Church's Summer

Settling In

Church groaned, bashing his head against the wall. Yesterday he had helped Raven with her homework, he was just trying to be nice. But Raven had somehow convinced him to tutor the rest of the team. So here he was outside the library, trying to work up the nerve to walk inside. 'That is the last time I help someone. Every good thing I try to do always ends up biting me in the ass.' His folded arms and the scowl on his face told everyone how he felt about the situation.

Groaning one last time, he pushed the door open, quickly spotting his team at the far side of the library. He felt a sense of dread build in his stomach, but pushed the budding feeling down. He sighed deeply, before resigning himself to his fate.

He approached the table with his scowl still sitting firmly on his face. Qrow, however, had a shit-eating grin that rivaled that of a kid in a candy store, most likely enjoying the sweet karma. "Alright guys, I want this done quickly. Because frankly, I have more important things to do."

Tai propped his head up on his hand, a grin splitting across his face. Whether it would be intentional or not, the man was prolonging Church's torture. "And what "important things" would those be?"

The AI growled, slamming down into the fourth chair. "Literally anything else." He threw his scroll in front of him, a holographic image appearing in the air. "Now, let's get this shit show started."

As Church explained—what he thought were—basic rules, a smell hit him. It wasn't strong by any means, but it was distinct. He just couldn't remember who it was that always smelled like Dusty Miller plants. It was someone who was around him often—that much he was sure of—someone who greatly annoyed him if the sudden headache was any clue. He resisted the urge to pinch his nose the same way he did when Tucker would annoy the shit out of him.

He tried to turn his brain back to what he was talking about, but his mouth was already on autopilot, so why not delve deeper into his memories? All of which were carefully ordered and grouped. It was almost like looking at a bunch of folders, one of which read, "Do not open under any circumstance." That particular grouping he knew held a short list of memories of all the times he was killed, mostly by Caboose. Who sadly had a higher kill count than him mainly because of that strange realm he and Sarge had stumbled onto once upon a time while himself and Grif were stuck in a jail cell.

Another folder read "A. Church." that he ignored without a second thought. It wasn't good for him to look at those memories, he knew that now. It only took him three lifetimes to learn it, but he did eventually.

Finally, he found the folder labeled "Remnant idiots." Sifting carefully through it he came across a collection of morons. A girl from his "hometown" Abnus jumped out at him. Her name was Aster and she annoyed the living daylight out of him, but she smelled like dirty socks, not flowers.

Another person stood out to him, a boy, again from Abnus named Sterling. He had followed Church around like a lost puppy for weeks, sending him bouquets of flowers trying to woo him, not accepting no for an answer. Church even had tried to fight him to scare him off, but Sterling's parents had stopped the AI from doing any real harm. Luckily for Church, when Ruka returned from his mission he scared Sterling into never coming around again. It could have been him, seeing as Church didn't remember what he smelled like but for some reason he doubted that Sterling would have followed him all the way to Beacon.

Which begged the question of who followed him? It wasn't someone from Beacon; the smell wouldn't be so familiar if he had only been around it for a few days. Wracking his brain for answers, he only succeeded in giving himself a headache. It was someone he had spent time with, which ruled out every other place on Remnant aside from Abnus; he didn't get out much.

He metaphorically closed his eyes, calming his brain enough to stop the tempest of thoughts. Since it was someone from Abnus that meant he could narrow it down, Abnus wasn't exactly a city; it was in fact barely a town. With that train of thought, he began recalling all the people in the village. Many people he crossed off without a second thought; others he took his time remembering. That was until he came across one person who had slipped his mind—someone to whom he should have immediately gone—his fucking stalker, Alroy.