dappledleaves | CICONIA: WHEN THEY CRY

[ Now it just looks like they're leaning into each other like a couple. Great job, kids. ]

my aimbot cred..................

[ Q_Q ]

[This is how rumors go crazy in the gauntlet knight chat room]

im sorry. i think all our records are going to look really weird

[ aah]

[ aou gk: Are you guys dating??
Sinclair: no
Oria pretending he doesn't see it: ]

our records are gonna be sooo bad
but also they're gonna dole out punishments when they can't take it any longer
they can't replace us but i bet they're gonna force us to comply
we can't really use the excuse like "i have stage fright" forever

[ Now he just rests his arm on Sinclair's shoulder as they keep walking. ]

i think we should b

[ Oria looks irritated all of a sudden. He's probably being censored by Keropoyo on his end... ]

[ Sinclair so confused by the rumours. people are weird.]

We should what?

[ froggy, stop this censorship!! Sinclair gets it though. It's a little easier for him to be subtle about sabotage but...]

[ Oria undos the arm rest on his shoulder to cup around Sinclair's ear to whisper. Sorry about your ear sensitivity if you have that here, Sinclair. ]

We should blow up the government and run away together.

[ WHY IS ORIA'S MOUTH SO CLOSE TO HIS EAR.

Sensitivity or not, help]

[And why does he need to whisper that of all things. Sinclair's hearing is better than most in this world (thanks scientists) and he glances around nervously for prying ears. He gives Oria a tiny elbow to the ribs and then links arms with him to keep him close while muttering in turn]

That's not something to joke about.

[ especially since it was unfortunately very tempting]

[ He needs to whisper so that no one else would hear it! He'd probably be jailed or killed for treason or something. Not that Oria does this in fear of said consequence, but it would be an annoyance and a hassle, and he values his freedom above many things in life. ]

You think I'm joking?

[ Hehe.

They link arms and go on their merry way. The AOU GK groupchat uploads a picture of Sinclair and Oria doing exactly that and goes "see?? dating material" in which Oria ignores the message, but looks around to see who caught that on photo and throws a blank notepad at the guy. ]

Don't take pictures without permission, you creepo.

[ They scurry away. Oria doesn't bother to get the notepad back. ]

If you're not, then...well. I don't want you trapped.

[Okay those pictures and comments get Sinclair to blush and he promptly goes about blocking them all. He doesn't even protest Oria throwing his notebook except]

--you're not going to get that back?

Why? I don't have anything written in it.

[ Nothing important, anyway. If someone considers his doodles important, then that's not his problem.

But also, that's littering. Oria should pick up after himself. ]

Littering is bad.

[ Sinclair will unlink their arms to go pick up the notebook...Oria, please]

Emil... you're never allowed to deny that you're a goody-two-shoes ever again.

[ He let go... :c

Well, since Oria is now off the leash, he speeds towards where the Gauntlets are. Bye!! ]

...ah! Oria, you cheater-!

[ Once he's got the notebook he's running after. Rude on both levels!!]

[ Oria laughs the entire way, despite knowing it would just land him in hot water faster. The hot water being the mission that they have to clear today. It feels heavy. What if he accidentally kills someone? Just like the practice missiles shot at Aria--

...

When he arrives, he quietly breathes out. Oria still has nightmares about it. ]

It feels like it's been forever since I used these! Hope I'm not too rusty.

[ Sinclair catches up with a huff. He's trying not to think about any of it at the moment but he makes a beeline for his gauntlet. On Dante's advice, he had changed his master key again]

I doubt you'd ever actually forget.

[Unlike...

It wasn't time to think about it. Dante had shown him the video records of what happened that day. While he may not have been directly involved...he knows why his memories had to be altered now.

The guilt was suffocating.

He returns the notebook to Oria pointedly. Rude]

[ Oria takes the notebook and promptly puts it on the bench because there's nowhere else to put it. ]

You really should have just thrown it away.

[ He laughs a little and fits the gauntlet over his shoulder and arm. Let's go. ]

But it seems wasteful.

[ He puts on his gauntlet too, securing in place. This is familiar]

Then you should keep it in my stead.

[ Problem solved! Or so Oria thinks. Well, he doesn't care about it anymore, so after setting up the Gauntlet, he sets off. Time to fly over to get onto positions. On the way there, he tries to think of ways to hold back and sabotage. ]

Huh? Oh, okay then--

[Sinclair takes off to the air too, getting set up. He's already going through some ideas that might work. But. Hmmm. How does he make it look real?]

[ Takeoff! Oria and Sinclair fly through the sky and it'll take them a while to get to their destination--near the Glass Sea. There are other nation's Gauntlet Knights there too. Oria and Sinclair aren't the only ones from AOU either. There are entire teams being assembled here.

Except... the opposing teams seem to have brought a lot of newbies. There is no way that they'll get out of this unscathed. Oria can't use attacks that most adept Gauntlet Knights can shrug off when newbies would probably die in one shot. When finding this out, Oria wonders if they caught on already and are already trying to punish them.

Cool.

He hates this and messages Sinclair real quick. ]

i just got wind of how our opponents are basically beginners being shoved out of a nest when they barely know how to fly
got any ideas?

[ That is definitely no good. Sinclair frowns, swooping into formation. There's a pang when he thinks about the thought of hurting anyone for real]

we could try giving them warnings to dodge and do the calculations for them. But I don't know if any of them would be able to apply what we tell them, unless we take over their gauntlets ourselves. We need to focus on the tanks and rockets, right?

i'm getting more msgs that they cant properly deploy their shields

[ This is going to be a pain. Literal war fodder. Fuck this!! ]

they're clinging onto their master keys as if it's their life

[Ugh...since they're not high ranking members of the Public Bath Order, Sinclair isn't surprised that they're getting this response but, it's still worrying. He sends up shields to protect them both from way ward missiles]

Then...where are their communications coming from? If we disrupt those, we can force them to retreat.

i'm actually getting these messages from katja
because she's friends with a lot of cou gks
hold on lemme relay that

[ Oria knows that Katherine can't just dump sort of information in the AOU GK group chat. What if not everyone there is associated with the Public Bath Order? It's like blatantly causing mutiny like in front of people who shouldn't be catching them in the act.

It doesn't take too long, but the government superiors are wondering why they aren't making their move against the enemy right now. ]

apparently they're getting their instructions through selcom directly
they're still holding onto their master keys
bc they heard what happened in aou
the virus thing...

[Sinclair zips around, acting according to orders but when he fires his missiles, it's only towards machinery - rocket launchers, drones and so forth. He tries to keep it clumsy, as if the adrenaline of a real battle was making his aim shakier than usual]

I don't blame them. Only we know Shion was responsible.

[ Not that Sinclair believed for a second Shion was the only one. But he'd leave the investigation to Dante's other team. He knew better than to get directly involved on that front ]

If they can't give up their masterkey, we'll have to work on our timing. Or destroy all the targets to force them to retreat, or fake a virus attack.

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