"Hmph" Charon snorted, digging into his food, scarfing it down like some wild animal. He was done in probably the same amount of time either of his teammates even took as much of 3 bites of his meal. He set his utensils down, chugged the rest of his milk, and let out a sigh of great content.

"Welp, I'm done. If you slow-pokes need me, I'll be in the dorm fine-tuning my drone," He got up with his tray, "Unless you guys are going to be busy with parent's day, I'll see you then."

Charon walked off to offload his tray and dishes and exited the cafeteria. As he walked back to the dorm, his mind wandered, It's a shame neither my big sis or Mom could come today. He sighed, hanging his head down as he could feel the positive energy hanging in the air; all the people with their parents, showing them around the place where they train to become something of great importance of the world.

He arrived at his dorm, fumbled with the lock and walked inside, still lost in his own thoughts, I guess the fact that I was even accepted to this school at all is enough to assure them that I'll finally be able to pick myself up and do something meaningful again. He walked into the bathroom and started his morning shower. He stood under the stream of water for a few minutes, thinking about his sis with her brand new job as a doctor, her mom as one of the people in charge of many engineers in Atlas's biggest robotics company.

His fists tightened, as he thought of his father, It wouldn't even be that bad to talk to you again despite everything you've done, wherever you are. He quickly finished up his shower, getting changed into a fresh set of jeans, and a purple T-shirt worn under a short-sleeved gray button-up. He glanced over at his drone that was siting on his table and walked over to sit down in front of it.

The access plate was already removed: the guts and wires of the little drone were pulled out some, some of the wires were frayed, but the real problem was the battery. Charon carefully moved the wires out of the way and disconnected the battery, discovering that it had burned out and was leaking acid inside, which in turn - corroded chips and boards.

Charon sighed, Great... I really need to find out whats causing the battery to do this... He opened a drawer and got some of his homemade solution to clean out what he could of the corroded pieces, double-bagged the battery and the destroyed parts, and put the drone back together. He thought of going into town to grab some new parts, as well as maybe some advice for his problem. He walked into the bathroom to wash his hands, and noticed how long his hair was, yeesh... and maybe a haircut too...

He grabbed his bandoiler/scabbard, his grandfather's sword, his gauntlets his hat, and walked out the door, locking it behind him. He walked down to the air docks, noticing the influx of parent's and family coming in from numerous airbuses. He wasn't that far from heading down to the train station, when he stopped as something distant caught his attention: a familiar but faint aura, one that was eager to see someone that they have not seen in a few months. He looked out to an incoming airbus, and was even more surprised when he noticed it was not but one familiar aura, but two.

He smiled, What a pleasant surprise.

@Crimson Raven @Caasicam

@Crimmy

wew LAD

We worked in tandem on the mechanism for a few minutes, with April essentially putting me through a review session of everything I had figured out. The general concept of what I was working with was all but there, with the next step being trawling through the spare parts to get started on reverse engineering...

But...

"So, catch me up, nee-chan! How'd you de-steam without beating him into next week, anyway?"

Nobody loved to get caught up in their own whirlwind of conversations like a pair of sisters.

Can't be helped, can it?

While they began to prattle on off into their own little world with April retelling the grand story of kicking me in the face, I took the opportunity to take a small breather from trying to force my brain to work in so many dimensions at once.

Inevitably, I found myself locking eyes with a familiarly stoic gaze.

"Sorry, you must be getting pretty bored just watching us try and do something resembling work."

Even if she didn't outwardly indicate... much of anything, really, it couldn't be fun. She almost definitely had family to be seeing around here... Really, who the hell did those brats think they were, dragging this poor girl around like she was one of their playmates?

Well, I'm also sure that, in fairness to them, they were expecting something more lively than this to be dragging her too, but I still digress.

Galla was here for family day, that much was a certainty. I knew I'd seen that flat expression on someone here before.

Someone with the same dark hair and eyes.

The same sharp features.

The same accent, even...

I should have pieced it together sooner, really. Perhaps it was the lack of aggression beneath that threw me off, like getting a stone instead of ice. Beneath the blank, all I could read was more blank, after all.

No undercurrents there to terrorize or mystify.

"Say... you're Gratia's sister, aren't you?"

@HereComesTheSnow

Mindaro Mondays - Galla

"10/10."

@Crimmy

Luke Schwarz

Got it in one. Not bad, Lucas, there may be hope for that brain of yours yet.

"It took me a second to realize," I explained, rolling out the stiffness in one of my wrists. "Your sister's... in a word, intense. A whole lot of intense, under that surface."

A harsh taskmaster, a natural at taking charge, and let's not even get started on the mouth she had on her. I'm by no means an innocent child with pure, freshly fallen snow for ears or mentality, but Gratia Mindaro slings more curses around than the average video game debuff table. Bluntness was about as much as you could hope for with her words, but with Galla...

"You seem a lot calmer. I guess it threw me off a little."

Which was saying a lot, given Gratia was already paradoxically calm, in regards to her outward demeanor, in relation to her acid tongue. Of course, if you got her talking about something she gave half a damn about, you got a window into the storm inside, but good luck making that happen. The Mindaros were just a stoic bunch, I guessed...

Only served to make my family seem so much more insane and lively in comparison. If these two idiots break something, I don't know them. I have no connection to them. They can feel the weight of the consequences alone.

@HereComesTheSnow

Mindaro Mondays - Galla

"You're not the first to feel like that."

Her words and tone were as matter-of-fact and calm as the older teenager had said they were. Luke Schwarz would not be the first to be thrown off by her personality after meeting her big sister, and from the ponderous undercurrent to his voice, it was particularly obvious to Galla that her current companion was still thinking over the unexpected differences between her and Gratia. It was a common reaction to their relationship, given the physical similarities.

They were perturbed by the lack of Gratia's intensity in her.

"She's always like that," she added, a tidbit thrown out in a voice that never changed at all.

It never mattered to her.

@Crimmy

Luke Schwarz

I smirked.

"Yeah, I imagine you'd get that a lot, huh?"

A rhetorical question. It was blindingly obvious that she got that a lot, for what little it seemed to faze her. In fact, it even wasn't beyond reason to suggest that she got it so often she didn't care about it at all any more.

Well, that's a good half-truth if I ever came up with one... After all, whether it was necessarily wrong or not, her generally uncaring demeanor suggested it to not be a direct cause and effect type of situation.

"Still, for what it's worth... That intensity of hers has proven to be a big help for me." I continued. "Without it, I doubt she'd be half as good at getting things through my skull. If she's always like that, then..."

I would have a long and arduous, painful road ahead of me. One full of mutual frustration and annoyance.

I won't lie.

Gratia, at times, could be very hard to work with. It was like having to dodge wrenches to practice dodging balls. In addition to the grind of not getting something, I also had to contend with her acidic, contemptuous words whenever I didn't grasp something she found simple right away...

But at the same time, those only came because I was hard to work with too. People always overlook how much of a two way street teaching is, and for what it was worth? That same intensity that let her so casually and flatly deliver the most scathing critiques was also what gave her the determination, the motivation, and the genuine patience to see me through to having the concept down. I'd enlisted her help for a mere two, or even only one-and-a-half weeks, and yet she was already so willing to force me through when any reasonable person would call me a lost cause.

Hell, myself included.

"I'll be in good hands, for sure."

If there were ever a living example of the adage about books and covers, one could look no further than Gratia Mindaro. Although, come to think of it...

"Actually, does she help people out like that often? With grades and such, I mean."

Obviously a Huntress is going to help people in danger.

Mindaro Mondays - Galla

"Only if she likes you."

Those who didn't irk her big sister were those she would be perfectly willing to lend a helping hand to. Gratia had always been too prideful to refuse those requests for assistance. However, most previous instances occurred in smaller time intervals, and tended towards less demanding work, so the help that she was giving to Luke Schwarz was not something she had exactly observed before. Her sister was definitely spending more time and effort on him.

Gratia likely considered his inoffensive nature tolerable.

@Crimmy

Luke Schwarz

"You think so?"

I found that a bit hard to believe. It wasn't as if I were Louis Armstrong or a Strawberry Sherbet...

Maybe it was being a bit hard on her, but "like" felt like too strong a word for Gratia's opinion of me. Maybe "tolerate" or "accept" would be better. After all, it's not as if I was that likeable of a person that even she, with her boredly disdainful nature, could really "like" past all of my qualities that she would find annoying.

She would not mind dealing with me, but I didn't easily buy that she would look forward to it in any respect. But, given that it's Gratia, maybe that's simply as close to "liking" as you can get in my situation. After all, she didn't treat me like I saw of how she did Napoli. In a very objective line of thinking, I was in a way better spot already.

Poor Napoli...

So maybe my definition of "like" was too narrow-minded?

Hrm.

... She didn't tear me down when she had plenty of ammunition that first night on the cruise, did she? She could have easily told me it was a stupid sentiment, that I was an absolute retard to chase some ideal so nebulously defined, that it was just a half-assed attempt at a reason to be here by a guy who could only half-ass everything she was doing here.

She could have done so easily. She would have done so readily. Nobody would have found it beyond their expectations in the slightest.

And yet—

She didn't.

She simply told me, in that same flat and neutral tone she delivered a scathing insult with, to "not fuck it up".

Words of encouragement. In her own rough way, that was her saying she wanted me to succeed—

"Wait, SHE likes you?"

"You never told us about Gratia, Onii-chan!"

Oh good god. Read the room, read the conversation, read literally anything to be read, that wasn't what she meant at all!

"I wouldn't have called that at all from the vibes I got from her!"

"Neither would I, and I'm shocked you didn't tell us! Heck, I'm platinum mad! April was right about you after all! Are you so embarassed of us that you wouldn't want to share important information like that?!"

Are you seriously getting worked up to that degree over something you just made up? Who the hell are you, weren't you supposed to be miles more composed?! Go jump out of a window!

As Dawn growled and stomped her way over to me, April buzzing alongside her with a face full of intrigue, I sighed, grumbled something unpleasant about the two of them under my breath, an held up a finger to Galla as I rose.

One moment, please.

Without warning, I whirled upon the two as they drew close, rose both my hands high—

"NO."

And chopped both on their heads.

"Dyaah!"

"Uwah!"

The effect, on the two who were unquestionably stronger than me, was immediate all the same. Sometimes age really could turn the tide.

I folded my arms as they clutched their heads, stared imperiously upon them like an incensed judicator, and spoke with the authority of a man lecturing a small child.

"Use your heads a little."

"We can't if you hit them, jerk!"

"Use. Them."

I was seriously wondering if my evaluations of these two weren't off the mark. For a pair of prodigal prospective philanthropists, they sure as hell were willing to just be impulsive numbskulls...

And, hey, didn't April just find it hard to believe Bianca and Estelle knowing me for any reason beyond the system forcing them to? My memory may be bad, but even I don't forget things that fast!

"All she was saying was that Gratia's willing to tolerate me, alright? We don't need misconceptions so big and bad you'd find them in Jurassic Park."

She could do much better than me, and she and I both knew it for sure. Not a snowball's chance in hell of that one.

Mindaro Mondays - Galla

"Yes."

Luke Schwarz was someone who her prideful big sister was willing to dedicate time towards helping and training. That single fact was confirmation of how Gratia viewed the long-haired teenage boy. A someone who appeared highly observant, quick to prevent sources of annoyance from intensifying too greatly and reasonably capable of self-reflection - if his ponderous tones were an indication of such - would not serve to irritate the elder Mindaro. She watched the proceedings with blank hazel eyes, observing the frantic motions of the two Schwarz sisters she had accompanied. Their exuberance could easily become excessive for her sister. Their sibling's personality, however, would not.

It was equally likely to be an incorrect observation. Galla didn't particularly mind. The question of whether or not her big sister would care for someone was not one that she needed to contend with. She quietly pulled her folded newspaper from her bag once more, the paper rustling as black-and-white sheets were opened up.

Local restaurants chip in after mutant potato attack!.

@Crimmy@Ayazi



The arrival of a new person and a rather pointed throat clearing from Lasai broke Beryl of her shock induced freeze. With a start and and a sheepish grin the girl turned to fully face her newest teammate.

"Hey there." She said, doing her best turn the sheepish grin into a genuine one as she stepped forward and extended a hand in greeting. "Welcome to Vignoble. I'm Beryl, you've already met Gratia and Vega is... somewhere around here.

The room wasn't that big. Could she really have been so out of it that she missed her team leader leaving?

Sapphire was surprised for a moment. Cobalt was dropping out? She didn't know him all that well, in fact she couldn't really bring to mind a solid conversation they'd had, but he'd always been (as far as Sapphire had seen) dedicated to his studies. Then given how Codex's last mission had turned out maybe he'd lost hope that he could do any good. Half their team had almost died after all. Sapphire was shaken from this train of thought by Oswald's response to Demetra.

Sapphire wasn't sure how to respond but she felt she should say something. She hadn't after all been telling her family all about Oswald's failure. "I didn't..." but she broke off. Demetra's ability was hers to share if she chose. It caused many people to drift away from her, not wanting their feelings revealed. If Demetra wanted to keep a low profile the least Sapphire take a blow for her, claim she'd been telling her family a lot more than she had.

"She didn't have to." the little girl said quietly.

"Demetra." Sapphire said in a worried tone.

"It's fine Saph, he'll be at your side long after this. Secrets do nothing but pull people apart." She turned to look at Oswald. "I have a rather unusual semblance. I am an empath, I feel the emotions of others as if they were my own." Sapphire knew there was a more clinical definition of what Demetra could do, something to do ambient aura left behind by people and how one's emotional state could effect its composition. It wasn't Sapphire's area of expertise and wouldn't have added much to the conversation had she brought it up.

Sapphire watched Oswald's face in the reflect from the glass of one of the transparent walkways between buildings they'd just entered, searching for any sign that this disturbed him, hoping that he wouldn't say anything to make her sister feel worse about something that already gave her so much trouble.
@MULTI_MEDIA_MAN

That....sounded like it could be a hassle. Especially if she didn't have total control over it. Oswald had known a few people who took a while to gain control over their Semblances. Even he'd had a few problems with it in the past. Thinking about that nearly made him feel that tree branch in his side again. He grimaced for a moment at the thought. "I see. I apologize if my...melancholy has been affecting you. It's been a rather stressful weekend, though I guess you can tell that already." Sighing, Oswald turned towards Sapphire. "And I was only joking, there's no need to get to defensive, Sapphire. I'm a bit of an open book to whoever's willing to ask, at least to a reasonable extent. I don't keep many secrets." Only the big few that would ruin many people's perception of him as a human being, that is.

"I can imagine that having such a Semblance would be quite...draining. If I can be so forward, is it always active or do you have control over it? I had some troubles with my own Semblance when I first discovered it." He hoped that she would be even a fraction as impressed by his Semblance as his younger self was. "I can teleport short distances under the right circumstances. I had a few accidents in the beginning, though." A smile and a grimace both fought their way onto his face, and Oswald ended up with a conflicted look rather than an expressive one.

"For what it's worth, I'm glad you consider me trustworthy enough to tell me such a thing. I know some people keep their Semblances secretive because of what they can reveal about their personalities. As for myself...I mainly see my Semblance as another skill I have under my belt for combat. The more philosophical implications of it are lost on someone as meat-headed as myself." Another chuckle managed to escape, but this time the coughing fit lasted for a good ten or so seconds before Oswald regained control of himself.

"Sorry. I'm still recovering from my last mission. I'm just glad there's no blood anymore." Saying such a thing almost struck Oswald as strange, if not a little disturbing. He didn't pay it much mind, however. It was beginning to look like he'd have to spend a lot of time in recovery after his missions...

@Lucius Cypher@PyroDash888@Forsythe



"Hey, we already call you that, what's the harm?"

Emerald looked at Diamond as if she couldn't believe what she had just said. "It's not the same! Nuh-uh! No way! Never! No no no!"

Ivy, for the moment, ignored her daughter's antics to address the massive boar Faunus who had greeted her. "Hello Gren Orchid, I'm Ivy Felicia." Ivy sounded overly sweet, but it was sincere nonetheless. It was simply how she spoke, soft as a whisper and yet clear and crisp. It was a rather stark contrast when compared to her daughter, who was as loud and rambunctious as they come.

"Please don't worry yourself about it, Emerald was never very good at letting her injuries heal." Ivy glanced at her daughter, who in turn tried not to look guilty, but her ears drooped slightly. "Her determination and enthusiasm are her strong points, but they also make her rather stubborn..."

"Mooooooooooooooooooooooooooom stop talking about me to my friends while I'm standing right here! It's embarrassing!" Emerald pouted.

Ivy chuckled. "Well my kitten, a little embarrassment might do you some good every now and again, if it helps you think before acting." Emerald flinched at that, why did Mom have to say it so nicely too? That just made it worse!

"Nuh-uh! No way! Never! No no no!"

@Crimmy

Luke Schwarz

"So," I began, after confirming that Galla had indeed lost interest, not that I blamed her. "Anything else I need to clear up before you go running wild with it?"

"Uuuh..."

"Hm..."

In perfect stereo, they rubbed their chins in thought, and I sighed, folding my arms and tapping my foot. For all I built them up to be in my head, I had been ignoring the simple fact that they were still teenaged girls, and teenaged girls who loved accosting their elder brother at any slight, perceived or otherwise. In a way, I had kind of earned it over the years.

It was no secret that we didn't get along.

It was no secret that I resented them.

It was no secret that they resented me.

We had clashed countless times over anything and everything under the sun, no matter which of us started it. Me with my words, April with her fists, Dawn with an awl, anything was fair game. It was only natural that they would grow to distrust me— Anyone would distrust the person I used to be.

A guy who shunned any form of societal engagement, would regularly spit depressive nonsense and unnecessarily harsh words without regard for the feelings of others, or even worse, would do so with full intentions of hurting them for no other reason than to be petty and have people share in his own misery. Despite being superheros in training and part-time dispensers of hometown vigilante justice, those two were by no means safe from my cynical wrath.

I was a nearly a dropout of high school, and already a washout of a person. I may have turned a new leaf at the eleventh hour—

But even that was simply months ago. Some built up distrust was unavoidable. On one hand, I intellectually understood the situation with mostly perfect clarity, but on the other, less rational, emotional side...

Well, let's just say negativity is a feedback loop.

But back at present, if they hadn't thought of anything yet, they weren't going to now.

"So, when are Mom and Dad supposed to get here, then? Do you know?"

"As soon as they can, that's the best we got."

"In other words, not a clue!"

Huh. Busy day today, wasn't it? It was no skin off my back, thankfully, because I understood the situation.

Freeing up the schedules of a police chief and an active huntress at the same time was like asking for a small miracle.

And to speak of hunters with miraculously free schedules...

"Dawn, you two didn't happen to catch where Tanner ran off to, did you?"

"We haven't seen him since we got off the airship. In fairness, we did ditch him, though."

"Left him right in the dust! Heheh, bet he didn't see that coming!"

No, he entirely did. You don't get past that man so easily unless he lets you, which opens its own can of worms when you think about it. That guy wants to play surrogate uncle and trusted chaperone for these two and he lets them go once I'm here to deal with them?

Dude, that's really cold.

"What about you, Galla?" I asked, hoping the stoic girl wasn't too absorbed in the local news. "No scruffy older dudes in aloha shirts on the way here? If you saw him, you'll know."

Mindaro Mondays - Galla

Galla glanced up from her newspaper, lifeless hazel eyes meeting Luke's grey. He was looking somewhat irked, likely due to the no-show by someone who appeared to have been responsible for chaperoning his younger sisters around the school. She hadn't seen anyone matching the description he had given when she had been walking through the crowded campus, and there was no sign of the Tanner individual when the two Schwarz siblings had first approached her. If the fashion-impaired man wasn't visible, then he was likely to be keeping a low profile, now that he had been freed from his responsibilities by Luke.

"I haven't seen him," was her reply.

There were other possibilities, including being dead, but people didn't react well to such suggestions.

"He's their guardian?"

@Crimmy

Schwarzes

"Nah, he's more like our kinda-uncle!"

"A godfather?"

"Or maybe The Godfather..."

"Can you imagine him saying 'say hello to my little friend!'?"

"That's Scarface."

"Or 'I like dis painting. One dog's goin' one way, the other dog's goin the other way, and this guy in the middle's just sayin, 'whaddya want from me?!'"

"That's Goodfellas! Get it together!"

What kind of messed up movie lexicon did these girls have?! Dad must be crying, wherever he is!

As hilarious as it was to know our policeman father loved mafia movies, it was decidedly less hilarious to get caught up in trying to chastise those two unsalvageable pieces of work while I left poor Galla hanging, so I redirected my attention to her while they continued to prattle on for a moment.

"No, not quite. More like just the first person Mom and Dad reached out to who agreed to take them here earlier in the day. With the dude's vagabond nature, I'm honestly not surprised at it, but I guess being Mom's former teammate means you still answer the call. Even if it's the last thing anyone would reasonably expect of you."

"--Shaken, not stirred."

"Bond isn't even a mob flick!"

I rubbed my temples.

Help me.

"Who are you embarrassed of, your father or me?" It wasn't the way he would have liked to phrase the question, but using 'us' and grouping himself in with Gratia, Beryl, and Luke so soon as Bianca's 'inner circle' just felt like surrendering to a life of misery after only one shot had been fired.

He wouldn't give up after one shot.

He was a son of Atlas, not of Zephyr.

"Doesn't matter to me. I've met a lot of overeager parents today already," Jericho said casually, sipping at his cappuccino and tilting his head to look at the abashed birdbrain across from him. The smile on her face had been waxing and waning since he'd walked in, which was odd. Normally her irrepressible bubbly attitude bordered on the downright air-headed. To see her somewhat downbeat left said quite a lot about the state of her family. Not that he could relate - his family (obviously still being alive, a claim that Bianca had observed with skepticism but not actually treated as the joke it was, the goddamn moron) had always gotten along rather well, and the Mindaro household probably would have left him projectile vomiting and shivering on the ground with a gun between his teeth after a week of their endless hugs and kisses and squeals of joy.

But it turns out that, surprise surprise, Bianca "Things are bad all over, Ponyboy..." Nuit had a troubled home life.

I even miss Speer already.

"It's only one day," Jer continued. "One family day a year, maybe a semester if you're not lucky, multiplied by four years at Beacon. That's four to eight visits, maybe four hours tops, that's still only barely over a day of downtime you have to spend with him before you graduate. That's assuming you try avoiding him over the summers by staying with Gratia, or at some beach resort, or that space hotel Griese Experimental wants to hurl into orbit in the next few years. Then, after graduation, you can call him on his birthday, send him a card or two at holiday time, and wait until he craps out and say something nice at the funeral. Then you don't have to worry about him."

It might have been harsh calculus, but it was hard to want to shelter a girl from someone who could toss her millions of lien for a coffee shop after one speed dial. Hopefully the news of her dad's impending death would bring Bianca some comfort. Life was too short to worry about who you were forced to spend it with - unless that someone was Bianca Nuit, staring at you like you were carrying a pair of handcuffs and an adolescence full of repressed sexual tension for her to exploit.

Granted, she would be half-right in that assumption...but the last thing he needed right now was for her to see his handcuffs.

"Look, Bianca, if there's one thing I learned in my life at Atlas, besides marksmanship, infiltration, proper surveillance, situational awareness, pain management in the field, hacking, driving cars, flying airships, controlled descent without a chute, how to kiss a guy, how to clean, and how to cook, it's that there's nobody who can survive everything forever," Jer offered, trying to be helpful. "If I put five bullets in your dad's head, that rich old bastard would go down for the count. If your dad's bodyguards put five in my dad's head, even a trained specialist like him isn't gonna be shaking it off any time in the next year or so. I learned that there's no reason to be scared of any person, because that person can meet death just as quickly as I can, in the same number of ways that I could. So in the long run, they don't have any God-given advantage over me - or over you. So unless your dad's Semblance is actually being God-given, the worst he can do to you is cancel your Palladium card. And unless that really will kill a spoiled birdbrain like you, you've gotta goddamn relax. You're making my hair uncomfortable."

There. No one could ever say he hadn't been a little nice to Bianca Nuit now. He had given her good advice. That was his obligation as a 'good' person, over and done with.

This cappuccino really filled a hole. His glowing scarlet rune settled down slightly.

"You're welcome."

The poor training dummy was rapidly approaching its expiration date under the barrage of fury Diamond vented on it. They were finally starting to move somewhere with the whole team thing. Granted, the move was to identify why they were not a team thing, but she thought she saw some progress, at least compared to earlier. And now this.

Roaring in anger she grabbed a telekinetic hold and yanked at the dummy strongly enough to tear it out of its housing and send it flying somewhere in Gren’s general direction. Pure coincidence, oooooof course.

This sucks on ice. First Marcus, then Aurelius, now Cobalt. Who are they going to give us now, some rich trouser stain that will have yet another idea on how to do things and not being used to others telling them to shove it? That would maKE MY DAY!!! She shout-thought as another dummy ceased to exist, turned into a pincushion of icicles, sand spilling on the floor.

Still not even breaking a sweat, Diamond suddenly wished there were some ethereal robots and/or infernal woman after her with a vengeance. A struggle for dear life would at least take her mind off of things!

Then there is this parents day garbage. Rub some salt into the wounds, life, why don’t you? she fumed inside, I can’t even get half a dozen cats because Emerald would be either insulted or all over them. The thought of a per canary or something mouse like was a little amusing though.

Rrrip. Another sandbag was exploded when Diamond caught a telekinetic hold of its opposing ends and yanked at them.

Oh, and there is some douchebag ogling my teammate’s mom. Call Marcus and the tank I wanna blow some shit up! She thought desperately

The remaining dummy was obliterated as Diamond encased it in ice, the weight pulling down the entire mechanism holding it.

Then she stopped, looking at the floor. She could swear her shadow was shimmering and grinning at her. Stop. She told herself. Find something else to do with that pent up energy other than fighting or you’ll kill someone.

Pacing from wall to wall she sighed, running a hand through her hair. Go make some friends. There might even be some volunteers for a beating if you’ll lucky. She thought with a smirk, looking towards Emerald just as her mother was done with her. Diamond decided the bad news could wait. There was probably no more than other orphans prowling the halls right now, but hey, misery loved company.

Diamond slipped by the others, looking for a victim.

Apparently, getting cracked in the head with a piece of rebar can have lasting consequences. Datura had always figured that Siri's decreased capability to remember things and write coherently had been at least somewhat caused by that particular incident, but she hadn't expected lasting pain to be an issue. Well, never mind that. It wasn't like she was the one who'd panicked and swung when the mutt's aura was depleted. "He was trying to protect you." The young woman frowned. She never could quite tell when her "daughter" was around whether or not these kind of thoughts were her own. She didn't think that such a dumb, sweet girl would be so manipulative, but why else would her inner voice be so sappy at times?

Lost in her thoughts, Datura didn't realize that she'd wandered a little ways from Soot and Siri, who were now engaged in what appeared to be an intense conversation. "Those two. They could ramble on with each other for hours." Before she could head it off, a small smile appeared on her face. She could be mouthy at times to Soot, and downright mean to Siri, but as far as she was concerned, no one had better come between the two of them, even...her. She lightly pressed a hand against her abdomen without much thought. "Don't be like this, like how you always are. He practically raised her, but he chose to love you even though you didn't come to him as an innocent baby."

"Yeah, offering to hook up with someone to fix a huge mistake you made is a greeeeaaaaat first impression." Datura muttered, maybe a touch louder than she intended to. It wasn't like there was anyone around, tho - damn it. Blonde student at twelve o'clock.

She froze, unsure of how to explain what she'd said, or if she should just walk away and pretend that this girl didn't see her acting like crazy person.

@Forsythe

Amy gave Lauren a quizzical look as she looked down her cleavage, then tapped nervously away at her phone. It was fairly obvious the brawler wasn't looking for a candy bar, really--otherwise she wouldn't have to consult her phone about it--and one would have melted between Amy's breasts anyway. Not that she hadn't had that happen before, but she figured Lauren would have known as much from her propensity to store things there on her own body.

So that meant she was likely worrying about something from the night before. Some pressing concern, since she was immediately consumed by it, so… She’d probably lost something that didn’t belong to her.

At least Amy wasn’t the one who had to be worried about having her clothes flayed, for once.

She checked the pockets, then shook her head, feathers rising slightly as she did. “No dice. Sorry, honey, nothing in here.

So… Either Pope Benjamin III was going to be right, or bad times were going to occur.

She’d never wanted a holy man to be correct before.