JUNE 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

[sodder]

JUNE 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

Welcome to June's Test Drive Meme! This month's Test Drive's theme is: FAIRY FANTASY HORROR.

All Test Drive Memes contain at least one clue to the Deerington's upcoming in-game events for the month! Keep your eyes peeled! But...not literally.

Characters may die during TDMs, but you do not need to count it towards a game-canonical death unless you want to. Consider it a freebie. All TDMs can be considered game canon as TDMs introduce minor aspects about the world of Deerington that can be revisited by characters later on in the game. You may also use TDMs for your application writing sample as well as AC.

CW: Alligators (pictured & written), pictures of skulls, violence, mention of corpses, possession, possible death
Don't forget to tag content whenever necessary. Have fun!

Prompt One
Prompt Two
Character Arrival
Master Navigation

TICK TOCK TICK TOCK

The low sound of growling coming from the pipes should probably be a cause for concern, but is it really that strange for Deerington? Is anything that strange anymore? There's been people talking about monsters again, the kind that snatch kids and small animals without mercy through the gates in the road and someone said they saw something that looked practically prehistoric pop up through a manhole on the north side of Main Street. He was drunk, though, so who's really gonna believe the ravings of a college kid on a bender.

The growling sometimes comes with hisses, a strange snapping sound, and the occasional scratching of claws against metal or stone. There's something down there alright, but are you going to go try and find it yourself or just hope someone else takes care of it?

Anyone who ventures into the sewers will find that it's become home to some rather large and terrifying beasts; alligators, to be precise, but not normal ones. Oh, no, that would be too easy. These have clearly been mutated, grown to a much larger size than any alligator anyone has ever seen, with teeth as sharp as diamonds and they're ready to rip you apart in one bite. The skin is hard as rock on top, but the underbelly is still soft as ever. Looks like you'll know where to aim if you decide to fight.

Those who don't go into the sewers can still find that the alligators are indeed popping up from manholes, or coming out of from the drains along the road, and if you're not careful, they might even manage to somehow find a way through the pipes and into your home. It shouldn't be possible, but anyone who's been in this town long enough can tell you that anything is possible.

These large alligators take at least two people to take it down. One particularly strong person may be able to fight it off themselves, but it's going to be dangerous and you'll probably walk away severely injured. The more who join in, the easier it will go. Normal weapons will work fine on the underbelly, but the top skin will be incapable of being penetrated by even the most advanced of weapons. Magic seems to have a particularly strong effect on them, however, so maybe you should think of teaming up with a wizard.

RIDDEN THE BACK OF THE WIND

The smell of corpses is what hits you first; it's overwhelming and impossible to escape, no matter how hard you try. It seems to take over the entire town at random intervals, and the first thing you'll notice is the locals running indoors. They'll slam all windows that face west shut and lock them tight, or maybe go so far as to close any open windows and doors all together, and they'll stay there until it's passed. You'd be wise to do the same.

The wind picks up quickly and there's the sound of what could be hummingbirds, but doesn't sound quite right. The fairies that come through are looking primarily for the dead or dying to whisk away their souls, but being particularly sadistic bastards, they're prone to getting sidetracked by tormenting the living as well. They'll swarm unsuspecting victims in the outdoors, picking them up and pulling them high above the streets as they circle them. If you're caught, they'll swarm around you, the humming becoming unbearably loud and the vibrations shaking your body down to the very core. The evil within them will consume you and when they drop you - which they always do - you'll find that you're filled with a violent and uncontrollable rage.

This rage will cause you to attack anyone and everyone around you with whatever weapon you are most efficient with. You're not just here to do mild harm, you're out for blood, and you'll soon as kill your best friend if it means quieting the darkness welling up inside you.

The only means of curing the darkness is by purifying it with light; this can be interpreted metaphorically by having someone with a pure intentions try and love you through your own pain or literally by having someone use light magic or bright, shining sun lamps to literally overwhelm the darkness inside of you and give it no place to escape. It's entirely up to the player.

Character Arrival

You can read how all characters arrive in Deerington here.

There is not a collective "all these characters showed up at the exact same moment" occurrence in Deerington. Since characters fall asleep, die, or pass out at various times throughout all their worlds, it wouldn't make too much sense if they arrived in game all at the exact same time. There should be some discrepancy between character arrival, whether by a couple minutes, hours, or even days up to a week.

The players are entirely in control of how/when they want to play their characters arriving in Deerington. For TDMs, you can play it like your character has just arrived and that can be maintained as your game canon, or you can wait until game events for that moment. Or you don't need to acknowledge it at all. The flexibility for character allows a bit more of an organic feel to the character arrival situation, so please play it to whatever feels right for you.

If you are interested in having an "arrival" introduction for one of your TDM prompts, you are more than welcome to explore that option.

Comments

She'll purge you of your poison, but she won't promise this might not hurt

[threelayers]

She caught the tapping of those feet as she slipped out of the door that had just been unlocked. The fairies were gone. It was safe. That's what the shopkeep said. Right. She'd heard that before, and she trusted the natives approximately as far as she could throw them.

'SALEM!'

What? What the fuck? Her head whipped around, at first not catching Emerald. She was looking for Salem. Cinder had described her, but she had never met that creature. Nothing even close to her ever showed its face in the first look, but in the next second there was green hair mere inches away.

She hopped back a step, Hush barely getting up in time to parry the slash of Emerald's kama. EMERALD?!? The hell?!? was written all over her face as she danced back, bringing her umbrella in a swift succession of defensive moves. She wasn't surprised to be attacked by Emerald. Nah. That was in the realm of possibility. But, as she whipped her head back to dodge, she was trying very hard to figure something far more important out.

Is that actually YOU!?!

[hallucinogem]

Great. Good. Fantastic. Her old co-worker. Too bad Emerald doesn't have the metal energy to slow her attacks down, even as each one is parried. She fought Mercury the same way, didn't she? Probably just a matter of time before she ended up doing this with Neo, too.

(She's gotten even better with that umbrella, hasn't she.)

Emerald shifts the way she's holding her blades so they're better suited for piercing and slashing through fabric, and though she's normally certain that Neo's umbrella would be able to withstand it, right now it's not on her mind. Right now, if she can take that weapon out, she can take Neo out.

"This is her fault! All of this is her fault!" She honestly has no idea whether Neo even knows who Salem is. It depends on how much Cinder shared with her and Roman—so probably not much, huh? But it doesn't matter. "I need to find her and I need to take her out and you're in my way!"

[threelayers]

Someone had gotten more confident with those little green pop-guns of hers in the last two years. Well, it's not like Neo had expected any of them to stand still, and Emerald looked ... about the right age for what she'd expect after this time, give or take. She didn't really have time to run down the numbers and think about it with those things trying to scrape through hush's lace.

The tiny sheen of pink light flowing over the umbrella and her body, only to disappear from view, was plenty to tell the story. She might have to watch her aura in ways she never did back home, but Neo was still using it to augment her umbrella just like her own defense. The lace didn't fray when the blades slashed and the tines of it held fast. She whacked back, hand moving with ease to block one while she would twist out of the way of the other, trying to let Emerald just get madder and madder and madder, because that's what it looked like she was doing, and a mad Emerald made stupid mistakes. Good fighter, but in Neo's estimation she fought with her heart, not her head most days.

All this talk of Salem. Seemed she wasn't the only one who'd picked up some baggage in the last couple years. Neo was no longer off balance, so as she tried to keep pace with the other woman, she thought of ways to handle this. She had a tiny bit of dust thanks to that bazaar, but she didn't want to waste it, least of all taking down someone who might actually work with her. so, instead, she opted to try a twisting maneuver, to whip her body around while Emerald was on the frontal assault and bring the handle of her umbrella up, straight at her jaw. Someone needed to take a nap.

[hallucinogem]

Normally, yes, Emerald would've been able to see it coming and dodge it. Normally, Emerald would have more of her head in the fight. But right now, no, she's... well, it's hard to say she's got much of her heart in it, either. She's all gut right now, swinging and growling and begging for something to tear through that stupid umbrella that shouldn't be this damn resilient.

But. Yeah. It's a good thing that Emerald actually has some physical resilience to back things up, because she doesn't even think to engage her aura more than just passively. Her head gets knocked backwards by the handle, and she staggers, her arms dropping to her sides and her head swimming in blood-red stars. It takes her a moment to recover, and even though strategy says that she should be fighting from a distance (like with the guns? that she has? maybe?), there isn't any room for strategy in her head. She doesn't even take any careful steps to make sure she still has her balance, which, of course, she doesn't. The stagger she takes forward, the one that was meant to be a charge to close the distance again, comes with another blind slash of her blades.

[threelayers]

She was fighting sloppy. Neo would have said she was on par with Cinder in raw physical combat, if you ignored the impact of semblance. She could use gun and blade better than what was basically a pyrokineticist with decent skill with her swords. She shouldn't have been able to land that half as hard.

So, she decided to test just how out of it Emerald was. When she lunged back in, Neo used her own semblance, letting Emerald get in as close as she wanted, making the fake image of herself look like she was getting hit, like there should have been a spray of blood, right before the thing shattered like glass. Right about that second, if Emerald wasn't careful she'd feel the hook of the oh too resilient umbrella's handle around the back of her neck, Neo seeming to materialize just to the side. She yanked down, and drove her knee right up.

Hard.

She could privately admit to herself that going this hard on an ally could be fun, but she just needed her dazed for a second. if she could get her there, she had an idea. Might just shut her up for a little bit.

[hallucinogem]

She's got her, of course she does, Neo was never good enough, Roman was never as good at training her than Cinder was with Emerald, Neo was never good enough on her own and it's never been more obvious than right now, with Emerald's blade buried deep into her body—

Except then the illusion shatters, and she's pulled backwards and she takes the knee exactly where Neo wants it and she coughs hard enough for her eyes to go wide, and once again she's seeing stars. She needs to fight smarter, she needs to fight better, but she needs to fight and that's the only thing she can focus on. The problem is that she's... her head feels... heavy. Heavier than usual. Her instincts tell her to keep swinging, but her body isn't responding and her brain is just returning fuzz.

It's been a while since she's been in this position, and even if clarity isn't returning to her in the slightest yet, she's kind of getting the feeling that this is a loss. Maybe. A temporary setback. She'll recover, it'll be. Fine. And she'll kick Neo's ass and it'll be fine and her body just needs to listen to her and do something already.

[threelayers]

Oh yeah, she could go a few round on her opinions of Cinder v Roman, but that would be a 'conversation' for another day without question. Right now, Neo couldn't help the look of smug satisfaction on her face when she saw Emerald reel, because she always wore a look of smug satisfaction when she hit someone hard enough to have them reeling.

There was a 'ting' followed by a 'tink' sound on the ground while the thief turned terrorist was still physically trying to recover her senses from the blow. Neo cartwheeled back in her trademark fashion, several steps to land on the nearest bench, sitting down and crossing her legs as she did. What landed behind and caused that sound was a small, cylindrical cannister. She'd gotten a couple of these two, and she wasn't about to waste what little dust she had. But this would work at point-blank range nicely.

The umbrella snapped open on the count of three and she exhaled, closing her eyes and facing away. At Emerald's feet, the flash-bang went off. The world was a tinnitus ringing and a brilliant world of light with just enough concussive force to possibly knock someone back onto their butt without doing a lot of personal harm. But the nausea people felt when that sound wave hit the ears was never pleasant. Neo was currently banking that, that close, it would do the job of knocking this girl down a peg and getting her pliable so they could talk.

Assuming it was really her. Wouldn't have been the first time a shade from the past had come back to fight.

[hallucinogem]

It takes her a second to even realize that something's been dropped, and she's just about ready to start moving again when it goes off. And for as much darkness as she'd been shrouded in, all the fists and claws and hate, she's immediately overcome with light and sound and pain. Different pain. A pain that's inside her own head, rather than the one swarming and buzzing in her chest and her gut. It's...

Almost a relief. Because when everything starts to return to normal and she realizes she, at some point, toppled backwards, when her head is clear and the ringing is down to a steady drone that she can deal with while it fades—it's not like she has to listen for Neo's voice or anything—she blinks a few times and looks up at Neo and actually... processes it for the first time.

"Neo? What the..." Her hand, now empty, goes to her head. "What was I doing?"

[threelayers]

Well, this was reassuring, wasn't it? She certainly sounded a bit more like her usual self, if confused. Neo walked forward slowly, one step at a time in that sinuous sort of way that she had, keeping Hush at her side just in case while she drew in close. She leaned forward, tipping her hat back and having a look at Emerald, a rather careful one.

Oddly? She was specifically looking at her old teammate's wrists, hunting to make sure if she was wearing the distinctive watch/wristband called the fluid, the toy that all the Sleepers got. If she did see it, she leaned back and snickered softly before shrugging. What did she say? Trying to kill me? Getting my head fucked with? Getting my butt handed to me? Nah, she was going to be civil instead of rubbing it in.

She pulled the wristband off her own wrist and typed on it.

Don't worry about it.
Drinks? You're confused, I assume.
I'll read you in.

[hallucinogem]

It was definitely there, but she hadn't really noticed it until now what with... all of the murder stuff dominating her mind. Now that she was in her right mind, she wasn't exactly intimidated by Neo, and she felt comfortable enough treating her like the... colleague? Coworker? Ffffffriend? Whatever level of professionalism they had now that Cinder was on Salem's shit list. Treating her with that level of respect.

"Wouldn't be the least welcoming way I've ended up somewhere new," she said, still just trying to get a handle on her words. With one more shake of her head, she reached out to holster her guns, then got back up to her feet. "Okay. Yeah. I think I could go for a drink. And an explanation."

A pause. "The hat looks good."

[threelayers]

They were definitely something more or less positive. She didn't have any misgivings about Emerald. Sure, she could be a viperish little thing when she got annoyed, but then again Neo was no kind, compassionate soul herself. You didn't get into their line of work by being nice people, and outside of the way that she worshiped the ground Cinder walked on? Neo had no issues with her, and really... she probably felt more sympathy for her than anything on that. Cinder had her hooks pretty tight in this woman, and it was painfully obvious to her, Mercury, Roman and pretty much anyone else who'd ever worked with her. Emerald wore her idolization of that bitch on her sleeve.

That... that was going to be a minor issue maybe. But she didn't need to cross it right now. She could just let that sleeping dog lay, even if Cinder was bound to come up. Emerald would want to know, probably.

She motioned for her to follow and propped her umbrella up on her shoulder, heading toward the hair of the Dog. As she walked, there was a short halt in her steps. The hat. Her face got a little dark and she looked like she was trying to decide if she should say something. they all used ammunition against each other back home... no, she wasn't hiding this.

It was his.
I'd rather not talk about him, ok?

She held the phone for her to see before jerking her head again. Roman... could wait. Two years a sore spot, he could wait.

[hallucinogem]

It wasn't actually ammunition, or at least Emerald hadn't thought of it as that until she saw what it had actually done to Neo. Maybe her brains were still scrambled a little and she was actually trying to pay her a compliment, or... well. Whatever. Didn't matter, because it was already out there in the open, and it apparently wasn't bad enough to get Neo to, like, start fighting her again or anything.

"Right," she agreed, holding back the easy comment about talking. Letting it hang in the air awkwardly was pretty miserable, but she knew that they'd have problems really doing any effective talking until they actually got into the bar. "We can pick this up when we're back inside," she said, and for the moment, Em held her tongue. And followed, like she was good at doing, like she had practice doing. Gods, she really didn't have anyone here, did she? Better not let that one set in.

[threelayers]

She nodded and gave her a quick thumbs up to say she understood before taking off just ahead. About a block away from the place, she let one of her illusions take hold with a quick step into an alleyway and gave Emerald a wink before motioning towards the bar. When it came down to it, she was using fake IDs and disguises since technically she wasn't quite 21, and these people were weird little sticklers about that.

The bar was a filthy little trash heap where people went to drown their sorrows. It had seen better days, and it looked like the kind of place scum congregated. Once inside, she put a pinch of something that looked distinctly like dog's hair in both the drinks scooted towards her as soon as she nodded to the barkeep and offered her one, tapping quickly.

I know it's disgusting.
Just trust me and drink it.
It'll take us somewhere mostly secure.

And, as she held her drink up in salute, ready to down it without a care for how disgusting it looked to drink dog's hair, she grinned and winked at her old teammate. As long as Emerald played along, the next second after a lurching sensation and they would both be in a bar that looked nothing like the last. It was like something out of the Great Gatsby, complete with flappers dancing in the background, top-shelf booze and posh white lights along the manicured and decadent halls of the magical little speakeasy.

[hallucinogem]

Em followed Neo's lead, comfortably projecting the image of somebody who was more than old enough to get into the bar on her own and flashing a blank card that only looked like an ID to the bouncer. Felt good to exert that kind of control over her situation again after not really being able to make use of it much lately. This really was the first time she'd seen anyone care that much about it. Once they were both inside, though, the fun really started. Apparently.

She fixed Neo with a skeptical look and read through her message. If she was being lied to, this would be a hell of a way to do it. A quick exhale through her nose later and the drink went down the hatch, and—

Emerald blinked a couple times just to make sure she wasn't seeing things, because that would be her luck, but... no, this all seemed. As real as it could be. Her eyes drank in the location, the opulence, the absolute unbelievable difference between what she'd walked into and what she was seeing now. Despite herself, a smile made its way to her face.

"Either this place is really good or your Semblance got a whole lot stronger," she said, her eyes finally settling on Neo. "So what's going on?"

[threelayers]

She settled back in her seat in what was now a booth, sipping her drink once and offering Emerald a smug little grin there or a moment. Let it all sneak in, get the whole feel of it for a little bit and then she'd reply. It was going to be text. She didn't mind keeping mute, but this was a lot harder if she didn't type something out. When her fingers moved, she was quick, but that was no shocker. She'd done it with Roman like this whenever he needed a real report.

Scooting the fluid over so that she could see, she shook her head.

I'm good, but not that good.
Watch your semblance here. It won't always work quite right.

So, you have questions. I'll answer your first.
Cinder's not here, and she's never come here, not yet anyway.
I did check when I showed up.

Red's here. Her sister.
Kid I met once who travels with them. Oscar?
Jaune. That robot girl's back too in one piece.
The Heiress and Faunus were here, but they're gone again.
Pyrrha too, so "but they're dead" doesn't always apply, fair warning.

Clover was here too, but she hadn't quite pinned down exactly who he was, and she was still waiting on the new arrivals to sort of suss themselves out before she said more on the topic, but she knew that Emerald was going to want to know who was actually here that she knew, especially Cinder, so best to get that out of the way.

[hallucinogem]

Lots of information. Neo was always good at that. Emerald wasn't exactly feeling a drink right now—she figured it was probably better to keep herself as lucid as possible, especially after how these two had gotten here in the first place—but she still sipped at her own politely enough while she read over what Neo had to debrief her on.

Reading the part about Cinder sent her on a face journey that she wasn't necessarily sure how to define. It was probably... better that she wasn't here, yeah, but it really did leave Emerald with. With Neo as her only touchstone to what her life used to be. And that's one hell of a connection to be hanging on to, considering how long it had been since they'd actually interacted at all. And whether they could be considered friends in the first place, or if Neo was just working on her own schemes, whatever they were.

And then Red. And Red's sister. And she scanned through the list of other people here, and it was great to know that just because someone was dead didn't mean they couldn't appear in this weird, messed up place, but her brain still focused on Yang so hard that her hand holding the glass began to tremble. "I don't know what Ruby's sister did to Cinder, but she and I have a score to settle. Do you know where they're all holed up?"

[threelayers]

6010 Swan Lane
Can get you directions.
Far be it from me to get in the way of payback, but a few things you should know.

1) Cinder's alive last I saw her. New arm, though.
Had me grab some sort of "relic" for her.
2) Do NOT let the umpteen hundred black cats in this town see you try to hurt someone.
They. will. FUCK. you. up.
Trust me. You cannot beat them.

She knew this from very personal experience. The first time she'd tried to kill Ruby Rose in this town had been her first day in this town. The cats had been the ones to stop her that day, and she'd been studying those little troublemakers ever since. What she'd gleaned was helpful, but not cheering.

She was only sipping at her drink to keep the people here from hassling her, but since she worked in this place as a bouncer most nights, she could probably count on a certain amount of leeway. She settled back, letting Emerald digest this next bit. She'd known that the Authority was going to get mentioned sooner or later. They both needed to know about that.

[hallucinogem]

This was... a lot to take in. She trusted Neo a hell of a lot more than she trusted Salem, so hearing outright that Cinder was alive the last time Neo saw her was... that was a lot. Her hand stopped trembling, and her expression widened, all in her eyes, then it spread down to the corners of her lips, and finally she realized that she was still being looked at and reined it all back in to come to. Some kind of neutral expression. Even if her heart felt like it wanted to beat out of her chest.

She couldn't have been waiting very long to process all of it before she was able to snap herself back into reality. That was when she decided to read further down and actually understand everything, and though the mental image of Neo getting swarmed by a bunch of cats was pretty hilarious, it wasn't exactly something she liked hearing. Reading.

"I'll do my best. If Cinder's still alive, then blondie doesn't have to answer for anything anymore, so I guess violence is off the table with her." She meant it as a joke, but some part of her was legitimately relieved. The less ass she had to kick to get her answers, the better. "But. If you and Cinder met up, then... gods. How long have you been working together?" She paused, weighing whether she should talk about Salem's plan for her and deciding that it didn't matter anymore. Not with Neo, at least. Not with this. "Salem was going to send me and Merc to Vacuo. That's the last thing I remember, was being on a ship on my way there."

[threelayers]

She nodded. Cinder hadn't told her much of anything about what happened in Mistral, but since when was that news? Cinder never told people shit about the times that she got her ass handed to her royally. So, naturally, she assumed Emerald would know not to ask for details about that sort of thing. Only Cinder knew how she'd screwed up in underestimating Raven, and she was going to want to keep it that way.

We met up in Mistral.
After some kerfluffle with Faunus at the academy.
They're looking for you over there, by the way. All of you.
Some big guy I don't know too.
Last I saw, we were in Atlas after I got the relic.
Something happened with the winter maiden.
Cinder was pissed off, as per usual.

She had not had the pleasure of meeting Hazel in person. She probably would like the big guy, honestly. He had an attitude that she could legitimately appreciate, and he didn't brooke bullshit. Gotta appreciate that kind of man. But, by saying this, she knew she was letting on that she wasn't really 'in' Cinder's inner circle. She knew only what Cinder chose to tell her, which could be paltry little at points.

She took a sip from her drink, closing her eyes and sighing a bit. One hand reached out to brush the back of Emerald's as she dipped her head a little. Her taps were slower for a second. Not really a deeply emotional moment, but...

I'm going to kill Red.
The cats won't stop me forever, even if it kills me.
But, it's good to have you here.
Only person I really have to talk to is Maul.

You'd probably like him.
Total psycho, but has it together.
But, he doesn't know.
You know.

[hallucinogem]

Neo would probably like Hazel, though Emerald was still trying to wrestle with the idea that she liked him herself. He'd treated her more kindly than most had, and she still assumed he wanted something from her; she just hadn't figured it out yet. But it wasn't as important as everything else that Neo was telling her. Another maiden in Atlas, and probably a failure... on top of everything that Neo felt towards Ruby. It made sense. What Neo wanted made sense, and she couldn't really argue any of it.

She nodded through to the last sentence. Not a lot of people here knew Neo as well as Emerald did, even if that bar was low and the list of things she really knew about Neo was closer to a pamphlet than a book. It helped, too, that Neo was touching the back of her hand, and if they were closer she might have turned her hand over to hold Neo's. Instead, she just kind of... let the contact happen, let her gaze soften.

"There's not a lot of people here who get what we've been through, is there?" she said, not sure where she was going with it. "Well. Now we can work on getting back home together, and maybe I can find a way to get to Atlas." She looked ahead, out in front of her, trying not to think about what that would entail. Her hand tensed again, and the words escaped anyway. "It would mean crossing Salem."

[threelayers]

Her hand froze a little. She swallowed, realizing what she was doing. She was consoling the woman who loved someone she intended to murder in cold blood. She was doing it not just once, but twice. She'd done it to Penny when she'd lied to the network so that she and Ruby would stop getting other people involved in their shit, and now she was doing it to someone who hadn't exactly been nice... but who had never been openly cruel to her.

Was she really this cruel?
Was that better than Cinder?
Did she hate this much?

A few breaths and she pressed down with the palm of her hand before typing onto her phone. It was a little reluctant, but she nodded to herself as she did it. No, she could type this at least.

I help will get you back.
I have nothing to go back to, so long as she is here.
Tell me about Salem.
Cinder tells me very little, and I think I trust you more.

Really calling water wet right there. She trusted anyone more than Cinder. she trusted Ruby considerably further.

[hallucinogem]

From Emerald's perspective, she just assumed Neo was grappling with the idea of offering genuine help to someone. Same as Emerald did more often than she'd prefer to admit. Evil-curious indeed. She started, "Salem is—"

And then reconsidered. Maybe text would be better. This was sensitive information, after all, and she couldn't exactly... she couldn't be sure that this wasn't all some big plot from Salem anyway, or that she wasn't going to plant someone here to overhear everything, or whatever it was about her that made Emerald question even thinking negative things about her.

She started typing out her answer instead on her own wristband, removing the device and leaving it in clear view of Neo. Emerald wasn't quite as quick with her thumbs, but she still knew how to work technology.

Salem wants the relics. I don't know why except that they're going to make her even more powerful.
She really hates Ozpin. Like, she destroyed her own meeting chambers because someone said his name.
And if anyone does anything that goes against her

Emerald closed her eyes, pausing in the middle of typing. She still remembered Salem's words crystal clear, as though she'd just heard them yesterday. After a moment with nothing but the fear creeping into her head and onto her face, she continued on a new line.

"The moment you put your desires before my own, they will be lost to you."
"The path to your desires is only found through me."
She told me that when she figured out I care more about Cinder than I do about her.

[threelayers]

As soon as she did that, Neo looked it over, acknowledged the username and sent her both a quick friend request and then replied using her inbox. It was a little easier this way. She figured they were being a bit on the circumspect side, after all. She read it all over impassively, nodding at points and frowning.

So, she's as power mad and crazy as Red seemed to say.
Yes. We've talked.
It's kind of hard to avoid her in this town.
She's freaking everywhere.
We got into it and the topic came up some.

I wonder if it was really Cinder Roman was afraid of.
Or if he actually met Salem.
That was something he never told me about.
I think he might have been protecting me.

It bothered her a lot, but she'd known how scared he'd been towards the end. They weren't in it to dominate the globe. They were in it because he didn't see a choice in the matter. She'd wondered for a long time since coming here if it was actually Salem, if he'd known, and he'd been too scared under all the bluster to ever tell anyone.

She'd probably never now the answer to that.

I assume she's more powerful than Cinder?
Even with that Maiden trick and demon arm?

[hallucinogem]

Oh yeah, friending. Huh. Probably gonna make things a little easier. And... gods, she really did kind of appreciate that Neo was willing to listen to her like this. Not that she doubted that Neo would or anything, but having any kind of support network around here was starting to seem impossible. Just going through the process seemed to relax her and make it easier to settle back in her seat. All the better, given what she was about to type.

No question. She makes the Maidens look like babies.
She's the strongest person I've ever met and she loves making sure everyone remembers it.

Was that the best way to describe her? Probably not. But if she tried to be glib about Salem then it took some of the fear away.

I hope Roman never met Salem. I hope you never have to.
You'd be useful to her the same way me and Merc are useful to her.
She wouldn't give you up once she got her claws in you.

There's a pause in her typing. She turned her head towards Neo and there was something... there was something friendly in her eyes? Maybe? She wasn't sure what emotion, exactly, she was feeling. But it stayed on her face as she finished up.

Kind of makes being here a relief.
Salem isn't here. And you are.

[threelayers]

Considering how Cinder pretends to act?
I'm going to bet she's the "Calm, Cool, Collected until you Fuck Up" type.
Cinder, no offense, kind of feels like she's trying to be something she's not all the time.
I'm going to take a wild stab and say she's trying to 'be' Salem or be better.

Why did she say that? Because what Emerald had said so far really explained a fucking lot about the vibe Cinder was always giving off. That girl was in someone's shadow this whole time, and it wasn't Red. She hated Red for hurting her, but that was stupidly easy to figure out. It was all about 'rawr' look what you did to my face! No, she had this massive, undeniable inferiority complex she was always pushing on others and now it had a name.

Salem.

If I can get away with just letting Cinder turn in the relic and meet up with me, I will.
And, based on what Cinder's said, she prefers that too.
So, here's hoping.

What had Cinder said? Neo didn't have orders from Salem to lay off Ruby, and that was important. So, ideally, she was being kept a free agent ace in the hole, which suited Neo just fine because it meant she was still herself.

That last statement, though... better to warn her, now.

Nightmares show up here, real and alive, sometimes.
"Salem" might show up for a short period.
Fair warning. This town can really suck sometimes.