Hold It In (RWBY/Transistor)

"I've heard of knifeplay in the bedroom but you're just compensating for something-" Penalty Roll, D20-1 = 0. No penalty.

"This is the part where I convince you to not stab me in the neck." DC: 17, Roll: 20. Critical Success!

I'm not even surprised anymore.

|||

You decide very quickly that the truth is your best option. You doubt she'd actually stab you-

{Oh, no, she totally will. She's been mentally preparing herself to at least hospitalise you since she stepped into the room. It'll probably traumatise her and she'll probably regret it immediately after, but she will actually maim you if you misstep here.}

NOT. HELPING.

{I mean that's only if you do something stupid like try to attack her-}

"Three. Two. One."

"My name is Jaune Arc, and, uh, I'm sort of working for you!"

Now, she doesn't stab you.

But she doesn't put the sword down either.

… You're ok with that. You are very ok with that.

"... Continue."

Deep breath.

And.

Go-

"I was originally working for the hotel then some guy came along he was really tall, thin, ponytail, kind of a slimeball, ring a bell, anyway he told me that your Scroll and laptop were infected with some malware and hoo boy this is some nasty stuff-"

"Stop." She tells you, a command you swiftly follow. "Let's… try that again, from the beginning, except this time try breathing every now and then."

"... Could you take your sword away from my neck first?"

After a moment that lasts way too long for your liking, she pulls the sword away from your neck, and you almost deflate in relief.

"Alright. Now talk, and slowly."

You nod, the only motion you feel entirely safe performing.

"I… was working for the hotel, then somebody approached me- tall guy, thin as anything, kept his hair in a ponytail?"

You stop for a moment, and she seems to pick up the unspoken question.

"Sounds like Ashford. He's… my bodyguard." She says, finishing the sentence slightly too quickly to be entirely truthful, you feel.

… You know what? That is so not your problem that you're not even going to entertain prying there.

"Well, he asked me to look at your Scroll and laptop because they had malware that downloaded illegal material onto it, and offered me… a lot of money to fix this and keep quiet about it."

"How much?"

"192 grand."

A shocked look flits across her face for a second, before she manages to school herself back into a neutral expression.

"That's... oddly specific."

"I'm being paid 8000 for the hotel job, so it adds up to a square 200,000."

She nods, seeing the logic if nothing else.

"And... the virus? You said it downloaded illegal materials onto my Scroll?"

"Yeah. Uh… bad stuff. Really, really bad."

She opens her mouth to say something.

"'I am legally required to report you to the authorities' bad."

She closes it again, some mix of curiosity and concern on her face.

"But, uh... that's, not the worst part."

You watch her set her jaw, unconsciously grinding her teeth and silently commanding you to continue. You slowly reach for the pen drive next to the laptop, still wary of the sword in her hand.

"See, I came up here with two possibilities in mind- either this was completely shady, and I could walk, or it was legitimate, and I could fix the problem and walk away with 200k. Then I saw this, and things got a lot greyer."

Weiss looks at the pen drive with no dearth of confusion.

"... What is it?"

... Bracket, is there any tech in this room that could be listening in?

None. Apparently bugging a hotel room is just too blasé for these people. You're safe to speak.

"It's a backup for your computers, but it's... absolutely clogged with spyware. Keylogger, remote activation of microphones and cameras, all so well-embedded that nothing short of somebody actively going into the root files and scrubbing them manually would get rid of them, and all sending data to an IP address owned by the Dust Company. It would be the death of any semblance of privacy you could have if I installed them as is."

The snowheaded girl takes the news... surprisingly well, all things considered. A deep breath, but otherwise, no real reaction to it.

"... Alright." She says, finally, finally sheathing her sword, and moving around to sit on the edge of the bed. "I... I'm not sure I should be saying this, honestly."

Now it's your turn to raise an eyebrow as she plays with the revolver part of her sword, which you now realise is fitted with chambers, not for bullets, but for Dust- she presses down on one of the chambers, ejecting a small capsule of air Dust into her hand. Focusing on it for a moment, she flares her Aura, pale blue, and a glyph appears in the air, quickly stretching to somehow wrap around the two of you while keeping its shape in a way that has you reflexively closing your eyes, memories of Jaunt()'s warped, crumbling space coming to the forefront of your mind.

When it fades, the world is suddenly... quieter. You can't place why, though, there's no...

The birds have stopped singing.

No, they haven't. There's very thin vacuum surrounding you two, blocking all sound in and out. Guess she's worried about people listening in too.

"I know about the spyware. I know about the virus. I'm the one that downloaded it." She tells you, shifting into a formal, almost strict tone- as if she's addressing a courtroom, almost.

When she speaks, you realise that her voice has an odd, echoing quality to it, almost like she's speaking down... a... tube- you're a goddamn moron sometimes.

"Uh... you... do remember me saying I'm legally required to report this, right? Like, you just incriminated yourself in downloading material that carries a heavy jail sentence."

She winces, turning to look you in the eyes as she defends herself, the formal facade failing for a moment.

"I-I didn't know about that! All I did was look for a virus that would destroy my computers so I could justify buying new ones!" She doesn't quite yell at you, cognizant of the fact that yelling while stuck in a tube just makes for sore ears. "This isn't... this isn't the first time people have spied on me, but I'm just... sick of it. I'd heard about it in passing, about how it completely ruined your computer, and... decided it was my best shot. Ruin these computers, buy fresh ones myself, and hope I could avoid accruing more bugs somehow. I didn't know it put anything like, that, on them, if I did, I would have found another way to do it!"

She huffs, lips thinning as she looks to the floor, hands unconsciously clutching at the hem of her dress.

{... Wow. Imagine being spied on for so long that you brick your own computers just to try and get some privacy.}

Wait, no, no, so not your problem! Stick to your goddamn guns!

"... Ugh. Why am I even telling you this?" She asks herself more than you.

"I dunno, you're like the third person to pour out their life story to me in as many days. Do I just have a trusting face or something?"

"You look like you've just escaped from a hospital."

You... quickly change the subject as a feeling works itself into your gut, knotting up something awful as hitherto unseen alarm bells start ringing in your head. Why did the SDC know you were here? Sure, they own the hotel, but why are you of interest to the SDC? Was it just opportunity?

Hell, was this entire job offer just a way to lure you in for this?

{... Ooh. Our lil' boy's got the attention of an international corporation. Maybe.}

It would bring a tear to my eye if I had any. And if it were definitely true.

Soundsbad. Hopeyou'llbeok.

Yeah, yeah, you're paranoid, screw both of you. You're just covering your bases.

"I... look, this is your choice here. Like I said, I'm working for you, really. So... let's, talk about this. I can clean the spyware out of the backup, give you a clean system, but... the truth is, I'm not sure which of us is being set up here."

She frowns at you, eyebrows knitting together.

"... What?"

"Ok, look, I'm not, gonna toot my own horn or anything, but I'd say I'm very good at my job. Good enough that, uh, I wouldn't be surprised if the SDC did take interest in me as somebody to, you know, do something like this. I mean, if they wanted to do this completely covertly, why hire... me? I'm, not a subtle person, and they definitely could have found someone who could have done it without meeting you. I mean, they must have known that you were coming, right?"

She blinks, and you notice a tiny tensing in her neck as she does as if the action causes her pain, beautifully masked, but still there.

"... I came back because it started raining and I forgot my umbrella. I can't get this eyepatch wet."

Wait, what?

You turn to the balcony doors and notice that, yes, it is raining quite heavily.

... Well fuck, you didn't bring an umbrella. Or a jacket.

"Anyway, even if my father's company was after you, I honestly fail to see why this is how they'd choose to contact you."

-ding-

{Jaune, the guy who hired you is here. And he's... kind of concerned?}

Before you can respond to anything either of them is telling you, a wall of smoke and ash bursts through the still open penthouse room door, quickly coalescing into the bodyguard.

"Ms Schnee, I apologise, I have no idea why this man is in here, allow me to remove him post-haste-"

His arms dissolve, crumbling into far too much ash which flows around your legs and quickly envelops them in a crushing grip, dragging you off the bed.

Within a second, your sword is in your hands and staked through the floor, refusing to let you move an inch further as you queue a round of Ping().

Cell jumps up on the bed, beeping angrily at the impassive bodyguard.

Leaveoursysadminalone!

You feel a knot in the back of your head again, and you realise that it's the sheer anger it feels for you, and the sudden coding of defence protocols you've learned your lesson about looking at directly as it begins to change, growing slightly larger, darker-

"Ashford, he's told me everything, you're too late, put him down before I make you put him down!" Weiss yells, still sitting in the middle of all of this.

The pulling sensation on your legs slowly recedes, and eventually, you find them on the ground again. The ash flows back to him, and his arms reform. Cell halts its transformation, shrinking once more.

"... You know everything." He says, as a statement, not as a question.

"I know about the spying, I know you hired him for almost 200,000 Lien, and he knows about the spyware on the backups."

He breathes deep, taking the news as well as you could expect him to.

"... Well then." He says after a moment. "I assume you've stripped it out, then?"

You let go of the Transistor, and it floats out of the hole it's caused. Weiss looks at it, scoffing in mild agitation at the damage you've caused.

"Don't worry, I'll fix it."

Bracket?

On it.

The hole quickly gains a wireframe coating and it flashes out of existence, leaving a pristine wooden floor behind.

"And to answer your question, yes, I have."

It suddenly occurs to you that you're probably not getting your money.

... Ahh... ahh that stings.

You're giving up almost 200 grand that's like

A brand new car right there

Smooth living at Beacon for like two years

God so much money

What a waste

[] Take your return to poverty like a champ. Fix her stuff up sans spyware and walk. Gain the gratitude of the daughter of a very powerful businessman, at the cost of pissing off the businessman himself, maybe.

[] Install the spyware, take the money, and piss off the businessman's daughter. Eh, fuck her, if she wanted your help, she shouldn't have made her first impression a sword to the neck.

[] (Write-in)

Wait, wait, hold on, we're getting too complex here.

[] Now... hear me out here. He hired you to fix her Scroll, her laptop, and to keep silent about what was on them. Spyware was never mentioned, doesn't factor into the original agreement. You've done steps one and two, but let's be honest, he's paying you 200 grand for step 3.

Gently point that out to him, and let the implication do the rest. 1d50. Best outcome, you walk out of here with your conscience free, and 200k richer!