[Alina Rybalka]

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[attr="class","nikki101"]WE CAN ALL AGREE THAT VIOLENCE BREEDS VIOLENCE

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[attr="class","nikki102"]BUT IN THE END, IT HAS TO BE THIS WAY

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[attr="class","nikki109"]It was slow going, but they actually managed to get all the remaining villagers to the nearest village alive. Alive and in one piece, with the injuries taken care of the best they could and leaving not even the weakest behind in the many mile, slow as fuck trek with almost zero starting supplies and only some basic tools to forage and hunt with. It turns out fire was good for both killing animals and cooking them, so that lessened the amount of gear needed significantly. [break][break]

The heavy burns she sustained on her neck and shoulders were an ongoing issue but reduced to noncritical. There was a bit of an infection that had to be treated by the local medic, but with her aura helping the wounds heal she wasn’t in anywhere close to critical condition. They were chased for a while, but it took them long enough to get their shit together to even attempt the chase that Knight’s aura was back and… well, after the first light tank was melted and the first scouting group was turned into ash they suddenly didn’t get fucked with anymore. It was funny how that happened, because when the threat of death was flipped from the one ambushed to the ambusher themselves it suddenly didn’t seem like such a good idea. [break][break]

She had managed to lead them from the brink and into relative safety in a village that they had stayed in for a day already and would continue to stay for the rest of the week to trade labor for gear in order to get the rest of the trek completed. One thing that wasn’t lost on her was the way the survivors of Kerch treated her, and it honestly made her a bit uncomfortable. They didn’t treat her as a person, more like a … god, or something. Something more than human, something inherently infallible. She honestly was pretty certain at this point that if she told them to walk off a cliff, they’d do it without a second thought. It was power, yes, but not the kind that it used to, and it wasn’t something that she really enjoyed at this point. [break][break]

Still, if she left them, they would die. It was obvious to everyone involved that they’d be dead without her and Red’s continued assistance, and while they didn’t treat Red with quite the same reverence they still did everything in their power to make sure she was happy and willing to continue helping. A lot of them were aware of how tenuous their situation was, and obviously didn’t want to be left to die. It was a natural self-preservation response, sure, but that wasn’t what bothered her. What bothered her was the path forward, or where they went from there. [break][break]

Rochdale’s survivors were kicked to the curb immediately and given next to no support, and there were currently absolutely zero plans of retaking their city. She had seen more than one of them as beggars throughout the city, and that was certainly the fate of the Kerch refugees even if they made it all the way to the capital. At the same time, there wasn’t a city outside of the capital that could easily deal with the influx of people and house and feed them. Minimal support was better than starvation or being killed due to prolonged exposure to the elements. [break][break]

She had bummed a cigarette off of one of the locals after finishing her assigned tasks for the day, mostly clearing out some underbrush so the village could expand and clearing out a small Grimm infestation that came in pretty decently in some nearby caves. It was a bad habit from the war, and one that she had largely ditched unless under intense stress like now. The inhalation of smoke was a comforting feeling, the drug helped her calm down and focus when she needed it the most. It was a crutch, sure, but the feeling of her lungs being wrapped in a warm blanket was a nice feeling. Long drags depleted the cigarette quickly, but she wasn’t interested in pausing to enjoy the experience. She mostly wanted the nicotine in her as quickly as possible so that she could think better. [break][break]

There was a lot still to do, and a lot still to keep straight. She couldn’t exactly keep leading this group around forever, not with her prior commitments. There was also a zero percent chance she’d get them involved with Asche and all that shit, giving them a way to self-sufficiency only through crime and risking their lives in the very city that was supposed to be their safe haven. That’d be a stain on her soul that she’d never recover from, but she also couldn’t just leave them to fend for themselves afterwards knowing how that worked out for those who survived Rochdale. It was fucking pathetic was what it was, but it wasn’t like she could do anything about it as an individual. [break][break]

Fuck, why did it even fall to her to do this shit in the first place? Taking another long drag from her cigarette, burning it almost to the filter, she did her best to clear her mind and refocus. Holding the cigarette with her left hand, she smashed it against the back of her right hand to make sure it was put out before flicking it on the ground at her feet, which happened to be placed in a section of woods nearby where they were assigned to sleep in communal quarters. Well, calling them quarters was a bit generous given that it was the floor of a barn but… it was better than nothing. Anything was better than nothing, and at least the barn had walls and a roof. It was approaching dusk, and most of the light had died so many of the humans weren’t out and about at the moment without a lot of light to lead them around, which would give her ample warning if one of them decided to bother her at the moment.

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[attr="class","nikki103"]1010 words

[attr="class","nikki103"]ASCHE SYNDICATE

[attr="class","nikki103"]1010 TOTAL WORDS

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NOTES

B Semblance, D Weapons, B Dust Enhancement, C Durability, C Agility, C Martial Arts, D Stamina, D Exhaustion

PHARAOH LEAP CREATES

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[Sinopia DeStellanova]

Getting out of Kerch had been an adventure. She insisted on carrying Knight, at least until her aura recovered. After that, she still wanted to, but was less insistent about it. By then, Knight probably wasn't the slowest person in the group, nor was she the only injured one. If Knight wanted to give up the spot on her back for someone else, she'd frown, but wouldn't argue. Regardless, by the time they reached the village, her arms were tired and sore. Her legs weren't much better off, only faring better because they were more used to the strain. Coupled with difficulty sleeping meant she was exhausted by the time they even got to the village.

She took off her oversized hoodie and tied it around her waist shortly after they were no longer being chased. The people were taking Knight's faunus heritage well enough that there wasn't much reason to hide hers. Certainly not enough to keep a soaked sweat shirt on and mask on. Granted, she hoped it would dry out soon because it was cold this time of year and she was only wearing a T-shirt and a light Kevlar vest underneath. By the time they got to the village, she had already put it back on, though she kept the hood down, the mask off, and her goggles on top of her head right below faunus ears.

Their journey was far from over, but for the time being they were safe. Not even as safe as they could be, but actually reasonable safe. Nothing was likely to happen. That was good. There was no denying that was good. However, it was one of the hardest times for Red because that's when her emotions came flooding back to her and all she could think about was what she did and everything that went wrong. Before leaving Vacuo, she was starting to come to terms with the violence and how she was choosing to live, but after having those skills be re-framed as useful tools for a syndicate she was feeling insecure about it again. This mission was particularly bad because she didn't help Knight kill someone, she helped Haven students kill someone. Even though she thought that person deserved to die and was prepared to kill him herself if she had the skill, she still found this disturbing on a raw, emotional level.

Fortunately, there was a lot to do, so she could distract herself from such thoughts. At least, until it was time to sleep. She didn't sleep at all that night. She tried, but ended up using that time to slink off into the woods to scream at nothing until she felt better. It was pretty normal for her to feel like this after missions, and even more normal for her to not be able to sleep after them, so she found ways to cope. Unfortunately, her caffeine tablets were in her car, which was beside Kerch's walls where she left it before infiltrating the town. Without them, the complete lack of sleep she had been getting since arriving at Kerch was starting to get to her. Her eyes were completely bloodshot, and the bags underneath them were more prominent than usual. Her body was tired, her mind was even more tired, but she insisted on working anyway. By the time night rolled around she was basically a zombie kept alive by pure stubbornness.

Once she finished her chores, she went to go back to the barn to get some water and to find Knight, and she ended up finding Knight first. She approached in the open, but didn't have any kind of light on her. It was unnecessary. She frowned when she got close enough to smell smoke on Knight, and fidgeted a little.

"I finally finished wrangling those animals. Some of them are even more stubborn than you are." She paused, debating on whether she should comment on the smell or not. "You know, if you were going to smoke you should have gotten one for me."

It was a joke, but it was said with no humor. Even if Knight did get her one there was a reasonable chance she would have refused. That was one habit she wasn't able to kick until Vacuo, and she only did it then because the car already smelled terrible without the extra help. She even continued on Menagerie despite cigarettes being difficult to access. She never told Knight because her methods weren't exactly legal and that was awkward given Knight was in law enforcement at the time, but she always assumed Knight knew. Not telling her just gave her friend some plausible deniability. With how difficult it was for her to stop, she was always hesitant to even smoke socially, but the temptation was always there.

That wasn't what made her frown though. She was under the impression that Knight smoked for different reasons than she did. She kept doing it for so long because of habit and addiction. She was already prone to bouts of anxiety, and not having that addiction sated only made it worse. Knight seemed to have an easier time putting them down and only picked it back up when stressed. Something was wrong, and she always felt awkward trying to approach people when something was clearly wrong. It's why she started with humor. Bad humor and poorly delivered humor, but an attempt.

"Sorry," she paused again, putting her hands in her pockets so she'd stop fidgeting. "Do you need help with something?"

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922/922

[Alina Rybalka]

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[attr="class","nikki101"]WE CAN ALL AGREE THAT VIOLENCE BREEDS VIOLENCE

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[attr="class","nikki102"]BUT IN THE END, IT HAS TO BE THIS WAY

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[attr="class","nikki109"]She had gotten new clothes since coming to the village, bartering labor for the new threads. It was all but required, with the condition of her last set and her abandoned armor back in Kerch. The wounds still hurt, but they weren’t critical anymore which was the important part. Red found her before long, like she usually did. Attempts at being alone were usually made due to stress, and her partner knew better than most that alone and extremely stressed was a very unsafe place for Alina to be. She was very rarely in danger of imploding to the degree some others have lately, but a completely destroyed mental state on your heavy hitter wasn’t a good place to be in when that heavy hitter was the only thing keeping a crowd this big from oblivion. [break][break]

”Sorry, I had to haggle even for the one. This isn’t exactly a place brimming with dust stations stocked with the stuff. Plus, I thought you quit smoking.” was the immediate response to the attempt at a joke. ”Also I think stubbornness is a good quality. Has kept me alive this long, and kept them alive too so far.” she continued, gesturing vaguely to the rest of the refugee encampment. [break][break]

She fell silent for a bit after that, wishing she had another cigarette to help her think. The other faunus asked if Alina needed help with anything, and she shook her head. ”No, I’m just trying to think of where we go from here.” [break][break]

”Say we make it to Mistral. We somehow manage to get this lot to the only city big enough to take them. Then what?... Rochdale’s refugees were given basic necessities so they wouldn’t starve, and then completely abandoned. There are currently zero plans to retake Rochdale, to get that village back. I’m starting to think I can do better.” [break][break]

”Not with Asche, of course. The last thing I’m going to do is involve a bunch of innocent people in with a place like that who could backstab us at any point. They’ve already gone pretty radio silent, though, so the leader might have gotten compromised. I don’t want to start a war to get out if I don’t have to, and if they still haven’t heard from Nyx by the time, we get back it makes things easy to get out. There might be a few that come after us, but I’ve been planning on that eventuality for a while and I’m not concerned.” Her voice and tone were extremely calm, talking about assassins coming after them like a normal person would talk about their plans to mow their lawn. [break][break]

”Gryphon won’t try anything. He’s too smart and likes living. Being honest, I’d really enjoy killing Pyre and kind of hopes he shoots his shot. Dude has been insufferable for a long time and has always danced at the edge of giving me an excuse. Signet’s just a garden variety fascist and might have her ego hurt, but I’m not concerned about her either. Pickett will be pissed, but I have too much dirt on him at this point and he knows it.” [break][break]

”What happened to Rochdale was awful, but I wasn’t even in Mistral. I maybe should have made a move to help the refugees, but they weren’t literally in my face depending on me for their survival. I’m not sure I can actually walk away from this after we make it to Mistral, because it’d be the same as leaving them to die.” [break][break]

She took a deep breath, then, to steady herself more than anything. ”I have enough money accessible in Mistral for a few months of upkeep if we wanted to try to have a go at this. I’ve always wanted to show people there was another way than relying on Huntsmen to decide out of the goodness of their hearts to save you instead of watching you get torn to shreds, and there won’t be another opportunity like this. If I could actually get this group prepped enough to retake Kerch, with their own hands… it could change the landscape. We could potentially actually build something out of that.” [break][break]

”Mistralians have been taught from birth that the Huntsmen are untouchable, that their place in society is absolute. We learned in the war that regular soldiers could defend against Grimm just as well if given proper resources for the most part, certainly good enough to take care of small infestations and maintain a solid and clear area around settlements. And then after the war we were all forcibly disbanded. The Council won’t pay for another, but we could get funding if we did a proof of concept like retaking a city that the Huntsmen can’t.” [break][break]

”It sounds a hell of a lot better than waiting for Asche to ever become useful, frankly. It was good money, but I’m fine moving on at this point. Lots of talk for no payoff, and an opportunity bigger than anything they ever accomplished just falls into our lap like this… It’s something I could actually be proud of doing again, which would be a nice change.”

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[attr="class","nikki103"]865 words

[attr="class","nikki103"]ASCHE SYNDICATE

[attr="class","nikki103"]1875 TOTAL WORDS

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NOTES

B Semblance, D Weapons, B Dust Enhancement, C Durability, C Agility, C Martial Arts, D Stamina, D Exhaustion

PHARAOH LEAP CREATES

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[Sinopia DeStellanova]

Red stiffly nodded at Knight's reaction to her poor attempts at humor and left it at that. Trying to explain would take more effort than it was worth, and she was glad Knight just continued talking without any further prompting on her part. Even if her friend claimed she didn't need help with anything, the way she was acting suggested otherwise. So, she just leaned against a tree and listened quietly. As Knight continued, her brows furrowed and she started tapping her fingers against her leg from the inside of her pocket.

Her own line of thought hadn't gotten that far. Her mind was focused on what was going on right now and how they were going to get to Mistral. How they were going to get and carry supplies, and how much they could afford to take from this village while making sure the people living here would still have food and other supplies for the winter. Making sure everyone had appropriate clothing and footwear, especially the ones that lived near the areas hit first. A lot of those people were woken up in the middle of the night and were still barefoot in their pajamas. Not good for walking long distances. Securing transportation, for real this time. There were a lot of people, and she would prefer to not make some people walk while others rode in a car. A few carts and horses might bee the most realistic thing she could expect at this point. At least that would let them carry the injured. Getting treatments for them was also on her list of things to do. She wasn't about to mention this to Knight, but she spent a lot of time earlier today out picking aloe so someone could make something for her burns.

There was a lot to do here. She could think clearly about immediate problems and the immediate next steps, but anything after that was difficult. In the present and near future, she was extremely thorough and could spot details other people missed. Anything more than either a week or two large tasks ahead and she will never think of it. Because of that, she could be easily blind sighted by something other people might have seen as obvious, much like now.

Comparing the situation here to Rochdale was sobering. She had seen refugees from Rochdale in her various trips to the Ground District, and now that the thought was presented to her, she had no reason it'd be any different from these people. Haven was probably going to get all the credit for saving the place (even though it was completely infested with Grimm now), and the people (even though they left them to die and focused on taking out the leader) and that's all people would care about. They'd be tools for a success story and then pushed aside where no one would ever notice them. Once they no longer had any use, no one would care anymore. That's how it always went.

She really hated people.

A sense of powerlessness came over her. There were so many worthy causes, but there was no way her and Knight alone could handle them are. Why prioritize Kerch over Rochdale? That town still had to be liberated too. Or any of the other places that got crushed by Grimm for whatever reason. Then there were unrelated problems, like faunus rights or the homeless people or--

She needed to stop. It was easy for her to get caught up in that and just get depressed. That depression was not helpful. Even if she felt bad for the people they wouldn't be helping, this was a good idea and something she was more than happy to help with. She paused for a second, and looked up at the sky.

"You know, I've been worried about the grief and fear these people must be dealing with attracting Grimm. I planned on grabbing the children, and anyone else interested, and taking them up on that hill on the other side of town to look at the stars. There's some nice stories to tell at this time of year. Like," she pointed up at one of the constellations visible through the trees, "That one's called Perseus. It's named after a guy that defeated a monster that could turn people to stone, and then used that monster's head to turn a giant whale into stone so no one had to be sacrificed to it anymore. I like this one because Cetus -- the constellation representing that whale -- isn't visible anymore this time of year. It's gone, and the hero is starting to show."

Red had an interest in astronomy since she was a small child. It was something her father and her studied together, so she could very clearly remember most everything he told her. Those memories were some of the ones she considered the most important. Any time she started rambling about space like this, she typically had a point. Starting with something simple like this was good for centering her thoughts, and she always hoped it did the same for Knight. There was something peaceful about the night sky, and with less light pollution in this area, the stars were clear and bright. Even brighter than they were in most of the places she'd been in the past because of the altitude of the areas this close to Mistral.

"I think you should tell them what you told me," she paused. "Well okay, maybe not all of what you told me, but the part about letting them help retake Kerch. They really believe in you, and I think it'd mean a lot to them that you believe in them enough to let them fight too. That they're strong enough to do this and that they don't have to hope that you or Haven or whoever else decides to do it for them."

She paused again and frowned. She leaned against the tree and tilted her head far enough back that her ears were starting to get squished against it.

"Sorry, you know I'm not good at thinking beyond like, two hours from now. But you don't have to convince me to leave Asche or help them. I'd love to kill this whale of a monster demanding that people sacrifice their agency and serve its every whim. The world would be a better place if people realized they were strong enough to take care of each other rather than hoping someone else does it."

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1085/2007

[Alina Rybalka]

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[attr="class","nikki101"]WE CAN ALL AGREE THAT VIOLENCE BREEDS VIOLENCE

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[attr="class","nikki102"]BUT IN THE END, IT HAS TO BE THIS WAY

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[attr="class","nikki109"]Alina was absolutely exhausted, between the injuries and the nonstop movement since they left Kerch. Her aura was back up, but it was working overtime and draining her stamina constantly to try and repair her wounds and simply couldn’t work fast enough to accomplish the job with how much movement and lack of care was given to keeping them from re-opening and chafing against clothing and other equipment. [break][break]

”Yeah, I think that’s a good idea. I’m hoping the layover here will calm people’s nerves a bit. We won’t be able to hold off the Grimm forever at the rate they were coming before we made it here.” [break][break]

Emotions like fear were ones that were always hard for Knight to gauge, largely because she felt it so rarely. Her mind didn’t go into despair very often, but to problem solving and looking towards what she should be doing five minutes from then, ten minutes from then, an hour from then, and so on. When it wasn’t straight combat, Red handled most of the immediate needs and Knight handled direction. Her power level in relation to other heavy hitters in the area went up drastically since moving to Mistral, and she knew it. In Vacuo she might not even be in the Top 100, but in Mistral she was definitely in the Top 10 and was very aware of that near-certainty. The Fall had taken out most of the heavy hitters, and attrition after that with no new blood took care of the rest... unless they didn't take any risks. The contracted fixers of the elite, which were the only group that she was even moderately worried about.[break][break]

She also strongly believed that while there were people stronger than her running around, she wasn’t so far behind as to automatically lose. Knight had a fighting chance against anyone in the Kingdom, and against all but perhaps the most powerful Grimm types that were seen maybe once a decade. She could walk into nearly any situation, including that of Kerch, with the near certainty that she was going to come out the other side not only alive but relatively unscathed. Hell, the only reason she was injured now was because she tried to use her offensive power for defense and paid the price for it. [break][break]

When Red talked about the stars, the white-haired faunus kept quiet. She didn’t know what her point was just then, but she was pretty confident that her friend had one and just needed time to get there. At her suggestion to tell the refugees, Knight only smiled and shook her head. ”Not now, or at least not yet. I want them to be able to relax for a few days, and there’s a fifty fifty shot they just call me insane and refuse to even try. After spending your whole life being taught that other people are going to solve the problem for you and protect you, the thought of doing it yourself is probably foreign and frankly pretty fucking terrifying to consider. We at least chose this sort of lifestyle, but they didn’t. They, through no fault of their own, were just thrown to the wolves to die because it was easier to the powers that be.” [break][break]

They were, as well. But at least Red and Knight had structure the entire way. They had the Mistral Guard, they had Menagerie, and chose to leave Menagerie. That wasn’t comparable to going from village to being left to die in the hundred mile stretch between your village and the next one. Not even close, frankly. [break][break]

”It’s going to be difficult. Making money is going to be very hard in the areas we can afford to live in, and momentum is going to be hard to manage. Too slow and we run out of money before we get anywhere, and too fast and we piss off our neighbors and have to fight turf wars for no reason which will drag us down the gutter with the rest of them. Too friendly and we get too many freeloaders, and too hostile and we make too many enemies. The second Haven and the Council understand what we’re actually trying to do, we’ll have a giant target on our backs. The moment it looks like we can succeed, they’ll do everything in their power to stop us.” [break][break]

”It’s a tight window, and there’s a decent chance we all end up dead at the end of it either through a failed retaking of the city or because we pissed off someone a bit too strong, too early. It’d take a while to unlock everyone’s auras and teach them how to use it, and even then, most of them won’t ever unlock their semblance. If anything to this scale has been tried before, they’ve probably failed because I’ve never heard about it. There’s also essentially zero guarantee I can hold things together, either. It’s not like I have a lot of experience leading big groups like this for any length of time. I have no problem attempting it, but there’s going to be a learning curve involved and things aren’t going to start out great.” [break][break]

It took a special kind of ego to assume that you were up to the task of leading a hundred or so strangers on the journey not only from their broken home through the wilderness to the capital – but from their status as refugees to that of an organized and well-equipped fighting force that could retake their home with their own might alone based off of a gut feeling that it was the right thing to do. About the same kind of ego that decided that boarding that boat out of Menagerie to become a bounty hunter across the world in a country that she had never been to seemed like a good idea that could work based off of an earlier gut feeling. There hadn’t been anything that she had failed at through her own merit that she set her mind to, which was why she was much more focused on outside factors that could fuck everything up. While she might not be a great big organization leader now, she was more than confident enough to bet on herself becoming one in short order once she got a bit more experience. The door to making something very exciting happen opened right in front of her, and she’d be damned if she let an opportunity like this pass her by without a fight.

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[attr="class","nikki103"]1083 words

[attr="class","nikki103"]ASCHE SYNDICATE

[attr="class","nikki103"]2958 TOTAL WORDS

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NOTES

A Semblance, D Weapons, B Dust Enhancement, C Durability, C Agility, C Martial Arts, D Stamina, D Exhaustion

PHARAOH LEAP CREATES

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[Sinopia DeStellanova]

"We willingly, and successfully, infiltrated a warzone in order to pull them out of it and kill the person that started it all. You single-handedly stopped an artillery barrage. I'd be surprised if they didn't think we were completely crazy," she chuckled lightly. "But point taken. Later then. I trust your instincts."

The rest of Knight's plan was completely reasonable to her. Knight's leadership had saved her numerous times, and her friend was easily the most capable person she had ever met, so she had no reason to doubt any of it. At worst, Knight could be overly aggressive, and that always stressed her out, but it's not like it got them into that much trouble yet. If anything, it helped them. Sometimes she tried to emulate it herself for that reason, but could never keep it up for long. It didn't work as well for her anyway because she couldn't project the same confidence. That confidence always came through with Knight. When Knight said it, even she thought something this ambitious was completely doable.

Her mind started expanding outward as she looked back up at the stars. She started trying to picture the trip back to Mistral more clearly to finish off her mental list of what they needed. Then it moved into Mistral itself. Getting supplies for a short term journey was far less complicated than trying to figure out how to support a huge group of people like this indefinitely. They'd need some kind of shelter and heat, Mistral was too cold to get through the winter without it. Getting that kind of space would be difficult. Not to mention the supplies. Her time working with her uncle with his company gave her a good idea of how much a population of a given size ate. That would cost--

Suddenly, her eyes went wide, the soft smile vanished from her face along with all the color in it, and her body stiffened back up. Obviously something like this would cost a lot, even her foresight was good enough to notice that, but it forgot a few details that weren't relevant until just now. There's no way they'd be able to get enough money to fund this with just their work alone, and their savings would only last so long. That's what made this complicated.

"I..." she looked down and then back up sheepishly at Knight. "I forgot to mention. Shortly before we heard about Kerch, I got my acceptance letter from the University of Mistral. I had been dragging my feet on applying, but I eventually did and...Well I could start in the spring."

The only reason she applied was because of Knight and now she was going to be taking up a bunch of money they didn't have anymore. She was interested in going, but not exactly looking forward to it given her bad experiences at school in the past. She shook her head and tried to straighten back up.

"I haven't signed up for any classes yet, so I should be able to back out without spending any money if that wouldn't make your contact look weird." She paused for a moment, but only a moment to avoid letting Knight talk before she could change the subject. "I'm trying to think of a space large enough to hold this many people, but there's not that much out there. I guess we could try and commandeer Asche's hideout, but I don't know if you want to provoke them that much. Or have a bunch of refugees that far on the undefended outskirts of town."

---

598/2605

[Alina Rybalka]

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[attr="class","nikki101"]WE CAN ALL AGREE THAT VIOLENCE BREEDS VIOLENCE

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[attr="class","nikki102"]BUT IN THE END, IT HAS TO BE THIS WAY

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[attr="class","nikki109"]The dry retelling of what they had decided to do caused the faunus to chuckle. ”It was crazy that is the only reason they’re alive. Crazy that asks them to risk that life is going to be received far less well if the timing is bad.” [break][break]

Gray eyes widened at the mention of being accepted to the University. ”I completely forgot about that…” she muttered, and immediately reached for straws to not say what they both knew was true… that there was no way they could afford both. ”I still have some money stashed away in Vacuo, and could maybe pull something from Menagerie… Could maybe get a high risk mission or two and…” [break][break]

There was a pause, there, as the reasons all of those options simply wouldn’t work filtered into her head. Getting money from Vacuo or Menagerie, assuming it wasn’t flat out stolen, would take months. Missions dangerous enough to get enough lien to matter often took a month or two to complete, and would not only take too long for the up-front tuition payment but leave all the refugees they just rescued with a lot less reliable protection in the meantime. [break][break]

”I’m sorry. I’m the one who pushed you to get that going, and you finally did it and got the opportunity and I pulled out the rug from under you. I can’t do Spring, but I might be able to do Fall depending on how this goes. Deferrals should still be a thing, yeah? By the time August rolls around we should be stabilized enough to either pay most of it or at least be confident we can pay loan terms.” [break][break]

She fidgeted uncomfortably at that last part, knowing damn well that it may be outside of her ability to deliver on. Knight was someone who rarely went back on their word unless absolutely forced, and it never made her feel good. Even though the reason was obvious and on an objective level it was obvious that the well being of all the refugees was more important than a single person getting higher education, it still didn’t feel good. She chose not to dwell on it, because there was nothing she could do about it at the moment. When the subject changed, she took that subject change and ran with it. [break][break]

”We’re not going to touch Asche’s hideout, and I’d like to be a decent distance away. If we just fuck off, they might not care enough to come after us… but if we take all their equipment, well, if their leader is alive, they’ll come roaring for revenge at first opportunity. We can’t afford that, at least early on. It’s better for them to not know we exist until we have almost everyone with auras unlocked and I have the chance to make some contacts. I’ve been trying to find some people we used to know, from before, seeing who’s alive and who’s still around. I did find some, but I haven’t reached out given what we were doing prior to this.” [break][break]

The only time she used the term ‘from before’ was in reference to the war, and she always felt very conflicted about going to Menagerie after fighting a literal war for the right not to go to Menagerie. It was the more cowardly option and given that she led both of them down that path and given how it ended up she still felt no small amount of shame for doing it in the first place. She abandoned some of her comrades to take the easy way out and couldn’t even handle that. She had been dreading the day she’d have to face some of them again, but things had changed, and she now saw little other option to form a core of people who could actually make this project work. [break][break]

”We can’t do this alone, so we’ll need to recruit and lift some people up and make them capable of running the show when we’re not around. Building up a group that falls apart when not babysat by me specifically is pointless, because I won’t always be around, and I shouldn’t need to be consulted on every little decision so that nothing gets done.” [break][break]

”There are abandoned neighborhoods in the Ground District that we could just squat on for cheap to start off with, though we’ll have to connect utilities and get the dust connected ourselves or pay for it. Plumbing might be an issue too, early on. Heating. Will need to be close enough to a decently stocked store or three to make sure we can get essentials to start off with. I’d like to be as far away from the outskirts as possible, but realistically that’s not going to be much of an option starting out. There’s a huge power vacuum in the Ground District, the same one Asche was trying to fill… but I feel like we can beat them to the punch at this point without a problem. If they remain dead long enough for us to get everyone’s auras up and running they don’t have a chance.” [break][break]

Red and Knight were Asche, effectively. Without them, their capacity for doing big missions was completely crippled and they’d have to fully rebuild with a bunch of unreliable parts with very little keeping them in place anymore. The cash flow was gone, and Gryphen didn’t have the same presence that Knight did and others were much more likely to go against his word and directly challenge him than someone like the white-haired faunus herself who simply had to use her semblance once before people stopped even considering that they could fight her. That rebuild would take a while, because they’d need either numbers or replacement heavy hitters – and Mistral had so few of the latter that they had to recruit Knight and Red from Vacuo in the first place to fill that particular gap. Even if only half of the people here stayed on for the retaking of Kerch, they still outnumbered Asche and with auras unlocked even without a lot of training they could at least not die for long enough for backup to arrive in the case of an attack… and that was all that was necessary to start with.

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[attr="class","nikki103"]1049 words

[attr="class","nikki103"]ASCHE SYNDICATE

[attr="class","nikki103"]4007 TOTAL WORDS

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NOTES

A Semblance, D Weapons, B Dust Enhancement, C Durability, C Agility, C Martial Arts, D Stamina, D Exhaustion

PHARAOH LEAP CREATES

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[Sinopia DeStellanova]

The feeling that came over her when Knight confirmed the very obvious truth that they didn't have the money for school was unlike anything she had felt before. It wasn't anger, sadness, or even disappointment. She didn't know how to feel. On the one hand, coming to that decision was agonizing. It became one of the many thoughts that kept her up at night. Attending would help her increase her knowledge and skill, making her a more valuable asset on their missions. However, her experiences with school were horrible enough that even attempting to scroll through their website made her physically ill. The sheer amount of anxiety she had when trying to research the school had her chest feeling tight and nearly in tears. But she pushed through, came up with a reasonable schedule, and decided that it was something she should do. She never wanted fear to hold her back.

Hearing that she wasn't actually going to have to go was almost a relief in that regard. Staying in the Ground District to help others and put together something like this was more familiar and better suited her skill set. It'd be more similar to how she was used to living. She wouldn't have to pretend to be normal because everyone here already knew she was stupid enough to onto a battlefield like that. She wouldn't have to worry about people finding out secrets about her. Hell, she may not even have to lie anymore. Or at least not as much. She figured her name should still be kept secret, and she doubted that she'd want to spill her guts to anyone, but that was different. Names weren't important and she tended to adopt new ones when the mood struck her, and not telling people her life story was just expected. People would still want them dead, but she accepted that as part of life. Back in Vacuo, she realized that if she wasn't dead or in prison by the time she was 20 she probably wasn't doing anything important. People that shook up the status quo were always portrayed as villains, at least at first. Everything about the direction they were going appealed to her more than the rigid guidelines setup by a society that didn't even care about her, but it still hurt to lose all that effort and to have all the inner strength she mustered to be wasted.

She didn't say anything as Knight tried to find some way to make everything work. It wasn't going to. They both knew it because it was obvious. Red let the strange feeling wash over her and focused on the task at hand. Talking about something that might happen a year from now might as well have been never to her. Right now, there were people that needed their help. Right now, they had to make a dangerous trek across the countryside to get to a city that wouldn't care for them. Right now, they had to worry about preparing that city. That's what really mattered. She had no intention of ever bringing school up again and didn't mind if Knight forgot about it completely. She let the subject drop.

"You already have a spot in mind then? I can handle setting up the power and dust -- at no cost if you're willing to risk getting caught. It should be safe. That sort of thing is pretty hard to track if I do it right."

Generally, she didn't steal despite having the skills for it. When she did it was either for a very specific purpose, or against people that really wouldn't miss it with the latter being less common. Both of these conditions were met here. Helping a group this large and troubled in exchange for scamming a rich power company out of a few hundred Lien a month was absolutely worth it. Getting too caught up in whether the ends justified the means was defying common sense at this point.

"Plumbing...Not my area of expertise, but I can figure it out."

Which meant that it'd be held together with duct tape and prayers, but would probably work until they found someone better suited for it. With any luck, one of the refugees would know something, but otherwise she'd probably be good enough for now. Hopefully.

The rest was going to be on Knight because she had no contacts. Being 12 wasn't exactly great for making those kinds of connections, and the few people that she did end up becoming friends with were already confirmed dead. All of them except for Knight. It was something she talked about often on Menagerie because it felt so wrong to her to be the only one alive. She was friendly enough that she could make some superficial friendships and get contacts that way, but she had been avoiding doing so since coming to Mistral because of their connection with Asche. She could start doing it now, but it would take time for her to develop a reputation.

"I'll figure out transport once I see the area. I'm going to focus on what we need now until we get there." As was common for her. She looked back up at the stars with a small smile on her face. "I think this might be the first time in a long time we don't have to hide what we're doing from people. I know we don't want to be bragging about it and shoving it into everyone's faces, but it won't be the end of the world if normal people find out. It feels strange. It's kind of nice."

---

937/3542

[Alina Rybalka]

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[attr="class","nikki101"]WE CAN ALL AGREE THAT VIOLENCE BREEDS VIOLENCE

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[attr="class","nikki102"]BUT IN THE END, IT HAS TO BE THIS WAY

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[attr="class","nikki109"]The pain in her shoulders had moved from searing to a constant and sharp pain. She was always someone who dealt with pain better than most, and back when physical training was mandatory she was often the last one standing on any exercise that required the mental toughness to push through an extreme amount of pain and exhaustion. She never quite knew how that was, and she certainly didn’t enjoy it… but she was capable of it, and always seemed to be. Knight was always able to force the haze of pain to the edges of her consciousness and focus on something else, and that had saved her life on more than one occasion. Like when she got slashed on her eye… Well, that was an unhappy thought and one she wouldn’t be dwelling on. [break][break]

”I know of a couple spots that might work. I’d need to check to see if they’re really abandoned, because spots could be really empty or simply just another underground hideout or hobo encampment who wants to stay out of sight. I’d like to avoid a fight coming in, but we also can’t afford to make everyone sleep on the street the first night in Mistral. It’s too damned cold for that to work.” [break][break]

There was a slight pause, then, before she continued. ”Yeah, we’ll need dust. Power would be nice, but dust is pretty essential for heating. Honestly, Asche has a giant stack of supplies that they don’t have guards around because of the big walls. They thought it’d be a good idea to hide a bunch of materials in random places, and I should still have some of the locations. Hitting the big ones would raise suspicions, but some of them were always going to be hit by someone at some point given their location, and that should give us a decent start.” [break][break]

Getting caught stealing from people who could retaliate legally and raise the issue higher wasn’t ideal but stealing from gangs and criminal elements nearby wasn’t an issue because if they decided to fight back Knight would just annihilate them with no consequences. One overwhelming use of force, and they’d be left alone permanently… and if they weren’t even caught then they got away scot free without even needing to do that. [break][break]

”We can get people for plumbing if needed, that’s kind of essential. We just need something to hold together for a week or two, worst case scenario.” The thought of not having plumbing wasn’t great, which brought her to the next point. ”We’re going to have to move out of that apartment if we’re going to do this as well. It’s a human only decently upscale area and somehow I think the neighbors would call the cops if we brought our new friends over.” [break][break]

That would suck, and was a much bigger blow to Knight than it was for Red. She had always been the one to care more for creature comforts, and that shower was actually amazing. She was more than capable of going back to life without it, but it would suck, and she would complain about it more than once. At the comment about not having to hide their job from everyone anymore, the corners of Knight’s lips curled up just a bit. [break][break]

”Hey, the bounty hunter gig always impressed the hell out of everyone. This one isn’t quite as flashy, but it’s definitely a step up in terms of transparency.” [break][break]

There was another pause, then, but it only lasted for a couple seconds. ”You should probably get some sleep and do the stars tomorrow. People were dropping like flies as soon as they hit their beds, and you look like death.” [break][break]

Not that Knight looked any better at this point, with bags under bloodshot eyes from the injuries earlier combined with her aura working overtime to keep her alive since it came back online and bits of dried blood visibly seeping through her clothes still. ”I’ll be down in a minute, just need to breathe and think for a bit longer.” [break][break]

Under different circumstances, that might have been a red flag. With so much shit going on, leaving someone as cagey as Knight could be alone for long periods of time with no immediate objective sometimes had bad results insofar as mental state was concerned. As it was, though, it was obvious just from looking at her how bone tired she was and how likely it was that she’d rest against the wall or sit down and immediately pass out on the spot. Unlike the others, her aura would protect her from the elements just fine and frankly Alina actually enjoyed being alone for portions of the day even when things were going really well. [break][break]

It allowed her a chance to just breathe and exist without any expectations, and especially moving forward those moments were going to be very few and far in between.

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[attr="class","nikki103"]826 words

[attr="class","nikki103"]ASCHE SYNDICATE

[attr="class","nikki103"]4833 TOTAL WORDS

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NOTES

A Semblance, D Weapons, B Dust Enhancement, C Durability, C Agility, C Martial Arts, D Stamina, D Exhaustion

PHARAOH LEAP CREATES

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[Sinopia DeStellanova]

She nodded, filing away the information for later. At least, she was pretty sure she got it all. None of it would be important until she could actually scope out the place and see what they had to work with. The only piece of relevant information for now was that Knight wanted to play it safe and avoid siphoning power or dust from the grid. That gave her a good baseline for how to handle things going forward. Risk should be minimized unless it would really hurt people to avoid it. Knight talking about the house and staying with the refugees only confirmed it. Comforts weren't something they could worry about yet.

"I've cleaned it up quite a bit, so I should be able to find a buyer. We can at least keep those shitty fake house plants I bought and give whatever abandoned building we squat in a nice homey feeling."

Her smile turned a bit sadder as she thought about how that would be the only luxury they could afford for awhile. The idea didn't bother her personally. She didn't particularly mind only being able to shower once a month or having to go hunt for snakes in the desert if she miscalculated how much food they needed. That wasn't true for Knight. Connecting their base to the city's water would impose the same risks as connecting the power, so it'd probably be awhile before they got anything good. She'd have to find some way to make everything as comfortable as she could manage given the constraints, but that was something she could do once she had a better idea of what she had to work with.

For now, it was more important to keep calm and focused.

Knight already seemed to be doing better, with the look on her face suggesting pain and tiredness rather than agitation. She wanted to ask if Knight wanted some painkillers or something, but somehow she doubted that'd be helpful. Instead, she waved and started moving towards the barn.

"All I'm saying is that you didn't put 'bounty hunter' on your immigration papers."

Normally, she would have left it there. She knew she wasn't going to be able to sleep no matter how tired she was. Eventually, it'd bad enough that she'd just pass out on the spot and then she'd get some sleep, but she wasn't sure if that would happen tonight. Sometimes she could force it with alcohol or other drugs, but that left her useless and hateful the next day, so that wasn't an option here. All she could do was try to clear her head and try to not react to every noise people made, but both of those were difficult to do. Normally, she would have pretended to walk off to the barn and found a way to deal with it herself. If she were talking to anyone but Knight, she probably would have done just that, but she needed to be useful tomorrow and another night of getting two hours of sleep, if she slept at all, would have repercussions.

So she took a few steps and stopped, staring firmly at the ground in front of her. She wasn't sure what to say or how much she should say. It was always frustrating because she didn't understand what caused this. It happened after most missions, save for the easiest ones. Hell, she had a bit of insomnia the night after clearing out the warehouse for Asche and that one was piss easy with minimal danger. Sometimes she got over it quickly, and other times it lasted for days like this. The ones with death were always worse, but it still wasn't consistent with stress. She just couldn't make her brain shut up no matter how hard she tried and she didn't know what to do about it. She spoke up again after letting a long sigh out through her nose.

"I don't think I'll be able to sleep again tonight. I'll try, but I don't think it's going to happen." She paused, wondering if she should just keep moving. "Why does shit like this keep happening? I..." She felt like she wanted to say something, but she had no idea what it was, and was tired enough it was hard to think straight. "Nevermind. Goodnight."

---

719/4261

[Alina Rybalka]

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[attr="class","nikki101"]WE CAN ALL AGREE THAT VIOLENCE BREEDS VIOLENCE

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[attr="class","nikki102"]BUT IN THE END, IT HAS TO BE THIS WAY

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[attr="class","nikki109"]”Ah, fuck. Yeah, we did buy that house.” [break][break]

Knight didn’t want to deal with a landlord snooping, and it made sense at the time. It was back when they had more money than they could hope to spend due to expenses just being the two of them, but the situation had changed so much that the once nearly infinite stream of lien not only stopped but the costs went orders of magnitude upwards. A hundred times, at least, with income dropping to zero for the foreseeable future. It wasn’t a good outlook, to be sure, but the sale of the house would provide a week or two of buffer before everything came crashing down if they were smart about it. [break][break]

The faunus was bone tired at this point, and likely couldn’t make it back to the actual sleeping quarters if she tried. Her eyes felt like they were going to melt out of her head at any point due to strain, and her muscles felt like they were made of several tons of sand rather than flesh and bone. She took a step backwards and let the tree behind her actually make contact with her body, and from that point she was done. It was slow, but the process of sitting down was happening with the tree behind her being used to support it. [break][break]

When Red mentioned that Knight didn’t put bounty hunter on her immigration papers, a smile crossed her lips. ”Of course not, because then I would have been put on a watchlist and… watched.” Nobody cared about random security guard number five thousand, but an occupation like bounty hunter in a place like Vacuo was always going to raise some eyebrows and bring unwanted attention. Nobody claims to do that without either lying for attention or actually having seen some shit, and the Mistralian Council was understandably watchful of people who had seen some shit and were powerful enough to be a threat. [break][break]

For better or for worse, Knight rarely had trouble getting to sleep. Staying asleep was a different story due to recurring nightmares being an off and on thing, but actually getting to sleep in the first place was always very easy for her. Time in the Mistral National Guard had made sure she was well equipped to take a nap anytime, anywhere… and when her butt hit the ground she was out like a light as Red walked back to the barn. Her aura made the cold a nonissue and regulated her body temperature enough for it to even be something close to comfortable. It certainly wouldn’t be full in the morning in between that and trying to keep her wounds from getting infected again, but it would be manageable for any threat they were likely to face moving forward… and that was all that really mattered at the end of the day.

[break]

[attr="class","nikki103"]481 words

[attr="class","nikki103"]ASCHE SYNDICATE

[attr="class","nikki103"]5314 TOTAL WORDS

[break]

NOTES

A Semblance, D Weapons, B Dust Enhancement, C Durability, C Agility, C Martial Arts, D Stamina, D Exhaustion

PHARAOH LEAP CREATES

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[Sinopia DeStellanova]

She didn't head directly to the barn like she implied she would.

In a lot of ways, that conversation was a relief. Being able to direct her energy towards something worthwhile instead of accumulating capital so she could maybe do something useful later was great. She'd never been great at long term thinking, so having something relevant right now that was unlikely to put people in harm's way made it less likely that she was going to worry about some random hypotheticals that had nothing to do with anything. It wouldn't stop her from worrying about hypotheticals directly related to this task, but it was a start.

Mostly though, she was glad to see that her assessment for why Knight wanted to join Asche was correct. Any excuse to come back to Mistral was good. She wasn't sure why Knight needed such an excuse and she wasn't sure she ever would, but she felt obligated to let Knight use that excuse. That Knight was not only breaking off from that excuse, but thinking about contacting the people she was avoiding bode well. It seemed like a few months at home again was making her friend feel more like herself.

There was still a lot to worry about though. Even besides the money and the criminal groups they might piss off, she was still in the country illegally. Even though she didn't normally break the law, she didn't have much respect for it. The main reason she ended up lining up with it was that laws were often about preventing people from hurting other people, which was something she did without being told. But things like restricting movement? She had no respect for that. However, that could be really problematic if someone looked into it, and suddenly they were going to have a reason to look into it eventually. She was pretty sure she was supposed to start that process before moving to the city and that it often took a long time. Years even. If she started it now, would she get something before they inevitably pissed someone off? She wasn't sure. If she started it and didn't finish in time, they'd have a good excuse to use the law against her. If she avoided it and just tried not to be noticed then maybe she could avoid that conflict entirely. It was hard to say which was better and she didn't have much time to figure it out.

Kerch was still on her mind too. It was another violent attack that could only be dealt with using violence and killing those involved. She always hated that, but what else was she supposed to do? Let everyone die? Act like the leader wasn't lying his ass off when he said he wanted to negotiate? At least these thoughts could be redirected somewhat since the mission was still ongoing and would be until the refugees were in Mistral.

She took a deep breath and tried to put herself back together. If Knight saying she looked like death was any indication, she needed a second to focus in order to hide it from everyone else. Rather than head back to the barn immediately, she took some time to make sure everyone else was getting settled for the night. Based on their reactions, she didn't do a great job of hiding how tired she was. Eventually, she made her way to the spot she was supposed to sleep herself. She dozed in and out for awhile, jolting back awake when she thought of something she hadn't considered or someone rolled too loudly. After about the tenth time, she sat up and looked around. Knight hadn't come back yet.

Sighing, she went back outside and back to where Knight was before. Sure enough, Knight passed out by the tree. Her mouth flattened into a line. That liar, saying she was actually going to come back when she just flopped in place. It was always hard to tell how bad Knight was feeling and she hated herself for it. She always felt like she should be able to tell given how long they've known each other. It hardly mattered now, and she at least knew well enough to try to make up for it like this. Gently, she tried to pull Knight onto her back without jostling her awake so she could carry her back to the barn and get her a blanket or something. She wasn't about to let her friend sleep outside in the cold when it could be avoided, regardless of whether her aura could handle it or not.

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767/5028

[Wolfe]

XP Distribution:

Red: 50

0 + 50 = 50

Alina: 53

50 + 53 = 103