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[Sutoratosu Akira]

Eilyth
For the most part, Eilyth had managed to keep everything together so far. She had put a lot of work into keeping up appearances, building a PR-worthy facade. It had become all but necessary at certain points over the past few months; the fame that accompanied her new branding had inevitably made her a larger target than she'd ever been. Of course there had been the occasional interviewer armed with overly pointed questions, or someone from the brass who went out of their way to be as much of a condescending, matronizing bitch as they could while pretending to congratulate her. In the end, it had taken a lot of observation, and far more of her discipline than she had liked, to get to the point where she could wade through their bullshit without bating an eye. Just smile and nod... and stay aware of her own body language. Take whatever bullshit comes and give it right back. Still made her feel slimey, even if only a little at this point.
    Here though, she couldn't even manage a paper smile or a polite nod. The best she could bring herself to fake was a poker face. She'd done her best to not interact with Harpy Force One beyond what was necessary, but even that had worn on her control. Worn, but thankfully not broken. She refused to let it be broken, for Brigitte and Leah's sakes if nothing else. Truth be told, though, she had been rather grateful when Laurie started following her. That combined with the task of prepping the seating area had been enough to distract her from the infuriating fact that she had to play nice with five other wenches she despised to no end. Even if the kid was genuinely annoying with how energetic and talkative she was, though Eilyth had found a decent way to channel the former attribute along the way.

Now though, they were nearing the end of the distraction. Eilyth took a breath as she started arranging the last of the chairs.
   "Just a few more hours, Eilyth," She told herself "This is... it's nothing, alright? Child's play. you've gone through way worse shit, and you're still here. You'll get through it just like you always do..."
   The subtle, almost reassuring pressure around her neck was precisely the moral support she needed here. It helped knowing there was an extra layer to help keep her from going postal and ruining everything. With the work nearly done, and seeing as how helpful the kid had been, Eilyth figured she might as well humor the brat's talkitis

"Hey kid, what do you think about your cousin Leah?"

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

L

A day drew close to an end, L knew this left little time for her and the girls to deliberate... coming this far out of her way... had better been worth it. The tiny major could feel hazy fingers of exhaustion clawing at her mind, there was nothing more she wanted than to flop onto her pillow mattress and melt away into sleep. But, there was still work to do. She swore she could feel a bit of a headache coming on... perhaps in anticipation of the figure she was on her way to see. L knew the gist about Terra, one such as her was going to be a handful, especially when she was at the ends of her ability to deal with other people. L jammed another of her lemon pops right into her mouth.

Somehow, she was met with little resistance when she had arrived. It was a lopsided and unfair comparison, but the security here seemed a lot more equipped to deal with a surprise visit than the prison keeping Faith. L couldn't but but let her mind wander to the fact that it was peculiar neither of these resources were contacted prior that she'd be looking into them... or perhaps the General didn't have the time for even such a common courtesy. That woman surely showed her trust in utterly backwards ways.

With the permission to enter, L didn't wait for the guard to usher her in. It was ostensibly Terra's home, it wasn't as if there were too many places for her to be hidden. It took little time to find her much to L's delight and she was already awake as well! Convenient! "Terra Renter, I presume?" A question merely asked with the intent of catching the woman's attention. L wanted to get to business, but even if she felt as if she were going to collapse if she had to have another conversation... She still wanted to maintain at least an air of professionalism.

[Takosher]

Kira

Over the next few days, Kira received regular visits from Doc. Although no new memories surfaced, Doc was still reluctant to put Verna on the case. No matter how much Kira might want to recover her memories, Doc was adamant that they not cause her further harm in the process.

Which made it all the more surprising when she walked in with Verna in tow.

"I brought lunch." Doc said, offering a paper bag full of greasy fast food.

"And me, she brought me." Verna skipped forward cheerfully.

"Yes, I also brought Verna." Doc gave a measured response, "But not her weapon, not yet."

Doc seemed a bit less tense about the subject than normal, but that might have been because all of her tension was directed at Verna herself. The tired doctor looked pained every time she looked at Verna.

Monika

Miranda nodded slowly. Despite Monika's joke, the air was still thick with tension. "Thank you." she said, "For indulging me. I have more interviews to conduct before I write my report, so I need to get going. If you think of anything else important, have the guard outside give me a call." She handed Monika a copy of her business card. There was something about the gesture that felt unnecessary, but Miranda was just inscrutable enough that Monika couldn't tell why.

With a polite farewell, Miranda left Monika alone with her thoughts. Their meeting had been a short but fateful one. Monika had learned a lot about how the Neridan government felt about General Camilla, and also seen some personal insight into what the average Neridan thought of her and the legacy she was carrying.

L

"Mmph, mrph mph." Terra halfheartedly responded through her food. She slipped a bookmark into her book and set it down, shoveled some more food into her mouth, and then stepped up to give L a handshake. "Mmph mupht bph-" Terra paused to swallow, "You must be the officer that's considering me for their squad, right? They said you'd be coming." She seemed oddly at ease, given her reputation. "Got a phone call earlier but they didn't give me any details. Not sure what you want me for, but if there's going to be fighting I want to point out that I got dishonorably discharged and locked in my house. And I didn't have any experience to start with."

Something was clearly up. Terra was supposed to be a revolutionary, but she was happily chatting with a military officer about her lack of combat potential. Her lackadaisical attitude didn't fit in one bit with the stubborn dissenter the media had portrayed her as. If anything, she just seemed extremely lazy.

Eilyth

Laurie practically lit up at the opportunity to talk without being interrupted with a new instruction regarding the seating arrangements. "Leah's great!" she announced enthusiastically, "Moray is a big grump so when I was little Leah always had to play with me, so I've always seen her as a second big sister. Now that I'm becoming a woman, she gives me all sorts of important advice. I'm way better at doing my makeup than I was before she helped me out."

Laurie was genuinely invested in Leah, even if her logic for being so was as shallow as everything else about her seemed to be. Which made it all the more odd when she gained a puzzled look and added, "I'm not sure what it is with her and numbers though."

[Sutoratosu Akira]

Eilyth
Numbers? That was... new to Eilyth. She'd never seen any indication her former Captain had a thing for math. Not that she didn't understand the sentiment; numbers had always been easier for her to deal with than words. They tended to actually stay still on the page like written texts was supposed to. Still, simple curiosity drove her to follow up.
    "What do you mean?"

[Glass]

Jessie

It was fine that Jessie wasn't entitled to an opinion here, because she didn't particularly care to share hers. It was perfectly to her taste to sit back in the background, being intermittently forgotten, just... listening. Gathering information, remembering things.

You couldn't trust Lanicans. You couldn't trust anyone, of course, but Lanicans were especially shitty, alongside Katrians, Tyrans, Neridans, and also everybody else.
Maybe that wasn't how "especially" was supposed to be used, but Jessie didn't care.

She was wearing a mid-length blond wig, her chest was bound a bit tight, and a pair of non-prescription glasses were perched on her nose. She'd only had one other disguise while with these people, and she hadn't changed her name in a while (they knew her as "Alice Golden"), so she was getting a bit antsy - but no need for any of these ladies to know that.

So Jessie sat, and she watched, and she listened as the discussion unfolded.

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

L

L returned the handshake out of instinct more than courtesy, this Terra... this was going to be just as much a pain in the neck but perhaps for reasons completely different than she expected. "I am aware of who you are, and the time of your discharge. You are something of a revolutionary as the church would put it." L swirled her lollipop over her tongue once more, another sweet and sour spike of lemon her reward. It was all she had to keep herself sane here, and cling to it she shall. L gestured back towards Terra's currently vacant seat hoping she'd catch the hint as she pulled up a chair herself.

"And that is the nature of our meeting, to determine the worth of your Holy Weapon, your character and if you would be an asset to such a team. Lack of combat experience only matters in the sense that I suppose you lack a solid foundation of what your Holy Weapon can do in such situations, so... I suppose we will beworking a lot within the abstract here. Given I have taught more Meisters how to properly utilize their Holy Weapons that any of the instructors can claim to... We'll be fine." L was hardly concerned with such matters, she often had to teach Meisters herself as the ones sent to her typically required... advanced care. That or solely others were unwilling to give then extra attention when they sorely needed it. And if wasn't an issue with that, it was one in attitude. Both at once wasn't daunting, the two problems were often linked. It had dawned o L however that she had forgotten to introduce herself, she truly was absentminded from how tired she was.

"Ah, but I am getting ahead of myself. Forgive me... I was given two days to do all the footwork for assembling a squad with notice the day of. I am Major L Vaughn. A pleasure."

[Chevaleresse]

Kira

"Hello," Kira said politely. Verna continued to be a curiosity, to say the least, and enough of one that it actually found its way to her expression. This was shared with near-confusion at being presented with the quite clearly unhealthy (if tasty) meal by the doctor; she would have needed to go at least a bit out of her way to get it. Not that she hadn't already been going very, very far out of her way, but something about it still felt odd to her. The gesture stuck out in a way that was unfamiliar.

She couldn't help but watch Verna, though at the very least she seemed to be the type to be unbothered to have Kira's broken gaze following her. She almost felt like she should. . . apologize? Verna had seemed very betrayed the last time they'd interacted meaningfully, though Kira had little idea of what she'd actually done - beyond the escape attempt, of course. "What's different about today?" she finally asked, attention swapping back to Doc for the moment.

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Monika

"Your welcome. Hopefully I cleared a few things up" Monika replied, stepping forward to take Miranda's business card with her trademark smile. As soon as Miranda left the room however, said smile dropped, the Major glancing down at the card in her hand as she was left to her own thoughts. She and Camilla seemed oddly similar in how their own military saw them, somewhat distrustful and using their influence to do things that others would easily question. The only difference is that while Monika used hers to relax, Camilla used hers to simply do things her way. In all honesty, Monika wouldn't be surprised if her superiors put her under a close watch. As dependable as she was, it was obvious that she didn't agree with everything the church taught them, which could make her sympathetic to their enemies, and a potential weak link.

... With all the coincidences surrounding this situation, perhaps that may have been true, and they had orchestrated all this in order to get rid of her.

But, if nothing else... This meeting gave her insight as to how others outside of her country thought of her. Back home, she was often seen as a war hero, due to how rare it was for a woman of her age to have multiple confirmed enemy Meister kills. Her mother was a force to be reckoned with, as far as she knew, but Monika had already begun making a name for herself. Sure, she wasn't like Astarotte and took on three Dames at the same time and won, but regardless, she was still notable. Outside of that, however, she was terrifying. She had proven herself to be a capable killer, and as far as Miranda knew, she could've died at any point in their conversation... Which wasn't entirely true, seeing as she didn't have her weapon on her, but it was still a lingering fear.

Letting out a sigh, Monika pocketed the card, turning to the window once more as her mind continued to wander. If this was how they viewed her, then Monika could figure out how they felt about her mother. From an outsider's perspective, her mother would be a walking nightmare, yet to her, she was still her loving mother, someone who Monika looked up to for most of her life, before she joined the Holy Army...

[Takosher]

Eilyth

Laurie gave Eilyth an odd look, something like surprise mixed with smug superiority. She'd expected Eilyth to know what she was talking about, and was relishing the fact that she was party to a big secret. "You know, when she gets a weird look in her eyes and starts listing off numbers?" she explained. Seeking to impress, she added, "I always make sure to write them down in my notebook, in case they're important."

From what Eilyth had heard throughout the day, that would make them the only important thing in Laurie's notebook.

Laurie ran over to her backpack and pulled the notebook out, flipped to a page somewhere in the middle, and turned it around to show Eilyth. Mixed in among the flood of fashion tips, gossip notes, and doodles was a string of numbers. "6 21 6 5 18 3 5 6 21 6 5 18 3 5" It seemed meaningless, but that only made it all the more unusual.

Jessie

Thanks to Mirth cutting her off, Hellia was unable to pursue the issue of Mack's late arrival and instead retreated back to her workspace and her crossword. The conversation turned to Mack's fight, and Lali carefully joined in. Knowing what sort of enemies Mack had made was her job, but after the earlier tension she was finding it hard to be comfortably involved in any interactions. Apparently Mack had handily defeated two Katrian meisters with the power of chewing gum. The amount of focus she put on the part where she used a kiss to spit gum into one of their throats was a little uncomfortable to listen to, although Hellia and Mirth didn't seem bothered, they were used to Mack's antics. Lali would probably never get used to them.

As the discussion shifted to what they were going to do with all of the money they'd just made, the door opened and an unfamiliar blue-haired woman walked in. She set down the bags of groceries she was carrying and walked directly towards the bathroom. A few seconds later Changer walked out in her mask and nightgown, the last hint of blue fading from her bright orange hair. Her mask was probably the most curious thing about her. It was basically just an oval over her face. One side had half of a simple smiling face painted on in red, while the other had a blue frown in the same style. Jessie still had no clue how the girl could see through it, since there were no visible holes or perforations for her eyes.

"Welcome back, Changer." Mack said as she grabbed one of the bags to start putting things away.

"Thanks." Changer said. Her voice was very soft, and the slight echo from the mask made it hard to understand. "There's more in the car." she added.

Mack nodded. "Hey, short stuff." she called out to 'Alice,' "Go get the groceries for Changer." It was more than a little ironic for Mack, who was as much shorter than Jessie as Hellia was taller, to call someone else short stuff. But Jessie was used to Makaylin's hypocritical style of teasing by now. The boss seemed to revel in her shortcomings, and in making fun of those shortcomings in others.

There wasn't really an option to refuse, although no one would complain if Jessie asked for further assistance. Changer had gone all out on the restock, it was best for them to buy in bulk and minimize shopping trips, it left fewer chances to get caught by the wrong person. Which meant there was a lot to carry.

L

"Nice to meet you." Terra offered L a seat at the table and returned to absentmindedly munching on her food. She wasn't exactly impolite, but her manners had definitely been impacted by her confinement. "I don't mean to brag, but Even without experience I'm pretty sure I'm an asset to just about anyone. I'm just as famous for how dumb my power is as I am for running my mouth." she shoveled in more cereal before continuing, "Aph for mmph charaphter," she swallowed, "I don't like to be told what to do, I'm me and I'm going to act like it. But that doesn't mean I can't follow orders. The only reason I'm stuck here is because I answered a question truthfully. And it's not like I said I was going to betray the Church or anything. I didn't exactly ask to get put on TV, you know? If nobody had asked me, 'And which goddess do you hold closest to your heart?' I wouldn't have answered."

Terra was definitely not living up to the media portrayal at all. She sounded like a perfectly normal teenage girl. She was a bit socially awkward and didn't know when to hold her tongue, but it was hard to believe that she was actually the dangerous revolutionary that her opponents and supporters alike saw her as.

Kira

"I'm sorry." Verna said before Doc had a chance to answer Kira's question. She looked like she was about to cry, a very sudden shift from how cheerful she'd seemed mere moment earlier. "I didn't mean to get mad at you, I thought you were lying to me. I said you could trust me and I thought you didn't, but I realize now that you just didn't know." she sounded genuine, but the apologetic look on Doc's face told Kira that there was more to the story than that.

Monika

4 years ago...

Monika's mother squeezed her shoulders, encouraging her. Being given a holy weapon was a huge honor, but it was also a daunting responsibility. Monika couldn't shake the feeling that beneath the veneer of pride, her mother was terrified. It wasn't a good feeling, no one was more qualified than Kellen Sydow to know how dangerous holy weapon fights were. But despite her fear, Kellen had still chosen to support her daughter, just as her own mother had supported her.

"Do you want to go in alone?" Monika's mother asked. She clearly didn't want to wait in the car, but the final decision was Monika's

It wasn't the norm for mothers to attend when their daughters acquired holy weapons, but it wasn't unusual either. In a way, this was the last time they'd see each other until Monika's mandatory service was over. Realistically, Kellen was too important to not find a reason to visit, but it wouldn't be the same so long as Monika was living away from home as a soldier. And in that light, it was no wonder that Kellen had insisted on driving Monika to the forge, even though Monika could have easily done it herself.

[Sutoratosu Akira]

Eilyth
"Uh... no," Eilyth responded, staring at the numbers, "I've seen her shift gears in battle plenty of times, but... never anything like what you're describing." Try as she might, she couldn't find anything of discernible significance here. There was a clear pattern, but whatever that pattern may have represented was beyond her. Though, the more she looked at it, the more familiar this formatting became...
   "This kinda reminds me of a Numbers Station readout. How often have you seen her do this?"

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Monika

In contrast to her mother, Monika was ecstatic for the occasion. She could see the worried looks Kellen gave her, but that didn't change the fact that she was being entrusted with a new Holy Weapon. Sure, plenty of women had done so before her, but it was still a small percentage, which made the gesture truly mean something. Even with the responsibility bearing one would bring to her, Monika wasn't worried in the slightest. She was confident in her ability to handle whatever was thrown at her, and she wasn't planning on letting that trend falter anytime soon.

"Mom, you know me better than anyone else. If you want to come in with me, I'm not going to stop you" Monika replied, offering her mother a soft smile before continuing, glancing aside at the forge ahead, "But I think it's best for me to go in alone. I do need to step out of the house and care for myself eventually, right?" she added, refocusing her gaze to that of her mother's. Even at 16, Monika's hair was a long, and a general mess, black hair shrouding her eyes so that it was difficult to see them sometimes. Yet even still, her red eyes shone with intensity and life, ready to take her next step in life.

[Takosher]

Eilyth

Laurie shrugged, "A few times." She flipped to another page in the notebook. "This is the first one."

"19 9 17 22 3 1 16 5 2 3 21 17 21 6 10 17 22 16 17 4 16 21 17 21 14 17 21 15 3 10 16 4 14 10 11 5 16 9 21 12 10 17 22 3 20 6 5 17 22 3 21 17 15 16 1 10 3 21 21"

Monika

Kellen smiled gently. "Alright, alright." she said, "I can tell when I'm not needed. It's just my mom job to worry regardless. When you're done we'll go to a restaurant to celebrate."

The inside of the forge was filled with various machines strewn about. To Monika it looked like utter chaos. There was only one person there, a young man who was absentmindedly fiddling with hammer. According to her mother, the Esteemed One here was an old man by the name of Ehman. One of their servants, Severus, was an old man, so Monika knew what to look for. But knowing what to look for wasn't much help when the only person you could see was so clearly not correct.

[Chevaleresse]

Kira

As usual, Verna's mercurial emotions were a challenge. They had, however, saved her the awkwardness of asking her what she'd done to offend her directly. "I'm not upset." She shrugged slightly, unsure of how to continue. It seemed likely that she'd veer off in another direction in a moment or two anyway. "I didn't realize you cared that much." Kira couldn't keep the questioning tone out of her voice; it was another quandry she wanted an answer for, but even she was sensitive enough to know that outright asking someone why they seemed to be obsessed with you might come off as rude.

[Sutoratosu Akira]

Eilyth
"Hmmmm" Eilyth stared more intently at this set, clearly in deep thought as her eyes scanned the code time and time again. She noticed there was no number higher than 26 in either sets she'd seen thus far, and almost on a whim decided to test it against a basic cipher. Getting the letters to stick in her mind was, as always, a rather troublesome affair, but less than usual given she had something she could more easily conceptualize to bind them to. She could even remember a few times when she was little and had an even harder time that she'd done this to get through more complex readings.
    "S...I...Q...V...C... nope," she stopped while she was ahead, Base 26 was a clear failure here. She tried the other variant of it and got similar nonsense results. If there was a corresponding Cipher to any of this, it was going to be something more complex. Did she really have the time to sit here and go through more until she found one? If it even existed, and this really wasn't just nonsense? She might. But she might also find it more productive to get a bit more context instead.
    "You ever see her do anything else weird, besides these numbers? Does anything seem the trigger the numbers, or does it happen randomly?"

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Monika

With a nod, Monika pulled her mother in for a swift hug, lasting for about two seconds before she turned and began heading into the forge, offering her mother a wave as she stepped into the building. Inside was... As chaotic as Monika expected from the name, with all the machines scattered along the ground. Granted, it wasn't nearly as chaotic as it could've been... Considering the fact that the only person she could see inside was a young man messing with a hammer.

Which was... Odd, considering she was meant to see a far older man, the Esteemed One, so she could forge her weapon. Perhaps this was an apprentice and the man was dealing with something else?

"Excuse me, do you know where the Esteemed One is?" Monika asked, making her presence known as she walked through the building, even though her footsteps loudly announced her arrival. She wasn't much for subtlety.