CURRENT SCORE: 11 (WINTER SCHNEE) / 23 (CINDER FALL)
“Do you really have to write it on the board?” Winter groans, sinking down into her seat.
Penny nods, putting the cap back on the pen with a decisive click. She glances over at Winter, sunk down at her desk, and back to the whiteboard. “It’s an efficient way of keeping track of the status of the competition,” she recites, “and besides, Mr Ironwood says it’s a good motivator.”
“I’m sure it is,” Winter mutters. She drags her hat down over her head for good measure, effectively shutting out the sight of the office and her objective failure for the next twenty minutes. Either until Penny asks her to look at something, or her boss walks in and announces some new ridiculous crime.
Penny keeps rambling to herself, no doubt re-arranging her files into a new and interesting kind of order. “It’s impressive that Miss Fall has managed to pull all this off without leaving a substantial record behind, really. It must be unimaginably difficult to erase your presence entirely.”
“I’m sure there’s a file somewhere,” Winter says to the inside of her hat, “but how do you go around digging through important government documentation to justify arresting a petty criminal?”
“You ask nicely?” Penny suggests.
//
CURRENT SCORE: 14 (WINTER SCHNEE) / 39 (CINDER FALL)
“Can you think of anything else that might have been taken?” Winter asks.
Watts shakes his head, clutching his own hat to his chest. He reminds her a little bit of a weasel, Winter thinks. A particularly slimy weasel. “No. Just the two monitors.”
She glances around the ransacked room, noting the scorch marks on the ceiling, the grooves in the floor. This is just a security room in the back of a relatively un-Cinder-ed mall, nothing special at all. There’s nothing that would warrant this level of sloppiness, and it doesn’t match Cinder’s style at all. “And you’re sure you saw her?”
His face contorts a little. “I’m sure,” he says snippily, “and it sure would be nice if I had my security monitors so I could prove it to you.”
She folds her arms, determined not to back down. “Surely the files from the tapes back up somewhere.”
“I’ll be sure to send them to the station when I find them,” Watts says, lips curling, and Winter takes that as her cue to leave.
She steps out of the room, gesturing for Penny to follow her. He makes a loud noise of complaint that she ignores as she marches down the hallway outside of the security room, following the trail of scorch marks back to the entrance. Vine and Elm shoot her questioning looks that she waves off as she gets back in her car. “We’re not getting any more out of him. You can try if you want.”
“It was probably a set-up,” Penny says helpfully, sliding into the passenger seat.
“Fall hates Watts,” she adds, off Elm’s questioning look. “And I assume he hates her too. If he’s trying to implicate her in a crime she didn’t commit it’s probably stupid thief in-fighting.”
“Do thieves even have in-fighting?” Vine asks, raising an eyebrow.
Winter shrugs. “Watts was a suspect in a case Fall was involved in a few years back. I assume he thinks we’ll follow it through and give him a chance to pay her back.”
Penny makes an amused noise as they pull out of the mall’s car park, inspecting the notes she’s propped up on the dashboard. “You really know a lot about her, don’t you?”
“It’s when she started beating me,” Winter mutters, curling her fingers around the steering wheel. “The fifth case. Right around when we stopped working with the police.”
Like being a private detective is much better, but whatever, as Weiss would say — and has, on multiple occasions.
“The fifth case,” Penny echoes, “the one with the stolen lab equipment, I remember. So you think he thought he could trap her?”
Trapping and arresting Cinder Fall is something Winter has only managed to do a little over two dozen times, and she’s always gone within 24 hours. Embarrassingly, she’s still considered the best person Ironwood has at his disposal.
She drums her fingers on the steering wheel as they drive back into Mantle proper, bracing herself for the lecture she’ll no doubt receive from Vine for abandoning him and Elm to Watts when they get back. “I think he thought she’d be stupid enough to fall for it,” she says. “I think he doesn’t know her at all.”
Penny hums, tapping her fingers on her chin in time with Winter’s on the steering wheel. “That does give me an idea, though.”
//
CURRENT SCORE: 15 (WINTER SCHNEE) / 39 (CINDER FALL)
Cinder glares up at her from her position on the ground. It looks a little bit glorious, Winter thinks, and shakes the image out of her head before she can follow it any further. “Good bait, huh?”
Winter smirks at her, flicking dirt off the edge of her sword. Ironwood let her keep it when she quit the Atlas police, saying it added to her image, and she has to agree. It’s great marketing, too. “Good bait,” she echoes. “Detective Polendina had the idea.”
Cinder huffs hair out of her eyes, squirms against the rope holding her hands behind her back. “Don’t act smug. I let you catch me.”
“Why? You like being tied up?”
“I told you not to act smug. Maybe I just like seeing your stupid face.”
“Mm,” Winter hums. “Anyway, I’ve called for backup, so. You’re trapped. Any confessions before we take you in?”
Cinder is, generally, a lot better at smirking than her. She looks up at Winter through her eyelashes, lips curling up, and says, “If you ask me nicely I’ll give you my phone number.”
“So I can call you in your prison cell?”
She shrugs, grins. Her shoulders curl backwards, her hands shift — and Winter is grateful that her first instinct is to throw herself forwards to pin Cinder down when she sweeps an arm out, knife in hand, rope curled through her fingers.
//
CURRENT SCORE: 15 (WINTER SCHNEE) / 39 (CINDER FALL)
“You’re pleased with yourself,” Penny remarks.
Winter folds her arms over her chest. “She’s been in custody for 72. That’s further than we’ve ever got before.”
Penny covers her mouth with a hand, turning away. “She keeps asking to see you, you know?”
She thinks of Cinder on her knees in the burnt-out shell of the mall’s old camera room, smirking up at her. Thinks of the way her eyes lit up when she realised she’d been caught, the way she fought Winter when she tried to break free, all knives and teeth — “Yes, well. I’ll keep questioning her.”
“I think she likes it when you do that,” Penny says, still facing away. She’s scribbling something on the whiteboard, free hand pressed flat to the surface.
Winter bites her lip to keep herself from smiling. “Well, she shouldn’t.”
FILL: Team Anime/Manga
CURRENT SCORE: 11 (WINTER SCHNEE) / 23 (CINDER FALL)
“Do you really have to write it on the board?” Winter groans, sinking down into her seat.
Penny nods, putting the cap back on the pen with a decisive click. She glances over at Winter, sunk down at her desk, and back to the whiteboard. “It’s an efficient way of keeping track of the status of the competition,” she recites, “and besides, Mr Ironwood says it’s a good motivator.”
“I’m sure it is,” Winter mutters. She drags her hat down over her head for good measure, effectively shutting out the sight of the office and her objective failure for the next twenty minutes. Either until Penny asks her to look at something, or her boss walks in and announces some new ridiculous crime.
Penny keeps rambling to herself, no doubt re-arranging her files into a new and interesting kind of order. “It’s impressive that Miss Fall has managed to pull all this off without leaving a substantial record behind, really. It must be unimaginably difficult to erase your presence entirely.”
“I’m sure there’s a file somewhere,” Winter says to the inside of her hat, “but how do you go around digging through important government documentation to justify arresting a petty criminal?”
“You ask nicely?” Penny suggests.
//
CURRENT SCORE: 14 (WINTER SCHNEE) / 39 (CINDER FALL)
“Can you think of anything else that might have been taken?” Winter asks.
Watts shakes his head, clutching his own hat to his chest. He reminds her a little bit of a weasel, Winter thinks. A particularly slimy weasel. “No. Just the two monitors.”
She glances around the ransacked room, noting the scorch marks on the ceiling, the grooves in the floor. This is just a security room in the back of a relatively un-Cinder-ed mall, nothing special at all. There’s nothing that would warrant this level of sloppiness, and it doesn’t match Cinder’s style at all. “And you’re sure you saw her?”
His face contorts a little. “I’m sure,” he says snippily, “and it sure would be nice if I had my security monitors so I could prove it to you.”
She folds her arms, determined not to back down. “Surely the files from the tapes back up somewhere.”
“I’ll be sure to send them to the station when I find them,” Watts says, lips curling, and Winter takes that as her cue to leave.
She steps out of the room, gesturing for Penny to follow her. He makes a loud noise of complaint that she ignores as she marches down the hallway outside of the security room, following the trail of scorch marks back to the entrance. Vine and Elm shoot her questioning looks that she waves off as she gets back in her car. “We’re not getting any more out of him. You can try if you want.”
“It was probably a set-up,” Penny says helpfully, sliding into the passenger seat.
“Fall hates Watts,” she adds, off Elm’s questioning look. “And I assume he hates her too. If he’s trying to implicate her in a crime she didn’t commit it’s probably stupid thief in-fighting.”
“Do thieves even have in-fighting?” Vine asks, raising an eyebrow.
Winter shrugs. “Watts was a suspect in a case Fall was involved in a few years back. I assume he thinks we’ll follow it through and give him a chance to pay her back.”
Penny makes an amused noise as they pull out of the mall’s car park, inspecting the notes she’s propped up on the dashboard. “You really know a lot about her, don’t you?”
“It’s when she started beating me,” Winter mutters, curling her fingers around the steering wheel. “The fifth case. Right around when we stopped working with the police.”
Like being a private detective is much better, but whatever, as Weiss would say — and has, on multiple occasions.
“The fifth case,” Penny echoes, “the one with the stolen lab equipment, I remember. So you think he thought he could trap her?”
Trapping and arresting Cinder Fall is something Winter has only managed to do a little over two dozen times, and she’s always gone within 24 hours. Embarrassingly, she’s still considered the best person Ironwood has at his disposal.
She drums her fingers on the steering wheel as they drive back into Mantle proper, bracing herself for the lecture she’ll no doubt receive from Vine for abandoning him and Elm to Watts when they get back. “I think he thought she’d be stupid enough to fall for it,” she says. “I think he doesn’t know her at all.”
Penny hums, tapping her fingers on her chin in time with Winter’s on the steering wheel. “That does give me an idea, though.”
//
CURRENT SCORE: 15 (WINTER SCHNEE) / 39 (CINDER FALL)
Cinder glares up at her from her position on the ground. It looks a little bit glorious, Winter thinks, and shakes the image out of her head before she can follow it any further. “Good bait, huh?”
Winter smirks at her, flicking dirt off the edge of her sword. Ironwood let her keep it when she quit the Atlas police, saying it added to her image, and she has to agree. It’s great marketing, too. “Good bait,” she echoes. “Detective Polendina had the idea.”
Cinder huffs hair out of her eyes, squirms against the rope holding her hands behind her back. “Don’t act smug. I let you catch me.”
“Why? You like being tied up?”
“I told you not to act smug. Maybe I just like seeing your stupid face.”
“Mm,” Winter hums. “Anyway, I’ve called for backup, so. You’re trapped. Any confessions before we take you in?”
Cinder is, generally, a lot better at smirking than her. She looks up at Winter through her eyelashes, lips curling up, and says, “If you ask me nicely I’ll give you my phone number.”
“So I can call you in your prison cell?”
She shrugs, grins. Her shoulders curl backwards, her hands shift — and Winter is grateful that her first instinct is to throw herself forwards to pin Cinder down when she sweeps an arm out, knife in hand, rope curled through her fingers.
//
CURRENT SCORE: 15 (WINTER SCHNEE) / 39 (CINDER FALL)
“You’re pleased with yourself,” Penny remarks.
Winter folds her arms over her chest. “She’s been in custody for 72. That’s further than we’ve ever got before.”
Penny covers her mouth with a hand, turning away. “She keeps asking to see you, you know?”
She thinks of Cinder on her knees in the burnt-out shell of the mall’s old camera room, smirking up at her. Thinks of the way her eyes lit up when she realised she’d been caught, the way she fought Winter when she tried to break free, all knives and teeth — “Yes, well. I’ll keep questioning her.”
“I think she likes it when you do that,” Penny says, still facing away. She’s scribbling something on the whiteboard, free hand pressed flat to the surface.
Winter bites her lip to keep herself from smiling. “Well, she shouldn’t.”