[Carmim Clover]

❝ AURA: 94% TAG: @surprise! NOTES: Bonus trauma. WORDS: 1115 | TWC: 7619 HAVE YOU SEEN HER? HAVE YOU HEARD? THE WAY SHE MOVES, THERE ARE NO WORDS Sienna's instructions made sense, at least. And Carmim wasn't one to underestimate someone else's skills or knowledge- though she did wonder briefly how Sienna knew so much about escaping from broken elevators. She didn't do this sort of thing regularly, did she? Nah, that would be dumb. Realistically, it was just because the other redhead was just really, really, smart. She nodded along with each instruction, her eyebrows furrowed as she tried hard to remember each and every step of the way. Crouching down, back to back. Lock arms at the elbow. Feet on the wall. Push backs together. Walk backwards. That was a frightening prospect. Not that she couldn't, or didn't know how to, walk backwards. Just the fact that they wouldn't be able to see how far away the ground was until they reached it. And that if anything happened to the glass walls on the elevator's way down, they wouldn't know it until it was already too late. But as scary as it was, it wasn't like they had any better options, so she was just going to listen to Sienna, and do what the other girl suggested. It was still her job to make sure that she made it out of there alive and well, after all; that's what Huntresses were for. Saving lives. Helping people. She couldn't afford to mess this up. Sienna's tone might have also been a helpful thing, in the situation, had she been outside of her own head enough to notice it, amidst the instructions. Calm, and straightforward. For a second, she got a flash of Shadecloak in her mind's eye, before dismissing it as unimportant, and unrelated to anything else. Maybe in a less stressful situation, she'd have thought to question why, and how, Sienna seemed so calm, like she was going through something as routine as getting dressed in the morning, or brushing her teeth. But it wasn't a less stressful situation, so the smaller redhead waited for Sienna's signal, and further instructions. As she watched her crouch down, she felt herself wobble a bit in the wind, but her stance was solid and firm, and she knew she could hold onto Sienna if needed- which she did, as she felt another, smaller, gust blow past. Back to back, elbows locked. Those were the easiest steps, and she filled her role easily enough. Next was the hard part. Gripping the support beam. It was a very good thing that she wasn't exactly scared of heights, as she could feel herself being held up solely by Sienna, while her feet reached out for a foothold on the wall. She'd said that she wouldn't be very steady, but there was nothing else quite like feeling that, firsthand. She needed to let her know when she was ready, but ready was definitely a word she would never dream of using to describe anything they were about to do. "Okay. I am ready." Her arm lifted up, as explained, as she listened for the countdown. She winced, bracing for Sienna to let go, and for the inevitable sliding. It was a lot faster than she expected, and a lot rougher. Wrapping her arm around the other girl's, she threw her back towards Sienna with what felt like less than her full strength, but the sliding didn't stop immediately. She was really trying not to hurt the other girl- what would happen if she slammed into her as hard as she could, and it broke her back, or worse? But they were still falling, so she couldn't worry about that. As soon as she could tell she hadn't pressed hard enough, she rammed herself as hard as she could against her elevator escape partner. It didn't feel like she'd hurt her. At least, she didn't hear any crunch or any other sounds that would indicate she'd accidentally injured one half of their chance of survival. "Are you okay?" she called out, voice cracked and ragged from the lung-sucking terror of falling down an elevator shaft into a hard mountainside, the second they stopped moving. It was the same moment Sienna chose to speak up, their voices overlapping for a split second. She would have preferred some verbal confirmation that she was fine, but hearing her voice was plenty enough. She stared forward at her feet, glad she was forced to wear those uncomfortable little foot prisons. Thanks, random doorman guy! The smell of burnt rubber unpleasantly filled the air, and she could see little streaks against the glass. That probably would have hurt a lot more without shoes. Plus, she probably wouldn't have had as much traction, which was really the thing that saved them, in the end. Her left foot moved first. And then her right. Slowly walking, she felt more and more confident that they could get down, as they went. It was a quiet walk, punctuated only by the steady and repetitive string of lefts and rights, alongside heavy breathing and the sound of footsteps against glass. She had no idea how far up they were, or how far down they had to go, but they couldn't hear anyone on the ground yet, so she could only assume they were still pretty far u- What the fuck was... Oh shit. "Glass!" It was blurted out abruptly, and in a slightly shriller voice than she'd have liked. And for good reason- from far overhead, she could see what at first looked like tiny specks of dust floating down towards them. But they weren't all that tiny. And they weren't dust. And importantly, they weren't floating. They were falling. Maybe one of the window-like panes, far above them, broke and fell inwards. Maybe something else was wrong with the elevator. Maybe some asshole upstairs thought it'd be fun to toss a rock into the elevator shaft or something, but either way, they had bunches of shards of glass flying at them at pretty high speeds. It was high enough up that they had maybe a second or less to do anything about it, but frankly there wasn't much she could think of, to do, unless her companion had some kind of idea. She just had to hope that Sienna didn't get cut up too badly. Her own Aura was strong enough to take the brunt of it, but she was definitely more concerned about the much more fragile civilian with her. Her instinct was to move out of the way, but luckily, her willpower was higher, and she recognized that they had to stay the course, no matter what. But damn, was that difficult to do, while staring down suddenly-much-larger bits of pointy danger.

LAIKA OF GS!

[Sinopia DeStellanova]

Everything started out smoothly enough. She was able to match her speed with Carmim's easily enough and they got into a rhythm pretty quickly. Her body was tense, which wasn't good given how long they were going to have to climb like this, but she couldn't make herself relax. It was taking everything she had to make sure remembered to breathe and that she and the trainee stayed in step. Her mind couldn't stop thinking about everything that could go wrong, even while she was trying to give those rhythmic orders. She watched the glass for any faults between double checking to make sure the trainee's speed or stride length hadn't changed, looking as far down and in as many directions as she could manage in such short time periods. Unfortunately, she couldn't see behind her very well. The reflections in the class weren't good enough for her to keep a close eye on anything over there, so she'd have to rely on the trainee to spot them and have the presence of mind to inform her of them. The idea offended her sensibilities and made her clench her teeth, but there was nothing to be done about it.

After awhile, she at least had confirmation that the trainee might actually be able to do that. Maybe. It was hard to tell what was going on above them, and she couldn't afford time to look up there because she had to focus on what was happening where they would actually be climbing. Even her ears could only do so much to pick up sound if it was distant. The movement of the falling glass caught her eye just as Carmim was yelling about it, but by then there wasn't anything to be done about it. If they moved away from their current position, they'd have to take a far bigger risk by getting back into it than they would letting their auras take the glass.

No, that was wrong. There was a lot she could do about it. She could easily pull herself towards the glass walls and hide in a corner until the glass passed, then ratchet herself down the elevator from the corner. It's not like she needed the trainee to get out of there. Getting in and out of places she didn't belong was something she spent most of her life doing, and considering the only thing she really needed to do here was climb, it should have been easy. Should have been, but it was complicated by there being another person here. The temptation to drop the trainee would always be in the back of her mind, but she still had no intention of indulging it. She just let a sharp breath out of her nose, and prepared for impact.

"Stop moving."

Red stopped where she was, but would take additional steps if the trainee did just so they didn't get out of sync. The phrasing was picked intentionally. It was easy to get into a rhythm and zone out when all she was doing was calling out when to take another step, so she picked a phrase that had a different number of syllables and still had the important part of the order at the beginning. Hopefully that would be enough to make it register as something different because it could be dangerous if one of them got some glass under their feet. While she wasn't worried about stepping on broken glass, she was quite worried about slipping on it. By keeping their feet in place, they reduced the odds of something like that happening. Plus, it meant they wouldn't be distracted by having a bunch of glass hit their faces.

"Brace for impact."

All she could do to prepare herself for the hail was turn her face to the side, and even then she couldn't turn that far. It'd hopefully keep it out of her eyes because she wasn't sure if her aura would hold out. It was very flimsy, and had already had a fall and a bunch of glass beat on it. At least turning like this would protect her eyes somewhat if her aura did shatter.

Even with aura, having a bunch of glass rain on her wasn't very pleasant. She had to stop herself from twitching and flinching too much as to avoid causing too much movement or disconnect between her and the trainee. Too much movement could cause them to fall, and while a little bit of twitching probably wouldn't do it, she didn't want to take any chances. Unfortunately, with her arms like this, she couldn't really protect her face with her hands and arms, nor was she able to protect her hat. A relatively large one hit the brim of it, knocking it off her head and sending it down the elevator shaft. Her eyes widened in horror as she watched it disappear down the shaft and her ears sprang back up.

Red's faunus ears were large, even by faunus standards. There were a bit more than half as tall as her head was long, and given she had a long face, they added a good six inches to her overall height when they were standing upright rather than being squished under a hat or hood. It made them more difficult to hide than most faunus ears. She either needed something heavy that'd be kind of lumpy, like the oversized hood on her coat, or something rigid that would push her ears down, like the hat she was just wearing. If she wore something like a beanie, something she saw other faunus do a lot, then it would be standing straight up because the material was too light to weigh her ears down and soft enough that it would conform to the shape of her ears rather than making her ears conform to it. And now those stupid, massive ears were completely exposed. At least their heads were far enough apart that Carmim was unlikely to feel them brush against her as they sprung up, but Red had no idea how well the trainee would be able to see them in the glass' reflections. She would need another distraction.

But the onslaught wasn't over yet. Her aura was being chipped away with each shard of glass that hit her until it simply couldn't take anymore. Her body flashed orange, and the sound of an aura shattering rang with the falling glass. Her aura was so flimsy and weak, small, not good for anything it was supposed to do. Truly an accurate manifestation of her soul. The last few shards of glass flew past her face, one of them leaving a good welt and left a shallow cut on her cheek as it grazed her. The injury was so minor she wasn't worried about that, but with her aura gone anything else that went wrong would actually hurt her. She was going to have to be careful. On the bright side, with her ears no longer pressed against her head, she was more likely to hear anything else coming.

With the glass gone, she had to figure out what to do next and she had to figure it out fast before Carmim could figure out anything that just happened. As much as relying on the trainee for anything offended Red's sensibilities, she had to for now, and asking for something would be a pretty solid distraction. Before the blood even had time to start dripping from her wound, she spoke up. Her voice was slow and deliberate, maybe partially to make sure she was understood, but more to give herself time to think without leaving any kind of pause.

"I can't see behind me. Can you keep an eye on our path downwards to make sure nothing is broken? What about checking for further debris upwards as well?"

She'd give Carmim enough time to think about that before continuing to say which foot they should be moving next. They couldn't stay hanging like this for too long, or they'd risk getting tired. However, she also didn't want to surprise the trainee, so she'd make sure the trainee was ready before they continued downwards. If glass was falling like that, there could have been something bad going on further up, so she picked up the pace. Hopefully it wouldn't tire them out more, but she didn't think they could afford to take their time here.

She could do this. They were making progress, and she wouldn't consider herself hurt over something so small. Her hat would probably be sitting at the bottom of the elevator shaft, so she could pick it up once they got there. All she had to do was make sure Carmim kept her back to her until she could get it back on. Considering they were going to either have go through the elevator or some glass to get out, that seemed very doable.

Red didn't bother to tell the trainee how she was fairing after that. It wasn't because she was trying to hide her very minor injury, but because she didn't think it mattered. She already tended to not pay that much attention to her well-being and rarely considered it relevant to anything, but on top of that, this was someone training to be a Huntress. No authority figure like that, no one that was actually supposed to help and protect her, had actually cared about whether she was injured, hurting, or scared in her life. Not that she saw. Even though Carmim was trying to be nothing but helpful, it never even occurred to her that the trainee might actually care about how she was feeling.

---

1614/11127

[Carmim Clover]

❝ AURA: 82% WORDS: 704 | TWC: 8323 HAVE YOU SEEN HER? HAVE YOU HEARD? THE WAY SHE MOVES, THERE ARE NO WORDS "Stop moving." She could do that. That was easy. Even still, she took another step and a half, before her mind registered Sienna's words. Fortunately, the other redhead was thinking quick enough to wait until she stopped moving first. It was a smooth stop, all things considered- relatively speaking, at least. "Brace for impact" was equally direct and obvious. Sienna was a good leader in a crisis! Maybe that was her job? Some kind of crisis leader person? That's a pretty cool job. And something good to think about as she closed her eyes and braced for the falling glass. She really felt bad for Sienna- maybe she'd get lucky, and none of the glass would hit her? She didn't want to think about her new friend being all bloody and cut up when they reached the bottom of the elevator. A sound like shattered glass came from behind her, which would be pretty concerning, except that there was shattering glass everywhere. It bounced off of her aura pretty easily, given her extra durability, but it still wasn't very comfortable. Eventually, all of the glass finally stopped, and there was a short moment to breathe easily again. She started to glance into the reflection of the glass pane in front of her, to check on Sienna, but the other girl spoke up before she could finish her thought. She wasn't entirely sure why Sienna couldn't see behind her, or if that should be a cause for alarm, but she could crane her neck enough to check below them, which she did. "I can do t'at! Not a problem!" She spoke with a reassuring smile in her voice, even though she wasn't exactly feeling too chipper at the moment- nearly falling to your death, then nearly being pelted by glass shards, wasn't the making of a great day. It was... Unpleasant. She wasn't especially scared of heights, but gazing down into the void below was enough to evoke a widening of the eyes and a little more fear than she had been looking forward to dealing with, suspended this far up in the air. It did help that the void, this time, was much less voidy than it was before- she could see the bottom now. Nothing seemed out of order, so she looked back up above her, and couldn't see any further threats that way either. She reported as much to her climbing buddy; "We are almost at t'e bottom- it looks safe t'e rest of t'e way. And t'ere is not'ing furt'er up above us t'at I can see! Just a little more." "A little," of course, also being very relative- she could see the bottom, but that didn't mean they were very close to it. At the rate they were moving, even the quicker pace, it would still take a bit longer to reach a safe height from the ground. They fell back into the now-familiar pattern of lefts and rights, and she continued in silence for a few minutes, just concentrating on getting down, and on checking for any threats, above and below. But after a while, she hadn't heard anything from the other redhead, so she decided to speak up and break the silence, as gently and carefully as she could, so as to avoid distracting Sienna too much; they'd been walking for a long time now, and it was entirely feasible for the other girl to start getting tired soon enough. Carmim, herself, while not tiring out, was at least starting to feel the effort put into the walkdown so far. "Are you alright, Sienna? T'at was a lot of glass. You are not hurt, are you?" She didn't pull her eyes away from slowly checking up and down from where they were as she spoke, but she hoped that Sienna didn't look too hurt. Considering she was still pushing onwards, she was either fine, or one heck of a trooper. They were so close... She felt calmer and more secure in the knowledge that they could reach the bottom soon enough, and get Sienna some proper medical attention. But they weren't out of the fire yet- so she wouldn't, and couldn't, let herself get too relaxed. Not yet.

LAIKA OF GS!

[Sinopia DeStellanova]

Knowing that there was no other obvious danger was relieving. Somewhat. Her brain wouldn't actually believe it until her feet were actually on the ground (and even then, knowing her brain that might not actually help), but it was a start. As they got lower, the wind shook the elevator shaft less and less too, making it easier to stay stable. It looked like she might actually pull this off. They. It looked like they might actually pull this off. She supposed she should give the trainee some credit for not completely fucking everything up like she was afraid of.

The question made Red raise an eyebrow. What kind of stupid question was that? Why the fuck did it even matter if she was okay? Either she could go or she couldn't and it'd be pretty damn obvious if she couldn't. Even if their current predicament couldn't be boiled down to something like that it was still stupid. They'd been climbing down for longer than she cared to think about and her aura shattered. A few beads of sweat were falling down her face, her legs felt like goo, and she really wanted to sit down with some caffeinated iced tea and read stuff on the internet. This was a life or death situation. No sane person would ever be 'okay' in those by any conventional definition. Which was why boiling it down to can or can't made more sense, and why talking in this echoy shaft about such pointless pleasantries, especially since her ears were no longer muffled by the hat, was just annoying.

Fortunately for both of them, her aura was about as good for protecting her as a paper bag would be, so she was used to dealing without. Hell, until relatively recently, a single mad scorpion could break it if she wasn't careful. Being tired like this, not being able to have her muscle fatigue healed by her aura, and the natural exhaustion that came from having it break were all familiar to her, as was the sweat and dealing with whatever temperature the world decided to be at the moment. She could deal with a stupid question. Mostly.

"Yes. Fine."

That was all the lip service she paid to it before continuing back to saying left and right, using the same rhythm as those words as to hopefully keep their steps in sync while she responded. Talking too much while trying to keep them in sync was probably a bad idea anyway. They could talk more once they got to the bottom.

The bottom gradually got closer and Red had to think again. Her hat would hopefully be down there, and she needed to get it before Carmim had a chance to look at her. Though, she was distracted somewhat from those thoughts as she was reminded that the elevator was still down there. As in, the elevator was blocking the door, and the door may be difficult to open because elevator doors tended to be weighted and opened via electricity to prevent morons from trying to open them too soon. That thought made her remember that Carmim tried to pry open the elevator door, and might have succeeded if not interrupted like she was, so that might be something she could use. Distract Carmim, and create a path out of here. It seemed like a solid enough plan.

Normally she'd just walk through the glass, but with her aura broken that wasn't even an option even if she was willing to risk being seen. She had to use the door like a normal person. And also use the exit to the restaurant like a normal person. Which meant going through a bunch of people who were probably freaking out about someone being trapped in the elevator and all the noise they were making. Having to hide her semblance and otherwise not being able to use it when she wanted to was really inconvenient.

Once they were close enough to the bottom that she didn't think she'd die or break anything if Carmim slipped up, she started talking again. This seemed like a good enough time to explain how they were going to get off the wall and start walking on the floor again, as well as to hopefully direct Carmim away from her hat until she could grab it and get it on her head. Getting her hat was going to be her first priority once they were on the ground. Well elevator.

"We're almost there. Once my legs can reach the ground, I am going to drop and use my arms to hold onto yours tightly, so I can lift you off the wall and set you down. Then, we need to get back into the elevator, and through the door it's blocking. If you can force open the maintenance hatch, and then force open the elevator door, we can go that way and avoid breaking anything else. If you can't, then we can break the glass again and go out that way. Do you think can get the hatch and the door open?"

---

851/11978

[Carmim Clover]

❝ AURA: 82% TAG: @duckfriend NOTES: :D WORDS: 1162 | TWC: 9485 HAVE YOU SEEN HER? HAVE YOU HEARD? THE WAY SHE MOVES, THERE ARE NO WORDS Carmim smiled, a bit more reassured at Sienna's words, brief and curt as they were. She could understand being in a stressful situation, and not really wanting to talk a whole lot, especially while they were still very much in that situation. But hearing the words was helpful to her, even if they were, admittedly, pretty obvious. The fact that they hadn't fallen was proof enough that Sienna was at least physically okay. And hopefully mentally okay too- that was what Carmim was more worried about, as someone acutely familiar with how difficult it could be to manage stress and anxiety in crisis situations. Judging by the way she just continued with the footstep instructions (which Carmim complied with, with surprising ease; at this point, it was largely instinctive), it seemed that she was probably fine in that sense as well. It was sort of impressive, actually, how readily Sienna had taken charge and adapted to the crisis at hand. Carmim could only hope that she might be able to do the same, some day. After all, there wasn't much point in being a Huntress, if she couldn't at least handle a scary situation. She did feel as though she'd done a pretty good job of it thus far, however. All things considered, she was doing much better than she had really expected herself to be doing, especially given her history of seizing up and making things worse in the process. She was definitely going to have to tell Lynn about this at their next appointment! But first, she had to actually make it there. As Sienna began speaking again, her ears perked up and she listened carefully, as they made their last few steps down towards the bottom. The instructions were, once again, very clear, and she nodded. "I can do t'at!" Or well, she was pretty sure she could- she wouldn't really know until she tried, honestly. But that was still much better than having no idea what to do- they had a game plan, and it was a good, easily actionable one. That worked for her. As they neared the bottom, she felt Sienna drop down, and a brief surge of panic hit her as she felt her own body start to fall, before that initial tensing almost immediately dissipated as she remembered that they were close to the elevator at the bottom of the shaft now, and were in no real danger from falling. It was still an uncomfortable sensation, very briefly, but she could move past that well enough. Sienna would find that, for all of the physical strength Carmim had displayed earlier, she was surprisingly light. Or rather, as light as she appeared to be, anyways. Once she was firmly planted on the ground again, she was quick enough to set to work immediately on the maintenance hatch, only briefly turning to check on Sienna- just in time to see her sliding her hat back onto her head. For a split second, she thought she could see something poking out from the other redhead's hair, before it was obscured by the hat, but she couldn't really say what it was that she'd seen. Regardless, she simply offered a reassuring smile, before turning to her task at hand- they were so close, all they needed to do was just get out of this place, and there would be plenty of time for her to check on her elevator escape companion. The hatch was locked from their side, unfortunately, but that didn't actually prove to be too much of an issue for Carmim, who, upon realizing that it was stuck, resorted to striking it with her elbow, and punching around the hinges, which she thought might be a little flimsier. It took a few hits, each denting the metal, but eventually, she had bashed it enough that she could pop it open, the busted hatch swinging down into the little box of doom. Carefully, she dropped down into the elevator, and continued, now attempting to pry the door open so they could finally get out. Honestly, she was just glad to be on solid ground again, but it was going to be very nice being on solid ground, and far, far, away from this death trap... The elevator door itself likewise proved no match for her considerable strength, as she began prying away at a small crack in the sliding doors with her fingertips, straining in full concentration for a moment or two, before finally, with a great heave of both of her arms, she managed to pull the doors apart a good inch or two, allowing her to focus on one door, shoving it inward, into an open position, as a pair of men she assumed were with some sort of elevator rescue place, rushed over to assist her. Together, though mostly thanks to her, the trio managed to force the door open enough for her and Sienna to slide out. Outside of the elevator, there were tons of people, many of whom burst into applause at the successful escape, crowding around them immediately with a barrage of questions- first responders asking if either of them were hurt, the restaurant owner offering them refunds and assuring them that his insurance could cover any damages, so there was no need to sue, and of course, an endless stream of Cloud District busybodies asking all sorts of annoying questions about how long they were stuck, how they got down, et cetera... And even a handful of news reporters, catching candid shots of the two of them as they were assaulted by the "concerned" masses. Carmim, completely unused to this treatment, was mostly just stunned, eyes wide, and mouth agape, trying to figure out who to answer first, and how. Mostly, she kinda just wanted to leave- now that the initial surge of adrenaline was over, she was feeling a little elevator-sick, and she would hate for the headlines to change from "Two Brave Women Survived a Deadly Elevator Accident" to "Local Dirt Girl Pukes on Restaurant Owner and Rich Customers." Although that would make for a good headline... She would probably read that newspaper, actually. Turning from the swarm, having regained at least a little composure, she looked to Sienna, assuming she hadn't cut and run the second they made it out. "Phew... T'at was hard. But we did it! You are so smart, you know? You knew exactly what to do, and how to do it. I don't t'ink we would have survived if it wasn't for t'at. T'ank you." Her smile was warm and genuine, despite her expression still bearing a bit of the shock from their still-ongoing reception, boxing them in around the elevator they'd worked so hard to leave. She still wasn't sure exactly how Sienna had done all that she'd done- maybe she was just naturally really good at not dying? But all that mattered right then was that they were alive and safe.

LAIKA OF GS!

[Sinopia DeStellanova]

Reaching the bottom wasn't much of a relief to her. Even with her feet on the ground-like surface, her brain was still coming up with ways it could go wrong. What if the elevator had just lodged itself in the shaft again (even though she could clearly see the ground through the window outside)? Or that something might fall on top of them before Carmim could get the hatch open (even though she couldn't hear anything and anything falling would fallen on them long before they reached the bottom based on the height of the building)? Or that Carmim might suddenly turn on her (even though Carmim had been nothing but helpful this entire time)? Or that there were glass eating termites that-- did termites even eat glass?

What the hell was she even thinking about? Thankfully, she had a clear enough objective that she could pull her mind out of stupid territory pretty quickly: get her hat back before Carmim notices anything's wrong. Easy enough to do, especially when they were already back to back and she was the one putting Carmim down. The moment the kid left her hands, she reached for her hat and quickly put it back on, not even taking the time to properly squish her ears down. It was uncomfortable enough, that once she made sure Carmim wasn't looking, she adjusted them slightly like she was adjusting her hair under her hat for some reason. Good enough. She was definitely heading straight home after this, so as long as nothing was pinching it was fine.

Her expression remained neutral throughout the rest of their escape, displaying no clear emotion beyond perhaps a bit of sleepiness. She didn't say anything and just stood up perfectly straight in the center of the fallen elevator listening for anything else that might be amiss. She could hear something on the other side of the door, but the glass was able to block out most of it. Enough so, that the sound was completely unintelligible to her until some other people started helping Carmim force the door open.

The sound hit her all at once. All the cheering didn't sound that much different from shouting and they were suddenly bombarded by questions from people that wanted to get up in their faces. Even on a good day she'd find this difficult to handle, but having all of that shoved in her face before the adrenaline was out of her system was intolerable. Her eyes went wide as her vision blurred, and she froze in place before she was even able to leave the elevator. She was off to the side enough that she wouldn't be surprised that some people thought that only one person came out of it. For a moment, her eyes darted around the elevator to see if there was some kind of escape route she could use, but there wasn't one. If she tried hard enough, she could probably break the glass, but that would make noise and--

Why did she even care about the noise? It hardly mattered. Her instinct was to stay in place until everything blew over and hope no one noticed her. Her breathing became shallow and near silent when she had been making no effort to hide how tired and out of breath she was before. Unfortunately, the only exist she could see was the front door unless she was prepared to break something and draw more attention to herself. As the noise got louder and the questions pushier, she started to seriously consider it. Carmim's words didn't even register in the haze of all the noise. All she wanted to do was get out of here.

---

616/12594

[Carmim Clover]

❝ AURA: 82% TAG: @foxfren NOTES: ew, people WORDS: 706 | TWC: 10,191 HAVE YOU SEEN HER? HAVE YOU HEARD? THE WAY SHE MOVES, THERE ARE NO WORDS She may not have been the brightest student at Haven, or even back in Bulaani, but it didn't take a genius to see that something was wrong, and for all her lack of book smarts, Carmim at least had the emotional intelligence required to know that Sienna was feeling really uncomfortable all of a sudden. She'd gone from cool, calm, and collected, to frozen in place, and damn-near catatonic as soon as they'd gotten out of the elevator. Whether it as shock setting in, now that they were safe, or something else, she wasn't sure, but she was at least accustomed to this sort of deer-in-headlights thing. Between her own episodes, and Solomon's, before he got kicked out of Haven, she knew a decent bit about what to do when someone got stuck in their own head too much. First step was to get Sienna's focus. She reached out gently and slowly to give her shoulder a little shake. "Hey. Sienna. Are you alright? Come on, let's get somewhere quieter." That would probably help things a bit, at least- the noise was grating on Carmim's sensitive ears as well, so she figured that could be part of the problem. Plus, she really didn't like crowds too much, and if they got away from all the people, then she could at least hear Sienna if she got her tongue back from whatever cat stole it after they got off the elevator. She offered the redhead her hand, and if she didn't take it immediately, she would still hold it out, urging Sienna to grab it until she did, though if she just absolutely refused to take her hand, she would just grab Sienna's hand anyways, and worry about apologizing for it later, when they were out of this mess. Whichever way she went with, she would then immediately start trying to clear a path. "Excuse me! Sorry, but t'is woman is having very bad stomach pain, she needs to go to t'e restroom right now! I am a Huntress trainee, I have some first aid training, I can help her!" Normally, she wasn't a very convincing liar, but with all of the flashing lights and noise, it would have been pretty hard for any but the most perceptive to pick up on her obvious tells- her tone was higher than before, and a little shaky, and she didn't seem too sure where to look while she spoke. It at least worked on most of the crowd, though, who began to part way as she lead (or dragged) Sienna towards the closest restroom. She wasn't super-sure what they would do once they got there, but she figured it was a better idea than standing near the elevator shaft some more. Step two: encourage deep breathing. She leaned over her shoulder to Sienna, and gave a small smile, quietly offering some hopefully helpful and supportive words. "Do not pay attention to t'em, focus on me, and focus on breat'ing, okay? Deep breat's. In. Out." She would repeat that a few times if Sienna still seemed disoriented, but otherwise remained focused on moving towards the bathroom. A few people didn't seem to want to move, so with her free hand, she very carefully shoved her way through them, apologizing as she did, until eventually, they had reached the bathroom. Entering, she immediately locked the door from the inside, once she was sure it was empty, and turned to Sienna again, letting go of her hand. "Phew. T'at was a lot of people... Are you okay now? We can wait here until you are, if you are not." She glanced around the room, before noticing a small window, by the sinks. It wasn't the biggest, but it seemed more than large enough for the two of them to fit through, considering they were both relatively thin and- in her case, at least- small. And now that they were on the first floor, that wasn't such a death sentence as it was before. A mischievous twinkle lit up her eyes as she smiled, and pointed to the window. "We could maybe also wait somewhere else, if you do not want to go back out t'ere again. I know t'at I do not."

LAIKA OF GS!

[Sinopia DeStellanova]

The nudge on her shoulder was enough to knock her off-balance a little, but not enough to make her stumble. She blinked and suddenly became more aware of the flashing lights in front of her while all the sounds made it really hard to get a hold of everything that was happening. The light was easy enough to deal with by squinting and raising an arm, but there wasn't much she could do about all the noise. Their words sounded like a jumbled mess, and while she could hear each person fairly clearly, they might as well have been speaking crab for as well as she understood them. Her brain had too much to process for her to be able to understand the words without thinking about it.

There was a light tug on her hand, and she looked down to acknowledge it. She could see Carmim and she could see the ground. Right, they were out of the elevator. The danger had passed. So why didn't it feel like it? Because brains were stupid, she had established this a long time ago.

But what if the floor collapsed? Unlikely, she had looked at the structure before coming here, and she felt the wind it had to stand up to in order to stay up right. The place was solid.

But what about the people? Yes, there were people. She looked up and away from Carmim back towards the people, wincing as she looked directly into a camera flash. What could see see? There were lots of them and they were loud. Hearing is not seeing stop that. Most of them were either smiling or awestruck. A few looked concerned. Most of the woman's clothing did not have room to hide anything, and their handbags were too small to hide anything dangerous. The men were different. Most of them had pockets, even the ones that were dressed really nice. One of them had a nice apron with way more pockets and pens sticking out of them. Lots of room to hide something there. No one was reaching for anything. She could see all their hands. One of them had a really big bag, but it was empty. Probably for the big TV camera he was holding. There wouldn't be room for anything else based on the size.

Even if they didn't have weapons, things could go real bad if they found out she was a faunus here. True. She put her hand on her head to hold her hat in place.

Another tug on her hand. She let a breath out of her nose and followed Carmim, though she didn't look to happy about it. Granted, she didn't look too anything about it. All the emotion had drained from her face again, her posture was perfect, and her movements were very mechanical. Very much unlike someone suffering from a stomach ache.

Going out into the room was unpleasant, but she kept forcing herself to focus on what was there rather than what was in her head. She could hear the clicking of cameras -- something that bothered her a lot because she hated being noticed. Nothing good ever came of it. This probably meant -- no, she couldn't let her mind wander. There was some jingling from someone that must have been wearing 20 pounds of jewelry. There was enough on that lady that she wondered if it was a training weight and then stopped herself because she was starting to imagine things again. Carmim's footsteps were surprisingly light compared to everything else, and that door was really in need of a bit of oil. It was surprising to hear something so squeaky in a place like this.

Her clothes were feeling heavy and uncomfortable, even though they were neither of these things. Except her boots. Those boots never failed her. Her face was stinging a little bit from the cut, but it had stopped bleeding. She couldn't feel any liquid running down her face. Carmim's hand felt like a hand. The skin was a bit tougher than she expected from someone who she thought was this young, but she suppose it wasn't that weird for a Huntress trainee and a drummer.

Outside the bathroom smelled like several different kinds of expensive perfumes and shower products. It made her want to sneeze. The inside smelled like cleaning products and expensive wood. She didn't have anything she wanted to put in her mouth, so trying to taste something was out, but with the door closed it was at least quiet enough to stop making her head feel like it wanted to explode.

Once the door was closed, she let go of Carmim's hand (forcing her hand away if necessary), wordlessly walked into the nearest bathroom stall, closed the door, and locked it. From there, she sat on the toilet and flopped against the wall, hitting the fancy wood with a thud that sounded more painful than it was. After taking a second to adjust her hat in case Carmim was the type that was rude enough to peek into bathroom stalls she looked at the wood and briefly thought how stupid it was that they had this fancy carved wood in a bathroom of all places.

She got a little respite and took a bit to calm down her overactive mind in silence. Even if Carmim tried to talk to her during that time, she wouldn't respond for a good two or three minutes, and even then she wanted to pose her own question, not respond to one.

"How long do you think we have until they get bored and leave? I really don't want to talk to the media right now. Or anyone."

Someone knocked on the door and Red sighed. Either they'd get bored or barge in here, and considering how aggressive the knocking was getting the longer they ignored it, she was starting to wonder if those morons were going to do the latter. She was tired and wanted to go home. The worst part was she couldn't even walk through the wall if she wanted to because her aura hadn't recovered yet. Maybe if she was sufficiently boring she could bore the paparazzi away.

---

1035/13629

[Carmim Clover]

❝ AURA: TAG: NOTES: WORDS: 830 | TWC: 11,021 HAVE YOU SEEN HER? HAVE YOU HEARD? THE WAY SHE MOVES, THERE ARE NO WORDS Talking through the walls of the bathroom stall hadn't initially been Carmim's intent. Though, she didn't exactly mind too much, all things considered. If Sienna needed that space and that privacy, she would totally respect that! She said her thoughts as the other girl presumably listened in silence, or whatever she was doing in the stall, and Carmim simply stood vigil on the other side, facing away from the door. She didn't get an answer to her questions immediately, which was okay! She knew how stressful things like this could be, and how easily past trauma could be triggered and brought up by seemingly random things. And now that she had Lynn to explain everything to her, she knew better than to just keep trying to shout encouragement at Sienna until she was better again- that wasn't quite how it worked, and arguably, could easily make things worse. Which explained why Solomon hated her for so long after their first encounter, actually... Aside from him being kind of a jerk, of course. Finally, though, the other redhead broke the silence, and Carmim's ears immediately perked up to listen. It was a reasonable question, even if she didn't really know the answer right offhand. "Hm... I am not sure! But t'ey could not possibly hang around for too much-" Bang, bang, bang. Or well, knock, knock, knock, to be specific, but it sounded a lot more violent than it probably was supposed to be. Whoever was knocking on the door had to have hams for hands. "We are still in here! Sorry! I t'ink t'ere is anot'er bat'room down t'e hall!! Please go to t'at one instead, t'ank you!" Oi, they were really starting to get on her nerves... Way too many people. She returned her attention to Sienna, continuing where she left off. "Too much longer. I hope." She stayed quiet for another few minutes, aside from knocking back, the next time somebody tried knocking on the door again, which seemed to startle the guys on the other side. Good. At least they would be discouraged from trying again for a few more minutes! How bored could they possibly be that this was the highlight of their day? Didn't they have an elevator to fix? Eventually, after a while, she spoke up again, choosing her words as carefully as she could. "So, um... I do not mean to be rude, but why are you um... how do I say t'is... Let me start over." She cleared her throat, attempting to find some better way to frame her question. "I sometimes have t'ese t'ings t'at are called panic attacks, and I have flashbacks sometimes because of really bad t'ings t'at happened to me before. I do not know if t'at is what you are dealing wit' right now, but I... Well, it looks like what I look like when I am having t'ose moments and I look in a mirror. So if it is t'at, t'at you are dealing wit'... Maybe I can help?" "We do not-" Thump thump thump. She let out a soft growl, at the irritating return of the nosy door-knockers. "Go away, we are fine, please leave! Go! Away! Ugh..." She rolled her eyes before returning to speaking to Sienna with the same gentle, slightly hesitant, tone, like she was trying to walk on eggshells a little bit. Which she was! She wasn't a trained counselor, and she only really knew anything at all about helping people through trauma from past experience and the little bit of therapy she'd had with Lynn over the past few months. She had no idea what she was supposed to do in a case like this. Least of all, when it came to a complete stranger. But here she was, trying her best to be supportive and helpful, in the women's restroom of a very expensive restaurant with a very cheaply built elevator. "Sorry. I wish t'ey would go away too... Um. I am sorry, I do not remember what I was about to say. Ugh. People can be so rude sometimes... Anyways, I might not know you very well, since we just met today, in a not-very-good way, but I know t'at talking to someone about my problems helped me deal with t'em when t'ey were happening. If you feel okay with sharing, maybe it would help you too? Besides," She glanced around at the bathroom, noting that aside from the window, there was only really the one door to leave through, which was currently being held captive by the zombie-like clamoring of people trying to finish getting their dramatic elevator escape story. "We might be here a while. It seems like we just traded a falling elevator for a dead-end bat'room. Makes you wonder if we were better off in t'e elevator, huh?" She tried for a little smile at her joke, but it quickly faded back to an irate frown as the knocking persisted, despite her best efforts.

LAIKA OF GS!

[Sinopia DeStellanova]

Red let a long breath out of her nose. This was her fault for asking a question wasn't it? She was complaining about people trying to talk to her, and now Carmim was trying to talk to her. Carmim was clearly just trying to be helpful, but the last thing she wanted was another voice grating her ears. This was something that happened often enough that she knew how to deal with it. Having to deal with this shit was likely the only reason she wasn't an adrenaline junkie. Not having to think too hard was always nice, but coming down from that adrenaline high was hard, and just made her stressed out and sensitive.

However, the worst part wasn't even the noise. It was having someone worrying about her, something she found absolutely intolerable. She wasn't worth that kind of emotional energy from people. So now she had someone that wanted to be chatty, with people banging on the door, and she had to make sure that chatty person was feeling okay. Fortunately, all the talking and telling people off Carmim was doing gave her a second to take some deep breaths and center herself again.

"It's fine. I'd be more concerned if I wasn't tired. It's been awhile since I've had to walk that far. Or that vertically for that matter."

The delivery was just as deadpan and monotone as it was when they were in the elevator. Denying that something was wrong seemed pointless, so brushing it off seemed like the obvious choice. She doubted that would sate someone trying to be helpful though, so she had to think for a second. Carmim had been helpful and easily distracted so far, so she could probably use that.

There was still the matter of how to get out of here. She knew that level of noise and attention would likely shut her mind down completely and make her accept all sorts of stupid offers she wouldn't otherwise. If anyone offered food she'd be completely screwed because she could rarely turn down food even when she was in her right mind. It was why Carmim was acting so clingy before this mess started. The paparazzi probably wanted to ask all sorts of awkward questions she didn't want to answer, and she really didn't want her face all over the newspapers right now. Or ever. There were no windows. She couldn't go through the wall. There were people right outside the door knocking on it, so it's not like she could just sneak out. She wasn't quite cruel enough to find a way to send Carmim out as a sacrifice.

No, the only way to handle this was head on. She took another deep breath, and sat on the floor instead of the toilet.

"Let them in, I have an idea. Can I have the rest of your cheese?"

She acquired one really useless skill from trying to get out of going to school or interacting with her uncle: throwing up on command. Being sick was one of the few things that would get her out of most anything, and that was the most visceral way to show sickness even when she wasn't sick. There wasn't much in her stomach right now, but a little bit of cheese chunks showing up on the floor should be gross enough to scare most people. Considering Carmim said she had an upset stomach to get people to get out of the way, maybe it would help.

Regardless, if Carmim gave her the cheese, she'd start hunching over the toilet like she was trying to puke, but would miss completely. Stomach bile and spit got all over her legs, but she could do laundry later. Beat dealing with the paparazzi.

---

626/14255

[Carmim Clover]

❝ AURA: WORDS: 791 | TWC: 11,812 HAVE YOU SEEN HER? HAVE YOU HEARD? THE WAY SHE MOVES, THERE ARE NO WORDS Carmim's lips curled and her eyebrows scrunched a bit, as she struggled to accept Sienna's response to her questions. She wanted to press a little more, because "being tired, but fine" was definitely not what this looked like, from her perspective. Tired-but-fine people didn't go full deer-in-headlights mental shutdown in a crowd of people, and then go sit down on a toilet in silence, doing everything she can do to avoid the noisy people outside. But at the same time, she wasn't nearly qualified to help her more than just offering some support, so she decided to just let Sienna ask her for help if she needed it, giving a little half-hearted shrug and a slightly frustrated pout that nobody but her could see, unless her companion just happened to be weirdly staring at the mirror through the crack in the door. Maybe she was just tired, too. Or maybe she just really hated people, and just didn't like Carmim for no reason whatsoever, despite her being really nice to her this whole time? She did kinda sound like Shadecloak when she talked. She really hoped that wasn't the case, though- she liked Sienna, and wanted to be her friend, and she really, truly, honestly, wanted to believe that if Sienna were in an airship right now, she wouldn't shoot all of the people outside the bathroom door, just because they were "acceptable casualties" or something else absolutely insane that only insane crazy people thought. Like Shadecloak. "Acceptable casualties." Right. She sat, slumped against the other side of the stall from Sienna for a while, fidgeting with her fingertips on the tile floor as she waited for the other girl to say at least something to break the silence. Now that they were out of any real immediate danger that didn't involve a loud reporter with a bright camera flash, she was a lot more fidgety and a lot less capable of staying quiet as she was before. It was hard, but she figured Sienna just needed some time to- BANG BANG BANG. "No, go a-" Huh? Sienna's voice, much quieter than the pounding on the door, and the gush of concerned and agitated voices behind it, caught her attention, and she briefly wondered what the other girl had in mind. The rest of her cheese...? She reached in her pocket, remembering the cheese cubes from before. She'd kinda forgotten about them, in all honesty, after all this time. But was this really the time for a snack? "Okay. Here, I will pass them to you under t'e door." She reached her hand into the stall, with the remaining few lumps of slightly warm cheese and olives, after a brief hesitation in which she considered keeping one for herself. But no, Sienna probably needed them more. Maybe that was all she needed? She was just hun- oh... That was a very unpleasant sound. "Hey, Sienna, are you...? Okay...? Err- wait, I am sorry, I will let t'em in now!!" She hoped she was fine. That sounded really gross, and she could smell the bile, which was just awful. Maybe she really shouldn't have eaten that cheese, it was sitting in Carmim's pocket for the whole time it took them to get down... She wasn't exactly a health expert or anything, but pocket cheese didn't generally keep for very long, and people with sensitive constitutions would probably be way more affected by it than sturdier people like her, from Vacuo. She stood up quickly and ran over to the door, unlocking it and taking a hit to the jaw as it flung open, a handful of reporters rushing in, all clamoring to get pictures and stories from the pair of them. Her eyes were assaulted immediately, as soon as she recovered from the door attack, by the same blinding lights from before, leaving her kinda dazed, as she scrunched up her nose to avoid the puke smell coming from nearby. It was so nasty that she... Oh... Oh no... "Blech!" And there went her hors d'oeuvres, her lunch, her pre-lunch snack, and her breakfast. All over a reporter's shoes. That really got them cleared out, if the ones who'd come in to find Sienna hunched over the toilet weren't already gone when they saw the clever pile of bile and chunky cheese on the floor of the stall. Within a few seconds, they were gone, and the pair were once again alone, as they ostensibly left to "go find the paramedics." That at least bought them some time to slip out, at least! "Eugh... I am sorry... I get a little sick sometimes when I can sm- bleh!" Oof, right on the marble sink countertop... "We should... get out of t'is room..."

LAIKA OF GS!

[Sinopia DeStellanova]

She couldn't see what was going on outside of the stall, but she could hear it. The sound of people rushing in lout and chatty, then slowing down and suddenly getting quiet was unmistakable. This worked every time. Got her out of so many awkward meetings and conversations. The downside was that it was still really messy because she was still triggering her gag reflex. Even if it was intentional, it's not like she had full control over it. It went everywhere, so she took a moment to get some toilet paper to wipe off her face and clothes while everyone cleared out. She couldn't get it all off like that, but it was better than walking around drenched in the stuff.

Once things quieted down again, she left the stall only to be welcomed with a second pile of puke from Carmim. And then Carmim puked again. Red blinked, paused, and looked behind her. She had only been thinking about the easiest, most non-intrusive way to get out of here, so she hadn't even considered what might happen to other people. She had seen a lot, so she had a pretty strong stomach that was only weak to very specific kinds of dead bodies. Most people didn't have that, and people had their own weaknesses. She probably should have told Carmim what she was doing.

But then she thought a bit more and remembered that Carmim was training to be a Huntress and had probably seen at least as many dead bodies as she had. Why was she worrying about this shit again?

Regardless, someone was going to have to clean this up and that really sucked for them. And really, she did feel genuinely bad for Carmim even if her mind was trying to rationalize it away. That was selfish on her part. She really should have dealt with the reporters. Sighing and suddenly looking really tired again, she walked towards the door and offered Carmim her non-puke covered hand.

"Sorry about that. We should get out of here," she paused and realized her clothes were still pretty soaked in bile. "...Maybe you should go ahead so you don't have to smell this anymore. I'll follow once you're far enough away."

---

373/14628

[Carmim Clover]

❝ AURA: 100%WORDS: 428 | TWC: 12,240 HAVE YOU SEEN HER? HAVE YOU HEARD? THE WAY SHE MOVES, THERE ARE NO WORDS She was glad that Sienna shared the opinion that this bathroom was a terrible place to be, all of a sudden. By the time she got out of the stall, Carmim was glancing around for something to clean up her own mess, to no avail; wind-dust hand dryers, with not a paper towel in sight, aside from the toilet paper in the stalls, which she would have gotten to eventually if Sienna hadn't come out and approached her first, offering a clean hand which Carmim did her best to match with her own- after wiping it a few times on her pants leg. She felt really gross. But more to the point, still felt really concerned for Sienna! At least they got the crowd to leave, but from all the bile smell, Sienna seemed pretty sick, and Carmim felt at least a little bit of an obligation to her new friend to make sure she was okay. ... Which would have to wait until they left the bathroom and got cleaned up. Because she definitely felt like she was going to hurl again if she kept having to smell those unpleasant smells for much longer. Sienna offered to let her leave first, and the littler redhead was very quick to nod, as she covered her mouth again, before sprinting out of the bathroom, and making a dash for the door. Which, of course, had the added effect of causing all of the reporters who were unaware of the bathroom stunt to follow after her, trying to figure out what was happening. Which would give Sienna a much easier way out of the building, ideally. At least until they inevitably realized Carmim was covered in puke and smelled like a sewage fire. Regardless of the reporters, she just continued running until she got outside, not moving especially quickly, but definitely with a sense of urgency. Sienna said she'd follow her, so maybe she'd follow her all the way back to her dorm? That way they could both get all showered off and cleaned up! It seemed like a reasonable enough plan to her anyways, in her vomit-induced state of panic, so she just continued, full steam ahead, back towards Haven, with the assumption that Sienna would be trailing along behind her (at least in theory.) Whether she did or not, Carmim probably wouldn't realize until she was already halfway home- the smell was just so awful... She had smelled some terrible things before, but this probably took the cake for worst. She really shouldn't have eaten all those hors d'oevres...

LAIKA OF GS!

[Sinopia DeStellanova]

Sienna blinked as Carmim ran out the room. When she made that offer she didn't actually expect the trainee to accept it, let alone so quickly. Carmim must have had a really weak stomach. Sighing, she brought her clean hand to her forehead and wondered why she felt the need to do something like this as opposed to just walking away. The answer was obvious, she tried to walk away and was followed and she doubted they'd give up if she tried again, but there had to be a better solution than making a gross mess and aggravating someone with a weak stomach.

Well, there wasn't much she could do about it now.

She briefly considered following Carmim like she said she would, but decided against it. As much as she felt like she owed Carmim something for her disgraceful behavior, she still had a bunch of puke on her clothes that would only make Carmim's stomach upset again. She'd have to make it up to the trainee later. Maybe send Haven a box of fancy cheese addressed to her or something. Girl had a bizarre obsession.

For now, she looked at her surroundings. A lot of the noise was dying down from the reporters chasing after Carmim, so she had some time to at least make things as right as she could here. Without proper cleaning supplies, there was no way to get the smell or all the liquid out of the room, but she could at least get rid of the chunks. Touching vomit was gross, but she didn't have a weak stomach, so she could just take off her gloves and wash her hands after. It was no big deal, she'd touched grosser things before. It'd take a bit of toilet paper, but the bathroom would be easier to clean for the poor janitor that had to deal with it.

Once she took care of that, she quietly slunk out of the building and made her way home as quickly as she could because she really needed a shower and a change of clothes. Just because she was physically able to touch puke didn't mean she wanted to be covered in it. Puke was still gross. Then she really needed some lunch and a nap because she was suddenly really hungry.

---

384/15012

[Jay]

XP DISTRIBUTION:

Sinopia DeStellanova: 150 XP
550 + 150 = 700

Carmim Clover: 122 XP
1093 + 122 = 1215