บท 36: 36
"Nooooooo. Don't do it Rennyyyyy. I can't take iiiiiit."
"I'm sorry, Nora. I can't stop at this point." Ren smiled softly as he reached out with his fingers, nails painted in black polish that chipped a bit near the edges.
"Ren, please. I can't-"
He drew the card from Nora's hand.
"You're the old maid, Nora." He stated as she collapsed backwards, throwing her Joker card in the air.
Yang, Ruby, Farbi, and Blake all giggled as they saw Nora play dead as she twitched on the floor in Jaune's room. His Disassembler hummed in the corner as they let the playlist of Jaune's songs play in the background, 'Touch the Sky' playing with energetic guitar and drums.
Ren was actually a bit proud of that one. He'd been learning the drums to occasionally accompany his brother and had actually been the one to add to this track rather than the usual commissioned artists from Mantle.
It was the first time performing alongside Jaune and it had been fun, the two brothers just jamming it out. He certainly didn't have Jaune's experience or talent, but he thought he kept up decently enough to not ruin anything.
"Blehhh." Nora moaned from the ground again.
"Come on, get up Nora. You shouldn't lie down on the ground." He chided.
Nora just rolled in place, turning her body to crawl over to his lap, laying her head on his thigh.
"Nnnno." She refused with a quick, sharp O.
He rolled his eyes as he pat her head, getting a knowing grin from Yang.
His fuschia pink eyes just gave her a narrowed deadpan, knowing how often she'd use either Blake or Jaune for lap pillows. Yang really had no leg to stand on there.
"Well we've had Nora lose two rounds of Old Maid in a row." Farbiglas dodged the Joker card flicked in her direction from Nora's fingers. "So let's move onto another game. Remnant TCG?"
"I'm down!" Yang perked up, digging into her hip pouch for her deck. "I've got a Valean Revolutionist style deck now, so I can take the Vale slot."
Blake was already quietly pulling out her Nomadic Vacuo Rangers deck to sit in as the desert Kingdom, ready to take that position as usual.
Friday nights were the kids just covering for Jaune as he used his Semblance to warp away for a bit of personal R&R after all. With how little he complained about the stress of being under constant watch all his life, the kids had more or less agreed to keep quiet about his Friday breathers.
They weren't sure what exactly he was doing or where he went, nobody pushed him about it as he always seemed much more relaxed when he'd come back. Well. It was Friday where he was, it was technically Saturday morning for them here in Menagerie.
Ren figured Jaune was exploring Vale at night as it was definitely the safest Kingdom for a Faunus outside of Menagerie and the timeframes added up. He wasn't sure if the rest of their group had pieced it together, aside from probably Farbiglas who was the second smartest Arc sibling after Jaune.
"Mind if I test my newly modified Mistral Centurions deck in the Mistral slot this time, brother Ren?" Farbiglas inquired politely. "I can play Atlas next time."
"Sure." He nodded. It was usually he and Farbi that switched off between playing the position of Mistral and Atlas respectively anyways. "I've got the new Victory Wing cards to test."
"Oh no." Yang groaned. "Iron Wall Mercedes is the worst defensive card to counter right now. She stonewalls half my offensive play cards."
"I've got the full set in a Little Professor Tech-Revolution build. It's not actually that synergistic put together, but I made it because I think it's thematic. You've got a chance."
"Everybody who wants to pile on Ren say aye." Blake raised a hand with a grin. ("You monsters!" Nora complained.)
"Aye!" Yang threw her hand up.
"Mmm. I shall reserve judgment." Farbiglas abstained.
Yang gasped.
"Farbi, you traitor! Are you allying with Ren?"
"Well it could be a thematic reenactment of the Great War."
Ren rolled his eyes.
"If I recall, Mistral betrayed Atlas near the end of that war."
"Oh my, brother." Farbiglas giggled, 'Don't give me any ideas."
Ruby just splayed out the battlemap as everyone else shifted around, knowing that now that Nora had gotten comfortable she wouldn't be moving, nor would Ren.
"I'll be the game master and be the one to draw the random event cards!" She volunteered, spilling some cookie crumbs onto the battlemap as she held a little plastic ziplock bag of snacks from Jaune. "Everybody get ready to rumbleeeeee!"
Emerald entered with a tray with a pitcher of water as well as lemonade, multiple cups stacked beside them, closing the door behind with practiced ease.
"Refreshments for all." She set it down to the side, helping pour drinks to the thirsty friends as she knelt in seiza. "Do not spill in my master's room or I shall punish you."
Ren knew that was 'Emerald' for prank.
And she could be particularly vindictive about it too. He'd have to make sure Nora was extra careful as her lips stretched out, opening and closing, as it tried to wrap around the end of a straw as she stayed laying in his lap.
Actually Nora would have it easier compared to the rest of them. Aside from Robin and Jaune, she was the one closest to Emerald.
"Alright!" Yang drew her hand. "Vale slot goes first! I play two Arable Lands and tap them to summon Level Two Kingdom Walls!"
"And so once more, the fortification wars begin." He heard Emerald mutter under her breath.
He smiled. Ren was sure Emerald liked them all more than she let on.
"Is it just me-"
Trivia spun Whisper using the parasol as a baton to smack one of the King's thugs in the chin before following up with an elegant bend, her body tipping forwards as a leg curled back and over her to shove the bottom of her knee length boot into the Xiong Clan thug's face.
"Or are the Kings just getting their hands on more guns than usual?"
She shrugged at Jaune's question before she spun like a ballerina, drawing Hush from its hidden place inside the parasol as she slashed across her opponent's torso, shattering his Aura and gently poking him in the chest with Whisper to make him stumble back.
Neo rippled into visibility, pink hair flying about (though a neon green to their enemies), as she performed a dropkick into his face, shattering his nose and sunglasses, knocking him unconscious.
She turned to see Jaune choking out one of the thugs with a weird grappling technique, using one leg to curl around a thug's neck, a foot hooking behind his other thigh as he lazily flung green-painted full steel spears at the other gang members, the weapons almost magically returning to his hands after knocking into the enemy.
His fancy one had sort of become a bit overkill for thugs.
Neo leaned in curiously to observe as Jaune finished choking the man unconscious.
"I can teach you some more grappling techniques later. Actually it might be cool to see you fly onto someone's shoulders and just do a fully silent takedown. You're really scary when you wanna be Neo."
Trivia rolled her eyes, flipping Whisper open to block some rifle shots, enhanced by Aura to prevent the bullets from tearing through her precious weapon.
She jealously watched as Neo leapt behind Jaune who flicked the head of his green steel spear around to deflect shots, ignoring his protests as she buried her face in the back of his neck and rubbed her nose against him to tease him mid-battle.
Trivia just narrowed her eye, taking aim through Whisper's translucent cloth, the hidden blade at the tip firing like a harpoon with a thin but powerful trail of metal wire as it embedded into a wooden crate stacked up behind one of the Xiong Clan's gunmen. The wire quickly began reeling itself back as it pulled the box and its contents down on a pair of gunmen before dislodging itself and returning into Whisper with a clinking sound.
That seemed to be distraction enough for Jaune to have finished choking the man he was sitting on unconscious, leaping forward dressed in a frilly little emerald green maid outfit. An oversized black peacoat meant for an older teen hung over his shoulders, kept from flying off by a little length of chain by the collar as he engaged with the enemy.
Trivia giggled as she flung herself forwards, Overactive Imagination showing the image of her leaping high into the air while she became invisible, drawing their fire upwards as the illusion shattered into shards of pink glass, torn apart by gunfire, as she silently drew Hush under her invisibility.
"Fuck! The Hornet's Shadows are doing their fucking tricks again!"
"Just fire blindly and hope you get he-RK!" One of the Kings caught Hush across the throat, saved by his Aura but sending him crashing through a wooden crate filled with stuffed animals filled with narcotics and Dust.
She swung Whisper with her other hand, smacking a second gangster across the jaw and letting him smack it from her purposefully limp grip.
She deflected the swing of the rifle stock meant to collide into her, watching as Neo performed two front flips, leapt into the air as she caught Whisper, and let the hidden blade at the tip twist out as she drove it down into the back of their opponent.
He fell to the ground, shattering his Aura as his face met with concrete, unconscious.
Neo's continued momentum did cause the tip of the blade to dig into flesh and draw out a thin ribbon of blood, but it was flicked away casually. Now the clean blade twisted back into its hidden sheath as Neo sat on a crate with a yawn, Whisper unfurling behind her, shading her from the lights of the warehouse as another thug was thrown overhead into another crate behind her.
Trivia eyed the wound. It was shallow and somewhere non-vital. He wouldn't even need Jaune to patch it up.
She still quickly pulled out a square of what Jaune called an emergency combat gauze-something from a small leather pouch strapped to her thigh and slapped it on the wound.
It wasn't the weird miracle drink that he'd pour onto people that got super wounded from accidents, but the bandage would stick to injured surfaces and staunch the bleeding for most people as long as it wasn't too deep. It was actually pretty cool.
The less heavily wounded there were at the end of a fight, the more time of his she could monopolize before he had to go back to his family.
Trivia felt Jaune's arms slip behind her waist as he pulled her up and gave her a spin as he laughed.
"Good job, Triv! You patched him up! I'm so proud of you!"
He said it all like those words came to him so easily and naturally and she couldn't help but to smile, reaching over to run her slim fingers over his soft cheek as she cupped it with some slight bashfulness as she watched his tail become a blur.
He let her down as she extended Hush, letting Neo sheath it into Whisper as her best friend came over to also give Jaune a snuggle, her hands slinking under his coat to hug him more directly through the silky maid outfit.
"Neo, hey that tickles!"
Trivia rolled her eyes as she pulled Neo away by the back of her currently matching black and green outfit, her normal pink hair color only visible to herself and Jaune. Her lips were puckered in an almost w shape as she looked like the cat that ate the canary.
Trivia turned to look at Jaune, remembering they were as always, on a bit of a timer.
"Oh the jammer should be good for another five minutes." He replied, somehow always knowing her thoughts as well as his own. They were the same after all. "So we just gotta clean this place out and we should be good to catch that movie you wanted to go see. I bought all the tickets for the showing a week ahead of time so we'll have the theater all to ourselves!"
Now wasn't that such a good use of the cash they stole. Pft. Well obviously it wasn't, but Trivia wouldn't complain. She liked taking things but she agreed with Jaune that it wasn't the value of Lien that mattered but why they took things.
The fact they had slightly differing reasons as to why they took didn't matter in this context. She'd just defer to Jaune's judgment. She liked that he would always take the lead with her, even if he was younger.
Just her, Neo, and Jaune against the world!
"Iron Wall Mercedes is bullshit. Iron Wall Mercedes is bullshit. Iron Wall Mercedes is BULLSHIT!" Yang seethed as she was only properly positioned to attack Ren. "Gods what a nice lady, but awful card!"
Yes. Seethe and cope, Yang.
Emerald smiled serenely, not letting her amusement leak through her poker face.
Her owner Jaune had proven to her that mastery over one's own emotions could be a powerful tool, as he so easily read and took advantage of the feelings and thoughts of others. Something she'd never be able to learn herself, as it must take an astounding amount of understanding the human/Faunus psyche, but she'd learned to better shield her own.
Even if her owner could still read her like an open book. In fairness, she had nothing to hide from the kind devil that held her soul and life in the palm of his hand.
That ability, alongside his hard to understand generosity, was why he was so beloved in Menagerie, as backwater as the settlement was. Or it should be without his intervention.
Honestly aside from the lack of defensive walls, this place was looking better than Mistral's own streets had as far back as she could remember.
Her master wasn't just helping lend a hand, he was helping develop what would no doubt become a new Kingdom. One so deeply in his debt that none could harm him here.
She couldn't help but to remember the field trip to Oniyuri that had been paid for by the center of the Idealist movement earlier this year at Sanctum. They were actually almost better fortified than the capital, a symbol of hope for Mistral, truly. There were a lot of rumors of change all over Mistral.
But it paled in comparison to Menagerie, in her opinion. Over there people had purpose and were still struggling to make all of their ends meet. Here there was still plenty of such things, but there were more smiles. Joy. Real, honest hope and not filled with the idealistic propaganda of Oniyuri. Not to say that Oniyuri was bad, but it just didn't have the same essence of hope.
Mistral always seemed to lack that in Emerald's eyes. But perhaps her own childhood in the streets of Mistral had made her too biased for much else.
Not to say Menagerie was perfect either. She'd found there were always fools, such as those who believed her master, her master that worked tirelessly for their sake, wasn't doing enough. Or that he was a traitor simply because his sister was friends with a Schnee. Or that he shouldn't be allowed to leave this small landmass for their sake and cut off his relations with Atlas.
She'd contemplated getting rid of them numerous times, but only knowing that it would disappoint her master held her back. And she certainly wouldn't be able to hide the truth from him, either.
Emerald poured Ruby another cup of lemonade at the girl's request (her master favored the girl and she was… cute enough, almost harmless, even) before turning to watch Ren play another card with the picture of a nonsense box made to look high tech and nothing more with a little golden rabbit head with twin crescents upon its brow painted on the side of the device.
It was meant to be the game developer's reference to her owner, but it just looked tacky. Her master was more… well, not omnipotent. But he should have had so much more than a silly symbol such as that.
Was this a way to snub him for being a Faunus? The card developers were a Mistralian company, even if they were based in Vale.
Emerald already dealt with plenty of shit for her master Jaune being a Faunus. She could only dread how much worse it could be for him directly.
"I play Atlasean Mechanicus Overhaul, tapping one Dust Quarry and two Snowfield Salvages to boost all kingdom defenses by one stage, letting Ground Defense deployments apply to my Aerial Protection. Atlas's special trait makes it so that I cut my Negative Sentiment points by the number of simultaneous Ground and Aerial defenses I have, bringing mine down to zero." Ren just placed his remaining hand on the ground face down. "That ends my turn."
"Low synergy, he said. You have a chance, he said." Yang grumbled as she glared at her hand, trying to figure out her next best move.
"Oh phooey." Emerald heard Farbiglas sigh. "There goes my plans on raiding you with my Symphalian Nevermores. Darn no Grimm attacks on Zero Sentiments rule. Well, sorry Yang, you're closest."
Yes. Seethe and cope, Yang. That would show her for monopolizing so much of her master's time when he had more important things to get to.
"Wait! There's Blake too! She's rebuilding her Resource Cards and her offensive unit cards! Stop her, not me!"
"None of my Dust colors compliment her deck, Yang." Blake hid her grin behind her hand, though unable to hide the amusement from her eyes. "It wouldn't make her stronger."
"Ahhhhh no. Farbi c'mon that's my only Legacy Breadbasket Settlement resource card!"
Emerald made no sound as she witnessed her master's sister gleefully collect the Omni Dust resource card to tap into for future plays.
"And I activate my Spartacoi Land Grab by tapping into my Argus Wetlands and so to preserve the Resource Card with no restrictions. I'm sorry, Yang, but I do believe according to my ancient doctrines, this land was originally mine to begin with."
"I can't believe she would have taken something like that from you, Lady Farbiglas." Emerald smiled in a picture perfect manner, her eyes closed in a way to hide her deep amusement. "What an honorless thing to do."
"That was MY card!" Yang threw her hands up as her younger sister Ruby walked around to pat her shoulder as she sipped on her glass of lemonade.
"Welp. That's three full rounds. Random event card!" Ruby sang excitedly, loving being the factor of chaos for the battlemap as she pulled the top card of the Event Deck from her pocket. "Dun duh duh DAAAAAAH!"
Emerald watched as the very dark red haired girl squinted her silver eyes at the words on the car before exclaiming.
"Color Revolving!"
"Ruby, that's the Colors Revolution." Ren sighed. "And I'm screwed."
"I know what I said." Ruby gloated, "It does exactly what I said."
"Well, let's flip a coin and see which direction all Huntsmen and Huntress units rotate in." Blake reached out for a small metal coin on the map.
"This blows! Vale's not even for the running for miss Mercedes!" Yang sulkily lifted a cup of water to her lips, blowing bubbles like a child instead of drinking it. "I've even got the right Dust colors for her!"
Blake grinned as she flipped a coin, resulting in tails.
"Counterclockwise. Iron Wall Mercedes defects to Vacuo alongside your two Elite Specialists, Ren."
"Here you are." Ren sighed as he turned a hand over to his adoptive sister Farbiglas. "If you'd hand over your two Centurio Squadrons and the Decatus Commander?"
"Lucky for me that my Commander isn't classified as a Huntsman unit, actually." Farbiglas just hummed as she handed over her two Centurio Squadron cards. "So he'll just stay here and churn out some new units with Yang's-sorry, I mean my Legacy Breadbasket Settlement resource card."
Emerald just maintained her poker face smile as Yang growled impotently.
"Well, Yang, it's time for you to hand me over Elite Twin Huntsmen and your Prodigy Huntress in Training."
Yang handed over her Huntsmen/Huntress cards to Farbiglas as she flopped onto her back.
"This sucks! I don't even get anything from Vacuo!"
"Sand gang." Blake giggled, getting a snort of laughter from Nora who was still laying in Ren's lap completely comfortable. "Nomad Rangers have very few event cards that target them."
That made Emerald a bit jealous. Just a bit.
She wondered when her master would get back and if he'd permit her to stroke his hair the way Ren was doing to Nora. It had been a while, as he'd been so busy in Menagerie of late.
And maybe her master would reciprocate in turn?
Her core was warm as she watched over her master's (and also by extension her own) friends play this inane game of cards and emotional turns.
"I have nothing to say to you." He continued walking as Clarent Arc followed him, ruining a perfectly good Saturday afternoon.
"You don't owe me shit." She replied, hands in the pockets of her denim shorts that cut off at the upper thigh. "But you owe Jaune. You owe my lil' brother some apologies."
"I owe Jaune nothing." Adam bit back, "Even less you."
"I'm sick of this bullshit dance you two are doing." Her green eyes narrowed, glowing with Aura. "You got issues that I ended up making friends with Winter, fine. Not like you and I were friends anyways! The fuck you dragging my kid brother into that for? She's not even the one calling the shots at the SDC!"
"Does that matter? That company is the reason she was fed and clothed while my people starved in the streets. There are still starving in the slums of Mantle Crater. She doesn't need to be responsible for still benefiting from the suffering of the Faunus. For my pain when I was branded in the mines before your brother gave me back the eye I had lost."
"By that logic, the whole world's responsible because we're all dependent on Dust. And you're alienating the one person working to change that."
That did sting. She wasn't wrong. At least on that front.
"I can't be friends with Jaune as long as he maintains bonds with the Schnee. I won't back down on that. He has his lines in the sand and so do I. We've already discussed this with each other when he broke into my bedroom just to argue about it."
"Fucking look around you, moron. Don't you see everything he's trying to do to prove to you that he's still on Menagerie's side?" Clarent flung her arms at the currently prospering Kuo Kuana. "I've been staying with the Belladonnas every winter break alongside that idiot savant so I've heard the issues that Chief Ghira's got on his plate. Atlas is cooperating, but still won't recognize legitimacy so Jaune and the Chief's trying the Vacuoan angle. We just need one Kingdom to legitimize us to win. He's fucking doing all the legwork for you. WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT?!"
Adam grit his teeth, his eyes narrowing as he met the human girl's eyes.
"You could never understand. You're human."
"Didn't you say that you worked with human miners that had it just as bad in the mines? Human, Faunus. We're not that different at all-"
"Don't you dare say that!"
"-It's why its fucking crazy how much of a big deal people have made of it all. It's awful. Most people know and see that! You think every human gives two shits about keeping Faunus down? Most people in Remnant are just trying to stay alive and keep their families alive. Settlements are made and get overrun by Grimm every few years!"
"And everyone needs Dust to live on this shithole of a planet, so we should just roll over and let ourselves be exploited?"
"Gods no. That's fucking stupid. But lashing out at the one hand reaching out to you to try to FIX that travesty is the dumbest thing you can do! You cannot be blind to that!"
"I've never ONCE denied the good Jaune is doing. Rather I'm glad that our fight made him feel like he needs to do more to prove himself." Adam smiled. He really was. Jaune was truly doing a lot of good now that he'd been always too hesitant to before.
He'd finally stopped holding back.
The thing Adam hated about Jaune was how he was always keeping a lid on himself. Always worried about stepping on so many toes that he became so passive when he shone like the fucking sun.
A sun that shaded the world from its own light was a worthless thing.
"If I'd known the fire that'd light under his ass, I'd have kicked him to the curb sooner."
And he meant that.
Clarent's Aura flared, wrapping around her rich red bloody strands.
"...you fucking watch your mouth… before I bash every single tooth out of it."
"Progress isn't coming fast enough either way. It'll be half a decade since he's been working in Menagerie soon and while things are better for us here in our corner of the star, the rest of my people in all the other Kingdoms suffer. Just like how you burn at the mistreatment of your brother, I do of my people. He's lucky to have a sibling like you. Someone that cares so damn much about him that they're trying to fight some of his battles for him."
Adam laughed as he felt his chest tighten.
"But not all of us are. As someone who was saved myself, I have a duty to protect those that need saving. Because I too was saved. That's all there is. If I have to bear his hatred to get Jaune to stop holding back in how he contributes to the cause, good! If I have to bear yours, then I'll do that too. I will do what must be done for the liberation of my people."
Clarent's eyes narrowed as her Aura began to wind down, the scent of sweet, fresh blood, the sensation of crushing bone beneath one's heels, the taste of grapes at dawn still lingered in the wind from her Aura.
"I think I hate you."
"Good." He replied simply, "I know I deserve it. And I'm fine with that. That's the thing that Jaune still hasn't realized about being a hero for as much as he harps about wanting to be one. Where our ideology conflicts. I've accepted that I'll be the villain in someone else's story to become the hero my people will need. That the meaning of a hero and a villain are merely two sides of the same coin. There's no sacrifice that I won't make if it means I can save my people, to bring us true equality. Even if it means severing the bonds of friendship he and I shared."
"That's not a hero." Clarent spat, "That's just your narcissism talking. That's a martyr at best!"
"Aren't martyrs heroes too? There's been plenty of stories about them. You really should read more."
Clarent's Aura began to swirl about her becoming more and more oppressive, even making the hair on the back of his neck stand on end as his own Aura, the scent of earth and fire, smoke on the wind carrying falling of flower petals like fragrant incense rose in opposition.
"...I can't fucking look at you." Her Aura began to compress and calm. "But if you make my kid brother cry again, I'll beat your scrawny ass!"
"Said the scrawny human to the malnourished bull." Adam mocked, turning to leave.
He had a meeting to attend with Sienna and her lot.
"I'm not joking. You want LINES in the sand? That's mine, Adam Taurus. Don't cross it again."
Adam just waved back silently, feeling jealous.
Jaune was like the sun. Always radiant and glowing with the warmth and love of all those who surrounded him. Someone that drew in people around him. Adam himself had found himself included in that, once.
But Adam was the moon. He could only take what was given and shine his light on what little he could. He'd long since abandoned the thought that he could save everything like Jaune did. He needed no such illusion. He'd take the cold truth over a sweet lie.
Once their winter break ended, they'd be leaving anyway. He could bear a month more or so of loneliness.
Whenever she'd lose the company of the sun, it was the moon that Blake would inevitably come to find, after all. He could bear it for her smile.
After all, Faunus were meant for the long night, after all.
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