Didn't we just do this last week?

[perpend]

[It's starting to look like this is going to be a weekly occurrence.

Just like last week, Cabanela waits a while before he makes his rounds, writing everyone quick notes and sliding them under each occupied door.]

Stay strong.
If you don't want to be alone tonight, meet in the dining hall.
-Cabanela

[Like last week, Cabanela hasn't bothered to provide anyone with food-- that would just be... rude right now, he thinks. Upon first entering, you'll notice that there are now four lit candles in the center of one of the tables.

Feel free to leave mementos for the dead; it's probably appreciated.]

Comments

[forcegalactic]

It's about time you had somethin' to eat.

[Seriously, you wake up and it's straight to investigating and solving murders. The Conductor leaves no time for a regular meal.]

Thanks for all the work you did.

[icysemblance]

I think you're absolutely right.

[She's polite - her table manners are perfect - but she'll want a few bites in her before she answers.]

There's no need to thank me. We're all in the same boat, as far as trials are concerned.

[forcegalactic]

[He sits down on a neighboring chair and leans on the table, looking relaxed, but judging from his stiff shoulders, not completely.]

Well, we all are, but some of us ain't as willin' to help out as others, or they don't have the nerves to talk it out.

[He nods at Weiss. She's not a member of either category, and that's a good thing.]

[icysemblance]

True...

[She'll stop eating long enough to think.]

I just don't see the point in beating around the bush when we don't have to. It's not easy to look at things head-on, but in the long run, it's the best way.

[forcegalactic]

Ideally, I don't want any of these sorta things to happen here, but looks like you can never stop trouble from happenin', no matter how hard you try.

[He's had plenty of experience with that, and if it's on his mind, he may as well say it. He never worried over conversational relevance.]

Now it may not surprise you if you read my profile, but I run a saloon on Mars which has a no-tolerance policy on trouble. While it's one of the safe places in town, you still got folks comin' in to brawl and shoot each other, not to mention hackers and AIs gone rogue. When that happened, I went straight to dealin' with the problem head-on, like you said. Maybe-maybe I haven't been of much help durin' the trials, but what's important is that we're not toleratin' any more of this nonsense in this place, right?

[icysemblance]

Nobody does.

[She'll go on and eat while he talks, though she's listening intently.]

Sounds like your timeline isn't too far off from mine. We haven't had an AI go rogue to my knowledge, but hackers, we see now and then. Shootings? Well, not so much inside the kingdoms, but outside them, they happen.

What I'm trying to say is that I get where you're coming from, and I agree. We need a zero-tolerance policy.

[forcegalactic]

[What a relief: someone who comes from a similar world and doesn't react to his world by staring at him like he's crazy.]

Well, not the same thing, but similar. It's a bigger problem where I'm from, as we're livin' on the more lawless parts of the frontier, which makes it harder to keep trouble out. But, well, that's why we got the law to help out with that.

Anyway. [He sits back on the chair.] Good to see we're on the same page.

[icysemblance]

[Not at all. She doesn't know anything about the planets in Mordecai's solar system, but Mars sounds similar enough to Remnant that it's not a stretch in the slightest.]

Your 'law' must be like the combination of the city police and the Hunters and Huntresses. The police go after most of the minor criminals, but the Hunters and Huntresses take care of monsters and serious criminals.

[She smiles.]

Definitely.

[forcegalactic]

It's the only way it can work when we got only one lawman on the planet, not countin' vigilantes. The Marshal used to deal with everythin' from robberies to mad scientists, which I hope the current Marshal continues doin'.

[Techs is doing a pretty dang good job at the moment. Sorry, Sparks.]

Now these "Huntresses": you're sayin' they're this kinda elite military force like what Jean's doin'?

[icysemblance]

It sounds like you come from an...interesting place. I hope your Marshal is as good as it sounds like.

I'm not sure of all the details on Jean's force, so I can't say for sure. We work with the government, the military, and the academies after we're done training, or places can hire us for whatever reason.

[forcegalactic]

Hire you? This sounds more like a school of freelance mercenaries than anythin' else!

[Which doesn't sound that safe. What if they turned to freelance criminal activity? Then the school's to blame.]

[icysemblance]

It's really not, not entirely. A lot of graduates go into other fields - some study the Grimm, some work with the military, some stay at Beacon to train the next generation, some go to work for large companies.

We all take what we do seriously. I don't think we'd tolerate someone going rogue after our training - we'd call the police in.

[forcegalactic]

Right, not sure if I trust that method, but it ain't my place to tell your city how to run things. [Still a dangerous idea.]

So is this Grimm an alien species? Bein' a Huntress and all, I doubt it's regular animals.

[icysemblance]

[She's not going to deny that, but the system works well enough as far as she's aware.]

They aren't alien, but I can see where someone might mistake them for something alien. They're soulless creatures that wear the bones of other things they've killed.

[forcegalactic]

So...monsters. [Pretty much a hostile alien.] And this is a whole school dedicated to fightin' them?

That's a lot of effort to put into one enemy. They don't send typical soldiers after those?

[icysemblance]

Four of them. Each kingdom has its own academy.

If the Hunters and Huntresses in an area need help, the soldiers will come in, but as a general rule, no.

[forcegalactic]

That's mighty troublesome. If you got schools for them, it must be a huge danger, much like how the USSA got separate divisions for different types of treats, only you ain't a military, as Hunters and Huntresses are a different entity and thus not part of the government, I assume.

[icysemblance]

You're not wrong. The Grimm, with their ability to feed off the negative energy, are a huge danger.

[But she smiles a little.]

But no Hunter or Huntress is ever alone facing them. We work as partners, at minimum, or as teams, which is how we usually work. If I'm honest, working with a team is the biggest thing I've learned at Beacon.

[forcegalactic]

[His lips tighten.] That's somethin' I wouldn't want in my place.

[It's not entirely unbelievable, though. What if there was an alien species out there that fed on humans' emotional energy? What would they do, force themselves to be happy? That piano would have been useful in scenarios like that.]

Good that there's plenty of you workin' on this. I'm sure the people of your planet appreciate it.

[icysemblance]

I don't think anyone would. Not at all.

[She nods.]

We couldn't do it without their support. It means a lot.