[ That's... such a cute username for someone like Neopolitan. Penny frowns at her Omni for a long, long moment before she finally starts to write out a response. There's so much she could say, so much she wants to say, that deciding where to start is tricky. ]
When you agreed to work with Cinder, did you know what kind of person she is?
[Well, now that was a fair question wasn't it? Neo didn't respond immediately. She had to think about how to put this, because the short answer was both correct, and very much not correct.]
Yes, and No.
Cinder is a lot of things to me, among which is "The one person in all of Remnant I want to see die screaming." And back then, she was "one of two people I wanted to die screaming."
But do you want to hear the whole story? I ask, because there's a lot there, and I don't look that great when I tell it.
Everything begins with Roman Torchwick. Roman is, was, and will forever be my best friend. When everyone else threw me to the wolves, he was the one who found something special in me and nurtured it. We took care of each other for years before I ever met any of you, and I was his right hand girl. I would have done anything Roman asked, and I did anything he asked countless times. No questions until afterwards, and we'd trust each other enough to plan together. I lived for Roman.
Roman took up with Cinder as an act of survival. When we met her, we'd gotten hints and rumblings 'something was up' in the underbelly of Vale and Mistral, and Roman was good at picking up trends. The winds of change were going, and something was coming. He could fight it, or side with it, and he sided with it so he'd survive. So, he signe dup with Cinder. We'd never heard of Salem in those days, never met her. Cinder was just some pyromaniac psycho planning to take down Vale, and we didn't exactly love that town, so he was on board.
Pretty sure if he knew what Salem intended? He'd either have bowed head or run for hte f'ing hills. Salem's a hundred levels of new crazy, and while we unleashed grimm, it wasn't like we were creating them. We were just giving huntsmen something to keep them busy.
We get to the Battle of Vale. Cinder gave us a job. Take over the main carrier. Get things set up. We made her little black miracle happen while she did her thing, and the bitch hung us out to dry, left all her crew hanging to go hunt down something. I found out about maidens later (Here, I might add. She didn't tell me much ever.). And Red showed up on the carrier. So, the fight was on. Roman and me against Ruby. She got a good shot in, knocked me off the carrier and I floated to the ground with Hush. It was the last time I ever saw Roman alive. I found his hat, floated to the ground, and I realized he was dead. Ruby'd either killed my best friend in the world herself, or she'd let him get killed in the fight. Cinder'd left us high and dry to die, and my Roman was dead.
I wanted them dead. I was dead inside. I didn't want to live anymore. I just wanted to know that the people who took my Roman away from me were dead too. Didn't care about Yang, you, Blake, Qrow or Weiss. None of you were on my radar. We assumed you were dead and gone, and I don't do the whole "Kill everyone you love to make you suffer" bullshit. It's not how I roll. They took someone I loved, and I wanted to pay her back directly.
I found Cinder first. In Mistral. Tracked that psycho down, and I nearly stabbed her right in the gut on that bitch spider's own turf. One inch away, and she went full maiden on me. I went toe to toe with some scary ass people, but I couldn't fight magic. Not right then. So she offered to help me kill Ruby, and I said yes. Because I'd get one, and I could bide my time, wait for the moment to stab her in the back.
Everyone from the team I ever dealt with used to be real confused about what I was doing. They thought I was on Salem's side. I met her right before the siege on that giant whale grimm. I only heard about her a week or so before. I was never on her side, but the things I did helped her. I only wanted one thing: To kill the ones who took my Roman, so I could die at peace. The fight in that 'other place?' What happened to Yang? I missed. I fucking missed, and Yang got in my way and took the hit. I nearly lost it. I wasn't there to hurt her. I just wanted Ruby.
We were falling to our deaths and I was still trying to choke her to death. I could only see the blood in my eyes. I was going to die, and I had to get her before I did. It didn't matter that we were both going to. It was supposed to be me.
So. What happened?
Ruby and Emerald.
I don't know how much any of you realize this, but I had never even talked to Ruby. Roman really barely did, and it was always just battle banter until his last night. We'd never tried to understand each other. Ruby tracked me down in the nightmare all of us were stuck in, and she tried to talk to me even after I tried to kill her two times in the nightmare. I was in a bad place and freaking out, and she said something I never expected anyone to say.
She was sorry that Roman ended up dying, and that she would remember him.
Cinder never said that. None of the team, hers or yours, ever said that. Nobody in all of Remnant ever gave a rat's ass that Roman was dead. He was expendable. I was expendable. We were just crap that they were going to use until we were dried up. I was just some girl who didn't talk that nobody noticed or cared about with no family to speak of. All we had was each other, and Ruby realized that even if she hadn't killed him, the fact that their fight led to his death? It had hurt me and broke me, and she apologized.
It took a long time after that. Emerald was coming to her senses too, and she helped me a lot. Hell, I fell in love with Emerald and we got married. It's why the name's Neopolitan Sustrai on my ID. She tried for months to calm me down while she was making peace. Oscar talked to me, and helped me. You.... yeah, the 'you' that was there before, you helped me. Yang and Qrow even put up with me after I declared a truce. It was months, and it took me going crazy in some damned curse and actually killing Ruby, only for her to come back after, to realize that I didn't want it anymore.
I can't change what I did. I was a crime boss's bag girl. I killed who he told me to, and broke in where he wanted. And I still love him as my best friend, and I always will. And he? He got involved in some dumb war because Cinder scared the fuck out of him, and we hurt your friends. And then he died in that war, and I want completely insane with grief and rage, and in the end? I hurt you, and I might have gotten Yang and Ruby killed. None of us remembers what happened after we fell. And I never want to go back to Remnant, to the person I was, because that person still wants everyone and everything dead, and doesn't care that it won't bring her any closure. She just hurts and wants to see them bleed.
All I want is to sit here, protect a patch of ground, keep a house tidy up and wait for Emerald to one day swim back to shore and me. I'm keeping the lights on at our house and waiting for her. I don't want to hurt any of you anymore, even if none of us controls those fucking curses. I understand why a lot of you don't want anything to do with me. I get it. You're good people, and I'm scum. But I don't want to hurt you anymore.
well, except for Cinder.
I'm in the line of "Gonna stab a bitch" if she ever shows up. That psycho doesn't deserve a new life in Trench. She can go back into the ocean and stay there forever. I never want to see her ever again.
[ This is a lot of information. Some of it she has context for. Some of it may as well be written in another language.
And the thing is, she gets it. Penny doesn't hate easily, and if asked she'd say she doesn't hate anyone whatsoever. But Cinder... Cinder is someone she thinks she could hate one day, and it's not hard for her to see how someone else could. She believes (she tells herself) that Pietro is okay and survived the slow descent of Amity Arena just fine, but if Cinder had successfully killed him...
But she can't think about that because there's a single line in this explanation that stands out, something that she can't get past even with everything else Neo just told her. It's nice to know that she's learned to let go, that she's even friends with Ruby, that she's not a threat here anymore. But... ]
What exactly do you mean 'I might have gotten Yang and Ruby killed'?
[ Maybe it was an accident - Penny wants it to have been an accident - but she's certain that it's not. ]
[... She sighed. Well, it was a fair question. And she didn't know where Penny was in the timeline, so...]
Both Ruby and I are from a point of time when she was rescuing the folks from Atlas to Vacuo. It was a giant place of infinite blackness with golden pathways between magic portals they had created. Cinder picked a fight there the way she usually did: Target innocents to force a fight.
In the middle of the fighting, Yang got in my way and got knocked off into the darkness. Cinder betrayed me just after, and kicked Ruby and I into the darkness with her. Blake and Weiss were on their way down too, I think. Last I remember was falling through nothing, trying to throttle her before what I assumed was us hitting the ground.
Neither of us hit. The place was pure magic bullshit some artifact created. We have no idea if we survived.
But I will say this: Almost everyone from Atlas and Mantle got through.
[ There's a long, long gap between Neo's message and Penny's eventual response. It wouldn't be unfair for Neo to assume that Penny's just not going to respond at all.
[So, that was... honestly about what she'd expected? She counted herself somewhat lucky she'd gotten that much out before she'd been told to not call again. Either way, Neo was willing to keep her distance. If there was going to be another conversation it would be Penny to initiate it.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
When you agreed to work with Cinder, did you know what kind of person she is?
no subject
Yes, and No.
Cinder is a lot of things to me, among which is "The one person in all of Remnant I want to see die screaming." And back then, she was "one of two people I wanted to die screaming."
But do you want to hear the whole story? I ask, because there's a lot there, and I don't look that great when I tell it.
no subject
Yes, I would like to hear the entire story.
I don't want to make a decision without all the information.
(CW: Spoilers for Season 8 all through, suicidal ideation, murder... bah, all Neo's life stuff.)
Everything begins with Roman Torchwick. Roman is, was, and will forever be my best friend. When everyone else threw me to the wolves, he was the one who found something special in me and nurtured it. We took care of each other for years before I ever met any of you, and I was his right hand girl. I would have done anything Roman asked, and I did anything he asked countless times. No questions until afterwards, and we'd trust each other enough to plan together. I lived for Roman.
Roman took up with Cinder as an act of survival. When we met her, we'd gotten hints and rumblings 'something was up' in the underbelly of Vale and Mistral, and Roman was good at picking up trends. The winds of change were going, and something was coming. He could fight it, or side with it, and he sided with it so he'd survive. So, he signe dup with Cinder. We'd never heard of Salem in those days, never met her. Cinder was just some pyromaniac psycho planning to take down Vale, and we didn't exactly love that town, so he was on board.
Pretty sure if he knew what Salem intended? He'd either have bowed head or run for hte f'ing hills. Salem's a hundred levels of new crazy, and while we unleashed grimm, it wasn't like we were creating them. We were just giving huntsmen something to keep them busy.
We get to the Battle of Vale. Cinder gave us a job. Take over the main carrier. Get things set up. We made her little black miracle happen while she did her thing, and the bitch hung us out to dry, left all her crew hanging to go hunt down something. I found out about maidens later (Here, I might add. She didn't tell me much ever.). And Red showed up on the carrier. So, the fight was on. Roman and me against Ruby. She got a good shot in, knocked me off the carrier and I floated to the ground with Hush. It was the last time I ever saw Roman alive. I found his hat, floated to the ground, and I realized he was dead. Ruby'd either killed my best friend in the world herself, or she'd let him get killed in the fight. Cinder'd left us high and dry to die, and my Roman was dead.
I wanted them dead. I was dead inside. I didn't want to live anymore. I just wanted to know that the people who took my Roman away from me were dead too. Didn't care about Yang, you, Blake, Qrow or Weiss. None of you were on my radar. We assumed you were dead and gone, and I don't do the whole "Kill everyone you love to make you suffer" bullshit. It's not how I roll. They took someone I loved, and I wanted to pay her back directly.
I found Cinder first. In Mistral. Tracked that psycho down, and I nearly stabbed her right in the gut on that bitch spider's own turf. One inch away, and she went full maiden on me. I went toe to toe with some scary ass people, but I couldn't fight magic. Not right then. So she offered to help me kill Ruby, and I said yes. Because I'd get one, and I could bide my time, wait for the moment to stab her in the back.
Everyone from the team I ever dealt with used to be real confused about what I was doing. They thought I was on Salem's side. I met her right before the siege on that giant whale grimm. I only heard about her a week or so before. I was never on her side, but the things I did helped her. I only wanted one thing: To kill the ones who took my Roman, so I could die at peace. The fight in that 'other place?' What happened to Yang? I missed. I fucking missed, and Yang got in my way and took the hit. I nearly lost it. I wasn't there to hurt her. I just wanted Ruby.
We were falling to our deaths and I was still trying to choke her to death. I could only see the blood in my eyes. I was going to die, and I had to get her before I did. It didn't matter that we were both going to. It was supposed to be me.
So. What happened?
Ruby and Emerald.
I don't know how much any of you realize this, but I had never even talked to Ruby. Roman really barely did, and it was always just battle banter until his last night. We'd never tried to understand each other. Ruby tracked me down in the nightmare all of us were stuck in, and she tried to talk to me even after I tried to kill her two times in the nightmare. I was in a bad place and freaking out, and she said something I never expected anyone to say.
She was sorry that Roman ended up dying, and that she would remember him.
Cinder never said that. None of the team, hers or yours, ever said that. Nobody in all of Remnant ever gave a rat's ass that Roman was dead. He was expendable. I was expendable. We were just crap that they were going to use until we were dried up. I was just some girl who didn't talk that nobody noticed or cared about with no family to speak of. All we had was each other, and Ruby realized that even if she hadn't killed him, the fact that their fight led to his death? It had hurt me and broke me, and she apologized.
It took a long time after that. Emerald was coming to her senses too, and she helped me a lot. Hell, I fell in love with Emerald and we got married. It's why the name's Neopolitan Sustrai on my ID. She tried for months to calm me down while she was making peace. Oscar talked to me, and helped me. You.... yeah, the 'you' that was there before, you helped me. Yang and Qrow even put up with me after I declared a truce. It was months, and it took me going crazy in some damned curse and actually killing Ruby, only for her to come back after, to realize that I didn't want it anymore.
I can't change what I did. I was a crime boss's bag girl. I killed who he told me to, and broke in where he wanted. And I still love him as my best friend, and I always will. And he? He got involved in some dumb war because Cinder scared the fuck out of him, and we hurt your friends. And then he died in that war, and I want completely insane with grief and rage, and in the end? I hurt you, and I might have gotten Yang and Ruby killed. None of us remembers what happened after we fell. And I never want to go back to Remnant, to the person I was, because that person still wants everyone and everything dead, and doesn't care that it won't bring her any closure. She just hurts and wants to see them bleed.
All I want is to sit here, protect a patch of ground, keep a house tidy up and wait for Emerald to one day swim back to shore and me. I'm keeping the lights on at our house and waiting for her. I don't want to hurt any of you anymore, even if none of us controls those fucking curses. I understand why a lot of you don't want anything to do with me. I get it. You're good people, and I'm scum. But I don't want to hurt you anymore.
well, except for Cinder.
I'm in the line of "Gonna stab a bitch" if she ever shows up. That psycho doesn't deserve a new life in Trench. She can go back into the ocean and stay there forever. I never want to see her ever again.
no subject
And the thing is, she gets it. Penny doesn't hate easily, and if asked she'd say she doesn't hate anyone whatsoever. But Cinder... Cinder is someone she thinks she could hate one day, and it's not hard for her to see how someone else could. She believes (she tells herself) that Pietro is okay and survived the slow descent of Amity Arena just fine, but if Cinder had successfully killed him...
But she can't think about that because there's a single line in this explanation that stands out, something that she can't get past even with everything else Neo just told her. It's nice to know that she's learned to let go, that she's even friends with Ruby, that she's not a threat here anymore. But... ]
What exactly do you mean 'I might have gotten Yang and Ruby killed'?
[ Maybe it was an accident - Penny wants it to have been an accident - but she's certain that it's not. ]
no subject
Both Ruby and I are from a point of time when she was rescuing the folks from Atlas to Vacuo. It was a giant place of infinite blackness with golden pathways between magic portals they had created. Cinder picked a fight there the way she usually did: Target innocents to force a fight.
In the middle of the fighting, Yang got in my way and got knocked off into the darkness. Cinder betrayed me just after, and kicked Ruby and I into the darkness with her. Blake and Weiss were on their way down too, I think. Last I remember was falling through nothing, trying to throttle her before what I assumed was us hitting the ground.
Neither of us hit. The place was pure magic bullshit some artifact created. We have no idea if we survived.
But I will say this: Almost everyone from Atlas and Mantle got through.
no subject
But she does, eventually, reply. ]
I see.
Please don't contact me again.
Reaction
For now? This was just how it had to be.
/Fin]