#Mother Marianne - Cutscene

[teamoliv-archive]

Cutscene: The Key

Melina had no idea how long she had laid there on the ground. The unearthed ground and the remnants of Zarla’s mechanical beast laid broken on the ground. Darcie’s “Magician” had done brutal work this time around. She mentally went through the list of things that went wrong: 

The downed aircraft had been a ruse. If there were any crew aboard the old Atlas ship, they were likely long dead or missing. This was a trap to lure her in and finish her off. Second, Morado had managed to buy her time and a chance to escape despite not standing a chance against Roland the “Strongman”, another of Darcie’s team of “frontliners.” He had been captured for his efforts; a foul trade in her eyes. Ezra, her enigmatic “Jester” had done little more than scare away the remains of Morado’s squad and drop a key in front of her after the others had cleared out. She didn’t assume any extra motives out of him- this was a taunt, a lure to keep coming after them. That left only the “Ballerina” Amrin missing. The woman was a sniper could have been anywhere, but if they wanted to kill her now they could have done it at any time- so why haven’t they?

Part of her knew she had to keep going. Jade Leroux was long dead but his old partner was still operating in full. More important than that, one of her daughters had survived- and they knew where she was, and were sickeningly responsible for what Molly had become. She didn’t expect the girl to embrace a mother she never met, but she needed to see her and hopefully see her chasing her own path instead of the one chosen by the people who stole her.

She barely heard the muffled screech of a hawk overhead. Forcing herself to look at the sky, it was coming right for her. She only took in a shakey breath and closed her eyes. “Fine... I’m not dead yet, but I may as well be. Feeding the forest isn’t a bad fate.”

The bird perched nearby and a voice echoed from it. “Been there, done that, wouldn’t recommend it. Geez, you went and got your ass kicked out there, huh?”

Robin Goodfellow. Once again the fallen “Prodigy of Mantle” returned to haunt her. For a moment she wondered if she was hallucinating, but the green glow in the hawk’s eyes wasn’t her imagination. He was somewhere nearby, immobile and controlling that creature from somewhere. “You were watching the fight.” She forces out.

“Damn right I was.” Robin himself was a roughly a few hundred feet away. Making sure to obscure himself during the fight so he could watch from a distance was the trickiest part when dealing with Darcie’s weird clown. Sometimes he swore Ezra wasn’t human, and not in a ‘faunus’ kind of not human. Thankfully he’d pulled it off. “Part of me wants to ask if you knew that was a trap, but I have a feelin’ you two would be there even if you did. Hold still, comin’ to you.”

Melina worried about what Robin could possibly want. He was strangely on his own after Jade had left, last she knew he had been seen with a small band of his own now- his old team and that strange girl from Ciar. “On your own again?” The hawk’s eyes faded back to normal and the creature squawked and flew off. That could only mean he was going to get up and move as he said he would. The dead silent wait was eerie and she had to force down her paranoia over what could happen next. Robin Goodfellow was an enigma when it came to his motives- one of the unpredictable ‘on their own side’ sorts. He’d just as easily help or hurt whomever he wanted to in order to get what he wanted and his loyalty was only to himself.

As she laid there on the ground her thoughts were broken by a loud thud next to her head. She snapped her vision in that direction and could make out a bag of some kind.

“Get up.” Robin says harshly, “I’ve fought you. You’re better’n this shit. Or are you tellin’ me you’re too old to be doin’ this anymore?”

Every inch of the old huntress’s body still ached from her injuries. Was he really going to force her to push herself to her feet and dress her own wounds? “This is probably the most heartless aid I’ve ever received.”

Robin walked over to a tree and leaned against it. He pulled out a pack of cigarettes and tapped it against his hand to push one out. “Yeah, well, it’s what you get. See, the way I see it, you fucked up pretty bad.” He lights it and plants it between his lips, sometimes moving the smoke from one end of his mouth to the other.

“But, you’ve got yourself a key to Pandemonium and I want it. See, once I finally decided to tell Jade to take his new plans and shove ‘em up what was left of him, I wasn’t thrilled to hear Darcie just swooped in and took it all back. No one robs me of an accomplishment. I killed Jade right out from under that Cheshire fucker’s big scowlin’ face and they’re gonna goddamn remember that!”

Melina shook her head and fell back down as her arm gives out under her. She lets out a small yelp and grits her teeth, “Not even you can single-handedly barge into a place like that and destroy it. You’re not a one-man-army, Robin.”

Robin smirks, watching her fall again and again trying to even sit up. “You think I don’t have backup? Well they don’t know they’re backup yet. I spied another little group tryin’ to find the place. Besides, didn’t you just get an invitation? If I show up with the key, I’ll have the whole gang on the front door. You? They’ll want to play with you. That’s my avenue to sneak in.”

“Besides, it’s gonna take me time to find the place. A key’s useless if you can’t find the door. So while you’re reachin’ for that bag and seein’ to your wounds, I’ll start lookin’.”

“And if I fail it looks like I was only struggling to crawl and no one knows you’re here...” She returns in a shaky biting tone. For now she stopped struggling for the medical bag and just focused on breathing. She had to keep herself willing, to want to reach for it so she didn’t just collapse out of exhaustion. “Tell me something. Did you know? Did you know about Molly?”

“Course I did.” Robin replies, pulling the cigarette from his mouth and tapping it gently against his knee to remove the lingering ashes. “Jade almost had a fuckin’ heart attack when he found out you were alive, though. I didn’t know who the fuck you were. That’s why you’re gonna keep goin’ ain’t it? She probably doesn’t want anythin’ to do with you and she ain’t what you would have hoped, but she’s still your kid, right?” He didn’t give her room to reply, “My old man said the same thing to me. Bless his fuckin’ heart, he still thinks I can be a good man. He’s dead wrong, but that’s just how parents are, I guess.”

Melina plants her hands onto the ground and tries to shove herself upward again. “I just... want to know what happened to her. I need to.” If she had to endure this ridicule and torture to patch herself up or die trying, she would. If she couldn’t handle this, she’d be dead once she reached this Pandemonium anyway.

[travelling-on-the-octopath]

It also says somethung interesting that the Almyran army - including Shahid - call the people of Fodlan swine, brutes, savages, etc. in the battle you face them off in Claude’s route in the demo. Brute in particular is what Hilda says "everyone" calls Almyrans in her supports with Cyril, it's intriguing to see that that's a shared sentiment between the two lands 🤔

Shahid calling Khalid a horror and a wretch and being willing to kill who he thinks is a stranger just on the basis of LOOKING like Khalid though? Fuckin' yikes man, that uh, doesn't suggest a happy home life with the guy. Just one sibling like that sounds horrific, if any OTHER sibling holds similar hatred for Claude? It's no wonder he describes leaving Almyra as escaping it in his Marianne supports, despite how much he clearly loves it 😭

God. Fuck. I just. I was already agonizing over Dimitri's family wanting him killed and now we have a tangible nature to the fact that Claude's family has always wanted him dead and never has it hurt so much to think about my favourite FE3H lords 😭

The dynamic between Fódlan and Almyra was easily one of my favourite bits of the Golden Wildfire demo. As unserious as it was, watching Holst butcher Nader's title and Nader getting pissy over it, saying he does this every time fkdhdkssl like I definitely believe those were the guys who only needed a drink to get over their respective country's biases against the other's. But it's the sort of dynamic that I think exists between Faerghus and Sreng, which I think...is willfully ignored by some people: it's a mutually antagonistic relationship, which for all intents and purposes, was initiated by the non-Fódlani party and perpetuated to varying degrees by Fóldan. It's bad, obviously, but I see a lot of people lay every stitch of blame at Fódlan's feet because white people can never be the attacked party in anything....Strange. Very strange indeed. All that to say: I can't wait to hear more about how much these country's fucking hate each other's guts and I'm so excited to watch Claude achieve his dream 💕.

AS FOR SHAHID......gremlin, mean, did your mother not love you enough? I can't tell if hopping the border and risking a war is usually the way a prince(ss) tries to go for the crown, but, uh, I did not like that. Glad he got hid ass kicked. The way Claude threatened him at the end of the cutscene too fkdhsnsls kinda wanted to watch that arrow fly just for shits and giggles. Once I get over the sheer comedy of the fact that he couldn't recognize his loathesome little brother Khalid...it hurts all over again :/ like holy fuck, I don't think Claude gets enough credit for being so unendingly hopeful for a future where no one like him ever has to suffer just for existing. Treatment like that is enough to break most people but Claude really set his sights on Fódlan with the intention of undoing centuries of antagonism and only being forced to take no for an answer on 1/4 Three Houses routes, the other two of which guarantee him his dream, while the last is...left undetermined? Silver Snow why did you hate Claude.

Anyway. Can't wait for Shahid to recognize Khalid and proceed to get his ass KICKED for trying to bring violence to a Fódlan that's already rife with it, assuming Shahid is able to try again. Maybe we get more siblings 👀 MAYBE.......MAYBE WE GET THE KING AND QUEEN KF ALMYRA 👀?

[emblemxeno]

If you have to make a list of un-recruitable characters, who would they be? Will the routes also change the list?

Well, first I'll do CF specifically.

Mercedes: Even though her brother fights for the Empire, she doesn't know that it's her brother, and has no reason to believe that Ladlegard is right about the church. A church literally gave her and her mother sanctuary for crying out loud too!

Marianne: For the same reason as Mercie, there's no understandable reason why she would choose a classmate that's been complicit in tragedy at Garreg Mach over her faith, the one thing that she's reliant one.

Ingrid: She's wants to be a knight of her country. Choosing the empire knowing that it would turn her against Faerghus makes no sense.

Ignatz and Raphael: "Ah yes I will join the Empire which intends to steam roll over the other countries, including the Alliance where my family lives. They will be safe for sure! This makes complete sense!"

Lysithea: She believes the Empire to be responsible for what happened to her and her family, and honestly the fact that both 3H and Heroes tries to make her side with Ladlegard in any respect makes little sense to me. "Honorary Eagle" my ass.

Leonie and Alois: They shouldn't have the option to work with their mentor's killers. Honestly this should apply to all characters since the fact that ABSOLUTELY FUCKING ZERO of the students put two and two together that the Flame Emperor-revealed to be Ladle-is working with mass terrorists, to the point where it's an actual plot point in CF that no one besides Ladle, Hubert and Byleth know that the army is collaborating with the Slithers, is actual nonsense.

Hanneman and Manuela: They wouldn't harm their place of work nor put any student in danger. Hanneman hates imperial politics and Manuela risked her life to save Flayn.

All the Ashen Wolves: None of them want Abyss destroyed, so why would they join the force that's invading Garreg Mach? Yuri is well connected with the church, Balthus is religious and (in the same vein as Ignatz and Raphael) him believing that his mother will be safe if he joins the empire doesn't track, Constance resents the empire for not helping her family, and while Hapi may not like the church, she wouldn't take kindly to inadvertently working with the person who ruined her life. Which again, the fact that none of the students put any of this together, makes them look really slow.

Though being honest, I wish most characters weren't recruitable. The staff I can excuse, and the Wolves are DLC so for content you paid for, you should be able to use them on any route you want.

But the other students? By being recruitable, they lack any importance in the instance where you don't have them. This, combined with Classic mode already kinda hampering that aspect of FE stories since the series' inception, makes for a cast where most of them have no bearing on the main plot besides flavor text and player pandering.

And not to be all "back in MY day", but most FE games before 3H had entire chapters dedicated to non-lord characters, and that does wonders for character writing in the grand scheme; these characters aren't in the effort just because, they're here for reasons that give context and depth to the games' storytelling.

3H just doesn't have that. When most of your cast can replaced in cutscenes with generics? That's a sign that they have no impact beyond what the player wants and that makes for bland storytelling.

[archer3-13]

well i have written out lil outlines of ways you could potentially rewrite each route in three hopes to generally work and flow better, one of the things i wanna stop and consider for a moment is "what if we reworked the entire thing? just gut, new draft entirely".

for the sake of simplification were going from the premise that a warriors game about three houses has to be made for whatever reason. SO! what are some ideas we could go for here?

-the hyper fanservicy route. now that might seem a bit odd considering hopes is in many ways rather 'fanservicy' in the manners in which it panders to people and constructs itself. the issue there however is that said pandering is used in an attempt to basically cheat into story that wants to be taken seriously. this 'hyper fanservice' would have no such complications, in fact its aim would be to be effectively as innocuous and ridiculous as possible.

in other words, ya know how dimitri being a competent and powerful fighter in houses is blown up to an almost ludicrous degree hopes? to the point that claude outright states in a cutscene he needs more then one person on hand to even stand a chance in subduing dimitri ontop of cutscenes where dimitri tanks magic blasts and tears through enemy soldiers with ease? think a game that would basically be a bunch of moments like that pushed even further and excuses to get to those moments.

which is also why id argue in a scenario like this a central plot wouldn't really work, instead a scattershot approach of many little stories of different scenarios i feel would be a better approach for a 'head empty, only fan service' kinda approach like this [say sothis talking to byleth about viewing 'fragments of time' and basically narrating the twilight zone going 'woah, wasn't that some wacky shit?' dlc would also probably slide into this format a bit better and easier which would please the shareholders].

-the twist of fate approach, where we get alternate versions of the lords. and i dont mean in the fanfic approach of 'now dimitri is claude, edelgard is dimitri and claude is edelgard!'. rather, taking their established histories and providing 'twists' that lead to different personalities and problems to tackle.

for example, an edelgard that never underwent the experiments, runnin around with her original brown hair colour and more bratty qualities that we get a brief glimpse of in dimitris flashback, how would that edelgard navigate the political intrigues going on in the empire? a dimitri that responded to the tragedy of duscur differently perhaps and became more openly depressive/reclusive like marianne [idk, im open for better suggestions on that one]? a claude whos mother was almyran and came to fodlan and thus grew up on the fodlan side of the border with his prominent almyran heritage instead of the other way around, and how that would shift his perspective on things in fodlan and his perspective on almyra? then ya twist the other characters of the houses accordingly and drop byleth into that setup.

-the delivering on the frakin box art approach. ie, actually having an fe warriors centered on a potential conflict and rivalry between shez and byleth, as opposed to how its sidelined as a b-plot in hopes proper. in this manner id say the best approach would be having the prologue of getting your ass handed and friends killed by byleth but instead cutting directly to the timeskip continent wide war phase. shez gets wind of a war brewing and figures the best opportunity they're gonna get to meet byleth again on the battlefield is now, and so run off to get hired by one of the three lords who are putting out calls for mercs. this is where the routes split, shez picking out any one of the 'opportunities' to chase after at the players discretion. from there the first few chapters would deal with being a merc at the bottom of the ladder, getting some new characters for each of the different routes who are fellow mercs struggling for reputations alongside ya, before ya get your big break in the form of recognition from the respective route lords and get to tag along on missions with them and the other 'house students'.

on scarlet blaze it'd more so be hubert who recognizes shezs potential 'utility' with edelgard being rather distant and chilly as a red emperor usually would be in this scenario but goes along with huberts advice, shezs role here being more so running edelgards dirty work over the course of the war and running into and battling byleth accordingly, edelgard never really coming to trust shez fully but coming to consider them a 'useful ally' regardless. with the big reward at the end of the route being 'you get paid and edelgard gives you a high five' to kinda emphasize that lack of true trust. additionally id have it so that edelgard is perhaps the least concerned over the whole byleth rivalry thing, shez can do what they want there its their business as byleths just another mercenary resisting edelgards vision for the future and so must be destroyed regardless and all that palaver.

on golden wildfire claude, looking for allies and any edge he can get and maintain in a war thats suddenly gotten hot, recognizes shez as a useful asset in such a war due to their growing exploits and thus seeks to curry favor with them offering rewards and even postions of authority and power cause 'thats how mercenaries work right, they want money and fame'. in this manner claudes tendency to keep himself closed off out of fear of getting hurt physically or emotionally would be at the forefront here, hes placing as much trust in you as he places in the golden deer out of genuine interests in shezs capabilities, but hes never quite ready to reach out for a companionable relationship with shez or any of the golden deer here, the 'walls of his heart' being kept firmly up effectively. hence claude kinda dangles shez getting a crack at byleth as a carrot to keep em happy in the mindset of 'i scratch your back you scratch mine' even as shez tries to form a more genuine companionship, the culmination being claude finally coming to trust shez even as the walls of his heart never go down.

and on azure gleam, dimitri seeking to bulk up his forces and recognizing a good opportunity when he sees it, gets shez onboard as a talented mercenary turned army commander to bulk up his battered forces after the recent civil unrest and to prove a point politically in the vein of his 'army of commoners' idea, raising commoners to knighthood and all that. thus shezs dealings with dimitri would be centered on that awkward build up of trust from 'were using each other for personal/political ends' to 'we are comrades who care for each others safety', shez working their way into dimitris circle of friends/comrades effectively along with the whole messaging of 'you cant shoulder all these burdens alone dimitri' playing a part in that build up of camaraderie. on the byleth angle though, dimitri would be the most vocally combative over whether or not they could just hire byleth and work out their differences instead, only really relenting on the matter when shez expresses their desire for vengeance leaving 'the decision up to you[shez]', out of respect on the matter/acknowledgement of his own demons.

then of course youd have the hidden chapters from recruiting byleth that lead into a full mini route this time, of working with byleth out of necessity, coming to respect them and overcoming their differences to put their grudge behind them, before diverging back into the originally chosen route with some alterations due to byleths presence.

[crazy-lazy-elder-sims]

I play stardew valley for an hour to wind down alittle a few days ago and my dreems have been vividly set in the stardew verse and wild shit happen including :

- re organzing my entire farm and moving the building around in an order that makes no sense

- making a shit ton of paths only to use them to spell out the word fuck over and over all over town

- playing with really fun mechanics that don't exsit irl in game like planning a beach wedding with eliot or going on actual dates with alex to the spa and having steamy [REDACTED] pixelated time or going hiking with abigal and maru and kissing under the moonlight on the top of the hike and doing [REDACTED] things in pixels

- punching pam because she irritates me and she reads as an emotionally abusive mother to penny

-punching lewis because

-Punching Marianne because is is never in her goddamn shop

- living out the whole plot of seducing every single single npc in the game getting to the final cutscene where they all are angry at me at the bar but instead of how it usually goes they instead beat the shit out of me and gus is the commentator like in wrestling matches and it ends with robin and leah materializing viking helmets and axes out of thin air and decapitated me to every one cheering and Emily eating my heart.

- staring at that stupid cute sea urchin with the cowboy hat on for hours

- having an entire exrra plot for willy where apparently he has a son who is buff and tattooed to filth but they are not on good terms because willy wanted him to go fishing with him on his small boat alone because willy doesn't like company (apparently idk) but his son is rhe complete opposite and has always wanted to go out to fishing trips to the sea with his friends and crew so they fell out and now he is back buff single and ready to [REDACTED].

Yeah WILD VIVID fucking dreams after dreams for just playing the game for an hour.

Thanks for coming to my ted talk i geuss.

[three-houses-text-files]

lorenz/marianne

c-a support + paired ending

c (i)

Lorenz: Hello, Marianne. You're well, I hope? Marianne: I am, Lorenz. Thank you. L: I cannot help but notice you do not look it. M: Is that so? I feel fine. L: Hmm... M: … L: … M: W-was there something you needed? L: How unseemly of me. My apologies. It is not my intention to stare. M: Does something about me seem...off? L: Not at all. I was just remembering your father. Or, rather, comparing my experience of him to you. M: … L: Your father, Margrave Edmund. He is one of the shrewdest nobles in all the Alliance, with a noted gift for pointed speech. L: On and beyond the battlefield, his words have the power to move friend and foe alike. L: My own father has said he would not want to make an enemy of him. Naturally, I am of the same mind. M: … L: Your father is blessed with gifts of confidence and eloquence. Yet, compared to him, you seem always reticent and downcast. L: Uh! Oh—I'm...I'm sorry. I don't mean to cause you discomfort. It's just that the contrast between you and your father is striking. M: I have very little in common with my adoptive father. L: But he sent you to Garreg Mach. Clearly he sees potential in you. L: I think I see it too. Yes, a certain charm. Gravitas, if you will. Just like him. *marianne sparkles in lorenz’s eyes during the cutscene* L: Ah! M: I can't say that I know too much about him. I should be going now. L: Yes. Yes, of course. Please, take care. L: Oh, such grace! Such serenity! How could such a beauty be hiding in plain sight? L: With a little polish, she would shine magnificently…

——————————————————————————————

c (ii)

L: Tell me, Marianne, do you have a love of flowers? M: Um. Well, I don't dislike them. L: I've happened upon a spot that's just teeming with splendid blossoms. Would you like me to show you? M: I think I would rather stay. It would be for the best if you kept your distance from me. L: Well, perhaps I could pick a few of the nicest and present them to you? L: With a beautiful bouquet in your arms, your magnificence would rival even that of the goddess. M: I would never compare myself to the beauty of the goddess. L: I see. Well, I don't mind. Oh, that is a lovely handkerchief you've got there. L: Did you know that a handkerchief reflects the sensitivity of its owner? Yours tells me you have quite a refined sensibility. L: If you only applied yourself a little more to the rest of your ensemble, there is no doubt in my mind... M: If you admire my handkerchief so much, you may have it. L: Ah! No, please. That is not what I meant. M: It was a gift from my adoptive father. I didn't choose it for myself. M: I’m sure I don't share his refined sensibilities though, considering how little he and I have in common. M: I have to go. L: Such beauty, and yet... L: With just a little polish, she'd be a marvel. If only she'd put in some effort... L: Hm... I wonder. Indeed! I shall make it my mission to awaken her beauty! L: There is nothing that I, Lorenz Hellman Gloucester, cannot do!

—————

b

L: … M: ... L: … M: Ah, um... L: Hm? What is it, Marianne? M: I’m curious why you've been eating your meals near me as of late... M: I’m not much for conversation... M: I’m always at a loss for words...and I never know how to respond to questions. L: It's true that there are some who prefer a lively dinner table. But I prefer to eat in peace. L: With you, my meals are a relaxing experience. In fact, you are the most peaceful dining companion I've ever had. M: R-really? L: There is a real grace and fluidity to your every movement. I greatly appreciate refined table manners. L: Observing you all this time, I believe I've realized what is so striking about you. L: Your beauty comes from the heart. It is an inner beauty. L: It is not some flamboyant pageantry, a product of external adornment or grooming. L: When I first noticed it, I thought that it could use some refinement. A little polish. L: But I was mistaken. You are perfect in your natural state. Just as you are. M: You think I'm beautiful...just the way I am? L: Certainly. To add a superficial luster on top of what you already possess would be offensively redundant. M: No one's ever said anything like that to me before... L: Alas, I am the only one with eyes. L: But perhaps it is for the best that your beauty not be revealed to all the world. L: Yes, it is certainly better that only I, Lorenz Hellman Gloucester, can appreciate your true magnificence! L: And on that note, I bid you farewell! M: What a strange person... But being called beautiful just the way I am? M: That was nice to hear.

——————————————————————————————

a

L: Ah, Marianne. I've been meaning to thank you. The books that you lent me have proved most fascinating. L: Would you permit me to offer you tea, as a token of my gratitude? M: Um, I'm a little busy right now. Maybe later tonight? L: Of course. I will look forward to it. M: Thank you for inviting me over. L: Certainly! Thank you for coming. And please, relax. This is no formal occasion. M: Oh! This tea tastes so good! L: Doesn't it just? This is my absolute favorite. I'm pleased you like it. L: This pastry may suit your palate also. It is commonly paired with this tea, in my homeland. M: Ah, it's sweet. It complements the astringency of the tea. L: You have exquisite taste! And there is plenty more where that came from. We simply must do this again. M: You want to spend more time with me? L: Naturally. M: Well, that's... M: Actually, there's something I need to say. L: Yes? What is it? M: I've been keeping this from you for a while. It's... M: It’s about my Crest. It's just terrible. I— L: Please, that's quite enough! L: Oh! L: You’re trembling. If uttering this secret hurts you, then I have no desire to hear it. M: It-it's just... L: Your smile is a greater gift to me than any truth. L: Whatever you have hitherto concealed, I am certain it is essential to you. And I do wish to know it. L: But not until the day arrives when you can tell me with a smile on your face. L: I am not the sort of man to prize my own knowledge over others' happiness, you know. L: Besides. The mystery is part of your charm. M: Hehehe! M: You’re funny, Lorenz... L: There! That's what I mean! Your beauty has always captivated, but that smile truly warms my heart! M: This is the first time I've smiled in so long...and I have your kindness to thank for that. L: As I've said, you are perfect just as you are. But I suppose I can take a little credit! L: Yes, your radiant smile shall illuminate all the world! With me by your side, you will not be able to help it! M: Hehehe! I'm looking forward to that.

——————————————————————————————

paired ending

As the new head of House Gloucester, Lorenz first worked to restore his own territory, and then expanded his vision to include reforms for all Fódlan. At the height of his storied political career, he announced his marriage to Marianne. Prior to the wedding, she received extensive tutelage from her adoptive father, Margrave Edmund, so that by the time they were wed she was fully prepared to govern. The pair was particularly successful in providing new innovations in dairy farming, and came to be known as the mother and father of horses and cattle in the region. It is said that Lorenz was rather vexed by the title.

[semi-imaginary-place]

fe3h blogging 2 because the post got too long

Edelgard Claude foiling. Both see that the world is wrong and that motivates them to make it better. Claude listens to people, Edelgard listens to herself. Claude reflects and introspects, Edelgard doesn’t.

I was going to write more but I realized I was just bashing Edelgard so I stopped. Anyways, the Gatekeeper has a backstory??? a younger twin brother and they’re from the empire?? Also wow Edelgard is REALLY into you (the light in the darkness pft)

I also want to comment how the Church of Seiros unlike some other fantasy religions really is like real life historical (and current) religious organizations. There’s a mix of people from the non believers but there to help, to those that believe this is the best way to help people, to those looking for power, to the people who are there because its a way to make a living. I want to make clear though that Sothis/The Goddess is dead and she can only act a little bit through Byleth. Before the game The Goddess has NO influence on Fodlan. Anyone praying is doing nothing in terms of reaching The Goddess.

Hilda: Tell me what I’m thinking about right now.

Ferdinand: Hmm... You want a snack.

Hilda: I DO want a snacc ;) ;) ;)

supports: Ashe Dedue, Sylvain Felix, Ingrid Dimitri, Hubert Ferdinand, Petra Claude, Marianne Ignatz

3h totally fooled me with the hair colors. I’m too use to JRPGs have rainbow haircolors so I think nothing of it but in this game the white/green hair are plot significant.

Somehow related to dragon shenanigans(white/green): Sothis, Lysithea, Flayn, Edelgard, Byleth, Rhea, Seteth

Plausibly a normal color with weird undertones: Ignatz, Shamir, Petra, Felix, Lindhardt,

That inexplicably JRPG colored hair: Bernadetta, Hilda, Caspar, Marianne, Ashe, Lorenz

Ch14 of Crimson Flowers has made me unfathomably sad. Claude hold himself so tightly, closed off with high walls. He always has a face on, doesn’t break composure. But in ch 14 in the face of losing his dream you can see the cracks in walls. And Claude may be closed off but he is in no way cold hearted or uncaring, he cares so much and you see that as the Empire gains ground. That battle is one of the few glimpses of Claude. Whether he is killed or spared, both are sad. The cut scene after Claude is spared is seemingly lighthearted and a tonal contrast to the serious battle right before it. Without knowing Claude better it seems like a breather before more plot happens, but knowing Claude that scene really breaks my heart. In contrast with the moments of honesty during the battle, Claude’s social mask has snapped right back into place, hiding all of his pain. Claude’s dream meant all to him, being able to walk side by side with his friends in a new world, and that dream just took a devastating blow. Claude is by no means dishonest during that scene, but knowing how devastated he is on the inside yet forcing himself to hold it all together... He’s sad and now I’m sad.

The Insurrection of the Seven is fascinating to me. Just because people keep saying different things about it. Was the Emperor seeking to consolidate power for the throne and the nobles stopped him or where the nobles always seeking to turn the Emperor into a puppet ruler? To my limited knowledge I think for a while Emperors had been losing power. Enough so that the experiments on Edelgard and her siblings could not be stopped. He then tried to expand his power and was crushed.

Crimson Flower is quite interesting. Edelgard and Hubert are walking a fine line balancing the church and the Agarthans. The Empire appears unified but its a shell for the Agarthans and Edelgard is betting on the appearance of that shell.

Wow Dimitri is surprisingly sane and not feral in CF. Does the purple clouds in Dimitri’s death CG remind anyone else of the S support CGs?

Lysithea and Edelgard can bond over shared childhood experiences and being short

Can you imagine Claude, Hilda, and Sylvain as a squad. They would radiate such chaotic energies just standing next to each other that Nemesis would leap out of his cyberpunk containment pod and start dancing to leek spin

How is Dimitri clean shaven post timeskip?? Most people in the grips find it hard to be functional and do basic tasks and your telling me he meticulously shaves everyday? I'm calling it. Dimitri is trans and can't grow a whisker

So the brits (and w europe really) went mad for tea and got it through colonization of india. Where does fodlan get its tea?? Its mostly too cold unless you want to convince me theres an extensive breeding program for hardy cultivars somewhere. Dagda?? We know coffee is imported. hot take: the empire started a war to get more tea

I dont talk about dorothea enough. I almost chose BE just for her. She hates nobles and its great. The voice acting is top notch too. Dorothea-Ferdinand c support is memorable to me because of the voice acting. The line delivery was so good. Especially the  " I hate you " from Dorothea. She's so savage. She was the only one I considered S supporting after intsys robbed me of claude. Didn't go through with it though. It always feels wierd romancing fictional characters.I remember how P3 forced me on the harem route and wow that was uncomfortable. Dorothea is kind. I like kind people. She's so full of love (Manuela is the other character overflowing with love), and her compassion extends to everyone. She understands the grief of war. Contrast that to local manlet Caspar. Once he's decided someone is an "enemy" he stops caring. Oh Caspar... All of Dorothea's supports are so good too... Dorothea's backstory can get a little disturbing. She's 18 at the beginning of the game. She began singing with the company at 10 and gained fame at 13. What troubles me his how she talks about how after every show she was innundated with marriage proposals and such. The way she talks about it, it went on for a while, and while sure the letters and stuff could have been from other teenagers, that she was getting all this as a teenager is creepy. In addition, then she talks about the nobles fawning over her and it made my skin crawl. But the worst was  that a noble possibly her father was coming on to her . Like Dorothea, I'm with you. Let's burn down the world.  Despite the justifiable anger though, dorothea is so full of love. Until the last her heart never turns cold.

Thinking about claude and edelgard. On one hand their personalities, ideals, and ambitions complement each other. On the other hand Edelgard doesn't understand how people work and Claude is a manipulator, guarded, he never lets any one in(edited)Claude can totally read her, but Edelgard reacts poorly to criticism and dissent.... Claude has no faith. Not in his dreams and not in himself. With out a push, he's not proactive. Edelgard charges straight ahead while Claude takes the circuitous path. "Defensive" thats the word for edelgard, she so easily thinks people are out for her. Whereas claude deflects. Both are fuelled by a sense of justice.  Edelgard thinks in terms of eliminating enemies, claude thinks in terms of recruiting allies.  The point is the the tragedy that they would make great friends! But thats not happening in this universe! Because edelgard's bull headed and claude wont open up!

Watching s supports and anyone notice theres 3 variations on the ring.  There 2 silver and green ones. At first I thought small green stone was from people with common origins and big stone from noble. But I just saw saw one with a gold ring.It could be that the character is just that extra. And yeah it is gold is from Ferdinand and Lorenz.

Ferdinand  was so obnoxious at first. But hes such a good boy. He does his best. He's trying very hard. Also, existential angst is my jam.

I just remembered theres only 5 saints in the Church of Seiros and does that mean the tome of comely saints has erotica of... like... cihol??? And cethaleann????? Uuuuuuhhhhhh...I dont like my brain sometimes.

so that whole fuss that byleth's mom was rhea's daughter was because tons of "gamers" chose BE first and misinterpreted Edelgard's speculation. When in reality Jeralt was the one who Rhea gifted her crest (seiros) to, extending his lifespan. Rhea then cut out baby Byleth's heart and then replaced it with Sothis's crest stone hoping that Sothis would posses byleth. All we know of the mom is that she was a nun and died young. Flames crest stone joined to Byleth's heart (CF ending cutscene). Rhea placed Sothis' heart in baby Byleth to revive Sothis (VW ch 22 opener). She has done human experimentation on people to revive Sothis before (implication). Seiros/Rhea did so so that Sothis would posses the body (Rhea dialog consistently referring to Byleth as "Mother" or hoping that Sothis will poke through).

The only time Claude’s anger breaks through his composure is with Rhea. This is significant as Claude almost never loses his composure, and this highlights how Rhea in the only person Claude hates. Claude doesn’t hate Edelgard or Dimitri or any of the other people that may kill him, just Rhea.

question about the Black Eagles/Crimson Flower ending:  why does Byleth collapse and then Sothis' crest stone break? I mean I will give it a break since its symbolic and thematically significant and all and it was a excellent touch that Sothis' heart and Byleth's heart have literally weaved together. Is reviving Byleth Sothis' last act?? Why did Byleth have to die to begin with though? ... well maybe Byleth didn't die since they didn't have a heartbeat to begin with. So far the writing in 3H has been pretty good though there have been weak spots. I think that CF final scene was put in more because it "felt right" than because it was logical. it fits with edelgard's goals and what the route's been about. its just if you really think about it. It doesn't make sense based on what is already known. I mean crest stones could have other powers but I haven't seen that anywhere else in the game. As for the story as a whole, the main acting forces in the game are Edelgard+Empire, those who slither in the dark, and Rhea+Church. Claude also has his own ambitions, but those 3 are more deeply entwined. Each faction has its own goals and past and a good chunk of the game is figuring out what those are. Its also ironic that GD despite how Claude is not enmeshed in ... that other mess, sheds so much light on the other factions. 

The main theme is probably about Rhea since it plays a lot during Rhea scenes and the church is a central focus of the story.

the "M-metal gear?!?!?!" moment will always be hilarious for me. On par with dollar store Hitler

Why is it Jeralt's voice on the map even after he dies?

God Shattering Star:  How Many Times Do We Have to Teach You This Lesson, Old Man?  

Dawn is a recurring motif in Fire Emblem: Three Houses. “the dawn of a new age” is or such is

Claude, a child loved and lonely

i think blue lions was written first. 1 the two monthly missions that have to do with students’ families are both in BL (Ashe and Sylvain). 2 two fairly important side characters at the monastery are related to BL students (Annette and Mercedes). Chapter 3 actually provides a intro for all the lords in their respective routes. Edelgard’s scene is serious but not especially sad, instead you can feel te fire burning within Edlegard and the scene shows how she’s willing to sacrifice the lives of those under her if she believes she is doing the right thing. Claude’s is actually quite light hearted in tone after the first few lines and it highlights the mystery surrounding him and makes him seem very sketchy. Chapter 3 in Blue Lions though is really sad. Ashe my baby boy. Here there is a sense of tragedy in the post battle scene

oh there is another Claude loses his temper. Its when a bunch of thieves (badly) impersonate Almyrans and Claude is so offended they didn’t put enough effort into the act and that they’re weak.

Major Player Goals

Rhea: revive Mother

Edelgard: take down the Church and crest system

Agartha: vengeance on the Nabateans

Claude: usher in a new age of tolerance and prosperity for humanity

Dimirti: keep afloat???

CHURCH SKETCH AF. Rhea always raised the hair on the back on my neck.  I mean even in ch3 the first real mission. We're being used as a personal assassination squad because Lonato threatens Rhea's power.  and then she's like. This is a public execution to give an example of what happens when you defy the church.  and I was like !!!!!!! let's mentally/emotionally scar a bunch of teenagers into fearing the wrath of the church.  Rhea: prosecutor, defense, jury, judge

I remember ranting about revolution and society in fire emblem games before having played this one, and wow intsys made a game for me

Ignatz and Raphael. I must protect both of them. sweet sweet boys. Raphael has the biggest heart and Ignatz just wants to help. Team Protect Raphael's Heart. Raphs is pretty emotionally mature too. he gives warm fuzzy vibes. Ignatz takes on so many burdens and clams up about his own pain. He doesn't place any importance on himself. Let my boy be an artist! Raphael certainly has pain, but he doesn't want a life where that pain rules over all else. Raphael is a force of GOOD I would have love to meet Lorenz's dad. I don't have high expectations of him, but I'm curious.  we've heard so many different things about him. And he's one of the major actors of the story. But we also know so little about him.

o both Mercedes and Emile have the Lamine crest. If that came from their shared mother, why did House Martritz fall since she was heir? Possible answer sexism or finances. The other option is that both Bartels and Martritz have the Lamine bloodline. Also, Jeritza is younger than I thought he was Modern Advances in Missile System Engineering Wade and Kruger 7e 2XXX

Schöner, Alexa, and ZaiCheng Jun.  "Applications of Dymanic Systems Theory in Autonomous Bipedal Assault Units". Journal of Robotics 18.4 (2XXX): 157-170.

I think I'm hilarious. heh. Imagine though, While digging around Shambhala Claude finds these and everyone is just confused because it looks like their language???? and yet the words! they dont make sense!

I didn’t really care when hubert died in VW, but edelgard's death hit me you know. Because both claude and edelgards ambitions are to tear down the old system. and seeing edelgard in that armor. Its like the timeskip all over again. Part 2 begins and you relize how much all the characters have grown. And while you werent looking edelgard has been going through her own journey. When you fight her shes wearing armor with elements from both the flame emperor and her part 2 outfit  yeah edelgard is yikes. i agree with her goals but her disregard for yhe lives under her concerns me. And between her tendency to brute force solutions, those who slither in the dark, and the empires situation, I think she was doomed to fail from the start

When Claude ... half jokes??? that Hilda can grasp his throat, is that connected to how Fodlan's Locket (in Fodlan's Throat) is under house Goneril control?

[mr-mikey]

Okay time to continue with my golden deer playthrough starting with the usual spoiler disclaimers and I must warn that this is a BIG post underneath the read more. With that out of the way let us continue:

The end of chapter 20 has us reuniting with Rhea who has been in captivity for some five years in secret. After a quick thank you for Byleth and Claude’s actions in saving her, Claude asks her about the children of the goddess saying that they were filled on on the details. Rhea is hesitant, but Claude presses on because the time for secrets has passed and the next steps determine the fate of fodlan.

So Rhea speaks of a group of people that have slithered in the dark and threatened the fate of Fodlan for a very long time. She also mentions that Nemesis was a bandit leader that plundered the Holy Tomb and stole the remains of the progenitor god. And once he reappeared he bore the Sword of the Creator within a place called Zanado where he slaughtered the children of the progenitor god before using their corpses to gain more power and using that power brought war to Fodlan.

Furthermore Rhea states that ‘a mere bandit’ like Nemesis wouldn’t be capable of what he did on his own which leads Claude to realize that he must have had help from those that slither in the dark, who this time around used the empire to start a war across the continent. The chapter ends with Rhea saying that the Bloody history of Fodlan, the Red Canyon Tragedy to repeat itself.

The main fortress those that slither in the dark use is located just south of Hilda’s Territory, a fact that leaves Hilda feeling creeped out. Rhea insists on coming along despite her captivity and Seteth’s protests. The fortress is a weirdly mechanical palace that even features it’s own unique and bizarre theme to show how different it is compared to the rest of the game and world. And instead of Crest Beasts there are Giant Metal Golems that move around to protect the area.

The boss himself has a spell called ‘quake’ that affects ALL grounded units no matter the range, so that’s something to be careful about. But once he’s down he spitefully calls down those ‘Javelin’s of Light’ to destroy the city and everyone inside. But Rhea transforms once more and protects byleth despite being grievously injured. Manuela mentions that it’s a miracle that Rhea is still alive.

After a change of scenes, Claude comes to talk to Rhea again who says that she doesn’t have much time left and she doesn’t intend to hide things any longer. Claude states that she is the Immaculate one, and she confirms that by saying that she is the Last Child of the Progenitor God.

She used her blood to create children, shared her knowledge with the people of the land to build a prosperous civilization. Eventually the humans turned against hte Progenitor God and started wars across the land. In their arrogance they believed themselves as Gods and challenged the progenitor god herself. A majority of the humans were killed from the battles that ensured, and Rhea believes that those that slither in the dark are the descendants of those that retreated underground during that era.

Peace returned to Fodlan for a while, but then Nemesis appeared and slaughtered everyone in Zanado, using weapons crafted from the corpses of her brethren.

Claude is surprised to hear that Rhea is Seiros from the legends, but her story is interrupted as a Hilda and a pair of soldiers come in to announce that an unidentified army has sprung up in the east and is attacking every city that it comes across. In some cases there were no survivors left alive.

And even Lord Holst was badly injured in the fighting, and he has a reputation as a powerful fighter.

And Rhea quickly deduces that Nemesis has been brought back from the dead and is leading the mysterious army because the general is both wielding a weapon simlar to the Sword of the Creator and is using the Crest of Flames as their banner.

Rhea continues to explain that the Crests, Heroes’ Relics and Crest stones were all made by those that slither in the dark because the progenitor god never gave that kind of power to humans... And considering what that power does to people like Sylvain’s brother and Marianne’s Ancestor she was right not to give that power away...

And Claude comes to the sickening realization that the people of Zanado were killed by weapons that were made by the corpses of their breatheren...

And we finally learn that Sothis’ Crest Stone is within Byleth himself. Rhea had wanted to see her mother once more but instead Sothis chose to give Byleth her power and disappear. Perhaps Sothis was aware on some level of what Rhea had done and didn’t want to harm Byleth for her sake...

And with that last remark the month before the final battle is available.

And during Claude’s last battle speech Hilda is especially angry at Nemesis for hurting her brother, and she wants paypack xD

And I find Marianne’s determined face to be especially cute.

The final Chapter takes place on a giant map that’s covered by a toxic swamp. All over the map you can see Enemy units that have copies of the Heroes’ Relics. There’s even a trio of Slitherin mages that can summon Dark Demonic Beasts if you don’t take care of them quickly enough.

Nemesis himself is a Monster of a unit whose stats are increased for every ‘copy’ of the 10 heroes that are still alive, so they all have to die before you can try to take on the big bad. Once you attack him, he WILL move from his starting spot so be careful about that.

But with some help Lysithea finishes the big bad off and all is well. I was treated to a heartwarming cutscene of Byleth and Claude working together to trick Nemesis into the path of a falling arrow shot to finish him off. With Nemesis’ death his army also crumbles into dust and Fodlan is saved, and Claude entrusts the land to us as he returns home so he can continue to work towards the realization of his dreams...

And there’s one more part that I’m going to cover the characters before I am 100% finished chronicling my Golden Deer run!

[teamoliv-archive]

Cutscene: Duty

Morado didn’t expect to spend all day in the hospital, but the moment he heard the news he had to come running. The elderly huntress Marianne had come along, seemingly mostly as moral support. He managed to prove he was who he said he was to the medical staff and was finally allowed into a more tightly guarded and heavily staffed room than expected. Marianne stayed outside in the hallway.

They found her. Lilac, or what was left of her, was laying attached to a multitude of readers and measurements. He could see through the glass that separated where he stood and the operation theater several surgeons were still picking pieces of stone and ice from her broken body.

He snapped his attention to the nearest person who looked like a doctor. “Give me the details. All of them.” 

The doctor looked at Morado with a morose expression. “It’s pure luck there was anything left of her to save. Apparently that dust apparatus she had attached to herself overloaded. While there was an explosion, her torso was covered in stone and most of her vitals were spared any real damage.” He looked at a thick stack of papers from a clipboard. “However, she’s suffered multiple limb breaks, a heavy skull fracture, and moderate brain damage. Even in the best case recovery will take years of physical therapy and preventive medicine. She’ll never walk again, may be blind in one eye at a minimum, and will need extensive care throughout her life. Of course, MTHS has vacated her position and we’ve not been able to reach her next of kin. You’re the next closest as her fiance.

All the more reason for him to stay in Mistral. It was a damn miracle and he didn’t know if she was even going to know his name by the time she came out of all this, but she was alive. 

“Thank you. I’ll leave you to your work. Let me know if anything happens.”

Morado exited the room with a mix of emotions. He would probably be shaking more than he was if it wasn’t for the cybernetic suit he was stuck in.

The normally masked huntress stood with her hood down and a new wooden mask in one hand. Her burnt face had caught the attention of several nurses during her wait, but she assured them she had already been taken care of years ago. “Well?”

“It’s... bad. Real bad, but with everything that happened it’s still a miracle we even have this.” He gently set himself down on the bench. If he had just dropped down he might break it. “I don’t know what to do...”

“You still plan to care for her after everything that’s happened and all she’s hidden from you.” Marianne noted softy.

“I already dropped the ball once with this. I need to be there for her, not just because she’s still my fiance, but because no one else is going to do it.” His scroll rang, souring his already fragile mood. He picked it up with a gruff “What?”

“....You’re not making this up, are you? No, no, of course not. Hold my wing pack for me. We’ll be right there.”

“What was that about?” Marianne squinted her eyes in an awkward way as one side of her face lagged behind the other where the old burns were worse.

“There’s an SOS outside the kingdom. It’s from an Atlas ship.”

[teamoliv-archive]

Interlude: Picking Up the Pieces

Violet wasn’t sure how long she had stared at her uncle’s body at the modest funeral they had put together. Several grateful people in the kingdom had helped donate materials or money to give a proper burial one of the huntsmen who helped save people from the attack that was currently being blamed on cult that grew out of a White Fang splinter group. She hadn’t heard about Cobalt Ymir’s death until after it was all over. It had taken several weeks for things to return to what was as close to normal as they could be anymore.

“Do you think he would have been proud of us?”

“If he knew half of what we had to do to get here, I’d say so. Lapis stood nearby with what was left of their team. They were the only ones of the four present save for Lazuli who decided to stay for emotional support. Ivory didn’t dare show herself and he didn’t even want to think about Onyx right now. Everything about the end of that fight still haunted him. “He believed in us, even when we didn’t.”

Violet forces a smile and nods, wiping some tears away. “You’re right. What matters now is that we don’t forget that.” She turned around when she heard her name being called.

“Hey there, Sundrop, I hope I’m not interuptin’ anything. I need to talk with you for a bit, okay?”

“Sure. Hey, Dad, I don’t think you ever met my partner from Atlas. This is Lapis and his sister, Lazuli.”

“It’s nice to meet you, sir.”

“You guys need a minute?”

“Actually, you might want to stick around for this.” Shin explains, “We’re going to have to head back home soon.”

“We can’t go so soon!” Violet protests, The Dustwings aren’t really in good enough shape to help the city rebuild yet. They’re going to need huntsmen and huntresses out here.”

“You’re right, but I want to know if you noticed somethin’ about those safe houses. Notice how empty they are?”

“They look packed to me.” Lazuli notes, watching the throngs of injured and recently homeless crowding around the area. ”Violet’s right. There’s too many mouths and not enough help. We can’t just... not do something. Maybe you need to leave but we can’t. If we send a letter home I’m sure they’ll understand.”

“That’s exactly the problem. Tyrael Cheshire packed up his goons masqueradin’ as help and left already. He snuck his way back to Solitas and to be blunt, our families might be danger. The Dustwings will have help soon. That militia that saved Haven’s still around, I think.” Shin looked to Violet with a nod. “I spoke with your brother.”

“You found Robin!? What happened?” Violet caught her breath and cursed herself for having missed him again. “Where? What did he say?”

“That ‘Red Arena’ might be gone but it won’t be long before Cheshire just throws his money into a new project. Robin claims he’s going to target us soon. We need to get back to Mantle to make sure nothin’ happens to them.”

“Dad....” Violet shook her head, “Mom’s a huntress, too, I think the two of you can take care of yourselves. I- I can’t leave yet. The Dustwings need help and we’re here to do exactly that. Besides... we have some people who need us more than ever now. Lapis and I might have homes to go back to, but half of us don’t.”

Shin let out a sigh. “You know, he told me you’d say that. I guess I should accept you’re a big strong girl now. Here.” Shin holds out a scroll to her. “Hold onto this. We managed to get some replacements for everyone. It’s got a message for you, too.”

“What’s it say?” Lauzli says, peering over Violet’s shoulder.

Violet opened the scroll to an audio message. She recognized the voice instantly.

“Hey, Sis.

Sorry I didn’t catch you when I talked to Dad. Well, I guess I’m sorry about a lot of things. I know it won’t make anythin’ better but this is all I’ve got for now. You did a good job out there, you know? I’ve got some information on this scroll you’ll need to know. Jade didn’t work alone. He’s got friends- and if you stick around, you’ve gotta watch out for them, and don’t think his old paycheck’s going to forget what happened to his daughter, either. But, hey, you kids took down some pretty nasty people. So long as you stick together, you’ll do fine.

“I’m not gonna say you won’t ever see me again, but I’ve got my own things to take care of right now. In the meantime, keep bein’ who I couldn’t, and tell that tin can of a Lieutenant I said hello, would ya? We went to Atlas together.”

“I'm bad at showin’ it, but I love you, Violet.  Make everyone proud.”

“Robin... I just finished crying...” She smiles and rubs her eyes gently.

“So you’re staying then?” Lapis asks after a few more moments. “We’ll need to find Reynard soon. I don’t really want to leave her or her crazy friend unattended.”

”I can go find them,” Lauzli replies, “I think you guys need to get a few other things straightened out. Don’t you both have people to say goodbye to still?”

______________

Ivory takes a deep breath, having gotten far away from the small gathering in the ruined square. She and Molly made it a point not to be seen by anyone. They were recognized by a lot of the populace in the district. She feared retaliation for Jade’s failure to protect them as promised. The news that he had been killed had not been kind of either of them, but Ivory felt a strange serenity in it. Though, she had her family and Onyx growing up. Jade Leroux was a lot of things to her- a mentor and master first and foremost but to Molly he was the closest thing to a father she likely had. She entered one of the ruined houses where they promised to meet. “Hey, how are you holding up?”

Molly sat in the middle of her ring weapon, letting it rest on the floorboards. “About as good as I can be. Honestly, I’m glad we’re both still alive but...” She balls her hands into fists and starts shaking.

“What are we going to do now? No one here’s going to give us anything. They have new real heroes now, right? They don’t want us. Even your stupid team is being talked about.”

“Yeah, well as far as fuck-ups go this could have been a lot worse.”

Ivory spins around and draws her ax immediately. “What are you doing here!?”

“I’m here to come clean, okay? I’m layin’ it all out on the table to let you figure out what to do next besides sit here and not know. Yes, I killed my uncle. I basically killed Jade, too. I’m not askin’ you to forgive me for either of those things and I ain’t here to gloat.”

“Then what!?” Molly darts up and spins around, standing with her wheel around her. “You’ve always hated us!”

“You’re right.” Robin says, pulling a cigarette out of his pocket and lighting it. “You want to know why? I want you to look at my little sister and then ask yourself, what if she wound up like you? How about you look at Darcie and her crazy parade and ask if you want to see each other in a place like that years from now?” He watches the two girls stare at him and then each other in awkward silence. “You’re wasted potential is what you are. I made my choice when I had a mind to do so. You were snatched away as kids. I ain’t blind. You two are damn near siblings to one another and as weird as it’s gonna sound comin’ from me, I’m glad for it. So I’m tellin’ you right now- you can either sit here and cry over what you lost like Lilac Cheshire did, or pick yourselves up and have your own fuckin’ lives for once.”

“And do what? We can’t just become huntresses just like that! What, do you think we’re just going to pick up our stuff show up with your sister and her friends and walk off into the sunset like some stupid fairy tail!?”

“Why not? S’what I’m doin’. Well, sort of. See, I’m plannin’ on makin’ Tyrael Cheshire’s life a livin’ hell and all his buddies with his creepy business partner at Ciar to boot; so I’m grabbin’ my old team together. We’re about to make some noise and make off with whatever we can in the process.”

Ivory trembles as she thought of Onyx, holding his bloody body in her arms. “We all fought together in the end.” She mutters to herself, “M-Maybe we can do it again.” She turns to Molly and holds out her hand.

“I’m not doing this without you, you know that. I promised I wouldn’t abandon you. You won’t be alone again.”

Molly didn’t say anything for the longest time. She heard Robin’s footsteps leave the building without even saying goodbye. “Sure, fine, just stalk off...” She says to herself before staring at Ivory. Her mind flashed a moment to that girl from the Arena.

‘I forgive you.’

“Fine.” Her reply was reluctant and slow, but maybe something good could come out of this. “You know... I always wanted to be a huntress as a little girl.”

“We can at least give a shot, right?”

_____________

“It is going to take a while to rebuild.” The elderly huntress says, having donned a new mask and walking the streets. The kingdom had already heard rumors of the elusive “Mother Marianne” sighted in Mistral- it was time to show that face again.

“Yeah.” Morado still hadn’t even begun to process everything he had learned about his fiance in recent weeks, let alone grieving. “We’re staying right here, though. Mistral’s not about to turn us over to Atlas needing us as much as they do. Besides, I should have been able to stop this. Lilac... If I had known maybe I could have done something more to help her.”

“Some would take you for a fool, but I believe we need more people like you in this world, Lieutenant. But if I may be so bold as to give you some sage advice, don’t dwell on who you couldn’t save. Look to see who you can. It will never get easier. I can promise you that.

“Every victim, every lost soul, every life lost still hurts me whenever I come across it. Having a heart is not a weakness, but do not let it turn into guilt. You have to be the one these people look up to now. You’re all they have left anymore.”

“Lieutenant!” “Marianne!”

Lapis and Violet rushed to their side, breathing heavily. They had been running back and forth looking for them. “There you are. We needed to talk to you.”

“Did something happen?”

“Well, sort of? Not yet. We’re going to be leaving soon. Lieutenant, if I could have permission to-”

“Granted.”

“That was... quick.”

“We’re grabbing Reynard and her crazy friend to try and set them back up. Hopefully in a way that won’t get anybody arrested or killed this time, but we need to get them out of the kingdom first- at least until things calm down some more.”

“Rather noble of you to give them a second chance.” The elderly huntress replies, “They will need good guidance to put themselves back together, let alone on the proper path.”

“Let’s just say we owe our team leader a favor. Before that collapse, he still tried to reach out to his sister even when she tried to blow us all to kingdom come. If he could believe in a second chance like that, we can.”

“Besides, there’s still whatever Robin left on this scroll. Something about another operation like Jade Leroux’s. Apparently he wasn’t alone.”

“If I may see that?” Marianne had a feeling she already knew what it was about. Jade’s sadistic other half was just as ruthless as he had been and perhaps even more twisted. “I would like to copy this. You will not need to worry about her.”

“I hope you don’t plan on keeping me out of the loop this time. If there’s something else going on, we’re staying to help.”

“It is a long story, I will have to tell you later. For the time being, children, do not worry about Darcie. I have an old score to settle with her. I worry that Leroux’s death will make her more unpredictable, though. It is best if you leave that to us. Go find your friends and get ready to go.”

______________

“We’re almost there.” Lauzli announced, leading Ivory and Molly out to a clearing outside the kingdom. It was surprisingly easy for them to leave with all the commotion. She stayed a small distance from the two, but kept feeling eyes on her.

“H-Hey. Kid.”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks for... you know... back during the fight. Not the ‘saving me’ part the... ‘I forgive you’ part.”

“I managed to figure out what your old boss was doing. How he was doing it. You guys didn’t realize did you?”

“We’re... still... processing that.” Ivory states, trying to ignore a suppressed angry look from Molly. The idea that their emotions were being directly toyed with through a semblance was a heart-wrenching thought, but a long time without it present felt strange. Things made a bit more sense with that context but she worried what that took away from her actual feelings. Where did any actual ideas or thoughts begin and Jade’s old influence end? Was that really a bad thing? She couldn’t imagine Molly wasn’t going through a similar internal crisis.

Lapis was standing firmly next to a large rock, his gear ready to go already. “You all set? I know a few nearby villages that know my face. We can get you some work and get your feet wet. You sure this is what you want to do?”

“What else do we have anymore?” Molly admits, her tone more flat than it used to be, “You sure you’re okay having two people who tried to kill you follow you around?”

“Oh, I’m not worried, we put our best in charge right beside yours truly.”

Ivory frowns, unable to really bring herself to reach for her ax like she used to. “It’s not going to be the same without him.”

“No one said it has to be.” Violet keeps walking through the trees to another figure waiting nearby.

“I did say we put our best in charge.”

_____________

Tyrael Cheshire had been quieter than usual ever since returning to Atlas. He had been absorbed in work both regarding retrieving money from Jade Leroux’s failed operation as well as the troubling news of the deaths of both his children. The official record deviated from what actually happened, of course, but it affected him nonetheless. Today would be when that turned around.

“Sir, Auroras Hallward here to see you.”

“Auroras Hallward of Blood Brothers LLC at your service, Mr. Cheshire. We will offer you the absolute best in elite mercenary services! No job out of the question for the right price and-”

“Auroras...”

“Fine, fine. Take all the fun out of it. Really though, Tyrael it’s been nearly twenty years since you seriously contact us and it’s for a job? Cobalt has seen us more than you and he’s on a military schedule.” The man removed his hat and adjusted his glasses before setting a large stack of papers on Tyrael’s desk.

“I heard you both just came back from Mistral. How was that?”

“Cobalt is dead.”

“I’m sorry. Repeat that?”

“One of my investments tried to manipulate and double-cross me and got Cobalt’s family involved. He was killed for his efforts to remedy the situation himself.”

“So that’s why you called us, is it? Is this because you don’t want to mix business with pleasure for the sake of revenge or were you just being kind enough to allow the rest of your old academy compatriots to share in it? He was just as much Hari and I’s friend as he was yours, you know. But surely, you wouldn’t call us for simple revenge.”

“You’re correct. I have a list of people I will need you all to hunt down. First is Robin Goodfellow, the man who killed Cobalt and was, to my understanding, instrumental in helping Leroux’s operations fall apart. The next is a group of young huntsmen and huntresses that are responsible for my daughter’s death. Find and bring them to me, dead or alive. In the meantime you will be covering for Redmond while he reestablishes my presence in Mistral.”

“That’s quite a lot for us to do at once, you know. It won’t be cheap. Of course, if you had told Hari that we were after Cobalt’s murderer I’m sure he’d jump at the chance to do it regardless.”

“Not... that that’s an invitation to work for free. We do still have a business to run. You know how it is.”

“Where is Hari by the way? I specifically asked for both of you to show up.”

“Currently locked up, I’m afraid. With our workforce cut in half it’s been a bit difficult to keep up the money to-”

“Auroras, you charge millions. You simply haven’t given yourself the time.” Tyrael waves a hand and two large briefcases are placed one on top of the other at the side of the desk. Tyrael slides Auroras’s stack of blank papers aside and lets it open to reveal a large amount of lien. “Half of your payment down as per your usual.”

“This is... actually more than usual, Tyrael. You’re not about to add another job onto this are you? You know we don’t stack work.”

“The second one isn’t for you.” Tyrael replies, “That is to get Hari out of jail. Do that, then begin your work. You are to kill Robin Goodfellow, find what remains of my son’s old Atlas team and bring them to me, and make sure that Leroux’s associates do not swipe away what is still rightfully ours.”

[teamoliv-archive]

The Mother - Origins

Vale Hospital, fourteen years prior to the Fall of Beacon

She woke up to a monotonous beeping and aching pain. The world around her was dark and muffled even as consciousness became clearer and thoughts were forming in her mind. A shadow of heat still radiated off of her skin, the memory of the excruciating burning sensations coming to the forefront first in her mind’s eye. She still felt it, if dulled and imprecise. The pain was mercifully easy to push to the side as she tried to force her mind to focus on her outside surroundings that somehow had remained obscured.

What followed after was harder to ignore. The distant echo of voices she had heard in her previous waking moments pounded at her brain like they were locked behind a reinforced steel door and trying desperately to be heard screaming in a chaotic panic.

Pushing her train of thought forward, she realized she had to move. She started small: a tilt of the head, lifting a hand, shuffling. More pain and voices followed. This time, it sounded closer and more present. A muttering followed by feet shuffling snapped her into the present before a clear phrase could be heard nearby.

“Here she is.” A feminine voice said softly. A deeper male one followed, this one wholly familiar. One of her fellow officers.

“Melina?”

It was a difficult task to try and speak, but once she finally got the air through her throat it was starting to come back to her. “Tanner...” She forces out in a dry harsh mockery of her former voice. “The fire...”

Tanner didn’t respond at first. Melina could hear a breath. “We searched everywhere. You were the only one who made it out. We’re still investigating but that was too powerful of a blaze to have been an accident. You’re lucky you made it out alive.”

Her dry throat caught. The news that not a single other person made it out of the fire was crushing. She trembled again, ignoring the still present pain dulled through what must have been heavy painkillers. She couldn’t see. Was she blind or bandaged? She tried squinting and found she could at least feel her eyes still intact but that might not mean much. Though her own condition scarcely mattered to her anymore. “Are you sure?” She pleads, pushing through a dry scratchy throat. “Are you absolutely sure?”

Melina tenses as she feels a hand placed softly on her shoulder with only the most delicate of squeeze. “I’m sorry, Melina. Everyone at the station is trying their best.” The sharp click of a pen punctuated his sentence. Of course, he wasn’t here for moral support, not completely anyway. This was an investigation after all. “Take your time. We’ll take your testimony when you’re ready, okay?”

She felt the sterile gauze dampen. It seems her eyes worked after all. Flynn, Clover, Molly, Orrin. Melina wasn’t sure how to even describe how she was feeling. "Tanner how can you just sit there with a clipboard waiting for testimony!?” She forces out, “This isn’t just some investigation, this is my family!”

His response was practiced and measured. He was clearly anticipating this. “As it was for everyone else we’ve ever done this for, Melina. You’ve always been able to talk to people going through things like this and I can’t imagine what you’re going through, but take time to breathe. You’re still recovering.”

He was right unfortunately. She had always been the one to calm the grieving and the hysterical during times of crisis. She needed to do the same. Go through those same motions. Breathe. Think. Focus. There will be time for sorting through the pain later but now the police needed to do their job. The fire had started in the middle of the night and it was pandemonium for most of the ordeal so she couldn’t recall much. It did start in her bedroom, though. Her husband had scrambled to go get the children but things were already blazing and collapsing. No one had found Molly and the baby Orrin’s room had caught so quickly she only had time to see the poor child scream his last few breaths. She almost didn’t get through explaining that. She passed out by the time she went into the kitchen looking for Molly. She thought Flynn and gotten Clover out but had clarified they were found dead under a pile of collapsed beams. It was currently being assumed that the fires had started near the support beams to weaken the house’s integrity.

She spent the next few hours sobbing, even when nurses came to change her bandages and apply more silvedene cream to staunch the burns. They were gone. It was still a surreal realization, one that would likely take a very long time to fully come to grips with. When the bandages were removed from her face for the exchange, she found Tanner still writing away at his clipboard. He glances up to her and grimaces. “How bad is it...?”

“You shouldn’t look in a mirror right now.”

Looking down, she saw that various parts of her skin had been terribly burnt. She was likely heavily disfigured based on her own past experience with responding to burn victims in the past. They looked to be healing, however, faster than she expected. An unfamiliar hiss came close to her face and she finally realized she was also wearing a breathing mask. It was likely why she had been talking in the first place. She simply nods.

Tanner puts his pen away and flips to another page on the clipboard. He looked to the nurses and waited for them to finish their re-bandaging. “I’m going to need to speak with the witness alone, if you don’t mind.” He ushered them out of the room and closed the door behind him. “You were out for a while so we’ve been trying to do some digging. Whoever started this fire didn’t care about making it look like an accident.” His gaze hardened. “This was a statement- a message to all of us. We’re worried it may have something to do with those Mistrali traffickers we’ve been looking into.

“So they target me. Why, me, though? Why involve my family!?”

“Think for a second, Melina. You’re one of our best officers. You came into the academy with one of the best performance evaluations we’ve ever seen. They wanted to go for the throat by taking out one of our best- and by getting your family involved as well so brazenly, they’re hoping to intimidate the rest of us. We’ve been in contact with the other kingdoms to watch for similar incidents. With that said, it’s important to understand our plan moving forward to find these people. First of all, we’re declaring publicly that you died at the scene.”

Melina stares at Tanner with a questioning look. “Are you sure the nurses, news, or council will allow us to get away with that?”

“The council has already put a lot of pressure on the hospital to falsify your records here. Only a few nurses and a single doctor even know you’re here and they were hand-picked by us. It wasn’t hard to get them to do it when the chief told the council what happened.”

“And what am I to do then?”

“Just rest for now. When you’re ready, we have an undercover assignment for you. Only if you want to, though.”

Melina lifted her scared hand and stared at it for a while, turning it over again and again looking at the back, then the palm, then the back again. “It will take time, but I cannot just sit here. If this can happen to me it can happen to someone else.”

It’s been a few months since then. I had to undergo a lot of therapy and training to get back my strength. Officially, the Vale police officer Melina Briar perished in those flames along with her entire family. The cause of that fire is unknown and is still being investigated. As for me, I have returned to duty in my own way. I am looking for the ones responsible and keeping the areas surrounding the kingdoms safe working as a huntress. I did go to Beacon Academy before joining the Vale Police after all.

I do not fear the worst this world will bring; what more could they possibly take from me? I will allow no one else to suffer like I did. So long as I am here, the people I watch will be safe. They will be like my children and I will protect them with everything I have.

All of them.

[teamoliv-archive]

Cutscene: Yellow-Eyed Monster Part 2

Lazuli spun her weapon in wide arcs, blocking and deflecting the oncoming blades that Auburn hurled at her. She was hoping to knock their trajectory off course so she couldn’t retrieve them, but even when parried away, they spun and returned to her.

“How do you like the new addition?” She taunts as the curved blades swirled back to her and locked back into the discs on her arms, which gave off a small glow as the blades returned. “I had this installed when you were busy starving in a cell.” She glares down at Lazuli with a grin on her face.

“I already heard about how you managed to get out, but the difference between then and now is that I know what you can do- and I’m ready for your fancy little trick; so come on, let’s see it!” She leaped from the rooftop and dove at her.

Lazuli braced for the impact, focusing again on parrying and dodging instead of attacking. Auburn’s blows felt heavier than they should have. She had no idea if that was a result of her not being fully recovered or if her opponent was just stronger than she used to be. With Auburn focusing on hurting her rather than the wounded huntress behind her, she didn’t have to worry about defending anyone but herself at the moment, but she still worried. One of Winterfang’s blades missed its parry and she readied herself for a hit from Auburn’s swipe, only for a shot to ring out.

Marianne was leaning against the wall, holding out her sword upright revealing the gun barrel on the side of the hilt. “You’re forgetting someone.” The scarred woman grimaced before snapping her good eye to Lazuli. “You have covering fire, girl! What are you doing?” She sounded more pleading than demanding. They both needed to do all they could to survive in a weakened state.

“Right!” Lazuli moves to attack while Auburn jumps out of the way, sending more blades out in wide arcs around the two. Shots and blows were made to try and deflect them, forcing them to return to their owner.

“Ugh... And here I was hoping this would be easy. Fine.” She plants her feet down and her shadow begins to spread around where she stood, coating the area in a twisted version of the landscape.

“This is all just an illusion,” Lazuli shouts to Marianne, “She’s trying to use the images and sounds to distract us. Just focus on where she is.” This was easier said than done. She heard a voice come from a lamp post.

“Come on! Where’s that semblance of yours?”

That was an unfortunately good question. she wasn’t too sure exactly how hers fully worked yet. She was thinking about something- almost like the fight was a secondary focus, but how did she do it last time? She stood still for a moment, trying to feel what it was that caused her semblance to activate during her fight with Jade. Now, it was only enough to distract her and take a blade to the shoulder.

“I knew you weren’t going to be able to do that twice. Now I get to take my time. Let’s get your leg next.” The blades came from a few directions, spinning and making a high-pitched laughing noise.

“That’s the spot.” Violet says, pointing out to the neighborhood where she fought Ivory and her allies earlier. Something was wrong with it, though. It was still covered in smoke from the fire. This wasn’t normal smoke, though. That looked familiar. 

“I don’t think we’re alone. One of the others that was with Ivory could make these weird eyes in the shadows.” She says, having difficulty explaining it, “Whatever’s happening down there, she either came back or never left that spot.”

Onyx winces as his ears pick up the distinct hiss of steel clashing and strange laughter. Someone was fighting down there. He glances to Violet and sternly nods, pointing to it and deploying his claws.

Deflecting the incoming blades was difficult when forced to stand still, but Marianne was managing as best as she could with Lazuli faltering. She stumbles forward, trying to join the young girl. “We need to get out of here. You’re still exhausted and I am in no condition to fight- URGH!”

Lazuli turns to catch the huntress as another spinning blade came from the back and sliced through her already battered cloak. It didn’t do a lot of damage through the woman’s armor but she couldn’t be taking other wounds. “You’re right, but I can’t get my semblance to work! I don’t know what I did! How are we going to get out?”

“Alright, that’s better. On the ground and pleading for your lives where you belong.” Auburn recalls her blades and takes a few steps forward, only for something to catch her leg and pull her forward. The look of shock on her face pierced through the haze of her semblance.

“Are you guys alright!?” Another girl jumped over the faltering Auburn and rushed to the two. “What’s going on here?” Was that... Lapis’s sister? She only saw her a few times when she had visited Beacon for the festival and once before at Atlas. What was she doing here?

That must be her, the sister Robin was so adamant about keeping away from his matters. Marianne spotted the resemblance quickly. “We are under attack and injured.” She explains.

“My brother went off to find who was responsible for the fires earlier. Someone’s in danger.” Lazuli paused, “You... You were on my brother’s team at Atlas, right!? Lapis Hamelin?”

“Hey! I’m not done with you yet!” Auburn gets to her feet and readies her weapons. She prepares to fling out her blades again, but feels her arm stopped as if someone came from behind and grabbed them. Looking to her elbow, she saw strands of wire wrapped around her arm.

The faunus on the other end of the wires stared with a confident smirk on his face. No, there will be no getting away from this. You have bigger problems to worry about now.

Violet ignores the trapped enemy behind her. Onyx could handle that. “Then we don’t have a lot of time. Onyx knows who’s responsible for that blaze and if we don’t do something, she’ll burn the whole city down! You said Lapis is here!? Which way did he go? There’s no way he can handle this by himself.”

“That way.” Lazuli says, motioning to where he had run off with the injured girl from before. “But we still have to take care of Auburn. She’s not going to stop if I run.”

“First thing’s first.” She pulls out a flare gun and tosses it to the injured woman who looked like she had been to hell and back in those fires. “You don’t look too good. Fire that and help will show up. There’s four shots. Get to safety and fire.”

“You’re with those Atlas soldiers then? Very well.” Without skipping a moment, she slowly started to slip through the nearby alley. “I will be fine if I don’t move quickly. Just go!” 

“I can show you which way my brother went. I know I’m not in great shape right now but I’m coming with you. He saved me, and now it’s time for me to help him, too. I can still fight.”

There wasn’t going to be any dissuading Lauzli otherwise, Violet could tell. If it was her brother she’d probably do the same thing. Hell, that is what she’s been doing. “Alright. Just be careful.”

Lazuli turns to Marianne with a concerned look. “Are you sure you’re going to be alright?”

Marianne stared at standoff between Onyx and Auburn. “I think I will be left in good hands- or claws in this case.”

“Let me go!” Auburn twisted and slashed at the wire, finally freeing herself and facing Onyx with an intense glare. “I don’t know who you think you are but you’re interrupting something really important! I don’t have time to put you in your place!”

Onyx stared back at Violet. There was no time, why was she still just standing there? He swung his arm at them to tell them to move, then he turned back to the girl in front of him. The message was pretty clear: I’ll handle this one. He watches Violet and Lazuli rush off while the older huntress ducked out of the fray.

“Give me one reason I should even bother with you. Who are you!? SAY SOMETHING!” Auburn says, readying her blades again. More wire sprayed around her faster than she saw coming. Dangling right in front of her was an old hospital tag. The name was crossed off and written over.

Jett Huldre Onyx Cheshire

Auburn took a step back. “No. That can’t be right!” She snaps her head up to Onyx and stares incredulously. “How are you alive!? Why are you here!? You were sold! Your parents were killed off! You were supposed to die as some rich asshole’s servant or something, not...”

Cheshire. Those were the people who were paying for Jade Leroux’s operations in the first place. He wasn’t just some operative. He had a brand new name- a family name. How did some doomed cousin she only ever heard horror stories about turn out to be not just a huntsmen but a rich one? “This isn’t how things are supposed to go. No, this isn’t right! How!? Come on, dammit, say something! Are you here just to taunt me!?”

Onyx stood without much fanfare. He still didn’t really know who this girl was or what his old name meant to her. Truth be told, however, he didn’t care. He opens his mouth and forces out a weak croak of a voice. It was painful to speak yet, but he was at least starting to manage again. It came out as a raspy whisper. “No... You’re just in the way. Will you continue to be?”

“I was supposed to be the one who survived, the one who proved we weren’t all weak. Why!? How did you take that away from me, too!? Jett, I am still standing in your way. I have a destiny! I’m going to be the one at the top of it all! Let that stupid little backwoods brat run. I have a bigger target now!”

Onyx forced another harsh-sounding reply. “Do not call me that. My name is Onyx Cheshire, and you will remember it. Prepare yourself.”

[teamoliv-archive]

Cutscene: Yellow-Eyed Monster

“I really hope we’re not lost.” The had been carrying the injured huntress Lapis had apparently brought with him to find her for nearly an hour now. She hadn’t heard from the others yet, though, so there was no telling if they had found Shani or not.

“Me too,” Lapis admits, hoisting Marianne over his shoulder. It was hard to determine where help could actually be with everything either destroyed or blocked off. They managed to stay ahead of the fires when they started, thankfully, and had stuck to the burnt out areas in the meantime. Everywhere was empty, though.

Turning a corner, they found a nearly destroyed neighborhood with a large crater in the road. “Man... what happened here?” This wasn’t just the fires; a fight had broken out sometime earlier. It wasn’t old either. He could hear an engine buzzing. Lapis wasn’t sure what kind of vehicle it was, but it didn’t sound very big. From around the corner, a swerving wheel took a turn too hard and the ‘driver’ flew out and collapsed on the ground. The wheel kept going for a short while until it fell over and what was now revealed to be a sturdy bladed saw slowly rotated to a stop in a pitiful sputter.

“Ugh.... H-Help....” The girl that was flung from the weapon was face first on the ground and looked very bit of a mess. Her clothing was torn, her hair looked awful, she was covered in old burns, and just looked like she had gone through hell and had just forced herself out of it.

“What...? What was that?” Marianne titled her head up to look at the figure on the ground, but Lapis kept a distance.

“You! You’re-! You were with him!” Lazuli starts, drawing her weapon. “She’s one of Jade’s people, be careful.”

“Please... You need to help. It’s Ivory, if I don’t do something she’s going to die!” The girl looked like she wasn’t going to be in any condition to fight and the pleading voice made it difficult for Lazuli to keep her weapon steady. She looked right at Lapis. “You! You were on her team right!? She showed me pictures! Please, you have to help!”

Lapis stared at Molly questioningly for a moment. This wasn’t what he was expecting to hear. He watched Marianne while keeping his weapon ready in front of him. This could still be part of that trap he worried about. “Is she telling the truth?” The old huntress was very good and picking out lies.

Marianne stared at the girl for a while. Her own face was still mostly obscured by a hood but her scratchy voice appeared to pierce through the conversation with a pointed question. She tries to steady herself, but it was clear she was having difficulty doing anything more than standing. “What is your name?”

“Look out!” Lazuli caught the glint of something whirling by and threw herself into the mystery girl’s way just as two blades swung by them. Lapis deflected another that looked to be aimed in his direction.

The blades swung back to a figure on a half-collapsed rooftop as they snap back into the circular holsters at her wrists. “I should have figured I’d find you if I followed her.” Auburn gave a cheerful smile with a wicked look in her eye. “Isn’t this just a treat? I get to see you surrounded by bunch of people who can’t defend themselves. Well guess what you’re stuck doing until I feel like I’m done with you. Want to make this simple? Get up here and let me finish what was supposed to happen back in that fight.”

Lapis wastes no time firing, but the girl just jumped out of the way when he raised his gun, letting him chase her with the bullets and she jumped from roof to roof, until she plunged herself into a collapsed part of one of the buildings and out of sight.

The other girl rose to her feet shakily. She jolted around with arcing static as she stood. “I hate to break it to you, but that won’t work... I trained her this last year. Besides, we don’t have time for this!”

“She is trying to attack us as a distraction. If we can leave, then we can rescue your friend.” Again she tries to stand up straighter and Lapis catches her as she buckles.

“Neither of you are in any position to go anywhere! Besides, I don’t really owe Reynard any favors lately. I’m sure she can take care of herself.”

“We’re huntsmen, Lapis. Are we really any better if we leave someone to die?” Lazuli interjects, “Auburn’s after me. I can protect Marianne. You go with that girl and help. Besides, I’ve seen her fight, if she’s in that condition the situation’s really bad. I’ll catch up.”

Lapis gave a stern stare to the burned girl but nods. “Fine. But you’re not driving that thing.” He points to the buzzsaw, picking it up. “I’ll carry this. Can you run?”

“Y-Yeah... Thank you.” She starts to dash ahead in a clumsy way, still trying to fight back the pain of the dust she’d been injected with.

“Wait. Wait!” Marianne tries to shout as the two rush away. “What is your name!?” She stood there with a look of shock half visible under her hood. There’s no way...

“Been waiting here this whole time you know.” Auburn says as she kicks down an already half busted door only hanging on one hinge.

“What is your deal!? Why go through all this just to get at me!? That’s half the reason you didn’t help us in the first place, right? Why do you hate me so much!?”

“You know, I would have thought it was obvious but I guess that just goes to show just how much dumber than me the rest of you are. There’s just so much to hate about you! I crawled my way out of everything thrown my way because I know how important it is to be strong. I was ready for the world no matter if it was ready for me or not. I’m smarter, stronger, and wiser than any of my peers and I was destined to be the one at the top. Then you show up with a sob story about your precious little mining town, some hacked up weapon whose design you stole from your brother, and no semblance, and all of the sudden you have all the friends, admirers, attention; and when you finally get your semblance you manage to live through something you absolutely shouldn’t have!

“Everything you have, everything you don’t deserve! It. Should. Be. Mine!” Auburn readies her weapons with a dark look on her face. “And I’m going to kill you to take it all back!”

“Th-That’s it? You’re just jealous!? I-I can’t believe you! Everything the rest of us went through was just because you couldn’t stand not having what someone else did? Well sorry, but I’m not going to fight you because you want it. There’s someone here right behind me who needs my help- and I’m going to defend them. Now let’s go.”

[teamoliv-archive]

Overheard Conversations: Unexpected Aid

“What the hell happened!?” Lapis’s first words on seeing the battered Marianne were probably the wrong ones, but it was the only thing that he could think of. It looked real bad. Did being chased down by that guy with the hat really take that much out of her? Just how strong was this guy?

Lazuli and her friends gazed on in a muted shock. The blood was something she had been unfortunately desensitized to during their time as the Arena’s prisoners, but her brother’s reaction was worrying.

Mother Marianne let out a bloody cough, her mask no longer hiding the numerous burns and scarring on her face. She looked up at them with her one good eye. The fact they were more concerned about the fresh wounds than the old ones was comforting at least.

“We need to get you to a hospital.” Lapis says, rushing over to help the old huntress to her feet. “What happened out there?”

“Put up a hell of a fight in what she did.” A voice came from the direction of a squirrel who had hopped up on a small ledge.

Lazuli had to double-check to make sure she was seeing this correctly. The animal was new but the voice was familiar. “Wait, you’re-”

“That’s the guy who was arguing with Jade when we were first caught!” Arvinda blurted out, staring at the squirrel with her ax drawn, but the blade inactive.

“Hey, cool it!” The animal replies. It appeared to be straining to have its head forced toward them somehow. Occasionally the squirrel would fidget and move around as if it was held in place against its will. “Besides, you hack this thing up it won’t inconvenience me much. You’re not gonna find me; this thing’s just the messenger. Now shut up and listen to me. You want to know where your little friend is, right?”

“You know where Shani is!?” Lazuli called back. “Is this more of your stupid games? We’re not going back to your bloodsport.”

From several buildings down, Robin let out a irritated sigh. Kids were always so impatient. He kept his eyes closed for now considering he couldn’t see in front of him anyway. Displacing his senses into animals he touched was useful but inconvenient in other ways and just plain disorienting if he used more than one. “You want me to answer the fuckin’ question or not? Truth is, I swiped your friend out of there a while ago. She was off to some other place to take care of some owed debt. I didn’t bother figurin’ out exactly where. You listen up and I’ll tell you where I hid her. In exchange, you keep off my back while I sort out some business of my own.”

This sounded way too much like a trap for Lapis’s taste. It was still a bit hard to take that Goodfellow’s missing brother was one of these monsters. “Why should we believe you. What do you get out of this?”

“Mostly, rubbin’ this in Jade’s face. I didn’t like his plan to keep usin’ students for the games. Left a bad taste in my mouth. Sides that, gettin’ my sister involved is where I draw my line. Call it the one of the few standards I’ve got. Go ahead and call the goddamn police to go with you if you really want, but I’m not stickin’ around here anymore.”

Lapis watched Marianne lift her head to stare at the squirrel. She lifted a hand up to touch where her mask was. Now that she was closer it looked like her nose was broken, too. 

“We can trust this...” She says with reluctance. “I saw that rage against what your sister went through with my own eyes.” Without another word the squirrel departs.

Lazuli saw the determined look on her friends’ faces. They’d have to take the bait either way. “We’ll need to split up. How are you guys holding up?” Lauzli asks her friends. The three of them nod. They were just as shaken as Lazuli still was given the long time they spent but they could help. “You guys go find Shani. Lapis can I can help her. We’ll meet you at the hospital.”

“Take this with you.” Lapis tosses one of them his scroll and motions to Marianne. “Her contact is in there so we can touch base. Don’t do anything too reckless. We still don’t know if this is a trap or not.”

[teamoliv-archive]

Cutscene: Old Grudges

Major Cobalt Ymir stood beside former police inspector Melina Briar, or as she has been calling herself, “Mother Marianne,” as they walked down the darkened tunnel Robin’s trail had lead them down. “I have been meaning to ask you,” He says breaking the silence, “Why tell me your name if you have been in hiding for so long?”

The old huntress lets out a wheezing sigh through her mask. That was a good question. “Perhaps... I merely wished to ensure someone would know I did not die in that blaze all those years ago in case my chase came to an end. I will not lie to you, Major, I am old and not as strong as I used to be. I only barely stood against your nephew the last time I encountered him and I will not have the advantages I did before.” Neither needed to focus on the trail. It was clear and both had concluded Robin was leading them somewhere. It was almost certainly a trap of some kind. However, a trap is only as good as the inability of the target to see it coming. Neither she nor Cobalt were worried.

Cobalt let out a dismissive huff. “Suit yourself. I have no intention of dying here. Playing martyr will gain us nothing. It’s an old army saying. The point of war is not to die for your cause, but to make your enemy die for theirs. The moment you enter into a fight assuming you will die, you have already lost.”

The tunnel began to open up into a large room. It appeared to be an old basement or work area for the sewers and tunnels in the city’s cliff face, but absolutely nothing but two more tunnels were on the other side.

And the man they were following standing right in the middle.

Robin Goodfellow wasn’t surprised at all with the appearance of both Cobalt and Marianne. They weren’t surprised to see him either. He pulled a lighter out of his pocket and lit a cigarette. “Well... ‘Bout time you two showed up. Nice job with the fire by the way. I’ll tell you, that took everybody for a spin.”

“Robin. Had I known you were involved in this earlier I would have tried to stop you- I should have tried to stop you. You know why your father and I came here. Come home.”

“I will not pretend you won’t face substantial prison time for this, but if you surrender we can secure you some leniency. We are already prepared for any trap you have prepared. You can’t take on both-”

“Down!” Cobalt rushed forward deflecting several shots with his saber. They came from one of the tunnels behind Robin. Marianne did likewise. With swords at the ready they strained to see the figure approaching.

Jade Leroux stepped forward out of the shadows with his left arm extended and weapon primed to fire. “Trap? No. Ambush? Well I didn’t assume either of you would fall for that. No, this is merely settling the score.” He turned his attention to the masked huntress for a moment. “Ah, Inspector Briar. So nice to see you again after all these years. I really must thank you for sparing me all the trouble of hunting you down again. I take it you were responsible for the fiasco that just cost me my next star competitor?”

So that’s what this was about. Jade wanted to tie up loose ends and had Robin help. Still, news of Lapis being able to leave with the children was good. Now she could fight at ease.

“Listen, Uncle... I’m goin’ nowhere. Just finishin’ this last job up and then I’m off to do whatever I want. I’m a free man in this equation. All I gotta do is help polish up the mess. You don’t have to be here. Let’s just pretend we didn’t see each other, huh?”

“That would technically complete why I came here, yes.” He paused and ignored a dark look from Marianne. “However... I do not keep my promises only technically.

“And I have my own score to settle here. If I may echo your father, if you do not stay out of my way I will be forced to go through you.”

“So that’s that then? Then let us begin.” Jade darted forward with his arm-mounted blade and met Marianne’s sword.

“One last chance.” Robin says, readying his own weapons. “You let us deal with the old lady and we’ll make it worth-

“SHIT!-” He flings his kukri out to catch a large fireball that continued behind him. He forgot how strong his uncle’s enhanced dust was. “Alright, fine!” He charges forward at Cobalt, who held out his pistol in his left hand.

Cobalt braced and moved to the side when Robin swung, using his mechanical arm to block the sickle in his off hand. He brought the hilt of his saber down against the other man’s face just before he backed up. He’d have to keep that up. It took a lot of skill to be even decent with two weapons. Robin was a lot better than decent.

Jade met Marianne blow for blow and neither were getting anywhere. He spun around and slammed the side of his shield against her. She twisted her weapon to block a  few feet shy before the blade pivoted ninety degrees and the rest of the scythe’s handle extended to block just in time. She brought the longer weapon up in an arc to push his arm out of the way.

She was about to deliver a kick as a follow up but Cobalt beat her to the punch, turning his pistol on Jade and letting loose a powerful stream of arcing lightning. Robin in turn managed to get a heavy blow in with his kukri from the side. 

He slid his grip from the handle to a solid piece of leather dangling from it and started to spin the blade. It was building up flames as the dust chamber in the weapon activated, creating a ring of flame that he tossed around the Major and to his intended target. She brought up her weapon to intercept and break up the blow, but her cloak caught.

Cobalt brought his mechanical arm back to elbow Robin away as Jade charged forward, poised with his triangular blade again. Cobalt feigns a block and lets his saber catch the blade, only to let it be tossed from his hand. He uses this to duck under Jade’s arm and pulls his pistol back, letting his artificial hand collapse into the rest of the arm, forming a cannon. He slammed the dust magazine of his pistol downward. A vortex of wind starts to charge. “I knew what you were planning with the Reynard girl since before we left Atlas.”

The tornado blew his opponent forward, slamming him into the stone wall.

Jade picks himself up and dusts a few pieces of rock from his suit. “So the sudden Vytal Festival invitation was your doing. I thought as much. For all the good it did you.” He levels his shield to intercept the Major’s next attack.

Marianne swung her weapon in a fury, forcing Robin to keep to blocking and avoiding her attacks. “Cobalt told me everything. You have a sister the same age as those children you kidnapped!” She wasn’t sure how she didn’t make the connection between that Goodfellow and this one. She was on the tournament footage, too, after all. They even looked alike. “Does that mean nothing to you!?”

“Do not!” Robin got in close, forcing his opponent to retract her weapon and robbing her of the reach advantage. “Dare!” He brought up his sickle and forced her weapon sideways. He slammed his other weapon right onto the woman’s mask, carving a wedge into it. “Bring!” He slammed down again. “My sister!” Again. “INTO THIS!” One last blow splintered the mask apart, revealing the old huntress’s burnt face. In her stagger he kicked her down and kept her there with a series of heavy stomps.

Cobalt spun around, blasting a heavy earth shot back at Jade as he blocks, encasing him. “I was hoping you would do that.” He snaps before turning back to his nephew. “Enough, Robin! Because of what you did to help this man you almost doomed Violet yourself! What made you think you were going to be able to have it both ways!?”

Jade grit his teeth and tried to squeeze out of the earth dust. His arm was stuck in the rock. He pulled a device from his pocket. “You have no idea how expensive these are, you know... But failsafes are failsafes, I suppose.” After a click, it was tossed over the earth wall and exploded, sending the rock out everywhere as the dust grenade went off. Military contraband- Cobalt recognized it immediately.

Jade felt his aura fizzle and took a few steps back. “I’ll leave that for you to tell him. I have unfinished business to take care of. Unless, of course, you want to be the one to-”

“Fuckin’ gladly!” Robin flips his sickle over and aims his gun right at Marianne’s face. As he was about to fire two things happen at once. First, the old woman reached up to grab the weapon, the second, Cobalt tackled him.

The still not-dead Mother Marianne rose to her feet wearily. With her face no longer obscured, she stared right at Jade. Like him, she felt her aura reserves all but leave her. She had only a little bit left and she would have to save it.

Cobalt refolded his arm to allow use of his hand and pistol again. “I see... You hate this man as much as I do. It makes sense now.” He calmly walks over to pick up his saber. He points behind Marianne as Robin was about to try another shot before letting off a gravity shot, sending the woman flying back into the tunnel. “Leave her alone.”

Cobalt stared at Robin not with anger or spite, but kinship for his nephew. “You believe yourself beyond redemption after all you have done. Is that why?”

“What the hell would you know about that!?”

“Because I know exactly how that feels.” He didn’t bother to glance back at Jade. This was the reason he came here after all. “I also know that it is not an endless pit of darkness. Now, I am bringing you home. Your father misses you.”

Robin watched over Cobalt’s shoulder as Jade staggered off. He wasn’t going to be able to make a beeline for the wounded investigator in his state. He just readied his weapons. “I can’t go back.” He charges forward.

He knew Robin was holding back before. This was faster than he had originally planned for. Still Cobalt managed to dodge and parry, but he couldn’t get a good shot in. He had one shot left and had to make it count. “Robin, listen to me! We can beat him! We both have people we care about who were hurt!”

Robin had never heard the Major lose his composure before. He, on the other hand, remained unmoved. “Ain’t about him.” He says as calmly as in normal conversation, “I’m no man my old man can be proud of or a little sister can look up to. I was lost a long time ago.” He knew what he did for Jade and how wrong it was. His problem was he didn’t care. In some cases he was actually enjoying himself. That wasn’t the sort of thing that could just be fixed up with some pretty apologies. He moved to the side to dodge a few swings from Cobalt’s saber. His opponent’s aura started to drain into his pistol, charging the last bullet in the chamber. Seeing this, Robin started spinning his own weapon again, arcing lightning. In a wide swing he catches his opponent’s prosthetic, severing it, and tearing up his chest. The shot fired at a corner and covered it in heavy block of ice, sticking out on all ends.

Cobalt staggers back, looking down at his lost arm, pistol, and aura. Under any other circumstance, he would have tried to find a way to retreat. Most general cut-throats took well to bribes or promises of influence or secrets and he had done all of those things in his life during his dealings with Tyrael. This time, none of that came to his mind. He held his weapon defiantly. “Is this really how you want to end this? This is not how you have to be!”

Robin walked up to Cobalt firmly. In his stagger, he wouldn’t be able to bring his sword to bear. “Maybe not, but it is.”

He plunges his kukri through the Major’s chest.

Cobalt tried to choke out a few more words in protest. No, it was already done. His mind drifted partially to his old unit and that ill-fated mission where he and one or two others had managed to survive, and none with all their limbs in tact. They were waving at him. 

Robin watched his uncle’s body falter. To be sure, he spun around and slit his throat with his sickle, sending the body backward. “You wanted proof I can’t go back? There you go. Didn’t feel a thing.”

He stowed his weapons and started walking down one of the tunnels opposite the one Jade went through. 

Marianne wasn’t sure how much of the battle she missed, but both Jade and Robin were gone. 

Apparently, so was Major Ymir. 

The poor man had promised he was going to live through this. The old huntress couldn’t help but feel a little betrayed that he broke that promise, but that was the anger part of grief talking. She always had grieved when examining a body- even a little. Far from a weakness, she considered it her resolve to find justice for those who met a fate they didn’t deserve. This one was no different.

She wasn’t going to be able to do this alone, though.

She looked through Cobalt’s bloody pockets and found what she was looking for. Opening the scroll, she found a few contacts who she had confirmation were in the area.

SMS Message to Tyrael Cheshire, Shin Goodfellow: [S.O.S. Officer down.] after also giving coordinates and putting the scroll back away to send the signal to them, she looked around. She was exhausted and there was no telling if Jade or Robin would return.

She would need to find a place to hide again until she recovered. She looked through her own scroll and gave the young man Lapis a call.

[teamoliv-archive]

Overheard Conversations: Following the Trail

“What happened here?” Lapis stood in a practically empty street. There were pock marks and a huge ditch that looked like it had been blasted into the pavement. A fight obviously happened here but how long ago? He kept his gaze on the huge scar in the road. “That wasn’t made by a normal weapon.”

“Agreed. However, Grimm are unlikely to enter a protected city. No, there were people fighting here.” There was no sign that the locals who had shut themselves up in their homes were going to talk. If anything, they could be tipping off whatever crime lord ran these slums.

“What’s that?” A smaller scoring of the road caught her eye and the masked huntress stepped closer to something that looked almost like a buzzsaw had cut through the road, swerving around and getting away from something.

Lapis watches the wavy rip in the pavement cautiously. “We’re following that, aren’t we?” He says, pulling out his gun and keeping it at parade rest.

“It is our only clue. It runs deeper into the slums towards an abandoned school district. We may have finally located their hideout’s general location. Or at least one of their safe houses. Getting in is going to be the tricky part.”

A few miles of following the trail brought them to an increasingly armed series of back alleys. They looked like pedestrians but too many of them were too watchful and had the telltale stance of someone who had a weapon at the ready. Two armed strangers were going to catch attention. “Hide your weapon if you can.” The entrance to several buildings were guarded but it looked like they were letting someone in to the abandoned school building itself.

Marianne recognized him immediately. Robin Goodfellow walked up to the entrace while the guards very quickly got out of the way. “Hey there. Here for the games,” He says, flicking his hand up in a lazy wave, “The new event’s startin’ soon, right?” A few other men and women followed. Several looked like high-profile Atlas socialites and wealthy business owners.

“Think we can get in through that way? It looks like they’re taking guests.”

“These buildings always have side entrances. However, you should not be facing that man alone. Stay here. I will try to provide a distraction while you head in through the back.” With that, she scaled the alley wall and crouched up on the roof. She fired.

She rose up and continued to fire, plinking shots off of fencing and walls. Several gate guards pulled up firearms and started returning fire, which she easily blocked with her blade.

Robin grabbed his hat and ducked only long enough to pull out his off-hand weapon and return fire. “Oh, you’ve gotta be kiddin’ me! What the fuck are you doin’ here!?”

“Did you really think I wouldn’t come after you, Goodfellow?” She calls back down to him. “Now, where are they!?”

“You know, Lady, you’re really startin’ to piss me off!” Robin returns fire again, his bullets shattering the concrete lip of the roof’s edges. The huntress deftly skipped back and was unharmed. Great. “Hey! Tell the boss I’ll have to miss the show. I’ve got somethin’ to take care of.”

That was as good as he was going to get it. Watching the huntsmen rush after, he almost tripped over himself at the sound of ‘Goodfellow’. He thought of his old Atlas partner and her missing brother. He was pretty sure he was the only one out of the team to have been told about him. So he was involved in this mess? That was going to complicate things.

No, there’s no time to worry about that. Focus on Lazuli.

He needed to get into that building. Taking advantage of the distraction, he rushed along the half-wall with the old monument sign, using both to cover his movements as he reaches a rusted back entrance likely used by cafeteria staff to load up food for students before this place shut down. He pulled out his rifle and shot at the two guards on that door before rushing in to knock them out. They were too distracted by the bigger shootout to respond in time. He kicked in the rusted door only to be met with pain in his leg.

He sucked in a breath and tried again. This time, he steadied his shoulder and readied his semblance. With a heavy shove, the old metal finally gave way. Several people in the back room responded with shock and one was knocked out by the flying door. The smell hit him before anything else. It was rancid. What was worse was the sudden drop of a corpse on the ground by two men carrying it into an open freezer. What the hell was this place!? To think he was worried about whether or not he’d be doing the right thing by shooting anyone just a few moments ago.

“Hey there.” He says with a cold calmness, leveling his gun at the surprised thugs. “I have a few questions about where my sister and her friends are. And what the hell’s in that!?”

A few too many of the thugs panicked seeing their unconscious fellows on the ground behind Lapis to respond otherwise. They ran. “Tell the boss!” One shouted.

“Oh no you don’t.” He got one in the leg, who collapsed in pain behind the others. Lapis walked up to the man and turned him around, planting his foot on the man’s chest and leveling the rifle into his face. The old missing poster fell onto his the man’s face.

“You didn’t answer my questions yet. WHERE IS MY SISTER!?”