TILIAN PEARSON - A RIVER IN THE CITY OF VALE - 2 DAYS AGOIt was a warm summer night in the city of Vale. It was already late at night and most of the citizens had already gone to sleep. Tilian was standing at the river side looking at the small fireflies that where flying above the water. If he focused on those fireflies he could almost ignore the screams of Chris, who was dangling above the river, only being held up by Black Sun who had engulfed his feet with goo, which Tilian had then turned into the density of steel. He looked at Chris who seemed to be terrified. Tilian smiled at the man's suffering.
"I will ask you one more time Chris. Where is the money?!" The man squirmed as he desperately tried to somehow free himself.
" I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING MAN! I ALREADY TOLD YOU I GAVE THE MONEY TO WINSTON HE.." Tilian cut in before he could continue.
" I already checked Winston, Chris. He said he knew jack shit, and I know Winston good enough that he wont screw me over. Now you, Chris, are a different story." The goo slowly started to go down.
"I will give you ten seconds. After that your going to go for a loooong swim." He could see the panic in Chris's eyes as he was slowly lowered towards the river. Chris just kept screaming and screaming, the water had reached his hair and before his head was in, he screamed.
" ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT! ILL SHOW YOU WHERE I HID IT !!"
And with that, Tilian lifted Black Sun up and dropped Chris on the street. Chris then stood up and said in a low voice.
"Follow me"
Tilian did and so they walked through small walkways until they reached a dumpster. Chris then started looking for the cash and after a few moments of searching, he pulled out a package which was covered in all kinds of filth. He threw it at Tilian and then made a run for it. Tilian shrugged and let him go. If this money was fake he would find him anyway. And it seemed that Chris had not lied as within the package was 500 lien waiting for him. Tilian smiled and put the money in his pocket, shrinking the ball to a marble which he put in his other pocket. He then started to walk towards his apartment which was a few blocks away.
After a few minuets of walking, he reached his apartment which was at the 50th floor of his apartment complex. A few minuets later he was in his actual apartment, which was made of three rooms. The first was the main living room and the kitchen combined, the second room being his bedroom which was an absolute mess. His bed was made out of three mattresses stacked on each other. A bunch of pillows lay everywhere and a few blankets as well. The last room was the bath room which had a shower. He threw the cash in the corner, climbed onto his bed and relaxed. He relaxed for at least 5 minuets as his scroll started to beep. He grabbed and was surprised to a message from Fern.
I'm going to call you in a few minutes. You better answer, else I'll find you and hang you from your pinky toes. <3 Tilian rolled his eyes at the bitchy comment. He then sighed and looked at the hundreds of messages. However none of them mentioned the hanging part so something must have going on, so he typed a response.
Well hello to you to. Sure you can call. Just make it quick, I'm busy. He wasn't busy but he just wanted to go to sleep!
Please, we both know you're sitting alone and just dying to talk to me. Fern replied quickly.
Riiiiiight you go think that Fern. he typed with a smile on his face.
Sapphire Pearl - Sister Sandra's Super Simulations
Leaping over the sword that swung her way, Sapphire swiftly swung Gemtra straight to the white-masked and deer eared man that had attempted the attack. Briefly, Gemtra entered it's second form, in order to hold back two stabbing motions from another pair of enemies. Instead of switching back to form one, the teen dove forward, keeping Gemtra high and spinning, knocking the twin attackers out for the count. It was when three more appeared out of the darkness that surrounded Sapphire that she started to falter. She couldn't hold back three attacks at the same time, all from different sides. She blocked the first that came to her, delivering a flying kick as the second attacker struck her side, flying into the third one that did a similar attack, sending her crashing into the ground. This had happened many times during this fight, and now, she started to black out...
Only to wake up a moment later. The cuffs on her hands came undone, and she leaned up, stretching. The woman next to her on a monitor making sure she was okay nodded appreciatively. "You did well. You took out fifteen of them," Sandra, the owner of the business that Sapphire regularly attended, says.
"Well, thank you! I try to train my best," Sapphire smiles at Sandra, and handed her the pay for the simulation, which was discounted from normal since Sapphire was a regular attendee.
"I'll see you sometime soon, Sandra!", the Faunus girl said, before walking out, feeling the familiar sensation of her scroll vibrating in her pocket. Once outside, she sat on a nearby bench, putting one leg on the other as she read
yet another of the hundred texts that she had been sent from Fern. She always read and replied to every one with a smile on her face. Fern was her best friend, and she'd keep on reading every message that came her way.
I'm going to call you in 173 seconds! If you do not answer, I'll shave your tail and wear the fur as a scarf! :3You wouldn't do that. You're my besto! Though, I do expect that if Tilian had a tail, you would do that to him. <3Touche. Standby soldier. Fern replied to her friend, smiling as she closed the message window and scrolled through her contacts. She tapped the picture of Tilian, that she'd acquired through... stalkerish means, and it opened the menu for the call feature. She raised the scroll to her ear and waited for her teammate to answer.
Tilian answered the call and raised the scroll to his ear.
"Supp Fern, why do you want to hang me?""Why, you ask?" Fern rolled her eyes.
"As if you didn't already know. I've sent you two hundred and thirteen messages and you've only replied to like.. five of them. Do you have any idea how frustrated I was? Are you purposely ignoring me? I demand to be treated better than this." she ranted into the phone.
Tilian laughed to the response.
It's kind of hard to respond when you're fighting Grimm. I mean I could answer it to show off how much of a badass I am. But let's not tempt fate shall we?""Come on, you could have spared a second or two. I really needed help picking out a new top. Because of you, I couldn't decide on one. Now you owe me a trip to the shop." she complained to him. She leaned the scroll away from her ear again and went to tap on Sapphire's picture, adding her to the call and then waiting for her to answer.
"Hey there!" Sapphire says, as soon as she put her scroll to her ear. She hadn't noticed that Tilian was in the call.
"You caught me just in time. I was in the middle of a simulator battle and just got out. I may not have caught you if I didn't exit. Sandra might've told me, but... Eh." She laughs.
"Sapphire! Glad to have you on the line. I was just telling Tilian here that he owes me a new top, but I suppose that's a topic for another day. I have something important to tell the both of you." Fern said, turning and starting to walk in the direction of her home. She leaned her scroll against her shoulder, keeping it there as she adjusted her pants.
"I figured it would be easier to just tell you both at the same time. Hopefully that's not a problem." she teased, a smirk forming on her face.
"W-Wait, Tilian is here?! Oh no, not you again! Fern, why?!" To that Tilian just started laughing. He was enjoying this so much.
Okay, Fern just for this I'll buy a top for you! So how are you doing Sapphire? Doing good I hope? He then started laughing again.
Sapphire's picture disappeared from the call window.
"Dammit, Tilian." Fern mumbled, hearing the sound of a message from Sapphire.
Why is he there! Fern, please, why!? D: </3 I seriously have something important to tell you both. And... we really need to work on you two getting back on speaking terms. This is not good for the team morale.Did you not listen to what he said? How am I supposed to bear that? *Cries*[color=#4F7942][i]He literally just asked you how you were... in his rude way, yes. But still.[/color]
Yes. Rude way. A tear went down my cheek. How dare you. After a second, a second text was sent.
Fine. A moment later, her picture popped back up in the call, but she was quiet.
"Alright, where are you? I'll bring you some tuna as a reward and... apology for Tilian's rude behavior..." Fern said into the scroll as it showed Sapphire popped back up.
Only a whimper came as a reply.
Tilian stopped laughing trying to sound serious. Which he was failing.
"Tilian, I will seriously pay you to shut up." Fern grumbled angrily into the phone. She was nearing the local marketplace, looking for some tuna or any kind of fish she could get for her friend. It was hard considering it was night time and many of the fisherman had closed their shops for the day.
"Just ignore him Sapphire. He's an ass. But we can beat him up later about it. Like I said, I have some important news.""Okay, I'll try," came the reply from Sapphire. Her voice sounded broken and sad.
"Okay ill stop now. Oh and Sapphire you can punch me in the face later. Heh heh heh, I owe you that much. He stopped laughing and became somewhat serious.
"Fine,", she whispers, in the same broken voice as before.
"Thank you." she mumbled, though it was unclear whom she was thanking. As she picked out some small fish for her friend from the last shop that was open, her face turned up in disgust at the smell of it. Her nose being sensitive to scents didn't help the matter, but... of the things she'd do for her best friend, this wouldn't be the worst.
"Alright, now time for business." " What kind of business?" "Don't tell me that he wants to test is in a simulator or something. I'm done with sims for a while." Her voice sounded a
little less saddened. She figured that soon she'd be spending time with her best friend. At least, she
hoped so.
As Fern started out of the marketplace and on the way to Sandra's Simulations, she held the bag of fish a bit away from her, hoping Sapphire would at least still be there.
"Well, last night, I got a call from Ozpin and he told me to meet him at his office at Beacon. When I got there, he and Professor Goodwitch both seemed... a little off. I can't explain it. But then, they told me that they had an assignment for me. For us! I was pretty excited, but I think it's something really serious." she paused as she looked around, making sure no one was listening in on her conversation. When she spoke next, her voice was low like she was almost whispering.
"I think something big is going to happen, but I'm not sure what it is. You know those two are really... vague. " she said.
"I hope it has something to do with kicking some Grimm ass? Cause I'm game if that's the case" He said getting excited at the chance to do something fun.
"It might be. They said to be prepared... and I had to pick a team to go with us, so I asked Paris if team PYCH would go with us. He seemed cool about it. Everyone is going to be meeting at the docks on Monday morning. Oh and I already told Rust about it. It's seriously a shame when I can get in contact with him before you guys. He literally sleeps all day and still answers my calls." she complained to them.
"Hey, wait a sec, I always answer your calls!" Sapphire was exaggerating a little. She did answer
a lot of calls, though.
"But... I'm excited." Yeah that's Rust for ya. He is even lazier then me. And that's saying something!"Even though he is more lazy, he is less annoying," Sapphire mutters to herself.
"Touche, Sapphire, touche. But do you think we can set our hate aside for just this call?" There was no response.
"Sigh, grow a pair already." "I'm female," a whisper replied.
"Anyway!" Fern interrupted as she saw she was getting closer to the simulation place where Sapphire was supposed to be.
"Ozpin told me we're going to Patch, but we won't be the only one's, just the first to go. When I asked him why he picked our team, he totally said we were reliable. Can you believe it?" she said, her voice not masking her excitement.
"We absolutely cannot screw this up. Our reputation will be ruined if we do. So that means you two need to be on your best behavior. No fighting. Else I'll trap you to together in a dark place for a week." she threatened, as usual.
"Yeah, Tilian. You cannot screw this up." Sapphire mutters.
Yeah, don't screw this like you screwed me and you, she thinks, a few tears dripping down her face as well as a whimper that came from her lips. She stands up from her seat and paces back and forth in front of Sandra's Simulations, trying to divert the anger from her semblance into sadness rather than anger. Just after a bit more than a loud whimper escaped her, she pressed her finger against the mute button on her scroll, which made a pair of different toned beeps in the call to show she had muted her end.
Fern sighed and rolled her eyes.
"Sapphire, I'm behind you." she said into the scroll as she paused a few feet away from her friend. She extended a bag of fish towards her.
"Take this and stop crying." she demanded.
Sapphire spun around once she heard Fern's voice, both from the scroll and from behind her.
"T-Thank you," She sniffs, taking the bag of fish and sitting back down, starting to dig into it.
"I-I'm sorry." She whispers, quivering.
Tilian quickly texted Fern.
Why the hell is she still such a drama queen? I thought she was over it by now?.Fern heard the sound of a message pop up and she looked at her scroll, frowning at the message and quickly responding.
You know how she is. And, despite being an asshole, you have some... charming qualities and I can understand if she really liked you. It's gonna take time you boob. If you won't be nice, I'll skin you alive. " Why skinning part? Just why? Am I threatening you like this? No I'm not, and seriously I didn't even know she was into me! And you think I'm charming? Thanks I suppose..Fern glared at the message and shook her head, bringing the scroll back up towards her ear.
"We'll finish this conversation later, Tilian. Just remember to meet at the docks Monday morning." she said.
"Why does he have to come with us?" The Faunus asked rhetorically, having already decreased the fish to nothing.
"Unfortunately he's the T. Else we'd just be.... Fross." "I can hear you dammit! .Offense taken!""I don't care!"Fern rolled her eyes and ended the call on her end, sighing.
Don't you hang up on!.." All Tilian could hear was beep beep beep. He sighed again.
"Dammit Fern." He then closed his eye's and went to sleep his weapon making a shield around him as he did.
"Thank god."Fern smiled and reached out to pet one of Sapphire's small kitty ears.
"Come on. Let's go home." she told her friend.
Vale City Docks - Monday Morning
It was an unofficial thing that Sapphire was going to be staying with Fern during the times she was unable to live in the dorms at the Academy. Considering this, the two friends had been living together during the time of their break from school and having the most fun spending time together. On the day they were meant to meet up with their teammates and the members of team PYCH, the two girls left Fern's place together.
As they walked through the city towards the docks, Fern made busy work of tying her hair back into two ponytails to keep it out of her face. It was difficult considering it was windier than usual outside and her hair was absurdly long. Her pale green eyes flickered over to Sapphire as she nudged the Faunus with her elbow.
"Hey, you ready for this?" she asked. Though she didn't mention any names, Fern was sure that Sapphire would get what she was asking. Hopefully her and Tilian would get along nice enough so that the assignment didn't turn to shit. She could always separate them... but how long could she do that for? It was only a matter of time before the two would seriously have to work out whatever they needed to.
For the sake of the team.
"I mean... I'm a bit nervous actually. I don't want to mess anything up. Especially with Ozpin relying on us and all." she added.
"I'm kind of hoping our job won't be too hard. If we just have to kill some Grimm, that'll be a good thing. But I'm not counting on it.""I don't know. All I know is he ruined a lot that day, and now..." Sapphire shook her head.
"Now I hate him for it." As they walked, Sapphire pulled her hood tighter down onto her head. She considered just letting it fall entirely, but at the very least it kept her occupied for the walk to the docks.
"Have you ever had a relationship, Fern? Ever had someone you truly liked and wanted?" She glanced at her friend's eyes.
"No, I've never been in a relationship... but there is someone I like." Fern replied to her friend.
"Though honestly... I don't think I'd ever tell him. I get the feeling I'm not what he's looking for." she added, finally finishing in tying her hair into ponytails.
"And besides... I don't have the time to think about that stuff right now. Though... I'm always trying to change myself, so one day I can tell him how I feel and he'll look at me in a different way. Rather than... a nuisance."Fern smiled to hide her embarrassment.
"After this assignment, I'll tell you who it is. Though right now I want to focus and not think about that." She didn't add that he'd being going on the assignment with them.
Sapphire's eyes quickly met the ground.
"Ah. Well, okay then," she says, her face turning a hint pink as she kept on walking.
"Well, I hope... You and him get together." She says, letting out a breath as she sped her pace up a little.
"I... Can't wait to find out who it is."Finally, the pair arrived at the docks. Sapphire watches as Fern runs up to Rust and suddenly jumps onto his back.
"Rust! Hi!" Fern says, waving to Paris at the same time. Sapphire, meanwhile, hops onto a nearby box, sitting up there and waving to everyone from the higher point, trying to smile. After watching the wave Fern was giving Paris, Sapphire returns to waving to everyone, her eyes only lowered by a fraction.
Meanwhile, at Tilian's appartment
Beep beep beep.
"Ugh mom, just five more minutes. Wait a sec, I don't have a mom! He then woke up staring at his alarm clock which had been beeping for a long time.
".... Shit." He then rolled off his bed and summoned a few parts of his ball of goo which he morphed into hands. He then imagined them grabbing his clothes. A few minutes of hastily putting his clothes on, doing his hair then quickly grabbing something to eat later, he left his apartment running down the stairs, cursing the whole time. He then ran out of the apartment complex, running even faster. He decided to take the quickest route and so he ran through small streets jumping over dumpsters and shoving people out of the way. A few minutes later he approached the dock barely out of breath. Spotting everyone else, he waved at them.
"Hey guys," he pants.
"Sorry I'm late!"