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teamoliv-archive · 4 years

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Cutscene: Double Agent Date

Lapis, Violet, and Ivory a sat at a table with their food while Onyx and Sapir had been more than awkwardly set up at a different one. The surprise “date” that had sprung to Violet’s mind was met with a mixture of shock and annoyance from the actual participants, but they didn’t outright refuse. Sapir was mildly interested while Onyx simply went along with it for the time being. For his part, Onyx didn’t think much would come up of this, so he focused on keeping conversation. Information would still be important to have regardless.

Several bad attempts at communication had transpired already. Onyx had tried sign language and Sapir didn’t understand it. She tried to slide her holy book across the table and signal to her verses. Violet could understand that but Onyx didn’t seem to have the patience. He was currently flipping through the book, mild annoyance plain on his face. Onyx had been reading silently. Too much speaking was still horrible for his throat. It made answering difficult. The puzzling nature of the girl’s “speech” would have been a mild chore for someone who could answer back; for him it was almost impossible. Sighing, he just closed the book and slid it back. Neither had any real food in front of them, settling for soup and water. Both of them had trouble swallowing heartier meals for different reasons. He waved Violet over and set his scroll on the table.

Violet got up and did as asked. “I... probably should have thought of this.” She opened her scroll, set up a chat with her scroll and Onyx’s and set it in front of Sapir. “Sorry, this might be easier for both of you.”

Sapir looked a little insulted, but nodded. Her usual method of communication wouldn’t work here if out of necessity than anything else. The fact that Onyx looked to at least be making an attempt at reading her book was a small comfort, though. She motioned for him to respond to what she had tried to start with.

Onyx wasn’t too sure what to make of the verse she had quoted for their conversation starter- Seek faith in hardship. Destruction seeks to harm. Creation seeks to save. It sounded so esoteric. Were it not for the preachy context, he’d have found the cryptic puzzle a little novel. He noticed she kept examining the old scar on his ear. Onyx grit his teeth and tapped on the scroll. [The ear isn’t something I wish to talk about. You wouldn’t like that story anyway.] He was careful not to use the word ‘speak’. It would be awkward for the both of them if he did. He saw the girl move to touch her book again, intending to slide it over. He quickly tapped out a new message to avoid having to deal with that again, though he imagined he would. [Do you do anything besides your work for the church?]

Sapir glanced down at the message for only a brief moment before doing as Onyx feared and slid the book back over to him again and taking the forced pause to slowly sip at her soup. She had gotten one of the blander ones, not wanting to indulge herself too much particularly on someone else’s expense. She raised her hand and flashed a set of numbers again.

The almost playful smirk on the altar girl’s face, charming though it was, felt almost mocking to Onyx. She was going to insist on conversing on her terms. If it was anyone else being subjected to this, he would have found it entertaining. Being unnecessarily difficult was something he used to pride himself on, after all. Sapir seemed a quick reader given the speed of her answer. Thankfully, so was he. He thumbed through the book to the correct passage. He would have to thank whomever wrote this for being easy to navigate- he suspected that was the point. There is no greater work than to serve those you care about. Love is the root of protection.

Onyx grit his teeth. The woman who he spent his life calling his mother had died seemingly to protect him. He still hadn’t seen any hint of that care or affection in her letters and little of it in his memories. Why his father had allowed him to only see these now was troubling. Perhaps he just wanted to keep him here longer and instill a sense of gratitude for not choking him to death back in Mistral. Lilac had cared about him despite her twisted way of showing it. Perhaps there was something he was missing. He shakes the thought from his mind to find an annoyingly hopeful look in Sapir’s eyes. She could tell he was lost in thought.

Sapir motioned gently to the scroll, hoping he would elaborate. It wasn’t just a good opportunity to get Onyx to open up, but perhaps a way to see whether or not he was open to hearing her out. She needed to know what their connection was to the Cheshires’ sinful project, of course, but they were Violet’s friends and didn’t seem to be wicked people. She reaches across the small table, careful not to knock over anything and flips open a few pages of her book, tapping the passage. Her faunus ears perked up as she smiled warmly.

Onyx instinctively tilted himself backward when Sapir leaned forward, keeping a distance. He glanced down at the new verse, motioning for her to sit back down. Seek to guide with holy ambition; allow no one to be alone in their pain. As appealing as the thought of a quick answer to his newfound personal dilemma was, everything in his mind was telling him to ignore her. She couldn’t possibly understand what he was trying to discover. He needed more than sanctimonious “wisdom” and pithy doctrine. He just shook his head. [I do not need any help. This is a personal matter.]

Sapir looked unconvinced. She looked down at the scroll. It was probably monitored if Violet and her team were stuck taking orders from the Cheshires. As much as she would like to make their conversation a little more personal than translating the Gift of Creation back and forth, she didn’t trust the devices. Instead she slides it to the side, leans in again and mouths the words. Are you in danger?

That was unexpected. Onyx took a glance to his team who were eating tensely at the other table and trying not to stare or monitor them. Violet seemed unconcerned but Lapis and Ivory didn’t look like they knew what to make of their silent conversation. He’d have to address that later. For now he turns his focus back to Sapir and shakes his head. He didn’t expect her to entirely trust his answer, though in this environment his usual conversational tactics were just unavailable to him if for no other reason than speaking was still difficult for him. He looks down at the scroll and also slides it to the side, picking up on the girl’s concern. His father was almost certainly checking their communications. He forces out a slow whisper. “I do not know what you hope to do, but this is beyond you.”

Sapir’s expression turned a mix of stern and concerned. She again mouths her silent words slowly and carefully, making sure he could read her lips well enough. There is an unholy monster in your midst. We can help you. You do not know the kind of evil the Cheshires are capable of.

“Yes I do,” Onyx hissed back, “You’re speaking to one.” He paused both to rest his throat for a moment and allow the fact settle with the girl. He takes a long drink of his water and a second to breath before continuing in his harsh whisper. “The last time I was given an offer ‘for my own good’ it ended with several city blocks being destroyed and hundreds dead. Forgive me if we don’t have an interest in blatantly taking sides against my father right now.”

Sapir wasn’t sure how to respond to that. She had thought the Cheshires were all human. Onyx was clearly a faunus. There was also the consideration that with this knowledge, Onyx may be a tainted soul. Her eyes snapped to his ears again.

“Adopted,” He whispers back, “If you absolutely have to know.” It wasn’t like was hiding it anymore. He had hoped to remain anonymous in Mantle where the Cheshire name far outstripped his face, but that was unavoidable now. Besides, he couldn’t hide forever. It was better to get this out there sooner rather than later. A strange look of relief washed over the girl for a reason Onyx couldn’t pinpoint. He may have to grill Violet about whether that pertained to some teaching of their faith or not.

Sapir remained determined, reaching out and snatching Onyx’s wrist before he could react. She was faster than he had expected. Let me help. She mouthed, Please. We can fight this evil together. Now that she had forced herself so close, Onyx could see the difficulty she was having in remembering how to form the words physically. He almost imagined if she could suddenly talk, she’d sound very slurred.

“The world isn’t so simple as good and evil, girl.” Onyx whispered back, tensing himself when he felt his arm be grabbed. He swallowed hard to keep his throat dry. The talking was starting to bother him again. “Stay out of it, and let go of me.”

Sapir let go and pulled her hand back, returning to her water before slowly withdrawing and closing her book. Neither seemed to want to continue “talking” likely just as much out of exhaustion as frustration. After a few moments she stood up, passes a sad look to Onyx before walking over to Violet’s table.

She sets the scroll down by Violet’s meal and forces a smile, nodding her head.

Violet looked up at her friend before standing up as well, pocketing her scroll. “Is... everything okay, Sap?” Sapir was always a bit intense, but the look on her face was almost defiant. Whatever it was she and Onyx had been discussing, if it could be called that, it worried her. Sapir held up her hand and held up fingers corresponding to numbers. Unlike the others, she didn’t need the book to translate them. Never turn your back from aiding those in peril. ”Wait, what did you two talk about?” Onyx couldn’t have told Sapir about her parents, did he? Before Violet could ask, her friend departed quickly.

Ivory and Lapis looked on with concerned expressions. They looked to their teammates and Ivory motioned for Onyx to come back to their table. He did so leaving the remains of the soup and water glass behind. “What’s going on? Violet, what did she say?”

“I knew this was a bad idea,” Lapis comments, “Cheshire, tell us what happened once you feel like you can handle it. That didn’t look like someone who just had a bad date.”

As Sapir left, she held her book tightly, marching back to the Consecration with purpose. No matter what Violet’s team thought, she knew what unnatural energy she felt from that girl who was with them. This ‘Auburn’ was an unholy monster and needed to be dealt with. Sister Lucianna had been correct after all, they would need to get involved forcefully. This meant they would need to prepare for the battles Sister Lucianna promised would come.

#teamoliv #Onyx Cheshire - Cutscene #Ivory Reynard - Custcene #Lapis Hamelin - Cutscene #Violet Goodfellow - Cutscene #Sapir Antiny - Cutscene #Team OLIV - Project Borealis

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teamoliv-archive · 4 years

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Cutscene: The Consecration

Onyx lost count on how long he had spent pouring over these letters between his mother and grandfather. The more he read them, the more he had felt that he had been lied to. He tried to focus on the ones that pertained to the time he came into the Cheshire household and the years following. There were talks of what were to become of him after being given to them by Leroux, ostensibly to be a spy alongside Ivory. This, of course, hadn’t happened. He had been raised as one of their own children. It was never a warm household, he knew, but something still felt off.

Tyrael’s words, words he repeated more than once during their less civil encounters, still bothered him. Your mother loved you.

Why was he demanding confirmation of this? He had been scouring these letters for something, anything positive or warm concerning him. Nothing. He refused to believe that even as harsh a man as Dunstan Baskerville was, his own daughter would lie or cover up her feelings in these letters. Nothing else about them seemed like she did. Still, it was all about how useful he would be and how damaging the situation would be to Jade’s plans. Jade Leroux was dead now, so was Cassandra Cheshire. It didn’t matter anymore, did it? But what did that leave him?

A light shone through the dimly lit office as the door opened. Violet saw Onyx still there, still reading those old letters. Outside of training and missions, this was where he’d been spending all his time. Every day- for hours. She saw a half-eaten meal on a small table that had since grown cold from their breakfast earlier today. Had he even eaten anything since? “Onyx...? Come on, the rest of us are heading out today.” She was still a little shocked they were allowed outside at all, but perhaps that was just for appearances so no one would assume nothing was wrong. “You can’t keep doing this, it’s not good for you.”

Onyx lifted his head silently turned to the bright beam of light from the door. He set his jaw and rubbed his neck. It looked like he hadn’t slept well in days and his once near perfect grooming had begun to fall short. “I will stay here.” He forces out in his now usual harsh whisper.

“No you won’t.” Ivory came in through the door, opening it the rest of the way. Lapis also stood in the hallway with his arms crossed and waiting. “You need to go outside for a change. Listen, did you hear was Lapis and Violet told us about that altar girl? We’re going to go check it out, see what’s going on. We’re not letting you stay here like this. Those letters aren’t going anywhere and if you don’t start eating and sleeping right, you won’t be able to handle yourself on missions anymore. Then what?”

Onyx sucked in a breath and set the pages down. He hated that she had a point. They also weren’t going to just allow him to read in peace. “Fine...” He scoops up the papers and stacks them gently before going to put them back where they belonged, locking the drawer to his mother’s old desk again. “We had better not be gone all day.”

-----------------------

The four stared at the large archway and heavy wooden double doors to the church entrance. A full, unbroken moon with a chain around the edges was embossed in the center of the doors, split in half perfectly. Reliefs depicted mankind on one side, both human and faunus, fighting Grimm on the other door. Behind both were depictions of the religion’s gods of Creation and Destruction.

“I don’t want to feel like I have to say this, but please remember this is a church- my church. No one’s going to expect you to know the rules or taboos or anything like that since you’re just visitors, but be respectful.”

Ivory stared up at the lofty building and its carvings. It was probably more elaborate than anywhere else in Mantle. It looked old, too; pre-war old. “We won’t try to break anything or attack anyone if that’s what you’re worried about. Don’t worry, we’ll behave.”

Entering into the church, the plain white stone of the main sanctuary was nearly devoid of decoration. There were a few old tapestries, wooden benches, a few pamphlets left on a table, the altar at the back, and a few simple doors that lead to places only Violet knew about. It was empty for the most part. A small handful of people sat at some of the benches speaking to a priestess at the far corner while another figure in a simple white and blue robe was sweeping.

Sapir paused from her duties and gave the group a small bow and a smile, focusing mostly on Violet. She beckoned them closer, noting that Violet had brought two more with her. She offered a simple curtsy as greeting.

“Let’s start here. Sapir, this is Team OLIV, the ones I went to Atlas Academy with. I don’t think I actually introduced Lapis the first time. He was my partner at the academy. This is Ivory, and our team leader Onyx.”

Ivory stood as tall as she could, monitoring the girl. If Lapis and Violet were to be believed, this little silent altar girl took down an alpha Grimm with Auburn. “So does everyone in this church get taught how to fight?” She opens immediately, “I heard some pretty impressive things about you.”

Sapir shakes her head. She held up a hand and flashed a series of numbers with her fingers.

Lapis stared at Ivory’s confused state. She didn’t have any exposure to Violet’s silent friend and her bizarre way of “talking”. “Goodfellow, translate.”

“Allow me.” The woman from the back, wearing yellow on her robe instead of Sapir’s blue and wearing a matching miter stepped forward. “The call of the huntsmen is one of holiness. We must all of us prepare for the coming enemy. The Gift of Creation Book 1, Chapter 2, Verse 16.”

Violet stared at the woman for longer than was probably comfortable. She didn’t recognize her at all but here she was, wearing the high priest’s robes. “I... Who are you?”

“You must be Sister Violet. Your family has told me a great deal about you. I am Sister Lucianna. I have been the head priestess of the church for a few years now.”

Violet had a lot of questions. “Wait... What happened to Father Benjamin? And, you don’t have to call me Sister. I’m not ordained like Sap is.”

Sapir shrunk into her robes and set her jaw the mention of the old priest. Unlike many of the others of the church who merely looked up to and respected him, he and the other clergy were the closest thing to family she had. She saw Violet’s sad reaction and knew she had figured it out.

Lapis had hung back from the conversation for the time being, but this sounded fairly familiar. This was the kind of reactions he’d seen on the faces of Pineyard’s villagers whenever one of the elders passed from old age or illness. “I’m sorry.” He offers.

“It is alright. Hurt and loss are natural. Love leaving the soul can be damaging if you do not remind yourself of those you still have around you.” The high priestess offers a comforting smile and a change of subject.

“As for you, Sister Violet, you were once of the choir, weren’t you? I do not believe that the members of the church clergy should hold themselves above our parishioners. I did not take the title of Mother when I was placed in charge nor will I restrict our togetherness to simply those of us in robes.

Ivory listened to the small story. The fact that this woman was newer to this place’s inner workings might explain a few things. “So was her taking up fighting your idea then?”

Sapir stared at Ivory with a stern look, seemingly daring her to continue questioning them the way she was. She takes a few steps forward in a challenging manner before Lucianna holds an arm out in front of her.

“It was.” She answers simply, “Huntsmen do not take all jobs that show up in Mantle and we have a holy duty to fight the forces of Destruction. The Grimm are an unholy blight that must be destroyed. We may not have been in the age of templars for nearly a century and the Atlas council has forbidden non-licensed huntsmen from operating, so I have elected to train Sister Sapir myself and have her take the exam to allow the church to more properly play its part in our struggles against evil.”

Lapis paused for a moment, “That means you’re a huntress, aren’t you?”

Lucianna shrugs slightly and turns around as another visitor comes in and heads to a seat. “A story for another time, I think. Sister Sapir, please see to your duties. You are after all the one who greeted them.” She gives one final smile to the group. “I am glad to have finally met you and your team, Sister Violet. I hope I can look forward to seeing you all again. These are dark times and we must all band together for the coming of Destruction whenever it shows its face.”

Sapir makes a circle gesture with her hands and nods her head as Lucianna passes before turning back to the group. She fixates her gaze on Onyx, who had been standing behind the group silently the entire time. He was dressed well, if slightly disheveled, but more importantly she had caught herself staring at the gnarled scar that made up the base of his left ear where it no longer attached to his head. She snapped her eyes to his when she realized he had noticed.

Onyx stared back for a few tense moments, having not decided to simply glare at the girl. The cold air of Mantle made it more difficult for him to speak than normal and this church didn’t seem to do much with its heating outside of what the city itself provided, so he kept silent and his hands in his pockets. For now, he just kept contact to gauge her intentions. He might have been looking too much into someone staring at an old ugly scar, but it still bothered him.

Ivory reflexively placed her hand on Isengrim’s handle, but didn’t grab it. She knew Onyx wouldn’t do anything too problematic here, but she found the sudden stare down worrying. Then it hit her. This was Onyx’s first time outdoors within Atlas borders with his faunus ears in plain view. He already didn’t like people asking about his ear. She hoped nothing bad would spring from something so petty.

Violet gave a nod to Lapis who was ready to be a big body in the way of a possible issue while she paid attention to Sapir. She knew her friend’s facial expressions by this point, but this was a new one. She watched Sapir slowly walk forward.

Her step was less confident and serene than normal and she withdrew as she moved. There was a hesitance that Violet had never seen before. Then she flushed slightly as Onyx took a step back and Violet couldn’t help but burst out laughing which caught everyone’s attention.

Violet tried her best to stop her giggling but instead was forced to cut her words into her laughter. “O-Oh my goodness... I... I can’t believe...” She continued her laughing before smiling brightly at Sapir. “You know if you wanted me to introduce you earlier, you could have just asked. Come on! We’re about to head out to eat anyway. See you can come with us! We’ll get a table for you two.”

Sapir froze and cursed herself for being so transparent. She turned around to hide her face and prayed to God it would fade by the time she reached Sister Lucianna. She had never asked for time to herself before like this. She marched away from the others and hoped this wasn’t about to be a terrible mistake.

“I did not agree to this.” Onyx chokes out to Violet, his dry voice causing him to groan in frustration. This was far from healing fast enough for his liking.

“Oh, come on, it’ll be fun! I get to hang out with an old friend, you get a date out of it...” She trailed off with a sigh.

“And maybe I can ask Sapir what else that Sister Lucianna had changed here since I left. I’ll explain after we eat, but let’s wait for Sap and get going. Ivory, can you pick out a place for us?”

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“And what sort of question is this? ‘Do not stray from your duties, but know the difference between idleness and caring for yourself.’? You want a break then, Sister Sapir?” Lucianna looked down the large room at the team still waiting by the door and seemingly arguing over a scroll. “I see... Of course you can. However, might I ask a favor?

“While you are with them, discover what their connection is to Cheshire’s unholy experiment. We may be able to convince Sister Violet and her team to join us in the coming conflict. Destruction approaches and we must be ready. Evil needs to be exorcised from our home sooner rather than later.”

Sapir nods firmly before returning a small smile to her face and rushing back off to where Team OLIV was waiting for her. Once she seemed to have what few things she actually owned with her, they departed. A voice came from the darkness of the small preparation area behind the wall of the altar.

“Is this wise, Sister Lucianna? One of them is from the Cheshire line, the other Reynard. They are evil people and should be excised. Corruption comes in many forms.”

“I think it is good to see Sister Sapir reconnect and find some new friends. Besides, the Cheshire boy is a faunus- not of Tyrael’s blood. He has likely lead a dark life, but I do not believe that they are beyond salvation. As for the Reynard daughter, corrupt though they may be, with effort even the naturally wicked can be brought to see Creation’s holy mission.

“I do not trust this. We must prepare for the battles ahead.”

“And for that we will need allies, Brother Castor. We will see where their hearts lie. If they are good and true, we will have valuable potential templars for the coming struggles against Destruction’s monsters. If they are false, they will be destroyed with the rest of their wicked ilk. Trust Sister Sapir. They do not know it yet, but she will be their judge.”

#teamoliv #Onyx Cheshire - Cutscene #Lapis Hamelin - Cutscene #Ivory Reynard - Cutscene #Violet Goodfellow - Cutscene #Sapir Antiny - Cutscene #Lucianna Markella - Cutscene #Castor Lucan - Cutscene #Team OLIV - Project Borealis

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teamoliv-archive · 4 years

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Cutscene: Real Professionals

Auroras stood calmly while he looked at the three armed would-be huntsmen and huntresses in front of him. Hari had the other half of them. This was going to be remarkably easy, he predicted. “How nice of you to already split yourselves up for us.” With a stroke of his quill, a flash of aura went from his page to create a barrier between his trio and Hari’s. It wasn’t going to last more than a few seconds but it was the statement that mattered here.

“So what do you think our chances are here?”

“With how easily they took that Grimm down? We’re screwed...”

“Well we can’t just do nothing. We have to fight.”

“I’m gonna ask you this one more time, little Nyx. You and your friends really want to do this?”

“We don’t really have a choice here. You want to drag me back to Atlas and Molly back to Darcie. I can’t have that.”

“She’s right. You’ll have to force us.”

“As you wish. It’s time for you to see real huntsmen in action.”

Auroras took a careful step back and placed quill to paper with smirk. With several quick strokes flashed toward the trio in front of him as if he were writing his design into the air.

“Brace!” Lapis put up his barrier. Lazuli spun backward as a chained aura duplicate of her brother did the same. Molly took to her wheel and spun around in a circle, trying to strafe the attacks. Lapis took the hit straight on and buckled. His barrier was still standing, but he could still feel that impact.

Lazuli quickly swaps her stance as her duplicate is destroyed by the incoming strokes coming through the air. Lapis wasn’t fairing a lot better. She needed to think to bring more of these to bear. One at a time, she understood that one, and they were connected to her memories somehow. She started thinking of her times with her friends before their capture and a new chain started to form from her heart into a new form. The feeling of her aura leaving her to create the double was still really weird to her. Then something smacked into her and Lapis from behind as new strokes appeared above and then swooped behind them.

Molly felt a similar impact slam into her side and knocked her out of her wheel, which drove helplessly into the dirt before falling over. She only barely managed to land on her feet.

Auroras flashed a quickly dissolving sheet of paper with glowing curls drawn on it in a taunting manner. “I was hoping your weak points would have been a little less obvious, but none of you ever finished school, did you? I’m ready to try again whenever you are. Hari, please tell me your side of this is a little more interesting?”

“Yeah, yeah, keep your hat on.” Hari flipped the brass knuckles of his gauntlets back into place and took a step forward with a raised fist in a mock punch, gauging their reactions. “Yep. I got this.”

Without another word, Ivory leveled her weapon and pulled the trigger, charging forward as fast as she could. She felt her ax bite into steel as it caught one of the gauntlets. She caught sight of Onyx flinging himself upward and creating a new net.

Violet was keeping her distance from Hari, peppering him with covering fire from her pistols while Ivory charged forward with her ax. At first she thought she was hitting- then she saw blood, not aura.

Hari practically ignored the incoming small arms fire. It wasn’t so much that he didn’t feel it more than he was conditioned to the pain. He closed in on Ivory and one of his knuckles started sparking with a fire dust burst. With a harsh uppercut, he slammed his fist into her and sent her flying upward. “Pretty sure I gauged that right.”

Onyx didn’t have time to plan further, only turn to see Ivory flying in his direction and slam into him, hurtling them both down to the ground. He was about to reach out and create a new line of wire when another of Auroras’s swipes appeared in front of him and solidified his plummet.

Molly picked herself up and looked between Auroras, her lost weapon, and Violet. This was bad. She had to slow things down to think. “I’mgoinginwatchmyback!” She says with increasing acceleration as her perception of the world slowed. She reacted with her body delaying heavily from her mind. She saw Ivory’s ax still slowly floating down to the ground and Hari reaching out to grab it. Violet was charging.

“Waitwaitwaitwait!” She felt something snag her leg and pull her backward. A rope had twirled around her and yanked her into Lauzli’s next attempt at an offensive move.

“Here’s another word of advice, free of charge, if you don’t have a backup plan for losing your weapon- don’t lose it.”

“Got you now!” Violet shouts, flipping herself upward and flaring out her whip to snag his arm. Her other arm reached out as a ball of light appeared at the barrel of her other pistol. She cracked off the blinding shot, but not before the large man swung his free arm around- and Ivory’s ax.

Hari plants Isengrim into the ground by its crescent blade and turns to Auroras’s remaining pair. “Still not checking your back, huh?” He placed his hands by the shallow bullet wounds Violet had made in him and let the blood trickle down his fingers. With a quick movement and a flare of aura reengaging, Hari flung the droplets into the air as they solidified into small hardened knives. “Hurts like a bitch, but I think I can afford to be flashy here.”

With the knives hanging in the air, he quickly gave a series of swift kicks to send them all flying toward the Hamelin siblings. The impromptu daggers hit their targets before the aura gave out on them and they splatted back to the ground.

“And now to finish this off.” Auroras took his time with this next series of strokes. He needed to catch the distances precisely, but thankfully this was a maneuver he knew well. A series of chains came from Auroras’s paper and drug the entire group to them. “Hari, ready the restraints and collect their weapons. You remember the way to the shuttle, right?”

Violet angrily struggled against the aura-created chain and then the real restraints as the former quickly faded away. “What are you going to do with us..?”

“Well you and your team are coming with me back to Atlas. Ty’s got some plans for you guys, like I said. Come on, don’t you all have family up there?”

“If you think I believe for a second that’s actually your plan, you’ve got another thing coming.” Lapis jerked violently before he saw Auroras lift up Briar and his sister. “Lazuli!”

“Molly!”Ivory was shoved into an awkward sitting position and wasn’t able to try and stand like Lapis had. However, seeing him getting harshly kicked back down for his efforts dissuaded her from trying.

“Like I said before, you two are coming with me. Our employer has plans for the two of you. Does ‘Pandemonium’ ring any bells?”

“Y-Yeah...” Molly admitted. That was Darcie’s center of operations. It wasn’t that she didn’t like the woman- her and Jade were the closest thing to parents she had, but it was still concerning that she sent these guys to capture her by force instead of sending a message. Lazuli and Ivory were probably the reason. She wanted to be sure that she’d come along.

Lazuli stared at her brother and his team, trying to give a reassuring look. “We’ll be fine.” She finally says, “Just focus on keeping yourselves safe. If... This is what I think it is, Molly and I will be okay. I promise. We’ll come back for you.”

“Are you out of your mind?” Onyx hisses, “What about this situation is ‘okay’? After all the trouble we went thr-” He feels his voice catch his in throat and replaced by a wave of pain and grits his teeth.

“Onyx, don’t strain your voice. You’re still healing...” Ivory stares carefully at Molly, seeing the conflict plain on her face. “I trust you. Both of you. If they wanted us dead, they’d have done it already. We’ll get through this- I hope.”

#teamoliv #Team OLIV - Project Borealis #Team OLIV - Pandemonium #Onyx Cheshire - Cutscene #Lapis Hamelin - Cutscene #Ivory Reynard - Cutscene #Violet Goodfellow - Cutscene #Molly Briar - Cutscene #Lazuli Hamelin - Cutscene #Auroras Hallward - Cutscene #Hari Lackey - Cutscene

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teamoliv-archive · 4 years

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Cutscene: New Beginnings, New Dangers

“Well, I guess we have good news and bad news. Good news is we get to start Ivory and Molly’s huntress career early. Bad news, we’re surrounded.” The group that now consisted of Team OLIV, Lapis’s younger sister Lazuli, and Ivory’s former partner in crime Molly stood in a ring surrounded by far more Grimm than they had anticipated when they were told of a ‘swarm of monsters a team would be useful to take down’. Swarm was a bit more apt than anyone really was comfortable with; there were dozens of spider-like creatures that would let out screeches as they crawled closer and those jaws looked poisonous. A team they were, but professionals they were not. This was going to take some creative teamwork.

“Alright, everyone, split up and take a section!”

Violet turned toward one section of the creatures as they charged. She flared out her whips and hurled herself upward and over the Grimm, a flurry of cracks and blows staggered several of the creatures while surrounding ones were blown apart one by one.

“I’ve got backup, keep pushing!” Ivory stuck herself in a kneeling pose, braced by one of her targets locking her in place while she carefully turned and blasted at any Grimm that got too close to their area.

“Got it!” She landed on one of the spider-creatures and jumped again, shooting at the grounded monster, causing a spit of bile to misfire and hit the ground. She aimed down and a brilliant flash followed her next shot, blinding the pack with a loud popping sound.

Lapis kept to a defensive, leaving his shield up as he pushed forward slowly. He saw the giant buzzsaw contraption of Briar’s drive through the spiders with her in it, chopping off legs and sometimes abdomens as she passed, but many were making their way to him. He blocked and parried with his shield and weapon, shoving any away that tried to leap at him.

“You know, I could use a little help here!”

“I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it!” Molly ran her weapon through the pack and with a pivot, flinging herself toward Lapis with her hand out. “Tilt-a-Whirl!”

“Wait, what’s Tilt-a-WOOOOAAAH!” Before he finished his statement, Molly grabbed his arm and let the momentum swing them around, throwing her in a circle with her saw being carried in the wide arc to batter and slice the surrounding Grimm. Lapis only had time to brace himself and keep from falling over from the force before he put his weight behind his arm and flung her off into the distance and into an oncoming second wave. She landed frustratingly expertly with the saw’s teeth biting into the oncoming Grimm and her perched on in the inside and waving.

“Woo! Let’s hear it for team attacks!”

Lapis stood up and popped his shoulder to make sure it was still in place. “You’re supposed to plan that out ahead of time! That was my shield arm, too...”

“We got ‘em, didn’t we? Besides, everyone else is doing fine.”

Lazuli watched “her” section of Grimm tangled up in a web. They weren’t dead or even injured, but they were busy. She looked up at the dizzying array woven through the sparse trees around them where Onyx was lounging.

The web tightened as Onyx looked down at Hamelin’s sister with an expectant look. Would that he had the vocal strength to throw his voice again, he’d have reminded her to start firing. Despite her time as the Arena’s prisoner honing her skills and unlocking her semblance, she had little to no experience with Grimm yet.

He tightened it again as the Grimm tried ti wiggle free. Sure he made it look effortless, but he wasn’t going to be able to hold this forever. One creature gets loose and tries to skitter up his wires to get to him. He dodges and rakes his claws around to dispatch it, but now the rest were getting free.

Lazuli wasn’t used to this implicit teamwork that her brother’s team did. She’d have to think of a way to handle what was about to be a rain of spider Grimm. Shooting them directly was only doing so much. She looks up to Onyx and realizes there was at least one thing she could do- but it would be a long shot. “Hey! You trust me, right!?” Onyx clung to his web and gives her an incredulous look. “I need an answer! Are we friends or not?” She heard a barely audible and scraping sound that closely resembled “Yes, now do something!” before she closes her eyes for a moment and springs into action.

“Good enough.” With visible effort, she jumped from wire to wire as carefully as she could before her aura began to glow and manifest a figure next to her, connected at the chest by a spectral chain. Said chain connected to the duplicate of Onyx wasn’t nearly as strong as others were. In fact this was probably her weakest one, but she hoped that would change with her time with Lapis’s team over time. From what she managed to figure out her semblance was strictly related to personal bonds and her duplicates were only as strong and the friendship and trust between her and the one she was trying to recreate. The duplicate Onyx grasped her hand and helped hurl her into the nest. Lazuli swung her weapon with precision, taking out spiders as she ascended while the duplicate followed suit and kept her stable. It couldn’t mimic his weapon’s finer details but she managed to clear out the web before slipping on one more wire and falling.

“Uh oh...” The duplicate faded as she lost focus. To make matters worse the mess of wires weren’t easy to grab. She fell about almost to the bottom before something stopped her fall.

“You need to work on your balance.” Onyx’s scratchy voice responds, having already sped to the bottom to catch her and set her back down.

A loud bang signaled the end of the swarm as Ivory took out one more that was about to lunge at Violet. With the group calming down and brushing themselves off, Violet spoke up. “I think we did it.” Then the rustling got louder, followed by a tree melting.

“Oh right, the big one...” An enormous version of the spiders they had fought before crawled into view, venom dripping from its fangs.

“Everyone get ready!” The group takes up fighting poses again before a translucent stalactite crashes from above into the creature.

Onyx was the first to panic, followed by Ivory. The rest looked more confused and stunned. A figure stood behind them with a stack of paper bunched up in one arm and a quill in the other.

“Pardon the interruption, but my partner and I have business to discuss with the lot of you. I have to say between the number, the open job searching, and your.. distinctive features,” The man glanced accusingly at Molly’s massive buzzsaw weapon, “You are almost comically easy to find.” The Grimm roared again as it recovered from the blow to the head. The man just sighed and with several blindingly fast strokes of his quill, spiked chains materialized from around him and entangled the large Grimm.

“Let’s not waste time. Hari, get rid of that thing.”

“No problem.” A larger man, this one covered in scars shown off by a small vest with a combination of brass knuckles and gauntlets followed close behind. He charged the creature and slammed his fist right into the monster’s jaw, causing it to reel from a dust explosion. Several more blows followed, assisted by more of those aura swipes as the other man kept sketching on his paper. With one more strong blow to the head, the Grimm fell to the ground before it could do anything.

Hari turned to face the six. “See that kids? That’s how the pros do it. Call it a free lesson courtesy of Uncle Hari. Auroras, why don’t you explain this one?”

“Who are these guys?” Lapis muttered to himself. They were easily outclassed. Professional huntsmen had been sent for them? Was this because of Briar and Reynard?

Lazuli cautiously stepped forward. “Who are you? You said you had ‘business’. What do you want with us?”

“Auroras Hallward and Hari Lackey of Blood Brothers LLC,” Auroras responded, “We were sent to locate and escort you to our client. You are of great interest to a few interested parties. Normally confidentiality would prevent me from explaining who that is. However, I have been given leave to extend a more public offer first.”

“You’ve got a couple of options here.” Hari points specifically to Team OLIV, “I’m pretty sure your parents are all worried about you kids wandering around on another continent. We’re here to take you home and put you to work. Onyx, Ty’s got an offer for the four of you. No hard feelings or anything. Come on, your old man’s got a lot planned and he’s willing to give you all jobs.”

Onyx stared hard at Hari. Those names were familiar- old teammates of his father before he turned to business. He always did wonder why he had never met them before while Cobalt Ymir was around. Ivory spoke up instead.

“You want us to believe Tyrael Cheshire wants all of us? After what happened to Lilac...” She pauses for Onyx’s sake. She didn’t want to reopen the old wound; it was still his sister after all.

“Wait.” Lapis stepped between Auroras and Lauzli, “You said four of us. What happens to Briar and my sister?”

“That is our other job here.” He stares at Molly with keen intent, adjusting his glasses. “Your mother misses you, you know. She wants to accept you back and you’re welcome to take your friend with you.”

Molly’s pulse raced. Of course Darcie would come looking for her. Why didn’t she think of that? Part of her was scared of how she would have reacted to Jade’s death. She had taken it pretty hard herself, but she had the comfort of being swept up in finally being a huntress. Something was still wrong. “Why would she send mercenaries instead of her own people to find us?”

“We were already going this way and it’s basically getting paid twice for the same job.”

Lazuli looked to Molly worryingly. “Y-You can go if you want, but I need to stay with my brother. Family’s more important than friends sometimes... I.. I get it.”

“Wh-What, no! That’s not it! C-Can’t you just tell her I’m okay? I’ll come back once I finish-” Whatever she was doing.

Violet gave a hard look to Hari at his comment. “Did you really talk to anyone besides Onyx’s dad? How do we know you’re telling the truth here? My dad gave us his blessing to get out here and get our licenses.”

“Ty’s the man with the offer. Besides, Auroras made the deal. Talk to him.”

“Perhaps I should rephrase. Our job, as we were paid to do, is to locate and bring the lot of you two the parties that want you. The offer is a generous one that our employers took time out to offer you. However, your compliance is not a required factor. If you choose to resist, we’ll simply have to take you there by force.”

“And there it is... Everyone get ready for a fight!”

“Can we handle these guys?”

“I don’t think we have a choice. We have to try!”

#teamoliv #cutscene #Onyx Cheshire - Overheard Conversations #Lapis Hamelin - Overheard Conversations #Ivory Reynard - Overheard Conversations #Violet Goodfellow - Overheard Conversations #Molly Briar - Cutscene #Lazuli Hamelin - Cutscene #Auroras Hallward - Cutscene #Hari Lackey - Cutscene

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teamoliv-archive · 4 years

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Cutscene: The New Normal, Part 2

Ivory didn’t think it would be this daunting looking at the door to her own home. She felt almost like a stranger staring at the door to the strangely subdued upper-class house. Mom and Dad weren’t ever the kinds to show off too much. All her memories of it felt distant and while she remembered growing up here, so much of her life was defined by the Cheshires and more importantly by Jade and Molly that she wasn’t sure she really could call it her home. She hesitantly knocked on the door and stood awkwardly, adjusting her the goggles on her new outfit atop her head. Hopefully she looked more like a huntress and less like... whatever she really was.

The door opened to a curious ‘Yes?’ before a surprised gasp greeted her. A fair-haired but aged woman greeted her. Gossie Reynard hadn’t aged well these last few years; her mother looked like a woman ten or fifteen years older than she should be. It wasn’t any surprise given how infrequently both she and Dad were around. She must have spent most of her days doing nothing but worrying about them both.

“Ivory!” Ivory’s mother threw her arms around the tall girl and cried into her shoulder. “Gods, I thought I’d lost you...”

“M-Mom...? What are you talking about? What’s going on?”

Ivory sat down on a white chair in a living room she remembered almost perfectly Almost nothing at all seemed to have changed- it looked almost locked in time almost like it was mocking her mother’s wrinkles and weakening frame. She was beautiful once. Her mother sat at another chair after Ivory politely declined anything to eat. “Mom...? What do you mean you thought you lost me?”

Her mother sniffed and pulled a tissue from a box on a small table. “Your father is cleaning up Mr. Cheshire’s mess again...” There was a bitter look on her face as she unceremoniously chucked the wet tissue into a nearby wastebin. “I’m not stupid; I know what your father’s doing even if he won’t tell me. But now he’s off in Mistral doing only gods know what. He could have any job he wants but insists on this one! He could be working on a huge project for the military or run his own company or... anything but no, he wants to pretend to be a glorified accountant and go off making shady business deals for the sake of someone else’s money. Sometimes the damn man makes me wonder why I married him.” She smiles to Ivory warmly as if to reassure her, “Only sometimes, dear, don’t worry.”

Ivory uncomfortably shuffles in her seat. She knew her mother was kept in the dark about a lot of things. If she knew even half of what Ivory had done for Jade over the years with her father’s knowledge, if not necessarily his blessing... she didn’t want to consider finishing the thought.

Ivory refused to make eye contact. Trying to cope with the reality of what Jade had done to her and Molly was more than difficult. She still refused to believe that the devotion, the years together, and the almost father-like reverence they had for their master was all the result of a weak mind and a manipulative semblance to make it easier for them to go along with what he wanted. He trained them, he gave them something to do with their lives- purpose and direction. Now it was gone. Compared to the macabre comfort the Red Arena gave, her own family felt almost hollow. Did she really even belong here?

“It... It might be my fault.” She shuddered to think of what the consequences of spilling out the whole truth would be, but she did it anyway, every graphic detail. She explained the fighting pits themselves, the punishments for the fighters, the kidnappings, her own role in plotting to spirit away her own team and killing Cassandra Cheshire, Molly, Jade, Robin, and finally Lilac’s revenge scheme. “I don’t know what to do anymore... The Arena, Jade, my only real friend... we’re practically sisters and now... It’s all gone. I’m sorry I lied to you. I don’t expect you to forgive me...”

She still stared at the floor. She couldn’t look her mother in the eye- not after that. She fully expected to be kicked out in a rage or dragged off to be arrested or to at least just to back to the Cheshire estate. She got none of those.

“Ivory. Ivory, look at me. Don’t treat your mother like she’s a stranger to you.”

She finally lifted her head. The look on her mother’s face was difficult to read. It looked disappointed, grateful, sad, relieved, angry, and resolved all at the same time. She took a deep breath. “This is... a lot to take in. I can only imagine how you must feel not knowing what to do now.” Her mother forced a weary smile, “But you’re not lost. The first thing you did when you got back to Atlas was to come here- to come home. You’ll never not be our daughter, Ivory. You’re not lost because you don’t have a plan, you’re free because of it. I didn’t marry your father believing he was some sort of saint. I married him because he always reaches for what he believes in, right or wrong. You could stand to learn from that. This is a chance for you to start over and be who you want to be.”

Ivory swallowed a large lump in her throat, trying to push out an objection. “Mom y-you can’t just... After everything I just told you- I’m nothing to be proud of, I- I’m not a good person!”

Ivory’s mother got up and brushed her dress smooth before walking over to Ivory’s chair and picking up her hands. “Then why was saving your friend’s life more important than anything else when it came down to it? No one is evil Ivory. Everyone has a story no matter how blackened and horrible it may be and that story can always have a happy ending, don’t ever forget that."

Ivory shakily stood up and it was her turn to lean against her shoulder to cry. “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! I don’t deserve this!” Her embrace was met in kind with a shushing noise to let her get the emotions out of her system at her own place. “It’s alright, Ivory. If you’re going to start over, let’s do this the right way. When you’re ready.”

Ivory nods and finally lets go. Her mother walks over to a low bookself and pulls out one of several old white books. “It’s like I said, Ivory, everyone has a story. This is yours.” She hands the pristine book over to Ivory who first looked at the cover in faint recognition.

The Tale of Ivory Cressidia Reynard

“Mom... is this...?”

“Your story, Ivory.”

She opened the book to the first few pages. There were some short paragraphs in her mother’s hand about things like her birth, her first steps, first word, and then later details about her young life occasionally illustrated with old photos. Most of the pages were blank. Mom’s “story” books were always about people’s lives of those close to her. She collected the tales of friends, relatives, and family members in her volumes. The squat bookshelf was full of them. “You’re giving this to me?”

Her mother nodded. “You’re more than old enough now and it’s a good a time as any to start. Forge your own story, Ivory. Whenever anything important to you happens, take the time to write it down later. Put some pictures in it if you’d like. Start with the one you told me today, and give yourself a happy ending.”

#teamoliv #Ivory Reynard - Cutscene #Team OLIV - Project Borealis

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teamoliv-archive · 5 years

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🗣 Morado and Ivory

Send me 🗣+ the names of 2 muses on the blog, and there will be a random conversation written involving them.

“Aren’t you a bit young to be a security guard?”

“Technically I’m still in training, sir.”

“Hey, it’s all good. Intern, huh? Anyway, Lilac’s waiting for me so I need to get in. You can ask her if you need.”

“I feel like I shouldn’t have to say this to a military officer, but you can’t come in here in full body armor.”

“Ssssssyeah. About that. I can’t take it off.”

“With all due repsect, sir, this isn’t a military installation. Unless you have an MP warrant from the General or the Council we don’t allow uniformed military inside our building.”

“No, I mean physically. You can try all you like. It won’t come off.”

“I’m going to have to ask you how that’s-”

“Classified. I know, it’s dumb, but how this thing works requires some clearance. Anyway, if I can’t come in can you just tell Lilac to come out here?”

“Right…” Ivory pulls out a scroll. “Hey, Sterling, can you go get Miss Cheshire and tell her she has a visitor? What did you say your name was again?”

#teamoliv #Ivory Reynard - Overheard Conversations #Morado Amun - Cutscene #echoesofblck #Team OLIV - Atlas Academy

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teamoliv-archive · 5 years

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Cutscene: Because We’re a Team

Lilac stood in front of Ivory, her limbs glowing sickly colors. She was shaking as was her opponent. “Is... Is that it!? You’re almost out of tricks you know. Why do you keep bothering?”

Ivory staggers and leans on her ax. She wasn’t down for the count by any means, but this fight was taking a heavy toll on both of them. In all honestly, she was pretty sure it was sheer willpower keeping her going. She could only hold off Lilac for so long. “All I have to do is keep you here. I just have to hold out!”

“For who!? Who could you possibly have left as backup!? Jade is almost certainly dead by this point and his psychotic partner isn’t about to come to your rescue! Face it, you have nothing left, Reynard! I want to see the hope spill from your eyes before I kill you! What could you possibly be waiting for!?”

_____________

Lapis fired and slashed through several more of the ball-like drones that drove around them, trying to fire or explode to block their path. Lapis lead his sister, Violet, and Molly down the narrow street they were being lead to. “There’s a lot more than there used to be. We’ve got to be getting close!”

“It’s a warehouse half a block down. It can’t be hard to miss with the fight going on!” Molly shouts back. She had only been able to keep up with her injuries, not really participating in the combat despite dragging her gigantic wheel with her.

A barrage of the drones comes flying off the rooftop. “Down!” Lapis urges the three underneath his arm as he holds his barrier upward. The impact created a large explosion that send them all back. After scrambling back up, they turned around to the sound of more beeps and tire screeching.

“How many of these things did she build!?” Violet says double-checking her pistols. “We can’t just keep shooting at them like this, they’re just going to keep slowing us down.”

Lazuli spun around just in time for the sounds to be confirmed with a small group of the ball drones wheeling toward them. She raises her weapon to take more shots and standing. She flips it into its melee form to try and swing at an oncoming on, only for it to be deflected and bounce harmlessly against a wall where Violet shot at it to disable it. She had to do better than this. She had to think back to how her semblance activated that first time in her fight with Jade. All she could remember was being overcome with thoughts and memories of her friends and how much she wanted to protect them. Maybe that was where her part laid. She stands firm and faces the rest of the oncoming drones.

The sounds of her brother turning and trying to protest registered, but she couldn’t quite hear what he was saying. She was too focused. This wasn’t just about saving the person they were after. She had to make sure the people around her were safe as well-

All with the help of the people in her life close to her.

Something finally made sense as she makes the single connection all of the images that fought with her had in common. “You guys go ahead. I’ve got this.”

“No offense, kid, but no you don’t!” Molly returns, doing all she could to stay out of the way of everyone’s fighting. “If it was me, maybe I could do something about this but-”

Lazuli stood staring at the oncoming drones, reaching her hand out as if completely ignorant of the oncoming danger. “What was your name again?”

“Why is that important right now!? We need to get to Ivory!” There was no response from the girl. Molly didn’t really know a lot about her during her time at the Arena- Jade had taken a special interest in her and even brought Darcie in to check her out, but she had been absent for a lot of whatever happened to bust her out. “It’s Molly!” She finally blurted out. “There, are you happy!? Now help us out here!”

Lazuli gives a faint smile no one could see with her back to them. “Molly. My name’s Lazuli.” She finally turns around faintly and holds out her hand. “I forgive you.”

“Yeah. Awesome. That’s swell. We’re going to be best friends now.” Molly said dryly, and taking her hand. Her hand trembled for a moment. This was something new- the idea that someone went through everything the Arena could throw at them and she had the... whatever it was to forgive her? It gave her a moment of pause. “Hey, as cute as it is that you’re being nice to me a few minutes before we’re all blown up, how is this helping?”

Lazuli closed her eyes for a moment before letting go. “Just trust me.” She turns to face the oncoming drones and twirls Winterfang to block the oncoming shots, focusing on her breath and some thoughts. She took in the moment- that small spark of a kind gesture, that connection. She spun around and launched herself forward toward the pack of drones and a faint chain flew from her. Attached to it, a difficult to see form spun a circular shape at them and the impact sent them all flying, some in pieces. The shaky mimic of Molly lasted on a second before disappearing again.

“What the hell was that!?”

“Woah, cool semblance! If you can keep that up we can get to Ivory!”

Lapis met his sister’s confident and serene gaze. “Are you sure you’re going to be okay?”

“I think I finally figured this out so... hopefully. But someone needs to stay behind and take care of these things. Molly, stick with me. If you go back there that woman’s going to try and kill you first, isn’t she?”

Molly stood up a bit more firmly, trying her best to ignore her weakened state and roared her weapon. “Dammit, why do you have to be right!? Alright, but if you’re going to save Ivory, I’m not letting anything happen to us either. I’ve been through worse. Let’s go.”

Violet quickly heard a different beep and checked her scroll before pocketing it with a nod. “Let’s not waste any time. Onyx will be here soon. He’s following my signal. Come on- we’re almost there.”

_____________

Ivory let loose a broad swing to crash through a barrier of pointed icicles that appeared in her way. Lilac had taken to launching projectiles and obstacles to wear her down.

I have to keep going. I have to trust Molly will find help.

Jade couldn’t be dead. She had this... feeling she couldn’t shake or describe. There was an assurance in the back of her mind that Molly was going to come back and that she’d show Lilac that people did care about her enough to come back for her. Her companions- they were a team, right!? Her team would come for her. Jade, Robin, Molly... they’d be here.

“Face facts!” LIlac shouts, landing on the ground and shuddering as more and more dust courses through her. She was running low on the painkillers and was starting to feel the searing sensation of it in her blood. “There is no one coming to get you! No one cares about you! You betrayed everything you’ve ever had and now you’re paying the price for it!”

“IVORY!” “REYNARD!”

The shouts were said in unison as shots rang out, peppering the area around Lilac in bullets.

“What!?”

Lapis and Violet managed to batter the old door off what was left of its hinges to stare down Lilac Cheshire, weapons drawn.

“You know, out of everything I expected to show up- this was not it. Why are you here?” He tone was ice cold as she glared down at the two figures. No, wait... There was one more.

“...Why? You three of all people?”

Onyx strode silently into the doorway as well. He rubbed his neck knowingly. He wasn’t really wanting to strain his voice further- but perhaps he’d have to.

“Because...” He began harshly and slowly, “This must stop.You’re accomplishing nothing anymore. You’ve destroyed everything but what you set out to.”

Ivory stared at them for a while. Onyx, Violet, Lapis... they had shown up. The team she was going to sell out to Jade. This wasn’t right. It wasn’t supposed to work out like this. Why were they here? She didn’t deserve their help. This had to be a coincidence.

Violet kept her gaze on Ivory, though. “It’s over.” She says in a kinder tone that she had imagined it sounding, “We’re here now. You can rest.”

“Wh-What...? No, this is some kind of joke! You can’t just show up and save me like this! It doesn’t make sense! Why!?”

“Why? Because we’re huntsmen and huntresses and it’s the right thing to do. Because someone came to us and said that the only person they care about was in danger. Because no one else was going to stop this psychopath from destroying the entire district and all those people just because she hates you.

“And because, as much as I want to say you deserve everything that’s coming to you, we’re a team and we’re going to end this as one.”

Lapis steps forward, gripping his weapon tightly and holding back the urge to charge right now. This was the person responsible for the deaths of so many of his friends- and a lot of his own old hatreds. It was like staring down all of his personal demons rolled up into one wretched person. “So... you’re the one, huh?”

Lilac scrunches her face and continues glaring. “Whatever it is you think is going on- it doesn’t concern you.”

“Pineyard,” he continues, “Logging village a little bit outside of an old dust mine that got attacked by a riot wielding your weapons.”

“Seriously!? Let me guess, you’re here to avenge your stupid little town, right?”

“Not anymore. This is about something way more important than that. Killing you won’t bring anyone back- but I sure as hell can make sure no one else has to go through what we did because of you. I have a feeling you’re not going to stop here.”

“We’re not here for us. We’re here to stop you for the sake of the people we care about. We can deal with Reynard’s boss later. Right now what matters is you don’t hurt anyone else!”

“You see that, Lilac!? I’m not alone. Maybe I don’t deserve it. They probably should still hate me for what I did, but right here right now I’m going to hold my promise. We’re stopping you and I’m going back to Molly alive.”

“We all are. I can’t call myself a real Goodfellow if I backed away from this now. My dad wouldn’t, my mom wouldn’t, I think even Robin wouldn’t... This is where I’m supposed to be and what I’m supposed to do.”

“I told you this was madness the moment I heard about it. Now...” Onyx lets out a cough and wipes his face, gritting his teeth and resuming.

“Don’t strain your voice, Onyx, we’ll call the shots. Just focus on the fight. Ready team?”

“So that’s how it’s going to be? Fine. I’ll rip you all apart myself.”

#teamoliv #Onyx Cheshire - Overheard Conversations #Lapis Hamelin - Overheard Conversations #Ivory Reynard - Overheard Conversations #Violet Goodfellow - Overheard Conversations #Lilac Cheshire - Overheard Conversations #cutscene #Team OLIV - The Red Arena

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teamoliv-archive · 5 years

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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 #cutscene #Onyx Cheshire - Overheard Conversations #Lapis Hamelin - Overheard Conversations #Ivory Reynard - Overheard Conversations #Violet Goodfellow - Overheard Conversations #Molly Briar - Cutscene #Lazuli Hamelin - Cutscene #The Seeker - Overheard Conversatoins #Mother Marianne - Cutscene #Morado Amun - Cutscene #Tyrael Cheshire - Overheard Conversations #Auroras Hallward - Cutscene

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teamoliv-archive · 5 years

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Cutscene: For the Ones We Love

How long had Molly been running? Time sped up and slowed down around her as she stumbled through the flames of the ruined district. It took forever to find a clearing that was decently clean. It looked like everything here had already burned. When had she come back to her senses? It was hard to tell what had happened over however much time she had spent trying to get away.

A flash of light caught her attention. “I don’t have time for this!” She shouted instinctively. It was some spherical drone that beeped and flashed at her. The intervals were hard to pin down. She still didn’t know how to fix her warped senses. She heard the sped up and then slowed down sqeak of more wheels as more of these things rolled up around her.

She was surrounded!? What were these things? They started to flash and make noise randomly, a practice made even more disorienting by her sense of time constantly shifting.

Just slow it down... slow it down...

The world around her slowed to a crawl. Molly had to turn her head away from some lights that shone too brightly. Then she felt the very slow impact of something smacking her in the back of the head.

“Gotcha.”

“Molly!” Ivory shouted into the raging din around her. She picked up Oroboros by its massive handle, hoisting her partner’s massive death wheel onto one shoulder. She was much taller than Molly so it neatly slung over her shoulder and hung down above her knee. She rushed into the direction that she thought Molly was going.

A beep caught her attention.

Another of those weird wheeled ball robots. The ones belonging to Lilac Cheshire. She was about to bring her ax down on the annoying thing when it flashed a screen in front of her. It was Molly.

She was stuck somewhere with a worrying number of tubes and needles stuck into her. Nearby was the triumphantly smirking face of Onyx’s sister- no, Cassandra Cheshire’s daughter.

“I’m not playing nice here, bitch.” She started with a venomous tone, “That’s a dust-infuser I’ve strapped your little friend to. You, your crazy master, and a whole bunch of other people are going to die for what you did to my family. Follow that drone to where it leads you and maybe I won’t turn this machine on. Do you know what happens when you inject dust right into a person’s body? It’s strong sure, but it’s agonizing. I happen to have enough to freeze, burn, and shock this kid from the inside out all at the same time.”

The drone starts wheeling away at a surprising speed.

“You have ten minutes!” It shouts on a loudspeaker.

“No....” Ivory felt nothing but guilt seeing Molly the way she was. They had to be somewhere nearby to be able to transmit that message. It didn’t look prerecorded. Lilac looked right at her. She was the one who killed Tyrael’s wife, ruined Molly’s plans to go to Beacon for Jade while she went to Atlas.

No, I went to Atlas for Jade. Molly wanted to go for herself...

She didn’t have a choice. She had to follow.

She planted a speed target on to the ground and started a sprint. With the sound of a shatter, she darted ahead of the drone for a while, following the only logical path she could take, lugging Molly’s massive weapon with her.

“Don’t worry, I’m coming!”

The drone sped up to match her speed, leading her to a building that was suspiciously unburnt. She slams her ax into the door, not bothering to try and opening it the right way. It busted off at one of its rusty hinges and swung open at an awkward angle. Inside, there they were.

Lilac gave a death glare at Ivory. Molly hung from the harness she was strapped to from some kind of hook in a half-conscious state. “We knew you did it,” She spat, “We knew from the start but your master managed to convince Dad not to make you wish we’d killed you.”

“I’m fixing that. Then I’m making sure Leroux is dead, too.” She was wearing a similar harness to the one that Molly had been attached to, but with some added things to it. It looked attached to her coat. A flash of hard light appeared in front of Lilac’s eyes as the tubes on her coat began flaring up with various colors. The blood vessels in her skin started to glow and her hair flashed with arcing power as the dust started to take effect. A jolt of pain was soothed by the anesthetic.

Molly’s harness started to glow and she started to convulse and scream in agony, jolting back awake but blind to the world around her.

“I made this specifically to kill you! You try to escape and your friend explodes do you understand me!?”

Ivory didn’t have time to think about all the factors involved in why this was happening. That was probably going to come crashing into her once the adrenaline wore off. She dropped Molly’s weapon and readies her ax. Those drones were still here, too and nothing was stopping that crazy harness from killing Molly anyway if it looked like Lilac wasn’t going to be able to pull this off. She could have just blown them all up, but this was a woman driven by revenge. She wanted the satisfaction of spilling Ivory’s blood herself.

She readied her weapon by pointing the blade straight in front of her and pulling the trigger on Isengrim’s barrel, rocketing her forward. The blade stops just short of Lilac, catching on a wall of rock that flashes in front of her.

Lilac walks around the jagged barrier watching Ivory try in vain to yank her weapon free. “You’re strong. I know that. But you’re so reliant on that thing.” She reaches out and grabs her arm and it starts to ice over.

Ivory felt a horrible chill come up her arm. Lilac was going to try and take her apart piece by piece if possible. She kicks at the woman, still holding her gun with her free arm. Slamming her finger against the trigger, the ax blade crushes its way through the earth dust and breaks it into pieces. The impact frees her arm and she immediately uses the recoil to put some distance between them. Her left arm was numb and frozen. That was going to make blocking difficult.

She twirls the ax to try and block a sudden barrage of fireballs that shot out of something on Lilac’s wrist. Of course the coat would be using the dust, too. She looks to the walls where the drones were driving up various surfaces. Since when could they do that? She plants a target on the ground and shoots herself into the air by kicking at it.

Lilac walked her shots, switching up the elements seemingly at random. Ivory had taken to the air and this made it harder for her to dodge, even if she used her gun to bounce off the recoil. She could only go in a straight line. Where was she even shooting for anyway?

A series of vanished blips on the screen in front of her revealed it. She was shooting out the drones. Clever, but it wasn’t going to do a lot. Taking a few steps forward, Lilac started to create a rising ramp of ice, rushing up it while electricity flared in her arms.

She flung her arm in a huge arc, sending a whip of lighting across the room, taking out a few of her own drones in the process. She could always make more. Besides, that wasn’t the issue- they were packed with explosives anyway. “Did you forget how I started these fires in the first place!?”

The shock of the explosions launched Ivory across the room, landing in an inglorious series of crunching bounces against the hard ground. She felt a spark of her aura give out and her weapon slide to the ground. This was bad.

Slowly forcing herself to her feet, she saw Lilac close in with a heavy fist enveloped in a black energy. She rolled away as fast as she could, but the surrounding objects and herself were dragged back toward her fist on impact. This included a few more of those exploding drones that launched themselves off of the ceiling.

“Face it you heartless tool!” Lilac said with an excited tone. “Everything you’ve ever done, everything you’ve ruined for your precious master, trying to destroy the house that took you in, it’s all going up in smoke. I bet you’re only saving your partner here because he wants you to. You’ve never cared about anything! Now you’re going to die here the same way you took my mother away from me!”

If those got too close she was dead. She watched as Molly’s weapon slid forward in the well of gravity. Reaching out, she grabbed it and squeezed the handle to flare the saw to life.

Swinging the blade forward, she only manage to clip a few of Lilac’s dust tubes, the rubber hoses on her coat spraying powder and thick liquid over her. The broad arc knocked the falling bombs away. The explosions detonated and sent them both flying. They were injured, but not dead.

“This isn’t about Jade...” Ivory says, struggling to her feet. “This isn’t even about your family. This is about you and me, and I will not let you drag Molly into this!” She swung around and tossed the still buzzing saw toward where Molly was struggling with the harness. When it collides with the hook and severs the connections, she falls and collapses to the ground. The device lay in tatters as her partner- no, the closest thing to a sister she’s ever had, whimper on the ground, barely hanging on.

She notices Isengrim on the ground nearby. It must have come with Lilac since her hand was still flush with gravity dust during the explosion. She picks up her weapon and readies herself. She was out of aura and had restricted options, but Molly was free at least. “Get back up. We’re not done.”

“You’re right... We’re not.” Lilac struggles her feet as well. Her screen had cracked in the impact. She didn’t know where her drones were or what her aura levels were at or what toll the dust was going to take on it or her body. No, that didn’t matter. She was still in better shape than her.

Molly whimpered as she struggled to keep her eyes open through the blinding pain. Was that her weapon!? When did it get here? When did Ivory get here!? What was going on!? She could at least see the world right again. “I-Ivory!” She shouted in a hoarse voice. “She was planning this from the beginning...”

“I know.” Ivory responds quietly, “You’re hurt, Molly. You need to get out of here while you can. It’s me she wants.”

“No... No, don’t try to fight her by yourself! I can’t leave without you! I can’t be alone again!”

“If you stay she’ll only kill us both! I promise, I’m not leaving you, Molly. We don’t have any backup. You have to get out of here while you have a chance of living!”

“What’s the matter?” Lilac says interrupting them, “Afraid you’ll lose something precious? Well then I think I know where to start!” Dust flares up in the woman again, power spraying wildly from the broken tubes as she charges forward.

“NO!” Ivory steps in the way and takes the blow with the flat of her ax, sliding back. Her arms ached from the impact. “You can tear me limb from limb, you can go after Jade all you want, you can tell me my entire life is a heartless sham, but I will not let you hurt my sister!”

“Ivory... I...” Molly knew she and Ivory were close. They weren’t blood, but that didn’t really matter, did it? No, she wasn’t going to let her die, but it took all her strength just to stand. Oroboros felt heavy in her arms as she lifted the heavy weapon. Slowly she heard the infernal roar of its engine. Stepping onto the pedal she she heard the blade scraping against the floor. Making a bank, she drove past Lilac and heading to the exit.

“Don’t you dare die, Ivory! I am not losing my family again! All I need is time! I’ll be back, I promise!”

Ivory stepped in between Lilac and Molly, swinging her ax at another shot and splitting it in half. “I said, this is between you and me Lilac Cheshire! If you want at her, you’re going through me!”

“Gladly. Now where were we?”

#teamoliv #cutscene #Ivory Reynard - Overheard Conversations #Lilac Cheshire - Overheard Conversations #Molly Briar - Cutscene #Team OLIV - The Red Arena

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teamoliv-archive · 5 years

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Overheard Conversations: Haunted by the Past

Lilac watched the blips on her map, denoting where the explosive drones had settled. The entire district that Jade Leroux had been hiding in was marked. There wasn’t going to be a place for blocks that wasn’t crumbling or on fire.

She hovered her finger over the key where she’s submit the detonate command. She wanted to savor this. She imagined all manor of the horrid man’s deaths- most of them in scorching flames, being crumbled by debris, or slowly choking to death in the smoke. She pictured Reynard was there, too. She was somewhere anyway. If she got both, she’d be pretty happy. If not, it was just a matter of time.

“Say goodbye, Jade. Cassandra Cheshire says hello.”

Shin had never seen so much fire bellow in one place before. Several dozen explosions had just hit the lower section of Mistral. With the tiered nature of the city’s layout he could see it from the higher elevation easily. “That’s...”

Cobalt watched the blaze silently. What in Remnant had just happened!? Whatever had been going on suddenly took a backseat to a legitimate emergency. “Shin.”

“We may very well be the only hunstmen in this whole damn kingdom. I know.” They had arrived just shortly after word of the missing huntsmen and Headmaster Lionheart’s death defending the school. “Weren’t the White Fang defeated, though?” He shook his head. No, that didn’t matter. They needed to move now. Who knows how many people could be trapped down there in those flames.

“Come on, Ymir! We ain’t got time to lose!”

“What the hell is that!?” Were they under attack!? Those were prepared dust explosives. By the looks of them at least a few had hit some pretty volatile targets, too. “Dustwings, mobilize! Let’s get a perimeter going the moment we reach that district! Gather up every huntsmen you can find!”

Violet missed the disciplined calls of “Sir, yes, Sir!” from the rest of the squadron. She was just rushing in with them. This... This was horrible. She didn’t bother thinking too hard about who or what was behind this. The rest of them didn’t. It was time to just get in there and do what a huntress was meant to do. A flag unfurled in the far distance, a level below them. She could only barely see it.

But she knew that flag; and the Atlas uniform she could only just make out next to it. That was her father and her uncle!

“Follow those huntsmen!” She says, pointing to the area below her.

Auburn wasn’t sure how to properly respond to watching a gas station explode a block away. She was less sure how to respond to a countless number of other explosions hitting seemingly random buildings throughout the area. The booms echoed everywhere and the amount of buildings that weren’t on fire was steadily decreasing.

“Wh-What’s happening!?” Ivory braced herself and watched as the surrounding buildings were catching fire. People were either shutting themselves into their houses or fleeing them. Several had already suffered a lot of injury from the blasts and the rushes of hot air. They needed to get to Jade now.

“No... No no no no nonononononononononono!” Molly had frozen entirely. She felt herself shaking but she hadn’t been moving at all, as if it was all pent up inside her. It felt like the fire was closing in around her, he old burns suddenly flaring to life at the memory.

Great! They were both freaking out beyond help! Auburn didn’t like being in a firestorm. Ivory was uselessly flitting in place and Molly... Auburn suddenly bounced back when the girl screamed, dropped her weapon and ran off in the most awkward and jerky manner imaginable. Ivory started to ran after her but stumbled first, shouting after her.

“This isn’t worth it.”

She was going to save her own skin. Damn the other two. They could run off and get killed for all she cared.

Ivory stumbled forward trying to catch up to her erratic partner. “Molly! Molly, wait!” A house crumbled nearby, collapsing under its weight. A huge plume of ash blew in her direction and the running and screaming residents were getting denser as the fire spread. No! She lost her! She turned back to Auburn and- she was gone. Did that little bitch just abandon them? She grips her weapon and forces herself to push through. Find Molly, then find Jade. Simple, right?

Molly could feel herself running. Where to she had no idea, she could only barely see the world around her as it slowed down and sped up randomly, jerking her motions around as she did so. She tripped at least once and Oroboros had clanged to the ground. That didn’t matter, in her mind she was five years old again. She never knew how the fire started or any other details like that. But she remembered the heat, the pain, and the awful sizzling and popping sound coming off of her own skin.

She remembered seeing what was left of her sleeping family. Her older sister, her younger brother, her mom and dad. She screamed their names until her voice gave out and the sounds lost meaning. Everything hurt inside and out. Sirens... She had no idea if there were actual fire and rescue coming, or if she was just remembering the distant blares of emergency that had come too late.

Where was she even going!? As a child she had spent weeks wandering the streets in burned and filthy clothes until a kindly man gave her a chance at any kind of life again. Now everything was ablaze again. Where was Jade? Where was Robin? Where was Ivory?

Just keep running. She told herself, Everything’s gone.

Again.

#teamoliv #cutscene #Ivory Reynard - Overheard Conversations #Violet Goodfellow - Overheard Conversations #Cobalt Ymir - Cutscene #Molly Briar - Cutscene #Shin Goodfellow - Cutscene #Auburn Huldre - Cutscene #Morado Amun - Cutscene #Lilac Cheshire - Overheard Conversations

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teamoliv-archive · 6 years

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Overheard Conversations: What If?

“Hey, Molly...?”

“Yeah?”

“Have you ever wondered what things would have been like if our lives were different? What if Onyx was in my place like he was supposed to be? What if you got to go to Beacon like you wanted? What if we were just a couple of normal girls living out our lives?”

“You really have to bring the mood down with heavy stuff like this? Of course I wonder. Where would I be if I still had a home to go to instead of wandering the streets? What if you go to keep your easy Atlas life just watching over some brat even if that? But... You know what? I wouldn’t want a redo. Sure, I’d want to change things- but a few things I’d still want to have happen.”

“Like what?”

“We wouldn’t have met each other. Or Jade. I wouldn’t want to get rid of that. Like it or not, you’re practically my sister, and Jade’s basically the reason we have anything. I don’t even know what I’d do with myself without you two.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. This way we don’t have to worry about anything. He just gives us an answer and everything’s all better.”

“Yeah! Leave the hard stuff to him. Besides, for all I know my family was awful. I just remember little things.”

“Mostly...”

#teamoliv #Ivory Reynard - Overheard Conversations #Molly Briar - Cutscene

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teamoliv-archive · 6 years

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Overheard Conversations: The Decision

The following conversation takes place following the White Fang attack on Beacon Academy and subsequent battle.

“No one will blame if you don’t stay.”

The General’s words were probably mean to be more rallying than helping. No one really wanted to leave who felt they could help. This did not mean everyone stayed.

“What do you mean, ‘we’re leaving’?” Violet snapped bitterly. “You’re serious! You’re seriously going to leave all these people to die to save your own skin!”

“I believe I made my instructions very clear. There is no point in dying for this. There are far too many Grimm not to mention insurgents and from what I’m seeing, the military’s hardware has either failed them or we’re in the midst of a coup. Either way, staying is worthless. Get on this ship! I am making that an order!”

“Violet, we can’t fight this. Onyx is right. All we’d be going is dying with everyone else. We need to evacuate. This place... This place is lost. We have to accept that.”

“You’re worse than a coward, Cheshire. Isn’t this the whole reason we’re here!? Is that what you want people to see!? All the armed huntsmen running away!?”

“This coming from the man who refuses to call himself one. This is Ozpin’s mistake for not seeing this coming and refusing the warnings. Let them burn and die in their own folly. Anyone foolish enough to stay and fight deserves whatever fate they’re given.”

“I can’t believe you... Uncl- Major, please talk some sense into them!”

“My duty is to evacuate those who wish to flee. Apart from that I am to see you safe home to your families. If your team leader chooses to evacuate then I will ready the ship.”

“Fine. Save your own sorry hide, but I am not getting on that ship. I don’t care what your ‘orders’ are.” Lazuli and the other younger pre-academy students should have evacuated by now, but he didn’t know for certain.

“He’s right. What would Dad say if I came home with my tail between my legs?”

“And what would he say to me if I came back with your corpse? No, am not allowing you to go out there.” Cobalt takes a step forward. Lapis draws his weapon. Violet hesitates to do the same.

A single shot is fired behind them. A large wall of reinforced ice dust separates them from the rest of their field of view. “This is not our fight. Get on the bullhead.” He looks up as a large Grimm circles around them. He points his gun up and fires at it. The creature dissolves in a fireball before it hits the ground.

“You worthless, self-serving bastards! You’ll leave them all to die!” Lapis rushes forward without another thought.

Ivory takes a quick sidestep, using the long reach of her weapon to arc around Lapis’s guard and quickly strike him down in the back. She angles her weapon again and fires the gun backward, launching the flat of the blade against the back of his head. A crater formed in the ice wall behind them, spraying shards everywhere. He was knocked out cleanly.

Onyx gave a stern stare to the shaking Violet. Whether it was in fear, rage, or some combination of the two he didn’t care to analyze. “So would you like to spend the rest of our trip to safety out cold as well?”

Violet could barely hear her own thoughts over the sheer blinding hatred of just abandoning what was probably one of the worst events in modern history. “You are worse than a coward, Onyx Cheshire...” She mutters in a low venomous tone, mirroring Lapis’s earlier condemnation. Dad had said that the Cheshire family was one of utter monsters, but she hadn’t seen it up until now. Ivory didn’t surprise her. She never did seem to do anything but take his orders. “Fine... If I don’t have a choice, I’ll go.” As much as she would rather go out fighting at least trying to save lives than do this, she knew she wouldn’t even be able to get that far if not even her uncle would step in to keep Ivory away from her. She stared the person she now refused to call her team leader. “Count yourself lucky if I ever speak to you again.”

She turns her head angrily to her uncle. “Put me in the cargo hold if you have to but I am not going to share this ride with them.”

“I would not advise that...” Cobalt mentions, “It is a long way to Atlas.”

“Drop her off in the shipyard for all I care. We’re leaving this failed academy to its fate.”

Ivory hoisted Lapis over her shoulder. He was heavy. She watched Violet insistently tuck herself in with the crates and boxes in the back while Major Ymir got everything ready with the pilot. Tyrael must have pulled some strings with the right bribes again. They had the ship to themselves. She glances to Onyx. “Are you sure this is the right thing to do?”

“This is the right thing to do for us. That’s all that matters.”

“....You’re right. Let’s go.”

#teamvnla did one so I'll give mine #teamoliv #Onyx Cheshire - Overheard Conversations #Lapis Hamelin - Overheard Conversations #Ivory Reynard - Overheard Conversations #The Huntress - Overheard Conversation #Cobalt Ymir - Cutscene #cutscene #Team OLIV - Vytal Festival

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teamoliv-archive · 6 years

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Overheard Conversations: Policeman’s Ball

The following footage was recovered from an abandoned warehouse. Its contents are still classified by Mistral PD but a version of the footage has found its way online through underground channels titled “Policeman’s Ball Intro”. However, outside of a few isolated cases, the public is largely unaware of the recording’s existence. It appears to detail the fates of several policemen who went missing following a pursuit of a brazen murder that made news in a tributary village outside the kingdom.

WARNING: Villains at play. Proceed with caution.

“Okay, then... This thing on? Perfect!” A high-definition scroll recording starts playing in an old building decked out to look like a policeman’s ball complete with soft music playing in the background.

“Good evenin’ there ladies and gents. It’s your old pal R.G. here with a mighty special offer for ya. You all remember that little incident a few weeks back, right? You know, the one with the infamous snitch that got his sorry hide cut in half in broad daylight? Well we went and did our thing not just for your benefit but for your entertainment pleasure. See, we got a little present for our favorite customers.”

The camera pans off of the man speaking to showcase a half-dozen uniformed police officers bound and gagged to chairs. Many of them were bruised and battered and clearly didn’t go down without a fight. The voice continues with a shot focusing on each one. Throughout the entire recording muffled intelligible shouting from behind the gags is heard. “Every single one of these fine uniformed officers lead the chase against our little firebrand who did the nasty part of the job; and something tells me you all know most of ‘em. How many of you lost loyal boys of yours to these guys? How many of your got your businesses ruined? How many fine establishments who were just minding their own damn business got shut down because of some... legal technicality? Well let’s let our master of ceremonies tell you what treat you’re in for!”

The camera pans up to a much neater looking man in a tailored deep green suit and a pair of stylish spectacles.

“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I know this is a tad deviant from our... usual festivities, but I promise you this will be a unique treat as my dear compatriot put it. Each of the officers you see here is responsible for the shut down or arrest of people and ventures that you spent quite a lot of time and money on. You know who you are. Take a good long look at these men while we wait for our first set of calls. For every bid you make, you may choose one of these officers and make a suggestion for what we do with them. It is only fair that you have a hand in their fate, after all.”

“Oh, and don’t worry. We’ve made sure to feed the poor men. Unlike them, we treat our prisoners to proper meals. Girls, if you would be so kind? Officer York hasn’t had his coffee yet.”

The camera pans to two redhead girls in their late teens in wine red cocktail dresses standing by a table decorated with coffee and donuts. Next to the sugar where the creamer would be is a jar of strychnine- clearly labelled. The shorter of the two girls pours a cup of the coffee, mixes in the sugar and creamer and walks over to one of the bound men, while the taller one tilts his head back. They undo the gag just enough to pour the coffee down his throat. All the while his thrashing was kept to a minimum due to being held there. Afterward, the gag was refastened and the two girls gave him reassuring smiles, a kiss on each cheek and then a cheeky wave as they head back to the table.

“It’s not enough to be lethal of course but they will be awake and very jittery for a long time. We don’t want them to miss your revenge, right? The bidding will begin at 10,000 Lien a call, and just because we appreciate you all so much, you can even use your time to tell them everything you’ve always wanted to. And remember, this is members only. Now enjoy the show. Let’s wait for our first call.”

The footage ends here. The policemen’s bodies were never found and the other four in the video were never identified.

#teamoliv #Ivory Reynard - Overheard Conversations #Molly Briar - Cutscene #Robin Goodfellow - Cutscene #Jade Leroux - Cutscene #drugging tw #torture tw #I almost feel like the trigger tags spoil half of it but I'd rather be safe about it #I felt like writing a villain drabble

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teamoliv-archive · 6 years

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Overheard Conversations: True Colors

Atlas Academy - Team OLIV dorm room...

“You know, I just noticed something about you, Reynard.”

“You did? What’s that?”

“You don’t hide yourself very well. Your emotions I mean. It’s not hard to tell how you feel about something.”

“Is this... going somewhere? You normally don’t bother talking about people like this.”

“What I noticed is that’s all I know about you. Cheshire? Goodfellow? I know what they’re about; but you’re all surface. Throughout all this time I’ve known you I don’t know anything besides how you fight, a few odd habits, and what your current mood is. Seriously, why are you even here?”

“Is it really that wrong of me to not know!? Not everyone gets the luxury of laying out their own path before it even happens. Sometimes decisions get made for you. It happened to Onyx; it happened to me. We’re not like you and Violet. We’re not here because we want to be. Be we are and we have to make the most of what we have so we can make those decisions later, okay!?”

It took a second for Ivory to register just how angry she got all of the sudden. The cocktail of not wanting to talk about herself and the casual insults hit a bit harder than she had hoped as well as too suddenly. “...Look, I’m sorry I snapped like that. I think I’m going to the training building for a while before the rest of the hall asks what we’re shouting about and I don’t think either of us want to have that conversation.”

“Do what you want.” He waits until the door closes. “How do you just go about the day without thinking about the next? If you don’t know what you want, you don’t know where you’re going... Maybe that’s just more reason for me not to make that mistake.”

#teamoliv #Lapis Hamelin - Overheard Conversations #Ivory Reynard - Overheard Conversations #cutscene #Team OLIV - Atlas Academy

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teamoliv-archive · 4 years

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Cutscene: Rough Analysis

“Aaaand stop.” Hari announces, just as Lapis went flying backward and skid across the ground. He showed some aura readings and footage from the fight, with Auburn not having broken much stride at all while Team OLIV had varying degrees of ability to hold their own.

Auburn descended from a mass made of the shadowy melange she could spread around her. The team learned quickly that some of Shin’s hardening semblance had altered the properties of hers during the aura transfer. The shadowy mass faded away. “I almost feel like I wasted my time, but some of you actually managed to hold their own. By the way, Jett, how’s it feel over there?”

Onyx was one of the first taken out of the fight and hurled into a now mangled piece of training equipment. He groaned as he slowly started to pry himself out of it.

Tyrael watched with a pleased smile on his face. “Well, Hari? What do you make of them?” He watched Ivory stumble over to Onyx to help him out while the other two of OLIV’s team rose and double checked for bruises or other injuries.

“Honestly, they’re not ready. They can handle being backup for some decent missions that’ll show off what Auburn can do, but if you want ‘em to not be a liability in the real big stuff, they need training.”

Hari looks to Lapis with a scrunched expression. “Let’s start with you. I wouldn’t even really call what you do a fighting style. You block, parry, and sometimes counterattack, putting all your focus on the front and just assuming your opponent will be impatient enough to try and go through you rather than around you. People have lost wars doing stupid things like that. You need to learn an offensive strategy. There’s going to be times your shield won’t work.”

He then snaps his focus to Violet. “You’ve got the opposite problem. No defense at all. Those weapons of yours can’t block or parry and that semblance of yours might be flashy, but it won’t always give you the opening you need. You’re good on your feet and you could focus on that to help block. Hell, even some shin guards... yeah, yeah that could work. If you lose your pressure, you’re screwed and we need to fix that.”

“Sorry to say, Onyx, but you’re the worst of both worlds: no offense, no defense, no real way to hold your own in a one-on-one where you don’t have an advantage. You’re fast and skilled, but that won’t mean a damn thing if your opponent knows what’s up or you can’t outmaneuver them. You need to sharpen those claws of yours in more than one way and I think I know a few ways we can teach you to use those strings to make defensive formations.

“You’re a little more complicated,” Hari says to Ivory, “You’ve got your style down fine and you don’t really have any gaps in power or skill, but you don’t think. You keep relying on big heavy hits without considering your next move. What you need, is some lessons in planning and strategy. Take it from professional muscle, dumb professional muscle doesn’t make it far in the industry.”

Auburn gives a cocky smirk to the lot as they got their dressing downs. “See? You’re all weak. You can’t beat perfection. Unlike the rest of you, I don’t have any weaknesses. Are you really sure I need these guys to tag along with me? You got your benchmark.”

Hari watches Auburn with a bored expression, tapping his finger on the table he was sitting at while waiting for her to finish her posturing. “Did I say I was done? You didn’t impress me a lot either. You’ve got more work to do than the rest of them.”

Auburn furrowed her brow in frustration at Hari’s assessment, barely containing her growing anger at the accusation. “Excuse me!? You saw what I just did. They barely managed to get a hit in on me.” She glances to Tyrael in protest but the harsh glare the man gave told her she was expected to hear the mercenary out.

“And that’s still not good enough.” Hair says, pinching his nose and exhaling, “Listen, you’re good, but you’re artificially good. In a fair fight, you would have lost to any of those four you just put on the floor. You have all that power and not enough actual skill to back it up. Not yet anyway. You’re going to need training to fix that and the rest of you will, too.

Tyrael nods to Hari and then to the five fighters. “Hari, while you’re waiting for Auroras to come back from his usual opportunistic side-jobs, I would like to rewew our contract. I plan on showcasing Borealis and its results in six months. During that time, I want you training all of them, choosing their missions and collecting the data they bring back. In the meantime...” Tyrael pushes a button on the screen and five huntsmen licenses appear on screen. “The lot of you will be given lodging at my estate but make no mistake, this is so I can keep a careful eye on all of you. You will be allowed free travel of Atlas and Mantle to perform whatever work you wish. That will be the source of your personal incomes.

“Understand that this is quite a lot of trust I am placing in the four of you so allow me to make one thing very clear. If even a single word of your... unusual situation reaches public ears, the lives of Shin and Emril Goodfellow are forfeit. Not a word of them, or how you arrived in Atlas. If asked, you are Atlas graduates seeking work. You have no idea how difficult it was to have your records changed without Redmond here so I want you to fully appreciate the effort I had to go through to give you a semblance of comfort.”

“Now that we’ve established things, you are free to take the rest of the night and tomorrow off to get yourselves situated. You four will have a suite of rooms and a common area to share. A servant will escort you there. Your weapons will be repaired and we really should get you all some new clothes. You’re professionals now- I expect you to look the part.”

#teamoliv #Onyx Cheshire - Cutscene #Lapis Hamelin - Cutscene #Ivory Reynard - Cutscene #Violet Goodfellow - Cutscene #Tyrael Cheshire - Cutscene #Auburn Huldre - Cutscene #Hari Lackey - Cutscene #Team OLIV - Project Borealis

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teamoliv-archive · 4 years

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Cutscene: The Return to Atlas

The trip back to Atlas was long and soul draining. The flight was cleared to enter and the small private vessel swooped right onto a private helipad at the top of a building in the floating city. The words Cheshire Financial Group were emblazoned on the top of the building over a large crawler showing various stock and good prices as well as a few advertisements for loans and financing.

“Well here we are.” Hari from the cockpit with an impressive smile. “It’s a shame you kids didn’t want to talk during the trip. You know, Nyx, your mom never let Auroras and I visit you growing up. Something about ‘not wanting the family associated with lowly mercenaries’ or something like that. Hopefully, we can catch up. I wanna hear all about what your team’s been up to after Ty’s done with what he wants.”

When the plane lands two figures very familiar to each member of the team could be visible. All four leaned into the windows as best as their restraints would allow and a collective look of apprehension and shock covered them.

“You’re kidding me...”

“What’s she doing here?”

Auburn was clearly in far better shape than she had been. Her would in her fight with Onyx had caused a series of ugly clawed scars down the left side of her face and her hair was swooped to the other side. She looked far more confident and cocky if such a thing were possible.

Tyrael waited for the plane’s five passengers to depart, ignoring the mix of glares and incredulous looks from the team. “Release their restraints and collect their weapons, Hari. The four of you come with me. I went through a lot of trouble to gather you so I suggest you take what I’m about to offer very seriously.

Lapis wastes no time charging forward the moment his restraints are broken. “Not interested!”

Violet hit the realization quicker than the rest of them. They were being released and given their weapons back? That wasn’t normally how capturing people worked. Whatever it was that Tyrael Cheshire had planned, he wasn’t concerned about counterattacks. “Lapis, wait, something’s not right!”

Auburn swooped to the side and dodged Lapis’s incoming punch without much visible effort. She twirled around faster than anyone else could notice and slammed him into the ground with a well placed kick to his back. She then smirked at the others, locking her eyes on Onyx. “I told you I’d rise up past you, Jett. I hope you don’t mind but everything that used to be yours is mine now. Even your old room- dominance and all that. I hope you understand.”

“Are we all done playing?” Tyrael asks harshly, “Pick yourselves up and come with me. Hari, deliver their weapons to the new training room. Once I’m done with this, I will give you the rest of your payment.” He pauses and counts- four. “Where are the others?”

“What do you think? Auroras found a way to get paid twice. You specifically said you wanted these four and someone else wanted the other two so he went off to deliver them there. I’ll tell you the rest later.”

Onyx says nothing, merely rubbing his wrists when they’re freed. He ignored Auburn’s taunting for now and focused on what his father could want. It was strange he still thought of him that way. Perhaps that would never really fade. Seeing him turn and start walking to the door to the inside of the building, Onyx followed. Ivory was close behind him.

Lapis pulls himself up and begrudgingly follows. Violet was also acting on a slower pace than normal. “I don’t like this...”

“None of us do, but we have to find out what’s going on first.” Violet passes Lapis and catches up with Onyx and Ivory. She knew Hari was bringing up the rear and making sure no one tried to make a break for it.

-------

A tense and silent elevator ride down countless levels followed. Once it finally reached the floor it had meant to, it opened up to a large training room with screens, monitors, and various amenities. “This is where I will evaluate whether bringing you here will be worth my time.”

As the seven of them entered into the expansive training room, Violet glanced around to see what was here. There looked to be a door on the other side with a plaque saying ‘weapon storage’. “Let me guess, our stuff’s going in there until you say we can have it, right?” She froze when she saw past the glass and the lettering on it and to a familiar sight propped up in a sturdy case.

“That’s... His Majesty’s Colors! My dad’s weapon! Why do you have it!?”

Tyrael walked into the room to stand at one of the terminals by the wall of the training room. “Well well, once again your observation skills impress me, Ms. Goodfellow. You’re correct, that is your father’s weapon. I’m afraid both of your parents had a bit of a run in after their latest frolic in the frozen wastelands of Solitas. This is, partly, why you’re all here.” He pushes a button to show both Shin and Emril Goodfellow in effective stasis, the pods they were in showing various life signs.

Onyx took a step forward and finally broke his silence. His harsh damaged voice echoing as much as it could in the large room. “You expect me to believe that you went out of your way to collect wounded huntsmen on a rescue mission? That run in could only have been with you.”

“Well, I mean... yeah. Yeah it was- and it was all for me.” Auburn, in lieu of walking, decided on a flashy flip over the team and landed in front of them with a showy pose. “What you are looking at now is the product of the future. You see, your ex-father here took Ciar’s aura research and decided to put it to use. We got one of those fancy aura transfer machines that they found in Beacon’s wreckage and,” She smirks to Violet in a taunting way, “Your parents’ aura is mine now. Well... most of it. We needed them alive after all.”

Lapis jerked back, his normally solid form shaking slightly at the thought. “You can... do that?” He balled a fist as his features tightened. “So, what, are we just going to be more supply for your damn project!? Is that it!?” He was already prepared for another ill-fated fight. He knew he was outmatched by at least two of the people in this room, but he wasn’t going to let Huldre pull that on him again.

“Oh, please try and attack me again. We can do this with only three of them, right?”

“Both of you cool it down.” Hari mentions from the back, helping himself to one of the water bottles on a table. “Ty, I’m kind of curious, is this that ‘Borealis Project’ of yours?”

“It is, Hari. This is my version of Ciar’s Aurora. Using these transfers to enhance the abilities of huntsmen and huntresses to unheard of heights. What once needed entire teams to take down will now be the role of a solitary one. However, we’re still testing this and that is why I need a full team. You are to serve as my benchmark.” He taps another button and prepared licenses for Team OLIV showed up. “These are yours, as is access to this facility, room and board, and meals. All you have to do is your job and compare your performance to Auburn’s.”

“And if we don’t something happens to my parents, is that it?” Violet snaps. She realized she didn’t have much other choice and gritted her teeth tightly. What would Robin have done in this situation? She figured her brother would have likely gone berserk and tried to kill everyone in the room. The thought that this was what he was like now still frightened her a little. That wasn’t the kind of person she could be, though, and she just wasn’t strong enough. She reflexively shrinks down in a pained defeat.

“I’m not doing anything until my sister is back where she belongs.” He flings himself around toward Hari, “You tell your partner that you need to get her back here if you want me to do anything!”

“Sorry, kid, can’t do it.” Hari says with a shrug. ��Auroras took the job and going back on a contract’s one of the worst things you can do in this business. I can’t say I like the people he was talking to, but sometimes that’s just how it goes. Besides,” He points to Tyrael, “It’s not like Ty to give you room to negotiate.”

“That would be correct. Lapis, was it? Your meddling is what ultimately destroyed my daughter if I recall. By all rights I should demand blood for blood, but I will choose to instead offer you a gracious forgiveness as well as a job. Or are you so selfish that you would risk trying to break through the entirety of Mistral’s underground yet again at the cost of putting your teammate’s parents in peril?”

Watching Lapis shrink down as well, Ivory took a step forward. “I want to speak with my father, Mr. Cheshire.” If anyone could pull something out of the man it would be Redmond Reynard.

“I’m afraid he’s away on business for the foreseeable future. He actually left before you got here. It’s a shame he had no time to see his own daugther, but when you have so many important things to do, sometimes you must make sacrifices.”

Ivory knew immediately that her father was sent off before she got here on purpose just in case he insisted on trying to change the offer somehow. She’d have to see if she could find Sterling later- he would know where he went and why with how often the butler hung around her father.

Onyx swallowed hard and felt an ache in his throat as he spoke again. It was still healing, but slowly. “I think that’s enough empty negotiating. You didn’t bring us here to this room specifically just to explain this to us. You said you wanted a baseline...”

“Indeed I did. Prepare your weapons once they are returned to you. The four of you will be fighting Auburn so I know exactly the gap in strength that Borealis provides.”

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