[Marion Linette]

It was a beautiful day, all things considered. The sun fell gently over the land like a nice, warm blanket. Flowers were in bloom, and a cool breeze spread the faint aroma of grass and seawater into the wind.

The location chosen was well into the outskirts of Kerch, so far that it could actually be considered outside the city in its entirety. It was a beach. As Marion had been really insistent on finding the least flammable place for the testing.

As ominous as that remark was, it made sense on more than one level. Being this far away from the city, they wouldn’t cause any disturbance if something went wrong. Not to mention that they wouldn’t have to deal with curious eyes that could run their mouths more than what was prudent.

And soon, they would arrive to see a certain blonde woman already waiting for them. Hands clasped behind her back and a smile on her face. She was wearing a simple attire more adequate to roughing it up than her usual dress. A red and black lumberjack shirt, some well-used jeans, and a pair of white sneakers.

-Good day, ladies! Boss, and... Miss!- Marion said as she greeted her guest for her little presentation. One was her boss, the Hetman herself, supreme leader of the Kozaks, and all of that.

The other was a blue-haired woman Marion hadn’t meet yet, but she had seen her walking around every now and then. A friend of Alina and Sinopia, according to some of the older Iron wolves. So she didn’t question her presence and would introduce herself without much flare.

The fact that she had been invited to their meeting was a sign that either Alina trusted this girl a great deal. Or that she had a particular reason to assist at the demonstration. Either way, Marion didn’t mind the extra attention. She was very confident that she could dazzle them both.

-Please follow my lead. I think I have some decent concepts going on. Getting that sweet castle room really got my imagination juices running, so I put those ideas to the test. And many of them were a huge success!-

Leading the two faunus to a nearby rustic table with a couple seatings and what appeared to be a glass jar of orange juice. The blonde bandit approached a small contingent of her trusted personnel. They all looked a little shaken and dead inside as per usual.

With a wave of her hand, she dismissed them as they rather excitedly exit the premises of their testing grounds (Unless Alina or Nina stopped them for any reason). While she watched them go, she wondered for a second if she ought to give them a small raise for their hard work.

That, and some psychological treatment every now and then... But in the end, ensuring fair working conditions and a healthy environment was not her job per se. So she was happy to let human resources deal with it later.

-Now, now. I like attaching an Apathy to a Manticore as much as anyone else- Marion said with no small amount of flair.

-But let’s be honest. Sometimes you are just arriving late to the party and need to dish out some last-minute preparations. So I decided to work with more mundane tools for this batch. And Grimm of the garden variety so we can more or less mass produce this shit-

Marion explained, pointing to a set of nearby cages covered with thick sailcloths to isolate as much sound and light as possible. There, some low rumbling noises could be heard, and you didn’t need to be a genius to guess what was inside the obscured cages.

-But before we get to the good stuff. I prepared a small proof of concept that will let me explain one of my... Sorry, OUR new toys... Bear with me for a second, my teachers always told me I was more of a visual learner, after all-

Walking towards a nearby wooden post that had probably been erected by the team of interns Marion had under her command. The blonde woman directed everyone’s attention towards a small, chunky figure covered in a blanket, hanging precariously at eye-level from a chain connected to the top of the post.

Grabbing the blanket, Marion pulled it off, revealing a regular Creep tied up and kicking his little legs into the air, trying in vain to set himself free.

-So, basically, I was messing with this idea around my head. When I realized something quite simple, yet easily exploitable if we have a little imagination... I’m sure everyone is familiar with this game, right?-

As she mentioned this, Marion pulled out a wooden baseball bat from behind the post. And at this point, it would become quite clear what her intentions were.

-Who wants to give it a good wack?- She asked, trusting the more melee attuned Hetman could make short work of the chunky Grimm. If no one volunteered, she would roll her eyes and do it herself.

After the deed was done and the Grimm was dead and gone. Exactly what everyone was expecting would happen. As the creature began disintegrating into thin mist, small packages started falling to the ground. Ziplock sealed bags containing an assortment of different candy.

At this point, it was clear that Marion was having entirely too much fun with things. Especially when she distractedly grabbed one of the bags and began chewing on a piece of butterscotch. -Well, now that I had my fun. Want to see how I went from this to a deadly weapon for the resistance?- She asked excitedly, already motioning to one of the sealed cages spread around the beach.

Whether they decided to move along or stop and wonder what the hell had that been all about. Marion would be happy to wait. She wasn’t an impatient gal after all.

---

989 / 989 Words

[Alina Rybalka]

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[attr="class","nikki100"]

[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

[break]

[attr="class","nikki109"]Alina didn’t particularly want to be there, but the potential consequences of her not being there were worse. [break][break]

The way she internally categorized people wasn’t always the most kind, and in reality most of the time it wasn’t the most kind. Nina Rivers was a woman who really liked Grimm. That was all fine and dandy, because Alina’s own assistant was also a woman who really liked Grimm. In a perfect world she’d let the two of them hit it off and go about her day doing something else. This, however, was not a perfect world. [break][break]

In this world there were consequences for actions, and consequences for sloppiness. She was never particularly close to Nina, and neither did she venerate or hold dear really any of the people she met first in Menagerie. It was a bit unfair, sure, but she was still frankly bitter and angry about her forced exile from the island and that irrational resentment absolutely carried over to other aspects of her memories and feelings on that island. A giant waste of time, all things being considered. [break][break]

Not being close to the woman didn’t mean that she didn’t care about her livelihood, however, if for no other reason than Sinopia was close to her. It wasn’t a callous disregard for her safety or person, really, it was just the lack of prioritization above everyone else around her except when an external force made her put the extra effort in. [break][break]

And frankly, even if she wasn’t putting extra effort in she still wouldn’t have let anyone come out here alone with Marion. It wasn’t exactly a secret that her assistant was… eccentric. What wasn’t widely known, however, was the fact that Alina had a discussion with Marion before giving her permission to get some volunteers for her Grimm experiments. The wolf faunus made it very clear what would happen if any of the assistants disappeared, and funnily enough none actually had thus far. It really was amazing how much safer one could be when properly motivated. [break][break]

The blonde had an ego, though, and was far too used to having the safety net of Alina being there to instantly incinerate any physical threat. If Nina responded a bit too positively, there was a decent chance of Marion wanting to show off. If that happened, that eccentricity could go too far and there could be some containment failures. It was something that she didn’t really care about in the field most times if the containment breaches didn’t damage anything she cared about. Frankly, why the hell should Alina care if there are a couple of Grimm caught and released in enemy territory? [break][break]

This song and dance was because Nina had requested it, and Alina was just there for safety. It was pretty obvious that she wasn’t there for herself and there was a lack of focus in her gray eyes as she looked at the frankly over the top set piece that Marion had made. She wasn’t going to interact with any of the props, and was just going to sit back and let Nina have her request. The wolf faunus wouldn’t openly disrespect by playing on her scroll or anything, but she’d have her hands in the pockets of her jeans and her chin hit the collar of her polo shirt briefly as she looked at the setup of the pinata. A for effort, at least. [break][break]

A completely misguided and frankly creepy effort, but effort nevertheless.

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[attr="class","nikki103"]578 words

[attr="class","nikki103"]KERCH KOZAKS

[attr="class","nikki103"]578 TOTAL WORDS

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NOTES

A Semblance, D Weapons, B Dust Enhancement, C Durability, B 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,

---

Saltwater in the air was a scent Nina could never refrain from smiling at.

It reminded her of home. Not that she had ever really had a solid grasp on where, or even what, home was exactly. Menagerie was the simplest answer, since she was born there, and spent a solid few years of her life on the island. Vacuo held a lot of baggage for her, though the ocean's aroma brought to mind images of the coastal cliffs she'd camped out on during her training to get into Shade. As hard as that year was, in every imaginable sense, it was also thrilling, enlightening, and sometimes even fun.

Mistral, arguably, was where she felt the most out-of-place. But the beach always brought her back to home.

Maybe the ocean was her home.

Whatever the case, she was in a good mood as she and Alina made their way to Marion's little exhibition.

Alina.

Nina was pretty well aware of how the Kozak leader viewed her; she was perceptive, and it wasn't as though the lupine Faunus made any efforts to pretend otherwise. She was as detached and distant as ever. A bit colder than she remembered from Menagerie, but not by a whole lot. Nina was Sinopia's friend. Always had been.

Didn't really stop Nina from picturing their friendship to be a much closer one than it likely was. Menagerie was where she made almost all of her lasting relationships in her life, and she was attached to them, despite the fact that she left all of them behind to return to Vacuo for her Huntsman's license. She may have forgotten Alina's name until she showed up in Mistral, but she had never forgotten the cool, hotheaded, town guard who begrudgingly humored her from time to time, whenever she and Sinopia wanted to include her in whatever the shark girl had dragged her friend into that day.

Nina didn't take friendship lightly. And that was largely why she was taking the risk of associating with exiled "terrorists" in the first place.

She also trusted Alina enough to tag along for this demonstration.

She had been skeptical at first, hearing that the Kozak leader's assistant was in the business of capturing, "training," and more alarmingly, arming Grimm, to use as weapons. Nina wasn't especially fond of the militaristic approach to these pursuits, and she wasn't really sure it was all that safe or... well, sane.

Which, coming from her, of all people, said a lot about this Marion person's first impression on the shark girl.

Still, with Alina there to make sure nobody died, Nina wasn't too worried. Which gave her the peace of mind needed to focus exclusively on studying Marion's work- she was already fiddling with her Scroll on the way to the site, the volume turned down enough to hopefully not disturb Alina too much, as her text-to-speech app read her notes back to her every so often. Not that she'd taken many yet. Though by the time the show began, she fully expected to fill a good dozen pages or more.

It was fascinating, just conceptually.

She hadn't been around for Marion's debut with the Manticore and the Apathy at the city walls, nor had she really paid much attention to the news back then. She'd been aware of the Grimm, but hadn't realized they were weaponized and intentionally released to attack the city.

Which, again, made her really thankful Alina was around to keep Marion on a nice, tight, leash. She was all for experiments involving Grimm, but she was less keen on sending murder machines in to wantonly murder and pillage people. At least with Alina at the reins, she figured the Grimm bioweapons would be better targeted to do minimal damage to defenseless civilians.

She hoped...

But it was still very intriguing that Marion was able to contain them. Grimm, historically, didn't last very long in captivity, as without a source of violence to fuel them, for lack of better terms, they would eventually self-terminate, and dissipate into moribund vapors. It was the bane of all archotherologists, and she was no exception. Dozens of times, she'd tried keeping live specimens, but they never lasted long enough for any substantial research. And her attempts at cutting them open for anatomical studies had only resulted in prematurely killing the subjects. Quite unfortunate.

She theorized that it was maybe Marion's intent of unleashing them on humans that sustained the Grimm a bit longer under her care, but she didn't have any conclusive data on that, one way or the other. Just a hunch.

Soon enough, though, she'd be able to find some answers; they had arrived, and were greeted by a blonde who seemed to be Marion. Nina smiled with a lazy wave, revealing a wide array of pointy teeth, in her trademark grin. "Ciao. I'm Nina, don't think we've met." She left the rest of the introduction to Marion, keeping her end brief.

It probably wasn't too hard to guess why Nina was there, from the way she was dressed- overlaying her relatively normal jeans and a T-shirt bearing a gaudy RGO logo and a number of characters from the game, she wore a very noticeable white lab coat, covered in assorted stains and small rips from heavy wear and tear in the woods. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, in the event that things got a little too exciting.

She trailed along behind Marion as they ventured forth, and listened as the Kozak spoke, though she didn't have nearly enough context to know what she meant by 'sweet castle room.' Probably nothing to be concerned about.

As they neared the table, a few scents stuck out to Nina. Most notably, the smell of sweat on Marion's assistants, which would have prompted an eyebrow raise, at the least, were Nina not familiar with the effect Grimm had on the average person. Made sense they'd be afraid.

Which, ironically, led her to overlook what was probably a red flag indicating a mad scientist creating that which man has no business creating.

Also smelled like... citrus? Oranges? Smell was coming from a blob of orange that she assumed was a glass or a jar full of the stuff. Very considerate of Marion. Unless this was part of the exhibition... Somehow.

Even further back, she caught the unmistakable odor of Grimm, beneath the presumably theatrical sheets covering their cages. Not that she was ruining any surprises by recognizing them by scent- it was clear as day what was under the sheets, to anyone with two brain cells to rub together.

She glanced up as Marion began speaking, and immediately began her note-taking, starting with a quick jot of note to self; ask about apathy-manticore after. She typed quickly, and without looking down at her Scroll- one of the benefits of being borderline blind was that she'd adapted to using a Scroll without sight, and knew intuitively where each letter on the keypad was. The text-to-speech humming away in the background every few lines she wrote was more or less just proofreading in case she got a little too excited and her fingers slipped up.

Nina squinted and leaned forward a bit as the Creep was unveiled, thrashing and writhing in place. Still a bit too far for her to see what it was exactly, she approached, moving to stand far closer to it than would have been deemed generally safe, were it not chained to a post, and dangling in mid-air.

She frowned a bit, more out of confusion than any pity for the creature suspended overhead, as Marion brought out the baseball bat. And, as chance would have it, her move to stand nearer so she could see what was going on definitely looked like a ready attempt to volunteer for the position of Creep-smasher.

Not a position she especially wanted to be in. She had hoped to sit back and watch the show while she took her notes.

Alas.

The bat was handed to her, and she accepted it, a bit cautiously. She wasn't sure exactly what the point of this part was.

To her knowledge, Creeps were a bit of an anomaly, despite being otherwise unremarkable Grimm. Distinctly alien in their apparent anatomy, they resembled no other creature on Remnant. Size ranged a surprising amount, though most were fairly small and weak, and this one was no exception. No forelimbs, only hind legs. Strong, but stubby. Stout torso, hard skull.

And not especially bright, which explained how it was caught like this, at least.

Still, she wasn't entirely sure what executing one was meant to accomplish. But this wasn't her show, so she just rolled with it, taking a solid whack at the Grimm with the bat. Not too dissimilar to wielding her trident, once she got past the vastly shorter length, and the entirely different weight distribution- swing stick, break Grimm.

And broke, it did.

Dissipating into moribund vapors, shortly before... things, fell out of it.

Nina's eyes widened immediately, and she stooped over just as fast to examine what she initially assumed to be intact remains- a truly miraculous result. Her respect for Marion as a fellow archotherologist tripled right then.

Until she took a better look and a sniff at the "remains."

"Oh." She frowned again, but this time it was definitely more disappointed than confused.

Rarely was she disappointed by candy, but she was, right then.

Marion had...

Stuffed a Creep full of ziplock bags of candy.

For no other reason than...

A piñata gag.

...

With a heavy sigh, she took one of the bags of candy, defeated, and returned to her seat. Slightly less dejected, she popped a jawbreaker into her mouth, before offering the rest of the bag to Alina, who might be better able to appreciate the fruits of her effort than she was.

Still, it was interesting. In a sense. She had heard of Grimm eating inanimate material, and it being recovered after the Grimm's death, but she had yet to see it firsthand. She figured that was worthy of some praise at least; it was a crude party trick, but one that hinted at the complex mystery of Grimm anatomy, which was a subject near and dear to her heart.

She perked up a bit, and applauded, coaxing a grin onto her face, despite the pain of getting her hopes up for something, then having them swiftly replaced with a future dentist's appointment.

Things got a little more intriguing as Marion continued, and Nina continued jotting notes down, idly rolling the jawbreaker around in her mouth as she did. "Deadly weapon, huh? You upgraded from stuffing Creeps with candy to stuffing them with bombs, eh?" It was a bit said in jest, but as the words left her mouth, she realized her folly.

Either she had accurately predicted what only a madwoman could have come up with...

Or worse.

She'd given Marion new ideas...

---

Let your soul and spirit fly,
Into the mystic.

---

1831 words | 1831 total words

♥

[Marion Linette]

Marion was excited to see the reactions of her partners in crime to her latest hijinks... But Alina didn’t react, so Marion felt a little cheated by it. As her efforts to provide some shock value were ignored... But she figured out not everyone could understand greatness even when it was in front of them. So she let it slide.

But that new arrival seemed much more receptive than her boss. Hell, she even guessed Marion’s intentions on the first try!

-Ten points for the blue-haired girl!- She called out, her enthusiasm returning as a landslide. She was already liking this shark girl.

Plus, it seemed like she was a scientist of some sort. Or at least cosplayed as one. So who knows, her expert eye may even catch something Marion herself missed.

With a renewed strength, she carried on into the meat and potatoes of the ordeal.

-I will assume everyone here knows what a dead man switch is. The thing villains in movies use so the good guys can’t kill them, or else the whole building goes down... With that in mind...-

Taking out the covers from one of the cages. Marion revealed what appeared to be your average Beowolf. And not even a specially large one at that, around the size of an adult male. The monster growled and bit in Marion's direction before his attention immediately switched towards the faunus women of the group.

Almost as if it made a double-take, his sights were set on Alina. Seeming to get even madder than before at the presence of the Hetman. -Hey, ball of fur- Marion called out, now liking the fact that the Grimm was ignoring her.

After a couple pokes with the hook. The Grimm seemed to learn his lesson and refocused on the blonde instead. Taking this as her cue to act, Marion stepped back and used the hook to open the cage of the Beowolf.

The Grimm launched itself towards Marion like a missile but was promptly stopped on his tracks by a thick metallic red chain around his neck that still bound him to the cage. Meaning Marion was safe to taunt the beast as much as she wanted.

-Let’s pretend that I am a huntsman. I need to defend the town of Kickapoo from a nearby Grimm infestation. So I’m just here, killing and killing Beowolves, easy enough. I keep cutting them down one by one... Until I reach good old Spike here

Taking out her daggers, Marion proceeded to deal with the Grimm with a couple well-placed knives to the head.

-So I killed the Grimm. Mission accomplished, now I can relax, lower my aura, and...-

Marion was interrupted by a loud noise and a flash of light coming from inside the previously dematerializing Grimm.

It was a small, contained explosion. Anything who knew even a bit about armaments would realize it would be hard to hurt someone with a small explosion like that. So it was likely a placeholder for the real deal so Marion wouldn’t get hurt in the demonstration.

-Imagine that, but with actual explosive material, or dust- Marion commented. Dusting herself off and walking back towards her spectators.

-Onto why I set up the piñata... It was to demonstrate how easily we can stick shit into a Grimm body and recover it once the monster is dead... Basically, the monsters don’t need to eat to get nutrients from food. This means that in places where things like the liver, kidneys, intestines, and other squishy organs would be, they have probably just bone and raw muscle-

Reaching under the table, Marion recovered and held a small drill in one hand, activating it for a second to punctuate her discourse. Which had taken a much more serious tone as she began her short-lived explanation.

-Muscle is something we can drill and fill with a dead-man switch, connected to explosives of any kind... The pressure of the muscle walls around the device will make sure the explosive doesn’t go off prematurely. But as soon as the Grimm dies and starts banishing away, that pressure stops existing. So the switch is activated, and we have a nice, unexpected bomb-

Taking the orange juice, she took a small sip before taking a folded piece of paper from inside her pockets. It seemed to have some things written on it, and Marion gave the words a quick check before nodding to herself with satisfaction.

-Explosions are to be expected if you are fighting Queen Lancers, for example. But those are fringe cases. These are Grimm you wouldn’t expect to explode on your face-

At this point, Marion will handle the paper to Alina and Nina, unknowing that the latter was almost blind. On it, some rough schematics of Beowulf's anatomy had been drawn. Some parts of the body appearing colored and coded, indicating safe and unsafe areas to fill in with explosives. As well as how deep they could dig and how much explosive material they could cram in there and very crude success estimations.

-Now, that’s where the real fun begins. Which Grimm can I safely kill? Which I cannot? If I go and shoot that Beowolf trying to maul my friend, will it just disappear, or will it explode in a shower of napalm that will set the nearby buildings ablaze?-

An easy smile fell on Marion’s face. It had taken quite some time to consistently figure out what parts one could freely hollow on a Beowolf and whose would kill it. And she had plans to create more guidelines, at least for Ursas and Creeps. But given enough time... Who knows?

-This means you either overcommit to safety and waste resources in dealing with Grimm in the safest way possible... Or you don't and deal with the consequences of it. That is the mind game-

She presented the facts to Alina. Hoping that they would be of her liking.

Marion may have been dumb, but she was not stupid. She knew some people like Sinopia would be super against something like that. But she also knew that the fact that Alina had accepted someone like herself into the Kozaks meant she may be willing to cross some lines every now and then...

-You want to know the best part? I made the mechanism by myself using a bicycle brake lever, a blasting cap, a piece of cloth, and some wiring. And I sealed the insertion point with industrial glue... A fucking kid could make one of these-

She finished. Building the bombs was so simple that she didn’t even bother explaining. She was sure they could figure it out themselves. So she would wait to see what they had to say or if they had any questions before moving onto something else.

---

1133 / 2122 Words

[Alina Rybalka]

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[break]

[break]

[attr="class","nikki100"]

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

[break]

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

[break]

[attr="class","nikki109"]If she wasn’t paying attention before, Alina certainly was now. The applications of this new discovery would become very relevant if it was indeed anywhere close to as reliable as Marion seemed to believe. There would need to be some tests ran, and there would have to be a live fire test where Grimm got unleashed on some Council forces to see if it was worth doing or if the Grimm would just come back and attack the Revolutionaries. [break][break]

Well, that could be mitigated a bit by just putting them in some sort of hole that they could eventually dig out of or something. An airdrop would be more ideal, but that was outside of their capabilities at the moment so would have to wait until they got some airships. She wouldn’t take food that was inside of a Grimm, even if it did completely dissipate after death. That shit was weird and probably not healthy. [break][break]

”Interesting.” the faunus would start, ”Interesting, but not very practical just yet. If anything, as is, it seems better as a scare tactic than anything else.” [break][break]

Hands out of pockets, she gestured to the cage. ”Those are a pain to haul around and we’d need dozens of them to ensure that it was even worth the issue. Weaker Grimm like this could easily be killed at a distance, and we’d need something to either mitigate that or use stronger ones who would have enough armor on the outside that it would seriously mitigate the damage an explosion could cause. Something like an Ursa would need some really modern explosives in order to be worth the effort.” [break][break]

A pause, then, lasting only a few seconds. ”No, scare tactic is the wrong word. If we were going to use this, we’d have one opportunity to make the most of it. It’d need to be an objective worth going through all the preparations for. We’d need dozens, if not hundreds of these in order to make it worth it. Our enemy is slow to adapt and slow to communicate, and if we flooded the field with these we could do quite a lot.” [break][break]

Tone was detached, almost clinical. She had no issues talking about stuff like this in front of Nina, not because she had a huge amount of trust in her but really the opposite. While doing exactly as Alina had verbally said was still on the table, it was impractical with their current resources and the wolf faunus knew that. She’d have to heavily increase Marion’s resources, which she had thus far been unwilling to do largely because the faunus didn’t see the point. [break][break]

Bombs weren’t the end goal here. That was thinking too small and too localized. The real usage for this sort of thing would be objects that would be useful in much smaller doses that explosives would require. Stuff like radio jammers would be absolutely ideal and completely devastating if it pre-empted an attack, and the Grimm wouldn’t even need to die. It would just need to be nearby, and if several were let loose as an advance attack… The communication would be restored only after the main attack had started. There were surely other uses for this, but that was the first thing that came to mind as an alternative. [break][break]

If Nina told anyone, they’d either write her off as crazy or even better… believe her and avoid targeting Grimm with massive attacks in close range that would trigger explosions. If she didn’t tell anyone, then after a dry run to establish that they could do it they could have the same effect. In order words, Alina lost absolutely nothing by discussing this in front of the blue haired woman at this point in time. [break][break]

”I’m sure you have more to show us, so feel free.”

[break]

[attr="class","nikki103"]640 words

[attr="class","nikki103"]KERCH KOZAKS

[attr="class","nikki103"]1218 TOTAL WORDS

[break]

NOTES

A Semblance, D Weapons, B Dust Enhancement, C Durability, B 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,

---

Oh.

Oh no.

She was serious about stuffing Grimm with bombs.

Nina rolled the jawbreaker to one cheek and let it linger as her face wore her concerns a bit. She was suddenly a lot more aware of the fact that they were on pretty non-flammable ground.

She was fully aware of what a dead-man's switch was, but she really didn't like that Marion was referencing that in relation to her exploding Grimm idea. This was already shaping up to be a horrifying reveal, and it just kept getting worse. The Beowolf cage opened, and Nina watched with interest as Marion released it. She wasn't worried, considering Alina was there, and she was armed as well, but Marion's careless disregard for safety was a bit unnerving.

Even for a Grimm researcher, she was pretty well-known in academic circles as pretty reckless in her field work. But this was on a different level; Marion just seemed like she was joking around, except the punchline could rend flesh from bone and rearrange a face in a few seconds.

She was fucking insane.

She glanced to Alina, uncertain. Alina didn't seem too alarmed, so she turned back to Marion, at least some of her worries assuaged.

Some...

The blonde's hypothetical situation was also unpleasant, and more than a little uncomfortable to consider. Booby-trapping Grimm to explicitly kill Huntsmen? Huntsmen who were just defending villages from Grimm attacks, at that? It left a sour taste in her mouth.

Far be it for her to defend the institution of the Huntsman Academies. She was the one who left two of them, after all. They were warped factories that threw living bodies at problems until either the problems were gone, or they ran out of bodies. Too much Council influence, not enough oversight.

But Huntsmen didn't need to be killed on sight, as a general rule.

They weren't all evil corrupt scumbags.

And there were probably at least a few who might even be sympathetic to the Revolutionary League. That number was very likely to dwindle once word got out that the League was filling Grimm with bombs, and releasing them on defenseless villages.

She flinched a bit at the explosion, losing her train of thought.

Yeah, Marion was nuts. That confirmed it.

But she was distracted from that thought too, at the mention of Grimm anatomy, prompting her to chime in on Marion's explanation. "Well, kinda. We can't say for sure whether there's actually muscle or bone there at all- it's more accurate to say, tough fleshy material, and bone-like structural features." She paused for a moment, before sheepishly adding, "Sorry, bit of a nitpick, heh. Habit. Basically bones and muscle, I guess."

Somehow talking about the strange semi-organic makeup of a Beowolf's anatomy was much easier than trying to process that Marion was planning on turning terrible monsters into suicide bombers.

Quietly, she accepted the piece of paper, before handing it off immediately to Alina, who would hopefully let her know if there was anything really important on it. She made a mental note to grab a picture with her Scroll later, to try and run it through a Text-to-Speech app.

Alina spoke up, and Nina was at first pretty hopeful that she may be the voice of reason to push back the mad scientist's frankly unethical ideas. To tell her that maybe unleashing booby-trapped Grimm on civilian settlements wasn't, in fact, a good look for the Revolutionary League, and that maybe a different approach would be more suitable.

One that involved less unpredictable monsters filled with explosives.

That didn't seem to be the case, unfortunately.

Alina seemed more intrigued than disgusted at the morbid Grimm bombs. Which was a bit disheartening, but at least gave Nina the out of trying to rationalize away her doubts. If Alina thought it was a good idea, then surely she had some plan to mitigate the collateral damage risks, right? Surely, she wouldn't be as reckless as Marion.

And, macabre, straight-faced, reasoning aside, her second point seemed to move in that direction. Not releasing a swarm of explosive Creeps on an unsuspecting group of civilians and Huntsman trainees, but specifically targeting individual Huntsmen who might cause trouble during major operations.

Still not a plan she was fond of.

She wasn't fond of violence, overall, really.

There was a reason she was working so hard to try and eliminate the ever-looming threat of the Grimm, after all.
'
But it was a step up from wanton destruction and chaos, that was for sure.

She didn't have any notes to add, so she simply sat quietly and waited for whatever else Marion had in store.

Hopefully less grisly and horrific than kamikaze Beowolves...

---

Let your soul and spirit fly,
Into the mystic.

---

786 words | 2617 total words

♥

[Marion Linette]

-Are you trying to hit on me? Alina, is she hitting on me?- Asked Marion with a sheepish smile when Nina mentioned the correct definition for the insides of a Grimm. -Correct me all you want, girl! The more I learn, the better I can use these fellas-

It was refreshing to meet someone with similar inclinations to those of herself. So Marion continued her presentation with renewed interest after the fact. After she was done, she had to suppress the urge to roll her eyes when her boss began dissecting her plans.

Ah... Alina. Good old tryhard Alina. Would it kill her to have a little fun every now and then? Marion thought while also considering the concerns pointed out by the faunus lady.

-I have to digress on that first point. If the problem is the charge needed to break through the mass of an Ursa. Then we only need to delay the explosion until more of their body is dissolved after death... Dunno... 10 to 20 seconds delay timer? Nothing fancy, the more primitive the best, probably-

Some kind of wet fuse could probably do it. But it was a good point overall. Something Marion would make sure to correct in future iterations of the bomb.

When Alina mentioned the logistical difficulties of capturing a high number of Grimm, Marion had to agree, as it was actually something she meant to bring up eventually.

-Ah! It seems you have run into what I like to call the Marion paradox. Stronger Grimm necessitates more resources to haul and contain, thus diminishing the value of capturing big Grimm in the first place-

Spoke Marion like a true scientist while barely knowing what the hell she was talking about.

-Yep... Not a lot of things we could do to go around it unless you or someone strong wanna help me capture them...- That was how they managed to capture the manticore in the first place. The problem was that you couldn’t make cages out of flames. So even if Alina helped, some technical difficulties would remain.

-And these things fine-tune themselves with use. So my boys should reach the sweet spot eventually. Such a shame that not enough people are into Grimm weaponization though, a couple Marions running around could do amazing things...-

The world would surely be a better place. Or at least a more fun one. But returning to the topic of transporting Grimm. Marion judged that it was as good a moment as any to ask Alina for a little economic boost for her operations...

-Designated vehicles modded to transport multiple Grimm could help a lot... If you are willing to provide me the founding...?-

Marion would leave the petition in the air, moving out to her next invention without waiting for a response.

-Well, since I figure you are into the more nerdy aspects of war. I have this thing- Moving to a nearby crate that luckily didn’t have any Grimm. Marion came back with a heavy piece of metal and mean-looking hooks. Letting it fall loudly over the table.

-It’s all in the design. Insert this into the back of an Ursa, follow the instructions to twist and turn as required, and they can’t get this off their backs without killing themselves- After almost... Caressing the device with her hands for a second. The woman cleared her throat and turned back towards her public.

-Don’t get me wrong, Grimm all are absolutely suicidal when it comes to killing people... But as long as they are not doing that, they will care about their self-preservation, so Grimm cannot try to get rid of this least they cut their fuckings spines in half-

In all honestly, it was a similar concept to the previous one. Yet with wildly different applications. Considering this could be used to weld whatever they wanted to a Grimm with relative ease.

-At first, my idea was to mount weapons into them... But that honestly ended up being a nightmare. Yes, we can get an AK to shoot. But aim? We simply don’t have the talent nor the electronics to make that happen... So I settled for a platform to set things on it-

Guiding the group towards a larger cage. Marion pulled the tarp to reveal now a caged Ursa with the device clearly implanted on their back. And some small electronic device set on the base and protected by a small metallic cage-dome.

-And I was thinking about cameras as the obvious first application. If we are going to attack a place. Wouldn’t it be better to send these scouts first? So we can see what are we going against? Ursas are strong enough to need a huntsman or heavy firepower to take down, so they’d have to reveal some of their cards-

Handling her scroll to the faunus women. Marion waited for her to realize they were getting a live feed of the camera installed on the Grimm. A little shaky, but all in all, a decent video.

-Also, we could adapt them to Nevermores, and we got ourselves eyes in the sky... It could be the difference between defeating a small force with ease. Or blasting a town from afar with artillery-

Marion would take the scroll back once Alina and Nina were satisfied. That particular Grimm didn’t really need to leave the cage. But if asked, Marion would free it and run around a bit so they could see the camera in movement. It was on Alina to kill the thing, though. Else, Marion would simply pull the tart back up and leave the fuming Ursa there.

-Other things I have... Well. I have been working on some high-concept weapons. Some things I really need to veto through you. Like an automatic incendiary weapon using a Boarbatusk that I can show you in some very unsafe testing if this chick has an aura-

Pointing to Nina with her thumb. Marion would wait to see if the women were willing. If not, well. She could always just explain things and have them trust her judgment.

-Or another thing I thought off if we ever get our hands into an Apathy again...-

---

1032 / 3154 Words

[Nina Rivers]

NINA RIVERS

---

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

---

Ehhh?

Nina wasn't really one to get flustered, but Marion's remarks caught her offguard pretty good. Flirting was pretty far from Nina's mind at the moment, so she wasn't even sure where Marion had gotten that idea from, plucked out of the wreckage of her impulse mini-lecture on Grimm anatomy.

She was frankly a bit too disturbed by Marion's outlook on things like human life and the twisted, crazy, insane things she was doing with Grimm to even contemplate any kind of romance with the blonde.

She ended up just smiling a bit awkwardly as the presenter continued her presentation.

This entire conversation felt surreal and more than a bit insane. Weaponizing Grimm felt... wrong. Then again, it wasn't like it was any more wrong than developing new and exciting bombs to terrorize people with. Or chemical warfare. Or hell, just making better guns. The common thread, and the part that rubbed her the wrong way about the whole mess, was that either way, Alina and Marion were seriously, actually, discussing methods for efficiently killing other people.

She wasn't really a pacifist or anything, but she couldn't say that she felt good about being involved in this.

She blinked at Marion's remark about wishing there were more people like her in the world.

No, that was...

That was an awful idea. One Marion was far more than enough. Really. She couldn't imagine a world with a dozen mad scientists running around, leading little bandit tribes and sticking wheels on Beowolves or strapping axes to Nevermore chicks.

The blonde opened another crate, and Nina was genuinely surprised to find nothing shrieking or growling inside. Just a metal... harness? She couldn't really tell at a distance, but wasn't too keen on standing up to get a better look. Just in case Marion decided that meant she was volunteering as a test dummy... Still, she was relieved to find it wasn't just another Grimm for the madwoman to demonstrate her cartoonishly gruesome inventions on.

Aaaand, that sense of relief washed away as the explanation came.

It was a device to stab into the back of an Ursa.

Of course it was.

And she knew exactly where it was going, too. Attaching guns, or missile launchers, or bombs, or long sharpened sticks to the backs of Grimm, so they could be set loose to kill people even more. Maybe a flamethrower? That would suit Marion's MO pretty well.

Or a camera, to-

Wait.

A ...camera?

"Huh... That's... That's brilliant..." Within a matter of seconds, Nina's expression had shifted from barely suppressed discomfort, to visible surprise, to a slow manic grin spreading across her face as the gears clicked into place, and lightbulbs came on in her head.

It was a truly revolutionary idea, and the funniest part was that Marion's plans for it were so incredibly, painfully, small.

Forget scouts for militant reconnaissance. That paled in comparison to the myriad uses Nina could think of for something so profoundly simple, yet somehow novel. Realms of research that sat unclaimed, simply because nobody had ever thought to capture and release Grimm, equipped with cameras. There were engineering concerns, of course- Marion likely hadn't planned for more than short-range recon, so she would need a way to reliably extend the range indefinitely.

Hardier cameras too, with GPS tracking or something...

It was a problem for another day.

Her Scroll was clutched close to her face as she mumbled notes into it, not really bothering to try and squint at Marion's video feed- she was well aware of what was at play, and the ideas for future research purposes were far more valuable to her than confirming what she already expected. "Cameras mounted on Grimm- tag and release- potential projects: herd tracking; pigoscientific breakthrough? Behavioral analysis..." She droned on for a few more moments, whispering into her Scroll, before Marion addressed her, snapping her out of her excitement.

"Wha? Oh, uh, I-i have an Aura, yeah." Not that she was really certain of why that was being brought into question- she'd missed everything Marion had just said, entirely. As directed, she went ahead and stood up, setting her Scroll down beside Alina, and stepped over to the blonde. "What do you need me to do?"

Her mind was no longer really on whatever this showcase was, though- it was hard to stop her thoughts from snowballing as the ideas continue gushing through her head like a waterfall.

She was just along for the ride at this point.

---

Let your soul and spirit fly,
Into the mystic.

---

758 words | 3375 total words

♥

[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 chose to ignore the request for vehicles for now. That would require diverting resources from more pressing projects, and without an actual payoff it was a waste of time, effort, and materials. Their logistics network was very fragile as it was, and more material and time needed to be put into that before luxury projects. [break][break]

The hook apparatus was similar, and the faunus didn’t visibly react to it. It was a neat idea, but not useful enough to devote any real resources into it. She didn’t hold the scroll for long, she got the concept but largely thought it was useless for military purposes. There was no way to reliably direct Grimm once let loose, so it was very unlikely they’d get any useful information that would justify the material investment. She made a mental note to force Marion to clear weapons testing through someone else first, probably Alina, because the weapon mounting idea was a master class in stupidity and she didn’t want to know how many bullets or firearms were wasted in the pursuit of something so obviously pointless. [break][break]

Nina seemed to get some sort of idea and reacted positively to the contraption, which was at least some benefit and made it so this visit wasn’t pointless. The next thing out of Marion’s mouth got her attention, though, and when Nina accepted the offer to be the test subject Alina physically reached out her hand to place on the shoulder of the shark faunus and pull her back. [break][break]

”I’ll do it. If anything important burns, though, it’s on you.” Alina would say. ”For future reference, though, incendiary anything is generally going to be pretty useless. Any actual fortified location isn’t going to have much that is flammable, and most soft locations it’d be counterproductive to burn rather than just fire artillery. You’re not touching the stuff again outside of specific authorization.” Once again, the assumption that people would act reasonably or at least in a somewhat rational manner as part of an spoken agreement was proven wrong. It needed to be in writing, and it needed to be idiot proof, it was now clear to her. [break][break]

This trip wasn’t useless for her, either, now. It proved really enlightening to know that Marion absolutely could not be trusted to operate without strict guidelines limiting dangerous and stupid behavior. They’d have a long chat after this, regardless of the results of these presentations. ”Apathy are off limits.” was the immediate and forceful response to the comment about them. ”If anyone finds one and doesn’t immediately report it to me to dispose of, I’ll kill everyone involved.” Death threats weren’t Alina’s style, generally speaking, which made this comment stand out. The Apathy were dangerous enough, even for the Hetman, to require being killed on sight.

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[attr="class","nikki103"]469 words

[attr="class","nikki103"]KERCH KOZAKS

[attr="class","nikki103"]1687 TOTAL WORDS

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NOTES

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

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[Marion Linette]

Marion hummed, content as she saw Nina slow descent into madness. Being all giddy and talking to herself were good signs that the Marion virus was slowly spreading into the mind of an unsuspecting victim.

She’d probably make a good play partner at this rate, Marion thought to herself as she took notes of the hurried whispers and babble Nina recorder on her scroll. Some of which she found very interesting and could probably help the girl with at a later date.

However, the blonde was about to correct her in a tiny misunderstanding before Alina stepped in the same line.

-No need for that, I meant...-

But then, Alina said something that bothered Marion... No more incendiary stuff again? Why? Because it wouldn’t take down a hardened target? Thanks for the evident data! Pretty hard for that to happen unless it’s made of paper!

Needless to say, Marion did not take it well that some of her toys were removed from her grasp. Taking a deep breath before turning to address her boss.

-Well, of course, this isn’t going to take down fortifications...- Marion said with a smile on her face, trying to match Alina’s neutral tone and likely failing. -The idea is to horrify them, to increase the negativity pooling in a wide area to attract more Grimm... That’s why I also think monitoring the Grimm packs, as Nina said, would be good. So we can strike locations when a big group is passing close by-

The comment about Apathies was also a blow to her ego, but an expected one. More of a thing Marion brought up in case it would fly by. -...I guess that’s reasonable... Noted- Said the bandit, making a mental note to remember the seriousness in which Alina mentioned them.

Back to the demonstration, and to correct everyone’s misunderstandings about it.

-I don’t really need you to do anything. I was making sure this chick has an aura in case of collateral. In case the Grimm somehow deviates from course or if she’s splashed with burning material. I will be doing the demonstration-

A little napalm splashing into her clothes and setting Nina on fire was a real possibility when one talked about such heavy firepower. Part of the reason why she wanted Alina to be present was that. So she could pull out any flames that went out of control with her own.

More than that, she was surprised they had been so gung-ho towards the idea in the first place. But Marion wasn’t about to humor them. Maybe she'd take the risk if it was some random schmuck alone in the forest... But not in front of the big boss herself. She was a girl who valued her life too much to risk hurting one of Alina’s friends in a freak accident.

-Did you believe I would be making her into a test subject... Without any previous rehearsal or even telling her what was going to happen?- She asked incredulous -Huh... I’m pretty sure that’s how people die. And I seem to remember we had a pretty clear agreement regarding people dying while testing my Grimm-

She spoke in seriousness, leaning forward towards the two women and pausing for a second... Before smiling and giving them a wink. -Needless to say, not looking forward to that-

And with that, the woman actually shifted to the presentation. -One last thing. Feel free to blast it if the Grimm starts going your direction or something- Offhandedly commented Marion. Jogging towards the cage further away from the rest by a good margin.

Under the tart, a Boarbatusk awaited, with a strange, bulkier yet smoother contraption stuck to its back. Being pretty much impossible to tell what its purpose was at first sight. As expected, Marion started poking the Grimm with a stick and loudly taunting him.

-Come on, you son of a pig! If you want me, come and get me!- Yelled the woman as she ran away, putting some good hundred meters between her and the boar before a command from her scroll opened the gates of the cage.

The Grimm squealed and started charging towards Marion, soon enough choosing to close the distance with the signature roll those kinds of Grimm were known for... And as the monster began to spin, tongues of fire began splashing everywhere, front, sides, up, and behind the creature.

The force of the spin shot the flammable liquid far and wide, making for a veritable runway of fire as the Grimm passed by. And the fire stayed even as it burned away at the sand of the beach. But the Grimm was closing in. Soon would be too close for comfort, so Marion decided to cut the experience short while she still had time.

Another touch of her scroll and the head of the Grimm exploded, the body breaking down as the flames poured down over it... Yep. That’s pretty much how Marion expected it to go. It had worked with water and cold oil before, but it was her first time using the flames.

Happy with herself, she lightly jogged back towards the faunus women. -I call it Firewheel. It uses centrifugal force from the spins to open up the fuel vault. And a Boarbatusk doesn’t roll until they attack someone. So you get the idea-

Deciding to keep the explanation simple, she walked towards the juice jar and helped herself generously. It was starting to become hotter now that a mantle of flames coated a portion of the beach.

-It actually uses the same compound you like to use for your flames. Neat little thing if you ask me. I wasn’t sure if it was going to work, glad it did- Marion idly commented between sips.

-I was thinking about mixing things up with different kinds of dust... Like wind to spread the flames further. Depends if you give clearance for me to test... Back to what you were saying. Artillery kills people, and that‘s its use. But this sometimes is bad- She said, making sure to explain herself quick enough to avoid looking like the biggest hypocrite in Remnant. -This doesn’t kill. This creates chaos and forces to enemy to spend resources. A town of terrified people can be worth much more than a town of dead people-

And with that, she turned towards Nina. Deciding to dial it down a bit with the weapons and talk about something more general for once.

-I think you mentioned tag and release before? That is something I’m actually attempting right now... Mostly with Beowolves and Nevermore. Since they are the ones with the higher pack mentality. And likely to eventually join with other Grimm. It could be great for planning our defenses, but also for offensive-

Scratching her chin, she considered the logistics of it for a second. -I guess we would need someone to check if those Grimm have actually joined a pack. So hiring among local hunters would be in order... We could even have a whole info network and shit. If it works, of course-

At least it was food for thought. Maybe it could even lead to localizing corrupt objects and blight, which could be... Useful in many ways.

---

1183 / 4337 Words