video; un: ushiromiya (cw: mentions of house fires, arson, murder)

[entreats]

So for those not in the know, our house burned down last month.

[ What a way to open a post, right. And yet Ange manages to say it with something very close to a pokerface. Those who know her well may see something at its edges though. An annoyance that starts to bleed more and more into the girl's tone as she speaks on. ]

And not in the 'dumb accident' sense. No, it's because apparently it's socially acceptable in this place to come to someone's house and set it on fire, before bringing your friends inside to start murdering its inhabitants. [ Okay, yes. At this point it's not thiny veiled annoyance anymore. This is obvious annoyance that she doesn't bother to hide. ] And before anyone asks me if I'm alright— I'm fine. Totally fine. I mean, I half-turned into a beast back there, but it's clearly cool. It's fine.

[ It's clearly not fine. The sarcasm is thick.

Though Ange seems to realise that's not why she was supposed to make this message, and manages to snap herself out of passive-aggressive-ville for just long enough to sigh and sound a little bit more neutral as she speaks on. ]

Anyway, we want to rebuild the house, but that's obviously something we need help with. None of us are exactly architects.. I think. I've learned to not question weird Remnant hobbies. [ You never know what those Remnant people are capable of. ] Not to mention we'd need help with the actual physical rebuilding itself too.

We could use help from a lot of people, so if anyone would be willing to help, that'd be great.

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Private text - UN: IceCream

[threelayers]

[...]

Cards on the table, feel free to tell me to fuck off.

No powers, but I can at least use a hammer and nails.
So, if you guys are ok with me helping out with the rebuilding, ignoring that whole thing?
I'll stop by and help out.

Also, what is she trying to put in the house this time?

[entreats]

[ It definitely makes it less awkward, at least, that Neo is the one putting the cards on the table here. This conversation would be a whole lot more uncomfortable if she didn't come swinging out of the gate with that.

It's that fact that makes Ange approach this with a more business-like sense, rather than anything too aggressive.

.. and maybe also the fact she's no longer a raging wife-searching monster machine anymore. That helps. ]

You didn't do it intentionally, right?

[ That's all she has to know. Ange heard the story from Ruby, sure, but she's got to hear it from the horse's mouth too. Just to make sure. ]

Was this place influencing you?

[threelayers]

I was definitely cursed when I kidnapped her.
It was this whole "I have to protect her" thing that was getting worse and worse all month.
I will spare you the details unless you really want to know them.

But, uh, after Penny got to me it faded completely.
I am sorry about that, though.

[entreats]

No, it's fine. I can't blame you if it was just this place being dumb.

[ Especially if Neopolitan is now out here actually apologizing for it, on top of it. It'd be one thing if she didn't feel a thing about it, but it seems like the other at least knows it wasn't a great thing, even if it happened despite the wishes of literally everyone involved, including Neopolitan's own.

So rather than blaming the other, Ange would like to blame the dumb Pthumerian that caused it. Thanks for nothing, Reckoning!! ]

Besides, I guess that in the end it did protect Ruby from getting hurt or dying there. I don't think any of us came out of it perfectly fine.

[threelayers]

Thanks, I do appreciate it.
And yeah, none of us got out of that whole situation without getting seriously wrecked.
I'm not upset with Penny about it, though I just don't know how to talk to her right now.
But that's between she and I.

So, I'm good to come over then?
I figure you guys need as much help as you can get since you're actually rebuilding.

[entreats]

Yeah, you're good. [ Ange doubts Ruby would mind either, considering she and Neopolitan seem to have an.. interesting sort of relationship in the first place. The other girl didn't seem mad at Neo after coming back to Ange, anyway, so it ought to be fine.

She's right, anyway. They really could need all the help they can get. ]

There's literally nothing left of our old home, so we're starting from scratch here. And it'd be nice to get it done soon, before some dumb disaster or Pthumerian influence hits the town and breaks it all down again before it's even done. I don't trust the conditions here to remain good for this kind of thing.

[threelayers]

We've got safe houses and places to crash one way or another.
And, honestly if you need a place to stay people will open their doors up for you.
But I definitely understand that desire not to have this undone so I'm in.

I'll bring some supplies over, wherever you guys are building.

[She didn't actually offer her apartment for two reasons. One. Sayo sometimes crashed at her pad, and yeah... nope. Bad idea. Two? Uh, she did just kidnap Ruby, so maybe that would have had just a little bit of a bad taste to it.]

[entreats]

[ Good judgement there, Neo. In pretty much every single way. There's no way it wouldn't get awkward.

Thankfully it's not needed though, because-- ]

I'm not sure about everyone else, but I know a group of us can at least crash over at Break's place whenever we need it. It's what we're doing now. [ And it's not even the first time for Ange. It's exactly why she knows the door is always open for her here. ]

It's me, Ruby, Qrow and Oscar. [ Well.. Oscar kind of. It counts if he's in someone's head, right. ] I guess the others don't know Break as well, so they're probably staying with their own friends. Though I can't imagine putting up four people at once in a house with already a lot of people in it is ideal, which is why I started to throw this plan out here now. I don't want to bother them for too much longer.

And construction is probably going to take a while, even with a lot of people helping. I mean, it's an entire house.

[threelayers]

Sounds like a plan, at least for finding space to crash. If you've got somewhere to stay, then good. Because like you said? this will almost certainly take a couple months.

But I'm around to help where you need it. It's going to be a big one.

Also. If they convince you to add heavy weaponry, convince them to add death traps. Might as well at that point.

[entreats]

They're never convincing me.

[ Please, Neo!! She's trying really hard over here to stand firm in the face of all this Remnant nonsense, okay!

.. then again, maybe she should expect this Remnant nonsense to come from someone who's also from Remnant.. ]

I'm a witch, you know. I'm just going to try and add a magical ward. It's so much more elegant, since it doesn't allow for dumb accidents where one of them enters the house in just the wrong way and accidentally falls into the death trap.

You know it's going to happen the moment anyone forgets their keys.

[ Don't get her wrong, okay. She loves her housemates.

But some of them are also quite.. special. The house has to be baby-proofed because of it. ]

[threelayers]

Actually, if the wards are 'smart' about who they target?
That totally sounds better than a pit trap if you want actually effective home defense.
I might have picked what I did because the idea of that sounded funny.

Because one of them absolutely would forget their keys.

My money'd be on Qrow.

[entreats]

It's definitely either him or Ruby. Those two are like two peas in a pod.

[ You can definitely tell who Ruby is taking after - though it's not like Ange knows Ruby's dad or mom, really, so it could be that there's a bit of them mixed in there too. But she can certainly see the Qrow-ness in some of Ruby's mannerisms. ]

And yet they're the two who are joking around the most about this stuff.

It's like they're masochists.

[ It almost feels weird to discuss this almost kind of casually with Neopolitan of all people.

On the other hand, the other has proven herself to be a whole lot more reasonable lately than certain other people Ange could think of, so maybe it makes sense that even conversations would end up being a little more normal. ]

[threelayers]

[Hah. Ruby had a lot of her father in her, but neither of them actually knew him, so maybe that'd remedy at some point. Who knew? He'd been in Deerington at least once, hadn't he?]

It definitely. Really. Kind of. Totally is true.
They both have a real masochistic side, but at least they usually know their limits.
Usually.

[...]

You know what?
You're actually a pretty good match for her.
She needs someone to keep her grounded.

[It was kind of weird to say these things about a person who for years she wanted to murder in the streets. Part of her still felt that pain, but it felt... strangely good to realize the humanity of her. To have her own humanity acknowledged.]

If I keep this up, I'm going to get mushy.
Brothers forbid that, so I'm going to grab some nails and hammer and be over soon.
Sound good?

[entreats]

[ Is it strange to hear that from Neopolitan of all people?

.. sure. Ange won't deny that. But on the other hand, considering how much she wants to try and ground Ruby, to do as much for the girl as Ruby does for her, it's kind of nice hearing it from someone else. Like her efforts are being acknowledged, or just the fact that their relationship definitely isn't one-sided on either end.

It's not something she will say anything out loud about either, since Ange also doesn't want to get all mushy, but she does sure feel it. ]

Sounds great.

I'll see you.