[Bianca Sabbato]

I was skimming through the manual when I saw the new arrival... Well. Arrive. She seemed nice enough, at least wanting to be helpful. So I gave her the manual for her to look at when she asked me for it. I clearly wasn’t making any progress with it, so she could be my guest.

And to my pleasant surprise, the girl seemed to get the gist of it... Even if in a... Bizarre manner.

She started singing... No... She started rapping the instructions! And not only that, but it was in a clear language and fast as fuck! Honestly, it was amazing.

I had never seen a skill like that. The girl kept going, shredding through pages and pages of content in mere seconds. It wasn’t long before she had finished the manual and provided instructions even an idiot like me could more or less follow.

-...Seems simple enough- I replied, mesmerized by the strange, but awesome display I had just witnessed.

As the girl explained the situation. I managed to catch a glimpse in the corner of my eye. Apparently, the white-haired woman had spotted something from the edge of the roof and had jumped down to fix things.

Approaching the edge myself. My eyes widened. Drones were carrying gooey, sticky rubber hands attacking and slowly bending a gas pipe... I expected the worse, giving a step back and preparing myself to go body block the civilian girl. In case the vigilante decided that using fire near a gas pipe was a sound plan.

Luckily. Miss napalm seemed to remember that using fire in an urban environment was not the best of ideas. And defaulted to using a saber to take out the... Whatever the fuck those were, that swarmed the gas pipe.

So it was a victory in my books, had she used her flames over the pipe she would have saved me the future trouble by blowing herself up, but people could have gotten hurt or killed from that. So for once, I was more than happy that she was safe and sound.

But, man. These toys were getting smarter and smarter with every passing minute. So in a way, I could understand now why the Great Grin dude was so insistent on setting such a small timer for destruction. I dreaded to imagine what acts of terrorism they may pull off if we let them form bands and survive for more than a couple days.

Well. Luckily the EMP would take care of that. And with the instruction mildly clear now. I was sure Powehi would be more than capable of carrying and planting the devices. I was about to ask if I could do something to help. When a new voice interrupted my thoughts and left me just kinda paralyzed for a second.

I knew that voice all too well. And it was calling my name.

Slowly, I turned around. Fully aware of what I would encounter. But woefully unprepared anyway.

She was older, of course. But everything else was basically the same, same eyes, same stupid hair, same irritating voice.

How curious, I thought she was dead, at least that’s what I guessed when she just abandoned the band and never showed up again. People can leave gangs, but disappearing altogether only happens when... When you are dead or inside. That, or if you leave the city.

I felt my knees go weak for a second. As a gargantuan sense of dread washed all over me. If Russ was here, was anyone else with her?... Was the boss here!? My eyes scanned the surroundings, panicked.

Only empty rooftops and chaos in the streets. No ambush laying in wait. No asshole appearing from an inconspicuously dark shadow. No surprise attacks or traps.

She was alone, then, or at least not with the same people as before. Still, my heart didn’t stop beating on my chest like a hammer. Irrational fears building in my brain. Of her running to tell people where to find me, of her telling people to come and search for me, bring me back.

Fuck that. I was never doing that. I had been tempted, but I had beaten temptation’s ass one time after the other. I had a better life now. I had a legit chance. What felt like the first time I had been given one in my entire fucking life, and I wouldn’t waste it.

Encountering Russet was like the opening of a lid about to burst. You believed you had it under control, but as soon as you take your eyes off it, all the shit comes flowing back to the surface.

The worst thing was, it wasn’t because of Russ herself, she had been... An annoyance, at best. But someone bearable, someone I didn’t dislike much even as I bitched about her internally. Nothing to elicit such strong emotions in me.

It was the memories that she brought back with her that shook me for a moment. All the pain, the sadness, that bubbling cauldron of rage ready to cook me alive at the first misstep. All the things that happened to me, all the things that happened because of me. What had been done to me. And what I did to others.

For a single second, I saw my own reflection in the green eyes of my past partner. And I didn’t like what I saw. I didn’t like it one bit... It was... Disgusting...

Simply disgusting.

Even though it all. During this crap-filled night, I had at worst managed to maintain a calm and collected expression on my face at all times. But not now. My eyes took a dangerous edge as the tiniest of frowns graced my face, staying planted on it for at least a full minute even before Russet was gone.

No.
 
-Yes... Later...- I weakly managed to reply through closed teeth and the fakest smile you could ever see. I think she said something about some lien I owed her? I wasn’t sure if that was true. But it would be a very Russet thing to make that up.

To summarize my situation. Of all the things I was willing to deal with on this night. Russet Brun was not one of them. This damned city seemed bent on reviving ghosts for some reason, but I was not in the mood for that bullshit now.

The band was dead, and as far as I was concerned, I was cool with pretending every member was as well. This was a painful reminder that wishing and getting are to entirely different things.

I heard the white-haired woman say something, but I wasn’t really paying attention... I just wanted to get away from there for a second.

I would have stayed there had been something else for me to do. But Russet seemed to have taken care of the situation with the rods. So this was basically a roof like any other right now, nothing of value here.

I knew of Russet’s semblance. It was a pretty weird one, kinda like Powehi’s. And just like that one, awfully better than mine for the job at hand. Considering how my old... partner. Could slide and skate around basically any surface. She would most likely be able to finish the job on her own.

Good. One less thing to worry about, with any luck, the whole thing about the EMP would be true. And most of the toys would be dealt with before the night ended.

Wordlessly, I watched the woman go before silently taking my leave as well. I needed something to distract myself with, and standing on a roof like a sitting duck was not it. Helping people... Yes... That always felt nice.

In the distance, some fires could be seen. Looked like a good place to go give a hand. I peeked down at the ground below, calculated the perfect trajectory for a jump that would let me fall uninjured... And promptly decided to use the stairs since I didn’t trust myself to do a jump way beyond my capabilities.

Slow and steady sometimes win the race. Often the most common reason for unforeseen delays was trying to rush through things unnecessarily.

Scouting the streets again. I soon find another fucked up situation where I was probably needed for a bit. A woman, on fire, running in circles and screaming for help. Unsurprising considering the amount of flammable and explosive material the toys seemed to by packing.

There was a small... I guess we can call it a firetruck. And it was spouting flames all over the ground and surroundings. I took two long steps towards it and kicked it out of town. No way it was surviving that.

Now, I only had a woman on fire to take care of... Luckily, I was sorta prepared for this. Making a mental note to gloat about this with Indigo. I took out one of my grenades.

Ripping the explosive apart wasn’t hard. As it was made almost entirely of rock, it was as simple as to melt the thing in my hands and gain access to the two intertwined vials of dust that made the heart of the weapon. The smallest, one of electricity, and the other...

-Clear!- I shouted, activating the water dust cristal and throwing it over the flames. The water explosion was a considerable one, but nothing that would actually damage an adult person. And even if it caused some bruises, when the other option was burning alive... Uhh... I was pretty sure I would prefer the bruises.

Nevertheless, the flames were extinguished immediately. Leaving the woman panting both from the pain of the burns. but mostly from the understandable fear, and the panic she must have been feeling after being set ablaze.

Once the adrenaline wears off, she will feel like shit, but for now, better to try and check her out to see how serious her injuries are.

Tearing the charred remains of her coat, I briefly checked her body for burn marks. After the Holly incident, I had taken to learning a little more about burns and fire-related incidents. Just to be on the safe side.

The woman presented first degree burns mostly, some second degree in small patches here and there. At least as far as I could tell. It would hurt like all hell. But not immediately endanger her life. She had been lucky I was so close to the scene

-Listen. Don’t call an ambulance, don’t go to the hospital yet. Things may get dangerous. Get inside your home, as far away from the killer toys as possible-

It could be said that I was being overly cautious in telling people to stay the fuck away from the thing that was wrecking the city. But there is a reason shampoo bottles come with instructions.

-An hour from now, the toys will be taken care of one way or the other. Once that happens, you can go get medical attention, but if you do now, chances are you are going to get hurt on the way or cause someone to get hurt-

-So for now, get yourself warm. I just sprayed you with cold water, and it’s winter. Stay safe and call your neighbors for help. Get some hot soup or some shit- I called out, giving her my coat and cape. She definitely needed those more than me now, and cold wouldn’t be such a big issue for me in the city.

With that, I was off again. To see how much I could do, how else I could help, even if it was something small, everything counted in the end. An extra pair of hands is always welcomed.

And in the distance, running between two buildings, I was fairly sure I saw something... Interesting, going on.

---

1973 / 9318 Words

---

Attempting Problem: Helping the Little Match girl (Hazard 6)


Skill Used:  D durability (+2) / D agility (+2).


Result: 6 + 2 = 8 (Success)

[Flynn Gwyrdd]

Bzzt, bzzt.

Bzzt, bzzt.

”Go awayyyy…” was the muttered complaint as Flynn turned over in his bed to reach for his scroll, buzzing away because of a stream of alerts for something. It normally wouldn’t bother him, but the increased sensitivity to light and sound in the aftermath of that last night out made it damn near unbearable. Grabbing his scroll and squinting to get past the unbearable bright as fuck light on it, he unlocked the phone and started looking through his alerts to see what the big issue was.

Haven Academy had an alert system that allowed either trainees or faculty or simply Haven staff to send updates to everyone in the same group. They could even come with GPS coordinates, in case someone got attacked or discovered a medical emergency or something critical that needed immediate attention was discovered. Most often, though, it was used for school announcements and on holidays like this it was used for danger alerts… places of the city you should avoid, trip advisories, that sort of thing. Normally there was one or two, but there seemed to be over a dozen here. Each had short articles attached to them, but Flynn didn’t have time to read all of that shit so just skimmed the headlines. They had all happened in the last thirty minutes or so, so the situation must be updating pretty quickly.

Danger Advisory: Ground District – Unknown Level

Danger Advisory: Ground District – Hostile robots sighted throughout the district.

Danger Advisory: Ground District – Hostile robots confirmed throughout the district. Red level danger, do not enter the area under any circumstances. Barricades going up in Wind District.

Danger Advisory: Ground District – Robots have been found with flammable gas inside, please evacuate from the area immediately.

Danger Advisory: Ground District – Large robots have been spotted throughout the Ground District, barricades in Wind District now complete. Show ID to be let through.

Danger Advisory: CRITICAL INFORMATION. ROBOTS IN GROUND DISTRICT HAVE BOMBS IN THEM, EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY.

The rest of the stuff on his scroll was updates from the Mistral Daily Times, which sent alerts to his phone every so often when news was deemed ‘critical’.

News Update: What is happening in the Ground District, exactly?

News Update: Great Grin CEO has a live stream updating everyone on situation in Ground District.

News Update: Great Grin CEO apologizes and sets up fundraiser for his legal defenses live on stream, claims he did nothing wrong and followed every safety regulation.

Rumor: Mistral PD seeking warrant for Great Grin CEO’s residence.

News Update: Great Grin CEO claims the White Fang has sabotaged the toys sent to the Ground District, calls for the Mistral Council to arrest all current and former members of the organization…

Social Media Update: Who do you think did this? Make your voice heard by typing #GreatGrinDidThis or #WhiteFangDidThis at @mistraldailytimes!

Well, it seemed like shit was going to hell very quickly in the Ground District. Flynn set his phone back down on the desk beside his bed and rolled back over to go back to sleep. The situation had already progressed pretty far, and he was all the way in the Cloud District with no ride and hung over as fuck. He wasn’t going to get suited up and run out just to be late as fuck and not do anything useful. Someone else could do that, thanks.

Introducing problem: Fight against the Great Grin narrative (Social 10)

SPOILER: Click to show

566 words.

[Sinopia DeStellanova]

Sienna was already pulling stuff out of the box by the time other people showed up. Because of course other people would show up. Life never made things easy for her. She couldn't blame them, the only thing everyone had to go on was some announcement from a voice in the sky and they had no way of knowing someone with the skills to handle this would be here, but it didn't stop her from sighing. More people always complicated things and she hated being around crowds. Alina was enough for something like this, so there wasn't much benefit to people swarming the area.

"Working on it," was the only acknowledgement she gave to Bianca; she didn't even bother to look up.

Her expression flattened when Bianca asked if she could make this work, like her arms weren't already digging through the box and like she hadn't been pulling out the pieces and examining them closely. Leave it to a Huntress to think that civilians were dumb as bricks and needed someone to order them around when they were already in the middle of doing the thing they suggested. She was far too paranoid to trust a random voice in the sky and had enough of an idea of what to look for to see if this would make something explode or not. It was why she ignored the instruction manual for the time being; confirming whether or not she actually wanted to use this with her own eyes was more important than figuring out what voice in the sky wanted them to do.

That said, she wasn't exactly thrilled when another person reached into the box and grabbed the manual while her hands were busy. It was fortunate the girl started reading it out loud quickly because Sienna's first instinct was to swipe it out of her hands immediately. It would have been very easy to do with her semblance, but once she heard the...she supposed she could call it a song she lowered her hand and went back to examining the pieces. What she was seeing was matching up with what she was hearing at least, and it seemed like this might actually be legit.

With that confirmed, all that was left was to set it up. Russet grabbed some of the parts and went off, so she grabbed the rest and sprinted off to where they needed to be placed. It was going smoothly right up until she heard a familiar voice and slang (that made her feel stupid just hearing it because of what she thought when she first heard that slang on Menagerie) coming from behind her that surprised her enough that she nearly lost her footing. She took a moment to look over her shoulder to confirm what she already knew. What the heck was Nina even doing here? Vytal ended months ago, shouldn't she have gone back to Shade by now? At least, she was pretty sure that was the school Nina was representing in the tournament.

She wasn't sure how to feel about this. If this were a few months ago before her and Alina ditched Asche this would have been mortifying, but the feeling was different now and she couldn't place it. She wasn't happy or unhappy, just somewhat irritated because she still felt a little betrayed that Nina went and joined one of the psycho breeding grounds even after spending so much time complaining about how shitty humans were. It was unfair and she knew it, but she couldn't shake the feeling even after all these months. Fortunately, she had work to do so confronting her feelings could wait until she finished setting up the EMP.

Would Nina even recognize her? With her hood up like this her most notable feature, the big stupid fox ears on her head, were hidden and her tail was tucked into her pants and hidden under a baggy shirt. Her clothes were considerably less frilly than the clothes her uncle bought her, and she bought this jacket in Vacuo. So she might have looked different?

Wait, Nina couldn't see shit. That stuff might not even matter. She had no idea what she smelled like. Her sense of smell wasn't bad, but it wasn't like a dog's. Or a shark's she guessed. She quit smoking and was showering more regularly than she was on Menagerie, so it was hard to say without knowing what she smelled like in general. Why was she even thinking about this? She didn't have a reason to worry about being recognized right now. Was seeing an old friend for the first time in a long time really that uncomfortable?

Whatever, she was about to head through a wall to take the most direct route to set up the EMP so this was irrelevant anyway. Between her and Russet's efforts, it didn't take long to set up. All that was left was setting it off. She was pretty sure it would work as described, but just in case things went bad she decided to announce it.

"Turning on the EMP. Get ready!"

---

851/6866

Attempting Problem: Set up the EMP field (Obstacle 12)
Using: Semblance C, Speed C
Result: 9 + 4 = 13 (Solved)

[Berwyn Rhodes]

A lot of stuff happened, so only the important stuff.

When the white haired Faunus appeared to save the day, Berwyn had the understandable enough thought that this person was a huntress. At first at least. Who else with such powers would so willingly throw herself into a flaming building to save orphans? Without seeming anything to gain from it other than a job well done. And when the orphans were saved, she was off again. Even if Berwyn didn’t recognise her, or even if she wasn’t a huntress, it was still the right thing to do. Seemed like a real hero.

Then the message from the airship came, and at first Berwyn thought this was some movie she suddenly found herself in. Or perhaps a television show with vignettes into crazy scenarios the world was ending. But no, this all seemed to be very, very real. There was usually a mostly undressed Bianca in her dreams.

With the kids freed again, Berwyn went over to them and Miss Bellflower together with Chloro to ensure they were not running off. Nina was off doing something. No idea. The girl might be an apex predator, but she also inherited the attention span that didn’t span… maybe 30 seconds? Class girl otherwise. Well, her being off to do whatever at least made the scene less cluttered.

Bianca, shamefully fully dressed, expressed her rage at this whole situation by screaming at the sky. Berwyn… wasn’t that good at expressing that same amount of emotion right now as she was still busy herding kids with the mute. “Chloro, you and I got this.”

The giant huntress also wasn’t on the same levels of anger as Bianca. That wasn’t her focus right now. She was busy with saving these orphans and being there for them. Any anger towards Great Grin, or her own fuck-up with the airship would come later after she knew for a fact that this first task was finished. Can’t have herself break down right now or do something rash.

Bianca was going to do something rasher and bolder and go over to check out this emp. Trying to do what is right in her head most likely. Rushing into danger with only the faintest hope of a promise from an airship blasting it over a speaker. Still, she wasn’t going to let her go without a goodbye. Walking over to her, the giantess walked up to Bianca and attempted to give her a kiss on her forehead. “Just be careful yourself. Go save the day.”

Berwyn on her part was going to stay with Chloro to ensure that these kids are cared for. They brought three bags of toys into this place, and that seemed to have been acting almost like a beacon for more toys to arrive. Now that they all seemed to be destroyed, it could mean that they weren’t going to this place anymore. It could also mean that they were going after this orphanage for a specific reason. Berwyn didn’t even wanted to imagine why someone would willingly target orphans.
Unless they were insane.

Chloro gave a rather obvious message towards the pale giantess. Keep the children outside entertained. Berwyn gave a simple nod after reading the message on the scroll. “You just be careful. We don’t want to bring the building down.”
Looking at all of the kids outside, Miss Bellflower was already doing her best at both keeping all of the children contained and calming them down. None of them seemed to be seriously injured. They were mostly scared. Afraid and confused. Things happened really fast and some of the younger kids didn’t really understood what happened. Why their toys attacked them. Why they were now on the streets. Why any of this went down south. Berwyn tried to explain what happened so that hopefully every age group could understand what happened. Projecting her voice loud enough to be heard, she tried to give them as much as the truth as she could.

“All right, everyone! You know Chloro inside, and my name is Berwyn. I am one of Santa’s helpers and also a Huntress. Something just happened and I need all of you to be very brave now and stick together here. Listen carefully to what I and Miss Bellflower are telling you. Those among you who are a bit older than the youngest kids, keep an eye out that everyone stays here. If anyone has questions, you can ask them now. Together we will get through this!”

Berwyn spend the next few minutes trying to calm down the group of children as best as she could. Convincing them that their own toys weren’t going to attack them in the middle of the night and that there will be bathroom breaks. That they will get something to eat quick, and that they were going to get blankets and jackets real soon.

She gave Miss Bellflower her scroll to set up some music for the kids as she was going to discuss things with Chloro. She played some sort of holiday playlist to keep all of them entertained. Berwyn entered the orphanage to find the mute Faunus. The giantess cleared a bit of the debris to find her friend, but it wasn’t really what she was after. Finding her friend in a hallway, Berwyn addressed a more immediate concern than clearing the debris.


“Chloro! Checking out the building is important, but we first need to make sure these kids are taken care off. Will you help me get blankets and jackets out of this building? Some of the kids don’t have warm enough clothing on them. If there isn’t anything, we might need to ask some of the neighbours. We have aura, but for these orphans it is cold. We also need to get some food for them, and stuff to drink. You know this place, so could you help me first with that?”

Stepping closer towards Chloro, she placed a hand on the Faunus shoulder in what was hopefully a warm enough moment.
“Also, how are you holding up? Doing all right? All of this stuff is crazy, but we need to keep going and keep our heads on straight. Don’t do anything rash anymore and rush off. These kids depend on us.”

---

1049 words; 4491 thread total

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Attempting Problem: Clear the Orphanage of Debris! (Hazard 10)
Using Skill: Durability, stamina, and semblance
Roll: 3, 1, 7
Result: Fail

[Wolfe]

End of Round 6

Problems:

Alina (One problem remaining): Calming the Citizenry Social 10
OP: 10 from Alina and 10 from solving for 20 total.

Nina (One problem remaining): Scary Santas!? (Social: 7)
OP: 7 from Chloro and 10 from solving for 17 total.

Red (One problem remaining): The Hot Chocolate Is Missing (Obstacle 8)
OP: 8 from Russet and 10 from solving for 18 total.

Bianca (One problem remaining): Investigate the Smoke Coming From the City (Obstacle 9)
OP: 5 from Escarlata, 9 from Escarlata and 10 for solving for 24 total.

Escarlata (One problem remaining): A group of Thugs are threatening our local friendly hitman! Help him save that poor man! (Combatants Difficulty 6)
OP: 6 from Bianca and 10 from solving for 16 total.

Russet (One problem remaining): Runaway Cars! (Obstacle: 10)
OP: 6 from Alina, 8 from Red, 5 from Alina, 6 from Russet, 6 from Red, 7 from Vesper, 10 from Red and 10 from solving for 58 total.

Berwyn (One problem remaining): The missus is not a chew toy! (Combatants 8)
OP: 5 from Chloro, 8 from Nina and 10 for solving for 23 total.

Vesper (One problem remaining): Avocado goes 'a' (Combatants 5)
OP: 2 from Hinata, 2 from Aladriel, 5 from Kos Mos and 10 from solving for 19 total.

Hinata (One problem remaining): Please don't wreck my bar! (Social 9)
OP: 9 from Vesper and 10 from solving for 19 total.

Aladriel (One problem remaining): Aladrial's Fans (Social 8)
OP: 8 from Kimmie and 10 from solving for 18 total.

Kimmie (One problem remaining): Fans have crowded Kimmie! (Social 9)
OP: 9 from Hinata and 10 from solving for 19 total

Chloro (One problem remaining): Chloro is getting swarmed too (Combatants Difficulty 8)
OP: 6 from Berwyn, 7 from Bianca, 8 from Escarlata and 10 from solving

Vesper (Zero problems remaining): Bat is Sad (12 Social)
OP: 8 from Aladriel, 12 from Vesper and 10 from solving for 30 total.

Escarlata (Zero problems remaining): The Assault Begins. (Combatants Difficulty 9)
OP: 9 from Bianca and 10 from solving for 19 total.

Berwyn (Zero problems remaining): Save the Orphans from the Grindenburg Disaster (Mobility 10)
OP: 6 from Chloro, 10 from Knight and 10 from solving for 26 total.

Red (Zero problems remaining): Storm the Lego Castle (Combatants 12)
OP: 12 from Rose and 10 from solving for 22 total.

Rose (One problem remaining): Stop the Sideshow Statue from Hell! (Combatants 12)
OP: 10 from Red, 5 from Russet, 12 from Alina and 10 from solving for 37 total.

DM Problem: Get to the center and grab the box (Obstacle 8)
OP: 9 from Red and 10 from solving for 19 total.

DM Problem: Figure out how to set up an EMP (Social 5, can only be attempted with engineering/electronics related skill) OR Speed Read the 152 Page Instruction Manual (Social 13) – Must complete one before next problem unlocks
OP: 1 from Holly, 8 from Bianca, 13 from Hinata and 10 from solving for 32 total.

DM Problem: Set up the EMP field (Obstacle 12) – Detonation stopped upon completion of this problem.
OP: 11 from Russet, 12 from Red and 10 from solving for 33 total.

Argent (One problem remaining): Stop the Stunt Riders - Gently! (Obstacle 12)
OP: 10 from Rose, 3 from Nina

Nina (Zero problems remaining): Hands Off the Merchandise! (Hazard 11)
OP: 11 from Alina and 10 from solving for 21 total

Kimmie (Zero problems remaining): Party Pooper [Social: 9]
OP: 5 from Vesper, 9 from Aladriel and 10 from solving for 24 total.

Chloro (Zero problems remaining): Clear the Orphanage of Debris! (Hazard 10)
OP: 7 from Berwyn

Holly (One problem remaining): Helping the Little Match girl (Hazard 6)
OP: 6 from Bianca and 10 from solving for 16 total.

Flynn (One problem remaining): Fight against the Great Grin narrative (Social 10)
OP:

Total Outcome Points to date: 534

Total RP per character:

Nina: 48RP (Chloro solved problem, solved Berwyn’s problem, attempted Argent’s problem, Alina solved Nina’s problem)
Chloro: 38RP (Solved Nina’s problem, attempted Berwyn’s problem, Escarlata solved Chloro’s problem)
Red: 110RP (Russet solved problem, attempted Russet’s problem, attempted Russet’s problem, solved Russet’s problem, attempted Rose's problem, Rose solved Red's problem, Red solved DM Problem #1, Red solved DM problem #3)
Russet: 50RP (Solved Red’s problem, Red solved Russet’s problem, attempted Rose's problem, attempted DM problem #3)
Escarlata: 65RP (Attempted to solve Bianca’s problem, Bianca solved Escarlata’s problem, solved Bianca’s problem, solved Chloro’s problem, Bianca solved Escarlata’s problem)
Alina: 90RP (Attempted to solve Russet’s problem, attempted to solve Russet’s problem, solved Alina’s problem, solved Berwyn’s problem, solved Rose’s problem, solved Nina’s problem)
Bianca: 89RP (Solved Escarlata’s problem, Escarlata solved Bianca’s problem, attempted to solve Chloro’s problem, solved Escarlata’s problem, attempted to solve DM problem #2, solved Holly’s problem)
Hinata: 59RP (Attempted to solve Vesper’s problem, Vesper solved Hinata’s problem, solved Kimmie’s problem, solved DM problem #2)
Vesper: 57RP (Solved Hinata’s problem, Kos Mos solved Vesper’s problem, attempted Russet’s problem, solved Vesper’s problem, attempted Kimmie’s problem)
Aladriel: 48RP (Attempted to solve Vesper’s problem, Kimmie solved Aladriel’s problem, attempted Vesper’s problem, solved Kimmie’s problem)
Kimmie: 38RP (Solved Aladriel’s problem, Hinata solved Kimmie’s problem, Aladriel solved Kimmie’s problem)
Berwyn: 38RP (Attempted Chloro’s problem, Nina solved Berwyn’s problem, Alina solved Berwyn’s problem, attempted Chloro’s problem)
Kos Mos: 20RP (Solved Vesper’s problem)
Rose: 42RP (Solved Red’s problem, Alina solved Rose’s problem, attempted Argent’s problem)
Holly: 16RP (Attempted to solve DM problem #2, Bianca solved Holly’s problem)

SPOILER: Click to show

914 words.

3327 total words for Wolfe.

465 total words for Dessen.

[Holly Hock]

[nospaces]

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[attr="class","RDcontainer"] [attr="class","RDcontent"] Holly decided to take out her scroll and to film the woman burning from afar. [break] [break] She didn't really had any particular plan on what to do with the video after the fact, but she... kinda wanted proof of all of this. Maybe it was more a momento of her shopping trip. She couldn't really make a selfy of herself as she was supposed to be dead. She could however, just film a random video of something a random jackass she called 'Chadchungus' could make. [break] [break] That whole plan was going swimmingly till something quite disappointing happened.[break] [break] That dumb Faunus lizard showed up.[break] [break] That isn't racism, Bianca was just really a dumb stupid person who stole friends. [break] [break] She just ran up and punted that cute little fire truck. It was doing no actual harm. It was just puffing its cute little fire hose. Then, instead using that dust to create a spout of water she put it into a grenade of sorts and exploded in the woman's direction. So excessive. So dumb. Like she is dumb.[break] [break] Holly kept filming everything that was going on. She could get some of the words Bianca said to Gris, and it was also really dumb. 'Just get home safely!' Not even offering to walk the woman home. So irresponsible. Only giving her a coat. How dickish. Exploding a grenade in someone's face and telling them to just go along their way back home. Stupid.[break] [break] Just as Bianca was running off again, Holly stopped filming. She took the video and posted it on the internet as ChadChungus. 'Faunus Haven Student 'saved' burning woman by exploding water grenade in her face!!! #WhiteFangDidThis' Bianca should honestly thank me for how neutral that title was. Some people might probably give this student some props for saving the woman, others might say that this was excessive force. Never say I didn't do anything for you, you stupid Faunus.[break] [break] Still, Holly wasn't happy with this turn of events.[break] [break] Bianca just ruined this whole moment. [break] [break] Gris burning up was supposed to be Holly's little moment of giving this worthless normy some meaning in life. From a nobody into someone who actually mattered because she crossed paths with the dangerous criminal and terrorist Holly Hock. In disguise! That was meaningful. Bianca didn't even asked for this woman's name, or comforted her, or offered to walk her home. She was just a face in the crowd who needed help. So Bianca helped. Like most likely the dozen people that the dumb Faunus helped today. It was most likely just a chore for her, or a score even. See how many figurative fires she could put out. She was most likely running towards the next person who had a problem right now. Trying to do the right thing without even attempting to care for this woman. Not give her the care that someone like Holly would provide. Not treat poor old burned up Gris like the huntress equivalent of a dine-and-dash. [break] [break] Holly would show this woman more care.[break] [break] Putting her scroll away again, taking her belongings and walking up towards Gris and the people surrounding her. Holly said that she had medical experience, and spoke enough actual sense for the traumatized woman and the group surrounding her to believe it. Gris lived nearby, only just gotten out of her house. Too emotional to object to Holly's demand, or most likely to even remember that she insulted the pinkette moments ago, Holly helped the woman into her apartment without any of the other bystanders objecting. They were now much more interested in getting off the streets themselves with the many dangers it now seemed to have.[break] [break] Gris apartment was... it wasn't bad. Nothing fancy but considering how many people in the Ground District lived, it wasn't too bad. She didn't had many pictures and Holly was quite certain she was living alone. as there were no other coats or shoes that could belong to children or a man. Maybe another woman, but Holly was 95% sure Gris was just a normy who was single. [break] [break] She had a first aid kit in the house in the kitchen, which Holly used to more properly tend to the woman's wounds. She dressed them after applying antibiotic soap. Real pristine shit. The pinkette had already taken off her hat and scarf at this point, as it was quite warm here. She apparently didn't turned off the heater before she left. Holly found out why as she dressed Gris wounds.[break] [break] I am not going to bore you with all of the details. Gris was apparently a talker who liked to talk a lot to distract her mind. Her name of course wasn't Gris, but Holly was not going to use whatever name this woman actually had. She was Gris to Holly, and that was way more important than whatever name her parents had given her. Gris worked for some sort of public service provider in the district. Said that she could get to a hospital in the Wind District later. Her neighbors weren't going to be any help, as well. Said that everybody in this blocked kept to themselves after one of the neighbors turned out to be a serial killer, or something. Only had a body count of 4. That is like... are you even a serial killer at the point? Shadecloak killed more people than that in one good night. Holly had even killed more people at this point and nobody was giving her a cool name like this 'Shortstack Slasher' had been given. Holly wanted a cool name. Ugh, life is unfair. [break] [break] She also confirmed what Holly already guessed. Single woman, nobody in her life. Passed 40, never had children. She cried about it and stuff. That nobody would have cared if she burned up just now. Holly held her hand, and said that her life was worth something and that she shouldn't loose hope. That she had been given a new lease on life. Yada, yada, all that kind of crap that someone wanted to hear when they were down. Holly didn't really believed any of that. This was most likely the high point of her life. Getting burned like this. [break] [break] She didn't seem to have any friends Holly could call, she seemed to talk only about her job and how she was lonely, and she didn't even had some kind of cat to take care off. If you life is this boring and normal and plain, get a cat. Or like... make internet blogs about your plants! She did had plants though, a few. She also had a kick ass painting of a boat that had wings flying over a green plain of grass in her bedroom. [break] [break] The painting was honestly more worthwhile that this normy's life.[break] [break] Holly was now warming up soup that came out of a can while a thought crossed her mind. [break] [break] ...She was going to kill this woman...[break] [break] Her life sucked. Her existence was boring and meaningless and she didn't even seemed to enjoy any of it. These burn wounds wouldn't change that. Holly had given her life purpose now, but when she was gone it would just become painfully plain again. If she was dead, she would be a happy cloud floating in the kosmos. That most likely would be at least less boring and pointless than her existence right now. [break] [break] ...Hmm, she could not kill this woman...[break] [break] Leave it up to chance if she was going to turn her life around. Maybe she would use this moment in time to get a sick tattoo or something. Quit her job, get a motorbike, travel the world like some kick ass nomad biker chick. People had like... midlife crises. This could cause one of those, right? [break] [break] Holly kept stirring the soup, as she walked towards the dining table to see what the woman was reading. Magazines and newspapers. Didn't she knew that you couldn't trust what those hackfrauds were writing. All of it were lies.[break] [break] Safe for one... which these woman also seemed to possess. [break] [break] 'Fly on the wall'[break] [break] The only reputable news source you can find in these parts. Holly hadn't kept up with it in the sewers as they published a bit irregular anyway. Looking at the front, she saw something that Holly didn't like. Her head on the cover.[break] [break] 'UNLICENSED PYROMANIAC CAUSES GIANT PUMPKIN EXPLOSION, KILLS POLITICAL DISSIDENT'[break] [break] More importantly... when this stupid idiotic normy was going to be more... lucid. She would most likely going to put two and two together when she looked at this magazine again.[break] [break] Killing her was now not really an option anymore... was it?[break] [break] Thanks Bianca. Good job making me do this by not walking this woman home yourself. Going to make sure that you somehow get this to bite you somehow.[break] [break] Attempting Problem: Fight against the Great Grin narrative (Social 10)[break] [break] Using Skill: Scroll Master (F)[break] [break] Roll: 5[break] [break] Result: Fail [break] [break]

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[attr="class","RDwortag"] Words: 1465, Thread Total: 3145	[attr="class","RDwortag"] Aura: 99%
[attr="class","RDnotes"] Semblance: B, Strangler: E, Gardening: D, Scroll-usage: F, Martial Arts: E, Healing: E, Acrobatics: F, Stamina: E, Greensense F

[attr="class","trinCredits"]TABLE BY TRINITY @ ADOXOGRAPHY

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Colour: E08ED3

[Vesper Dubonnet]

Midnight seemed to abandon all pretense when Vesper was away, and she was letting Aladriel inside of the building. In response of the slap on her roar, the Faunus let out a long purr as Aladriel promised something to look forward to. While Aladriel gave only a quick peck, the mom pulled her former lover back by her arm to give the artist a proper kiss that lasted long enough to show some proper affection. Nothing they hadn’t done before, and it was something that at least one of the two had missed. “Break a leg.” She added after ending the kiss, giving the Cow Faunus a slap on her rear with her tail. “And enjoy yourself too!”

Instead of going towards the bar immediately, Midnight had a plan. Walking towards the upstairs apartments, the woman returned later behind the bar during the set after having gathered the required item.

Vesper didn’t have long to doubt her own abilities, though the bat still had a moment of angst within the time it took Aly to make her defence of the bat. She looked like a fangirl, didn’t she? Just some stupid kid who tried to act like she belonged in a place where she didn’t. Luckily enough, the cow Faunus acted up quick enough that the sulking didn’t went on too long to get Vesper to walk away.

The bottle slam was slightly startling, considering everything what just went down. Vesper looked attentively at Aladriel as she said that the bat was helping with the artist’s new album. Vesper wasn’t aware of that. Was this an offer or a statement? Regardless, Vesper was dumbstruck at Aladriel going to that length to even tell her fan that she was getting this kid to help her with an album. That was like… not something you could just say to your superfans without meaning it. They would spread that kind of information around, wouldn’t they?

Still being kind of dumbstruck… or starstruck, as Aly took the bat’s hand and lead her towards the spotlight. It was quite obvious with how clammy the hand was that Vesper was way more nervous and scared of this than she wanted to admit. She hadn’t ever performed like this. Well, she had small performances in front of people she knows… but not really with strangers like this. She never thought that she was skilled or talented enough to do it in front of strangers and not make a fool out of herself.

Taking the microphone in her hand, the bat gave a nod towards her friend as she gave the truth of how she saw this arrangement. “I will not let you down!” Vesper was here to let Aladriel shine. She was the backup singer here. The second voice. Making sure that the cow Faunus was the star.

It was a relieve for Vesper. It put… some sort of weight off her shoulder.

Some people might want the spotlight, but knowing that most eyes would be on Aladriel instead of her… was just a comfortable feeling. Well, the eyes would be on three Aladriels.

Vesper… was passable. I would have been way happier if I could say that she performed stellar, but she didn’t. The bat didn’t mess up her notes so badly that it ruined anything, but there were some false ones here and there. Her moving her hips was also more like wiggling a cardboard cut-out than anything that possessed sex appeal. Or consistent rhythm. There was however one element that she seemed to have down to a T.

She seemed happy while doing it.

Even though she wasn’t even close to Aladriel in the quality of her performance, Vesper went all out after the first moments of nervousity. She might not be the brightest star in the room, but she was definitely sparkling in her own little world.

One with a far worse take in music, but one in which she could perform to her heart’s content.

Vesper was spent after the performance. Both because of the physical exercise, and because spotlights are way warmer than some people imagine them to be. Still, the cheering and the clapping was keeping her standing and smiling as the duo got an applause. Vesper would have attempted to take Aladriel’s hand after the performance. “Bow with me!” She said quietly enough, and she would have tried to make a bow together with her fellow performer as the applause went on.

It might have been old fashioned, but it was one of the golden rules her mom thought her about performing. Always thank the crowd’s applause with a bow.

As this was done, Vesper would have attempted to get the attention of her mom. Midnight was behind the bar, and of course was smiling at the performance of her daughter and was clapping. It would have been a crime against parenthood if she didn’t. Vesper placed an order from afar: “One ‘De-Stresser’ and a V-Surprise!” The surprise was the Burzanova vodka that made up most of Vesper’s favourite fruity cocktail.

After slipping away from most fans, who still seemed to be all around more interested in Aladriel, Vesper made it over towards the bar were her mom presented Vesper and eventually Aladriel when she joined with their drinks. And Midnight looked proud at them, with those good heart warming mom eyes and a content smile. “You girls were great out there. Vesper, don’t ever doubt yourself, honey. You can do this.” She said before giving her daughter a kiss on her head. Turning towards Aladriel, she gives a mischievous smile before she added playfully. “And for you, close your eyes for a second… I got you something.”

---

949 words; 3120 Total

---

No problems

[Aladriel Noir]

The kiss was a surprise to Aladriel, but very much a welcomed one and she didn't complain. Infact, she pushed for more even after they broke it, kissing with full force and going for seconds just after before attending the performance for the fans with herself and Vesper. The performance that Vesper gave was very good in her own right, as whilst she knew that Vesper wasn't as talented as herself, it didn't stop her from trying her heart out and it showed. She could just sense and tell how much work she put in, especially after the performance and during the applause. She was spent completely and Aly herself was just fine. Her clones disappeared after a few moments during the applause and she would blow kisses to the crowd before hearing Vesper as well, taking her hand a giving a bow. It felt corny but she didn't mind, as it appeased the smaller one.

Vesper called orders over to her mother, which Aly met eyes with a smiled before letting Vesp head off through the crowd. Aladriel however, didn't have the success she did, being swamped by the fans. She tried to give each one enough time she deemed acceptable but there was just so many of them right now. Giving hugs and talking to each one took alot of time but after about 10 minutes, she spoke out. "Right, I think that'll be all tonight beauties, please enjoy yourselves!" It seemed to catch on, so she managed to pass through them to the bar, letting out a heavy sigh as she took her drink, sipping it. Perfectly made, just as she had hoped. A light smile was given between the two as she spoke. "Aww, you remembered my drink, thank you both. You're too kind." Then she took another drink before looking at Vesper.

"Your mater is right you know, you are really good at what you do. More practice will make you even better, how'd you think we did it?" She chuckled lightly before turning to Midnight with an inquisitive stare and a raised eyebrow, before closing her eyes and placing her drink against the bar. "A surprise? Just for lil ol' me? You do know me well, well go on then kitty~" She gave her tone a seductive purr to the word "kitten" just to both make Vesper cringe and make Midnight blush. She was a real tease whenever she wanted to be, and right now it could go somewhere really good.

She's missed the embrace of her panther.

---

Words: 417/2588

[Carmim Clover]

❝ AURA: 89% WORDS: 1379 | TWC: 1379 HAVE YOU SEEN HER? HAVE YOU HEARD? THE WAY SHE MOVES, THERE ARE NO WORDS Bzzt. Bzzt. Bzzt. Bzzt. The little redhead rolled over in bed, frowning at the noises coming from her Scroll. Ugh. Was it broken again or something? She'd thought Jackie had fixed it already... Hmmm... Just a little agitated at being awoken from her slumber, but not wanting the alarm to keep buzzing, lest it wake Aegle up (though it seemed as though Aegle's Scroll was buzzing too. Wait, Aegle was in bed? Oh hell no, it was way too early for this), she rolled over one more time, which proved to be the straw to break the camel's back, as she fell right out of bed, and onto her face. "Ow! Stupid devil box..." She glared at her Scroll as she hit the notification button to see what all the hubbub was about. Huh. Haven alert system? She sat up on the floor, now feeling much more concerned about all of this. Her spine tingled, and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up, as she wondered if this was a second attack on the Academy, or another Holly incident. She was already grabbing for her heavy winter coat and her djembe as she read the alerts. Hostile robots? Flammable gas? Barricades!? Uh oh... She ran for the door, as soon as her drum was on its sling, and started to very slowly sprint her way to the Ground District, slipping a few times on some icy patches in the road. Luckily, she managed to keep her Scroll safe for once, and continued reading the new alerts as they popped up. "T'e robots have bombs now?!" Yeah, this wasn't good. And on Winter Holiday morning, no less! Her Uncle Fadaka was living in the Ground District! She hoped he was okay. And importantly, hoped that his house was okay! They were going to have a huge Holiday dinner there, with lots of food and music and games, and dammit, these robots were NOT getting in the way of that! She'd even invited Aegle and her team, and she was absolutely not letting any of them see her uncle's house in anything less than perfect condition! Also, exploding robots were bad for other people too! And as much as her mind immediately flew to her own celebrations, she was just as concerned about the other people in the Ground District, who were having their mornings ruined by these evil robots. Speaking of which, she wondered what kind of robots they were. Probably some really huge scary Atlesian ones, like the ones Eva told her about a long time ago. Maybe it was Eva leading them, actually- she did have a bunch of robot parts... And she was probably still angry about Qiu'li, and out for revenge. She really hoped it wasn't her old friend behind this, because she didn't want to have to be the one to bring her down. She wasn't sure she could do it... Eventually, she came to the police barricade, leading between the Wind District and the Ground. The worst part was that after everything happening that morning, a small barefoot girl carrying a drum half her size, wearing only a nightgown and a heavy coat, approaching them, waving some kind of plastic card was probably not the weirdest thing they'd seen, by a longshot. "Halt! We have been instructed not to let anybody into the evacuation zone! State your business." She finally made her way up to him, panting and short of breath, as she held up her student ID for him to examine. "Haven student... Huntress trainee... Came to help..." "Really? What do you even think you can do, if a little running wears you out this much, kid? Go home, go back to sle-" A distant explosion drew his attention, and reluctantly, he eventually pulled the gate aside. "Okay, fine, go ahead, but be careful. And don't make things even worse!" "I would not do t'at... do not worry! I am here to... save people!" Eugh... Maybe a cup of coffee first? Nah, no time. She followed the sound of the explosion, but before she could get to that one, she came across a building where it seemed like some of her classmates were doing... something. Why weren't they out blowing up killer robots?! This building seemed kinda exploded already, and a lot of the stuff the two girls were trying to move was broken and burnt up anyways. She had a faster solution, as she rubbed her sleepy eyes and called out to the two of them. "Is t'ere anybody down t'is hallway? If not, t'en please stand back!" Squinting carefully at the pile of junk and rubble, she took careful aim with her drum, and... Boom! A big burst of sound rattled the building as the piles of junk in front of her were instantly blown to bits, along with a sizable chunk of the wall at the end of the hallway. Which she had anticipated, but which seemed less relevant at the moment, because Atlesian military drones were still attacking the city, and also, she was really tired, and as far as she could tell when she had arrived on the scene, that side of the building was void of any civilians running around, thanks to the evacuation efforts by the police, so she didn't have to worry too much about accidentally hitting anyone. Just building-based collateral damage! Which she was frankly fine with, at least until the situation was resolved and she had time to feel bad about blowing up part of what looked like an orphanage. Then again, it was already busted up, so not like she was causing too much more harm! "I will come back to fix t'is later," she muttered, attempting to blink the sleep out of her eyes, as she moved to sort out the remaining bits of debris that blocked off the rest of the rooms. She'd managed not to hit any of those, so once this was all over, the orphans could at least come home to their warm, mostly safe, beds. She glanced back to Berwyn and Chloro. "T'is place seems safe now. We should go see if anybody else needs help. We can come back and fix t'e walls and stuff later, t'at is not as urgent right now." And just as quickly as she'd arrived on the scene, she was off again, waddling her way outside, just in time to find a surprisingly very adorable Theloria Shadecloak plushie, in full Huntress gear. Walking towards her? Huh. Neat. ...Up until it shot an arrow at her! An actual, tiny, would-be-pretty-painful-in-your-eye arrow! Suddenly not so cute. Much like actual Shadecloak. She kicked it, sending the annoying little toy flying over the house across the street, and onto the roof, bits of stuffing flying out as it sailed. Oddly satisfying. It also slowed her down enough that she heard a noise coming from an alley a little ways away. Didn't sound good. Carmim raced off towards the sound. Down said alley, a handful of disturbingly life-like Grimm action figures of all shapes and sizes were crawling out of the dumpsters and trash cans, near one Kimmie Loxley, with less than friendly intentions. One especially large Sea Feilong toy came slithering up, and began spraying sparks from the Lightning Dust clenched in its cold mechanical teeth. A Colton Deraine action figure came rushing up to the bunch as well, but he seemed much less intent on living up to his Dragonslayer title, and much more intent on trying to stab the pinkette in the shins with his tiny little plastic sword. Carmim ran as quickly as she could, reaching the alley just after the toys began their assault. At first, she thought the attackers were actual Grimm, but... They were so tiny. And the Colton toy... She really wanted to kick that one too, actually, but importantly, it was unmistakably a toy, like the Shadecloak doll, which she has assumed was just really defective. "Stop t'at, you... toys? T-toys! Get away from t'at lady!!" Wait. The robots were... These were the killer robots!? A bunch of toys!? She woke up this early for this!?!?

LAIKA OF GS!

Problem Attempted: Clear Orphanage of Debris (Hazard 10)
Skill Used: Secondary Semblance (C)
Roll: 6 + 4 = 10 (SUCCESS)

New Problem: Attack of the Battery-Operated Grimm (Combatants: 10)

[Alina Rybalka]

[nospaces]

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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"]Gray eyes surveyed the area for more threats, but it looked like the place was pretty devoid of more toys at the moment. There were other people who came over, of course, after the announcement… but they seemed largely content to just watch the situation unfold around them. She pulled out her radio once more to give some short updates, and as she finished two men walked up to her from the growing crowd of onlookers – one with a big old camera and the other with a microphone. A news crew from somewhere, though she didn’t recognize or easily identify any symbol or name in particular. [break][break]

”Do you know what’s happening here?” The guy with the microphone asked, before putting the microphone in Alina’s face. [break][break]

”No, but I can tell you what I’ve seen so far. Toys with nitrogen or helium inside and some sparks caused some fires at an orphanage nearby, and apparently Great Grin decided it would be a fantastic idea to put bombs in all of their toys this year given their announcement and subsequent care package sent down. Seems awfully convenient they had an EMP package just lying around if they didn’t know about the bombs, largely because I don’t know any respectable toy maker in Mistral needing an EMP field start up kit for any legitimate reason whatsoever – can you?” It was a question with a very obvious answer, because of course that no toy company would have an EMP field readily available and able to be distributed on a whim. That would be legitimately psychotic. [break][break]

”No, no I can’t.” [break][break]

Just then, though, Alina noticed something off. ”Your recording light on the camera isn’t on.” she sighed, wiping some more of the residual ash from the shoulders of her suit as she did with her hand. [break][break]

”What?” [break][break]

”The camera. It isn’t on. That wasn’t recorded, yeah?” she repeated, shrugging her shoulders and wandering off as the now confused reporter went to the cameraman and tried to fix the issue. Waste of time was what that was, especially when they weren’t sure that the EMP Red was running around would actually work. If it didn’t, they’d have to come up with a new strategy and fast, but hopefully it wouldn’t come to that. Hopefully the very trustworthy toy company would come through at the last moment and try to grab the publicity they craved so badly by saving the day or from their own manufactured disaster and everyone else could just get on with their lives and forget this ever happened. [break][break]

Attempting problem: Fight against the Great Grin narrative (Social 10) [break]
Using Skill: Kerch Kozaks C Rank [break]
Roll: 3 + 4 = 7 [break]
Result: Failure [break]

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[attr="class","nikki103"]428 words

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

[attr="class","nikki103"]6631 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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[Nina Rivers]

NINA RIVERS

---

Hark now, hear the sailors cry,
Smell the sea, and feel the sky,

---

Huh...

She had kinda expected Alina to recognize her. Maybe she did, actually- she just hadn't said anything because of all of the crazy stuff going on. Including the sticky hands, which were very unpleasant to deal with. She struggled for a bit, trying to slash them with her trident, but the thing about a polearm that size is that it isn't very maneuverable in close quarters, leaving her stuck, pretty helpless, as she watched Alina leap down to her rescue.

She remembered the wolf faunus being pretty tough and super skilled before, but the way she was moving around the sticky hand toys was absolutely incredible to see up close. She'd gotten so good! What!

Had she gone off to a Huntsman Academy too?

Nina hoped not, to be honest.

Some stuffy school for teens with superpowers wasn't where Alina (or Sinopia) belonged. Especially not in Mistral; with the Human-Faunus relations being what they were, it was as likely for someone to wrongfully accuse them of something, as it was for the pyrokinetic's much shorter fuse to burn up on some asshole's face.

Besides, she remembered the way Sinopia sounded when she told her she was leaving for Vacuo...

Nah.

She definitely hadn't picked those wicked dodging skills up at a Huntsman Academy. No way.

Unless she'd ditched Sinopia too...

She wouldn't do that, though, right? Damn, she hoped not. She really didn't want to imagine what that would be like. Hell, it felt bad enough, now that she was thinking about it, that she'd kinda done that... Even if it was for a good reason. And something she felt like she had to do.

Still...

The wolf girl freed her from her capture, but she was still a little dazed suddenly. Now that the initial rush of seeing her old friend had faded, she was just left with a lot of worries and concerns. She'd sort of abandoned them. The same way she'd been abandoned, time after time, after time, and it wasn't a good feeling to be confronted with that realization. It was horrible, actually. She almost felt bad for Granado, if this was how he felt when-

Nah.

This probably wasn't how he'd felt.

Still, she felt a need to try and make things up to them. But for now, it seemed like Alina was working hard to fix this crazy mess of a situation, so if she wanted answers, she was going to have to wait. The last thing she wanted was to get into her friend's way, so she trailed along behind her, trying to think of something not-stupid to say. As she started after her, though, a familiar scent hit her nose, for just a second before passing by again.

Sinopia...?

No... It wasn't quite right. It smelled like her, but not like her. Maybe it was someone else.

A little part of her wanted to believe that, even.

A bigger part was hopeful her friend wasn't alone. That she and Alina had come to Mistral together.

She glanced up, and found a camera crew staring at the wolf girl, who gave one hell of a speech. Knocked that shit right out of the park, except for the cameras not working. Maybe it had something to do with the EMP field? She wasn't exactly an expert on that sort of thing, but she knew enough to know that a sufficiently large EMP could knock out a lot of electronic stuff.

She glanced at her Scroll, checking to see if it was still working properly by pulling up her favorite game, Remnant: Grand Order.

It got to the loading screen and just kinda... Glitched. Something seemed to be interfering with it, but whether that was the EMP, or something else entirely was beyond her. Regardless, it gave her a really great idea, and a way that she could be helpful, maybe! She remembered the whole RGO scandals that Holly and some of her other classmates had told her about, and it reminded her of how corporations lie to cover up their wrongdoings.

Which she ignored, when RGO did it, because she still liked their product, even if their business practices were shady at best.

But this Great Grin she had only recently heard about seemed sketchy as hell, and would probably use the same excuses and stories as RGO's parent company! Which she could easily refute and rebut in advance, which would be super-useful and helpful, and would at least make her look less like an incompetent idiot.

All she needed to do was find the camera guy another camera...

Ideally one that worked!

She sniffed around for a bit, and...

Found nothing.

What was she even expecting? That she could just find a video camera lying in the streets, and that it magically wouldn't be EMP'd all to hell?

No, that was fucking stupid.

Ugh.

And worse yet, Alina had walked off in the time it took for her to come up with a hare-brained scheme like that, so now she was alone again.

All by herself.

Trying to find something helpful to do.

...

Maybe she could go look for those runaway cars again...

Even if they were stopped by the EMP, they were still a danger, right? It was better than sitting around waiting, anyways. Seemed like Alina wasn't too interested in catching up with her, and she didn't even know how to explain what she'd done since leaving, in a way that would make her look less shitty. She felt pretty shitty, honestly.

Maybe she'd just go drink at the bar or something instead...

Or well.

In Slate's room.

Seemed like Alina had everything under control here, anyways. She didn't want to be a burden.

More than she already had been, anyways.

---

Let your soul and spirit fly,
Into the mystic.

---

963 words | 3552 total words | :'D

♥

Problem Attempted: Fight Against the Great Grin Narrative (Social 10)
Skill Used: Gacha Luck (F)
Additional Dice: Olfactory Accuracy (E)
Roll: 4 + 0 = 4 (FAILURE)

[Russet Bruin]

Russet grinned as she set off with her EMP field bits, setting them up all over.

Yes, later.

Damn straight she was going to pay up! She'd better- it had been at least two years since she'd seen Bianca, and that added a hell of a lot of interest! Mostly, though, she just missed the crazy motherfucker. Running with her had been fun as hell, and fucking with her every step of the way just added to the enjoyment, honestly.

She took what little wins she could with Garrick's crew, honestly.

"Aaaand got'em!" She caught a glance at Sienna passing by on her own route, and shot her a broad grin and a thumbs up from her perch on the side of a shady motel, offering her loud shout of victory as a means of getting the other girl's attention if her gesture didn't- not a whole lot of people instinctively looked up at someone else otherwise, she found. Easy mistake to make when you're stuck on the ground all the time.

Hmm.

Well, that was done now, at least. Time to make good on her duties and head over to her district, as originally intended. She phoned in a quick message to her team on the ground, over the radio system. "Russ here- on my way to your position, just had to make a quick stop. How you guys holdin' up? Over." A voice crackled in from the other side. "Not great, boss. Some bomb cars just slid by us, we tried to catch'em but they were way too fast. Slowin' down now, though. Headed south-southwest. Over."

Bomb cars? What the hell else was this Great Grin dude gonna throw down?

"Got it. On my way! Over." Clicking off her push-to-talk, she looked around from her lofty perch, trying to see if she could see the toy cars coming. By the sound of things, they ought to be coming close to her position...

Man, she felt awful for disobeying Alina's orders... She knew it was probably the right thing to do, all things considered, and she had faith in her team's ability to act independently, at least for something like this, but still... She just wanted to get back to her district and handle her business, dammit. Not all this... Extra shit that kept coming up!

At least she was technically handling her district's issues right now, though. Just.

Not in her district...

She probably could have let this sector's Iron Wolves handle things, but she figured they would be too slow to catch the cars, even if she tipped them off to them. Which she did, just as she dropped down to the ground to intersect their approach. "Hey, District 4, this is Desiatnyk Bruin reporting- you got an incoming bunch of explosive cars coming your way. I was in the neighborhood, so gonna try and stop them for you, but if they give me the slip, they're headed south, towards Love Street."

And sure enough, there they were.

They came zipping towards her, fast as hell, just as she activated her Semblance and flopped over onto the ground in front of them, in what was arguably a reckless as fuck maneuver, considering their payloads. She just didn't want to blow them up or anything, though, so shooting and kicking them was out of the question, and she needed to grab up as many as she could.

She got three, which still left a few zooming along for somebody else to deal with.

But at least she managed to grab some with her body block. The wheels had attempted to roll over her, but her increased friction stopped the tires cold, allowing her to pluck the Dust cartridges off of them one-by-one before smashing the hell out of them with the butt of her weapon.

"Few of them still headed your way. Good luck, I gotta get back to my team now!" She realistically should have already been back...

But she was confident in District 4's sotnya. They could handle themselves well enough. Besides, her own Sotnyk was probably wondering where the hell she was. Best to just keep running, and explain when she got there...

Maybe she'd run across Bianca on the way, even! That'd be pretty- whoa!

Shit!

Luckily for Russet, her semblance kicked in pretty easily as the falling plane landed on her head, and slid straight off, crashing with a crunch on the ground beside her. A glance up revealed it was suddenly raining drones, planes, and all sorts of other flying toys.

Hopefully nobody got hurt...

Hopefully...

AURA: 77% // WC: 773 // TWC: 4426

Problem Attempted: Stop the Stunt Riders - Gently (Obstacle 12)
Skill Used: Specialized Semblance (E)
Additional Die: Speed (E)
Roll: 9 + 2 = 11 (FAILURE)

New Problem: Hallelujah, It's Rainin' Toys (Hazard 12)

[Sinopia DeStellanova]

Time seemed to move in slow motion as she activated the EMP and waited to see if it did anything. At the very least, it didn't explode, but there were still implications about setting off something like that in a neighborhood like this even if it worked exactly as they predicted. There weren't many toys around though, Alina took care of most of them while she was digging through the box, so she stood around awkwardly until she heard some sad whirring sounds heading towards Love street. The sounds weren't too far away, so she bolted in that direction and climbed up a nearby building to get a better look at the area. Sure enough, there was a small squad of toy motorcycles that were no longer moving, likely because of the EMP. It'd be easy enough for the Iron Wolves in the area to disarm them and the rest of the toys at this point. That was one problem dealt with at least.

Sighing, she climbed down the fire escape she had climbed up and looked back towards the center. Alina was talking to some people with cameras, which meant she was already jumping into cleanup. It did seem like it was time for that. It'd take an eternity to actually get all the toys out of here. If they did actually have explosives in them then they'd have to dispose of the toys with great care as well. The EMP might have broken some things, and the toys almost certainly did. It might be worth tracking down the guy that did this as well. Though she wasn't thinking far enough ahead to question the motive behind all this, she did want to ensure something like this wouldn't happen again.

However, there was a more immediate concern now that the worst of the danger was likely over. Nina was still here, and she still had no idea how to feel about that. Feelings were so stupid. Shouldn't she be happy? Sure, she was still mad that Nina left for Shade, but she wasn't that petty. Or at least she really hoped she wasn't actually that petty because that would be a problem otherwise. No, this wasn't anger. Anger made her want to run or find something to complain about on the internet. Right now, she was getting the overwhelming urge to clean or do something useful. Sometimes being angry made her want to do something useful, but it was typically the kind of useful that involved taking something apart rather than cleaning up. Some part of her wanted to pretend like she never saw anything and she couldn't remember the last time that happened when she was really mad.

She could feel her chest tightening, so Russet's victory shout came as a welcome distraction. Her smile was a bit awkward, but that was nothing new, as she turned and raised her own fist into the air. The smile was genuine, she was just a bit tired after everything. But they won, and she could let herself celebrate for a moment.

But a distraction wasn't going to make her weird feelings any less weird and they weren't going to go away. It'd be nice to just ignore it and go on her way, but she couldn't do that. What was she so worried about anyway? That she kind of understood. A lot had changed in the last two years, and her own conception of time was weird enough that two years felt like an eternity. Would Nina even recognize her? She had already asked herself this question a few minutes ago, but she meant it in an entirely different context now. If Nina did recognize her, in both the figurative and literal sense, would she like what she saw? Because somehow she doubted that anyone on Menagerie would have pictured her roaming around Vacuo, living out of her car, and beating up bad guys. Or illegally immigrating to Mistral to join a syndicate. Her uncle might have but fuck him, he was paranoid.

No, that was stupid. Nina was less judgmental than she was.

Then there was the issue on whether or not she'd recognize Nina. In the figurative sense only because Nina didn't actually look that different. The shark faunus had spent two years in Shade, quite possibly the only place more psychotic than Haven.

This was stupid, she was thinking about this way too hard and she didn't want to do it anymore. Especially not when Nina looked so sad. After taking a deep breath she stiffly moved towards Nina, her arms practically glued to her sides and her joints barely able to bend. It made her approach pretty loud, but she still insisted on approaching from the side rather than Nina's back.

"You have something on your back."

Remains of the sticky things that grabbed her before. Unless her hand was swatted away, she'd gently start peeling it off. Her head was low enough that her hood covered her eyes and her shoulders were up to her ears. She could have left it there. Peeled off the stuff on Nina's back and walked away. However, that seemed strange. Why was her instinct to run away?

"It's good to see you again Nina."

Despite the feelings she didn't really understand, she was pretty sure she was telling the truth.

---

891/7757

Attempting Problem: Stop the Stunt Riders - Gently! (Obstacle 12)
Using: Semblance C, Speed C
Result: 9 + 4 = 13 (solved)

[Opal Machias]

The hell is wrong with this city!!!

The young man only thought as he ran down another alleyway doing his best to follow the rising smoke. The message on his scroll was still rolling over in his head, making him question what the hell was going on. If it hasn’t had come from the academy, he would have thought it was just some stupid joke. But still… killer robots with flammable gas?! It sounded like some dumb plot of a B list holiday horror movie. In fact, he was fairly sure he had watched something very close to that not long ago.

But in the movie, they did not have bombs in them as these did. Who the hell put bombs in toys anyway?! Great Grins apparently did as the day only got weirder as an airship, one Opal could barely see from his alleyway at the time, came down to drop a gift. The toy company started to sound a lot more like some R&D weapon company with all their bombs and EMPs. However, that wasn’t Opal's many worries as he came to a sliding stop back onto the streel. No, his problem was much more mundane compare to that he guessed others were facing. He was lost…

He was a bit ashamed to admit that his knowledge of the Ground district was limited at best despite growing up in the city. Which was how he found himself lost even before the danger had even started. Having first planned to join his classmate on a trip to an orphanage, other business had caused him to be late to the meetup. Saying he would meet them there. That was before everyone was evacuated, or at least not hiding in their home, leaving him no one to ask for directions through the maze of alleyways.

Thankfully, or he guesses unthankfully, the sounds of explosions were an easy thing to follow. So, after much running and a few dead-ends, Opal finally found his way closer to the black smoke when he heard shouts coming from one of the alley mouths. Glancing down, he quickly spotted two girls, one he recognizes as his upperclassmen, Carmim he believed her name was. She was rushing to help the other one that was being attacked by… toys? Opal had to take a double-take at that. Yep, many Grimm toys and even a few huntsmen ones were attacking the pink hair girl.

While he was more than a little confused about how toys were doing all this, he still jumped into action. Being a little faster, Opal rushes forward, unsheathing his sword in a quick draw fashion. Taking out a few of the Grimm’s that had made a jump toward the trapped girl. From there, he went to work doing what he was trained to do with a blade in one hand and steel body of his sheath in the other Opal dance about the alleyway keeping himself between the attacker and girl. Slashing and smashing his through their little ranks toward the boss. An imposing model of a Sea Feilong.

While he was quite sure the toy itself couldn’t do much to him, it was the lightning dust that made him paused for a moment. Why the hell did it even have lightning dust in it, to begin with? Either way, it needed to be taken care of before it could do any harm. He didn’t know if the girl had an aura or not, but in the end, it didn’t really matter as he wasn’t going to let it get any closer. With a plan, the young man rushes forward again as saw the lightning start to build in the mouth of the flying sea serpent. Tossing his metal sheath up toward its mouths, he was pleased as he watched it draw the lightning to it, allowing him just enough room to roll under its attack. Rolling forward, Opal wasted no time coming to a halt and slashing upward, taking the toy head off.

Now, if only it were the real thing… He thought to himself as he stood up, checking for any he might have missed. “Clear!” He shouted more for Carmim as he turned toward the girl. Taking only a moment to check on his now blacken and slightly burnt sheath. “You okay? Did any of them hurt you?” He asked as he felt a few lightly slash and poke on his leg. The Colton toy wasn’t done with the fight, yet it seems, but a quick slam of the butt of his cane ended the unfair fight quickly as he took a moment to listen if the girl was hurt or not. If so, he would stay and help as needed. If not, he would make a B line toward Carmim, hoping she might have a better idea of what was happening.

“Hope you know more than I do cause other than killer toys and bombs, I’m a bit lost on what is happening around here…”

Word Count: 834

Problem Attempted: Attack of the Battery-Operated Grimm (Combatants: 10)
Skill Used: Weapon (E)
Roll: 10 + 1 = 11 (SUCCESS)

[Chloro Smoke]

we are the lost and the silent    tags: Too Many   WHERE THE SKIES END -- STARSET  outfit: As described words: 404/2102 During the clearing of the debris, she had time to think and recollect her thoughts. The night had been too wild to not take a moment to breath. Toys attacking kids, the orphanage she paid plenty of visits too going up in flames and the shitty toy company that produced these toys are bastards. All the students that were with them had all ran off to do other things but Berwyn, and it kinda pissed her off. Understandibly, other people might need help, she got that, but there bigger problem was the kids and Miss Bellflower right now. And to just run off, leaving orphans who were now homeless out on their own... it irked her in too many ways. Thankfully, she heard music come from the front and saw Berwyn coming in to help, expressing her own worries. She gave a nod and turned to find some warmer garments before the hand held her shoulder. She froze in place, looking at Berwyn's hand before to her face. It was nice that someone was concerned for her. But with time not on their side, she just gave a simple head shake to say "No", before heading deeper and finding some of the warmer garments with the giantess. During their second run with these warmer clothes for the kids, another girl with red hair appeared and began to help with clearing the debris, except... she was too late to cover her ears when the sound explosion shattered her hearing for a few moments, causing her to recoil and cover her ears in pain. This fucking school and their careless fucking students, Chloro was not happy. She was cold, pissed, tired and angry. Once she managed to get her ears to stop ringing, the red head had disappeared just as quickly as she appeared. Now, Chloro was normally quite a calm person, very collected and very patient but tonight was a tipping point. Her fists balled till her knuckles went white, which she stretched out occasionally to stop them from tensing so much, and her eyes were filled with anger. Whether Berwyn noticed this or not, she didn't care. Definitely need a word with faculty at some point... She took a moment to step outside into the cold air to try and clear her head, sitting by the wall of the now-pretty-much-ruined orphanage building, before curling up into a ball to control her breathing and temperment. ♚ Made by SYLVIA of SA and GS ♚