[Sinopia DeStellanova]

For awhile, her time was dedicated to getting setup and situated in Mistral. There was a lot to unpack and move around, so much so that it left her muscles sore and actually let her get a few good nights of sleep from being so exhausted. Red preferred it like that though. She hated being idle, so as the work that needed to be done started running out, she started getting more restless. Thus, she started making up new tasks in an effort to keep busy while she waited until she was actually needed for something important. Lately that had been exploring the city. It was important to know how the city was laid out, where she could run, paths people wouldn't expect, and which buildings she was likely to be able to phase through. Plus, she had never been to the city of Mistral proper, only various places on the outskirts, and she was curious to know more about the city her friend grew up in.

As much as she wanted to pretend like she was doing something useful, today was all about satisfying her curiosity.

There was a fancy restaurant in the Cloud district that slowly spun around to give its patrons a fresh view as they ate. The building was straddled between the two mountains, so it overlooked nearly the entire kingdom. Only the parts of the city on the sides of the mountains were hidden from the balconies. Even with her good eyes she knew it would be impossible to actually get a good enough look at the city to make out any important details from that high up, but the view did sound absolutely breathtaking.

Red was worried about venturing into the Cloud District though. She doubted she'd fit in well, and she absolutely hated having lots of eyes on her. It wasn't enough to deter her from going there completely, but she did take a few days of thinking way too hard about what to do before she worked up the nerve to do it. Rather than show up in her usual attire, she went with the outfit she wore when she needed to impress a client and being decked out in full mercenary gear wouldn't work. Given she worked in Vacuo that was almost never, so the nice jacket ended up gathering a lot of dust (and stains since its thick cloth made it useful for cleaning up spills), but she managed to clean it up, get all the sand out of it, and even fixed the couple of holes from those unfortunate incidents where a scorpion or something crawled into the pockets. The light brown long coat went down to her knees despite being possibly the only garment she owned that actually fit her correctly. It felt odd to not have her jacket practically falling off of her, and her arms felt almost trapped by it even though the sleeves weren't tight. The button-up jacket was the centerpiece of the ensemble, and everything else was just basic and black. Black slacks. Black lace-up boots. Black gloves rather than her weapons, if only because she felt naked without something on her hands. Black hat to cover her ears. Even her hair was tied back with a black ribbon rather than a rubber band or whatever else she happened to find laying around after showering. She figured she probably looked like a poor person trying to fit in with rich people, but it wasn't that inaccurate aside from the fact that she had a fair amount of money.

Nothing could have prepared her for what was actually there though. The entrance was huge with grand double doors, perfectly trimmed shrubs, and statues all around. She was absolutely floored. The artificial stream and fountain with all the flowers, tucked away in a quiet part of the city was probably supposed to be relaxing, but Red felt out of place enough that it just made her tense. It only got worse as she went inside. The dark wood the building was made out of was immaculate, perfectly crafted with numerous carvings and decorations lined with gold. Even someone as aesthetically dead as she was could appreciate the craftsmanship. It all felt so unnecessary and made her realize just how different these peoples' worlds were. For someone that grew up in the slums of Vale it really was like she suddenly took a trip to the moon.

Part of her could scarcely believe she could even afford to eat at a place like this. Or that people would pay the money that must have been required to maintain this place to eat here. Red was hoping she wouldn't have to pay anything and could just find a nice balcony to zone out on, but knowing she could in case people started hassling her was comforting. There were small shops that sold expensive foods, like exotic coffee, fancy chocolates, and ornate dishes so she hoped she would have enough plausible deniability to avoid spending any money at all. She already felt like she had been spending her money a little frivolously lately and was feeling a bit guilty about that.

After giving a polite nod and wave to the hostess, she made her way to the elevator that would take her up to the restaurant proper. There were two options: a mostly glass elevator that would let patrons see over the city while they waited to get to the top, and an opaque one for people that were a bit too squeamish for the glass one. Red opted for the glass elevator. After all, the only reason she came here was because she wanted to see the city. The elevator was smooth and gentle, not like the ones she was used to riding in. Or at least it was until it came to a sudden stop.

Red raised an eyebrow until a voice came over the intercom in the elevator telling them to remain calm and that a technician would be by soon to fix the problem. She sighed. This was just her luck really. Now she was going to be stuck here with the other person in the elevator until it got fixed and could only hope that they were sane.

At least the view was nice.

---

1050/1050

[Carmim Clover]

❝ AURA: 100% TAG: @newfrenred NOTES: Mmm, cheese. WORDS: 1257 | TWC: 1257 HAVE YOU SEEN HER? HAVE YOU HEARD? THE WAY SHE MOVES, THERE ARE NO WORDS It was super weird. Carmim wasn't used to having money, largely on account of growing up in a place where there wasn't much use for it, and equally largely because every since getting to Mistral, she'd been so far in debt that she never got to keep any of the money from her notice board missions. All of it went to either paying her pizza tab, or fixing her Scroll when it got broken, or fixing her Scroll when it kept accidentally ordering pizzas, or fixing her Scroll because she dropped pizza sauce on it, or... Well, okay, most of it went towards her Scroll. But this time was different! She was Scroll-accident-free for at least like, two months! And she'd been working a bunch more notice board missions lately, so now her debt had caught up to her wallet, and she was actually making money now! Not much. But money! So what would she do with it? Why, what any poor person with a sudden influx of income would do, of course. Splurging on food! There was a neat restaurant that Theia had told her about once, and she was determined to go and try it out! She'd asked her considerably wealthier friend to tag along, of course, but it seemed she was busy with some family stuff, so Carmim was headed there alone. No problem! She had enough to cover her own meal, she was pretty sure. Ideally, anyways! She had just gotten out of class, so she was still in her Haven uniform (sans shoes of course), as she walked up the incredibly long stairs to the bottom of the restaurant area. It looked so fancy! She got a few sideways glances here and there, and it was very clear that she didn't exactly fit in well in the Cloud. But she didn't notice, and even if she did, she wouldn't have really minded- she didn't fit in anywhere in Mistral, really, so what difference was there between Haven and the Cloud District? And it was a good day, anyways, so not much was going to bring her down! It had been nearly five months since her incident, (and less than a week until her birthday!), which meant that she was finally being allowed to carry a significantly smaller, strictly ceremonial, drum with her in public again. It was very small, no bigger than six or seven inches tall, and the strap was considerably thinner and of lower quality than her actual drum, but after a safety hearing, it was deemed that even if she did use her Semblance on this one, it wouldn't do nearly enough damage to pose much of a threat, and more to the point, her therapy had been successful enough that she was no longer considered a danger to herself or others. So she wore it proudly, on her little shoulder sling, bouncing against her hips as she looked around the lower area of the restaurant. The statues were very nice, and the huge double doors looked super fancy! But before she quite reached them, she was stopped by a doorman. "Excuse me, madam- I apologize for any inconvenience, but we do have a dress code in place. I must ask that you return with the proper footwear." She blinked in confusion for a moment. "Oh. Do you mean like shoes?" He nodded, staring pointedly down at her bare feet. He wasn't the only one, as guests walking by whispered scandalously amongst themselves. "I t'ink I have some in my bag! Let me check." And sure enough, she found the missing piece to her uniform, which she presented to the incredibly patient doorman with a smile, before sitting on the ground and working them onto her feet- with some considerable effort. Shoes were not a common feature in her life, frankly, and having to wear them was a little uncomfortable, but she would do it for the supposedly great food and super-high-up view that this place offered. Once properly dressed, the doorman allowed her inside, though he still wasn't entirely pleased with her attire- honestly, it was probably more because he recognized her from the Vytal Tournament than anything, and having a Vytal contestant at the restaurant might be good publicity. The Haven Uniform was arguably the bare minimum as far as the dress code went, and it was very clear that Carmim, in spite of her ordinary wardrobe of suits, bought for her by her Uncle Fadaka when she'd arrived to Mistral, carrying one tattered outfit to her name, had absolutely no idea what any societal norms regarding fashion were. She had just liked the suits because they looked cool, and different. And ironically, one of those may have actually been better suited to a venue like this one. Looking around, everybody was in elegant suits and beautiful dresses, and she definitely stuck out like a sore thumb. But she was undeterred, as she checked out the small vendors on the ground floor. She didn't have nearly enough money to buy everything she wanted, in addition to a proper meal upstairs, but she did find that one little shop offered free samples; tiny cheese and olive cubes on sticks. She, of course, grabbed an entire handful, to the stunned expression on the shopkeeper's face. Sure, they were free, but that was... A bit much. Once that mission was accomplished, she found her way, with a hostess's help, to the elevator, where she stood, waiting, and chewing on one of her little hors d'oeuvres. Moments later, she watched curiously as a girl way taller than her got on the elevator after her. She gave a friendly wave as she entered, little cheese skewer still sticking halfway out of her mouth. But soon after, the elevator started moving, and she started to look out through the glass. They were already pretty high up, being in the Cloud District, but it was really exciting that they were about to get EVEN HIGHER UP, all the way up in the ACTUAL CLOUDS! Probably. She wasn't really sure how high the elevator went, she only knew that there was food at the top. But suddenly, the elevator ground to a halt, but for some reason the doors didn't open. At first, she started to just try and pry them open, but before she could get a good grip on the door, a voice chimed through the little button-mashy panel, and said to stay calm and that they were trying to fix the elevator now. It was broken? Huh. Neat. Well, nothing to do now but wait. At least she wasn't stuck up there alone! She turned to her companion, plucking the now empty skewer from her mouth and tossing it to the side, before drawing two more from her pocket. She smiled at Red, and extended one of the cheesy, olivey, tokens of friendship towards her. "It looks like we are stuck here toget'er! Hello, my name is Carmim! Do you want one of t'ese? T'ey are very tasty! I know I get hungry when I have to wait for a long time, hahaha." If Red accepted the offered nourishment, she would go ahead and plop the other one in her own mouth. But if not, she'd pop both of them in her mouth instead. "T'is elevator is really cool, huh? We are so high up right now!" And stuck. High up and stuck. Which for Carmim, was a bonus! Because now she could make a new friend!

LAIKA OF GS!

[Sinopia DeStellanova]

In hindsight, the Haven uniform should have been a dead give away that this person was in no way sane. At first, Red had been avoiding eye contact as though that would some how make her invisible, so she missed a lot of the details. This person looked even more out of place here than she did with her messy hair and a big stupid smile among all the immaculate, aloof looking people that went to these sorts of establishments. The first clue that something was wrong was all the cheese. It took her a second to place it, but she was certain this was the same kind of cheese they were offering samples of downstairs. The cheese was even cubed in the same way. Yet this girl had clearly taken multiple handfuls of it, leaving little to none for anyone else. She wasn't sure if it was flagrant disregard for others or just being completely clueless, but neither were exactly traits she wanted in people that were supposed to be defending the world from monsters.

The second was the uniform itself, though she acknowledged this may have just been something that made her irrationally irritated. It was in better shape than the last one she saw, but considering that student had cut off the sleeves, that wasn't saying much. She got so much grief for not shining her boots properly, or not getting those terrible pockets that were like magnets for mud perfectly clean. Seeing Huntsmen trainees not being held to any reasonable standard of presentation and cleanliness bothered her more than she felt like it had any right to. It wasn't about the uniform either. She wasn't about to hassle a waitress for having some stains on her uniform. A waitress had minimal responsibilities and even less ways to harm others. It wasn't about self-respect, looking good, or even being clean. It was about discipline. If someone couldn't even keep their clothes clean, how could they be trusted with a deadly weapon and the lives of others? It was about conformity and pledging your life to something greater than yourself. How could anyone concerned with their own individuality, personal glory, or was otherwise unable to even make the most basic sacrifice of personal aesthetics and maintaining them be trusted to believe and uphold that idea? This did not seem like an unreasonable standard to put on Huntsmen.

It was especially annoying here. Red was pretty sure she recognized that messy lump of hair, and the drum made it likely that she was thinking of the right person. This person participated in Vytal and was one of the people whose semblance she was pretty sure could utterly decimate a town in less than five minutes. Meanwhile, during the Faunus War, Red was ten, and while she was issued a deadly weapon, she never used it and only ran letters back and forth. Getting into a firefight was almost certain death, and she had to go out of her way to avoid trouble to avoid that. Yet for some reason ten-year-old faunus girl with no semblance or ability to fight was being held to a higher standard than Huntsmen were. Infuriating.

The third indication that something was wrong was that the girl tried to pry open the broken elevator doors even though they were god knows how many feet up in the air. Red pressed herself against the back wall like she was trying to meld with it (despite that being something she was technically capable of, she wasn't about to attempt it as tempting as it was to try to escape the elevator right now). Fortunately, she stopped when the warning came over the intercom, but still. Did she want to go flying out the doors? The doors were opaque unlike the rest of the elevator, but one look outside any of the glass walls should have made it clear that they were no where near anything at all.

And now this person wanted to be chatty. Red was very disappointed that her attempts to be invisible failed and that she could, in fact, not simply disappear into a glass wall without risk of severe bodily harm. For a moment, she stayed in the corner of the elevator like the trainee was some kind of poison gas she needed to avoid. She thought about just ignoring her and pretending like she was really fixated on something outside the window, but she made the fatal error of actually looking at the trainee's face. Red had a hard enough time being rude to anyone besides Knight, but after seeing those big eyes looking up at her like that, ignoring the trainee would feel like kicking a puppy. Letting a breath out of her nose, she relaxed a bit and took a cheese sample after hesitating for a moment, like it might have exploded in her face when she touched it.

"Sure. Thanks. I'm Sienna."

Her voice was flat and neutral with only the bare minimum of effort in it required to be polite. As for the name 'Sienna Hajnal' was what was on her ID at the very least. At this point she was so used to aliases and keeping track of them all that it rolled off her tongue with no trouble. Her name wasn't something she wanted out there. She may have had her differences with her uncle and the rest of her living blood-related family, but they didn't deserve to be targeted for her decisions.

"Yeah, it's really nice," she nodded.

Red may not have had the heart to ignore the trainee entirely, but she was willing to try to shut down the conversation. While she had her doubts that this person was socially savvy enough to recognize it, she figured it was worth a shot. After eating the little piece of cheese, she kept staring at the window. Not looking at the trainee did nothing last time, but it's not like she had anything to lose by trying again.

---

1002/2052

[Carmim Clover]

❝ AURA: 100% TAG: @newbffcheesefren NOTES: c h e e z WORDS: 910 | TWC: 2167 HAVE YOU SEEN HER? HAVE YOU HEARD? THE WAY SHE MOVES, THERE ARE NO WORDS Well, it seemed that Sienna had unfortunately fallen for one of the classic blunders. Three, actually. First, she had accepted the friendship offering, which brought an absolutely massive smile to Carmim's face, her eyes lighting up like Nondescript Winter Holiday lights, as she watched her fellow redhead first accept, and then eat, the tasty morsel. That meant they were officially friends now. And as much as she clearly wanted to, friends were physically, and also legally, incapable of ignoring their friends! Which meant she was morally obligated to talk to Carmim! Yay! Secondly, she had given her her name. Which meant that not only were they friends, they were such good friends, she felt comfortable telling the smaller redhead who she was! That was an unprecedented amount of trust to bequeath to a random stranger, and it filled the little Vacuoan with an urge- no, a compulsion, to return the favor. And thirdly, perhaps the most grave of these three missteps, Sienna had neglected to realize that Carmim's social skills and sense of personal space were effectively nonexistent. In her home village, there was no such thing as a "three-foot bubble," or "not talking to strangers!" And even for her fellow villagers, she had always been totally oblivious to social cues, like, "please stop talking to me," and "oh god, she's still there," and "that cheese doesn't look very sanitary." So when Sienna did what any normal person would do, and commented limply on the obviously pleasant view (the most barebones thing she could have said, in fact- it was obvious that she thought the view was at least nice, or else why would she be on the elevator to begin with?), Carmim took it as an open invitation to continue conversation. "I know, right!? I do not t'ink t'at I have ever been on a elevator before! Especially not one t'is tall! It is very exciting. Are you excited too? Wait, have you been on elevators before? I guess if you have, t'en it is probably not as exciting for you, but I am sure t'at it must still be a little exciting! Would you like some more cheese? T'ey were giving it away for free downstairs! Can you believe it!? Mistral is such a cool and amazing place sometimes!! I mean, we had free cheese back in Bulaani too, but we had to actually milk t'e goats, and t'en we had to make t'e cheese ourselves, and it took a very long time, but t'is is very nice cheese t'at t'ey just give away, and it has tiny weird little fruit t'ings on it too! I t'ink t'ey are olives, but t'ey do not seem like t'e kind of olives t'at come on pizzas. Do you like pizza? It is one of my most favorite Mistral foods!" The entire spiel was just motormouthed at Sienna, so fast and so scatterbrained that it would probably be pretty hard to follow, even if she didn't have an especially strong accent. As it was, the poor girl just got a stream of word salad thrown at her at high speeds. And if she managed to catch the offer for more cheese, and accepted, Carmim would definitely pass her another skewer of tasty snacks. She finally took a moment to breathe, though, and gaze out through the glass windows at their surroundings. Mistral really was beautiful. And she'd meant it that it was a cool and amazing place sometimes- as much as she still longed to go home to Vacuo, and as much as she felt like she didn't belong here, in Mistral, at Haven, in that uniform, she still found things that inspired her, and kept her going. Things like free cheese. New friends, like Sienna. Super-cool elevator rides to way too fancy restaurants in the sky. It wasn't Bulaani, of course, with the campfire stories sung by her father, or her Uncle Jabari's tales of his Great War and Faunus War adventures. There weren't nearly enough goats, and Mistral was hardly sandy enough for her to ever truly feel at home. But it was still good, and it was times like these, stuck a mile up in the air with a new friend, that was a stranger only moments ago, that she remembered what she loved about Mistral, too. She was still sad that she had to leave Vacuo. And she was still worried that there may not be a Bulaani left to go home to, when she made her way back there, after she Graduated with her Huntsman License. But she could embrace Mistral for what it was, instead of wishing that it was something it wasn't. But now, all of a sudden, she felt inspired to ask her newest friend a new question, thankfully a little slower and more thoughtful, as she continued staring out the window. Her mind was fixed on her own home village, and her own history, and how she came to be in Mistral- it made her curious. "So Sienna, where are you from? Are you from around here, or did you come here from somewhere else, like me? I am from Vacuo, from a tiny little village called Bulaani!" She turned to face the other girl with a smile- and yet another cheese skewer in hand, as she finished her own, and replaced it, adding yet another empty skewer to the small pile in her corner of the elevator. "More cheese?"

LAIKA OF GS!

[Sinopia DeStellanova]

While Red was no longer looking directly at the trainee, she could still see her reflection in the glass. Once those big red eyes lit up, she knew she had made a terrible mistake. That was not a normal smile to give someone that had done little more than said hello. Looking down at the toothpick in her hands, her body stiffened. She hadn't even been thinking about how strange it was for someone to pull cheese out of their pocket or how most people might think about that. She had eaten far more questionable food from far more questionable places to worry about a little pocket lint on cheese she was almost certain was fresh. Her body froze as she looked out the window like a deer in headlights, once again really hoping that being really still would just make her invisible.

Unsurprisingly it didn't. Neither did her attempts to back herself into the wall again. All that did was corner her, and now this tiny terror was between her and the door. When the trainee started talking, she tried to keep up but quickly realized that was a futile effort. She wasn't even sure if the trainee had any idea what she was saying with as fast as she was pumping those words out. Red just blinked, then stared blankly and slowly put her hands in her pockets, grateful that she wasn't actually going to have to respond. If this girl just wanted to ramble, she was happy to let her drone on until the elevator was fixed.

That she ended up stopping was the terrifying part. The trainee didn't seem offended at the lack of response fortunately, and Red half hoped that she would just continue after the girl took a breath. Sure, it was annoying, but it was considerably less awkward than actually having to respond. As such, it took Red a moment to register when she was actually looking for a response. She just stood there, looking out the window with half-lidded eyes for a couple of seconds before she realized it was quiet. She nearly jumped and her head snapped back to the trainee once she realized what was happening.

"Oh. No thank you. I should save room for lunch."

Not that she planned to eat lunch with any luck, but they were in an elevator on a fancy restaurant. It was a reasonable enough response to let her avoid making the same mistake. One that she absolutely had to make sure not to repeat because she was pretty sure this was actually the third time she had been offered cheese, not the second. Girl had a problem.

As easy as it would be to just make up a story about where she was from and call it good, she really wanted to avoid talking about herself too much. She wanted to talk about her past even less, as that was annoying and unpleasant to talk about even when not dealing with potential law enforcement. Instead, she glanced out the window again to try to find some kind of distraction. This person was clearly easily distracted so it shouldn't be too hard. Something caught her eye quickly. There was another fancy building built into the edge of a cliff, and by it there was a nice waterfall that flowed into a pond. The most important feature however, was that there was a flock of ducks taking a bath in it. This girl absolutely seemed like the type to get distracted by ducks.

"Sorry, I was just looking at that pond over there," she pulled a hand out of her pocket to point it out. "It looks like there's ducks?"

The phrasing was picked deliberately. It wasn't a direct question, and thus shouldn't have warranted a direct response, but it was curious sounding enough to hopefully make her want to take a look. With any luck she'd just start rambling about ducks or fish or whatever else she saw in that pond and Red could just go back to tuning it out.

The fact that this person had enough power to annihilate a town was absolutely terrifying to her. What was wrong with this world?

---

700/2752

[Carmim Clover]

❝ AURA: 100% TAG: @newbffsiennayay NOTES: f r e n ? D U C K ? ! WORDS: 569 | TWC: 2736 HAVE YOU SEEN HER? HAVE YOU HEARD? THE WAY SHE MOVES, THERE ARE NO WORDS Carmim, despite her assorted quirks, lack of social awareness, and generally questionable life choices, was not an unreasonable person. She nodded as Sienna declined the offer of more cheese, and noted not to offer her anymore while they were still on the elevator- it would be pretty unfortunate if she spoiled her appetite eating cheese, after all, before she even got to the restaurant! In theory, the littler redhead should have been thinking the same thing... But that didn't stop her from popping what would have been Sienna's cheese cubes and little olives in her mouth, as she awaited Red's response to her questions. However, instead of any response that came in the form of actual, proper, answers, she was instead faced with something far more pressing and immediately important- ducks. It didn't take any sort of genius to realize that Carmim was very excitable and easily distracted. And ducks in a pond were distracting for anybody, let alone her! "Whoa, what!!! Where!?" She moved over towards where Sienna was standing, and pressed his face up against the glass as she stared out in wonder and excitement at the duck-filled pond. Sure enough, there were a whole bunch of cute little ducks floating in the water and flying around and quacking. All normal duck things to do. "Whoa, t'at is so cool! Look, t'ey are all just sitting t'ere! T'ere are so many of t'em!" It hadn't taken much. Not much at all. And even though it had been Sienna who'd pointed them out to her, she still jabbed a finger in the direction of the ducks as she spoke. "T'ey are so white and fluffy! And look! It is a big fish, jumping up out of t'e water! Whoa! Ducks are so cute, and also fish too! How many of t'em do you t'ink t'ere are? It looks like t'ere is at least a hundred! Do you like ducks? I never saw any ducks back in Vacuo, but t'ere are a whole bunch of t'em in Mistral, but I never knew t'at t'ere were so many! So cool!" As excited as she was, she was very clearly not showing much restraint with her cheese skewers, knocking back at least three or four more between quickly chattered sentences, and slowly filling the little pile of empty skewers in her previous corner of the elevator, before she had moved into Sienna's corner. She looked up at the girl that was definitely trying to avoid any further interaction with her. Luckily for Carmim, she was utterly oblivious to that fact. "So! Are you excited about t'e tasty food in t'is restaurant!? Have you ever been here before? I have not! I finally saved up a little extra money, so I am very excited! I really like your outfit also!" It was very nice, and looked kinda similar to how Carmim would be dressed on a normal day, if she hadn't just gotten out of class. She wondered why Sienna seemed so shy. Maybe she was a bit like Jackie? Or was it Heidi...? She could still never figure out which one she was thinking about... Either way, Sienna reminded her a bit of her friend, in the way that she didn't really talk much. But hopefully, she was going to be a really good friend, just like Jackie/Heidi/whichever one was! She had a really good feeling about it.

LAIKA OF GS!

[Sinopia DeStellanova]

"Yeah, there's way more than I can count over there. They seem like they're having fun."

Her tone was just barely fast enough to be somewhere above 'bored,' but not quite to 'trying.' She was content to continue looking out the window, giving the bare minimum in response to be polite. This girl had to get bored of that at some point right? Failing that, hopefully the elevator would start working again soon so she could get out of here and hopefully never see this person again.

In the mean time, the ducks were surprisingly entertaining to watch.

Red inwardly groaned as the trainee sent out another barrage of questions like she was going to actually respond to all those comments. Or like she even could considering they were fired off in groups of at least five it felt like without even giving her time to talk. Part way through this round of random nonsense, her ears twitched under her hat. It was distant, but she was certain she heard something bounce against the glass further up. The top of the elevator was opaque, presumably to hide the mechanisms that made it possible to move, so she couldn't check, but she was certain she was hearing something the size of a small pebble bouncing its way down the shaft above them. Raising an eyebrow, she tried to think of what could make a noise like that, but the answer hit her too late.

A screw. It was a screw, or a bolt, or something similar. Something that was supposed to be helping the elevator stay up. The elevator jolted underneath them. One side gave way faster than the other, slamming one side of the elevator into the shaft. Fortunately, both the elevator and the elevator shaft were made out of something a bit stronger than normal glass, so it didn't shatter all over them immediately, but a spider web of cracks formed at the point of impact. It clearly wasn't going to be able to take another hit like that, and given how loudly the elevator was creaking, Red was certain it was going to be taking several more hits like that because it was about to fall.

Something snapped loudly above them, loud enough that she visibly jumped, and the elevator did indeed start falling. This was bad. Her semblance could get her out of here, but that wouldn't help her. They were way too far up for her to be able to just jump. She left her weapons at home, not wanting to risk bringing them along. Normally she didn't mind, but they were the kind of gloves she worked on cars with. They would stand out here, even if she kept them in her pockets for the most part. The elevator shaft was narrow enough that she might be able to parkour her way up or down, but they were only about half way up and still had a long way to go. Even if the shaft was in tact enough for her to jump off of, she still had her own physical limits and going that high up without getting tired and without messing up even once was a tall order.

Plus, there was another person here.

She didn't know what to do, and there wasn't enough time to think. All she knew was that back wall that was facing the ducks was probably going to shatter and send shards of whatever this tough glass was at high speeds into them. Red didn't have time to think about how to handle this, so she did the first thing that came to mind. Her first instinct was to protect the other person. She wasn't ten anymore. She could do something. She could fight now. Thus, she grabbed the shoulders of the small girl and pulled the girl into her chest, putting herself between the girl and the wall that was about to shatter. From there, she pushed herself forward, towards the elevator doors and away from the glass wall, as best as she could manage while they were free falling like this. Glass went everywhere. Her coat was thick enough to absorb some of the shards, and her aura was enough to handle the rest.

What broke? Why was the elevator falling? Was the cable just gone? Would they keep falling until they were just a smear on the ground? Or did something else go wrong and just give it too much slack? Would it eventually catch them? Without being able to see it, she couldn't tell. Not sure what to do, she hunched down, trying to keep her own body surrounding the girl as much as possible. Fortunately for them, whatever it was, it was one of the options that meant the elevator stopped falling before hitting the ground. It feel far enough that the impact was enough to make her bounce, but it was weak enough that it barely even damaged her flimsy aura. That could have hurt without aura, but fortunately that wasn't going to be a problem for either of them.

For as loud as everything was the past few seconds, it was eerily quiet now. Some of the glass was sliding down the tilted elevator and collecting in the corner, but that was it. After taking a few seconds to catch her breath and to let the initial rush of adrenaline fade, Red realized what she just did. This was so ass backwards. She was the civilian here, why was she protecting a Huntress trainee? The sheer absurdity of it all was enough to startle her. She released the trainee like she realized she was just hugging a cactus and feel backwards onto her butt, using her now free hands to prevent herself from sliding any further.

"Sorry."

Her voice was airy and confused. Just what she was apologizing for she had no idea, but it seemed like the appropriate thing to say in this situation. The voice came over the intercom again and Red's face flattened. "Please remain calm. Emergency services are on their way." Sure they were. She could actually believe that they were, especially since there was a non-zero chance that the people in the restaurant were also stranded. However, they were in a remote area on difficult terrain. There was no guarantee the elevator would hold long enough for a ladder big enough to get them down to arrive, and she wasn't inclined to take her chances if there was something she could do. The question was what?

---

1090/3842

[Carmim Clover]

❝ AURA: 100% TAG: @dangerfren NOTES: o boi WORDS: 1039 | TWC: 3775 HAVE YOU SEEN HER? HAVE YOU HEARD? THE WAY SHE MOVES, THERE ARE NO WORDS Ducks having fun was always something worth taking the time to watch. And they were distracting enough that she didn't even notice that Sienna was completely ignoring her very good, genuinely curious, questions! But not distracting enough for Carmim's sensitive ears to miss the same sound that the taller girl caught, unbeknownst to Carmim. It was too far up for her to realize what it was, exactly, but it stopped her questions cold. The sound drew closer, and she could definitely tell it was some small object rattling down the sha- Crack. Something snapped, far up, and she froze, indecision taking her as she realized, all too late, what was happening. Fortunately, Sienna's clearer head prevailed, and as she stared at the quickly approaching ducks, she felt a pair of hands clasp around her back, pulling her hard into the elevator doors, just as the glass wall she was previously staring through smacked hard against the see-through elevator shaft. She should have been faster. He was screaming, his legs mangled and bloody, and the horrible bastard just stood there, tainted tonfas in hand, staring at her like she'd grown a second head. Her drum wasn't even leveled on him- there'd been no time. After what seemed like hours, she screamed at him, told him to stop. It was too late. She should have been faster. Bodies strewn around, rended flesh and bone by Sabyrs' teeth and claws, as the beasts circled in around her with snapping jaws and heavy steps. She should have been faster. Movement on the roof of the train, footsteps, two pairs. An explosion, a hole, and Nik, he- blood in the sand. Like her nightmares. She should have been faster. Vacuo. Bulaani. Her uncle. Gone. She should have been faster. Her eyes had glazed over as she drifted from the elevator, to Rochdale, to Argus, to home, and back, and she didn't catch Sienna's awkward apology, even as she slowly registered that the other girl had risked her life to save hers. She only blinked away the voices and the visions, when Sienna let her go, tumbling back. Carmim moved a moment later, offering a hand to help her back to her feet, but her face was sullen and flushed as she stewed on her failing. She was the Huntress trainee, right? She was supposed to have tried to save Sienna, not the other way around. This was so wrong that it hurt. She was appreciative of the other girl's effort, for sure, but what good was she if she couldn't help a man her friend was- no, no. If she couldn't help a stranger in an elevator. An elevator that was falling, she remembered. "S-stay calm..." She wasn't sure if she was talking to Sienna or herself, and the sound of her own voice startled her. And the voice over the intercom startled her even more. What to do... What to do... She had to do something... She looked through the glass, down at the ground below, and was filled with an overwhelming sense that doing so was a bad idea, as her stomach did flips, and her brain did flops. She was way, way, way high up. Or well. They were way high up. Her and Sienna. A civilian. Probably not training or anything, and very likely no Aura. Probably no Semblance either. Not that her own Semblance or Aura would be much help. She was way too high up, a fall from this height would break her Aura. And while she had a drum on her, it wasn't Storyteller. Which meant if they fell out of the elevator, she would have a much harder time breaking their fall with her Semblance- she'd burn at least twice as much Aura as usual trying to slow their descent, and by the time they hit the ground, it might not have been enough to save her, and her Aura would be too low. Maybe if they were further down, and jumped, but she couldn't think of a way to do that without risking falling and killing the both of them. But for a last ditch effort, it was something, at least. But what to do until then... Oh! Her drum! Moving with sudden urgency, but taking care not to disrupt the precariously-dangling elevator too much, she reached into her back pocket, fishing out not more cheese, but a length of thick, sturdy, black rope- the same kind that held her drum in place by her hip, and the same kind that held the drum itself together. Thinking fast, she tied one end around her waist, and offered the other end to Sienna. "We should stay toget'er, in case t'e elevator falls again. I am very strong, and I can protect you if you stay close, do not worry. Hopefully we do not fall again, t'ough... But it is better to be safe t'an sorry, right?" She hoped Sienna would take the rope, and either tie it around her own waist, or if she couldn't do it, Carmim could help her. If she did, then there would be about four feet of slack between them, so they'd be able to move independently, but if they started falling again, Carmim could grab on to something sturdy and attempt to hold on. She was strong enough to hold her own body weight, as well as Red's, so that wasn't an issue. The main thing would definitely be finding something sturdy enough to hold on to, and getting to a point where they could hold onto it. Maybe if they could get on top of the elevator, they could try to climb up the rope? It was risky, and if it failed, they'd be freefalling, but it was better than nothing, right? She eyed the maintenance cover in the ceiling thoughtfully, considering it. But she turned her attention to Sienna soon after, deciding that that was only an option in case the elevator fell further. She had other priorities immediately. You are not going to fail her like you failed those villagers. Like you failed Nik. Like you failed your home. "Sienna- are you hurt at all? I am sorry, I should have asked t'at before."

LAIKA OF GS!

[Sinopia DeStellanova]

Red got her feet back under her after the initial surprise of what happened faded, but she rejected the offered hand and didn't actually stand up. Squatting like this was fine for now and she didn't want to risk shaking the elevator by shifting her weight around too much. If she needed to stand up later, it wouldn't be hard to do so from this position, and she could still move as easily as this situation was likely to allow for. Plus, if she was being completely honest with herself, she didn't want to accept the trainee's help more than necessary.

Protect her, how many times had she heard that from people over the years? How many times had she heard that from people that supposedly had a sworn duty to protect civilians and the weak? Back in Vale the police were never there to protect her. No, they always did the exact opposite. They'd hassle her if she was carrying something that looked more expensive than what they thought someone like her should be able to afford, or even if she went into the wrong part of town and walked in a way they didn't like. The government never protected her. The living conditions she grew up in were pitiful and not how anyone should live. Crime was a problem in the area, but no one ever tried to do anything about it. Then they tried to round up her entire species and force them onto shitty island that was only partially inhabitable. She never saw the camps faunus had to stay in until the humans could get them onto a boat, but she heard stories. 'Horrific' didn't even begin to describe it. Huntsmen never protected her. She could still remember the first time she saw one in person. She had followed a patrol without them knowing when they came across a Huntsmen who was likely looking for faunus fleeing from Vale. He claimed that there were Grimm in the area and that they should all follow him to the nearest camp to avoid them like he was actually trying to be helpful. Said that right before blowing their heads off because they refused, even though none of them could do a thing to hurt him. Red was pretty sure the only reason she survived was because of the cover of darkness and shitty human night vision because she doubted she would have been spared for being ten and marginally less of a threat than the rest of them.

Why would this person be any different? Authority figures in her life proved time and time again that they were malicious at worst and incompetent or clueless at best. It was why she always felt the need to do everything herself, even daunting tasks that no one person would be able to accomplish on their own, like ending faunus oppression, and even dumb tasks that she could get just about anyone to do, like moving crates around or doing laundry. Knight was the only person she had ever been able to rely on consistently, and she was not the type to leave her life up to chance.

The implication that they would be different this time when there was already a clear pattern of utter failure irritated her. Those 'different' Huntsmen, where were they when she needed them? It was a fucking stupid question and equally as unfair, but it was always what ran through her head. Like, this one looked thirteen or something -- it's not like she memorized all the data released for the Vytal tournament -- so she was probably waddling off to Kindergarten. It wasn't reasonable to lump everyone into a group like that, but was hard to avoid. She was ten years old when the war started, so no one properly explained to her what was going on. All she heard was that bad people were trying to hurt them and force them to go somewhere they didn't want to. Her young mind didn't immediately connect that to humanity, but it was very easy for her to connect it to Huntsmen. No good person could tear through helpless people like that and walk away like nothing happened. They made sense as the enemy she was fighting against, and had more obvious differences between her and everyone else she knew than humans did.

This whole thing was especially sad because if the trainee wasn't here she'd have a far easier time escaping. She could just wait in the shaft's glass until she could either find a foot hold or emergency services came if she wasn't worried about revealing her very distinct semblance. At this point, she really was just a hindrance, and while her first instinct was to protect her, now that she had more time to think her thoughts were much less charitable. They were such ugly thoughts. Thoughts she was ashamed she had. The trainee didn't deserve to die because of what people she never knew did to the faunus in the past. She couldn't abandon people because of a lingering hatred she was never able to get rid of. Those emotions had to be suppressed and ignored. No one was going to die as long as she was here.

After a moment's hesitation, Red accepted the rope and awkwardly tied it around her waist. Difficult given the position she was in, but she managed without shifting too much. She could believe the trainee was strong. Most people with aura weren't normal physically. Whether or not that would mean anything was something else entirely. But taking the rope meant she'd make the trainee feel better, and it increased the odds that someone would be able to grab onto something and stop both of them from falling, she supposed.

If she could use her semblance this wouldn't be nearly as hard, but she might be able to do something similar without it. The elevator was running up a long glass shaft, but even with as hard as that glass was it couldn't hold up a structure this large. There were thin white beams running vertically up the side and horizontally to break the the panes of glass every couple dozen feet or so. The bottom of the elevator was glass, so she could see they were near one. The problem was she had no idea if that would actually support their weight. They looked pretty flimsy, and they were thin so they'd be hard to balance on in the first place. However, they were ultimately what was holding up this entire structure, so they had to be stronger than they looked. Enough to hold about 250 pounds right on them rather than distributed throughout the structure? Maybe not, but she didn't have any better ideas at the moment.

While she thought she was also trying to suppress those less pleasant emotions. Her eyes grew sharper and the surprise and discomfort on her face faded into a dull neutrality. Her tone lacked any of the warmth (albeit a bored and awkward warmth) it had before and bordered on monotone now.

"Yes. I am fine."

Tense, but she was breathing and could think clearly. That was fine enough for her. She brushed the broken glass off of her jacket, taking a moment to feel it. The glass was hard enough that she would have difficulty breaking it. She probably could, but not without going to the edge of the precariously perched elevator and kicking it a few times. That ran enough risk of knocking the elevator loose that she didn't want to try it. After letting a long breath out of her nose, she turned to the trainee.

"Are you able to break the glass in the elevator shaft? Gently. Without rocking the elevator?"

Everything in her bones was screaming that this was a terrible idea. Her stomach was starting to do backflips because of how uncomfortable this was. Obviously the trainee could break the glass, it was everything else she was worried about and why she emphasized it so much. Did this girl even know the definition of restraint? Or how to be careful? Was she even self-aware enough to know if she could pull something like that off? Was this question about to get both of them killed? Trusting something this important to a random Huntress trainee was painful, but she didn't know what else to do.

---

1400/5242

[Carmim Clover]

❝ AURA: 100% TAG: @breakoutbuddy NOTES: time to do a hero WORDS: 452 | TWC: 4227 HAVE YOU SEEN HER? HAVE YOU HEARD? THE WAY SHE MOVES, THERE ARE NO WORDS Gotta be faster. She smiled as Sienna took the rope and carefully wrapped it around herself. And she might have noted the shift in Sienna's tone, if they weren't in such a precarious, frankly scary, situation. As it was, she didn't have time to think much of the more monotone manner of speaking. She was just glad to hear that the other girl was okay. That was a big relief. And when Sienna asked her about breaking the glass pane... Well, she stared at her like she was absolutely insane for a solid moment or two. Because that was definitely an absolutely insane thought to have. Why would they want to break the glass!? That was the only thing keeping them from sliding out and dying! Even she knew that! Wow, this poor girl was probably extra dumb or something. That, or she was just really, really, crazy. Like... Extra crazy! She didn't even have a good analogy for how crazy she had to be to want to smash up the only thing keeping the two of them safe. But after a moment of looking at her like she'd sprouted a third eye, Carmim started to realize that maybe she had some kind of plan, instead of just wanting to expedite their deaths. That was the only reasonable conclusion she could draw. And regardless, she didn't have a plan, herself, and she was still repeating the same mantra in her head: Gotta be faster. Indecision killed people. Not in the sense of that being some kind of idiom or something- literally, past-tense, the last time she was indecisive, the last time she was too slow to react, a thousand people died. She nodded slowly, in realization, and turned her head carefully to look at the glass, as the elevator rocked uneasily beneath her. It just looked like glass, honestly. Thick glass, but glass. She was pretty sure she could punch through things way harder than that, and in fact, she'd just recently had the opportunity to test that, when she'd smashed through one of the brick buildings in Vytal. Yeah. She could break the glass. The question, then, was how much she needed to break it. And how. And where. "Yes. I can do t'at. Do you have a plan? Where should I break t'e glass?" Her voice was a lot quieter, and a bit lower, and most importantly, much slower now. She was adapting pretty well to the situation, she thought- in times of crisis, she often did, at first. But this time, unlike all of those times, she was going to do something. She wasn't about to let anyone else die because of her. Not herself, and not Sienna.

LAIKA OF GS!

[Sinopia DeStellanova]

Well, she wasn't dead or falling yet, so that was good, but what ended up happening left her stunned for a moment. Not only did the trainee not fire her semblance immediately, she took the time to ask what the hell she was even thinking suggesting something that ridiculous. This was far more than Red was expecting, and was enough to make her feel almost relieved. After shaking her head slightly to pull herself out of her initial surprise, then slowly crept towards the elevator door to make sure Carmim would have a clear shot.

"By some definition. It's not a very good plan, but I can't think of anything else. You see the support beams running up the side?" she pointed one of them out to make it clear what she was referring to. "There's some running the other direction to connect them. If we can get rid of the glass, we might be able to use the long beams to climb down, then rest on the short ones when we need to. I can climb, but I would have trouble breaking the glass. Even if we don't climb, having a spot to wait for a ladder outside of the elevator seems wise."

The elevator creaked again to punctuate her point. Maybe it would hold long enough for someone to show up, but she wasn't going to bet on that. Was this going to get her arrested for vandalism? Red rubbed the bridge of her nose. Probably. If she was lucky and the trainee did most of the damage she'd be able to get out of it. Or, since this was Mistral, she might be able to pay off the cops. She hated that her mind was going to such unproductive directions. Holding back her semblance was dangerous enough, she couldn't worry about every little thing that might happen right now.

It wouldn't be easy to stand on those beams either, which was why she was thinking about climbing down despite the distance they would have to cover. The beams were already thin, but they were also high up between the two mountains Mistral was on. It was going to be windy. Possibly windy enough that it would take some serious effort to not get blown off the edge. That was still better than sitting in the elevator though.

"I'm not sure how strong they are. One of us will need to go out there and make sure it's at least strong enough to hold one of our weights. But if they're holding up this giant elevator shaft I think there's a good chance it can handle holding us up."

---

441/5683

[Carmim Clover]

❝ AURA: 99% TAG: @yaystepone NOTES: step 2: don't die :Clowning: WORDS: 1015 | TWC: 5242 HAVE YOU SEEN HER? HAVE YOU HEARD? THE WAY SHE MOVES, THERE ARE NO WORDS Carmim started to frown, but mid-frown, caught herself, and turned it into a confident smile instead. Knowing that Sienna, herself, didn't have much faith in her own plan was a little disheartening, but she couldn't show that she didn't have too much faith in it either. It was important that Sienna felt secure in knowing that Carmim was there, and would save the both of them. That was what she'd learned in Vystein's Rescue Ops classes, anyways. And the plan, while sketchy, and not nearly as sure as she would like, did seem like it had at least some chance of success. And as the elevator creaked again, the urgency she'd had before returned in full force. She nodded, and carefully, slowly, moved to examine the glass pane, where Sienna had pointed. She could see the beams she was talking about, and she hoped that her own climbing skills would be up to snuff enough for her not to die. Worse, since they were tethered, if she fell, Sienna would be falling too. Taking turns climbing would probably be necessary. "Okay. I am breaking t'e glass now." It was probably smart to let Sienna know when she was going to break it, in case the elevator rattled. Which it inevitably would. Her breath was bubbling up with some tension as she stood, facing the glass wall, but luckily (hopefully) Sienna couldn't tell from looking at her back. She glanced down at the smaller drum by her side. It was a consideration. On the one hand, her semblance was strong. And for once, breaking something was something she needed to do to save someone. But even with the smaller drum limiting her strength, if she hit it too hard, she was shattering the glass in front of them, and the wall behind it. Maybe even the support beams, actually- she'd never tested this particular drum out in a stressful situation before, so now was not the time to go guessing and hoping. She looked at her hands. They were a little sweaty, and very subtly quaking. It was a scary situation, and one she hadn't expected, earlier in the day. They'd have to do. She placed one hand to the glass. It felt fragile. She knew it wasn't- it was sturdy, strong, glass, meant for holding people up, hundreds of feet in the air. But she was strong. She had considered punching it, but that would definitely shake the car, and worse, might send Sienna into a panic. Then they'd be stuck in a suspended elevator, with no way down, and a scared, panicking, person who might even shake the elevator even more. That was something she definitely wanted to avoid, if at all possible. So instead, she decided to try and pop the pane out. It would be a little trickier, but she could see where the glass connected to the rest of the elevator. There were definite spots where she could push the glass out, so that it would just fall in one big piece. The first two corners were easy enough. She crouched down and gave the first one a tentative nudge. Then she applied pressure, until- pop. It didn't seem to move much, but she could tell it was a little looser now. The second window on the bottom was even easier, popping loose with a click that would be satisfying, if this wasn't so stressful. The bottom of the pane was now visibly looser, moving ever so slightly as the elevator shifted. The two next would be much more problematic. Namely, because she wasn't quite able to reach the upper corners. So, carefully, she stood up on her tippy toes, and stretched as high up as she could, to push on one upper corner of the glass. She wasn't able to push near the base, but she did manage to dislodge the first corner- though not without sending a thin sliver of a crack streaking through it. Nervous, she did her best to hold her composure as she reached for the finally corner. It was sadly not meant to be, though. Despite her methodical, careful, attempts to peacefully push the glass from its pane, life had other plans in mind. Just as she moved to press against the last spot, the elevator jolted once more, much more violently. It didn't fall, but it did lower another few inches, and worse, it threw Carmim off balance, and she ended up putting her whole hand through the pane, shattering it into tiny shards, most of which thankfully fell over the edge. Unfortunately, Carmim very nearly fell over into the seemingly bottomless abyss too. Luckily, she managed to hold her balance on the very edge, eyes wide open and staring down in fear, where she stood, for a solid few seconds, before she was able to regain her composure enough to turn- slowly- to Sienna, a terrible, but heartfelt, attempt at a confident smile on her face again as she flashed a thumbs up. "Okay. T'e glass is gone now. So now one of us has to climb out t'ere onto t'e beam, yes? Would you feel more comfortable waiting here while I climb over? Or would you rat'er I wait here for you, to pull you up if you slip? Whichever one is better for you, t'at is what we can do. We can do t'is." It was a little bit more to reassure herself than Sienna, if she was being completely honest with herself. Depending on the other redhead's answer, there was a non-zero chance that she would be climbing out onto the precarious ledge. And while she wasn't a terrible climber, she was pretty slow, and not as confident in her skills as she would prefer. That, and she was still just a little rattled from the glass breaking. Luckily, she wasn't hurt by it, thanks to her Aura, and it seemed that Sienna wasn't either, so that was good. Staring back out towards the support beam, though, she had to wonder how long that luck would hold out...

LAIKA OF GS!

[Sinopia DeStellanova]

If she wasn't trying really hard to keep her emotions under control and focus on the situation at hand, her jaw would have dropped. She was fully expecting the trainee to want to use that destructive semblance, and part of her would have actually preferred it. The trainee's choice was certainly more sensible (as strange as it felt to say that about someone that was so easily distracted by ducks), but blasting it would have been faster. Red didn't own a pair of shoes that couldn't handle a bit of broken glass, so having to step on that and break the last bits was not that concerning to her. What was concerning was staying in an elevator that could fall several hundred feet at any moment. However, Red didn't know the trainee's capabilities or how feasible that was to begin with, so she wasn't going to complain that the trainee was able to show some amount of discretion, as surprising as it was.

In contrast to the trainee's state, Red was perfectly focused and trying to come up with some idea better than what she had. These were the kinds of environments she excelled in. Life or death situations where her hyper vigilance and ability to think of every way something could go wrong was actually useful. In these kinds of situations, everything really was out to kill her and everything really was catastrophic like her brain was acting it was, making it one of the few times her thoughts and emotions actually aligned with reality. That didn't stop her from doubting herself, but it didn't matter if she doubted. All that mattered was life or death, and anything that brought her closer to life was worth doing. It wasn't that she wasn't terrified or anxious, it was that she was almost always terrified or anxious. Sure, she was feeling worse than she normally did right now, way worse even, but she had trained herself to deal with these emotions. Not on purpose, but it worked out.

Carmim's current state was not lost on her despite the trainee's attempts to hide it. Red was far too focused on small details and anything the environment might offer her to miss it. When she told Knight she wanted to work on her leadership abilities this was not what she had in mind. Thoughts about how she should just forget about the trainee and figure out to get out of her herself kept creeping in from the corners of her mind. Thoughts telling her it wouldn't even be that sad if the world lost one Huntress. They died all the time anyway, what did it even matter if this one didn't get out of here? It wouldn't even be her fault. As though that actually mattered. Terrible. Unforgivable even. She had to make sure to keep pushing those thoughts back into the crevices they came from.

The elevator dropped again, but it stopped before she could do much more than tense and start looking around for a way out. Her heart skipped a beat, and she coughed as she forced herself to start breathing again. This was exactly why she wanted to get out of the elevator as quickly as possible. It was too unstable. Impossible to know how long it would actually hold. Fortunately, the trainee didn't take much longer to get the glass pane out. Now all that was left to make sure that support could actually hold them.

"I can go."

It made more sense for Carmim to go because that girl was probably lighter than she was, but she didn't want to stay in this elevator anymore. The elevator was nothing more than a death trap at this point, and for as much as she kept repeating that she was going to save both of them, that the trainee was going to get out of this alive too, her own sense of self-preservation trumped her desire to make sure nothing happened to a Huntress trainee.

Fortunately, the support beam was actually a lot stronger than she expected it to be. It was still thin and precarious, but after a moment of carefully testing her weight on it at the edge of the elevator, it was clear that it the designers didn't skimp out on materials to make this. Surprising from what she'd heard of Mistral, but she wasn't about to complain. Carefully, she stepped out of the elevator and onto the beam, slowly standing as it became clear she could safely. Red grabbed the vertical support to help her stay up right while she stepped towards the center of the beam to test her weight on that part as well. Once it was clear it would hold, she nodded at Carmim to indicate that it was safe for her to step out. After a moment's hesitation, she even offered a hand to help her cross the gap.

Not long after, the wind made it clear why the supports needed to be so strong. Mistral was a mountainous region, which meant it was already windier than average. This elevator was built by the gap between the two mountains, which meant there was an additional wind tunnel running through this area. When she first stepped out, it was windy enough that she had to pull her hat down to make sure it didn't fly off her head. When the first big gust of wind blew through, it nearly knocked her off her feet. If she didn't have a good sense of balance, even without her tail, and wasn't used to being in precarious positions like this, she might have been blown off. Regardless of whether Carmim took her hand or not, she tried to pull the trainee close to her that the trainee wouldn't go flying off the side of the building if she was less used to this.

Going down the outside of the building was not going to be viable like this. Red knew the wind would be bad, but she severely underestimated it. She was expecting it to be like the more mountainous areas of Vale, a place she hadn't actually seen since she was ten and was relying more on memory than she should have. No, these mountains were completely different. Even going from the inside was going to be rough as long as they had to break glass to make hand holds.

She was glad she wasn't afraid of heights because looking down like this was enough to make her stomach do backflips without additional fears.

There was one way to get down without breaking anything else. Her face paled when it came to mind and her brain wanted to reject the idea just as much as she wanted to reject the idea of abandoning Carmim. It was difficult enough for her to trust the trainee enough to do something as simple as remove the glass, and this required far more than that. She had been in situations that required more trust, but those were always with Knight whom even her paranoid brain couldn't convince her not to trust. This was a complete stranger, and a Huntress (or at least a trainee), something she only associated with slaughter. Her body tensed, her grip on the support beam she was holding, and possibly Carmim if she let herself be grabbed, became hard enough to turn her knuckles white, and she looked around for anything else she could possibly use.

Red could see the cable on the elevator from here. Snapped. Now coiled on top of the elevator and completely useless. Even eyeballing it, the cable was clearly too short for them to use it as a rope to climb down from here, if they were able to detach it from the elevator in the first place. They were too high up to jump even with aura. The elevator was dead and there was nothing useful inside of it. She doubted she'd be able to use any of the glass or metal for anything, and trying to repurpose the wires for anything was pointless without other mechanisms. There really was nothing else. She took a deep breath and steadied her voice. The longer she waited, the more likely another strong gust of wind would come along and push them off.

"I have one more thought," she paused, trying to convince herself that this was a good idea. "If we lock our arms together and stand back to back, our combined heights should let us span the entire elevator shaft. You put your feet on the left wall, I'll put my feet on the right wall, and we slowly walk down together. Are you strong enough to hold such a position for the...hours probably, it'll take us to walk down?"

She wasn't completely sure she was, Red was more agile than strong, but she could cross that bridge when she got there. Hopefully the adrenaline would be enough to keep her going. And hopefully her brain was making it seem worse than it was and it wouldn't actually take that long. What made this terrifying was that they had to be perfectly coordinated. If one went even a little faster than the other, they wouldn't be long enough to span the shaft anymore, and they'd fall and die. If their positioning was off, they'd fall and die. They'd have to jump at least a little bit, in order to get into position, and if they messed that up they'd fall and die. There was so much that could go wrong, but she didn't know what else to try. Even waiting here for emergency services was dangerous with the wind.

"If we want to do this, we'll have to make the elevator fall. We don't want it to fall on top of us while we're climbing. Then we'll have to get ready, move into the shaft, and stretch out our legs and stop ourselves from falling to get into position."

Every part of her mind was screaming. She wouldn't say she had no choice, there was always a choice, but the fact that this was the best one she could think of was terrifying.

---

1694/7377

[Carmim Clover]

❝ AURA: 94% TAG: @wallcrawlingbuddy NOTES: not-dying is the bee's knees! WORDS: 1262 | TWC: 6504 HAVE YOU SEEN HER? HAVE YOU HEARD? THE WAY SHE MOVES, THERE ARE NO WORDS Was it bad that she was incredibly relieved to hear that Sienna was going to be the one climbing out onto the ledge first? It was a terrifying prospect. In a perfect world, neither of them would have had to climb out onto the ledge. But also, in a perfect world, they wouldn't have needed to break the glass, and they wouldn't have needed to tie rope around themselves, and they wouldn't have needed to do any of this, because the elevator wouldn't have been broken. But it unfortunately was not a perfect world. So she just nodded as Sienna agreed to go out first. It made the most sense- as the Huntress (trainee) in the situation, she had her Aura, and her immense physical strength, so if anything happened, she would be able to pull Sienna back into the elevator. If it was her going out on the support beam, instead, things would be quite different. Sienna seemed to be in pretty okay shape, but Carmim was a little doubtful that she would be strong enough to hold on if she slipped, and fell, and dragged the other redhead down with her. Let alone strong enough to pull Carmim back up, even if she could somehow manage to stay on the elevator. Overall, it was safer, and undoubtedly made both of them feel a lot more secure, if Sienna went instead. Not that "more secure" meant "secure." She was on pins and needles, watching Sienna step through the threshold, and slowly, precariously, onto the support beam. The wind whipped at her clothes, and the bits of hair she could see under her hat, which was an unpleasant reminder of how strong wind could be. Especially this high up. She remembered the sandstorms from back home. Once, one had hit while she was high up in a tree, searching for good branches to cut, for her father's workshop. She'd held on for a remarkable amount of time, all things considered, and the tree was sturdy enough to hold her, even as the branches thrashed wildly, and the sand dug at her skin, moving fast and hard enough to leave little cuts. She was lucky, then- her uncle had gone searching for her, and with his Semblance, the sandstorm was no match. Here, it was different. She wasn't stuck on a tree, in the desert. And her uncle wasn't coming to save her this time. There was an audible sigh of relief as Sienna touched down on the support beam at last. It hadn't taken nearly as much time as it felt like it had, but she could have sworn there was a week between her leaving the elevator and arriving safely on the other side. With only a slight hesitation, she stepped out next, following Sienna's nod and outstretched hand. Gingerly, taking great care to neither grab too hard, and therefore pull the other girl down, or to crush her hand out of nervousness, she reached out and took the offered assistance, before quickly stepping across to the support beam. It was comfortingly sturdy. And she knew that she was strong enough to hold on, even with all the wind, which was already blowing her smaller drum around as she stood there, huddled next to Sienna. The only problem she could see now was getting down. They were out of the elevator, but now they were still hundreds of feet in the air, with no immediate way down. Sienna had mentioned climbing down, but in this kind of wind? No, that was really risky. But it seemed that the taller girl was full of surprises. Carmim looked up as she began to explain her new idea. And... It sounded about as crazy and horrible and stupid and bad as the last one, frankly. But they didn't really have many other options, so it was the best shot they could take. She paused for a moment, contemplating the idea, before finally nodding. "Yes. I am strong enough to do t'at." She had plenty more strength than it would appear to most people, and she had above average stamina reserves as well. She could do this. They could do this. But Sienna's next idea. Was a little harder to deal with, and the surprise was clear on her face. "Make t'e... elevator fall...?" She stared up at the cord, barely holding the elevator stable, suspended far above the ground. Breaking the glass had been easy. She could do that herself, with her hands. But there was no way she could reach the top of the elevator. And there was no way she could throw anything at it either, because she didn't exactly have anything to throw, but her drum. And while it wasn't Storyteller, it was still a drum, and it wasn't something she could break, even at a time like this. She was going to have to use her semblance. Gotta be faster. She looked up at Sienna, a bit more resolve in her face. "I can make t'e elevator fall, if I use my Semblance. T'e only t'ing is... T'is is a new drum, t'at I have not practiced much wit'. It is less powerful t'an my normal one, but it is still very strong. But I need you to be ready, because it will be very loud." And there was a chance that she could under-, or over-shoot, and damage the shaft. Or the recoil from her Semblance could knock the two of them backwards, flying over the edge. And there was still the matter of aiming, in this wind, while she still held on to the ledge. Though that had an easier solution than if she were by herself. "Can you hold me steady while I aim? I need both of my hands for t'is." Hopefully there wouldn't be another gust of wind... Regardless, when she was ready, she took a deep breath, and took the small drum under one of her arms, to stop it from moving as much. And she pointed it at the line holding the elevator car in place. The thought crossed her mind that they might get in trouble for damaging the elevator later, but she felt pretty secure knowing that she was rescuing a civilian- surely, that meant more than the dumb, already-broken, elevator, right? Exhale. Even using a much smaller, much quieter, and weaker, drum, she could still aim it with incredible precision. But that precision wasn't very helpful, when, even at a significantly lower level of force, her Semblance was still incredibly powerful. She clapped her hand to the drumhead, and the sound reverberated through the glass shaft for a good few moments, as the sound echoed noisily around. Much more noticeable, though, was the sound of a loud snap, followed by the shattering of glass, as her blast of air tore through the cord holding the elevator up, and right through the large glass pane two above the one they were soon to be walking down. She winced as she realized the unintended damage she'd caused, but there would be time to deal with that later. As the elevator careened to the ground, she looked up at Sienna, before moving into the position she'd mentioned, with arms locked together, shoulder to shoulder, as soon as the other girl was ready. It was stressful. Knowing that one mistake could mean the end, for both of them. And they had a long walk ahead of them, too. "I am ready when you are, Sienna." She just hoped that this would work...

LAIKA OF GS!

[Sinopia DeStellanova]

"Yeah, I won't let you fall."

Of course it was going to be loud. Red let a sharp breath out of her nose and pulled her hat down as well as she could manage with her elbow. With the wind whipping through her human-like ears the sound would be dampened somewhat, but her huge faunus ears were more sensitive to sound anyway. As much as she hated wearing hats because anything short of something that would look absolutely stupid squished her ears more than she liked, but it worked out in this case. She was warned ahead of time about it too, and with everything Carmim was doing to prepare, she had plenty of time to prepare herself. It wouldn't be any worse than dealing with gunshots would it? She kept one hand on the support beam to keep herself up right and the other around Carmim's shoulder to help keep her in place. The sound made her flinch, and listening to the elevator tumbling made her tense, but it was nothing she couldn't handle.

Well, that explained why the trainee didn't want to use her semblance on the glass. Red blinked as she looked up the shaft and watched bits of glass fall down with the elevator. That was considered weak? She supposed it would have to be based on what the trainee was able to do during Vytal. Was the extra damage because the drum was new and she didn't know how much damage it would do? Because she didn't know how hard the elevator would be to break through? Because she didn't know her own strength? Because-- No, this line of thought was pointless right now. She could reflect on it later.

Okay, next step was done. A necessary step. Even if they could get into the elevator shaft without damaging the elevator, the risk of it falling on them while they climbed was too high for it to be acceptable. Maybe they could have climbed up instead of down, but she didn't want to count on the other elevator in the restaurant functioning. Going up meant there was a possibility they would still be stranded, and even if it would be a safer place to be stranded, she just wanted to get out of here at this point. So, now the elevator was out of the way and the shaft loomed in front of her. Red stared at it, hoping that another option would present itself, but no such luck. It really was such a long way down. She really hoped it would take that couple of hours, rather than a few seconds, for her to hit the bottom.

Red already had a good idea of how she wanted to go about this. There wasn't very much she could do to minimize the risks to both of them, but she was going to everything she could to try. Because she didn't know anything at all about what the trainee could do, and at least had a general idea of what she was capable of, she was going to do everything she could to leverage her own abilities while assuming the trainee had absolutely none. Hopefully it wouldn't look like that to the trainee because this seemed like a really bad time for a Huntress trainee to get offended at her, but it was the safest assumption she could make. The wind was getting stronger, so there was no time to stall. Time to move.

"I'm going to crouch down and put my back to you. Put your back towards me and try to line your shoulders up with my shoulders. Then put your arms around mine, and lock them together at the elbow. I'll only be able to do that with one of my arms as long as I need to hold onto the support beams to keep us up. That is okay. I will make sure we are more firmly together once I am able to let go. Once you're on, I'm going to lift you up and get your feet on the wall closest to us. I will have to let go of the support beam, so I will not be very steady. Let me know when you feel like you have a good enough grip. I will have to walk off the edge and into the shaft after. I will be trying to get my feet against the other wall as quickly as I can, but we will probably slide still. Once I am in the shaft, I will say 'now' and then you need to push your back into mine as hard as you can without moving your feet away from the wall as much as you are able. This should let us catch ourselves so we stop falling. Then we can start walking. We will be facing upwards, so we will have to walk backwards. It will be easier to hold ourselves up that way."

It all sounded so absurd once she had to say it out loud, but that was going to have to be how it worked. Red was only average height, and Carmim was very short, so they were going to need all the length they could get to make sure they were long enough to reach both walls. Thus, they needed to match at the shoulders. That height difference was convenient because it meant that she wasn't going to have to worry about the trainee brushing up against her tail in all likelihood. She still kept it firmly pressed up against her leg even though it was uncomfortable though. The rest was because she trusted her own ability to jump off of walls if it came down to it. If someone fucked something up, then she figured there'd be some chance she'd be able to pull herself into a somewhat stable position in a corner if she had some momentum to jump off the wall. That would be more difficult if there was a possibility she could lose contact with the wall.

Her voice was completely devoid of emotion despite her anxiety about all this. She sounded almost bored, like she was going through a simple checklist of items she needed to pick up from the grocery store. It might as well have been at this point. What needed to be done was clear and it didn't matter how terrifying or stupid it was. She just had to go.

"I am going to start crouching now. I will need my other arm for balance, so I cannot hold onto you. You can hold onto me."

Then, she proceeded to do exactly what she said she would do, slowly enough that the trainee should know exactly what to expect, but quickly enough that they wouldn't have to be out here any longer than they had to. She'd do that every step of the way, both so the trainee wouldn't be surprised and so that she could remind her what needed to be done each step of the way. Unless Carmim had objections, she would continue exactly as she outlined at the beginning.

Crouching was easy. That was just a matter of switching her grip from the vertical bar to the horizontal one they were standing on and then moving her feet so her back could be as straight as possible. Both of hands were holding tightly onto the support beam underneath them, but she did make a point to make sure she could lock elbows with the trainee with one of her arms as promised. Once she felt like she had a good enough grip, she started turning so she could back Carmim into the most in-tact wall of the shaft. The trainee's legs were really short, so she had to improvise a little bit to make sure she could get to a good spot. Red grabbed the vertical support beam tightly and started standing up again so that she could put her feet on the inner edge of the horizontal support beam and lean back. It was a precarious position that meant she was carrying both their weights with one arm (more like three fingers), but worse than that it meant she was going to have to fall off rather than properly walk or jump off when it came time for her to latch onto the other wall. Getting that arm that was currently holding them both up around Carmim's other arm in a second flat was going to be hard.

"Are your feet against the wall? This is as far out as I can go. When you're in position, let me know and lift up your arm. I will have to get my arm under yours and then you will have to wrap yours around mine." It was another step, and one that wasn't easy to explain. She waited for confirmation, stepped as far to the side as she could, then took one last deep breath. "Three. Two. One. Now."

It was noticeably louder than everything else she was saying, but just as flat in every other way. She let go of the support beam and used her feet to push herself off the wall, twisting in mid air to get her feet pointed the right direction. She used her free arm to grab Carmim's, then wrapped her arm around the trainee's. The trainee could make this easier by doing what she suggested earlier, but she wasn't about to rely on anyone's reaction time or ability to follow directions more than she had to right now. It meant she was going to be a little rough with the trainee's arm, but that was better than falling. She pulled her arms towards herself, forcing their backs together, then pushed her feet against the wall to help push Carmim back towards her side of the wall.

She had never been so grateful for rubber soles in her life. They made a loud, unpleasant noise as they screeched against the glass, and they were starting to smell funny by the end, but they created enough friction that their descent started to slow and eventually stopped, leaving the two of them floating above a higher drop than she wanted to think about. There was a black streak running down her side from her boots and she felt a pang of sympathy for the people that were going to have to clean this up later. Such a useless thought.

All that was left was to get down. Without even giving herself a moment to catch her breath, she continued. She didn't want to let the trainee have even a second to wonder what was going to happen next or if she should try something. No, no one needed to try anything right now. They had to coordinate perfectly or they were going to fall. She could not take any risks, which meant breathing was going to have to come later.

"Alright," she started, still needing a moment to fill her lungs so she could physically keep speaking. "We did it. The hardest part is done. We just need to walk now. Look forward at your feet. Don't look back towards me. You don't need to. Just look at your feet, and I'll call out left or right. When I do, move that leg down like it's a normal step. We're just going to walk normally all the way down okay?"

Assuming that Carmim knew her left from her right, while perhaps a reasonable assumption, was more than she was willing to do in these circumstances. It was nothing against the trainee, it was just safer to not assume anything in these circumstances. Red was already going to have to look back a little to make sure that her strides were as long as the trainee's, or she'd move too fast and they'd fall. She turned her head as far to the side as she could manage without separating their backs, and used the reflection on the glass to see everything she needed to. Taking all of the burden in coordinating their movements was fine by her. Carmim could move normally, whatever way felt the most natural, and she could handle the rest. It was safer that way. She waited for confirmation from the trainee before continuing, if only to give herself a moment to catch her breath, and to make sure the trainee could do the same and wasn't freaking out.

"Left."

Starting left just to make sure her order wasn't confused for a colloquialism, she looked to the side and made sure to move the foot on the same side as Carmim (which would be her right if Carmim moved the correct one), and made sure to match her stride length. Then it was just a matter of keeping that up until they reached the bottom.

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