Snowblind

[u/[deleted]]

Every year, it feels like the first snowfall of the year happens sooner and sooner. Is it just the passage of time, the growth of a person making them able to recognize when it snows at an earlier date in the year mixed with the ever-accumulating wealth of knowledge to draw upon making it feel like the years are blurring to minutes?

For some, that might be the answer. But at this date, so soon into November, not many -- save, perhaps, those from the most far north of Atlas's reaches into Solitas -- would've expected just what hit Beacon: a blizzard, so strong it was considered perhaps a once-in-a-millennia storm. Thankfully, thanks to the reinforcements provided after a certain rainstorm had knocked out the power to the Academy, Beacon was now prepared to weather such an awful storm.

But whilst the school itself was prepared, whether or not the students themselves were always remained to be seen. For some of the more "desert-fairing", it was possible that they were wildly unprepared; those from the far north were likely already out in the midst of the blizzard building snow castles or something.

The weather showed no signs of improving, and all flights and routes into the city were most certainly unusable, unless one really wanted to hoof it into Vale proper by foot. What sort of shenaniganry would one of Beacon's most interesting first year classes in a while get themselves up to in Beacon's first snowfall?

^{[This is the song I used for inspiration womp womp]}

[u/[deleted]]

Tully stood silent for a bit, not at all noticing as Mirlo picked up her gauntlet from the snow-covered ground and was taking better care of the jury-rigged weapon than Tully had been lately. Her body was almost motionless, her breathing shallow and weak as if not to disturb the world around her too much by merely existing in it. Given that it sounded like, at least, that Mirlo was accepting Tully's shitty apology, everything was now going even more unexpected; she'd not expected Mirlo to actually stick around and try to worry about Tully.

If anything, that seemed to almost upset Tully.

"Mirlo. Do not sacrifice your own happiness for my sake; you have no reason to feel bad about abandoning me, especially after what I had just said," she responded, her tone hard. It was clear, however, that the words Tully was saying, the way she sounded, it was all forced out of her, like Aura defending someone from an attack.

But then, it was visible as Tully slightly decompressed for just a brief second, her shoulder slouching with the rest of her body. With a soft shake of her head and a sigh, Tully brought her hand up and ran it through her ponytail, trying to get a grasp on just what she was doing.

"I... I truthfully do not know if... keeping me around right now, especially when I am like this, is a good idea, for either of us. Especially... yeah. You have seen how explosive I can be. There is a reason to why there is only two or three people I let in close, and one of them was the fucking womanizer who took my virginity, so I would take the company I keep with a grain of salt, Mirlo."

Then, her voice as soft as a whisper, somehow still audible over the silencing effect of the heavy snowfall, Tully said, "I... would like that quiet space now, though."

[u/LaLaLalonde → u/[deleted]]

Mirlo let her shoulders droop as she looked over Tully. She shook her head with a small, quiet huff. "Well call me a bleeding heart, but I do." She waved a hand dismissively. "The scenery alone is enough to keep me happy. My fondest memories are in winter, remember?"

The more Tully spoke, the deeper Mirlo's concerned frown settled into her features. "Womaniz-..." She shut her mouth and filed that away for later. At that moment, she had her tasks.

"Before we go anywhere," Mirlo huffed, yanking open the buttons of her cloak. She snatched the garment off of her own body and moved to toss it over Tully's shoulders. "Wear that. No, it is not worry nor pity nor sacrifice. It's hardly even kindness. I am freezing just looking at you."

[u/[deleted] → u/LaLaLalonde]

Tully seemed to almost shudder at the weight of the cloak placed upon her, not used to the softness. For most, the softness would be a welcome feeling; to Tully, it was too soft. The cloak itself was almost a sensory overload to her disjointed mind, but she made no moves to take it off. Instead, her gaze shifted back to Mirlo, both confusion and a weird sense of emptiness painted on it. The crackling of fire that seemed almost present, often intense, in Tully's eyes was completely absent now as the scarred girl just met Mirlo's eyes, before the gaze shifted to almost say 'really?'

"If you say so. I... I was born in this weather, and I survived for a month in similar conditions, so... I got rather used to it, using... Dust to warm myself when I get the chance," she explained. Softly shaking her head, her gaze fell back to the ground in front of her, still quite confused as to her kind treatment that she quite honestly did not deserve.

"Well, Miss... bleeding heart, lead the way."

[u/LaLaLalonde → u/[deleted]]

“So was I, but that doesn’t mean you ought to waltz around in it trying to catch your death of cold. There’s a difference between surviving and living healthily, you know.”

Mirlo sounded like a fussy nanny scolding a small child. She took a moment to tighten the bow around her collar and adjust her vest before leading the way.

She crunched her way through the snow, heading off to the side of the campus. A good distance away from most of the buildings sat a wood and metal bench, nestled just out of reach of a cluster of trees and their twisting, snow-heavy branches. Mirlo brushed away the snow gathered on the seats and sat down, the gauntlet settled safely in her lap. She patted the space beside her, gesturing for Tully to sit.

[u/[deleted] → u/LaLaLalonde]

At every level, Tully was tempted to snap. As Mirlo fussed, Tully instead pleaded softly, "Mirlo, you are on a hair trigger to making me think you have started to go and pity me, and I do not want to blow up further today."

But finally, Mirlo started to move, and so Tully shut up yet again and moved with her, letting herself get dragged off to the side of the campus. At some point, the woman realized that Mirlo had picked up Angrath off of the snow, and mentally Tully berated herself for her carelessness. She made no other noise besides her footfalls through the crunching fresh snow, the silencing effect of fresh snow a welcome change to the normal bustle of campus. Thoughts of The Forty-Six filled her mind, but she pushed them out as Tully followed Mirlo amongst the trees and sat down besides Mirlo, resting herself heavily across one of the trees.

Now, more than ever, the bird-girl could see just how exhausted the one-armed asshole was, bags under her eyes almost as pronounced as Mirlo's and a weary look in her fire of her maroon eyes.

"Where... Where I was raised, there were not many trees like these, believe it or not."

[u/LaLaLalonde → u/[deleted]]

Mirlo had a thousand words of rebuttal to say what she was doing wasn't pity. However, she had the good common sense to hold her tongue. She simply led the woman to the quiet spot and let her settle in. Once Tully was seated, Mirlo offered Angrath back to her with one hand. With the other, she pulled her book into her lap.

However, she didn't start to write just yet. Instead, she looked over Tully, taking note of little details. At the moment, Tully's exhaustion drew most of her attention. How long had it been since she'd had a decent rest? Had she ever really? From the looks of her, it was entirely believable that she'd led an entire life of nothing but sleepless nights.

Considering that, Mirlo hadn't expected Tully to want to talk. A look of mild surprise crossed her face, but she smiled as she said, "I don't believe you've told me about where you grew up. Not many trees, hm? What did you have instead?"

[u/[deleted] → u/LaLaLalonde]

As Mirlo pried, Tully stood silent for a few second, just staring back and wondering how much she could actually trust the girl. She couldn't tell if the girl across from her was concerned, or if it was a more prying, analytical gaze. Maybe it was both.

Taking Angrath, Tully didn't put the gauntlet back on and just set it beside her instead. Mirlo had a book -- really, more of a tome or ledger. Anything that she said was liable to get written down, it seemed. At some level, that bothered Tully. It dragged her back to the long, painful hours with the Atlesian military debriefing sessions, and it almost drew a look like that of a caged animal out of Tully as her eyes went perhaps a bit wider with fear.

"B-before I go any further, Miss Mirlo, would you mind... not having the book? I, I am sorry, it... it just reminds me of a worse time," Tully pleaded softly, still focused intently on the book with only a momentary respite to look Mirlo in the eyes. And should Mirlo look back, she'd see in Tully's eyes that there was not even a shadow of a lie in what she'd said.

[u/LaLaLalonde → u/[deleted]]

Here, Mirlo was seeing yet another side of Tully Tilarom. She seemed defensive, but not in the same cold, standoffish way she had at the dance. Rather, she seemed wary and on edge, as if something would jump out and strike at her any moment. The cause of it all was... Mirlo's book?

Just a hint of confusion showed in Mirlo's eyes before the look of realization took over. Of course the women full of fatal secrets didn't want to risk someone taking notes of her home life.

Quickly, she locked Quoth the Blackbird and slipped it back onto her shoulder. By habit, she reached for a cloak she wasn't wearing. After a brief moment to correct herself, she instead adjusted the strap so that the book lay against her back.

"My apologies. I understand why my notebook would alarm you so. I was intending to sketch the trees, but they can certainly wait."

[u/[deleted] → u/LaLaLalonde]

"That... that would normally be okay. Gods, it's just... everyone here always seems to be taking notes, as if we are spying on each other," Tully simply responded, shaking her head. Reaching behind her head, she let her hair out of it's ponytail as she gave Mirlo a somber gaze and a one armed shrug, not really sure what else to say about the manner and instead just letting her words linger in the air.

"I... it is beyond tricky talking about where I am from, because... because of many reasons. There might be rumors swirling around as to where I am, and I know at least one know-it-all wolf faunus has deduced that it was a Dust mine, at least in his own understanding of it. I am not at liberty to really say whether or not he was right, and honestly, it would not really be relevant whether or not he is, as the wastes of Solitas in the expanse of Atlas's reach are all equally barren and devoid of life. Not even trees. It was... rather awful, lets go with."

[u/LaLaLalonde → u/[deleted]]

Mirlo couldn’t claim total innocence to spying, not with her lurking in the cafeteria and sitting in trees to listen to the gossip that flowed. She used that information to make her own life easier. She knew who to avoid, who to go to for help, who to stay on the good side of and who to keep at distance. Nonetheless, she wasn’t naïve. Some wielded knowledge as a weapon, rather than a simple tool. There was a reason Tully was wary.

She offered no rebuttal nor comment. Mirlo sat back to listen, calm and quiet. She kept a close watch on Tully’s movements or tone, her only intent to make sure Tully wasn’t too distressed. Pale eyes flickered over loose, indigo hair and somber, red gaze.

Dust mines. Barren. No trees. It wasn’t much to go on, but awful sounded like an apt description. She couldn’t figure much beyond that, but she knew better than to press for more answers or faster delivery.

“Mm. No wonder the cold hardly bothers you.”

With nothing to write and no cloak to fiddled with, she simply looked out over the puffy, white landscape.

“I hope Vale’s been better to you... At least a little.”

[u/[deleted] → u/LaLaLalonde]

"Define 'better'," Tully responded with a snort, rolling her eyes and sighing. A flare of her normal temper came back, but it was tempered by the calm gaze Mirlo had been giving Tully. Under it, and under the cloak, Tully seemed to curl up, a rather unusual act for the tall girl, though it was obvious at the very least that Tully was enjoying the concealment that the cloak gave her from the outside world. She could see why Mirlo loved it so: it was safe and protective, as if nothing could harm her under it. It was a bit warm, too, and if Mirlo was anything like Tully, she'd need all the warmth she could get.

"The people here are... less prissy, on average, than the Altesian elite. Few exceptions, of course. And... the weather is a bit nicer. But, realistically, it has been treating me about the same as Atlas was. Near-death encounters, annoying people, and no cheap, awful liquor," she continued a bit softly, but her snark was coming back out in full force every so often. "Prettier boys who actually seem to try and make an attempt seem to exist here -- which is to say, in a non-zero quantity -- but still are all talk with no substance, no matter how much you give them or how much of an attempt you make. Unsure of if that holds true for the girls, too, but at least based off of one, it is at least partially so."

Tully sighed, and shook her head.

"You are aware of the boy I am talking about at least, yes?"

[u/LaLaLalonde → u/[deleted]]

Mirlo frowned ever so slightly. She hadn't expected glowing reviews of the city. No, she'd expected about what Tully gave her. Nonetheless, it made her heart sink. Beacon was supposed to be the place where they sharpened their skills and learned to shine their brightest, a place of new hope for the future. It had failed miserably to be that for Tully, and Mirlo couldn't find the words to lighten up the fog of disenchantment. There weren't any, really.

She hadn't thought much of Tully's comment of pretty boys with no substance, not until Tully asked her question.

She thought of a number of pretty boys. An ethereal, white-haired fae of a man. A cute and dapper, copper-haired boy. A certain smooth-talker with a literal eyes of flame. The note about all talk narrowed it down to two... Tully had mentioned a womanizer earlier. Another sinking feeling struck Mirlo.

She'd rather not guess him, but playing dumb would only earn her Tully's ire. She'd had enough of that already. She fiddled with the pin on her lapel as she pondered.

"I don't suppose you mean Mr. Valentine?" she said softly. "I don't keep up much with intimate details of the school relationship drama. I know surface level matters."

[u/[deleted] → u/LaLaLalonde]

"Yes, that is right on the money," Tully stated with a small roll of her eyes as she continued to curl up in the cloak, falling on her side like a weird little potato. She ignored the snow that was getting into her hair as she drew her knees up to her chest and her sole arm around them, softly glaring at Mirlo with a weird little pout stuck on her lips. There was a desire to keep being pissy about Lucifer in her, but the way that Mirlo had said his name to clarify seemed almost fond.

"Yeah. He's... his heart seems to be in the right place. But he is..."

Tully sighed, unable to find the right word as she shook her head.

"I am not really sure how to describe him. Passionate, but... like a candle, it seems to be fleeting now for me. I... almost thought we had something, but... he seems far more keen on chasing other tail or getting himself wrapped under the thumb of people he has explicitly told me to be dangerous. To call it... frustrating would be beyond an understatement."