to watch your group cautiously.
"That's quite the understatement, but Ruby is correct. Besides," Weiss says, before pursing her lips in distaste and anger. "That woman was entirely…unpleasant. I honestly don't see how the two of you could be related to her."
The two she was speaking of, of course, went unsaid in your group. And while it would've probably made you somewhat irritated to have your mother insulted in front of you a few hours ago, right now?
Well, you'll take the compliment for what it was.
"Thanks, girls," you say, forcing a small smile on your face before eyeing the portal. "Let's just get out of here, alright? Dad might start to get really worried that something's up if we don't hurry through the portal, after all. And hey, at least you two get to meet Dad! He's kind of a dork, but he's pretty cool." Ruby nods excitingly in agreement, all too willing to help you change the subject to something less…heavy.
Best little sister ever. Or littlest sister now? Ugh, you're really gonna have to talk to Taylor whenever she comes back from fighting that Salem person about this whole mess. That's gonna be weird.
…
'Don't do anything crazy Taylor,' you think to yourself. 'Even if you're strong, I don't wanna see my sisters getting hurt.'
Because Bowler Hat Guy left it off at a part where the two would be bound to have a bit of a discussion, and drama.
Poor Raven has no idea what's going on but man she's kind of just really mean isn't she like damn lady don't be so rude.
Last edited: Aug 27, 2022
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KokuenDG
Apr 6, 2022
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Threadmarks Diplomatic Immunity 17.4
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Apr 7, 2022
#45,192
[X] Plan The Devil's Bargain
-[X] Spend 1 Energy to complete Race Change: Hybrid (19/20)
-[X] It's better you have as little distraction when dealing with Salem. Thin the herd at the castle, then strike.
-[X] Have Taylor engage Salem to try and whittle her down. Emmy runs interference at the same time, keeping away anyone else from assisting Salem during the fight.
-[X] Onmyodo is a ritualistic practice that deals often with the exorcism, banishment, and sealing of spirits- once Salem shows an opening, move in to separate her soul from her body.
-[X] You know very well Salem was an immortal, unkillable witch, but there's more than one way to deal with an immortal. But knowing her circumstances... we can offer her a deal.
-[X] Either we seal her soul for eternity, unable to act upon anything ever again- or surrender to us to become a devil arm to wield one day against the Gods she hates.
[X] Creativity's_darkside/Yes
Pull The Trigger has been activated for 35 Omake Points!
Current Training: Half Devil Race Change (19/20)- Complete!
Current Energy: 12
Current Emulation Status: Here
Friday, March 18th, 2011
???, Dark Continent
(Multiversal Emulator)
'Hey, do me a favour and land over there for a second, before we get started?' You ask idly, pointing at a small barren hill just out of sight of the castle itself.
Not that it matters if it's out of sight. Your Master has clearly been noticed, as many of the Grimm that roam the area can attest to by their sudden change in behaviour, as well as…
The fact that they are obviously tracking your Master with their heads as she moves.
Regardless, unlike your Master, you cannot fly. Or walk on air. As such, as you have many times before, and probably will many times more, you are… falling.
Infinitely.
You watch passively - lying down sideways in the air, as though you are on a couch - as you fall from the sky, hit the limit of your Master's range, and then fall from the sky again. It isn't as though your Master can't extend your range, or carry you in a Gap or something. It's just that… sitting inside of a Gap for an extended period of time freaks you out, and prevents you from responding to threats to your Master properly.
Plus, getting teleported to where your Master is standing at any given moment in time is surprisingly useful for getting around when your current emulation can't, themselves, fly.
'Why?' She asks suspiciously, instead of immediately moving in the direction you indicated.
You'd be hurt, but you have spent most of your free time to date pranking her in one form or another. Still, you would hope she knows you wouldn't do that in a situation like this.
Mostly.
'Just want to finish something before we move on. I swear, after this, I'll even actually train you in the mornings.' You offer. Again, it's not as though you've been doing nothing this whole time. You just haven't been doing something obvious or visible.
Until now, anyway.
'…promise?' Your Master asks, still suspicious.
'Promise.' You agree easily.
'Fine. Why haven't you been training me, anyway?' She asks, quickly leaping towards the indicated point in the distance and landing cleanly atop a bear-like Grimm of some kind that she crushes underfoot as she lands.
The land here feels… unpleasant, as you physically manifest and stretch, extending one arm lazily overhead. You suppose it could be the presence of evil and all that philosophical stuff, but there's more to it than that, almost. It was minute, but if you looked closely enough from overhead, the signs that this entire continent had once been populated were visible. Towns and cities left to ruin, crawling with mould and monsters.
A civilization had once existed here. And now… now it didn't.
"So?" Taylor prods you, though her heart isn't fully in it. Truthfully, her attention isn't even fully on the here and now. Her gaze constantly ticks away from both you and the castle, as though she is trying to look at something in the distance that confuses and distresses her in equal measure.
You rub the back of your head in one hand, and idly draw one of your guns to shoot down another brave Grimm that appears to be trying to approach you - a wolf of some kind.
"Right. Before I do this I– Okay, look, the multiverse is weird, right?" You put forth, shifting tacts, and immediately drawing Taylor's attention towards you.
"...weird enough that a totally unrelated woman in another dimension looks like my mom?" She asks with some frustration.
"...sentient vending machines and all that." You mutter with a shrug, not really knowing how else to answer that question. Then, before your Master can respond to the weak answer, you continue.
"Does it matter? She didn't raise you, she doesn't care about you - that woman isn't your mom."
"Of course it matters! Does that mean another version of my Dad is around here somewhere? Of me? Do you think if I brought Dad here, then-" She starts hopefully.
"No. Kid-" You start to say.
"I'm older than you." Taylor fires back automatically.
"Kid." You repeat, stressing the fact that she is most certainly not older than your current emulation. Taylor seems to take this point, but frowns regardless.
"Look, I–this guy isn't great at family stuff okay? My–his brother had a kid he didn't even know about. But I could tell the punk was family - we shared certain… traits." You say fondly.
"You're both massively annoying?" Taylor asks, obviously intending it as a joke, but just agitated enough that it comes out sounding like an accusation. You wince but move past it without comment, because you know she doesn't mean anything by it.
"Sure. Plus, a proclivity for big swords, killin' demons, and well…" You stop, pulling a lock of pure white hair up to draw attention to it.
"Not a lot of natural hair comes in this colour, after all." You say with a smirk.
"What does that have to do with us right now, exactly?" Taylor asks, clearly growing impatient and eyeing the Grimm gathering at the base of the hill, as though trying to decide if dealing with them would be sufficiently distracting for her.
You shrug, ruffle your Master's hair, and expend the single point of energy required to finalize your Master's transformation into the same kind of Half-Devil that you are currently emulating.
"I guess what I'm saying is, don't worry too much about that look-alike. You go to where this guy is from, and he'll peg you as family right away now - I promise." You say with a confident smile as all the pigmentation rapidly fades out of your Masters hair.
"Uncle, huh?" Taylor muses to herself as though suddenly understanding something.
"Yeah, but the cool kind who lets you drink and shoot his gun collection." You offer, pulling your Master in for a hug.
"More of a sword girl, really." Taylor says dryly.
"That's only cus your sword is fussy. She'll grow out of it - I mean really, nothing beats twins." You say with a smirk as you disengage and draw your other gun.
"Gross." Taylor says with faux disgust, before drawing her sword.
"So… still wanna kill the devil 'cus your sorta mom hurt your feelings?" You ask as the ring of Grimm that has been slowly creeping closer and closer, growing denser and denser, begins to pick up its pace in preparation for an attack.
"Nah. Now I just wanna do it for fun." Your Master responds.
"Good answer." You say.
Even though you know it's not true.
"First one to the castle wins?" Your Master puts forth.
"Only if you don't just fly or teleport there." You counter offer.
"Deal. Onetwothreego!" She responds, before rapidly blurring into motion and crashing into the wave of tar-skinned monsters approaching you like an explosive device.
Literally.
Your Master's differing physical enhancements are such that, even though she is 'young' by Half-Devil standards, and only a fraction as powerful as she will eventually come to be - their combined might is something to behold. Something she demonstrates when her mere landing causes an explosion of force and gravel that clears a fifteen foot wide area around her and pulps all the Grimm within it.
Smirking, you lift your guns and follow after her.
'Can't let the kid have all the fun, after all,' you think to yourself as two swift barrages of firepower from Ebony and Ivory soften a front line of smaller monsters, clearing a path through the wasteland battlefield for you to reach what looks like some kind of elephant thing.
With but a thought, the Cavaliere appears before you, and you hop onto it without putting your guns away. Instead, you manipulate the weapon purely through demonic power, revving the engine and having the machine cleave straight towards the large monster as you continue to fire to either side of you. Then, just as you reach the stampeding elephant thing, you holster your guns and take over steering with your hands, navigating a perfect path up the thing's trunk and going flying off its bone mask as though it were a ramp. Before the thing can so much as tell what you have done, you switch again, finding your fists and feet enmeshed in the metal gauntlets of Gilgamesh. The thrusters at your elbows engage, and you drive downward, slamming the beast into the ground with such force that its mass immediately dissipates into the ether.
Glancing to the side, you see your Master having already released her sword, cleaving apart large swathes of the Monsters with wild abandon and a killing intent that is usually absent from her fighting style. Her path forward is slow but methodical, and wherever she treads, Grimm fall in droves.
"I got one of the big ones!" You call to her over the din.
"That's not what the big ones look like!" She calls back, flicking her hand dismissively behind her and drawing a rune in the air that scorches the earth, and - as is common for your Master - everything else in that general direction.
"What? Lame. How many points do you think that thing is worth, then?" You ask, gesturing overhead at what you are pretty sure is some kind of flying whale monster.
It's certainly big enough to qualify. The thing practically blots out the sun with its size.
"We're doing points?! I thought this was a race!" Taylor complains.
"If you aren't counting style points, then what are you even fighting for!" You exclaim with glee, allowing Gilgamesh to vanish and withdrawing the black suitcase, Pandora.
Pandora is one of the weirdest weapons you have ever owned.
And also, one of the coolest.
So with that thinking, you flick the suitcase outward and release it, watching as its mass shifts and reorganizes into a massive spinning glaive that scythes through the monsters closing in on you in a spiralling pattern, before returning to you like a boomerang.
"How can you not love a gun like this?!" You ask your Master plaintively as you flick the glaive again and the entire cog filled apparatus comes apart and reconfigures into a spherical rocket platform with a seat at its center for you to control it. The apparatus hovers an inch above the ground, and you immediately point all its barrels at the whale monster overhead.
And then you pull the trigger.
Almost instantly, a ceaseless wave of high speed rockets explodes out of Pandora, detonating in a line across the massive whale's flank.
But not fully taking it out, or causing it to fall from the sky.
Not that you care. It isn't as though Pandora has ammunition that it can run out of.
"Very cute, but I can already do that without the suitcase!" Taylor calls to you. You roll your eyes. If you wanted to waste the energy doing so, you could do a million and one things to rip that thing out of the sky.
Buuuuut it's not strictly necessary, and you'd hate to cut short your time as this emulation, so you let the dig pass.
Although you do whistle appreciatively as your Master spawns two dozen glowing magical spiders to attack the same Monster using beams of magical energy.
"I dunno, I'd call that about even!" You call to her when it becomes evident that her attack was only about as effective as your own.
You leap out of the Pandora and pull on it, reducing it back to its suitcase form and swapping it for your sword.
Taylor shoots you a sour look, and you feel a spike of annoyance shoot across your link from her as a lock of her now white hair falls down into her face.
You just grin, brandish your weapon, and keep fighting on.
For people like you and your Master, there really was nowhere more comfortable than in the thick of things.
"Boom! I win, and I look damn fine doing it!" You cheer as the gorilla Grimm you are standing on slides the rest of the way across the ground to bump loudly into the castle's gates. As it does so, you cease playing Nevan - your electric guitar that also shoots electricity - and allow it to vanish back to wherever your Devil Arms go when you aren't using them.
"You didn't even run the last bit! That's cheating!" Taylor calls to you as she jogs up behind you, turning to fire a wave of force behind herself at the army of grimm chasing the both of you, and pausing when she realizes that they have all stopped, instead of approaching the castle.
"No teleporting, no flying. Those were the rules. Not my fault you can't surf." You say playfully, though you do turn a curious eye on the Grimm.
"Are they scared of this place, or is Salem just telling them to back off for now?" Taylor wonders aloud.
As though in answer, the entrance swings open, revealing a dark, unlit entry hall that has clearly not seen maintenance or use in a very long time.
"Guess we can always just ask." You say with a shrug, ignoring the large scorpion stinger that attempts to jam itself into your neck as you step through the doorway.
You say 'attempt' because for obvious reasons, your left hand comes up to grab it before it can reach you.
"Do you want me to…?" Taylor offers, looking past you as she steps around you and into the room, shutting the doors behind her with a wave of one hand.
"Nah, I got it. You can go on ahead if you want." You say, giving the owner of the tail a good once over.
"If you're sure." Taylor responds, skipping past you and heading further into the building.
"How dare you invade this sacred place! Do you even know where you are?!" The entire human being on the other end of the stinger you are still firmly grasping in one hand screeches at you.
"A castle?" You respond with a shrug, releasing the stinger and watching with interest as the strange guy it is attached to pulls it back to himself.
You've seen a lot of weird things, and probably more permutations of 'human with extra bits' than you are comfortable describing - but 'just a normal guy with a scale scorpion tail' is a new one for you, if you are being honest.
"A temple!" The scorpion guy yells at you with a creepy amount of pleasure in his voice.
"I dunno, looks a lot like a castle to me," You say lazily, turning to examine your surroundings and presenting your back to the man, who almost instantly capitalises on the moment by leaping at your back with his hands outstretched.
You roll your eyes without looking at him and fire a mule kick behind yourself, earning a satisfying crunching noise when the blow connects and launches your would-be attacker away from you and into the nearest wall.
"Sacrilege! Sinner! Scum! You don't have the right to even set foot in-" He starts to say but you cut him off.
"Hey, quick question, is this castle alive or anything like that? On a scale from one to ten where would you rate the sapience of this castle? My Master was curious about the castle, so we came to the castle to investigate before blowing it up. Castle." You ask, and with every repetition of the word, you can see scorpion boy's temper flaring, which earns a mean spirited smirk from you.
"You bas-" The scorpion guy - you're probably never going to get his name - starts, so you cut him off again.
"Ah, ah, ah! There are children in the audience. Mind your language, buddy." You call to him, lifting one hand and waggling an admonishing finger in his direction. You also don't bother to explain the joke - which is that you are technically the child.
'Quit screwing with him, I still have stuff to do back home.' Your Master sends to you from up ahead.
'How-' You ask, knowing she didn't, at any point, bother to check the situation from your perspective before saying that.
'I guessed. You aren't a complicated guy, right now.' She responds dryly.
"Fiiiine," You complain, forgoing your usual pastime of making fun of bad guys.
Then you don Balrog - a pair of gauntlets and greaves - and kick the guy as he makes to rush towards you.
Once.
"They just don't make bad guys like they used to." You sigh, shrugging and turning to jog after your Master.
"So, what were you doing while I was handling that guy?" You ask your Master as you jog up alongside her.
"Picking someone up." She responds absentmindedly, clearly more interested in examining the building's architecture and the traces of Grimm presence within it.
"What, hoping your Dad can solve this one? I guess the devil is an older woman here. Might work." You say jokingly, turning to eye the black, oily substance that drips down the walls in unnatural organic patterns along with your Master.
A familiar female voice states - although the sheer vehemence in it is extremely uncharacteristic of the voice's owner.
"Mem?" You ask, jerking around to locate the source of the voice to find your Master holding a cane in one hand and her sword in the other.
"Hey! Where are you learning this stuff?" Taylor cuts her off, hefting Mem's weapon form and narrowing her eyes at it.
"That's not–" Taylor starts to say, but you choose that moment to change the subject.
"Where are all the puzzles?" You ask suddenly, earning a strange look from your Master.
"What?"
"Puzzles. You know, like, there are four doors and you need to get the red key to open the red door, which leads to the green key for the green door, etc, etc. I've been in a lot of castles, and I gotta say, this one so far? Two outta ten." You drawl as you and your Master continue to wander the largely empty halls of the building.
"I'm sorry the decor isn't up to your standards." A smooth female voice calls venomously to you as you reach what - you assume - was once a throne room, and suddenly - as though a curtain being lifted - the thin black haze that has permeated the entire building lifts.
The room is - or would have once been - magnificent. It seems almost closer to a dining hall than a throne room, with multiple long stone tables filling the space leading up to the white marble throne at the far side of the room. Next to the intact throne, there remains an odd space - as though another seat was once supposed to be there. The walls and ceilings of the room are covered in stained glass murals, depicting a woman standing or otherwise acting as though there should be someone else present. It is impossible to tell, because the black gunk of the Grimm covers whatever would have been there, a consistency present across all the images.
All of this pales in comparison to the woman who just spoke to you. The woman depicted in those murals. The woman sitting on the throne on the opposite end of the hall. She has white - not pale, not fair, but pure white skin, with veins of purple and red snaking their way up her neck and towards her eyes. She might have, once upon a time, even been beautiful, if not for the obvious deterioration caused by her condition. Her hair - also white - is styled into several buns in one of the most elaborate, haphazard hair styles you've ever seen, and she stares at your Master with hateful black sclera and red pupils.
You'd call her demonic looking, but that would be insulting.
To demons.
"No, I get it. Furniture must be hard to import to this place. What you should apologize for is acting like a teenage girl whose boyfriend just dumped her. I mean, seriously?" You say mockingly.
"Silence." She spits, gesturing at you in a manner eerily similar to your Master.
You feel your head yanked to the side, hard enough that you are fairly certain your spine would have broken if you were anyone else, and suddenly you are being held against the ground by what feels like iron bands. Out of the corner of your eye you can see that rather than metal, thick black arms of wispy smoke have sprung up from the ground around you, grabbing you and wrenching your head and limbs at disturbing angles.
Taylor's head snaps towards you and she lifts a hand to respond, but you just wink at her.
"I-" you cough, but continue. "I mean–you got dumped and took an evil sharpie to all your old pictures. L-Lemme guess, you started wearing black exclusively right around then, right?" You smirk.
This time the woman - Salem - doesn't even bother to respond verbally. She just slashes her hand diagonally across you, emitting a brilliant beam of energy from it that practically cuts you in half. If it weren't for your regeneration that would have been it for you, at least temporarily.
Still, the attack definitely shuts you up.
"A girl, Ozma? Really? Was that old fool at your petty little school just a decoy, then? Did you think to challenge me face to face after all this time because you grew desperate? Because you managed to find a host with a trifle more power than–" She hisses, rising from her throne and drifting forward as though floating, her long black dress covering the movement of her feet.
"I'm not Ozma." Taylor says, a cold fury flowing off of her as she hefts Nemesis onto one shoulder, and sticks Long Memory in front of her to lean on. Her gaze flicks to you again, and her lips press together into a thin line.
'Hey, I'm fine. I mean. Not fine, but-' You send to her, your mental communication being just about the only part of you that's not paralyzed.
'I'm not worried about you, dork.' You Master sends back to you, and stopping in confusion, it takes you a few moments to realize that both her sword and cane are vibrating slightly, as though trying to squirm out of her grip.
"Oh? Ozma, you haven't even tamed this one yet! For shame. Do you know what is inside you, little girl?" Salem says, leaning away and effecting a motherly, almost concerned demeanor that is so at odds with how she was acting previously that it almost gives you whiplash.
"The heart of a dragon, an alien parasite, the spirit of a preteen sword, and the blood of a dockworker." Taylor rattles off plainly, before cocking her head and adding,
"Also your dead husband."
Salem - who seems unimpressed by that particular litany of entirely true things - merely continues to smile at her.
"Did he tell you that one day, you won't be in charge anymore? Did he tell you about all those who came before you? Perhaps you think you are the hero on a grand quest? He has lied to you, you know. He has lied to all of-" Salem croons as she draws closer, eventually ending up circling your Master with her hands behind her back.
"Do people actually buy this bit you're doing here?" Taylor interjects, her grip on Long Memory so tight you can almost imagine her knuckles turning white.
This causes Salem to jerk back in confusion, then narrow her eyes in annoyance.
"Remember this, when you are locked away for the rest of what piddling time this world has left, Ozma. I tried to give your host a chance." She responds, affecting sadness and remorse, but clearly not actually meaning it, given her disdainful expression.
"'Bout that." Taylor says, her voice deceptively calm, and with that creepy smile she gets when she definitely isn't thinking benign thoughts showing on her face.
Quite the opposite really.
"Be silent, child. I have observed your feeble attempts at culling my Grimm. You are not my match." Salem says with an absent flick of her wrist that draws more shadowy appendages forth to grasp at her.
Your Master snorts, lifting Long Memory into the air, and then banging her on the floor a single time. In response, a blue dome of energy spreads from her, dissipating the hands as they approach her and freeing you from their grip as it passes over you.
"Thanks, I coulda got myself out, but, y'know. Your way involves less armageddon." You joke as your regeneration heals you enough to stand upright.
"Please don't just let her kill you." Taylor says dryly, then sighs and says - seemingly to no one - "Fine, but only until negotiations inevitably break down."
"You think that a small mastery of magic you couldn't begin to understand is enough to force me to negotiate with you?" Salem growls, slamming a fist against the barrier she has now found herself outside of. It splinters and cracks at the impact, but a second of attention from your Master is more than enough to fix it.
Not that the barrier is where your attention is.
"Are you stupid!?" "Please do not move."
Nemesis and Long Memory demand from you simultaneously, both young women practically appearing on top of you, with Nemesis leaping into your back and gnawing on the back of your head in irritation, and Mem quickly rushing over to pull at the blood-soaked clothing covering your wound.
"I'm fine- hey, seriously! I'm fine! I couldn't die even if I wanted to, you know?" You insist, gently pushing Mem away from you and reaching up to grab Nemesis by the back of her outfit like an angry cat.
"Honestly, I'm kind of wondering what thirty percent less immortality looks like on a practical level but- look, Salem. I'm not really Ozma, and I'm not even really from this dimension. What was done to you- as far as I understand it- was pretty messed up. So, let me offer you a deal." Taylor says, frowning when it becomes obvious that Salem is going to continue trying to angrily punch a hole in the barrier, especially because with each attempt she gets closer and closer to succeeding.
When the witch doesn't respond, Taylor moves on.
"Stop trying to end the world, and I'll promise you might even get to fight those Gods you hate so much. If they ever come back, I mean." Taylor puts forth.
"Fight them? Fight them?! Is that what you think I've been doing all these years, Ozma? I don't want to fight them! I want them to end this!" She screams, causing every mural in the room to fracture and blow outward with a wave of raw, anger-fueled force.
"Aaand by 'this', I assume you mean the planet. Well, I tried." Taylor says with a shrug, before looking over her shoulder at you, Mem, and Nemesis.
"Girls." She calls, holding her hands out as though for the younger girls to take them so they might go for a walk. Once Nemesis and Long Memory do, she is left standing with weapons in both hands - and visible strain from maintaining the barrier on her face.
You take the opportunity to walk over to her, and draw your guns.
"Sooo… this is the part where we shoot her until she dies, right?" You say with a smile. Your Master glances at you, and smiles maliciously back.
Then, a burst of cerulean demonic energy explodes off of her, obscuring her form for, at best, less than a second. And when it clears, your Master is standing before you, utterly changed.
Pitch black skin and thickly corded muscles. A bone-white carapace that covers her like knightly armour. A blank, sharply angular faceplate from which two sets of pearly white draconic horns curl upwards and around her now featureless visage. From behind her, flows glowing, fluorescent blue hair that shifts into a familiar shade of red at the tips, drifting behind her as though perpetually caught in a light breeze. And around her hips, tassets made of flexible white caparace, the insides of which are lined in the same vibrant colours of her hair.
The Devil Trigger.
"So, do you just name everything after gun stuff, or-" She asks with an oddly familiar effect to her voice. A resonating, distorted, and somehow metallic sounding voice that has echoes of your Master's normal tone, but that holds a gentle menace to it, as though she is looming further over you with every word she speaks.
"Hey, guns are cool!" You reply, before the barrier abruptly drops - an eventuality you are well prepared for due to your link with your Master - and you immediately fire a barrage of ammunition towards Salem, whose head promptly explodes.
"See? I cast gun. It was super effective!" You joke, even though you are well aware that the Witch is, at best, mildly inconvenienced by the effort. You are forced to cover your face to avoid glass shards getting blasted into it, however, because despite the upper half of her head not existing, Salem screams, and every shard of glass from the broken murals lifts into the air and slams into you.
You won't lie - it actually really hurts - but you've suffered worse.
"You can't cast gun. God, you really are like the weird uncle." Taylor grumbles, lifting Long Memory into the air and pointing it at Salem, ignoring the barrage of glass as it splashes off of her to no visible effect.
ᛗᚦᚢᛊᚲ Mem's voice declares angrily - perhaps more angrily than you have ever actually heard from her before, and a beam of raw heat emits from the weapon, sweeping over Salem and reducing her to a charred corpse.
For exactly one second.
Then a black sludge seeps out of the corpse, and the woman's body snaps back into focus - good as new. Well past wanting to talk to any of you, she releases a savage growl and throws both her hands forward, releasing a wave of force that hurls you backwards through several walls. Your Master is likewise affected, but has a much better landing - it would seem that the tassets of her boney armour are actually folded wings, because she uses the unfamiliar appendages to stabilise herself.
"So I never asked, but is there a limit on how many times she can do that? Do we have a plan? I'm game to just blow stuff up till she gives up, if not." You say.
"I have some thoughts. Can you handle all that for a minute?" Taylor asks, gesturing around you.
You have once more found yourself outside the castle. There is just one difference, however - the small army of Grimm has grown from less of a 'small army' and into more of an 'unending horde'. This land is largely flat, and lacking in any vegetation to obscure your vision - so you are somewhat shocked to realize that the monster's black and white forms stretch well beyond the horizon.
They literally blanket the land with their sheer numbers.
Well, it's not the craziest thing you've ever been asked to do.
"Screw it, I'm down. What are you going to do?" You ask as you ponder doing something… ill-advised.
"Something stupid, probably." Taylor admits, waggling Long Memory at you, before taking to the sky.
You smile at her as she goes, but don't get more than a second to luxuriate in your shared stupidity before you are forced to roll out of the way of a charging boar monster. With a grunt, you come up on your feet and roll your shoulders.
And then you manifest all fourteen of your devil arms at once. Right onto the ground.
"Alright, jerks! Simon says it's party time!" You cheer.
You'd say all hell breaks loose as multiple archdemons burst forth into the world.
But that would be a bit cliché, now wouldn't it?
Friday, March 18th, 2011
???, Dark Continent
(Nexus)
She had a fairly limited number of ways to win this fight, she knew.
'Come on! Just a little Bankai!' She mentally demanded of her obstinate sword - which responded by vibrating a little and not much else.
Nemesis wasn't prone to speech while they were in combat.
ᚾᛊ/ᚠᚲᚢᛝᚠᛞᚲᚢᚦ Mem barked as Taylor raced back towards Salem. As always, as much as Taylor knew runecraft, she wasn't nearly as practiced at it as her adoptive daughter - and it showed in the way she had no idea what the hell that particular spell even was.
What it 'was', however, turned out to be 'create a small sun at the center of the castle.'
"You can never use this back home." Taylor said automatically, even as the small stellar object drew most of the castle into itself and then began to shrink down into a rapidly blackening pinprick - leaving only a large, empty, circular space in the middle of the sea of Grimm around them.
And also a single woman's rapidly regenerating corpse.
Mem dutifully answered.
Taylor had to juke to one side to avoid the talons of a massive bird Grimm, before reorienting on Salem and continuing her headlong charge.
"Honey, that wasn't an agreement!" She yelled over the raging winds as she used the furious woman to assist in her landing.
She stomped on Salem like she was an italian plumber in a fantasy world, is what she was saying.
Honestly, she was kind of glad that Salem's clothes seemed to regenerate with her. Having to fight the woman naked would have just been awkward.
"I can't stress enough how much my daughter hates you. I'd really suggest surrendering." Taylor offered once more to Salem as her body finished reconstituting itself.
To her credit, the Witch actually seemed to look around herself and ponder it for a moment. The crater Mem's spell had left was significant, and very little remained of the Castle that had once stood here.
Still, despite everything… Despite her Grimm dying in droves around her, despite the overwhelming power disparity between them, despite even the literal dragons flying around where she had left Emmy, her expression remained unrelenting.
Wait, dragons?
'What's up with the-' She fired off to her friend, only to get an immediate response.
'Can't talk, casting gun!'
She rolled her eyes. She hoped that wasn't going to be a consistent joke for this emulation, because it was already grating on her nerves - which she supposed was probably the point of this one. She'd have expected to get the weird uncle closer to thanksgiving, but she supposed her power just worked in mysterious ways.
"It doesn't matter. Even if you stop me now, you can't stop me forever. You can't kill me. You can't imprison me in any way that will outlast me. You can only wait and despair, wondering when next I will be ascendant. You cannot rid the world of all Grimm." The Witch hissed at her.
Taylor opened her mouth- or, actually did she even have a mouth right now? How was she talking? This was so weird. Regardless. She opened her mouth to rebut, but Mem got to it first.
ᛝ/ᛞᚦᚾ She barked, and a tombstone that literally had Salem's name on it appeared in the air above her before driving straight through her skull and into the ground.
ᚦᛃ/ᚾᛁᚺᛚ A blade of pure frost slashed out at the limb that was only now beginning to regenerate, preventing Salem from pulling herself free from the tombstone.
ᛗᛚᚦ/ᚹ/ᛊ/ᛞ A swirling storm of vaguely ectoplasmic beings swirled up out of the ground to bite and punch and scratch at the woman.
"Got it out of your system now?"Taylor eventually asked sternly, lightly tapping the cane against the ground in admonishment.
...ᚦ/ᚲᛚ-ᛗ Her precocious little mage muttered half heartedly once all of her previous spells had ceased their effects. The effect would have been comical if it wasn't so… unnecessarily violent, as Salem's own shadow rose off the ground to stab at her a single time.
Then it returned to normal.
...yes. Mem returned to her sullenly.
Taylor eyed Long Memory for a moment, before returning her attention to Salem who - despite her immortality - looked more than slightly irked at her brutal treatment.
"So, you think that because there will always be Grimm, that you can't lose?" She asked in the tone of voice Yukari Yakumo had taught her long ago to use when she was about to do something particularly spiteful.
"And all the Grimm, they come from here, right?" She continued on when Salem merely glowered at her, for all the world seeming more like an angry teenager than a world destroying threat.
Taylor didn't bother to continue explaining her point. It wouldn't mean anything to the woman until she saw it with her own eyes. So instead, she leapt upward. Not to escape - not even to launch an attack, though she did have to contend with all the flying Grimm currently obscuring the sun overhead.
No, she was seeking higher ground because it would make her spell work better.
Because while Taylor Hebert loved a good bit of ultraviolence here and there, and she was more than willing to pit her skills against the immortal as a training exercise if nothing else, she realized that Salem herself wasn't really the problem. No matter how dangerous or unstoppable Salem was, the true problem was really the Grimm.
The Grimm, which were for all intents and purposes hate elementals, spawning unendingly from the pools of pure malice left on this continent millenia ago by irresponsible Gods.
Taylor couldn't hope to ever deal with the pools, and she certainly couldn't kill every Grimm.
But she didn't have to. All she really needed to do was make sure no more Grimm could leave this place. After all, it wasn't as though the things could or would breed. They weren't truly alive, after all.
But Mem and Mun had given her an idea some time ago, and now felt like as good a time as any to test it out.
After all, for as many Grimm as there were on this continent alone- how many humans had died here? How many nations had died when their Gods exterminated humanity on this plane? How many had died once Salem had come to power, and begun to wipe them out here? In Taylor's experience, people who died that traumatically left behind a ghost.
And ghosts didn't really seem to have anywhere to go naturally.
So first, she carved a rune across the sky. Every ounce of her power went into it. Her dragon heart beat madly in her chest, her aura, demonic power, mana - all of it was funnelled towards this casting. Then she took a deep breath, and exhaled.
This rune wasn't, in and of itself, the spell she needed to cast. It was just the precursor. A simple means by which she could have Mem's awareness spread across Salem's entire realm at once.
"Ready?" She asked her adoptive daughter, hesitating before connecting Long Memory to the spell.
Was her simple, factual reply.
Through her connection with Long Memory, both as a Shikigami, and as a weapon, Taylor could feel the process taking place.
And she could hear the ravens cawing. Quietly at first, where only a few of the corvids were even visible amidst the sea of black around them.
But then louder and louder, until the ringing cry of thousands, possibly even millions of cawing cries flooded the battlefield. Like an angry black tide, the spirits of all those slain in this Land of Darkness Salem had claimed as her domain rose up and were remade.
But that was not the end of things. For as formidable as the swirling hurricane of feathers and talons was, they were only birds.
And Taylor could do better than that.
'You're probably going to have to catch me after this.' She sent to Emmy, as she once more channelled her swiftly returning power into a spell. Not a Rune, nor Onmyoudou - but rather a modified version of a spell she had used on Mun not too long ago.
Bird, to Human.
It wouldn't have taxed her to use on a single person. It probably wouldn't have taxed her to use on a dozen people.
But on this scale? On this scale, Taylor felt like she would be lucky just to wake up without a splitting headache.
'I'm going to have to what?' Emmy asked in surprise, and she could feel him moving about beneath her, already positioning himself to rush to her aid.
Taylor hesitated - but only for a moment.
Then she cast the spell.
And thus, a dead civilization - was reborn.
Gilded once
641
Bowler Hat Guy
Apr 7, 2022
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Threadmarks Diplomatic Immunity 17.5
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
May 16, 2022
#45,542
Friday, March 18th, 2011
???, Dark Continent
(Multiversal Emulator)
"What did you do?!" You demand as you skid to a halt just in time to snatch your Master out of the air, turning the motion into a light spin in order to bleed off momentum.
And… dodge the Grimm. Can't forget about those things.
As it turns out, while you could conceivably kill an infinite number of these things, particularly with all your minions out and about for once - an action your Emulation would have literally never taken, but that you absolutely would - you can't kill them faster than they can spawn. At least, not enough to appreciably put a dent in the cloak of black and white shrouding the landscape and straddling the horizon.
"Hey! What–?" you begin to repeat yourself, hoisting your Master up in front of you while whirling about to put yourself between a charging bear monster's jaws and your charge. It is at this point, with what amounts to an entire bear wrapping its jaws around your upper spine, that you realize your Master is unconscious. Her hands still have a white-knuckled grip on her sword and cane, and she is still breathing - so she's obviously alive. But unconscious? You try to remember the last time your Master exerted herself so hard that she blacked out, and come up blank.
"Oh, crap." You curse, slamming your head backwards and into the bear that is biting you before it can temporarily cripple you. You can't afford to be paralyzed for even a second right now. Your Master checking out of the fight makes the entire situation abruptly more dangerous.
In more ways than one.
"Don't melt, don't melt, don't melt..!" You chant to yourself, hoisting Taylor over one shoulder and leaping over the crowd of monsters towards a cleared patch of ground that has recently been scorched by the charging form of Balrog. All around you, your subordinate demons rage, razing the earth with brute force and obliterating massive swathes of monsters with each passing moment. You mostly ignore that, as you frantically pat yourself down until you feel a finger slip into the tiny Gap that keeps you connected to your own Earth - currently located under your jacket near your kidney. You poke and prod at your skin in the area for a moment in order to get a feel for things, and when you determine that the Gap isn't shrinking or otherwise changing - thus dooming you, your Master, and Mem to death - you breathe a sigh of relief and turn your attention to the other rather large problem you didn't bother to pay any attention to.
"What did you do!?" Salem demands as she emerges from the crowd of Grimm, her clothes having largely failed to survive your younger sister's apparent efforts to maim the Queen of the Grimm beyond all recognition.
The woman herself is fine though. In at least two ways even.
"I'm allowed to check out the evil queen, right? It's not bad unless she tricks me with it somehow. I think. Probably." You mutter to yourself. You don't bother to turn your gaze away - because that would be suicidal - but you do catch the faint twitching of the womans eyebrow as you say it, so you assume she heard you. Also, she conjures a new dress of liquid black Grimm material not more than a few moments after your comment, so…
She can feel modesty, at least. You had been wondering given the nihilism on display with her whole… 'end the world' plot.
"Answer me, you wretched oaf." The Queen of the Grimm demands of you, her voice deceptively quiet. You realize that with her demands, the battlefield has gone utterly silent, save for the distant rumble of your demons raging. It is the only reason you can ever hear what she says.
The moment is very solemn, and dare you say, climactic.
So naturally, you ruin it by being a smart ass.
"Hey, look, maybe we got off on the wrong foot. I'm Multiversal Emulator, but all my friends call me Emmy. I know I came here to help my Master obliterate you and all that, but could I interest you in something I think is a very pertinent piece of information?" You ask with a quick glance at your opposition. An untold number of Grimm, an ancient immortal Sorceress, and your Master still unconscious.
Eh, you've dealt with worse.
"Ah, so only now when you realize the futility of your attack do we see you for what you are. Just another pathetic, self interested, hu-" Salem starts to gloat, her demeanor easing in the face of what you are sure she perceives as you mouthing off in your last moments.
"Pretty sure it was the birds." You cut her off with a winning smile, and a single finger pointed up and over her shoulder at the sky.
Salem - perhaps secure in her immortality - grits her teeth in visible irritation and glances over her shoulder. Now, under normal circumstances, that would probably have been a ruse. Your current emulation is known for his flippancy and, to a lesser extent, his almost cartoonish love of a good gag in the middle of a fight.
This is not one of those times.
Something Salem seems to register only slightly slower than you, as she turns to regard the tide of blackened avians currently descending on your location.
And by descend, you mean really descend. The speed those things are displaying is less 'bird' and more 'cruise missile' at least, if you're judging things right.
"Explain." Salem growls at you, not bothering to turn towards you as she says it.
"Well, you see, when a mama bird and a daddy bird love each other very much--" You say, barely managing to hoist your Master out of the way of a giant clawed hand of shadow that rises out of the ground and snatches at your face, digging its sharpened digits in the sides of your face with what you are pretty sure is an intent to rip your face off, which…
You've been eviscerated a lot, and you are pretty sure you can survive having your face ripped off, but wow do you not want to have to learn what that feels like.
"Explain." Salem demands again, somewhat more urgently as the storm of feathers angles sharply downward towards her and the army of Grimm around you.
You open your mouth to do just that - although, your explanation was going to be 'I have no idea' - but something curious happens.
The birds, all of them corvids of some stripe although not all the exact same type of corvid, land amidst the Grimm with such a ferocious physical impact that hundreds of the creatures are obliterated by the landing. You are briefly confused by this - because birds don't generally have the kind of power and your Master didn't exactly explain her plan to you ahead of time - but Salem's answer quickly provides itself to her, in the form of an army of pale-skinned humans.
Wherever a crow or raven descends, there is a burst of force, and instead of a bird there stands a person. Each of them different, each of them wreathed in energy, and each of their faces contorted into such a mask of fury that you almost have a hard time believing it.
"It's Bird to Human." Taylor grunts from where you are holding her over one shoulder, facing away from the witch queen.
"That's… great. Little help?" You murmur to her while Salem is distracted by the frankly absurd sight of a wave of naked men flinging thunder and flame from their hands at the Grimm surrounding them.
Your face is still in the claw thing after all.
"Sec." She responds, sounding very tired still as she pushes herself off of you, then swings once at the shadowy claw gripping your skull with her sword, severing in the middle and causing the entire construct to disperse into the air around you.
"Should we… help them?" You ask curiously, and with a not inconsiderable amount of relief. You are confident in your ability to survive out here alone - even disregarding how little you dying even matters - but you were really worried that you weren't going to be able to fully protect your Master for a second there.
"Maybe. I'm going to try something." Taylor says, flicking her sword hand and causing Nemesis to vanish to wherever she goes when not in use. Then she lifts a finger to prod at her glasses - the Crystallized Wisdom - which instantly change to mimic the rounded appearance that Ozpin seems to favor.
"You like it? I know it's kind of a waste of power but I think the man who taught me would be pretty proud of it." She calls tiredly to Salem, twirling Long Memory and planting it in the ground around her. The island of peace you were in earlier rapidly shrinks as the chaotic combat going on all around you pushes man and grimm alike about. As powerful as these new arrivals are, they don't appear to be exceptionally durable, at least not in the same way that Aura makes a person. Some of them have already been wounded during the fighting, but for every one the Grimm take, two more appear to defend their injured comrades. They aren't just angry, they're desperate, manic almost. Even as you make that observation, one larger than normal man rams his fist directly down the gullet of a gorilla Grimm. He then ignites the air around himself, obliterating both the monster and his arm in one fell swoop.
Then to your utter amazement, he turns and continues to fight, even sans the arm.
Salem, for her part, whirls on your Master, her face set in a snarl.
"How?" She demands, stomping towards you with no regard for her own safety, a choice that proves ill-advised as three of the bird people (you make a note to find a better name for them than that) jump on her, levering her to the ground and unleashing their elemental power on her.
"Magic, obviously. What do you think? 'Trifling' enough? That was the word you used, right?" Taylor says blandly. Then she frowns when it becomes obvious that the woman is too busy regenerating to talk to her.
"Hey, knock it off, I'm trying to have a moment here." Your Master calls to the bird people, who continue to heap abuse on the pale skinned woman.
"I said," Taylor growls, allowing her spider-shaped aura to emanate up and out from her just enough to force them to pay attention to her. "Stop it."
This gets their attention, and though you can tell she still isn't back to her full power - usually she would be more than capable of casting a shadow over the entire battlefield, but this use of her power barely extends past Salem herself - the two men and a woman abusing the Witch slow and then stop their assault in favor of merely holding her still.
"Where was I..? I had a bit planned, but… eh. Anyway, I doubt you recognize everyone the gods killed, and I definitely couldn't bring them all back, but I think I got enough of them, don't you think? Might be hard to monopolize the continent with all the monsters on it when there's a whole civilization here killing them off before they can get anywhere." Taylor says, taking short tired steps forward until she is only a few feet away from Salem.
"So? What's the plan now? I gather you were under the impression you could just use attrition to get your way, but how does the math for that work out when I can just bring back everyone you kill? Your magic is useless against me, your monsters are useless against me, your spies found, your plots spoiled. You brought your best and I've dashed it against the rocks in a single afternoon." Taylor says, her face slowly shifting from tired to the menacing smile of Yukari Yakumo as she speaks.
"You… You are the reason Cinder stopped communicating with me, aren't you?" Salem asks in a hoarse voice.
"Put the fear of God in her, yeah." Your Master says offhandedly. You don't think she notices it but the bird people shoot each other knowing looks at her statement.
"Are-" Salem pauses, and for the first time since you've met her, displays an expression besides contempt or rage on her face. She looks… afraid.
"Are you a god?" She whispers.
Your Master - responding in a way you are sure she has decided to based off information the wisdom gives her - sidesteps the question, instead returning with one of her own.
"If I was, do you think you could stop me?" She asks placidly.
She doesn't respond verbally. Instead, her answer is made obvious by the glowing of her body, as her form is condensed down into a small angular shape on the ground. A dagger, a black one, with a fleshy unpleasant looking handle, and a single ophidian eye in the center of the blade.
"I'll take that as a no." Taylor says smugly, summoning Nemesis and using her blade to flick the dagger upward so that one of the bird people can catch it.
The second she does so, there is a moment of sudden stillness on the battlefield.
And then the Grimm… start to die. They don't suffer any injury, and nothing is actually attacking them. Rather, they seem to be simply… dispersing, like magic being dispelled.
"Well. That was certainly a workout. Sorry about the abrupt, well you know…" Taylor says awkwardly to the bird people - who are the only living beings present, all of them naked, and all of them spread across the landscape in massive groups that nearly match the number of Grimm that had once been present. Overhead, yet more of the birds swirl in a hurricane of feathers with its eye centered on the spot your Master is standing in.
Slowly, hesitantly, the woman who caught the dagger gets down on one knee, facing your Master, and as though that singular action was the start of a massive chain of dominos, so too does everyone around her, and then everyone around them, and so on and so forth - until you are the only person standing in line of sight.
'I didn't think this through.' Your Master shoots at you in a sudden panic.
'Doesn't Earth Bet have a whole legend about the resurrection of a single man? There's a whole book about him? How did you figure doing the same for a whole civilization was going to be regarded?' You send back with some amusement.
'I thought I'd just thank them for the help and go! I didn't- I mean-' She babbles at you.
'Do you want me to handle it?' You ask.
'Please.' She begs, suiting her words to action and immediately pivoting to cleave a Gap open for her to vanish through.
"You. You are her herald?" The woman asks you, standing from her kneeling position the second your Master is out of sight.
You blink, turning toward her after confirming the Gap isn't shrinking while you stop to talk.
"...Yeah, something like that." You say slowly, pausing for a moment to mentally beckon all your wayward demons back into their weapon forms, and then away to wherever it is they go when you aren't using them. Some of the bird people were starting to look at them oddly.
"Please. What-" The woman begins haltingly, glancing around herself and then taking a step forward to place herself in front of the two men that had been helping subdue Salem. Her skin is incredibly pale - so much so that she could easily be mistaken for being Salem's sibling - and her hair is the same bizarre pattern of feathers in the place of hair that Mun sometimes takes on when she is halfway between her two forms.
"- what do we call her?" she whispers.
"My Master goes by many names!" You say boisterously. "Buuuut mostly they call her Nexus back home." you add more seriously.
"Ne…xus." She mutters with a frown.
"Yeah, you know, like… the point where everything connects?" You explain.
"Yes… I believe we do. What would she have of us?" The woman asks, glancing nervously at the open Gap.
"She's big on free will. Just… don't be evil, I guess? You know, normal stuff for this place - kill the Grimm, help people." You pause to think. "Maybe put some pants on before someone comes to investigate."
She nods at you. "Her will be done."
"Ah… maybe don't do that. She's not big on worship either. Seriously, just don't be jerks or people will blame it on my Master." You caution.
When you are sure the woman takes your point - or at least, grasps the 'don't be jerks' part - you nod at her and step through the Gap.
Directly into your Master's bedroom.
"Are… we not going to talk to Ozpin? We kind of just solved a major problem for him…" You say slowly, turning on the spot until you find your Master, sitting on her bed, breathing quickly into a paper bag she seems to have acquired from somewhere. Mem and Nemesis sit to either side of her, patting her on the back with varying degrees of enthusiasm and concern.
Mem seems genuinely worried. Nemesis just seems amused.
"She wrote a letter for him before she began to hyperventilate." Mem explains to you.
"Didn't feel like dealing with the fallout of her actions? What about your sort of sister?" You ask. Taylor lowers her paper bag to respond, but Nemesis beats her to it.
"Hey, hey, Emmy, is the weapon of a God also considered a God? Am I right? I'm a God! Woo!" She cheers.
Your Master replaces the paper bag and goes back to hyperventilating again.
"...We also left a letter for them." Mem explains.
You can't help yourself. You snicker at her.
You can clear the issue up later.
After all, with Salem handled, what's the worst that could happen?
Tomorrow is Saturday, Choose Two (2).
[ ] Begin Training (Choose a Skill or Ability)
[ ] Patrol The City:
(Choose a target area: The Docks, Downtown, Uptown)
(Choose two people to come with you: Victoria, Clockblocker, Dauntless, Aspirant, Trainwreck, Jess, Danny, Mem, Oliver, Simone)
[ ] Have Taylor take some time out to fortify the Heap with Onmyoudo.
[ ] Well, you own a majority in a major shipping company - and all you had to do was trade a few favors. You should… probably look into that.
[ ] Maybe you should check in on the kids? You have no idea how Aisha and the rest have been faring since you dealt with Valefor.
[ ] Well, since you have the time - maybe you can do some public service? When was the last time you were in the Hospital?
[ ] Planeswalking (Setting). There are some very obvious portals to another Dimension in Gap Space. Your Master wants to investigate. (Options: Bleach, Kung Fu Panda, Touhou, Nasuverse, Full Metal Alchemist)
[ ] You Master may have accidentally implied she was god to a race of shapeshifting magical bird people that she brought back from the dead. Feels like a responsible hero would try to follow up on that.
[ ] Maddison is going to need some time with your Master if she is going to conjure up a device to help her control her powers.
[ ] Create A Shikigami
[ ] Take Time Off (Pick an Extra Social)
Taylor could probably use some advice on the whole… accidentally presented herself as a God thing. Good thing she's got friends now right? Choose One (1)
[ ] Simone (0)
[ ] Victoria (2)
[ ] Amy (4)
[ ] Aspirant (2)
[ ] Trainwreck (2)
[ ] Clockblocker (3)
[ ] Parian (2)
[ ] Danny (3)
[ ] Oliver (2)
[ ] Jess (2)
[ ] Mem (2)
[ ] Mouse Protector (2)
[ ] Dinah (3)
[ ] Write-In
Last edited: May 16, 2022
547
Bowler Hat Guy
May 16, 2022
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Threadmarks Interlude: Of Birds & Men by Ttran2323
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Ttran2323
Ttran2323
Source Material? What Source Material?
She/Her
May 18, 2022
#45,750
AN: Stares around before casually pushing this forward
So guess what possessed me over the last three days?
--
Friday, March 18th, 2011
???, Dark Continent
(Merida Rhosh)
Merida was thinking she was taking things… reasonably well.
For one thing, she was absolutely certain that she was supposed to be dead. As in, she still had a very vivid recollection of dying. Of being basically erased from existence when the God of Darkness had decided to punish Humanity for trying to overthrow Them.
Everything… after that? The time in which she had felt both awake and asleep? Even now, the memories of directly after were far hazier than even her adolescence years. All she knew was that time had simply passed by her in a way she would never be able to quantify and it would probably terrify her later once she bothered to stop and think about it.
More importantly however, was that that state of being had finally ended. Very abruptly at that. Something had tugged at her Existence. Had slowly forced time itself to start meaning something again until suddenly she had fully regained awareness of her own Self.
And she had been a bird.
Instincts had taken over which had prevented her from falling out of the sky in shock but most of the sounds that had come out of her mouth, had they actually been human noises, would have simply translated as cries of terror and shock. The only thing that had prevented her from completely losing it was probably the familiarity of the magic that had encompassed her entire being. It had been one she had seen on a few occasions, rare as it was to witness. Even if the current one on her had been, in many ways, the opposite of what she had seen.
Sure, some of her elders had spoken of the uses of Transformation magic. Of the ability to alter and freely modify one's own body as they deemed fit. But personally speaking, she had never desired such magic! Her own talents had lent more into Wind based spells! Being suddenly transformed into a bird was very much not something she had been expecting!
Shock had lasted for an amount of time that probably would have earned her a slap by one of her combat instructors. As it was, it probably would've lasted far longer had she not happened to look down at that very moment and actually saw what was going down below her.
Grimm. As many as the eye could see littering the entire landscape. Variations she was familiar with. And yet even more that she had never once seen before in her entire life.
Shock and horror flooded her entire body
This was… this was a disaster in the making! This many Grimm together were easily capable of wiping out an unfathomable amount of lives in short order!
Something that several others were realizing as they quickly dive bombed the Grimm, transforming into their more familiar human forms to better combat them.
Merida herself was looking towards where to best land when something caused her to briefly pause in shock.
Salem.
It was hard to forget the appearance of the one who had convinced all of their Kingdoms to rise against their Gods.
And then a thought came to the forefront of her mind.
'She's the reason I died.'
Anger started to overtake her. She was already redirecting her flightpath when the second thought hit her.
'She looks just like a Grimm given a more human form.'
Both of the thoughts slowly merged together. Stoking the flames of her anger.
'She's the reason I died. She looks like a human Grimm.'
Two others were following alongside her, anger radiating off their forms just like her own.
'She killed me. She looks like the Enemy.'
She transformed into her human form alongside the two others. Naked as the day they were born but none of that mattered to her. To them either. Because all that mattered was…
'She killed me and she is the Enemy. Therefore, I can kill her without remorse!'
She unleashed her Wind magic against Salem. Slashed her body to ribbons while making it impossible for her to simply fly away. Scorching Flames on the other side from the guy on her left, immolating the body and reducing it to ash. And finally, an entire lightning storm. All the erratic energy and power of lightning and every single bolt of it directed at the body in front of them!
Just one of those attacks was easily capable of killing scores of people. All three together concentrated on a single person? It was an assault that no one could survive!
And yet.
She and the two others snarled in fury, watching the body regenerate just as fast as they could destroy it. But that didn't matter. If one assault wouldn't do it? Then another! And another and another until there was nothing left to regenerate!
All three of them reached down to pick Salem off of the floor. They were gearing up to possibly beat her to death if Elemental magic wasn't enough.
"—aid, stop it."
And then they stopped. Not by choice. For a split second, Merida was ready to unleash her fury upon whoever would try to stop her entirely justified response. But she couldn't even do that. The Pressure bearing down on her, light as it was, made it nearly impossible to move and that immediately shocked her out of her instinctive anger.
With a sense of wariness, Merida looked backwards. And had to blink as what she saw baffled her.
A young girl, not even old enough to be called a woman, was walking towards Salem now. At first glance, aside from her appearance, she looked fairly… normal? Her style of clothing was vastly different from anything she had ever seen before but the feeling of her magic felt similar enough that, had she not been clothed, Merida probably would've assumed she was another person who had previously been a fellow bird like herself.
But her Magical Presence alone—!
Merida had no idea how she missed it. This girl held Power within her form. So much so that when she automatically tried to gain a measure of it, it shook her to her core. It was like when she had visited the foot of a mountain in her youth. The scale of it had made it nearly impossible for the girl of then to grasp and see it in its entirety. Later on, as she had grown up, she had only ever felt similar experiences when—!
The comparison cut through her mind like a bolt of lighting.
Merida had previously met the Gods of Light and Darkness on two separate occasions. One when she was but a girl, not knowing any better of the Light that seemingly seemed to just Be. And the second occasion had been just before she had died. Having earned her God's ire and seemingly killed for it.
But this… this girl. She felt just like Them.
Merida took a deep breath to calm herself. In the corner of her eyes, she could see the other two men doing something similar.
This girl. She was not equal to Them. That was something Merida was certain of.
There were some minute differences between this girl and Them. Most that she couldn't truly explain even in the privacy of her own thoughts but the Gods of Light and Darkness were unquestionably superior. And yet the fact that the closest thing she could compare this girl to were the Gods themselves?
Just who or what was she staring at right now? Was this Being a nascent God?
She was talking to Salem though and Merida immediately refocused herself on the current situation to not miss out on anything more.
"—hat's the plan now? I gather you were under the impression you could just use attrition to get your way, but how does the math for that work out when I can just bring back everyone you kill?"
Her eyes widened in disbelief. This mass resurrection—it wasn't a one time thing?! But that—!
"Your magic is useless against me, your monsters are useless against me, your spies found, your plots spoiled. You brought your best and I've dashed it against the rocks in a single afternoon."
Merida started at the casual admission. Everything she was witnessing… this was all done in the span of less than a day!?
Salem spoke. "You… You are the reason Cinder stopped communicating with me, aren't you?"
"Put the fear of God in her, yeah."
She immediately exchanged glances with the two fellows with her who similarly gave her their own faces of realization. This was a nascent God!
"Are—" Salem paused and now Merida could hear the Fear contained within the words that followed.
"Are you a God?"
"If I was, do you think you could stop me?"
Confirmation. Merida's knees shook at the blatant confirmation that she was indeed looking upon a new God, young as She might have appeared. Even more so when, without any prompting, no incantation or even a hint of Magic that she could detect, Salem's body starts to glow and condense. Smaller and smaller until finally…
She and the two men (and most likely anyone else who happened to be nearby to watch) gaped as the infinitely regenerating body, the one that for all their powers combined they could not damage or change in any meaningful way, was just transformed into a small black dagger.
Just like that.
She was still gaping when She seemingly summoned Her own blade, one that seemed to radiate a similar feeling to Her and casually flicked the dagger upwards and—!
Merida wished she could say that she had caught it easily and naturally. But honestly? Her reflexes had only just been enough to stop her from dropping the Dagger. The feelings emanating from it were disturbingly close to what she felt from the Grimm whenever she got too close to them. Holding the Dagger that just emits that exact same feeling but on a much higher scale causes her to instinctively wish for it to go away which… happens.
To her utter disbelief, the Grimm are suddenly dying in droves. Nothing is attacking them anymore and yet they continue to simply disperse into nothingness. And in all but a few seconds, the Grimm are suddenly just… gone. And aside from the noises of birds that remained flying above (presumably people who hadn't been trained as warriors), the battlefield was almost entirely silent as everyone looked towards… Her.
"Well. That was certainly a workout. Sorry about the abrupt, well you know…"
The sheer casualness in that statement baffles Merida. As though the entirety of what She had done was all simply a whim. That alone causes her to immediately kneel in respect. And others follow suit until only She remains standi—actually there's one other person still standing at the end which garners a look from all those present.
He is the only other person wearing clothing aside from Her which means that he had been with Her before all this started which… implied many possible things. Especially when the two of them seemed to share a Look. One that seems to convey so much understanding because, almost immediately after doing so, She leaves. Just as suddenly as She had entered their lives, their new Goddess was just… gone.
Vanished with nothing to mark her own existence except for the odd portal in reality. The one that she could see had eyes peering out of it.
Leaving behind the man.
In the face of the many eyes that seem to stare directly into her soul (despite none of them actually looking at her directly), Merida doesn't know what gives her the courage to do so but slowly, ever so slowly, she raises herself up from her kneeling position. The man turns towards her as she does so, and though he appears to be giving her a carefree smile to seemingly help her relax, she cannot. This is someone who evidently stands equal alongside their new Goddess. She can feel her own grip upon the Dagger tighten in response to her own stress but she forces the words out of her mouth.
"You. You are her Herald?"
It is the only thing that makes sense from her limited understanding of how the Gods of Old had worked. It had happened rarely but prior to their rebellion, the Gods had occasionally sent people to convey Their words to the people.
The man simply blinked at her before casually responding.
"Yeah, something like that."
He then proceeds to do… something. She can feel it in the air but whatever it is isn't something Merida can tell. Either way, confirmation. Or something akin to it. Possibly not a Herald in function but having a different role to Her.
Their unknown Goddess.
Merida can feel the question forming on her tongue. She's… well, she can't say she's dying to ask since she now knows what that feels like but a feeling of urgency is swelling within her. She desperately wants to know the name of their new Goddess. Who they have to thank for this second chance.
"Please. What—" she stops herself short, unable to bring forth the question when her eyes suddenly glance around to view her surroundings.
Everyone is looking at her. Not in fear. Not in a plea to be silent. No, their faces probably reflect her own.
Desperation. Yearning. A desire to know. She was simply the only one who had had the courage to talk at this point. And why? Unbidden, her eyes return to the Dagger held tightly within her grasp. The Dagger that She had seemingly gifted her before leaving. Did… did the Goddess see something in her to give her this Dagger?
Surely not, right?
Merida was many things. A hard worker for sure. Friendly to those close to her, possibly a bit more mischievous than appropriate at times, but friendly all the same. Gifted in the art of Wind magic but definitely not a natural genius. A little scatterbrained at times but again, she considered herself to be fairly average. Most people in her experience were like that.
And yet…
Something had clearly stood out to their Goddess to deem her of all people fit to wield this Dagger. And if… if her Goddess believed in her so…
Without allowing her own hesitation to overtake her, Merida pushed past her anxiety. "What do we call her?" she whispers the words out, reverently and with as much respect as she can muster in the moment.
A moment… that is utterly broken as the man loudly breaks the silence, his loud voice echoing loudly in the prior stillness. In the distance, she can even see several others jumping in minor shock at the loudness of his voice.
"My Master goes by many names!"
Unbidden, Merida wants to strangle him. She doesn't need to know the various Titles that their Goddess has likely acquired over the course of her Existence! They all—She just needs to know who they were meant to worship now!
And perhaps whatever expression was starting to form upon her face clued the man onto her inner thoughts as he immediately quiets down and speaks a bit more seriously.
"Buuuut mostly they call her Nexus back home."
"Ne…xus," Merida mutters with a frown.
She doubts that that is their Goddess' true name. More likely it was connected to Her primary Domain, similar to how her old Gods were simply referred to as the Gods of Light and Darkness. Which… had certain implications if she took it at face value.
Nexus. From what she remembered, that word had many broad definitions that were mostly tied to connections in general. For a God, any God, to so boldly claim such a broad term as their primary Domain…
She can't help but briefly glance at the two behind her. She can see how they've likely come to similar conclusions going by the expressions upon their faces. It likely matches her own. One of deep contemplation. And considering how easily the three of them had reached that same conclusion, this despite the fact that none of them had ever known each other prior to this… Yes.
Their Goddess claiming that Domain as Her Name is fitting.
"Yeah, you know, like… the point where everything connects?" he continues to explain, needlessly in her opinion. She actually has to struggle to not openly twitch in annoyance at the implied hint of her not being intelligent enough to understand this.
"Yes… I believe we do."
She's proud of herself for not showing any of her forming annoyance in her tone of voice. Despite her quickly forming opinions on the individual himself, the man still stands equal to Her and deserves her respect.
Especially since, with… Nexus gone for the moment (Merida waits to make sure she won't be smited for even thinking Her Name and continues her thoughts when nothing happens), this man is the only one who might possibly know what their Goddess would want from them.
"What would She have of us?"
A dangerous question to ask, unquestionably so. For a mortal to question the motives of a God in any capacity and then expect to survive the aftermath is a dangerous gamble. But it's one she has to take. If their Goddess took offense to that line of questioning, there wasn't much the lot of them could do to survive Her wrath. But it's a question that needs to be asked. Truthfully, her gratefulness for a second chance at life gives their Goddess a lot of leeway in what She could ask of them. But, even if it had ended with their deaths, they had rebelled against the Gods of Old once before. If their Goddess desired something that they were all against, they would do so again.
Merida was looking warily at the portal in reality that their Goddess had left behind. The eyes were still aimlessly staring outward at nothing in particular. The entire time when she was talking, especially the moments where she was asking questions directly about Her, she was almost waiting for the eyes to just focus on her. Though, if that had happened, Merida wasn't sure what she'd have done in response.
Run in terror? Prostrate and beg for forgiveness? Make a line in the ground and dare her new God to cross it? Either way, that did not come to pass and Merida didn't have to answer that question.
The man simply shrugs, as casual as he had been since the start of this.
"She's big on free will. Just… don't be evil, I guess? You know, normal stuff for this place - kill the Grimm, help people."
The amount of solace she draws from those words is immense. As is the amount of disbelief she feels at the utter… mundaneness of the statement. That's… that's it? If the moment wasn't so serious and everyone wasn't staring at her, she would've collapsed in relief.
As things stood, she took a moment to gather her composure before immediately agreeing to those terms. She would've been a fool not to.
"—before someone comes to investigate."
"Her Will be done," Merida nods before immediately freezing upon realizing that the man had still been talking. Hopefully she hadn't just agreed to something that they'd all come to regret down the line. She was gonna need to talk to one of the two guys behind her to catch that last statement.
"Ah…"
Interestingly enough, that actually causes a noticeable reaction. Her words, not her actions. What the man says afterwards though? It confuses her.
"Maybe don't do that. She's not big on worship either. Seriously, just don't be jerks or people will blame it on my Master."
That… There was a lot of things she needed to analyze within those statements. Even with how simple they appeared on the surface.
Firstly… Nexus not being… big on worship? What did that mean? If she was going on context, the only thing that made sense was that She, Nexus, didn't want to be worshipped as a God? But that—that didn't make sense! Nor was it even a viable thing to accomplish. Even in her mind, Merida couldn't refer to Nexus with anything less than her utmost respect. No doubt that was the same for everyone else present.
Secondly, why place so much emphasis on them not being… "jerks"? It was a reasonable request of course, but now that it was being reiterated to her, Merida couldn't help but relate it to something the man had said earlier.
'She's big on free will. Just… don't be evil.'
Telling them that they were free to do as they wished but immediately putting a limitation (incredibly minor as it was) on what they could do. As oxymoronic as it was, there had to be something she wasn't grasping. Something connect—
Her eyes widened minutely as she realized why this mattered.
Connections. Nexus had all but proclaimed what She valued with Her Name. And going by Her actions taken thus far, She obviously valued the more intrinsically "good" type of connections. Their Goddess had already made a loose connection between Herself and them, but previous things were coming to light the more she considered things.
They had just fought in a major battle. A very rare type of battle where one side could easily be described as "Evil". All of them fighting alongside one another against a foe, fighting as one. Even further bonding them all together. She could even see various little clusters of people standing within their own distinct groups, most likely made up of the people that they had just fought alongside with. Merida herself was thinking of the two that stood behind her with respect since they had been the ones to fight with her directly against Salem. And yet, despite the groupings, she didn't consider any of them as against one another. The groups that they had formed were simply just the group of people they'd be most comfortable with.
They were a united people. Bound by one of the purest of Connections. Unity.
Had… had that been their Goddess' intentions?
Was that what her Goddess wanted from them?
Well… if that's what She wanted from them, Merida would have no problems telling people to maintain the peace amongst themselves.
The man at this point continued to discuss how She would wish for them to act, truly highlighting how much their shared Goddess desired only the best of Connections to maintain. She nodded to each of them. They were all things that any functional society should have maintained but perhaps her Goddess had seen otherwise in her travels? Eventually the man nodded, seemingly pleased that she would carry and maintain the first Edicts of their Goddess. More would surely come but if they were similar to the ones she had already been given, they'd easily be adopted by the rest of people present.
And just like Her, he steps through the portal which proceeds to also vanish. The collective breath that everyone had seemingly held during all of that is suddenly released. A multitude of conversations spring up as everyone immediately turns to talk to their neighbours about what had just happened. Honestly, Merida can't blame them. Even if parts of her want to just relax like the rest of them, certain things probably needed to be done before things could settle.
Footsteps signal that the men behind her are casually approaching her and she turns around to meet their gaze. The one with red hair immediately grins and elbows the other who merely rolls his eyes in good humour.
"Hah! Told ya'! I know that look in your eye, Boss," he nods towards her before continuing. "You got a plan?"
"Plan? Uh… yes?" Or at least the beginnings of one. More importantly though, "Why're you calling me boss?"
He merely laughs in response which allows the other one to calmly answer her question. Even if she could see amusement dancing in his eyes while he speaks.
"Several factors. One, you were the only one who actually managed to speak their mind during all that. I can't even begin to imagine how you managed to do so. That alone garnered you a lot of respect."
He wasn't even giving her the decency of looking directly at her now, the asshole. Just glancing at the surroundings with an eye of bemusement which… Merida actually took a moment to see what was so amusing to him. And very forcibly did not allow her internal 'meep' to become external for the two guys in front of her to hear.
Everyone was staring at her with awe and respect. Well… almost. Some were looking at her with… not worry. But something akin to it. And the only reason she hadn't noticed it before was that those looks weren't technically being directed at her. More specifically, their pointed looks were actually directed a little lower towards…
"Ah, finally noticed the other thing, did ya'?" Red-head said.
"Indeed," Calm-voice stated. "Everyone saw the moment you were given the Dagger. And the following moment when the Grimm all died." A pointed look towards her. "A potent power."
She automatically grimaced. Both at the implied point but mostly because of how off it was.
"Less of a Boon than you might think," Merida admitted to them, causing them to straighten to hear her words. "This Dagger… It is powerful, yes, but… it feels more akin to holding the leash of an incredibly dangerous beast."
Even now, Merida could feel the Dagger's power and how it desired to be unleashed. It hadn't been acting up when Nexus had been present. But now? Seemingly away from the God that had leashed it? Faint whispers in the back of her mind of what she could do should she simply let loose with it. All while ignoring the fact that she could… maybe, safely use it for a grand total of 10 minutes before utterly exhausting herself for a week. And that was with all of her training and knowing exactly what she was capable of. If anyone less experienced in wielding Magic tried to use this thing? It'd most definitely kill them before unleashing something incredibly disastrous to the surroundings.
"Ah… So a Burden then? Bit more ominous," Red-head said in response even if his smile had dimmed only the slightest bit.
That word seemed slightly more appropriate but… no. Even if she had only been in Her presence for a short amount of time, that didn't seem to be what their Goddess wished of them. Something She had said from before was on the edges of her memory.
"—a whole civilization here killing them off—"
Ah. The true Reason for their existence. The Grimm had always been a threat. Just much lesser in scope than the levels she had just witnessed. If this continent was truly the origin point for all of them?
"No, a Duty," she stated confidently and solemnly.
The two men started at that but after a moment of thought, nodded to her words.
"Aye, that certainly fits more."
"Indeed."
The solemn moment was broken when the red-haired man suddenly clapped his hands together. "Alright, Boss, you said you had a plan, right?"
"Yes. But… just like that?"
Did they not have any worries about suddenly following her lead on this?
Calm-voice merely shrugged. "Well, we reserve the right to make comments if we see something off but well," gesturing to the Dagger, "She gave you that for a reason. Lead well and listen if we speak and we shall follow."
"...Even though I still don't know your names?"
How could they be so accepting of this?
Red-haired just laughed before pointing to himself. "That's your worry?! Name's Onvan Tusvak!"
"Galehiem Steruv. And yourself?"
"...Merida Rhosh."
Onvan grinned. "See? Now we're friends! Now come on!" he yelled, pulling her while Galehiem trailed behind them. "What's the current plan?"
Unbidden, a light grin started to come over Merida's face. Sure, there were plenty of things to worry about. How they were going to convince so many people to follow her lead on this. How to safeguard this Dagger to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. How to Live after having been Dead. What it would mean to interact with those who currently lived. So many things to worry about. But, as she was slowly taken in by Onvan's energy, she let out a laugh and slowly started to just spew out all the things that had been brewing in her mind.
"Well, first we need to sort out injuries. Make sure no one's in danger of dying in the immediate short term. Then find the ones good at large scale Terrain manipulation since we'll need to quickly grow a lot of crops to feed us and—"
This would continue for some time. So many conversations, so many tasks to delegate, so much to do!
And yet…
When Merida finally went to sleep, late into the night, it was with a content smile on her face. Even if it was only the beginning, Merida hoped that if Nexus ever came back, She'd be proud of her.
--
AN: Let the Misunderstanding Comedy Hijinks continue!
Basically an alternate POV of the last chapter. Aka Projection Quest from an outsider's perspective who has none of the correct context for the situation.
Last edited: May 20, 2022
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Ttran2323
May 18, 2022
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
May 23, 2022
#45,803
[X] Your Master may have accidentally implied she was god to a race of shapeshifting magical bird people that she brought back from the dead. Feels like a responsible hero would try to follow up on that.
[X] Begin Training (Weapon Proficiency)
[X] Mem (2)
Current Training: Weapon Proficiency 0/10 - 5/10
Current Energy: 11
Current Emulation Status: Here
Saturday, March 19th, 2011
Hebert Household, Brockton Bay
(Taylor Hebert)
It was a perfectly normal Saturday.
She woke up at exactly five in the morning - per her usual. She glanced at Emmy, whose current emulation was such a heavy sleeper that she had a hard time fathoming how he had managed to wake up early to prank her days earlier. He was splayed out on her bed, body at an awkward angle that left him with his face pressed against the wall, and his arms bunched up underneath him in a manner that she would have probably found profoundly uncomfortable.
That too, was 'normal' for her.
Nemesis, who woke up at about the same time as she did but was rarely happy about it, grouchily propped herself up in the bed, shooting a sour look at Emmy, or rather, the holsters Emmy kept his firearms in, and paused for a moment to consider.
Taylor could tell pretty much immediately that the sword spirit was trying to decide whether or not to bite him. As much as Nemesis was - by most metrics and definitions - a psychopath, she still had a reasonable person buried in there somewhere. She loved Emmy as much as Taylor did, like the family he was, and so she wasn't rather pleased by having to see him getting cut in half twice yesterday.
So as much as she claimed to hate Emulations that used other weapons, Taylor doubted that hatred ran very deep.
More importantly, the decision to harass Emmy was - for both Taylor and Nemesis - quite normal.
[Can we talk now?] Ozma asked her politely.
He said it with the same tone of voice she'd imagine her boyfriend would use if he wanted to break up with her.
…if she had ever had a boyfriend.
And that, decidedly, was not normal.
'Sure. I've been thinking about it, and I think If I can flex it right, I can get the ferry to fly while letting it dock at leyline intersections to charge.' She thought blithely at him.
[Or you could get the plans for anti-gravity thrusters from Remnant, and make use of the mine beneath our feet.] Ozma opined pointedly.
'Yeah, but it's probably top secret or something anyway, right? And you know, I was wondering if I could get your help with setting up a barrier, because while I'm pretty good at it, I'm not 'ignore a nuclear warhead' good.' She proceeded, ignoring his statement.
[I will consider it, if you will return to Remnant.] Ozma repeated.
'I- are you just going to answer everything I say like that?' She asked bitterly, her shoulders slumping slightly as she observed Nemesis finally make her decision, then slowly creep across the bed to lunge at Emmy - who 'coincidentally' rolled over in a way that left the sword spirit to slam face first into the wall instead of him.
[The possibility exists, yes.] The ancient wizard in her head replied succinctly.
'Can it wait a little bit? Like… just a bit? A few hours- no, a day, even!' She rapidly tried to convince him.
Annoyingly, her least favorite power hummed along in the back of her head, rapidly filling in and expanding on plans to raise a nation, become a godhead, and take over the planet.
Somehow, she found her planning power more disconcerting than her combat thinker power, and that was saying a lot. There was a reason she almost never engaged the ability, except in the most minor of ways. It wasn't really all that good for fighting, or even figuring people out - but provided with a big enough problem, it was practically prophetic.
And the last thing she needed right now was to seem like even more of a prophet.
[If you must. I will be honest, I am not as pleased by the return of my people and the destruction of Salem as I thought I would be.] Ozma returned, sending along with the thought a pulse of fond exasperation.
She'd never had much interaction with her Grandparents, because her father's parents were dead, and her mother's parents hated her father. Still, she imagined having a grandparent constantly looking over your shoulder was about the best way she could describe Ozma's relationship with her. In the absence of a driving goal to work towards, he was prone to laconic or dry commentary and had a tendency to try and convince her to do things 'the right way', which more often than not translated to 'the old person way'.
'Tell me about it…' she grumbled back at him, halfway unintentionally directing the thought in his direction.
Emmy had woken up by now, and was playing a game of keep away with Nemesis, who was snarling like a feral animal as she leaped around the bed to try and catch him.
[I have often had occasion to ponder the meaning of my existence.] Ozma pivoted, changing topics.
Taylor lifted an eyebrow at that but otherwise chose to remain silent, moving to her dresser to try and trick it into spitting out a pair of sweatpants instead of a sundress or some other more traditionally girly attire.
She didn't hate wearing bright colors or dresses as much anymore, but she still preferred to be utilitarian about her outfits. She'd heard enough stories from Vicky about wearing a miniskirt while flying overhead to grasp that high speed movement and women's fashion didn't typically align very well.
[I realize that you don't ascribe to the concept of a higher power. I've seen your thoughts on the matter - even the Gods I have directly met and spoken to, in your own mind, you simply consider them 'godlike' in power - not true Gods.] Ozma continued, and she restrained an urge to sigh.
The dresser had spat out a yellow sundress and tights. Not ideal.
[However, I believe that I was out here to help you remember what it is to be human. I'm sure you realize that at the rate you accumulate power, you will eventually qualify in the same category of being as my own Gods. Who, I should add, would be very likely to create life and then abandon it.]
'I said I'd go back!' She bit back at him.
[I am aware. However, a touch of shame and humility can never go amiss.] Ozma stated smugly.
Taylor glowered down at her sundress before slipping it over her head and tugging it down.
Stupud ancient wizard and his stupid moral lessons and stupid reminders to be responsible. She was fifteen. She felt like she had a certain amount of allowance for bad decisions baked in. Even if she didn't have powers, or even if she just had different powers, she was sure she'd have made some mistakes by now.
So with this thought in mind. she defiantly whirled on Emmy, her various powers causing her dress to swirl artfully around her instead of flopping around messily, and pointed at her long time friend.
"You have to actually teach me something this morning or I'm going to order pizza for dinner-" she started, imperiously,
"I see no problem with this." He fired back, ducking under Nemesis.
"-and only get toppings you hate." She finished, ignoring his commentary.
She had to say, for as much of a lunatic as this version of Emmy was, his antics made the expression he made when you finally got one over on him particularly satisfying, if she did say so herself.
Saturday, March 19th, 2011
The Heap, Brockton Bay
(Multiversal Emulator)
"You better not screw up my stuff. I got an organizational system going on here, and I don't wanna have to fix it." Trainwreck grumbles at you, as you carefully eyeball the space you have to work with.
Taylor shoots a pointed look at the multiple piles of seemingly random scrap, then turns an unimpressed look on Trainwreck.
"Organizational system?" She asks blandly.
"Yeah, I know where everything is 'cus I put it there, and I remember it 'cus I aint a dumb teenager. Organization." Trainwreck fires back.
Your Master squints at him.
"I feel like I should be offended." She says warily.
"That's 'cus I insulted you, but you had to think about it, 'cus you're a dumb teenager." Trainwreck responds smugly, shooting a shit-eating grin at her. She rolls her eyes then turns to you, where you are carefully lowering the doors to the garage and locking them in order to ensure no one accidentally stumbles into your training space.
"You're a bad influence." She accuses you.
"I prefer to think of myself as the ideal sexy role model." You return with a smile of your own. Now finished closing everything down, you turn and gesture loosely at the dozens of random pieces of weaponry lining the walls.
"Rules are simple, grab a random weapon, you have ten seconds to try to hit me with it, then you have to switch." You explain pleasantly.
"That's it?" Taylor asks suspiciously.
"I leave that explanation to my lovely mini-Master!" You say with a swift bow.
Nemesis - because even if she is helping that doesn't mean she likes it - takes the opportunity to pop out of nowhere and land on your back, using your bow as a platform to point angrily at your Master.
"I'm gonna sit on your shoulders and slap you on the top of the head whenever you miss!" She declares imperiously.
"What? Why? How does that help?" Taylor demands with some annoyance.
"Oh, it doesn't. It was just the only way she'd agree to let you touch another weapon." You say, tilting your head up to look at your Master but quickly angling it back down when Nemesis takes a step forward to put one foot on top of your head.
"Aren't I generous? I even let you fool around a bit! Praise me for my forbearance!" She demands.
When your Master sighs and turns to grab a weapon from the walls - it looks like a cross between an axe and a blunderbuss - Nemesis huffs and stomps her little foot on your head.
"Oh praise be to the great God-slaying blade Nemesis! May her beauty and power forever be among us." You say dryly.
"Hm, hm! I like that! Emmy, you have to say that everyday now! Twice–no, three times a day!" She cheers.
You and your Master sigh.
Trainwreck… Well, Trainwreck just laughs.
Saturday, March 19th, 2011
The Heap, Brockton Bay
(Multiversal Emulator)
"Hey, small menaces, you in there?" You call out, rapping your knuckles against the door to the bedroom Mem shares with Mun.
The door quickly opens, and you find Mun standing in front of you - dressed in grey flannel pajamas, despite the fact that it is currently three in the afternoon.
"Sup. Taylor was looking for you guys. We gotta go deal with some stuff in another dimension. Do you wanna come with us?" You ask casually.
"Sure… Hey uh, before that…" she says, trailing off. You can't help but be suddenly very concerned about what she is going to say next. It isn't in Munin's character to be at a loss for words. She'd sooner speak genuine nonsense than not speak at all.
"Hey, don't trail off like that - I'm getting anxious!" You half joke. The tone is joking, but you are being entirely serious.
In the great big family of individuals your Master has more or less created from thin air, you like to consider Mem and Mun as your baby sisters. And woe betide anyone that hurts them.
Not that they can't handle themselves, but, you know, as an older brother, you feel like you have a divine right to meddle.
"Well–I don't know! She's been like this all day! I don't mind getting to stay home and play video games, but it's still creepy!" Mun huffs, stepping aside and beckoning you in.
As always, the sisters' room is almost perfectly split down the middle. One side a horrendous cramped mess of clothing and other small objects, not unlike a bird's nest, and the other, meticulously organized and arranged. Three new video game consoles take pride of place in the center of Mun's half of the room, as well as an obscenely large television, and stacks of video games tall enough to constitute their own portion of the room.
You lift an eyebrow at that.
Guess she decided against a pony, which is good, 'cus one of those would be pretty hard to hide.
Maybe you should take away that credit card, though - it's getting cramped in here, and you doubt your bird brain of a sister will think to stop buying stuff before it becomes unmanageable.
Perhaps guessing your current train of thought from the direction you are looking in, Mun quickly hops up, shifting to her bird form, and obscuring your vision by flying up into your face.
"She's just been sitting on the bed like that all day." She quickly squawks, drawing your attention back to Mem's side of the room, where indeed, the taciturn girl is laying on her back in bed, still wearing her pajamas.
"Is this why we didn't see you guys at breakfast?" you ask curiously. You hadn't thought much of it, at the time. Taylor has a tendency to gather the whole family up to eat in the mornings, but it isn't a sure thing, especially if some of them are busy or otherwise just prefer to sleep in.
She usually lets it go on weekends, at least. Mun gives the bird equivalent of a helpless shrug at your question, and you frown at her for a moment, before striding over to stand next to Mem's bed - Mun lands on your shoulder as you do so.
"Hey, you sick or something?" You ask, crouching down next to the bed so you are on eye level with the girl.
"I do not believe so." She states flatly, without turning to look at you - her stare remains firmly on the ceiling overhead.
"Then what's with this? Come on, we did good work yesterday! Haven't you always wanted to deal with your estranged father's creepy, goth, ex-wife?" You say with the beginnings of a grin that quickly fades as Mem answers you.
"Yes." She says succinctly, still not turning to face you.
"So… what's the problem, then?" You venture to ask.
"I do not feel better. I was born knowing my purpose, and I sought to achieve it by any means necessary. Now that I have, I do not know what is left to do." She says succinctly.
"People aren't born with a purpose." You say after a second to ponder the situation.
"You are correct. Apologies. I was made with a purpose in mind." Mem amends.
"Yeah, but you were born a month or two ago in the basement. Listen, kid, humans–we don't have that kind of thing. No one does. You think that Ozpin guy was born knowing what he was meant to do in life? You think Taylor does?" You point out.
"Irrelevant. They are people. I am a weapon." She responds, perhaps a touch irritably.
"Take it from a guy who's weapons are people - that's bullshit." You interject with perhaps a bit more force than you had intended. Perhaps it is the fact that you, Multiversal Emulator, are yourself essentially just a weapon that can think - but you reject this kind of thinking with every fiber of your being.
"...What then?" Mem asks. And her voice is small, and desperate. There is more emotion in those two words than you have heard from Mem in her entire life. You understand instinctively that she isn't just asking for the sake of the conversation. She genuinely wants to know what comes afterwards.
"I don't know. That's how people work. They aren't like Grimm-" or devils "- they aren't born with a purpose, and they aren't given one. Everyone has to make their own way in life. You make your own purpose. You do the things you enjoy. You protect the people you love. You chart your own destiny. That's what it means to be human." You explain firmly.
Perhaps some of your convictions, not just from this emulation, but from you yourself seep through, because Long Memory finally twists her head to the side to look at you. Her eyes are sunken - likely because she hasn't slept yet - and her expression is more annoyed than anything else.
"That is a very long winded way of saying 'figure it out yourself'." She accuses you.
"That's 'cus that's what it is. Seriously, ask your sister. Mun what's your purpose in life? How do you get through the day?" You say blandly.
"The hell should I know? I'm an abandoned clone. I wasn't even the intended effect of something like you are, stick-head. I'm like, three steps removed from anything anybody ever wanted or asked for. You were made a person on purpose. I was made by mistake, and brought back from the dead on a whim. I'm technically less than two months old." the bird on your shoulder snorts, as though explaining the tragedy of her life is an old hat that doesn't bother her at all. You frown at her description of the events leading up to her existence, and tentatively reach a hand up to stroke her avian hand, which she happily leans into.
"Life is what you make it. You're too young to be worried about that kind of stuff. Just enjoy screwing around with Aisha and your friends, doing insane magical crap, and being a kid. Sooner or later something will come up you think you have to do. That's just how life is." You explain gently.
"...I am thousands of years old." She returns with a pout, and you can't help but allow a faint smile to cross your lips.
"Yeah, but as far as being a person goes, you're only a bit older than your sister. Most humans don't start in on the existential crisis stuff until at least their thirties. Come on, there's nothing you can think of that you wanna do? Even just for fun?" You push.
"...I like magic." She admits slowly.
"See? There you go! Just… keep eating boogers or whatever it is kids your age do, and you'll be okay. Now, you wanna come help me convince a bunch of bird people that your Mom isn't God or what?" You finish, standing abruptly and snickering at Mun's squawk of annoyance at the sudden motion.
"Do you have to do that? Do you know how hard it is to balance on a moving object like this? Huh?!" Mun complains, turning to rapidly peck at the side of your head. It's harmless - definitely not done with enough strength to hurt you - but you can't help but lean away from the quick impacts and wincing.
Mem, for perhaps the first time since you walked into this room, perks up and levers herself upward.
"There's a rune for that." She offers helpfully.
Saturday, March 19th, 2011
Branwen Camp, Remnant
You, your Master and the kids all appear in the middle of the bandit camp.
No one ever specifically said it was a 'bandit' camp, but you can read between the lines well enough to grasp that.
You are here for two reasons.
One, to tell Raven Branwen that Salem has been dealt with - which means that anything she does after this, she's doing because she wants to, not for some 'greater good' or 'survival'.
Two, as per a conversation you had roughly five minutes ago;
'Hey, you think those girls and your sort of sister from another dimension are okay?' You ask curiously.
'Yeah, why wouldn't they be?' Taylor asks you quizzically.
'We kind of left them in the middle of a camp of - I assume - murderers and thieves.' You point out.
'...shit.'
"Really?" Your Master asks with an incredibly bored air about her as you appear, and suddenly dozens of weapons are pointed at you.
"I mean, I guess I respect the snappy response but, seriously, put those away before you get hurt." You say with an easy smile.
"It smells here. Don't you people have showers?" Mun asks, entirely unbothered by the dozens of men with guns pointed at her.
"Water Dust is expensive. They likely save it for potable water. I could probably make a shower with runes though." Mem offers thoughtfully, and with much more… expression than is common to her.
"We aren't making violent transient's showers." Taylor says dryly.
"I don't think they count as hobos if they have walls and stuff around their camp." You respond idly, as all four of you observe one of the bandits rush off to get Raven - who stomps out of her tent much more irate than the last time you saw her.
"You." She growls, her hand immediately going to her sword, before her demeanor relaxes, and she turns a more smug air on your Master.
"I take it you've already given up on foolishly dying to make a point?" She says, eyeing Mem and Mun as though trying to decide their exact monetary value as people. It's both creepy and unpleasant, and it would make you dislike her even if you didn't already hold her in the lowest esteem.
"What?" Taylor asks, briefly taken aback before shaking her head. "Oh, no, I already dealt with Salem. I just came to pick up Yang and the others." She says.
She says it with such absolute calm, and phrases it so much like an afterthought, that you can't help but snicker at the three and a half seconds it takes Raven to parse the sentence and fully understand it.
Then she scowls.
"A lie. Of course. I should have expected as much from one of Ozpin's ilk." She says with a snort and a dismissive wave. You can tell from the tension in her stance that she is prepared for battle, but at the same time, is visibly projecting calm apathy to her men.
For a woman who claims that strength is the only thing that matters, she is remarkably good at small group politics.
"My daughter and her friends have already left. I imagine they are safely back at Beacon by now. Such a waste of potential. Surely you understand-" She begins, as though to lecture your Master.
"Great, thanks, hope I never see you again." Taylor says bluntly, immediately turning and ushering the kids back through the Gap that deposited you here.
"I dunno, I'm thinking of visiting. I could make a habit of pissing off your alternate reality mom." You say with a shrug as the last person to enter the portal. Raven - who until this point almost certainly had no idea she was even tangentially related to your Master in any way - blinks once at your statement, but before she can comment you are already through the Gap.
Saturday, March 19th, 2011
Beacon Academy, Remnant
"Taylor!" You hear the call coming towards you almost as soon as you step free of the Gap again. There is a soft whoosh of air - one that, in retrospect, you are sure your Master is faking given her strength and durability - and then you witness the blond-haired Yang swinging Taylor around like a small child.
"I was so worried! Hey, are you still preparing to do that thing with the witch lady? She's real right? I started packing in case you needed help!" She blurts out after swinging your Master in a circle a few more times and then depositing her on the ground in the middle of the bedroom you have appeared in.
"I-" Taylor opens her mouth to respond, clearly unsure of how to deal with the sudden closeness and affection.
"I would like to note that I dislike the sudden uninvited presence of a man in my bedroom in the middle of the afternoon. It's highly inappropriate." The white haired girl - Weiss, you think her name was - states grouchily.
"Your objection has been noted." Ruby says with an exaggerated degree of faux seriousness that breaks down as soon as she lays eyes on Mem and Mun.
"Oh my gosh! People younger than me?!" She blurts out, rushing forward to dart around your sisters.
"I am technically thousands of years old." Mem points out.
"Ignore her. She's particular." Mun says with a snort.
"Are you training to be Huntresses too? Are you, like, alternate reality Huntresses? Are they called that where you come from?" Ruby rattles off, much to Mun's sudden distress.
"...I already handled the ancient witch queen thing yesterday. I just forgot to come back. There were some… complications…" Taylor says evasively.
"That why your hair is white? We could totally dye it! I'm fond of blond myself." The blond says, striking a pose.
"No, the–well, my hair is white now because my powers made me part demon but–that's not what the problem was." Taylor says with a slightly helpless shrug. Yang pauses in her self-important posing for a second, to squint at your Master at that.
"Part… demon." She says slowly.
"Yeah it's… there's a whole multiverse of weird stuff out there and there's something about sentient vending machines that I usually use to explain this, but–look, I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I'm sorry for dragging you out to that camp yesterday. I was in a mood." Taylor says apologetically.
Yang mouths the words 'sentient vending machines' while Ruby continues to prod your sisters with rapid-fire questions about their given vocation, and Weiss observes the entire ordeal with the detached expression of someone used to all kinds of insane bullshit happening around them at all hours of the day.
"That's–don't worry about it. Besides, I got a new sister out of the deal! And I'm still the oldest and the hottest! Booyah!" Yang cheers eventually, clearly trying to change the subject. This time it is Taylor's turn to stare blankly at her. You can tell that no one in the room fully grasps anything your Master has said about the multiverse, but equally, you can tell that none of them really care all that much either.
"The hottest?" Taylor mutters to herself before shaking her head. "You don't have to… I know we don't really know each other." She says, loud enough to be heard now.
"Don't sweat it. Now I've got two baby sisters." Yang insists.
"I'm not really-" Taylor tries again.
"Hey, just because we don't have the same dad or mom doesn't mean we aren't sisters. Family is Family." Yang says with an iron determination that causes you to flinch slightly.
It's very clear that the lesson Yang derived from her mother probably wasn't the one she would have liked to impart.
"O…kay…" Taylor says slowly, still clearly on the backfoot.
Usually, she's the one confusing the people around her with new information. It's very obvious that she isn't accustomed to being on the receiving end of such.
"You mentioned a complication." Weiss finally interjects, drawing everyone back on topic.
"Oh. Right. I accidentally uplifted an entire civilization and now I have to go convince them I'm not God. I really don't wanna do it, though. Like, really, really, don't want to go back there." Taylor says, looking embarrassed.
"...oh, the horror." Weiss says in a flat tone of voice as though trying to convey either how little she believes that statement, or how little she sympathizes with it.
Probably both.
"Whiiiile I'm here though." Taylor says, changing the subject. "You know a bunch about mining Dust right? I found a bunch of it under my city. I'm pretty sure my company already bought the rights to it - I'll have to check - but I have no idea how to mine it safely. Do you think you-"
"Why Taylor, as the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, a teammate of both your sisters, and a lady of fine breeding and consummate skill, I would love to help you take excessive advantage of this hitherto unnoticed resource. How much Dust exactly?" Weiss says, suddenly seeming much more intense.
Well, that's one way to change topics.
Saturday, March 19th, 2011
The Slightly Less Dark Continent, Remnant
"Aaaand there's a village. How is there already a village?" Taylor asks with some dismay as you emerge into the sky over the continent.
Saying there is a village is something of a misnomer.
There are several, loosely connected villages, each of them growing at a pace you would consider absurd under normal circumstances. You wouldn't have been able to tell if your Master hadn't chosen to show up so far in the air, but the whole damn continent is already teeming with buildings, and the faint hints of greenery.
You had suggested to her that descending from the clouds probably wasn't a great look if she was trying to avoid claims of godhood, but the alternative was to open a portal full of nightmarish eyes in front of the people below, which had similar problems.
"It's been less than a day!" Taylor shrieks in dismay. She has Long Memory - in cane format as she cannot fly - in one hand, Mun on one shoulder, and you, grasped firmly in a bubble of air that your Master is absently manipulating.
"Didn't you say they were magic? If there were thousands of you, how long do you think it'd take to build a city?" Mun asks curiously.
"That's not the same!" Taylor huffs as she begins to quickly descend to the ground.
"I mean…" You hedge.
"It is!" Taylor insists.
As you descend, you begin to see great flocks of birds drifting through the sky. That wouldn't be entirely strange, except that you are reasonably certain every single one of those birds is a person. More so than even that, each 'flock' is dragging behind it - again, via magic - a variety of things. Some of them are dragging massive quantities of stone from one end of the continent to the other. Some appear to be lifting bundles of seeds or flowers. Yet others appear to be carrying livestock, or in some cases, just plain raw meat.
Remnant doesn't have the same systems of international shipping and codependence that Earth does. It couldn't, not with all the Grimm making it impossible to live outside of designated zones.
But by that same token, the planet has an unfathomable number of untapped natural resources, just waiting for someone enterprising and capable to take advantage of.
Like, say, someone who could fly, avoid the Grimm, and use magic to transport things most people would need heavy machinery to even lift.
You are not unnoticed as you descend. While your Master is using Onmyoudo to manipulate the air for her own gliding descent, formations of birds take up position to either side of her, darting ahead of her path to clear it of any other individuals who might not necessarily have noticed her arrival.
By the time you touch down on the ground in the center of what appears to be a fairly well established village - complete with stone walkways, stone houses, and a well at its center - there is a procession of people kneeling for her.
You suppose one perk of everyone being able to fly, is that you can get pretty much anywhere you need to in a hurry.
"I see you managed to put together clothing fairly quickly." Taylor notes to the woman leading the procession - the only person not kneeling. You vaguely recognize her as the woman you spoke with before leaving the day before, though that might just be because she is obviously carrying the dagger that was once Salem at her hip.
As much as your Master describes her as having clothing on, she is really just wearing what looks like the pelts of several animals stitched together. It isn't very glamorous, and not even a third of those present have clothing as of yet, but you suppose even magic can't speed up the production of worked goods like clothing.
Probably, anyway.
"We–I thought it inappropriate to greet you ungarbed, Nexus." The woman says, clearly nervous.
"Right… so…" Taylor begins awkwardly, idly setting Mem to one side so that she can return to her humanoid form.
The eyes of everyone present dart to the silver haired girl for a moment, but no one dares to comment.
"Wow, I really see what you mean about this. It's extremely awkward." Mun says with a shake and a ruffle of her feathers.
You can see in the woman's eyes that she wants so badly to ask who the hell Mem and Mun are. You can also see the odds that she actually does so.
Effectively nil.
"Be polite." Taylor mumbles absentmindedly to Mun, lifting a hand to stroke her avian neck. Then to the woman she says;
"I never got your name."
"This one is called Merida, Great Nexus." She responds immediately.
"Great. Merida then. Can we talk in private for a minute?" Taylor outs forth, then, as an afterthought adds; "And can everyone stop kneeling?"
Almost at once the entire group rises to its feet, and Merida makes a gesture that sends them off to do… whatever it was they were doing before you got here.
"Of course. I apologize but we do not currently have accommodations to fit one of your stature-"
"Any house will do." Taylor says immediately, interjecting before the woman can begin to genuflect at her.
"O-Of course." Merida stutters out, before wincing at the perceived mistake and turning sideways to gesture at one of the many stone huts lining the hastily made street you are on.
Your Master quickly nods at her, and your group follows her into the hut - which is sparsely furnished with a wooden bed frame, a mattress stuffed with what looks like leaves, and a smattering of other obviously magically crafted objects.
Merida - clearly unsure of where she should stand, or if she should sit - quickly maneuvers herself to be standing in one corner of the room, opening the door for Taylor to sit on her bed if she wanted to. She doesn't, but Mem and Mun do, with the bird girl shifting to her human form as she does so.
"How did you change your garb with you?!" Merida blurts out immediately, momentarily forgetting that your Master is present. Mun pauses to stare at her like she would at a particularly dimwitted student, and then smirks at her.
"When I change there's this… like, pulling feeling, like I'm being turned inside out, and I just sort of go like this and drag my stuff with me." Your deeply aggravating little sister says, making a bizarre grabbing motion with her hands as though that explains anything.
"...What?" Merida mutters at her in confusion.
"I brought her back earlier than you. She has had more time to practice." Mem explains neutrally.
Again, Merida does a double take, pivoting from Mun, to Mem, then back to your Master.
"I have very accomplished daughters." Taylor says dryly as the woman attempts to parse this new information.
Of course, because you are still in the middle of clearing up a series of comical misunderstandings, the joke goes rather over the poor woman's head, and she instead gets down on her knees and practically cracks her skull bowing to the ground instead.
"Apologies, great ones!" She bellows loudly. "I have shown you disrespect and-"
"Enough of that." You say on behalf of your Master who is entirely too creeped out by the behavior to do anything about it. Mem seems unphased by the behavior - likely too accustomed to how normal Brocktonians already treat your Master - but Mun sits up and preens like a peacock.
"Look, we came here because it's important that you understand that she's not a God. She's just a person, same as you." You say tiredly, marching over and pulling the woman to her feet.
"But- the things you've done- can do-" She blurts out, even as your Master waves a hand and cures the quickly forming bruise on her forehead.
"I'm- just pretend I am an inordinately powerful wizard. Not a God, okay?" Taylor says quickly.
Merida gestures helplessly around her.
"Isn't the difference… negligible?" She says with a forlorn whisper.
Taylor blinks at that, as though unsure of how to respond to the question.
"I- we are now united. You did not bring back a single nation, you brought back parts of several nations. Right now we are united in survival. Right now, those people - my people, believe they are working towards something, something important. A God-given duty. You- you cannot take that from them." Merida says resolutely.
"Hey, if Mom is a God does that make me-mmph!" Mun starts to say, but has her mouth covered by Mem who is clearly better able to read the mood.
"I don't want to lie to these people, though." Taylor hurriedly explains.
"Then don't. I will. I only ask that- that you help us where you can. Please. We are already struggling to obtain food, the nights are cold without any clothing to protect most of us, and reports from gatherers sent to other continents speak of giant metal cities. We were angry when you brought us back - but without something to unify us, we will just be scared, desperate, people." Merida begs.
It's admirable. In a sense, this woman is on her knees begging a being she knows could destroy her and everyone she knows with minimal effort for assistance. She's even correct in pointing out that the difference between an inordinately powerful person and a God is largely academic. The question remains however - what does your Master want to do about it?
"I would like to help." Mem speaks up, interrupting the tense silence as your Master thinks things over.
"Kid?" You ask curiously, turning to eye her.
"Grandmother says that if you start something, you should also finish it. I do not see how abandoning these people after using them is any better than what Salem did." She explains. Your Master gets a far away look in her eyes you have come to associate with heated debate with the ancient wizard that lives in her head, and then she refocuses on Merida, her lips pursed.
"...I'll find someone to help explain the world to you." She eventually says.
"And… I'll try to find a way for you to call me, in an emergency." She adds.
"Thank you." Merida utters with a gasp of relief and a half restrained sob as what could have been the moment of her death passes.
"I'm going to have to modify those runes…" You hear Taylor mutter under her breath.
You don't fully understand what that means, but you trust that she knows what she is doing.
Mostly.
Saturday, March 19th, 2011
Beacon Academy, Remnant
(Cinder Fall)
It was six in the afternoon, and in the absence of any notable danger to the lives of her charges, Cinder had chosen to finally relax somewhat. Those who had been tailing her had slowly deigned to leave her alone, her machinations had effected to clear up what little remained of the White Fang, and Neo had… well, Neopolitan hadn't quite given up on freeing Roman, but she had at least accepted that she would have to wait for a more opportune time to do something about his incarceration.
Thus, she was in the middle of getting her nails done at a local salon when the portal to hell opened up and she fell through it.
And then she was in a dimly lit stone hut, with a tribal looking woman, two children, a homeless man, and God.
"Wha-" She opened her mouth to ask as her panic spiked and she instinctively reached out for something to defend herself with.
"This is Cinder. She's got a spell on her neck that I just modified to kill her if she attempts to selfishly manipulate you. She'll be helping you acclimate to the modern world." God said blithely, before turning to eye her.
"See that dagger?" She said, gesturing at the black and fleshy weapon adorning the tribal woman's waist. Cinder nodded dumbly at the question, unable to find the words to respond without incoherent rage spilling forth from her lips in the form of a scream.
"That's what's left of Salem. Do good here and maybe I'll let up on the whole… 'die if you screw around' thing. Maybe. I'm going to open a Gap to your room in Beacon. It'll last a week at best. Don't disappoint me." She said imperiously, before stepping into the portal to hell she had just opened.
She was quickly followed by the children and the hobo.
Leaving her alone with the Tribal Woman.
"...my first lesson is never to offend God." She said in as neutral a tone as she could manage when she was god knows where, surrounded by god knows who, and intended to help with god knows what.
And she did mean that all literally.
The woman nodded along with the statement as though that made perfect sense. And for once, Cinder felt just the slightest amount of relief that she wasn't the only person that knew what was walking around pretending to be human.
It was quickly smothered when an enormous naked man burst through the door of the home she was in.
"I FOUND THE MOST MIRACULOUS DEVICE!" The stout man declared, waving about what looked like an old rusted gun.
He was holding it by the barrel, and his gesture to pass it to the woman pointed it straight at him, which wouldn't have been an issue if the woman hadn't made to grasp it… by the trigger.
This time, Cinder did scream.
Tomorrow is Sunday, Choose Two (2).
[ ] Patrol The City:
(Choose a target area: The Docks, Downtown, Uptown)
(Choose two people to come with you: Victoria, Clockblocker, Dauntless, Aspirant, Trainwreck, Jess, Danny, Mem & Mun, Oliver, Simone)
[ ] Have Taylor take some time out to fortify the Heap with Onmyoudo.
[ ] Well, you own a majority in a major shipping company - and all you had to do was trade a few favors. You should… probably look into that.
[ ] Maybe you should check in on the kids? You have no idea how Aisha and the rest have been faring since you dealt with Valefor.
[ ] Well, since you have the time - maybe you can do some public service? When was the last time you were in the Hospital?
[ ] Planeswalking (Setting). There are some very obvious portals to another Dimension in Gap Space. Your Master wants to investigate. (Options: Bleach, Kung Fu Panda, Touhou, Nasuverse, Fullmetal Alchemist)
[ ] Madison is going to need some time with your Master if she is going to conjure up a device to help her control her powers.
[ ] Weiss has graciously offered to help you arrange to mine that Dust deposit below the city. It might be worth taking her up on the offer.
[ ] Create A Shikigami
[ ] Take Time Off (Pick an Extra Social)
Taylor could probably use some advice on the whole… accidentally presented herself as a God thing. Good thing she's got friends now right? Choose One (1)
[ ] Simone (0)
[ ] Victoria (2)
[ ] Amy (4)
[ ] Aspirant (2)
[ ] Trainwreck (2)
[ ] Clockblocker (3)
[ ] Parian (2)
[ ] Danny (3)
[ ] Oliver (2)
[ ] Jess (2)
[ ] Mem (3)
[ ] Mun (0)
[ ] Mouse Protector (2)
[ ] Dinah (3)
[ ] Write-In
A/N: I'm too tired to collate and setup all the Omake Shop votes right now, so I'll make a separate post for them tomorrow. If you've contributed and want to make a call to vote for something, pm me (even if you've already PM'd me, do it again) and I'll add it all up later.
Danke.
Oh, and thanks for reading.
EDIT: Also hey, go check out this quests entirely separate PHO thread! Found Here; PHO Blacksmithery - Projection Quest
Last edited: May 23, 2022
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Bowler Hat Guy
May 23, 2022
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Threadmarks Diplomatic Immunity 17.6.5
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KokuenDG
KokuenDG
Good Civ Inspector
Jul 1, 2022
#47,162
Yo I just can't stop making all of these things help.
Ruby Gets Inspired!
or, Diplomatic Immunity 17.6.5
Saturday, March 19th, 2011
Beacon Academy Dormitories, Remnant
'You know, I think I've discovered something about myself today,' You think to yourself as you stand off to the side, staring into space as your Master and the equally white-haired Schnee heiress commiserate on the state of the Dust mine under the Bay.
Well, you say commiserate, but it's really just Weiss talking at Taylor while she tries to look attentive and act like she's interested in learning the finer details of Dust mining and the proper handling procedures. To be fair though, it's honestly fairly vital for ensuring the safety of any future employees, and if you consider the information you've managed to glean from the conversation it's objectively a veritable goldmine.
But after this lecture continues for nearly 5 minutes, you think that you're fairly confident when you say this:
'This is boring as hell.'
Not to say that it isn't unnecessary or any of the sort; you've just realized that, barring a few of your past emulations, you've never been the type to just sit and patiently wait. And while you're more than fine with allowing others to converse with each other while you stand in the background – a bit of a habit that your current emulation somewhat exacerbated, really. Despite his boisterous demeanor, Dante was a pretty reclusive guy when off the clock, who knew – you can't really say that you're all that interested in the contents of the conversation.
So it may have been somewhat inevitable when your eyes drifted over to the most interesting spectacle in the room.
"—how much fighting training do you get to do normally? Oh, do you get to design your equipment yourselves too? Do you wanna get a head-start on making guns and stuff because IcanshowyouhowImademybabyCrescentRose—" Ruby continues to rattle off in the general direction of a flustered-looking Mun. You glance over to Mem, watching as she slips away from the attentions of the silver-eyed girl in favor of claiming a spot on the bed next to Blake.
The Faunus girl paused in her reading, peering over her book with an inquisitive stare at your more taciturn sibling. After a few moments (and realizing that Mem seemed content to watch Mun get overwhelmed by the power of excited motormouth) she returned to her book with a shrug, though you caught her glancing at Mem every so often.
"You know, you should probably help her." you hear Yang say at your side. "I love Rubes to death, but God knows she can talk someone to death once she gets excited. Poor girl seems like she's reaching her limit."
You scratch at your jaw. "Yeeeeah, I should prolly help her out, shouldn't I? Would be a dick move if an older brother didn't come to the rescue, I guess. And I got something I wanna ask Ruby anyway, so two birds, one stone and all that." You shrug, pushing yourself from the wall – and conveniently ignoring Yang's muttered response of "Brother?" in the process. That whole thing is just a hassle to try and explain all at once – and striding over to the two girls as an excited Ruby seems to loom over Munin, Crescent Rose in hand.
You have to hold back a snort of amusement when you see Mun's eyes flicker over to you, all but pleading with her gaze as she struggles to respond to the verbal assault coming from the older redhead.
"U-uh—" Mun begins, but you smoothly interject as you place a hand on top of her head.
"Easy there, kid. You'll talk the brat's ear off at this rate," you say, mussing Mun's hair in a soothing gesture. That seems to knock Ruby out of her excitement for the moment, thankfully. Though as she stares up at you with a sheepish look on her face, you're once again aware of how much you absolutely tower over the hooded girl.
It makes the memories of Oscar when interacting with Ruby so much odder in hindsight, really.
"Ah—oh, I'm sorry about that, heh," Ruby says with a nervous chuckle. "It's just that it's kind of exciting you know? All of this just kind of happened all of a sudden, and I'm still getting used to having a new sister and the concept of an entirely different reality and, well, it's just all so new and cool and I finally have people younger than me around—"
"Oh yeah, speaking of that, I got a bit of a favor to ask if you don't mind," You say, interrupting the rambling girl with a smile. You pat Mun on the head gently, much to her consternation (though you'd probably say she'd rather go through this over the grilling she went through for the past few minutes) as you glance over to Mem. "See, the girls wanted to take some time to explore the school while we're here; maybe get a nice tour out of it while Taylor's busy. I was wondering if you'd help me chaperone since you seem pretty interested in getting to know them. You don't mind that, right Yang?" You glance over to the blonde who meets your gaze with a raised eyebrow.
"…I mean, as long as Ruby's fine with it I don't really care," she says with a shrug. "It's probably better to get out of this cramped room, anyway. You fine with that, Tay?" she adds, nudging her white-haired sister in the back.
Your Master seems to start at that, blinking distractedly as she notices the rest of the room's attention on her. Even Weiss paused in her lecture for the moment, though with how her eyes narrowed, you're sure that she wasn't exactly happy about the interruption.
"Uh…sure, I guess," Taylor eventually says. "We're gonna be leaving in a little bit though, so don't go too far."
"Cool. Sounds like a done deal to me, then," you say.
"Yes, well, if we're done with the interruptions—"
"Wait, you're fine with me going with the hobo?!" Ruby shouts out, interrupting Weiss. The heiress huffed, crossing her arms in agitation.
"I mean, he's like Taylor's power, or something, so I don't see why it would be a bad thing," Yang shrugs. "And hey, this way you can show off how Huntresses work around here for them."
"I possess over a millennia's worth of knowledge on the ins and outs of Hunter soci—" Mem starts, but you swiftly interrupt her in the best way you know.
By grabbing her by the scruff of her neck and bodily picking her up. Blake starts at this, nearly jumping off her bed in surprise.
(You also noted that she was halfway to reaching for her weapon, before visibly restraining herself and smoothing out her somewhat stormy expression. A light glare was still present on her face, though.)
"Sounds great. Hey, let's go girls, we've got places to be soon," you say quickly, tucking Mem under your arm and guiding Mun out of the room with your other hand.
"Hold on, what does she mean by millennia–w-wait, you're moving too fast and your legs are longer than mine!"
"Then you better get a move on, kid! I got a top-secret project I wanna get started on, and it's something you might find interesting."
"Huh?"
Saturday, March 19th, 2011
Beacon Academy Workshop, Remnant
"So, here's the deal kids." You take up the closest approximation to a lecturer's pose that you could emulate as you stood in front of the three girls.
"Right now, Taylor's focus is being occupied by little miss Ice Queen, so this is the best time to rectify a mistake that's persisted for far too long. However, we gotta get this done quick; by my count, we only have about 15 or so minutes before Weiss needs to come up for air. So, this is the only time we can get this started and maintain the secrecy of our mission. Any questions?"
"Uh, yeah," Mun says, pausing to take a bite out of the cake she got from their detour to the cafeteria. "So uh, what are we even supposed to be doing right now?" Mem nods at her side, tilting her head slightly.
"We have not yet been informed of the main objective of this secret mission, brother. Is that not an important detail that we need to assist you more effectively?"
"What she said," Ruby says through bites of her own dessert. "Heck, I still don't even know why I'm here!"
"All valid points, I must admit. But you girls are forgetting one very important detail." You pause for emphasis, watching as your enraptured audience – really just Ruby and Mem. Mun seems focused more on stuffing her face than anything – leans in anticipation. "And that, of course, is to leave your captivated audience in suspense!"
Ruby throws a cookie at you. You catch it in your mouth and continue and chew for a moment while smirking at the pouting Ruby. Heh.
"But I suppose we're safe enough here to avoid any prying eyes. Ruby, you're good with guns, right?"
Ruby blinks at your question, seemingly flustered at the sudden attention. "Well uh, I mean I wouldn't say that I'm the best but-"
"Ah ah ah. Hey now, none of that," You say, interrupting her. "Modesty is for people who aren't awesome. And I'm pretty sure someone who isn't awesome wouldn't be able to build a weapon like Crescent Rose, right?"
The redhead flushes slightly at the praise but puffs up in pride. "Yeah! My Sweetheart is amazing!"
"Exactly. I need that for this top-secret project because we have to fix the biggest mistake I've ever made in my life."
"It's kind of weird how serious he's getting about this," Mun whispers loudly to her sister. You ignore it in favor of focusing your attention on Ruby.
"Indeed, the absolute worst mistake I could've made in my existence. It shames me to admit that it took me until just a few days ago to see the error of my ways."
"I believe that that may be somewhat of an exaggeration, brother. I am sure you have made other mistakes that have been much more severe in consequence besides this," Mem chimes in 'helpfully.'
"I doubt these two are even listening to us at this point. Oh hey, you gonna finish that cake?"
"I have every intention of finishing the desserts on my plate. Perhaps you should have considered that you would quickly consume your own dessert and adjusted for that eventuality when you made your selection at the cafeteria."
"…All you had to do was say no, jeez."
"W-what did you do?" Ruby replies, voice dropping to a frightened whisper. You shake your head dramatically, your gaze taking on a haunted visage as you stare out into nothing.
The words taste like ash as they form in your mouth, but you feel you must say them for her to understand.
"I…I made Taylor disinterested in guns."
"…You what." Ruby asks softly, eyes slowly widening in horror.
"I made her disinterested in guns! She looks at guns like they're cute and probably brags about how she doesn't even need a gun to 'kill everything in that general direction'! She scoffs at the thought of using guns, Ruby! Scoffs!"
"N-no. No! That can't be right! No sister of mine could be neutral towards guns like tha—" She pauses abruptly, eyes widening in shock. "'Kill everything in that general direction'. Oh no." Her hands come up to her face as she gasps. "Oh no."
You can only nod your head in shame, confirming her worst fears.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Ruby joins you in your shared suffering, clutching her head as she wails in despair.
"…So why did we come with them, again?"
"I believe that brother wanted us here to provide assistance in some manner. I have yet to see what that assistance could possibly be beyond psychological care, however."
Ignoring the peanut gallery, you drop to a knee as you place a hand on Ruby's shoulder.
"This is why I need your help, kid. No, Ruby. I needed someone who could truly understand. You are the only one I could trust with this task," you say, knocking the girl out of her depressive spiral as she focuses her hollowed-eyed gaze on you.
"H-huh? Me?"
"I can't ask anyone but you. I need you…" You pause again, making sure that you have her complete and total attention. "To help me design a weapon for Taylor."
"WELL, WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST SAY SO!?" You blink as Ruby disappears in a burst of rose petals and speeds past you. Turning around, you watch the silver-eyed girl rushing around the room, gathering various materials and tools in the process. "No sister of mine is gonna live her life without understanding the wonder and mystique of high-powered weaponry!"
"Huh, that was easy." you scratch your head, chuckling softly as you watch the girl become engrossed in her work. Walking up to her, you glance over her shoulder. "I'm pretty partial to the dual gun style. Think you can fit that into the design? Double the fun and all that," you say, brandishing your two ladies - Ebony and Ivory, that is - before placing them on the workstation Ruby settled into.
"AS LONG AS I CAN COMBINE IT INTO A BIGGER GUN, I DON'T CARE!"
"Heh, nice. Gun-gun." You squint down at the initial sketches, then shake your head. "Eh, don't worry about trying to accommodate for silly things like recoil or ammo expenditure, or hell, even practicality. You make this gun as ridiculous and cool as you can imagine, kid! Taylor will be able to handle it."
"YOU MEAN I GET FREE REIGN AND NO RESTRICTIONS?! I'M GONNA MAKE THE BEST WEAPON EVER!" She pauses in her frantic scribbling, giving you a sidelong glance. "Except my baby Crescent Rose, of course. And don't even dare mention to her that I said that about another weapon." Her silver eyes narrow into thin slits. "Don't even dare."
You chuckle a bit, patting the girl on the head. "Wouldn't dream of it, Ruby. You two are a match-made in heaven, after all, and I would hate to ruin that."
She bats your arm away, pointing at you dramatically. "And don't you forget it mister…uh, hobo guy!"
"Just call me Emmy, kid."
And so it went for the next 30 minutes or so as the two of you bounce ideas off of each other while Ruby lays the foundation for the creation of the ideal weapon that your Master would love so much that she'll have no choice but to acknowledge just for how awesome it is. It's perfect! Nothing could go wrong with this plan!
"You know, I still don't know why we're here," You hear Mun say in the background.
"…Perhaps they will let me add runes to the design? I believe there are some that could improve its efficiency and eliminate the need for conventional ammunition in favor of passively converting excess mana into bullets…"
"Oh hell, not you too."
A/N: Because DanteEmmy realized that he committed a crime most foul, and the only way he can rectify it is by getting someone who's just as much of a gun nut as he is.
Also this gives Ruby a reason to make a cool gun for her sister and hang around in Earth Bet I mean what more can you want it's quality sister time in the works once they figure out how to keep the gun and its creation a secret from Taylor oh won't that be fun.
Last edited: Aug 18, 2022
268
KokuenDG
Jul 1, 2022
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Threadmarks An Outside Perspective by bLuewErewOlf25
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bLuewErewOlf25
bLuewErewOlf25
Decided to return to monke
He/Him
May 23, 2022
#45,805
A.N: The opportunity was too good to pass up.
An Outside Perspective
A Free Clockblocker Social
Saturday, March 19th, 2011
The Heap, Brockton Bay
After hours…
Clockblocker took a deep breath. "Alright. Let's take this from the top."
He was standing in the middle of a large room with plain gray walls, an ethereal glow emanating from lines carved into both the walls and the ceiling, while large pipes jutted out from high above. The floor was a flat surface, hard and cold, but began to glow a light blue as Clock tapped his foot on it. Around him, several faceless automatons in the form of humans appeared. They were more akin to hard light projections conjured by the room than true machines, and were relatively fragile all things considered. But they still hit with the same amount of strength as a fully grown adult, which suited the cape's purposes.
He double-checked his equipment one last time, then got into a combat stance.
"Begin."
At his command, a few of the projections began to advance on Dennis, running at him with intent to harm. He shot at two of them with his cables, binding their legs and causing them to fall flat on their faces. Detaching the lengths from his gauntlets, he turned towards a third projection bearing down on him. The teenager ducked an overhead punch, retaliating with a solid punch of his own to the gut of the the projection, causing it to double over. He then followed up with a front kick, sending his target backwards into a fourth projection. Both of them shattered into a shower of shards once they hit the floor.
"Hyup!" Another projection attempted to grapple him from behind in a bear hug, driving the air from his lungs. Keyword being 'attempted', as Clockblocker hooked his left leg behind his opponent's, grabbed it by the thigh and tossed it off balance. He then quickly retreated away from two more projections approaching him from opposite ends of the arena, tagging them with his power in the process. More projections were being continuously spawned into the room, and for every one that the hero downed, two more would be produced - with seemingly no end in sight.
Clock unleashed his cables again, this time firing out a lasso that snagged one of them, before yanking the projection in the direction of another opponent and sending them sprawling. He backed up from another punch, instead sweeping out with his leg at the offender while jabbing at a separate target with a heel palm.
And then he hissed in pain as something grazed his cheek.
Turning towards the source of the pain, he found three projections in the distance sporting pistols. They shot out fairly non-lethal lasers, but it'd still hurt like hell to get hit by them. And between the gunmen and Clock was a whole gang of other projections ready to beat him down.
So Dennis chose not to engage with the lot of them, and instead shot a cable at one of the pipes on the ceiling. He grappled out before the horde could descend on him, soaring past scattered shots. He detached the cable once he reached a good altitude and landed in a roll a few feet away from the gunmen. The hero grabbed the nearest pistol before it could shoot, freezing it and the wielder with his power. One of the projections tried to kick at the teen, but darted to the side and rose with an uppercut. Then he used the momentum to grab it mid-stumble and toss it at its buddy.
"Right… now for the rest of them." Clockblocker muttered wearily to himself.
As he continued to fight against the training dummies, he idly recalled how he got into this kind of thing in the first place. The day after they had dealt with the Fallen, Aspirant had cornered the Ward and pestered him into taking some hand-to-hand combat lessons, citing logical reasons such as 'being a well-rounded fighter', 'not relying on your power all the time' and 'Dauntless will not always be with you to give you flexibility'.
Of course, Dennis also heard a faint mutter of 'stopping time lets me set up so many cool grapples' - but he chose to ignore it in favor of more practical concerns.
There had been the issue of finding a good place to train himself in the Heap, since the women at the dojo kinda scared him. But then Dennis had found himself walking into a room that could spawn as many mook-level training dummies as he wanted. Sometimes he felt like the Heap had a mind of his own, but he wasn't going to look a gift horse… castle… in the mouth!
"Haah…. Hah… holy shit…" The teen panted, bruised and sweaty as he stood alone in the room. Whatever mechanism controlled the space had started giving the dummies brass knuckles, conjured up more of those laser pistol-toting projections, and finished off with a big guy wielding a freaking sledgehammer of all things that was somehow immune to his powers. But in the end… he overcame all of them.
"YES! LET'S FUCKING GO!!" Dennis cheered, raising a fist in the air. Only to be broken out of his reverie by the sound of clapping. He quickly turned to see Taylor standing by the entrance, looking at him with a tired but amused expression.
"Interesting place you've got here. I'll have to borrow it sometime; see if it can't make anything a bit stronger." The overpowered heroine said, glancing around the room.
"T-Taylor! Haha, what a surprise! Weren't you going out on a trip or… something?" Dennis stuttered out with an awkward laugh, rubbing the back of his head. "Uh, how long were you watching?"
"I just got back, and long enough." She answered, crossing her arms. "So, martial arts huh? Did you ask Aspirant for help?"
"Technically, he's the one who pushed me into it." Dennis fired back.
"Getting help from my teammates and not even asking me first?"
"Aspirant already freely gives out lessons to anyone willing, and you're not the type to argue semantics over it. Plus I think he wants to use my power to make cool poses or something."
Nexus laughed. "Yeah, that sounds like him alright."
A moment of silence passed, with Taylor seemingly fidgeting in place. It kinda seemed like she wanted to ask him something, but didn't quite know how to phrase it properly.
"...Sooooo, is there anything else you needed, Taylor?"
"Wha–oh, yeah! Uh, I need your advice on something, if that's alright." She squeaked out, prompting Dennis to rub his chin in thought.
"The great Nexus, asking me for advice. Must be my lucky day!" He teased, before nodding and walking closer to Taylor. "Alright, I'll bite. What do you need?"
Nexus took a deep breath. "Alright… Hypothetically, what would you do if you hypothetically went to another dimension, and hypothetically, a bunch of people there thought you were a god?"
"...Hypothetically, huh." Because the PRT would freak out if this wasn't at all hypothetical.
"Yeah, and also hypothetically, the leader of those people believed that you weren't a god, but would still lie to the rest of them that you were so they wouldn't lose their newfound purpose after being resurrected?"
Clockblocker gave Nexus a flat stare, to which she shrugged in response.
"...Wow, okay. So uhh… I would be the first to admit that if I were called a god, I probably would have abused that fact. Second, why me? Why not any of the other Oathbound, or even your Dad?"
Nexus glanced away slightly. "Because I need an outside perspective, and you're my only friend who hasn't adapted to my weirdness yet."
Well, when she put it like that…
"I think… that this is something that can't be resolved in just a day." Clockblocker decided, placing his hands behind his head. "I'm going to make the assumption that you hypothetically did something for these people that they chose to see as divine intervention. Correct?"
"...Yes?"
"Then that makes them your responsibility for now." He nodded, as if confirming something for himself.
"If you just leave them to their own business, then they're probably not going to stop believing that anytime soon. It sounds like they take pride in having someone to believe in. And if you forced the issue, you would have a bunch of people… a newfound society perhaps… without any lifeline to hold onto. Faith can be a… pretty powerful unifying concept. What's their living situation looking like?
Taylor frowned. "Poorly. They're on a continent without any easily available food or basic necessities, and their living conditions are pretty much tribal villages. Hypothetically."
Clock winced at that."Yikes. That bad, huh? Well… okay, first, you're gonna need to support them until they're able to stand on their own. Nothing overt like… I dunno, creating a river out of nothing. But you might want to make sure they're actually able to get basic necessities for themselves. You don't always need to be actively helping every day, but as long as you could do something for them, then why not go for it?"
She considered that statement. "Okay… what else?"
Dennis clapped his hands together. "My second piece of advice… is to consider how the public looks at you here."
"Huh?"
"People are both awestruck and scared of you." The teen said bluntly. "They think you're up there with the Triumvirate, and that's a pretty accurate comparison, all things considered. Heck, you're probably even more powerful than them. It wouldn't be wrong to say that some see you as a pretty godlike figure, especially amongst the PRT. Making castles pop out of thin air, bringing back people to life, killing the Simurgh–"
Taylor carefully did not flinch at that.
"--You're a bonafide titan of power. That's not even counting all those weirdos on PHO who actually worship you as a goddess or something."
Nexus sighed, only for Clock to cut off any rebuttal. "But the people here know better. That you're just a teenage girl trying to do her best for her city, and tries to put in some normalcy into her otherwise weird-as-fuck life. You love messing with people, you like to use 'magic' as an excuse for your bullshit, but you would do anything to protect the ones you care about. And that's why we can treat you like… well, a friend."
He smiled softly at her. "What I'm trying to say is that perception takes some time to change. Just… maybe you can try being more personable to these hypothetical people? It won't change their thoughts overnight, but it's a start in the right direction. Treat you less as a god, and more like someone to relate to."
"That's…" Taylor mulled it over in her head for a moment, before smiling back. "You've given me quite a bit to think about. Thanks Dennis. I needed that."
"Hey, I'm just happy to help. Wouldn't be a good friend otherwise if I can provide counsel to my buddy's totally hypothetical godhood." Dennis winked, making her snicker slightly.
"Yeah… it's really nice to have someone with an outside perspective. I'd ask Amy, but I dunno if she's solved her fainting problems yet." Taylor mused out loud.
"Haha… yeah… I wonder why. Maybe she's just been tired with her work at the hospital?" Or maybe it's because she still can't control herself when staying too long in Taylor's presence, Dennis thought. It was rather funny, and a little bit sad to be honest.
"Right, I'm gonna go order out dinner now for everyone. Hopefully pizza night won't be ruined by someone trying to stab themselves this time." Taylor said, moving to head out… before stopping and looking back at Dennis.
"Do you want to join us? You could order anything you want; it's not like I'm strapped for cash or anything."
It wasn't a one-on-one date with Taylor, but hanging out with her and the rest of the Oathbound together? Of course he was going to agree! These were cool people. Fellow heroes. Plus, free food was always a plus in his book. Baby steps, simple pleasures. Don't worry about wooing Taylor, just focus on giving her happy memories and being her friend.
"Hell yes."
Dennis had a solid day training his new skills, and got to spend more time with his friend and her friends.
Life couldn't get much better than this.
Last edited: May 25, 2022
411
bLuewErewOlf25
May 23, 2022
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Threadmarks Diplomatic Immunity 17.7
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Jun 13, 2022
#46,260
Spoiler: Choices:
Current Training: Weapon Proficiency 5/10 - Complete!
Current Training: Swordmaster Style 0/10 - 7/10
Current Energy: 9
Current Emulation Status: Here
Saturday, March 19th, 2011
The Heap, Brockton Bay
"Same shit, different day, huh Chief?" Trainwreck asks you as you stumble through a Gap into his workshop.
"Oh hey, you're awake today. You want in on this?" You ask lazily, even as your Master darts off to start eyeing the weapons lining the walls - now replaced from the previous day's training.
"Depends. Do I get to beat you up too, or are you just looking for a substitute target?" He asks, pushing his suit through a stretch that you can only assume is purely for cosmetic purposes.
Trainwreck does a lot of that actually. Like he is subconsciously aware of how eerie it would be for him to remain absolutely still when not in motion, and takes steps to rectify it. He still has the odd moment of immobility to remind you that he is not, in fact, a fully functioning humanoid - something you still can't understand why his shard might have done - but most of the time he is always doing something to replicate humanity.
"I refuse!" "I refuse!" Both your Master and Nemesis yell at the same time as Taylor comes bounding out from around a pile of scrap, and the sword spirit skips over to stand in front of you. Nemesis sticks her arms in the air like a child demanding to be carried - which she basically is - but you find yourself briefly too distracted to respond when you get a look at the weapon your Master has decided to pull from the wall.
"...is that a gun?" You ask skeptically.
"It's a riveter. A ranged riveter. It's not a gun no matter how fast it shoots stuff. For legal reasons, you see." Trainwreck chimes in. Indeed, the device your Master is holding looks like a tremendous steampunk rifle.
"I don't wanna hit Trainwreck even by mistake. He's too good for that." Taylor explains, ignoring your question while simultaneously hitting a level on the side of the definitely not a gun she is holding that causes it to purr like the engine of a car and begin belching steam.
"Yeah! Trainwreck's a cutie!" Nemesis chimes in. She punctuates her statement by kicking you in the shin, to which you merely grunt and bend over to pick her up, depositing her on your Master's shoulders.
"Great. Now I just need you to convince any adult woman of that." Trainwreck grumbles under his breath, before getting an expression of annoyance on his face and adding; "you don't count."
"Hey! I'm not a person, I'm a sword! Age is a social construct!" Nemesis yells at him.
"Same rules as yesterday?" Taylor asks you casually.
At this point, you start to get suspicious, but you play along anyway. No reason not to.
"Yup. Ten seconds, miss and you get a slap on the head." You confirm. By your reckoning your Master should have another day and a half before she's done training, so you aren't honestly worried. She might be exceptional at using Nemesis to effect extreme violence on things, but she doesn't have the depth of experience required to use just any weapon, let alone the gun adjacent to the one she is currently holding.
Which is the whole point of this training exercise really.
"Trainwreck, can I get a countdown?" Taylor says, withdrawing a tag from her pocket and ripping it in half to activate it.
"What was that? You can't cheat, it defeats the point." You call her out immediately.
"Three." Trainwreck calls.
"It was just so that I don't hurt you too badly." Taylor says dismissively.
"Two."
"You couldn't hit me with an actual sword yesterday, I doubt you'll need-" You cut off as you do some quick mental math. Were your energy reserves lower than they should be? That can't be right, can it? Unless your Shard side had finished this training before you even woke up today. Would it do that? What would be the point? A prank?
"Call it a feeling." Taylor says with a slowly widening smile on her face as she hefts her weapon up to one shoulder to take aim. "You should start running." She adds almost as an afterthought.
"One."
"Wait, hang on, I don't think we have to-" You begin, hoping to stop the exercise before something untoward can happen to you.
"Go!"
There is a loud hissing noise, and you are forced to shift to the right in order to avoid having a large hunk of steel slammed into your shoulder. Two more blasts release in quick succession, and you are forced to evade them by leaping into the air to dodge the first, and catching the second on the flat of your blade - deflecting it off to the side where it harmlessly impacts a wall.
"Shit, shit, shit!" You yell - definitely not scream - as you sprint towards the nearest pile of garbage for cover.
You will have your revenge for this on… someone. But for now-
"Why does everything in here have a chainsaw on it?!" You demand as your Master opts to go through your cover rather than around it.
…with a seven foot long chainsaw on the end of a six foot pole.
"I love training!" Nemesis screams out joyously.
"Okay. Okay, enough of that." You pant quickly, waving your hands desperately at your Master before she can shoot the… it looks like a rotary canon but each of the individual barrels on the firearm has a sideways bayonet on it.
So its a combination of a minigun and blender.
And you hate it. Mostly because those rotating blades are currently an inch from your face.
"I really needed this." Taylor says with a beatific look of satisfaction on her face.
"You… needed to brutalize me?" You ask dryly, gesturing at your clothing to highlight all the places you have been stabbed, shot, or smashed over the course of the last thirty minutes. Your healing handled the actual injuries, but your clothing isn't so lucky.
Usually training with your Master lasts roughly two hours. Ofcourse, that duration is usually based on the idea that it takes at least that long to see any gains. If you absolutely had to hazard a guess as to the reason for this sudden acceleration of the schedule, you suppose you would be forced to concede that your Master really doesn't like feeling trapped.
Imagine that, a teenager who's shard connection gets stronger when you tell them what to do.
Of course that is a drastic oversimplification of what the humans call a Sechen Range, but still.
"I know we did some of this yesterday but you've been-" She seems to struggle for the right word when Trainwreck chimes in;
"Blue-balling."
"-you've been blue-balling me for like a week. And the whole God thing was really stressful, you know? I feel like I needed a spa day or something." She continues with a shrug.
You look at the - again - Gatling Blender doubtfully, then turn to Trainwreck. "It doesn't count if she says it 'cus you told her to."
"What? It totally does! What the hell do you care, you aren't even in the betting pool!" Trainwreck complains.
"Which is why I should count as a neutral observer. Obviously." You shoot back jokingly.
"You guys suck." Taylor says with a sigh after a stricken moment where she realizes exactly what she just said.
"Bet you I can change your mind with two words." You say with a smile. Taylor hefts her massive canon over one shoulder and lifts an eyebrow at you. Nemesis - still sitting on your Masters shoulders - hisses at the thing as it gets too close to her.
Like a cat.
"Well?" She presses.
"More training." You say with an easy smile. Taylor immediately points her weapon at you again with an eager smile on her face but you quickly put a halt to that.
"Sword training! With your sword!" You shout, taking a step away from her and drawing your own weapon.
Nemesis practically dropkicks the canon out of your Masters hands as she leaps off her shoulders.
And you never thought you'd say this but… thank God for that.
"Yo. Sup sis." You call out to Simone as you find her meandering the halls of the Heap. You yourself are doing the same, mostly because your current Emulation knows next to nothing about magic, and so is functionally useless when your Master decides to take Mem into her Wizard Tower to do… whatever Wizards do in their towers.
Magic, you assume.
"Brother. To what do I owe the pleasure?" Simone says pleasantly, curtsying to you even though she is wearing flip flops and sleeping shorts.
"Boredom, mostly." You admit, eyeing her. It's probably mean to say, but… you have a hard time trusting Simone. You are pretty sure the rest of the team feels the same. It's not so much that they dislike her, as there is the ever present knowledge that you are talking to a piece of the Simurgh. It's… hard, to ignore that.
Buuuut your current emulation is no stranger to adversarial relationships with family. So you might as well try and reach out.
"Ah. Mother is off doing some other insane thing I take it?" She asks curiously.
"You don't know already?" You ask with some amusement that quickly fades as the pale blond frowns at you.
"It might be a surprise for you to hear, but I don't have my gene donor's ability to foresee the future. I actually don't have any supernatural ability to predict things." She says, seeming almost annoyed with you.
"But- you're always doing it! Like, always!" You blurt out.
"I know everything about people that she knew when you cut me off of her. How much do you know about demons?" She asks, changing topics suddenly.
"Tons. This guy has been fighting them his whole life. I'm basically an expert." You answer immediately.
"Well, the Simurgh knew enough about human psychology and each individual human it paid attention to to perfectly model their behavior. I can't see the future, I just… know people. Really well, actually. Well enough to know none of you really like me much." She says, before trailing off and adding the last part in a small, tired voice.
You consider that for a second and - in keeping with your earlier thoughts - you can't really disagree.
"Why don't you come to breakfast with us? The rest of the family does it three or four times a week but you never show up." You offer slowly.
"Why? So I can distress everyone by making snide commentary about their inner thoughts?" She asks you with an uncomfortable shrug. "Better I stay here where I don't bother anyone."
"If you know so much about people, couldn't you just try harder to get people to like you?" You ask.
"Do you genuinely think manipulating people into liking me is better than being upfront about who and what I am, or is this version of you simply very stupid?" She snipes at you irately.
"Then what about just not acting so smug about knowing everything. Actually, why don't you know what Taylor is doing?" You ask. Simone rolls her eyes at you then spins you around and starts marching you up the hall.
"I know human psychology - that doesn't mean I understand all the weird magic or spiritual crap she has going on. I barely understand my own powers." She grouses.
"Huh. Look, just… try alright? I promise, the family is so used to Taylor that one more weird thing isn't going to throw them off that much. Hell, my first emulation was a serial killer, and the third was a humanitarian in the culinary sense of the word." You say with a shrug.
Simone stares at you for a moment, blinks twice, then snickers at you.
"I think the common thing to say here would be 'never change, brother', but we both know that isn't in the cards." She says with an indelicate snort.
"Yuuuup. You get used to it. Breakfast is at seven." You say with a smile.
"Really won't let it go will you? Fine. I demand pancakes." She says imperiously.
"I'll make sure your mom puts a little extra magic into them." You respond.
And then the entire building shudders.
'...Emmy, I messed up.' Your Master says, thankfully more embarrassed than concerned.
'…how?' You ask hesitantly.
'Really fast and on a large scale.' She responds seriously.
Well, you suppose it has been an entire day since something bad happened. That's gotta be a new record - right?
When you reach the top of the tower, it is to the bizarre sight of your Master desperately holding the door shut with a barrier of magical power so thick that rather than the customary see-through haze of blue, it is entirely opaque. Mem and Mun flit back and forth along the exterior of the barrier, casting runes into the air along its surface as fast as she can manage.
Your Master looks harried and more than a little embarrassed.
Mem looks like she is having the time of her life. You aren't saying that the girl appears to be developing a penchant for enjoying life or death situations that only magic can get her out of…
But you suppose you did just think it.
"What- what did you do?" Simone asks with a disturbed look on her face. The question is accompanied by a loud bang, and a crack spider-webbing across the surface of the barrier that your Master hurriedly patches up.
"Okay, so, you know how I made the tower to amplify my magic in case I ever had to defend the city from an Endbringer?" She hurriedly explains. More pounding sounds out, and this time is accompanied by an incoherent scream.
"...Yes?" You say warily, drawing your Devil Sword and leveling it at the door.
"And you know how-" another scream, and this time the floor shakes so much that you worry for the other people in the building who might have fallen over.
"-the PRT has me on contract to resurrect all the capes that died in Endbringer fights?" She continues hurriedly, adding another layer to her barrier that Mem and Mun have to quickly scoot away from before returning to reinforcing the thing.
"Yes?" Simone says, keeping her eyes on the barrier and casually switching to her 'costume' for all the bizarre white outfit she was born in qualifies as one. Her hand slides unconsciously to the sword that appears at her waist, and you can't help but realize that if there is anything Simone fears most, it is probably the unknown.
After all, what else is there to fear when you know almost everything?
"Well I figured out I could store excess power in the tower, and I've been doing that for a while now, and I thought that when I had enough I could try and just bring them all back at once so-" Taylor hurries to explain.
"Everyone from the Simurgh fight? Everyone? All at once?!" You demand, instantly getting flashbacks to… literally two days ago, when your Master did this same thing on Remnant.
"No! I mean, yes but not from that one fight! From every Endbringer fight! I thought- I mean we've lost so many people and- I'm sure lots of people would be happy about it, and it would meanthePRTwouldbehappywithmeandPiggotwouldbesupersurprisedbutthatsnotthemainreasonIdiditIwasjusttryingtoberesponsibleand-"
"What the hell does that have to do with whatever's behind that door!?" You demand quickly.
"I didn't do the targeting right! The sword has a soul and it counted as being in the fight so now it's-" Taylor desperately yells.
The barrier shatters into a prismatic rainbow of light, and Mem and Mun are thrown backwards under the overwhelming force behind the blow. The door to the room sails past you and down the stairwell with an aggrieved screeching of metal as it slides along the wall and out of sight.
And then an eight foot tall giant of a man sticks his head through the doorway.
"Hi! Sorry! She made me do it." The titanic nordic looking man says, twisting his neck back and forth as if to relieve strain and lifting a meaty paw to run through his short cropped black hair.
"I did not 'make' you do anything." A much shorter blueish green haired teen says as she steps around the titan to peer frigidly out at the group.
"You said you'd 'kill the door, the floor, and the building, along with everything adjacent to all of those things' if mom didn't let you out of the room and tell you where your boyfriend was. I don't approve of him, by the way." The giant says with a sigh.
"I'm super sorry- are we fighting? Talking? I'm just trying to get a feel for things here." You chime in. The giant turns to look at you and perks up as though to answer, but another high pitched voice interrupts him.
"Whore!" Nemesis yells, appearing in the hallway and pointing angrily at the teal haired woman.
"Virgin." She responds airily.
"Sis, come on. You're being rude to aunty." The giant says with a groan.
"Taylor? Who are these people?" Simone asks with a faux pleasant tone in her voice.
"The uh… the sword and the tree in the courtyard. I… did say the spell wasn't targeted right. It's uh… it's possible I might have brought back significantly more people than just the ones who fought in Endbringer fights." She says sheepishly.
"How… how much power did you have stored in the tower, exactly?" You ask carefully.
"Irrelevant. Mother, I require transport to my boyfriend's house, please." The teal haired woman - Gram, you assume - repeats firmly.
"Gram, you gotta say hi to grandpa and the kids before you leave. Seriously, you're being rude." The giant says.
"...Every second I wait is another moment that some dirty skank might realize how amazing my Greg is." Gram complains loudly.
You restrain the urge to laugh.
Simone does not.
"Greg?" She wheezes, doubling over. "You decided that Greg was the one for you? Aisha has been trying three times as hard as-" Simone begins to say while laughing so hard she snorts like a pig when she inhales. She doesn't really get to finish her statement however, because between one blink and the next, Gram moves from where she was standing to drop kicking the pale-haired girl so hard that Simone all but disappears as she rebounds of the wall and down the stairwell.
"...I will apologize to her, but I regret to inform you that I am straight. I see her as more of a… sister. Yes. A sister." Gram says with an even expression as though she hadn't just removed Simone from the conversation.
"Sis, you just kicked your actual sister straight in her chest." The giant - the tree, you guess, so… you're gonna go with Yew for now - says, crossing his arms in front of himself with a disapproving look. Gram gets a look of annoyance for a moment before her expression smooths out again and she smiles an eerily familiar smile at the giant.
It looks like your Master when she is going to do something malicious.
"You know, Yew, you're right. Why don't you get the whole family together. I'm sure they're around here somewhere. You can introduce me then. You know I'm not good with people. Please?" She says with a simpering tone that gives you the creeps.
"I can just-" Taylor says but Gram turns to glare at her in a manner that is so balefully terrifying that it makes her pause before she can finish.
"Hey! That's a good idea actually! Grandpa is usually out in the yard doing sit-ups and stuff right about now, I bet I can make it from the window if I jump!" The giant says with an almost puppy-like expression of joy on his face.
"Wai-" Your Master starts to say again, no doubt about to point out that she can assemble everyone by portal if she needs to, but she is too late. With a single mighty leap, the giant man turns and jumps out the window before anyone can stop him. His movement is so powerful that a sonic boom pops your eardrums, and you swear the window widened as he approached it to avoid being damaged.
"Uh." You say turning back to your Master only to find Gram standing directly in front of her on her knees with her hands clasped in front of her.
"Pleaaaaaaase Mom? Pleaaaaaase! I haven't seen him in weeks! I'm so lonely!" Gram cries out in a whiny tone.
"Huh. Thought she'd go with threats." You mutter, stepping around your Master and pulling a tag out of her pocket to rip next to Mem and Mun - therefore allowing them to hear again.
"I hate looking pathetic in front of Yew! Hate it!" Gram spits acerbically at you before turning back to Taylor with her bottom lip sticking out as though she is about to cry.
"...Can you promise you won't hurt or kill anyone, and that you'll be back before it gets dark?" Taylor puts forth uncertainly - clearly so off kilter by this entire series of events that she just wants it to be over.
"Yes! Thank you! I love you mom!" Gram cries out, leaping forward to hug your Master and swinging her from side to side fast enough that if she wasn't a superhuman her neck probably would have snapped.
"Hey! Bitch! That's mine!" Nemesis screams at her, rushing forward to punch the teal haired woman in the thigh.
"Just- just go. God, is this what parenting is like? I'm never going to date anyone." Taylor groans, wrenching open a Gap and hurling her new daughter through it.
She passes through with a wide smile on her face, and her fists out, thumbs in the air.
There is a brief pause as your Master looses a tired sigh. And then she speaks.
"Piggot is gonna be soooo mad."
"Piggot? I'm more worried about Aisha." You respond.
Tomorrow is Monday, Choose One (1) - The mall is opening too. You're sure there's no way that goes wrong.
[ ] Patrol The City:
(Choose a target area: The Docks, Downtown, Uptown)
(Choose two people to come with you: Victoria, Clockblocker, Dauntless, Aspirant, Trainwreck, Jess, Danny, Mem & Mun, Oliver, Simone, Gram, Yew)
[ ] Have Taylor take some time out to fortify the Heap with Onmyoudo. (Unavailable during Mall Opening)
[ ] Well, you own a majority in a major shipping company - and all you had to do was trade a few favors. You should… probably look into that.
[ ] Maybe you should check in on the kids? You have no idea how Aisha and the rest have been faring since you dealt with Valefor. (Bonus, the kids come to the Mall opening)
[ ] Well, since you have the time - maybe you can do some public service? When was the last time you were in the Hospital?
[ ] Madison is going to need some time with your Master if she is going to conjure up a device to help her control her powers.
[ ] Weiss has graciously offered to help you arrange to mine that Dust deposit below the city. It might be worth taking her up on the offer. (Bonus, Weiss gets to see the Mall opening)
[ ] Take Time Off (Pick an Extra Social)
Thus ends Arc Seventeen - Diplomatic Immunity (Holy shit arc SEVENTEEN?!)
Choose Two Interludes;
[ ] Leet
[ ] Uppercrust
[ ] Aspirant
[ ] One (Yangban)
It's currently 3am for me so there's no way to get all the Omake shop requests in and thus - if you have an omake shop call, pm me in the next day or so and I will be putting a separate post up for those, or including them in the interludes chosen. Please title the message 'Omake Shop Request' so I recognize it for what it is please.
Thanks for being with me through all these years (holy shit its been years) and I'll see you all in the next Arc;
Hostile Takeover
Last edited: Jun 13, 2022
521
Bowler Hat Guy
Jun 13, 2022
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