[@Plank Sinatra] [color=ffcf40][b]April Schwarz[/b] "What, completely hopeless? Yeah, pretty much!"[/color] the girl scoffed, before returning to that same wide and inexplicably infectious grin as she threw her hands behind her head. [color=ffcf40]"Nihihi! But, nah... He used to be a whole lot worse, really. Like, yeah, we bug eachother like siblings are supposed to and all, but..."[/color] As Jericho's observant golden eyes doubtlessly noticed, her smile actually narrowed into something smaller. Gentler. Warmer. Her restless arms brought her left wrist forward, and that tender, genuine smile was just barely reflected in the glass of the nondescript, yet instantly recognizable watch it now bore. Quietly, moreso than any of her verbalizations before, she chuckled and spoke. [color=ffcf40]"Well, he's a lot like you in there being a decent guy beneath the grumpus, I guess."[/color] It turned up to the Atlesian, suddenly assaulting his carefully guarded and composed veneer of professionalism with simple contentment as a little sister. April wasn't entirely aware or concerned with the fact that he was trying to maintain that demeanor— to her, you just simply were. And as an obvious big brother trying to hide himself beneath a suave and debonair secret agent, it was only right that she, being an open and proud little sister, be a curveball thrown at that mask, wittingly or not. [color=ffcf40]"So!"[/color] she began after a brief period, ratcheting back up to the megawatt grin and energy without as much as a single skipped beat. [color=ffcf40]"How's an Atlas boy like you end up stuck over here in Vale, Jer-kun? Are you mid-transfer, or something?"[/color] This was the crux of Dawn's grand plan. Nii-chan hadn't been much of a texter at all in his life, going 14 years without a single contact in his phone before losing the only one he'd gotten six months later in an event best described with fire and brimstone, but in terms of the decay in the amount of information they were getting from him, it had reached an unacceptable level! All he had reported in with were questions about building a scouter and 'hey guess what cruise trip', for pete's sake! How on earth, then, could they keep track of their poor wayward sibling? The grand Schwarz rehabilitation project was bound to fail if its subject were to go unresponsive for weeks at a time! Luckily, Dawn was a great planner and Human Relations type, and had quickly come up with a safety net. [hr] [i][color=00aeef]See, nee-san, following him would be the juice.[/color] [color=ffcf40]The juice?[/color] [color=00aeef]The juice. Temporary. We spend a little more time seeing him in action and grilling him about how he's doing, but what happens once family day's done with?[/color] [color=ffcf40]...We're back to square one, and our data flow is gone. You're right, that is juice! [/color] [color=00aeef]Mm, juice. But sauce, sticky and gooey and savory and hard to move as it is...[/color] [color=ffcf40]Yeah, what's the sauce?[/color] [color=00aeef]The sauce is letting him run off, maybe get lost, maybe not—and using that time away to build a network![/color] [color=ffcf40]Oh my god you're right! Sis! That's completely sauce, we can just ask all of them how he's doing and what he's up to if he won't talk to us![/color] [color=00aeef]Exactly, and he'd never let us talk to them if he was around, so this is a great opportunity![/color] [color=ffcf40]Right, we'd "annoy" them.[/color] [color=00aeef]And we only "annoy" him.[/color] [color=ffcf40]But he doesn't know that![/color] [color=00aeef]Or doesn't acknowledge it.[/color] [color=ffcf40]Maybe doesn't realize it?[/color] [color=00aeef]In any case, that's the sauce. Besides, these people are all really nice![/color] [color=ffcf40]Yeah, they're super cool! One's even an alien![/color] [color=00aeef]Who, Vega-san? No, that's just high fashion.[/color] [color=ffcf40]Oh. I'm not big on fashion, I couldn't tell.[/color] [color=00aeef]I don't think she is either, but she doesn't realize it.[/color] [color=ffcf40]Should we tell her?[/color] [color=00aeef]No, that'd be mean. Let's just nudge her along.[/color] [color=ffcf40]We can do that![/color] [color=00aeef]Absolutely! Oh, the order's getting big, so you can start on Jer-kun while I try and resuscitate Bianca-san, sound good?[/color] [color=ffcf40]You bet! Say no more, sis![/color][/i] [hr] So the best way to start on things with Jericho was pretty simple: figure out why an Atlesian Gold Stripe, the cream of Atlas's fertile crops, was doing here in Vale amongst Beacon students, of course! The Valic-Atlesian rivalry, while friendly after the marriage of Brennan Griese and Kawaguchi Umeko, was definitely still a thing! Oh, wait, Umeko was Atlesian-born and Vacuan-educated, wasn't she? Wasn't there one of them on her team from Vale? Eh, it likely wouldn't matter in the long run. What was more important was, right down to the grouchiness, dry wit, and weird internet humor ([color=00a651][i]shut up[/i][/color]), there was no denying it: This debonair boy totally would get along with their Nii-chan, and making him a surrogate elder brother by extension would offer a wealth of insight! If he was gonna stick around! If not, he'd be good for Signal tips, probably!