[IC] Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

[Lucius Cypher]

Firing Range
Talking to cats

Gren watched with pride as the two girls proceeded to demolish the targets he set out for them. He was glad that his crafts has served them well, and part of him wished to take the both of them out to hunt some real Grimm. However doing so would take up some time and likely cause them to miss out on most of Parent’s Day, which wouldn’t be good for them. Gren knew his mother would certainly be cross if she missed out on her son at school. After Emerald took out her share of targets Gren was about to set up another round when her mother arrived. The cat faunas tossed her weapons towards Gren, who fortunately caught them and safely put them down.

Emerald’s mom was hot. No doubt about that. She still had that cat’s cuteness, but aged up to milf levels. Made Gren kind shy yet at the same time also made him approach Emerald and her mother, bashfully introducing himself. ”Ah, hello. Name’s Gren Orchid. Sorry for getting your daughter distracted with explosions, I couldn’t help but see her in action. Didn’t mean to make her injuries any worse.” Gren wasn’t sure why he was apologizing considering that he wasn’t even aware she had been hurt this entire time, but better to save face in front of Emerald’s mother. He also took note that Diamond was here, and if he wasn’t mistaken, she was Emerald’s partner. To her Gren was much more casual.

”Hey Diamond. What’s shaking?”

@Forsythe@Abillioncats@Pyrodash888

[Forsythe]

Diamond - Range

If she wasn't so much on edge, Diamond might have found the interactions between Ivy and Emerald too cute to live. As it stood though, she was stuck somewhere between raging at Cobalt for not covering his tracks and his past getting up to him, raging against Oswald for just leaving her to do tell this to Emerald alone, being unhealthily jealous of Emerald right now just because she had a family, and being angry with herself for being such a lowly shit as to envy her happiness. She snickered at Emerald getting all flustered after being called by her pet name: "Hey, we already call you that, what's the harm?" She grinned.

A second later, she could add Gren standing entirely too close and being far too familiar to her list of rage inducing things. "Ms. Frost." She shot him a deathly gaze, "What's shaking? I am. So much I need to hit something. Volunteers?" she smiled sickly at the boar faunus, before walking past brushing hardly against his shoulder and heading to take a stand at the range, intent on obliterating a couple of training dummies before she actually hit an innocent bystander. She would let Emerald have a moment with her mother before telling her the bad news.

[Suku]

Monday

"I don't." Cian said with a glare at her brother for bringing something like that up. "So since I dont you need not worry oh fearless leader." She continued her voice laced with contrive for the out of taste jokes at her expense. "Still Jack do you have any plans right now?" She decided to ask it was only polite after all and if anything she was raised to be polite at all times. "Reason I ask I was planning on taking my Tristan to get something to eat and was wondering if you would like to join us."
@Sho Minazuki

[Krayzikk]

@Plank Sinatra @Kaithas @NarayanK

Ohhhh, this was a mistake.

Removed from the situation, even by the briefest of moments, hindsight kicked in. The look from Lauren. The inscrutable smile from her mother. All in attendance knew what was going to be coming next, though it was impossible to tell how soon. Could be within a few minutes, could be hours, but it was coming. The retribution would be painful.

Well. At least it can't be as bad as getting my neck snapped again.

"Well, in that case, let's head that way." Bastille's leader pivoted and let go of Lauren's shoulder to start walking towards their dorm, keeping halfway turned towards the others until he was sure they were also moving and he wasn't just wandering off without them. "I'm curious to meet your Dad. I haven't heard too much about him."

[Lady Seraphina]

Sapphire Rode and Demetra Rode - Corridor

Sapphire looked down when Oswald told Demetra that her older sister had been a good friend to him. Sapphire didn't feel altogether like she'd done anything particularly right since coming to Beacon. Sure it had only been two weeks and as far as academics were concerned she was in decent shape but the problems with her team in that short time felt like they were brewing into a storm that would hit sooner rather than later. Perhaps in comparison to that she had been decent to Oswald though. There night on the town had after all been relatively enjoyable.

"Do you want to go after her?" Sapphire asked motioning to were Diamond had disappeared. "Seemed like the two of your were in the middle of something." She moved behind Oswald's wheelchair and began to push him in the general direction of the gymnasium. If he had somewhere specific he wanted to go she figured he'd tell her. If not it probably wouldn't hurt Oswald to be around other people. His last mission hadn't gone too well, he could do with something to take his mind off it.

As they walked Demetra followed almost despondently beside Oswald's chair. She followed with as little movement as physically possible and he eyes seemed to wash over her surroundings without focusing on anything. Worried that Demetra might be overwhelmed with the number of feelings around her Sapphire tried to make that burden slightly easier. She centered herself in her mind and focused on letting everything fall away, letting her emotions even out and dissipate, leaving only cold thought behind.

"Don't." Demetra said it so quietly Sapphire almost didn't hear.

"Sorry?"

"Don't do that for me. You've got enough going on without having to keep yourself disconnected. Besides," she said with a slight smile turning to look at Sapphire. "It's nice to know you worry about me."

Sapphire smiled almost sweetly. "Always."

"Oswald," Demetra said suddenly.

Sapphire started a bit. Concentrated as she was on her little sister Sapphire had almost forgotten the other huntsman was there despite the fact that she was pushing his wheelchair.

"Look ahead, not behind. You can't change what's been. Whatever you did or failed to do..." She trailed off "No one gains from living in the past. You can learn from your mistakes, let them drive you to do better but if you can't let them go, if you keep living in that place of loss all you will find is loss and you'll suffer for it."

Sapphire closed her eyes waiting for Demetra to finish. She hated it when she spoke that way, like a much much older girl, someone who'd seen far too much and wanted to help others avoid her mistakes. Sapphire did her best to shut out what Demetra had said because whatever insights Demetra gained from people (especially ones like she was speaking of now) Sapphire felt as though she was intruding on a private moment. Still she couldn't help but wonder if Demetra was talking about Oswald's recent mission or something much deeper from his past.
@MULTI_MEDIA_MAN

[Sho Minazuki]

Jack Orpheus

@Suku

An invitation? To eat no less, that sounded nice. Jack was mostly accustomed to eating alone and wandering off wherever took his fancy, not to mention he was getting a bit hungry. He turned to Cian and accepted the offer,

"That'd be nice. I don't think we've really eaten together very often either, so it'd be a nice change of pace", he commented. He was going to mention Luke too, but considering his sisters just ran off looking for the armory... It might be some time until they can get Luke to come along.

"That said do you guys have any plans as to where to go to eat?", he asked.

[MULTI_MEDIA_MAN]

Oswald Connoly- Corridor

Oswald shook his head as his answer to Sapphire's question. "Honestly, I'm not quite sure my presence would be a good thing for my teammates right now. Cobalt...isn't going to be continuing his education at Beacon, and it's left us quite frustrated. I know Diamond's at least as upset as I am about it, and I feel like the two of us would just end up feeding into each other." It was a bit frustrating to be so off-center, but constantly trying to suppress everything he felt hadn't gotten Oswald far in the past. It was probably better to at least let himself feel this right now, even if he was doing his best not to let it take control of him.

He didn't notice Demetra and Sapphire's near-silent conversation, content to take a moment of silence and relax, before the young girl said something shockingly insightful. "That's...a very mature viewpoint to take. I've found that it's quite a bit easier said than done, unfortunately, but it's certainly something worth keeping in mind." Pausing for a moment to collect his thoughts, Oswald turned to Demetra and gave her a small smile. "Has your sister been telling you all about little old me? I'm flattered." He even chuckled for a moment before the inevitable coughing that came when he lost control of his breathing. So much for feeling better....

@Prince of Seraphs

[Crimson Raven]

Ferris Solidor

"Heathen" Ferris sniffed at Charon over his second cup of coffee, gripped firmly in his metal hand so that he could not feel the heat. "One of these days we shall indoctrinate you into Brotherhood of Holy Mocha, and you shall drink deeply and be satisfied." He told him in a lofty voice. He shook his head. "How do we drink it? Enthusiastically, with appreciation, and in great quantities. Cheers." He raised his cup in a mock toast. Then he took a sip. Too hot.

He took another sip.

"Yes, I'm alive." He said, answering Andromeda. "Never underestimate the revival powers of a good, strong cup of Joe."

At the mention of his sword he paused. Then smiled. "Of course not, nothing is 'going down'. I just like being prepared." He lied easily. "I've carried it everywhere for so long, I'd feel naked without it." Which was true at least.

He set his mug down and tucked into the food, cutting off any further questions.

@Caasicam @SuperCustodiam

[Suku]

@Sho Minazuki

Monday

"That said do you guys have any plans as to where to go to eat?"

"To be honest there is no specific place in mind. I was just going to see where the wind takes us per say. Though if you have a idea or in a mood for something I guess that's better than nothing." Cian said honestly though before she could continue speaking was interrupted by a firm hand on her shoulder. "Don't I get say?" Tristan asked "I do have something that I am in the mood for a good hamburger if you don't mind" He said speaking his mind twirling a lolipop around his fingers with nary a thought. "If Jack doesnt mind I suppose that won't be a problem" Cian said she was never picky on her food if it was edible than it was ok hunger and extravegance is the enemy after all.

[Kaithas]

It would have taken a particularly oblivious brick to miss the shift in Lauren's attitude. And Amy may have been built like a house made of them, but she sure as hell wasn't quite that dull.

Her hand twitched at her side.

In all of her expectations for how Parent's Day would go, she'd somehow forgotten to plan for this particular eventuality. She'd thought one of the sets of parents coming might not have liked one of them--hell, she was fairly certain most of them wouldn't approved of her at first or Lauren after seeing her antics--but that would have been easy to deal with. Survive the day, let everything return to equilibrium as soon as they left. Parental opinions be damned.

What she hadn't expected was that their presence would cause some kind of break in Bastille itself, not through any fault of their own but through something one of her teammates said.

...For heaven's sake, she was wearing Costa's daughter's jacket.

And it hurt, for what it was worth. Not deep, but just a dull ache of knowing it'd take a bit to get back to how things had been. Ben was her oldest friend in this new life and Lauren was... Lauren. And she couldn't do anything about it, not right now. Not with her mother around, not while it still felt like something she was watching rather than something she was involved in.

Things would go back to normal, though. After a while.

She walked quickly to catch up with Ben and Lauren. For the moment, she had a somewhat self-involved but definitely critical and pressing concern.

"Um..." There was a long pause as she thought, then decided to push through. She'd already used it once, she may as well try it again. "Lorena? Is your father as... Accepting as Costa is or should I be concerned that your jacket is going to get flayed off of me?"

[Plank Sinatra]

"Huh?"

Lauren turned to her left to catch a glimpse of the ivory-on-ivory figure of Amy Desire drifting up beside her. She was clearly still confused - probably adjusting to being called Lorena without the succeeding words being some variation of "did you steal that car" or "why is this girl out cold" - but it quickly cleared up, along with her surly demeanor, at Amy's question.

"Oh, you'll love Pops!" she exclaimed. "He's pretty chill, always an open-minded type-a guy, taught me everything I know about everything! He also taught me never to get trapped by a stripper, come to think of it...but if I say you're cool, he'll know you're cool!"

She nudged Amy's side, underneath her right arm, with an elbow with a roguish grin.

"Trust me, Desire, the only person you need to worry about flaying your clothes off ain't no threat to you today. Not with Pope Benjamin telling me I have to do forty Hail Marys and carry a crucifix from here to Redwood before I get to be a real girl again." She made a half-hearted kick at the back of Ben's knee before her Scroll buzzed. Reaching down into her shirt and withdrawing the device, she read the text with eyebrows that arched together faintly as she went along:

Sender: Estelle Nuit [STATUS: SCAMMED WEEK 1]
Recipient: Roarin' Lauren Negasi
Message: Hey. Uh, this is Stella. By any chance do you have my credit card?

I need it back.

Gulp.

It wasn't between her boobs.

Lauren patted down the pockets of Ben's stolen jeans, trying to make sure that she hadn't slipped her best friend the Survival professor's stolen credit card in her drunken stupor Friday night. But no dice.

Just to be sure, she reached over and squeezed Ben's ass, two handed, to check for a card. No card.

Her jacket, maybe?

Lauren leaned over and peeked down the front of her favorite piece of clothing, peering between her teammate's boobs in hopes of finding a limitless credit card tucked safely in the hawk Faunus' chest.

But no dice.

G u l p.

Sender: Roarin' Lauren Negasi
Recipient: Estelle Nuit [STATUS: SCAMMED WEEK 1]
Message:

I'll keep an eye out!

"Check the pockets, will ya, babe?" she asked casually. "Did I leave a candy bar in there or something? I'm feeling peckish."

[NaraK]

She remained silent, quietly watching everyone talk.

She remained passive, staying at the sidelines to let everyone interact. Sangue’s reserved nature did not get in the way of her friends, and that let her watch them with nothing to distract her.

She followed them quietly, her expression as idle as ever. Sangue saw Lauren’s face contort into a more serious expression for a split moment, but she did not make much of it when she quickly returned back to normal. Sangue saw Amy’s hand twitch, but found nothing too alarming about it.

But when Lauren squeezed Ben’s butt, Sangue took a moment to try understanding what she just did.

It seemed that Lauren was trying to find something.

Blinking, Sangue stared at her own chest, then at the way Lauren checked hers and Amy’s. She glanced at Ben's behind, and then at her chest again.

Perhaps something could be unknowingly stuck in her body?

Without making any noise to gather attention to herself, Sangue cautiously took a peek at her breasts, softly pulling aside the bandages that covered it. When she found nothing out of the ordinary, she pulled the bandages up and lowered her hands as she indirectly glanced behind herself.

Mimicking Lauren, she squeezed her butt softly. Then she remembered how tightly Lauren squeezed at Ben, so her grip tightened. She did it again just to make sure nothing clung onto her.

Nothing.

She did not have anything out of the ordinary on her.

Sangue assumed she did not do anything stupid enough to trouble her teammates.

That was good.

Her expression remaining as idle as ever, she looked up and continued to trail behind her teammates quietly and obediently.

_{@Kaithas@Plank Sinatra@Krayzikk}

[Crimmy]

@HereComesTheSnow@Write

Teàrlag Cirsium - Armoury

She was the Survival teacher's sister? That explained why the two lasses looked so similar. Not that I knew Ms. Nuit (or 'Stella', if the kid's right) that well, but they told us about her at one of the teacher meetings. I don't think we do bugger-all else beside stuff that like that, really. It's mostly for appearances so that folks don't start complaining that we don't do enough admin.

But anyway, I guess these brats have some other stuff going on.

Might be time for me to skedaddle serenely away.

"I won't keep you too long then," I say to the black-haired brat. "I'll give you the rest of the details on your Scroll later."

The wonders of technology made communication so much easier.

[Krayzikk]

@Plank Sinatra @Kaithas @NarayanK

Blue eyes rolled in their sockets at the halfhearted kick to the back of his knee.

They turned to his left when Lauren's hands found his ass, eyebrows arching up a few degrees. Ben observed as she, quietly clearly, searched for something on Amy's person. Rolling the clock back in his head a little, it wasn't really hard to figure out what. Lawnslot would have been a lot harder to lose, so would the hand bag they'd bet on, which leeeft...

Ohhhh, beautiful. Just beautiful.

He thought, for a second, about getting her attention with a tap on the shoulder. He'd been just as drunk when they got back to the dorm, but he had a few ideas on where it might be. Lauren hadn't exactly put much away before she passed out. Chances are her father would have found it at the dorm, anyway. But then he considered how the morning had gone so far, how she'd proven a point, how she'd searched him, and came to a pretty simple decision. Obviously the best way to make up for shutting her down earlier was to get back at her. That'd get her attention and make amends.

It was definitely what Lauren would do.

Bastille's Cap moved a half step closer while they walked, reached over, and casually squeezed the seat of the pants she'd stolen from him. Once. Twice. And that was a score settled.

"Pretty sure you put it in the dorm, babe."

[Crimmy]

@Plank Sinatra@Ayazi@Silvan Haven@HereComesTheSnow@Write

0.75 Mindaro

"Papa, mama, please stop your reckless enabling of Venetia's ego," interrupted a cool and detached voice from the doorway. "Elle a déjà une haute opinion d'elle-même. It really doesn't need to be any larger."

Gratia Mindaro stepped past the threshold that divided the VGNB dormitory from the hallway, hands enveloped deeply within the pockets of her chartreuse winter coat. Her impassive gaze surveyed the room, dispassionate ebon eyes taking in all that was before her. With the exception of the intruders, the space was essentially unchanged from its appearance earlier in the morning. That was of no import to her whatsoever. Even Piper's unexpected presence, if he were to prove to be a threat once more, was unimportant to her immediate goals. Interrogation could wait. Her attention slid past him with the same clinical indifference she afforded to the unknown woman that was likely an associate of the Faunus girl's and the ruffled, unwise fashion choices of her team leader, lingering only for the barest of milliseconds on Vega Venetia's appearance before her eyes reached their target.

"You've been making yourselves at home," she spoke, something flickering in her composed tone. "Is my room that interesting?"

Valentinian was the first to respond, a large smile finding its way onto his face as his own steely eyes met those of his firstborn daughter. "Bien sûr!" he exclaimed, happiness evident in his voice. "We wanted to know if you've been taking care of yourself!"

"Not much faith you have in me, Papa."

"You're aware he didn't mean that," Severa Mindaro added, her giggles ringing like chimes from beside her husband. "Although, we are concerned about that strange straw-haired doll; is it representative of anyone you l-"

"Fuck no!" was the immediate protest.

Valentinian coughed, holding out a hand. Gratia threw a lien coin his way.

"Definitely not," she amended, hands returning to her pocket as vehement denial creeped into her words. "The doll doesn't represent anything like that. And that's final."

Her parents stared at her for a second. She refused to budge under their questioning gazes.

They stared harder.

Gratia Mindaro couldn't help but smile.

"I've missed you!" she cried out joyfully as she stepped forth to pull her parents into a hug, their warmth pressing against her. They smelled of home. "I was worried you wouldn't be able to come!"

"Tu nous a manqué aussi, Gratia," said Valentinian, softly ruffling her hair. "Did you think we'd ditch a chance to visit our girl?"

"He was very intent on counting down the days to our visit," agreed the Mindaro matriarch in a mischevous tone, kissing her daughter's cheek. "Some days he couldn't even sleep!"

"Dear, you promised not to tell!"

Gratia giggled at the protestation on her father's face. Bubbles of happiness were rising inside of her. She had truly, truly missed them.

[HereComesTheSnow]

@Crimmy@Write

Maximum Overschwarz

There was a bustle of hustle, and in the span of under a minute, the once-sizable group had reduced to only two young women, both of whom coincidentally happened to be the youngest of their respective families.

Looking off at the rapidly dissipating dust cloud left behind by a certain lanky fistfighter, Dawn shook her head and sighed with a knowing smile before returning her attention to one Galla Mindaro.

"Sisters, right?"

After all, despite not being in as much of an outright hurry nor in anything resembling the outrage, Gratia-san had also taken off to go meet with the rest of her family, too. However, there was a key difference in what one could expect from the outcomes between the two—

"Well," she continued, languidly stretching her arms and back, "I had better go make sure April leaves enough of Onii-chan in one piece for Mama and Papa to get here in time. Would you like to come with, Galla?"

---

A saint! You're a saint, Cirsium-sensei! You may not know it, but you're absolutely a saint!

I immediately turned back to the lilac-haired girl woman, clapped my hands together, and gave a small bow while earnestly mouthing my words.

Thank you SO MUCH.

Hopefully, I did so with a little more composure than the pit in my stomach was telling me I felt. At the very least, I had to at least not have looked so pale I could have seen a ghost, right?

And on the subject of pale—

I turned back to the two Nuits, one my age and one my senior, and offered them my best smile. It probably was shakier than it should have been, but in fairness, so was my immediate future. I couldn't waste too much time worrying about whether or not I looked spooked...

I mean, it really isn't like I wasn't in the first place.

"So, coffee? Sure, that sounds fine by me! Why don't we get going and--"

tap tap tap

Even as I rose, resolved to shut my project off for another time, and started towards the two, I was interrupted by the distinct sound of knuckle rapping on glass that stopped me cold.

I turned—

And there in the window, a tall man in a Hawaiian shirt, with tan cargo shorts, unkempt blonde hair, and wearing a breezy grin that simultaneously filled my heart with dread and annoyance stood.

Tanner Oshino had come to pay me a visit.

That cryptic asshole. Just my luck.

"Great."

Reading my lips, he snickered, raising a hand in greeting as his foxlike eyes flitted between each person in the room, appraising everyone in the span of a second. I hated how he did that, I really did. Acts like he can see right through you, and is good enough to make you believe he actually can.

Wait until you hear Cirsium-sensei's real age, man, I'll see you thrown for a loop yet.

"What do you want?" I asked, narrowing my eyes in suspicion. After all, if he was here, then that had to mean...

Leaning forward, my mother's old teammate took a deep breath before exhaling on the glass and fogging it up real nicely.

Okay, why? I don't care how good at reading people you are, you can't do it through something opaque!

My questions answered themselves as a fingertip suddenly appeared, tracing a sharp line across a small region. With deft, short, and clean strokes, he continued until he'd quickly left a message in plain Shiroyaman kanji and hiragana.

"Hashire—"

Run.

Oh, hell.

"I've been trying, dammit!" I shouted, making a beeline for the exit. Mind singularly consumed by the will to escape, I brushed past Bianca and threw the door open--

"YOU WORTHLESS SCUMBAAAAAAAAG!"

KRUNNCH.

"Ghk!"

And my world was filled with rubber sole.

We flew back, her momentum sending me crashing into the far wall whilst she no doubted gracefully landed and skidded to a clean stop.

Why on earth did anyone decide to teach that damn girl how to kick?!

"Agh..."

"How dare you try and run from your own family! You hate us that much?!" she demanded of me in a hotblooded growl, accompanying her words with the sound of a clenched fist.

Clutching my hand to my face, I kept my mouth shut until everything rearranged back into normal position. You'll kill someone if this is your modus operandi, you moron!

"Answer me, Luke! You hate us or what?!"

"Anyone would hate someone who kicks them in the face, April!"

I had to do it. I really cannot help myself in these situations.

I fired back. And rising to my feet I continued on the counteroffensive. After all, in her haste, she'd made one crucial misstep.

"And all this nonsense about me avoiding you two aside, what in the hell was your plan if somebody else had opened the door? There are other people in this room, moron." I stated, rolling my neck before gesturing to everyone else present.

Thew effect was immediate, and as she snapped out of her singleminded focus on me, I could see her eyes darting between the trio of people she also might have kicked in a panic. For a girl who could be sharp as a whip, she was seriously bullheaded sometimes...

"... Ah, aaaaaIIII would have just have just, eh... pulled it?" she offered weakly, accompanying it with an equally non-assuring laugh.

"Ba~ka~." I singsonged in perfect deadpan.

Her shoulders slumped, and I knew her sense of justice was telling her just how stupid she was being on its own. She didn't really need my help, so in the spirit of making amends, I kept things brief.

Walking forward with a weary sigh, I reached up to the girl three and a half years younger and yet one inch taller than me and rapped her one upside the head. One part reprimand, two parts retribution.

The perfect resolution.

"Owwww..." she grumbled.

Like you have any right to complain, nosecrusher!

"...Anyways, you oughta introduce yourself, right?"

"Oh, uh yeah. E-herm!" she replied, perking up a little before bowing deeply and politely at the waist. "Please pardon my intrusion. My name is April Schwarz, and I'm Luke's younger sister! My hobbies are Karate and vigilante justi--"

I very pointedly jabbed her in the side with my elbow.

Stop being a weirdo!

"--I mean, uh, community service! I'm pleased to meet all of you, and I'm glad my hapless--"

"Ngk!"

I pulled back to jab her again, but she cut me off by stomping on my toe and forced me into little more than a pained grimace.

"--big brother is in your care!"

"...And there you have it." I said through partially grit teeth, only just maintaining my composure. "Please forgive this idiot sister of mine for her little personal crusade, and try to be understanding."

"Yeah, and please continue to be patient with this numbskull brother of mine," she ground out through her own polite smile in equal measure. "For my part, I completely understand if you feel all Kami-sama Vult about him."

We missed eachother.

Probably.

[Write]

The Nuit's.
[@Here Comes The Snow], @Plank Sinatra, @Crimmy

I gave a warm smile to Ms. Cirsium as she began to bow out of the conversation. I prepared to take Estelle and Luke to the little café just outside of Beacon as I began to pat my various objects of import – just to make sure I had everything before I left. Turning to Luke and nodding, I felt a… Disturbance?

There was this kind of rumbling. Almost as if cataclysm followed behind us. W-what was it?

Well, at first it was just a man in a Hawaiian shirt. That… Was odd. Luke seemed grated just by his presence so I immediately thought it was his father, or – something. They spoke quietly and briefly, they clearly didn’t mince words between the two of them. I thought about asking a question, but before I could Luke turned to me with a nice smile indicating it was time to go for coffee. Happily I glanced at Estelle – she seemed ready to leave too.

Luke opened the door and before I could fully blink he was on the floor.

The girl argued with Luke in a way that reminded me all too much of myself when Estelle and I were littler, when we would fight for mum’s time and affection. It was sweet. Even if it was also overly violent. She got up, introduced herself. The two Schwarz’s even managed to stop fighting long enough to complete two full sentences.

“Well, April, it is a pleasure to meet you.” My knees folding into a proper curtsey as they had so many other times.

Estelle simply gave a bit of a nod and wave. “Nice to meet you April – I’m Bianca’s older sister.” She said with a strong grin.

Realizing this was quickly turning into a Schwarz family reunion I thought it’d be best to head out now. So with that I smiled once more at Luke’s family and left to meet the cold air.

---

On days like this I found it fairly easy to keep a fair amount of warmth by tucking my wings in close to my body. However, for some reason I still seemed to be colder than usual.

“You seem worried.” Estelle pointed out obtusely not glancing away from the sidewalk as we walked in a now broken silence.

“No, I’m not.” I said attempting to reassure my older sister. But that the thing about older sisters – They never take your word for it.

“What time are you picking up dad?” She said, an audible dissatisfaction threatening to ruin Estelle’s attempts at placation.

“In two hours he’s supposed to be getting in.” I responded, it was only now starting to sink in for me too.

Entering the café the scents of peppermint, cinnamon and other wonderful, refreshing things filled my senses. I took a booth seat opposite of Estelle now that I was face to face with her… She seemed more upset than I had realized. I didn’t want to talk more about dad. Estelle and I rarely fought but when we did it was about him.

“So,” I began probing my mind for ulterior conversation topics. "The Mindaro's are here." I said with a positive tone.

"Nice! Must've been a long time since you've seen them, huh?" Estelle said taking a sip of her coffee with a smile.

"Yeah, I love when they visit. They're just the perfect family - y'know?" I said nearly day dreaming about them.

"Mhm." Estelle said somewhat dejected. “I have an interesting story for you.” She began a small smile working the way in from the corner of her lips.

“Oh! Perfect.” I said happily crossing my right leg over my left.

“I went to the bar the other day.” Estelle said, pushing part of her hair over her right ear.

“Oh.” I said, realizing this was going to be like just about every other story Estelle used to share with me when I was younger.

“No! This is exciting stop.” She insisted waving a hand in my face, forcing a small grin out of me. “So there was this girl-“

“This is exactly like every other story!” I protested. My sister was nice, back in the day some even boasted about her temperance. But that was more or less how you found out who really knew Estelle. She was anything but. Any story from her nights out involved drinking and some cute girl who was definitely the one until proven otherwise at the next convenient juncture.

“No! But it isn’t! Because, okay. So she approached me in her kind of, I think she used her sexy walk.” Estelle began eliciting a laugh from me, but she continued. “So she approaches me and she’s all: Hey baby I just took your purse, now I’m gonna take your heart.”

...

“Estelle were you scammed?” I asked not really understanding the sexiness of taking someone’s purse I guess.

“What? No! I wasn’t mugged she just took my purse at first! Then she sat down for a second, we had a chat and I gave her my credit card for her number.” She stopped looking blankly into my eyes. Almost passed me as she continued to stare in silence. I took a loud sip of my cappuccino. “I think I was scammed.” She said her cold hands cupping her to-go coffee cup.

We continued on for a few minutes sharing laughs, I also shared the advice of getting her credit card back because Estelle had hit a new low for how thirsty she had gotten. This was getting ridiculous. But as time passed our meager few minutes was up and Estelle too had to bow out patting my head as she walked passed to the door. I heard the bells chime and suddenly, I was alone.

But not before too long my phone jumped to life buzzing loudly on the table.

“Hello?” I answered with a bright tone in my voice.

“Is that how you answer the phone?” A familiar voice rung out crystal clear over my phones speakers.

“O-oh, no father. Sorry.” I responded quietly, I wasn’t expecting him so soon.

“I’m at the airport how soon can you be here?” He asked, annoyed.

“I can be there in twenty minutes.” I answered, preemptively grabbing my coat.

“Ah, I thought you’d be ready on time today of all days. I’ll simply use a town car. I have a few errands to do while I’m in Vale, you may expect me at the school in three hours. Goodbye.”

“Bye d-“

The phone call ended. I put the phone down and took a sip of my cappuccino once more. Today was going to be hard.

[NaraK]

She followed them.

She watched as Ben returned a certain gesture to Lauren as he spoke to her, potentially telling her where the item she was looking for was at. Sangue did not know what exactly Lauren looked for, but if she looked for it so frantically, it must have been something important.

But still, it calmed her.

To see them having fun with each other.

Even if she did not know why it was necessarily fun to grab each other, she did not question it. She trusted that she'd naturally learn from her friends.

It was strange.

Long ago, she did not even consider that having friends would be possible.

But here they were, allowing someone as unsociable as her follow them. Help them, if her meager swordsmanship was even considered helpful compared to their loaded weapons and strengths.

Sangue followed them silently, her expression as idle as ever.

Today was a good day, and it certainly seemed like it would continue to be so- as long as she did not serve as a burden to BASL. Now she just needed to learn about why squeezing butts could potentially be some kind of cultural tradition in Vale, considering how much BASL seemed to be doing it.

@Plank Sinatra@Krayzikk@Kaithas

[Silvan Haven]

@Plank Sinatra@Write@Crimmy@Ayazi

Beacon Academy-Vignoble Dorm
Beryl Harken

Beryl's attention was momentarily drawn to her scroll as it buzzed at her. A smile brightened her face as she read Bianca's message. Coffee somewhere would be perfect. It was a bit difficult to have a relaxed conversation with all the parents in their dorm room.

She started typing out an agreement to the plan, only paying attention to the rest of the room with a corner of her mind.

Gratia cursed vehemently followed by the sound of something being caught out of the air.

Sender: Beryl Harken
Recipient: Group - Hunter in the streets, Grimm in the sheets (Bianca Nuit, Gratia Mindaro, Lucas Schwarz, Jericho Piper)
Message: Sounds great. I need an excuse to get Lasai out of the dorm an

A sound broke her concentration. It was of such an impossible combination that it couldn't have done anything else.

Happiness?

...

Gratia?

Her eyes flicked up towards the completely impossible sight before her. Gratia was hugging her parents and there was an emotion in her voice besides one of her infinite variations of disgust. More than that she sounded happy.

It turned out that the young Faunus could do a wonderful impression of a statue if given the right motivation. Her mouth would of been hanging open had she been capable of movement.

Lasai glanced back and forth between her adoptive daughter and the happy family across the room before pulling out a beaten up scroll and fiddling with something on it.

[Crimmy]

@HereComesTheSnow

Mindaro Mondays - Galla

"Sure."

Despite the complete lack of emotion or interest in her tone, the short reply from the stoic young girl was one of agreement. She had dropped the notebook her big sister had provided into her bag, hefting it further up onto her shoulder to prevent it from falling. Gratia had tasked her with noting down anything interesting about the hair of the pair of sisters and the brother she had yet to meet. The twitching of the unruly strands were something she didn't particularly care about, but she knew that her sister would be incensed by them if their presence lacked explanation. Big sister was stubborn like that.

If Gratia Mindaro wanted her to record everything, then Galla would unquestioningly do so.

There was no real reason to pry.

"Where are they?" she asked in the same, unchanging tone, hazel eyes turning upon Dawn.

It was a hollow question. Her family would want to know where she had gone. It didn't matter to her, but they would want the information.