A/N: April Fools! But the joke is I actually posted a chapter. Joke must be on me then. Get prank'd.

And oh my sweet sainted aunts some of you are far too kind to little old me. After reading some of those reviews you could've blown me over with a feather.

No sarcasm. I'm glad people are still enjoying the story. I'm just about shaking myself to pieces waiting for my V3 plans. Oh well. That's still about six months away by my current output clock… This'll either teach me patience or I'll disintegrate.

There is no middle ground.

I fidgeted nervously, looking around my old dorm room. In the weeks I had been gone it had been rearranged back into a pristine showroom version of itself. Typically, part of my mind wandered off topic and busied itself wondering as to who exactly was responsible for cleaning and upkeep.

That was a safer thing to think about rather than the wrath of the simmering pot of righteous fury that was coldly glaring at me. In all fairness though, I had nothing to do with this situation.

It was Yang's fault really.

"What's wrong, short stack?"

"Nothing, Yang. I've just never been an accessory to kidnapping before."

The blonde waved me off. "It's fine. It's not even kidnapping. It's more like… timeout."

"She's tied up, Yang."

"Just around the wrists. And her hands are in front of her," she added, as if that somehow made it more justifiable.

"And it's against her will."

She shrugged like someone had told her that her shoelaces were coming undone. "Well of course it's against her will, but her will was pretty stupid. You want to know what exactly her will was?"

The pot of righteous fury boiled over. "Shut up, Yang."

Somehow Blake still managed to look threatening despite lying on the floor, tied up, with Yang sitting on her back. The benefits of being a Blake I guess. She squirmed helplessly, trying to get up and do something to follow through on her threat. It was a losing battle. After a few seconds of diligent attempts Yang stretched luxuriously and crushed out the resistance.

"How about this Belladonna? Maybe it was a good idea; I am blonde after all. So we'll use Glen as an independent witness."

"He wasn't a witness," pointed out Blake belligerently.

Yang just rolled her eyes in exasperation. "An independent… whatever. Judge. Anyway, do you want to tell him or should I?"

"He's not independent either."

"I guess that means I'm telling him. So, the long and the short of it is the genius below me decided to sneak into a White Fang meeting. Or tried to, rather, before I caught up to her."

"Okay, that's not… great," I admitted. "I mean, what if you were recognized?"

"I had a mask," argued Blake.

Yang pulled a white and black strip from a pocket and twirled it around. "Yeah, this thing."

She launched it end over end and I plucked it out of the air to give it the once over. It was some sort of plastic and metal piece that clearly was designed to be worn almost like a pair of glasses. Slipping it on, I was surprised by how much I could see out of it - though it did create blind spots in the peripheral vision.

"Blake, this is like wearing sunglasses as a disguise. You think if Yang slapped on a pair of aviators people really wouldn't be able to tell who it was?"

Yang rearranged her features into a wide-eyed innocent look. "I can be very inconspicuous when I want to be."

Her captive snorted at the idea. "I doubt that very much. Besides, it's not like there are people actively looking for me."

"Right. I'm sure two weeks is too long ago for them to remember the crazy cat faunus chick who is former White Fang and tried to attack one of their big operations solo."

Yang's point was a fairly good one and dripping in sarcasm to boot. Blake grunted in response. Or maybe she just grunted because Yang adjusted her sitting position. It was getting hard to tell at this point.

"You've got to let her go though Yang. You can't keep her here forever," I said.

If I was completely honest I really agreed with Yang's sentiment. I mean, given all that had gone on, it should be no surprise that I was invested in the 'keep Blake from going nuts' endeavor. Or maybe 'keep Blake away from the White Fang' endeavor since we'd already established she was nuts.

I had to voice the opinion to free her though. Well, maybe I didn't have to. But Blake's eyes did seem to suggest if I allowed this farce to go on much longer I would be lumped in with Yang and vengeance would be enacted accordingly. That was something I would probably be wise to avoid.

"I mean, she's already missed the meeting, yeah?"

"I guess," mused Yang. "Okay. I'll get up if the kitty-kat paw-mises not to do this again without getting us involved."

"Not for that terrible pun," growled the kitty-kat in question just as I interjected.

"No wait. Your request is that we get involved? Not that she stop. Umm… why?"

"I'be lost track of who's the bad cop," muttered Blake.

Yang forged on as if there had been no dissent. "Because if she has backup and support she's less likely to kill herself in the Library and or in Vale?"

"She had backup last time."

"Yeah, but that backup was you." There was a second of hesitation. "No offense."

"I would take it if you didn't have a good point," I huffed.

"Umm, hello? Still a no from down here." Blake made a heroic effort to try and wave to capture our attention.

Yang just shook her head. "Well, it looks like we'll be here a while longer then. Soo… Glen!"

I jumped a little in surprise. "Yes?"

"You never answered my question."

"Yes I did," I answered automatically. "Wait, what question?"

"Who you're going to take to the dance of course!"

"Oh. Uhh, I…" I stalled out, casting a furtive glance at Blake. It was hard enough for me to say anything about it with Yang by herself, never mind with Blake here to listen in. "But I did answer that."

"I don't know isn't an answer."

I tried to shut it down before it went anywhere. "Yes it is."

"It's not a definitive answer," piped up Blake far too cheerily.

"Nice going partner," cheered the blonde.

Had it been anyone else I would have simply thought they were joining in on the argument for argument's sake. I did that often enough, playing semantics and whatnot. Or maybe they just wanted in on some juicy gossip.

While those two may have factored in I felt confident that Blake had noticed my discomfort and hesitation and decided to make life more disagreeable for me. It was exactly the sort of petty little thing I might have done if I were in her shoes. The similarity wasn't lost on me.

Being in competition with your kindred spirit is not as much fun as you might think.

"Well, it may not be a definitive answer but it is not one I am required to give to the likes of you."

"Oh come on Glen. You have to!" whined Yang.

"I don't have to," I smiled as I took steps towards the door.

Yang could say anything she wanted but she couldn't stop me from walking out the door - unless she wanted to let Blake bolt. A self-satisfied smile played across my lips. I held the cards now. We could either change subject or I could walk out.

Unfortunately Blake wasn't going to be satisfied with that. So her devious mind channeled Aaron Rodgers from across the 11 dimensions and lobbed up a Hail Mary.

"I'll agree to Yang's proposal if you tell us all about your women problems."

Stopping in my tracks I tried to deflect the suggestion away with some humor. "You are my women problems, Blake."

Now it was Blake's turn to roll her eyes. "You know what I mean. Your Coco and Velvet problems."

"Come on Glen," wheedled Yang. "She'll agree to not run off solo like a madwoman! Please?"

This was a quandary indeed. On one hand this was pretty far outside my realm of comfortable conversation even with people I trusted. And Blake was not really in that circle. On the other…

Well, I was a huge pushover when it came to helping friends out and besides I knew Yang would really appreciate it.

I stood frozen like a deer in the headlights trying to figure out which way I was going to go. All the while Yang and Blake continued to plead with me, both of them extolling the various positive outcomes of me chatting it up about my love life.

Why? I groaned internally. Why must this be my life? There are so many bigger things I should be concerned about than this. But no, this is where I landed. Do not collect 200 dollars, do not pass go.

Really my decision was made the moment I stopped and hesitated. The longer I stood and ruminated on it the worse off I was until finally I was pushed over the edge.

"Okay! Okay. I'll… talk about it, I guess." Yang cheered, but I made sure to lock eyes with Blake amber to hazel. "As long as the promise is kept."

"It will be," said Blake a little to hastily.

"Right then," I said. "What was it that you wanted to know?"

Yang was the first to fire off, to the surprise of absolutely no one. "Who are you asking?"

"I'm asking…" The answer stuck in my throat like a burr, digging in for dear life and fighting to remain there. "I know who I'm asking," I said evasively. "Or who I would ask."

"And who would that be?" she prompted.

"I…" Both faces stared at me expectantly. "I know who I would ask," I finished lamely.

"Come on Glen, you said you'd talk about it! Just say it! It's not a big deal, I promise!"

"It is to me," I muttered.

"Glennnnn…"

"It's Velvet or Coco."

"Glennnnn!"

Come on Foray, it's just a name drop. Surely you can tell them which woman you fancy.

"Okay! It's, uhhh… it's Velvet. Velvet's the one I would ask."

With a heroic effort the words were finally out. It was met with spontaneous applause, for which I shot a withering look at Yang until it subsided.

"I knew it!" she exulted. "I knew it."

"Easy to say after the fact," commented her prisoner dryly.

The blonde steamroller flattened out that bump as if it wasn't even there. "And how were you planning to ask?"

"I hadn't gotten that far," I admitted.

"Oh come on Glen! They're going to be back in, like, three days and the dance is just a week later!"

"I know, Yang."

"Well, you've got to run it by me first, okay?"

I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Yeah. Yeah, when I come up with something you'll be the first to know."

"Great! Oh, you two will be so cute together!"

Yang jumped up, letting Blake groan her way into a sitting position. She worked on the knots and got it undone,setting her captive free. The Faunus rubbed her wrists, rotating them experimentally. Assuming we were done I once more headed for the door with a sigh of relief.

"Hold on," Blake ordered me. "What's making this such a big deal for you?"

"Aww, come on Blakey," said Yang.

"No. The deal was for the women problems, not for who he's going to the dance with. Why is it such a big problem for you?"

I almost chuckled. If Blake hoped to keep putting me on the spot, she was off the mark. The answer to that was simple and painless now that the cat was out of the bag; it was true too, even if it was just the tip of the iceberg.

"I don't want to hurt any feelings or cause relational strife."

"That's it?"

"Simply put, yeah. That's it."

Blake frowned like she didn't quite believe me. Whether she believed me or not wasn't my problem; the deal had been fulfilled. That didn't mean that I was done thought.

Within a second Yang had grabbed me up in a crushing hug. "Aww, you're all worried. That's so sweet."

"Gerroffme," I managed with my mouth full of her blazer.

After one final squeeze Yang relented, although she kept me at arms length. "I know that you're close to both of them. That really sucks that you have to do this. It's going to be tough but I know it'll all work out fine, okay? Trust me."

"Thanks," I said with a little surprise.

We bantered in good fun so often I had anticipated more of the same - I hadn't been expecting the warmth and support that I got from Yang. I guess it was kind of a big sister thing. She sensed that this was really bothering me and adjusted accordingly.

"Hmm," grunted Blake. "Are we done here?"

Yang rolled her eyes to me before answering over her shoulder. "Yes Blakey. We're done here."

"Good. I'm going to go-"

"Take a nap?" I suggested innocently.

Blake's expression told me she was supremely unamused. With a huff she turned on her heel and stalked back out into the hall. We watched her go before Yang leaned in and whispered into my ear.

"I call it the Bellabooty."

"Jesus Yang."

She just laughed. "Like you weren't thinking about it."

"Well I am now." I shook my head as if that would reorder my thoughts. "Oh! Ahh, do you know where Ruby is?"

"You can't just transition from the Bellabooty to my sister like that, Foray. I might get the wrong idea."

I waved my hand dismissively. "Meh."

"Meh? Meh? Do I not inspire terror anymore? Is there no fear of my wrath?"

"If you keep that up your eyebrow is going to come off your head," I pointed. "And no."

"But why?"

I began a running tally on my fingers. "One, yesterday you told me you'd let me take Ruby to the dance. And two, a minute ago you made a blonde joke." I looked down in faux surprise. "Oh. That's only two things."

Yang just rolled her eyes like she was contractually obligated to show exasperation every time I made a joke.

No, wait. That's Blake I'm thinking about.

"And so what, it's open season now?"

"Yup. I'm taking you for all you're worth. But getting back to the subject at hand… I want to talk about some weapon stuff with Ruby, not flirt."

"You know with my sister that line is a thin one?"

"I'll make my intentions very clear."

Yang chuckled and shook her head. "No fear at all. Oum help me I've created a monster. She'll either be in the library or at the shooting range."

"You gonna come with and chaperone?"

"Nah. I'm going to chase after Blake. I think she really is going to go take a nap so I'm going to go get between her and Weiss." She grinned cheekily and punched me in the shoulder. "Besides, I'm going to impress upon her the importance of not telling anyone about your little confession."

With that I found I could breathe a little easier. "You're a goddess, Yang."

"I try," she said with a flip of her golden locks.

"Really; thank you so much Yang. I mean it."

"Anything for a friend," she said. "See ya around Glen."

"See ya."

If only everything could end this well. Man, it's good to have friends. Speaking of, it's time to visit another one.

"I can't exactly… do that." Ruby stood poking the tips of her fingers together awkwardly.

"Why not?" I asked quizzically. "You built me an insane shotgun lacrosse stick in less than a week. Surely that's way more complicated than making some pieces of armor."

Ruby just shook her head. "It's not about complexity. It's just not the same set of skills. I just don't know how to do… I don't know, straps. Or attach bits to clothing. Things like that."

I idly scratched my chin. "Well, maybe we could… make the armor itself first and figure out how to strap it to me afterwards?"

The miniature gunsmith shrugged helplessly. "Maybe. I still don't know a lot of things. How thin I can make it so it still stops a projectile. Or how big or small or what shape so you can, you know…" She windmilled her arms around in a vigorous demonstration. "Move well?"

"So that it doesn't limit my range of motion you mean?"

"Yeah, that."

"Can't we just keep trying until we get it right?"

"How much money do you have?" she blurted out, before covering her mouth in embarrassment. "I mean, I'm sorry, it's just that, well, I still have to buy the materials and stuff…"

"Don't worry. I know what you mean. Maybe, like, one-point-three K?"

Ruby fiddled with the charging handle of my half disassembled shotgun, her explanation of how to clean and maintain it long forgotten. With her brows scrunched in concentration I could almost see the numbers and 3D models spinning in front of her eyes.

"I dunno. I'd have to do some research, but maybe… I dunno. I'd guess that's only enough for one trial run and one final product. As a really rough estimate."

I grunted in disappointment. "And that's not enough?"

"Glen, your weapon is like, Mark 4. All the other versions had problems that needed fixing. And I pretty much know what I'm doing with weapons. Not like, you know, armor," she explained. "I think it would take too many tries. Or that it wouldn't be any good. Sorry."

"It's not your fault," I reassured her. "I guess it'll wait until we can figure something out. Don't worry about it. It's not critical; I was just inspired by Pyrrha's shield stopping us from dropping her aura."

"I can do some research," Ruby offered. "Try and, you know… learn something about it?"

"That'd be awesome. You're the best Ruby." The girl flushed red with the compliment, dropping her gaze and muttering about normal knees. I let her get it out of her system for a second before prodding her back to her explanation.

"Anyway, sorry about that tangent. You can keep telling me how to keep it working."

That seemed to snap Ruby back out of her funk. "Glen, you can't just call her 'it'."

"It's a her?"

"Well duh," said Ruby, as if that should have been self evident. "All weapons are hers."

"Why?"

"Because… because that's just the way it is." She crossed her arms, clearly flustered but not letting me sidetrack her from the point she wanted to make. "But why I was saying is that you need to name her."

"...Why?"

"Because she needs a name! How else is she going to be special to you?" burst out Ruby. "Like my baby is Crescent Rose. And Yang has Ember Celica! And Jaune has Crocea Mors, and Ren has StormFlower, and Weiss' sword sounds like it was made by the elves-"

"I got it," I laughed. "I got it. I'll think of a name for her. No pressure though. Those are some pretty cool names."

"You can do it! And you have to tell me first when you do, okay?" Had there not been a table between us I would have suspected this would be the moment where she launched herself at me. "Please please pretty please-"

"Yes! I said yes. I will."

Ruby laughed and clapped her hands with glee. I had to smile at her infectious enthusiasm and how much some of her behaviors reminded me of Yang. I mean, it's almost like they were sisters.

Nah. That'd be crazy.

Eventually the instruction continued on how to keep my gun running. Unsurprisingly it was more complicated than any shotgun or pistol I had stripped and cleaned in the past. Ruby had me assembling and disassembling the weapon - or her, I guess - several times until she was satisfied that I could do it on my own.

Okay, that's not great either. Now it sounds like I'm disassembling and reassembling Ruby. I really do need a name for that weapon. Her. Whatever.

Once I was done with that however Ruby replaced the mesh on the head and I had to spend some time re-stringing it so that it would throw the way I wanted it to. A slight pain, but it was a small price to pay for having it unglued from Pyrrha's blade.

Finally, my long day drew to a close. I may have been smashed by Pyrrha, interrogated by Goodwitch and Blake, and made to reassemble a functional 3D puzzle until my eyes bled - but at least I got to kick back and relax.

"I think your face's getting better."

Or maybe not.

"Thank you Jaune," I deadpanned. "I would certainly hope so."

"I'm just saying." He hummed to himself, strumming his guitar artfully. "Hey, umm, would you mind taking a listen to something for me?"

"Sure dude. Go for it."

Again he went for the same chords as before, but again he hesitated, looking around the unused classroom like someone was going to appear and eavesdrop. "So, this is like, what I'm planning to do to ask someone out for the dance, so… I really need to know what you think."

That piqued my interest, and I sat up straight.

So, this is what Yang felt like.

"Who is it?"

"It's… oh, you'll figure it out." He coughed to clear his throat and set his fingers on the guitar.

Weiss Shnee

Will you accompany me

To the daaaance

Onnnn

Mondayyyy

He finished with a dramatic flourish and looked up expectantly at me. I'm not positive, but I think a little of the wind was taken out of his sails when I couldn't quite get my mouth to close.

"Weiss?" was all I could manage to get out.

He flushed defensively, sticking his chin out. "Yes Weiss. What's wrong with that?"

Welp. Backtrack mode engaged.

"Nothing. Umm, me and her don't get along that great. But mostly it's just… not who I was expecting, I guess?"

"Who were you expecting?"

I couldn't help but shrug. "I don't know. Umm…"

Who was I expecting? I wondered. I don't really know. Not Weiss though, I'm sure about that. Maybe…

"What about Pyrrha?" I said, finally finishing the thought.

"Dude, there are going to be guys lined up around the block to try and ask her."

"Probably," I agreed. "I mean she's a nice gal and very pretty. But why not jump them all and get to the front of the line?"

"I want to ask Weiss. Are you going to help me or not?"

My hands came up defensively. "Yeah, yeah. No, I'll help you." I didn't know all of what was going on, but Jaune was really touchy about it.

Best just to skirt that land mine.

"So, if you're going to go for Weiss I don't think that's going to cut it."

"Why not?" Jaune challenged me.

"Well correct me if I'm wrong, but I figure she would want something… I don't know… more sophisticated?"

He looked like he wanted to keep up the belligerence for a second but shortly deflated back into regular old Jaune. "Oh. Yeah, you're probably right. I don't know what I was thinking with that."

"Hey, think of it this way. We've just got to make a better use of your talents."

That seemed to brighten Jaune up a little. "Okay. So, so you have any ideas?"

"I dunno. Give me a second." I rocked my chair back onto two legs, just using just my toes to keep it from tipping over. "Can you sing classically?"

"Classically?"

"I'm going to take that as a no," I said seeing his confusion.

"No, try me. What do you mean?" he insisted.

"Well, umm, something like this maybe?"

Plonking the chair back onto all fours, I stood to my feet. Hopefully Jaune knew the Remnant equivalent of my Earth music. Humming to find the right pitch, I began to belt out an Italian aria.

Già il sole dal gange,

Già il sole dal gange

Più chiaro

Più chiaro sfavila…

"Holy cow," exclaimed Jaune, cutting me off. "How do you do that?"

"Do what?" I asked.

I had a pretty good idea of what he was going to ask, but it had been a while since I had gotten to show off any of my vocal talents to an appreciative audience. Is it really fishing for compliments if you ask a clarifying question? Well, even if it is I'll be damned if that knowledge keeps me from doing the same in the future.

So, moral is… keep your bragging subtle?

"That… I don't know, dude. I've heard you sing before, but that was different. You know? How do you change your voice so much?"

"That's classical singing," I explained. "There's two main things that are happening. One, instead of pushing the words forward to the front of my mouth, towards the teeth, I'm putting it farther back towards the throat and the roof of my mouth. It's called the soft palate."

"Uh huh."

"Two, I'm changing my vowel sounds so that they're tall and making my voice more resonant. That's all about shaping with your mouth, tongue, and lips. There's some other stuff with pronunciation and vibrato but those are basically the two main things you want to do to change your sound from contemporary to classical."

I paused and thought about it for a second. "Well, those two things are really trying to do the same thing. But that's a decent description at least."

Jaune just nodded. "Yeah, I'm gonna be honest... I have no idea what you just said."

"That's fine," I grinned. "I figure it'd be better if you focused on the contemporary singing. You're already pretty good at that. Better to just clean up something you're already good at that try and master something new in a week."

"Less than that," Jaune grinned. "So, do you have any idea what song I should sing?"

"A love song?"

"Yeah, duh," he replied.

I seemed to be getting that a lot today.

"Umm… something that says you find her attractive but doesn't go full obsession?"

"Yeah, but what?"

"I was hoping you might be able to fill in that blank," I admitted.

Jaune was doing his best to imitate Blake, but he couldn't quite pull it off. Something about not being a closed off scary-beautiful former terrorist. Try lanky goofball with his heart on his sleeve and a blonde mop of hair.

"In my defense I don't listen to love songs that much."

"And you think I do?" asked Jaune.

"No," I replied hastily. "...do you?"

"No," he shot back just as quickly. "I don't. I've just… heard a lot."

My eyebrows quirked upwards. "You don't listen to them… but you've heard a lot of love songs? Please explain to me how that works."

Jaune sighed. "I never told you about my family did I?" I shook my head and he continued. "Well, I have seven sisters."

"Holy smokes. Seven sisters?"

"Yeah, seven sisters. Most of them older, but at one point or another they're doing a phase where they're listening to all that teenage angst stuff. Oh I love you so much but we broke up, or you're dating the wrong girl, or Oum you're so hot love me," he mocked.

"That's rough bro."

"I went years without hearing anything else during car rides."

"That's really rough," I sympathized. "But you're right. That doesn't exactly suit our purposes."

"So… ideas?"

So I puzzled, and puzzled, and puzzled some more. I puzzled and puzzled till my puzzler was sore.

You like that Dr. Suess? Yeah, well, it's about where I was at after a solid ten minutes of dredging up and discarding songs. The only songs I could pull up that were kind of suitable included Can't Help Falling in Love by Elvis and I Found by Amber Run. I was leaning towards the latter as pretty suitable, but I jealously hung onto it.

Hey, I still needed to figure out how I was going to ask Velvet - and I really liked that song.

"Anything?" asked Jaune, finally breaking the silence.

"Hmm. Maybe," I admitted. "Let me think some more on it though, okay?"

"I guess. Don't make it too long though. I don't want anyone else to swoop in and ask."

"I'll let you know by tomorrow at latest, I promise," I reassured him.

"Alright." Jaune slid out his scroll and checked the time briefly. "Hey, I've got to go in a few. Training with Pyrrha and all."

I nodded in understanding. "Yep. Good luck to you boyo."

"How was training with Yang today?"

"We didn't."

"Oh because of the…" He touched his hand to his jaw to indicate the bruise that had now faded to a dull yellow-brown.

"Nope. She was too busy kidnapping Blake."

Jaune raised both eyebrows to ask seriously? All I could do was nod solemnly in response. Maybe it was a sign that my life was getting out of hand that no further clarifying questions were needed. Jaune just seemed to accept it and move on.

Oh yeah. Students kidnapping each other. No biggie. Here at Beacon we pride ourselves in our graduates ability to handle the unexpected - because the real world couldn't be crazier than the day to day here.

"Okay. Well, next time we're pitted against each other I'm going to come out on top."

"Don't count on it," I grinned sticking out my hand for a fist bump that was gladly returned.

"By the way, are you going to ask anyone to the dance?" Jaune packed up his guitar while sending me expectant glances.

"Well, I was thinking about it. I'm not really sure yet."

The lie rolled easily off my tongue, though it left a foul taste behind. It was just easier to do it this way even if Jaune was a friend. Less explaining, less chance of word getting out, and less time I spent thinking about it.

"Well, you better hurry because no one'll be asking you."

"Ha ha. Is one of your sisters free?"

"Sorry, they have standards." Jaune laughed at me, and I just rolled my eyes and grinned. "See you tomorrow Glen. Don't forget!"

"I won't."

Ugh, I grumbled halfheartedly to myself as I dragged myself back to my dorm. A plan to ask Velvet to the dance for Yang. A name for my weapon for Ruby. A song for Jaune. Is there anyone else who wants something? Because the calendar is filling up fast.

It was probably too much ask for a little peace and quiet. My team was notoriously obnoxious, and I couldn't imagine that our beating this morning had helped matters at all. Sliding through the doorway, I had scarcely shut it behind me before Dove was already laying into me.

"So, how was that extra time with Goodwitch?" he winked, miming various lewd actions.

"Is it always about intercourse with you Dove?" I sighed, not having the energy for clever. I could still do devastating though. "Maybe if you weren't such an asshole we would be hearing about your sexual conquests instead of you having to invent mine. Shut up, Russel."

Russel jumped guiltily, tucking his megaphone hands behind his back like I couldn't put two and two together. "I didn't say anything!" he protested.

"I'm pre-empting it."

Sky shook his head. "Ooh, Foray as aaangry."

"Love you too."

"Nothing special for me?"

I just flopped down on my bed and began browsing on my scroll. "What, our love isn't special enough?"

"Shut the fuck up Foray. You got your ass absolutely handed to you today," Sky growled. "You left us out to dry and got us humiliated."

"Shame," I replied, my brain running on autopilot. "If you hadn't done the same thing you might have had a point."

Surprisingly I didn't get an immediate angry retort. That alone caught my attention, but when Sky spoke again my heart absolutely dropped. If he had been a cat he could not have sounded more smug.

"Yeah. Point is, it'd be a shame if you lost something."

I snapped my scroll shut and got out of bed, glancing around the room. My bag of school work was still there, hanging off the foot board. A slight turn showed me that my small selection of clothes were still hanging in the closet. My weapon was in my locker. There was only one thing left that I owned in this world, and a quick check under the bed confirmed it was missing.

Liquid nitrogen spilled down the back of my neck in a burning cold wave.

"Where is it?"

"Where's what? I'm afraid I don't know what you mean."

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Sky and Dove high five, laughing to themselves. Russel, who had been about to join in, looked me in the eye and started to back away.

My voice was not my own anymore. It didn't tremble on the wave of emotion like it might have if I was merely upset. No, my anger froze it into steel. I didn't care if they didn't know what they had stolen.

"If you don't find it for me right now I swear to God I'll kill you Sky."

I think the certainty with which I said it caught their attention. Sky glanced at me with a frown.

"Oum Foray, take a fucking joke. It's just a bag full of shit."

He went through it.

I calmly walked up to Sky and stared him in the eye. The silence dragged on for a second or two as we eyeballed each other.

"Give it back, Sky."

"Oum," he grumbled, reaching under his bed and shoving the backpack hard into my chest. "Take it, Glenny."

Wrenching it from his grasp, I turned on my heel and stalked out into the hall. My feet took me through the corridors, carrying me somewhere - anywhere but my room. Within a few minutes I found myself in front of the double library doors.

I walked in quickly, secluding myself in a back corner.

There my body vibrated like a tuning fork as it released the tension I had felt in the last few minutes. I buried my face in the worn canvas, clutching the bag and it's meager contents tight to my chest. No tears came, but I almost wish they had.

Instead I comforted myself with undoing one of the zippers and feeling my way through the items inside. A bulky well-worn leather fold was my wallet. There was the glass and metal square of my phone. The plastic casing that held my stupid exercise putty that stained my hand blue was there too, along with a few paperbacks that had been wrinkled by their exposure to the saltwater.

Everything physical that connected me to my world was right here, except for my hoodie that I had kept. The fear of losing it and losing that connection had overridden me.

And I thought I was doing so well, I chuckled to myself. You are going to have to let go of it some time Glen. Accept it. Having relics from Earth doesn't connect you to them, much as you wish it would.

I don't know how long I sat there. It couldn't have been more than ten or fifteen minutes, but in that time I was drawn in on myself and not paying attention. Consequently, when I stood up to leave the library I startled someone who had taken a seat at a nearby terminal.

"Sorry," I muttered, trying to keep my face from flushing red. I went to rush by with my head down when a hand came out to stop me. Flinching, I caught sight of the amber eyes and black hair. "Blake?"

"I'm afraid not," came the sympathetic reply. "Glen, was it?"

Though she was wearing an entirely different outfit from when I'd seen her previously, there was no mistaking her for Blake upon second inspection. This was the mystery woman I'd bumped into in the hall the other day.

The rich tone just confirmed it. "Are you alright, Glen?"

I forced a slightly embarrassed half-grin onto my face. "Yeah. Sorry to startle you. I've been studying like mad for one of Oobleck's tests." I faked a laugh and scratched at the back of my head. "Guess I haven't been paying too much attention to my sleep habits. Just took a little power nap there."

It wasn't my best excuse or acting but at least it wasn't unreasonable. For one, there actually was an upcoming exam. For another my eyes wouldn't be red because I hadn't been crying, and as for the nap? Well, I mean, on Earth I used to bring a sleeping bag into study hall and crash on the floor.

"Of course," she said smoothly. If she doubted my excuse she gave no indication I could pick up on. "I can barely keep up with the man in class. I have no doubt his exams are… extensive."

"Yeah. Yeah, they are. Well, I better get back to it, so I'll see you around… actually, I never believe I got your name."

"Cinder." The two scarlet ribbons twisted upwards in amusement. "Cinder Fall."

"Good to see you Cinder."

"It was good to see you too Glen."

I scampered away, placing myself a couple terminals behind her. From here I could kill two birds with one stone; I could pretend to study for the test to bolster my story while I would actually be studying up on armor for my latest project with Ruby.

Bright light washed over my face as I fired the screen up and pulled open a browser window.

No surprise, Atlesian technology topped all the charts as the best in the business. There was information on the armored vehicles, especially the behemoth flagships. Though classified, it was theorized that it was protected by a titanium composite up to two meters thick in places.

Interesting information I'll admit, especially as I'm an aviation nerd - but not exactly what I wanted.

With a few keystrokes I refined my search to focus specifically on body armor. Once again, Atlas came out on top.

The most technologically advanced country in all of Remnant and the only one with a large standing army leads the way in weapons and armor development. I'm shocked. Shocked, I tell you.

I quickly found that there were very few civilian or hunter armor smiths, with most focusing on weapons or specialty ammunition. Almost all the armored suits were for the Atlas army grunts, which had some upsides and downsides.

Upside: Very good ballistics protection - and decent protection against Beowulf claws.

Downside: There was almost no lower body protection. Most of it concentrated around the head and chest with some on the arms.

Makes some sense. Save the cash and just protect the vital areas. It's going to be produced as a uniform for the masses.

Upside: Lightweight and unrestrictive.

Downside: For Atlas eyes only.

Upside: Looks cool as hell.

Downside: Suck it everyone who isn't from Atlas.

And then the rest of it was just the downside that it was only for Atlesian soldiers and couldn't be purchased. Even the composition and exactly how tough it was remained undisclosed so it couldn't be built by a couple backwoods students with access to a forge.

Like us, for example.

The best I was able to dredge up was some specifications on the armor from twenty five years before. For something a quarter century out of date and three versions ago the specs weren't as disappointing as I had thought they would be. It did offer roughly comparable protection, but was significantly heavier.

So, at least it was somewhere to start. The diving board to our diver if you will. I tried to study the composition for a while, mulling it over in my head. Eventually though I decided that it would be better for Ruby to bash her head against that metaphorical wall so I saved the documents and sent them to her scroll.

With that I logged out and left the library without a backwards glance.

One thing I was going to do was leave my bag of keepsakes somewhere safer than my dorm room. And the only place for that was my rocket-propelled locker.

Rocket-propelled lockers; excellent for storing your weapons and ammo for instant support. Our guarantee is that it will still be hot and fresh or your money back. Yes, it still sounds as ridiculous as the first time I heard it. For goodness sakes, there weren't even hatches in the ceiling - not that I could see, anyway.

Then again, I suppose that if you need to summon your weapon to you within a minute and you can't run to fetch it... some busted plywood and shingles are the least of your worries.

Unless the boosters light the building on fire. That might just be exacerbating the problem.

Regardless it still functioned as a locker in principal anyway. Put stuff in, lock it, and people can't steal it. So, I unlocked mine and put my bag in. Before I closed it though I pulled out my lacrosse stick and studied it.

A name, a name. Something cool. But what?

America, supplied the patriotic part of my brain.

Texas, supplied the even more patriotic part of my brain.

Barbecue, connected the hungry part of my brain.

It's not the worst idea, I mused, referencing the patriotic part - not the hungry part. In fact, I think that connecting the name to Earth would be a nice touch - at least for me. But what to name it that doesn't sound corny?

That's actually… a lot harder in practice than it was in theory. Sure, those names like 'Ember Celica' were cool and all but I couldn't imagine using a name like that. It didn't feel right; it was more like trying to create a video game attack or Hot Wheels car than a weapon name.

A female name. A 'her', if Ruby was to be believed. It's humanizing. Like, naming your car.

So… naming the weapon like I might name my car. A human name.

I ran though a couple names in my head but none of them seemed quite right to me. I ran through common names, uncommon names, names of characters from books I'd read. Nothing worked, and just as I was about to give up a final idea came to me.

Abigail. A perfect name for a southern bell.

"Abigail." I rolled the word around in my mouth, looking at the weapon as I did so. "I'm sure you and Ruby will get along just famously."

I couldn't help chuckling to myself and rolling my eyes just a little.

Oh this is going to be fun. I can already tell. One problem down, two to go.

A/N: So, I'm running low on things I want to watch on Netflix (that aren't feature length movies), and down in the recommended feed pops up Kill la Kill. One of my friends called it 'weird', but I'd vaguely heard some buzz about it online so I thought I'd give it a shot. What do I have to lose?

Only my fucking dignity apparently.

Jesus Christ, it's like softcore hentai went on a dystopian acid trip. Whatever happened to shows like Code Geass? Or Fullmetal Alchemist, or Evangelion, or Madoka Magica? Two episodes of that and I'm ready to abandon this weeb shit for life. There may be nine months left in the year but I'm calling that my worst mistake of 2019.

I'm going back to Trailer Park Boys now. Dollars to doughnuts it has a better plot. For those who like the show… I dunno, guys. You can sell me on it if she gets some more clothes.

Honestly.

BUT to get more substantive I'm back! I'm having fun with the story again, and I've gotten a handle on stuff well enough to keep up a one chapter bi-weekly. That's my goal anyway. Now you know, so if I don't fulfill it it I can feel bad that I'm letting down a bunch of total strangers.

We're almost like Alcoholics Anonymous folks.

Hope you all are doing well and I'll catch you next time!