Anywhere

How did Valian people live in this heat? She'd only been out here in the shade for thirty minutes. She couldn't help but smile a bit, though. Kiyay and Mono drenched themselves in a small plastic pool in the most garish shade of pink. But the chittering with each other and constant splashing seemed to indicate happiness. Then again, what did she know about bird body language? If only she could understand them… She'd have to be patient and learn it… At least the old woman had lightened up. She'd not really bothered her over the past two hours or so. Strange with how aggressive she'd been. Was that just how Valians were? But neither Qrow nor his sister were Valian… Holy Father, people outside of Atlas made no sense… Seriously, how did any kingdom outside of it function? Clean, orderly, precise… Well… The order came at the cost of women like her and Faunas being oppressed… Not to mention the Euskarans… The sound of the door opening made her head snap up and Raven walked out. "Oh, you're back. I thought you said it'd take longer?" from what she had gathered, the woman couldn't drive. It should have— Wait wait wait. Qrow had been a bird. What did that— Could Raven do the same thing? Questions for later. …She needed to replace the screen too. "Some old friends of mine gave me a disused laptop. Qrow can probably help spruce it up once he knows what he's dealing with." Wait, he was good with technology…? That didn't matter right now. Raven started to approach and she tensed, just getting a sigh from the woman. "How about just leave it here on the ground and you can get it yourself?" Winter looked down. "Apologies… This is just…" Difficult. Upsetting. Terrifying. "Nah, it's fine. Just relax and talk to the AI for now. Qrow said he had maybe forty-five more minutes. Although… " Raven paused and Winter met her eye. "…don't talk with it when Qrow's around. Be careful. He doesn't like people prying into his psyche without his permission. The AI will know when and where to stop." That…wasn't promising. What would he do to her if he found out though…? She needed to know how to handle him and make sense of his completely irrational behavior… Taking in a breath, she nodded and withdrew, letting Winter snatch up the laptop. She turned it on and it didn't take long for that familiar (and infuriating) avatar to pop up. It just tilted its head to the side, a text prompt appearing. Who are you? "…Can you use your text-to-speech software? Speaking is more comfortable." Talking to a version that had no memory of the past several days would be…odd. Would there be any chance to sync with the version on Qrow's scroll…? Then again, she wouldn't hold her breath. "…This feels weird but sure. I'm mostly used to being a text assistant more like that stupid paperclip… Mostly just when Summer needed to find a video. I mean why would she need to ask for help when she has her own brain?" The avatar raised its hands and Winter tilted her head. Paperclip…? What— Never mind. Summer was…Summer. At least if this AI was anything to go off of. "My name is Winter Schnee, major in Atlas’ Special Operatives and—" "Oh-Kay, what the hell?! Someone's trying to hack—" "That would be my best friend, Coco. You needn't worry. She means no harm." The avatar didn't look convinced and Winter just sighed. "She's almost always tapped into my electronics. It's just how we are.” "I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, Winter, but letting someone so near my source files is unnerving. And all my videos. Raven had to have a reason for doing this though…" The AI flicked its bangs out of its eyes, tone doubtful. Summer was apparently slow to trust and highly cautious if this was anything to go off of… What a strange shift from the earlier interactions. Then again, did she truly have any room to speak? "Yes… Qrow is currently staying with me while General Ironwood—" "So old Gutermuth finally bit the dust or retired after I died, huh? What's the new guy like?" The AI grinned and Winter shifted a little. "Er, sorry. There's a lot to catch up on…" "It's understandable. Though…is there any chance this version can sync with the one on Qrow's scroll?" This was too good to be true. Surely— "It'll need time and a stable connection, but no trouble. Probably overnight. The specs on this computer are so much better than my original one, but, damn, if there aren't problems out the ass with this stupid OS…" What to say to that? "Anyway, yeah, sorry. You can finish." "…Qrow is staying with me while General Ironwood is a way. I'm…not sure how long it'll be and was wondering if you could help me understand him." She bit the inside of her cheek. This was awful to admit but… "People outside of Atlas make no sense to me. Even General Ironwood doesn't after working with him for so long… How can I ever hope to do so especially since I've never left Atlas until just a couple of hours ago...?" Atlas was so neat, orderly, and easy to understand. Granted, the order came at too high a cost, but it was better than this irrational, incoherent madness that were people like Qrow, Raven, and Persia. "While I'll get the files soon enough, could you answer what little you do know? It'll help me sift through preliminary possibilities of what his mindset has been since my programmer's death?" She nodded before pausing to open her mouth, but the AI shook its head. "I have pretty advanced facial recognition software. Combine that with the extremely fast processing, voice analysis software, and custom-built components of both, I have a pretty good ability to understand body language. No need to worry about voicing everything." Why had she thought it wouldn't be able to sync files across different versions?! She was such a stupid, silly little girl! That was basic compared to the rest of this thing's functionality! There just had to be same sort of catch to it… No programming could be that perfect. Coco had taught her that. Everything had a vulnerability to be taken advantage of. Life had equally taught her that. "If it'll help, then yes." "So what all has he told you?" “…He gave me the book." "I see.” Winter squinted. Had… Had this thing just— “Yes. Yes I did, Winter." This thing was far too good to be true. Yet it existed and functioned perfectly. How could anybody be this inhumanly intelligent? "Anyway, are there any other behaviors or details you think are important?" Winter fell silent for a few moments before nodding. "He seems rather reliant on alcohol and I saw a picture of him and Raven with Persia… His hair is noticeably greyer…" A few moments passed and a picture came up-the same one that he'd shown her. "Yes, that one." "Hey, Coco, was it? You got any screen caps of him?" It only took a moment for a still to show up on the screen. After a momentary pause, it sighed. "You weren't kidding… He looks fifteen years older than he should be…" The AI folded its arms before looking back at Winter. "So what do you want to understand him?" Winter sighed as she wrapped her arms around herself. This felt like a horrible invasion of privacy. And it frankly was. But he was a man staying with her, an unpredictable one at that. It was for her own safety…but that didn't make this horrible invasion okay… She bit her lip. She'd never had privacy at Schnee manor so she understood to never broach that… This was selfish. So very, very selfish… To do this made her no better than Gelé. "I…I'm no better than Gele if I do this… It's a breach of his privacy like this…" Stupid, stupid, stupid . Why hadn't she thought of it like this until it was basically too late? To go behind his back like this… "You'll be fine, Winter." Her eyes snapped to the AI. "I can't be a hundred percent in all of my predictions quite yet, but it's still Qrow in the end. Will he be frustrated about this? Probably, He's a pretty private man but talk to him about it later and it'll be fairly okay. It'll be a thin line for me to walk but those updates will guide me true." "…So you can't be positive of any of that right now?" She wanted to talk to it for pinpoint precise answers, not wild speculation… How did she think she could trust such a woefully out-of-date version? The AI just looked pointedly at her. "I don't know the full ramifications of my death on him yet, but I was still programmed to be able to predict Raven, Qrow, and Taiyang on predictable behavioral patterns. I know him well enough to predict a bit of frustration but understanding. Talk to him when you get a chance then report back." Haughty thing, wasn't it? Still… She didn't want to do anything that invaded his privacy that much… He'd talked openly to her, so maybe she should try to do the same in return? But men would always tell her what she wanted to hear. Her breathing hitched as she buried her face in her hands. Why couldn't things go back to how they'd been before…? It hadn't been that long, but her last meeting with James felt a lifetime ago…

Ω

"Took you long enough." Qrow shot his sister a withering glare. Was she really going here? Did she not remember just how obnoxiousit was to not be able to drive? "Shut up." It'd been a long day and it was only going to get even longer. There were only a few hours left until meeting with those massive sellouts. Plus, he was about to go through a lot with Kali. All of this on top of basically no sleep. And he might not get any tonight either. It really depended on Winter. He'd function just fine without it for a few day, but Atlas without booze was like the desert without water. But he wouldn't touch it while with Winter. He grunted and stepped through the portal, heading outside for his ride. This was going to be awful, but it'd be worth it. Winter didn't need to be put in any further danger by his Semblance. Thank the ancestors Kali had agreed to help… Hopefully she’d had been okay while he'd been away… Persia could be particularly pushy when she felt she knew best but she could also be quite gentle… She had handled Summer so expertly during the school breaks.. Winter was definitely pretty resilient, but she was also so fragile right now… Hopefully she had respected that as much as possible. There was no telling unfortunately. She was rather unpredictable. But she did have a pretty good heart with the best intentions. Seeing so much had really opened her mind and heart to the suffering of others. War was so ugly. He'd seen it firsthand. Nobody ever came out the same on the other side. Like Raven. "Um, Qrow?'' Summer’s voice came in Valian. He blinked and pulled his scroll out of his pocket. Huh? Why did she look so nervous? “ “What's up, Summer?" This…didn't bode well… But why? What could have unnerved her so badly? It wasn't the meeting with Kali; even she agreed it was a good precaution to take, given everything… "I…know you're going to be pretty tired once you finish up, but you'll need to talk to Winter." He just sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "And you're not going to tell me what it is so my mind can be clear for this, right?" "You know me too well, Qrow." Despite what should have been a joke, her tone remained serious. He got it: he really did. But he was supposed to be taking care of Winter, not ignoring her… Then again, he wasby meeting with Kali. Damn rock and a hard place. Summer, why? He sighed and clicked his scroll off as they palled into a small, modest home and he looked around. This was where the infamous Sienna Khan lived? Then again, these wereadvanced aura users… Things were probably blown out of proportion by the media and the grapevine. Not like he didn't know about that all too well himself. One knock later led his eyes to drop as a shorter Faunus woman opened the door and he blanched. What? Why couldn't he get a read on her?! Impenetrable fortress siege walls that nobody could climb unless she let them. Golden eyes and a warm smile greeted him. "Good morning, dear. Qrow Branwen, then?" Just who wasKali Belladonna?